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I'm likely going to start up a new army over the coming break (about a month or so off) and very much stuck between tau and eldar. I like the background of both races very much, though i do lean towards eldar here, and think they both possess a fairly diverse and nice looking range of minis. I guess im really caught up on the fact that each will require significantly more finesse then my current orcs. Either way i think i would do a mixed list, but the lists I've made for each seem to have problems i'm not sure how to get around.
Eldar ranged anti-vehicle options seem rather limited. I like prisms, but scatter makes them a bit of a gamble for anti vehicle work and though double heavy weapon wraith lords sound good, i can't see myself being able to prevent wraith-sight since since the farseer will likely be more midfield. Twin-link BLs on serpents is feasible i guess, but it seems lacking.
Tau seem to struggle with elites (namely terminators). Not really sure how to deal with these aside from a few plasma rifles and massed fire warrior shooting.

Any of you eldar or tau players have some words of wisdom there?

Eldar. Cause I don't see too many of them.

It's all about fluff and minis. Go with the army, Eldar it seems, that appeals to you. Other things to consider are whether a codex release is imminent--"NO" in both cases.

If you lean towards Eldar, I would say to go for them. They have a good legacy of models and background and a large variety of troops.

Because of the variety, you can field a few different army types as well, that play quite differently to each other.

kuro_khan wrote:Eldar. Cause I don't see too many of them.

In the German GT, there were more Eldar than Tau armies.
Eldar is fast, shooty, and there are decent cc units.
Tau is semi-fast and very shooty, but without cc units.
Both armies are best played in the same manner by keeping the enemy at arm's length.

I recently started playing Tau and gave up on it fairly soon after it. They're a good army, it's just that the idea of a completely ranged army to me seemed a little basic (boring to me, although the thing that drew me to the army was the Railguns ). If I remember right, Kroot are the better troop choice. Tau anti-tank is fairly limited as well, but both are about the same. Tau is the best army at taking out armour at the moment because of the Railguns. Also Mixed Mech Tau doesn't seem to be very good.

Although Kroot flying along in the Firewarrior's Devilfish is an interesting way to get them there. That is until it get's blown up and the last three stare down a Deff Dread, but a lucky shot to the Deff Dreads rear by a Gun Drone managed to solve that, Kroot were dead, but it was an awesome frisbee

If you do Tau, only take the Hammerhead if you're facing a horde army. If it's a Mech army use Broadsides instead. Also, if you do choose Tau, only buy Skyrays for your tanks. They come with everything to make a Devilfish, Both types of Hammerhead and, of course, the Skyray. Because the turrets just slot into a small hole on the top that's the size of the hatch on the Devilfish. Basically they have one tank, with a couple of turrets to make them different.


Now to make up for the lack of Eldar advice, something nice I found when I decided to change to Eldar. The guy who wrote this is great
http://www.40konline.com/community/index.php?topic=157393.0

By the looks of your post you like Eldar a bit more. Also their speed lets them get away with either Eldar Missile Launchers of Scatter Lasers for anti-tank, as they can fly around and get the rear armour. Brightlances are alright, but the ammount of cover that the enemy can get in 5th has really taken away from them, same goes for the Tau Railgun. It can be the strongest gun in the world, but if they get a cover save there's still a 50% change it will just harmlessly bounce off the target.

Tortoiseer wrote:
Tau seem to struggle with elites (namely terminators). Not really sure how to deal with these aside from a few plasma rifles and massed fire warrior shooting.

Any of you eldar or tau players have some words of wisdom there?

For me 10 plasma and 4 railguns plus markerlights equal dead terminators. Not to mention a plethora of str7 and str5 in addition...

Go with Eldar. Most of the time they'll easily wipe the floor with Tau immediately upon getting into close combat.

I certainly do like the eldar cc aspects, and would very likely field both scorps and banshees, more of a biel-tan style list i suppose. With guard and SM so popular however, i am a bit concerned about facing a significant amount of heavy armor, especially land raiders and leman russ. Where tau anti armor is quite substantial, i don't see it with eldar. Fire dragons seem like the only thing able to reliably pop tanks but they can only do that from a foot away.

I have both. And have painted figs from several other armies.

And for some reason, Eldar are the most tedious, frustrating minis to paint. But it may just be me. Something to keep in mind.