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I havent played 40k in quite a long while. I have been in Iraq, and while I was there, I went to the GW website and purchased a some things to make a new Army (I am usually a Space Marines player who is tired of seeing the everywhere). Here is what I have:

1 Autrarch with Wings
2 Farseers
1 Avatar
4 Warlocks (2 with Singing Spear 2 with the sword (forgive me, I forget the name of the sword, I dont have the book near me and I am new to them)
20 Guardians with platforms
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
12 Howling Banshees with 2 Exarchs
6 Striking Scorpions with Exarch
2 War Walkers
1 Wraithlord
1 Fire Prism
1 Vyper Jetbike
3 Wave Serpents

My question is simple: Where do I go from here?

What I want to do is field as many vehicles as I can manage (the Wave Serpent specifically because I have played 5 games so far and havent had anthing except weapon destroyed and immobilized happen to them, they are amazingly tough!) The Eldar Vehicles are extremely hard to kill, I have noticed, and want more of them on the board. I love using the Farseers abilities to re-roll saves and to-hit rolls. I use the Guardians as a distraction while they sit safely in a bunker with a Warlock and Enchance and a Starcannon (these just tear apart Marines!). I usually put 2 squads of 6 Howling Banshees into 2 of the Wave Serpents and the Dire Avengers into another. I then use the Striking Scorpions to infiltrate. The Fire Prism is amazing, but I think with 2 others, it would really be fun! The Wraithlord is very hard to kill as well, but unless I upgrade my Warlocks to spiritseers and keep him near them, he has a chance to just stand there. The War Walkers I only used once, and wasnt to impressed (One was hit and penetrated and then exploded and the explosion then took out the 2nd one, which in turn exploded and killed 3 of my guardians lol. I am yet to use the Avatar. The Autrach (I know I am spelling this wrong) comes in handy when I use reserves, but other than that, I havent had much luck with him in the 2 games I have used him. The Vyper I just recently picked up and havent had the chance to use, but as you can see, my Army is in desperate need of some fast attack. I was thinking of 2 squads of 3 Vypers and 1 squad of bikes. I am not sure though. I have been doing quite well with this Army set up I use, so far. 4 wins out of 5. The loss was the first game I played with them against a Space Marine Player who had been playing since 2nd Edition, so he knew his troops quite well, and I was just getting back into playing after quite a long break.

At our game shop, we sometimes play Apocolyse games, so a big army is sometimes needed. Like I said though, I really want more vehicles on the board, particularly the Wave Serpents. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Seems you're doing allright already :-D
You are right in thinking that adding another Fire Prism is a good idea. When you have 2, you can combine shots to get a particularly nasty blast, denying opponents their armour save or reliably killing a vehicle.

Wow, that's some shopping spree!

An avatar is awesome is awesome, so use it! What equipment have you got on your autarch and war walkers? It may shed some light on why your not performing so well with them.

Another fire prism is a good idea, as they can combine beams, and so is getting more vypers, one on its own is rather useless. JB are a good idea too, simpley because theyre good and are great objective grabbers. Note. dont buy the shrieker JB just use a shruiken cannon from a wraithlord/WW kit. Some fire dragons would be a great additon here, it sounds like you play marines quite frequently, and theres nothing better at marine busting than FD, well there is but they're good at it, put these in a WS. Some harlequins would also be quite good here too. Put the FD, HB (make it a unit off 10) and the harlies (or maybe the farseer and crew) in the wave serpents. Consider getting some wraithguard too. Also, with an army of that size you may as well include a pheonix lord as well, I'd reccomend Karandras, he was awesome in our big christmas game!

The swords are called witchblades BTW. And good job so far!

I would try to fill out your Banshee and Scorpion squads to max size. Also adding a 2nd Fire Prism does really make them that much better. The str6 ap3 vs MEQs is mean and two str5 ap4 vs. hordes is also nasty. I think you will do well with the Vypers as your opponents will be focusing on all your bigger, scarrier grav tanks. I personnallly love jetbikes, but I don't know how well they will work in your list. If you do go with them I use them in squads of 6 with 2 shuriken cannons. In your list I would almost always use them in reserves and use them for late game objective contesting and controlling.

Though all of that said, if you are doing well and having fun then don't change too much!

I agree with the others, if you are fielding fire prisms take atleast 2 in a list. A personal fav of mine is Warp spiders. They are great reaction troops, they can lay down a hail of Str 6 shots and then move out of danger with the assault teleport. But they also don't do bad in cc if the Exarch has powerblades.

Finally! Another who appreciates the Warp Spider. I agree with Elthrai, warp spiders are excellent for the thinking Eldar commander. Also, two fire prisms are greater than the sum of their parts. Against an opponent inexperienced against Eldar, the fear their eyes when you say "twin-linked blast template railgun" is simply delightful. Autarchs are also excellent choices, good cheap HQs than when kitted right and backed by a farseer with doom for a force multiplier can be a pretty deadly hammer. I run mine with a spider generator, mandiblasters, a power weapon, and a fusion gun. In with the spiders and backed by some wacky git on a jetbike who throws doom everywhere, you have a perfect recipe for silly fun.

For advice, if you're going to run the avatar, definitely back it with a farseer. A fortune-less avatar is not a lot more than a fire magnet who will more than likely be burned down before he can hoof it across the board. A fortuned avatar is more durable, but above all he is a significant psychological threat. Fear of the big scary things Eldar can field is one of the most devastating weapons in your arsenal. The avatar/farseer combo is one of the more potent fear generators I have observed in operation. As the enemy frantically bounces every heavy weapon off of the fortune in the hopes of preventing the big obvious scary from hitting their lines, the less noticeable but more deadly hammers like scorps, banshees, and spiders are free to pick their targets. When all is said and done, the avatar is one model, though he may be an impressive one. He is limited in the damage he can deal by the fact that he cannot be everywhere at once. All your opponent will see, however, is enormous scary thing with several killy weapons and nigh-invincibility walking steadily towards his precious army, and more often than not tactics will be thrown to the winds as he or she tries to deny the greatest percieved threat.

A second fire prism would add a lot of punch to your list, and fits well since you are making a list with lots of vehicles already.

The other unit to add is a group of fire dragons. Heavy armor is very common in 5th so you definitely want access to the eldar's best answer to heavy armor. A unit of 5-7 is good, dont bother with the exarch unless you want to give him a flamer to try and stretch the options for the squad. With the new tyranid codex we are likely to see a lot more MC on the field, which just happens to be another thing that fire dragons are excellent at killing.

War walkers often die, but on the plus side they deal out a tremendous amount of damage. Kit them out with scatter lasers and guide them with a farseer...thats a LOT of killing power. The other option is to give them a full load out of emls and have them fire from extreme range, makes them a little more surviveable.



Sliggoth

Thank all of you who have posted. I really appreciate it! I think I will max out both of my Banshee squads and my Scorpions. I will also add 1, if not, then 2 more Fire Prisms. I think I am also going to finish getting my Vypers and my Bikes. Once I do this, I will repost and update as to how well they worked in battle.

I have noticed that, playing against Marines, without heavy armor, the best setup is to put as many Starcannons as you can on the board. If they have heavy armor, then put Bright Lances (which I TOTALLY LOVE vs the Space Marines Land Raider vehicles) and Starcannons. That combo is just sick! So far, 3 of the 5 games I have played, and won, were against Marines and I used this tactic, along with the Move 6", pop up and shoot, and move another 6" to cover with my vehicles. The Marines didnt stand a chance. I just waited with my Banshees and Avengers tucked safely inside my vehicles, and as soon as anything got close enough, I just unloaded, moved, fleet, assault, kill and the reload. Worked wonders.

1 Autrarch with Wings
2 Farseers
1 Avatar
4 Warlocks (2 with Singing Spear 2 with the sword (forgive me, I forget the name of the sword, I dont have the book near me and I am new to them)
20 Guardians with platforms
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
12 Howling Banshees with 2 Exarchs
6 Striking Scorpions with Exarch
2 War Walkers
1 Wraithlord
1 Fire Prism
1 Vyper Jetbike
3 Wave Serpents

Its a good starting point if you want a competitive list, not more.
There are two routes to go: mech or footslogging.
In a mech army, you need Serpents transporting troops (Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers)
and Fire Dragons, Fire Prisms, and a Seer Council.
In a footslogging list, you better take War Walkers, Wraithlords, Harlies for counter strike, Serpents for interception.

wuestenfux wrote:

1 Autrarch with Wings
2 Farseers
1 Avatar
4 Warlocks (2 with Singing Spear 2 with the sword (forgive me, I forget the name of the sword, I dont have the book near me and I am new to them)
20 Guardians with platforms
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
12 Howling Banshees with 2 Exarchs
6 Striking Scorpions with Exarch
2 War Walkers
1 Wraithlord
1 Fire Prism
1 Vyper Jetbike
3 Wave Serpents

Its a good starting point if you want a competitive list, not more.
There are two routes to go: mech or footslogging.
In a mech army, you need Serpents transporting troops (Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers)
and Fire Dragons, Fire Prisms, and a Seer Council.
In a footslogging list, you better take War Walkers, Wraithlords, Harlies for counter strike, Serpents for interception.

I sat down lastnight and made up the list I want. I am not going to list the equipment I will put on them, but I will just list the units I want. Let me know what everyone thinks:

2 Farseers
2 Warlock bodyguard units w/ 3 warlocks each
2 Storm Guardian x 11 w/ warlock and Wave Serpents
2 Guardian Squads x 20 w/ platform and Warlock
2 Dire Avenger x 9 w/ Exarch and Wave Serpents
2 Squads of x 3 Vypers
1 Squad x 9 Warp Spiders w/ Exarch
2 Squad x 9 Howling Banshee w/ Exarch and Wave Serpents
1 Squad Striking Scorpions x 9 w/ Exarch and Wave Serpent
3 x Fire Prism

I figure the 2 Guardian Squads and Fire Prisms can give me heavy support. The Farseers and bodyguards will add some extra melee and re-rolls for the Guardians. The Storm Guardians, Avengers, Banshees, Scorpions, Warp Spiders and Vypers will be my fast support/attack units. Moving to were they are needed in a hurry and adding some nice fire power and melee support.

I have already ordered the majority of this list from Gamess Workshop, but should anything that be changed?

This list gives me an amazing assortment of vehicles and troops:

124 Troops
7 Wave Serpents
6 Vypers
3 Fire Prisms

Thats 16 vehicles on the board, with 7 of the 16 carry 10-12 troops each. Fully decked out, its about a 5800 point Army. Which would be nice for those large 10 hour Apocolypse games.

10 Shining Spears
Since you are going for so much what about Phoenix Lords?
9 War walkers batter SM

Oh, good idea with the Phoenix Lords, actually forgot about them. I think I might add them, too. The only problem is, they take up HQ slots, if I am not mistaken, but I guess in an Apocolypse game, it wouldnt matter much. Thanks

Shining Spears... hmm, most of the things I have read about them doesnt seem to really fit into this army, I dont think. Maybe I am wrong, but I would rather have the Vypers and the Warp Spiders. I dont know. Maybe I should learn more about the Shining Spears?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Eldar Own wrote:Wow, that's some shopping spree!

An avatar is awesome is awesome, so use it! What equipment have you got on your autarch and war walkers? It may shed some light on why your not performing so well with them.

Another fire prism is a good idea, as they can combine beams, and so is getting more vypers, one on its own is rather useless. JB are a good idea too, simpley because theyre good and are great objective grabbers. Note. dont buy the shrieker JB just use a shruiken cannon from a wraithlord/WW kit. Some fire dragons would be a great additon here, it sounds like you play marines quite frequently, and theres nothing better at marine busting than FD, well there is but they're good at it, put these in a WS. Some harlequins would also be quite good here too. Put the FD, HB (make it a unit off 10) and the harlies (or maybe the farseer and crew) in the wave serpents. Consider getting some wraithguard too. Also, with an army of that size you may as well include a pheonix lord as well, I'd reccomend Karandras, he was awesome in our big christmas game!

The swords are called witchblades BTW. And good job so far!

The Autarch had Power Weapon, Reaper Launcher, Wings, and Mandiblaster. The war Walkers had Spirit Stones, Bright Lance, and Starcannon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

wuestenfux wrote:

1 Autrarch with Wings
2 Farseers
1 Avatar
4 Warlocks (2 with Singing Spear 2 with the sword (forgive me, I forget the name of the sword, I dont have the book near me and I am new to them)
20 Guardians with platforms
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
12 Howling Banshees with 2 Exarchs
6 Striking Scorpions with Exarch
2 War Walkers
1 Wraithlord
1 Fire Prism
1 Vyper Jetbike
3 Wave Serpents

Its a good starting point if you want a competitive list, not more.
There are two routes to go: mech or footslogging.
In a mech army, you need Serpents transporting troops (Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers)
and Fire Dragons, Fire Prisms, and a Seer Council.
In a footslogging list, you better take War Walkers, Wraithlords, Harlies for counter strike, Serpents for interception.

Isnt a Seer Council rather exensive? I know they are like Banshees, only alot meaner (or so I would think), but for the price in points, wouldnt I be better off taking Banshees and Scorpions in Serpents?

remenents wrote:

wuestenfux wrote:

1 Autrarch with Wings
2 Farseers
1 Avatar
4 Warlocks (2 with Singing Spear 2 with the sword (forgive me, I forget the name of the sword, I dont have the book near me and I am new to them)
20 Guardians with platforms
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
12 Howling Banshees with 2 Exarchs
6 Striking Scorpions with Exarch
2 War Walkers
1 Wraithlord
1 Fire Prism
1 Vyper Jetbike
3 Wave Serpents

Its a good starting point if you want a competitive list, not more.
There are two routes to go: mech or footslogging.
In a mech army, you need Serpents transporting troops (Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers)
and Fire Dragons, Fire Prisms, and a Seer Council.
In a footslogging list, you better take War Walkers, Wraithlords, Harlies for counter strike, Serpents for interception.

I sat down lastnight and made up the list I want. I am not going to list the equipment I will put on them, but I will just list the units I want. Let me know what everyone thinks:

2 Farseers
2 Warlock bodyguard units w/ 3 warlocks each
2 Storm Guardian x 11 w/ warlock and Wave Serpents
2 Guardian Squads x 20 w/ platform and Warlock
2 Dire Avenger x 9 w/ Exarch and Wave Serpents
2 Squads of x 3 Vypers
1 Squad x 9 Warp Spiders w/ Exarch
2 Squad x 9 Howling Banshee w/ Exarch and Wave Serpents
1 Squad Striking Scorpions x 9 w/ Exarch and Wave Serpent
3 x Fire Prism

I figure the 2 Guardian Squads and Fire Prisms can give me heavy support. The Farseers and bodyguards will add some extra melee and re-rolls for the Guardians. The Storm Guardians, Avengers, Banshees, Scorpions, Warp Spiders and Vypers will be my fast support/attack units. Moving to were they are needed in a hurry and adding some nice fire power and melee support.

I have already ordered the majority of this list from Gamess Workshop, but should anything that be changed?

This list gives me an amazing assortment of vehicles and troops:

124 Troops
7 Wave Serpents
6 Vypers
3 Fire Prisms

Thats 16 vehicles on the board, with 7 of the 16 carry 10-12 troops each. Fully decked out, its about a 5800 point Army. Which would be nice for those large 10 hour Apocolypse games.

Due to some more input, I changed the Warlock Bodyguard squads from x 3 models to x 10 models and put them both in a Wave Serpent. This changes my total troops to:

138 Troops
9 Wave Serpents
6 Vypers
3 Fire Prisms

This would give me almost 6200 points. Like I said, I am looking for a really large army due to the fact that we play Apocolypse at my game shop.