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I hated eldar a couple weeks ago, but after playing a 2-on-2 game with eldar, I'm infatuated with them! Is this normal? Do eldar have that sort of effect on people? I love them!
Wraithlords are badasses. My favorite unit in the entire game now.
Avatars= Winsauce
All Skimming tanks= bigger winsauce
Psychic powers= Better than CSM....

Calm down man! Its just a phase! You'll pull through! No worries! *Whispers to parents* "He's not gonna make it."


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Oh! sorry double post.


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Oh sorry double post my bad

Calm down man! Its just a phase! You'll pull through! No worries! *Whispers to parents* "He's not gonna make it."

Eldar are okay. But here's my issue.

Their tanks pack less of a punch than Tau or IG, about the same as Space Marines, but they're poorly armored (although skimmer tanks ARE full of win).

Their infantry is largely incompetent, which makes sense since they're basically the Eldar equivalent of the National Rifle Association.

They're fragile little buggers.

Wraithlords are cool, but that's about all about the Eldar that really entices me.

Personally I'll just stick with Tau for shootyness, Orks for crumpin' and Space Marines to avoid crippling overspecialization in either.

I will give the Eldar credit for looking cool as hell though. Major points on the design front.

Calm down Jaon, heard you the first time.


Actually Samus its a common reactuion to Eldar, assuming you are not put off by the looks. Like any army you will like or hate therm depending on the miniatures, theme and style. As most people like the aforementioned features of the Eldar army they are alrady in a position to like what they do.

The Eldar dont field many generalist units, nearly everyone is a specialist, and nearly everyone is very good in that specialist role. Thus on first glance through an Eldar codex, this or any previous one, you can find nasty stuff that loks fairly broken. The trouble is Eldar are not very good outside their specialist roles, with a few notable exceptions that are good allrounders but even they exist in isolation and if they are heavy support in conjunction with a lot of other contender units that are equally or nearly equally appealing.
What seperates the Eldar fad from the Eldar fan is when you are liase that the plethora of awesome focused abilities creates a very potent mix that takes a bit of care to use and can be easily unravelled if a lynchpin unit is destroyed by whatever the enemy is doing. Eldar have the tools to defeat anyone if they are pre-positoned right, if the enemy takes the right combination of opposition to your focsued units, if the enemy is inadequate at countering said focused units, and if the dice go your way. Thats a lot of ifs, and those who dont like the if factor quickly go back to marines or other easy to play armies.

I doubt I'd ever build an Eldar army (I've got other stuff to do), but it really is tempting.. Painting is easy,as long as you've got a spray-gun. I hope..

Well, i started an eldar army because I liked how the wraith units and the guardians looked. I also liked the warlocks.

And yes, wraithlords are badass

No, it's very unnatural you xeno-loving heretic.

On the other hand, they have a very unique playstyle that gives you much more board-control with their great maneuverability.

I can hear the detractors now, "Oh noes! Another I-Love-Eldar thread!"

When I started 40k way back when, I thought eldar were pretty cool ally units for my marine army. Remember? There was a time long, long ago when space marines weren't quite so xenophobic and allowed certain alien races to give them a hand from time to time... I loved my marines though, and as cool as they were, the Eldar took a back seat.

Anyway, when I returned to 40k at the advent of 5th, I dusted off my models, bought the "new" Eldar codex to see what they were all about these days and fell in love just like yourself. The specialists, units working in coordination, hit and run attacks, monstrous creatures, the finesse of dancing in and out of danger to strike with precision and lethality. Mmmmmmmm.... yummy. Liberally sprinkle with dinosaurs and I'm hooked.

Avatars and wraithlords are indeed epic.

Skimmers can put out more hurt against tanks then any other armies transports... (Barring vanilla marine's razorbacks...)

There skimmers are the single most durable troop transport tank that can be taken as a dedicated transport (Barring nipple marine's land raiders, that cost alot of points...)

Wraithlords make necrons cry.

SEXUALGOODNESSMMmmmmmm!!! *breath Gooie breath*!!

I chose Eldar because of three reasons.
1. They looks sweet.
2. I didn't want generalized units.
3. They're NOT space marines.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's not bad to love Eldar because if not no one would play them.
Honestly I kinda started looking at Eldar last week (anyone remember 'Chaos Eldar Pirates?') and I would do it as mechanized but after seeing their 100+ pt transports I went back to DE as my next one.
Greetz,
Mr. Self Destruct

OoieGoie wrote:SEXUALGOODNESSMMmmmmmm!!! *breath Gooie breath*!!

I chose Eldar because of three reasons.
1. They looks sweet.
2. I didn't want generalized units.
3. They're NOT space marines.

This is all entirely true, but what in the world is wrong with Space Marines?

They may be the posterchildren of 40k, but that doesn't make them any less badass or awesome-looking.

Lolol.

Eldar have several weaknesses at the moment:
1. Skimmer nerfing.
2. Random game length.
3. Weak troops.

I've witnessed a lone Guardian kill Logan Grimnar in close combat. Never under estimate them. Never.

Witness: Tau Fire Warrior curb-stomps a Necron Lord. (In all other cases to date, the Necron Lord sweeps the squad by himself.) A Guardsman lashes out and knocks Jain Zar's head off with a rifle butt. (You can guess how a squad without a power weapon/fist usually fares against her.) Stuff happens

I've also witnessed multiple Guardian squads succumbing to the fate of most short-ranged infantry with BS 3 and a 5+ armor save, and in each instance they seemed like they were rebelling against me giving them a heavy weapon or something, considering how horrid their shooting was and how prone they were to breaking.

Guardian hilarity aside, I *love* Eldar almost as much you, OP! I transitioned from, slow, boring, astonishingly sweepable Necrons to the colorful world of the Eldar when I discovered you could run a squad of Meltagunners if you felt like it, or a squad full of power weapons that practically always strikes first, or even choose what armament and powers you wanted to give to your squads! It was an awakening. Also, the look of the army as a whole arrested me: Scorpions, Rangers, Warp Spiders, and YES! Wraithlords. They look *fluid*, and are positively bursting with cool unit combinations and potential for painting alike.

Also, they were something that wasn't Blood Angels, Space Wolves, or Codex Marines, or Imperial Guard, which now make up 85% of the playerbase at my FLGS. Before Space Wolves and Codex Marines, and indeed the newest Chaos codex, Marines, Guard, and Chaos dominated the scene. I couldn't face the prospect that almost every game I played at the store would be against....myself...so I expanded my paint set and braced myself to paint models that actually had detail. Xenos. Rogue psykers. Eldar.

Eldar are deadly in the hands of skilled player but not so deadly in the hands of novice. Blade storm, blade storm blade storm.

SaintHazard wrote:Eldar are okay. But here's my issue.

Their tanks pack less of a punch than Tau or IG, about the same as Space Marines, but they're poorly armored (although skimmer tanks ARE full of win).

Their infantry is largely incompetent, which makes sense since they're basically the Eldar equivalent of the National Rifle Association.

They're fragile little buggers.

Wraithlords are cool, but that's about all about the Eldar that really entices me.

Personally I'll just stick with Tau for shootyness, Orks for crumpin' and Space Marines to avoid crippling overspecialization in either.

I will give the Eldar credit for looking cool as hell though. Major points on the design front.

Having been on both sides of bladestorming Dire Avengers, rampaging Howling Banshee spam and "There one second, halfway across the board the next" Wave Serpents, I must agree, Eldar are awesome. The only reason I now play Orks instead of Eldar is because I'm too impatient and arthritic to do a neat enough paint job for them.

Wraithlords are awesome, though I think it was the Striking Scorpions that originally drew me to Eldar in like '99 :p

Love the Aspect Warriors.

First time I used my Eldar at my FLGS nobody had ever seen it played before. I packed 2 F.O.'s at 2000 points with all the most coolest looking stuff I could find. I had Jain-Zar running with harlequins, Maugan and his reapers, Eldrad with BS avengers, an avatar, a wraithlord, a vyper, dragon-full falcon, swooping hawks using the yo-yo skyleap trick that are impossible to kill, death jesters that frustrate the hell out of people plinking away from 24" and just can't be fired back at without getting close enough for a harlequin charge, warlock singing spears that can kill a LR for only a few points... and essentially anything that just looked intimidating and had LOTS of special unique rules. That wowed them all, lot of newbie players though. Only one that had been at it since 2nd and I got a draw against him. He didn't take the bait cause he'd seen it before. "What the hell is all this crazy non MEQ I'm not used to fighting... its not a horde of Gaunts or Boyz... its just all so ... wierd" was what one player said. Psychology is just another factor of the game and I absolutely LOVE playing with the other guys head with things like threat range for countercharge, or fast skimming drop-n-pop hard hitting threats. Dudes get scared to move out of their deployment zones because they get worried the elfies will pounce on them so quick. If you do it right. Do it wrong and you go down in a pathetic shredding of bolter rounds tearing up half your army in one shooting phase.

Not the most effective army list but when inexperience against eldar becomes a factor I could take ANYONE in that store since they were all so used to beating up on each other's MEQ. Gradually I had to make a more competative list, but at first everyone was scared of facing the new guy with all his "Eldar Gods" (is what they called it, not me) that looked really imposing and had special rules they weren't used to. It didn't hurt that all my stuff was painted either. They do make an impression to people unused to them.

Or you might be gay, is the other possible explaination according to some. Eldar kick ass despite being outdone by other armies newer codex, because Eldar players have to learn a very steep curve of what to use where and precise timing and positioning is very good for a player that knows how to you it, where other less fragile armies kind of slug it out like brutes. A perfectly played Eldar game will leave an opponent dumbfounded with how efficient they are, but the smallest mistake could make them seem like the galaxy's biggest pussies.

In general, I try to completely flood a small portion of the board with firepower and totally concentrate on that part, so that nothing left in LOS can shoot back, then repeat on the other side with super-fast redeployment so easily available to us. It's all about LOS and fortunately, the place I play at has lots of solid objects to skirt around. Getting beaten by Eldar is like getting the crap beat out of you by a midget black belt. At a glance they don't look tough, but when that headbutt to the nads occurs, suddenly they aren't just 'little gay space elves' any more.

Plus the figures do look awesome.

Around where I live Eldar seem to be the butt of all the jokes.

I have been playing 40k for nearly 20 years. I have played hundreds of games vs nearly as many people. I have owned every army that has been, including a few that dont exist anymore, and the one army I HATE HATE HATE fighting against is Eldar. They have been the Cheesiest army since their first creation. I have beaten the best players. Placed in every Grand Tournament I have ever been too (save those I helped run) but have always had a hard time playing vs FRACKING ELDAR!

rzsanguine wrote:Eldar are deadly in the hands of skilled player but not so deadly in the hands of novice. Blade storm, blade storm blade storm.

Very true.
Eldar is not an army for a newbie, its for the advanced player.
Newbies will hardly fall in love with Eldar, but advanced player eventually will.

Ursa wrote:I have been playing 40k for nearly 20 years. I have played hundreds of games vs nearly as many people. I have owned every army that has been, including a few that dont exist anymore, and the one army I HATE HATE HATE fighting against is Eldar. They have been the Cheesiest army since their first creation. I have beaten the best players. Placed in every Grand Tournament I have ever been too (save those I helped run) but have always had a hard time playing vs FRACKING ELDAR!

Teehee *dances around your army with my fast skimmers* what army do you play? I rarely have an easy as pie game against my opponents, except land raider spam, I actually table them...

wuestenfux wrote:

rzsanguine wrote:Eldar are deadly in the hands of skilled player but not so deadly in the hands of novice. Blade storm, blade storm blade storm.

Very true.
Eldar is not an army for a newbie, its for the advanced player.
Newbies will hardly fall in love with Eldar, but advanced player eventually will.

I was a newbie when I fell in love with eldar.

Twenty-five pathfinders, six dark reapers, six striking scorpions, ten dire avengers, one wraithlord, one fire prism, eldrad, three wraithguard, and three warlocks later...

I still sucked.

Skimmers ho!

I do like Eldar tactics and vehichles, but THEIR HELMETS LOOK SO STUPID! They look like friggin cone-headed
stormtroopers(not IG, star wars).

I've thought several times about getting some Eldar and sanding down their helmets to where they didn't look so ridiculous, but I've never got around to it.

Does anyone want to argue with aspect warriors? Ten guys getting off 32 shots then star-engining to the other side of the board? Mwaahaahaa... Okay so they have no AT, but there's dragons and hawks and brighlances for that.

First time I ever played against them I was a 1st ed. Marine noob facing a jetbike army. I was crushed and then some. This is back when the jetbike had its own vehicle stats, so they were damn near impossibly to bring down short of a damage chart roll. I was very taken with them. Throw in skyleaping Hawk exarchs with 'wargear card' upgrades for sicko weapons (aka 2nd ed dark millenium) as ICs and it was just disgusting how bad I lost. Since then I understood how wicked-awesome or awesome-suck they can be, and decided that if I wanted to be really good I needed to learn their tricks. I am actually pretty good, but still don't know all their tricks... shadey bastards...

How ARE vypers? People seem to complain about them being suck. Any substance to this?

Nope, vypers are pretty good, they're just not as good as other things.

Fill up your heavy support, and a squad of fire dragons, maybe a seer council before them, only take them in larger point games.

To be honest, I ALWAYS look at eldar as the plot armour for any campaign. They keep things running in the background. But nothing will appeal to me more then heavely armoured warriors walking alongside large tanks spewing firey death and then ripping the throats from their enemys. (And I dont mind the nipple armour )