Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello to everyone!
I want to start a new 40k army and the two armies that look best for me are tau and eldar but i cannot decide between them. I already have a 2000 point ork army as my fun, non-competitive army but i want an army that will do well in a battle. So I'm asking your opinion on which to start and also which is a better army for cost effectiveness as i only have about £100 to get started with and i only get £10 a month pocket money. Please help! or

P.S I appreciate the help but i really only want to start these armies unless another one (not orks) is very very cost effective for a good army list .

I just went through the same decision process! Except for me it was a "I don't want to play the army of the week" and I was sick of going to my FLGS and only seeing Space Wolves being played.

I went with Eldar. I really enjoy what they bring to the table. Their big upside for me is: Amazing psychic powers, great vehicles (love the models and what they do), and a wide variety of units that can help fill out whatever type of army you are trying to field.

The problem with Tau currently, is that if you are looking for a competitive army they are kind of pigeonholed into 1 list. Eldar, while not MUCH better do have a few more options that you can take to a tourny setting.

Also, I would guess that Eldar would get "New Codex Lovin" before Tau.

AFAIK, the Eldar have the more competitive codex. The problem is that the one 'competitive' Tau build isn't all that competitive compared to IG, and Tau is just plain bad against a lot of the more common armies today; I've heard bad things about Tau vs. DE and have personally had my Tau massacred by BA several times. Eldar, on the other hand, are still relatively competitive albeit only in a few builds. I have Eldar as well, but they are a WIP so I haven't played them yet. As far as cost-effective, be aware that a lot of the Eldar aspects are available in metal-only, so that can drive up the cost. For normal armies it isn't bad, but a few (like Wraithguard) are really expensive.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And btw, I would predict that Tau would get a new codex before Eldar, but we'll see I guess.

I would of thought that tau would get a new codex but i don't know as the tau codex is £12 and the eldar is £17.50

A good tau list has a fairly large assortment of battle suites. These are not cheap.

A good eldar list has multiple grav tanks, fire dragon units, and possibly jet bikes of either type (guardian or vyper). These are not cheap.

Personally I think tau are the more competitive army, but they don't have as many builds as eldar has. They will get boring quickly.

Eldar is really showing its age quickly. The time period which their book was done in was a particularly bad one. Its a cut and paste book with all the old good options nerfed. That being said they can still win, just realize that you won't be massacring people too often (usually win by point sniping turn 5, or getting a early VP lead then playing hide the grav tank).

Scratch that they've the codex its still good value just not as good ... (could have sworn that the battle force came with a codex)

Tri wrote: (could have sworn that the battle force came with a codex)

If only

I'd say Eldar are more competitive, because you can really build your list to adapt your style of play in any way, mech, foot, assault, shooty etc.
TBH, every time I have played against Tau with my Eldar, I have won. Maybe my opponent was just bad, but it was really not hard to win.

As noted before, the Tau's best units are their battlesuits and hammerheads, which are quite expensive.
With Eldar, you can still make a good list without expensive tanks or vehicles. To minimize costs, you could just buy an Avatar, a farseer, then loads of guardians and a couple aspect warriors. Check out the footdar lists on the forum and see if they appeal to you. I think its the cheapest option.

If you want cheap go with Necrons or Space Marines. However like 90% of people play marines, and Necrons aren't going to win you games until you know what your doing.

I can fully recommend Eldar, they're fun to play AND they're good! I would suggest looking up what kind of list you want though before to get started. You can have either a mech list (Lots of wave serpents with stuff in them), a foot list or a jetbike list (Those are self explanatory). Watch some battle reports and see which one you like.

Also you don't NEED a codex, I manage with information off the net, I'm on a pocket money budget too and I need all the savings I can get

p14tinum wrote:Also you don't NEED a codex, I manage with information off the net, I'm on a pocket money budget too and I need all the savings I can get

Really?

I would advise getting the codex, especiallly if you want to win games with your own list, and not some premade internet list. Depending on your painting speed and the type of army you take, it will vary how long you take to paint your army. Imo, if you buy the codex, make a proper list and get the first couple units to paint, by the time you'll have painted those units, you'll have more money to buy the next units. try buying in blocks of 500 points if you're low on money. If you want to paint your models carefully to make them look good, buying the codex will not be a problem.

Lord Rogukiel wrote:

Tri wrote: (could have sworn that the battle force came with a codex)

If only

I'm guessing they must have been a bundle to go with the new codex release ... its how I got my SM and eldar codex; guess I just assumed they always did that.

The spear heads come with codexes

notabot187 wrote:The spear heads come with codexes

ah thats them ... they've stop selling them! that's such a shame for new players

Lord Rogukiel wrote:

p14tinum wrote:Also you don't NEED a codex, I manage with information off the net, I'm on a pocket money budget too and I need all the savings I can get

Really?

I would advise getting the codex, especiallly if you want to win games with your own list, and not some premade internet list. Depending on your painting speed and the type of army you take, it will vary how long you take to paint your army. Imo, if you buy the codex, make a proper list and get the first couple units to paint, by the time you'll have painted those units, you'll have more money to buy the next units. try buying in blocks of 500 points if you're low on money. If you want to paint your models carefully to make them look good, buying the codex will not be a problem.

I'll agree the codex is good, but it's expensive on small budgets. I was suggesting that you find the points costs of everything and the rules etc on the net rather than using a pre-built list.

It's up to you OP, the dex is a good buy, I was just pointing out that it's NOT a necessity, I've been playing 40k fine for 6 months without one

If you want a competitive army don't buy Tau. They and Necrons are bumping along the bottom of the power curve at the moment.

A new codex will hopefully improve things but is not expected until 2012.

Tri wrote:

notabot187 wrote:The spear heads come with codexes

ah thats them ... they've stop selling them! that's such a shame for new players

Not really, spearheads have very small discounts on their cost, not enough to pay for even half of a box of the cheapest contents. They are a preview release that came out a couple weeks before the general release. They generally come with the new models but often seriously lack thing you would actually use.

The reason why they often sit on shelves of FLGS (on of my FLGS still has a dark elf, and a space marine spearhead) is most people have figured out how bad they usually are and just wait for the general release or battle force box. Similar to how many people wait for the starter box instead of buying the full sized rule book (esp in WHFB... good god 75 bucks for the honor of lugging a brick everywhere?)

Not to drag this thread OT, but with regards to buying a codex versus getting info off the internet:
If you are trying to decide which army to buy or need to reference information on an army you don't have, the internet is ok.
If you own and play an army, own a copy of the codex.
Just my $.02
As for picking an army based off of codex price: don't do it. Relative to the minis, the codex price isn't a major investment. I bought a DA codex rather than the vanilla marines to save a few bucks and I regretted it all the way up to the recent FAQ.

Of course. I am just saying that if the OP wants a battle winning army, he'll need the codex of whatever army he's chosen.

I also agree that you shouldn't chose an army according to the price.

Tau can be good but with one build. Or at least that are the rumours on DakkaDakka. (Apparantly you need loads of suits at later games, and then you wrap them in kroot, and then there is the stealth suit melta vs non melta debate.)

Eldar brings more to the table, in the fact that you can design your own list and do good things with it. A big thumbs up. But it costs a lott (if you complain about codex prices, just wait til you realise that you have to buy transports. Loads of transports.)

The moast expesive thing in the game are transports. (Tyranid is not a solution since you have to paint so many bodies. Necrons are just bad.) A good solution could be if you wanted to play Dark Eldar. What is not to like about French Dekadent Evil Has-Been-But-Stil-Living-It-Large Vampiers from outer space? They have som of the esteticks of the varied eldar aspect warriors, but they are cheap.

Cheap DE: Awoid transports, go with a foot army with webway portals. The cheapest box with the moast for your buck is the warriors.

Convert some Grotesques from Ogre bulls, use that and 20 warriors with 2xlance 1xblaster and 2 Haemonuly as your web way portal system. And out comes kabalite trueborn and warriors with blasters.

Bying baron with helions and scratch building talos (as they are expensive $) or beastmasters also gives the army a better and more warried punche. And it apears good.

That is if you want it cheap, and you think eldar includes DE. Also Grey Knights are coming out in 2 months, they will be a very elite army, with a low model count and therefor cheap on the wallet.

Thank you all for helping me decide which army to play and i hope this thread will help future players decide between the two. I have decided to go with Eldar as I prefer the models they are generally stronger and more competitive. I have so far only bought the codex but eldar sound really good. Check out my gallery in the next few weeks (which is when I'm planning to get the battle force).

P.S For anyone who is thinking of starting eldar the battle force has only one legal troop choice as it only comes with 8 guardians you need 10 to make a legal unit and it also doesn't come with a hq so you need an extra £12 or so, if you do it cheapest possible from GW on top of the battleforce

Da dakka boy wrote:Thank you all for helping me decide which army to play and i hope this thread will help future players decide between the two. I have decided to go with Eldar as I prefer the models they are generally stronger and more competitive. I have so far only bought the codex but eldar sound really good. Check out my gallery in the next few weeks (which is when I'm planning to get the battle force).

P.S For anyone who is thinking of starting eldar the battle force has only one legal troop choice as it only comes with 8 guardians you need 10 to make a legal unit and it also doesn't come with a hq so you need an extra £12 or so, if you do it cheapest possible from GW on top of the battleforce

Eldar ftw!

The 5 dire avengers are legal I believe, I think aspect warriors can be taken with a minimum squad of 5. For an HQ I recommend the farseer, he's the best (And I think cheapest) available, good luck

Tau are good for sitting back and shooting,then sending in the jump infantry to claim objectives.
They also have Kroot for CC.

Eldar are more about speed,they can get around pretty fast and hit and run.They have lots of specialists to deal with the enemy.

I hope this helps you make your choice.

The Guardian Squad in the Eldar Battleforce comes with a Guardian Weapon Platform and two crewman, and so forms a legal squad. The Dire Avengers are legal too. As for HQ, use Farseers or an Avatar for a footdar list.

The Eldar are a VERY specialized force. There is no room for error when it comes to tactics w/ your aspect warriors. I played both, I liked Tau better because.....
1) Str 5 Pulse Rifle R30"? Where have you been?
2) XV8 suits can really punch a hole through enemy elites/ HQ choices with plasma rifles, but again, tactics. It doesn't matter so much if you like the wargear/abilities/models, you have to look at playing style of the individual armies. What feels like second nature to you, Close range shooting w/ superior gun lines or Close range specialists?