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Hey there.

I've been playing Eldar for a little while now and while I've had some moderate success (1st in a team tourney in OKC and generally having the ability to draw as a worst case scenario) I've hit a bump.

After selling off a number of my models and then commissioning new ones to be painted by Dice Gamers (a dummy web-company set up by user CKMetal at Bartertown) I've been had, duped, ripped off, and had my Eldar reduced to a few home-painted warlocks, a farseer, a squad of scorpions, and 1 wave serpent.

Now I've got to rebuild my force, and don't know which direction to go. Wave Serpent and Fire Prism spam work, but I'd like to do something different. I've not been able to find motivation to rebuild my force exactly as it was before, but still want to play Eldar.

Are there any builds that have a chance of playing well in RTT's and Tournies? I play pretty competitive WoC in Fantasy and while not WAAC, I do like to compete with an army that isn't mathmatically gimped.

I've considered two options, and while I'm by no means resigned to the two, they seem to be the only other things I can think of that win.


Option 1 is Jetbike Council.

I've not seen them in practice because I never had them, but people often allude to the fact they are a good option. My problem is I dont know if I'm supposed to max out the warlocks council or not, or how the list plays. It's an expensive list in both points and money, but if it is just as competitive as WS spam then I might try it out.

Option 2 is something like the Eldar list that placed top in one of the Ard' Boyz last year.

I've always loved wraithguard and have wanted a list that uses them but they've never seemed worth their points or 14$ a model asking price. I've ran 10 of them with Yriel before and won, but that was against a really new Daemon player that had a whole lot of bad luck and an even worse army list.

I understand that you can do things in moderation. For example if I run a Jetdar council there's no reason I have to run guardian jetbikes. I think they're a pretty poor troop choice.

Lastly, there's my local scene. There's Round 1 and 2 Ard' boyz here, and about 80% of attendance is either BA, Space Pups, or Guard. There a couple of Nids and Emo Eldar, but they are the exception. I do tailor my lists to my local meta. There's a reason why I do better running starcannons with AP3 and Dark Reapers with AP3 as one of my heavy slots. ( The reapers are hit and miss, but I usually have enough stuff thats armored that they are a lower priority target for the DSing units. )

And I guess super lastly, theres the concept of letting go of my need to be competitive in 40k and save that for fantasy, which I am much much better at.

(I'd like to think it's because fantasy has more tactical decisions to be made with facing and movement of blocks of troops being a consideration and less to do with what book you use. See: My record with Tomb Kings. Then again, I could just be ego stroking.)

In that case I could make a list based on the fluff and models I like.. Wraithlords, Wraithguard, Dark Reapers, Striking Scorpions, Fire Dragons, and Warlocks/Farseers. This would feel like I was giving up on winning with my Eldar though. =(

From what I've heard, competitively Fire prisms, Wraithlords, Guardian Bikers and Fire Dragons in Serpents are all good choices. For the two HS ones, they should be taken in multiples, both for target saturation and because Fire Prisms do well if you have at least two. Another good troop choice is the Dire Avengers, while Storm Guardians are not too bad either. Defender squads, however, seems to be just a cheap way to get some heavy weapons.

Jetseer councils are also rather popular, although since I've only used one Farseer and no council yet, I really cant speak for them.

As for theme builds, see if you can track down the old Craftworld Eldar Codex. While none of the lists and option in it are legal anymore, all of the builds in it are still possible with the current codex, and is a great source of inspiration for me.

Sucks about being ripped off. I'm glad you're taking this in stride and not turning your back on the hobby. Best of luck!

Option 1: Jetbike Council
A solid choice, but not as good as it once was. Because of the incredibly high point costs, you end up having to put all your eggs in one basket. If you field this unit, the difference between winning and loosing entirely comes down to how this unit performs. If it dies or get stuck in a tarpit, you loose.

To run it, do the following models:
Farseer on Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Fortune, Guide/Doom, Singing Spear
7-9 Warlocks on Jetbikes, 1 Embolden, 1 Enhance, 3-4 Destructor, 3-4 Singing Spear

You want just enough Singing Spears to be able to reliably pop a transport, but you want as many Witchblades as you can to maximize CC attacks. You can absolutely decimate most units in CC, but don't try and assault units with FNP or Termies.

This unit falls apart if you fail a Fortune roll, so be prepared to loose a game due to psychic defense.


Option 2:
I'm not familiar with what that list runs. But, I'm not a fan of Wraithguard. They're very expensive and don't have the firepower of CC ability to justify it. Try them out if you want, but I'd stay away from them.


Your local scene:
I'd still stay away from Reapers and Starcannons. With cover saves being so prevalent, having AP3 isn't all that great. If you manage to get MEQ in the open, these units really do amazingly well, but against most players, that situation won't come up. Getting 4 shots with a Scatter Laser and forcing them to make 3+ saves is better than 2 shots with a Starcannon and them getting a 4+ save.


Super lastly:
You can certainly go with a full fluffy list. That's actually what I typically run. You can make a relatively good footdar list using Avatar, Wraithlords, Guardians, Scorpions. You won't be as top tier as mechdar, but the list can work well in the right hands. With the right tactical decisions and a bit of luck, you can certainly win plenty of games.

And, remember, fluffy well-painted armies always roll luckier than a paint-slapped-on WAAC army.

Thanks for the discussion.

I feel bummed out for sure, but I like the game and I'm fortunate to make enough to replace what's been lost.

I know that Mechdar is still the prime list but I've done that now and I figured that Jetcouncil might be a equally competitive force.

I dislike guardians. I've become completely against them since Dark Eldar appeared. For 1 more point per model they have a higher BS, higher I, and poisoned attacks. If guardians were BS 4 or weren't limited to 12 damn inches I might give them time of day.

Your point about the council weakness stands firm though. 1 stupid psychic hood and I'm hosed. I hate a 50% chance of invalidating pretty much my whole list.

I run a pure Eldar Windrinder Host.

You can't run pure Jetdar without Guardian Jetbikes. I even run Vipers for fluff reasons.

What are you going to use as Troops then? Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents? Then that's just another Mech'dar list with a Jetbike component.

My competitive list is Mech'dat with 2 Jetbike Seer Councils.

2 Seers is a double edged sword.

Sure, you have two great units, but if they get caught up or unlucky it sucks.

Then there's also the fact that its 4 KP's over 22 models. Not too shabby.