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Hi I recently started collecting eldar.

So far i got two wraithlords, two squads of dire avengers, a squadron of war walkers, and im picking up a HQ soon as well as maybe afew more normal gaurdians.

Now before i start playing id like to get a general idea of how to effectivly use eldar as ive never played them before.

Such things as how to use wraithlords effectivly and such.

I have yet to build them so you could also advise me on which type of weapon to equip them with too ^_^

Also ill be facing my friend afew times and hes got a rather scary terminator army built lol

Only one thing I know, a farseer will serve you well.

Dakka's Eldar army overview is a great starting place:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Stelek%27s_Eldar_Army_Analysis

Generally, Eldar are a rather flexible army. It all depends on what type of army you'd like to run: Jetbikes, Footdar and Mechdar are probably the most competitive builds out there at the moment.

So what kind of army do you want firstly, A fast and fragile army (more so than the Eldar norm), a mechanised column of tanks, Wraithwall (full of wraithlords and wraithguard) etc.

Any additional information you can provide will really help narrow down the possibilities.

Iranna.

I'm a new (Imperial Guard) player myself. Have played one game against the Eldar, he put everything in reserve and had two "Autarchs" so he got +2 to his reserve rolls. The majority of his forces came on turn 2 and his vehicles (Wave Serpents, I believe) used a special speed boosting rule (not sure if it's an upgrade or if it comes standard) to ram into my tanks, taking out much of my armor before I ever had a chance to fire back.

Not sure how effective this tactic is in the long run as it seems if I had been anticipating it and had simply screened squad of Guardsmen in front of my tanks I could have avoided it, but it sure as hell caught me off guard that time.

Well what i was thinking off going for was a precise army. One that cant hit objectives hard. So when i see an opening i can take it.

I also like the art of misdirection lol so distracting an enemy with a unit to draw attention away from the unit that'll move in for the real kill.

IMHO don't take guardians. Dire Avengers are just a few points more and can put out twice the shots in one turn, as well as the ability to bladestorm. I've used guardians once before, and then put them straight into my bitz box.

As an HQ a farseer is always a good option.

Also you might wanna consider getting some wave serpents for your dire avengers.

Here are some observations Ive made while playing eldar. Just what personally work for me, so dont make to mush of it.

Your two wraithlords are great distractions, tough as nails and always a danger to ignore. As they dont even get hurt by S4 they will be priority targets by the termies and las cannons (supposing the termies has hammers, or they cant hurt you!).
The wraith lords are good at tearing tanks apart with their fists or sword and AV 10 can be dealt with by scatter laser or shuriken cannon. A fairly good and not to expencive WL in my army would have sword/scatterlaser or missile launcher/shuriken cannon; always with dual wrist flamers (not that it would do much good against power armour).

As you will be playing against marines, the problem is armour penetration. The elfs got loads of S6 shots, but that 3+ save is a tough opponent. Dont be tempted by the banshees power weapons if you are playing against marines, you still need to wound against T4. Better stay out of CC.
Scouts are great for holding covered objectives, and their improved rending ability can do some real harm to marines.
Also, warwalkers are one of the best units in the dex IMO. Good choise! Give them multiple missiles or scatterlaser to keep the cost low and rate of fire high.

Im personally not a fan of Bright lances because of their high cost and lack of opportunities to actually make use of the "lance" ability. Missile launchers are mostly a better option, and if you actually are facing landraiders a unit of firedragons would be better in the long run.

Edit: By the way, I have played against vanilla marines and chaos marines, and I have tried fireprisms, dark reapers, banshees, avatar, firdragons, wraithguard, as well as trying to keep flying and strike fast with bladestorm. I always get slaughtered. Enough said

The battleforce is a good choice IMO, since you get a war walker, a wave serpent and Dire Avengers. If you buy those separately you will most likely pay more than in the battleforce and you get the guardians for free. Guardians may be fragile, but I have used them with success as objective holders with a heavy weapon in it. That EML downed a Vendetta for me and soaked up two turns of shots from IG veterans, and the whole squad only cost 100 points. You have to keep them in cover, though.

The wraithlords are good fire magnets, as already said. They can turn the attention away from your falcons. The problem in my opinion is that S8+ fire will still kill them pretty quickly. A fun thing is to put a WL into an ork mob of many models to bind it.

For HQ I agree, you will most likely want a Farseer as they are the most versatile ones. Personally I like Autarchs with Warp Jump generator for use with my Warp Spiders or one with Wings for my Swooping Hawks. But many people don't like Hawks and deem them weak. IMO it's about how you use them. You can't expect point and click with Eldar.

About killing Space Marines I suggest going into CC with Scorpions. At Ini 6 (Exarch) and 5 (Scorpions) they will hit before the SM and remove some of them. And when they hit back you will have a reduced number of SM and the same armor save as them. At least the general setup is in your favour then.

I don't play Eldar very often, but when I do, I win.

All joking aside, my best friend plays Eldar and he DAMN good with them. We've both been playing 40k for just over a year and a half, with him being the better of the two of us. He can beat just about anybody at my FLGS, so I'll just throw things out there that I see him do.

Don't listen to anybody, field Eldrad. Eldrad can cast three spells a turn, even having the ability to cast one of his spells twice. Guide lets you reroll hits on the unit you cast it on, Doom lets you reroll wounds on a target unit, and fortune lets you reroll saves.

For troops I suggest two min squads of Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents. Have the Scatter Lasers (could be wrong) so you can pump out S6 shots like nobody's business.

Elites, take three squad of Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents. These bad boys cost one more than a Chaos Space Marines and are equipped with Melta Guns, hot damn.

For heavy support he takes two Spirit Stoned Fire Prisms, then for his third slot he takes either three War Walkers with two Scatter Lasers each (total of 24 shots I believe). With guide these guys tear apart everything, the S6 spam becomes more prevalent.

In more friendly games he has been using Warp Spiders and always seems to do well with them, deepstriking behind enemy tanks and wreaking havoc.

Eldar are really nasty when played right, but really bad when played incorrectly. Use their mobility and fancy abilities to force your opponent into submission.

Justus wrote:
Don't listen to anybody, field Eldrad. Eldrad can cast three spells a turn, even having the ability to cast one of his spells twice. Guide lets you reroll hits on the unit you cast it on, Doom lets you reroll wounds on a target unit, and fortune lets you reroll saves.

Yes, Eldrad is a really nice model, but I would never take him below 1500 points. In 1000 point games he'd eat up too many points and a Farseer will provide the most important abilities at much lower costs. His redeployment is very nice, yes, but you'd miss the points in terms of sheer kill potential. From 1500 points on you'll have enough kill potential which can be greatly improved by 3 psy powers.

@ Justus:
That is by far the most generic competetive eldar list there is. Every detail, no more, no less. Its to the eldar tactica what ultramarines are to the spacemarine codex.
And its obviously really efficient

Not really trying to talk this list down. Its great for official games, perhaps not that great for friendly fun and individual armybuilding. IMHO. But this is a tactical forum after all, so just ignore me

Wraithlords are good, but can be dropped fast if exposed to any anti tank. They are pretty good in assault, but slow enough most units can avoid them. This combined means they will almost always be dead before they get to assault, or simply be out of range. I run mine with EML/Brightlances or EML/Scatter laser to stay back and provide a firebase.

I would never take a wraithsword(re roll your whopping 2 attacks) because your already S10 ignorning armor. If your getting assaulted its either something with power fists, force weapons or a tarpit to deny its shooting. Wraithsword wont help much in either situation.

They need a psyker close by. If your going to be keeping them back as a gunline a squad of guardians with a warlock will prevent wraithsight and add more gunline power. On the move a harlequin shadowseer can fufill this role and the clowns provide an amazing assault unit to back your shooty unit.

Scatter lasers on War Walkers is the norm. EML's have their place as well. I would avoid brightlances, they are too expensive for a weak walker with BS3.

I would get a farseer as your first HQ. Re rolls to wound will really help you get through those small units with high armor.

AtomicEngineer wrote:Well what i was thinking off going for was a precise army. One that cant hit objectives hard. So when i see an opening i can take it.

I also like the art of misdirection lol so distracting an enemy with a unit to draw attention away from the unit that'll move in for the real kill.

I might be a little biased towards farseers since I once ran a full seer council in the old "craftworlds" supplement (talk about a deathstar command squad ), but Doom, Guide, and Fortune are your friends. Warlocks are also handy.

Wraithlords are very tough to take down for most things, but sustained long range anti-tank fire (which they will be the focus of in the list you've got) will definitely kill them, so be careful with how you move them. I'm a big fan of starcannons because I fight nothing but MEQ most of the time, but the volume-of-fire argument for scatter lasers/shuriken cannons is a pretty strong one as well. War Walkers are a little bit wimpy to be considered anti-tank, so I'd put anti-troop guns on them and go to town on their infantry. I know you don't have any yet, but wave serpents are excellent for surgical strikes on objectives in my experience.