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Hey, Dakka.

I was just looking over the Rangers in the Eldar codex, and was kinda pondering, if they suit any given list. I see them fielded from time to time in Footlists, but... When i look at them on paper, they hardly strike me as that efficient.
- I could see them take up objectives, as they greatly benefit from cover - especially as a Pathfinder squad. But besides that, their offense seems ridiculous. Yes, they've got a good range and even as Rangers, they gain a nice cover save, but - are they really worth the points?

Basically, i just don't get the unit! 95 pts that could be placed elsewhere for more offensive purposes. Why even field these guys?

I've watched my friend use his against MEQ and personally I don't think they're that effective. Maybe one wound per turn, if they're lucky, (and if the enemy aren't all in transports).
Problem is that Eldar, being 4th Edition, don't really have any effective Troop choices. I'd say it depends on the rest of your army, really.
There's plenty of folks round here with far more knowledge than me, though, so i'll shut up now.

There was a very recent thread which discussed this if you care to look. The short answer is no though, no matter if you are Mech or Foot. They have basically no damage output, worse than a Defender squad with Scatter Laser (it hurts light infantry better, MEQ roughly the same and can hurt light vehicles). You could accept this if they could reliably hold an objective for you, but they disappear the second something which ignores cover hits them (flamers and heavy flamers are incredibly common) or even a non dedicated assault unit charges them. As they can't move and shoot they have no way of really avoiding this either, so in a mech list you find the points to get a Serpent + DAVU and in a Foot list a Guardian Squad will probably serve you better.

Was going to post something, but Powerguy more or less summed it up. They are just incredibly over priced, low LD (for eldar anyway) and do to little to justify taking. For 40 more points than a pathfinders unit you can have a stripped down DA unit in a WS with a shuricannon, which while not ideal is much more versatile and effective.

But rangers do look awesome, so I usually try to fit one unit in anyway. They are pretty useless, so they are very low priority to the opponent. I find that sometimes they just get overlooked because there's not enough time to deal with them. They aren't a threat, so they are an afterthought.
Especially if you don' put them on an objective to start. I like to leave them 10 inches away from an objective and sprint backwards towards it on the last turn if they are still alive. Less of a threat = less attention! Who cares about losing those 5 shots, they probably wouldn't have done anything anyway.

The nicest thing I can say about them is being useless makes them a low target priority so after mechanized dire avengers disembark, bladestorm, and get slaughtered by return fire a falcon or wave serpent can go pick up a squad of rangers to become a scoring unit again.

Lovely.

Well, thanks for the replies anyho' - much appreciated, Dakka's!