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.

I have my 2000 points of Marines and I want to start on an Eldar force. I will be buying the codex first, but I wanted to know what a good 500pt starting force would be like in terms of effectiveness and monetary cost.
Thanks!

You can't go wrong with 2 wave serpents, 2 boxes of Dire Avengers and a Farseer. Depending on what gear/powers you give them you should be able to make a 500 point list from that.

It will give you a solid foundation and includes units that will still always be useful at higher point levels. Due to the high points cost of their transports you really cant get much into a 500 point Eldar list.

You could do without the wave serpents if you wanted as well; maybe throw in a couple sqauds of gaurdians or an elite instead.

Start with the Dire Avengers. Whether you want to play mech or on foot, DAs have a place. Guardians are good but they are more of a foot army. If you want the variation, go with eldar jetbikes. Small cheap squads that can steal objectives. Not bad,

DAaddict wrote:Start with the Dire Avengers. Whether you want to play mech or on foot, DAs have a place. bad,

Agreed. Gaurdians how a nice weapon platform, however, so if you opponant does show up with anything mechy or heavy armored, at least youve got some form of support.

What you should do depends on 4 things:

1) Is this a full army at 500, or do you want something playable that you can later expand?

2) How competitive do you want the army to be?

3) Do you like playing fluffy lists or win-focused lists?

4) Are there any specific units or themes you really enjoy?

My route to doing this was buying stuff off E-Bay as and when it became available and seeing where that took me. Now I have squads of everything except wraithguard, fire prisms and warp spiders. The rest of the codex is covered with options. Oh and no support weapons!

Grakmar wrote:What you should do depends on 4 things:

1) Is this a full army at 500, or do you want something playable that you can later expand?

2) How competitive do you want the army to be?

3) Do you like playing fluffy lists or win-focused lists?

4) Are there any specific units or themes you really enjoy?

1) No, this is the begining of a larger force

2) Something playable in a GT. I am to attend one sometime this year

3) I like fluffy lists with a bit of punch, but I am by no means a WAAC player.

3) I want this army to be more of a blitzkrieg force- a good infantry force backed by mechanized units.

Broadly speaking, Eldar can't WAAC, not with this codex in this edition. Again, generally speaking, Eldar mixed forces tend not to do well, what you need to do is force your opponent to play against your own strengths - which is why a fully mechanized force is still a competitive build, in spite of having a codex that is grossly outdated.

What you need to realize is that Eldar simply cost too much to put out sufficient shots to actually destroy your enemy (coupled with a pretty dire melee selection, you don't get much for free).
Kill the enemy's mobility, destroy their key squads, then steal their stuff (objectives).

The alternative is to do a fully foot list, taking advantage of the tenacity of Wraithguard, combined with the inherent mobile forest you get - the centerpiece being the Avatar which provides the much-needed fearlessness.
Guardians in general are not very useful, their only saving grace is that they provide a very expensive weapons platform, but in a foot list this is what you need.

For a mechanized list don't even consider Defender Guardians, go for Serpented tripple-flamer Storm Guardians or Jetbikes (the latter for getting objectives and the prior for laying down one of the most cost-effective close-range barrages that Eldar can have - just don't get upset if they are wiped out next turn :p )

If you do go for a fluff list such as Alaitoc (too many rangers) or Ulthwé (too many Guardians) or some sort of melee list, then be prepared to not have a very competitive list - which is perfectly viable and fun to play with friends - it just won't be... 'ard boys material... so to speak.

In that case, Dire Avengers, wave serpents and a Farseer are the best options to start off with

Expansion-wise - fire dragons, fire prisms, possibly Eldrad depending on the list and war walkers for lots of relatively cheap heavy weapons

The best thing to do when starting an Eldar army is to buy the farseer + 3 warlocks box and 1-3 battleforces.

3 gives you about all the troops you'll need (30 guardians w/ support platforms and 15 dire avengers) for foot or mech lists and most anything in between, 3 wave serpents, which are great tanks and transports and 3 warwalkers which is one of the best HS choices in the game.

Thats a great and relatively cheap way to begin.