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I haven't played since the end of 3rd edition and am suffering a little bit of culture shock of not only seeing people fielding a special character in a semi competitive list, but actually having him look like a good value. I have seen a fair few folks say he is a must have in a foot list, but I have seen less on his role in a mounted army. So I am curious as to how people are using him in an all mounted army and how effective he is compared to a farseer on jet bike?

I cant imagine why an eldar player would ever not use him. He's insanely good for what he costs.

In my variant of Mechdar:

5 Serpents (x3 avengers, dragons, banshees)
2 Fire Prisms
3 Scatter Laser War Walkers as a fire base w/Eldrad Serpent

I use Eldrad to Guide my twin scatter laser War Walkers and first to Fortune a Fire Dragon Wave Serpent.. later to Doom anything that gets close enough to threaten him as he sits safely in his Wave Serpent. He's also great for throwing down a Mind War when the opportunity arises - its a great shock to your opponents who are just like, he can do what ?!

He can cast doom, guide and fortune from inside a transport. So common uses for him are to fortune two grav tanks that are going to go fast (for rerollable cover saves) or guide two units of warwalkers (or two falcons in my case) and doom the thing they're going to shoot at.

For Mech lists I think he is insanely good. I do what Flavious does fortune my two falcons (usually with DA and Eldrad in 1 for last minute objective grab or contest). In bigger lists I tend to take a jet seer council with farseer with Doom and fortune to go vehicle hunting or tarpitting, but I usually try to keep Eldrad too. Just my opinion

Pure MSU mech spam does not benefit from Eldrad like other builds. Main serpent weapon is twin-linked, S6+ weapons wound on 2+ so doom is not as important, Fortune is still great but you can almost get another serpent and RoW Fortuneseer. Also 2 fusion-autarchs are kinda popular in mech Eldar so there is no place for another HQ.

I love autarchs, but for what my army does, I need those Farseer powers to make the rest of my army better or more survivable. Let's face it Eldar are too squishy and even comparing to Tau, they are a young race and they have better shooting, better stronger guns, they lack good CC, but ours is good but still fragile. I think we need every trick we can to survive... I still will take Eldrad and another farseer over autarchs sorry.

Well, while Eldrad is a staple in any Eldar army, I stay away from special characters if possible. He costs almost the same as 2 Serpents.
Runepriests are support characters in an Eldar army. This is less the case in a mech army where you mostly take Serpents with twinlinked weapons, twin Prism, or outflanking Warwalkers (which can hardly by guided due to distance). Therefore, I'd plan a mech Army with one Farseer, roward are mandatory, and an Autarch, as she's able to boost reserve rolls.

wuestenfux wrote:Well, while Eldrad is a staple in any Eldar army, I stay away from special characters if possible. He costs almost the same as 2 Serpents.
Runepriests are support characters in an Eldar army. This is less the case in a mech army where you mostly take Serpents with twinlinked weapons, twin Prism, or outflanking Warwalkers (which can hardly by guided due to distance). Therefore, I'd plan a mech Army with one Farseer, roward are mandatory, and an Autarch, as she's able to boost reserve rolls.

I agree that if this is your playstyle Eldrad my not benefit you as much or two Farseers. I think it depends on your playstyle
The way I make my army and the way I play, I need Eldrad to guide multiple Falcons or WW, which I usually use for fire support vs outflanking (in my hands they tend to be one trick ponies when I outflank them - and with their 24 shots per turn, I want them shooting every turn). Now this is not to say that outflanking is wrong, it is not! Just in my hands they work better at fire support. If you ever check out any of Badsheeps bat reps he does a great job with two autarchs and no farseers, but to his play style it works great! Cheers all

Eldrad is considered a standard in many eldar lists partially because the other eldar special characters are so limited. Yriel can be good if you build a special unit for him...and you face the right opponent. One or two of the Phoenix lords are playable, but usually their points would be better spent elsewhere.


Then there is Eldrad, who can help many different types of armies and whose point cost isnt too unacceptable when compared to a high end farseer. Most games will not see Eldrad using all of his abilities but he has the potential to handle many types of problems.

In a toolbox filled with highly specialized one use tools, Eldrad stands out as being a multitool useful in many situations.




Sliggoth

well said

Yes. He's the swiss army knife of over-specialized pointy-eared alien scum.

I believe most - if not all - Eldar players can all agree on, that those 210 pts is well spend on this guy. The only real minus I find, is that he cannot be two places at the same time.

But... For those points spend, you gain as many as three strong supportive powers - two of which can be repeated in battle.

His use depends on the type of army you're running of course. In a mech-list, you're looking at two Grav Tanks you fortune and flat out for a 4+ cover save with rerolls. This pretty much ensures that your FD serpents doesn't get shot down until they've delivered. With guide, you gain a much, much higher to-hit rate. Really benefits those BS 3 models, such as Falcons, Walkers and the like. Doom increases those odds even further!
- Besides the latter, he's one of the few Eldars out there, that doesn't suffer from the possibility to get one-shotted by s6+ fire (from T4). So even if his ride gets shot down, he still requires some attention on foot.
- His special abilities, if utilized fully, opens up for a great variety of deployment strategies. But basically, I find Eldars very vulnerable, if deployed (rather than reserved), and not going first (as you'd lack the fortuned tanks and so forth).

Overall, I find Eldrad to be one hell of a buy. But his price tag does mean that he's not suited in small point lists, as he would soak up too many of the point you'd need to buy killy power for.

Plus the fact that he gives you psychic defence.

I play mechdar 90% of the time and pretty much everytime I use eldrad. If you know how to keep him alive and use him to his full extent people hate him. My opponents hate games whenever I have 5 psychic powers they can do almost nothing to stop and most their psychic powers are negated and they have a chance of losing an hq. He really gives mechdar the kick they need to do serious amounts of damage. You don't get as many models in mechdar but when you cast psychic powers on them they become insanely good.

The only really good special characters in the eldar army are Eldrad, Prince Yriel, and the Avatar.