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Can Someone please tell me the background of Eldar.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Eldar

For a start...

Thanks


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Are they a good starting army???

I haven't played any other army and have been trying Eldar for a few months now. I've had limited success. The mechanized lists seem to be the most popular (that's what I'm working toward), but they are a challenge to keep alive sometimes. I would say they are not a "beginners army", but I think they are worth the challenge. They have an old codex, which adds to their challenge. I like painting them and I like the fluff.

Cool thanks

a few things

1. What is Fluff???
2. what craftworld do you have???
3. Are the Farseer and Warlocks worth getting???

this is my army so far

1x Barrathoth, The Cry Of the Wind
6x Swooping Hawks inc. Exarch


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And what do you think of my new Craftworld (my picture)
Haven't thought of a name yet (suggestions)

1) Fluff talks about the "story" behind the game. Not the actual rolling of dice and rules, but the story to what is happening. Fluff and story can be used interchangeably.
2) Craftworld Avior!
3) Yea. Farseers and Warlocks are Eldar bread and butter. Good psychic powers make a good eldar army.

oh ok what do your eldar look like???





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Oh ok what do your eldar look like???





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Also What is in your army???



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I am looking for a 1500pt army and what do you thinnk I should out into it.

There has to be...

1x Barrathoth, The Cry of the Wind
6x Swooping Hawks inc. Exarch
1x Eldar Battleforce
1x Farseer and Warlocks
1x Striking Scorpians

Eldar look like Games Workshop elves. They are tall, strong, tough and look like excessively beautiful humans with very high cheekbones and tilted eyes. Eldar look distinct from humans, but can disguise themselves as a human - and some Eldar have been living as humans for years.



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Army building advice shouldn't go in this forum now that it's been moved, but here it is:

Eldar players are more divided than Space Marine players with how they pick their craftworld colours. There is an absolute huge difference between craftworlds in their society and war machine, but there's only one codex. That said, an army which focuses on Jetbikes or (for some reason) gravtanks tend to be red and white while an army which focuses on aspect warriors have a tendency to have green and white guardians. Current edition has the red-and-white Eldar (i.e. Saim-Hann) as the most common. Ulthwé seems to be the craftworld that I see most forum-goers who are die-hard about their Eldar pick. Personally I play a small craftworld which has a similar warmachine to Il-Kaithe and has an absolutely massive Corsair presence although my primary enemy tends more towards what Alaitoc or Iyanden would face.

I'm going to go with a rare value statement regarding your choice. Baharroth and Swooping Hawks are the two least useful purchases you will ever make in Warhammer 40k (unless you also want to pick up Tau's Aun'va).

Farseer is the second best HQ you can purchase. Eldrad is the best. Warlocks on jetbikes (these models have never been made by GW and must be converted) are the third best. Autarchs are gimmicks, Avatars are good only if you also get a Farseer, Phoenix Lords can pretty much be ignored until you've got an army and are comfortable with playing Eldar. Yriel is fun, but usually needs to be in a position where he can bugger off on his own and assault a unit on his own.

If you want further army-building advice, you are best served asking separately in the army list forum. You WILL get recommendations for mechanization, though, just saying.

Maybe you should buy the Codex first before making an Eldar army, just saying.

I agree with Kroothawk. Swooping Hawks

I would also not recommend them as a starting army. Yes, it's hypocritical of me, but I only started them because I liked the pretty colours. (Shut up, I was 10. And a half.) But even then, it took me a good few years to win my first game. You need to manouver your units correctly, and make sure your units are matched against things they can take out. That's the thing with Eldar, most units are brilliant at taking something out, but bad at other things. You need to use your speed to your advantage and make sure you have favourable matchups. Then, just use Doom a few times and it's an insta-win. Ok, maybe not, but you get the idea.

I play Eldar myself and personally love them. The fluff is really good and painting them is a difference form my guard army. So, choose whether you want to go mech and be like veryone else. Or go for a bigger challenge and go foot. I play foot, but that's just me as I don't see eldar as a big mech army.

Eldrad is the best choice. Then get an avatar, then get 3 war walkers with scatter lasers everywhere get about 20/30 guardians with scatter lasers. Then just go for long range anti tankness with some harlequins with shadowseer. LEft over points, go for some striking scorpions or something. JUST LEAVE THEM SWOOPING HAWKS BE, THEY ARE THE WORST CHOICE OF ALL TIMES. NEVER TAKE THEM. Did that in bold as it is so important. Never take phoenix lords until you are a good eldar player. A good guide to go to for more indepth advice is:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/402275.page

Hope this helps. Good luck with your eldar. I went Ulthwe myself just to let you know. Easier colours to paint and I love guardians to bits.

Eldar was my first army and I think I did pretty well with them.

Anyways, do get the codex before starting an army.

Check out the Army Lists and the Battle Reports threads to build a list. I've got a bunch of swooping hawks models as well, but no one seems to use them. That will probably change with the flyers coming out across the armies, but for right now they're hard to find.

I play a version of Yme-Loc (red instead of orange), but the FOC is all the same. It's just paint.

Since I'm a noob as well you may want to check out some of my threads since they're mostly about rules and tactics, especially http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/455696.page (hopefully experienced players will continue to post to it).

Try reading the codex, that's a good source of info, but basically they are future elves. The ninjas to the space marine's pirates, polar opposites in style.

Eldar were my first army also..

I'd say these days, the variants of space marines are much easier to learn, play and be forgivable even when you make the mistakes newer players tend to make.

But, play what you like - I think they look cool.. so that's why I play them!

I also was someone who started Eldar as my first army. I actually think it helped me to become a good player, because to win even part of a Battle as Eldar you have to have a good grasp of what is going on. When I expanded into IG than BT I realized how much easier/forgiving those armies were than my Eldar.

I played Eldar because I love the lore, and they are still my favorite race lore and play wise. Nothing beats the feeling of an Eldar army that pulled off every one of it's tasks perfectly. It's like conducting a symphony, if everything goes according to plan it's just down right beautiful.

However, they have real weaknesses and if I was ever playing "to win" my IG would always be fielded first just because they adapt so much better. Also, one thing you have to be prepared about if you actually want to win with Eldar is putting quite a bit of time into list building/experimentation. It taught me to be a really good player as list building is part of the strategy of the game, and so many people fail at making good lists. Eldar taught me otherwise, but it was a pain getting to that point.

I love Eldar and they are great if you want a challenge, but if you are looking for a easy/chill experience they may not be the army for you.

Edit: Something I would suggest trying out if you are going Eldar would be War Walkers. They are one of our only units that can reliably get their points back even if they are thrown into a situation they aren't 100% meant for.

Eldar are definitely a tough army to begin with, I have 3000 points of them, but that is because I bought them for 100 dollars off a guy at a GW who was getting out of gaming.

BUT!!!!
They have really cool fluff(background), and have some really cool abilities(psychic powers like fortune and guide even though we shall have to see how those are with the new rulebook) and some cool units(harlequins ROCK, and Farseers on Bikes are great imho)

overall, if you like the look and feel of an army, play them, dont do a super awesome army that you hate the look and feel of because then you will just ragequit after 20 hours of painting. Best of luck to you!

A family member and I got into 40k about 1.5 years ago, he picked Eldar for all the cool skimmers and tanks....While they are not the meta army to play, they can be mastered....after a few months, this family member started winning, and now is one of the best players at the FLGS. Just a matter of learning the army, and playing. Trust me, Eldar can put out some terrifying lists!
Advice:
6th edition is out in less than 2 weeks, and an Eldar codex in the next...well that's undetermined. BUT, I would wait to buy anything more....as I am guessing 6th will chane alot.

Ok thanks guys!

you have really helped
the only reason that I chose Eldar is because I originally just was going to paint them and not play, but I have changed my mind. This was the reason that I chose Swooping Hawks and Barrathoth(because they looked cool)

Eldar Man wrote:Ok thanks guys!

you have really helped
the only reason that I chose Eldar is because I originally just was going to paint them and not play, but I have changed my mind. This was the reason that I chose Swooping Hawks and Barrathoth(because they looked cool)

I can tell you that sadly, Baharroth is the worst Phoenix Lord and Swooping Hawks are your worst Aspect choice (if not the worst choice in the book). I have tried....really really tried...to make these things work well. They can do damage, they aren't UTTERLY useless, but they are confused about the jobs they need to perform. They don't put out enough damage to be swarm killers, they are str 3 so they aren't good against anything else but swarm units, and though their grenade drop is cool it will once again only kill swarms. Considering swarms are cheaper and will still probably catch and kill you they are not a very good choice. Their haywire grenades are their only redeeming quality, and the only time I have effectively used them was in a Planet Strike game where I was allowed to DS and assault in the same turn into a Battlewagon.

Wonderful models though!

I like them and because I spent so much money on them I am determined to make them Work!!!

This hereby is the Start of my Eldar ARMY!!!!!

Eldar were my first army.

Long before there was the path system, aspect warriors or even their own vehicles.

They aren't an easy army to learn to play - you have to support each of them with something else in order for it to pay off dividends (the army works on synergy between units).

They are, however, rewarding to play once you have figured out their little eccentricities.

Ive seen swooping hawks do okay against me as having people with haywire grenades drop into my gunline of tanks can be annoying and will take alot of fire off your other guys, but they are not a very strong unit as others have said

Eldar Man wrote:Can Someone please tell me the background of Eldar.

Read the codex. Dakka Dakka is not a substitue for codices

We can give you brief tips and general overviews, but there's no substitute for reading your Codex. Know your army. Know the background, know their units, know the play style, know their soul and you will triumph.

Swooping Hawks are a situational unit best pulled out against enemies with lots of skimmers/lightly armored troops, if you're playing against lots of Eldar/Dark Eldar/airborne Guard armies you'll find them more useful. I find they work best when used for fast strikes against things the enemy isn't expecting to be attacked, using other units to draw off the enemy and hit isolated vehicles with the Hawks is the tactic I've had the most success with (my IG-playing friend has started deploying rings of Guardsmen around his Basilisks to stall the Hawks...).

The remarks about the soon-to-come new Eldar Codex are certainly true, but I would like to observe that some characteristics of armies do not change: the Eldar will always be the hyper-specialized army, every unit excels in one or two situations and is no better than mediocre in others, it's not a list you can build an entire battle plan around a single type of unit (*coughPurifierscoughcough*), you win by exploiting the ways in which a wide variety of units complement each other.

It is possible that Hawks gain with the new 6th edition, with grenades and assault troops improved and tanks nerfed.

Mahtamori wrote: ...some Eldar have been living as humans for years.

What? Where did this come from? And why would any of them want to live as one of a 'lesser race'?

Maybe they meant the Exodites...

n0t_u wrote:Maybe they meant the Exodites...

Can't be. Even those guys live in ways that in the eyes of the Eldar are above lesser breeds like us.

I know, just they were sort of as similar as it gets.