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Space Marines and Eldar - Teaching to Play 40k (Balanced Armies)
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Force 1: Space Marines ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1000 pts
130 - Space Marine Captain - Relic Blade, Boltgun
***Warlord***
170 - 9 Tactical Marines - 7 Bolters, 1 Flamer, 1 Missile Launcher
------- 1 Sargeant - Bolt Pistol, Chainsword
180 - 9 Tactical Marines - 7 Bolters, 1 Flamer, 1 Lascannon
------- 1 Sargeant - Bolt Pistol, Chainsword
35 - Rhino - Storm Bolter
235 - 4 Terminators - 3 with Stormbolters and Powerfists, 1 with Assault Cannon and Chainfist
------- 1 Sargeant - Storm Bolter and Powersword
125 - Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer
125 - 4 Assault Marines - 4 with Boltpistols and Chainswords
------- 1 Sargeant - Bolt Pistol, Powerfist


Force 2: Eldar -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1000 pts
130 - Farseer - Spirit Stones, Fortune, Doom
***Warlord***
135 - 10 Guardians - 10 Shuriken Catapults, 1 Scatter Laser
------- 1 Warlock - Witchblade, Conceal
110 - Waveserpent - Twin Linked Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Cannon
205 - 6 Guardian Jetbikes - 4 Twin Linked Shuriken Catapults, 2 Shuriken Cannons
------- 1 Warlock - Singing Spear, Embolden
115 - Fire Prism - Prism Cannon
115 - Fire Prism - Prism Cannon
140 - Falcon Pulse Laser - Starcannon
50 - Vyper - Shuriken Cannon

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My girlfriend wants me to teach her how to play, I'll be using the Marines, and her the Eldar. I tried to make the lists balanced on the side of giving the Eldar more Min/Maxing to make it better and not kitting out certain Marine units to their maximum potential, while still providing a threat to the Eldar Army. I want to introduce many different unit types of models, and make a fun balanced game we can play a few times once she gets the hang of the rules. (I'll probably start with some 500 pt games to begin with, just to get the hang of the rules).

Do these lists look overall balanced? Do the Eldar have the edge here? Would this be a good introductory full size game after playing a handful of 500 point starter games?

The marines look like a good general list. My only point would be that the captain has nowhere to go. I'd either give him TDA and hang with the terminators, or replace him with a jump pack chaplain with the assault squad.

I'm no expert on eldar, but that's a very low model count army there. A few bad hits and you are going to be toast. I'm not sure how to fix that. Eldar have alway stuck me as a bad intro army. When used well, they are very good. When used poorly, they fold easy.

Yeah, Eldar was my starter/intro army in 3rd ed, and it had a steep, steep learning curve (back then I had no one to coach me/no Dakka to consult). I will be advising and coaching my opponent on the best options to help her "see" how to play anyways.

Those are good ideas concerning the HQ; I chose to make a Captain as he is simple and easy to use/understand (straight-forward). The Captain will run around on foot with a squad, or with a combat squadded tactical squad in the rhino. I figured giving her lots of high strength, heavy vehicles that can kill marines will help make it balanced. Plus, I'd be coaching my opponent on the best options to help her "see" how to play anyways.

Concerning the Eldar list, the only thing I'm thinking now is I might drop the Guardians by 10 points by switching to a Shuriken Cannon, and drop the Vyper for a 5 man Dire Avenger Squad for the Falcon, just to make another scoring unit. i know DAVU squads don't work as they used to, but the list's idea is still to ride around in vehicles until you have to get out, so that might work.

In any case, the Falcon and Fire Prisms should be dropping a good handful of marines a turn, as well as a decent amount of attrition from all the Shuriken Fire too. The marines have 2 Assault Cannons, a Missile Launcher and a Lascannon to threaten her 4 vehicles - that's not a tremendous amount of firepower, I'd be lucky to drop 1 vehicle before turn 2. By then I'd be taking some damage.

I do agree Marines are easier to learn on (as they are a generally forgiving army), but the likes the look and feel of Eldar more. What can you do? .... I guess I could give her a seer council with fortune :-p.

Hmmm, the Eldar seem a little mixed with a low troop count. Have you considered dropping the Falcon and Vyper and bringing the footslogging Seer up a notch with a Jetbike and giving him/her a retinue of 6 Jetbikes (same loadout as the Warlock JBS). The Guardian squads have never really been known to do much of a dent - in this case only acting as ablative armour for the weapons platform. If you're dead set keen on putting a squad into a Wave Serpent, then perhaps tooling it with the TL scatter lasers may be an option.

Something akin to this;

Farseer - Spear, Stones, Fortune, Doom, Jetbike

Jetbike Squad - 6 inc 2x S.Cannons (attached to Farseer)
Jetbike Squad - 6 inc 2x S.Cannons w/ Warlock (Spear, Embolden)
Dire Avengers - 10 inc Wave Serpent (TL-Scatter Lasers, S.Cannon)

Fire Prism
Fire Prism

Ideally it will allow the Prisms to sit at long range and soften up zones to be skirmished by the Jetbikes, with the Dire Avengers on standby to deploy if the Jetbike units are cornered. Four Shuriken Cannons at 24" a TL-Scatter Laser for the 36" mid-zone and Prisms for long range at 1000 points isn't too bad a play if you're teaching your other half how to use the maneuverability of Eldar.

Rangers can be used later if teaching how to use fire lanes is in order. Sadly Guardians at this point until heavy revision, are and will continue to be a light tarpitting solution or useful for taking down light armoured squadrons or single AV10 stuff - even then its a long shot. The poor ole Vyper, unless you're using a few of them, suffer pretty quickly - IA11's Hornet is a far superior and tactically flexible unit (however being FW isn't all that readily available or known/accepted). The Night Spinner is also a great unit to learn as well, rather that applying outright fire, it has a wonderful way of denying your opponent any certain movement. When used with Jetbikes (JSJ) frustration is a satisfying thing to see on your opponents face.

Make sure she knows Eldar are all about synergy

I would seriously suggest that you give her the Marines. They are far more forgiving and are much easier to work with as a beginner when learning the rules. I'd also suggest giving her a handicap of at least 250pts, thus if she takes 1k, you take 750. Remember, you want her to walk away from the game with a positive feeling, and nothing makes beginners feel better than a win.

Not to mention its your girlfriend, so don't be stupid and pwn her on her first time out of the gate, that will only build animosity and possibly earn you a night alone

I actually think the eldar list is stronger, but the marines are more forgiving. Played right with some decent rolls, the eldar should come out on top.

Give her marines with a vindicator and some sternguard

You take eldar of foot

Let her blow you to ribbons and have a great intro to the highs of 40k

I really liked having the 2 Warlords being the same points value, albeit with completely different statlines, skills and roles. Unfortunately, I only have 1 squad of Jetbikes right now (the others I own are awaiting Seer Council Conversion), and I don't want to break out any super cheesy units the first go around. I intentionally gave the Marine Tac Squads/Captain a slightly clunky loadout (think AOBR, with some slight upgrades/mods), with a varied yet rather non-impressive loadout. If I was playing more competitively, there would be more special weapons, Sargeants with better kits, no Assault Marines (or 10 with a Jump Chaplain, over the Captain), a Vindicator, etc ... but that's not the point, obviously.

I feel like the Eldar will do alright, since they'll be in vehicles zooming away from me with heavy weapons, most of my list will get shot to bits from the heavy weapons each turn, many of which can penetrate my armor, while being able to decently threaten the armor, I only bring 4 big weapons. Yes, the Guardians are squishy, but 5+ rerollable with Conceal will help (hopefully, they won't need to get out most of the game, though 3 squads unloading at once to shoot a doomed squad of marines is really fun).

My new favorite Vyper outload is 3 Vypers with x2 Shuriken Cannons @ 60 pts apiece. It's a great Fast attack equivalent of War Walkers, if you max out your Heavy slots (like I do). I'm too tired right now to update the list, but I do feel seriously like the 1 base Vyper is superbly underwhelming; 50 pts for a Shuriken Cannon is kinda silly, just figured different units would be fun. I can't justify dropping a heavy tank for 3 Vypers, though, so they're out.

I could just add the 3 Vypers and an Avatar for kicks and get decimated.