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Since 3rd edition I've loved Eldar, especially Scorpions/Banshees and melee Wraithlords. Coming back after a long break I've been lurking on this forum and trying to make some lists. It seems from all the posts I have found that theres no way to do Eldar melee anymore. I'm not suggesting a full assault based force, but even something balanced. So my question is this: Is there any viable way to make the Eldar melee units work? Or, what Eldar assault units do work, and how so, any stand outs? By viable I dont mean tournament winning, but just able to win above or around half the time against some of the more common lists. Additionally, I'd love to hear any ideas/thoughts on how Eldar may potentially get changed (the codex is quite old) in the future, and if you think there will be a time when they will return to being more powerful. Thanks in advance.

Eldar Harlequins with Doom/Fortune Farseer is actually a good assault unit. They have great protection moving into position to assault and can hit quite hard. For added power, a Phoenix Lord such as Fuegan or Maugan Ra. They add a significant punch as well as durability and Fearlessness.

There is a grand total of two Eldar assault units which are worth considering; Warlocks/Council and Harliequins. Both of these units still have some major flaws which probably keep them from being top tier (Council relies on Fortune, Harlies are squishy if anything survives to swing at them or if they get forced out of cover/hit with a flamer) but are miles ahead of the rest of the assault units in the codex. Banshees and Scorpions are a waste of time because they can't assault out of Serpents anymore (not that they were competitive in 5th, but not being able to hide in a transport relegates them to completely useless) and Shining Spears are massively overpriced.

The codex is quite an old one so it does need some updating for the 6th edition.

Personally I don't see an issue with the assault troops open to the eldar. The cost to get a high iniative power weapon strike fom a banshee is nothing, and you get a unit full of them.

All armies are struggling with units not beingable to assult of of cheap transports (unless you play orks). Moreover, Striking Scorpions get over this somewhat and can still infiltrate.

Okay if you end up fighting a load of terminators or other 2+ saves elf for marine your onto a looser. But your going to vastly outnumber them; an hopefully have a small unit of fire dragons to support any melee group of units.

I think the main problem with the eldar is overfilling the elite slots in the FOC, but the new rules for allies and double FOC get over this.

New codex wise, there going to get a flyer to that people can shell out £40 for the model. The'll end up with skyfire weapons on either a weapons platform or on their walkers. Everyone appear to be able to get FNP on some unit nowadays so watch this space. Other than that, more fluff and a bit of buffing up of troops.

Quick question DE are brothers in arms couldn't Banshees/scorpians borrow a raider off an allied contingement and use that to assault

I'm fairly certain part of the allies rules is that they can never use each others transports, could be wrong though. Slightly off topic, any thoughts on the viability of storm guardians with flamers in wave serpents?

It will work, but... expensive transport to deliver 2 flamer and where you need to end your previous move very close to the enemy.

If only it had 1 or 2 fire points.

Allies can never use the transports of another army. Simply stated in the ally rules.

Seer councils have been outdated since the 4th codex came out. Look at the 3.5 codex and you will see where seer councils got their name. They have simply been riding the fame of that since then. 1A base, no access to power weapons (you could get those in 3rd, along with multiple farseers per council), and only a 4+ save these guys go down to quantity of fire easily. Also, once they start losing key upgrades (farseer, enhance, embolden) they start becoming even less effective. At ~33 points a model without bikes (53 with) they are incredibly expensive and on par with terminators, though terminators are both faster with deepstrike and better in combat.

6th was simply the nail in the coffin with overwatch, nerfs to fleet, nerfs for wytchblades, and challenges (easier to kill the farseer)

Banshees were difficult to get into melee without getting obliterated in 5th. Changes to assault from vehicles, overwatch, AP3 power swords(erratad to bar you from using axes even tho there is a banshee model with an axe), and
nerfs to fleet all made banshees an even worse choice in 6th.

SS have always been decent, but even in 5th they struggled to find a place. 3+ armor is nice, but no fleet made them slow. 6th removes their only speed enhancement, outflank, and makes them even less useful.

Harlequins are the only effective melee unit in the eldar codex. With stealth and shrouding they get a 4+ cover save at all time, going to 2+ if they are covered at all by any bit of terrain. With a farseer fortuning they are unkillable at range, which is huge. Rending is still AP2 and even more effective vs vehicles because HP. 2A base and two weapons at WS5 I6 is still as good as ever. They also still ignore terrain for moving (shadowseer gives plasma grenades, interesting note) which means they can often surprise opponents with their speed and can take advantage of a 2+ save in area. Sure they are hurt by flamers, but between a farseer in the squad or a fortune'd 5+ save you can survive pretty well.

With a proper character, the Harlies are not even squishy in assault. Phoenix Lords and/or Archon w/ Shadowfield (and the unit being Fortuned) is a huge factor in an assault. Remember, if the Character is in base with any of the attacking models at the particular initiative step, you can opt to have the character take the saves. If it is not an AP2 weapon, Phoenix Lords with Fortune can absorb a good amount of wounds.

Of course, these kinds of units become death stars so you need to pretty much tailor your army around it.

I believe pure assault units are a waste of time, but I still believe the assault phase is important. Certain eldar units have great speed, and solid assault options.

Warp.spiders for instance, throw in an autarch and exarch and you have a respectable number of low ap attacks, and hit and run, and a 3+. Sure you can't beat enemy cc units, but you sure can catch and beat up his devastators and other small fire support squads.

Same goes for even units like gjb. Sure they suck in assault, but they can still assault tanks with the singing spear, and they will beat things like henchmen. You can also use them to tie down shooty units relying on t4 3+ and embolden to stay in and prevent things from shooting you.

I wouldn't plan for heavy assault, but I think its still prudent to think about how you can use assault to help.

Harlies with Fuegan and a Farseer. Fuegan is very important. He sits up front and takes all the fire. 2+, Feel No Pain, Eternal Warrior. Plus, he attacks as a monstrous creature. Fortune tops it off nicely.

The harlies themselves are pretty good, but rely heavily on their characters. They lose the characters and it becomes a lot easier to kill them.

How about doing a flank amnouver with 3 groups of scorpion? They should be OK in melle, should they not? Use scatter lasers to open up the cans (transports) and just charge them?

Sure the Scorps are great for pushing forward; but you better hope you catch the opponent with his pants down! They can do damage to alot of things, (with the Claw) but suffer from being slow, with limited options to get back in the fight once they've ambushed a target. It might do to buy a serpent for a Guardian Defender unit and borrow the transport to swing by and pick them up for later use though. They are typically better for sledgehammering any unit that engages in melee with a G. Defender squad.

The over-arching problem is the Eldar currently rely hugely on a alpha strike/precision hit against the foe, breaking their back and chasing it off the table. If that fails, the Eldar army is usually tabled.

For close combat my choices are

Harlequins
Wraithlords
Avatar
Phoenix Lords

So one squad, two tar pit units and some ok to good characters.
Seriously thinking of running asurmen - as a challege tar pit. 2+/4++ with eternal warrior and a chance to instant death.This might go some way to mitigating his points cost.

Mind you I normally take 2-3 wraithlords and a wraithseer. I charge as if they were a squad (all together). That does make a mess of most units.

Banshees have a major problem in being a t3 4+ model - if you get close enough to charge, then one turn of shooting wipes them out, as they rocket up your opponants target priority list so fast it's not even funny.

I'm going to run scorpions for a while and see if I can get any use out of them instead, but thats because I like them, not because I think they are viable in a comp environment.