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So I've given up on my Eldar for now. I think I will probably have them on the shelf until a new codex comes out! They just seem so hopelessly over priced and outdated, the only thing that does any real killing is the Avatar but he just isn't enough to win the day! Granted most of the games I play are simply kill point missions but regardless I feel like Eldar must have as much of a legitimate chance to win as anyone else! Do any of you guys have a list and stradegy that wins regularly? What is it? Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

What is your list? What do you play against? Have /you/ updated your tactics and list for 6th ed?

Maybe try allies? Yea some more info would be super helpful.

First off, playing Killpoint missions all the time is a terrible idea. Even more so than in 5th, 6th is focused on objectives and Eldar have always been an army that prefers objectives due to their mobility and ability to overwhelm isolated units. From a competitive POV half the rulebook missions are terrible, but at the very least insist on actually rolling on the standard chart rather than playing killpoints most of the time.

In general Eldar have taken a hit in 6th. The only reason they worked effectively in 5th was that they could lean heavily on their large numbers of fast vehicles so they didn't have to use their infantry at all (which Dragons aside is pretty terrible). The changes to the vehicle damage system hurts, but the biggest thing that hurts them is the fact that they have to disembark to claim objectives and can't use the vehicles to contest anymore. This pushes Serpents from being marginally overpriced to the point that they are barely worth bringing because they don't effectively keep fragile scoring units alive. By itself that changes the entire Eldar army, and tends to make more Foot/Hybrid type builds more attractive. The current lists I am running don't look anything like my standard 5th edition lists, Serpents only get brought for Dragons (if I am running them) to deliver them, 2 x 3 Jetbikes is the first thing I add to a list and War Walkers, Vypers and Wraithlords are getting more use.

Outside of a few unique builds (usually with a Council, Harlies or some other form of Deathstar) which might ally in DE, Eldar should pretty much always ally with someone with solid scoring units. This means bringing 20 odd Marines or a bunch of Guard so you aren't stuck relying on hordes of overpriced Guardians or Avengers for your scoring units. My current list uses 2 x 10 GK Strikes + a bare bones Inquisitor to get some more durable scoring units (which actually hit reasonably hard), provide Deep Strike/Daemon defence and open up a bunch of other options from other FOC slots if I can squeeze things in for the points.

Well I have been running a farseer (Usually Eldrad) With the Avatar to keep him fortuned and alive for a long time. I ran two groups of 5 to 10 avengers. I would run 5 to get the minimum required to buy a serpent and to minimully fulfill the troop requirement but sometimes ten to hold objectives on the occasion I played one of those matches . I have a falcon I sometimes use to transport fire dragons but I usually proxy it as a fireprism and in bigger games proxy a second one. I love Warp Spiders despite their cost and usually run two groups. I have a few warlocks but they only seem effective as a seer council if they are on bikes. I love dark reapers for killing marines but they draw a ton of fire and die fast (and are very expensive). War Walkers are cool, especially with two scatters each but they aren't terribly durable and are sort of an (outflanking/suicide unit). I don't have any bikes due to my low funds, it's hard enough buying 5 aspect warriors for $40... $15 a bike is just too much. Wraith Lords are like a good options but with only a 3+ save I'm afraid of the missle launchers and las cannons EVERY marine army has. It is so big It would be hard to duck it behind cover and with it huffin it on foot I can't see it surviving long.


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I also have 5 Rangers I usually run as pathfinders. They are great at what they do... they just can't seem to do enough of it! I've contemplated a second pack of five.

I notice your heavy slots are pretty packed, and that might be hurting you. Also, as it has been mentioned, playing nothing but killpoint games does not help you, even though your super light on troops. Loading up on heavy and elite and ignoring your troops means your list is even more expensive and small compared to other lists. You just can not handle any losses inflicted on you building a list like that.

You need to re-do your list and update your tactics to 6th Ed. You like the Avatar and Eldrad? Cool, build your list around them then. Use Eldrad to keep Fortune on the Avatar (thus stay in range of him). This means Eldrad will probably want to be in a unit that he can also cast Fortune on. Pick something you can make up that can support the Avatar. Then pick units that support that and go from there.

There are several YouTube vids that break down Eldar units and tactics. Let me give you a couple of links to give you a head start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRryHdy_33E
(EldarCorsair)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAKDOeio-g
(WayofSaimHann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX7j4r8qatE (BeastsofWar)

Miniwargamer has some good batreps and I believe Dave is EldarCorsair.

Linkage wrote:
Well I have been running a farseer (Usually Eldrad) With the Avatar to keep him fortuned and alive for a long time. I ran two groups of 5 to 10 avengers. I would run 5 to get the minimum required to buy a serpent and to minimully fulfill the troop requirement but sometimes ten to hold objectives on the occasion I played one of those matches . I have a falcon I sometimes use to transport fire dragons but I usually proxy it as a fireprism and in bigger games proxy a second one. I love Warp Spiders despite their cost and usually run two groups. I have a few warlocks but they only seem effective as a seer council if they are on bikes. I love dark reapers for killing marines but they draw a ton of fire and die fast (and are very expensive). War Walkers are cool, especially with two scatters each but they aren't terribly durable and are sort of an (outflanking/suicide unit). I don't have any bikes due to my low funds, it's hard enough buying 5 aspect warriors for $40... $15 a bike is just too much. Wraith Lords are like a good options but with only a 3+ save I'm afraid of the missle launchers and las cannons EVERY marine army has. It is so big It would be hard to duck it behind cover and with it huffin it on foot I can't see it surviving long.


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I also have 5 Rangers I usually run as pathfinders. They are great at what they do... they just can't seem to do enough of it! I've contemplated a second pack of five.

Your list is not really geared toward the new edition. However, I admit that Eldar desperately needs a codex update soon. Nevertheless Eldar is playable in the new edition especially at smaller pt games, say 500 to 1500 pts.

I've had pretty good luck with Eldar. My win to loss ratio is very much in the win column. I roll very foot heavy. The only vehicles I use are Vypers and War Walkers. Until the new book comes out I will not touch our grav tanks, since they are way to expensive for their survivability.

Take advantage of the mass amount of high strength fire power that they can put out. SL Warwalkers can do up to 24 shots a turn. Guide them, and your almost gauranteed to wipe a unit a turn with them. Fortune them and stick a unit behind a ADL, and they get very good defenses. Fire Dragon Exarchs manning quad guns will destroy fliers and light vehicles. I had one solo kill an entire squadron of Leman Russes (granted, it was my opponents mistake for presenting rear armor to it). Vypers with 2 ShuriCannons are a cheap, fast, hard hitting unit. Warp Spiders are not as cheap, but still fast, hard hitting, and relatively survivable. You need minimum 4 troop choices in 6th edition. Objectives is how the game is played today. Go big squads of Avengers to hold your objectives, and jetbikes to get your opponents. Pathfinders are good choices as well. AP1 shots that can often times pick their target is devestating to things like Termies and IC's.

The Eldar are not a weak army in 6th edition. They aren't GK's or Crons either though. You've gotta work for your victories. If you can't win, but never change your tactics, then you've got no one to blame but yourself.

I run a footdar army as well, and run eldrad and the avatar. I recently have been experimenting with putting Eldrad in a 20 man guardian squad with a conceal warlock. Fortune the avatar and the guardians and you have a decently durable fearless unit. Also, D-Cannons should be on the rise with the new artillery rules. add a warlock to the unit, and put behind the ADL to get 3+/4+ T7 unit that has an AP2 weapon wounds on a 2+ and ID on a 6. Very effective agaist vehicles as well, but the range is the only limiting factor.

What kind of units do you think support the avatar alot? Wraithguard maybe? I guess if I gave them a warlock with conceal and eldrad he could be casting on fortune on the avatar and casting it on the wraithguard so they can re-roll their armor or cover rolls. They are the only unit that I feel can stay exposed enough to support the avatar and survive a good chunk of the game. What kind of allies do you guys recommend? I have a space wolves army but since they are allies of convenience with the eldar I couldn't use my psychic powers to buff them up. What luck with allies have you guys had?

The avatar is difficult for me to figure out. Don't get me wrong, I love him, and take him a lot, but Eldar today are a shooty army. Our CC units, quite frankly, are not good in this edition. So he's not going to have much CC support. I've tried running him together with 3 Wraithlords. It didn't turn out to well. Dark Angels stomped me.

That said, his utility in a shooty army gets a bit strange. Big fearless bubble, awesome. But unless your bring guardians, just about everyone is LD9 or better, so it's not as huge a thing. High BS, but only a 12 inch range on his gun, so by the time you get in range, your probably just going to get the one shot off, because you'll most likely be charging as well.

I find there are usually better point investments then the Avatar. A second cheap farseer with 2 cheap powers, who takes Divination. The can be done for about half the cost of the Avatar, freeing up a lot of points for your army to get a bit bigger, which Eldar desperatly needs given their overall fraility.

You support the Avatar by having plenty of units rather than a single rock unit. Wraithguard are seriously expensive, get nothing from the Avatar (already Fearless) and require you to do some seriously silly things to your army to avoid them getting eaten extremely easily (bringing the Baron for Hit and Run, thereby crippling you scoring ability for the rest of your army, or some form of beatstick character to deal with nasty assault units). I've found that unless you wander into the open, Fearless Guardians with a character rarely get shot up so badly that the character dies, the unit might get messed up, but with at least 5++ saves they tend to end up with a couple of guys left, which lets the Farseer jump ship to another unit. In any case you should generally be very happy if your opponent is shooting at your Guardians, as it means that he isn't shooting your Avatar, Wraithlords or other heavy hitters.

I've found that Wraithlords are doing pretty well because people are stripping back on their long range AT and melta with the reduction in vehicle numbers. The kings of Missile Spam, Space Wolves, are very rarely run the way they were in 5th (usually they are allied to/with Guard, so its not all going into missiles) and its rare to see the other Marine variants bring Missiles or Lascannons en mass (usually they bring a few in Tacticals, its very rare to see someone spamming Missile Devastators as nilla Marines). I find most long range AT is now focused on killing light vehicles, S6/S7 with plenty of shots, which don't do that well against Wraithlords or the Avatar. The other thing to remember is that the area terrain exceptions for MCs are gone, so you can get cover much more easily with the big stuff.

As I mentioned before, the biggest thing that Eldar need is reliable scoring units, which means quality or quantity of troops. I wouldn't recommend allying with Tau or DE, since their troops are just as fragile as yours, which leaves all the Allies of Convenience as viable options. Since Runes of Warding is probably one of the single best things Eldar has going for them you should always try and fit in a Seer. However this means that there is no point allying in psychic users, which does change things a bit and usually requires you to spend a few more points (psykers are normally the cheap option HQs). Wolves become far less attractive, since Rune Priests go from being amazing to terrible with Warding around, and you only get two scoring units. Blood Angels and nilla Marines still work as long as you don't take a Libby, Dark Angels can still bring 10 Terminators along for the ride and Guard have a huge range of options. Grey Knights can still actually work ok, since they are still perfectly good shooting units without Hammerhand or Force Weapons (and with MSU, attempting to cast them with Warding is a win/win, since at worst you kill one of your own guys and get out of combat faster). They also don't have to take a psychic HQ, and their biggest game changing psychic power - Warp Quake can still work since you only need it turn 1-2 and your Farseer can reserve in those games.

I can't say mech is failing me in 6th. Use wave serpents to keep your two troops alive. Then everything else aspect warriors (usually dragons) in falcons. With psyker support obv.

I'm personally a huge fan of jetbikes. for eldar and DE why not have plenty? Also I would ally for sure with DE. You can drop a whole bunch of cheap kabalite warrior troops for scoring

Eldar jet bikes are an awesome troop choice. Calling them fast is an insult these guys move so quick. They are also cheap, have good stats for the cost, and the upgrades are not bad either.

The aegis or bastion also does a lot for eldar. Fast shot crack shot dark reapers or fire dragons love the weapon options. I myself like dark reapers, as the tempest launcher with crack shot is one of the best barrage weapons around, and you can use the Icarus with fast shot to get 2 interceptor shots at incoming flyers.

The wave serpents took a hit like all vehicles but are still good if you want to transport infantry around. Really it's just holofields that got ruined. Falcons have been over priced for the weapons for a long while now, and with holofields being useless they have no real value. But the fire prism and night spinner, without holo of course, are good tanks still if you don't have war walkers.

Harlequins with psychic support are tough to beat, and with a 2+ cover save they are not that frail either. They also ignore terrain and have a good charge with fleet and furious.

Finally, eldar psychics are still amazing. Fortune is fantastic and eldrad is still a steal. 2 far seers get a great combination of book powers as well, though I think most of the time you will want to keep the eldar ones except in certain matchups.

Linkage wrote:
What kind of units do you think support the avatar alot? Wraithguard maybe? I guess if I gave them a warlock with conceal and eldrad he could be casting on fortune on the avatar and casting it on the wraithguard so they can re-roll their armor or cover rolls. They are the only unit that I feel can stay exposed enough to support the avatar and survive a good chunk of the game. What kind of allies do you guys recommend? I have a space wolves army but since they are allies of convenience with the eldar I couldn't use my psychic powers to buff them up. What luck with allies have you guys had?

Personally, I have ran both Wraithguard and Storm Guardians to support the Avatar (along with 2-3 Wraithlords) and have been ok with both. I also run power axes on my Dire Avengers (with Shimmershield), Harliquinns and Striking Scorpions. Granted, your looking at 1850+ to run all of that, but alot of people don't expect it either. But if you want to do a more sit back and shooty list, get a Defence line with a gun. A huge weakness for Eldar right now is the lack of AA. The Avatar and Fire Dragons can still be useful to deal with Drop pods, DSing Terminators, and the like. Hey, if you don't want to have a Dark Reaper Exarch or Fire Dragon Exarch, you could always have the Avatar man the gun! But thier perks make them batter at it than the Avatar (Crack shot, Tank Hunter, ect). Actually, I could see a really nasty gunline list with Pathfinders, Dark Reapers, and Fire Dragons to take care of DSers with Eldrad and a Avatar or second Farseer.

I played Eldrad + Avatar in 5th and it was great. I've exchanged the Avatar for a Farseer in 6th because psychic powers are so much better now. Try taking one of your warlocks and making him a normal Farseer. Give him both Runes, stones, fortune and doom. That's it. Now let Eldrad take 4 powers from the rule book. Prescience is a must. It's better than guide. Then you can try and grab more from Divination or you can grab 3 from Telepathy.

Let the Farseer fortune Eldrads unit each turn and he can also doom something. That's his job. Eldrad can spread Divination and/or Telepathy powers around. To protect Eldrad you can put him with a dew Hariquins who will have a 2+ save in any cover or you can put him amongst a bunch of cheaper units he can move between.