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After one of my armies took yet another beating from an Eldar army, I have (once again) decided to see what all the fuss about them is and think about collecting an Eldar army.

Where do I start?

I know the obvious HQ and 2 Troops, but what units in the book work?

What do I need to look out for to make an Eldar army effective?

An eldar army is good but needs to be focused and truthfully while it can be a hard counter to any army, it also can be hard countered by a number of things...

Where to start?

First thing is what style of army you want to run. Mechdar, footdar, dancing clowns, aspect heaven, pathfinders/rangers, Saim-hann bikers, guardian hoard, the walking dead.
Allies or no? Dark Eldar really work well with Eldar.

Generally I find it best to pick a theme to your army first.

For example, a walking dead army is almost automatic:

Eldrad 210

10 Wraithguards w Farseer w Conceal & a Spear. T6, AV 3, 5++ cover saves and fortune makes it all rerollable) 393

You will want some ranged Anti-tank so 3 dead Wraithlords each with a Bright Lance and Eldar Missile Launcher 465

1068 and we still need another troop choice. Perhaps a Forge World Wraithseer (awesome) or a Second Farseer (lets say 155) and a unit of 10 Warlocks (Embolden, Enhance, Destructor) 350... So 505 1573 - and then a unit of 5 Pathfinders (120) - 1693... Low and behold you have 157 points to get everything you want...


Or perhaps you want to spam S6 attacks...

3 x 3 Vypers with Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon (63 S6 shots) 630
3 x 3 Warwalkes with dual Scatter Lasers (72 S6 shots) 540
1 x Eldrad 210
1 x 5 Pathfinders 120
1 x Divination Seer on a Bike 100
1575
4 x 3 EJB 264

OR lose the bike on the farseer (-25?) and vypers and go with 655 points of Warp Spiders with Exarch w Dual Spinners... 3 units 26 Warp Spiders... 84 S 6 shots and Prescience or Guide for every Farseer means every Warwalker is guided.... hmmm sounds like a build I may want to try.

The point is there are numerous ways to accomplish what an Eldar wants to do... So I guess pick a style that sounds appealing and then we can help.

What to start with?

Well the almost constant in every Eldar army is Eldrad. Then it is the troop choice you want to work with... I find rangers/pathfinders to be an auto-include so one box of them would be nice.

Generally speaking start with a farseer and two squads of dire avengers. After that explore your options.

The eldar book is suffering, and shining spears, warp spiders and swooping hawks are the units that suck the most, with striking scorpions coming in behind them.

Coincidentally, I am interested in one of two types of army...

Walking Dead and Swordwind.

So for Walking Dead, the following should be ok?

Farseer - Guide and Fortune. Both cast on the huge unit of Wraithguard.

10 Wraithguard plus Spiritseer with Conceal.

Some form of beatstick to go with it - Fuegan, Yriel, Jain Zar or a DE Archon.

The above should form a solid core.

A couple of Pathfinder squads to camp on objectives and other units to what suits my play style. Should be quite resilient.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Woah... Spiders and Hawks suck?

For the record, spiders and hawks do not suck, some people just can't use them. There is a full thread on people giving warp spiders love and the hawks are quirky but still fun, I use them as AT deep strike. I also swear by spiders as they never fail me and only in a few games have I had a whole squad of spiders fall, even then tho they take out their share of points

Yeah, on paper the Spiders look awesome. Str 6 rapid fire is really good.

I can see why people might find the Hawks difficult to use.

Go monster mash, 3 wraithlords, avatar and wraithseer with allied talos, Urian Rakarth and his grotstar. Fudge the win, It looks so cool!

Fudge the win?

I agree that does sound kool. But how can it win?

I play footdar, and am pretty new to 40k, but here's my assessments.

The great: scatter walkers, fire dragons, eldrad/farseers

The good: avengers, pathfinders/rangers, jet bikes, wraithlords

The fun: spiders, hawks


Shy away from banshees, vypers.

I'd start off simple. Get some guardians, avengers and a farseer. Throw in some dragons and work from there.

Regular eldar see above.

Corsairs are are really fun choice. bs 4 troop that has acess to Jump packs with 2 special AND 2 heavy weapons, or just take the minmum 5 and put them in a bs 4 Falcon dedicated transport. .

For every Eldar Corsair squad you have you can take a squad of Wasp assault walkers that can Jump Shoot Jump.

If your FLGS doesn't mind Forge World... you could look at least at getting one Wraithseer. T8 Psyker? I think so!!!

Also the FW vehicles are prety nice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Very small army but you could go entirely dead...

Wraithseer, 3 Wraith Lords 20 Wraithguard as two troops

and then fill out your army with 5 wraithguard elites... LOL "The March of the Dead"

Puscifer wrote:
Where to start with Eldar?

If your answer to this question isn't Eldrad, you're wrong.

Already got an Eldrad, so I'm safe there.

Considering how strong Wraithguard are right now, I'll be taking an army based around a solid core of them.

From what I can see, the best build is:

Eldrad or a Fortune/Guide Seer - depending on points.
Wraithseer - for those awesome spells (fnp and fleet).
10 Wraithguard - The meat of the unit.
Spiritseer - Conceal for the cover saves.
Allied beatstick - Archon with shadowfield would be fun as he'd be toughness 6 with a 2++ fortuned save. Give him a Huskblade and Soul Trap and he's good to go.

Very expensive unit, but very tough to remove.

For the rest of the army, I'm not sure how to proceed with ranged anti tank or anti horde other than a pair of Fire Prism. Wraithlord just don't seem to be the answer as they can be dropped fairly easily and they don't bring enough firepower.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok... so the Archon can't be Fortuned. Ugh.

You are painfully slow and painfully short ranges.... EJB are common - small units held in reserve and harrassing until it is time to contest/hold objectives.

The other common would be wraithlords at least 2 (with a wraithseer) to provide some ranged combat and some ability to hopefully stick a terminator in HTH for a minute or two.

Eldar is due for an update soon. Probably after the Tau one which is coming soon. Personally, I'd wait. There's going to be a new codex and new models.

Yeah, that's my only bugbear of contention atm.

All the armies I've considered starting are due an update this year at some point.

I'll wait to see what Tau brings and go from there.

Puscifer wrote:
Yeah, that's my only bugbear of contention atm.

All the armies I've considered starting are due an update this year at some point.

I'll wait to see what Tau brings and go from there.

In the psycher edition, I really think the new Eldar book could have potential. I know it's hard but save for like 3 months and then you'll have all the options.

Well I have a lot of projects on the go and I need to just concentrate on one project right now.

I can wait... but my Deathwing are starting to bore me.