Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

My friend and I at one point began building individual 40k armies. At the time I began working on Tau while he purchased some Tyranid. Before we got too far invested our situations changed where we wouldn't be able to invest a whole lot into the game. Though I was still interested, he completely lost interest in the game. Fast forward to when I heard the new Tau codex was being released and I really got interested in playing once again. Unfortunately my friend still was not there. So I decided to trade him some M:TG cards for his army of Tyranids. My plan was then to sell his army on Ebay and then use that money to start a new army that could either be used as allies for my new Tau, or as an enemy army to teach others how to play the game. Before long I heard rumors that the Eldar were next, so I then decided to make that my secondary army. Unfortunately I'm at that point where I'm continually theory crafting different Eldar lists and cannot find one I really like that doesn't cost a fortune (walker spam, serpent spam, anything with a wraithknight...)

So with all of that said, I guess my question for the dakka community is what would you consider a good Eldar army at 1k points that has a good $:point ratio? AKA what's the best dakka for my buck?

PROPOSED LIST (added 7/5/13)

995 points
HQ:
- Farseer w/ Uldanorethi Long Rifle (125)
- Illic Nightspear (140)

notes: each of these will camp out with a pathfinder squad. they should all hopefully have 2+ cover (from pathfinders) and twinlinked (from the Farseer).

TROOPS:
- Pathfinders x5 (125)
- Pathfinders x5 (125)
- Guardian Defenders x10 w/ Brightlance Platform (110)
- Wave serpent w/ TL scatter laser + cannon (130)
- Guardian Defenders x10 w/ Brightlance Platform (110)
- Wave serpent w/ TL scatter laser + cannon (130)

notes: depending on the opponent I will either drop off the Guardians early to hold and lance, or drive them close for bladestorm action.

This should cost no more than $230 after discounts and shipping. It may be even cheaper depending on ebay finds.

a farseer, the old eldar battleforce and a unit of jetbikes would be a great start

 Vivster wrote:
a farseer, the old eldar battleforce and a unit of jetbikes would be a great start

Sounds good. Any suggestions on where to find an "old" battleforce? Ebay I suppose?

EDIT: sorry, I found a few sources rather quickly. Both have a serpent and 5 avengers, which means you get 2 less guardians, a support platform squad (to be used to fill the lacking guard squad?) and a walker rather than a Vyper?

I feel you bro. I once lived in a place with no gaming community, and had to start my friends from scratch. Started 5 friends, only three kept going.

Onto your question... What do you have for tau? If your using the Eldar as allies, it would be helpfull if we know what you have for the tau.

ninjafiredragon wrote:
I feel you bro. I once lived in a place with no gaming community, and had to start my friends from scratch. Started 5 friends, only three kept going.

Onto your question... What do you have for tau? If your using the Eldar as allies, it would be helpfull if we know what you have for the tau.

Here's my model list...
27x firewarriors
2x Devilfish
2x Hammerhead (ion or rail, 1x extra skyray rack)
5x Crisis suits (one is a commander, all are magnetized)
8x Gun Drones (can convert to marker drones as needed)

Altogether that should be plenty to field multiple variations at 1k. It's not my ideal build though. I'd probably want to get a set of broadsides, more crisis, and maybe a riptide just to sponge fire for the rest of the army (though not all of that in a 1k list). I just don't want to spend more on the Tau before getting a secondary army built.

OP updated with a proposed list.

The list looks pretty good, but you are desperately low on weapons capable of dealing with Av13+. So long as you don't see a necron Av13 wall or more than 1 land raider you should be alright.

Not a huge fan of Illic, but the farseer with the sniper rifle nearby and guiding should be effective, albeit expensive. Beware weapons that ignore cover.

You should probably get holo fields on your serpents to make them last, maybe make 1 bigger finder squad of 9 and put both the seer and illic there. Dropping the finder gives you exactly enough for holos.

I would use ebay for lots of cheap stuff.

 Dr. Serling wrote:
The list looks pretty good, but you are desperately low on weapons capable of dealing with Av13+. So long as you don't see a necron Av13 wall or more than 1 land raider you should be alright.

Not a huge fan of Illic, but the farseer with the sniper rifle nearby and guiding should be effective, albeit expensive. Beware weapons that ignore cover.

You should probably get holo fields on your serpents to make them last, maybe make 1 bigger finder squad of 9 and put both the seer and illic there. Dropping the finder gives you exactly enough for holos.

I would use ebay for lots of cheap stuff.

If I am concerned about av13 I could easily equip the serpents with TL lances instead of the scatters. Of course the scatter makes the other weapons better, so that would only happen if there was a lot to deal with. 4 lances at 1k should be decent right?

The idea for merging the squads and dropping one is pretty good though.

It just so happens that I picked up 10x pathfinders for $30 (free shipping) tonight. So that's a good start.

I would still probably keep the serpents equipped with scatter lasers, but if you are really concerned switch out one to lances.

As you currently stand, your not that screwed against Av13+. 2 guardian squads with lances can be deployed on foot and shoot from the get go, and Illic can split his fire off into a raider or whatnot. His rifle has distort, so on a roll of a 6 you score a pen on any armor. Using his warlord trait, the rest of the squad gets to snipe up other units while he plinks at armor. Also, mass rending will work in a pinch against Av12 or less.

Your farseer is your other AT option. If you roll doom it is great for all your sniper weapons as well as AT. Re rolling to pin doubles your chances to make those lances or voidbringer connect. Eldritch storm can also be used in a dire emergency to haywire something, but that is situational and dependent on rolling. Last but not least, the witchblade has a 1 in 6 chance of damaging a raider per hit. Very unlikely that this will work, but it is something.

The counter to this is that at 1k, a land raider is at LEAST 1/4th of the enemy army, and land raiders are not threats from far away. The TL lascannon one is not scary to your serpents, as they can use speed to hide, and even if they get hit the shield can negate a pin and with holos a 4+ cover will dodge most of the shooting. Against your finders, a 2+ save makes it a waste. Crusaders and redeemers are dangerous, but they have to get close giving you 1-2 turns before they unload hell on you. A necron Av13 wall is much worse and more likely, but if you can get rear armor or at least one pin then they go down. I think it is a good cost effective list for the point level. Obviously, if you scale up at all, add some anti tank.

 Dr. Serling wrote:
I would still probably keep the serpents equipped with scatter lasers, but if you are really concerned switch out one to lances.

As you currently stand, your not that screwed against Av13+. 2 guardian squads with lances can be deployed on foot and shoot from the get go, and Illic can split his fire off into a raider or whatnot. His rifle has distort, so on a roll of a 6 you score a pen on any armor. Using his warlord trait, the rest of the squad gets to snipe up other units while he plinks at armor. Also, mass rending will work in a pinch against Av12 or less.

Your farseer is your other AT option. If you roll doom it is great for all your sniper weapons as well as AT. Re rolling to pin doubles your chances to make those lances or voidbringer connect. Eldritch storm can also be used in a dire emergency to haywire something, but that is situational and dependent on rolling. Last but not least, the witchblade has a 1 in 6 chance of damaging a raider per hit. Very unlikely that this will work, but it is something.

The counter to this is that at 1k, a land raider is at LEAST 1/4th of the enemy army, and land raiders are not threats from far away. The TL lascannon one is not scary to your serpents, as they can use speed to hide, and even if they get hit the shield can negate a pin and with holos a 4+ cover will dodge most of the shooting. Against your finders, a 2+ save makes it a waste. Crusaders and redeemers are dangerous, but they have to get close giving you 1-2 turns before they unload hell on you. A necron Av13 wall is much worse and more likely, but if you can get rear armor or at least one pin then they go down. I think it is a good cost effective list for the point level. Obviously, if you scale up at all, add some anti tank.

That's a really great commentary on the list, thanks for that. Usually when I do list crafting I also think of how I could expand it to 1500-1850 in order to maximize my investment. And yeah I would certainly add more AT at that level. One day I'd love to have 3-4k points of both Tau and Eldar (and possibly other races as well). But for now I need to invest slowly and stick to a budget.

Thanks for the time and effort you put into your response.