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.

Hey guys,

New here and wanting to start an Eldar army. I know it's not the easiest army, but I like the look/style and the overall strategy seems interesting and challenging to me.

So I've read a whole lot of forums and blogs, watched some YouTube videos etc. In all I think I've put about 40 hours into studying up on Eldar, but I've hit a bit of a wall in deciding where to start.

I've seen probably a dozen 500pt Eldar builds out there and all of the recommended strategies and people's comments conflict with eachother. With all of this information how do I sift through to the quality advice? Or probably more importantly, how do I make sure the advice I take is still current? i.e. there is a lot less info that applies to the new codex.

Here's a bit of info on my requirements:
Would prefer an all-comers type build
If anything, lean towards space marine opponents as they are common and my mate plays them
Painting difficulty and cost is not a concern for me (in terms of choosing this list)
I am quite competitive and have little to no interest in the fluff

I have a couple of ideas but would very much like to hear your unbiased views on the best place to start with Eldar.

Please advise, and thanks in advance.

Ok here is my taking a stab at it for you.

Jetseer (Farseer on a jet bike) + singing spear 120pts

Windrider squad of 4, one with a shuriken canon 78 pts
Windrider squad of 4, one with a shuriken canon 78 pts

Dire Avenger squad of 5 in a wave serpent with HF, twin linked scatter lazers and a shuriken canon. 200 pts

total 493pts leaving you 7 points to tinker with somehow.

3 troops choices, good mobility and volume of fire vs MEQ.

This way you can buy 3 windrider squad boxes and get 2 upgrade sprues for the shuriken canons if they aren't included in the squad boxes. Use the different torso and head to make the Jetseer look different than the troops. Then either get the eldar battle force box or a wave serpent and dire avenger squad separately, and use the dire avenger exarch arm holding the spear for the singing spear on your Jetseer.

Probably your best bet for a competetive starter army is:

Autarch with a fusion gun

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

500 points exactly.


You'll be using wave serpents in MOST of your lists in the future. The dire avengers are a great troops choice in general, you'll most likely use more of them at some point or another. Autarchs are great for reserves manipulation once you buy a flyer or two, or if you want to keep your jetbikes away in reserve for last minute objective grabs.

Once you start expanding your army you'll probably want to invest in a fire prism or two (great vs space marines), some jetbikes (great for grabbing objectives, and very strong in larger squads), start modifying an autarch/farseer/warlock on a jetbike (as they are most commonly taken on jetbikes), and, of course, get some wraithguard.

Autarch with a fusion gun

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

500 points exactly.

In fact, a great list. You could take a Spiritseer instead of an Autarch. Let the Serpents do the dirty work.

if you take a spiritseer instead of an autarch you'll be in trouble against av 14. not common whatsoever in a 500 point list, i know, but still. also av13 such as ghost arks is pretty common, and all you've got vs that is serpent shields to glance. IMO its smart to take a fusion autarch for such situations.

I would recommend buying a spiritseer anyways though. Those guys are awesome.

Hey, thanks so much for the replies guys.

I like both of the options suggested, but have a couple of questions.

@Zakiriel, I really like this list as it seems versatile, but I can't figure out how your list comes to 493 - I keep getting 486. Am I missing something?

@Bojazz, I had thought about going with two Wave Serpents, but it seems like putting a lot of eggs in the one basket. Is two troops of 5 avengers very resilient? If not, are Serpents really, really so good that they will make up for the relative troop weakness?

Those serpents get a 4+ cover save in the open so long as they have moved. If you're 25% obscured by some ruins or fortifications you get a 3+ cover save. On top of that, on a 2+ you reduce any pen to a glance so long as you haven't shot your serpent shield in the previous turn. They're pretty darn resilient.

In terms of the shootyness of them, they have:
- 4 twin linked 36" S:6 shots, if any of them even hit, then all of your other weapons are also twin linked.
- 3 24" S:6 shots, most likely twin linked.
- D6+1 60" S: 7 shots, most likely twin linked (if you don't want your 2+ pen negation shield) with the pinning and ignores cover special rules.


So yes, they're VERY durable, and VERY shooty, and have great range.your general strategy with it is hang back and blast away at the enemy, focusing on whatever can actually hurt the serpents. Then pop your avengers out turn 5 to snag an objective or two.

(if the enemy has a tank that can hurt you, then don't fire your serpent shield on the one carrying the autarch, close in on the enemy tank and pop the autarch out to kill it.)

The avengers have a decent amount of fire, and 4+ armour so they can take a moderate amount of shooting, and dish out about the same, but a 5 man base squad isn't really overly strong. so just be smart when popping them out, use the wave serpents to block LOS to them, use them to finish off enemy squads, etc.

Too be honest, Its hard to take an All comers list at 500 points, since you simply can't pack enough options to deal with things as they come up. At 500 points the game to me is almost reduced to essentially rock-paper-scissors. Except if you take a 10x warp spider squad. In which case thats like bringing a nuke. No one is going to bring a Land Raider at 500.

in the spirit of qballony's suggestion of warp spiders I've thrown together a quick list for you to consider.

Spiritseer

10 Guardians w/ Brightlance
10 Guardians w/ Brightlance

10 Warp Spiders, Exarch w/ Fast shot.

500 points exactly again.

You can switch out the bright lances for scatter lasers or starcannons if you prefer, they're all the same points. Lots of bodies on the field with this one.

Bojazz wrote:
Probably your best bet for a competetive starter army is:

Autarch with a fusion gun

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent (scatter lasers, cannon, holos)

500 points exactly.


You'll be using wave serpents in MOST of your lists in the future. The dire avengers are a great troops choice in general, you'll most likely use more of them at some point or another. Autarchs are great for reserves manipulation once you buy a flyer or two, or if you want to keep your jetbikes away in reserve for last minute objective grabs.

Once you start expanding your army you'll probably want to invest in a fire prism or two (great vs space marines), some jetbikes (great for grabbing objectives, and very strong in larger squads), start modifying an autarch/farseer/warlock on a jetbike (as they are most commonly taken on jetbikes), and, of course, get some wraithguard.

hey thats my list

I knew I had seen it somewhere around here before! For the life of me I could not remember which thread though. Still, a great 500 point list for starting an eldar army!

Your army list and what you should buy should all come down to you. Eldar have a lot of very viable units. In my experience the following are very strong choices:

Jetbikes
Guardians / Dire Avengers
Wave Serpents are OMG broken right now
War Walkers are still a solid pick
Fire prisims are solid
I have had good luck running 2 Wraightknights in 1500 point games.
Warp Spiders are awesome
Support Batteries if used properly can be good
the crimson hunter is nice (4S8 AP2 shots)

It all comes down to your play style and what you want to do. Don't buy an army to play the way somebody else does, buy an army to play to your strengths and likes. Eldar are very viable with many different strategies you just need to find the one you like to play.

Wave serpents are your friends. Your best friends.
Warp spiders and jetbikes are better than before
Utilise them to harrass the enemy.
FOR THE ELDAR TRICKERY