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Being a new player, I am reading numerous threads online stating how many people dislike the Eldar because they are "an autopilot army" or one that "requires no thought to play".

I for one chose them because I thought they looked cool, long before I began reading into their strengths and weaknesses.

It seems that a lot of people are a bit hostile towards them. Being a new player, should I, perhaps, not use them since they might be considered too easy. I don't want other players at my local gaming store to think I chose them simply for the benefits that they offers in conjunction with the 6th Edition Rules.

Thoughts?

No, play eldar. They dont have as much hate as tau so you should be fine. I havnt gotten much hate. Only time i do get it was when running 5 wave serpents in a freindly tourney.
Eldar are me favorite, why cant they be yours

Just dont be a jerk about the army and you will be fine. I too like the look of eldar (aspect warriors) and its only auto pilot if you take crazy combo lists. Just play it your way and you will be fine.

If you play them it automatically means you are a WAAC TFG poo head worthy of laughter and derision.

Pretty much the worst kind of player imaginable.

Unless of course you can prove that you played the army from way back when, then its okay.



Alright, on a serious note, play what you want, how you want, be magnanimous in victory and sportsmanlike in defeat, and if anyone gives you grief because of your army they weren't worth your time in the first place.

Just avoid taking 3 of one unit and you should be fine.

 Niiai wrote:
Just avoid taking 3 of one unit and you should be fine.

No dont blatantly take 3 of a good unit for the sake of having a good unit.

I have 3 full squads of dire avengers, but my army is rubbish...

Just dont take 3 squads of 6 dire avengers simply to get 3 wave serpents kind of thing.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Niiai wrote:
Just avoid taking 3 of one unit and you should be fine.

No dont blatantly take 3 of a good unit for the sake of having a good unit.

I have 3 full squads of dire avengers, but my army is rubbish...

Just dont take 3 squads of 6 dire avengers simply to get 3 wave serpents kind of thing.

What if people actually, I don't know, enjoy armies that are mechanized?

Anyways, let the OP play whatever they want, with whatever units they want. If they like tanks, then buy wave serpents, falcons and fire prisms. If they like wraith constructs, than top up on those.

Simple stuff.

 Blacksails wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Niiai wrote:
Just avoid taking 3 of one unit and you should be fine.

No dont blatantly take 3 of a good unit for the sake of having a good unit.

I have 3 full squads of dire avengers, but my army is rubbish...

Just dont take 3 squads of 6 dire avengers simply to get 3 wave serpents kind of thing.

What if people actually, I don't know, enjoy armies that are mechanized?

Anyways, let the OP play whatever they want, with whatever units they want. If they like tanks, then buy wave serpents, falcons and fire prisms. If they like wraith constructs, than top up on those.

Simple stuff.

yes but why would a mechanized army take 5 men with the most basic gear and put them in tanks that take 12... seems stupid. Youd think an army would make good use of its abilities and put 10 per vehicle at least.

Mechanized is fine, i just hate seeing people take heaps of the minimum possible squads to simply take a transport. Thats not mechanized, thats blatantly boring spam.

I think they are fine to start with. They are NOT an autopilot army. In fact as a new player you'll probably get smashed by veteran players even if you took a well-honed netlist. It is easy to make critical errors with eldar. Also even having a great list, without experience you won't know how to take full advantage of it, so even offensively it won't be autopilot.

They are a good, strong codex. They are not a win button. For the record, I don't play eldar, so I'm not just being a fanboy.

 Swastakowey wrote:


yes but why would a mechanized army take 5 men with the most basic gear and put them in tanks that take 12... seems stupid. Youd think an army would make good use of its abilities and put 10 per vehicle at least.

Mechanized is fine, i just hate seeing people take heaps of the minimum possible squads to simply take a transport. Thats not mechanized, thats blatantly boring spam.

To you it may be blatantly boring spam. Don't assume the same of everyone else. But once more, the OP should be free to play whatever they want without someone instantly judging them by the contents of their army list.

 Blacksails wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:


yes but why would a mechanized army take 5 men with the most basic gear and put them in tanks that take 12... seems stupid. Youd think an army would make good use of its abilities and put 10 per vehicle at least.

Mechanized is fine, i just hate seeing people take heaps of the minimum possible squads to simply take a transport. Thats not mechanized, thats blatantly boring spam.

To you it may be blatantly boring spam. Don't assume the same of everyone else. But once more, the OP should be free to play whatever they want without someone instantly judging them by the contents of their army list.

I wasnt doing that at all, a guy said dont spam, i was making a point that spam isnt always bad, then gave an example of what id consider "bad spam". So yes when i see someone (dont play pick up games thankfully) plonk down 4 wave serpents each with 5 dire avengers in them im gonna express my distaste and leave that game. Why? Because he could have easily put 20 of them in 2 as i think any army would. And you can always judge a person by their list. Always.

 Swastakowey wrote:
And you can always judge a person by their list. Always.

So definitions of good or bad spam aside, you would honestly judge someone on their list instantly without knowing anything else about them? I don't have words for that. I think I'm done discussing this if you truly believe you can judge someone on their list before judging them by their character.

Its fine to dislike a list, but to dislike a person because of a list is something I can't comprehend.

 Blacksails wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
And you can always judge a person by their list. Always.

So definitions of good or bad spam aside, you would honestly judge someone on their list instantly without knowing anything else about them? I don't have words for that. I think I'm done discussing this if you truly believe you can judge someone on their list before judging them by their character.

Its fine to dislike a list, but to dislike a person because of a list is something I can't comprehend.

Sigh as in you can judge their intentions... should have made that clear.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
And you can always judge a person by their list. Always.

So definitions of good or bad spam aside, you would honestly judge someone on their list instantly without knowing anything else about them? I don't have words for that. I think I'm done discussing this if you truly believe you can judge someone on their list before judging them by their character.

Its fine to dislike a list, but to dislike a person because of a list is something I can't comprehend.

Sigh as in you can judge their intentions... should have made that clear.

Okay, maybe a little better, and probably should have been said earlier. I'm glad I didn't use some choicier words then.

Either way, even that's a stretch for me. I don't think a list speaks anything other than the models that person wants to use. Then again, some people play the game differently, so as long as no one claims there's a right or better way to play/build lists, I'm happy.

 Swastakowey wrote:
Just dont take 3 squads of 6 dire avengers simply to get 3 wave serpents kind of thing.

Just to clarify, its 5 man direvenger squads, not 6, but thats a minor thing

 ninjafiredragon wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
Just dont take 3 squads of 6 dire avengers simply to get 3 wave serpents kind of thing.

Just to clarify, its 5 man direvenger squads, not 6, but thats a minor thing

yea my mind was on 2 things, 6 is half of 12 and i have seen a lot of (dont know why) 6 dire avengers per wave serpent. But yea 5-6 have the same effect ish...

 Cryogen wrote:
I think they are fine to start with. They are NOT an autopilot army. In fact as a new player you'll probably get smashed by veteran players even if you took a well-honed netlist. It is easy to make critical errors with eldar. Also even having a great list, without experience you won't know how to take full advantage of it, so even offensively it won't be autopilot.

They are a good, strong codex. They are not a win button. For the record, I don't play eldar, so I'm not just being a fanboy.

Eldar are much more point and click than they used to be. Spamming wave serpents is very nearly a win button, even against veteran players.

Run them by whats allowed in the codex.Stick to your decisions.Those who say do this or do that don't have your best interest in mind.For so long the Eldar have been everybody's whipping dog.Now player's are p----d that they don't belly up and cry mercy on turn two.I have played Eldar since they were pirates in Roguetrader so any questions you need answers to drop me a PM and Ill do my best to answer them.

Thanks everyone for the great discussion. Excellent feedback

I have been playing Eldar since the beginning of 4th ed and they are still my favorite army, they are not an auto win army for anyone that is not experienced in playing by any stretch of the mind (this is not debatable so don't try) even for an experienced player Tau will still give them a hard time, in fact in the competitive tournament this past Saturday I lost my only game to a Tau farsight super bomb (ok ok his dice were on fire but still...) so if anything Tau would be easier to begin with on the same words of caution that even the most OP and Broken and whatever list will be defeated 9/10 of the time if the opponent has little to no experience.

Btw my competitive Eldar list was as follows

Hq- jetseer with MotLG

Troops x4 (5) avengers with WS/SL

Fast x2 crimson hunters (such sexy models)
Fast x6 swooping hawks (first time using them since 4th ed)

Heavy x1 wraithknight
Heavy x3 War walkers with double BL

Not really a spam heavy army for 1770pts and if anything gave people an enjoyable fight (my dice spent the night after the tournament in the freezer..)

This is exactly why I'd rather play wargames than MTG. I was really worried because I heard "omg wave serpent spam" and stayed away from Eldar, even though I love the models and the fluff. Someone told me to just pick up what excites me, collect it, paint it and play it.

I don't understand all the conversation about what's "competitive" and what isn't. I see the game's obvious imbalances, and the ability to exploit those with cheese, but outside of a tournament setting I don't see how it matters at all.

My friend breaks the bank every time there is an update for Magic, because he wants to stay competitive. I think I would rather play nothing but Banshees than do this. My advice would be to play Eldar against the forumthink tournament lists, lose until you figure out what you like, and have way more fun.

melkorthetonedeaf wrote:
This is exactly why I'd rather play wargames than MTG. I was really worried because I heard "omg wave serpent spam" and stayed away from Eldar, even though I love the models and the fluff. Someone told me to just pick up what excites me, collect it, paint it and play it.

I don't understand all the conversation about what's "competitive" and what isn't. I see the game's obvious imbalances, and the ability to exploit those with cheese, but outside of a tournament setting I don't see how it matters at all.

My friend breaks the bank every time there is an update for Magic, because he wants to stay competitive. I think I would rather play nothing but Banshees than do this. My advice would be to play Eldar against the forumthink tournament lists, lose until you figure out what you like, and have way more fun.

Thats a far better way of wording what i was trying to get accross mostly. But dead on right I think.

melkorthetonedeaf wrote:
This is exactly why I'd rather play wargames than MTG. I was really worried because I heard "omg wave serpent spam" and stayed away from Eldar, even though I love the models and the fluff. Someone told me to just pick up what excites me, collect it, paint it and play it.

It's funny you mention that. I'm actually an ex-MTG player. I quit because I just couldn't afford to drop insane amounts of money of cards that will rotate out within a couple of years. That was one of the major reasons why I decided to get into wargames. While the initial startup costs aare high (as with most hobbies), at least I can go to bed knowing that my models will never "rotate out". I enjoyed the MTG community but not the price of admission associated with "staying competitive". Wargaming allows me to be in a parallel eenvironment to that of MTG (a hobby with very passionate people involved) but without the ridiculous costs involved on a revolving basis (I understand that Warhammer is expensive, but Iam slowly buying the things I need as I go along, not spending crazy amounts of money every few months to be up to date with the newest stuff to be competitive).

Once again, thanks for the feedback everybody.

Like some other people have said, play what you like. I found out about 40k several years ago and was instantly interested in Space Marines, but when I looked online, it seemed that the army I thought looked cool was what most newer players started with. I ended up not getting Marines, and have yet to get a force going because I lost interest about a year into the hobby. I recently got interested again, and opted to start Necrons, seeing as I am older and not as likely to go for whatever is shiny. Maybe at some point I'll start a small Space Marine army and see if I like how they play, although I'll wait till their next codex drops before I make any decisions.