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Not sure if the title is a bit unclear, but here's what I think:
If you play the Eldar craftworlds (the big five) fluff-wise, which is the best one?

Of course, nothing stops your from using Eldrad in Saim-Hann army, but let's agree for a second that he stays in Ulthwé (I guess he's from there?) and Illic is restricted to Alaitoc.

But anyway, in which order would you rate these?

Biel-Tan
Aspect Warriors. Aspect Warriors everywhere. Dire Avengers as troops etc.
Oh, and things like Grav-tanks and War Walkers seem to be a popular choice here.

Ulthwé
With all the boosts the Guardians got in the new codex, the Guardians + Psykers all over the place theme seems nice.
They also posess a certain psyker known for messing with grown men of the Imperium.

Saim-Hann
Basically spamming Serpents and Jetbikes is the thing here. Sounds pretty powerful to me.

Alaitoc
Illic seems a bit overcosted, but his ability to bring Pathfinders isn't that bad. So Rangers are a medicore Troops choice, right? They need some serious backup.
Does anyone know how they feel about vehicles and such?

Iyanden
An Eldar army without the squishyness. And their own little supplement has intresting stuff inside. A T8 Warlord? Can I have one too?

I love me my uthwe, but in this, saim hann wins for sure

Biel-Tan! Aspect warriors are fantastic, especially if you can maneuver your forces to pit them up against what they excel at killing. The Exarch upgrades are often useful, and their upgrade abilities are often worthwhile as well.

1. Avengers are great troops for the cost. Battle focus and Bladestorm are pretty fantastic despite the 4+ armor save.
2. Scorpions are a pretty solid melee unit that can't be ignored, and Fire dragons are just plain deadly. both sport the 3+ armor; score!
3. warp spiders are ridiculously good, and swooping hawks are useful as well.
4. dark reapers are expensive, but in an age of skimmers and bikes, a decent-sized unit will destroy entire units in one round of shooting.

I use a Jetcouncil (sometimes with Baron) painted up in Ulthwe's black and bone scheme. A couple of 10 man guardian squads in serpents and some warwalkers make for a pretty effective list.

An additional bit on Alaitoc is that they also are all about the Exarches given their "rigid adherence to the path".

I would rate them competitively:

1) Saim Haim

- jetbikes and wave serpents are the cream of the crop for this edition

2) Biel Tan

-again serpents but some aspect warriors are just okay

3) Uthwe

-hello superb Death Star that is also fluffy

4) Iyandin

-strong but slow and shy on models

5) Alaitoc (which I sadly am color-wise)

- rangers are meh, Illic is meh, and only a few aspects have worthwhile exarches

Alaitoc Rangers are no more expensive than last codex. if played right they can be deadly.

Basically Snipping out the big targets and letting gaurdians or what ever mop up.

All exarchs are good. if you use the squard to its fullest. sadly that's the hard part.

Personally i find Beil- tan amazing. but then again i love aspects and phoenix lords

They are not deadly. They rarely do anything... except when MCs are around and even then it is always a gamble.

Exarchs are only worth their points for striking scorpions and possibly Warp Spiders with Fast Shot & the Spinneret Rifle

Shining Spears, Swooping Hawks, Howling Banshees(no one plays them, but if they did, they'd certainly take an Executioner Exarch) and Dark Reapers all benefit greatly from their Exarchs.

In fact, only Dire Avengers and Fire Dragons don't need an Exarch.

Also, about Rangers. Their purpose isn't to do anything, it's to score. And for 60 points, they don't really have to work hard to make back their points, which they often do for me. Just don't go with large squads and they're well worth it.

Alaitocand Biel-Tan are really similar with how their armies would run. There might be a lot more eldar from Alaitoc that stray from the path to go ranger it up, but they are still known for lots of shrines dedicated to the different paths.

I'd say a fluffly Saim-Hann list would likely be best. Windriders are excellent, biker autarchs and farseers are excellent. Grav tanks are excellent.

Then again, you left out Yme-Loc. They are known for having the most powerful engines of war in the Eldar host, AKA they'd be bringing the Titans and grav tanks up the wazoo.

I have a friend who runs the following Ulthwe themed list at 1500pts and wrecks face with it:

Farseer (on foot)

Autarch with Jetbike, Laser Lance and Mantle

6 Fire Dragons with flamer exarch

10 Guardians with bright lance x 2

4 x 3 jetbikes with 1 cannon each

1 Vyper with scatter laser and cannon

3 war walkers with 1 scatter laser/bright lance each

Falcon with scatter laser/shuriken cannon

6 Dark Reapers with Exarch & Fast Shot (no star shot missiles)

I have seen this army smash pretty much everything put in front of it as it takes advantage of all the eldar new rules like battle focus and bladestorm while also being very killy and great at taking objectives with the little jetbike squads

That is a pretty generic list... I don't see what makes it distinctly Uthwe aside from a paint job.

 Araenion wrote:
Also, about Rangers. Their purpose isn't to do anything, it's to score. And for 60 points, they don't really have to work hard to make back their points, which they often do for me. Just don't go with large squads and they're well worth it.

QFT

 Araenion wrote:

In fact, only Dire Avengers and Fire Dragons don't need an Exarch.

Waaaaaaait a second. 5+ Inv on the whole unit for 30 points total?
With Fortune, they refuse to die.

I said they don't need it, as in to be most effective. I didn't say they don't benefit from them. Exarchs are what Sergeants want to be. But in the most common loudout, 5 Dire Avengers in a Serpent, those 30 points are way too expensive for a squad of 5 T3 4+ save guys who are sitting in a vehicle all day. Even on foot, I find Shimmershield isn't worth it, unless you're up against Heldrakes. You even lose an extra 2 shuriken shots you'd normally get from a basic Dire Avenger. Plus, Fortune is far better spent on otjer units, at least in my army.

Wondering if Alaitoc isn't a little better than some people are giving them credit for (still agree with warpspider89's rankings) an Alaitoc army relying heavily on war walkers would help them play a little more competitively.

Don't know if the fluff specifically states anything regarding war walkers but the artwork in the codex has rangers backed by war walkers. And given the scouting nature of war walkers I don't see that including a couple squads would break the Alaitoc theme.

There may be something to it... Especially if you used the Nightwing too

 warpspider89 wrote:
An additional bit on Alaitoc is that they also are all about the Exarches given their "rigid adherence to the path".

I would rate them competitively:

1) Saim Haim

- jetbikes and wave serpents are the cream of the crop for this edition

2) Biel Tan

-again serpents but some aspect warriors are just okay

3) Uthwe

-hello superb Death Star that is also fluffy

4) Iyandin

-strong but slow and shy on models

5) Alaitoc (which I sadly am color-wise)

- rangers are meh, Illic is meh, and only a few aspects have worthwhile exarches

I think I'd put Ulthwe over Biel Tan here. Maybe even in the top slot.

I mean obviously Serpents are uber in the 6E meta but if thats all you've got it's just more spam. And all spam is going to run into a hard counter one day or another.

I feel like a Seer Council backed up by a few serpents, possibly a WraithKnight, could be even more devastating across the board. (That being said I feel like WraithKnights kinda popped up out of nowhere fluff wise).

SIDE NOTE: Anyone else remember the Craftworld Eldar supplement from 3rd Ed.? That thing was the tits. Court of the Young King? Sure I'll just take an Avatar 4 Banshee exarchs, 3 Scorpion Exarchs, and an Avenger exarch for good measure to march across the field AND DESTTROY EVERYTHING.

I've run an Ulthwe' themed army since 3rd edition and it morphed slightly with each edition. The heart of Ulthwe' is Black Guardians and a high number of psychic models (Farseers, Warlocks and now even Spirit Seers and the psychic flier).

With that in mind, my 3rd edition styled Seer Council (Eldrad, Farseer, 8 Warlocks) have been replaced with the more 6th edition styled Seer Council: Jetseer.

In regards to Black Guardians, they basically became Dire Avengers and the Wave Serpents are simply their troop transports. Or, the Black Guardians on mounted on jetbikes.

I've even run a foot styled Seer Council in the form of Eldrad, 3-5 Spiritseers joined to a Wraithguard unit back by Black Guardians on Jetbikes.

Essentially, I liked the original 3rd edition concept of the Ulthwe' Craftworld and have tweaked the army to what the current edition provides me.

 soomemafia wrote:

 Araenion wrote:

In fact, only Dire Avengers and Fire Dragons don't need an Exarch.

Waaaaaaait a second. 5+ Inv on the whole unit for 30 points total?
With Fortune, they refuse to die.

Don't you hate it when there is something totally awesome but you mis-read it the first time and never had a reason to go back and look at it?

I totally didn't realize the 5++ applied to the whole unit, but it clearly does. I guess my brain never processed reading the "and his unit" line in that wargear entry.

Definitely going to have to kit up my next exarch to be using one now. Now to figure out what power weapon I want to use. Too bad there aren't any eldar-looking Power Mauls because those are my personal favorite this edition.

Even then... 30 pts for 5+ invuln is 3 pts per model extra in a 10 strong squad and anything that can remove the exarch (challenges, snipers, barrage, LoS abuse) can take it away

Aspect warriors, Everything is an aspect warrior (except 10 wraithguard, but they used to be aspect warriors). So beil tann for me. One day i might try something thats not an aspect warrior but for now im content.

 warpspider89 wrote:
Even then... 30 pts for 5+ invuln is 3 pts per model extra in a 10 strong squad and anything that can remove the exarch (challenges, snipers, barrage, LoS abuse) can take it away

1: He'll have a power weapon and so will be fairly solid in challenges against any equivalent unit (aspiring champions, veteran sergeants.) A warlord is going to roll over him but I'll take having a character in the squad if only to tie up the HQ unit from single-handedly rolling over the squad anyway.

2: Sniper units firing at my Dire Avengers? I'll call that a win. Wasting "automatic wounds on a 4+" on a T3 unit means your opponent doesn't understand threat assessment. Besides, Look Out Sir! is still a thing that works 50% of the time for characters.

3: Someone is dropping barrage weapons on Dire Avengers? Must mean all my grav tanks are dead so I'm about to lose anyway, or again the guy doesn't understand threat assessment. Unless it's turn 5 or later and he's just hoping to deny a victory point because of the objective the avengers are sitting on, throwing your heavy barrage weapons out on basic troops is not proper threat assessment.

4: Someone killing your exarch by line of sight "abuse" would require you positioning the squad in such a way he's at risk to die to that to begin with, so it's a tactical thing on your part that can be entirely avoided.

The bigger guns that are actually likely to shoot at your dire avengers, that 5++ is pretty nice. Helps against Heldrakes big time, helps with Heavy Bolter and Assault Cannons. Vector striking. Plasma. Hell, it'd even help if you were fighting other Eldar, against anything that's AP4 or has bladestorm.

 SRSFACE wrote:

 warpspider89 wrote:
Even then... 30 pts for 5+ invuln is 3 pts per model extra in a 10 strong squad and anything that can remove the exarch (challenges, snipers, barrage, LoS abuse) can take it away

1: He'll have a power weapon and so will be fairly solid in challenges against any equivalent unit (aspiring champions, veteran sergeants.) A warlord is going to roll over him but I'll take having a character in the squad if only to tie up the HQ unit from single-handedly rolling over the squad anyway.

2: Sniper units firing at my Dire Avengers? I'll call that a win. Wasting "automatic wounds on a 4+" on a T3 unit means your opponent doesn't understand threat assessment. Besides, Look Out Sir! is still a thing that works 50% of the time for characters.

3: Someone is dropping barrage weapons on Dire Avengers? Must mean all my grav tanks are dead so I'm about to lose anyway, or again the guy doesn't understand threat assessment. Unless it's turn 5 or later and he's just hoping to deny a victory point because of the objective the avengers are sitting on, throwing your heavy barrage weapons out on basic troops is not proper threat assessment.

4: Someone killing your exarch by line of sight "abuse" would require you positioning the squad in such a way he's at risk to die to that to begin with, so it's a tactical thing on your part that can be entirely avoided.

The bigger guns that are actually likely to shoot at your dire avengers, that 5++ is pretty nice. Helps against Heldrakes big time, helps with Heavy Bolter and Assault Cannons. Vector striking. Plasma. Hell, it'd even help if you were fighting other Eldar, against anything that's AP4 or has bladestorm.

I always take it, and i never regret taking it. They make my only troops great for surviving.