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Hey guys, need the help of someone who understands Eldar better than me (All I understand is Orks, and no one in my gaming group plays Eldar, so I've not seen them once in 6th edition). My wife has decided, after reading about the Eldar that she wants to start an army, Primarily because of Harlequins. My gaming group plays a lot of our games at 500 and 1000pt levels (Generally 2v2 or something, we are all old men and a lot of father son teams are made of two 500 pt armies). So, all that leads to......can anyone throw me an idea of what a 500pt list that can grow into a decent 1000pt list would look like for Eldar? Right now she has nothing (Someone bought all the Eldar stuff at our store, so I'll put an order in on Wed.) I was going to get her a pack of guardians to practice painting on, obviously I will eventually have to get her a squad of Harlequins, but I told her she has to work her way up to painting those, but I honesty have no idea what she should do. I'm more concerned with a fun list as opposed to power gaming, almost all the guys I play with have 100% fluffy list and I'd like her to enjoy playing a quick game so that she wants to play again.

Right now, with my limited knowledge and knowing she likes the Farseer and Spiritseer models and Harlequins:

Spirit Seer - 70 (Pysker, so she'll get to be involved in that part of the game)

Guardians - 90 (Cheap, box comes with a heavy weapon)

Windrider Jetbike Squad - 51 (Fast, counts as a troop on her list, so I guess they can take objectives)

Harlequin Squad - 90 (Could maybe replace these in the 500pt list, I could tell her she has to actually paint the first 500 and play a battle before I'll buy her the Harlequins)

Dark Reapers - 90 (Long range, heavy armor, might bump it up to 5 of them, I don't know really what the elder use for their long range support)

use the rest of the points for some wargear changes....there 500. That is probably horrible, but would give her something fast to move around and hold points, a 10 man squad to shoot and hold points, her close combat unit will have to be the Harlequins and the Dark Reapers let her deal with anything heavy (Rare in our small games) and gives her a 48"" unit, might replace those with a ranger squad, less range but I could maybe then take two of them, give her more models on the table. Little worried she'll fight our CSM guy and he'll walk across the board at 500 pts and Melee her to death. (I know she'll have my wall of boyz to screen her for her first couple games, but I can't always be there to provide a green wall for her).


Anyway, just curious, if you guys had the opportunity to build a Eldar Army that was going to fight some 500pt battles and grow to 1000 pts, how would you do it?

Farseer. Definitely. Psyker mastery level 3 for 100 points. Not much better choice for the HQ at the cost she'll be playing.

I'd shy away from the Guardians because of how squishy they are, and go more jetbike or Dire Avenger heavy.

If you intend to get her Harlequins, get a transport for them (cough cough, Wave Serpent).

For reach out and touch capability, the Rangers are a cheaper unit than Dark Reapers, but more importantly scoring. However, if she really wants some ranged firepower, the Fire Prism can't be beat. Granted at 500 points it's tough to squeeze in, but it's a definite need at 1000.

As such, a solid list at 500 would look like this.

HQ - 100
1. Farseer - 100

Troops - 163
1. Dire Avengers - 103
- 6 Dire Avengers - 78
- Exarch - 10
-Battle Fortune (4+ Inv.) - 15
2. Rangers - 60

Elites - 240
1. Harlequin Troupe -110
- 5 Harlequins - 90
- 5 Harlequin's Kiss's - 20
- Wave Serpent - 130
- TL Shuriken Catapult - 0
- TL Shuriken Cannon - 0
- Holo Fields - 15
Total: 503 (Remove a kiss if you Don't want to be over)

And the thousand point:
HQ - 100
1. Farseer - 100

Troops - 163
1. Dire Avengers - 142
- 9 Dire Avengers - 117
- Exarch - 10
-Battle Fortune (4+ Inv.) - 15
2. Dire Avengers - 129
- 8 Dire Avengers - 104
- Exarch - 10
-Battle Fortune (4+ Inv.) - 15
3. Rangers - 60
4. Rangers - 60

Elites - 240
1. Harlequin Troupe - 244
- 7 Harlequins - 126
- 7 Harlequin's Kiss's - 28
- Shadowseer - 52
- Harlequins Kiss - 4
- Troupe Master - 38
- Power Weapon - 0
- Wave Serpent - 130
- TL Shuriken Catapult - 0
- TL Shuriken Cannon - 0
- Holo Fields - 15

Heavy Support - 140
- Fire Prism - 140
- Holo Fields
Total: 1005 (Again, remove Kisses if you don't want to be over)

Can't go wrong with getting Wave Serpents. They are the swiss army tank of the Eldar, and will last in any future edition of the game as they're currently the only dedicated transport the codex can even take.

If she's a fan of Harlequins then I assume you've read the bit about the Harlequin Solitaire in the fluff of the book? It's basically a Harlequin that performs solo and is kind of a crazy kook, only person permitted to play the part of Slaanesh in their ultimate play or whatever. The reason I bring it up is there's a unique piece of wargear you can bring on your own scratchbuild HQ units called "Mantle of the Laughing God" which strips the character of the ability to join other squads (so they're always solo) but gives a ton of really nifty abilities in return. Throwing it on an Autarch or Farseer on a jetbike is actually an extremely powerful build, as well as being super fluffy for a Harlequins fan.

As for paint schemes, if you want to stick to the fluff, the craftworld most closely aligned with the Harlequins is Lugganath, which are black and orange. Black as the main color is a good way to introduce someone into painting miniatures, though orange as it's really bright can be fairly difficult. Obviously feel free to use your own schemes; simply pointing out what the "official" fluff would be.

Thanks for the info guys! I'll mention the craftworld to her, that is a good piece of lore, though if they end up pink with bows, it is what it is. (She is actually a really good artist, she's just never painted minis, I am actually fearful that 3 dudes in, she'll make 20 years of B- work I've done look bad, lol)

The Farseer does indeed look better than the Spiritseer, bit jealous actually, I wish my Pyskers didn't explode everytime I used them. I will maybe just order her some Dire Avengers to practice on then, everyone I talk to and all the stuff I read is down on guardians.



Again thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it!

As a huge harlequin fan myself 9i have 2 units of 10) I would run a list like this.

Hq-farseer with jetbike/MotLG-155

Troops-jetbike unit (3)-51
Troops-jetbike unit (3)-51

Elites-harlequins (9) Shadow seer (1)
Harlequins kiss (8)-242

Total of 499pts and have a big beatstick unit of Harlequins being buffed by jetseer and 2 scoring of jetbikes, in CC these dude/gals will murder anything they hit from abaddon to pappa calgar (provided you got prescience and doom).

Hope this helps and also for painting harlequins, use thin strips of tape (painters tape is best kind IMO) and take off diagonals for the diamond effect, after that "anything goes!".