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Looking for tips for a friend. I have been playing for 20 years, but have never played Eldar. Where is a good place to start with Eldar for someone who does not have a lot of money to spend. He already started with a Wraithguard set. Did not know if I should push him toward Iyanden or someplace else. Where is the friendly place to start a new player with Eldar? He wants to work in some Harlequins into his lists as well. Thanks for any help.

Pick whatever he likes, mostly. Stick to one box of any given choice, and he should wind up with a fun little list with a lot of toys, without having invested too much in one thing.

Lots of wave serpent and jet bikes and wk

Bharring wrote:
Pick whatever he likes, mostly. Stick to one box of any given choice, and he should wind up with a fun little list with a lot of toys, without having invested too much in one thing.

Probably the best advice. The best part is that almost all Eldar units are pretty good so there really isn't a bad choice. Pick what looks fun to use. After you get a fair amount of points ~750-1250 we can start to really get into a tactical discussion about how to use what and when.

If you pick just the best units instead of what you like, the allure of the army will go away and won't become fun for you. Which in the end is the most important part (which I'm sure you're aware of playing for 20 years).

The best part of being Eldar is that the Path is there to broaden your experience, not to limit it. Taste the Rainbow, and remember that Khaine has many aspects.

Pick a couple of Troops units, an HQ unit, and something else in the book you like, play a few games with it, and see how you like it in practice. Also ignore Zilka.

zilka86 wrote:
Lots of wave serpent and jet bikes and wk

Dude, no. Just no.

put the wraiths in serpents wraithknights are cool, jetseers, mantle of the laughing god autarchs on bikes. thats the power gamer side of me talking.

you gotta ask if he wants to foot it or mech up though, because that will really determine what he buys next imho. you dont have to spam serpents to win with eldar thats the cool thing!

hawks and spiders let you be mobile without taking tanks and they are both reallly fun units to play actually pretty much my favorite two units in the game

Pretty much the only unit that is not worth using are Howling Banshees. Everything else has a use in lists.

For ~500 points:

Far Seer + Jet Bike + Mantle [Edit: Or Autarch + Jet Bike + Laser Lance + Fusion Gun + Mantle]

5 Dire Avengers + Wave Serpent

3 Jet Bikes + Shuriken Cannon

5 Warp Spiders

Everything is relatively easy to get. Each unit demonstrates how mobile the Eldar are (can be).

Cheers!

Dire avengers in wave serpents. Add for taste.

I just started an Eldar army myself (again after a couple editions in between), and I'm happy with what's already been mentioned in this thread. Everything except Banshees seems good. You can compete with the best, and you can tone down your list as much as you want. You can compete in games with superheavies and in games without them. You could possibly even get away with using Howling Banshees or other sub-optimal units just because the other stuff is so good.

The only problem for a guy like me is that the army ends up being absolutely massive, and therefore really expensive, since I want to have a couple of every unit now (except Howling Banshees).

It is an army of specialists.

Worst units in the codex are easily Wraithknights, Wave Serpents and Jetbikes.


True Facts.

You say he doesn't want to spend a ton of money, and he's probably chosen some good units to save money with. Harlequins are getting a new book of their own very soon, and from what we know of it, he should be able to spend a lot of points on not a lot of bodies. Going overboard on harlequin gear isn't strictly advisable, but even a "reaosnable" loadout with lots of melee weapons and not a lot of special pistols will still bulk up hi points cost pretty quickly.

Similarly with wraithguard, you get a decent number of points for your money. Harlequins and wraithguard are also shaping up to complement each other well with the former using shadow seers to throw defensive buffs around and hiding from enemy fire and possibly screening wraiths for a cover save.

Now, an important question is: how COMPETITIVE does he want to be. If he just wants to beat people over the head with his models (doesn't sound like it), then he can be lame and spam dire avengers in wave serpents with wraith knights backing him up.

If he wants to take whatever models look cool to paint/play with, then you really can't go wrong. Just try to figure out how you plan to get up the board, and the rest should fall in place for you.

He should buy a tons of Wave Serpent!!!!

My friends and I prefer fluffy/cool list a lot more than making the list to rule them all so I would recommend whatever he want.

Wave Serpents and dire avengers as far as the eye can see...

Wraithknights are pretty BA too