How to play Eldar? I litterally have no clue what to do...

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.

**xofox**

As the title says I have no clue whatsoever what to do with eldar... what shoudlI build with the army?

thanks,
xofox

**DirtyDeeds**

Farseers on jetbikes and Windriders with Scatter Lasers as troops. Flavor your list with wraithknights and warp spiders for lots of fun!

Seriously though, that's all you need. You could consider getting the aspect warrior formation for boosted bs on your warp spiders.

**HoundsofDemos**

The above is very strong but very cookie cutter. Eldar are blessed with a book that almost every unit has a use, explore them.

**Ether**

Snarky response:
1) Buy the base rule book.
2) Buy the eldar codex.
3) Throw out the base rule book because you don't need that noise.

Serious response:
As stated, there are tons of great options. Not to be cliche, but pick a theme you like and run with it, and if you need more spicyness, you can always throw in a seer council, wraithknight and 3 units of scatter bikes. There are very few units in the book which straight up cannot work. With DE allies, I'd argue that there's just one that's 100% useless (poor poor rangers...).

**HoundsofDemos**

I'd rate Rangers above shinning spears. At least rangers have objective secure so they can sit on an objective and take pot shots.

**Drasius**

Pick literally any unit in the codex,that's not shining spears , continue until points limit. Faceroll to victory.

Base list suggestions of farseer on a bike, 2 units of windriders, an aspect host of your favourite aspect plus a unit of warp spiders and fire dragons (buy a wave serpent for the dragons) should be enough to carry whatever else you want to victory.

Add wraithknights and wraithguard if you really don't want to lose.

**HuskyWarhammer**

What made me love Eldar was that each aspect warrior is unique - they each have a specific use and style. I recommend reading through those and picking what is enjoyable to you.

Want sneaky melee? Striking Scorpions. A stationary wall of ranged death to armored infantry? Dark Reapers. Annihilating vehicles in a blaze? Fire Dragons.

It really is a symphony of battle.

**Filch**

Buy 5 Wraith Knights...

**ninjafiredragon**

Anything but banshees

**Skinnereal**

Pick the unit or theme you want,
Read up on what role that unit does,
Work out what formations or slots in the CAD they fit into,
Find out a good match to fill the rest of those slots,
Go around again until you have enough points.

For example, if you like Jetbikes, look to fill a Windrider Detachment.
Or drop them into the CAD, and find a good HQ to fill it out (Farseer or Autarch with bike, usually).
Jetbikes are quick and fairly tough, but need anti-vehicle support.
Pad out the Vyper squad in the detachment with heavy weapons, or get Fire Prisms in the Heavy slot of the CAD.

**jade_angel**

My opinion is that Storm Guardians stink on ice, while Rangers, Wraithblades, Shining Spears and Howling Banshees are marginal. Wraithknights are OP, Wraithguard can be. Windriders are fine, right up until you strap scatter lasers on them and get eleventy-one zillionteen shot at 36" on models that can move 12" then hop back behind cover. Do your opponent a favor and run shuriken cannons instead - they're still scary, but the shorter range means you actually have to think about positioning and can't just faceroll. Also, if you play against other Eldar and someone brings a Wraithknight, shuriken cannons are more effective. (In fact, they're probably more effective against anything relying on an armor save, thanks to Bladestorm.)

Wraithlords are the one Wraith unit nobody will cry if you bring, unless they don't have any way to hurt T8. They hurt in CC, but they'll never get there, because slow footsloggers with no invuln save are not terribly good at getting into assault. Their best use is as a resilient gun platform that isn't too afraid of being assaulted, but I'm not sure that they're actually much more resilient than a Falcon or Fire Prism.

Also, please don't contribute to the horrific cheesefest that is Netlist-Eldar right now. They're on the verge of being banned, and I actually like playing Eldar :(

**Bharring**

A good way to start without being hopeless or cheesy?

Pick an Autarch or Farseer. Basically, do you want a psyker or not.

Then pick a Guardian Defender unit, a DA unit, or a Ranger unit.
Then pick a Guardian Defender unit, a DA unit, or a small Windrider unit (with only 1 weapon).

Congrats, you have the core of a CAD.

Now just page through the book. Like something you don't have? Get a box of it. Aside from DAs and Guardians, though, don't duplicate units.

Rinse and repeat that last step until you're out of points.

There are some stinkers (as listed above), and some OP gak. But aside from WK and SL Bikes, if you keep to 1 box of any non-Troop in the CWE codex, you should have a fun, capable, but not cheesy list.

(Note - the '1 box' thing is to prevent things like Reaper or Shining Spear death stars. Not necessarily OP, but less fun for your opponent.)

**HoundsofDemos**

Hows the eldar mega formation, I haven't seen much about ?

**Slayer-Fan123**

The mega formation sucks. You can already get the benefits from the Aspect shrine and therefore you can simply maximize on Scatterbikes.

The mega can let you take more Wraithknights, but that's less a game winner.

**HoundsofDemos**

That's a little ironic, probably the first time I've heard that a decurian style formation missed the mark.

**TheNewBlood**

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
The mega formation sucks. You can already get the benefits from the Aspect shrine and therefore you can simply maximize on Scatterbikes.

The mega can let you take more Wraithknights, but that's less a game winner.

The only reason that the Warhost "sucks" is because it forces you to take a whole bunch of units that are generally considered sub-optimal. None of the units you have to take are bad, just not nearly as competitive as Scatbikers and Wraithknights. It does wonderful things to Aspect Hosts, especially melee Aspects, and makes the Wraith Host even more powerful. An automatic six inch run move for Battle Focus is a huge benefit. It's not always worth building a list around a Warhost, but they can be made very effective.

**Slayer-Fan123**

And the tax units make the formation suck.

In example, the Raptor/Heldrake formation from Daemonkin has decent benefits, but the tax of Warp Talons makes it junk.

**Fayric**

The dire avengers or/and the general aspect formation is awesome and fun.
BS 5 Avengers and Fire dragons + transports are able to deal with basicly anthing. Very old school eldar, and you dont have to go bike-knight cheese.

Only problem is to fit a psycher or avatar in the list without going unbound.

Edit: avengers and firedragon will probably still be good when a new codex comes around in the future as well.
Dont know if this is anything to consider, though.

**The Shadow**

Fayric wrote:
The dire avengers or/and the general aspect formation is awesome and fun.
BS 5 Avengers and Fire dragons + transports are able to deal with basicly anthing. Very old school eldar, and you dont have to go bike-knight cheese.

Only problem is to fit a psycher or avatar in the list without going unbound.

You can stick a CAD over the top of a Aspect Host Formation, which does the trick. Pretty sure this keeps your list Battle-Forged

**jade_angel**

Also, the core formations in the Warhost include Warlocks and Farseers, and there's an auxiliary choice to get the Avatar. The trickiest thing to get is Spiritseers, if you don't want to use the Wraith Host formation.

**Skinnereal**

Having the detachment and a CAD is the most flexible way to field Eldar.
You get the boosts that the detachment gives (to the models within it), and the option to take any others in the normal CAD structure.
But, that means you will be taking at least 5 troops options.
The minimum you will probably end up starting with would be something like:
Farseer + HQ; 3x troops + 2 more troops; Vyper; Heavy
Anything else would be taken in the detachment to get bonuses, or the CAD if you cannot make it fit.

**Zimko**

The Decurion style detachment sucks because your units are not objective secured. Eldar work best with objective secured jetbikes. But also because of the reasons listed above.

**xofox**

Thank you guys so much! I was looking at warp spiders and they seem pretty dang OP... Thanks!

**coblen**

If you want to run the warhost you should look into getting the doom of mymeria book from forge world. It gives an alternative core detachment called the pale court that is much easier to fit things in. Warhost for your aspect warriors, and then a CAD for objective secured bikes is the way to go.

**Torus**

coblen wrote:
If you want to run the warhost you should look into getting the doom of mymeria book from forge world. It gives an alternative core detachment called the pale court that is much easier to fit things in. Warhost for your aspect warriors, and then a CAD for objective secured bikes is the way to go.

The pokemon is right

the forgeworld Doom book is a great addition for Eldar as it gives you fluffy and competitive choices no matter what direction you want to take the army in.

For example, the pale courts battlehost for 3 Warp spider units as a core choice and hornets as a formation or I could run Wraithseers for my Iyanden force.

**G00fySmiley**

To the OP it really depends what you want. Do you want to win easily but have opponents feel like there is nothing they can do? or do you want close tactical games that both enjoy?

If the latter a few things to avoid...

scatter lasers on every bike. The old codexes all limited you to 1 per 3. 3 bikes with lasers are very over powered for what they do. They are somewhat fragile if left in the open of where something can hit them and kinking means that volume of fire is probably going to be neutered.

warp spiders are just really good like silly good for the points, I have 30 and they have sat on a shelf because they are simply broken. they make it out to tourneys or when somebody wants a very competitive game. they almost always jump away after firig and behind los blocking terrain.

wraithknights. bringing one does not automatically make you a dick if you tone down the rest of your list, but fill it with warp spiders and bikes... well then you are now that guy. Also note bringing 2 or 3 makes you that guy.

Those are the big overpowered stuff, the rest is almost all at least good, and can make for some fun games. The army you have chosen is a highly mobile mostly glass cannon group (outside grav tanks which are awesome). It will take longer to learn than some armies simply because there are more rules to each unit and more to do, but grats hope you have fun.

**Torus**

G00fySmiley wrote:
To the OP it really depends what you want. Do you want to win easily but have opponents feel like there is nothing they can do? or do you want close tactical games that both enjoy?

Whilst I don't agree with the loaded question the principle is right, are you running in very competitive meta's or are you wanting a more casual style of play?

**krodarklorr**

Pick models from the codex. Put on table. Roll dice. Win.

**Torus**

krodarklorr wrote:
Pick models from the codex. Put on table. Roll dice. Win.

Oh come on now, that's about as useful as "play necron decurion and face roll all the time"
there are a number of less than optimal Eldar lists out there that will always be fun to play against and there are tournament level lists but to imply that everything in the Eldar codex and FW books is OP is just naive.

**krodarklorr**

Torus wrote:
krodarklorr wrote:
Pick models from the codex. Put on table. Roll dice. Win.

Oh come on now, that's about as useful as "play necron decurion and face roll all the time"
there are a number of less than optimal Eldar lists out there that will always be fun to play against and there are tournament level lists but to imply that everything in the Eldar codex and FW books is OP is just naive.

Not saying Necrons aren't the same. I'm just saying Eldar are all around good, so that's how you play them. Just pick what you like.