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I want to play a mixed Ynnari army eventually, but I think I will start with just Craftworld Eldar. The Start Collecting box looks a little barren, but perhaps adding a squad of Dire Avengers and making the tank kit a Falcon to transport them would be a nice simple 500 point list?

Dire Avengers are Falcons and both not the best choices. Sorry I can't add more though.

Hey Zatsuku,

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, thinking of coming back into 40k with Eldar again. Personally while the start collecting eldar set was good in last ed, it doesn't look too great in 8th ed.

I'd start with something like the following as your core.

Farseer (1) - 113pts
1 Farseer: Witchblade,Shuriken pistol

Guardian Defenders (10) - 100pts
10 Guardian: Shuriken catapult,Sunburst grenades

Guardian Defenders (10) - 100pts
10 Guardian: Shuriken catapult,Sunburst grenades

This puts you at 313 pts, so you have 187 pts to play around with.

Personally I am starting my army with the following.

500 Pts Eldar- 497pts.

Farseer (1) - 113pts
1 Farseer: Witchblade,Shuriken pistol

Guardian Defenders (11) - 125pts
1 Heavy Weapons Platform: Bright lance
10 Guardian: Shuriken catapult,Sunburst grenades

Guardian Defenders (10) - 100pts
10 Guardian: Shuriken catapult,Sunburst grenades

Wave Serpent (1) - 159pts
1 Wave Serpent: Shuriken cannon,Twin bright lance

If you want to run Eldar, you should probably take the above posters' advice and start with Guardians and Wave Serpents. If you are thinking about going Ynnari anyway, the Triumvirate box is a good pickup - both Yvraine and the Yncarne are very solid. You may want to consider doing Harlequins, though, as they look to be quite a bit stronger than craftworld Eldar in 8th, and you can always mix and match them with craftworld units of you are running Ynnari.

The new harlequin bikes are great models. I loved converting the riders. You can build a shadowseer with bits and a big mask from the voidweaver starweaver kit.

If you want a battalion, start with a unit of rangers and 2 units of guardians (which are only 80pts for 10, not 100 as listed above). Take the shurican cannon platform and add wave serpents.
Alternatively, go vanguard and take wraithguard units.

the issue is elder biks got quite a nerf, dire avengers are super overcosted. fire prism seems solid and so do farseers

honestly I think the best elder right now for the points are harliquins. though the solitaire ahs been out of stock for a while

Guardians are good now then? Interesting. I wish their minis were a bit more inspiring.

If I was to start with either Dark Eldar or Harlequins instead how would you suggest going about that?

With an eye to building Ynarri I'd be looking at the Dark Eldar wych cult units. Hellions and Beasts are both great and succubus is a good character to support them. Another very good unit for the Dark Eldar is the Scourges, high damage output for relatively low points.

It rather depends on what you want the army to do. Are you wanting shooting, Close combat, something more balanced?

Something more balanced/combined arms with a lean on close combat if given the opportunity.

for harlies.

2 troupes boxes which incluses 2 troupe masters so 2 hq. then if you have more $ a couple star weavers and a unit of 2 of sky weavers would be helpful.

You have all given me a lot to think about and I am really uncertain what I want to start with now, hopefully I will figure it out!

What about Warithlords and Wraithseers this edition?

Gibs55 wrote:
What about Warithlords and Wraithseers this edition?

wraithlords seem appropriately costed, wraithseers do not have rules or points yet until the FW xenos index is released later in the month, the imperial and chaos rules are just being delivered today to those locally in the US who ordered it.

Zatsuku wrote:
Guardians are good now then? Interesting. I wish their minis were a bit more inspiring.

If I was to start with either Dark Eldar or Harlequins instead how would you suggest going about that?

Guardians are still quite niche. Their two battlefield roles are either jumping out of a Wave Serpent or acting as a 10 wound heavy weapon platform.
I wouldn't advise going with multiple foot guardian units at 500 points as they do quite poorly against the very common bolter armed marine.

Aside from that, one of the great strengths of the Ynarri is the ability to avoid the craftworld troop choices and choose the better Dark Eldar or Harlequin ones.


If you were set on using the start collecting set, what I'd go with is:

Skyrunner Warlock - (94) - Witchblade, Twin Shuriken Catapults, Conceal/ Reveal

Skyrunners - (96) - 3x with Shuriken Cannon
Skyrunners - (96) - 3x with Shuriken Cannon
Skyrunners - (96) - 3x with Shuriken Cannon

Dark Reapers - (108) - 3x with Reaper Launcher and Exarch

Total: 490

Fits into an outrider detachment and synergises quite well with soulburst. From this you can add in the tank and the rest of the reapers for more fire support and look to mechanised Banshees, Shining spears and skyrunner autarchs if you are looking for close combat elements from the Craftworlds as you grow your army.
Not too sure what to go with on the Dark Eldar or Harlequin side of things I'm afraid

Wave Serpents are looking to be the dogs danglies in 8th edition. 14 wounds and T7 behind a 3+ save makes them very tough. Then add in the shield to downgrade multi-wound hits and spirit stones to ignore wounds on a 6.

Offensively I like twin Shuricannon turrets and a shuricannon on the chin. This keeps them cheap but churns out 9 S6 shots per turn meaning you will usually get at least 1 hit getting through with AP-3. Also Shuricannon are Assault meaning that you do not suffer the -1 to hit for moving and firing a heavy weapon.

They can FLY meaning that if they get assaulted they can withdraw and still shoot at full effect.

They get all this for less than a Space Marine Predator! These things aren't transports, they are gunboats with crew compartments!

Speaking of which, you just have to decide which units to take in order to give you your Wave Serpent allowance. Eldar are no longer restricted by mandatory Troops choices so if you want an Elite army of Aspect Warriors or Wraithguard, you can field a Vanguard Detachment.

Off the top of my head, Dark Reapers look really nice in this edition and Wraith units look solid too. I would always take at least 1 unit of either Wraithguard or Fire Dragons in a Serpent to bust tough enemy units.

Windrider jetbikes are Fast now rather than Troops but are still good. I would normally take Shuircannons for them now rather than Scatter lasers so they do not worry about the -1 to hit from moving and firing heavy weapons.

Guardians are OK but fragile. Put them in a Wave Serpent and only jump them out when you really need to hose something with firepower at short range. Dire Avengers seem overcosted for some reason. They are a decent unit but now cost almost as much as veteran Vanguard Space Marine. Hopefully this will be fixed in an FAQ or Codex release but for now I would not bother.

Rangers are pretty good and Snipers in general are important for taking out characters in 8th edition so a unit of these guys will not go amiss.

Wraithlords are pretty decent in 8th and compare favourably to Marine Dreadnoughts being both faster and tougher. I would always buy them the full compliment of 2 heavy weapons and a Glaive.

Wraithknights have suffered a significant price hike but were arguably OP in 7th so are still viable. I favour the Wraithcannon version. Unlike Imperial Knights, they hit hard with their Titanic Wraithbone Fists in close combat meaning that you don't really need a dedicated close combat weapon for them.

For HQs, we are spoilt for choice. The humble Autarch works really nicely if you have a shooty army but a character on Jetbike is likely to be better if you are taking Wave Serpents as they can keep up.

Fire Dragons and Dark Reapers are looking like the best of the Aspect Warriors at the moment but it is early days. The fact you can assault out of Transports mean that even the unloved Howling Banshees are now viable although you probably need to a Farseer nearby casting Doom on the target to make sure their attacks actually put through enough damage.

Where did you find that wave serpents fly. I was just happy to find out that flying circus was no more in eight edition.

vaurapung wrote:
Where did you find that wave serpents fly. I was just happy to find out that flying circus was no more in eight edition.

All units that were previously skimmers, jetbikes and jump packs now have the FLY keyword.

This has been a little overlooked but the ability to float out of combat while still firing at full effect is pretty big. Other shooty/jump units like Tau battlesuits and the new Inceptors will benefit from this rule too but I think Eldar tanks are the biggest winners.

Against other races, assaulting a tank will normally cost it at least a turn's firing but Eldar aren't bothered. They just rise above such petty concerns.

just buy 5 wraithknights and poop on everyones dreams

 supreme overlord wrote:
just buy 5 wraithknights and poop on everyones dreams

wraithknights are actually pretty bad this edition, very overcosted for what you get compared to an imperial knight and other heavies

 Karhedron wrote:

Speaking of which, you just have to decide which units to take in order to give you your Wave Serpent allowance. Eldar are no longer restricted by mandatory Troops choices so if you want an Elite army of Aspect Warriors or Wraithguard, you can field a Vanguard Detachment.

Pretty much. You've got quite a lot of flexibility in list building now with the different detachments, and don't have to take sub-par troops choice.
I use the Spearhead detachment for my Iyanden Wraith list and fill out the three mandatory HS support choices with Wraithlords.

 G00fySmiley wrote:

 supreme overlord wrote:
just buy 5 wraithknights and poop on everyones dreams

wraithknights are actually pretty bad this edition, very overcosted for what you get compared to an imperial knight and other heavies

I've heard this but I dont share the sentiment. Sword and board is still awesome like it's always been.

 supreme overlord wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:

 supreme overlord wrote:
just buy 5 wraithknights and poop on everyones dreams

wraithknights are actually pretty bad this edition, very overcosted for what you get compared to an imperial knight and other heavies

I've heard this but I dont share the sentiment. Sword and board is still awesome like it's always been.

sword and board WK with no ranged weapons is 487 T8 24 wounds 3+ armor 5++ always thanks to shield (402 base titanic ghostglave 65, scatter shield 20, wraithbone fits 0, titanic feet 0)

still more than the closet equivalent knight 430 T8 24 wounds 3+ armor and 5++ to shooting (320 base reaper chain sword 30, heavy stubber 4, thermal cannon 76 titanic feet 0)

reaper chain sword S +4 (12). ap -3 D 6, while WK str x2 (16) ap -4 D 6 but note for 5 more points the knight can have the same weapon profile as the WK and retain its ranged weapons
. though admittedly better for the points cost than a comparable ork stompa.

I'd really rather have four Wraithlords than a Wraithknight (just three if you're playing points and weigh a cheap Wraithknight against expensive Wraithlords). More high-power melee attacks, more shoulder guns, extra small arms, can be in more places at once, way more wounds...

I bought a box of Scourges on a whim today so I guess that's where I am starting. Not sure what to arm them with, seems they don't have any duplicate weapons in the box. Considering buying the Start Collecting box for Dark Eldar tomorrow, not sure when and how I will mix in Craftworlders and Harlequins.

 Karhedron wrote:

Fire Dragons and Dark Reapers are looking like the best of the Aspect Warriors at the moment but it is early days. .

In offensive output, yeah. But while Dragons have the advantage of hiding in a transport until needed, the Reapers want to be on the field, and they're ridiculously squishy and worth shooting with high AP weapons, particularly plasma. Having no ablative wounds makes them really squishy.


War walkers look like surprisingly durable heavy weapons platforms for 8th. Even barebones with shuriken cannons they can go wherever they like (even have battle focus) and offer some serious support. That 5+ invulnerable really matters now.

Still waiting until this week to see how the new edition treats the Phantom...

If the wraithknight is any indication - I'm expecting 700pts then add weapons...

Voss wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:

Fire Dragons and Dark Reapers are looking like the best of the Aspect Warriors at the moment but it is early days. .

In offensive output, yeah. But while Dragons have the advantage of hiding in a transport until needed, the Reapers want to be on the field, and they're ridiculously squishy and worth shooting with high AP weapons, particularly plasma. Having no ablative wounds makes them really squishy.

While this is true to some extent, if anyone can shoot at the Reapers, they can shoot back and probably have a range advantage. Use that 48" to your advantage by deploying them well back. Reapers always hit on 3+ meaning they ignore the penalty for moving and firing heavy weapons. You can quite happily deploy them in a Serpent/Falcon for initial cover and have them hop out when the right moment/target arrives.

Lack of ablative wounds is a shame but there is one on the Exarch if you are desperate .

So I have bought and assembled a Dark Eldar Starting Collecting box and a box of Scourges now (the Raider is going to be terrifying to transport!). I've scraped off a lot of the skulls and spikes and plan on painting them in an angelic looking scheme. The Angels of Ynnead are coming for you! As much as it makes sense to fill the Dark Eldar out a bit more, I think my next buy will be something Craftworld Eldar. It's nice to know they can play together so it won't be a waste! Still haven't decided what though, maybe some aspect warriors and a Farseer?

Zatsuku wrote:
Still haven't decided what though, maybe some aspect warriors and a Farseer?

Farseer is definitely good, but it won't buff anything that doesn't have the Asuryani keyword. Which means it won't buff anything that isn't Craftworld Eldar. So long as you keep that in mind, you'll do fine. A big part of playing Ynnari is making sure that your army's subgroups are all arranged correctly and all your ducks are in a row. As far as my recommendations go, a lot depends on what you want to play. Dark Reapers are always useful; Fire Dragons are unparalleled in their ability to erase vehicles and monsters from the board; the Hemlock Wraithfighter is incredible, but its non-smite psychic powers will only affect Craftworld Eldar infantry and bikers; Swooping Hawks are an excellent anti-horde option. With the options available to you in the Ynnari list, you probably don't need Howling Banshees or Striking Scorpions, though; Harlequin Troupes do that job better.

What's the big obvious hole in your army? Do you need more anti-tank and anti-monster capabilities? Something to counter hordes? Something to answer MEQs? Something to deal with aircraft?