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Hi everyone,

So I've been modelling and painting Eldar for a little while now, but I just picked up a Craftworlds Codex and want to get into playing the game. I was just wondering if some of you more experienced folk had some pointers on what to include in a <1000 point army?

Models I already have lying around are:
a Farseer (with Singing Spear)
an Autarch (with Swooping Hawk wings)
a 10-man unit of Guardian Defenders with a heavy weapons platform
2 5-man units of Dire Avengers (one Exarch has duel catapults, the other has a Shimmershield and Power Glaive)
a 5-man unit of Warp Spiders
a 6-man unit of Swooping Hawks
a War Walker
a Fire Prism (still needs building)
4 Jetbikes

So if I could fit any of those into a good army list that would be great, but I'm open to buying some new stuff if there are any really good units I'm missing or better alternatives to stuff I already have!

Thanks guys

So it turns out that if you put everything you've got there on the table you've got almost exactly a 1,000pt army. My instinct is to say it'd probably work reasonably well in a casual setting, but a few remarks on units:

I don't like Dire Avengers much this edition; Rangers are better at being cheap Troops than they are and Guardians are better at filling space/killing things. At 1,000pts two units of Rangers and one of Guardians (depending on your Craftworld; Alaitoc wants more Rangers, Iyanden wants more Guardians) is probably better for filling your Troops slots than two Dire Avengers/one Guardians. (Rangers were difficult to get ahold of at one point, but I've had some success building them out of spare parts.)

The Linked Fire stratagem makes having two Fire Prisms better than having one (and three better than two by the simple logic of "they can't make the rest worse by killing just one of them"). It isn't hugely important at 1,000pts, but as you expand you should definitely look into grabbing more.

Jetbikes are fairly ineffectual; if you like the models or the idea of jetbikes you'd be better off with Shining Spears (whose models are ancient but who could theoretically be built with the new jetbikes).

Warlocks: More for larger-points games than 1,000pts, but if you want to go for more detachments so you can get more command points having a few lying around to be 35pt HQ choices (and to haul a set of strong support powers around) is a good idea.

Beyond that the power units in the Codex also include Dark Reapers and Hemlocks; while just starting out don't worry too much about not having them, and if you've got a casual play environment don't get too gung-ho about using a bunch of them, but if you get to a point where you want to go to tournaments they're both worth looking into.

(Dark Reapers have the same high demand/ancient models problem Rangers do; if you're going to try building some out of spare parts Dark Elf Executioners (WHFB) are a good source of skull masks, but I don't have a good suggestion for the gun at this point.)

Thanks for the help dude! Rangers seem solid, and Dark Reapers seem crazy good.

I really want to include Dire Avengers though (purely because they look like the 300 in space ) Is there any way to use them in 8th ed? I was also thinking of replacing my Swooping Hawks (they seem kind of crappy in the codex) - maybe with some Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons or a Wraithlord? Also, I've heard Wave serpents are really good. Would it be worth switching my Fire Prism out for one?

At this point I'd advise you to play with what you have, see what works and what playstyle you prefer. You have a nice and diverse selection of eldar, which is ideal for this. Also, proxy! Ask your opponent if it'd be OK if this fire prism is a wave serpent this game. I find it better to test a unit before purchasing it (which I learned from doing it the other way around ).

As an aside, I use swooping hawks as a cheap unit that you can deepstrike out of harms way, preferably on an objective. S3 is weak, but they shoot a lot of it. Target a doomed/jinxed unit to improve their performance. Also don't get too excited about ranger's sniper rifle. You need quite a few of them (like 20+) to reliably kill off stronger characters, although weaker ones with 2-3 wounds are fair game.

I'd recommend getting a warlock/spiritseer as a first expansion. That will allow you to put it and your windriders, hawks and spiders in an outsider detachment for 1 extra cp, and should fit in a 1000pts list. More importantly this lets you play around with powers from the runes of battle tree, giving you more options.

 NinjaSpaceElf117 wrote:
Thanks for the help dude! Rangers seem solid, and Dark Reapers seem crazy good.

I really want to include Dire Avengers though (purely because they look like the 300 in space ) Is there any way to use them in 8th ed? I was also thinking of replacing my Swooping Hawks (they seem kind of crappy in the codex) - maybe with some Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons or a Wraithlord? Also, I've heard Wave serpents are really good. Would it be worth switching my Fire Prism out for one?

Dire Avengers are useful in units of 10. The other school says take minimum squads but then they are rather ineffictive. If I run them, they will get a Serpent.
If you want Fire Dragons, give them a Serpent. Better take 2 units of 5 and transport them in a Serpents.
Serpents are one of the best transports in the game. Mine have shuricannons for anti-infantry or anti-light-tank.
Wraithlords are meh. Too slow and too less damage output.

shortymcnostrill wrote:
At this point I'd advise you to play with what you have, see what works and what playstyle you prefer. You have a nice and diverse selection of eldar, which is ideal for this. Also, proxy! Ask your opponent if it'd be OK if this fire prism is a wave serpent this game. I find it better to test a unit before purchasing it (which I learned from doing it the other way around ).

As an aside, I use swooping hawks as a cheap unit that you can deepstrike out of harms way, preferably on an objective. S3 is weak, but they shoot a lot of it. Target a doomed/jinxed unit to improve their performance. Also don't get too excited about ranger's sniper rifle. You need quite a few of them (like 20+) to reliably kill off stronger characters, although weaker ones with 2-3 wounds are fair game.

I'd recommend getting a warlock/spiritseer as a first expansion. That will allow you to put it and your windriders, hawks and spiders in an outsider detachment for 1 extra cp, and should fit in a 1000pts list. More importantly this lets you play around with powers from the runes of battle tree, giving you more options.

This seems like the way to go, I'll use what I have for now so I can get a better idea of how I play and how I want to expand. Good tip on subbing the wave serpent for the time being as well, makes way more sense.

As a sidenote, if I did get Fire Dragons, do you guys think Kabalite Warriors would make an okay counts-as? They seem to have an appropriate look (spiky!) and much easier to customise. Also, they're plastic which is great, as resin stuff can be a pain.

 NinjaSpaceElf117 wrote:

shortymcnostrill wrote:
At this point I'd advise you to play with what you have, see what works and what playstyle you prefer. You have a nice and diverse selection of eldar, which is ideal for this. Also, proxy! Ask your opponent if it'd be OK if this fire prism is a wave serpent this game. I find it better to test a unit before purchasing it (which I learned from doing it the other way around ).

As an aside, I use swooping hawks as a cheap unit that you can deepstrike out of harms way, preferably on an objective. S3 is weak, but they shoot a lot of it. Target a doomed/jinxed unit to improve their performance. Also don't get too excited about ranger's sniper rifle. You need quite a few of them (like 20+) to reliably kill off stronger characters, although weaker ones with 2-3 wounds are fair game.

I'd recommend getting a warlock/spiritseer as a first expansion. That will allow you to put it and your windriders, hawks and spiders in an outsider detachment for 1 extra cp, and should fit in a 1000pts list. More importantly this lets you play around with powers from the runes of battle tree, giving you more options.

This seems like the way to go, I'll use what I have for now so I can get a better idea of how I play and how I want to expand. Good tip on subbing the wave serpent for the time being as well, makes way more sense.

As a sidenote, if I did get Fire Dragons, do you guys think Kabalite Warriors would make an okay counts-as? They seem to have an appropriate look (spiky!) and much easier to customise. Also, they're plastic which is great, as resin stuff can be a pain.

I would want to see fusion guns or something like them converted from the blasters or maybe by cutting the splinter rifles down ... you will figure something out.
They look really 'dragony' too, so yeah, they could be cool.

If you don't want to buy two or more prisms,
you might build that tank as a falcon - can carry six dudes.
Of course, wave serpents are the favorite transport...
You might be able to build that prism kit out as a serpent.
Here is a link to an old video on how to do it:



I like scouts a lot - have a ton of them.
Try to find old metals on ebay imo.