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So i'm considering starting Eldar (as well as a few others) but i liked that i could quite easily put a playable army together for relatively cheap,

This is the firsts Eldar Army i've written up, so I dont really know if it will play well but it seems fairly all-round. The FD and autarch go in the WS to get up close with their melta fire to take out heavy troops, or one tank likely to be taken at this level. The EML will help pick off heavy things too wil the DA will make the charge to hold objectives and take stuff out in CC (I will be playing necrons!)

Autarch, fusion gun, Scorpion Chainsword – 85

5 Fire Dragons - 80
Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannons – 100

9 Dire Avengers, exarch, power weapon and shimmer shield – 135

10 Guardians, Eldar Missile Launcher – 100



Total: 500

Any help appreciated! thanks!

The one change I would make is to give the Guardians a SL rather than an EML. You don't really need more AT, as FD in a Wave Serpent will be devastating at this point level. But, Horde armies will eat you alive if you don't have enough shots. Otherwise, looks fairly solid. Bear in mind that your WS is going to be Target #1 for everyone, as barring some IG vehicles, it's going to be the toughest vehicle on the field.

St. Jebus wrote:
The one change I would make is to give the Guardians a SL rather than an EML. You don't really need more AT, as FD in a Wave Serpent will be devastating at this point level. But, Horde armies will eat you alive if you don't have enough shots. Otherwise, looks fairly solid. Bear in mind that your WS is going to be Target #1 for everyone, as barring some IG vehicles, it's going to be the toughest vehicle on the field.

Yeah, it's gonna be trageted to hell by Necrons with their dang gaus weapons! but i can switch it out for more aspect warriors in that case

A little too AT heavy for 500 pts. I'm also really concerned that you may not be able to kill enough guys before they get into CC, where the power weapon and invul save won't save you. SL is a good idea as St. jebus suggested.
I would also not recommend this autarch equipment, since you need more anti-infantry, especially against gaunts/boyz/guard blobs. So I would either give him Mandiblasters instead of fusion gun to tackle infantry in CC together with the avengers or Deathspinner/ASC and stick him with the guardians for extra ranged power.

Ive recently put together a 500 point list myself, will be playing in a tournament (WTF to that...) . Your list and mine kind of function similarly, except for some choice differences.
I picked:
1 farseer with spear, mind war and guide.( or whatever you want to give him I guess)
5 rangers with pathfinder ( they have scout and rending like all snipers, except they get +2 to the cover save, and rend on 5+. GNARLINESS)
10 guardians w/ bright lance
1 warlock attached to the guardians given conceal and embolden
1 Wave serpent with twin-linked Starcannons and Shuriken cannon

as was said before, your WS is one big-ass target, but its also the strongest advantage you might have. at 500 points, you'll need to destroy whatever anti-vehicle option your opponent has. that said, just so you're aware, strength 4 ap5 bolters cant even glance 12 armor. just get worried about melta bombs and stay aggresive. (move WS whenever possible) your opponent will be tearing his hair out.
btw, I've done a test game with this exact list, and didnt lose a single model.( against IG)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, forgot to mention that snipers can now pick out specific targets in squads, due to huge rule change in 6th edition.

I recently played against a nice Eldar 500 point list thats very hard to beat. it has (off the top of my head)
1 farseer with doom
1 warlock on jetbike
3 jetbikes, 1 with cannon
10 dire avengers with exarch
5 pathfinders

Any chance i could replace the Autarch with a Farseer that comes in at around 90 points and is still usefull? I have never used psychers before so i'm not sure what is and isn't worth taking?

Pathfinders do not rend on 5+. They rend on a 6+.

The pathfinder rule for the longrifles makes 5+ on the to-hit roll AP 1. Then the hits that didn't become AP1 or Precision shots(i.e., 3s and 4s) need 4s to wound and rend on 6. The AP1/Precision shots still need 4s to wound, and add D3 AV pen to their roll on a 6(due to rending).

 stargasm wrote:
Any chance i could replace the Autarch with a Farseer that comes in at around 90 points and is still usefull? I have never used psychers before so i'm not sure what is and isn't worth taking?

Farseers are probably the ultimate psykers in 40k, so I would definitely recommend you take one. However, cheap Seers tend to be less of a devastating force, since getting spirit stones are difficult. I would personally stick with the Autarch, but if you want a Farseer for 90 pts I would go with Runes of Witnessing and Doom. If you are OK with a few more pts, RoW, Fortune and SS (98 pts) starts looking good. You can mix and match these to customize your seer. I only play Eldar as allies, so pure Eldar players may have a better understanding than I do, but I tend to prefer Fortune over Doom.

I hate to butt in but i would also suggest you drop the autarch, take a farseer with warding, doom and fortune

the codex is way out of date. first off, rending is now resolved at ap2, and strength 3 on vehicles. the to hit roll of 5+ doesnt make it ap1. all that happens is that on a to hit roll of 6, the shot becomes a precision shot. the to wound roll of 5+ is treated as ap2, since your already rolling 4+ to wound.
secondly, im not sure if a farseers wargear would increase it's mastery level. its all well and good if you can use two powers per turn, but now you eat up charges to use said powers...so im concerned if spirit stones are actually a credible choice. mind war, guide, fortune and doom are all badass, but at this point level, you need to really think long and hard about what you want to take, and what kind of situations you want to put your farseer in. also not sure if anyone mentioned runes of warding, but against psycher heavy armies like chaos, demons, tyranids(so on and so forth), they melt face with this. nothing like forcing enemy psychers to take perils of the warp on 3d6, up to 12.

 paydenid wrote:
the codex is way out of date. first off, rending is now resolved at ap2, and strength 3 on vehicles. the to hit roll of 5+ doesnt make it ap1. all that happens is that on a to hit roll of 6, the shot becomes a precision shot. the to wound roll of 5+ is treated as ap2, since your already rolling 4+ to wound.

The Eldar Codex has a special rule for Rangers (and Pathfinders) that on a to hit roll of a '6(5)' they get AP1. This means that they both get ap1 precision shots, and pathfinders also might get some ap1. They ALSO have rending, like a normal sniper rifle.

I agree that a farseer would be the better choice. an Autarch is only going to be truly worthwhile when you come to the table with a lot of reserves. Hes not a very good combat character, and there are much cheaper ways to get melta guns into a low point army- Storm Guardians in 500 points, or Fire Dragons above. If you do want to run an Autarch, the Scorpion Chainsword is in all ways inferior to a Power Maul. So if you've got a cool mace laying around, give it to him. S5 and ap4 are really nice for him for only 5 points more than the chainsword.

I think it needs to be faster! Eldar at least in my experience perform at their best when everything moves faster than your opponents. What this means is Guardian Jetbikes or Infantry in Wave Serpents and Falcons to cover your troops. Also you need more guns. At 500 points that should mean more Shuriken Cannons. Because they are so cheap, and have solid fire power. Fun fact- a Shuriken Cannon currently has a better chance of wrecking an av11-10 vehicle than a missile launcher- this is even more true with the addition of hull points. s6 fire power is really good, and at low point games it allows you to engage pretty much everything from infantry to monsterous creatures.

Since this is your Starting list, you probably want to use primarily those models. when I build a 500 point list, I always include a squad of 3 Guardian Jetbikes with a Jetbike Warlock, and a squad of 10 storm guardians with flamers or fusion guns, but I recognize that those units are a bit more expensive to collect and may not be best for starting out. I would therefore recommend something like this

(90) Farseer- Warding, Guide

(85) 10 Guardians- Shuriken Cannon
(125) Wave Serpent- tl Scatter Laser, Extra Shuriken Cannon

(60) 5 Dire Avengers
(135) Falcon- Missile Launcher

Total: 495

This gives you a very fast army- with everything able to move 12 and turbo boost up to another 18 inches! Not only that but you should have the fire power to take on pretty much anything. a Guided Falcon should be able to outrange necrons, and punch through quantum shielding after a few turns, and your Scatter lasers/ Shuriken Cannons and guided guardians can mop up any necron infantry. The army can quickly redeploy anywhere on the board, and offers up 2 very fast and very durable shooting units. The Scatter Laser on the Wave Serpent allows it to effectively kite certain deadly 24 inch range threats- namely necron gauss/tesla, and Grey Knight Psycannons, while the Shuriken Cannon allows it to close in and get some serious fire power at 24 when the time is right.

You will not have an answer to landraiders, but the only practical way to do that at 500 points is to take a storm guardian squad with 2 fusion guns, since taking a block of fire dragons will limit the mobility of your troops. Fire Dragons are a great unit, don't get me wrong, and I always take at least one squad starting at 750 points, BUT I don't take them in 500 points. Its all about troops, and if I can I'd rather fit in some 40 point double shuri cannon walkers.

just checked out the errata on gw's home site. they amended that spirit stones just make the farseer mastery level two. still a decent thing to give him, but can be real pricey.
I understand that the ap of a 5+ shot goes to one with pathfinders when they roll to hit, as listed in the old, outdated codex, but this sounds to me like it's an old rending rule issue that never got resolved on the errata thus far. it's like writing out a longhand explaination of what rending is on the to-hit roll. while this "loophole" is still questionable to me, my point remains the same when i recommended them. they're basically hard to kill when they're posted in cover, and can pick out/ pick off valuable things in a squad.
btw, the codex got published in 06' right? I think we're due for a new codex. also, I amended my own army list , replacing my wave serpent and guardians with a falcon loaded up with a 5 man squad of avengers. I also took a D-cannon support weapon with the points to spare. I didnt do too bad. made it to the third round in a single elimination tournament.

I play this Skimmer/Jetbike Army @ 500 pts:

78 Farseer Guide, Singing Spear ***General***
120 Falcon Pulse Laser, x1 Shurken Cannon
76 3 Guardian Jetbikes x1 Shuriken Cannon
76 3 Guardian Jetbikes x1 Shuriken Cannon
75 Viper Missile Launcher, Shuriken Cannon
75 Viper Missile Launcher, Shuriken Cannon

Farseer Rides in the Falcon and casts Guide - he could easily trade his powers for the Divination table for ok results, too. Everything can move 12" and fire all it's weapons that matter at BS, Highly maneuverable, Decent anti tank and S6 spam (nearly every unit runs 1 Shuriken Cannon). This is a very fun list to play.

When I did Footslogging/hybrid @ 500 pts, I ran ...

75 Farseer Guide ***Warlord***
80 5 Fire Dragons -
60 5 Dire Avengers -
95 10 Guardians Scatterlaser
60 War Walker 2 Scatterlasers
130 Falcon Pulse Laser, 2 Shuriken Cannons

The advantage of this list for me is it brought lots of my favorite units, and quite a bit of firepower. Fire Dragons are not too much anti-tank @ 500 pts; they are something that can go after that hardest, scary unit, no matter what it is, and a nice buddy unit for the Farseer in the Falcon. Plus, he can Guide/Prescience the Falcon to get 8 S6/S8 Rerollable shots that can do lots of damage. I tweaked this list from 5th ed - I used to run the War Walker with 2 EML's and the Guardians with a Shuriken Cannon instead.

A person i know takes both The Avatar of Khaine and a wraithlord in 500 points which is really hard to deal with at this points level.
Then just take heaps of guardians.