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Hi there, I've recently decided to get back into playing Warhammer 40k again and after reading the new eldar codex I want to make an eldar army (footdar, as some seem to call it to be exact).
I've been watching battle reports, looking at other player's army lists to get an idea how should an eldar army look like. So far I've come up with this list:

HQ:

Farseer (singing spear)
Farseer (singing spear)

Troops:

10 Dire Avengers
10 Dire Avengers
10 Guardian Defenders (Heavy Weapon Platform (shuriken cannon)
10 Guardian Defenders (Heavy Weapon Platform (shuriken cannon)

Fast Attack:

10 Warp Spiders
10 Warp Spiders

Heavy Support:

2 War Walkers (scatter laser, scatter laser)
2 War Walkers (scatter laser, scatter laser)
Wraithlord (bright lance, bright lance)

In total: 1500 points.

I've been considering dropping the Striking Scorpion squad for another squad of 10 Dire Avengers and a squad of 10 Guardian Defenders without the heavy weapon platform (not enough points for it).
I don't think I'll be playing in any tournaments for a while, since I'm pretty new to the game. So you could say this is a semi-competetive list.

To point out a few things I don't want to field any Wraithknigs or jetbikes. I know they're good, but I just don't like them.
So what do you think? What would you change? What do you like? I want to see your opinions, both positive and negative!

First you can't have two mantles. Its a one per army upgrade. It is tough to run a footdar army that will be competitive without wraithknights and jetbikes, because they add so much to the army. However, i would drop the striking scorpions because they will never make it there in one piece. even with infiltrate. dire avengers are solid, but they need a shimmershield to really make them durable, and then that makes the unit a lot pricier. 2 Farseers are good, but some people recommend the avatar for his fearless buff. without wraithknights though, I think the avatar route would be a bad idea. Warp Spiders are good, but IMO 2 big squads are to much. I like to play with them in 5's or 7's but that is merely a preference. Walker is fine, but the twin-linked buff from the scatter laser is lost because all scatter lasers have to fire at the same time meaning they can't twin link another scatter laser. I would drop a spider squad to add another heavy of your choice. So many good options its hard to go wrong. If your trying to save points then go with the support weapon platforms. You are lacking anti-tank and will have trouble with any army that brings a moderate amount of tanks. Lots of revisions but since it is not a purely competitive army your going for, you can build it however you want. Good luck

Perhaps consider replacing a Farseer with an autarch? Give him a warp jump gen and put him with the spiders. Means you can effectively deep strike the spiders, or outflank the walkers due to the autarchs reserve modifier.

I'd drop the scorpions in this list too. Maybe some swoopin hawks would work? At a push some guided reapers - which could work if you kept the second Farseer and put him on foot!

Unlike the above poster I would not suggest an autarch with the warp jump generator. If you roll doubles for the units warp jump a RANDOM model is permanently lost to the warp, might be rare to happen to the autarch, but when it does, ouch.

You said you are returning to the game, I'm not sure when you played previously, but 6th edition is about shooting and board control (objectives). With each player able to place their own objectives, being able to get scoring or denial units across the board is vital. Since you want to play footdar without bikes or a wraithknight I think this will be your biggest challenge. Warp spiders can do it but now you will have to keep not only your troops alive to hold your objectives, but also the spiders to contest theirs.

I would drop the scorps, drop the mantles (pointless without a bike), drop a unit of DA then add more walkers, with double brightlance maybe, and 2 units of guardians with weapon platforms. Normally I would say one unit and a bunch of bikes, but ... ya.

toocool61 wrote:First you can't have two mantles. Its a one per army upgrade. It is tough to run a footdar army that will be competitive without wraithknights and jetbikes, because they add so much to the army. However, i would drop the striking scorpions because they will never make it there in one piece. even with infiltrate. dire avengers are solid, but they need a shimmershield to really make them durable, and then that makes the unit a lot pricier. 2 Farseers are good, but some people recommend the avatar for his fearless buff. without wraithknights though, I think the avatar route would be a bad idea. Warp Spiders are good, but IMO 2 big squads are to much. I like to play with them in 5's or 7's but that is merely a preference. Walker is fine, but the twin-linked buff from the scatter laser is lost because all scatter lasers have to fire at the same time meaning they can't twin link another scatter laser. I would drop a spider squad to add another heavy of your choice. So many good options its hard to go wrong. If your trying to save points then go with the support weapon platforms. You are lacking anti-tank and will have trouble with any army that brings a moderate amount of tanks. Lots of revisions but since it is not a purely competitive army your going for, you can build it however you want. Good luck

Thanks for pointing out I made a mistake with the mantles. I've left both of my Farseers with singing spears only.
I've taken out the Striking Scorpions squad too, becouse I had the same concern that you pointed out: I didn't think they would reach their target without casualties.
I'm not keen on spending so much points just to get Dire Avengers a shimmershield so I'll stick with just 10 regular units per squad.
I've considered taking Avatar of Khaine, but just like you said - he just doesn't fit in.
I don't want to field smaller squads of Warp Spiders because they are my main unit which will be dealing with vehicles. I'll field them 10 per squad and see how it works out. After some testing I'll know whether to make any changes to them or not.
I knew that with two scatter lasers I would lose the benefit of Laser Lock, but I'm fine with that because the reason I took two of them in the first place was to let my War Walkers stay as far away from the enemy as possible. Scatter lasers have an 36 inch range so I think it will let me keep my War Walkers safer.
Took your advice and added a Wraithlord to my list as an additional heavy support.

Khaine's Wrath wrote:Perhaps consider replacing a Farseer with an autarch? Give him a warp jump gen and put him with the spiders. Means you can effectively deep strike the spiders, or outflank the walkers due to the autarchs reserve modifier.

I'd drop the scorpions in this list too. Maybe some swoopin hawks would work? At a push some guided reapers - which could work if you kept the second Farseer and put him on foot!

I don't like the idea of having an Exarch or an Autarch in a squad of Warp Spiders because if I roll doubles when warp jumping they might die.
As for Swooping Hawks, I think Warp Spiders perform a similar task as would Swooping Hawks so if I'd ever consider taking them it would be only in exchange for Warp Spiders. And I'm not doing that, because I think Warp Spiders are overall better than Swooping Hawks.

j.d.hart wrote:Unlike the above poster I would not suggest an autarch with the warp jump generator. If you roll doubles for the units warp jump a RANDOM model is permanently lost to the warp, might be rare to happen to the autarch, but when it does, ouch.

You said you are returning to the game, I'm not sure when you played previously, but 6th edition is about shooting and board control (objectives). With each player able to place their own objectives, being able to get scoring or denial units across the board is vital. Since you want to play footdar without bikes or a wraithknight I think this will be your biggest challenge. Warp spiders can do it but now you will have to keep not only your troops alive to hold your objectives, but also the spiders to contest theirs.

I would drop the scorps, drop the mantles (pointless without a bike), drop a unit of DA then add more walkers, with double brightlance maybe, and 2 units of guardians with weapon platforms. Normally I would say one unit and a bunch of bikes, but ... ya.

I've gave it some thought and removed a squad of Dire Avengers to add two squads of Guardian Defenders with a Heavy Weapons Platform with shuriken cannons for scoring and/or denying objectives and split my War Walkers into two squads. I've also fielded a Wraithlord with two bright lances for some extra firepower against vehicles.

I've been thinking would it be better if the Farseers joined the squads of Guardian Defenders? Or should I just leave them on their own?

Well, the list needs transports (Serpents). Without them you'll recognize that the army will not work. Eldar troops are too squishy to survive incoming fire. I'd go with 10 Warp Spiders at the beginning and mount the Farseer on jetbikes to increase their mobility. One will be fine at the 1500 pt level.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, the list needs transports (Serpents). Without them you'll recognize that the army will not work. Eldar troops are too squishy to survive incoming fire. I'd go with 10 Warp Spiders at the beginning and mount the Farseer on jetbikes to increase their mobility. One will be fine at the 1500 pt level.

As I've said previously, I'm not fielding any jetbikes or Wraithknights because I don't like them. I'm not going to field any Wave Serpents either since I want to play a list based on infantry. I've only made an exception to War Walkers and Wraithlord just because they're walkers.
I know a tyranid, IG or ork army would fit an infantry army better, but I've decided to play eldar and that's what I'll be doing.
Though, thanks for the advice anyway.

Well, if you want no Serpents I'd opt for a phalanx with Eldrad or two Farseers, Avatar, Guardians and Dire Avengers walking the Avatar's fearlessness bubble,WL's, Warwalkers, and some counterstrike units like Warp Spiders and Harlies.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, if you want no Serpents I'd opt for a phalanx with Eldrad or two Farseers, Avatar, Guardians and Dire Avengers walking the Avatar's fearlessness bubble,WL's, Warwalkers, and some counterstrike units like Warp Spiders and Harlies.

If I'm not mistaken you can't have 3 HQ's in an army so 2 Farseers and an Avatar can't be fielded. Eldrad and an Avatar would work, though, but taking such pricey HQ units would leave me with a small army walking besides them. It would just be easier for my opponent to do more casualties than I'd like to have before the Avatar and Eldrad get's in melee.

jamtvc wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, if you want no Serpents I'd opt for a phalanx with Eldrad or two Farseers, Avatar, Guardians and Dire Avengers walking the Avatar's fearlessness bubble,WL's, Warwalkers, and some counterstrike units like Warp Spiders and Harlies.

If I'm not mistaken you can't have 3 HQ's in an army so 2 Farseers and an Avatar can't be fielded. Eldrad and an Avatar would work, though, but taking such pricey HQ units would leave me with a small army walking besides them. It would just be easier for my opponent to do more casualties than I'd like to have before the Avatar and Eldrad get's in melee.

Indeed, two Farseers and an Avatar can only be run in a 2000+ pt army. An Avatar will be important in such an army due to the fearlessness bubble.
In fact, the HQs are expensive but you'll have cheap troops.

 wuestenfux wrote:

jamtvc wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, if you want no Serpents I'd opt for a phalanx with Eldrad or two Farseers, Avatar, Guardians and Dire Avengers walking the Avatar's fearlessness bubble,WL's, Warwalkers, and some counterstrike units like Warp Spiders and Harlies.

If I'm not mistaken you can't have 3 HQ's in an army so 2 Farseers and an Avatar can't be fielded. Eldrad and an Avatar would work, though, but taking such pricey HQ units would leave me with a small army walking besides them. It would just be easier for my opponent to do more casualties than I'd like to have before the Avatar and Eldrad get's in melee.

Indeed, two Farseers and an Avatar can only be run in a 2000+ pt army. An Avatar will be important in such an army due to the fearlessness bubble.
In fact, the HQs are expensive but you'll have cheap troops.

The only walking towards the enemy I might do in a game is to get into firing range and even then I'd fall back using Battle Focus. Avatar doesn't fit in my army, though he's a great unit indeed.