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So around this time of the year, my birthday and my annual bonus appear at roughly the same time. Since selling off and paring back my 40K collection last year, I am starting to build it back up but this time making much more of an effort to get stuff painted rather than having it sitting around. And it is going well so far. So this year, as a present for myself and a motivational tool/reward, I have promised myself an Eldar army. However, I did some spitballing of a list in Battlescribe and then costed it out on Element Games and was shocked to find it approaching £500. This time last year, I bought a Mechanicum army and that was a good deal less. Are Eldar inherently expensive? I don't know. I was probably doing it wrong, I had a bunch of fluffy units in there that I wanted to see.

Anyway, the challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to produce a list of 2500 points or thereabouts for the lowest price. I'm not really bothered about competitiveness, just price really. Discounter prices obviously! Only restriction is I don't want one of those Wraith giant things (the Eldar knight equivalent - I forget the name). I am hoping there is a list out there with a decent smattering of unit diversity that can be had for £300 or £400 or so.

What say you?

No chance mate, Eldar are to under priced points wise for you to get that kind of a deal.

SemperMortis wrote:
No chance mate, Eldar are to under priced points wise for you to get that kind of a deal.

Technically it's only Scatterbikes, Wraithknights and Warp Spiders/Aspect Hosts that are undercosted relative to their effectiveness.

However, that perception quite often extends to the rest of the army (unjustifiably) so that might inflate prices somewhat.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

SemperMortis wrote:
No chance mate, Eldar are to under priced points wise for you to get that kind of a deal.

Technically it's only Scatterbikes, Wraithknights and Warp Spiders/Aspect Hosts that are undercosted relative to their effectiveness.

However, that perception quite often extends to the rest of the army (unjustifiably) so that might inflate prices somewhat.

9 dire avengers and an Exarch in a Wave serpeant thats optimized with holofields and 2 good weapons = 280pts total cost? 90 USD So lets take 2 of those = 180 USD
10 scorpions in a Serpeant = 320 pts and cost you another 82.50 USD for the scorpions and if you use the bonus package from the Avengers (5 avengers and a Serpeant) this brings your total costs to 282.50 USD

Next lets get some non wraith anti-tank fire power in the form of some Fire Dragons. 10 dragons in a Wave serpeant = 370pts they cost 41.25 each so another 82.5 If you ditch the dire avengers and get 4 bundles with Serpeants that brings you to 387USD for 1250pts.

Lets get some fast attack, Swooping haws and a maxed out Viper squadron with Scat lasers and holo fields. That costs 560pts which brings you to 1810 and costs you another 82.50 for the hawks and 150 for the Vypers if you use the bundle. So grand totals right now are 1810pts and 619.50 USD

Finally use those last 190pts for some HQs, lets take an autarch and a farseer for fun. 170pts base (easily upgraded with 20pts) and 46 USD. So there you have it 665.50 for 2k pts of non Scat Bikes, Warp Spiders, Wraithknights.
Current exchange rate puts 665.50 at 531.76 English Pounds.

Yeesh ouch!

How does that compare to an Ork/Tyranid/IG army though? Those are the gold-standard for expensive startups.

How much is that Armoured Assault box with the Wave Serpent and Dire Avenger squad? Might be a slightly cheaper way in.

They are showing as £27.62 at Element Games. 4 of those would give me 2 x 10 man Dire Avenger squads plus 4 Wave Serpents. I am thinking that is a good start along with the Start Collecting box set.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I costed my list out to £439.97 from Element Games including codex, so better than it was initially.

The problem you're gonna run into is that, outside of newer kits, vehicles, and troop choices, everything else is finecast.

ALL of the Aspects, with the exception of Dire Avengers, are finecast. You might be able to source them on eBay, but for the most part they're direct order only. Or at least they cycle through them being direct order and then some aren't and then they are again.

This makes the army more expensive than one that is available in all plastics (generally).

You may be able to do the Start Collecting Box, combined with some Armoured Assault boxes and a couple boxes of Wriathguard for something playable?