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So I'm planning on getting into 40k by buying about 1000 points of Eldar. However, I have no idea what Eldar units are good in a 1000 point list and I can't really afford to found out by trial and error. Guardians are an obvious choice, but what other units should I get?

Guardians are actually really, really bad. Like, Terribad. Imagine the worse most useless Unit in WHFB and thats pretty close to how much They suck.

As for what IS good, I have no Idea, I play Spess Vhikinz! (Although I hear Shining Spears on Jetbikes are good apparently)

Someone will be along shortly with Tea and Crumpets.

Guardians are wicked!

8pts apiece, assault 2 weapons, one carries a heavy weapon AS IF IT WERE an assault weapon.

Fleet, plus the option to take a warlock.

Guardians fething rule.

Don't play eldar. They are lame.

Accept the dark will of Khorne into your heart, and play World Eaters.

fatal_GRACE wrote:Don't play eldar. They are lame.

Accept the dark will of Khorne into your heart, and play World Eaters.

For the most part I just prefer the Eldar models.

That, and I'm pretty bad at painting and the Eldar models look much easier to paint than World Eaters/Chaos without sacrificing much in the way of appearance or variety. Plus, the models are a bit cheaper.

There are basically two ways to play Eldar:
-Mech
-Footslogging

Good Mech units:
-Farseer (on Jetbike or on foot)
-Warlock Retinue on Jetbike (on foot they suck).
-Storm Guardians (with Flamers and Warlock with Destructor)
-Dire Avengers
-Fire Dragons
-Fire Prisms
-Falcons
-Wave Serpents (obviously, as a transport for any non-vehicle, non-jetbike unit)

Good Footslogging units:
-Avatar
-Farseer (on Jetbike or on foot)
-Warlock Retinue on Jetbike
-Wraithguard (squad of 10 with a Spiritseer)
-Pathfinders
-Guardian Defenders
-Harlequins
-Wraithlords

Airmaniac wrote:There are basically two ways to play Non-Tyranid, Non-Dark Eldar Armies:
-Mech
-Footslogging

Fix'd for ya

Thanks for the advice. Quick question, how exactly do you get Farseers and warlocks on jetbikes? I've been looking around on the GW website and they don't seem to come modelled on jetbikes.

Leftley wrote:Thanks for the advice. Quick question, how exactly do you get Farseers and warlocks on jetbikes? I've been looking around on the GW website and they don't seem to come modelled on jetbikes.

Ya'll have to grab your glue and get convertin!

Gwar! wrote:

Leftley wrote:Thanks for the advice. Quick question, how exactly do you get Farseers and warlocks on jetbikes? I've been looking around on the GW website and they don't seem to come modelled on jetbikes.

Ya'll have to grab your glue and get convertin!

Haha, in hindsight it seems so obvious! I don't think I'm quite that ambitious yet .

A less expensive army (but still... kinda expensive) is Eldrad or a Farseer, 2x Dire Avengers in wave serpents, 1-2x Fire Dragons in wave serpents, and as many War Walkers with Scatter Lasers as you can fit into your list.

War Walker/Mech Eldar is wicked hard as long as you have the tools to deal with AV14.

Regardless of what type of Eldar force you intend to play you need to start with the core units, which in any Eldar force will be Guardians (except for Biel Tan maybe). I haven't played Eldar for many years now but they are what are known as a finesse army. They are very unforgiving if you get things wrong in-game so it's essential that you take units that will support each other because they are so specialized.

For example. If you have a bunch of Banshees or Scorpions charging across the battlefield, try and keep plenty of shooty Guardians nearby to give them covering fire...especially if you are fighting a horde army like Tyranids or Orks. Likewise, don't expect units like Dark Reapers to put up much of a fight in close combat...better to have some Scorpions or a mass unit of Guardians loitering near them as a skirmish screen to enemy close combat troops.

You will need to buy at least one farseer and a couple warlocks no matter what army you choose. So I suggest you buy the seer counsel box.

Next pick up at least two squads of Dire Avengers or guardians. DAs are best when mounted in a transport, guardians are best to sitting in cover and pretending to be a guardsman (always take a scatter laser if you take guardians).

After that Wave serpents are the best transport in the game, not to mention they can preform ramming attacks at str 10 after you unload..

At that point you will have a playable army. Try it out and see were you are lacking, Eldar are an army of specialists, if you need anti-tank take firedragons, if you need anti-infantry take warwalkers with scatterlasers, etc.

Imo there are some must take units in whatever eldar army you run:

Farseer (or Eldrad but expect some complaints expecially in low points games)

Fire Dragons - best anti-tank unit for their points in the entire game.

Guardian Defenders - cheap "expendable" unit for holding rear objectives and screening better units like Dire Avengers after they bladestorm (if not mech)

Rangers/Pathfinders - 1 squad of 5 for sitting in cover eating up enemy fire with their 2+ cover save, great for rear objective grabs in a mech list or early objective capture/contest due to infiltrate

I'm on the anti-guardian bandwagon. Their heavy weapon will hit on average 3 times a game (if lucky), is crewed by T3 weaklings which will never get their pathetic armor save, and the rest of the squad is only good at killing other guardians. The only exception I can think of with this is using Storm Guardians which take flamers to make up for their BS 3, and get a bonus attack. One army list I've seen runs mobs of storm guardians with an Avatar to make them all Fearless. If you feel you *must* run guardians, an Enhance on a warlock is nearly obligatory IMO.


Edit: And their LD sucks, so they will run.