Novasry
28th July 2009, 17:40
So it seems lots of people are starting Eldar these days so i thought i would write a nice little article explaining the basics of the force, once finished it will be placed into the article section for people to refer to.
Eldar are a highly specialised army, each unit is designed to do a specific job but the all seem to follow the rule that they are great at one or two things, but suck at the rest. Building an Eldar force is fun and provides a great painting experience with the bright colours and fantastic detail on the models.
So what can you expect from an eldar army, there are a few ways to play them:
Mech - Mech-dar has lost some interest since the start of 5th edition, Eldar's strong front and side armour make their transports very survivable, with the addition of Energy fields or Holo-fields they are very hard to bring down. The may problem Eldar face is cost, lets take a look:
Rhino: 35 pts
Razorback: 40 pts
Drop pod: 35 pts
Chimera: 55 pts
Valkyrie: 100
Wave Serpent: 100pts
Falcon: 120 pts
Now as you can see our transports get very expensive, but they do carry a decent amount of fire powers and can take a lot of beating, so most of the time it's worth it.
a Mech Eldar List is extremely quick and will allow you to outmenouver almost nay enemy, they normally consist of 2-3 units of Dire Avengers in serpants, a unit or two of Comabt aspects (banshees or scorps) in serpants and a unit or two of Fire Dragons in a Falcon, this can be backed up by Jetbikes for extra scoring units, Fire Prisms for Anti Tank powers and Vypers for Fast moving Support.
Authors Note, yWizePapaSmurfy of 40kforums offers this alternative view of Mechdar, which he has played successfully for quite a while
Mechdar -
Strength of the Mechdar list is it chooses its fights best and the Wave Serpent's Energy Field.
Learn to love the Wave Serpent, it's more survivable than most tanks in the game, you'll see.
This army has no "weak flank" as the only side that's weaker is the Rear AV, something you can easily prevent the enemy from targetting if ya need to.
In Mechdar, You spam out the Wave Serpents and AV. This makes the list costly to build.
No CC specialists, your goal is to keep your core at least 18" from the enemy at all times. (Only time this is broken is when you gotta bum rush and kill a tank with your Dragons, but again that's a risk and you'd rather them expose it for you, be patient, it'll get in the clearing to try to take it's shots, then the Dragons pounce on it.) If ya can't do that, Mechdar isn't the army for you.
Prisms aren't reliable Anti-Tanks even linked up, so don't try unless you have nothing else to shoot at or are desperate.
Dragons are better off in Wave Serpents.
Vypers are used mostly as screens for the bigger tanks/ infantry when they do choose to come out. But they're also good rear armour punishers.
Every Serpent assigned to a unit should do the OPPOSITE tthing that the squad does. Such as Fire Dragons having a Scatter laser turret and theAvengers having Bright Lances. Helps mess up target priorities.
A Falcon's place is in the back witth a Scoring unit and a Farseer inside (Something I'm doing these days) This makes a 9 Str 6+ shot Tank if you max it out, then give itit Guide and you are giggling vs. a lot of things.
HQ choice - Autarch or Farseer, if you must use a special character, take Yriel. Eldrad is just too costly when every one of your units cost around ~250 alread, you needa scratch and fit more stuff in.
So to summarize -
1) Mechdar is expensive.
2) Mechdar Moves and Shoots, it doesn't play CC.
3) Always take Underslug Shuriken Cannons over Spirit Stones on vehicle. Not moving for a turn Is ok, not being able to shoot the enemy before they get to you is another problem.
4) Wave Serpents
Jetbike - Jetbike armies allow you to make up for the fragile nature of the Eldar with a toughness boost, more fire power and greater speed. The Jetbike army will consist of a Jetbike B=Council (Farseer and Warlocks mounted on bikes) an Autarch, plenty of Guardian Jetbikes, some Shining Spears and Fire support in the form of Fire Prisms.
Guardian Horde - A mostly theorised army on these forums but was played successfully by one of our members in 4th Edition. this force would include, Eldrad Ulthran, an Avatar of Khaine, two full units of Storm guardians with a Conceal Warlock and then 2-4 units of Storm Guadians wither an Enhance warlock or Destructor Warlock, then obvious heavy support choice in the form of War Walkers or Fire Prisms, Vypers could also be used to distract enemy fire and Wraithlord's can be used to screen fire from the Avatar.
The idea of the army is to advance up the field with the Conceal Guardians blocking LOS or giving cover saves to the ones behind them, they are to be fortuned by Eldrad and made fearless by the avatar, this advancing wall of bodies isn't very manuoverable but once it hits home it will leave significant dents in the enemy.
The "Biel-Tan" list - The list is a combination of those above, using elements from all the Aspects to surgically remove the enemy from the board.
Authours note - If anyone has anymore suggestions they would like entered into this section, feel free to PM me them and i will put them in.
The Units of the Dying
In this section I will give a quick rundown of all the units in the Army list, and where they can be useful...
HQ
Autarch - The Autarch can be used in many ways, he is a great character to have in combat but also does well in shooting and supporting other units. the first thing i see when i look at the Autarchs profile is his BS 6, this means you can afford to give him a single shot weapon like the Fusion gun and will be able to rely on him hitting with it, other weapons to consider are the Reaper Launcher and the Death Spinner. The Autarch has a good number of basic attacks but it is well worth improving it with the Mandiblasters, the Banshee mask is quite redundant for the Autarch as he will often be pitted against lower class enemies so his Initiative 6 with Plasma grenades means he will often strike before his targets. Chocie of combat weapon comes down to preference and most common opponent, the Scorpion chainsword gives a great boost to the Autarch low Strength and allows him to effectively take apart Guardsmen/Orks/Guants, the power weapon is great to use against Power Armoured enemies, his high amount of attacks means he will probably be able to land a wound and when combined with a Dooming Farseer(more on this later) he will be picking apart tactical squads, Finally is the Laser Lance, only available when mounted on a jetbike it is a great option when combined with a unit of Shining spears with the Withdraw power or it can be used to take out tanks more effectively then the Haywire Grenade. Remeber that the Autarch keeps his Shruiken Pistol, this means he will ALWAYS get +1 attack for two combat weapons no matter what you pick for him. The final choice to make for him is choice of movement, your choices include the Swooping Hawk wings (the cheapest option), the Warp Jump Generator (the most Manuoverable) and the Jetbike (most Survivable), in the end it comes down to where you are putting him and what piece will fit the situation.
Farseer - The Farseer is undeniably the best support unit in 40k, he/she has a great array of powers at their disposal as well as a few nifty items to help the army as a whole. First lets look at the powers, we have the 3 support powers, Guide, Doom and Fortune and then the two fighting powers, Eldritch Storm and Mind War but when is the best time to use them and what ones should you buy:
Guide - Best used on units with large amounts of fire power or have a low BS, so Bladestorming Dire Avengers and War Walkers with Scatter lasers to make the most of the Re-rolls, best bought in combination with Doom and placed in a shooty squad.
Doom - Great for any unit but best used when you plan on piling the hits onto and enemy, so when you doom a unit make sure you commit to destroying it, Doom can be really useful if you use it in tandam with Howling Banshees, unfourtunatly these girls suffer from low strength so the re-rolls make it easier for them to wound their targets. Doom can be bought with any power and is the most versatile of the Farseer powers, if you want a cheap Seer buy this power as he only comes in at 80 points with Doom.
Fortune - Fortune has a few uses, Harlequins, Pathfinders/Rangers, Flat out Transports and Guardians can all benefit from the use of Fortune. Fortune is very versatile and is a bonus to any army, be warned though it is the most expensive power and if your using it on units with Armour saves they may well get it negated by AP.
Eldritch Storm - This is a nice little shooting power but isn't as good as the others, best used with Eldrad because he gets it anyway, it can be used to deal with hoards or expose weak armour on vehicles but it can be rather unreliable.
Mind War - Again, a good shooting power but not always worth the cost, best used to take out hidden power fists or Ork Nobs and the like, one interesting way to use it is to target IC's without Invulnerable saves, Librairians and their Ilk can be easily ridded off with a good roll.
So what about Equipment, the obvious choice is Spirit Stones but only if your taking two or more powers, Runes of Warding are cheap and effective but since you can't guarantee the enemy will have a Psyker it's not reaslly that useful, Runes of Witnessing make it very difficult for the Farseer to fail his psychic tests but watch out for those double ones, Take a Jetbike if you have a squad to put him in or you think you may need him to move around the board to support lots of units and finnaly the Singing Spear, lots of people look at this as quite good, but honestly it isn't worth it, losing that extra attack in close combat really hurts and isn't worth the shooting attack.
Seer Council - The Seer Council is an Expensive but useful squad, Usually used as a Jetbike mounted unit, most people take them in maxed out squads with 1 Embolden Warlock, 1 Enhance Warlock and 8 Destructor Warlocks, this squad puts out an immense amount of fire power and will destroy almost anything it touches. The Problems with Warlock's lies in the lack of power weapons, when put up against power armour or better they can be stuck in combat for a long time, making it difficult for them to work back their huge points cost. Like the Farseer the Singing Spear upgrade is always that useful, though a jetbike mounted squad may be able to get behind tanks and use the Strength 9 attack to cause some damage, but this can easily be done when charging.
The Avatar of Khaine
The Avatar of Khaine at first sight seems quite expensive, but at 155 points he is only a little more expensive then an Autarch or Farseer.
The Advantages of the Avatar are very obvious:
1. He can really hold his own against shooting, his high toughness and multiple wounds, backed up by a decent armour save and an invulnerable make him a fearsome opponent capable of standing down all but dedicated Anti-tank weaponary.
2. The Wailing Doom is an effective shooting weapon, capable of instant killing MEQ's on a 2+ to wound or frying a tank if your within 6", it is also an assualt weapon so if the shooting didn't do it you can back it up with a mean charge.
3. The Avatar is a close combat beast, on the charge he recieves some 5 S10 attacks at a shocking WS10 and initiative 6. His stats make him very survivable in close combat, being a monstrous creature means he will ignore armour saves and he will often hit before his enemy gets a chance to react, even against a high number of enemies he is capable of holding fast and never relenting.
4. Lastly is his Fearless Aura, which makes foot slogging armies a possibility as you do not have to fear losing numbers or being pinned.
However it isn't all good stuff, the Avatar is very slow and has an effective range of 12-18" meaning a smart enemy can just keep their distance and kill the Avatar before he even lands a blow.
There are a few ways you can effectively use the Avatar in battle:
1. Pair him up with a Wraithlord or two, maybe 3, The Lords pump out impressive firepower at a good balistic skill and will draw fire away form the Avatar, allowing him to reach combat and deal out the hurt. Wraithlords with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons also allow them to thin out the numbers of small grunt squad that your opponent will attempt to feed your avatar to slow him down.
2. Feed enemy units fast moving squads so that they cannot run fromt eh Avatar, take a 3-man bike squad and engage a Tactical squad or such at max range, next turn the Avatar is able to move in a mop up.
3. Use a Farseer to back him up, casting Fortune on an Avatar makes him even more durable against heavy weapons like Lascannons and their Kin meaning the enemy will have to fire more weapon at him, allowing the rest of your force to advance.
To conclude, the Avatar is a Fire Magnet Combat Beast who will tear up anything he touches, just make sure he touches it by either making him more survivable or slowing his targets down.
Elites
Striking Scorpions
Scorpions are designed to be hoard killers, large amounts of attacks at a strength which is high for an Eldar, each scorpion has 4 attacks at S4 on the charge so he will have no trouble cutting through swathes of lightly armoured enemies.
The true sense of power with the scorpions comes with the exarch however, as his equipment schoices are very good, esspecially the Chain Sabres and the Claw. The choice of equipment comes down to what you have in mind for your enemy, if your up against a true hoard, Orks/Nids/Guard, then go with the Sabres, the extra attacks will help you deal out multiiple wounds which compared to the Claw. If however your fighting MEQ armies the claw is a much better choice, ignoring armour saves and the option to take on light vehicles is a big bonus for the scorpions who may seem a little out of their own waters but i find they fair very well against MEQ, only losing out against Banshees by 1 or 2 wounds and they will sustain less damage in return, due to their own 3+ armour save.
The final question to ask is whether to go Infiltrating/Outflanking or use a transport. Both are good options, the transport provides you with plentiful protection and the ability to hold off your attack until the later games. The Shadowstrike option lets you target small units with ease that are trying to hide, as outflanking lets you get right behind the enemy lines, if you want to be really nasty you could take a wave serpent as well as shadow strike and outflank the transport.
Eldar are a highly specialised army, each unit is designed to do a specific job but the all seem to follow the rule that they are great at one or two things, but suck at the rest. Building an Eldar force is fun and provides a great painting experience with the bright colours and fantastic detail on the models.
So what can you expect from an eldar army, there are a few ways to play them:
Mech - Mech-dar has lost some interest since the start of 5th edition, Eldar's strong front and side armour make their transports very survivable, with the addition of Energy fields or Holo-fields they are very hard to bring down. The may problem Eldar face is cost, lets take a look:
Rhino: 35 pts
Razorback: 40 pts
Drop pod: 35 pts
Chimera: 55 pts
Valkyrie: 100
Wave Serpent: 100pts
Falcon: 120 pts
Now as you can see our transports get very expensive, but they do carry a decent amount of fire powers and can take a lot of beating, so most of the time it's worth it.
a Mech Eldar List is extremely quick and will allow you to outmenouver almost nay enemy, they normally consist of 2-3 units of Dire Avengers in serpants, a unit or two of Comabt aspects (banshees or scorps) in serpants and a unit or two of Fire Dragons in a Falcon, this can be backed up by Jetbikes for extra scoring units, Fire Prisms for Anti Tank powers and Vypers for Fast moving Support.
Authors Note, yWizePapaSmurfy of 40kforums offers this alternative view of Mechdar, which he has played successfully for quite a while
Mechdar -
Strength of the Mechdar list is it chooses its fights best and the Wave Serpent's Energy Field.
Learn to love the Wave Serpent, it's more survivable than most tanks in the game, you'll see.
This army has no "weak flank" as the only side that's weaker is the Rear AV, something you can easily prevent the enemy from targetting if ya need to.
In Mechdar, You spam out the Wave Serpents and AV. This makes the list costly to build.
No CC specialists, your goal is to keep your core at least 18" from the enemy at all times. (Only time this is broken is when you gotta bum rush and kill a tank with your Dragons, but again that's a risk and you'd rather them expose it for you, be patient, it'll get in the clearing to try to take it's shots, then the Dragons pounce on it.) If ya can't do that, Mechdar isn't the army for you.
Prisms aren't reliable Anti-Tanks even linked up, so don't try unless you have nothing else to shoot at or are desperate.
Dragons are better off in Wave Serpents.
Vypers are used mostly as screens for the bigger tanks/ infantry when they do choose to come out. But they're also good rear armour punishers.
Every Serpent assigned to a unit should do the OPPOSITE tthing that the squad does. Such as Fire Dragons having a Scatter laser turret and theAvengers having Bright Lances. Helps mess up target priorities.
A Falcon's place is in the back witth a Scoring unit and a Farseer inside (Something I'm doing these days) This makes a 9 Str 6+ shot Tank if you max it out, then give itit Guide and you are giggling vs. a lot of things.
HQ choice - Autarch or Farseer, if you must use a special character, take Yriel. Eldrad is just too costly when every one of your units cost around ~250 alread, you needa scratch and fit more stuff in.
So to summarize -
1) Mechdar is expensive.
2) Mechdar Moves and Shoots, it doesn't play CC.
3) Always take Underslug Shuriken Cannons over Spirit Stones on vehicle. Not moving for a turn Is ok, not being able to shoot the enemy before they get to you is another problem.
4) Wave Serpents
Jetbike - Jetbike armies allow you to make up for the fragile nature of the Eldar with a toughness boost, more fire power and greater speed. The Jetbike army will consist of a Jetbike B=Council (Farseer and Warlocks mounted on bikes) an Autarch, plenty of Guardian Jetbikes, some Shining Spears and Fire support in the form of Fire Prisms.
Guardian Horde - A mostly theorised army on these forums but was played successfully by one of our members in 4th Edition. this force would include, Eldrad Ulthran, an Avatar of Khaine, two full units of Storm guardians with a Conceal Warlock and then 2-4 units of Storm Guadians wither an Enhance warlock or Destructor Warlock, then obvious heavy support choice in the form of War Walkers or Fire Prisms, Vypers could also be used to distract enemy fire and Wraithlord's can be used to screen fire from the Avatar.
The idea of the army is to advance up the field with the Conceal Guardians blocking LOS or giving cover saves to the ones behind them, they are to be fortuned by Eldrad and made fearless by the avatar, this advancing wall of bodies isn't very manuoverable but once it hits home it will leave significant dents in the enemy.
The "Biel-Tan" list - The list is a combination of those above, using elements from all the Aspects to surgically remove the enemy from the board.
Authours note - If anyone has anymore suggestions they would like entered into this section, feel free to PM me them and i will put them in.
The Units of the Dying
In this section I will give a quick rundown of all the units in the Army list, and where they can be useful...
HQ
Autarch - The Autarch can be used in many ways, he is a great character to have in combat but also does well in shooting and supporting other units. the first thing i see when i look at the Autarchs profile is his BS 6, this means you can afford to give him a single shot weapon like the Fusion gun and will be able to rely on him hitting with it, other weapons to consider are the Reaper Launcher and the Death Spinner. The Autarch has a good number of basic attacks but it is well worth improving it with the Mandiblasters, the Banshee mask is quite redundant for the Autarch as he will often be pitted against lower class enemies so his Initiative 6 with Plasma grenades means he will often strike before his targets. Chocie of combat weapon comes down to preference and most common opponent, the Scorpion chainsword gives a great boost to the Autarch low Strength and allows him to effectively take apart Guardsmen/Orks/Guants, the power weapon is great to use against Power Armoured enemies, his high amount of attacks means he will probably be able to land a wound and when combined with a Dooming Farseer(more on this later) he will be picking apart tactical squads, Finally is the Laser Lance, only available when mounted on a jetbike it is a great option when combined with a unit of Shining spears with the Withdraw power or it can be used to take out tanks more effectively then the Haywire Grenade. Remeber that the Autarch keeps his Shruiken Pistol, this means he will ALWAYS get +1 attack for two combat weapons no matter what you pick for him. The final choice to make for him is choice of movement, your choices include the Swooping Hawk wings (the cheapest option), the Warp Jump Generator (the most Manuoverable) and the Jetbike (most Survivable), in the end it comes down to where you are putting him and what piece will fit the situation.
Farseer - The Farseer is undeniably the best support unit in 40k, he/she has a great array of powers at their disposal as well as a few nifty items to help the army as a whole. First lets look at the powers, we have the 3 support powers, Guide, Doom and Fortune and then the two fighting powers, Eldritch Storm and Mind War but when is the best time to use them and what ones should you buy:
Guide - Best used on units with large amounts of fire power or have a low BS, so Bladestorming Dire Avengers and War Walkers with Scatter lasers to make the most of the Re-rolls, best bought in combination with Doom and placed in a shooty squad.
Doom - Great for any unit but best used when you plan on piling the hits onto and enemy, so when you doom a unit make sure you commit to destroying it, Doom can be really useful if you use it in tandam with Howling Banshees, unfourtunatly these girls suffer from low strength so the re-rolls make it easier for them to wound their targets. Doom can be bought with any power and is the most versatile of the Farseer powers, if you want a cheap Seer buy this power as he only comes in at 80 points with Doom.
Fortune - Fortune has a few uses, Harlequins, Pathfinders/Rangers, Flat out Transports and Guardians can all benefit from the use of Fortune. Fortune is very versatile and is a bonus to any army, be warned though it is the most expensive power and if your using it on units with Armour saves they may well get it negated by AP.
Eldritch Storm - This is a nice little shooting power but isn't as good as the others, best used with Eldrad because he gets it anyway, it can be used to deal with hoards or expose weak armour on vehicles but it can be rather unreliable.
Mind War - Again, a good shooting power but not always worth the cost, best used to take out hidden power fists or Ork Nobs and the like, one interesting way to use it is to target IC's without Invulnerable saves, Librairians and their Ilk can be easily ridded off with a good roll.
So what about Equipment, the obvious choice is Spirit Stones but only if your taking two or more powers, Runes of Warding are cheap and effective but since you can't guarantee the enemy will have a Psyker it's not reaslly that useful, Runes of Witnessing make it very difficult for the Farseer to fail his psychic tests but watch out for those double ones, Take a Jetbike if you have a squad to put him in or you think you may need him to move around the board to support lots of units and finnaly the Singing Spear, lots of people look at this as quite good, but honestly it isn't worth it, losing that extra attack in close combat really hurts and isn't worth the shooting attack.
Seer Council - The Seer Council is an Expensive but useful squad, Usually used as a Jetbike mounted unit, most people take them in maxed out squads with 1 Embolden Warlock, 1 Enhance Warlock and 8 Destructor Warlocks, this squad puts out an immense amount of fire power and will destroy almost anything it touches. The Problems with Warlock's lies in the lack of power weapons, when put up against power armour or better they can be stuck in combat for a long time, making it difficult for them to work back their huge points cost. Like the Farseer the Singing Spear upgrade is always that useful, though a jetbike mounted squad may be able to get behind tanks and use the Strength 9 attack to cause some damage, but this can easily be done when charging.
The Avatar of Khaine
The Avatar of Khaine at first sight seems quite expensive, but at 155 points he is only a little more expensive then an Autarch or Farseer.
The Advantages of the Avatar are very obvious:
1. He can really hold his own against shooting, his high toughness and multiple wounds, backed up by a decent armour save and an invulnerable make him a fearsome opponent capable of standing down all but dedicated Anti-tank weaponary.
2. The Wailing Doom is an effective shooting weapon, capable of instant killing MEQ's on a 2+ to wound or frying a tank if your within 6", it is also an assualt weapon so if the shooting didn't do it you can back it up with a mean charge.
3. The Avatar is a close combat beast, on the charge he recieves some 5 S10 attacks at a shocking WS10 and initiative 6. His stats make him very survivable in close combat, being a monstrous creature means he will ignore armour saves and he will often hit before his enemy gets a chance to react, even against a high number of enemies he is capable of holding fast and never relenting.
4. Lastly is his Fearless Aura, which makes foot slogging armies a possibility as you do not have to fear losing numbers or being pinned.
However it isn't all good stuff, the Avatar is very slow and has an effective range of 12-18" meaning a smart enemy can just keep their distance and kill the Avatar before he even lands a blow.
There are a few ways you can effectively use the Avatar in battle:
1. Pair him up with a Wraithlord or two, maybe 3, The Lords pump out impressive firepower at a good balistic skill and will draw fire away form the Avatar, allowing him to reach combat and deal out the hurt. Wraithlords with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons also allow them to thin out the numbers of small grunt squad that your opponent will attempt to feed your avatar to slow him down.
2. Feed enemy units fast moving squads so that they cannot run fromt eh Avatar, take a 3-man bike squad and engage a Tactical squad or such at max range, next turn the Avatar is able to move in a mop up.
3. Use a Farseer to back him up, casting Fortune on an Avatar makes him even more durable against heavy weapons like Lascannons and their Kin meaning the enemy will have to fire more weapon at him, allowing the rest of your force to advance.
To conclude, the Avatar is a Fire Magnet Combat Beast who will tear up anything he touches, just make sure he touches it by either making him more survivable or slowing his targets down.
Elites
Striking Scorpions
Scorpions are designed to be hoard killers, large amounts of attacks at a strength which is high for an Eldar, each scorpion has 4 attacks at S4 on the charge so he will have no trouble cutting through swathes of lightly armoured enemies.
The true sense of power with the scorpions comes with the exarch however, as his equipment schoices are very good, esspecially the Chain Sabres and the Claw. The choice of equipment comes down to what you have in mind for your enemy, if your up against a true hoard, Orks/Nids/Guard, then go with the Sabres, the extra attacks will help you deal out multiiple wounds which compared to the Claw. If however your fighting MEQ armies the claw is a much better choice, ignoring armour saves and the option to take on light vehicles is a big bonus for the scorpions who may seem a little out of their own waters but i find they fair very well against MEQ, only losing out against Banshees by 1 or 2 wounds and they will sustain less damage in return, due to their own 3+ armour save.
The final question to ask is whether to go Infiltrating/Outflanking or use a transport. Both are good options, the transport provides you with plentiful protection and the ability to hold off your attack until the later games. The Shadowstrike option lets you target small units with ease that are trying to hide, as outflanking lets you get right behind the enemy lines, if you want to be really nasty you could take a wave serpent as well as shadow strike and outflank the transport.