Questions about Eldar

[RustyKnight]

I've a friend that wants to get into the game, and he's considering Eldar. He has a couple of questions about them, and I don't really have much Space Elf experience. Thus, I have come to seek your wisdom.

1- Is it possible to make a 500-750 Eldar army for about $120-$135?
2- How difficult are Eldar to paint? My friend doesn't really have any experience in the miniatures hobby.
3- Can Eldar run a mostly non-mechanized army? Most of the army rosters I see include lotts of Walkers, Fire Prisms, and Wave Serpents.
4- How hard are the Eldar to play effectively? Can someone new to the hobby play them and expect to have any chance?

Thanks in advance.

[Fce Cmmr Sangre]

4) Unforgiving initially. Steep learning curve. But very rewarding.

[Nytestryke24]

I've a friend that wants to get into the game, and he's considering Eldar. He has a couple of questions about them, and I don't really have much Space Elf experience. Thus, I have come to seek your wisdom.

1- Is it possible to make a 500-750 Eldar army for about $120-$135? Probably. I wouldn't know tbh.
2- How difficult are Eldar to paint? My friend doesn't really have any experience in the miniatures hobby. Well, they have quite alot of detail, but they're very vibrant, nice miniatures, so..
3- Can Eldar run a mostly non-mechanized army? Most of the army rosters I see include lotts of Walkers, Fire Prisms, and Wave Serpents. Yeah. Just don't expect to win the GT finals
4- How hard are the Eldar to play effectively? Can someone new to the hobby play them and expect to have any chance? Well, I'm new to the hobby myself (november last year), play eldar and love them They do require quite alot of strategy though.

Thanks in advance.

Hope this helps

Nytestryke24

[Guerilladb]

I'm a relatively new player myself. I chose Eldar because I liked the way they looked, and in video games I always choose magic users and long ranged fighters.

Eldar miniatures are designed to be really colorful and detailed, they are covered with loads of gems and little runes and if you are willing to make them super detailed they can be really hard to paint. I had zero experience building and painting models, but I have found the challenge rewarding. When painting my models it demands such patience and I've found a level of calmness that I have never known. If your not into painting with the smallest brush you can find that's fine too. Spray a Guardian black, paint his helmet yellow and he's good to go... paint them however you want.

As far as starting a basic army, you can scoop up the battleforce for $90, and if you pick up an HQ and maybe another unit or two, you can definitely make an army to play with for the $120-$135 range. Obviously the more money you put into your army the better, but for that budget you can make a real nice army.

As far as playing with the Eldar, they tend to be very specialized. You need to know exactly who is gonna do what job. It's not easy, but with for me that's half the fun. The challenge is what draws me in. My buddy plays as Space Marines, I'm not trying to hate on his troops, but he can always just send Tactical Squads to do whatever as they are so flexible. Eldar are not flexible, but again that's one of the things I like about them.

Hope this helps!

[Guerilladb]

Also in regards to the non-mechanized question, yes you can play successfully that way. Generally speaking as an Eldar player you want to keep your troops away from getting into close combat, so staying mechanized is the best way to do that. But you can also just try and use Guardians as meat shields to let your better troops hide behinds and then move in for the kill.

[Black Buzzard]

I don't really have much Space Elf experience.

1st word of advice.. they HATE it when you call them Space Elves

[RustyKnight]

Well, that's what they are...

Hmm, I'd hate for him to go with Eldar then get scared off by the detailed minis and complex strategy.

[Bones less]

I learnt the game playing with Eldar and didn't find it difficult at all. I have never won a game with them though, jut had to VERY narrow last turn losses.

[willydstyle]

I just started playing Eldar. IMO one of my biggest mistakes was starting with the battleforce box. It includes 3 worthless units: 1 Warwalker (worthless by itself) Guardian Defenders (pretty much worthless all the time) and 5 Dire Avengers (worthless without 5 more to max the unit out at 10). The waveserpent is damned handy though. If you happen to like defenders (a friend of mine plays Defender heavy and they always die without accomplishing anything... too many points for not enough effectiveness IMO) then you could conceivably start with two battleforces to have a more usable force.

However, this is not the way I'd suggest starting Eldar.

I'd start with 1 HQ blister (Farseer is probably your best bet, but the Phoenix Lords can be nice too... I suggest Maugan Ra) for 12-15 dollars.

1 box of Dire Avengers for 30 bucks (I think)

1 box of rangers for 30 bucks.

Now, if you like mechanized, get a wave serpent for the DAs and HQ to go into, that's 40 bucks.

If you don't like mechanized, buy another box of Dire Avengers, as they're going to be your bread-and-butter troop unit.

Storm Guardians can be a viable mechanized unit too... but the storm guardian box is only 8 models... less than a full unit.

Wraithguard can be a viable troops unit... but you have to sink 190 dollars into them, so they're not easy on the pocketbook.

So, for the 125 dollar price range you can get:

HQ (80+ points for farseer, approx. 200 points for phoenix lord)

Dire Avengers (120-160ish points depending on exarch+upgrades)

Rangers (I like to use mine as pathfinders, so either 95 or 120 points)

Wave serpent -or- more dire avengers. (120-160 point range for either)

Depending on gear and upgrades, this should come out to just about 500 points, or even more if you like your upgrades and spendy phoenix lords.

If you want to run non-mechanized, an Avatar is pretty necessary (unless you like bikes, then farseer on jetbike... expensive and difficult conversion) and He'll run you 30 bucks.

I personally love to call the weedy little gits Space Elves.

I personally don't think any army is "more difficult" or "less difficult" to play by design... I do think that Eldar force you to work a bit harder because all of their units are slightly overpriced points-wise.

[rehdjac]

I don't really have much Space Elf experience.

1st word of advice.. they HATE it when you call them Space Elves

No, we don't. Least I don't. It would be asinine. 40ks Tolkien basis is the only thing that makes it unique and saves it form being utterly derivative. To try and distance yourself from that is pathetic and delusional.

I've a friend that wants to get into the game, and he's considering Eldar. He has a couple of questions about them, and I don't really have much Space Elf experience. Thus, I have come to seek your wisdom.

1- Is it possible to make a 500-750 Eldar army for about $120-$135? Though I've probably got in excess of 10,000 points, I'm not sure. With my connections and discounts, plus ample supply of shit to trade on bartertown, I'm too far removed from the actual cost of this game to know. A quick trip to the GW website will sort it out. But, hell, wait, of course it is. Get an HQ, two troops, and a couple of fun things. Should be easy.
2- How difficult are Eldar to paint? My friend doesn't really have any experience in the miniatures hobby. I'd say they are among the more complex models in the line.
3- Can Eldar run a mostly non-mechanized army? Most of the army rosters I see include lotts of Walkers, Fire Prisms, and Wave Serpents. Eldar can play any number of hugely varied and effective army styles if you avoid the pigeon holing so common in nerdia.
4- How hard are the Eldar to play effectively? Can someone new to the hobby play them and expect to have any chance?Depends on your background. The game itself is quite simple in the scheme of things. However, if you think Risk is hard, or have no experience with other more complex nerd games, it could be difficult. If that's the case I'd describe the Eldar one of the more unforgiving armies to play. With your entire army high in points, low in numbers and toughness, one mistake can be a game breaker.

Thanks in advance.

[RustyKnight]

Thanks for the replies! Course, now my friend is looking at the Chaos Daemons too

[megadeth]

Thanks for the replies! Course, now my friend is looking at the Chaos Daemons too

lol

[RustyKnight]

Argh, the more I look at these Eldar, themore I think ,"Screw fantasy, make another 40k army!"

[RustyKnight]

Can Guardians with Bright Lances do the AT duty? Or are tanks the only Eldar AT solution?

For Daemons, can mono or mostly Nurgle perform well?

[Durandal]

well, you have dragons, and spiders can pop rear armor on light vehicles. Jetbike seer council is there too. With guardians you are only getting one BL shot at BS3, so you;d probably want something else as well.
Nurgle has high toughness, so they are going to be hard to dislodge.

[bakemonoda]

1- Is it possible to make a 500-750 Eldar army for about $120-$135?
yes easy, I would advise always the first investment to be the codex, then u can read storylines and find what units u like, using ebay there are always good deals too
2- How difficult are Eldar to paint? My friend doesn't really have any experience in the miniatures hobby.
everything comes with time, buy 1 pot of foundation paint and 1 pot of wash color both of similar color, i.e. both blue, foundation colour should be light, and wash should be dark and that will give u quick results, apply foundation first then wait to dry then apply wash
3- Can Eldar run a mostly non-mechanized army? Most of the army rosters I see include lotts of Walkers, Fire Prisms, and Wave Serpents.
yes, but mech armies are usually best, + they decrease deployment times and game speeds

4- How hard are the Eldar to play effectively? Can someone new to the hobby play them and expect to have any chance?
If you want a challenge choose eldar, cause a lot of thought is needed, they are great at making counter lists but trying to make a universal list is the hard part

Thanks in advance.

[Durandal]

4- How hard are the Eldar to play effectively? Can someone new to the hobby play them and expect to have any chance?
If you want a challenge choose eldar, cause a lot of thought is needed, they are great at making counter lists but trying to make a universal list is the hard part

I think the challenge in a universal list is using it, rather then making it, since you know exactly what each unit is supposed to do.

[RustyKnight]

Okay, so my friend is fairly certain he wants a Nurgle daemon army. What would be the best way to start one? I'm hoping for somewhere in the price range of $100-$135.

[rehdjac]

Perhaps you should ask this under a topic not called, "Questions about Eldar".