Need Eldar Recommendations

[mrzeroping]

The Gamesworkshops here in Japan do something every year during the holidays where you buy $50 worth of stuff you get a raffle ticket. Long story short, I went into the store yesterday to check what if I won anything and I actually won a Seer Council. Which is pretty cool since I basically won a $60 item. I would much rather have won something from a race I actually am interested in, but at least this year I won something from 40k. Last year I won a fantasy limited edition dwarf model, Snorri Nosebiter.

I actually really like the way the Eldar look. As long as they have their helmets on. They sort of look like cool robots. So instead of trying to trade away or sell the Seer Council I was thinking of maybe starting a small 500 point army of Eldar. All the Gamesworkshops stores here in Japan have 500 pt leagues so instead of going crazy and buying a whole bunch of Eldar, what types of units should I be looking to get for 500 pt games? Any suggestions?

[Aztok]

Well, the Eldar are compased of elite squads, so get two groups of guardians, then get a heavy support choice or a fast attack choice if points are tight. Look around at the models that interest you. I really like dark reapers, enough to buy some, because I like their look.

Mostly, its whatever you want to do with your 500 points. Dark reapers are slow, but mulch anything with their heavy weapons fire.Jetbikes are insanely lethal if used right. Avoid close combat unless you have a close combat god, like Stinging Scorpions.

All my info comes from battles with Eldar. They get some nasty specialized infantry, they get crazy jetbikes, they are fast, but not very durable. Get one of them flying tanks for all-around butt-kicking.

[beardyneko]

In 500pt games Dark Reapers will be overkill for the most part (Thats not a bad thing, theres no such kill other than overkill!) and Rangers are pretty sweet too.
my Current 500pts list for Eldar is 10 Dire Avengers with a Farseer (Powers Guide and Doom with Spirit Stones) in a Wave Serpent (Eldar Missile Launcher), with back-up fire from 7 Pathfinders.

Its not going to win all that many games for me but its still fun. With the Limit to 500pts, its best to find something that suits you within the Army.

[ryshi]

I'm a big fan of dark reapers personally.

Warp spiders are pretty cool in my opinion, but since there isn't an abundance of armies spamming high toughness creatures(like 4th ed. zilla for nids) these have limited use.

The avatar is cool, but I've seen him die to gaunts....in 4th edition nid dex.....so I have mixed feelings on how good he really is.

Also the wraithlords are pretty awesome.

[Geneva]

Don't forget the Wave Serpent. Easily the best transport in the entire game.

[Psychichobo]

My quick and unreliable summary:

Guardians: A bit naff. Pretty much guardsmen with a slightly better gun. Get a heavy weapon platform and can have a warlock, but they don't really excel at anything.

Dire Avengers: Better Guardians with no heavy weapons. 4+ save makes them a lot more reliable. Nice exarch powers too. I recommend these for troops.

Guardian Jetbikes: Good at being T4 3+ save high speed objective nabbers. Seem expensive, but you're paying for a damn good save and damn fast scorer.

Scorpions: Good outflankers, very tough and able to deal a lot of damage. More troop than elite killers, but a lot of attacks and a powerfist makes a useful squad indeed.

Banshees: Need transports, as they're awesome CC units. Better for elite units rather than swarms, marines fear them. Tend to get shot as a result.

Harlequins: Bit like Banshees in a way. Don't always need transports, the veil of tears is pretty damn useful. Use to dart down flanks, maybe. Also kill stealers...

Hawks: Not that great, but usable. Grenade pack's probably the best thing about them. Try to exploit the jump infantry thing.

Reapers: Marine murdering fiends. Use and abuse as you please, you can't go wrong with these.

Fire Dragons: Let's not theorise, they need transports. A squadfull o' meltas. Nuff said. Useful when applied properly.

Shining Spears: Bit expensive, but can work... just be careful, again.

Avatar: Pretty tough, 3+ armour and 4+ invul means he's reasonable difficult to remove. Not expensive either, and fearless eldar are useful. Also screw you meltas.

Wraithguard: Pretty damn nasty, though struggle against fast opponents. Also expensive money-wise...

Wraithlord: Annoying, with it's high toughness. Try to park in some cover at least, though, only 3 wounds.

That's my take on most things. The rest don't turn up too often for me.

[CylonDorado]

Hmm, I havn't playe a 500 point game in a while. Farseer's probably your best bet for an HQ, although Autarchs have their uses. I swear by guardians, but Dire Avengers are beast (I use both). And yes, Dark Reapers are very nice. In my last game, I wiped a devastator squad off the table on turn 1. I almost always run them with a Tempast Launcher/crack shot exarch. Their problem is they cost so much for 5 models, but I've found them to be well worth it. Genevaman is right about wave serpants, but you might not need them at 500 points. Wraithlords are awesome. I run mine with a missle launcher/Bright lance for ranged tank/MC blasting, and double flamethrowers for when she's about to be mobed ;D. Combine that with the frag missle option, and it's just an all around useful unit. My main anti-tank however is my Fire Dragons (transport mandatory), who have a rediculously low chance of NOT killing any tank they get close too. They're pretty good against Monstrous creatures too. I've had really good games with Harlequins, but they have a tendency to be whiped off the board. But even when that happens, they drew fire away from my other units, and I still won most of those games.

Swooping hawk's haywire granades also make them pretty nice against most armies, but they do jack against Tyranids. But they'd still be pretty useful, since that granade pack can kill some footsloggers, and they get a decent amount of shots at a decent range.

[Xenos and Proud]

I have a Saim-hann army and it has never let me down. Jetbikes are pure awsome when used right (which is hard to do) but can run rings round almost anything. Try putting a warlock with destructor and a jetbike riding farseer in a large units and then turbo boost and look on as everything turns their guns in their direction then fails to kill anything! A 3+ cover save reroll with the fortune power!

Almost everything needs a transport though. Banshees being the most vulnerable otherwise.

Dark Reapers are a god send especially the exarch who is BS5 and can ignore cover and reroll wounds.

[mrzeroping]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I originally asked this question because I don't have a codex for Eldar yet. But then I realized that I have the Japanese version of the codex on my computer (Japan GWS has all the codex for free to download). So I'll look at some of the units and try and make a mock up list.

Question about the codex though. Is it relatively new? I know that there are suspicions that dark eldar may be getting a new codex, but what about regular Eldar? I'd hate to buy a codex and then in a year have a new codex out.

[CylonDorado]

There's no new Eldar codex in sight, but I'd say they have the least issues of all the non-5th codexes. The only problems are that some of their stuff is a little over-priced points-wise, and compared to a lot of newer armies I'd say their psychic powers are a little on the weak side. Well, weak is the wrong word. They're very practical and useful, but they're not very interesting. But that's just a personal gripe, since they're supposed to be the best psykers around. And they kind of are. They're just not very dramatic.

Unlike many Eldar players, hq isn't really the lynchpin of my stratagy, he just kind of sits off with an obscure unit and guides things (like the guardians).

[beardyneko]

Its what drew me to Eldar when I was looking for a new Army, HQ DOESN'T have to be the most powerful unit in the Army. Autarchs and Farseers aren't exactly powerhouses stat wise, or even ability wise, but as support units, they are brilliant when used well.

It makes the rest of the army seem useful in a way, with other Armies I've seen, it seems to be a case of "Yeah we're only here before our Tank/Special Character/MC comes along"

With Eldar its more "We might suck but damn it we will work together and kick your Lily Butts!"

[mrzeroping]

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing so I'm going to write down what I'm thinking. Let me know if what I'm thinking is wrong or not. I haven't actually played any games in 5th ed and played only a little in 4th ed. However, from a "theoretical" stand point I sort of know how the game is played.

So my thinking is like this. 500 pt game. It is going to be small in the sense of number of units any one player can field. To get points in the game you have to take objective/territory. The only units that can claim territory is troops. So I'm obviously going to need troops.

So with Eldar my choices are pretty limited. From what I've read, Guardians aren't that great. And I don't really like the way they look either. So I'm going to go with Dire Avengers. However, I immediately have a question. So I were to get 2 squads of 10 Dire Avengers. This means that I can only claim 2 objectives. About how many objectives are usually used in 500 pt games? If for example only 3 objectives, would it be better to split up the same 20 Dire Avengers into 4 squads of 5? Or is this unnecessary?

Also when everyone else plays small games, do they go with only 2 squads of troops? I'm wondering if I should go up to 3 squads and maybe add in a squad of 5 rangers. This way I have a group of troops that can get places fast.

What should I fill out the rest of my army with? I was thinking a wraithlord because it looks cool. But it is very expensive points wise. I was looking at my Japanese codex and I'm a little unsure of the wording. If I go with 2 flamers they aren't twin linked. However, all the other weapon options are twinlinked. My reasoning is thus. 2 Flamers and 2 Scatter Lasers. Troop killer. But only 4 shots that reroll? Not so great right? But if I went War Walkers with 2 scatter lasers I would be getting 8 shots per War Walker correct? So as far as troop killing I'd like to leave that up to a wraithlord or some war walkers. Or would it be better to go with Reapers? I'm also interested in going with reapers because they look cool as well.

Then if I come up against vehicles I was thinking of a group of Fire Dragons. But I don't want to use wave serpents (don't really like the idea of transports visually).

So my final thoughts are thus.

HQ = Farseer
Troops = 2 squads of 10 Dire Avengers
Troop Killers = Dark reapers, War Walkers, or a properly suited up Wraithlord (cc wraithlord possible? Like 2 flamers and a bone sword?)
Tank Killers = Wraithlord suited up to go against tanks etc. (missiles and bright lance?) or Fire Dragons

[beardyneko]

The list looks good Zeroping, but with Dark Reapers, War Walker and Wraithlord, I mean you only really need two of those options. Dire Avengers are great but with a Farseer, they are a lot better.

Your theory works well on paper, but without real life application added, its going to be just theory. With a game where something as simple as dice can render a whole army godly or hitting the dirt, no amount of prep work is going to help. Its why I personally make Fun lists rather than Game winning lists.

Even a perfect list will fall to bad luck sometimes...