Calling all Eldar pros please

[Brandoncbaker]

Ive been considering Eldar for awhile now and was wondering what some of the more competitive army builds are these days. Any help would be Appreciated ..thanks

[thecactusman17]

Footdar is pretty popular, which spams multiple Guardians with heavy weapons platforms, a farseer, and generally the Avatar (for that pleasant Fearless bubble). Sometimes the Avatar is exchanged for two farseers with Fortune and Guide, to maximize the number of shots being poured into a target. With units like Warwalkers, this unmechanized army can pump out dozens of high-strength shots each turn at a remarkable range, and even more when the opponent finally closes in. Keep 1-2 small units of Guardian Jetbikes into reserve so that they can come on and control of contest objectives in the late game.

Another option is the fully mechanized eldar build, which puts tons of MSU Dire Avengers on the table in Wave Serpents, 1-2 squads of Fire Dragons in their own transports, and zooms around the board using Fortune, cover, holofields and Energy Shields to keep itself alive. This unit commonly wins by using Tank Shock to force enemy scoring units off of the objective at the last moment. It outlasts the opponent and often does relatively little raw damage in exchange for simply not allowing them to respond. You can sometimes field more tanks than some horde armies manage to put actual units on the board, and most of them will be scoring.

Be aware that this list naturally does poorly against armies that have tools for cracking Eldar Tanks, including those that can deepstrike into the more vulnerable rear arc.

[Inquiring M1nd]

Describe the way you'd like your army to feel. That would help in pinning down the subset of Eldar you should focus on.

I personally favor a mechanized build. Granted, you trade weight of fire and numbers for the resilience of armor and mobility. But that mobility can be a wonderful force multiplier. You can pick your fights, isolate and overwhelm chunks of your opponent's force, and in general flit around like an annoying flight of sparrows.

There's tricks to learn about covering your rear, mostly revolving around the free pivots. You can go back-to back with another tank, terrain, or a board edge.

What kinds of tactics and opponents do you worry about? What do you see Eldar not being able to handle?

[Cuddy]

Strength 6 spam is also common, especially combined with mech lists. Units like warwalkers can put out a ton of strength six shots for their points (I believe its 24 S6 shots from a full scatter laser squad per turn, for something like 180 points). Combine this with a mech list, especially one with multiple units of fire dragons (to destroy all the vehicles the S6 isn't that great at) and things like three jetbikes to capture points on the last turn, and you have one of the strongest current eldar lists. There's also one with a deathstar/ dual deathstar of farseers, with warlock councils mounted on jetbikes, thats popular, but I don't have a lot of experiences with it.

The strength six spam works well, because in 5 edition cover is so prevalent. It tends to be better to have 4 shots that allow armor saves (since that 3+ is probably going to just a 4+ cover anyway) then a starcannon with half the shots at higher cost. Plus, you're just as strong against hordes.

[DrLove42]

Or...you could just avoid all the WAAC builds and play something you like and is fun?

Eldar are old and overcosted. But they are still strong if you avoid some units (like Hawks...)

Tri-Lord lists were common (3 T8 3W 3+ MC with Lances at BS4) but not so much in the rise of the Dark Eldar that make T8 and T3 the same thing.

Pathfinders are a strong troops choice....stick em in cover with a Farseer fortuning them and you've got a unit with a re-rollable 2+ cover save.

Farseers, particularly with some runes can hurt on the enemy. Having to take physic tests on 3D6 and taking a perils on a 12+ hurts Grey Knights

When it comes down to it play what you want. I've gopt a comp this week and I;m playing 10 Wraithguard, a Wraithseers and 2 Warp Hunters. I call it....D cannons in yo face

[Brandoncbaker]

All great points..I'm thinking I'll just star painting models,as I don't play with them in painted. It's sounding like 6th will be out before I'm ready. Thanks again for the input

[marandamir]

Eldar are very surgical in unit design so playing a net list is tough. You need to understand what they do and how to use them. The best universally played list I've seen is the scatter laser spam lists described above. It's basically this:

eldrad
farseer with guide and maybe fortune
9 warwalkers with 2 scatter lasers each
(3) 5-8 man units of fire dragons in wave serpents with scatter lasers
fill the rest of your army with 5 man dire avenger squads in wave serpents

This is the easiest list to win with. You deploy your war-walkers in a way they can see targets but would get cover saves if you get shot at (eldrad helps with this if you go 1st). Eldar and the farseer guide the war-walker squadrons (basically making them twin linked) and fortune them to help keep em alive. Your other wave serpents also have twin linked scatter lasers. So you sit back and unload 90+ TL scatter laser shots every turn. Str 6 is enough to pen AV 10 and 11 transports, and glance stuff like storm ravens and dreads. Land raiders and tougher transports you let the enemy come to you and then let your fire dragons melta them to a puddle. So you pretty much shoot the enemy off the board and hold objectives with dire avenger wave serpents.

[Saint_Anger]

Another option is the fully mechanized eldar build, which puts tons of MSU Dire Avengers on the table in Wave Serpents, 1-2 squads of Fire Dragons in their own transports, and zooms around the board using Fortune, cover, holofields and Energy Shields to keep itself alive. This unit commonly wins by using Tank Shock to force enemy scoring units off of the objective at the last moment. It outlasts the opponent and often does relatively little raw damage in exchange for simply not allowing them to respond. You can sometimes field more tanks than some horde armies manage to put actual units on the board, and most of them will be scoring.

Be aware that this list naturally does poorly against armies that have tools for cracking Eldar Tanks, including those that can deepstrike into the more vulnerable rear arc.

May I ask for the counter strategy to this kind of Eldar list. Is there any other way rather than deepstrike into the rear arc? I just faced this list and am eager to beat it somehow.

[Cuddy]

May I ask for the counter strategy to this kind of Eldar list. Is there any other way rather than deepstrike into the rear arc? I just faced this list and am eager to beat it somehow.

It depends on what army you have. In general, the way to counter it is with lots of long range shots. Eldar max at AV12, so things like autocannons/assault cannons are better then melta. Shoot at targets of opportunity, the eldar can't Fortune all of their vehicles every turn. That's why its important to have that long range, so they can't keep those ones out of range. Fire dragons are weak when not killing tanks, have your infantry around your vehicles. This way, you make sure you can assault a fire dragon unit whenever it pops out (or even just bolter it). Otherwise, they'll jump back into the Wave Serpent next turn.

Space Marines - Will depend on your type, but in general, Predators, Long Fangs, Psyflemen etc will murder eldar skimmers.

IG - Probably the easiest if you are prepared to play against eldar, things like Hydras wouldn't even make the game a challenge.

Dark Eldar - Vehicles are just as fast, and more heavily armed, but weaker.

Tau - Use suits to keep in range, pathfinders to max the impact of shots. Kind of like every other army :P

Not going to lie, with an army like Orks or Tyranids this match could be brutal.

[Saint_Anger]

It depends on what army you have. In general, the way to counter it is with lots of long range shots. Eldar max at AV12, so things like autocannons/assault cannons are better then melta. Shoot at targets of opportunity, the eldar can't Fortune all of their vehicles every turn. That's why its important to have that long range, so they can't keep those ones out of range. Fire dragons are weak when not killing tanks, have your infantry around your vehicles. This way, you make sure you can assault a fire dragon unit whenever it pops out (or even just bolter it). Otherwise, they'll jump back into the Wave Serpent next turn.

Space Marines - Will depend on your type, but in general, Predators, Long Fangs, Psyflemen etc will murder eldar skimmers.

IG - Probably the easiest if you are prepared to play against eldar, things like Hydras wouldn't even make the game a challenge.

Dark Eldar - Vehicles are just as fast, and more heavily armed, but weaker.

Tau - Use suits to keep in range, pathfinders to max the impact of shots. Kind of like every other army :P

Not going to lie, with an army like Orks or Tyranids this match could be brutal.

I play Chaos Space Marines. According to your post, then I should use predator, havocs and obliterator?