New to Eldar

[Fishean]

I saw some reviews on the new Eldar codex and I was thinking about starting an army. I currently play Orks and starting them was easy just got a lot of boys, but I am not sure or familiar with Eldar and need some help deciding what to get first.

[Zaonite]

It depends on how you want to play them to be honest.

Do you want to go for the formations in the book? Then build your army to those.
Do you want to go via a combined arms detachment? Guardians and Dire Avengers have always been a staple of Eldar armies, as have Farseers.

Best advice is to pick up the book, have a read and then buy the minis that you like the sound of.

[Mr Mystery]

It's a good army to pick right now, as the choices in the Codex are all much of a muchness.

About the only unit I'm still left 'why?' over are Storm Guardians - but even then, it's not that they're terrible, so much as Guardian Defenders just have a little more going for them.

And ignore the whining about the army being broken/beardy/cheesey etc. Yes they have plentiful Strength D weapons, but it all comes with drawbacks, such as a 12" range on Wraithcannons, to the Wraithknight having a choice between Strength D and an Invulnerable Save. With all the other options open to an Eldar player, pretty much any combo can work on the field.

[Zaonite]

It's a good army to pick right now, as the choices in the Codex are all much of a muchness.

About the only unit I'm still left 'why?' over are Storm Guardians - but even then, it's not that they're terrible, so much as Guardian Defenders just have a little more going for them.

And ignore the whining about the army being broken/beardy/cheesey etc. Yes they have plentiful Strength D weapons, but it all comes with drawbacks, such as a 12" range on Wraithcannons, to the Wraithknight having a choice between Strength D and an Invulnerable Save. With all the other options open to an Eldar player, pretty much any combo can work on the field.

Yup. Ignore the str D whining brigade.

Things I can recommend are: Farseer, Guardian Defenders, Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons, Warp Spiders. As For tanks; Wave serpents for transport and Fire Prisms for long range support. These things generally make up the core of my lists every time and they have done for years.

The book is very solid at the minute and you can build fluffy and/or competitive lists from nearly any combination of units.

[vonDietdrich]

Wraithguard and Windriders are all the rage right now. But saying 'do whatever' isn't very helpful so here's a core, basic list using the Eldar Warhost from the new book and a run down of what 'things are for'.

Guardians x10, shuricannon platform, shuricannon/Shuricannon waveserpent (x3)

30 guardians in 3 wave serpents is relatively cheap (around 600 points) and gets you both solid objective holders and good heavy weapons support. The platform is free with the Warhost formation and you get the 6" run (which is really good and synergizes with Battlefocus). If you decide to add Aspect Warriors later you can move the serpents to them instead. Since Scatterlasers no longer give twinlinking I prefer shuricannons on serpents for the AP and Bladestorm.

Farseer

A normal farseer, clocks around 100. Runes of Fate or Divination are your go-to disciplines. Either is good. You might want to consider the approx 100 for three warlocks, /edited/ using them as a bodyguard for the farseer in the backfield (possibly with a squad of dark reapers or other aspect warriors). Normally I'd slot them in the wave serpents but the free weapon platforms from the Warhost leave no room.

Vaul's Wrath support weapon x3, D-cannon.

Cheapest blast barrage Strength D shooting in the game. Very survivable, gets Preferred Enemy on Strength D from the Warhost, 24" range. Point it at things and erase them.


Shuricannon/shuricannon vyper x1

Warhost tax, comes with the battleforce box anyway. Not completely terrible, looks cool.

War Walker

Outfit it how you like. Warhost tax. Also not terrible, another cheap heavy weapons platform. The 6" run and preferred enemy is worth it.



That about covers it. Around 1000 points of Eldar, you've got 3 objective grabber squads, 5 heavy weapons platforms (3 of which are tanks), and 3 Strength D artillery pieces. Season it with units you like from the codex. 100 points for 3 warlocks gives you a strong psychic phase, and you can pick other Warhost formations to add on top now.

All told that list can pump out 60 shuripult shots, 9 Strength D blasts, 33 shuricannon shots, and whatever you give the war walker. It's a solid firebase.

You'll want the Farseer to sit in the back and twinlink the artillery, also. I believe Warlocks can still be added to Vaul's Wrath. If so, having one join the artillery and placing them in ruins or a forest for a 2 or 3 up cover save with the Conceal primaris is an entertaining strategy.

Edit:

As an afterthought there are a few meta considerations for building Eldar also. If you play against a lot of MEQ (SM and Necrons) I would consider a full squad of Dark Reapers. Their regular shooting mode is fantastic for MEQ and the S8 mode is Instant Death to T4 and therefore ignores reanimation protocols. They have the range to hit anywhere on the table, as well. It's also worth noting that they erase windriders like they aren't even there, since they ignore both the armor and jink saves and can shoot them at range.

Crimson Hunters counter flyers quite hard, the new Wraithfighter is another source of Strength D templates, Dire Avengers got even better as an anti-infantry unit. Of course Wraithknights are extremely strong, especially the sword variant. There's so much Ranged D in Eldar that you honestly don't need the shooting versions. Scorpions are a lot of fun on maps with good terrain coverage. I have a hard time recommending Wraithlords now that Wraithknights are so overwhelming but I used to run one with a glaive and two heavy weapons to provide backfield defense against deep strikers while still being able to shoot. It worked well.

Eldar are extremely strong at the moment. They still require intelligent lists to be effective, but the abundance of good Strength D really removes the need for much anti-armor shooting. Wraithfighters and Vaul's Wrath are the best, followed by Wraithguard and Scytheguard, and lastly the Wraithknight. 2 single strength D shots for 300 points really isn't very good compared to other options. You could stick 5 wraithguard in a decked out serpent for not much more.

Figure out what you expect to play against and what playstyle you want and it's really easy to expand the basic Guardian Warhost.

[Fishean]

So would the battle force and a farseer be a good start?

[Zaonite]

So would the battle force and a farseer be a good start?

It covers the basics of an Eldar army and gets you playing small games. If I were to start a new army, in general the first thing I would probably buy is the battleforce.

[Fishean]

Alright, thank you everyone for the help!