# Eldar Starter Army



## melinore

So I have recently acquired the Battle Force starter set for the Eldar and I am contemplating my choices on how to build. Also it seems it does not come with an HQ option so I'm going to have to make a choice concerning what to buy in order for field my army. 

I was wondering if I could get help or suggestions on how to go about plotting out a force that could provide a good foundation that is playable on its own, but is also capable of being expanded upon. 

The box I am getting seems to contain these:

5 Dire Avengers
10 Guardians with Heavy Weapon Platform
1 War Walker
1 Wave Serpent

I'm currently delving into the Eldar Codex attempting to familiarize myself with their units, weapons and how they play. I'm not necessarily looking for a full detailed list although those would be interesting to see as well. 

I am more looking towards getting suggestions and steered towards interesting routes that more experienced players might have tried and found succeeded. 

Thank you in advance for any help that is given. I appreciate the time invested in responses.


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## Cyklown

The battleforce is better than most, but if you want a competitive-ish army that can mostly keep up with 5th edition codices, your options are limited.

The Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent and (for smaller games, which I'm assuming you'll be starting out with) Warwalker are quite solid. Make sure to give the warwalker scatterlasers. I'd certainly NEVER mix and match the weapons, even if the sprues DO rather handicap you.

A capable eldar force is going to consider of Dire Avengers (who are either shooty or, my personal preference, a minimum-sized squad that just serves to "upgrade" their transport to be scoring) in Wave Serpents, Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents, Fire Prisms (either 2+ or none at all) and Falcons who either keep farseers safe or who port an extra squad of minimum-squad sized DA around and a farseer.

As far as weapons go, for small points games Missile Launchers are solid, and shuriken cannons (underslung on every vehicle, in smaller games TL on the Fire Dragon transports), scatterlasers and brightlances are key. The brightlances are a tad overcosted pointswise, but in big games (1750 starts to really need then, at 1850 you pretty much HAVE to have them) they become a neccesity. If you have a number of WS turrets (you can buy 'em sepperate) and just keep 'em detachable, or if you follow the guides here at HO and elsewhere and magnatise the guns you can swap stuff around easily. S6 firepower is our key strength. Well, that and the fact that fire dragons are fucking amazing.

For HQs... well, Farseers are good and Eldrad is awesome once you have the points to spare.

It seems harsh, and it means ditching most of the codex, but as an old codex that saw it's more popular choices nerfed when the newest dex came out, we're looking at a monobuild. If you want to buy other stuff for fun then have at it, but if you want your money to go farther, that's how I'd do it. Ask away if you have any questions about the whys, etc. I know that money is limited for everyone and models aren't cheap, so I'd rather not see someone buy stuff and then realize that it doesn't keep up.


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## Cyklown

Oh, and for 1k points...

farseer, doom

5 fire dragons, wave serpent, shuriken cannons, chingun
5 fire dragons, wave serpent, shuriken cannons, chingun

5 dire avengers, wave serpent, eml, shuriken cannon
5 dire avengers, wave serpent, eml, shuriken cannon

some war walkers till you're out of points, or perhaps some fire prisms. The Fire Dragons may seem a bit excessive, but you're going to want them in quantity, and eventually will want 3 squads of 'em, so...

For a combat patrol/40k in 40 minutes game I'd suggest something lile
Eldar jetbikes, warwalkers with scatters to taste, plus something fun to goof off with. Combat patrols don't let us use transports, so EJB become better.

If all of those hulls seem daunting/hard to come by, consider taking a unit of rangers or jetbikes (the latter would fit with the combat patrol army) and just hiding them really carefully behind vehicles. They have move-shot-move, so they should be able to pop out for shots when it's appropriate and then turboboost off for objectives. Rangers can hide in cover and either snipe or go to ground for a 2+ save in cover.

For cheaper WS hulls I'd check ebay and craiglists, etc. for deals. There's a lot of stuff with a terribad painjob that you can use Simple Green to remove.


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## melinore

That all seems like sound advice. When I first got them I had not realized suggestions would be so mech intensive. I was envisioning more foot troops, but I suppose since i keep hearing 5th edition is mostly about mobility I should not have been surprised. I also noticed you left out the Guardians all together. Is this an indication they are a subpar unit at best or just a testament to the amazingness of Fire Dragons? 

Thank you for giving me food for thought. It has definitely given me a sense of direction in terms of what units to look at purchasing and eventually deploying. Although I would like to ask if you think hybrid lists are viable at all? 

I have some Imperial Guard that I am building in that fashion and I kind of like the idea of foot and mech supporting one another. Although considering that Eldar are more costly in points possibly this is a bad idea.


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## Cyklown

Well, they don't shoot particularly well, have to be taken in lumps of 10+ which drives their price up, pay a big chunk for their mandatory gun upgrade and then can't shoot if they're in a vehicle.

So, ultimately, Dire Avenger squads end up doing it better.

But yeah, in 5th mech is king. Mech isn't the only option, but with vehicles being wonderful metal boxes of survivability, you need them or something that can compete. Eldar, as an aging codex, gets one decent build: put your dudes in bawkses, and run around dropping s6 firepower on stuff and generally neutralizing the other side's battle plan until the end of the game, where you use your superior mobility to claim objectives. For killpoints we just try to not lose a whole lot of men.


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## a_bad_curry

It really depends who ur playing against. I assume ur playing against Sphess Mahreens so here are a few suggestions

Dark Reapers- Necessary. Wound on 3, ignore most armour saves. Brilliant unit, but only use them against SM

Howling Banshees- Also Necessary. wound on 5 mostly, So use a farseer with doom, and wave serpent so they dont die. Upside is they ignore armour with power weapons!

Farseer- Love hate. But the powers make up for it. really pay off on the battlefield


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## Barnster

Gaurdians are a solid scoring unit for your home base, but don't ever expect them to kill much, if you take them take a warlock to lead them

Howling banshees in falcons are amazing, or go a squad with a farseer, doom is essential for these girls

Autarch are meh they are realativly easy to kill and not that killy, Avatars are VERY good as a big monster, at lower points can handle alot of units on their own

Guardian jet bikes are a fantastic unit for last turn objective grab

Warwalkers are iffy, if you can keep them in cover they are awesome though watch for assault units. Personally i always found 2X EMLs best on them as they give you something most eldar units lack, flexibility


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