Eldar on a budget.

I like the new post-Gavin Thorpe Eldar list. It is not broken, and I would not be embarassed to play it anymore. In fact, Eldar seem to have some of the crappiest, most overcosted infantry in the game (dark reapers, rangers, swooping hawks, shining spears). Their troop choices are ok for the cost, but not exceptional. So, I started pricing out an army and quickly figured out that any non-marine, non-ork army is really freaking expensive! $5 guardians! $18 wraithguard! WTF? The only decent deal is the Eldar Battleforce box which essentially gives the purchaser a free box set. So I took a closer look the battleforce to see if it contained any units that suck. Wave serpent, those are good. Dire avengers, those are okay. Guardians, need some of those. War walker, what do those do now? Hey, those are really cool! OK, so without further ado, here is my 3 battleforce Eldar army. All I need to add is a couple wraithlords (obviously), 3 characters, and some wraithguard (come on Darren!). The meat of the army is the 3 battleforce box sets:

Farseer w Guide 75

20 Guardians w Shuriken Cannon 165
10 Storm Guardians w 2 Fusion Guns Warlock w Singing Spear Embolden 125
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100
10 Dire Avengers w Exarch w Double Catapult 137
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100
10 Dire Avengers w Exarch w Double Catapult 137
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100
10 Wraithguard w Spiritseer w Enhance 396

Wraithlord w Shuriken Cannon Scatter Laser 120
Wraithlord w Shuriken Cannon Scatter Laser 120
3 War Walkers w 6 Shuriken Cannons 120

1695 points!

So, 44 strength 6 shots per turn. 1 HQ, 5 troops and 3 heavy support. Good mobility. A little light on heavy vehicle killing, but the storm guardians and wraithguard can shoot them, or they can be assaulted by witchblades or wraithlords. And all for under $500 or so...

The wraithguard have to walk (or perhaps run! ) in this list. The serpents carry the two units of dire avengers and the storm guardians. Do you honestly think dark reapers are good for 35 points a model? I've never seen a unit pay for itself. Every army has some form of long range shooting that will be able to target them, and these guys die easier than 15 point space marines.

OK, operation Get Inexpensive Wraithguard has stalled, so I'm exploring other options. It's nice to have a counterassaulty-type unit in a shooty army, and for Eldar that means harlequins or banshees (or I guess an avatar). Banshees seem ok, but are pretty vulnerable to enemy shooting, and cannot assault vehicles. Harlequins are practically immune to long-range shooting and can assault almost anything (except ironically, banshees). So harlequins it is:

Farseer w Guide 75

10 Harlequins w Troupe Master w Power Weapon w Shadowseer w all Kisses 266

10 Guardians w Shuriken Cannon 85
20 Guardians w Scatter Laser w Warlock w Enhance 215
10 Storm Guardians w 2 Fusion Guns Warlock w Singing Spear Embolden 125
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100
10 Dire Avengers w Exarch w Double Catapult 137
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100
10 Dire Avengers w Exarch w Double Catapult 137
Wave Serpent w TL Shuriken Cannon 100

Wraithlord w Shuriken Cannon Scatter Laser 120
Wraithlord w Shuriken Cannon Scatter Laser 120
3 War Walkers w 6 Shuriken Cannons 120

1700 points!

With the big guardian squad enhanced now and the harlequins the army is much better at assaulting. It still has 5 troop choices, although one is considerably weaker than before. I'm going to run it and see how it does!

You are definately going to be dropping infantry pretty quick with this list. Im wondering about your tank killing ability. smart gamers will avoid your wraithlords and the fusion guns don't have much range...

are you insane,dark reapers own marines and since everybody plays them. They own even more put a farseer in a unit they get shots on a tactical squad its dead.

Veyure I agree, tank killing is a bit of an issue. I can maneuver for flank and rear shots with the wave serpents and (possibly) flank marching war walkers. The fusion gun armed guardians are in a wave serpent, so they have a decent potential range. I have several units that can assault and kill vehicles also (harlequins, wraithlords, anything with a witchblade). Option B is always kill all of the infantry quickly and hope the tanks can't win the game for them. We'll have to see if that's a viable option once the Imperial Guard codex comes out!

Ben to answer your question: no I am not insane. How many marines did your 200 point (that's an approximation I know it's possibly a little more or less) reaper unit kill in our 2 games? 6 in the first and 2 in the second? If (and that's a big if) you're shooting marines in the open you will need 3 turns to kill your points back. Add a farseer, and your unit is nearing 300 points. This is a fragile unit that can be shot or assaulted by anything. I'm just not a fan. I know you like them, but I think we can agree to disagree.

ok i am just voicing my opinion. You can voice yours

Thank you!

thats a realy good list . i think its going to be effective i would love to see it in action.