1000pt Eldar

[Pilum]

So, in the spirit of taking part, here's what I settled on the other night.

Expedition from Craftworld Dochas Y'Dor'Qadas:

Farseer Solas Treorach - Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Guide, Mind war (both usually swapped out to play with new rules): 140 pts

6 Fire Dragons, Exarch Nathair, Firepike, Tankhunters: 131 pts

5 Dire Avengers, Exarch Balla, Twin catapults, Bladestorm: 92 pts

10 Guardians, Shuriken Cannon: 85 pts

Wave Serpent, Twin Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon: 145 pts

9 Swooping Hawks, Exarch Clamhan, Hawks Talon, Skyleap: 226 pts

3 War Walkers, 2 x Scatter Lasers: 180 pts

For a grand total of 999 pts.

This hasn't exactly been a planned army. It started with a battle force and has been added to rather ad-hoc. Most obvious point I've taken so far is the Avengers are too brittle. I'm thinking of dropping the Spirit Stones and subsequently a power (runes too?) from Solas to pay for an additional 4. I could drop an additional Hawk for the full 10, leaving me with 9 points and a possible upgrade to Crack Shot on Nathair, and maybe a Spear for the Farseer.

I know some will say the Hawks are on the large side, but it bumps the cost up to actually get me to 1k and means if I do keep them as a firebase after landing or bouncing through cover as a haywire delivery system they have a bit more staying power... I have debated cutting them down to 5 or 6 and swapping out the Guardians (who for obvious range 12" reasons rarely do much) for some Jetbikes; if my maths is right, either 6 with 2 cannon or 4/5 with a cannon and a warlock for no other reason than Eldar without Jetbikes doesn't seem right!

I'm tempted to swap out the Serpent for either a Falcon with Bright Lance for AT work or with missile launcher and cannon for more general use - they work out the same points. Possibly a Fire Prism to free up a few more points for elsewhere at the cost of the redeployment option. A part of me wants to keep the WS around though, if for no other reason than railguns and Vanquishers (among other stuff) are not an unknown sight in my part of the galaxy.

I currently have a lack of melee options (though they try their best!) and have debated junking armour completely for this, but I'm loathe to give up long ranged anti-tank altogether (and 145 points doesn't buy a lot of close combat models, especially once exarchs or harlequin upgrades start going in too).

I have a feeling some answers are going to start "first, buy IA:11" and that's fair enough, but all I have at the minute is the codex, if you can bear that in mind.

Anyway, comments appreciated, if you could all follow that random babble!

[Irisado]

My first recommendation would actually be not to buy Imperial Armour 11, but would be to tidy up the existing craftworld force.  I get the impression that you're not fully focussed on the sort of Eldar list you want to field, and that's a problem, because, in my experience, you need to have a balanced and well thought out strategy to choose the right units for a mixed Eldar army to succeed.

The main problem which you have is that, for a mixed list, you don't have enough vehicles.  For a mixed Eldar list to work, you need a minimum of two Wave Serpents, increasing to three once you reach 1500 points, although this is not a problem for you at the moment.  One Wave Serpent is horribly easy to destroy with focused heavy weapons fire, and can be glanced to death, so you may find it better, for the moment, to play an all infantry list.  Experiment and see.

If you are to keep the Wave Serpent, then it's the Fire Dragons who need it.  Six Dragons on foot are just asking to die, and will very likely fail to fire a single shot, as good players will target them relentlessly when they're on foot, and they can't survive many bullets, even when using cover.  Your best bet would be to mount them inside the Serpent, hide it as best you can, and use it as a late game anti-tank rapid reaction unit.  Either way, Tank Hunters isn't really needed in my experience, but Crack Shot makes the Firepike a useful sniping weapon for bypassing vehicle cover saves, so I would swap the Exarch powers.

You're spot on with your analysis of the Dire Avengers.  You really do need a full sized unit here.  Ideally, they would be mounted in the second Wave Serpent (if you had one), but if they have to remain on foot, your best approach is to try a line of retreat, i.e. shoot, then fall back from opposing assault troops, or engage weak mel

[Pilum]

Thanks for responding, Irisado. It has helped; you're right regarding my being a bit vague with how I want them to play. I think, if I'm honest, it would have to be the Aspect route; it was that imagery back in WD125(?) that first attracted me to Eldar, but it's taken me this long to finally do them! If its shooting vs melee... I think I'd go with shooting ultimately, but with a pack or two of fighters nearby to mop up or for emergencies.

A lot of the choices are indeed influenced by availability, I don't usually kit out the Farseer with Runes but I had the points to spare. I did play a couple of games Pre-6th so I do know the difference Doom makes. Honestly, I've already half-decided to go back to the classic Stones-Guide-Doom combo as the new powers don't really seem to have the same effect that had.

Ok, the soldiery; Tank Hunters is there because it's me rolling the dice! On more than one occasion I've had the dragons within short range of a predator or dreadnought and achieved a mighty one penetration - off 5 or 6 hits (and this is WITH TH! ). That's said, penetrations aren't the be-all-and-end-all now so it is an easy points saving if need be. I agree on Crack Shot though; it would have been useful a few times recently.

The Hawks... Yeah, they're that big because I don't have the options. Easy enough to drop 3 to fund Avenger expansion though.

Guardians: running two is certainly an idea. I've always been quite unsure what to do with them, but an extra squad would allow some flexibility and - dare I say - less concern over losses...

The WS has lances as at the time it was the only real AT option I had; building an AT walker seemed a bit fragile. If I'm honest trying to get rid is the part which gives me the most problems; perhaps I'm too wedded to the idea of needing across-table kill capability... I will have to Doom my inner Guardsman 

Thanks again, some food for thought there.

[Irisado]

White Dwarf 127 is the issue I think that you're referring to.  This was when Aspect Warriors were introduced for the first time, and there is some terrific artwork in that issue.

If you wanted anti-tank walkers, that's basically where Wraithlords come in.  War Walkers are usually too fragile, and too inaccurate, to be equipped with Brightlances or EMLs, but Wraithlords are not, and two of those equipped with an EML and Brightlance each are more of a threat to vehicles than they were in fifth edition, especially with the AP of the Brightlance now counting for more on the damage table.

The Wave Serpent remains the most accurate anti-tank platform among non-infantry Eldar units though, so if you're happy with it, then there's no major issue in doing so, but it would be helpful if it had a partner.