After dabbling with Space Marines and Imperial Guard, I've been giving the Eldar a good hard look.  I love sneakiness, and finesse without shattering...

My question is, short of the Aspect Warriors, there doesnt seem to be a TON of variety in the "standard" list.  I suppose this IS the variety?  A few formations of Aspects with nicely mixed units, a few support "FF-style", a few transported formations for quick delivery...add in a few tank formations and thats about what you need?

The other thing that is occupying a lot of my contemplation time is Wraithguard.  Stats-wise they are close to Terminators, but have no access to transports in the Biel-Tan list.  How do you deliver them into close combat quickly and efficiently?

Lastly, with the ability to pop up with the Skimmer ability, what have you found to work the best?

Anyone willing to shed some light on a rookie would be appreciated!

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Via 'Gates... either as an Objective replacement or with a Storm Serpent... now *that* is travelling in style!  

Or, you can use the Guardians plus Wraithguard as a hard to crack, if in cover, Blitz guard formation.

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Eldar actually have a lot of variety, but most of their units are specialists in one thing. However the list also permits a certain amount of ad-hoc amalgamation, to allow you to create more generalist formations. The Aspects demonstrate this in their different types that can be mixed together to provide the degree of mobility/shooting/assault desired.

Much of the Eldar strategy (and indeed that for other races) depends on the way the formations are used and combined. There are at least three broad strategies, each implying different formations and units:- "Mobile" strategy, "Infantry" strategies, "Airborne" strategy, and "Titan" strategies.

In the "Mobile" strategy the aim is to make best use of the hit-&-run capability in shooting and especially assault. For example, Guardians can be delivered in Wave Serpents which provide the weapons, armour and speed the guardians lack. Leave the guardians on board, get within 50-55cm of an assault target and let them rip. However, the formation of 4x Wave Serpents (with the troops onboard) is a bit weak and susceptible to pre-emptive strikes - so place one or two formations of jetbikes next to the Guardians to screen against this. You can use the Farseer's 'commander' ability to bring the bikes into the assault as well (18-24 FF attacks) which is more than enough to hurt most significant targets. So now the opponent learns to fear and target these formations - thus you need to hide / protect them with screens, terrain, aircraft, AA batteries etc; and picking the right combination and position of these troops is then an art in itself.

One "Infantry" strategy is to use Storm Serpents and gates to deliver forces to the desired location, relying on other elements for protection and support (always have at least two gates to prevent the strategy being ruined by the loss of one gate). As Chroma says, WraithGuard are superb at this while WraithLords (being AV) also provide cover for the Guardians. And being Fearless, both of these units actively have to be destroyed by the enemy. The "airborne" strategy uses Vampires to deliver troops, possibly via planetfall from a spaceship, and the "Titan" strategy revolves around the use of Titans.
- which then permits the use of foot-slogging formations.

The main point of all this is that these strategies can also be  mixed to some extent.

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Large numbers of guardian warhosts - augment some if you want, but leave most as they are. Bring them in through the gate and a storm serpent. You'll be out-activating your opponent (150pts per activation for warhosts!) and they are lethal in firefights.
If you can get enough guardians in the same area of the battlefield, have one engage in a safe fight, use consolidation to bring it into support range of another, retain (no penalty because of the farseer) and engage another formation. You can even retain a second time (still with no penalty!), in the unlikely event that your guardians are in a suitable position.

There's plenty more to eldar than guardians, but they are the single most important thing (IMO).

In my admittedly limited experience of the current rules, I have found that Aspect Warriors in Wave Serpents are lethal at initiating hit and run assaults, and having the option of consolidating standard move distance is very important for them, since it allows the Wave Serpents to get the fragile infantry out of trouble once they have destroyed the opposing formation in an assault.

I haven't really managed to get the best out of my Guardian formations yet.  I've played them as though I were fielding them in Space Marine, and they just don't work in that role any more in Epic Armageddon, so I need to come up with new tactics for them.

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Actually there are a lot of ways you can select the list that play quite differently. Whether you take any titans (a Warlock is expensive and needs to be carefully used but is an assaulting monster than can cause massive damage), whether you invest in good Eldar aircraft, or pass on them and stick with ground AA, whether you get your troops close to the enemy in wave serpents, via storm serpents and the webway or via planetfalling vampire raiders, whether you take artillery or not, what aspects etc.

I used Eldar at my first ever epic tournament not so long ago, having fun with them and doing decently well for my first one. Artillery and Warp Spiders flying in by Vampire were things I especially liked, as was having a high activation count (but not excessively high). In nearly all aspect warrior builds it’s worth taking two Exarches and with Warp Spiders that’s then 10 first striking FF 4+ attacks coming at the enemy before they get a chance to attack.

Skimmer is useful because it means you can always FF rather than taking CC attacks, floating safefly above some impotent genestealers or terminators with their deadly but out of reach macro weapon CC attack.

Have you read the Eldar Tactics thread in the tactics and strategy section of the forum? If not could be worth a look.

That thread had a few good nuggets in it, mostly towards the end and presented by Ginger.  Thanks for the tip.

I have a side-question about the different Craftworlds.

A) Is the best place for the fluff on these still the 40k codexes?
b) Do people really paint up their armies for a particular Craftworld?  I've toyed with the idea of trying out Saim-Hann but really want all my stuff red (I prefer custom color schemes anyway), AND I just bought a bunch of Iyanden infantry off Ebay and now feel like it would be silly to play anything but...

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There’s probably a decent amount scattered about the net, Lexicanum gives a Wikipedia style overview for example, but any of the different Eldar codices down the years have likely been the most concentrated background for them.

I’ll be painting my own army as Saim-Hann and will probably mostly play them either using that or a jetbike predominant main list, but I may occasionally try other variant Eldar lists using them. Similarly I intend to paint a large custom marine chapter that I can field using any other specific marine lists should I choose.

The old W40k Craftworld Eldar mini-Codex talked about it in the introduction and said that while these are the predominant styles the craftworlds use at times they field different lists in some circumstance e.g. if you had a Saim-hann army and wanted to field lots of Wraithguard it’s fine to use the Iyanden list.

This is precisely what I do with my "home-brewed" Craftworld, using different Craftworld lists to represent different approaches to war, while using my own colour scheme.

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On option A, I recommend the following sources for Eldar background:

White Dwarf 127
The Second Edition Eldar Codex
Renegades supplement rulebook from Second Edition Space Marine.

These three are excellent sources of background, which are very well written, and are much better than a lot of the current sources (in 40K at least).

The background information in Swordwind (from GW's site) is quite good too.

I do not rate the Lexicanum, since anyone can write anything there as far as I can see, so you could end up with some pretty unreliable background entries appearing there.

On option B, you can create your own Craftworld, but have it follow the rules or composition of one of the existing Craftworlds if you wish.  I have my own Craftworld in 40K, but I haven't decided which Craftworld I will use for my Epic force yet.

I was orginally an Alaitoc player in both Epic and 40K, but I have moved away from that Craftworld in recent years.

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Thanks for the responses.

I have a large group of Iyanden-colored troops now (and narrowly missed an Ebay auction with yellow Nightwings recently!), and like 15+ Wraithlords in at least 3 different poses, so a Spirithost-led Craftworld makes sense.

I think, however, I like the speed of Saim-Hann combined with the nastiness of Ulthwe, so think ultimately I will go for a white theme trimmed with Blood Red and Black.  Good times.

I need some identification, though, if possible.  Specifically, whats the difference between these guys in blue and the unpainted chaps with the larger guns?



You can also see on the front left of the stand to the immediate right of the blue guys there is a trooper holding a shoulder mounted lascannon-like weapon.  Anyone know what that used to be?



How come Harlequins havent made it back into any of the lists?  I was quite surprised by that since theyre back in the 40K codex now.  That and I have like 12 stands of them

Lastly, are Warp Spiders "new"?  I have purchased two large-ish auctions off Ebay in the past 3 weeks and out of the dozens of stands of infantry in each, I have all Aspect Warriors represented except Warp Spiders!  And theyre the one I really wanted  I wonder if this is because both auctions were for 'old school' Eldar which may not have had them at that time?

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http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

They're all guardians, just different generations of miniatures. I think the blue fellows are the models that came in the Second-edition Space Marine box, while the grey chaps are from the separate Eldar infantry set. There were also some metal guardian models before either of them, and a newer design on the current sprues, which dates back to Epic 40k.


I would guess it's a lascannon, which used to be a valid option for Eldar (they've since been replaced with the Bright Lance). Note that the other guardians are armed with lasguns rather than shuriken catapults.

You can just use them as normal guardians, or if you prefer you could use them to represent Heavy Weapon or Support Weapon platforms. Or you could use the Lascannon/Bright Lance platform from the appendix.


Army lists in Epic tend to be a bit more 'focussed' than in 40k, thus the craftworld Eldar lists contain only craftworld Eldar. I believe a Harlequin army list does exist, but last I saw it was still pretty experimental.


They're newer than most of the other Aspect warriors. They were introduced to W40K during the Second edition, but didn't appear in Epic until Epic 40k.

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Drats.  Anyone have any extra Warp Spiders to sell, or do I get to blow $80 on 4 Eldar Warhosts from GW to simply get 8 stands of them?  That would:

a) give me more Aspect Warriors than I could EVER use, considering my recent Ebay purchases, and
b) make those the most expensive Epic models ever at $10 USD per 5-man stand

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http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

Thinking about appropriate proxies...

I'd be very tempted to go with a pack of DRM Andrayada Vulturs: pointy heads, warp packs/jump packs, and big guns... sounds like a fair warp spider to me.
http://www.darkrealmminiatures.co.uk/store....&page=1
perhaps with a little bit of greenstuff converting.

You may be a purist, but 4 pounds sounds a lot better than $80.  And there's a lot of 'good enough for government work' at 6mm.  Microworldgames has them in the U.S., by the way.

The other thing I would consider is thinning out the stands significantly... to 3-per stand.  This especially because you have gobs of flock!.

That said.... I think I might have some warp spiders awaiting paint -- and I'm near the point wholesale proxying my Eldar infantry anyway.  So if you really want the Warp Spider plastics, I may be able to find some.

Or, in a pinch, you could always use Harlequins with 'counts as'. Most of the stats could be considered 'Harlequiny', with the exception being their squishiness in Base Contact.

But you've already got 12, and it'd allow you to field them until you decide if that's the kind of unit you want to invest in as a permanent feature for your army.

Morgan Vening