Mark:

Regardless of the discussion here about which rules are the most official, I largely got into E:A thanks to the accessibility of your E:A Handbook 2008, and I have in turn leveraged its accessibility in my attempts at bringing new players into the fold. (I'm a natural born cultist.)  

So thank you. You are a champion among men, and your hard work on that document has paid dividends.

I may now shift to the original-EA-rules+errata model as this seems to be the preferred form for tournaments, and I'm currently helping get an Epic tournament off the ground here in Oz, but that in no way detracts from the awesomeness of your Handbook--for myself, and with full credit to the ERC (you guys are all WAY high in my Cool Book), I still prefer your Handbook.

Just my 2 cents, you understand...  

Thanks for the kind words G.    Updating the Handbook to reflect NetERC recommendations should help sort out confusion. Also next version I'm aiming to include a photo page for each army, as a helpful spotters guide for new players. Some work but think it should be worth it.

I'm also running a tournament here in NZ in June (which will be using Handbook 08). I should maybe crosspost some more between OZ/NZ sites. Never know, might even get a few visits back and forth across the ditch happening perhaps!

And now back to Biel Tan Tactics... apologies for OT Phantom

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Back to the topic please of Biel-tan Tactics

1. What is the point in taking Falcons, does any anyone actually take them, they seem to expensive for there 5+ Ar save

2. Guardians, what’s the point (Can’t shoot and no AR)

3. Engine of Vaul Troupe, again this goes with point one really, and it’s a shame as Fire Prism seem to be ok, but yet again the 5+ save is a killer and any good players will destroy these first turns.

4. Night spinners these are awesome, but again with there 5+ Ar, if you are playing against a player who knows what they are doing, then they should be broken from turn one.

6. I would like to use Banshees and my Fav Striking Scorpions, but can you get them into cc, I’m not sure if that would ever really be possible.

5. Has anyone tried just taking an entire army made up of Shining Spears, them seam totally op compared to the rest of the Eldar force?

I told him that.

I guess he just wants a 2nd opinion...

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The following comes with a "health warning" - I am still trying to make some of these strategies and tactics work in practice as I am quite often let down by bad dice - as some of you will know from first hand experience

On Eldar tactics as a whole, the concept behind the Eldar is that they are "Soap bubbles with sledgehammers" - brittle troops that can pack a big punch. They must use their mobility and cover to set up overwhelming assaults on their own terms while avoiding being shot or assaulted on the enemy's terms. (I presume that everyone has something like 30-40% of their battlefields covered in terrain - check out Chroma's battle reports to see what I mean). Their weak armour makes Eldar especially vulnerable to air assaults, so they usually need to ensure good air-cover of their own (Night Wings and Firestorms are both the best of their class in the game).

Eldar SR 4+ means that they can usually get the drop on IG, but need to be more cautious with Orks and Marines. Their Initiative of 2+ and especially the removal of Spirit Stones makes most Eldar formations very susceptible to BMs, so use cover and Marshall when a long way from the enemy. This also makes a Supreme Commander a "must" both to keep the army moving and to remove a BM from that Aspect Troop.

IMO Eldar generally need to keep an activation advantage over their opponents, so I try to get an average formation cost of around 250-300 points (10-12 formations in a 3000 point army). This allows the Eldar to try to move major formations later in the turn to places that cannot then be threatened by the opponent.  

The Eldar player must try to capitalise on the Eldar strengths
- Hit-and-run (especially after an assault by moving to support another engagement or away from retaliation).
- The "extra" retain to hammer opposing forces
- The "Free" Avatar to initiate assaults with Commander etc
- The generally superior mobility (35cm Skimmer) capability to concentrate attacks on part of the enemy while avoiding contact elsewhere.

In general, the Eldar formations are quite weak individually, but their mobility also means they can spring co-ordinated attacks from long range. Their weakness also means that they generally operate best in a 'counter-punch' mode - reacting to opposing threats and to exploit exposed weaknesses. Eldar should really only attack when they can be sure both of winning and also of minimising potential retaliation. As a general rule this also means they need to try to concentrate on the flanks of an opposing army rather than on direct confrontation.

On the formations mentioned above:-
Fire Prisms
Fire Prisms should always double when firing, moving back out of range / behind cover after firing. Lance, skimmer and their long-range make them quite good first-strike anti-tank weapons with the potential to lay AA BMs, but they are notoriously brittle, so must be kept out-of sight as much as possible.

Falcons
As Rug says, Falcons have good firepower, but it is a little short-ranged compared with IG, so they must also double making best use of cover - but they do make excellent support formations with their 4+ FF. Try doubling them forward to fire on an assault target, and them using Guardians in Wave Serpents to make the assault. They also allow the deployment of Firestorms for the AA umbrella.

Guardians
What's not to like about these? Ok, they have no armour (so keep them in cover or vehicles). They are cheap at 150 points each, To get shooting, you can swap out some for Heavy Weapons, or buy some upgrades. The Wraith Guard and Wraith Lord are awesome upgrades and Guardians do get a lot of FF 4+ dice. The Farseer gives commander besides getting a good CC attack and 4+ armour & Inv, and also gets the Farsight rule and the ability to deploy the Avatar. Everyone should have at least two of these formations in a 3000 point army

EoV troupes
Both a strength and weakness on the Eldar army. DC3 makes them harder to surpress, so on a par with the Falcons and Prisms and 5+RA makes them much better armoured. Most work well in pairs, but they then become bullet magnets, so I generally only use singletons (which also keep up the activations).

• Scorpion - heavy duty firepower, it is good for long-range Anti-tank duties, and more effective as two or a pair.
  
• Cobra - a singlton is really good at frightning infantry formations, and two (or possibly a pair) can seriously hurt / destroy most titans. Their short-range fire-power means they must make maximum use of cover and double or march into position later in the turn - but are fearsome once they get there. Limited AA capability also helps provide some protection against air-assault.
  
• Void Spinner - one of the best artillery in the game that combines mobility with range and disrupt.
  
• Storm Serpent - Provides the Eldar with long-range assault capability in a reasonably rugged WE with adequate support and AT as its secondary role. They are automatic targets of choice because their destruction can severely restrict Eldar strategy, so you should always have a minimum of two, and preferably a Wraithgate as well. But when working in co-ordination with each other and other formations, they can deliver a massive, supported assault that can wreck a significant part of the enemy army.

Night Spinners
Like many other Eldar formations these come into their own when you have more than one formation. They are nortoriously brittle, so need to be "hidden", and at 90cm range indirect, they are amoung the shorter ranged artillery. However, their 35cm move means they can claim objectives in turn three and disrupt makes them quite potent - especially against infantry. So you need to deploy them behind (or even in) cover, and protect then against air-assault with good AA cover.

Aspects
IMHO all aspects are costed about right with the possible exception of Warp Spiders (slightly too cheap) and Banshees (slightly too expensive). The point is that they are intentionally very good at one style of fighting, but otherwise mediocre. IMO most work well in combination with other Aspects, though Spiders and Hawks are best used alone.

• Shining Spears
  Shining Spears with 2x Exarchs can make very fast, hard assaults out of the Webway at a slightly greater distance than other Aspects (35 cms vs 30cm to make use of their CC attack). However, I also like to use a pair of them to reduce the cost of Aspects in Wave Serpents by 50 points per pair, or the equivalent of adding a pair of Exarchs.
  
• Howling Banshees
  IMHO the most problematic aspect, because of their weaker armour combined with CC assault. Put them in Wave Serpents to improve their survivability and assault range and combine with 2x Fire Dragon Exarchs which makes them quite potent - but really they only work well against weaker targets. (I used this combo to toast a Warhound with First Strike and then scoot back to safety). However they tend not to be used because there are better Aspects around.
  
• Striking Scorpions
  First class assault troops with good armour and 2x attacks. The classic combo is with Dire Avengers to provide good assault and support capabilities. A really viable alternative is 3x SS, 3x DA with 2x Fire Dragon Exarchs for additional MW firepower, again in Wave Serpents for added resilience and mobility.

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Sir Hemry Newbolt

I'd agree with a lot of what Ginger wrote - you have to be very careful to conserve Eldar strength and formations until you can pick and choose the fights you want, all the while picking off units and laying BMs with nightspinners and fire prism/ falcon hit and run sorties.

Some experiences of my own:
Guardians + waveserpents = awesome. Always deploy the guardians in BtB contact behind the waveserpents and use the same tactic on firefight assaults. That way, the skimmer waveserpents force FF on the attackers (or defenders) and their 5+ RA soaks up alot of hits that would otherwise autokill Guardians. Using my Avatar a simple Guardian + Waveserpent formation defeated a joint assault by 2 terminator formations, losing 1 waveserpent for 5 terminator stands!

Wraith constructs - well worth the points if used properly (usually out of a webway of some sort). Wraithlords are simply devastating in CC (and the RA saves makes a HUGE difference) whereas the wrathguard are potentially more useful, because it's easier to get into FF than BtB, though they do lose the RA. One fully pimped formation stood up to 2 tac fms shooting at them then annihilated another in assault. Only lost 2 or 3 units overall.

Aspects - the 4 striking scorpion 4 dire avenger in a Vampire combo is a winner. Once it wiped out a terminator formation and claimed 2 objectives, the other time it would have taken out a warhound AND a predator formation (and claimed BTS) but the &*^*()^ thing didn't activate on the last turn, so did bugger all. So, supreme commander on board = very good thing for Eldar!

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numquam culum es

IT seems that most of you like to use waveserpents and Night spinners, I guess a question I have to these how, why does your enemy allow you to have any of these after the first turn, best case second turn.

As far as wraith construts go, I can see the point in them, but yet again I'm not quite sure why your enemy is silly enough to be close enough for them to be of a great value?

As far as the Striking Scorpions and dire Avengers go yea its great but why should they limited to only one way to get into combat, but against a good orc player but not quite sure if you could.

With the wraith constructs they are best used out of the webway - so a 30cm assault range in any direction out of the wraithgate, and with a storm serpent they have an assault range of 90cm (as the serpent can march before they come out) so it is pretty hard to avoid that.

Regarding surviving turn 1 deployment is the key - always hide behind terrain then all you have to worry about is barrages and air assaults/attacks - against which the eldar have strong AA. To deal with the artillery to prevent barrages hitting you then the void spinner is excellent, teleporting s.hawks or even an empty vampire.

I've found falcons to be absolutely fantastic against Warhound size WEs which tends to be an important ability.

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Eldar formations are susceptible to shooting and BMs, so one of the best ways of 'hiding' is to be off table (teleporting, in Vampires or the Webway). However, this also brings its own inherent problems:-

• Eldar do need their SC, which must be on-table to be available - so you cannot put this elsewhere.
  
• Using Vampires reduces the number of activations, unless they are deployed by planetfall from a Spaceship, and in my experience Eldar tend to work better if they have an activation advantage. But planetfalling also causes problems.
  
• Vampires are the weakest air-transport in E:A and really do not fare well against good AA. So you need to have the means to supress enemy AA first.
  
• Storm Serpents are quite vulnerable - especially to Death Strikes and assaults, so you have to set up a number of formations to support them.
  
• Vampires, Storm Serpents and a spaceship all eat into the number of 'strong' activations that can have a big impact, so you have to choose the remaining formations with extra care
  
• Most armies work better when they are concentrated together for support and this is especially true of Eldar. However keeping a significant portion of the army off-table tends to do the reverse, and certainly allows the enemy time to concentrate on the remaining on-table forces.
• Apart from planetfalling, deploying off-tables forces in this way is quite slow and allows the enemy to react / concentrate against them. Isolated Eldar formations are usually very vulnerable.

In general when using Eldar you really need to be able to plan several moves ahead. As Steve says you can mount an alpha-strike with Storm Serpents - but then what? Consider the following example with Eldar Vs IG:-

• Eldar have 10 activations, including Void Spinner, Night Wings, Wave Serpent and Shining Spears (2x Exarch)
  
• IG have 9 activations, including Leman Russ, Death Strikes and Hydra battery protecting them
  
• Eldar win the initiative and use their Void Spinners to neutralise the Death Strikes. They retain using the Night Wings to Ground Assault the Leman Russ - 2 hits are caused, one tank dies for the loss of a Night Wing. In reply the IG activate something.
  
• Eldar Storm Serpent marches forwards and the Shining Spears retain, assaulting the Leman Russ in CC from the Wraithgate. Already 4+ on the resolution, the SS Lance attacks melt the IG armour like hot butter killing 4 (including the commisar's tank) for the loss of a single jetbike, and the roll-off destroys the remaining tanks. Then the SS retire 35 cm into cover.

Sounds good doesn't it? Yet the Eldar have used 4 activations totalling 1150 points to kill one IG formation and damage another, a total of possibly 900 points. Furthermore, the Eldar have and put two formations well ahead of the rest of their army which the IG can destroy at their leisure.

Assuming they do and nothing else happens in turn #1, the Eldar now have 9 activations to 8 IG, and with 2x BMs the Night Wings are unlikely to take part leaving the armies at activation parity. So in turn #2 the Eldar are likely to find it much harder to concentrate on on a part of the IG army, creating an attrition style of battle that favours the IG.  

=====================================
By contrast, lets assume the Eldar wait until turn #2 before mounting the attack. Keeping the SS (and possibly other forces) off-table means the Eldar have to move very cautiously, keeping in cover - later in the turn possibly marching some formations from one flank sideways across the battlefield to the other flank to concentrate on part of the IG army.

At the start of turn #2 the Eldar win the strategy roll and assault the Leman Russ as before - but this time they can consolidate the SS near another large IG formation. Now the Eldar use their second retain to assault the new IG formation and with the SS support, they are likely to break / destroy it as well. This way the Eldar have concentrated their troops, and have other forces ready to exploit the weaknesses being created on that flank of the IG army, while some of the IG army has nothing to attack in reply.

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Vitai lampada
Sir Hemry Newbolt

Perhaps it is because we are playing on a 12' x 16' table, but I find that getting the Shining Spears into BtB is quite difficult. Having no FF to speak of (considering that actually have the same twin-linked suriken catapults that vanilla jetbikes have) creates an expensive second best unit, even against my primary IG opponent.

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~Laserwolf

Yes, we know, the game was intended to be played in the 2000-5000 points range...

Heya Guys,

First post and looking for advice. I have a fair bit of Epic Eldar and am looking at pushing the points up to around 5000pts, giving me choices when it comes to making 3000pt lists. Bear in mind that I have most of these models, so am not looking for massive changes, just some advice on what would fit nicely into the 575 spare points I have. I will list the formations and models I have underneath.

Cheers guys 'n' gals.


Guardian Warhost w/ Wraithguard, Wraithlords
Guardian Warhost w/ Wraithlords
Guardian Warhost w/ Heavy and Support Weapons, Autarch

Aspect Warhost w/ 7 Dire Avengers, 1 Dark Reaper Exarch, 4 Wave Serpents
Aspect Warhost w/ 7 Dire Avengers, 1 Dark Reaper Exarch, 4 Wave Serpents
Shining Spears Warhost w/ 2 Exarchs
Shining Spears Warhost w/ 2 Exarchs

Rangers x 4
Windrider warhost
Warwalkers
Falcon Troupe w/ 2 Fstorms
Webway Gate
Avatar

Voidspinner x 2
Nightwing Interceptors


That lot comes to 4425 in total. I also own 1 more firestorm tank and 2 of each of the other aspects.
Thanks for any help!

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I'd have to say this is a board-size issue. In a vanilla game, there is far less territory to cover and far less are in which the enemy can avoid them. Between gates, Storm Serpents and the fact that Spears can march 105cm to set up an assault for the following turn against low-SR opponents, they have been a serious threat in most games I've played against them.

It depends a lot on the strategy(-ies) you like to play. If you can give us more information on how you like to field them, it will be helpful in formulating advice.

One thing I would say, though, is that with 8 gate-able formations (if you leave the Wave Serpents off the DAs), you only have one portal available. I would suggest a Storm Serpent or two for increased deployment flexibility.

If you think you need one storm serpent, take two. When you plan for one it will get hit by a critical. Fact