Hi,

Steve54 was very helpful outlining a 'shopping list' of stuff to pick up so that I would have enough stuff to make most common builds, however the eldar models are the most expensive (due to their relative rarity on ebay) and I'm looking for advice on stuff to pick up to get me started that I can add to

currently, I have the following: (well I just bought it and it's on its way...)

6 falcons
3 fire prisms
3 night spinners
1 scorpion

I'm planning on picking up the following very soon:

FW:
3 packs of FW wave serpents
2 packs of FW firestorms
2 FW vampires
3 packs of FW nightwings

GW:
avatar and gate
2 warhosts
2 storm serpents
1 pack of revenants

does this sound like a reasonable starting point or is it light/heavy/imbalanced in some areas?

The complete list given to me by Steve54 is:

Avatar+gate
2 warhosts (2 will do, 4 will give you a formation of each aspect)
2 falcons
2 firestorms
Support weapons
2 void spinners
2 storm serpents
Scorpion
Vypers
Night spinners
Fire prisms
2 vampires (also from FW)
Nightwings (also from FW)
4 x wave serpents (also from FW)
Revenants
Warlock


I'm working my way through that, and I assume that the dire avengers/fire dragons pack is a worthy purchase as well?

thanks in advance for any advice!

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to start with, I'd probably drop one of the storm serpents and get a void spinner instead. You're also unlikely to field more than 1 fm of nightwings and, although 2 vampires would be fun, you could just as easily start off with 1. You'll need a Court of the Young King for the avatar, gate and exarchs (never leave home without them!). I haven't used more than 4 firestorms, although I always take 2 falcon fms with 2 firestorms each (they're awesome).
as for the firedragons/ dire avengers pack, you'll probably have more than enough models and fms to get you started, so I'd put them on the to do list, rather than the main one
I'd also highly recommend semajnollisor's models, especially the support weapons, as they're stunning and very good value
oh, and if you need extras to fill in some gaps, there are always other options (wink)

I really like the Void Spinners for laying out some long range blasts; almost never take an army without two of them. But the night spinners fill the same role.

I almost never take flyers after seeing a thousand points of fliers get very nearly autoslaughtered by 150 points of AA; but your mileage may vary

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wink? the kind of wink that needs a PM to explain?

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could be

if you can take void spinners, I'd take them over night spinners any day. More points, but longer range, better armour and stays effective for longer (you just have to look at night spinners for them to break). My night spinners are more effective at influencing my opponent's movement and sucking up his attention than at actually killing anything.

For flyers, I like taking a Vampire with 4 warpspiders (I play Ulthwe) plus a flight of nightwings. If the nightwings get a chance, they'll slaughter any opposing fighters and can often take down thunderhawks with their lance fire, plus they're effective LV hunters. The vampire is a pretty decent tank hunter and can be very useful for objective grabbing or deep striking with the warpspiders. I've even used one as a 1st activation alpha striker, where 4 warpspiders (v. luckily) broke 4 fms of squats that my opponent had foolishly intermingled. He wasn't very happy. The vampire is fragile though, so I rarely throw it in hot and prefer to strafe from a distance to begin with.

You do not need to buy everything at once, but should try to buy the things that will support one or two strategies and work on from there.

Eldar are among the most flexible armies in the Game, but tend to work best when you pick an army to follow one or perhaps two strategies. So if you want to use the Webway for example, use the Gate, 2-3 Storm Serpents, guardians+ Wraithguard, Warp Spiders etc. If you want an airborne army, then Vampires rather than Stormserpents etc.

The staples in my lists are Void Spinner, Nightwings, Rangers and of course Guardians. Always take at least one set of Aspects so that you can have an Autarch (for the re-roll), though the particular type used depends on the army style.

Another thought is that the least used formations are War-walkers, Cobras, Night Spinners and Howling Banshees. These formations are not "bad" per se, just a lot harder to use well.

Eldar have a number of possible build types, so it's easy to spend a lot of money quickly to give you all the options. If I were you I'd stick with one or two types to begin with, as Ginger says.

Get 3 night wings, you won't need more (OK so it's two packs, but don't bother with 3 packs).

Get 3 falcons and 2 firestorms. If I were doing it again I'd avoid the FW firestorms, the gun barrels are ridiculously flimsy. Of 3 packs, I got 4 usable models through the post (and one of those was repaired). For other armour, if you've got night spinners don't bother with a void spinner to begin with, you will never field both. Since you've got falcons, night spinners and fire prisms, your 1 scorpion is probably fine. Get revenants if you like titans and want the variety (it's definitely not essential). I'd probably get another falcon or firestorm instead first.

The most efficient use of infantry is 2 boxes - gives you loads of jetbikes, rangers and guardians, and you can field an assault aspect formation of 4 striking scorpions, 4 dark reapers. All these are pretty much obligatory, and you also get a wraithguard upgrade option there too.

For transport, I think you can get away without the storm serpents. IMO unless you have 4 boxes of infantry (for warp spiders) OR the avenger/dragon set (for all-FF formation) OR shining spears it's not worth going all out in the webway - what are you going to put in there?? I'd probably get 8 wave serpents, a vampire and the gate (you want the avatar+court anyway). You leave yourself some options, and to be honest the transport options are pretty interchangeable. I tend to field a mix anyway.

I think that will do you to begin with. You should now have:
avatar
gate
4 formations of guardians (can be mounted in something, or given wraithguard and stuffed in the gate)
assault aspects (mounted in something)
2 formations of jetbikes
2-4 formations of rangers
3 falcons, 2 firestorms
fire prisms
night spinners
scorpion
vampire raider and wave serpents for transport
And possibly:
another falcon formation
revenants

In round 2, I would consider a storm serpent and one or two of:
another 2 infantry boxes (so you can make formations of swooping hawks and warp spiders - sadly warp spiders are rare on ebay as they were introduced in the Epic 40K infantry boxes)
dire avengers + fire dragons (firefight capability is important)
shining spears (reduces the cost of aspects, and good from webway)

In round 3:
heavy/support weapon platforms, the old ones come up on ebay regularly enough
a vyper or 2
wraithlords (again, ebay)
Fill in any gaps in your transport or armour options you feel you are missing (e.g. falcons, void spinner, another vampire)

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I'm not sure about needing to buy everything at once, I'm just a little worried that EA is going to start going the way of warmaster, with units going out of stock and not being replenished..... orks and marines I'm not worried about too much as there is shedloads of stuff on ebay and that will probably continue for a while, IG have a tonne of alternative models and proxies, Tau and Necrons are made up mostly of non-GW models nowadays so I'm not worried about that either.... that leaves Eldar.... not many good proxies around, and not a huge amount on ebay (and the stuff that is on there will skyrocket when it goes OOP)

but I take your points, just trying to get the highest number of fun, competetive builds for my buck!

oh and thanks very very much for the advice!

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