Starting Eldar [Advice Needed]

[akaiyou]

As some may know I recently inherited an Eldar army from a friend and I'm looking around the forums for guides and stuff on eldar, but the 'search' feature was not being kind to me for whatever reason. So if anyone can pass me a link or just post up their own unit analysis and stuff it would be much helpful.

What I'm interested in (all opinions geared for 5th ed..yes i know 6th ed is on the way):
1. Best load outs for the models I now own. (wargear/weapons/etc)
2. Army Composition suggestions (which units work well together, combos/synergy)
3. How to improve on what I currently own in an economical way (i'd potentially buy a few things to fill in gaps but def not looking to say...buy 5 new vehicles for an army i got free)
4. Any other important aspect I may have overlooked with Eldar

This is what I currently own, I "added" the 20 dire avengers and 2 wave serpents from a separate trade to boost the army.
Also note I'm willing to buy weapon bits so pretend that all weapon options are available for each unit when making suggestions.

Unlimited Pts - Eldar Roster - June 4th 2012

3 Autarch w/Jetbikes
4 Dark Reapers
. . 3 Dark Reapers - Reaper Launcher
. . 1 Dark Reaper Exarch - Tempest Launcher
20 Dire Avengers
. . 18 Dire Avengers - Avenger S-Catapult
. . 1 Dire Avenger Exarch - 2 Avenger SC
. . 1 Dire Avenger Exarch - Power Weapon; Shimmershield
1 Falcon
2 Farseer
30 Guardians
. . 20 Guardians - Shuriken Catapult
. . 10 Guardians - Close Combat Weapon; Shuriken Pistol
8 Howling Banshees
. . 7 Howling Banshees - Banshee Mask; Power Weapon; Shuriken Pistol
. . 1 Howling Banshee Exarch - Banshee Mask; Shuriken Pistol; Executioner
3 Vyper
3 Warlock
2 Wave Serpent
2 Wraithlord

Total Roster Cost: 2776

[Empirespy]

Well *puts on Eldar hat*

HQ
You have 4 HQs, (five including the warlocks), and I would suggest the Farseer and 1 Autarch of games 1500pts and up.

Farseer
The Farseer I would always include, their battlefield manipulation is incredibly valuable, and at their points, it's a crime not to take one. They come with an impressive array of options and upgrades, but be warned, take to much and he becomes too expensive for what he does. Choose a role for him in game, and give him those powers and upgrades, the most common being the buffer, give him fortune and guide, spirit stones, and warding runes, put him in a squad, and make them re-roll failed hits and re-roll saves from the return fire, whilst providing a psychic defences across the board, this for 140Pts, you can give him/her witnessing runes if you wish. Another common use is the death star destroyer. Take a unit of warlocks, and a farseer with spirit stones, warding, doom and mind war, then doom the enemy unit (preferably a large hard hitting unit) and use mind war to remove something important (FNP granter (medic San priest etc.), sargent, icon) that buffs the unit. With these buffers gone, the rest of your army can destroy the doomed unit with greater ease. Don't worry about using lots of other units to help destroy it, focus on one target, then move to the next.
Hopefully this gave you some good insight into the farseer.

Autarch
I've yet to use a Jetbike Autarch before, so I'm just working on what I think works well with them, but I would use it as a hit and run specialist, give it a lance, a fusion gun, and maybe a mandiblaster. If you put him in a unit, then jump out and fire fusion gun at a tank, then get 5 I6 S6 power weapon attacks, you will be able to do some damage to tanks with a rear av of 10 or 11 (possibly AV12). Another way would be to hit something like a razorback, a small light transport that you can pop with the fusion gun, then kill the squishier contents.

Elites
You have too very complimentary units here, the dark reapers and the Howling banshees, being that one is combat oriented, the other is long range. The first tactic would to use the long range support of the reapers to draw enemies closer into range to take them out, and use the banshees as a counter attacking force. The other is too fend off attackers the the reapers, and harass the flank with the banshees in a serpent or falcon.

Troops
Firstly, in order to use the 20 defender guardians, you need to get at least 1 heavy weapons platform. I would suggest getting two bright lances or scatter lasers, depending on the rest of your force, and put them in ten man units. Give them a warlock with conceal, and now you don't have to worry about finding them cover, just giving them wide firing arcs.
The storm guardians would be best used like the banshees, either counter attack or flank pushers in a serpent and I would suggest some converting to give two fusion guns or flamers.

Dire avengers, watch this, I loved it, and it's where al my advice would come from.


I have some more but I'm again busy...

-Empirespy

[akaiyou]

Thank you very much for the tips much appreciated.

[treadiculous]

I have found here to be particularily good for Eldar:

www.40konline.com/index.php?board=1.0

I would look especially for the articles relative to Imperial Armour 11 ; Doom of Mymeria, mainly because there is a number of codex legal forgeworld vehicles and also a charcter which extends the heavy support slot by one extra (making 4 boxes in the FOC).

admittedly, forgeworld stuff is supposedly okay to use now, its still worth checking with your local gamers.


I'm not able to improve much on what empirespy has said regarding your current selection, I would echo that farseers + runes + doom + guide are an excelent combo of upgrades and that mixed with dire avengers with bladestorm they are devastating, I've seen a simple 1k list including 2 Farseers and 2 units of Dire Avengers absolutely massacre stuff again and again. (with 2 fire prisms filling the last few points).

I would recommend an Avatar to accompany the Wraithlords, the combo is extremely potent and very very hard to deal with in close combat.


empirespy - yes. like the video!. A lot. it was good. very good.