Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Eldar

This is the previous Edition's tactics. Newer tactics are here While 5th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Eldar

In general, the Eldar are a fast army with great guns, awesome toys, versatile tactics and poor resilience in line with that of soggy tissue paper. The Eldar are often touted as a “specialist army,” and for good reason: each unit plays a very particular role and generally everyone in a squad has the same gun, the squad as a whole aims for one goal as opposed to squads of dudes each touting a different gun for a different kind of foe. If you are the kind of elf who likes it when a plan comes together, you might be tactical enough to lead the Eldar to their victory upon the battlefield. With their new updated codex Eldar are finally given a firm grip in the game to compete with or dominate their numerous foes through their increased special abilities, unit’s tactical applications and general ability to put bullets into thing and make the things fall down. Tactical blunders will see your army turned into rainbow confetti, but if you can get the right part of your Eldar army fighting the right bad guys, you can ruin Christmas every time.

Eldar are almost universally Fleet, pack high Leadership, high Initiative and good overall stats, their accuracy is good, their special abilities are rich and useful and their armies never necessarily run the same trick twice. With the new Battle focus ability they can choose to take a run action either before or after shooting, for free, a benefit that allows them to become more mobile than the competition by far. Almost all of their vehicles are skimmers or flyers, those that aren't can deep strike or outflank, they have three different flavors of jump troops and fast as hell Jetbikes. Eldar look good when they fight and often kill their enemies in style.

The new Eldar codex is the newst codex and currently the most powerfull codex. You have extreme point efficient units, the fastest objective secureed units and transports and you have the best shooting in the game. Older 7th codexes like the Dark Eldar or the Ork codex wish they had the same power as yours don't be suprized when you see them cry when they look at your codex. Sadly the coolest army in 40k is staying in the sidelines despite lore suggesting that in a fight, Dark Eldar are beasts that can pone serious ass.

An other reason why you would like or not like to play eldar is that they are currently really popular. Almost as popular as space marines. So there are a lot of internet tactics / lists available for you if wou would like to. The downside is that it is hard to be oroginal and that some opponents could be already tired of losing to against eldar before they have ever met you.

In Summary

• Populair army that are winning a lot of tournaments.
• Extreme point effective units
• Specialist warriors with specialist guns, including High Str and D weapons.
• Psyker access is great with vast power options and Kelly-style D6 table awesauce
• Fast as hell, dodgey as hell
• Good shooting and close combat
• Exarchs can solo MEQ and TEQ without effort.
• Normal Eldar are as tough as wet paper
• Wraith units are built like titanium fortresses
• They are great at killing marines (or softter units), with an amazing number of ap3 or better (d) and rending (sort of).

Eldar Rules and Wargear

Eldar Special Rules

Ancient Doom: Pretty much every unit in the book has this rule. On the one hand, you get Hatred against anything Slaaneshi. On the other hand, you take Fear tests at -1 Ld against Slaaneshi units. This more or less evens out; the average Leadership of the Eldar is high enough that the -1 won't usually matter, although it does mean that Fear might actually matter for the first time this edition. Hatred is nice, but it will only affect the first turn of combat, and most Eldar units don't want to be in close combat anyway. So, all in all, a fluffy but largely pointless addition to the army.

Battle Focus: One of the most interesting changes to the new book (and one that Kelly himself admits was Matt Ward's idea), Battle Focus is a special rule that essentially all non-Wraith units have save harlequins (clowns) because they have to stay the same in both the eldar and dark eldar codexes. It allows Eldar units to run and shoot (in either order) in the same phase. This means that the threat range of an Eldar unit is raised by d6", and it also allows Eldar to pull off the "jump-shoot-jump" shenanigans enjoyed by Jet Pack units. Also remember that Eldar units with this rule also have Fleet, so the d6 for running can be re-rolled. It isn't a huge change, but it does allow Eldar units on foot to remain more mobile while shooting. And no, it does not affect assaulting; sadly, Banshees still get no love.

• On a side note, units riding jetbikes have this as well, but they can't actually Run (only Turbo Boost), so the only use of this is if you want to stick some independent character on foot into a unit of jetbikes. Since all models in a unit need to have battle focus for the rule to work, your character can join the unit and still run and shoot. Not that this will happen a lot though.

Warlord Traits

Note that these are the standard Warlord Traits from the Eldar Codex available to all HQ units. Most named HQs chosen as warlords have a set trait and do not give the option of rolling. Codex Supplements have their own Warlord Traits tables, listed in the Supplements section below.

• 1: Ambush of Blades: Single use. Allows your Warlord and all Eldar units within 12" to re-roll 1s To Wound for a whole phase (shooting or assault!). This means a lot more fire will actually damage targets, but it's only for one phase, so use it wisely.
• 2: An Eye on Distant Events: Single use. Gives Stealth to your Warlord and all Eldar units within 12" for an enemy Shooting phase. It's nice, especially in combination with castings of Conceal, but it won't affect Rangers (who have Stealth already) and it's only a +1 bonus to cover, so the effectiveness is questionable.
• 3: Falcon's Swiftness: The Warlord and his unit get +1" when running. This makes Battle Focus more reliable and adds a significant amount of movement over time.
• 4: Fate's Messenger: The Warlord can re-roll all saving throws of 1.
• 5: Mark of the Incomparable Hunter: The Warlord gets Split Fire. This might be useful on an Autarch or Uldaneshi long rifle bearer, but for the majority its mostly useless.
• 6: Seer of the Shifting Vector: Deep Striking Eldar won't scatter if they land within 6" of the Warlord. Some of its usefulness is undercut by the Swooping Hawks (who never scatter anyway) and the fact you generally won't want to Deep Strike near the Warlord (except Khaine), but it is potentially powerful nonetheless.

Remnants of Glory

The artifacts of the age long past these relics are the unique and powerful wargear that can be equipped to any combination of your Autarch, Farseer and Spiritseers HQs. Only one of each item can exist in your army at a time and each costs anywhere between 15 and 40 points. As a general rule of thumb your Autarch is the assault based HQ of choice for any of the close combat type weapons, where as your Farseer and Spiritseer both want to be back a ways and away from melee. Note that a dedicated melee Farseer can be built if you luck out on psychic powers and get Death Mission (rolled AFTER you buy gear annoyingly).

• Shard of Anaris: The Shard of Anaris is the all comers MURDER SWORD of the Eldar army, a piece of the original blade Anaris and damned worthy of it’s legend. Right out of the gate Anaris boosts the wielder's strength stat by 2 and gives them Rending and Fearless. However the shard excels more for direct challenges between characters than all-purpose melee. Once in a challenge Anaris gains Fleshbane and Instant death! Realistically while not a worthless buy you’re paying for a weapon that will always lose out against the equivalent of all the other races. The Autarch is the only real wielder of this thing and he/she will likely fare poorly for cost against her general foes.
• Firesabre: Where Shard of Anaris is for killing off that one specific model, Firesabre is more of your generic infantry sweeper sword. Boasting +1 strength and AP3 this is a better Eldar power weapon with the Soul blaze added feature. Soul Blaze is the big core of the Firesabre, or at least the unique Wildfire rule that goes alongside it. Whenever the blaze deals a wound to the afflicted unit you roll a d6 for every friend and foe unit within 6” of the burning unit. On a 6 you give them Soul Blaze as well. In reality this is a very very high gamble ability. Soul blaze barely wounds most armies to start and needing a 6 to propagate this weak rule doesn’t help the Firesabre’s case. An above average power weapon for a higher cost and likely not worth it.
• The Spirit Stone of Anath’lan:A clearly Farseer orientated item the Spiritstone was made by a psyker for psykers. The stone allows you to drop the cost of a power you are manifesting by 1 warp charge (min. 1) at the expense of your Rune armor invulnerability save for a turn. Several powers from the Runes of Fate as well as a couple from the Telepathy discipline are cost 2. If you don’t roll any of these powers then sucks to be you by the way. Useful and affordable for backline farseers who can get good cover saves and enjoy throwing around a good whack of powers.
• Uldanorethi Long Rifle:Probably the simplest and most universal of the Remants the long rifle is a sweet tool for any and all Eldar commanders. A very easy to read sniper weapon featuring AP3 and ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY INCHES of range. 120”! This gun shoots farther than battlecannons, railguns, prism cannons, even the Icarus lascannon. Now right off the bat this item has some easy uses, thrown onto a supportseer or backline Autarch the long rifle allows your HQ to actually contribute firepower during the shooting phase. A dual guide built farseer inside a squad of Darkreapers, hammers out a single accurate sniper shot right into an enemy unit the reapers are firing upon, in addition to the possible precision shot it adds a pinning test to the attack, awesome. If your warlord wields this and rolled split fire as the warlord trait this weapon is improved in power, otherwise just adds to the power of existing squads, but hey, your Farseer is BS5, might as well pink off a shot or two rather than none.
• Mantle of the Laughing God:Now as a general rule few Eldar HQs excel outside of a squad to protect them, any weapon menacing a S6 threatens to pop your model with a single failed save. The Mantle mitigates this somewhat but always take care how you utilize the farseer/autarch/spiritseer this is attached to. Firstly it removed IC from the model, meaning no more ability to join squads, but then it automatically grants Stealthed, Shrouded and Hit+Run. It also gives the model the ability to freely re-roll cover saves. Put your HQ into a 5+ cover terrain and POOF! Re-rollable 2+ cover unit. That is a 97% success rate for the record. Stick your Autarch somewhere advantageous, give her a long rifle, and snipe all day and all night. Or stick the Mantle on a jetbike and watch your opponent bitch and moan at you for being a powergaming asshole. Against anything that doesn’t ignore cover outright the equipped model (even warlord) quickly becomes a resistant target.
• Faolchu’s Wing:While Mantle of the laughing god is the wargear of lulz the HQ equipped with Folchu’s wing is equally troll worthy. During the battle focus run step the equipped model may now move 48”! This makes them faster and more mobile than jetbikes, skimmers and even most fliers. Again this item does need a purpose to justify it’s cost, seeing how only the model may move and sacrifices the rest of the turn to do so. While you can't manifest powers or shoot weapons either before or after the movement, it can work very nicely for a Farseer to always be where he's needed for his Blessings and maledictions. Use guide on a squad, move 54" (including movement) use other powers on the other side of the board next turn, rinse and repeat. Also the tricky commander can use that insane movement to possibly launch your HQ into a held objective to suddenly contest the thing.
• The Phoenix Gem:A multi-purpose item the gem is a single use treasure that activates when the equipped HQ would be slain. Instantly engulfing the area in fire the gem uses a large blast centered on the HQ, dealing damage with a S4 AP5 explosion. The ability can sometimes fail if you roll a 1 but usually goes off pretty easily. Then you check if the blast dealt any actual damage, if any model was dealt a wound (friend or foe) then your HQ will get back up with a single wound to stay and fight the good fight. At range this might save your support seer from death by blasting nearby allies its but generally you would rather threaten your foes.

Let's Talk About Guns

The Eldar boast a variety of advanced weapons with nifty special rules and potential for more dakka. New codex brought some changes that you should remember to use carefully and tactically.

Shuriken weapons Shurikens as basic ranged weapons for eldar has seen major improvement. With Bladestorm rule any shuriken weapons on roll 6 To Wound auto-wounds with AP2. With this even the lowly guardian can shred anything fleshy: move up, seriously damage their vital organs, run away, rinse repeat, lulz. (shred those termies with your guardians. DO IT)

Monofilament weapons Monofilament weapons now has +1S if shooting at something slower than Initiative 4 or vehicles and instantly wounds with AP1 on a roll of 6 To Wound. Cleaving open transports has never been easier.

Pinning weapons In the new codex Eldar got a plethora of weapons that gained the pinning rule, forcing leadership tests if a unit is wounded by a weapon with the rule. Forcing a squad to go to ground is almost killing the unit outright, leaving the enemy one unit less to attack you on their turn and giving your Eldar more and more breathing room to do what they do best. To date the Eldar possess the following weapons that have this rule: Eldar missile launchers (plasma + starshot) which is available in abundance, Shadow weaver (because of barrage), Doomweaver (not in focused mode), Ranger long rifles, Reaper launchers (starshot mode), Shrieker cannon, Spinneret rifle, Tempest launcher, Vibro cannon, Serpent shield, Uldanorethi long rifle, Eldritch storm. That’s about 12 different things you have that can pin a squad, and the test triggers every time a unit has received one or more wounds from a unit containing a pinning weapon. So remember to test for it often as see if you can’t keep a squad or two locked down and unable to fight you. Do note, however, that most things in the game are either fearless (Ork mobs, Nids under Synapse, most cult/daemonic CSM's), have high leadership to reliably pass the test (SM, CSM, Eldar, Necrons), or just immune to pinning (Daemons, Bikes, Monsters), so do not hope your Pinning would work often. Or at all.

Eldar heavy weapon Some units have option to change into heavier weapons, as add-ons or replacements for existing guns and are commonly seen throughout the entire codex from troops to heavy support. The standard list is follows:

• Shuriken Cannon Now not so cheap, but still reliable, the 24" shuriken cannon fires lots of nice S6 shots that pierces weak armor at base. Valuable for moderately priced dakka and augmented with Bladestorm (see above).
• Scatter Laser With 4 shots at S6 AP6, Scatter Laser also comes with Laser Lock ability that grants TL to the MODEL that fires it, only needs successful To Hit roll. Obviously take it in models with multiple weapons, TL Starcannon or Brightlances can pay back its cost in points quickly.
• Starcannon A good but not great AP2 weapon, the Starcannon doesn't get hot like plasma weapons. Viable alternative but not necessarily better than scatter laser, take your pick. Or pick both if you're facing 2+ aplenty.
• Eldar Missile Launcher You take EML for its versatility. It has single target S8 AP3 starshot or a small blast S4 AP4 plasma, both featuring pinning. Then both reapers and warwalkers can take flakk missiles which feature S7 skyfire. However, it all comes to the price when looking at this baby - and the price is damn high.
• Bright Lance Possibly your primary heavy armour buster, with S8 and Lance. Tear down AV13/14 and the new codex makes the bright lance more affordable by far on most models.

Eldar Vehicle Upgrades

All praise Phillius Kellius for he delivered us the new upgrades that suck a little bit less. Each piece of equipment is toned down from previous incarnations and are simple effects with easy to track benefits at an affordable price tag.

• Holo-fields: The iconic holofield has been through some rough times, once they were the greatest in vehicular protection at a cost, then 6th ed turned them into gigantic stickers on the sides of tanks, looking pretty but doing nothing. However all is forgiven, the holofield returns, granting a solid +1 cover save if the vehicle moved last turn, simple, elegant and affordable. Holofields are a boon on basically all vehicles based on the abundance of cover saves available to them you should always have at LEAST a 4+ cover. This is much like a Tau Disruption Pod (or IG camo netting), except it doesn't work if your vehicle is stationary, which makes you vulnerable at first turn, if your opponent won roll-off or seized initiative. Apparently, highly advanced holographic projectors aren't as good as simple targeting jammers or even piles of green cloth mesh.

• Star Engines: A simple and optional wargear for vehicles that increases their mobility even further if required. Grants an extra 6" to a flat out movement by an Eldar vehicle, which you don't really need with max speed 30" per turn except in ginormous Apocalypse maps. If equipped to a walker, said walkers run an additional 3", which is pretty handy, considering they have Battle Focus.

• Vectored Engines: With the upgrade the vehicle can now pivot in place immediately following its shooting attack, allows for some safe play by tanks with exposed rears. Jet in, smoke rear armor of target, pivot towards living threats with your front and side armor. Cannot be used while immobilized.

• Spirit Stones: Extra Armor Eldar style, or more Living Metal Eldar style, the psyche inside the spirit stones take over in emergencies and allow the vehicle to ignore crew shaken on 2+ and crew stunned on 4+, nothing grand but nothing terrible.

• Crystal Targeting Matrix: Single use. Can be used after completing a flat out movement on any non-walker vehicle, allowing the tank to fire a single weapon at full ballistic skill. Zip a fire prism behind an enemy tank, put a prism lance up its butthole and smile with glee. Of the vehicle upgrades this thing is expensive like dental work and only works once, select wisely.

• Ghostwalk Matrix: Eldar dozer blades equivalent, except better, because it gives you move through cover on any speed, rather than re-roll DT tests, and only on combat speed. Nothing that will break the bank and a safe purchase if you have points to spend. If you plan to hide your holofielded tank in 4+ ruins for trolltastic 3+, this is pretty much auto-take, as you're all but forced to move it every turn for cover save bonus..

• Power Field: Stock Warwalker gear. Gives the bastards a 5++, making them more expensive base but worth every damned penny given their low AV and hull points.

• Serpent Shield: Stock Wave serpent gear. Wargear that replaces the iconic energy field but for a good trade, while active the serpent transforms side and front based penetrating hits into mere glances with an 83% chance. That good cheddar right there. Then if you feel the serpent needs to do something it can turn it's shield into a very long ranged energy shockwave that hits for D6+1 S7 hits, ignoring cover and deactivating the shield for a turn. That’s a useful little tool for any savvy commander and should never be discounted in your head. A serpent with scatter laser turret and a chin shuriken cannon can dish out an insane amount of TL dakka with that trick.

• Mindshock Pod: Stock Hemlock wraithfighter gear. A 12" radius brain scrambler that causes all units within the radius to re-roll successful pinning and morale tests, this affects allies units as well so be careful of its placement. With the range of pinning weapons available to Eldar right now this gear will occasionally see some cool benefits and its cons are null and void with an Avatar on the board or with a wraithwall army.

Psyker powers

Runes of Fate

Available to Farseers as well as Eldrad. Can be taken in addition to the Telepathy and Divination tables from the core rulebook. Farseers can choose to roll each power off a different table, remember to kit your Farseer for best utility.

Guide Primaris power.

• Guide, the most iconic and well renowned power of the Farseer since time immemorial. Boosted significantly from past editions the new guide features a range of 24", four times its original casting distance and twice the range of Prescience in the rulebook's Divination table. The power basically twin-links the weapons of the target squad, allowing each and every model to re-roll their to-hit rolls for shooting (but unlike Prescience this only effects shooting, not assault). Under the new rules the Farseer requires LOS for this ability but its shouldn't be an issue. Rarely will you suffer for swapping a potential power for this primaris choice, its wonderful and grants greater power to the army on the whole.

Executioner

• Executioner is an odd power and a lot of information to absorb, so it will be written here in as clear a description as possible. A focused witchfire with 24" range, hitting a model firstly with 3 AP- hits that wound on a 2+. If these hits manage to kill the model the power jumps and hits another model for 2 hits of the same power, if a kill is scored, another hit against a third model. However Execution has no AP value, rarely if ever would you try and snipe out a model whose armor save isn't at least a 4+. Then if the ability fails to kill the target it instantly ends and you get no more attacks period. Then if you want to actually snipe a model you have to pass the test with more than one 4+, otherwise the power goes randomly around for its full duration. Target get a full host of armor, cover and invulnerable saves against it, deny the witch as well as the benefit of 'look out sir' to save the valuable models worth sniping. It also takes place over the Farseers shooting attack.

Doom

• Doom is another classic Farseer power and a powerful one at that, targeting an enemy within 24" and then all wounding rolls against them get a free re-roll for the turn. Any armor penetration rolls that fail to either glance or pen target may also be rerolled. This is your primary assassination power, ensuring you kill that commissar or bosspole nobs in one turn.

Eldritch storm

• A large blast template of sheer devastation, Eldritch storm crushes infantry and vehicles with pinning, Haywire and Fleshbane. Watch as that gauntblob evaporates on 2+ , IG parking lot gets debilitated or even cleared.

Death Mission

• Death Mission is a rather situational power. Cast at the start of the move phase the ability grants the caster alone d3+2 death mission counters. Then you take d6 roll at the end of EVERY PHASE, either going down by one counter on a result of 1-3, or staying unchanged on a 4-6. If the Farseer ever runs out of counters or the game ends, your Farseer DIES (interaction with Phoenix gem is yet unclear) and awards a victory point. The seer also cannot cast any other powers for the rest of the game. You can recast death mission to get extra d3+2 counters. All this downside for +5 to its WS/BS/I, and extra 2 attacks. Combined with weapons such as the Witchblade (Eldrad's staff in his case), Firesabre or Shard of Anaris, makes the Farseer threat in assault. It bears repeating you will not be able to cast any other powers once this is cast, no guide, fortune, etc. (You will also be generating your powers AFTER already creating your lists, requiring an impossible foresight to plan for death mission+Remnants of glory).
  • An Alternate Opinion: Death Mission is garbage, complete and unadulterated garbage. Easily the worst power in the set. It automatically costs you your Farseer (which most of the time means you're automatically handing your opponent Slay the Warlord), he'll almost never kill enough stuff to make up the points you'll lose when you lose him, as he still doesn't have any AP in close combat, unless you handed him a Remnant of Glory. And the worst part is, he might not even get to live long enough to recast it. Since you roll to lose a Death Mission Counter every phase, you're going to lose an average of 3 counters in between every time you use it, so if you only roll 3 Counters, you can probably say goodbye to him. If you roll Death Mission, you should probably instantly switch it out for Guide.

Fortune

• Now with 24" of range, this allows the Farseer to sit back and stay safe while the affected unit get a reroll on all failed saving throws until the Farseers next turn. Remember Farseer needs to have LOS, and costs 2 warp charges. Still fortune has and always will be a good power, and if you get it on your rolls, you will keep it.

Mind war

• Range 24" and a focussed witchfire, with quirky rules. Each combatant rolls a d6 and adds to it their LD (so d6+10 for Farseers). Then you compare the two numbers, the loser instantly having their WS & BS dropped to 1 until the end of the next turn (Farseers always win draws). If the difference in totals is weighted in the Farseer's favor, target takes wounds equal to the difference (Farseers never lose badly enough to suffer damage from this battle), getting no cover or armor saves against the wounds. Also, target can take Look Out Sir in new FAQ.

Runes of Battle

Available to Warlocks as well as the Spiritseer. The Spiritseer may also roll from the Telepathy table for one or both powers. Runes of battle are the Eldar powers of war, short term manifestations of their psychic might made to turn the battlefield in their favor. Warlock utilize these powers to affect the outcome of skirmishes and battles across the stars while the Farseers pilot the destinies of whole craftworld through eons. Warlock have tempered their powers to a fine blade but every sword in their hands can be used as a shield, allowing them to use each power either for themselves or against their foes, giving the psykers a supreme range of versatility. As a rule all powers from the runes of battle have a range of no greater than 18", either for the beneficial of debilitating versions of the powers. Warlocks can be attached to guardians defenders, storm guardians, windrider jetbikes or Vaul's wrath artillery. Also remember that, under 7th edition rules, a Warlock will know 2 powers, Conceal/Reveal and whatever power he rolls. So, with a Warlock, NEVER switch for the Primaris, you get it anyway.

• The Spiritseer can be attached (as an IC) to almost any squad, this matters for when runes of battle powers are referred to as boosting the defenses of units such as Wraithblades and Dark reapers, in that normal warlocks will not usually be able to benefit squads they are not attached to.

Conceal/Reveal Primaris power.

• Conceal grants the warlock the shrouded special rule and as such benefits the whole squad attached to him, a +2 to existing cover saves or just a flat out 5+ cover in the open is phenomenal, no warlock would go wrong taking conceal as most units benefit from enhanced defenses and a cover save booster like this goes fantastic on everything that can benefit from it, guardians, wraithguard, scorpions, you name it.
• Reveal by contrast strips both the stealth AND shrouded rule from an enemy in range, this can sometimes strip powerful defenses from units you are planning to wipe out, however like all runes of battle you need to make tactical use of the power which may be often skipped for the benefits of conceal.

Destructor/Renewer

• Destructor is the Kamehameha of warlocks, their direct fire power from codexes of old, a psychic heavy flamer the destructor is an iconic power that now features the soul blaze special rule. As a power and not an actual weapon the warlock cannot fire this in overwatch.
• Renewer is a big tool for the right units, a nearly unheard of targeted healing power that restores a single allied model in range for a single lost wound. Most models only have one wound to begin with so this power doesn't affect them (and cannot be cast as a phoenix down) but instead serves a fantastic purpose when targeting most HQ units or durable multiwound models in the army such as Wraithlords and Wraithknights, as well as the potent Avatar of Khaine. HEALMEHAMEHAAA!

Embolden/Horrify

• Embolden is back from the old codex but with a new effect, granting the warlock and his unit fearless rather than leadership rerolling powers. This is a boost and nerf over previous version as fearless straight up negates pinning, morale, ect. However embolden used to allow for rerolling on your leadership test which included psychic powers, an ability beloved by power spamming seers and what have you. A solid power for anything not already fearless such as fragile storm guardians.
• Horrify is a power that is unfair to judge on its lonesome. At its core it reduces the LD of an enemy unit by -3, making them of course more susceptible to morale test and the like. However with the advent of multiple pinning weapons with the new codex as well as that of the Hemlock wraithfighters Mindshock pod the horrify power has enormous effects. A unit with reduced leadership is at best LD7 now, reducing their chance of success against any and all pinning or morale tests down a full 20%. In armies with the right weapon it’s amazing, otherwise it's just decent. Also fun to consider is that the diresword benefits greatly when used on a Horrified target as they now have a decent shot (42% at LD 7) of being removed from play (fuck you, Eternal Warrior!) if they take a wound. Be sure to high five Eldrad if this goes off.

Enhance/Drain

• Enhance is yet another staple of the warlock power of yesteryear, often seen in seer councils and storm guardian squad this power gives a simple boost of +1WS and Init to unit. Eldar are already quick to the punch but with this power what they did well just got even better, storm guardians and Wraithblades (Spiritseer support) see a noticeable gain from the power and should have it active at all times prior to an assault. If you roll it on a squad of guardian defenders or Vauls wrath...take your primaris power, don't even bother with this.
• Drain sucks out the same befits that enhance gives, reducing an enemy’s WS and Init by 1, unless you are assaulting a squad with two or more of your own units I don't tend to recommend Drain over Enhance as a lucky deny the witch would negate the power, however like all tactical powers you have to cast each power according to which effect would benefit you the most. The real gift of drain is using it in synergy with mono filament weapons. Cast drain on any marine squad, jump in with your warp spiders and laugh maniacally as that giant expensive blob of blood angels death company turns into little red chunks.

Protect/Jinx

• Protect is a power that even idiots understand and appreciate, a simple but potent bonus to the units existing armor save by 1. This is quality cheddar right here, units such as wraithguard, Scorpions, and Storm guardians get a boost to their armor, in the case of wraith units and scorpions they are now TEQ armored (However, keep in mind this works for the spiritseer, but not for warlocks. Protect only works on the psyker and the unit he/she's in, meaning warlocks can only give a +1 save to the warlock council or a Guardian unit he/she's joined). This power is awesome, and on the right units is worth casting every round, since few units’ don’t benefit from hardier armor than what they already have.
• Jinx by extension has an equally nuts benefit for you as the former, reducing an enemy’s own armor save making them that much easier to kill off. Now a unit like terminators suddenly fear AP3 reapers with a passion, fragile 4+ units suddenly became instantly shredded by mere shuriken catapults, making guardian firepower or similar a hurricane of reaping death. Against units who are relying more on their cover or invulnerability save the benefits of this power are reduced somewhat, still if you reduce an enemy’s armor save and they need it against your guns, make them that much more screwed and cackle with glee.

Quicken/Restrain

• Quicken grants your unit swiftness of the Eldar and improves the running distance off the unit by a flat 3", letting you close gaps or create them that much easier. With Battle focus being found on just about every Eldar model this power only flops when the unit happens to be hunkered down in cover and wont be running for the rest of the game (I’m looking at you rangers and dark reapers).
• Restrain by comparison is a power I don't honestly find very useful, stripping away an enemy’s ability to run completely sounds useful. However the range of the power is 18" so you were already pretty close to the unit to start, and save the Eldar most armies sacrifice their shooting in order to use run in the first place, and cannot charge into assault if they did so. Not useless but not as easily feasible for every scenario, allows for some kite by the Eldar by just removing the extra distance from enemies and yourself running to make a gap. It is also handy for preventing a squad from being able to run and contest one of your objectives.

Empower/Enervate

• Empower instantly grants the psyker and attached unit gain an extra +1S, this is simple and in many cases worthless to you, of the units warlocks are easily attached to only storm guardians probably even give a shit, whereas with Spiritseer the likes of scorpions, banshees and Wraithblades find a little more use in its application. Ranged units don't need nor want the extra strength and even dropping conceal for the strength just in case is a bad bargain in my mind.
• Enervate also has a limited benefit to you most days of the week, stripping the enemy squad (which I remind you is already within 18" of you) of 1S as to reduce their threat in melee, now this is alright if you know you’re getting charged next turn and the drop in strength is the difference in melee ability like marines against Wraithguard. However on the whole few units even need their regular strength to threaten your flimsy Eldar, our brittle bones clock in at a pitiful T3 with most armies boasting at least a S4. Debuffing an enemy squad prior to an assault by yourself is alright though if the difference can be noticed, like Enhance/Drain you want to choose carefully between the two abilities. It's worth noting here that S2 can't wound T6 targets so when charging anything with S3 (like a blob or guards, cultists, orks and all brands of elder) with wraithblades always have your Spiritseer cast Enervate, then the only thing your wraiths will feel in the return swing is a soothing foot massage as their wraithbone boots crush the pathetic fleshy thing's trachea.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Avatar of Khaine: The Avatar of Khaine is a fragment of the Eldar’s true and terrible god of war, a powerful and totally warminded MC that can wreck its way through battlefields with abandon. Like previous incarnations it’s a walking fire magnet and a damn scary force in melee. Overall, while not as generically useful as a support Farseer, it's not hard to justify summoning the Avatar. A giant molten monster leading your forces is terrifying and at 195 points, it's a powerful and affordable force to call on. His statline is unlike anything in the whole damn codex as well: WS/BS 10 (yes, 10!), Strength/Toughness 6, Initiative 10 and hitting with at least 5 attacks. He boasts a 3+ armor and a 5++ for good measure. Kaela Mensha Khaine is literally the strongest he has ever been and can be outfitted beyond his base power with up to 2 of the special exarch powers from the book to add to his already terrifying form. Khaine is straight up immune to flamers and as a result, wall of death, heavy weapons that pose a threat to him with melta are again useless and anything pyromancy and soul blaze is a quaint space heater to Khaine's raging firestorm. He’s fearless, granting it to allies within 12” while his Fear aura causes lesser creatures to just flee for the hills.
  • Moving In this phase your foes get to mentally calculate and go through the stage of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Firstly the Avatar will move his 6", then if he's close enough, wailing doom, if still a ways to go, running d6 with Fleet, then wailing doom the nearest sucker. If he’s already threatening charge range, then just skip running and fire the wailing doom in preparation for the assault.
  • Shooting The wailing doom is a terrifying weapon to behold, with his unmatched BS the wailing doom is essentially twin-linked for 2+, 97% accuracy. The wailing doom hits a target within 12" with basically a fusion gun, an attack made ever more fearsome if using fast shot for two blasts or Marksman’s eye to snipe the ever loving shit out of any hidden unit that MIGHT pose a threat to him before the assault even begins. In no world does night vision do jack shit here, why does this even exist?
  • Assaulting The melee, oh god, the melee. The charge distance should be easily crossed, 2d6 with Fleet rerolls makes this sort of thing a cakewalk aside from enormous unluck. Once there few models can hope to hold a candle to Khaine, anyone going into a challenge with him is either sporting a stack of cheese or dead. Crushing blow enhances his already good strength, while disarming strike is a LUDICROUS ability for challenges, sending the likes of power fists and bone sabres flying while wailing doom rends bone and armor with ease. If another monstrous creature tries to man up on Khaine his monster hunter + crushing blow will very swiftly put them down.
  • Alternate View An alternate way to play the Avatar is giving him Monster Hunter + Fast Shot. You then put him behind an Aegis Defence Line that has a Lascannon. He then controls a S9 AP2 weapon, thus firing at BS10. As he has Fast Shot, he gets to fire it twice. With Monster Hunter, he can hurt MC's even more. Anything trying to dislodge him from the line will likely struggle, or at least lose models in the process. He is still very slow, thus using him as an assault unit is debatable.

• Autarch: Autarchs are the commanders of the warhost, they are the generals of the greatest Eldar military battles and should be a strong tactical benefit to your army as a whole. They aren't, but they should be. Autarchs have been on almost every aspect path but never stuck around and as such they have an absolutely demented list of available wargear and options to kit themselves out with. 70 points base they come stock with two grenades, a pistol, 3+ armor and a 4+ invulnerable save. They can add additional wargear like banshee masks, jetbikes, reaper launchers, chainswords, fusions guns, etc for more which can bring them to around 120 points by the end. Autarchs can equip Remnants of glory and works better in this role than the base Farseer with higher WS, Init and Attacks. Shard of Anaris or Firesabre with banshee mask and Phoenix stone is a core assault setup. Mantle of the laughing god with the Uldanorethi long rifle makes for a pretty sneaky little sniper from afar.
  • Mantle Autarch of DOOOM: If you are feeling really ballsy, equip your autarch with the mantle, a laser lance and a melta gun and go tank/character hunting. Being on the jetbike gives you a 5+ jink cover save as long as you move. Since the mantle gives you both stealth and shrouded, you will be getting a 3+ cover save normally and a 2+ on the move However...DO NOT RELY ON THIS! Play him smart. A lot of things take away cover saves these days so some of the time you may have to use is armor or invulnerable saves. His toughness also improves by +1 thanks to the jetbike. Having the mantle also gives him hit and run. A normal turn for him should look like this. Get in close range and shoot his melta gun, charge using his laser lance which gives him +3 strength and ap3 impact and lance (but only on the charge) and then bug out after combat thanks to hit and run (hopefully very far away). The lance has impact which means the weapon loses effectiveness right after your first turn of assault and does not work if you get assaulted so it is in your best interest to get out of dodge. Rinse with your opponents tears and repeat.
    • While this is a good plan. a Laser Lance is a waste of it's ability. Take a Reaper Launcher, as he'll be Relentless and a Fusion Gun so he can pop tanks. Maybe toss on a Shard of Anaris if you're feeling saucy.
  • Path of Strategy: The Autarch's SINGLE claim to tactical skill, allowing you to add or subtract from your reserve rolls when bringing units in. This rule is weak as fuck, as a minor +1/-1 isn’t much with the ease of the built in reserve rolls being what they are and availability of reserve roll boosts found in other, better purchases.

• Farseer: This guy is your standard HQ choice and warhost leader, he sees the future of your foes and allows you to throw wrenches into their fate so only the Eldar come out on top. His price is increased base from old editions and his versatility is not to be underestimated. The Farseer's mastery level has skyrocketed to Mastery Level 3 which is fantastic and gives a huge availability for warp charge expenditure and up to three abilities in a turn, though with a bit more risk due to runes of witnessing and ghosthelm nerfs. The Farseer can generate his powers from Divination, Telepathy or the codex’s own Runes of Fate. His staggering versatility as a model is not to be underestimated, between available powers from three different charts as well as a plethora of Remnants of Glory. Under 7th edition, these guys have gone from good to ludicrously good. If you roll everything on the same table, you are guaranteed the Primaris Power, allowing Farseers to get up to 4 powers. And the specific wording of Ghosthelm means that instead of negating the Perils, you only have to drop a Warp Charge to negate the wound, so you could end up rolling a 6 and getting special abilities. He comes automatically equipped with a couple pieces of useful Eldar wargear with which to do battle:
  • Ghosthelm that allows him to negate a perils of the warp wound by expending a remaining warp charge. An optional defense against otherwise unsavable wounds.
  • Shuriken pistol an average pistol weapon with the new bladestorm rule, never discount it.
  • Rune armour which grants the classic 4++ invulnerability save Farseers do so enjoy.
  • Witchblade a heavily nerfed weapon that sports Fleshbane and Armourbane but with shitty AP-, a bad weapon that will always disappoint.
  • Singing Spear is a near free witchblade replacement that is highly recommended. Identical to the witchblade in assault (no longer two-handed in 6th), and can also be thrown 12" at S9 for a 17% chance to pen AV14 at range instead of the witchblade's 3% chance in melee. A damn good buy in most (but not all) situations.
  • Runes of warding Single use. A protective rune that grants a flat +2 to a ‘deny the witch’ attempt, almost guaranteeing success against a foes psychic power.
  • Runes of witnessing Single use. Used on a failed psychic test the Farseer may reroll the test, not as good as they once were, but passable for the wary caster given the number of powers you’ll use throughout a game.
  • Eldar Jetbike Jetbikes are still cool and Farseers still make them look good, buy to suit and enjoy the ride.
  • Modeling Note: Howling Banshees Exarch bodies are perfect for female Farseers conversions, just stick a cape on them, a Farseer helm to replace the Exarch one (or a modified Guardian's one if you don't want to spend even more money), and for the weapons I'd suggest the ones in the new Storm Guardians upgrade pack. If you want to go helmetless on your Farseer, I suggest grabbing a Dark Eldar Wych head or a Scourge head.

• Spiritseer: Spiritseers are basically the mandatory HQ if you plan to run large numbers of Wraith-constructs, as he turns Wraithguard and Wraithblades into Troops choices. Luckily, he is a fairly decent choice, with two Mastery Levels, the choice of Runes of Battle or Telepathy, and Spirit Mark (which will be discussed later). Sadly, he can't provide the level of support the Farseer can, nor can he directly buff units and mess with reserves like an Autarch can, but he provides reasonable buffs to Wraith units. As with all of the Seer units, he comes with rune armour (for a 4++ invulnerable save) and a shuriken pistol. He also has a witch staff, which is essentially a witchblade that also causes Soul Blaze. Sadly, this won't come into play very often, as Spiritseers are poor in close combat. However, he is useful close to the front lines thanks to his Spirit Mark ability. This allows him to mark an enemy unit within 12". All Wraith-constructs (including Wraithguard, Wraithblades, Wraithlords, and Wraithknights) re-roll To Hit rolls of 1. This means that less shots will be wasted, although it isn't a huge ability. However, Spiritseers are also fairly cheap; if you are running an Iyanden/Wraithwall-style list, the Spiritseer is all but mandatory, but he has limited effect on other units, so the more expensive Farseer would likely be a better choice otherwise. Like Warlocks and Farseers, Spiritseers have seen a significant uptick in 7th edition. Access to up to 3 Runes of Battle is powerful.
  • Alternate View Since Spritseers are independent characters they can join aspect warrior units as well as any unit (that allows it) from Codex: Eldar, Codex: Tau Empire, and Codex: Dark Eldar for shrouded and another buff which could be fearless, +1 WS and +1I, +1 to their armor save, and extra 3 inches of movement if they choose to run in the shooting phase, or +1 S. Use it to your advantage, and their are hundreds of possibilities with DE you can try out that could definitely be tournament worthy.

• Warlock Council: Formerly known as a Seer Council, the Warlock Council now follows the template started by the Wolf Guard of the Space Wolves and the Royal Court of the Necrons. Essentially, you buy them as one unit, but at the beginning of the game, you can choose to split them into units as squad sergeants. As with the other two examples, the list of units they can join in this manner is slim; in the case of the Warlock Council, it only includes the Guardian units (specifically the two types of standard Guardian, the Guardian-crewed Vaul's Wrath artillery, and the Windrider jetbike squadrons). Their stat line is similar to, but slightly weaker than, that of a Farseer. They each roll on the Runes of Battle table from the Eldar codex, and nothing else. They are only armed with a standard shuriken pistol and a witchblade, as well as their rune armor, which grants a 4++ invulnerable save. Under 7th edition, their low LD doesn't matter at all for psychic powers and they get a total of 2 Pyshchic powers (whatever they roll and the Primaris). They also allow you to absolutely spam Warp Charges for Psychic defense. You're pretty set when it comes to taking Warlocks.
  • Deployment/placement shenanigans occur AFTER all traits are rolled for, including Psyker powers and Warlord Traits. So you get to roll first and then distribute your warlocks amongst your guardians.
  • Can be given a singing spear for just a handful of points and suddenly they are throwing a fleshbane lascanon that can do armor bane in melee, Cha-ching heavy and armor crusher squad that can easily shiscabob a persons HQ choice, no matter the HQ choice from just over the heads of their elite honor guard and still charge in and kill the squad.

• Wraithseer (Forge World): What do you get when you take the a spirit stone containing the soul of a farseer or warlock and stick them into a special wraithlord chassis? This beast. It's not a hard choice to take Wraithguard, but this T8 bastard makes it SO much easier and rewarding. Starting at ~185 points (forgeworld blurs the point cost), and the ability to equip a freaking D-cannon (it says wraithcannon but that was eratta'd as a typo) for 40 more on it's shoulder, and loaded with crazy powers... It's a godsend to an army that really needed a durable and powerful HQ choice. Don't get your hopes up for an "all wraith" army, you MUST take another HQ on top of it (pretty obvious a Spiritseer). As for special glitter it reduces the coversave of anything being shot at by wraithunits by 1. It has a close combat weapon that lets it reroll missed to-hit rolls and wounds on a 2+ with all the good parts of being a monstrous creature (AP2 and Smash), rolls with a 5++ save on top of 3+ armor, and three psychic powers, two of which are designed to be used on wraith-units. One gives them Fleet, the other gives them 5+ FNP (now try to bring down THAT) and the third power voodoos all enemy units within 18" into making a LD test at a -2 or soil themselves and go to ground (which surprisingly stacks perfectly with Hemlock Wraithfighter Terryfy and mindshock). Not the beast that many other HQs are, but nothing to be brushed aside either.
  • Although listed as having a Wraithcannon in the book, Forgeworld have confirmed that this is a typo and should be a D-Cannon as per the previous version of the rules (https://www.facebook.com/ForgeWorldUK/posts/702680666415883). This is a big deal as mounting the devastating D-cannon on a tough, mobile platform like the Wraithseer overcomes its only significant drawback of short range. This really is the only weapon option you will need for the Wraithseer as the conventional guns just pale in comparison.
  • If you're playing with that guy, he might tell you that Codex: Eldar is separate from Iyanden, which is technically true. However, it's such an idiotic, narrow, rules-as-written interpretation that you should probably find somebody else to play with.

Special Characters

• Eldrad Ulthran: If a normal Farseer is a Jedi, then Eldrad is a tall almighty Yoda. He's the big cheese of the Eldar army; he's basically got all the possible options for a normal Farseer wrapped together into one package with a slew of tricks to add to the deal. At his core Eldrad is an enhanced Farseer, T4, 3++ (so it's like he is a Psyker with a Storm Shield) and mastery level 4. There is no Eldar army that couldn't be improved by adding this guy. He comes stocks with the regular Farseer gear, an improved rune armor and both runes just in case. Eldrad rolls off the Divination, Telepathy and Rune of fate tables like other Farseers. Then there are the two sexy parts:
  • The path beyond Once deployment is done but before scouts, you can take d3+1 units of your's, and reposition them on the board under regular deployment rules and regulations. Enemy put a bunch of footslogging guys on the left? Throw down an Avatar, enemy landraider on the right? Bring me that fire prism. The savvy commander makes this power work for them and makes it work well.
  • Staff of Ulthamar This thing is Eldrad's personal license to print money and coin a monopoly on the tears of your enemies. As a weapon it beats out the other Farseer weapons easy, fleshbane, AP3, force, it is just THAT good, enough said really. Then if Eldrad isn’t currently stomping in melee the staff augments his powers in a fun way. Every time he casts a power (of which he can cast 4), he has a 33% chance to regain a warp charge. This warp charge can be spent however you want, force weapon, casting a power you haven't cast yet, etc. You could with luck fire off four three 2 charge powers AND have enough left over to kill with a force weapon in a single turn. Eldrad also carriers a Witchblade as well as his Staff. Both of these weapons are Melee but neither of them have Specialist Weapon OR Requires Two Hands. That means he gets a +1A to his stats due to having two melee weapons equipped. Therefore he can dish out 2A with Fleshbane at AP3 (or Force as well if you activate it) per turn. With 3++, even challenging melee characters he will be able to some damage. Farseers do get +1A due to their Pistol, however they don't get the AP3 of the Staff (though they do get Fleshbane and Armourbane due to Witchblade).
  • Under 7th edition, while Farseers have gone from good to ludicrously good, Eldrad has gone from ludicrously good to outright broken. He can roll up to 5 Psychic powers, ignore perils of the warp and regain warp charges every time he casts. Again we say, there is no Eldar army that won't benefit from adding Eldrad.

• Prince Yriel of Iyanden: Once upon a time, there was a guy named Yriel who won a battle by using almost all of Iyanden's forces in an attack. This scared the guys in charge of Iyanden who said, "Hey! We could've gotten attacked while you were gone!" To which Yriel replied, "Yeah, but you didn't," to which they replied, "That's it! You're fired!" So Yriel went off to be a pirate for a while. While he was busy counting his loot, some Tyranids came and attacked Iyanden so the guys in charge were all like, "Crud! We wish Yriel was here to save us!" So Yriel comes back, gets a magic spear of awesome and saves the day, but now he's cursed and slowly dying as the spear sucks out his chi or something. Yeah, this guy needs his own anime show or something. He gets the reserve rule the Autarch gets, but instead of buying aspect warrior war gear, he has a spear so awesome it consumed a black hole (and a monocle):
  • The spear of twilight An armourbane, fleshbane AP3 spear, making his low strength a null point and his high Init and Attacks fantastic. This allow him to threaten a lot of foes but also has the downside of forcing him to reroll 6s on saves in melee, shitty. Yriel is a master of fighting basically anything lacking a 2+ armour save, and with a lucky roll from a nearby warlock might even not care, given the warlocks ability to debuff armour saves. Against the right foe he hits hard, fast and often.
  • Eye of Wrath Hasn't actually changed from last addition. See below.
  • For real laughs send him charging heroically solo into any squad of MEQ and activate his Ambush of Blades warlord trait and his patented Eye of Wrath finisher move. Sadly he has to attack before most opponents pile-in, but throws down an AP3 pie plate wounding on 2's and re-rolling 1's. Alternately challenge someone, kill him and let his angry buddies pile in, and hit EVERY ONE of them next turn.

• Illic Nightspear: Rangers are followers of a path that’s very off road for other Eldar, they go against the grain of Eldar’s path based society enough they have trouble fitting in. Now the old standby troop slot just got an HQ to call their own. Illic is a big noise maker and with good reason, he is powerful in his own way and offers some great tactic options for the army (unlike Autarchs). First up his stats, nothing to write home about in fact it all looks kind of...WHOA BS9! His weapon is now ALMOST twin-linked but he has no need for guide honestly. Next up his built in warlord trait, giving him split fire for free, allowing him to hide in a squad of dudes but shoot other dudes then the dudes in his quads are shooting at...dude. He has shrouded which he gives to attached squads because why the fuck not, Hatred+Preferred enemy Necrons, which is cool and lovable. But wait there's more, any and ALL shots fired by Illic are precision shots, meaning he gets to choose which head goes splat every time he fires his weapon. His weapon, is an AP2(!!) sniper, meaning as long as he gets a 4+ to wound (doom) the model probably dies. If the wounding roll is a 6, the model is hit by an instant death shot, bye bye HQ. It can even pen tanks on a 6. It's also worth considering buying a Aegis Defence Line (ADL) and upgrading it to a Lascannon. Plop Illic behind it and he gets to control the Lascannon. With Sniper special rule. And all his shots are Precision Shots. This allows you to snipe anything you want. At BS9 too. Another option is to put him in a squad of Dark Reapers, by doing so Illic confers his Warlord Trait of Split-Fire unto them. He also gains the ability to ignore Jink Saves due to Dark Reapers Rangefinder equipment. You could then put Maugan Ra in, this will allow Maugan to Split-Fire and Ignore Jink Saves as well. It's a Death Star unit, but a nice one.
  • Walker of the hidden path Illic can infiltrate ANYWHERE on the map, giving no shits about locations of enemy forces or anything like that. Later if a ranger squad outflanks onto the board, they can deep strike on top of Illic instead with no scatter just like that.
  • Master of pathfinders Armies with Illic as an HQ can choose to upgrade their rangers with his special Sharpshoot rule for 100% precision shots as well as Shrouded for their convenience (+13 points a model though!)

• Farseer Bel-Annath (Forge World): Update pending…

• Phoenix Lords: Fluff-wise, if Kaela Mensha Khaine was God, the Phoenix Lords would be his terminator Jesuses. They are the founders of the various styles of war and have been reborn over and over. How? Basically, when someone puts on their armor, the armor possesses the wearer and puts the original Phoenix Lord's consciousness, combined with the knowledge of each of the past thousand previous wearers, in charge. Each Phoenix Lord is the most awesome example of one type of Aspect Warrior. They have super-powered versions of the regular equipment and powers available to a respective Exarch, only more so. Taken as a group, they pack awesome statlines with 2+ armor, Eternal Warrior (negating the usual issue of instant death via double S weapons) and good wounds.
  • Asurmen (Dire Avengers): 220 points. He gets Twin-linked Avenger shuriken catapult, an AP 2 diresword that can re-roll a single failed to hit roll per turn and both the battle fortune and shield of grace exarch powers. In your army Asurmen is an expensive unit but a strong one, he packs a good invuln save and dukes hard in whatever melee he finds himself in or just adds some more dakka to the avengers he running around with. He is a strong challenger with both good offense with his sword of Asur or defense when using shield of grace to gain a 3++ when facing down a MUCH better combatant you only wish to stall. Finally he is the Hand of Asuryan and when deployed as part of your primary detachment he becomes your mandatory warlord who gets to roll d3 warlord traits for the fun of it, rolled properly this has some serious potential to make him a beacon of interesting powers throughout the game, otherwise meh. Asurmen is an expensive choice of HQ but he can do good things and should not be discounted.
  • Jain Zar (Howling Banshees): 200 points. Founder of the howling banshees Jain is the pinnacle of an assaulty terror on the battlefield, loaded with not one, not two but THREE Remnants of glory right out of the gate she's the most heavily loaded phoenix lord in the codex. Her Silent death can be tossed 12" as an assault 4 weapon with a good shot at reaping a few models out of the unit before she even gets there. Once she's in the thick of it her enhanced banshee mask bumfucks the enemy unit with -5 WS and Init right off the bat, then the Blade of destruction comes into play. This AP2 wound rerolling monsters can reap orks and termies alike with oh so much blender fury. If and I mean IF anyone decides to try and take her in a challenge her disarming strike rule applies and can make for some serious lulz by you. Don't forget she gains +1A for having two non-Specialist Weapons and them not being Two-Handed either. An extra Attack at AP2 is always nice. (She still loses to lelith but against pretty much any other character even named ones she is pretty fucking awesome!)
  • Baharroth (Swooping Hawks): 195 points. As the ever unloved Swooping hawks settle into a moderately comfortable place in the new codex the lord of hawks does similarly. The gun on Baharroth is basically the regular lasblaster with a higher strength, a technically good thing. Baharroth also comes with the battle fortune and hit&run exarch powers, so he's got a 4++ and can escape melee which is a GOOD thing. Interesting to him is the sun's brilliance ability he comes with, when landing with deep strike he sets of a flash of blinding light, causing foes within 6" of him (remember hawks never scatter now) to make an Init test or go blind for the turn, used correctly this is awesome, otherwise it's meh. Lastly there is the Shining blade he wields, an AP3 Blinding melee weapon, huh, a WS of 1 does have penalties to enemy squads and you could make some plays by going into melee, procing the blind attack then hit and running later on leaving the unit unengaged and utterly useless. Like hawks, a questionable purchase but superior to his previous editions.
  • Karandras (Striking Scorpions): 230 pennies? Karandras was good before, Karandras is good now. His mandiblasters no longer grants him a holy load of attacks now instead firing a S6 AP- shot at the very start of every assault phase. Following that his melee options lies in his strength boosting sword you will NEVER USE or more importantly. Scorpions claw, a power fist that is so much more than just a power fist, but a fist that fists like no fist before it, fisting hard at S8 with FULL Init. Combined with his stalker challenge wound re-rolling power he is a veritable beast in melee, and with monster hunter can bring low some very impressive foes. His special rules are seemingly endless but he can infiltrate in, give stealth to whoever he's running with at the moment and then later can crush skulls like so many tin cans. He too should get +1A for having two melee weapons.
  • Fuegan (Fire Dragons): 220 points. Fuegan is so not even remotely phased by your enemies shit, he shoots shit, cleaves shit and shits on the enemy’s special tanks and shit like never before. The firepike is as good as ever but now Fuegan learned how to double tap the fucking thing for two melta shots at a longer range and his awesome BS. He doesn’t have an invuln save but he does boast a feel no pain making him an even more durable lord than most, and then there is his special rule. Each time he suffers an unsaved wound he gains +1 to his Srength and Attacks for the rest of the game. If a renewer warlock bro happens to be anywhere nearby he could just heal from said wounds (even in combat) and get back to doing what Fuegan does best, ruining Christmas, Easter and birthday parties. A monster of a lord he ties with Karandras for best lord evar.
  • Maugan Ra (Dark Reapers): 195 points. Like his previous incarnation Maugan Ra either still cannot remember what his reaper gun is supposed to do or reapers on the whole just didnt follow big daddy’s rules right to the letter. Sporting shorter range but more dakka than reapers, Maugan Ra is a serious bastion of firepower, just not against what reapers are supposed to be good against, MEQ. S6 AP5 isn’t a great weapon for armored targets however it does fire both pinning and rending which helps a little. Also, it is not assault 4, because Maugan is still rocking fast shot, add another bullet to every round. The Maugetar can also function as a bit of a sniper, scoring precision hits on a 5+ and with Night vision no round of night fighting will save foes from his wrath...they have all their saves to do that. The dude is a pretty reasonable all comers lord who does well in ranged and hold his own in melee, he also boasts hatred for daemons and for some reason relentless on an assault weapon.
  • Irrllyth (Shadow Spectres) (Forge World): Update pending…

Troops

Troops are the core of your army and can now hold their own a good purchases to the previous relics of past books. Essential for holding objectives and gunning down competition each troops now offers an actual unique benefit and finds a place in your list. Eldar troops basically fall into either hold still or charge ahead, both being more mobile than their competitors in other races.

• Dire Avengers: These Aspect Warriors are your most basic infantry (although Guardian Defenders also lay claim to that role). The whole idea behind the aspect is that they are the perfect balance between offense and defense; in other words, they're useful both for sitting back and shooting and for getting up close and personal and storming objectives. Ironically, then, they aren't amazing at close combat, although (especially with the Exarch's weapon choices) they can survive there. Perhaps most importantly, though, they have special shuriken catapults, appropriately called avenger shuriken catapults. Unlike regular shuriken catapults (and their pathetic range of 12"), avenger shuriken catapults have a range of 18". Combined with every Eldar's innate Battle Focus ability, the extra range allows the Avengers to play a merry game of keep-away with the opponent. Also, their Aspect Armor comes with a 4+ save, which makes them a fair bit hardier than Guardians. Finally, they have the Counter Attack special rule, which gives them an extra attack each when charged, as well as plasma grenades. This means that you can bait charges into the Dire Avengers, get Overwatch, and then get a bunch of attacks in the ensuing melee. Use their (relative) mobility to run circles around the opponents and shave models off whatever units you can. Mobility and ranged spray help them whittle away at enemy units without having to get as close as guardians do.
  • Exarch: Unlike most Exarchs, the Exarch in a Dire Avenger squad can radically change his role in the squad with a simple weapon swap. However, it should be noted that most of his powers and abilities are focused solely on himself. Take his Exarch powers, for instance: Disarming Strike and Shield of Grace are mostly for challenges, while Battle Fortune just improves his close-combat defenses. As such, he's probably not a good buy, as it's not likely that he'll make the unit much better. Of course, if you must take him, most of the options are good. The twin-linked avenger shuriken catapult is cheap and boosts his ranged effectiveness; the diresword is incredibly potent, especially in a challenge; and the power weapon/shimmershield combo provides the unit with a 5++ invulnerable save, but at the expense of the Exarch's firepower. The only option to shy away from is the power weapon/shuriken pistol combo, as the diresword is much, much better, and for only 5 points more to boot.

• Guardian Defenders: The Guardians gear is probably the most underwhelming in the codex, a 5+ armor save you will never want to have to use as well as the trusty shuriken catapult. The catapult is still the shortest ranged of any troop weapon found in 40k but boasting its new bladestorm rule, a change so important to the guardians its almost their central feature. Bladestorm allows guardians to wound anything and penetrate any armor save, with the sheer mass of shots they make at their improved BS4 this is a pretty serious threat to most models in the game. Guardian defenders also host a second feature that needs mentioning, a heavy weapon mount for every 10 bodies in the squad, up to 2. These platforms are now true models within the squad, moving and shooting under their own power and with a toughness and armor save to take into account. The support platform can be equipped with any of the heavy weapon options at a noticeable cost. The guardians obvious downsides are obvious, they are fragile Eldar in 5+ armor, enough said. Sit them in one form of cover or another with a conceal warlock however and we have something to talk about, a good saving unit with a lot of bodies and long range powerful weapons sitting on an objective with a fuckton of dakka for overwatch or sudden shuriken rushes. Dictate your price with them, adding warlocks and heavy weapons to suit (although as the rules are described now, the Scatter Laser is the less useful option as its Laser Lock ability only counts for the same "model", not the same unit but still puts out a good amount of longer ranged ST6 shooting).

• Storm Guardians: Storm guardians forgo the defensive stratagem of the defenders and instead wield both sword and pistol into the maelstrom of melee combat. Storm guardians are rare as they boast little over the far more skilled and equipped aspect warriors, however desperate times call for desperate measures. A low tier assault unit storm guardians forgo both their shuriken catapults and heavy weapon platform in favor of pistols and a sword. The good news is that pistol still has the blamestorm rules so storm guardians are pretty killy at range with a bit of luck, the sword gives them the extra attack into melee and their Init is good. They can equip a couple of fusion guns, flamers and power weapons but not many. Also plasma grenades. Bad news is they still have the same armor and will get scythed down if not carefully deployed, their attacks are made at S3. Special rules of note are their fleet and….that’s basically it. Downside are: they are guardians. In melee. Overwatch. Wall of death. Storm guardians require the help of the warlocks even more desperately than their defender comrades, taking any number of the warlocks buffing powers to help them gain an edge in the melee they thrust themselves into. Protect your warlock at all costs and drown your foe in a serious fuckton of dice.

• Windrider Jetbike Squadrons:

They are one of the best and point efficient units in the game, to a point that it is almost unfair ecpeccially if you are playing mealstorm. Guardian jetbikes are Eldar who take their mastery of speed to heart and are a well-known unit to see Eldar field due to the extraordinary mobility the jetbike offers. The only gear the windriders feature is the jetbikes they ride but that’s all the unit really needs. Automatically giving them an enhanced T4 and magical 3+ armor save windriders are the equivalent of marine’s models but with far greater maneuverability. The jetbike comes with a built in twin-linked shuriken catapult, 90% accuracy for a shuriken weapon and bladestorm still applies here. Every third jetbike can switch out for a much larger, much meaner shuriken cannon for extra dakka. Aside from the usual windriders also boast the benefits of Eldar jetbikes that allow them a special 2d6 move during the assault phase and all those delicious cover saves for moving and turbo boosting. The only issue the windrider faces lies in their low numbers and higher cost, not a big issue since they cost just under two guardians normally but these are models you should try not to lose. Like with all guardians a warlock can join the squad and instantly make it better, conceal boosting their already good cover save, protect to give them terminator armor, even embolden can remove the issue of their lower leadership. Zip around like the Tasmanian devil, chunk units of anything, troll everyone and grab or contest objectives to make enemies weep little black tears.

• Rangers: When an Eldar finds no path that suits them they often turn to the path of the ranger, venturing from the craftworld to see new sights and places. Their pathless existence goes against the grain of Eldar society but lends them unique viewpoints and skills many Eldar never find themselves possessing. The ranger long rifle is core of the unit and as such has a few aspect that need discussing. As written the weapon is a heavy 1 sniper with long range, its AP6 is undesirable but rangers fire it at their BS4. Sniper weapons means they precision shot on hits of 6 and rend on wounds of 6, forcing a pinning test and possibly force a unit to go to ground under their attacks. The basic formula of the ranger goes something like this: 66% chance to hit, 50% chance to wound, 60%ish chance to damage MEQ armor. The special rules of the rangers is their classic infiltrate, fleet, stealth and move through cover. This makes them a theoretically maneuverable but realistically immobile. You see being a heavy weapon the squad cannot fire after travelling during the move phase, battle focus also specifies they cannot fire either before or after they take that run action. Flamers and various other cover ignoring weapons like barrage and noise marine blasts ruin your rangers every day. Ultimately the rangers will end the game exactly where they started, moving only to shuffle towards an objective or away from an approaching melee unit. Rangers can infiltrate either to an advantageous position or on top of a cover providing objective, then they will sit there for as long as they can laying down a few suppressing shots into choice targets. Their cost was significantly reduce from previous editions but the unit will still need to work hard to make its points back.

Alternate View.Never forget there Shuriken Pistols, Blade Storm still applies, also move them they still get Snap Shots (while not great a larger unit will still hit something and kill it). a nearby Warlock or Farseer will add to this with guide. also with Illic if CC happens they can still hold out (sort of).

• • Master of pathfinders granted by the HQ Illic Nightspear allows you to more than double the cost of each model (bad) but grant them shrouded (good) and 100% precision shots (good good) thus making them do what they do normally, but better.
  • Modeling Tips Hate the hoodless rangers but you don't want them with helmets or applying green stuff because you suck at making anything with green stuff? Fear not, because there is a solution. If you have the money, grab a box of wood elf archers, or something with elf hoods, and smash a new head on them. You might need to fill in some spaces with green stuff though, but it was very minimal for me.

Dedicated Transport

• Wave Serpent: The Wave serpent is yet another falcon chassis tank but featuring a large carrying capacity for the Eldars various infantry and a real threat in terms of a battlefield vehicle. The Wave serpent comes stock with the standard AV12 and ability to grab vehicle upgrades such as holofields and star engines. It comes with a twin-linked catapult and shuriken cannon, the cannon being tradeable for a twin-linked star cannon, bright lance or scatter laser. It can also trade for an EML (no flakk) for a heavy price as well as switch out that little catapult for a cannon (because who wants a tank with 12” range?) for a little bit more. Unlike other races the wave serpent is a costly machine, clocking at 115 points base and with lots of reason to spend more. You cannot just throw this transport away and it also features no fire points as well as not being an assault transport. Our dedicated transport kicks the daddy bags of other such transports of the other races and in large point games you can afford to get a whole lot more armour onto the field. The Wave serpent has various uses and strategy we’re all used to by this point in addition to its useful long range anti-cover attack. Move it carefully and let it bring your units to where they can do their job best. Equip with Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon to allow you to spam insane amounts of Twin-Linked shots. You only need to hit once (hit, not wound) with your BS4 Twin-Linked Scatter Laser to make ALL other shots fored by this model Twin-Linked. Yes, that includes the Serpent Shield. And what is the Serpent Shield?
  • Serpent Shield: The Wave Serpent now comes with a new barrier that turns all of its front and side based penetrating hits to magically transform into a mere glance on a 2+. Then if the serpent is either doomed anyway or you need to extra zoom zoom dakka it can instead FIRE THIS FORCEFIELD at an enemy within 60”. This energy wave is a S7 AP- pinning weapon that ignores cover as well as dealing d6+1 hits. The defensive aspect of the shield are on cool down until your next turn and the attack can be fired again if you wish.

Elites

Aspect Warriors are the meat and potatoes of the Eldar Army. They appear in Troops, Fast, Heavy, and Elites. They are the whole thing people are talking about when they say the Eldar Army is mostly specialists. They have a pretty good statline, great leadership, and are all Fleet with Battle focus. Each squad of Aspect Warriors can upgrade one of their number to an Eldar sergeant called an Exarch. Exarchs get bumps all over the statline - Initiative goes to a tyranid-like 6, attacks to 2 - and can then take fancy versions of their weapons and buy Exarch powers depending on what they are. Exarchs are very popular and are almost always worth the chips, most especially if you like to field big squads.

Fire Dragons

Now you see the tank, BOOOOM! now you don't, this is Fire dragons in a nutshell both past and present. A unit dedicated to making sure win or lose your foes never get to keep their most precious possessions, leaving even the victorious broken hearted and awash with their own greasy tears. Fire dragons come with a little bit of gear that does a whole lot of good, their new enhanced aspect armor among them. Fusion guns are short range/high win melta weapons known by many, feared by all. They also pack melta bombs for those rainy days and foolish MCs. The only special rules worth mentioning are the benefits of Fleet & Battle focus on these already awesome gunners and the exarchs hilarious fast shot. Expensive like lawyers now, fire dragons have seen a large increase in points with only a few benefits to offset the cost. They still rock even in tiny squads and can bring the heat even at the smallest of point costs, but fielding them can hurt in small lists and making them get their points back is paramount, especially for larger squads. Noticeable boosts to the unit include heavy aspect warrior for all models to deal with return fire as well as the exarchs access to fast shot for less than an additional body. Battle focus & Fleet allows dragons to possibly close a gap into melta range or shuffle off behind cover to make revenge fire all the weaker. Small (5-6 man) squads love to ride in Falcons, which can be a good choice if you've already got one and don't want to buy them their own Wave Serpent.

• Exarchs could possibly be given crushing blow for boosted strength, but they won’t be. Iron Resolve boosts your LD to 10, which can be useful for not fleeing when they get shot at (and they will) but only if you have 5 points to burn. Fast shot is, in terms of cost is amazing, a second shot at the exarchs BS and using the longer fire pike, all for less than another dragon? Sign me up. Can equip:
  • Dragons breath flamer, HAHAHAHA no.
  • Fire pike, longer ranged than a fusion gun makes for better fast shots and more availability to get in range of that target.

Striking Scorpions

The heavy ninja melee force of the Eldar infantry, sneaky and sinister they constitute a strong force for assault units and strength 4 beatings. Scorpions come to battle equipped with the heavy aspect armor befitting their 3+ armor save, shuriken pistols and special chainswords that raise their strength up by 1. They also wield plasma grenades and a special head based wargear in the mandiblaster, which fires a S3 AP- auto-hits against the enemy unit at the Init 10 step, unaffected by things like lash whips or the like. Add to that the plethora of rules such as built in stealth, infiltrate and move through cover, as well as the new Battle focus and old Fleet, a pretty mobile squad for a bruiser type unit with lots of options in terms of combat for the tactical commander. Scorpions only suffer in regards to getting into said melee and chewing through armored foes who retain good odds against their AP 6 attacks. Their heavier armor grants them an improved durability over their banshee comrades but lacking the mobility they need to close the gap as quickly, possibly exposing themselves to even greater firepower. Scorpions excel at drowning foes in a massive wave of attacks, two normally, three on the charge, with the consistent shots of the Mandiblasters raining fire on enemies before most people even have time to draw their weapons. As a result of this setup they can quickly rend through large hordes of light armored foes and are a solid fallback for melee units to hunt your enemies down.

• Exarchs can take up to two of stalker, monster hunter and most importantly, crushing blow. This power makes the exarch even stronger than normal and turns the scorpion claw weapon into a wonderfully ambiguous S8 S7 power claw that strikes at full speed. The claws sheer stopping power combined with crushing blow really can be worth the points for a unit that could be called upon to attack just about anything they find themselves in combat with. Can equip:
  • Scorpion claw, granting him x2 Strength attacks with AP2 and no loss of speed, with a shuriken catapult added in just for fun. No two handed or specialist weapon, so he still get extra attack for having a sword. The most expensive choice of weapon but rightfully so.
  • Biting blade, two handed sword that hits for S5 and AP4 at the cost of his chainsword.
  • Chain sabres, two weapons that grant a shuriken catapult and gives the scorpion rending in melee (and S4 like the normal scorpion chainsword but with AP5 instead of AP6, a good choice for a moderate cost)

Howling Banshees

These sword-wielding ladies are the fast, lightweight, hand-to-hand Aspect of the Eldar warhost, designed to blend MEQ armour across a large swath of the battlefield. They all come stock with a pistol, a power sword and an iconic banshee mask that makes their enemies get -5 to their Init for the first round of your charge. Beating everyone to the punch with multiple power weapon attacks is like Chapter 1 of the Big Book of Battles. They lack the heavy aspect armor of other units which means you want to chew through as many foes on your first attack as you can to avoid retaliation kills. Banshees gain the benefit of Acrobatic movement when comprised of only models with that rule, giving them a bonus 3" on their run move, this is lost if you try and sneak a Farseer or autarch into their ranks, but works with Jain Zar (and combos with her warlord trait). Eldar lack an assault transport so that option is out, though banshees do fare better aboard a transport than slogging through open terrain even with Acrobatics, their fragility being a troublesome issue before and during assaults and they cannot be foolishly thrown against an enemy force hoping to claim easy victory. Banshee's also lack grenades of any sort but that sometimes only makes the playing field even with their mask, could be worse. Generally speaking, you want to use banshees against MEQ armor, Scorpions excel against large low armor hordes and small TEQ squads. Banshee's will usually cull the enemy force significantly with any level of psyker boosting such as Doom or Jinx.

• Exarchs can take the Fear and Disarming strike powers to challenge like there's no tomorrow or scare LD8 enemies. Banshee Exarchs don't make or break the combat power of their unit but cannot hurt the effectiveness of the squad overall. Can equip:
  • Executioners, which are nasty two-handed power weapons at S5 AP2.
  • Mirror swords, which replace the pistol and power sword for an extra attack, AP 3 and a Master-crafted re-roll.
  • Triskele, a throwing weapon with S3, AP3, Assault 3 in addition to being a normal power weapon.

Harlequins:

Scorpions are heavy, Banshees are light, and Harlequins are expensive and weird. Fluffwise, they are psychic, ninja, space-elf dancer clown historians of the 40k universe. For two points above the cost of a Banshee or Scorpion, you get a pretty fighty little elf with a pistol and a mean overhand right, a weak invulnerable save, and the ability to run across terrain, Hit and Run, Fleet, and Furious Charge. Two can be upgraded to carry a little melta pistol, and any can take a Harlequin's Kiss (not as romantic as it sounds; they shove a sharpened tube into the enemy and then use a super-thin metal wire to blend their insides) which Rends in hand-to-hand. Fine so far.

For a sawbuck, you can upgrade one to be a Troupe Master, who gets a free kiss or power weapon and gets an extra swing with it. You can upgrade another to be a Death Jester with a big machine gun for 10 points, and for the big 30 you can bring a unique psyker officer named Shadow Seer, who brings a pretty effective stealth field to the unit (the enemy, upon declaring he's shooting at them, must roll 2D6 times 2 to check if he can see them. If he can't the unit cannot declare another target. Bamf) and also hands out hallucinogen grenades and weed to everyone.

Harlequins require careful use, and only begin to shine in larger points. If you're just going to shell out for the basic 5 guys, don't bother, get more Banshees/Scorpions. Everyone gets a Harlequin's Kiss and you NEED a Troupe Master and a Shadowseer, no exceptions. At that point the squad becomes a pretty nasty assault squad, which unlike both Banshee's and Scorpions, can handle both large hordes and small elite squads. Against small elite squads their invul save and rending attacks will quickly add up, and against hordes they can pump out a large number of S4 attacks on the charge to wipe them out. If you can get them where they need to be unharmed and let them loose, they can actually be a pretty brutal squad overall.

NEW INFO: So harlequin's in 6th ed fall into a wonderful category of "not scorpions" and "not banshees" which in gameplay terms means, no dedicated AP3 wounds and no specific 3+ armor save. Sending in the clowns this edition means you hit at Str 4 on the charge for furious charge, get a 5++ and are not slowed by difficult terrain for purposes of movement on the base unit and are fleet. They pack shuriken pistols mostly, which are 12 in range and carry the same bladestorm rule that all other eldar shuriken weapons carry, which can put wounds on pretty much any non vehicle unit on a to wound roll of 6. Additionally, they can take two fusion pistols per unit, a power sword on the troop master and a full unit of harlequin kiss (causes rending on wound rolls of 6). The unit is WS 5, so they will be hitting on 3s on most line infantry and mostly on 4s against dedicated assault units.

Harlies have three model upgrades that can be taken to the unit, changing the type:

Troupemaster - basically your squad leader, extra attack and can take a power sword for free, allowing for AP 3 attacks, min 3 attacks, LD 10, all for 20 points.

Death Jester - your machine gun toting dude, shrieker cannon is an assault 3, strength 6, AP 5 pinning weapon with bladestorm rule. (ap2 on roll of 6 to wound). The jester provides limited fire support and dick jokes.

Shadowseer - hallucinogen grenades: unit counts as having plasma grenades)also has veil of tears, a 1 warp charge blessing that forces any unit targeting them to based range on a roll 2D6, multiplied by 2. If they cannot target the unit due to not being in range, the unit cannot fire at another unit that turn.

These guys do best in FULL units, with all the special characters against armies such as guard, eldar, tau, nids and orks, basically any army with low armor saves and a lot of indiscriminate, but not necessarily well aimed firepower. Against low armor save armies, the shrieker can lay some wounds that will go through the armor.

With marines, AP3 will work on power armor, and bladestorm gives you some AP 2, on the charge these guys will put out a pretty respectable amount of attacks, and with the invul theres always a chance you will save against the overwatch.

A good straregy against ALL armies: Start the unit in cover, then parade out, ALWAYS cast veil, as there's no reason not to and parade around like a gay rights parade float. If your opponent is baited and shoots at them, there is a decent chance that the unit will preclude shooting on some of his gunline unit. With the exception of D weapons, you will have a save. If you can fortune the unit, the 5+ becomes rerollable.

If they are charged, they still put out 3-4 attacks a piece with 2x combat weapons, which may rend, if they get the charge, 4-5 per with rending on the kisses at str 4. As with all eldar work best if target is doomed and you are fortuned.

They have their own code now, ally with them for some nice cheesy combo's.

Wraithguard

Resilient and terrible in their destructive power Wraithguard are the otherworldly goliaths of Eldar infantry, and their vigil is eternal. Acting as vanguards for durable front line advances Wraithguard are a unit difficult avoid for enemies and foolish to ignore. With a toughness of 6 and heavily armored wraithbone granting them a 3+ armor save wraithguard are as durable as terminator equivalents of other armies and wield terrific weapons. The Wraithcannon is short range and utterly lethal against all targets, the S10 AP2 gun shreds all targets with equal fury and distort rule gives it the ability to instant death, as though anything would survive it normally. The D-scythe is the newcomer in this codex, shorter range than even the cannon, the scythe unleashes the unraveling energies of the wraithcannon in a wave rather than a focused blast, S4 AP2 flamer means no cover or armour save can defend against them, and they maintain their distort ability for any tank crossing their path. Immune to assault because of WALL OF DEATH! Wraithsight is gone HUZZAH, also a bulky and fearless unit, nothing new and nothing bad. You want to use the Wraithguard as the anvil of your army, moving up fearlessly each turn while other more mobile Eldar think away at your opponent’s forces. Once in range of a target wraithguard will kill it, they just will, and they will stick around a lot longer than your enemies will be comfortable with. Six can fit into a wave serpent and emerge to deliver unfair levels of wrath upon their targets.

• Spiritseer allow these units to becomes troops at all squad sizes. Wraithguard are a snatch for runes of battle powers like protect, conceal or quicken. Alternatively powers like reveal and horrify work well to soften your targets. Spirit-mark ability does not benefit D-scythes.

Wraithblades

Like the wraithguard the wraithblades are Eldar wraithbone constructs, only with a focus on melee combat as opposed to near melee ranged weaponry. The armaments of the Wraithblades change their dynamic in pretty significant ways. For those that enjoy visceral reckless carnage they come stock dual-wielding ghostswords, AP3 swords you’ll be wielding with S6 and about two attacks a model. On the other hand, they can freely switch for a combination of Ghostaxe S7 AP2 with a 4++ shield, giving them more of a termy hunting role while being very durable and threatening unit. No shitty Wraithsight which would have hurt them even worse than Wraithguard. They do not make many attacks, however given the strength and AP of the weapons they would have just needed the distort rule of their ranged weapons to make everything blend, EVERYTHING. But although they DON'T have distort they're still beasts in melee. No assault transports for Eldar but in a pinch wraithblades with shields for the meatiest 'want to kill' target, Which could be used for your advantage.

• Spiritseer allows these units to becomes troops at all squad sizes. Wraithblades benefit greatly from enhance, protect, quicken, empower and even conceal if lacking shields (or in cover). Sapping your enemies own power in preparation for the assault are powers like horrify, drain and enervate.

Fast Attack

In this slot we find the fastest of our already quick moving and mobile army, armed to the teeth with a variety of weapons such as the spammy lasblaster and armor melting Bright Lance. In this slot you can find not only options for engaging and destroying infantry but many of these slots features unit who can either outfit themselves totally for anti-vehicle or just do a decent job of it if called upon. You also find both of your flyers in this slot and each performs a very different job that should be carefully considered.

Swooping Hawks

Swooping hawks have had a tough love life before now, a unit that could never pull its own weight and would rarely accomplish goals under an aged codex. As the Eldar's premier lightweight jump infantry the new swooping hawks stand a chance of glory and respect.

Swooping hawks enter the battlefield absolutely loaded to the teeth: aspect armor, jump infantry wings, no less than three different kinds of grenades, and their (thankfully improved) lasblaster weapon. The Lasblaster is the first important pieces of tech they bring with them. Increased from assault 2 to 3 they now throw out an almost unmatched number of shots as a squad. Even though they are S3 laser pointers, the sheer volume of shots is pretty threatening now, being equal to any standard basic 40k gun in firepower, while boasting much more comfortable range. Against hordes this is solid gold; against anything else it’s just a tidal wave of firepower that you get to drop on the table with a mighty clatter of dice. Haywire grenades are good as an anti-armor weapon and lend the hawks some versatility with their targets, allowing them to tear apart vehicles easily with the haywire rule. Plasma grenades can be used in perfectly placed blasts by one dude after the hawks have landed, an easy task as described below.

Swooping hawks have some very cool special rules to make use of now. First and foremost is their Herald of Victory, deep striking in the hawks (and only if the squad is ONLY hawks or Baharroth) perfectly on the board with no scatter to speak of, like a scalpel this can be placed with utter precision for tactical advantages. After they have accomplished their goal hawks can then return to the air and skyleap up up and away, leaving the battlefield at the start of the movement phase as long as they are not restricted in any way. They go into reserve to land again another turn, counting as a kill if the game ends with them up there. Finally, the grenade pack: a cover ignoring S4 AP4 sky burst blast made at the move phase every time the hawks enter from deep strike. If you have 6 models in the squad this is a large blast (pro tip: have 6 models).

Tactics are the hawk’s friend: deep strike in the right place, laying your sky burst on the right foes and maybe gunning survivors down, or just pounding a different target with their plethora of attacks. Sky leap up the next turn to do it all over again. Drastically lowered price and versatile skill and target set gives them a tactical flexibility unlike previous editions.

• Exarchs can take the night vision and Hit & run to benefit the whole squad as well as marksman eye to snipe out potential priority targets. Hit & run makes the most sense to allow the hawks to get back into the air again. Can equip:
  • Hawks talon, which is just a heavier strength lasblaster and thus alright.
  • Sunrifle, which fires just like a lasblaster but at AP3 and forces an Init test if it hits, failure reduces the enemy unit to WS and BS 1 for their next turn, great for protecting the hawks from return fire and crippling a potential threat from the target squad. Do note that vehicles that have no Initiative value fail this test automatically, and blinding do affect all models in the squadron, so dakkaing a Sunrifle on the Leman Russ squadron before charging it actually makes sense, since anything that survives in haywire mayhem would be hard-pressed to hit something at BS1.

Shining Spears

Shining spears are guardians that once flew jet bikes and really loved it, now they are aspect warriors who love flying jet bikes and really love it, enough said. Shining spears are a shooty assault style knight of medieval days, leveling a lance at enemies and running it into squishy bits with a whole lot of speed behind them. They feature high toughness and heavy armor courtesy of the jet bike and heavy aspect armor as well as a laser lance their primary weapon with the under-slung shuriken catapult. The laser lance can fire a single 6" shot with S6 and AP3 with the hilarious benefit of the lance rule for heavy AV vehicles. Basically a 17% chance to glance armor and maybe better for lower AV. After this shot is fired the spears can jet into an assault, using their lances momentum for the first turn of combat to function as S6 AP3 weapons, ideal for cutting down marines on mass and even keeping the lance rule if you charged a land raider. They get the Battle focus and ancient doom rules of the other Eldar, plus the outflank ability and skilled rider for enhanced cover saves on the fly. The downsides of spears are easy to see, expensive models with not a lot of deadly weaponry to really scare any particular threat, they need to make the most of their numbers and really try hard to seize more points than they cost you, though the points cost did drop. They also get way worse at fighting the second round of an assault, so don’t stick around. The spear tactics are simple, fly into the board, laser pew pew your target, charge in for the dunk, if your target didn't die you’re either stuck in combat or have the exarch.

• Exarchs bring a bit more stink to the squad with more attacks and better stats overall for what they will be doing. Options of powers are monster hunter and Hit&run, both of which benefit the whole squad (if you bought exarch you will also buy hit&run, you WILL) as well as disarming strike for the exarch alone for challenge purposes. Can equip:
  • Power weapon, um...why would we do this?
  • Star lance, better than a laser lance, thus good as a weapon and a simple purchase.

Vyper Jet bike

The Vyper is the large scale armored jet bike of the Eldar, requiring two pilots, one for aiming its weapons at the high speed the vehicle moves and the other to deftly maneuvering the vehicle with inhuman speed and grace. The Vyper is a fast platform for many of the Eldar's classic heavy weapons and can zip around as a combined squad to seek and destroy targets of all shapes and sizes. Stock the vehicles is a fragile AV10 open topped skimmer, with only 2 hull points they can go up in smoke if too many shots get levied at them and they should always aim for cover saves when available. Their default armaments include a twin linked shuriken catapult and a primary shuriken cannon, the catapult can be swapped out for a cannon which is basically a must on all vehicles with the option. The primary weapon can then be exchanged for a Starcannon, Bright lance, scatter laser or EML like basically all Eldar vehicles, these options presenting it a variety of options for engaging foes with weaponry suited to that end, each Vyper can swap for different weapons. The Vyper boasts no special features aside from its unit type so to grant it any additional benefits the Eldar vehicle gear must be consulted, holofields seem like a good choice and crystal targeting matrix allows for a full salvo of accurate fire (with the units buffed BS4) right after a hefty table move. Vectored engines don’t help a unit whose rear armor is equal to all the rest and if shot at spirit stones won’t likely make anything like a difference. The Vypers are fragile, they offer only one choice of heavy armaments so unlike the warwalkers they are not the anti-heavy units you should rely on, that being said a squad even barely outfitted with just a Brightlance each is a highly mobile rear armor crashing force to remember. This is the fastest heavy hitter in your list and a good contender for your attention in the fast attack slots.

Warp Spiders

A reliable unit from the fast attack slot for years now the spider teleports around the battlefield threatening virtually any kind of foe almost anywhere on the battlefield. Sporting mad heavy aspect armor for durability and their 12" S6 deathspinners for genocide the warp spiders are a rough customer. The monofilament rule of the spinner improved a good gun into a damn near great one, short ranged but bristling with firepower the gun can now turn those normally AP- shots into auto wounding AP1. Then just as a guarantee, the guns all gain a special bonus vs. slow infantry and all non-walker vehicles, gaining a free +1 to strength. This allows them to glance even AV13 to death, which is NUTS, or just dump their otherwise good firepower into the rear armor of tanks for the touchdown. The mobility of the spiders is paramount to the success of their weapon however, its short range needs to be countered by the powerful movement of the spiders. Warp jump packs allow them to either jump their normal 6" or warp jump up to 6+2d6 (losing a model on a double result) in a direction, then they get their run courtesy of Battle focus with Fleet rerolls. Then you spin a whole lot of death, then you jet (troll) pack away 2d6" to avoid return fire.

• Exarchs can take marksman’s eye for value sniping and stalker for challenges, if you get into one. Fast shot again seems good as hell, especially when paired with the spinneret rifle for multiple AP1 shots. Can equip:
  • Twin linked spinner, more accurate spinner dakka than the regular for almost nothing.
  • Spinneret rifle, interesting change from previous codex, now an 18" rapid fire weapon with monofilament and pinning, all with S6 AP1. Note the rapid fire distance is less than the death spinners normal range, so you have to get within 9” for the rapid shot benefit.
  • Powerblades, which would be helpful for murdering enemy character (who is likely the only thing with a power weapon in a squad) if you choose to dive into melee with some shooty squad to avoid return fire, because as long as you keep the exarch alive your spiders would just jump out of melee the next turn. Besides that they also looks cool.
• Surprisingly, a squad of Warp Spiders would deal more anti-air S7 hits than equal point cost of War Walkers with double flakk missiles, just by sheer amount of dakka they dish out, so they are your cheapest ground based anti-air choice aside allies. Sure, their guns are short ranged, but that's why they have warp jumps and battle focus.

Crimson Hunter

While not the Nightwing Eldar players know and love the crimson hunter is still a fantastic answer to the fliers of other races that have mindlessly harassed us till now. The crimson hunter is a dedicated air superiority flyer of the Eldar army, he can single handily down just about every flyer in the game with and equal level of elegance and grace befitting an aerial Eldar pilot. The crimson hunter embodies Khaine’s ability to lay low foes seemingly greater than himself, rending the vehicles of other races with seemingly no effort due to her dual Brightlances and primary pulse laser weapon found on the hull. Crimson hunters have a few special rules that add to the ease of their job on the battlefield. Skyhunter allows them to re-roll any non-glancing non-penetrating shots made against fliers, giving the crimson hunter an almost guaranteed kill with its anti-armor load out. Vector dancer allows her to pivot 90° with ease at the end of her move, keeping him a hunter on the board far longer than the other races. The biggest downsides of the crimson hunters are easily seen, AV10 across the board makes them just as frail as Vypers (albeit with more Hull Points) at triple the price. As such even the lowly bolter could clip our elf’s wings and weapons such as the AA fortification weapons pose a very serious threat. Their poor durability can be mitigated slightly by the benefits of being a flier and cover saves in addition to Jink, however these defenses are fickle and will rarely save you form dedicated AA firepower. As such the best defense the Crimson hunter offers is coming into the field after his prey is already present, allowing him to down the target flier before the enemy can bring sufficient weapons to bear on him. (The Autarchs special ability makes this a tiny bit easier to accomplish)

• Exarchs can be taken for the crimson hunters, Eldar men and women of such unreasonable skill they gain the power to deliver precision shots against foes below even while jetting across the battlefield at supersonic speeds, an utterly demented idea the crimson exarchs pride themselves on. They also outright boost the accuracy of the weapons as a benefit of their enhanced BS and can acquire the night vision, which is mostly useless unless you know you're about to play an eternal night Lolcron army and marksman’s eye, which is mostly useless because your objectve is to down the flyers, not hunt enemy ICs. Can equip:
  • Double Starcannons, but let’s face it, you shouldn’t do this, and you won’t do this.

Hemlock Wraithfighter

The hemlock is piloted not by a fighter pilot but instead by a unique Spiritseer. The Hemlock is a wraith unit and as such is crewed by the souls of past Eldar. The hemlock does not boast heavy weapons or hull smashing armaments for it is not a weapon of this world, but of the next. Fear is the hemlock's true purpose and fear it delivers with ease. The dual heavy D-scythes are S4 AP2 blasts that obviously excel at cutting down swaths of armored and unarmoured foes with ease. These weapons make the hemlock totally incapable of aerial combat and poor at taking out vehicles, though the distort rule of the weapons does not leave it fangless. The hemlock comes standard with spirit stones allowing it to negate problematic conditions when under fire. The hemlock is piloted by a non-HQ Spiritseer, and this seer constitutes the hemlocks most unique features. The Mindshock pod attached to the underbelly of the fighter forces any successful morale and pinning tests made nearby to be rerolled, even for allies. Then the Spiritseer inside knows and utilizes a singular power, Terrify from the core rulebook, which he can fire once a turn at LD10. Stripping the target first of its fearless and then forcing a morale test under the gaze of the Mindshock pod is scary stuff, even the mighty Swarmlord could be made to flee such an embodiment of fear itself. If your army have a lot of pinning weapon, Hemlock might be the thing you need to make them actually work against anything, that isn't Imperial Guard or Tau. Like the crimson hunter the hemlock is fragile, sporting an AV10 and 3hull points to its name it’s no better off than the Crimson hunter when people start shooting at it. Using Jink for saves also leaves you unable to fire your weapons period but Terrify still functions. Additionally any perils of the warp caused by the Spiritseer cause a glancing blow against the fighter as well. The Mindshock pod and distortion weapons also have pretty short range so the Hemlock finds itself often in unfriendly territory. Often times the hemlock must be used with great care, its weapons and powers not suited for all threats all the time. Combine the Horrify power of the standard warlocks with the Hemlock and a plethora of pinning tests and you can shut down your foes across the board, rendering them helpless to fight back against your slaughter. It also has vector dancer so keep it on the board and over your enemy’s heads.

Shadow Specters (Forgeworld)

Guess who's back? Shadow Specters get an update, that turned them from weird overpriced unit who don't know what they suppose to do into proper all-rounders. Sure they are fragile and few in numbers, but with Battle Focus and JsJ they can jump around BLOS, and even if they get targeted, 4+ armour and cover may help a bit (though don't count on it). Then comes their guns - they have "MEQ-killer" and "Horde Sweeper" mode, with the later getting buffed to AP4 (making it a threat to anything with a word "warrior" in its name), and with Ghostlight they can threaten tanks as well. And they come equipped with haywire for when you REALLY want that Land Raider or Monolith dead - just be aware that Specters themselves would probably die the next turn after they charge some big metal box, and that you paid a lot of points and pounds to field them. For some reasons they get Fear, but don't rely on it - they still suck in close combat.

• Exarchs can take the night vision and Hit & Run to benefit the whole squad as well as Monster Hnter (not really worth it) and Shadow of Death - interesting, albeit unfluffy ability that allow him to voodoo enemy squads within 12" to pass Ld tests on 3D6 discarding the lowest result. Can equip:
  • Prism Blaster, which boosts MEQ, TEQ, and motster-killing ability of Exarch a lot and boosts Ghostlight, but for a price of no blast mode. Definatelly worth it against marines, and might be worth against heavy mech, if not the following one:
  • Haywire Launcher, two shots with haywire backed with a hail of S6 or Ghostlight lance of his squad would kill most vehicles in one turn. The downside is that it's all but useless against anything else but mech, being just an AP4 flashlight.

Wasp Assault Walkers (Forgeworld): Update pending…

Hornet (Forgeworld): Guess what? The update is out and what do we have? First of all, the Hornet itself is now 70 points and all weapons except for EML are 5 points. Yes. Even the pulse laser. It now has access to Acute senses in case you don't want to get right into the fray. The update has nerfed the Aerial Assault to oblivion, but with 6E fast vehicle rules you could fire two guns on full speed anyway. With Warp Hunter nerf this babies are almost obligatory, especially with 6th edition being a termi-edition. They also get access to all the eldar vehicle goodies, yet you hardly require anything except for holofields. And in most cases you need them not, for their job is to dish out a whooping 12 S8AP2 attacks at an unsuspecting foe across the deck, decimating even the Paladins if need be. Just be sure you don't get charged. That's 6th. You can get charged even if you're a fast skimmer.

Nightwing Interceptor (Forgeworld): Still fast, still able to mince other flyers, and more likely than not a vehicle a turn. Gets a pretty sweet cover save, but every bit as paper thin as other eldar flyers.

Heavy Support

Heavy support was a slot already tight for space with the majority of the Eldars best and brightest weapons vying for our attention, now the issue is only made worse with additions of the Wraithknight and overall improvement of just about every unit in the slot. You will almost guaranteed fill all three slots of this unit type regardless of the army you field given that the heavy supports offer something for everyone. Heavy support is now a pinched slot, so choose wisely and take great care with the units you commit to taking, since you’re turning down other equally good options to do it.

Dark Reapers

If Khaine loved anything, it was war. And in war things often get truly and utterly fucking destroyed, reduced to rubble and broken beyond any means of restoration, this is the dark reapers in a nutshell. A grim and terrifying aspect, dark reapers even give other Eldar a hint of fear, levelling foes across a wide zone of the field. The dynamic of the dark reapers changed heavily with the dawn of the new codex, once relegated to a small squad of dedicated marine killers with their exarch easily responsible for well over half the squad’s actual value, leaving the rest as fluffy extra wounds for the exarch. Now each reaper has a choice of weapon to choose from and he loves each options equally. Regular reapers have the choice of either their more traditional starswarm launcher, a weapon that fire salvos of S5 AP3 shots from across the board. Now they also have the starshot missile, a single heavy hitting shot at S8 AP3, sending most MC's reeling and most vehicles behind the biggest brick wall they can find. The reaper rangefinder that benefit the whole squad and any attached ICs prevents jink saves, lending even more weight to their armor hunting ability. As far as special rules the reaper go against the grain, ancient doom stays intact but reaper armor is too heavy for the likes of Battle focus, instead the reapers gain mobility from previous additions with slow and purposeful, giving them full ability to move during the movement phase and still fire their weapons with no loss of accuracy, wonderful. As for downsides, the reapers are not quite as mobile as the main Eldar force, but with range they don’t really need to be. Other issues such as sheer cost (now that they can have up to 10 models in a squad, up from five) costing you in the three hundreds to field a complete squad, even before upgrades! Oh and cover saves still hinder their ability to lay down unabated killing fire, nothing new there. The role of reapers hasn't changed very much, laying down the same oppressive AP3 firepower they did before from afar, but now with the power to leave infantry shredding to others while they drown tanks in S8 spam. Anything caught in the open against reapers is either very heavily armored, equipped with a decent invulnerability save, or dead.

• Exarchs used to be all the squad was worth, now they enhance it rather than make it look bad by comparison. The night vision power helps fantastically against the new availability of night fighting and marksman’s eye gives him the ability to snipe a bit, fast shot hasn’t gotten worse so you'll be picking that up for sure. Can equip:
  • Shuriken cannon, a big big step back in range this weapon probably hurts the exarch more than helps him.
  • Tempest launcher, the same 36" anti MEQ barrage tool of the past edition, good with fast shot, low strength.
  • Eldar missile launcher, as versatile as it is expensive it can grab flakk missiles and fast shot down air threats, though unless your squad is all decked out with starshot missiles you won’t want to force their fire on a target they won’t really hurt.

Falcon

The classic falcon remains unchanged in this era over the old and still fulfills its job as APC with guns to spare. Falcons come stock with their pulse laser, a S8 AP2 lulzbeam with great range and track record as well as underslung catapult (upgrade to a cannon). Then it gets its choice of heavy weapon from the pretty standard list of Brightlance, Starcannon, Scatterlaser and EML (no flakk). The falcon also features the standard Eldar falcon chassis complete with AV12 front and side with AV10 in the rear, 3HP, nothing to write home about but reliable enough to last most days. The falcon can carry a squad of no more than 6 bodies which is ideal for moving units such as fire dragons and small elite squads, but cannot move around wraith units. As a fast skimmer the falcon and its kin are mobile and granted a decent cover save against things that mean them harm, a pro with holo fields boosting this already decent defense. Downsides on the falcon are simple: melts under fire, expensive as hell and competition in the valuable heavy support slot. The tactics for the falcon are totally unchanged, drive in, unleash squad, shoot things dead. Some things can be relied upon to stay simple and the falcon is just that, it does its damage and get people where they need to be, hopefully before a las shot turns it into so much rainbow debris.

Fire Prism

Fire prism are the benchmark of Eldar battle tank technology, quick, fragile, deadly. The fire prism is elegant and graceful, it will deliver the results you need and look great doing it, like so many heavy support slots choices it's hard to just field one. The weapons of the fire prism is all you need to care about, the old combined beam power is gone, a loss as it would have given the fire prism even better than it is, which is fantastic. The AV12 falcon chassis is here to stay, reliable but fragile to dedicated hunters, twin-linked shuriken catapult (read: soon to be upgraded shuriken cannon) is here as well and the plethora of Eldar vehicle upgrades available. However it’s the 60" Prism cannon you buy the tank for, this magnificent jeweled weapon that focuses such intense power as to turn foes of all shapes and sized into all shapes and sized of slag. Boasting now the amazingly versatile THREE FIRING MODES the prism cannon rules as king of your culinary delights. For your meat lovers you have the dispersed mode, a S5 AP3 large blast, great for MEQ and anything more fragile. For your vegetarians you have the focussed mode, a TEQ hunting small blast with S7 and AP2, good for all things the previous mode didn’t quite get. Finally we turn the volume up to 11 and give our vegans out there the lance mode, used to scythe down anything that doesn’t strictly walk where it needs to go. At S9 AP1 with the LANCE special rule this weapon finally gives the Eldar an answer to the rail guns and lascannons of the other races, penning AV12+ 50% of the time. What downsides does the fire prism have you ask? Expensive tank + upgrades costs, high aggro generation and usual complaint of Eldar vehicles but nothing beyond that, a solid workhorse in the army you could field three and no one would bat an eyelash. Field the fireprism like you would a tank with a serious chip on its shoulder, easily capable of downing an enemy unit and making back its own point cost quickly with proper use. Holofields make it pretty durable just keep it away from dedicated anti-armor weapons it cannot save against.

Wraithlord

Wraithguards controlled instead by the soul of a true Eldar exarch the Wraithlord features great skill at range and up close. Durable like adamantium the wraithlord is a threatening and distracting unit, wink wink. With the heavy competition the Wraithlord needed to step up its game to stay on the board, and it did just that, the ghostglaive is a new melee option that allows for a single re-rolled hit each turn and adds +1S, for basically free. MUCH cheaper options of Shuriken cannon, Bright lance, Scatter laser, Starcannon and EML work far better than before. These weapons not only come cheaper than before but you can EQUIP TWO OF THE SAME, dual lances, some massive Shuriken dakka or whatever to your tastes. With massive toughness and great armor they are a stark contrast to the regular Eldar's poor durability under fire. Now the only weapons that hurt a Wraithlord are poison type abilities or big anti-tank shots. With monstrous creature rules lords can easily get some cover and blast out with accurate fire while still presenting themselves as a strong melee deterrent for your back line. They absorb far more firepower than is reasonable and with the new boosted attacks they can make a bit of a threat in melee again, crushing all foes under S9 AP2 strikes and taking little in return. Wraithlords are now characters for the fluff of it and challenges either make or break the unit in assaults, allowing him to call out special units with power fists and the like or getting caught up in a scrap with a meager sergeant for a turn too long. Their downsides lie in their cost and slow speed, preventing them from closing for melee quickly or proving the firepower their cost would allow on units such as the warwalkers or fireprisms. With their toughness, damage, versatility and cool appearance each commander will find the Wraithlord a different part of the battlefield to call its own, be it running to take that Landraider apart with a well-aimed smash, or charging to hold an enemy objective on big guns never tire. Each lord is unique and useful, it’s up to the player to give them the role that is needed best.

Wraithknight

Wraithknights are our new wraithbone colossus, standing high above even the Wraithlord's stature, piloted by a combination of living and dead Eldar twins it manages to pilot with the grace of a true Eldar and the power of its wraithbone comrades. At nearly the size of the revenant titan the Wraithknight is truly a monstrous force upon the battlefield, and with that armed to the teeth with various weapons at its disposal including the typical heavy shoulder weapons. Shuriken cannons and starcannons both give it anti-light or anti-heavy infantry power but these options are poor and subpar. The scatter laser however is now, at 20 points each up to two (don’t take two) these add to the already massive cost of the unit but grant it the same spammy S6 fire that has made the scatter laser a staple in the past, but with the added benefit of the laser lock rule, which makes any hits by the laser twin-link any and all weapons fired by the Wraithknight except the laser themselves. Because of the special load outs of the unit and its newness each weapon kit will get a bigger description as follows:

• Heavy wraithcannons, identical to the fearsome Wraithguard weapons but with three times the range the Wraithknight can dominate and decimate any individual target regardless of size or defenses, S10 with the distort rule to back it up allows these guns (you have two remember) to remove any single target from the battlefield. These come stock on the Wraithknight and keep it on its lower price end of the scale, however like the regular wraithcannons these weapons run into issues against cover saves that are abundant in 6e, aim wisely. Don't bother paying for shoulder weapons with these as you cannot fire more than two weapons each turn.
• Ghostglaive & scattershield, With the Wraithknight's maximum S10, the bonus to strength from the glaive is lost, but the knight still benefits from the mastercraft re-roll on one of its 4 attack rolls. The scattershield really make this baby shine, granting the otherwise fire magnety Wraighknight a 5++ for defenses against all attacks. This makes the Wraithknight hard to kill even under the best scenarios and with any form of pskyer support, harder still. The shield also has another benefit, every time a save with the shields 5++ is made each unit within 6" has to make a test against the blinding rule. Watch you don't get your own guys hit by it - even with I5 you would occasionally roll a six sometimes, and seeing as Eldar have no units to spare, one turn of WS/BS1 could cost you a game. Though against low initiative or mechanized opponents blind is both reliable and powerful tool.
• Suncannon & scattershield, perhaps the greatest of Vaul's creations, the Suncannon is the absolute pinnacle of Eldar plasma weaponry, burning with the heat of a star but cool to the touch, meaning no dumb killing itself with every shot bullshit like other units. The Suncannon fires three shots at a lovely 48" range, each is a TEQ hunting nightmare with S6 AP2, but that’s not enough is it? No, now the weapons shots are all diamonds, I mean small blasts. With twin-linking (shoulder Scatterlaser) or guide support the blasts should land pretty easily on target. This weapon could potentially reduce a squad to no dudes or not enough models left to care about, it is deadly, it is expensive and it will do serious damage. Come with a scattershield as well for a 5++ saves.

The Wraithknights grace and nimbleness despite its size makes it a jump monstrous creature, allowing it to sail through the air and get around very quickly. Move up to 12" in the move phase, end in some piece of cover or whatever else you need to be and if assaulting reroll the charge distance if you need to and hammer of wrath with smash ect ect. Can also deepstrike which for a model of this size is risky (unless your warlord got Seer of the shifting vector) due to terrain and whatnot. The Wraithknight has better strength, Initiative and attacks than the Wraithlord but barely outclasses it as such, very expensive cost difference. You probably would need a special case for it. With T8 and six wounds it will endure a beating, but you may want to keep it near area terrain (if you can find any big enough) for a tasty and cheesy 5+ cover to compensate for the lack of an Invulnerable normally. Like the wraithlord poison type abilities and weapons ruin your day along with instant death.

• • In larger points games (Over 1500 or so) a Wraithknight with a Suncannon and Scattershield, plus a Scatter Laser, can become the biggest and most unreasonably tough DISTRACTION CARNIFEX ever. With T8, it's immune to everything S4 and below, you have to be S7 before you need better than a 6 to wound it, and it's 3+, 5++, plus 6 wounds, means that it's nigh on impossible to bring down (this goes double if you manage to cast Fortune on it). The twin S6 guns will make it a serious threat to all forms of infantry and a good portion of vehicles and as a Jump Monstrous Creature, it's fast enough that your opponent can't reasonably ignore it. Throw on the Pacific Rim theme as your personal Jaeger drop kicks tank battalions, hops over Aegis' to smash artillery and squish heavy weapons teams, while all the while your Falcons and Aspect Warriors run around getting to kill things unmolested, because the Wraithknight is absorbing all the fire.

War Walker

A core part of older lists the warwalkers are mobile platforms that really embody the Eldar condition, loaded with firepower, melts under fire. War walkers excel at putting long ranged damage into whatever target they have been equipped to handle, often an anti-armor role but their versatile weapons list allows for many other targets. Walkers function with a much improved BS of 4 and even better comes equipped with a stock 5++ as a result of their higher price, enhancing the unit’s questionable durability to something a bit more reasonable. They can grab a host of different Eldar vehicle upgrades and come stock with dual shuriken cannons as their default weapon. The cannons can be exchanged for other weapons and makes the big change in walker’s roles on the battlefield (these units are good for magnetized modelling as a result). Shuriken cannons, scatter lasers, star canons and bright lances are all on the menu. Finally the big option, the Eldar missile launcher: a gun as versatile as the wielder the EML clocks in at several times the price of alternate options but here's why: at its base it can either be anti-armor or anti infantry blast weapons. It is also one of two units that can attach the flakk missile for a skyfire option for a few additional points. Warwalkers have battle focus, however they cannot use it, too bad all vehicles have Relentless according to BRB page 71. Run and gun those walkers all day. Frail as all fuck walkers are AV10 open topped and only two hull points apiece, their power shield granting them a limited but unreliable resistance but doing nothing to make the squad a powerhouse for defenses. Do not expose them to heavy firepower or you will lose them. Walkers excel at either unloading round after round of guided firepower into the field as well as outflanking onto the board to dork some side and rear armor for you, they unleash a frankly unreasonable number of shots and don’t cost you and arm and a leg to pull it off, protect them, kill with them, and maybe even down a flyer with them.

Vaul Wrath Support Weapon Battery

These are the artillery of the Eldar army which can be taken in squads of three and are crewed by two guardians per gun model and come in three flavors. They can also get a warlock optionally with a host of supportive power options. Gunners get a basic shuriken catapult you should hopefully never have to fire. Bear in mind that these support weapon batteries show none of the awesome convenience of Guardian squad support platforms - they are type Artillery and therefore function like a Napoleonic-era field cannon, they can run in 6th edition, and thanks to Battle Focus they can also shoot, as the restriction for artillery not being able to fire is having moved in the movement phase, not the shooting phase. (Rules for Battle Focus says that you can not shoot and run or run and shoot Heavy Weapons unless you are relentless) The crew benefit from the gun's awesome T7 against enemy shooting attacks. On the bright side they are dirt cheap. In the ever competitive heavy support slot the Vauls wrath needs to work damn hard to make its place at the table. The suite of artillery weapons are:

• Shadow Weaver: Default weapon. Lightweight version of Nightspinner's main gun, it packs one less strength, but it's still a small blast barrage and have all the monofilament benefits(FAQ'ed to small blast says large in codex). Fired in groups these function as a salvo and thus the first shot is all the more important.
• Vibro-cannons: No longer featuring the LOS ignoring line of dubstep the Vibro cannon has lost a lot of its character. For every vibro cannon that hits beyond the first they increase the strength of all hits. You get +1S -1AP for each vibro canon that scored a hit. The base stats are S7 AP4. Sadly, you can only take 3 of them, so they cap at S9 AP2 and have the pinning rule.
• D-cannon: Another distortion weapon out of the Eldar armoury and like previous version the D-cannon doesn’t stack up well to its peers. With half the range, the artillery will be hard pressed to find ample targets for the weapon and even then has the result of almost doubling the cost of the unit.

Nightspinner

Build upon the same falcon chassis as other Eldar battle tanks the Nightspinner embraces the silent killing power of monofilament weapons over the more direct firepower of its kin. Acting more as a fire support tank the Nightpsinner can slink away totally out of sight and lay deadly webs all over the battlefield while remaining mostly safe from retaliation. The doomweaver is the primary weapon and features 99% of the tanks actual threat, laying down a S7 shot of monofilament onto the board, and as with all monofilament weapons it becomes S8 against slow targets like necrons and vehicles as well as the mini rending power that makes it auto wound and AP1. Like its close cousin the fire prism, nightspinners feature different modes of attack, the dispersed mode launches the shot high above the battlefield to rest silently and invisibly as a large blast, wounding and possibly pinning the target squad. Now there is also the focussed mode, a torrent weapon that fires the same deadly web but with increased accuracy, ignoring cover saves and lacks the pinning. Night weavers are possibly more resilient due to not needing to be exposed most of the time but also have a chaotic track record of actual threat, sometimes wiping whole squads from the board other times managing to wound maybe a model or two, not a great buy for the player who like guarantees. The Nightspinner lost its older difficult/dangerous terrain ability and now relies totally on its raw damage, even threatening vehicles with its S8 area of effect. The Nightspinner can as a barrage weapon hide completely from view to fire it's shot and can be used effectively as the least upgraded of the Eldar tank options, requiring no actual upgrades to its weapons or gear. Exposing the Nightspinner to fire is doable and sometimes even necessary depending on the available terrain but in those cases it benefits from its BS to reduce scatter.

Warp Hunter (Forgeworld) : The update made things interesting. Now it has a D-flail, str 7 ap 3, which can either be fired as the banewolf template from hell or as a three shot barrage weapon. (Small blasts). It keeps distort, but this incarnation seems to be a heavy infantry killer more than anything else. If your fielding regular eldar, it's probably not the best choice, but if your going all wraith, all the time, it might be fun to include since it gives you a ranged template.

Super Heavy

ALL Eldar superheavy vehicles have titan holofields which are force your enemies to roll D6 after hitting it with ranged weapons and roll 4+ or 3+ if your vehicle does not move (why wouldn't it?) or nullify the hit - which is just an odd and unwieldy way to describe 4++/5++ which works against D-weapon and stacks with other saves. This make their medium-armored hulls far, FAR more resilient, especially against D-strength weapons. Park your superhravy on the Skyshield pad, or cover it behind solid cover (ADL for tanks, building or multi-storied ruin for titans) and engage trollface as your opponent realize your superheavy have what is basically rerollable 4++ save. Suddenly, whose AV12 glass armour become more resilient than Imperial adamantium AV14 covered in void shields. If you mange to roll a Fortune on your Farseer, cast it on this motherfucker for double-rerollable 4++, which means only one hit out of EIGHT would actually do any damage.

• Scorpion (Forgeworld) – Huge fast tank with twin-linked turret-mounted pulsar (which is R60 SD Heavy2 5"blast). Shadowsword wishes it could be so deadly. It wasn’t selling very well compared to the other Eldar superheavy skimmers so instead of fixing it(say giving it heavy 4 or even the only heavy 2 pulsar) they have nerfed the other two.
• Cobra (Forgeworld) – Scorpion chassis with HUGE hull-mounted distortion cannon. 10" D-strength blasts of pure rape scratch that, Scorpions weren’t selling so they nerfed the non scorpion eldar super heavys, they are now 7”templates and only 36”, they still tear apart entire formations, and if your enemy field titans, it’s also ignore their void shields.
• Lynx (Forgeworld) – Lighter and cheaper version of Scorpion. Only 6 HP and hull mounted pulsar or sonic lance. The last one is mean 18"-Hellstorm with AP2, which wound anything on 3+ and roll 3D6 for armor penetration. Oh, and this tank can fly for all that «hard to hit», assault-immunity and mobility goodness, but it can not shoot while zooming. Update: Forgworld tried to stop it out selling scorpions so they made it more expensive and made it av11(lower than every other Eldar tank)
• Revenant Titan (Forgeworld) – Your light titan. Two pulsars or two sonic lances, can fly on giant jump-pack upt o 36" and THEN run like Warhound if it wan't enough. Extremely mobile and deadly, but a bit fragile with only AV12. If you're planning to include Superheavy into your 40k army per new Escalation rules, this is your go-to unit.
• Phantom Titan (Forgeworld) – Absurdly powerful. With AV13, titan holofield bullshit re-roll to hit it, and 24 SP it’s almost indestructible. It could spam D-strength pie-plates with 4-shot pulsars, blast enormous areas to hell with distortion cannons, or fuck anything (up to and including Imperator titan) in close combat with XBAWXHUEG space-elf-ninja-titan sword. And unlike imperial or orky heavy titans, the Phantom is fast – it can run like Revenant or Warhound, but even faster (up to 3d6).
• Vampire Raider (Forgeworld) – Eldar transport flyer, poorly armed and armored, but still very tough with constant 4+ invuln save nope changed again if you move enemies miss you if they can’t roll a 4+ for every hit, 3+ if you didn’t move. It’s a good vehicle on its own, but Eldar are fast enough, especially with 6-th edition buffed flat-out moves for fast skimmers. Leave heavy sky transport to space marines and tau.
• Vampire Hunter (Forgeworld) – Twin linked pulsar on flying platform. Fucking awesome.

Fortifications

Sadly, at the moment there are only Imperial-themed fortifications. Meh, just say it is a stand in for the superior Eldar tech or your army stole it or something.

Aegis Defense Line: Fortification is decent considering that many of your units would like to have a cover save when the bolts start flying. The guns are nice, both featuring skyfire and interceptor at hefty cost but worthwhile since Eldar only count their true AA in the two flakk users and crimson hunter. A Dark reaper exarch with the right powers is pure murder on it, the Dark reaper Exarch can ignore jink cover saves as well as apply fast shot to the weapon. Good options for gunnery units include but are not limited to: Dark reapers and exarch, guardians and warlocks from Vaul’s wrath squads, Farseers with nothing better for their shooting phase, Autarchs in general or whatever other models you have available to fire these weapons.

Skyshield Landing Pad: The 4+ invulnerable save vs. shooting for everyone sitting on top of the thing can be especially good considering the Eldar don't usually have great resiliency, combo with a lurking fortune seer and you can get a very durable static fire base. Rangers, Vauls wrath teams, dark reapers, war walkers and even the Wraithknight come to mind as powerful long ranged options for a resilient fire base but there are many more units who can make use of it. The deep strike accuracy it provides will be somewhat under-utilized but with the new codex a few options are there for you to deep strike in like spiders and the Wrightknight (heh, have the skypad on their side and deep strike a meleeknight :D)

Imperial Bastion: Provides a decent if bunker for hiding and gunning in it along with a tough AV14 shell to crack. The tower comes stock with 1 heavy bolter from each side providing a wide angle of attack along with the units positioned inside it. Becomes more useful with the additional weapon option for either comlink or one of the two Aegis skyfire weapons to seriously menace the skies. Rangers, reapers, maybe even the support weapon batteries can make use of the parking space and menace anything within a huge radius. Make note of the limited fire points for untis within, you don’t want to hide a massive sqaud of reapers within only to sacrifices several of their attacks.

Fortress of Redemption: On the high HIGH points of the spectrum we come to the deathstar of fortifications, a bastion of unbreakable defense and bristling with enough guns to melt even the most horrific of warpspawn. Stock the fortress comes with one longer ranged AA gun and an infantry menacing barrage weapon, is divided into three buildings each armored like a landraider and enough floor space to afford a decent smattering of your favorite Eldar bastion buddies. At 220points base its tight to fit into a budget but start slapping on up to four Heavy bolters around and upgrading the missile launcher to drop S8 AP3 barrage blasts anywhere on the field, it can go up to 290points, potentially threatening your list for more troops of necessity. (Beware the central building doesn't get ruptured or you will discover the one door to be busted and your units will have to start throwing themselves out the windows to escape)

Supplements

Iyanden

• Heroes of Iyanden: A Wraithlord or Wraithknight can be your Warlord, even though it's not an HQ model. This rule is weird and not particularly useful, especially given most of the Warlord powers are iffy to begin with. On the one hand, your opponent will struggle to take your Warlord down for an extra victory point; on the other hand, it will make your big Wraiths even more of a target than they already are.
• Shadow Council: You can take up to 5 Spiritseers per HQ slot. This means you can pepper them throughout the army without jeopardizing your chance to take a Farseer. However, note that taking a ton of them becomes very expensive very fast.
• Gifts of Asuryan: You can't take the standard Eldar Remnants of Glory, but you can take the Iyanden Gifts of Asuryan instead. You can still take Remnants of Glory, you just can't take items from both lists on the same character. We'll go into more detail about those below.
• Voice of Twilight: Any Spiritseer in an Iyanden army treats the Voice of Twilight (a psychic power exclusive to Iyanden) as the primaris power for Runes of Battle, meaning you can't take Conceal/Reveal. Voice of Twilight is a two-Warp-Charge power that gives all Wraith units within 12" Battle Focus and Furious Charge. This probably takes more than it gives, given just how potent Conceal/Reveal is. Battle Focus makes them a bit more mobile (and is a darling for the Wraithknight), but Furious Charge is very iffy.
  • This power is more design for your Wraithguard/Blades if anything.
• Warlord Traits: Your Warlord can roll on the Iyanden Warlord Traits table, discussed below.

Warlord Traits

• 1: A Hero for Ages Past and Future: 3D rerolls for your warlord, useful if you make a Wrathknight or lord to be the Warlord.
• 2: Beacon of Hope Renewed: The Warlord and everybody within 12" of him get Feel No Pain (6+). It will cover most of your army fairly easily and is certainly nice, but it's not exactly a huge benefit.
• 3: Driven by Ancient Doom: The Warlord and his unit gain Hatred. Useful, but most of your Warlord options will not be close-combat oriented, and if they are, they generally have high WS anyway, so this is only mediocre.
• 4: Lord of the Sorrowful Dead: The Warlord can use the Spirit Mark ability from the Spiritseer; if he is a Spiritseer, he can Spirit Mark two enemies per turn. In both cases, it lightens the load on your Spiritseers, but this isn't as useful as in standard Eldar, since you can take a Shadow Council of a up to five Spiritseers. Also of special note is that you can get this for a Wraithlord or Wraithknight, which makes them far more effective as a support unit.
• 5: The Purity of a Flawless Soul: The Warlord and his unit get +1 to Deny the Witch. If you get this on a Farseer or Spiritseer, it'll make the unit all-but-invulnerable to psychic powers. For pretty much anything else, it's nice but not particularly good.
• 6: The Undying Flame: The Warlord rerolls all failed saving throws, but if he takes an unsaved wound, he loses the ability. This is pretty amazing, all things considered, since it greatly improves the survivability of your Warlord. This is especially nice on the Wraithknight and Wraithlord; it makes the two of those all-but-indestructible.

Gifts of Asuryan

• The Celestial Lance: The weapon of the Shining Spears Phoenix lord. It has a short range lance shot while its melee is basicly a powerfist at normal iniative you can only use when you charge, both if it kills a character/monstrous create it explodes! Place a large blast on top of it and everyone but the bearer takes a hit at equal strength with saves allow. Combine with marksman’s eye to snipe a leader in a squad to soften it up for a charge.
• Soulshrive: A mastercraft powerweapon at AP2 everytime you kill with it it you add more strength to it.
• The Wraithforge Stone: Here's the cheese, during each of your movement phase a wraithlord or wraithkight heals a wound on a 3+. Makes a them even harder to kill which is good due to all the fire they're going to take.
• Guardian Helm of Xellethon: Wraithguard in your unit take all your hits, and can accept challenges.
• Spear of Teuthlas: You can't have Iyanna Arienal but here's the next best thing, her spear. Bascially a singing spear with rending. Given that you get the rending dice on any roll of a six this means that you can carve open vehicles that much better and thanks to rending, have a better chance of going through somebody's armor save. Not a lot, but at a mere 15 points if you were going to get a singing spear HQ model you may as well get this and add a little more punch.

Tactics

So, here we have an army that is strongly specialized heading into a battle where any sort of enemy (From an armor company to a swarm of angry cockroaches) could show up and start shooting, or eating faces. You gotta bring along the right tools or you're screwed. Within that context, putting together an Eldar army isn't so hard - half the troops only do one thing, and most often that's "shred infantry."

First, and I hate to repeat myself, the specialist nature of this army means that you could very easily bring 1000 points of awesome fun stuff but still lack the ability to melt enemy tanks. You then end up watching an invincible White Elephant stomp all over your fancy troops. For your own sake, don't go to war without a Falcon or a Fire Prism, or even some Dragons or Wraithguard, or just somebody with some Brightlances. Take anti-tank stuff, because nothing is more expensive than regret. Your army is likewise incomplete without some hand to hand troops. Against Space Marines and Necrons, Banshees are the suggested elf type, while Scorpions should be used against Orks and probably Tyranids. Harlequins should be thrown at anyone who doesn't understand how cheesy this army can really get. However, remember to tilt the odds in your favor before the fight. These aren't space marines you're playing, sonny boy - fight dirty.

Questions about Troops and capturing objectives are hard to settle, so every Kaladriel is going to have to decide for himself. Of course a big meaty unit of Guards or Vengers running over to an objective and Going to Ground is a great way to make everyone sad. Two such units (always take Warlocks and probably Scatter Lasers) will give you great ability to hold turf as long as you aren't point-charged by Vanguard Veterans. 3 Guardian Jetbikes go for 51 points, and they can beat almost anyone to a far-flung objective, except Rangers who can infiltrate. Anyway, piles of raw bullet sponge are rare in the Eldar army (wraithguards come to mind, but they cost a lot of points and an insane amount of dollars Lulz they are now physically cheaper than avengers) and everyone loves Objectives so think it over.

Space Marine and Necron officers might be fine at running around by themselves and doing CS Goto stuff, but your little fairy princes and interior decorators can't do that because they will die. Your boss men have T3 and 4++ saves and there's nothing you can do about it. To practice true Unit Synergy, you are going to team your Farseer or Autarch up with somebody. Between the two, the Autarch is the 'I don't care about my HQ' choice - he is cheap and easy to design once you accept that he is basically just going to lead your favorite team of Aspect Warriors and make sexual advances on the Exarch. Don't overthink him, and don't feel like he always has to have a spider pack. Remember the reserve roll modifications, since that is probably the real reason you are taking him (or her, hard to tell). Farseers are the big HQ choice, who are there to set the tone of your army. The proactive Farseer (and his Warlocks) will want to jetbike forwards, whang on tanks and zap enemy officers with Mind War. The sneaky, methodical Eldar player will plant him in the middle somewhere and have him cast Guide and Doom into every firefight.

Above all else, play to this army's strengths. You will lose exchanges of fire with the hammer of the Imperium or the weeaboo space communists, you will lose battles of attrition to Orks and 'Nids, and you will lose in close-combat to the specialists of other races. Take full advantage of the other races' weaknesses, and exploit the ever-loving shit out of them. If you fail to do so, the bulk of your army will be turned into brightly-colored confetti in short order.

Special note must be made of enemy artillery units - focusing as heavily as they do on light armor, Basilisks, Manticore Rocket Launchers, and Doomsday Arks are your kryptonite, and must be focused on immediately, as much their analogues amongst other races, such as Whirlwinds or Skyrays. Make extensive use of your superior mobility against these, deep strike them if possible, and do anything you can to kill them before they can get a shot off - your superior mobility (and ability to control distance) means little to a unit which can fire from across the map.

Building your Army

• The Biel-tan Route: Commonly known as "One thousand frozen leaves falling to cut". More commonly known as Swordwind. This means getting Aspect warriors; Dire Avengers, Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons, etc. Who are very good at a particular task. This is the potentially most lethal of the three.
  • The advantage is the raw lethality of a specialist at it's trade. Dire Avengers holding the line while Dark Reapers suppress the enemy. Warp spiders pop in out of nowhere to tear apart enemies before ducking behind terrain. Fire Dragons close with the enemy to engage with Meltaguns. Scorpions creep into close combat as Howling Banshees pour out of a transport to tear apart heavy infantry.
  • The disadvantage is the reliance on cover and getting everyone in the right spot at the right time. Get knocked off your game and the army evaporates.

• The Saim-Hann Path: This means putting virtually everybody on jetbikes and disdaining everything without an engine. You run jetbiking seer councils, Farseers and Autarchs. Your troops are guardian jetbikes. Your Fast Attack choices are Shining Spears and Vypers. Your Heavy Supports are Falcons and Fire Prisms. If your overall formation is even remotely comparable from one turn to the next, then you're doing it wrong.
  • Surprisingly, this is the most defensive path. Jetbikes confer a 3+ armor save on top of +1 toughness. The jetbikes of the army rolls with a 5+ cover save while moving, turbo-boosting turns this into a 4+, while the vehicles (with holofields) increase that to 4+ and 3+, respectively. It is also very tactically flexible, seeing as they entire army can move more than 12" per turn and can be in an out of a given section of the board in seconds while your enemy swings at thin air.
  • Unfortunately, you need a fortune to field this kind of army. The vehicles alone are going to be 200+ apiece with upgrades and jetbikes aren't free. Expect to be outnumbered on a regular basis.

• The Way of Alaitoc: This means Pathfinders saturating the good infiltration spots, War Walkers blowing the holy and unholy fuck out of shit, and more psykers than you can shake a bolter at. Long range firepower and lots of it.
  • This is the least powerful of the three set ups. Rangers got nerfed in terms of rules, but got a points reduction. Illic Nightspear is a must for this build, seeing as the Alaitoc players would want Pathfinders (shrouded and precision shots), but they are terrible point for point at 25/model. Psykers, such as Farseers and warlocks (Spiritseers), tie the entire thing together.
  • The bad thing about this is how static everything is. Pathfinders can't snipe and move, Wraith anythings don't Fleet and war walkers aren't skimmers War Walkers have Battle Focus and a 5++ save and can outflank, their rules have improved, yet your starting positions tend to be your ending positions.

• The Way of Iyanden: AKA, the "Wraithwall" - this is a very slow moving setup that involves at least one Spiritseer and a metric tonne of Wraithguard that may or may not have Wraithlord or Wraithknight support. Whether they be in squads of five or ten, this set up can shrug off tremendous volleys of fire and keep on moving. Wave Serpents optional (and definately something to be considered should you decide to field Wraithblades instead of Wraithguard).

• The Yme-Loc mech: Remember the good old times when our Falcon-chassis didn't get glanced to death or Grav-gunned instantly due to bad wording? Yes, you do. You take up lots and lots of Serpents with basic Scatter lasers, support it with a couple of Dragon-serpents or Wraith-serpents.
  • What's good is that you basically have up to 8 AV12 serpents with two of them being Dragon-pents to kill those things that can't be gunned down with SHITTONS of S7 shots. And yeah, you have 6 scoring units.

It is perfectly normal to blend these setups together. Just know how each part was built to be made and balance out the pros and cons.

Allies

Battle Brothers

a.k.a. we pretend we don't hate them

• Dark Eldar: They may be emo assholes but someone thought Eldar could get along great with the literally opposite society. Yes, apparently now Eldar are friends with those godless reprobate licentious pricks from Comorragh. They have decent melee units to augment your own but now suffer from age more than your own Eldar. There are some nice combos there, by the way - such as grisly trophies on their vehicles allowing all nearby allies to reroll all failed leadership tests (such as psykers).

• Eldar Corsairs (Forge World): Pretty much like your own Eldar, but with a few different elements that may not match up to your own recently invigorated codex. Things may change with the Apocalypse update. You can stick 5 fire dragons in a Dark Eldar venom.

• Tau Empire: An army with a lot of more shooting out of different guns then your own, with their own recently steroided codex they have some good options. Fire warriors for the longer ranged dakka, railguns for railguns sake, the riptide which is like the Wraithknight with a smaller penis but shoots harder and farther, and their fairly awesome commanders. They also have plenty of options for AA fire, which with the expensive and limited only to HS slots Flakk missiles is a very good thing.

Allies of Convenience

a.k.a. even we need bullet sponges

• Black Templars: The boys in black can give you: 4 shot krak missilles with tank hunter in a 4+HQ man Termi squad quite cheap or (relatively) cheap but strong melee heroes, but on the downside of overcosted Troop marines. It is also worth mentioning that you cannot ally with Black Templars if your list contains any psykers, so they are of questionable use due to locking you out of your own formidable psykers.
• Blood Angels: All of their finest units (eg: Death Company, Furiosos, Sanguinary Guard etc) will massively augment your Eldar force. They also like playing with high speed dickey and high AV transports really help. Oh yeah, and stormravens. Obviously.
• Dark Angels: Coming soon.
• Grey Knights: Runes of Warding are no more so that wouldn't interfere with them, but they are a very expensive allies.
• Imperial Guard: Tons of shooting and big guns, tons of bodies, or a bit of both. You can use them as bullet shields, or to bring in more high-strength shooting at decent price.
• Space Marines: Useful to deploy (Ironclad) dreadnoughts via drop pods next to units that can fire across the entire board, e.g. Deathstrike missile launcher. Also, they can deploy a thunderfire for cover boosting (techmarine) and decimating that squad of orks that fell out of the Battle Wagon whose front armour got blown open by a Fire Prism.
• Space Wolves: They get even better psyker protection than you could ever get now, and have impressive melee / counter-attack capabilities to protect your fire support.
• Inquisition:

Desperate Allies

a.k.a. have the enemy kill them now, so we don't have to kill them later

• Orks: Meat shields extraordinaire. Sadly, as desperate rivals you may not want to be too close to them - I say sadly, because orks eat overwatch fire like pros, allowing your grenadeless Banshees, spears, wraithblades and MCs to come in and mop the enemy.
• Sisters of Battle: Pretty meh now, their update was a joke but it looks a bit better in the new edition. Could be worthwhile for a sisters team or two and one of their organ guns, but you can do better.

Blue Chip Units

Wraith Army

HQ: Spiritseer and Wraithseer

Troops: 2/3 squads of 10 Wraithguard/Wraithblades ( at least 1 unit should be wraithguard.)

Fast attack: Some Hemlocks for more wraithness

Heavy Support: Full of Wraithlord/Wraighknight bruisers

Does this even need explaining? It's like playing Eldar but without any of this low durability T3 bullshit we’ve always put up with, NOW THE ELDAR ARE THE BIG BOYS ON CAMPUS. March up like a T6+ boss and start gutting some fucking douchemarines, now it’s YOUR turn to wound with everything against lower toughness fools. Everything carried by wraith units.

P.s. Use the Iyanden supplement for extra Spiritseers (5 to one HQ slot) and the ability to swap for a more epic primaris psychic power. (It requires using a book written by Matt Ward, but victory requires sacrifice and at least crunch-wise it's not as cheesy like as the Grey Knights or Blood Angels codexes).

P.P.S In case of kinstrife, a warning. DON'T USE THIS AGAINST THE DARK ELDAR. With all their poison and darklight weapons going FUCK YOU! to your high toughness, your wraiths will go from mostly dead to fully dead.

P.P.P.S addinng some squads of guardians makes this into an incredibly fluffy yet powerful army (yes they DO exsist, just look at dark eldar venom spam)

The path of the seers

HQ: Farseer and/or Eldrad

Other: Warlock council (1-10), perhaps a Wave serpent for the footslogging version

The Seer council is the Eldar’s psionic wrecking ball and all around 12’ glory squad that crushes tanks, head-butts infantry and suplex monstrous creatures. Here you have a squad made of almost all psykers, throwing powers around like champions and cracking ribs like toothpicks. Comprised of at least a one Farseer and as many warlocks as you can fit, the new changes makes warlocks all come from the same max army pool of 10 so if you want any going into Guardian squads or the like this units numbers suffer. Singing spears are cheap even in bulk, don't reduce your melee power anymore (losing the two-handed tag) and give you the more pronounced ability to cut through tank armor at range, S9+1d6.

Now you roll your fucking powers, a Farseer rolling off the Runes of fate hoping for mad money with Guide, fortune and doom. Warlocks grabbing up basically fucking anything, these guys MAKE this unit, not one power on the fucking list hurts them: renewer your HQ, embolden your squad, drain their stats, lower their saves with jinx, lets close the gap faster with quicken, enervate just fucking because. A few powers are obviously less useful than others but don’t forget you can always just stack buffs and debuffs, so a marine terminator squad with only 4+ armor, hitting at S2 against your fearless WS6 I8 unit, yeah, that can happen, and it’s fucking wonderful.

This identical composition works the exactly same when mounted with Jetbikes, it drives the cost up adding 15points per model (you also cut Eldrad out of the deal) adding to an already expensive deathstar. That said the unit as a whole suddenly gains a good armor save of 3+ (or 2+ with protect) with the standard issue T4 and speed boosts of Eldar jetbikes. You also get twin-linked shuriken catapults but by no means are obligated to drop singing spears out of the deal, being your tank crushy option. This also positions your council wonderfully to debuff foes for your army to wipe them out from afar. Zoom everywhere, kill everything, troll everyone.

Tropic Thunder

HQ: Maugan Ra

Elites: 3 Harlequins, 1 Shadowseer, 1 Death jester

Five Harlequins (one Shadow Seer, one Death Jester) plus Maugan Ra. The deal is that Maugan Ra shoots his 36” S6 Pinning Rending gun five times with fastshot. Meanwhile the Death jester shoots his S6 A3 Pinning gun three times at 24" with equal abandon. While these two do that the Shadowseer’s Veil of tears limits the range of enemy return fire (ITS BAAAAAACK!) to a 2d6x2 range, 14” on average (24” maximum). The unit roams with night vision from Maugan Ra just to make it even better than before. The whole units costs you 325 points (holy shit it’s identical!) and brawls like genestealers well outside the range of anyone wishing them harm. Any wounds you take should be directed at the basic Harlies first and Maugan Ra after, even with Ra and his two backup singers this unit is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

BTW, Maugan Ra is Tugg Speedman, and the Death Jester is Kirk Lazarus. Never go full retard.

They came from above!

HQ: Baharroth, Autarch (warlord)

Fast attack: Swooping hawks

Heavy support: Wraithknights

Aegis defense line w/ comms relay

With the Autarch your're looking to benefit specifically from her reserve rolls bonus as well as the hopeful warlord trait, with Seer of the Shifting Vector your guaranteeing the accuracy of units arriving via deepstrike. With optional wargear and remnants of glory such as Swooping hawks wings Mantle of the laughing god and Faolughu's wings she can roadrunner 60" in a single turn, gaining a likely 2+ re-rollable cover save in the terrain piece of her choice. Alternatively just stick her with a swooping hawks squad and dont roll a 1 with her reserve roll. Either method gets her perfectly into position for your ambush force from on high, speaking of...

Swooping hawks are a unit worth actually paying attention to and with their new codex are a fucking schizophrenic unit as well. They land where they fucking want, drop a big cover ignoring pie, then proceed to shoot up your chosen infantry unit, with Battle focus they can run and gun even during the turn they arrived from reserves and they will NEVER scatter if the unit is all hawks. Land them close to a unit (if you have Baharroth try for his blind burst) you want dead, throw down that pie, shoot them up either up close or from afar. If you get close don’t forget a single hawk can toss a grenade at the foes for fun. Two pies and an ass ton of laser fire should down your foes. After that flit away with Battle focus. They have haywires as well they can chuck at range for a single shot or can run into melee and give a whole basket of haywire goodness to the hull of well…anything.

Additionally Wraithknights can deepstrike onto the battlefield as a result of Jump monstrous creature, landing a massive unit like the Wraithknight or two should scare the piss out of your enemies and allows it to bring its immense weapons to bear before the enemy has a chance to down it, landing on the enemies landraider or expensive equivalent is a surefire way to make up the points cost and they will be hard pressed to bring it down before it deals some serious damage. An expensive list in total but funny as hell to pull off, you need a few good squads of rangers and guardians on the board to make up the other half of this list.

Skyshield trolling pad

Skyshield landing pad is the centrepiece. Put it somewhere in the middle, so that your fire arc covers more space. Put it on enemy side if you wish to drop wasps and hand-to hand Wraithknights for extra lulz.

HQ: Footseer and Eldrad (warlord)

Troops: Either guardians or Rangers, depending on whether you like to camp in cover with rifles or camp in cover with a scatterlaser\brightlance.

Fast attack: Crimson hunters, 2 of them in different packs will keep the sky clear. A flyby near a farseer is good for your buffs.

Heavy support: Wraithknight, Dark Reapers, War walkers\FW Wasps

Everybody likes to forget about a wonderful 4++ opportunity, bestowed upon us by GeeDubs in a form of a defense building. Wraithknight can unload holy loads of AP2 upon the enemy head, while Reapers make sure nothing with 3+ comes around. War walkers are nice with their new '2 lances for 70 points!' cost and wasps can stay out of harms way, and then deep-strike with no scatter and unload a heavy payload of scatter goodness. p.s. They don't have 5++ so they benefit even greater.

Guardian Babysitting Army

• Eldrad Ulthran
• Farseer

• 10 Guardian Defenders
  • Heavy Weapon Platform (Bright Lance)
  • Wave Serpent
    • Twin-Linked Bright Lance
    • Holo Fields
  • Warlock

• 10 Guardian Defenders
  • Heavy Weapon Platform (Bright Lance)
  • Wave Serpent
    • Twin-Linked Bright Lance
    • Holo Fields
  • Warlock

• 5 Dire Avengers (as a bodyguard to one of your HQ's)

• 5 Rangers (those objectives are only yours if you take them!)

• 6 Howling Banshee
  • Exarch
    • Disarming Strike
    • Executioner

• 5 Fire Dragons

all thats 1250 points and is a base to a guardian heavy army, its also a nice base for a ULTHWE ARMY (HINT HINT)

Psychic Overload

For mac-n-cheese with extra cheder...

Iyanden with 'Vanilla' Eldar as allies

Combined Arms HQ: 5 Spiritseers + 5 Spiritseers + Warlock council (Full 10)

Allied HQ: Eldrad

34, yes 34 Mastery Levels for 1250 points,

Spinkle with Jetbikes, Singing Spears for taste.

Take a good measure of Telepathy don't forget your Psychic Shriek/Horify Combo (Stack if possible)

Add Windriders to grab objectives and Wraithblades to soak up firepower (dont forget 4++ shields and 5+ cover for those behind), and make sure you provide a comfy chair for your opponent to wait out your psychic phase.

it's 125% pure blue stilton and 125% the way rock out with your eldar cock out

6th ed Apocalypse Formations

Phoenix Court of Khaine: Want to play lazy apocalypse and take as few models as possible? This is the formation you for you. All six phoenix lords and an avatar for 1455 points in a high command unit. The avatar's wailing doom range extends to 24" as does his Khaine awakened rule. He is immune to plasma, melta and flame weapons and he gets extra attacks up to the number of avatars within six inches. This formation is a horrific beat stick , but like many deathstars in apoc can be blasted off board with SD weapons. It's also a great candidate for all out attack moves as most are cc oriented.

Cloudstrike Squadron: Falcon tanks that can deep strike, get shrouded if they move full out and get lance on their lasers and bright lances if they forgo a turn of shooting. Falcon tanks have a modest transport capacity and can tote some fire dragons around for the hell of it. If taken with the Phoenix court you can use Baharroth to ensure deep strike location next to valuable targets.

Farseer Council: An OK formation with a hyper version of doom, guide, and a way to disregard perils or force a power to work.

Sunstorm Squadron: This is a good formation in a high points game where you want more firepower and don't have that many D weapon capable superheavies or titan class stuff to work with. Even at three tanks, you are looking at a pretty nasty blast with lance and it goes up from there. At five tanks, you can put down a destroyer template mega apocalypse blast at 120 inches.... it WILL end whatever it manages to hit. Keep these dudes as far as possible from retaliation, as each lost tank is a significant reduction to power of the combined fire.

Dreamwalker squad - if you have the gold to make this, its worthwhile, three to five wraithknights, increases the movement, charge range, WS and Bs equal to the number of knights in formation... if you have a 5 man squad, all with sunfire cannons, each will have BS 9,which will be uber nasty with that twin linking scatter.

Dataslate Formations

• Eldar Ghost Warriors - A Wraithknight goes with two Wraithlords and three squads of either Wraithguard or Wraithblades (You can mix and match). While they can't go in any transportation as a formation, they do give Hatred to all Eldar within 6" and can give a model that is covered by the members a 4+ cover save. Other than that, you can pretty much kit them out as you wish, though the cost for the formation will get pretty hefty. Since it has the covering rule, it seems rather obvious that this is meant to be your big DISTRACTION FORMATION with the Wraithlord drawing in fire while the other guys can wipe out the firing squads. If you use them for the blocking cover save, then the odds of your squishies surviving long enough to fire with Hatred gets a little better.