Foot Eldar 1850pts

[Captain Bubonicus]

Hi, y'all!

My FLGS had a whole bunch of 2nd Ed. Eldar models for sale, so I stocked up to fill out my own 2nd Ed. Eldar army. Unfortunately, the rest of my GW stuff is in storage 1,000 miles away, so I figured I'd make a list just with the models I have here "on hand." Here's what I came up with - let me know if I've bought wargear or abilities I don't need or if I've missed something obvious:

HQ (365pts)
Avatar(155)
Eldrad(210)

Elites(350pts)
5 Fire Dragons+Fire Dragon Exarch w/Firepike, Tank Hunters(131)
4 Striking Scorpions +Striking Scorpion Exarch w/Stalker, Shadowstrike, biting blade(122)
4 Howling Banshees w/power swords+Howling Banshee Exarch w/War Shout, power axe(97)

Troops(466pts)
5 Dire Avengers(60)
6 Ranger Pathfinders(144)
10 Guardian squad w/shuriken cannon(85)
10 Guardian squad w/shuriken cannon(85)
10 Storm Guardian squad w/2 fusion gun(92)

Fast Attack(142pts)
4 Swooping Hawks+Swooping Hawk Exarch w/Hawk's talon, power sword, Skyleap(142)

Heavy Support(525pts)
5 Dark Reapers
5 Dark Reapers
5 Dark Reapers

Model Count:79 Total Points: 1848


Usual Eldar foot tactics - big fearless bubble around the Avatar. It should be able to get cover saves relatively easily because it's the ancient "Rogue Trader" - era Avatar model that's barely bigger than a Space Marine. I'll use Eldrad's "Divination" power at setup to put the Dark Reapers in good position to shoot up the enemy's infantry. I already know that I'm gonna have real problems with armor - the only units I've got that can crack armor are the Fire Dragons, the Swooping Hawks, the Avatar and Eldrad. If I can't get to 'em, I guess I'll just stay away from 'em as much as possible.

So whadd'ya think?

[CouchViking]

Might wanna think about ditching the banchees and adding to the bodies in your scorp squad, +3 armor in eldar lists is great plus infiltrate coupled move trough cover is awesome. Honestly the ladies are to frail and to few in a foot list unless you plan on keeping them back as a counter charge unit for the back of your line with your gaurdians. Drop tank hunters off the dragons and maybe a squad of reapers for some extra points and treat yourself to some warwalkers with scaterlasers and star cannons ( sounds weird, I know but you will see some great results especially guided). Never doubt the power of guided pathfinders to pop transports and armor, always a great investment.

[22gbloodangel]

Couch Viking's advice is sound, but personally I'd go for a different tactic and load up on Banshees! It's just personal preference though, since i find banshees to be awesome if you use them right. Yup, if you leave them open in cover then they'll get minced, but keep them behind cover and i find the power weapons cut through MEQs way better than the Scorpions will, especially if you use a Doomseer on the unit being attacked. Don't get me wrong, I love Scorpions (got about 20 of the buggers) but I find that against MEQs I struggle because of the 3+ Save they invariably have, and unfortunately I tend to play against MEQs all the time (Grrrrrrr).

If you're comonly going against non-MEQs, then the Scorpions are great. That 3+ save can be really annoyin, as Couch Viking mentions, because the T3 and 4+ save of banshees ain't amazing for surviving against enemy firepower.... I just think they lack the bite on offence against MEQs.

I never take banshees or scorpions (or harlies) in groups of less than 7 though.

[Captain Bubonicus]

Thanks, fellas - yeah, I know the squads could definitely be bigger - when I get the rest of my Eldar models here and I can play a 2,000 point force, they'll be a LOT closer to full squad size!

That brings up what I'm primarily worried about - in order to "bump up" the force to 1,850 points, I had to buy a lot of powers and wargear. Do y'all think I should go in the other direction and play a more "stripped down" vanilla force of around 1,500 points? It won't be as capable...but there will be 350 pts. less of the enemy shooting at it!

[incenerate101]

Beefing up an army just for the sake of making it a higher point total is always a bad idea. The worst thing to do is buy power over bodies because 90% of the time your opponent brought bodies and most bodies have guns. So I would strip it down to the 1500 points.