Editing Warhammer 40,000/2nd Edition Tactics/Eldar (section)

===Characters===

* '''Avatar:'''

If you don't have the Dark Millennium expansion, the avatar MUST be in your force. You don't get a choice. Only playing 1000 points? Congratulations, 30% of your force is now this guy. He's not *quite* as good as a bloodthirster in close combat, and without the wings he's not as fast. He's still very intimidating, however, so expect him to immediately draw all heavy weapon fire his way. Hiding him until you've gotten rid of the heavy weapons also isn't an option, as he's not particularly fast, and whilst he has a ranged attack it only reaches 12" and has no template, so you're going to need to have him running across the table. It's also 2nd edition, so even if he gets into close combat, he's only going to be able to fight 1 or 2 guys at a time, if they even stick around to fight him, considering he causes Terror. In short, whilst he's an awesome model, he's pretty useless and a waste of points.

* '''Farseer:'''

This is your only other option for a commander, other than Eldrad, who is just a more expensive farseer. The much better option, Farseer's are rad. Basically a space marine captain if the captain could kill enemies with his mind from across the table. You may be tempted to load your boss man up with loads of wargear, but honestly they don't really need it. Give him a force weapon and a laspistol and watch him wreck house just as is. They're not unkillable though, so best to give them an honour guard. Not wraithguard though, as they'll slow him down. Striking Scorpions are actually quite a good choice here.

* '''Exarch:'''

Oddly, whilst most armies have champion, mighty champion and hero, aspect warriors just have one choice. Exarchs are your hero unit and can be fully customised, with a range of great... and not so great... abilities and specialist equipment. You can add them to a squad, such as the howling banshees, to make that squad much more brutal in close combat (helpful against big opponents like tyranid monstrosities or dreadnaughts) or just give them swooping hawk wings or a warp spider jump pack and let them run riot on their own, which is honestly even better. Hard for that devestator squad to blow up your avatar when an exarch just warped into hand to hand with them. At 50 points base cost, they don't break the bank either. Just be cautious not to overload them with gear, they can easily triple in cost.

* '''Warlock:'''

Your lesser psykers. Useful to scatter around in bigger battles, but considering you've most likely already had to take a farseer, how much psychic power do you really need? They are also good to attach to groups of wraithguard for a little boost, if you can get them into combat that is.

* '''Exodite Lord:'''

Again, if you're flash enough to have one of these guys, please pipe up.

* '''Pirate Captain:'''

Basically a guardian hero. A cool idea, but as with the pirates themselves, a bit pointless.

* '''Great Harlequin:'''

A super hard harlequin. An absolute menace in close combat, causing fear and melting people's insides with his harlequin's kiss. He's fully designed around close combat, so get him stuck in, and quickly. If your whole army is harlequins, you can have this guy as your commander, making him the eldar's cheapest option for a commander!

* '''Shadowseer:'''

A harlequin psyker as powerful as a farseer! A bit... random, but the mini is cool. Unfortunately a bit more expensive than a farseer, especially as unless you're fielding an entirely harlequin army you will almost definitely already have a level 4 psyker on the table, but if you like that psychic life, I'd rather take this guy than a second farseer. If you *are* fielding an entirely harlequin army, you only have a very small choice of units so you may as well take him.

* '''Solitaire:'''

A harlequin with a crazy, better in close combat than a space marine captain stat line who can't join a squad and is immune to all psychological effects. Run this guy across the table at the enemy commander and watch them redirect all their efforts to keeping the two of them apart. At only 93 points, he's actually quite cheap for his terrifying stat line!

* '''Death Jester:'''

What if we gave a harlequin, a close combat fighter, a giant fuck-off shuriken cannon that can also make people into walking bombs sometimes? Wh..what? Awkward as all hell this guy is. Firstly, he's the only heavy weapon option for a harlequin army and his weapon can't penetrate a lubed up bike exhaust, let alone a rhino's hull. Instead he's good at murdering normal troops, but he costs 125 points and that is a LOT for a shuriken cannon! Again, however, if you're fielding harlequins you might as well as you don't have many troop options. If you're not, maybe leave him behind.


====Special Characters====

* '''Asurmen:'''

If you told me 'Asurmen' was Eldar for 'John Smith' I would not be surprised. An utterly boring character with nothing interesting about him. He's supposed to be the most eldary eldar, I guess, which explains why he carries THREE shuriken weapons. The two shuriken pistols are especially dumb as he can't fire both and he has a two handed sword. Don't take this guy. Take someone fun. He's not even cheap!

* '''Jain Zar:'''

Jair Zar specialises in two things, murdering fools and, weirdly, clearing out gretchin screens. Her wailing death can Xena warrior princess its way through as many gretchin as you can roll hits. This, however, as funny as it probably is to watch, is a total waste of her time. With only a modifiable save, the moment Jain breaks cover she is going to get lit up like a christmas tree. If you do manage to get her into combat (not THAT hard as she can run 14" and jump a further 4") she'll kill whatever she fights, as her banshee mask prevents the enemy from rolling on the first, and sometimes second, turn, and after that their fumbles count double and she has two parries, so she just dismantles whoever she fights in short order. At 132 points, however, she dies very quickly, so oddly it's actually best to use her defensively. Keep her safe out of sight in a strategic location and the enemy won't want to approach within 18" of it. Good for area control. Just be aware she will likely only live one turn out of cover.

* '''Karandras:'''

A more standard character than Jain, at least Karanadras can take a displacer field to try and keep him alive. In a weird reversal situation with Jain Zar, Karandras is probably better on offense, as his extra defensive abilities mean he might actually make it to the enemy intact. His Scorpion's Kiss is actually really great at dealing with tougher enemies, and anything that survives into close combat with him he can wallop with his power fist. Not quite the same level of close combat monstrosity as Jain, but much more survivable, especially with a toughness of 6.

* '''Fuegan:'''

Fuegan is an odd cookie. He tries to be both great in close combat and great at range and ends up pretty good at both, but he can only do one at a time, so he doesn't perform as well as the phoenix lords who focus on just one. Fuegan is an anti-armour specialist, which in an army with swooping hawks is largely redundant. The one area he does shine though is dreadnaughts, as the hawks struggle with them, whereas he can take them on at range or close up. Or, you know, you could just buy some dark reapers like a normal person. Fuegs is also crippled by the fact he has to take his pike and axe instead of any kind of forcefield, so he's really frail.

* '''Baharroth:'''

Baharroth is so cool, but god damn that mini's wings would not stay on. He's a great assassin, due to the wings letting him drop on anyone in the battlefield on turn 2. Being forced to take the lasblaster makes him expensive though, and he's not as effective in h2h as Jain. Still, a good contender for best phoenix lord just due to the wings, as getting the others into combat alive is their biggest problem. Oh and he has a wargear slot for a displacer field. Always good.

* '''Maugan Ra:'''

A phoenix lord with a heavy weapon that's also a close combat weapon? Maugan is pretty cool, but again somewhat unfocused. His weapon is move and fire, which is nice, and can't jam, which is great, but do you really buy characters to shoot at normal troops? He works better than Fuegan at least, as he's a bit more shooting focused, with his close combat abilities being more 'if he gets charged he doesn't instantly die' kind of thing. Not sure where you would buy Maugs over troops though. For the cost of him you could get, like, 15 guardians with shuriken catapults. That's a lot of catapult. Again, he has a slot for a displacer field, so he's in the upper tier of phoenix lords.

* '''Eldrad:'''

It's hard to justify Eldrad. He's a worse, more expensive Farseer, but he gets an extra strategy card? How much is a strategy card worth? Normally not much. He has great lore, but he's slow and weak, and costs like 32 points more than a bog standard farseer, so unless you really love strategy cards for some reason, just take one of those and call him Eldrad. You can even give him the neat staff thing.