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

===Core===

* '''Guardians:'''

Your basic 11 point guardian is... not great. A civilian with a lasgun and mesh armour they're barely better than a guardsman. However, for just 3 extra points you can give them a shuriken catapults and holy hell suddenly it's party time. A squad of 5 guardians with shuriken catapults gets 5 sustained fire dice between them. That's up to 15 shots at strength 4 with a -2 save modifier, +1 to hit at close range. These things massacre guardsmen and space marines don't fare much better either. You can technically arm guardians with anything, but... well... don't. Just do this. They're a much more cost effective option than...

* '''Dire Avengers:'''

22 points is a lot when you can get a guardian with a shuriken catapult for 14. Dire avengers don't get any special rules, their armour is just 4+ and their stats aren't massively better than a guardian's. Not really sure why you'd take them really.

* '''Fire Dragons:'''

Melta guns for most armies are a sort of defensive anti-tank weapon given to the occasional specialist. Eldar say fuck that give a whole squad the things and have them run at the enemy. Melta guns are horrifically powerful against infantry, good against enemy armour (get into hand to hand with a tank and watch it cook in one shot) and can even melt greater demons with ease. The only downside is the range. Good job you're fast and well armoured! If the enemy lets a squad of these lunatics close enough to shoot at them they deserve whatever they get.

* '''Dark Reapers:'''

Aspect warriors with missile launchers and targeters. No other heavy weapon options. A bit... inflexible, but at least it's not like space marines where you have to take a squad of ten, only arm four with heavy weapons, then have six more sitting around bored eating up points. Deploy in squads of 3.

* '''Swooping Hawks:'''

So swooping hawks have two things going for them. They have their wings, and they have both krak and frag grenades that they can drop whilst flying over people. The idea is to get them jumping from cover to cover across the battlefield dropping grenades on enemy fortifications. In practise, however, this is only moderately effective. The best use for them is much, much sillier. They have a second ability, which lets them 'fly up' on one turn, then come down anywhere on the battlefield on the next turn. Great for ambushing heavy weapon squads? Well, sure, but swooping hawks aren't actually great at that. Instead, drop them in close combat with tanks. Krak grenades, when used in close combat, get a huge armour penetration boost, though probably still not enough to penetrate most tank hull, but you're in close combat so you can choose to go for the tracks instead. Watch as your 112 point squad of swooping hawks effortlessly takes out a 400 point Leman Russ Demolisher, or a land raider full of terminators. Broken as hell.

* '''Howling Banshees:'''

Okay so their banshee masks are amazing, as their movement speed of 6 means that they outpace most other foot troops, pretty much guaranteeing them a charge, which gives them a round of close combat where their opponents can't roll dice, so are most likely going to get carved up by half a dozen power sword hits a piece. Even without their mask's ability, they're still great in close combat, rocking two attacks and a parry at WS 4 and hitting at strength 5 with a -3 save modifier they carve through space marines about as easily as they do guardsmen. However, because of this they are often seen as enemy #1 by your opponent and aren't that survivable outside of hand to hand. With only laspistols, they're not going to kill anything at all at range, and their armour is only 4+. Get them into close combat as soon as you can. These are your troops you send against the enemy's assault troops to cripple them. Heck, charge their characters if you can, half a dozen power sword hits will down almost anything that doesn't cause terror.

* '''Shining Spears:'''

Ah, well, you see when 2nd edition was actually available these guys didn't have models. Or a design. Or any real lore. They were an afterthought, really. Lots of people made them using Brettonian knights arms stuck on a guardian jetbike, but the truth is they were kind of rubbish. A half baked idea. Trying to get a jetbike into close combat in 2nd edition was a flipping nightmare. Even more of a waste of points than normal jetbikes.

* '''Striking Scorpions:'''

If Howling Banshees are the frail, quick, pure close combat monsters who specialise in taking down the hardest opponents, striking scorpions are the Yin to their Yang. Tougher, slower, better at (short) range but lacking the hitting power against tougher opponents, striking scorpions are also different from Howling Banshees in that they're a bit pants. Instead of turning anyone they charge into a sitting duck for a round, the scorpions mask, or 'mandiblasters' shoots them with a crappy little zap when you get into combat with them. Against anything with armour the chances of it actually hurting them are stupidly low, but against cheap, poorly armoured enemies like guardsmen or orcs, they're fantastic, especially on defence. When that gretchin shield swarms you and almost none of them actually reach close combat, it's a nice feeling. This is pretty rare though, as most commanders will try to avoid charging the aspect warriors with chainswords and just shoot them instead. Banshees are best for most opponents, but scorpions can be okay against weaker, more numerous enemies.

* '''Warp Spiders:'''

Would win the award for unit with most special rules, if not for the wraithguard. Armed with monofilament nets and teleport devices that mean you can never take them against chaos or they'll just turn into demons, they're experts at clearing out large numbers of poorly armoured enemies with their one weird trick. Orks hate them! They are quite expensive though, so unless you're certain what you're up against they're a tough sell. Especially when a single exarch with the dual spinners can probably do the job. 

* '''Eldar Scouts:'''
Your infiltration unit, but unfortunately they've got the guardian stat line. More good for delaying enemy movement than doing any actual damage, at least they've got needle rifles instead of lasguns. This makes them ideal against tough, poorly armoured enemies who want to close in on you (ORKS you fool! ORKS!). Decent value for the points.

* '''Exodite Dragon Knights:'''

Look, if you know anyone who was flash enough to kitbash a squad of these together and actually *use* them, get them to write this bit.

* '''Eldar Pirates:'''

You know all those spare bits and pieces of guardians and so on you have in your bits box, along with a totally random assortment of weapons? Why not assemble them into what are basically disorganised guardians? Pirates are fun, and I'm glad they're there, but if you ever actually fielded these for tactical reasons I'd love to hear why. The only thing I can think of is if you wanted to make a hand to hand squad with a guardian stat line without paying for lasguns? Look, stop being weird and just take some banshees already. I like space elf pirates too, but they're not worth taking in a serious game.

* '''Wraithguard:'''

Slow, with a very short range gun, wraithguard are not great. Especially frustrating is that, whilst reasonably tough with their armour value instead of toughness (making them basically immune to lasgun fire), if they get knocked down, rather than destroyed, the rest of the squad has to maintain squad coherency, meaning they all have to wait a turn for the dipshit who fell over to get back up, so they're probably going to get shot to hell again. Super expensive, slow and easily avoided, you can't even stick these guys in a frigging transport as they take up 2 slots each and you have to take at least 5! The only eldar transport takes 6 minis max, so you'll need an allied rhino or something to carry them. If you DO get them into range prepare for some hilarity as you teleport that bloodthirster into the ground 50 feet below your best squad and blow them up, or 100 feet above the wraithguard and watch him flatten them. They look cool, but don't take them. Oh and they go blind if all the other eldar die, so your opponent doesn't even actually NEED to fight them.

* '''Harlequins'''

Technically their own section, like support, you can only take up to 25% harlequins. Or you can take ONLY harlequins. A bit odd that. Never mind. These guys are yet another great eldar close combat squad. Their holo-suits mean they are at -1 to hit. This is in addition to the -1 for hitting them when they run 10" or more, so -2 to hit already before taking cover, range etc into account. You can also give them refractor fields, and this is a tough call. On the one hand a 5+ unmodifiable save is pretty decent, but at 6 points a model it kind of depends on how much kit you're giving them as to how worth it that is. I normally did give them the fields, but remember they can't really hide when wearing them.

Once in close combat, harlequins will tear your opponents a new one, with their holo-fields reducing enemy WS, their masks causing fear and their weapon selection being pretty horrific. Harlequin's kiss against enemies with high toughness/wounds instead of great armour is brutal. Less so against terminators. Harlequins are a lot of fun and can be either charged straight down a flank with light cover without much concern over incoming fire, or without refractor fields you can hide them in an important structure and ambush whoever gets close again without much risk. 

Oddly enough you can mount them on jetbikes. No-one really did that though.