Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Eldar (section)

==Why play Eldar?==
The <s>[[ChapterHouse_Studios#Result|Aeldari]] [[ChapterHouse_Studios#Result|Elves]]</s> [[Eldar]] are all about elegance, efficiency, finesse, style, and precision, and are basically alone in this aesthetic among the races of Warhammer 40,000. In the game, the Eldar are a fast army with great guns, awesome toys and the resilience of strawberry shortcake. Each unit plays a very particular role, usually, everyone in a squad has the same gun and the squad as a whole aims for one goal, as opposed to squads of dudes each toting a different gun for a different kind of foe. This can help new players by not forcing them to keep all of a squad's weaponry in mind, but it also requires you move the right squad for the job to the right place, which can be tactically challenging. An ill-positioned Eldar squad has a greater chance of doing nothing than those of other armies. Some units, like Jetbikes, overcome this disadvantage with superior speed and mobility. This is huge in a game where most of the missions are about capturing objectives. If you are the kind of elf who likes it [[Just As Planned | when a plan comes together]], you might be tactical enough to lead the Eldar to their victory upon the battlefield.

====Pros====
*Craftworld eldar are still one of the fastest armies around. Outside a few notable exceptions, the slowest movement speed for your infantry is 7". This isn't factoring the extra d6" most of said infantry get effectively for free courtesy of Battle Focus. 

*Most of your roster that has a movement speed of 10" or more also has the {{W40kKeyword|Fly}} keyword as well, letting them soar over terrain and hostile units completely unimpeded. Especially since they don't suffer -1 to hit for heavy weapons.

*As ever, non-vehicle units in a Craftworld list are specialized to tackle very specific jobs. Infantry in particular are all geared up with the same tools through and through, ensuring that every model contributes to the task at hand equally as effectively.This  can make keeping track of each unit and what they're built to do easier for newer players.
*Aspect squad Exarchs can be upgraded to absolutely shred. A Banshee Exarch properly tooled up is arguably better than Jain Zar, and is much cheaper. Exarchs are true murder machines this edition. 
*Many of the special weapons eldar have access to hit like a truck, with even the humble Shuriken Catapult being capable of slicing through heavy armor with (conditional) ease.
*Between 3 separate psychic disciplines split into 24 (18) different powers, Craftworld eldar have one of the most extensive psychic support libraries available in the game, not counting Ynnari or Harlequin armies. If that in itself wasn't enough, actually casting these powers is made relatively consequence free: Farseers are immune to Perils and when paired with a Warlock (Conclave), they can add as much as a +3 to any of their psychic tests to borderline guarantee their powers are cast successfully.
*Craftworlders can take Dark Eldar or Harlequin allied detachments. Your allies are actually decent unlike some factions.
*Where psychic support doesn't reach, your suite of stratagems has you covered. Between being able to fire upon an enemy unit arriving out of reserves ''during'' their turn, cast an extra psychic power from your Farseer, screw with your opponent by redeploying several key units before the battle begins, or simply the tried and true eldar tradition of moving in, shooting, then running away, you have a good selection of tricks up your sleeve [[Just as Planned|for when the pieces fall into place]].
*Outside the basic Guardian infantry, much of your army has a pretty solid leadership stat.
*While Craftworlders cannot cast nearly as many powers per turn as Thousand Sons or Grey Knights, you have access to more powers and with right stratagems you can cast them with outstanding confidence. All your units are expensive and more fragile than their counterparts of other factions, but with the right psychic/stratagem support you can make even a lowly guardian unit as tough as Custodes and Banshees into melee blenders and I'm not even talking what you can make Wraithblades or Shining Spears into.
*Eldar vehicles like the Falcon and Fireprism have lots of smooth paneling that is not only easy to paint on, but also offers a lot of real estate to do elaborate freehand details, or exotic patterns like scales, tiger stripes, or flames.  Compared to other factions with blocky armor and more exposed mechanicals, painting Eldar to look good takes more skill, but rewards it with having more potential.
*Battle Focus allows for all the move-shoot-move shenanigans you might want.

====Cons==== 
*Though a sight more durable than their clown or evil cousins, your roster suffers from subpar armor and toughness compared to many other factions. Your infantry (bar the Wraith units) are well and truly threatened en-masse by the basic weaponry of virtually every other faction in the game while the anti-vehicle weaponry available to most opponents can burn through the slightly weaker armor on your hover tanks with greater ease than they would against their counterparts in other factions. You need to hit first and hit hard. This is even more crucial in 9th edition now that hit modifiers no longer stack, removing the one major (spammable) defense you had.
*You know how Imperial factions have troop choices that you actually ''want'' to take, because they're that good? Flexible, cost efficient and, most importantly, deadly? Yeah, [[FAIL|we don't do that here]]. Your troop slots are inarguably a tax due to how expensive per model they are and/or how little they actually contribute once they're on the table. You're pretty much only ever going to want to take the bare minimum troop choices necessary to field a Battle-Forged army if you're wanting to stay competitive.
**Not helping things is that the Dire Avengers, one of your most reliable units who can fight worth a damn, got thrown into the overcrowded Elites slot. Though at the same time they did get a lot better.
*You pay a bit of a premium for your aspect warriors and wraiths, point wise. The latter moreso than the former but expect to pay between 17 and 25 points per model for the most part, up to 30 in the most extreme of circumstances and 40 for your small wraith units. And that's without any upgrades. You're gonna feel losses when you take them
*Where specialization is fantastic when your Aspect Warriors are doing the job they were built for, it's a death sentence in almost every other circumstance. With static loadouts and no flexibility available to your infantry (and some vehicles), your units will struggle to accomplish anything meaningful when caught outside their element. While this can introduce a welcome tactical challenge for more experienced players, newer players may find their units taking severe punishment for seemingly minor mistakes.
*The maximum range on most of your guns is notably shorter in comparison to other armies' equivalents. While your units can close the distance to use them much more quickly due to their mobility, it guarantees they're respectively going to be in range for a retaliatory volley of firepower or even an enemy charge. Unless you completely finish off a unit you're attacking or exploit Battle Focus to hide after shooting, expect casualties.
*9th ed has focused on cramming your army into one detachment rather than 8th encouraging multiple, combine that with the new codex putting more units into the elite slot on top of those that resided there... yeah, you might be hurting for slots a bit. 
*Though the start of 2022 came out swinging with some much needed model revamps, with even the first brand new unit in years... a significant portion of your army is still made out of fine-cast resin, debatably the highest percentage out of any other 40k faction. Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Striking Scorpions and Fire Dragons are the big ones that fall into this category and while aesthetically they've aged rather well... for resin at least, they're still notably subpar compared to the current standards of today. Some of the older plastic kits are also starting to show their age, such as the Dire Avengers, Vypers and Falcon variants.
*Battle Focus has a good few restrictions on it.

===Required Reading===
New to the game, or to Craftworld Eldar and don't quite know where to start? What do you require in order to play Craftworld Eldar, you might ask? Well, here's a quick run down of the books you'll need/want in order to play.

*'''Warhammer 40,000 Core Rules''' - Though the standard rules to actually play the game are freely available, actual battlefield information like detachments, game modes and detailed battle round information are only in the '''$65''' Core Rulebook. It's recommended that, if you or your friends don't have a copy, at least somebody in your immediate gaming group grab one.
*'''Codex: Aeldari''' - The new codex has come alongside a refresh to a decent amount to the model range. Not only does this contain all the rules you'll need to put together an army for the Eldar, but also rules to put together Ynnari, Harlequins and Corsairs.

===Recommended Reading===
These are supplemental books or services that can greatly enhance your options for playing the game, be it through additional units or rules or updates to your core Codex that (for some reason) GW decided you need to pay extra for.

*'''FAQs''' - The rule adjustments that are or aren't too important to put behind a paywall and as such, the only entry of note on this list that is well and truly freely available. These are usually released shortly after a codex's release to clarify the hastily, sloppily written rules or rule interactions that often make their way into the codex before it was rushed out for sale. Very occasionally, a unit's stat sheet is tweeked a bit or entire rules are added/removed. Given that they're free (rare, for GW), it doesn't hurt to keep tabs on the FAQ page.
*'''Imperial Armour Compendium''' - With Forge World's model line having their models' rulesheets handled by the same team responsible for the Core Codices, Forge World units are more accessible than ever for the casual and competitve player (...you know, aside the price tag). In a surprising move of convenience, ''all'' currently supported Forge World units from all factions are included in this compendium, making it a one-stop-shop for any and all factions you might be dipping into. Just don't get too attached; [[FAIL|Forge World is known to squat models from their range relatively unannounced, sometimes including entire subfactions]]. Casualties from just last edition include all the remaining Corsairs, Wasp Assault Walkers and the Phoenix Bomber.
*'''Chapter Approved''' - What, you thought Warhammer 40k was a one-time buy? No, it's a biannual subscription! In order to play with the most up-to-date point adjustments, rules and supplements, you need to get this. No, [[FAIL|buying the codex doesn't entitle you the relevant point adjustments to that codex's roster]]. Of course, you don't need these if you aren't playing in official tournaments and aren't concerned with keeping up with the balance. Or if you just use a 3rd party list builder app that keeps track of point adjustments and is updated accordingly, but we wouldn't possibly condone that. Officially.
**'''Warhammer App''': An addon/alternative to lugging around the whole damn library of books you may need, the Warhammer App is a subscription (because [[Games Workshop|of course it is]]) based service that serves as a slightly functioning replacement to the digital books that you used to be able to buy. Whenever you buy a Codex (yes, [[FAIL|you'll still need to buy the physical edition]]), it comes with a code you can use to add it to your App, where upon you can use the included list builder feature to construct a detachment for use in game. On launch it was a hot, overpriced, buggy mess that was way more of a hassle to navigate and use than it was worth. Several patches and a price reduction later... it's still far from ideal. But, if the convenience of having all your books condensed into the app is truly important to you, this'll probably work out for you... even if other 3rd party apps do it better.
*'''Warhammer Legends''' - Are you an old school player looking to dust off some of your older, out of print models? Happen to come across an OOP Autarch or Bonesinger model on ebay for a steal of a deal? Well, for the stuff GW decided wasn't good enough to keep making and officially supporting, you can still thankfully find a fair number of rules for these long forgotten units/loadout combinations under the Warhammer Legends website. Illegal for GW organized tournaments and no longer (re)balanced regularly, the rules on these pages are effectively set in stone and will likely fall behind as power creep grows... but at least you can still bust out your old Corsairs or Firestorm tanks once in a while for a friendly game.