Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Eldar (section)

==Building your Army==
There are three basic trends to building an Eldar army.

First is the Biel-tan route. Commonly known as "One thousand frozen leaves falling to cut". More commonly known as Bladestorm.
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.

Second is the Samm-hain path.
This means putting virtually everybody on jetbikes and disdaining everything that doesn't fly. 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 and turbo-boosting turns this into an invulnerable save. It is also very tactically flexible, seeing as they entire army can move more than 12" per turn.

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 final way is the way of Iyanden and Alaitoc.
This means Pathfinders saturating the good infiltration spots, Wraithlords and 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 most powerful of the three set ups. The pathfinders are AP 1 when they roll a 5 or 6 to hit. Couple this with the 50% wound rate and they can potentially kill virtually any non-vehicle target. The Wraithlords and guard are the frontline, blasting everything on their way to the enemy. Psykers, such as farseers and warlocks, tie the entire thing together, sustaining the wraithlords and guard while supporting everything with their abilities. 

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. Your starting positions tend to be your ending positions. 

There is also the way of Ulthwe, which means psykers everywhere. [[Eldrad]], some Warlocks, six Guardians/Storm Guardians all with warlocks. Powerspam like there's no tomorrow and beware of Culexus Assassins.


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