Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Eldar (section)

===Troops===
Troops are the core of your army and can now hold their own a good purchases to the previous relics of past books. Essential for holding objectives and gunning down competition each troops now offers an actual unique benefit and finds a place in your list. Eldar troops basically fall into either hold still or charge ahead, both being more mobile than their competitors in other races.

*'''Dire Avengers:''' These Aspect Warriors are your most basic infantry (although Guardian Defenders also lay claim to that role). The whole idea behind the aspect is that they are the perfect balance between offense and defense; in other words, they're useful both for sitting back and shooting ''and'' for getting up close and personal and storming objectives. Ironically, then, they aren't amazing at close combat, although (especially with the Exarch's weapon choices) they can survive there. Perhaps most importantly, though, they have special shuriken catapults, appropriately called avenger shuriken catapults. Unlike regular shuriken catapults (and their pathetic range of 12"), avenger shuriken catapults have a range of 18". Combined with every Eldar's innate Battle Focus ability, the extra range allows the Avengers to play a merry game of keep-away with the opponent. Also, their Aspect Armor comes with a 4+ save, which makes them a fair bit hardier than Guardians. Finally, they have the Counter Attack special rule, which gives them an extra attack each when charged, as well as plasma grenades. This means that you can bait charges into the Dire Avengers, get Overwatch, and ''then'' get a bunch of attacks in the ensuing melee. Use their (relative) mobility to run circles around the opponents and shave models off whatever units you can. Mobility and ranged spray help them whittle away at enemy units without having to get as close as guardians do.
**'''Exarch:''' Unlike most Exarchs, the Exarch in a Dire Avenger squad can radically change his role in the squad with a simple weapon swap. However, it should be noted that most of his powers and abilities are focused solely on himself. Take his Exarch powers, for instance: Disarming Strike and Shield of Grace are mostly for challenges, while Battle Fortune just improves his close-combat defenses. As such, he's probably not a good buy, as it's not likely that he'll make the unit much better. Of course, if you ''must'' take him, most of the options are good. The twin-linked avenger shuriken catapult is cheap and boosts his ranged effectiveness; the diresword is incredibly potent, especially in a challenge; and the power weapon/shimmershield combo provides the unit with a 5++ invulnerable save, but at the expense of the Exarch's firepower. The only option to shy away from is the power weapon/shuriken pistol combo, as the diresword is much, ''much'' better, and for only 5 points more to boot.

*'''Guardian Defenders:''' The Guardians gear is probably the most underwhelming in the codex, a 5+ armor save you will never want to have to use as well as the trusty shuriken catapult. The catapult is still the shortest ranged of any troop weapon found in 40k but boasting its new bladestorm rule, a change so important to the guardians its almost their central feature. Bladestorm allows guardians to wound anything and penetrate any armor save, with the sheer mass of shots they make at their improved BS4 this is a pretty serious threat to most models in the game. Guardian defenders also host a second feature that needs mentioning, a heavy weapon mount for every 10 bodies in the squad, up to 2. These platforms are now true models within the squad, moving and shooting under their own power and with a toughness and armor save to take into account. The support platform can be equipped with any of the heavy weapon options at a noticeable cost. The guardians obvious downsides are obvious, they are fragile Eldar in 5+ armor, enough said. Sit them in one form of cover or another with a conceal warlock however and we have something to talk about, a good saving unit with a lot of bodies and long range powerful weapons sitting on an objective with a fuckton of dakka for overwatch or sudden shuriken rushes. Dictate your price with them, adding warlocks and heavy weapons to suit (although as the rules are described now, the Scatter Laser is the less useful option as its Laser Lock ability only counts for the same "model", not the same unit but still puts out a good amount of longer ranged ST6 shooting).

*'''Storm Guardians:''' Storm guardians forgo the defensive stratagem of the defenders and instead wield both sword and pistol into the maelstrom of melee combat. Storm guardians are rare as they boast little over the far more skilled and equipped aspect warriors, however desperate times call for desperate measures. A low tier assault unit storm guardians forgo both their shuriken catapults and heavy weapon platform in favor of pistols and a sword. The good news is that pistol still has the blamestorm rules so storm guardians are pretty killy at range with a bit of luck, the sword gives them the extra attack into melee and their Init is good. They can equip a couple of fusion guns, flamers and power weapons but not many. Also plasma grenades. Bad news is they still have the same armor and will get scythed down if not carefully deployed, their attacks are made at S3. Special rules of note are their fleet and….that’s basically it. Downside are: they are guardians. In melee. Overwatch. Wall of death. Storm guardians require the help of the warlocks even more desperately than their defender comrades, taking any number of the warlocks buffing powers to help them gain an edge in the melee they thrust themselves into. Protect your warlock at all costs and drown your foe in a serious fuckton of dice.

*'''Windrider Jetbike Squadrons:''' Guardian jetbikes are Eldar who take their mastery of speed to heart and are a well-known unit to see Eldar field due to the extraordinary mobility the jetbike offers. The only gear the windriders feature is the jetbikes they ride but that’s all the unit really needs. Automatically giving them an enhanced T4 and magical 3+ armor save windriders are the equivalent of marine’s models but with far greater maneuverability. The jetbike comes with a built in twin-linked shuriken catapult, 90% accuracy for a shuriken weapon and bladestorm still applies here. Every third jetbike can switch out for a much larger, much meaner shuriken cannon for extra dakka. Aside from the usual windriders also boast the benefits of Eldar jetbikes that allow them a special 2d6 move during the assault phase and all those delicious cover saves for moving and turbo boosting. The only issue the windrider faces lies in their low numbers and higher cost, not a big issue since they cost just under two guardians normally but these are models you should try not to lose. Like with all guardians a warlock can join the squad and instantly make it better, conceal boosting their already good cover save, protect to give them terminator armor, even embolden can remove the issue of their lower leadership. Zip around like the Tasmanian devil, chunk units of anything, troll everyone and grab or contest objectives to make enemies weep little black tears.

*'''Rangers:''' When an Eldar finds no path that suits them they often turn to the path of the ranger, venturing from the craftworld to see new sights and places. Their pathless existence goes against the grain of Eldar society but lends them unique viewpoints and skills many Eldar never find themselves possessing. The ranger long rifle is core of the unit and as such has a few aspect that need discussing. As written the weapon is a heavy 1 sniper with long range, its AP6 is undesirable but rangers fire it at their BS4. Sniper weapons means they precision shot on hits of 6 and rend on wounds of 6, forcing a pinning test and possibly force a unit to go to ground under their attacks. The basic formula of the ranger goes something like this: 66% chance to hit, 50% chance to wound, 60%ish chance to damage MEQ armor. The special rules of the rangers is their classic infiltrate, fleet, stealth and move through cover. This makes them a theoretically maneuverable but realistically immobile. You see being a heavy weapon the squad cannot fire after travelling during the move phase, battle focus also specifies they cannot fire either before or after they take that run action. Flamers and various other cover ignoring weapons like barrage and noise marine blasts ruin your rangers every day. Ultimately the rangers will end the game exactly where they started, moving only to shuffle towards an objective or away from an approaching melee unit. Rangers can infiltrate either to an advantageous position or on top of a cover providing objective, then they will sit there for as long as they can laying down a few suppressing shots into choice targets. Their cost was significantly reduce from previous editions but the unit will still need to work hard to make its points back. 
'''Alternate View'''.Never forget their Shuriken Pistols, Blade Storm still applies, also move them they still get Snap Shots (while not great a larger unit will still hit something and kill it). a nearby Warlock or Farseer will add to this with guide. also with Illic if CC happens they can still hold out (sort of). 
**'''Master of pathfinders''' granted by the HQ Illic Nightspear allows you to more than double the cost of each model (bad) but grant them shrouded (good) and 100% precision shots (good good) thus making them do what they do normally, but better.
**'''Modeling Tips''' Hate the hoodless rangers but you don't want them with helmets or applying green stuff because you suck at making anything with green stuff? Fear not, because there is a solution. If you have the money, grab a box of wood elf archers, or something with elf hoods, and smash a new head on them. You might need to fill in some spaces with green stuff though, but it was very minimal for me.