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

====A Word About Aspect Warriors====
Aspect Warriors are the meat and potatoes of the Eldar Army. They appear in Troops, Fast, Heavy, and Elites. They are the whole thing people are talking about when they say the Eldar Army is mostly specialists.  They have a pretty good statline, great leadership, and are almost all Fleet. Each squad of Aspect Warriors can upgrade one of their number to a sergeant called an Exarch. Exarchs get bumps all over the statline - Initiative goes to a tyranid-like 6, attacks to 2 - and can then take fancy versions of their weapons and buy Exarch powers, which almost all boil down to a Universal Rule for the squad. Exarchs are very popular and are almost always worth the chips, most especially if you like to field big squads.

*'''Fire Dragon'''
Now you see the tank, *FWOOSH!* now you don't. Fire Dragons have short-range guns that will blow up anything from tanks to daemonic giants to buildings to slightly under-cooked hamburgers. Basically, if you get them close to something, they can kill it. Use them on enemy vehicles and speed them towards the enemy so that you can burn stuff. It probably won't take more than six guys to kill most vehicles or monstrous creatures. Also great for killing Wound-allocation abusers such as Nobz or Grey Knight Paladins, rivaling the Fire Prism for the best unit for this purpose. Just be ready to lose these guys the turn after you use them as most opponents don't appreciate having their precious [[METAL BOXES|Land Raiders]] turned into smoldering piles of slag.

The Exarch can take a Fire Pike, which is a meltagun with an extended range (18" instead of 12" - note that melta rules apply), or a Dragon's Breath heavy flamer, which, given the unit's role of tank-busting, is rather counterproductive. Exarch powers include Tank Hunters, which make killing vehicles even more laughably easy, and Crack Shot, which means the enemy gets no cover saves against the Exarch, and lets the Exarch re-roll to Wound.

Also, remember that melta guns have a max range of 12" and only get their special anti-vehicle effect at half that. Fire Dragons are great. A minimum squad of fire dragons can change a whole game around. Small squads of them LOVE to ride around in Falcons, remember that.

*'''Striking Scorpion'''
These are the "heavy" hand-to-hand Eldar squads: sneaky, chainsaw-wielding ninjas, or maybe samurai. Scorpions have two qualities that are rare in the Eldar army: A beefy 3+ armor save and a sword that hits at Strength 4. Add to this a pistol and a set of guns strapped to their mouths which gives them +1 Attack, and they're as killy as Ork Boyz or Khorne Berzerkers, with three attacks and four on the charge. To make them sneaky, the Exarch can take Shadowstrike (Infiltrate) and Stalker (Move through Cover).  

The Exarch can also choose a Str 4 chainsword / Scorpion's Claw pair, granting him a power claw (that hits at strength 6, doubling the base strength) with a shuriken catapult strapped to it, and/or can swap out his chainsword for a Biting Blade, making him stronger the more guys you hit, or he can toss both the pistol and the sword and take Chainsabres, which gives him yet another attack and let him make some re-rolls in shooting AND close combat. Wait, does anyone know if the Chainsabres selection is literally two weapons? Is it 2+1, then +1 mandiblasters, then +1 chainsabres?

Personally, I think the power claw's stopping power is well worth the points in a unit that might be alone somewhere in enemy territory. These guys can tear up just about anyone short of real heavyweights, tanks, armored vehicles, Dreadnaughts and tanks. They're great, and their Phoenix Lord is one of the good ones.

*'''Howling Banshee'''
They scream as soon as they get close, so loudly you can barely hear yourself think. Then they cut your heart to pieces and leave you a bloody mess on the floor. No, they aren't your ex-girlfriends, they're the Howling Banshees. These sword-wielding ladies (and traps) are the fast, lightweight hand to hand Aspect Warrior in the Eldar army. They all come stock with a pistol, a power sword and a mask that makes them Initiative 10 for the first round of any fight, no matter who charged who. Beating everyone to the punch with power weapons is like Chapter 1 of the Big Book of Battles.

Banshees have one big drawback, their fragility. Most players assign them a transport as a matter of routine. Generally speaking, Striking Scorpions do better against swarms of enemies and bullets than Howling Banshees, but these noisy dames laugh at Space Marine power armor and Feel No Pain, and will go first in close combat 99% of the time. Use them on an enemy your Farseer has Doomed (with a capital "D") and watch the enemy be sliced to shreds.

Exarchs can take Executioners, which are nasty two-handed power weapons at S5, Mirrorswords, replacing the pistol with another sword and an extra attack on top, or a Triskele, a throwing weapon with S3 AP2 Assault 3 in addition to being a normal power weapon. Powers are War Shout, which makes the enemy take a leadership test in the first round of an assault or count as WS 1, while Acrobatic gives them Counter-Attack, giving your opponent yet another deterrent to counter-charging them.

Will it blend? It will if the Howling Banshees have anything to say about it. Also, they're primarily [[-4 Str|female]], not that that should have any bearing on your decision about whether or not to get them.

*'''Harlequin'''
Scorpions are heavy, Banshees are light, and Harlequins are expensive and weird. Fluffwise, they are psychic, ninja, space-elf dancer clown historians of the 40k universe. For two points above the cost of a Dragon, Banshee, or Scorpion, you get a pretty fighty little elf with a pistol and a mean overhand right, a weak invulnerable save, and the ability to run across terrain, Hit and Run, Fleet, and Furious Charge. Two can be upgraded to carry a little melta pistol, and any can take a Harlequin's Kiss (not as romantic as it sounds; they shove a sharpened tube into the enemy and then use a super-thin metal wire to blend their insides) which Rends in hand-to-hand. Fine so far.

For a sawbuck, you can upgrade one to be a Troupe Master, who gets a free kiss or power weapon and gets an extra swing with it. You can upgrade another to be a Death Jester with a big machine gun for 10 points, and for the big 30 you can bring a unique psyker officer named Shadow Seer, who brings a pretty effective stealth field to the unit and also hands out hallucinogen grenades and weed to everyone.

Granted, these are cool toys, but the Quins continue to be unpopular. People bitch about them for a lot of reasons, and there is some truth to each: Taken stock, quins are more expensive and lamer in any given way than Scorps or Banshees. If you buy the whole circus, they become semi-competent at things like killing armor and holding down territory, but at exorbitant cost. They are sadly fragile. They still have to put up with Morale checks. They get no transport option unless they hijack somebody else's ride.

That said, we don't have to weigh everything against psyker Blood Angels venerable dreadnought jump infantry to gauge its value. Harlequins are mean and can charge through windows and forests and crap at top speed and then wail on the enemy at S4. They can use Hit and Run to jump out of combat after your enemy's assault phase and then charge again on your turn. 

Also, and this is important, unlike Banshees or Scorpions, if you take the whole circus, they can be equally effective against either low number, heavily armored infantry or high number, poorly armored infantry. The Harlequin's Kiss means they can easily get enough rending to punch through heavy armor and against things like Orks or Nids, the sheer volume of your attacks is likely to overwhelm your enemy. Finally with Rending, Plasma Grenades, and Fusion Pistols, they CAN take out vehicles, but that's really a last resort. Overall, if you're buying them, you're bringing them for their versatility.

*'''Wraithguard'''
These are the psychic, robot, space-elf zombies of the Eldar codex. They are tough, mean, slow, expensive shock infantry. With toughness 6 and 3+ plates, they are nearly as hard as Terminators, cheaper than Meganobz, and pack a very short-ranged gun that literally shoots people to Hell. In larger volleys, it is a reliable tank killer and can put a dent in any MC or terminator unit. They are also Fearless. They can even be taken as a 400 point Troops choice from hell, if you bring 10 and take the Warlock + Spiritseer option.

That said, they have some serious drawbacks which make them less popular. For one thing, without a friendly psyker nearby they have a one-in-six chance to simply go stupid and do nothing for a turn. It bears repeating that their guns have the range of a pistol. Considering their price, they can be taken out fairly easily by serious fistfighters with power or poison weapons. They are not Fleet. You can only cram five of them on a transport.

Wraithguard can be impressive if used properly and carry their weight particularly well in high point games. A unit of Wraithguard with a Farseer carrying the Fortune power will be hard as hell to kill. As shock troops and infantry trumps, these can be the "anvil" of your force and simply walk up the table. Your enemy will either [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|spend a lot of time trying to kill them]] or ignore them until they close. In Troops form, they can sit on your objective if you are into playing defensively and your enemy will have a serious challenge taking it. Give the Warlock walking with them Conceal and he'll protect them from a lot of fire that would normally knock them out. Pack five of them and a Warlock with a spear into a Wave Serpent and menace enemy armor.

*'''Wave Serpent'''
The Dedicated Transport for the Eldar, available for nearly any infantry unit. As with all models using the Falcon chassis the Wave Serpent is an Armor 12 fast skimmer. What sets it apart is its ability to transport 12 models and its energy field. The energy field makes all ranged hits against front and side armor that are higher than strength 8 act as strength 8, as well as preventing any hit from rolling more than 1d6 to penetrate, which acts as a lovely counter to ubiquitous meltaspam. The draw back to this is that you can't take holo-fields, which means that the wave serpent is more fragile than most of your other tanks. (take holofields on your other tanks!)

It should be noted that the Ballerina Bus is armed with twin-linked shuriken catapult which can be upgraded to a single shuriken cannon and must take turret mounted twin-linked heavy weapon, making it a very accurate Eldar vehicle. These things might as well be a symbol of Eldar tactics: Fast as hell, bristling with guns, melts under fire.