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

===Troop===
*'''Guardian'''
Guardians are the poets, chefs, and cannon fodder of the Eldar. They have pretty unimpressive armor and short-range guns. They will probably die in droves, and probably spend a lot of time wishing they'd selected another path to pursue. So why take them?

Well, the normal guardian squad can take a nifty Assault 2 rifle, which isn't too shabby for the price - if it weren't for having the range of a shotgun or a bolt pistol. Note that when a Guardian Squad takes a heavy weapon, it really assigns two members as a gun team and the weapon itself becomes Assault and replaces only one of their rifles. Both must die to silence the gun, and the gun is abstracted for all other purposes. Of course, they aren't great shots either, so you'll probably want to get a Scatter Laser or Shuriken Cannon. You can also use '''Storm Guardians''' instead of Guardian Defenders, which means that they realize how stupidly short-ranged their guns are and decided to grab a sword and pistol instead. These Storm Guardians can take either two fusion guns or two flamers instead of a heavy, which actually makes them almost decent close combat units. They are Fleet and have sturdy Leadership and a notional 5+ armor save. No grenades, though, so don't charge into cover. 

Guardians can also convince a Warlock to hang out with them, which can be pretty nifty. Guardian Defenders are a good fit for Conceal or Embolden, while Storm Guardians are a natch for Destructor or Enhance.  Popular opinion favors Scatter Lasers or Eldar Missile Launchers for heavy weapons (see guns discussion elsewhere). Finally, Guardians and their Warlock leader guy can jump on jetbikes (see below.)

*'''Guardian Jetbikes'''
It's... a guardian defender on a jetbike for 22 points. Sums it up pretty well. They do become slightly tougher to kill than most Eldar units, gaining T4 and a 3+ armor save, and strapping twin catapults. Every third Guard Bike can upgrade to the familiar Shuriken Cannon. They may also bring along a Warlock on a bike. Eldar jetbikes gain a special 6" move in the Assault phase just for being awesome, giving even these chumpy guys a neat stick-and-move ability. Tricky to use but ridiculously fast, and it bears pointing out that a three-pack of Guardian Jetbikers is a fairly cheap Troops choice (5 Avengers without a vehicle is just 60 points, but much less useful), and are trollfully happy to turbo boost 24" over to an objective on turn 1 (or 5). Vroom.

*'''Dire Avenger'''
Dire Avengers are elite riflemen. For 12 points each, they bring S4 guns that shoot two times at 18" range. That's a lot of budget firepower, and they're pretty accurate. Their Exarch can Rambo-fire a second rifle for 5 points, or can choose one of two hand-to-hand kits: A diresword/pistol combo or a power weapon and a funny melee combat shield like in the Dune books. Two powers are available: Bladestorm, where the Exarch and his squad all fire one extra shot and then have to reload, and Defend which steals enemy attack dice.

Obviously, the powers and equipment are split between being more shooty versus gaining a poorly-scaling advantage in a fistfight. Stipulated that Avengers are Fleet and might one day get a chance to blast-and-charge some Imperial Guardsmen or Gretchin, their Exarch's hand-to-hand ability can only be a desperate last-ditch attempt to save the squad from being eaten by Genestealers or something. And he isn't an Independent Character, so he can't necessarily punch who he wants in a fistfight anyway. We suggest that you stick with the shooty upgrades and follow the path of Gay Trans-Unit Synergy to get your fistfighting done.

*'''Ranger'''
They just wouldn't be space elves without someone wearing camouflage and wielding a ranged weapon would they? Rangers are sniper-rifle wielding rebels (or hobos) with special rules to make their snipers a little better than usual. They also have special rules to make their cover saves better. You can upgrade them to Pathfinders (no, not like the Tau have) which are even better with their sniper rifles and ignore difficult terrain. They are also ridiculously hard to kill so long as you get a cover save. Pathfinders have, at last count, five different special rules.

Just remember that their rifles are Heavy, which means that they'll not be moving along with the rest of your force. For an army that likes to move around a lot, this can be a bad thing. They're also probably a little expensive points-wise for what they do, though they're pretty good at killing Monstrous Creatures or small, elite units. They're also okay at damaging lightly-armored vehicles. However, they are a troops choice, so take a squad of five pathfinders and place them on an objective and you can be assured that they will be there at the end of the game so long as they don't get assaulted, and as long as the enemy doesn't bring along any flamers to torch them. If you absolutely have to flee a position, remember they carry pistols.