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

==Army Building and Tactics==


===Gathering Your Troops===
Looking to bolster your ranks? Here are a few key recommendations for building or expanding a new army.
*'''Farseers''': Get one. It doesn't matter if you're wanting to form the Biel-Tan Aspect Warrior Swordwind, field an Iyanden Wraithhost, or swarm the battlefield with Saim-Hann jetbikes. The versatility of your Farseers often form the core support of virtually any Craftworld army and they are the only psykers in the Craftworld codex truly capable of supporting every single unit you can field alongside them.

*'''Guardians''': Unless you're running a Vanguard, Outrider or Spearhead detachment, you're going to need some flavor of troop to hold the line. Now that the Guardian kit can be assembled as Storm Guardians or Guardian Defenders ''without'' having to purchase a shitty stand-alone upgrade sprue, picking up a box of these guys is strongly recommended as a baseline. Guardian Defenders are now damn near as good as last edition's Dire Avengers offensively while Storm Guardians (ironically) are particularly tanky objective assaulters. Both of them also get re-roll support while within range of objectives on top of their Objective Secured abilities.

*'''Rangers''': These are the dudes you bring to fill slots on the cheap. 65 points for 5 bodies isn't a terrible trade when you're trying to save for your Aspects, especially when these guys were built to hunt {{W40kkeyword|Characters}}, a specialty many of your other units will struggle to fulfil. If you're lucky with your Strands of Fate Rolls, you can guarantee those Mortal Wounds on a character you're shooting at. Rangers are perfect for holding objectives in the back field due to their range and potential defensive utilities you can spring for and actively benefit from venturing into enemy territory to snag VPs, depending on your picked objectives.

*'''Dire Avengers''': Although Dire Avengers are no longer troops, these guys will still give you a great bang for your buck. Literally. $35 for a squad of 5 Dire Avengers is frankly a goddamn steal compared to the GW standard pricing these days and you can easily shave another $5-$10 dollars off if you pick them up off of a third party site like Ebay (New in Box, of course). For a majority of standard lists, three squads of these guys will have you set.

*'''Wave Serpents''': Wave Serpent grav-tanks have almost always had a particularly valuable role in any Craftworld army and still hold the title as your most durable standard vehicle. As a dedicated transport, it's a fantastic choice if you're looking to provide heavier firepower without taking up your rather competitive Heavy Support slots and is ''essential'' to get squads of melee units across the field in one piece. Having at least one will open up your tactical options substantially and will at the very least provide a solid heavy weapon platform that your opponent will need to focus down in order to shift it.

*'''Wraithguard/blades''': The single biggest drawback to the Eldar factions as a whole is their infantry's paper-thin frailty. Wraith units in general offer you a key exception to that rule by offering extremely hard-hitting, tough-as-hell statues that can easily chunk a wide variety of enemy units you throw them at. Having at least one Wraith unit is advised if ''only'' to draw fire away from your much squishier units.

*'''Aspect Warriors''': In general, most of your Aspect Warriors are actually good now! Some are certainly better than others, but all in all, they now properly stand as the elite specialists that they were always meant to be. In a way, Aspect Warriors can also function as "troops" in specialized lists. If you bring their Phoenix Lord, any respective Aspect Warrior within 6" of them is blessed with Objective Secured. Depending on your game plan, this can let you save points (and money) by not taking obligatory troop units. Keep in mind, this may impact your other strategic options negatively still (Starting CP, potential Strands of Fate if you have accompanying Eldar armies).

*'''Forge World''': Though a bit of a premium, many of the Eldar non-LoW units (that are left at least) are actually pretty solid units these days. Neither overpowered nor overpriced (point wise), units like the Shadow Spectres, Hornets and Wraithseers can actually get some reasonable work done in many more situations than some of your core units can currently. And, of course, the resin they're made out of is much better quality than the fine-crap the majority of your other Aspect Warriors are made of. Having said that, don't go too crazy and build your entire army out of FW stuff; you'll never know if/when GW suddenly decides to pull the plug and banish these premium-priced models to Legends.

===Army Composition===
These are specific builds that focus on a particular ''Aspect'' of strength.

*'''Bikers''':

*'''Wraithhost''': You sell your soul to the imperium of man in order to be an "Adeptus Custeldar" with psykers (though not quite as innately resistant). You'll hit like a truck both in melee (wraithblades and Wraithlords/seers) and short range shooting (wraithguard), though don't expect to cover much ground quickly. Probably the best you can wish in 9th in order to maintain your primary objectives cast protect on force-shield wraithguard for that sweet 3++ and you are good to go. If you want a genuine offensive presence, you should get a Wave serpent for each wraith blade/guard squad you want to threaten the enemy with or you will be moving 5'' with 10-12 range weapons while the enemy slowly whittles you down from afar. Wraithlords, Wraithknights and Wraithseers (to a lesser degree) can be kitted out with 36" and up range weaponry in order to fulfill your long range firepower needs, but you'll really want to pair a Farseer or two with them to make it work.

*'''Aspect Warriors''': Interestingly enough, using the units Eldar are most known for is a real way to get shit done. First turn charges, wiping a unit from the board with just a squad of Dark Reapers: basically, if you want to play the way Eldar were meant to be played, go down this route. Some caveats: basically every unit is a) extremely, extremely good at one thing, and b) are about as durable as a sandcastle. If you do not use these units as they are meant to be used, they will die horribly. They do not forgive small mistakes. That being said, watching a Rhino explode when Fire Dragons barely look its direction is pretty funny.

*'''Guardians''':

===Other Detachment Recommendations===


===Allies===
The Aeldari are one of two umbrella xenos factions (the other being Tyranids) that have any access to allied forces, [[Drukhari]], [[Harlequins]] and the [[Ynnari]] in your case (and Corsairs, but they're practically squatted at this point). This grants you a fairly substantial range to supplement your forces and help compensate for any particular weaknesses you may find in your Craftworld list.

*'''Drukhari''': My god can this faction combination create some fast games. Take a Farseer on Skyrunner, some Vypers and some mandatory Dire Avengers for a patrol detachment, bring 2 other Drukhari Patrols (which they get for free CP) of reavers, wyches in raiders each with a Succubus and go to town. The reaver jetbikes are superior to yours with the ability to take special weapons and hit harder in combat, plus their combat drugs and power from pain means they can last longer too. This army works because you will charge your opponent turn 1. You will tag down their tanks with squads of bikes, you will smite and executioner their units to death, and you will laugh as you zip around the board to any place you need to be. The Vypers are important for anti- tank but you can also bring a Crimson Hunter AND a Razorwing jetfighter for total aerial domination. Having great fun playing this army. 

*'''Harlequins''': You can take a Patrol detachment of these guys for any Battalion or larger of Asuryani you field at no penalty what-so-ever. If you want to focus on the Asuryani gunline units like Dark Reapers or Fire Prisms, you can take a few Harlequin Troupes to serve as your extremely killy front-line assaulters. Alternatively, double down on your lethality and support them with Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions to slice apart melee-deficient factions like the Necrons or T'au.

*'''Ynnari''': If you have dreams of a truly united Eldar force, the Ynnari will be your best friend. As one of the few (if not the only) faction in the game that lets you mix and match units from different armies in the same detachment (with ''minor'' restrictions and/or caveats), you really can cherry pick the best units for the job you have in mind.