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Faction Focus Eldar

Nick Nanavati

Hey guys, it’s Old Man Brad (OMB) coming at you with some tips and tricks, or more accurately some combos and suggestions, for crushing the shifting post corona meta with your pointy-eared space elves. Let’s dive in with some of the best units, best combos, and some of my personal favorites that I’ve just loved for 20 years of Eldar.

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We’re starting with mech, mech, and more mech! Yes, it’s time to dust off those grav-tanks and put them back on the board. With the scary Marine Devastator Doctrine down to only turn one, Eldar grav-tanks are a fantastic way to deny kills and secure objectives. Eldar vehicles have high speed and durability, and their base dedicated transport might be the best in the game for all-round big dick mojo. Throw in some Craftworld attributes to regain lost wounds each turn, ignore cover, or reroll a hit or wound, and now you’re cooking with gas. 

1. Wave Serpent: Take them. Period. They are dependable, and you need at least one in most armies to at least hide a couple of squishy units. The Wave Serpent is toughness 7, 16″ move (yeah, I said 16″ try and keep up, you lesser races), but their most important mechanic is the Serpent Shield, which reduces all damage taken by one. The Serpent Shield is a forgotten relic of the past that needs to see more play. Whether it’s to hide your casters and a unit or two or part of a mechanized detachment, these units are just gold in all Eldar armies. The cherry on the top is the fact that once per game, you can fire off the Serpent Shield for d3 mortals to the closest enemy unit. 

Credit to Devian Art

2. Fire prisms: Take three or take zero because these guys are a trio of fun, baby! With the Linked Fire stratagem from the Eldar Codex, you are looking at either 6d3 shots at strength 9, ap 4, and damage d3; or 6d6 shots at ap 3, damage 1 that will reroll all hits and wounds. This is serious damage, and the flexible weapon profiles let you change from infantry to hard target as you see fit. The real strength of the Linked Fire stratagem is that it gives you the ability to fire all your shots from one of the Prisms while letting your other two hide like proper Eldar. 

3. Night Spinners: Well, if you don’t like Night Spinners, you are clearly a communist, hate puppies, and don’t like fun. This is another hover tank that can’t be wrapped, and this one is delivering a little indirect love to all those units that are trying to hide from you. Strength 7, 2 damage, and ap 4 on a 6 to wound? That’ll do pig, that’ll do. These guys are low cost, high wounds/toughness, and can hide from sight. They are especially good at killing Primaris Marines who are still going strong in the current meta. 

OK, you know what goes great with your toughness 7 grav-tanks… well, the OMB is going to tell you: it’s freaking toughness 8 units. With the changes to the new ITC missions, Eldar players can field a list that is just crazy durable and denies kills. A combination of the previously mentioned grav-tanks and the toughness 8 biggies that I am about to discuss is going to be a real thing, and it’s something you can do consistently. 

1. Bring on the Wraithlords! It’s time for them to shine! Ten wounds, strength 7, 3 flat damage, four base attacks (strength 9 and d6 damage with a ghost glaive), and you can give them a heavy weapon all for 100 or fewer points? OK, I’m in. These 8″ move goons are fantastic for taking objectives and denying kills. Hey, is that a Thunder Hammer on your sergeant? Good to hear he wounds me on a 4, and I’m going to step on him while the rest of your unit tries to feebly wound me on 6s. 

2. Wraithseers: Look, these guys have a super cool model, can take a heavy weapon, and cast psychic powers! Give them some love already. He’s sitting at a hefty 12 wounds with a 3+, 5++ save, and rocking four base attacks at strength 9 with d6 damage. Need to fill out one more HQ slot, and you thought that maybe a fourth Wraithlord would be kind of cool?

Credit to Fan Art

Speaking of psykers, I don’t know if you heard, but the ole Aeldari are pretty much jammed full of freaking guys seeing the future and lightning bolting you, so let’s talk about them. 

1. Farseers: Take them. I mean, I could stop there, but I’m pretty sure you guys want a bit more info. I tend to take two Farseers or Eldrad’s bad mamba jamba ass (I mean he is on the freaking cover of the codex) to guarantee I have my Runes of Fortune covered. Doom might be the best power in the game, letting you reroll all wounds on the target. Executioner’s potential 2d3, no line of sight needed, mortal wounds is a close second place. Oh, Eldar don’t have a Chapter Master or a pretty banner that gives 5+++ Feel No Pain? Well, I guess we just get full rerolls and fnp the old fashioned way, with space magic cast by a guy wearing a big ass hat. On top of all this, the Farseer can use a stratagem for any unit to fire interceptor shots at a deep striking enemy unit. They can take a relic to explode and come back from the dead, and they can get a +1 to both you and a warlock’s psychic tests for the turn.

2. Warlocks/Spiritseer: Guys, the OMB lives and dies by Quicken and Protect. Quicken lets you move a unit in the psychic phase for free. Protect increases their saving throw by one, moving that unit of Shining Spears an extra 16″ after you’ve made their save plus one is game-changing. You can and should also cast Fortune on them to give them a 5+++ Feel No Pain. Runes of Battle is your go-to table if you’re bringing non-vehicle based armies, and you should include one, probably two, Warlocks (or more) in any army that is using aspect warriors. Guys, just a quick tip: we’ve all done this and embarrassed ourselves, but remember to buff your units before you quicken them out of range of the rest of your spells. 

3. Seer Council: I thought about making this its own category, but I’ll just ramble about them in the psyker section and elaborate on some of the strengths I already hit on. First off, if you make these guys part of a Windrider Host, you can charge, attack, and flee your full movement to safety before your opponent is allowed to swing. That’s pretty amazing for a unit that wounds on 2s and is doing d3 damage per attack that gets through. Hasta la Vista knights, it’s time for daddy Seer Council to put you to sleep. They are great for taking care of large, high toughness targets, and their mobility lets them have range to the entire board to strike. Going first? Go ahead and start on the board and put every buff in the book on them. Going second? Start off the board, deepstrike in, and then put every buff in the book on them. This is in addition to all the strengths of regular Farseers and Warlocks They are hard to master but amazingly fun to play with, and I recommend you give them a shot in your next practice games. 

Credit to Games Workshop

Let’s talk about Aspect Warriors and how everyone seems to have forgotten that they are pretty damn good and have a place in a lot of Aeldari builds. 

1. Dark Reapers: Remember when these were the bane of the tournament scene, and everyone secretly plotted your demise when you played them? Well, even without firing twice old school Ynarri style, they are still a great unit. Hey, I see your disco lord is minus 999 to hit, and he’s hanging onto a supersonic flyer that is giving him another minus 1. Well, I think I’m just going to go ahead and hit you on a 3 and probably reroll any misses, because Dark Reapers ignore all penalties to hit. Reapers are great against both hard targets and infantry with the option for strength 8, damage 3 single shot or strength 5, damage 2 double shot, and they get to choose each time they shoot. Put these guys in a Serpent to start the game and Fire and Fade them behind cover each turn. Suddenly, they are a very irritating unit for your opponents. 

2. Shining Spears: Let the OMB tell you whippersnappers about the time when Spears were flying across the board 32″ with Quicken and terrorizing the board after getting buffs to their saves and fnp. Oh, that’s right now, and they’re amazing? Well, OK, then. Take two units, start one on the board and one off the board, and you won’t be sorry. Withdraw on the unit starting on the board and Swooping Dive on the unit starting in reserve, and these guys are just waiting to make up their points and putting the sad face on your opponent. 

3. Guardians: Sure, they aren’t Aspect Warriors, but they really want to be, and someday with some training and mental defects that only let you focus on one aspect of war, they will be. Taking a unit of 20 of these with two weapons platforms is an excellent counter for horde armies and a suckers bet for your opponent to shoot at. Throw Protect on them and use the strat to give them a 4++ and just watch those small arms fire bounce off. Be sure to start rolling the small hits on your 2+ save weapons platforms and let lascannons be slapped away by Guardians with a 4++ invulnerable. Guardians have been sorely underestimated time and time again, and they are another unit that is great for holding an objective and sneakily not giving up an easy kill. 

Credit to Games Workshop

Phoenix Lords! Yeah, you’re damn well right I’m going to talk about a couple of the Phoenix Lords. They have a whole book named after them, so let’s chat about a few that need to see more play. 

1. The Mauginator: Maugen Ra is a pimp, and you should model him appropriately with a purple hat and boots with a live squid inside. Eight shots hitting on 2s, ignoring all modifiers, and rerolling 1s for himself and any dark reapers nearby? Yes, please. Oh no, you made it into combat with my ranged attack Phoenix Lord? Well, getting ready to get hit with his pimp cane for four attacks at strength 6 doing d3 damage. He’s 140 points of pure kick ass, and he’s doing it all while not getting targeted.

2. Jain Zar: Yeah, I said it already, give Jain Zar a chance. 115 points get you an 8″ move with advance and charge, and she adds three to the charge roll in addition to anything from your Craftworld attributes. She strikes first, makes your opponent subtract one from all hit rolls, and she can take either four attacks base or have an attack characteristic equal to the number of models within 2″ after pile in. Oh, I forgot to mention the strength 6 ap 3 d3 wounds weapon that rerolls all wounds and can’t be targeted by overwatch. So, feel free to declare crazy long charges with no consequences. For shame, you have forgotten Jain Zar. 

Here’s a couple sample starter builds to get you started on your way to Aeldari glory. Use these to base your build on and give them on a try on the table. Remember what the OMB says: “Roll your dice in the open, play by intent, and 40K Santa will make all your Forge World dreams come true.”

Aeldari mech/wraith 3⁄4 build 

1637 

1434

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