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I like 9th Edition Eldar Again

Conor Lobb

I was pretty down on Eldar at the beginning of the edition, but I’ve found a list I like that is working for me.

The problems I had with Eldar centered around their inability to stand in the open and hold objectives. What I really had to do was begin to appreciate that we still don’t really do that, but we sure can knock other people off their objectives. Here is the list I am working with.

Ynarri Battalion

Harlequins Battalion (Midnight Sorrow)

Wraithseer

Let’s start with the Ynarri Battalion. The unkillable Wraithseers have been around for a while, and I am just beginning to appreciate them. They fill a nice role in my army; the Wraithseers can harass and bully the opponent and draw firepower, all while drawing attention from the small troop units in my army holding objectives and running onto my opponents to deny them primary points. The Wraithseers role as a tough bully is a very strong one in Ninth edition.

The Yncarne is a bit of an affectation, but she has some nice tricks and can clear small units of off objectives, plus, the teleport ability can mess with people’s game plans. She’s particularly useful for teleporting onto an objective after one of my units has been blown off of it so she can hold it herself and score my primary points I otherwise would have lost.

The Dire Avengers exist in my backfield, hold the objective in my deployment zone, and screen.

The Shining Spears are very efficient with +1 to hit while charging under the effect of soul burst, being able to utilize reroll wounds in combat in two ways (not to mention reroll ones to hit from Ancestors Grace,) and having access to advance and charge. Sure, it’s more expensive than the Saim Hann version, but the other Ynarri tricks make them worth it for me.

The Warp Spiders are very specific. They’ve done incredibly well for me to score Deploy Scramblers and to help with Engage on All Fronts points. Their speed with flicker-jump is insane, and since they don’t count as advancing they can still perform actions afterward. Very useful unit for late-game objective stealing as well.

Overall, the Ynarri provide the bully Wraithseers, a nice trading unit in the Spears, and a way to score secondary points with the Warp Spiders. With the Harlequins, I get more tricks and some deadly assassins.

Midnight Sorrow is my favorite masque form. The access to the Harlequin fight on death strat (AKA No Price Too Steep) makes losing out on +1 attack as Frozen Stars worth it, especially when you need to get something done. Fight on Death is just a sure thing, especially with the Murdermaster, and in the age of the Foul Blightspawn ruining everyone’s combat phases. Also, 6″ consolidation comes in a lot more useful than you would think for ending up on objectives, wholly within table quarters, and to wrap units.

The Harlequin Troupes are my primary objective stealers, those three units jump onto my opponent’s objectives and obsec them off; I even charge them into other weeny units like Guardsmen or Nurglings (But never space marines) if I need to kill a few models to balance out the number of models on the objective to deny the primary points to my opponent. The big unit functions as a turn two or three response unit. They’re slow compared to the jetbike units, so they just hang out with the Shadowseer and wait for an opportunity to clear an objective or kill a key unit. The AP3 of the Embraces is very valuable in the era of ignoring ap 1 and 2, and bumping them up to two damage with Murderous Entrance makes them deadly against most targets.

The Solitaire and Murdermaster (the Troupe Master) speak for themselves. The Troupe Master can kill just about anything; I’ve thrown him into Bjorn, Plague Marines, Chapter Masters, Deathwatch Veterans, and watched him kill them all. They key for me is that fight on death. That truly amps his murder potential up to 20 billion and I would never give it up.

The Solitaire kills less but is faster and the two of them working in Tandem can cause a lot of mayhem, especially since the Solitaire has the potential to use the hit and run strat to cause headaches for multiple turns since he moves so quickly.

The Skyweavers are a new edition to this list, which has seen iteration with more Spears and Troupes. The give me a nice harassment unit that can deal with a variety of units, and it also gives me a lot of play with the tricky Harlequin stratagems; plus, they are fast as anything and people with vehicles are scared of their haywire, which is valuable in itself.

The Death Jester Shoots things and they can’t overwatch me. He is useful as hell, but they one thing I may consider cutting for something else, along with the D-Cannon on the Wraithseer. I could pick up another Troupe Master for a second reroll wound bubble; and I could make him the warlord to use some of the punchier Harlequin Traits, even though Player of Twilight is almost too invaluable to give up.

Overall the list plays well. I knock my opponent off objectives, try to hold to and almost certainly always hold one. The Wraithseers are scary, the Harlequins are annoying, and I try and create headaches for my opponent. Do you guys remember denial lists from 8th ed ITC? This is a 9th Ed denial list, and it’s all focused on denying my opponent primary points while trying my hardest to score my secondaries, and shoot for a couple of 10 point primary turns myself. I like it a ton! And the Yncarne is an absolute boss who I love to use. Plus, now that I’ve settled on a list, I’m able to dig deeper into various tricks and strategies I can use in different matchups to win games, which is something I tend to lose out on when list hopping. What do you think about the list? Let me know in the comments below.

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