"We bring only death, and leave only carrion. It is a message even a Human can understand."
-Requiel of the Sons of Fuegan

The Craftworld Eldar are one of the most difficult races to play in the Warhammer mod. Most of their infantry are very fragile and lightly armoured, often being killed in a single shot from bolters and similar weapons. Their floating weapon platforms are some of the easiest support weapons to destroy in the game, easily overwhelmed by lasgun fire, and their tanks have the least armour of all tanks in the game, being able to be penetrated and blown up from the front by infantry rockets fairly easily. Their troops and especially vehicles are also very expensive in terms of both CP and MP, often being more costly than the equivalent unit for a different faction. Due to this poor durability and high cost, mistakes are often very crippling, as losing even a single key unit could be potentially devastating for the rest of your game. This problem is further compounded by having no builder to build static fortifications to fall back on, alongside having no sandbags and very limited access to smoke grenades, leading to an overall poor defensive ability.

However, if you're able to work around these weaknesses, you'll quickly find that Eldar units are some of the most lethal and deadly in the game. All Eldar infantry are weapon skill tier 4 (the same skill as Tau Fire Warriors) at the bare minimum, with some of their elite infantry and commanders having 10 stars and beyond, making them some of the most accurate and lethal infantry in the game. Fusion guns and Firepikes are the best melta type weapons in the game, and bright lances are the best lascannon type weapon in the game, giving them a very powerful anti tank roster at any distance. Many of their vehicles are protected by recharging shields, granting them unparalleled sustainability. This does not come at the cost of mobility, as Eldar vehicles are some of the fastest in the game, letting you run circles around the primitive vehicles of other races and return to safety to allow shields to recharge. Ontop of having good Infantry and good Vehicles, they also have incredibly strong SP call ins that can win you the game on their own once unlocked if the opponent cannot stop the raw psychic might of a Farseer.

Because of these reasons, Eldar are a Top Tier Faction with a powerful tool for any situation they may find themselves in. Becoming competent at Eldar can be difficult but rewarding, and a competent Eldar commander can be a menace on the battlefield to deal with.

Consider playing this faction if you like:

• Elite Infantry that focus on accomplishing a certain role, and excel at it like no other.
  
• Powerful Psykers that unlock very early, with some of the strongest psyker powers in the game.
  
• A glass cannon play style, that hits incredibly hard but is just as fragile.
  
• Strong offensive ability with highly mobile units and vehicles that can quickly exploit any weaknesses in an opponent's army with their blinding speed.
  
• Fantastic vehicles. Some of the fastest tanks in the game with powerful shields, strong weapons and a low profile that makes it hard to hit any major components, especially from afar.
  
• Powerful single model hero-type units that can turn the tide of battle with their exceptional power.

Consider avoiding this faction if you do not like:

• Lots of micro.
  
• Fragile but expensive units.
  
• Lack of powerful indirect artillery options.
  
• No techpriest style builder or sandbags available. Very lacking in defensive play and capability outside of Guardian shields.
  
• Mediocre anti-tank in the earlygame. Anti tank squads completely unavailable until 9 minutes in.
  
• Few SP unit choices. Not much variety in what SP can be spent on.

When first playing Eldar, it is common to be confused over what exactly everything does. Many of the units specialise for a single purpose and are a waste of points trying to accomplish anything else. You do not need to memorise what every single one does, but there are a few you should absolutely be aware of.

MP Cost: 50
CP Cost: 15
Squad Size: 10 (9 Guardians, 1 Veteran Guardian)
Purpose: General Purpose Infantry. Good on offence and defence
Overall Rating: 9/10

The humble Guardian Squad is, surprisingly enough, one of the best infantry squads in the game. With their Shuriken Catapults and weapon skill 4 (the same skill as Tau Fire Warriors), they can be a threat to a lot of lightly armoured infantry at any range, such as Imperial Guardsmen. If they can get close, their powerful plasma grenades explode in a wide radius and can easily kill an entire squad if given the chance, or disintegrate Space Marines and light vehicles. Their high speed and practically unlimited stamina makes this task a lot more feasible than you would expect, making them very good at attacking entrenched positions.

The real power of the Guardian Squad though comes with their Veteran and their deployable shield. Available as a special action in the bottom right of the screen, they can place an energy shield in the direction that they're facing. This blocks shots coming from the direction its facing and allows troops from behind it to shoot through it. While its not completely invincible and is very weak against explosives, it is a very powerful tool, essentially creating cover anywhere at anytime for guardians to use. This can also help with attacking points, as the shield is very quick to setup and is active immediately, giving your troops some protection when out in the open, or used defensively, making barriers for units to hide behind and cover over areas.

As the cheapest squad available to Eldar, they're frankly undercosted for the utility they bring. Great grenades, good weapons, huge stamina, great speed and a deployable shield make them a fantastic squad for only 50 MP. Abuse them as much as you can because nothing else is gonna be nearly as cheap and as useful as these glorious Guardians.

MP Cost: 150
CP Cost: 15
Squad Size: 10 (8 Guardians, 1 Veteran Guardian, 1 Warlock)
Purpose: General Purpose Infantry. Powerful AOE attacks and crowd control from the Warlock
Overall Rating: 10/10

The Warlock Replaces a single regular Guardian in the squad, and costs 100 points individually. As Space Marines are worth around 50 points a model, the warlock costs around two space marines worth of MP, making them a fairly costly investment. This squad is on a seperate timer to the other guardian squad, and can be bought if you need more models on the field at a much steeper price.

Since you're paying so much for the warlock, they better be good, and they are very much good. They come with two spells, Psychic Pulse (default) and Psychic Flame. Spells can be selected by opening the warlock's inventory and double clicking the spell you wish to select, or using the Change Ammo hotkey. Warlocks also come protected with a shield, that grants them a good deal of resistance to small arms fire and a larger healthbar, especially compared to the poor durability of many other Eldar infantry, though they are still vulnerable to heavy hitting weapons like plasma weapons.

Psychic Pulse allows the warlock to pose a threat to many targets with a strong bolt of lightning. With only 60 units of range, they must be relatively close to the opponent to deal damage, but once in range, they can blow space marines to pieces and punch holes in sentinels with their powerful psychic blows. The power has a fast recharge rate, allowing it to be fired off repeatedly at close range unlike many other psyker powers that have much longer cooldowns. Pulse can also be used as a counter to some earlygame vehicles, should you be able to get in effective range.

Psychic Flame is the main reason Warlocks are so powerful, especially against opponents unfamiliar with the matchup. The Warlock conjures a pit of fire at the point of contact, lightning any infantry caught in the radius on fire, often to their death. This pit is active instantly and cannot be dodged with good micro on reaction. This allows the Warlock to instantly kill entire squads if left too blobbed and cause absolute dread for an opponent to deal with, forcing them to spread out much more then they'd be comfortable with or risk getting annihilated by Psychic Flame. This is exceptionally powerful against defensive opponents, as you can completely invalidate static defensive lines by simply lighting them on fire. While more effective against light infantry, the fire still poses a threat to Space Marines and essentially all infantry in the game. Absolutely incredible psyker power that is available from the very start of the game, no other faction even gets a psyker this early, and the Warlock is blessed with one of the best spells in the game. Be aware that each warlock only gets 3 charges of this spell until you have to revert to Psychic Pulse.

For Beginners, Warlocks are well worth using and Psychic Flame is one of the best psyker powers in the game. However, using warlocks well is often very micro intensive, and you should not lose sight of the bigger picture of the battlefield. if a Psychic Flame won't win you the battle or heavily tip it in your favour, then it probably isn't worth the micro cost to use it, and you should use your valuable attention on other more important things.

MP Cost: 160
CP Cost: 15
Squad Size: 3
Purpose: Anti (Elite) Infantry & commanders at a very long range. Stealth makes them fantastic scouts and potential saboteurs if given an anti tank weapon. The only Eldar unit with Smoke Grenades.
Overall Rating: 7/10

An Iconic unit for Eldar, Rangers are exceptionally useful in the right hands, offering a lot of specialised utility that other factions would need to spend SP to get. Against factions that make use of a lot of elite infantry, they're very useful for taking down the threats that Guardians aren't able to beat. They're also very useful for assaulting well defended positions, as they may be able to shoot well encamped defenders from afar without retaliation, slowly picking off the opponents numbers and forcing them to retaliate. Because of this, they'll often pay for themselves quickly even against less than ideal infantry targets. One major limitation of their rifles is that they struggle to penetrate space marine armour, though they can still provide knockdowns. Use reaper launchers instead.

They also grant a great deal of utility with their stealth and smoke grenades, two things the Eldar roster is severely lacking in and is exclusive to rangers. This allows them to sneak past the enemy while prone and provide a valuable sightline into what the opponent may be doing (just remember to change their firing mode to Hold Fire!) or even take out key enemy units before they can even reach the battlefield. Their smoke grenades also allow them to quickly shield allies or blind enemies, allowing for troops to push up against an enemy position without getting gunned down.

As a Beginner, I would recommend using them only as backline snipers or scouts. Don't worry about using their smoke grenades or using them as anti tank saboteurs as that is a more advanced way to use rangers that you shouldn't concern yourself with. They won't be good in every map, but they can be a powerful tool to any aspiring Autarch that wishes to employ their services.

MP Cost: 100
CP Cost: 3
Purpose: Anti Heavy Infantry/Light Vehicle
Overall Rating: 6/10

Grav Platforms are generally quite poor compared to the heavy weapon teams of other factions, with their high mobility doing little to afford the fact they can be destroyed by small arms fire from the opponent, or completely obliterated by heavier weapons like plasmas, autocannons or missiles (they're much weaker than Tau drones in terms of durability). However, Reaper Launcher Platforms offer an important earlygame anti-vehicle role to the Eldar, something they have noticeable problems with, and the mobility of the grav platform can help it dodge counterattacks from the opponent while it reloading its missiles.

Reaper Platforms come with two rockets, Reaper missiles and AT Missiles. Reaper Missiles fire a stream of homing missiles at hostile infantry targets. When direct controlled, the missiles will instead be guided towards wherever the cursor is. This allows the reaper platform to stay out of harms way and fire missiles down upon opponent positions. On the other hand, AT Missiles fire a single heavy missile towards an enemy vehicle, able to penetrate Sentinels, Chimeras and other similarly armoured vehicles. Reaper Platforms do not automatically switch missiles and must be manually changed to fire Anti Vehicle Rockets. Often, this means changing manually to AT and using direct control to guide the missile to destroy an enemy sentinel.

If used well, Reaper Platforms are a valuable support piece for an army. For Beginners, it is recommended you use them as your primary source of anti tank in the earlygame, just make sure that the platform is firing the correct type of rocket at the target.

MP Cost: 120
CP Cost: 5
Crew Size: 2
Purpose: Infantry Killer
Overall Rating: 7/10

A terror against infantry. The Vyper platform is fast and agile, the cannon has complete 360 rotation, has almost pinpoint accuracy, and has enough firepower to tear through entire squads of light infantry or space marines alike. Using a shuriken Vyper well can easily lead to entire trenches being cleared in an instant, as the gunner remains very accurate even while the vehicle is jumping. Against guardsmen factions particularly, its effectiveness cannot be overstated.

A critical weakness is the exposed gunner position and light overall armour. You can remedy this by replacing him with a guardian whenever he dies, or replace him with a warlock if you want a very durable gunner. This vehicle is the bane of all enemy infantry and rarely falls short. However, if you are not making use of the enhanced mobility and merely want a chokepoint holder, consider a grav platform instead. Note that even light AT such as autocannons will tear straight through the paper thin armour so make sure to keep your Vyper moving and away from any anti tank weapons.

Now that you know the best tools that you have available, how exactly do you play the first 9 minutes of a game and survive until your best tools unlock?

Eldar have two practical choices for their First buy, the Guardian Squad and the Guardian Squad w/ Warlock (Jetbikes are usually not a very good first purchase). In all honestly, the first buy doesn't really matter compared to other factions as you'll likely be purchasing the 2nd squad shortly afterwards anyway. I usually prefer the warlock squad, but you can succeed with either.

Unit(s) to focus on: Reaper Launcher grav platforms, Warlocks

Eldar have one of the best matchups against Space Marine factions in the game, period. Most of their weapons are strong enough to pose a threat to durable heavy infantry, and the early game monopoly over psykers gives Eldar a unique option that no other faction has to annihilate space marines. Eldar have no plasma squad, which means you will be relying on Reaper Launcher grav platforms and Shuriken Cannon Vypers to be your dedicated infantry killers against Astartes.

Scout Shotguns can be a pain to handle on some maps, but keeping your distance outside of their effective range and using your superior Eldar accuracy to cut them down with a hail of shurikens, if possible, can be very powerful, but you must spot them before they can get in range due to their stealth. Spread out your infantry to minimise the impact of the shotguns and grenade launcher on your squads if possible, and don't clump an entire squad at one guardian shield unless you're willing to lose them all to a single scout.

On the other hand, closing the distance against Astartes Tactical Squads is often recommended to get the warlock in range to obliterate them with his basic attack. Reaper rockets are also a good choice to use against space marines at a longer distance as their homing property can allow the missiles to hit marines ducking behind cover very easily. Rangers are also good at disrupting and chipping away at Space Marines, especially their Devastators, so consider purchasing a squad if their heavy weapons are causing issues (just don't expect them to kill much on their own!). Eldar do not have infantry plasmas, but they have plenty of tools for dealing with heavy infantry, and every weapon above a scatter laser can do serious damage to the power armoured menace.

Since Guardians are so cheap, you will find it easy to outnumber and overwhelm space marines in a hail of bladestorm. This is one of the Space Marine's worst matchups, and while Chaos Space Marines have a much more comfortable time due to cultists and cheaper heavy weapons, you can still cause them absolute misery should you use your units (and especially warlocks) correctly.

Units to focus on: Guardians, Shuriken Cannon Vypers, Warlocks, Reaper Launcher grav platforms

Astra Militarum, Blood Pact and various other primitive mon-keigh bring soldiers, and bring lots of them. You should ALWAYS be producing more and more guardians, otherwise you will find yourself being quickly swarmed and outnumbered. While your troops are much more skilled, they will take casualties in sustained combat, so it is important that you keep a steady supply of new guardians to offset the attrition before your entire army gets chipped away.

To deal with the spam of human infantry, especially against higher quality infantry like Elysians or Krieg, the Shuriken Cannons on either a grav platform or a Vyper can be a huge help if your guardians aren't able to keep up with the enemy infantry. Scatter lasers are also usable here, though are outperformed by shuriken cannons at basically everything. Warlock Psychic Flame, as usual, is very effective against Guardsmen squads, and can wipe out full squads in a single cast if used appropriately. Eldar have fairly good infantry killers in the earlygame, so be sure to use them!

One of the biggest problems to deal with will be Sentinels and other scout/light vehicles that come your way. Thankfully, Warlocks are somewhat okay against Sentinels, with their main attack able to penetrate and kill the pilot of these vehicles. If this is ever nerfed, or your warlocks are unable to get in range, Reaper grav platforms with their homing AT rockets are perfect for this role, and the opponents sentinels will likely find it difficult to dodge a homing rocket (just remember to manually switch the rocket to AT!).

Its not gonna be easy, but if you can survive the horde of lasguns for 9 minutes, you'll unlock plenty of tools to even the playing field, keep fighting and your chance for a comeback will come!

Units to focus on: Shuriken Cannon Vypers, Guardians.

Beating these guys is all about being aggressive. Mechanicus Infantry are quite powerful and will be a problem if they're allowed to get set up and deployed. Don't let them do this, be aggressive as your guardians will outperform their rifles at close range, but will easily lose in long range shootouts should the opponent have the chance to set themselves up. In the earlygame, Mechanicus have fairly poor anti vehicle weaponry, especially at longer ranges, which is something you can exploit. Vypers of all kinds are very useful here and can quickly dodge or outspeed anything mechanicus can throw at them this early, though their rifles will have an easy time destroying any grav platforms that you bring out, so don't rely on grav platforms too much if you can help it unless you're sure you can keep them safe.

Also worth noting is that mechanicus infantry is quite slow and do take some time to arrive to the frontline without using any of their transports. Eldar guardians, on the other hand, are quite fast, so its recommended that you use your superior speed to deny the opponent of their defensive positions they'd like, and quickly reinforce any troops that are having trouble. Force the Mechanicus to play the game by your rules, don't let them set the pace!

Units to focus on: Guardians, Reaper Rocket grav platforms, Vyper

I'm not experienced enough on Eldar mirror matches enough to give much advice here. Don't group up too heavily to avoid your squads being deleted by warlocks and plasma grenades, and consider buying a Reaper Rocket grav platform to deal with an early Vyper, as its homing AT rockets can be quite effective against our fast Eldar vehicles. Rangers in theory may be good options against enemy warlocks, but I haven't played or tested this to give anything concrete. You're playing the same army, its a 5:5 matchup, best of luck!

After the 9 minute mark, Eldar unlock the vast majority of their roster, which is when they become a very strong faction. In terms of infantry, they unlock their "Aspect Warriors", warrior monks who train for decades and even centuries to master an aspect of war. They're all specialist troops that are quite expensive, so if you don't need their speciality, stick with guardians for infantry.

MP Cost: 250
CP Cost: 20
Squad Size: 10 (9 Dire Avengers, 1 Dire Avenger Exarch)
Purpose: General Purpose Infantry. Effective at any range due to scoped weapons and fantastic weapon skill.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Fast and lethal elite infantry, think of them as elite guardians that traded their shields away for much better equipment and training. Their scoped shuriken catapults and high weapon skill make everyone in the squad extremely accurate (the Exarch in particular is just a laser beam when in cover, they just never seem to miss a shot). This makes them fantastic at fighting all types of infantry, as they're often able to hit the weak points of space marine armour due to their fantastic precision, and any human that dares poke their head over cover is going to be quickly annihilated.

Unfortunately, their durability is quite poor for their price. They have no hightened regeneration or med-packs, resulting in any injuries they sustain being permanent. Their armour, while effective in protecting against lasguns and similar low strength weapons, doesn't offer enough protection to protect them against most weapons being fired at them by other elite infantry and vehicles. Use them in cover or lose them immediately.

MP Cost: 300
CP Cost: 15
Squad Size: 5 (4 Dark Reapers, 1 Dark Reaper Exarch)
Purpose: Long Range firepower & Anti Space Marine specialists. Squad offers mediocre anti vehicle and the Exarch offers ok indirect firepower.
Overall Rating: 7/10 (9/10 against Space Marines)

The aspect of the destroyer, Dark Reapers are long range specialists that fire a lot of missiles at the opponent from a long (but not artillery long) distance. The regular squad member Reaper Rocket Launchers are identical to the ones found on grav platforms and Vypers. However, they only have 10 AT rockets compared to the 1000 AT rockets that platforms get. This usually isn't too big of a deal.

The Exarch, on the other hand, has the full 1000 AT rockets and comes with a unique rocket, Strike missiles. They fire in an upwards arch and fall down onto the opponent at a fast fire rate, allowing the exarch to act as an indirect fire piece, especially if the target is above the exarch in elevation. These missiles are also strong enough to destroy some light cover with these missiles, which can help, though their splash damage is fairly poor compared to other indirect options. Great for suppression.

Dark Reapers are a situational buy but have a lot of potential to offer unique support or firepower to any of your attacks. Their Reaper Rockets are fantastic space marine counters and will quickly pay for themselves in that matchup. Otherwise, they're a solid unit that are easy to use and easy to keep well protected due to their long firing range. Consider splitting the squad as 5 reapers shooting at the same target is often extremely overkill, though thematic.

MP Cost: 270
CP Cost: 12
Squad Size: 6 (5 Fire Dragons, 1 Fire Dragon Exarch)
Purpose: Anti Tank.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Somewhat expensive for an non-deepstriking anti tank squad, you get 3 flamers, 2 fusion guns and a firepike. The flamers aren't great at anti tank, but the fusion guns (and the firepike especially) are some of the best anti tank weapons in the game. There's not really much else to say about them, their job is to kill tanks and they're good at killing tanks.

A full fire dragon squad in the same place is pretty easy for the opponent to spot and react to, so make their life more difficult by spreading out your squad across the map in relevant locations. Despite the firepike having a frankly ridiculous range of 80, don't attack tanks from the front unless you've incapacitated their turret(s), otherwise your fire dragons will die incredibly quickly as their durability isn't fantastic. They don't have any stealth ability, but you can still hide them in tricky locations or sneak them up to the opponents vehicle and use the high range of Eldar melta weaponry to obliterate any vehicles that push too far ahead.

MP Cost: 200
CP Cost: 40
Squad Size: 4
Purpose: Slow but powerful close ranged brawlers. Most durable infantry available to Eldar.
Overall Rating: 2/10

You didn't misread that CP cost. What would be a pretty neat unit is completely ruined by the toll they take on your army just by existing. Their slow speed also means that they will take ages to reach the opponent and finally start doing something for you, or maybe even nothing as their range is laughably short and they'll probably just be killed before they can reach the target destination anyway (this can be considered a good thing, as you'll get a lot of your CP back from it). Only consider using these zombie robots if you're playing with additional CP. They're fairly inaccurate too at their max range (which is fairly short), and their reload rate isn't great. Their D-Cannons are also worse miniature versions of the D-Cannon Grav Platform, so if you really want D-Cannons to use on your opponent, just use that version instead. The only reason i'm including them as a "Key Infantry Unit" is to warn you never to purchase them. Sorry Iyanden players, but this just ain't it.

Eldar's vehicles are notorious for being some of the best vehicles in the game.

MP Cost: 150
CP Cost: 3
Purpose: Anti Tank
Overall Rating: 8/10

Cheapest way to get a Bright Lance. Grav platforms are usually quite poor in durability, but due to the range of Bright Lances and the very small size on the platform itself, it is surprisingly difficult for the opponent to hit and kill with their own vehicles. Must stay stationary to be accurate, but is fairly fast and can dodge back behind cover after firing a shot to avoid retaliation very easily. Great and very cheap source of Anti Tank at a long distance, though may struggle on certain maps.

MP Cost: 450
CP Cost: 33
Crew Size: 14 (Comes with a 12 man Guardian squad)
Purpose: Anti Light Infantry.
Overall Rating: 6/10

Wave Serpents are the primary transport and fighting vehicle of the Craftworlds, armed with a variety of different loadouts for a specific role. In this case, Twin Scatter Lasers to kill light infantry.

Wave Serpents are unique to most other tanks in this mod as they're equipped with recharging shield generators, something very few factions have access to. Another thing wholly unique to them is their "Gravity Cushon" ability. This allows them to switch between 3 levels of hovering, with each level resulting in the tank floating above the ground higher. This can be used to peek and retreat behind terrain, or gain unique firing angles on the opponent from above/below (such as hovering up from the bottom of a hill to see what's on top of the hill). This makes them practically the most manoeuvrable tank in the game.

All regular Wave Serpents have a guardian squad inside. You can use their transport capacity to transport your fragile infantry to where they need to be, should you choose to, such as deploying fire dragons behind enemy lines.

MP Cost: 550
CP Cost: 33
Crew Size: 14 (Comes with a 12 man Guardian squad embarked)
Purpose: Anti Infantry.
Overall Rating: 6/10

Functionally identical to the Twin Scatter Laser Wave Serpent, but the twin shuriken cannons are better against more durable infantry targets, such as space marines. Fairly steep MP price increase compared to the scatter laser variant, being 100 MP more expensive (usually the upgrade from scatters to shurikens is 30 MP). Choose this over the scatter serpent if your opponents infantry have above average durability, such as against Space Marines. Otherwise, it is recommended you use scatter lasers instead.

MP Cost: 700
CP Cost: 33
Crew Size: 14 (Comes with a 12 man Guardian squad)
Purpose: Anti Tank.
Overall Rating: 8/10

When enemy tanks are all over the field, call on this. Very durable by Eldar standards and able to fight Hammerheads, Predators and Leman Russes to a convincing victory. However, its effectiveness is limited by its high cost, so it is vulnerable to being overwhelmed by numbers. If you can afford this, you better make it count.

It is often far more cost efficient to deploy many bright lance platforms and vypers instead of purchasing this vehicle, so consider your investment carefully. It will require your attention to keep it safe, even with the shields it comes with. If you are able to use it well, it is one of the most powerful vehicles in the game and can be used to completely obliterate your opponent's tanks from the field.

Take note that the twin lances are spaced apart. When firing at particularly thin targets (such as Tau mechs) or at an angle, it is possible that only one lance will hit, limiting your damage.

MP Cost: 650
CP Cost: 33
Crew Size 8 (comes with a 6 man Guardian squad)
Purpose: General purpose Battle Tank. Good against most targets
Overall Rating: 7/10

Yep, the cheapest "battle tank" available to the Eldar costs 650 MP. Compared to Wave Serpents, its more armoured and durable, allowing it to take more punishment when its shields go down and do better in tank duels. The transport capacity is halved over a wave serpent and it no longer comes with a guardian squad.

The Pulse Laser, the primary weapon of the Falcon has decent penetrative ability, especially up close. With its fairly fast fire rate, the Falcon can combat both infantry and vehicles to an acceptable level, but doesn't counter either as effectively as a more dedicated weapon, such as a bright lance would against a tank. Depending on the durability of the opponent's vehicles, you may need to hit their vehicles from the side or behind in order to penetrate with the pulse laser. Can be used similarly to the Hydra AA of the Astra Militarum.

Eldar do not have many SP units, so all 4 of their current SP choices have been included down below.

SP Cost: 2
Squad Size: 6 (5 Warp Spiders, 1 Warp Spider Exarch)
Purpose: Teleporting Shock Troops. Great at surprise attacks from behind.
Overall Rating: 5/10

These guys have the potential to be a very powerful flanking infantry, teleporting behind the opponent and quickly showering them in Death Spinner webs. Unfortunately, despite being able to teleport in and out of reality, they are NOT a Deepstrike unit and arrive to the field on foot like any other infantry. This means you'll have to manually walk and setup their flicker jumps from your own side of the field, as they have no stealth or similar abilities to allow them to reach the enemy backlines safely, something that may be impossible to do depending on the enemy frontline or the map being played.

If you do manage to get a good teleport off, their Death Spinners fire incredibly quickly and melt most infantry very fast. Adding on the fact they have decent durability, especially for an Eldar, makes them a great flanking and assault soldier for close range engagements. At long range, they're mostly useless and their flicker jumps will not be able to close the gap fast enough before they're gunned down by the enemy. A very finicky unit with great potential, but often underperforms without special attention being paid to the squad. If you're floating SP, they're an ok purchase.

SP Cost: 2
Purpose: Distraction walker to draw fire from other units. Occasionally gets to swing sword to kill a guardsmen or two.
Overall Rating: 3/10

Do not expect to have this unit cause any major damage to the opponent, all it has is a sword and most things it would want to stab are faster than it. The only exception are dreadnoughts, which it is faster than and can destroy in melee if the opponent somehow lets you reach that point. You may also be able to destroy the treads of a tank and use Wraithlord melee to finish it off if you really want to kill something with this unit. Though the point of this unit is mainly to be a distraction, and arriving at the 7 minute mark makes it a fairly annoying opponent for factions with weak AT who have to spend some time shooting it to actually kill it, time not spent shooting your other Eldar units. There's definitely better ways to spend your SP as Eldar, though if you have the SP to spare, Wraithlords are not a terrible purchase by any means!

SP Cost: 1
Purpose: Flying Meltagun Hero. Very tanky by Eldar standards due to their force shield and uses any weapon exceptionally well, allowing them to do any role you need them to.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Finally, a good SP unit! Autarchs are the military commanders of an Eldar Warhost and they certainly live up to their reputation. They start with a fusion gun, a powerful anti tank melta weapon with a fast fire rate that makes it also quite deadly against heavy infantry. Combined with their high mobility and flight from wings, they can find the weak points in the enemy army and exploit them to wreck tanks, burn Astartes and cause chaos while being tough to catch or kill.

While it is recommended you keep their basic loadout while starting out with Eldar, you can give them other weapons and equipment to use instead if you'd like them to perform a different role. You can come up with your own combos for this, and in the hands of an Autarch, any weapon is made very lethal, so its up to you to decide what you want your Autarch to be doing.

SP Cost: 3
Squad Size: 7 (6 Warlocks, 1 Farseer)
Purpose: Psychic Supremacy
Overall Rating: 10/10

Escorted by a Seer Council of Warlocks, the Farseer is the iconic future seeing Psyker leader of the Craftworlds. The warlocks escorting the Farseer are buffed over the Warlocks present in Guardian squads, coming with two more charges of Psychic Flame (5 in total) and having med-packs for healing themselves, granting them increased survivability out in the field. Otherwise, they are identical to the Warlocks present in Guardian squads.

The real draw of the squad comes from the Farseer. The Farseer, much like the Warlocks, comes with an upgraded psyker shield protecting them from harm, fast natural health regeneration (similar to space marines) and med-packs, making them one of the toughest psykers in the game to kill. They have two powers, Farseer Lightning Strike (Default) and Farseer Gravi Hold.

Farseer Lightning Strike is an upgraded version of the Lightning Strike available to Dark Angel Librarians and few other psykers. A bolt of lightning strikes the opponent from above, stunning them if the bolt doesn't kill outright. It does more damage, has more range, has a faster firing rate and a faster recharge rate than the regular version, making it strong enough to destroy sandbags. Since the bolt strikes from above, cover will not protect anyone from the Farseer, allowing them to obliterate entire enemy squads from afar without retaliation. With 1000 charges, ammo is practically unlimited.

Farseer Gravi Hold is a spell exclusive to Eldar Farseers. The Farseer channels their power, floating up into the air and lifting up any enemy infantry hit by the power out of their cover and into the air. Both the farseer and the units being levitated are vulnerable and can be shot out of the air. After a short duration, the Farseer will throw the infantry down back to the ground, dealing no damage but knocking them unconsious for a random period of time. Its a very useful support ability, especially against dangerous enemy veteran infantry, or well entrenched infantry positions.

With the lack of SP units available to Eldar, This would be an auto-purchase with just the Farseer alone, but 600 MP worth of buffed warlocks is a wonderful bonus that makes the seer council a fantastic purchase. Consider splitting the Farseer from the rest of the Seer Council and leaving them back, as the range on their powers allow them to stay out of harms way fairly easily.

As of the current patch, the Eldar have no super heavy units, so after the 9 minute mark, you've unlocked your entire roster and have to make good use of it throughout the mid/late game.

The Eldar become particularly threatening at this stage of the game, with their most powerful units for both SP and MP becoming available. Although the earlygame units for Eldar still work very well even into the lategame, as units like guardians never exactly become obsolete!

As Eldar, you should always be purchasing to counter your opponent's units, as spending 500 points on a dedicated infantry killer against someone exclusively using Leman Russ tanks is hardly going to be helpful to you, much in the same way a dedicated tank killer would do very little against 5 assault marines with meltas.

If enemy infantry are being particularly troublesome, than Dire Avengers are a great choice to challenge them with your own elite lethal infantry. If you want a vehicle solution to said problem, Falcons and Shuriken Cannon Wave Serpents are fantastic infantry killers that can cut down even the most durable of nurgle's champions with their powerful fast firing weapons.

For dealing with enemy vehicles, Eldar have a fantastic selection of anti tank. Autarchs, Fire Dragons and Wave Serpents with Twin Bright Lance will all be fantastic against most vehicle targets, and if there's any targets they can't penetrate, the Fire Prism certainly can! The Eldar nuke is also fantastic at killing vehicles, especially once their treads have been destroyed and they can no longer move. Anti vehicle is a real strength of the eldar at this stage, rivalling even that of Tau lategame anti tank!

Unit(s) to focus on: Dark Reapers, Autarch, Seer Council (specifically the Farseer)

How you play this matchup is really dependant on the playstyle of the Space Marine player. At this stage, they can either go into an infantry focused strategy or a vehicle focused strategy, or a mixture of both. As an Eldar player, you'll need to bring the right tools to counter the style they decide for.

Against infantry, Dark Reapers trade up fantastically against Space Marine infantry, its essentially what they're designed to do and they can be very powerful in this matchup (be careful of scout snipers though!). The Farseer of the Seer Council is also incredibly powerful as they can blast heavy infantry with their lightning, ignoring their cover, deleting their healthbar and keeping them in a perpetual state of stunlock. Up close, Warlocks are still effective, but the Autarch (and to a lesser extent fire dragons) can kill space marines in a single shot with their melta weaponry, making them very useful in close ranged battles. Space Marine heroes are fairly powerful, but the Farseer can easily destroy them in a straight fight.

Against vehicles, the Autarch and Fire Dragons are also very effective against the various Predator tanks available to the Space Marines, though they can struggle against anti-infantry dreadnoughts available to most factions. For these dreadnoughts, consider using Bright Lance grav platforms and Wave Serpents to kill them from afar and finish them off with fusion weaponry from up close once they're disabled. Dreadnoughts can be a real pain, and a Bright Lance Wraithlord can be a useful tool for distracting or attempting to beat them. The glaive of a wraithlord also gives you the advantage if the fight reaches melee, so don't be afraid to get up close and cut your opponent's dreadnought in half.

Unit(s) to focus on: Guardians, Autarch, Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent w/ Twin Bright Lance

The cheaper earlygame options like Shuriken Cannon Vypers and Guardian squads still perform admirably against Human infantry at this stage, so unless your opponent is investing heavily on elite infantry, you may not need to purchase the more expensive midgame Eldar infantry killers. On the other hand, you will absolutely need to prepare for anti tank, as Leman Russ and Malcador tanks become a serious problem. Get a lot of fusion guns and bright lances ready once their tanks start hitting the field and you should (hopefully) be fine.

Unit(s) to focus on: Farseer, Dire Avengers
In terms of mirror matches, this might be one of the most explosive and volatile ones in the game. You want to get your farseer to get the first shot on the enemy farseer and bolt them to the shadow realm, while you clear the enemy infantry out and clear pathways for your autarch(s) and bright lances to get value into squishy enemy eldar vehicles. Basically, you're both glass cannons and whoever takes the first shot wins. Dire Avengers will most likely be an MVP in this matchup as they're basically purpose built to excel in the mirror match with their insane firerate and high accuracy, a brutal counter to any eldar infantry the opponent may decide to purchase.

I hope you like brightlances, because you'll need a lot. If your opponent manages to save enough to buy a knight or similar superheavy, than you'll need A LOT of anti tank weapons to bring it down, and bright lances are the safest way to do this. With enough brightlances, you can take it down, just don't panic and concede right away! Another more risky option is the Fire Prism. If you decide to invest in a Fire Prism, the strongest anti tank weapon available to the Eldar, you need to pay very close attention to it and dedicate a lot of micro to keeping it alive as it does not come with shields and is a huge target for the opponent's knight. Try and stay at the maximum range of your Fire Prism in such a situation otherwise it will die incredibly quickly.

Frankly though, the best way to counter a knight as Eldar is to never let the knight hit the field in the first place. Keep applying pressure to the opponent and threaten their points to force them to buy something else to protect those points instead of being able to bank in peace for their big scary unit. If you play well, you'll likely never have to worry about a knight in the first place.

As you've probably noticed, most of the Eldar roster is specialised to be good at a specific role. Not all of these roles are key to victory, and some units in the roster are situational at best. While they're not key to your victory, a few more niche units of note are provided below.

MP Cost: 420
CP Cost: 3
Purpose: Exodia, Obliterate!
Overall Rating: 4/10

The D-Cannon, in lore, functions as a titan killing super weapon that fires a black hole at the target the Eldar no longer tolerate the existence of. In this game, however, it functions more as an anti infantry direct artillery piece, with a black hole explosion that sucks in infantry in a wide area and sends their corpses straight to brazil the warp. The area of effect on these shots is absolutely huge, you can wipe an entire squad in a single shot even if you don't hit directly on target, and its fairly accurate even from long distances away. However, the high cost and low durability of the cannon makes this difficult to make practical.

It has a surprisingly useful niche against units with healthbars, such as imperial/chaos knights and other shielded targets, with the D-Cannon doing decently okay at stripping them of their healthbar (but struggles to finish them off). The high range and the small size of the D-Cannon itself can make it difficult for a knight or likewise to destroy them too, giving the D-Cannon a decent niche in breaking knight shields, though you'll likely need Bright Lances and Fusion Guns to finish off a knight when the shields are down. You're probably better off just using Bright Lance grav platforms/Vypers for this purpose as they're cheaper and do just about as well at the same distance, but if you wanna hit the opponent's knight with the black hole gun, i'm not stopping you!

MP Cost: 650
CP Cost: 3
Purpose: Anti Tank/Superheavy. More effective against infantry than other Eldar tank destroyers.
Overall Rating: 6/10

A variation of the Twin Bright Lance Wave Serpent that trades durability and transport capacity for a bigger gun. The gun in question is the aptly named "Prism Cannon", and has two ammunition types, regular shot and focused shot. Regular shot explodes in a wider area that is good against infantry and light vehicles, while focused shots instead focus the beam into one point, giving the shot great penetrative ability against heavily armoured targets. Usually you're buying Fire Prisms for focused shot, so make sure to switch ammo types as it is not the default!

Its usually a better idea to buy Wave Serpents with Bright Lances than it is to buy a Fire Prism, despite Fire Prisms actually being 50 points cheaper than the TBL Wave Serpent. This is mainly because Fire Prisms have no shield and are very lightly armoured, making them extremely fragile for their cost even by Eldar standards of durability. If all you need is a big gun, though, then the Fire Prism has the biggest gun you can get, and is worth the purchase.

MP Cost: 200
CP Cost: 1.5
Purpose: Indirect Artillery
Overall Rating: 5/10

Its pretty bad as far as artillery goes, but its quite cheap in both MP and CP, making it not too big of a deal to purchase or lose. poor penetrative ability makes it ineffective against vehicles, so it is best used against elite light infantry, though it will eventually chip away at all types of infantry given enough time. The shots it fires have quite a small explosive radius, and with a long reload time, it will take a long time to wipe any squads. it fufills a niche within the roster that no other unit does, though it may just be competing for being one of the worst artillery pieces in the game. Rangers make ideal artillery spotters to give your Shadow Weaver vision on the target(s) it needs to chip away at.

MP Cost: 500
CP Cost: 0
Purpose: Nuke
Overall Rating: 4/10

Short effect area, but high penetrative ability make it better than most nukes against vehicles and the most durable of elite heavy infantry. Unimpressive nuke in a faction with lots of expensive units, so you won't often be floating enough resources to afford it. Make sure whatever you're casting down the wrath of Zeus upon is stationary or immobilised, otherwise this nuke is very prone to missing if the target moves at all

MP Cost: Varies, anywhere from 300 to 450 MP
CP Cost: 20
Purpose: Combat Walker. Durable heavy weapons platform.
Overall Rating: 5/10

Durable and fast (by dreadnought standards) walkers give a heavier more durable weapon platform to the weapon of your choice than a grav platform would, whilst being weaker than the various Wave Serpents available. Don't rely on them for their melee capability, anything remotely valuable will simply walk/drive backwards and completely invalidate their Ghostglaive. They're grav platforms that are durable enough to take return fire and require your opponent to dedicate fairly significant firepower to wipe them out. They become much more accurate when standing still, so make sure to keep them stationary before you put their heavy weapons to use.

The best variant is the Bright Lance for 450 MP, which can trade and win tank duels through the use of its durability and prevent hostile vehicles from getting too close due to the powerful melee that the Ghostglaive provides (the threat of the glaive is often more impactful than the glaive itself). Wraithlords aren't as good as Imperium or Chaos dreadnoughts in terms of being a weapons platform, though they are still worth using if you need to put their durability to use. Otherwise, buy a grav platform or save for one of the other fantastic Eldar vehicles, unless you really want to use a Wraithlord!

MP Cost: 55 MP with catapult, 85 MP with cannon
CP Cost: 20
Purpose: Scout vehicle
Overall Rating: 2/10

The default pilot (a guardian) will be instantly killed in a single shot and you will cry. Fastest unit in the roster if you quickly need vision somewhere, but don't expect them to do anything in a fight unless they're shooting at the opponents infantry from behind (which, admittedly, is pretty easy to do with their high mobility and jump ability). I guess you could use them as a single person transport if you really needed to get an Autarch or Farseer or other valuable single infantry to a specific location? Completely outclassed by Vypers in most practical regards, you're buying jetbikes for the speed they provide and not much else.

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read my guide, and thanks to everyone who worked on it! Right now, Eldar are in line for a major update that will likely rework much of their strongest tools to be more reasonable, and perhaps make other less used units more practical (cough cough Wraithguard). The guide will be updated when that is done!

If there's any mistakes you spot in the guide, or you'd like to see any new additions, leave a comment below!