ierthling Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 Hey y'all - I'm new to 40k (though not to miniature gaming in general), and I've been posting around the forums looking for advice as I think about what faction to dive in with. I got some good help from the Thousand Sons and AdMech folks, so now I'm hoping you guys can help me think about starting up Aeldari! I really like the look of Ulthwé and the Eldrad model, so I thought I would try to throw a starting army together around him and see what people thought. I'd like to be as efficient as I can in terms of shopping, so here's the shopping list I'm thinking of: -Start Collecting Craftworlds x2 -Guardians (as Black Guardians) x3 -Eldrad Ulthran -Wave Serpent I think this should let me build something like the 1500 point list below. So, here are some questions for you helpful people xenos: 1) Is this a reasonable shopping list to kick off a Craftworlds army? Would you swap out the Wave Serpent for something different? 2) Does the army list itself seem like a reasonable way to build this collection out? 3) What would be next on your list? More heavy support? Bigger troop blocks? More wizards? Thanks everybody! ++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [88 PL, 1480pts] ++ Craftworld Attribute: Ulthwé: Foresight of the Damned + HQ [20 PL, 370pts] + Eldrad Ulthran [8 PL, 150pts]: Craftworlds Warlord, Ulthwé: Fate Reader Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade + Troops [15 PL, 285pts] + Guardian Defenders [5 PL, 95pts]: 10x Guardian Defender [80pts] Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform [15pts]: Shuriken Cannon [10pts] Guardian Defenders [5 PL, 95pts]: 10x Guardian Defender [80pts] Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform [15pts]: Shuriken Cannon [10pts] Guardian Defenders [5 PL, 95pts]: 10x Guardian Defender [80pts] Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform [15pts]: Shuriken Cannon [10pts] + Elites [20 PL, 350pts] + Wraithblades [10 PL, 175pts]: Ghostswords [30pts], 5x Wraithblade [145pts] Wraithblades [10 PL, 175pts]: Ghostswords [30pts], 5x Wraithblade [145pts] + Heavy Support [24 PL, 346pts] + War Walkers [8 PL, 140pts] War Walker [4 PL, 70pts]: Shuriken Cannon [10pts], Shuriken Cannon [10pts] War Walker [4 PL, 70pts]: Shuriken Cannon [10pts], Shuriken Cannon [10pts] Wraithlord [8 PL, 103pts]: Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Catapult Wraithlord [8 PL, 103pts]: Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Catapult + Dedicated Transport [9 PL, 129pts] + Wave Serpent [9 PL, 129pts]: Twin Shuriken Cannon [17pts], Twin Shuriken Catapult [5pts] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astoran Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Hi and welcome to the hobby. I´ll try and give you some input based on my experience. I Tend to run 3 blocks of 10 Guardians mounted in wave serpents. The reason for this is if something looks at guardians with a stern face they tend to die. Low toughness and bad armour is a bad combo. That said, if you get to dismount them within 12" of your enemies you will put some hurt on them. There is ofc always the option to use the webway to deploy them. You seem to lack anti armour guns. In my gaming group I go up against alot of tanks and such and I need brighlances. Farseers are great, I love war walkers and I never go to battle without wave serpents. I am not a competative player. I play with friends for laughs and good times. So if you are looking that kind of advice I leave the floor for someone els :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Hello, Ulthwé is probably the second best choice of Craftworld after Alaitoc so it is a good choice. I would suggest some tweaks to your proposals though. In many cases, it looks like you have opted for the cheapest options for all your units which has left you with some sub-optimal units and a serious shortage of anti-tank firepower. Wraithblades are not as good as shooty Wraithguard in my experience. While they hit quite hard, they lose power after the charge and the general state of assault rules for 8th edition means that in order to be effective in assault, units need to be fast. Slow moving assault units are too easy to neautralise after hitting their first target. I would recommend getting one of the shooty versions of Wraithguard. D-Cannons are great for killing tanks and monsters. D-Scythes are almost as effective as anti-tank and far better against infantry. They are also protected from assault by their fearsome overwatch. If I am just taking one unit of Wraithguard, D-scythes are always my go-to choice. If I am taking a second then I start to look at other options. Wraithlords are quite good provided you do not go overboard on heavy weapons. However I always take a Glaive as the jump from S7 to S9 can make a lot of difference against the kinds of targets Eldar have trouble with. Taking 2 Shuricannons is nice if you can find the points as Wraithlords can fire these even while Advancing which makes them a lot faster than most equivalent units in other armies. War walkers are a good home for the anti-tank weapons your army seems to be lacking. Equipping these guys with Brightlances and then casting Guide on the whole unit gives them fearsome firepower as you get to reroll a lot of big guns. Speaking of Guide, I think you have an overload of Farseers. Remember that you can only attempt to cast each power once per turn, you will find yourself struggling to make good use of their casting potential. 2 Farseers is definitely enough at 1500 points. Guardians on foot are a poor choice as they have poor armour, short ranged guns and a no melee potential. This is a bad combination that has plagued these guys ever since Gav Thorpe's disatrous 3rd edition codex. Giving them a heavy weapon and using them as backfield objective campers can work but you are paying an 80 point tax for the heavy weapon. Putting them in Wave Serpents is one option. The other option is to get a big unit of 20 with 2 shuricannon platforms and use the Webway stratagem to bring them in from Reserve. This way you can bring 46 shots to bear on almost any target on the battlefield. If that target has been Doomed by a Farseer, it is almost always end up shredded. Use the "Discipline of the Black Gurdaians" stratagem in the firing phase to ensure a kill and then use "Celestial Shield" to help protect them from reprisals. If you go down this route, you might want to add some Rangers or Dire Avengers to make your army back up to 3 Troops units. The basic problem is that the Start Collecting box (whilst good value) gives you too many Elite and Heavy units for a 1500 point army and no Troops. Here is my suggestion for an alternative shopping list. -Start Collecting Craftworlds x1 -Guardians (as Black Guardians) x2 -Dire Avengers x1 -Rangers x1 -Eldrad Ulthran -Wave Serpent -Fire Prism x2 This would give you an army something like this. ++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [??? PL, 1456pts] ++ Craftworld Attribute: Ulthwé: Foresight of the Damned + HQ [20 PL, 370pts] + Eldrad Ulthran [8 PL, 150pts]: Craftworlds Warlord, Ulthwé: Fate Reader Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade + Troops [16 PL, 319pts] + Guardian Defenders [10 PL, 190ts]: 20x Guardian Defender [160pts] 2x Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform [30pts]: Shuriken Cannon [20pts] Dire Avengers [3 PL, 69pts]: 4x Dire Avengers [52pts] Exarch with 2xAvenger Catapults [17pts] Rangers [3 PL, 60pts] 5x Rangers [60pts] + Elites [10 PL, 225pts] + Wraithguard [10 PL, 225pts]: D-Scythes [30pts] + Heavy Support [12 PL, 203pts] + War Walker [4 PL, 70pts]: Bright lance [20pts], Bright lance [20pts] Wraithlord [8 PL, 133pts]: Shuriken Catapult x2, Shuriken Cannon x 2, Ghost Glaive Fire Prism 160pts: Prism Cannon, twin shurican catapult 5pts Fire Prism 160pts: Prism Cannon, twin shurican catapult 5pts + Dedicated Transport [18 PL, 268pts] + Wave Serpent [9 PL, 129pts]: Twin Shuriken Cannon [17pts], Shuriken Cannon [10pts] The Wraithguard go in the Serpent. The 2 Fire Prisms are awesome units and provide some serious heavy support if you use the "Linked Fire" stratagem. The Guardians now operate in a single big unit of 20 and come in via the Webway. The Rangers and Dier Avengers provide some extra objective-holding Troops. You have a few spare points for upgrades if you wish. You will probably need to doubel-check the points values as I was working from memory here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ierthling Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Hi Karhedronuk - I really appreciate how detailed all this feedback is! I like the idea of adding in the different types of troops - I think I was focused on Guardians before because of the Ulthwé / Black Guardian thing. You're right that I had just sort of gone with the base loadout of everything, and it's nice to see there are better options for the Wraithlords and to think about switching Wraithblades to Wraithguard. On the War Walker(s), I think I stuck with shuriken cannons for the assault thing - I was avoiding the Bright Lances because I thought it might be useful to always be able to move and shoot. But I guess with their deploy from the flank thing, maybe they don't end up needing to move that much? And Fire Prisms with the linked fire strategem looks great. They bump my shopping cost up quite a bit, but I'll definitely keep them in mind. I realized, though, if I stuck to the 2 start collectings, and don't try to do the fire prisms or the wave serpent yet, I could actually field a Battalion and a Spearhead at 1500 points, hopefully using the extra CP for webways to mitigate the lack of transport. Here's what I had in mind: +++ Ulthwé 2.0 (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++ ++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [29 PL, 578pts] ++ + No Force Org Slot + Craftworld Attribute: Ulthwé: Foresight of the Damned + HQ + Eldrad Ulthran [8 PL, 150pts] Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade + Troops + Dire Avengers [3 PL, 64pts] 4x Dire Avenger: 4x Avenger Shuriken Catapult Dire Avenger Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults Dire Avengers [3 PL, 64pts] 4x Dire Avenger: 4x Avenger Shuriken Catapult Dire Avenger Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults Guardian Defenders [9 PL, 190pts]: 20x Guardian Defender Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Shuriken Cannon Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Shuriken Cannon ++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [52 PL, 916pts] ++ + No Force Org Slot + Craftworld Attribute: Ulthwé: Foresight of the Damned + HQ + Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade + Elites + Wraithguard [11 PL, 200pts]: Wraithcannon, 5x Wraithguard Wraithguard [11 PL, 200pts]: Wraithcannon, 5x Wraithguard + Heavy Support + War Walkers [4 PL, 90pts] War Walker: Bright Lance, Bright Lance War Walkers [4 PL, 70pts] War Walker: Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Cannon Wraithlord [8 PL, 123pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Catapult Wraithlord [8 PL, 123pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Catapult ++ Total: [81 PL, 1494pts] ++ Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net) With no Glaives, I'm able to fit one War Walker with Bright Lances in under 1500. Moving towards 1750, I could add Fire Prisms, Transports, Glaives, etc, or try to shift towards a full on Brigade setup. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 I am not sure that an Eldar Brigade would be feasible at 2000 points, certainly not containing units that would be effective. Your 1500 point list looks like a good starting point. Not quite what I would run perhaps but within the constraints of the units you get in the "start collecting" sets, a pretty good start. I would recommend magnetising things like the heavy weapons and glaive hands on the Wraithlord. This will allow you to vary your army depending on opponents, points or simply if you fancy a change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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