In this section we will be looking at the Eldar Heavy Support choices and their tactics.

• Also see: WH40k General Eldar Tactics

General Eldar Heavy Support Tactics

The light and fast Eldar troops are all well and good, but there is a need for some hitting force support too. This is where the heavy support choices come in.

Support Weapon Battery

There are three weapon options, D-Cannon, Vibro Cannon and Shadow Weaver.

D-Cannon

The Eldar D-Cannon is possibly the most potent of the three weapon platforms, but it is limited by it’s 24″ range. You may have to sacrifice a turn or two of firing to get the battery in to position. If you have a free heavy support slot think about having two small batteries instead of one large one. This way you could move one and have the other firing in the same turn.

Vibro Cannon

The Eldar Vibro Cannon is a potent weapon. The more you have in a squad, the more likely you are to hit, ( 50% with one, 75% with two, 87.5% with three ).

Once you have hit then you need to draw a line from the weapon (choose any of the three ) through as many squads as possible. This will be easier if the support weapons are to the side of the opponents advance.

The Vibro Cannon is AP-, so it works better against lightly armoured troops ( Guard, Orks, Tyranids etc), but don’t be afraid to use it against tougher troops if you have a battery of three. D6 (average 3.5) S6 hits will do damage to any troop type and most light vehicles.

Shadow Weaver

The Shadow Weaver is the cheapest and longest range of the three Support Weapons, and it has the longest range. Their relative low strength means that you will want to target troops.

The Shadow Weavers lower strength is made up for by the fact that it is a template weapon. This means that is is great for thinning out massed swarm armies like the Tyranids.

Dark Reaper Tactics

Eldar Dark Reapers as possibly the best Space Marine killers in the Eldar army. They are armed with the Reaper Cannon which is a move or fire weapon. Because of this you will want to place your Dark Reapers where they can see most of the board ( in a building, high up) and not move then if possible.

Reaper Cannon

The Eldar Dark Reapers Reaper Cannon is S5, H2 and AP3, this means that a squad of 5 should kill ( 10 x 2/3 x 2/3 = 40/9 ) 4.4 Space Marines per round at 48″,with no armour saves! Highly recommended if you will be facing power armour opponents.

Note that the kill rate drops off dramatically if you are facing Space Marines in Terminator Armour. A squad of 5 should kill ( 10 x 2/3 x 2/3 x 1/6 = 40/54 ) 0.7 Space Marine Terminators per round!

Wraithlord Tactics

The Eldar Wraithlord has a dual role of walking gun platform, and as a close assault creature. In this sense it compares with the Space Marine Dreadnought.

Wraithsight

The Eldar Wraithlord has the wraithsight special rule. Because of this it is best to keep the Wraithlord within 12 of a psyker (Farseer or Warlock). A Warlock that is in another squad ( eg. Wraith
Guard squad) is fine.

If psykers become scarce then the Wraithlord may become unpredictable.

Monstrous Creature

The Wraithlord is a Monstrous Creature and get all the monstrous creature special rules.

Move Through Cover

The Wraithlord is not bothered by difficult terrain. This will speed up your movement around the table.

Fire Two Weapons

Monstrous Creatures can fire two weapons in the same turn. This is useful for the Wraithlord as you have a selection of weapons to choose from.

Note This rule does not let the Wraithlord fire a weapon and run in the same turn because to run the unit has to give up the whole of the shooting phase.

Relentless

Monstrous creatures can fire heavy weapons and move and assault. This is useful as the Eldar Wraithlord can move about the table and still fire.

No Hiding

Monstrous creatures can not go to ground for extra cover saves. Also regular cover works in the same way as tanks get cover. For example, half of his body needs to be obscured by the cove from over half of the squad shooting. Bear this in mind as the Wraithlord does not get an invulnerable save. Some players model their Wraithlord in a crouching pose to reduce its size. Plot a course between larger terrain pieces if possible, otherwise you will have to rely on the Wraithlord’s toughness 8 to keep him alive!

Ignores Armour Saves

Being a monstrous creature the Wraithlord can hit with a big thump and ignore regular armour saves in close combat. This means that heavily armoured troops make better targets, so ignore the scouts and attack the Space Marine Tactical Squads!

2D6+S Armour Penetration

The Wraith Lord gets the Monstrous creature’s extra D6 when rolling for armour penetration. This means the average roll will be 17! Remember that this is worked out against the vehicle’s rear armour value and that he has 2 attacks, 3 attacks if he charged that turn and can re-roll misses if he has a Wraithsword! (Land Raiders = mincemeat).

Weapon Options

The Eldar Waithlord has a number of weapon options. Choosing the right weapon for the battle will give you an advantage.

• Shuriken Catapults: These are exactly like the Shuriken Catapults that the Eldar Guardian Defenders use. This means that the Waithlord can fire of a moderate number od shorts at close range. However the heavy weapons that the
• Flamers
• Star Cannon
• Bright Lance
• Scatter Laser
• Shuriken Cannon
• Missile Launcher
• Wraithsword

• Also see: Warhammer 40k Monstrous Creature Tactics

War Walker Squadron Tactics

The War Walker is the Eldar walking gun platform. It’s light weight, but can take a selection of
weapons options. Keep an eye the upgrade options to add a bit of toughness and survivability.

Falcon Tactics

The Falcon is the Eldar general purpose tank. It’s fast, it has a selection of main weapons, and it can carry troops too.

Main Weapons

The Eldar Falcon has two main weapons. One main weapon has to be a Pulse Laser, but now you get a choice of 2nd weapon.

Pulse Laser

The Eldar Pulse Laser is a bit weaker than the Space Marine Lascannon, but you get to shots per turn, this means that on average you should get hit per turn. Being a laser weapon you will want to target large
targets.

Scatter Laser

The Scatter Laser is the traditional 2nd main weapon for the Eldar Falcon, it does compliment the Pulse laser quit well, it is not so powerful, but has four shots per turn. This makes it very useful against tougher troops and light verchiels like skimmers.

Shuriken Cannon

The Falcon Shuriken Cannon is the cheapest 2nd weapon option available. If you are looking to save some points, then it is an option, otherwise I would recommend looking at the other weapon options.

Fire Prism

The Fire Prism is a Falcon that has swapped its troop carrying ability to take a larger weapon. The Fire Prism can fire either a focused tank busting beam, or a wider dispersed troop swatting beam. There is also a neat ‘joint forces’ options.

Fire power on the wing and good for fast troop transportation too. In this section we will be looking at the Eldar troop choices and their tactics.

• Also see: WH40k General Eldar Tactics

General Eldar Troop Tactics

Even though the 40k Eldar are usually an Elite heavy army, you will still need 2 units of Troops. With this being the case, you are advised to know how best to use them.

Eldar Guardian Tactics

The Eldar Guardians are the units that keep the coherency of the Eldar army together. As such they are often over looked, but a critical section of the army.

Guardians as Assault Support Units

Guardians can be used in two main formations. Without a heavy weapon platform, the Eldar Guardians are Fleet of Foot troops with short range assault ballistic weapons. This means that they can move around the table providing close ranges fire support to an assaulting unit just before the Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, Warp Spiders dive in and finish off the remains of the squad.

To echo what I have written in the General Eldar Tactics section, this tactic works best when they pick off isolated units, and finish them off before the enemy units has a change to counter assault. Also this form of Eldar Guardian units is best kept to a number that can be transported in a Wave Serpent to give the Eldar Guardians a method of quickly dashing to an area where the enemy have become exposed.

Eldar Storm Guardians

One way to enhance your Eldar Guardians for close Assault is to upgrade one of he Eldar Guardian units to be a Eldar Storm Guardian unit. This upgrade has no points cost, and arms the Guardians with a Shrunken Pistol and a second close combat weapon. This means that they become a moderately good assault units.

If you know what opponent you are facing, you may want to take a Fusion Gun or Flamer or two. Taking these options will add a points cost, and reduces the number of attacks you have in the assault phase, but used correctly, they can be used to thin out the enemy ranks, or in the case of the fusion guns, add some tank busting ability to the squad.

Eldar Guardians with Heavy Weapons

With a Heavy Weapons platform the Eldar Guardians make a good battle line when you have an objective that you need to defend. Defending Support Weapon Batteries spring to mind.

One feature of the Eldar Guardians that is often over looked is that you can have sizeable squads of Guardians. With a squad of 20 Eldar Guardians, you can take a fair number of casualties before you need to think about break tests. Added to this is the fact that the Eldar Guardians have a high leadership score and the presence of a Warlock can enhance this ability, and you have a unit that is going to be sticking around.

Please be aware that even though the Eldar Guardians have a heavy weapon they do not have to be rooted to the spot. As the Heavy weapon is mounted on a weapons platform they can be used as assault weapons. This means that the Guardians still have fleet of foot even though they have a heavy weapon with them. Strategically this is brilliant as it allows you to form and reform your battle lines in a fluid formless fashion that can adapt to the battle as in commences.

Eldar Warlocks and Guardian Units

Regardless of the formation of your Eldar Guardian units you can take a Eldar Warlock too. You would do this if you have enough points as the Eldar Warlock’s psychic powers do enhance the Guardian units considerably. you will want to pick and choose which psychic power you give to your Warlock, and this will depend on the way that you aim to use the Guardian unit is the battle. Just about all of the psychic powers enhance an assault or close support Guardian Unit, but the best one to choose for defensive units is the Conceal power. This is because it will give the unit better protection from incoming fire.

Eldar Dire Avenger Tactics

The Eldar Dire Avengers are an elite version of the Eldar Guardians. They do not have a heavy weapon choice, you can not have as many in a squad, and they cost half as many points again as a Eldar Guardian. So why bother?

The reason you may want to consider adding a unit or two of guardians is that they have better Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Initiative, and Leadership scores, and the Avenger Shuriken Catapult they carry is a medium ranges weapon rater than the short ranged Shuriken Catapult that the Eldar Guardians carry. All this added together means that the Eldar Dire Avengers are much better at the close support role that I suggested than the Eldar Guardians.

Again speed will be a deciding factor on how useful the Eldar Dire Avengers are to you. So if points allow, load them in to a Wave Serpent.

Eldar Ranger Tactics

The Eldar Ranges are the scouts of the Eldar army, designed to get forward with their Eldar Long Rifle sniper rifles. The Eldar Long Rifles are heavy weapons which means that the Eldar Rangers will not be able to move and fire. This will mean that the Eldar Rangers will be rooted to one spot to be most effective. To compensate for his you will want to place the Eldar Rangers in a place where they have a good field of view and use the 36″ range of the Eldar Long Rifles.

Guardian Jetbike Squadron Tactics

At first look the Eldar Jetbike is a difficult option to see how they can work in a Warhammer 40k game. This is because they are quite expensive (you only get two for the same points cost as 3 Space Marines ) , they have short 12″ range weapon, and they are not equipped for close combat.

Exchanging a Shuriken Catapult for a medium 24″ ranged Shuriken Cannon goes go someway to fix this on smaller units. And this upgrade is recommended, but this still leaves a small 3 man unit with no special skills.

Jetbikes as support units

What this thinking misses is that maybe more than any other army, the Eldar army needs to work as a team. To this effect the Jetbikes exist to support the other units in the army. So for example before you Aspect Warriors launch an assault, the enemy units will need whittling down to size. Earlier I wrote about how the Eldar Guardians can do this with their fleet of foot. Well the Jetbikes can do the same, with extra speed.

Bate and run

The Eldar army works best when you ignore most of the enemies forces and concentrate your assault on a section that has become detached from the main force. So how to you draw out the enemy so that openings like this appear? Well you offer a prize that your opponent will not be able to resist, and will chase after. The Eldar Jetbikes fir this role as they are a high pointed unit that have the ability to get in to, and hopefully out of trouble.

Capture the Flag

Another Eldar Jetbike tactic comes at the end of the game when you are claiming objectives. The speed of the Jetbike and the fact that Eldar Jetbike units are troop choices make them perfect candidates for swooping in and capturing the prize at the last moment.

Wraithguard Troop Tactics

If you have 10 Eldar Wraithguard in a squad, then they can be counted as Troop choices. More about the Wraithguard in the Eldar Elite Tactics section.

As troops you may find that the Eldar Wraithguard as a troop choice provides you with a force with good short to medium ranged weapons, and some hand to hand close assault skills, but as the Wraithguard are relatively expensive, you will be fewer in numbers on comparison to most opponents. This is a similar situation to having a Space Marine all Terminator army, like the Dark Angel Deathwing, or a terminator heavy Space Marine army.

In this section we will look the Warhammer Eldar Elite choices and their tactics.

It is said that the Eldar army rely on is elite choices. Expect to max out your elite options in every game.

• Also see: WH40k General Eldar Tactics

Eldar Striking Scorpion Tactics

The Eldar Striking Scorpions not not have the ‘fleet’ special rule. This makes them slightly slower than the other Eldar troop choices. However what they loose in speed they make up for in toughness.

Eldar Striking Scorpions trade off speed against better armour saves and +1S in close combat. To this effect the Eldar Striking Scorpion do not have the fleet of foot special rule.

The extra strength and toughness means that the Striking Scorpions are better equipped to tackle larger creatures that have relatively thin armour. The Tyranid monstrous creatures spring to mind.

Striking Scorpions Exarch

Of all the Eldar Aspect Warriors, none rely on the skills of the Exarch as much as the Striking Scorpions do. You need to think of the Exarch the hub of the unit. The Striking Scorpions Exarch has a number of wargear items and a couple of Exarch powers too.

Strength and Weapons

The Striking Scorpions Exarch can keep with the shuriken pistol and chainsword that the other Striking Scorpions get, but upgrading to one of the Exarch special weapons options makes sense.

Scorpion Claw and Biting Blade

This is the more expensive option points wise. The Striking Scorpions Exarch Scorpions Claw gives the Exarch a power fist. This does mean that the Exarch will be striking last, but the power fists do give the squad the ability to tack on larger targets. The Biting Blade give the Exarch increased strength for each successful hit. This means that the more attacks the Exarch has, the more useful it becomes. So it follows that if you can arrange

Eldar Fire Dragon Tactics

The Eldar Fire Dragons are armed with Firepikes. These are S8 AP1 Melta weapons. These are short ranged, but very useful against Tanks and extra tough opponents.

Eldar Wraithguard Tactics

Space Marines have Terminators, Orks have ‘evy armour, the Imperial Guard have Orgyns, and the Eldar have the Wraithguard. So what we are looking at are slower tougher Eldar, with heavy hitting short ranged weapons.

Because of the Wraithguard‘s slower spead, and shorter range weapons, they are well suited to be loaded in to the back of a Waveserpant troop transporter.

The Wraithcannon

The Wraithguard are equipped with the Wraithcannon. This is a short ranged warp weapon. If you get close enough it can instant kill the largest Tyranids (Tyrannofex & etc) in one shot!

Howling Banshees Tactics

The Eldar Howling Banshees are close assault specialists. This means that you want them fighting hand to hand as much as possible. It also means that if they get caught in the open in front of big guns , they will be pulverized.

Power Swords

The Eldar Howling Banshees are armed with power swords. These ignore armour saves so they work best against opponents with tough normal armour, eg. Space Marines and Sisters of Battle in power armour. Terminators will be forced to do 5+ invulnerable saves instead of their 2+ saves.

The Eldar Howling Banshees can do well against some Monstrous Creatures because they don’t often get invulnerable saves. What the Monstrous Creatures to get is extra toughness. So against a T6 Carnifex they need a 6 to wound, but ignore the 3+ or 2+ saves. Be aware that they can not wound a T7 or higher creature like a T8 Eldar Wraithlord.

Banshee Masks

The Eldar Howling Banshees ware the Banshee Masks. This allows them to strike firs almost all the time. You will need this advantage because the Banshees do not cope with counter attacks well. Their T3 and 4+Sv will not even stand up to a squad of Imperial Guard let alone tougher opponents like Space Marines or Orks!

Fleet of Foot

The Eldar Howling Banshees get the ‘Fleet of Foot’ special rule. This will allow to run and assault in the same turn. You will need to decide if you want to run or fire your Shrunken pistols when entering an assault. Running will allow more Banshees to get in to assault, where as the Shrunken pistols may whittle down your opponents, leaving less to kill.

Harlequin Troupe