Tau or (D)Eldar ???

[DeepThought]

I am a complete newcomer to WH40K. one of friends got me hooked. i have an ork army that barely scrapes 1500 that i bought from him for about 40 dollars. Very unbalanced. after having played a few games, i have decided that my interests lie elsewhere. Tau or Eldar. And if anyone can suggest why i would want to play Dark Eldar, well they interest me too.
Any suggestion on what would be the best army for a newbie to collect?

[Shas'ui]

Well, I'm getting into Tau so I may be able to offer some help in that area. All three of those armies have different playing styles. The Tau are all about mobile firepower. Eldar I don't know much about but from what I do know, they are a highly specialized force with units for specific jobs. All I know about Dark Eldar is that they are best played aggressivly. Dark Eldar are the least beginner friendly and Tau are ok, you just have to be very aware of what is going on during the battle and plan your strategy when you play them. Eldar might be your best bet. If you want more info, go to the strategy section. You can find beginners help guides there.

Edit: here is a list of soe of the tactica articles.http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=75002

[eventhorizon]

im the eldar man! the eldar rely on very specialised troops, utilising each others prowess in one area of battle to make up for each others shortcomings. they have reasonably high strength deadly heavy weapons, but in general, quite short range on their infantry weapons. for more info, click the link to my tactica.

good luck deciding!

edit: @cfoley- good eyesight...but sshhh... ; )

[A7X]

(played as!)Tau - Easy to play, good army to learn with andteach NOST basic rules...also are getting a new codex soon...so then it makes it quite relevent!!

(havent played as...but played against!)Eldar - Hard to start with because of sooooo much choice, also low saves can get new people VERY frusrated and low personal moral...which is bad because then you start to think like a loser and then you lose :(

(played as!)Dark Eldar - Same as eldar really...only MUCH MORE COMPLEX!!!...i tried to do a DE army recently (and ive been at this for a good 8 years now...) and i cocked, every game i played, up. There good but VERY hard to use

also consider Gaurd... nice to paint and fun to play..but low saves again...:(

[cfoley]

Nice piece of subliminal messenging there, eventhorizon.

[DeepThought]

thanks, eventhorizon

one other question. do the different craftworlds armies really affect the playing style drastically. and do the tau have different "clans"?

[Shas'ui]

The Tau have different Septs, but they are just for fluff purposes, unfortunately.

[DeepThought]

Shas'ui, this is an odd Q, but why do you and i have green ticks and the rest of the posts dont?

are the tau effective against necrons? thats what said friend collects and he sorta ran over me with them

[Shas'ui]

The green dots just mean that you and I are currently logged in. As for being effective against necrons, I wouldn't really know. That link i my first post to the tacticas has one about necron tactica and I think one on how to beat them so you might want to check there.

[DeepThought]

thanks a lot.

[eventhorizon]

yes, the craftworlds vary drastically in both unit choices and playing style.

Ulthwé relies on a lot of guardians (standard troop) and a seer council, which is a large HQ unit composed of psykers that excel in close combat.

Biél-Tan relies on a vast amount of specialist troops called aspect warriors (seriously kick-ass), each with their own role rather than guardians. For example, you might couple warp spiders (teleport + high strength weapons) with Howling Banshees (super-fast combat specialists)

Alaitoc uses a lot of rangers (eldar scouts with sniper rifles) to disrupt the enemy.

Saim-Hann is an army of skimmer tanks and jetbikes- very fast and manoeverable, very deadly but low in number.

and lastly Iyanden has an army of dead warriors. they use wraithguard (very tough and armoured warriors with weapons that can kill anything [ANYTHING] in one hit...cept a c'tan...) and wraithlords (an eldar version of a dreadnought, if you will) as standard troops.

i have simplified the craftworlds somewhat so you can get the jist of them, but the comments are accurate nevertheless...good luck deciding!

[cfoley]

All of a sudden I feel I want to pick eldar...

Because nobody has done it:
The dark eldar are a very deadly army if used correctly. They are very fast and their units hit hard but they are also very fragile. It is the fragility that makes them difficult to master but once you have mastered them, they willperform well on the table top.

They are not a popular choice because many people (including me) don't like their models and there is not much background story for them.

[Shivian]

Ok Eldar a great choice but watch out how you build oyur army center it around one statagy like power, or speed. also the tau are a good race ( i play them) but they dont take alot of fire, so you want to trap people and then shoot them up. and the dark eldar is a bad choice because only really good players should play them i tried them and i lost every game i couldnt wound and i needed a perfect army to beat anyone. so Dark eldar should be out of your choices. but eldar and tau you should try to shoot with them especially the warithguard, the ultimate space marine, or necron killers! have fun