How to play Eldar - (Basic Strategy)

[Renvar]

Frustrated at the fact that there are two extreme beliefs (eldar are the best, or they are the weakest) and very little research behind both, I have decided to post some of my strategies. Maybe I can help some people, maybe not, but read on and we'll see.

Strategies:

Food-for-thought- First of all, elder is all about using a small amount of units to slice through the enemy rather than smashing them with a large blunt object until they are unconscious. Tactics are the key. To start, let’s discuss the mobility. Eldar can outpace any other race on the map with their units from day one till the endgame. Fleet of foot is the first upgrade you get EVERY game EVERY time. Learn the hotkey -F-, and learn to use tab to cycle through your groups. If a unit is moving it should be in fleet, if it is shooting it should be out of fleet, and you must learn to do this smoothly without thinking about it. Never let a fleeted unit fire a shot- because you’re cutting your damage in half. And never walk around without it, because no matter what reason you have for moving, getting there faster is better. The gravic boosters do the same thing, use the tab–G- method to move your platforms around the map quickly.

Grenades- the second upgrade you get, the moment fleet is done, in fact before it is done, get the grenade upgrade. This will allow you to catch units trying to run, and knock them out of cover, and slow oncoming traffic. If you have only 2 guardian squads and you get attacked by orks, throw grenades at one of the oncoming units and then when they get up, throw the other one, you’ll stop them from reaching your units for at least 4-5 seconds this way, giving you plenty of time to shoot them.

Dancing – Dancing is a term I borrow from Kohan, basically, to survive, and ultimately win the early game, you must learn to dance your units. You alternate 2 guardians (for example) by using fleet of foot constantly, whatever group the enemy targets, you fleet and run away while the other shoots, let them chase you around. When they switch targets, you switch fleet on both units and do the same thing. Whatever group is standing still should be out of fleet and vice versa at all times. This will FORCE the enemy to use ranged combat against you and this is where elder shines- before they get a seer council.

Ensnare- Hands down the best ability the elder get, always have 2 companies of guardians with ensnare with you so you can freeze assault marines, horror squads, and most importantly commanders. The enemy has wasted time and resources to get that commander out, and even better… they depend on him to turn the battle. Ensnare him once, and kill the people around him without letting your units get near him, after the first snare wears off, do it again, then have every unit on ranged stance and target the commander. Boom…

Seer council – get them early, and use ranged attack a lot. Council members in ranged mode are VERY hard to kill, and do almost as much damage. Plus the biggest bonus to the seer council is that they knock units back, so if the enemy closes in on them, they still do that, only once they knock them back, they keep shooting rather than chasing = more damage.

Brightlances – only one or two are needed for the first 5 minutes of the game, but they are critical. Even ONE lance will take out a listening post or tower in a matter of seconds. 2 will drop an upgraded post in something like 8 seconds. Once you get 6-8 of them no tank, tower, or building will be able to survive more than 3 volleys from these guys before dying. ALWAYS target all of your brightlances on the enemy as a group. Don’t have one shooting a building and another a tank, all lances attack one thing at a time. Trust me on this. Use SHIFT click to give them a QUE of targets to kill.

Gateway teleportation – At every frontline battle you should jump in a builder unit and build a gateway. Having your barracks waypoint set to the nearest gateway. Then as units are built they will go straight to the gateway and poof they are on the front line as if your barracks itself was mobile. When you can… its expensive now… but when you can get the invis upgrade and use it on every gateway. If you must lose a battle, kill the commander and then run away, and your buildings will live. This also gives you a quick retreat when your infantry are about to die, don’t waste time running away, they can still shoot you if you do, just hop in the gateway and teleport out. I laugh when I see elders with 4-6 gateways in one place. Its such a waste… they should populate the map like landmarkers. Every place that a gateway is at the end of the game should represent a battle you’ve won. If your map looks like it has bullet holes in it at the end, you’ve done well.

Towers – Never build them, every dime you spend on a tower is a waste. They don’t buy time against good players, they don’t move with you when you attack. And defense will always lose. Only offense wins. If you wish, you may upgrade a listening post that is on the front, but the rest should stay in their original state the entire game. The start of the game is where every dime counts, and you cant waste it by spending on stuff that wont help you kill the enemy.

Initiative – Eldar because of their mobility bonus and brightlances are ALL about momentum and initiative. Attack once you reach the 2-3 minute mark, attack to control all the resources, attack early, attack often, and NEVER stop… if your units are fully re-inforced and standing still they are a waste of money. A gun should always be firing if you have full groups. Once you start to beat your enemy do not just stand still and pat yourself on the back. So many times I see people win a battle then stand still while they build more units… YOU WON that means you get to march into your enemies base and kill things… isn’t that why you fought to begin with? The right to kill the enemies buildings? When the units are dead the buildings are next, don’t waste time thinking about it, keep the momentum going and keep the attack going. Elder wont win by slugging it out punch for punch. You have to sneak in and foot sweep them, then when they are on the ground you kick them, again and again until they never get up. If you try to slug it out… you will find marines are more suited to your playstyle.

I think I’ll stop here. If you want me to post more simply reply with request and I will go into some advanced tactics. These strategies are just general guidelines. Hope this helps more people feel more comfortable playing Eldar.

Renvar

PS – Please join my FFA games…

[ironcurtain]

Some things need to be adjusted about eldar but not really too much nerfing

[Mantus]

I have been playing Eldar for about a week now. Frankly I cant tell if Eldar (or any other army) are balanced or not simply because there is a lack of good people to play against.

[Raging Idiot]

Good post but I dissagree with your use of the Seer Council.

I like to use them to tie up ALL of the enemy units, attack one and when they start fighting back in HtH attack another and another get them all fighting in HtH with the council while your other units sit in the back and shoot them up. Once you have 4 - 5 units the Seer Council should be engaging every unit that comes anywhere close to them, except maybe Nobs and Possesed but that is what entangle is for.

Also Mind War is a great skill always save it for Commanders, it can kill them by itself if used at the right time.

[Renvar]

i agree completely, Raging Idiot... i just thought the use of the seer council as the coolest meat shield in the game had been posted on many times and figured i'd offer an alternative method of using them that most people dont consider. And the thing about mindwar is right on as well... point in fact i dont think i've ever used it on anything except a hero ... just in case another one showed up.

[MagiTek]

The poll needs to have a third option. Eldar are 90% balanced, but the Seer Council either needs to come much later or have Conceal significantly weakened. It would also be nice if Psychic Storm dealt friendly fire damage, since it's very easy to tangle up troops in melee and then nuke them with storm. You can't move your troops out of range before they take at least 75% of the storm's damage.

Beyond that, Eldar are just fine. Unique, powerful, and balanced.

[Comrade]

I have been playing Eldar for about a week now. Frankly I cant tell if Eldar (or any other army) are balanced or not simply because there is a lack of good people to play against.

Agreed I have the same problems. I can't tell if I'm just that good or if I'm having trouble finding people who know how to use the other races.

[Mantus]

Okay here is my rush now.

Queue up.
Guardian Squad
Bone Singer
Bone Singer
Guardian Squad

Guardians cap points.
Starting BS builds a Generator.
2nd BS builds Aspect Portal starting BS helps when finished with gen.
3rd BS help with Aspect Portal

As the Aspect Portal is finished your Guardians should just finish capping the first point.

One BS builds Listening Shrine.
Two BS build Soul Shrine.

Soul Shrine finished build Seer Council.

Upgrade Entagle, Upgrade conceal, Upgrade warlocks on both guardian squads. Re-enforce both squads (not too much though you want to have resources for your council).

You should capture a total of 3 points by now.

Council comes out at 2:10.

What to do now.

Imediatly run for the enemy. Council should be 5 strong when you get to his first point.

Now here is the important part. Entagle the commander as soon as you see him. If you are fighting orks go for the biggest squad of choppas. If you are fighting Choas and see possessed entagle them, If eldar and you see Council entagle council. Make your council melee any supporting units. Gurdians should focus fire on the comander if he is alone. They will almost kill him by the time Entagle wears off. If the comander is in a squad, do NOT engage it with the council, he will slaughter them. Instead target other units, if there are no other units left set the council to ranged mode and move them close to the enemy squad, they will use their force push still while firing disrupting the enemy fire.

When fighting SMs it is VERY important to kill the scouts, if they come out with flamers you might be in trouble. Since you have two Guardian squads you got an extra Entagle for the FC. If the enemy has more squads then you it is important try and melee them all because a) warlocks use force push which disrupts the squads and b) the squads will stay in melee unless the player micros them out of it.

If the enemy runs with a big squad. USE entagle if you have it. This is VERY important becuse it will alow you to cut them down denying the enemy a squad. If he runs as soon as you see him. Be careful, he is running towards re-enforcments and probably his commander, so use your judgement. If you think you can cut them all down before the re-enforcments arive, go for it. Otherwise just pursue.

In the mean time, your Bone Singers should build 3 Listening Shrines on the points for more resources. You can build a 3rd Guardian Squad but I would only recomend this after you council is 6-7 strong.

an alternative

If you preffer more Guardians Squads for Entagle, then you can build a 3rd Guardian Squad and kill off one of the Bone Singers to make room for the Seer Council.

My reasoning behind not using the Farseer

I just dont find her all that effective for how expencive she is. Yes, she has two damage spells but they dont do enough damage this early on. Storm isnt all that effective since the squads are still small at this point. Mind War isnt as good as Entagle. It is posible to get a Farseer and the council at 2:10 but you will not have the resource to re-enforce the council, ge the warlocks nor the spells. I find her rather useless this early on.


Any tips on how I could make this better?

[Darkweaver2]

Following your build, it seems like if I build seer right after aspect finishes, I'll have just enough to build council when shrine finishes, if I build a second listening post. The end result is council, seer, 2 squads with walocks/conceal/entangle, with the researches finishing up around the time you make contact. A second power generator is a must to build as soon as you can spare the resources, and don't just stop at 2. You can also keep building listening posts without impeding council reinforce too much.

Oh yeah, it IS a little slower, since I pull the helping bonesinger from the portal when the guardians cap the first SP and build an LP on it. Probably a 5-10 second delay, but in the end looks like you get better cash flow?

One time I had trouble with this was when a guy rushed to scouts with sniper rifles early, and had sniper rifles by the time I showed up. I got a bit unlucky and the warlocks got sniped right away, so I had a good old time chasing 3 or 4 squads of scouts all over the map. He also got sickening amounts of marines and assault marines, with FC of course, and bolters. Kept dancing them, guardians were basically useless since they kept getting sniped, seer council was always running around trying to catch something to kill. They, however, seem able to actually GROW in size while under constant fire by 3-4 squads and some scouts... all the while occasionally getting hit by the FC. It was quite insane. In the end, I won when I brought in the fire prisms (and he brought in dreads). We fought to a near standstill but I had managed to cap the vast majority of the map (Fallen) in the meanwhile.

Rest of the games were walkovers (no offense to the parties invloved). Actually, one of them was vs eldar and he almost kicked my ass, doing almost the same thing, now that I think about it Nice build order, thank you for posting it!

[Deathscythe61]

Eldar needs rebalancing, not nerfing or buffing. The problem is that too much emphasis is placed on certain units as a solve all very powerful solution to kill what they aren't made to kill, where as the supposed counters are never used. Hence the Eldar need to shift the focus for certain things.

[Lt. Zaphon]

I'm a dedicated SM player, so I'll weigh in here.

As individual units, the eldar are not threatening. Kinda like the orcs. It's a continuning mass of attacking eldar that really distrupt marine players. But like it's been said, they have to be used effectively. You need to use all the Eldar abilties, and focus your fire where it's most effective. Just running in with Eldar troops will get them pulverized.

I don't seem to notice snare much, maybe because no one uses it in my games, but even against the AI, never seems to make it's prescence known.

BTW, no good SM player relys on their Force Commander. The force commander is only critically important in the first few minutes of the game. From there on out, the majority of work is done by squads. The FC is a nice way to tie up a boss unit, but effectively concentrated marine fire will down characters with no problems.

When I meet the Eldar at the crit point for the first time, I know I have to win or it will be an uphill battle til I get artillery. When I don't see the Eldar at my crit point waiting for me, I have to laugh.

Only other thing I'll add is because the eldar can tech so quickly(especially with dominant control of resources), early Wraithlords are a BITCH to deal with. It takes at least 2 RL squads to kill a Wraithlord that is being managed by an intelligent player. Depending on how quick you can push them out, that WILL definetly hamper a marine player.

[Renvar]

Mantus - "I just dont find her all that effective for how expencive she is. Yes, she has two damage spells but they dont do enough damage this early on."

The fortune abilty combined with conceal makes your early units godly. She is there to knock units around, help you kill commanders, and stack another defense buff on your units. Unit longevity is the key to playing eldar.

[Shakrith]

Eldar don't need to be nerfed, and they don't need to be boosted. THey're just right.

Always get shroud: it saves you. THe enemy only have two commander, and while on Saint's Square shroud isn't going to do much (only one front!), on larger maps like Quatra and Burial Grounds, shrouded wraithgates are going to save them. Then, from a shrouded gate, out pop a bunch of banshees who promptly start killing them. Don't use a webway portal too many times in the enemy's view: they'll start to suspect there's one there. Wait until a squad's walked past, then pop out and fof after them. Or, put a portal in cover, and jump out with reapers. Maxed out, fully upgraded squads. They deploy straight into cover and reap the enemy like so much wheat at the harvest.

Double Post

With Spiders, small squads with Haywire grenades and exarchs are worth their weight in gold. One exarch has the shooting power of two basic guys with the upgrade. Don't bother maxing the squad out- the exarch is enough. Deploy from a webway portal just out of jump distance from the enemy, get in range, jump, chuck grenades, kill off some infantry, and jump back to the portal. Back to base to bask in the healing matrix of a few non-shrouding portals (located, of course, next to shrouding ones), and repeat. These guys can take out unsupported vehicles, or if supported, make quick (very quick!) strikes to kill them.

Rangers, too, are underestimated. A maxed-out squad infiltrates into some cover right next to the enemy (allowing you to see where to jump your spiders), then when the spiders attack, the rangers become visible, with their weapon meter already full, and with a suitably vulnerable infantry target already selected. If the enemy start to get anywhere near them, run as far as you can in fof until you can cloak once more.

[Mantus]

Mantus - "I just dont find her all that effective for how expencive she is. Yes, she has two damage spells but they dont do enough damage this early on."

The fortune abilty combined with conceal makes your early units godly. She is there to knock units around, help you kill commanders, and stack another defense buff on your units. Unit longevity is the key to playing eldar.

Council is tough enough as it is. I would rather build more warlocks then spend the 460/130 to make the tougher.

Warlocks knock units around. And she doesnt help kill comanders. A council of around 5-6 + Farseer still wont stand up to a Lord or FC.

I find that the only really effective way to kill a Lord early on is with Entagle. Dancing can work but it allot harder then with Marines since the Guardians heve a weaker ranged attack. Once the council reaches 8+ and has a Farseer they can kill commanders rather easilly but until they reach that critical mass they are totally inefective.

[edit]

Played two games where I got handed to me by a Chaos players, both used the same strat.

The Chaos players rushed me with 25 cultists + Lord.

My council was out but with 3 guys they didnt do much against 25 cultists. The one guardian squad at my base was swamped because I was building a warlock for it. When the Lord came there was very little I could do. Even though I managed to entagle him the swarm of cultists meant I could not shoot at him. So it was wasted. The small council could not cope with the cultists and my guardians were almost always tied up. So the wining card in both games was the Lord which I could not deal with.

I am trying to figure out a way to beat this strat. Its very difficult because I have to deal with both numbers and a tough target at once.

[Cyion]

I hope some eldar player read this, just play 3vs3 game, I got 3 eldar vs ork/CSM/eldar, i'm on the 3 eldar side. I single handly take out the ork/csm/eldar's base while my other 2 team member just pump out stupid banshee when I have FP out already..

game end after one and half hour later(about 20 minute of my ally still in the game and 70minute of me vs ork and eldar), with me losing, because one of the eldar dropped, and one of the ally eldar's base got killed by 2 kill-a-kanz(WTF, USE THE DAMN BONESONG).

map was too big, I manage to take out CSM really early but since both my ally is out I wasn't able to cover the map fast enough, and even though I kill 660 units(that's more than other 5 players added together and destroy 93 building(again).. I still lost since there is no way in hell to take on 2 on 1 in late game.


I said the quality of eldar players rating 1 is the worst and 10 is the best, the current eldar player average is somewhere around 3-4.

So I hope people post more strategy about eldar, because eldar player base need them BADLY.

[Mantus]

Cyoin that doesnt mean anything.

I am going to be honest here. My recored of win-to-lost is with the Eldar is about 50 to 5. Yet I still don't have the right to say that Eldar are broken because out of all those games about 10 of them had me fighting people of equal or better skill level and I lost to half of them.

[Zeb]

Kohan name Renvar?

[BrianGeneral]

They're so goddamn powerful when using the turret rush......

[Cyion]

Cyoin that doesnt mean anything.

I am going to be honest here. My recored of win-to-lost is with the Eldar is about 50 to 5. Yet I still don't have the right to say that Eldar are broken because out of all those games about 10 of them had me fighting people of equal or better skill level and I lost to half of them.

yeah but I was already winning just with my army vs 3 of other side, because I had 3 fps out by the time my ally think that banshee rush was still viable!!

all they had to do with clear up the left over which they didn't, I think too much eldar player, play waay too much emphasized on infantry when eldar's infantry is sub-par compare to their Vehicles and how fast they can acquire them.

[Darkweaver2]

I am trying to figure out a way to beat this strat. Its very difficult because I have to deal with both numbers and a tough target at once.

The farseer (with psistorm) would be helpful here. Key thing is that rush can't touch your buildings, except for the lord, so you've got some time to play with. Ignore his attack for a bit, run your squads out of your base (maybe cap some of his points back), build up the council. He CAN kill your generators, so build one out by your farthest LP if he's smart enough to do that. Upgrade near-base LP's, they chew through cultists, and will stop new squads coming in. Research eldritch storm. (This is all after he's inside your base beating on the buildings, for a while. You should have a TON of time before buildings start to die). I know you won't have the cash to do ALL these things, but I imagine that several of them would be enough.

As an added advantage, he may think he's won the game and let up on his production... can't count on that, of course, but can't tell you how many times that happens. His economy can't be in good shape, either, from making all the cultists... especially if you manage to pick off a couple now and then, forcing him to constantly reinforce.

[Question]

I must be drunk or something,but brightlance platforms?Kill buildings in seconds?Ive heard tons of stuff about how powerful these are,but i havent seen anything remotely like it ingame.You should see how long it takes 4 brightlnace platforms to kill a dread for instance....and according to a test i ran today,they do abotu 200-300 hp damage to stuff like the barracks,armory and stronghold....

[Cyion]

try 20 brightlance platform..

took out a hq in 3 shots.

[ilia1986]

After reading this, one indeed realizes that the Eldar have simply too much tricks in their sleeve..

[Mantus]

The farseer (with psistorm) would be helpful here. Key thing is that rush can't touch your buildings, except for the lord, so you've got some time to play with. Ignore his attack for a bit, run your squads out of your base (maybe cap some of his points back), build up the council. He CAN kill your generators, so build one out by your farthest LP if he's smart enough to do that. Upgrade near-base LP's, they chew through cultists, and will stop new squads coming in. Research eldritch storm. (This is all after he's inside your base beating on the buildings, for a while. You should have a TON of time before buildings start to die). I know you won't have the cash to do ALL these things, but I imagine that several of them would be enough.

As an added advantage, he may think he's won the game and let up on his production... can't count on that, of course, but can't tell you how many times that happens. His economy can't be in good shape, either, from making all the cultists... especially if you manage to pick off a couple now and then, forcing him to constantly reinforce.

Thank you for the tips.

I was actually thinking off putting the Farseer back into my build because she can solo a unit of cultists for a while. Eldrich Storm that early on is not an option.

Sitting back for a few seconds and finishing upgrading/re-enfrocing might help. It's just that I will have to worry about a Marine squad then too.

The Generator cannot be protected. I have to place it by my Assembly because it's one of the first buildings I make.

I still dont know what to do about that Lord though.

After reading this, one indeed realizes that the Eldar have simply too much tricks in their sleeve..

Absolutely. Eldar are all about tricks. If you pull them all off you win big. Most of my rushes end up with a 10/1 loss ratio. If I screw up though expencive units start to die and things go bad very fast. But that's why they got Fleet of Foot

[Darkweaver2]

Sitting back for a few seconds and finishing upgrading/re-enfrocing might help. It's just that I will have to worry about a Marine squad then too.

The Generator cannot be protected. I have to place it by my Assembly because it's one of the first buildings I make.

Right, the first generator is pretty much toast... you probably could make another one out by an LP (not one of the ones by the base), and upgrade an LP (that's questionable though, 75 power... but you get 50 for just making the gen... which may be better spent making more council) to make it hard to the CM to get by... Also, if your SC + guards with entangle intercept the CM on the way they're pretty much screwed. I say, ignore his ass and go rape HIS main/LPs. The SC + farseer will kill buildings faster than a CL, and you don't have to worry about his marines showing up at your main, since you'll probably run into them before that.

[Mac_Bug]

bonesong anyone

[Darkweaver2]

Good point... gives you even more time to ignore the hell out of the attacking force.

[Mantus]

Hah! You know I ALWAYS forget that Eldar have that power. Thanks for reminding me.

[Magus]

For the cultist problem, I think you definately need a farseer. You can mindwar the CL (its better than you think), Psychic Storm the mass of cultists, and guide a squad for a bit of extra damage. Then throw her into the mass of cultists, she should be fine and her AoE knockback will disrupt them for quite a bit. If you wait for the AoE knockback, and then entangle, you'll really screw up the cultists. Also, if you know you're facing Chaos, consider altering your build to include Reapers (since Chaos has only Heavy Infantry, and reapers should make them drop like flies)

[Fable]

Thanks renvar, though I'm not using all of your suggestions, I did take some of them and integrate them into my own playstyle and I think it really gave me a handy tune up (especially against an opposing Eldar player oddly enough).

[Renvar]

Kohan name Renvar?

Fierak

Double Post

For the cultist problem, I think you definately need a farseer.

True enough, however recently i've been spending the same money on two brightlances instead. consider popping 2 brightlances and boosting them to the chaos base. you could bring 40 cultist and they wont take out a base faster than 2 brightlances, not by a longshot. this will force him to retreat back to his base when he notices his key buildings are dying while he's messing with your generators. more importantly, platforms while in boost mode move faster than infantry does. so you could even back your platforms out by the time his units arrive to defend and now you've bought yourself plenty of time to build up the seers and probably destroyed his econ in the process.

while your platforms are killing his buildings, continue to move your guardians/council in fleet mode in and out of combat to harras the cultists and lord. if he engages them back up with fleet on and wait for him to head back to the buildings, then run back in and keep shooting. Dont forget that you can use fleet to bother groups of pure melee units indefinately. they are forced to choose between two things. attacking buildings while under fire... or bounce around trying to catch your fleeted units. either way, he's doing very little while your platforms are raping all his listening posts and such.

Eldar have the early game dominance only after you get that conceal upgrade and pop your warlocks. before that moment you must use the dancing method to keep your units alive. this takes about 2-3 minutes. (remember i said start attacking at this point) Just anoy him and fleet your guardians around to keep him chasing you until you get the warlocks out. then pop a council or brightlance depending on the situation and start trashing his buildings. council if he is making units designed to kill your guardians, and lances if he isn't smart enough to pick a good counter. the reason being the council is nice but the brightlance is cheaper and kills buildings faster. Each dime you spend in the first 10 minutes of the game should be specifically to kill the opponent as fast as possible...

Some people argue that the best way to transition to the midgame is to play a solid slow moving offense or defense early on while beefing up for the bigger units. I believe the best way is to cripple the enemy in the start of the game. You dont have to finish him off in the first 10 minutes, but if he's stuck on defense the entire time your transition to the midgame will be much smoother than his... regardless. Just 2 more of my cents.

Renvar

[Mantus]

Brightlances 5:00. Cultist + Lord 3:00. It just wont work. Otherwise if things are going well I build my lances pretty early. They are very effective. Especially for getting at them Orks.

[JohnnyPaycheck]

i play alot of 2v2 games and form what i can tell i think i may be one of the better eldar players. it can be hard to tell because in all honesty i don't really run into other eldar players online.

here's the build order i have been using.

que:
gaurdian
gaurdian
bonesinger
gaurdian
bonesinger
fleet of foot.

set bs you start with on the aspect and send the first squad to the fartherst point you think you can capture and set the reinforce to overwatch(right click). other 2 squads cap points near your base. use the next bonesinger you get to build a webway gate in your base somewhere. set rally points of both production buildings to the webway after the last bonesinger is built. in the meantime as soon as the aspect finishes set that bonesinger to build a soul shrine. webway should be done so build your first generator. the third bonesinger gets teleported to whatever point you sent your first gaudians to and build another webway gate. soul shrine should be done now, set council build to overwatch(right click on it), que entangle and start thinking about saving the rec for the council to begin production. save for either the dark reaper or spider aspect stone. make this choice based on what race you are agianst, or even on your personal preference. i like reapers because of their added range. make sure to get warlocks in your gaurdian squads, you'll need them.

after the non-frontline gaurdians are finished capping points around your base teleport them through the webway gate to the front line. you seer council should be getting built now, and entangle should be done, so you can hold the front line until the council arrives. at this point you start getting you economy up and running. set the farseer to overwatch, she wont build for awhile but with 3 gaurdian squads on the front line all with entangle and the seer council there, if you can't hold the line you either need more micro skills or your enemy has completely foresaken his econ for a quick tier 2 build. this will play into your hands since your gonna boom your econ a bit and he's gonna be broke. if this happens don't be afraid to pull you gaurdians back. throwing squads away is throwing money away.

as soon as you get all your listening posts built, get those 6 generators up as soon as possible. alternate building generators and listening post upgrades until you have at least 4 gens. take the mobilize for war upgrade, even if you have to take a break from generators. build a reaper/spider squad and send them to the front line, it's probably hurting by now. reinforce your reaper/spider squad. get the council up ot at least 6 members.

with the bonesinger you teleported to the line fall back a bit and build another webway gate, you're gonna want to build your vehicle pad(don't remember the name of it at the moment) right in front of this gate but a bit behind the front lines.

congratulations if all is well you're at the six or seven(times will vary depending on combat needs) minute mark with a booming econ and a stout front line. take the first generator upgrade and start getting those wraithlords out.

get webways at all recource locations. place them with strategy. don't be the player that farms them in his base. take webway shroud upgrade and get tactically sneaky teleport bonesingers, build webway gates away from the action and come at the enemy from behind. be a real thorn in your enemies sides.

this build/strat assumes that you have good squad micro skills and already know what counters work against what units, and will always make sure that everyone is firing on his counter.

most importantly keep practicing and get creative, thats the eldars biggest strength.

good luck and i hope this helps some people out. any questions or input would be welcome.

Double Post

also in case anyone cares, reapers crush platforms and do a fine job agains cultists.

[exile7]

great thread everyone, keep it up.

my philosophy to using eldar is spot on with what ppl are saying here; constant pressure and harassment, dominate with maneouverability and special skills. but my execution has been average at best (i'm relatively new to RTS).

this thread has GREATLY helped me fill in some of the holes in my game and solidify a strong build order and early game. nice work all.

[JohnnyPaycheck]

hope that i helped you a bit exile. if you have any eldar questions let me know. my game can always get better, but i feel qualified to answer any questions that relate to eldar tactics/unit usefulness.

Double Post

another thing to never overlook is the embolden upgrade. it's dirt cheap and can save a squads ass in a pinch.

[Mantus]

another thing to never overlook is the embolden upgrade. it's dirt cheap and can save a squads ass in a pinch.

I dont quite understand how the Embolder works. As far as I can tell it makes units regenerate morale faster, but it doesnt seem to help if they are being attacked.

[exile7]

embolden increases MAXIMUM morale for a time. i didn't know this either until i saw it in a thread here somewhere. so you've gotta use it BEFORE you go into battle.

it'll take the SeerC from 400 to 600 morale, which is amazingly useful. this is the only reason to use it as far as i can see because the only other units who get it are Guardians who don't benefit that much from it due to their piss poor damage.

i would LOVE to see Banshees able to use this, or maybe an area effect on the ability so a warlock can embolden other units around it. would make Banshess much more useful later in the game.

and while i'm on the subject. does anyone have any detailed information on what WarShout does? i'm talking about the secondary 'increased effectiveness while charging' (or whatever the tooltip says), not the morale damaging effect.

EDIT: after a closer look the tooltip for warshout says 'also gives a speed boost when charging into battle'. i did some experimenting in the tutorial...

it looks like banshees get a bit of a speed boost as they charge even without War Shout. this boost definately seemed increased once i got War Shout, without an exarch. this is with FoF off.

with FoF on it is harder to tell cause they are already moving so goddamn fast. i have a theory that perhaps the WS boost doesn't stack with FoF but rather replaces FoF for that charge so you can turn FoF off a bit earlier, enabling the banshees to do full damage as soon as they hit the enemy.

[hwmodder]

Relocate is one of the most dastardly things you can do as Eldar...I was in a 3vs3 as them, and we were sure we were going to lose...all three of them were otw to my base...but I had managed to shroud a webway really near to their base. I relocated my support portal there just as an fp was about to pop out, brought all my warps there, and then relocated everything else to a safe position inside an ally's base. I then took out 2 people w/ haywire before they knew what hit them (Destroy HQ mode). It was devilishly fun.

I'd like to experiment with that power that lets Bonesingers stop production...it sounds interesting.

[Renvar]

I'd like to experiment with that power that lets Bonesingers stop production...it sounds interesting.

Its not quite as useful as you might think... the bonesingers die quick, and the recharge time on the ability is really slow... like once every 4-5 minutes... so if you are just dicking around feel free to use it, but if its a serious game risking the life of a bonesinger can be a problem esspecially if you jump her in cause then you have to walk her out. i find its easier to let the enemy waste the resources on popping a unit of 4 marines (for example) then immediately ensnare them and killing them in less than 2 seconds before they can reinforce even one unit... if you have no ensnare available it might be useful though,c ause they can run the units out of combat and build them up. but who knows, i havn't tested that ability myself either... its one of those rare "oh im just messing around cause i know im going to win anyway" kind of things. =)

[Andrew_Mead]

I am enjoying playing as eldar though I am new and my gameplay is not so good.

One thing I would like to add is that I think that Gaurdian squads need fortifying with the scatter laser platform. It's almost as good as the reapers, and is available early on (webway and soulshrine). You can even take them through the webway when linked which you cant do when they are not, possible bug?

On the same note, How come you can take squads and buildings through, but not vehicles? - Is it because they are mechanical and have moving parts? (sorry T2 on last night). Surely if a building can go through then so can anything else

Also when is it best to upgrade to vehicle killing weapons, when you see one is too late, so what about 1 vehicle killer for 2 infantry killers.

Wraithlords are the coolest non special characters.

How do you kill a Defiler quickly and cheaply?

[hwmodder]

Defilers go down to 1 or 2 Fire Prisms, as long as you jump away from them whenever they try and get you into CC.

[Mantus]

Defilers also get eaten alive by Bright Lance Platforms. And the platforms dont get bounced around much if the Defilers shoots at them.

About Bonesong. I tried it once because I was winning and had time to fool around. The range of the spell is pretty long and once it's cast the Bonesinger can run away. It doesnt last for very long though, so it's not like it will give you a huge edge.

[JohnnyPaycheck]

Andrew Mead:

you just have to get an internal clock timing down. there is a point in the game when i just say it's about time people start fielding vehicles so i need to build counters.

if the enemy has defilers it stands to reason that you should have wraithlords in the field too. get brightlance upgrades, set their stance to 'stand ground' and force fire on the defilers. the drop quickly.

[Vigothia]

wow this is the first post where nobody is moaning at eachother even after 3 pages,

good BO's btw

[Mantus]

Amazed at how many people suggest tier 2 ideas for dealing with Marine tier 2 vehicles.

I hardly ever go tier 2 as soon as I can. One of the Eldar’s greatest advantages is that they get their best AT weapon in in tier 1. I always build around 6-8 bright lance platforms as well as build up a decent sized army before I research Mobilize for War.

Think about it. What does Tier 2 offer you?

Wraithlords – useful, yet slow and not all that tough.
Fire Prisims – can take care of a base in no time but doesn’t work as well for troop support because it knocks your own units and never fires at what you want it too.
Vyper – Useful against enemy troops but there are tier 1 solutions to troops.
Avatar – not going be able to afford it for a while anyways.

That’s it. So why spend the 250/100 resources for MFW and then the 280/80 for a Support Portal when you have the anti-armor solutions in tier 1?

Those resources saved will give you 3 Bright Lance Platforms putting you at an advantage over the player who went for Tier 2 armor.

[JohnnyPaycheck]

the biggest reason why i go for wraithlors instead of just massing platforms is that wraithlords are insanely useful if used correctly. if i go for wraithlords then i can fill my entire squad cap(minus council,FS) with shooting units. i see many players build plats and use banshees as cover for their shooter units. i actually have seen this quite a bit lately, and have been able to beat it relatively easily. i'm almost convinced that banshees are only usefull if you play a novice player.

i find that the thing about brightlance platforms is that they are only useful against one thing. wraithlords on the other hand really shine against most units if used properly. i suppose that it all boils down to playstyle, and it would probably be easy to say that brightlance plats are great if covered properly also, bit if i had a choice of falling back onto my base after a battle gone awry, i'd rather fall back with wraithlords.

another note about plats is that as soon as people figure out that they're not really vehicles and should be countered as if they were heavy infantry, peoples strats will change, and that is bad news for the plat reliant eldar strat.

Double Post

also just quickly, i find that the player that gathers the most recources almost never loses if the game goes beyond 10 minutes, you need mobilize for war to take level 2 rec upgrade, as well as level 1 & 2 power upgrade.

the way i see it you almost cannot afford to miss out on mobilize in any sort of lengthy game, as it hinders your econ alot to lose out on 3 global bonus econ upgrades.

[Renvar]

I hardly ever go tier 2 as soon as I can. One of the Eldar’s greatest advantages is that they get their best AT weapon in in tier 1.

Did you notice that in all my strategy suggestions i never once mentioned building a unit that requires mobilize for war? Point in fact i play FFA almost exclusively... 4way ffa, and I will play games that last between 15 and 45 minutes without getting that upgrade. I can kill 3 other people all trying to use tier 3 units without anything past tier 1...

Mantus knows whats up...

[JohnnyPaycheck]

i don't doubt that that can work for you, but isn't it nice to see multiple viable strats?

[Renvar]

you almost cannot afford to miss out on mobilize in any sort of lengthy game, as it hinders your econ alot to lose out on 3 global bonus econ upgrades.

This on the other hand is very true, and the wraithlords and prisms are very useful in some scenarios... but I only build them when i run into those situations. they are more of a counter type of unit than something i build every game. The economy point that JohnnyPaycheck brings up is right on though.

[JohnnyPaycheck]

thank you renvar, it's really refreshing to see some intelligent conversation aside from the usual close-minded 'my strat is the best and i refuse to aknowlede anything other than that' rts forum activity.