How to win with Eldar

[Wargamer]

Winning with Eldar is a tricky task, especially if you don't know how to play them. Unlike other armies, Eldar do not fight to control space, conquer planets, or other such futile tasks. Eldar win by fighting many small battles in favour of one large one, whittling the enemy down to almost nothing before launching one last, devastating assault.

To win, first you need to do some simple calculations. Any ship that disengages gives your enemy 10% of its point cost, so in a 1,000pt fleet, your opponent will be earning 100 points. Why will they be earning points? Because your fleet won't be staying around to see the end of the game!

Find the most expensive ship in the enemy fleet, blow it up, and run. Whatever you do, do not leave a Hulk unless the ship is over 200 points, as the enemy will be recovering 50% of its value.

So, here's how to win a 1,000pt battle vs Imperials:

Target a valuable ship (eg: Mars Class), and destroy it, then disengage everything in your fleet.

Victory Points earned by you: 270.

Victory Points earned by your opponent: 235 (100 for your fleet retreating, 135 for the hulk of the Mars). However, that's still enough for you to win!


Remember; "he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day". It is better to win by 30 Victory Points and have your fleet unharmed than win by 100 and lose half your ships... you are Eldar, play like it!

[Yurrath (aka Rezzy)]

Thanks for that WG.

Now, initial deployment is where I have troubles...escorts behind, infront, or on the flanks...
Concentrated attack, or formless and unpredictable?

[Wargamer]

Deployment should be done to suit your needs. If the enemy is clumped together, try keeping well apart, giving you plenty of time to snipe him with Ordnance until you're ready for the killing blow.

If the enemy is spread out, cluster together to overwhelm a single flank, or crush a valuable battleship.

[fleetmaster]

It's similar for Space Marines. Disengage your battle barge, if it has 4 or less hit points left! You cannot afford to lose it! If you are, however playing as Ultramarines, (like I do) you can lose all your escorts, as Ultramarines pump these out faster then developing countries reproduce. Do the initial damage, watch how the battle goes, and decide on that. It is worth disengaging your escorts only if you cannot destroy anything with them!

[Dra'Tuisich-Novae]

Now that is a sneaky-arse tactic I never even considered... but it makes perfect sense. I'll have to try this out, and frustrate my opponent beyond belief!

[Lord Callum]

If this gets used too much in the campaign ill be very angry... (although being chaos thats kinda my job;)

[lorddemon]

It will win you a scenario, but lose you a war: In campaign the invader gets the planet/system fought over, and all the spoils, with which they can repair the damage and get reinforcements. Eldar only lose area that way. Soon you have no place to hide, and are cornered.

[Wargamer]

lorddemon said:

It will win you a scenario, but lose you a war: In campaign the invader gets the planet/system fought over, and all the spoils, with which they can repair the damage and get reinforcements. Eldar only lose area that way. Soon you have no place to hide, and are cornered.

Someone has no idea how Eldar work, clearly.

Eldar do not hold planets. On the rare occasions they find a world worth holding, they attack it via the Webway, with fleet craft making hit-and-run attacks. Never, ever, do the Eldar fight in open war. Ever.

[lorddemon]

You are mixing fluff with the campaign that is starting. I was addressing the fear of someone that this tactic would be used in the campaign, and that is mostly not usable tactic there (it takes a lot to win that way. I guess it is possible as itis about the renown, but it is difficult.)

[Yurrath (aka Rezzy)]

The other problem (for me - as the only Eldar player) is that in this campaign I cannot 'hide' in the webway (AFAIK!). I have to sit in normal space, which makes me pretty vunerable.

[Black Dream]

I have tried this tactic out against Tyranids and it worked! I was suprised.

I had to flee due to unlucky Reload Ordinance rolls anyway, but who cares! It worked!