Craftworld Aeldar 500 Point Starter List, The Eldar Wild Riders
Do you like lightning fast armies? Do you love having the most powerful guns? Do you still want to hit hard in close combat too? Well read on, my fellow space elf players. Read on.
This is perhaps the least beginner collection friendly army I've ever written, so calling it a Starter list is a stretch at best. I drew the line at calling it Beginner, simply because of the difficulty in putting the models together, but I think it's a neat way to learn the basics of a the Eldar glass canon style.
Typically what can trip Aeldar players up is deployment. Since every unit in an Aeldar army is quite specialised, and with relatively short range weaponry, botching your deployment can leave your Wraithguard running uselessly across the battlefield and your Fire Dragons meeting a sticky end from a Genestealer rush.
This army side steps all of that with stupid fast units, and anything slow having non-standard deployments.
Battle Focus - This gem of a rule allows models to advance and shoot Assault weapons without penalty. Nifty for infantry, nice on Walkers, and an anbolute joy on jetbikes.
Swift as the Wind - Standard biker trait where they simply have maximum advance distance.
[108 pts]
Farseer Skyrunner: Singing Spear, Twin-linked Shuriken Catapult
Psyker: Doom, Fortune, Smite
[140 pts]
[60 pts]
[157 pts]
Warp Spiders: 4 Warp Spiders with Death Spinners. Exarch with two Death Spinners.
[98 pts]
Wind Riders: 3 Wind Riders withe Scatter lasers
[84 pts]
The following follows my standard advice for list building, as detailed in my Patrol Detachment List Building Guide.
Have them Appear Unbidden right on top of an objective at the start of the battle, and they can happily sit there plinking away with their sniper rifles. Or leave them as back-field objective holders. Their cloaks can keep them annoyingly resistant, particularly if you left them in cover.
If you're feeling particularly trollish, and very overconfident, you can even have them appear next to the enemy, walk up to them (as Appear Unbidden happens before the first turn so they can still move), and charge them at a key enemy unit. With the Saim-Hann craftworkd trait, you'd have to be super unlucky to fail that charge.
Why would you do this with a ranged unit? Eat a particularly scary units overwatch with these guys, and follow up with the fury of your Shining Spears.
These are essentially your Objective Secured wild cards. Have fun, and enjoy your opponents shock as his guardian flamer melee barrier gets pinned in combat and then hit full in the face from a laser charge!
They are also very mobile, and can FLY, meaning that any melee tar pits will be annoying but not terminal. You make want to consider shuriken canons instead, and see why below.
Starting off with the Warp Spiders, who are simply the last word in Skirmishing! Toughness 3 doesn't seem like it could be that annoying, but with Flicker Jump and a 3+ armour save diluting whatever hits them, the enemy will need to put more fire on them that they would like to.
They have deep strike, meaning they can drop in and unload some significant fire power on an unwary foe. Death Spinners are fairly good at threatening medium to heavy infantry. Since the Farseer's Doom is cast on an enemy unit, the Warp Spiders can benefit from those re-rolls to Wound even though they appeared on the side of the enemy!
With the Saim-Hann craftworld trait you also have about half a chance of getting off that first turn charge. Why would that be good? Drop in, shoot at a squishy target, and charge in against a tank. Assuming you last through the overwatch, you tie the tank up for a turn, and can bounce out of combat at your leisure.
Irritating, hurt quite a bit, and annoying to kill... perfect skirmishers!
But they're not even the best bit of the army. Oh no.
The Shining Spears are my absolute personal favourite. The Saim-Hann craftwolrd trait is made for them, allowing them to zip up the battlefield, blasting heavies with laser lances and shredding infantry with shuriken fire.
And then you add the Saim-Hann stratagem. Biker units can charge after advancing, and get to re-roll ones in the fight phase.
You can move 22-inches in the first turn, completely clearing the No-Man's zone between armies. You FLY over any intervening terrain. You shoot your full load at normal accuracy at any target you like. You then re-roll your charges! And have better accuracy in combat! With a full unit of what is essentially melee plasma weapons on overheat!! Which don't overheat!!!
I simply love it, and really made me consider dropping the scatter lasers on the Wind Riders for the Assault Shuriken Canons instead. If you go that way, the entire jet bike force keeps pace with the Spears, so the Autarch can buff the accuracy of the Spear's shooting attacks!
And you know what? If combat is too sticky for them, they can just FLY out of combat, shoot their great Spears, and run away. 22-inches away. Maybe shoot another unit. That was hiding behind a wall.
I can't over state ho highly I regard these guys, and I really think they will replace the old Thunderwolf Space Wolves as the cavalry army of choice.
I haven't used them yet in a fight, but I hope to have them completed by the end of this week. I'll also be doing a proper Start Collecting! Craftworlds starter army, so that newbies know where they can start.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading.
If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.
If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!
If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!
This is perhaps the least beginner collection friendly army I've ever written, so calling it a Starter list is a stretch at best. I drew the line at calling it Beginner, simply because of the difficulty in putting the models together, but I think it's a neat way to learn the basics of a the Eldar glass canon style.
Typically what can trip Aeldar players up is deployment. Since every unit in an Aeldar army is quite specialised, and with relatively short range weaponry, botching your deployment can leave your Wraithguard running uselessly across the battlefield and your Fire Dragons meeting a sticky end from a Genestealer rush.
This army side steps all of that with stupid fast units, and anything slow having non-standard deployments.
Rules you need to know (and love):
Battle Focus - This gem of a rule allows models to advance and shoot Assault weapons without penalty. Nifty for infantry, nice on Walkers, and an anbolute joy on jetbikes.
Swift as the Wind - Standard biker trait where they simply have maximum advance distance.
The Bright Spear Wild Riders
Outrider Detachment (Aeldar Craftworld)
Craftworld Attribute: Saim-Hann Wild Host (Re-roll Charges, Bikers can move and shoot Heavy Weapons without penalty)
HQ
Autarch Skyrunner: Laser Lance (Nova Lance), Twin-linked Shuriken Catapult[108 pts]
Farseer Skyrunner: Singing Spear, Twin-linked Shuriken Catapult
Psyker: Doom, Fortune, Smite
[140 pts]
Troops
Ranger Squad: 5 Rangers with Long Rifles[60 pts]
Fast Attack
Shining Spears: 4 Shining Spears with Laser Lance and Twin-linked Shuriken Catapult. Exarch with Star Lance and Twin-linked Shuriken Catapult.[157 pts]
Warp Spiders: 4 Warp Spiders with Death Spinners. Exarch with two Death Spinners.
[98 pts]
Wind Riders: 3 Wind Riders withe Scatter lasers
[84 pts]
Total: [647 points]
The above is Schools League standard, but can be dropped to a neat 500 point list by dropping the Farseer and the second Death Spinner from the Warp Spider Exarch. You lose some firepower and reliability from the Farseer, but the army still moves just as fast, and hits like a freight train!
Leaders
The Autarch is just too good of an HQ to pass up, even with the psychic might of a Farseer available. He offers duelling power, buffs the accuracy of people around him, and recycles Command Points on a 6. He won't be a damage sponge, but if you take the Fate's Messenger Warlord trait, you can push him to be very annoying to kill (extra Wound and 6+ Feel no Pain).
His role is actually to keep pace with the Wind Riders in the first turn, and then leap into glorious combat on the second. His charge with the Nova Lance will have most units quivering in fear, and the fact he can FLY means he can bounce out of combat, shooting up any survivors. But what he's really there to do is buff the accuracy of the front line aspect warriors (see below), whilst the Farseer baby sits the Windrider laser battery.
The Farseer does the standard Farseer business of buffing units. With the Autarch helping out with To Hit rolls, I've gone for Doom and Fortune. Doom allows you to re-roll wounds, and is functionally equivalent to re-rolling hits for most cases in this army. It actually becomes better than Guide for tougher models, with the only downside being the potential for Deny the Witch tests.
Fortune gives a targeted unit 5+ Feel no Pain, which is rather helpful for a squishy army like Eldar. Somewhat of a personal choice here, but you can swap out psychic powers from game to game. The role of the Farseer can change a little (mortal wound canon, Guide bot, or psychic assassin), and will still support the army in doing what it does.
Don't forget to throw that spear, and shoot those shuriken catapults!
His role is actually to keep pace with the Wind Riders in the first turn, and then leap into glorious combat on the second. His charge with the Nova Lance will have most units quivering in fear, and the fact he can FLY means he can bounce out of combat, shooting up any survivors. But what he's really there to do is buff the accuracy of the front line aspect warriors (see below), whilst the Farseer baby sits the Windrider laser battery.
The Farseer does the standard Farseer business of buffing units. With the Autarch helping out with To Hit rolls, I've gone for Doom and Fortune. Doom allows you to re-roll wounds, and is functionally equivalent to re-rolling hits for most cases in this army. It actually becomes better than Guide for tougher models, with the only downside being the potential for Deny the Witch tests.
Fortune gives a targeted unit 5+ Feel no Pain, which is rather helpful for a squishy army like Eldar. Somewhat of a personal choice here, but you can swap out psychic powers from game to game. The role of the Farseer can change a little (mortal wound canon, Guide bot, or psychic assassin), and will still support the army in doing what it does.
Don't forget to throw that spear, and shoot those shuriken catapults!
Troops
Rangers... there's a reason these guys are fought over on eBay.Have them Appear Unbidden right on top of an objective at the start of the battle, and they can happily sit there plinking away with their sniper rifles. Or leave them as back-field objective holders. Their cloaks can keep them annoyingly resistant, particularly if you left them in cover.
If you're feeling particularly trollish, and very overconfident, you can even have them appear next to the enemy, walk up to them (as Appear Unbidden happens before the first turn so they can still move), and charge them at a key enemy unit. With the Saim-Hann craftworkd trait, you'd have to be super unlucky to fail that charge.
Why would you do this with a ranged unit? Eat a particularly scary units overwatch with these guys, and follow up with the fury of your Shining Spears.
These are essentially your Objective Secured wild cards. Have fun, and enjoy your opponents shock as his guardian flamer melee barrier gets pinned in combat and then hit full in the face from a laser charge!
Fire Support
This is somewhat lacklustre in this army, as the Skirmishing power brings with it an awful lot of firepower already. The Wind Rider Scat-pack provides 12 Strength 6 shots. Not amazing, since they are AP0, but enough with the Autarch and Farseer's Doom to force a large number of saves.They are also very mobile, and can FLY, meaning that any melee tar pits will be annoying but not terminal. You make want to consider shuriken canons instead, and see why below.
Skirmishing
Oh this is where the fun begins!Starting off with the Warp Spiders, who are simply the last word in Skirmishing! Toughness 3 doesn't seem like it could be that annoying, but with Flicker Jump and a 3+ armour save diluting whatever hits them, the enemy will need to put more fire on them that they would like to.
They have deep strike, meaning they can drop in and unload some significant fire power on an unwary foe. Death Spinners are fairly good at threatening medium to heavy infantry. Since the Farseer's Doom is cast on an enemy unit, the Warp Spiders can benefit from those re-rolls to Wound even though they appeared on the side of the enemy!
With the Saim-Hann craftworld trait you also have about half a chance of getting off that first turn charge. Why would that be good? Drop in, shoot at a squishy target, and charge in against a tank. Assuming you last through the overwatch, you tie the tank up for a turn, and can bounce out of combat at your leisure.
Irritating, hurt quite a bit, and annoying to kill... perfect skirmishers!
But they're not even the best bit of the army. Oh no.
The Shining Spears are my absolute personal favourite. The Saim-Hann craftwolrd trait is made for them, allowing them to zip up the battlefield, blasting heavies with laser lances and shredding infantry with shuriken fire.
And then you add the Saim-Hann stratagem. Biker units can charge after advancing, and get to re-roll ones in the fight phase.
You can move 22-inches in the first turn, completely clearing the No-Man's zone between armies. You FLY over any intervening terrain. You shoot your full load at normal accuracy at any target you like. You then re-roll your charges! And have better accuracy in combat! With a full unit of what is essentially melee plasma weapons on overheat!! Which don't overheat!!!
I simply love it, and really made me consider dropping the scatter lasers on the Wind Riders for the Assault Shuriken Canons instead. If you go that way, the entire jet bike force keeps pace with the Spears, so the Autarch can buff the accuracy of the Spear's shooting attacks!
And you know what? If combat is too sticky for them, they can just FLY out of combat, shoot their great Spears, and run away. 22-inches away. Maybe shoot another unit. That was hiding behind a wall.
I can't over state ho highly I regard these guys, and I really think they will replace the old Thunderwolf Space Wolves as the cavalry army of choice.
Wrapping it up...
Beware anti-FLY weaponry. But you'll have choices to beat that. I think this is my most frustrating army to play against, but I can see it struggling against very tough armies, like Death Guard. The Wild Riders are the epitome of glass canon, and whist they have the speed to mitigate poor deployments, you'll be seriously sweating if you don't get the first turn.I haven't used them yet in a fight, but I hope to have them completed by the end of this week. I'll also be doing a proper Start Collecting! Craftworlds starter army, so that newbies know where they can start.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading.
If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.
If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!
If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!
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