Looking to play Eldar but you hated fliers and psykers? Do you have recurring dreams where you’re getting beaten up by the Terminator and are saved by a scorpion? Do you love resin more than anything else on the planet? Then playing Eldar in Kill Team is for you.

This article is tailored for vanilla Kill Team and Elites (so no Commanders!). We’ll go over the units and stratagems, what they’re good for, and we’ll talk about what a good Eldar sample roster looks like.

Strengths

Fast – Everything you have except for Wraithblades has 7″ movement. You’re faster than most other factions in the game, and in conjunction with some stratagems, you can move up to 20 inches a turn (that’s a lot).

Battle Focus – You can advance and fire assault weapons at no penalty. This is a pretty cute little trait, it’s less good in Kill Team than in 40k because you can’t Advance and Ready but it does let you get into good positions faster and shoot things with your good Assault weapons.

Cheap-ish – Your kill teams tend to run somewhere between 7-10 models. And you have the option of running 7 point models that do nothing but sit back and hold objectives. You’re in a really good position here.

Good Weaponry – Your ‘worst’ gun is S4, 1 Damage and has the potential for either AP-3 or a mortal wound. Every other weapon that you generally want to bring is higher strength, has decent AP and does multiple damage. If you hit something, it tends to really, really hurt.

Elites – Elites brought some much needed stuff to the Eldar roster, including 2 excellent melee units, and a couple of big, beefy Spirit Host units. All of this stuff is ‘situationally good but expensive’, at worst, or ‘this is the most must take thing ever’, at best.

Weaknesses

Global T3 – With the exception of Wraith Units, everything you have is Toughness 3, which means you’re generally getting wounded in the shooting phase on a 3+. So you’re much likely to have to make saving throws and suffer Flesh Wounds as opposed to teams like Marines.

Short Range – Most of your weaponry is 18” range or less, except for your Sniper Rifles and Heavy Weapon Platform…Weapon. This means you cannot get into a long range shooting match and expect to do well unless you have an outrageous streak of luck and the greatest ability to target threats ever. You’ll be running up the board and focusing down relevant targets, and carving up others in melee.

You play absolutely nothing like 40k Eldar – “Eldar in Kill Team is the prime example in which expectations and outcomes have no similarity whatsoever.” – Some guy.

If you like Psykers, Planes, Hover Tanks and the entire Aspect Warrior rainbow. Then there is nothing here for you (okay I lied, you get 3 Aspects). The main resemblance between Eldar in KT and Eldar in general is that quote about Eldar being a bunch of specialists: Your Striking Scorpion Exarch will suck at shooting people (but excel at giving them the claw), and your Heavy Weapon Platform will suck in combat (but be really good at blowing up stuff).

GW hates you – Eldar were one of the few factions to never get a single box during the big Kill Team release. Of the factions that didn’t, they were the only one who couldn’t build a ‘reasonable’ roster out of a single box. If you want to collect a decent Eldar roster, you’re looking at either going to Ebay to buy single models, or spending so much money that you could just buy an actual fullblown Eldar army instead.

Also half your stuff is in resin.

Your roster has a bunch of “one right answers” – This sort of goes hand in hand with the lack of versatility, but due to certain rules in Kill Team (namely related to limiting exactly what you can bring, and the damage potential of certain units), most Eldar Kill Teams end up feeling extremely similar. You’re going to have a Heavy Weapon Platform (probably with a Starcannon) alongside a Comms Guardian, you’re going to have a Dual Avenger Catapult Exarch, you’re going to have a Banshee Exarch with an Executioner and a Scorpion Exarch with one of the special melee weapons. Leaving you with only 30ish points (in a 100 point game) to really express yourself.

Craftworlds

Alaitoc: Fieldcraft

A unit with this attribute counts as obscured to an enemy shooting at them from more than 12 inches away.

This is…weird. Common knowledge suggests that if you’re more than 12 inches away from the enemy, there’s going to be something that obscures you from them.

However, this does give you a buffer to place your Heavy Weapon Platform and Rangers in an extremely advantageous area (such as right on top of an objective!) and not worry about being obscured. This is one to consider. C

Biel-Tan: Swordwind

Aspect Warriors get +1 to their Leadership, reroll hit rolls of 1 for all Shuriken Weaponry.

Your Aspects are running on LD9, giving you a 1 in 6 chance of failing your break test if it comes to it. Your Dire Avengers can reroll 1s for their Avenger Shuriken Catapults, which is going to be the source of most of your mid-range firepower. This is a really solid attribute. A

Iyanden: Stoic Endurance

Take Nerve Tests on a D3 instead of a D6.

Eldar Leadership is 7 (Rangers and Guardians), 8 (Aspects) or 9 (Wraith Units). Assuming you’re running an 8-10 model kill team, your models won’t be getting shaken until the point you have to take break tests anyway (you’d need at least 5 models out of action). This is a really good attribute. A

Saim-Hann: Wild Host

Reroll failed charge rolls.

Based on the amount of models you want charging into things, and considering 50% of them can already reroll failed charge rolls, this basically reads as: “Your Striking Scorpion Exarch can reroll failed charge rolls”. I…wouldn’t take this. D

Ulthwé: Foresight of the Damned

On a 6+, you can ignore wounds, if you already have an ability like this, you can reroll 1s.

Sort of decent, there’s much better stuff available though. C

Units

Storm Guardians

Storm Guardians are your melee range/short-range troops. Despite the fact that they are armed with a sword and pistol; do not, under any sort of circumstances, put them in melee combat. It takes, on average, at least 7 activations for a Guardian with an Aeldari Blade to get a Guardsman out of action. There are roughly 6 turns in Kill Team.

The best use for the standard loadout is being your cheapest option for the envied role of “guy who stands in the back and holds an objective” They’re likely to die if something actually threatening charges them or shoots them, but if they can stay out of sight, they’ll be fine.

Fusion Gun

All of the offensive power of a Lascannon, but at a 12 inch range.

I’m not really a fan of this weapon, since single shot variable damage at short range just sounds like a way to get extremely miserable, but if you want to use it…

You generally want to be at 6 inches so you’re hitting on 3s, to try and mitigate the fact you get only a single shot. You also want to advance to take advantage of Battle Focus. Unless you’re a positioning genius (so you don’t get shot to death by readied models) and you’re able to go second in movement (so the thing you’re targetting just doesn’t move away from you, though in a way, this could count as a win), you’re going to want to use Decisive Shot to get the first hit off. Of course, if you do this, you might just miss and then can’t CP reroll, but oh well.

Flamer

On the exact other end of the scale, this weapon is S4, AP0, 1 damage, but has D6 shots that hit automatically. Sadly it only has an 8 inch range.

This can be used to just be a big, scary anti-overwatch objective holder, since most things aren’t going to want to charge a Flamer. Be careful of Harlequins (with their long and obnoxious charges though) and you should generally be good. It’s also nice to just have these run around and be just a general annoyance, they’re fast enough to get close to something and light it up, but compared to some other options, they’re not big or scary enough to focus everything on.

Guardian Defenders

7 points gets you a Guardian Defender armed with a Shuriken Catapult, they’re short range, relatively fragile and generally only good for being ‘slightly’ scary midrange firepower. Despite all this, you always take one (or two) in your Kill Team, and make one your Comms specialist, because it both buffs, and allows you to actually fire the…

Heavy Weapon Platform

This is pretty much your best unit in Vanilla Kill Team. A 2 wound, 3+ Save, BS2+ (Actually 3+ but the Comms Guardian is never not going to buff this) platform that can take one of four heavy weapon options, it’s entirely possible to make a case for all of these, depending on just what you’re facing. Annoyingly, it can’t be a specialist, let’s not even think how fun that would be.

Aeldari Missile Launcher

This basically functions as a generalist weapon, allowing you to pick between the anti-personnel profile (D6 shots, S4, AP-1, 1 Damage) or the anti-armour one (1 shot, S8, AP-2, D6 Damage).

In 40k, where you can’t list tailor, this is really good, but in Kill Team, where you can, it suffers, since you’re basically giving yourself a more swingy Scatter Laser or a Bright Lance with worse AP.

However, keep in mind this weapon has the longest range of anything in the list, being a massive 48”, meaning you’re hitting pretty much anything unobscured within 24” on a 2+. On the flip side though, this is the weapon that costs the most, making your Heavy Weapon Platform + Guardian cost 1/5th of your whole Kill Team

Take this against: Armies that like to mix chaff and heavy units (Death Guard, Thousand Sons, Orks, Tau, Tyranids)

Bright Lance

An extremely powerful single shot weapon (S8, AP-4, D6 Damage), while this is likely to absolutely crack a target, the weapon is exceptionally swingy. You only really have one chance to hit, wound, and hopefully do a decent damage roll, so rolling a 1 to wound or for the damage can just massively screw you (especially if you CPed the miss roll). The single shot also makes it less efficient than the Starcannon almost all the time anyway.

In my opinion, you probably want to pass on this weapon.

Scatter Laser/Shuriken Cannon

Both of these weapons have the same basic profile (S6, AP0, Damage 1), but the main differences between them are that the Scatter Laser has one more shot and is Heavy, while the Shuriken Cannon is Assault and has a chance to be AP-3. The fact that it’s damage 1 is its main drawback, but against things where you want only one damage, this is actually really useful. The high amount of shots and the decent strength mean a shot should generally get through due to weight of dice.

As for the actual tangible differences between the weapons, the main one is the fact that the Shuriken Cannon is Assault. This means, if you’re feeling especially frisky, you can run it up the board with your Comms specialist close by and threaten juicy and fragile targets with a 2+ BS S6 weapon. It’s not really a common thing, but it can be cute. Meanwhile, the Scatter Laser is much more suited to just sitting in the back and spitting out 4 readied shots every shooting phase.

Take this against: Necrons (1 damage helps to get around their protocols), Harlequins (drown their invuln save in dice).

Starcannon

The Starcannon is the best of all worlds in terms of your choices. It comes with 2 shots, has a really good profile for wounding (S6, AP-3), and does D3 damage. The range is also respectable enough that you’re likely to be hitting most things on either a 3 or 4, and with two shots, you’re going to force that Injury Roll. It’s just an all-round good weapon for something like Kill Team. This is your default option unless you know you need something different.

Take this against: Pretty much everything but Necrons, you can’t go wrong with it.

Rangers

Rangers are sort of strange in Kill Team. They work very, very well as backline objective holders, able to just sit behind a terrain piece and plink random targets with a Sniper Rifle. You don’t rely on them to kill things (since you’ll generally be hitting and wounding on a 3 or 4, and they still get their armour save), but you might get lucky occasionally. They also have a very nice bonus of being -2 to hit when they’re obscured, which generally means they’ll be 6+ to hit.

Sadly though, if they do get hit, they’re generally going to crumple, they’re only T3 and have a 5+ save, and at 11 points per model, it might sting a little bit, especially if you’ve got nothing nearby to cap the objective. I’d consider taking 1 or 2 if you like to live a bit dangerously and have your backline and Leader be ‘vulnerable’.

Dire Avengers

This is your mid-range firepower unit. For 3 more points than a Guardian Defender, you get the following bonuses:

An extra point on your armour save.

An extra point of leadership (2 if you’re Biel-Tan)

An extra six inch range for the main gun.

Overwatch on 5+

Going for these versus Guardian Defenders is pretty much a value judgement, especially since most of the benefits aren’t things you can really use math to work out.

No matter what you pick between Guardians and Dire Avengers though, you definitely want to take an…

Exarch

This is the second unit that you’re limited to only one of, prior to Elites, this was also your ‘best’ melee unit. Let’s go through the loadouts.

Shimmershield and Power Glaive

For 5 points, you get access to a Power Glaive (S4, AP-2, 1 damage), which is a completely and utterly average melee weapon, and also a Shimmershield, which gives all Dire Avenger models within 2 inches of the Exarch a 5++. This is viable if you want to build a Dire Avenger blob for some godforsaken reason, and you’d be able to use your singular Plasma Grenade as a the Exarch’s ranged attack.

It’s not exactly a terrible loadout, but it’s completely underwhelming. It’s the least bad of the melee options, for what it’s worth.

Diresword and Shuriken Pistol

The Diresword is S3 but causes mortals on the roll of a 6. It’s also 1 damage. Pistols are absolute garbage in Kill Team. Pass on this.

Power Glaive and Shuriken Pistol

Once again, pass.

Twin Avenger Shuriken Catapults

For a grand total of 0 points. You can double the shooting output of your Dire Avenger Exarch by giving them another Avenger Shuriken Catapult. This is better than it being a twin weapon, because you can shoot both catapults at the same target (one after the other) and force a second injury roll. Or if the first gun puts them out of action, shoot the second gun at something else. It also works with the stratagem, allowing you to reroll misses on 4 shots. This essentially makes your Dire Avenger Exarch an absolute midrange monster, or you park them on an objective and have them hitting on 5s on overwatch.

Once again, as the icing on the cake; it costs 0 points. No, seriously. This is completely free.

If in any sort of doubt at all, take this upgrade.

Elites

Sound the good shit alarm, open the curtains and enjoy the sunshine, wake up from your long nightmare and find out the Fall never actually happened. Eldar finally get melee options, and they’re really good.

Howling Banshees

Howling Banshees are situationally useful, they can reroll charges and ignore overwatch, which pretty much allows them to get right up into any sort of castle and just disrupt their shooting for at least a turn. Their main drawbacks are pretty much the fact they’re not exactly great in melee, with a S/T of 3 and their weapons only doing 1 damage, which means a single Banshee might be able to flesh wound a single Guardsman each activation.

I’d only recommend taking 1 or 2 of these if you’re facing T’au or another extremely shooty army.

Exarch

On the other hand, this model is absolutely fantastic. You generally want her to be a Zealot specialist, giving her 4 attacks on the charge and raising her up to S4. Arm her with an Executioner, she’s up to S5, AP-3 and D3 damage. She will be able to absolutely blender almost anything you charge her at. With only Death Guard causing her some sort of ‘trouble’. Finally, she also makes enemies -1 to hit in close combat.

She’s a really good combat character and you should just always bring her, and while you only get one Howling Banshee Exarch, you can pair them up with the Striking Scorpion one. Speaking of them…

Striking Scorpions

Striking Scorpions are another distinctly average melee unit. They’re basically Reivers, but at the start of the Fight Phase, they can do a mortal wound on a 6. They also ignore hit penalties in the Fight Phase for being obscured, but well, they’re a 2 Attack, S4, 1 Damage fighter, not much to write home about.

I generally wouldn’t bring these, however once again, you can just skip these and go straight for…

Exarch

Firstly, the sole bit of bad news about this model. They’ll cost an eyewatering 21 points with the Scorpion’s Claw, but it’s worth it. Because there’s so much good news for this model, I’ll just go through a combat phase with the model and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Firstly, as soon as the Fight Phase BEGINS, you can choose a model within an inch of the Exarch, on a 6, they suffer a mortal wound. So, before the combat even begins, you have a ⅙ chance of either crippling the model with a flesh wound, or putting them out of action.

Once combat actually begins, the Exarch (which can be run as either Combat or Zealot), will get a massive 4 attacks. These will hit on 3+, even if there’s intervening terrain. Any rolls of 6 allow you to make an additional attack, which just makes this even better.

Now we get to the weapon. It doubles the Exarch’s strength, allowing them to operate at S6, wounding anything that’s T3 on a 2+. If you hate everyone and everything, make your Exarch a Zealot, boosting them to S8 on the charge, allowing you to wound everything but T5+ (so Death Guard and things that cost over 30 points) on a 2+. To sweeten the deal, it has -3AP AND D3 damage, so whatever you wound is generally going to go down.

The Biting Blade is the other option that you can run on the Exarch, it’s 4 points cheaper, gives +2 Strength, AP-1 and a flat 2 damage. It’s not a bad weapon at all, but it’s generally overshadowed by the Scorpion’s Claw. However, against T4 models with a low or invulnerable save (Orks), it’s a better option. As for Necrons, you can take the claw and just use the Chainsword if D3 damage scares you.

No matter what weapon you pick, this model is amazing. Just take it, you won’t regret it. Unless you decide to charge into a full Tau castle or something, in which case you deserve everything you get.

Wraithguard

Wraithguard are strong, tough, multi-wound models who bring incredibly powerful weapons to bear. Unfortunately, they’re relatively short range and extremely expensive – at 41 points, you can only bring two, and probably won’t want to bring more than one. It’s worth including one or two in your Roster, but whether you take them on any given game will depend on the mission and the type of game.

Weapon Options

o Wraithcannons are a bit unreliable due to the fact that they’re a single shot. However, if you land that shot, at d6 damage it’s likely to hurt. A lot. Unfortunately, Wraithguard are slow and don’t get Battle Focus, so getting close enough to use this gun might be tricky.

o D-Scythes are a great choice for Arena missions or other games using the Ultra-Close Confines rules. The Wraithguard’s relatively large base means that a lot of chargers will have to declare a charge against it as they won’t be able to move around it in hallways or small rooms, and the Point Blank Overwatch tactic will allow them to guarantee a shot even against chargers who come from around corners or from out of range. With d3 automatic hits at S10 AP-4, it’s a solid choice to deter charges and protect your more vulnerable units from melee threats.

Specialisms

o Heavy will let you advance and fire a wraithcannon without penalty, improving the model’s mobility. More Bullets is a way to mitigate the lower number of shots on a D-Scythe, pushing its average up to 3 hits rather than 2.

o Veteran makes it much less likely that your expensive Wraithguard will fail a nerve test, and will allow it to make a move before the first battle round, making it more likely to be able to fire without having to advance.

o Demolitions is next to worthless. Both of your weapons choices are S10, which means they already wound nearly everything in the game on a 2+.

Wraithblades are melee wraith constructs, clocking in at 36 points with ghostswords or a hefty 45 with a ghostaxe and forceshield. If a Wraithblade makes it into close combat, it’s going to do work. Given its cost, though, it may not be able to make up its points. Again, probably worth including one or two in your Roster, but using them will be situational and will depend on the mission and your opponent’s list.

Weapon Options

o Ghostswords give you an extra attack at S6. 1 damage means you’re not likely to kill, but if you are able to split its 3 (4 on the charge) attacks amongst a few opponents, you’re likely to hand out a couple of flesh wounds.

o The Ghostaxe and Forceshield offer stronger, more damaging attacks in exchange for a -1 penalty to hit together with a 4+ invulnerable save. The save is what you’re paying for, as it will increase the model’s durability against a lot of weapons that threaten it. Use this to tie up major threats from your opponent’s kill team, tank their attacks, and pay them back with interest.

Specialisms

Wraithblades can’t gain experience, but their level 1 traits and tactics could be useful. Probably not worth spending a specialist slot on, but depending on who else you’re bringing, consider Veteran.

o Veteran offers a great way to get this model across the board and get it stuck in closer where it can actually do something. As a bonus, not applying penalties to Nerve tests will help keep this expensive model in the fight longer.

o If you’re looking to increase its damage output, Combat is probably better than Zealot for most situations. With Ghostswords, moving from S6 to S7 isn’t particularly meaningful in Kill Team due to the rarity of units with T6 or T7. With the Ghostaxe, Zealot lets you hit S8 on the charge, allowing you to wound marines on 2+, but since you’re banking on the Forceshield to keep you in combat, you probably want the extra attack in every round.

Faction Tactics/Stratagems

Since GW hate Eldar in Kill Team, they never got a fancy box and thus never got any extra stratagems that could be put into Elites, so they get the default 6 and then a couple of Reserves-based Tactics in Elites. Hopefully this will change now that plastic Banshees have been released.

Matchless Agility (1CP)

Advance an automatic 6 inches instead of rolling the dice.

It’s okay I guess, for when you really, really need to get somewhere with a unit. B

Feigned Retreat (1CP)

Choose a model that just fell back, it can still shoot in the Shooting Phase.

This lets you pull some especially dirty tricks, like falling back a Storm Guardian or Dire Avenger Exarch (or god forbid, a Wraithguard) just a couple of inches from a scary melee character and popping this stratagem. The enemy model now has the options of falling back (and thus away from you), or staying where they are and getting shot in the face. B

Note: Do not try and be cute with this stratagem against a model armed with a powerful, short ranged gun. And especially don’t try and be cute against Harlequins or Lictors, you will instead be the one to get shot in the face and it will hurt.

Phantasm (2CP)

At the start of the first battle round, you can redeploy a single model.

You’re giving up any and all stratagems in the first round in order to use this. This might possibly be good if you’re literally Sun Tzu, otherwise, you’re gonna want to pass on this. D

Fire and Fade (1CP)

After a model has shot in the Shooting Phase, you can move them up to 7”

This also lets you be extremely cute, especially with capping/contesting objectives, especially when moving towards something that’s already shot, or something that can’t shoot. If you’re thinking about space control, just keep a CP available for this. A

Asurmen’s Blessing (1CP)

A single Dire Avenger can re-roll all failed hit rolls in the Shooting Phase.

Here’s a table on how much this improves your chance to hit for a single shot with a weapon. Keep in mind, the chances for Asurmen’s Blessing are going to be slightly lower because GW insists that re-rolls happen before modifiers. Yes, we all hate this.

Ballistic Skill Base Biel-Tan Asurmen’s Blessing 2+ 83.33% 97.22% 97.22% 3+ 66.67% 77.78% 88.89% 4+ 50% 58.33% 75.00% 5+ 33.33% 38.89% 55.56% 6+ 16.67% 19.44% 30.56%

Basically this is a good stratagem, unless you’re the type of person who uses their Comms Specialist to buff their Biel-Tan Dire Avenger Exarch, in which case you’re operating on a completely different plane of existence to the rest of us.

Basically use this when you really want your Exarch to hit something, or something involving a Dire Avenger throwing a Plasma Grenade. It’s good, you’ll know when to use it. A

Rune of Ynnead (2CP)

If a model would be taken out of action, roll a dice, on a 4+ it suffers a Flesh Wound instead.

2 CP to have a chance to not die, literally a worse version of the Marine stratagem, which doesn’t need a dice roll.

Thanks, I hate it. D

Rosters

Here’s a sample roster of 20 models that’ll keep you covered against most opponents, including the dreaded Necron.

Leader – Ranger

Leader – Storm Guardian

Comms – Guardian Defender

Combat – Striking Scorpion Exarch (Scorpion’s Claw)

Zealot – Howling Banshee Exarch (Executioner)

Zealot – Howling Banshee Exarch (Mirrorswords)

Heavy Weapon Platform (Starcannon)

Heavy Weapon Platform (Shuriken Cannon)

Storm Guardian Gunner (Flamer)

Storm Guardian Gunner (Flamer)

Storm Guardian Gunner (Fusion)

Storm Guardian Gunner (Fusion)

Ranger

Ranger

Guardian Defender

Dire Avenger/Guardian Defender

Dire Avenger/Guardian Defender

Dire Avenger Exarch (Twin Avenger Catapults)

Wraithguard (D-Scythe)

Wraithblade (Ghostaxe and Forceshield)

Typical Roster

Here’s the 100 points I’d bring against most armies, the things in italics is stuff I’d consider switching out against the weirder armies.

Leader – Ranger

Comms – Guardian Defender

Zealot – Howling Banshee Exarch (Executioner)

Combat – Striking Scorpion Exarch (Scorpion’s Claw)

Heavy Weapon Platform (Starcannon)

Dire Avenger Exarch (Twin Avenger Catapults)

Dire Avenger

Dire Avenger

I have excellent firepower at all ranges, a leader that can work at the backline and also chip in with some decent damage, and some utterly terrifying melee. I am living dangerously by having a single Guardian babying the Platform, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Playing Eldar

Play to your strengths – Each part of your army is really, really good at a specific thing. Whether that’s sitting at the back line and holding objectives, sitting at the back line and shooting things, sitting in the middle and holding objectives, or running forward and carving up anything they come near. Make sure you have the right model do the right thing.

Play to Objectives – . Half of your army is good at killing things and forcing them off objectives. Dire Avenger Exarchs are your most durable model, and things also really, really hate to charge them. So just park them on something and dare them to come to you, while picking off their good stuff.

Abuse your movement – You will not outfight a really good melee army (but you can make them suffer), and you won’t outshoot a good gunline army. But you’re more mobile than either of them, by far. With judicious stratagem usage and/or lucky dice rolls, you can move up to 20 inches in a single turn, 7 of which is in the shooting phase. You can just get on an objective or in a critical point really, really fast.

Playing Against Eldar

The best tactic to deal with Eldar is to kill their high value targets, you’ll need to assess which of them is going to be the scariest and work down the list, while also neutering their objective holders.

Heavy Weapon Platform – While the actual platform puts out horrifying levels of firepower, it has two weaknesses:

It requires a Guardian to function. If you’re able to charge and kill them, then the platform is useless. The platform itself isn’t really that tough, it does have a 3+ save, but it’s T3. A single overcharged plasma shot has a good chance of putting it out of action.

Striking Scorpion + Howling Banshee Exarch – Try and shoot them. they do NOT have invulnerable saves, so once again, overcharged Plasma can completely ruin their day. You can charge them, but they both have things that make them annoying to fight in close combat (Mandiblasters and War Shout).

Dire Avenger Exarch – This guy has a 4++, I’d recommend drowning them in dice. They are absolutely the hardest model to kill in the Eldar roster though.

Objective Holders – Indirect fire + high volume of shots works very well against Rangers, you’re likely to be hitting on a 6 anyway, but anything that get through should wound, and their save is paper.

Storm Guardian Flamer/D-Scythe Wraithguard – Charge these guys from out of line of sight to get around their obscene overwatch.

In conclusion: Shoot the melee, charge the backline, do whatever you’re good at against the mid-range.

Collecting an Eldar Kill Team

Option 1: Ebay the models you need.

This is easy, buy paint stripper as well.

Option 2: I want to buy GW.

You will not enjoy this in any way, shape or form. However, on the bright side, by the time you’re done, you can just add a Farseer, and either 3 Wave Serpents or 3 Planes and go top table in 2017:

Dire Avengers – Buy the Box

Guardian Defenders – Buy the Box or find a copy of Wake the Dead to get that, Wraith Host units, and a Spiritseer (in case you ever want to play Commanders), you also get the Wave Serpent, the greatest vehicle ever made (which you can’t use in Kill Team).

Rangers – Buy the Resin kit.

Striking Scorpion Exarch – Guess what? Resin kit.

Guardian Storm Squad – Hey, it’s your good friend. A Resin Kit.

Howling Banshee Exarch – Re- Nope! You can get plastic Banshees. From the new box which is £140.

Wraithguard/Wraithblades – If you didn’t get Wake the Dead, gotta buy this box.

Final Thoughts

You may think I’ve been ragging on Eldar in this writeup, and you’d be right to think so. They were disappointing at launch, received no support from Games Workshop since, and building an Eldar Kill Team was an exercise in frustration. However, right now they’re still in a really fun place–when your units work, they work, and it feels really good to zip around the battlefield and just annihilate stuff. You’ll get that nice, tingly feeling of smug accomplishment, and then someone will go “lol they’re overpowered just like in 40k” and it’ll all be worth it.