Overview
An In-depth guide covering the Eldar faction for multiplayer including commanders and their wargear, global abilities as well as some of the main strengths and weakness of each unit. It also contains some standard tactics, build orders and a few tricks n’ tips.
About This Guide
Word of Warning
This guide is long, like long-long-long so unless you really want to know about the eldar faction it’s best to find any specific section which you might be interested in or skip this guide.
The guide starts off with an introduction explaining the strengths and weakness of the Eldar faction as a whole. It then goes onto briefly explaining each commander as well as all the eldar global abilities.
The following sections will explain each commander, their starting playstyle(suggestion), and wargear options available. Following this will be a brief section on each eldar unit available as well as tactics you can employ.
This is followed by a build orders section which has a list of the potential builds as well as going into some detail on each race and suggesting a build order to counter them. Finally a section listing some of the tricks eldar are capable of and the guides conclusion.
Note: The guide attempts to keep a general view leaving the choice in the players hands yet will attempt to point out why one upgrade or squad is better suited to the situation. Sections such as tactics and build orders are mostly kept to the tier 1 squads as you gain many extra options during the latter tech tiers and there are too many variables to condense into one guide.
Introduction
An eldar force is made up of squads highly dedicated to their respective roles and will often perform very well although this comes at the cost of low versatility. Most units often focus on speed and high damage with units starting out weak and gaining modest durability through upgrades or support abilities, they also tend to operate in a more unique manner than that of other faction counterparts.
Eldar units are fairly cost-effective with most squads having a moderate cost in requisition, power and time to build while having a modest upkeep level. The majority of costs will come from squad upgrades (often durability/ability unlock focused) and for reinforcing squads that have taken model loss.
Eldar units often scale well with levelling up and upgrades while being able to recruit some very powerful endgame squads such as D-Cannon and Avatar and therefore the player should aim to steadily advance through the tech tree to keep their army updated and gain access to the higher tier squads (not always a priority but often a game changer).
In order to achieve this a player will have to watch their economy, as you have a modest upkeep level you’ll get a fairly decent resource income if your able to hold some power and requisition points. While initial squad recruitment costs are moderate, wargear and squad upgrades can add up leaving you with a smaller steady income with which to advance through the tiers and recruit new squads.
This brings us to an eldar armies main weakness, bleeding (model loss/replacement). If the player is constantly having to replace lost models they will struggle to gain the resources needed to advance through the tiers and unlock their advanced units. As eldar units are often highly specialised and of weaker durability you may find it hard to counter an enemy if your unable to purchase certain squads or keep up with the tech level of your enemy.
A good eldar player will thus aim to use their dedicated squads in combination to take full advantage of their units higher damage and speed capabilities (and to a lesser extent, although just as effective, stealth effects when available) in order to punish the enemy and keep your squads relatively safe. Ability use is also a very important aspect of playing an eldar army as most can work well between different unit types allowing squads to attack at minimal risk or protect each other from taking large damage. It can also allow you to create powerful kill setups when timed correctly.
Commanders and Global Abilities
Introduction
This section briefly covers each eldar commander and their specific global abilities as well as the universal eldar global abilities every eldar hero has access to. The following sections will cover each hero and their wargear in further detail.
Universal Eldar Global Abilities
Summon Webway Gate (75 Red) T1
All webway gates will allow the player and his allies to enter with multiple squads which cannot be attacked once inside and can unload at any other webway gates owned by the player.
All webway’s will remain stealthed but can be detected if an enemy squad wonders too close or by detector units.
Summon Autarch (150 Red, 350 Requisition, 50 Power [150 Red Re-Deploy]) T2
This summons the eldar secondary commander, the autarch is a single model squad described in the units overview section (Tier 2 Units).
Once tier 2 with sufficient resources the player may summon the autarch onto the battlefield in a rather unique way. Once the ability is selected off the global bar you need to click on the battlefield 5 times, first is a large circle and this will be where the commander herself appears causing knockback to nearby enemy units. The player can then select 4 target locations within a radius of the autarch drop point (the first place you clicked) to drop 4 plasma grenades in consecutive small intervals allowing you to precisely hit multiple targets (assuming they don’t move or you timed it correctly).
So once you have selected the commanders drop point and the 4 grenade locations your commander will drop in soon after the grenades start to fall now acting as a normal squad although with a unique ability. Once deployed the autarch has an ability which will ‘return’ it to the global abilities bar allowing you to re-deploy her at the cost of 150 Red in the same method you originally summoned her.
She will not cost any requisition/power to re-deploy and keep all weapon upgrades and experience, also not taking up population/upkeep while absent from the field of battle.
Note: If she died like any other squad the player is able to summon in a new autarch though at original cost and without any upgrade or experience (it’s a new squad now).
Eldritch Storm (500 Red) T3
This global borders between lackluster and decent while being best used vs vehicles or at critical points in an engagement. Either missing targets completely or wiping a few infantry squads at best this global finds most use vs vehicles (especially one surrounded by infantry) as its bolts can immobilize a vehicle it manages to strike setting it up for a kill and stopping it from escaping while forcing retreats or killing nearby supporting infantry.
This ability can work successfully vs infantry but requires good timing in combination with other abilities and a bit of luck such as timing it to strike the enemy HQ as their whole retreating army arrives, or combining with another eldar ability such as the Warp Spider Exarchs tier 3 phase armour upgrade ability.
Note: Ultimate 500 Red ‘nuke’ globals are also effective at protecting Victory Points from being captured in the critical end game battles.
Commander – Warlock (WL)
A relatively strong melee psyker with good support/damage spells and disruptive attacks
Enemies will be wary when fighting a warlock as his AoE attacks and disruption can cause heavy damage while himself being a formidable melee threat with strong support globals. The WL can start to enhance himself from tier 1 although tier 2 contains more potent and powerful accessories and a large melee weapon based disruption ability. Tier 3 contains an expensive armour upgrade which will dramatically boost his ability usage allowing him to remain a threat even at end game. The WL has no anti-vehicle weapon upgrade.
Warlock Specific Globals
Webway Gate (75 Red), [Holo-Field Ability] (Free) T1
Affects all friendly units helping to keep allied forces as well as your own topped up on health allowing them to get back into the fight faster.
Swift Movement (75 Red) T1
This global boosts the speed of all allied infantry for a short duration at a fairly low Red cost.
A highly effective ability which will increase the effectiveness of an eldar force when used correctly and can aid allies when needed. Good for quickly getting squads in position/closing with an enemy, stopping an enemy from out manoeuvring your force or more commonly for retreat kills (especially effective on a fully upgraded banshee with fleet of foot or other speed modifier allowing them to keep up with a retreating enemy squad and wipe them out).
Distort Field (75 Red) T1
Selected allied infantry squad will take reduced ranged damage for a modest duration at a fairly low Red cost.
A very powerful ability when facing heavy ranged fire this global allows a single friendly squad to take minimal ranged damage. Good for keeping an important squad in the fight or advancing on an enemy with a melee squad such as banshee when up against ranged focus fire. Also good for saving a wounded retreating squad from ranged fire which would of otherwise killed the squad.
Continued
Commander – Warp Spider Exarch (WSE)
A hero with good ranged/melee balance, high mobility and some very good support upgrades although not the most durable.
Most players will learn to dread fighting a good WSE as his effectiveness at moving around the map capturing points or finishing off wounded squads becomes apparent. The WSE scales fairly well and will find usefulness throughout all three tiers with only one, but a very strong tier 3 support upgrade. The WSE can gain modest anti-vehicle weaponry and is good for vehicle chasing.
WSE Specific Globals
Webway Gate (75 Red), [Holo-Field Ability] (Free) T1
Affects all friendly units and helps squads with high energy usage greatly by keeping their energy pool filled up allowing the squad to keep dishing out the abilities.
Crack Shot (50 Red) T1
This global ability temporarily boosts the ranged damage of a selected friendly squad at a relatively low Red cost.
A situational ability best used to help finish off a wounded enemy squad with ranged damage (such as a teleporting warp spider squad/WSE), giving a large damage boost to a squad such as rangers when trying to kill a high value target such as an IG sentinel (often catching an enemy by surprise at the large amount of damage his squad is taking). It can also, to a lesser extent, be used for turning the tables in a ranged engagement or just giving your army some higher ranged firepower in an engagement as every bit helps.
Spider’s Brood (350 Req, 200 Red) T2
Summon a normal squad of warp spiders at the targeted location after a few seconds, described in the units overview section (Tier 2 Units)
When looking at global abilities that will summon in a normal HQ squad you must look at the advantages of going via global instead of HQ. The HQ WS is 440Req/40Power and takes 30seconds to build while the global WS is only 350req (90 cheaper), has no power cost and is essentially built instantly at your chosen location however it comes with a relatively pricey 200 Red cost which may have been better used on other global abilities.
Commander – Farseer (FS)
A moderately durable psyker who can upgrade with a large variety of support abilities and can gain a decent melee attack through upgrades.
While most players may not fear the farseer herself as an unstoppable juggernaut they will definitely learn to respect the large amount of support abilities and the difficulty in dealing with all her tricks. The FS scales well throughout all the tiers and has an especially powerful tier 3 support upgrade. The FS can gain modest anti-vehicle weaponry.
Farseer Specific Globals
Webway Gate (75 Red), [Holo-Field Ability] (Free) T1
Works well with any friendly units allowing for sneak attacks and quickly closing with an enemy unnoticed, while less effective vs armies with a detector on hand the speed boost alone can be a great advantage.
Farsight (50 Red) T1
Reveals a relatively large area of the map for a fairly long time while also detecting infiltrated units at a low Red cost.
A situational powerup best used in combination with the farseers ‘guide’ ability. If an enemy vehicle is on low health and escaping from an engagement use this powerup to gain sight of it while also giving the guide effect to your artillery or anti-vehicle squad such as brightlance or D-Cannon platform and watch as their vehicle blows up.
Also usable for countering a stealth squad when a detector isn’t available such as an enemy using an infiltrated squad to (de)cap a point while two armies are in stalemate or if you know a high threat stealth squad is getting in position to do great damage to your force (e.g. stealth slugga or melta stormtroopers).
Summon Seer Council (600 Req, 300 Red) T3
Instantly summons a seer council at your HQ, further described in the units overview section (Tier 3 Units)
A squad unique to the farseer which comprises of several warlocks, this adds some extra melee potential to the eldar army as well as a fairly deadly squad effective vs smaller tougher infantry squads. The squad cost no power but has a high requisition price tag and moderate red cost making it more of a situational global as those resources may be better spent on other units.
Warlock (WL)
Tier 1 Playstyle
Starting Abilities
Destructor
Fleet of Foot
Of all the eldar heroes, the warlock is the most ‘direct’ in the early game. Due to his starting ability destructor he excels vs any enemy who uses squads with weak mass models such as chaos heretics or ork shooter yet isn’t put off by tougher enemies. Ontop of his ranged AoE damage bolt, he also has a chance to do a special AoE melee attack which does sizeable damage.
Use his fleet of foot ability to quickly seek out these mass model squads at the start of the game and hit them with the bolt attack while they’re still busy capturing points (on smaller maps). Use him to tie up ranged squads and don’t be afraid to fight melee squads (try and hit them with destructor early on when you have the best chance to hit) but watch your heroes HP, you’ll essentially want to try and get him to hit the melee with the special AoE attack which will do large damage/knockback (and kill many models if wounded, hence using destructor as well)
Generally avoid other melee heroes as you may be ineffective or nearer stalemate, while potentially outclassed by some early on but ranged and weaker melee heroes are still a viable target however squads with several models is the preferred enemy due to the AoE special attack.
Tier 1 Wargear Options
In T1 the WL has many strong upgrades available, immolators ability excels vs player built turrets and units in buildings (best to not depend on this for building clearance alone, only weaker mass model squads will be truly threatened by this ability) as well as large groups of troops such as ork ‘shooter blobs’. It will work very well vs most weaker model squads or for forcing disruption at range as the enemy separates their troops/moves out of the flames.
Note: With a well placed destructor and immolate ability you can wipe a full health weak mass model squad such as heretics which doesn’t have a leader/durability upgrade.
A ranged attack of sorts is also available via the merciless witchblade upgrade which will allow his ranged attacks to cause knockback, perfect for ranged harass/disruption or disabling an enemy commander while your army focus fires. This weapon also increases his melee threat level, especially vs other heroes and tougher targets such as space marine or chaos units due to higher damage and energy draining melee attacks.
The other major wargear of note in T1 is the channeling runes, this adds very good synergy with banshees as it can keep them up vs early game focus fire that little bit longer letting you win some engagements you may have had to retreat from or allowing them to engage tougher melee opponents which would of inflicted a fair bit of damage. These are good for healing up any squad but may be best used on banshee or keeping a platform up as the enemy tries to whittle its health down (such as grenades which don’t kill any models, but severely weaken them).
He also has access to the champion’s robe armour aimed at increasing his durability by giving him a toggle shield which will drain energy instead of health.
Weapons
Immolator
Merciless Witchblade
Armour
Champion’s Robe
Accessory
Channeling Runes
Continued
Tier 2 Wargear Options
T2 will see the warlock gaining access to his best disruption abilities in the form of the witchblade of kurnous and warp throw accessory, while both excellent for disruption both work best in different situations. Heart of darkness accessory is now available for purchase which will help the WL to stay on the field and keep letting lose the abilities. A more uncommon but no less effective armour which will allow him to stealth nearby allied units gives the WL an extra trick up his sleeve.
Weapons
Witchblade of Kurnous
Armour
Cloak of Shadows
Note: Affects all nearby allies including vehicles and the whole squad will gain the conceal effect as long as one model is within the radius of the ability.
Accessory
Warp Throw
Heart of Darkness
Excellent for letting the WL stay on the field of battle, making him last much longer and allowing him the energy needed to keep dishing out the abilities.
Tier 3 Wargear Options
The warlock is mainly built as a tier 2 hero however he gains access to the providence armour once T3 is unlocked, this provides an ability which enables him to effectively spam any other abilities he currently has turning him into a high threat powerhouse for a short time allowing him to keep true to his disruption and damage role. The armour is expensive however and you may find the WL works just as well using T1/2 wargear while the 100 power is better spent on other powerful eldar T3 squads, but when the battle has escalated into an end game stance and resources are available this armour helps the WL stay in the fight.
Armour
Providence
Note: He can still be suppressed or suffer knockback during the abilities duration but makes a great VP (de)capping unit for contested VP nodes at the end game if the enemy hasn’t any knockback on hand.
Warp Spider Exarch (WSE)
Tier 1 Playstyle
Starting Abilities
Teleport
The WSE excels at early game due to his high mobility and fairly high ranged damage, while his melee attack is not particularly deadly this early on he has a special attack chance which does AoE knockback to all enemy units around him with sizeable damage.
Use him to hunt/harass squads with weaker models unable to take the WSE head on such as space marine scouts and chaos heretics. You can also try and get lucky with a melee special attack (especially vs the tougher ranged or melee squads) but don’t count on it. He’s excellent for tying up enemy ranged squads and weapons teams in melee but don’t expect him to stand long in melee vs a dedicated melee squad or high damage/durability ranged squad such as chaos space marines.
Due to his great mobility from the teleport ability he also makes a great capture unit, allowing you to (de)cap enemy points behind their front lines forcing them to redirect heavier squads to hunt the WSE. Teleport heroes are also very good at finishing off near dead squads as they are able to keep up with the retreating units so keep this in mind. The WSE is not the most durable of units and should be kept in cover for ranged engagements when possible, the player should always keep an eye on his health.
On maps with important buildings the WSE can also use his teleport to quickly get to and garrison it allowing you to effectively gain control of that area.
Tier 1 Wargear Options
The WSE leans more towards being a ranged hero with good melee, this is shown with the wargear available to him.
He can gain a ranged on demand damage boost with knockdown attack to boot by upgrading with the heavy gauge death spinner weapon allowing him to beat many other ranged heroes and stop most melee ones in their tracks although the ability is energy hungry and will allow him less teleports if used for long periods or often.
He has access to a very powerful support ability once upgraded with improved warp generator armour allowing use of the group teleport ability, perfect for surprising an enemy or getting ahead to finish off wounded squads. It also boosts his health and most importantly his maximum energy pool.
Last but not least he can passively add to his ranged damage by upgrading with improved targeters turning him into a high damage ranged threat which is not so easily caught up by melee.
Weapon
Heavy Gauge Death Spinner
Armour
Improved Warp Generator
The Group teleport ability will teleport all nearby friendly infantry to a point of your choosing with a fairly long cast time/cooldown and high energy cost.
Potential Uses
- Attacking from unexpected direction
- Bypassing entrenched positions
- Teleporting reinforcement squads into a fight
- Positioning key squads to where they’re needed
- Teleporting ahead of a wounded squad to finish them off
Note: All units will teleport to the location in a very tight group with a marker showing where they will appear shortly before arrival allowing the enemy to completely wipe you out if they have grenades or other powerful attacks handy.
Accessory
Improved Targeters
Continued
Tier 2 Wargear Options
There are many strong upgrades to consider once you achieve tier 2 opening up many different opportunities depending on what situations your facing.
Your able to increase the WSE’s teleporting ability further with a new amour upgrade boosting his effectiveness at (de)capping enemy points and chasing wounded squads.
You will now have access to powerblades giving the WSE a decent melee attack which is also effective vs vehicles or simply go for entangling web giving your hero the ability to immobilize an enemy squad, excellent support for a ranged focused army or simply allowing your banshee a chance to catch their prey.
He also now has access to some good accessory upgrades such as shimmer orb which has good melee synergy or just protecting your army from powerful enemy attacks not forgetting the anti-grav grenade which can be useful for halting a melee charge or disabling the enemy army.
Weapon
Entangling Web
Powerblades
Note: His special melee attack will now affect friendly units as well as enemy squads.
Armour
Enhanced Warp Jump Generator
Accessory
Shimmer Orb
Potential Uses
- Stopping ranged fire, throw the orb infront or on a ranged army and freely move your army/melee towards them
- Supporting melee, units inside the orb will be unable to use abilities or fire ranged weapons on your melee allowing them to freely slaughter enemy units inside (beware enemy melee can return the favour)
- Protecting your army, the orb can protect your army from abilities and powerful ranged attacks such as grenades and artillery ontop of stopping standard ranged fire. For instance throw the orb and keep your army inside and watch as the manticores barrage doesn’t even scratch your armour
- Allowing you to point capture safely from enemy ranged squads, can allow the capture of a crucial VP when a stalemate or endgame fight is on the go
Anti-Grav Grenade
Tier 3 Wargear Options
The WSE can thrive even in the end game due to his powerful tier 2 support abilities and his tier 3 armour which has great synergy with other T3 eldar squads such as D-Cannon and Avatar.
Armour
Phase Armour
Potential Uses
- Ability nuke, with careful timing you can give abilities normally easy to avoid such as grenades a 100% hit chance
- Protecting/Saving your squad, if the enemy is attempting to finish off one of your wounded squads you can freeze them allowing your squad time to escape or freeze your own troops allowing the enemies abilities and attacks to do no damage while your army remains frozen
- Chasing an enemy squad, if the enemy squad is escaping on low health you can freeze them and allow a potent retreat killer such as banshees to catch up and finish them off once the ability runs out
- Positioning, you can freeze the enemy army allowing you to get your army into the best possible attack position such as setting up weapons teams and getting banshee into melee range
- Point capture, when it’s crunch time and every VP counts you can freeze the enemy units watching over a VP allowing another squad to ‘free capture’ or de-cap the VP giving you the lead
Farseer (FS)
Tier 1 Playstyle
Starting Abilities
Guide
Fleet of Foot
The FS is geared more towards being a support melee hero and thus operates best with other eldar squads than charging in alone, ultimately she will be viewed more as an annoyance than an imminent danger at the start of the game (though the enemy will focus her if an opportunity presents itself). She starts with an adequate melee attack with the chance at doing an AoE knockback melee special attack which does sizeable damage. She also starts with a very powerful support ability called Guide which boosts the range and damage of a friendly squad.
She works well for tying up enemy ranged squads and has the fleet of foot ability to quickly close with/chase enemies. Her melee special attack makes her fairly decent for engaging enemy melee but beware as she isn’t all that durable and you should watch her health when in combat. Generally fighting other melee commanders is to be avoided though she works well for tying up ranged heroes in melee.
Early on use her guide ability to let your starting guardian squad harass out of range of enemy guns or dealing high damage in early engagements while tying up any high threat squads to your army in melee. She can hold her own vs most other squads when roaming alone but once again beware of dedicated melee as her health isn’t all that high.
She becomes much more dangerous once you’ve built up your starting force, having especially good synergy with the shuriken weapons team (should the matchup require it), or once she has acquired some wargear giving additional abilities.
Tier 1 Wargear Options
The farseer has many wargear options at the start of the game and it is tempting to fully kit her out during tier 1 though you should only get what you need unless resources are fairly abundant.
Your able to increase the melee effectiveness of the FS by equipping the doombringer although you’d get this upgrade mainly for the doom ability which is excellent for putting on high threat/value targets or setting up kills.
She also has access to two different armours, fortune which boosts her own durability and allows her to give on demand defense bonus to another friendly squad or rune armour which greatly boosts her energy potential and helps for supporting your army when multiple abilities are available for use.
Last but not least two very good accessories are available for purchase, spirit stones which works well with any friendly infantry units (especially melee such as banshee) or ghosthelm for helping neutralise high threat squads such as enemy commanders by suppressing and dealing damage to them.
Weapon
Doombringer
Armour
Armour of Fortune
Rune Armour
Accessory
Spirit Stones
Ghosthelm
Continued
Tier 2 Wargear Options
While having most support upgrades available during tier 1, the FS is able to up her melee potential by gaining access to two new weapon upgrades. One adds a potent melee attack effective vs vehicles in the form of the singing spear while gravity blade gives her an extra control effect ontop of boosting her anti-infantry melee damage.
There is also the option of getting the runes of reaping should you have skipped the rune armour upgrade and need to increase the FS’s energy potential.
Weapon
Singing Spear
Gravity Blade
Note: Works during point capture making the FS excellent at (de)capping a VP protected by melee alone however you cannot retreat while using the ability and are vulnerable to ranged focus.
Accessory
Runes of Reaping
Tier 3 Wargear Options
Tier 3 gives the FS access to her most powerful ability, time field, through the armour of asuryan wargear upgrade. This ability has a big impact on the game and proves very effectively when hunting enemy vehicles but is no less effective vs other unit types.
Armour
Armour of Asuryan
Potential Uses
- Disabling important enemy squads, use the timefield on important enemies to keep them out of the fight while the field holds allowing you to deal with more immediate threats
- Vehicle killing, while infantry can retreat out of the field vehicles will have to take the damage or try and escape however with careful placement the only escape route will be towards your anti-vehicle attacks leaving them stuck between a rock and a hard place
- Forcing retreats, more often than not if the enemy has squads stuck inside the timefield they will be forced to retreat (especially if the farseer has artillery/heavy ranged or setting up for a kill with a squad such as banshee)
- Ability Combo, the timefield is the FS way of doing combo attacks with other eldar units, with careful timing your able to give abilities such as D-Cannon’s singularity or grenades a better chance to hit an enemy
- Point Capture, by placing time field on enemy units guarding a point you gain some time to (de)cap a point or driving off the defenders while they’re disabled
- Protecting retreating squads, as it stops enemies from attacking/using abilities you can use it on waiting melee attempting to butcher your weakened squads as they run past or to stop a ranged squad who are attempting to wipe yours out with a grenade
- Advancing on a fortified position, if well timed you can move on a fortified position without taking any damage.. but beware you don’t run into your own timefield or you might find yourself staring down the barrel of a devastator as the timefield dissipates!
Unit Overview Introduction
The following section lays out the main strengths and weakness of each squad divided into the relative tech tiers as well as any points of note. These are more focused on specific problems a squad may face or quality they are particularly good at and will often not mention obvious things such as a vehicle being vulnerable to anti-tank weaponry or a melee squad being easily countered by a suppression weapons team.
Tier 1 Units
Guardian
Weak-moderate durability ranged unit with high sustained ranged damage
+ High ranged damage
+ Scales well with leveling and upgrades
+ Can gain the plasma grenade ability with battle equipment upgrade
+ Can gain the ability to create energy shields which grant perfect cover once battle equipment upgrade purchased
+ Can gain movement speed boost with fleet of foot ability once upgraded with battle equipment upgrade
+ Can break suppression with Embolden ability once warlock leader upgraded
– Models start out very weak
– Vulnerable to some AoE attacks, especially without upgrades
– Vulnerable to very high ranged damage from weapons like assault cannons
Banshee
Modest durability melee squad with high damage
+ Very good damage with special knockback attack chance
+ Excellent for killing enemy squads in retreat
+ Can suppress enemy infantry nearby when upgraded with aspect
+ Can gain movement speed boost with fleet of foot ability once upgraded with aspect
+ Soft AV when fully upgraded with aspect and exarch leader upgrades
+ Scales immensely well with upgrades, leveling and support abilities
– Vulnerable to ranged/focus fire
– Models are fairly weak until upgrades are purchased
– Models are moderately durable but cannot stand up to a prolonged fight vs dedicated melee without taking heavy damage unless supported correctly
Note: When fully upgraded fleet of foot will also reduce ranged damage taken by 50%
Shuriken Platform
One of the best suppression teams, a robotic platform with 3 operators
+ Reliable, doesn’t often suffer from having the lead member killed or single target knockback (thus needing to setup again in order to continue firing) and can cover the area chosen unless hit by significant knockbacks
+ Solid suppression team with good damage/fire rate
– Models are weaker than some and can be more vulnerable to damage/AoE attacks
– No upgrades, while being a very good suppression team it doesn’t have the ability to upgrade itself as other races can
– Vulnerable to high mobility units (teleport/jumpers) which can close distance fast
– Requires time to setup/become mobile while having a limited firing arc once setup
Note: The squad will die when all 3 operators are dead, the robotic platform cannot die until all of its operators have died
Ranger (Stealth Detector Squad)
A relatively weak slow firing ranged squad with a very high damage attack vs infantry
+ Good ranged burst fire able to kill most infantry models in 1 hit
+ Excellent for hit and run attacks
+ Good for dealing with units in buildings
+ Good support starting with an on demand knockback ability and can provide AoE stealth field when upgraded
+ Can stealth when upgraded
+ Can gain movement speed boost with fleet of foot ability once upgraded
+ Detector squad
– Weak to most damage sources
– Can be vulnerable to powerful targeted attacks such as grenades when setup
– Vulnerable to high mobility units (teleport/jumpers) which can close distance fast
– Fast vehicles such as transports can hunt rangers down effectively
– Slow firing rate
Tier 2 Units
Brightlance Platform
+ Reliable, doesn’t often suffer from having the lead member killed (thus needing to be setup again in order to continue firing) and can cover the area chosen unless hit by significant knockbacks
+ Solid anti vehicle squad with good range/damage/fire rate
– Models are weaker than some and can be more vulnerable to damage/AoE attacks
– Vulnerable to any infantry entering melee
– Attack is ineffective vs infantry except for super heavy units such as terminators
– Requires time to setup/become mobile while having a limited firing arc once setup
Note: Has higher damage than other factions anti-vehicle weapons team but no snare effect
Falcon Grav Tank
+ Excellent weaponry providing soft AV and effective anti-infantry attack
+ Can upgrade with a shield at tier 3 greatly increasing durability
+ Acts as a reinforcement point
+ Can garrison friendly squads
– Fairly weak until upgraded
– Cannot be upgraded until tier 3
– Slower than most other transports
Wraithguard
Walking artillery squad with high damage good vs all targets it can hit
+ Attack good vs all target types
+ Can suppress a target it hits directly/repeatedly
+ Mobile, doesn’t require a setup time
+ Can heal itself with a tier 3 upgrade
– Vulnerable to any unit entering in melee, especially dedicated melee squads
– Vulnerable to melee retreat kills, due to their slower speed even in retreat most dedicated melee can often keep pace and slaughter the wraithguard
– Will become stunned if a nearby psyker who provides wraithsight dies
– Slow moving
– Attack has a fairly long cast/reload time
Note: Moves faster when psykers which can give the wraithsight ability such as warlocks or farseer are nearby
Wraithlord
A Walker vehicle providing a strong melee attack good vs infantry and vehicles, with anti-infantry or anti-vehicle ranged upgrades
+ Good melee attack vs all target types, especially adapt fighting mass infantry due to splash damage attack
+ Has ranged upgrade options good vs infantry or vehicles
+ Can self repair with a T3 upgrade ability and gain a passive HP regen
+ Ranged upgrade doesn’t take away melee effectiveness
+ One of the most cost effective walker vehicles
– Has no starting abilities
– Weak vs tanks and other AV kiting units
– Highly vulnerable to dedicated anti-vehicle/chasers
Note: Works best when supported by multiple guardians who can support and repair
Warp Spider
A high mobility heavy ranged damage squad which is fairly weak
+ Teleport ability allowing high mobility
+ Good harass/chase unit
+ High ranged attack damage vs infantry
+ Can be upgraded to grant haywire grenade ability which disables a vehicles weapons and slows movement
+ With exarch upgrade can gain decent melee damage and an AoE knockback special attack
– Vulnerable to ranged/focus fire
– Vulnerable to very high ranged damage from weapons like assault cannons
– Cannot survive in a prolonged melee fight or vs dedicated melee squads
– Must stand still to fire, cannot fire on the move
Autarch
A secondary commander which provides excellent support
+ Very fast able to passively jump over many low obstacles
+ Provides a passive aura to nearby friendly units reducing ranged damage taken
+ Can jump at a target point knocking back any enemy infantry on land
+ Can restore the hp/energy of friendly squads near the targeted jump point upon landing
+ Can gain good damage/durability increase through upgrades
+ Good for killing garrisoned or retreating enemies via grenade drop
+ Inspires nearby allied units when performing a kill increasing their damage/lowering suppression received
– Single model fairly weak to focus fire or strong enemy squads
– Highly susceptible to single target attacks which may disable or do high damage
Tier 3 Units
Fire Prism
A fragile battletank with an attack that can switch between a small AoE anti-infantry or a focused beam against hardened targets
+ Can change its role on the go to fight infantry or enemy vehicle
+ AoE knockback attack when in dispersed beam mode
+ Good AV attack when in focused beam mode
+ Long range attack
– Fairly low durability
– No durability upgrades
Note: This tank is unable to take extensive damage and should be kept at maximum range for excellent fire support.
D-Cannon Platform
Possibly the best artillery ingame acting in a similar manner to other weapons platforms
+ Solid artillery squad with very good range/damage
+ Long range attack
+ Has the singularity ability when setup allowing for high Area damage/disruption
+ Attack good vs all target types
+ Works well with other abilities and for point defense
– Requires time to setup/become mobile while having a limited firing arc once setup
– Fairly long fire/recharge rate
– Vulnerable to any units entering melee, especially dedicated melee squads
– Ability has a long cast time
Note: (Bug)Sometimes gets stuck once setup and must be retreated before you can reposition
Seer Council
A formidable modest durability melee psyker squad able to do high damage in melee with decent disruption special attacks
+ Good attack/damage
+ Excellent at locking down a single model or small squad
+ Special charge ‘leap’ attack which does knockback from each model
+ Can gain movement speed boost using fleet of foot ability
+ Passively boosts energy regen for nearby friendly squads and ?reduces suppression received?
– No upgrades
– Vulnerable to most anti-melee tactics especially knockdown
– Vulnerable to heavy damage/focus fire
Avatar
Super unit with very high durability, a good melee attack and some large disruption/damage abilities
+ Highly durable
+ Good melee attack
+ The Wailing Doom, cone shaped ability with high damage and large knockback
+ Khaine’s Wraith, proximity ability with moderate damage and large knockback in a small radius around the avatar
+ Provides an aura to nearby squads which increases damage, reduces ranged damage taken and grants suppression immunity
+ Works well with other abilities and for point defense
– Abilities have a large cast time making them relatively easy to avoid
– Vulnerable to kiting or with no support
Tactics Introduction
The following section covers some basic eldar tactics commonly employed to deal with most enemy forces. These tactics only take into account tier 1 squads both of your own and the enemy, many more options open up in the later tiers and you shouldn’t feel limited to the suggested gameplay but instead be aware of what your able to do.
Tactics Part 1
Dealing with enemy suppression (Tier 1)
Eldar have a powerful early counter to suppression in the form of rangers, a squad equipped with sniper rifles that can do a knockback ability attack and stealth once upgraded (both of which work well in combination with other eldar units). They also have easy access to grenades once a relatively cheap upgrade on their guardian squads has been purchased.
Using Rangers
These rather unique infantry have a long range high damage attack with a slow firing rate, perfect for hit and run attacks on stationary targets such as heavy weapon teams(HWT) where they can remain outside of their enemies firing range. To aid to their effectiveness they can gain stealth abilities once upgraded making sure that HWT will eventually be forced to withdraw or be destroyed.
If theres a more immediate need to stop a HWT from suppressing your force you also have access to a knockback ability, temporarily disabling the enemy and forcing them to setup again in order to fire. This allows you to disable them and quickly engage in melee or do heavy focus damage forcing the enemies retreat or death.
Holo-field stealth field combo, with good placement and timing your able to create a stealth field allowing your other units to get within short range of the enemy safely, allowing for grenade attacks or with a bit of skill engaging them using melee squads.
Note: The stealth field works for any units inside it including the enemy and detector units will render the stealth effect useless. An enemy may also be able to put effective area attacks onto the stealth field causing major problems with this tactic.
While rangers are generally a great squad not all build orders call for using them in which case more creative measures are in order.
Guardian Grenades
With a fairly cheap upgrade your guardian squad is able to use plasma grenades, a very good attack type vs stationary targets. They provide some good burst damage and knock the HWT down forcing them to setup again in order to fire, allowing you a short time to provide a more permanent solution such as engaging them in melee.
Note: While one grenade will do sizeable damage and knockdown on a full health weapons team all of their models should remain intact and they are able to setup again and continue firing on your army. Hit them with multiple grenades or other attacks in combination to increase your chances at wiping them out or forcing a definite retreat.
Counter Suppression
Eldar have a very good HWT in the form of the shuriken platform which is able to provide effective counter suppression. A fairly reliable method when done correctly and in combination with other squads. Good for build orders that don’t include multiple guardians or any ranger squad.
Engaging in Melee (Banshee)
HWT are stopped from firing while engaged in melee and highly vulnerable to most melee attacks making the banshee an excellent choice. This squad often needs support in order to safely get into melee with the enemy and has no hope of dealing with suppression alone yet is still able to flank weakly supported HWT efficiently.
Commanders
All three eldar commanders have methods for dealing with suppression based weapons teams early on, some being more effective than others yet all are able to get some form of attack or ability which aids in dealing with weapon teams.
Warlock
The warlocks starting ability is possibly the worst for helping deal with enemy HWT but still helpful. His destructor ability provides some decent damage on the enemy while being fairly easy to hit as HWT are stationary when setup. While his starting ability may be lackluster his two potential wargear upgrades provide some extra help.
Immolator (combined with destructor) can do some serious AoE damage on setup HWT forcing them to tear up and move, retreat or play a dangerous game and remain there on low health.
Merciless Witchblade can allow the WL to do a ranged attack which has knockback, when this hits the lead model of an enemy HWT they will be forced to setup again in order to fire. This method isn’t all that reliable but can be effective depending on battlefield conditions and which factions HWT your fighting.
Warp Spider Exarch
Proberly the best out of the box hero for dealing with enemy suppression, the WSE is able to use his starting teleport ability to quickly get to and tie the HWT in melee allowing your army to close in. This can be dangerous when the enemy has melee deterrent or other disabling attacks available. He has two more potential wargear upgrades which can help, his enhanced warp generator armour which gives him the group teleport ability and to a lesser extent his ranged knockback attack.
Group Teleport allows him to outflank, getting melee such as banshee or guardians with grenades in a good position of attack outside the HWT firing arc.
Heavy Gauge Death Spinner can do a knockdown attack on the enemy squad, especially effective if you teleport outside the enemies firing arc and use the knockdown but not often as reliable or common as previously mentioned tactics.
Farseer
The most creative hero when dealing with suppression. While nigh useless on her own, her starting guide ability allows your ranged squads to freely attack HWT outside of their firing range or better yet for your shuriken platform to counter suppress outside the enemies range allowing reliable counter suppression while the ability lasts. She has two wargear options which add some decent anti-suppression tactics to her arsenal.
Doombringer allows you to doom the HWT, increasing the damage it takes allowing you to take it out of the fight much faster with damage (good for boosting the effectiveness of general eldar anti-suppression tactics but not all that effective on its own).
Ghost helm allows the FS to suppress the target squad for a short duration and if the lead model is targeted your chances of killing it and forcing the team to setup again are pretty good. An effective 2 prong ability letting you use counter suppression and forcing the team to setup by killing off the lead model (depends on enemy faction).
Tactics Part 2
Dealing with enemy melee
As eldar units often have lower durability melee can be particularly devastating and deadly if they manage to catch you off guard, luckily eldar have a fair few tricks for dealing with enemy melee squads which can severely punish them if they’re not careful or just inflict large amounts of damage.
Ranged Focus Fire
Eldar ranged squads often have high damage and thus can be very effective when focusing down charging melee using a group of ranged squads although some melee may be tougher than others or supported correctly in which case ranged fire may have little to no effect, these squads also need time to get damage on target and could be in for trouble if melee are able to quickly engage.
Squads effective at this tactic include guardians and warp spiders however they may need additional support such as melee deterrent or suppression to fully finish the job depending on the circumstances. Heavy ranged fire is often a consideration that a hostile player takes into account when sending his melee in and will try to prevent or counter it wherever possible by supporting his melee charge (just like you would!).
Suppression
The shuriken platform is an excellent suppression based weapons team and can stop all but the most dedicated attacks in their tracks. While highly effective at stopping enemy melee the player should be aware of all options their opponent has to take your shurikens out of the fight.
Note: Unlike other races HWT the shuriken is less vulnerable to having the lead model killed making it harder for an enemy to stop it firing, ontop of its fast fire rate the shuriken is excellent for getting fast suppression effects onto targets although it’s still vulnerable to many knockbacks and the weaker models leaves it more exposed to damage/AoE attacks.
Melee Deterrent
Eldar have access to the banshee squad, while lower on durability than many other melee squads their high damage and (when unlocked) on demand short range suppress ability makes them a very high threat squad to any enemy melee trying their luck at engaging one of your other squads.
Grenades (Guardians)
Your guardians are able to protect themselves, and other friendly squads, to a certain extent by using plasma grenades.
There are multiple ways to implement this tactic but they all involve hitting the enemy melee squad with a high damage knockdown attack in the form of a grenade. A player should use this with care as correct timing and placement is very important, you could miss the enemy completely or even end up hitting your own troops!
Preventing a charge
If you throw a grenade into the predicted path of a charging enemy melee squad most players will be forced to ‘dodge’ the grenade or halt their attack giving you time to come up with a counter (such as giving ranged squads extra time to focus fire or forcing the enemies retreat due to taking high amounts of damage). If the enemy keeps on charging through they will take large damage from the grenade explosion with most models suffering knockback, effectively blunting the enemies attack.
Note: Some squads can take a grenade hit or counter it with some form of support and this tactic should not be relied on entirely… the eldar player should be prepared to quickly retreat or bring up Plan B if the enemy melee breaks through and is still strong enough to do damage to you.
Dealing Damage
If the enemy melee are able to engage you there are 2 options available.
First is to hit them with a grenade when they’re committed and unable to ‘dodge’ the grenade thus taking the damage. To do this throw the grenade infront/slightly on the lead model of the squad the enemy melee is about to engage, if timed well the enemy melee will use their passive ‘charge’ effect rendering them uncontrollable for a very short time giving you a good chance at hitting them with the grenade as they engage your squad in melee.
The other option is to throw a grenade into a melee fight hoping to hit more enemy models than friendly allowing your squad to come out on top, this method is less about preventing melee engaging you and more about turning the odds in your favour. It also requires very careful timing and placement and should be used with care.
Melee Special Attacks
Quite a few eldar units, especially the commanders, have a chance at doing an AoE knockback attack which does sizeable damage. While not all that reliable, especially vs moving targets these attacks can force retreats and do large damage to the plans of melee squads as well as others.
Commanders
Apart from the previously mentioned melee special attack, the eldar commanders can’t stand very long in prolonged melee engagements and don’t have much early wargear or abilities that are particularly effective against melee although once tier 2 is unlocked there are some very good wargear upgrades from all three commanders for countering melee.
Warlock
Of all the eldar commanders the WL is the best when engaging the enemy in melee due to his higher durability, especially with the T1 armour upgrade. He can also purchase weapon upgrades which can allow him to do decent damage in a melee engagement.
He doesn’t have much options for countering enemy melee until tier 2 where he is able to purchase witchblade of kurnous which has an excellent AoE damage/disruption ability that shreds nearby melee or the warp throw accessory which can be useful for stopping an enemy melee squad if used well.
Warp Spider Exarch
While not all that bad in melee, especially when doing his passive special melee attack, he has fairly low durability and can often suffer from constant enemy knockback depending on what type of squad he’s engaged with (normally dedicated melee are the main issue). This can stop his best quality of being able to teleport out of combat when the outcome looks bleak.
Although his melee is best used vs squads with weaker melee ability, his teleport and high ranged damage make him excellent as a ranged kiter. His high ranged damage can aid with the focus fire tactic especially.
Wargear wise the WSE has next to no early anti-melee options apart from enhancing his ranged attacks, making his kiting ability all that much more deadly but not all that helpful when another squad is about to be butchered in melee. Tier 2 will see some very strong support wargear options in the form of entangling web and anti-grav grenade, both effective at stopping any melee squads movement.
Farseer
The FS performs admirably in melee but due to her lower durability engaging in melee requires a bit more care. With a tier 1 armour upgrade she has access to the fortune ability, boosting the defense of a friendly ally (including herself) and letting the chosen squad stand up a while longer in a melee engagement (as well as ranged).
During tier 1 she has two decent support abilities which are fairly effective vs melee, first is the doombringer which causes the selected enemy squad to take increased damage (Works nicely when combined with focus fire tactics). The other is ghost helm which lets her suppress an enemy squad giving you a chance to escape or time to get some damage in.
Note: Spirit stones provides an instant AoE heal ability which can turn some melee engagements in your favour
Tier 2 gives her the option of getting gravity blade weapon upgrade which will lift all nearby enemies into the air for a few seconds while doing knockback damage as the ability ends. A very strong upgrade for supporting and protecting your army/fighting melee.
Tactics Part 3
Jump Troops
These are mainly used for countering ranged/weapons team squads and can be used for great effect against an eldar player (most commonly orkish stormboyz or SM assault marines). Many of the tactics you can use against melee will often work vs jump troops but a combination of tactics will be best. The two best options are using melee deterrent and suppression.
Melee deterrent, in the form of a banshee squad, which can do high damage and (when upgraded) slow the enemy jumpers by using their suppression ability (warshout) giving the squad they were trying to engage time to get to safety.
The other option is to use suppression, either via ability use such as the farseers ghost helm letting your squad get out of danger or doubling up on shuriken platforms so that they can support each other (as they’ll normally get a jumper to counter your first platform).
Building Clearance
Eldar have between modest and excellent building clearance options, depending on what type of squad is bunkered down and how late in the game it is. When looking at ways to clear units out of buildings you need to consider two types, short and long cooldown attacks.
Short cooldown attacks are ones you can repeatedly use use over a short period such as sniper rifles or flamer attacks which will force the enemy out or their death.
Long cooldown attacks include abilities such as grenades or those from wargear which do decent damage but if the squad inside the building can take the damage then your stuck waiting on a long cooldown without any effective attacks left to dislodge them.
Eldar have access to one short cooldown attack in the form of rangers and a long cooldown attack in the form of guardians plasma grenades. The warlock commander gains a highly effective long cooldown attack when using the immolator weapon upgrade providing an area effect burn ability (especially good vs weaker model squads).
While this offers a mix of options some factions could only hope for, it may be difficult to implement any of these attacks (your build doesn’t include rangers or the guardians can’t get close enough for grenades). The only other option is prolonged ranged fire, while leaving a high threat squad such as banshee in the squads retreat path, eventually you’ll do so much damage the squad has to retreat or die inside and your banshee are waiting to finish them. A forward thinking enemy will know this and have to either support the unit bunkered down or make a quick exit before the unit inside is in any danger of being wiped out.
Note: By setting up a shuriken platform point blank your able to do a fair amount of damage over time but this isn’t such a reliable method when the units inside have their own suppression attack or are supported by other squads.
Due to their long range attack rangers are one of the best early methods for building clearance although this doesn’t offer the same short term deadliness as grenades. Multiple plasma grenades or a combo of grenades/ranged fire also works well.
Note: Eldar get one of the most effective anti-building attacks in the form of the autarch grenade drop during tier 2, as well as wraithguard artillery. Vehicles can also be moderately effective in certain situations. While avatar, dcannon and fire prism are all useful for killing garrisoned squads during tier 3.
Fighting Ranged Squads
While melee squads can often be avoided or countered somehow, ranged fire is much harder to avoid and due to the lower durability units of eldar they can suffer large damage (and thus model bleed, the major weakness of eldar).
Often your performance (and sometimes survival) will depend on how well you can reduce the ranged damage your forces take. This involves using all possible methods to help reduce damage taken giving you a greater chance at victory as you quickly go through the tech tree instead of waiting at base to reinforce your squads models 1 by 1 as the required requisition trickles in.
This is where the large amount of support abilities and cross squad teamwork comes into play as the dedicated squads of eldar complement each other. Always aim to first prevent ranged damage and if your unable to prevent it then make sure you lower it whenever possible.
The main tools for preventing ranged damage are engaging in melee (often with your commander for smaller forces), suppression (especially true vs large ranged blobs) and finally ability use. To a lesser extent although just as effective you can make use of your transport (Falcon) or webway gates to hide from powerful attacks and pop out again once the danger has passed.
The best options for minimising ranged damage taken come from ability use and keeping in cover/buildings.
As always a combination of all these works best though the player should always try and spot opportunities for reducing the damage their army takes. Squad upgrades often focus on boosting durability and can help immensely in your fight to stay alive.
Note: Eldar get a unique form of placeable cover by unlocking energy shields on their guardian squads. Once placed these shields grant perfect cover which stops all damage hitting units ‘in cover’ on the opposite side of the shield while allowing the squad currently in cover to fire freely through it (this works for ANY squad ‘in cover’ with the shield, on either side of it, but units can still be hit from the sides/rear).
Fighting a small ranged squad
Depending on which squads are involved the best method is often to tie the enemy up in melee with a more durable unit like your commander while your other forces charge in for melee or attack at range. When this isn’t an option you should try and get behind the best cover possible or inside a building (assuming its safe) to give you the greatest chance at winning a ranged engagement.
Note: Beware as many factions will attempt to engage your ranged squads in melee using their own instead of dogging it out in a ranged firefight as most ranged eldar are outclassed early on in a melee fight yet have decent ranged firepower.
Fighting a large ranged force
While eldar often perform highly in small scale fights they can have trouble vs large ranged blobs such as double tactical squads with a scout or an orkish shooter blob. Your best chance is to make use of a shuriken platform which makes a highly effective control unit early on letting your ranged shoot and melee charge without fear of taking heavy damage.
When suppression isn’t available you can try and match the enemies ranged firepower and use cover and other methods which reduce ranged damage to turn the fight in your favour. Combination attacks using abilities can also work well such as ranger knockback and charging in with your banshee using fleet of foot, by the time the enemy is back on their feet your banshee are in melee where they can suppress the enemy using warshout.
Enemy artillery and powerful attacks such as grenades
While the best option is to dodge powerful attacks and engage the artillery squads in melee it isn’t always possible but luckily the eldar have a very powerful tool for countering these. The perfect cover they can setup using energy shields(Ability of guardians with upgrade) allows any squad behind these to take next to no damage, even from a grenade plopped right ontop of the squad.
Note: If they use a knockback effect and then a powerful attack e.g. 1 grenade then another your squad may no longer be in cover and take the full damage
Eldar also have some powerful artillery of their own with the mobile wraithguard at tier 2 and the best artillery unit ingame, the dcannon, during tier 3 allowing for effective counter artillery attacks.
Tactics Part 4
Dealing with enemy turrets
These can be tricky for an eldar depending on army makeup and how well supported the turret is although the Warlock hero can use the immolate ability to easily destroy any but the best supported/spam repaired turrets. In the early game your only real option is to flank it, where you can freely attack from the side or rear without fear of taking damage. Stealth effects and teleports can aid in this but not always a reliable option.
Banshee are the best for actually killing the turret and should all approaches be covered by the turret (its placed in a corner or so) using stealth effects such as the rangers holo-field will allow them to get to and start destroying the turret quite safely if well placed correctly and timed well.
Guardians grenades can also do some damage but not enough to be an effective counter. If the turret is supported banshee won’t always be able to engage it in which case you can harass them at long range with a squad such as rangers until some of the supporting enemy squads are forced to leave.
Note: If your able to get a shuriken platform suppressing the defending squads your banshee will have a much better chance at killing off the turret even while its supported. If the turret isn’t supported or only lightly the holo-field combo or a group teleport from the WSE hero should be ample to get rid of it. Tier 2 has many options for turret killing such as vehicles and artillery.
Fighting Vehicles
Eldar have some of the best anti-vehicle ingame via multiple sources of soft AV and a very strong dedicated vehicle killing platform, the brightlance.
Hard AV
- Brightlance (Dedicated vehicle killer with high damage)
- Fire Prism (Focused fire mode)
- Wraithlord (With brightlance upgrade)
- Autarch (With fusion blaster T3 ranged)
Soft AV – HQ Squads
- Banshee (Executioner weapon on Exarch with Aspect/Leader upgrade)
- Warp spider (Haywire grenades and Exarch powerclaws in melee once fully upgraded)
- Falcon Grav Tank (Basic ranged attack can do damage to vehicles, mainly other transport)
- Wraithlord (Melee attack is effective vs vehicles)
- Autarch (With executioner T2 melee)
- Plasma grenades (Very situational but able to do some light damage)
- Dcannon/Wraithguard artillery (These can do heavy damage to vehicles, especially tanks, if able to hit)
- Avatar (Due to his powerful abilities and high durability he’s able to do a fair amount of damage to enemy vehicles)
Soft AV – Commanders
- Powerblades (WSE, melee weapon upgrade)
- Singing Spear (Farseer, melee weapon upgrade)
Eldar can make one of the deadliest vehicle killers due to the sheer number of attacks able to damage them as well as the high mobility of many of their units making them expert chasers when finishing off a wounded enemy. They also have access to a very powerful snare ability, haywire grenades, which slows movement and disables weapons/abilities of the target vehicle.
Depending on what your trying to achieve you have many options to consider on what AV you should get. Brightlance platforms do very good damage and can cover your army from most vehicles getting too close as they will die in a relatively short time if they stay in range and the lance is able to fire freely.
However you may not want the upkeep and low mobility/versatility of a brightlance platform or you may want to stop enemy vehicles wounded by your brightlance from escaping in which case many of the Soft AV options are for you. When fully upgraded banshee make the most common and often effective soft counter to lighter vehicles or even tanks if they can manage to get close enough, these however are best combined with a warp spider squad for the haywire grenades to slow and disable the target.
Often you’ll find banshee, warp spider and any other source such as hero wargear is ample to kill most lighter vehicles. Harder hitting AV with longer range such as brightlance, dcannon or fire prism may be required for tougher vehicles or hitting them at long range (especially when using farseer).
Enemy Super Units
Depending on which super unit your fighting the difficulty can vary and more often than not any anti-vehicle you have will do with warp spider haywire grenades being particularly good when backed up with a dedicated vehicle killer such as a brightlance or fire prism in focus mode. Dcannon and avatar can perform quite well especially if they can hit the unit with their abilities such as singularity or the wailing doom.
Note: Dcannon performs extremely well against the slow moving super tanks such as baneblade and land raider, able to hit them at long range for large damage over time while the enemy is using them to defend a point.
Build Orders Introduction
The great thing about DoW is that it doesn’t always depend on what squads you get but how you use them, saying that there are some more common builds and times you’ll want to get certain squads and at others you’d avoid buying that squad altogether.
Standard Build Orders
Example
Banshee –> Guardian –> X
(order you buy the squads in)
This is a list of your standard build orders you may encounter. X represents the option of getting an extra squad, either a ranger or platform, or just heading straight to T2 if the squad isn’t needed. This does not include your starter squad so assume theres a Guardian –> before each build. These builds can work with any commander (unless otherwise indicated) but do have a commander which may favour or work particularly well with it.
Note: A double arrow <–> Means you can pick which squad you get first, as one may be more useful earlier than another yet you should be buying both squads eventually to stick to the build order.
Build Numbers
Example
1-1-1-1
(the squads this build order contains)
Builds numbers are listed with 4 digits which each represent the number of troops the build contains. You can tell what type of troop they are by looking at the order you can buy them at from the HQ. Guardian, Banshee, Shuriken Platform, Ranger. These include your starting guardians and thus will always be 1-0-0-0. X represents the option to get one of the indicated squads should you need it.
A-B-C-D
Guardian would be – A
Banshee – B
Shruiken Platform – C
Rangers – D
1-1-1-1
This build indicates that it contains 1 of each squad and since you start with a guardian squad that means you’ll build one banshee, shuriken platform and ranger.
2-1-0-1
This build contains 2 guardians, 1 banshee and 1 ranger squad. Since you start with a guardian squad this build requires you to recruit 1 guardian, 1 banshee and 1 ranger squad.
3-X-X-X
This build contains 3 guardians, since you start with 1 you only have to create 2 more. The X represents the option of getting one of the indicated squads should you need it, which squad will be upto you otherwise just head off to T2.
Build numbers are a reference to a build order, for instance 1-1-1-1 points you to the build containing 1 of each squad but does not tell you which order you should buy the squads in.
Build Orders
Guardian –> Banshee –> X
A common and strong early build this uses two guardians as firesupport while the enemy is concerned with the banshee and commander attempting to get into melee. You have the option of getting an extra squad if the enemy is causing you trouble but sometimes you may be having it easy and better to head straight for an early T2 with the option of more advanced squads.
Favoured Commander: Warlock
Build Number: 2-1-X-X
Guardian –> Guardian –> X
The triple guardian build can work well providing some intense ranged focus fire yet can be quite vulnerable to well supported melee, durable ranged forces and high damage AoE attacks until upgrades have been purchased. Making good use of shields and grenades where applicable while getting an extra squad if you need more control (shuriken) or a detector (ranger).
Favoured Commander: Farseer
Build Number: 3-0-X-X
Banshee –> Platform <–> Ranger –> T2
The most balanced build giving you a bit of everything, when played correctly you’ll be able to come out on top in most engagements however this build may not counter an enemy army as effectively as another could of or you may find the build lacks enough effectiveness for fighting certain enemies. Use the strengths of each squad to punish your enemy and cover the weakness of each other while also taking advantage of using them in combination attacks.
Favoured Commander: WSE
Build Number: 1-1-1-1
Guardian –> Ranger –> Ranger –> T2
You’ll want to rush some generators and save up resources to get the two rangers, ideally you’ll want to wait until you almost have enough for two rangers so you suffer less from upkeep but due to the smaller force (2 guardians + commander) you may find you need to rush the rangers out as soon as you have the power. This force can make good use of shields and grenades to hold a position but is fairly easy to overrun by most enemies and instead will focus on hit and run attacks. Use your two ranger to focus certain squads bleeding enemy models and forcing that squad off the field, you can also combo the knockback attack with your guardian grenades. The knockback and stealth effects from your ranger can provide some great defense for the rest of your force.
Favoured Commander: Any
Build Number: 2-0-0-2
Banshee –> Platform –> Platform –> T2
This build gives you excellent control and allows you to hold most positions, you gain melee deterrent from the banshee which can also take advantage of enemies while they’re suppressed. Use your starter guardian to provide shields for both platforms helping them absorb grenades or other powerful attacks which may be used from stealth. Many factions will still be able to counter this build but often at heavy cost or for limited effect.
Favoured Commander: Any
Build Number: 1-1-2-0
Guardian –> Platform <–> Ranger –> T2
Not that common but effective as a ranged fighting force this build gives you some decent ranged firepower while allowing you some control from the shuriken platform. Good for holding an enemy at range and punishing an enemy that tries to push through with solid ranged damage and grenades. Ranger can inflict some damage while the rest of your forces hold down an area or just cover your army using their support abilities.
Favoured Commander: Any
Build Number: 2-0-1-1
WARNING
Gimmick/Team Builds
Banshee –> Banshee –> X
This build relies completely on two things, the WSE group teleport ability and surprise. It makes use of the banshee squad, specifically their good melee damage which makes them expert retreat killers. You aim to use group teleport into the retreat path of one of the enemies your ally is currently engaged with and butcher his wounded squads using your two banshee and guardians grenade. This build will be fairly easy for any decent enemy to counter and thus you should expect the enemy your ‘facing’ to have free reign over your area of playing.
It rests upon the idea that you can take an enemy out of the fight by wiping out some enemy squads that your ally will have it easy and be able to take full control from his enemy. This carries a risk, maybe you managed to wipe out every squad of that enemy after he was in a close run engagement with your ally. Maybe you didn’t manage to kill anything and the enemy you were meant to be fighting has taken full control of your ‘side’ and now flanked one of your allies wiping some of his retreating squads. Make good use of surprise with this build, not recommended as a serious build.
WSE ONLY
Build Number: 1-2-X-X
Ranger –> Ranger –> Ranger –> T2
A very hated build but quite effective, by using 3x ranger to focus one enemy squad you can force a retreat after one volley while two will leave the squad near annihilation. This tactic will frustrate good players and wipe out new ones if used with a bit of skill, it can heavily bleed an enemy with constant hit and run attacks forcing retreats as soon as the first shots ring out.
The biggest problem with this build is resources, specifically power, as three rangers is going to cost you 900 requisition and 90 power. 90 power isn’t far off the 125 you need to get to tier 2 and you can be sure the enemy is keeping that in mind. Most factions will be able to get something very effective at dealing with your 3 rangers, such as a light vehicle/transport they can hide their infantry inside or artillery that can do heavy damage.
A more immediate problem is if the enemy is able to deal with your rangers during T1 with jumper troops or abilities. You generally won’t be able to stand and fight and an enemy can drive you off and wipe out all your power, stopping you getting T2 and thus anti-vehicle allowing them to slaughter your rangers with no fear of a counter.
This tactic should be reserved for team games, if at all, where you may have better access to power and your allies can provide anti-vehicle should you fall behind in technology.
Favoured Commander: Any
Build Number: 1-0-0-3
Following up on these build orders
What squads to get after T1 depends on several factors
- Which squads the enemy has, the biggest factor as you’ll often want to get the squad that best counters the enemy army
- Resources, If you have a large amount of power you’ll have the option of getting a vehicle while being low on power may warrrent skipping any vehicle purchase in order to keep up with your enemies technology
- What build order you used, a unit may complement your T1 strategy or vice versa such as wraithlord working well with multiple guardians due to the repair ability
- What commanders you have, some commanders can work well with specific squads
- What commanders your enemy has, you may want a specific squad to counter the enemy hero or you may not get a certain squad as the enemy commander can easily counter it
Examples
If your enemy has a transport you might decide you’ll try a soft AV option to deal with it and buy a warp spider squad so your banshee can kill it while it’s disabled/slowed.
Your enemy has a large ranged force and has limited melee options so you get a wraithguard artillery squad to tear them up at range.
Your build uses 3 guardians and the enemy commander doesn’t have access to a powerfist style weapon so you feel its relatively safe to get a wraithlord walker vehicle which won’t suffer model bleed (and can easily be repaired) while remaining a high threat to enemy melee.
It’s a large map and you want a fast unit to capture points behind enemy lines, you drop an autarch in on the best possible target and swiftly start to take away map control from your enemy.
Space Marines (SM)
Eldar units often use high damage attacks, when fighting weak mass model squads the damage an eldar squad can do often overkills each model in these squads essentially wasting potential damage to the overall squad. Marines use small tough squads and thus often receive ”full” damage from the eldar attacks. Squad for squad the eldar generally has better options in the early game for countering the SM units in the form of banshee and ranger. The main capture unit for marines is the scout which cannot beat your guardians most of the time and suffer large model loss when encountering rangers letting your forces win the capture war when spread out.
The main body of a marine army is their tactical squads (Tacts) which are high durability ranged, these can be butchered by banshee and suffer immensely when been shot at from rangers. They can also struggle in melee vs the eldar commanders and have no answer to a shuriken platform. Make no mistake the ranged fire these can bring down upon your weaker squads is deadly but you have many options to deal with it.
Scouts can be annoying but also lose 1 model per shot from rangers and most of the time can’t take the sustained damage from your guardians. They can deal with your shurikens and rangers using stealth and grenade attacks so can be a high threat squad but generally easy to drive off.
The suppression team, devastators (Dev), are quite rare to find when fighting an SM as your grenades, snipers and banshee make them difficult to keep alive but can be used to some good effect so becareful.
The biggest issue for an eldar player in the early game often comes in the form of SM jumper troops, assault space marines (ASM). These can jump onto your squads causing knockback and doing some good melee damage while being fairly durable. Your best bet is to cover your forces using banshee and shuriken.
Note: Keeping them off the field is often a priority so if harassing a marine force with rangers its often best to target the ASM so that when they jump onto your army the banshee have a better chance at driving them off.
Commanders
Marine commanders can be a pain, most of the time you cannot engage the force commander(FC) in melee due to his battlecry ability knockback attacks, the techmarine(TM) can do some nasty ranged damage and the apothecary(Apoth) can keep dangerous squads such as ASM alive while disabling your commander using his bolter upgrade. A shuriken is often great at keeping them under control or using some heavy ranged fire to force retreats. Your commanders can often get wargear effective vs marine heroes such as merciless witchblade on the warlock while the TM and apoth can be effectively tied up in melee most of the time.
In the early game try and prevent their ranged damage by tying squads such as tacts in melee with your commander and sending banshee in to do the damage. Use your guardians or ranger to drive off their scouts and commanders. Try and prevent their ASM from doing any serious damage making good use of banshee to drive them off. With good management you should be able to have higher early map control than the SM player giving you the advantage when tier 2 comes along and the marine player gains extra methods to cause you grief.
The ASM alone are not the greatest threat but rather their high durability ranged squads which can do large amounts of damage to your weaker squads if allowed to fire freely which the disruption from the assault marines and the support of scouts allows but nothing your unable to deal with.
Beware!
A very high threat squad comes in the form of terminators with assault cannons (or sometimes flamers) during tier 3 which can rip most of your squads in seconds but if you used your early advantage to good effect you can counter them with your own strong tier 3 options.
Shuriken platforms, banshee and rangers all excel in the early game and can effectively support each other, even when outmatched in a standup fight, so the most recommended build for fighting a space marine player is the 1-1-1-1.
Recommended Builds
- 1-1-1-1
- 2-1-X-X
- 1-1-2-0
Chaos
First off they keep the tough ranged squad similar to SM tacticals in the form of chaos space marine(CSM) squads which not only inflict large amounts of ranged damage, they also have better melee potential! Their support unit isn’t a small 3 man squad easy to drive off but instead a weaker mass model squad which can be very dangerous when used correctly. They also have a very strong early unit selection however they do lack jump troops during tier 1 so that’s one headache that won’t carry on after fighting an SM player, though you may wish it had when you encounter some of the options chaos has open to it instead.
Chaos space marine (CSM) squads, normally in pairs, makeup the core of of most chaos army builds and can do some large damage if allowed to fire on your troops. They can also do some nasty melee damage to your lower durability squads, especially if your retreating. Like tacticals they can be quite vulnerable to banshee or rangers while shuriken platforms can effectively control them.
The main support unit for chaos, heretics(tics) can be very deadly and counter many of your troops depending on what upgrades they have. In their basic form they’re a fairly weak melee squad which has a good AoE damage suppress ability(Doomblast). They can turn themselves into a ranged squad by upgrading with grenade launchers which can do good AoE damage to your troops and have an on demand knockback in the form of a grenade barrage ability but essentially lose any melee effectiveness. They can upgrade a champion leader giving a good durability increase but are still quite vulnerable to damage especially focus fire or AoE attacks.
Note: Heretics also get the support ability worship which has a different effect depending on which commander the enemy is using and opens up new tactics for them which can give you great difficulty if used correctly.
The chaos suppressive weapons team, havok, can be quite effective when used correctly but can suffer from banshee, ranger and your guardians grenades similar to how you’d counter an SM devastator. Chaos have better support options via worship or melee deterrent and thus you may encounter these squads more often than when fighting an SM player.
Last but not least chaos have access to noise marines, replacing the annoyance of a jumper squad with a medium range squad that stops all ranged attacks and disables abilities of any squad it hits. Its attack is effective vs units in buildings and killing structures like generators while also doing decent damage to weaker model squads. Luckily they are vulnerable to melee or heavy ranged fire, especially weak against rangers and can be slowed by shurikens a little allowing you some respite.
As they lack an early jumper troop and many of their squads are vulnerable to suppression chaos will tend to make use of tactics involving their heretic and commander to counter, while noise marines can be effective at stopping your shurikens fire if left alone to advance on it. Bringing down heavy ranged fire on suppressed squads can work very well while also exploiting any chances at using banshee effectively but beware any melee heretics as they can cause some heavy damage. Ranger can do some very good bleed but beware chaos don’t rush T2 and an early bloodcrusher vehicle your unable to counter.
Commander Duel
The hero choices play a fairly large role in deciding how you will play, both in the offense and defense as well as what squads you may prefer to get. Knowing the effects of each chaos commanders worship is often key to this.
- Chaos Lord, units under the effects of worship gain a speed boost allowing for this suppression immune hero or noise marines to quickly close with your platforms stopping their fire allowing the rest of his forces to advance while also being able to escape your banshee by kiting with his more vulnerable squads such as CSM.
- Plague Champion, his worship provides an effective heal allowing his army to take higher levels of damage and will reduce the effectiveness of your rangers damage on squads such as CSM and havoks (although rangers still remain a good choice).
- Chaos Sorcerer, can be a tricky enemy to fight as his heretics worship provides a stealth effect to friendly squads nearby which can be hard to deal with at times allowing him to hide vulnerable squads such as havoks and setup ambushes.
Luckily your commanders also have tricks up their sleeve and how well you do may be measured by how aptly you can use your commander to your advantage.
- The farseer can apply guide to shurikens which will then out range his grenade heretics or doom his chaos lord halting the charge. Fortune and spirit stones provide some much needed support abilities which can turn many engagements in your favour.
- The warlock can do high AoE damage from the start and is one of the biggest threats for a chaos player. He has two great weapon wargear options which both can work well when fighting chaos.
- The WSE is a bit more lackluster but can be effective nonetheless and has a good ranged attack which can quickly drive off heretics, especially with a damage boost from wargear or otherwise while making good use of his teleport ability to gain better map control.
Aim to reduce ranged damage as much as possible while hunting squads such as CSM with favourable melee engagements (commanders/banshee). Control their army where possible and try your best to negate the support of the enemy heretics. While worship provides some sneaky tricks they are limited to each different commander and effective measures are available to deal with them, you just have to learn which is best to use. Make good use of your commander and their wargear/globals as this can give you the edge you require.
Banshee can do very well or suffer some large damage but remain an effective squad you’ll just about always want to get. Guardians high ranged damage can do very well and their support abilities are excellent protection against the ranged firepower of chaos while also providing some decent anti-melee tactic options although guardians need to be well managed to be effective. Shuriken platforms and rangers remain some of your best squads but can vary depending which commander they use.
These large amount of variables leaves the best build order wide open essentially depending on the commander matchup. Platforms can find good use vs all three as well as banshee, while ranger may be required when fighting the sorcerer or noise marines. Double platform is the most recommended vs the chaos lord, while a holding force such as shuriken/guardians as ranger bleed from long range can be effective against the plague champion. The sorcerer is tricky as he can counter stationary squads the best using wargear and his squads can stealth so a more mobile force with ranger to detect/support may work better.
Recommended Builds
- 1-1-2-0
- 1-1-1-1
- 2-1-X-X
- 2-0-0-2
Orks
Due to their relatively weak mass model squads you can inflict some good damage using your high ranged damage/AoE attacks, while rangers can also prove effective as they’ll basically always kill 1 model per shot. It’s also possible to cause some major damage if your able to get your banshee in their soft spots such as the middle of a ‘shooter blob’ or finishing off wounded squads in retreat. While your able to exploit their weaker squads early on and do some decent bleed an orkish army can quickly become fairly strong able to do some heavy damage to your force if your not careful.
The humble shooter boyz isn’t that big a threat when it first comes out of the enemy HQ with fairly low durability and not enough damage to be all that dangerous. You can quite easily handle it with just about any squad you have access to while it’s in this state. As soon as it’s grouped up with other squads, especially more shooter, it becomes a source of good ranged damage. When upgraded with extra damage and/or durability in the early game the infamous ‘shooter blob’ can become a high threat able to focus down any exposed squad.
The other squad you’ll encounter is the slugga boyz, this squad can be much more dangerous on its own due to the solid melee damage it can dish out however it’s still fairly low on durability and the main durability upgrade is only available during tier 2. Until this time the slugga is the easiest squad to bleed as you can quite easily force retreats using focus fire and your commanders special melee AoE attacks are particularly effective if able to hit, grenades and banshee can also be effective when used right. The main threat often isn’t the slugga itself, but the other forces it is supporting as two shooter can really ruin your day while your trying to stop this slugga butchering your army. They also become one of the most deadly squads, short of tier 3 units, once they have a nob leader upgrade (unlockable during tier 2) due to the large durability/damage increase and ability to break suppression (such as the banshee warshout ability).
The other squads available to the orks during tier 1 are the loota squad, a suppression weapons team, and storm boyz (melee jumper squad).
Loota can prove tricky due to their ability to stealth once setup making it harder to deal with as it hides from your high threat squads and ambushes you when exposed although most orkish players opt for a more mobile force so you don’t see these too often.
The last squad you’ll encounter are the storm boyz, these jumper troops are a mass model melee squad with fairly low durability but some very high damage. This brings us to the best exploitable weakness of an ork army, suppression. While you can do good damage to an orkish army and even match them in a stand up fight if conditions are right the potential damage a combined force is able to do to your army makes it unappealing as he can afford model bleed more than you can.
Thus making good use of suppression can allow you to greatly lower the damage done while controlling his army and inflicting good damage to them when possible. Orks have relatively little answer to suppression early on with instant limited duration (counter)suppression provided by a shooter squad (with big shooter upgrade), storm boy jumper troops and commander based abilities. Buildings, especially with a shuriken inside, can almost be unassailable for an ork due to a flamer upgrade on their slugga or grenades from the kommando nob hero being the only effective early attacks available to them.
Beware: While suppression can prove very effective vs an ork army they do have tricks and jumper troops so are still able to break through. Buildings can be put to good use as well when slugga arn’t around or haven’t yet upgraded flamers (though they might currently be waiting for it outside the building entrance!).
Note: Come T2 orks have access to some of the best methods for dealing with fixed positions such as squads inside buildings or your setup shuriken platforms so make good use of them during T1.
Commander Tricks
Watch out for the enemy commanders as two have some effective tricks for dealing with your suppression while the other makes it harder to engage them in a standup fight and counter their jumpers with banshee. The first two are the mekboy (teleport similar to the eldar WSE) and the kommando nob (stealth effects for both himself and via global ability for another squad by using Red as well as stun/stick grenades). The warboss can prove the easiest to counter using suppression as his only real trick is to make a squad of his take reduced melee damage using a global ability which can stop your banshee been an effective counter once they jump onto a shuriken platform.
Your commanders can prove effective here with multiple upgrades to assist you however it can be fairly dangerous to send them into melee as slugga can do some good damage and shooter blobs are able to quickly focus down your hero with heavy ranged fire.
You have many build order options here but you want to reduce any model bleed on your troops during this fight so often a shuriken platform can be required. You could go for a pair of shurikens for excellent control or rangers for long range bleed although be aware that the T2 options for orks can easily counter these and you’ll have to make very good use of either of these builds early on. Several guardians in combination with other squads can work well for matching the ork ranged fire and bleeding melee. Banshee can find use if you can get past the ork anti-melee tactics. Either try and hold the ork advance with a smaller force that can control them while you get T2 or go heavy and try and inflict large damage and control upon the enemy.
Note: You may want to rush out a ranger squad, when you have the power, to counter an early stealth kill setup from the kommando nob as he can position his slugga to take out a wounded squad fairly early once the Red is available for the global stealth ability.
Recommended Builds
- 2-1-X-X
- 3-0-X-X
- 2-0-0-2
- 1-1-2-0
- 1-1-1-1
Tyranids (Nids)
Nids make use of weaker mass model squads with tougher smaller squads to boost their effectiveness and can suffer from bleeding. While tyranid units can gain damage and durability upgrades on both their melee and ranged from the start these don’t grant as big an increase as ork ones may and instead nids make use of the synapse mechanic. When nearby, certain tougher squads can provide stat boosts to other nid squads such as increasing durability, damage or health regeneration amongst other things. Nids also use additional types of tricks which can more effectively counter your melee and suppression.
Hormagaunts(horma), these little critters are a weak mass model melee squad which can gain multiple stat boosts depending on the synapse creature nearby, the main one of concern is the large health increase and damage benefits when nearby an upgraded melee warrior squad. They can remain vulnerable to damage especially grenades and high ranged damage while suppression can control them head on. Often they attempt to flank you or wipe out squads in retreat and can make up the main melee damage component of a nid force.
Termagants(terma) are essentially the ranged double of hormagants which also gain the benefits of a nearby synapse creature, with venom brood being the most significant providing a good ranged damage/health boost. If a nid player is building a ranged focus army these will makeup the core presence, able to do some good ranged damage and slow a selected squad once upgraded. They remain vulnerable to suppression and heavy ranged fire/AoE attacks as well as any melee that manage to engage them.
Warriors are a fairly unique squad, containing 3 durable models which can do some decent damage over time while possessing a leap knockdown attack similar to the eldar seer council. They provide a basic synapse effect to nearby non-warrior, non-hero nid squads lowering melee and ranged damage taken, increasing suppression resistance and boosting the speed of the T2 tyrant guard creature. They can turn themselves into a mobile ranged suppression squad which fires a mortar like ”shell” that suppresses any squads nearby the target.
Note: While it has to stand still to fire and the mortar like round can be dodged the squad has no setup time and thus attacks like grenades are much less effective.
Raveners(rav) operate similar to jumper troops although they burrow underground instead of flying through the air using the burrow strike ability causing knockback at the location. They also have an upgrade which allows them to burrow and move around underground while being able to come up and knockback any nearby squads. They have fairly weak durability but have decent melee and can become a strong ranged squad during T2.
Note: Gameplay wise they’re essentially stealthed when burrowed underground and your able to detect them using ranger.
Unique Squad – Spore Mines
While some factions get the ability to use grenades, such as your guardian squads, the tyranids get a whole consumable squad which acts like grenades known as spore mines. These have an ability which causes 1 model to explode doing suppression and AoE damage, the squad cannot be reinforced but is cheap and fairly disposable able to do high damage to your squads even in retreat and easily being a deterrent to your banshee.
As there are many options for countering melee, banshee are not all that recommended when fighting nids although if your able to get them in the right place/time they can earn their keep however they’re more likely to be a source of bleeding damaging your economy. A heavy ranged army can perform much better here while suppression can be a must have although all three nid commanders have a counter ontop of the raveners and it shouldn’t solely be relied upon but definitely made use of.
Enemy Commanders Anti-Suppression Tactics
The lictor has stealth options (and thus ranger can be a must have early on) while the ravener is able to create tunnels which let his army flank you. The hive tyrant is maybe the most direct and while suppression will do heavy damage to him he can engage them in melee with at least one hit, allowing the rest of the army to engage you. Methods available to all 3 include counter suppression and jump troops.
Your Commanders
The warlock provides some excellent AoE damage, the farseer some good support options and the WSE has the mobility needed to win a VP capture war and aid in combat with his ranged damage and teleport.
A tyranid army is a formidable force with one major weakness, the synapse effects. If a model of the squad providing synapse dies they will cause a chain reaction which deals large damage and knockback to the squads currently benefiting from it. Target these synapse creatures to force retreats or face causing this ‘death explosion’ on their other squads. The withdrawal or destruction of these synapse creatures will greatly weaken a nid force although it still remains deadly and should be treated with care.
Synapse creatures: Hive tyrant hero, warrior/venom brood, zoanthrope
Eldar players will have to inflict heavy ranged damage and control them as best they can using guardians, rangers and shurikens. Use guardians and rangers to focus the warriors, taking away the benefits of synapse by forcing retreats or or causing knockdown damage to other nid forces nearby if you manage to kill a synapse creature. Use shuriken and abilities like grenades to keep these other forces at bay while you focus the synapse creatures down. While banshee can find use here the environment can be incredibly hostile for your melee and you might find that getting them during tier 2 works well while tier 1 is better spent on building up your ranged force.
Quite a few build options can work here but you may find a ranged force works best, ranger are a must have when fighting a lictor due to his stealth ability as well as for focusing the synapse creatures while you may find that shuriken are needed to halt the swarms advance.
Recommended builds
- 3-0-X-X
- 2-0-1-1
- 2-0-0-2
- 2-1-X-X
Imperial Guard (IG)
A matchup which many eldar may find tough your lucky in being the only faction with an early option of a sniper squad which also detects, the other being SM scouts. Here a strictly ranged army should be maintained.
Note: While you can retreat on low health from many factions ranged troops safely you should leave a little more room for damage as IG will do higher levels of ranged damage on retreating squads where other races would of had melee to do the damage.
Guardsman (guard), a weak ranged mass model squad which can become very large when two leader upgrades are purchased. These generally makeup the main body of an IG army and will be used for supporting ranged fire excellent at focusing down targets when used as a group of two or more as well as for general point capture and repair duties. They are however quite weak and suffer from heavy damage sources (especially AoE attacks) and melee as they have next to no ability to fight back in melee combat.
Note: These fulfill a similar role to your guardians but are more vital support for an IG army and less effective on their own. While your guardians can setup energy shields IG guardsman can setup heavy cover and turrets.
Sentinels (sent) are a unique squad, acting like a vehicle but having similar durability to that of an early infantry squad. This provides them two crucial advantages:
- They don’t bleed models and thus are cost effective when taking damage
- They can be repaired in combat by guardsman making them all but unkillable in the early game
While these can be used to great effect it comes at a cost, first since it’s essentially a one model squad they’ll take maximum damage from attacks (which eldar are happy to provide) and they’re vulnerable later on due to increased levels of ranged damage and anti-vehicle attacks/abilities have full effect on them. Early on eldar have access to high ranged damage from guardians and a single ranger will put very high pressure on the sentinel even with guardsman repairing it.
Note: They have a stomp ability which does knockback and stuns all nearby enemy infantry in a small radius around the sentinel which is the first reason why melee(banshee) is a bad idea.
The IG weapons team isn’t fielded that often due to its bugged state however most anti-suppression tactics will work on it while commander melee is extra effective if they have to manually target you due to the bug. The main use these may find are for vehicle killing when upgraded with a lascannon during T2 so watch your vehicles.
The last squad available to them during T1 and the second reason not to get melee is the catachan devils (catas) squad, think of your banshee keeping their high melee damage and low durability but now wielding short range shotguns which also do the same high level of damage and your almost realising the potential destruction this squad is capable of.
Their warshout comes in the form of a short range shotgun blast ability and instead of the passive special melee attack knockback your banshee have they instead get a long range on demand grenade barrage ability which does knockback and decent damage.
Note: Using the T1 leader upgrade they can place explosive charges which are stealthed as well as being able to throw smoke grenades greatly reducing ranged damage to squads inside that area. Like banshee they can be a good source of soft AV when upgraded with a leader at T2 who also stealths the squad when standing still.
Note: Guardian grenades are highly effective if you manage to hit a cata squad directly.
Unstoppable killing machines? sometimes but due to their short range and lower durability eldar are quite lucky with the options available to deal with them. While IG have some very good ranged squads their options for dealing with suppression are very limited in T1.
They can flank you or combo the grenade barrage of the cata with the stomp of a sentinel/melee charge. Some commanders have options such as the flare global to reduce the range of your squads from the commissar or the stealth effect from the inquisitors armour upgrade. The lord general can also get an expensive suppression immunity ability from an armour upgrade but all of these are countered or have limited use except for the latter. Generally the IG have to wait until T2 to gain highly effective measures for dealing with suppression.
Your options for dealing with an IG army may be limited to ranged forces but are fairly effective. The high damage from guardians allow you to focus down many IG squads while rangers can provide one of the best early counters to the sentinel which provides insane amounts of early pressure. Commander abilities which work well for ranged forces such as your warlocks AoE options (especially immolator), high ranged damage/mobility from your WSE and guide/doom on your farseer means your not going to roll over and die anytime soon. Shurikens are able to hold most IG advances, especially ones spearheaded by a sentinel.
You have one of the best forms of defense for fighting a ranged force, energy shields, which can almost be impossible for an IG to advance on if used correctly or in combination with a shuriken.
Most builds use at least two guardians and one ranger for putting pressure on the sentinel and detecting stealthed units (required if catachans are fielded due to explosive charges they can place). Use your ranger well and pick off his cata models when you can although sentinels are often the prime target early on. Shuriken will help halt all but the most dedicated or prepared IG advance early on while guardians are used for high focus damage, grenades and plasma shields.
Triple guardian with a ranger (if catachans/inquisitor/sentinel problems/want to get vehicle T2), otherwise a shuriken, is recommended for fighting an IG player as the three guardians give you high ranged firepower to hold off the early sentinel push while you gather power. Two guardians are less effective for holding vs this early sentinel rush but can allow for a more powerful late T1 build containing double ranger or platform/ranger.
Note: The IG can get the manticore artillery vehicle during T2 which can counter your shuriken even if they’re behind a energy shield (they can knock you out of cover with first shot).
Recommended Builds
- 3-0-X-X
- 2-0-1-1
- 2-0-0-2
Eldar
The biggest problem for an eldar player is the rangers, these sniper armed infantry will cause large amounts of bleed on your troops, especially banshee, and can counter shurikens effectively.
It just so happens you have the best counter available to sniper fire in the form of energy shields from guardians and counter fire from your own rangers. This results in a cat and mouse game between each players ranger squads or an impenetrable wall of shields your rangers are ineffective against and have to try and flank.
Guardians will therefore make up the core of your army as they deploy the shields and have grenades with which to wipe out careless setup rangers. They also provide the ranged damage needed to focus down banshee and commanders.
This leads to two things, either you use banshee effectively to try and slaughter these guardians and rangers if possible or you try and protect a shuriken adequately in order to give you some defense against the enemy guardian ‘blob’ by making good use of shields and protecting your flanks.
Either way its upto the player to decide what forces they get and could often be decided on what works best with your commander or for countering theirs. Just about any build could work including:
Recommended Build
- 1-1-1-1
- 2-1-X-X
- 3-0-X-X
- 2-0-0-2
Tricks, Tips n’ Combo Attacks Part 1
Using the Autarch Drop
Once tier 2 with sufficient resources the eldar have access to one of the most powerful squad killing abilities ingame, summoning in the autarch secondary commander. When the autarch is summoned into battle she drops in with 4 plasma grenades which can each be given a separate target. This has 3 common uses:
- Killing a squad inside a building, if you drop all 4 grenades on the entrance to the building they’re bunkered down in your almost always able to wipe the squad out
- Retreat kills, if you have a good sense of timing and placement your able to hit a retreating enemy squad(s) often killing them if they were wounded.
- Hitting stationary enemies, you can drop them onto enemies which are currently unable to move such as setup sniper or weapon teams.
Note: You can also combo with other abilities to keep more mobile targets from moving out of the way such as WSE entangle though this isn’t as reliable.
Vehicle Hunting
As eldar you should have little excuse about struggling with vehicles if you haven’t yet purchased a brightlance squad. Any light vehicle will have to turn around and get out of range asap after been hit by the first shot or face certain death while heavier vehicles such as dreadnaughts cannot ignore the damage being done.
While brightlance do excellent damage they have no snare effect, take up upkeep/pop and can only really find a secondary use as a capture/scout unit. In these instances using several sources of soft AV often works best. The easiest and most common source is from your banshee squad which most build orders use. Once tier 2 you can upgrade an exarch leader which has an executioner weapon effective vs vehicles in melee (you need the aspect upgrade as well).
If a banshee is able to get into melee they can dispatch most lighter vehicles or even tanks if not dealt with, heavier vehicles such as walkers are more able to defend themselves with good melee splash damage. In order to deal with the heavier vehicles and stop the lighter ones escaping banshee are best paired with a warp spider squad using haywire grenades stopping the enemy fighting back and fleeing.
While this works great in most cases the duration of the haywire grenades disabling effects doesn’t last long enough for the banshee to kill them so it is best to get an extra source of AV. The WSE can buy powerblades and the FS a singing spear which give them effective melee anti-vehicle attacks. An autarch with executioner or falcon transport can provide some extra damage on a disabled vehicle while a wraithlord or wraithguard can be great for dealing with enemy armour. Most of these squads have very high mobility allowing you to chase any fleeing armour while haywire grenades leave them defenseless.
Note: The farseer has a very good ability combo with a brightlance platform, by giving them guide you can extend the platforms fire range while the farsight global ability lets you see into fog of war if your unable to keep sight of it. This will allow you to easily finish off a low health vehicle who thinks they just managed to escape.
Webways, Falcon and Garrison/Reinforcement
Reinforcement
Eldar have two ways to reinforce on the field, the most straightforward is by using the Falcon transport tank. The other is more situational and requires some good management by making use of webway gates.
If you have a webway on the frontline (and one at base) your able to put wounded squads inside, unload at base where they’ll shortly be reinforced back to a full squad and then put them back inside the webway and pop them out back at the frontline.
This can work when a skirmish isn’t all that decisive or going on for a long time, it saves you having to retreat the squad which would take much longer to run all the way back to HQ but isn’t always possible as you may require the benefits of retreat or the squad wouldn’t be able to make it back to the webway gate in time. It requires more micromanagement and is highly situational but an option open to an eldar player, even if it is rarely put into common practice.
Note: Webways are more so used for getting your army from the HQ back into the field much faster and can allow for fast attacks from unexpected directions.
Garrison/Avoiding Damage
Your able to help keep your squads alive from powerful attacks, often area ones such as grenades or abilities like the chaos lord ‘galaxy must burn’, by quickly entering a nearby webway gate or falcon transport before the attack connects with your troops. Once the danger has passed you can come out and continue to deal with the enemy.
Webway Gate [Holo-Field Ability] (Farseer Only)
The farseer has access to an extra stealth effect granted by the holo-field ability of her webway gates, this ability boosts the speed and infiltrates all affected squads allowing you to quickly charge a nearby enemy position or move into place undetected. Works great with banshee when ambushing ranged squads or for using guardians to approach a weapons team and chuck grenades on it.
Tricks, Tips n’ Combo Attacks Part 2
Commander Control Effects – Combo Nukes
With careful timing your able to give some powerful hard to hit abilities an almost 100% hit rate by combining them with a control effect. The most powerful of these are the T3 squads D-Cannon and Avatar abilities which do large damage and disruption but have some very long cast times. The following parts will show you how to combine the abilities of these heavy hitter squads with the control effects gained through wargear on each of your commanders.
Ideally the control effect will end and you’ll instantly hit the enemy squads with the damage ability, some control effects are more powerful than others and thus some will have 100% chance to hit if done correctly while others leave little room for error or allow the enemy some time to escape if they see the setup coming.
Warp Spider Exarch – Phase Armour Nuke
Phase armour gives the WSE the phase shift ability which will freeze all enemy units and disable them in place for the abilities duration (10 seconds). This is the most powerful control effect of all the commanders as enemies will be unable to escape the damage once the combo attack has begun unless you timed it incorrectly or were unable to get the perfect range/placement.
D-Cannon Combo – Singularity (10-11 seconds)
Teleport your WSE into an enemy army and use the phase shift ability. As soon as they’re frozen instantly use the D-Cannons singularity ability which should hit the enemy about a second after the phase effect wears off.
Note: Check the maximum range of singularity before attempting to freeze enemy squads as you may not be able to hit all of their squads or can give them some room to escape.
Avatar Combo – The Wailing Doom (4 seconds)
Teleport your WSE into an enemy army and use the phase shift ability. As soon as they’re frozen count to between 6 and 7 seconds then use the wailing doom ability to hit the enemy squads just as they come out of phase.
Global Ability – Eldritch Storm (5 seconds)
Teleport your WSE into an enemy army and use the phase shift ability. As soon as they’re frozen count to between 5 and 6 seconds then place the storm ability over the squads your specifically trying to kill.
Ability Placement
You should place the abilities slightly behind an enemy force if they’re likely to retreat or infront if you think they will still advance. If your confident in your timing your able to place them directly on the enemy squad and should have a 100% hit rate using phase armour.
Farseer – Timefield Nuke (10 seconds)
The farseer can upgrade the armour of asuryan once T3 has been unlocked, this armour grants the Time Field ability which lasts 10 seconds. This will slow the movement and disable the attack/abilities of all units inside it. This control ability will not hit the enemy everytime even if you time it perfectly however you can force the enemy to retreat or take the hit.
D-Cannon Combo – Singularity (10-11 seconds)
The D-Cannon will show where the ability will hit after 5 seconds, a further 5 seconds later and the ability will pull all nearby enemies inside the singularity thus been a sure hit while doing the damage a second or two later. The 5 seconds between showing and catching an enemy gives them more than enough time to avoid the ability by retreating unless your using it on an enemy vehicle.
This can be insanely hard to time as you have to rely on the enemy walking right onto the singularity target location as it shows up and then putting the time field directly on the enemy force meaning you have to predict where the enemy will be 5 seconds before they’re going to be there. You might be able to wait till 6 or 7 seconds and allow the enemy to come slightly past the singularity target marker but once it shows the enemy knows what’s up and can retreat their infantry to safety, vehicles however may not be able to escape in time and will have to take the hit.
Avatar Combo – The Wailing Doom (4 seconds)
Any seasoned enemy will recognise the animation for this ability and thus try to avoid it by moving out of the cone attacks ‘arc of fire’. Your best chance at hitting an enemy is to place the wailing doom ability and then after about 1 or 2 seconds plop your time field directly on them.
Your avatar/the wailing doom should be placed so that in the 2-3 seconds remaining before the ability hits, it’ll still manage to hit the enemy troops if he decides he cannot make it outside of the abilities arc in time (as your time field is slowing his troops movement speed) and instead retreats.
In other words, make sure the enemy squad is in the centre of the wailing doom blast zone, wait 1 second so the enemy thinks they can move out of this danger zone and then put the timefield on them so they’re slowed and unable to escape. Their only real course of action is to retreat and if too close to the edges of the abilities hit zone they may be able to make it outside and avoid being hit so be aware when placing the wailing doom ability that it factors in the direction the enemy squad will retreat towards.
Warlock – Warp Throw Fun
One of the more difficult control effects to get right it has room for the enemies escape but once in motion is basically impossible to avoid. Warp throw will throw enemies from the targeted location in a direction of your choice after 4 seconds. This is best used with a D-Cannon as it can be harder to spot but avatar can make good use of it as well.
D-Cannon Combo – Singularity (10-11 seconds)
Target your singularity just behind the predicted location your warp throw will chuck them so that if the enemy retreats they’ll run straight into the singularity. About 2 seconds after using singularity start your warp throw, they’ll have about 1-2 seconds to notice the singularity marker and retreat before warp throw hits them and if you had good placement and timing they should take a direct hit from singularity after warp throw gets hold of them. The obvious failing point is if they retreat before warp throw however if they don’t manage to avoid that then you should have a 100% hit chance.
Avatar Combo – The Wailing Doom (4 seconds)
Start your warp throw and use the wailing doom 1-3 second later so you hit all his models and hopefully don’t force him to run away before warp throw takes hold. This is harder to do as a warlock and avatar can make your plans pretty obvious while the d-cannons combo is much more sneaky and at a longer range.
You can practice all but the warpthrow by using your own troops in a private game. If you want to practice warp throw find another player who can help you/agree on when and where to be so you can accurately test the timings needed. The timings may differ depending on how fast or slow your able to target the abilities for example if your slower at placement you might have to target the singularity and then phase armour to get the perfect hit.
Tricks, Tips n’ Combo Attacks Part 3
Commander Retreat Kills
Warlock
Ethereal slash, use this ability as an enemy force is retreating past your warlock doing large amounts of damage. Works best when you have another squad waiting to finish off any surviving models.
Immolate, this ability is amazing vs weak mass model squads and if placed so that a badly wounded squad, such as chaos heretics, has to retreat through it for at least 1-2seconds more often than not the entire squad will be killed.
Immolate finds best use in combination with the warlocks starting ability on weak mass model squads for a major AoE nuke.
Note: When upgraded with a high durability leader model this tactic is ineffective for wiping out the squad but remains valid for causing high model deaths or setting up for a different type of retreat kill.
WSE
Teleport, keep up with a very low health retreating squad to kill them using melee or ranged attacks. Wargear such as powerblades or global ability like crackshot can boost effectiveness of this tactic.
Group teleport, your banshee and guardians ahead of a retreating enemy to position your forces for a melee/grenade kill
Farseer
Doombringer, using the doom ability you can kill squads who may have retreated at an acceptable level of health and would otherwise have escaped safely if not for the extra damage doom causes them to take. Very effective for killing wounded commanders with banshee.
Ghost helm, if an enemy has one model remaining use the mind war ability to deal high single target damage. The squad must be heavily wounded and the ability will be cancelled if the enemy squad runs out of range but remains a very effective single model killer.
Conclusion
This guide attempts to layout and explain/expand on multiple parts of the Eldar faction in Dawn of War 2 Retribution for the ranked multiplayer section of the game. As each situation is different it tries to keep a general view and focus on more common aspects of playing the eldar. Your experiences may differ slightly or completely in some fights and your by no means expected to play in a certain way, the guide just attempts to layout some common and effective tactics available to an eldar player as well as listing the more obvious uses for wargear and abilities.
Thanks to Boden for his help with the guide (especially the images/ingame tests/typo hunting) as well as Fahu for confirmation on abilities/squads.
If you want to know anything regarding the guide/its contents or feel somethings wrong/missing leave a comment.
