[Units] Eldar HQ Choices

Every week beginning today I will be posting an article on each FOC of each army looking into the choices and how they work well in the army and on their own. This week we will be starting with my favourite and probably my best army to date, Eldar.

This week it is the Eldar HQ choices, starting with the first choice of the Eldar HQ’s the Autarch. The Autarch is probably the cheapest and in my opinion the best value for points HQ in the game. Starting at a measly 70pts coming with a 3+ save AND and invulnerable with a massive Initiative 6 and weapon skill/ballistic skill 6. Then when you start to add the upgrades which again are cheap he becomes better and better. For 10 points you can give him an extra attack which sounds expensive but when you only have strength 3 you need to maximize the number of hits. Another 10 points and he has a power weapon. So 90 points and you have high stats with minimum of 5 power weapon attacks. For another 10 points you can give him a Melta gun. 100 points and he is an all purpose leader with a brilliant skill to give you +1 to your reserve roll. Need the mobility give him a jetbike and he is now very mobile, with T4 and only costs 130 points in total. There are other setups which may cost more or less, and vary in effectiveness some better some worse than the one I have mentioned, try him out in a unit of shining spears or on his own. You wont be disappointed.

The second HQ choice is the Farseer. I avoid Farseers as they can become very point heavy very quickly. They look cheap with a basic cost of 55pts but that is with no powers, and only some protection from the perils of the warp. A 4+ invulnerable is a good save but not a lot of protection when a str6 weapon will insta-kill you. The points start to go when you have to buy spirit stones to use the precious second power. The next batch of points go on preventing enemy powers by making them roll 3 D6 and adding them all together. So those two bits take the farseer up to 80pts, still not a lot? Now we need the powers. You will want Fortune to re-roll those saves, that’s 30pts now you want either guide or doom, I prefer guide as re-rolling to hits is more important when you are hitting on 4s than re-rolling to wound when you are wounding on 2s. so that’s another 25pts. So now we are up to 130pts what if you want to make it easier for you to use your powers, another 10pts, give him a singing spear another 3 points. What if you want him on a jetbike, another 30pts, soon he is up to 180-200pts, and if you want a unit of warlocks with him, your spending more and more, especially for the jetbikes. They are good and useful for tank hunting or buffing your squads, but very point heavy.

The third viable HQ option that is worth the points is the Pheonix lords. Each one has its bonus’ and weakness’ but on the whole they are well worth the points, the only thing that lets them down is the lack of an invulnerable save. Fuegan can murder tanks and the people inside, on his own, Karandras is devastating in combat with 7 powerfist attacks on the charge. Jain Zar has an strength 5 AP2 assault weapon and a high strength power weapon. All the Pheonix lords come with Fleet which is a brilliant asset to their combat powers, even Mugan Ra has a strength 6 power weapon in combat on the end of his Shuriken cannon.

That leaves the Avatar, Eldrad and Yriel. I think for the points the Avatar is the best of the three but draws a lot of firepower which eventually takes him down, also only being strength and toughness 6 with 4 attacks makes him a bit weak in combat compared to a Wraithlord. Eldrad is a good replacement for a farseer for the points as a Farseer can accumilate points very quickly for what Eldrad does better, a very good choice. But Yriel is just useless. I fought against Yriel in combat and he was no-where near the standards of an Autarch. He also lost wounds quickly to shooting. For the points they are better spent on a real Autarch.