How to play eldar?

[MIDAS]

Whenever I try to play this race I just end up getting killed. I'm used to playing tau so I'm used to combined arms and lotsa dakka. But then I try to play these guys. I just get slaughtered and am so confused on how to play. I hear a lot of "use lots of micro" but I always forget to get upgrades. In most rts' in general I usually fall behind on tech.

I hear also that this is a horde army, but of what? infantry? vehicles? Really expensive units that I can never afford because I'm always reinforcing to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cheap people just to hold the line for an extra two seconds before they're torn to pieces?
I just don't get this race.

[marine12]

Plan and accomplish rapid attacks with Warp-Spiders and Fire Dragons on Falcons. Their teleporting and flying abilities were made especially for this. On early stages use Harlequins to protect HQ and troops from enemy attacks.

[MIDAS]

what do you mean by rapid attacks? In and out but flee when the enemy starts firing? And I never survive long enough to get fire dragons and falcons.

[PolyLumberjack]

The Eldar are a highly specialized race can play differently depending on your own style. I enjoyed focusing on guerilla warfare, but that really only works best against human opponents.

First off, webway portals everywhere. You can stealth your buildings and endgame will let you teleport them and this is a great feature of the race. It makes you the cockroach of the game, people can spend so much precious time trying to get that last (condition) to knock you out and it can cost them the game. Back in the unpatched version of the game there was no limit on building turrets so you could build 30+ turrets and teleport them into your enemies base all at once for shenanigans. Thanks to the eldar they capped it in a future patch (6 per HQ I believe).

The other reason is that units can enter and exit any webway portal with only a short cooldown. So make sure you have webway portals at key points and preferably in heavy cover. Imagine wandering alone with 2 full squads of ork boyz and suddenly a squad of dark reapers appears out of literally nowhere, bunkered down in heavy cover and receiving healing from an unknown source. Those orks are dead. I once put said squad at the edge of an opponent's base for half a game, that squad had a 50 to 1 K/D ratio, definitely got my points worth in that.

The builder unit can also teleport, and he has a massive range, so jump them around building webway portals all over the place.

Always pick your battles, attack with overwhelming force, micro manage like a mofo, check every red dot on your mini map. Get your key research done and expand everywhere.

They can't hit what they can't catch.

Disclaimer I'm not an expert at this game, but I did log enough hours when this game originally came out. What works for me may not necessarily work for you. Consult your physician to see if Eldar are right for you.

[marine12]

Originally posted by MIDAS:

what do you mean by rapid attacks? In and out but flee when the enemy starts firing? And I never survive long enough to get fire dragons and falcons.

Warp Spiders and Falcons can perform two teleports in a row. You can reach the enemy's HQ from a long distance in a few seconds. If you can defeat the defenders - do it and continue the onslaught. Otherwise - retreat. If you have allies - ask them to defend you at the start - Eldar are better in attack than in defence. Without support you can teleport your base at the start of match - it works in large maps.

[MIDAS]

Thanks both of ye, I'll try to do this now.

Never knew how to play eldar, one thing, should I apply early pressure? If so, should I research drak reapers of banshees first?

[marine12]

It depends on the antagonist. Mon-Keigh from tau and imperial guard can be annihilated by Howling Banshee squads at the start easily. Their melee troops are weak. Melee enemies like orks should be attacked by Dark Reapers. Another units which can fight both melee and ranged damage should be attacked depending on situation.

[MIDAS]

Thanks

[Casket The Clown]

Originally posted by Arphenior:

imperial guard can be annihilated by Howling Banshee squads at the start easily. Their melee troops are weak.

As far as this goes it's sort of micro dependent. IG can tie up banshees in melee and buy time for grenade launchers to be a thing.

[nomorepanic]

Eldar are not easy to play: there are a lot of valid strategies that you can follow. Combine this with expensive infantry for increased difficulty.
Their strong point is the speed of movement: to win with Eldar you need to learn to use it properly.

The single most effective advice I can give to you is to reasearch the run ability early in the game, just after recruiting guardians.
This will allow your infantry to:
- move out of dangerous situations without losses
- make hit and run attacks on isolated enemy squads
- harass your enemy in different parts of the map, retreat and repeat on another part of the map
- make dancing against melee units easier

Although I have seen players using banshees, I usually go for jesters. I am sure this depends on your opponent though.

Webway portals will help you in this strategy, but if you consider that you need build a lot, they are quite expensive. I usually begin building a webway network in T2, after having built a temple and improved the infantry.
I might sometimes build one early to use the healing ability, when holding a particularly important spot of the map.

Webway portals will be completely useless if you cannot follow this strategy using only the run ability.

Now, for the other paths, you might decide to tech up and get vehicles instead, and this is a very viable path.

This advices will help you in general, but you will have to think about every situation for the best result.

I think it may help you to have a look at some youtube videos of Eldar players in PvP.

[Dead]

eldar can be complicated sometimes, try the older games