Email in: Yet another request for list pimping [Eldar]

"My name's Dave, I've been a reader of the blog for about 3 months now and I can honestly say I think you've done a fantastic job with it, you're my go to site for....well pretty much anything to do with 40k at the moment. Plus the banter is epic.

Ok so the reason I'm emailing is twofold, the first is to pimp out my new blog Crew Shaken Not Stirred, the best way to describe it is a GW gaming website within a cocktail bar within a blender of awesome, so hopefully its a kinda fun and groovy place to be. I think you 'd really enjoy some of my stuff so I emplore you to go take a look. The second (and well...really the most important reason I'm emailing) is to ask for a little list assistance.

Little background, I've played Eldar since 3rd edition, but at the end of 4th I took a little -i say little, I mean a big- hiatus from playing the game until now. I've always kept up with the blogsphere and with podcasts etc, but it really is no substitute for playing the game itself. I've been building a new Ulthwe flavoured army over the past month or so, the idea being make a 1k pts list, get it painted, move up to 1500, then to 2k. Now I have my 1k list sorted, the problem is that first expansion. I really want to try the idea of a fast paced army, but to be honest im struggling, having played FootDar back in the day. I hope you can give me some idea of where to expand to, heres the 1k points and any feedback you can give would be fantastic, and a little pimping if you like the site ;)


Farseer
Runes of Warding
Runes of Witnessing
Spirit Stones
Guide
Doom
Singing Spear
148

Fire Dragons x5
Wave Serpent
T/W Brightlances
Shuriken Cannon
225

Harlequin Troupe x5
Shadowseer
Harlequin's Kiss x5
140

Dire Avengers x 6
Exarch
Dual Catapults
Bladestorm
104

Wave Serpent
T/L Shuriken Catapults
Shuriken Catapult
110

Guardian Defender Squad x10
Shuriken Cannon
Warlock
Embolden
115

Fire Prism 155

Thanks a lot again mate, I hope to hear from you soon

Dave"

Banter? What banter!? Glad you like the blog and consider your blog plugged, simply for the drinks lol. To the list. As we 'ugprade' your list we obviously want to phase out most if not all of the foot elements. We'll try and do this in as cheap a way as possible but first let's take a look at your 1000 list. No idea what upgrades are on the Prism (you wrote 155 and if it's 115 you have 43 odd points to spend) but those upgrades (outside of Shuricannon), Guardians, Avenger upgrades and Harlequins eventually need to go. Whilst Quins are nice, they take away from your Dragon numbers and at 2k, you really need 3 squads. The Avengers have no need for upgrades as they should generally be holed up inside their transport anyway. Sure with Bladestorm, Doom and Guide they can put them hurt on someone but they usually die afterwards, too. Guardians really need to be slipped sideways into Storm Guardians. Here they can at least jump up and put some templates/anti-tank down but will likely die like the Avengers but for an extra 30 odd points (or 60 if you grab a Warlock), you get some decent flexibility. It also shouldn't be too hard to simply convert normal guardians to Stormies.

Let's see what we can do for 1500 then. We'll drop the Spear from the Farseer, drop the Prism to normal + underslung cannon, swap around the Serpents for the Avengers & Dragons, drop the Avenger upgrades and slip the Guardians sideways to Storms which leaves us with...930 points. First let's add a second Prism, give the Storm Guardians a Serpent w/TL Lances + underslung Cannon and add another Dragon squad w/Serpent w/TL cannons + underslung cannon. This puts us at 1390 points so points to spare! Another Prism will take us to 1515 and I think that's a good place to be for 1500 points if a bit light on troops. For this points level we'll drop Guide and Spirit Stones on the Farseer as Doom is a much better spell and there isn't anything which really needs guiding (like War Walkers, Bladestorming Avengers, etc.). This saves us 40 points so we've got 15 to play around with. Can play with these where you like. Here's the 1500 list in full:

Seer w/RoWard, Doom, RoWit
2x 5x Dragons w/Serpent w/TL-cannon, cannon
5x Quins w/Seer, 5x kisses
5x Avengers w/Serpent w/TL-BL, cannon
10x Storm Guardians w/2x fusion gun, Warlock w/destructor, spear w/Serpent w/TL-BL, cannon
3x Fire Prism w/cannon

Pretty solid at 1485 but a bit light on Troops and Quins stick out like a sore thumb even with Shadowseer. Let's take this to 2000 and if you really want to keep the Quins in the end, simply replace one of the Dragon squads with the Quin squad and add some more Quin bodies. So to 2k we drop the Quins and replace them with a similar Dragon squad in Serpent. We need some more Troops so we'll add an Avenger squad in Serpent w/TL-BL, cannon and we're at 1740 (if you need a 1750 list) with 260 points to spare. We can either add in some more Troop options and buff out our current squads or throw in some Vypers. I'm going to go for some Vypers here but the extra DAVU squad is an option too. We can fit in 3 Vyper with Scatter Laser and underslung cannon and have 50 points to spare. These can be run as individual squadrons or together but I think individual squadrons is a good idea. With those extra points you can add Spirit Stones to some tanks or flesh out some squads (i.e. Dragons or take a Avenger squad upwards in numbers). Here's the 2k list with 50 points spare:

Seer w/RoWard, Doom, RoWit
3x 5x Dragons w/Serpent w/TL-cannon, cannon
2x 5x Avengers w/Serpent w/TL-BL, cannon
10x Storm Guardians w/2x fusion gun, Warlock w/destructor, spear w/Serpent w/TL-BL, cannon
3x 1x Vyper w/Scatter Laser, cannon
3x Fire Prism w/cannon


For 1950 this gives you ~50 S6, 3 lances, 3 prisms, 17 fusion guns, 12 vehicle chassis, 3 scoring troops and psychic defense. How does that feel Dave? Feel like a good upgrade from your 1k list and bringing it in line with 5th edition?