Eldar?

I'm getting a little tired of painting Macragge Blue, Altdorf Guard Blue, and Calgar Blue. I spent some time yesterday and today putting together 1000, 1500, and 1850 IG lists that build off of the previous and seem like they would be fun to play. At dinner tonight, I started talking to my wife about the plan and how it would be kind of cool to have a second army around in case someone comes over and is interested in playing a game, and she says, "Or maybe I could play. Can I pick the army and you paint it? I really like the elf looking ones."

My skepticism of her really liking it is high. I'm going to run her through a small demo with my marines since she's only barely seen me play a few times. Assuming she doesn't write it off afterward, can you guys help me come up with a good building-block style 1k point list that would be fun to play and play against? My experience playing against modern eldar is extremely limited and the only thing going through my head is based on the hype of the Internet, "farseer, seer council, jetbikes, jetbikes, jetbikes, warp spiders, warp spiders, wraithknight".

And I'll just hang onto the IG lists I put together.

The battle force box is a decent deal, as is the windrider host box if you can find it. Depends if you want to run jetbike or guardian troops. Jetbikes are probably better in a cad, but guardians are much improved in a warhost, tho you'll need three groups of them.

For thousand points, I would suggest the battle force box and a farseer. That gives you two troops and an HQ, and the box comes in around 500 points once you figure in upgrades. From there, you can add 3 aspect warrior squads, which will be another 400 points, then give them an aegis. It will give you a lot of variety for painting, and you can add in squads later to make a warhost.

Really, all the aspect infantry have a use now, just depends on what you think would be fun. And I am assuming that is your aim, rather than a spammy tournament list. There are just so many directions you can take it if you are aiming for something casual and fun.

Ignore the negative hype on the internet...or sometimes on this forum. Eldar are a fun army to play. Space marines are my other army...equally fun and they play very differently.

Another option is the newly updated forgeworld corsair eldar. They provide more flexibility (e.g. corsair bikes can be configured for assault or mix vs Eldar Craftworlds codex giving standard bikes little/no capability/options in assault, thus encouraging heavy weapon spam. Ignore the negative hype online on corsairs...most people haven't seen the book and online forums are rife with incorrect rules posted.

In a nutshell play what you want. Yeah, be cognizant that some unit combinations are more suitable for tournaments. But don't feel steered away from an army.

Aspect warriors backed up by a Seer Council and a Wraithlord seems like it might be a good starter force at 1,000 pts. Both the council and Wraithlord should be pretty tough nuts to crack at 1k points, so can make a nice buffer for inexperienced play.

If you really want her interested in the game, I'd say worry less on expense and more on building a solid, interesting list. You don't want the missus thinking you let her win, or have her getting frustrated because the army is too difficult to play. ^_^

Howling Banshees