I’m very excited for a 40k total war game, I thought I might share some of my favourite eldar units that I hope to see.

As previously mentioned, I think eldar units should come with warhammer 3 Tzeentch Barriers, high movement speed and good armour. Designed to mostly focus on skirmishing and micromanagement. Playing them optimally should be difficult, as it fits with their lore theme.

Also, it would be thematic to have eldar infantry unit sizes range around 60 men in warhammer 3 terms. This would capture their low manpower and elite design well. An armour rating of 60 would also fit well on eldar, not heavily armoured, but also not poorly armoured.

For the sake of convenience, I’ve made a short list of how elite each unit is depending on how much each model costs in points. From cheapest to most expensive.

You can find the official point list at: https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/oF1iWIkNsvlUHByM.pdf

The units listed below are units that I hope are included in total war 40k, listed from most desired to least desired. Number 1 is the most desired, and number 10 is the least of a priority.

You can find the official unit list at: https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/kQ4OfkQB5G05ZNX4.pdf

1. Guardian defenders

The lowest tier eldar unit, a skirmishing line infantry that is essentially the default Eldar foot soldier. However, even though they are the lowest tier, they are still extremely elite by the standards of other races.

2. Dire avengers

This is the elite variant of the Guardian defenders, they do the same job, but simply better. If Guardian defenders were high elf spearmen, Dire avengers would be Silverin guards. They also look a lot fancier.

3. Howling banshees

This is probably one of the most famous Eldar units. This one focusses on high melee damage and fast movement and fulfil the same role that blade dancers have in Warhammer 3. However, they apply a negative leadership penalty in melee due to their screams and are just as well armoured as Guardians and Dire avengers. On the point roster they are treated as very elite, however I’m not sure if that is fun, I think they should swap places with Striking scorpions on the level of elitism as they appear more frequently in art and games compared to Striking scorpions. Not to mention they are likely a fan favourite, so people no doubt want to use a lot of these units earlier than later in the campaign.

4. Wraith guards

This is almost a perfect mirror of the Ushabti unit of the wood elves. This is a highly armoured, slow moving monster unit that often comes with heavier weapons. They fill in the tank role that the eldar lack. These also come in variants with axes and shields called Wraith blades.

5. Fire prism

This is a hovering tank with a long-range artillery gun on it. I don’t think however that it should be able to fly like flying units, otherwise it could enable some very toxic strategies where it becomes almost unkillable and turns into a fighter jet.

6. Rangers

This is a long-range stealth sniper unit that is primarily used for scouting. Think of them as deep wood scouts. They enable the eldar to gain more intel on their opponent so they can better judge which kind of strategy they should employ. They are however not a particularly high damage elite unit like way watchers for example.

7. Warp spiders

Warp spiders are, short range, high damage rapid teleport units. They can teleport into range, and quickly teleport out. This gives them a very unique gameplay loop that takes the skirmishing nature of the eldar to the extreme. 

8. Striking scorpions

This is a stealth, assassin, armour piercing unit, fantastic for attacking lone artillery or lords. While on the point roster they are considered not very elite, I think they should swap places with Howling banshees in terms of elite level. Meaning Striking scorpions are more elite than Howling banshees.

9. Falcon

The Fire prism tank hull, however, the turret is replaced with an anti-infantry gun. Essentially the closest thing the Eldar have to a hovering tank. However, it is much faster, hovers and is less armoured than the tanks of other factions. Sharing more similarities with IFV’s. 

10. Wraith knight

Is a huge mechanical giant, that comes either with a ranged weapon or a sword. Like all eldar units, it is fast for its class. While it is epic in scale, I can’t say that it is very interesting. As a single entity, it would be cool if it had one or more abilities to give it more complexity.

​The lord options would be pretty straight forward:

Asurmen and Autarch: non-caster lord option for the Eldar.

Farseer and Wraithlord: caster lord option for the eldar, with a lore of magic (or ability set) that focusses on time manipulation through barrier regeneration and slowing enemies. Enhancing the eldar hit and run style of gameplay.

Warlock and Spiritseer: mage or agent with the same lore of magic (or ability set) as the Farseer and Wraithlord.

As you might have noticed, I left out:

Dark reapers, as I don’t think they work well in the hit and run design of the eldar and feel more like the developers were trying to shoehorn in a heavy gunner concept for all factions.

Swooping hawks, while awesome, I don’t think these are signature enough to be an essential eldar poster unit.

Wind riders, like the Swooping hawks, they are cool, but I think they’re too niche, and especially with the shining spears, they would fit best in a DLC focussed on them.

Avatar of Khaine, epic, but extremely rare in the lore, too rare to be featured, especially as a standard army unit.

None of the corsairs are included, as I think they are again, cool, but more of a niche. I do hope they get added as a DLC unit later down the line.

All harlequin units are absent, because I think they’re so unique and have such a huge roster, and I might even think they need to be their own faction. Able to borrow units from Drukhari and Eldar as a campaign mechanic perhaps to fill any unit gaps they might suffer.

Hemlock wraith fighters and Crimson hunters are absent, because I’m not sure if figher jets work well in a total war battle engine. Either they hover in place and act as a fast moving bombardment unit that is bound to cause frustration. Or as in wargame red dragon, they might be a boring airstrike battle ability type design, where they exist off map and can be summon to perform one bombardment and then leave the map again. Of course this is all just speculation, but I prefer to hold off on exploring that, especially as it isn’t a eldar poster unit and not other factions do not get fighter jets, making them too rare to be a class of their own.

​I hope so too.

In this post I simply want to focus on what are the most signature eldar units, and need to be included before others in my opinion. Some units are a staple or a poster unit, while others are super niche.

For example, releasing Eldar without Guardians is like releasing high elves without spearmen.

I also hope they don’t make unit variations of units. Such as “shielded”, “light armour” or “great weapons”. As they reduce unit uniqueness.

For example the eldar have Guardian defenders and Storm guardians, essentially the same unit, but with a different loadout. I hope they only make Guardian defenders, as they fit the theme better, and Storm guardians just make other melee units feel less unique.

Otherwise you get the same issues as in warhammer 3. Where you have the dwarves with a billion different “great weapon” variations, reducing the uniqueness and need of hammerers and thunders in your army. 

Not to mention, so many “great weapon” variants quickly makes it so late game heavily armoured units becomes more trivial and less impactful, making them less rewarding to build and less fun to use, as everyone can already penetrate their armour.

​Moreover, races can become unthematic, for example you expect the eldar to focus on skirmishing with ranged units. But if all their units get a sword variant option, suddenly they can behave as an orc faction, ruining their theme and immersion.

​Howling banshees for example have 4 different weapon loadouts, but I hope they only come in one version, the one with sword and pistol. Especially as the pistols, with the ability to shoot whilst moving perfectly fits with the eldar hit and run theme. Running away and shooting pistols if the enemy has melee superiority.

The same is true for Striking scorpions, with chainsword and pistol.

But Wraithguards and Wraithblades are completely different units in my opinion, as the difference between a melee and ranged variant is significant.

EDIT: I misread Guardian defenders and Storm guardians.

I want to clarify, I don't like Storm guardians, as they basically use loadouts of other units. Reducing uniqueness and adding another trivial unit variant.

Storm guardians are Guardian defenders with swords and pistols instead of rifles. Which is essentially stealing themes from Howling banshees. Which I don't like.

I have such an obsession with 40k and their factions that I made a summary poster:

-Guardian defenders are fast moving line infantry with high base damage.  

-Rangers are stealthy long range snipers with high base damage.  

-Dire avengers are more elite Guardian defenders.  

-Howling banshees are melee units with high base damage that reduce enemy morale in combat and can fire pistols while moving.  

-Striking scorpions are stealth melee assassin units with high armour piercing that can fire pistols while moving.  

-Warp spiders are short range, armour piercing, rapid teleporting flankers, perfect for attacking enemy vehicles from behind. 

-Falcon is a hovering light tank unit with high base damage.  

-Fire prism is a hovering artillery light tank with high armour piercing damage.

-Wraithguards are slow, tanky, highly armoured monsters with high armour and armour piercing ranged damage.

-Wraithblades are slow, tanky, highly armoured monsters with high armour and armour piercing melee damage.

I wanted to delve a bit into separating the units between base damage and armour piercing damage. As for example what makes the Howling banshees different from striking scorpions is that one is armour piercing and the other is not.

I also might be wrong on some details, so take my input with a grain of salt. Best to check the official information just to be sure.

​I took the time to set up a building browser in the style of warhammer 3.

So, for example, the Eldar have 1 recruitment building chain for all types of settlements, Barracks, which focuses on the common Eldar foot soldier units.

And 3 different advanced building types, Commandos, Vehicles and Wraiths, which each focus on different types of units.

The DLC tab on the side of each building lists the additional units that the building chain gets from a DLC pack.

So for example base game Barracks provides: Rangers, Howling banshees and Dire avengers. And if you have Eldar DLC 1, Barracks also provides Fire dragons and Dark reapers.

However, this is simply all speculation, for example the Avatar of Khaine and Wraithknight could easily be put into a DLC. And maybe 3 DLC’s is more realistic than 2. I’m just trying to fit the Eldar unit roster into the traditional warhammer 3 building loadout.

​

There are some changes I made to keep the different units unique, or better befitting their theme and popularity.

For example, Storm guardians are missing, as they’re just guardians with Howling banshee weapons. Which directly makes Howling banshees less unique. Which gives me a strong warhammer 3 “Quarrellers” and “Quarrellers (great weapons)” vibe, cluttering the unit rooster and reducing unit uniqueness.

Guardian defenders and Dire avengers are vastly seperated from one another, as if they are placed close together, say tier 1 and tier 2, they would not feel very unique, such as in warhammer 3 "Empire spearmen" and "Empire spearmen (shields)".

You might also notice there are very few low tier units, that's because the eldar theme is essentially that they don't have low skilled units or expendable units. They are a race of immortal beings tens of thousands of years old sometimes who have mastered their art to perfection. Not exactly your Skaven style faction. Also, their population is very small and doesn't grow very fast, so they are also manpower starved.

Howling banshees are a tier 2 unit, as they are extremely popular, and it thus makes sense that people get to use them soon. Especially as they fill in the melee capability gap right after Rangers.

Striking scorpions are tier 3, as I think commando units would fit better as high tier units. Commando units in my mind are very low men per unit, so if Eldar usually have 60 men per unit, their commandos would have 40. Same is true for the Harlequin Troupe unit, but more because Harlequins are the best of the best.

Vypers are tier 5, as having a vehicle that can fire whilst moving is bound to be extremely good at skirmishing.

The Harlequin unit bunch has been bundled together with the Wraith units, as there isn’t space left in the other buildings, and I don’t think they need their own building chain. Not to mention Harlequins often have lore stuff to do with Wraiths and old spirits.

​Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I need to explain a little bit more:

I would prefer lores of magic to just simply be say 4 or 3 abilities that don’t use a winds of magic pool. Simply because I’m just not a huge fan of the winds of magic pool design. 

And more than 4 abilities don't really add anything to the game, warhammer 3 has a ton of duplicate abilities that basically do the same thing, or are never used because they are pretty useless. No need to oversaturate the lores of magic with trivial spells in my opinion.

Take for example the lore of life, the "thorns" and "awaken the wood" abilities could just as well be scrapped. Same with the Lore of Tzeentch with their "winds syphon" and "Betrayal" spells.

I would imagine the Eldar have two ability sets or “lores of magic” as you could call them, one for Wraiths and one for Aeldari.

Farseer(lord) and Warlock(agent) get the lore that focusses on the manipulation of time to slow enemies. As they focus more on Aeldari footsoldiers.

Wraithlord(lord) and Spiritseer(agent) get the lore that focusses on the manipulation of time to regenerate Barriers. As they focus more on Wraithguards, which are armoured and slow.