Confused about the lore and how eldar function like a glass cannon on the tabletop

The general explanation is that the Eldar favor speed as a protection over armor. 

Guardian armor, for example, is still as good or better in the lore as any non-walking tank style armor for any faction, and it's what covers their baseline troops. Eldar tanks aren't quite as tough as a militarum rolling junkpile, but they also fly and can be equipped with engines and shielding that more than makes up for it. 

And that's before we get to seeing the future of the battle and so knowing exactly where to be and not be.

The thing to remember is that most battles played out on the tabletop are not "typical" (a handful of phoenix lords don't show up for every engagement). We are playing the 1% of battles that are super critical and things didn't go to plan. In most engagements in the lore a farseer would predict the outcome and casualties are kept to minimum through speed and rapid responses. In those cases armor isn't needed.

There are a lot of things that don’t make sense from a lore perspective on the table. Trying to wrack your brain to figure it out just isn’t worth the time. Eldar are designed to be a balanced and fun to play army - not to perfectly mimic how it would play out in the lore

I think you can reconcile gameplay and lore if you think that the farseers are… well, seeing far. That preserving lives in the moment of that particular battle, while nice, wouldn’t be their main goal. They could be trying to achieve specific, inscrutable objectives that would stave off the destruction of an entire craftworld ten years down the line, making it a perfectly acceptable loss to die to the last elf on the current battlefield. That they have such a good view of the twisted web of destiny, that the battle they're fighting makes sense in the long term, in ways that we cant see.

The idea is to hit and run, with the most efficient units for the job deployed strategically, accomplish your goal and usually draw back.

Or, in an Eldar fashion, use third party to do your wetwork. That's what I pretend when I play some other factions

If the eldar played the way they were portrayed in the lore, they'd be a very small army with a low model count, but everything they had would be amazing. Their weapons and psychic powers would blow everything else away, but losing anything would be a big deal and difficult to recover from.

They actually did play that way back in 2nd. Shuriken catapults could shred units of space marines, and a single unit of 3-5 warp spiders could pretty much dominate the tabletop.

The way I see it, the eldar were designed by the old ones to be a weapon to bear against the c'tan(I think? Idk if my lore is quite right there lol) and what does a weapon do best but hit hard and ask questions later? They aren't a shield, they're the lance thrust into the heart of the necrons, their military doctrine similarly followed, sort of like an extreme blitzkreig

Elves gotta elf.

My headcannon / perspective is they are advanced but very ritualistic / religious, not practical.

Exarchs are war priests for living war gods. Weapon loadouts that would make obvious sense to me (jump generators + melta / d weapons, guardian defenders with lasblasters, storm guardians with shuriken and assualt weapons, swooping hawks with reaper launchers, jetbikes with starcannons / bright lances), are eschewed out of tradition and myth.

Guardians aren't soldiers; they're civilians who are strapping on armor as a last line of defense. They're basically a militia.

What I wouldn't give for an Eldar army that plays like Custodes..

Aspect Warriors that are tanky and deadly as fug, while being just a fast as they are now.

Like, bringing 5-6 squads of 5 man Aspect warriors would be around 1500 points. Leaving just enough points for a little psyker or Phoenix Lord support

Eldar consider the best method of defence to be not getting hit at all. In previous editions this was represented by coversave shenanigans, holo-fields and good old fortune.

Eldrad Ulthran in 4th edition had a 3+ inv save. Once had a game where he cast fortune on himself to make it rerollable and plonked himself in front of ten thunder hammer terminators.

No one killed anyone in that fight for 4 turns.

In the end it was a random tactical marine that clubbed him to death with a bolter.

It was b-e-a-utiful.

In another game, he got shot in the face by a reaver titan three times.

The root of this whole problem came when GW decided stacking -1s to hit wasn't how they wanted he game to function.

Eldar SHOULD be an elite army, but the resilience should come not from armor, but from being impossible to hit. This topic comes up often and ya, it makes no sense. GW keeps making the game deadlier, where basically anything other than the toughest units dies if it's looked at funny. If you don't have 2+ armor, AP and/or damage mitigation, you are considered a "squishy" unit (seriously, the Wraithlord is considered a squishy unit). And so now you run into the problems we have now: if you're not playing with a very specific terrain set, and the most deadliest units, your Eldar are gonna just die and do nothing.

Think about how well they perform vs plain vanilla guardsmen. Not their tanks, just the foot soldiers. Eldar easily outmatch them, and apart from Guardians are pretty resilient.

Almost every other faction are elite killing troops, who can cut through Eldar like a hot knife through butter.

One way I think about the match ups, is that they are not intended to be fair. Each side would prefer to bring a much larger force, and control the engagement. These are desperate, surprise encounters with small groups of troops. If the farseers had their way they'd engage differently, with more troops, in a different location and probably suffer minimal casualties.

We are playing the desperate battles when they're caught off guard, or surprised by much larger enemy forces than expected. Hence the much larger casualties.

Remembering that the background used to be referred to as "fluff" for a reason? Making a fun wargame is more of a motivating force than "realistic" (ha!) comparisons between disparate levels of technology or, in this case, perhaps magi-tech.

Then again, I come from not only older editions where, for example, Ancestor spirits could interact with real space and didn't see things through a "dream" or whatnot, but also primarily in creating a coherent TTRPG setting. From that perspective, at least in my original interpretation, the Eldar tend to be far more advanced, akin to something like the Industrial Revolution in comparison to the Imperium's "stone age".

If you want to set levels of expectation when dealing with the 40k universe, I find that it normally helps to translate it into a medieval European "Tolkien" setting. Not surprisingly given that the game grew out of Warhammer Fantasy Battles just like Dark Heresy etc. came out of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Through this and the lens of the wargame where you have fairly consistent hierarchical army choices, you begin to see the explanatory framework of why the Eldar are the way that they are.

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On the other hand, it sure would be fun to get a system---it would probably need to be more detailed than the wargame---and really lean into the Eldar and what they might be like in comparison to the Imperium and other factions. :)

I just figure that they phase back out through a Webway or something.

Also, casualties aren't necessarily deaths.

Eldar see tanking hits as stupid mon-keigh tactics. Better to just: not be hit at all.

They’re fast as shit, and if your average guardsman takes aim at a Guardian, the Guardian will be gone by the time they’ve pulled the trigger.

Eldar go for dex builds, they’re fucking impossible to hit, but all that speed and agility comes at the expense of not surviving the hits that eventually do land. Which is what makes their tougher units so goddamn terrifying.

In lore the Eldar have a fairly good idea of what's going to happen in the future because of farseers. They are patient and plan ahead long term, they'll spend time setting up the pieces then act. They strike swift, precise and effectively. This saves them from taking unnecessary losses. It always doesn't work out that way for instance, when Spoiler meets Spoiler to warn him about Spoiler he's just a tad too late and he doesn't realize yet Spoiler already been corrupted they end up fighting him completely unprepared for it but that's an exception, not the rule.

Also, "dying race" is relative. I've seen estimates based on habitat sizes and real world growth and it's been estimated there are still billions into the low trillions of eldar left. Considering a hive world can easily have 1-2 trillion humans alone and the imperium has thousands of planets if not millions. Then relatively speaking, eldar are a dying race, but it's not like they are on the verge of extinction next week if they don't start popping out babies.

Because though, they are at such a severe disadvantage in numbers they prefer not to get bogged down in battles of attrition because that's a pyrrhic victory for them, just like tabletop.

...this of course only applies to craftworld eldar. The Drukhari might as well be limitless since they vat grow new eldar and clone the crap out of themselves.

What you're missing is the Eldar perspective.

We don't have the Imperial tech base. Humans have entire planets dedicated to mass tank production.

We don't. We got ramshackle fleets of survivors held together by bonesinger prayers we call 'craftworlds' because because it's unbecoming to call one's home a dump.

We've been fighting a losing battle in a zombie apocalypse that lasted over ten thousand years. The best and brightest are long dead. And we still abuse their minds by putting them into robotic bodies to fight for us.

So when you see Guardians on the battlefield holding a home objective, that's how you know things are bad.

These are not heroes of times long past, legends amongst equals armed and armored with the best our technology is capable of.

These are civilians in high-visibility vests voiding warranties on power tools because that's what they have left and their farseer said their deaths on this hill is the best case scenario for the species.

And he's there with them. With a musical instrument that has a sharp pointy end.

Because he's a poet, and he's very sad right now.

The best armor is to simply not get hit

Game and lore never match, terminators are practically tanks in lore, in game a lasrifle which is a strong laser pointer can kill them.

The reason being is if the game played like lore, none would ever win, and the games would last days

They’d only , lore wise , engage in combat where the fates suggest a need to. This is represented by the fate dice mechanic 

Their armour is pretty good , it’s not simply about “make better armour “ in the lore - the imperium can only create power armour etc because it has a gigantic unimaginable industrial capacity to do so. 

The aeldari way is that if you play them properly then the return fire should not be as devestating because you scalpel out the worst threats. 

It’s definitely all about speed with Eldar - I actually think the gameplay style does match up quite well to the idea they’re a dying race. It’s not perfect to lore but I still feel like I’m leading a fragile army all the time.

You’d never expose a weak unit unless it’s absolutely needed - in that sense you’re forced to not engage unless odds are in favour.

They can quickly ambush and scalpel the biggest threat most the time.

They’re not really one for tanky constructions as it slows them down, being able to get away from a threat helps survivability vs being caught in constant crossfire from being too slow that will eventually whittle down the armour anyway. I do see anything tanky and resilient as very against the lore - especially when it comes to using precious wraith constructs.

But one thing I think does make the fights break out of lore - Eldar aren’t ever really going into a fair fight in matched play as lots of primary (and now quite a few secondary) rely on survivability. Eldar would definitely prefer to being overwhelming single targets of value not leaving their race stood on a spot waiting to die.

So afaik the eldar basically don't ever fight combined arms battles. The vast majority of eldar warfare is done by guerrilla warfare and fast strike teams in vehicles for exactly that reason.

The eldar lose attrition war, there aren't enough of them and what manpower they have is difficult to replace.

If they're fighting a battle it's because they have no other options. They keep their armies light and maneuverable because they need to leave quickly after they do.

Remember that the battles we fight are tiny snapshots of the massive wars that plague the galaxy, wins and losses in games of 40k are little more than gaining and losing ground in endless war. Eldar doctrine is swift strikes, then retreating and striking somewhere else, something impossible for heavier infantry.

The game always prioritizes fun and balance.

Eldar can't be like they are in the lore on the tabletop. For the same reason all the other factions can't either. Because when the book is about them, they are portrayed as OP. And if everyones OP, no one is.

But as for your specific points... Eldar are not only Glasscannons on the tabletop, but in the lore aswell. So I don't see the problem.

Wouldn't their bonesingers just craft up more resilient types of gear?

If they could make more resilient gear, and that improved combat effectivness and survival they would. But they can't.

Also, while yes Eldar lives are very precious, Spacemarines for example are even fewer in number. So it would be even worse to lose Spacemarines. Like what, there are 1000 Spacemarines total in a Codex Chapter outside of a Crusade? And you are just losing 50 of them every time on the tabletop?

Our Lore is also that all our tech is better. But that would be hard to balance.

Remember that most of the time armies historically needed to fight in sub optimal conditions. They didn't want to to just send a bunch of dudes with a few rifles over there to do the thing. They had to because not contesting something was worse and all the crack troops or heavy support was tied up elsewhere.

If the Drukari had their way, the battle would be over before they got out of their skimmers. If the Aeldari could get by using nothing but Wraiths, they would. Problem is they don't have that kind of time because they are always on the back foot & can't use their greatest advantage to it's fullest cause too much magic makes it more likely Slaanesh will notice them.

As for the armour question, chances are that armour small enough to be borne by your average Elf isn't standing up to a bolter round / chain axe / choppa / pulse rifle. Space Marines are depicted as being twice the height & width of an Eldar and they still need all that fancy tech to make their armour work & that armour gets breached by all those things too.

I've never liked putting guardians on the table unless they're piloting something, for exactly this reason.

Its been forever since I've last looked at Eldar lore. But if I remember correctly, there's a few units in the game that are basically useless. However, in lore they are insane. Banshees and a few others come to mind.

Iirc in older lore Guardians were on par with Astartes, so Aspect Warriors were head and shoulders above them. But then there have been several occasions where the Eldar got absolutely bodied by some random space marine chapter, and all of a sudden Apsect Warriors are not too special anymore, Guardians are Guardsman-tier, and even one of the very few incredibly precious and supposedly unstoppable machines of destruction, the Avatar of Khaine, gets taken out by some random space marine captain because reasons. It seems like the only Eldar who are safe from this are named characters, who do at least get scenes where they are like a blender through space marines, killing them before they even know they're dead.

The eldar race was the most advanced, but from the fall only the craftworlds survived. Their home planets are gone.

Picture, if America fell, and only cruise ships and naval vessels survived, they would have a lot of their tech but a lot would become lost or unusable.

This in part explains why they are not leagues ahead technologically in the game

So here's the thing: the eldar are a dying race, but that doesn't mean they're on the edge of extinction. This is evident in the Craftworlds' preferred strategy of avoiding being drawn in to total warfare at all costs. The serr councils plot the futures of their craftworlds in order to avoid going to war when it is not necessary, and to engage obstacles both at moments of least risk and when it is more fortuitous for then. Tactically, the martial prowess of the Craftworlds is maintained by disciples to Khaine, their shattered god of warfare, bloodshed, and murder. An Avatar of Khaine resides in the core of every chraftworld, and Khaine influences his charges in ways both subtle and overt. Basically, the eldar psyche is well-suited to the manner in which they fight. 

When the eldar last adopted a less viaceral approach to warfare, they instead focused their attentions on hedonism and debauchery. Never again would this be allowed to happen.

It's also worth stating that eldar are not fragile, and their wargear is both suited to their superhuman agility and physical strength, while providing advanced protection with minimal interference.

I don't recommend taking game stats as an absolute expression of the lore, it's an abstraction for a tabletop game ruleset.

tl;dr- there's a lot that is going on in the history, racial psyche, and syle of warfare fhat informs how the eldar fight. "Asking "why don't think just use heavier armor if they can't afford to die" is best understood by reading about the Eldar and understanding why they act the way they do. This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum.

They also have soul stones where if they are killed and the stone survives they can either be interred into their craft world central crystal network or put into wraith lords etc. To fight on. 

Some of the Exarchs even reportedly able to basically take over a new willing host when thier current one dies. Kinda creepy! 

There armour is pretty good really, pound for pound it's stronger than than Astartes armour. They just use thin plates and mesh to make it super lightweight and easy to move quickly. 

Eldar defence is built around the idea that it's better that you not be where your opponent is shooting or that your opponent die before shooting rather than try and weather their fire.

Actually Aeldar utilize a lot of durable vehicles. Wave Serpent is a lot more durable than most dedicated transports (sometimes gamewise too).

In previous editions, when range mattered, Aeldar could shoot from far away and engage when they wanted, you needed to create a favorable position and had tools for it. We have great in game hammers and anvils.

Nowadays, as the whole 40k became more of a “trade kills” game, it doesnt feel like it but Craftworlds isnt glass cannon, Drukhari is and always has been. Craftworlds is elite. We have Seer Council death stars, Yvraine, Avatars, Wraith death stars etc.

First and foremost, no source of lore printed by GW regarding the 40k universe should be treated as a "reliable narrator". It is a grim dark universe where most any information "except regarding Orks surprisingly" is PROPAGANDA. Sure the Eldar codex "says" that the weapons are ultra powerful and their technology is hyper advanced, but in practice it will do some things others can't, but aren't really better. Eldar are a dying race because they have to fight at all. They can trade up a lot of time, but they are still trading lives. Sure they can win, but each victory comes at a cost that the Eldar can't afford to pay. I see this play out on the tabletop all the time, and it's interesting to look at all the models removed from the table and say "We won, but at what cost?"

Its important to remember that a battlefield casualty doesn't mead the model is "dead" just that they can't fight. I like to consider that perhaps eldar battlegear is designed to keep them alive above keeping them in fighting shape like imperium gear is. So while a space marine who loses a limb in battle may keep fighting, an aspect warrior may retreat, or even have their armor aid them to retreat, rather than risk death by fighting when they won't be as effective.

Also it seems like the lore is changing from "whole species dying out" to "old culture dying out" which is not the same thing. There are trillions of dark eldar, who we now know only have to change their mindset and behavior to be any other variety of eldar. Some Exodite worlds are thriving and populations are growing. But craftworlds that maintain the knowledge and culture from before the fall are dwindling. So depending on the exact lore of a given force on the tabletop they may or may not be as concerned about losing troops or may have different standards for sacrificing troops.

A true-to-lore tabletop battle would be: - Turn 1 the Guard player deploys - On a random turn of their choosing the Eldar deploy - The Eldar deploy, fight, and leave the board the same turn.

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In actual answer to the Wraithbone question, Wraithbone is indeed durable but difficult to produce as armour.

It would be like outfitting soldiers with concrete body-armour that has to hand-crafted by Dolce and Gabbana themselves. - As opposed to relying on body armour not made out of concrete.

Guardian armour is of ‘poorer’ quality compared to other Eldar armour, as Guardians are citizen-militia and therefore lack the experience to operate and be effective in ‘better’ armour. - The Guardians are a sign of the desperation of the Eldar for survival, that even citizens must fight.

Tabletop-wise, Guardians are the closest thing the Eldar gets to a cheap-numbers unit. While this enables opponents to be able to kill a unit without having to deal with Eldar abilities etc that would frustrate efforts (although be lore-friendly).

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The lore shows the Eldar as a dying race, while sometimes showing entire Craftworlds die and a near-endless stream of Eldar on standby. Unfortunately the ongoing vagueness of lore, prevents a semblance of a standard being established.

A problem further compounded if the Eldar are the story’s antagonists and they need to did in droves to make an Imperial look good.

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As mentioned by others, the Eldar are about speed. They are also about design and looks. They are very much a literal glass cannon; because it is fragile but exquisite to look at!

I feel like they play pretty much like I expect them to on the tabletop, based on their lore.

First of all, the aspect of Eldar are so doomed, is overplayed in my opinion. It is an aspect of Eldar, but most people don't want to play a faction because "oh that's so tragic".

Even if we didn't have that angle, Eldar would still think Eldar lives are worth 1000s of human lives. Because they are arrogant.

And at the same time, even though we are a "dying race" we are not that few. Compared to the Eldar Empires? Yes. Compared to how many Spacemarines there are? No. There are a lot more Aspect warriors than Spacemarines.

In the grand scheme of things, Aspect Warriors on the tabletop are relatively few in number compared to other armies. We are roughly the same points per model as Space marines.

Now you have another point, that argues more about how Eldar should act in the Lore. Why are Eldar fragile?

That's just the nature of their beings. They are relatively fragile (compared to Space marines, not normal humans), and fast. Why would you give up their natural advantages, and just put them in bulky armour that they can't wear as well as other Races?

Not to mention most armor in the Lore doesn't work anyway. (Let's take SM as an example again. The armour works and is amazing and impenetrable when fighting guardsmen. But a Bolter is specifically designed to punch through power armour.

So, clearly tankier (and heavier less mobile) armor would be a downgrade for Eldar. It would perform worse. More Eldar would die with it.

As for the "not engaging with unfavorable odds" and 10% loses would be a disaster... that's partially explained by how valuable their opposition is. As I said, there are even fewer Spacemarines for example.

As for the rest, you can narratively justify anything. You can say most Eldar that are "killed" are just teleported to the infirmary. You can say the Eldar fighting here were only 5% of the Eldar forces, and while they held off the enemy here the rest of the army saved a whole craftworld.

Edit: There's also a lore reason why they don't only use Wraithconstructs, so that's covered.