Eldar Rangers: Counts-As Guard Snipers

The IG do a lot of things well:

• flyers
• shooty hordes
• tarpit deathstar hordes
• breaking fearless units
• ordnance and 5" blasts
• tanks
• flyers (so good they are in here twice)
• artillery
• dedicated anti-air

Then there are some things the IG don't do so well: 

• armor saves
• psychic defense
• effective small arms fire
• and....snipers

Let's get one thing straight: Codex IG options for snipers all suck. Here is why:

1) Ratlings Sucklings: Why would I pay 10ppm for a T2 (Toughness 2) model. Yeah, that's right, toughness 2. Meaning LASGUNS wound on a 3+. They got Infiltrate (so you can put them CLOSER to the enemy, meaning they die quicker) and Stealth (like that +1 to their cover save is gonna help when basically every rapid fire gun in existence in the 41st Millennium will wounding them on a 3+ or better). In order to utilize them correctly, they need to be placed in the backfield, where maybe they can hold an objective....OH WAIT THEY ARE ELITES AND CAN'T HOLD OBJECTIVES?!?!?!?! Snipers? Yes. But good? No.

2) Vet Squads: These guys are Troops, which means they can score objectives. They also are BS 4 and T3, solving somewhat fragility of Sucklings. I can grab 3 sniper rifles and an autocannon for 25 points and camo cloaks for 30 points, which is a total joke. +3 ppm for +1 cover save? Not even Stealth USR, but a pathetic +1 to my cover save. They can't even get Move Thru Cover, which would actually help them move out of the cover I am essentially forced to place the in. Vets should be doing what vets do best: rushing forward in Chimeras and Pew Pewing with 3x Plasma Guns, not pretending to be snipers.

3) Special Weapons Squads. Like vets, I can get 3 sniper rifles for dirt cheap (+5ppm) but its only in a squad of 6 dudes, who don't even get Camo Cloak options OR BS 4. They ARE scoring, until your opponent rolls some errant dice their way and they flop like a live Taylor Swift song. SWS should only be doing one thing in your army: loading up on Demo Charges, suicide-chuting from Vendettas behind enemy lines, and killing 400+ point TermaPalaNobz squads. They should not pretend to be snipers. 

So what does an IG player, specifically one who has a Light Infantry themed IG army, who wants snipers do? Well bring in some allies, duh! Introducing the ELDAR RANGER!

4) Eldar Rangers are EXPENSIVE (almost twice as expensive as a Suckling) but for that price you get the following:

• A scoring unit when allied in
• T 3 
• Stealth
• Infiltrate
• Move Through Cover
• AND AP1 Sniper rifles on a natural "6" to hit. 

Of course, you can't all in rangers without an Eldar HQ. So why not address one of the IG's other weaknesses (psychic defense) and bring a Farseer with Runes of Warding so the enemy psykers test on 3d6? Grab Guide for your Farseer so that you can cast it on your Rangers to reroll-to-hit (thus getting more AP1 shots) or even Doom to reroll that 4+ to wound roll that always inevitably fails? Note that Farseer cannot join the Rangers during deployment, but can afterward. Sounds like a bullseye (get it?) to me.