Also, that's what I was wondering about, which of our combat units is the most hard hitting? Personally only shining spears seem to be able to put out enough damage on the charge, (and of course the avatar).
Well, strictly speaking, just like it was in the blessed days of 4th edition, our most hard-hitting melee unit is Harlequin Troupe
))) I mean, as Asuryani (Craftworlders), Drukhari and Harlequins are all Aeldari now, nothing prevents us from mixing and matching units from all three sub-factions even within a single detachment. So, Harlequins can be included just as easily as Scorpions or Shining Spears. It's quite fluffy too, in my opinion - much more fluffy than Harlequins fielding a whole army of their own.
As for close combat power, Harlies are better than any other Aeldari melee unit. With the cheapest melee weapon option, a regular harlequin costs just 2 points more than a regular Striking Scorpion - and with that option a harlequin fights with
4 attacks,
and is almost 3 times better than Scorps when fighting a unit with no high invulnerable save. And even in the worst case scenario - when fighting Terminators with Storm shields - harlies' damage output is still about 1.6 times better than that of scorps. All for the same point cost! Harlies are also much better than Shining Spears - even in the equal model count situation Harlies still cause more wounds - and if we consider points, then it would be 10 Harlies for 5 Spears, in which case Harlies fight 3 times better.
The close second place is held by DE Incubi (1 pt cheaper than Scorps and also fight about 2.5 times better than them).
As for the Craftworlds list specifically - our most hard-hitting melee unit, as I found this weekend, is the Wraithknight. Avatar of Khaine is second. Everything else is not too impressive, sadly.
In general, out of the CWE infantry/biker units the highest raw damage output is provided by Wraithswords (a shorter name for Wraithblades with ghostswords) and Shining Spears. Point for point, Wraithswords fight much better than Spears - but they are slow and absolutely need a WS, while Spears don't. So, a unit of 5 wraithswords + a WS with a spirit stone cost about as much as 8 Spears - and, coincidentally, on average 5 Wraithswords on a charge provide about the same damage output as 8 Spears. Considering other factors, a combination of a WS with 5 Wraiths in it is far more durable than 8 Spears, and so far more likely to live long enough to charge something. At the same time, Spears are faster, shootier and have much greater threat range. So I'd say it's a wash, and you're free to pick what better suits your local meta, your army, your play-style and your aesthetic taste.
Considering other infantry, 5 Wraithswords fight better than 10 Scorpions or Banshees, and are much more durable than either. Banshees have an advantage of significantly bigger threat range, but they are super-squishy and super-weak, so I'm not sure if that advantage is really worth it.
Hence, I'd sum it up as follows:
1) if you want some general purpose (relatively) light-weight melee support, your best bet is a unit of 5-6 Harlequins in a Starweaver (204-225 pts for the whole package including transport). Depending on your view of the fluff and other preferences, you might also go for a unit of 5 Incubi w/Klaviex in a Venom (185 pts for the whole package) for similar results. Note that in both cases the total cost of a unit with its transport is roughly equal to or less than the cost of a full squad of 10 Scorps without a transport, AND at the same time both 5 Harlies and 5 Incubi will dish out more damage on a charge than 10 Scorpions.
For roughly the same points you can field 5 Shinig Spears, but they will be both much harder to keep alive AND much weaker in melee. They're not much faster than Harlies in a Starweaver too.
2) if you want something more heavy-weight, you can go for either a big pack of Shining Spears or a melee squad in a Serpent. In the latter case the best melee unit to carry in a Serpent is 5-6 Wraithswords (~330 pts total). Scorpions will only be efficient if you use them without a transport and manage to make the maximum tactical use out of their ability to infiltrate.
3) Beyond that, the ultimate CWE melee is in WK and Avatar - but WK is an altogether different price tag and army composition. Avatar is nice in many lists though, and is cheaper than a WS full of guys.
Excessive stats removed in accordance with forum rule 1 -Iris