Sunday, June 2, 2013

Eldar Codex: 1st Impressions



I want to preface this "review" with a statement;  I am not a power gamer.  Everyone who has ever played against me knows that I MUCH prefer to enhance the narrative of any game from terrain placement to army construction.  My initial impressions of the long-awaited Eldar Codex will be in the same vein.



Let me start off by saying that the book itself is BEAUTIFUL!  I am on record saying that I feel some of the "grimdark" artwork in the GW universe is a bit over the top.  That opinion has been thrown out the window with this book.  From the awe inspiring cover art, to the individual pieces for each Aspect Warrior, the artwork is incredible!  The book is also well laid out and bursting with fluff, even if it is all stuff we've read a hundred times before.

I'm going to break this review down into three sections:  The Good, The Bad, and The Confusing.  Within each, I'll give three examples.

The Good


1.  Pure "Spirit Hosts" are very viable builds!  If you have ever watched any of my Eldar batreps, you know why this is making me absolutely giddy!  Wraith units no longer test for Wraith Sight, Wraithlords can take two Bright Lances (no longer Twin Linked) AND a Ghost Glaive (with 3 base attacks), and Wraithblades FINALLY give the list a close combat option!  Being able to take 5 man units as Troops with the Spiritseer as an HQ makes an all Wraith army possible.  The Wraithknight and Hemlock are the icing on the cake (more on them later).



2. Aspect Warriors are much better.  Nearly all of them took a drop in points, except for the dramatically under costed Fire Dragons.  They all have additional special rules that were previously available only if you added an Exarch.  The "Swordwind" is also a very viable build now.  Warp Spiders and Dark Reapers are the most improved!  Reapers are SOOO much cheaper and have the option to buy Missile Launchers while Warp Spiders are more maneuverable (impressive for a unit as mobile as they were), and their weapons got meaner!  I might have to include a unit of them in every list I play.



3. The humble Guardian is now a pointy-eared bad ass!  With Shuriken weapons having their mini-Rending rule, Warlocks being significantly cheaper and more effective, and having access to one heavy weapon per 10 models, Guardians are cheap backfield objective holders.  Throw in the Avatar or one of the Phoenix Lords to make them Fearless, you also have a great mobile brick to push towards midfield objectives.


The Bad


1. Following the trend of GW flyers being bleh, the Crimson Hunter is underwhelming, to say the least, and the Hemlock is simply bad.  I say this only because I am such a HUGE fan of the FW Nightwing!  The Crimson Hunter has better weapons than the Nightwing, but without Agile and Shrouding, it will crumple to massed bolter fire!  The Hemlock has two short ranged Blast weapons, making it completely useless as a Fighter.  It does have some interesting rules (forcing a re roll of successful Leadership tests and the Terrify psychic power) that will take some planning to be effective, but at first glance, I am questioning my pre-order of one.


2. Eldar Rangers will probably never make any list I build.  I'm glad I only own 10 of them!  They lose their +2 cover save for Stealth and the Long Rifle is a simple Sniper weapon with an AP 6.  To top it all off, the only way to upgrade to Pathfinders is by using Illic Nightspear, the new Pathfinder character, as an HQ.  The upgrade is significant, but also significantly expensive.  The add Shrouded and automatic Precision Shots, but at 25 points each, they still are lacking.  Illic himself is merely ok for his points.  If you play Aliatoc, you will definitely want to add these guys for fluff alone.  However, I'll be leaving them all at home most of the time.


3. There is a HUGE lack of anti air support.  The Tau codex had me looking forward to the possible options I would have.  The Crimson Hunter will do a spectacular job of knocking down enemy flyers if it manages to survive the Interceptor fire it will inevitably bring down on itself.  If it does manage to take something out, it will die the following turn is sneezed on.  Other than that, only two other units can do the job; War Walkers and Dark Reapers.  However, the Flakk missile upgrades they can get are EXPENSIVE!  I'd rather take my chances with a ton of Scatter Laser snap shots!  I'll be ordering a Firestorm turret or two from Forge World to put on my still useless Falcons.

The Confusing


1. Apparently, the most psychically attuned race in the galaxy isn't in touch with their gifts enough to pick their own powers before a battle.  The random power mechanic can really hurt an army that relies on synergy like the Eldar are designed to do.  


2. The Wraithknight, while an incredible looking model, will be difficult to use.  With a base cost of 240 points, it will be hard to fit in a list.  Fully kitted out with Sun Cannon and Scatter Shield and a pair of Scatter Lasers (to take advantage of the new Laser Lock rule), it clocks in at 320 POINTS!  Will I use it?  Hell yes!  However, it will impact the rest of my list significantly!  Considering how many awesome options there are in the Heavy Support slot and how much money this model costs, it will be hard for may people to justify buying one.  Not a smart move from a business perspective, in my opinion.


3. Warlocks can't join Wraithguard units anymore.  With the Seer Council being designed much like Wolf Guard or Necron Royal Courts, you would expect them to be able to join any unit.  However, they may only join Guardian units!  Aside from taking them as a single Council, I can't take them in my Spirit Host anymore.  I'll still use them, of course, but this annoys me.


Does some of this seem like nit-picking?  Sure.  That's because, largely, this book is such a HUGE improvement over the previous one.  Is it as dominating as the Tau book looks?  No.  Does it have a game changing unit like the Helldrake?  Again, no.  However, it will be an awesome army to play or pull allies from.  In the hands of an experienced Eldar Autarch, this book can easily be considered top shelf.  I'm looking forward to getting it out on the table ASAP!

28 comments:

  1. I don't get some of these decision though. They brought it the allies matrix but then did certain things to discourage the taking of allies. The first came about thanks to the requirement in the Dark Angel codex that Deathwing can only be moved to the troop slot if Belial or Azreael part of the primary detachment. Same goes here for Eldar, I was considering adding an Eldar detachment for my Tau, but the Wraithknight is 240pts base? Committing that many points to an allied detachment just cripples the primary detachment. Ah well should be fun trying to take down. How many missile pods does it take to get to the center of a Wraithknight?

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    1. At toughness 8 with 6 wounds? A lot! Especially if I can get Fortune with my Farseer to re roll its saves.

      If you are looking to add some Eldar as allies for your Tau, don't get drawn in to the shininess that is the Wraithknight! Look at a Spiritseer as an HQ, some Wraithblades as Troops for a strong counter-attack/speed bump, and a Wraithlord with two Bright Lances for anti-tank and beatstickery. They'd have much more synergy with your gunline and not be anywhere near as expensive as the Wraithknight.

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    2. Fortune is no good against those missiles they eat right through it's armor. You're gonna have to take the shattershield. The ghostglaive is a silly upgrade for the knight.

      Unless I landed fortune and had the spirit stones of anath'lan I wouldn't spend my fortune on the wraithknights 5++

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    3. A Warlock with Protect to give it a 2+ armor save would go a long way towards keeping it alive.

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    4. Besides, unless you want to unload your Skyray at it, hit and wound with everything, I still get my regular armor save. HYMP and Smart Missiles are only AP 4 and 5 respectively.

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    5. Not saying it wouldn't be difficult. I would probably send my suicide crisis team at it, with markerlight support 6 melta and 12 Str 5 and 24 Str 7 missiles could probably put a serious hurting on it.

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  2. What about an Elder jet bike build?

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    1. Along with the generic Guardians, they are MUCH improved. They are still Troops, drop 5 points per model, get the universal Guardian BS, WS, and I boost, have the Bladestorm (Rending Lite) rule on their Twin Linked Shuriken Catapault, and you can get a Shuriken Cannon for every three bikes you take. You can still attach a Warlock as well. Vypers are also cheaper and Fire Prisms are still great. This might be the most competitive Eldar build moving forward from here.

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    2. Jetbikes are great now. I've been a fan of running 2 or 3 3 man units for a few years now. They wouldn't do much except win the game for you. They are now 25% cheaper and can still do that. However they also gained significant damage capability due to bladestorm and BS4 really helps the cannon. The only unit in the codex that I promise will be in "competitive" builds a year plus from now are jetbikes. If it is in large units lead by a warlock giving them a 3+ cover save or 2+ armour save or small units that claim objectives I don't know. But they will be there.

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    3. I might be tempted to build-up a jet-bike based army for Eldar...

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  3. 108 (assuming BS3 and not twinlinked)Also the wraithknight is only 300 since you don't need the second laser.) I suspect, it 2 units of jetbikes and an HQ will make a strong addition to a tau list for about 500 points.

    As for the original article, rangers are a ton cheaper now so I'm fine with not being AP1 on a 6 to hit. If Illic allows him to infiltrate a unit of wraithguard with flamers 1 inch from the enemy, he is good as well (not sure of rule interaction)

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    1. Nothing in the book is BS 3. ALL Guardian based units are BS and WS 4 now! They are HUGELY upgraded!

      I noticed that about the Wraithknight as well. That's probably how I will run mine most of the time. Still, 3000 points is a HUGE chunk of your build total.

      Rangers are cheaper, but they are nowhere near as good. Pathfinders, at 25 points a model, are just too expensive to be a solid Troop choice. I'm still leaving mine in the case.

      If that interpretation of Illic's Infiltrate rule holds out through a future FAQ, that would make him an auto include with a squad of Wraithguard! Nice catch!

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    2. I was talking about the Tau army being BS 3. 3000 points is a hug chunk of an army. 300 points is a little more manageable :)

      Agreed about the pathfinders being too expensive. Disagree about the rangers. The loss of AP 1 on a six to hit isn't a big deal, it's not like rangers did a lot of damage before either. For a squad of six you are looking at an expected 2/3 chance of an AP 1 wound vs an expected 1 AP 1 wound under the old rules. The real damage is that all precise shots are no longer AP1.

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    3. As I was writing a post for my blog (http://aspectsofthevoid.blogspot.com/) on different methods of playtesting the new codex I got sidetracked and wrote out a stupid list. That I have no idea how people would counter. So I'll post it here and see what people think, how would you counter this.

      Illic (joins the wraithguard, allowing them to inflitrate 1 inch from enemy and giving shrouded)
      Karandas (joins the wraithguard giving them stealth, 5 S8 power weapon attacks, move through cover, and one phase or rerolling wounds for the unit)
      10 wraithguard with flamers
      1 wraithknight with scatterlaser, suncannon, shield
      2 wraithknights with 2 lances and scatterlaser (for anti air twinlinking)
      3 units of 3 jetbikes (for claiming objectives)
      6 rangers
      defense line with laser 85

      If you have any terrain in your zone, the wraithguard have a 2+ cover save, are their overwatch will on average kill 6-7 Terminators or 10 marines. Wraithknights are just tough backfields to lay down some fire, help with flyers and prevent running from the guard. Rangers sit on an objective and someimes shoot defense line gun. Jetbikes hide in reserve and claim objective at the end of the game.

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  4. The most psychically attuned race would be Tyranids athankyou

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    1. I wouldn't call throwing a massive wet blanket of psychic energy over the warp necessarily being "attuned" to it.

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    2. Their dudes rely on psychic connections to keep the hive fleet together

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  5. Eldar have a very easy time dropping emplaced guns in the minimum one turn of fire they have before the flier shows up. It also takes 36 bolter shots to get one glance on average. That means over 100 bolter shots to drop it, if 50 marines are firing at it in rapid fire range I will take that trade off. With vector dancer it can also come in very shallow, staying out of the range of many enemy units and still shoot. You can basically have it sit on your board edge constantly firing.

    With the amount of pinning in the eldar army I can see a strong use for the hemlock, especially with the terrify power removing fearless, the ability to just pin any unit is pretty strong.

    Rangers are as good as before and much cheaper, I would take them any day of the week over scouts with camo cloaks and sniper rifles. 1-2 units of pathfinders(who remember have stealth and shrouded so 2+ in any piece of area terrain) would be great for sniping the special weapons out of a squad that you don't want to deal with that turn.

    Also the reliance on their psychic powers is the last eldar book, not this one. Plus I highly doubted anyone expected eldar to be the only ones to keep their selection.

    The seer council can only join certain units because they would be BUSTED if they could join anything.

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    1. Funny thing about dice; they don't care about Mathhammer. Besides, I was being facetious. The main point I was trying to make is that, when compared to a Nightwing, the increase in firepower isn't worth giving up Shrouded and Agile, especially at an increase in points.

      Like I said, this is a first impression. I want the Hemlock to work, so I'll be giving it ample opportunities in my lists.

      Ranger Longrifles are nowhere near as good as before. Pathfinders are just damn expensive for what they do.

      Eldar have always been reliant of synergy with their psychers to work properly. That is very hard to do with a random power selection.

      I didn't say they should be able to join anything, only Wraithguard They have always been able to do that and it irks me that they can't anymore, but I can work around it.

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    2. Longrifles lose out on the 6 to hit? That is it from what I can see. But for that I will take a 7 point drop. Pathfinders give you the ability to reliably neuter the hardest hitters in an enemy squad as well as an additional +1 to their cover save for one extra point compared to before and loss of ap2 on a 5+. No melta or plasma for you, now my t8 dudes can go have fun. Rangers are also a great way to remove those gun emplacements for the fliers to make it in safely.

      Hemlock just scares the hell out of me in the right army considering almost every eldar unit can get a pinning weapon with either high strength or a decent AP.



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  6. I am just glad I don't have to worry about Runes of Warding anymore. I guess Space Wolves and Tyranids have the best psychic defense now.

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  7. Re: flyers, I feel like they have to be bleh. Nobody wants another Valkyrie situation.

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    1. Vendettas are ridiculous, for sure, and Helldrakes are broken beyond belief. Night Scythes are great as well. However, can't we get something even remotely useful for Dark Angels, Tau, or Eldar? All their flyers are over-costed and underwhelming.

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    2. The imbalance that just a few flyers created was the 40k dealbreaker for me, very sadly.

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    3. The funny thing is that now, once the bright and shiny nature of being new has worn off, you don't see as many flyers in our local group, especially for casual play. One, maybe two make an appearance, but that's it. I haven't been to a tournament recently, so I can't attest to their prevalence there.

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    4. I feel like I see one in almost every game.

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    5. One isn't much of a problem. We don't see as much of the flyer spam we saw when they first came out. Cron Air or double Helldrakes are rare.

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  8. For Necron Fliers I will take 1 or none. It's the only true air defense in the Necron Codex. Otherwise I have to use Annihilation Barges to shoot at fliers.

    I look forward to facing off against the new Eldar. Variety is the spice and all that...

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