The New Eldar (OH NO THE SKY IS FALLING!!!)


Ok people. Deep breath. Before going into what's scary about the new Codex, let's look at what it fixes, ok? Because people have been swearing up a storm about Eldar already, and I want to look at what IS fixed a little bit, before diving into the new stuff.

Got it? Good. Moving on-

What was bad - 6th Edition Eldar
Ever since 7th edition came out, most viciously competitive players have been seeing the same things from Eldar. If they're on the table, it's either Wave Serpent spam (yuck), Wraithknight spam (double yuck), and Daemon-summoning Farseers (you take that yuckstorm the heck out of my house!)

Those are the things that, I personally, wanted to see fixed. Loopholes filled, tweaks made. I didn't want to see the character and awesomeness of the Eldar reduced to three units and the cheapest possible tax units.

Now, I'm going on my own 6th Edition Codex, and then this post (thanks Natfka!) to talk about the rules of the upcoming Codex

So!
Were these issues fixed?

1.) Wave Serpent Spam.
 What was it?
 6-7 Wave Serpents fielded (as Dedicated Transports) in a single army. A minimum unit of Dire Avengers allowed up to 6 with minimum points invested, and an Elites unit (usually Fire Dragons) could be mixed in for a seventh, which was usually the maximum points would allow.
 What's bad about it? 
 Aside from it being spam (which is inherently lacking in variety, and therefore lame), a single Wave Serpent is an AV 12/12/10 Fast Skimmer with a Shield that allowed it to turn a Penetrating Hit into a Glancing Hit on a 2+. It also had the ability to Jink, combined with another piece of Wargear that made it a 3+ Jink if it moved.
 But what made them really scary was that that shield could be fired as a ridiculous gun. Most people ran these with twin-linked Scatter Lasers as their default gun. The Scatter Laser is 36" S6, AP6, Heavy 4, and twin-linked it has a very good chance of hitting, even when firing Snap Shots after Jinking or at Flyers. As an added bit of meanness, if the Scatter Laser hits, every other weapon on the firing model also becomes Twin Linked. The Wave Serpent's Shield could be fired as 60" S7, AP-, Assault D6+1, Ignores Cover, Pinning. Many players also piled on Shuriken Cannons, which are 24", S6, AP5, Assault 3, Rending(ish).
 So, at 24", as a fast-skimmer that can move up to 12" and still fire all of it's weapons at full BS, each Wave Serpent could put out 9-14 S7/S6, twin-linked shots - some of which Ignored Cover, others of which had Rending. With 7 in an army that could be up to a whopping 63-126 shots.
 PLUS, most of them were Dedicated Transports for Troops, and so also had Objective Secured. They weren't cheap (at around 140-150 pts each plus the unit inside), but as durable and shooty as they are, they're an absolute bargain.
 Has it been fixed?
 Well, Scatter Lasers no longer twin-link other guns, the Shield can now only be fired once per game (at 24" with 2d6 shots and S6, Ignores Cover) and is harder to twin-link (Prescience or Guide will do it). Also, the Holo-fields that granted a 3+ Jink are gone, so it's stuck with the usual 4+ and Holo-fields grant a 5++ Invulnerable Save. A 5++ is awesome! And a 4+ Jink is a lot more reasonable. So it's not as shooty, a whole lot less durable, and the shield is one-use-only at a much shorter range.
 So, it's still very good, but not at all what it was, and arguably, now, just fine.
 Huzzah! It's fixed!

2.) Wraithknight Spam.
 What was it?
 3 Wraithknights (all three Heavy Support slots in a CAD). Wraithknights are scary as crap, and three of them is even scarier.
 What's bad about it?
 At T8 and a Jump Monstrous Creature with I5, W6, S10 in CC, each one is a beast. And they were most commonly run with two 36" S10, AP2 Distort (Instant Death on a 6) guns. Gnarly! Taking three of them was spam, it was often done in as small a list as possible and packed in with Allies, and it's pretty brutal.
 Has it been fixed?
 Yes and no. Wraithknights are now (or are going to be) Lords of War, meaning you only get 1 in a Normal CAD or Allied Detachment. Big fix!
 But, they've also been changed to Gargantuan Jump Monstrous Creatures, which makes them WAY nastier. Now they're quasi immune to Instant Death (D3 wounds instead of dying), gain Feel no Pain, can Stomp, are only wounded by Poison and Sniper weapons on a 6, and - in addition - their main gun and sword upgrade were upped to Strength D (brutal!)
 So, you can reasonably only take one, and the base points cost has gone up by 55 pts. I can argue that it's a fix, but only playtesting will tell just how tough a Gargantuan Wraithknight is. And, the Formations may still allow players to take more than one of them, it'll just be near impossible to do with Allies (because of points).

3.) Farseers summoning Daemons.
 What was it?
 Since Daemonology became a near-ubiquitous Psychic Tree and Farseers are amazing Psykers, many competitive players used them to summon Daemons.
 Why was it bad?
 The Summoned units were scoring/tarpit/denial units, and effectively brought up one players Points for the game. Summoning armies in general are pretty nasty, but this was something players could add to just about any army for a couple hundred points - meaning it was cheaper and more combo-happy than any other.
 ...also, from a Fluff perspective, it's the biggest affront EVER. It's on par with sticking Draigo in a unit of Bloodletters. Sure, it's amazing rules-wise, but WTF?!
 Has it been fixed?
 Yes. Farseers no longer have access to Malefic Daemonology. GOOD. And I hope we never see that garbage again!

 On a side note on this one as well, it looks like Warlock units have been changed to a special kind of Brotherhood of Psykers. Rather than have one power (+primaris) per Warlock, instead the entire unit is Mastery Level 1 per three Warlocks. So to get more than two powers (Primaris and one roll), you need four Warlocks, where in the past it would have been two powers PER Warlock.
 This is sad for me, I loved my Warlocks on foot, but it is also good to see, because it seriously hampers anyone trying to make a Seer Council Deathstar. And that's all good!

 So that's a start - what's been *fixed* - what new issues lie in the book will come up next. Brace yourselves...

Comments

  1. The WK can be taken multiple times in their decurion style detachment. Luckily most tournaments prevent duplicate auxilaries (unless you take a second decurion thingy). So I'd assume we'd see an average of two on the table at most tournaments.

    I really love the eldar codex. It's fantastically balanced outside of the D-scythes, the WK point cost (should be 400ish), and the jet bikes getting scatter lasers. It's a shame really. Just a few more tweaks and it would have been perfect!

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    1. Agreed, it's very nearly perfect! Allowing multiple Wraithknights is bad, and if they dominate the meta in the next few months, I hope the ITC format becomes common. I also think Jetbikes stick out as odd, and their boost smacks of a model-selling gimmick :/

      I'm also sad that Wraithlords weren't given any love, and am curious to see how Autarchs have changed...

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  2. Just to point out Farseers can still take Malefic Daemonology. The Core Rulebook states that unless otherwise stated, all psykers have access to Malefic Daemonology in addition to their normal disciplines. E.G Since the codex doesn't explicitly say that Eldar can't take Malefic Daemonology, they still can and they can now do it better due to Manifesting on a 3+ or the new runes.

    So in essence GW tried to fix this problem, but made it worse. But at least they tried?

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    Replies
    1. One could argue that the BRB entry - just dug it up on pg.28 - applies to the entire Daemonology Discipline (it doesn't say both Sanctic and Malefic) and only applies where it isn't specifically stated (meaning, Daemonology isn't mentioned at all). With that in mind, the "Daemonology (Sanctic)" in the Eldar book IS specifically stated, so the Codex entry fits in with the conditions listed by the BRB.
      It's quite clearly intended to be a fix, and if I were a Tournament Organizer I would rule that the Codex wording is valid.

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