Tuesday 4 June 2013

Reading and Brewing..

So for those unaware (unlikely) Codex: Eldar was released the weekend just gone. Thought id post up a few initial thoughts for those that are mildly curious but not read the book, and a new eldar/dark eldar list i'll be trying first chance i get.




First things first, i dont think this book is particularly out there or bonkers. Which im sure we can all agree is a good thing, despite the issues many of us have with 6th so far, im feeling most of the books have been relatively on par for the most part (barring one or two units which may or may not have been mostly the fault of a stupid FAQ ruling. *AHEM*)

HQ
The big disappointment here for me is the phoenix lords, i still see very little reason to take any of them if im quite honest. mid-100 points to 200+ for mostly T3 beatsticks is a pretty poor show, im with many other voices on the interwebs here, couldnt taking a phoneix lord as your warlord have made one unit of their aspect troops? Maybe scoring swooping hawks or whatever would be a bit nasty, but it would be cool, and would mean you'd actually see the phoenix lords get used for a change. Ho-Hum.

Im actually quite tempted by the avatar, anyone notice he can get the disarming strike exarch power? So he can challenge and disable a characters power fist/power sword/whatevs so his 3+ armour save wont get negated. Pretty funny. Still gets blapsed by TH/SS termies though i suppose.

Farseers took a step down in my opinion, both of the runes wargear are poop and they have to randomise their powers (although they can now get 2 instances of a guide-like power, which is kinda nice i guess) but i dont think the runes of fate table has has many decent powers as the swiss-army knife that is the runes of battle table. That baby is really solid, and plays right into my hands due to it being the main one available to Spiritseers, who also unlock wraith units as troops (who doesnt love a bit of FoC swapping?).

Elites
Both the wraith units are interesting, dropping wraithsight is a godsend, no more rolling a 1 at the start of that vital last turn and seeing them all just sitting there.
Im pretty sure the ap2 flamer options are just too expensive at plus ten points each, if you could mix and match the guns, id be all over one or two per squad, but youre looking at 42 points a guy for yes, T6 but only 1 wound and a 3 up armour save.

Wraithblades i love the look of but im pretty sure theyre ultimately going to be disappointing on the field. Wont stop me trying them however. Im thinking the strength 7 AP2 axe and 4+ invun is the better option here, despite them only having one attack, those attacks are gonna HURT. But will they hurt more than a unit armed with S10 AP2 12" assault guns? Maybe not.

Banshees are still shit. End of.
Striking scorpions look very decent to me on paper though, Infiltrate, stealth and a decent weight of attacks.
Fire dragons are still good, more expensive but better armour evens out i think. And having the awesome battle focus gives them more survivability, disembark from their transport, pop a tank then run behind the transport again? Neat.

Troops
Im pretty sure jetbikes are the biggest winner here, which makes it even more annoying that theyve kept the same kit that was released about 15 years ago. Better ballistic skill and less points? And shuriken weapons are better now? Nuts.
Guardian defenders actually look playable too though. Especially with all those 35 point warlocks you can field (who probably have conceal/reveal)

Rangers im just not sold on, im willing to be proved wrong but i just dont think sniper rifles are all that.
Dire avengers also not sold on, yes theyre better than guardians, and you pay for it, is the extra cost worth it?  Not sure.
Oh, and the wave serpent seems pretty fantastic as a pseudo gun boat. That serpent shield? Wha!? What a gun!

Fast Attack
Im pretty sure both the flyers are dead in the water, sadly. Not because they're bad, but because theyre what flyers should be in a world where the most used flyers are way better than flyers should be. Couldnt they at the very least had front armour 11? No?

Vypers i was hoping would get slightly cheaper to negate the fact theyre armour 10 with 2 HP, but i dont think they got cheaper enough.
Warp spiders and swooping hawks both look very playable and i'll be strongly considering picking up a few boxes of these bad boys soon.

Heavy Support
Wraithknight, hes big. man alive is he big. and expensive. and im pretty sure he isnt worth the points, but ill get one as it looks awesome. Question is whats the least innefficient loadout i suppose? My initial thought was suncannon and shield with 1 scatter laser, but that costs so many more points than running him naked, so two heavy wraithcannon might be just as good to be honest.
Wraithlord got a slight improvement at the cost of being a bit pricier, he can now carry the sword without it replacing a gun mount, which is quite nice.
Fire Prism looks really solid, its multiple firing options give it a hell of a lot of utility in one mobile platform.
Vauls wrath support batteries look fun, decent options and decent price, but honestly the heavy slot looks really crowded, cant see myself plumping for these over fire prisms, war walkers and wraith MCs
War walkers are still good. simples.

So, anyone else who picked up the book have any thoughts?

And as promised, list exhibit A

1500 Dark Eldar primary with Eldar allies
Succubus (venom blade, haywire nades)
6 Grotesques (liquifier gun)
10 warriors (splinter cannon)
Raider (splinter racks, flickerfield, night shields)
10 warriors(splinter cannon)
Raider (splinter racks, flickerfield, night shields)
Ravager (night shields)
Talos Pain Engine (TL Liquifier gun)

Spiritseer
10 Wraithguard (wraithcannon)
5 Wraithblades (ghostaxe and force shield)

Looks quite un-Eldar really, its got a big solid core of tough stuff thats just going to walk at the enemies line with some mobile elements to flit around where needed.

10 comments:

  1. Picked up the codex and the power cards. My thoughts on each section.

    HQ
    Stand out winner is the Spiritseer as it is cheap gets two powers/Mastery Levels and with the dual options on the battle powers they have more options than you'd expect. Farseers look good for the price until you realise that most of their Fate powers are Warp Charge 2 so Mastery Level 3 only really helps with the Deny the Witch rolls (usually on a 4+). I really like the way they have brought Farseers back into the realm of balanced units by making it a possibility for them to actually fail a test for once (and they are really cheap).

    A few of the Phoenix lords actually look worth taking (Kharandras & Fuegan in particular) but only if you have a specific role for them. Kharandras is a character killer and Fuegan will just smash tanks all day long.

    I can't think why I'd take and Autarch.

    Elites
    All good apart from Banshees which I can't see a use for as their save is just not good enough or they take too many resources to make them effective. Obviously Wraith units are the stand out and Wraithcannon seems the best option, though the axes are appealing.

    Troops
    I can see why the Phoenix Lords don't open up the option to take other troops units as with the option to move Wraithguard/blades to troops you could field an army of just troops units and not be too disadvantaged as you get access fast/shooty/resilient units just in this slot.

    Fast Attack
    I like the look of the hawks as with no scatter and a good amount shooting (plus a good free shot each time they deep strike) means I could find a use for them. The others aren't bad but I don't think I'd find the points to spend on them.

    Heavy support
    The Wraithknight is just mental! It's only real weakness is that it isn't Eternal Warrior but T8 is such a good shield. I think the sun cannon is so good at clearing units that it's worth the points. Fire Prism is very versatile and I'll be stripping mine to repaint it pretty soon. The other units seem fine but once you've added in a couple of wave serpents you'll be hard pressed to fit in all the units you want.

    Over all I was pretty pleased but I can't not hate the current trend of GW to make a new special rule for every unit and weapon (most of which are slight twists on existing rules). I just feel thei is massively over complicating the game.

    My small allies force will be a Spirit seer (But I'll use a Farseer model as I really like it), 5 Wraithguard with Wraithcannons, 10 Dire Avengers, 5 Firedragons, Fire Prism with holofield (why would you not up your jink save?)

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    1. Maybe my main issue with the wraithknight is looking at its points and its 3+ armour save when im so used to running armies with 40 odd shots a turn that dont care about what toughness you are. i guess there is the case to be made that id just doesnt give a damn about boltguns whereas even most tanks will do from some angle.
      My point about the phoenix lords swapping aspects into troops i think wouldve only worked if it was 1 unit and/or only allowed by the warlord, and maybe include the spiritseer in that too, thus you could only ever have 1 non-standard choice.

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    2. I think that is most probably driven by the fact that the new unit is the Wraithguard and everyone that ever wanted Banshees/Scorpions already has them.

      On the Wraithknight front 2+ saves are just so good now that it would just push them over the edge of silly. They will take a poke in the bottom from poison but most other armies will struggle to both kill it and deal with the rest of the army at the same time.

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    3. Can't deny that, I wasn't arguing it should have a better save, 3+ is fine. I'm just not sold on him yet. I'm actually having another look at the wraithlord tbh. 165 points gets a T8 dude with 2 flames, 2 brightlances and a big ass sword.
      Course the elephant in the heavy support room is the fire prism, looks so strong.

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  2. For 140 points its not only versatile enough to be useful against almost every unit type but will ignore 50% of the enemy return fire due to jink and holofield. Hard not to take one.

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    1. Word. 1 would be useful, 2 would be ace. 3 probably too much, but i could see it being fielded.
      Also, referring back to something else you said. Autarchs. While i do concede there will always be more useful options from your HQ, it did occur to me that an autarch on a bike with a laser lance and the mantle of the laughing god would be all kinds of fun.
      eldar jetbike movement, decent combat stats, ap2 on the charge, hit and run with hi init and a rerollable 2+ cover save. wha?

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    2. Hadn't thought of that but one (unintentionally designed) load out doesn't make the unit good in general in my eyes. They just don't seem good at anything other than playing with the reserves roles. They seem to be for combat but can only get a reliable AP 2 weapon if they take a power axe at Str 3 (which isn't great).

      Give that Autarch a Reaper launcher too and it can lay down some long range shots too (though does make it a bit expensive). I've never liked the lances as after the first round you drop in ability to kill things.

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  3. Okay, got to try that list out (with a couple of wraithguard and vehicle upgrades dropped for my twin bright lance wraithlord)
    Main initial first impressions are thusly:
    Wraithblades arent very good. Theyre quite tough and have a decent save, but they just dont have the attacks to be scary, and they cant get in an assault vehicle so are stuck lumbering about soaking up fire. Im glad i didnt put the arms on mine yet, i think they'll be getting made into d-scythe guard and ferried about in a wave serpent instead.
    The wraithlord (and talos) didnt last as long as id expected at all, not having any invuns really hurt, getting donged by krak missiles and whatnot. not being able to be wounded by bolters is nice, but not when youre eating missiles that you cant save. and with my continuing utter lack of ability to ever do anything with lance weapons, he had 4 shots off before he died and did literally nothing.
    i played the wraithguard wrong and im aware of that, i was too precious with them and they ended up getting bogged down in combat with blood claws for most of the game.
    food for thought.

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  4. How much cover did you have on the table as you only need to be blocked by 25% to get a save from the missiles. Plus long fangs are a very efficient long range monster killing unit so it would be painful to face them first time out.

    I wonder whether you'd be better of switching to Eldar as the main army and have the DE as allies? Having a cheap farseer for guide/doom etc might make your WLord a little better.

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    1. quite a lot of terrain, but most of it was blocking, meant you pretty much had the option of hiding or being involved, guess thats worth considering.
      i have already decided to switch them round. get to use the eldar warlord traits then too! woo!

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