Eldar: Early Conventional Wisdom
Everyone is chattering about the new book, arriving just over a day away. Here’s a rough lay of the land…
First hand accounts of books, and a handful of eyewitness accounts are coming in. Here is one early set of rough brushstrokes of the units:
HQ
Farseer – Buffed, but random power generation makes them unreliable. It’s disappointing that 2 of their 3 primaris powers are Guide and we’re now bs4 so Guide isn’t that useful.
Autarch – Largely unchanged meaning that they’re still not very useful.
Spiritseer – A relatively cheap HQ who is a means to an end.
Avatar – Looks impressive, but will likely fail on the table. It only survived previously due to Fortune which we no longer have.
Pheonix Lords – Some look better, but they’re still very expensive. Doubt they’ll really get much table time.
Eldrad – Mastery Level 4 makes him more reliable than other seers, but still has entirely random power generation.
Seer Council – Potential use for splitting off a Warlock to guardian squads giving them a 3+ in cover or 2+ in ruins. Seem expensive otherwise.
Elite
Fire Dragons – Nerfed due to costing 6 points more per model. Still effective, but point increase hurts our overall list building ability.
Scorpions – A good buff. Lack of a delivery system overcome by Infiltrate and a 3+ armour save.
Banshees – Basically useless. No delivery system, no grenades, no ability to survive in the open.
Wraithguard – s10 shooting feels like a buff, combined with 5-man troop option and removal of wraithsight. Still fail to plasma cannons.
Wraithblades – s6, i5, ap3 attacks on a t6 model is nice. Will suffer from being slow and having no delivery system. Decent tho.
Harlies – Look unchanged aside from a return to the old Veil. Potentially effective if used right, but most won’t use them.
Fast Attack
Shining Spears – A lot cheaper and skilled rider makes them safer. Potential here.
Swooking Hawks – Inability to hop in and out hurts the grenade pack. Their shooting is still bad, so even with no scatter they suck.
Warp Spiders – They’re a little cheaper and have hit and run to try and escape combats they survive which is nice.
Vypers – The same points for dual ShuriCan, but BS4 is not enough to make them worth taking.
Crimson Hunter – Potential due to the sheer firepower. but the support needed to get it in early and eliminate air defense might be prohibitive.
Hemlock – Useless. AP2 blasts seem good, but 18″ range and AV10 puts it at risk of just being rapid fired down by bolters.
Troops
Dire Avengers – Point increase and a nerf with the removal of bladestorm (as it was). Still viable for MSU Wave Serpents.
Guardians – Improved a lot. Cheap heavy weapon options mean they can sit in cover and actually contribute.
Storm Guardians – Useless, much like banshees. They can’t disembark and assault and are not durable enough to survive out of a transport.
Jetbikes – Much improved. Various buffs and a points reduction, plus a warlock can reliably(!) give them a 3+ jink and 2+ flatout.
Wave Serpent – I like it. yes we needed an assault option, but.. for 120 pnts we have an AV12 tank that can fire a t/l SLaser followed by D6+1 t/l s7 shots every turn.
Heavy Support
Fire Prism – Much improved. AP3 large blast, and the new s9 lance shot give it much better utility.
Falcon – Still seems lack-lustre for this FOC slot. Will suit some lists, but not really a damage dealer.
Night Spinner – For character sniping it’s rending Barrage seems good. If it lost twin-linking and the terrain effects then it’s badly nerfed tho.
War Walkers – Potential here due to the save and the cheap gun options. Scatter/Star combo’s seem likely, tho pure scatter still looks strong.
Dark Reapers – Better, but can’t see them getting game time in such a congested FOC slot.
Weapons Platforms – Mono seems poor, Vibro isn’t clear, D has potential as 3 s10 blasts is powerful. Guide is plentiful, but range may be an issue.
Wraithlord – Not really impressed. There are better gun platforms and they’re still lacklustre in assaults and easily tarpitted.
Wraithknight – Upgrades mostly seem useless. Either go vanilla or the 10 pnt assault variant. Should be an effective fire magnet.
