Goatboy 40K – Codex Eldar Winners and Losers
Goatboy’s back on the last Monday before Wargames Con with some initial thoughts on Eldar.
I will say right now I don’t plan on having an Eldar army in my collection of nonsense. So this initial thoughts is really skewed towards what I expect to play against and how I think it will kick the crap out of my army. I do see a lot of mean bits in the codex and expect them to initially be labeled as crap and still allow for good players to kick the crap out of the so called “better” codexes. I think it continues the trend of 6th edition of giving new toys but not being overly broken in the grand scheme of things.
Things I like aka “Things I am Scared of…”
The big new army wide power is Battle Focus. For those not reading up on rumors it allows the model to Run then Shoot or Shoot then run with their full Ballistic Skill. This is pretty awesome as it is a play better power instead of just a brute force power. What I mean is that 6th edition is really all about the movement phase with getting into position being extremely important. Mix this with guns that are extremely brutal at a close range and you have an ability that will frustrate a lot of opponents. Think of it this way – let’s say they move up, jump out of a wave serpent, and pepper you full of ceramic ninja stars they can now run back like those pesky assault moves the Tau suits do. You know how annoying that can be? Just think of how you can get anywhere with this army. It is also great for moving and getting some butt shots on those pesky Dragon’s people bitch about.
This power is pretty impressive and will win you games as you go from having a few guys in range to having the entire unit shooting and rerolling to hit. This leads us to the next change with the update to the Shuriken rule. Those types of weapons get a special type of rending that doesn’t add to the armor penetration roll. They instead wound automatically and become AP 2. This is pretty brutal as an entire army of these guys can just about kill any non vehicle model on the table. Iron Arm is a bunch of bunk when faced with Space Elf Ninja Stars. Lucky for us a lot of these types of guns are short ranged so the opponent will have to commit to kill your units.
Another big trend is the change to everyone shooting as well as a Space Marine. This is huge as I expect a lot of Guardian blobs and bike squads to be the norm in the upcoming months. These guys are going to hit you a lot and with the ability to always cause a wound it makes these cheap units extremely effective. The only downside is their leadership is a bit low and even adding a Warlock won’t help that much beyond with his magical blessings.
I do like how they changed the Warlocks. The ability to have some game changing blessings is going to be important as each of the dual spells is pretty interesting. I really like the Armor save one as it could mean a turn of doom to a lot of those 2+ save units. This army does a number on Terminators and I can only hope we see some point reduction or changes in the upcoming Marine book to help out the old bad boy.
I like how all the Special HQ’s feel like they are 1000’s of years old. Each one is a little bad ass and it is great to see the Phoenix lords return in kick ass form. The HQ section is a bit too beefy as it will be hard to figure out who will lead your army as each option gives something interesting to your list. I am thinking a lot of armies will have the SpiritSeer, Farseer, and a bunch of Warlocks leading the way. I am sad that the Phoenix lords didn’t activate their Aspect warriors to become troops.
Overall the psychic powers are pretty interesting. I see a lot of potential with them as blessings are really powerful in this new edition. The fact that these powers are double sided is a great thing as it gives your army a lot more flexibility. This is the biggest thing with this new book – it is a very flexible army that seems to be designed for the far thinking player instead of the smash mouth gamer.
Stuff that confuses me in the new book…
It is kind of sad how they are supposed to be the king of the Psychic powers and yet they don’t nearly have as powerful anti psychics as other armies (Wolves, Nids, Hood??) or ability to reroll failed attempts (CSM) on mind bullets. It is kind of odd not to see it. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy they got rid of Runes of Warding as I thought it was too powerful at its old range and thought 12-18″ would be the sweet spot to fix it. Still they have the best army book spells in the game so you can’t always have everything. The army also seems to be designed to work with blessings. Just like the new Daemons, if you don’t get the right powers or can’t cast them throughout the game – it will be a tough hill to climb. The Warlocks at leadership 8 will be your work horses and I can tell you all kinds of stories about failing checks at leadership 8 and 9. When you are going to be rolling a ton of Leadership tests you will have those turns where nothing will work.
I think the Wraith Knight is a bit underwhelming. The lack of a 2+ armor save means Eldar on Eldar fights will be extremely brutal for their big Wraith Bone cousin. Toughness 8 is pretty sweet but there are so many armies that can either ignore that or just need 6’s to start to chain wounds on it. Thankfully it has 6 wounds to help keep it around longer.
The lack of troop movement is kind of disappointing. This means a lot of the aspect warriors will be left in their packages/boxes as they didn’t get a lot of power in this new book. The only one that will be a pain in the ass is the Warp Spyders. I will see a lot of them and hearing those Necrons bitch about walking into spider webs.
Overall I do think the book is alright. Again it will benefit the better player instead of the bandwagon jumper. Those players will stick with their grey Tau until the next a$$hole book comes out. I know I said I wouldn’t play this army but here is the initial 1850 list I think might be ok. I know it is a bit wonky with the Mageknight nonsense – but something tells me this many things coming in at you will be rather annoying. Plus it is a lovely copy and paste list which always gets people mad.
HQ: Avatar of Khaine, Fast Shot, Disarming
HQ: Farseer, Jetbike, Singing spear
HQ: Warlock Council X 3, Jetbike X 3, Singing Spear X 3
Troops: Jetbikes X 10, Shruiken Cannons X 3
Troops: Jetbikes X 10, Shruiken Cannons X 3
Troops: Jetbikes X 10, Shruiken Cannons X 3
Heavy: Wraithknight
Heavy: Wraithknight
Heavy: Wraithknight
Yeah I know it is 3 WraithKnights but there is something interesting about a jump MC that is coming at you. His Toughness basically means he has Iron Arm on all the time, an extra wound, and still has 2 Str 10 shots. Who knows if it would even work but I know I would pucker up a bit seeing that across the table top. Plus it could be painted really nicely too hah.
~ What’s your Eldar list going to focus on?
