Eldar Rumours

[Psi]

1st post... new kid in town.

I've recently started painting an Eldar army. Fully aware that the current codex is well.... junk when placed up against all the "New" codexes. I'm magnetizing my Wave Serpent turrets, Heavy weapon platforms, War Walkers, etc. That way the new Dex won't hurt my current projects with any unexpected changes.

With the rumors being what they are to date. Painting Aspects is off the todo list until the new Codex arrives.

Everything I'm reading, and hearing sounds nice. My only real request would be on a model level.

1. Plastic Wraithguard.
2. Plastic multi-part kits for Banshee, scorpions, Fire dragons, Hawks & Spiders. ( pipe dream I know. )

[flatdice]

First, new aspects are totally possible. GW writes the fluff and can ret-con anything, having a new aspect complete with new Phoenix Lord for them and saying they were there since the founding of the Asurya would not be unusual for GW.

I can see the aspect warriors getting consolidated into generic FOC choices as upgrades to the entire squad, in the same way that the current Eldar Pathfinders are simple suqad-wide upgrades to Rangers.

And as the Aspect Warrior boxed sets automatically come with an Exarch now, I foresee that Exarchs are automatically going to be part of the squads, not optional upgrades.

Ie Having a single elite army list entry "Close Combat Aspect Warriors" where you choose the gear of the squad to make it either Banshees or Scorps. The current codex does this, since both HB and SS have the same statline and the only difference is the wargear, really.

"Ranged Aspect Warriors" choose either Fire Dragon or Dark Reaper

"Fast Aspect Warriors" squad choose either Warp Spiders or Swooping Hawks

Dire Avengers an upgrade to Guardians?

Shining Spears are upgraded Guardian Jetbike squads?

Likewise, I can see the Wraithlord being a character upgrade to a squad of wraithguard.

This would slim down the number of FOC entries in the army lists CONSIDERABLY. It really wouldn't matter much to us players in the end gameplay wise, but would make the army list look a lot more streamlined.

I forsee see Falcons, Fire Prisms and Night Spinners being a single FOC entry as well as coming squadrons - just like the variants of the Leman Russ entry in IG. GW needs to get people to buy more Falcons etc, and limiting Eldar to only 3 or so skimmer tanks would hurt sales. Or if one of the new units is another Falcon variant, have a squadron of Falcons and/or it's variant be one Army List, and have the Fire Prism and Spinner be another Army List squadron option.

Remember the rumors for 6th ed is that you can drop FOC slots for new ones (ie limit yourself to 1 heavy slots to be able to take 4 Fast attack)

The trend since Codex Blood Angels is for all armies to have at least one flier, so the "Vampyre" is probably a new Flyer, likely a smaller plastic version of Vampire Raider in the same way the Storm Raven is a smaller version of the Thunderhawk.

So here's what I predict the Army List will look like:

HQ

• Phoenix Lord (probably a generic HQ now, and you choose which wargear to make it a named character)
• Farseer(I see Farseers having different levels of power now, from "Warlock" to full on disciple of Eldrad)
• Autarch (maybe Phoenix Lord is an upgrade to this?)
• Avatar
• Solitaire (If they keep him as uber as he was before, I totally see him being an HQ to prevent people from spamming him, and to have him compete with other HQ)
• Exodite Lord
  
• Seer Retinues
• Warrior Retinue (could be for Autarch or Avatar as the court of the Young King)

Elites

• WraithGuard (and Wraithlord)
• Harlequins
• Close Combat Aspect Warriors (either Banshees or Striking Scorpions, possibly a new Exodite themed close combat Aspect?)
• Ranged Aspect Warriors (either Fire Dragons or Dark Reapers, possibly a new Exodite themed aspect?)

Troops

• Guardians (option for Support Batteries, and Dire Avengers as upgrade)
• Rangers (Pathfinders as upgrade)
• Assault Guardians / Exodites on foot (I see them as being the same entry)

Fast

• Scouting Aspect warriors (either Warp Spiders or Swooping Hawks)
• Vyper
• Jetbikes (Shining Spears as Upgrade)
• Exodites on lizards

Heavy

• War Engine of Vaul Squadron (Falcon & a new variant)
• Siege Engine of Vaul Squadron (Fire Prisms & Night Spinners)
• War Walker squadron
• Exodite on Big Dragon (total guess, probably the new kit)

The idea of actually fielding a dragon model in a 40k game does sound very cool.
The the idea of merging FOC slots for different aspects looks valid if you look at the eldar codex in its current state.

Guardian Jetbikes as troops for Siam Hann armies
Wraithguard as troops for Iyanden armies
Pathfinder Upgrade for rangers to create Alaitioc armies
Storm Guardians are a upgrade choice for guardian defender units

The only head scratch er i can see would be is how Exarch powers get handled with aspects squads being merged

[Ruleslawyer]

In my mind Eldar changes are relatively simple in principle(yes I know this is wish listing)
Improve Farseer powers and more options. Option for Seer Councils to boost powers re Psyker Battle squads
Warlocks become true warrior-seers and in there hands witchblades become power weapons
Autarch - Archon statline, Grand Strategy like abilities, and freedom to take exarch powers that only affect him.
Aspects - Incubi statline with Exarchs Klaivex statline (except for 3+ save)
Phoenix lords make Aspect a 0-1 Troop choice
Guardian defenders may take a Heavy weapons platform for every 10 defenders
Storm Guardians may take 2 specials for every 10
Support Weapons - D-Cannon - Large Blast
Vibro Cannon - d6 Hits for Every Cannon in group
Shadow Weaver - Still 48" Large Blast But has designation Web
Web weapons (such as the Weaver and Warp Spider Spinners) cause unit to move as in Difficult Terrain (Note no rending or Dangerous Terrain Test - Like to keep the Night Spinner Special)
Shuriken Catapults get a double profile 12" Assault2 and 24" Heavy2. Dire avengers get Relentless

[DrLove42]

Psi, welcome to forum. ONe point of note, is that this book is likely still a year minimum away. And a lot of current units will still be there, so ont hold back too much

I can see the aspect warriors getting consolidated into generic FOC choices as upgrades to the entire squad, in the same way that the current Eldar Pathfinders are simple suqad-wide upgrades to Rangers.

Ie Having a single elite army list entry "Close Combat Aspect Warriors" where you choose the gear of the squad to make it either Banshees or Scorps. The current codex does this, since both HB and SS have the same statline and the only difference is the wargear, really.

"Ranged Aspect Warriors" choose either Fire Dragon or Dark Reaper

"Fast Aspect Warriors" squad choose either Warp Spiders or Swooping Hawks

Dire Avengers an upgrade to Guardians?

Shining Spears are upgraded Guardian Jetbike squads?

Likewise, I can see the Wraithlord being a character upgrade to a squad of wraithguard.

These are flat out some of the worst ideas i've evr heard. It would be the death knoll of the codex in my eyes. THat'd be like saying "Death Company aren't a seperate unit, they're an upgrade for regualr marines". Or "Terminators are only special characters in a Devestator squad". The number in a slot is not an issue, as stated, the DE have 7 in a slot. Guardians as upgradable, fine.Aspects no

[Vision]

exodites could be interesting :]

[EldarMojo]

For me one of the fundamental issues with the Eldar codex is the shuriken catapult (aside from the obvious things like pts changes that are needed that is).
It just seems like a moronic weapon for the Eldar to be using. I'll explain my reasoning.
On the plus side I feel that being an assault weapon is a good thing, as it fits with the mobility philosophy of the Eldar. However, this is completely negated by the fact that the range is 12 inches. This leaves the Eldar exposed to assault from whatever they shoot at. Even jetbikes with their ability to move away 6 inches in the assault phase can struggle to remain out of charge range the following turn (units with fleet, beasts, jump packs etc). I also feel that it is kind of dumb that a vehicle or bike still uses the 12 inch range when Dire avengers have 18 inches. Sure Dire Avengers are aspect warriors, but vehicles and bikes would have large ammunition supplies and could easily have targeting equipment and range finders built into the weapons.
I know there is the argument that if you increase the standard catapult range to 18 inches you nerf the Dire Avengers, but surely they can be buffed to a 24 inch range, or have a different stat line for their catapults like ap4 or rending perhaps?

Guardian defenders squads with heavy weapons also tend to just stand around all day doing nothing while the heavy weapon fires from range. This also seems a bit odd. I know that any unit equivalent can be in this situation when firing at a vehicle (missile launcher fires at tank, but boltguns/lasguns can't scratch it), but not every squad like that is firing at tanks all the time. Even a guardsman or atctical squad can fire its lasguns/boltguns and heavy bolter, or what have you, at a squad 24 inches away. The Eldar Guardians on the other hand simply stand there while the shuriken cannon or scatter laser fires at the 24 inches.

Perhaps an option would be to make it a dual fire mode weapon:
Assault 2 12 inches or Heavy 1 24 inches
And have Dire avenger and vehicle/bike mounted ones being Assault 2 18inches or Heavy 1 24 inches

Another issue with Guardians is Ld. The warlock upgrade does not increase the Ld of the unit. I believe that most armies have this ability or at the very least they can attach more than just 2 HQ characters to squads. Given that Warlocks would have immense mental prowess and focus (you'd imagine they would as psykers at any rate) they should be Ld 9 I think. Even if you use a Warlock with Embolden, Guardians are just too low LD. A power like Fear of the Darkness leaves them with LD6 and even with a re-roll that is not looking great.

[Archon Charybdis]

Besides, what purpose does condensing the aspects, or DA/Guardians serve? You reduce the unit entries but you havent actually reduced competition for slots, and it takes away any chance to add some variety to stat lines. Also making a Wraithlord an upgrade to Wraithguard would be bad for both units--the Wraithlord has no T8 to protect him, and the Wraithguard have to forgo running if the Lord wants to fire his long range AT weapons.

I do agree that they'll most likely allow grav tanks to be taken in squadrons, but I expect the Falcon will be made a dedicated transport to free up the HS slots a bit. Also as a fluff quibble, Engines of Vaul refers specifically to the super-heavy vehicles like the Scorpion, Cobra, and couple other olde tyme ones I can't think of at the moment.

Phoenix Lords as an upgrade to an Autarch just makes no sense mechanically or fluff-wise. Also Warlocks are a separate path from Farseers, specifically focused on war and combat. I could see them making a "Warlock Battle Leader" like Space Wolves, but not as some unupgraded step on the path to Farseer.

And as cool as it might be, I don't imagine they'll add Exodites to the Eldar codex. It's already a busy codex with plenty of fluff and units to cover just under the Craftworlds.

[CrimsonTurkey]

Condensing the aspects would make the 6th ed Eldar codex feel a lot like the current Chaos codex, methinks. We all know how much we love that one.

[Lane]

Also Warlocks are a separate path from Farseers, specifically focused on war and combat.

I'm not so sure this is accurate,

IIRC Warlocks are currently on the path of the Seer but have previous Aspect experience allowing them to put on their war mask. I think Farseers are like the Exarchs of the Seer path, forever stuck in the path.

[Archon Charybdis]

IIRC Warlocks are currently on the path of the Seer but have previous Aspect experience allowing them to put on their war mask. I think Farseers are like the Exarchs of the Seer path, forever stuck in the path.

Warlocks are a type of Seer, but it's not as though it's a straight continuum that starts at Warlock and ends at Farseer. Warlocks are a specific subset: "The most aggressive and warlike of all the Witch Paths is that of the Warlock Warlocks are Seers who once trod the Path of the Warrior, and it is their previous experience as warriors that enables them to harness their destructive impulses in battle."

Their psychic powers are used to actively attack/defend, where the Farseer's abilities are about manipulating fate and outcomes.In Path of the Seer for example, Thirianna has to make the conscious decision to switch from the Path of the Warlock to the Path of the Seer.