Eldar Codex: So, What Do You Think Of It?

[cebalrai]

Well that's summed it up nicely, now I just have to work out how to make them look good too. xD
Thank you, as explained, I didn't really look at them.

They also play nicely with an Autarch adding a fusion gun to the mix and increased CC ability. If you're going with flyers or a reserve strategy you want this unit.

[daboarder]

They also play nicely with an Autarch adding a fusion gun to the mix and increased CC ability. If you're going with flyers or a reserve strategy you want this unit.

Autrachs are going to be great for fliers, the abillity to push reserves back means your AV10 fliers can choose when they want to come in.

[YorkNecromancer]

The Exarch's gun forces blinding checks. Lights out, BS1 Riptide.

In addition to negating Night Fighting, don't Blacksun Filters render one immune to the effects of Blind?

[cebalrai]

In addition to negating Night Fighting, don't Blacksun Filters render one immune to the effects of Blind?

No.
5 chars

[SeekingOne]

In addition to negating Night Fighting, don't Blacksun Filters render one immune to the effects of Blind?

Yes. Models with Blacksun filters don't care about Blind effects.

[daboarder]

yeah just reading it, they are immune to blind

[RGilbert26]

Im enjoying the codex quite a bit, Guardians are now worth taking (WS/BS4 and rending guns), Wraithlords are characters, Fire Prisms can Lance, Jetbikes are cheaper and loads more stuff.

[Anggul]

There are some great new things. The issue I have, however, is the things that were just left the same and not changed at all. The Phoenix Lord statline which is pathetic for what are supposed to be the greatest of all Eldar Warriors. Apparently only as good as an Autarch. Harlequins are also still stuck in their 4th ed form. Great in 4th ed, rather crap now. Exarchs are still just slightly better squad leaders. They should have 2 wounds like Ork Nobz. Shuriken Catapults should be 18" range, so Guardians are still pretty crap. Wraithlords still don't have invulnerable saves, but at least they have 3 attacks now. Witchblades are still crap, they should have made them +1S Force Weapons. Howling Banshees didn't change much and for some reason their Masks don't work like Dirge Casters and stop Overwatch which might actually have made them usable.

As for things that were changed for the worse, Mandiblasters which are meant to be 'high intensity close-range laser blasts' are only S3 like a Laspistol, and the Scorpions became 1 point more expensive. Yeah they gained stuff, but they shouldn't have become more expensive considering they can no longer assault after Outflanking.


I know all of that sounded like I'm being overly negative, but everything else about the codex is awesome, so there are great things but also a lot of notable flaws. It's a shame really, as he did such a great job with Chaos. Still I'm glad for the update and there are many great things, notably our previously pathetic Fast Attack choices suddenly being really good and cool.

[SeekingOne]

About the codex in general:

As I already said today in comments on a few other sites, in the end your impression of the new codex greatly depends on your feelings about the old codex.
There are people (myself included) who used to have a general feeling that with the old 'dex the Eldar were underpowered and really needed a boost. Those people generally suffered (or are going to suffer, if they haven't got their book yet) a serious disappointment - because the new codex really doesn't give us that sort of boost. The overall power level remains about the same. However, if you were fine with the old codex and didn't feel it underpowered, then certainly you'll be fine with this new one as well.

There's one more important thing to note.
With the new codex the Eldar army undergone a huge change in its internal mechanics. In the past Eldar used to have a unique privilege - with the two great powers Fortune and Doom they actually had a serious degree of power over two key factors:
- which of their own units will live, even despite the enemy's concentrated efforts to take them out;
- and which of the enemy units will die fast despite the enemy's concentrated efforts to keep them alive.

It was a game-changing thing, really. Now, with the random psy powers this privilege is gone. Eldar are in the same boat as all other armies, and a Farseer is reduced to a secondary support element. It may not seem much on paper, but in fact it is so significant that you really have to treat the new codex as a brand new army, and learn using it anew.

Apart from that the army dynamics didn't change much. All foot units became slightly more maneuverable, shuriken weapons became a bit more killy, Guardian-based units also became more accurate (BS4) - but overall nothing too dramatic, especially 'cause those boosts are compensated by point costs universally going up a point or two (or more).

GJBs deserve a special note - they have become truly cool as far as basic troops go, that's for sure.

[Defenestratus]

I think overall that the feeling I get from the book is "A missed opportunity." Before I go further, most of the book is acceptable but as I look at it, outside of the vehicles, there are systemic problems with the Eldar book and 6th edition mechanics.

The 12" range as a basic troop weapon in a shooting edition of the ruleset is simply unworkable. Even with Battle Focus, its simply too short to be effective. Even if the gun is Str10 AP1, at 12" its just not going to be fired more than just in overwatch - in which case the BS4 just doesn't matter.

Now here's where I would think that being able to pick a psychic power out of the divination table would be awesomely synergistic. Well unfortunately we only have a 50% shot at getting the power that our guardians need to be a truly deadly overwatching unit. With the div power they're awesome, without it, they're horrible.

And this is the systemic problem I'm talking about. Its almost as if the whole book relies on luck in order to be successful while not really giving us a price discount for that unreliability.

Not all units are like this. Some of the units work in great synergy with each other. Unfortunately these units are usually whole 500 point armies by themselves.

I think the one area where we came out ahead is in our vehicles. The wave serpent is an awesome tank and transport. Its simply awesome. I'm actually astonished how well that energy field works. However, we pay DEARLY for that tank. Its a ridiculously expensive vehicle. Throw TWL scatters, a HF and a cannon on it and you're looking at close to 150 points of tank. Thats a whole aspect squad right there. I understand that the tank itself is powerful, but I don't think its *that* powerful (although if you compare it against say an autolas predator of similar value, it probably is a lot better)

Then of course the vehicles have a huge downside as well.
300+ points for a squad of war walkers with flakk missiles? Yeah I'll pass thanks. Flyers that for some reason missed out on the juicy vehicle upgrades and therefore are going to get boltered to death? Sorry but they aren't going in my lists at that price point. If the crimson hunter was 120 points like a vendetta I'd be all over it - but its not, its 40 points more expensive. Likewise for the wraithknight. It needed to be closer to 200 points base to be viable. Its not and therefore its not going to get used at all once people figure out that its guns, while great, aren't enough to justify that ridiculous price tag.

The missed opportunities come from not actually *fixing* the old book. All of the old pitfalls are still there, and now the ways we mitigated those pitfalls have either become ridiculously expensive or come down to pure chance. What I think that Kelly thinks he's done is brought 4th edition Eldar units up to their value in points cost instead of keeping them the same as they were and dropped their price. I think he's failed in that. I think he's given some units some "glitter" that is supposed to make us think that all of a sudden, our squad of T3 space elves is all of a sudden worth 200+ points in a game where the basic weapon is S4. Essentially, its going to be like playing the old codex with some new toys. After a few games, the new toys will lose their lustre and I'll go back to playing with my FW stuff because it actually *works*.