Iyanden Supplement Bckground

[eldargal]

Finally managed to get my copy of the Iyanden supplement off my mother who was too lazy to buy her own copy so 'borrowed mine'. I'm really, really impressed with it, the background is excellent, well thought out and adds a huge amount of depth to Iyanden and the eldar in general. Some highlights:

-Iyanden pioneered the use of soulstones and using the Infinity Circuit to store souls.
- They had an alliance with Biel-Tan to cleanse the galaxy of Chaos with Biel Tan focusing on the Western rim and Iyanden on the eastern. They ended up losing contact after Biel-Tan started focusing on fighting anyone, not just Chaos.
-The history of Iyanden post fall is written as a metaphor for the Fall of the eldar, it's very effective. Basically Iyanden was so successful in its campaigns in the Eastern rim that they became complacent and arrogant and ultimately ignored Eldrad Ulthrans warning about the 'nids
-Idharae and Malan'tai both allied with Iyanden as part of their vision for a new Eldar Empire. Idharae was shown to be a small but great craftworld that was severely depleted of manpower fighting against Hive Fleet Naga which goes some way to explaining how a single Space Marine chapter was able to destroy it
-The story of Yriels exile is detailed, I thought it was rather good and fit well with the overall themes of Iyanden. Long story short his arrogance let a Chaos attack do some significant damage to the Craftworld itseld (wiping out Iyanna Arienals family too).
-The avatar still gets ownt by carnifices but it isn't quite so stupid now as it comes very late in the final battle and the avatar had been fighting a lot already so he didn't just wake up and get killed like an idiot.
-Yriel sees all sorts of visions while chatting with a Shadowseer as he is about to take up his cursed spear, including the Eldar gods being reborn.
-Iyanna Arienal is hunting down relics of Morag-Hai which she believes will allow the eldar to awaken Ynnead early, perhaps with the sacrifice of Iyandens living population.
-There is a sacred Flame of Asuryan on the Craftworld which is supposed to be the last fragment of Asuryans power that wasn't et by Slaanesh.

Heaps more I'm forgetting, I'll read it again and post more. If you are at all interested in eldar I really recommend getting this book.

[Deadlift]

Bah old news had the book for 2 weeks now.

But seriously even for myself who isn't a big eldar fan it was worth buying. It's also worth saying that although it allows you to tweak an all wraith list, the books rules aren't a massive shift away from a ghost army from the main book. Don't buy this if your expecting the rules to turn you wraith guard / lords / warriors into an unholy unbeatable army. It won't. But the rules, warlord traits (better in this book than the main eldar one) do turn the flavour up a notch.
For me the book was a must buy, Eldar don't interest me massively but, Iyanden and its ghosts always have. A combination of plastic guard and this book have given me the opportunity to build an army I have long wanted to.
Mat Wards the author and for those who criticise his fluff writing, either buy this book or borrow it if you can. His writing in this book is showing a maturity maybe lacking in previous works of his. For me as the 1st Ward codex of 6th (yes GW have called this a codex as well as a supplement) it was the cherry on the ghost cake.

8/10

[DrLove42]

Hopefully i'll pick mine up tonight. Looking forward to it

[Frankio9]

Interesting that you are so positive about the fluff, i read this somewhere else: [url]http://thegoodthebadtheinsulting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/iyanden-part-2-lore-warhammer-40000.html?m=1[/url] Slightly different opinion.

[Bitrider]

Interesting that you are so positive about the fluff, i read this somewhere else: [url]http://thegoodthebadtheinsulting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/iyanden-part-2-lore-warhammer-40000.html?m=1[/url] Slightly different opinion.

A comment about Matt Ward from the article linked above.
...'The strategically shaved ape.'

What does that even mean? If you are going to throw insults, at least be clear as to what those insults mean. Eh?

[bfmusashi]

Well, the Eldar are outrageous jerks.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

What does that even mean? If you are going to throw insults, at least be clear as to what those insults mean. Eh?

Well, "shaved ape/monkey" are fairly generic insults used to call someone subhuman (oft used racially), so it seems fitting for the Eldar.

...man, the "thegoodthebadtheinsulting" guy's really trying his hardest to hate it. I know a lot of Mat Ward's stuff isn't that great, but this guy's going into it assuming he'll hate it, and trying his hardest to find reasons to.

[Kyban]

...man, the "thegoodthebadtheinsulting" guy's really trying his hardest to hate it. I know a lot of Mat Ward's stuff isn't that great, but this guy's going into it assuming he'll hate it, and trying his hardest to find reasons to.

Yeah, seemed that way to me too. Some of his complaints didn't even make sense.

[Deadlift]

Interesting that you are so positive about the fluff, i read this somewhere else: [url]http://thegoodthebadtheinsulting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/iyanden-part-2-lore-warhammer-40000.html?m=1[/url] Slightly different opinion.

Maybe my standards aren't as high, but I have read the book a few times now and really enjoyed it. It goes into lengths to show the history of Iyanden and its many ups and downs. I wouldn't say it's my favourite fluff, that's the Ork codex just for hilarity alone, but it's up there and reading it has encouraged me to plod along with my project.

[daboarder]

Maybe my standards aren't as high, but I have read the book a few times now and really enjoyed it. It goes into lengths to show the history of Iyanden and its many ups and downs. I wouldn't say it's my favourite fluff, that's the Ork codex just for hilarity alone, but it's up there and reading it has encouraged me to plod along with my project.

I have to agree with the bloke though, Ward writes everything as some "mary sue" event. Take the BA codex for example, despite ork spores being basically impossible to get rid of, orks land on baal, are all killed, and never heard form again. Another example is his desire to "raise the stakes" I mean it wasn't enough that the BA's and their successors are slowly but inevitably succumbing to the Rage/Thirst, no Ward thought it was appropriate to drop both a a hive fleet and a major daemonic incursion on them. Just to make things more EXTREME!!!.

The guy really does write like fan fiction.