Thursday, July 18, 2013

10 Things I Like/Hate about You Eldar – Discordian


So within the course of 3 months my first and second armies got released. It has been a fun couple of months, maybe a little expensive……. but fun none the less.

I’ve been able get several games in with the new elder, even some with dark elder allies and one in apocalypse using the first edition rules. So I figured it was about time I did a little list of my likes and dislikes so far.


Like:
1. All of the new models are gorgeous. They look fast, sleek, and definitely alien from a human design aesthetic.
Come on you know you want to sell us newer ones....

2. The book is beautiful and had a great lay out. It’s a great mixing of iconic classic art and a bunch of new pieces. The special edition is kind of pricy for what it is though considering it really is just a standard version with a dust cover.

3. Eldar are fast and deadly in close combat just like their dark kin. This is the first codex to have a lot of different varieties of ap 2 and rending close combat weapons that aren’t strapped to large monstrous creatures. I think they make up for this pretty well with their lower than normal str scores (the claw might be a little pushing it though :P).

4. Farseers being base mastery 3 is pretty great. It really makes Eldrad have some competition with his generic versions. The Farseer table is kind of lack lacklustre, but it combined with either divination or telepathy can give you a lot of options before deployment to.


5. Spiritseer are really unique and playable. They gave them access to cool buff/debuff spells and they make Wraithgurad troops to boot. I’m bummed about not having warlocks with my wraith units, but my old Bonesinger model will just be my new Spiritseer. I guess the real bonus is that my wraithguard leader now can look out sir on a 2+.

6. Warwalkers can dance like crazy since they scout and they reroll battle focus. They have the potential of having 18” displacement from where they first deployed turn 1, and that my friends is how you get to side armour.

                                                        
Dancing Time!

7. I want to thank GW for making the Eldar planes have Vector Dancer, though still waiting for the Dark elder planes guys.

8. I really like battle focus; it is definitely a curve ball kind of thing. It can be used either for allowing a little bonus to short range weapons or as a mini version of jetpack to protect fragile foot units from retaliation.

9. It seems every xenos codex is getting neat unique shooting mechanics. Necrons got tesla and gauss, Dark Eldar got mass poison, Tau got Ion, and now Eldar got monofilament. I was expecting it to be like the doom weaver from white dwarf, but instead we get a rending weapon that gets better on slow people.

10. Wave serpents have become worth their cost. Last edition they had become a simple means to deliver fire dragons, their cost was really high for a transport and if you wanted to turn it into an anything more it got worse.





Hate:
1. The Wave serpent hits this list too because I think they overdid it a little. The shield gun in my opinion is just too good, ignoring cover is a really great ability and it really fills the str 7 hole that was missing in the last edition. But when you start combining it with the scatter laser and holofields, you’re getting a battle tank that puts out 4 str 6 and 4ish str 7 shots all at bs 4 (most likely all twinlinked) that floats around with a 4+ cover save for only 135 points. I think there’s a reason wave serpents magically became direct only overnight.

                                                   
PEW PEW

2. What the hell happened to Yriel? Granted he wasn't seen much last edition, but this time around it’s almost like they didn't want to sell his model. He’s still a close combat dude and he got a little cheaper, but he lost the ability to take on Teqs and his re-roll successful save gimmick really hurts him. He will straight up buzz saw though anything that doesn't have a 2+ save, but that really isn't needed in this edition. I honesty wished they had given him the Wraithguard/blade troops rule; but they just pigeon holed him as a cheap close combat character that just doesn't add anything your army.

3. Aspect warriors got some nifty new rules, but I guess we will have to wait for new models. Scorpion, Dragon, and Banshee models are still good considering their age, but everyone else has a serious case of the fuglies. Also Banshees no grenades? Are you freaking kidding me?

4. I guess I can understand why Warlocks became legit psykers. But did they need to still be leadership 8? They are one wound 35 points models that will be risking perils to auto kill themselves. Also still being an upgrade sergeant of sorts for the guardian units makes it silly they didn't at least bump it to 9.

5. I own 10 metal Wraithguard that where on 25mm bases. Thankfully the new models are pretty close in size and I had 10 40mm bases on hand to convert them to 6th. But it was still a pain in the ass.

6. Wraithblades are an interesting unit and when you start to buff/debuff intended targets. But like all the other Eldar close combat specialist (minus striking scorpions) they really don’t have a reliable delivery system. I don’t see myself fielding them, if they are walking I want them to have guns and if I’m putting them in transports I’m going to give them scyths.

                                                   
Kind of bummed Iyanna doesn't have legit rules 
outside of a scenario version

7. I love versatile models that approach the game differently, which is why when I first heard about the wraith plane that made people run away I was super excited. Then I saw the rules and price I wasn’t. I get having a plane designed for air to ground and sure you can build an army around scaring people away, the problem is that GW priced the plane so high that there’s really no desire to field it outside of that one trick build idea. Its guns are also silly being supposedly heavier versions of another gun, but end up being largely weaker.
Also as a side note I’m guessing this is why marker-lights lost the ability to lower leadership scores for pinning tests. One of these in a tau army would be bonkers.

8. Eldar have a serious anti-air issue. Yes they have one of the best strike fighters in the game, but in the 6th edition environment that has attempted to adjust to Vendettas and Helldrakes, it’s almost a joke. It’s one interceptor gun away from being generally useless for its point cost.

Eldar really have no other options other than fortifications (walkers and reapers are too expensive in this roll). You can put an exarch with cool powers on a quad gun or something like you could always do, but opponent can usually kill the gun easily enough if it worries them.

                                     cawcaw caww. caw caw cawcaw caw cawcaw cawcaw caw caw caw caw caw cawcaw.
Versatility right here

9. The Wraithknight is just too big and too expensive.  It looks like a super-heavy to me and I do not like this trend of bigger and bigger robots for 40K. Also what is up with its weapon choices? It can have 4 weapons but only ever shoot 2, that sword looks awesome on a KNIGHT model but is clearly the worse choice, and for some reason it doesn't it get access to other Wraith variant weapons.

10. What ever happened to force org swaps? Other than wraithguard and ginger step child wraithblades, there’s nothing. I’m really hoping the supplements will start pushing in that direction.



So that’s it so far. Anyone thing I missed?