Codex: Eldar and Iyanden supplement review

 

 

So, I have finally finished the new Eldar codex and played a game against it (which I lost by the way). This is my review of that book.

 

The first thing to comment on is the awesome detailed history of the Eldar. If only the Tau codex had this much detail I might have been more pleased with it but never mind. A huge chunk of the book is made up of this history which goes into some real depth on the race. One thing that struck me as I finished it, is that Games Workshop seem to have completely retconned the whole Blackstone Fortress stuff as it has no mention what so ever, not even in Eldrad's description. Rather dissapointing but if it is being ignored than it may stop be grumbling that Eldrad should be dead and not in the codex.

 

As for the new special rules, Eldar now have Ancient Doom which gives them hatred towards anything with a mark of Slaanesh but also gives them -1 leadership against anything with said mark. They also have Battle Focus which allows them to run then shoot or shoot then run in the shooting phase. This was a pain to me in my test game and I knee jerked against it but time will tell as the new codex gets played.

 

The Eldar have been balanced in the psychic area. They are now longer the overpowered psychic force. Farseers and Spiritseers now get two new disciplines to choose from in addition to those from the rulebook; Runes of Battle and Runes of Fate. What makes these nice is that each power has two powers you can use. Again, these are much more balanced.

 

On to the units...

 

HQ.

There Eldar still have a huge chunk of special characters to choose from. The new one is Illic Nightspear, a Necron hating ranger type who upgrades rangers into pathfinders. All in all these seemed appropriately points costed despite being monsters on the battlefield. I still think Eldrad will be the only one (other than the Avatar of Khaine) to be played.

 

Troops.

Dire Avengers are still my top choice in the troops department even though Guardians seem to have a slight boost. I just don't see Guardians being worth the time, just as I thought under the last codex. Guardian Defenders with weapon platforms, Storm Guardians, Windriders and Rangers make up the rest of this slot.

Wave Serpents remain the troop transport and I have to agree with many Eldar players that it was dissapointing there wasn't an option to make this an assault vehicle.

 

Elites.

Fire Dragons and Harlequins are the best options in my mind from the typical Elite options. I don't expect Striking Scorpions to make much of an appearence, and since Eldar players are hung up on an inability to spud Terminators I don't think you'll see Howling Banshees unless they know who they are going up against.

Wraithguard however will always see use I think. They are still just as good as ever. Wraithblades, however, are just going to be avoided by most I think to be worthwhile. Wraithguard can at least shoot. Both can be taken as Troops though if you have a Spiritseer.

 

Fast Attack.

Still not impressed by Swooping Hawks. If Skyleap worked differently then I might think otherwise but they just don't seem to do much on the battlefield. Warp Spiders, on the other hand, are a real nuisence. They caused me much trouble in my test game against this codex. Not that they did much damage but I had to keep an eye on them and they kept me occupied when I should have been focussing forwards. Shining Spears and Vypers are ok but haven't seen them played as yet.

Eldar get two new flyers in this codex; Crimson Hunter and the Hemlock Wraithfighter. My regular Eldar opponent dislikes them for base armour and no permanent invulnerable saves. The Crimson Hunter certainly seems to be the better option in my mind. The Hemlock is too short range to be too effective. I don't like the models though. The Forge World planes looked a lot better.

 

Heavy Support.

Dark Reapers are still a fantastic choice from this slot, as are Fire Prisms and Falcons. The weapon support platforms, now called Vaul's Wrath Support Batteries are about the same. The Night Spinner has been made better since it appeared in White Dwarf a few years ago. The monofilament Doomspinner has been improved and locally is being called pseudo-rending.

I found War Walkers better. The weapon options are the same points costs so no longer will have to deal with just swarms of these armed with scatterlasers, which pleased me as a space marine player. This also helps make War Walkers more versatile on the battlefield.

This just leaves us with Wraithlords and the new Wraithknight. Wraithlords (and Wraithguards) no longer need a Spiritseer guide either, which is a nice improvement. The Wraithknight is a nice model, though it looks too fat to be Elder IMO, but at £70 each I don't expect to see many.

 

Over all I think this is a nice codex, and a more balanced approach than the last one. I think they will still always win any game if they know what codex they are going up against.

 

Which brings me to the Iyanden codex supplement. Oh boy, where do I start with this?

 

If you are a collector like me, then this is a nice addition if an expensive one. If you are looking at this for a addition to the Eldar codex, then save your money. The Iyanden supplement is simply a history guide with pages devoted to showcasing painted models. The actual rule additions are almost pointless. Iyanden gets a single new psychic power, their own warlord traits and artifacts. There are now changes to the FOC just an increase to the number of Spiritseers you can have and a Wraithknight or Wraithlord can be your Warlord.

 

A waste of money completely.

Iyanden Warlord traits

My copy of the Iyanden codex arrived this morning, so for those who play them here are the warlord traits.

Eldar Warlord Traits

As a continuation of my Warlord trait cards, here are the new Eldar ones. Feel free to help yourself and I hope they add to your games.

Initial thoughts on the new eldar codex

A couple nights ago I had my first game against the new Eldar codex. it was only 1000pts because I want to learn it too without getting too crushed. It is interesting but still infuriating.

* Eldar are no longer overpowered psykers thank the Emperor! They felt much more balanced without the old psychic powers.

* Battle Focus (Shoot then run or run then shoot) is not nice. Eldar did not need this even though it feels thematic to them.

* It does seem that the new codex has forced a change to the usual army build which is nice. My opponent played vehicles that haven't seen for ages (fire prism) or made changes which I found more fair (bright lances on war walkers rather than scatter lasers).

He played wraithblades but they didn't see much action as I smashed them with TH/SS terminators but against MEQs they will be nasty.
My opponent didn't field flyers because even if he had the points he felt that they were a waste of space. he felt that AV 10 and no Inv save made them unplayable.

Initial thoughts before I sit down to read the codex is that in areas they have been balanced out but in others they are just as strong if not better.

Over the weekend I plan on reading the new codex and coming back with a proper review.

Codex: Iyanden

Eldar - Thumbs Down?

I have only just ordered my Eldar codex but so far I'm not hearing good things about it. If you have it, what are your thoughts?

More Eldar Previews

 

 

I have to be honest and say that I am not a fan of that aircraft design, especially in the picture where you can see the underside. Reminds me too much of the cheap plastic toys I had as a kid.

Eldar Knight?

Is this the new Eldar Knight that so many rumours have been talking about lately? Not long till we find out.

BR: Space Marines vs Eldar

Thursday night I was challenged to a 1000pt game. I knew that my opponent had access to blood angels, ultramarines and eldar, so I decided to do a simple list to hopefully deal with any of them. In the end it was eldar that faced and things did not go to plan all that well.

My list was:

Librarian: epistolery with plasma pistol.
5 man terminator squad with assault cannon.
10 man tactical squad with flamer and heavy bolter, in a rhino. Sarge had power weapon and plasma pistol.
10 man tactical squad with plasmagun and missile launcher. Sarge had power weapon and plasma pistol.
Stormtalon gunship with assault cannon and heavy bolters.

990pts.

From memory, my opponent had:

Eldrad.
6 man pathfinder squad.
10 man dire avengers squad with exarch in wave serpent.
10 man fire dragon squad in wave serpent.
3 warwalkers with scatter lasers.

We agreed to roll a mission from the Battle Missions book and rolled Prepared Assault. I deployed first placing my librarian with the terminators in cover near the central objective, flamer squad in rhino next to the second objective, and the second tac squad on a hill so I could get a good field of fire for the missile launcher. My opponent deployed everything in one corner nearest the third objective.

The game did not start well for me. Some very accurate scatter laser shots devestated half of my terminators. Not what I wanted. Things would not go well for them though the dice gods guided those armour saves and look out sir rolls fantastically for most of the game but evetually they could taken down. The terminators didn't do a thing all game which irked me somewhat. Had the mission allowed me to deep strike them from reserve things would have been very different.

When the Stormtalon arrived on turn 2 it failed to do anything and had to fly off the table on the following turn. When it did return it dropped a couple pathfinders and then went into hover mode to shoot them with a better BS. I had forgotten that about the cover saves provided by their cloaks and they went to ground with a 4+ cover save. It did manage to survive two turns in hover mode, before it crashed to the ground. Had I been my opponent I would have shot it with the scatter lasers a turn earlier but hey ho.

I did have one bit of luck which was the total annihilation of the dire avengers when they jumped out of their wave serpent. It didn't last though and I lost my flamer tactical squad and the survivours of the ML squad fled off the table turn 7.

Had the game ended turn 5 as I wanted, things would have been better but turn 6 saw to it that I would lose this game.

I had high hopes that my list would have done better, but I think a mixture of mission and deployment was what really screwed me. More terrain would have helped too I think.

Good fun game but better luck next time.

Codex comparrisons - part 2

Eldar.
The Eldar codex has always been a tough one to beat. Excellent shooty and some good assault based units. However, it has been impression (and that of many locally at the club) that if the Eldar player knows which codex he is up against next he should never lose because the Eldar codex is perfect for cherry picking exactly what you need. There are some units that are pointless, guardians and swooping hawks - I'm looking at you. Dire avengers are far far better option that guardians and warp spiders are a better choice than the hawks.
Under 6th I think that they are still very good but Eldar players are grumbling that they now have no anti-terminator weapons anymore and that banshees are now pointless. I disagree. Unless you are facing Dark Angels or Space Wolves you won't see that many terminators. Scorpions and banshees can still tear through regular troops with power armour or worse.

Grey Knights.
When this codex came out all you could hear about was how overpowered and cheesy they were. What people weren't realising was that this is very much an elite army meaning that they are expensive and you can't take everything. This is their balance. Anyone playing against them just needs to do their best to avoid close combat with them and gun them down with massed firepower, same as you would any power armour type opponent.
6th edition has made them better in close combat and given them some more useful options. For instance, until 6th I never saw anyone take the GK Librarian. Now they get a lot more play. The new edition has forced GK players to adapt a lot more than any other army has needed to I think.

Imperial Guard.
Under 5th this army was massed firepower and tanks. Under 6th it has become more mass firepower, less tanks and a lot more heavy weapons. The IG codex irks me at times because of the sheer number of shots that it can put out which can whittle down even a full power armoured army. It feels overbalanced and that seems to have been made worse by 6th somehow.
The biggest shift has definately been that vehicle heavy lists have been pushed to the back as they'll take so many shots that they'll fall apart under the hull point rules. The army is very much now a footslogging or stand and shoot infantry army with some limited heavy tank support. Overall the codex got worse in some areas, better in others and so basically stayed the same.

Necrons.
My thoughts on the Necron codex has been that it is a nice codex but isn't anywhere near as powerful as people want to make out. It does now have some good options but really it felt fair compared to everyone else. The only truely stupid additions was entropic strike, an ability that should have been rethought into a different mechanic.
Under 6th edition Necrons remaind balanced and are quite easy to defeat. This only changes when they take allies to cover their shortfalls. Much like dark eldar, this is what they need to do to remain competative IMO.

Orks.
I'm honestly not sure what to say about the Ork codex as I rarely played against it under 5th and I have had no chance to do so under 6th. The only thing that really comes to mind about the army under 6th is overwatch. When overwatching their ballistic skill doesn't change all that much so it's just like any shooting. Plus, burnaboyz when using their weapons as heavy flamers auto hit d3 hits per weapon. I can fully see certain weapon options and bikers being made more use of under 6th edition.

The Stygia Campaign

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some bods from the club (I forget who unfortunately) and the topic of how you could have a planetary campaign featuring all factions came up. Many years ago that is exactly what I planned for a couple of campaigns that we ran. Hunting through my files I found the backstory I had written for it. Just for enterainments sake here is the Stygian Campaign.

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Armageddon. Cadia. Vraks. Macgragge. These are wars so vast that no one will ever forget them. Now, in the waning years of the Imperium a new name has been added to that list, Stygia. A world located deep in the heart of the Ghoul Stars. A world that has become the centre point for every major power in the galaxy. A world whose fate may very well spell the salvation or damnation for the entire universe.

            Thousands of years before mankind crawled from the seas, the Eldar race had already been instrumental in the banishment of the Necrontyr, but found the universe still beset by warp entities from the Immaterium. Their seers knew of the Chaos Gods, and foresaw a time when the ruinous powers could collapse the walls between worlds and all would be lost. They scoured worlds where daemonic incursions had destroyed native species and laid traps for the most powerful daemons, drawing them from the warp and containing their essences within specially prepared devices called the Amarth-Thame ("Apocalypse Box"). By the time the seers declared an end to their work, they had contained the spirits of thousands of powerful warp entities within these devices. Now they needed somewhere to hide them away. Such a place was found along the rim of the galaxy, a newly forming world still primordial with a surface of molten rock. The Amarth-Thame were dropped into the churning core of the planet, hidden away but protected from the untamed forces of creation. Within a few generations knowledge of the Amarth-Thame had been forgotten amongst the petty desires of the Eldar race. The world that would be Stygia cooled and solidified. The artifacts were distributed across its surface, deep beneath the ground. Here the contained daemons slumbered and awaited a time when they would be freed to extract their wrath upon the galaxy.

Stygia was first discovered by humanity in M24 when a colony ship, the Endeavour, was swept of course in the warp by powerful storms that buffeted and pushed the ship far off its intended route. When finally, the ship's navigator was able to punch a hole back into the material universe they were in a region of space dominated by ancient and dying stars. Too far from Earth or its other colonies to make contact, the colonists looked for a new home out here. They found Stygia, a beautiful green world with vibrant blue oceans. After a brief exploration, this is where they decided to make their new home.

In M31, an exploratory ship moving ahead of the Great Crusade located Stygia and its colony. What they found disturbed the crew greatly. The colonists were living a simple lifestyle, living off the land but almost a third of the population exhibited mutation or unchecked psychic potential. The mutants, though accepted by their human counterparts, lived separate to them and had thus slowed the unnatural evolution of the humans on the planet. The world was logged but all concerns were swept aside when in the following year the Imperium was plunged into civil war. The Horus Heresy had begun.

Once again, Stygia was forgotten until 812.M41 when records of the planets existence were uncovered by an accident in the great libraries of the Administratum on Holy Terra. For some time now, space marines of the Death Spectres chapter had been stationed near the Ghoul Stars, fending off incursions from daemons and other warp entities, and word was dispatched to them to investigate the current situation on Stygia. When they arrived, they found that mutation had spread further through the population though no direct cause could be attributed. Those who were heavily mutated or were identified as latent psykers were eradicated by the Death Spectres and the planet forcibly converted into the Imperium. Local system lord, Salem Draco, paid a visit to the planet and decided that it would be perfect for an agri-colony, supplying the nearby systems with an abundance of food. The locals were put to work working the newly planted fields, or in the mines pulling precious ores to the surface. The surviving mutants, manyclassified as "beast men", fled into the untamed forests and hills to escape persecution or extermination. The planetary governor, Exon Valdez, set up his palace in the newly constructed city of Bludhaven.

Several years later, miners working the Drakkensgraab mines unearth and bring to the surface an unusual object bearing xenos markings. The first Amarth-Thame had been pulled from its resting place beneath Stygia. Concerned by this turn of events, Exon has the artifact dispatched to an Inquisitorial facility in a nearby system. Scholars of the Ordo Hereticus determined that the object was of Eldar manufacture and that the runes were of containment, and that they held the essence of Chaos. The Amarth-Thame was quickly secured within their fortress library behind multiple purity seals, for safekeeping. Over the next one hundred and fifty years, several more of these artifacts are uncovered and the concerns of the Inquisition grow.

Events come to a head in early 999.M41 when suddenly and without warning all the Amarth-Thame began to broadcast a psychic scream that penetrated the minds of all on Stygia. The scream echoes into the warp, affecting psykers across the galaxy, disturbing the sleep of ancient evils and drawing the armies of Chaos like bees to honey. Even the Tau whose species have no psykers were able to hear this call, though faintly. The Eldar farseers are affected worse than any other, feeling the rage of a thousand trapped daemons flooding through their souls. The Amarth-Thame have been unearthed and awakened.

Now, in the last days of the 41st millennium, every major race has descended upon Stygia.

Why We Fight…

Chaos Marines & Chaos Daemons.

The call of the daemons trapped within the Apocalypse Boxes has reached across the galaxy. Touching the minds of all who serve the Ruinous Powers, it calls them to battle, plunder and fire. Fleets of traitor ships are leaving the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, and their strongholds throughout the galaxy are heading towards the Ghoul Stars. Daemons claw their way through the weak fabric of reality, stepping onto the surface of Stygia. Soon this world will burn and the entities within the Amarth-Thame will be freed.

Grey Knights & Sisters of Battle.

The Inquisition has been aware that something is afoot on Stygia for some time and has planned for just such an event. Grey Knights and Inquisitorial forces have been drawn from their secret places and now bolster the defences of Stygia. Under the guidance of one High Inquisitor Butlerian, the armies of the Inquisition fight to uncover and safely deal with the xenos artifacts and any heretic forces that have arrived.

Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar have raided Stygia for centuries, taking slaves and generating fear among the colonists. Drawn again to Stygia by the cry of the Amarth-Thame, these piratical Eldar see the war as a great opportunity to conduct their attacks with impunity. Let the lesser races fight one another, while they sow disorder and reap the benefits.

Eldar.

Memories of the Amarth-Thame have resurfaced and the Elder rush to Stygia. They have found the foolish humans uncovering things better left alone. Reading the fickle winds of fate, the seers of the Eldar know that this war will determine the fate of the entire galaxy. Either humanity will rise from this stronger or else they will usher in a new age of Chaos. Neither event favours the Eldar, but they cannot sit back and do nothing. The Eldar ride to war.

Necrons.

The psychic scream of the Amarth-Thame have disturbed the Necron who still slumber under dead worlds in the Ghoul Stars. The psychic scream interferes with their machines, awaking them early and causing great pain. The Necrons have begun to materialise upon Stygia, harvesting life forces and seeking a way to silence the incessant scream that interferes with their operation.

Orks.

Orks are drawn to conflict, and even they sense that something big is going down. Across the galaxy Orks are leaving battlefields to follow larger fleets that are headed into the rim of known space. Most Ork vessels are destroyed before reaching orbit but a few have managed to get past the great fleets above and crash into the surface of Stygia. It matters not to the Orks what this fight is about, they just won't be left out of it.

Space Marines & Imperial Guard.

The might of the Emperor's finest have been redirected to Stygia by the planetary governor and the Inquisition. The PDF has been augmented by troops from Cadia, Valhalla and other fortress worlds, while companies of Space Marines are deployed across the surface of Stygia. This world belongs to the Emperor and they fight to ensure it remains so.

Tau.

The Tau high command has sensed an opportunity with the growing conflict on Stygia. Their race has no knowledge of warp travel, but intercepted communications hint at the presence of artifacts from the warp. If such artifacts could be recovered and returned to the enclaves, the Tau would gain a significant advantage. Under cover, the Tau have managed to sneak a force onto the surface of Stygia in an effort to recover the Amarth-Thame for the Greater Good.

Tyranids.

The psychic scream of Amarth-Thame has even blotted out the shadow in the warp. Disorientated and lost without a connection to the greater hive mind, a Tyranid bio-ship entered the Stygia system and was engaged by picket vessels of the Imperium. Confused, the ship was no match for the enemy and crashed through the atmosphere, its carcass spewing spores in a last ditch effort to ensure the survival of its brood. However, the Amarth-Thame have prevented the emergent Tyranids from connecting to a single hive mind and those hives that have sprung up and survived have become single entities. Reports from the Ordos Xenos have even indicated that rival hives have fought and consumed one another in a savage survival of the fittest.

Rankings

Over on the 40K forums site there has been a recent discussion with posters ranking the codexes. I've not taken part but I have read through it and here is my list from top to bottom (top being best).

Chaos Space Marines.
Grey Knights.
Tyranids.
Blood Angels.
Space Wolves.
Eldar.
Dark Eldar.
Chaos Daemons.
Imperial Guard.
Necrons.
Dark Angels.
Orks.
Tau Empire.
Sisters of Battle.
Space Marines.
Black Templars.

That's how I would list them. How would you?

2012 League at an end

The 40K league has basically come to an end. Joel has reached a point where no one can catch him up so he has won. Well done to him. I think most of the guys are happy to be done but a few still want to play their games so that's cool. I'm just going to play Matt and Brain as I haven't ever played against them before (somehow in Matt's case).

I will be glad of the break as my love of 40K seems a little drained of late, and probably because of the length of this league. Next time will have to see if it can be made smaller somehow.

Anyway, well done to Joel and his filthy Eldar.

Codex: Eldar review

More rumours

So, now rumours are saying that the 6th ed starter set will be Dark Angels and Eldar. I wish somone out there would just make their minds up and tell us whats what!

Victory!

For many years now I have played 40K against my friend Joel. He's a bit of a power gamer and official GW tournament player so he always plays top notch lists. I can understand it since he is a tournament player but it can make the game a bit irritating as I am a casual player. But last week I managed to finally defeat him! Yay!

Now I can't claim it all as I had made a small error in points. Joel had said that we play 1500pts but I thought we were playing slightly more. I basically had 150pts more than him. I was happy to remove some stuff but Joel said no, it would be a nice challenge so we played. He had brought an Eldar force and I was playing my Salamanders. We rolled an objective based mission (3 objectives) with a pitched battle deployment. Two objectives were on my side and one on his.

It was an awesome game. The dice were in my favour the whole game pretty much and that helped me devestate his harlequins on turn one. That made a huge difference for me. After that I was able to maintain a hold on the two objectives I had and the objective on his side was contested by an immobilised land raider.

The extra points made little difference as it was the cost of my dreadnought which was tied up in combat the whole game by the elder farseer and neither of us could kill the other (though I lost my close combat arm).

The game ended turn 5. If it hadn't I think Joel would have swung things.

Bah!

Looks like (again, take with pinch of salt) that the Tau Empire codex is first quarter 2013 and Eldar some time later that year. In their place for this year it looks like Dark Angels are getting updated instead. Now not to be funny towards the DA players but their codex doesn't need an update just yet. Tau are the last codex to need one otherwise players are stuck with one that's almost prehistoric!

League Game #1

The hated Eldar have appeared from nowhere and swept through the Coronas sector, obliterating Imperial holdings on every planet they reach. World after world has fallen. The local system governor sent an urgent call for assistance. The Salamander's second company responded and set down to halt the alien advance.

Since my friend Joel and have had handed in our tournament lists we decided to help speed things up a little and played our league game early last night. Our mission was Black Crusade from the battle missions book, a mission that neither of us had ever played before. A learning experience for us both. Special rules were that any non-vehicle units that are destroyed return to reserves and can come in again, non-fearless units are stubborn and everyone has preferred enemy. Kill points determine the winner. Neither of us had lists that favoured this mission but my opponent's choices gave him the edge here.

Enemy forces:
Eldar - Iyanden

HQ
Eldrad Ulthran (counts as).

Troops
10 Wraithguard, Spirit Seer with Conceal.
10 Wraithguard, Spirit Seer with Conceal.
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch, extra Avenger Shuriken Catapult & Bladestorm.
With dedicated transport - Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Twin-linked Shuriken Cannons & Shuriken Cannon (replacing Catapults).

Heavy Support
3 War Walkers, 2 Scatter Lasers each.
Wraithlord, 2x Flamers, Bright Lance, Eldar Missile Launcher.
Wraithlord, 2x Flamers, Bright Lance, Wraithsword.

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A very tough game for me. The mission certainly favoured close combat armies and I didn't have that sort of list. Neither did Joel but the toughness of his forces worked in his favour to even that out. I lost my predator tank first turn before it got to do anything, and I went through my terminators about four times and I don't how many times my tactical squads were recycled.
After the match Joel and I talked about the game as we packed it all away, and I don't think there was much more that I could have done. Joel thinks his list is just a fun list and hardly competative, and he may be right, but it's going to be a tough list for most players in the league to take down.

My opponent won with 13 kill points to my 4.

The Imperial forces were decimated under the relentless Eldar attack. Then as suddenly as they had appeared, the war host vanished leaving a trail of devastated worlds in their wake. It is unclear at this time what the reason for their attack were, but the survivours of the Coronas sector watch the skies fearful that they may return.