Keep in mind. The Eldar collection I inherited began around the time that the Harlequin boxed set came out. This was before Avatars (well, harlequin sergeants were called Avatars), this was before Dark Eldar. Hell, this was before aspect warriors. Since then it has grown. I have probably 80 or so Guardians. 3 Wraithlords (one harlequin), 4 vypers, fourteen jet bikes.
I have Nuadhu. Who in the world has Nuadhu? Just me, right?
So, my read of the new Eldar Codex is probably a lot different than other peoples...and that's good I think. Let me try this another way, between Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions, you would have been a fool to pick the banshees, and realistically, you would have been better off putting your points into a seer council. Between Guardians and rangers, that was a toss up, but they were both better than dire avengers. Dark Reapers were nice, but better than a fire prism or a falcon with a combat crystal? No way. Bikes were useless. Even the special wild riders from the craftworld codex. They were too expensive and they didn't do anything. The Phoenix Lords weren't worth the points, and the Avatar was worth the points even if he never did anything. In other words, while the Eldar codex had grown over the years to encompass a large array of models, half the book would have been a mistake to use. Eldar have a plan for victory--that plan did not include Swooping Hawks. Nice models. Great chance to really show off your painting skills, but actually putting Swooping Hawks on the table was a big f'ing mistake.
Now, from what I understand, the big news behind the codex is the inclusion of this new HQ choice: The Autarch. Okay. I'm not against that. That's nice. I'll probably never use him since the Eldar have ten or so HQ choices already. I suppose if I run out of points, I could put in an Autarch, but I don't really need a cheapie HQ for my Saim Hann force. Plus, given WYSIWYG, I can already see that people will expect me to have twenty versions of this guy so that I can play every Autarch combination. So...I'll convert, but I'm not going to be going crazy on this.
The big news for me is that the codex seems to have brought back to life the troop choices that had fallen into ill repute. Swooping Hawks and Howling Banshees, Jet Bikes and Dire Avengers are all worth buying again. The bad news is that Eldar vehicles aren't nearly as kick butt as they once were, but let's face it, that combat crystal on all the vyper combination was...how should I say this...unfair (and not just in the 40k in 40 minutes games where it wasn't unfair but rather cheating). The best part is that GW didn't cheap out on this. Their solution to the "fix the Eldar" dilemma is ingenious in its simplicity. Half the Exarch powers now extend out to the squad. Wow! That's a good idea. It's great. Oh, and give everybody Fleet of Foot. That was the stupidest crap I'd ever heard of in my life. Half the army could fleet of foot, unless they had an exarch; that was dumb.
But I think the single most worthwhile thing they could have done in the new book (besides making War Walkers worth buying again...thank you GW) was that they brought back the Harlequins. They even made them an interesting troop choice. They aren't the "unofficial Harlequins from GW's site, but for that we should be thankful, I have a feeling that these harlequins will hold their own. My only complaint is that they took out the Solitaire, but I'm sure the Solitaire will make an appearance soon enough.
Problems? Yeah. The way the book is set up there's kind of like this doubling up thing. Under each troop choice is this intricate list of what everything does and then the second half of the book features the point cost of those same items. That's kind of dumb. Just put the PV down with the troops. Last night I was reading the Striking Scorpions entry and was tricked into believing that they didn't have shuriken pistols anymore. Because the weapon wasn't new it wasn't explained along with the striking scorpions; I had to go to the back of the book to look at the "real" army list to see that they were still using two hand to hand weapons at the same time.
My other complaint centers around GW's ever shrinking photo gallery in these codexes. With the number of painters out there, it seems ridicolous that I can't get more than one picture of a Fire Dragon and no pictures of guardians from Saim Hann (the craftworld I play). I realize that most of Saim Hann is flying around and all, but to have that same tired old picture from the old Eldar codex and the old Craftworld Eldar codex...well, I want to see some new stuff. When you pay $20, I think you can ask for some full color glossys.
All in all though, I think that this is a wonderful incarnation of one of the classic 40k armies. I realize that Eldar players are not as common as Necron or Marine players, but as the army has been around for awhile, it has accumulated a lot of different figures to account for, and so I can appreciate the complexity that goes into making rules for the Eldar.
On a final note, this has little to do with the codex itself, but the hot new figures for the eldar are NOT the Autarch. What GW has done with the always ugly Wraithlord and the war walkers is absolutely amazing and I recommend hitting a store just to see these figures.
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8 comments:
I was wrong. There is, in fact, one picture of a Saim Hann guardian so I admit my mistake. Still, one stinking picture!
Well said. As a former Eldarian and a frequent opponent of them I am just happy that they made them somewhat playable again.
Yes, I agree. When buying a book you want to see some new models and none of them are in the new book but it is nice that they are playable again BUT....
1) they changed a lot of weapons making them not only more expensive, but also not as powerful. The starcannon for example with fewer shots, and the brightlance which is now a heavy weapon in contrast to an assalut weapon. I know a lot of people think these weapon are too powerful, but not in comparison to the arsenal that the marines have. Marines seems always to get the upper hand.
2) Nice that they included the harlies, but in the process they kind of streamlined them. Not as many exotic weapon or the ability to build them exactly as you want with their weird arsenal. So ok they are included, but have lost a lot of their mystique in the process, and as you said the Solitaire is gone, and the death reaper is not as configurable any more (No more assauly brightlance option, but that perhaps was too powerful)
All in all I am a bit dissapointed. The eldar was a fast army were you could specialize each unit according to what tactics you used on the battlefield, and I defeaded a lot of unexpecting marines by using those special tactics, but now they are mostly like any other races, but with few special abilities and in the process have lost a lot of their charm....
I've been playing the eldar for what, 2 years now, my brother uses space marines, so i play him the most. With the army i use (which i change every fight) I've never beaten him. From what i see of the new eldar codex, im fing happy! I reckon i can kick some ass with the new upgrades/models....we'll see.
I play Eldar also and for the most part I'm pleased with the new Codex. However, do you know if the "Craftworld Codex" is still legal to use? I did not see any mention of it in the new codex. So if I went to my local store and tried to play in a tournament with a true Biel-Tan army following all the rules in the Craftworld codex; would that be legal? And furthermore, has GW released anything in writing saying yes or no?
My guess...no. I would put money that they got rid of the special craftworld rules. In your own game, that's probably not a problem, but at a tournie, someone will probably say something.
...but I could be wrong on this. There is no "official" position as far as I know. I'm just basing this off of what I've seen with people bringing in their Space Wolves and attempting to use them from the 3rd edition. This did not fly at the con I was at and they asked that player to recreate their army using the new codex.
...which I didn't mind because the space wolves f'ing cheat!
I played the old codex for about a year and could never achieve anything better than a narrow defeat against most armies, no matter what I did/ changed, with the exception of hiding a Solitaire behind a Wraithlord, but that was deemed cheating and banned when it killed 2000pts of Grey Knights on it's own. Then the new rules came out. Dire Avengers rule. Fire Prisms more so. And all of a sudden, the single coolest unit in the game (Shining Spears) become worth having. And as for Autarchs...well, I now have 6 S6 power weapon attacks on one awesome looking model. Heh heh. My only real gripes are as follows: Harlequins just aren't the same now that they can't massacre Genestealers, and they made it pointless to give a Wraithlord two identical guns, which would look impossibly good. By the way, about the Fire Prism's combined fire, have you seen what a six-strong Apocalypse squadron can do? Absurdly powerful.
I played the old codex for about a year and could never achieve anything better than a narrow defeat against most armies, no matter what I did/ changed, with the exception of hiding a Solitaire behind a Wraithlord, but that was deemed cheating and banned when it killed 2000pts of Grey Knights on it's own. Then the new rules came out. Dire Avengers rule. Fire Prisms more so. And all of a sudden, the single coolest unit in the game (Shining Spears) become worth having. And as for Autarchs...well, I now have 6 S6 power weapon attacks on one awesome looking model. Heh heh. My only real gripes are as follows: Harlequins just aren't the same now that they can't massacre Genestealers, and they made it pointless to give a Wraithlord two identical guns, which would look impossibly good. By the way, about the Fire Prism's combined fire, have you seen what a six-strong Apocalypse squadron can do? Absurdly powerful.
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