So, I have been a bit quiet on the website as of late but the new Eldar codex has got me into a mood to talk. Firstly, yey! A new Eldar codex! I can’t remember if it was the Eldar or Black Templars that was the oldest? But as it appears the Black Templars will be a supplement for the main vanilla Marine codex I guess the Eldar is the oldest stand alone one? About bloody time for one of the original three races of the game to be updated
That said, the Eldar codex doesn’t appear to have changed too much at all on the surface. The units are pretty much the same, do the same jobs, cost about the same points etc... We did get four new units though which are all really quite lovely. Then you notice that there are three massive changes which fundamentally alter the Eldar book..
- The ability to run AND shoot in the shooting phase
- The fact every Shruiken weapon is AP2 on a roll to wound of 6
- The change to a guardians profile to give BS4
Now none of these changes are massive in themselves when you think about it. But when you start to combine them with existing or tweaked rules it becomes alot more fun!
Take a unit of guardians for example. Now they were universally mocked as being rubbish, and with good reason! They had a guardmans stat line with a 12" gun! They're main use was to sit at the back, add a heavy weapon platform and hope they were ignored! Now though things have changed.
The increase in BS on an assault 2 gun willmake a large difference. This means that standard units will get 40 shots, hitting on threes. This should increase the number of "hits" to 2/3 out of a volley from 20! That is a large difference. Especially when you then think of the number of "6's" rolled in the to wound section will likely increase and therefore so will the AP2 shots! Then they run afterwards to try and limit the number of units that can assault them.
Given these rules seem to cover most units (and most units have fleet too) I believe this makes the Eldar a much stronger army than before. Maybe this is the "counter attack" army as we seem to be very maneuverable now.
Anyway, those are my thoughts initially! I shall be writing about each section seperately and palying a game in the next week or two so that may give me more of an idea what to take. As always let me know way comments and check out my WIP and 5 gamers for updates which I will do my best to add more frequesntly. Who knows - the new eldar, potentially the new house may be the incentive I need for more games and more video battle reports!
Subject: The new Eldar: Initial Thoughts 
Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:53 pm
