New points are here! Time to boogy

Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way.

Here we go folks, we got points for days. I hope you guys all took my lead and started making your 1750 point armies with 8th Ed. points ahead of this points drop, otherwise, you are sure to be disappointed. To sum up before I go into anything else, both CWE and DE took a big points hit in some critical areas, but the one Eldar that made it out alive was Harlequins. You see, when I went through and reviewed the upcoming 9th Ed. changes a few posts ago, I specifically mentioned the one saving grace for Harlequins in 9th and that was its point changes. If points were good, Harlequins would be viable. Not top-tier, but playable for sure. Out of all three Eldar races, Harlequins definitely had the last laugh.

Now, let's dive into the previous lists that I tried to build. I'll start with my first love first, Dark Eldar, and then get into CWE, before finally touching on what I would with Harlequins.

1750, using old points:

• 2x Archons with BPs and PGL
• 2x10 Warriors with 2x Blaster, Dark Lance in Dissie Raider
• 4x5 Warriors with Blaster in Dissie Raider
• 2x Razorwings with Dissies
• 3x Ravagers with Dissies

Total firepower coming from the list I built before we saw the points was:

• 19 Dissies
• 8 Blasters
• 2 Dark Lances
• And a healthy amount of Poison shots

With the new points, here's what my 2K list looks like:

Theorycrafting some 9th Ed. Eldar lists

Drafting up some lists again.

With 9th Ed. hot on our heels and with a good amount of information out there already, I figured I'd get down and dirty with some list building and theorycrafting. As most of you already know, I'm a huge fan of Mechdar and that's pretty much all I play when it comes to my Eldar armies. Every single one of my armies is filled to the rim with vehicles and flyers and I've become increasingly proficient with this playstyle over the years. With the return of Obscuring terrain that block LoS, this means that good positioning and focus fire will indeed bring the pain again. The only thing that truly sucks is that now if you Fall Back, you can no longer shoot anything.

Great, so with that said, let's talk about some lists. Out of curiosity, I've started building lists with -250 points from my 2K lists to prepare for that eventual points hike. That means every list I'm going to show you here is 1750 points, mainly because I'm taking a guess that we're going to see ~12.5% increase on average. Like I said before, points are the biggest unknown out of this entire thing. I have no idea exactly where they're going to bump the points, but I don't think they're going to alter CWE or DE too badly. GW has a tendency to target over-performing units that utterly shake up the meta, but they already took a stab at that pre-9th in the last CA. With both Crimson Hunter Exarchs and Ravagers nerfed with points, I don't expect GW to go after them again. If they do, well, then I get sad and we'll have to adjust the list some.

Either way, here's the first of the two lists I've been working on. You'll see a very familiar sight in the form of my mechanized Dark Eldar list.

9th Ed. 40K and how it affects all Eldar

Bring on 9th Edition.

It's about that time folks. If you guys have been following 40K news in the last couple of weeks, you'll know that 9th Ed. is right around the corner. For a quick recap of everything that's been going on, I suggest you go to Auspex Tactics and catch up. Yes, I'm plugging that dude's channel because he's insanely active and posts updates literally minutes after articles themselves get released. I'd rank him among the top dudes I watch on YouTube.

Without too much mumbo-jumbo, let's get right into it. I'll lay it out the best I can in the only way I know how: As real as it gets. I will warn you ahead of time though, I think Eldar (all races) are not going to do too hot come 9th. There's a lot of rules here that'll take away from the Eldar identity and give it to the other races and are generally harmful to the playstyle of the army. Now, before you get super triggered and go off on me saying that the book's not out yet and we don't see all the rules, I promise you: I don't need to see all the rules to see where this is going. We have a lot of information in front of us already and I've been playing this game for over 20 years now. While the Eldar will get some noticeable benefits, they will be challenged heavily with some pretty stark negatives. Just a head's up, I don't plan on covering Ynnari as I don't consider them a full army yet with just WD rules.

DE: Black Heart Kabal with Alaitoc allies

Eldar brings the pain.

With the new book coming over very soon and with my experience with it so far, I've decided to visit some old comrades of mine to see how they can benefit us to the fullest.  One thing's for damn sure:  Our cost savings have been huge and Black Heart Kabal has been absolutely fantastic for me.

To give you guys an idea how kick-ass Black Heart has been, last night I must have saved at least 15 or so wounds from rolling those 6+++ on my vehicles over the course of THREE turns.  I also started with 5 CPs since I was trying a hybrid Wych build and taking extra Relics and Warlord traits, but ended the game on T3 with 4 CPs AFTER casting a counterspell and multiple Cunning rolls on all the Strategems that were being thrown out.

I stand by firmly what I said before:  Kabal of the Black Heart is the best Kabal.  It's just too flexible and gives you a fantastic amount of protection for free.  The Wych Cult that I brought yesterday was also freaking insane.  I had a unit of Wyches with the Succubus in a Raider and the Succubus herself with the Whip and Blood Dancer threw out 14 freaking attacks (6s to hit turn into 3 hits!).  Check out the article from yesterday to get some better insight into my thought process there.  Sure, my friend had SS Termies eating all those Agonizer wounds (I think 9 or so) and saved like a boss, but if they were any single-wound model, she would have annihilated everyone.  That felt awesome.. especially since you can look at her cost and just shake your head how cost-effective that is (she's 54 points).

With that said, I've been having a blast with Dark Eldar so far.  They feel like they're in a good place so how do we turn it up a notch?  Well for one, we should look to our nearest kin who is CW Eldar.  Harlequins is right around the corner and there might be some good synergy there, but let's first look at what Psykers can bring to our army.

Here's the list:

1999 // 7 CP
Black Heart Battalion +3 CP

HQ:
Archon, Agonizer, Blaster, PGL = 94
Cunning, Living Muse

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster, PGL = 94

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114

+++

Black Heart Spearhead +1 CP

HQ:
Archon, Blaster, PGL = 92

HEAVY:
Ravager, 3x Disintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Disintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Disintegrators = 125

PARTY BOATS:
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
Raider, Dark Lance = 85

+++

Alaitoc Patrol +0 CP

HQ:
Farseer Skyrunner = 135
Doom, Mind War

TROOP:
5x Rangers = 60

FLYER:
Hemlock Wraithfighter = 210
Jinx

Hemlock Wraithfighter = 210
Jinx

+++

Firepower:
9 Disintegrators at BS3+
6 Dark Lances at BS3+
7 Blasters at BS3+
3 Blaster at BS2+
26 Splinter Rifles at BS3+
4 Heavy D-Scythes at Auto

Yes, I was always an Alaitoc player.  Said no Eldar ever.

Here's what the Alaitoc Patrol offers:

• Hemlocks - These things are insane with the -2 to Hit from Alaitoc and their auto-hitting S12 AP-4 D2 damage weapons.  Not to mention they can Smite, have Jinx and have built-in Spirit Stones.  Let's also not forget that they debuff leadership within 12" of them and that works very nicely with our sped up PFP table thanks to Black Heart, PGLs and Mind War.
• Doomseer - This is damage consistency at its best.  The Skyrunner gives you movement to keep up with our army and Doom is arguably one of the best spells in the game.  It drastically increases the killing potential of all of your units on a single target and works perfectly with Disintegrators due to needing 5s in some cases vs. heavier armored targets.  This works very nicely in conjunction with Jinx because you're just increasing damage so much higher, turning Dissies into AP-4 in most cases vs. 2+ armor or removing that cover save bonus.
• Mind War - With leadership debuffs, you can actually get this off pretty reliably and kill key targets before they ever get a chance to hit your lines.  When you have the right kinds of debuffs, this becomes a much more reliable Smite that can seriously threaten even the most daunting of foes i.e. Magnus.
• Psychic Protection - Let's not forget that the Farseer can dispel twice a turn and so can the Hemlocks.  Enough said there I think.

Sure, I lose firepower overall, but I also gain Heavy D-Scythes that are utterly ridiculous in their own right.  I also gain the ability to turn up the damage big time on key targets when I want to and that cannot be underestimated.  What do you guys think?  Is this more powerful than pure Kabal?

Ynnari: Deploying against first-turn charge

School's in session again!

There's a good amount of first-turn charge armies out there that can pretty much guarantee a kill any of your units once they get it off.  I don't think this is quite good for the game, and why they made Drop Pods and other similar units pin-point accurate is beyond me.  Regardless, it's always good to keep your head clear, see the threat for what it is and develop a counter-strategy so you can stop this kind of nonsense.

Luckily, I play an army that has a lot of thin little space-boats that can come together like Legos if I need them to.  So next time, before Swarmlord sends 20x Genestealers into your face, deploy in a manner that eliminates the possibility of your units getting charged.  Unless you're taking a huge lot of Razorwing flocks to clutter the field as fodder, your next best option is flyers.

How?  By using flyers' rules and their fat bases to bubble-wrap your army in a way that will minimize the amount of damage that can be inflicted by funneling the opponent.  Think 300, the Battle of Thermopylae, the Hot Gates, or if you want to be more imaginative with 40K examples, you've called for Broken Arrow on top of your surrounded units.  Now that you have Aeldari air superiority forming a corridor of firepower to stop the enemy in his tracks.  This does not work against flying units that can just assault you, but that's life.

Here's how it works in the rules:

• Your opponent has to be 9" away from you when he drops in with his units.
• Their units have to be more than 1" away from your units before they charge.
• Airborne says that units cannot assault you unless they have the Fly rule.
• Flyer bases are fat, so you can extend the charge range needed for your opponent.
• You space out your flyers enough so nothing can get in, and if your army needs more space, make room so only a few small base models can fit through, and only in a straight line.

Examples below where I have 4 flyers and set up by the table edge behind me.  Another example shows a corner deployment because I have fewer flyers and bigger units.  The ~3" line is just a rough example of the distance you can put out to enable single-line infantry-sized models to get in.

Middle of the board deployment.

Corner deployment with a fatty Wave Serpent.

Basically, if you see someone trying the first-turn charge cheese, you deploy like this.  Depending on the size of your army, and how many flyers you have, the easier it will be to deploy against such shenanigans.  In short, any faction can do this if they have enough flyers or units with the Airborne special rule.

It doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done.  God damn you GW for writing such ass rules in the first place.

LOL FW: Eldar Scorpion

TOP KEK.

To sum up:
Eldar Scorpion, BS2+, moves 14" with Fly at full health, 26 wounds, 3+/5++ to save, T8
Distort Fields so advancing anything over 17" gives you 4++, can take Eldar vehicle upgrades, fully loaded with Bright lance and all upgrades is 705.

You star engines, be at -1 to hit with 4++ T8 and 3+ AS when you feel like.
You shoot 4d6 S12 AP-4 3D shots and 6s to wound turns into 2d6 damage at 60" hitting on 2s.

LMFAO FW

A quick update and more BFG: Armada!

At least they got the aesthetics right.

Just to let you folks know, that I've been playing BFG: Armada a ton in the last month or so.  I've become a pretty solid player of all the factions, and I've been giving a lot of balance-related feedback.  Of course, there's always going to be some haters out there, but I want to take a brief moment to post on top-down feedback.

First, let me direct you to the topic at hand.  You don't need to read the entire thing, but I'll post my response below here:

Imperator5 wrote:
I do not think top to down balancing is a good idea actually, even if I agree with Hero about pulsars.

Games have to appeal to more than one segment of the population. If new players are not presented with a game they can play without reading up for weeks on elite forums and watching replays, they will just not play it at all.

My response:
This is exactly the kind of mentality that I completely, and utterly disagree with. Let me educate you why, in all sincerity.

It's not about a game's appeal man, it's about what your actual focus is. Balance, when done correctly, is done precisely and target specific gameplay-related issues.

The casual playerbase will not and does not notice balance when it is done correctly. There is simply too many other things they care about, because MP is not their primary focus and the reason they purchased the game. They care about playing the game for its aesthetics, the sound, the lore, the SP experience, the building the empire, the fun of just gaming with friends, and the immersion of being in gigantic space ships in the 40K universe with Tac Cog on. These are your painters, your hobbyists, your casual once a month playgroupers, and your campaign-driven 40K leaguers. These are the majority of your playerbase, but they are not focused on the delicacies of how multiplayer PvP plays out. This is not why they purchased the game, nor is that their reason to continue playing the game.

The competitive playerbase is the group that cares about the things that the casual player does not. They care about the balance, the numbers, the how much DPS is this ship doing vs. that ship, the viable strategies, the tactics, all the skills and abilities and how all these things equate to one thing: How they can justify the effort they are putting in the game, and if they are being rewarded for their efforts. They focus on the intricacies of gameplay, in a multiplayer environment, in player vs. player, because they are competitive in nature and focus on this very narrow and niche gaming perspective. When balance goes awry and when player unrewarded efforts and frustrations become painfully apparent, they leave the game, and the online community suffers. Their reason to play is no longer being rewarded.

The one thing that most people think, such as GW for example, and where amateur and indie companies fail, is that they think the two camps bleed and fight against each other. This is a very common fallacy. The competitive player simply does not focus on the same things the casual player focuses on, and it is not why they purchased the game, nor do they share the same reasons for playing the game. So other successful gaming companies started thinking from this exact perspective (EA, Ensemble, Relic, Blizzard..etc), and why they went to great lengths to consul with the best players of their games to collect feedback and balance suggestions from these players, to address their game to provide a better online, PvP, multiplayer experience. They understand the value of concurrency, that it wasn't just their goal to sell you the game, but to keep you there so you can continue to Twitch (like I am now), and to provide not only brand/company loyalty, but as a form of free marketing for their future products.

Simply put, it NEVER hurts to balance the game from the top-down. The two main crowds are not effected by either change! If the Pulsars all of a sudden turn into blue rainbows like from DoW vs. the purple-lavender ones we have now, do you think the competitive player will really care? Likewise, if the Pulsar damage was increased by 5s cooldown and their damage was reduced by 5 per, do you think the casual player will even notice?

Therefore, top-down balance is exactly what you need to make the best game possible. That is, of course, if you even care about the online aspect at all. If you didn't care, you wouldn't waste the development resources to make all these features in the first place. If you have already built a community around the fans and the immersion of giant 40K spaceships, that is great. But please Tindalos, do not fall in the camp that neglects the competitive player because it will, destroy your other playerbase.

+++

As you can see here, this is the same kind of attitude I have with GW, and why things like the Skull Cannon, Wraithknight and other ridiculous crap gets added to the game.  I don't think GW can tell the difference between what kind of feedback is given.  Oh well, at least I get to play BFG on a computer finally!

If you guys haven't caught me yet, you can see me playing on my Twitch channel.  They just added the Eldar to the game and they're freaking bonkers.  Not what I wanted to see personally, but the devs are hopefully going to work out the kinks.  Since I started the stream, I'm up to 400 followers now!

Codex Review: Harlequins

Beauty and death.

Alright guys, it's finally here.  Sorry it took so long for me to get my hands on the codex and by now, most of you have read your reviews from somewhere else.  No worries, hopefully this post will give you guys another perspective from a more competitive point of view.

Before I start, I just wanted to say that this is my favorite codex to date in terms of art.  It's absolutely beautiful, and most of the art in here I have never seen before.  If you're a fan of Eldar or Harlequins or maybe even art in general, I would pick this up just to keep it on the shelf.  While the fluff is pretty cool as well, there's nothing to date that matches the level of art presented in this book.  It's really just that cool.

OK, now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the book and what it offers.  First and foremost, I will say immediately that the book is not really competitive.  It has some strong, competitive options, but the formations and detachments presented limits the book's capability by a lot.  Let's explore this further.

Units

Troupe - These guys are expensive no matter how you slice it.  They're close combat experts and sport a healthy number of attacks on the charge with Furious Charge, but they're still T3 5++.  By now, we've accepted the fact that stats like those get you nowhere in a competitive environment.  This is further compounded by the fact that if you want to take some of the fancier toys like Neuro Disruptors or Fusion Pistols, you're going to adding a ton of points to an already expensive unit.  Math puts these guys at roughly 19ppm for the 4 players and the Troupe Master, while every additional CC option makes them even more expensive.  Unfortunately, this is the crux of the problem with the codex; you're spending 95 points for a min squad of these guys and they're pretty much mandatory all around.  When you consider that they're 95 points for 6 wounds, it almost makes me want to take a full unit of Wyches.  At least then I'll know that not all of them will die to a blown-up transport.  The only plus side is that they can take Starweavers are dedicated transports, but more on that later.

Death Jester - For 60 points, you get an IC that acts as another Shuriken Cannon at BS5.  On top of that, they have Precision Shots and a special rule that allows them to kill a model, force a Morale check at -2, and have the poor guys run towards anywhere you like.  While this is really cool, you're still banking on a leadership test for the cool results.  The main reason I would take this guy is for the BS5 Shuriken Cannon, that is really important because you can buy multiples of these guys, attach them to the 5-man units of Troupes, and have them ride in a Starweaver because their capacity is 6.  This makes the unit really shooty, but also really expensive.  Just know that this guy dies to a swift breeze and even in cover, he's still going to die to Ignore Cover.  For perspective sakes, the Starweaver is an AV10 vehicle that shoots double the amount of S6 and costs 10 points more.

Shadowseer - Next on the list is the Shadowseer.  You're pretty much only taking these guys for two reasons:  If you're comfortable being out of a transport (WWP Wraithguard deathstar anyone?) to cast most of his spells, or if you're looking to do some leadership shenanigans with Dark Eldar/Eldar.  I won't get into it too much here, but by now you guys have probably seen all kinds of posts on the interwebs about their perceived power.  Let me tell you one thing:  This is a trap.  You first need the Shadowseer, and then buy an extra level to bring him up to Mastery Level 2, and then need to roll the right powers, and then bring him close enough to the enemy, and then pass the psychic test..etc, you get the point.   This is what I like to call the "stars align"  scenario and that's just way too many variables to plan a strategy around.  There is a lot of points being invested here and I think that's a huge trap for a lot of players.  If you want to maximize on the codex, you will do better ignoring these guys entirely and just go for more shooting.  After all, Eldar should be shooting from their vehicles because that's what they're good at.

Solitare - The big daddy of the codex and you can only take one in the army because he's unique.  What you truly need to understand here is that he's 145 points for a T3 model with 3 wounds.  Sure, he has Eternal Warrior and a 3++ save, but I really want the 145 points, T3, 3 wounds thing to sink in real deep.  He has some pretty cool rules such as his 12" move without giving a shit, 8 attacks on the charge and Blitz, but he's really just a dedicated CC unit that cannot join units and can be lit up by shooting.  This is a really shooty-heavy edition and everything on the battlefield poses a threat for a Solitare.  My best advice to you is that if you want a cool unit to play with, take this guy and use every line of sight blocker you can to navigate the battlefield until you have a good target to charge.  While the caress and kiss might sound cool, just know that you're still looking for hot dice to get any real damage out of him because he's still S3 base/4 on the charge.  That's just not impressive at all.

Skyweaver - At 50ppm and comes standard in a unit of 2, these guys are not bad.  They still have Eldar Jetbike movement and have a natural armor of 4+ and 2W a piece, but the fact that they come with Shuriken Cannons is what you take them for.  You threaten 36" a turn and a unit of 3 (which is the number I recommend) puts out 9 S6 shots a turn with a possibility of AP2.  Ideally, you can pop out of cover, deliver a hail of fire and then get back into cover.  Hopefully with Mirage Launchers, you can keep some of these guys alive long enough to do some damage on the battlefield.  With regular Harlequin stats, you can also give them Zephyrglaives for close combat, but I would keep them with Star Bolas because 12" S6 AP2 Blast is a very scary tool against some armies.  Sure, you can only use them once, but you'll see a lot of dead MEQ if you use these properly.

Starweaver - My favorite thing in the entire book.  They're basically the same thing as a Venom except they come with 2 Shuriken Cannons and Mirage Launchers.  The Open-topped and 6-model capacity is huge because this allows Death Jesters to join them for another BS5 Shuriken Cannon, potentially putting out 9 S6 shots a turn from a single firing platform.  Keep in mind that you can take these guys by themselves, and for 70 points, they're simply great to have in your list because multiple S6 shots gives you a lot of battlefield application.  Best of all, both of its guns are forward-facing.

Voidweaver - Not my cup of tea mainly because it looks utterly stupid.  I would immediately drop the Haywire and look at the Prismatic Cannon because I think it has greater battlefield application.  S7 AP2 Lance is not all that bad, but the S5 AP3 Blast a very attractive option at punishing clumped MEQ.  Even the S3 AP4 Large Blast can be pretty good too against GEQ mainly because of the AP4, and at 80 points with the suggested loadout, I can't say it's a bad unit.  The aft Shuriken Cannon can shoot at another target, but I really feel like it's wasted because of the positioning.  To make matters even more complex, you can take these guys in squadrons of 3, but I wouldn't buy more than 1 because of the negatives I pointed out above.  It has no transport capacity either.

Alright, so I said the units overall weren't so bad, so what am I complaining about exactly?  Well, for one, I see the mandatory Troupes as a tax for the rest of the good stuff.  At 95 per unit, they're not exactly cheap, especially when you consider Dire Avengers are only 65.  Skyweavers jetbikes are Fast Attack and so are the Starweavers which poses a big problem for me because I needed them to be troops.  The typical detachment wants 3 Troops, 2 Fast and 1 Heavy which means you have to spend at least 285 points on Troupes which I would rather not.  However, you can buy Starweavers as dedicated transports for the chaff Troupes so you have 165 points for 5 T3 5++ dudes inside a S6 shooting solution with 2 HP.  For perspective sakes, a unit of 5 Warriors with a Blaster inside a dual Splinter Cannon Venom is 120 points.  Different strokes for different folks, but I want you guys to realize what you're paying for here.

In terms of raw competitiveness, I see the Starweaver, Skyweaver and Deathjester as the winners of this book.  Everything else falls behind sadly with the Shadowseer and Troupe tax in dead last.

Style and grace.

Formations

The biggest limitation in this book is its creative freedom when it comes to list building.  Since you're forced to either take the fixed Masque detachment or some of the multiple formations in this book, you're basically shit out of luck when it comes to building a competitive list.  While you can do something like Unbound, I think most competitive lists want the flexibility of having Objsec for more tactical use.  The lack of an HQ also means that you cannot take these guys as allies since they don't follow the regular allies chart, and you're looking at a hefty points investment if you follow even the most simplistic of formations.  In fact, I wouldn't even look at bulking up the detachment and immediately focus on the formations because they provide some decent options out there.

Out of all the formations here, a few of them caught my eye.  The default Masque detachment is not bad, but the mandatory troop choices are what really kills it for me.  Ideally, I would want 3x Troupes inside Starweavers, 2 additional Starweavers, and a mandatory stupid Voidweaver.  That brings me up to 715 points for the lot, and I have 7 additional Elite slots to buy Deathjesters for all of them if I want.  Let's pretend I'm insane and buy Deathjesters for every Starweaver, and all of a sudden I have 1015 points of Harlequins on the field.  What does this do?  Well, it puts out 48 S6 shots a turn, 15 of which are BS5 and can shoot at separate targets that can potentially force an exposed army to run out of cover and into the Voidweaver's S5 AP3 blast.  Pretty exciting right?  Yes and no.  Yes in the fact that the firepower is respectable, but for the same amount of points spent at 715, you can take the same amount of points in Wave Serpents with an Autarch.  Are the two really comparable? Absolutely, because this is a game about points and that's the one variable you can truly control (list design).

The next ones that stick out to me is The Serpent's Brood and The Heroes' Path.  When I look at Serpent's Brood, I see everything that I think is competitive lumped up onto one formation.  You have the mandatory Troupe tax, but you have 3 Starweavers, a Voidweaver and 2 units of Skyweavers.  If you take 3x Jetbikes, you're looking at 875 with the suggested config and a Prismatic Cannon.  Not the cheapest of the lot, but you get the Skyweavers for additional shots and Eldar Jetbike movement.  Frankly, I would still go with the Starweaver spam in the Masque detachment as long as you keep things cheap.

Lastly, we have the Heroes' Path.  So you have the Death Jester, Shadowseer and Solitaire, but they can't join units, cannot join other characters, but gain Infiltrate, Shrouded and Stealth.  This is what you take on top of the Masque detachment, giving you a Solitare with Infiltrate, Shrouded and Stealth to increase his survivability while he makes his way to exposed enemy units.  The Deathjester needs to go into one of the empty Starweavers before he dies from Ignore Cover, and the poor Shadowseer needs to be kept back, kept cheap, and hopefully you can roll something good on Telepathy.  Why Telepathy?  You will at least be able to Witchfire from a Starweaver instead of having a useless Primaris because he can't join units.  Plus, Telepathy just has better support spells since the ones you really want (Shrouding, Invis) are both Blessings.  Remember, stay away from the leadership bombing bullshit.  It's a points trap, especially when you consider that the formation itself is already 265 points at its base.

Just for perspective, you know what I think 265 points for 3 guys can buy you instead?  Maybe +4 Venoms/Raiders in a RSR detachment, 2 Ravagers, 2 Razorwings, another full stock gunboat + more with blasters, 2 half-stock gunboats with blasters, a gunboat plus a WWP Archon, a Wraithknight, a unit of Fire Dragons in a WS, an almost full squad of Dire Avengers in WS, the list goes on and on.  While some of you might be getting irritated by my constant comparisons, I think it's much needed when it comes to competitive choices.

Poise and precision.

Conclusion

When it comes to synergy, you have to consider the points investment that you're going to commit to the army.  If you take the suggested Masque detachment, you're paying 715 points (3 Troupes in Starweavers, 2 empty Starweavers, 1 Voidweaver) for 33 S6 Shrukien Cannon shots from 6 AV10 Open-top vehicles with 2 HP a piece.  The Harlequins themselves are not really going to do anything except for hiding in cover, out of line of sight and play the scoring game.  Not being a normal force org means you can't load up on Starweavers and you're limited with how many you can take for Troop and Fast choices.

Like I said previously, the lack of list flexiblity is what's limiting this codex, not the actual units themselves.  Well, the Troupe tax is frustrating, but 165 points for 6 S6 shots is not bad.  It's just not as good as a unit of Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with Scatter Laser for 185.  If both units inside are considered tax, you're still spending money on a more accurate shooting platform, with greater damage, much more durability, and tactical flexibility due to Ignore Cover.  Before you commit to this codex, and especially if you're looking to pair either Harlequins or Eldar to your Dark Eldar, I think the choice for better allies is painfully obvious.

So that's what I mean when I say the book is not really competitive.  There are just better options out there with all things considered, especially if you're looking to ally Harlequins with Eldar or Dark Eldar.  Dark Eldar would rather have Eldar allies because of reliable psychic and shooting, and Eldar would rather have more of its own units because it has the capacity to do so.  That makes the Harlequin codex the red-headed stepchild of the 3 Eldar choices sadly.

Play for the fluff, stay for the art, but keep these guys away from the tournament scene because there's better options out there.

DE: A response to the spoiler army

School's back in session.

Hey guys, I'm going to write a response to a post that I saw on The Dark City about the problems people have with the Dark Eldar codex.

Yes, as most of you know, I'm not a fan of the current book either.  Sure, it might not be the most powerful book out there, but what I really didn't like about it.  I was largely disappointed by the seemingly forced player options that pollute the entire book, and I felt that the book was largely uninspired and bland.  When people read one of my reviews on any given army book, one of the things I notice is that people think all too much on whether or not it will be competitive.  Yes, competition is hugely important to me and I want the book to be successful, but that's not why I look at book and shake my head.  As a player, I want to be able to take multiple choices that promote my options on the table-top.  The only way I'm going to feel good about this is if the points I'm investing in said unit is well-spent.  That's how you achieve value in a dice-game based around point restrictions.  You cannot change the outcome of poor dice rolls, but you can choose what kind of army you can make to mitigate your chances on losing.

So where does Dark Eldar fall compared to the other books?  That's a tough question because there's no number out there to describe them.  Dark Eldar, as some of the boys over at Frontline Gaming say, is a "spoiler army".  It's one of those armies that do so incredibly well against certain matchups because of their innate army design.  What are we talking about exactly?  Well, our ability to take long-ranged poisoned shooting attacks, and our ability to spam out a high value of lance attacks at seemingly dirt cheap.  With the 7th Ed. book, the only thing that the book did was make those things better (although at a few nerfs in other areas).  For the most part, you can now Venomspam to your heart's content, and with multiple CADs, you can now bring more lances than you ever need through the employment of multiple sets of Ravagers.  I didn't mention this before, but maybe that's one of the reasons GW decided to double nerf them both in points and with the loss of Aerial Assault?  Nah, that would be giving them too much credit.  Let's just say for now that some of the things in the book got invalidated (such as almost all CC, in an already shooting-dominant meta), and some things just got easier to spam.  Why else would empty Venoms be so readily available in the RSR detachment?

Now that we know what a spoiler army does, why isn't that a lance-heavy or poison heavy army do well in tournaments?  For one, over-exaggerated strengths come with great weaknesses.  Just like in any army that someone designs for a tournament, he plays for the mission package and all possible matchups that he will commonly face.  It just happens that the US have one of the most diverse metagames there is, mostly piloted by experienced generals.  Due to Dark Eldar's inherent strengths and tendencies to mass-produce cost-effective units, DE generals tend to build polarizing lists and rely on the dice gods for pairings.  This is largely because the more balanced approach is just not strong enough to face most adversaries on the table-top.

What does this mean exactly?  Well.. let's look at some Eldar builds for a second for matchup purposes.  Let's say you enter the 1850 event in the LVO with a lance-heavy DE build.  It should do OK vs. a WS/Dual WK build, but the effectiveness will drop dramatically depending on how many Wave Serpents he has.  To make things more complicated, if he's running a psyker-heavy build and you didn't splice in psychic yourself, Telepathy might throw the entire matchup into a deciding loss.  Now take the Venom-heavy build for Dark Eldar.  What does it do vs. WS/dual WK?  Kill the two WKs maybe and play the scenario or auto-lose.  Against a purely Mechdar list, you have about a 1% chance at winning vs. a competent player because Venoms are completely dead weight.  The vast majority of points spent will be target practice, which is one of the reasons DE players hate drawing Mech IG too.  They put out 4x the shots you do and pen you on the same amount you pen their stuff, but for half the points.  Sounds bad?  Is bad.  Anyways, let's say the if you pull a FMC Demons or Tyranid list with the Venom list, all of a sudden you're jumping for joy because that sings to the strengths of your army.  With a lance-heavy list, you may not do as well, but it's still possible to win the game if you play correctly.  In a big tournament like LVO where hundreds of people will be looking for that big win, it's eventually up to you to knock out that Tyranid FMC list so they don't face it later.  Likewise, you will be hoping you draw that and not the IG carpark.

This is why I say that Dark Eldar is difficult to place in a tournament setting.  If you min-max your lists as hard as I do, you will discover that too many lances or too many poison will cause extreme shifts in polarity; making certain matchups almost unwinnable.  I like having a fighting chance regardless of matchup, which is why I'm willing to take less Venoms for more lances because I feel that's where my army wants to be.  I can rely on gunboat re-rolls for shorter-range poison since it's more accurate, but at the same time, it's highly vulnerable to explosions, in which case MSU Venoms makes a better use of points.  More on balance later.

I'll say this right now, I don't think Dark Eldar can compete as a primary army in an arena as fierce as LVO.  Why?  Because we just don't have the tools or sustain to play in that type of arena.  We excel at damage, but as mentioned several times above, we shift too hard in either polarity.  It also doesn't help that I can count on one hand how many tournament-viable units we have from our book, but when people ask me about my Eldar, I can go on for hours.  This isn't any of our faults per se, but running DE as a primary army in a major event will have its consequences.  The first of these will be power polarity and designating yourself as a "spoiler" army, or trying for a more balanced approach and being outclassed by other armies.  Out of these two pretty sad options, players tend to look away and explore the third, more logical option (because the goal in tournaments is to win).  That third option is unlocked through the allies chart.  There's no hiding the fact that Eldar allies makes your list stronger; especially when the DE book can provide the poison/FMC protection while Eldar supplies the durability, anti-armor and other meta-specific counters (more answers exist in the Eldar book).  While both armies can put enemy armor to shame, Eldar can do it with longer-lasting units, and that's what you need in a good game between two experienced generals who can fully exploit eachother's weaknesses.

Do I agree that Dark Eldar is a "spoiler" army?  Yes I do.  It's their very design intent to be like that and it's largely due to the poison mechanic.  I personally don't like it because I think it forces us down that pre-determined spoiler path, but I also don't mind it because someone has to put Tyranid FMC spam in their place.  However, I will say that I'm not done with my Dark Eldar just yet.  My most recent pure DE list at 1850 puts out a healthy amount of poison and lance shots and it only gets worse the closer my opponents get.  For how to use this kind of pure DE list, read about it here.  I've really been enjoying it quite a lot, although I'm about to change it up big time vs. the Necron powerhouse players that's been plaguing my area.  That's when I bring out the Double CAD Lynx.

LVO Update:
Results from LVO, out of 256 some participants, the biggest major this year so far for 40K.

• Highest placing DE is Rank 29, scored 45 battle points, running Dark Eldar with Eldar allies.
• 2 people ran double CAD Dark Eldar, placing 101 and 165.
• 6 people rank Dark Eldar/Eldar total
• 2 people ran pure DE, came in 193 and 218.
• There were only 2 Eldar players who took DE as secondary, one placing Rank 15, and he did so by just taking the WWP (shocker) + throwaway.
• There were 30 Eldar players at the event.
• There were only 10 Dark Eldar players at the event.  Only 2 placed in the top 100 (29 and 81).

Can't I'm surprised, none in the least.

DE: Double CAD Lynx

Time to serve up some Eldar justice.

Hey fellas, I've decided to make a list to combat the emerging Necron threat that's been plaguing my area. Have you guys seen the new book?  Some of their core mechanics seem absolutely bonkers.  Why is it that they never die and can re-roll to get up so many times?

I'm only building with the elements that I have available to me since I don't feel like buying additional models to make it happen.  The only thing I'm going to be custom building is that Farseer on Jetbike.  I need to get some of those new Harlequins masks man!

1850

15 KP

CAD #1

HQ:

Farseer, Jetbike, Spear, Mantle = 160

TROOP:

5x Dire Avengers, Holo/Scatter/SC = 210

5x Dire Avengers, Holo/Scatter/SC = 210

FAST:

Nightwing = 145

LOW:

Lynx, Scatter = 430

CAD #2

HQ:

Archon, Blaster, Haywire = 80

TROOP:

5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120

5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120

HEAVY:

Ravager, Lances = 125

Ravager, Lances = 125

Ravager, Lances = 125

The Dark Eldar are there to supply the additional Lances while the Lynx + Telepathy Seer does the heavy lifting in the list.  With the Scatter Laser, I can make my Pulsar Twin-Linked for some serious 2x Strength D 5" templates of doom.

I'm not sure how this will play out since it's using MSU mechanics but with one big centralized target to deal the majority of the damage.  Someone brought up that I should think about a Skyshield Landing Pad for a 4++, but that defeats the notion that I'll be moving around everywhere with the Lynx and the Jetseer.

Thoughts? I'm very curious.

DE: Harlequins with the Kabal

Too much caressing and kissing, not enough actual killing.

Alright, so here's the deal.  Harlequins are coming and they're looking pretty damn fine for those that want to play all kinds of CC.  While that is really admirable, it doesn't really work in an edition like this one where shooting is king on the battlefield.  When they first spoiled the Solitaire, the huge nerd in me got super excited because the idea of Eldar in melee makes me happy.  Unfortunately, this went away big time when I looked at the stats and saw that there was no protective bonuses outside of the 3++ invul and a prayer for a bad shooting round.

Here's where things changed a little bit.  Then, I saw the formation that allows you to take a Solitaire, Deathjester and Shadowseer and all of them gain Stealth, Shrouded and a special rule that says they have to be by themselves.  This suddenly makes them a lot more playable, but at the same time, you have to ask yourself exactly what these three characters offer your existing Dark Eldar?  The first thing you will notice is that a package of all 3 is not cheap, not by a long shot.  The Solitaire himself is 145 points and if you upgrade the Shadowseer, you're taking even more points on him.  Then you consider where the Shadowseer is going to be if he can't join any units, or what will he be doing outside of DSing near the enemy and hopefully trigger some leadership shenanigans coupled with Armor of Misery.  He sure won't be taking the psyker powers that targets himself and the squad he's with because he's by himself.

Is that worth the points investment?  The Solitaire by himself might be worth the 145 points you spend on him if he comes with Stealth and Shrouded but that's stretching it too.  At the end of the day, he's still a T3 3W model with a 3++ save.  A good round of bolters should be enough to drop him, even if he's rolling 2+ to save on covers, much less if you're not taking this special formation.  The Deathjester is kind of comical because he can just hide back in a ruins and sit on his 2+ cover save, but a quick burst from an enemy Wave Serpent and he's dead before he can do anything.  This is just funny to me because a lot of people are super duper pumped about this release.  I know that it has to be the excitement that GW are willing to do something so niche, but it bothers me because people are not really thinking about gameplay applications here.  To be psyched about the Shadowseer and what he can potentially offer to the table with his psyker powers is one thing, but to realize them on the battlefield is another.

What kind of footslogging lists do you plan on running to take advantage of the Shadowseer?  I know that none of these cool looking models will find its way into my DE list because frankly, it only weighs it down to take them.  Speaking which, I'm not even sure if DE can take them so this entire post might be moot, but seeing how one of the WD's mentioned "Eldar United", I'm assuming that these Harlequins will be available to supplement both armies.  No matter what, you probably won't see any Harlequins in my list.  Crazy space clowns are super cool in the fluff, but from a competitive mindset, they leave much to be desired for.

For those of you guys curious about the Holo-fields being different in the Harlequin Codex vs. the Eldar one, expect a errata coming soon.  I don't believe GW will let two of the same special rule go with different meanings for long.  Yes, this means that Wave Serpent spam will take a nerf.  Good, it's been a long time coming.

Harlequins are here!

Looks pretty sexy!

Check it out guys.  What do you think?  Worth picking for an Dark Eldar army?

Fancy!  You can find more here.

DE: Utilizing the Eldar warmachine

The runes of fate are unclear for the Dark Kin.

Alright, so by now the secret's out that the Dark Eldar codex can be a little better.  I've said this countless times, but I still think that the DE book benefits Eldar more than it does us.  There is not a single situation where I can say with absolute confidence that we do X stronger than our Craftworld cousins.  This disappoints me to the extreme, but I guess I have to live with this for the next couple of years.

Since I will always be Archon first, let's figure out how to incorporate some of the best Eldar elements into our army book.  First, let me list out some obvious synergies that stick out to me:

• Autarch - Most of the transports and units in our book that can ride said transports can now DS directly onto the battlefield.  This allows us to appear out of nowhere because 7th Ed. rules can bring back full reserve armies.  Given, you still need to keep some units on the battlefield on T1 so you don't auto-lose, you can play a pretty mean reserve game and the Autarch is the man to do it.  With his awesomely cheap price, you can take a barebones WS with some Dire Avengers and just have him chill in it.  If he wants to come out and play, a simple Fusion gun will be enough.  Personally, I think the Farseer is now out of the picture because the Autarch's reserve manipulation rules synergies with Deep Strike way more than some lame-o psychic abilities.
• Wave Serpents - The obvious power choice for competitive players will come in the form of the faithful, tried-and-true, tournament-winning transports of doom.  There is no arguing that the Wave Serpent is one of the best units in the entire game and for good reason.  It moves well, shoots well, and is extremely durable to return fire.  This is probably my go-to option in terms of providing scoring troops and a place that my Autarch can ride safely in.  I would be kidding myself if I said that the Autarch would be safe in one of my sailboats, but then again, a Fusion gun DSing in wouldn't be half bad.
• Windrider Jetbikes/Rangers - A good, decent cheap troop option if you want something to just fill up that requirement.  While I would probably take Windriders every time, the Rangers can be a little more survivable by back-capping and just going to ground every chance they get.  It's really whether or not you want an aggressive objsec unit, or something more survivable.  Regardless, these guys should be in reserve and come on later to preserve their own well-being.
• Fire Dragons - I can't say enough good things about these guys, except that they just blow our Trueborn out of the water.  You have incredibly strong and accurate shots at Melta and AP1, as well as Melta bombs as stock and 3+ armor.  For a lovely point cost of 110 for a squad of 5, you can take these guys in a Wave Serpent with an WWP Archon and call it a day.  Drop where you want, the WS will shoot the crap out of the rear armor of some vehicle, and then your Fire Dragons are now a permanent threat behind enemy lines or wherever you want top put it.  When you compare the price of 5x Trueborn with 4x Blasters, you get something like 115 DE vs. 110 from the Fire Dragons.  Just looking at that price difference should infuriate you because you get 3+ AS, meltabombs, fusion guns, Battle Focus, Fleet, the ability to take BS5 Exarchs, Fast Shot, and the lovely Wave Serpent.  You can bet your ass that these guys will replace your Trueborn in an mixed Eldar list.
• Wraithguard - You can either have normal shots or D-Scythes, it all depends on what you want these guys to do.  Put a Archon in there with WWP, equip him with a Shadowfield and he will tank all those shots on a T6 unit with 3+ AS otherwise.  Sure, why not, give them a Wave Serpent as well and they can go around anywhere they want, blowing up infantry and vehicles alike and do a fine good job at it.  This is points well-paid for right here, since they do an incredible amount of damage and is also extremely durable.
• Swooping Hawks/Warp Spiders - Drop in, do damage, feel good about yourself.  If you can take them, why not?  There's a reason why you see these guys in some Eldar lists, and you will find that they make great anti-infantry supplements to DE Scourges.
• Crimson Hunter - I think by now, we've all come to realize that DE doesn't have dedicated anti-air.  While the Razorwing is a fair purchase at 140 with lances, for 20 points more you get something that's completely designed to wreck anything in the air.  Enter the Crimson Hunter, one of the most hotly disputed worthwhile units in the Eldar codex.  If you guys know anything about me, this is my favorite unit to exist in 40K to date.  I love the idea of an Eldar fighter ace and I have it with the Crimson Hunter Exarch, since 4x S8 AP2 shots at BS5 that re-rolls pen vs. air targets will shoot anything out of the air.  My biggest gripe with it is that despite being virtually naked defensively, he doesn't have any type of countermeasures defensively.  It is the biggest crime in the whole codex that this air superiority fighter doesn't have Holo-fields when humans have figured that out since the '50s.  Absolutely embarrassing.  Either way, these guys are great for dedicated anti-air, something that Dark Eldar lacks entirely.
• Vyper Squadron/War Walkers - Does a crazy amount of damage at good range and with good maneuverability.  Comes with a buttload of high-powered S6 shots that you can upgrade to Scatter Laser so you can get that Laser-lock.  Let's just say that in most cases, these guys do a better job at killing vehicles than Ravagers.
• Wraithknight - The big daddy in the codex has just as much meaning in the Dark Eldar book as it does in the Eldar.  You have something big, something very threatening, and it can cover a lot of ground and maul things in combat.  The two heavy wraithcannons should be the mainstay weapon since it can reach out and touch anything, and maybe even possibly ID'ing something on a roll of a 6.  While not entirely reliable, I've seen Riptides get sucked into the warp by that thing, so it's all good.  Just make sure to stay out of fist fights with Dreadknights and the WK should be able to make its points back with careful play.  Just remember that with the WK on the field, it pulls a lot of fire and attention away from the rest of your flimsy sailboats.  This can be a boon or a vice depending on how you use the rest of your army.  If the only thing on the board is the Wraithknight and the rest of your army is in reserve, it's going to be quite obvious what your enemy is going to shoot at.
• Night Spinner - I put the Night Spinner in my army lists because it can do something very unique:  Provide Dark Eldar with a high-S Barrage weapon for vehicles hiding behind cover from our lances.  You have Razorwings to shred horde units, but the Night Spinner is there to punish vehicles that like to hide from the possible Alpha Strike.  The torrent weapon on a fast vehicle is also a useful at times, capable of hitting multiple vehicles and/or enemy models.

I'm sure there are other options out there, but here are the ones that stick out to me and I want to see them being used in my Dark Eldar army.

Here is what I'm currently planning to roll with:

1850
18 KP

HQ:
Archon, Blaster = 75
Autarch, Fusion Gun = 80*

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
5x Dire Avengers, Holo/SS/Scatter/SC = 220*
5x Dire Avengers, Holo/SS/Scatter/SC = 220*

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances = 140
Razorwing, Lances = 140

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Night Spinner, Holo/SS = 140*

The Archon goes to hang out with the 5x Warriors with the Blaster and comes in from DS.  If I can get a good position in early game, maybe he'll sit back and shoot, or else he'll be more of an opportunist like our friend Autarch over here.  He will be in one of the Wave Serpents, picking off what I can with the Ravagers while the Night Spinner does its thing.  Next turn, I'll be able to bring in some air support with the Razorwings, and if I have any enemy transports popped and their contents exposed, I'll gamble some drop-ins with my Warriors to go hard with their splinter weapons.

Looks decent on paper, but will it be any good?  Time will tell.

Three Dark Eldar/Eldar lists up for review!

I'm more Archon than Farseer.

Alright guys, it's your turn to review my lists.  I know I show off a lot of lists all the time and talk about them, but I think it's time for you guys to pick one of my lists.  I'll present three and give you guys a decent breakdown of what they have.

*Allied force

First list
1849
17 kp

HQ:
Farseer (JB, Spear, Mantle) = 160
Succubus (VB) = 70*

TROOPS:
5x Dire Avengers (WS/Holo/Scatter/SC) = 210
5x Dire Avengers (WS/Holo/Scatter/SC) = 210
5x Warriors (Venom NS/SC, Blaster) = 135*
5x Jetbikes (SC) = 95
4x Jetbikes (SC) = 78

ELITE:
3x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 3x Blasters) = 156*

FA:
Crimson Hunter Exarch = 180

HEAVY:
Fire Prism (Holofields, SS) = 150
Fire Prism (Holofields, SS) = 150
Night Spinner (Holofields, SS) = 140
Ravager (NS) = 115*

Alpha Potential: 8x TL Scatters, 6x TL Shurikens (or 2d6 S7 Ignore Cover), 24x Poison shots, 2x S9 AP1 Lances, S8 Monofilament blast, 3x Dark Lances

Main Strength of list: 5x AV12 Grav-Tanks with Holofields, flexible shooting methods.

Main Weakness of list: Lack of scoring bodies.

My competitive Eldar bucket

Scream at things.

So here's what I'm thinking:

Competitive bucket:
Farseers - Great. Should outright be in every list, or 90% of lists not focusing on specifically designed lists such as Wraith armies.  Double Guide is just fantastic and vastly improves the shooting output of your army.  When you need every shot to count, do not settle for anything less.  Plus you get the awesomeness that is Divination:  Giving you possible 4+ ward on Wraithknights, Scrier's Gaze, and the ability to combine Misfortune with Doom.

Avatar of Khaine - Works in the right list, mostly footslogging ones holding and offering target saturation. If you're running plenty of big units, Wraithguard, WK and WLs, then the Avatar is just another piece of the puzzle.  These guys shouldn't be too expensive with Fast Shot and possibly +1S for S7.

Eldrad - Works in the above said army and will continue to do so. Footslog is in a pretty good place right now minus the odd-ball AP2 template weapons. This is why I generally feel that footslog outright might not be the best, but mech + foot will be stronger. You are better able to conserve units that matter (scoring) while fielding units that someone like Tau can't really deal with (Wraithknights).  He's a footslogging champ because you get a very efficient Farseer that comes with all the bells and whistles plus a few more.

Autarch - Good.  His Strategy clause and reserve manipulation is the reason why he deserves to be in lists. When he is in a list, he needs to be cheap. Either hopping around with Warp Spiders, hanging around with Singing Spears, or tagging along with Jetbikes. Keep him cheap, for real.

Spiritseer - Better than Warlocks IMO, better leadership, larger array of spells, can join any unit, just an overall stronger pick than the Warlock. Wraithsight is just nice to have but the real boon is taking T6 3+ units as troops.

Warlock - Works in the right list, but is limited in where he can truly perform. His lack of spells worries me, his Ld.8 as well, but default Conceal gives him a spot in weapon teams, Guardians, Jetbikes, so if you're running those then he can see a spot. Otherwise, I prefer the stronger option of a Farseer with double guide, or the flexibility of a Spiritseer.

GDS: More Eldar tidbits

Come on man, you can do better.

I originally posted this in the BoLS forums, but I don't think people have a clue about what I'm talking about so I'll transfer it here.  Hopefully the IQ jumps up a bit more.

Here are my predictions on Eldar:
Eldar will be very much in the middle of the line of 6th Ed. books power wise (and only 6th Ed. books and not including 5th), but weaker in terms of overall design mechanics. There's just too many inexcusable misses which seriously weakens the book. Fortunately, there's enough units in the Eldar war arsenal that doesn't throw off internal balance too badly.

I just need you guys to understand one thing:
Eldar is a hard army to design, so I can't rag on Kelly too much. The reason for this is because you're trying to design a high-priced, elite army with specialist roles, all at the same knowing that it's army-wide T3 in a very lethal environment. In order for this to this design to succeed for such a specialist army, every role must be clearly defined in design, function, and balanced through points. A specialist unit that's not good in its role is simply, trash and not worth taking.

For example, and let me just throw out some design ideas (or changes rather) I came up with so you can get a better picture:

What if Banshee Masks also counted as having assault grenades?
...Runes of Warding forced enemy psykers within 24" to re-roll their successful psychic tests.
...Runes of Witnessing allowed you to re-roll your failed ones.
...Crimson Hunters come with Holofields and Exarch upgrade allowed him to ignore the Snap Shot rule.
...Hemlocks were Torrent/Template weapons.
...Wave Serpents gained assault ramps.
...Harlequin's Veil of Tears should not require a psychic test.
...Autarch could take Exarch weapons and powers.
...Dire Avenger's Exarch kept his Bladestorm mechanic from the old book.
...Wraithtknight's Heavy Wraithcannons are 36" S10 AP2 Blast.
...much much more.

This is an example of what I call design inconsistency AND incorrect fluff to table-top translation:
Heavy D-Sycthe loses template, gains Blast, when the fluff and description of the weapon says it ignores cover and is NOT a blast. The lesser version of the weapon, the D-Sycthe, is a template weapon and ignores cover.

This is an example of just poor, lazy design:
Wraithknight's Heavy Wraithcannon only adds +24" on the weapon's range and nothing else.

This is an example of poor design AND incorrect fluff to table-top translation:
Banshees are melee specialists without grenades, and masks don't do anything to change how they attack into cover.  Why?

This is an example of poor design AND incorrect fluff to table-top translation:
Crimson Hunters are an Eldar Ace aspect, the best pilots in the galaxy, and has the same defensive ability as an Ork pilot.  Not to mention it doesn't come with the most basic of all Eldar vehicle countermeasures; Holofields.

What do you guys think this is?  Bad design, design inconsistency, or poor fluff to table translation?
Random spell generation, Ld. 8/9/10 Warlocks/SS/Farseer, one-use crappy psychic items.

I think it's all three.

Poor design, inconsistency, and poor table-top translation are all over this book.  This is one of the reasons why I docked them so hard in my previous review.  My next article will go over some of my own alterations to the book and explain the fantasy and logic behind all of them.  Stay tuned.

GDS: Eldar Review

This is part of the Game Design Series.

Overall Design: 3.5/5

As much as I like Phil Kelly, I think the Eldar codex took a bit of a hit in terms of overall design.  There are some blatant fluff to gameplay mistakes that I didn't think should of happened.  From a purely design perspective, I can't for the life of me understand why the most superior aces in the galaxy go to battle without at least Holofields on their aircraft.  In fact, there's no option for them at all!  The Hemlock suffers a bit more when you look its weapon profile and question why D-Scythes have template weapons but not the Heavy D-Scythe.  You would think that the giant Pulsar-sized Heavy Wraithcannons on the Wraithknight did a little more than offer +24" onto a standard Wraithcannon.  I see missed opportunities, raised eyebrows and sighs of why? everywhere. That's always a concern.

Despite these things, Kelly was still able to capture much of the Eldar fluff on the table-top.  Everyone is now BS4 for the most part and Battle Focus brings back the old Move-Shoot-Move playstyle that many veterans will remember.  Monofilament and Shuriken weaponry has changed to match the fluff and I think the rules are pretty well done considering what they can do.  However, the changes to Eldar psykers leave much to be desired.  Consistency was something that Eldar was sure of in terms of the psychic field.  Unfortunately, random spell generation, Ld.8 Warlocks and a severely nerfed Runes of witnessing/Warding leaves me questioning if Eldar psykers even match the fluff.

What really hurts the overall design is the fact that Eldar, like High Elves, are an specialized army.  Specialization dictates that the points invested in whatever unit needs to do what you need it to do.  Dire Avengers should be good vs. Infantry, Banshees should rule assault, Fire Dragons should annihilate vehicles. This is very different than an all-purpose unit like most MEQ units where you can spread the love in all categories and balance it out with the correct offensive and defensive stats.  If you're spending points into a unit that's not able to execute on its sole purpose in the game, then that's a much serious design issue compared to a general-purpose unit decent at everything.  This right here is the difficulty when designing Eldar; especially when you have keep T3 and points cost in mind at all times.  Overall, I think Kelly did an alright job with this.

Internal Balance: 3.5/5

There are some questionable decisions here as well.  Maybe it's 6th Ed. in general where assault is not as glorious, but Banshees took a shovel to the face.  There were so many ways to address the assault void with Eldar and after so many years, one would think this will be addressed.  Then again, the Wave Serpent still don't have assault ramps so I guess it doesn't matter at this point.  Sadly, Banshees don't have even grenades, have a severely weakened mask and are still paper thin.  Where the design for Banshees have been embarrassing, other units fared a little better.

Kelly buffed a lot of other units that were sitting on the shelf before.  Striking Scorpions and Swooping Hawks have been re-designed slightly and buffed significantly.  Warp Spiders are now rock solid but Dire Avengers took a bit of a hit.  Were they really that good before with Bladestorm?  Not really but I think they added something unique in gameplay.  Now because their weapons have a chance to virtual-rend, Avengers have been brought down a bit in terms of points cost and having a useless Exarch.  I'm a little sad about this because I think the conscience decision to unload everything and reload next round is brilliant design.  In fact, anything that actively promotes player options is favorable army design.

Some units actually saw some minor redesign which is a nice surprise.  Aside from Guardians receiving BS4 along with many other units, the War Walker gained Fleet, Battle Focus and a 5+ invulnerable as stock.  Their price went up for sure, but if I'm looking at artillery support choices as a viable option in Heavy this is only a good sign.  I just wish the Falcon was made as dedicated transport and the Vaul's Support Batteries were molded into the Guardian squads.  Price-wise, we see some increases in units across the board; but with this comes reduced heavy weapon choices and effective special rules.  Another example is the Fire Prism, which no longer relies on another Prism nearby to utilize its weapon options.  Instead, it comes built with 3 different firing types!  Options man, options.

In terms of unique special abilities, they still sing with old Eldar flavor.  The Serpent Shield on the Wave Serpent, for example, can be used as a defensive option that reduces penetrating hits down to a glance on 2+, or it can be used to shoot out S7 hits that ignore cover.  However, in order to use this nice shooting attack, the player loses the defensive bonuses from the shield itself next round.  This is basically the design philosophy behind the old Dire Avenger Bladestorm, which is fine by me.  Sadly, this needed to happen more across the codex as I think it adds something fiercely unique to the Eldar playstyle.  No matter though, Wraith armies look to be pretty fluffy and solid, and from what I read about the Iyanden supplement they're going to get extra rules as well.  These supplements is definitely a step in the right direction.

External Design: 3/5

Although the codex has solid internal design, there are some things that just will not work.  Despite how good Striking Scorpions look on paper, I don't think they're going to be good simply because they'll got shot to death.  Harlequins now need to test for Veil of Tears, Banshees are a joke, and I'm pretty sure Eldar is going to erase CC completely from their builds.  In fact, the only competitive option I see are the bigger fatty units like the Wraithlords and Wraithknight.  Huh?  They have the stats worthy of a solid CC unit, come with high T, good armor and a good amount of wounds, but the fact that Eldar will be designated to a primarily shooting army is a bit of a let down.  I really hope next edition fixes this.

So where does this leave us really?  We have questionably better psykers than Space Marines, zero CC options outside of the Wraithknight, questionable viability in the form of fliers and AA options, and only a couple of troop choices that look competitive.  It always comes down to the competitive choices when we evaluate external balance.  I mean after all, you're comparing your bells and whistles to what the next guy has in his army.  Stacking Conceal on your bikes with your Ld.8 Warlocks is great and taking a bunch of scoring Wraiths is great, but what happens when your opponent is Tau and he rips your cover while dropping S8 AP2 templates on your Wraithguard?

To accurately judge a book's ability to impact the metagame, you have to look at what you have available.  I'm sorry to say, my competitive unit bucket doesn't look all that great compared to some of the other armies I've seen out there.  Eldar is one of those armies that is not auto-pilot and by nature is more difficult to play successfully.  All those specialized units must be utilized correctly or you lose a piece to an otherwise complete puzzle.  It's this reason that makes Eldar one of the tougher armies to design.  Their units are expensive to keep the army count elite, but how do you justify their effectiveness?  In this way, they share a commonality with High Elves.  Shocker.

A slight re-design on Eldar fliers

Eldar Top Gun.

Man, I absolutely love the fluff and idea behind the Crimson Hunter aspect.  Sadly, I don't think Kelly did a good job capturing the aspect to the best of his abilities.  The fluff speaks of the Crimson Hunter aspect at being so fast with their reflexes that they can dodge light.  This makes plenty of sense if you consider the fact that all they do is fly around at breakneck speeds dueling against each other with Bright Lances (probably set to stun).

I can understand the Sky Hunter rule and why re-roll Pens vs. enemy aircraft.  It's to symbolize the pilots uncanny ability to accurately hit his target's weak points to better eliminate them from the sky.  Unfortunately, the game as we know it does not always translate well from the fluff.  With AV10 and 3 HP, it's safe to say that this almighty ace aspect is just as bad on the defense as an Ork fighter.  That's just disgraceful.

So... how do I want to append this rather questionable fluff to design implementation?  How about this houserule for fun:

The Crimson Hunter comes with the Holofields vehicle upgrade.
Replace the text for Perfect Strike (Crimson Hunter Exarch) with: A model with this special rule does not fire Snap Shots after choosing to Evade.

What this does essentially is allowing the Crimson Hunter Exarch to make a 4+ cover save (Jink + Holofields) and fire with full effect next turn.  This allows the Exarch to standout as an ace among aces while Holofields help negate some of the issues of AV10.  The Perfect Strike with Precision Shots just doesn't make sense to me while this does a lot more.  I still think it's hysterical that an air superiority fighter doesn't come with Holofields.  Even us 21st century humans know how to equip flares, chaff and other countermeasures on our aircraft.  Just ridiculous.

Next on the list.. the Hemlock.  The only thing that needs to be changed here is the Heavy D-Scythes should be Torrent/Template weapons.  It makes my heard hurt why regular D-Scythes are template weapons and not these.  I would of personally made them S4 AP2 Torrent/Templates.

Thought process:
Torrent and templates allow the aircraft to match the fluff.  The goal of the Hemlock is to destroy infantry, where it virtually casts the souls of those affected into the warp.  No cover should be allowed from such effects.  This also keeps design consistent with the D-Scythe being a template weapon.  If that weapon doesn't allow cover saves, why should the Heavy D-Scythe allow cover saves?  In addition, this is a mere extension of the effective range of the weapon.  A Wraithknight's Heavy Wraithcannon only extends the range of the Wraithcannon itself.  Thus, two design consistencies are matching.

Furthermore, Torrent/Template weapons allows the Hemlock to apply its effects immediately the units affected by the weapons due to its Mindshock Pod.  This is not comparable to the likes of the Heldrake in function because it's not AV12, does not have It Will Not Die and a demonic save, nor does not have a S6 template that is also effective vs. vehicles.  The function of the Hemlock is to be a terror weapon which is effective against moderate-Toughness infantry where armor and cover is no defense.  This is offset by its fragility in AV10, the fact it needs to be close to fully utilize its abilities, and its hefty price tag.

I'll touch upon the other units in the book in another post.