Idle Musings of a Casual Gamer on the New Eldar Codex.

So, where to start. Firstly let me set out a couple of things, I've not played using Eldar before and I've barely played against them. What you must be thinking now is why the hell should I bother with this post? Well what you'll get is my point of view completely uninfluenced by the previous editions of the Eldar codex, it might not count for much but it is just that, my opinion. The way I'm going to do this is I'm going to pull out a few units and explain why this codex has really got me so interested in creating an Eldar force.


Overarching rules

Battle Focus - this allows any unit with it to Run then Shoot, or Shoot then Run. The vast majority of the army has it.

This is massive and is going to be a game changer I'm sure. Troop units can can now disembark from transports, fire then run out of assault range. It's also important to note that it effectively increases all short ranged unit such as Fire Dragons and Warp Spiders by a Run roll (and of course they all have Fleet). It really makes the whole army very manoeuvrable.

HQ's

The Avatar of Khaine, this guy is to put it simply a beat stick. Stats that put it alongside a Bloodthirster with a multitude of wounds, immunity to anything that gets a pyromaniac excited and he carries a shrieking blade that throws out a melta shot and hits virtually every time.

What's not to like?

Well...he's not exactly fast, he does have Fleet but The Avatar of Khaine will be foot slogging across the battlefield getting shot out by essentially everything. also he's an easy target for psychic de-buffs as he's is not a psyker so only has a basic Deny the Witch,

Illic Nightspear, this for me is the most beautiful model in the range, and was a big part of my decision to start an Eldar force.

He shoots almost as well as the Avatar and every shot is Precision. Voidbringer, his rifle can cause instant death and his has a nice ability to infiltrate anywhere on the battlefield taking his unit with him! This guy is going to sit in cover picking off sargeants, heavy weapon models and maybe dropping the odd precision shot on warlords.

Troops

Rangers, these are a really nice sniper unit which can be upgraded to Pathfinders to  give them a better cover save and like Illic all shots become precision shots. this is not a cheap upgrade, taking them to nearly twice a normal marine. These will come into their own with so many multi-demon prince armies running around, and of course they're an excellent scoring unit for camping an objective.

Elites

Harlequins, as much as I love these models and I can see the benefits of them in combat (they really do put out a lot of attacks on the charge) I think they'll struggle to survive. They rely on two things, cover/invulnerable saves and a psychic power. their armour gives them a 1 in 3 chance of surviving and if you pay the points for him, the Shadowseer can use the veil of tears to prevent models from being able to target them from over a certain range, but as I said, it's a psychic power and there's almost a 17% chance of failing it and if it fails you may as well say goodbye to the unit.

Still the models look amazing and they have one of the best background of any unit in the codex so I will be fielding them

Fast attack

Warp spiders, let's just run through this, they're Jetpack Infantry, have  a weapon that preys on those with lower initiative, have battle focus, hit and run, strong against vehicles and they get their Warp Generator move. This is a very fast very powerful unit that's going to cause a lot of people a lot of headaches. I expect these to be moving around the battle field with ease making planning for them very difficult.

Heavy support

Dark reapers, These can throw out a lot of fire-power  they might be slow and purposeful, but let's be honest you're not going to want to move them that much anyway! They can remove cover saves, take down tanks and pin units in place. The Exarch can benefit from Night vision or monster hunter or choose to fire his weapon multiple times. These are a strong unit in a very strong heavy support section for Eldar.

So that it, those are the units I picked out to form the basis of my force. There are other really strong HQ's, units and the like but these were what caught my eye. Things like the warlocks, the Farseers, jet bikes, striking scorpions (did I really read that the Exarch essentially gets a power fist that strikes with 4 attacks at initiative 6!?) and several other will all bear consideration as I grow my force but for now thanks for reading.