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Personally I like the phoenix lords but they get into the shuffle with the other HQ choices and tend to lose out.
Their cost is the biggest issue as the other options really help the whole army.

Two possibles - lose them as HQ but preserve them as upgrades to exarchs. Statlines are as today for each of them minus wounds which max at two. The all confer the ability to "count as troops" for controlling objectives but limited to their own squad. This makes phoenix lords into super exarchs rather than HQs.

The other is to maintain them as HQs. Then buff them out a little more and add a couple abilities.

1. Confers stubborn rule to all aspect warriors within 12". Not just their own aspect. They are an inspiration to all much like an avatar but limited only to aspect warriors.
2. Makes all of their aspect "count as troops." A small variation is to allow HBs and SSs to be taken AS troop choices. Don't allow it for the others just to avoid weird spammed armies. Count as scoring units is enough incentive for the other aspects. Perhaps even breakdown based on type of aspect. Dire Avengers - possibly gain something to make them nastier in Asurmen's presence seeing they are already troops. Say preferred enemy to go along with stubborn or super defend - +1 to all saves in HTH. (i.e. 3+ armor saves and 4++ SS saves in HTH.)

The first option would see them used a lot more for special strike units.

@ DAaddict-

Or because the PLs are wanderers that no longer call any craftworld home and only appear in times of dire need, they are considered to be indepent characters that operate outside of the FOC.
Just an idea.

focusedfire wrote: @ DAaddict-

Or because the PLs are wanderers that no longer call any craftworld home and only appear in times of dire need, they are considered to be indepent characters that operate outside of the FOC.
Just an idea.

Idea! Just steal the wording from some other counts as HQ but doesnt use a HQ slot blah blah entry

What if Dire Avengers were made so special that they had to be upgraded to standard 16 points per model and removed from Troop selection in standard case? They'd probably go to Elite in that case (hello, guys, see you've got a crowd here), but play with the thought...

Farseer
Ancient Farseer
Warlock - fine
Verdant - fine
Rune Armour -fine
Witchblade -fine
Singing spear- fine
Runes of warding
Runes of witnessing - both of these are good, better than the current rules
Runes of Guidance - The d6" scatter is the more important part. can't think of assaulting with any of our DS units...
Runes of Dispersing - meh... warding is already brutal psychic defense. I'd rather have these be something which prevents nullification
Runes of Fortitude - have to vote no (or whatever it is we do when we disagree) - invulnerable save upgrades to units in a codex with fortune is a very risky thing. It depends entirely on what units the warlock can attach to - and the farseer!? A 5+ invulnerable on a wraithguard unit makes that unit ignore 55% of all wounds against it. Amazing, considering they are already one of the flat-out hardest to kill troop choices in the game.
Doom - Interesting change. I don't know if its good, overpowered, or underpowered, but i'd like to find out.
Fortune – As is now
Guide – As is now
Curse – why not just make this the function of doom on vehicles (i mean add it as a 2nd half to doom "if casted on a vehicle" etc)?
Isha's blessing - Seems more like Isha's curse, but interesting.
Eldritch Storm - could be more elegantly worded, but i like it. Perhaps it should be a fixed range.... i dunno, but i like the idea a lot.
Conceal - This interacts better with current rules, and makes the ability a benefit, even when already in cover. nice.
Embolden - yep
Enhance - So, this one is iffy as heck, and again, dependent entirely on what units the warlock can be a part of. As you have it drawn up, it seems warlocks are part of guardians only, so it isn't as risky, but this sort of power in wraithguard or a council could be broken as all get out.
Regrowth – As above - it isn't as bad as an invuln save because it can't be fortuned, but it depends no the units it can be attained on.
Unnatural Speed – interesting, both parts.
Destructor – is it a heavy or reg. flamer in the current codex?
Spear of Khaine - cool
Sunder - cool
Mind War - The important change here is the no cover. The +1 is nice, but i've always though cover from a mind war is rediculous.
Distort – nice
Augment – ok, could do with more range bonus, but nice in concept.
Endure – interesting, but the council really has to be buffed to 100% to have a paltry 9" stubborn bubble?
Channel – Interesting, but again, i'd rather have this ability be something to do with surpassing nullification.


As to the PL/Aspects arrangement.... there's lots of options.

Do we want to tone back the PLs in the fluff? It isn't 100% clear to me if the Phoenix Lords are the suits or the guy wearing the suits. Do we want to make them little more than Aspect heroes, or do we want to make them as they seem to be now, of some sort of mythical primarch type character.

I lean to - predicated on PLs remaining HQ choices - PLs conferring scoring to all of their aspect warriors, fearless to the squad they are attached to/their retinue, stubborn to all their aspect warriors they are not attached to, and one or two aspect-specific benefits.

Gwyidion wrote:
Runes of Guidance - The d6" scatter is the more important part. can't think of assaulting with any of our DS units...
Well... maybe a unit in the new dex could make use of it. Currently i woundn't mind seeing hawks assault a vehicle
Runes of Dispersing - meh... warding is already brutal psychic defense. I'd rather have these be something which prevents nullification
Could do with a name change, i was going to add a preventnig nullification with the ghost helm but forgot it. Rolling a 4 or less to cast causes the spell be non-nullifiable. Obviously with better wording. With RoWit the 4+ would still be rare enough to get that it shouldn't be OP. We could always have a rune for it though.
Runes of Fortitude - have to vote no (or whatever it is we do when we disagree) - invulnerable save upgrades to units in a codex with fortune is a very risky thing. It depends entirely on what units the warlock can attach to - and the farseer!? A 5+ invulnerable on a wraithguard unit makes that unit ignore 55% of all wounds against it. Amazing, considering they are already one of the flat-out hardest to kill troop choices in the game.
We were regarding wraith units being un-fortunable at one point, depends on if thats thrown in will depend on the effect this rune could have. But if your paying for a full unit of WG and dedicating a seer to them thats alot of points invested and i wouldn't see a problem with it. TH/SS termies have a better invun even with re-rolls and will crush the WG utterly.
Doom - Interesting change. I don't know if its good, overpowered, or underpowered, but i'd like to find out.
Same!
Curse – why not just make this the function of doom on vehicles (i mean add it as a 2nd half to doom "if casted on a vehicle" etc)?
Could be an option, but would make doom a must take in any mission, more so than it is now
Isha's blessing - Seems more like Isha's curse, but interesting.
isha's curse sounded wrong ^.^
Eldritch Storm - could be more elegantly worded, but i like it. Perhaps it should be a fixed range.... i dunno, but i like the idea a lot.
Not great with words so some1 else can change the wording before putting it in the article if needs be. As for range, storms should ebb and flow with the focus of the seer, i thought the random ranges fitted well
Enhance - So, this one is iffy as heck, and again, dependent entirely on what units the warlock can be a part of. As you have it drawn up, it seems warlocks are part of guardians only, so it isn't as risky, but this sort of power in wraithguard or a council could be broken as all get out.
Might just leave it as a choice between BS and WS. Warlocks are being left out of WG and there is no council with lock (in my world), the spirit seer can be re-jigged to better fit WG units and for "deathstar" councils... i dont know...
Regrowth – As above - it isn't as bad as an invuln save because it can't be fortuned, but it depends no the units it can be attained on.
Just for guardians though, it seems like a decent secendary power to take
Destructor – is it a heavy or reg. flamer in the current codex?
heavy
Augment – ok, could do with more range bonus, but nice in concept.
didn't wanna go overboard with the range
Endure – interesting, but the council really has to be buffed to 100% to have a paltry 9" stubborn bubble?
xould be higher, but 9" is pretty big considering how far a unit can spread out
Channel – Interesting, but again, i'd rather have this ability be something to do with surpassing nullification.
given surpassing nulliication is adressed above... still worth it?

Wait... so the Warlock would be its own HQ?? I'm confused.

rivers64 wrote:Wait... o the Warlock would be its own HQ?? I'm confused.

Someone had that idea... but with everyone having different ideas... things get awkward.

dayve110 wrote:

focusedfire wrote: @ DAaddict-

Or because the PLs are wanderers that no longer call any craftworld home and only appear in times of dire need, they are considered to be indepent characters that operate outside of the FOC.
Just an idea.

Idea! Just steal the wording from some other counts as HQ but doesnt use a HQ slot blah blah entry

Pretty much what I was thinking. Make them similar to the BT emperors champion but without the mandatory "if over x point game" wording.

DAaddict wrote: lose them as HQ but preserve them as upgrades to exarchs. Statlines are as today for each of them minus wounds which max at two. The all confer the ability to "count as troops" for controlling objectives but limited to their own squad. This makes phoenix lords into super exarchs rather than HQs.

I suggested this quite a while ago but it was put down as a bad idea seing as the Lords are such a fundamental part of the Eldar fluff. I think it coud work though. Set them up as an Eldar equivalent of Sgt Tellion or Kaptin Badruk. Make them fairly expensive (75-100 points?) they confer all exarch powers, count their unit as scoring and have a fancy piece of wargear each and the same set of stats. It would stop all the shenanigans with putting the PL's in random units and would free up room for a craftworld specific SC in the HQ slot.

I wouldn't mind having them as an upgrade, it would ensure at least one unit of their aspect is there. But even if we agree to that, I still feel they should be just as powerful as a full blown HQ (at least 100pts worth).

Removing them from the FOC is an interesting idea. What peoples thoughts on taking ti a step further:

Aspect Call: Any full unit of the Phoenix Lord's aspect that includes an Exarch does not take up a slot in the FOC. Despite not taking up a FOC slot, each unit still count as their designated unit type for all other purposes (i.e. Dire Avengers still scoring).

Again, I know, Fire Dragon spam (we really need to do something about them), I was hoping that forcing a full squad may do something against that... but I'm realistic.

If we do take PLs out of the HQ slot we need to take into consideration of taking two or more of them. If they're made worth taking then if I have a spread out list for my aspects, will it break them by bring a PL for each of them (Say a Banshee/Dire/Spider combo).

Also I propose either a retinue is mandatory or "must include at least one squad of their corresponding aspect".

How about something along the lines of

"If there are at least two full units of the same aspect warrirors in an army, one may replace its Exarch with a Pheonix Lord for XXX points. Whilst the Pheonix Lord is alive, his unit counts as scoring and doesn't take up a slot in the force organisation chart."

That keeps DA's as scoring and means your army would have an appropriate number of the aspect to seem sort of fluffy.

Effectivly means you could field 2 units of Banshees, 2 units of Dragons, 2 units of scorpions, 7 units of Avengers, 2 units of warp spiders, 2 units of shining spears, 2 units of Hawks and 4 units of Dark Reapers
That would be 14 scoring units (and a heck of a lot of points )

I don't understand why we keep suggesting to have the PL's aspects not take up slots or be moved to troops. There is a reason the FoC exists. It is to limit the use of unit which, if spammed, are overpowered. Most of the PL suggestions are fine - just leave the units in their FoC slots as normal. If we want to make them scoring... thats fine. But don't make them troops, and don't give them a null FoC slot, because that just causes problems.

As I - at least - stated. Phoenix lords are cool but farseers, avatars and even autarchs provide some benefit to the army as a whole. Phoenix lords do nothing right now and cost more than any other HQ except maybe Eldrad and no one would argue that that is not the best HQ option right now.

Removing them from HQ and making them an exarch upgrade would see them hit the board but of course they would not be like a god-like named character HQ choice.

Making them extraneous from the FOC HQ slots would not make my choice a phoenix lord (i.e. super single HTH character) or another HQ choice that enhances my army.

The other alternative is a rework that actually makes them worth taking up a slot and making their effect worthwhile.
If - for instance -you make Jain Zar qualify Howling Banshees as troops - she might be worthwhile. If she is just a super-buffed howling banshee with +1 on a few stats and some neat items, she is not worth 200+ points when I can take a farseer and and avatar and be able to doom targets and make my army fearless for a little more.

Gorechild wrote:How about something along the lines of

"If there are at least two full units of the same aspect warrirors in an army, one may replace its Exarch with a Pheonix Lord for XXX points. Whilst the Pheonix Lord is alive, his unit counts as scoring and doesn't take up a slot in the force organisation chart."

That keeps DA's as scoring and means your army would have an appropriate number of the aspect to seem sort of fluffy.

Effectivly means you could field 2 units of Banshees, 2 units of Dragons, 2 units of scorpions, 7 units of Avengers, 2 units of warp spiders, 2 units of shining spears, 2 units of Hawks and 4 units of Dark Reapers
That would be 14 scoring units (and a heck of a lot of points )

Only change I'd make to it is add "...two full units with Exarch...". I really like it. Only being scoring while the PL is alive works in really well with how I perceive Eldar's play style (come to think of it, I think I mentioned that earlier), also deal with my earlier mentioned problem of "How do we mark out which are scoring and which aren't". Swinging it the other way that can be as many as 4 units of any one aspect (and yes 7 for DA). Both extremes seem nice. Standard game if I were to go aspect heavy, would still see me with a minimum of 3 scoring units. I'm happy to leave it at this, are there any opposed?

Gwyidion wrote:I don't understand why we keep suggesting to have the PL's aspects not take up slots or be moved to troops...

The key reason we do that is because most of our slots are over crowded. A lot of us seem to feel that taking a PL should, fluff wise at the very least, see you taking a notable amount of their aspect. But if we do that then we prevent ourselves from taking a number of other units and thereby we no longer have a balanced/competitive list, half the reason why we're doing this. There's only two ways to do that, either mess with the FOC and free up some space or make the PL and their effect on the aspect so OTT that we don't have to worry about not taking other units in that slot. If you can think of a third option, then post it up and well give it a look through. (Please note, it isn't intended to sound as mean as it seams to read to me, I just can't think of a less blunt way to phrase it.)

How about just making a Phoenix Lord be able to take a single squad of their aspect as troops. Making them upgraded exarches is a very very ugly idea.

I think PLs should be HQ units, nothing else makes sense for a model with their abilities. However I like the idea of them not taking up an HQ slot and being forced to buy a retinue of their aspect. Therefore PL still allow you to take one extra squad of they're aspect than is normally allowed. I'm still not sure whether the pheonix lord and his retinue should count as scoring but it would allow a wider variety of lists.

What do you think about giving PLs a rule so that if they die there body counts as an objective (in objective missions) or gives up extra KP/VP unless there are Eldar within 3" of it at the end of the game (in missions that use them)? It would represent the Eldar trying to retrieve the armor of the PL so that PL wouldn't e lost forever.

rivers64 wrote:How about just making a Phoenix Lord be able to take a single squad of their aspect as troops. Making them upgraded exarches is a very very ugly idea.

Care to explain your reasoning?

Pyro-Druid wrote:
Only change I'd make to it is add "...two full units with Exarch...". I really like it. Only being scoring while the PL is alive works in really well with how I perceive Eldar's play style (come to think of it, I think I mentioned that earlier), also deal with my earlier mentioned problem of "How do we mark out which are scoring and which aren't". Swinging it the other way that can be as many as 4 units of any one aspect (and yes 7 for DA). Both extremes seem nice. Standard game if I were to go aspect heavy, would still see me with a minimum of 3 scoring units. I'm happy to leave it at this, are there any opposed?

I meant "with an exarch" but apparently missed that out, good catch! Maybe saying only one PL is allowed per army? I've just realised how mad it would be with that many scoring units

balthydes wrote: I think PLs should be HQ units, nothing else makes sense for a model with their abilities. However I like the idea of them not taking up an HQ slot and being forced to buy a retinue of their aspect. Therefore PL still allow you to take one extra squad of they're aspect than is normally allowed. I'm still not sure whether the pheonix lord and his retinue should count as scoring but it would allow a wider variety of lists.

Its a valid point, how would you suggest we make them a viable choice compared to a Farseer or an Autarch with the new options we've suggested though? I think making their aspect scoring is one of the few sensible ways we could make them a more appealing option. Personally I think craftworld specific SC's would be much more popular choices.

balthydes wrote:What do you think about giving PLs a rule so that if they die there body counts as an objective (in objective missions) or gives up extra KP/VP unless there are Eldar within 3" of it at the end of the game (in missions that use them)? It would represent the Eldar trying to retrieve the armor of the PL so that PL wouldn't e lost forever.

I really like this idea

I think craftworld specific characters are the ones who should move the FOC around (i.e. the Iyanden character allows small squads of wraithguard as troops, the Saim-Hann character makes vypers and/or shining spears troops, Biel-tan gets some extra aspect warrior squads as troops etc.). PL should be better in combat than those characters and IMO their abilities should reflect that.
What do you think about each PL giving additional buffs to all squads of their aspect (or a general +1 A aura for all Eldar). Some possible buffs could be:
Asurmen- Dire Avengers get defensive grenades and/or counterattack
Jain Zar- Howling Banshees get furious charge
Baharroth- Swooping Hawks only scatter d6" when deepstriking (depends on how the squad changes next codex)
Karandras- Striking Scorpions get preferred enemy
Fuegan-
Maugan Ra- Dark Reapers can fire there weapons as a barrage (ignores cover from intervening models) or a simple +1BS
??????- Shining Spears can turboboost 36" or always hit on 3+ on a charge
??????- Warp Spiders can choose to move either 3d6 or 2d6 in the assault phase

Anyway, the point is that I think Pheonix Lords should be similar to the Avatar in that they give combat boosts but different because they are more specialized and fit better in fast mechanized armies.
However PLs could also be given special stratagems similar to the Autarch because of their millennia of combat experience.

If we do make the PL's a HQ each and do a HQ for each major craftworld we're looking at about 15 SC's. On top of the 3 generic HQ's thats a stupid number of HQ options.

That gives us 3 options:

Don't include craftworld HQ's

Down grade the Lords to special Exarch's

Make a stupidly long list of SC's where 75% of them will never be used

Personally I'd like to see the lords get an entry along the lines of:

Jain Zar
One Howling Banshees Exarch may be upgraded to Jain Zar for XXX points.

BS--WS--S--T--I--A--W--Ld--Sv
-5---9---5---3--9--4--2---9---3+

Special Rules:
Fleet
War Shout
Acrobatic
Howling Fury

Wargear:
Banshee Mask
(whats the name of her weapon)

Howling Fury- All members of Jain Zar's unit have the Furious Charge USR

Weapon- Single handed power weapon, can also be used during the shooting phase with the following profile R12" S4 AP4 Assault D6 Rending

I am, myself, a fan of the upgraded exarch path, if only to trim down the HQ section - and let's face it, Maugan Ra will never be so bad ass as is described in fluff without moving him to epic/spearhead level game play.

This also gives room for more interesting HQ units such as Bonesingers (perfect way to move the army fundamentally towards Iyanden) etc.

The HQ section really does show that the Eldar race, as a whole, is something like cramming all the specials from Space Wolves and Blood Angels into Ultramarines codex. There is more than enough Eldar diversity to make several distinct codices with a rather extreme difference in character.

P.S. Oh, and then there's this from Forgeworld - Heavy Support: A Warp Hunter is a Heavy Support choice for an Eldar army and an Eldar Corsairs arm.
Exciting times. But enough of the wishful thinking. /sleep

Right, apart from one unexplained complaint from rivers we all seem to like the Exarch+ route, If thats the case I think doing the specific rules and wargear is best left until we do each aspect.

That leaves us with the Craftworld HQ's:

Iyanden - Yriel
Ullthwe - Eldrad
Saim Han -
Biel Tan -
Alaitoc -

Are they the the ones we want to stick with or would extending to places like Lugganath and Yme-Loc be an interesting idea?

As previously said, I think its time Eldrad finally dissapeared from the codex and becomes more of a legendary character of the eldars fluff (lets be honest, even the last codex admitted he's basically assumed dead).

I think all the SC (except Ulthwe's) should be more like autarch's. Saim Han's SC could count shining spears as troops. Biel Tan's counts scorpions and/or banshees as troops. Give Yriel a wraith specific stratagem. Thoughts?

Aren't Alaitoc more or less governed by farseers in a theological manner? Iyanden also makes a lot of sense having a Warlock/Farseer-like character, while Yriel is more of a Corsair (something we might see in the future).

This presumes a step back from the generic codex of today.

Iyanden - Yriel AS IS for items and personal stats. The addition would be qualifying squads of any size of Wraithguard as troops and perhaps allowing all generic warlocks and farseers the spiritseer ability.

Ullthwe - Eldrad The addition here could be something to make black guardians. Perhaps enhancement from Ulthwe warlocks includes +1 BS to the already +1 WS and +1 I. An alternative is allowing them to upgrade all guardians base. The other is making the super seer council only available to Eldrad.

Saim Han - Autarch equivalent - If you want to go back a special modified Vyper as a mount. If bikes as troops is left for all then my suggestion would be the fast attack aspects being converted to elite choices. This allows for a standard of Shining Spears, Hawks or Spiders getting the Elite slots and Vypers becoming the defacto fast attack choice. Otherwise it qualifies for bikes as troops. To include the fluff of Saim Hann barbarity, perhaps all bikes qualify for furious charge perhaps a +1 Ld to bikes.

Biel Tan - An autarch equivalent - This could unleash aspects on all FOC slots. Another option is it makes all aspect warriors able to claim objectives. This makes biel tan
a bear in objective games as you could potentially field 15 units that are capable of controlling objectives. If you view a return to the Craftworld Codex, allow scorpions and banshees as troop choices though I would argue dire avengers already allow for an all aspect warrior army.

Alaitoc - An autarch equivalent - perhaps armed with a sniper rifle himself. A couple of thoughts - my old argument was removing pathfinders as an option for standard and non-alaitoc armies and make the pathfinder a free upgrade to all rangers led by the Alaitoc autarch. Another option might be that all Alaitoc rangers and pathfinders are considered relentless or slow and purposeful. The only thing I don't want to see is a return to the old Craftworld Codex pre-game disruption rules. Somehow making Alaitoc rangers/pathfinders better than standard eldar rangers is the key change.

Obviously you can add character-ful items and abilities like Y'riel or Eldrad to them as you like but the key for me is making the craftworld named character unleash the
craftworld specialties. (e.g. Saim-hann character with a special lance like power weapon or the alaitoc character with a sniper rifle.)

Yriel- keep him as he is but add the stratagem "Prince of Iyanden" - Any model with the Wraith special rule counts as scoring. Obviously that requires wraithguard/lords being given a small extra rule (maybe incorporate wraithsight into it?)

Ulthwe- pretty straight forward IMO, give them a fat seer council, allow more seers/verdants and let them cast more powers per turn.

Saim Han- is there not an old vyper riding character we could work off?

Biel Tan- Maybe a super Avatar? probably not a good idea but i'm putting it out there Otherwise I think scoring banshees/scorpions woulf be good.

Alaitoc- All sniper rifles are changed to Assault 1 instead of heavy?

I feel that PLs as exarch upgrades is a decent idea, and I also feel that craftworld-specific HQs is a good idea, and very in-the-mode of 5th edition codexes. That being said, I want to caution some things and promote other things, and generally give thoughts.

If you look at the recent release from forgeworld, there is a non-vague reference to an upcoming corsair list. I know that forgeworld isn't GW proper, but we shouldn't ignore it.

All of the craftworld HQs have to be considered along with the units they affect, when being constructed. For instance, an Alaitoc craftworld HQ isn't going to be very good if the units he affects are still rather ineffective (as they are now). An Ulthwe craftworld HQ will be overtaken and broken if the real goal is the seer-council the HQ gives access to is broken or OP.

specifics:

I feel that each craftworld list alteration should have both benefits and drawbacks (and they should be real drawbacks!).

Yriel - he's a fun character now, but as he is now, he is more of a corsair than a Iyanden character. Set off a bomb that kills everything near you? not something you do when your craftworld is dying. I think he'd be better for a corsairs list, than iyanden, because for iyanden, we have:

Iyanna - she's mentioned on the Iyanden fluff page, near the bottom in the current codex. A spiritseer whose husband is implanted in a wraithlord - awesome.

Craftworld specific ideas, with varying levels of details:

Ulthwe - With the selection of Eldrad (or similar character) it unlocks a seer council, and black guardians (+1 BS/WS, +1 Ld), but each guardian squad must have a warlock upgrade character (who selects a power for free, instead of at-cost)

Biel-Tan - The avatar of khaine may take an upgrade - the Avatar of Biel-Tan - which grants +2S, +1T, Sv 2+, and 6" on the fearless bubble, for X pts. Pathfinders, guardians (in any form), and wraithguard may not be taken, making DAs a 2+ selection. Any Elite choice with unit type "aspect warrior", which has the maximum number of individuals allowed in a unit, has an exarch, and at least one Exarch upgrade (wargear or exarch power) does not occupy a FoC slot, and is scoring as long as the exarch is alive.

Alaitoc - this one is combined with a change I'd like to see in pathfinders to make them more effective:

Rangers - on a 6+ to hit, ignore cover. weapons are Sniper, so are rending, Ranger Long Rifles wound on a 3+, same stats as now, retain stealth, infiltrate, outflank, and move through cover, 16ppm (they are equivalent to an Outcast Aspect Warrior).

Pathfinders - +9ppm. Ignore cover on a 5+. Rend on a 5+. Retain Improved Stealth, infiltrate, outflank, and ignore cover (the same as flip belts, with different fluff). Gain:

Relocate: During the Eldar player's Assault phase, if the pathfinder unit shot in the immediately preceding Shooting phase, the pathfinder unit may make a normal 6" move.

Now, these changes are suggested because if we want to make the alaitoc upgrade character (who i think should be a character Ranger) make the pathfinder upgrade free, rangers/pathfinders should be effective, or he's never gonna see the table. I think Alaitoc's character should add infiltrate/outflank to all vehicles, but it needs a fluffy drawback.

Iyanden - Limit of 1 unit with type "aspect warrior" in the list. Limit of 2 units of type "guardian". Limit of 3 units with an Armor value. Iyanna has a retinue of 5 wraithguard who are not scoring. Any size unit of wraithguard may be taken as troops. Wraithlords may be taken as elites. Units of type "Wraith" get FNP as long as Iyanna is alive. Units of type Wraith gain a 4++ save at all times. Iyanna requires the selection of a second HQ unit which is a wraithlord with special options.

note that this use of army-wide regrowth and a 4++ save for all wraith units is combined with a configuration that makes it impossible to take a farseer in any way at all, precluding the use of fortune in the army - this makes wraith units very tough against regular weapons, with a 3+, 4+ FNP, and more resilient than their current incarnation, with a 4++ against AP3+ and powerweapons. This doubles the effectiveness of wraithlords and wraithguard in CC, and makes wraithguard 5% less durable against AP2 ranged weaponry, but more durable against ranged AP3 weaponry, due to FNP. The serious lack of CC ability available to a hardcore Iyanden list in this configuration needs to be addressed, unless I am mis-remembering the changes we made to Wraith units.

Saim-Hann - (fixed) Shining spears as elites or FA. (fixed) Vypers as FA or HS. Army-wide Twin linking (to compensate for the fact that every shooting unit available to Saim-Hann is BS3).

Yriel - I really think that Iyanna is a better fit for Iyanden than he is. The way he needs to be used, his cavalier fluff, etc, lends him more to a corsair army than an iyanden army. That being said, there is no corsair army. Either we assume GW will add one with the Forgeworld corsair list, or we make a faux-corsair list using storm guardians, vypers, and wave serpents.

My two cents but i think Hoec should be Alatioc's Special Character

Essentially a super Pathfinder, has an epic sniper rifle, gives some bonus to other rangers, probably an armywide stealth rule

I like the idea of having Iyanna as Iyanden's special and moving Yriel as a pure corsair (It even mentions in his entry that he stills travels the galaxy, presumably to find a way to destroy the spear of Twilight)

I believe that Saim-Hann has Nuhadu Fireheart (probably mispelled that) he rides a Vyper into Assaults (supports the idea of moving Vypers into Jetbikes) but this could easily be changed into an awesome jetbike

Biel-tan i'm at a loss at, but i guess some sort of Autarch that's like an Aspect Warrior lord

Ulthwe- stick to Eldrad, I always believed that when someone used him he would instead be that apprentice who still believes he's alive, or we just continue his legacy with his triumph against chaos, he escaped the Warp and defeated the Blackstone fortress and came back to Ulthwe like nothing happened (because he's just epic like that)

Alaitoc character might be an Autarch with a Long Rifle with a bit of special rules, but more importantly associated Alaitoc-esque abilities. Most of all, he'd allow for units to infiltrate that normally wouldn't be able to.

Here's something that's sprung up from reading the Shadow Spectre FW rules regarding Swooping Hawks:
Points - say roughly 18
Hawk Wings - Grants JET infantry, not jump.
Skyleap - Grants Turbo-boost.
Exarch able to take Haywire Launcher
Otherwise generally unchanged. The weakness of the main weapons are still there, yo-yo removed, the vulnerability to blast templates removed (6" assault phase move), and the cost reduced. Additionally, turbo-boosting allows for rapid movement at cost of shooting as well as cover.
As an added benefit, wing-equipped Autarchs become more interesting!

P.S. Biel-Tan is naturally Court of the Young King. Not a special character, but a special unit. A small-ish squad of Exarchs with special rules for how to deal with the Exarch powers.

oh god swooping hawks again. Those hawks are mobile, sure, but they still suck at doing anything. They'll never be a threat in shooting, even with guide and doom, and their assault isn't very scary when it is sacrificing a 200pt unit for a not-very-good-chance to kill a vehicle.

Ye, sorry for dredging them up again, but I it's just something that's been itching at the back of my head since reading the Shadow Spectres. Main point is the jet pack, though, it provides an elegant solution to a large portion of their problems.