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Okay, so I suspect that GW will get to all of these craftworlds eventually anyways -- my guess is that each release will come with a couple new minis. Remember that rumor list with the Xentarchs, Nuadu Fireheart on a Chariot, and the Black Warden? Those seem like ideal releases for Biel-Tan, Saim-Hann and Ulthwe, respectively.

But what I wanted to suggest here were some special rules to distinguish all of the other craftworlds, at least for friendly games until something more comes out from GW. Here are my thoughts, feel free to comment or criticize:


BIEL-TAN

* If you select a Phoenix Lord as one of your HQ choices, you may select up to two squads of Aspect Warriors matching that Phoenix Lord as Troops choices.
* If you have three or more Exarchs in your army, you may separate three or more of them from their squads and field them as a single unit called The Court of the Young King. Each Exarch retains their Infantry (Character) status. The only independent characters capable of joining this Squad are a Phoenix Lord or the Avatar of Khaine. This unit is a scoring unit.
* Howling Banshees receive plasma grenades at no additional cost.
* All models in a Biel-Tan army have Hatred: Orks.
* Wraithguard and Wraithblades will always remain an Elites choice in the FOC, regardless of whether or not your army includes a Spiritseer.


SAIM-HANN

* Shining Spears Aspect Warriors may be taken as Troops choices. Eldar Guardian Squads become Elites choices.
* Any model mounted on a Jetbike or a Vyper Jetbike gains the Skilled Rider USR.
* Falcons must be taken as Dedicated Transports for any infantry squads numbering six models or less. Units consisting of Bulky or Very Bulky models do not get this option.
* All vehicles in a Saim-Hann army automatically have Star Engines at no additional cost. For an additional 25 points, each transport vehicle in a Saim-Hann army may be made an Assault Vehicle.
* Wraithguard and Wraithblades will always remain an Elites choice in the FOC, regardless of whether or not your army includes a Spiritseer.


ULTHWE

* You may take 0-3 Farseers as a single HQ choice.
* Ulthwe Warlocks cost 40 points apiece and are LD9.
* For an additional 16 points, you may upgrade one Guardian in any Guardian Defender or Storm Guardian squad to a Black Warden. The Black Warden has the same stat line as an Exarch and is considered Infantry (Character). Black Wardens have Adamantium Will and ATSKNF.
* Wraithguard and Wraithblades will always remain an Elites choice in the FOC, regardless of whether or not your army includes a Spiritseer.

Wargear:

Raven Staff (Ulthwe Farseer Only, limit 1 per army) 25 points
The Raven Staff has the same close combat profile as a Witch Staff. Additionally, instead of rolling randomly on the Runes of Fate table, the Farseer may select a power from the Runes of Fate table. Only one power can be selected in this manner; all others must be generated randomly.


ALAITOC

* You must take at least two squads of Alaitoc Pathfinders as Troops choices. Alaitoc Pathfinders have the same profile as Rangers, but cost 20 points per model and come with the Night Vision, Shrouded, and Sharpshot USRs. You are not required to use Illic Nightspear in your army, but if you do, the Pathfinders remain 20 points per model and you may field more than two squads of Pathfinders.
* All Autarchs, Farseers and Warlocks have the Infiltrate USR.
* If all models in your army have Infiltrate, Stealth, Shrouded, Scout, Outflank or begin the game deployed in Reserves, you may choose to start the mission under the rules of Night Fighting and can Sieze the Initiative on a roll of 4+.
* Wraithguard and Wraithblades will always remain an Elites choice in the FOC, regardless of whether or not your army includes a Spiritseer.

2+ cover saves on Jetbikes is mostly ridiculous, but choosing your powers trumps that.

Well, Shining Spears already have Skilled Rider, and Ravenwing can get a 2+ cover save with a Darkshroud, so it's not like it's without precedent. And there's lots of Ignores Cover out there. But maybe there should be a cost associated with it. That's why I'm looking for advice.

As for Ulthwe, would it be better as a one per army piece of Wargear? Should it cost more? How broken is it to let someone choose a single power when there's something like a 75% chance they will get it anyways?

I would say Biel Tan appears to be the most powerful option there, although Guardians with ATSKNF is pretty good for Ulthwe.

Biel Tan is certainly the most flexible. Moving Aspects around the FOC like that really frees up the slots, especially in the heavy section with Dark Reapers.

IMO Phoenix Lords should have had a rule like this anyway (including Drazhar for the DE).

I've made some tweaks based on feedback and a clear look at the rules I wrote in the light of day.

I made the following changes:

* Restricted Wraithguard and Wraithblades to Elites for all non-Iyanden craftworlds, regardless of the presence of a Spiritseer.
* Moved the ability to select a psychic power to a unique Wargear item, only available to Ulthwe Farseers. Also increased cost.
* Clarified the Alaitoc Pathfinders rules.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do these rules seem to fit the established fluff to people?

Man, it's tough to get any feedback here.

Anyone? Bueller?

I have read this but always been too busy to write a reply!

Biel Tan - I'm pretty happy with all of that, none of it seems crazy overpowered, just nice a flavoured.

Saim Hann - This seems too much. Jetbikes are already pretty powerful, adding Skilled Rider to them seems too much. I would say give Warlocks and Autarchs Skilled Rider if they take a Jetbike would be better?

Guardians become Elite, I can see the reasoning but who would take them? Maybe keep them in troop but make them 0-1 or 0-2 at most?

No to the Assault vehicle thing as well, can anyone else do that?

I'm not sure about free Star Engines, I think it would be better if they just had cheaper upgrades (at the cost of less access to Wraithlord/knights maybe?)

Ulthwe

I'd say keep Warlocks the same price but make them LD9. Farseers....maybe 2 as an HQ choice? 3 might be too much.

Raven Staff seems too cheap for what you can do. Either has to be a fair bit more or weaken it's ability.

Alaitoc

Not sure about Farseers and Warlocks infiltrating, that sounds too exploitable.

I'm an aliatoc player so I will speak to that- don't know much about the other groups

Alaitoc are supposedly less racist than the other elves since they have so many outcasts, so I would allow them to take a greater selection of allies at a higher level of alliance including Blood Angels.

I would allow each pathfinder unit to place a booby trap like the cluster mines that scout bikers have. Pathfinders are so meh now compared to Kroot snipers on a point for point basis. Cluster mines would help.

I would actually just make the entry Alaitoc Rangers with the current pathfinder stats. Then make Alaitoc Pathfinders 1-10 man unit that can be parceled out to squads like warlocks except only to Ranger squads. Each specialized the squad they join into anti-vehicle, anti-heavy infantry, anti-light infantry, or sabotage roles.

And then they should all have the 'general' improvements that the Eldar codex should have had IE move the support batteries into regular defender squads, (1 per 10 guardians), Falcons as designated transports for aspects, Banshees' acrobatic rule allows them to treat all vehicles as assault vehicles, Warlocks are LD 9

 shamikebab wrote:
I have read this but always been too busy to write a reply!

Biel Tan - I'm pretty happy with all of that, none of it seems crazy overpowered, just nice a flavoured.

Saim Hann - This seems too much. Jetbikes are already pretty powerful, adding Skilled Rider to them seems too much. I would say give Warlocks and Autarchs Skilled Rider if they take a Jetbike would be better?

Guardians become Elite, I can see the reasoning but who would take them? Maybe keep them in troop but make them 0-1 or 0-2 at most?

No to the Assault vehicle thing as well, can anyone else do that?

I'm not sure about free Star Engines, I think it would be better if they just had cheaper upgrades (at the cost of less access to Wraithlord/knights maybe?)

Ulthwe

I'd say keep Warlocks the same price but make them LD9. Farseers....maybe 2 as an HQ choice? 3 might be too much.

Raven Staff seems too cheap for what you can do. Either has to be a fair bit more or weaken it's ability.

Alaitoc

Not sure about Farseers and Warlocks infiltrating, that sounds too exploitable.

Ah, feedback! Thanks for finding the time to respond. Let me respond to some of the points you raised.

Saim-Hann: You aren't the first to say they're too powerful with Skilled Rider. That only gives them a +1 on their Jink Save, though. Is it really that overpowered? Ravenwing bikers get it, and Saim-Hann is the Ravenwing of the Eldar. But perhaps it's not appropriately costed. I see four ways to deal with it.

1) Jack the price up for GJB squads across the board.
2) Give an option for GJB squads to upgrade, maybe +5 points per model. (I'll check the cost differential between RW bikes and normal SM bikes, maybe that will give me a baseline to work with for Skilled Rider.)
3) Create a new, Saim-Hann specific type of biker, with it's own cost and options.
4) Create a new Saim-Hann special character (Nuadhu Fireheart) who would grant Skilled Rider to JB and Vypers in the army. His price could be adjusted to deal with the "tax" of the Skilled Rider, although as someone pointed out in another thread, that doesn't scale well because it's one flat rate regardless of how big your army is. Maybe another option would be to have the presence of this character enable the additional Saim-Hann specific biker.

No, no other Eldar can get Assault Vehicles, but if anyone should get them, it should be Saim-Hann. Without them, Banshees really are not viable. (I tried to address this to some extent for Biel-Tan by giving them plasma grenades. They should really have both, but one or the other is crucial.) Price could be adjusted, but I really think this is a key part of ensuring that Saim-Hann are viable.

I've done some more reading on Saim-Hann. Essentially, they only go to war as a fast attack force. The only slow, non-mobile troops they take are Wraithlords and Dark Reapers, who are supposed to provide fire support for the rest of the army. I'm thinking of requiring transports for all squads except Wraithlords, Wraith Knights, Dark Reapers, Jetbikes, and Fast Attack choices. That will mean that a Saim-Hann army will have a very small model count, but lots of mobility and armor. Since the maximum transport capacity is 12 for a Wave Serpent, it would essentially restrict Guardian squads to no more than 10 man squads, plus a support weapon. (You could also stuff a Warlock in the squad.) I'll update their entry probably tonight.

Ulthwe: I don't want to weaken the Raven Staff (but I'm not married to the name, it's mostly just a placeholder), because I want to give Ulthwe something to really distinguish them as the best psykers in the craftworlds. Selection of one power is pretty distinctive, since it could guarantee that you get Fortune, or Death Mission, or whatever you wanted. Price is certainly negotiable, though. Should it be 50 points?

Alaitoc: What's the worst you could do with an infiltrating Farseer or Warlock? Seriously, I'm asking what the worst case scenario would be, if you wanted to make the most broken army list possible. You could attach a Farseer to a Scorpion or Ranger squad. I guess, since Warlocks get attached to the Guardian squads before deployment, that means that the whole Guardian squad could outflank or infiltrate based on the inclusion of a Warlock with infiltrate. But you're still only talking Guardian squads, Weapons of Vaul and GJBs. None of those seem completely broken to me, although it would certainly make Storm squads more effective if they could Outflank with Fusion guns.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, back to the drawing board a little, based on the feedback. The Codex: Eldar 6th is a good book -- I'm just trying to provide some distinction between the craftworlds to give them their own flavors and play styles.

ALAITOC: Focus on Rangers/Pathfinders. Enhanced access to Infiltrate. Additional benefits to represent the old "disruption" table. Perhaps negatives to your opponent's reserve rolls.

BIEL-TAN: Focus on Aspect Warriors. Addition of the Court of the Young King. Some FOC shenanigans to ensure all Aspect Warrior armies are easier to accomplish.

IYANDEN: Focus on Wraithguard/Wraithblades. More Spiritseers.

SAIM-HANN: Focus on mobile, mechanized force. Restrictions on slower unit choices. Enhanced bike skills. Nuadhu Fireheart special character?

ULTHWE: Enhanced Guardian squads. Seer Councils. Improved psychic abilities.

IL-KAITHE: Bonesingers? Perhaps all Craftworlds can get either a Spirit Seer and/or a Bonesinger, but Il-Kaithe gets up to 5 Bonesingers, similar to Iyanden's Spirit Seers.

Those are my primary goals.

I was envisioning Bonesingers like Spiritseers, perhaps as a direct replacement for some other craftworlds, like Alaitoc. Similar to Spiritseers in the Iyanden Codex, they would have a unique Psychic power as a Primaris to replace Conceal -- it would have both a offensive effect (area effect, pinning?) and a defensive effect (restore a hull point to an Eldar vehicle or a wound to a Wraithlord/knight). Also considering giving them the ability to harden a piece of terrain, similar to a Techmarine, and improve the cover save at the start of the game. Was planning to give them a wargear to represent their instrument, perhaps resulting in any charges against them being slowed and/or count as attacking into cover at all times. Unlike Techmarines, they would have no ability to fix immobilized vehicles or destroyed weapons, just to restore a lost hull point -- sort of a quick patch -- and it would require a successful psychic test.