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We were talking in my local GW the other day about Wraithguard getting strength D, and someone suggested that the reason behind this was to put them back to where they should be, ie in older books they're guns were more powerful than others, and now other codecs have received guns that are of a similar strength to old Wraithcannons, hence the buff. I didn't really think of it, until a game last night where we started talking about Howling Banshees, and again, we compared them in 4th to today, and again the putting them back to where they were point came up, I think it was comparing Fleet with battle focus, and the run boost they have.
This got me thinking. Have Eldar become so ridiculous now, because a fair amount of what made them unique has been moved into the general rules, and as such in order to make them unique again, the codex has had to become more powerful to compensate?

Eldar were always one of the most powerful factions to take. Space marines have ruled for a long time but Eldar were never far behind. with this latest release, you can justify it anyway you want but at the end of the day the creators took a codex that was easily top 1-3 for power and buffed EVERY unit in the codex except the Wave Serpeant...which they nerfed by doubling its firing capacity but only for 1 turn instead of every turn./

No they have become ridiculous because gw has new jetbikes they would like to sell. Their financials are coming up and they have to show investors something or risk their jobs. Perils of a publicly traded company. This book is pure pandering to move plastic. All pretense of fair gaming, balance, and play testing have been thrown out the window.

There's better ways to make them fluffy than making them OP. That's just poor game design and lack of imagination.
Fine, give them the best guns in the game, but at least give them the points to match.

Space marines ruled? 2ed eldar were best. 3ed was eldar star cannon heaven, then it was craft worlds and invunerable falcons. Eldar weren't the best time for like 2 years and even then they were never weak. in fact for eldar units weak means, I have another two or three units that do the same thing only better and cheaper.

For me the theory that eldar had to get the buffs before they needed to catch up is odd. Catch up to which books? Eldar were already at worse on of the 3 best books, and probably the best out of those 3. Or do by catch up we mean those mythic 2ed time, when single eldar HQs could take on whole armies and be untouched.

Consider fleet for a second. Way back when it meant that the unit could move d6" in the shooting phase instead of shooting. This then became the run rule, and applied to everyone. Suddenly things like Eldar are slower than other races they are meant to be faster than, hence things like battle focus etc.

It seems to me that people are always blaming games workshop wanting to shift stock for problems in the game, I remember people used to moan that they only cared about the new guys as they could squeeze more money out of them. Now it's they break the books to sell models. These guys aren't stupid, they know what sells, and they are also aware of what's going to hurt them, carrying on as people think they are is going to hurt them. Therefore surely it can't be the only explanation. If it was we'd be hearing about how the new Knights are going to be worse than Eldar. From what I've seen that hasn't happened.

I'm not trying to excuse some of what has happened, and I fully accept many elements of the Eldar book are broken, but also many of the ways stuff has become overpowered are pretty fluffy. Is it possible that there is more to it than they want to shift product? It seems to me people don't want to think about reasons why they may have made decisions they have, and just claim they are incompetent. They may be, but it's worth trying to think of why they make the choices they have.

I don't think Space Marines ever really ruled. They were a contender for sure, but I don't think there has ever been an edition when people pointed at Space Marines and said "Look how borken they are!" They have always been the most plentiful army, for sure, but never the best army.

to wit: 2nd Edition 40K- saw a large army of Space Marines face off against one model- the Eldar Phoenix Lord Baharroth. He swept through the Space Marine's entire army and tabled his opponent. I think the Space Marines even had a heffty points advantage too.

I remember playing with Baharroth in 3rd when he had the Web of Skulls. As long as you hit, you could continue to roll to hit. It was Assault 4 I think. Most amount of hits I ever got out of it was 18 I think.

 statu wrote:

These guys aren't stupid, they know what sells, and they are also aware of what's going to hurt them, carrying on as people think they are is going to hurt them. Therefore surely it can't be the only explanation.

The last few financial reports would disagree with that assumption.

 statu wrote:
Consider fleet for a second. Way back when it meant that the unit could move d6" in the shooting phase instead of shooting. This then became the run rule, and applied to everyone. Suddenly things like Eldar are slower than other races they are meant to be faster than, hence things like battle focus etc.

And DE also had fleet and were supposed to be even faster then CWE. Then that just sort of went away and DE started being Ogryns with Ld4

There's already WAY too many Eldar threads as it is - so while we appreciate the effort and enthusiasm, please join in the conversation in one of the many other Eldar threads that are currently active here on Dakka Dakka.

Thanks!