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 xttz wrote:

djn wrote:
I hoped a 2+ fortuned bike council with attached Tau super commander would be viable but if you don't roll up some key powers its likely to be game over before its even begun.

The main complaint here seems to be that you can't find a guarunteed I-Win unit after a day of reading the codex. A bloo bloo bloooo.

Virtually everything in the codex either got cheaper, got buffed, or more likely, both. Here's a quick comparison of the Fast Attack page between the last 2 Eldar codexes:

Shining Spears cheaper by 10pts each
Warp Spiders cheaper by 3pts each, plus huge buffs to mobility and firepower
Swooping Hawks cheaper by 5pts each, plus mobility and firepower boosts
Vypers are the same base price, but with BS4 and cheaper weapon upgrades (some of which are also buffed)

That's just one page. You don't have to look very far for more. Unless of course you were hoping for Avatars at 5pts each that could be taken as Troops choices and automatically grant an invulnerable save to everything within 48". Then I'm afraid you're out of luck.

Shut up and marry me already.

 Kain wrote:
I think that Fire dragons and bright lances will make monstrous creature spammers have a very bad day indeed. They won't care about your T6 or armor save and the Eldar can bring enough of them to bring down just about any MC in the game in one round of shooting, fire dragons can even do it with just a single unit.

My poor riptide does not like this news. I might have to actually start using the nova reactor for the 3++ save...

I look at it as an extension of the Winds of Magic idea from Warhammer Fantasy.

In Fantasy, Wizards are able to cast spells to a greater or lesser effect based on how much latent magic is on the field each turn. In 40k, psykers could be limited in what powers they can draw on based on the tides of energy from the warp. My understanding is the Warp is like, emotions and stuff ~ so as the various emotions ebb and flow in any area of warpspace the powers a psyker can draw on, that are reliant on different types of warp energy, are changed.

Then again, I give zero feths about the canon background of 40k and just look at it in a superficial way, filling in the gaps or the stuff I don't like with what makes sense or seems cool.

 Dakkamite wrote:
I look at it as an extension of the Winds of Magic idea from Warhammer Fantasy.

In Fantasy, Wizards are able to cast spells to a greater or lesser effect based on how much latent magic is on the field each turn. In 40k, psykers could be limited in what powers they can draw on based on the tides of energy from the warp. My understanding is the Warp is like, emotions and stuff ~ so as the various emotions ebb and flow in any area of warpspace the powers a psyker can draw on, that are reliant on different types of warp energy, are changed.

Then again, I give zero feths about the canon background of 40k and just look at it in a superficial way, filling in the gaps or the stuff I don't like with what makes sense or seems cool.

It would have been nice if instead of powers being random, their strength was. So you rolled to generate warp points based on mastery level and that made the power more effective, such as certain witchfires getting +1S / more shots per point, or Endurance giving 4+ / 5+ / 6+ FNP. If they balanced the points generation right, it would mean you'd need to be very lucky to get the strong bonuses.

They could also open up the chance for more risk/reward here. Say you can roll between 1 and 3 D3's to generate warp points, but if you roll any double the psyker suffers Perils. Would make you question if you really need that extra dice.

Ive gone other this thread and read my codex over a few times. As a whole the codex is stronger, however the toughest part of playing eldar is that you have to be so very damn careful about where you place it takes a while to make sure your doing the right thing because were so squishy. That was with fortune, oh wait now we dont even have it for sure >.< psychic powers are awesome in this codex and eldar would be Op if you could pick. You could have a 8 man wraithguard squad with a farseer and spirit seer, guarded with a wraithlord and wraithknight. You could re roll armour saves with fortune, re roll to hit with guide, you could give them a 2+ save with the runes of battle skill and heal your wraithlord or wraithknight behind you with your other spell from spiritseer, ontop re roll ones from spirit marker LOL This wraith combo would powerhouse through everything.

Also farseers have 3 psychic powers with guide as a primarus youll probably end up getting fortune and doom quite often.

Jain zar Karandras and meugan ra all have anywhere from 5-10 strength ap 2 attacks at initiative 7. They are boss in close combat and Zain jar is one of the best melee fighters now imo.

Eldar weapon platforms are OP also lol!

Long time eldar player and looser but with this new codex i think well stand a better chance with Laser lock and cheaper brightlances we may have a chance. Oh and Wraithknights are amazing, you have two heavy wraithcannons, a starcannon and a scatter laser, so all your cannons arw twinlinked because nobody missed with 4 shots. Why are you complaing, on 6's its instant death as if S10 ap 2 wasent enough? laughable. The wraithknight is the staying power we needed.

JWhex wrote:If you think the Iyanden codex is going to present you with a lot of new rules for units and characters I think you should prepare yourself for disappointment.

More disappointment!? Perhaps, I suspect there may be more though; Ulthwe said-hann etc.

JWhex wrote:The real question, that is interesting is, how does this codex compare in general to the books for other armies. I am sure all long term players have their well fixed ideas and expectations but do you seriously expect GW is going to fullfill your personal and probably very specific wishes?

Not at all. I just want a competitive and externally balanced codex. Example; autarch wargear mandiblasters costs 5x as much as the infinitely superior Tau neuroweb jammer.

JWhex wrote:Can the Eldar compete? Do they have multiple decent builds? How do they synergize with available allies? These are the kind of questions that need to be answered before labelling the codex as a failure or success.

Sounds reasonable but from my pov it is a failure. Cheap hq or hq with a specific skillset plus two min bike squads as someone's allies maybe?

JWhex wrote:Every player has their own personal wishlist, which is not terribly interesting.

I'm not wish listing or attempting to pique your personal interest tbh. The random elements just smack of a way around balancing the powers. I can run the bike council with 2 farseers and 10 warlocks, more often than not I'd have a 2+ fortuned squad I just don't like that random unreliable factor, be interesting to know the odds of getting the powers and them working every turn.

JWhex wrote:Everyone else gets their psychic powers at random and the design team likes the random table idea, its astonishing that people expected the Eldar to be able to pick their powers.

Primaris powers take the randomness out of psychic powers and allow you pick them so not so astonishing really. When farseers have access to divination and prescience why would you want guide? For a dying race wouldn't fortune make more sense?

JWhex wrote:
The Eldar received some nice buffs but the demon army received way more random crap than anyone should have to deal with. Have you even built a list or played a game yet? Do you think the general increase in BS to 4 is not any good. What about being able to shoot and run, or run and shoot?

I've built lists but no games played yet, it's my initial reaction and time will tell if I'm on the right track. BS4 is ok and takes the reliance on seers away especially for vehicles that can twin link with scatters anyway. 1-6 inch extra movement again ok but if you're running foot eldar I think you'd be in trouble due to the lack of durability.

JWhex wrote:I think your complaints are very premature.

Fair enough, we're all entitled to our opinion. Thanks for taking the time to make your counter points.

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:Disagree strongly. I think you gloss over the massive positive changes - battle focus, shuriken rending, BS4 etc - and concentrate on things that are still weaknesses. Of course there are still weaknesses. If everything in the army was the best unit ever then every non-eldar player would (justifiably) be complaining.

I mentioned shuriken rending as a positive and I disagree that in the 6th ed landscape battle focus and BS4 for an army with twin linking and psychic equivalents so readily available are massively positive.

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:Let's just experiment with new rules and armies and enjoy the excitement of fresh options+possibilities, before we go around bemoaning our fate.

Fair enough, one of the reasons I posted was to see if it was just my own expectations which were too high. However I've not seen anything yet to convince me that its not a poor release. I do hope I'm wrong.

I'm on the fence with the OP. Like any Kelly dex, there are some very big misses and the good things aren't Wardian good... just 'ok'. I mean I agree with most here that things have improved, but you have to consider how bottom tier the codex (which he wrote prior...) was to begin with.

And just like the Dark Eldar book, a great deal of what's in this one is useless. A lot of the old problems still exist. And a lot of the new things aren't great.

 xttz wrote:

djn wrote:
I hoped a 2+ fortuned bike council with attached Tau super commander would be viable but if you don't roll up some key powers its likely to be game over before its even begun.

The main complaint here seems to be that you can't find a guarunteed I-Win unit after a day of reading the codex. A bloo bloo bloooo.

Virtually everything in the codex either got cheaper, got buffed, or more likely, both.

While true pretty much everything got some sort of buff (holy gak wave serpents) or remains very good (Eldrad will still be in every Eldar list I face...), it doesn't mean what they got was useful. Banshees are still awful, Vypers are still far too expensive for AV10 open topped gun platforms, shining spears aren't exactly going to wow anyone for 25ppm and only being effective in the first round of close combat and a great whopping A1, Guardians still lack the range and resiliency to be effective and cost almost twice what guardsmen do without offering twice as much value, etc.


And I'm primarily a Guard player

As a Russ heavy guard player this news of cheap lances is worrying.

Nvs wrote:
I'm on the fence with the OP. Like any Kelly dex, there are some very big misses and the good things aren't Wardian good... just 'ok'. I mean I agree with most here that things have improved, but you have to consider how bottom tier the codex (which he wrote prior...) was to begin with.

And just like the Dark Eldar book, a great deal of what's in this one is useless. A lot of the old problems still exist. And a lot of the new things aren't great.

The Codex is fine, it's on the same power-level as the previous 6th ed Codices. I don't even see it suffering the DE "useless units" problem, unless we're talking about the special characters or something.

I had my first game with the new codex today and I wasn't disappointed at all! Wave serpents are very durable with their shield, and the scatter lasers making your shuriken cannons twin linked is brutal. Battle focus is also a way bigger deal than I thought it would be. It allowed my dire avengers to get out of a serpent and then run over and shoot a unit of cultists, an allowed a unit of fire dragons to do the same to a daemon prince and then run over an kill a predator the next turn.

Illic nightspear is pretty nasty as well, especially with Farseer support, and him and his unit of 10 pathfinders killed six fnp noise marines in a single turn of shooting. I did get lucky with my powers though. I rolled both fortune and doom, and swapped eldritch storm for guide, which while worse than prescience is still a decent power. I would say rolling all 3 powers on the eldar table gives you a very good chance of getting at least one power that you want, and guide is still far from the worst power you could end up with.

I know it's still early, but based on this game, the eldar dex seems pretty capable if you watch your movement and play to your army's strengths. We ended up calling the game at the top of turn 5 because all my opponent had left was 5 cultists and a las pred with 2 hps left. Facing 3 scatter laser/cannon/holo serpents, 5 rangers, 4 pathfinders, an unwouded illic and Farseer, 4 hairlines, 7 dire avengers and 5 warp spiders.

 GimbleMuggernaught wrote:
I had my first game with the new codex today and I wasn't disappointed at all! Wave serpents are very durable with their shield, and the scatter lasers making your shuriken cannons twin linked is brutal. Battle focus is also a way bigger deal than I thought it would be. It allowed my dire avengers to get out of a serpent and then run over and shoot a unit of cultists, an allowed a unit of fire dragons to do the same to a daemon prince and then run over an kill a predator the next turn.

Illic nightspear is pretty nasty as well, especially with Farseer support, and him and his unit of 10 pathfinders killed six fnp noise marines in a single turn of shooting. I did get lucky with my powers though. I rolled both fortune and doom, and swapped eldritch storm for guide, which while worse than prescience is still a decent power. I would say rolling all 3 powers on the eldar table gives you a very good chance of getting at least one power that you want, and guide is still far from the worst power you could end up with.

I know it's still early, but based on this game, the eldar dex seems pretty capable if you watch your movement and play to your army's strengths. We ended up calling the game at the top of turn 5 because all my opponent had left was 5 cultists and a las pred with 2 hps left. Facing 3 scatter laser/cannon/holo serpents, 5 rangers, 4 pathfinders, an unwouded illic and Farseer, 4 hairlines, 7 dire avengers and 5 warp spiders.

Very nice. I'm thinking just taking Divination or Telepathy is going to be the best way to go with Farseer powers. There are just too many dudes on the Fate lore, to my liking.

 Frecklesonfire wrote:


Jain zar Karandras and meugan ra all have anywhere from 5-10 strength ap 2 attacks at initiative 7. They are boss in close combat and Zain jar is one of the best melee fighters now imo.

The Maugetar is AP 3 in assault.

Long time eldar player and looser but with this new codex i think well stand a better chance with Laser lock and cheaper brightlances we may have a chance. Oh and Wraithknights are amazing, you have two heavy wraithcannons, a starcannon and a scatter laser, so all your cannons arw twinlinked because nobody missed with 4 shots. Why are you complaing, on 6's its instant death as if S10 ap 2 wasent enough? laughable. The wraithknight is the staying power we needed.

The Knight can only fire two weapons though. So you'd have to give one wraith cannon up for the chance to twin link the other.

Hopefully an FAQ changes it, maybe?

 xttz wrote:

djn wrote:
I hoped a 2+ fortuned bike council with attached Tau super commander would be viable but if you don't roll up some key powers its likely to be game over before its even begun.

The main complaint here seems to be that you can't find a guarunteed I-Win unit after a day of reading the codex. A bloo bloo bloooo.

Hardly, I've set out my issues with the codex, the above is frustration with random powers and the fate primaris. I'm just expressing my disappointment with the codex whilst trying to have an intelligent and reasonable conversation. Thanks for your input...

 xttz wrote:

Virtually everything in the codex either got cheaper, got buffed, or more likely, both. Here's a quick comparison of the Fast Attack page between the last 2 Eldar codexes:

Shining Spears cheaper by 10pts each
Warp Spiders cheaper by 3pts each, plus huge buffs to mobility and firepower
Swooping Hawks cheaper by 5pts each, plus mobility and firepower boosts
Vypers are the same base price, but with BS4 and cheaper weapon upgrades (some of which are also buffed)

That's just one page. You don't have to look very far for more. Unless of course you were hoping for Avatars at 5pts each that could be taken as Troops choices and automatically grant an invulnerable save to everything within 48". Then I'm afraid you're out of luck.

Looking at the units in a vacuum between the last codex and the new one doesn't make them effective in the current meta.

Spears are still very expensive and have no grenades.
Warp spiders are admittedly a high light, I've really liked them since 4th ed but T3 3 up isn't going to last long.
Swooping hawks I mentioned in my OP. small 6 man harassing/line breaker squad could be useful.
Vypers suck, Tau piranhas are superior IMO. Av10 goes down to small arms.

I'm struggling to understand how these expensive, elite units can compete against the likes of torrent of fire armies or drakes. Eldar could mech up but serpents whilst they seem effective and durable are still expensive. 3 glances or a lucky one shot later though...

These "expensive elite units" compete via being taken alongside other units that complement them. Eldar have never been an army that you can just rely on one unit or two to carry the day; they've always been a glass cannon army, and frankly the comment about "T3 3+" not lasting long suggests that you don't understand this.

I'm sorry, but if you can't build a list that covers for each unit's weaknesses correctly, then you're clearly not playing the right army.

 Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:
These "expensive elite units" compete via being taken alongside other units that complement them. Eldar have never been an army that you can just rely on one unit or two to carry the day; they've always been a glass cannon army, and frankly the comment about "T3 3+" not lasting long suggests that you don't understand this.

I'm sorry, but if you can't build a list that covers for each unit's weaknesses correctly, then you're clearly not playing the right army.

Well said sir!

djn wrote:

Vypers suck, Tau piranhas are superior IMO. Av10 goes down to small arms.

War Walkers have the same statline and they are widely considered a solid unit. So do Vypers 'suck'? Let's take a look!

For 60pts you can get either a Vyper or a War Walker with dual Shuriken Cannons. The War Walker has a 5+ invuln, while the Vyper gets a 5+ Jink save as it moves around (4+ for flat out). The main difference comes down to flexibility. War Walkers can fit a wider selection of weapons, whilst one of the Vyper's options can only ever be a Shuriken cannon. In exchange for less choice, the Vyper can instead move 30" per turn compared to the Walkers 6+D6". This offers great opportunities to reposition and respond to threats all over the board, or escape from potentially crippling melee encounters that Walkers may have trouble avoiding.

Also the Vypers use a slightly-less in demand FA slot, so if your HS is full they're a viable alternative weapons platform.

djn wrote:

I'm struggling to understand how these expensive, elite units can compete against the likes of torrent of fire armies or drakes. Eldar could mech up but serpents whilst they seem effective and durable are still expensive. 3 glances or a lucky one shot later though...

You must have missed the post earlier in this thread where someone worked out that it takes an average 27 lascannon hits to drop a holo-field equipped Wave Serpent moving flat-out (which can cross the battlefield on 1 turn). The interesting thing is that it only takes 21 hits to do the same thing to a Land Raider... which costs twice as much.

 Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

djn wrote:

Warp spiders are admittedly a high light, I've really liked them since 4th ed but T3 3 up isn't going to last long.

These "expensive elite units" compete via being taken alongside other units that complement them. Eldar have never been an army that you can just rely on one unit or two to carry the day; they've always been a glass cannon army, and frankly the comment about "T3 3+" not lasting long suggests that you don't understand this.

I'm sorry, but if you can't build a list that covers for each unit's weaknesses correctly, then you're clearly not playing the right army.

Gorskar has hit the nail on the head here. Your comment about Warp Spiders shows exactly how little you understand Eldar.

In basically every incarnation of their rules, in every format (including BFG, Epic, etc), Eldar have been a fast, hard-hitting army that relies on speed to stay alive because they can't weather much damage. The new Battle Focus rule is the perfect demonstration of that, as you can now get units into perfect position to wipe out the enemy (such as Fire Dragons running into Melta range for the extra pen dice), or being able to take your shots then get out back into cover (most Shuriken units).
Warp Spiders are by far the best example of this trend, as they can move 6+2D6" ignoring terrain, shoot/run or run/shoot, then jump back 2D6" away again (again ignoring terrain). Why is T3 3+ are problem now? To be any tougher they'd effectively be a space marine, and marines certainly can't move like that.

By trying to make Eldar into a durable force, you're just trying to make apple pie out of oranges.

 xttz wrote:



By trying to make Eldar into a durable force, you're just trying to make apple pie out of oranges.

Or perhaps an even more suitable metaphor is trying to make a pound cake with cream cheese instead of flour? Cause...those belong in cheesecakes, which are softer but are enjoyed for different reasons.

......mmm...cheesecake.

So we're still talking about Eldar?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eldar-Army-Seer-Council-on-Jetbikes-15-Models-Pro-Converted-/261217422061?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cd1c58aed

This guy could be out of luck lol

Well, fortune like others is now one of the powers to roll on a table. That could be forseen when looking at the previously released codices, and it make a Seer Council less playable in the new ed.

The sheer amount of ranged AP2 or better in this codex is borderline insane. Bright Lances, Wraithcannon, Suncannon, Fusion Gun, Starcannon, Shurikat weapons w/Bladestorm, D-weapons, Sniper weapons, and Monofilimant weapons.

Add to that the various close combat options, such as Harlequin rending, Scorpion Claw, most of the attacks from Phoenix Lords, and the Avatar, you have an army that laughs at MEQ and TEQ armies. My poor Crimson Fists are NOT looking forward to having to play against the new Eldar.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, fortune like others is now one of the powers to roll on a table. That could be forseen when looking at the previously released codices, and it make a Seer Council less playable in the new ed.

Indeed, however one of the main Space Elf power builds recently was the DE Beaststar, hinging off Eldrad and Invisibility, which is the same chance roll as Fortune is now. But the thing is the Warlock powers, with 8-10 rolls should yield at least one of each and they work as De-buffs too. So the council goes from 3+/4++ ld rerolled to 2+, 2-3+ cover, 4++, Fearless (both from the power and from a Shardseer in combat), with potentially the enemy fighting at -1s, -1i, -1ws, -1sv, -3ld.... there is a potential there for a hell of a lot more damage, for not much more costs (once you factor in not paying 5-15pts per power).

Equally, Beaststar benefits as when taken as an ally its now point efficient to take two farseers, rather than Eldrad, as for the same points they're combined ML6 and can tag along on jetbikes, again kitted out with Shard of Anaris (esp when rolling lucky on Invisibility on one seer first and the second snags Death Mission)

Either way I see continued potential for both super fast Eldar/Deldar deathstars.

I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I only skimmed through the codex in the shop to try to find something about it and couldn't. No eldar for me!

I've always wanted a swooping hawk army or striking scorpions or something cool.

 foxyfennec wrote:
I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I only skimmed through the codex in the shop to try to find something about it and couldn't. No eldar for me!

I've always wanted a swooping hawk army or striking scorpions or something cool.

I gave that some thought but I could picture Striking Scorpions just being annoying that way, and it would seem odd to have Aspects like those being so heavily featured. They're good as it is now, imho.

 foxyfennec wrote:
I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I only skimmed through the codex in the shop to try to find something about it and couldn't. No eldar for me!

I've always wanted a swooping hawk army or striking scorpions or something cool.

Always a possiblity with future sub-dexes like the upcoming Ilyanden book that will almost certainly include WG as troops without taking a spiritseer, and probably put WL in the Elites chart.

 Farseer_Kaiser wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, fortune like others is now one of the powers to roll on a table. That could be forseen when looking at the previously released codices, and it make a Seer Council less playable in the new ed.

Indeed, however one of the main Space Elf power builds recently was the DE Beaststar, hinging off Eldrad and Invisibility, which is the same chance roll as Fortune is now. But the thing is the Warlock powers, with 8-10 rolls should yield at least one of each and they work as De-buffs too. So the council goes from 3+/4++ ld rerolled to 2+, 2-3+ cover, 4++, Fearless (both from the power and from a Shardseer in combat), with potentially the enemy fighting at -1s, -1i, -1ws, -1sv, -3ld.... there is a potential there for a hell of a lot more damage, for not much more costs (once you factor in not paying 5-15pts per power).

Equally, Beaststar benefits as when taken as an ally its now point efficient to take two farseers, rather than Eldrad, as for the same points they're combined ML6 and can tag along on jetbikes, again kitted out with Shard of Anaris (esp when rolling lucky on Invisibility on one seer first and the second snags Death Mission)

Either way I see continued potential for both super fast Eldar/Deldar deathstars.

Deathstars relying on powers are a gamble. I'd stay away from them. If constructed correctly, Eldar can put out an insane number of shots thanks to bladestorm and laserlock.

 foxyfennec wrote:
I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I only skimmed through the codex in the shop to try to find something about it and couldn't. No eldar for me!

I've always wanted a swooping hawk army or striking scorpions or something cool.

I was thinking this as well, but upon further consideration I've realized it probably would have been pretty over the top.

 foxyfennec wrote:
I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I heard a rumour that if you take Asurmen, you can use Dire Avengers are troops! But keep it quiet, it'll be too abused if everyone knows...

 xttz wrote:

 foxyfennec wrote:
I was hoping there'd be some option to take aspect warriors as troops if you take their respective Phoenix Lord.

I heard a rumour that if you take Asurmen, you can use Dire Avengers are troops! But keep it quiet, it'll be too abused if everyone knows...

Nice try. Dire Avengers are already troops as they were in the previous edition.

 xttz wrote:

 Mahtamori wrote:
I've gone over the book and with some odd decisions and so on, I can only spot one single item that got nerfed. Hard. Into the crust of whatever asteroid 6th edition placed them on in the last codex. It's not Howling Banshees, which still languish in a twilight realm where they need a transport that doesn't exist. It's...

Fire Dragons.

Are you high? They went up by 2 points and got a 3+ save for the trouble. Not to mention Battle Focus to help get into perfect 2D6 Melta range and more survivable Wave Serpents to get them there.

If anything, the only downside to Fire Dragons now is that there are actually affordable alternatives in the codex in other slots, since we're no longer paying 40pts for each Bright Lance.

Read the codexes before you insult people. You are wrong and I won't tell you how, just compare the relevant 4th and 6th edition codex entries (or read below for a hint).

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Mahtamori wrote:
I've gone over the book and with some odd decisions and so on, I can only spot one single item that got nerfed. Hard. Into the crust of whatever asteroid 6th edition placed them on in the last codex. It's not Howling Banshees, which still languish in a twilight realm where they need a transport that doesn't exist. It's...

Fire Dragons.

If this is true, then Dire Avengers should be absolutely rubbish.

Completely inaccurate analogy. Dire Avengers went up 1 point in price and gained Battle Focus, Bladestorm and Counter-Attack as well as benefiting more from Shimmershield (if you take it). Fire Dragons gained an armour save and battle focus at a grossly disproportionate expense, while not changing the fact that they are a specialized unit that are optimal in size of 5 or 6 specifically without an exarch. Each additional Fire Dragon you purchase will contribute a declining amount to the unit's effectiveness which is something you do not see with most units.
Someone used the example of Burnas, this is a bad analogy since the Burna operates in a completely different way and is all about wound saturation, not to mention that a flamer's secondary job is to protect against assaults. Even leaving this example behind, Fire Dragons specialize in taking care of a problem that is becoming more and more rare. It should also be noted that Fire Dragons in 3rd edition were 17 points and not very commonly used for exactly the same reasons - mech is not so common as in end of 4th and all of 5th.
Their current point cost and abilities are more appropriate for 5th edition (although I'd argue that initial cost is right, but extras should be cheaper), not 6th edition.