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When debating dusting my Iyanden army off, a fellow dakka poster shared a video he had seen. That finally swayed me. And I thought I'd start this thread.

Eldar have for a while been a very powerful army when played in certain ways. Though I can't see this play style change to much, there are some rumoured changes and some confirmed changes that may see the balance of power shift slightly.

It has been confirmed that they will have a detachment that will be built of formations. Similar to the new necron and Daemonkin books. Although we don't know what benefits these will grant, it does show that the 'core' component of that detachment pretty much always requires vyper jetbikes. Now these are units I haven't seen played very much, but if they are to become a tax, it would be interesting to hear how people will field them?

For a while wave serpents have been almost an auto include for those tournament strength lists. I would assume that holo fields are going to be changed to match those of the harlequins, so they'll be a little weaker. Also, it has kind of been confirmed that scatter lasers have lost laser lock. This obviously has a huge impact on how the serpent will play. Especially if the shield hasn't changed. It might not see so much aggressive play. But then some people may still be inclined to fire the Shields. What fo people think?

Jetbikes seem to have had a buff. It has been confirmed that they can exchange their shuriken catapults for either a shuriken cannon or for a scatter laser. But the biggest buff for jetbikes is that it says ANY model may replace.... So you could if you were so inclined, have a full squad of cannons. They also have new models, along with kits for farseers and warlocks on jetbikes. It seems there is a God after all.

I have also noticed that the warlocks entry States they may generate psychic powers from their own discipline and from.the sanctic discipline. This means no more summoning daemons. I for one welcome this change, though I wonder if they will still perils on any roll of a double for that discipline. Could be interesting.

EDIT: So with a lot of leaked images and such we now know a great deal more about the book. I was going to attempt to write a good/average/bad section on this thread and give people a bit of a tactical guide. But it seems that almost every unit is good. We're very very lucky players. I'll go in to some units. It'll take me a while though as I'm doing this on nights at work, so it'll be a slow trickle of thread updates.

First is the HQ Section.
A lot of the phoenix Lords seem playable now. Relatively decent buffs and not too expensive. I can see them being used.

Warlocks now take a HQ slot. Of course they can be taken as a conclave. They can't be split up when taken like this, but that isn't an issue as the units that took them before can have them as squad upgrades. The way their brotherhood of psykers rule works is interesting too. In a conclave of 1-3 they're ML1. 4-6 ML2 and 7+ ML3. If you drop below any if the thresholds they lose a generated power. But the eldar player selects this so it isn't that bad. But the biggest bonus is that each warlock generates a warp charge. So although a squad of ten is ML3, they will generate 10 warp charge.

Spiritseers. Not much to say about these guys. Lost a great power they had from the iyanden supplement in voice of twilight. But spirit marking is now an area effect power. Which is a bonus. However with the whole world crying about the power of our dead, they may not see much play. And if you're looking for a cheap HQ tax in a CAD then a warlock is only 35 points.

Farseers. I actually personally see these guys as power houses now. Their powers are relatively similar to before with a few decent changes. The one I'm most excited about is Eldritch Storm. WC4 and you have an apocalyptic large blast, with fleshbane, haywire and AP3. Wow. Take the spirit stone relic and he gets that 10" blast on 3WC. He does lose his invulnerable for the turn, but if he's on a jetbike he has 3+ armour anyway. He also has the ability to re roll selected dice on a psychic test, and so has a high chance of successfully manifesting. And his ghost helm to negate a wound due to perils, and take him in a seer council to cast in a 3+ and start large blasting everywhere!

Lastly, and for me the biggest confirmed point so far. Wraithknights. They were powerful before, it seems they have been buffed. This will be especially true if they stay a jump unit. They are now granted gargantuan monstrous creature status. So no more falling over to sniper and poisoned fire. And Feel no Pain goodness too. This makes them a lot more survivable. Add that to the fact that the ghost glaive has been granted strength D, as have distort weapons and surely it has become even more of an auto include? I wonder how much it has affected it's points value?

Well, let me know what you think. If you know of anything else confirmed. I will happily update this post. Importantly I want to know how people will make use of these changes. How it will affect our style of play. Personally, I'm very excited.

Unless the actual rules change:

CAD: Farseer + Scatter Bikes + WK
2 CAD: Farseer + Scatter Bikes + WK

Win games.

I think it'll depend on what the new detachment offers.

Assuming the wraith knight moves to LOW...

Run a cad with 6 units of bikes with 6 scatter lasers and warlocks, 2 far seers on bikes, a wraithknight, fill heavy support with d-cannons

There is no mention of the wraithknight moving to LoW. In fact, the glimpse I have had of the new detachment is that the wraithknight can work similar to the daemon engines in the daemonkin book. So with a singular core choice you can field 8 or so wraithknights. Obviously points permitting.

herohammer wrote:
Assuming the wraith knight moves to LOW...

Run a cad with 6 units of bikes with 6 scatter lasers and warlocks, 2 far seers on bikes, a wraithknight, fill heavy support with d-cannons

Yeah pretty much this. A+++ objective holding, B+ durability, A+++ firepower, A++ threat range, A+++ speed, A+ psychic synergy, B- assault. Probably the best all-round grades of any list I've ever seen like...maybe ever.

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:
Well, let me know what you think. If you know of anything else confirmed. I will happily update this post. Importantly I want to know how people will make use of these changes. How it will affect our style of play. Personally, I'm very excited.

Easy answer. If my opponent brings out a load of jetbikes and WK, I will politely tell them to off.

I am extremely disappointed with the leaks and will bet that either the rest of the Codex is gak so Eldar are forced to be a monobuild dex or on par with the Jetbikes and WK - and if this is the case, why bother playing any other army?

I didn't like playing eldar with my BA and DA before, but you COULD beat them. Now.... If this all remains true I will simply go home before playing against an eldar player.

 Frozocrone wrote:


I am extremely disappointed with the leaks and will bet that either the rest of the Codex is gak so Eldar are forced to be a monobuild dex or on par with the Jetbikes and WK - and if this is the case, why bother playing any other army?

my guess is between these 2 options. With all the D weapons becoming well...D weapons, the hemlock will be bonkers and I can see using minimum size DE ally detachments to get Webway portals to use to drop scythe guard units on people. Imagine whole units of D templates dropping without scattering.


I assume all aspect warriors will be nerfed, probably even including the bad ones. Guardians will stay the same.

Tch, people beeing overly pessimistic before the codex is actually out. So what they get bikes with scatter lasers? Just adapt to it and stop them..it's not like that'll be easy, but if there are no more serpents to spam, then cover becomes Valuable, and Eldar Biker aren't exactly what I'd call cc monsters. Chase them with something quick and tanky, no problem~

They will affect play style in that you won't get a game if you're playing eldar, as no-one else will play you and mirror matches will devolve into who goes first and causes the other side to jink first.

You'll see a transition from scatterlasers to shuri cannons since this will force the eldar jetbikes to jink instead of tanking on their armour because rending bladestorm is a thing.

There will be the occasional eldar-meta shift around taking a warlock or not, but I think the warlock will be worth 2 more jetbikes more often than not.

Things will probably go in waves around taking a wraithknight vs some wraithguard in a serpent as supplementry units, but I suspect that wraithguard will win if they get str D on a 6 instead of instant death like now.

 Vaeleria wrote:
Tch, people beeing overly pessimistic before the codex is actually out. So what they get bikes with scatter lasers? Just adapt to it and stop them..it's not like that'll be easy, but if there are no more serpents to spam, then cover becomes Valuable, and Eldar Biker aren't exactly what I'd call cc monsters. Chase them with something quick and tanky, no problem~

You do realize that Eldar Jetbikes are the fastest unit in the game right? They move 12 and turbo boost 36 inches. If anything gets close to them they'll just move 48" away.

You forgot battlefocus.

Boosting units don't shoot, do they? At least here they don't. So what if they move 12" and then another 36"? that means they're not shooting. And there's enough stuff out there that'll force them to either constantly move or get caught. Maybe we'll see more meele-bikers in space marine-lists, instead of silly grav-spam

 Vaeleria wrote:
Boosting units don't shoot, do they? At least here they don't. So what if they move 12" and then another 36"? that means they're not shooting. And there's enough stuff out there that'll force them to either constantly move or get caught. Maybe we'll see more meele-bikers in space marine-lists, instead of silly grav-spam

Heck they don't even need to turbo boost. They can just jump 2d6 in the assault phase instead and can still shoot if they do. That plus 12" out paces most units' 12"+d6 run.

Or they just counter assault you with a wraithknight that now weilds D weapons

Just bring the right tool to that party then. Ini 1 Wraithknight is no real threat with the right things..especially if it gets blinded. *shrugs* New codex means new strategies, no reason to paint it all black before one has played against this stuff, no?

 Vaeleria wrote:
Just bring the right tool to that party then. Ini 1 Wraithknight is no real threat with the right things..especially if it gets blinded. *shrugs* New codex means new strategies, no reason to paint it all black before one has played against this stuff, no?

The new wraith knight isn't i1, it swings at i1 if taking sD. Its still is i5 for blind checks.

And what unit that is a threat at killing gargantuan creatures is also going to be good at chasing down the bikes?

 Vaeleria wrote:
Tch, people beeing overly pessimistic before the codex is actually out. So what they get bikes with scatter lasers? Just adapt to it and stop them..it's not like that'll be easy, but if there are no more serpents to spam, then cover becomes Valuable, and Eldar Biker aren't exactly what I'd call cc monsters. Chase them with something quick and tanky, no problem~

Why would cover suddenly be valuable? Scatter lasers are AP6, so most units will be getting their armor saves anyway.

Unless you have tons of 2+ cover laying around your table, I don't see how cover is going to be relevant at all. Scatter-laser spam jetbikes are overwhelming you with volume of fire, not low AP weapons.

 CrownAxe wrote:

 Vaeleria wrote:
Just bring the right tool to that party then. Ini 1 Wraithknight is no real threat with the right things..especially if it gets blinded. *shrugs* New codex means new strategies, no reason to paint it all black before one has played against this stuff, no?

The new wraith knight isn't i1, it swings at i1 if taking sD. Its still is i5 for blind checks.

And what unit that is a threat at killing gargantuan creatures is also going to be good at chasing down the bikes?

And if it wants to go at i5, it's not going to be sD is it? It doesn't have a high amount of attacks so something with a decent invul and high strength attacks will probably give it a decent run.

I wouldn't trust the recounts in the WD completely, they're known for retrying until they get a better sounding result to help sales and showing off.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BlaxicanX wrote:

 Vaeleria wrote:
Tch, people beeing overly pessimistic before the codex is actually out. So what they get bikes with scatter lasers? Just adapt to it and stop them..it's not like that'll be easy, but if there are no more serpents to spam, then cover becomes Valuable, and Eldar Biker aren't exactly what I'd call cc monsters. Chase them with something quick and tanky, no problem~

Why would cover suddenly be valuable? Scatter lasers are AP6, so most units will be getting their armor saves anyway.

Unless you have tons of 2+ cover laying around your table, I don't see how cover is going to be relevant at all. Scatter-laser spam jetbikes are overwhelming you with volume of fire, not low AP weapons.

Shouldn't the shuriken cannon spam actually be more concerning with bladestorm?

The WK is going to take sD melee (and as such will probably also have 5++). My point was it wasn't going to get blinded to oblivion.

The WK is a gargantuan now so has FNP and is basically immune to sniper and poison. With T8 and most likely 5++/5+ FNP it will take a lot of S8+ AP2 to actually down a WK reliably. The "battle reports" from WD have nothing to do with it.

What unit is good at it? A ravenwing command squad with priest and mace of redemption for example., Rad grenades stealing one toughness, so plasma-cutters start to hurt (they also do on normal jetbikes if they get hit with the grenade, insta-kill as they only have T3 remaining).

And what I meant with cover is the fact that rather low-armor vehicles get a chance to stay on the field if they have decent cover.

Oh and, a knight hit and wounded by a grav gun goes with Ini 1, especially against incoming blinding tests either by a Landspeeder Storm or a meele charge with the burning blade.

Those new things are hyped way above their worth already, also, if the eldar-lists change, so what? Just adapt and find new ways to kill them, it's not impossible. Leadership tests are dangerous for them with 3d6" retreat, so one can work that way as well. They don't do much against invisible units either...

No it's not impossible.

Provided of course, you have a strong enough Alpha/Beta Strike to cause a considerable dent into the 160 Scatter shots/120 Shuriken shots that are on the board or have the durability to weather the storm

How do you expect those units to get close enough to the WK to hurt it when they are going to get killed by the volley of 160 S6 from the bikes turn 1?

Let's see - you bring forth your melee stuff, either in transports or afoot.

EACH Eldar bike (not 1 in 3) can have either a S6 AP6 Heavy 4 weapon of a S6 AP5 Heavy 3 pseudo-rending weapon. 10 bikes in either config will cost 270p. Can you think about ANY other unit, at 270p, able to shoot 40 S6 AP6 or 30 S6 AP5 (5 being AP2, average)? Heck, even Wraiths die to that.

So no, your melee units won't reach the bikes. They'll keep kiting you until you're close enough... them turbo-boost to the other side. Rinse and repeat.

I'm looking forward to add jetbikes to my Tau as both objective grabbers and T6-/AV10 board control. Who needs Fire Warriors?

The worst thing I can think of is that Eldar are supposed to be mobile and counter the enemy with manoeuvrability and yet they can totally do gunline well, yet still be good in Maelstrom.

Way to go GW.

IIRC, someone in the rumour thread noted that in the battle reports, the WK attacked after a Bloodthirster with Init 9 but before a Bloodthirster with the Init 1 D Axe. Seems likely that the WK will keep swingin' at Init 5.

Tactic one. Set down jetbikes. Tactic two. Win effortlessly. Tactic three. Save yourself hours of playing as nobody ever plays you again.

From BoLS

3 new plastic kits :
– Eldar Windriders : 3 new motojets with all the weapon choices available.
– Eldar Farseer Skyrunner : 1 eldar farseer or warlock (2 heads and 2 weapons choice).
– Eldar Autarch : no options

New codex of 160 pages with description of 11 craftworld (nothing about specific rules for them).
2 new specific psy discipline (battle runes and fate runes).

One FOC like the necron :
1-3 guardian hosts (3 types available)
0-3 Regent of the warhost (Heroes, seer council, living legends (avatar and phoenix lords))
1-12 formation for each guardian ost (outcasts, crimson death, dire avenger shrine, wraith host, aspect host, wraith-construct, engines of vaul)

Distorsion wepon = D-weapon.
CC weapon of the wraithknight is D weapon.
The wraithknight is now a Gargantuan creature. Nothing said about Lord of War.

No relation between FOC and Distorsion weapon. They speak of distorsion weapon in general are D weapon. No weapon profile.

It is said that the distorsion weapon are very powerfull weapons and that is why they have the rule Destruction. After it is said that the wraithknight is equipped of 2 of them (Heavy wraith canon).

“scatter lasers now lost the twin linking bonus, however windriders can now get scatter lasers. (each model can change the TL shuriken catapult for either scatter laser or shuriken cannon)”

“windriders: same pts as before.
3 windriders

statline unchanged.

may include up to 7 additional windriders for same points as before
may take a windriderwarlock for same points as before pts
warlock may replace his hagun zar for a runespear for the same points as before
each windrider may exchange the TL shuriken catapult for:
scatter laser or
shuriken cannon, both same points. shuriken cannon as before.

that means you can basically have a 10 man unit entirely kitted with scatterlasers for 27ppm and add another warlock to them

they also are still troop selections. i think the meta shifts again.

the only other interresting things are those leaked 2 datacards and the 1 leaked psychic power in the WD:

runes of battle 1
destroy/renew
warpcharge 1

its either:
S5 ap 4 assault1, soulblaze flamer
or:
a friendly unit within 18″ restores a single wound. this cannot bring units back to the board that have been removed as casuality.

and for the datacards:

11: 1 victory point if you kill a character (not just in a challenge, just a character)
12: gain a victory point if a enemy unit got killed by a eldar unit with the skimmer or eldar jetbike type. gain d3 vitory points if you killed 3 or more in one round. ”

 SarisKhan wrote:
IIRC, someone in the rumour thread noted that in the battle reports, the WK attacked after a Bloodthirster with Init 9 but before a Bloodthirster with the Init 1 D Axe. Seems likely that the WK will keep swingin' at Init 5.

This is what I thought. I'm pretty sure the wraithknight isn't initiative one. Hello super hard counter to imperial knight lists.

There's a lot of hating the new eldar book on here. This thread was intended to be more about how us eldar players will adapt to the new book. Not how much you all hate it and don't want to play anymore.

I think the wraithknight rules are a welcome change. Look at the size of the thing. It towers above a imperial knight. And when you consider the size of the glaive, it's probably accurate it becomes strength D.

As for the jetbikes, being able to exchange every weapon surprises me. As an eldar player I welcome it, and I never used to run jetbikes. My tau friend certainly won't be happy. But I do wonder if they have become the single most OP troops choice in the game now?

We don't even know yet if that Windriders can all have heavy weapons is true at all.