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Hi!

Just as a preface, I LOVE the idea of the core units. It's a great way to bring down the amounts of rerolls and auto-takes you see in some armies. I think its a good way forward.

However, I've been thinking how this can begin to apply to some other armies, and more specifically to different playstyles, and I'm a bit concerned how this can affect the more specialist factions like Quins, Deldar or Craftworlds - I don't play the former two so I'll leave it to others to discuss.

Core seems to imply having a base that all armies share, focusing on troops and some primary support choices, but that is very contradictory to how in both lore and tabletop most Eldar armies are played. Troops have always one of the weaker choices, usually the 3 troops of choice being the cheapest 5 man squad you can bring (used to be rangers, now its dire avengers) unless you're playing Ulthwe (Guardians)

I worry that unless aspect warriors become core, maybe bar the Crimson Hunter Exarch, there is a real possibility it'll completely confuse the playstyle for the army, rewarding generic troops vs specialising.
This is also quite key due to psychic powers, which are probably the most important part of a lot of eldar armies. Core will definitely have an impact, I can see the runes of Battle (Protect, Quicken, Conceal) becoming core only, as they are already a mini-core right now (Infantry and Bike).

Controversially, I also think it could work to NOT have core in Eldar codexes, and develop an alternative system that further benefits the specialism focus, such as :

Assign a singe unit as;

- Anti Tank - (Insert mild bonus vs said type)
- Anti Air - (Insert mild bonus vs said type)
- Anti Inf -(Insert mild bonus vs said type)

Etc.etc

I'm curious what people think, and what units should/shouldn't get the core keyword.

It seems like GW was very generous with what they considered core. Basically any non character infantry got the core keyword. If Bladeguard, terminators, bikes and devastators got core, I don’t think aspect warriors will miss out on it either. Wraith units should be fine too since dreadnoughts got core as well.

I don’t think any army can just skip out on core at this point. The intent seems to be to limit the buffs on monsters, vehicles, and characters. As long as core is a rule for infantry, bikes, and walkers for everyone, there’s no reason to change it up.

The only exception I could see is letting like a leman russ be core specifically with a tank commander

kamilian wrote:
Hi!

Controversially, I also think it could work to NOT have core in Eldar codexes...

I kind of think this is the direction they'll go with us. Or rather, I think we'll have "core" units, but being core simply won't matter. Most of our characters' buffs already have built in limiters. Our psykers have to succesfully pass psychic tests, and most of our buff powers other than Doom only benefit a single unit at a time. The avatar and autarch are both struggling right now and don't really need a nerf. Aside from that and hyper-specific things like phoenix lord auras, we don't really have a tone buffs that come from characters. The strat that turns a farseer into a lieutenant, I guess?

I could see them nerfing doom (because they had to FAQ it in 8th) and maybe nerf Runes of Battle again, but I suspect we'll go relatively unaffected by "core" stuff unless they decide to really overhaul how some of our buffs work.

I haven't read the new books yet, but I get the impression that "core" is less about what does have the key word and more about what doesn't. That is, I get the imrpession that they just wanted a way to cut down on how well the captain + lieutenant combo could buff a bunch of shooting stuff castled up around them.

Honestly, for CORE concepts I would look back to 5th Edition for inspiration. Instead of Special Characters making units Troops, though, it made them CORE. I would have done this for Marines and Necrons, personally, but that's water under the bridge now.