Revisiting our old Codex. Because we kind of have to.

[Greywing]

So it's official as of today that we won't be seeing our 9th edition Codex until January at the absolute earliest. And I stress: it is in no way certain that we will see an update in early 2021, just that we won't before then. I am a little bummed by this because I was holding out hope we'd see a lot more books released by the end of the year, but here we all are.

 

I am not starting the thread as a whinefest though. Back in the summer, there were some excellent discussions in this forum on adapting our 8th edition forces to the 9th edition world. @Prot and others had some great back-and-forths about what was or was not working on the table. That kind of dried up though. Maybe everyone is shelving the faction--but if people still are playing, I'd love to hear what the "State of the Army" is here in October--because we're not getting saved by a new Codex any time soon. So: what, if anything, is working? Has anyone found reliable ways to make a game out of it when facing the "haves"?

[Karhedron]

We still have arguably the best basic transport in the game in the shape of the Wave Serpent. It has modest firepower, cavernous transport capacity, FLY and the excellent Serpent Shield. 2W Marines are going to define the meta for early 9th IMHO. That means we can expect to see a lot of flat 2-damage weapons. Grav, plasma, heavy bolters and autocannons all lose 50% of their firepower going through a serpent shield.

 

I admit that the newly buffed Melta weapons will hurt us a lot so units carrying these weapons should be high priority targets. Fortunately we have tools to deal with the most common platforms. Dark Reapers with S8 3D shots will make a big dent in Eradicators and a nearby Farseer can use Forewarn to get shots in when the come out of Reserve.

 

Wraithguard and Wraithlords are tough and can take Objectives well although the lack of ObjSec hurts somewhat. We still have our favourite tricks such as "Fire and Fade" as well as Linked Fire Prisms. Eldar have always been fairly CP-heavy as an army. Fortunately it is much easier to get 10 or even 12 CPs in 9th now that we no longer need to try and run a double Battalion. Plus we get a CP every turn so we can keep pulling our sneaky tricks for a little bit longer.

 

Sadly our Troops still have all the durability of a paper bag in a thunderstorm which does put us at a disadvantage for contesting Objectives. This can be mitigated to some extent by the use of Transports as outlined above. This suggests the bare bones of a strategy.

 

Focus on tough units like Wraithlords, Wraithguard and Wave Serpents to go toe-to-toe with the enemy. Iyanden is a good choice to keep degrading vehicles fighting at full effect for longer. It also make tricks like the 20-man Guardian bomb very viable since your morale losses will be capped at 1 model. While are tough units are contesting, firepower units like Dark Reapers and Fire Prisms need to be punishing any enemy that poke their noses out of hiding. Increased density of terrain may make D-Cannons and Spinners more viable but I am not certain yet. We may need to take a second Patrol detachment simply to give us enough Heavy slots since this is where a lot of the Eldar's lethality lies.

 

We need to get close to the enemy to hold Objectives so I think Alaitoc may wane in popularity although Ulthwé's 6+++ may become comparatively more popular. Some of the create-your-own Craftworld traits may have merit but may require more thought.

[Greywing]

Karhedron, thanks for the comment. I always enjoy reading your posts.

 

I wish I could contribute more than Theoryhammer to the discussion--but I can't, so take everything that follows with a grain of salt.

 

My guys are painted bright yellow, so you can pretty well guess what fluff drew me to the faction in the first place. I went through the entirety of 8th, however, convinced that not only did Iyanden have the worst Craftworld rules (by far), but they were in strong contention for the worst subfaction rules in the game. They are both astonishingly weak mechanically and incredibly un-thematic, encouraging an army composition (large infantry blobs) that is literally diametrically opposed to the fluff. But now... I don't know. I find myself tempted to build toward an Iyanden list instead of a Wrath of the Dead custom Craftworld, specifically because a 20-elf bomb (with Celestial Shield penciled in every turn) is the only option I can see for putting ObSec models on the board that is not simply throwing points away.

 

This is a list that I kind of have in mind for a 2000 point Iyanden army, and it leans on several of the things Karhedron highlighted:

 

HQ

2 x Spiritseers

[Yes, no Farseer. Can't afford.]

 

Troops

Max-sized Guardian blob with 2x Shuriken Cannons

Min DA (maybe can hide and do actions?)

Min Rangers (they are awful, but they can deep strike for free)

 

Elites

Wraithblades w/ shields

Wraithblades w/ shields

Wraithguard w/cannon -- either 10x to go in the Webway or 2x5 if not; would love to have scythes but can't afford

 

HS

Wraithlord -- anti-horde, with flamers and Shuriken Cannons

2x Wraithlords -- other heavy weapons

 

Transport

2x Serpents (3-cannon, no other upgrades)

 

I think the game plan here is pretty obvious. A Wraithblade unit and a Spiritseer in each Serpent to try to get on central objectives. The Guardians go into deep strike and the Wraithguard probably do too--but they will never have access to Autarch re-rolls or Guide, so that's going to be some massive feast-or-famine. Maybe they melt something big when they come in, maybe they do literally nothing. The Wraithlords will be bullies or counter-chargers or Distraction Carnifexes, as circumstances dictate.

 

Is this the best approach to pure Craftworlds? Well, certainly not. Is it viable, given the current environment? I ... don't know. It seems like it's got a lot more staying power than some other options we could field, but I'm not sure if it has enough punch to come close to being competitive with even a moderately tuned build from a stronger faction. It also feels a little one-note, but it has the great virtue of costing me $0 to complete--I just have to build and paint a few more models.

 

Is this completely out to lunch? Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

All of the below is, unfortunately, based on mostly theory as I only have 1 9th game under my belt as well as very few Craftworld 8th games. Craftworld are going to be my learning 9th/crusade/I guess main army so I'm very interested to see what others thoughts are.

 

Wraith units:

Where 8th looked down on these guys, I think 9th might be their time to shine. With the meta favouring taking and holding objectives, I think Shield Wraiths are the way to run them. With Protect they have 2+ 3++ at T6, they're incredibly hard to shift. They're very similar to Plague marines/Blightlords in that they take an objective and dare you to try to come and take it. As Karhedron pointed out: D2 weapons will soon become prevailent, which makes 3W wraiths all the more difficult to chew through.

Sword Wraiths are a great blender unit that is still pretty tough to clear, IMO not as great as Shield wraiths but still very good.

Both gun variants suffer a lot from an early 8th ruleset where they should be really cool but aren't reliable at all.

Wraithlords are cool and can definitely do damage if left to their own devices but without an invuln they fold to a stiff breeze

 

Transports:

The Wave serpent is still the top, if not one of the top transports in the game (especially now the Impulsor has fallen out of favour). Although fly isn't as useful anymore it's still craazy tough and cheap for what it can do. There's not much more that needs to be said tbh, they're a lynchpin unit for this army IMO

Falcons are now worth looking at IMO, 120 points for a Wave Serpent platform without the survivability granted, but it takes up a different role. The Pulse Laser is great for reliable long range damage, I'd say that the Falcon almost acts like a Quasi-Predator tank.

 

Troops:

The troops slot is where Eldar seem to struggle. Guardians don't make a lot of sense to me, they're super short range but aren't tough enough to actually survive getting close enough/the return shots. Even lore wise it doesn't make much sense, why on earth would you arm a citizen of a dying race with a ridiculously short range gun and pants armour? Enough of that rant. They might have a place in certain builds but I can't figure them out

Rangers are okay, a -1 to hit natrually means that they're a little less likely to get shot at. Nice to stick on an objective

Dire Avengers seem to be the better troops choice IMO, with Bladestorm they can put out a scary amount of shots at decent range and very okay survivability. With Asurmen they seem pretty great a 4++ invuln, although on a T3 body, will come up quite a bit.

 

Banshees are a bit better with the changes to Power swords but are definitely a toolbox pick not so much a blender as they're intended to be more just a unit to shut a unit down.

 

Warwalkers with Starcannons are a big yes from me, especially if you get doom off on something they'll ruin a lot of things

 

Happy to hear about other people's experiences too

Edited October 16, 2020 by TrawlingCleaner

[Karhedron]

Warwalkers are definitely decent this edition since they can now move and fire at full effect. A great candidate for "Guide" since you can buff 6 heavy weapons for a single cast.

 

Wraithlords are not as tough as I would like but not bad for their price. They are T8 meaning that half the melta shots hitting them will fail to wound (although those that get through will hurt). They can pack 2 different heavy weapons as well as a Glaive and they are faster than their Imperial equivalents. To me they are "second line" units. Our Grav tanks and fast units seize Objectives initially. The Wraithlords follow up and either help overwhelm fast enemies or dig in while our faster stuff moves on.

 

I am not sure about our plethora of fast attack units. I am sure there are tricks that can be played with many of these but they area awfully fragile. Hawks or Jetbikes coming in from Reserve on T2 or T3 could potentially snag Objectives but would rely on heavier units clearing those Objectives for them. Unlike some fast Marines units, they don't have the punch to do the job themselves. Vyper Jetbikes combine speed and firepower and have definitely gotten a boost from 9th edition rules. Although they are comparatively fragile, they are tougher than most of our infantry and are fairly cheap.

[Montford]

I have been wondering if Warp Spiders might be a good choice to use to get some Secondary Objectives, such as Engage on all Fronts and Deploy Scramblers. I've put them in a list for next weekend to test it out.

[Karhedron]

Hawks and Spiders certainly have some scope for such usage. I have only had a couple of games of 9th so far and I can't determine how significant secondaries are. But I have been considering similar uses for SM Scouts so it is not unfeasible.

[TrawlingCleaner]

I've been thinking about Striking Skorpions for this role, they lose out in speed and shooting but are 25 points cheaper (90 vs 65). They're not awful in combat and can tie units up if need be. Sort of how Kommandos funtion for Orks

[Montford]

I checked the FAQs for PA: Rise of the Phoenix and just to make sure also the FAQ for the Craftworld Codex and as far as I can tell the Craftworld Attribute Expert Crafters still allows one reroll for both a hit and a wound roll. (That does make sense from a fluff standpoint as the Eldar are supposed to have a higher technology)

 

So in considering a shift away from the Alaitoc Craftworld trait which I had been using I am thinking about using instead a pair of traits from PA: Rise of the Phoenix. The -1 to be hit beyond 12" is really good, but I am thinking that I need to focus more on holding Objectives as that is the main scoring for 9th, and after turn 2 the effect Alaitoc trait will be much less useful.

 

Expert Crafters is definitely one I am strongly leaning toward.  It covers both range and melee fighting and works for all Units.

 

As for the second attribute:

 

-Hunters of Ancient Relics may might as well have been written with 9th Ed. in mind.

 

-Diviners of Fate is a slim chance but I'm a Sisters of Battle player mainly and I am quite used to it ;)

 

-Headstrong can be handy

 

-Hail of Doom can be very handy against power armor targets

 

 

I am interested in the opinions of the group. What would you choose?

[Montford]

As the Avatar of Khaine is not a named character, what do you think about giving him the warlord trait which adds 2 to the movement characteristic? He'd move 9" then.