Aeldari Codex - First Impressions

[Urkh]

Black Templars made really good use of large consolidation moves back with the old devout push. I think BT units probably had a bit more oomph in combat though, and are much more durable than a shining spear.

I think the main reason to take it would to be to try and wrap around the enemy to prevent fall backs, but I don't think you need a 9" consolidate for that, since they have FLY. You would also need a large unit of spears to accomplish this.

[Prot]

I ordered mine this weekend. I don’t think they will be that strong but maybe better at objective grabbing and climbing the board via assaulting weak units. I’m having trouble not fading to nothing in late game and I’m finding the other bike types aren’t doin it for me. Shroud runners just aren’t doing a darn thing for me and their movement is nice but very counterproductive if you’re trying to get a no mans land objective. This is where I’m really hoping to use the Spears to some success. 

[Xenith]

Had a game with them last night. Most of my Eldar are in storage due to kitchen refit, however I had the 'fast attack and tank box' on hand ,as well as some recently painted stuff:

 

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition) [81 PL, 11CP, 1,490pts] +++

 

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [81 PL, 11CP, 1,490pts] ++

 

+ Configuration +

 

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) 

 

Craftworld Selection

. *Far-Flung Craftworld*: Children of the Open Skies, Hail of Doom

 

Detachment Command Cost

 

+ HQ +

 

Autarch [5 PL, -1CP, 100pts]: 3: Falcon's Swiftness, Dragon Fusion Gun, Howling Banshee Mask, Star Glaive, Stratagem: Champion of the Aeldari

. Faolchu's Wing

 

Farseer Skyrunner [6 PL, 120pts]: 1. Guide, 2. Doom, 4: Fate's Messenger, Shuriken Pistol, Warlord, Witchblade

 

+ Elites +

 

Howling Banshees [5 PL, 105pts]

. 4x Howling Banshee: 4x Banshee Blade, 4x Shuriken Pistol

. Howling Banshee Exarch: Mirrorswords, Piercing Strikes

 

Howling Banshees [5 PL, 110pts]

. 4x Howling Banshee: 4x Banshee Blade, 4x Shuriken Pistol

. Howling Banshee Exarch: Graceful Avoidance, Shuriken Pistol & Banshee Blade

 

+ Fast Attack +

 

Swooping Hawks [5 PL, 105pts]

. 4x Swooping Hawk: 4x Lasblaster

. Swooping Hawk Exarch: Lasblaster, Winged Evasion

 

Swooping Hawks [4 PL, 90pts]

. 4x Swooping Hawk: 4x Lasblaster

. Swooping Hawk Exarch: Lasblaster

 

Vypers [3 PL, 50pts]

. Vyper: Aeldari Missile Launcher

 

Vypers [3 PL, 45pts]

. Vyper: Shuriken Cannon

 

Vypers [3 PL, 45pts]

. Vyper: Shuriken Cannon

 

Windriders [8 PL, 90pts]

. Windrider - Shuriken Cannon: Shuriken Cannon

. 3x Windrider - Twin Shuriken Catapults: 3x Twin Shuriken Catapult

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Fire Prism [9 PL, 165pts]: Shuriken Cannon

 

Fire Prism [9 PL, 165pts]: Shuriken Cannon

 

+ Dedicated Transport +

 

Wave Serpent [8 PL, 150pts]: Shuriken Cannon, Twin Shuriken Cannon

 

Wave Serpent [8 PL, 150pts]: Shuriken Cannon, Twin Shuriken Cannon

 

Created with BattleScribe

 

Hail of doom hands down won me that game, with some timely application of fate rolls to hit, which was 60-55 to me in the end. Incredibly swingy, the prisms whiffed a lot. I was too aggressive with the serpents and one got murdered - the other got charged early and ended up in melee with a landspeeder, but shot itself out of combat with hail. The autarch was a cool utility piece that can move 16" and drop mortals on stuff, probably useful for clearing stuff out of combat with you and things like ctan, gaz etc. The vypers did their job, being a nuisance and taking table quarters and objectives. Hawks I misplayed, and kept using skyleap even when there really wasn't many places to put them, one unit got shot off the board by a dark talon, if I use 2 I might put one in reserve from now on. Banshees did very little. I was fighting ravenwing, so they were still wounding on 5's, and bounced off bike squads. Units of 10 seem better, I used them to attack full strength stuff, but picking on weaker units may have been better. I'll try scorpions next time with crushing blow to get through toughness. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Xenith

[Kallas]

I think the main reason to take it would to be to try and wrap around the enemy to prevent fall backs, but I don't think you need a 9" consolidate for that, since they have FLY. You would also need a large unit of spears to accomplish this.

 

Bear in mind that FLY does not function for Pile-in or Consolidation moves.

 

FLY is specifically mentioned in the Movement phase and Charge phase rules, allowing those units to move over other models. This wording is absent in the rules for Pile-in and Consolidation moves, meaning that you cannot move across them with FLY models (or any other models).

 

So a 9" Consolidation move does help wrap units, especially larger-based models.

[Xenith]

I have to say, following on from my last post there was an element of feels-bad when I spiked a few 6's to hit on Shuriken weapons, even the very few that I had. Similarly, just making some dice 6's to guarantee a hit on overwatch or whatever felt very strong. I felt a bit bad to just be saying "well, this auto hits, auto wounds, and ignores most of your armour for 2 damage", or "I'm just going to make my fusion gun auto wound your flyer".

 

Maybe this is just v marines who have an underpowered dex. Will have to check vs the newer ones, I doubt I'd feel bad shooting Custodes off the board. 

 

Strat wise, I barely used any, even though I brought 2 prisms for linked fire. the -1 to hit on anything is great, and saved my autarch, I think fire and fade is great also. With the autarch, I mostly burned CP on rerolls! 

[Urkh]

 

I think the main reason to take it would to be to try and wrap around the enemy to prevent fall backs, but I don't think you need a 9" consolidate for that, since they have FLY. You would also need a large unit of spears to accomplish this.

 

 

Bear in mind that FLY does not function for Pile-in or Consolidation moves.

 

FLY is specifically mentioned in the Movement phase and Charge phase rules, allowing those units to move over other models. This wording is absent in the rules for Pile-in and Consolidation moves, meaning that you cannot move across them with FLY models (or any other models).

 

So a 9" Consolidation move does help wrap units, especially larger-based models.

 

Did not know that, thank you.

[Prot]

I have to say, following on from my last post there was an element of feels-bad when I spiked a few 6's to hit on Shuriken weapons, even the very few that I had. Similarly, just making some dice 6's to guarantee a hit on overwatch or whatever felt very strong. I felt a bit bad to just be saying "well, this auto hits, auto wounds, and ignores most of your armour for 2 damage", or "I'm just going to make my fusion gun auto wound your flyer".

 

Maybe this is just v marines who have an underpowered dex. Will have to check vs the newer ones, I doubt I'd feel bad shooting Custodes off the board. 

 

Strat wise, I barely used any, even though I brought 2 prisms for linked fire. the -1 to hit on anything is great, and saved my autarch, I think fire and fade is great also. With the autarch, I mostly burned CP on rerolls! 

oh gees dude… that’s nothing. I had two games against Custodes where I literally did nothing to the army. One game I conceded in turn 2 where I kid you not I couldn’t kill 2 Custodes bikers with almost my entire army.  With ignoring -1 AP I have had the most frustrating games I’ve had in a very long time. 

 

when you know you really have to kill something and your opponent knows it too and they ignore the AP of most your army and deny Doom and Fortune, the Eldar can start to feel pretty darn lethargic.  

[Xenith]

That's where I think the prisms have utility - I think 2 will be necessary in most games - Linked fire for 4x 3D3 damage shots will also paste Custodes bikers. I think you get to reroll misses with that also? So judicious command rerolls, Doom, and fate dice you might kill 4 of them in one go. 

 

Surprised massed shuriken fire didnt work. Well, not on it's own. I think Doom will really ratchet the power up there - Shuricats wound custodes on a 5+, woth a 6 being AP-3, that's 50% of wounds at ap-3, then doom lets you reroll, so you should be getting a reasonable amount of wounds:

 

10 Avengers. 30 shots, 20 hits, expect 3 5's & 3 6's. Reroll 14 dice into 2 6's and 3 more 5's, so 5 at AP-4 and 6 at ap-2, netting 3 and 3 wounds respectively, or 2 dead custodes minus any ignore wounds stuff. 

 

Not the ideal target, for sure, but should be able to do stuff. 

 

This is where/why I think Hail of Doom is so powerful - it's basically a free fate dice per 6 you roll to hit. Advance and guide avengers, 30 shots, hope for/expect 5, 6's + 10 other hits. Reroll 15 misses and get another 2-3 6's + 6 other hits. The 16 additional (non-6) hits gets maybe 2 more 6's to wound and 5 normal wounds. So suddenly there's 10 AP-4 and 5 AP-2 D1 wounds on a unit.

[Karhedron]

That's where I think the prisms have utility - I think 2 will be necessary in most games - Linked fire for 4x 3D3 damage shots will also paste Custodes bikers. I think you get to reroll misses with that also? So judicious command rerolls, Doom, and fate dice you might kill 4 of them in one go.

Linked Fire no longer provides rerolls unfortunately. On the plus side it does bypass Invulnerable Saves. Given that Custodes have a 4++, that is pretty much the same increase in killing power.

[The Yncarne]

Never had to face custodes. Can they shrug mortals? I’m guessing that’s something to maximize if you can’t get through those defenses. 

[Karhedron]

Never had to face custodes. Can they shrug mortals? I’m guessing that’s something to maximize if you can’t get through those defenses.

Custodes have a 4++/6+++ so they have a chance to shrug off MWs but it is not exactly going to be reliable. Striking Scorpions cab spit out a respectable number of MWs now I think.

[The Yncarne]

I’ve only played harlequins twice with these rules, but there’s plenty of oddball ways to add some random mortal wounds. I fear things that shut off invulnerable saves like Death Hex. Not familiar with the new spells to know if there’s an analog outside Phantasmy.

[Xenith]

 

Never had to face custodes. Can they shrug mortals? I’m guessing that’s something to maximize if you can’t get through those defenses.

Custodes have a 4++/6+++ so they have a chance to shrug off MWs but it is not exactly going to be reliable. 

 

 

Unless they're Emperors Chosen, in which case it's a 4+ shrug against mortal wounds... They basically neuter anything that can exploit the custodes traditional weakness, which is why they're running roughshod over the tourney circuit right now. With shields they're on a 1+/4++/4+++(v mortals). Trajann then drops an additional 5+++ on top of this, but would use the 4+++ against mortals. 

 

Prism is still great then - I'm getting mixed up between versions. ~6dam ignore mortals cuts through custodes. Save some fate dice and doom the buggers. 

[The Yncarne]

Sounds like a case for a suppressive fire mechanism.

 

I'll see myself out.

[MadEdric]

Got a third game in.

My list I'm working with right now is:

Eldrad, warlord

Farseer, Ghosthelm relic, Seer of the Shifting Vector.

Autarch, Spider/Banshee setup, Firesabre, Mark of the Incomparable Hunter.

2 x10 Defender squads with star cannon.

1x10 Storm Squad with x2 flamers, Serpent Scale

Warlock Skyrunner

1x5 Warlock Conclave  

1x10 Banshees, Exarch has Mirrorswords and Piercing Strikes

Wraithlord with Glaive, x2 Shurikan Cannons

1x6 Warp Spiders, Exarch has Web of Deceit

Fire Prism with Spirit Stones, CTM

Falcon with Scatter laser, Spirit Stones, CTM

x2 Wave Serpents, one with Star cannons, one with Brightlance, both have CTM.

 

This was against my friend Andes Orks this time. I'm lucky to have a friend like him as he been fielding simple lists that let me explore the changes and powers the new Codex has.

Even so, it was a corker of a game. We used the new maelstrom cards and really like them over normal secondaries. Lasted a full 5 rounds with me pulling ahead by just 2 points in my last turn (I needed to use my one CP to burn one card to draw another, that let me get the cards I needed to score.

 

More things I learned.

Strands of Fate can be very useful, I was able to usually use them all in a round now. Still liking the save and psychic rolls, but hit and wound rolls came in quite nicely with clutch lance shots. Saves again allowed the Wraithlord to survive a salvo of rockets and other fire from 'coptas and buggy.

Having a lot of Psykers with Ulthwé is potent. Getting that +1 to your first cast worked in a lot for me. With this I was usually able to get a super smite off each round (though only rolled over 3 dmg once). Mortal wound output was certainly strong. Plus the layering of buffs work out to make some pretty unusual situations.

With Fortune and Lightning Fast Reflexes the squad of Storm Guardians survived a charge from 20 Ork boys. That was something I didn't think could happen.

Banshees continued to hit hard, but while taking a punch a little better, are still fragile. 

The Grav tanks and Serpents were fantastic still. While moving forward aggressively, they were able to lay down a lot of firepower in support of the infantry. That, of course was later in the game, as the Orks kept up a constant pressure.

As I said though, I think it was 89 to 91 at the end of turn 5. Fun game.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Got my first game in against Bor'kan Tau tonight.

I played Alaitoc.

 

Game results: 83-13 victory to Tau.

 

It was my first game ever using Eldar.

 

I didn't expect to win, but nothing I did seemed to matter. 

One thing I'll note that I don't see costs and Errata's fixing....the game board is way too small for an army that is supposed to be leveraging speed, range and (army rules such as Alaitoc) to function properly.  I deployed as far back as I possibly could...didn't matter. With Mont'ka and advance, he was on top of me turn 1. 

 

My list:

 

Autarch with dragon fusion, banshee, warp gen, glaive

Farseer

 

5 rangers with gloomfield

10 guardians with Shuriken Cannon heavy weapon

 

6 bikes with scatter lasers

3 shroudrunners

 

1 wraithlord with glaive and 2x bright lances

1 wave serpent with a shuriken cannon, 2 bright lances, spirit stone, vectored engines, and the other engines.

 

I had to pump all my units with upgrades to reach 1k points (this is all the models I currently own)

 

His Force:

Crisis Commander with shield, high output burst, plasma gun, flamer, onager

2x10 strike team

1x10 pathfinders with 3 rail rifles and 7 markerlights

1x5 stealth suits with 2 marker lights

1x3 crisis suits with shields, plasma gun, burst cannon, and flamer

1 skyray gunship

1 razor shark bomber

Edited April 8, 2022 by 9x19 Parabellum

[Urkh]

I think your main issue right now is just your collection size. He has more models on the board in just his strike teams and pathfinders than your whole list. Then with the only real durable units being your wraith lord and wave serpent, combined with the small table and it's probably the reason you saw that result. Once you gain more options, and get some more durable units in your collection (probably more wraiths?) I think the gap in points will close.

[9x19 Parabellum]

I'm confused by your comments.

 

First you seem to suggest I don't have enough bodies on the board (ok fine).  I can only do this at the expense of better units.

 

Then you suggest the problem is I don't have enough durable units (ok also fine).  I can only do this at the expense of other chaff units.

 

Don't get me wrong, the Wraithlord and the Wave Serpent were both very good performers in this game, but I can't simultaneously get both more bodies and more durable bodies/units on the board at the same time. I accept my list was not anything close to optimized...but then neither was his...and an 83-13 showing does not feel good. I've done better with my Black Templar and my Sisters against Tau (but lost with both of them as well).

 

This is fact the issue with Tau...they have speed, they have durability, they have hitting power.

[Urkh]

Sorry for being confusing. I'm just trying to say his list had more bodies, and more durable bodies than you were able to field, and as your collection grows and you gain more options, you'll be able to field something more things, and maybe it won't be so lopsided. Like you said, you had to spam upgrades to even hit 1k points. Once you have more options and don't have to do that anymore, things could be slightly better.

 

Hopefully the database next week tones down tau as well. My cousin is going to be playing them against my eldar and it's looking like I might actually lose a game to him!

[Prot]

Eldar to me feel very balanced (aside from Harlies) in their own fishbowl. Not to go on a rant, but my feeling for many codexes is they are writing them in a fishbowl, and the left hand had no idea what the right hand is doing.

 

There are too many out of control codexes right now to do a fair Eldar vs XXXX in a lot of situations (especially... Tau). It's too far out of wack right now. So don't beat yourself up.

 

Personally we're switching to Tempest (Maelstrom) for a while as the group is largely bored of ITC, and Maelstorm at least puts some other dimension to the game other than standing on stuff, and killing everything else, and the point is... Eldar can do that with the speed.

 

I do agree, the speed on these boards has gotten me into trouble my first few games. Especially with our secondary to control a no man's land objective. Yes, the units move quick, but in the old editions, the board gave you 'time' and that's gone now. Only a footslogging DG or Custodes army may give you that advantage for a turn it seems.

 

I feel like original marines (Space Marine Codex) and Eldar would be a good match up. And Tau vs Custodes is a good match up. DE vs Admech is another one that might work, but all of these armies feel as if they are designed too far apart from each other. Don't take a huge loss to one of these crazy miss-matches as any real strategic issue on your part. In some of these match ups, all you can do is fight for a close game.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Prot

[L30n1d4s]

I think Scatter Laser Windriders, especially from Ulthwé, are one of the better units in the new codex, especially in dealing with the current meta beaters of Harlequins, Tau, and Custodes (probably add Tyranids to that list, based on the the rules that we see coming out in their new Codex).

 

What they bring is a super mobile platform (16" move base, plus the ability to Battle Focus) that can put out massed S6 shots at 36" (i.e. a squad of 9 put-out 54 shots). Add in Ulthwé Strats to make them hit on 2+s and you have a great counter to the T5 Crises Suits, T5 Void Weavers/ Star Weavers, and T5 Custode Infantry that are so prominent right now. With Fly and the Matchless Agility, they can pop over a wall 6", pump out 54 x S6 shots, then pop back behind cover. Finally, they can mitigate their lack of AP with support from a Skyrunner Warlock using Jinx.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Anybody using the AvTar yet?

[9x19 Parabellum]

What do you guys think of custom craftworld using Hail of Doom and Mobile Fighters, and just spam Guardians and Wave Serprents?

[Toldavf]

What do you guys think of custom craftworld using Hail of Doom and Mobile Fighters, and just spam Guardians and Wave Serprents?

Why not go with dire avengers instead? best part of 100 shots from 3 serpents and the extra ap pip is king vs allot of armies. Naturally buffing as many rerolls into the mix as possible is ideal so guide and autarch's. 

 

 

[9x19 Parabellum]

Yes, i like that too!  Or both!  The point would be as many shuriken guns as possible.

 

Tonight I played Tau at 1k points and I used these custom craftworld traits.  I still got beat but only lost 47-42!  That's practically winning.

 

My guardian unit did some work with this particular combination and judicious use of Bladestorm stratagem. I ended up tabling my opponent but he had such an early lead on points that I couldn't catch up.  My guardians and my farseer were the only units to survive the battle (5 guardians lived).  I'm thinking there's something here building a full force around this particular combination.