Thursday, June 28, 2012

Dark Eldar in 6th Ed.

Don't nerf my Huskblade!


These are my predictions for what will happen to Dark Eldar in the next edition.
I haven't been wrong about predicting what will happen to an army over editions for a very, very long time, so I don't think that'll start happening now.

Below, I will list my sources, then talk about how this will effect the Dark Eldar army.  I don't think I'll cover the Space Marine armies because the entire warhammer internet has exploded about all the possible things that can happen to Space Marines.

Anyways, my sources:
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2012/06/26/6th-ed-rumors-and-confirmations/
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=112662

I guess the biggest question is:  Will Dark Eldar be better or worse next edition?  Well, let's go over a few details and then I'll let you guys figure it out.

Let's start it off with...

Jinking
If a Fast Skimmer moves at all, it gains a 5+ cover save.  If it goes Flat Out, it gains a 4+ cover save.
Does this make Flickerfields useless?  A little, but FF is an invulnerable save that can still save things from flamethrowers, close combat attacks or anything that ignores cover saves.  However, I will say that I'll be dropping FFs from all my vehicles and keeping the Night Shields instead.  I've always been a fan of Night Shields, so there you have it.



Speaking of which, Pre-measuring.
Since you can pre-measure everything in the game, how does this effect how players choose targets for Night Shields?  I don't think it changes anything.  If you're out of range, you're out of range.  If anything, it helps you as the DE General to better navigate outside enemy threat ranges.


Fast vehicles can move 6″ and fire all weapons and fire 2 primary weapons (the rest Snap Fire) at 12″. They can also make an addition move instead of shooting.  Fast Skimmers can move an additional 18″ (30″ total)
Since I'm assuming that the dual SCs on the Venom are two primary weapons, I'm going to say that this is fine for now.  Now if only one counts as primary, then we got a freaking problem.  However, Fast Skimmers being able to move 30" around the board is quiet huge.  That's a lot of room to move around and I'm very happy to gain more mobility.  If you have Aethersails on top of this, you're looking at up to 42" of movement.  That's insane.


Cover is now 5+ all over the place.
This hurts more expensive, fragile armies like us, but overall it was needed.  Just stay in your paper planes and jink all day.

Obscurement is now only 25% covered, but is only a 5+ save.
It's very easy to get 25% cover with our vehicles and units.  If you don't have a cover save from jinking, being obscure or turbo-boosting, you're playing the wrong army.

Night Fighting can happen in any game (on a 4+) and if rolled will continue until the roll is failed at the start of a turn (Night Fighting limits weapon's max range to 36" with anything over 24" counting as "Shrouded" and getting a 2+ Cover Save. Any model over 12" away counts as having the Stealth USR).
Night Vision - Ignore Night Fighting.
Our entire army has Night Vision.  Fuck you Necrons.


AP2 now gives +1 to the damage chart.  AP1 gives +2.
Our Lances got more powerful.  Heatlances got ridiculous.


Raiders, Ravagers, Voidravens and Razorwings have 3 Hull Points, Venoms have 2.
Raiders and Ravagers are now more durable than the Venom with all things considered.  I still don't think the Flyers will be worth their points, but we'll have to see considering they can move 18" and shoot.  Flyers can only shoot 2 of their missiles now per turn, so that's a slight nerf to their damage potential.  I don't see Jinking mentioning Flyers, so here's where our Flickerfields come into play.  A BS1 model shooting at something with a perm 5+ Invul can get pretty good pretty fast.


Charge moves are 2D6”, added together
Fleet and Jump Infantry may reroll a single D6 for the distance
Fleet no longer lets you charge after running, but reroll run distance.
We lose an average of 1" of our threat range when charging on our units with Fleet.  However, we can now move, shoot and charge while keeping our Fleet bonuses.  It's kind of a toss up here, but I don't think it's a big deal.  Consolidation is now 3", but our units are small so this might be OK.  Overall, our charging prowess got nerfed.


Units may Fire on Overwatch when charged
They may shoot at attackers at BS 1 prior to being assaulted
Wyches hate being shot at while they assault.  This can be pretty painful for us considering we're extremely fragile.


There is no glancing anymore, glancing hits just inflict Hull Point damage.
Haywires all day, every day.


Feel no Pain - Now 5+ and is only prevented by Instant Death.
I never really played with Wracks and Haemonculi stuff, but I see this FNP change as a good one.  You can't be removed by AP1, 2, or Power Weapons anymore.  The only thing that can kill you is ID (double strength).  This applies to our Pain Tokens as well.  Speaking of Pain Tokens, Furious Charge no longer adds +1I when charging, only +1S.


Power Swords are AP3.
That means our Huskblades and Agonizers can't do jack shit vs. Terminators or 2+ armor in general.  That also means if a SM Captain issues a challenge in CC against our Archon, we might as well bend over and cry.  I'm really hoping they make Huskblades AP2 and Agonizers AP3 for game diversity.


Units can only disembark after a 6″ move
Unit can move afterward
units disembarking has to be BtB with the exit point
This means you can't fly 12" up with a Raider, jump out 2" from the tip of your craft, and Fleet D6 and then charge 6" anymore.  Now the Raider has to fly 6", you get out from craft's exit point (I'm assuming open top will be any point of the vehicle), and then move 6".  That's 12" total, not the 14" free that you had before.


If your unit cannot harm their close combat opponent (Wraithlord) with any weapons, you may choose to automatically fail the morale check (unless you’re fearless).
No Haywire vs. Dreadnoughts?  No problem!


Calvary & Beasts
Move 12″ in the Movement Phase
Fleet
Calvary treat terrain as Dangerous, but aren’t slowed by it.
Beasts ignore terrain completely!
No more to be said about this.


Eldar and Dark Eldar are Battle Brothers (highest level of Allies).
This means we can take a Farseer with Runes of Warding for Psychic protection, or cast Doom for our Huskblade and Splinter weapons, or an Autarch for +1 reserve roll on top of the now 3+ on turn 2.



That's it for now guys, going to sleep.  Overall, I'm pretty excited for 6th Ed. because I think we get better overall.  The Venom spammers might not like it, but I'm pretty stoked.  Shit, I might even buy a Razorwing and see what happens.

19 comments:

  1. as always, you bring really good perspective.

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  2. Flyers can only shoot 2 of their missiles now per turn, so that's a slight nerf to their damage potential.

    I keep seeing people say this, but must have missed the rumour that invalidates Aerial Assault (which states that a vehicle with the Aeruial Assault rule that moves at cruising speed may fire all of it's weapons) So as cruising is now 36" for fliers surely it just emans we can always fire all of our weapons? What am I missing?

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  3. @Karantalais  I've been wondering the same thing, I'm sure all the books will get FAQs, we'll have to see where Aerial Assault lands because it isn't unique to our book.
    I'm interested to see specifics on how moving/running/charging functions.  I haven't found specificially if you can run and charge or not.  The change to beasts will make them less of a threat overall, that 12" charge range was easy for people to forget about and was very advantagous.

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  4. "If your unit cannot harm their close combat opponent (Wraithlord) with
    any weapons, you may choose to automatically fail the morale check
    (unless you’re fearless).

    No Haywire vs. Dreadnoughts?  No problem!"Was the rumor that there is no more invulnerable due to S vs. T anymore false? I thought even S3 can wound T7 on a 6 now?

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  5. Bone swords are suddenly the new shnizzle !!!

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  6. "
    Power Swords are AP3.

    That means our Huskblades and Agonizers can't do jack shit vs. Terminators or 2+ armor in general.  That also means if a SM Captain issues a challenge in CC against our Archon, we might as well bend over and cry.  I'm really hoping they make Huskblades AP2 and Agonizers AP3 for game diversity."
    Please re-read DE rules, huskblades and agonisers ARENT power swords, they IGNORE Sv so you still can cut marine in to ribbons, it only affects DE weapons when you try to dmg vahicle.

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  7. It says in the DE Codex that they're Power Weapons.  The rules for Power Weapons are changing, so unless I see the FAQ, I'm stating the worst case scenario.

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  8. Another interesting point: from the rumors (I don't have the rulebook yet to confirm) the pistols lose their attack bonuses in CC. Which would mean Wyches suddenly deal a lot less attacks...

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  9. I read the exact opposite on Faeit 212 so don't start sweating too bad. Pistols still give +1 counting as CC weapon.

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  10. Please look at the Gw Homepage for Flickerfield. The save is only for penetrating and glancing fire. 

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  11. "Fleet no longer lets you charge after running, but reroll run distance."

    From what I've heard, you can re-roll either or both charge dice. So if you roll 5 and 2, you can keep the 5 and re-roll the 2. (And, with pre-measuring, you don't even need to risk that re-roll if the original 7 was enough.) That could be pretty good.

    "IC can join infiltrators during deployment and infiltrate with them (even if they do not have infiltrate)"

    I did hear this said, but the source that posted it then retracted it saying he'd misread the rules :(

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  12. Agonisers and husk blades do not get an entry in the weapon list at the back of the rulebook. This makes me think they'll fall under power weapons.

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  13. Fleet lets you reroll one or more dice from the charge distance.
    Jump Infantry can reroll the charge distance if they walked as normal infantry in the movement phase and use the jump pack during assault.

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  14. Fleet got a decent nerf this edition by not allowing you to run and assault. In 5th, you could assault d6+6 (ignoring move distance) with an average distance of 9.5" and a minimum of 7" over open ground. It's harder to quantify the new fleet unless you arbitrarily pick a "reroll anything under X," but since it doesn't *guarantee* you one of your dice comes up a 6, It'll inevitably be less effective than it once was.

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  15. You right, I dubble-check on dex, DE cool weapons cant handle anything with terminator armour. Its marine edition all the way down.

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  16. IC CAN'T join inflitrators unless they have the infiltator rule during the development, so mandrakes remains as useless as ussually

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  17.  It's obvious that someone with Fleet can't charge as far in 6th as they could in 5th, since as you say 2D6 even with a re-roll won't beat 1D6 + 6. But whether Fleet is nerfed really depends on how much of an advantage Fleet confers to someone as against an opponent without Fleet.

    I think it's worth noting that even a 6" charge has a fair chance of not reaching for non-Fleet troops (given it fails on a 2, 3, 4, or 5: that's more than a one-in-six chance of failure). Fleet means that if you roll, say, 2 and 2 you can re-roll both. It also means if you roll 2 and 5 you can keep the 5 while re-rolling the 2 (if you need to). I think this greatly extends the range of safe charges for Fleet units.

    Further, Fleet also has uses for units that aren't assaulting (I believe you can re-roll a run as well as a charge). It wasn't really of much value to, say, Kabalite Warriors before, so for them I think the new rule is better.

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  18. We got nerfed to hell.
    Cover got worse, paintokens got worse, assault got worse and movement got worse...
    The sales pitch of "DE are the fastest of all armies." is just out of the window.
    What good is being fast, if you can do jack-shit afterwards?
    Having said that, DE players have always been the superior tacticians, and so they will remain.
    This 6th ed has turned us from an assault army, into a shooting army.
    And since DE shooting has often been the grief of many a SM player, we shall stick it to 'em once again.
    Long live Vect!

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