The Eldar: An overview
What is there to say about the Eldar?
Perhaps a place to start is the title of this blog and its origin.
Rhana Dendra is described as the final battle, the end of history for the Eldar, the moment when all of their chickens come home to roost.
Well, with the current state of their codex this surely can’t be far away. Their fallen brethren have a shiny new codex that may even be (shock horror) competitive with Imperial codices. Their phoenix lords are, collectively, a bunch of pansies that enemy forces laugh at, their transports are resilient, but twice as expensive as the rest of the universe’s and you can only assault someone if you’re willing to cop it in the face first.
Yes the issues facing the Eldar codex are numerous and the path to using them effectively in battle is fraught with painful lessons in why things that look ok on paper need to be play-tested before becoming official rules.
So, here the Eldar stand, on the precipice of oblivion in the world of ‘competitive’ 40k. Why they are here is a matter of historical record over the course of several editions, where they are going is anyone’s guess.
But where they stand now is what interests me.
Why?
Because I like them, I like the concepts behind them, I like their play-style (however restricted it has become) and I own a metric ton of their models.
The Eldar codex is plagued by several major issues that I’m sure are familiar to anyone playing at a competitive level. Perhaps the largest are:
-Comparatively over-costed in almost all areas in comparison to recent codex releases
-Extremely over-costed troop transports
-No ‘assault’ vehicles
-reliable melta weaponry in one FOC slot only
-Bloated Elite section
That said, they do have a few things in their favour also:
-Highly mobile options
-The ability to add +2 to reserve rolls (which appears to be on the way out in the new codices)
-Their transports, though expensive, are some of the most resilient transports in the game
-Most points efficient melta unit in the game (not taking into account the transport cost)
-Strongest psychic defence in the game
So what to make of them?
Well, the first thing to state for the record is this: If you are a person just starting the hobby and you wish to be a competitive player, with the aim of winning many tournaments and having your name sung from balconies across your land of choice......the Eldar are probably not the race to take you there.
They have limited build options even on a good day, those that they do have are often heavily disadvantaged by tournament scoring format or mission type and until their codex is re-written, things are likely to get worse not better.
But.
They can win tournaments, assuming it is the right kind of tournament. In fact, in the right environment they can win tournaments easily which is a bit of a surprise to most opponents.
So how, once you’ve chosen to use the Eldar, do you get the best out of them?
Well hopefully the coming posts on this blog will give you some ideas.
What is there to say about the Eldar?
Perhaps a place to start is the title of this blog and its origin.
Rhana Dendra is described as the final battle, the end of history for the Eldar, the moment when all of their chickens come home to roost.
Well, with the current state of their codex this surely can’t be far away. Their fallen brethren have a shiny new codex that may even be (shock horror) competitive with Imperial codices. Their phoenix lords are, collectively, a bunch of pansies that enemy forces laugh at, their transports are resilient, but twice as expensive as the rest of the universe’s and you can only assault someone if you’re willing to cop it in the face first.
Yes the issues facing the Eldar codex are numerous and the path to using them effectively in battle is fraught with painful lessons in why things that look ok on paper need to be play-tested before becoming official rules.
So, here the Eldar stand, on the precipice of oblivion in the world of ‘competitive’ 40k. Why they are here is a matter of historical record over the course of several editions, where they are going is anyone’s guess.
But where they stand now is what interests me.
Why?
Because I like them, I like the concepts behind them, I like their play-style (however restricted it has become) and I own a metric ton of their models.
The Eldar codex is plagued by several major issues that I’m sure are familiar to anyone playing at a competitive level. Perhaps the largest are:
-Comparatively over-costed in almost all areas in comparison to recent codex releases
-Extremely over-costed troop transports
-No ‘assault’ vehicles
-reliable melta weaponry in one FOC slot only
-Bloated Elite section
That said, they do have a few things in their favour also:
-Highly mobile options
-The ability to add +2 to reserve rolls (which appears to be on the way out in the new codices)
-Their transports, though expensive, are some of the most resilient transports in the game
-Most points efficient melta unit in the game (not taking into account the transport cost)
-Strongest psychic defence in the game
So what to make of them?
Well, the first thing to state for the record is this: If you are a person just starting the hobby and you wish to be a competitive player, with the aim of winning many tournaments and having your name sung from balconies across your land of choice......the Eldar are probably not the race to take you there.
They have limited build options even on a good day, those that they do have are often heavily disadvantaged by tournament scoring format or mission type and until their codex is re-written, things are likely to get worse not better.
But.
They can win tournaments, assuming it is the right kind of tournament. In fact, in the right environment they can win tournaments easily which is a bit of a surprise to most opponents.
So how, once you’ve chosen to use the Eldar, do you get the best out of them?
Well hopefully the coming posts on this blog will give you some ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment