New Dark Eldar

[me_in_japan]

Gomen gomen - they did rather slip my mind, although I do have em both. Neither is painted, mind you. Unlike my painstakingly converted and fully painted Baron Sathonyx, I might add.

Just for accuracy:

Old dex: Vect, Lelith, Urien, Drazhar, Sliscus, Malys, Sathonyx, Kheradruak

New dex: Lelith, Urien, Drazhar

Still sucks

[Primarch]

Welcome to the wonderful world of 7th ed.
Yep, GW do seem to have been on a bit of a purge as of late. Mind you, with wargear and unique wargear you may still be able to build something close to what you lost. Maybe.

[me_in_japan]

Having had a bit of a chance to peruse the "new" dark eldar, my conclusions are basically:

unimpressed. They're not without their merits, but basically a lot of cool stuff has been removed and there's the inevitable push for bigger units and more spend. It's reached the point now where they don't even seem to be trying to hide it. A prime example is Cronos and Talos (the big floaty dreadnaught sized things.) They now come in units of 1-3. or 5, if the rumours about the Covens supplement are to believed. Because what 40k players really need is units of dreadnaughts Other units have also gotten bigger (court of archon) have also gotten bigger. To be fair, at least these increases are optional (i.e. theyre 1-3 not just 3). The aforementioned coven 'dex also bugs me, as it (along with all the others) clearly just a bunch of material that should have been included in the original book. Also, while I appreciate this was just a rumour which didnt pan out, it would have been good to see a model for Vect and his dais. The DE lack a big uber-unit (dreadknight/wraithknight/lord of battle etc) and this would have been spot on. It would also have been inspiring and cool and a (probably) kick ass model. Had this been included in the release I can't help but feel my reaction would have been "oooh, cool, shiny new dark eldar. Let's buy stuff!" Whereas, instead he was removed from the codex completely, leaving me rather flat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not lamenting the loss of Vect (which neither I nor anybody else I know of ever used) I'm more lamenting the loss of variety and potential creativity in the game.

On the plus side, I do actually like the 3 new character models we got. True, they're replacements for 3 character models that DE already had, and so add exactly zero to the range of units available, but in their defence they are nice kits with good dynamism and detail. Also, the more I look at the VoidRaven the more I like it. It's the only thing in the new releases that's actually on my "hmmmn. One day if I have money I might..." list.

Finally, I like that scourges and mandrakes are now once more viable units. They've always been cool minis, and it was a shame they were so bad rules-wise they were largely unplayable.

So, those are my thoughts. How bout yours?

@Prim: What I lost was an IC on a skyboard that made hellions troops. None of those are options in the new dex. Now I have a whole bunch of hellions and a Sathonyx that I cant use...

[Mike the Pike]

Hmmm, couldn't really disagree more. Surprise, surprise.

A quick once over and it seems the new 'dex doesn't really affect my preferred list much at all. Most of the things I like have stayed about the same or slightly cheaper. Even though I have a painted Talos, I think it'll eventually make way for a Void raven. The big gribblies are ok but don't fit my army's theme. I may eventually do a gribbly focused list, as I have a bunch of Wracks etc it won't be anytime soon.

The disappearance of some of the ICs distresses me not a jot. I don't really use 'em anyway, in any of my armies. If one were to build an army around one then one might have a bit of a gripe/whinge.

Actually, in our wee area's 'meta' I don't think anyone will notice the difference. The Deldar still pack the same awesome firepower and C/C ability but are still only T3 elves in flying paper sail boats.

As for lack of models or whatever, again, I don't really see a problem. The last DE release was humongous. The whole army was overhauled, with dozens of amazing new models. When I took my army out the other day for a spruce up, before throwing 'em back into the fray, they still looked fantastic and every bit as inspiring and cool as ever. I reckon, if you don't pick up a well posed 10pt Wych and think that's a pretty awesome model (as good as other companies' character models IMHO) then you must be a bit of a sad git.

As for scourges being rubbish, I can only reply... "Huh?" I like 'em and used them to pretty good effect in most games.

Anyways, that's my ni-en's worth. See ya on the battlefield.

[Primarch]

@M_i_J - Sathonyx can sit on the shelf next to my Parasite of Mortex.

While I don't play DE, I do agree that taking stuff out of a codex doesn't really make the army more exciting to play. Less isn't more. Having had a quick skim through the book, it looks like a lot of the army made the transition intact. Power From Pain looks like it will be less of a hassle to keep track of now, but there are no longer any options for starting the game all pumped up. Similarly, a lot of the unique wargear got simplified (based on my hazy recollection of what it could do before). Overall, I think the whole book fits the current theme of making the core army a little blander while promising better options if you buy some supplemental codex to go with it. It's probably not bad overall, but it may have lost a little of the spark of the previous book.

I totally agree with Pikey on the minis though, the DE range is one of, if not the best GW currently do.

[me_in_japan]

Ok, it is a fair point about the minis. They are all very good, and pikey makes a good point when he says there were a whole hella lot of new models last time around. I think I fall into the camp prim mentioned, inasmuch as my only HQ model (that I have painted) is Sathonyx, with 3 boxes of hellions to back him up. I also have Urien and Lelith, but they're mega points sinks and I hadn't painted them, either. I do have an (unpainted) Lhamean which I hoped to use as an archon, but I do appreciate that it could be a bit confusing for opponents (although I certainly wouldn't use her as an archon AND use something else as a Lhamean. I just didn't like the older archon mini, but do like the Lhamean one.)

Ps making rulebooks bland and supplements more interesting isn't a theme. It's a sales policy, and it stinks.

Basically, I don't think the dex makes dark eldar a weaker army, and tbh it wouldn't really bother me if it did. I do feel, though, that removal of units is a boring thing to do, and stifles creativity. And I didn't say scourges were rubbish, I said they were now viable. There's a difference.