Exciting news! We have the Eldar Codex live! Play testing this army was a lot of fun. I have always enjoyed the cloak and dagger style of play and tried to bring that element in with them. They have lots of tricks up their sleeves with their double effect spells, high speed units, and easy access to Lance and Rending to confront any foe! Combined with all of their special units, they can threaten any force with skill and strategy.
It took a while to get this one tested. That is because I wanted to ensure there were no broken combos with this unique style of play. We did find and eliminate issues it arose in the core book (addressed in a previous weekly post). The entire army had been able to maximize army wide Stealth and when Going To Ground were having 2+ Cover Saves across the board. Previous Codexes have struggled to maximize this so it had not come to light until then. Instead of forcing the Codex to the narrow confines of a limited core book, the core book was changed to a cap of 3+ Cover Save after all modifiers being the best that can be achieved. This still lets Eldar heavily use Cover as needed.
Several of my friends recently read through some Necron books that have been published. With the lore inspired thoughts we wanted to address two units (and the associated characters) that have been somewhat lacking in most editions.
Overlords have been boosted by W+1, A+1, and gained the reroll 1s To Hit Aura of the standard Lords. Previously the Lords boosted attack and the Overlords boosted M+2. With a better understanding of the roles and how few Overlords there are, we implemented these changes. Overlords also gained the Unique keyword. It is possible to have a named Overlord and a generic one in a standard fight, but that is the only way to gain access to both. This also helps them become more terrifying on the tabletop and standout from your typical HQ choice of other races.
Triarch Praetorians worked, but we were not sure what to do with them. They lacked the identity we wanted, but we weren’t sure what that was going to be. GW didn’t know either which did not help. After learning more about how they act as the Silent King’s eyes and ears to push his will, it sparked some ideas. We re-examined their stat line, pushing them into hitting on 2+ with 2 wounds and 3 attacks. We boosted the rod to have 1 more shot, giving a reasonable consideration between the pistol and blade or the rod. Lastly, we implemented an ability that forces them to execute Necron models, but it stops them from taking Combat Attrition damage due to Fearless. Canoptek units already do this, but now there is a way to grant it army wide! Unlike Commissars from the Imperial Guard, these executions do not his the highest Ld model. Instead, the controlling player picks the model. Because it is mandatory, it could be that an Overlord or other important characters by themselves could be deemed unworthy for the Silent King’s goals, and be eliminated!
We have all of the other Codexes queued up to be published, we just need to get more play testing done with busy lives! As always, happy wargaming!
Alternate 40k Rules 