Say hello to my little friend! (Eldar Prons)

After having a chat with the distribution rep from Games Workshop, who had the book in front of him and told me what he could...


-The release schedule includes the following items:

Codex Eldar
Codex Eldar Supplement: Iyanden
Eldar Wraithknight plastic box (This thing is huge, and retails at $115)
Eldar Wraithguard plastic box
Eldar Dire Avengers 5-man plastic box
Eldar Hemlock Wraithfighter plastic box
Eldar Windrider Jetbike Squadron plastic box
Eldar Spiritseer Finecast clam
Eldar Farseer plastic clam

There is also an upgrade pack in Finecast to make an Autarch on a jetbike.

As far as the actual Codex goes:

-You can make Run moves in addition to shooting Shuriken weapons.

-Shuriken weapons have a rule which makes them ignore armor on a to-wound roll of a 6-- similar to rending, but it's not actually the Rending rule.

-The Wraithknight starts at about 250 points and caps around 350, and towers over even the Tau Riptide. It's 9'' tall. The Wraithknight has the ability for its weapons to become twin-linked if it hits with a scatter laser it comes equipped with, even against airborne targets. It can shoot S9 and 10 small blasts, and has a total of four weapons on it-- you have a choice of several, including a huge wraithblade and a lance weapon.

- Wraithguard are cheaper both points-wise and financially speaking, and are now S5 and T6, and have the option to be equipped with Wraithblades as per the current Codex's in place of their guns, making them a dangerous close combat unit.

- Including a Spiritseer as a HQ choice allows you to bring Wraithguard as Troops.

- Expect Guardians to supplant Dire Avengers as the staple Troops choice-- they're very points efficient and with the buff to shuriken weapons, they should expect to be in a lot of competitive armies.

-The Fire Prism has been nerfed a bit-- basically, they want to drive people back towards Aspect Warrior and Wraith-heavy armies, rather than the mechanized Eldar army literally everyone and their brother played with the exact same list. Can't really say to what extent, but the purchasing advice was to "Not load up on them."

-The Avatar is "Definitely better."

-The Iyanden supplement is not a splash release, and will be normally available. Iyanden is strictly a fluff book, and contains no game rules. The rules to play a themed Iyanden army are found completely in Codex: Eldar. This is a move to appease people who want more fluff in books as well as people who would rather just have more game content with the fluff optional. This is an experiment in seeing how this works-- if it does well, expect Games Workshop to continue with the release of "chapter-specific" fluff supplements for their Codex releases.

I somehow also neglected to mention the Wraithknight's 3+ invulnerable save-- it's either a weapon option or comes standard-- the rep wasn't too clear with me on that one. But based on the model shown in White Dwarf, I'd assume it's standard. Or it's one of those things you just shrug and pay for because the thing's 9'' tall...

Vangeleon wrote:u will take back all the tau cheese accusations immediately!!

- From what I saw all the non Wraith infantry have the run/shoot shoot/run ability (the rule was called Battle something). Avengers definitely do (from the report) and Rangers definitely do (from tiny printed profile in the WD) as well. Not sure if its just for Shuriken weapons (Rangers do have Pistols I guess).

- It looks likes all Eldar have the 'Ancient Foe' special rule, no idea what this does but I suspect its something like Hatred Daemons of Slaneesh (don't think it was Necron related as the report was against Crons) since all Eldar appear to have it (including the Wraith units).

- There are 14 Eldar specific psychic powers from 2 different charts, Runes of Battle and Runes of Fate. However it looks like several of the powers are 2 in 1, i.e they have a buff mode and a debuff mode, so there are actually HEAPS of powers. I.e the Primaris for Battle is Conceal/Reveal (as a single card/roll etc), Conceal gives you Shrouded and Reveal removes Shrouded from an enemy. The 1 on the Battle Chart was Destructor/Renew(?), Destructor being the same as before with Soul Blaze added and Renew allowing you to restore a wound to a friendy model within range (18" I think). Primaris for Runes of Fate was Guide, which is now 24" range but is otherwise the exact same as before. Very surprising to see this as aside from the range it is far worse than the Divination Primaris (although I guess you could take both and effectively Guide two units). The 1 on the Fate Chart was a terrible Focuses Witchfire power. Fortune and Doom are still options (the Farseer in the report had them) and appear to have the same effects.

- The Avatar has Fleet. Also one of the psychic powers increases your movement speed/charge range somehow

- The Wraithknight is insanely huge, it is literally twice the height of a Wraithlord, and the sword option it can take is basically the size of a Wraithlord as well. It can take up to 2 Suncannons, which are S6 AP2 Heavy 3 Small Blast or up to 2 Wraithlances(?) which are presumably the heavy anti tank option. Sword replaces one of the big guns I think (they are arm mounted like the Titans). This is in addition to the two shoulder mounted heavy weapons (I saw Scatters and Starcannons, so presumably the normal range of heavy weapons are available)

- Wraithguard and Wraithblades look good, think scaled down Wraithlords. They looked a bit bigger than the old ones, but I think it was partly just the added range of motion in the poses on 40mm bases (similar to the old 25mm base Terminators vs the newer 40mm base ones, they are bigger but the better poses help as well). Wraithguard can now get either Wraithcannons (which from the fluff descriptions seemed to still be single shot and very powerful) or D Scythes which were described as a multi shot weapon but it could still Pen vehicles on a 6. Wraithblades are only 1A base (sadly) but looked like they could go either 2 CCW(no idea on stats of their weapons, but they appeared to have sword/axe options) or 1 CCW + Shield gen arm.

- Wraithguard are definitely S5 T6, Lord is almost certainly not T6 (a full unit of Destroyers shot one in the report and did nothing, which suggests T8 or some other equivalent buff). No idea on the stats for the Knight.

- It looks like Aspect Warriors have the same base profile, include Exarches with Ld9

- Reapers have Slow and Purposeful

- Rangers have WS4. They also have a character (not sure if he is upgrade or HQ) who has a 120" range Sniper Rifle.

- One of the fliers has 2 Heavy D Scythes on the wings and a psychic based main gun. The other has 2 Bright Lances and a Pulse Laser.

- Saw stats for what looked like special weapons for characters, might have been for Special Characters as well since the 120" range sniper was in there. One weapon was +2S, AP- Melee, Rending, Fleshbane, Instant Death. Another was +1S AP3, Soul Blaze, and if you killed anything with Soul Blaze then every unit within 6" of that unit would become effected by Soul Blaze as well. There was also a one use only piece of wargear, which you could use when the character died. On a 2+ you place a S4 AP3 template over the character, hitting both friend and foe, but if you cause at least 1 wound then the character stands back up with 1 wound. Last one I saw was an item which gave the user Fearless, Shrouded, Stealth and re-roll cover saves but they lose the IC rule, which gives people a way to make a Solitare (the name was something to do with the Laughing God)

greetings guys. i got a information sheet in my hands that all GW stores have been send to.

it containis "reasons to buy the new eldar releases"

the points are :
Codex Eldar :
- craftworld ships will be introduced
- new special rules for many eldar units. old nemesis (slaanesh) and battle trance (running and shooting)
-multiple exarch abilitys, options and equipment

Wraithknight (heavy support 240 points)
-Strong Profile (s10 T8 W6 AS 3+, Jumppack
- 2 heavy phantom lasers (23" S10 AP 2 instant death on wound rolls of 6)
- alternative equipment possible - for example close combat weapons with a 5+ invul and blind special rule or a S6 5" Blast with ap 2. with 5+ invul and blind special rule.

Somach Phantomhunter (may be spelled wrongly my pic is a bit blurry there) (fast attack 185 points)
-psyker with the terrify psychic power
- 2 blast weapons with ap 2
- enemy units within 12" have to reroll succesful ld tests.

crimson hunters (fast attack 160 points)
- aspect warriors with strong exarch upgrades
- may reroll armor pen rolls against flyers
-vector dancer

wraithguard /wraithblades (elite 160 points 5 models):
- strong profile with S5 T 6 as 3+
-wraithblades got 2 close combat weapons with ap 3 and +1 S or can get a 4+ invul with a single ap 2 weapon
-runeseer can mark targets, every wraith unit can reroll missed to hit rolls of 1 against marked targets.
-if you select a runeseer as HQ, they become troops

ilic nightspear (hq 140 points):
-alaitoc charactermodel that allows ranger units the pathfinder upgrade.
- has 9 special rules - one of them allows ranger units to infiltrate without the range restrictions to enemy units.
- bs 9 48" Sx ap 2 instant death on wound rolls of 6

other new releases for eldar : phantomseer, runeprophet and cards for psychic powers.:
- 3 different kinds of psykers (seer council, phantomseer, runeprophet)
-divination, telepathy and 2 own psychic disciplines: runes of battle and runes of fate (for rune prophet and runeseer)
- runes of battle have always 2 effects, for example granting shrouded or taking shrouded off the enemy unit.
-runes of fate : 4 warpcharges, 2 powers, very strong and offensive

that is all that is posted on the letter the GW stores had been send too. hope it gives some insight.

German "translation"
Runenprophet is Farseer, Phantom-... is Wraith-...