Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Aeldari – The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Let’s take a look through 40K’s brand new Codex: Aeldari, and take a look at “the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly”.
There is nothing like a new edition coming out for Warhammer 40k. We all wait with baited breathe as our new codexes comes out. The thrill of new and powerful sets of rules drives us to come up with some unique builds and soul crushing battalions. Of course with every new edition the new Eldar book comes out and brings with it some pretty amazing sets of rules. This new book is no different as we can usually judge a new version of 40k with how busted the Aeldari are for the new edition.
With that in mind let’s go into the good, bad, and ugly from this new book. An overall thought is that it seems strong but not nearly as back breaking as we feared for a new Eldar book. It feels along the lines of Custodes with its abilities to dish out the damage but not nearly as busted as original Dark Eldar or Ad Mech. The writing is still on the wall for the Tau as while I feel the book is very powerful the ability to get all the pieces might make it hard to see the truly busted versions on the table top.
The Good
The book is friggin massive. It is on par with the Space Marine release and unlike that book the majority of units are useful in some form. This means that the book as a whole has a lot of avenues for play style with mixtures of board control and all out aggression mixed in. On top of that you also end up with 3 armies from the book (well maybe 4 but we’ll talk about that later) with Aeldari, Ynarri, and Harlequins all thrown together. I love these combo books as it feels like you can go in a lot of different directions and make something unique.
In fact it feels lot like the Dark Eldar book in how you can build stuff and Dark Eldar even got some stuff with being able to use Harlequins. These layered options gives me hope to see some kind of Chaos style list with the CSM and Daemons coming together and still working well with all their friends. This idea of mixing armies lets you add some flavor to your lists that might not be there for some of the Imperium options.
The book is also filled with a ton of stratagems to choose from so having all the options available to a player will allow for a much more flowing army style. Speaking of changing up your style this book is chock full of interesting tricks From a ton of redeploy options to finding ways to make your Exarchs unique – you get that in this book. You even have a nice and easy way to make your own custom Craftworld that thankfully got ride of the old bit of busted with the amount of rerolls you could generate.
Aspects & Exarchs
I really like all the little customization parts in the book. From the Exarchs gaining some extra powers for points and the 3 different styles of Harlequins this is a book built from the ground up to be a multifaceted pile of options. I only wish we got some Exodite love but I am sure you can figure something out and count-as your way to victory.
The Aspect warriors feel very pushed in this edition with a ton of power hosed in those little one wound bodies. The Exarch upgrades do give you some love with extra rules that flow out to the unit and some extra wounds for the leader. There is a ton of little golden nuggets in there and I am sure some player will figure out the broken combo. I really like the Shining Spears as they fit an interesting role of a sharp razor blade that can either cut quick or go for the throat. The Harlequins even get a set of Pivotal roles they can utilize too to give some powers to their Characters.
You also get a ton of Psychic options which is a great thing. I really like how the Farseers now just ignore mortals versus a FNP for them. I always felt it was a bit too powerful but removing the threat of perils just makes more sense. There are 5 different Disciplines in the book with Ynarri, Harlequins, and 3 for the Aeldari. You get the normal sorts of set ups but the interesting thing in this and bodes sadness for other move powers is a nerf to double move options. The Aeldari one allows you to move again but you can’t shoot or assault afterwards. The Harlie option doesn’t let you assault but you can shoot so in some ways it works better for those sneaky Fusion pistols.
The powers I like are from the Runes of Fate with Will of Asuryan giving a unit Objective Secured, auto pass for morale, and they can still shoot after performing an action. There are a lot of boosted options for powers too where if you roll high enough the ranges get longer for the option. Fortune is one of those powers with a 5+ FNP at 18″ or with a high enough roll it goes out to 24″. A lot of these powers are locked in Core and Character options so while powerful they do have a chance to be balanced if need be.
The Runes of Fortune have a gain command point power which seems interesting as the book is full of Stratagems. It also has Witchstrike which gives a unit the ability to cause a Mortal wound on each successful Wound role. There is no limit to this so this seems pretty powerful with +1 to wound stacks. Ghostwalk is also another powerful option too with a flat +2 to charge roles given to a unit.
Army Rules, Relics & Warlord Traits
The extra Rules Eldar get are Battle Focus and Strands of Fate. Both of these seem flavorful and powerful. Thankfully Battle Focus has a nice limitation with losing 3″ if you move into terrain. This helps keep things from getting obnoxious as units flip around walls etc. Strands of Fate feels like an interesting ability along the lines of Faith points with a little less “control” that you have with Sisters. Will see if either of these powers become a problem but overall I think they are decent.
On the Relic front there are a ton of Exarch relics to choose from. The ones for regular Aeldari end up being a lot of weapons but two seem interesting. I really like the Bike relic that gives the biker a 20″ movement with Objective Secured. That seems pretty powerful. Harlequins get a ton of relics as well which is neat. Each of the Craftworlds gets a Relic set as well as the Ynarri. I don’t know how many will see taken but it feels like there are a lot of options to create a unique little murder machine.
Finally there are a lot of Warlord traits in this book. The Craftworlds each get one, 6 for regular Aeldari, and 3 more for Harlequins. They all range in the basic Aura buddies, gaining CP, and some protection options. I like the Harlequin one that makes one wound, save, or hit roll a 6 per turn. Just having that option could make for a real pain in the butt dancing queen as it rummages through your army.
The Bad
I mention some of the small nerfs with movement tricks but some other things got hit. Dark Reapers no longer auto hit on 3’s anymore so that is a bit of a bummer. On top of that we didn’t get nearly as many Aspect Warrior model updates so new players will find it hard to get all the options for an army. This makes it just hard to “start” playing Eldar unless someone is willing to lone out their old models.
The units are very expensive points-wise. A lot of these Aspect Warriors end up being 18+ points for a 1 wound model. You add in the Exarch Upgrade to try and get a 3 wound jerk to tank a few wounds and you start to see how hard it is to get everything you need in a list. Its why I look at things like Shining Spears to be your main “carries” of the Aspect warrior torch as all the other options end up being squishy.
Lethal but Delicate
This also means that things like Tau and other high rate of fire options can be very rough for this army to survive on the table top. If they can’t get their powers up and they are giving a rain of missiles/bullets it will be hard to come back from as they lose their damage potential. This means players are going to have to utilize a lot of tricks to throw models back into reserves or hide them as best as they can.
It means a lot of time the Aeldari player will be trying to catch up on points as they spent too long trying to be safe. It also has me wonder if Dark Eldar are going to be a rough match up as they can match their speed and while Squishy they do have some tough/fast options in Grotesques and Wyches. There is nothing worse than trading your expensive model for a few cheap ones.
We might see a push to Wave Serpent a lot of things up which can push you to giving up some Secondary points to armies that can punch threw your army. Those pesky Tau will just love shooting all of those floating vehicles to death. A lot of armies will love shooting those vehicles to death.
The Secondaries do not feel as auto take as other books as they rely a lot on an opponent having things you can do against them. This feels like a good thing as we have a few books that have way to easy Secondaries to deal with right now so while its bad for the Aeldari it is a good thing for the game.
The Ugly
The weird part of this book is the push to have Corsairs in it but there are no Craftworld rules for them other than the Datasheet listed. This feels like an odd addition to this book and makes me think a new Campaign will be coming out with some “Army of Renown” sets of rules to utilize. This again frustrates me a bit as this is a massive book but we don’t have all the rules for it.
The Verdict
Overall the book seems good as any new Eldar book is. It shows a lot of speed to get around the table and damage potential to put the hurt on players armies. It is also massive with a ton of options in the book which is a good thing for all those pesky space elf players out there. I know I will be frustrated by the book as I have always hated the Eldar in all my years of fighting fake battles on a tabletop.
~”Ask not the Eldar a question, for they will give you three answers, each true and horrifying to know.”
