Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K – 10th Edition Aeldari – the Good, Bad, & the Ugly
Goatboy here again to talk about the Aeldari and how they are a rough, formidable army for 40K 10th Edition.
10th Edition has brought some big rules changes, but there are a few pieces we don’t know about yet – the index themselves is pretty rough to review. The Aeldari do a lot of things on the tabletop very well – and then murders you at the same time.
10th Edition Aeldari are STRONG
I have been playing for a while and every edition has had a rough Eldar list. Whether it is impossible to kill Wave Serpents (needing to roll double 6’s to blow it up), murderous Death Stars (Seer Council, Birds of Doom, or friendly Tau and Friends), or just efficient damage output (Flying Bird Man Jerks and D-Cannons) – the Aeldari are just always super good. It’s always interesting to me as they don’t sell too well from what I know from stores (lack of new models a lot of the time) so why let them be so good?
I am not going to lie to you they are my nemesis army in 40K. I never been a fan of how the Aeldari rules interact with other armies. I think it also has to do with a ton of PTSD from all those past edition games where I couldn’t catch them. Still – let’s do a Good, Bad, and Ugly for the index you will see people complaining about for awhile. Buckle up – the Craftworlds are spicy right now!
Aeldari – The Good
The Fate Dice are pretty nuts. Think of it as Faith Dice that just are better as you can use them all at once per the current rules. Of course you think – well it could keep your guys alive but it isn’t really about that. This army controls how you engage so instead of just keeping models alive it can guarantee it kills your best things. This is all due to stacks of weapon interactions that let a small chance to kill become a guaranteed chance to explode you.
Devastating wounds is probably the rule that is most likely to be over abused. Anything that has that rule mixed with high damage output could become a problem. Mix that with the ability to make it “happen” and make the Damage the maximum and you have a very hard to deal with threat. On top of all of this – you can also use those low roll Fate dice with your friendly neighborhood Farseer to ensure you have a boatload of 6’s to put my army out of misery.
This is all just at the beginning stages of the army and doesn’t even go into how a lot of the units are pretty dang good. Oh and they have a ton of indirect fire that hits well and just murders you. So they don’t even need to see you to remove your threat – all with the power of Fate.
A lot of their units seem good with Striking Scorpions getting a nice glow up with a ton of Sustained hits with Devastating wound combinations that show up. This could be crazy too but thankfully a lot of their damage isn’t in the d6+x category to let that combo less of an issue.
Heck a ton of the army just combos with each other with casting options adding sweet rules the the units they are attached too, a ton of movement abilities, and powerful counter punch options. The army is just good at doing just about anything it wants to do and kills enemies very well.
Fire Prisms actually look amazing too. Heck a lot of their units look amazing. In fact I think it is going to be hard to really make a bad list right now with their Index as everything does it’s specific job very well. I wouldn’t say it is a direct cheat code but it is going to be till people figure out the best ways to remove these Space Elves from the tabletop.
Oh both Avatars look good with Khaine looking rough and tough, while the Yncarne looks super-annoying and tricksy to try and remove. The Yncarne being able to teleport around in waves of death (once per phase) and hitting almost as hard as Khaine is going to be a nutty thing to watch on the tabletop. She is going to get somewhere, punch you so hard in your business parts, and then laugh as she teleports away when a buddy dies a few inches away.
Aeldari – The Bad
A lot of things have fly and the fly keyword is a bit weird. You have move differently pull the rules so it isn’t nearly as amazing as it was before. You are not zipping around without losing some movement going over things. I also expect some things to change for them too – but not nearly as rough of a smack like the Votann did.
Some of the Aspect warriors lost their glow up from before – with Reapers looking a bit weird and Banshees not nearly as exciting as before. All of the Phoenix lords also took a hit (except Fuegan) with no longer having wound caps and needing to be added to a unit to be truly effective. Heck that is the biggest thing in that their rules really only activate when they are with their friends. It just makes it harder to have one run around or if you kill out the unit they are left feeling a lot less exciting.
Aeldari – The Ugly
A lot of the Craftworld fluff just feels like it is gone with this army. It is super efficient, powerful overall detachment rule, but it just doesn’t feel like you are playing one of your specific Craftworlds like you used too. It is kinda less exciting and hopefully they get more sub-faction when their codex comes out and other detachments arrive.
Oh man did Harlequins pay for their initial sins of 9th edition. There is another army that probably got hit harder than them – but these guys are not the same as they were before. Heck they are nowhere close to where they ended up at the end of 9th as well. It is crazy they got wrecked so bad as they feel like an afterthought to the codex. I am guess they will have a dancer detachment later on to bring some flavor back to these guys.
Overall it is an ok book with powerful rules that will get people upset. We have seen this already when an event said they would ban this army even before they came out. I know the video stream had them looking rough and Fire Prisms are finally truly scary to deal with. I think the army just needs some slight tweaks and most likely point adjustments to make it feel more like an army of “elite” options instead of a suppressive unit of Xenos that won’t leave you alone.
“Ask not the Eldar a question – for they will give you three answers, each of which is true and terrible to know.” ~Leman Russ
