So what's the deal? Tons of changes to 40k since I have last posted. Grey Knights, Space Wolves, and my favorite Dark Eldar all got new books. Rumors of Blood Angels and Necrons incoming as well shortly. I know almost nothing about the GK and SW books but I do have my fresh DE book sitting next to me, and my initial thoughts are that it is fantastic!
There definitely some good and some bad with the book, and I will go into those as the weeks go by. I will do an in-depth analysis of the units and rate them. Remember these will be initial thoughts as I have played ZERO 40k for about 5 months now. This initial thoughts will just be things I am excited about to use and some of the special rules.
Lets dive in!
The Book: The art in the book is fantastic! I love the new work and the fluff behind everything. I like the new Kabals and Cults and Covens that are mentioned and the paint schemes that accompany them. The layout is the same as the newer books (or so I'm told). Flipping back to the Armory page is a little annoying, but I almost know all of the point costs already, so that is minor. Overall, love the artwork, the fluff, and the general layout of the book.
Warlord Traits: All of the other books I have seen the Warlord traits seem lackluster. The Iyanden Supplement are the only ones I actually like because they are useful. The DE Traits are pretty good. Some so-so ones, and then you have a couple that are straight boss. The Table is below.
1- All DE within 12" of warlord have Fear
2- Re-roll Seize the Initiative, Night Fighting, and Reserves (Boss!)
3- Warlord has Rage
4- Warlord has Hatred
5- Warlord has +1 Weapon Skill
6- All DE within 12" of warlord are Fearless (Boss!)
So looking at them, 2 and 6 are the real winners. 6 loses effectiveness once turn 5 hits, but having that initial Fearless bubble for the first 4 turns is nice. And rerolling all that goodness for result #2 is just straight money. The re-roll to reserves is where its at as almost all DE players will have some sort of Reserves. The others all have uses, and help out your CC characters. Hatred is nice as it is to everyone and confers to the squad. the Rage is nice, just make sure you have a sweet CC character. Fear is lackluster, but has some use. +1 WS is really only nice on the Succubus as it would make her WS 9 and have to be hit on 5's by normal dudes. All in all, they are ok. I might just roll on Strategic because there are more useful ones.
Special Rules
Power From Pain- Now instead of the counters it goes turn by turn. As the game goes on, your army will get stronger and stronger. I have heard a TON of flakk about this as people seem to think that DE should be super buff in the beginning and as the battle wages on, they diminish. But this directly contradicts the fluff they have. As DE kill, maim, rape, MURDER, they get stronger and feel the ecstasy that is death. But this is usually coming from the ultra competitive, could care less about the fluff and only give me point and click units crowd. Back on topic.... So each turn the DE get an extra benefit and continue getting stronger. The table is below:
Turn 1- Nothing
Turn 2- FnP 6+
Turn 3- FnP 5+
Turn 4- FnP 5+, Furious Charge
Turn 5- FnP 5+, Furious Charge, Fearless
Turn 6+- FnP 5+, Furious Charge, Fearless, Rage
Wow! This is pretty awesome! Straight up benefits for no cost! Only a few units do not have Power From Pain, but I'll go into that with the unit analysis. DE can begin to have some resiliency starting Turn 2 and only get stronger and more resilient after! I like the new table and enjoy the new mechanic. Pain Tokens sometimes were a pain to keep track of, now there is no need!
Night Vision- Although DE had this before, I believe it is even better now. Negating Stealth for those Jinkers and first turn hide and seekers is great. First turn, depending on the list you bring is still paramount for DE. It is a nice little buff to have.
Combat Drugs- The all powerful Combat Drugs are back and hopefully here to stay! I believe they got a major upgrade from the last batch. for starters, you still roll once and all units with CDs get that result. The table is below.
1- +1 Attack
2- +1 Strength
3- +1 Initiative
4- +1 Toughness (CRAZY!)
5- +1 Weapon Skill
6- +1 Leadership
The thing I like most is that all of these are useful! Unlike the last codex, 3D6 Run pick the highest, was rolled WAY too often! And now you don't need the FnP Drug because you get it for free starting Turn 2! I think the winner is +1 Toughness... T4 Wyches, T5 Reavers?!!?! It can get nasty and I look forward to trying out some Wych Cult stuff, though I am traditionally a Kabal guy. Overall the Combat Drugs are great!
Deepstrike- So all Venoms, Raiders, and Ravagers have Deepstrike! Say what?!?! Awesome! Tired of having all of your Venoms die first turn? Deepstrike them! I don't personally see myself doing this often, but the benefit is nice and think it is worth considering.
*As an aside, there is a debate online about Skimmers when they Deepstrike in. Some are claiming that when they Deepstrike in, if they happen to land on another model, they are to be moved the minimum distance away from the models.
Pg. 89 Moving Skimmers, 3rd Paragraph- "If a Skimmer is forced to end its move over friendly or enemy models, move the Skimmer the minimum distance so that no models are left underneath it."
Then everyone can read what Deepstrike says on Pg. 162 in the BRB.
Personally I am on the fence about it. I do feel like Deepstriking a kind of movement and when Deepstriking that is the movement you are using during the Movement phase. However, it seems rather powerful and I always air on the side of caution with things like this. If a TO were to rule either way, it wouldn't effect me much and I wouldn't complain one way or the other. If I were a TO I would actually rule in favor of being able to DS on top of another unit then moving them a minimum distance away from the models they landed on (much like a Drop Pod). I won't bring fluff into it at all like others have, as that just complicates things and does not reflect what actually happens on the table top.
So where do we go from here? Well, I will go section by section in the new DE book and rate each entry out of 10. I will start with the HQ Section and go on through the book. I will tell you, though most people don't see the potential, I do and what I love the most is that we no longer NEED Eldar to be competitive.
Stay tuned and have fun! Comment and let me know your initial thoughts! I also have some exciting news I will share with everyone by week's end!
