More Coven info:

Formations

1 - urien or haemy plus 2 units of grots - d6 roll at start of game for grots - +1S, +1T, fleet, shred, rage, 4+ FNP

2 - 1 haemy, 1 chronos, 2 units of wracks - all wracks gain precision strike, wracks treat turn 1 higher for pfp. if haemy is the warlord he gets trait 4 automatically

3 - 2 units of wracks in 2 venoms - if a unit in this formation scores first blood, gain D3 vp rather than 1. Wracks must start embarked an in reserve. Deployed turn 1 via deep strike

4 - unit of 5 Talos - gain scout. Score an extra vp for any non vehicle unit killed in combat

5 - 1 haemy, 1 Chronos, 1 Talos - form a single unit. Characters may not join it outside of this formation. Talos and chronos gain +1ws and init. If haemy is warlord, gain trait 1 automatically

6 - 1 haemy, 3 units of wracks with raiders. Master of pain from haemy confers to all units in this formation within 12". Warlord trait 5 if haemy is warlord

7 - all 6 formations as above in 1 formation - called the carnival of pain. Urien form formation 1 has his master of pain rule confer to whole formation. All non vehicles reroll 1's to wound in combat

 

So this saturday is the release of the dex and painting guide right?

Also things don't seem too bad.

 

That it is.

 

I also think that, as soon as the initial shock of the (somewhat harsh) nerfs has blown over, the new codex will stand pretty strong.

PfP changes with that "near mandatory" relic is huge. Reavers losing bladevanes, but gaining rending HoW and such a steep price decrease (16PPM just makes them good).

Scourges will end up in quite a few lists. The combination of eldar units with WWP and FA none DT raiders/venoms has huge repercussions as well. It's a bit of a shame that they will need allies to bail them out a bit, but I play GKs... it stings, but you'll get over that.

If those new coven formations are true, FoC limitations are almost gone for DE armies who do want to play with usable talos/cronos units. That one formation with Haemy, talos and cronos is one unit can be pretty nasty if the Haemy can take a WWP.

The original codex might be a bit bland, but with covens, the dynamic of it changes very quickly. I pray that they do something similar for my GKs one day, but I'm afraid that's idle hope.

 

I'm with you on the scourges. I can see them being the new 'blasterborn' of the old book.

I think the consistent increase of Power From Pain over the game will make some strategies a little more viable and easier to execute.
For example, you now don't have to worry about whether a unit gets fed or not, and thus do not have to prioritse them or give them the standard haemo-babysit to get the early boost.

I think the loss of bladevanes will hurt Reavers as far as inclusion goes. We used to have a nifty unit that could kill a handful of GEQs and blast a tank without too much bother.. we now have a unit that cannot do that - something I would imagine Scourges will do to a greater effect, and blasterborn being a safer option.

I can't see me having to make too many changes to my current play style, the extended effects of splinter racks to splinter cannons actually suits me wonderfully.
however, we've lost our bruiser Archon, so I guess we'll just have to wait for Vect to reappear and see what over-costed bollocks he brings to the table.

 

The new PfP is not only more reliable, but also less of a pain in the butt to keep track off. You could only reliably kill one thing a turn anyway as a rule of thumb... It ticking on will mean so much more of your army will benefit from this rule.

I still think reavers are just plain awesome. They cost as much as a grey hunter with extra CC weapon... and they still shoot with a rifle if need be, CC well if need be, jink on a 3++ if need be, turboboost a massive distance... at -6 ppm, making them only marginally more expensive than marines, I'll take the loss of bladevanes ANY day, especially now with Hit&Run. I'm not sure about cluster calltrops, as HoW is done against armor facing, but I can see big units of reavers clocking in around 200p with some upgrades, to be be dangerous.

I think losing some power in the archon might just get offset by his new court though... But lack of AP2 does hurt him a lot.

 

I get the feeling a friend of mine will not be happy when I see him this weekend.

 

I will just drop this here: a court comprised by a shooty archon with webway portal, 9 Medusae, in a disintegrator raider. gotta love the pain. for extra cheese, take another :biggrin:

 

Not really a fan of the new PfP - I'm not sure how differently Dark Eldar will play with the new book but I'll bet it's pretty much the same as before, and how they were before is that they won on turn one or two, three max. If the enemy had guns left by turn three, they died horribly.

I simply don't see the game continuing in a meaningful way for long enough to see PfP being relevant.

The two units of Wracks in Venoms formation that gives D3 victory points for First Blood is pretty awesome. 2 Venoms should be enough to wipe out a fire support unit or what have you, especially deep striking on turn one, so kicking the game off with a couple free VPs is a solid choice.

I think we'll see Haemonculi, maybe Courts if the Archon is cheap enough (the aforementioned Medusae in a Raider with a Webway Portal), units of Warriors in Raiders with Night Shields (I still think they'll be incredibly fragile, but armies that aren't Tau, Eldar or CSM could struggle with a large number of 3+ cover vehicles even at AV10), and then Scourges with Haywire Blasters filling anti-tank. DE have always struggled dealing with armour in my experience, especially so in 6th; Haywire now seems the objectively better choice despite being removed from the highly accessible platform of Wyches.

 

Archons are 60 base.

 

Release email is out:

 

Am currently reading. Will need a day or two to make any real decisions.

 

My mate got the Dracon edition. It looks pretty cool. Way better than the joke that the GK limited edition was... /sigh

 

General consensus at my game store is that the book is good, there's a few warlord traits that are bad but otherwise it's a good book.

 

I think overall, as long as GW can keep on this basic power level for the codexes the DE should be pretty okay. I feel like that as long as Tau and Eldar get properly nerfed the game should come out a lot more balanced in the long run and we should be seeing a more interesting meta arise out of it.

 

I love both of the Succubus models, it's too bad that Wyches aren't as strong as they used to be. Voidraven Bomber is beautiful as are plastic wracks, just don't know about that Archon's head. Looks like a sweet release!

 

The Archon model needs work to make it any way decent.

I plan of green-stuff'ing a substantial cloak over the flesh shawl he currently has, using it as a base.
Standard arm swap isn't tricky, neither is a head swap.

I do like the model, but the head is a disgrace, in comparison to some from the warrior sprue and various other 'elves' from the brand... as are the various skulls, and the rib cage on the ground is just pathetic.