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Friday, May 24, 2013

Codex Eldar: What We Know


There is a lot of information out now on what is revealed out of the new White Dwarf for the Eldar codex. This is one codex that is looking better and better the more I information I get, and wow, those Wraithknights are huge. This is looking by far to be one of the best releases of the year.
This is by far the best recap of Eldar information I have found.
Please remember that until we get the codex in hand, that some information may still be slightly different than listed
via TastyTaste over on Blood of Kittens
Most of the rules information can be gathered from the Battle Report section of the White Dwarf. Here is what we know.
  • Wraithknight: Can get Suncanons: S6 AP2 Blast Heavy 3. Twin-linked with Laser Lock if Scatter Lasers hit first. Jump Pack, Monstrous Creature, 6 Wounds, T8, (Scattershield) for Invulnerable Save
  • Crimson Hunter (Fighter): Gets 2 Bright Lances and Pulse Laser : "Basically Four Lascannons" Gets a "Fighter Ace upgrade"
  • The Hemlock (Bomber): Gets D-scythes (Str4) and Mindshock (Morale Check) Pod (Bomb)  Distort Rule (D-Weapons) any penetration roll of 6 auto pens regardless of strength.
  • Psychic Powers: Fortune (Re-roll Saves), Quicken (Increased Movement), Guide (re-roll hits), Restrain (Opposite of Quicken) Two sets of powers accessible.
  • Dire Avengers: Battlefocus: run and shoot in the same turn.
  • Avatar: Fearless bubble, Fleet
  • Wraithblades: T6 Forceshield Generator so invulnerable save
  • Wraithlord: is still T8
The focus of the battle report was of course on the new units, especially the Wraithknight it is almost like GW wants us to buy a certain model or something...
Other little tidbits...
  • Phil Kelly wrote the rules and Adam Troke the fluff.
  • No price yet for Iyanden Supplement
  • Wraithguard can get either Wraithcannon or the D-scythe so this might mean split on rules from the old dex between each weapon.
  • The force organization of Eldar Unit hasn't changed just new models added into slots
  • Wraithknight to Heavy Support
  • Flyers to Fast Attack
  • Wraithblades to Elite
  • Spirit Seer to HQ
  • Named Ranger to HQ
As for the rumors floating around here is some cut and paste love from around the internet.
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 (S:10 T:8 W:6 AS:3+, Jump-pack
- 2 heavy Phantom lasers (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 S:6 5" Blast with AP2. with 5+ invul and blind special rule.
Somach Phantomhunter (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)
- New 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 AP3 and +1 S or can get a 4+ invul with a single AP2 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
Ililic Nightspear (hq 140 points)
- Alaitoc character 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 S:X AP2 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 new Eldar psychic disciplines: Runes of Battle and Runes of Fate (for Rune prophet and Runeseer respectively)
- Runes of Battle have always 2 effects, for example granting Shrouding or taking Shrouding off the enemy unit.
-Runes of Fate : 4 warpcharges, 2 powers, very strong and offensive
via Powerguy over on Dakka
Got a sneak peek of the White Dwarf today, managed to dig out some actual rules from the battle report, preview teasers and a couple of tiny pages from the codex that were printed in the WD that I managed to read. Not many stats on offer but still a reasonable chunk of rules. I'm probably mis-remembering the names of some of these rules but here is what I picked up in no particular order:
- 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).
"Fire Dragon WS 4 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 5 A 1
Fire Dragon Exarch WS 5 BS 5 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 1
Wargear:
Heavy Aspect Armor (3+)
Fusion Gun
Melta Bombs
Special Rules:
Ancient Doom
Battle Focus
Fleet
- 5 Dragons 110 points
Options
up to 5 more at 22/model
1 Exarch upgrade 10
Exarch may take Dragon's Breath Flamer for free or Firepike 15pts
Exarch may take up to two of the following exarch powers:
Iron Resolve 5pts
Crushing Blow 10pts
Fast Shot 10pts
May use a Wave Serpent as a Dedicated Transport.
So, Fire Dragons pick up a 3+ save, but jumped up in price by 6 points a head."
That is the latest it looks like and don't forget pre-orders are up on GW site.

71 comments:

  1. They look insane so far, the wraithknight specifically has me worried(though the flyer isn't much better)

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  2. No kidding. What a joke by GW, their product hasn't even been released yet, and there's already an amendment to it.

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  3. Any word on the supposed monofilament rule? I would suppose the night spinner, spiders, and Harlies would be in line for? Liking rules from what I'm hearing so far. Still not going to buy super Barbie, but definitely sounds like current WG models are still very viable.

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  4. So relieved to see Faeit212 up again, this is such a quality site for news and rumours, it was such a shame to see it go down.

    On a related note, it seems like the eldar are getting a lot of really powerful stuff, a lot of which (boosting BS/granting re-rolls, moving-shooting-moving) were previously unique to Tau. Granted these are still rumours but has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

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    1. FYI, re-rolls and move shoot move were actually unique to and originally exclusive of the Eldar.

      I refer to the Crystal Targeting Matrix which let Vehicles move shoot then move in the movement phase, Warp Spiders and Eldar Jetbikes could always move in Assault Phase and so on. Eldar also had powers to allow re-rolls for hits and saves and later wounds =/.

      Higher BS through Marker Lights was only thing unique to Tau.

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    2. Huh, I knew warp spiders could do that but I've never heard of this crystal targeting matrix before, I'm assuming that was from the 2nd/3rd ed eldar codex?

      Thanks for calling me out on the jetbikes though, I completely forgot they could do that.

      The re-rolls used to be only granted by guide, which could only be used on one unit at a time so it wasn't an issue. But by the sounds of things, anything hit by a scatter weapon first will twin-link the rest of that model's shots, so that could lead to some pretty universal re-rolls for a lot of eldar units.

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    3. There is loads of re-roll stuff in the existing codex; Guide, Doom, Fortune, Embolden. It's basically what existing Eldar do. To me the 'laser lock' rule sounds more like something only on the WK and possibly one of the flyers.

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  5. I'm a bit worried about the packed heavy support sections

    I was really hoping falcons would be fast attack or dedicated.

    I always use 2 falcons and a squad of dark reapers, but I'm also looking at getting a wraithknight and I've got a few war walkers :(

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    1. I feel that 2,000 points is the answer to your problems!

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  6. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/codex-eldar/id650051920?mt=11, check out the last image as it reveals point costs and upgrades for fire dragons, yes they have got more expensive as a ten man squad with no upgrades appears to be 210pts, but they have also been given a increase in armour!

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    1. Plus fleet! And Run & Shoot at the same time special rule.

      Considering melta's are assualt weapons.

      Interesting new mobility.

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  7. I have to ask: Exarchs with the same profile as regular mooks? WS/BS 4? Not sure how I feel about that, honestly.

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    1. Don't think that is accurate at least for the Warp Spiders. Warp Spider Exarch is +1 WS/BS/I.

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  8. Just wondering if anyone knows where the iyanden supplement is as it is not shown on the GW websites and also looking at the spirit seers details there is no mention of it being limited edition so no need to worry, but where is this iyanden thing because i have seen the pics of it from white dwarf but why is it not sowing up on the website preorders?

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  9. It is being released a week later according to the White Dwarf, for what reason.. I have no idea..

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  10. It's not the weapon of the tank, it's the weapon of the heavy support weapon.

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  11. I can see the bandwagon swiftly leaving tau behind on this one! not that I'm too disappointed!

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  12. Better guns, twice as many wounds, jump....seems quite a bit of stuff over the WL.

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  13. Downloaded the preview of the Codex on iPad. Not as telling as the High Elf book, but it does have some weapon stats:

    Shuriken Catapult 12" S4 AP5 Assault 2, Bladestorm
    Shuriken Cannon 24" S6 AP5 Assault 3, Bladestorm

    Bladestorm: When a weapon with this special rule rolls a 6 To Wound, the target is wounded automatically and the Wound is resolved at AP2.

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    1. I'm somehow disappointed that the catapult range wasn't increased. Unless there's some surprise, guardians will remain barely playable.

      The bladestorm is nice, especially if doom still works as it used to work.

      By the way, if bladestorm is the special thing of the shuriken weapons, I wonder what special ability the Dire Avengers will get?

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    2. something else. I think they have reworked the exarch powers. The Fire Dragons lost Crack shot, and gained 2 more, but can only buy 2 of 3.

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    3. Well that is a little much... rending on the basic gun...

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    4. Not Rending JayDee, it doesn't do anything to vehicles.

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    5. I forgot about the extra d3 to armour pens...

      Still it pretty much is rending minus that.

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    6. Yeah, rending on a whole 12". Game breaking ;]

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    7. Good gods JayDee!!! Are you kidding!? We all know that you use Gauss and Tesla as your basic weaponry and yet you're balking at the new shuriweapon rule? Rethink it a bit.

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  14. Just noticed there are 360 degree shots of all the eldar phoenix lords, even the metal ones. Can anyone confirm if it was like this previously?

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  15. Considering how many mistakes they made in the DA book rushing it out like that, I'm glad there is only on mistake in this book. They're getting better.

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Reportedly from the Ibook teaser:
      Shuriken Catapult 12" S4 AP5 Assault 2, Bladestorm
      Shuriken Cannon 24" S6 AP5 Assault 3, Bladestorm

      Bladestorm: When a weapon with this special rule rolls a 6 To Wound, the target is wounded automatically and the Wound is resolved at AP2.


      Anything else you can tell me about Vipers?

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  17. Christ GW, stop with the rending lite and give us 6"range extensions, that's all we wanted on our guardians. This rending lite is completely wasted on guardians.
    Stupid stupid rule.

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  18. Works for getting rid of anyone dropping a pod in close. Catapult is a defensive weapon anyway. Bulk, short range firepower. For the one round in the game the Guardians will use them actually helps hold vs assault too. I like it

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    1. You do realize that a 10 man guardian squad will rend 0.5 times per overwatch volley?

      TOTALLY AWESOME RIGHT GUYS?

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    2. You and your math hammer. It's all about luck at the end of the day and if you're waiting until you're being assaulted to shoot you're playing the game wrong. He means the weapons are a deterrent to would be assaulters as once they get into the range of the guns they're going to be ripped apart before they can even assault

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    3. Guardians are bought to hold an objective and provide heavy weapon support. The new catapults help with the first which improves their ability with the second.

      Wouldn't mind seeing the points but I can wait a week.

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    4. they are 60pts for 10 guys. no idea on tge heavy weapon or warlock costs

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    5. Which is why you keep them fortuned. Or take 20-man blobs of them and make anyone in terminator armour think twice before charging you.

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    6. 6 points each is a fairly significant point drop. Depending on what the support weapon costs, this is about where they should be imo.

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  19. Right cause the only way to use guardians is to take them in ten man squads and only use them for overwatch.

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  20. one thing I noticed is that since the vyper is BS4 with nothing other then a shuriken cannon and catapult could it stand to reason that guardians are base BS4? if so the point decrease, ghetto rending, run and shoot and BS4 could make them a totally viable choice.

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  21. I miss the Crystal Targeting Matrix...

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    1. its making a come back as its in the 6th ed book. all vehicles can take all the upgrades so falcons can have holo fields.

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  22. Just a point about the Iyanden Supplement:
    If you look carefully at the WD, it does not come up on the "releases this month page" (p40). It also only appears on the "Digital Products" page. I'm guessing that this is going to be another one of those "For people with IPads only" things. This would explain the lack on the 'Supplement on the GW website.

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    1. My FLGS has it on their release list as a direct only item and I've seen another person on Warseer say that their FLGS could order it, but not the Limited Edition one.

      Speaking of which, there is a Limited Edition of the book too. A bit odd if it really is an iPad only release.

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  23. Another thing I can glean from the Batrep is that the Wraithlord has less strength, and more attacks. Quote: "The wraithlord penetrated the monolith twice with a Smash". So they have more attacks and a strength value that makes it worth smashing stuff. Can somebody confirm?

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    1. Another thing (sorry about the many posts)

      Judging by the WD pics, the wraithknight can move 12". cross reference the turn 1 and turn 2 pics (photoshop them on top of each other and make them more transparent) and you can see this. It also shot that turn.

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    2. Not necessarily. It could be strength 10, but choose to use smash attack to obtain the reroll to the penetration roll. A wraith lord has 2 attacks, and adds 1 for charging (using old rules). At S10 it needs a 5+ to penetrate AV14. So thats 1 in 3 chance of penetrating, and on average 3 attacks will penetrate once. However, if you do a smash attack, you only have 2 attacks, but with a re-roll. So with the re-roll to penetrate your chance to penetrate is 5 in 9 (compared to 1 in 3 which is equal to 3 in 9). With two attacks this is an average of 1.11 penetrations. So you can see that the odds are marginally better for a wraith lord to use a smash attack. In the Bat rep it probably just means that both attacks the wraithlord had (his natural attacks of 2 divided by 2 for smash, plus 1 for charging = 2 attacks total.

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  24. WD Battle Report Debrief Video....(from the Digital WD) says that the Wraithknight is a Jump Monstrous Creature. So yeah, confirmed. 12" move, Hammer of Wrath if it does that for the charge (S10)....

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  25. http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Publication/v4/45/46/e9/4546e91e-fec7-54c1-4ebd-5ca9e7621ffc/Photo_17-05-2013_16_07_45.480x480-75.jpg

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    1. Was linked in the 3++ cahtbox

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    2. Nice to see them getting power armour at the least and exarch with a firepike and fast shot could be fun :P

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  26. Two of the powers for warlocks is Embolden/Horrify and Enhance/Drain. I got it from the promo video on GW site, if you look very careful. Didn't see anybody mention that before.

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  27. Ok, so how are we (Tau) supposed to destroy even one of those Wraithknights?? Let alone three!? I mean if the thing can kill a Riptide with a single shot (wraithcannon) and the majority of Tau weapons wound it on a 5+ (Or only cause 1 wound if overcharging), It can reliably assault any unit we have without suffering any damage (Unless you're super-lucky!).
    I seriously hope it to be a 1/army unit.. Otherwise it's impossible to stop.

    I seriously think this codex will be the apex of the other 6th codices.

    /end rant

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    1. 3 wraithlords are probably equivalent...

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    2. Also Tau are lucky. At least you wound it on 6s with your basic weapons. Bolters can't do sh*t

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    3. You are worrying about the tau? Tyranid players are also wondering how to take these down!

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    4. Sniper drones..........lot's of sniper drones.

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    5. why would nids have an issue taking them down? virtually every unit we can take has the option for poison in cc. other then DE no other book is as good at killing them lol

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    6. Kroot with sniper rounds wud help too.

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    7. Tyranids are worrying? Um, assault it with poison and laugh hysterically.

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    8. Everyone is worrying about how to kill one of these things. I'm also a Tau player and our best chance is to use sniper kroot, sniper drones and crisis helios teams with a puretide chip.

      In all honesty, this wraith knight seems like something I would have expected to come out of Forge World for apocalypse games, not regular games as it seems so expensive and powerful you'll have to build your army around it to make the most of it.

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    9. You think you've got it rough? Two Words: Black Templars

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  28. Fight it like you would fight an av 13 or so vehicle

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  29. Whats the "B M S" on the fire dragon box on the picture posted above?

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    1. I think they are "clickable" shortcuts within the digital ipad version

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  30. 1. Embolden / Horrify.

    Fearless for Psyker and his unit or target enemy unit must take a morale check.

    2. Enhance/Drain.

    +1 WS and I for Psyker and his unit or target enemy unit is -1 WS and I.

    - CrAzY

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  31. It only has one more wound than a riptide, the biggest difference I can see are its weapons, those phantom laser things seem designed to one-hit MCs (if you get a six to wound) and tanks.

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