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Devil in the Details

Thursday, October 9, 2014


Tonight I wanted to mention a few interesting things I've found in the new Dark Eldar codex, some of which I haven't seen much, if any, discussion about.

UPDATED - rule corrections

I've spent the last week thoroughly enjoying going through the new book for the dark kin. It's easy to gloss over some details on the first couple passes, especially with all the awesome distractions contained within, like new artwork, images, and background. There are a bunch of codex reviews all over the internet already, most of which are pretty negative but there have been a couple beacons of reason among them. It's not all doom and gloom. Here's a couple fun things I'm looking forward to trying out.


The Crucible of Malediction. This piece of Arcane Wargear is only available to the Haemonculus, but it is not limited to one per army; you can take one for each Haemy in your list, and the Coven supplement that drops this weekend gives you the opportunity to field up to 6. Once per game, in place of shooting, this thing causes all psykers all units that contain a psyker within 3D6" to suffer a S6 hit with no saves of any kind allowed. I misread a critical detail about this wargear that drastically reduces its effectiveness. In fact, it's incredibly expensive for only causing a single hit that will most likely be absorbed by fodder in the unit. It could have been so good if it worked the way I first read it, haha!


Another interesting change, Reavers can now be fielded in units of 12 models! Yup, that means up to 4 blasters or heat lances or 4 models with cluster caltrops and a staggering amount of potential S6 Hammer of Wraths. This unit wouldn't be a bad choice for adding an HQ with Webway delivery as you can safely land anywhere (Skilled Riders FTW), melta-lance some heavy armor then use your eldar jetbike assault move to spread out to avoid blasts/templates and mitigate some return fire. Sure the unit can get a bit pricey depending on their loadout but they can be extremely deadly on the drop and in future turns on the charge. Man I would have loved to have the option to give my Archon or Succubus a jetbike... maybe next time!

This next section was completely wrong so I gutted it and put something better in its place. The credit for this brilliant combo goes to Nick Thrower who I first saw propose this idea on another blog. Thanks Nick!


Shadow Spectres are a rare aspect warrior with gorgeous models produced by Forge World. More than that, they have some pretty amazing rules. Namely, Shadow of Death, which causes enemy units within 12" to roll an extra D6 when taking Leadership tests/Morale checks, using the two highest dice to resolve the test (Fearless models are immune). Pair this with Freakish Spectacle, Armour of Misery, Archangel of Pain, and Soulfright weapons to ruin your opponent's non-fearless units' day. This combination turns up the Leadership & Fear shenanigans to overdrive!

There's so many combos to try with the new Dark Eldar! What do you think about these? What other little gems have you uncovered from Commorragh?

6 comments:

  1. Wow joe...4 Caltrops in one unit? Holy crap! That's some serious hurt. Mathhammer say's you'll kill about 6 marines just in the HOW phase!

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    1. The unit gets pretty expensive with that many but it can sure dish out some damage. Time for me to finish building those last couple boxes of Reavers so I can try it out!

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  2. Hi joe, first time reader here, though Greg knows me from my blog.

    There's a couple of issues with the above, first the crucible doesn't hit the psyker, it hits their unit. Fine for the seer council but not much use against anyone else. Second, jump infantry can't embark in transports I'm afraid.

    Nice to see positivity about the codex though, I really like it!

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    1. Hi Nick, thanks for the comment and for straightening those things out for me! You are absolutely correct. I missed that detail about the crucible which definitely reduces the effectiveness and is not nearly as good as I previously thought it to be. And thank you for correcting me on jump infantry and transports, I don't know how I missed that line in the BRB specifically excluding them! For some reason I thought this had changed with 7th ed and it worked like Necron Nightscythes. Ah well! Thank you for clarifying that for me!

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    2. Shantz (our DE player) made all sorts of errors his first game. It's a new codex. We all have to work out the kinks! (he attached a haemy to deep strike the wrack venom formation with a webway....not possible, oops!).

      Which reminds me...why in the heck can't venoms hold 6 things? RIDICULOUS.

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    3. Indeed! Wracks and Trueborn used to be 3 minimum instead of 5 so you could squeeze them in, but GW wants to sell more Raiders, haha. I definitely need to get more games in... use it or lose it applies to 40k too I'm discovering :)

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