This is an article by TheKingElessar. Apparently he runs a blog and is well-known and respected (personally I've never heard of him) on the blogosphere. In this rather...crazy article, TKE looks at the age of the Eldar codex and attempts to make a counts-as Footdar list using...Grey Knights. Go figure and let the Internet rage. Oh and he has made little comments to himself in blue.
Eldar Suck.
There, I said it.
Disagree?
You probably suck too.
There, now that intro is neatly out of the way, let’s move on to what spurred this.
As everyone knows, the Eldar Codex was designed for a previous Edition of the game, when things worked quite differently, and the things you needed to fight against were very different. While the book was written with the kind of redundancy and foreknowledge that it was, enabling it to stand the test of time fairly well and keep Eldar semi-competitive, each further release further obsoletes the mono-build that Eldar have become more and more, and lessens the viable options we have. In essence, there is now but one way to play any Eldar list, and the list is going to be 80% or more the same as everyone else’s - in ethos if not in exact choices. (For more on Ethos in relation to play style, check out my excellent article on the subject here)
How does this lead to this article? Am I merely writing to whine about my lot with a clearly outdated Codex, and how do I not expect this state of affairs when the book came out in like 2008? Nah - I’m not writing to have a moan - but it is unpleasant and true to say that most units in the Eldar Codex aren’t worth ever using competitively. While this is fine most of the time, sometimes people want to use their Warp Spiders or Wraithlords. Not unfairly, I might add. For their age, Spiders are...well…poor, but not terrible. Wraithlords are sweet models, but crippled by the lack of an Invul, the overcosting, and the poor CC ability.
With each Codex release (as I began earlier) the Wraithlord in particular has become worse and worse. First, Marines got Sternguard who laughed at it, and Telion to snipe the Wraithsight-preventing guys nearby. Then the Vendetta with its 27% chance of killing a Wraithlord outright in one phase. Then Long Fangs, RazorSpam, Rupture Cannons, Poison Gaunts and Gants, Hive Guard, BA RazorSpam, cheaper BA Devs, BA Honour Guard…and the GKs have a MUCH better MC with a psychic power ability to go with it. The most psychically-attuned race in the galaxy haven’t psychic MCs, but GKs do, and BA get psychic corpses in amniotic sacks? Huh. Yeah, Green-Eyed Monster(ous Creature) time.
So, let’s have a look at what we can do to redress this balance, and use the GK Codex to represent that forgotten [I wish] army of 40k - Decent FootDar.
To start off, we want 3 Wraithlords. Yeah, we do! Frankly, the Teleporty-thing is such a great option we normally would be hard-pressed to ignore it, but I couldn’t be bothered modelling Wraithlords with giant Hawk Wings, so never mind. Instead, let’s go for the Wraithsword [aka Nemesis Greatsword] the D-Cannon [er…Heavy Psycannon, TKE?] and the Doom Weaver [he must mean Heavy Incinerator…]
Granted, that takes us to 225 points, but Chaos pay that for their Heavy Choices, and that works fine. Kind of. In a way. Well…we shall see.
Next we want troops, no? Yes. Now, quite clearly the base Troops don’t fit. So, let’s dispense with those, and turn to Henchmen. I know there is a furore a-brewing, but I read it as ‘Take up to 6 Troops Henchmen with Inq Coteaz, plus an extra one for each Inquisitor’ - because I initially read it as ‘Up to 3 in Elites, plus one non-FoC extra for each Inquisitor.’ If that’s wrong, then we’re forced to play GKs in every list made with the book…this is a little unfair, IMO. Don’t care what the book’s called, isn’t the point to make Inquisitorial forces legal? *Sad Panda Face*
Assuming we can only take 6, even (but they ARE on the FoC,) allows the following Troops configurations:
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
Translated, that is a squad of 8 Warrior Acolytes, with Carapace Armour and Strom Bolter as Aspect Armour and Avenger Catapult. Perfect fit? Well, no. But sufficient. Four of these Troops makes our list thus far:
Autarch Coteaz: 100 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Subtotal? 1127. Working neatly enough, thus far…but we have no real forward elements. No advance forces to go with the Wraithlords into the teeth of the enemy and cut out their heart…for this we need some form of close combat Aspect Warrior…ah! Howling Banshees, aka Death Cult Assassins. At 15 points apiece, we will require some 8 of these per unit too…six may be preferable, but we aren’t using the Sacred Number of Slaanesh, no way, no how! These units take 120 points each, and use up our Troops allocation, so time to look elsewhere.
No Eldar army would be complete without some form of Farseer, preferably one who has had his body become partially crystalline, in order to make him more resilient to the Mon-Keigh’s medium weaponry, and help prevent Multi-Laser embarrassment. A Level Three Librarian with Nemesis Warding Stave, Eldritch Storm (Warp Rift,) Executioner (Vortex of Doom,) and Conceal (The Shrouding) costs a meagre (!) 250 points, and comes out roughly equivalent to the two Farseers it costs like. Having now spent 1617 points on our FootDar, let’s get the Warp Spiders we want.
Grey Knight Interceptor Squad: Psybolt Ammunition, Exarch (Justicar) has PowerBlades (Nemesis Falchions) - 160 points.
Two of these units takes us to:
Farseer: Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Executioner, Eldritch Storm, Conceal, Runic Armour - 250
Prince Torquemada Yriel: Spear of Twilight, etc. - 100 points
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 88 points.
8 Howling Banshees: Mirrorswords - 120 points
8 Howling Banshees: Mirrorswords - 120 points
5 Warp Spiders: Death Spinner, Exarch w/Power Blades, Jump Generator - 160 points
5 Warp Spiders: Death Spinner, Exarch w/Power Blades, Jump Generator - 160 points
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
SUB: 1937.
With a meagre 63 points to spend, and Elites untouched, let’s have a quick look there, shall we?
What we WANT, sadly, it’s very difficult to afford. We would LOVE to have a Harlequin Shadowseer at this stage…what’s that? How? Easy my friend - we take the humble “Techmarine” and give him the following:
Psychotropic Grenades, Blind Grenades, Nemesis Warding Stave.
This represents the Creidann’s Hallucinogens very well indeed (better than the real rules, IMO!) and gives him a formidable ability to ‘dodge’ close combat attacks, like a Flip Belt would indicate. SURE, he can’t Hit and Run, and his S is up…along with his T. But loss of other stats levels is, really. Harlies aren’t typical Eldar, so expecting a typical statline is a little silly really. The Warp Spiders, btw, gained S and T through the heavy duty armour they wear that also slows them sufficiently to remove Fleet and a point of Initiative. Oh look, fluff justification for rules…the way around it is SUPPOSED to work.
Anyway, getting that gear on the Shadowseer requires trimming the extra 72 points from somewhere - I am leaning towards doing it by dropping one Avenger from each unit for 44, and throwing away one Banshee from each unit for an extra 30. While that is far from ideal in terms of bodies, it creates a threat all-but-impossible to ignore, which can only be a good thing. Works for Wolf Scouts, anyway.
So, there we have it - a different way to approach the Grey Knights Codex, this time from the perspective of using them to revitalise a Codex that misses a way it used to be able to play in previous Editions but was stripped from the present Codex. Okay Haterz, bring it on. Lol
Next time out, I plan to discuss how we can use the GK Codex to revitalise another old-school way to play 40k - want to take bets on what army it’ll be? :P
This has been your One True King, the One King To Rule Them All, Your Eternal Liege Lord, The King Elessar, for 3++.
May your dice never roll below average!
[For those confused by the ramblings of this maniac, here is the final list…]
Farseer: Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Executioner, Eldritch Storm, Conceal, Runic Armour - 250
Prince Torquemada Yriel: Spear of Twilight, etc. - 100 points
Shadowseer: Creidann {Hallucinogen, Blind}, Flip Belt. - 135
7 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 77 points.
7 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 77 points.
7 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 77 points.
7 Dire Avengers: Shuriken Catapult - 77 points.
7 Howling Banshees: Mirrorswords - 105 points
7 Howling Banshees: Mirrorswords - 105 points
5 Warp Spiders: Death Spinner, Exarch w/Power Blades, Jump Generator - 160 points
5 Warp Spiders: Death Spinner, Exarch w/Power Blades, Jump Generator - 160 points
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
Wraithlord: Wraithsword, D-Cannon, Doom Weaver - 225
TOTAL: 1998
