6th Edition: What It Means For Eldar And Grey Knights

SeerK here to have a sit down with all of you about 6^th edition and how its affecting the Eldar and the Grey Knights. After reading the rulebook for the few hours that I have had it, I have some thoughts and observations to share about my favorite army and my new army. Wolfson will be bringing you coverage of the Dark Eldar and Eldar as well. I will be going more in depth on the Eldar and Dark Eldar back over on Craftworld Lansing also.

Let's take a look at my thoughts so far ...

The biggest thing, in my mind, that is really different and affects both armies is the new prominence of psychic powers. Powers are more clearly defined in the core rules as to when they are used. You now have Blessings, Conjurations and maledictions, which are all used in the movement phase. You also have Witchfire which is used in the shooting phase. Witchfire is broken down into beams, focused witchfire, maelstroms and novas.

You also have the new “Deny the Witch” rule which gives squads an opportunity to nullify the power. The targeted unit will nullify the power directed towards them on a roll of a 6. This can be improved by having psykers in the squad, By +1 if the psyker is of equal or lesser mastery level and +2 if the psyker is of a higher mastery level then the psyker manifesting the power. This gives armies bereft of psykers the ability to counter the powers. Psychic hoods have been semi nerfed in that they only have a range of 6 inches. The user of the hood can be counted as part of the unit for deny the witch rolls as long as he is within 6 inches. The deny the witch rule makes taking Warlocks in Guardian squads even better. You get a chance to nullify powers on a 5+ and you can add some bite to the unit.

Eldar are in somewhat of a bind with some of the new powers as they specify that it only affects the psyker manifesting the power and not the squad. The brotherhood of psykers/ sorcerers rule, foreshadowing of chaos?, makes a unit count as one “psyker” for power purposes. This of course is inbuilt to the Grey Knights but not the Eldar. Warlocks now theoretically count as a mastery level 0 psyker ,thanks to the FAQ, and they don’t count as a brotherhood of psykers. Also only Farseers can swap out codex powers for the new discipline powers.

That takes me to mastery level. As I understand it the book states that a psykers mastery level is equal to the number of powers they can manifest in a turn. This would mean an Eldar Farseer, as long as he takes Spirit Stones, is mastery level 2, while a Warlock is mastery level  0 because his power is always active and does not require a warp charge. Grey Knights should look long and hard at upping the mastery levels of their characters. Mastery level 3 librarians can make units quite devastating, considering Grey Knights have access to the Divination, Pyromancy and telekinesis disciplines. The new powers can only be accessed by Librarians and Inquisitors. Eldar get some extra bite with the powers in the Divination and Telepathy disciplines, but again in both cases some of these new powers will only affect the actual caster and not the unit they may be in.

I have to say I was saddened to see the witchblade has been changed. Really it only effects its ability against vehicles. It still wounds on the 2+, thanks to the fleshbane rule, and it gets 2d6 for armor penetration, thanks to armorbane, but it is only the same strength as the user. So in this case strength 3 on your average Eldar psyker. This makes them slightly less effective as you are only averaging a total penetration roll of 10 rather than 12.

Eldar Pathfinders get a nice kick in effectiveness though. Sniper weapons still wound on a 4+, but on a roll to hit of 6, you get to allocate the wound. Thats right kids we have a squad of baby vindicares. This means you get to place an AP1 potentially rending shot on whoever you want.

Jetbikes are going to be almost essential now, in my opinion. Eldar bikes now get to move 2d6 in the assault phase and can move up to 36 inches when turbo boosting, as they get an additional 24” of movement when turbo boosting in the shooting phase . They also have the hammer of wrath rule, which are basically impact hits. They have the jink rule as well so they get a 5+ cover save when they move normally and a 4+ when they turbo boost . This is pretty nice and really ups the survivability of the bikes when they move. The real reason they will be essential for me is that vehicles can no longer contest objectives and units must be out of the vehicle to claim or contest an objective. Late game wave serpent turbo boots will no longer save the game. It will be up to your ultra mobile jet bike squadrons to fill this roll.

Speaking of objective holding. The new Warlord rules make some units pretty nice when holding objectives. One of them grants the warlord and unit he is with FNP when they are within 3 inches of an objective. So your Grandmaster and just a regular squad of terminators can hold an objective with some gusto. A Farseer with a unit of Striking Scorpions or Dire Avengers become pretty tough to uproot.

The Warlord rules also can make your Avatar of Khaine a truly inspiring figure. Daemon is now a universal special rule so his invulnerably save would be a 5+ but is still a 4+, Thanks to the FAQ, and he causes Fear. Add in his inspiring presence and a nice Warlord rule, which sadly is random, and you can have some real fun. An Avatar that’s a scoring unit or a unit having to test for fear using the lowest leadership value in the unit. I think I just found a way to destroy the grotesque star............

Techmarines are going to have some major utility as it looks as if their blessing of omnissiah lets you restore hull points, but the rhino repair ability does not.  I also like that they specify in the FAQ that walkers given the Grand Master ability do in fact count as scoring units.

I did run into a weird situation involving some Grey Knight Weapons. So with weapons now being differentiated, IE power weapons are now power swords, axes ext, how is this affecting the Nemesis weapons. Staves now have an AP value of 4 but they have the concussive special rule. Halberds count as axes, at least how the book reads, so they will strike at I 3, initiative 1 with the +2 the weapon provides, and +1 strength with an AP value of 2. The rulebook also says that there are unique weapons with special rules and they take precedence. It looks rather clear because it references Halberds as a Force Axe.  The FAQ does state that they count as unusual force weapons though.   I will take AP 2 at 3 initiative, but not being able to hit most things first is going to require some adjustment in tactics.

By no means are any of us experts here and we are learning just like everyone else. We are really excited to read any feedback you may have about the new edition or anything I have said here tonight. Stay tuned as the other authors are learning and looking to post their thoughts soon.

Well that's all for now. I am still sorting through the rules. As I said I will have more specific Eldar and Dark Eldar observations and thoughts over at Craftworld Lansing.

Until next time..............

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!