8e - The new stat-line

Sorry to tell you eldur but that's word for word from our (old?) Codex and translates to us being less athletic than a craftworld baker...

I'm not sure how I feel about how they're doing weapon skill. Now, instead of a range of up to 10 different weapon skills to represent the vast differences from a cowardly grot(2) to a space marine(4), to a named general(5-8 ), to an avatar of the god of war(10), we will only have 5 different weapon skills(2+ to 6+).

Roboute Gilliman, the primarch of the ultramarines has a 2+ weapon skill. Space marines have a 3+(?) weapon skill. To me, this sounds like either a bunch of characters that were previously considered above average are going to be scaled back, OR pretty much all characters that WERE decent WS are just going to have 2+ WS, and there will be literally no skill difference between an unnamed captain and an avatar of the god of war.

I find both of these situations to be distressing.

Quote :

I'm not sure how I feel about how they're doing weapon skill. Now, instead of a range of up to 10 different weapon skills to represent the vast differences from a cowardly grot(2) to a space marine(4), to a named general(5-8 ), to an avatar of the god of war(10), we will only have 5 different weapon skills(2+ to 6+).

Well, most of those differences only ever affected your hitting on a 4+ or on a 3+. With very rare cases that you get additional defense (in case of WS9+) and they hit you on 5+. Thats what, how many models? Avatar, Lelith, Druged Succubi, Solitaire?

Now most dedicated stuff will hit on 3+ and im hoping some of ours will hit on 2+. Incubi hitting on 2+ and striking first no matter the terrain or freaking grenades? Yes please. Most dedicated stuff will hit more often in CC. Making all those CC upgrades slightly less overcosted.

Judging by the reveals so far Incubi and Grots will be kings of new age. And Wyches probably wont (again) unless their nets cancels this escape from combat rule.

havik110 wrote:

Pretty sure they said marines would have 6, clowns 7, and gaunts 8. That's fine by me since we have raiders.

I'm most interested in reading about modifiers to hit. Hope they replace cover saves.

They didn't give specific movement stats for anything beyond Sapce Marines, Gullimon and Dreads, they just mentioned that Eldar will be faster than Space Marines and Hormagaunts faster than both.

I'm personally expecting most Eldar to be around 7 with Wyches and Harlies at 8.

BetrayTheWorld wrote:

I'm not sure how I feel about how they're doing weapon skill. Now, instead of a range of up to 10 different weapon skills to represent the vast differences from a cowardly grot(2) to a space marine(4), to a named general(5-8 ), to an avatar of the god of war(10), we will only have 5 different weapon skills(2+ to 6+).

Roboute Gilliman, the primarch of the ultramarines has a 2+ weapon skill. Space marines have a 3+(?) weapon skill. To me, this sounds like either a bunch of characters that were previously considered above average are going to be scaled back, OR pretty much all characters that WERE decent WS are just going to have 2+ WS, and there will be literally no skill difference between an unnamed captain and an avatar of the god of war.

I find both of these situations to be distressing.

In practice there are only currently 3 possibilities for weapon skill, an increase to 5 is a big improvement. It's also been made clear that modifiers will apply to WS as well, I can easily see Lelith having a 2+ and a rule that forces opponents to hit at -1 or -2 because she's just that damn good.

I cant wait to see how the solitaire will work in this edition. From what I understand he will get shot a lot more often (unit leaving combat) and Smite everywhere could be scary.

Mononcule wrote:

I cant wait to see how the solitaire will work in this edition. From what I understand he will get shot a lot more often (unit leaving combat) and Smite everywhere could be scary.

Smite is going to be increadibly situational, I mean it's 18" range and auto targets the nearest enemy unit, so maybe not the unit you want it to.

Imateria wrote:

Mononcule wrote:

I cant wait to see how the solitaire will work in this edition. From what I understand he will get shot a lot more often (unit leaving combat) and Smite everywhere could be scary.

Smite is going to be increadibly situational, I mean it's 18" range and auto targets the nearest enemy unit, so maybe not the unit you want it to.

You still decide where to move though, so you have a pretty fair amount of control over what unit you're closest to.

BetrayTheWorld wrote:

Imateria wrote:

Mononcule wrote:

I cant wait to see how the solitaire will work in this edition. From what I understand he will get shot a lot more often (unit leaving combat) and Smite everywhere could be scary.

Smite is going to be increadibly situational, I mean it's 18" range and auto targets the nearest enemy unit, so maybe not the unit you want it to.

You still decide where to move though, so you have a pretty fair amount of control over what unit you're closest to.

Allow me to introduce you to the concept of bubble wrap.

I get the impression that Strength and Toughness will be more important than ever, and I am worried that our superior movement value will come at a points cost too high to justify our low S/T. I would love to be proven completely wrong by our new (or re-written) special rules and de facto points cost, or other things about Dark Eldar statlines or equipment.

Strength and Toughness is something that worries me about 8th edition, it makes me wonder if GW would be willing to give Dark Eldar S4 (Or perhaps universal Furious charge esque mechanic) to help represent the sheer athleticism of the Dark Eldar (Unlikely but certainly useful statistically) and if they follow Orks stats the basic Ork has S3 T4 with furious charge (Not sure if this will transition to 8th but that is all I have to go by) so it could be done and would help us a little.

All of this discussion really has me wondering though how many special rules do you think we'll be getting (and how crucial do you think they'll be)? Granted this is PURELY speculation but it just seems to be we'll need quite a few with the current system to compensate our weaknesses.

Hypothetically a low Strength value could be compensated with a sufficiently high WS and attacks characteristic - the only problem is who is determining what is and is not sufficient.

Tounguekutter wrote:

Hypothetically a low Strength value could be compensated with a sufficiently high WS and attacks characteristic - the only problem is who is determining what is and is not sufficient.  

Or just an armour modifier.
That would seem most appropriate to wyches, imo.