Sneak Peek at New Drukhari Codex

Soulless Samurai wrote:

amishprn86 wrote:

Archon fight twice seem to be a bae ability now, that fact he gets a free fight twice ability is amazing IMO.

The article says the opposite - you have to pay extra for that ability.

amishprn86 wrote:

New Drug system is MUCH better and amazing, you can pick any drug you want now instead of going through all 6, drugs has and will always be some type of upkeep, but with Reavers, Hellions, Wyches, its really nice to boost the stats you want.

Oh, good catch. Yeah, that's a big improvement then.

I guess I should have worded it better. Yes, it will be like the Chief/Master thing they are doing, but to pay 25pts to get some extra rules is nice. I meant free as in no CP and you'll most likely be making him a Master anyways to get Trueborn upgrade along with other upgrades.

I don't think the realspace raid will be used that often competitively.

I am not sure the CP cost for it (if there is even one) or if it gets refunded if there is. I am not sure how many troops, elite fast or heavy you are allowed to take in this detachment. If it is the standard 6/3/3/3 it pretty much sucks. 3 patrols WAY outshine it.

It is 3 patrols in 1 detachment. 3 characters, 3 troops. They force you to take the Kabal, Coven and Wych units. Not sure of the long term benefits here....
You would be giving up assasinate most games, as you would probably have other detachments (6 characters) and you cannot take Drazahar, Lelith or Urien.

Would really love to see more info (like the max # of fast units, etc...) to see why this would appeal when making a list.

New combat drugs rock by the way.

Skulnbonz wrote:

I don't think the realspace raid will be used that often competitively.

I am not sure the CP cost for it (if there is even one) or if it gets refunded if there is.  I am not sure how many troops, elite fast or heavy you are allowed to take in this detachment.  If it is the standard 6/3/3/3 it pretty much sucks.  3 patrols WAY outshine it.

It is 3 patrols in 1 detachment. 3 characters, 3 troops. They force you to take the Kabal, Coven and Wych units.  Not sure of the long term benefits here....
You would be giving up assasinate most games, as you would probably have other detachments (6 characters) and you cannot take Drazahar, Lelith or Urien.

Would really love to see more info (like the max # of fast units, etc...) to see why this would appeal when making a list.

New combat drugs rock by the way.

I see it as you can take any detachment, so a Brigade for example, that means you have a large amount of spots. SO it could be the best way to play. Remember you get refunded CP if your WL is in a Patrol, Battalion, or Brigade, so you will not lose any CP doing so as this rule doesn't override any core rules for regaining CP.

Aha, my Archon can concert a 10-man squad of Warriors into an elite, Trueborn retinue.

Now they can ride in a Raider and he can... er... jog alongside them, I guess.

Does Raiding force open up Brigades for us now? Which I believe are free with a Warlord. Already have the 3 HQs by definition. So three more troops to find, and *maybe* we can tick those boxes with Trueborn / Bloodbrides / Upgraded Wracks.

Has anyone ever counted up the points on some of these armies they show in the set piece photos?

I am counting Lelith, one squad of wyches, 2 squads of grots, a Haemie, a unit of wracks, potentially 4 units of 3 taloi each, 1 raider, 2 venoms, 2 ravagers, a void raven, a razorwing, and a unit of hellions. Even assuming the transports are empty, and assuming that they dont care about battleforged or realspace raiders or anything, thats over 2000 points without upgrades, right?

god damn i'm happy whit what i just read!
i don't know for you but i'm VERY happy with the 7 changes!
Especially the second level of PFP (advance + charge army wide!!!).
I really love the Master Archon mechanic too.
And the Trueborn! yes yes yes!
And it's just the tip of the iceberg come on come on!!!

Skulnbonz wrote:

I don't think the realspace raid will be used that often competitively.

I am not sure the CP cost for it (if there is even one) or if it gets refunded if there is.  I am not sure how many troops, elite fast or heavy you are allowed to take in this detachment.  If it is the standard 6/3/3/3 it pretty much sucks.  3 patrols WAY outshine it.

It is 3 patrols in 1 detachment. 3 characters, 3 troops. They force you to take the Kabal, Coven and Wych units.  Not sure of the long term benefits here....
You would be giving up assasinate most games, as you would probably have other detachments (6 characters) and you cannot take Drazahar, Lelith or Urien.

Would really love to see more info (like the max # of fast units, etc...) to see why this would appeal when making a list.

New combat drugs rock by the way.

Disagree. I think we're likely to see it a lot, slightly dependent on Obsessions.

From the way the rule is worded, any detachment can be designated as a Realspace Raid Detachment. A Brigade suddenly becomes a very viable option for us if - for example - you want Reavers, 3 Ravagers and Talos in the same list. For characters, note that Lelith and Urien already have the Succubus/Haemonculus tag respectively and for a Brigade you would also be able to slot in Drazhar freely as a 4th HQ.

Round 1- 6++ save.
This benefits Warriors, as with their 4+ save, they all now are basically wearing Ghost Plate Armor.
This does not effect Wyches, as they already have the 6++.
This is worse for coven, as they have a 5++ now.

Round 2- advance and charge.
This is the most powerful ability on this chart. Grotesques charging after advancing is a dream come true. Incubi, Wyches, Talos, they all benefit greatly from this. Not a single drawback or downside!

Round 3- Very Very interesting. The same as before, but what is different is that we currently have NO vehicles that benefit from PFP (black heart is round 1 bonus only). Also, our vehicles change the weapon profile to assault, not heavy. I assume then that that is going away- dark lances will be heavy on our vehicles, or the Reaper will be in the codex (very doubtful). As for our monsters... what do we have that is heavy? the chronos and Talos have NO heavy weapons. None. This means we are either getting a new monster model (not gonna happen), we are getting a new weapon for them (dissie maybe?) or they are changing the profile of the heat lance to heavy (oh god I hope not).
From what we read, I would predict:
Vehicles get PFP (at least our transports)
Dark Lances and Dissies will be heavy, even on vehicles.
Heat lances or Haywire Blasters will go to heavy weapons (with a stat boost hopefully!)

Round 4- 5++ save
This will benefit wyches, Incubi and Warriors. Not sure what else.

Round 5- Fearless, and double wounds for degrade charts.
Fearless is great. Love it.
Again, with the wound chart... the ONLY thing we have now that degrades is vehicles, so this again points to our vehicles benefiting from PFP.
If that is the case- our nightshields WILL change... weather to +1 to the invul, (which would be awesome at keeping them alive late game with a 4++!) or maybe old school -6" to enemy ranges.
I am ok with either!


Just my take on the PFP table.

Wow, you know these new rules have people excited when even the resident naysmiths are getting cautiously optimistic.
Scattered thoughts...
I am very curious as to how this will all pan out for the Covens units. Maybe just a +1 to their Invulnerable saves from PfP? That would put them back to about on par with where they were. Trueborn being back on the menu is obviously amazing, and even without their myriad weapon options rolling up with a Dark Lance that's always 2+ to hit is probably worth it.
Army-wide advance+charge from turn two is pretty fantastic. That's the kinda stuff that leaves enemies crying.
Poisoned Tongue looks fun and nasty. Poisoned Tongue looks Funasty. And considering I don't think I saw a single player ever play them in 8th, that's already good. Even if every other kabal isn't as good, this is already pretty damn sweet. PT splinter cannons feeling a little less like store-brand heavy bolters now, maybe?
I'm a bit unclear on how Realspace Raid works - does it mean that every model gets the same Obsession? (...Does that mean one could take Serpent's Kiss wracks and have 3+ poison melee?) Or does it mean that the one detachment gets a Kabal, a Cult, and a Coven Obsession? For that matter, does the wording of Raiding Forces mean you could take for instance Wych Cult units in a <Kabal> detachment, as long as you're okay with them not getting Obsessions?
The Combat Drugs change is a long, long time coming and I am relieved. Though it's worth noting we don't know for sure they're gonna be the SAME Combat Drugs we know and love, just the lack of unnecessary bookkeeping is great.

The advance and charge on turn 2 really plays nicely into a game style centered on keeping the distance until you are ready to strike! Also: Reavers have a threat range of 16+8+2d6 = avg 31.5!

I'm not happy with how they handled the realspace raid detachment.

The composition of 3 patrol detachments is tiring and illegal? in smaller games.

And that you have to take 1 of each flavour of deldar for the Archon aura, warlord traits and relics in general is concerning in my opinion.

I would have expectet more quality of life changes.

I hate the 6++ instead of the 6+++
I HATE the stupid invlms everywhere.
We lost the army wide reroll for charges and advancing wich could be massive.

But advance and charge is huge.

combat drugs selection is good, but still, 3/6 drugs are kinda useless.

The djinn blade is still what the husk blade should be.

Trueborn (most likely) losing the 4 special weapons is really annoying.

So much still hangs in the balance of the other rules the units have, and points cost of course.

With these reveals I'm still giving this codex a solid "meh"

Soulless Samurai wrote:

- Splintered Genius seems garbage. Really hope this is just a ribbon because fighting twice once per battle is absolutely not what I want from my Archons..

I agreed with you 100%

Until I reread it.

It does not say you needed to charge that unit, only that you are in engagement range.
So charge unit 1 with archon and incubi, wipe it, then consolidate into that 5 man vet squad.
Then the archon fights again, even without charging.

Not a great ability, but I can see where it can come in usefull.

@skulnbonz Talos do have a heavy weapon now: the fabled and deadly Splinter Canon
other than that, you are spot on on everything!

Reading new PfP, and watching the changes about DeathGuards and Poxwalkers...
I think most of the Invulns are gone. I can see Covens switching their current invuln into Fnp, so it will be 6++(from pfp) and 5+++ (from the hypothetical switch). Being 5++/5+++ on tutn 4 and above.
What if Profets of Flesh gives a +1 to PfP?
And 5++ on veichles? What if it will change in other debuffs, and we will keep the 6++ straightfoward from PfP?

I belive we will receive some nerfs on durability, while we're getting A LOT of buffs on speed AND damage.

As we should have always been...I love it

Skulnbonz wrote:

Round 1- 6++ save.
This benefits Warriors, as with their 4+ save, they all now are basically wearing Ghost Plate Armor.
This does not effect Wyches, as they already have the 6++.
This is worse for coven, as they have a 5++ now.

Round 2- advance and charge.
This is the most powerful ability on this chart. Grotesques charging after advancing is a dream come true. Incubi, Wyches, Talos, they all benefit greatly from this. Not a single drawback or downside!

Round 3- Very Very interesting. The same as before, but what is different is that we currently have NO vehicles that benefit from PFP (black heart is round 1 bonus only). Also, our vehicles change the weapon profile to assault, not heavy. I assume then that that is going away- dark lances will be heavy on our vehicles, or the Reaper will be in the codex (very doubtful).  As for our monsters... what do we have that is heavy?  the chronos and Talos have NO heavy weapons. None. This means we are either getting a new monster model (not gonna happen), we are getting a new weapon for them (dissie maybe?) or they are changing the profile of the heat lance to heavy (oh god I hope not).
From what we read, I would predict:
Vehicles get PFP (at least our transports)
Dark Lances and Dissies will be heavy, even on vehicles.
Heat lances or Haywire Blasters will go to heavy weapons (with a stat boost hopefully!)

Round 4- 5++ save
This will benefit wyches, Incubi and Warriors.  Not sure what else.

Round 5- Fearless, and double wounds for degrade charts.
Fearless is great. Love it.
Again, with the wound chart... the ONLY thing we have now that degrades is vehicles, so this again points to our vehicles benefiting from PFP.
If that is the case- our nightshields WILL change... weather to +1 to the invul, (which would be awesome at keeping them alive late game with a 4++!) or maybe old school -6" to enemy ranges.
I am ok with either!


Just my take on the PFP table.

Great catch. Advance+charge might be usefulish on our transports. Disembarking into combat the following turn could be an okay delivery mechanism, and depending on the rules for the shock prow, Raiders might actually do some damage.

I just noticed that we only benefit from PfP if all units in our army are Drukhari or unaligned.
So, our situation with allies has actually gotten much worse.

What's even the point of the Realspace Raid then?
I'm really disappointed, I was hoping to take Harlequinns or converted Wraithhost as allies in the future.

Just show 7th edition courts/4 special weapon warriors and ill have all the things i want.
Although having to bring 1 of each hq and troop sucks if you want mixed, wish i could just 2/3

Wait...is Power From Pain going to be our freaking monofaction rule?

Well, allying with other Eldar subfactions is pretty much dead now, since doing so will cause you to lose PfP.

So that delegates PfP to the same role as Combat Doctrines in a SM army. I hope that we get some additional rules to fill the void.

looking at the pfp table i think that our vehicles will get it as well automaticaly and loose Nightshields... which is a nerf
and if thats true black heart bonus will change to something completely different

And so, reading between the lines, it takes the Dark Eldar community about an hour and and a half to find the ways GW has screwed them over. I wonder if craftworlds will only ally with their kin if they don't bring any drugs either.

I hope Night Shields go to a piece of vehicle equipment. Going down to a 6++ with a price reduction and the option to get our old save back could be viable...I guess.

Reaper still has it and the Tantalus changed to a different name. So I think its safe to say Nightshields are staying and maybe even getting a stratagem or rules to buff them.

TheBaconPope wrote:

And so, reading between the lines, it takes the Dark Eldar community about an hour and and a half to find the ways GW has screwed them over. I wonder if craftworlds will only ally with their kin if they don't bring any drugs either.

I hope Night Shields go to a piece of vehicle equipment. Going down to a 6++ with a price reduction and the option to get our old save back could be viable...I guess.

Can you imagine the old -6" range to enemies that wants to shoot you?
That+range 36" Venoms+3"+movement+D6"+2D6 charges.

Stay back, shoot safe, and then switch into a long charge.

Welp, my DE/Harlequins army is looking dead in the water.

Guess that's what I get for showing the merest hint of optimism.