Sneak Peek at New Drukhari Codex

The Shredder wrote:

A new codex appears!

Let's check the list, shall we?

0 new models. Check.

0 New HQs. Check. (No, I don't count the new "Master" HQs because all they do is make the non-Master HQs completely redundant to the point where you could remove them and no one would notice or care. But apparently people are tripping over one another to kiss GW's feet for this complete lack of innovation.)

0 Mobility options for HQs. Check.  

"But, Shredder, HQs can now fit into transports with their troops."

Cool. That is indeed an improvement. So tell me, when I put my archon- sorry, I of course meant my Master Archon (TM) into a raider with a squad of trueborn, what exactly can he do? His aura still doesn't function so he can't actually perform the function of a leader (and changing the aura to something that would work would require GW to put a modicum of thought into the book). And his Blaster was removed somewhere along the way so he can't add to the squad's firepower. Unless you consider a BS2+ splinter pistol to worth ~90pts, I guess.

Existing wargear options removed. Check.

0 new wargear options added. Check.

Necrons got a slew of 'invisible' wargear which could be taken in addition to artefacts and wargear. Dark Eldar... didn't.

And no, once again, I don't count the "Master" upgrades because there are no options to speak of. A Master archon is only ever good at one thing (and by 'good' I mean 'terrible' because his melee weapons are all abysmal, with the only half-decent one having been hammered into absolute oblivion). Oh but don't worry - Masters also get extra warlord traits and artefacts to pick from. Because apparently DE HQs weren't reliant enough on artefacts and warlord traits already.

Anyway, returning to the list:

Army still pointlessly shoehorned into three subfactions? Check. Because it makes complete sense for one of the smallest, most neglected armies in the game to have this sort of split.

Still naff-all choice within the respective subfactions? Check. Apparently if you put a haemonculus with a squad of wyches, all those millennia of fleshcrafting just fall right out of his brain and all he can do is stand around gormlessly, wielding his massive stack of... no wargear. Yes, the characters known for bringing vast arrays of artefacts and eldritch devices get 0 wargear. And as I listen to the bleats of praise for GW, I understand why our army will never, ever improve.


I'm going to make a prediction here - people will be all over this book for the next few months, with the usual suspects building alters that they can worship GW for delivering unto them the greatest codex in the history of humankind. Then, after the excitement wears off, they'll finally start to acknowledge that this book is just the old book with a fresh coat of paint. And in fact, almost everything that made the old book a pain in the arse to play (e.g. limited army-building because of subfactions, restrictive character options because HQs are locked into specific artefact/warlord trait combinations in order to be even vaguely competent at their intended roles etc.) are all still present. And the few that were addressed were simply replaced with new ones.

However, I'm also aware that this opinion is one no one wants to hear whilst they're busy deluding themselves that GW actually cares about their army (hint: they don't).

So if you'll excuse me, I'll retire back into my coffin and wait for 10th edition.

Imagine being you, just stop playing drukhari if after all of this your still so negative.

So we have the punch now, all we lack is flavour.

And flyers that can turn 180°, but I'm sure Craftworld flyers won't be able to do that anymore with their new codex
right?
RIGHT?

Swordxart wrote:

Imagine being you, just stop playing drukahri if after all fo this your still so negative.

Right, because if you're unhappy with something you should not try to fix it. Just leave it, that's a healthy attitude.

I remember the high we're experiencing now just too vividly from our 8th edition codex.

We were all happy, until we weren't. And all the mistakes and shortcomings of the codex presented itself some months later.

I'm cautious of the future.

I'm feeling very mixed about this Codex from everything I've seen so far. There are a lot of good changes in it - transport capacity increases, buffs to some weapons, the general increase in melee power being foremost in my mind - but there are also a lot of very obvious misses. I think quite a lot of our list has actually been substantially nerfed (looking at you, Flayed Skull, Ravagers and Covens) which feels entirely unnecessarily. We still don't have a solution for the awkwardness of auras and abilities in transports, the change of so many weapons to Heavy continues to baffle me, some units have been hit by atrocious loadout changes, Beasts and Courts still mostly seem to have been an afterthought, our relics remain pitiful on the whole...

We have a lot to work with here, but the gaps are already seeming kind of obvious. I'm actually slightly worried that we're not going to be up to par by the standards of 9th edition.

mynamelegend wrote:

Mandrakes lost native deep strike in favor of native infiltrate. Much like many people around here hoped they can hop into the shadows and deepstrike once per game. They're also quite cheap at min size.

Basically they look like they'll be extremely good at counter-scout stuff, and are probably our best deep-field Scramblers option, etc. Expect to see them around in quite a few lists, but I doubt you'll see a lot of people bringing 30.

But this is the thing - I'm not just thinking of Mandrakes on their own but in how they interact with other units.

For example, a Realspace Raider Archon can now buff Scourges. But unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent way to buff Mandrakes?

I don't know, just sighing that once again my Mandrake-themed army will be stuck with an HQ who's a leader in name only.

Soulless Samurai wrote:

mynamelegend wrote:

Mandrakes lost native deep strike in favor of native infiltrate. Much like many people around here hoped they can hop into the shadows and deepstrike once per game. They're also quite cheap at min size.

Basically they look like they'll be extremely good at counter-scout stuff, and are probably our best deep-field Scramblers option, etc. Expect to see them around in quite a few lists, but I doubt you'll see a lot of people bringing 30.

But this is the thing - I'm not just thinking of Mandrakes on their own but in how they interact with other units.

For example, a Realspace Raider Archon can now buff Scourges. But unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent way to buff Mandrakes?

I don't know, just sighing that once again my Mandrake-themed army will be stuck with an HQ who's a leader in name only.

Take Black Heart in a Realspace Raid. Writ provides reroll wounds to Mandrakes in it and they'll get +1 to Power From Pain from the Obsession.

AzraeI wrote:

Swordxart wrote:

Imagine being you, just stop playing drukahri if after all fo this your still so negative.

Right, because if you're unhappy with something you should not try to fix it. Just leave it, that's a healthy attitude.

I remember the high we're experiencing now just too vividly from our 8th edition codex.

We were all happy, until we weren't. And all the mistakes and shortcomings of the codex presented itself some months later.

I'm cautious of the future.

If you are apparently unhappy with literally the whole codex, then yes, i think its better for your health to just stop it.

Burnage wrote:

Soulless Samurai wrote:

mynamelegend wrote:

Mandrakes lost native deep strike in favor of native infiltrate. Much like many people around here hoped they can hop into the shadows and deepstrike once per game. They're also quite cheap at min size.

Basically they look like they'll be extremely good at counter-scout stuff, and are probably our best deep-field Scramblers option, etc. Expect to see them around in quite a few lists, but I doubt you'll see a lot of people bringing 30.

But this is the thing - I'm not just thinking of Mandrakes on their own but in how they interact with other units.

For example, a Realspace Raider Archon can now buff Scourges. But unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent way to buff Mandrakes?

I don't know, just sighing that once again my Mandrake-themed army will be stuck with an HQ who's a leader in name only.

Take Black Heart in a Realspace Raid. Writ provides reroll wounds to Mandrakes in it and they'll get +1 to Power From Pain from the Obsession.

I fear Writ does nothing because Mandrakes aren't CORE.

Writ works on all Blades for Hire units in the Realspace Raid detachment, not just Core units. However, Raid Mastermind (which grants reroll 1s to hit) only works on Core units.

Yeah, the overlap is kinda weird.

Here's quoting the Goonhammer article on the codex ( https://www.goonhammer.com/codex-drukhari-9th-edition-the-goonhammer-review/ )

Goonhammer wrote:

A regular Archon gives re-roll 1s to hit to their Kabal, and all INCUBI units (including Drazhar, who we’ll assume has somehow fit into the raid in the first place)
A Raid Mastermind gives re-roll 1s to hit to all REALSPACE RAIDER CORE units, which means lots of things that normally don’t get them (Covens and Wych Cult units, all the Blades for Hire except Mandrakes, and now not Drazhar)
A Black Heart Raid Mastermind with Writ of the Living Muse gives re-roll 1s to wound to all KABAL OF THE BLACK HEART CORE and also BLADES FOR HIRE units – so not quite a lot of the things that benefit from Raid Mastermind, but now Drazhar is back in, as are Mandrakes

mynamelegend wrote:

Writ works on all Blades for Hire units in the Realspace Raid detachment, not just Core units. However, Raid Mastermind (which grants reroll 1s to hit) only works on Core units.

Yeah, the overlap is kinda weird.

Huh. Thats... weird.

Still, it's better than nothing. Thank you.

Swordxart wrote:

AzraeI wrote:

Swordxart wrote:

Imagine being you, just stop playing drukahri if after all fo this your still so negative.

Right, because if you're unhappy with something you should not try to fix it. Just leave it, that's a healthy attitude.

I remember the high we're experiencing now just too vividly from our 8th edition codex.

We were all happy, until we weren't. And all the mistakes and shortcomings of the codex presented itself some months later.

I'm cautious of the future.

If you are apparently unhappy with literally the whole codex, then yes, i think its better for your health to just stop it.

Hey count, do I get reprimanded if I cite a passage from "Killing in the name of" by Rage against the machine?

Flayed skull does seem to be far less appealing to me now, but I think it still has its place.

VS my tau friend, my Kabal patrol will be black heart. Hands down. Agents of Vect will wreck him (he is always burning markerlight and overwatch CP).

Vs my other 2 friends (Thousand Sons, Admech, Daemons, CSM), hmm. Not sure. Poison is good, but Flayed Skull does still give that +1 Str to the archon, right? And if they dont have a way to affect wound rolls, but do spend a lot of time in cover, then Flayed Skulls cover ignore and Poison's better wound rolls come out to be the same thing.

For my 2 wych cults, Red Grief for the one containing 2 jetbike squads, and Cursed Blade for the one containing the Hellion unit and the Beast unit.

Warlord in one of the patrols takes my starting CP to 14, I believe, which I then burn back to 8 (I think) for warlord traits on all the HQs (potentially back to 11, if I dont care about the Archon warlord trait), and Relics/Artifacts on all HQs (Red Grief gets that sweet Blood Glaive, and the cut price blood glaive for the other Succi - though actually, now I think about it, potentially the archon does not need a relic either...).

This feels like a good edition, but figuring out if its better to go first or second will be tricky. Second loses me objectives, but I can probably charge turn 1 with the bikes. First means I get objectives, but I cant advance and charge until turn 2. I could leave the bikes at the back until turn 2, but that wastes them.

Tricky tricky decisions.

Imagine being a negative nancy about this book for the last few weeks and months, only to have all of your fears quashed, and STILL finding ways to manufacture some imagined negativity lol. I think the best part is the smart-arsed intellectually-superior language used type type out of this nerd rage. The guys at Goonhammer, THE 40k resource bloggers, love it, and rightly so.

Sweet, salty tears guys. They nourish me.

Could not have dreamed of a better outcome.

AzraeI wrote:

Swordxart wrote:

AzraeI wrote:

Swordxart wrote:

Imagine being you, just stop playing drukahri if after all fo this your still so negative.

Right, because if you're unhappy with something you should not try to fix it. Just leave it, that's a healthy attitude.

I remember the high we're experiencing now just too vividly from our 8th edition codex.

We were all happy, until we weren't. And all the mistakes and shortcomings of the codex presented itself some months later.

I'm cautious of the future.

If you are apparently unhappy with literally the whole codex, then yes, i think its better for your health to just stop it.

Hey count, do I get reprimanded if I cite a passage from "Killing in the name of" by Rage against the machine?

Well ofc that wasnt meant towards you ...

WrackYourBrains wrote:

Imagine being a negative nancy about this book for the last few weeks and months, only to have all of your fears quashed, and STILL finding ways to manufacture some imagined negativity lol.

"I got what I wanted which means everyone else must have gotten what they wanted as well. Stands to reason."

Soulless Samurai wrote:

WrackYourBrains wrote:

Imagine being a negative nancy about this book for the last few weeks and months, only to have all of your fears quashed, and STILL finding ways to manufacture some imagined negativity lol.

"I got what I wanted which means everyone else must have gotten what they wanted as well. Stands to reason."

The amount of crying and whining in this forum is beyond reason though.
The codex right now doesnt seem so bad.
Ppl could at least try to see the good points, not relentlessly talk every damn thing bad and doom.

Well, my wife got me by surprise!

Eldur wrote:

Well, my wife got me by surprise!

How is such a thing even possible?

Swordxart wrote:

Eldur wrote:

Well, my wife got me by surprise!

How is such a thing even possible?

Well, you know, a man meets a woman...

Eldur wrote:

Swordxart wrote:

Eldur wrote:

Well, my wife got me by surprise!

How is such a thing even possible?

Well, you know, a man meets a woman...

... the woman breaks into a GW distribution center and steals stuff?

I will only say: I have the greatest wife.

People seem really down on scourges, but I don't totally get why. Sure, several of their guns changed to heavy, but was anyone contemplating anything other than dark lances/shredders?

Compare 4 DL scourges to a ravager. Assuming the scourges move, 4 DL hitting on 4+=2 hits. A Ravager: 3 hitting on 3+=2 hits. Same average, but scourges have a higher ceiling. If the scourges don't need to move, they are better mathematically.

Scourges are core now, so can re-roll 1s to hit in a Realspace Raider detachment. With BH and the Writ, re-rolling 1s to wound as well. Better than a ravager.

The cost less than a ravager, easier to hide than a ravager, don't give up secondaries like a ravager, and MOST IMPORTANTLY free up your ravagers to continue to take dissy cannons.

I think I'll be taking 2 squads with DL, and 1 squad with shredders until I'm convinced they aren't good. Their role changed, but I don't think I could describe them as "losers".

sekac wrote:

People seem really down on scourges, but I don't totally get why. Sure, several of their guns changed to heavy, but was anyone contemplating anything other than dark lances/shredders?

At the very least, I might take blaster and shredder scourges. However, it never made much sense to have a highly mobile infantry unit carrying around a bunch of heavy weapons. Granted, at least they are able to fire them; prior to 8th ed, infantry couldn't fire heavy weapons at all after moving.

It will require some experimentation - I still feel weird about Splinter Cannons being heavy after them being assault weapons for over 2 decades.

Scourges just seem like they're supposed to be used as Devastators now.

Clearly their wings are decorational.

i dont rly understand the realspace raider detachment, how many elite and so on slots does it have? if u take 1 or 2 other patrols together with it do these cost cp? im confused lol