Old vs. New - Battle of the Mandrakes

I would like to propose something new. Aesthetically wise, I believe that the Mandrakes from Dawn of War: Soulstorm looked far better than their current incarnation.

Those were based on the Old Mandrake models.

But they didn't have pistols and had huge blades mounted to their wrists instead of holding them. They weren't oddly proportioned either.

They were pretty much just as useless though, if detected.

Soulstorm Mandrake: http://warhammer.neoseeker.com/w/i/warhammer/thumb/c/ce/Mandrake.jpg/250px-Mandrake.jpg

Old Mandrake: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZIWudHwRxJY/TZ-1bT0c0nI/AAAAAAAAAcI/FsXx1_02rlY/s1600/IMG_2002.JPG

Having used the old, I think ill vote for the new in this case. Yes the deployment was awesome with the mind games. The trick is getting that pain token... the new mandrakes really benefit from it, they get a great shooting attack and FNP as well!

Cavash wrote:

But they didn't have pistols and had huge blades mounted to their wrists instead of holding them. They weren't oddly proportioned either.

The Old had huge blades mounted on their wrists. You should look at more than one of their models - trust me, I own the things, the ones from the game are clearly based on them.
http://kofler.dot.at/40k/units/Dark_Eldar_Mandrakes.gif

The proportioning is a matter of sculptor issue - the basic look is very much that of the Old Mandrakes.

Never used the old ones and will never ever use the new ones either. They slurp up points that are much better used elsewhere. Though I do love their fluff and the new models; if painted well can
look really creepy. I really did not like the old models and I actually still love most of the 3rd edition ones.
Rules-wise I have to go with old, their deployment was pretty cool.

Sorry, Thor. My bad.

I usually use Mandrakes as extra-target in MSU list. It's very useful against Tau lists, but quite useless when I deal with Tyranides.
By the way, the new rules are better on that purpose, as they can start on the board very close from the opponent, which forces him to deal with them. The strenght 4 is a good point also.
Deployment tricks of the old ones made them charge 100% on times, so they were good at tying shooting units like Sister's heavy bolters or Space Marines Devastators. But they didn't hit hard and needed some time to prevent shooters to act.
In my opinion both are interesting but for a different goal. Nowadays, unfortunatly for Mandrakes, Blasterborns are just too amazing not to be chosen in priority.
I voted the third option, I have always fielded some

Ps: old Mandrakes have been my first minis, the blister of 3, so they have a sentimental meaning for me!

Cavash wrote:

Sorry, Thor. My bad.

No apology needed, I was just defending my stance about where the look came from.

Shouldn't the "winner" of this be noone considering the voting?

If you wish to count it as such, I have no problems with that.