Hi,
first of all I like to thank all of you working on the Eldar (again) and for the return of the warp-hunter!
I rewieved the rules, compared them to allready existing models and played a couple scenarios out over nigth and here a my conclusions:
Warp Hunter
On the first look, everything looked great...point costs, slot-choice, options.
But the one thing, that bothered me was, that the rules for the D-cannon don't seem to fit together with the size of the model.
What I mean is that the potenential value of the weapon should be between a regular d-cannon and the d-cannon of a cobra (as the size of the weapon is between thos two!).
Long story short, I thought about following profile (changes underlined):
Weapon Range S AP Type
D-cannon 36” * 2 Heavy 1, Large blast, Barrage, D-cannon
Aether Rift Template* * 2 Heavy 1, D-cannon
D-Cannon: The D-Cannon uses the Eldar’s sophisticated knowledge of warp-technology to create a rift of seething warp-energy. A D-cannon’s attacks bypass power fields and void shields.
The D-cannon’s hits always wound on a 2+, and on a roll to wound of a 6, inflicts Instant Death on the victim (regardless of its toughness value).
Furthermore, if a 6 is rolled, the wound ignores invulnerable and cover saves(As the modell is sucked into the warp).
Against targets with an Armour Value, a D-Cannon always inflicts a glancing hit on a roll of 2, 3 or 4 and a penetrating hit on a roll of 5 or 6.
Furthermore, if a 6 is rolled, the penetration hit ignores cover and invulerable saves.
Additionally I would suggest giving the aether-rift 12" instead of 6", as Eldar tanks are very vulnerable and 12" would at least prevent him from getting in close combat range (giving 20" from the peak of the weapon to the furthest model).
Ofcourse that all ends up giving him higher point cost. I would suggest 145 points base costs, so he ends up with 200 points with holo-fields, spirit stones and shuriken canons, which is very high but can take moderate damage, can come into range for shooting and actually does a "certain basic damage" worth his costs (and still has his typical vulnerability).
But all in all I think this changes would make him a valuable choice for Eldar-players and worth buying and playing, as Eldar players finally need weapons against 2+Armor and tanks that actually DO damage...not weapons that look like they could do damage and in the end do nothing and are to expensive to actually make them valuable (e.g. brightlance and star canon) .
Shadow Spectre
I love the idea of the whole aspect- just saying right from the beginning...
But there are a couple of problem if you compare them to the other aspects. First of they have a 4+/5+ save but cost 35 points per modell, which is far bejond their actual value! If you look at dark reapers (in my opinion the best comparison as they take the same slot, the same point cost and the same unit-size).
The only thing is, that the spectres have to deal with tanks and very heavy infantry (e.g. Terminators) and reapers are taking care about heavy infantry and tanks, if you actually want to spend 67+ points for the exarch being capable to do so (but then the rest of the squad doesn't do any damage- so this option is rather pointless and so not used very often...if at all).
But that is the perfect place for the spectres to pop in and fill the gap. They will do pretty well against terminators and alike, but will fail miserably to do serious damage against a tank, if he is in cover (which is common use in 5th edition 😉 ).
The thing is, for 175+ points they actually are very expensive, can't take any damage and (worst of all) will most likely will fail to actually destroy a tank!
Long story short again, here are my suggestions:
1. Change their slot to "Fast attack". There are so many heavy support choices and eldar-players are always struggeling with those...same applies for elite. Fast attack let them compete with (the not so good) warp spiders and swooping hawks and provide the anti-tank capability, that an eldar army usually get's from it's heavy support choices- which makes them very interesting!
2. Give them a 3+ armour save. This won't make them more resistant, as they are only 5 models with toughness 3 and 10 "Bolter-equivalent" shots will reduce them to a number, where they only can harm infantry squads or very weak tanks.
3. Prism Rifle as such is great, if the combining ability of ghoslight increases the short range, low strength AND the AP 2...
4. Ghoslight: Now here comes the point where I see the most problems!
The troop gives his ability to kill infantry and gains the ability to kill one tank...the problem is: they won't.
For 200 points you just get one shot that will most likely hit and might penetrate (with a 3+)... but the actual damage is too random!
The roll on the vehicle damage chart should be modified somehow. The least is letting ghostlight reduce the AP to 1, to assure a certain damage.
5. Exarch: First off, the prism lance should have a grater effect on ghostlight and increase it's strenght by 2 (as the weapon itself is more powerfull). Furthermore, it's range should be higher or it should have a small blast or 2 shots(+1 strength just doesn't cut it).
The haywire launcher seems nice, but as this choice will reduce the efficency of the rest of the squad, if shooting against tanks (and infantry), it should at least be for free, instead of the normal prism rifle...
The exarch power "withdraw" seems to be missplaced somehow. The troop can already jump away from his opponents and with being maximum 5 man strong, won't survive any close combat (so no one would take this option).
"Crack shot"would seem more useful (and the exarch really worth taking), as it COULD have additional influence on ghostlight!
So in the end you would have your "200 point squad" shooting one shot of strength 10 AP1 lance on 60+" , re-rolling to hit and ignoring cover saves...which is worth the cost and isn't overpowered due to their vulnerability and the possibility of rolling 1,2,3 on the vehicle damage chart.
