Hi,
(Sorry if this was posted already but with the digest problems over the last few days I
wasn't able to keep up with the list traffic)
Gaelcon was on in Dublin last weekend and besides some good 40K games (both 2nd and 3rd
ed.), I also managed to get my greasy little mits on a copy of Codex Dark Eldar and the
D.E. Battle Force.
First the Codex.
The Army list has been expanded from the one in the Rule book and characters now get a
choice of lots of cool equipment. (I reckon the following Dark Lord will kick butt: armed
with a punisher [force weapon, +1 str, two handed], Tormentor Helm [counts as Splinter
pistol but gives 2nd weapon bonus even when using a two handed weapon], and combat drugs
[same effects as witches drugs except you choose which effects you want, their being a
chance you take a wound for every additional effect you take])
The Incubi are the Dark Lords bodyguards and are pretty wicked with effective STR 4 and
force weapons along with a Save of 3+.
The Wychs are gladiators and some of the squad can take cool gladiators weapons which
while from what I can see are not overpowered but should be good fun.
If you take one or more squads of Wychs you can take a Beastmaster and warp beasts. These
things are only STR 3 but they have 3 attacks a piece so anything except marines watch
out. They are unreliable if you manage to kill the Beastmaster.
Not much change in the troops department except that the raider is now armed with a dark
lance. STR 8 AP 2 and if it hits a vehicle with Armour greater than 12 then the Armour
Counts AS 12. (Ooooh, seing your land raider smacked on a 4+ cant be pleasant)
Reaver Jetbikes are classed as Wychs so they get to roll on the combat drugs table as
well. They can also 'turbo-boost' and move up to 12" as long as they don't shoot or
assault. Their save will become invulnerable however.
New troop type - Hellions. Also count as Wychs so they are on drugs too. (This army is
high half the time from what I can see!) They ride around on Skyboards which are basically
jump packs that give a bonus to your save. The hellglaive can be used as either a splinter
rifle or a cc Weapon but not both in the same turn. It also gives +1 Str if you charge.
(Its two handed though so no extra cc weapon attacks)
The only real change in the H. Support section is the Talos now has some nice rools like
the Talos Sting, a Str 4 Ap5 ASSAULT 6!!! weapon which fires off wildly and put one hit on
each of the nearest models regardless of who is in what squad.
In CC the Talos gets D6 attacks at Str 7 (no saves) (+1 if it charged). Against vehicles
you only roll once for penetration and add +1 to the roll for every hit after the first.
(Note: this is a summary which does not include all the cool weapons rules/combat drugs
etc)
The boxset.
This seems like pretty good value. What you get
5 reaver jet bikes
1 raider
20 dark eldar
some trees
all for forty quid (from what I can see that means you basically get the warriors and the
trees for free)
The bikes are nice and can be put together in lots of different ways. Very well designed
and being able to add variety or a special look to your squad is nice.
The raider. A few small beefs.
1) How are you supposed to transport these things. They are large with spiky/delicate bits
sticking out in all directions. I was planning on an army with six of these! How am I
going to carry them around!
2) You can only fit 3 dark eldar on each running board (and you can balance one or two on
the central running board if you want. They fall off if you breath heavy on the mini and
it would have been nice if you could actally have put your full 10 man squad on the thing.
Otherwise the miniature is extremely cute (not sure if the sculptor had that word in mind
when he created it but ...)
Hope this helps,
Keith McC