Nightwings

Tant qu'à avoir des Firestorms pour gagner la suprématie aérienne, autant faire quelque chose avec! Deux détachements de chasseurs Nightwings. Ce sont de très bons avions, aussi efficaces contre les véhicules que contre l'infanterie. Puis avec la règle de rétention d'initiative, ça permet de faire des frappes pas mal n'importe où et quand ça compte. Je dois avouer que c'est pas les miniatures que j'aime le plus, je comptais les remplacer, mais le nouveau modèle est un peu plate. Autant garder ceux-là.

Quand le supplément Swordwind pour Epic est sorti, les eldars étaient un peu trop forts comparés aux space-marins qui n'ont pas la supériorité numérique des orks ou de la garde impériale pour absorber les tirs. Comme je suis souvent en train de le consulter sur le web, autant le copier ici. C'est la version 1.8 de la liste d'armée Eldar (Biel-Tan, mais très facile à adapter pour Alaïtoc). En gros, des modifications pour les balancer. Tout ça me semble très logique:

Biel-Tan Swordwind Eldar Revision 1.8 (Submitted) (November 17th)By David McLeod (Sotec) Eldar Army champion.Special Rules1)

1) All pulse becomes 2x shot weapons(page 11)(Effectively the special rule is deleted and every instance of pulse changes the weapons to a 2x weapon)

2) Spirit Stones dropped. Eldar players should no longer use the spirit stone rule. (Page 11)(A long established and popular change. At this time other than the Autarch the Biel-tan list will lack any leader type upgrade, these may be introduced to other eldar lists by other army champions. The Biel-Tan are characterized by their furious assaults but tend to break off once appreciable damage is caused if the foe still remains. This is a deliberate and specific weakness in the Biel-Tan Eldar).

Army List (page 71)

1) 2-3 Wraithguard units for 50 points each(Changed to better represent the box contents, though players who have already collected and painted in groups of three should not be penalized so a three option is still there)

2) 0-1 Aspect troupes for Beil-tan (175 points for 4 stands with transport option of Wave serpents for 50 points or Falcons at 65 points, and 0-1 exarch for 25 points)(the option is given but restricted to allow for more aspect warrior options than currently in the list. Points paid is a premium on small formation advantages plus the Initiative 1+ advantage for being with Aspects.)

3) Falcon, Fire Prism, and Night Spinner troupes removed(requied to make changes to eldar tank organization)

4) Swords of Vaul: 5-6 grav tanks; any mix of Falcons for 50 points or Fire Prisms for 65 points, 0-2 Falcons may be replaced by a Fire Storm for no additional cost.(This has seen a few changes over time. The option to take only four tanks was overly abusive and ended up with a formation rush army where skimmer + hordes of activations was hard to stop or counter effectively.

5) Shields of Vaul: 3 Night Spinners for 175 points. Any Night spinner may be replaced with a Fire Storm.(This change came about because of the removal of AA from the fire Prism. It made taking Nightwings a mandatory choice since small formation sizes and low armour make eldar particularly susceptable to air attacks a defense is a must. Now Eldar can have a flexable ground support formation/artillary but pay for it as is fair. The decision was made not to allow a formation greater than three units as this gives survivability to the formation that runs contrary to the idea of a support formation.)

Units

1) Jetbikes save 4+ is reduced to “5+” (page 15)(required to stop the abuse of jetbikes as trigger units for engagements where the bikes would be used to soak the hits for another formation.)

2) Delete “Scout” from Warp Spiders notes section (page 19)(Reduction of a special ability that is not supported by formation background and proven to unbalence the warp spiders in comparison to other Aspect options.)

3) Wraithguard save increased from 4+ to save “3+”, delete “Reinforced Armour” in notes section (page 20)(Wraithguard are Ogryn tough, not Terminator tough)

4) Delete “Warp Spiders” from Wave Serpent and Falcon transport options in notes section (page 21)(balance and connection to 40K. In addition the Autarch does not specifically need to be listed but is anyway just in case some one wants to argue that 'X' stand can't get in now it has an Autarch with it or some other similar silliness...)

5) Replace Fire Prism's Prism Cannon stat line with “Prism Cannon 60cm AP4+/AT2+ Lance” (page 22)(Not a nerf but balancing a range reduction and loss of AA with increase in AT and ability to take in larger formations, point reduced in recognition of playtest experience.)

6) Add to Cobra note section of datafax. The Cobra D-cannon Ignore Cover ability only works on WE sized units or larger. Verses all other types of targets the Ignore Cover special ability has no effect. (page 23)(this reduction makes the D-cannon less effective at smoking formations of infantry and re-focusses it back to beign a WE killer.)

7) Replace Revenant titan Pulsars Firepower MW3+ with “Firepower MW4+” (page 26)(A controvertial change but with the pulsars getting 2x shots each under the new pulse the formation puts out a consistant 8 shots and suffers less for moving fast (which they should be doing!). If they had a 3+ to hit players have shown that they regularly double and gain crossfire bonuses as well whenever possible. This makes players choose between the crossfire and accuracy. Points were looked at too but do not merit change at this time. The Revenants were a little overcosted and this has brought them into line with abilities.

Cheers!David McLeod (AKA Sotec)