GW debuted their Iyanden suplemental codex today and I have to admit, I've never been so excited to bust out my Wraithguard! The video gave us some insight into how the army will play so I'll discuss that in this post and go on about how I foresee an Iyanden style army to be built/played.
You can see the Iyanden preview video here. It has some mini previews of the dex which are really interesting...
So what can we expect from the new Iyanden codex?
-Spiritseers are now 1-5 per HQ choice and have a new Primaris for their Runes of Battle called Voice of Twilight. Also, incase anyone didn't notice, Spiritseers roll Warlock powers so they can still join Wraithguard and give them Warlock powers. This means that you roll for Spiritseer powers, choose which Spiritseer you want to join which squad since they are ICs and attach at deployment and you have a formidable set of buffs for Wraithguard units.
-You can take a Wraithlord or Wraithknight as an HQ choice to be your Warlord. Essentially, you could take 4 Wraithlords/Wraithknights!
-Iyanna Arienal returns which is super cool as she was a staple Iyanden special character back in the day. She had a special save which was a Ld test, pass a 9ld test and you don't take the wound which is probably one of the best saves in the game. In the fluff, she was also accompanied by a Wraith construct guardian which might indicate that in this codex, she might allow us to take another Wraithlord or something. Very excited to see her rules.
-New wargear/warlord chart...The first Warlord trait available is roll a d3, you get that many re-rolls you can use for to-hit, to-wound, saves, armor pen rolls. One piece of Wargear (wraithforge stone) affects a Wraithlord or unit of Wraithguard on a 3+ in the movement phase and possibly gives them FNP.
What will an Iyanden army look like?
For starters, I can see probably around 3-5 Wraithguard units at least with a Spiritseer attached. Aside from that, 3 Wraithlords and Wraithknight for a Warlord might be standard play seen in Iyanden armies. There are also a lot of possibilities with potentially new options for existing units like the Wraithfighter getting new weapon options or something. I know that for me, I might run 4X10 Wraithguard and 1x5 in a serpent and 3 Wraithlord with a Wraithknight for Warlord. Throw in some air support for good measure and you have a pretty fun and tough army.
Overall, I am really excited and can't wait to start throwing down with an old-school Iyanden army. It is a bummer that you can't get wide access to Fortune but if you have enough Wraith units with good Warlock buffs, that doesn't matter so much as a 2+ armor save is roughly equivalent to a fortuned 3+ save and so on...So here's to the new Iyanden supplement and it looks like we can expect another supplement for perhaps any of the other Craftworlds or unique armies as this is just one in a series of many.
Awesome man, looking forward to seeing some bat reports from ya!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know where you got some of that info from because I sat down with the video and abused the pause button and I have a couple different notes than you:
ReplyDelete-Wraithlords/Wraithknights can be designated as your army's Warlord even though they aren't an HQ choice. Nothing was said in that rule that made them an actual HQ choice.
-Iyanna was shown, as was her fluff, but no rules or stats were shown for her.
I've got a big collection on everything to day for the supplement (pages of the sample, the WD Daily post and the notes I took of the video) over on Heresy Online if you want to see what I've gathered so far. URL is here if you feel like taking a look:
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/news-rumors/125113-iyanden-supplement-rumours-updated-3-june-2013-a.html
Hey Zion, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I may have misread the blurb about the WL/WK being in HQ, I just revisited the video and saw that it does say "even though it is not an HQ choice." THerefore, we will have to wait and see if it can be taken as an HQ choice or if it is the Warlord from the Heavy slot. Good catch!
Iyana was spoken of and it was fluff, however, characters usually depicted in such great detail are usually in the codex and Iyanna is synonymous with Iyanden as Eldrad is with Ulthwe. I would be very surprised (and disappointed) if she was not an option for the codex.
Overall, I am still very excited about the new supplement as it definitely seems to enable us to make a good and proper Iyanden style army!
I was curious where you got her rules from though as that was the first I'd seen of them.
DeleteSupplements are going to be a great. Between all the codex's and supplements you are going to have so many options when making your army and there will be a lot less copycat armies around. I'm excited.
ReplyDeleteWhat gives with the limited production? I'd be so bummed if I couldn't get this thing just because of day 1 demand...
ReplyDelete500 Limited Edition, unlimited hardbacks or iPad download are the options. So even if you can't get the limited edition you can still get the hardback or the iPad ones.
DeleteIt's always up to the club/group/tourney organizer. GW rule is just to use as much of their stuff as possible.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Iyaden goes, I suppose the army concept is traditional. But I'm not as pumped as getting to use the WK as an HQ or Warlord. Seems silly and contrived, but I digress. I do like their FW models and having the Warlock/WraithLord and the Spectres. This is where I would like to see the suppliments go - bring in some of the really cool stuff - not just break the codex set-up for the sake of doing so.
What I'm really interested in is the five spiritseers allowed for one HQ choice. That ten man unit of wraithguard has served me well over the years and I'm not intending on breaking into smaller squads when I can just add eldrad, a couple of spiritseers for insane power buffs then just march right up to the most heavily contested objective or most fierce opponent on the map. Also dual warlock powers.. or psychic shriek or invisibility for that matter.. is a very exciting concept when applied to aspect squads, my only complaint is that we won't be able to spam conceal/reveal all day, but I suppose with enough seers rolling and the primaris being pretty boss the odds are low that anything, but a mighty setup will be achieved. It is a good time to walk the path of the Eldar my friends, as the shrill, untamed darkness creeps all around us, the flame of Asuryan glows ever brighter. Till Rhana Dhandra comes.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to testing out the Iyanden rules as well. The lack of Conceal is a huge pain IMO because in my experience, that cover bonus helps A LOT (A guy put it to good effect against me). Also, the Iyanden Primaris should have also given Fleet or something, who cares about Furious Charge when we are already S5 base on the WG. Ultimately, hopefully we get that 2+ armor buff, otherwise Cratworld Sprit Seers might just be better.
DeleteFleet is nice, but sounds a little ridiculous considering my usual image of the wraithguard is a slow, but gliding wall of death that wreaks implacable and precise carnage to all who approach it supported by avengers, lords and harlies for all the anti horde one can desire. The hope I suppose is that with enough powers that the lack of guaranteed fortune and the like with only hopeful chances at invisibility it's up to good rolls for fortune or protect, Eldrad gives that a great chance and if you do great and get both then our troops are stronger than ever plus if you do really great both of the other tables have magnificent goodies waiting in them as well with primaris powers that I'd gladly take anyway, so while the universe's decay into entropy does seem to allow chaos into our time conditioned battle systems, I feel that it allows for greater specialization that can be adapted to and with only 3 or 4 units on the field at the beginning of the game Eldrad shines as a true wizard that can take your entire battle line from atop an open hill and deposit them safely in the farthest corner of the map to run into a ruin and fend of the enemy piecemeal as your faster elements come in on turns two and three, even four would be desireable with the jetbikes, to smash anything that poses the most threat and to lock down everything that the opponent once held dear while their own assault choices shatter against fearless wraithbone and howling warp blasts of their own terrified imaginations. A humbling sight, with none of the eldar weakness that is expected, just T6 and some 24-42 inch flat out mobility range and a now exremely varied defense of psychic shielding. A craftworld spiritseer is singular and minimizes the ability to totally spam enhanced warlocks, what we were expecting, no?, while being able to be put in a line be assigned powers and then simply walk into the squad they best suit, no more rule discrepencies or absolute absurdity with randomness, aside from one riding with wraithscythes which would enjoy the primaris just as much anyway. Ah, extremely comforting finally starting to see things fall into place with this new book.
ReplyDelete