Topic: Codex Supplement: Biel Tan

[Aoitora]

Ive had these ideas in my head for a while now of making a codex: Biel Tan. Seeing stezerok8's post in the Eldar forum got me inspired to start writing it all down. So I guess here we go, codex: Biel Tan - beta test.


Codex Biel Tan
A Biel Tan warhost is chosen using the army list presented in Codex: Eldar. It also has a series of supplemental rules (presented below) that can be used in addition to the material found in Codex: Eldar. Note that you can only use the options from one codex supplement when choosing your army.

Court of the Young King: New Unit
As well as its Seers, Biel-Tan is also governed by a military council known as the Court of the Young King. Their number is made up from Exarchs who have spent a year in the honoured position of the Young King. The Young King is ritually sacrificed to awake the raging spirit of the Avatar of Khaine but on Biel-Tan, a Young King who survives the year in office will join the Court rather than return to tend their Shrine. The Exarchs of the Court are highly hostile to all outsiders, as one might expect, and it is they who have led to the aggressive nature of the Biel-Tan Craftworld.

Each primary Biel Tan detachment in your army may include up to one Court of 3-6 Exarchs. This unit does not use up a force organisation slot. All members of the Court retain their (Character) status.

Dire Avenger Exarch (cost equals: Dire Avenger + Exarch upgrade)
Howling Banshee Exarch (cost equals: Howling Banshee + Exarch upgrade)
Striking Scorpion Exarch (cost equals: Striking Scorpion + Exarch upgrade)
Fire Dragon Exarch (cost equals: Fire Dragon + Exarch upgrade)
Swooping Hawk Exarch (cost equals: Swooping Hawk + Exarch upgrade)
Dark Reaper Exarch (cost equals: Dark Reaper + Exarch upgrade)
Warp Spider Exarch (cost equals: Warp Spider + Exarch upgrade)
Shining Spear Exarch (cost equals: Shining Spear + Exarch upgrade)
Crimson Hunter Exarch * (cost equals: Crimson Hunter + Exarch upgrade)
Shadow Spectre Exarch (cost equals: Shadow Spectre + Exarch)

* Crimson Hunter Exarchs may not join their infantry counter parts. Instead you may wish to run a Court of the Young King comprised solely of Crimson Hunter Exarchs. If you choose to do so this unit becomes a vehicle squadron.

Wargear: Each exarch may purchase wargear and exarch powers as detailed in their respective unit entries.

Special rules: Hatred, Followers of Khaine

Followers of Khaine: The Avatar of Khaine and the Court of the Young King are both considered Independent Characters when interacting with each other. Thus the Avatar may join or leave the Court and vice versa just as if they were Independent characters. The individual exarchs however form a single unit and may not leave each other throughout the battle.
Provided the Court of the Young King does not contain any Swooping Hawk, Warp Spider, Shining Spear, Crimson Hunter or Shadow Spectre exarchs, it may take a Wave Serpent or Falcon as a dedicated transport.

Xenophobic:
The Eldar of Biel Tan possesses a strong animosity towards the lesser races of the galaxy. This often results in Biel Tan breaking a cease fire and turning against those they once fought alongside. To represent this, Biel Tan uses a modified allies matrix.

Battle Brothers: Eldar/Dark Eldar/Eldar Corsairs
Allies of convenience:
Desperate Allies: Imperial Guard, Space marines (all flavours including Grey Knights) Tau, SoB
Come the Apocalypse: Chaos (marines and daemons), necrons, orks, tyranids

The hated enemy:
Units in the Biel Tan warhost have the Hatred (Orks) special rule.

Not of the Craftworld:
Eldrad, Yriel and Illic Nightspear may not be chosen as a HQ choice in the Biel Tan detachment.

Aspect Paths:
The autarchs of Biel Tan hold strong affinities with the numerous aspect shrines of which they were once pupils of, this has resulted in the autarchs working more closely with these shrines and often calling upon these warriors to perform a multitude of battle field roles.
Any autarch fielded in a Biel Tan warhost has access to the following table in addition to the wargear they are normally allowed to select. In addition to the special rules granted from these aspect paths it allows for the corresponding aspect to become scoring.

Aspect of the Avenger: 1pt
Grants the Autarch the counter attack USR.

Aspect of the Banshee: 1pt
Grants the Autarch the Acrobatic special rule (see codex: Eldar).

Aspect of the Scorpion: 10pts
Grants the Autarch the Stealth and Infiltrate USR.

Aspect of the Dragon: 10pts
Grants the Autarch the Tank Hunters USR.

Aspect of the Hawk: 5pts
Grants the Autarch Herald of Victory** and Skyleap*** special rules (see codex: Eldar)

Aspect of the Reaper: 5pts
Grants the Autarch the Slow and Purposeful USR

Aspect of the Spider: 10pts
Grants the Autarch the Hit and Run USR

Aspect of the Spear: 5pts
Grants the Autarch the Outflank USR

Aspect of the Hunter: 5pts
Grants the Autarch the Skyfire USR

Aspect of the Spectre: 5pts
Grants the Autarch the Fear USR

** The Autarch still requires a viable means to Deep Strike such as Swooping Hawk wings, Warp Jump Generator or Shadow Spectre Jetpack
*** The Autarch may only utilise Skyleap if he possesses Swooping Hawk wings.

Weapons of Khaine
The weapons of Khaine are ancient and powerful pieces of wargear. Only one of each of the following may be chosen per army – there is only one of each of these items in the galaxy.

Spirit Stone of Anath’lan (pts : see codex Eldar)
 - Copy and paste from codex Eldar. It is a Biel Tan spirit stone after all.

Bloody Nightshade (120 pts) Autarch only
- The Bloody Nightshade is an exquisitely designed Nightshade Interceptor. It is believed to have been made shortly after The Fall and has never once been shot down. An Autarch who flies into battle within the Bloody Nightshade replaces all his wargear and changes his profile to the following Flyer and must therefore adhere to the rules of Flyers. Note he may still select any number of Aspect Paths as presented in the Masters of Strategy and War table.

Bloody Nightshade. BS 6 AV 11,10,10, HP 3, Vehicle (Flyer)
Wargear: Pulse Laser, 2 Bright Lances
Special Rules: Shrouded, Perfect Strike, Sky Hunter, Vector Dancer

Steed of Elwë (20pts)
The Steed of Elwë is an Eldar Jetbike that provide +2 toughness rather than the +1

Lance of Ancalimë (25pts)
A power lance with the following profile. On the charge adds +1 strength and -1 AP
Range – S4 AP3 Distort

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Warlord Traits

1 A common Foe: Warlord and all Biel Tan units within 12” have Preferred Enemy (Orks)

2 Frozen Leaves Falling to Cut: The Warlord and his unit have the Furious Charge USR

3 Bahzhakhain in flight: After both sides have deployed roll a D6. This many Wave Serpents or Falcons may perform a Scout move.

4 For the Craftworld: Your Warlord and all Biel Tan units within 12” have the Stubborn USR. If your warlord is the Avatar of Khaine this instead doubles the range of his Khaine Awakened Special rule.

5 Surprise Assault: You may reroll all failed reserve rolls for units deep striking or out flanking.

6 Lead by Example: Your warlord may fire an additional shot with his weapon in the shooting phase and has the Rage USR. This does not allow a psyker to manifest two psychic shooting powers in the shooting phase.

Apocalyse Datasheet: Void Spinner (I'll put more thought into this another time as this years project is making a Storm Serpent.


So lets talk about my thoughts regarding this supplement. I had two main goals when creating this, firstly was how to make the different aspects scoring and secondly was how to make the autarch more integrated into the army and able to work more effectively with the various troops under his command.
I am quite happy with the initial design of this. Now your autarchs can infiltrate w/ scorpions, deep strike with hawks and not force them to scatter, keep up with banshees when they run etc. This is what I was going for however I'm sure I've over looked something obvious and someone will come along and say "you take Aspect Path X and add it to unit Y and now the sky has broken open and cheese is falling down on everyone. So we'll see what others come up with to do point adjustments etc.

Now on to the points I've listed. I've tried to weigh up the usefulness of the aspect skills the autarch has gained with how the army will work as a whole and how appealing it'd make that aspect to be scoring. For example making reapers scoring would be pretty good however S&P is pretty crappy in almost all cases, thus its priced in the middle. Whereas Warp Spiders being scoring would be pretty good and H&R is also pretty good, thus it is more expensive.

Ive had this project in my mind several months now and I did have something in mind for the Aspect of the Avenger however for the life of me I can't remember and thus all I've gone with is a good skill for very cheap for the Autarch.

Also, I know Dragons don't have access to Tank Hunters any more. I was thinking of giving him something along the lines of FNP against blast and flamer weapons but decided FNP was more simple to implement. Add in vehicles aren't the king of the hill they were in 5th (and not many of us took a dragon exarch w/ TH back then anyway) and the fact our dragons and wraithguard really don't need TH I don't think it's too much of an issue.

I decided to go with scoring units instead of making them troops as the current codex allows you to field more aspect warriors than the craftworld Eldar codex.

So moving onto the CotYK. It's pretty simple really. Here you get to make a custom unit of exarchs to do whatever you want. This unit has a lot of options available at the cost of being expensive and fragile. They have hatred because theyre very angry. If your whole life has become dedicated to a particular style of killing in a society that strives to administer genocide to every sentient creature that isn't your kind. Now you're grouped up with like minded people, possibly whilst your god of war is filling your minds with murder, I imagine you'd be very angry too.
They have access to a falcon because falcons need some love.

With the warlord traits I've tried to go with a surprise attack (re-roll certain reserve rolls, scout) with an aggressive theme (furious charge, rage) whilst also being merciless and not taking a step back (stubborn). Plus every warlord table has it's "useless" option, this time preferred enemy orks.

As for the relics as you can probably tell are not something I really care about. I thought allowing the Autarch to fly a Crimson Hunter would just be cool. There's already vehicle HQs in game with Bjorn so it's not too much of a stretch. He could become pretty potent in conjunction w/ Aspect of the Scorpion for a 2+ cover save whilst jinking. However this is setting you back 220 odd points? For someone who may not even show up till turn 4. Not to mention jinking means he won't be shooting very accurately in his next shooting phase.
I didn't want all the relics to just be weapons but at the same time I don't see Biel Tan having as much subtlety as Ulthwe for example.

So what do you think? This is the first time just getting all the ideas onto...screen. So don't be too harsh please 

[volatilegaz]

What jumps out straight away to me is how broken the autarch makes them scoring thing is.

Example:
If you wanted to convert a Storm guardian into a fire dragon, the cost in upgrades could be approx. 26 pts per model, based on:
Add fusion gun @ 10 pts
Replace plasma grenades for melta bombs @ 5 pts
Replace mesh armour for heavy aspect armour @ 10 pts
+1 Ld @ 1pt

The difference in points per model is actually 13 pts, so by this method, the value of fire dragons being a scoring in unit should be around 13 pts per model, or 65-130 pts per unit.

You’ve priced this at 10pts per army, and that’s including the autarch getting tank hunter for free.

I'm guessing you're using the spirit seer makes wraithguard troops rule as your guide, but that's far less broken, bearing in mind that all wraithguard are slow, short range and bulky. and more importantly: that's somehing all Eldar can do, not just one craftworld.

Also I'm not sure, but I think you're intending the Autarch to be able to take as many of these aspect paths as you want? If so, you're looking at making an entire army scoring for probably less than 50pts. That can't be right.

A possible fix might be to treble all the points costs for the autarch paths, and limit the benefit to making 1 unit of that aspect scoring so long as the autarch has joined it.
I'd also suggest removing the path of the hunter from the list entirely -flyers as scoring units just seems wrong to me in so many ways.


I like the idea of the COTYK, but i can see this getting abused a bit -example being 3 scoprion exarchs all with claws & crushing blow is about 200 pts, but that's putting out 12 amazingly strong attacks per turn on the charge, plus 3 mandiblasters, and it can't be insta-killed. which I think would make it the best assault unit in the 40k world?

Some good stuff here, but yes I think lots of opportunity for abuse as it stands.

[Aoitora]

Hey Volatilegaz, thanks for the reply 

My goal with this was to increase the appeal of the Autarch as he is often sits out in favour of farseers and spiritseers. So when I was making the point values for the paths I was including the cost of the autarch in addition (a tax if you will). Thus a minimum squad of scoring fire dragons would cost 190pts.
In addition when determining the points value I also put into consideration how good the aspect is and its chances of surviving to capture objectives. Dragons are great for damage but don't live till the end of the game often. I do agree however point costs are the biggest consideration that would need to be tweaked.
Some system that compounds the points the more paths you take would probably be the go.

Perhaps limiting the paths to say 3 and having points compound.

The path of the Hunter seems silly at first but unless the objective is off the ground he'll never be able to get within 3" of it to capture it. Also if there is an elevated objective and the game doesn't end that turn he won't be able to cap the same objective again for another 2 turns. Mostly the hunter being scoring is to maintain the theme and at best line breaker. It is kinda gimmicky. With this in mind does it change your opinion?

The CotYK is intended as a fun unit (at least that's what I want it to be). The 3 Scorp exarchs you mentioned clocks in just over the price of 5 naked terminators and die easier than 3 tactical marines. I dont think I'd really have an issue playing against this as they are so damn fragile. Also if they wanted to join up with the avatar then the avatar suddenly becomes bolter fodder. The potential for awesome damage dealing units is there but the price is a very limiting factor.

[Wyldhunt]

Court of the Young King:
A cool idea, but I'm not sure all the aspects synergize very well.  It doesn't really feel like a CotYK if you have tons of shining spear exarchs, for instance, but then those shining spear exarchs aren't really worth their points if they're slowed down by, for instance, a fire dragon exarch.  Hawks and spiders can sort of move together (sort of), but they'd probably prefer not to be shooting at the same target.  Some units would work well in tandem (dragons + banshees/scorps?), but I think people will mostly end up taking a bunch of a single aspect.  Which doesn't feel very Biel-Tan, really.  They're all about the combined arms army. 

A dragon, scorpion, banshee, and reaper exarch in a transport might work, and it would be really cool, but I feel it simply leaves too many other aspects out in the rain.  I'm not sure I have a good solution. It's a cool idea, but I'm not sure how to execute it.

Aspect Paths:
very cool, but it needs tweaking. How about only allowing up to 3ish (as you suggested), and then making each mark only apply to a single specific unit?  For instance, you might take 3 Marks of the Aspect, the first costing 20ish points, the second costing 30ish, and the third costing 40ish, and then select which units benefit from it. This would reflect the Autarch working in tandem with specific shrines to which he had given specific tasks important to the battle.  Mechanically, it would cost you 90ish points to make 3 units of your choice scoring, but I think that's a good middleground. It prevents you from paying X points to make 6 minimum sized dark reaper squads scoring, for instance.  At the same time, it lets you make a significant portion of your sword wind scoring. You can take avengers as troops, and then still threaten to score with those fast attack choices you'd cleverly kept in reserve like the autarch you are. 

Alternatively, you could consider giving each aspect (except Dire Avengers) a rule along these lines:
"If your army contains an Autarch, (aspect) squads may become scoring at a cost of X points per model."  So you could adjust the cost to reflect how scary an aspect squad of that size and type would be as a scoring unit. Warp Spiders are probably a lot more likely to wind up standing on an objective than, for instance, fire dragons (since they have to move around and get close to vehicles).

This gets rid of the benefits the autarch receives from the marks, but you could make those into separate wargear options if you were so inclined.