Changes in my Eldar Army: Path of the Witch

Greetings Gentlereaders,

Today I was just hoping to talk to you for a bit about what I think will be changing in my Eldar army now that I actually have a copy of the codex.  Also, first post from lovely Arlington, VA.

The heart and soul of my army has been the seer council, which I tried to make work in 5th edition, but it never worked out well when I was playing against Daemonhunting Templar and BA with FNP.  While their witchblades got hit when dealing with vehicles, but the new codex made the unit much more prominent in terms of time and a more variable threat both as a hammer unit and as a support unit.  I can't think of any other unit that both exemplifies an aspect of their army and forces you and the opponent to deal with a unit that changes what type of threat it is after the list building phase.


The warlocks that make up the council proper lost their old powers and their unstoppable casting, but make up for it with their variety of (de)buffs, battle focus and the new singing spears.  Runes of Battle could take it's own article, but let's settle for the primaris makes bike councils bonkers and the randomness of the table means you want to take large councils to get more variety and resilience.  Battle Focus doesn't effect my bike council, but does make a foot council more able to move about when they disembark.

The real star of the new book for the seer council is the singing spear.  In the old codex they were available to any psyker and offered you an anti-vehicle option at the cost of an attack and three points.  Now, clocking in at a pentad, they offer you that same ranged attack (less AP 6) and act as a witchblade in melee. I would just add the points cost to the basic warlock because there is no longer a downside to it.  Bad for game balance and critical thinking, good for spear-throwing psychic elves in space.

The farseer has most of his psychic fuckery and can't choose his powers anymore, but in a council that randomness is necessary for game balance.  There's only two duds in Runes of Fate, but even those can be mean if you get a decent roll.  Death Mission can be a great thing if your seer is about to die anyway, boosting him to 10s in WS/BS/I and doubling his 'standing' attacks, but it turns a support mage into a berserker (Carry Taric!).  Mind War can actually bite you now, but your opponent can't hide behind a rock anymore.  What I don't like is that most of the time, you'll just be shooting down random dudes in squads rather than the special dudes you want.  Eldritch storm is now worth its two WC cost and Fortune needed to be a two WC power for the interaction with Conceal and Protect (2+ armor / 3+ cover / 4+ invul w/re-rolls).  Guide is now the primaris and is quite useful if you aren't running laser lock serpents.  The range increase (6" -> 24") means you don't need to keep your seer with whatever (s)he is guiding, and can stick them in a rock unit holding a point or send them forward with a bike council with the same effect.

There's more to come later, but that's probably enough for right now.  I probably missed some things, but what do you guys think of the new council?  I haven't had the chance to use them in an actual game, but  I would expect to see more spear-hurling councils in tournaments very soon.  And now, the weather...