Many players have already commented on the devastating Aeldari D-Cannon profile that was shown off during GW’s preview game of 10th Edition, and one tournament has even pre-banned Aleldari as a faction from their first 10th Edition event. While banning an entire faction from tournaments probably isn’t the greatest solution, something will need to be done to tone down indirect fire in 10th Edition. This problem won’t be contained to a single army either, as we have already seen plenty of other indirect fire units previewed with plenty more to come once the full indexes are released. While the Aeldari and their Fate Dice mechanic may be the biggest offenders of indirect fire coming in too strong for 10th Edition, indirect fire as a whole is going to be too strong to remain the way it is at the launch of 10th.
To state the problem simply: there is no downside for taking indirect fire units. In 9th Edition GW came up with a pretty elegant solution to the problem that was indirect fire by giving the firing unit -1 to hit and the target unit +1 to their save from indirect fire. This led to units who would otherwise be obliterated having a chance at surviving even concentrated indirect fire. While it did take GW a few Codex releases to finally get indirect fire to a place where even the scary shooting profile of Desolators indirect fire did not have the ability to wipe whole units out from behind obscuring terrain, the solution they ended the edition on seemed like a perfect rule to transition into 10th Edition.
Unfortunately, the indirect fire nerf did not complete transfer over to the new edition of 40k. In 10th Edition the -1 to hit penalty for shooting indirect remains, but there has been a separate rules change that affects the playability of these units. With the new rules, Heavy weapons get a +1 to hit if they remain stationary. This +1 to hit completely negates the penalties GW was attempting to place on indirect fire since, in almost all cases, an indirect fire unit will not move the turn it shoots. Getting to shoot these indirect fire weapons at their standard Ballistic Skill seems bad enough, but there are even ways to buff the effectiveness of indirect fire as we have seen in the D-Cannon datasheet.
The second downside of indirect fire is that the target gets the new Benefits of Cover rule in 10th Edition which gives the targeted unit +1 to their save. The problem with this benefit is that it does not stack with the +1 save the unit already gets if it is in cover, and my guess if if your opponent if shooting indirectly at something than it is in cover. In 9th Edition, a unit target by indirect fire would receive not only the +1 save from being in cover, but it would also receive an additional +1 to it’s save for a cumulative +2. With indirect fire weapons on having to deal with a +1 save to their targets I truly hope these weapons are without AP.
Now before anyone reading this claims that I am shouting that the sky is falling, let me be clear, it isn’t. There is just the metal shrapnel of indirect fire raining down on our units. There are certainly some balancing factors that I believe GW has implemented to try and counter some of the super high offensive output that we have seen in many of the faction previews. First, a lot of factions seem to have ways to get models back for units at the low cost of zero points. If this is prevalent enough across the entire game that indirect fire is a tool only for taking out minimum sized squads hidden on home objectives I would be completely happy. Second, a lot of the missions, both Primary and Secondary, that we have seen previewed seem to incentivize moving toward the middle of the table. If a player’s points are completely tied up in expensive indirect fire units, and they cannot play the mission, then maybe the factions who can pile on the indirect fire will choose not to build their army that way in order to better accomplish the missions and score points.
If you are looking to grab some of these problematic indirect fire units, or some fast moving close combat units to frustrate those players who run 9 Aeldari Support Weapon Platforms, FLG has all of your 40k needs over on their webstore!
Wow, nerfing day one! It starts all over again.
The aeldari d Cannon platform isn’t actually OP. It is strong in a vacuum, but it will absolutely get destroyed by every other indirect fire weapon in the game. Every single army is getting a ton of indirect fire and range 24 is the shortest range we have seen so far.
I would agree that it isn’t OP if it was in any other Army, but in Aeldari it needs toned down (which I am sure it will be in the first balance pass). Fate dice and the Farseer’s datasheet ability just make these incredibly strong and too reliable to push out Devastating Wounds. Their lack of range can be pretty easily played around by putting these in Strategic Reserve. We will have all the info on Friday though to see what counters they may have or if they are like 1 million points : ).
The dcannon is at best a deterent for rushing a section of the midfield. If someone early game chises to rush the threatened area instead of taking steps to kitigate the threat, then there’s nothing g wrong with an eldar player expending a very limited resource to make it hurt. A lot of scenarios were developed over in certain subs about units of terminators being utterly wiped out by an u.dercosted dcannon. Then the marine codex dripped and there is a whole lot of 4+++ to go around to negate the bulk of that damage.
People need to chill out and let the game play out, let all the datasheets come out and the points costs be available. The TO who banned an entire faction as a publicity stunt is a wholenother issue.
Pardon me good sir. Isn’t the 4+++ only against psychic attacks? I do agree though let’s see some play then people can rave that the sky is falling haha.
Knights aren’t getting a ton of indirect fire. If what you said is true about strong in a vacuum because other armies IDF would kill the D cannons easily then aren’t we in a whoever goes first wins situation between those armies. Statistically, without the use of fate dice, the D cannons will kill 3 small knights a turn and worse to vehicles without invuln saves. In comparison without any added buffs a single basilisk does 1.4 wounds to a knight. I am not spun about this one way or another till we see points and things get played. I’m just curious if I have assessed the situation correctly or if you see it playing out differently?
It’s hard to know how it will all play out until we start seeing lots of games played, and see the results of those games as patterns. That being said there is a reason artillery bombardment is one of the most effective combat strategies in all of human history.