'Best' web gate faction: Drukhari or Craftworld Aeldari?

[graphitepaddle]

Yes, I know that 'Best' is very subjective. But as I understand the game, these 2 factions use web gates as city locations. For those who have played both factions, why do you prefer one over the other?

Played 6 factions so far, and it's strictly a matter of time before I start hungering for a new one.

Background: Bought Gladius, 2 1/2 weeks ago, have played the 4 base factions plus the Tyranids & Adeptus Mechanicus. With the exception of the Space Marines, the other 5 factions are enjoyable in some way.

[Grotzel]

Good to hear that you enjoyed them! :)
Which did you like best so far? (And yes - booh to boring regular Space Marines! ;) )

Hmmm ... Aeldari or Drukhar? I really like both ... and am not entirely sure yet which one I prefer. They share some similarities, especially the whole webway mechanic and, of course vulnerable but deadly infantry.
Webways are fun - they allow you to get an early impression of the map - and where your enemies are, great for team games where you can build next to an ally (even an option if you play with an AI ally) ... and occasionally a neat option for emergency bases / surprise attacks. Although both are risky. Claimed webways immediately become a target for every neutral in the vicinity. It is generally best to travel through Webways you have secured by building a city there.

Aeldari have pretty much full Too Many Voices support (Drukhari sadly none ... yet) ... so that's definitely a bonus point in their favour!
I really like the lore and aesthetic of the Craftworld Aeldari. Their infantry / heroes are really mobile - and I love that you can take an action with them AND then move. Nice little twist. Their vehicles are pretty good, too.

The Drukhari are -fitting to their character - like the Aeldari ... but more extreme. Even slower population growth (at least in the beginning ... which can make the start a little tough), in many ways even more mobile (although without the benefit of being able to take an action before moving) and definitely more deadly. I love that their infantry stays extremely relevant - infantry is the core of every Drukhari army. They get even more powerful than usual with experience - another reason you have to be careful with them ... aside from their fragility. Even the Drukhari vehicles are less sturdy than Aeldari vehicles.

The little tricks you can pull off with Aeldari - putting infantry and heroes in a transport and then sending them through a webway gate - is a central mechanic for Drukhari ... another thing I really like about them.

[graphitepaddle]

Originally posted by Grotzel:

Good to hear that you enjoyed them! :)
Which did you like best so far?

Too early to be sure; have to play the 5 interesting factions at least one more time each. Forced to pick one, has the be the Adeptus Mechanicus, just because they were easy to play: My natural 4x game play is build up the economy, playing mostly defense, then rampage over the map.

The the 4 have their charms:

• Astra Militarum: Long range weapons.
  
• Necrons: Great healing power, and infantry with 2-range.
  
• Orks: Thought that would hate them, but their infantry is great at melee attacks. And they are great comic relief. (Have to replay them, for that reason alone. Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks.)
  
• Tyranids: Love the Trygons' tunneling. But I have to wrap my head around recycling units. (Firm believer in role playing in games like this, but I played the Tyranids like Adeptus Mechanicus ... a mistake that I got away with.)

Thanks for the comparison between the Drukhari & the Craftworld Aeldari. Will probably try the later first, and probably the Drukhari at a later time.

[Noodlesocks]

Being able to create your own temporary gates makes Drukhari the faves for me.

[Grotzel]

Originally posted by graphitepaddle:

Too early to be sure; have to play the 5 interesting factions at least one more time each. Forced to pick one, has the be the Adeptus Mechanicus, just because they were easy to play: My natural 4x game play is build up the economy, playing mostly defense, then rampage over the map.

The the 4 have their charms:

• Astra Militarum: Long range weapons.
  
• Necrons: Great healing power, and infantry with 2-range.
  
• Orks: Thought that would hate them, but their infantry is great at melee attacks. And they are great comic relief. (Have to replay them, for that reason alone. Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks.)
  
• Tyranids: Love the Trygons' tunneling. But I have to wrap my head around recycling units. (Firm believer in role playing in games like this, but I played the Tyranids like Adeptus Mechanicus ... a mistake that I got away with.)

Thanks for the comparison between the Drukhari & the Craftworld Aeldari. Will probably try the later first, and probably the Drukhari at a later time.

Interesting little analysis.
The Mechanicus are pretty good indeed - well, once I got into the proper mindset for them. My enjoyment of the factions is probably far from rational ... what I know about the lore of at least some of the factions tends to contribute to my preferences. For example, the Gaunt's Ghost and Ciaphas Can novels both helped me place the Guard right next to Orks in my list of favourite factions. Plus the whole underdog feeling is very atmospheric! (Part of the reason why I like the Guard's infantry). And Orks ... well ... you already put it very nicely: Orks are Orks! :)
(The Lore is also part of the reason why I place the Battle Sisters in third place.)
By the way ... as an affront to the lore: I have to admit that I also commited the a sin of uncharasterically not recycling my wounded Tyranid troops in the nearest pool in my first game with them. It goes against all my instincts! ;)

Noodlesocks makes a good point: temporary webway gates ARE without any question certainly great! I should probably point out that with Drukhari you also get all the benefit of them being the latest faction (for now); the roster is larger than those of other factions without unit dlcs ,,, and the campaign spawns some units from previous factions. Not that this should necessarily convince you to buying them first. The Aeldari unit roster is merely 'missing' a few units ... and the general nature of the faction is more important.

As a tiny sidenote: there are minor references to especially the Aeldari campaign in the Drukhari campaign (not a big deal - more a case of you'll might recognize a few tidbits of it if you've played through it).

[graphitepaddle]

Food for thought. Eventually, I'll get both factions. Noodlesocks' temporary gate buff, makes the decision which to get first, a coin flip ... or who goes on sale first.

[🚛 Akehiko ⬛️💀🟧]

While both of these factions ar really eh due to their dependancy on a building that only spawns at the start the game and can be destroyed

For me the Aeldari have better units than the Drukhari who specialize in doing drive by's

[Jey]

IMO, Craftworld Aeldari are better.

Drukhari can be braindead strong (Drugged Wyches spam anyone? cheap Scourge spam? No?), but they can also be pretty frustrating to play, because they are not very tanky.
Even their vehicles are pretty flimsy, so if you mess up it can be hard to recover (And hopefully their busted infantry is getting nerfed soon)

The fact that Aeldaris can claim gates for free with a tech is already a big plus.
But also if you're not a fan of the glass cannon approach, you can go the vehicle way, which has a more traditional "Tough units with medium damage".
Furthermore their "infantry zerg" strategy (Guardian spam) is more satisfying than the Drugged Wyches of Drukhari (if only because you don't get walled by Umbras or cliffs)

[Grotzel]

I wouldn't call Drukhari braindead (then again, I dislike spamming stuff and am not very good at it) but have to agree that they CAN be a little frustrating (and likely equally frustrating to fight against ;) ). For me, their relative fragility is part of their allure, though.

Thinking a bit more about his, if I had to choose which faction I'd play first, I'd very likely go with the Aeldari. Not because I like them more - as I wrote, I have a hard time deciding if I prefer one.

The Aeldari came first, which - as I wrote - has potentially some minor drawbacks - but also the significant advantage that they have great Too Many Voices support (to be honest, that might already be the deciding factor to me).
The Drukhari are the more exotic choice and indeed likely more tricky to learn and use the webway extensively. I think learning basic webway usage from the Aeldari feels a little more organic ... but that's merely a vague notion ... hardly a huge obstacle.

By the way, If you choose Drukhari, you need to be aware that influence is extremely important for them. They can gather it through fighting (although I think Orks are better at that) but they also need a lot of it. Similar to Orks, you need a certain amount of influence (would have to look it up - but I think the first level of benefits is around a store of 200?) to get some benefits (in their case bonus loyalty) - but you'll also need it for webway use and drugs (and, of course, possibly hero equipment). With Orks, you'll likely always be swimming in a vast ocean of influence - which is part of why heroes are so great for Orks - my impression of Drukhari is that they are going to have to work on that a bit harder.

[Stardustfire]

thats because orcs get influence for simply attacking, while DEldar need to kill to get it. on top they net less from it because the orcs get a pecentage to the damaging units worth, where the deldar get a lesser hardnumber worth

[Deski]

Getting a bit off topic but anyone else feel like the Ork and Dark Eldar influence-gain mechanics should have been reversed? Makes more sense for the Orks to be about winnin' fitez, and makes more sense for the Drukhari to be about simply inflicting pain.

[🚛 Akehiko ⬛️💀🟧]

Originally posted by Deski:

Getting a bit off topic but anyone else feel like the Ork and Dark Eldar influence-gain mechanics should have been reversed? Makes more sense for the Orks to be about winnin' fitez, and makes more sense for the Drukhari to be about simply inflicting pain.

Orkz don't care wether they win or lose they just want a propa'h fight as the ancients intended

[Stardustfire]

if it was reversed, influence woudend work for waagh counter anymore. orcs are fueled by fighting, not explicit winning.
it woud have been a more logic question to ask why some nid units dont generate biomass by winning. or even more obvious why lictors dont generate knowledge that way. in TT Lictors are a Elite Unit, not a mass unit like some ppl use them as in gladius. and there role is forward recon, not active mass murder. they do it by catch some targets and extract knowledge from there brains, and getting genetic samples for the pool...

[graphitepaddle]

Thanks to everyone who chimed it. Definitely think that the Craftworld Aeldari should be my next faction.

Grotzel, expect my opinions about different factions, listed in my 2nd post in this thread, will evolve over time ... if for no other reason that I haven't researched every option for each faction, much less used all of the unit types.

[Deski]

yea fair points guys. To be fair I did feel a lot more confident saying the Dark Eldar want to inflict pain, than the Orks need to win! Good point about the Tyranids too, which I hadn't considered. I'll think of things in terms of, when the DE "kill" a unit in this game, it's more like those guys are just going missing, being abducted, and that makes the frightening influence of the DE go up.

As for the topic I do actually prefer Aeldari! The sense of impending doom of losing the webway gates feels more real to them (given that someone's pointed out the DE can make their own temporary portals), which is an interesting theme. Also, I really like the Scorpion.

[thelonebanana]

There is simply no comparison here. Druki is the best faction in the game based on their heroes and wyches. In fact this faction was banned in every game during community tournaments. There is simply no meaningful way of countering a unit that is tier 1 and costs as much as a guardsman and hits harder than a leman russ tank with heavy bolters. If any ding dong here says different they simply don't play PvP.