Yep, the old DE range is pretty horrendous, with few exceptions (like the Raider and the Talos). But the new one really makes up for it.
Been keeping track of the news on Warseer, and some new interesting tidbits have arrived. Namely, your Archon can take a retinue that will be made up of different specialists. One of those can give the entire retinue poison that wounds on a 2+. Combine that with the Archons Huskblade (PW, instant death) and you have one scary, scary Character and MC killer.
Also, there will apparently be 2 versions of grotesques, one big, one small. The big ones will be in Ogryn territory with S5 T5 3W and FNP. Ouch! Apparently they need guidance from an IC though, because if they don't have that they can just die on a failed LD test (while lashing out to the nearest quad while doing so).
The Mandrakes apparently have infiltrate and stealth, and being the half DE, half Demons that they are can shoot fire from their hands at their opponents with S4 AP4 Assault 2. Ouch again.
I also like the pain token mechanism. If a DE unit kills off another unit, it gets a pain token. 1st token gives FNP, second one gives furious charge, third one gives fearless. There are alternative ways to build those tokens up as well, Haemunculi for example give squads they join a free one, and there is a Talos variant that can bestow pain tokens to nearby DE units when it kills stuff. There might be more, but this is already pretty huge. Standard Warriors alone with FNP would be a lot more threatening suddenly. And on Wytches it would be simply awesome. 4++ followed by FNP in cc is going to keep those gladiators alive for a looonng time.
And fnally, good ole Asdrubael Vect is rumored to be able to steal the initiative on a 4+. Neat.
