Merry Grotmas! Games Workshop is releasing a new series of detachments – one per army, every day until Christmas. In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.
Note: corrected a misread on the Cloudstrike stratagem.
The Aeldari faction detachment is one that I’m sure players of all stripes have looked forward to with eager anticipation or equal amounts of dread given how they entered into 10th edition. Well, the day has come and it’s finally here in advance of the new codex early next year. This new Aeldari detachment is entirely focused around the sleek vehicles of the Eldar warhost – harkening back to some of the vehicle formations of old.
We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.
Detachment Overview: Armoured Warhost
As the name suggests, this detachment and all its Enhancements/Stratagems are focused on the vehicle elements of an Eldar army. Notably, this will include Drukhari vehicles in Ynnari detachments. In terms of the synergies, everything will key off one or more of the Aeldari, Vehicle, or Fly keywords. Any benefit to Wraith, Aspect, Guardian, or non-vehicle Harlequin units is otherwise indirect. The result – perhaps unintended – is that this detachment is going to silo you in your unit options and how you will want to build your list in order to maximize its benefits. Armies built with this detachment will be slightly faster than the typical Eldar army but will trade off durability and output for that speed, and it becomes questionable whether the rest of the roster can make up for that.
If you’re a competitive-minded player of Aeldari or a casual player with friends you should still understand what is here and how it might be used – it doesn’t seem to be competitive now compared to the Battle Host Detachment, but when the new Codex drops next year, it might be more viable.
The Video Version
If you’d rather watch than read our review of this Detachment, you can find the video version of the review here:
Detachment Rule: Skilled Crews
AELDARI VEHICLE units from your army have the [ASSAULT] ability and vehicles with FLY can re-roll their Advance rolls.
In affect, all Aeldari vehicles not seeking to declare a charge or disembark troops can always advance without penalty in this detachment, making already fast Aeldari vehicles that much quicker. Given the long range and high-quality nature of most Aeldari vehicles this is mostly impactful for units like Vypers, Hornets, Voidweavers, and War Walkers which are seeking to find sight lines on the flanks. There may be some additional opportunity with the open-topped Drukhari vehicles in a Ynnari detachment.
More movement is never a bad thing, but this rule is ultimately underwhelming when you compare it to the index detachment. At the end of the day, a marginal speed boost that only impacts a small subset of the army creates a fairly narrow set of advantages that may not even be relevant over much of the game. Trading off a hit and wound re-roll for all units at each activation is a significant downgrade, but for those three Yme-Loc fans seeking to run primarily vehicles with a need for speed, this may be right up their alley.
Enhancements
Switching from the Battle Host detachment you’ll lose some of your old stalwarts like the Phoenix Gem or Fate’s Messenger, but you’ll gain some new abilities focused on vehicle synergies and deployment shenanigans. For the most part, the new enhancements are situational but do offer some upside if you’re interested in fielding specific vehicles and have a plan for how you want to employ them. That said, the cheapest Enhancement is probably the only auto-include in this list and everything else is mediocre to bad.
- Guiding Presence (25 pts) – For Aeldari Psyker models only. In the shooting phase you may select a friendly Aeldari Vehicle model within 9” and add 1 to that vehicle’s hit roll. This can be a nice tool for a Farseer or Warlock (Farseer Skyrunner is particularly nice to provide two hit improvement options) that is going to hang around the big guns of a single tank. Generally, the bigger the tank the bigger the benefit here – Lynx, Fire Prism, Ynnari Ravager, etc. If you’re feeling saucy and have a Cobra or Scorpion laying around it might be cute in conjunction. The biggest limitation here is that it’s just not going to be all that impactful for the price and you’ll probably just save the points for more units or upgrading a key unit to something else.
- Harmonisation Matrix (30 pts) – Aeldari model. If within range of an objective marker you control (or if the transport model is embarked within) you control, on a 3+ gain 1 CP. I have a hard time thinking anyone will take this deliberately. It’s the most expensive Enhancement on the list, is worse in every way from each of the Autarch datasheet abilities, and even if you meet its conditions for the CP, you might still fail to gain one. It does have limited use for a Ynnari detachment that really wants a reliable CP generation option… If the conditions are right. Maybe. You’re going to be frustrated by this a lot, particularly when you really need the CP, you roll a one or two every turn for three turns straight.
- Spirit Stone of Raelyth (20 pts) – For Aeldari Psyker models only. Grants Lone Operative to the model if within 3” of a friendly Aeldari vehicle. In the player’s command phase, may heal a vehicle model within 3” d3 wounds. This is also something that’s going to get the most bang for its buck on a key, centerpiece-type vehicle. The bigger the better to keep it alive. It has situational use elsewhere in healing your vehicles but limiting this enhancement to psykers puts the brakes on a lot of what you may consider taking it on like a foot Autarch or Bike Autarch who would otherwise benefit the army in different ways. Either flavor of Farseer becomes a decent alternative for the Fortune/Guide bonus and the Fate manipulation. Warlocks are a cheaper alternative but their datasheet only provides bonuses when leading a unit so you’re kind of just wasting opportunity there.
- Guileful Strategist (15 pts) – Aeldari model. Following deployment, may redeploy up to three units and may place any of those units in Strategic Reserves (ignoring reserve limits). Nice little capability for the price, helps position the army exactly how you need it once you’ve seen the opponent deploy – may pair well with some stratagems in this detachment. This one is probably the best of the set and the closest you’ll get to an auto-take. Can benefit War Walkers who may then Scout forward or back on T1 depending on the go-first. Alternatively may benefit Falcons who also benefit from the new stratagems. Just a really nice enhancement that fits most Eldar playstyles.
Overall, despite being thematic choices, these are a downgrade compared to the Battle Host options.
Stratagems
As is the theme here, the Stratagems in this detachment are focused on vehicle synergies only. Bear in mind that without Battle Host you’re losing powerful abilities like Fire and Fade, Feigned Retreat, and Phantasm – so we hope to find some strong abilities here to compensate for that.
- Layered Wards (1 CP) – In any phase, after a mortal wound is allocated to an Aeldari Vehicle, that unit gains a 5+ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds. Not great – your vehicles will almost never die to mortal wounds, even if you’d want to use this on something like a Tank Shock, Grenades, or whatever. The fact that it’s limited to vehicles and is a 5+ means you’re probably better off saving the CP – at T9 and no invulnerable, these aren’t exactly hard targets in this game. This strat is for that one niche situation in ten games where you just really need to lob a prayer to the god of spiking 5-ups and hope to not die.
- Swift Deployment (1 CP) – In the movement phase, one Aeldari Transport that advanced can disembark its occupants. Disembarked units count as making a Normal Move and cannot charge but otherwise act as normal. Pretty nice stratagem but ultimately limited in its implementation. Useful for getting some Fire Dragons into Melta range out of a Falcon or Wave Serpent or just dropping a unit onto an objective but will ultimately result trading multiple units. Probably best used in late game but could be effective early to eliminate a key target. Could be fun on a Wave Serpent to drop a brick of Dire Avengers led by Asurmen onto an objective.
- Vectored Engines (1 CP) – An Aeldari Vehicle unit with Fly that has fallen back – is eligible to shoot. A much, much worse version of Feigned Retreat. You’ll probably get a fair amount of use out of this since you’ll be tagged in combat a lot by infantry closing out of your sight lines.
- Cloudstrike (1 CP) – An Aeldari Vehicle unit with Fly that is in Strategic Reserve. Gives it Deep Strike. Allows a vehicle to setup 6” away from an opponent’s forces, including any units that disembark from that vehicle – neither can charge. Nice, particularly if you use the Enhancement to redeploy them – pretty much a Fire Dragon/Fuegan delivery system.
- Soulsight (1 CP) – One Aeldari Vehicle before activation. Can reroll a hit, wound, and damage roll. Better than a CP reroll by a long shot, likely using on a unit with a Bright Lance. You’ll probably use this a lot to be honest, but that’s not really saying much. You’re now paying a CP on one unit to get two-thirds of what you would have gotten for free army wide in the Battle Host detachment where you could have used this same CP on a damage reroll if you needed it.
- Anti-Grav Repulsion (1 CP) – An Aeldari Vehicle unit with Fly after an opponent declared a charge against it. Subtract 2 from charge rolls made for that unit. An actually good stratagem, particularly when paired with the effect of a Nightspinner. Applies only to vehicles so it’s still relatively niche in its use.
There are some individually nice design ideas and cool tools here, but in the greater context of what this detachment is offering it just becomes so thoroughly underwhelming. The biggest challenge here is that at the end of the day, elves are not hard to kill – including their tanks. There is little here to help you survive and overall, your lethality is also taking a big downgrade as the reliability of the hit/wound re-roll is lost. There’s more movement than ever, but that’s really not what you were asking for.
Playing This Detachment
To get the most out of this detachment you mostly want to focus on options for vehicle units and what can work well with them. Since you’re losing rerolls army-wide, and you’re losing Fire & Fade which might protect key units you are pushed towards a limited set of hulls; Falcons, Nightspinners, War Walkers – these are probably where you want to live. A single Nightspinner is useful to help keep the opponent off your tanks in conjunction with the Anti-Grav Repulsion stratagem. Vypers and Void Weavers may be useful for some cheaper hulls, but you’re going to get awfully annoyed over the course of a game with how bad their output has become and how expensive it is to boost. Fire Prisms losing access to Fire & Fade makes them expensive bullet magnets once you decide to peak out. You have few options outside of hulls – so the rest of your army is being taken vanilla to fill in on what you may need to fight opposing factions that are far more comprehensive and cohesive. The Crimson Hunter becomes an interesting choice, but it’s still a bit pricy for what it brings, and you’ll struggle with primary scoring in this army already. One potential option is the Yncarne, as you now have a better option via Cloudstrike to deliver a deadly unit and force a teleport. I’d only caution that a Falcon hull, even at 6″ is a large footprint hull and relatively easy to screen out.
Strengths
- Strong redeployment and reserve synergies with Falcons and embarked characters/troops
- Some of the fastest vehicles get slightly faster, offering increased threat ranges and ability to secure shooting lanes
- Healing ability and additional Lone Operative option
Weaknesses
- Very narrow benefits and army synergies that will severely limit the types of number of units you’ll want to bring
- Difficult to safely deploy and maneuver a vehicle-heavy army
- Loss of post-action movement stratagems may result in an inability to protect key assets from return fire
A Sample List – Oops [Mostly] All Tanks!
I’ll put it right up front: in my estimation the current detachment just isn’t going to be very competitive.
The detachment will suffer from the fact that terrain tends to be moderately dense limiting your shooting opportunities early and enabling combat units to get into you where they will almost always trade up. Particularly going first, you’re not exactly able to position yourself as you won’t have much of a combat threat. The slight boost to the speed is limited in its applicability and Eldar hulls tend to be large and difficult to hide. The detachment offers some good reserve shenanigans, but focusing so heavily on tanks limits what the rest of the army can offer, particularly because so many options for Eldar are going to want to take advantage of Fire & Fade or Phantasm, losing those means that often your tanks or units will be one-and-done as they pop out to shoot and then absolutely fold in the return fire.
Building a list, I opted for Falcons with some Phoenix Lord led Aspects – Avengers, Dragons, and Scorpions – all options that have some utility value in a vanilla list. The Phoenix Lord gives the +1 to hit which helps mitigate the lack of a hit reroll, each of the Lords are good combat options, and being delivered by the Falcon gives them innate wound rerolls that pairs well with the Cloudstrike stratagem (Dragons/Avengers). Some utility units in Rangers and Hawks for screening/scoring and then a couple of War Walkers that do benefit nicely from this detachment. Then a single Nightspinner to help apply the brakes to an oncoming rush.
”Oops Characters Other Datasheets
I think many detachments will look mostly the same to the above with a set of Falcons, War Walkers, and Nightspinner at their core. Same may lean into Voidweavers or Fire Prisms but you’re still in a narrow box for creativity. This list minimizes the impact that goes with losing the hit and wound rerolls, as well as maximizing the advantages this detachment offers. Units selected are those who do not rely so much on Enhancements or Stratagems from the Battle Host. The key here is leveraging redeploys and Cloudstrike and hoping to play around the objectives.
I think the reality here is that even if you wanted to go tank-heavy, the index detachment would still be your better option.
Final Thoughts
As a long-time player of the elves (late 90s), it is not entirely clear to me why this Detachment exists. There are some neat and fun ideas in the Enhancements and Stratagems, but as a collective whole the Detachment is so laser-focused on vehicles that it all just… doesn’t work. I realize not everyone will share the same opinion here, and that there are those out there who are big tank appreciators, but I find the vehicle-first Eldar armies to not only be the least interesting and least fun to play, but also they just don’t fit the lore. If there’s one thing Eldar are about, it’s synergy and having all the elements of an army working towards a common endpoint. When I think of opportunities to integrate vehicles into an army, they always serve as a complement and never the focus, and the major Craftworld themes all mirror this idea.
Outside of how this Detachment performs on the table or how well it adheres to the established archetypes of the faction, I think the biggest crime here is that ultimately it’s just not very interesting. It doesn’t offer very much that the Battle Host Detachment doesn’t already offer or do better, and it puts an extremely narrow emphasis on the units that are just kind of boring to build around and don’t offer a lot of dynamic capabilities. It’s not inclusive of the full roster; it’s purely exclusive.
It’s a good thing that the codex is just around the corner. And who knows, with the release of the codex perhaps this Detachment will need to be re-evaluated. However, given the extremely narrow focus here I don’t hold out hope that it’ll be seriously competitive or flavorful versus what we might expect from a major Craftworld, Harlequin, and Ynnari series of detachments that do a better job of integrating the roster’s various elements.
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