Detachment Focus: Skysplinter Assault

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Skysplinter Assault Detachment for the Drukhari, released with the Q1 2024 Balance Dataslate.

The Drukhari were one of the factions done dirtiest by the 10th Edition Indexes, lacking a strong identity with the Realspace Raid Detachment and suffering from some fairly lackluster datasheets. They languished among the bottom factions of the game following the first six months of the tenth edition release, then received new life with the release of the Skysplinter Assault Detachment alongside the Q1 2024 Balance Dataslate. For all those players who missed hard-hitting melee scalpels, tricksy movement shenanigans, and incredible, targeted ‘Go Turns’, the Skysplinter Assault Detachment delivered those back into the fold.

Detachment Overview

This Detachment focuses on lightning strikes and units attacking from and returning to transports as they move around the table. While it’s not as thematically about mixed subfactions of Drukhari as the Realspace Raid, there’s plenty here to support Wych Cults, Incubi, and Wracks, to the point that you’ll end up taking all three in a competitive list. If you’re playing Drukhari competitively, this is the detachment you want to use.

Detachment Rule: Rain of Cruelty

Each time a Drukhari unit from your army disembarks from a transport, until the end of the turn, that unit’s ranged weapons have the [IGNORES COVER] ability and that unit’s melee weapons have the [LANCE] ability.

The ranged boost certainly isn’t nothing, and combos with another stratagem in the new detachment, but Drukhari generals know that shooting units don’t typically want to expose themselves from their craft until the enemy is already vulnerable. The real sauce here is in the combat buff, which takes the many low-Strength combat weapons Drukhari units have been lumbered with in 10th edition up a gear on the turn they most need it. This combines neatly with a further buff to the Power from Pain rule, as Pain tokens now grant an extra point of AP in the Fight phase; on your go turn you are going to hit hard and true once more, after several months of tepidly caressing enemy armour before being murdered in response. It is a simple, focused boost to the area of output the Index was weakest in, and it is extremely welcome. Importantly, it’s a buff that does absolutely nothing to help Ynnari – if you want this stuff, you need to be playing Drukhari for real.

Astute Archons will note that Pain token generation is going to be a little more precarious without the oft-maligned additional tokens offered in the Realspace Raid detachment. You will need to confirm your kills and use your tokens to maximise results, or you will find yourself running dry and your raid faltering. That makes Drukhari vulnerable into hyper elite and durable armies, and it means this potent, faction-specific resource will be your lifeblood – utilise it with care.

Stratagems

The Stratagems available to the detachment are:

• Vicious Blades (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Use in the Fight phase, on a Drukhari Transport after it picks its targets. After your Transport fights, pick an enemy unit that it targeted and roll a D6 for each model embarked in the Transport, adding 1 if that embarked model is a Wracks model. For each 5+ the enemy suffers a mortal wound, to a maximum of 6 mortal wounds. This is a fun tech piece to add to the arsenal, and while you aren’t super likely to be bussing around 10 Wracks in a Raider to take advantage of this, you are likely to have Raiders full of something on the table and now they can rove around bullying and finishing off damaged units, with the option of comboing this with Tank Shock (which rolls 8D6 thanks to the June 2024 balance update) to get the job done. This is very much an occasionally clutch play.
• Wraithlike Retreat (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): Use at the end of the Fight phase on an Infantry unit from your army that fought. That unit can make a Normal or Fall Back move, but must end its move within range to embark in a friendly Drukhari Transport and must embark in that Transport. If the unit is a Wyches unit, you can just ignore this and move wherever. This is probably the coolest piece of nonsense in the detachment. Wyches gain an absolute ton of mission play potential with this Stratagem, while anything you want jumping out of a transport now has a much better chance of surviving for a second go at it – a rarity for Drukhari units who usually get to hit the table for the exact length of time it takes between your Movement phase and your opponent’s next Shooting phase. Using this well requires some careful positioning with your transport and unit – be careful not to overextend with your pile-in move – but the payoff is huge. This is especially frustrating for opponents when you combine it with Swooping Mockery to move away in the following Movement phase.
• Skyborne Annihilation (Battle Tactic, 1CP): Use in your Shooting phase on a Drukhari unit that disembarked from a Transport. Until the end of the phase, that units’ ranged weapons gain [SUSTAINED HITS 1], or [SUSTAINED HITS 2] if they’re a Kabalite unit. This combos with the detachment rule for shooting to give you the option of dropping from your boat to really put the hurt on at a key moment. Will you roll a 6 to hit with your Dark Lances and Blasters very often? Absolutely not. But when you do it’s gonna be funny, and with Pain token re-rolls it’s more plausible than you might think…
• Pounce on the Prey (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): Use in your Movement phase, on an Infantry unit that just disembarked form a Transport which made a Normal Move. That Infantry unit can declare a charge this turn. Assault ramp on tap? Absolutely, sign me up. Getting those fragile combat units into melee just got that little bit easier. This is one of the most powerful effects in the game, and having it on your Nightmare Shroud unit allows you to live the dream of shooting up the table, disembarking, charging a target with no Overwatch, then obliterating them and jumping back into the transport with Wraithlike Retreat to do it again next turn. Just be mindful that this has to be used in your Movement phase – you can’t wait until your Charge phase to break this out.
• Swooping Mockery (Strategic Ploy, 2CP): Use in your opponent’s phase when they end a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move with a unit. You can pick one Transport in your army that isn’t within Engagement Range of an enemy and is within 9″ of the unit that just moved and make a Normal Move of up to 6″ with that Transport. This is extremely useful for throwing the enemy off in key moments and repositioning your boats for the counterassault, and hilarious if you use it the turn after you use Wraithlike Retreat to put a unit back in that Transport.
• Night Shield (Wargear, 1CP): Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase when a Drukhari Vehicle is targeted by a shooting attack; that unit gains a 4+ invulnerable save for the remainder of the phase. This is going to catch a lot of people out, and it can ensure that a Raider, Venom, or Ravager survives just that little bit longer in a key moment in the game. This is probably the Stratagem most in need of a word of caution – it’s a powerful effect but this detachment hungers for CP; if you’re thinking of slamming the Night Shield button, take a moment to stop and think about whether it’s likely to make a material difference to something that matters surviving. If your opponent has a single lascannon lined up on a transport that must survive – great, this increases your survivability significantly. If they’ve got ten of the things you’re likely to run out of coin flips before they run out of guns.

There’s some amazing stuff here, and you’re going to use most if not all of these in every game. Managing your Command Points is critical, and understanding when to save 2-3 CP for a “go” turn is huge.

Enhancements

Your have four choices for Enhancements here. The Nightmare Shroud is a must-take, and worth building around, while Spiteful Raider shows up occasionally in competitive lists as a way to generate extra Pain tokens and Phantasmal Smoke shows up from time to time in lists taking a second large unit of Incubi.

• Phantasmal Smoke (20 Points) –While the bearer’s unit is wholly within 6 inches of a transport, that unit has [STEALTH] and the [BENEFIT OF COVER]. A nice little durability boost, but the main issue with this is that most Drukhari units in the open will melt, and a bit of cover and smokescreening probably won’t help with that. You’re better off loading up on output and focusing on killing the enemy as and when you decide to commit than losing sleep over the clap back. The Drukhari life is killing and then being killed, in the hope that your trades are efficient enough that you win the game at the end. Make peace with that and you’re halfway there.
• Spiteful Raider (10 Points) – This Enhancement allows the bearer’s unit to generate one additional Pain token if they destroy an enemy unit that was within range of one or more objective markers in the Fight phase. More fuel for the murderfire, and another way to keep the assault rolling even after committing a key unit. This one shows up pretty often in competitive lists.
• Sadistic Fulcrum (15 Points) – Each time you expend a Pain token to Empower the bearer’s unit in the Shooting phase, you can pick one friendly Drukhari Transport within 3″ of their unit. Until the end of the phase, that Transport is also Empowered. This is a possible include to help an Archon or Haemonculus buff a Kabalite-loaded Raider at the same time as enhancing their own unit, and this may well have value in a world of slightly stingier Pain token generation, but it’s pretty situational with regard to its use. It’s not a terrible way to spend your last 15 points, but Spiteful Raider feels like a better play most of the time.
• Nightmare Shroud (20 Points) – Each time the bearer’s unit disembarks from a Transport, until the end of the turn, enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch Stratagem to shoot at the bearer’s unit. This is incredibly powerful, and one of they key rules you’re going to build around – this detachment is really setting you up for a pivotal ‘go’ moment with units from their Raiders or Venoms. This is a must-take, and will go on an Archon joined to a unit of ten Incubi. You fundamentally need it to be able to charge some units and the ability to force a unit of Sisters or Rubrics to stand and watch helplessly as you get out of your transport and prepare for a devastating charge is worth the 20 points on its own.

There’s a lot of emphasis on the relationship between units and their transports here but as we said, the only must-take is the Nightmare Shroud. You absolutely don’t want to run Skysplinter Assault without it.

Playing This Detachment

Skysplinter Assault armies do very well in Pariah Nexus, blending a mix of hard-hitting melee units with fast, cheap units capable of performing actions around the table. At the core of the list is a Nightmare Shroud Archon attached to a unit of ten Incubi in a Raider. This is almost always supported by Lelith and a big unit of Wyches, with two units each of Mandrakes and Scourges. The Mandrakes act as versatile secondary mission scoring units while the Scourges deep strike in as ranged threats capable of removing small vehicles and moving out of harm’s way afterward. A Skysplinter List will typically run half a dozen Transports, using a mix of Raiders and Venoms depending on the unit sizes they’re packing.

While a Skysplinter list is almost always fast enough to set up for a turn one assault with the Pounce on the Prey Stratagem, throwing your Archon and his Incubi into the middle of the opponent’s army is usually a poor deal, particularly in a Detachment which gives you the tools to fall back post-combat and climb back in the boat. Skysplinter armies are going to do their best work when they can spend a turn setting up for a devastating “Go” turn, making multiple charges with Incubi and Wyches to cripple an opponent in a single round. Drukhari aren’t particularly durable so you need to be careful about which units you charge and when, making sure you aren’t going to make bad trades when the rest of the enemy army starts clapping back. This can be difficult to evaluate, and against really durable elite armies you may just find you run out of steam even with your available upgrades.

One way to help ensure this doesn’t happen is to manage your Pain Tokens well. It’s a lot easier to run out in a Skysplinter Assault army, and that’s one reason successful armies typically run a Cronos or two, for some extra ranged output and the ability to instantly recoup spent Pain tokens.

Sample Lists

You have a lot of options when it comes to finding successful Skysplinter lists. While they’re all more or less built around the big unit of Nightmare Shroud Incub, there’s a lot of room to play in the margins, and there’s quite a bit of variety in the lists which have seen success.

Wyatt Harris’ List, Palm Springs Open 40k GT III – 1st Place

Wyatt took this list to a 6-0, first-place finish at the 167-player Palm Springs Major in early August, beating Thousand Sons, Votann, World Eaters, Astra Militarum, and Blood Angels to claim the top spot. It’s a prototypical Skysplinter list.

Wyatt's List - Click to Expand

Wyatt’s list runs the core units you might expect – there are two Archons here, one of which has a Nightmare Shroud and leads the 10-model Incubi unit from a Raider. The other likely joins a 5-model unit in a Venom. Lelith and her Wyches in a Raider are here as well, along with two units of Mandrakes and three units of Scourges – it’s more than usual but 15 Dark Lances put out a hell of a lot of anti-vehicle firepower, and can help crack big targets like Magnus or Canis Rex before they become a real problem.

The list adds a single Beastmaster, and don’t discount him – he’s been showing up more in lists, as the models he can take with him pack an insanely high number of attacks for a unit that only costs 105 points. They’re great as a speed bump or for harassing key command and support units.

Cody Jiru’s List, War in the Fort GT – 2nd Place

Cody took this list to a 5-0-1 2nd place finish at the War in the Fort GT in early August, beating Necrons, Dark Angels, Drukhari and Space Wolves while scoring one tie in the fourth round to another Space Wolves list. I’m including it because it includes a Tantalus, and that model rips.

Cody's List - Click to Expand

Most of this is pretty common, but the extra units here are the Voidraven and the Tantalus. At 215 points the Voidraven is a bit pricey, but its ability to drop out mortal wounds with a Void Mine can be interesting against opponents clustered too close together and the Void Lances give it some nasty damage potential against big threats. The real star here though is the Tantalus, which in addition to having a great model is also borderline playable. Scything Charge can absolutely put in some real damage, and the model’s Pulse Disintegrators put out a solid number of shots.

Final Thoughts

The Skysplinter Assault Detachment breathed new life into the Drukhari faction almost instantly upon its initial release, immediately giving it the punch it needed to compete at higher levels. It didn’t solve every issue with the faction, but it gives Drukhari players a fun and exciting way to play that feels like the faction should. If you’re planning to play Drukhari before their Codex releases (whenever that happens), this is the Detachment to pick.

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