Detachment Focus: Spirit Conclave

Codex Aeldari equips the Asuryani (and friend) with eight powerful new Detachments to choose from. In today’s articles, we’re breaking down what each and every one of these has to offer Aeldari aficionados.

With the release of the Aeldari Codex it’s time to deep-dive the multitude of factions that comprise the Craftworld’s diaspora. Contained in this book is a representation of just about every major archetype of Eldar lore, and in this focus, we’ll cover the Ghost Warriors of Iyanden (and similar derivative Craftworlds) via the Spirit Conclave.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.

Detachment Overview: Spirit Conclave

You want ghosts? Because this is how you get ghosts. The plodding, towering Wraith Constructs of the Aeldari come alive with this detachment, significantly improving their mobility with the various Battle Focus options. These can be particularly impactful for Aeldari units that can be both healed but also are durable enough to withstand even the heaviest attacks long enough to take advantage of the Battle Focus reactive options. 

This detachment will make heavy use of Spiritseers and other psykers, Wraithguard, Wraithblades, Wraithlords, and Wraithknights. The Hemlock is notionally advantaged by this detachment but the practical effect of that is fairly small and for all intents and purposes the Hemlock appears to still be paying for the sins of 8th edition. There is no benefit to be found for non-Wraith datasheets except as army utility dictates. This is a low model count, expensive-unit army and some cheaper units will be necessary to round out mission play. Wave Serpents for ferrying Wraithguard/blades may be common additions as well as Warp Spiders or Hawks for mission play. 

Still, despite the buffs in here, the number of attacks the army can output in a given turn will be limited, and although each is high quality, the army will be more susceptible to swings in the dice than others in this codex. 

Detachment Rule: Shepherds of the Dead

The ghost warriors of this detachment will benefit from a very powerful but narrowly implemented new rule, Shepherds of the Dead. Each time an Asuryani Psyker model is destroyed, generate a Vengeful Dead token on the attacking unit, and for the rest of the battle all Wraith Constructs will benefit from a +1 to hit and Wound against units with one or more tokens. In addition, Asuryani Psykers gain a 12” Spirit Guides aura ability that enables Wraith Constructs (excluding Wraithknights, who already have it) to gain Battle Focus abilities.

The former piece of this is obviously strong on units which already have powerful attacks, however, it just isn’t a very reliable trigger for a couple of reasons. First, the trigger requires the loss of a psyker which either requires a sacrifice or a misplay for the opportunity to even exist, but also will be extremely limited in the total number of Vengeful Dead tokens you can even create based on your army list. Second, your opponent can game this to some extent by controlling which units they use to kill or finish a psyker – potentially avoiding a high value unit picking up the token.The hit bonus itself will be wasted on Wraithgaurd most of the time, but Wraithlords and Wraithknights may still benefit as the datasheet abilities for Psychic Guidance On Wraithlords give a ballistic/weapon skill modifier. Overall its effectiveness will not necessarily be common, but it can be beneficial in certain situations.

Fortunately, the other half of the detachment rule is subtly very effective for this army. Wraith armies tend to be slow and gaining the advantage of Battle Focus can be a big boon both in movement but also defensively. A block of already difficult to shift Wraith units picking up a Fade Back option is nice to have in your back pocket, especially as they can mount up in a Wave Serpent or a Spiritseer can then heal them. 

Enhancements

It’s to be expected that these enhancements would favor Asuryani Psykers, and in particular Spiritseers, but surprisingly every enhancement on this list will only be available to Spiritseer selections. Farseers and Warlocks will still benefit from the detachment rules, they will just be more inflexible in this detachment’s list construction vs a Spiritseer.

• Light of Clarity – In your Command phase. Select one Wraith Construct unit within 12” and add 1 to their OC characteristic if Infantry or 3 to their OC if a Monster. Situationally useful for picking up Primary where you might not have otherwise. Positioning and opportunity is relevant to its usefulness, but it can be game-winning when it comes into play to keep an objective or push an enemy off their own.
• Stave of Kurnous – In your Command phase. Select one Wraith Construct unit within 12” (excluding Titanic). Unit gains Precision on attacks that score a critical wound until your next command phase. Potentially very strong but again limited by its narrow set of use cases. Most likely target for this will be on D-Scythe Wraithguard who benefit from a high volume of good attacks and forgo the hit rolls. Outside of that it’s more of a nice but unreliable benefit. Still worth your consideration, just don’t plan on sniping characters with certainty.
• Rune of Mists – In your Command phase. Select one Wraith Construct unit within 12”, unless an attacking models is within 18”, the unit gains the benefit of cover until your next Command phase. It’s always good to make tough units tougher. That said, cover is not overly difficult to come by in this edition. Still being able to stand unobstructed in the open on an objdctive or board edge and remain “in cover” is nice for positioning and on units with a 2+ save, just bear in mind the 18” threshold. 
• Higher Duty – Once per turn, when an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move within 9” of the bearer’s unit, unit can make a Normal Move up to 6”. So… When I first reviewed this I was like, “Hell yes. Hell. Yes.” Then Wings helpfully pointed out to me that Spiritseers may no longer join squads. I nearly broke my neck at how fast I changed my position on it. This is nearly the most expensive enhancement on the list, and while it’s a kingly ability, you’re not going to pay that much to save a single Spiritseer. 

Overall the theme here seems to be some fairly strong capabilities that are also limited in their implementation.

Stratagems

• Seer’s Eye (Battle Tactic, 1 CP)  – Your Shooting or Fight phase, select one Aeldari Psyker, one friendly Wraith Construct within 12” that has not yet been selected to shoot or fight, and one enemy unit visible to the psyker. Until the end of the phase your Wraith Construct unit may ignore Armor Penetration and Damage Characteristic modifiers. Wraith armies tend to be low volume and high quality. As a result of the low volume you will want to make sure you get the most out of your attacks. This will certainly help in that regard against certain targets, which are often the types that will be the highest risk to your own units. Vital to ensure Wraithblades don’t get blanked by -1D. A good, but situational, stratagem. Might be considered for a Hemlock should you take one, especially as they can switch it on for themselves..
• Wraithbone Armour (Battle Tactic, 1 CP)  – Your opponents Shooting or Fight phase after targets have been selected. One non-Titanic, Wraith Construct unit selected as a target reduces the damage of the incoming attack(s) by one. A nice ability, particularly for a block of Wraithguard/Blades that will then benefit from Fade Back and/or a next turn healing (Spiritseer ability). Good stratagem.
• Blades from Beyond (Battle Tactic, 1 CP)  – Fight phase. One Wraithblades, Wraithlord, or Wraithknight gains Devastating Wounds on its melee weapons until the end of the phase. Will mostly benefit Wraithblades due to volume of attacks, but will be devastating (ha) if you spike your die rolls on a combat-oriented Wraithknight. In most cases this is probably more of a hail-mary, break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of use than it will be a common, planned use case.
• Soul Bridge (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP)  – Your Command phase. Select one Wraithblades, Wraithguard, or Wraithlord unit and one Psyker. Until your next command phase the Wraith unit is considered within 12” for Psychic Guidance and Spirit Guide abilities. A useful stratagem for allowing Wraith units to operate more reliably on their own, gaining the benefit of both the detachment Battle Focus rules as well as to-hit and leadership buffs of operating around psykers without actually needing the direct psyker aura. Gives the army some flexibility to be effective while branching out, and is a useful tool.
• Spirit Token (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP)  – Start of your Movement phase. One Wraithblades or Wraithguard unit in range of an objective you control. It remains under your control until an opponent’s level of control exceeds yours at the end of a phase. A good, routinely useful strat that helps open up mobility options for you. You will use this every game.
• Crushing Strides (Battle Tactic, 1 CP)  – Your Charge phase, after a Wraithblades, Wraithlord, or Wraithknight unit ends a charge move, may roll one d6 per Wraithblade model, four d6 for a Wraithlord, or six d6 for a Wraithknight. For every 3+ the enemy unit suffers a Mortal Wound. A very good stratagem that gives your Wraith units a tank shock-like ability. Can be employed for additional damage or to enable some fight phase tomfoolery if you can kill the charge target and pile-in to a second, further target. Wraithknights love it!

Playing This Detachment

Strengths

• Strong mobility options to boost slower Wraith units
• Strong synergistic benefits for Spiritseers and Wraith units
• Good boosts to offensive output, particularly for D-Scythes and Wraithknights to go with the innate durability

Weaknesses

• Wraith-heavy lists will still carry low volume of attacks where a round of bad dice may be challenging to overcome
• Situational use of abilities makes it difficult to plan proactively 
• Low model count units and overall

The army overall is going to be an expensive one to field. Your units are generally going to be pricier than the typical detachment, and the character support is going to be a requisite to getting the most out of the units you have. That kind of has a two-fold effect – first, you’re just going to have fewer units. Second, the units you bring will not be packing a large volume of attacks, and while they are quality attacks, they will be subject to variance on the dice. Rerolls are hard to come by, but there is a lot of opportunity to boost your hit rolls between datasheet and psyker boosts. Wraithlords in particular will benefit from a Ballistic and Weapon skill boost in addition to hit boosts. The army will also not be as flexible or independent as some of your peer detachments and you’ll run a real risk of spreading yourself too thin and not being able to cover for a gap in the board. 

However, what you get in return is an army that is exceptionally durable, can actually sit and hold a primary objective, and can absolutely murder just about any profile in the game. While they won’t gain a ton of buff benefits, both Wraithknight options are fairly flexible on the game board, particularly the Sword version which can just absolutely charge through a ruin to ghost-robot-samurai something big or small. Ensuring you can protect your bodies and heal them up will be important to still carry forward the oomph well into turn 5. If you can, you’ll be well on your way to victory. 

A Sample List

Your lists are going to start with Wraiths and Spiritseers obviously. Where you go from there and how deep on these units is up to your personal taste. My initial build seems like I am going to hover around a 3-2-1 model of increasing Wraith sizes. The units are just so expensive so how you build this core is going to really dictate your options for mission play and covering weaknesses. 

”<Iyanden

Feels a lot like a 4th edition list doesn’t it? 

The Wave Serpents are key here. In general, you’ll want your Spiritseers on the table to get the buffs, but starting in a Wave Serpent to ferry your Wraithguard into a necessary position is a good first bet – moreover, they themselves are a durable unit and can be useful in blocking off an objective or blocking up a movement lane. Once the Wraiths are out, keep those Serpents close – Battle Focus moves can be used to put them right back in for safe keeping.

The Spiritseers Lone Operative ability will protect them well enough and can give you a little action monkey that is otherwise only passively supporting – pretty nice. I recommend D-Scythes – they’ll offer the greatest opportunity for shenanigans with their innate fallback and shoot, torrent weapons, etc. I’m a little torn on the Wraithknights loadout – I like the sword version for mobility and rule of cool but the choice of a gun vs a shield is a tough one – I’m just not sure how relevant a 4+ invulnerable will be to it outside of combat. That said, I think in combat there’s a decent chance its 5 swings don’t get the job done against comparable threats, particularly any unit with an invulnerable save, so I think the shield may be warranted. 

Finally, I like a Farseer with a barebones Storm Guardian squad. There’s the option to sticky objectives with Wraith units but I want them starting mounted, and I want to save that CP for something else. As with the other detachments, Eldar will be CP hungry and that’s one area I can save on that would otherwise almost assuredly be used up. Meanwhile the Farseer is both a Psyker and can assist on Wraith buffs, but is also able to provide a +1 to hit against key units which can also apply to the Wraithknight and the other non-Wraith units. A Wraightknight hitting on 2s is a nice thought. With 50 points remaining and most building blocks being to large for slight adjustments, I added a Warlock Skyrunner which can be used for actions or mission play and worst case, triggers a Vengful Token.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a ghost boy fan, then yeah I think you’re really going to like this detachment. I think for most other Eldar players it’s going to be a little too stiff to be an every game type of army and more of a vacation from your typical playstyle. A sort of summer home for when you really just want to walk out Wraithknight. It’ll be fun either way, and it’s likely to be a competitive option though I don’t think it’ll overturn any apple carts. That’s a good thing for a game that has been generally well balanced of late. 

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