Detachment Focus: Warhost

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.

What if you just want Battle Focus but more? It’s a pretty good ability, making that a pretty reasonable desire, and for those who want a speedy, all-rounder Aeldari list, the Warhost detachment provides a great jumping-off point.

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

Detachment Overview

Warhost is the classic “all-rounder” detachment in this book, providing a mixture of tools that can support pretty much whatever you want to cram into your list and helps amplify what the Aeldari are already best at – mobility. It also carries forward some of the toys from the Aeldari Index, but it’s a much bigger overhaul than some Index to Codex transitions have been. That said, if you have an Aeldari army of any size, you can definitely knock together a valid list here.

Detachment Rule: Martial Grace

As an all-rounder detachment, Warhost upgrades the Aeldari army rule, improving the already strong Battle Focus with a few key upgrades. Specifically:

• You get one additional Battle Focus token a round.
• Each time you use Swift as the Wind, you add 3” to your unit’s movement rather than 2”.
• For any Battle Focus effect that involves rolling a d6 for movement distance, you add 1 to the result.

Worth noting that because Harlequins do have Battle Focus, this is the only Detachment Rule other than their dedicated one that actually impacts them, though they’re still locked out of the rest of this Detachment’s rules.

So, is this good? Yes, though with some caveats. The really, really important thing this does for you is put a floor of 3” on the Movement from Fade Away and Opportunity Seized, which means they’ll much more reliably pull you to safety, even more so if you add an Autarch for a re-roll. This is particularly good with the free extra usage of Fade Away that Guardian Defenders get, but just in general upping your reliability in out-of-phase movement is nice.

Boosting Swift as the Wind also gives that bit of extra reach to your melee threats, and opponents have to be especially careful of long-distance lunges from the Avatar or Harlequin units in this Detachment, and also just ensures you can always get stuff where you need to.

Finally, an extra Battle Focus token each Battle Round is very welcome, though there is some degree of diminishing returns on them as the really flashy effects are once-per-turn. You can definitely find ways to spend five, but you may find you don’t also need to invest in the extra sixth via the Enhancement option here.

Enhancements

A strong suite of Enhancements here, and you’re likely going to squeeze several of these into most lists.

• Phoenix Gem: A favourite from the Index returns, letting a Character stand back up on a 2+ at the end of the Phase the first time they die. On the one hand, the previous best users of this (Autarch Wayleapers) are no longer Lone Operatives, but on the other sticking it on an Autarch infiltrating with some Scorpions can be quite annoying.
• Timeless Strategist: As long as the bearer or a Transport they’re embarked in is on the table, get one extra Battle Focus token. Definitely fine at the price, but probably not necessary with five starting tokens here.
• Gift of Foresight: Gives the bearer’s unit a free Command Re-roll each Battle Round. Potentially interesting on a Guardian unit with a D-cannon in it, but tricky to find other homes for it given that you’ll usually want a Phoenix Lord with the corresponding Aspects.
• Psychic Destroyer: Gives a Psyker’s ranged Psychic attacks +1D. Not cheap, but pretty nasty on a Farseer with some Defenders to protect them via Fade Away.

Stratagems

All of these can only target ASURYANI units, so Harlequins don’t get to play with them.

• Lightning-Fast Reactions (Battle Tactic, 1CP): -1 to hit against incoming attacks for a phase for anything except Wraith Constructs. The classic Aeldari defensive stratagem, and always useful to have in your pocket.
• Skyborne Sanctuary (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): At the end of the Fight Phase, a unit that’s wholly within 6” of a Transport can embark within it. This is very good, especially with Falcons. Stacking this up with other similar effects lets you inflict a lot of damage with impunity, and it might even finally make Maugen Ra somewhat alright teaming up with five Reapers.
• Feigned Retreat (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): Fall back, Shoot and Charge. A mainstay for pulling your shooty threats out of combat or reloading something nasty for another round of melee.
• Blitzing Firepower (Battle Tactic, 1CP): When shooting at a target within 12”, gain Sustained Hits 1, or swap for Critical Hits on a 5+ if you already have the ability. This is an odd one, as there aren’t that many units that can use it really well, especially as the book is quite low on re-rolls. Shuriken or Scatter bikes work decently with it, either adding back Sustained on the shurikens or 5+ Criticals for the scatters, but this isn’t the best detachment for them, and it’s possible this is just going to create overkill for Fire Dragons or scything fury for Dire Avengers, the latter of which can turn on the 5+ option. It is also very funny on Baharroth thanks to his ability to score Criticals on a 2+ when he drops.
• Fire and Fade (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): The pendulum has swung back to this being incredibly cautious. Alas. Let’s a non-Wraith INFANTRY unit make a d6+1” move after shooting. It is nice that it only costs 1 CP, and grants a minimum of 2” which just about makes it reliable for scooting through a wall if you set up carefully, but it’s a little anemic. The fact you can put an Autarch with 10 Dark Reapers and do this for free still leaves it pretty appealing though, and that’s probably why the power has been toned down pretty low.
• Webway Tunnel (Strategic Ploy, 1CP): Pull an INFANTRY unit that’s wholly within 9” of a Battlefield Edge into Strategic Reserves at the end of your opponent’s turn. This is the good stuff – on most maps you can hold corner/midfield objectives while meeting the criteria for this, so you can sit something on an objective till you need to pull them to somewhere more useful with this. It also lets Hawks or Spiders reload for Deep Strike, which is nice to have access to since that’s no longer built-in. Finally, it’s worth remembering that all the support weapons are now INFANTRY to ensure they can play nice with Guardians, so you can zap a D-cannon around with this if you like (or maybe even go for a full Guardian/Autarch/D-cannon setup as a mobile threat).

Playing This Detachment

Warhost excels at the keep-away gameplan that’s been a staple for the Aeldari throughout 10th. You’ve got multiple Stratagems to protect units and more reliable Battle Focus to work with, and that lets you make nasty use of toys like Dark Reapers. You end up wanting quite a few Transports and a good number of scoring units, to go with these, plus some sort of melee counterpunch, either from Aspects or allied Harlequins, in case the foe tries to run you down. Focus on doing as much damage as possible while exposing yourself to minimal reprisals – always the Aeldari way.

Strengths

• Makes Battle Focus extra-reliable, empowering an already strong army rule and providing extra support for Harlequins.
• Great mobility options, helping the army score and dodge reprisals.
• Strong Enhancements, adding utility to Autarchs and Farseers.

Weaknesses

• Limited offensive boosts, meaning you’re leaning on Datasheets alone.
• Vulnerable to being overwhelmed by highly aggressive foes.
• Poor support for Bikes, despite notionally being an all-rounder Detachment.

A Sample List

”Keep

Plink them to death, all while dodging any consequences for your actions. Aeldari! Obviously you’ve got the big Dark Reaper unit to continuously jump in and out of their Wave Serpent via Skyborne Sanctuary, further supported by Asurmen being able to do that all on his lonesome, and access to War Walkers to juice both of these up. Baharrroth is especially good in this detachment as using Fire and Fade after his unit drops down lets him both continually apply chip damage and help with scoring, and with the boost to Battle Focus he can pivot to having a very big on-board threat range when needed. Finally, Harlequin toys are especially strong here because they benefit from the Battle Focus boosts, and adding a Troupe Master unit gives you a good counterpunch unit (who can also play the keepaway game via the Starweaver), while the Solitaire is a scary missile who benefits greatly from Opportunity Seized with the extra distance. All fun ways to cause your foe a big headache, as all Aeldari should aim to.

Final Thoughts

The Warhost looks at a glance like an updated version of the Index Detachment, but has been reworked in a way such that it’s going to feel pretty different. In particular, it’ll feel faster and less damaging overall. It’s still a solid option with some great Stratagems and good movement tricks.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.