Welcome to our guide to learning how to wield the elegant, sophisticated weapon that is the armoury of the Craftworld Aeldari. If you want to play an army of sleek, elegant vehicles filled backed up by deadly Wraith constructs and powerful psykers, supported by a wide array of devious tricks, this army could be for you.

Like the other articles in this series, this one will focus on the core of what the Craftworlds Codex has to offer you, outlining the key units and strategies that form the bread and butter for players using them at every level. This is also the second iteration of this article, representing a substantial re-write – the combination of buffs from Phoenix Rising, point changes in Chapter Approved and the advent of Marine meta have left the old article looking very dated, and it was also one of our oldest SCs, so the time is ripe for a revision

As with the rest of our “getting started” guides, this article isn’t going to go through every single unit in the codex in exhaustive detail, focusing only on the ones that are generally at least somewhat competitive and giving a quick explanation on why some of the other ones

With all that out of the way, let’s start by covering the strengths and weaknesses of the army, hopefully giving you an idea of whether they might be the codex for you!

Army Strengths

High mobility.

Exceptional vehicles.

Some of the best psychic powers in the game.

Army Weaknesses

Fragile and expensive infantry.

A high number of weak units.

Weak against Marines.

Competitive Rating

Medium. After being dominant for a lot of the edition, the rise of Marines and the general levelling up of shooting options have hit Craftworlds hard. They’re not bad, and there are good strategies still available, but as an Asuryani player you can find yourself very vulnerable to being smashed off the board by some armies with little they can do. A lot of the units in the codex also look very dated at this point, and plenty are largely worthless. On the flip side, some previously weak units have been given a new lease of life by major point cuts of new abilities, so there’s still plenty to explore.

Pure Craftworlds are also a decent army to take your first competitive steps with, because their mobility and the array of cool tricks they have available to them mean that you will have lots of options available to you at most points in the game, and can come up with plans to adapt to most situations. While most units are fairly fragile, there are some high-quality core options that can be quite forgiving on the table and teach you how to best make use of your resources.

Army Rundown

The Eldar book has a huge number of datasheets in it, but as is somewhat characteristic of earlier codexes, there are quite a lot of options that are either a bit lacklustre or are made redundant by something else doing their job better. The major point rebalances across Chapter Approveds 2018 & 2019 have done a modest amount to address this, but there are some units that are still just pretty terrible at their jobs. Before we get to that, we will cover the various abilities available to the army across special rules, traits, stratagems, powers and relics. Strap in – thanks to Phoenix Rising, this is pretty long.

Special Rules

Outside of Path of War (their version of “objective secured”), which is common to all armies, Craftworlds units get two special rules that apply to a lot of units (Battle Focus and Ancient Doom), and a subfaction trait as long as you build detachments from the same Craftworld.

Ancient Doom

We can get Ancient Doom out of the way first because it’s extremely rare that it’s relevant.

This ability appears on all units in the codex other than grav-tanks and planes. In a turn where a Craftworld unit charges or is charged by a unit with the “SLAANESH” keyword, they can re-roll hit rolls. However, as long as any SLAANESH units are within 3”, units with this ability add 1 to their morale tests, making it more likely that some models will flee.

This comes up so rarely because of the the double whammy that

It only applies to a sub-faction within a few armies, and because

There really aren’t that many units in the Craftworld Codex that want to be in melee.

The only time this will likely seriously affect the game with the units discussed in this guide is if a unit of Wraithblades runs into some Slaaneshi models, in which case it’s great, but it doesn’t affect unit selection or evaluation in any way.

Battle Focus

This is much more like it. Most infantry and biker models in the codex (notably excluding Wraith constructs) have this. It allows you to use all non-heavy weapons as if your unit remained stationary even if it moved or, crucially, advanced.

This is a decent bonus – the main Eldar infantry weapon is the shuriken catapult, which is a powerful but short-ranged Assault weapon. Battle Focus lets you use an advance to get units with these into a firing position without the normal penalties to hit. It also lets your units throw a grenade even after advancing, which is a nice bonus given that plasma grenades are substantially better than the frag grenades used by Imperial armies.

The upshot of this is that unless you’re planning on charging with your infantry units, you can pretty much be advancing with them all the time, meaning that your basic infantry is shuffling an average of 10-11” a turn – nearly twice the speed of the core troops of many armies, helping them to get into or out of trouble very efficiently depending on what the moment demands.

Craftworld Attributes

All Eldar units other than a few named characters come from a <CRAFTWORLD> as their subfaction. Like the majority of armies, taking a detachment entirely made up of units from a single sub-faction (in this case a Craftworld) grants a bonus to those units. Unlike for some armies, these don’t just apply to Infantry and Bikers – everything, including vehicles, gets them. As well as this, units from each faction get access to one extra stratagem, and the characters have an extra relic or warlord trait to choose from. There are five of these in the book, and you also have access to custom Craftworlds, where you pick two traits from a pretty extensive list in Phoenix rising.

Named Craftworlds

If you’re starting out trying to build a strong Eldar list there are only two that are worth strongly considering for your core, Alaitoc and Ulthwe, but some of the others have a few neat tricks up their sleeves:

Alaitoc

Attribute – Fieldcraft : Your units are at -1 to hit with shooting outside 12″

: Your units are at -1 to hit with shooting outside 12″ Warlord Trait – Puritanical Leader : Your warlord has a 6″ fearless aura

: Your warlord has a 6″ fearless aura Relic – Shiftshroud of Alanssair : Your warlord can Deep Strike

: Your warlord can Deep Strike Stratagem – Pathfinders 1CP: A Rangers unit in cover can only be hit on an unmodified 6 for the rest of the phase

Alaitoc is taken for the huge boost to the survivability of your units against a lot of armies, especially those that can stack further hit penalties through other abilities, and was once one of the most powerful faction traits in the whole game. However, this has diminished a lot as Games Workshop have rolled out abilities designed to counter it, and especially as Marines have hit the big time, where their volume of re-rolls and bonuses often lets them nearly ignore this. It’s still very strong against some armies.

The rest of this is merely fine – Pathfinders can be great in a pinch to stop a Ranger unit getting wasted off an objective by a heavily buffed Thunderfire, but you’re here for the trait

Ulthwe

Attribute – Foresight of the Damned : All units have a 6+++ feel no pain.

: All units have a 6+++ feel no pain. Warlord Trait – Fate Reader : Roll a dice at the start of each turn and gain a CP on a 6

: Roll a dice at the start of each turn and gain a CP on a 6 Relic – Ghosthelm of Alishasir : +1 to cast Smite

: +1 to cast Smite Stratagem – Discipline of the Black Guardians 1CP: a GUARDIAN unit gets +1 to hit when it shoots or fights.

Similar to Alaitoc, Ulthwe gives you a widely applicable boost to your durability, something Eldar badly need. It tends to be less good than Alaitoc in a shootout against low BS armies, but if you’re planning to push forward can be considerably better, and doesn’t ever get completely switched off by enemy buffs!

Some of the other tools here are nice as well – Guardian bombs are out of fashion, but Discipline of the Black Guardians is a good boost if you do bring them, and the warlord trait is at least OK. The other thing (and honestly, one of the best things) that Ulthwe brings is the ability to take Eldrad, an extremely powerful named character.

Biel Tan

Attribute – Swordwind : re-roll hit rolls of 1 with shuriken weapons. In addition, ASPECT WARRIORS have +1Ld

: re-roll hit rolls of 1 with shuriken weapons. In addition, ASPECT WARRIORS have +1Ld Warlord Trait – Natural Leader : Give a BIEL TAN unit within 3″ at the start of the shooting phase re-rolls of failed hits

: Give a BIEL TAN unit within 3″ at the start of the shooting phase re-rolls of failed hits Relic – Spiritstone of Anathlan : A PSYKER can re-roll failed psychic tests, but if they fail again can’t cast any more for the phase.

: A PSYKER can re-roll failed psychic tests, but if they fail again can’t cast any more for the phase. Relic – The Burnished Blade of Eliarna: A D2 power sword that’s better against Orks

A D2 power sword that’s better against Orks Stratagem – Court of the Young King – 2CP: An ASPECT WARRIOR unit gets +2″ to their charges and re-rolls hits of 1 if they make combat. Alternatively, if they use this within 6″ of the Avatar, get +3″ and re-roll failed hits instead.

Biel Tan is in many ways terribly frustrating (for someone whose army is painted their colours) – there’s some great stuff here, but it doesn’t come together as a cohesive whole and attached to a trait that is both narrow and often redundant. Taking the Spiritstone in a mixed detachment used to be popular, but at this point if you’re doing a dedicated caster setup it’s most likely using Children of Prophecy. The remaining big bonus is the stratagem, which is specifically great on Shining Spears dropping in from deep strike. However, there are plenty of other ways to boost their charge, and Biel Tan mostly just doesn’t get there.

Saim-Hann

Attribute – Wild Host : Re-roll charges. In addition, ignore the heavy penalty for moving and shooting on BIKER units.

: Re-roll charges. In addition, ignore the heavy penalty for moving and shooting on BIKER units. Warlord Trait – Wild Rider Chieftain : Your warlord can pile in, consolidate or heroic towards the closest enemy CHARACTER instead of the nearest model, and if they put all their attacks into a single CHARACTER they get +1 attack.

: Your warlord can pile in, consolidate or heroic towards the closest enemy CHARACTER instead of the nearest model, and if they put all their attacks into a single CHARACTER they get +1 attack. Relic – Novalance of Saim-Hann : a ridiculously over the top relic laser lance. Has 12″ range on the shooting profile, is S8 rather than S6 while charging, S+2 when not charging and D4 if you roll a 6 to wound.

: a ridiculously over the top relic laser lance. Has 12″ range on the shooting profile, is S8 rather than S6 while charging, S+2 when not charging and D4 if you roll a 6 to wound. Stratagem – Warriors of the Raging Winds – 1CP: A BIKER unit can advance and charge, then re-roll charges in the fight phase.

A lot of this is, once again, pretty niche, but enough of it pulls in a helpful direction that there’s real utility here. Scatter laser armed windriders tore up the metagame for a bit in 2019 and are very good with this trait, while an Autarch with the Novalance is a brutal killing machine. Finally, advancing and charging is both great for the aforementioned Autarch and great for Shining Spears, who can also flex to coming in from Deep Strike if you give them Swooping Dive. Saim-Hann can definitely build cool detachment that can help as part of a larger force, but at the moment if you’re trying to piece together a very specilised detachment a custom craftworld might be better.

Iyanden

Attribute – Stoic Endurance : Only one model can ever flee to morale, and you double the wounds of units with a damage chart when determining their characteristics.

: Only one model can ever flee to morale, and you double the wounds of units with a damage chart when determining their characteristics. Warlord Trait – Enduring Resolve : Your warlord gains an extra deny (even if they don’t have one)

: Your warlord gains an extra deny (even if they don’t have one) Relic – Psytronome of Iyanden : Once per game, double the attacks of IYANDEN WRAITH CONSTRUCTS within 6″ of the bearer (an IYANDEN PSYKER). At the end of the phase, each unit takes D3 mortal wounds

: Once per game, double the attacks of IYANDEN WRAITH CONSTRUCTS within 6″ of the bearer (an IYANDEN PSYKER). At the end of the phase, each unit takes D3 mortal wounds Stratagem – Guided Wraithsight – 1CP: Double the range of a Spiritseer’s Spirit Mark for a turn, and it grants re-rolls of failed hits rather than re-rolls of one.

Poor Iyanden. These buffs are aimed squarely at Wraith armies but basically end up as a swing and a miss compared to other traits that either boost their survivability or increase their killing power without so many hoops to jump through. The Psytronome is very funny but not actually terribly good in any meaningful sense, and of all the craftworlds this is the one that almost never makes it into lists.

Custom Craftworlds

Following hot on the heels of Marines, Craftworld armies got access to “build your own” faction traits in Phoenix Rising. While the book as a whole was a little bit of a letdown there’s some serious power in these abilities, and currently the majority of competitive Craftworld lists make use of them.

To build your own Craftworld, you pick two abilities from the list to make a trait. There are a couple that confuse this by using both your slots, but they’re also terrible so you don’t need to worry about them. You can, obviously, make multiple different custom craftworlds for different detachments, but be aware that in a tournament they will need to be visually distinct, and some abilities won’t work across them.

The available traits are as follows:

Children of Prophecy: Dice rolls of 1 when casting count as 2. Makes getting off some powers ridiculously reliable, and can be a strong choice in a supreme command, as a lot of craftworld powers are not faction locked. B

Dice rolls of 1 when casting count as 2. Makes getting off some powers ridiculously reliable, and can be a strong choice in a supreme command, as a lot of craftworld powers are faction locked. Children of the Open Skies: +2″ movement on flying units. Fine on the aforementioned supreme command, but the mobility you’re most interested in boosting is that out of Deep Strike, which this doesn’t help with B

+2″ movement on flying units. Fine on the aforementioned supreme command, but the mobility you’re most interested in boosting is that out of Deep Strike, which this doesn’t help with Expert Crafters: Re-roll one hit and one wound each time a unit shoots or fights. The cornerstone of the most common Eldar archetype right now, and an enormously potent force multiplier. A

Re-roll one hit and one wound each time a unit shoots or fights. The cornerstone of the most common Eldar archetype right now, and an enormously potent force multiplier. Masterful Shots: Ignore cover. Deceptively powerful, and one of the most commonly used. A

Ignore cover. Deceptively powerful, and one of the most commonly used. Masters of Concealment: Always in cover outside of 12″. Less good on Eldar than it is on Marines, but still very handy for buffing up the defences of vehicles and planes. B

Always in cover outside of 12″. Less good on Eldar than it is on Marines, but still very handy for buffing up the defences of vehicles and planes. Hail of Doom : Adds -1AP on Shurikens within 12″ (although not on a 6 to wound). Got a lot of hype on release, but no one has yet found a build where it actually gets there. C+

: Adds -1AP on Shurikens within 12″ (although not on a 6 to wound). Got a lot of hype on release, but no one has yet found a build where it actually gets there. Children of Khaine: Aspect warriors do +1D in melee on an unmodified 6 to wound. Cool on paper, but the only worthwhile melee aspect is Shining Spears, who don’t need the help. D

Aspect warriors do +1D in melee on an unmodified 6 to wound. Cool on paper, but the only worthwhile melee aspect is Shining Spears, who don’t need the help. Diviners of Fate: All models have a 6++. Currently, defensively, this is inferior to Alaitoc and inferior to Ulthwe against D1 weaponry on infantry. However, you get to take this and another, so it could be worth a look if you really want one of the others and don’t have any particular needs. C

All models have a 6++. Currently, defensively, this is inferior to Alaitoc and inferior to Ulthwe against D1 weaponry on infantry. However, you get to take this and another, so it could be worth a look if you really want one of the others and don’t have any particular needs. Headstrong: +1 to charges. Most people who are succeeding with Craftworlds that aren’t leaning on Expert Crafters are spamming Shining Spears, and Sean Nayden took a custom craftworld using this to help secure his Deep Strike charges all the way to the LVO top three, so it obviously gets an A

Martial Citizenry: GUARDIAN units re-roll 1s to hit. Not broad enough to be worth it. D

GUARDIAN units re-roll 1s to hit. Not broad enough to be worth it. Mobile Fighters: Re-roll hit rolls of 1 for a unit that disembarked from a transport this turn. There are much easier, broader ways to get re-rolls. D

Re-roll hit rolls of 1 for a unit that disembarked from a transport this turn. There are much easier, broader ways to get re-rolls. Superior Shurikens: +4″ range on Shuriken weapons. Surprisingly turns out to actually be a bit better than Hail of Doom, comboing particularly well with Dire Avengers and being seen in the wild in a top four list from a major. That lines up with my own testing – this genuinely helps a surprising number of units. B+

+4″ range on Shuriken weapons. Surprisingly turns out to actually be a bit better than Hail of Doom, comboing particularly well with Dire Avengers and being seen in the wild in a top four list from a major. That lines up with my own testing – this genuinely helps a surprising number of units. Webway Warriors: You can use Webway Strike an extra time for each detachment in your army with this trait. Uses beyond the first must select a unit with this trait. There’s just not really anything you obviously want to do with this, other than maybe stick more Spears in the webway on the cheap. C

You can use Webway Strike an extra time for each detachment in your army with this trait. Uses beyond the first must select a unit with this trait. There’s just not really anything you obviously want to do with this, other than maybe stick more Spears in the webway on the cheap. Wrath of the Dead: Re-roll wound rolls of 1 for WRAITH CONSTRUCT units. Not broad enough, and even though Wraithlord/seer armies exist that look like they might sort of want this, Expert Crafters just outperforms it. D

Savage Blades: Re-roll hits of 1 in melee if you charged, were charged or intervened. Hits the same problems all the melee options do – you only have a couple of decent melee units in the list, and they’re much more interested in boosts that get them to combat that minor output boosts like this. C

Re-roll hits of 1 in melee if you charged, were charged or intervened. Hits the same problems all the melee options do – you only have a couple of decent melee units in the list, and they’re much more interested in boosts that get them to combat that minor output boosts like this. Children of Morag Hei: Get +1 to hit rolls if half the models in your unit have been destroyed. Way too hard to set up for a pretty mild payoff. D

Get +1 to hit rolls if half the models in your unit have been destroyed. Way too hard to set up for a pretty mild payoff. Grim: Re-roll morale tests. You do not need this. D

Re-roll morale tests. You do not need this. Hunters of Ancient Relics: +1A while within 3″ of an objective. So I have to talk about this because it’s in a top 3 list from LVO and it basically comes down to the following – if the entire reason you have Craftworld stuff in your list is to kill people with Shining Spears this can be quite good – while I’ve said previously they’re not interested in minor output boosts +1A is a huge buff, which also lets you get away with fewer in each unit. This has to be an A but understand that it’s for a very niche build.

+1A while within 3″ of an objective. So I have to talk about this because it’s in a top 3 list from LVO and it basically comes down to the following – if the entire reason you have Craftworld stuff in your list is to kill people with Shining Spears this can be quite good – while I’ve said previously they’re not interested in minor output boosts +1A is a huge buff, which also lets you get away with fewer in each unit. This has to be an but understand that it’s for a very niche build. Strike and Fade: Uses both your picks. You can fall back and charge, and if you are not within 3″ of an enemy when consolidating, you don’t have to move closer to the nearest enemy. I have really racked my brains on this and just can’t work out what it’s for – it seems to be aimed at a Craftworld that is somehow consistently winning combats overwhelmingly. I am not aware of this Craftworld. D

Uses both your picks. You can fall back and charge, and if you are not within 3″ of an enemy when consolidating, you don’t have to move closer to the nearest enemy. I have really racked my brains on this and just can’t work out what it’s for – it seems to be aimed at a Craftworld that is somehow consistently winning combats overwhelmingly. I am not aware of this Craftworld. Students of Vaul: Vehicles regain a wound at the start of each of your turns. Extremely marginal and it’s a crime that it doesn’t work for Wraith Constructs. C

Vehicles regain a wound at the start of each of your turns. Extremely marginal and it’s a crime that it doesn’t work for Wraith Constructs. Vengeful Blades: Re-roll hits in melee if you charged, were charged or intervened against CHAOS units. I am not going to use my customisation to lock in a bad bonus against a single faction, thanks. D

Re-roll hits in melee if you charged, were charged or intervened against CHAOS units. I am not going to use my customisation to lock in a bad bonus against a single faction, thanks. Warding Runes: Ignore MWs on a 5+. I guess that theoretically a metagame could arise where this is good, but it hasn’t yet. D

While there’s a lot of trash ones here there are also some big hits, and there are broadly five combinations that you need to be aware of:

Expert Crafters & Masterful Shots: Currently the most popular Eldar build (if not always the most successful) these lists tend to go wide with a large amount of small units (strapping as many aeldari missile launchers/starcannons as possible) to squeeze the most benefit out of Expert Crafters, while Masterful Shots ensures that their output isn’t getting no-selled by Stealthy Marines.

Currently the most popular Eldar build (if not always the most successful) these lists tend to go wide with a large amount of small units (strapping as many aeldari missile launchers/starcannons as possible) to squeeze the most benefit out of Expert Crafters, while Masterful Shots ensures that their output isn’t getting no-selled by Marines. Expert Crafters & Masters of Concealment: Speaking of Stealthy, some lists mix up the go-wide builds to this instead, and where people are still making use of Crimson Hunter Exarchs this is often seen as a set of picks on an Air Wing instead of Alaitoc. The brutal calculation at the moment is that being in cover often has more impact against the shootiest marine lists than -2 to hit, and even when it doesn’t you really want to get more killing done in the turns you have with the Marines. If Stealthy ebbs in popularity in Marine builds this goes up in value, and if it gets more popular again Masterful Shots takes the slot back.

Speaking of Stealthy, some lists mix up the go-wide builds to this instead, and where people are still making use of Crimson Hunter Exarchs this is often seen as a set of picks on an Air Wing instead of Alaitoc. The brutal calculation at the moment is that being in cover often has more impact against the shootiest marine lists than -2 to hit, and even when it doesn’t you really want to get more killing done in the turns you have with the Marines. If ebbs in popularity in Marine builds this goes up in value, and if it gets more popular again takes the slot back. Headstrong & Hunters of Ancient Relics : Is your entire Craftworld plan built around throwing Shining Spears at people? Good news, this might be for you.

: Is your entire Craftworld plan built around throwing Shining Spears at people? Good news, this might be for you. Masterful Shots & Superior Shurikens: For the last few months I’ve been working on the assumption that there was a good build around Asurmen and Dire Avengers available and it looks like I might have been right – a Battalion built around that featured in the 4th place list at Genghiscon. This is a bit more fringe than some of the other stuff here, but from my own experimentation there is something decent here. It does tend to just make everything a bit better across the board, as there’s lots of incidental shurikens in the army, which is helpful!

For the last few months I’ve been working on the assumption that there was a good build around Asurmen and Dire Avengers available and it looks like I might have been right – a Battalion built around that featured in the 4th place list at Genghiscon. This is a bit more fringe than some of the other stuff here, but from my own experimentation there is something decent here. It does tend to just make everything a bit better across the board, as there’s lots of incidental shurikens in the army, which is helpful! Children of Prophecy & Children of the Open Skies: If you want a supreme command of bike seers to land must-cast powers, this is extremely good. Can be good as a setup for two psykers alongside the Yncarne if you want to bring an avatar of death along.

Plenty of core craftworld lists are still seen, but if you’ve been away from Eldar for a while, and have the models, you should definitely give the Crafters builds a go – they’re decently potent.

Psychic Powers

As befits one of the most psychically powerful races in the galaxy, the Asuryani have access to a mighty three psychic disciplines (please ignore Marines having 11 and counting). These are:

Runes of Battle : Powers available to Warlocks and Spiritseers

: Powers available to Warlocks and Spiritseers Runes of Fate: Powers available to Farseers

Powers available to Farseers Runes of Fortune: Powers that any psyker can swap out for Smite

This totals up to a huge number of options, especially as each power in the Runes of Battle is actually two!

Eldar have some incredibly good options among these, and the only caveat we should put out up front is that the Warp Charge values do tend to be pretty high, so make sure you plan how to use the various re-rolls or boosts you can get access to in order to ensure you land the key ones each turn.

With that out the way, let’s dig in.

Runes of Battle

For each runes of battle power there are two effects – a buff that can target friendly INFANTRY or BIKER units, or a debuff that can target any enemy unit, always at 18″. When you choose the power you know both, but you can have different psykers cast both the positive and negative version in a single turn (they count as separate powers for the purposes of the Psychic Discipline rule). For quite a few of these you’re definitely taking them more for one effect than the other, but it’s always worth being aware that you have the option in your back pocket.

Conceal/Reveal (WC6): Conceal gives a friendly unit -1 to hit against shooting while Reveal removes cover from an enemy unit. Conceal has some uses but has fallen out of favour as a defensive tool as hit bonuses and re-rolls have gotten better. It is still good if you’re dipping into something like Shadow Spectres who come with an additional built in modifier. Reveal is pretty niche, and while it can be good sometimes is way less consistent than Jinx and suffers a lot from the short range. C+

gives a friendly unit -1 to hit against shooting while removes cover from an enemy unit. has some uses but has fallen out of favour as a defensive tool as hit bonuses and re-rolls have gotten better. It is still good if you’re dipping into something like Shadow Spectres who come with an additional built in modifier. is pretty niche, and while it can be good sometimes is way less consistent than and suffers a lot from the short range. Embolden/Horrify (WC6): Embolden gives a friendly unit +2 Ld, while Horrify gives an enemy -1 Ld. Both effects are trash, with Embolden occasionally being comedy trash if you use it to load up a Farseer for a Mind War . D+

gives a friendly unit +2 Ld, while gives an enemy -1 Ld. Both effects are trash, with occasionally being comedy trash if you use it to load up a Farseer for a . Enhance/Drain (WC7): Give a friendly unit +1 to hit in melee or an enemy -1 to hit in melee. Less good on its own merits than Empower/Enervate in both modes, but does have some niche upsides – Enhance combos well with the Supreme Disdain stratagem, while Drain can hamper enemy units relying on similar exploding effects like Discolords. That can make it the right pick over Empower/Enervate depending on the matchup, especially if you’ve got Wraithblades where it can either counter the -1 from their axes or leverage their huge number of sword attacks. C+

Give a friendly unit +1 to hit in melee or an enemy -1 to hit in melee. Less good on its own merits than in both modes, but does have some niche upsides – combos well with the stratagem, while can hamper enemy units relying on similar exploding effects like Discolords. That can make it the right pick over depending on the matchup, especially if you’ve got Wraithblades where it can either counter the -1 from their axes or leverage their huge number of sword attacks. Protect/Jinx (WC7): Protect gives a friendly unit +1 to saving throws, Jinx gives an enemy -1 to theirs. Importantly, both of these affect invulnerable saves, and that makes this easily the best power in here and one of the best in the game. Taking enemy invulns down by a point is a gigantic boost to your output against a single target, and against lots of popular Marine choices just giving your regular shots an effective extra one AP is a big deal too. Combine this with Doom to really ruin something’s day (anyone who reads my tournement reports will know how important that is for the faction). Not only is Jinx incredible, Protect is extremely good as well when you need to try and keep a key unit alive. It’s especially good on anything with a decent invuln, and can make Wraithblades, Shining Spears or even Guardians with Celestial Shield a nightmare to shift, but it’s also great on Dark Reapers in cover. You’ll almost always want one caster with this, and often two. A+

gives a friendly unit +1 to saving throws, gives an enemy -1 to theirs. Importantly, both of these affect invulnerable saves, and that makes this easily the best power in here and one of the best in the game. Taking enemy invulns down by a point is a gigantic boost to your output against a single target, and against lots of popular Marine choices just giving your regular shots an effective extra one AP is a big deal too. Combine this with to really ruin something’s day (anyone who reads my tournement reports will know how important that is for the faction). Not only is incredible, is extremely good as well when you need to try and keep a key unit alive. It’s especially good on anything with a decent invuln, and can make Wraithblades, Shining Spears or even Guardians with a nightmare to shift, but it’s also great on Dark Reapers in cover. You’ll almost always want one caster with this, and often two. Quicken/Restrain (WC7): Quicken lets a friendly unit move a second time, while Restrain halves the movement characteristic of an enemy unit. Restrain is occasionally useful in a pinch, but unlike more recent iterations of similar effects it does nothing about advances or charges, and most units you really want to slow down are leaning on advance and charge boosting abilities, so it’s a bit underwhelming. However, Quicken is a whole different beast and extremely powerful. Double moving Shining Spears can let them pull off a turn 1 charge even against an enemy who backlines, while letting slower units like Wraithblades get their hustle on is handy. It can also have other useful effects in a pinch, letting you reposition another caster to get off a key effect or (if you’re feeling brave) pull one you’ve sent forward back to safety. In the late turns of close matches, just being able to double move the caster to hustle between objectives can sometimes get you that key extra point too. Really, having access to this effect is always useful – it isn’t quite as consistently good as Protect/Jinx, but it’s a close second in terms of utility. A

lets a friendly unit move a second time, while halves the movement characteristic of an enemy unit. is occasionally useful in a pinch, but unlike more recent iterations of similar effects it does nothing about advances or charges, and most units you really want to slow down are leaning on advance and charge boosting abilities, so it’s a bit underwhelming. However, is a whole different beast and extremely powerful. Double moving Shining Spears can let them pull off a turn 1 charge even against an enemy who backlines, while letting slower units like Wraithblades get their hustle on is handy. It can also have other useful effects in a pinch, letting you reposition another caster to get off a key effect or (if you’re feeling brave) pull one you’ve sent forward back to safety. In the late turns of close matches, just being able to double move the caster to hustle between objectives can sometimes get you that key extra point too. Really, having access to this effect is always useful – it isn’t as consistently good as Protect/Jinx, but it’s a close second in terms of utility. Empower/Enervate: Empower adds +1 to wound in melee, while Enervate subtracts 1 from your opponent’s wound rolls in melee. Generally, in both modes this is a more useful “all around” buff than Enhance/Drain, and if you want to bring a melee buff caster along this is usually it. I’d generally want to be making sure I had something else I could do with my cast as well (either a Smite or a Runes of Fortune power), as you definitely don’t need to be casting this every turn of the game, but it can definitely help a lot when it’s good. B

Realistically, every list wants a Protect/Jinx caster, often two, and many lists want a Quicken/Restrain one too. Beyond that, it depends a lot more on what you’re brining – you might want one of the melee buffs to go with Spears or Wraithblades, and could just about want Conceal with a shooty deathstar like Dark Reapers or Shadow Spectres.

Runes of Fate

Farseers get access to this Discipline, and while the powers only have one effect each they’re some spicy, spicy stuff in here.

Guide (WC7): Give a friendly unit within 24″ re-roll failed shooting hits until your next psychic phase. A tremendously powerful force multiplier that is most famously combined with Dark Reapers or deep striking Guardian units, but has also seen lots of use with various ways of stacking up Scatter Lasers, and is also surprisingly great on a rampaging Shining Spear unit. You definitely need to be bringing something you actively want to target with this to get the most out of it, but it’s really, really good when you do. Don’t forget that if you stick it on Reapers it’ll still be active if you intercept something with Forewarned . A

Give a friendly unit within 24″ re-roll failed shooting hits until your next psychic phase. A tremendously powerful force multiplier that is most famously combined with Dark Reapers or deep striking Guardian units, but has also seen lots of use with various ways of stacking up Scatter Lasers, and is also surprisingly great on a rampaging Shining Spear unit. You definitely need to be bringing something you actively want to target with this to get the most out of it, but it’s really, really good when you do. Don’t forget that if you stick it on Reapers it’ll still be active if you intercept something with . Doom (WC7): Contender for “best psychic power in the game”, Doom lets you pick an enemy unit within 24″ and re-roll all wounds against it for attacks made by Asuryani units until your next psychic phase. If you want something dead, there’s really no better way to ensure it than by casting this on it, and the ability to pick out and brutally murder your opponent’s best unit each turn is a big strength of the faction. It also combos super well with shuriken weapons, as if they need a high target number to wound then re-rolling all fails will get a lot of hits with the -3AP through. Also frequently seen comboed with Jinx for when something really, really needs to die. The best power and something you should almost always take – the only armies that sometimes don’t are those super deep on Expert Crafters, but even then it’s usually included A+

Contender for “best psychic power in the game”, lets you pick an enemy unit within 24″ and re-roll all wounds against it for attacks made by Asuryani units until your next psychic phase. If you want something dead, there’s really no better way to ensure it than by casting this on it, and the ability to pick out and brutally murder your opponent’s best unit each turn is a big strength of the faction. It also combos super well with shuriken weapons, as if they need a high target number to wound then re-rolling all fails will get a lot of hits with the -3AP through. Also frequently seen comboed with for when something really, really needs to die. The best power and something you should almost always take – the only armies that sometimes don’t are those super deep on Expert Crafters, but even then it’s usually included Fortune (WC7): Give a friendly unit within 24″ a 5+++ FNP. This is another very strong effect that needs a bit more finesse to use than the other two. A lot of Eldar armies have high redundancy, which can make this a bit weaker – if your opponent can just ignore the unit you target in favour of another then it loses a lot of impact. However, put onto a must kill unit like Spears that are going straight towards your opponent’s lines it can be hugely valuable, especially on multi-wound models, as it makes them very durable against common D2 shooting. It isn’t bad elsewhere, and in lists where I’ve taken it and lost my primary target just sticking it on a Wave Serpent to hold some space has orften been good, but just like Guide you do want to have a plan for it before you bring it in. B+

Give a friendly unit within 24″ a 5+++ FNP. This is another very strong effect that needs a bit more finesse to use than the other two. A lot of Eldar armies have high redundancy, which can make this a bit weaker – if your opponent can just ignore the unit you target in favour of another then it loses a lot of impact. However, put onto a must kill unit like Spears that are going straight towards your opponent’s lines it can be hugely valuable, especially on multi-wound models, as it makes them very durable against common D2 shooting. It isn’t bad elsewhere, and in lists where I’ve taken it and lost my primary target just sticking it on a Wave Serpent to hold some space has orften been good, but just like Guide you do want to have a plan for it before you bring it in. Executioner (WC7): Executioner does d3 mortal wounds to the nearest unit within 18″ (note that it doesn’t need line of sight), and then if any die does another d3. This is an exceptionally good alt-smite and one of the best examples of the genre if you can get it to double tap. Having a real chance of just vapourising an entire Space Marine Scout unit that’s hiding behind a wall is crazy good for a single cast, and even against bigger targets where the effect never works just having the option on another Smite is good. An important tactical recommendation is that when you’re going after multi-wound units like Intercessors with this, and have some smites to cast as well, you should start by smiting, because if you roll a 1 or 3 for the damage then there will be a model left with a single wound – at which point you pop this for the big damage. Sometimes you’ll just have to cross your fingers and hope you don’t roll a one (try and save a CP for this if it’s super important), but playing smart can avoid that. Overall, this is just absurdly potent, and much like Doom is basically always great, not needing any setup. A

Executioner does d3 mortal wounds to the nearest unit within 18″ (note that it need line of sight), and then if any die does another d3. This is an exceptionally good alt-smite and one of the best examples of the genre if you can get it to double tap. Having a real chance of just vapourising an entire Space Marine Scout unit that’s hiding behind a wall is crazy good for a single cast, and even against bigger targets where the effect never works just having the option on another Smite is good. An important tactical recommendation is that when you’re going after multi-wound units like Intercessors with this, and have some smites to cast as well, you should start by smiting, because if you roll a 1 or 3 for the damage then there will be a model left with a single wound – at which point you pop this for the big damage. Sometimes you’ll just have to cross your fingers and hope you don’t roll a one (try and save a CP for this if it’s super important), but playing smart can avoid that. Overall, this is just absurdly potent, and much like is basically always great, not needing any setup. Will of Asuryan (WC5): Gives a Farseer a 6″ fearless bubble and +1 to their denies. This almost never makes the cut but it isn’t outright bad in some matchups – +1 deny on a caster with two denies and some built in re-rolls is tricky for some armies to navigate. Sadly, however, the first part almost never comes up in a relevant way, leaving this the clear last choice in the set. C

Gives a Farseer a 6″ fearless bubble and +1 to their denies. This almost never makes the cut but it isn’t outright bad in some matchups – +1 deny on a caster with two denies and some built in re-rolls is tricky for some armies to navigate. Sadly, however, the first part almost never comes up in a relevant way, leaving this the clear last choice in the set. Mind War (WC7): Pick an enemy character within 18″ and roll off, each adding your leadership. If your total is higher, inflict Mortal Wounds equal to the difference. A very cool ability that I have used to some effect, but enough of the stuff you want to go after with this has Ld9+ as well that it’s usually more trouble than it’s worth to set up for a big hit – and even when you do, you can just low roll. If you are planning to use it, bringing a Hemlock along is mandatory, and comboing in some Harlequins to add more Ld modifiers can help. C+

Doom and Executioner are the easy choices here – you want a Farseer in most lists, and these are the powers to pick if you have nothing specific you want to do. If you are bringing either a bomb unit you want to defend or a powerful shooting unit then Fortune or Guide can leapfrog doom. Alternatively, you can just bring two Farseers and have all four!

Runes of Fortune

The final discipline is unique in that rather than taking up a power slot, these powers are swapped out for Smite. This is a really cool piece of design, and it also makes them especially useful on Warlocks, as their Smite is a bad version with only 9″ range and 1MW. The flipside of this is that these powers tend to have lower-key effects, but two are great and at least a few others have niche uses. Unlike the rest of the Eldar powers, the buffs here are all <CRAFTWORLD> locked, so you do need to make sure you have a Seer from the right detachment lined up to do them if you’re mixing and matching.

Fateful Divergence (WC4): Give a <CRAFTWORLD> unit within 6″ a re-roll that can be used for a hit, wound or save until your next psychic phase. This is a pretty handy one to have in your back pocket if you have enough casters, especially if you have something with good invulns around, but it isn’t usually worth skipping a “real” smite for, meaning it’s generally restricted to lists with lots of Warlocks. B

Give a <CRAFTWORLD> unit within 6″ a re-roll that can be used for a hit, wound or save until your next psychic phase. This is a pretty handy one to have in your back pocket if you have enough casters, especially if you have something with good invulns around, but it isn’t usually worth skipping a “real” smite for, meaning it’s generally restricted to lists with lots of Warlocks. Witch Strike (WC4): The caster gets +2D on their melee attacks till your next psychic phase. Unfortunately, all casters only have 2A and tend to be missing AP, which usually means that if you’re close enough to do this you’ve got something better to do with a cast. Was briefly exciting with Warlock Skyrunner Conclaves, but got errataed to only affect a single model. C

The caster gets +2D on their melee attacks till your next psychic phase. Unfortunately, all casters only have 2A and tend to be missing AP, which usually means that if you’re close enough to do this you’ve got something better to do with a cast. Was briefly exciting with Warlock Skyrunner Conclaves, but got errataed to only affect a single model. Ghostwalk (WC6): The big one – give a <CRAFTWORLD> unit within 6″ +2 to charges. This can be slightly fiddly to set up, but is incredibly good for any sort of deep strike threat, several of which are very popular at the moment (at least partially because of this now existing). It can actually be OK in other contexts too – I’ve profitably cast this on a Wave Serpent to help make an early bully charge, so if you’ve taken it in preparation for buffing up your big hitters keep an eye out for other places it’s good. A

The big one – give a <CRAFTWORLD> unit within 6″ +2 to charges. This can be slightly fiddly to set up, but is incredibly good for any sort of deep strike threat, several of which are very popular at the moment (at least partially because of this now existing). It can actually be OK in other contexts too – I’ve profitably cast this on a Wave Serpent to help make an early bully charge, so if you’ve taken it in preparation for buffing up your big hitters keep an eye out for other places it’s good. Crushing Orb (WC4): Pick an enemy character within 18″ and roll 3d6, dealing a MW for each 5+. It’s worst than a real smite – but it’s probably better than a warlock smite, so can be worth swapping out on one of those if your opponent is character heavy. C+

Pick an enemy character within 18″ and roll 3d6, dealing a MW for each 5+. It’s worst than a real smite – but it’s probably better than a warlock smite, so can be worth swapping out on one of those if your opponent is character heavy. Focus Will (WC6): Give a friendly caster +2 to their casts for this phase. This is pretty much the “default” swap out on a Warlock – Craftworld armies can live or die on landing doom, so being able to give your Farseer +2 to cast at a crucial moment can be incredibly good. It’s even better if you’re casting it on Eldrad, who can stack it up with other bonuses to get as far as being able to super smite on a 7. A

Give a friendly caster +2 to their casts for this phase. This is pretty much the “default” swap out on a Warlock – Craftworld armies can live or die on landing doom, so being able to give your Farseer +2 to cast at a crucial moment can be incredibly good. It’s even better if you’re casting it on Eldrad, who can stack it up with other bonuses to get as far as being able to super smite on a 7. Impair Senses (WC6): Pick a visible enemy unit within 18″. Until your next psychic phase, that unit can only shoot at either the closest visible enemy unit or any enemy unit within 18″. This could have been cool but the 18″ get-out clause kind of kills it, at least in combination with this only being 18″ range. It’s incredibly difficult to set this up to be super good – and because not taking smite or one of the others from here is a real cost, you probably won’t bother. There’s probably some crazy combination with Shadow Spectres or Warp Spiders that can leverage this, but otherwise it isn’t as good as it sounds like it’s trying to be. D+

Two big winners here in Ghostwalk and Focus Will, while Fateful Divergence is at least fine. Don’t go too crazy with these though – remember that Smite is actively a good ability, so you shouldn’t sacrifice your access to it on a caster with a real one unless you have a good reason.

Stratagems

Eldar have a very good set of stratagems. While there are some things that have become “standard” over time that they’re conspicuously missing, there’s some extremely good stuff here and you’ll want to be familiar with them.

Matchless Agility (1CP): Automatically advance 6”. An extremely useful trick to have up your sleeve, as it can be vital to make sure you reach a key objective. Doesn’t sound flashy, but it’s useful way more often than you’d expect. B+

Celestial Shield (1CP) : Gives a GUARDIAN unit a 4++ vs shooting. Full Guardian bombs are out of fashion, but if you take one you definitely want to use this. Can also be handy to try and save a Support Weapon in a pinch, as they have the right keywords. B

Cloudstrike (1CP) : Deep strike a VEHICLE with FLY, but cannot be used if you are using Webway Strike. Webway Strike is much more commonly used but this does have a role, which is to deep strike planes in a matchup where your opponent is guaranteed to shoot them off the board if they go first (this was my tactic during the Caladius Grav Tank’s reign of terror). Hasn’t been needed for a while, but is potentially going to be super relevant again when up against Marines in the new ITC format. B

Forewarned (2CP) : Intercept shoot at a deep striking/redeploying unit with a unit that’s within 6” of a Farseer. Basically the best version of this effect in the game, extremely good with Dark Reapers, Scatter Bikes, War Walkers and sometimes even a big Guardian squad if they try and bring deep strike melee to bear on it. Make sure to set up to maximise this if you have a good user. A

Concordance of Power (1CP): Double the range of a Runes of Battle power cast by a Warlock Conclave. Useful if you have one, but you probably don’t, and if you do it’s quite likely a Skyrunner Conclave up in their face who will be in range anyway. Sadly doesn’t work with Runes of Fortune, as if it did you would actually have a way to exploit Impair Senses properly. C

Unparalleled Mastery (1CP) : Extra cast with a Farseer immediately after succeeding on their last power. Handy when you really need to just shovel mortals onto something by tagging on a smite, and especially worth using if you’ve also popped Seer Council and/or have your Farseer rerolls in hand so you can fish for a super Smite. B+

: Linked Fire (1CP) : We’ll explain this in the Fire Prism section. If you have them, you’re spamming this. B+

Lightning Fast Reactions (2CP): Give an INFANTRY or FLY unit an extra -1 to hit when targeted in the Shooting or Fight phase, lasting the rest of the phase. Fantastic on Alaitoc stuff in shooting, and remember that it works in the Fight phase. Do try and watch out for skillful opponents baiting it out on a unit that isn’t their priority target, and also make sure not to waste it if there’s an “equivalent” target they can switch to with no real cost. A



Webway Strike (1/3CP): Deep Strike one INFANTRY or BIKER unit for 1CP or 2 for 3CP. Fantastic with Guardians or Scatter Bike blobs, but currently most commonly used with Shining Spears, with Wraithblades and Skyrunner Conclaves also getting a look in. This is a supremely useful ability to have access to. A

Overloaded Energy Field Projectors (1CP) : Shoot a Wave Serpent’s shield again in a later turn. A tremendously handy ability in a pinch, and it means that if you’re up against an opponent with no multi-damage shooting it’s worth getting at least one of your shields fired off as soon as a good target presents itself so you can spam this. B

: Seer Council (1CP) : Add +1 to a Farseer and Warlock’s casts if they’re within 6” of one another. Extremely great, you should very often use this on a turn where you’re relying on getting Doom/Jinx of if you can spare the CP. A

: Fire and Fade (1CP): Allows a unit to move 7” after shooting, it then can’t charge. Great for hiding Reapers (the most common targets) or scatter bikes, also useful to sneak an extra 7” movement to grab an objective – nothing says you have to use this to run away from the enemy. A

Treasures of the Craftworlds (1/3CP) : Standard extra relic strat. Craftworld Relics aren’t great, and this is most commonly used either in soup builds or to add the Phoenix Gem to a vulnerable character against Snipers. Much more skippable than for a lot of armies though, and the number of high scoring ones on this list means the opportunity cost of spending a CP is high. B

: Standard extra relic strat. Craftworld Relics aren’t great, and this is most commonly used either in soup builds or to add the to a vulnerable character against Snipers. Much more skippable than for a lot of armies though, and the number of high scoring ones on this list means the opportunity cost of spending a CP is high. Feigned Retreat (2CP): Lets a unit that falls back still charge/shoot. This can allow Shining Spears to rampage on to their next target if they’re stuck in against a few stragglers, or let your Reapers pull out and murder something if they’ve been tagged. It isn’t cheap and if you can avoid having to use it you should, but it’s a very useful emergency button. A

Lets a unit that falls back still charge/shoot. This can allow Shining Spears to rampage on to their next target if they’re stuck in against a few stragglers, or let your Reapers pull out and murder something if they’ve been tagged. It isn’t cheap and if you can avoid having to use it you should, but it’s a very useful emergency button. Runes of Witnessing (2CP): Gives a Farseer a 6” re-roll 1s to wound bubble for a phase. Doesn’t come up that often because it overlaps with Doom , but it has its uses. If you desperately need a turn to go well and fail Doom , slamming this can obviously help, but you sometimes plan more cleverly around it. I’ve had some success, when I’ve gone against guard with lots of scatter lasers and shurikens, building a castle around a Farseer and Autarch and just going ham on their infantry with re-roll 1s on hits and wounds. If you’re picking targets where you’re already wounding on 2s and 3s this gives you more value (as re-roll 1s is a proportional increase on your current output), and if your firepower lines up well for that keep this in mind. B

Gives a Farseer a 6” re-roll 1s to wound bubble for a phase. Doesn’t come up that often because it overlaps with , but it has its uses. If you desperately need a turn to go well and fail , slamming this can obviously help, but you sometimes plan more cleverly around it. I’ve had some success, when I’ve gone against guard with lots of scatter lasers and shurikens, building a castle around a Farseer and Autarch and just going ham on their infantry with re-roll 1s on hits and wounds. If you’re picking targets where you’re already wounding on 2s and 3s this gives you more value (as re-roll 1s is a proportional increase on your current output), and if your firepower lines up well for that keep this in mind. The Great Enemy (1CP): Re-roll wounds against Slaanesh in the Fight Phase. In a meta where lots of Chaos units are Slaanesh marked for Endless Cacophony, and Slaanesh Lords Discordant or Daemon Princes are making themselves known, this can be handy, but you do have to remember you have it. Also, the best users are pretty likely to slaughter those things already. C

Supreme Disdain (1CP): Extra attacks on 6+ to hit in the Fight phase. Very funny on Wraithknights (more on that later), and sometimes OK on Shining Spears or Wraithblades. C+

Starhawk Missile (1CP) : An INFANTRY model with a Missile Launcher gets +1 to hit against a FLY target and does d3 MWs instead of normal damage. Once upon a time this could be relevant on Dark Reaper Exarchs, but now they have access to Rapid Shot (which doesn’t combo with this) they’ll pretty much always want to do that. D

: Tears of Isha (2CP) : Heal a Wraith Construct for D3. Wildly too expensive for the impact, and it would be a very tough spot where I’d really want to use this. D+

: Vaul’s Might (1CP) : Lets two support weapons re-roll wound rolls of 1 for a phase if they’re close to one another. Has always looked terrible, and Expert Crafters makes it look comically terrible. F

: The Avatar Resurgent (3CP): If the Avatar died in the fight phase, it survives on D6 wounds instead. Obviously hilarious when it comes up, but the Fight Phase restriction stops it being actively good, especially as the Avatar ain’t great. C

And last, but definitely not least…

Phantasm (2CP)

Phantasm almost needs an article all of its own (and indeed we talked a bit about it in our deployment tactica). For 2CP, at the start of the first Battle Round (i.e. after you know who’s going first) you can redeploy up to three units. They have to stay on the board (i.e. you can’t move something “into” Webway Strike) but you can move a Transport with everything inside.

Because of how much stuff you can pack into a Wave Serpent, this lets you potentially reposition quite a sizeable chunk of your army for the cost, and notably it’s all the “range constrained” stuff like Dire Avengers. You can often bundle a considerable proportion of your on-board presence into three transports, letting you go for an alpha strike if you get the first turn and avoid a hammerblow by moving back out of range if you don’t. A lot of supporting tools like bike characters are fast enough that you can deploy them further back and still catch up.

The advent of seize-less full army deployment in the ITC for 2020 does significantly reduce the frequency with which this will be relevant as the Defender, as you should already be deploying your army with perfect information that isn’t going to change. Salvaging a seize was also a major use of it. However, as the Attacker it should help you ensure you can tighten the noose and make the most of going first.

One thing that can help with this is playing mind games with ranges. Even if you’re intending to go for an all out assault, it might be worth deploying a bit further back, hoping to lull your opponent into a false sense of security before Phantasming forward for a strike. Alternatively, set up in an aggressive posture but skewed towards one side of the board, then Phantasm over to the other side if your opponent tries to get away from you.

If you go through my archive of tournament reports you’ll probably see some more ways I’ve used it. The new ITC rules probably do bring it down a notch, but it still has its uses and will remain extremely good in any format with seize still active.

It still gets an A.

Warlord Traits

Craftworld Warlord traits are a mixed bag, being a little bit weak compared to newer ones but still having some valid choices. In addition, recent changes in the ITC and the move of banshee mask Autarchs to legends gives a few of them a new lease on life.

Seer of the Shifting Vector: Gives the warlord one re-roll of a hit, wound, save, psychic test or deny per battle round. This is one of the better ones, and I’m a big fan of running this on my Jinx casting Bike Warlock, as it means that when you really need to land Jinx you have the choice of a “full” reroll from this or re-rolling one dice with a CP. Combined with +1 from Seer Council, that puts your chance of landing it around 90%. A

Fate’s Messenger: Gives you +1 wound and a 6+ Feel No Pain. Used to be pretty weak in ITC as using it on a 5W character would make them Kingslayerable, but with Kingslayer gone (for exactly this sort of reason) this is a real option if you have nothing better to do. C+

Mark of the Incomparable Hunter: Lets the warlord snipe characters. Not commonly seen (especially now Index Autarchs are gone) but can be hilarious on a Wraithseer with a D-Cannon in a Crafters list. C+

Falcon’s Swiftness: +2 Move. Never horrible, but not usually needed, and now Fate’s Messenger is “safe” as a backup plan you probably won’t ever see it. An exception is that if you decide to bring the Avatar this is a good choice on him as it helps with his dire mobility. C

An Eye on Distant Events: Warlord is immune to overwatch. Now that Autarchs don’t just get this for free this is a common and powerful choice – there’s a tonne of stuff in the metagame that you want to charge and lock down but can’t rely on pulling off safely through their overwatch. Best on a Wing or Bike Autarch. A.

Ambush of Blades: Grants an extra -1AP on 6s to wound in the Fight phase. This would require hefty volume melee attacks to be even slightly worthwhile, and Eldar do not, in any way, have that. F

Picking your warlord is something you should do with a trait in mind, and at the moment I’m usually either picking a Bike Warlock and taking Seer or a Wing Autarch and picking Eye on Distant Events.

Relics

Eldar relics are kind of naff. They’re an early codex and it shows. There are a few gems (including one literal one), but many are very skippable, and the weapons in particular are mostly wildly behind the curve of modern competitors.

Faolchu’s Wing: Gives an INFANTRY model 12″ fly speed, but doesn’t change their keywords. Probably the best of the bunch, helpful on a foot farseer or Autarch to get them where they need to go while saving points on one of the pricier versions. A

The Phoenix Gem: The first time the bearer dies, every unit within 3” takes D3 MWs on a 2+. If any do, the bearer survives on 1W. Theoretically useful for protecting a squishy character like a Warlock from snipers by parking them next to a unit (like a Wave Serpent) you don’t mind taking a few wounds, but I’ve soured on this use a lot – it’s a pain to keep set up in practice. I have had good results putting this on a BIke Autarch prior to them getting nerfed, but unfortunately the Wing Autarch really needs to take the Shard of Anaris to get any damage out, so can’t really afford this. If you’re still taking a Bike Autarch and he isn’t Saim-Hann, this is fine. B

Shimmerplume of Achillirial : Gives an Autarch -1 to hit when attacked. Another one that was useful on old bike Autarchs in some games, but now doesn’t really have a slot. C

Kurnous’ Bow : A bad relic shuriken pistol that’s D2 and does AP-3 on 4+ rather than 6. Still a horrendous choice. D

Shard of Anaris : Eldar have no less than three relic power swords, all of which look a bit silly next to modern relic weapons, but this is definitely the least bad. It gets damage d3 and re-rolls wounds all the time, so while it won’t let your Wing Autarch do much to a tank, it does actually let him meaningfully engage with enemy characters or elite infantry. B

Firesabre : This, on the other hand, is a garbage trash power sword. It’s S+1 and AP-4, but still D1 and merely does a mortal instead of its normal damage on a 6+ to wound. Don’t bother. D

Blazing Star of Vaul: Adds +2 shots to a shuriken weapon. Not terrible but not really worth a relic slot either. C

At the moment Faolchu’s Wing on a Farseer, Shard of Anaris on a Wing Autarch or the Phoenix Gem on someone are the main choices. If you’re Saim-Hann, obviously consider the Novalance from their section as well!

Aspect Powers

Added in Phoenix Rising, each Aspect Warrior unit in a Craftworlds detachment can pick between six different Exarch powers, or take the default one and an additional from the other five for a CP. We’ll talk about these in the individual units that they’re applied to, rather than in a separate section.

Specialist Detachments

During GW’s abortive dalliance with the concept of Specialist Detachments the Asuryani picked up two, each costing 1CP to put on a detachment:

Wraithhost

Applies to all SPIRIT HOST units in a detachment and gives:

Stratagem – Wrath of the Dead – 1CP: Use at the start of the Fight phase to give a WRAITH CONSTRUCT unit +1A. Helpful on pretty much any of the Wraith units, but not really quite worth the price of entry alone. Stratagem – Spirit Shield – 2CP: A Spiritseer can lend a WRAITH CONSTRUCT their invulnerable save for a turn from the end of your movement phase. Useful if you’re someone foolish enough to bring a Wraithknight (i.e. me) and was good when sword Wraithblades were the hotness, but now they’ve been replaced by axe units it isn’t needed. Warlord Trait – Revered by the Dead: Re-roll charges for WRAITH CONSTRUCT units within 6″. Not worth the price of entry. Rune of Battle – Twilight Gloom (WC6): Taken instead of a Runes of Battle spell. Give a WRAITH CONSTRUCT cover. It’s OK? Not, sadly, good enough that you can ever really spare the slot. Relic – Warp Spawn Bane : A relic Witch Staff that ignores the invluns of PSYKERs and DAEMONS…but doesn’t have any AP, so most still get a good save, making this one of the worst relics in the entire game.



Windrider Host

Applies to all Skyrunner characters, Skyrunner Conclaves, Windriders and Bikers. Note that this does not include Shining Spears. Gives:

Stratagem – Nimble Escape – 2CP: Allows a unit from the detachment to move immediately after fighting, including falling back. This can be tremendously powerful on a Skyrunner Conclave, letting them hit and run away behind terrain. As long as you have access to it, you can also use it to save a unit from being stomped in melee if your opponent messes their ordering up – blow 2CP to interupt then 2CP to pull away. It’s very pricey, so make sure it’s actually worth it, but if it’ll change the game the option is there. Stratagem – Tempest of Blades – 3CP: Units from the detachment within 6″ of a chosen detachment Farseer get +1AP for the shooting phase. Occasionally relevant in armies that want this anyway for the previous one, but eye wateringly expensive. Warlord Trait – Wild Rider: Detachment units within 6″ can charge even if they fell back. Pretty much only helpful for the Skyrunner conclave, but very good for them. Relic – The Howling Skysword of Galaleth : A D3 witchblade. Bad thanks to how few attacks the characters have.



Both of these detachments are good in their narrow use cases – the Wraithhost is great if you’re messing around with a Wraithknight, while the Windrider Host is actually competitive levels of good when used on Warlock Skyrunner Conclaves. Both can be fine if you’re getting out some of the other units they apply to for a kick around, but these are the big competitive niches.

The Units

Now that we’ve got through all the pre-amble of covering units and special abilities, we’re ready to go through the units in the Eldar army. As with pretty much all earlier codexes, the units are a distinctly mixed bag, and we’re not going to dwell for too long on the ones that don’t quite get there. The good units in this book, however, tend to be real good, and for these we’ll make sure we’ve covered everything off!

HQ

Farseer

You should always include a Farseer in a pure Craftworlds army. That’s it. Done.

Seriously though, we’ve been through the Runes of Fate powers and seen just how good they are, and these are the guys that get to wield them. You want those powers, so you want one of these.

Farseers come in three flavours:

On foot. Nice and cheap, and can be given a mobility boost via the Faolchu’s Wing relic.

relic. On a bike. Faster, tougher, gets a bit of shooting but also pricier.

Eldrad Ulthran. A named character Farseer for Ulthwe who gets a bunch of extra stuff we’ll cover in a second.

All three forms of Farseer see some play, with bikers being the most common, foot as the second and Eldrad coming in third just because Ulthwe isn’t that heavily used.

Starting with their psychic might, the regular Farseers know two powers and get two casts and two denies each, and also have access to the Runes of the Farseer special rule, allowing them to re-roll one or both dice from a cast or deny each phase. This is an incredibly powerful boost, giving you a really good chance to land a key power and stop your opponent’s best one each phase. From a maths point of view with this, when you fail a cast you should (essentially) always keep a dice showing 4+ and re-roll a 3 or less. Denying can obviously be different – if you need to roll a double six then keeping a four isn’t going to help you! The other cool thing with this is that there’s no requrement to have failed the cast to re-roll – so if you roll a 1 and a 6 when casting a key power and your opponent has denies, it can be worth re-rolling the one, as you can’t possibly fail and it might make the deny harder. You can also use this to fish for a super smite if you’ve done all your key casts and have this still available.

As well as their runes, Farseers also have a Ghosthelm, giving them a general 5+++ FNP against mortal wounds and a 2+++ FNP against wounds from rolling a Perils of the Warp. This is a decent boost in a smite-off, but more importantly means you actively want to roll a double 6 on your casts a lot of the time, and very nearly don’t have to worry about perils at all. I have literally never had a Farseer die to perils in several years of playing Eldar. If you want to get even more bang out of your Farseer, remember that you have access to the Seer Council and Unparalleled Mastery stratagems to boost their casts or get an extra one, both great tastes that taste great together (though for my money I usually only go for the extra cast if I still have the re-rolls in hand).

Psychic is what you’re here for – the other stats are pretty mediocre. You get 5 or 6W and a 4++, which is nice but does mean you’re actually very vulnerable to small arms fire, especially on the T3 foot version. Offensively, Farseers come with a Witchblade as stock, which always wounds on a 2+ and does d3 damage but completely lacks AP. Given they also only have two attacks, that makes them unlikely to get much done, although in an emergency rolling them into something that’s Jinxed is OK. This can be upgraded to a singing spear, which can also be thrown as a shooting attack at 12″ range with the same statline. It’s a fine way to spend 5pts if you have nothing better for it, especially on a biker. Finally, a footseer has a shuriken pistol and a bikeseer mounts twin Shuriken catapults. Not a lot, but I’ve had a Farseer take of Guilliman’s last wound with a lucky pistol shot, so I guess remember you have it!

If you play Eldar, get hold of (ideally) both versions of these early, as you’ll find lots of uses. If you have to pick one, probably grab the bikeseer, but more static builds like some Crafters lists can be happy to shave the points off.

Finally, your other option is Eldrad, who is a souped up footseer for an extra 35pts. For this, he gets:

A third known power and cast. Very nice.

Spiritlink, which gives him +1 to his next cast after successfully casting a power (non-stacking, so only ever +1). Useful both to lock in key powers or charge up a Smite.

T4, an extra wound, and a 3++. This makes him considerably harder to shift than a normal footseer, and one of the few units in the game able to hit a 2++ with Protect .

. His staff, which is S5 AP-2 d3 damage, usually a better bet than the witchblade (though he still only has 2A).

Eldrad is awesome if you can build a list able to slot him in, and that’s really the only thing holding him back. Worth experimentation.

Warlock/Spiritseer

So that’s our Runes of Fate covered, what about Runes of Battle? Step up to the plate Warlocks and Spiritseers, both of whom get one known power and one cast from this discipline. This (and cheaply filling HQ slots) are the main reason you want to take them, as they’re even weaker than a Farseer in terms of combat stats, but these powers are so great that you’ll usually want at least one. Like Farseers, Warlocks can ride bikes (62pts) and for them you almost always want to unless you’re shaving points. Spiritseers are stuck on foot, and roll in at (55pts)

In terms of choosing between the options the differences are:

The Warlock has are:

Higher mobility.

Higher toughness

Better shooting

Access to the Seer Council stratagem.

With the major drawbacks being:

Only 3 wounds (so at risk of outright dying from Perils of the Warp or an unlucky vehicle explosion).

Loses Smite for Destructor, a bad version of Smite with short range and only doing 1W

The Spiritseer has:

4W, so outside of “hilarious mishap” range.

Full Smite

Better melee.

A fringe buff for Wraith Construct units.

But at the cost of:

No mobility option.

No Seer Council

Generally people come down on the Bike Warlock for their first choice, especially now the Runes of Fortune exist to give them something to do with that bad smite slot. However, if you’re adding more casters a Spiritseer can be a good later addition, as building up some Smite firepower is good.

Just like with the Farseer, you ideally want to have access to both options.

Autarch

Following a trend, Autarchs come in three flavours:

Foot

Winged

Bike

All have a few things in common, having the Path of Command, which gives re-roll 1s to hit to <CRAFTWORLD> units within 6″, and 6+ CP regen on CP you spend if they’re your warlord. They also all have a 4+ invulnerable save and a 3+ base save.

Where they differ is in the costs and the rest of their stats. The foot Autarch has plasma grenades and a star glaive to use with his 4A (-1 to hit, Sx2, AP-3, d3 damage) and weighs in at 73pts. Being cheap is his main attraction, and he can be a good choice to slot into a gunline army (and is another good user of Faolchu’s Wing).

Winged Autarchs weigh in at 93pts and (obviously) have wings. This lets them Deep Strike, which you don’t really care about, but gives them a 14″ move, which you very much do as it lets them keep up with the army’s mobile elements. They’re locked in to a single weapon loadout, having a fusion pistol and a power sword. The pistol is very nice, but the power sword is trash on a S3 model and if you want one of these to do any melee damage the Shard of Anaris is effectively mandatory. If you’ve got the relic slot that can be a decent setup, and making one your Warlord with An Eye on Distant Events is a good way to get some emergency Overwatch suppression.

The final choice is the Autarch Skyrunner, and while they’re still good they’ve sadly fallen from the heights they once occupied. Prior to Legends, you could take one with a laser lance and a fusion gun and got a free banshee mask, allowing them to be super deadly in two phases at a bargain price. Now you have to pick either or, and while you pretty much always pick the lance (getting to 105pts) they’re just not quite as impressive without the full loadout (unless they’re Saim-Hann with the Novalance). They can still be a good choice if you have the points, and the removal of Kingslayer from ITC probably gives them a minor leg badk up as it stops making them your warlord being a terrible idea.

Eldar tend to have a lot of decent shooting going on, so the re-roll 1s can be a big massive force multiplier, making Autarchs a decent choice. With the loss of Index equipment, they could probably stand to be a bit cheaper, but they’re a nice unit to have around.

Warlock Skyrunner Conclave

Do you like giant biker squads rampaging around the board but think that only spending 272 points on a maxed out unit of Shining Spears is for cowards? Well the Skyrunner Conclave might be for you!

This is a giant squad of Warlocks on bikes, operating as a single unit (which doesn’t have the character keyword), and it’s a surprisingly competitive choice, mostly because you can layer a brutal number of buffs on them, and they’ve had some point cuts that mean even a fully tricked out squad only gets to 550pts. Protect is the key buff, as any squad of 3W models with a 3++ is going to be a pain to shift, but you also want to be loading up Fortune and probably Conceal. The conclave itself can help with the buffs, knowing 2 Rune of Battle powers and getting either 1 (1-3 models), 2 (4-6 models) or 3 (7+ models) casts a turn. As long as you have 4+ models their smite also goes back to d3 damage, and if you have 7+ it becomes a guaranteed d6.

Offensively, while each Warlock is only packing two witchblade or singing spear attacks, where these aren’t great solo they add up when they come in bulk, and you can add Enhance to boost their accuracy and Jinx to help them cut through enemy armour. A volley of 10 thrown spears, along with 40 shuriken shots, also makes them pretty deadly in shooting. A full squad of these can thus participate in all three “action” phases of the game and do lots of work in all of them while being pretty tough – all the characteristics you want in a death star unit. Most people running them also make them a Windrider Host, letting them hit and run from combat with Nimble Escape and fall back and charge if a friendly character packs the Wild Rider warlord trait.

For all that the unit is pretty tough they’re not indestructible, and you do have to be careful with these. They’re very vulnerable to anything that can throw out lots of mortal wounds (especially as they get less good as models die) and also to high rates of anti-infantry fire, which quite a few armies can throw out very large amounts of. Anything that can strip off their invuln (or even getting Protect denied or blocked by a strat) can be disastrous, so watch out for enemy casters with powers like Null Zone, and consider bringing a spare Protect caster along who can throw it in from outside deny range in an emergency.

Skyrunner Conclave lists require a tremendous amount of finesse to play, but have put up some extremely good results and can reward a player who learns the ins and outs.

Asurmen

Most of the Phoenix Lords end up in the “everything else” bucket but Asurmen sneaks out. The main reason for this is that, where pretty much all the others try to be lone powerful models (with woefully underpowered early 8th statlines) Asurmen brings his value in the form of synergy, specifically giving ASPECT WARRIOR units within 6″ a 5++ and Dire Avengers a 4++. Dire Avengers are a little bit over fragile for their cost, but giving them a 4++ makes a difference to that, and a large blob of them surrounding Asurmen is actually a respectable way of gumming up the board. He does also provide synergy with Shining Spears – their built in invuln only applies in shooting, and being able to give them a 4++ (with Protect) in combat can be extremely helpful if your opponent counter-charges them with something.

Asurmen is also no slouch in melee himself, packing a 3++ in combat (4++ at range) and 5 attacks with his sword, which is S5 AP-3 d3 damage and deals d3 additional mortal wounds on a 6+ to wound. That’s a horrific amount of spike potential, especially against anything Doomed, further complimenting your infantry core by giving you some counter charge potential.

He’s still, probably, just a little bit too expensive, but I’ve run this strategy myself and it definitely gives some opponents real pause.

Wraithseer (Forge World)

Wraithseers have gotten some huge point cuts and a buff to T8 since they released, making them very attractive for their cost. They’re 12W, so can be shot at, but with T8 3+/5++ they’re as tough as anything else you can throw around, and provide a decent push threat that your opponent kind of has to do something about or watch their tanks get chopped up. In Expert Crafters lists, giving them the d-cannon they have the option of mounting can be really good as well, letting them be active in the shooting phase too, and mitigating the short range of the gun with the fact they’re likely pushing up the board. Just in general, those lists are also very happy to have a countercharge threat.

Wraithseers have a weird set of psychic rules that make them mostly useless in that phase except when you have a unit of Wraithblades, who they can give a 3d6 drop the lowest charge roll to. This is a handy way to boost their charge reliability, so if you’re bringing Wraithblades these get even more attractive.

They’re not broken or anything, but the package here sums up to something it’s useful to have access to in your toolbox.

Other HQs

The Avatar of Khaine : I really, really want him to be good but he just isn’t. Way too expensive for what he brings to the table, and having keywords precision designed to make him incompatible with most of your buffs and stratagems just takes the cake.

Yriel : If you ever want to take a Foot Autarch in an Iyanden list you should probably take him instead. However, you very rarely want to do either of these things.

Illic Nightspear : A victim of the stern cap on the power level of snipers that was seen in early codices. He isn’t quite powerful enough for his cost, and in a pure Craftworld army you normally want to be spending your HQ slots on force multipliers, not lone operators.

The Phoenix Lords : A similar story here – most of these are designed to be powerful, independent fighters but their statlines are just wildly underwhelming for that role. Jain Zar has popped up here and there, and Maugen Ra used to see play, but generally you have better things to do with the points. I guess maybe you could stick a Spearhead of Maugen Ra + 3×3 Reapers into an army and it woudn’t be horrible?

Warlock Conclave: The foot warlock conclave has no role to play in a world of Thunderfire cannons.





Troops

Once upon a time filling out troops slots in a Craftworlds army was a bit of a slog – you wanted one big squad of Guardian Defenders to deep strike, but after that were usually awkwardly filling out the slots with Rangers, as the other two choices (Dire Avengers and Storm Guardians) were a bit overcosted. The good news is that points cuts have left both the last two looking much more attractive, and all four Eldar Troop choices now have their uses.

As a general point, both types of Guardians and Dire Avengers have Plasma Grenades. These are great and you should always have one model throw one when a unit shoots (unless you could only do so by sacrificing firing with a non-default weapon). The S4 and AP-1 makes these outrageously better than the anti-personnel grenades of other factions.

Guardian Defenders

Guardian Defenders are in some ways a great summary of the Eldar army as a whole – in most cases they are way more fragile for their cost than similar units in other armies, but are also phenomenally more dangerous if you can get them into the right place at the right time (and the army gives you the tools to do this).

At 8pts for a T3 5+ model, the basic Guardian is twice the cost of a Guard infantry trooper for the same resilience. However, with their BS of 3+ and two shuriken shots each within 12”, if you can get them into that range they’re more dangerous than a 13 point Tactical Marine (as the rending effect from the Shuriken Catapult puts it ahead of a bolter).

The trick to using Guardian Defenders is therefore to make sure they get to shoot something worthwhile before they get shot up. There are a few ways you can do this:

Include a grav platform (or two at a full squad size of 20). These have 2W and a 3+ save, which means they’re great “ablative” wounds against small arms fire – you can choose to assign the saves to these first, and use the 3+ until the platform(s) die(s). This will go a long way if you are in cover or have Protect online, or both – you can potentially have 4 wounds on a 1+ save, great for getting rid of pesky AP-1 wounds.

If you do this, you need to roll the saves one at a time rather than all at once, as you have to move on to saving on the 5+ as soon as the platform dies. Generally platforms do their best work as ablative wounds, so don’t invest in one of the expensive weapon options; whack on a Scatter Laser or Shuriken cannon. Deploy them from reserves via the Webway Strike stratagem. This guarantees you get to bring them into play unharmed (unless you walk into Auspex Scan or similar – do not do this) and get a turn of full effect shooting, though be careful about choosing to do this against opponents with a lot of chaff screening. This is the most common way to use Guardians – if you see a full or almost full squad in a list, it’s probably going to do this. This is colloquially referred to as a “Guardian Bomb”. It is especially effective when combined with Doom and Jinx on a target, and Guide and/or, for Ulthwe, the Black Guardians stratagem on the newly arrived Guardians – at that point even against an Imperial Knight you can expect to shred off 7-8 wounds. Transport them via a Wave Serpent. This works well for squads of ten and a platform, though you more normally see a couple squads of Dire Avengers used like this as their extra range makes it easier to deploy them meaningfully from the transport. Buff them. Guardians can use the Celestial Shield stratagem to give the whole squad a 4++ against shooting for a phase. This can be improved to a 3++ by Protect at which point your models are suddenly a pain to shift (unless you immediately roll all 1s and 2s as happens every time I manage to set this up).



Guardian bombs used to be all the range but the majority of players have moved away from them. They’re a big victim of Marines, as they’ll instantly melt to Marine fire without the stratagem up, can be easily punched out by characters in the fight phase, and can be blocked from dropping in the right place by scouts. There’s still scope to experiment with them in some lists, but at the moment these aren’t your priority.

Storm Guardians

Since getting cut to 6ppm, Storm Guardians are now notably cheaper to field a unit of than any other Troops choice, meaning that they have a role to play in filling out detachments and putting cheap bodies in the way of Smite-heavy armies.

Fundamentally, these are basically the things you should be using them for – they will never live up to what the shooting of the Defenders can do, and if you want melee infantry (though Eldar are really not great at that generally) you should be looking elsewhere too. If you have the points, a minimum-sized squad with couple of flamers is the only upgrade setup I might consider if you know you’re in a Smite/Horde heavy meta – it gives you a unit that will marginally outperform a similarly costed Dire Avenger squad when clearing chaff and also has more purely expendable bodies.

Finally, Storm Guardians have a choice of melee weapons – always take the chainswords. There’s almost no conceivable situation where the Aeldari Blade is better and I constantly rue the fact that half of mine are built with them.

Dire Avengers

Dire Avengers are my beautiful blue bois and no one can take them away from me. Realistically, they’re probably still a point per model too expensive because of how fragile they are, but much like Guardians their high relative “threat” for their cost and the fact that they fill troop slots means they have a part to play in the warhost, and at the moment the majority of lists are using these to fill out rather than Rangers.

You will almost always see Dire Avengers fielded in units of 5 led by an Exarch with two guns, usually riding in a Wave Serpent (two squads can fit in one, which is nice). This unit weighs in at a mere 58 points, making filling out detachments pretty reasonable, and thanks to Battle Focus and their 18” range can bring their powerful anti-infantry firepower to bear a surprising distance when jumping out of their ride.

This, combined with being small nimble ObSec squads, is what makes them worth having, as the Eldar playstyle focuses on getting the drop on powerful enemy threats and sucker punching them out before they can strike back against your fragile units. Much more so than non-deep striking Guardians, if you plan properly you can reliably get these pointed at whatever needs to die at any given moment, and pour shurikens into it until it melts. The smaller squad size (making it easier to grab cover) and 4+ base save makes them slightly less prone to immediately melting to return fire, though they are still much more vulnerable than most things at this price, so use them with care.

Dire Avengers are also the first Aspect we’re covering, and have six powers to choose from on their Exarch, each of which can replace the basic Battle Fortune, which gives the Exarch a 4++. Three of these are relevant:

Bladestorm: Unmodified hit rolls of 6 with the unit’s non-grenade ranged weapons score an additional hit. With a two-gun Exarch in a min-size squad (the “default” loadout) that’s worth an extra two hits each time they shoot, which is a nice increase in efficiency on a unit that’s already playable. A

Unmodified hit rolls of 6 with the unit’s non-grenade ranged weapons score an additional hit. With a two-gun Exarch in a min-size squad (the “default” loadout) that’s worth an extra two hits each time they shoot, which is a nice increase in efficiency on a unit that’s already playable. Shredding Fire: The Exarch’s Shuriken Weapons are flat AP-3. Can be useful in a Marine world, and lets your Exarch more reliably pling a last wound off a key target. Seen in the wild as a choice on one squad to provide some flexibility. B

The Exarch’s Shuriken Weapons are flat AP-3. Can be useful in a Marine world, and lets your Exarch more reliably pling a last wound off a key target. Seen in the wild as a choice on one squad to provide some flexibility. Avenging Strikes: If any model in the unit has died, add +1 to the whole unit’s hit and wound rolls. This is tough to set up, but when it goes off it really goes off. Kind of needs you to be running squads of 10, preferably with Asurmen, but is good there. B

Most people default to Bladestorm at the moment – the extra weight of firepower is considerable, especially with an Autarch in turn. However, the other two can have their place, and Battle Fortune is still fine, sometimes letting an Exarch hold a key position or act as an ablative wound against heavier firepower. Obviously if you’ve brought Asurmen you don’t need it though!

Technically there are a couple of other options for arming your Exarch – he can take a Diresword (a power sword which can cause MWs) or a power glaive, the latter with either a shuriken pistol or shimmershield, which gives the whole squad a 5++. All of these are trap choices as far as I’m concerned – the dual gun build adds an additional model’s worth of firepower for only 3 points, and so it’s either that or no extra kit at all.

You need to own Dire Avengers and lots of lists will run some.

Rangers

Rangers have been popular since the codex dropped as a relatively cheap troop choice that’s a pain to shift and don’t need any support. Their special rules give units shooting them a -1 to hit, and they get an additional +1 to their save in cover. That means that Alaitoc ones at range are -2 to hit and have a 3+ save if they’re in a ruin, meaning scraping them out is actually a serious challenge. This is a good characteristic for a slot-filling unit to have in a tournament setting, as it means you can park them on an objective and forget about them. They can also Deep Strike, giving you the ability to steal an objective outside your deployment zone on some objective/deployment maps.

They’re also not totally worthless offensively – if you have multiple squads they start to be an actual threat to characters that stray into range, and can also contribute to dunking something bigger that’s been Doomed thanks to dealing MWs on 6s. Unlike most of the other options here, they also don’t really need any particular help or to be built around, so they’re useful for slotting into a smaller Eldar contingent where you don’t want to be paying for Wave Serpents.

Their use has declined a bit over time – they used to get a pre-game infiltrate, which let you pull nasty shenanigans against some lists or control space early, and small Eldar detachments have dropped in value with nerfs to Drukhari and Ynnarri, but you will still definitely see them in lists, and it’s worth having access to a few squads to fill out detachments.

Elites

The Elites section is probably the weakest part of the Eldar list, being a historical dumping ground for units that didn’t fit anywhere else, and which GW don’t really know what to do with now. Stuff that looked cool or OK early in the edition looks a mixture of quaint/tragic where we are today – they just don’t do things well enough for their cost. Point cuts have helped this a bit, but with one exception you’re mostly still taking stuff from here for one very specific task, not as general killers.

Howling Banshees

Howling Banshees have one function and are exceedingly good at it, meaning that in the right metagame they can be very handy.

Specifically, what Howling Banshees do for you is to shut down overwatch – their masks mean that overwatch cannot be fired at them. You can get access to this effect froma Warlord trait, but the fact that you have a whole squad worth of models in the Banshees’ case means that if your opponent is careless or is forced to cluster up to benefit from auras, you can tag multiple units with a charge at once. This can give Tau or Guard gunlines absolute fits. In addition, against the kind of things they want to be charging they’re fairly resilient in combat, as the Exarch’s War Shout ability means that enemies attacking them in the fight phase are at -1 to hit (so, for example, most tanks literally can’t hit them).

Like all Aspects, Banshees get some replacement options for this in Phoenix Rising, but unlike lots of them I generally find keeping the basic option is actually better – it helps with what they’re trying to do, which is tie stuff up. If you feel spicy, it might be worth adding one of the following with a CP, but do bear in mind this is basically a sacrificial unit:

Graceful Avoidance: The squad has a 5+ FNP in melee while the Exarch is alive. Improves their ability to tarpit chaff substantially, and could just about make a full squad aiming to use their terrifying mobility for wrap and traps interesting.. A-

The squad has a 5+ FNP in melee while the Exarch is alive. Improves their ability to tarpit chaff substantially, and could just about make a full squad aiming to use their terrifying mobility for wrap and traps interesting.. Piercing Strike: An Exarch with an executioner can take -1A to get +3S and D3 for a fight phase. While it leaves you with only two attacks, those two attacks hit like a truck. B

An Exarch with an executioner can take -1A to get +3S and D3 for a fight phase. While it leaves you with only two attacks, those two attacks hit like a truck. Disarming Strike: Pick a model within 1″ of the Banshee Exarch to get -2A (minimum 1) at the start of the fight phase. Can be good against enemy herohammer stuff. B

Pick a model within 1″ of the Banshee Exarch to get -2A (minimum 1) at the start of the fight phase. Can be good against enemy herohammer stuff. Nerve Shredding Shriek: After charging, pick a unit within 1″ and deal d3 MW on a 4+. Doesn’t sound amazing, but can let them tap down something that’s clinging on to life. B

To compliment the overwatch lockdown, Banshees are also extremely fast – they can advance and charge, get +3 to their charge when they do so and have a base movement of 8”. If you’re deploying out of a transport (which you should be, most of the time) and combo in the Matchless Agility stratagem (automatically advance 6”), their minimum total charge threat is 22” (3” disembark, 8” move, 6” advance, 5” charge) and their average 27”. Against unprepared players who haven’t faced them before this can completely take them by surprise, and even against excellent players I’ve successfully deployed a squad to tag multiple high value targets at once – that kind of threat range is exceedingly hard to play around.

What Banshees aren’t really great at is killing stuff. You should always stick the Executioner on the Exarch as if gives her the ability to strip a few wounds off a target (or maybe punk a random character with a high roll), but in general their S3 means that without Doom they won’t get much damage through, and you’re usually pointing them at something you want to “switch off” for a turn while you kill something else rather than your current priority/doomed target.

If your metagame is full of Tau or Guard Tank Commanders, Banshees are a strong addition to your list, just don’t expect them to kill anything!

Wraithblades

Sword Wraithblades are the one Eldar melee unit that “gets there” in terms of killing power, and both Chapter Approved 2019 and Phoenix Rising were very kind to them.

Specifically with Wraithblades what you want to do is deep strike a full squad of ten in, apply a bunch of buffs, and turn them into an unstoppable death star that rampages around dominating an area of the board. This is now easier than ever – the axe build (which comes with a 4++ you can Protect up to 3++) is now the same price as the sword build (35ppm) and Ghostwalk exists to get them into combat out of Deep Strike with high reliability (even more so if you bring a Wraithseer). While only getting S7 on their attacks hurts against Knights, they’re a relatively small part of the metagame at the moment and against almost everyone else the squad is a terrifying, resilient wrecking ball – pretty much nothing goes through a squad of T6 3W models with a 2+/3++ easily.

This all combines to make these a real option for a melee bomb, but their lack of on-board mobility and shooting means that, at the moment, Shining Spears tend to win out. Still, these are now actively a very good unit, and one that people will probably underestimate.

Striking Scorpions

These aren’t great but they’re stupid cheap at this point (54pts with a claw exarch), and for that you get a unit with natural deep strike that can provide at least a decent menace to back-line objective holders because the Exarch is a horrific killing machine, getting three power fist attacks with no negative hit mod. Combined with the squad’s mandiblasters (a chance to deal mortals to INFANTRY at the start of the fight phase) you don’t have to get super lucky for these to randomly murder even a Space Marine character, at which point you’ve instantly made your points back.

The basic Exarch power here (Sustained Assault) gives the model ext