The ancient Aeldari were once the masters of the galaxy, their star-spanning empire eclipsed only by their own ambitions and hubris. Their terrible fall ripped a whole in reality itself, and now they are a broken shell of their former selves. But you wouldn’t know it from their latest codex, a bumper rulebook positively bursting with cool ideas and interesting takes on classic units. This review explores how the new Codex Aeldari lets you play with Craftworld Eldar models in Warhammer 40k 10th edition.
The latest Warhammer 40k codex for the Aeldari supersedes their faction index, bringing changes large and small to nearly every unit, and a total rework to their army rules. Most of the changes to units are nips and tucks to polish them for a single very specialised role, while the 40k detachments in the book let you push the army even further in one direction or another, whether that’s speed, aggression, or trickery.
If you’re interested in learning how the Aeldari fit into Warhammer 40k lore check out our separate guide to the Craftworld Eldar. And don’t miss our guides to the other Warhammer 40k factions if you want to know more about the grim dark far future!
Wargamer received a digital copy of Codex Aeldari, and some of the models used in photographs in this article, as product samples from Games Workshop. We’ve pored over every page: here’s what we think.
What’s in Codex Aeldari?
Codex Aeldari has rules for every Aeldari unit with a plastic model, no more, no less – as a result the Autarch Skyrunner, Karandras, and Ilic Nightspear, which were in the Index, have all disappeared.
However, some units that were just weapons options within one datasheet have been split out into separate datasheets, so the total number of units has increased slightly: and there’s rules for the shiny new Phoenix Lord, Lykhis.
The Codex contains rules for the full range of Harlequins, which can be used in any army or serve as the focus of a dedicated Harlequins detachment. The Ynnari, worshippers of the nascent death-god Ynnead, are in here too. Their characters can only be used in a specialised Ynnari detachment, but taking them allows you to bring models that are normally part of the sinister Drukhari range – and they get datasheets in the book as well.
For simple reasons of time and space, this review isn’t looking at the Ynnari or Drukhari portions of the range, and is instead focusing on the classic Craftworld Aeldari, aka the Eldar or Asuryani. Likewise, though the book is packed with more lore and art than ever before, and a whole Crusade system for playing narrative games, that’s not something we’re going into here.
So, what does Codex Aeldari offer for existing Aeldari players, or people considering picking them up for the first time?
How do the 10th edition Aeldari play?
The Aeldari are nimble and fragile, with a wide variety of elite units that each excel in a single role. The changes to datasheets, detachments, and army rules in the 10th edition Aeldari codex compared to their index bring that identity into crystal clarity.
First, the bad news – most Aeldari units are even more fragile than they were before. Here are some notable defensive debuffs:
- Wraithguard, Wraithblades, Wraithlords, and the Avatar of Khaine have lost a point of toughness.
- Farseers on foot can’t cast the wound-deflecting Fortune.
- War Walkers’ invulnerable saves are worse and their damage reduction is gone.
- Wraithknights without a Sunshield don’t have damage reduction.
- Shining Spears no longer inflict a -1 to hit penalty on enemies that target them.
- Wind-Riders saves go from 3+ to 4+.
- The Warlock Conclave doesn’t have FNP 4+ against mortal wounds.
There are some exceptions: the Harlequin Skyweavers are harder to hit than before, and the Wave Serpent is now harder to wound with dedicated anti-tank weaponry thanks to a rework to its Wave Serpent Shield. Some of the missing defensive tools reappear as Enhancements or Stratagems.
Where the defenses have been dialled back, the offensive output has been tuned up. There are so many examples of this, so this really is just a sample:
- While the Farseer on foot lost Fortune, it gained a reworked version of Guide, which now gives all Aeldari units +1 to hit a single enemy unit within 18” of the seer.
- Many weapons gain a point of strength, AP, or damage.
- Other weapons get a useful ability: Scatter Lasers now have Sustained Hits, while Shuriken Cannons swap from Sustained Hits to Lethal Hits.
- The War Walker may be more vulnerable now, but once it has hit a unit with a ranged attack, all Aeldari models shooting at that target get a bonus to AP for the round.
- When shooting a target within half range with the Heavy Wraithcannon or Suncannon, the Wraithknight can reroll the d6 to work out how many shots it fires.
- Instead of granting Lethal Hits against a nearby enemy, Shroud Runners strip the Benefit of Cover from an enemy unit that they hit with a ranged attack.
There are some lateral moves as well. All monofilament weapons have lost Devastating Wounds but gain a point of AP, and some can Ignore Cover. Likewise, the basic Wraithcannon has lost Devastating Wounds, but gains +1 damage.
The Aeldari have always been a glass cannon army: they’re now even more brittle, but fire a higher caliber of shot. The best way for the Aeldari to survive the enemy is to kill them first, or simply not be visible as a target. That’s where the new Aeldari army rule, Battle Focus, comes in.
Battle Focus
Each battle round, an Aeldari player gets a number of Battle Focus tokens – the number depends on the size of the game. They can spend the tokens during that round to use Agile Maneuvers. They’re pretty much mini 40k Stratagems, with a trigger and an effect, though Battle Focus tokens can’t be hoarded from round to round.
Their effects are all to do with movement, and grant a single unit a buff: +2 inches of extra movement for a normal move, advance, or fall back; immunity to enemy Overwatch for the turn; D6+1 inches of extra movement for a vehicle; 6” pile-in or consolidation move; D6+1 inch move after being shot by an enemy (and somehow surviving); taking a D6+1 inch move after an enemy unit falls back.
Any element of an Aeldari army has the potential for surprising maneuverability, on top of any additional movement shenanigans on a unit’s datacard or in a detachment. And these abilities all have more than one use, able to get your models into a better position to shoot or stab the enemy, out of the way of enemy return fire, or onto an objective.
If you want to double down on Battle Focus, the Warhost Detachment is the place to go.
Warhost Detachment
The Warhost detachment doesn’t require you to skew your army list around a particular type of unit – though Wraith Construct units can’t take advantage of Battle Focus as they’re too slow and clunky. It provides an extra Battle Focus token each turn, and +1 inch movement when using most of the maneuvers. If that’s not enough, you can grab the Timeless Strategist enhancement to get another Battle Focus token each turn.
And if you really like using activated abilities for free, Gift of Foresight lets you target the bearer’s unit with a Command Re-roll for 0CP once per battle round. The Phoneix Gem returns from the Aeldari Index, giving the bearer a good chance to return to the fight after they’re slain, and then there’s Psychic Destroyer, which buffs the damage from the bearer’s Psychic ranged attacks.
The Warhost Stratagems are almost all about maneuverability: Skyborne Sanctuary lets a unit run back into a transport at the end of the fight phase, Webway Tunnel lets a unit near the edge of the board return to reserves at the end of the opponent’s fight phase, while Fire and Fade lets a (non-Wraith) infantry unit move D6+1” after it has shot.
The defensive Lightning-Fast reactions returns, which inflicts a -1 to hit penalty against enemies targeting one of your units. Offensively, you’ve got Feigned Retreat, which lets a unit charge in a turn in which it fell back, and Blitzing Firepower, which gives a unit Sustained Hits on ranged attacks against a target within 12” (and lets it score Critical Hits on a 5+ if it already has that ability).
Aeldari Datasheets
The Aeldari Datasheets are more fragile, and more hard hitting than before. Units are also more specialised to excel in specific roles than they were before.
We’ll break down the army into the different themes within it, discussing how key Datasheets work, and the Detachments that make the most of each unit type.
Aspect Warriors
Aspect Warriors are Eldar dedicated to a single aspect of warfare. They train in Aspect Shrines dedicated to the teachings of a Phoenix Lord, a mighty and functionally immortal Eldar warrior of myth who still walks the galaxy to this day. Games Workshop has finally updated almost all of the models for the Aspect Warriors and their Phoenix Lords to plastic model kits, with the exception of Karandras, Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions – who sadly doesn’t have rules in the new book.
All the Aspect Warrior units are super specialised around a particular battlefield role. That’s always been the case, but the rules updates have really finessed that point. Take the three melee Aspects, all of which were equally passable when fighting elite infantry.
The Striking Scorpions have lost the devastating wounds ability when fighting infantry, making them worse at cracking armor, but they now inflict Critical Hits on a 5+ on the turn they charge, so they’re more likely to trigger Sustained Hits: they’re horde threshers. The Howling Banshees have fewer attacks than before, but they have Anti-Infantry 3+ and deal two damage each: they’re elite infantry killers who will blend Space Marines and take chunks out of Custodes. The Shining Spears’ melee attacks are now damage three, and they have Anti-monster 3+ and Anti-vehicle 3+: they’re dragon slayers.
While the Aspect units are super focused on that one role, they can be given a secondary purpose, thanks to new and redefined weapon options for their Exarchs. Warp Spiders are a highly mobile, short-range anti-infantry unit – the frankly absurd new stats for the Exarch’s powerblade array gives them a credible secondary role as melee troops. The Dark Reaper Exarch can double down on the elite-hunting capabilities of its unit with a missile launcher, or take an anti-infantry indirect fire blast weapon.
The Phoenix Lords are Epic Heroes, the exemplars of their Aspect Shrines, powerful in both ranged and melee combat. In the Index, every Phoenix Lord granted the unit it led +1 to Hit; now they grant a unique ability. When a Dark Reaper unit led by Maugan Ra unleashes all its shots against a single target, nearby enemy units may get spattered with debris and lethal wounds. Jain Zar ensures that her Howling Banshees always advance 6” – very useful, given that they’re then permitted to charge.
Autarchs are those rare Eldar who have walked the path of the warrior many times, learning each of the Aspects of war without becoming committed to a single one. Thanks to a change in the rules Autarchs can now lead units of Aspect Warriors as well as Guardians, while the winged Autarch Wayleapers can lead the likewise agile Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders.
Autarchs power up the unit they’re leading in a tactically flexible way. Both types of Autarch reduce the cost of one Stratagem per battle round that targets their unit, and each grants a slight buff to how you’re able to use Battle Focus. With a choice of Enhancements, and an incredibly wide open range of guns and melee weapons, they’re the build-your-own alternative to the Phoenix Lords which you can craft to your specifications.
All Aspect Warrior units (except for the Crimson Hunter, which is a single Aspect Warrior in a fighterjet) have one ‘Aspect Shrine’ token per five models, which they can spend to turn a hit or wound roll into a six, or to unlock a more powerful version of a Stratagem in the Aspect Host detachment.
Aspect Host detachment
If you’re inspired by tales of the Biel’tan Sword Wind, a dedicated host drawn from many Aspect Shrines, then the Aspect Host detachment is the one for you. Aspect Warrior units, and the Avatar of Khaine – a walking statue of living iron that bears a shard of the dead Aeldari war god Khaine – get a simple buff. Whenever they attack they can choose to re-roll hit rolls of one, or to re-roll wound rolls of one.
This is an incredibly direct detachment – helpful, given how different every Aspect Warrior unit functions from all the others. The Enhancements are all restricted to Autarchs and Wayleapers, and they’re very direct: you can turn an Autarch into a melee character assassin; let a unit use both of the detachment re-roll abilities; protect a unit from enemy shooting; or improve a unit’s Objective control score.
The Stratagems are more belligerent than they are sneaky. We’ll call out Warrior Focus, which lets an Aspect Warrior unit or the Avatar of Khaine ignore any modifiers to their Ballistic Skill, Weapon skill, Strength, AP, or Damage characteristics, and to the hit roll – ignoring the benefit of cover, Space Marines’ Armor of Contempt, damage reduction on Redemptor dreadnoughts, and so on.
Other Stratagems will let the Avatar fire off a fireblast from its giant sword with increased range and damage; let an Asuryani unit hop back into a nearby transport at the end of the Fight phase; give Aspect Warriors or even the Avatar of Khaine a chance to fight in melee should they be killed before they attack; force enemy units that fall back from melee to make Desperate Escape tests; and grant extra weapon abilities to a unit’s ranged attacks.
I don’t care if this detachment is good – though it looks pretty damn good – because it’s cool as hell. All the best new models, and the Avatar? Yes please.
Craftworld Guardians
The Aeldari live on vast living spaceships made from psycho-reactive crystal, known as wraithbone. The Craftworld Guardians are trained militia, not dedicated to the path of war like the Aspect Warriors, but still the equal of any human soldier.
These comparatively untrained soldiers have Leadership value of 7+ in the new Codex. Ranged Guardian Defenders and close-combat focused Storm Guardians both have OC two making them superior objective claimers, but with unreliable 4+ armor saves and pitiful toughness three they’re extremely vulnerable.
They do each have a tool for staying alive: Defenders can take the Fade Back Agile Maneuvre for free if they survive enemy fire, while Storm Guardians get a 5+ invulnerable save from their Crewed Platform. The Storm Guardians are probably the preferable objective holders, if only because their ‘Stormblades’ ability ensures any objective they claim remains under your control until your opponent actively claims it: so shooting them to pieces alone won’t finish them off.
The guardians are backed up by light support weapons. The War Walker is a light weapon platform that gets a Scout move at the start of the battle, has a basic 5+ invulnerable save, and carries a couple of heavy weapons. It also has a very potent new force multiplier ability, Crystalline Targeting: once it has hit a unit with a shooting attack, all other Aeldari units improve their AP by one against that target.
If you want to run a very thematic Guardian list, you’ll be taking advantage of that with Support Weapons. These have been overhauled greatly from the index. Previously, there was only one Support Weapon datasheet: now there’s a separate datasheet for each weapon, and they each have a funky special effect.
- The D-Cannon is a very heavy anti-tank gun with the option to indirect fire: it now gets to re-roll damage rolls of one, or all damage rolls against Titanic units.
- The Shadow Weaver Platform is an indirect fire anti-horde blast weapon; if a unit that it hits makes a normal move, advance, or fall-back during its next turn, every model in the unit has to roll a d6, with the unit suffering a mortal wound for each result of one.
- The Vibro Cannon is a hilarious anti-tank and anti-elite gun that vibrates the target to piece with sound beams. The first Vibro Cannon to fire on a target has D6 shots at S9, AP-1, with two damage: but a second Vibro Cannon attacks the same target at S10, AP-2, damage three, and a third Vibro Cannon attacks at S11, AP-3, damage 4.
These guns are vulnerable on their own, but you can attach them to a Guardian Defenders unit at the start of the battle, bubble wrapping them with meatshields.
As objective holders, Guardians are useful in all kinds of detachment – and the War Walker’s buff to your units’ Armor Penetration feels valuable to any list – but to really make the most of the most basic Eldar, you want the Guardian Battlehost detachment.
Guardian Battlehost detachment
The Guardian Battlehost offers a powerful and simple buff to Dire Avengers, Guardians, Support Weapons, and War Walkers: +1 to hit models within range of objective markers. Being extremely unhappy that people are messing around with the Objectives is something of a theme for this detachment.
Three of the enhancements improve your objective grabbing potential; one gives the bearer an Objective Control score of five; one grants two Guardian units the Infiltrators ability; another lets the leader of a Dire Avengers or Guardian unit Fire Overwatch for 0CP, hitting on a 5+, or a 4+ if the unit is controlling an objective marker.
Then there’s the Breath of Vaul, which is offensive. While the bearer is leading a unit of Storm Guardians, flamers in the unit can re-roll the number of attacks they make, and Guardians can reroll the damage result with their fusion guns.
The objective marker theme continues in the Stratagems. Warding Salvoes lets you re-roll wound rolls for Dire Avengers or Guardians targeting an enemy unit within range of an objective marker, while Shield Nodes makes it harder for the same units to be wounded while they’re on an objective.
Further aggression comes from Time To Strike, which lets Storm Guardians make a guaranteed advance of 6”, shoot, and then charge, and Blades of Asuryan, which gives Dire Avengers or a Guardians unit the Pistol rule on all of their ranged weapons (including a Support Weapon).
Where other Detachments seek to avoid death, this one accepts that horrendous casualties are inevitable for the poor weedy Eldar. Vaul’s Vengeance lets a War Walker unit shoot at an enemy unit that has just wiped out one of your Dire Avenger or Guardians units; while Cost of Victory lets you remove a Guardians unit from the battlefield, refill it with models, and place it in strategic reserve.
Aeldari jetbikes
What’s faster than the Aeldari? Aeldari riding anti-gravity jetbikes. Windriders are the ‘basic’ jetbike troops, equipped with Shuriken cannons or Scatter Lasers (or Twin Shuriken Catapults if you really, really want to trade away shots and hitting power for the ability to shoot after advancing). They’re tailored for aggression: they can re-roll hit rolls of one, or all hit rolls if they’re targeting the nearest unit.
There’s only two jetbike-mounted character unit in the book: Warlock Windrunners, a single or pair of psychic space elves who can join the Windriders and grant them the ability to Ignore cover; and the Farseer Skyrunner, who makes their unit luckier by simply turning a hit, wound, or damage roll to a six once per phase, and their enemies unluckier, picking an enemy unit within 18 inches and giving it -1 to wound.
The Shining Spears Aspect Warriors are the third main Aeldari jetbiker, a melee unit with a focus on hunting tanks and monsters. Ranger Shadowrunners ride a tandem jetbike and are equipped with character hunting precision long-rifles, which can mark enemy targets: once they’ve hit an enemy unit, it loses the benefit of cover for the rest of the round. Your troops with indirect fire weapons will be particularly happy that you fielded Shadowrunners.
The Harlequin and Ynnari subfactions also contain jetbike troops, but they’re a little bit isolated from the rest of the list as neither has the Asuryani keyword: Harlequins can’t make use of many stratagems and enhancements, while the Ynnari can only be included in one Detachment.
The Vyper is a heavier grav bike with a rear-mounted weapons platform that can sport fairly potent heavy weaponry. This is another mobile light vehicle with a special ability triggered by hitting an enemy. When the Vyper tags an enemy, they’re suppressed, suffering -1 to Hit until your next turn.
If you want to have the absolute fastest Eldar army possible, you want the Windrider Host detachment.
Windrider Host detachment
The Windrider Host detachment is about as maneuverable as armies get, and starts by giving Windriders the battleline keyword. Any of your Mounted or Vyper units in Reserve – which doesn’t count towards your Strategic Reserves limit. When you do set them up on the battlefield, you get to treat the battle round number as one higher than it actually is, letting them enter from your own deployment edge on turn one.
So if your opponent gets the first turn, they’re going to have very little to shoot. And they’re going to have a very hard time pinning you down. At the end of their turn, you can remove some of your unengaged mounted or vyper units from the battlefield – the exact number depends on game size – and pop them into Strategic Reserves.
If you’d rather start with an aggressive push than a refused flank, the Firstdrawn Blade enhancement grants the bearer’s unit the Scouts nine inches ability.
As you can attach a pair of Warlock Windrunners, or a Windrunner and a Skyrunner, to a single Windrider unit, you could pair that up with another buff: a Mirage field that inflicts a flat -1 to hit the bearer’s unit, a Seersight Strike to give their psychic weapons Anti-Monster 2+ and Anti-Vehicle 2+, or the Echoes of Ulthanesh, for a chance to gain an extra CP which improves when the bearer has left your deployment zone.
The stratagems are all about going extremely fast and hitting extremely hard – good things too, as your force will crumble as soon as the enemy gets a moment to breathe. Spiralling Evasion is the only defensive ability, but it’s a good one, granting a 4+ invulnerable save against enemy shooting attacks.
Death from on High grants a mounted or Vyper unit re-rolls to wound on a turn when it entered from reserves for one phase, while Focused Firepower gives a unit extra AP during the shooting phase.
And there’s lots of movement shenanigans: Stratagems that let units deploy from reserves just over three inches from enemy units; shoot and charge in a turn during which they advanced or fell back; and take a seven inch move after destroying an enemy unit.
If the main Aeldari list is a glass hammer, then this is an orbital laser made from crystallized sugar.
Aeldari Gravtanks
There are four Aeldari gravtanks, all built on the same hovering chassis: the Wave Serpent troop transport, Fire Prism battle tank, Night Spinner artillery, and multipurpose Falcon. All four Aeldari tanks have lightning fast 14 inch move – plus the option for an agile maneuver for another d6+1 inches – but an anaemic toughness of nine.
The Wave Serpent is the most durable of the Aeldari vehicles, with a 5+ invulnerable save and – new for the codex – an ability that inflicts a -1 penalty to wound when it’s hit by a S10 or higher weapon. It’s always been the most dependable boat in the Aeldari arsenal, and it’s just that little bit more survivable than before.
The Falcon is identical to how it appeared in the index: it carries a light anti-tank gun as a main weapon, a couple of back-up armaments, transport capacity for six infantry, and can deepstrike. It offers a lot of flexibility, and there’s always the dream of deep striking a unit of Fire Dragons led by Fuegan nine inches away from an enemy superheavy tank – but it’s the most vulnerable of all the Aeldari vehicles.
The Night Spinner stays safe by hiding behind buildings and firing indirectly. It’s all but unchanged from the index, though its gun – a monofilament projector which fires a mesh of razor wire into the air to land on top of a distant enemy – has lost Devastating Wounds and gained AP-1. As before, a target it hits suffers a -2 penalty to its move and charge rolls.
The Fire Prism is one of the biggest guns in the Aeldari arsenal, a main battle cannon that can either fire an infantry melting dispersed pulse, or a tank hunting focused lance. The dispersed pulse now has AP-2, which when combined with 2d6 shots, S6 and damage two makes it a very convincing tool if you face a lot of Space Marine chapters in your local meta.
The focused lance can also be redirected through another fire prism that is visible to the one that’s firing, letting you draw line of sight from that model instead. But in a major nerf from the index, doing so will limit you to just a single shot with the prism cannon.
Aeldari Farseers and Warlocks
The Aeldari are led by the Farseers, powerful 40k psykers who look deep through the paths of fate and attempt to find one stable route that will not lead to ruin. They are often supported by conclaves of lesser psykers known as Warlocks. Meanwhile the dead of the craftworld are guided by the Spiritseers, including when they march to war.
The leader rules are expressed in a bit of a tangle, but they shake out like this: Farseers, solitary Warlocks, and groups of Warlocks, can all lead the same types of unit (Guardians if they’re on foot, Wind-runners if they’re ona jetbike). A Farseer and a Warlock or Warlocks can both lead a unit at once.
Additionally, a Farseer on a jetbike can lead a unit of Warlocks on jetbikes, and arch-Farseer Eldrad Ulthuan can lead a unit of Warlocks on foot, without any non-psychic Aeldari getting a look in. As it’s written in the codex, a regular Farseer can’t lead a Warlock Conclave that isn’t attached to a Guardian unit, which I suspect will be the target of an errata.
As with most psykers, Farseers and Warlocks are force multipliers. arseers on foot and on jetbikes can each turn one Hit, Wound, or Damage roll per phase to a six – sadly, you can’t use this on a Support weapon in a unit, but you can at least guarantee that the best support weapon in your unit lands a hit. Show-off Eldrad gives you a free Command Point each battle round instead.
The various Farseers can all pick an enemy unit within 18 inches and slap a nasty debuff on it until your next command phase: the Farseer on foot Guides your troops with +1 to hit that enemy; the Farseer Skyrunner inflicts Misfortune on it, giving it a -1 to hit penalty; while Eldrad Dooms it, granting your troops +1 to wound it.
Warlocks are a little more passive. A solitary Warlock penalises enemy charge rolls against its unit by two; enemies targeting a Warlock Conclave unit being led by a Farseer suffer a minus one to wound penalty; while Warlock Skyrunners grant their unit the Ignores Cover 40k ability.
All Warlocks share the same Pyshic ranged attack, Destructor, a torrent weapon that could also be renamed ‘force lightning at home’. A new feature for the Codex is Psychic Communion, which charges up Destructor’s strength and attacks of for each Aeldari Psyker within six inches, to a maximum of plus two.
Farseers have a longer range blast attack called Psychic Storm, while Eldrad has the character hunting Mind War – a precision attack that wounds characters on a 4+ and deals D6 damage. They have the power to kill a Yak from 100 yards away with mind bullets – that’s telekinesis, kyle.
If you want to field a force of the galaxy’s biggest know-it-alls, then you want the Seer Council detachment.
Seer Council detachment
The Seer Council detachment is the new home of Fate dice, which used to be the Aeldari’s army-wide special rule. They’re a pool of d6s which you roll at the start of the battle, and keep the results set aside. But whereas before you could use each result in place of rolling a die, now each result gives you a once per game discount on one specific stratagem. Far less reliable – and far more interesting.
All of the enhancements are reserved for Psykers. The Torc of Morai-Heg is going to be the most popular, because once per turn it lets you target an enemy unit that is attempting to use a Stratagem within twelve inches of the bearer and increase its cost by one. The Lucid Eye is also useful, as it lets you modify the values you’ve rolled on your fate dice.
A couple of simple enhancements round things out: one increases the range of the bearer’s psychic attacks, the other grants a 4+ Feel No Pain save for the bearer’s unit against mortal wounds and psychic attacks. But I suspect they’re not going to get a look in.
This detachment favors psykers, naturally, and most of the stratagems target them or infantry units (other than Wraith Constructs) that have a psyker nearby. So Isha’s Fury lets a psyker zap an enemy unit with Mortal Wounds, while Presentiment of Dread lets a psyker give an enemy unit nightmares (and force it to take a penalised battle-shock test).
While you’ve got a psyker close to an Infantry unit, you can spend a CP to let their shooting attacks ignore cover and have higher AP when rolling Critical Wounds; or teleport them off the battlefield and deep strike them back on anywhere you like.
This detachment has some extremely powerful defensive stratagems, too: one that inflicts penalties to hit and to wound an infantry unit in melee, another that makes a unit un-targetable by ranged attacks from further than 18 inches away (though admittedly, only after its been chosen as a target once).
It’s a pretty strong slate of Stratagems, tempered by the inherent squishiness of Eldar and the fact this detachment doesn’t have an ability, just a random selection of stratagem discounts. Hope you didn’t roll Presentiment of Dread six times!
Wraith Constructs
The Aeldari dead outnumber the living, their souls preserved in the crystalline infinity circuit at the heart of each Craftworld. Dire times mean that even death does not offer a quiet repose, and departed souls are often forced to defend their living descendants within psycho-active robot shells, known as Wraith Constructs.
These are the toughest and slowest parts of the Eldar army, though as noted above they’re not as tough as they used to be. They also have an interesting new relationship with Aeldari Psykers: Wraithguard, Wraithblades, and the larger Wraithlord all get +1 to hit when within 12 inches of an Aeldari psyker.
The Wraithguard and Wraithblades used to receive that buff when being led by a Spiritseer, but the seer is no longer a unit leader. Instead it’s a Stealthy independent character that likes to hang around Wraith Constructs: partly because it enjoys the Lone Operative ability while in the vicinity, and partly because it can heal damage from any Wraith unit. It can also grant the Sustained Hits ability to any Wraith Construct without the Titanic keyword.
Speaking of Titanic Wraiths, the colossal Wraithknight now has two datasheets – one with a sword, one without. They have slightly different abilities, with the shooty knight really shooty and the stabby knight able to ignore terrain whenever it isn’t charging, but the real appeal here is that you can take three of each unit for a six knight force. If that speaks to you, look to the Spirit Conclave detachment.
Spirit Conclave detachment
The Spirit Conclave detachment wakes the dead, turning Wraithblades and Wraithguard into battleline units. Every Psyker gains a twelve inch Aura that also grants Wraithblades, Wraithguard, and Wraithlords the Battle Focus ability, which is going to really mess with your opponents who are used to them being slow and dusty.
Whenever a psyker model is squished, the unit that killed it gets a Vengeful Dead token. This grants all your Wraith Constructs (including knights and aeroplanes) plus one to hit and plus one to wound that unit.
The enhancements for this detachment can only be taken by a Spiritseer, and three of them provide abilities you can use to buff a nearby Wraith Construct unit. One grants a unit additional Objective Control; one grants models in a non-titanic unit the Precision ability whenever they score critical wounds, letting it fillet out characters; a third grants a unit the Benefit of Cover against attacks made from over eighteen inches away.
The ‘Higher Duty’ enhancement might need errata. It lets “the bearer’s unit” respond to an enemy that finishes its move within nine inches by making a six inch move. As Spiritseers now can’t lead units, the wording is odd, and the effect is limited: it’ll save a 65 point ‘seer from being charged. You definitely don’t want your seers to die (before you’re ready for them to die) in this list, so it might be worth taking if its cheap enough.
The Stratagem selection is simple and solid. You can deal mortal wounds after charging with your melee Wraiths; give your combat Wraiths the Devastating Wounds ability in melee; reduce the damage from attacks made against one of your wraith units; ignore any modifiers to the AP or Damage characteristic of attacks you make against one enemy unit; hold onto an objective after your Wraiths have claimed it; or let count a unit as being within the warming aura of a psyker even if they’re all the way on the other side of the table.
I’m not saying that people running this list will have a dedicated sacrificial Warlock Skyrunner, whose job is to Kamikaze charge the best enemy unit and die in melee so the rest of your army gets a permanent +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound against them, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Ynnari and Harlequins
The Ynnari are a cult devoted to bringing forth a new Aeldari god, a gestalt entity born from the combined spirits of the millions of Aeldari dead. The Ynnari hope that this will free them from the doom wrought on them by Slaanesh.
The Harlequins are cosmic fools, servants of the trickster god Cegorach who was the lone survivor of the Aeldari pantheon. They travel throughout the webway in troupes, performing ritual dasks and masques for both the Craftworld Aeldari and their dark kin the Drukhari. Their convoluted schemes are impossible for outsiders to interpret, but they seek to thwart the powers of Slaanesh at every turn.
There are detachments for both the Ynnari and the Harlequins, but as this guide is nearly 6,000 words long already, we’re going to take a breather there.
Codex Aeldari overall summary
At the start of Warhammer 40k 10th edition the Aeldari were utterly unstoppable, thanks largely to some busted core rules that they were in the perfect position to exploit. Balance dataslates for competitive play, points changes, and even core rules updates have hammered those problems flat – flattening Index Aeldari in the process. Without janky exploits, their army-wide rules amounted to ‘generate slightly better than average dice results’.
The new codex hones in on the faction’s core identity – these are space elves with a longer lifespan, faster lifespan, higher IQ, and brittler bones than you or I. They hit hard, die easily, and have more movement shenanigans than anyone else in the game.
There’s a very high level of interdependence in the army. Aspect Warrior units do one job incredibly well, but rely on other parts of your force to cover their weaknesses. There are many ways to tag your opponent’s units with debuffs that will make them more vulnerable or less offensive, often provided nimble and fast-moving units – Farseers, Eldrad Ulthuan, Farseer Skyrunners, Shroudrunners, Warwalkers, Vypers, Lykhis, not counting detachment abilities.
You’ve got a range of powerful units, the speed and tricks to move them wherever you need them, great force multipliers, but all of them are so fragile. Core pieces of your list will get caught, die, and you will feel the loss – a perfect fit for the Aeldari’s backstory.
For more lengthy musings about recently updated 40k armies, check out Wargamer’s guide to the Astra Militarum.
Source: Wargamer
