Four new detachments are revealed for Aeldari players in 11th edition 40k – including an updated Grotmas detachment.
Finally! This is the article I’ve been waiting for, and it looks like it was worth it. Today’s Faction Focus article and video overview sees the usual set of reveals slightly upended. The 40k staff has shared a pair of standard Aeldari detachments and a pair just for Harlequins.
Armoured Warhost
I think this is my favorite reveal of the day. This detachment was originally released as a Grotmas detachment; it’s been re-envisioned as a 1-point detachment under the new system and really benefits from those changes. Instead of requiring you to fully commit to improving your transports at the detriment of the rest of your army, it’s become much more versatile as it can be combined with another 1 or 2-point detachment.
Nice and simple, your vehicles all gain ASSAULT. With this bonus your vehicles become incredibly dangerous and able to fire after Advancing. An Aeldari army with this benefit is going to be able to move at shocking speed around the table without sacrificing any of their substantial firepower. I suspect it’s going to be really powerful given all of the terrain heavy standard mission layouts we’ve seen so far.
Did you ever wish your Aeldari army had a techpriest or techmarine to patch up your lovingly airbrushed but very delicate vehicles? No, it never even occurred to me. I wish it had, though, because turning your Psykers into mechanics is going to be a really nice way to increase the survivability of the lethal yet fragile grav tanks that the Aeldari rely upon.
Further building upon the speed and maneuverability of this force, this stratagem will let you extricate your vehicles from the brutish hands of the mon-keigh and other lessers without sacrificing firepower. I love how these rules all harmonize to create a force as agile, quick, and lethal as I’ve always imagined an Aeldari warhost.
Fateful Performance
The first of two revealed Harlequin detachments, this set of rules focuses on increasing the ability of your troupe’s maneuverability. Again, the new detachment system shines here as you can spend just one of your detachment points to buff a few units of Harlequins without ignoring the rest of your force.
This is great stuff, characterful and powerful. Your opponent will struggle to screen their key troops from the blades and pistols of your troupe. If your Harlequins have the movement to get to the enemy they’re gonna get there no matter what tar pit unit your opponent would rather gum you up with.
Of course, you still need to make that charge roll and this enhancement helps ensure you do. A simple re-roll of charge rolls can be a real game saver and seems like it will be a common buff taken for this army.
Finally, we know it’s very important to pick your fights as a Harlequin player. The last thing you want is to be the recipient of a charge from say, a bunch of daemonic cavalry. For just one CP you can reposition your Harlequins right after your opponent has set up their charge and frustrate their plans.
Path of the Outcast
The Rangers and Shroud Runners of the craftworlds and corsair forces take centerstage in this detachment. These already powerful sniper units become truly peerless marksmen with this new set of buffs that lean into the new hidden/detection rules.
This is a detachment that’s basically there to neutralize all the ways we’ve seen other armies can manipulate detection range to stay out of your crosshairs. A straight bonus of +6″ to detection range for your Ranger/Shroud Runner targets means almost no where on the board is safe from your snipers.
This is an unsurprising but welcome enhancement for your rangers. Being able to maintain their hidden status even while taking pot shots from their considerable range and likely in terrain means the enemy is going to have to put serious work into rooting them out. I can see this detachment being worth taking even if you’re only using a unit or two of Rangers just to put this kind of long ranged and difficult to remove pressure on your opponent.
I think this stratagem builds on what I just suggested. Even taking a single Ranger unit means you can potentially hand out +6″ detection range for the rest of your army against a chosen target. Rangers acting as spotters for your vehicles or heavy hitting infantry like Dark Reapers is awesome stuff.
Twilight Flickers
Our last preview of the day is a second detachment just for Harlequins. Notably, this detachment also has the ACROBATIC tag which means it cannot be used alongside Fateful Performance. Where Fateful Performance buffed your Harlequins into close combat Twilight Flickers focuses on evasion and objective control.
Army-wide Stealth for Harlequins? Yes, please. You’re not likely to have a whole lot of models in any Aeldari army, let alone a Harlequin force, so this is a huge boost to your force’s overall resilience.
A free 6″ move is nice enough until you consider just how far across the table your Harlequins can move on their own. This bonus will let you get on or within striking distance of objectives before the game has even begun. Your opponents will be caught flat-footed before the first dice are rolled.
This is a fantastic stratagemt letting your Harlequins capture objectives without needing to stay immobile and lose the benefits of their incredible speed and maneuverability. This preview also slips in a small change to the entire game rules. Previously, there were a number of army-specific rules with the same benefit: being able to control an objective after moving a unit off of it. Now, it seems, this ability is generically referred to as “objective secured” leading to a little less rules bloat.
I’ve been slowly building a Biel-Tan army for several years now and I think this is gonna be the edition that finally gets it to 2,000 painted points. Fire Dragons will be the next addition, I think. In the meantime, however, only a few armies are left to be previewed and tomorrow will reveal the 11th edition detachments for the Leagues of Votann.
I’m pretty excited about combining the new Armoured Warhost rules with the Aspect Host!
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
