Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Combat Patrol: Aeldari

Product Information

They operate as an ‘elite’ army in Warhammer 40k, meaning they tend to field fewer miniatures than their opponents for the same budget of points, but each model can hope to deal out more punishment to the enemy before it gets blown away. As our only HQ we’ve kitted him out a bit. He has the Kournous’ Bow relic which replaces his standard Shuriken Pistol. It gives him 6″ of extra range to 18″ as well as an additional 2 shots on the Shuriken Pistol’s 1. With a pip more strength means it’ll hit on 2’s and wound Space Marines on 3’s, but with added benefit that any successful wounds are mortal wounds (MW).

The Aeldari are an ancient and once-proud race whose hubris caused their demise. As their civilisation reached new heights of technology and culture, and they came to dominate the galaxy around them, they began to seek stranger and darker pleasures. Shroud Runners are a new unit. They are basically Pathfinders on Jetbikes. I’m honestly a little hesitant to include them for our theme… but a unit of 3 isn’t too much of a break from theme. And it scratches that “new unit” vibe. For only 105 points a unit isn’t going to break the point bank. A few forward-thinking groups of Aeldari managed to avoid the Fall, building vast spaceships called Craftworlds and escaping their increasingly debased kin. Known as the Asuryani, these refugees have lived a precarious existence in the millennia since the coming of Slaanesh, preserving a more austere way of life and guarding against another calamity. While different Aeldari armies might choose to focus on specific aspects of the combat arts, they have a host of iconic units at their disposal. These are likely to be some of your mainstays. Farseer A squad of six Windrider jetbikes* gives you plenty of speed to zoom around the board. Combined with Craftworld Saim-Hann’s bike-buffing sensibilities , these agile Aeldari can reach just about anywhere you need them from turn 1. That’s not to say they’re all whoosh and no wallop – their bikes carry plenty of upgraded shuriken weaponry for shredding any foe foolish enough to get in the way.As a means of calming their tempestuous emotions and keeping their ancient enemy at bay, most Aeldari devote themselves to specialised Paths, on which they hone one skill, sometimes to the point of obsession. Aspect Warriors are the Aeldari who walk the martial paths. Each Aspect Shrine is built around the teachings of a Phoenix Lord, legendary figures inspired by the various ways the Aeldari god of War, Khaela Mensa Khaine, engaged in battle. Aeldari warriors emulate the various warlike aspects of Khaela Mensha Khaine in battle, but each Craftworld holds a terrible secret in its heart. There is a chamber which contains an Avatar of Khaine, a molten metal statue which contains a still-living shard of the defeated warrior god. In times of war, this shard is awakened and set aflame. This colossus of battle bestrides the battlefield, a living god that scythes down its foes by the score. Wraithlord How does the Aeldari Army Play? The Aeldari are essentially a precision force, known for their psychic capabilities, incredible speed, and agility. While they may seem fragile – akin to a ‘glass cannon’, they boast potent tank units like Wraith Constructs. The true strength of this army lies in its characters and their psychic might, combined with the speed and hit-and-run tactics of units like Windriders and Warp Spiders. The result? Tense, involved, but straightforward games that can be played in less than an hour.* There’s still plenty of nuance for Warhammer 40,000 experts to enjoy – swapping out Enhancements and Secondary Objectives to mix up their playstyle, and mastering each faction’s Combat Patrol in turn, without having to build up a full Incursion or Strike Force-sized army.

The greatest strength of Combat Patrol: Aeldari is its flexibility. Assemble your infantry as Storm Guardians and give the Wraithlord a ghostglaive to punch right through fortified enemy lines, or muster a squad of Guardian Defenders with a mobile Heavy Weapons Platform to hold the ground claimed by your blistering bikers. The Aeldari once ruled the galaxy, before their civilisation collapsed beneath the weight of its own hedonism. Now the Asuryani sail the stars aboard massive vessels called craftworlds, their citizens keeping to highly disciplined Paths to avoid drowning in the same decadent madness as their ancestors. Each craftworld's Guardians take up arms to defend their dying race, wielding deadly shuriken catapults or power blades, or shredding foes atop their swift Windrider jetbikes. Guided by the wisdom of their Farseers, supported by the advanced firepower of their sleek Wraithlord constructs, the Aeldari fight to survive in a galaxy where extinction seems inevitable. The Aeldari are a long-lived race, but in the aftermath of the Fall, they faced a slow demise, and a horrifying afterlife – for Slaanesh has staked its claim on each Aeldari soul in death. In response, the Asuryani bound themselves to soulstones, which capture their souls at their deaths to prevent Slaanesh from taking them. In times of great need, these soulstones are embedded in wraithbone constructs, so that the dead can bolster the armies of the living. There are many such constructs, including the mighty Wraithlord , the towering Wraithknight , and beyond. Fire Prism To add to this boxed set, we’re going to add a few extra units that’ll give the army a bit more play (especially onto Space Marines).They deploy a combination of powerful psykers who read the skeins of fate to predict the outcome of combat, soldiers who have walked martial paths that grant them skills beyond human ken, hardy walking constructs piloted by the souls of long-dead warriors, and lightning-fast anti-gravity bikes and tanks.

There’s a rich vein of fiction to explain the Aeldari in more detail. Gav Thorpe’s landmark omnibus, Path of the Eldar , covers many aspects of the Aeldari, while Ghost Warrior explores the newly formed Ynnari faction, and The Masque of Vyle focuses on the Harlequins. Each Combat Patrol is supposed to be balanced against all the others. That might be hard to believe when looking at the contents of the Adeptus Custodes box set, as the boys in gold are notoriously hard! As fate would have it, I fell foul of a Deadly Demise yet again – explosions of every ilk seem to be my nemesis on Battle Report ! That being said, my Wraithlord did survive one that would’ve otherwise destroyed it, as it had been reduced to 1 Wound remaining at the time, so I can’t really complain. Brave, honest and true, they only very occasionally indulge in macabre vampiric rituals with goblets of suspiciously viscous red ‘wine’– and it really is only once in a blue moon that one of them slips into an insane, suicidal killing frenzy fuelled by the overwhelming psychic grief imprinted in his DNA.

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Ah, the Blood Angels– noble and civilised sons of Sanguinius, most handsome, tragic, star-crossed and pretty of all the Emperor’s ‘Primarch’ sons. These renaissance Italy-themed space marines are among the most storied and popular chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.

What’s Good and Bad about this Box? The Aeldari Combat Patrol box offers a robust start to your Aeldari force. The units complement each other beautifully, with the Farseer’s psychic might enhancing the capabilities of the Guardians and Windriders. The Wraithlord, while not as nimble, adds much-needed toughness and heavy firepower to the army. Other groups of Aeldari cling to existence, including the Harlequins – who travel the Webway (an ancient network of safe* tunnels through the warp) acting as diplomats, performers, and mercenaries, and the Ynnari – who worship the half-reborn god of death as a means to finally thwart Slaanesh and recapture the Aeldari souls it ate during the Fall. Towering over its allies, the Wraithlord is both unstoppable force and immovable object. These powerful wraithbone constructs can be configured for ranged or melee combat, plugging gaps in your battleline and hitting the enemy where it hurts most. Formed around a core of redoubtable, objective-grabbing Guardians , this Combat Patrol offers a force that embodies everything the Aeldari are famed for – speed, psychic abilities, and withering firepower. It’s led by a sagacious Farseer, who can dish out mortal wounds and tweak the Strands of Fate in between supporting the CORE -keyworded Guardians and Wraithlord.Simon: Strands of Fate enables the Aeldari to generate anything up to 12 Fate dice at the start of the game, which they can expend to predetermine the results of key dice rolls throughout the battle. They can generate more during the game by holding objectives with their Guardian Defenders, but with access to so many Fate dice right from the outset, you can front-load your damage output in the early stages of the battle and gain a massive advantage for doing so. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this army to a brand new player. I’m not going to lie: this list is going to be fighting an uphill battle. Until you get the hang of positioning and how to really dissect an opponent’s army it’s gonna be rough. But it’s thematic and rewarding to play! If you’re up for a challenge then have at it! Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary. Since we are leaning into that Saim-Hann theme it would be appropriate to snag another Combat Patrol box. Doubling down on this core allows us to do a few things. First, we get another 10 Guardians. We can use them to fill out the previous squad or use them as two 10-man squads. Either option is useful for various reasons. Second, it gives us a total of 12 Jetbikes. We’re gonna need them. The additional Farseer and Wraithlord are less helpful here but maybe not as terrible as you might think.