Storm Guardians
Storm Guardians are the more choppy version of the regular Eldar Guardians. Despite the precious and fragile nature of Eldar life, sometimes the brutal economy of war requires Autarchs to commit troops to shock assaults and bloody close combats. You would think that the Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions would have done that job instead, but sometimes your only option is to throw bodies at a problem till the problem goes away. I guess the Eldar really do run on a budget.
Overview
Though rare among the Eldar warhosts, the Storm Guardians are warriors ideally (read barely) suited to the reckless maelstrom of melee. Armed with Shuriken Pistols and crystal-toothed Chainswords, they wade into the press of enemy ranks, hewing open flesh in vivid sprays of gore. However, unlike the clumsy butchery of the other races of the galaxy, there is a beautiful violence to the way the Storm Guardians dispatch their foes; resembling more like ballerinas that can cut your head off.
Elegantly balanced Chainblades carve bloody figure-eights in the air as they find the throats of enemies, the Storm Guardians are agile motherfuckers like their kin, ducking and diving through the foe's errant fire whilst shooting their Shuriken Pistols point-blank into their ranks. Storm Guardian squads are a pretty rare sight thanks in no part with their ever dwindling population and the Eldar's need for self-preservation on not getting too close into melee....which is than 'conveniently' rendered moot with the common frequency of Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions. Nonetheless, they remain effective, acting as assault troops in support of the Craftworld's Aspect Warriors.
Although they lack the protection afforded by Aspect Armour, they still fight like juiced up figure skaters on cocaine. Combined this with the common lethality of their weapons and you will see them dicing the enemies of the Spess Elfs into minced dog food. Storm Guardian squads invariably need to move fast, sprinting from one hotly contested strongpoint to another, and thus they forego the use of heavy weapon platforms. Instead, these darting fighters bear specialist weapons; they often bolster their short-ranged firepower with Fusion Guns and Flamers, and some even wield Eldar Power Swords, allowing Storm Guardian squads to excel in a wide variety of close assault roles.
On the Tabletop
In 8th edition, there's one word that can describe Storm Guardians: Pitiful. In prior editions, Storm Guardians had an ever-so slight edge against most other armies' equivalents due to their higher initiative, letting them strike first against most enemies. Even though initiative has been removed, Storm Guardians received not a single perk to compensate. With only a single attack at a measly S3, the only opponents Storm Guardians can reliably kill in melee would be fellow GEQ infantry, though without psychic support (which would be far better served on more premium melee units, like Howling Banshees), they're still only wounding those guardsmen on 4's. Being a heavily melee focused unit, this is a crippling flaw that hampers their effectiveness severely. Life isn't complete shit for S. Guardians though, for they do have a precious few things going for them; namely their cheap cost.
With the 9th edition Codex, Storm Guardians finally received some very much needed attention. First, a glorious, full plastic kit not only brings these bad boys up to snuff visually, but it finally brought the squad size to a much more normal 10-elf unit bare bones. Additionally, a Serpent Scale Platform offers Storm Guardians a much needed defensive buff against shooting attacks (a 5++ invuln and the ability with 1's and 2's to wound against them failing) so that they actually have an opportunity to get into combat at least once before death. If needed, they can even fire off their Serpent Scale shield (thus losing the previous bonuses) in order to shut down a target's ability to Overwatch or perform defensive actions just before the charge. Once in combat, they now even get to re-roll hit rolls of 1 when within range of an objective. Nifty. That's about all the good news though, because these guys still pale before the might of any of your "real deal" melee infantry and between their low strength, low attack output and their virtually complete lack of AP bite, the only units Storm Guardians will threaten regularly will be similarly tissue-thin infantry like the Imperial Guard Conscripts or Tau Firewarriors.
- Assault Weapons: Storm Guardians are the only non-aspect infantry choices that can take Fusion Guns or Flamers, making them the cheapest way to field said guns. While you won't get as many fusion guns as a squad of Fire Dragons would, you do have more in-squad meat shield protection to keep those special weapons around. Plus, with their pitiful range and melee focus, Storm Guardians will be one of the precious few units that actually benefits from 8th Edition's Battle Focus!
- Defense?: Curiously, 9th Edition has introduced the Serpent's Scale Support Platform, which only Storm Guardians can take along. So far it seems like it might give the Guardians some measure of defensive support, though whether this is just providing cover or an invulnerable save is yet to be seen.
...and that's really it.
Offensive Loadouts:
- Shuriken Pistol: The only ranged option for most of your dudes, this fires a single S4 shot at 12", with a chance of AP-3 on a roll of 6. While Guardian Defenders can fire off twice the number of shots per dude, at least your S. Guardians can pop off their pistols in melee, so there's that going for them, I guess...
- Aeldari Close Combat Weapon: No more choice between Chain Swords and Aeldari Blades (even though each kit now comes with 5 of each). These bring the number of attacks each elf gets up to 2. You don't really have a choice, so you're keeping these.
- Power Sword: Only 2 per squad of 10. Sacrifice the extra attack an ACC would give in exchange for AP-3. One attack and one wound at S3 AP-3 isn't turning heads. It's a very rare day that that extra AP will be of more benefit to you over the additional attack. Save yourself the points and hard pass.
And 2 out of every 8 Guardians can take one of these Special Weapons:
- Flamer: Likely the standard choice, Flamers actually work quite well on Storm Guardians given the ranges they'll often find themselves in. These may spike the cost of your Guardians by 9 points a pop, but they're arguably worth it.
- Fusion Gun: While these will give your Storm Guardians a surprising amount of bite, giving these guns to them will all but guarantee that this squad won't last past turn 3. Mixing one into a maximum sized group can definitely help deal with the odd monster or vehicle, though there are much more attractive options to deal with those in your other FOC slots.