Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(9E) Aeldari

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Craftworld

Why Play Craftworld

• Pros
  • Eldar frailty isn't as overblown as it is on the big board
  • Plenty of Rending from all the shuriken catapults
  • Plenty of ploys to improve your mobility
• Cons
  • Beyond storm guardians and the dire avengers exarch, your army isn't cut out for punching
  • A lack of heavy weapons outside of the support platform
    • A scarcity of special weapons at all, for that matter

CW Wargear

• Weaponised Panoply (1 EP): Dire Avenger operatives only. They get a weapon that's slightly better than their fists with 3+ WS and 3/4 damage. If you're using a dual-catapult Exarch, this can help shore up that lack of a melee attack.
• 0-1 Avenger Shrine Banner (3 EP): Dire Avenger Exarch only. Friendly Dire Avenger operatives within square/3" of the bearer count their APL as one higher, making capping much easier.
• Ranger Scope (2 EP): The bearer's Ranger Long Rifle gains Lethal 5+, making it very evil for a sniper.
• Pathfinder Cloak (2 EP): Ranger operatives only. When the bearer is using the Conceal order, they will always count as concealed regardless of any other rules.
• Wraithbone Talisman (3 EP): Once per game when the bearer is in combat, shooting, or getting shot at, they get a free use of the Command Reroll ploy.
• 0-1 Celestial Shield (2 EP): Guardian Defender or Storm Guardian operatives only. This grants the bearer a 4+ invuln when targeted by ONE enemy. That means you save it for a surprise sniper or if the enemy tries to fire a rocket.
• Plasma Grenade (2 EP): Stronger version of Frag Grenade with +1 damage

CW Units

The kill team is composed of two Fire teams <tabs> <tab name="Guardian Defender Fireteam">

This Security/Recon fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

• 0-1 Guardian Defender Leader (if there are no other leaders)
• 3-6 Guardian Defender Warrior
• 0-1 Guardian Defender Heavy Gunner
  • 0-1 Guardian Defender Heavy Weapon Platform (if you include the Heavy Gunner)

• Guardian Defender Leader (Marksman, Scout): Guardians aren't the best in combat, but the leader has some potency. The extra wound and 2+ BS makes their catapult pretty dangerous, which is all you can rely upon to survive.
• Guardian Defender Warrior (Marksman, Scout): Your basic guardian isn't much different from a guardsman. In fact, they're a bit better with a 4+ save and 8 wounds, about the same as a tempestus scion. Their lone armament is the shuriken catapult, a gun with the stopping power of a boltgun but with Rending to capitalize on crits. Their fists are pretty much a joke, so do NOT let them get caught in melee.
• Guardian Defender Heavy Gunner (Marksman, Scout): What makes this guy different from the average Guardian? This guy can spend an AP to activate a nearby heavy weapon platform, letting it move, fall back, or shoot before ending its activation. Note that this can't be improved by any means, forcing you to commit to a certain course of action when using the platform.
• Guardian Defender Heavy Weapon Platform: Not so much an operative as it is a floating gun. It's a pretty hefty wall with 12 wounds and a 3+ save. However, it's utterly useless - It can't shoot outside of the heavy gunner's direction, it can't conceal itself and it can't really fight. In addition, its movement score is a meager 2 circles/4", meaning getting it injured will practically immobilize both it and its keeper. For this reason, you'll be needing to keep it and its owner away from any enemies who want to turn them into sparkly paste.
  • Its weapon choices are plenty, and all of them incredibly dangerous. The missile launcher gives you either a blast to cover mobs or a high-powered armor-piercer, and Heavy can be disregarded thanks to its unique operation. The bright lance is your deadliest weapon with high damage and AP2 to break anything. The scatter laser has Ceaseless and Fusillade, making it perfect for laying covering fire over everything. The shuriken cannon also has Fusillade for splitting fire, but has Rending to make crits hurt. The star cannon is essentially a lesser bright lance, giving only AP1 and P2 for crits.

</tab> <tab name="Storm Guardian Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

• 0-1 Storm Guardian Leader (if there are no other leaders)
• 4-6 Storm Guardian Warrior
• 0-1 Storm Guardian Gunner

• Storm Guardian Leader (Combat, Scout): A slightly better storm guardian. The 2+ WS/BS means that their combat prowess is at its best, a necessity when you're throwing them at the forefront.
• Storm Guardian Fighter (Combat, Scout): The basic storm guardian is given a short-ranged shuriken pistol and a melee weapon that's as dangerous as their guns. While not the strongest of fighters, these guys will usually be the ones you keep in the front lines to protect your operatives.
• Storm Guardian Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Your only real fire support, but they're just as strapped for range as the rest of your squad. As they have no Eldar chainswords, you need to keep them away from the enemy. Use the flamer to cover crowds using Torrent, use the fusion gun to blast through armor and flesh alike.

</tab> <tab name="Ranger Fireteam">

This Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Ranger Leader (if there are no other leaders)
• 4-5 Ranger Warrior

• Ranger Leader (Marksman, Scout): As with most leaders, this guy gets an additional wound and an improvement to WS/BS - but only to the fists and pistol as the rifle already had a 2+ BS. Interesting, their long rifle also has Balanced, allowing them to re-roll one hit die to fish for a crit if they need to. If any ranger needs the Ranger Scope Equipment, it's this one, 5+ crits plus a reroll to fish for them can put in work.
• Ranger Warrior (Marksman, Scout): While they retain the 8 wounds of the guardians, these rangers only have a 5+ save, so you'll need to use cover to maximize their protection from enemy fire, and there rifle (though heavy) is silent so they can fire concealed so not an unreasonable plan against shooting. If there out of cover though all they got are there guns to rely on: a short-ranged shuriken pistol to deal with nuisances while moveing and a long rifle that has Silent and Heavy, meaning that they should only fire this when they've got the enemy in the perfect position (and with a 2+ BS on this, you've got plenty of wiggle room) and can pop a shot off without worrying about return fire. The ranger's can be unusually slippery even for Eldar, they have a ploy to get a free dash action if they start and end the move in terrain, which combined with the ability to dash for free with the other Eldar Strategic ploy and they can dart almost a foot. This does work BTW: normally you can only get one dash a turn but since the Pathfinder move is done "Immediately" it occurs out of action and so you can chain a normal dash action to it in your actual activation. Also double check the rules for heavy weapons: they can't be used if you normal move or charge, dashing though? that you can do no problem.

</tab> <tab name="Dire Avengers Fireteam">

This Seek & Destroy/Security/Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Dire Avenger Exarch (if there are no other leaders)
• 4-5 Dire Avenger Warrior

• Dire Avenger Exarch (Combat, Marksman, Scout): More than any other member of the entire kill-team, the Exarch is the most versatile of your leaders, equally capable of handling melee and shooting depending on your armaments.
  • If you feel like being boring, you can just make it grab a base shuriken catapult. However, you can just grab two of them, sacrificing the exarch's melee potential and 2+ BS to replace Balanced for Relentless. Dual-wielding also grants a special 2 AP action that sacrifices Relentless to let you fire twice - and that's a lot of firepower.
  • Focusing on melee gives you either the power sword or the diresword. Both weapons are pretty strong and have Lethal 5+, but the power sword deals more crit damage while the diresword has Rending. Your shooting is stuck to a shuriken pistol, but you can sacrifice that for the shimmershield so you can provide an 5++ invuln for your fellow aspect warriors.
• Dire Avenger Warrior (Marksman, Scout): A superior guardian defender. Their shuriken catapult has Balanced to help them potentially fish for a crit for Rending. On top of that, Defense Tactics allows them to fire Overwatch at their full BS.

</tab> </tabs>

CW Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Fleet (1 CP): Any operative can dash after moving or falling back for the turn. This is typical Eldar sneakiness, and excellent for covering vast distances or for when you need to GTFO with prejudice.
• Forewarned (1 CP): For this turn any ready operatives that get shot can re-roll one saving throw.
• Supreme Disdain (1 CP): Whenever one of your operatives fights in melee and the enemy misses more than you do, you can convert one of your hits into a crit. This is the cruelest on the dire avengers exarch, though it has its uses for the storm guardians as well.
• Hidden Paths (1 CP): When a Ranger operative has the Conceal order, is within 1"/triangle of some cover and is over 6"/pentagon of the enemy, they can immediately dash so long as they end up within 1" of some more cover. This is likely to be used more than Fleet for your rangers due to their preference to stay hidden in cover. Plus since the action happens 'Immediately' it does open up options for ranger such as dashing and shooting there heavy rifles, since heavy only keeps you from moving if done in the same activation.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Matchless Agility (1 CP): When one operative is activated, if it performs a dash action it can add an additional circle/2" to their dash action but cannot shoot or fight. It's essentially a GTFO button beyond GTFO buttons because this won't even give you the possibility of fighting back. Note the wording, you have a couple ways for models to get free dashes with Fleet (though timing keeps it from working from hidden paths)s. Pop this and the other two and you burn your entire CP bank but can slingshot a ranger 21 inches across the board. You probably don't want to do that but being able to get a guy so far forward does have Tactical options.

• First of the Aspects (1 CP): When one Dire Avenger operative is activated, you can improve their APL by 1 for this activation.

</tab> </tabs>

CW Strategies

DG Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

CW Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Commorrite

Why Play Commorrite

• Pros
  • Some very impressive WS/BS scores, with base troops having a 3+
  • Crits tend to be quite the effective tool
• Cons
  • Your basic weapons are about as potent as a lasgun without crits.
  • Wyches have limited shooting capability.

C Wargear

• Plasma Grenade (2 EP): Gives you an equivalent with a frag grenade, dealing decent damage with Blast to handle crowds.
• Haywire Genade (2 EP): Another grenade that does poor damage, but gains Lethal 4+ when dealing with any enemies with a save of 3+ or higher. This can make it more effective against space marines of all sorts.
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher (3 EP): Leader operatives only. Provides a short-ranged weapon with poor damage, but Blast lets it cover small crowds while Lethal 5+ lets it use its real secret: Stun. Being ranged, this allows you to rob AP from multiple enemies on a good hit.
• 0-1 Hypex (2 EP): Wych operatives only. Adds 1"/triangle to their movement, giving you the ability to close into combat way faster.
• 0-1 Agonite (3 EP): Kabalite operative. Pick one splinter rifle, splinter pistol, or splinter cannon the bearer has. That gun gets the Relentless. A bigger boost for the splinter cannon, which guarantees that it hits many enemies thanks to Fusillade.
• 0-1 Adrenalite (2 EP): Wych operatives only. Whenever the bearer charges, they get to re-roll one hit die during that activation.
• 0-1 Painbringer (2 EP): Wych operatives only. Whenever the bearer takes any hits with 3 damage or less, they can reduce the damage taken by 1, giving you a modicum of tankiness against most small arms fire.
• 0-1 Grave Lotus (2 EP): Wych operatives. Whenever the bearer fights in melee, their first hit deals +1 additional damage.
• Kabalite Banner (3 EP): Sybarite operatives only. Friendly Kabalite operatives within 3"/square count as if having +1 APL when capping objectives, though it offers little else when compared to other kill teams with icon bearers.
• 0-1 Deathbloom (3 EP): Kabalite operative. Pick one splinter rifle, splinter pistol, or splinter cannon the bearer has. That gun gains Rending, taking full advantage of that Lethal 5+ to make one more hit land when you need it.
• 0-1 Feralex (3 EP): Kabalite operative. Pick one splinter rifle, splinter pistol, or splinter cannon the bearer has. That weapon gains Splash 1, allowing crits to deal damage to nearby targets. This is especially handy for the splinter cannon, with Fusillade letting you cover multiple enemies in gunfire.

C Units

The kill team is composed of two Fireteams

<tabs> <tab name="Kabalite Fireteam"> This Security/Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Sybarite (if there are no other leaders)
• 1-5 Kabalite Warriors
• 0-1 Kabalite Gunner
• 0-1 Kabalite Heavy Gunner

• Sybarite (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Unlike many leader operatives, the Sybarite is not stuck with only pistols to deal with their enemies. Their loadout comes with a few other options.
  • Indeed, the Sybarite isn't forced to sacrifice everything for a splinter rifle. While the splinter pistol is still there for convenience, it's just easier to pick the bigger gun. Also available is the blast pistol, offering good damage and AP2 at short range.
  • While you could just stick with the basic weapons afforded to your other kabalites, there's no reason to, even with Rending. The power weapon does more damage and crits more easily with Lethal 5+, while the agonizer compensates for its less-than-extreme damage with Brutal to overcome any parrying.
• Kabalite Warrior (Marksman, Scout): The basic Dark Eldar shares similar traits to their craftworlder cousins, having 8 wounds and a 4+ save. That said, their weapons carry their own wicked tricks. Their splinter rifles, while being only as powerful as lasguns, crit more easily with Lethal 5+. Their melee weapons, while also being rather puny, have Rending to make one crit guarantee more damage.
• Kabalite Gunner (Marksman): The gunner comes with one of two guns with rather divergent purposes. The blaster works as a non-Hot plasmagun with some serious damage and AP2 to rip through armor. The shredder, while weak, has Blast in order to manage crowds.
• Kabalite Heavy Gunner (Marksman): Another gunner, but likely to be stuck in the back lines due to their guns having Heavy. The darklance is your ultimate anti-anything weapon, dealing extreme damage and AP2, only hamstrung by being Heavy and Unwieldy. The splinter cannon isn't as strong, but deals more crits with Lethal 5+ and can cover multiple enemies with Fusillade.

</tab> <tab name="Wych Fireteam"> This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Hekatrix (if there are no other leaders)
• 1-5 Wych Warriors
• 0-2 Wych Fighters (0-3 if you have two Wych fireteams, each must take a different weapon)

• Hekatrix (Combat, Scout): A rather basic Wych with +1 to Wounds and WS/BS.
  • Your pistol options are rather limited. The splinter pistol remains for easy crits at short range. Also available is the blast pistol, offering good damage and AP2 at short range.
  • Unlike with the Sybarite, the Hekatrix's basic weapon isn't so bad that it'd be a mistake to keep, especially with Rending. The agonizer is only slightly better damage-wise, but has Brutal to break parrying and Lethal 5+ to make easy crits. The power weapon does more damage and also carries Lethal 5+ for crits.
• Wych Warrior (Combat, Scout): While seemingly gimped with only a 6+ save, their 5++ Invuln allows them to take any manner of AP without any worry. Their 3+ WS is especially helpful, allowing them to take advantage against many enemies in melee. Their splinter pistol, while limited in damage and range, deals more crits with 5+. The wych blades come with the stopping power of a bolter and can use Rending to guarantee more damage after a crit.
• Wych Fighter (Combat, Scout): This particular wych sacrifices their shooting ability to focus entirely on fighting with their exclusive weapons. The razorflails aren't any stronger than the basic wych blades, but have Brutal to break parries and Ceaseless to guarantee all the hits and maybe even fish for crits, where Reap can come into play and hit others near the them. The hydra gauntlets give you basic damage, far better than the basic weapons. The shardnet and impaler also deal the same damage as the gauntlets, but they also rob enemies of an attack while in engagement range - perfect for supporting other wyches.

</tab> </tabs>

C Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Fleet (1 CP): All of your operatives cam make a free Dash action if they also move or fall back. This is especially handy for your Commorites as the wyches focus exclusively in melee, though this boost doesn't help with charging.
• Agile Gladiators (1 CP): Wych operatives that fight in melee can render any enemy attacks as parries on a 4+, giving some additional protection. In addition, they can move past other operatives, automatically make jump checks, and ignore the first circke/2" increment when climbing, jumping, or traversing any terrain. The mobility part means a lot more for your forces, as this lets them ignore a great many obstacles as they close in with the enemy. The fighting part merely adds to protecting your enemy as a second set of parries.
• Prey on the Weak (1 CP): Whenever your operatives fire upon an enemy with less than half their wounds remaining, your operatives can re-roll up to two of their hit rolls. Useful for when you really want those targets dead immediately.
• Inured to Suffering (1 CP): Your operatives gain a 6+++ FNP save, but this is only usable after at least one operative is downed. Considering the relative frailty of your eldar, it's only necessary to have some extra defenses.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Power from Pain (1 CP): A serious power-up. Whenever an enemy operative dies, you can immediately activate a friendly operative within 6"/pentagon of that dead person. The operative gains +1 to their APL and can shoot or fight twice. An excellent way to press the advantage after killing one foe to work on a second, especially if you go to support an ally.
• No Escape (1 CP): Whenever an enemy operative falls back from a Wych operative, that enemy must roll a d6, subtracting 1 if they have more wounds than your operative and adding 1 if they have the injured status. On a 3+ the enemy can't fall back and wastes their AP on an action they can't use. This is something you'll absolutely use since you need your wyches stuck in or else they'll be gunned down.

</tab> </tabs>

C Strategies

C Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

C Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Hand of the Archon (Soulshackle)

Why Play Hand of the Archon

• Pros
  • Some very impressive WS/BS scores, with base troops having a 3+
  • Crits tend to be quite the effective tool
• Cons
  • You don't get any melee power from the Wyches and you still don't get Wracks or the Court of the Archon.
    • As a result of the above, melee isn't going to be great.

Power From Pain

Your Dark Eldar power in condensed form. Killing operatives with 5+ wounds gives you a pain token, though killing an operative with 11+ wounds give you two tokens so you'll be getting more from killing marines. You can then spend these tokens on an activation, though you can only use each one once per activation with one exception.

• Dark Animus: Adds +1 to the operative's APL. Very handy for either offsetting being injured or for getting a shot off after fleeing.
• Vitalised Surge: When you kill an enemy, you can have an operative immediately dash, even if they already charged. That last bit is excellent for the Crimson Duelist and Flayer, since they'll be relying on charging the most.
• Stimulated Senses: Lets an operative re-roll a hit or defense die. Since this can be used more than once in an activation, this can be helpful for saving CP.

HotA Wargear

• Chain Snare (1 EP): Traps enemies into combat. If they want to fall back, they need to roll a d6 (-1 if the enemy has a higher Wounds stat, +1 if they're injured) and get trapped on a 4+. Not advisable against marines or other melee specialists, but this is useful to keep gunners and snipers out of action.
• Plasma Grenade (2 EP): Gives you an equivalent with a frag grenade, dealing decent damage with Blast to handle crowds.
• 0-1 Phantasm Grenade Launcher (3 EP): Rather than a weapon like the Compendium, this is more of a debuff. Enemies within 3"/square of the explosion must roll a d6 (-1 if they're not visible) and lose an AP if they roll a 4+.
• Refined Poison (2/3 EP): Adds +1 to the basic damage of a splinter pistol, splinter rifle, shardcarbine or splinter cannon. Costs 2 EP for the basic splinter pistol or splinter rifle, which gives a bump for them since their base damage is very underwhelming.
• Toxic Coating (1/2 EP): Gives Lethal 5+ to a melee weapon. Costs 1 EP if applied to an array of blades, aka the generic melee weapon for the less melee-inclined operatives.
• Wicked Blade (3 EP): Adds +1 attack to any Array of Blades, meaning this is reserved for any operative that isn't meant for combat but finds themselves in it regardless.
• 0-1 Kabalite Banner (3 EP): Allies within 3"/square of the bearer counts their APL as 1 higher. While you'll lack the other support benefits from a dedicated banner bearer, you now have one that can contribute more in combat.

HotA Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Pay the Soul Debt: Revealed when you first score a pain token. Every token you get by any means adds to this tally and you score 1 VP if you end the game with seven tokens, 2 VP if you score over nine.
• Slave Run: Revealed when you kill an enemy. This enemy is replaced with a Slave token your operatives can then pick up, though this costs them 2"/circle of movement while carrying the slaves back. You score 1 VP for if you're carrying two slaves and 2 VP if you're carrying 4+ slaves.
• Contemptuous Slaughter: Score 1 VP for every turn where you kill more operatives than the enemy has.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Slave Raid"> Note - This counts as the Extraction Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Corral the Flesh Harvest: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Slave Run, Rob & Ransack and Capture Hostage & Infiltrate Tac Ops.
2. Delivering the Quarry: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Plant Signal Beacon Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 3 RP and you can re-roll all Casualty and Recovery checks. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Remove Rival">

1. Embed Rival: Pick one operative that isn't the Archsybarite or Skysplinter Assassin to be considered the rival. You must finish five games with this operative on the team.
2. 'Accidental' Elimination: Finish one last game where you get this rival killed.
   • Curiously, this Spec Op does have an explicit fail state, namely getting the rival permanently killed before it you reach the second step of this Tac Op. After all, the Dark Eldar want things to look like elaborately-staged accidents, not actually be accidents.

Completing this Spec Op makes the rival auto-fail any recovery checks and straight-up die without any hope of revival. Your Archsybarite gains 5 XP and you get another 5 XP to share among the rest of your operatives as well as a free use of the Operative Assigned Requisition in order to replace that loss. You also get to pick between either a piece of Rare Equipment and increasing your Asset capacity by 1. </tab>

<tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Epicurean of Suffering: The first time this operative uses a pain token to re-roll, they can do so for free. Awesome.
2. Pain Artist: This operative gains an extra pain token for killing enemies in melee. Outstanding for your melee experts, still helpful to offset your troubles on the more shooty ones.
3. Shadow Hunter: Whenever an enemy over 6"/pentagon tries to shoot at this operative while they're hiding in cover, they get to make an additional automatic save.
4. Spire Stalker: This operative ignores the first 2"/circle of movement when climbing, dropping or traversing. Not as useful in a space hulk.
5. Conniving: This operative can use the Cruel Deception plot every turn for free. Excellent escape button.
6. Patient Predator: Whenever this operative attacks an enemy that isn't readied, the enemy can't re-roll any attack or defense dice.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Ambitious Advancement (1 RP): When one operative earns more XP from a game than another operative of higher rank, the first one gets some extra XP equal to the difference of how much XP they got. Great for setting up newcomers. but it can be risky.
• Dark Resurrection (2 RP): Surprisingly costly for a Requisition, but this does let you straight-up resurrect a slain operative. That said, they still need to sit out the next fight for recovery.
• Ruthless Competition (1 RP): Only usable during a Spec Op. You have two operatives competing by tallying up kills each game for the rest of the spec op. If you field the operative with fewer kills than the other, then the operative with fewer kills starts the game with a free pain token.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Pain-Adept Laboratory: One operative can immediately recover from a Battle Scar, but they need to rest for the next game so they adjust to whatever freakish mods the friendly haemonculus did.
• Shrine of Suffering: One operative starts the game with a pain token. Lucky them.
• Toxin Cryo-Distillery: Whenever an operative shoots a Splinter Rifle, Shardcarbine, Splinter Pistol or Splinter Cannon but only scores basic hits, one hit is automatically made into a crit for that extra damage.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Ghostplate Armor (2 EP): Bearer now has a 3+ save, which helps against guns.
2. Tormented Soulstone (2 EP): Single-use item to let an operative heal 3+d3 wounds by eating a craftworlder's soul.
3. Clone Field (3 EP): Once per game when the bearer is attacked, they can immediately dash away as if they could fly and any attacks the enemy made are now wasted. Absolutely dickish.
4. Pain Casket (2 EP): Whenever an operative within 6"/pentagon of the bearer scores a pain token, it can instead be fed to another operative within 6"/pentagon. Very handy for keeping everyone prepared, especially since the Flayer can only do the same thing on a crit.
5. Living Trophy (3 EP): The bearer starts the game with a pain token.
6. Soul-Scent Barb (2 EP): Mark one enemy operative. The bearer can re-roll any attacks against this marked enemy.

</tab> </tabs>

HotA Units

The Recon/Security/Seek & Destroy Kill Team is composed of 9 of the following:

• 1 Kabalite Archsybarite
  • 8 models of the following:
  • 0-8 Kabalite Agents
  • 0-1 Kabalite Crimson Duelist
  • 0-1 Kabalite Disciple of Yaelindra
  • 0-1 Kabalite Elixicant
  • 0-1 Kabalite Flayer
  • 0-1 Kabalite Gunner
  • 0-1 Kabalite Heavy Gunner
  • 0-1 Kabalite Skysplinter Assassin
    • You can take only two darklight weapons (Blast Pistol, Blaster, Darklance) in the entire Kill Team.

• Kabalite Archsybarite (Combat, Marksman, Scout): The big boss of the group. While not much different than their agents, they do come with a rather vast array of weapons to consider for whatever build you want. They come with a unique action that lets them gain 1 CP each turn if they decide not to take the first chance they can to use a ploy, which helps encourage you to consider more long-term planning and working around your enemy's schemes without throwing the first punch.
  • If you're planning on more firing lines, you can be boring and stick with the Splinter Rifle and Array of Blades given to any other agent. Fortunately, you do have the corsair's aim action, helping add Balanced to the rifle.
  • Going further to melee gives you more interesting options. The Power Weapon gives you a reliable weapon with impressive crits thanks to Lethal 5+, the Venom Blade's damage is fixed to 4 damage either way but has Lethal 4+ to overwhelm enemy defenses, and the Agonizer provides an interesting option with Brutal to negate defenses and Lethal 5+ for more crits, letting it trigger Reap 1 more often on top of the high damage.
    • Your sidearms in melee are stuck to either the basic Splinter Pistol and the Blast Pistol. The Blast Pistol is a bit of a dodgy option not only because of the weapon restrictions for the army, but also the fact that you're firing it at a 3+ BS instead of the Splinter Pistol's 2+.

• Kabalite Agent (Marksman, Scout): Your workaday grunts for the kabals are about the same as their Compendium equivalents with the added bonus of having stronger melee weapons (3/4 damage over the Compendium's 2/3 with Rending) and the Corsair's ability to spend an action to aim their Splinter Rifles for Balanced on top of the Lethal 5+. While the rifle's basic damage output is underwhelming, Lethal helps out by letting you score more crits.

• Kabalite Crimson Duelist: Comes with a splinter pistol and razorflail, a surprisingly powerful weapon with both Brutal to overcome parries but also Flail, which makes it super-defensive by making each parry block two hits. What makes this all even more terrifying is the unique action they have that lets them fight an enemy twice so they can make short work of any foe. This then leads to their Brutal Display ability, which triggers when they kill an enemy to scare someone within 6"/pentagon, blocking them from performing objective actions.

• Kabalite Disciple of Yaelindra: Comes with some some special Torment Grenades, which forces enemies within 2"/circle of the blast zone to roll a d6 (+1 if the enemy has a 4+ save or worse, -1 if they're not visible) with a 3+ poisoning them, not only dealing them 2 mortal wounds but also treating them as Injured for all the penalties that provides. Also comes with a Needle Pistol, which is unconventional in that its BS is determined by the target's save, dealing a MW if you roll below the enemy's save and 3MW if you roll a 1, meaning that this will fuck over daemons like no tomorrow and seriously trouble genestealers. If the pistol manages to kill someone, it deals splash damage that deals d3 MW to anyone within 2"/circle of them, which can make for some decent payoff - especially if you can chain up some kills.

• Kabalite Elixicant: The closest you'll get to a medic, stocked with all sorts of drugs but won't get the Medic keyword for better recoveries. Aside from their Splinter Rifle, they also have a super short-range Stim-Needler that's harmless but has Lethal 3+ to trigger Stun to rob enemies of attacks.
  • Taking the Elixicant gives your entire army the option between hooking them up with Hypex (for +1"/triangle of movement for zooming) or Painbringer (for a 6+++ save), both of which can be quite helpful for the army and last for the entire game. That's not all, as they can use their syringes to give an ally within 3"/square dither a dose of a different drug or heal them for 1d3+1 wounds.

• Kabalite Flayer: Dual-wielding melee butcher. The fact that they reduce any damage they suffer by 1 makes them a bit tankier, but they're still Eldar at the end of the day. Their Pain Sculptors are quite decent as melee weapons with Relentless, but their big draw is the ability to capitalize on one crit, turning it into a pain token they can then feed to a friendly operative within 6"/pentagon.
  • If you're wondering which to pick between the Crimson Duelist and the Flayer, consider what you're up against. If you're not worrying about anything with high defenses like shields or deadly weapons like power fists, you might be better suited to use a Flayer to help feed pain tokens for your teams. Take the Crimson Duelist if you need to overwhelm enemies quickly.

• Kabalite Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Come with two options for guns, but GW made the stupid decision to lock you to only one gunner. The Blaster is limited by the limited by the army's limitations, is a very powerful gun with AP2 to rip through high defenses. The Shredder isn't as potent, but it has Blast to cover crowds and has Rending to guarantee more crits.

• Kabalite Heavy Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Has two options for guns, both with Heavy so they aren't able to move around while shooting. The Dark Lance is the deadliest of your guns with its incredible damage and AP2, but taking it means you can't take either the Archsybarite's Blast Pistol or the gunner's Blaster and Unwieldy means it can't be used for Overwatch. The Splinter Cannon has Fusillade to split its fire across multiple foes.

• Kabalite Skysplinter Assassin (Marksman, Scout): A basic goon equipped with a razorwing to point out key targets and peck them to death. Like the Corsair's bird-tamer, they can spend an action to mark a foe, but this is far simpler - all you need is to find an enemy that's visible and less than 2"/circle higher than them. The effect's the same though, treating an enemy that isn't behind heavy cover as having the Engage order. If you don't mark an enemy, you can use it as a rather flimsy ranged weapon that fortunately comes with Silent, Indirect and No Cover so you can shoot while hiding behind cover. The agent comes with a Shardcarbine, a variant of the Splinter Rifle that trades the extra damage on a crit for Ceaseless and MW2.

HotA Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Blade Artists (1 CP): Gives rending on melee weapons, which is plenty handy, especially on the otherwise just serviceable blade arrays on the agents.
• Denizens of Night (1 CP): When a friendly operative is within 3"/square of your DZ and over 6"/pentagon of any enemies, they're always considered to be under the Conceal order, so this is excellent for your heavy gunners and for any rear-line troopers.
• Fleet of Foot (1 CP): All of your operatives cam make a free Dash action if they also move or fall back or vice versa. Being that you're dealing with the kabalites, this will have plenty of uses. Sadly won't help your melee operatives with charging.
• From Darkness, Death (1 CP): When each operative is activated, they can mark one enemy outside of their LoS. When they attack this enemy, they can turn one hit into a critical hit so it works best for sneak attacks.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Cruel Deception (1 CP): An operative can fall back at a 1 AP discount, which is incredibly handy to keep a disadvantaged operative out of a bad fight.
• Devious Scheme (1 CP): When the enemy uses a ploy, they need to spend an additional CP in order to use it, which is plenty sinister. Since it can only be used for each time they use a ploy, it will only see use once per turn.
• Heinous Arrogance (1 CP): Allows you to...skip an activation? Sounds dumb, but it can force an enemy to play something only to strike as a reaction. Note that this still keeps the operative as Readied.
• Prey on the Wounded (1 CP): Your operatives can re-roll to hit when attacking an enemy at half their total number of wounds or lesser, making this useful for finishing off a disadvantaged foe.

</tab> </tabs>

HotA Strategies

C Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

HotA Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Troupe

As of the Q2 2022 Balance Dataslate, this Kill-Team has been deemed, superceded by the Void-Dancer Troupe below

Why Play Troupe

• Pros
  • Holo-fields guarantee you invulnerable saves, a blessing considering their frailty.
  • Flip Belts make jumping a trifle by making them automatically pass any tests.
  • Impressive variety of melee weapons for all operatives.
• Cons
  • Extremely limited range when shooting.
  • Any hits in melee are brutal to you

T Wargear

• Shrieker Toxin Rounds (2 EP): Pick a shuriken pistol the bearer has. That pistol gains MW1, which makes them a bit more painful.
• 0-1 Death Mask (2 EP): If the bearer of this mask is incapacitated, you gain 1 CP at the end of the activation that this happens.
• Accelerated Monofilament Wire (3 EP): Pick a harlequin's embrace the bearer has. It now gets the Reap 1 and Lethal 5+ rules, making it extremely lethal on a crit as well as spreading some pain in splash damage.
• Supertensile Monofilament Wire (2 EP): Pick a harlequin's kiss the bearer has. It gains +1 normal damage for the game.
• Pure Psychocrystals (3 EP): Pick a neuro-disruptor the bearer has. This grants the gun the Lethal 5+ rule, making crits - and therefore Stun - far more likely.
• Wraithbone Talisman (3 EP): Once per battle, the bearer gets a free use of the Command Re-roll tactical ploy when shooting, rolling defense dice, or fighting.
• Prismatic Grenade (3 EP): Essentially a frag grenade that comes with Stun.

T Units

This Seek & Destroy/Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of:

• 1 Player Leader
• 7 of the following:
  • 5-7 Player Warrior
  • 0-2 Player Gunner

• Player Leader (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Your leader essentially has the entirety of the harlequin arsenal, which fortunately includes the gunner's weapons as well. Also unique to the leader is the power sword, which gives the power of a harlequin's blade but with Lethal 5+ for ease of crits.
• Player Warrior (Combat, Scout): Each harlequin is gifted with an exceptional APL3, which allows them to perform quite a bit and can even help restore the old move-shoot-move shenanigans of old. While the statline gives them a miserable 6+ save, their holo-fields instead provide a 4+ invulnerable save to protect them.
  • Their only gun is the short-ranged shuriken pistol, as powerful as a bolt pistol and given Rending. Their melee options are far more diverse. The harlequin's kiss deals little damage but any crits deal more than double that base damage. The harlequin's caress deals considerably more damage, but you're going to have to contend with a 4+ WS. The harlequin's embrace and harlequin's blade act as the middle-ground, retaining that 3+ WS for decent damage, the difference being that the blade has Balanced while the embrace has Brutal in order to overwhelm the opposition.
• Player Gunner (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Despite being called a gunner, your options for guns are both absurdly short-ranged and limited. The fusion pistol only has a 3"/square range to deal its incredible firepower, with crits dealing plenty of mortal wounds. The neuro-disruptor has a range of 6"/pentagon and AP1 helps against armored foes, while Stun can help rob the enemy of AP.

T Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Rising Crescendo (1 CP): Your operatives add 1"/triangle to any move, fall back, dash, or charge moves. Additionally, they can dash and charge while in engagement range of the enemy.
• Domino Field (1 CP): For the rest of this turning point, operatives that don't shoot and are within 1"/triangle of some cover will always count as having the Conceal order.
• Prismatic Blur (1 CP): An operative that moves, falls back or charges counts as a blur. This means the operative can re-roll one defense die when shot at and when in combat, they can twist any attacks the opponent makes into parries on a 4+ for feinting fun.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Murderous Entrance (1 CP): When an operative scores a critical hit following a charge, you can make one of your other attack die count as a hit as well.
• The Curtain Falls (1 CP): After an operative fights in melee, they can immediately fall back for 1 AP. This can always be done, even if this operative had charged beforehand.
• Hero's Path (1 CP): Upon activation, an operative gains an action that expends all 3 AP for the ability to teleport anywhere that's more than 6"/pentagon away from any enemy operatives.

</tab> </tabs>

T Strategies

T Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

Void-Dancer Troupe (WD 474)

Why Play Void-Dancer Troupe

• Pros
  • Harlequins, but with characters!
    • As a recap, you get 4+ Invulns and FLY on every character. Jumping is effortless and chasms are like puddles to them.
  • Saedaths provide you with a means for extra CP
• Cons
  • Saedaths can make you a bit predictable with your actions
  • You can take ONLY ONE fusion pistol and neuro-disruptor per kill-team
  • Still can't stand up to a hit in melee

Saedaths

The special rule for this particular version of the Harlequins focus upon playing a particular style with your clowns. When the game starts, you have to pick one allegory (style of play) to use, granting a particular task to accomplish. You also have to designate one operative as having a 'pivotal role', and thus exposing them to all manner of assassins. Any time your operatives accomplish a task, you score a point, with the pivotal role scoring a second point for doing it.

Scoring four points gives you quite a payoff, as you not only gain an instant CP for this turn but you also get an allegory-specific bonus.

• Comedy: Your task is simple enough - your operatives just need to fall back, meaning you don't need to focus as much on combat. Do it enough times and they can now fall back by spending 1 less AP, making your clowns even slipperier.
• Epic: Your task is a pretty tough one to fulfill - your operatives need to kill an enemy by scoring two or less hits in melee. However, if you do it you gain the ability to turn one of your normal attacks or parries into a crit if you fight in melee and score no crits. While risky, on-demand crits are absolutely powerful.
• Melodrama: Your task isn't too hard - your operatives need to kill enemies while shooting and score two or more hits. Most of that relies on just re-rolls if you're lucky. Score enough kills and you gain the ability to re-roll one of your hit die.
• Odyssey: Your task requires your operatives to charge and end up within pentagon/6" of the enemy's DZ. Once you accomplish this enough times, your operatives get to add square/3" to their charge ranges rather than the traditional 2"/circle. For Kill-Team, that extra inch is a massive deal.
• Tragedy: Your task pretty much requires your operatives to lose wounds by getting shot from the enemy. However, after taking enough shots your operatives can gain the ability to immediately make one save as if they're in cover - even if they're out in the open.

VDT Psychic Powers

Your Shadowseer can still cast powers. As with the Warpcoven, you can cast twice per turn without needing to roll anything, though you can't cast while engaged.

• Veil of Tears: One operative visible to the caster now counts as having cover if shot at from beyond 6"/pentagon, providing quite a bit of protection from guns. In addition, enemies cannot charge them unless they started the charge within 6"/pentagon, which forces the opposition to either get up close and personal or to pick someone else to charge. This can be vital for your pivotal role's survival.
• Fog of Dreams: Mark one visible enemy operative and roll d6. This operative will now be GA1 (Sucks to be you, guardsmen and gaunts!) and now can't perform any actions until either they're the last one activated or they go after a number of enemy operatives equal to your d6. This is instrumental for screwing over a heavy weapon looking to blast all your clowns to smithereens or trapping a beatstick or intruder in place so you can bumrush them.
• Mirror of Minds: Pick one enemy within LOS. Both you and the enemy roll 6d6, dealing 1 MW to the enemy for each matching result you and the enemy share. It's a gambit, but it's your only direct-damage power since Smite doesn't exist.

VDT Wargear

• Accelerated Monofilament Wire (3 EP): Pick a harlequin's embrace the bearer has. It now gets the Reap 1 and Lethal 5+ rules, making it extremely lethal on a crit as well as spreading some pain in splash damage.
• 0-1 Death Mask (3 EP): If the bearer of this mask is incapacitated, you gain 1 CP at the end of the activation that this happens.
• Prismatic Grenade (3 EP): Essentially a frag grenade that comes with Stun.
• Pure Psychocrystals (3 EP): Pick a neuro-disruptor the bearer has. This grants the gun the Lethal 5+ rule, making crits - and therefore Stun - far more likely.
• Shrieker Toxin Rounds (3/4 EP): Pick a shuriken pistol or shreiker cannon the bearer has. That gun gains MW1, which makes them a bit more painful. This costs 4EP for a shrieker cannon, considering the considerable output.
• Supertensile Monofilament Wire (2 EP): Pick a harlequin's kiss the bearer has. It gains +1 normal damage for the game.
• 0-1 Support Grip (3 EP): Death Jester Operatives only. This removes the Shrieker Cannon's Heavy trait, instead replacing it with the ability to move up to 6"/3 circles and while still being able to fire that big gun.
• Wraithbone Talisman (3 EP): Once per battle, the bearer gets a free use of the Command Re-roll tactical ploy when shooting, rolling defense dice, or fighting.

VDT Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Mythic Play: Revealed in the first turn. You gain 1 VP if your performance tally for the Saedath is at 4 points, and another at 6 points.
• Hero's Path: Revealed when you kill an enemy. If the operative that opens this tac op kills more than anyone else in your team in the game, you score 1 VP. You score another if this operative ends the game at the enemy's DZ.
• Grand Act: You gain a second tally for the first time you accomplish a goal for each Allegory (including ones you didn't select). You score 1 VP for scoring each goal once and another if you managed to pull it off before turn 4.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Dance Along the Threads of Fate"> Note - This counts as any one existing Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Intricate Steps: Finish five games where you scored VP from three different core Tac Ops that you randomly select.
2. Prophecy Fulfilled: Finish one last game where you score VP from one of two randomly picked Tac Ops that weren't picked from the last step.

Completing this Spec Op scores 3 RP and you can re-roll all Casualty and Recovery checks. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - The Grandest of Tales">

1. Many Acts, Each But a Single Step: Finish six games, each one where you have a different Allegory active and you completed the goals for it at least once.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and 5 XP to spread amongst your operatives. You also get the option between either a piece of rare equipment or increasing your asset capacity by one. </tab>

<tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Whimsical:This operative can use the Capricious Role ploy each turn for free. Great for someone who's targeting particular enemies or a Death Jester who wants to stay away.
2. Well Versed: This Operative can use one tactical ploy each game without spending CPs.
3. Martial Artistry: Whenever this operative fights and scores more hits than the enemy, you can upgrade one of your hits into an automatic crit.
4. Dazzling Spectacle: In any time where this operative shoots after fighting (or fights after shooting), you can re-roll all dice with one particular result (so re-roll all 2s or all 1s).
5. Virtuoso: This operative can fight twice or shoot a shuriken pistol twice per turn.
6. Pre-eminent: Once per battle if this operative is the first to be activated, you can trigger this to give Lethal 5+ to all your weapons for this turn.
   • This is not something you can use multiple times, even if you've got this battle honour on multiple models.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Grand Role (1 RP): Limited to once per Spec Op. You can make one operative the Pivotal Role for your Saedath, letting you pick an additional accolade for this operative whenever you score your first accolade.
• Role of the Fallen (1 RP): Once per Spec Op, whenever an operative passes a Casualty check, you can let them score 1XP for each game afterwards.
• Emissaries of the Laughing God (1 RP): You can re-roll all Recovery checks for operatives that did not fight this game.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Webway Portal: One operative can hide in the webway for deep-striking instead of being on-field. You can then deploy it as normal later in the first turn, once you see how the board is set up.
• Shrine of Meditation: You can re-roll to determine whether or not you're an attacker or defender.
• Loretrove: You start the game with 1 point on your performance tally, speeding up your path to the Accolade.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Hidden Guise (1 EP): You can make the bearer the Pivotal Role for your Allegory once per game.
2. Crystal Shard (3 EP): Once per game when the bearer is shot, you can activate this to grant a 3+ Invuln save for the rest of the turn.
3. Shimmerclone (3 EP): Once per game you can negate any damage dealt to the bearer by one attack.
4. Falcon's Feather (3 EP): This operative can dash for free each turn after the first where they're not within LoS of the enemy.
5. Mocking Panoply (2 EP): Whenever the bearer moves within 2"/circle of an enemy, roll a d6; on a 5+, that victim suffers d3 mortal wounds, making it a natural fit with the Capricious Role ploy.
6. Raiment of Mirrors (2 EP): Whenever the bearer is attacked in melee or shot at by an enemy within 6"/pentagon, they cannot be hit on anything below a 4+.

</tab> </tabs>

VDT Units

This Seek & Destroy/Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of:

• 1 Lead Player
• 7 of the following:
  • 5-7 Player Warrior
  • 0-1 Death Jester
  • 0-1 Shadowseer

• Lead Player (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Your leader essentially has the entirety of the harlequin arsenal, including the specialty pistols if you didn't put them on anyone else. Also unique to the leader is the power sword, which gives the power of a harlequin's blade but with Lethal 5+ for ease of crits.
• Player (Combat, Scout): Each harlequin is gifted with an exceptional APL3, which allows them to perform quite a bit and can even help restore the old move-shoot-move shenanigans of old before accounting for the Between Colours ploy. While the statline gives them a miserable 6+ save, their holo-fields instead provide a 4+ invulnerable save to protect them at range.
  • Their primary gun is the short-ranged shuriken pistol, as powerful as a bolt pistol and given Rending. If you want more bang, you can also provide one (and ONLY ONE member of the kill-team) either fusion pistol to melt through enemy armor or a neuro-disruptor for Stun.
  • Their melee options are far more diverse and nowhere near as limited. The harlequin's kiss deals little damage but any crits deal more than double that base damage. The harlequin's caress deals considerably more damage and has Rending to maximize Crits. The harlequin's embrace and blade act as the middle-ground, the difference being that the blade has Balanced while the embrace has Brutal in order to overwhelm the opposition.
• Death Jester (Marksman): There's only one thing the Jester is for and that is heavy weapons. Their shrieker cannon is Heavy, but it carries quite a bit of firepower with Rending for more crits and Fusillade can split fire between multiple models. The cannon also has a blade at the end which deals a respectable amount of damage and includes Reap 2 in case you find the jester facing crowds. Any damage your targets sustain from these shots also counts them as injured, crippling them for your other players to dive in. Unfortunately, this gun's main drawback is being Heavy, meaning that the jester can't shoot this while moving...unless you buy the support grip.
  • A curious action for the Jester is the ability to swap Fusillade for Torrent. While in most cases this won't mean much, using Torrent means that you can shoot through anyone hiding behind their colleagues. The issue is that it costs 2 AP, which is a crazy cost.
• Shadowseer (Marksman, Scout): Your resident psyker, benefiting from the same free casting that the Warpcoven has. Their combat prowess is as effective as the other harlequins, with their miststave dealing as much damage as a basic blade and carrying Stun to overwhelm enemies. They only have the option to take a neuro-disruptor if you didn't put it on anyone else, with the fusion pistol not being present.
  • Rather than being gear, they can use hallucinogen grenades as a single-use special action. While it still has a range of 6"/pentagon and has a blast radius of 2"/circle, but instead of rolling to hit, you need to roll d6 for each target, subtracting 1 if the target's behind cover. On a 4+, the target loses an AP and suffers a MW on a 6+, making it a decent way to shut down any crowds from escaping without costing them.

VDT Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Between Colours (1 CP): Your operatives can always shoot while moving (except for the Death Jester and his penis-compensatingly massive gun), allowing you a lot of versatility as you shoot in between cover points.
• Cegorach's Jest (1 CP): Whenever your operatives fight in melee, you can turn one normal hit by the enemy into either an attack or a parry if you roll equal to or below the enemy's WS. Perfect for forcing the grunts to play be your tune, but won't mean much for marines. Won't work on crits as of the Q2 2022 balance dataslate.
• Domino Field (1 CP): For the rest of this turning point, operatives that don't shoot and are within 1"/triangle of some cover will always count as having the Conceal order.
• Prismatic Blur (1 CP): An operative that moves, falls back or charges counts as a blur. This means the operative can re-roll one defense die when shot at and when in combat, they can twist any attacks the opponent makes into parries on a 4+ for feinting fun.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Capricious Role (1 CP): Upon activating an operative, you can let them charge or dash through enemy engagement range, letting you focus upon ideal enemies - which is vital for the odyssey allegory.
• Murderous Entrance (1 CP): When an operative scores a critical hit following a charge, you can make one of your other attack die count as a hit as well.
• The Curtain Falls (1 CP): After an operative fights in melee, they can immediately fall back for 1 AP. This can always be done, even if this operative had charged beforehand.
• Ruthless Derision (1 CP): When your operatives shoot after falling back, you can re-roll any hit die. Using the comedy allegory will see this used a lot if you want to keep up your damage output.

</tab> </tabs>

VDT Strategies

VDT Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

Corsair Voidscarred (Nachmund)

Why Play Corsair Voidscarred

• Pros
  • Extreme agility, unmatched by even the Harlequins.
  • No seriously, they're incredibly fast. They move more than double the speed of Necrons or Death Guard every turn, minimum.
  • Shuriken weapons remain plenty deadly, and your basic shuriken rifles even get Balanced for re-rolls.
• Cons
  • Your specialists will suffer against anything they aren't built for

CV Equipment

• Diuturnal Mantle (2 EP): Gives a 3+ save against ranged attacks with Torrent or Blast.
• Plasma Grenade (3 EP): Same as the others. MVP.
• Corsair Blade (1 EP): A3 WS3+ D3/4, simple blade to give to models that only have Fists or Gun Butts in melee.
• 0-1 Ocular Scanner (2 EP): Gives the bearer a 1AP Ocular Scan action that grants its ranged weapons No Cover for a turn. Kind of expensive considering that it's one per kill team and there are better options.
• Runes of Protection (2 EP): Can reroll defense dice against psychic shooting attacks. Situational, but would be good against Warp Coven, Grey Knights, etc.
• 0-1 Mistfield (3 EP): Voidscarred Felarch only. Gives them and any other Corsairs within 2"/circle of them a 5+ invulnerable save. Your operatives should be too mobile for this to be much use.
• 0-1 Lodestar Helm (2 EP): Voidscarred Way Seeker only. This renders them immune to the mortal wounds if it rolls a 1 or 2 when manifesting a second psychic power in an activation.
• 0-1 Pathfinder Cloak (2 EP): Voidscarred Fate Dealer only. Upgrades their Camo Cloak to make it always have Conceal even if targeted by an enemy on a Vantage Point or similar. Hopefully your Fate Dealer would be up high already, but this could be clutch if you're wanting the ranger rifle to be doing some heavy lifting against a particular problem enemy operative in that game.

CV Psychic Powers

• Lightning Strike: A pretty powerful ranged attack with AP1. A good replacement for an otherwise limited pistol.
• Warding Shield: One friendly operative within 6"/pentagon of the psyker gains a 3+= save to protect them from a sudden sniper or melta shot.
• Chilling Grasp: One visible enemy loses 2"/circle of movement and cannot use Dash, leaving them pretty trapped. Especially crippling on injured foes or on the Death Guard.
• Warp Fold: The psyker and one friendly operative within 6"/pentagon of them immediately switch places. Unfortunately, the many options this has for objective retrieval are not meant to be, as any objectives that either member may carry are immediately dropped before moving.

CV Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Flawless Raid: Score 1 VP at the start of any turn where you scored more VP than the enemy, rewarding you for gaining an early lead over the opponent.
• Soul Guard: Revealed in the first turn. Whenever your operatives died, they drop a Spirit Stone where they dropped. Your operatives can then spend an action to pick up these stones. While you gain 2 VP if you never lose a guy, you gain 1 VP if you are carrying at least half your total spirit stones, and another if you have all of them.
• Opportunists: Revealed in the first turn. Mark three enemy operatives. When any of these enemies die, they drop a token of loot that you can pick up. You score 1 VP if you pick up at least half your loot, and another for picking up all the loot.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Path of the Reaver"> Note - This counts as the Recover Archaeotech Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. On the Rise: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Boots on the Rob & Ransack, Retrieval and Opportunists Tac Ops. All of these focus on stealing the enemy's shit, so make sure you get in and out fast.
2. Now the Target: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Protect Assets Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 2 RP and two pieces of rare equipment, making it an excellent choice if you're really angling to pick up something particular. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Aggressive Raid"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Strike Hard and Fast: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Flawless Raid, Rout or Overrun Tac Ops.
2. Fighting Withdrawal: Finish one last game where you score VP from either the Damage Limitation or Hold the Line Tac Op. Seeing as both of these prioritize protecting your side, make sure that you have plenty of cover to work with.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and a choice between one piece of Rare Equipment or expanding your Asset cap by one. In addition, your operatives will immediately pass any recovery and casualty checks they make. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Important Fate: The first time an enemy scores a crit against this model in a turn, you degrade that crit to a normal hit.
2. Pirate Lord: This Operative can use the Light Fingers, Deadly Ambush or Opportunistic Fighters tactical ploys without spending CP.
3. Swift Hunter: Whenever this operative charges or uses the Deadly Ambush ploy, they add an additional inch/triangle to their movement.
4. Master of Concealment: This operative won't count as engaged when under a Conceal order and behind light terrain.
5. Expert Marksman: This operative can use the Take Aim action for free, which is only useful for those with a shuriken rifle.
6. Cut-throat: Whenever this operative fights in melee against an enemy and you either have support or attack when the enemy is not readied, these attacks gain Rending for a bit of extra crits.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• The Bounty (1 RP): Available whenever you score 2 VP from the Opportunists or Retrieval tac ops. This lets you throw a piece of Rare Equipment into your stash.
• Soul Memories (1 RP): When an operative fails a recovery check hard enough to die, one of your remaining operatives gains d3 XP for each rank the dead guy had above Adept.
• Corsair Hero (1 RP): When an operative gains the Revered rank, they gain an exclusive Battle Honour that grants you an additional CP each turn.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Hoard of Spoils: +1 CP for the first turn. Useful for any first-turn plans that require that additional ploy.
• Webway Entrance: During the Scouting step, you can take the Recon option on top of whatever you normally chose, but your initiative will still be determined by that first choice.
• Aerial Support: Once per game, one of your operatives can fire a missile from a plane, a 3/5 damage Blast with Heavy, No Cover and Unwieldy, so you'll need them to have someone stationary to fire this.

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1. Long-Sight Helm (3 EP): Any guns this operative uses gain the Ceaseless rule, excellent for gunners, heavy gunners, and dual-wielding riflemen.
2. Flip Belt (2 EP): Grants the Fly keyword, letting them fly through a lot of difficult terrain.
3. Spirit Stone (4 EP): Voidscarred Soul Weaver only. This allows the Soul Weaver to use their Soul Channel twice per activation, offering more welcome support.
4. Psychoreactive Armour (3 EP): Bearer gains a 3+ save.
5. Relic Power Weapon (3 EP): One power weapon the bearer has gains the Balanced trait for a re-roll when swinging it.
6. Relic Witch Staff (2 EP): Voidscarred Way Seeker only. This allows your Way Seeker to re-roll their channeling check when casting a second spell.

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CV Units

All Corsair Voidscarred have Aeldari Agility as a universal rule. Simply put, each operative can perform one Dash action for free during the activation. This gives Corsairs 3 actions per turn consistently, though unfortunately they don't have APL3 in any functional way for ObSec etc.

This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of 9 of the following:

• 1 Voidscarred Felarch
• 8 of the following:
  • 0-8 Voidscarred Warrior
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Gunner
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Heavy Gunner
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Starstorm Duellist
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Kurnite Hunter
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Shade Runner
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Kurnathi
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Fate Dealer
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Way Seeker
  • 0-1 Voidscarred Soul Weaver

• Voidscarred Felarch (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Your Leader. Comes with the flexibility offered to other corsair warriors, but also provides a limited way to give a means to GA2, as they can immediately let another corsair within 3"/square activate immediately afterwards. This means a lot more in the middle of a fight where the assistance would be most handy or if you need an instant pick-me-up from the Soul Weaver, but there are plenty of other ways to utilize this.
  • Of course, the Felarch can focus on shooting, only relying on a shuriken rifle with the respective action for Balanced. If you go melee, the Felarch gets their power weapon with no questions asked and the option for either a shuriken pistol or a neuro disruptor nabbed from the space clowns, complete with AP1 and Stun to rob AP.
• Voidscarred Warrior (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Your basic trooper behaves like an extra-nimble guardian with two different and dangerous loadouts. The shuriken pistol is limited by range, but still retains rending and gives you a power sword on your basic troopers, which isn't something most teams can brag about. If you want to go ranged, you can instead provide a shuriken rifle with infinite range, which comes with an extra action you can use to provide Balanced on the rifle for a little reliability.
• Voidscarred Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Rather than swords, this guy carries special guns. The blaster provides high-powered AP2 damage made to destroy marines and the Shredder gives shuriken cannon-tier damage but in Blast form to cover crowds of enemies.
• Voidscarred Heavy Gunner (Marksman, Scout): As the heavy gunner, this guy likely won't be moving much if you want to make the most out of their big gun. Both of their guns having Unwieldy also means that they'll need protection or else they'll become sparkly confetti by the next genestealer that bumrushes them. The shuriken cannon provides a blanket of fire with Fusillade while the wraithcannon with high-powered AP2 damage that deals MW4 on a crit for devastation.
  • Note that you can have a gunner OR a heavy gunner, not both, so think about which is better suited to the mission.
• Voidscarred Shade Runner (Combat, Scout): Your sneaky assassin comes with not just a pistol but also throwing knives with Silent for tossing while hiding and paired knives that compensate for their less-than-mighty damage with Relentless. On top of that, they can spend an AP to walk across and cut up one enemy they walked past, offering the ability to deal damage without even getting into combat.
  • To those questioning the merits of taking this guy over the Kurnathi, another detail to note is the Fly keyword, allowing this guy unprecedented mobility, whether it's vertical movement or hopping across ravines. While the Kurnathi can stand up better in a fight, they're still just walking rather than using a ghetto Warp Spider backpack. This can mean a lot for Tac Ops that require a lot of movement.
• Voidscarred Kurnite Hunter (Combat, Scout): A sword-wielding warrior with a pet bird. They can spend an action to call their parrot over and roll a d6 on a visible enemy with the Conceal order (+1 if they're within 6"/pentagon, +1 if the enemy isn't readied, +1 if they aren't next to heavy cover); on a 6+ that enemy now counts as having the Engage order, opening them to all sorts of fire. While this sounds helpful, the fact that you need to roll a 6+ and expectations for the modifies will dampen your expectations enough to wonder if it's worth it.
• Voidscarred Kurnathi (Combat, Scout): A corsair with paired power weapons, providing Relentless. Their chief trick is the ability to use one hit in combat to parry an enemy attack before going through the enemy's fight action. This is best saved for enemies with a few devastating attacks like a massive chainaxe or the like, since this counts as just an average parry.
• Voidscarred Fate Dealer (Marksman, Scout): The sniper acts a lot like a Ranger, including the camo cloak offering another save. However, the Fate Dealer's rifle deals a staggering MW3 on a crit, making them a far better choice for nailing enemies. The Fate Dealer also has an action that provides the rifle with Balanced, which can be helpful for crit fishing.
• Voidscarred Way Seeker (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Your Psyker is fortunate in that it can cast twice natively, but it has limitations. While they can auto-cast one power, they do need to roll a d6 for their second power (and unlike the Balefire Adept, you don't need to spend EP for this second casting) with a 1 or 2 causing 3 mortal wounds and nothing else. This also means that their melee prowess pales in comparison to even the base warrior - This staff is no power weapon and is only a bit better than using your fists. Do not leave your Way Seeker anywhere they can easily be targeted or charged.
• Voidscarred Soul Weaver (Combat, Marksman, Scout): The Soul Weaver is an odd fusion of medic and comms officer, giving the options of both a bonus AP and d3 wounds to friendly operatives within 6"/pentagon. While that healing can be used twice a turn rather than once like other medics, do observe that one heal only does d3 wounds rather than the 2d3 offered by the Veteran Guardsman or Pathfinder medics. Also very worth observing is the lack of any resurrection options. This means that you have to be more careful with your injured operatives as you can only slightly nudge them out of the danger zone and hope that they can survive long enough to flee.

CV Ploys

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• Plunderers (1 CP): Up to three operatives can immediately dash, though this dash must bring you closer to any objectives if they're on the field.
• Rapid Strike (1CP): Each time a friendly operative Fights (i.e. you're the Attacker), if the target operative has already had their activation that turn, then you can upgrade a normal hit to a critical hit.
• Outcasts (1CP): Each time a model fights in a combat (doesn't need to be the Attacker) or Shoots, if they're more than 6"/pentagon from any other friendly operatives then, if you get any critical hits, you can upgrade a failed hit to a successful normal hit.
• Aeldari Agility (1 CP): Your operatives add 1"/triangle to any move, fall back, or dash moves. However, they can't fight or shoot whenever they do so, meaning its best uses are for a desperate escape or a mad dash towards an objective.

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• Opportunistic Fighters (1CP): When an enemy model Falls Back, they suffer d3 mortal wounds for each of your Corsairs within engagement range of it. Fantastic way to lock an enemy operative into combat and prevent it from scurrying backwards to go tag an objective or something.
• Light Fingers (1CP): Give the active operative a free mission action or Pick Up, even if within engagement range of an enemy operative. Where Opportunistic Fighters prevents the enemy from leaving combat to score an objective, the enemy can't stop you!
• Deadly Ambush (1CP): After an enemy operative finishes moving with an action, whether it's a Fall Back, Normal Move, Dash, Charge, whatever, select a friendly model that's not within engagement range of any enemies. They can immediately Charge the enemy operative that moved (but only up to 3"/square), but must finish within engagement range of that operative. We Heroically Intervening, now, boys.
• One Step Ahead (1CP): At the end of the Initiative phase of the first Turning Point (not sure how this is a tactical ploy because of that, but fine), you can redeploy 0-2 Corsairs following the normal set up rules. This is good for moving them **and** changing their order.

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CV Strategies

CV Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here