Just about lumbering out of the “other” category for this edition of the guide, a bunch of things about 9th mean that the Avatar is quite a bit more attractive than they ever really were in 8th. They’re still not cheap, but as Expert Crafters they’re pretty deadly in a fight, and bring a handy re-roll charges and fearless aura, which can combine well with trying to push units into combat from deep strike with Ghostwalk. The Avatar Resurgent is also very strong now, because if you’re willing to plow CP into it, this model can speedbump opposing melee brawlers for multiple turns with essential impunity, and will definitely deal at least some damage in return. Are all sensible Eldar players hoping that the Avatar inserts a big straw into whatever Ghaz and the Nightbringer have been drinking recently prior to the Craftworld codex landing? Absolutely, but right now there’s a least a semi-viable frame to build around here. If you’re doing that, strongly consider the Falcon’s Swiftness warlord trait, as getting a 9″ base move is appreciably helpful here. Other HQs High Mobility: Units tend to be fast relative to similar options in other armies, most vehicles FLY and your characters can ride jetbikes to get them wherever they need to be. After the cataclysmic Fall of the Eldar in the 30th Millennium following the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Craftworld Eldar began to walk both the Eldar Paths and make use of Spirit Stones to protect their souls from being devoured by the eternal hunger of Slaanesh, She Who Thirsts. When an Eldar dies, his or her Spirit Stone is reverently grafted to the Wraithbone core of his or her Craftworld in the place known as the Dome of Crystal Seers, joining and mingling with the countless souls of the past Eldar already present within the Craftworld's structure. The resulting gestalt psychic entity is known as the Infinity Circuit, and is an integral part of a Craftworld's life, subtly providing guidance to the living Eldar dwelling within the Craftworld and protecting them against Warp-spawned perils. Of all the Craftworlds, Spiritseers are most common in Iyanden, as this particular Craftworld has a very small population and even fewer warriors. The most powerful Spiritseer among them is Iyanna Arienal, "the Angel of Iyanden", who is doing everything she can to save her home and her people. [1a] Attribute – Stoic Endurance: Your units automatically pass combat attrition tests, and your vehicles count as having double wounds remaining for statline purposes.

The following builds using these have some real merit, and should be starting points for many lists: Vaul’s Might (1CP): Lets two support weapons re-roll wound rolls of 1 for a phase if they’re close to one another. Has always looked terrible, and Expert Crafters makes it look comically terrible. F

Smite

I’m very happy with the results and my progress so far. Working on this project alongside some friends, who are also progressing their armies during the pandemic, has really motivated me. In fact, I had my first tabletop game in about 20 years just the other day – a game of Warhammer 40,000 using the first 500 points of this army, all fully painted! We had an absolute blast. The Spiritseer from Wake the Dead was designed to upgrade the classic resin Spiritseer using cutting-edge technology as well as new design elements to properly reflect their rank and role in the Aeldari army.

Stand Firm: Fearless. Another option for building tough squads, but if that was my plan I’d probably favour Defend given the melee skew of 9th. C Aeldari legends tell that a few Wraithseers still remain trapped upon their old colony worlds in the space of the ancient Aeldari Empire, buried as the leaders of an Aeldari world's spirit host, but now long-lost. To round it all off, most of the green gems on the weapons were done by painting two coats of Ork Flesh straight out of the pot. Protect/Jinx (WC7): Protect gives a friendly unit +1 to saving throws, Jinx gives an enemy -1 to theirs. Importantly, both of these affect invulnerable saves, and that makes this easily the best power in here and one of the best in the game. Taking enemy invulns down by a point is a gigantic boost to your output against a single target, and against lots of popular Marine choices just giving your regular shots an effective extra one AP is a big deal too. Combine this with Doom to really ruin something’s day. Not only is Jinx incredible, Protect is extremely good as well when you need to try and keep a key unit alive. It’s especially good on anything with a decent invuln, and can make Wraithblades, Shining Spears or even Guardians with Celestial Shield a nightmare to shift, but it’s also great on Dark Reapers in cover. You’ll almost always want one caster with this. A+Starhawk Missile (1CP): An INFANTRY model with a Missile Launcher gets +1 to hit against a FLY target and does d3 MWs instead of normal damage. Once upon a time this could be relevant on Dark Reaper Exarchs, but now they have access to Rapid Shot (which doesn’t combo with this) they’ll pretty much always want to do that. D A Spiritseer is an HQ choice available to the Craftworld Aeldari known as the Asuryani though they can also be called upon to join the Ynnari. Each is a skilled psyker on the battlefield, able to wield powers from the Ruins of Battle discipline. They work especially well alongside Spirit Host units such as Wraithguard and towering Wraithknights, where the Spiritseers otherworldly Spirit Mark will enhance the accuracy of the mighty ghost warriors. The upshot of this is that unless you’re planning on either Charging or performing an Action you can pretty much be advancing with a lot of your units all the time, significantly increasing your mobility around the board. Craftworld Attributes A rare and deadly Wraithseer of Craftworld Mymeara, armed with an energised Ghostglaive blade and a Distortion Cannon. That conclave (plus a farseer?) that you just webwayed out in someone’s face are going to die really easily to small arms fire and/or assault. And that’s a lot of points to suicide.

Fate’s Messenger: Gives you +1 wound and a 6+ Feel No Pain. Boring, but if you have nothing better to do it isn’t bad. C+ When you select a PSYKER unit to manifest psychic powers, you select one psychic power that unit knows and attempt to manifest it. With the exception of Smite, you cannot attempt to manifest the same psychic power more than once in the same battle round, even with different PSYKER units. The same PSYKER unit cannot attempt to manifest Smite more than once during the same battle round. Their armour is decorated by arrays of gleaming precious stones, which Imperial scholars believe both power and guide these daunting constructs. Mobile Fighters: Re-roll hit rolls of 1 for a unit that disembarked from a transport this turn. Niche, but Dark Reapers fading in and out of a transport is one of the stronger combos the faction has left, and this helps boost them up with minimal further support. C+The most common setup sees Dire Avengers fielded in units of 5 led by an Exarch with two guns, usually riding in a Wave Serpent (two squads can fit in one, which is nice). This unit weighs in at a mere 55 points, making filling out detachments pretty reasonable, and thanks to Battle Focus and their 18” range can bring their powerful anti-infantry firepower to bear a surprising distance when jumping out of their ride. In the earlier versions of Warhammer 40,000, the Wraithlord was simply a Dreadnought as fielded by any other of the fictional races of the game. The Spiritseer was the then-equivalent of the Wraithlord but retained the ability to use psychic powers in play. Superior Shurikens: +4″ range on Shuriken weapons. Lets Dire Avengers in particular reach surprisingly far with their guns, and on 9th’s small board gives lets you operate very effectively. B

And lots of units want to hide, that is not a design flaw. Artillery, support characters, MSU units, etc. all want to keep their heads down. That’s just a part of the game.Most of these support specific, niche applications being deployed from smaller detachments either alongside a main force using a conventional trait or in soup. Wraithblades are the closest thing Craftworlds have to a true brawler unit, which makes them worth at least thinking about in lists, but as it stands both options are a bit short of hitting the notes they need to really work.