a beginners guide to Aeldari Archives

Combat Patrol Aeldari

Like the other boxes the Combat Patrol box is filled with goodies and makes for fantastic savings when you’re starting out in collecting an army for 40k.

Inside the box you get:

Farseer (£18)
Wraithlord (£35)
10x Guardians (£32.50)
6x Windridets (£65.00)

That’s a total of £147.50 if you were buying these kits separately, meaning you get a saving of £57.50.

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).

Guardians (£32.50)
Howling Banshees (£35.00)
Shining Spears (£37.50)
Falcon (£35.00)

Meaning that the total army including Codex: Aeldari comes to a total of £262.50.

However, remember that if you email Sarah at scnhobbyworld@outlook.com and ask to go on her mailing list, you can get 25% off Games Workshop products. Meaning the whole lot including the books will cost you just £197!

Here’s our final 1,000 point list.

Faction: Aeldari Craftworlds
– Craftworld Selection: Far-Flung Craftworld
– Attributes: Hail of Doom

HQ
Farseer (100pts)*
– Psychic Power: Guide
– Warlord Trait: Fate’s Messenger
– Singing Spear
– Warlord
– Treasures of the Aeldari: Kurnous’ Bow

TROOPS
Guardian Defenders (120pts)*
– 10x Guardian Defender w/Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades
– Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Bright Lance
Guardian Defenders (120pts)*
– 10x Guardian Defender w/Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades
– Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Bright Lance

ELITES
Howling Banshees (95pts)*
– 1x Howling Banshee Exarch w/ Shuriken Pistol & Banshee Blade
– 4x Howling Banshee w/ Shruriken Pistol & Banshee Blade
Wraithlord (155pts)*
– 2x Shuriken Catapult
– 2x Bright Lance
– Ghostglaive

FAST ATTACK
Shining Spears (105pts)*
– 1x Shining Spear Exarch w/Laser Lance & Twin Shuriken Catapult
– 2x Shining Spear w/Laser Lance & Twin Shuriken Catapult
Windriders (120pts)*
– 6x Windrider w/Twin Shuriken Catapults

HEAVY SUPPORT
Falcon (185pts)*
– Bright Lance
– Twin Shuriken Catapult
– Crystal Targeting Matrix
– Spirit Stones

DETACHMENTS
*Patrol Detachment

Total: 1,000pts

FARSEER

This fellow is our only HQ choice and your Warlord, so you’ll want to keep him out of harms way.

With that in mind we’ve given him Fate’s Messenger as his Warlord Trait. Once per turn this will allow him to change the damage characteristic of an unsaved attack against him to 0. Remember he also has a 4+ invulnerable save as well making him reasonably tanky.

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).

On top of this we’ve given him a Singing Spear, which in melee hits and wounds on 2’s no matter the target doing a flat 3 damage. It also counts as an assault weapon and should be used instead of Kournous’ Bow when charging into combat with a character as it’ll do more damage to a single unit than the three attacks from the bow. In fact with a shooting phase followed by a combat phase this can down most single model HQ’s should they stray to close.

For his power we’ve selected Guide. If cast, this will allow a Craftworld Core or Craftworld Character within 18″ to re-roll their hit rolls for their attacks until your next Psychic Phase. If you cast this on a 10+ then that range increases to 24″. This applies to all the other units in our army list apart from the Falcon. Great for those Banshees in the combat phase.

You also have access to the powerful Eldritch Storm stratagem. Really great for grouped enemy units within 24″ of your Farseer. But, you want to cast Eldritch Storm and Guide? No problem!

With Unparalleled Mastery you can do just that! Admittedly you’ll be eating through your CP, but it’ll be fun right?

GUARDIAN DEFENDERS

These boys and girls are perfectly suited to holding objectives. When they’re within range of an objective they can re-roll hit rolls of 1 with their Shuriken Catapults. Ok these weapons aren’t much to write home about being Assault 2, Strength 4, -1 Armour Pen and 1 damage apiece. BUT, we’ve taken the Craftworld Attribute Hail of Doom, which means each unmodified hit roll of 6 automatically wounds the target. This will mean when they all open fire there should be on average 3-4 hits that go straight to the enemies save roll step. On top of this you could also use the stratagems Martial Citizenry and Bladestorm.

Bladestorm means that all those 6’s to hit you roll generate an additional hit – before you ask, you still have to make wound rolls for these hits they don’t auto wound under the Hail of Doom attribute.

While Martial Citizenry will allow you to re-roll 1’s to hit for attacks even when not near an objective.

We’ve also taken a Bright Lance weapons platform with both units of Guardians as these will add some nice anti-vehicle attacks to the army.

HOWLING BANSHEES

These are a great melee unit and great for throwing at infantry units you’d like to… what’s the term?… Blend?

When they charge, units are unable to fire overwatch or set themselves to defend due to their Banshee Masks.

With three attacks each (four for the Exarch) hitting on 3’s and wounding Marines on 4’s you should see 5 damage assigned to those marines before armour saves. Wait, did I say armour saves?! Silly me, they’re virtually non existent as they’ll be saving on 6’s, and that’s only thanks to their Armour of Contempt rule.

The Banshees can run and charge as well but be aware you’ll be hitting on 4’s in combat instead of 3’s, reducing that earlier damage output to 4 damage instead of 5.

With a save of 4+ and 5+ invulnerable you’ll want keep this unit safely out of harms way until you’re ready to use them. Perhaps consider placing them in the Falcon we’ll be looking at shortly? Alternatively for CP you could deploy them in reserve using Webway Strike.

This’ll keep them out of harms way until you need them and give them a chance at getting into the fray straightaway.

WRAITHLORD

I personally think this is one of the best models in the Aeldari range. We’ve equipped ours with two Bright Lances. This combined with its Ghostglaive (Crushing Strike) means it’s very good as a vehicle hunter should you need it.

In melee against infantry it can choose to use the Ghostglaive as standard, in which case the Wraithlord essentially doubles it’s attacks to 8 (Ghostglaive grants two hit rolls per attack). Those will be hitting on 2’s and wounding standard marine infantry on 3’s. That puts out around 8 damage on average before saves are made.

You can use the Tears of Isha stratagem to keep the Wraithlord as healthy and fighting fit as possible. Healing D3 wounds in the command phase for 1cp.

WINDRIDERS

These are great at taking our horde infantry like Orks or Astra Militarum. We’ve six bikes here which armed with Twin Shuriken Catapults amounts to 24 shots at S4 -1 AP. Hitting on 3’s and wounding Space Marines on 4’s. However, these guys and girls will also be re-rolling 1’s to hit thanks to their Swift Demise ability, and automatically causing additional wounds on 6’s thanks to Hail of Doom.

Use them to attack lightly armoured foes, capture objectives and harass the enemy lines.

SHINING SPEARS

The Shining Spears benefit from Twin Shuriken Catapults, but they also have additional shooting and combat capabilities thanks to their laser Lance.

The Laser Lance has a single strength 6 shot as range which may be ok for plucking a couple of wounds of a light vehicle or murdering a couple of Space Marines. Where it excels however is in the combat phase.

Make sure you charge with this unit, as doing so will give them +3 strength on the charge meaning you’re wounding Marines on 3’s instead of 5’s. With 3 attacks each (4 for the Exarch) you’ll find you’re causing 8 wounds worth of damage before saves. Saves? Yeah with -4 AP there isn’t much armour that can stand up to their charges. Including Space Marines. Getting your Farseer to cast Guide on them as well would really help.

FALCON

In the mid 2000’s I used to face my nephew’s army of Eldar two or three times a month. I came to hate his grav tanks, they just had all these tricks that meant they were so difficult to kill!

This unit is perfect for transporting your Howling Banshees around, getting them into combat quicker. With its Cloudstrike ability it can arrive from reserve an deliver it’s deadly cargo 9″ away from the enemy.

It comes armed with a Bright Lance for a little extra punch and it’s standard twin Shuriken Catapults.

WHAT NEXT?

I’d consider having some fun and getting some more of the specialist units like Fire Dragons, Swooping Hawks or Dire Avengers. But really, you need to probably lean into the speed of this list. Perhaps drop the Wraithlord and think about more bikes or things like Swooping Hawks etc.

I hope you enjoyed this, how would you build a 1,000 point list from the Combat Patrol Box? There may well be aspects of the codex or units that I have not included that you think should be, so why not let us know in the comments below.

Peter

Woehammer

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Combat Patrol: Aeldari – Beginners 1,000 Point Starter Army