40K: Black Guardians – Ulthwé Craftworld Focus
When you live this close to chaos you’ve got to be ready to fight the tide and the Black Guardians of Ulthwé are here to do just that!
Ulthwé is a craftworld on the brink of chaos – quite literally. It was caught it in the gravational pull of the Eye of Terror and has been fighting the tides of chaos ever sense. That battle has resulted in a craftworld of Eldar who are ready to fight at a moments notice. When they craftworld goes to war, every citizen is ready to fight. This is reflected in their special rules and unique attributes which we are going to look at today:
Craftworld Attribute – Foresight of the Damned
Every time an Ulthwé model loses a wound, you get 6+ to prevent that from happening. That’s just going to make you’re army 16.7% more durable than another Eldar army. It is interesting that this ability does not stack with other “Feel No Pain” type abilities – that’s the first time GW has made a clear distinction in that regard.
One unit the Ulthwé are famous for is the Black Guardians and they have a special stratagem to give them a boost in effectiveness:
In the index, Guardians already hit on a very respectable +3 in both shooting and close combat. Giving them a boost to hit will make them even more consistent. The Guardians will be hitting on +2 in the shooting phase even if they advanced (thanks to battle focus). That is reflective of the training the disciple the Ulthwé craftworld instills in their warriors.
Games Workshop also pointed out two more generic abilities that will help your Guardians become even more reliable on the tabletop top:
Celestial Shield is another stratagem that will grant your guardian units a +4 invulnerable save for the rest of the shooting phase. That could be very useful to keep a unit alive for a turn on an objective! Remember that stacks with their +6 “Feel No Pain” craftworld trait. It might not sound like much but it’s going to mean the enemy units will need to generate that many more wounds to wipe a squad!
The Path of Command looks like a generic ability that Autarchs will come with and it will certainly improve your odds of hitting. Re-rolling 1s to hit means that if you use Disciple of the Black Guardians you’re basically hitting on 2+ and re-rolling 1s. If a typical unit has 10 guardians thats probably going to be 18-20 hits (that’s excluding the heavy weapon). Those Shruiken Catapults are going to cause death by a thousand cuts…
The second part of that ability is also nice to have when it happens. Getting back those valuable Command Points can be a lifesaver later in the game.
One of the greatest heroes of the Ulthwé Eldar is none other than Eldrad Ulthran. He’s back with a vengeance – and some more things that the folks at GW elaborated on:
“Between a considerable cut in points and the vastly expanded Runes of Fate discipline, Eldrad Ulthran makes for the perfect leader for an Ulthwé army (it helps that he’ll be available to pre-order in plastic at the same time as the codex, too!).”
Expanded runes of fate? Points drop? A plastic model re-release? Oh GW, you tease! At least they also gave us a look at Mind War:
Mind War has been a staple of the Eldar psychic powers for many editions now. However, this edition could potentially be the most devastating version of it – not because it’s changed that much, but because the synergies in the army exist to cause a lot of damage. I’ll let GW explain how:
“Combine this ability with a nearby Hemlock Wraithfighter (which reduces enemy Leadership by 2), a unit of Warlocks casting Horrify (which reduces it by a 1) and you could quite easily cut down a key Commissar or even a Space Marine Ancient with a deadly deluge of mortal wounds.”
It’s probably a safe bet to assume Eldrad will have at minimum a 9 Leadership. Going after a character with a -3 to their leadership vs a 9 means you’ve got pretty good odds. With a good roll you just might melt their brains!
The Ulthwé are going to be an Eldar Army that will stick around long after it has any right to – they are tougher to kill and have some useful tools in their tool box to cause problems for folks on the tabletop. If you’re looking for a new army that will be versatile and a little bit more forgiving to use the Ulthwé are a good pick!
What do you think of the Ulthwé? Let us know in the comments below!
