Warhammer 40K: Return of the Aeldari Deathstar – Beware!
Goatboy here and the Aeldari are going to be hitting the Warhammer 40K tabletop, with a very nasty Deathstar. Here’s how it works.
Like a whirlwind of pain the new Codex Aeldari army is full of consistent damage, fast speed, and what looks like a return of some Deathstar like action. If you didn’t play 40k back in 7th edition days – the Deathstar is a combo unit of a bunch of characters that creates a very powerful unit that is very hard to kill. Now this new one isn’t nearly as brutal as the old ones but in an environment of quick movement this combo of options can be very very brutal.
Putting the Aeldari Deathstar Together
Warlock Conclave
Let’s start with the combos of units you can do. The Aeldari book has a Warlock Conclave unit – which is a unit of Warlocks that can join up with Storm Guardians. What makes this interesting is a whole bunch of words that allows you to attach other units to Storm Guardians – as long as the initial attached option is a Warlocks unit. Let me show you.
Eldrad
The Old Farseer can join all the Guardians but he can also join the Warlock Conclave unit. This lets him now become a Warlock unit and thus allow other units he joins with recognize him as a Warlock unit. You can take 4 Warlocks and Eldard to join up with 10 Guardian Defenders. Now this unit – which now has 10 dudes plus 4 Warlocks and Eldrad can now have a Farseer get attached to the unit. The Farseer only cares about if the unit has no other characters or only a Warlock character unit attached.
Next Add Guardians
This now gets you Eldrad, a Farseer, 4 Warlocks, and 10 Guardian Defenders. You can also take a D-Cannon Platform and add it to the unit. This gives you another weapon Platform to carry around and access to a rather brutal damage attack. All of this is pretty nutty but it starts to get crazy when you throw this all into the Seer Council detachment and you see some of the fun things you can do.
Detachments & Stratagems
You have a Stratagem called Forewarned that gives the unit a -1 to be hit and to be wounded. This is pretty spicy on this little mini death star. You also have a teleport option with Unshrouded Truth that lets you pick up the unit and teleport it around the table. Heck you get a Lone Op stratagem for the unit too in Psychic Shield. The Seer Council has the wonky fate dice rule that discounts the stratagems if you roll the right Fate Dice per Battle Round which can be very powerful in this army to create a really annoying murder ball of a unit that floats around the table and throws out damage.
How Much Damage Can the Aeldari Deathstar Put Out?
Let’s look at the damage to get an idea.
- First we have the D-Cannon Platform that throws out D3, Str 16, AP -4, and Damage D6+2 shots from this model.
- Next you got a Bright Lance shot from the smaller baby platform that his shoots 1 shot, Str 12, AP -3, and Damage D6+2 shot.
- Then you have 10 Guardians shooting out 20 Str 4, AP -1, and 1 Damage shots at something.
- The 4 Warlocks now have 4d6+8 torrent shots at Str 7, AP -1, and Damage 3 auto hits as well as 4 Singing Spear attacks that are Str 9, AP 0, and Damage 3.
- The Farseer shoots out Eldritch storm which is a D6, Str 6, AP -2, and Damage D3 shots into something with blast.
- Finally Eldrad has Minder that is a Precision, Anti Character 4+, 1 shot, Str 5, AP -2, and D6 damage shot into something.
Oh and also Eldrad can make an enemy unit have +1 to be wounded by Aeldari and the Farseer can give the target a +1 to be hit by Aeldari as well as shift a hit, wound, or damage roll to a 6. This is a pretty brutal set of damage that can be poured out into something especially that can float around, be hard to hit, and hard to damage in return. Oh as a Farseer is leading the Warlock Conclave unit it is also -1 to be wounded too.
This is just an insane amount of stacks and I wonder if it will be hit quickly by the GW nerfbat?
What do you think? Is this a hot mess waiting to happen? Are you going to find all your Warlock Conclave models and create a super unit to rival all the other great super groups out there? Is this going to be just be a huge point sink that people will try to play around?
