Spot Light: The Visarch, Sword of Ynnead

The last of the spotlight series for the Ynnari heroes is that of the Visarch, the Sword of Ynnead, featured in Gathering Storm part 2. While perhaps the ‘weakest’ of the 3 heroes, the Visarch still has a few tricks!

The Visarch, Sword of Ynnead

The Visarch is Yvraine’s chosen champion. He epitomises the matchless grace of the Aeldari in form as well as in deed. Clad in baroque armour of the ancient Bel-Anshoc style, the Visarch wears many faces upon his battle plate, just as he channels many souls within his mortal form. Like many of the Reborn, he has one dominant personality, but can channel the essences of those lost souls he has accumulated to become all the more lethal. Where one personality’s skills are not suited to his immediate need, another rises to the fore, lending him a critical edge when duelling the champions of the Dark Gods. In the heat of battle, the Visarch can strike with the sure sword of an Exarch, channel the murderous rampage of an Incubus, or use the acrobatic prowess of a Wych, charging and darting through the enemy to leave only twitching limbs and dismembered torsos in his wake. Those who scream in terror or pain soon find themselves robbed of their voices, for the Sword of Silent Screams brings a deathly hush when drawn in anger – the silence of the grave into which the Visarch ushers his foes.

 Visarch, Ynnari

The Visarch is the chosen champion of Yvraine and again, his rules are generally very good reflecting that. His statline is closest to that of the phoenix lords – though he lacks the strength and toughness of those warriors. He also, critically, only has a 3+ save compared to the 2+ borne by the ancient phoenix lords.

His special rules are fairly extensive – Eternal warrior, fleet, independent, stubborn, strength from death, precision strikes and rampage(!!!) – as well as 3 unique rules.

The first special rule – Champion of Ynnead is essentially the same as Yvraines Herald rule – save that instead of gaining psychic mastery when psykers are slain, the Visarch gains an additional attack (to a max of 7) when an eldar model is slain that is a character. This is an easy one to cultivate – a few judicious ‘sergeant’ upgrades should see the Visarch capped out quickly enough. Combined with a charge bonus and, ideally, rampage – the visarch will have 10 attacks in most combats! Its even worse when you consider his statline and the weapon he bears… the Asu-var, The Sword of Silent Screams.

Asu-var is a fantastic blade. A decent strength boost (how I wish he was base S4!), ap2 and a special rule called silence. This rule forces enemy units within 3” of the Visarch to use their lowest LD for their unit rather than the highest. Combined with a few of the LD debuff psychic powers or wargear items, this weapon could be very dangerous.

Moving on, the Visarch has a rule called Warden of Yvraine – allowing her to automatically pass look out sir rolls while he is in the same unit as her. He however must have the wounds allocated to him in this case. He also automatically passes glorious intervention tests for Yvraine. Not a hugely ground breaking rule but it does allow you to move wounds between the character (remember they heal when eldar die as well!) so as to tank hits for the more fragile unit they are part of.

Yvraine, Visarch

The last rule is Way of the Visarch. This allows the Visarch to always generate a warlord trait from the Ynnari traits even when he is not the warlord (though he is considered to be the warlord for the purposes of the trait he generates). I really like the warlord traits for the Ynnari and each is a solid buff for the Visarch – so we might as well take a peak at them now!

Lord of Rebirth gives the warlord the It will not die rule – pretty solid when the Ynnari heroes are all eternal warrior!

Warden of Forgotten Wisdom allows a warlord who is a psyker to select their powers rather than rolling them. This result can be rerolled if the warlord is not a psyker. This is likely the best result on the entire chart for most of the models you want as warlord and the Visarch gets to reroll it.

Walker of Many Paths allows the warlord to gain a special rule at the start of your turn which can be changed at the start of your next turn. Furious charge, hit and run and move through cover are the options and all are pretty good.

Master of Death gives the warlord the Instant Death special rule on 6’s to wound for any of your warlords attacks. While on the surface this rule is obviously a combat rule (and combined with the stats on the characters who will be rolling on this chart it makes for a mean combo) but the fact it works on any of your warlords attacks adds an interesting option for ranged weapons – An Autarch with reaper launcher or las blaster for instance.

Ruthless commander give the warlord and units within 7” the fearless rule – this is probably the weakest result on the chart to be honest

Favoured of Ynnead is the last trait and one of the best – giving the warlord (and his unit) a 14” range to trigger soulburst rather than the usual 7”. This is a huge buff for the warlord and unit!

So – the Visarch – another model that’s not an auto take and, in my mind, 25-50 points to expensive. If he has a shimmer shield or force shield, and the model certainly looks like he does!, then he would likely be worth the cost but as it stands, he is another theme fun choice over a truly ‘competitive’ one.

The model is so bad ass though that I will use him regardless!