Part 1 – Craftworld Aeldari Troops
The craftworld forces have over the years seen some units drop in and out of the core of the army. In 8th edition we have 4 choices to consider
The Guardian Defender
The Storm Guardian
The Ranger
And the Dire Avenger
Lets check them out one at a time
The guardian defender is the core of the craftworld forces but its an oddity of a profile for the table. Boasting a base profile slightly better than an Imperial Guardsman, the Guardian defenders are relatively cheap and cheerful troops choices. Armed with the humble shuriken catapult, they have a decent volume of fire in even minimum squads with the special rule bladestorm allowing them threaten heavy armour save targets. 10 defenders with a weapon platform is a pretty standard build while 20 and 2 platforms can be highly effective when utilising some of the craftworld stratagems like Webway Strike and celestial Shield. Of special note is the Ulthwe stratagem – Discipline of the Black Guardians which gives the whole unit +1 to hit for the phase, making 20 of them highly efficient if short ranged killers.
Storm Guardians are a unit that has had a checked past. Cheaper than the Defender but armed with a pistol and sword rather than the catapult, the Storm Guardian seems an unlikely combatant. The main advantages they have are cost – being very cheap to put in an army, and unit size with 8 models all the way up to 24. They can also bring along a couple of flamers or fusion guns if you feel so inclined but the bare 8 with no upgrades to take up a troops choice is the most common use. If you can, always swap the aeldari blade for a chainsword – depending on your wysiwyg requirements because the extra attack is better than rerolling 1 attack should you ever see them in combat. The official kit is a hybrid finecast plastic kit which isn’t cheap on the wallet but if you have harlequins – or maybe a friend does – the shuriken pistol and sword arms work easily with the plastic guardian kit to give you this troops choice.
Rangers continue the theme of profiles again being slightly better than an imperial guardsman but this time we have them armed for sniper duties. Boasting a decent range, the ability to target characters and deal mortal wounds sounds good until you take into account the appalling rate of fire, heavy weapon status of their gun and unit size of 5 to 10. Don’t expect too many kills with these sneaky warriors unless you can draw a bead on the characters with less wounds you normally see as support. What they do well is hide. They boast an innate minus one to hit and add two to their saves while in cover. On top of that they can deploy from reserve via a deepstrike style rule to allow you to have them where you need them. Making them alaitoc and using the Pathfinders stratagem makes them even tougher since you only hit them on a roll of 6 in the shooting phase. Most craftworld forces will field 1-2 units of these troops for just these reasons, scoring objectives and taking care of light support characters.
Dire avengers are the main battle line aspect warrior for the craftworlds and their cost and profile reflects this. They have increased stats over a guardian defender – mostly in the form of 4+ armour and leadership 8. With a squad size of 5-10 they can be cheap and cheerful troops or be utilised in larger units in similar manner to guardian defenders though the biggest advantage they have is the longer 18” range on their primary weapon. Combined with battle focus and stratagems like Matchless agility for a guaranteed 6” advance these aspects can move 13” then shoot 18” – a surprising threat range for many opponents! They also overwatch on 5+ rather than 6’s like other units making charging them that little bit more risky. Add to this the unit may upgrade one of their models to an Exarch for free. This should essentially always be done for the unit – there is no reason not to! The model gains an extra wound in this process, as well as an extra attack. The exarch can be left with the standard weapon, upgrade to a pair of the avenger catapults, swap to a dire sword or glaive and pistol or even a glaive and shimmershield, the latter of which gives the whole unit a 5+ invulnerable save! Most of the time its better to keep the exarch with just the basic catapult or the dual version.
The exarch also has an exarch power called Battle Fortune which gives the exarch a 4+ invulnerable save which can make him surprisingly durable. You can also, as of phoenix rising release, swap this power for one of 6 new powers. These powers can make the unit much more effective in some cases at the expense of the exarch losing his battle fortune rule or for a single command point, keep battle fortune and a single dire avenger exarch in your army can have it and one more!
All 6 of the powers have some merit – Blade storm is great for you to add even more hits from the unit and it even works on overwatch. Defend when combined with the shimmershield will let the unit survive when it otherwise might not in combat. Standfirm makes moral a non issue which is always welcome in the later parts of the game but suffers from the unit simply being wiped out so the rule is not used. Martial adept increases the exarches weapon and ballistic skill which isn’t terrible but likely not worth the swap in the long run. Shredding fire makes the exarch more dangerous with ranged attacks and should be stacked with dual avenger catapults if you take it. Avenging strikes is another solid power, making the whole unit more effective once they have taken at least one casualty – the plus one to wound is especially welcome as it helps trigger bladestorm as well.
So to sum up, all 4 of the Troops choices have a place in the craftworld army but like all of the units from the craftworld range, you have to choose the one that is fit for the purpose you have in mind.