Detachment Focus: Eldritch Raiders

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific Detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Eldritch Raiders Detachment for Codex: Aeldari.

It’s time to hoist a black flag with an especially delicate looking skull and crossbones upon it, because Aeldari Corsairs are here in force and mean business. Alongside their new miniatures, Corsairs get two dedicated Detachments, the first of which represents Prince Yriel’s own legendary forces. As you’d expect from such a force, it’s devoted to eviscerating your opponent with great alacrity, and we’ll find out how as we dig into it below.

Thanks to Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of these rules. We were also provided with a preview of the Munitorum Field Manual update, but any points referenced are subject to change until published on Warhammer Community and/or the Warhammer 40k App.

Detachment Overview

Iyande Corsairs - Credit: RichyP

The Eldritch Raiders want to play the standard Aeldari plan of hitting your opponent hard then avoiding the consequences, but more. Its Detachment rule ensures that powerful melee threats always have the reach to strike at your foe’s weaknesses, and it has some solid tricks to preserve your own forces. It’s also not exclusively tied to the forces of the Anhrathe - it has specific support for some other Outcast units like Rangers, and also provides a Detachment rule that's paradoxically excellent on some of the more durable Aeldari threats, and you’ll probably end up with a mixture of these two themes in any real lists.

Detachment Rule: Yriel’s Own

Aeldari units in your army can Advance/Charge. Any Anhrathe, Ranger or Shroud Runner units in your army can also re-roll Advance rolls.

Army-wide Advance/Charge is always worth sitting up and paying attention to, and the fact this isn’t Corsair-locked is surprising and welcome. It also means there’s two stages of processing for this rule, because first you think “eh, this is better on armies that apply durable pressure”, but then you remember that all of the Avatar, Wraithblades and Wraithlords do exist, and kind of love this. Hell you can even throw this on a Wraithknight and then immediately regret it once you remember that it dies to all the same things a C’tan does, and costs 100pts more.

The other stuff though, those are real units with this applied, and also work as a pretty effective anchor for the lithe, deadly killers of the Corsairs to operate around. Yriel’s unit is a nifty little missile with this applied, and there’s probably room to run some big units of Voidscarred here (even though they’re very pricey) to take advantage of some of the upgrades and Stratagems. If you want additional melee threats, don’t forget Harlequins can also benefit from this.

The Advance re-rolls are also cute, though obviously using them with Rangers or Shroud Runners neuters their damage output for a turn. It’s still pure upside though, so sure.

Enhancements - Veterans of the Void

Credit: Chris W.

Corsairs do not get normal Enhancements - instead, they get Corsair Enhancements, which work very similarly to normal Enhancements except that they can be applied to non-Characters units, Epic Heroes, and don’t have the three-per-army limit. I really, really wish that they were called something else to avoid the potential confusion, but you work with what you’ve got. Some still have limitations on who can take them, and indeed the first one is for Prince Yriel only.

Pirate Prince (15pts): Upgrade Prince Yriel with the Autarch Wayleaper ability - you get back a Battle Focus token on a 3+ when you use one on his unit. Sadly, this is a bit underwhelming - Battle Focus tokens are something you need to manage carefully, so having the risk of not getting a refund when you really need it makes this ability somewhat mediocre. If you have spare points sure, but don’t prioritise it, especially as Yriel is often going to play as a missile that dies swiftly after doing some damage.
Alacritous Assault (20pts): Gives an Anhrathe unit Lance on their melee weapons. You realistically drop this on a full Voidscarred unit planning to do a big play with Ruthless Killers, because I don’t think anything else quite has the heft for it to be worth it - 10 Skyreavers with this will still narrowly fail to kill five regular Space Marines on average dice, which is just embarrassing. Voidscarred aren’t massively better till you factor in the ability to double their damage output, at which point they’re nearly there, especially if you tee them up with Kharseth first.
Exotic Munitions (15pts): Gives a unit’s ranged weapons Anti-Monster/Vehicle 5+. A bit of a weird one, because there’s not really any use case where this does enough that you’re excited by it. You can have some Shuriken chip damage, sure, but that requires setting a unit up for shooting, which flies in the face of what everything else needs to do. You might take this on a Voidreaver unit you were planning to drop Kharseth in, but they almost certainly want the next one most of the time.
Adrenal Infusions (20pts): Give a unit a free use of Fade Back each turn, similar to Guardian Defenders. You probably take this on a full squad of Voidreavers with Kharseth - such a unit can usually tank one enemy volley and pull out of dodge, and in this Detachment such a survival can be exploited with Withdraw and Reinforce.

Stratagems

An interesting mix of Stratagems here, a mix of some that reward you for getting into a fight and others that help you avoid that. They do end up a bit niche in places, but there’s a few you’ll want to use plenty of.

Raiders’ Spoils (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): In either Command Phase, give an Anhrathe unit that’s within Engagement Range of the enemy +1OC until the start of the next Command Phase. Obviously needs a specific set of circumstances to be relevant, but when it’s good it’s usually a guaranteed 5VP swing, and that’s something you’re generally happy to throw a Command Point at. Can be quite a big payoff for using Sudden Strike to reach out and tag a non-Combat hull that’s been incautious.
Ruthless Killers (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Gives Voidscarred +1D in either your Shooting or the Fight Phase. This whole Detachment has a fairly major issue that Voidscarred are at least 20pts overcosted on the big squad, but this is a serious payoff for including one unit in a list, and is obviously especially strong on a unit you’ve handed Lance to via Alacritous Assault.
Yriel’s Example (Epic Deed, 1 CP): Give an Aeldari Infantry unit (excluding Wraithblades, sadly) a 5+ Feel No Pain in the Fight Phase. This is OK - the value is tempered by mostly lacking 2W Infantry to use it on, which is where Feel No Pains really shine, but it’s useful to have in your back pocket for emergencies, and it’s especially good for trying to preserve a squad of Skyreavers so they can escape combat and then use Withdraw and Reinforce.
No Prey Too Big (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): A cute inverse of a common effect here, giving Anhrathe, Rangers or Shroud Runners +1 to Wound in shooting against a foe if the highest Toughness of the models in the unit exceeds the attack’s Strength. It’s not particularly great most of the time, because at best it’s pushing you to 4s, but sometimes something’s really gotta die, and I can easily see popping this on a Kharseth unit. There’s also a weird quirk that if an enemy unit has a Leader with higher toughness than the rest of the unit, it can make them an eligible target for this, so if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of Toughness Characteristics you can very occasionally get a minor extra angle here.
Impeding Fire (Wargear, 1 CP): Pop at the start of the Charge Phase to give an enemy that’s within 36” and visible of a Ranger, Shroud Runner or Starfang unit -2” to any Charges. This is fine.
Withdraw and Reinforce (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): The biggest payoff here, this allows you to remove an unengaged Anhrathe unit from the battlefield into Strategic Reserves at the end of the opponent’s Fight Phase, and respawn any non-Character models in it that have been Destroyed when you do so. This is obviously a fairly good effect even without the respawn rider, and adding that makes it great. It lowers the risk of running the larger Corsair units this army wants, and gives you lots of opportunities to punish foes with the 3x5 Skyreavers you are definitely running thanks to their ability to jump out of combat.

Playing This Detachment

Wraithblades. Credit: Rockfish

This army is a weird mix of precision tools and wanting to slam on the gas with mid-weight threats. You definitely want to have some Corsairs to lead the foe on a merry dance at the core, but probably back them up with some Transports and crunchier threats like Wraithlords. Advance/Charge is surprisingly limited in Aeldari normally, and it provides them with huge reach when planning a go turn.

You also want to be extra careful with how you position your models with this army, as you should be constantly considering how you might set up a high value Withdraw and Retreat by keeping a unit alive behind a wall.

I think there’s some risk this Detachment ends up not quite hitting hard enough for how fragile it is when retaliated against, but that is ever the Aeldari’s lot.

A Sample List

Dread Pirate Aeldari - click to expand

Corsairs (1990 Points)

Aeldari

Eldritch Raiders

Strike Force (2,000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Prince Yriel (95 Points)

Kharseth (95 Points)

Spiritseer (65 Points)

1x Shuriken pistol
1x Witch staff
Warlord

BATTLELINE

Corsair Voidreavers (65 Points)

1x Voidreaver Felarch

◦ 1x Close combat weapon

◦ 1x Mistshield

◦ 1x Neuro disruptor

◦ 1x Power sword

4x Corsair Voidreaver

◦ 1x Blaster

◦ 4x Close combat weapon

◦ 3x Power sword

◦ 4x Shuriken pistol

Corsair Voidreavers (130 Points)

Corsair Enhancement: Adrenal Infusions
1x Voidreaver Felarch

◦ 1x Close combat weapon

◦ 1x Mistshield

◦ 1x Neuro disruptor

◦ 1x Power sword

9x Corsair Voidreaver

◦ 2x Blaster

◦ 9x Close combat weapon

◦ 6x Power sword

◦ 8x Shuriken pistol

◦ 1x Wraithcannon

Corsair Voidreavers (65 Points)

1x Voidreaver Felarch

◦ 1x Close combat weapon

◦ 1x Mistshield

◦ 1x Neuro disruptor

◦ 1x Power sword

4x Corsair Voidreaver

◦ 1x Blaster

◦ 4x Close combat weapon

◦ 3x Power sword

◦ 4x Shuriken pistol

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Wave Serpent (125 Points)

1x Shuriken cannon
1x Twin bright lance
1x Wraithbone hull

OTHER DATASHEETS

Wraithblades (160 Points)

5x Wraithblade

◦ 5x Forceshield

◦ 5x Ghostaxe

Corsair Voidscarred (180 Points)

Corsair Enhancement: Alacritous Assault
1x Voidscarred Felarch

◦ 1x Close combat weapon

◦ 1x Mistshield

◦ 1x Neuro disruptor

◦ 1x Power sword

6x Corsair Voidscarred

◦ 2x Blaster

◦ 6x Close combat weapon

◦ 3x Power sword

◦ 3x Shuriken pistol

◦ 1x Wraithcannon

1x Shade Runner

◦ 1x Paired Hekatarii blades

◦ 1x Shuriken pistol

1x Soul Weaver

◦ 1x Channeller Stones

◦ 1x Power sword

◦ 1x Shuriken pistol

1x Way Seeker

◦ 1x Executioner

◦ 1x Shuriken pistol

◦ 1x Witch staff

Corsair Skyreavers (75 Points)

5x Skyreaver
1x Flamer
1x Shredder

Corsair Skyreavers (75 Points)

5x Skyreaver
1x Flamer
1x Shredder

Corsair Skyreavers (75 Points)

5x Skyreaver
1x Blaster
1x Fusion Gun

Starfang (75 Points)

Starfang (75 Points)

Falcon (130 Points)

1x Bright lance
1x Pulse laser
1x Shuriken cannon
1x Wraithbone hull

Striking Scorpions (85 Points)

1x Aspect Shrine Token
1x Striking Scorpion Exarch

◦ 1x Scorpion chainsword

◦ 1x Scorpion’s claw

◦ 1x Shuriken pistol

4x Striking Scorpion

◦ 4x Scorpion chainsword

◦ 4x Shuriken pistol

Wraithlord (140 Points)

2x Bright lance
2x Flamer
1x Ghostglaive
1x Wraithbone fists

Wraithlord (140 Points)

2x Bright lance
2x Flamer
1x Ghostglaive
1x Wraithbone fists

Wraithlord (140 Points)

2x Bright lance
2x Flamer
1x Ghostglaive
1x Wraithbone fists

Behold the weird hybrid of sneaky Pirates and alarmingly swift Wraith Constructs. Corsairs provide you with utility pieces and spike damage from either Yriel or the Voidscarred, while the Wraithlords and Wraithblades give you something a bit more slow and steady (plus great beneficiaries of Kharseth’s buff as all their melee is stuck at S7 normally, and helped by them being a PSYKER). If you need a bit of time to stage everything, the Skyreavers do a good line in move blocking foes, and you can also get some solid early utility out of Starfangs. There’s probably some setups you can do with Phoenix Lords as well, but I figured we’re already way off-piste with all the Wraith stuff, so diluting the Corsair brand further wasn’t wise.

Final Thoughts

There’s some fun stuff to play with in this Detachment, as it does provide an angle of attack you don’t really get from any of the regular Aeldari options. I suspect it ends up a little too anaemic unless Voidscarred come down in cost, but it’s been cool to work out how best to deploy the options it provides, and it should feel pretty unique.

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