Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Craftworlds Spiritseer

Product Information

Most people default to Bladestorm at the moment – the extra weight of firepower is considerable, especially with an Autarch in tow. However, the other two can have their place, and Battle Fortune is still fine, sometimes letting an Exarch hold a key position or act as an ablative wound against heavier firepower. Obviously if you’ve brought Asurmen you don’t need it though! Falcon’s Swiftness: +2 Move. Honestly kind of fine, and flips over to being actively good if you’re bringing the Avatar, as almost none of the other mobility options in the book work with him. C+ Yriel : If you ever want to take a Foot Autarch in an Iyanden list you should probably take him instead. However, you very rarely want to do either of these things. If that type of roll involves one D6 (e.g. a hit roll), do not roll a dice; that roll is treated as an unmodified roll of 6.

The multipart plastic miniature comprises 11 components, and comes supplied with a Citadel 25mmm Round Base. The Warhammer 40,000 rules for Spiritseers can be found in Codex: Craftworlds. Executioner (WC7): Executioner does d3 mortal wounds to the nearest unit within 18″ (note that it doesn’t need line of sight), and then if any die does another d3. This is an exceptionally good alt-smite and one of the best examples of the genre if you can get it to double tap. Having a real chance of just vapourising an entire Sisters unit that’s hiding behind a wall is crazy good for a single cast, and even against bigger targets where the effect never works just having the option on another Smite is good. An important tactical recommendation is that when you’re going after multi-wound units like Intercessors with this, and have some smites to cast as well, you should start by smiting, because if you roll a 1 or 3 for the damage then there will be a model left with a single wound – at which point you pop this for the big damage. This is especially important in 9th, as you can no longer re-roll the damage dice, so getting the opponent down to 1W first is even more helpful. Overall, this is just absurdly potent, and much like Doom is basically always great, not needing any setup. A Children of the Open Skies: +2″ movement on flying units. Decent with some bike casters alongside the above, but for units like Shining Spears you’re generally more interested in boosting their Deep Strike charges. C+Decapitating Strike: Unmodified hit rolls of 6 from the Exarch inflict an extra mortal. Probably a better combination with Mirrorsword than Whirling Blades, but still bad. D+ Expert Crafters: Re-roll one hit and one wound each time a unit shoots or fights. The cornerstone of the most common Eldar archetype right now, and an enormously potent force multiplier. A+

Of all the Craftworlds, Spiritseers are most common in Iyanden, as this particular Craftworld has a very small population and even fewer warriors. The most powerful Spiritseer among them is Iyanna Arienal, "the Angel of Iyanden", who is doing everything she can to save her home and her people. [1a] Stalker: Your opponent is at -1 to hit this unit with ranged weapons while they’re wholly on or within a terrain feature. Hit modifiers ain’t what they used to be, but if you’re planning to keep The psyker reaches into the minds of the battlefield's combatants, instilling their allies with valour or sapping courage from their enemies. I envision my spirit host as having two halves in balance, composed of close combat Wraithblades and ranged Wraithguard, each led by a Spiritseer and supported by a Wraithlord. The Spiritseers are themselves proteges of the famed Iyanna Arienal, seen in Gav Thorpe’s Rise of the Ynnari: Ghost Warrior. Mobile Fighters: Re-roll hit rolls of 1 for a unit that disembarked from a transport this turn. Niche, but Dark Reapers fading in and out of a transport is one of the stronger combos the faction has left, and this helps boost them up with minimal further support. C+

The Elites section is a weird mixed bag in this book. There’s definitely some valuable stuff, but many units are just badly suited to their theoretical role, and only shine because they happen to be able to do something else semi-decently. Howling Banshees Empower/Enervate: Empower adds +1 to wound in melee, while Enervate subtracts 1 from your opponent’s wound rolls in melee. Generally, in both modes this is a more useful “all around” buff than Enhance/Drain, and if you want to bring a melee buff caster along this is usually it. I’d generally want to be making sure I had something else I could do with my cast as well (either a Smite or a Runes of Fortune power), as you definitely don’t need to be casting this every turn of the game, but it can definitely help a lot when it’s good. B Witch Staff: This is a handy weapon that is S user and AP – but has the Soul Blaze, Fleshbane and Armourbane special rules. While not great at close combat, at least your Spiritseer will force an armor save or two. And don’t forget Soul Blaze!