Hey guys, Cavalier checking in, commission painter for Frontline Gaming and co-host of Splintermind: The Dark Eldar Podcast back again with the with my second installment of Eldar Trickery. In this article I’ll be taking a look at a unit I’m planning on reincorporating into regular play, my D-Scythe Wraithguard and how to make this somewhat slow, lumbering unit into a lightning quick beast.
So as everyone knows Eldar tend to reign supreme in the movement phase. This makes slower units in the Eldar feel like a bit of a ball and chain, despite a lot of very good perks. I go for a “speed kills” theme in almost all my Eldar lists, favoring Flayed Skull, Red Grief, Soaring Spite and even Saim-Hann despite the detractors (more on this in future articles). Yet one of my favorite units remains Wraithguard of the D-Scythe variety. I used them a lot in the index days and want to once again. I think they would work great against Knights (especially on overwatch!) and if I can get my opponent to rotate Ion-Shields on knight being harassed by my Crimson Hunters, perhaps my Wraithguard can hunt down another Knight. Yet regardless of target getting these guys into position can be a challenge, so how can we get them to go out and make contact in those early turns of the game? Lets dive in!
Movement Shenanigans
Basic Move + Matchless Agility
Since D-Scythes generate auto-hits, you can simply move and advance them and shoot without penalty. A simple move and advance using the Matchless Agility stratagem will get you an 11″ move guaranteed. With the 8″ range of the guns thats an 18″ threat bubble which is pretty good! That alone makes fielding them viable in my opinion. Also if you have a min. unit of 5 in a Wave Serpent you can add 3″ to the movement for disembarkation which is even better.
Move, Matchless Agility + Warlock Support
While not guaranteed, performing the above steps with a Warlock casting Quicken will add 5″ to that movement. Meaning you can get a 16″ move from your Wraithguard, 19″ when disembarking from a Wave Serpent. That is very fast and with the range of your guns you’ll have a 24″ threat bubble, 27″ when disembarking from a Wave Serpent.
Move, Matchless Agility + Quicken + Soulburst Movement
While again, not guaranteed if you perform the above steps and are playing Y’nnari, with a Soulburst generated by the Y’ncarne or Y’varine you can get those Wraithguard 21″ + D6″ inches up the board, or 24″ + D6″ up the board when disembarking from a Wave Serpent. This is absolutely ludicrous! This’ll give you 29″ + D6″ (Add 3″ movement from a Wave Serpent) threat bubble with your Wraithguard.
23″ Y’nnari Double Tap
This is perhaps the most complicated version with multiple failure points, but using a variation of the above steps where you Move + Matchless Agility advance, Quicken, shoot a target with your D-Scythes, then play Fire + Fade an additional 7″ inches up the board (23″ total), blow a target away granting the Wraithguard an offensive Soulburst allowing them to shoot twice with those almighty D-Scythes (perhaps generating a soulburst of another variety for a nearby unit). I would stress there are multiple failure points with this gambit, but it could be happen quite naturally in the middle of the game, or as a part of your devious Aeldari master plan. Either way it’d sure be a thrill to pull off in a game! Imagine doing it with a full sized unit of 10!
Conclusion
Well guys as I’m sure you can see there are a number of movement tricks here that you can pull with your Wraithguard. As someone whose getting a bit bored with my current combo of Eldar units, this is something I’m looking forward to implementing at some point. If you can think of any other combos let me know!
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I may be mistaken, but I thought quicken allowed you to advance as well. And per some faq, when you get a second movement that allows you to advance, you use the same advance movement rolled for previously in the movement phase. That would give them a 22″ move and 30″ threat range then…
The ynarri wraithguard have a 41″ max threat range. If they move and use the matchless agility (MA) strat. for 11″ in the movement phase.
Then in the psychic phase, quicken and advance using the MA strat (it is a different phase) for 11″more, then soulburst move and advance for 11″ (no need for strat as it is the same phase and your advance is now set to 6″ per Nid FAQ). That is 33″ of movement and the 8″ from the guns.
Technically you could then fire and fade for another 7″ of movement.
I really love Wraith models, maybe because they’re some of the only “new” models Eldar have, but I wish they had just a little extra bump that made them viable, so you didn’t have to risk it on a gambit to make them work, because I’d happily buy some.
Wraithguard make great DE grotesque conversions