Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Craftworlds Spiritseer

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Eldar trooos have oscilated wildly in viability over time as point cuts and hikes have slammed into them, so it’s something of a relief that at the moment the dial is turned towards them being at least OK. The January FAQ handed price cuts to all four options here, meaning they all have plausible uses. Guardian Defenders Now, up-front – there’s a bit of debate out there as to exactly how this works in 9th because of the change to how Assault weapons and Advancing works. This definitely lets you ignore the Advance/shoot penalty on Assault weapons, but whether it enables you to use grenades or pistols after advancing is something that could go either way. Based on the way other abilities have been revised recently our current feeling is that this probably is meant to let you do that (especially as it did in 8th), but be aware that it isn’t 100% a settled debate (so ask your TOs). The Smite nerf included in the new beta rules (which most tournaments are using) is definitely a significant detriment to bringing large numbers of Spiritseers, but even with it in place they are strong- “just” getting to cast two, three, or four Smites is still going to be a lot more incoming damage than most people want to deal with, especially on big/tough targets like vehicles and HQs.

To manifest the psychic power, you must first pass a Psychic test. The opposing player can then select one of their PSYKER units that is within 24" of the PSYKER unit attempting to manifest the power and attempt to deny that power before its effects are resolved by passing a Deny the Witch test. Realistically, unless you’re doing something clever, Seer of the Shifting Vector is a massive standout, and if one of the others is right for you then it’ll probably be pretty obvious. Relics Martial Adept: The Exarch is BS/WS 2+. Skip – when shooting with two guns, Bladestorm has the exact same impact on the Exarch’s own output, so it’s just better for boosting the squad’s damage. D Starting with their psychic might, the regular Farseers know two powers and get two casts and two denies each, and also have access to the Runes of the Farseer special rule, allowing them to re-roll one or both dice from a cast or deny each phase. This is an incredibly powerful boost, giving you a really good chance to land a key power and stop your opponent’s best one each phase. From a maths point of view with this, when you fail a cast you should (essentially) always keep a dice showing 4+ and re-roll a 3 or less. Denying can obviously be different – if you need to roll a double six then keeping a four isn’t going to help you! The other cool thing with this is that there’s no requirement to have failed the cast to re-roll – so if you roll a 1 and a 6 when casting a key power and your opponent has denies, it can be worth re-rolling the one, as you can’t possibly fail and it might make the deny harder. You can also use this to fish for a super smite if you’ve done all your key casts and have this still available. Savage Blades: Re-roll hits of 1 in melee if you charged, were charged or intervened. Hits the same problems all the melee options do – you only have a couple of decent melee units in the list, and they’re much more interested in boosts that get them to combat that minor output boosts like this. D+Superior Shurikens: +4″ range on Shuriken weapons. Lets Dire Avengers in particular reach surprisingly far with their guns, and on 9th’s small board gives lets you operate very effectively. B These new models are both for units that are list-building linchpins – from the ever-useful Primaris Lieutenant and the wraith-commanding Spiritseer – giving you some beautiful new options for your army. We caught up with the designers who made the models and gleaned some interesting insights you might have missed… Boon Note: I loved Avenging Strikes on Falcon or Wave Serpent mounted Avengers as I’d get one or two to die if the vehicle went down – but that’s kind of fallen away now that 8th ended and 9th has rolled on. But I still dream of the days my Dire Avengers just chunked out T8 units in their vengeance. Rangers The Spiritseer was mainly done with these colours too, but I spent more time giving him a few coats of highlights and shading, given that he’s a character. The addition of metallic colours and the white helm help him to stand out as the only living soul amongst an army of the dead. Embolden/Horrify (WC6): Embolden gives a friendly unit +2 Ld, while Horrify gives an enemy -1 Ld. Both effects are trash, and now that powers are fixed on your army list it isn’t even a comedy trash flex option with Mind War. D

That conclave (plus a farseer?) that you just webwayed out in someone’s face are going to die really easily to small arms fire and/or assault. And that’s a lot of points to suicide. Of course, the Spiritseer is just fine if all you use it to do is fill an HQ slot; there are enough good Runes of Battle powers that it won’t be completely wasted unless you’re taking pretty absurd numbers of them, especially since you functionally have twelve powers to choose from (plus Smite.) With 2-3 Spiritseers on the board, you should rarely have trouble getting good mileage out of them, and you shouldn’t need to bring more than that unless you’re specifically focusing on trying to bring a Supreme Command or the likes.

Smite

Battle Focus is common to non-Wraith INFANTRY, all BIKERs and War Walkers, and allows these units to use non-heavy weapons as if they had remained stationary in a turn in which they moved or advanced. At the moment Faolchu’s Wing on a Farseer, Shard of Anaris on a Wing Autarch or the Phoenix Gem on someone are the main choices. If you’re Saim-Hann, obviously consider the Novalance from their section as well! Aspect Powers However, this benefit is twofold as a +1 to cast means not only lowering the minimum casting threshold but also increasing your odds of resisting deny the witch. If you roll say, a 7 or 8 it goes up to an 8 or 9, making it much harder to stop. Further, the Farseer will also benefit and as many of their powers are also typically WC 7, you increase the odds of getting Doom (typically the critical Farseer power), Fortune, Guide, etc. off. And as the Farseer can cast two powers (three with Eldrad) the benefit again comes in to play. You can further press this advantage with the Unparalleled Mastery stratagem to cast a third power with your Farseer, typically this will be Smite, but as you are already benefiting from the +1, and if you are in a position where you really need to deal more damage, go for it! It also increases the odds of getting the D6 Mortal Wound Smite off, too (possibly getting a +2 with the Ulthwe relic). Fundamentally, a lot of options in the book are just overcosted for what they do, or aren’t statted appropriately to perform their role against modern datasheets. In addition, a whole category of previously excellent units (the Flyers) are very poor at playing the 9th Edition missions, and also aren’t nearly durable enough for their price tags now that hit modifiers are capped.