Games Workshop Warhammer 40k - Eldar Farseer Skyrunner

Product Information

I don’t think it’s fair to call Craftworlds losers so far in 9th edition – that title is solidly reserved for Drukhari within the Aeldari keyword, or Genestealer Cults without. But if you’re feeling that overwhelming sense of disappointment you’re not alone. The Craftworld codex has been very much a case of the rich getting richer and the poor being forgotten entirely throughout 8th edition, and nothing has largely changed that with the core rules or the points reveals. The same units that have been badly in need of a boost, namely most of the Aspect/Aspect-related units, still badly need a boost. The units that have been workhorses are still the workhorses. All this really means is that a faction that is meant to be highly dynamic, precise, and fun to play often just feels boring and very static. However, I think expectations should be managed a bit, and there are certainly reasons to hope for good things for Craftworlds in 9th. If you wish, you can then re-roll all of these dice, but if you do, roll one less D6. You can continue re-rolling all of the dice in this manner, rolling one less D6 each time you do, until you are satisfied with the results rolled (or until you only have a single D6 remaining).

Is the Jetbike version mandatory or is the cheaper foot seer sometimes better (if only for the lower cost)?

Smite

Battle. TIMED. Yes, I know, 20 turns is a long time in Gladius, but if your entire army is off fighting Orks and Space Marines, 20 turns may not be enough. On top of the marquee Daemon Prince, my playthrough featured the following units: 11 Chaos Cultists, 7 Chaos Space Marines, 5 Khorne Berzerkers, 9 Havok Squads, 3 Chaos Rhinos, and 7 Hellbrutes. Will of Asuryan seems pretty weak to me as Eldar have other ways to mitigate Leadership if you need it. Combined, the Farseer’s wargear and rules make for a powerful general-use caster than can scoot about the battlefield buffing units and causing problems for the enemy. However, it is the Runes of Fate table that really makes the Farseer shine- although the powers on it have universally high casting values, they offer a variety of powerful effects in exchange, including many ways to get rerolls on various effects (something of a rarity in the game nowadays.) Farseers can cast two spells per turn and attempt to Deny two enemy spells, putting them towards the top end of psykers in the game these days. Psykers of unparalleled ability and renown, the Aeldari Farseers meticulously plan and execute strategies covering thousands of years and unimaginable distance. Even their smallest actions are capable of effecting enormous change; they are the butterfly's wings and the hurricane in one.

Fortune, Executioner and Mind War still largely do what they’ve always done with minor tweaking – Fortune lets a unit ignore wounds on a 5+, good on the Avatar or a big bomb unit, Executioner is a very powerful Witchfire power that gets a bit of a targeting sidegrade (no longer hitting Characters with nine or fewer wounds at all, but now otherwise being freely targetable within 18”), and Mind War remains a funny but not actually good way to construct hilarious hypothetical combos to blow opposing Characters’ heads off. Burning Heat gives Fire Dragons the eye-catching bonus of automatically wounding within half range, but it’s hard enough to set up that you might just end up taking Blazing Fury for extra range instead.Farseer Skyrunner [7 PL, 135pts]: 0. Smite, 2. Doom, 3. Fortune, 6: Seer of the Shifting Vector, Shuriken Pistol, Warlord, Witchblade The psyker twists time, their outline blurring as they and their fellows move like phantoms across the field. Those cursed by such temporal manipulations find themselves moving as if through deep water. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this army to a brand new player. I’m not going to lie: this list is going to be fighting an uphill battle. Until you get the hang of positioning and how to really dissect an opponent’s army it’s gonna be rough. But it’s thematic and rewarding to play! If you’re up for a challenge then have at it!

Piercing Strikes : 15pt upgrade on Banshees for +1D on the Exarch. Exceptional with mirrorswords, where it turns the model into a mini-Succubus with 10A at S4 AP-3 D2, all at +1 to wound on the charge. During their gradual process of transmutation, a Farseer takes root amongst the trees of the biodome and eventually turns entirely into a humanoid form composed of crystal. In this state, their spirit is freed into the structure of the craftworld itself where it is preserved forever within the psycho-conductive Wraithbone Infinity Circuit. The Aeldari Farseers, revered for their unparalleled psychic prowess, possess a remarkable ability to meticulously strategize and execute plans that span vast stretches of time and space. Each of their actions, no matter how small, holds the potential to bring about monumental changes—a delicate butterfly’s wings with the force of a raging hurricane.

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. One of the greatest examples of this being when the famed Farseer Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwé (a craftworld which places greater emphasis on the Path of the Seer) secretly facilitated the rise of an obscure Ork warlord named Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, who would eventually become a significant enemy of the Imperium of Man. When you select a PSYKER unit to manifest psychic powers, you select one psychic power that unit knows and attempt to manifest it. With the exception of Smite, you cannot attempt to manifest the same psychic power more than once in the same battle round, even with different PSYKER units. The same PSYKER unit cannot attempt to manifest Smite more than once during the same battle round. Wraiths are mostly terrifying but expensive, though Wraithlords may have some pretty efficient builds.

if she dies first, due to being required to take wounds because she was the first damaged, then when she dies she is tethered to the location of the surviving geminae and can’t just set up freely elsewhere. Trying to build lists with this book is a vastly more hostile experience than anything else recently, and as Boon mentioned the key culprit is the move of Dire Avengers from Troops to Elites, leaving the latter slot vastly overstuffed and the former pretty mediocre. The Asuryani end up as a faction where building a Battalion either forces you to take stuff you don’t really want, or massively commit to spending on Troops, eating badly into the rest of your army. The fact that everything else is pretty expensive too only compounds this, and when you finish your lists you definitely feel like you’ve been a bit short changed. That impression obviously is being skewed by the fact that the metagame is currently being dominated by two factions that get more stuff in their armies than they really should, but even compared to the factions a step down from them like Drukhari and Orks you really don’t have much breathing room. At the start of the Fight phase, if that unit is within Engagement Range of any enemy units, it can fight first that phase. We shouldn’t neglect that Shadow Spectres also reside in this role, still have significant ranged capability, and are also the most likely unit to benefit from Battle Focus changes, particularly in a Biel-Tan list. It remains to be seen how or if any changes or updates are made to them following release.

The Role of Mixed Armies

Just before we start, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of this book, and with some of the models you’ll see pictured within the article. Like a lot of units in the new edition, Farseers do a much better job of fitting with their fluff- no longer are they suicidal summon-bots or bottom-tier spellcasters, but rather a powerful and flexible addition to the HQ slot in an army. If you want a unit that is extremely flexible, able to change the way they affect the army game-by-game, but without spending too many points or sacrificing too much else, the Farseer is a top-notch choice. First, the points reveals were never going to fix the problems with the poor-performing Craftworld units because the problem isn’t really in the points but the unit rules themselves and the internal balance of the codex. With few exceptions (Wraithlords), the points would not have significantly changed how this army played. So if you find yourself thinking, “Why did they increase the points like this on [Banshees, Scorpions, Spiders, Hawks, etc]?” try to keep some perspective in that your army probably didn’t use them before – it’s not a loss. With a couple of exceptions, points increases did winnow down the Craftworld options, and there is some reason to be disappointed. Late edition winners like the Night Spinner or Vibro Cannons have taken a hit from the core rules or the points adjustments (man is Blast + non-LOS expensive) but in the case of the Spinner that’s also occurred across the game with all similar such units. I’ll admit that the Vibro Cannons hurt, personally, but I’ll move on because there are reasons to hope! Surprise Assault for Warp Spiders gives them an extra shot per gun the turn they come in from deep strike, which helps maximise the chance of them landing the kind of blow their hefty price tag demands.