Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Ynnari(7E)

Why Play Ynnari?

Pros:

• You can finally field one big mega-detachment of Craftworld Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Harlequins - show these Imperials they do not have the exclusivity on mega-detachments!
• You are gonna dominate the field quite easily. No for real dude, do not go overboard with this faction since you can do a ton of OP combos.
• Finally DE can have a decent comeback and we can all forget about their codex.
• Remember that FAQ that said we couldn't put our units in allied transports before game start? Yeah forget about it - all CE, DE and Harle units taken in a Ynnari detachment are part of the same faction - we are back!

Cons:

• People might simply not want to play you given the fact you are uber-cheesing an army by many considered OP (CE)
• TO might limit Ynnari at tourneys in the future, given the potentially gamebreaking combos you can make.
• CE may out-cheese you with everybody's favourite undercosted GC

Special Rules

Strength from Death

Your units replace Ancient Doom, Battle Focus and Power from Pain for this. The new rule confers no direct special benefit on its own, your units are just as squishy as they were before. However, things get extremely interesting when people start dying.

Every time a unit (friend or foe) is completely destroyed while within 7" of a non-vehicle unit that has this rule, then one of those units within range may immediately "Soulburst", which is to make a Move action, Shoot action, or a Charge move as if it were the relevant phase. Though a unit may only "Soulburst" once per turn.

This allows you to create some incredible set-pieces where units topple with spectacular effect. It is also not limited to your own turn, so your opponent may feel the sting when he destroys one of your squads, only to be charged by Howling Banshees, or fired at by Dark Reapers, maybe also get destroyed and trigger another nearby unit to Soulburst, potentially causing an avalanche of destruction to his own army in his own turn.

It can allow you to double tap units in the shooting phase. Say Fire Dragons destroy a transport within 7" of them? Not an uncommon occurrence. Well since they've legitimately destroyed a unit within range they may now immediately Soulburst and fire at the unlucky sods who just crawled out of the wreckage. Let's not get started on Wraithguard.

This of course encourages you to play infantry heavy armies, since vehicles cannot use the rule. It also encourages you to play your units close together to ensure you actually benefit when your own squads go down, where a savvy opponent might try and isolate and destroy your units piecemeal, lest the destruction of one unit spark a shitstorm of retribution on his ass.

Be warned against charging into pre-existing melee combats, as although your "Soulburst" charge move might have been out of sequence, the initiative order continues to resolve as before "including for models in the charging unit", which if you ask most people means continuing to descend towards zero from whatever position it was before you charged. So you may be walking into a Power Fist or Flamers to the face with nothing to defend yourself with.

Warlord Traits

1. Lord of Rebirth: Warlord has IWND.
2. Warden of Forgotten Wisdom: If your Warlord is a Psyker, you may select your powers instead of rolling for them. So much potential in this. For example, get this on a Farseer dipping into Telepathy for Invisibility, every time. If your warlord isn't a psyker you re-roll this trait.
3. Walker of Many Paths: Warlord can choose a USR that lasts until the next movement phase: Furious Charge, Hit & Run, or Move Through Cover.
4. Master of Death: Roll a 6 to wound for any of your warlord's attacks and it gains the Instant-Death special rule.
5. Ruthless Commander: Warlord and all Ynnari units within 7" have Fearless. Waste on the Avatar of Ynnead.
6. Favoured of Ynnead: Warlord and their unit can make a Soulburst action within 14" instead of 7". Yvraine starts with this.

Artefacts of Ynnead

• Corag-Hai's Locket: If the model holding this slays one or more enemy models in close combat, regenerate a wound on a roll of 4+. Make your Eldar Lord into a Vampire Count.
• Hungering Blade: very situational. It is a Fleshbane weapon with no AP value. If the bearer kills an Aeldari model with this weapon then they recover all lost wounds. Meh.
• The Lost Shroud: Turns your Eldar character into a tank. You get Eternal Warrior, Feel No Pain and It Will Not Die. However like the Mantle of the Laughing God in 6th edition it removes the Independent Character rule from the model, so they can only ever go it alone. Best used by a model with a Jetbike. Or maybe a Solitaire.
• Mirrorgaze: The wearer of this special helmet gets the Blind, Counter Attack and Night Vision rules.
• the Song of Ynnead: 18" range Shuriken Pistol with the Poisoned (2+) rule.
• Soulsnare: a one use psychic grenade. Can be thrown 8" and has a small blast. While it is only S3, it has AP2 and the Instant Death rule.

Revenant Discipline Psychic Powers

Any Psykers with the Aeldari/Ynnari faction can opt to roll on this power chart in addition to any disciplines they know. (Note: despite it being present in the leaked appendix from the enhanced edition, no unit actually has the "Terrors of the Warp" rule, so Ynnari Psykers use the revenant discipline as normal)

• Primaris - Spirit Hook - WC1. 18" Focussed Witchfire that doesn't have a weapon profile. If your Leadership value is higher than the target then they suffer a single S6 hit. Otherwise they are struck at S3. No Armour or Cover saves are permitted (Invulnerable saves are though) and the power has not effect on vehicles.

1. Shield of Ynnead - WC1. All friendly units within 7" get a 6+ invulnerable save. Better than nothing, and can stack with Sanctic Daemonology's "Sanctuary" power for a 5+.
2. Storm of Whispers - WC1. A 9" S3 AP2 witchfire that shoots 2D6 times and ignores cover. Although it is hampered by short range and low strength, the potential for a high number (average = 7, noticing a theme?) of armour and cover ignoring shots is not to be sniffed at.
3. Word of the Phoenix - WC2. Pick a friendly unit with Strength from Death within 24". That unit may immediately make a Soulburst action.
   • Consider this your uber form of "Vanhel's Dance Macabre" where you can rapidly get your units where they need to be. You've just moved, so move again... Or just get a free round of shooting if you're already close enough. No real point in getting a unit to charge during the psychic phase.
4. Ancestor's Grace - WC2. A better form of the "Enhance" runes of battle power combined with "Will of Asuryan" from the runes of fate. It gives a friendly unit +1 on WS, BS, I, A & Ld, as well as Adamantium Will.
5. Unbind Souls - WC2. Another witchfire, this time 12" range with S4 and no AP value. Though you do fire a number of shots equal to the number of models in the target unit and if you cause any casualties then nearby units are eligible for a Soulburst, even if you didn't destroy the unit completely.
6. Gaze of Ynnead: - WC3. 12" S10 AP1 Assault 1, Ignores Cover, and no Invulnerable saves can be taken against this power. While this pretty much a guaranteed wound, just bear in mind that it is WC3 for a single shot that can still miss.

Unit Analysis

The gist of the Faction is that you get to use Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Harlequins units together. Since it would take a lot of effort to list all the units on here (as well as figure out which ones are better at which rolls), they are not yet added. In the meantime you can refer to their own articles to see what they're good at. We'll get to it where any new tactics for old units begin to stand out

Eldar Units

Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Eldar(7E) Note: sadly you cannot use the Avatar of Khaine

• Warlock Conclave: The Runes of Battle is a useful but relatively inoffensive discipline that had buffs that applied to its own unit, and had some situational debuffs to enemy units. By and large the Runes were better suited to Warlocks who lead Guardian squads than a squad of warlocks itself. The new Revenant Powers are either much more directly killy or provide exceptional buffs to nearby units, both traits that the Runes could never hope to match, so the Warlock Conclave makes for a great unit to follow your own units around and support your army. There is still no reason to ever take the Warlock Conclave as its own HQ choice as several of the formations require them.
• Fire Dragons: along with Wraithguard, these guys become incredibly nasty in a Ynnari list. Because their weapon range is so low, you'll want them up close to the front lines anyway. Keep them close to your own units and they become a potent countering tool. Have them hover around close combats and they'll get a free shot if the enemy slays your unit. They may also get the aforementioned "double-tap" for destroying transport vehicles, which they are very good at.
• Howling Banshees: aside from the fact that the daughters of Morai-Heg & Kaelis Vara'Lanthian are probably one of the fluffier units you can take in the army. The extra 3" on charge moves and the fact that they ignore Overwatch shooting means they are the absolute best unit to benefit from the free charge action of Soulburst and can be one of the biggest scares an opponent can receive when he kills one of your units only for a squad of Banshees to leap on top of him. As always avoid bumping into terminators, also avoid charging into currently ongoing combat (combat that has yet to be resolved is just fine).

Dark Eldar Units

Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Dark Eldar Note: you cannot take Mandrakes, or any unit from the Haemonculi Covens (Haemonculi, Wracks, Talos, Chronos, Grotesques)

Harlequin Units

Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Eldar Harlequins(7E)

HQ

• The Visarch, Sword of Ynnead: WS/BS/I7 with a 3+ Armor Save, and can auto-LoS for Yvraine if she's in the same unit, and always passes Glorious Interventions for her. Rules-wise he has Stubborn, Eternal Warrior, Rampage, and Precision Strikes in addition to the usual rules. His relic sword Asu-Var is a S +2 AP2 Two-handed melee weapon with Silence, where every enemy unit within 3" must use their lowest Ld value instead of their highest Ld. Side note: he always gets a Warlord trait, even if he isn't the Warlord.
  • Champion of Ynnead: His nifty rule which allows him to regenerate a wound whenever an Aeldari model dies within 7" of him on a 4+. In addition, if the model was a character then the Visarch gains an extra attack (to a maximum of 7)
• Yvraine, Herald of Ynnead: WS/BS/I8 with Eternal Warrior, Stubborn, and is a ML2 Psyker who gets D3 extra warpcharges only she can use thanks to her Gyrinx Familiar. She can dip into Daemonology (Sanctic) and Revenant powers. She has a 4+ Invulnerable save to mitigate her shitty 6+ armor save. Wargear-wise, she has the Kha-vir, Sword of Sorrows which is a S+1 Huskblade. Better make use of this rule below...
  • Herald of Ynnead: IWND on steroids. Every time an Aeldari model dies within 7" of her, roll a dice and on a 4+ she regains a lost wound. In addition, if it was a Psyker then she gets +1 to her Mastery level, to a maximum of Level 4, and generates an additional Psychic power immediately.

Elites

• Black Guardians: Rolls Defenders and Storm Guardians into one package. However, if one guardian swaps his Shuriken Catapult for a Pistol/CCW, then they all must do and can take a Fusion Gun or a Flamer. If they all keep their catapults they can take a Weapon Platform instead. Unfortunately they don't have access to Warlock squad leaders and from a statistical viewpoint they are no different to normal guardians. The reason you might take them is that they may kept in reserve and deployed via Deep Strike without scattering as long as they are placed more than 9" from enemy units.
• Black Guardian Windriders Normal Eldar jetbikes (with a few points of tax--20 points per bike, base) with the Webway Assault rule so you can Deep Strike them. Cannot take a Warlock leader.
• Black Guardian Vipers 45-point-base Vypers with Webway Assault.
• Black Guardian War Walkers 65-point-base War Walkers with Webway Assault.

Lord of War

• Yncarne, Avatar of Ynnead: Oh, fuck yes. Has an equally Greater Daemon-esque statline like the Avatar of Khaine (WS9, S/T6, I10). She has a 3+ Armor Save and a 5++ for being a Daemon, and she carries Villith-Zhar, an AP2 melee weapon with Fleshbane, Armorbane, and Soulblaze. Rules-wise, she has Eternal Warrior (which is a big step up from the Avatar of Khaine, sorry bud!), Strength From Death, Fleet, Deep Strike, and Preferred Enemy: Daemons of Slaanesh. She's also a Mastery Level 3 Psyker and can dip into either Sanctic Daemonology or Revenant psychic disciplines. She and all Ynnari units within 12" have the Fearless and Feel No Pain USR. And if an Aeldari model dies within 7" of her, she regains a lost wound on a 3+. She can easily take on any opponent in melee and have a near-guaranteed chance of coming out on top. Except the Avatar of Khaine, since his immunity to Soulblaze will mess her up in a mirror-match.
  • Inevitable Death: The Yncarne must always be deployed in Deep Strike Reserve. When a unit of any kind dies the Yncarne may be immediately placed as close as possible to that unit's position, provided that is at least 1" away from enemy units.

Formations

Reborn Warhost

An interesting combo of Combined Arms Detachment and Formations. You get your regular HQ and 2 Troops tax, but you may take any number of formations available on to the Ynnari. (yes the leaked table says "one of the following" but the restrictions say "any number"). This is considerably more cost effective than the Craftworld Warhost since you are not compelled to buy to many Guardian units. So once your taxes are filled, you can go directly to the formations and stack up on special rules from things like Aspect Hosts and Seer Councils and save your more traditional FOC slots for units you want to squeeze in that can't find a formation.

Everything in the detachment gets Stubborn and can ignore morale checks caused by shooting if they are within 7" of a friendly unit in this detachment.

Also, if the detachment includes more than 7 units, then two legal units may initiate a Soulburst rather than just one when a unit gets destroyed.

• Now the flip side: players who used to spam Wraithknights can no longer do so and remain "Battle-Forged" as the "Wraith Construct" option is not available to you. You only get one Lord of War slot on your FOC. You can still take one and the Yncarne though, since the Avatar of Ynnead can be taken as part of the Triumvirate formation. Similarly there are no tank formations so you have to take your Fire Prisms and Falcons out of your Heavy Support slots.
• Realistically, you shouldn't need to use the FOC to take aspect warriors ever, since you can always use the Aspect Host formation as part of your Reborn Warhost, taking them in groups of three and adding extra more special rules to the mix. You could say the same thing about Harlequins as you have unlimited access to their formations. What this leaves you with is the freedom to take Dark Eldar units in your FOC because the Kabalite Raiding Party sucks.

Ynnari Formations

• Triumvirate of Ynnead: each of the new special characters. They each add +1 to their Herald/Champion/Avatar rules when all three are on the tabletop. Meaning the Yncarne gan regenerate lost wounds on a 2+ when Aeldari units go down. The other bonus is that Ynnari within 12" of two of these characters gain the Fearless rule. (The Yncarne already has this though.). But if all three are on the tabletop then ALL friendly Ynnari become Fearless, so is awesome.
  • Reminder note: this formation gets you the Yncarne without using your Lord of War slot in your Reborn Warhost detachment, your only other option is the Wraithknight.
  • In regards to the Fearless bubble: It appears, at least to this player, that the designers intended for the Visarch and Yvraine to stick close together and enter the board during first turn, granting a not-quite 12" Fearless Bubble (Due to units having to be in overlapping 12" bubbles from the Visarch and Yvraine to benefit.) The Yncarne would then Deep-Strike in upon either A: Via Inevitable Death upon a Unit being completely wiped, or B: Coming onto the board as reserves or Deep-Strike from turn 2 onwards. At which point the entire army gains fearless. Fluffy.

• Aeldari Bladehost: 2 units of Wyches, 2 units of Troupes, and 2 units of Storm Guardians or Black Guardians. If 2 units are fighting the same enemy in close combat, they gain Hatred. If 3 or more are in the same close combat they all get Preferred Enemy on top of that.
  • Storm Guardians are not a particularly strong close combat unit. Wyches are only slightly better and losing Power From Pain debatably makes them not even that. Meaning that this is essentially a 244 point tax on bringing 2 Troupes of Harlequins with Preffered enemy.
    • Though if you really wanted to, you could max out both Units of Wyches with no upgrades, have them tie something up in combat with their 4++'s, granting Hatred whilst they're at it. The Storm Guardians could then either act in a similar capacity to less effect, or act as cover and ablative wounds for the Harlequins.

• Soulbound Vanguard: 2 units of Dire Avengers, 1 unit of Incubi, 1 unit of Wyches. If the Visarch or Yvraine is in any squad of the formation, the squad but not the characters get +1 BS & WS. If two units from the formation are within 7" of each other they get Furious Charge, which doesn't really help the Avengers but is good for the Incubi/Wyches. The best part of the formation is that its units can soulburst if within 14" instead of 7" of a destroyed unit. The doubling of range makes a huge difference as it will really allow these units to come to full effect much earlier.

• Ynnead's Net: 1 Warlock Conclave (forced upgrade to skyrunners), 1 unit of Windriders, 1 unit of Reavers, 1 unit of Skyweavers. When a unit from the formation kills a unit, you gain an additional psychic dice for your next psychic phase that the warlock conclave may use. All units from the formation have to start in reserve. Roll reserves for all units in formation as a single rerollable roll. When they come in, each unit comes in from a different table edge.

• Whispering Ghost Hall: 1 Farseer, 1 Spiritseer, 1 Shadowseer, 2 Wraith Lords, 3 units of Wraithguard or Wraithblade (any combination). All units in the formation gain Fear. Non-character models re-roll to hit rolls of 1 that target an enemy unit within 12 inches of a character from the formation (note: this does not specify shooting, so close combat is a green light as well). Enemy unites locked in combat with any units from this formation suffer a -2 leadership roll when making Fear tests.

Other Permitted Formations

• Guardian Battlehost - A Farseer takes 3 Guardian Defender squads, a squad of Vypers, War Walkers, and a Vaul’s Wrath support Battery with an optional Warlock Conclave. The Vypers, Warwalkers and Vaul’s Wrath get preferred enemy against an enemy within 12″ of the Defenders. Guardians can also purchase a Platform for free.
  • If you take this you've practically got yourself the core of an army. Which is unnecessary since your Reborn FOC has compulsory Troops choices instead of "Core formations" so you can save your points for something else. This might have been a good way to get War Walkers and Weapon Batteries in your army without using Heavy Support slots, but taking lots of Guardians in an Ynnari force is not strictly the best option as you want units that hit 'really hard, otherwise they make good fodder to mark close to your unit and transfer souls for more power.
• Guardian Storm Host - Same as the Guardian Battlehost, but replacing the Guardian Defenders with Storm Guardians. The Storm Guardians can now take their weapons AND power weapons for free and the non-infantry units get their Preferred Enemy.
  • Suffers worse than the Battlehost because Storm Guardians using Soulburst is about effective as a one legged man in an arse kicking competition. Extra shots of pistols aren't going to do a whole lot, and getting a free charge with Guardians of any type will always pale in comparison to what dedicated Aspect Warriors could do.
• Windrider Host: A Farseer and a Warlock Conclave take bikes to join 3 gangs of Windriders and a Vyper Squadron. Once per game all models in this formation get Shred when firing shuriken weapons.
  • This formation actually has some bite. Heavier weapons and increased speed means that Soulburst actually makes jetbikes really agressive with a very long reach across the table.
• Seer Council: No need to waste those compulsory HQ slots on Farseers and Warlock Conclaves if you don't have to. Get them here and save your slots for things like Phoenix Lords and Succubi.
  • With no actual restriction on the amount you can take, after fulfilling your compulsory Troops choices on the FOC you could literally spam these as your whole army and still be Battle-Forged.
  • Give the Warlocks the new Revenant powers and let the Farseers use their traditional powers and you've got a support squad unlike any other, dishing out buffs to your army and deadly necromantic rape to the enemy.
• Aspect Host: This is where it's at. Ynnari are about taking advantage of kills by granting more opportunities for movement and attacking. Aspect Warriors are rightly known for being very good at these things, so giving them either +1 WS or BS means you are ensuring you get the most out of them when the time comes.
• Dire Avenger Shrine: These Aspect Warriors are obviously better than Guardians, but are out of their league against MEQs when compared to Dragons, Reapers and Banshees who can really benefit from Soulburst. Lots of mid-ranged Shuriken shots might easily clear out GEQs far better, but because you can instead take Avengers as part of the Soulbound Vanguard formation which brings in other units as well and extends the reach of Soulburst there isn't as much need to use this formation.
• Crimson Death:
• Wraith Host:
• Kabalite Raiding Party:

Ulthwe Strike Force Detachment

You may take 1-4 units from the Black Guardian selection. They gain Stubborn and Preferred Enemy (Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Khorne Daemonkin & Renegade Knights).

Note that Black Guardian units are not available to normal Craftworld Eldar armies. So other than the Ynnari Reborn detachment this is the only way to take them. But if you take them this way, they aren't actually Ynnari and so still have Ancient Doom and Battle Focus instead of Strength from Death.

• • Why would you take them any other way! The Strike Force is a tax-less way of bringing these units that gives bonuses against anything chaos, doesn't take up slots in another detachment and if you max it out, gives potential First Turn Alpha-Deep-Striking Scatter Lasers.