Warhammer 40K: Codex Aeldari Review: The Good, Bad, & the Ugly

Goatboy here with 40K 10th Edition’s Codex Aeldari review.  Let’s take a dive into the pool of hyper deadly weapons, super efficient Aspect Warriors, and ghosts who lives in a wraithbone shell.

It feels like it was just a few weeks ago when I wrote up some thoughts on the new Astra Militarum Codex and now we have an Aeldari book to review next.  I will start real quick by saying the army  that contrasts the most with my play-style the most is Aeldari.  It is one of the few Factions I have endured my entire 40K experience due to their many units and dirty tricks.  Let’s start our tour of the Craftworlders.

I said earlier how I do not like the Aeldari.  My earliest memory is  trying to kill those old unkillable Falcons back in the day.  The old rule if I remember would have the player try to roll 2 dice and pick the lowest result when causing a penetrating hit on one of these tanks.  This would normally mean you had to roll a double 6 when causing a penetrating hit which you know is very hard to do.  It didn’t help that my friend Nick would always roll it – but not me. Grrr…

So just be prepared this review is from the viewpoint of a true Aeldari pessimist.  This is especially important as I think the Codex is good.  It does a lot of damage, is very consistent on doing that damage, and is fast as heck.  All of these things make it a strong codex in the hands of a good player.  We all know 40K is really won by being able to move well, control the board, and control your damage output.

As usual I will go over the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from this book. Instead lets just go over the things I would be worried about when I play against an Aeldari on the table top.

Codex Aeldari – The Good

We’ll start at the top with the idea that a book – even one that makes me sad – is a good thing to release.  The original Aeldari Index was such a pain in the butt it in 40K 10th Edition, it’s nice to see a new book coming out and fixing a ton of things.  Heck it changes a ton of the army and that is a good thing as players want an army they can play – not something hampered by points, dataslates, and all other types of changes.  The biggest initial shift is removing the Fate Dice and replacing it with Battle Focus type of ability.

Battle Focus

Let me first say I like Battle Focus.  It feels cool, feels powerful, and feels like something the better player will use better than the average player.  It gives you a plethora of movement tricks and all the options are neat.  Basically Aeldari players get 4 tokens they can trigger on a unit when something happens – things like when they move, when they want to assault, when they want to consolidate after an assault, when they are shot at, and when someone falls back from the them.  This is broken up into most units accept Titanic units (most likely just to keep the big ole Wraith Knights and Titans they have access too, from being too mobile).  This power is neat, seems cool, and something I like to see in the game.

See I can be positive sometimes when talking about the Aeldari.  Here is another bit of positive energy – finally all the Phoenix lords and Aspect Warriors are plastic now too.  That is pretty dang awesome and if someone who hasn’t dabbled in the dark arts of an Aeldari collection they can now get everything in nice shiny plastic.

They also get access to 8 new detachments in the book with the extra Grotmas one.  That is a whole lot of options to play with but I expect the Windrider Host to be a powerful one as well as the always a threatening  Ynarri option as well as the regular Warhost option.  Let’s dive into the Warhost one as while it isn’t as flashy as the others it does utilize Battle Focus and expands its already powerful options.  I will just hit these 3 as again – there is a ton of stuff in this book.

Warhost Detachment

The detachment gets 3 rules that are helpful.  First they get an extra Battle Focus Token they can use which brings the army up to 5 for most games.  They also get a bonus of an inch when using the Swift as the Wind Agile token (brings them to an extra 3” for movement) and if they perform any other Agile maneuver that requires a d6 roll you can add a 1 to that roll.  All of this adds up to an army that will be very fast which is very powerful in 40K right now. This detachment has 4 enhancements with one that gives you an extra Battle Focus dice, another that lets you stand back up after dying, and even a free command dice reroll.  The fourth one adds a pip of damage to your psychic weapons which isn’t bad but not nearly as exciting.

There are 6 stratagems for this one with the good ole Fire and Fade coming back for Infantry models.  Lightning Fast Reflexes gives you a -1 to be hit which is powerful.  Skyborne Sanctuary lets you jump back into a vehicle. Blitzing Firepower gives you sustained hits 1 and if you already have it gives you critical hits on a 5+.  Heck you even get a Webway Portal option that lets you put an infantry unit near the board edge back into reserves.  All of these sit at 1CP which are all very good.

Windrider Detachment

The Windrider host is the obvious all Jetbike army aka the Saim-Hann army.  It lets you take Windrider Jetbikes as Battleline, count the turn 1 higher for strategic reserves, and lets you pull models off the table and “redeploy” them.  Yes this is the uppy/downy army for the Aeldari and the reason why I think it will be good is it has all the Battle Focus tricks on top of being able to pull bikes anywhere on the table.  This also includes Vyper models as well which just seems like a pretty brutal set of rules.

The real reason I think this is a nutty army is the fact we have a Conclave unit and it can attached to bike units. This gives you an absurdly big ole unit of bikes that will have some insane firepower from their torrent weapons that get a +1 to strength and attack for each Psyker in the unit up to a +2.  You also can utilize Shining Spears too as all their damage on there weapons are sitting pretty at damage 3.  This is a huge amount of mobile options that can be anywhere, throw out a ton of damage 3 hits, and just murder you.

You got 3 interesting enhancements with one that gives the bearer and the unit attach a 9″ scout move.  You also have one that gives the bearer and unit a -1 to be hit.  You also have a cool CP regeneration one that gives you a CP on a 5+ with a +1 if you are out of your deployment zone and another +1 if you are in the enemy deployment zone.  All of these are pretty dang amazing.

You have 6 pretty decent stratagems that range from gaining extra movement after one of your mounted/vyper buddies kills something.  You have the ability to advance/fallback and charge.  You get a wound reroll option that lets you do it in the shooting and fight phase.  You will have a 6″ deep strike option (currently the book says 3″ but you know it will be updated).  You have an option that will increase the AP of your shooting attack (great for those Conclave units).  You even get a 4+ invulnerable save option if you are shot at.  All of these are 1CP and all are useful.

Ynarri Detachment

The final one I want to talk about is the Ynarri one as it still feels like it could be abusable.  The Devoted of Ynnead is the name of it and it allows you to create a Ynarri force where you can take your Aeldari options, your Drukhari options, and your Harlequin options in one complete detachment.  Their rules interact with all of them and while some won’t get Battle Focus they will get a lot of neat rules they can chain off of.  The army gets 3 rules it can use when something dies near their units. Lethal Intent lets a unit nearby get to make a normal move if something dies near them.  Lethal surge lets the unit how they use a Fade Back Agile Maneuver and instead do a d6+1 surge move towards them.  You also get the option called Lethal Reprisal where you choose one unit during the fight phase that is below Starting Strength to gain Fights first.

40k loves movement tricks and having surge moves, normal moves, and fights first as options for an army seems like a powerful thing.  Heck all of those rules are strong so mixing them all together seems like a pretty good plan.  You also have to take the Yncarne or Yvraine as your warlord if you want to pick this and no other named characters.

There are 3 cool enhancements too with one that gives a Farseer Devastating Wounds on their Eldritch Storm power.  An Archon can gain 2 extra attacks for another.  The Succubus also can gain reroll wounds.  While the powers are not extremely nifty they all seem pretty good for the heroes that can take them.

One the stratagem front you have 6 unique options.  You get a sticky objective option if one of your units died on an objective.  As a World Eaters player that is a powerful stratagem I use all the time so having it here is good.  You get a -1 to wound power for the shooting or fight phase too.  You have a reroll a hit roll of 1 or full reroll if your unit is below starting strength power which can be helpful.  You also have an auto fight on death stratagem as well which is pretty powerful as everyone else’s you need to roll for it.  There is an option to give your unit ignores cover and lethal hits when it shoots.  The last one though seems pretty nutty in that it allows one of your Ynarri units to shoot at the end of your opponents phase.  Seems pretty brutal with some of the shooting options in this book.

So Many Units, Plenty of Dirty Tricks

There are a lot of interesting units and it is almost too much to go over.  Right now I am looking at the Conclave as a really interesting option for a lot of armies.  It gives you a pretty big unit of jerks that can dish out a ton of damage, cover a lot of area, and just are tough to chew thru.  I think some of the Phoenix lords are pretty nutty too with Lhykis being interesting.  We’ll see if the whole 10 Warp Spyders plus her are going to show up in most lists as it is very fast and very brutal to deal with.  Fuegan seems like a boss too who can just stand up with those Fire Dragons that run out of a Falcon and nuke something nearby.

Interesting enough all the Banshee stuff is now hitting on 2’s and when you mix in no Overwatch these murder machines are just going to get there.  In fact a lot of this army will just get there and murder you.  There is a ton of damage and while almost everything got rewritten from the Index – it is still full of good stuff.  It just moves so much and can do so much damage that is hard to think of things surviving the onslaught that is coming. Heck even the Wraithknights are interesting with the ability to take a Scattershield that reduces damage and gives them a 4+ save.  Reducing damage is huge and while you are throwing big lasers at them just cutting a few wounds off will be a nightmare for many armies to deal with.  This is especially true for anything trying to pour a ton of 2 damage options into something to kill it and basically cutting them in half.

Codex Aeldari – The Bad

If you have an older Aeldari army you will be needing to rebase a ton of stuff.  All of the Aspect Warriors are on 28.5 bases which is frustrating as it does look different enough from the smaller things.  There is also the issue of all the Phoenix lords getting new updated looks with bigger bases, bigger attitudes, and cooler looking models.  I also think some of the updates – while cool they are in plastic – are not nearly as crazy as I thought they would be.  The only model I was annoyed with when building was Lhykis and how difficult it was to get everything synced up with the webs, the weird feet positions, and all the arm nonsense.  I will also say all the banners on some of the models are also annoying as they are tall, thin, and look like something you will break when it snags your clothing as you try to move your murder machines around the table top.

Codex Aeldari – The Ugly

Karandras is gone.  This is one of the cooler model ideas that just didn’t get updated.  I am hoping we see it in the future with a Killteam release or some other kind of fancy “update” book we could get.  It just feels like a missed opportunity  that would be have been awesome to see on the tabletop.  I also kinda miss the Prince Yriel model too as it was a way to create a “Corsairs” type of look for the army that still feels kind of bolted on.

Overall the codex is gonna hit like a rocket for a lot of players.  It has so many movement tricks it is going to feel like it is all over your business all the time and you will get smacked in the face so hard.  The only real army that interests me in this mess is the Wind Rider armies as it feels fun to go zoom zoom around the table shooting things and wrecking stuff with your Shining spears.  I won’t be buying an army but will be seeing this on the table top a lot until they get the points synced in and right.

For Kaela Mensha Khaine!

Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.

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