Long before Humanity’s ancestors bashed out tools from stone and began the long rise towards civilisation, the galaxy was dominated by an advanced race that ruled a massive star-spanning empire with peerless martial and psychic might. A little more than 10,000 years ago, however, their way of life shattered in an explosion of psychic energy, the few survivors left to drift through the void on colossal ark-ships – forever cursed to see their people fade into nothing.
They are the Aeldari, a refugee race whose skill in battle is rivalled only by their mastery of the psychic arts. Though they slip ever further into decline with each passing cycle, the intense discipline of their soldiers and unmatched foresight of their sages holds their final doom at bay. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these gifted, graceful warriors.
Aeldari Explained
The sheer power of the ancient Aeldari civilisation would eventually prove to be their downfall, as their lives of comfort and indolence turned into increasingly depraved acts of excess to feed their heightened emotions. First their arts and music turned more warped and unhinged, then ritualistic brutality and murder became part of the performance, and before long, the roiling energies of their wanton hedonism gave birth to a new Chaos god within the Warp – Slaanesh, She Who Thirsts – in an apocalyptic event known only as The Fall.
Slaanesh awoke with a cataclysmic psychic roar that sent shockwaves rippling across the Immaterium, consuming billions of Aeldari souls within a moment. Only those who had foreseen their people’s downfall and had already fled their corrupted society escaped the backlash. Many had already left aboard continent-sized ships called Craftworlds, which now travel the galaxy in a never-ending struggle for survival.
These Craftworld Aeldari – who call themselves the Asuryani – live lives of carefully regimented asceticism to prevent the same slide into depravity that doomed their forebears. Though superficially similar to humans in appearance, Aeldari exhibit an uncanny grace in their every movement, possessing speed and strength far greater than their slim, fragile frames would suggest. This makes them excellent warriors with finely honed combat instincts, who can maintain a focused calm in the heat of battle that allows them to react with quicksilver ripostes.
Every Asuryani dedicates themselves to one particular discipline, often for decades or longer. By mastering the tenets and techniques of their chosen Path through intense study, experience, and self-reflection, they resist the temptation that ruined their civilisation and learn to control their minds as much as their bodies through all aspects of their lives.
Aeldari live long enough that many attain complete mastery over their chosen Path and have no more to gain, at which point they will often choose another to begin the process all over again. Those who have pursued many might become renowned war leaders known as Autarchs, while others become attuned to a single Path for their entire lives and hone their skills to a razor’s edge – the Exarchs.
Paths can be martial or otherwise, and the Aeldari create great works of art and forge wondrous artifacts from the psychoactive material wraithbone, called into being by the music of the mysterious Bonesingers. Even those who shun the regimented society of their upbringing and strike out alone amongst the stars tread the Path of the Outcast, forming ad-hoc bands of adventurers and pathfinders who risk predation at the hands of Slaanesh for a life free from the structures of home.
When called to war, the Asuryani wield all the technological marvels of their lost empire, skimming across the battlefield in graceful anti-grav vehicles which unleash terrifying barrages of lasers, plasma bolts, and their signature shuriken weaponry. These elegant weapons use rapid pulses of energy to shave monomolecular fragments off a plasti-crystal core before accelerating them down the barrel at supersonic speeds, shredding through flesh and armour in a rapid-fire hail of death.
The infamous Aspect Warriors form the elite core of Aeldari war hosts. Each one is a devotee of the Path of the Warrior, trained to fight as a different facet of the Aeldari war god Khaine, mastering a single combat style to the exclusion of all else. This singular focus and the specialist equipment of their Aspect Shrine grants them immense power in their chosen discipline, whether it’s crippling armoured vehicles with fusion guns, dipping in and out of the Warp to ambush the enemy, or shredding infantry in brutal close-range assaults.
Many Aspects exist, though not all maintain Aspect shrines on all Craftworlds. The most widespread are the Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, Fire Dragons, Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Dark Reapers, Shining Spears and Crimson Hunters, each a common sight among Aeldari war hosts where their distinctive warriors earn a fearful reputation from their enemies.
Thankfully, the Asuryani are not alone in their plight. They are sometimes joined by the enigmatic Harlequins – thespian killers who serve the Laughing God Cegorach – striking from the hidden pathways of the Webway and blend astonishing violence with allegorical performance. The Ynnari, meanwhile, are followers of the unborn god Ynnead, who spread their worship through death – and combine the disciplined warriors of the Asuryani with their depraved kin, the Drukhari.
Even further afield, fleets of Corsairs roam the stars living a life of wild freedom tempered by caution, for there are few protections for their souls out in the dark between stars where She Who Thirsts waits hungrily.
On the battlefield, Aeldari armies focus all of their energy on precise, powerful strikes with specialist units. Their forces are fragile, so they must quickly eliminate dangerous opponents before slipping away to safety. They excel both at long range and up close, with Aspects dedicated to almost any form of combat and powerful Warlocks supporting their troops with potent psychic abilities.
This is not to say that all of their forces lack durability, however, as their eerily silent legions of Wraith Constructs can absorb massive amounts of punishment while dishing out the damage with terrifying dimensional vortex weapons. Wraithguard, Wraithlords, and the towering Wraithknights are all inhabited by the spirits of slain Aeldari warriors implanted into their wraithbone chassis at times of great need, shrugging off wounds that would be fatal to their living kin and anchor battle lines with a lethal, immovable core.
Aeldari vehicles similarly prioritise speed and power over resilience, while their anti-grav engines allow them to maintain top speed while skirting over rough terrain and ruins. Coupled with the lightning fast skimmers of the Harlequins, surgical strikes to wipe out those who could harm your motor pool are key.
Combat Patrol
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Aeldari lean heavily into their most elite troops with a focus on overwhelming short-ranged damage, mixing the finely honed skills of their Aspect Warriors with the natural durability of their Wraith Constructs to close quickly and hammer the enemy off the board before they can muster a response.
Kygharil’s Protectors are led by the titular Spiritseer and their retinue of Wraithblades. While fragile on their own, Kygharil can avoid incoming fire by remaining close to his bodyguards, who march fearlessly across the field before hacking their chosen prey apart with vicious ghostaxes.
These are joined by two units of Dire Avengers – flexible line infantry who bury their opponents in a storm of accurate shuriken catapult fire – and the highly mobile Warp Spiders. Both are able to rapidly reposition and exploit enemy weaknesses, snatching important objectives away before standing firm and slaughtering all who come to take them.
All you need to deploy Kygharil’s Protectors is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
Painting
Aeldari armies present a fascinating proposition for painters, as they combine a wide array of different uniform colours for their Craftworlds with clear, iconic theme colours for each of the Warrior Aspects. What unifies them is a love of bright and vibrant colours – especially where the dazzling Harlequins are involved – with loads of opportunities to combine mattes, metallics, and other painting techniques on their highly ornamented miniatures.
To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints to give your Combat Patrol the raiment of Craftworld Saim-Hann – the classic red and white colour scheme seen on many of their boxes.
Even though the Warrior Aspects have colours specific to their shrines, you have the freedom to incorporate them as you wish, and finding new ways to show off the deep red of the Warp Spiders or radiant green of the Striking Scorpions is a challenge painters of all levels will enjoy. This also means that there are ample guides for painting your headline miniatures on offer, so if you need a few pointers to get them looking their best, the Citadel Colour app is ready to help!
Next Steps
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to grow from an agile strike force to a mighty Aeldari war host, you might be wondering where to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Aeldari – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 66 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
With the Combat Patrol giving you a hard-hitting core of elites to centre your army around, you may want to bulk out your force with Craftworld soldiery. Storm Guardians are fast assault troops who bring the extra protection of a Serpent’s Scale Platform – surrounding their unit in a shimmering energy field – while Windriders pilot lightning-fast jetbikes that can cross the entire battlefield and capture distant objectives in the blink of an eye.
Rangers are superior marksmen who, despite embarking on the Path of the Outcast, have returned to aid their Craftworld in times of need. Their long rifles are extremely accurate and can snipe enemy leaders and specialists out from amongst their squads, while their stealth skills make them extremely hard to pin down with return fire.
When nothing less than all-out destruction is required, and the Aeldari unlock the most devastating weapons in their arsenal, their leaders call upon the blazing might of the Avatar of Khaine to lead the vanguard. These enormous constructs of molten metal and searing heat contain a fragment of the shattered war god Khaine, bringing his almighty strength to bear with great sweeps of their devastating weapon known only as the Wailing Doom.
While the Avatar ruins all before it in bloody close combat, squadrons of Fire Prism tanks wield unparalleled laser technology to evaporate opposing vehicles with single deadly blasts from their prism cannons – combining multiple beams of energy to enhance their firepower even further when necessary. Meanwhile, Wraithlords tackle both large targets and massed swarms with their flexible assortment of weapons, silently soaking up massive amounts of damage thanks to their tough wraithbone bodies.
Fiction
The stories of the Aeldari are best told through the eyes of those who walk their myriad Paths, taking in the tragic decline of their race from a ground-level perspective, and nowhere is this better than the Path of the Eldar* series by Gav Thorpe. Three separate novels follow three friends as they part company to follow their chosen paths, unaware of how their actions will affect each other – Path of the Warrior, Path of the Seer, and Path of the Outcast.
These three stories can also be read together in the Path of the Eldar collection, accompanied by three extra short stories. Then, follow the galaxy-shaking events that brought about the resurrection of Ynnead in the Rise of the Aeldari series, also by Gav Thorpe. The god of death’s prophet, Yvraine, hunts down a legendary cronesword in Ghost Warrior, before joining with the jetbike warriors of Craftworld Saim-Hann to extinguish a burgeoning Necron threat in Wild Rider.
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* ‘Eldar’ is an old word for the Aeldari, fact fans!
