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Ladies and Gentlemen of Dakka gather round because I need to talk to you about Wraithblades and Lelith Hesperax...

The beautiful monstrosities of undeath are rarely seen on the tabletop, they have great toughness but with a poor armour save in an edition where spamming high strength weaponry and mega mobility is all too common; as such they are often passed by so it goes without saying that I want to use them.

Now before I get into this, I know this approach has been used before and I don’t expect it to be the be all and end all of competitive play. In fact I expect it to fail against the truly powerful lists out there but I think it should be fun to get some use out of the Wraithblades in the local league. Back to it…

With the Ghostaxe/Shimmershield loadout they are Strength 7/AP 2 at Initiative 1 now with rage to compensate for lack of attacks.

So what I need for them is:

- Mobility
- Additional Protection
- Additional Strength to provoke ID/AT

So here’s what I'm currently thinking

Eldrad - He's a beast with ML 4, gaining warp charges back on a 5+, 3+ invul, Fleshbane Ap3 Force weapons and most importantly; all that with a Ghosthelm. Since Ghosthelms ignore the wounds caused by perils by expending a warp charge and runes of the Farseer allow for rerolls, the craftworlders have a damn good shot of using Sanitic powers without blowing up. So having him fish for Hammerhand/Gate of Infinity and Sanctuary on ML4 leaves me with good odds I’m picking up some of them.

2 Farseers) There is always a chance I’m going to mess up and miss getting Hammerhand/Gate so an extra Farseer or two should help me out in that regard, an extra unit in the deathstar to split off for objective grabbing and having more fleshbane attacks at initiative sounds like a good idea. More Importantly I’ll be fishing for fortune for those Invul saves.

Baharroth) The warlord for +3” runs and hit and run so I should get the most with the Wraithblade’s rage, If I remember right he has the Exarch’s ability to not scatter on the deepstrike which is mandatory with gates.

Allied Dark Eldar champion Lelith Hesperax) Arguably, there are better character beatsticks here (Jain Zar says hi) but I really just want to give her the teeth to be the murder machine she should be. If all goes well we have a hammerhanded Lelith that ignores armour saves with hit and run and a 2+ rerollable invul save in challenges.

So, how would you run the Wraithblades?

Honestly, I just wouldn't. Without more attacks and better WS I just can't see them being that useful, in the end Striking Scorpions and Incubi tend to be a better points investment for close combat units.

Their main problem is their footprint. Assault vehicles they have access to have only a transport capacity of 10 - so you can't put an IC with them and charge out of your transport. Wave-serpent is just to expensive to field this unit and isn't an assault vehicle.

So in order to properly run the wraithblade I think you need to run the unit in tandum with another unit.I think maybe a farseer with jetbikes tagging along would work fine - but probably a singing spear squad with a farseer would work better as they have some decent close combat as well. As already pointed out though - Scorpions or Incubi would work much better, also - an avatar would too.

I love Wraithblades, but they are slow. Here is something I have been thinking about.

There is a formation in the Doom of Mymeara book that allows you to take a wraithseer with a unit of wraithblades as an auxiliary detachment. You take the Pale courts as a Core with very little tax and you get a 6" run move with Matchless Ability. So... your blades are moving 12" each turn!

The Wraithseer has fixed psychic powers, one of which is FNP.

Eldrad's warlord trait allows him to scout d3 units, so you scout the wraithblades for an extra 6" before the game starts. Eldrad himself can cast defensive psychic powers; Fortune is great with them. Heck, toss in the Farseer you need to take as part of the Pale courts and you have a shot at Invis as well.

How would I run Wraithblades? I would take off the swords, shields & axes and give them D-scythes. Not even trying to be sarcastic, that's what I would do. And I LOVE the look of the WraithBlades. They just cannot compare to any of their equivalents like Lychguard or Terminators. And when I say that Terminators are better, that should really give you a clue as to how bad I think they are.

Even D-scythes with a CC character like Lelith with them are a better choice, If all they do is 1 flamer drop and 1 overwatch during the entire game, they will still do more damage the WraithBlades.

I should point out that I just realized you cannot add an IC to a unit with a Wraithseer in it, so no psychic support ICs in the unit. They can still cast powers on it though.

D-scythes are top tier no doubt and a superior choice, but I think the intent of this post was how to make this awesome looking unit perform better.

I think for what you are looking for - eldrad or two farseers + a warlock will give you the best results.

Roll Eldrad on sanctic. Several spells there help the unit. Mainly GOI, Hammerhand, and Sanctuary. Hope the warlock gets protect or enhance or the +1 str ability. It's around 500 points and will for sure eat a lot of damage. It isn't terrible vs other CC units. T6 gives wolves/wraiths trouble and you'll be wounding them on 2's. You could even sub the warlock for a wraithseer to be more fluffy.

 Xenomancers wrote:
I think for what you are looking for - eldrad or two farseers + a warlock will give you the best results.

Roll Eldrad on sanctic. Several spells there help the unit. Mainly GOI, Hammerhand, and Sanctuary. Hope the warlock gets protect or enhance or the +1 str ability. It's around 500 points and will for sure eat a lot of damage. It isn't terrible vs other CC units. T6 gives wolves/wraiths trouble and you'll be wounding them on 2's. You could even sub the warlock for a wraithseer to be more fluffy.

You can't have a warlock join the squad as warlocks are not IC's but you could do this with a spiritseer.

Yeah, if you're trying to make Wraithblades do some work, that's pretty much how I'd do it. Use Scout to get further up the table, use psychic buffs and shielding to survive longer, etc. A Spiritseer would be a really good idea - Protect, if you get it, can give them a 2+ armor save, and Sanctuary (better on the Farseer/Eldrad, though a Spirit/Shadowseer could take it) could give Lelith a 2++ in melee (and 3++ vs shooting).

They'll wind up having to footslog any way you look at it, unless you trade Lelith for a vanilla Succubus (or Archon, if you wanna try your luck with the Huskblade) so you can take a Webway Portal. That probably means you want some numbers, which gets sticky with as expensive as Wraithblades are.

That's why I've ended up punting and using Grotesques so often...

Kaela_Mensha_Khaine wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
I think for what you are looking for - eldrad or two farseers + a warlock will give you the best results.

Roll Eldrad on sanctic. Several spells there help the unit. Mainly GOI, Hammerhand, and Sanctuary. Hope the warlock gets protect or enhance or the +1 str ability. It's around 500 points and will for sure eat a lot of damage. It isn't terrible vs other CC units. T6 gives wolves/wraiths trouble and you'll be wounding them on 2's. You could even sub the warlock for a wraithseer to be more fluffy.

You can't have a warlock join the squad as warlocks are not IC's but you could do this with a spiritseer.

Sorry forgot you can't add them to WG squads. So a spirit seer would be the way to do it.

You ally in Venoms and give them Axes.
They already have no access to Grenades, so Unwieldy doesn't matter, you want AP2, and the 4++ is delicious. Swords just don't make sense.

Well I have run my wraith blades with swords. So far they have not exactly shown up. They are really hopelessly bad.

However the topic is how to use them best so here we go. The new pale court formation lets you take three units of them as a core for the eldar warhost. If you are going to take these guys you might as well make them useful, by letting them unlock 6"runs for all good stuff in your army. In addition it gives them crusader, which makes them moderately better. Next they are too slow so you need to find some way to get them across the board. I suggest raiders with shadow fields as they are cheap, surprisingly durable, and most importantly open topped. Next its very important to pick your targets well. You may be thinking that given their huge price tag they are pretty solid assault unit. They are not. Never assault anything that can fight back, instead try to get to some shooty units.

Alternatively you can take a tantalus which lets you run a larger squad and put some independent characters in it. I guarantee you at this point its the characters doing everything good, not the wraithblades.

The problem is everything you could do with wraith blades you could also do with scorpions, and banshees. Only they are just better. Only take wraithblades because you like the models, and are not in it to win it.

Eldrad (for fortune)
Jain Zar (for dropping I's and WS's, Disarms, AP2)
LVL 3 Void Dreamer (for extra 2d6 movement or no scatter Deepstrikes [both of which you can assault after])
Corsair Prince (shadowfield and Voidblade)
AxeBlades

Yeah, its really expensive... With the right powers you can be in assault REALLY fast, possibly every turn. There is one fairly big risk, that your Void Dreamer may turn into a Daemon, but its really not common and totally worth the gamble since the unit being Fearless wont care about most of the other Perils effects.

If you get the 2d6 move power for the Dreamer then see if you can get his Primaris off 1st. That should make that an auto 12" and also bump your charge to 12" automatically. Thats a scary 30" assault range. But with the Deepstrike power you dont have to worry about that, just place where you want, take a Dangerous terrain checks per 6" moved, and assault (board wide threat range).

Aethermancy primaris targets only corsair units, so no auto 12" charge.

Aww, I had hoped it was another "or the Void Dreamer's unit". Point still stands that the powers will be a great help and the with tons of luck you can get the rolls you need to charge a unit up to 30" away.

Another idea is to add a Shadowseer for hit and run, but that requires taking an entire Masque to go along with it. Alternatively you could take Baharoth for hit and run.

I find that Wraithblades with axes are really tough once they get into combat, but clearly it takes a lot of work and points to get them there. Also, once they are there, they are kinda stuck without hit and run if they go up against anything tough. But as a bodyguard unit for an IC they are pretty good.

I would consider the Ghost Sword version over the axes.

With Swords, you don't have to worry about H&R, as they're good in following rounds of combat, not just on the charge.

Here's how I've thought of doing it;

1. Take a Battlehost, guaranteed 6 inch run.
2.Take a Wraithhost. 10 Blades w/ Swords. Stick the Spiritseer there. They now get rerolls to hit. All other wraiths benefit from the battlehost run move.
3. Spiritseer rolls on Runes of Battle. Conceal, Protect (for 2+ save units) Quicken, all fantastic for this unit.
4. Take Eldrad. Most importantly, for his Warlord trait. Scout move for the unit.
5. Farseer from the battlehost goes in the unit too. You've got 7 rolls on divination/fate. Look for Forewarning, Fortune and Doom. Maybe even misfortune.

So with this unit, you don't need to bother with H&R. On the charge, It's 40 Str 6 AP3 attacks. Rerolls to hit. You may struggle against 2+ saves, but with a chance at misfortune/protect, it can be mitigated sometimes. Even then, you'll get through the armour through weight of dice.

With Scout, move and run, the unit moves 18'' before the 2nd turn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
You ally in Venoms and give them Axes.
They already have no access to Grenades, so Unwieldy doesn't matter, you want AP2, and the 4++ is delicious. Swords just don't make sense.

Except they can't go in venoms. You mean raiders.

With the spiritseers access to runes of battle, you can effectively turn their swords into Ap2 against 2+ saves. With farseer support, getting a 4++ from forewarning isn't too far fetched. Sticking baharroth (as many suggested) into the unit gives them grenades, and a bonus 3+ to their run move.

I meant Raiders. Whoops!

on a treadmill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXDo4dL7SU

Belly wrote:

With the spiritseers access to runes of battle, you can effectively turn their swords into Ap2 against 2+ saves. With farseer support, getting a 4++ from forewarning isn't too far fetched. Sticking baharroth (as many suggested) into the unit gives them grenades, and a bonus 3+ to their run move.

Grenades are on a model bases so putting Baharroth in to the unit would not help them strike at initiative.