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So looking over the Imperial Armour Xenos index I found myself disappointed by just how much of the Corsair list has gotten slashed, and just how one-dimensional the rest seems to be. I thought I'd see if I could come up with some content as a stopgap until the real Corsair rules show up, see what came out.

The first thing to worry about here, and there is no way around this, is the pricing. The Corsairs have a mix of Craftworld and Dark Eldar weapons, and since they're tacked onto the Craftworld section all the individual weapon prices are the same, which leads to some unavoidable bits of horrorshow like the humble Lasblaster-armed Reaver costing 18pts against 11pts for one with a Shardcarbine (which is superior against almost all targets).

The second worry is options. Corsair Jetbikes in Mymeara had the option of twin-linked splinter rifles, shuriken catapults, or lasblasters, or a single shuriken cannon or splinter cannon, and the option carried over to the chin gun on all their vehicles; GW cut that down to just shuriken catapult/cannon because the models didn't come with the other options, ignoring the fact that you might want one of the others now and again. Character weapon lists are a little more nebulous; they did cut out a lot of things that just weren't used, but at the same time the Corsairs are now stuck with power swords only and I would like the Balelight back. And as for units right now we've got three (Reavers, Skyreavers, and Cloud Dancers), at minimum we need the ability to keyword-hop some Craftworld vehicles over, and we need the Prince, Baron, Void Dreamer, Voidstorm Band, and Venom (the Corsair one, not the Harlequin or Dark Eldar versions built on the same chassis but with different special rules) back. Ghostwalkers, Malevolents, and splitting up/variants on the existing units would be nice, but they're not as essential.

And my third worry is the army rules. Reroll successful Morale tests and making one extra model flee is making Corsairs incredibly brittle, especially without any morale-mitigating abilities (beyond the power to use the Leadership of an Archon in a Tantalus in line of sight, which is a poor substitute for having a real HQ), and Reckless Abandon as a charge-reaction move is really quite niche, especially when it's always 3". When the Craftworlders are getting advance-and-shoot-at-no-penalty, and the Dark Eldar are getting strong escalating buffs, this feels like we haven't been thrown a bone so much as a crayon drawing of a bone.

I'm going to be experimenting, calculating, and formatting a proper .pdf army list, but here are some preliminary thoughts for comment.

Army Rules

Dancing on the Blade's Edge: It's interesting, it's characterful, but it's gone too far. The original rule gave Corsairs a lower Leadership for regroup tests; they weren't any more likely to break than Craftworld or Dark Eldar since they still had Ld 8-9 in most places, but once they'd broken they were likely to stay broken. This would be better-simulated by dropping the reroll-successes line and keeping the extra model fleeing.

Reckless Abandon: I like the charge-reaction aspect, I like the option of moving closer to make the charge succeed if you need to, but it's too short and too situational to ever really be a patch on Battle Focus or Power from Pain. The shoot-then-move aspect is something the Corsairs really should be getting; the problem, though, is when it triggers. If it only ever happens during Overwatch it becomes completely irrelevant against more shooty armies, or people who outrange you significantly; but if the Corsairs get a constant move-shoot-move mechanic they can just play peek-a-boo and be generally frustrating. I'm thinking roll it back to when it triggered in 7th (when a Corsair unit makes a shooting attack against a unit within 12"), but keep the 8e 3" distance (possibly bumped up to 3+d3" for jetbikes and jump units), and let it trigger during the Shooting and the Charge phase so you get a bit of extra move, but also get to be harder to get in combat. It could do with a few restrictions (doesn't trigger when firing Heavy weapons, can't do it after Advancing) but the point is to make Corsairs the fastest and dodgiest things around to make up for high costs and low durability.

Wild Psyker: I don't know if psyker-Princes/Barons will survive the transition but since the Void Dreamer definitely should this deserves some thought. The point of the initial table was to make Corsair psykers a much riskier prospect than more disciplined Eldar; in the interests of preserving that I'm thinking Perils should do more wounds (either a flat 3 or a d6 in place of the d3). I find the Devoured result (psyker becomes a Daemon of Slaanesh and starts hunting down his/her former allies) amusing, so I may try to work it into a later iteration in some way.

Equipment and Other Mechanics

The Brace of Pistols we got strikes me as kind of strange; the pistols-or-other-weapons restriction seems to make it a wasted peice of equipment most of the time (you're usually firing your shardcarbine for three poisoned shots at 18" range, not your pistols for d6 shots at 8" range), and it's a mandatory 2pt increase to everyone when a lot of other weapons aren't. I'm also skeptical about both the unreliability of the d6 shots and the expense of the mandatory pistol load. I'm still working on a sensible answer for this one, but if it's sticking around as a mandatory sidearm it's definitely getting nerfed down below what it is now for reasons of cost.

Shadowwave/Tanglefield grenades: I'm not sure they're necessary, but they're characterful and entertaining enough that I might find a way to work them in. Penalizing enemy charges on top of Reckless Abandon is almost certainly going too far, so my current theory is to borrow the photon grenade rules from the Tau.

Dissonance Breach Charges are an "oh, yeah, definitely" sort of inclusion. They're going to stick around as high-tech sonic meltabombs, possibly with some beneficial interaction with dissonance guns.

Speaking of which, dissonance guns. Two shots and multiple damage are an improvement for the cannon, but I'm wondering if there's a way to preserve the more-guns-acting-in-concert mechanism. It may be cool to have them place "dissonance markers" on the target that would either buff other dissonance weapons or detonate at the end of the phase for extra hits.

Voidplate/Heavy Mesh: With how armour and AP work now I don't think the 4+ save from jetpacks needs to come back, but I'm definitely making characters and the Voidstorm band (the Felarch-only command squad) 4+ armour.

Balelight: It's awesome, iconic, and kind of silly. It's definitely going to be a high-rate-of-fire pistol available to characters only, but I'm going to have to weigh it against what I do to the brace of pistols, along with fusion and dissonance pistols, before I settle on specifics.

Voidblades: More power weapons, basically, not just power swords. I'm unsure whether I want to keep the +1S off the 7e Voidblade, but there are going to be melee options that aren't S3.

Void Burners: Casually giving out Deep Strike this edition is slightly terrifying. Given the insane price of just tacking Deep Strike onto a Marine squad (in the form of 100pt Drop Pods) I'm not going to just do some linear addition and declare that Venoms can pay 100pts for the ability to Deep Strike; I do know I'd like the option to exist, but I'm planning on being cautious about how I use it.

Kinetic Shroud: The bit that the Craftworlders are missing, the passive durability buffs to vehicles. I'm probably going to just borrow the old Kinetic Shroud (already basically implemented in 8th as the Galvanic Motors on Tauroses and Titan holofields on Eldar superheavies) and give the vehicles an Invulnerable save if they move far enough. This is the army of sharks. You stop moving, you die.

So that's the summary, at least. I shall be back with specific unit rules and more concrete details as I work on this.

My current 40k list is a ynnari Iyanden corsairs list.

I'm using a farseer as profane arts Prince. Otherwise everything else would slot into the 7th edition list.

Something interesting is the ynnari rules said you can choose any aeldari model. Corsairs have aeldari and also lose nothing for the free buff to become corsairs.

My list goes as follows

Farseer Skyrunner (singing spear, guide, doom)
3×3 cloud dancers (3 splinter cannons)
2×Nightwing
Phoenix (twin starcannons)
Vampire Hunter

Comes out as a flat 2k, and still manages to maintain what I feel a lot of corsairs was about. The downside is any build outside of this really suffers from everything corsairs have lost.

Also our bikes are dumb expensive 3 with shuriken cannons come out to 117 the same for craftworld eldar is 96. I'm not sure what we gain for that many points especially when not ynnari.

What is definetly like to see comeback is the flyers regaining the corsairs keyword as an option. Hq choices which were a lot of our flavour and then some of the wargear would be nice to.

If it's any help, I've got some suggestions for updating the First Prince rule to 8th:

First Prince
Each Corsair Prince must select exactly one of the following abilities:

Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures
Before the game, choose one of the Dark Eldar Combat Drugs. The Corsair Prince gains the benefit of that drug for the duration of the battle. If your army includes Dark Eldar models with Combat Drugs, the Prince's choice is ignored for the purposes of not duplicating drug results.

Traveller of Forgotten Paths
The Corsair Prince may be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place the Corsair Prince on the battlefield anywhere more than 9" away from any enemy models. In addition, before the game begins you may choose another unit in your army. That unit may also be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place that unit anywhere on the table that is more than 9" from any enemy model.

[I also have an alternative version of this power (see below), but I thought it might cause some issues - especially for a homebrew codex.]

Collector of Ancient Treasures
The Corsair Prince may purchase any two of the following weapons (using the price from the appropriate codex):
- Huskblade
- Agoniser
- Blaster
- Scorpion Chainsword
- Death Spinner
- Fusion Gun
- Reaper Launcher
- Harlequin's Caress
- Harlequin's Embrace
- Harlequin's Kiss

[Not sure about this one, honestly. I was just trying to think of something that didn't involve the currently nonexistent Artefacts. ]

Reaper of the Outer Dark
At the beginning of the Assault Phase, if the Corsair Prince it within 8" of at least one enemy unit, it must declare a charge against the closest enemy unit (even if it Advanced or Fell Back that turn). In addition, the Corsair Prince may make an additional d3 attacks with any single weapon during the Fight Phase.

Wielder of Profane Powers
The Corsair Prince must select two powers from the Nurgle Discipline, Slaanesh Discipline or Tzeentch Discipline. The Corsair Prince knows these powers in addition to Smite. At the beginning of each Psychic Phase, before any other powers are cast, the Corsair Prince must attempt to manifest a Psychic Power that is not Smite. In addition, whenever the Corsair Prince attempts to manifest a psychic power other than Smite, he suffers Perils of the Warp if any doubles are rolled.

[I wasn't sure whether to either include the standard Chaos Discipline as well as the demon ones, or else just make that the only choice.]

Survivor of Endless Darkness
Roll a d6 each time the Corsair Prince suffers a wound. On a roll of 5 or 6, the wound is prevented. In addition, the Corsair Prince regains one lost wound at the beginning of each of your turns. Roll a d6 each time this occurs - on a roll of 1 the Corsair Prince cannot move but is treated as having fallen back this turn (it cannot Charge and may not shoot unless it has the Fly special rule).

[Pinned no longer exists, but I thought 'can't move and count as having Fallen Back' was a pretty good substitute. Also, regeneration abilities seem to be automatic this edition, so I went with that. An alternative would be to have the Corsair Prince regain 1d3 wounds each turn, but be pseudo-pinned on a roll of 1.]

Traveller of Forgotten Paths V2
The Corsair Prince may be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place the Corsair Prince on the battlefield anywhere more than 9" away from any enemy models. In addition, once per game at the beginning of any shooting phase, the Corsair Prince may open a Webway Gate. If he does so, place a suitable marker within 3" of the Corsair Prince but more than 3" away from any enemy models. if this is not possible, the Corsair Prince may not open a Webway Gate this turn. The Corsair Prince may not shoot in the same turn he opens a Webway Gate. Once the Webway Gate is open, any unit you have in reserve may choose to enter through the gate instead of using their normal means of deployment from reserves. If the unit chooses to do this, use the following rules:

At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place this unit on the table anywhere that is within 3" of a Webway Gate and at least 3" from any enemy models.

[Pinned no longer exists, but I thought 'Fell Back' was a pretty good substitute. Also, regeneration abilities seem to be automatic this edition, so I went with that. An alternative would be to have the Corsair Prince regain 1d3 wounds each turn, but be pseudo-pinned on a roll of 1.]


I wasn't sure what to do with regard to Princes handing out lesser versions of their powers, so I've left that for now.

Anyway, hopefully at least some stuff here will be useful for this project.

 vipoid wrote:
If it's any help, I've got some suggestions for updating the First Prince rule to 8th:

First Prince
Each Corsair Prince must select exactly one of the following abilities:

Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures
Before the game, choose one of the Dark Eldar Combat Drugs. The Corsair Prince gains the benefit of that drug for the duration of the battle. If your army includes Dark Eldar models with Combat Drugs, the Prince's choice is ignored for the purposes of not duplicating drug results.

Traveller of Forgotten Paths
The Corsair Prince may be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place the Corsair Prince on the battlefield anywhere more than 9" away from any enemy models. In addition, before the game begins you may choose another unit in your army. That unit may also be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place that unit anywhere on the table that is more than 9" from any enemy model.

[I also have an alternative version of this power (see below), but I thought it might cause some issues - especially for a homebrew codex.]

Collector of Ancient Treasures
The Corsair Prince may purchase any two of the following weapons (using the price from the appropriate codex):
- Huskblade
- Agoniser
- Blaster
- Scorpion Chainsword
- Death Spinner
- Fusion Gun
- Reaper Launcher
- Harlequin's Caress
- Harlequin's Embrace
- Harlequin's Kiss

[Not sure about this one, honestly. I was just trying to think of something that didn't involve the currently nonexistent Artefacts. ]

Reaper of the Outer Dark
At the beginning of the Assault Phase, if the Corsair Prince it within 8" of at least one enemy unit, it must declare a charge against the closest enemy unit (even if it Advanced or Fell Back that turn). In addition, the Corsair Prince may make an additional d3 attacks with any single weapon during the Fight Phase.

Wielder of Profane Powers
The Corsair Prince must select two powers from the Nurgle Discipline, Slaanesh Discipline or Tzeentch Discipline. The Corsair Prince knows these powers in addition to Smite. At the beginning of each Psychic Phase, before any other powers are cast, the Corsair Prince must attempt to manifest a Psychic Power that is not Smite. In addition, whenever the Corsair Prince attempts to manifest a psychic power other than Smite, he suffers Perils of the Warp if any doubles are rolled.

[I wasn't sure whether to either include the standard Chaos Discipline as well as the demon ones, or else just make that the only choice.]

Survivor of Endless Darkness
Roll a d6 each time the Corsair Prince suffers a wound. On a roll of 5 or 6, the wound is prevented. In addition, the Corsair Prince regains one lost wound at the beginning of each of your turns. Roll a d6 each time this occurs - on a roll of 1 the Corsair Prince cannot move but is treated as having fallen back this turn (it cannot Charge and may not shoot unless it has the Fly special rule).

[Pinned no longer exists, but I thought 'can't move and count as having Fallen Back' was a pretty good substitute. Also, regeneration abilities seem to be automatic this edition, so I went with that. An alternative would be to have the Corsair Prince regain 1d3 wounds each turn, but be pseudo-pinned on a roll of 1.]

Traveller of Forgotten Paths V2
The Corsair Prince may be held in reserve. At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place the Corsair Prince on the battlefield anywhere more than 9" away from any enemy models. In addition, once per game at the beginning of any shooting phase, the Corsair Prince may open a Webway Gate. If he does so, place a suitable marker within 3" of the Corsair Prince but more than 3" away from any enemy models. if this is not possible, the Corsair Prince may not open a Webway Gate this turn. The Corsair Prince may not shoot in the same turn he opens a Webway Gate. Once the Webway Gate is open, any unit you have in reserve may choose to enter through the gate instead of using their normal means of deployment from reserves. If the unit chooses to do this, use the following rules:

At the end of any of your movement phases, you may place this unit on the table anywhere that is within 3" of a Webway Gate and at least 3" from any enemy models.

[Pinned no longer exists, but I thought 'Fell Back' was a pretty good substitute. Also, regeneration abilities seem to be automatic this edition, so I went with that. An alternative would be to have the Corsair Prince regain 1d3 wounds each turn, but be pseudo-pinned on a roll of 1.]


I wasn't sure what to do with regard to Princes handing out lesser versions of their powers, so I've left that for now.

Anyway, hopefully at least some stuff here will be useful for this project.

All quite useful, thank you. I don't agree with all of this (the downside to Survivors of Endless Darkness seems like it'd scare the player into playing cautiously with the Prince, which doesn't seem like the kind of thing Corsairs should be doing), but there are a lot of angles in here I hadn't considered that are almost certainly going to help quite a bit. And I'm glad someone else is thinking about Collector of Ancient Treasures as giving generic equipment from other armies, I wasn't sure if that sounded silly or not.

I am wondering, while we're on the subject of First Prince, whether I tie those rules to the Prince himself or the Command Crew detachment. I like the Command Crew/Coteries structure and I'd like to keep it in some form (possibly replicating the "internal politics" rule by making Voidseer/Baron buffs apply only to models from the same detachment, if that doesn't prove too confusing in practice), and the trade-off in the restrictive structure could let these do more interesting things.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

All quite useful, thank you. I don't agree with all of this (the downside to Survivors of Endless Darkness seems like it'd scare the player into playing cautiously with the Prince, which doesn't seem like the kind of thing Corsairs should be doing),

Well, I'm sure you could just leave out the downside from Survivor of the Endless Darkness. When I put it in, I was just trying to translate them as faithfully as possible. Given that the Prince is going to be - at best - T4 (from a Jetbike) with a 3+/4+ save, I can't imagine regaining 1 wound per turn will turn him into an unkillable monster.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
And I'm glad someone else is thinking about Collector of Ancient Treasures as giving generic equipment from other armies, I wasn't sure if that sounded silly or not.

Seems logical to me. Corsairs already use a lot of equipment from both Eldar and Dark Eldar, so a Prince who specialises in collecting will probably have access to some of the rarer stuff. If anything, it seems far weirder that a Prince can get his hands on a one-of-a-kind Eldar Artefact, but not a common Blaster.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

I am wondering, while we're on the subject of First Prince, whether I tie those rules to the Prince himself or the Command Crew detachment. I like the Command Crew/Coteries structure and I'd like to keep it in some form (possibly replicating the "internal politics" rule by making Voidseer/Baron buffs apply only to models from the same detachment, if that doesn't prove too confusing in practice), and the trade-off in the restrictive structure could let these do more interesting things.

I'd lean towards tying them to the Prince (seems more appropriate in terms of flavour).

With regard to the internal structure aspect, what if no two Corsair detachments could share the same <Coterie>? So if you have one detachment of <Black Viper> Corsairs, any other Corsair detachments you have can't be <Black Viper> ones - you have to pick a different name from them.

Some further notes on weapons, wargear, and costs:

I know the Voidsabre needs its +1S back; it's 2.5x the cost of a power sword right now to do the same thing, and without power fists the Corsairs need something. I'd like a glaive/spear of some sort as well, both for modelling reasons and to give characters other options; probably at +2S/-2AP rather than the +1/-3 to echo axes/glaives in other contexts while remaining a voidweapon (power weapon +1S).

As for the brace of pistols after going over the math I'm inclined to keep the shorter range, make them fixed two shots rather than d6, and leave the worsened rending in regardless of the target (final profile 8", Pistol 2, S *, AP 0, this weapon wounds non-vehicle targets on a 4+, and vehicles on a 6+; any roll to wound of 6 is resolved at AP-1). It remains a viable secondary weapon but it isn't as spiky as the original d6-shot weapon and I can feel safe about removing the cost of having it. At 9pts Corsair Reavers feel like they're in a good cost niche; they've got more options and more Move than Guardians (8pts) but they're not as expensive as Dire Avengers (who are 17pts but should be 10pts), who have better armour, a gun that strikes a balance between the range of the shardcarbine and the anti-armour punch of the shuriken catapult, much better Ld, and a better free character.

(The cost drop does make Skyreavers 12pts/model against 14pts/model for Scourges, but Scourges have higher heavy weapon density and 4+/6++, so that feels closer to right to me as well.)

And as for jetbikes I've been looking over the other jetbikes in the game and I'm definitely letting them keep the chainsword-equivalent. Every bike in the world that isn't a Windrider or a Corsair bike is allowed a basic close combat weapon on everyone (Reavers, Marines, Scouts, Swiftclaws, Chaos Marines, Orks...), and I'd like to try and make the Corsairs more aggressive and less stand-off-ish than the Windriders feel when I've played them.

The Kinetic Shroud is still bugging me; on one hand DE and Harlequin light vehicles are sitting on strong built-in saves (5+ for the DE, 4+ for the Harlequins) and imposing a -1 penalty to shots against them while Craftworld light vehicles just have Star Engines, but on the other hand Corsairs have the T7/3+ Falcon chassis while Harlequin/DE vehicles are all T5/T6 with a 4+ save. I know it's going to be in, and on the Falcons, but I'm not sure what form it'll take. Giving it a flat distance to move before the save turns on could be interesting, since you'd make damaged Falcons have a worse save...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 vipoid wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

I am wondering, while we're on the subject of First Prince, whether I tie those rules to the Prince himself or the Command Crew detachment. I like the Command Crew/Coteries structure and I'd like to keep it in some form (possibly replicating the "internal politics" rule by making Voidseer/Baron buffs apply only to models from the same detachment, if that doesn't prove too confusing in practice), and the trade-off in the restrictive structure could let these do more interesting things.

I'd lean towards tying them to the Prince (seems more appropriate in terms of flavour).

With regard to the internal structure aspect, what if no two Corsair detachments could share the same <Coterie>? So if you have one detachment of <Black Viper> Corsairs, any other Corsair detachments you have can't be <Black Viper> ones - you have to pick a different name from them.

Maybe? It's sort of the same solution with different wording (Barons in this approach would have buffs to <Coterie> units while Princes would have buffs to Anhrathe units as a whole, as opposed to my initial wording having Barons give buffs to <Coterie> units from their detachment and Princes give buffs to <Coterie> units in general).

The other issue is that I'm thinking of a "coterie" as "crew from a different starship in the same fleet", but the way FW is using it as the equivalent of "Craftworld" or "Chapter" the "coterie" is the fleet now. Speficicity of names aside running it through the keywords could be a more elegant solution, given that they keyword certainly doesn't do anything right now.

The coterie thing probably won't get expanded on too much, so messing with it seems like a safe option

Some actual content, after a few games' worth of testing on my draft. Will format this properly and stick a .pdf up in the first post at some point, but for now here's a chunk of the datasheets. (I've written "weapon keywords" back in for convenience/readability, I'm aware that's not how GW does it anymore but I'm formatting my rules that way, so there.)

(Note: This is a selection, not the entire army list, and only the equipment these guys get is listed.)


Corsair Army List

Common Abilities

Dancing on the Blade's Edge: If a unit with this ability fails a Morale test one additional model flees.

Dissonance: If a unit is hit by a weapon with this rule place a dissonance counter next to it after the firing unit's shooting is completely resolved. Dissonance weapons gain +1S/-1AP for each dissonance counter on the target when an attack is declared (up to a maximum of three), and +1 damage if the target has at least three dissonance counters. At the end of each player turn remove all dissonance counters from the table.

Hovertank: Measure to this model's hull, not its base.

Kinetic Shroud: If a unit with a Kinetic Shroud moves it gains a 5+ Invulnerable save against shooting attacks until your next turn; this save is a 4+ instead if the unit Advances or is deployed on the table.

Reckless Abandon: If a unit with this ability attacks in the Shooting phase they may move 3" afterwards. This distance is d3+3" instead of the unit has the Jetbike or Jump keywords, and units may not make a Reckless Abandon move after firing a Heavy weapon.

Poison (X+): This weapon wounds non-Vehicle targets on an X+, and Vehicles on a 6+, regardless of Toughness.

Rend (-X): If a weapon with this rule rolls a 6 to wound improve its AP by -X.

Sky Burners: This unit may be deployed in the upper atmosphere instead of on the table. At the end of any Movement phase you may set this unit up anywhere on the table outside 9" of any enemy models.

Turbo-Boost: A unit with this rule moves an additional 6" when Advancing instead of d6".


Aethermancy Discipline
Path-Ward: Cast on 5+. Target an Anhrathe Infantry or Jetbike unit within 6" of the caster. Until your next turn the target unit may move an additional 3" when making a Reckless Abandon move, and may charge 6+d6" instead of 2d6".
Dispersion Field: Cast on 6+. Enemy models subtract 1 from their ranged to-hit rolls against the caster and any Anhrathe Infantry or Jetbike units within 3" of the caster until your next turn.
Warp Breach: Cast on 7+. Target an Anhrathe unit without the Titanic keyword within 6" of the caster. Remove them from the table, and set them up anywhere on the battlefield more than 9” from any enemy models. This unit counts as having moved.


Wargear Lists
Secondary Weapons: Twin Splinter Rifle, Twin Lasblaster, Shuriken Cannon, Splinter Cannon.
Heavy Weapons: Shuriken Cannon, Splinter Cannon, Scatter Laser, Starcannon, Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance.
Character Weapons: Voidsabre, Voidlance, Dissonance Pistol, Fusion Pistol, Blast Pistol.
Small Arms: Shuriken Catapult, Lasblaster, Shardcarbine.


HQ

Corsair Prince (PL 5, 60pts base)
Move 8”, WS 2+, BS 2+, S 3, T 3, W 5, A 5, Ld 9, Sv 4+
1 Corsair Prince. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
May take a Balelight, a fusion gun, or an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May take an additional item from the character weapons list, or a relic voidsabre or relic voidlance.
May purchase a jump pack (+1 PL). He gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and his move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon (see summary)
Raid Leader: Friendly Anhrathe units within 6” of a Corsair Prince may reroll missed rolls to hit.
Forceshield: This model has a 4+ Invulnerable save.
Jealous Command: Your army may include no more than one model with the Prince keyword, who must be the army’s Warlord.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Character, Prince

Cloud Dancer Prince (PL 7, 90pts base)
Move 18”, WS 2+, BS 2+, S 3, T 4, W 6, A 5, Ld 9, Sv 4+
1 Cloud Dancer Prince. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, warblade, and twin shuriken catapult.
Options:
May take a Balelight, a fusion gun, or an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May take an additional item from the character weapons list, or a relic voidsabre or relic voidlance.
May replace the twin shuriken catapult with an item from the secondary weapons list.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Turbo-Boost (see summary)
Raid Leader: Friendly Anhrathe units within 6” of a Corsair Prince may reroll missed rolls to hit.
Forceshield: This model has a 4+ Invulnerable save.
Jealous Command: Your army may include no more than one model with the Prince keyword, who must be the army’s Warlord.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Jetbike, Character, Fly, Prince

Corsair Baron (PL 3, 40pts base)
Move 8”, WS 2+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 4, A 4, Ld 8, Sv 4+
1 Corsair Baron. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
May take an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May take an additional item from the character weapon lists.
May purchase a jump pack (+1 PL). He gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and his move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon (see summary)
Enforcer: At the beginning of the turn choose a non-Character <Coterie> unit within 3” of the Baron. That unit may reroll failed Morale tests and charge rolls until your next turn.
Shimmerfield: This model has a 5+ Invulnerable save.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Character, Baron

Cloud Dancer Baron (PL 5, 60pts base)
Move 18”, WS 2+, BS 3+, S 3, T 4, W 5, A 4, Ld 8, Sv 4+
1 Cloud Dancer Baron. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, warblade, and twin shuriken catapult.
Options:
May take an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May take an additional item from the character weapon lists.
May replace the twin shuriken catapult with an item from the secondary weapons list.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Turbo-Boost, Kinetic Shroud (see summary)
Enforcer: At the beginning of the turn choose a non-Character <Coterie> unit within 3” of the Baron. That unit may reroll failed Morale tests and charge rolls until your next turn.
Shimmerfield: This model has a 5+ Invulnerable save.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Jetbike, Character, Fly, Baron

Voidseer (PL 6, 80pts base)
Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 4, A 4, Ld 9, Sv 4+
1 Voidseer. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a witchblade.
Options:
May take an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May purchase a jump pack (+1 PL). He gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and his move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon (see summary)
Wild Psyker: A Voidseer suffers Perils of the Warp on any failed psychic test.
Rune Armour: This model has a 4+ Invulnerable save.
Psyker: A Voidseer may attempt to cast two powers per turn, and deny two powers. He knows the Smite power and two additional powers from the Aethermancy list.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Character, Voidseer

Cloud Dancer Voidseer (PL 8, 110pts base)
Move 18”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 4, W 5, A 4, Ld 9, Sv 4+
1 Cloud Dancer Voidseer. Equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, witchblade, and twin shuriken catapult.
Options:
May take an item from the small arms or character weapon lists.
May replace the twin shuriken catapult with an item from the secondary weapons list.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Turbo-Boost (see summary)
Wild Psyker: A Voidseer suffers Perils of the Warp on any failed psychic test.
Rune Armour: This model has a 4+ Invulnerable save.
Psyker: A Voidseer may attempt to cast two powers per turn, and deny two powers. He knows the Smite power and two additional powers from the Aethermancy list.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Jetbike, Character, Fly, Voidseer

Troops

Reaver Band (PL 3 per 5, 6pts/model base)
Reaver: Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 1, Ld 7, Sv 5+
Felarch: Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 2, Ld 8, Sv 5+
1 Felarch and 4 Reavers. May purchase 5 or 10 additional Reavers. All models are equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
The Felarch may replace either his warblade or his brace of pistols with an item from the character weapons list.
One Reaver per five may replace his warblade or his brace of pistols with one of the following: fusion gun, blaster, shredder, flamer, shuriken cannon, splinter cannon.
Any model may replace either his warblade or brace of pistols with an item from the small arms list.
The entire unit may purchase jump packs (+1 PL/5 models). The unit gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and their Move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Dancing on the Blade’s Edge (see summary)
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Reaver

Ghostwalker Band (PL 4 per 5, 12pts/model base)
Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 1, Ld 7, Sv 5+
5 Ghostwalkers. May purchase 5 additional Ghostwalkers. All models are equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
Any model may replace either his brace of pistols or his warblade with a long rifle or an item from the small arms list.
One Ghostwalker per five may replace either his brace of pistols or his warblade with a blaster, shredder, flamer, fusion gun, voidsabre, or dissonance pistol.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Dancing on the Blade’s Edge (see summary)
From The Shadows: During deployment you may set up a Ghostwalker Band in the shadows. At the beginning of the first game round you may deploy the Ghostwalkers anywhere on the table not within 12” of any enemy models.
Ghosts: Enemy models subtract 1 from hit rolls when targeting this unit. Additionally a Ghostwalker unit in cover gets +2 to their saves instead of +1.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Ghostwalker

Transports

Corsair Venom (PL 5, 70pts base)
Move 16”, WS 4+, BS 3+, S 5, T 5, W 6, A 2, Ld 7, Sv 4+
1 Venom. Equipped with a twin shuriken catapult, vectored engines, and a shuriken cannon.
Options:
May replace the twin shuriken catapult with an item from the secondary weapons list.
May replace the shuriken cannon with a scatter laser or a splinter cannon.
Abilities:
Kinetic Shroud (see summary)
Open-Topped: Models embarked on a Venom may attack in their Shooting phase. Measure range and line of sight from any point on the model. Restrictions or modifiers that apply to the vehicle also apply to the models inside; except that the passengers may not shoot when the vehicle falls back.
Vectored Engines: If this vehicle Advances or is deployed on the table enemies take a -1 penalty to hit it with shooting attacks until your next turn.
Explodes (3”/1)
Transport: The Venom may carry 6 <Coterie> infantry. It may not carry models with the Jump keyword.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Vehicle, Fly, Transport, Venom

Elites

Voidstorm Band (PL 5 per 5, 12pts/model base)
Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 2, Ld 8, Sv 4+
5 Felarchs. May purchase 5 additional Felarchs. All models are equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
Any Felarch may replace either his brace of pistols or his warblade with an item from the small arms or character weapons list.
Two Felarchs may replace either their brace of pistols or warblade with a flamer, blaster, shredder, or fusion gun. If the unit numbers ten models two more may do so.
The entire unit may purchase jump packs (+1 PL/5). The unit gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and their Move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Dancing on the Blade’s Edge (see summary)
Shimmerfield: Models in this unit have a 5+ Invulnerable save.
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Voidstorm

Fast Attack

Cloud Dancer Band (PL 5 per 3, 22pts/model base)
Move 18”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 4, W 2, A 1, Ld 7, Sv 4+
Move 18”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 4, W 2, A 2, Ld 8, Sv 4+
1 Felarch and 2 Cloud Dancers. May purchase 3 or 6 additional Cloud Dancers. All models are equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, a warblade, and a twin shuriken catapult.
Options:
The Felarch may replace either his warblade or his brace of pistols with an item from the character weapons list.
Any model in the unit may replace their twin shuriken catapult for an item from the Secondary Weapons list.
One Cloud Dancer per three may either take a flamer, shredder, blaster, or fusion gun, or they may trade their twin shuriken catapult for a dissonance cannon, scatter laser, or dark lance.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Dancing on the Blade’s Edge, Kinetic Shroud, Turbo-Boost (see summary)
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Bike, Fly, Cloud Dancers

Heavy Support

Baelstrike Band (PL 6 for the first 5, 3 for the next 5, 6pts/model base)
Baelstrike Band
Reaver: Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 1, Ld 7, Sv 5+
Felarch: Move 8”, WS 3+, BS 3+, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 2, Ld 8, Sv 5+
1 Felarch and 4 Reavers. May purchase 5 or 10 additional Reavers. All models are equipped with a brace of pistols, sunburst grenades, and a warblade.
Options:
The Felarch may replace either his warblade or his brace of pistols with an item from the character weapons list.
Four Reavers may replace their warblades with dark lances, shuriken cannons, splinter cannons, Eldar missile launchers, fusion guns, blasters, shredders, or flamers.
The entire unit may purchase jump packs. The unit gains the Jump and Fly keywords, and their Move becomes 16”.
Abilities:
Reckless Abandon, Dancing on the Blade’s Edge (see summary)
Faction Keywords: Aeldari, Anhrathe, <Coterie>
Keywords: Infantry, Baelstrike


Weapons are mostly unchanged from the existing Eldar armies, except for these ones:

Balelight (5pts): 9", Pistol 2d6, S 3, AP -1, D 1
Brace of Pistols (0pts): 8", Pistol 2, S *, AP -, D 1, Poison (4+), Rend (-1)
Dissonance Pistol (5pts): 12", Pistol 1, S 5, AP -2, D 1, Dissonance

(Also pistols: Blast Pistol (6pts), Fusion Pistol (9pts))

Lasblaster (0pts): 24", Assault 3, S 3, AP -0, D 1
Twin Lasblaster (6pts): 24", Assault 6, S 3, AP -0, D 1

(Also rifles: Shardcarbine (2pts), Shuriken Catapult (2pts), Twin Shuriken Catapult (8pts), Twin Splinter Rifle (6pts)

Dissonance Cannon (12pts): 18", Rapid Fire 1, S 5, AP -2, D 1, Dissonance

(Also Heavy weapons: Bright/Dark Lance (20pts), Eldar Missile Launcher (20pts), Scatter Laser (10pts), Shuriken Cannon (10pts), Splinter Cannon (12pts))

(Special weapons: Blaster (15pts), Flamer (8pts), Fusion Gun (17pts), Shredder (8pts))

Corsair Warblade (0pts): Melee, S User, AP -0, D 1, Rend (-1), a model attacking with a Warblade may make one additional attack.
Relic Voidlance (12pts): Melee, S User +2, AP -2, D 2
Relic Voidsabre (10pts): Melee, S User +1, AP -3, D 2
Voidlance (5pts): Melee, S User +2, AP -2, D 1
Voidsabre (4pts): Melee, S User +1, AP -3, D 1


Test games thus far have been heavily dependent on the alpha-strike, but that's been all of 8th so far. Based on test runs I've made the Corsairs benefit from Star Engines and Kinetic Shrouds as if they'd advanced the turn they deploy in order to encourage aggression and make the army more resistant to alpha-strikes if they can't get turn one, added Kinetic Shrouds to a few more units, and added and removed Crystal Targeting Matrices a few times, they are starting to feel more like they're supposed to. Aethermancy and the Venoms are the most under-tested things in this preview, the void-weapons feel about right (though I may need to expand the Voidstorm bands' options to let them run into tough targets without just dying), and I like the current implementation of dissonance weapons (wherein you have two or three dissonance pistols from other units set up a sympathetic vibration in a target before the unit with half a dozen cannons throws a massive crescendo of destruction at them).

(The Cloud Dancer Voidstorm Band, Malevolents, Hornets, Wasps, Vypers, Falcons, Warp Hunters, the alternate-turret gun-Falcons (Fire Prism, Firestorm, Night Spinner), the Lynx, Phoenix, Nightwing, and Vampires are in my draft but not here, a Corsair-specific take on the Raider/Ravager chassis, interesting grenades (tanglefield, shadow-wave), an expanded special weapons list (dissonance blasters, sunrifles, starblasters...), variants on some of the new plastic Flyers, and more melee weapons are on my "things that might be cool" list but haven't been worked out in much detail.)