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There is a classic picture from the old Eldar artwork that shows ranks of guardians in formation. In the formation towering wraithguard stand out. Interspersed among the guardians. The big brothers. The old spirits brought back to lend strength and firepower.

For each 10 guardians, 2 wraithguard may be purchased for their normal points cost and included in the unit. Any hits directed at the guardians must be taken on the wraithguard until they are killed

Adjust Shuriken catapults to 24”
Give wraithcannons a weak 24” range options.

This counts as two units for webway strike.

This would give the guardians some survivability and usefulness. As is they tend to be wiped off the map in short order. Totally not worth their points. It’s very thematic and true to the Eldar. If the situation is bad enough to bring out guardians it’s also bad enough to deploy wraithguard to help.

I don't think that makes much sense as there's a lot of ways to go about making guardians more useful and making them mix with an existing unit is not one of them. For one, Wraith units are used very reluctantly on most craftworlds because it's tantamount to necromancy for most Eldar and used mainly as a last resort or, in Iyanden's case, they literally don't have enough living bodies for their army. I don't think they would be putting them with frontline units like Guardians as a staple option, especially since you're basically doubling down on losing your existing population AND your elderly effectively.

Guardians main problem is them falling far behind the arms race that 9th ed started with stats and weapons boosts. Guardians should get a buff to their shuriken catapults as you mentioned, 18" would be ideal (so that DA get 24" shuriken catapults). Make them 4+ base save to match the boost that DE got for their Kabalites. (Dire Avengers would get buffed similarly, they're likely to get a 3+ save). Make it so their weapon platforms are more meaningful (like let you take one per 5 man) and I think giving them Warlock leaders again for some much needed psychic support would help them a lot.

Eldar need an armywide durability buff that would overlay into Guardians, since 2W is neither thematic nor realistic since it only pushes towards stat inflation, I would say some kind of change where you extend the modifier restriction for negatives to hit to a max of -2, rather than -1. That way, there's actual incentive to use lightning fast reflexes on them and allows usage of Dense Cover and other -1 to hits to stack meaningfully.

The Eldar are on the brink of extinction. You can deploy Almost entirely wraith construct army as Iyanden. So saying this is a bad idea because Eldar wouldn’t do it just doesn’t stand to reason. The Eldar have no option but to use everything they have.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I agree they need an armor save buff across the board as well.

warpedpig wrote:
The Eldar are on the brink of extinction. You can deploy Almost entirely wraith construct army as Iyanden. So saying this is a bad idea because Eldar wouldn’t do it just doesn’t stand to reason. The Eldar have no option but to use everything they have.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I agree they need an armor save buff across the board as well.

But them wanting to limit casualties would be precisely why wouldn't want to put all your eggs in one basket. It's like if you started putting elderly and children together into military units, you ideally want one to escape/live to fight another day. Presumably, if you have an entire army of wraiths, they're the last line of defense, and the majority of civilians/guardians are all dead or have fled. Guardians are not standing armies, they are militias formed as defensive needs are dictated by the Craftworld, so what you're suggesting is that it's normal for them to use Wraith constructs, something that is actively avoided if possible, to be used as part of their everyday military training. It also doesn't match thematically because the aversion to using Wraith constructs is that they're powered partly by their soulstones, which if destroyed means they are lost to Slaanesh. So having them tank the hits until they die (which often results in the soulstone being destroyed) as you've made it in your ruleset contradicts how Eldar treat their soulstones as sacrosanct to their species survival against Chaos.

Physically incapacitating a construct wouldn’t necessarily destroy a stone which would likely be held inside a heavily armored part.

It’s a badass idea. That’s why GW drew artwork showing it. You have no argument.

Wouldn't this make wraith constructs too similar to Tau drones? People already despise saviour protocols.

I agree with Grimskul that this feels unfluffy. It's one thing to call up units of wraiths as a desperate way to fill out your meager ranks. It's another to intentionally use your grandma as a shield.

There's also a weird anti-synergy there. Part of what makes wraithguard durable is their high toughness. In a mixed unit, that would be ignored. Unless your intention is to resolve hits individually against the wraitihs until they're killed (in which case that's clunky and slows down dice rolling significantly.)

Plus, while I don't love it mechanically, guardians can already take chunky bullet catchers in the form of heavy weapon platforms. So the wraithguard as you're proposing them are sort of redundant. Which also makes me think that the webway stratagem nerf is unnecessary.

Maybe you'd be better off asking your opponent for permission to proxy a wraithguard model as your star cannon weapon platforms?

It’s a badass idea. That’s why GW drew artwork showing it. You have no argument.

Humor, yes?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jarms48 wrote:
Wouldn't this make wraith constructs too similar to Tau drones? People already despise saviour protocols.

Well, a single wraith guard costs almost as much as two shield drones and can't be used to protect our shootier units. So I don't think that particular concern would be a problem.

What’s humorous is how you guys think you’re the judge of what’s fluff and what isn’t. How arrogant. Even though the art that GW has put out shows this you say it isn’t not fluff? Wow.

warpedpig wrote:
What’s humorous is how you guys think you’re the judge of what’s fluff and what isn’t. How arrogant. Even though the art that GW has put out shows this you say it isn’t not fluff? Wow.

So... What are you, then? You're an outsider looking in just like us-unless you actually work at GW, you're just as liable to get something wrong as we are.

I can look at a GW picture and use my brain.

 JNAProductions wrote:

warpedpig wrote:
What’s humorous is how you guys think you’re the judge of what’s fluff and what isn’t. How arrogant. Even though the art that GW has put out shows this you say it isn’t not fluff? Wow.

So... What are you, then? You're an outsider looking in just like us-unless you actually work at GW, you're just as liable to get something wrong as we are.

Careful, JNA. Smells like troll.

Are you joking. Wow. Someone disagrees with you and that makes them a troll. Grow up

I've been thinking about them for 20 years or so.

Imo they should look something like this:

Irregulars: you can have as many of these squads as you have other infantry units.

Guardians 5-10 squad size
Each squad comes with a heavy weapon platform with built in energy field providing a 4++ save

Storm squad 5-10
Each squad is led by an autarch in training. The unit has 4 special weapons. The autarch carries a shimmer shield.


Black guardians: lose irregular key word. Each squad can include a warlock. Storm guardians have a warlock instead of autarch jr.

Shuriken catapult range 24" assault 2 S4 ap-1 D1
Lasblaster range 30" assault 3 S3 ap0 d1


Aspect weapon equivalents

Avenger catapult stats = catapult above + bladestorm (6s are ap-3)
Hawk blasters = lasblaster above + assault 4 ap-1