Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The current state of the rules for Aeldari Corsairs is both heartbreaking and infuriating. They are functional unusable for matched play, and sadly, it appears ForgeWorld has dropped them as a faction. I'm not going to hold my breath on them getting a proper army list or new models any time soon (if ever) so I have taken matters into my own hands.

I have put together the Army list we Space Elf Pirates should be playing with right now. This is a fully functional Army List to bring Eldar Corsairs into 8th edition, complete with Stratagems, Relics, Faction Bonuses, and all the goodness we've come to expect from a modern Codex.

I've tried to clean up and play test this document as much as possible, but there are likely still types, errors, and balances that need to be made.

Thanks for reading, please PM and/or comment below with edits and any thoughts you might have!

https://docdro.id/duHKYG8

Thanks for putting so much time and passion into this! It's always fun to see a fan codex, especially for our poor, neglected corsairs.

That said, I do have some notes:

* Some things are worded a bit oddly here and there. I could generally understand what you were going for, but it might be worth it to do a second pass and compare your wording to similar rules from other books.

* Gaze of She Who Thirsts is kind of brutal. In 7th edition, the corsair version of perils of the warp was LESS lethal and instead punished the corsairs in nasty-but-non-lethal ways. Which was a nice way of nodding to the fact that aeldari, the galaxy's most psychic species, are generally pretty good at not getting themselves killed by casting powers. Yours is just extra lethal.

* Demanding Perfectionist: Ouch. This is both more restrictive than similar rules (autarch, archon, and captain auras) and for some reason highly lethal to the people "benefitting" from it. This is an army where a given elf might be firing 4 shots each turn. You're going to end up killing a lot of elves with a buff aura.

* Cutthroat Discipline: Another "buff" that seems to represent aeldari killing each other off on a whim? Even drukhari aren't quite this eager to kill their own dudes off mid-fight and anyone from a craftworld would probably find this abominable. Seems kind of unfluffy and really punishing considering you're already losing an extra guy thanks to the Dancing on the Blade's Edge rule.

* Limiting princes to one per army is fluffy and inkeeping with the 7th edition approach to things, but also seems more restrictive than it needs to be. Probably fine as is, but maybe consider removing this restriction and having a "Pirate King" strat similar to the Great Harlequin and Chapter Master strats.

* Line Breaker on wasps seems weird to me. It's a melee bonus on a unit that doesn't seem like it wants to get into melee. maybe if they had a better melee weapon or something. If the idea is that they jump in and try to tie up backfield shooting units, then maybe a bonus to charges would make more sense?

* Malevolant Bands don't seem like they'd get much done. Despite having two wounds and a 6+ FNP, they're not really durable. Even with 4 attacks on the charge, their strength 3 means they'll struggle to kill much. Plus, it seems like you'd be better of taking Sky Raiders or or some +1 Attack Drug Sky Serpent troops.

* The Bladesworn rule; it's usually more desirable to be able to fill a slot this edition than to avoid filling a slot. Consider making the "don't take up a slot" part optional or removing it. Things like beasts and court of the archon units would see a bit more use in drukhari armies if they did take up slots.

* I'm not sure what the scout move on Ghost Walkers really does for them. It doesn't seem like they'd be much better positioned to bring their weapons to bare. I guess they screen for you a bit better, but corsairs in general seem mobile enough to outrun such a screen before enemy deepstrikers would start arriving. Maybe just give them a deepstrike or outflank rule?

* The Assault Skimmer rule on hornets. A -3 to hit penalty when advancing with heavy weapons kind of makes me feel like this rule isn't actually useful for heavy weapons. If you actually want heavy weapons to benefit, just say that the hornet ignores the penalty to to-hit rolls for moving in the movement phase. So you can either advance and shoot light weapons at a penalty or not advance but still move and shoot heavy weapons at no penalty.

*Your Ynnari rules are somewhat inconsistent with the new Ynnari rules. In the new Ynnari rules, you can toss a ynnari named character into a craftworld/drukhari/harlequin detachment without causing them to lose their traits, etc.

* Orbital Marauders kind of feels like a formation. It's building my army for me. I like the idea of recapturing some of the 7th edition multi-detachment feel, but this might be a bit too restrictive. maybe change it to work if your army is made up entirely of corsair patrols, supreme commands, and outriders?

* Internal Politics - Kind of fluffy, but more restrictive than is the norm. Using drukhari's raiding force rules as an example, you can make some flavorful armies by mixing and matching small detachments with different subfactions. No need to have the head hancho around for every fight.

* Void Dragon Trait - seems weird that they're better at shooting while holding still than other aeldari or siege specialists like the imperial fists. Also, +1 to hit when holding still is a pretty potent ability. I'd be tempted to scrap the +1 to hit when holding still part and replace it with something weaker and more fluffy.

* Steel Eye Raiders Trait - To clarify, you meant that they get to reroll the number of shots, not hits, right?

*Fleet Tactician Warlord Trait - This is probably how the archon's aura should work, but this is also strictly better than something like the archon's aura. It feels weird that these guys can buff from inside a transport when no one else can, but also I wish more units could do this. So... *shrug*.

Escape Artist Warlord Trait - Ditch the die roll and make it so this can't be stopped by flooding the immediate area with bodies. The die roll usually won't be beneficial enough to warrant the extra roll, and it's very annoying when your once per game ability doesn't actually do anything. Basically, drop the die roll and just say that you pop up as close as possible to where you "died" while staying more than 1" away from enemies.

* Foolhardy Bravado Strat - Man, you really like making your space elves kill themselves. Of all the factions in 40k, the aeldari are the least likely to go around killing themselves off. I'd encourage you to ditch the mortal wounds part. Hurting yourself to do more damage is best left to orks and mon-keigh.

* Starblind Grenade - I'm not clear on how this would ever be useful. You use it in your own turn when the only enemy shooting (outside of niche strats that usually trigger in the movement phase) is overwatch. Overwatch isn't impacted by to-hit modifiers. So how is this meant to be used?

* Gravitic Boosters - 3CP is a lot of CP. It seems unlikely that an extra 2" on a bunch of units would be worth it. You'd need to be EXACTLY 0.1" - 2" out of range for some weapons or exactly 0.1" - 2" out of range of an objective for it to matter. And unless you have multiple units for whom this is the case at the same time, you'd probably be ovepaying for the extra movement.

* False Charge - I know that all aeldari get a version of this, but it can probably drop down to 1CP given that we already get half of this benefit from the Reckless Abandon rule.

* Nightfire Grenade - I'm worried that being able to prevent an expensive melee unit from charging at all might be too good. Even if this didn't work on knights (which it currently does), telling a maxed out shining spear or meganob squad it simply can't charge because reasons seems too punishing.

* Void Strike - Is this an orbital bombardment? An 18" range from the guy calling it down seems like a weird restriction. He can't tell the guys in space to shoot the enemy in the building across the table, but he can deliver a pinpoint accurate shot to the guy within charging distance? Also, you'll notice that other orbital bombardment variants don't hit automatically. An automatic d6 mortal wounds makes this weirdly good at character sniping.

* Scintillating Firepower - To clarify, does this trigger on to-hit rolls of 6 or to-wound rolls of 6? It's probably fine as is, but 4 shots per lasblaster means that every lasblaster in the squad using this has a 2/3rds (4/6ths ) chance of getting an extra shot. Which is proooobably fine but makes me nervous.

* I notice that Steel Eye Reavers really have a thing for attacking buildings. Buildings are rarely taken this edition. I worry that having so many abilities tied to them will make the Steel Eye Reavers an unappealing option and/or make buildings themselves even less appealing.


* I'm looking at the Sky Serpent stuff and wondering if a Sky Serpents player wouldn't be better off just using a wych cult detachment and allying in some corsairs. Wyches are cheaper and probably have a better datasheet than corsairs and have access to basically the same benefits plus get their own obsessions on top of that.

* Grynix Familiar - Why not make it match Yvraine's version of the same rule?

* Cloud Reaper - While you're following the general formula for relic creation pretty well, I worry that this is one of those weapon relics that just isn't as good as the other options and thus doesn't get taken. Would it be unreasonable to up the number of shots to like, 10 or something? A couple extra anti-infantyr wounds just doesn't seem nearly as good as a -1 to hit penalty or some of the other options.

* Webway Maze - Powers that let you move enemy models around are always kind of touchy. Plus, this seems mildly annoying/complicated to resolve. And if it's good enough to actually make a difference (by scooting an enemy out of charge range or what have you), it's likely to be your opponent's least favorite power to play against. I'd suggest revising this one. Maybe swap it out for a generic warp time style power instead?

* The Tactical Objectives seem to be really focused on melee for a strength 3 army that's probably better at shooting than stabbing. But maybe that's the point.

Okay, I think the above poster covered a lot, but I just wanted to mention a few things I noticed:

- The 'move after Overwatch' part of Reckless Abandon seems niche beyond all reason. I know it's the official rule but still. I'd much rather have something more in line with the 7th edition ability (which actually made Corsairs feel mobile).

- Is there a reason that you reduced the strength of the Corsair Prince from 4 to 3?

- Is there a reason that you removed the ability of the Corsair Prince to be a natural psyker (without needing a specific warlord trait)? This in particular would be a huge disappointment for me.

- The Eye of She Who Thirsts seems overly harsh. Personally, I'd make it something like 'If this model is reduced to 0 wounds by Perils of the Warp, instead of following the normal rules it immediately regains d3+1 wounds and your opponent gains control of it for the remainder of the game. If this model was your warlord, it counts as being slain.'

- The Corsair Prince's aura seems far too weak and far too damaging to your own units.

- Surely Wielder of Profane Powers should let you access one of the daemonic disciplines (probably Malefic)? Also, if anything is going to give more chance of perils, this should be it.

 vipoid wrote:
- The 'move after Overwatch' part of Reckless Abandon seems niche beyond all reason. I know it's the official rule but still. I'd much rather have something more in line with the 7th edition ability (which actually made Corsairs feel mobile).

Isn't it basically a sideways upgrade to the T'au Grav-Inhibitor Drones? It only triggers if you kill someone, but you get to move away 3" instead of reducing charge distance by D3".

Now, I don't especially like it because it's a combat-avoiding feature in a combat-avoiding edition, and I don't really see it playing out in a healthy way on the tabletop. I can Fall Back and Shoot, I have an 8" move and loads of Assault weapons, and if I kill anything on Overwatch I get to move 3" away. And if I'm Sunblitz, my Advances are all 6". And I have Fire-and-Fade. And a Stratagem that boosts Overwatch.

This is going to get really annoying, really quickly for anyone who wants to get into combat, because I can move 14" each turn while blasting away at you. If you do manage to get within 12" and charge, and I kill anything with Overwatch, you basically suffer a -3 penalty to your roll and I get 3" further away for next turn. And if you manage to charge me anyway, despite all that, I can just fall back and shoot next turn and the whole process starts over again.

RevlidRas wrote:
Isn't it basically a sideways upgrade to the T'au Grav-Inhibitor Drones? It only triggers if you kill someone, but you get to move away 3" instead of reducing charge distance by D3".

I'm not familiar with Tau so I'll have to take your word for it.

However, I was comparing it to the 7th edition version of the same rule. It used to be that if they shot a unit within 12", then they could immediately move 6" (6+d6 for units with Jetbikes or Jet Packs). But they couldn't move closer to the unit they just shot.

Basically, it rewarded you for getting close to the enemy by letting you reposition afterwards. it fitted in with all Corsairs carrying a brace of pistols, it perfectly fitted the flavour of the rule and it made the army feel *really* mobile.

Even if you scaled it down a bit (e.g. move d6" normally or 6" if you have a Jet Pack/Bike), it still seems infinitely preferable to the current iteration.

 vipoid wrote:

RevlidRas wrote:
Isn't it basically a sideways upgrade to the T'au Grav-Inhibitor Drones? It only triggers if you kill someone, but you get to move away 3" instead of reducing charge distance by D3".

I'm not familiar with Tau so I'll have to take your word for it.

However, I was comparing it to the 7th edition version of the same rule. It used to be that if they shot a unit within 12", then they could immediately move 6" (6+d6 for units with Jetbikes or Jet Packs). But they couldn't move closer to the unit they just shot.

Basically, it rewarded you for getting close to the enemy by letting you reposition afterwards. it fitted in with all Corsairs carrying a brace of pistols, it perfectly fitted the flavour of the rule and it made the army feel *really* mobile.

Even if you scaled it down a bit (e.g. move d6" normally or 6" if you have a Jet Pack/Bike), it still seems infinitely preferable to the current iteration.

Yeah, that's definitely much better; in some ways it's less powerful as a combat-avoidance tool, but it's much more interesting because it's less reactive and therefore shapes how you play.

I am working on version 3.2 and will definitely be incorporating some of the feedback I have received here. It seems as though GW has moved away from "Move Shoot Move" mechanics, so I tried to do the same, but I agree that the 7th edition version of Reckless Abandon was quite flavorful. I will try to tweak it. My first version basically let them make a 3 inch move after any kill in the shooting phase, not just overwatch, and I'm wondering now if that was the right move.

I am definitely making the Princes aura better, and will tone down the Baron's execution rule (I basically copied the rules for a Commisar) and while the available fluff makes frequent reference to the violence of Corsair politics, I think it is too harsh.

Give me a week or two to make the changes, but I will print this out, and make another read through for typos and grammatical errors in addition to rules tweaks.

Thank you all for your feedback.

I'd argue that the Eye of She Who Thirsts is a pretty light sentence. You are going from a 2/36 chance of suffering a perils, to a 6/36 chance of suffering a Perils, this is peanuts compared to what Orks get up to 11/36. With a CP re-roll you are looking at 2/216=1/108 and 6/216=1/36, while Orks are still looking at a more significant chance even with a re-roll. You are unlikely to see Corsair psykers blowing up left and right as you often do with Orks, you might have to keep a CP stored away for the first three turns to prevent accidents though.

Demanding Perfectionist isn't as demanding as people are making it out to be, it's 1/36 shots fired that inflicts a mortal wound, while the damage output of the unit is increased by 17%. I do agree that it isn't necessarily very fluffy though. It also isn't neccessarily something I'd imagine all Corsair Princes being, would Yriel be a demanding perfectionist? How about if I wanted to play one that isn't. Maybe make it a WL trait that gives you CP when a unit within 6" destroys a unit (on D6 roll of 2+). Personally I'd replace it with an orbital bombardment ability like what Imotekh the Stormlord or Lugft Huron the Tyrant of Badab gets. Once per game deal D6 MWs to a non-Character on a roll of 2+. Now you've got a representation of the fact that Corsairs are a big threat in space.

Sky Raiders Shock Assault WL Trait is absolute garbage, Necrons get the same thing except it affects all <Dynasty> units within 6". You'd be better off with the +1 A on the charge trait from the main rulebook.

Merchant of Death seems similarly bad. I'm not sure how to fix it, except by allowing him to Snipe characters.

"misses" is not a term used in 8th.

"Each time you make a" should be replace with "Each"

Remove "always" from "This weapon always wounds on a 4+, unless targeting a VEHIClE or a TITANIC unit, in which case it wounds on a 6+."