Corsair and Craftworld Kill Teams for Shadow War: Armageddon

I'm developing rules to give more options to players in Shadow War: Armageddon, starting with various Aeldari. The primary work has been taking place over at the Bolter & Chainsword, where I primarily hang out when I'm online. I found this site through a link over at the B&C, as a matter of fact, and figured that the members here have a wealth of Aeldari knowledge and experience, so I figured it would be wise to expand the scope of discussion for better input.

Once finalized, each of these will be made available as a downloadable pdf via the B&C (I'll post links here). For now, each is provided as a jpg.

I'd love to hear your input so that I can improve upon these lists.

ELDAR CORSAIRS - This is the list that started my efforts as I'm a big fan of the 1st edition Eldar (the mercenaries and pirates, before the coming of the harlequins and the craftworlds as we now know them).

(original images have been updated, see below)

BLACK GUARDIANS - In my opinion, the Craftworld Eldar kill team rules should be re-named to "Dire Avenger Kill Teams" to better reflect its focus. In my mind, the Asuryani might deploy different kill teams depending upon the mission parameters and available forces. In the case of Ulthwé, which has fewer aspect warrior shrines and instead relies upon its standing Black Guardian squads, we're far more likely to see Guardians. This kill team might be used to represent a crack Guardian squad from any craftworld.

(original images have been updated, see below)

HOWLING BANSHEES - I could also see an autarch sending a squad of Howling Banshees on a kill team mission. For this list, I've merely replaced the Dire Avengers with Howling Banshees; and I've changed the Guardians into Storm Guardians (so no heavy weapon platforms - special weapons only). This drastically changes the dynamic of the kill team's performance.

(original images have been updated, see below)STRIKING SCORPIONS - Very much like the Howling Banshees kill team above, but replacing them with Striking Scorpions.

(original images have been updated, see below)
Again, thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I hope you enjoy using these in your games of Shadow War: Armageddon.

I realized that the Banshee mask should probably have the Noisy rule, which prompted some more reviews. Other than that change (which only affected the Howling Banshee Kill Team file), the only other substantive changes were the removal of shuriken catapults (i.e., basic weapons) from the Howling Banshee and Striking Scorpion kill teams (the Guardians in those kill teams are supposed to be Storm Guardians, who don't have access to shuriken catapults) and the changing of the Eldar blade (sword) to an Aeldari blade, with the same rules as found in Index: Xenos 1 and the 8th edition codex (the Eldar Corsairs retain the Aeldari sabre, which is treated as a sword, for distinctiveness, though that might change).

ELDAR CORSAIRS
(images have been updated, see below)

BLACK GUARDIANS
(images have been updated, see below)

HOWLING BANSHEES
(images have been updated, see below)

STRIKING SCORPIONS
(images have been updated, see below)

I’ve also made some formatting changes as I plan to consolidate all of these and other Aeldari faction kill teams into a single file. There were two reasons for this. First, as the changes above show, changing the rules for something that appears in multiple kill teams forces me to change multiple sets of rules (for consistency). Second, there is a degree of crossover. The Harlequins can ally with the Asuryani and the Drukhari; the Eldar Corsairs can include units from both the Asuryani and Drukhari, and might find themselves fighting alongside a Harlequin; the Ynnari draw upon the other four factions. So creating a single “codex” type of file for all of the Aeldari kill team options makes things a bit easier. So each kill team will be reduced down to two pages (what you see on the current first page of each, with the second page showing the weapons and equipment table and listing the special operatives available, plus a picture of a representative kill team). All of the other rules will be consolidated so that they only appear (and have to be updated) once. That’s the plan, anyways.

After reviewing the second printing of The Doom of Mymeara, I’ve made some (significant?) changes to the kill team rules.

First, here are the updated pages:


Things that I’ve added/changed are highlighted in green. Anything I’ve removed will be addressed below.

The most noticeable changes I made were to the special operatives:

• The Corsair Baron’s stat line was adjusted to match TDoM (I was increased to 6 and A was reduced to 2)
  
• I gave both the Baron and the Void Weaver each a brace of pistols, though they aren’t named as such. Instead, each simply now says that they have two splinter pistols and two shuriken pistols. Other models can emulate having a brace of pistols by purchasing the appropriate pistols (though a more cost-effective approach would be to purchase a shuriken pistol and a splinter pistol, with an ammunition reload for each).
  
• The Corsair Baron’s basic hand-to-hand weapon was adjusted to an Aeldari sabre, though the model has the option to exchange that for a chainsword, a power sword, a void sabre, or a venom blade. This should allow for suitable representation of most players’ Corsair Prince/Corsair Baron miniature while remaining consistent with the options available to the Corsair Baron in TDoM.
  
• I ditched Void Mesh Armor. Any SWA mission/campaign that takes place in a void setting should assume that all participants either have appropriate void armor, or should have provisions for somehow acquiring void armor. The Corsair Baron was given heavy mesh armor, instead.
  
• The armor/field options for the Corsair Baron were expanded to include ghostplate armor (from the Dark Eldar.
  
• The Void Dreamer’s stats were modified to match the line from TDoM (WS increased to 5, BS decreased to 3, W increased to 2, I increased to 6, Ld increased to 10 – the previous stat line was from the first printing or the Warlock).
  
• The Void Dreamer was given a witch staff as a fixed weapon. This witchblade is no longer an option. The witch staff generally follows the rules in Index: Xenos 1, though I kept the Soul Blaze rule, patterning it after the Anathemic rule that the Void Sabre has. I’m not sure that keeping it was necessarily the right thing to do, but I tried to keep it low key.
  
• The Void Dreamer was given heavy mesh armor instead of rune armor (which is no longer an option).
  
• The Void Dreamer was given the option to take a Corsair jet pack. This was largely to accommodate the options from TDoM and the models that players may have converted.
  
• The Corsair Ghostwalker lost his shuriken pistol, having it replaced by a spar-glaive.
  
• The Corsair Ghostwalker now has the option to take a Corsair jet pack. This matches options from TDoM and allows for the likelihood that players already have appropriate models. (I had thought of these guys as looking more like Rangers, but it turns out they're just Corsairs that might take an Eldar long rifle.)
  
• The flavor text for a few of the special operatives was aligned to text from TDoM.
  

The rest of the rules remain largely intact, though I added a few weapons/wargear, and made a few minor adjustments to others:

• The venom blade was added. The cost/rules are based on Dark Eldar Wych Cult patterns. The WH40K version was 5 points cheaper than a power sword, so I made the SWA version 10 points cheaper than a power sword (the price might be reduced if playtesting leads to that recommendation).
  
• The splinter pistol was added to round out the “brace of pistols.” The rules and cost were straight from the Dark Eldar Wych Cult Kill Team rules, so there’s really nothing to adjust there.
  
• The blast pistol was added as an option for the Felarch. Again, rules and cost came straight from the Dark Eldar Wych Cult Kill Team rules.
  
• The lore for the void sabre was updated to the second printing of TDoM, though the rules were left alone (might have to change those).
  
• Witchblade removed and replaced with the witch staff (already discussed in the Void Dreamer bullets above).
  
• Balelight range increased to 8”, lore updated to second printing of TDoM.
  
• The Corsair jet pack had the 4+ armor save added, matching the second printing of TDoM (this really only helps the Ghostwalker).
  
• And the skills text was adjusted to focus on the Corsairs’ abilities at shooting and agility.
  
• And I added a spiffy picture from the Forge World conversion kit that is no longer available. It works for a Corsair Baron equipped with an Aeldari sabre, power sword, or void sabre and with the Corsair jet pack option, though I didn’t give it any caption. My real goal is to get some images of spiffy hobbyist Eldar Corsair miniatures; or, if I can’t find any for which I can get permission, I’ll use images of my own.
  

Interestingly enough, I still couldn’t find any rules for a spar-glaive. Since the Index: Xenos rules basically match a close combat weapon, and since the Rogue Trader era lore mentioned the corsairs’ (then called pirates) love of knives, I left them as knives.

I also noticed that the second printing of TDoM allowed Corsair Reavers to use splinter rifles, but I figured that the Index: Xenos replacement of them with shardcarbines was deliberate (and carbines are much more practical in boarding actions, anyways). So I retained the shardcarbines.

There was some minor rearrangement of the weapons and equipment from a format perspective.

I've finalized the rules for the corsairs. They are available for download at the Bolter & Chainsword (you don't have to be a member to download them - link goes directly to the file).

I finalized the various kill team rules and added a couple of others.

Black Guardians: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/647-black-guardians-kill-team-for-swa/

Dire Avengers: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/651-dire-avengers-kill-team-for-swa/
(This is simply the official Craftworld Eldar kill team with different special operatives)

Howling Banshees: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/648-howling-banshees-kill-team-for-swa/

Striking Scorpions: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/649-striking-scorpions-kill-team-for-swa/

Ynnari: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/650-ynnari-kill-team-for-swa/
(I probably won't update these for the recent Psychic Awakening version of their rules, but those will be incorporated into the Kill Team [game] faction rules that I'm working on.)

All of these are available at the Bolter & Chainsword's DOWNLOADS section (you don't need to be a member to download them).