Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus Unleashes Unimaginable Pain Upon the Enemies of the Dark Eldar
| Tags: Warhammer
| Author Bence Loksa
Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus was the first one this week, and the “creators” of Slaanesh look scarier than ever.
Games Workshop have almost released all of the Faction Focus articles, which means that the 10th Edition of the tabletop war game Warhammer 40k is almost upon us! The first Faction Focus that caught everyone’s attention was the Aeldari showcase, which was considered to be the strongest up until that point. This week, the Drukhari Faction Focus was released on the Warhammer Community site, and the evil twins of the Eldar give them a run for their money, as the new rules for the Dark Eldar look pretty capable themselves.
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Faction Rules of the Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus
The Army Rule for the Drukhari remained Power from Pain, but will work a bit differently than the current iteration of the ability – and a little more similarly to the Aeldari Fate dice. Power from Pain gives a number of Pain tokens to the Drukhari army depending on the size of the battle, because if the battle is bigger, there is more suffering to revel in. You can also receive extra tokens if you destroy an enemy unit, or if an enemy unit fails a Battle-shock test – which seems to be more and more important as the Faction Focuses get released.
The Pain tokens can be used to Empower units, which give them bonuses depending on the phase the tokens are used by:
- If they use one in the Movement Phase or the Charge Phase, it let’s the Empowered reroll the rolls made for an Advance or a Charge,
- If the Pain token is used in the Shooting or Fight phase, it let’s the Empowered unit reroll the Hit roll.
This means that the fast and deadly dark elves of the Warhammer 40k universe will become even faster and deadlier at the whim of their Commander, so their opponents have to keep the Pain tokens in mind when positioning against the Drukhari.
The Detachment Rule showcased was for the Realspace Raiders detachment, which gives some extra Pain tokens to fuel your army if you have Archons, Succubae and Haemunculi in your army, so you can be a bit greedier with Empowering your troops.
Unit Spotlights of the Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus
Other than the Raider ships, the Venoms are one of the most recognizable vehicles of the Dark Eldar. These fast moving ships will remain the dedicated support for any Drukhari army, capable of transporting up to 6 Infantry models. It also has the ability to break up units of Kabalite Warriors or Wyches into fragments, making them more flexible as smaller squads who can cover more ground – provided one half of the Warriors or Wyches start the battle embarked on the Venom.
While the Venom received a Toughness buff, it only went up to T6, meaning that it will be fairly easy to wound it even without anti-vehicle weapons. It’s Move characteristic also went down by 2, but it’s weapons received some nice keywords to compensate for the -2 Movement, it kept the 6+ Invulnerable Save from 9th Edition Power from Pain, got the Firing Deck 6 ability and Stealth, which makes it get the Benefit of Cover anywhere on the map. It also gained the Athletic Aerialists ability, which let’s Infantry units close by hop on the Venom if they are not in Engagement Range of enemy units – giving the phrase “hit and run” a whole new meaning in 40k.
Of course, the main Battleline unit was showed as well, as the Kabalite Warriors are one of the premier passengers of the Venom ships. These sadistic Drukhari have received some interesting keywords, such as the Anti-Infantry 3+ on their mainline gun, the Splinter rifle, alongside Assault on most of their guns, so they can make use of that 8” Move and the Pain tokens to reroll Advances if need be. They also gained a 6+ Invulnerable Save, and a new ability called Sadistic Raiders, which makes them invaluable assets to any Drukhari force.
Sadistic Raiders gives them the sticky objective ability, meaning that if they take an objective, they can leave it behind, but the Drukhari player will still control it. The twist is that they can take an objective like this while embarked on a Transport – say, a Venom or a Raider – and still make it sticky. Prepare for Drukhari zooming all around the battlefield, flipping objectives left and right!
Weapon Spotlights of the Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus
While we mostly see Raiders and Venoms in the Vehicle department when facing the fearsome Dark Eldar, they have some excellent Heavy Support options as well. One of those is the Talos, a monstrous Haemonculus with some of the most advanced weaponry the Drukhari can master. Games Workshop showed us one of it’s strongest weapons, the Drukhari haywire blaster, which will be a Twin weapon in 10th Edition rather than two swappable options. This gun will be one of the best options against enemy vehicles thanks to it’s Anti-Vehicle 4+ keyword, which will be paired with the Twin-Linked keyword so the shots of the haywire blaster will rarely miss their mark – and when they hit, they can unleash Devastating Wounds upon every inferior creature standing in the way of the Commorites.
While we didn’t get a datasheet for an Epic Hero or Leader for the Drukhari, we got a glimpse of the melee weapons of Lelith Hesperax, one of the most fearsome Wyches of the Dark Eldars. Her Blades gained the Anti-Infantry 2+ and the Sustained Hits 2 keyword, so she will be able to kill a lot of enemies very easily with 8 Attacks hitting on 2+. While the 3 Strength is extremely low, the keywords help the Wych reach her target. She’ll also have the Thrilling Spectacle keyword, which lets her attack 12 times once per battle, while also receiving a 3+ Invulnerable Save instead of the regular 6+ which Drukhari will get in the next Edition.
Stratagem Spotlight of the Warhammer 40k Drukhari Faction Focus
Sadly, only one Strat was revealed by Games Workshop, which was the reworked Alliance of Agony. In the 10th Edition of Warhammer 40k, this Stratagem won’t give Warlord Traits for a Succubus and a Haemonculus unit of your army if your Warlord is an Archon, but let’s you Empower all three of these units with a single pain token – if you are able to select them all! For 1 CP, this Stratagem seems really strong, as it let’s you use your Pain pool optimally and to a higher degree.
Overall, the Drukhari Faction Focus changed a lot of things, but for the better. The new Power from Pain is much more useful from the first battle round than the old one, and Drukhari models will have a 6+ Invulnerable Save in 10th Edition, which means that they won’t be that easily removable from the board, but the Dark Eldar still have to calculate every step in order to dish out as much suffering as they can. The 10th Edition of Warhammer 40k is just around the corner, with the release date rumoured to be made public this week! Stay tuned to ESTNN for the latest 40k news!