Games Workshop has released a new Drukhari Warhammer 40k detachment, the Skysplinter Assault, alongside the January balance update. The new detachment, which gives Dark Eldar players a different way to construct their army list, was unexpectedly uploaded to the Warhammer Community website on Tuesday.
As with other 40k detachments, the Skysplinter Assault provides Drukhari players with an army wide bonus, six 40k Stratagems, and a selection of optional unit enhancements. This is the first time that the design team has released this kind of army expansion as part of the Warhammer 40k balance update.
You can download the Skysplinter Assault detachment, and the rest of the balance update, from the Warhammer Community website.
The Skysplinter Assault army rule provides two weapon abilities to units in the turn that they disembark from a transport: Ignores Cover for their shooting attacks, and Lance for melee attacks. Lance doesn’t show up on many weapons – it grants +1 to wound on the turn that a unit charges.
The Enhancements for the Skysplinter Assault are similarly transport bound: for example, Phantasmal Smoke grants the bearer’s unit the Benefit of Cover while close to a transport, and the Nightmare Shroud makes a unit immune to overwatch on the turn that it disembarks.
Drukhari raids are made up of forces drawn from the piratical Kabals, gladiatorial Wyches, and mad-scientist Haemonculus covens; the Stratagems for the Skysplinter Assault all have upgraded modes that favor one type of unit over another. For example, Wraithlike Retreat allows a unit to make a normal or Fall Back move at the end of the fight phase, with Wyches free to move where they please and other units required to return to a transport.
Curious about the contents of the 40k balance update? Check our guide to the balance dataslate winners and losers to see whether your faction receives an uplift or a smack with the nerf hammer.