Hello battle brethren! In addition to bringing you news of what Dark Angels lists are doing well, I also like to do an analysis of forces we're likely to see across the table from us. Hot factions are often the most widely played, so those are the logical candidates for this kind of analysis.
One of the hotter factions in the game is the Aeldari, with the Devoted of Ynnead detachment by far the most widely played and highest scoring. According to Meta Monday, the weekend of April 12-13, out of 71 Aeldari players who attended GT or bigger events, the Ynnead detachment had 34 players, a 63% win rate, and 12 of the Aeldari's 16 X/0-X/1 results, including the one event win. That seems like a detachment that's hot for a nerf, and you'd think Games Workshop would have hit it at the same time they hit the Orks More Dakka! detachment, but the Ynnead detachment escaped the nerf bat that hit More Dakka!. Even when it does get nerfed, Games Workshop may not hit it so hard that it fundamentally changes how it plays, so knowing what to expect will never hurt when you go up against them.
Army Rule: Battle Focus
Gone are Fate Dice, and good riddance. Every time I've played into an army that has had a dice-manipulating mechanic, it's created a feels-bad moment, and win or lose that's not what I'm looking for out of my games. In it's place is Battle Focus, which gives the Aeldari player a number of Battle Focus tokens they can play to make an Agile Manoeuvre. Agile Manoeuvres are best thought of as Stratagem-like movement effects that can be played on a single target unit. For the purposes of tournament play, the Aeldari player gets 4 Battle Focus tokens at the start of each battle round, and unused tokens are lost at the end of the round. A unit can only have one Agile Manoeuvre played on it per phase, and each Agile Manoeuvre can only be played once per phase. The Agile Manoeuvres (AMs going forward because the British spelling of "manoeuvre" is really slowing me down) are as follows:
Swift as the Wind: Add 2" to the Movement characteristic of a unit making a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back movement. Can be played more than once per phase, but may not be played multiple times on the same unit in a phase.
Flitting Shadows: Target unit may not be Overwatched that phase
Star Engines: target Vehicle making a Normal move adds D6+1 to their Move characteristic for the phase
Sudden Strike: Target unit selected to fight makes 6" Pile-in or Consolidate moves
Opportunity Seized: Target unit can make a D6+1 Normal Move after an enemy unit has made a Fall Back move to get out of Engagement Range with it. Excludes Titanic unit
Fade Back: Target unit hit by one or more Shooting attacks can make a Normal D6+1 move. Excludes Titanic units
Taken in isolation, none of these seem unreasonable, but getting to play the equivalent of 4 movement-based Stratagems for free per round is pretty potent. Sudden Strike and Opportunity Seized jump out at me as an obvious combo, but just being able to add 2" to the movement of 4 units per round would be pretty potent in and of itself. Being able to turn off Overwatch will definitely have its uses, and Fade Back will make it important that you not try and do chip damage to any units you've set up to unload on later in your Shooting phase.
Detachment Rule: Lethal Intent, Lethal Surge, Lethal Reprisal
The Aeldari player gains these 3 abilities they can use, once per turn each.
Lethal Intent: at the end of their opponent's Shooting phase, if the Aeldari player lost a Ynnari unit during the phase, they can select one Ynnari unit to make a Normal move. Excludes Titanic units
Lethal Surge: A Fade Back AM becomes a Lethal Surge move instead of a Normal move, a Ynnari unit may end this move in Engagement range of the enemy unit that triggered the Fade Back.
Lethal Reprisal: One Ynnari unit below its Starting Strength gains Fights First for the Fight phase. Excludes Titanic units
These abilities pile onto the jank an Aeldari army is already going to be capable of by virtue of their Army rule. Combined with the Army rule, this is a total of nine separate abilities you've got to keep track of while playing into a Ynnead army, and we haven't even gotten to the Stratagems yet.
Enhancements
Gaze of Ynnead (15 points): Farseer only. Bearer's Eldritch Storm gains Devastating Wounds
Storm of Whispers (10 points): Warlock only: One enemy unit hit by one of the bearer's Shooting attacks has to take a Battle-shock test
Borrowed Vigour (10 points): Archon only. Bearer's melee weapons gain 2 Attacks
Morbid Might (15 points): Succubus only. Bear can reroll Melee wound rolls.
I looked at 4 top lists from the weekend of the 13th. None of them used any of the characters these enhancements are keyworded to.
Stratagems
Pall of Dread: 1 CP, any phase: Sticky an objective that just had a Ynnari unit destroyed while on it. It stays in the Ynnari player's control until the opponent puts more OC on it than the destroyed unit had.
Macabre Resilience: 1 CP, opponent's Shooting phase or the Fight phase after an enemy unit has selected its targets: Attacks directed at the Ynnari Infantry or Mounted unit targeted by this stratagem subtract 1 from the Wound roll. Excludes Wraith Construct units.
Emissaries of Ynnead: 1 CP, Fight phase: Target Ynnari Infantry unit can reroll Hit rolls of 1. If the unit is below Starting Strength, it can reroll all Hit rolls.
Parting the Veil: 2 CP, Fight phase: Target Ynnari unit fights on death
Death Answers Death: 1 CP, end of opponent's Shooting phase: Target Ynnari unit that lost one or more models during the phase can shoot as if it was their Shooting phase. Excludes Wraith Construct units
Soulsight: 1 CP, Ynnari player's Shooting phase: A target Ynnari unit's shooting gains Lethal Hits and Ignores Cover
The Enhancements may have been a pile of hot garbage, but these are some good strats. Pall of Dread prevents you from denying the Ynnead player Primary by shooting units off objectives if you can't also somehow move enough OC onto the Objective to out-OC the unit you're shooting off. Honestly, the more I think about that one, the more I think it's bullshit. Macabre Resilience is a good resilience strat. Debuffing opponent's Wound rolls is much more powerful than debuffing their Hit rolls, considering how many ways there are to buff or reroll Hit rolls. Emissaries of Ynnead will make a unit apt to be as dangerous below its Starting Strength as it would be at its Starting Strength - maybe more so if it hasn't lost many models. As for Parting the Veil, if you're going to pay CP for a fights-on-death, you'd rather pay 2 CP for it to be guaranteed than 1 CP for a 50/50 chance. Death Answers Death obliges you to be really careful about how you conduct your Shooting phase, because you're not going to want to give Aeldari shooting units out-of-sequence shooting. Note that the Ynnead player is free to target whatever of your units he wants with this out-of-sequence shooting, not just units that shot at it. And Soulsight - other detachments have strats that grant either Ignores Cover OR Lethal Hits for 1 CP. Getting both for 1 CP is a bargain.
Commonly Used Units
I'm not going to do a rundown of every single unit in the Aeldari codex, because that would be an enormous amount of work and probably not be that helpful. I'm choosing the units I'm covering based on what was used by some of the top scoring lists from the weekend of 4/13. Those include an event-winning list, one that took 3rd at the biggest event of the weekend, and a pair that took 5th and 6th place respectively at their event.
Author's note: I've been working on this article off-and-on for weeks now. At some point I accidentally closed one of my sample lists and was working with 3 lists. That's why I went from talking about 4 sample lists to 3 sample lists. I think I probably don't need to go dig up that 4th list again.
The Yncarne (250 points)
The Yncarne was in three of the four lists I'm using as example lists, and I've faced it myself playing into Ynnead. You can see Yncy's stats for yourself - pretty respectable. Not as good an invulnerable save as Lion Dad's, but she's faster, and costs considerably less points. Yncy has a better shooting attack too - it's not crazy, but it's a D6+3 Torrent with D3 damage. In melee, Yncy is best put into big targets, because she's got a Strike profile with 5 Strength 12 attacks hitting on 2's and doing D6+1 damage. To my mind, that's best for picking up tanks and Dreadnoughts, because she's probably not going to pick up a whole Terminator squad all on her lonesome. She does have a Sweep profile, but it's Damage 1, so not optimal for putting into Astartes units, though both profiles have AP -4, so either way our stuff's not getting a save unless it's a 2+ or an Invulnerable save.
Yncy's real jank comes from her datasheet abilities. On top of having Battle Focus, she's got Deep Strike, Inevitable Death, and Ethereal Form. Inevitable Death lets Yncy teleport to the location of where a friendly Aeldari unit just died. This can only be triggered once per turn, and only in the Ynnead player's opponent's turn, so if you take out something with Overwatch or in the Ynnead player's Fight phase, Yncy may not activate this ability. Yncy has to be set up as close as possible to where the last model in the unit was before it was destroyed, but not within Engagement range of anything. This really makes it easy for the Ynnead player to set up Yncy to charge on their following turn. It wouln't be too hard for the Ynnead player to leave one member of a unit behind a wall a while while they stick out the rest of the unit to do its job - 4 Fire Dragons aren't much less likely to vaporize most tanks than 5 are, for instance. It's even easier if the Ynnead player can expect to lose units in our Fight phase, and since our best units are Deathwing Knights and Inner Circle Companions, they can reasonably expect to pop Yncy up our noses without our being able to respond to it.
It's also going to make order of operations on our turns very important when we play into a Ynnead list. If you set up to let Yncy have it, you want to make sure you let Yncy have it first, and don't destroy something that lets Yncy teleport out of that kill pocket. That means you may have to forgo some chip shooting. You don't want to let Yncy off the hook because you killed a last surviving Howling Banshee with your Lancer's storm bolters. You also may be obliged to let the Ynnead player interrupt in the Fight Phase if you've got a couple squads of Deathwing Knights charged into Yncy and Inner Circle Companions into some Howling Banshees. Also, God forbid you kill a solo Fire Dragon with Overwatch, because that may give you a far bigger problem for your efforts.
As if that's not obnoxious enough, there's Ethereal Form, which lets Yncy gain back D3 lost wounds whenever she kills a unit. So, the Ynnead player can have Yncy drop in via Deep Strike or teleport across the board with Inevitable Death, have her go wreck a Gladiator or Ballistus, gain back wounds, lather-rinse-repeat. If the Ynnead player can put Yncy into a couple damaged vehicles, they may even be able to trigger Ethereal Form multiple times in one turn.
About the only upside, if you want to call it that, is if you see Yncy on the table, your opponent is not going to be using any Phoenix Lords, as her Avatar of The Whispering God rule prevents any other non-Ynnari Epic Heroes from being in the list. I don't think that much matters though, because even the list that didn't include Yncy didn't include any non-Ynnari Epic Heroes.
Yvraine (100 points)
Oh, Yvraine. Why are you wasting your time being Guilliman's girlfriend? You're clearly a cat lady, you belong with Lion Dad!
Kidding aside, Yvraine, like Yncy was in 3 of the 4 lists I'm using to inform my choice of what units to discuss. You can see from her profile she's a little squishy, and her offense output is what I'd call decent rather than amazing. Though I may be underselling her shooting attack, Storm of Whispers, which has D6+3 shots, Anti-infantry 2+, and Devastating Wounds, so that will put a sting on any infantry unit - though, it should be noted, it's a Psychic attack, so if you happen to be playing Librarius Conclave, smugly make those 4+ Feel No Pains against it. Her melee is nothing to write home about - it's basically a AP -3 power weapon. It does have Dev Wounds, but no special triggers to activate then on better than 6's.
Again, the jank is in the datasheet abilities. In addition to having Battle Focus, she's got Herald of Ynnead and Word of the Phoenix. Herald of Ynnead lets friendly Aeldari units reroll Wound rolls against one unit she's Engaged with in the Fight phase. Rerolling Wound rolls is always a big buff to a unit. Word of the Phoenix activates in the Ynnead player's Command phase, letting Yvraine bring back D3+1 lost Bodyguard models upon successfully rolling a 2+ to trigger it, so I suppose there's a 1 in 6 chance of it not triggering. Pfft.
All 3 of the lists that included Yvraine also included a unit of 10 Ynnari Incubi, so it's not too hard to guess what unit she's most likely to be attached to. Like Yncy, Yvraine's presence precludes non-Ynnari Epic Heroes from being in the list.
The Visarch (90 points)
Vissy here appeared in 2 of my example lists and can be attached to the same unit Yvraine, so I think it's reasonable to think you're likely to see him in Ynnead lists. As you can see, Vissy is pretty sturdy for an Aeldari character, and he's got pretty good melee output too. He's got 3 profiles for his sword, a horde-clearing one, an elite fighting one, and a hero-killing one. The horde-clearing profile has 8 attacks with Sustained Hits 2. The elite fighting profile has 6 attacks at Strength 5, AP -2, 2 Damage, so good for putting into most Marine units. His hero-killing profile has 4 attacks at AP -4 for 3 Damage with Anti-Epic Hero 2+ and Precision. Try not to pair Azrael against his unit.
Vissy pairs pretty well with Incubi. In addition to Battle Focus, his datasheet abilities are Yvraine's Champion and Way of the Blade. Yvraine's Champion basically gives Yvraine a 4+ Feel No Pain if they're attached to the same unit, which is cute but not likely to be relevant that often - though, given how squishy Yvraine is, one might be tempted to play Epic Challenge to solo her out of a unit to remove the buffs she gives. Way of the Blade, on the other hand, grants Vissy's unit Fights First, which a unit of Incubi are really going to like.
Like his two pals, Vissy also has that no-non-Ynnari-Epic Heroes thing going.
Autarch (75 points)
Autarchs were in all 4 of my example lists, with 2 of them featuring multiple Autarchs. As you can see, a not-unrespectable profile for an Aeldari character, but not quite as sturdy as Vissy.
Unlike an Epic Hero, the Ynnead player has the discretion to choose what Starches are armed with, so I think it says something that all of the Starches in my sample lists were armed the same way, with Dragon fusion guns and Star glaives. We'll discuss the Dragon fusion gun later when we discuss Fire Dragons (guess what else appeared in all the lists?). The Star glaive gives 4 attacks at Strength 6, AP -3 Damage 3, so not hard to see why Ynnead players would pick it.
Starches' datasheet abilities are Battle Focus, Path of Command, and Superlative Strategist. Path of Command is a play-Stratagems-at-a-CP-discount ability. Superlative Strategist lets the unit a Starch is attached to reroll Advance rolls and Agile Manoeuvre rolls.
Starches can be attached to all the Infantry-keyworded Aspect Warrior units, plus both flavors of Guardians. Additionally, they have the Aspect Training ability, which grants them Fights First if attached to Howling Banshees, and Infiltrators, Scouts 7", and Stealth if attached to Striking Scorpions. Initially I figured Starches were getting attached to Howling Banshee squads to help them punch up a little better into non-Infantry targets, and that's certainly a possibility, but then I noticed that 3 of the 4 lists I'm basing my assessment off of have Striking Scorpions in them, so now I'm thinking Ynnead players are using Striking Scorpions as a Starch delivery vehicle. Either way, if you see a Starch in a squad, probably better you shoot it to death than get mixed up in melee with it.
Ynnari Kabalite Warriors (110 points)
Ynarrie Kabalite Warriors appear to be the Battleline unit of choice with Ynnead players, as they appeared in 3 of the lists.
As you can see, Kabbies have the statline you'd expect from a Drukhari unit on loan to their Ynarri kin. They're fast and squishy. They're pretty weak in assault, so don't be afraid to charge them (but do NOT mistake Incubi for them), but they do pack a ridiculous amount of firepower. Their datasheet ability, Sadistic Raiders, stickies objectives, and they can do it from inside a transport. It's always useful to have at least one objective-stickying unit in a list.
The list that didn't include Ynarri Kabbies used Corsair Voidreavers and Storm Guardians as their Battleline choices. I'll let you look them up on your own.
Ynnari Venom (70 points)
The 3 lists that included Kabbies also included Ynnari Venoms. As you can see, not a super tough platform, though it is fast, and has the Fly keyword. It's offense is not remarkable either, typically packing a Splinter Cannon and Bladevanes, which are basically it's Armored Tracks, so nothing to write home about.
The value it brings to the table, besides being fast and having Fly, is it's datasheet abilities. It's got Stealth, Firing Deck 6, Deep Strike, Battle Focus, and Lithe Embarkation. The latter lets a Ynnari Infantry unit embark into it at the end of the Fight Phase as long as it's 6 models or less and wholly within 6" of the Venom. Also, it has that Sororitas Immolater thing going for it, where a unit of Kabbies (or Wyches) can be split into two 5-strong units at the start of the battle, with one of the split-off units starting off embarked in the Venom. So, the Ynnari player can leave 5 Kabbies with their basic splinter rifles on their backfield objective while having all the jerks with the spicy guns fly around in the Venom and shoot out of it.
Fire Dragons (110 points for 5 / 220 points for 10)
Fire Dragons are the Aeldari Aspect Warrior version of Eradicators. As you can imagine, they're considerably squishier than Eradicators, having only T3 and 1 Wound (the Exarch has 2), but they make up for that with a 7" move and all the movement shenanigans Battle Focus permits.
Fire Dragons are armed with Dragon fusion guns, which are basically Melta 3 meltaguns, so they only have a 12" range, but make up for it by having the Assault keyword. The Exarch has some weapon options. 3 of the 4 lists I looked at gave him the Firepike, which is an 18" range Dragon fusion gun. The last one left him with the Exarch's Dragon fusion gun, which has the same 12" range as the standard Dragon gun, but is Melta 6. Yikes! Their datasheet rules are Battle Focus and Assured Destruction, which is basically a copy-paste of Eradicator's Total Obliteration rule - reroll Hits, Wounds, and Damage against Monsters and Vehicles,and it's of greater value to an Aeldari player because they don't have Oath of Moment to stick on an enemy unit.. And, of course, doing a minimum of 4 damage at AP -4, they'll do a number on elite Infantry and Mounted units.
A 5-man squad of Fire Dragons is 110 points, which may seem like it compares favorably with a 3-man squad of Eradicators, but the Fire Dragons are faster, have more offense, have access to the movement shenanigans of Battle Focus, and can ride a transport. In fact, 2 squads of them can ride in a Wave Serpent, whereas the only transports can carry Eradicators are Land Raiders and Repulsors. Finally, they have that Aspect Shrine token, where once per game they can flip a Hit or Wound roll to a 6. Don't be surprised to see 3 squads of these jerks in a Ynnari list. All 4 of my example lists had them. 3 of those lists had 3 squads. One just had 2, but one of the lists with 3 squads had a full squad of 10, so it still averaged out to 15 Dragons per list.
Howling Banshees (90 points for 5 / 180 points for 10)
I think Howling Banshees are a contender for one of the most improved units in current 40K. For years Eldar/Aeldari players considered them trash, now they're popping up in virtually every competitive list. They have a fairly typical Aspect Warrior profile which you can see to the right, so fairly squishy, but they are fast, with that 8" movement. Jumping ahead a little bit because it's relevant, their Acrobatic datasheet rule allows them to Charge after Advancing or Falling Back, which adds to their mobility considerably.
Their offense is largely melee. They do have shuriken pistols, which pretty much all Aeldari infantry will have and may do a little chip damage, but the main show is in melee. The rank-and-file Banshee has a Banshee blade. 2 attacks may not seem like a lot, but an Aeldari player pays as much for a squad of 5 Banshees as we pay for a squad of 3 ICCs with 4 attacks each, and the Exarch will have more attacks, so on a points-per-attack basis they are about equal. The Exarch has a number of options to replace the default Banshee blade she comes with, but barring a radical balance update she's always going to be taking an Executioner, which has 3 attacks with better Strength, AP, and Damage 3, while retaining Anti-Infantry 3+.
As for datasheet abilities, there's the aforementioned Acrobatic granting Advance/Fall Back+Charge, the ubiquitous Battle Focus, and Fights First. Plus there's the Aspect Shrine token. As a package, we just don't want anything we have getting into melee with them, unless it's a Dreadnought, or maybe Lion Dad. It would be funny to throw Lion Dad at them and laugh as they try to wound him on 6's and then he takes a 3++ against what does get through. That said, probably better to shoot them with Intercessors. Expect to see them. All 4 of my example lists had multiple squads of them.
Striking Scorpions (85 points for 5 / 150 points for 10)
Striking Scorpions are another fighty unit, but unlike Howling Banshees, who trade on Fights First and power weapons, Striking Scorpions get it done with volume of attacks. Each member of the squad gets 4 Strength 4 chainsword attacks with Sustained Hits 1. An Aeldari player probably wouldn't want to throw them into Aggressors, but they'll chew through lighter infantry pretty well. The Exarch has some weapon upgrade options, but I think it's safe to say you'll always see him with a Scorpion's Claw, which is basically a power fist.
Striking Scorpions are a unit that can start the game up your nose, as they have Infiltrators and Scouts 7", plus Stealth and Battle Focus for good measure. They also have the Mandiblasters rule, which gives their Hit rolls Crit 5+ on the charge. This is a semantics thing, but I'm not sure why they didn't make that a Wargear ability instead of a Datasheet ability, but what matters is that they'll be triggering those Sustained Hits pretty often. They also have the usual Aspect Shrine token.
Besides being good early-game skirmishers, I'm pretty sure Striking Scorpions are being used as Autarch delivery vehicles. They gain Infiltrators, Scouts, and Stealth when attached to Striking Scorpions, and it puts them in a good position to get use out of the Dragon fusion gun and Star glaive they all get armed with. Come to think of it, maybe Aeldari players do want to throw Scorpions into Aggressors if they're being Autarch caddies. Three of my four example lists used multiple squads of Striking Scorpions.
Warp Spiders (95 points for 5 / 190 points for 10)
If you've been playing for multiple editions, you may remember Warp Spiders as the obnoxious suckers who jump all over the board and are really hard to pin down. They are still obnoxious suckers who jump all over the board and are really hard to pin down. You can see they have a pretty standard Aspect Warrior stat block, save for the 12" movement. They are Jump Pack Infantry with the Fly keyword, so there isn't a lot can be done to restrict how they move even with their normal movement mode. They've got Deep Strike too, so your opponent may just start them in Reserve and drop them wherever he wants them after Turn 2. They don't have a 6" Deep Strike rule, but they don't really need it.
In addition to all that, plus Battle Focus like every Aeldari unit has, their datasheet ability is Flickerjump, which grants them a 24" Move characteristic. They pay for it by not being able to charge at the end of the move, and they have to roll a die for every model in the unit, taking a Mortal Wound for every 1 rolled. There's an obvious risk involved with that, and every once in a while a squad of Warpies might spike the 1's and obliterate themselves, but generally speaking they'll be able to go where they want to go more reliably than if they were an uppy-downy unit.
As far as offense goes, Warp Spiders are okay but not amazing. Their default weapon is a Death spinner, which is basically a flamer with AP -1. The Exarch's default weapon is the Exarch's death spinner, which is S6 and AP -2, but he has other options, and none of my sample lists left him with the default weapon. Two of them gave him the combo of Death weavers and a Spinneret rifle. Death weavers are a 6" range Death spinner with Twin-linked, and a Spinneret rifle is a Death spinner with an 18" range and S5. Within that 6" range bubble, the Exarch has equivalent/superior firepower to 2 members of his squad. The third example list gave him a Powerblade array, which is a 10 attack power weapon with Lethal Hits and Twin-linked.
Generally speaking, I don't think we're going to be super-concerned about the offensive output of Warp Spiders, though they do seem like they'd be a good target for the Fire Overwatch stratagem, so there is that. I think their offensive output is more intended to deal with chaff, which could bog down a lot of the other Aspect Warriors we've already discussed. More to the point, they seem like superlative action monkeys. You pretty much can't stop a unit of Warp Spiders from going wherever the Aeldari player wants them to go, and they're lethal enough to be a challenge to an average skirmishing unit. That said, it's probably worth picking up your opponents' Warp Spiders to deny them their Secondary scoring tech pieces. Just remember that killing a unit of Warp Spiders may result in having the Yncarne up your nose.
All three of my example lists featured multiple units of Warp Spiders.
Ynnari Incubi (75 points for 5 / 150 points for 10)
Ynnari Incubi are an assault unit that kind of splits the difference between Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions. With their 3+ save they're a little less squishy than Banshees while having an AP -2, Damage 2 melee profile which is better into Intercessor-equivalents than Scorpions. A full squad of 10 can throw 30 3+ S4 AP-2 Damage 2 attacks, which is not nothing. Their relevant datasheet abilities are Battle Focus and Tormentors, which obliges enemy units in Engagement range to make a Battle-shock test at the start of the Fight phase, which is a pretty meh ability.
The reason an Aeldari player would take Yncubi instead of another squad of Howling Banshees is that they pair really well with Yvraine and/or The Visarch. You may recall that Yvraine's datasheet abilities allow her attached squad to reroll Wound rolls against an enemy unit she's in Engagement range of, which will really up the unit's damage output. Also, in the Aeldari player's Command Phase, she can bring back D3+1 destroyed models to her attached unit, so if you don't wipe the unit, you could wind up with it back at full strength in a couple turns if you're not lucky. If the Aeldari player also attaches The Visarch, the unit gets Fights First, not to mention The Visarch's not-inconsiderable melee punch.
I don't think you'll often see Yncubi in a list without Yvraine, but if you see Yvraine in the list, I think you're pretty well guaranteed to see Yncubi. Both my sample lists that included Yvraine also included a 10-man squad of Yncubi.
Playing into Devoted of Ynnead
I think the reason the Devoted of Ynnead detachment has consistently had a win rate in the vicinity of 60% is that it's basically built around a pile of "gotcha" abilities that are challenging for the Aeldari player's opponent to keep track of - which frankly, I think is bad game design. Even if your Aeldari opponent runs through all their army's abilities before you start playing, chances are you're going to forget something important and it's going to bite you in the ass. As not-an-Aeldari player, I'm not I'm competent to judge what to be most concerned about, but I'll give it a shot.
Out of sequence actions
A Ynnead player has access to a pile of resources that let them act in your turn. The most egregious is Lethal Intent from the detachment rules, which grants the Ynnead player the ability to give a unit a Normal move in your Shooting Phase after you've destroyed a unit. Not a D6+1 Normal move - the unit gets its full Movement characteristic, which as we've seen is at least 7". It would be quite easy for an opponent to move a unit behind a wall so it can't be shot, or out of range of a charge you're setting up to make.
Lethal Intent is not the only way a Ynnead player can move a unit in your turn. Battle Focus grants Fade Back, which lets a unit that was hit by an attack in your Shooting phase move a unit D6+1 inches, which will also let a well-positioned Infantry unit duck through a wall. Again from Battle Focus, if you have a unit make a Fall Back move, Opportunity Seized can be used to allow one of the units it fell back from make a D6+1 move. Circling back around to the detachment rule, Lethal Surge can turn the Fade Back move into a Surge move, allowing it to be moved into Engagement range of the unit that triggered the Fade Back. Finally, let's not forget The Yncarne's ability to just pop up where an Aeldari unit was just destroyed, but not in Engagement Range, which can be really devastating if it triggers during your Assault phase, because the thing will be up your nose and completely free to act, unless you Pile In to it, in which case it'll get to fight and likely kill a bunch of your stuff on your turn.
Ynnead units can't just move when it's your turn. They can potentially shoot and fight when it's your turn too. The Death Answers Death stratagem lets a unit loses models during your Shooting phase shoot as though it's their Shooting phase, and that unit is
not restricted to only shooting the unit that shot it. During the Fight phase, Ynnari players have a lot of units with Fights First. Howling Banshees have it, Incubi can get it if they have The Visarch attached, and the detachment's Lethal Reprisal ability can grant Fights First to any unit in the army that's below its Starting Strength.
Efficient units
I'm not going to say as much about this as the previous category because I feel like that would be reiterating the unit reviews. Suffice it to say, Aeldari units are all designed to fulfill a role, they do it very well, and they don't pay points for a lot of other extemporaneous abilities.
High mobility
Not only are Aeldari units well designed to fulfill specific roles, but they're also inherently fast, and Battle Focus and the detachment rules provide a lot of movement shenanigans for the Ynnead player to use. Battle Focus can be used to add 2" to a unit's Move characteristic for a phase, to add D6+1 to the Move of a Vehicle, and/or give an Engaged unit 6" Pile In/Consolidate. Generally speaking, the Ynnead player will be able to put units where they want them very reliably.
Good Stratagems
The stratagems for the Devoted of Ynnead detachment read like the author of Codex: Eldar went through everyone else's stratagems and cherry-picked the six best. Sticky objectives? Check! Retributive shooting? Check. Debuff Wound rolls? Hit rerolls? Guaranteed Fights-on-death? Check, check, check. Shooting buff? Double-check! A detachment could have a pretty bad detachment rule and people would play it with this set of strats, and the Ynnead detachment has a very good one.
What it boils down to, is that when you're playing against this detachment, order of operations is going to be very important. You'll want to set up your offense in such a way that the Ynnead player won't be able to extricate the units you really need to bring down that turn with their clever movement shenanigans. If your army does most of your damage in the Shooting phase, keep an eye on how your potential targets are positioned. An Infantry unit sitting next to a wall will probably wind up on the other side of that wall if you shoot at it and don't kill it. If you do kill a unit, another one will probably wind up behind a wall. You'll want to be very careful about chip shooting and in some cases you may want to forgo it entirely. You'll feel pretty foolish if you pop off a last remaining Striking Scorpion from a squad with some bolter fire and the squad of Howling Banshees you're about to unload on ducks through a ruin and can't be targeted anymore.
If your army does most of its damage in the Fight phase, be aware of the Fights First. Primarily that's Howling Banshees, but can also include anything with The Visarch attached to it (Incubi, most likely), and can include any unit below its Starting Strength, who are eligible to be targeted for Lethal Reprisal. That would be another reason you might avoid doing any chip shooting. The Yncarne at 12 wounds can't get Fights First, whereas The Yncarne at 11 wounds can.
Speaking of The Yncarne, it looks like she can use her Inevitable Death ability while in Engagement Range. So if you've set up to unload on her with a bunch of Deathwing Knights, do that before concluding any other fights, because if you kill something before her, you might have your quarry yanked away from you, and you might not get another chance at her.
If the Devoted of Ynnead detachment has a weakness, it would be that it doesn't have any ability to have units Fall Back and act afterwards. As previously mentioned, The Yncarne can teleport her way out of combat on your turn, and you don't want to casually engage Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions or Incubi with anything short of a pretty serious melee unit, and Warp Spiders can do a really mean Overwatch, but if you choose what you put into what well, the Ynnead player will have to either slog through or accept that units they have Fall Back aren't participating in offense that turn.
Also, wording is important. For instance, Fade Back specifies that it triggers "just after an enemy unit has shot". The Grenade strat is not a shooting attack. You can Grenade something without giving it an opportunity to slip behind a wall.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. I probably finished this just in time to see the detachment get nerfed, but I got it in just under the wire! I hope it helps. May you always crush the xenos scum! For The Lion!
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