Greetings one and all,
Welcome back to the Combat Patrol Reviews series “is It Worth It’.
Today we’re going to take a dive into the Combat Patrol: Aeldari box to see what’s in there, and ask some very important questions: is it value for money, and is it value on the tabletop. So, let’s discover what the Farseers have foretold and take a look at what’s in the box.
Combat Patrol: Aeldari contains; 1 Farseer, 1 Squad of Guardians, 6 Windriders, and 1 Wraithlord, all for the price of £85.
So, now that we know what’s in the box, let's first do a price breakdown and compare it to the RRP from Gamesworkshop, and see what savings this offers.
1 Farseer = £18.00
1 Squad of Guardians = £32.50
1 Windriders = £65.00
1 Wraithlord = £35.00
Added together, the total RRP of the items priced individually in this box is £150.50. As the Combat Patrol box has an RRP of £85, this gives us a total saving of £65.50, which is a great bargain. This is one of the best savings of any of the Combat Patrol boxes.
However there is one caveat; that’s a lot of Windriders, which I feel might take away from the value of the box if you're not actually going to field them. But at the very least Gamesworkshop has stopped throwing a War Walker into every box.
But now we have to ask, are these units of value on the tabletop?
The Farseer is usually my go-to HQ, as their psychic powers are a massive boon to any Aeldari army and they aren’t a slouch in combat either.
Guardians are a strong troop choice for the Aeldari, especially as they come with a heavy weapon platform. And the new Guardian models seem to be able to be built as either Guardian Defenders or Storm Guardians, giving you plenty of options when building up your army.
Windriders are fast and have higher toughness than most Aeldari. These guys also pack heavier weapons, allowing you to get a good bit of firepower nearly anywhere on the board.
Finally, the Wraithlord is a hero of old. This Wraithbone construct is as tough as coffin nails and carries about the same amount of firepower as a tank. They’ve also got a great weapon selection, so with a few checky magnets, you can make sure your Wraithlord can be best spec’d out to deal with any threat.
So what are my final thoughts?
Overall, I think if I was collecting a Saim-Hann army, this would be a great boxset. But like the Start Collecting box before it, it hurts itself by leaning too much into an individual craftworld. If I could improve this Combat Patrol, I would drop the Windriders, and then maybe throw in a Wave Serpent or a Falcon alongside some Howling Banshees. And yeah, while both those units cost a little more than the Windriders they are replacing, I feel it would give the box a little bit more flexibility in how this army could be fielded.