All Eldar ships add + 1 to the Leadership score generated on the Leadership table on page 10, giving them a Leadership value between 7 and 10.

Dark Eldar ships do not need to pass a Command check in order to use Come to New Heading special orders and count as automatically passing any Command check to do so. In addition, Dark Eldar cruisers have no minimum required movement, even before turning, but are unable to use the Burn Retros special order. Note: All Eldar ships still fall under the restriction that if a ship moves less than 5 cm it counts as a defence for shooting purposes.

Critical hits against Dark Eldar vessels roll 2D6 on the following Dark Eldar Critical Hits table, rather than the standard Critical Hits table. Note that critical hits against Dark Eldar are scored on a roll of 6, as is normal for other fleets, not on 4+ as for Eldar Corsairs.

Dark Eldar Weapons Batteries

Dark Eldar rely on sophisticated targeting technology which allows them to count all targets as ‘closing’ on the Gunnery table, no matter what the target’s actual aspect is. Other than this, the weapons batteries fire as normal.

Phantom Lance

This is the Dark Eldar equivalent of the pulsar, using dark matter powered lasers. Roll a dice for each point of the Phantom lance’s strength when firing, with the following effects:

Ordnance

All Dark Eldar Ordnance can only be hit by turrets on a 6. This includes attack craft, any torpedo types, assault boats and orbital mines.

When orbital mines are used, they completely replace all other attack craft used by the launching carrier, with one orbital mine per launch bay.

As Dark Eldar vessels do not actually have turrets, enemy bombers do not get any bonus against turrets from escorting fighters.

Attack Craft

Dark Eldar attack craft consist of Raptor fighters, Razorwing bombers and Slavebringer assault boats. Raptor fighters have a speed of 30 cm and need a 4+ to remain in play after removing ordnance as with Eldar fighters. Razorwing bombers have a speed of 20 cm. Slavebringer assault boats have a speed of 30 cm.

Torpedoes

Dark Eldar torpedoes use sophisticated targeter scrambling systems to make themselves virtually undetectable until they strike. Defensive turrets only hit Dark Eldar torpedoes on a roll of 6, rather than on a roll of 4+ as is normally the case. In addition, re-roll the dice to hit for any torpedo that misses a target on the first attempt.

Leech Torpedoes

Dark Eldar ships armed with torpedoes may use leech torpedoes at no extra cost. These must be loaded with a specific Reload Ordnance roll, although a ship may start the scenario with them in the tubes by writing a note on the ship sheet. Leech torpedoes cause no damage other than a single, automatic critical hit (do not roll against armour). Brace for Impact can be used against this normally. Escorts are not automatically destroyed by this critical hit.

Do not roll for the effect of this critical hit, instead the leech torpedo immediately causes a -10 cm speed reduction on its target. A leech torpedo hit also prevents the target from executing any All Ahead Full special orders. Only one -10cm speed penalty applies regardless of the number attached – the effect is not cumulative. However, all leech hits on a ship must be repaired before the movement penalty is removed (e.g. if a ship suffers 5 leech hits, it remains at a reduced speed until all 5 hits have been repaired). Escorts can also repair this effect with a roll of 6 in the same manner capital ships repair critical damage.

Impaler Assault Module

The Impaler is a specialised form of prow mounted attack craft. An Impaler is launched like an assault boat, and moves in the same way during the ordnance phase. Fighters which attack the Impaler do not automatically remove it from play,. Instead the Impaler rolls a D6 and remains in play on a 4+. The Impaler can only use this save once per ordnance phase, but if it does so against a fighter in base contact with a ship and subsequently survives turret fire, it may then attack that ship normally. Turrets may fire at the Impaler, in the same way as against ordnance.

When the Impaler successfully moves into contact with an enemy ship, it makes a Hit & Run attack. Roll a D6 as normal. On a score of a 1 the Impaler’s boarders are defeated and the module may not be used for the remainder of the game. On a 2-6 the Impaler causes a critical hit. However, unlike assault boats, roll 2D6 and look up the score on the critical hits table (as opposed to just looking up the score of the Hit & Run attack).

If the Impaler is removed (either by turrets, enemy ordnance, attack craft and so on), the Dark Eldar vessel must reload ordnance as normal before being able to fire it again (it is assumed that a damaged module limps back to its parent vessel and must await hurried repairs or else take time for its crew to transfer to a replacement). An Impaler can only be completely destroyed by a failed Hit & Run attack, which would leave it useless due to the loss of its crew.

When Impalers are lost the owning player decides which ship from the squadron loses its Impaler. This does mean you have to keep track of which Impalers come from each squadron.

At the beginning of each of the Dark Eldar player’s turn he must remove any Impalers from the table (these are assumed to have been forced to return to their parent ship due to lack of fuel). He may of course attempt to reload ordnance during the turn in order to relaunch said Impalers (i.e. he reloads ordnance as quickly as possible to ‘turn around’ the Impalers and their crew just as soon as they arrive back at their parent ship).

You may not launch additional Impalers if you already have a number of Impalers in play equal to the number of Impaler armed vessels in the fleet. Impalers are not deployed from launch bays in any way, shape or form, so the overall number of launch bays in a fleet does not affect the number of Impalers which you are permitted to launch or have in play.

Dark Eldar ships are not protected by the vast energy shields which surround the vessels of other races, but rather employ the form- altering shadowfields. Against attacks that use the Gunnery table, the shadowfields cause one column shift to the right, in addition to any other column shifts for range or Blast markers. Against any other form of attack (ALL strength-based weapons, Nova Cannon shots, any ordnance attacks and any kind of hit and run attacks, ramming and boarding), roll to hit an Dark Eldar ship as normal, but the Dark Eldar player may then make a saving roll for his shadowfields:

Note: Shadowfields do not negate hits from moving through blast markers, exploding ships and celestial phenomena. They do, however, work against ordnance hits, hit- and-run raids, boarding actions, teleport attacks, ramming or nova cannon.

Against ramming and boarding, they save once against the ramming or boarding attempt, NOT against any damage suffered if this save fails. They do NOT protect against hits caused by celestial phenomena nor any area effects such as Warp Drive implosions, Necron Nightmare Fields, Chaos Marks of Slaanesh, etc.

Shadowfields save against the shell hit of the nova cannon, not the subsequent damage rolls. For example, if an Dark Eldar vessel is hit and fails to save, it must immediately take as many hits as the damage roll allocates unless it successfully braced beforehand.

Dark Eldar must determine if they wish to brace against damage they may face BEFORE rolling their shadowfield save. This includes damage from scatter weapons such as Nova Cannon fire.

When protecting against damage (except against weapons that use the gunnery table), shadowfields roll its save once against each successful attack, whether it be from lance fire, ordnance hits, etc. In other words, its rolls once against a ramming attack, once against each Nova Cannon shot, and once against each hit imparted by ordnance attacks, Hit and Run attacks, etc.

Boarding Actions

The Dark Eldar are furious and brutal pirates, fanatical in the pursuit of violence and the hunt for captives. Their all-consuming blood lust can often overcome them, leaving them in an uncontrolled frenzy. Dark Eldar receive a bonus +1 modifier in the first round of any boarding action and a -1 modifier in any subsequent rounds.

Hit-and-Run

The Dark Eldar receive a +1 to any Hit and Run attacks including those from Slavebringer assault boats but excluding Impaler Assault Modules (meaning they will normally succeed automatically).

Slavetaking

Slavetaking may be performed instead of any Hit & Run, including teleporter and Impaler attacks. They may forgo rolling on the Hit & Run Critical Hit table in return for +10 Victory points.

When using Impalers for slavetaking, they collect +30 victory points instead of +10 points. Brace saves may be taken against Slavetaking. Any escort-sized ship is in addition considered destroyed if 30 or more victory points are collected from it by slavetaking.

Slavetaking cannot be conducted against Necron or Tyranid fleets.

A Dark Eldar vessel equipped with mimic engines is able to assume the apparent dimensions of enemy ships, thus allowing the Dark Eldar to sneak up on their prey unseen. The Dark Eldar are able to mimic Imperial, Eldar, Ork, Chaos and Tau ships, but not Tyranid or Necron vessels, so the mimic engine has no effect against either of these fleets.

A Dark Eldar ship equipped with mimic engines approaches closer to the enemy before the threat is realised and so may make one normal move immediately after deployment, but before either side has taken a turn.

In addition, if a mimic engine-equipped vessel is more than 30 cm from the enemy at the start of the game (after making its extra move) it may NOT be targeted by enemy ships at all during the first turn of the game, until it itself has attacked another vessel or launches any ordnance that attacks enemy ordnance or ships. If its ordnance does not attack during the first turn, enemy ordnance must assume it is friendly and cannot attack it, though enemy ships that move in base contact with it in the first turn will still be attacked normally.

In the second and subsequent turns it is assumed that the exchange of information between vessels in the opposing fleet will uncover the impostors, meaning the Dark Eldar can be targeted normally.