It is the Tidecasters who conjure the phantasmal sea that allows aelf and aquatic beast to move and breathe as if they were in their own natural environment.
Illusion, misdirection and terror are the psychic tools at the disposal of the Shadowseer. Wherever the Shadowseer treads on the battlefield discipline collapses, replaced by a bedlam of screams, gibbering and panicked, aimless gunfire.
Embracing the role of Death in its entirety, there is no mercy in the heart of a Death Jester. His outsize shuriken cannon reaps a deadly toll on his enemies as each round, impregnated with virulent biotoxins, causes its victims’ metabolisms to spectacularly detonate.
Spiritseers are those upon the Witch Path who are called to commune with the dead – a chilling concept, even amongst the Asuryani.
Masters of prediction, the Farseers are the strangest and most visionary of a craftworld's advisors. Even in battle they can perform their divinations, casting the complex wraithbone runes of the Aeldari into the air and interpreting changes as the glowing icons orbit around them.
Eldrad Ulthran was once chief amongst the Farseers of Ulthwé. Eldrad has lived for over ten thousand years, and has successfully guided his people along the twisting paths of fate since the Fall, and throughout the rise of the Imperium.
The Soviets were visionaries in the development of airborne troops and tactics, first forming a brigade-sized airborne unit after successful trials in December 1932. More units followed and by June 1941 five Airborne Corps existed in the Soviet order of battle, undoubtedly the strongest airborne force in the world. However in the desperate fighting of the early campaign these formations were pressed into service as regular infantry and virtually consumed.
‘Popular regimentation’ or the ‘people’s militia’ (Narodnoe Opolcheniye or Opolchenie) is a Russian tradition dating back to the 16th century and a powerful part of the national heritage. In times of emergency, a militia was selected from volunteers to serve alongside the regular army and defend their homes.
In 1941 the Soviet Union’s fortified borders were manned by units of the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). These units were almost entirely destroyed in the first weeks of the campaign. After this, NKVD troops were chiefly used for internal security, but could potentially fight on the frontline as they did at Stalingrad in 1942 and during the Crimean Offensive in 1944.
Shortages meant that Soviet formations were sparsely served when it came to transport and rear-echelon support. Pioneer detachments were a notable exception. Their expertise was too essential to do without: bridge-building, demolitions, fortification construction and minefield placement and clearance. These all required skills the conscripted masses did not have. Assault engineers were specialists tasked with liquidating enemy strongpoints during an advance and clearing obstacles to allow tank units to breakthrough. This was extremely dangerous work with a high casualty rate (even by Red Army standards) and assault engineer units were sometimes equipped with SN-42 body armour to give them a fighting chance.
In battle, Harlequin Troupes move fast and hit hard, relying on speed and skill to annihilate the enemy before they even have time to raise their guns. Once in combat, the Harlequins are in their element, performing a lethal dance of death while their masks shimmer with their foe’s worst fears.
Autarchs are renowned for their strategic brilliance, sublime martial skill and indomitable strength of will. Long have they trodden the Path of the Warrior, wearing the ritual masks of countless Aspect Warriors and yet never once slipping into the trap of obsession. Instead, these peerless leaders now walk the Path of Command. Wielding a dizzying variety of wargear and tactics mastered across millennia of battle, they apply all that they have learned to their command of the Asuryani warhosts.