Skysplinter Assault: The 11th-Edition Drukhari Transport Detachment

One trigger, two payouts: each time a DRUKHARI unit from your army disembarks from a TRANSPORT, until the end of the turn, ranged weapons equipped by models in that unit have [IGNORES COVER] and melee weapons equipped by models in that unit have [LANCE].

Both halves are exactly what Drukhari infantry lack. Ignores Cover solves the problem that splinter weapons are volume rather than quality, so the squad in ruins on the objective stops getting a save it did not earn. Lance adds +1 to Wound on a charge, which is the armour penetration Wyches and Incubi have never had.

And because the rule names DRUKHARI, not a pillar, it pays your Kabalites, your Wyches, your Wracks and your mercenaries identically. That is unique in the faction and it is why a mixed collection should look here first.

The cost is structural rather than a restriction: you must own transports, and a unit only benefits on the turn it disembarks, so this is a detachment that wants to keep moving.

Six, and two of them were changed by the pack.

• Pounce on the Prey (1CP, your Movement). After a Drukhari Infantry unit disembarks from a Transport that made a Normal move this phase, that unit is eligible to declare a charge. This is the stratagem that makes the whole detachment work, because it restores the turn-one assault that disembarking otherwise costs you.
• Skyborne Annihilation (1CP, your Shooting). A Drukhari unit that disembarked this turn and has not shot gains Sustained Hits 1, or Sustained Hits 2 if it is a Kabalite Warriors or Hand of the Archon unit.
• Night Shield (1CP, opponent's Shooting). After an enemy selects targets, models in a targeted Drukhari Vehicle unit have a 4+ invulnerable save. This is what keeps your transports alive long enough to be a detachment.
• Vicious Blades (1CP, Fight). After a Drukhari Transport fights, roll a D6 for each model embarked inside it, adding 1 for Wracks models: each 5+ deals 1 mortal wound to a unit it attacked, to a maximum of 6.
• Wraithlike Retreat (1CP, end of the Fight). Effect amended by Faction Pack v1.2. A Drukhari Infantry unit that fought can make a Normal or Fall Back move and embark, and the pack added the clause that it can embark within that Transport in a turn it disembarked from that Transport. Non-Wyches units must end within 3 inches horizontally and 5 inches vertically of the Transport.
• Swooping Mockery (1CP, opponent's Movement). Target range changed from 9 inches to 8 by Faction Pack v1.2. After an enemy unit ends a move, a Drukhari Transport within 8 inches makes a 6 inch Normal move.

That Wraithlike Retreat amendment is the most consequential thing the pack did to this detachment: with it, a unit can now disembark, fight, and get back in the same turn, which is the hit-and-run loop the whole list is named for.

All four are DRUKHARI model only, so they fit any character in the army.

• Nightmare Shroud (20 pts). Each time the bearer's unit disembarks, enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch stratagem against it for the turn. It removes the one thing that punishes the detachment's core action.
• Phantasmal Smoke (15 pts). While the bearer's unit is wholly within 6 inches of a friendly Drukhari Transport, models in it have Stealth and get the Benefit of Cover against ranged attacks. In a list where a transport is always nearby, that is close to unconditional.
• Sadistic Fulcrum (15 pts). Each time you spend a Pain token to Empower the bearer's unit in the Shooting phase, one friendly Drukhari Transport within 6 inches can re-roll its Hit rolls for the phase.
• Spiteful Raider (10 pts). Each time the bearer's unit destroys an enemy unit in the Fight phase that was within range of an objective marker, you gain 1 additional Pain token.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Raider is the ten-model Dedicated Transport this detachment is built on. Nothing in Rain of Cruelty happens without one, and the pack gave it the Frame keyword.
• Venom is the six-model Transport. The pack rewrote both its Aerialists ability and its transport section, including the clause that splits a Kabalite Warriors, Hand of the Archon or Wyches unit into two before the battle, which is a genuine list-building tool in a detachment that wants many small squads.
• Kabalite Warriors and Hand of the Archon are the only two units Skyborne Annihilation upgrades to Sustained Hits 2.
• Wyches get Lance on disembark, which is the armour penetration they never have, and they are the only unit exempt from the Wraithlike Retreat positioning clause.
• Incubi are elite Blades for Hire melee, exactly the profile Lance rewards.
• Wracks add 1 to each Vicious Blades die while embarked, which is a small reason to keep a squad in the Raider that is fighting.

Skysplinter Assault carries no Unique Tag, which makes it the most flexible 2-DP core in the faction. Any of the three 1-DP detachments is legal alongside it.

• Kabalite Agonysts (1 DP) is the sharpest fit. A Kabalite Warriors squad that disembarks gets Ignores Cover from Rain of Cruelty and Sustained Hits 1 from Contracted Harvest, and Skyborne Annihilation pushes that same squad to Sustained Hits 2 for a command point. Three stacking effects on one shooting phase.
• Exhibition of Slaughter (1 DP) stacks the other way: Lance on disembark plus Lethal Hits against non-Monster, non-Vehicle targets makes a Wych squad leaving a Raider hit far above its points.
• Tools of Torment (1 DP) is the odd one out here, because Pain Engines do not ride in Raiders. Take it only if you want a static anvil to anchor a mobile list.

Take it when you own Raiders and Venoms and want a detachment that pays you for using them, or when your collection is mixed and every pillar-specific rule would waste half of it. It is also the best home for the classic Drukhari fantasy of arriving, killing, and being somewhere else before the return fire lands.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. It requires transports, which is a real purchase if you do not own them, and the rule only fires on the turn a unit disembarks, so a squad that gets out and stays out is a normal squad from turn two onward. Your transports are also open-topped skimmers that die to a stiff breeze, which is why Night Shield is effectively a mandatory command point every turn your Raiders are shot at.

Sample gameplan: put Phantasmal Smoke on a character riding with your main block, so the unit has Stealth and cover for as long as a transport is near. Move the Raider up, disembark, spend Pounce on the Prey to charge anyway, and use Skyborne Annihilation on the Kabalites who got out somewhere else. Hold Night Shield for whichever transport your opponent shoots first, and use the amended Wraithlike Retreat at the end of the Fight phase to get back in the vehicle you just left.