Why have I bought and painted a Wave Serpent and added it to my army before I even know what I’m going to put into it? We’ll find that out and chat about my 1000pt list in today’s post. I’ll also share my recipe card painting guide for this Ulthwe Craftworld scheme.

Where I grew up, young car enthusiasts would modify their cars, by bolting on huge wings, spoilers, diffusers, intake grills for little to no benefit to the performance of their cars and it would look a little silly if I’m honest, that’s what the Aeldari Wave Serpent is. That’s what happens when you let a boy racer with no budget upgrade a Falcon grav tank.

This model is so similar to the Falcon, it made a lot of sense to paint both at the same time and I managed to finish both in around 10 days. If you’d like to know more about the processes involved in planning and painting large vehicles efficiently check out my post on my Aeldari Falcon. I won’t be going over that again in this post, instead I thought I’d talk about my 1000pt list.

First of all why do I have a Wave Serpent? Well, I love transports in Warhammer 40,000, it’s something that the Old World and Age of Sigmar just don’t really have. I love the idea of a model ferrying around other models, it also adds a big strategy element to the game. Whilst all this is true, it’s the reason I bought the Wave Serpent, you see, the new kit can build either a Falcon or a Wave Serpent and I wanted the Falcon pieces for the Nightspinner that Dunk kindly gifted me. With my Fire Dragons in the Falcon, that leaves me with the question who is going in the Wave Serpent?

My initial thoughts were Guardians and a Farseer, it feels very Ulthwe, especially if they’re Storm Guardians. Toughness three Guardians in combat who can’t assault the turn they disembark doesn’t appeal to me. So maybe it’s the Defender Guardians with Shuriken Catapults and a Heavy Weapon. Another excuse for a bright lance is always good… ah, but I want their Bright Lance on my Wraithlord who will carry two of the heavy weapons. Star Cannon maybe? No, the guardians in the transport will do mild damage to a target and then just die to return fire.

Wraithguard! That’s what I need. The Wave Serpent has a transport capacity of 12 and Wraithguard take up two slots, so I can carry five Wraith Constructs as well as up to two characters like a Spirit Seer and Farseer. I think Wraithguard armed with Wraith Cannons is the way to go. They’re only single shot, but as long as I have a Aeldari Peskier with them their ballistic increases to a 3+ to hit. It’s the Str14, -4 armour penetration and D6+1 damage that’s far more appealing to me in a game full of Rogal Dorn battle tanks and Primarchs running around.

With my decision made, this is what my 995pt Aeldari list looks like.

• Spirit Seer (Warlord) Enhancement Timeless Strategiest
• 5 Wraithguard with Wraith Cannons
• Wave Serpent with Twin Bright Lance
• 1 Fire Dragon Exarch with Firepike and 4 Fire Dragons
• Falcon with Pulse Laser and Star Cannon
• 1 Swooping Hawk Exarch with Hawk’s Talon and 4 Swooping Hawks
• Wraith Lord with 2 Flamers, 2 Bright Lances and Ghostglaive
• Hemlock Wraithfighter

At a 1000pts it’s really hard to fit in everything I want. I’m not totally sold on the Hemlock being in the 1000pt list as I think scouting Striking Scorpions would give me some early objective control and some much needed close combat ability to the list. I think I’ll feel better when I expand to 1500pts and I can squeeze more things I want in.

How to Paint an Aeldari Wave Serpent

I went into a lot more detail in my Aeldari Falcon post on how I approached painting these vehicles, I’ll save myself repeating it here. I’ve included the recipe card though for convenience sake though.

Next up is a Wraithlord, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have already spotted him.

I hope you follow me on my path of the warrior as I paint 1000pts of Aeldari to play some narrative crusade games. I can’t wait to paint the Wraithguard and Spirit Seer. Will I drop the Hemlock Wraithfighter for Striking Scorpions? Watch this space.