Hot on the heels of Vulkan He’stan, today two more Space Marines are up for preorder. This article will cover Aethon Shaan, the Master of Shadows.

As part of this article we will be unboxing and reviewing the new Chapter Master of the Raven Guard, as well as checking out the new Shadowmark Talon Detachment.

Our thanks as always to Games Workshop for sending us this model to unbox and paint. If you fancy picking Aethon up yourself, then why not use one of our Element Games affiliate links, nabbing you a discount vs RRP and helping us out at the same time!

Aethon Shaan | Unboxing

Want to check out our unboxing of Aethon? Well you can! Check it out below:

Towards the end you’ll also find the model built and painted.

Aethon Shaan | The Model

Firstly, he’s a superb model and to be honest, pretty straight forward to assemble!

He comes on two sprues, and has three different head options. The only part I would offer as assistance is the assembly of the jetpack of Aethon. When you come to attach the wings to his back I would recommend assembling his jetpack first, then checking it all fits together before you glue.

That aside however, no issues. I was torn between the hooded head and the helmet, opting with the former in the end.

I decided to paint mine in the scheme of the Iron Ravens, as I have a large army of them. I felt like the scheme really suited the model. It’s been a while since I’ve painted any Iron Ravens, but really enjoyed revisiting the scheme! You can check out my finished result below:

Aethon Shaan | Datasheet

So, the model is awesome, but what of his rules? Is he worth taking?

The first thing of note is his Chapter Master of the Raven Guard ability. If you take Aethon in the same list as Kayvaan Shrike (the original Chapter Master) then Shrike loses his Lone Operative ability and his Chapter Master keyword is replaced with Captain.

He has the keywords you would expect, Deep Strike, Lone Operative and Stealth, as well as Oath of Moment of course. His Master of Shadow ability allows you to choose a different unit from your opponents army, and grants you reroll charges against said unit. He has another ability, called Blackwing Mantle which allows you to target this model with the Heroic Intervention and Rapid Ingress strats for 0, even if you have used one of those strats already.

He’s armed with a Heavy Bolt Pistol and the Claws of Severax, of which is 7 Attacks, hits on 2s, S5, -2 AP and flat damage 2. Not bad.

He’s pretty good, but their is something missing from his datasheet, which at first I thought may be an error, but I actually don’t think they did…

That missing thing is…he cannot lead any units. Now, he does have Lone Operative, and he’s good in combat, but with a standard 3+ Armour Save and 4+ Invulnerable Save, he isn’t going to be sticking around for too long. He doesn’t have any fall back abilities, or anything similar to help his survivability.

Shrike can join units, and also has Lone Operative, so I’m not sure why Aethon can’t as well.

You can view his datasheet here.

Shadowmark Talon | Detachment Review

To coincide with the new model, we also get treated to a new detachment.

Similar to the Forgefather detachment that came out with Vulkan He’stan, the Shadowmark Talon is super similar to the Vanguard detachment that came out with the Space Marine Codex.

It comes with two Detachment abilities. The first is called Master of Shadows, which is your standard Vanguard -1 to Hit if enemy is more than 12″ away from your unit and your unit has the Benefit of Cover.

Unparallel Tactician kicks in if you have Aethon Shaan in your army. If you do, then you can use the Into Darkness stratagem from this detachment for 0CP (we’ll cover what that does shortly).

This detachment comes with 4 suitably Raven Guard-y Enhancements. Hunter’s Instincts allows you to Deep Strike in Turn One, Lord of Deceit gives the bearer a 12″ aura to force your opponent to spend an extra CP to use a stratagem. Umbral Raptor grants the bearer Stealth and Lone Op whilst finally the Blackwing Shroud grants the bearer and it’s attached unit the Infiltrators ability.

Finally the detachment is rounding out with 6 stratagems. I’ve picked out some of my favourites:

• Into Darkness: So this is the ability you can use for zero CP if Aethon Shaan is in your list. It allows you to pick up upto two Phobos or Scout units, or one normal Adeptus Astartes unit and place them back into Strategic Reserves at the end of your opponents turn, allowing you to redeploy them in your following turn.
• Feint and Thrust: Allows a Marine unit to Fall Back, shoot and charge. If the selected unit is as Phobos or Scout unit, then you also get Advance, Shoot and Charge. A very good 1CP strat that is perfect for Aethon too.
• Lay Low the Tyrants: Grants the units weapons Precision in Melee.

You can view the new detachment in full here.

Summary

The new model is amazing, it’s one of my favourites from the wave of new Marine characters, but his datasheet isn’t the greatest. I’ll have to try him out in game.

The detachment is very similar to the Vanguard detachment, but with some good tweaks, It also pairs perfectly with Aethon, granting him abilities that will help with his solo assassin duties.

My Iron Ravens will be testing out both Aethon and the Shadowmark detachment very soon!

Our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us Aethon Shaan to unbox and review.

Published by David Jennings

Born and raised in Crewe in Cheshire, Dave is a geek through and through. Enjoys designing and managing websites. View all posts by David Jennings