Work in progress

 

Managed to get some work done on my rangers.  I like the way the gun turned out, looks organic.  I want to work on the yellow bits, the eye piece and the base.  Then I think I will call the model done.  Hopefully now that I have my colour's down the other 4 will go quicker.

Road Map

So I fought very hard these last few days an urge to switch up my army for the escalation legue.  At one point I was going to scratch the stealthy theme and go with a pure mech list.  Then I almost decided to scrap the Eldar altogether and go back the the Flesh Tearers.  I've persevered however and have come up with a road map on how I plan to develop the army as we increase the point values monthly.  The following is what I have come up with.

Kill Team

Troops:

5 Pathfinders

Elite:

5 Striking Scorpions

500 Points:

HQ:

1 Autarch with Scorpion Sword, Fusion Gun, Warp Spider Pack, Mandiblaster

Elite:

7 Striking Scorpions + 1 Exarch with Biting Blade and Stalker

Fast Attack:

5 Warp Spiders

750 Points:

Troops:

4 Avengers + 1 Exarch (mounted in Wave Serpent with twin linked Brightlances and Spirit Stone)

Elite:

9 Striking Scorpions +1 Exarch as above

1000 Points:

Troops:

7 Avengers +1 Exarch with Bladestorm, Dual Catapults (mounted in same Wave Serpent as above)

Elite:

5 Fire Dragons (mounted in Wave Serpent with twin linked Shuriken Cannons and Spirit Stone)

1250 Points:

Elite:

Upgrade Scorpion Exarach with Shadowstrike

Troops:

2nd 5 man Pathfinder squad

Heavy:

Night Spinner

1500 Points:

HQ:

Farseer with Doom, Singing Spear, Runes of Warding

Troops:

Add one more Avenger model

Heavy:

2 Warwalkers with Eldar Missile Launchers

Total Points: 1500.

I think the list is fairly fluffy along the Alaitoc theme.  In addition I think that it is not horribly uncompetitive as far as hybrid lists go.  There is quite a bit of redundancy with my anti-tank plus I have some ability to seize objectives late game with the Avengers, all while holding on to any objectives in my own zone with my Pathfinders.  The general plan (once I get up to 1.5k) is to entrench the Scorpions and Pathfinders in my deployment zone  objectives with the Scorpions acting as a counter assault unit.  The Walkers will set up in an opposite corner using their scout move to try and keep at a 48' range and act as a distraction to split my opponents fire.  I will try and hide Night Spinner as best as possible and exploit its barrage ability.

That leaves the mobile wing of my list to rush a flank.  As far as that goes, the plan is to deepstrike the Autarch along with the Spiders wherever my opponent has the weakest presence on the board.  Once their deepstrike results are worked out and the models are on the table, the two wave Serpents will rush forward to provide support/cover.  The Farseer will ride with the Avengers and Doom choice targets throughout any given game.  Plus the singing spear will do in a pinch if I need extra anti-tank.  Not bad as far as lists go.  The bonus is that I have the models and currently most of them are already half painted.  Bring on the New Year!

Climb that ladder

Worked some more on my rangers and on course to having the base coats done by this weekend.  I may end up changing around my kill team list though by replacing the Scorpions with Wraithgaurd.  After reading up on some Fritz40k articles on running a Harlequin army I may end up changing the theme of my list overall.  The idea would be to set up a screen of Harlequins followed by a wall of Wraithguard.  Throw in a couple of Wraithlords for long range anti-tank.  Then throw Eldrad in the mix.  Finally 2-3 squads of pathfinders to hold back objectives.    Nothing is set in stone as of yet but needless to say I did pick up a box of Harlequins this morning...

Some Progress

Man this last week has been a rough one.  Trouble at work (largely my doing) and deathly ill.  Tried to get back on the wagon last night.  All that I did; however, was base and prime my kill team models.  Still every little bit helps.  Also thought I would finish painting the base coats on the rangers before I start highlights.  The colours are not very unique but I like them.  All but for the black on the sniper rifle.  I'm thinking that I might try replacing the black on the gun and hoses with deneb stone on my next ranger.  Then give it a heavy wash  with devlin mud and try highlighting with wraithbone.  Hopefully next weekend I will have the 5 Rangers ready to highlight.  Time is definitely not on my side these days...

Trial Run II

I was able to get some work done on the Ranger tonight.  Not much of an improvement.  Just finished the base coat and applied a wash.  Looking at this photo, I think I need to improve my light source where I paint.  Looks like I need to do some touch ups before starting my highlights.

Trial Run

First Ranger cleaned, based and primed.  Going to use this model as a test run for the rest of my Rangers.

First coat of colour on the cloak applied.  I used the GW foundation paint Orkhide Shade.

Started applying Mordian Blue for on the armour plates.

The leather gloves and boots I've applied a coat of Graveyard Earth.  The helmet is Iyandian Yellow.  Not sure what I am going to paint the gun and ammo clips.  I plan to paint the back pack a mixture of green and leather as used already.  That leaves the hoses and leather straps then to paint.  Not sure what colours to paint them either.  I think the remaining leather straps need to differentiated from the boots and gloves, not sure whether to go lighter or perhaps a reddish brown.  As for the gun I might wait until I develop some of the colours I have down before I start it.  I was thinking of painting the gun wraithbone but I may end up making it darker depending on how the highlights on the camo clock turn out.  Anyway think I'm going to call it a night.  Hopefully I will get another hour or so tomorrow to plug away at the model.  I got to say its nice to pick up a brush again.  Its been nearly three months since I last painted.

Kill Team

I think I have settled on my kill team list with 5 Rangers, 4 Scorpions and 1 Exarch with Biting Blade and Stealth Move Through Cover.  Not sure if the Scorpions get the benefit of the Exarch power in kill teams but I had points left over for it.  I figure this will be a good start on my stealth Alaitoc list.  So the plan is to have the above 10 models painted as best I can by Jan 1, 2011.  I think that is a reasonable deadline.

Forum

So I think I've got the forum up and running.

Escalation League Part II

Ok so the rules of the league have been hammered out as follows:

- It will progress monthly
- Month 1, 200 points using the Kill Team rule set from Battle Missions.
- Month 2 500 points with the following requirements:
     - 1 HQ choice
     - 1 + Troop choice
     - no selection from the Heavy slot
- Month 3 750 points, game on, standard force org.
- Previous unit selections must be kept month to month.  Units may only be upgraded.  Never downgraded.
- Each subsequent month 250 points until we reach 2000 points (7 months in total).
- There will be seven teams

Scoring:

-  There are 5 categories that will be scored at the end league.
     - Best painted/converted single model
     - Best painted army
     - Best story/fluff/army progression
     - Best sportsmen
     - Most number of wins.
-  With respect to the final category, we will be required to play one official game a month.
-  Each month you will have to challenge someone different in the group.
-  We will be scored by our opponents on the above criteria between a scale of 1 to 5.
-  No one person can win more than two categories at the end of the league.
-  Once a month every person will put in ten dollars to the prize fund.
-  At the end of the league we will have roughly $100 prize to give out per category.
-  Any money won, must be spent on furthering the hobby at our local gaming store.

So I met last night with the group to hammer out the rules.  As it stands we will have the following armies:

  - Eldar (me) - Alaitoc with a focus on rangers, scorpions and war walkers
  - Space Marines - Ultra Marine drop pod army
  - Orcs - Some kind of mech boy list where kans are troop choice (from imperial armour)
  - Chaos Demons - Strong focus on khorne
  - Nids - not sure on the theme yet
  - Tau - focus on battle suits and no kroot allowed
  - Dark Eldar - Hellion sky board army with the Duke HQ

So the above lists are not standard or hard.  The idea is that we will focus the league on creating armies more thematic in nature than competitive.  Hence only one of the five scoring options are for actually winning games.  The primary focus then is to focus on the hobby as a whole and produce a well painted 2000 point army.  In addition we all have been talking about pushing into the Apoc levels once we complete the 2k points.

With respect to this blog, I will be trying to host a forum to allow us all a common place to gather and report our progress.  Not exactly sure how to do this but I have until Jan 1, 2011 to get the blog up to speed.  It may end up that I will simply just give access to the the other members of the group to post on the blog.  I also need to figure out a away to incorporate google calendar with the blog so that we might all coordinated our different schedules and see when each of us are playing each other.  

I forgot to mention that we will have to write a short blurb explaining the fluff/back story to each list we make.  As well, we will be responsible to write up a battle report after each official battle.  I will then post those along with any photo's that were taken of any given game.

I am extremely excited for this tourney, as it will provide a solid foundation to build a complete and painted army.  Personally I'm going to focus on the Eldar.  In particular, the idea I am toying with is an Alaitoc strike force.  I want a strong scouting force that go in and secure any given objective.  They then call in support  from the main Alaitoc war host with a rapid response team (ie mech wing of avengers, dragons and storm guardians).  I've also been looking at building my list with a mind to Apoc data sheets.  In particular the shadow sect of Karandras and the shadow walker formation.  I've also got my eye on a titan or two...

Anyway I will update shortly with my progress on getting this blog up to speed to help facilitate this new league.

Escalation

I have been out of commission as far as the hobby goes for the last couple of months due to work, family and life in general.  In an effort to get back into the swing of things I’ve decided to join an escalation league with some friends starting Jan 1, 2011.  At present there will be the following armies: Tau, Daemons, Ultramarines, Dark Eldar, Orks (potentially two ork lists).  It has been agreed that we will start things off with 500 points with the regular force org requirements but for initially only requiring 1+ troop selection.  The primary focus of this league will be to stick to fluff and high painting standards. 

The rest of the crew are jumping on board as it will give them a chance to paint a new army in a structured manner.  My focus is to get my Eldar army painted and done!  I’m tired of playing with half painted models.  My main problem (aside from lack of hobby time) is my low attention span and attraction to bright shinny new things.  For example when the blood angel book was released I was all over starting a Flesh Tearer army and as a result work on my Eldar grinded to a halt.  With the release of the Dark Eldar, it took a lot of will power for me not to jump on that band wagon as well.

After our initial investment of 500 points we will be increasing our point levels by 250 every month.  As it stands this is my potential list I wish to start things off with.

HQ:

Autarch – Power Weapon, Mandiblasters, Fusion Gun – 100 points

(rides with the Avengers)

Troop:

10 Dire Avengers (no exarch) – Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannons – 220 points

Elite:

5 Fire Dragons (no exarch) – Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannons – 180 points

Total Points: 500

As it stands I have about half of the above painted and will have to focus on completing the rest for January first.  I should also say that I have chosen Alaitoc as my craftworld and paint scheme.  Consequently, as I grow the list I plan to add Pathfinders, Scorpions, Warwalkers, Storm Guardians, Warp- Spiders and a Farseer.  The reason I initially went with an Autarch over the Farseer was mainly for theme.  I like the idea of a small strike force lead by a general. 

I don’t have much experience with 5^th edition and never really played in 4^th or 3^rd edition.  The bulk of my experience comes from 2^nd edition.  The reason I say this is that my big complaint back then with the Eldar was that the army lacked a cohesive military feel.  Now with units up to squads of 10 and the introduction of the Autarch acting as a general I feel this game has come a long way (at least with respect to the Eldar) to grasping that feel of commanding an army.  I realise that the Farseer is probably the better choice and acts as a force multiplier, but I want to:

a)      Seriously try the Autarch out in a number of games

b)      Create a theme to my army as I build it organically over the course of the escalation league.

So there you have it, let me know what you think of my initial 500 points.  If you made it this far in my post, thank you for listening to my rambles.

Setting a Goal

Ok, now that I have had a chance to look at the new Dark Eldar codex at my local gaming store I’ve decided not to undertake to start a new army.  As well, as a direct result of the book I’ve decided to shelve my Eldar for the interim while I wait for a new codex.  The Dark Eldar put the last nail in the coffin I’m afraid for their Craftworld cousins.  After looking at the point costing and codex creep that is patently obvious with the advent of the new codex, Craftworld Eldar simply cost too much to run around and try and survive the length of any given game.  I still love the models and fluff, it’s just that you don’t get to use them to their full effect.  The book is nearly reduced to tanks and a handful of infantry units (namely Eldrad, Avengers and Fire Dragons) that have any utility in the face of the new 5^th edition codex’s.  I am excited though about the prospect of a new 5^th edition Craftworld book.  I think the Dark Eldar codex lends itself to providing a nice glimpse of what might be in store for the Eldar.  I just hope that it does not come at the tail end of the 5^th edition rule set.

So where does that leave me.  Well I have my Flesh Tearer’s ready able and willing to go.  The Blood Angels are a very competitive army that is well able to take on other 5^th edition codex’s.  I also like the fact that running Seth and the Flesh Tearer’s somewhat separates me from the vast majority of other Blood Angel players out there.  I’ve tossed around a few ideas on lists for my marines and I think I have settled on a solid one that I will take the time to model and paint to completion.  Ultimately it is a MSU list with self imposed limits placed on my use of heavy slots to keep in line with the Flesh Tearers fluff.  I’ve got a strong Death Company presence as well at higher point levels which I believe is necessary to keep in line with the Flesh Tearer fluff.  I’ve also broke it down into 3 components to help me stay on track to complete painting and modeling of the army.  Essentially I will build it in three waves.  The first block will consist of 1000 points.  This is the size of the weekly game down at my local gaming store that I try to make on a consistent basis.  Second and third instalments will be 500 points each to take me up to an even 2k list. 

Block 1: (995 points)

HQ:

Gabriel Seth

Elites:

2x Priests with power swords

Troops:

2 x 5 man assault squad with razor back, assault cannon, melta gun and powerfist

5 man assault squad with razor back, assault cannon, meltagun and powersword.

Fast Attack:

Baal Predator with assault cannon and heavy bolters

Block 2: (505 points)

HQ:

Librarian with blood lance, armor of sanguinus

Troops:

5 man assault squad with razor back, assault cannon, melta gun and powerfist

Fast Attack:

Land Speeder with 2 multi-meltas
Heavy:
Preadator with autocannon and lascannon sponsons

Block 3: (500) points

Elite:

Chaplain

Troops:

8 Death Company troops with thunder hammer and rhino

1 Death Company Dreadnaught with blood talons and drop pod.

So over all a fast army that packs a solid punch.  The immediate drawbacks I see is the lack of vindicators and for that matter any other heavy tanks other than my predator.  It also sacrifices two scoring units in favour of Death Company which might hamstring the list.  From what I have gathered; however, it is in line with Flesh Tearer fluff and I think a nicely themed list. 

As for modeling, I have all the models and really only have to put together approximately 20 infantry to make it work.  I also want to stay true to my undertaking to play with a painted army.  That is part of the reason for breaking it down into three groups as I build.  The first 1K should not take me long to paint up to a table top standard.  My goal is to have it completed in roughly a month’s time chipping away at it nightly.  The remaining 2 blocks then I can hopefully complete shortly before Christmas. 

In a way I’m glad that the Eldar are getting mothballed.  While I love the figures I was too indecisive in which list I wanted to play.  I now I have a reasonable goal to attain with what I think will be a fun list to play with.

2k pts of Seth

I was listening to the 11th company and came up with the following 2 thousand point flesh tearer's list.  I tried to keep it true to the flesh tearer fluff and limit the number of tanks in the list.  I include a healthy dose of death company and assault squads.  It also incorporates the MSU razorback spam that seems to be popular these days (though the arrival of the Dark Eldar might change that).  There are three force multipliers included and most of the special rules from the blood angels make an appearance.  Of course there is Seth.

HQ:
Gabriel Seth
Librarian: Shield of Sanguinius, The Sanguine Sword

Elite:
Chaplain
2 Sanguinary Priests with Power Swords

Troops:
2 x 5 Assault Squads: powerfist, melta gun, razorback, HB
2 x 5 Assault Squads powersword, melta gun, razorback, HB
5 Death Company: powerfist, infernus pistol, razorback, HB
Death Company Dreadnaught: drop pod

Fast:
Baal Predator: twin linked assault cannon, HBs
8 Vanguard Veteran Squad: powerfist

Heavy:
Vindicator

So Seth and the librarian will ride with the powersword assault squads.  The two priests will ride with the powerfist assault squads.  That gives me two feel no pain bubbles and one 5+ cover save bubble.  All four assault squads have one heavy hitter (powerfists, sanguine sword, or Seth).  Also all four have meltaguns.  The chaplain will ride with the death company.  While they cost an arm and a leg, I really want to try out the vanguard veteran squad.  I especially want to try out their heroic intervention along with descent of angles.  I plan to run them with my death company dreadnaught and my baal pred.  Those three units will hit a flank hard.  The remainder of my army will progress up the middle of the board just staying out of charge range with the fast tanks.  I plan to stay in my tanks as long as possible.

I have to admit I am tailoring the list somewhat.  My main two opponents both play horde armies (orcs and nids).  This list would probably have trouble with other meq armies.  Ah well.  I like the list and think it is thematic.

First Painting Entry.

Farseer is cleaned, based, primed and first two colours down.

Heavily highlighted yellow robes after completing the blue cloak.

I'm happy with the way the blue cloak turned out.  I used about 6 shades of blue.

This was my second squad built since I started the hobby last spring.

Here is the farseer with some more work done.

I spent some time on painting the helmet.  I need to go back and highlight the wraithbone and pouches next.

Just a shot with the cloak and helmet.

I then went on to start my Scorpion Exarch.

Almost done!

Tabled by Orcs!

Well, I was tabled last night by orcs.  I ran the 1k mechdar list I posted previously.  Over all I think the problem was with tactical decisions I made during the course of the game rather than an inherent problem with my list.  I do think I need to make some changes though.  As for my opponent he had the following from memory:

Big Mech with force field

Warboss with powerclaw

2 Mobs of 30 boys and two Nobz with powerclaws

5 Nobz

3 Killa Cans

The mission was dawn of war and I had first turn.  I deployed my avengers and wave serpent in the center of the board to push back his deployment as much as possible.  I should note we were playing on a 4x4 table.  The first two turns I was doing well.  He advanced a Warboss and 30 mob squad down the right flank, his nobz and big mech down the middle and the remaining 30 mob squad and killacans down the left flank.

I focused all my fire on the left flank for the first two turns.  My mistake happened in turn three which caused my army to crumble.  Turn three he was midfield with his army.  I had my tanks in the center of my table edge.  At the beginning of turn three I had about ½ of the left flank 30 boy mob gone from previous turns of shooting and I had my avengers in range to pop out of the tank and blade storm.  I also could have unloaded the three flame templates from my guardians but I would have had to take a dangerous terrain test for their serpent.  I opted to only hit them with the bladestorm and large blast from the fireprism which was mistake number one.  After shooting I managed to whittle the mob down to about 6 guys.  He kept rolling his cover saves granted by the Big Mech.  I should have either not bladestormed and moved my tank out of charge range or risked the dangerous terrain test for my guardians serpent.  The 5+ invul save from the big mech completely shut down my shooting.  The flame templates would have ignored the coversave and I likely would have wiped out the squad.   Ah well live and learn.

The second big mistake I made was trying to control my deployment zone from the middle.  I should have left my tanks on the flank that I was focusing my fire on.  On the bottom of turn three he declared a waagh fleeted 6” and caught me with my pants down.  He was able to hit my Falcon with his Warboss and 6 or so orcs.  Adding insult to injury I had given my falcon a bright lance so was only moving it 6” so I could get extra shots of.  If I had of moved the Falcon over 6” he would not of been able to take it down.  He was able to get 6 penetrating hits off from the close combat.  However he only rolled 1 or 2 six’s when rolling to hit.  It was not until he rolled for the 5^th pen hit that he got through my holofield, and wrecked the tank.  On the left flank he charged my avengers (who to their credit lasted 3 combat rounds before the broke and fled off the board). 

I also lost two tanks to shots from the dreadnaughts.  I don’t really count that as a tactical error and chalk it up to bad luck. Everything just fell apart after that though.  

Over all I will make some minor changes to my list; however, I believe that the majority of my problems were due to poor decisions on my part.  The big mistake was not respecting the power of the waagh.  I should have been thinking of the extra assault range and positioned my tanks appropriately.  While I do not like being tabled I did learn quite a bit from this match. 

These are two changes I think I might make to the 1k list:

Option A)

Replace the bright lance on the falcon with a EML.  This would allow me to move and fire two guns and still move over 6” to maintain my mobility.   Also I think I would swap out the stones on waveserpents for extra shuriken cannons.  Also guide was wasted.  I should have picked doom as a Farseer power.  It is just hands down a better force multiplier. 

Option B)

Give the Farseer doom rather than guide.  Replace the stones with suriken cannons on all my tanks.  All wave serpents will have twin linked shuriken cannons.  Replace the fireprism with a nightspinner.  Replace the Falcon and 5 man avenger squad with 5 Dragons and 1 Exarch with Dragon’s Breath in a wave serpent with shuriken cannons.  Add 1 viper with 2 shuriken cannons.  Over all this I think would make for a better list at 1k although I lose the 3^rd scoring unit.  With this set up I would have a potential of 27 strength 6 shots, 5 meltagun shots, 1 singing spear, 2 heavy flamer templates, 2 flamer templates and 1 large blast strength 6 template that rends, is barrage, causes difficult and dangerous terrain tests.  Now I’m thinking that the night spinner might be better than a fireprism for the extra ability to cause dangerous and difficult terrain tests.  I do like the fireprism though especially with the extra option of a small s9 blast shot.  And the lack of any armour pen on the nightspinner might nudge the fireprism slightly ahead for utility in this list (especially for an all comers list).  I think I will try it with both just to see which one I like more.  So there you have it, a complete loss, hopefully I can stand up, dust myself off and be a better player for it.

Eldar 1850 Tournament List

My local store is holding a 1850 tournament in October that I'm thinking about signing up for.  I put the following list together after reading some good articles on Eldar tanks on 3+++

HQ:
Farseer - Singing Spear, Runes of Warding, Doom

Elite:
2 x 5 Fire Dragons - Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannon, Twin Linked Shuriken Cannons, Stones

Troops:
2 x 9 Avengers - Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannon, Twin Linked Shuriken Cannons
10 Storm Guardians - Warlock, Singing Spear, 2 Fusion Guns, Shuriken Cannon, Twin Linked Shuriken Cannons
5 Avengers (ride in the Falcon)

Fast:
3 Vipers - Shuriken Cannons x 2

Heavy:
Falcon - EML, Holo-Field, Stone, Shuriken Cannon
2 Fireprisms - Shuriken Cannon

Total Points 1848

Total Infantry: 47 models
Total Tanks: 8 + 3 Vipers
Potential strength 6 shots a round: 57
Potential strength 8 shots a round: 15
Potential strength 9 shots a round: 2 (not including Fireprisms)
2 pie plates from the Fireprisms offer 4 shooting options (2 strength 5 large blasts, 2 strength 9 small blasts, 1 strength 6 large blast, 1 strength 10 small blast)

I probably should slim down my Avenger squads to 5 man each but I like having extra bodies available should I lose a serpent.  Not sure if I agree with skipping on giving all the serpents stones, but I though I would try it out.  The idea is to strike at isolated segments of the opponents force with focused fire.  I have three dedicated units that can potentially pop av 14 (the Farseer will ride with the Storm Guardians).  While I've seen lists that put out much more strenth 6 shots, 57 a turn is nothing to complain about.  Any tanks that get popped by the Dragons or Guardians will have their disembarked troops open to a devastating torrent of fire that on average hits on 4+ and wounds on 2+.    The Falcon is mainly there to act as a defensive scoring unit. Then there is the combined firepower of the Fireprisms that add some nice flexability to your shooting options during a game turn.  Rounding it all out is the force multipler provided by the Farseer and Doom.  I was thinking that Guide might be better as Doom is some what over kill with the volume of strength 6 shots.  The problem is who do I guide.  I don't have a single unit that puts out a lot of shots; rather, they are spread out throughout the army.  I figure Doom works better for an all comers list especially should I face some MC's such as nids or daemons.

My take on NIDS 1500k

Found this photo at Heresy Online.

This is my take on the Nids at 1500 points.  The list is based on knowledge gained from fighting them in 5th edition, and my take on how the Nids should be played from my experience with them in 2nd edition.

HQ:

Hive Tyrant - Lash Whip & Bonesword, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Leech Essence, Paroxysm
Tyrant Guard - Lash Whip

Troops:

Tyranid Warrior Brood (6)
Genestealer Brood (20)
Genestealer Brood (20)

Fast Attack:
Tyranid Shrike Brood (6)
Gargoyle Brood (30)

The way I see the above list being played is as follows.  This is a balls deep motherfucking bad ass army!  Its the way I think Nids should be played.  In your face tearing shit up.  I remember when Nids first came out.  You could god damn give them Zoats!  Well what I remember from back then is that Nids were in your face hand to hand.  I figure from playing against them in 5th edition that this is what a hard core assault army should look like.

The list is also based on my understanding on how a hammer and anvil list should play.  The idea is that my hammer will consist of the Shrikes and Gargoyles.  My Tyrant, Tyrant Guard, Warriors and 20 Stealers will act as my Anvil.  That leaves me with 20 more stealers that will out flank and act as my fuck you card.  I'll plod forward with my anvil along with the screen of 20 stealers.  My hammer will push a flank hard in first turn.  Second turn first thing I do is roll for outflank.  If successful the rest of my army will make a push for them.  Hopefully I will have a solid hammer and anvil set up along with the wild card of 20 stealers outflanking.  If I don't make the role then I'll try and set up an hammer and anvil with what I have on the board.  The thing is no matter if my outflanking stealers make it on the board by turn two or not.  Who ever I play will always be shitting their pants thinking about what might be outflank during the course of the game.

Overall I think this would be an easy list to model and a fun army to play.  The only thing outside of the box you would need to make it work would be some shrike wings from forgeworld.  The thing is I no fuck all about Nids.

Incubi and Arhra the fallen Phoenix Lord

Just stumbled across this leaked photo of the new incubi.  Man do they look good.  I've got to say I'm tempted to start up a Dark Eldar force if the rest of the new model range looks as good.  I'm particularly interested in whether or not the new codex will advance any of the fluff around Arhra.  I always figured that it was likely there was some connection between him and the Dark Eldar incubi.  While the photo is blurry, the addition of the horns on the new incubi models certainly suggests a chaos mutation aspect might be introduced to the incubi fluff.  This might support the idea that Arhra is connected to the incubi as he is apparently: "The fallen Phoenix who burns with the dark light of Chaos."  I think this connection is further supported by the recent book Path of the Warrior where it was reveled that a Dark Eldar was accepted into a Striking Scorpion shrine on Alaitoc for some apparent reason.  


While unsubstantiated my understanding of Dark Eldar rumors is that Chaos will play some sort of role in the new codex.  I don't remember where I read it but apparently mandrakes are being reworked to include some forms of mutations.  However the problem with rumors is that they are just that, rumors.  There is also word floating around the rumor mills that Harlequins will play a role in the new Dark Eldar codex as well.  If this is the case then it is not likely they would align themselves with anyone that exhibited signs of chaos mutations.  As for the inclusion of Harliquins in the Dark Eldar codex, it is said that Harliquins are a unifying force for the different Eldar factions.  There was also mention once in a WD where the Harliquins brokered an alliance between Eldar and Dark Eldar when faced with an overwhelming chaos demon force.  So who knows what is in store with the release of the new codex.  One thing is for certain, if there is any form or manner in which Eldar and Dark Eldar might be allies through Harliquins then this fool will soon be parted with some hard earned cash.

2K Alaitoc v.s. Nids

Well, I had my first 2000pt game last week against my buddies Nids.  Over all it was a close and fun game.  I won by just one kill point.  However, the game ended on turn 5, and had there been another turn those Nids would have likely melted my face.   Keeping in line with my new personal rule, I ran the list from my last post.  I’m not going to write a detailed battle report as the game was quite a few days ago.  I do want to provide a rough break down on how my units performed though and what I need to improve my game.  As for set up, I outflanked the warwalkers and everything else was placed on the board. From memory, my friend had the following

HQ:

Tyrant with 2 Tyrant Guard, lash whips, heavy venom cannon, adrenal glands, hive commander, old adversary, paroxysm, leach essence

Elite:

3 Zoanthrope brood with drop pod, cluster mines

3 Hive Guard

Troop:

2 Tervigons

2 x 27 Termagaunt  Broods

1 Genstealer Brood – 11 stealers and 1 broodlord

10 Hormagaunt brood

Heavy:

1 Tyranofex

So the game was kill points and table quarters.  The Nids went first and just started plodding towards my quarter.   Over all my strategy was just to stay alive and pick off any stragglers from his horde.  The mobility of the Eldar was fantastic; however, my list was cohesive.  My foot slogging elements were often left to fend for themselves as the mechanised portion of my list was moving great distances to avoid the Nids.  One thing about the Eldar, no single unit is that great by itself.  I believe the strength of the codex is creating a list that fosters synergy between the different units.   The lack of synergy in my list then resulted in Kharandrus and the Scorpion squad being isolated.  Ultimately they were overwhelmed by numbers.  In retrospect I should not have placed this squad so close to the opponent.  If I were able to deploy again, I would have set them back with the Rangers and used them as a counter assault unit closer to my deployment.  In addition, I think I should have set up the warwalkers along with the rest of my troops.  This way they could have benefited from Eldrad and guide.  As for Karandrus, one thing I do not like about him is his lack of an invul save.  That being said however, he does provide a nice +1 cover save to the scorpion squad which is decent when combined with a handy fortune from Eldrad.

Over all I did ok.  Not great and not terrible.  After the game I was going to dump my warwalkers, scorpions and ranger to try my hand at a complete mech list.  However, after some thought I’ve decided against this.  I figure you cannot make or break a list after one game.  I plan to get some more games in before I make any drastic changes.  Mistakes are bound to happen when trying out a new list/army.  I think it’s important when starting out to maintain some consistency between lists as you don’t get a feel for what a unit can do after only one game.  That being said, if anything where to go it would be the phoenix lord.  He is a lot of points to sink into a character without an invul save.  This is especially true when you consider his role is to go toe to toe with other cc beasts.

The following are some photo’s from the game.  Not the best quality from my iphone, next time I play I will take some proper photo's from my camera.

New Rule

Well, I've been slacking on painting.  I've not lifted a brush in weeks.  So to motivate me to finish painting my army, I am only going to play with miniatures that have some semblance of a paint job.  This is my 2k list then, please note it is the extent of my Eldar army with any paint on the mini's.  Everything is WYSIWYG except for the fire dragon exarch.  If anyone makes an issue of the exarch holding a firepike, I'll remove bladestorm from the avengers and upgrade the fire dragon exarch.

HQ: 

Eldrad

Karandras

Elite:

9 Scorpions, 1 Exarch, Powerclaw

5 Fire Dragons, 1 Exarch, Dragons's Breath, Crack Shot

Troops:

9 Avengers, 1 Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend, Shimmer Shield, Wave Serpent, Stone, EML

10 Guardians, 1 Warlock, Destructor, 2 Flamers, Wave Serpent, Stone, EML, Singing Spear

5 Rangers

Heavy:

2 Fire Prisms, Holo Fields, Stones

3 Warwalkers, Scatter Lasers

Total Points 1997

I decided to implement this rule because I was at a friends house tonight watching a game of 40k.  It was on my friends table.  One army was painted completely and the other one well on its way to being done.  It made the game much better.  I think if you want to get the most out of this game you got to get some paint on your mini's.  It just takes the game to another level.  Here are some photo's of the game.

Nids

This is my friends Nids army to date.  Both of us started at the same time.  On top of the Nids, he has already built and painted a Necron army complete with a Monolith.  The photo is not that great but up close his Nids are really coming together.  I've got to admit, I'm having a tough time dealing with them...

Alaitoc 1k List with Hawks

Read a good article on Hawks here:

Thought I would try a 1K Alaitoc list with Hawks.

HQ:
- Farseer: Doom, RoW. Singing Spear - 98 pts

Troops:
-10 Avengers and Exarch: Bladestorm, Dual Catapults, Wave Serpent, Stones, EML - 282 pts
-10 Storm Guardians and Warlock: Destructor, 2 Flame Throwers, Wave Serpent, Stones, EML - 257 pts
- 5 Rangers

Fast Attack:
- 4 Swoop Hawks and 1 Exarch: Sun Rifle, Intercept, Sky Leap - 152

Heavy:
- Night Spinner - 115

Total Points: 999

This list is all about disruption and focused fire.  I think the Night Spinner will help a lot with slowing down an opponent.  Especially combined with Doom.  There is a big problem with the lack of AT, however, part of the reasoning behind this list is to test out the Intercept ability of the Hawks.

I think the way to play this list would be to try and direct the assaulting enemy down what ever lanes of fire I put the Rangers in.  Again I think the Night Spinner will be able to help out big time by forcing dangerous and difficult terrain tests.  I especially think this list might do ok against Nids at 1K as the strength of the Hawks lasgun is not so much of a problem.  Also against Nids, the Hawks, Avengers and Storm Guardians could clean up on infantry turn two.  The Hawks then would put out a healthy amount of 14 shots that have a two in three chance to hit.  And with the aid of Doom a 75 percent chance to wound against gaunts and other t3 models.  The large Hawk pie plate would be nice against Nids as well.  Also, the Rangers would help put a dent in Monstrous Creatures.  There are also two twin linked EML to help out with Monstrous Creatures as well.