Picked up some new GW paints

Picked up three paint pots from the new GW line today.  The textured undergrowth for my lizardmen bases, the lahmian medium to apply some of the forgeworld transfers I picked up ages ago for my flesh tearers and the imperial primer to fix up damaged/chiped spots on my metal models.  Looking forward to see how they turn out.

Stacking Runes of Warding

I was reading ELDAR ONLINE the other day looking for some insights into other peoples experience running corsairs when I came across a rules interpretation that left me scratching my head.  It has to do with the relatively recent FAQ update for the Eldar.  In particular it involves an Errata for Runes of Warding which reads as follows:


ERRATA
Page 26 – Runes of Warding
Change the last sentence to “All enemy Psykers must
roll an extra dice when taking Psychic tests, suffering
Perils of the Warp on any roll of 12 or above.”

It was the general consensus that with this new errata that Runes of Warding would stack.  In other words, taking two Farseers with runes of warding would force the opponent to roll 4 dice and anything over 12 would count as a peril of the warp.  If this is the case does it change the face of how Eldar are to build lists, or at the minimum give their 4th edition codex a well needed boost?

If an accurate interpretation of the rules then I would suggest that the Eldar have received a boost against Grey Knights for one.  With Grey Knights accounting for a large segment of armies played over all it would appear that the boost to the codex is more than just trivial.

As it stands, if this were the case, I would be looking to tailor an Eldar list then to include Eldrad and a Farseer with RoW, Stones, Guide and Fortune.  Three DAVU Falcons then with holo-fields, stones and EML's to form the core of my army.  A possible 4th troop choice of storm guardians with warlock, embolden, fusion guns and spear to boost Eldrads powers.  Fill the list out then with Fire Dragons in wave serpents and perhaps a seer council.

Then again, perhaps this is an erroneous interpretation of the RoW rule and that only 3d6 dice are to be rolled when taking the test.

First Game with Eldar Corsairs

I managed to get a game in last Friday using the new Corsair list out of IA 11.  Man it was a lot of fun.  My list was as follows:

HQ:
Prince

Troops:
5 x 5 Corsairs - fusion gun, Falcon, EML, Holo-Field, Stone
3 Wasps - EML's

Heavy:
2 Warp Hunters - Holo-Field, Stone, Under Slung Cannon

I went up against Guard that had a list as follows (roughly from memory):

HQ:
Command Squad - Chimera

Elite:
Psycher Battle Squad - Chimera (not sure how many models in unit)

Troops:
4 or 5 Vet Squads - Melta Guns, Chimeras

Fast Attack:
Vindicator
Devil Dog

Heavy
2 Lemun Russ's (two different guns battle cannon and demolisher I believe)
1 Manticore

The game was standard deployment and kill points.  I won by 1 kill point at the end of the game that proved to be very fun.  Throughout the game it could have gone either way as it felt both armies were evenly matched.  The main reason I took the list that I did is that it included models I currently own.  I have a grand total of 7 tanks for my Eldar and three war walkers (4 wave serpents, 2 Fire Prisms and a Falcon).  The wave serpents I proxied as falcons by throwing on a bright lance and EML to act as the pulse laser and EML and used my fire prisms as warp hunters.

Playing the corsair list was a very tactical experience.  The game was a duel between two tank lists.  I used my mobility to keep as much range between myself and his tanks as he hemmed me into a corner.  I've got to say it was great to have BS 4 across the board.  The Falcons were hardy little devils that could reach out across the board and produce results.  Having holo-fields across all my tanks was great as well as they proved very durable.  I believe they saved me from immobilized/wreaked/destroyed results at least 5 times.  

Against the Guard the warp hunters paid for themselves in spades.  The large blast D-Cannon template wreaked havoc on his congested tank lines.  Because of the the way the weapon works you don't care about getting the center of the blast on a tank as there is no strength value.  Very first turn - first shot in fact - saw a warphunter place a large blast that partially covered 2 lemun russes and the manticore.  The result being one wreaked lemun russ, another lemun russ with the demolisher blown off and a stunned manticore.  Pure gold.  Thing is it almost seemed too good.  The warp hunter may be a bit overpowered as it currently stands in the list.

As for the wasps, I only took them as I lacked a 8th tank to act as a falcon.  They did ok at best.  The jump movement in the shooting phase did work out well though allowing them to avoid the oncoming rush of guardsmen.  They proved very fragile at the end of the day and I felt just acted to give my opponent free kill points when faced with the durability of the rest of my list.

Overall it was refreshing to play a game where the Eldar proved to be an elite force that had the tools to back up their fluff.  If I were to play the list again I think I would drop the wasps and use those points to add star-engines across the board.  Also I think I would upgrade my corsair squads to carry shuriken cannons as well and switch the fusion guns out for flamers.  I did not realize until after that the shuriken cannon is an assault weapon.  With this kit out the 5 man squads could do some damage to infantry should the opportunity arise.  One glaring weakness to the list is the vulnerability to melta.  I was able to absorb all sorts of long range firepower but once my opponent was able to get his melta guns into range I began to sweat.  Equipping my infantry with anti-infantry weapons would help out in this department I suspect.  I did forget about my prince's ability to call down a bombardment that I think would have proved handy in this situation as well.  Once his troops are exposed and clumped together to get some melta-shots, the anti-infintry shot would have done a good number on them while having no fear that the shot could hurt my tanks.

So final thoughts: I'm now on a mission to pick up some used falcon's to turn this list into a reality.  It was a blast to play.