Round Two!

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

By placing second at our local store’s Ard Boyz I am qualified to go to a regional now.  This brings up two questions.

1) Do I go?

2) What do I play?

I:
At first I thought the answer to the first one was a no brainer, of course I’ll go.  I qualified for a spot, I should ride it out as long as I can.  But realistically, based on playing at this Ard Boyz as well as playing at Wargames Con I realize it would be an uphill battle from where I am now to win or place in the next round.  Add to that if I go that leaves me with one ‘free’ weekend before I’m going to AWA and I’ve yet to prepare anything for that.  So as much fun as it would be to go, it might be nice to take a weekend off.

The next part of do I go would be the drive.  The three closest sites to us are Omaha (3.5 hrs), Wichita (3.5 hrs) and St. Louis (4 hrs).  Since registration would be around 9 am, I’d have to leave here around 5 am.  Also if the tournament went until 7 or 8 pm then I wouldn’t get back until midnight.  And that would be one long day.  Then compound that with Friday night activities which wouldn’t end until midnight meaning I’d be going with just 5 hours of sleep at the most.

Then if I do go, I want to be competitive.  I went into this Ard Boyz just with a theme and took stuff to make that theme better.  It’s not a destroyer list or a list that makes people rage on the inside.  It’s a fluff list with some strong things in it.  And to make any list more competitive I’d probably need to spend around $300.  And that’s not something I really want to do at this time.  (I spent enough working on getting the terrain for our store’s Ard Boyz ready in time.)  And with two other conventions I’m going to in September I don’t have the money to spend to upgrade my armies.

II.
I fiddled with ideas for Eldar last night.  Instead of throwing all the stuff I hate facing I paired it down and made it more mechanized.  The list ended up Farseer w/council of 6 all on jetbikes and Jain Zar as the HQ.  Banshees and two squads of Fire Dragons all in Wave Serpents as the Elites.  Three squads of Dire Avengers, two minimum sized and one large (w/shimershield).  Two squads of minimum jetbikes to hold in reserve (might change out if missions are known ahead of time) and one full squad of pathfinders round out the six troops.  And that’s the list.  No fast and no heavy.

The thoughts on this list would be Pathfinders could provide cover fire.  Large squad of Avengers and Farseer could tie things up while Banshees take them down.  Fire Dragons would be popping vehicles or other big things, two minimum Dire Avengers would sit in their vehicles to hold things and the jetbikes would be last minute zoom on for the win things.  I don’t have Heavy but I do have 6 Wave Serpents in the list.

The downside of this list is I’d need to buy 4 Wave Serpents and 1 Squad of Fire Dragons.  Which would be around $150.

The other idea would be to tweak the Dark Eldar list.  I did some working on that last night and still didn’t come up with anything I liked.  HQ and Heavy are set.  So my debates go to how many troops, still want at least 4.  And then what to do with the Elites.  I think the Incubi would be gone.  They’ve done so poorly.  But without them I lose power weapons in a squad.  I’d like the Harliquins to stay because they were useful and are a swiss army knife unit.  The minimum squad of 3 Trueborn with Lances was amazing (Heavy unit masking as Elite).  And looking at things another squad of them with 4 Blasters in a Venom would not be a bad thing.  I could have that replace the Incubi in a Venom.  I still would like to add another Venom, but would need to do that in a troop slot then.  And if so that would push out the Jetbikes.  I will admit the Jetbikes didn’t do anything in any of the games, but they were a distraction that pulled some of the forces away from me.  But a Venom has 12 shots and that’s really good.

So with the change ideas I have on Dark Eldar mean I’d need to spend between 50 and 100 dollars to get more Warriors and mostly put special weapons on them.

So I’m still not decided on army.  In a way I think I’d do better with Eldar as that’s what I’m more familiar with.  But Dark Eldar would be cheaper to have ready.

 

I need to figure this out this week as the guy who won at Pulp Fiction offered to let me ride up to Omaha with him and one of his friends who also placed in another Ard Boyz.

Pros: It would be fun and there would be a chance at winning.
Cons: It would be a long exhausting day and I’d be spending money to get ready for it that I really shouldn’t at this time.

 

 

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Dark Eldar from the ‘Ard Boyz

Posted on August 14, 2011 by admin

The Dark Eldar finally got to play in their first tournament.  It was a learning experience for me as some of them this was the first time I got to use a lot of them.

 

HQ
Lilith Hesperax - She is a whirlwind of death.  In the first and last games the one time she got into melee she took out a squad with her multiple attacks that ignore armor.

Haemonculus –  Ran three of them (one being Ancient).  The main reason for taking them is to stick them with Wyches and give them a pain token to start the game with.  The Haemonculi also have special weapons that really can support the army, or aren’t used at all.  The Liquifier Guns were not useful.  I always was rolling high AP.  I tried to use the Crucible of Malediction in the third game against the Grey Knights and it did scare him, but did not remove any of its targets from the game.  The downsides to the Haemonculi are they aren’t fleet and they have no invulnerable save.  This came into play when fighting the Grey Knights.  I wanted to have Wyches get to their target with Fleet so I had to have the Haemonculus break off from them.  I left the pain token with the squad so all they had was a 6+ Armor save which is almost like not having one.  One was easily killed with bolter fire.  But even with the pain token in close combat there is a lot of power weapons that don’t allow the Feel No Pain check.  But, they do have one good thing in close combat, the Huskblade.  A power weapon that causes instant death is pretty cool.

Elite
Kabalite Trueborn - This was my Long Fangs/Dark Reapers/Heavy Weapons squad.  It was a small squad of three where two of them had Dark Lances.  In all three games I just set them up and let them shoot things.  And they did their job really well.  They did not lose a single model in any of the games.  And having two Dark Lance shots each turn was really nice.

Harlequin Troop – At first when the codex came out I found it strange the Harlequins were in there, but at the same time it did make sense.  And just like in the Eldar Codex where the Harlequins are unique, they’re unique here as well.  They don’t get Pain Tokens and they had the only Psyker in my whole army.  (The Shadowseer)  The biggest strength of this unit is its versatility.  They’re great in melee and with kisses and fusion pistols they can rend through people in hand to hand or blow up vehicles.  This versatility came into play almost every game.  Against the Blood Angles they weren’t as effective since they were caught up in big melee and afterwards were shot up.  Against the Tau they were the vanguard that ran ahead and popped a couple of Tau Piranhas.  And on the game against the Grey Knights this unit took out some Paladins, blew up the Skyraven and then were the ones that finished off Drago.  So in my mind that was their star performance.

Incubi - This is the closest thing in the Dark Eldar codex to the Eldar.  They really are like an Aspect Warrior and one of the HQ choices is just like a Phoenix Lord.  What I do like about them is like the Howling Banshees the whole squad has power weapons.  And because their power weapons are two handed, they gain +1 Str for using them.  And that 4 Str makes a huge difference, not that I noticed it.  They proved to be the most worthless unit I had.  Against the Blood Angles they were wiped out.  Against the Tau they lost in melee combat to Crisis Suits.  The only time they helped out was in the fight against Drago because they were deployed on one side of the board, the Grey Knights set up in the other far corner, so it took the entire game for the Incubi to get over there.  I still want to make them work, but right now I would think of pulling them from the list.

Troops
Wyches - They are the heart and soul of my army.  Just like I like the Banshees in Eldar, the Deamonettes in Chaos, Wyches are that unit for me in Dark Eldar.  I ran three squads of them with enough to allow the HQs to be in Raiders with them.  Each Hekatrix had an Agonizer and I used Hydra Guantlets for their ‘special weapon’ in each squad.  They were great in close combat when they got there, and failed when got shot up.  The Feel No Pain token they started with allowed them to live until they got into close combat.  In the first and third games they held their own killing and were killed by the Power Armor armies.  In the game against the Tau they didn’t really get into any close combat.

Kabalite Warriors - This was my ‘gunship’.  A Raider with 10 Warriors in it.  There was also a Splinter Rack on the Raider to let them re-roll to-hit when they shoot.  In the first game they were very good.  When the Blood Angles deep struck in and attacked a ship their Raider was there to unload 20 shots and wipe out the squad the deep struck in.  And then each other squad would go after the Ravager leaving this Raider alone and letting them blast the attacking squad.  Against the Tau they sat on an objective and saw no action all game.  Then against the Grey Knights their raider was shot down early and then they were picked off by gunfire.

Heavy
Razorwing Jetfighter -  The model for this vehicle looks so good it intimidates the opponent.  Which makes it draw a lot of fire even if it isn’t that great of a choice for the slot.  Against the Blood Angles it did well, killed a few things with the lances and used those to take out the ‘Traitor’.   Against the Tau it was a major focus of the Tau fire.  I was able to pull it back out of fire and then have it return to the battle with its lances.  The lances were a good choice because those were able to pop vehicles or one shot (double out) Crisis Suits.  This was also true against the Grey Knights.  If any Paladin failed their invulnerable save they were dead.  All in all it went well and I might use it again.

Ravager – This is probably my favorite Heavy Support choice.  I had two in this list.  One with 3 Dark Lances and the other with 1 Lance and 2 Disintagrator Cannons.  The one with 3 Lances is more for popping vehicles while the one with mixed weapons is for taking out troops.  All the weapons being AP2 means those without invulnerable saves were dead.  This also made them big targets in both games against the Blood Angles and Grey Knights.  Even with them always getting blown up, I think they did their job well.

Fast
Reavers – I only had a small squad of 3 Reavers.  But with those three fast jetbikes I got one Heat Lance on the table.  I was treating this like a Tau Piranha, something fast quick and can pop a vehicle.  Although they never accomplished that task in any of the three games, they still were a distraction that each army focused on and killed.  Which isn’t that hard since they only have 5+ armor.  In the game against the Grey Knights they were taken out by bolter fire.

 

In the games themselves the first game against the Blood Angles they out manuvered me with their jetpacks and ‘failed’ (on purpose) a moral check to allow them to run away one turn so I wasn’t able to assault them.  This is the first time I’ve seen a Space Marine player do that.  In the end I got shot up too much and in the end I was almost tabled.  Had we had time for more rounds, I would have been tabled.

Because I was ‘last place’ after one round I was on the bottom table for the next round and fought against the Tau.  This game I sat back and traded shots with him.  You might think that’s not a good idea, but I couldn’t let any of my Wyches get out in the open to have all the Crisis Suits blast them.  However the Dark Lances were able to take out the Broadsides and Crisis Suits.  The Tau was doing the jump out, shoot, jump back very well and that was their catch 22.  Had they stayed out in the open they would’ve got lanced to death, but by retreating they allowed me to take the middle of the board where the 4 point objective was.  I also kept the pressure up on the other non-deployed quadrant of the board where at the end of the game was just a junkyard.  3 destroyed Piranhas,  a Hammerhead and another one almost destroyed.  So in the end I was able to hold three objectives to his two.

The last round I was in the middle of the pack now after that Major Victory.  So last I was paired against the Grey Knights.  I was actually wanting this battle to see how my lances could do against an army that didn’t have many models.  I was thinking my 12 lances could take them out easily.  Early on he hid one squad of Terminators in a building/ruin and another one out in the open.  His Paladins were inside the Skyray and Land Raider.  He also holed up in one corner of the board after I’d deployed on the whole side making my Venom with the Incubi an almost non-factor in the fight.  The Ravagers did their job in taking out the squad that was out in the open and heavy lance fire destroyed the Land Raider.  The Palandins in the airship jumped out to take out the Warriors and then were assaulted by Wyches and the Harlequins.  After those Paladins were dead the Wyches went after the Terminators in the building while the Harlequins took out the Airship and then moved toward Drago.  Drago took two wounds early in the game because his Eternal Warrior meant that if he failed the save to a Dark Lance he wouldn’t be doubled out, unlike his other Paladins.  I put a lot of fire and melee hits at Drago because he was worth double points for the mission.  And in the end I was able to take him out in an assault of Harlequins, Wyches, Haemonculi, Lilith and Incubi vs Drago.

In the end I pulled out another Major win against the Grey Knights and that is what catapulted me ahead to were I was able to take second in the tournament.

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Terrain: Part 2

Posted on August 14, 2011 by admin

Yesterday was the day we showed off all the terrain we made the past two weeks in order to help the local gaming store get ready to host a 40k tournament.

When we started this endeavor I was thinking how in the world will we get this done.  I didn’t know the first thing about making terrain.  The most I’d done in the past was just to get felt and cut it out to mark forest type area terrain.  And then getting/basing/flocking trees to go on there to designate it as ‘forrest’.

So that’s what I focused on for this go at things.  Rob had some building things but that wasn’t going to be enough.

So that’s where we took it to the next level and ‘part 2′ as I’m calling it.  Kevin and Brady had an Imperial City box and Rob and Kevin started cutting out and putting together some of those buildings.  I started on hills.  I couldn’t find the right styrafoam for it so I got dense green craft foam.

We did our podcast while working on creating things.  That’s when Rob showed me how to cut the styrafoam hills and we traded off cutting those and building buildings from the pieces cut out from the Imperial Sector sprues.  Richard was priming some of the Games Workshop terrain we already had.  After that night things started clicking.

Over the weekend I cut out about 9 hills and I got most of them spray painted as well.  When we got together the following Monday I showed off the hills and started flocking them.  And wow, they looked good before but once they got the flock on them they looked great.  Then I worked on the green foam and started painting them.  That was an endeavor unto itself because this foam just absorbed the paint and was not drying because it was so spongy.

We each took home some more to work on and Rob, Richard and I gathered on Thursday, the last night to really get stuff done.  Rob worked on buildings priming them and dry brushing them.  Richard finished up his priming on things, and I flocked the last of the hills.  This is where I was amazed at the green foam.  It was still maybe a little too soft on the top, but still firm enough to stand models up on.  But with the brown painted sides, once the flock was on it, it really looked like a hill.  Just as good as the sandy/rocky styrafoam hills I had finished up on Monday.

There were two things ‘not done’ that we wanted done.  I couldn’t flock the big green foam hill because I had just painted it on Thursday and it needed to dry.  Also Rob ran out of primer for the buildings so on Friday he got the last buildings primed and drybrushed and I got the last hill flocked and then we took it all up to the store.

I will say it did feel like a sense of accomplishment and now I know two ways to make hills and it’s not as scary as it was in the past.  So yeah, I’m now comfortable with making things.

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Aluminum vs Cardboard

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

Yesterday Richard and I did a practice run with our 2500 point list armies for ‘Ard Boyz.  It didn’t go so well.

In ‘Ard Boyz it’s 2500 points and you have to be done in two hours.  After two hours we had competed two turns!

But we kept playing until the end of Turn 5 and then called it.  I went second and rolled the die to see if we would’ve kept going and the answer was ‘yes’.  We were both tired by this time and wanted the 4.5 hour game to come to an end.

The game was my Dark Eldar vs his Orks.

My list:
HQ
Lilith
3 Homonculi (one being Ancient)

Elite
Harliquins
Incubi (in a Venom)
Kabalite Trueborn (2 w/Dark Lance)

Troop
3 Squads of Wyches in Raiders
1 Squad of Warriors in a Raider

Fast
Reavers (1 w/Heat Lance)

Heavy
Ravager (3 Dark Lance)
Ravager (1 Dark Lance, 2 Disentagrator Cannons)
Razorwing Jetfighter

 

Orcs
HQ
2 Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields

Other
3 Dreadnaughts
3 Killa Kans (in squad)
2 Buggies (in squad)
2 Squads of Hellacoptas
Looted Wagon
Battle Wagon w/Nobs
Truck w/Boyz
Truck w/Ard Boyz
Shoota Boyz
Squad of 30 Boyz

We rolled up Pitched Battle, Capture and Control.

Orks won the roll and elected to go first.  When he was done setting up there wasn’t much free space left on his deployment zone.  And the first thing I noticed was all the armor there was on his side of the board.  He assured me that his armor was like cardboard, just like my armor was aluminum foil.

I set up so I could get a lot of lance shots at his walkers because that was going to be my biggest threat I thought.

I rolled a 6 on combat drugs to all of my Wyches and Reavers got a pain token (putting the Wyches all up to 2 giving them Feel No Pain and Furious charge).

Turn 1 (Orks)
He didn’t care for my Nightshields which reduced his missles from 24″ to 18″ range.  He rushed the Hellacoptas forward and had them blow up the Raider that Lilith and the Ancient Homonculi were on, and moved the rest of his vehicles forward.

Bottom 1 (Dark Eldar)
I returned fire with my lance weapons blowing up the Truck with the Ard Boyz and the Dreadnought behind it, effectively blocking that part of the board with debris.   I also was able to blow up the scorcha weapon on one of the buggies.  (We learned about applying wounds to vehicle squadrons.)  Was able to blow up another Dreadnought.  (Only cardboard one left.)

Top 2 (Orks)
Looted Wagon rolled a 1 and was out of control.  Squad of Hellcoptas outflanked me and both squads combined to blow up another of my Raiders with Wyches in them.

Bottom 2 (Dark Eldar)
Reavers used Heat Lance to blow up weapon on Looted Wagon.  Wyches assaulted the Hellcoptas that blew up their Raider.  Wyches won.  Lilith’s unit assaulted with other Hellachoppers and easily won.  Combine fire took out the Battle Wagon and also one of the Killa Kans fell.  Continued shots at the Buggies and destroyed them.  Raiders on the other side of the board moved to be in position to have the Warriors shoot at the Ard Boys and then the Wyches assault them and after that round the Ard Boys were no more.  Incubi assault the mob of 30 boys and get wiped out.

Top 3 (Orcs)
Looted Wagon tried to tank shock the last of the Reavers (the one with the heat lance) and missed.  Nobs moved forward and shot/assaulted Lilith’s squad.  Killa Kans took out Razorwing.  Mob of Boys shoot and destroy the Venom.

Bottom 3 (Dark Eldar)
Last Reaver used Heat Lance to blow up last Dreadnought…and then died in the fireball that was created.  Harlequins blew up the last Truck and then assaulted the Boyz in it sweeping them.  Lilith et al’s combat ended with the Orks winning.  Another Killa Kan fell down.

Top 4 (Orks)
Nothing of note.

Bottom 4 (Dark Eldar)
Ravager shot up the Nob squad.  Wyches from the destroyed Raider made it over to fight the nobs.  Last Killa Kan fell down.   Rest of things started lining up shots at squad of 30 boys.

Top 5 (Orks)
Nobs vs Wyches continues.  Boys Mob shoots and finishes off the Harlequins.

Bottom 5 (Dark Eldar)
Nobs lose to Wyches, only survivor of battle is the Humonculi which swept the remaining orcs in that fight.  Lots of shots taken at Boys Mob only 3 die.  Last Wych squad (the one that beat the Ard Boys) assaults the mob and loses.

END

As I said before we stopped here because it had been 4.5 hours since we started.

Result:
Orks – 1
Dark Eldar – 1

Draw.

Kill Points:
Orks got 12 Kill Points
Dark Eldar got 15 Kill Points

Victor – Dark Eldar

As you can also see by the kill points, there was a lot of stuff on the table, and a lot of shooting and a lot of assaulting and…2500 points is just ‘too much’.  This got Richard into contemplating bringing out Grey Knights for Ard Boys just so there wasn’t so ‘much’ stuff on the table.

Things I’m taking away.  I’ve got a decent list that can take out vehicles.  I was surprised by the weakness in assault my army had.  Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that, in smaller fights I swept the foe easily.  It was just against the Nobs and the Mob of 30 boys where I was failing.  I also learned I don’t like Flesh Gauntlets.  Sure it’s nice to have that 4+ poison…but it’s better if they don’t get a save, so going to upgrade all of those to Husk Blades which are power weapons.  Also, I learned the Liquefier Gun is awesome.  That’s the perfect thing to use to lighten up a squad before assaulting them.

So after some thinking I upgraded the Homunculi’s wargear to Huskblades and paid for it by dropping 1 Harlequin.  The rest I think I’ll keep the same.  I’d like to add another squad of 3 jetbikes to get another heat lance, but I don’t have 88 points anywhere I want to drop.

 

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Eldar HQ Decisions

Posted on July 13, 2011 by admin

I know I just got back from Wargames Con and should write up all 7 of the battle reports, but right now I’d rather talk about the debate that is going on in my head based on happenings at the tournament.

Jain Zar vs Eldrad

Who should I use as my 2nd HQ?

I know this sounds like a no-brainer, use Eldrad who is by far the best HQ choice in the Eldar codex.  With Eldrad I would get another Farseer who has all the spells and runes and thus if one of my HQ died, then the nasty psyker stuff would still be around.  Eldrad can team up with a unit and I’d have him close to the Wraithlords to give them guide so they could hit things better.

What Jain brings to the table is a fear factor (or an unexpected factor).  When she’s with a squad of Banshees I don’t have to buy the Exarch’s powers.  Also Jain makes the squad fearless, which is very useful as they get shot up a lot before making it into close combat.  Also, in close combat she tears through things better than most.  Still has the weakness of no invulnerable save which makes her die to a HQ or squad of power weapons that only target her.

The only reason I’m debating this now is that on Aug 13th is the Ard Boyz tournament.  I was thinking about trying out Dark Eldar for it, until I realized I didn’t have 2500 points worth of Dark Eldar yet.  So looks like I will need to use Eldar for that.

So that’s where I am…Jain Zar leading the Banshees to make them fearless and save me some points, or Eldrad buffing up units and keeping the Runes of Warding on the table if my other Farseer dies.

Jain is 190 points, Eldrad is 210.  Eldrad gives you a lot more for the points, but I’m just worried that the Banshees would not be as durable/good without Jain Zar leading them.

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3 Status Temporally Abducted

Posted on June 22, 2011 by admin

Yes, it has been quite some time since my last update, so I’m doing three in one to make up for it.

Update the first:

When Grey Knights first were announced I told Richard that I would play ‘one’ game against his Grey Knights as my Slannesh army.  That way he could get that nice happy feeling of being able to roll over an opponent and then we’d have it out of his system and I’d never use the deamons against him again.

So we had that match.

Before hand he was letting me know that Grey Knights weren’t as anti-deamon as they originally were.  Now they’re more anti-psyker and anti-xeno (but aren’t all Space Marines anti-xeno?).  We rolled the game as Spearhead/Annihilation.

Grey Knights won the roll and elected to go first.  Richard set up all his stuff, then I set up none of mine (silly deamons and only half the army coming in through deep strike on the first turn).  Then I rolled and ‘seized the initiative’!

So turn one I was able to get things to land in positions he couldn’t shoot at them right away.  Also had the Keeper of Secrets and a Soul Grinder flanking his Vindacare Assassin.    Deamonettes and Seekers were out of the firing lanes so they’d have a shot at moving forward.

The Grey Knights first turn they scrambled to try to account for these deamons suddenly appearing before them.  But really only got shots off at the big things and those absorbed all the hits with no wounds.

The rest of the game is a tad fuzzy so I’m not going to go turn by turn, but it was a bloody battle with both sides taking numerous casualties.  The Assassin was worthless getting cut down by the Keeper who also took out a squad of teleporters and a normal squad.  The Soul Grinders did well at cracking open the vehicles and making the Grey Knights have to get out and slog fight.

The Grey Knights have this one unit that has a psychic power that does wounds to each person in close combat with them.  That one was very nasty.  Luckily for me he got perils of the warp the first time he tried to use that.  And the paladins are just plain tough.  His Paladins and HQ tore through Deamonettes and Seekers and made their own swath of destruction through the battlefield.

However in the end, all that was left was a Soul Grinder, a Herald of Slannesh and the Keeper of Secrets to take on the Grey Knight HQ and some Paladins.  So on kill points, the Slannesh Deamons pulled out the victory.

So I guess we’ll have to do a rematch in the future now.

 

Update the second:

Went to the tournament at Tabletop games here in Kansas City.  This was an 1850 point list tournament and so I wanted to try out a new list to see if I could be versatile as an Eldar player.  So this list was more of a sit back and shoot at things list.

Round 1 vs Tyranids
Dawn of War / Capture and Control

This one was bad.  With it being Dawn of War I couldn’t have out most of my stuff.  And a shooty army that needs to set up doesn’t work well against a fast outflanking assaulting army that uses the time you need to setup to rush you.

I started with the Avatar and Pathfinders in play.  Unfortunately the Tyranids had the ‘we hide in cover’ Genestealers in the same area terrain that the Pathfinders set up in so they were quickly tyranid food.

The rest of the genestealers outflanked my incoming units as they came in off the board edge.  Needless to say it was a blood bath with the Eldar providing all of the blood.  (Didn’t get a single kill point that game.)  In retrospect though, I shouldn’t feel too bad since the guy I lost to ended up winning the tournament.

Round 2 vs Necron
Spearhead / Control Points

This is only the second time I’ve played against Necrons, and the first time against someone who has a lot of experience using them.  I will say that my first game with Necrons did help me out a lot in knowing what to expect.

The Necrons I was facing had three monoliths, and would use those to screen his units.  These Necron quickly went on the offensive (as fast as a slow moving Monolith can go).  When they finally got in range of my Wraithguard I was able to destroy one of the Monoliths.  Then the Wraithguard went to the 2nd Monolith that was busy contesting a point and destroyed that one as well.  The Fire Dragons, Pathfinders and Dark Reapers in the area were unable to do anything to that Monolith.

With two of the Monoliths down, the units were more accessable and I was able to take out most of them.  At the end of Turn 5 the game would’ve ended 2-2 tie.  But we went to a Turn 6 and by finishing off the troops he had on one of his points the Necrons were forced to Phase Out giving the Eldar the total victory.

The judge thought our battle was really cool because it looked like the age-old struggle of the Eldar against Necrons.  And I also liked the fact the terrain looked like a crashed Eldar ship on a foreign world.  (In addition to it being purple.)  And this was probably the most fun game I had of the day because it felt like it was a back and forth game.

Round 3 vs Blood Angels
Pitched Battle / Annihilation

This was my least favorite of the three battles because NOTHING HAPPENED.  There end of battle report.

Actually the Blood Angels player was playing Kill Point denial as his tactic.  So he held EVERYTHING in reserve.  I went first (not knowing that until I’d already deployed) and so my first two turns I had NOTHING TO DO.  I did reposition my units so they would have firing lanes and trying to deny the Blood Angels entry points that would be detrimental to me.

Turn 3 some of his stuff came in and we traded off killing a little bit.  He lost a tank, I lost my Fire Dragons.

Subsequent turns his stuff slowly came on the table but because he put them in places I couldn’t shoot them NOTHING HAPPENED.

The game ended after Turn 5 as a 2-2 tie in Kill Points.  We recorded that to the Judge and then kept playing for fun because we were the first table done by a long shot.

In the subsequent ‘non-counting’ turns we were finally able to get units to do battle and in the end still ended as a 5-5 tie.  I wish there was more I could write, but it’s hard to write about nothing and that’s pretty much what happened that game.

Summary:

In the end I placed 10th out of 18 and ended with a record of 1 win, 1 loss and 1 tie.  So a middle of the pack showing.  What this did teach me is my play style needs more movement.  So I’ll go back to my jetbikes for future games.  (But still will mix it up with alternate lists from time to time.)

 

Update the third:

I shall call this my Lupin update.  I could call it my Amratage update but I think more people know Lupin than know Armatage.

Wargames Con is just two weeks away.

This past weekend I finally submitted my 2000 point Eldar list to them for approval.  I’m not totally sold on the list yet, but it will have to do.  Originally it was going to be my 1500 point jetbike army with Dark Reapers and Fire Dragons added.

Then I decided it would be better to actually start a list from scratch to make it more cohesive rather than just having a list and putting in more points as if they were just new attachments that might or might not fit in.

In the end though, I found that either (a) I didn’t own enough jetbikes to make the fourth squad of jetbikes or (b) I’d have a lot of painting I’d have to get done (which I probably could do, but with all of my weekends busy for the next few weeks I didn’t know if/when I’d have the time).  So it came down to what can I add that is already painted and ready to go…which ended up being the 1500 point list with Dark Reapers and Fire Dragons added.

I had gone full circle.

So I need to get a few things painted still, but I’m looking forward to this to see what type of players I’ll meet up with and what types of armies are out there that I’ll run into.

And don’t worry, I’ll put up a full report when I get back to let you all know how it went!

P.S. – Got my response back from Wargames Con about my Army List.  The guy reading them over was pleased to see that there was a list out there using Jain Zar!

 

 

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Movin’ On Up (Point-wise)

Posted on May 18, 2011 by admin

Visited one of the local gaming stores today and I got to see the Venom and new Talos put together.  The Venom looks even better up close than it does on the web.  It really is a cross between a Eldar Vyper and a Dark Eldar Raider.  And I could easily see myself using those as the transports for the small elite units so I can get more mechanized firepower on the field.

In honor of the new plastic Talos coming out they had their last old metal one on sale for only $20.  As tempting as that is because it would give me the two Pain Engines I would want to run in a Wych Army list, I passed.  The new Pain Engines look that much better.  It was pointed out to me that the Pain Engine really didn’t have many options, but the Talos part of it had different arms and fittings to use.  But still going to make mine a Pain Engine when I finally get one.

In addition their next 40k tournament is being held on May 28th (10am start time).  And it is set up for 1850 points.  So just like last time, except with 100 more points.  I am thinking about going to that.  But unlike last time where I just slapped on 250 more points to my Vyse Riders list, I think I’ll try to work a new list instead of slapping another 100 points onto an already made list.

I’ll still debate on if I should put in Fire Dragons or not.  Everyone seems to like them and I will admit they are really good.  But they’re just a suicide squad.  After they shoot they don’t survive.  Which doesn’t fit well into my theme of run around and harass you while still surviving.

 

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Vyse Shooty List

Posted on May 18, 2011 by admin

This is another list I built that has played out really well.  The main difference is it is not a mobile list.  This army sits down on an objective (or just hunkers down in a kill point mission) and lets the enemy come to them, hopefully whittling down their forces until very few remain by the time they reach me.  Eldrad is put with the Wraithguard and Wraithlord as an advance unit if I need to push somewhere or try to take an objective.  It is a variation on the theme I heard some people were using where they would march the Avatar with Dire Avengers to wall in their opponents.  I just use the wall as a stationary thing to give more shots to the better shooters.

Vyse Firing Line 1500

HQ

Eldrad Ulthran

What can I say about him other than he’s probably the best HQ the Eldar have.  He has all the Psyker powers and can use 3 a turn!  And can duplicate one of them!  I put him with the Wraithguard and Wraithlord and attach him to the Wraithguard and thus he can Fortune both units and still guide one if they need to hit.  In addition at the start of the game after things are deployed I can go ahead and move these two units around with his power.

Avatar

This is a great HQ for the cost.  At only 155 points you get a ton of value.  His role in this army is to hold the front line.  All Eldar within 12 inches of him are fearless so I’m using that to make sure the guys with guns don’t break if they happen to take a few shots.  Also if someone does get up close he can  wreck their day with his 10 WS, 6 STR, 4 Attacks that ignore armor.

Troops

Dire Avengers x9 with Exarch (2 Avenger Shuriken Catapults)

The first troop is the first line of defense that will stand with the Avatar.  The Exarch has the two weapons so he also adds a lot more shots to the squad.

Pathfinders x10

This troop will sit in cover and is one of the best sniping units in the game.  If the objective is in cover with them there it will be hard for the opponent to take or contest the objective.  Make sure to keep the avatar close to give them fearless and protection should someone deep strike or outflank them.

Wraithguard x10 with a Spiritseer (Witchblade and Embolden)

Wraithguard are normally Elite, but by taking the full squad of 10 and putting them with a Spiritseer you can make them a troop, so I did.  This troop isn’t part of the line and instead works ahead of it to blow up vehicles and try to take another objective if there is one on the board.  They are paired up with the Wraithlord so like the Avatar can give the pathfinders cover, the Wraithlord can give the Wraithguard cover and keep them out of assault.

It is odd to give the Spiritseer the Embolden spell because the Wraithguard are Fearless.  I did this for two reasons.  First, I only had 5 points left and that’s the cheapest spell to take, and secondly this can help Eldrad (who is with this unit) should he fail a psychic test.

Heavy

Wraithlord (Flamer x2, Bright Lance, Missile Launcher)

As I said earlier the Wraithlord’s main purpose is to keep things off of the Wraithguard.  The best way he can do this is using the two flamers if anything gets close and then hopping in to assault them before my group gets assaulted.  In addition with the Bright Lance and Missile Launcher it can be additional shots at taking out a vehicle or more pot shots at a far distance if there is nothing close to the group.

Dark Reapers x4 and Exarch (Fast Shot, Missile Launcher)

This is the true troop killer unit.  The normal Reaper Launcher is STR 5 AP3 so it can take out all but the most heavily armored, and with two shots each, there are 8 of those shots hitting an enemy unit.  In addition with Fast Shot the Exarch can fire his missile launcher twice making this 10 AP3 shots from this unit.  Or if squaring off against a horde army the Exarch can shoot two STR4 AP4 blast shots, and with his ballistic skill of 5 it shouldn’t scatter too bad.  Keep this squad at the same level or behind the Pathfinders to be the last line (because they fire the farthest and their shots hit the hardest) in the rows of gunners.

 

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Slannesh Daemonette Amry

Posted on May 14, 2011 by admin

I’ve already talked about this army when I explained why I went for Slannesh and what I did to choose the army.  In this listing of them though I’ll talk about what they are used for and their strengths and weaknesses.

The main thing to note about this army is because is it Daemons they are fearless.  Also the entire army has invulnerable saves rather than Armor saves.  The only exception to this is the Chariots get both, because the Chariot itself counts as armor.  Because Daemons appear out of the warp the whole army deep strikes, with half of them arriving on turn one and the rest come in via normal reserve rules using deep strike.

Every model in this army (minus the Monsterous Creature and Walkers) has Rending.  So another theme for this army is lots of hits that can Rend through armor.

Slannesh Daemonettes 1500

HQ

Keeper of Secrets

If you’re doing a themed army, you should start at the top with the most powerful representation of that theme you can.  And the Keeper of Secrets screams Slannesh.  Also it has a nice Invulnerable save to make all but Grey Knights pause before her.  Being a Monstrous Creature she gets to roll 2d6 when hitting vehicles as well as ignoring armor against normal models.  The first part is very valuable as there is not much vehicle destruction in this army so the Keeper has to take on that roll.  Also, in assault she goes first.  Her unmodified Initiative of 10 makes sure of that.  This allows her to take out most of an opposing squad all by herself and then those that live have to try to get past her 4+ save.

She has a gaze shooting attack that is STR4 AP3 with a 24 inch range.  Strong enough to kill marines and enough range to clear out something that might think about shooting her.   She’s fast and powerful enough to tear through a unit or two on her way to a vehicle you want to wreck.  However make sure you don’t leave her by herself when she deep strikes, otherwise weight of fire ‘will’ take her down.  (Yes, I lost her on the first turn before when 5 units of Space Marines all opened fire, she’s tough, but not invincible.)

Herald of Slannesh on Chariot x2

For the other HQ choice I went with two Heralds of Slannesh in Chariots.  The main reason was by giving them Chariots they suddenly got an armor save to go with their Invulnerable save giving them a better chance of survival.  The ‘downside’ (if you can call it that) of putting them in a Chariot is they lose the Independent Character trait.  Oh darn.  Now all those nasty spells that target ICs can no longer target them.  And on the upside they gain Furious Charge.  (I’ll take that extra STR and Init, well don’t really need the Init, but the STR is very valuable.)

Just like the Keeper of Secrets, the Heralds also have a shooting attack which is a rarity in this list.  So they can shoot on the turn the deep strike and then the next turn shoot again and start their assault.  I gave them the bonus to their STR so now they have a 4 STR and 5 STR on the charge.  So with their rending claws they could have a ‘chance’ (small as it is) of glancing a Land Raider or Monolith.  (5 STR on the charge +6 on Die Roll +3 on Rending Die Roll (d3)).

I debated where to put the Chaos Icons.  (Homing Beacons)  At one point I had them with the Daemonettes, but they die too easily and thus I’ve started putting them on the Chariots.  For the most part my opponents leave these alone because it’s only one figure rather than 15 screaming Daemonettes trying to eat them.  And in most cases they think the Daemonette squad is the bigger threat.

Troop

Daemonettes x15
Daemonettes x15

The heart of the army.  There really is nothing special about them since Deamons don’t really have options or upgrades.  The nice thing about them though is Fleet, Rending, and Initiative of 6.  They have no shooting weapons so every turn you should run them forward for the next thing to kill.  And there is no penalty for doing that because they’re Fleet!  The key to victory with them is weight of numbers.  They get a good number of attacks, 3 standard 4 on the charge.  But with their 3 STR it makes it very hard to wound, most of the time you’ll be rolling 5s to wound.  The plus side of this though is they are all rending attacks so even though you only wound on a 5 or 6, those 6s will ignore armor.  Which is a nice feeling when half of your hits will slice the opponents armor away.

Because this is an all assault unit you would be tempted to deep strike them close to your foe so the next turn you can rush in and assault.  DON’T.  They may have Invulnerable saves, but it’s only at 5+.  This means that if you drop them too close to the enemy they’ll unload all their shots on the squad and take out the Daemonettes before they even have a chance to act.  It’s best to drop them close to cover or out of line of sight so they’re in position to strike, but not in the open to be shot to pieces.

Fast

Seekers of Slannesh x10
Seekers of Slannesh x10

Hello fast Daemonettes.  Take everything I said about the Daemonettes above and apply it to here.  The only differences are the Seekers are Calvary so they can assault 12 inches instead of the normal 6 inches.  This means your assault range with them is somewhere between 19 and 24 inches.  That’s half the short end of the board!

Because of this you can easily place them in an out of the way place from deep strike and get them into assault the next turn.  And because they’re Calvary they also are getting an extra attack from the steed giving them 4 normal, 5 on the charge!

Just like the Daemonettes they all are rending with their attacks.  And just like them the goal is to get to the target with as many as possible, clean them up in assault then move on to the next target.  As this squad gets whittled down they lose their effectiveness.  But still can tie up other shooting units that have to deal with them before they can shoot again, and with their high initiative (6) they will be going first over most things to allow them to try to get their wounds done so less things hit them back.

Heavy

Soul Grinder Melona (2 Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons, Harvester, Mawcannon (Vomit/Tongue))
Soul Grinder Echidna (2 Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons, Harvester, Mawcannon (Vomit))

Remember how I said most of the army wasn’t shooty and didn’t have ways of dealing with vehicles.  This is my real answer to that.  The Soul Grinders have two big ways of dealing with vehicles.  First they have the Mawcannon Tongue (STR10 AP1) shot they can take.  It only has 24 inches in range, but they it still a good distance.  The real downside is that it only one shot not twin linked so if you miss, you miss.  And they have a Ballistic skill of 3. Which means half of the time it will miss.  The way the points fell in this army I was only able to afford one of these Mawcannon Tongue upgrades.  At 25 points an upgrade it can get pricey.  In addition should you lose a weapon if the opponent chooses the Mawcannon you lose all of the different types of attacks it can do.

The other way both of these can destroy a vehicle is to go up and melee it.  With their equivalent of Dreadnought Close Combat weapons they have a STR10 for assault and since you always get rear armor in assault that is normally 10 as well, meaning you will get penetrating hits.  In addition the Soul Grinder is Fleet so you can run in the shooting phase with it and still go assault a vehicle.  The downside to this is walkers.  Most walkers have a higher initiative than the 3 INIT of the Soul Grinder, and one well placed hit with those can take out the Soul Grinder.  So I would avoid walkers if you can.

But speaking of assaulting things, the Soul Grinder can take out most things in Assault.  It might not go first, but with an armor of 13 the only things you have to fear would be Thunderhammers and Power Fists.  Not much else will have the STR to breach your armor.  In addition by using the Harvester gun (24” S4 AP5 with 6 shots) or the Mawcannon Vomit (Template S6 AP4) they can weaken a group beforehand.

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Vyse Riders 1500

Posted on May 5, 2011 by admin

One of the reasons I think I’ve done well in tournaments is that I play a style that isn’t seen that often, or at all.  And I think that gives me an advantage that most people haven’t prepared for what I bring at them.

I will admit that Saim-Hann did strongly influence me, but I think I added enough other things to not call myself a full Saim-Hann player.  With that being said here is the core of the Army list I’ve taken to tournaments and my thoughts about the units.

HQ

Eldar Farseer on Jetbike (Fortune, Mind War, Singing Spear, Ghost Helm, Runes of Witnessing, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones)
Warlocks on Jetbikes x4 (Destructor x3, Enhance / 3 with Wychblades, 1 with Singing Spear)

This unit is my can opener, swiss army knife unit.  With Armor, Invulnerable and easy to get Cover save from turbo boosting they have every save you could want.  In addition I put Fortune on them every turn to reroll that save making this one of the toughest units in the game to kill off.  If there is a horde army in front of me I can use the blast of three Destructor spells to wipe out most of them.  If there are Dreadnaughts or other heavy vehicles, I can use the Str 9 psyker weapons against them to open them up.  And if there is a nasty figure I can get close to I zoom up and Mind War them.  So this is my unit that I take a look at what is the hardest thing for my army to deal with and have them go after it.

Jain Zar

I have Jain Zar with a squad of Banshees inside a Wave Serpent.  She is one of the most powerful forces in Assault.  With a base 4 Str that is upped to 6 because of her weapon, and then again up to 7 with Furious Charge (I still wish she’d give that to a squad she joins) she can punch holes in vehicles or slice through any armor with her power weapon.  She’s always first due to the mask giving her Initiative 10, and is resilient with a 2+ Armor.  The downside to her is she does not get an invulnerable save.  So if you’re in close combat you need to take out your opponent before they have a chance to hit back else if they have a power weapon she won’t live long.

 

Elite

Howling Banshee Squad (x5) with Exarch using Executioner
In a Wave Serpent (TL Bright Lances, Shuriken Cannon)

This is one of my favorite units in the game.  They always go first in Assault with the masks.  They all have power weapons.  And they are Fleet so I can get up into assault faster.  They also have decent armor (4+ on the normal, 3+ for the Exarch) so they’re able to take the hits in order to get up into assault.  The strategy with this is to find a unit inside enemy lines drop them off out of the Wave Serpent and then watch them cut their way through the enemy’s back lines.   With Fleet and Consolidation Moves they can run across the board fairly quickly provided there is still things for them to kill to get those Consolidation Moves.

On the Exarch I originally had Mirrorswords because I loved the extra attacks I got.  But now I’ve gone to the other side of the fence and liking the 2 extra STR that the Executioner gives.  True I have two fewer attacks, but those attacks are more likely to cause wounds now.

 

Troops

Large Jetbike Squad (x9 three with Shuriken Catapults) + Warlock on Jetbike (Singing Spear and Embolden)

Small Jetbike Squad (x3 one with Shuriken Catapult) + Warlock on Jetbike (Singing Spear and Embolden)

Minimum Jetbike Squad (x3)

I am running three troops here, all Jetbikes.  I’m running them in unbalanced numbers to put the weight of one focused on firepower, one on manuvability and the minimum one for being held in reserve and coming in at the end of the game to take or contest an objective.

I’ve given the first two squads the Warlocks with Enbolden so that way should these squads have to make a leadership check, they get a reroll.  (My Eldar like rerolls.)  And then I use the larger squad as the distraction or to harass an enemy unit while using the smaller one to get into a position to draw the enemy away from an objective, or try to take one itself (late in the game).

So the purpose of these three units is not really for combat, but just to move around, don’t die and score things in the end.  I don’t see this as wasted points because their mobility allows them to live longer and with maneuvering there is a good chance that at the end of the game I’ll still have scoring units on the board while the rest of my army tries to remove the opponents scoring units.

 

Heavy

Fire Prism – Holo Field, Spirit Stones

In the very first tournament I went to, in the very first game I played, the first time I’d played a real game in over 10 years my opponent was a horde style Ork player.  I did not have ‘anything’ that could deal with a horde army so needless to say I was overrun.  The next month I bought one of these.  The best thing about it is that based on your need it can fire the large blast template to fend off hordes, or it can use the blast template at AP2 to wipe out anyone without an invulnerable save.

In this list I use it more as another way to take out pesky things from afar.  It is not that great at taking out vehicles due to it only having one shot that can scatter.  But this works wonders for taking out things from a long way away.

I always take Holo Fields on all my Fire Prisms.  In a way it’s like having a reroll on what they get on the armor penetration chart.

 

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