Ghostlight of Commorragh

We Moved!

2011-10-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

I am now contributing on Da Deff Kompny!

My buddies Pariah Stevo and Grizzly Adams have joined forces with me to help save the internets from bad blogs, including our own!

Stop by, follow us, and read our now more frequently updated blogs!

Batrep: Dark Eldar vs Space Puppies!

2011-08-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Now that I am unemployed, it seems like I play a lot of 40k. I'm not sure why I don't do more battle reports...Maybe I can remedy that.

I called up my buddy Grizzly Adams (Jake from If it wears power armor) and asked if he would be interested in a game last week, and I promised him a battle report as compensation, so here goes.

I haven't used many special characters in the new codex besides the Baron, so I decided to mix things up:

Vect
4 Trueborn, 3 blasters in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
4 Trueborn, 3 blasters in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
4 Trueborn, 3 blasters in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with 2 splinter cannons
9 Wyches with Hydra Gauntlet, Haywire grenades Hekatrix with agonizer in Raider with Flickerfield
9 Wyches with Hydra Gauntlet, Haywire grenades Hekatrix with agonizer in Raider with Flickerfield
Ravager with Flickerfield
Ravager with Flickerfield
Ravager with Flickerfield

Jake brought:

---List---

Rune Priest ---Storm Bolter, Living Lightning, Jaws Of the World Wolf

Rune Priest ---Bolter, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest ---Living Lightning, Tempests Wrath

3x Wolf Guard ---Combi Melta, Power Fist

3x9 Grey Hunters ---Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard

---Rhino w/ HK Missile

5x Grey Hunters ---Plasmagun

---Razorback - HK Missile, Las/TL Plas

3x6 Long Fangs ---2x Lascannons, 3x Missile Launchers

---Razorback - HK Missile, Las/TL Plas

The mission: We played an ATC mission, so we had sieze ground (3), capture and control and kill points, deployment was pitched battle. the adepticon poker chips were the sieze ground, the metal swords marker was capture and control. Above is the terrain setup, we decided everything was 4+ and the bastions were entirely impassable.

My Initial thoughts: Damn, that is a lot of shooting. I don't know if my paper airplanes can stand up to that. If I can get Vect into his lines I have a chance of killing anything, but I'm not sure I can keep the pressure off long enough to do that. I hate hk missles.... and that many living lightnings is gonna hurt...

Jake's Initial thoughts: Well, well, well, a game against the ol' Wiley. Time to put my money where my snout is. I have been running my Wolves' list for the past couple weeks and have had some success, going 2-1. I thought I had enough shooting to go toe to toe with most, but I knew Wiley was bringin a pretty good DE list, one that I have had trouble with in the past. In fact, I have a stunning 0-4-0 record against the Nord, So I had something to prove. Luckily, I have quite a bit of experience against DE, in most of its iterations, so at least I shouldn't have any surprises! The main key to victory is quality shooting phases on my part, and some luck during his, as I can't afford to have a bad Turn1-2 shooting, or the poor Wolves may be makin Happy Hour a few turns early! I have to pick my targets carefully, and make good decisions. Hopefully, we can stick to it. On To The Game!!

We roll to see who goes first and he wins, but decides to concede it to me. I am feeling better about this game already! By getting first turn I figure I can neutralize the long fangs on the left and center and hide behind bastions to protect from the right fangs! I knew with the cover where it was he would deploy there. And luckily (maybe) he did!

My First Turn:

I move up and start shooting. I shoot the 3 venoms on the left at his long fangs, the 4 venoms on the right at his long fangs in the center. I move everything possible up to hide behind the bastions.

I have some success, 84 Splinter cannon shots and 11 Dark Lance shots later I have immobilized
1 vehicle, killed 3 long fangs and put 1 wound on a rune priest....yeah it turned into one of those games that quickly...At this point in the game I am sweating and I have some strange leakage pouring from my anal cavity, which doctors will later explain was me shitting my pants....in disbelief.

So I reluctantly turn it over to Jake, who decides not to move anything and instead shoot the living piss out of me! Which is exactly what I would have done if I were him.
From the picture you can see he blew both Raiders out of the sky, sunk 3 venoms and blew a Ravager away. So much for flickerfields and cover saves...

He also pinned a warrior unit and a wyche unit. Dammit son!

Kill Points: Willie 0 Jake 6

My Turn 2:
I'm realizing that with such a bad turn of shooting, i"m gonna have to capitalize on my speed and maneuverability to attempt a come from behind win. So I strategically redeploy to the left!

So after shooting pretty much my entire army at his long fangs on the left, I manage to kill the rune priest and all but 1 missle launcher. I also blew up a Razorback on the other side of the table I also attempted to move vect's unit up out of the crater to get towards hit lines and only manage to roll a 4, then out of frustration of knowing they are screwed I ran only to roll a 1, so they are out in the relative open. Not good as you will see later.

I only took 1 picture of Jakes turn, this is no surprise to anyone. 6 frag missles and 4 lascannon shots later....Vect is dead and most of his squad is toast. They manage to hang around, for a little while longer. This is the only kill point he earns this round.

Kill Points: Willie 2 Jake 7

My Turn 3:

Ok, feeling like some redemption definately has to be headed my direction sometime soon, I continue with the redeployment and head left!

Shooting sees me finally start to make some headway, wiping out the 1 man long fang pack and taking the middle squad down to 1 man. I also manage to crash a Razorback. I moved my wyches on the right side out to multi-assault the two rhinos praying that I choke him in keep control of that side of the board and I hustle that small warrior squad back onto my capture and control objective. It wasn't a great turn, but it was the best turn I've had, so I'm trying to relish it!

Jake's Turn 3, I didn't take any pictures. He really only had 2 targets to shoot at and he made it count, getting a boatload of smelly grey hunters out to shoot down my wyches and using his long fangs to pummel my warriors holding my objective, who promptly roll a 29 and run off the table.

Kill Points: Willie 5 Jake 9

My turn 4:

Time to bring some pain, I have to prepare for the end of the game, this mission is random game length, I'm starting to wonder if I will have enough models to make it...

I manuever up to get some warriors near his capture and control objective, get my trueborn into position to shoot a rhino and move a lone warrior back in craters towards my objective. I position a venom with 2 wyches in it to zoom and get on objectives later and I get another venom out of LOS of the fangs.

Shooting sees me kill the rest of the middle long fangs squad and wreck a rhino that was threatening to come towards the objectives I hold. I killed all but 3 of the hunters that fell out but they managed to not run. I also immobilized the other Razorback that is near his capture and control objective. My trueborn on the right fail to harm the rhino between the buildings, so their souls will be going to meet Slaanesh soon...

Jake's Turn 4

Sorry this picture is blurry. Jake moves his squad in the rhino over to the side of the bastion and takes his 5 man squad down towards my trueborn in the crater. Shooting sees him get 1 shot from a razorback at my ravager in the middle of the table and get thru my cover save to wreck it. He also wrecks a venom up near his capture and control objective and drops some frags on my poor warriors on the objective, thank the gods they held!

The assault phase sees his 5 man hunter squad charge the trueborn in the crater and then slingshot over towards my lone warrior heading towards my objective.

Kill Points: Willie 7 Jake 11
My turn 5:

I know this could be my last turn, so I survey the field, I am holding 1 C&C objective, and can grab 2 Sieze ground objectives, but in order to make them count for anything I will need to neatralize a rhino and the grey hunters that are squatting in the building.

I accomplished nothing...I killed 1 guy in the ruin and made the guys close to my objective run, but I completely forgot that there was another rhino full of guys between the bastion and the building, I should have tried to neutralize that rhino...instead my ravager shot at the rhino coming down to my C&C objective and did nothing lol. But I did get into position to own 1 C&C obj and 2 Seize objectives if the game ends.

Jakes turn 5:

I need him to fail, hard to win, but I know it won't happen as soon as I see him move that rhino...in my head a baby rabbit committed suicide...He moves them up and unload them, well within 3" of that objective and proceeds to shoot my venom with 2 melta shots and a 1000 bolter shots, the venom crashes taking both the Wyches with it.

The other rhino moves up and unloads its contents to get my C&C objective and kill my last little guy.

He also shoots down some various aircraft scatter about the board to take his kill points to untouchable levels.

Kill Points: Willie 7 Jake 14

Jake lets me roll for the game length, thank the gods my streak stays alive!

Then a crucial measurement proves to be his undoing! Ha! He didn't massacre me! I managed to win C&C, Jake got the Kill Points and the Sieze Ground!

Closing thoughts:
Wileythenord: Well I knew this one would be tough, but I never expected to have such a terrible first turn of shooting. He played well and capitalized on my bad luck. Living lightning really hurt me, having unlimited range meant I really couldn't hide anywhere. I had fun, I can't believe I had a chance at all really. But if both my wyches hadn't died when their plane crashed it would have been a draw. I will get his goofy Auburn loving ass next time!

Grizzly Adams:Aaahh Dark Eldar!!! Thats what makes Dark Eldar a pain in the butt. You can blow them to Kingdom Come and they will still push you all the way to the edge. That is a testament to a well built Codex (Thanks Phil Kelly!), a well designed list, and an opponent that can play it to perfection, rolling with the punches, and thinking on his feet. I really lucked out top of turn one, with Wiley's shooting kinda goin to crap on him, and my wolves made the most of it. My early game shooting phases were near perfect, and really is what kept me in the game. Not being able to drop his Ravagers really hurt, and The Nord made me pay for it. I feel my list executed well, even though I kinda deployed like an idiot. I still cant get over how shooty these wolves can be. My dice did me well, the list played just like it was designed to do, and I was able to pull out the Big W. Fun was had by all, and can't wait to do it all again!

Webway Dark Eldar vs DoA Blood Angels

2011-06-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

My buddy "The Dude" agreed to let me batrep our game. Somehow Dude and I always have super bloody fights, and this one was no exception! I knew going in that it would be gruesome with DoA vs foot DE.

The Lists: (from memory)
DoA:
Sanginor
Libby with jump pack, Unleash Rage and Blood Lance
5 Man Honour Guard with 4 Plasma guns

3 Sanguinary Priests with Jump packs and Power Weapons
3 X 10 Assault Marines with 2 meltas and pf Serg
7-9 Vanguard with 2 LC/SS, 1 PF, 1 TH, 1 TH/SS (from memory)

Webway:
Vect
2 Haemonculus with Webway Portals
4 x 10 Wyches with 2 Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix with Agonizer
5 Warriors with Blaster
3 Wracks with Venom
2 X 5 Scourges with 2 Haywire Blasters
5 Beastmasters 5 Kymera 6 Razorwings 1 Clawed Fiend
2 Chronos Parasite Engines with all upgrades

Mission: Drawfest
Deployment: Spearhead
The board: (Red circles show where the bases are)

I won first turn and put my objective in the woods on the bottom left. I should have taken second turn, but I was an idiot and didn't think about it...gotta get sharper...I roll for drugs and get +1 WS

Turn 1 deployment:

All I deploy is my Venom with the Wracks and both Haemonculi embarked. Dude declines to sieze so here we go!

I move 12" toward the Dudes base, disembark and lay down 2 webways in the shooting phase. Dude is in full reserve, so he has no turn 1.

Turn 2:

I roll for reserves and get 3 units of Wyches, the warriors, 1 Chronos, 1 Scourges. Warriors walk on behind my objective. Everything spreads out to try to keep the DoA from hitting too hard. Haemonculi split from the wracks, one takes 2 pain tokens and joins Vect's unit, the other takes the last pain token and joins the far right Wyche squad. The Wracks load up and head towards my base. Everyone runs and spreads out, warriors get into cover.

Dude rolls for Reserves and gets everything except 1 Assault squad. Top squad has Libby inside. The small squad is the honour guard, the bottom squad is the Vanguard. Vanguard declared heroic intervention and planned to assault the warriors. The Honour guard landed and opened a can on the Venom. Vanguard charged my warriors and turned them into clam chowder. Sangiunor looked majestic...

Turn 3:
I roll reserves and get everything else on. 2nd scourge squad comes off the back edge towards the forest in front of Sanguinor. My scourges both maneuver to be able to shoot Sanguinor, I manage to put 2 wounds on him. Beastmasters and Wyches come on near my objective. Vect's unit, the chronos and another wyche unit manuever to be able to charge the libby squad. Chronos causes wounds with both shooting weapons, throwing a pain token to both wyche squads, which make Vect's squad have 3, the other squad have 2. I fleet around and charge. Beastmasters charge the honour guard, wyches charge the vanguard, and I multi assault the Libby's Assault Squad.

Somehow my Beastmasters kill 1 Honor guard and I lose by 5...with him running down the whole squad...seriously?

1 Agonizer targetted the Sang Priest to deny fnp, the rest of my attacks go on the squad...I caused 23 wounds and didn't have vect involved. Libby lives. I can't remember the details, but he must have rolled snake eyes, I don't know how he could have survived otherwise lol.

The Wyches and the VV are obviously not interested in fighting, this one will last a while.

Dudes turn three he moves his other assault squad south to get fnp on his VV, moves his honour guard up to plasma my unengaged chronos. Drops his last Assault squad in the big open area on my side of the board. The honour guard start shooting....

and somehow only kill themselves...that was insane!
The VV forget how to fight, but thanks to fnp bubble all survive, drawn combat. I kill the libby in hand to hand, now Vect's squad has 4 pain tokens, the other wyche squad has 3 pain tokens and the Chronos has 2 pain tokens. Sanguinor charges 1 scourge squad and turns them into swiss cheese. They lose by 4 and get ran down.

Turn 4:
My green wych squad had a high consolidate last round, so they roll up to engage the assault squad. I realize that I need to pull the priest so I string my wyches out so only 1 wyche can assault into hand to hand and he will have to pile into me. The Chronos shoots that squad and kills a few, the other chronos shoots the squad that just dropped and did nothing. Vect and his cronies move up. I assault the painted squad. He wins the combat by a couple, but thanks to FNP and fearless I stick around.

This is what the other half of the table looks like at this point, the other scourge squad shot Sanguinor to death gaining a pain token. Those Wyches are squatting unmolested on that objective.

Dudes turn four sees his newest assault squad move over towards the wyche/assault squad fight. He breaks his Priest off to bubble his VV and his Assault squads. Then he dual charges the wych fight and the Chronos, killing everything.

Yet another round of fighting between this wyche squad and the VV, nobody dies. What the hell!

Turn 5:

Vect and the Wyches come down to play with the assault squads. I move the scourges towards all the fighting. The chronos comes down to see what he can target. I fleet in such a way that I can charge vect into the small squad and the wyches into the big squad, I think I should have reversed that, but again, I haven't played wyches much so this was a learning experience. Vect slaughters 5 of the Assault marines, but leaves the priest and the pf...foreboding...I don't think the wyches kill many if any.

These wyches still fighting the VV...will this ever end?

Dude's Turn 5 sees Vect only able to swing at the painted squad, he throws 3 at the priest and 3 at the pf...and didn't kill the pf (3s to hit, preferred enemy, 3s to wound with a power weapon...) and he gets squished in return, wyches kill a few but lose a few, I think the final tally was wyches losing by 3.

Turn 6:
Dude rolls and we get a 6th turn.

Scourges continue to move towards the objective, shooting the lone priest on the way over. Finally killing him. The remainder of my wyche squad whittles dudes other assault squad down to where its only 2 in one squad the the pf in the other. But in return gets squished down to just 1 hydra gauntlet left in the fight. My Wyches finally kill a few VV, now its 1 hydra gauntlet and an agonizer vs 1 LC/SS VV without Fnp, I should shore this fight up during dudes turn and be ready to consolidate onto my obj.

Dudes turn 6 sees me die to the 1 assault marine and 2 assault marines. I kill the VV and don't roll high enough to get to the obj, dude did make it to the obj though. If the game ends now, its a tie....

I roll for turn 7 and get it!

Turn 7:

I move scourges over and shoot at the lone pf guy, doing nothing. Those last 2 wyches charge the 2 assault marines left in the open, he consolidated them so I couldn't assault both. I kill those assault marines. And are now contesting the obj with my Scourges.

Dudes last turn he assaults the scourges, hoping to kill them and win, but only manages to kill 1 due to Ghostplate armor 6+ invul saves and I stick around.

End of the game sees my Wyches holding his objective, and contesting mine.

It was a great game, I think it might have been different if the Beastmasters hadn't sucked so hard in their only assault, but thats how it goes sometimes. Looking back I probably should have just brought the warriors up through the webways so I could protect them, and just used wyches to get to mine in the back.

I had a lot of fun with this list, I can't way to get all the models put together and get paint on them!

What do you guys think?

Bring on the Webway!

2011-06-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with the idea of making my Dark Eldar force into a more assault based army ever since I started the long road to the ATC. But due to all the playtesting I was doing with Deathwing I never got the opportunity to use the ninja DE list. Now that the Maul in the Mall is around the corner, its time to dust off those Webway Portals and grease up the Talos!

Tenative List: 2000 pt Dark Eldar Roster

Vect
I'm bringing Vect over the Baron for a few reasons.
1) He is a combat monster and that is always fun!
2) He has a str 10 blast with 12" range, and with his BS 8 he shouldn't get much of a scatter :p
3) He gives a 4+ to sieze, with my list I will probably set up the same regardless of winning the roll or not, but I guarantee that when my opponent realizes that I can seize on a 4+ they will deploy differently. (Sean Combs would say I'm mindfucking my opponent!)

2 Haemonculus with Webway Portals
3 Wracks in Raider with Flickerfield
If the board has LOS blocking terrain that I can hide my Raider behind, then Vect will join up with this super unit so he can thieve a pain token after the webway deployment. If not he probably reserves with the rest of the army. By having 2 Haemmies joining the wracks, the unit starts with 3 pain tokens and is therefore fearless, so you have to kill them all to keep the webway from deploying.

4 X 10 Wyches with Haywire Grenades, 2 Shardnets/Impalers, and a Hekatrix with Agonizer
Wyches are the backbone of the army, these guys can lay the smack down if they get a good drug roll, but regardless they should be able to beat up on vehicles and tie units up for vect to slap into.

2 X 5 Scourges with 2 Haywire Blasters
These guys serve a few purposes, they tote 2 Haywire Blasters to stun vehicles and they can fly 12" to create blocking lanes if needed. They also have 3 shardcarbines which can help throw some poison shots out from time to time.

5 Beastmasters, 1 Clawed Fiend, 5 Kymera, 6 Razorwing Flocks
Beastermaster squads popping out of a webway can be pretty nasty, with 6 inch move, fleet and 12" assault they can close the gap quick. And with the wound allocations shenanigans they can pull off, they can live for a long time.

2 Talos Pain Engines with Chainflails and TL Haywire Blasters
Talos with Haywire Blasters can help with a vehicle horde, but they really shine in hand to hand, by getting 1+d6 attacks and the chainflails let you roll 2d6 and take the highest. These monstrous creatures can also get pain tokens, so when they go off on a unit chewing it to pieces, they could get boosts like every other DE unit.

I'll be playtesting this over the next couple of weeks and will probably write up some tactica after I play a few games with it. Any suggestions for improvement?

ATC - A Preview of the S.I.E.G.E.'s best event

2011-04-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is the 3rd Annual S.I.E.G.E. (Southern Invasion of Everything Gaming Extravaganza!) I have attended every year so far and have had a great time every year. I have fond memories:

SIEGE year 1 saw my first ever Apocalypse game (and the first time I saw a Titan!), one of the worst tournament showings I have ever had, a couple of douchebag players, a couple of awesome players, and some really awesomely painted armies! It also saw the death of my non-special character codex marines army.
SIEGE year 2 saw a much larger event, 3 more games played (9 games for the weekend!), an ass ton of IG armies, and a great showing for my old Dark Eldar Army, Kabal of Violet Shadows (until it met Rob Baer's ridiculous IG army!). Tons of people showed up and it was a fantastic time. Hard to believe that Blood Angels were the new thing last year at that time!
SIEGE year 3 promises to be even bigger, with a bigger tournament, bigger prizes, a bigger venue, and a bigger crowd.

This year the big event for the SIEGE is called the ATC, or American Team Championships. This is modelled off of the ETC that the crazy Europeans hold every year. A bunch of the guys in the gaming community have pretty much talked our local illustrious game shop proprietor to host this event at his venue. And tons of people are responding! Seems like this is gonna be a great event!

We have been discussing this even on our local gaming forum, Fixed Dice, for a few weeks and several have shown interest in playing. Thankfully, the guys from Nashville (Blade and Bolter!) are coming, as are the guys from the tri-cities and Knoxville, hopefully TN can represent!

I have formed up a team with some local players, we are working on a team name currently, but the army mix is something like this:

Player 1: Codex: Space Marines
Player 2: Codex: Space Wolves
Player 3: Codex: Orks
Player 4: Codex: Imperial Guard
Player 5: Coxex: Dark Eldar or Dark Angels

I think we have a pretty good setup. One of the trickiest things so far has been constructing armies that can compete vs all the top tier codexes that are available presently (ie Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Dark Eldar, IG) and I think we have accomplished that with our lists. One of our guys is still a little green, but we have been practicing the missions every Friday and Wednesday to get everyone used to playing them. I'm hoping to have a good showing.

There are tons of other things going on at the SIEGE though, including a team tournament on Friday for 40k, and lots of Fantasy, card games, board games, pretty much any kind of game you can think of will be played there!

I hope everyone makes it out and has a great time, my team is pretty excited about it!

Battle for Stones River!

2011-02-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

Battle for Stones River was great this year! I think the final tally was 52 people, great diversity in armies. I also saw a lot of new faces, which is cool because I played that tourney last year and also go to Murfreesboro a couple of times a year to play in tournaments at Grand Adventures.

So here is the list I brought:
1863 Guardians of the Covenant (Codex Dark Angels)
Belial with twin lightning claws
3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twin-Linked Lascannons and Heavy Flamer
1 Deathwing Command Squad - all had TH/SS, 1 Cyclone, 1 Apothecary, 1 Standard Bearer
3 Deathwing Squads - 4 TH/SS, 1 Twin Lightning Claws, 1 Cyclone
3 Landspeeder Typhoons with Multi-meltas.

Some pics I stole from Just Another Gaming Blog!

I walked around before the tournament to see what kind of armies where there. As you would expect, there were several Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and IG armies. However I expected many more Dark Eldar armies, there where only 4 out of 52. My biggest surprise was the number of Terminator armies, I think there were 2 deathwing armies and 3 Wolf Guard Terminator Armies, and several SM armies had big units of termies!

On to Scenarios and Matchups. I didn't take any pictures, sorry, but I will run down each scenario and my opponents army list as best I can.
-----------------------------------------------------
Round 1: Phillip using CSM

Slaanesh Daemon Prince with wings and Lash of Submission
Chaos Sorceror in Terminator armor, combi-plasma, Lash of Submission
7 Glory marked Terminators, 6 combi-plasmas, 1 chainfist, 1 Reaper autocannon
2 Noisemarine squads, each with 6 NM with sonic blasters, 1 champion with doom siren, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
1 Chaos Space marine squad, 2 melta guns, champion with power fist, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
3 X 2 Obliterators

Guh, my army is all foot sloggers and have 2+ saves, his army punishes foot sloggers, and has tons of AP 2...great first draw...

Mission was secret objectives, each player had to write down which piece of terrain in the enemies deployment zone was their secret objective, and then reveal it in the 3rd turn. Primary was holding your objective, Secondary was holding the bridge with a troop choice, Tertiary was kps. Our game was bloody as hell. I got first turn, setup my army holding Belial and his Deathwing command in reserve to deepstrike towards my secret objective. Then Phillip seized the initiative, wretched bastard! That really made things tough for me, as if the first turn would have stayed with me I could have wrecked all 3 rhinos and probably killed the daemon prince easily...instead my first round of shooting did nothing, and belial and his squad was forced to land in a maelstrom of shit...right infront of all of phillip's combi-plasma termies....

Second turn saw phillip shooting the piss out of belials squad, 7 combi-plasmas, 1 reaper autocannon, and 2 twinlinked plasma guns from oblits later...I have lost 1 terminator! Wow! I felt sorry for the guy, my entire unit should have been gone! He forded his CSM squad and a Noisemarine squad over the river towards his secret objective and obilts shot at some termies to little effect. His termies, sorc and the 2 oblits then charge into my terminators with belial....after the dust settles I have won by 6! He rolls his morale for the termies (oblits got pulverized by THs) and fails, but that Mark of Chaos Glory wins the day as he re-rolls and makes his morale!

Third turn was bad for me in many ways. First he positioned his CSM to make a break towards his objective and tried to block my shooting/assaulting with a smoked rhino, positioned his Noisemarines to be able to fire tons of shots at my termies closing on the CSM and jumped his other NM out to rally towards the bridge. My turn saw my venerable dread charge into the CSM and die to a pf...my shooting fail to kill the Deamon Prince (who only had 2 wounds left, and I shot 3 speeders and 1 termie squad at...), at least I killed the sorc and termies with my TH right? The damn Sorc only got hit one time and he passed his invul....ouch!

Turn 4 saw him move his CSM closer to his secret objective, do a ton of shooting, he assaulted my termies that lived thru the hail of NM shots with the NM and the daemonprince, who was wiped out as expected. His 2 rhinos blew up my speeders, those combi-meltas had scopes! My turn saw Belial and his squad rush over and squat in the objective terrain, a ven dread move towards the bridge and the other Ven dread moving towards his secret objective. My Deathwing squad that is near his objective spreads out to see if the bridge is more important or the objective is.

Turn 5 the daemon prince decides to tempt fate and fly over the river to assault my ven dread near the bridge. his CSM squeeze between 2 rhinos right beside the objective, his NM abandon the hill near the bridge to move towards belial, his other NM move towards the bridge. The only shooting that matters is him blowing up my venerable dread with 2 long range melta shots thru terrain...ouch. The Prince cries as he assaults the other venerable dreadnought and gets his face caved in. He consolidates towards the bridge. My turn belial continues to be a squatter, termies move over to assault the CSM squad (only 2 termies left) and the venerable dreadnought moves up the bridge to halt the NM from getting more points for him. I assault the CSM, he causes 1 cyclone termie death (which was the one inside the terrain contesting) and the last TH/SS termie stands strong, smacking 2 CSMs)

Phillip Rolls and the game goes on, he moves NM over to shoot belial, moves the other squad towards the bridge, and we fight assault....My TH/SS termie lives on! He kills no one though. My turn belial considers leaving the confines of the cover to fight the NM, but notices that the NM champ has a power sword, and since he forgot his SS today, he decides to just squat some more. Ven assaults NM on bridge. CSM fights the TH/SS termie...and he lives! He fights back and does nothing!

I roll, praying that the game ends, it goes on! Phillip moves closer to my objective, but didn't manage to get close enough to ensure a good run making it into the terrain. NM on bridge throw a melta bomb and knock imobilze, csm fight the TH/SS termie....and he lives! He kills 2 this time, Phillip rolls, and fails his morale! But damn that Glory, he gets to re-roll and sticks around. My turn I pray the ven dread doesn't die, and he doesn't, the TH/SS termie fights on, lives and doesn't kill anyone.

Points tally, we both hold our objective, tied kps, no one owns the bridge, 11 pts a piece and a helluva game!
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Round 2: David DuBois using Codex: Eldar
Autarch on Jetbike, mandiblasters, laser lance
7 Guardian Jetbikes
2x6 Fire Dragons with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
2x10 Dire Avengers with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
8 Harlequins, 1 Shadowseer, 8 kisses
3 Vyper Jet Bikes, Scatter lasers
3 War Walkers, 2 Scatter Lasers a piece

Str 6 spam, but not a scary one. I've never played against str 6 spam Eldar without 6 Wave Serpents, so I figure I've got this from the get go. I don't remember the mission, it involved catching an objective that was floating down the river, killing your opponents most expensive unit, and probably getting stuff across the river. Its not worth me going into detail, he won first turn, deferred to me. At the end of turn 5 I held the objective, had most of my army across the river, killed his most expensive squad and all he had left was like 5 dire avengers. Poor guy. He can thank Phillip, lol. 20 points to me.
-----------------------------------------------------

Round 3: Keith Hoffman using Codex: IG

Company Command squad in chimera with random wargear, astropath, fleet officer
DH inquisitor lord, psychic hood, tarot, 2 mystics
Infantry platoon
>PCS in chimera 3 plasma guns, 1 plasma pistol, medic
>2 infantry squads in chimeras, melta, lascannon
Veteran squad in chimera with 3 melta, harker
2 Scout Sentinels with autocannons and hks
Banewolf
Leman Russ Demolisher
2 Manticores

I've played Keith before, last time we played I was 3 models and 1 immobilized chimera from tabling him. He has blocked it from his memory, understandably. Mission was hidden objectives, 5 objectives go out on the table face down, when a unit contacts they flip up with a number, 1-3 on it, thats how many objective points it is worth, secondary is get more units accross the river, teriary is hold the bridge. We roll, Keith gets first turn and deferrs to me. He holds the Chimera vets in reserve to outflank.

My first turn sees Belial drop in, scatter 11 inches and mishap, thankfully going back into reserve, a lot of shaken and stunned vehicles and 1 destroyed Manticore. He fires back and destroys a landspeeder (that was in cover) and blows the missiles off another one.

My second turn belial and company make it back in, even with the fleet officer. This time they land on the other side far away from any units. I advance up to contact 2 objectives (2 on the left side of the board, 3 on the right side) and move 2 dreads towards the bridge, I made a fatal error here, I should have kept 1 dread close to the left hand objective....live and learn. My shooting sees some immobilzed, some shaken and another blown up manticore. Keith's turn sees another weapon blown off the landspeeder and a multilaser wrecking my MVP landspeeder on the right (he killed both manticores!) and he crucially puts enough wounds on my middle termie squad for me to have to take a wound on the cyclone, and he was the only one to die. He also imobilized 1 of my dreadnoughts on the left side of the board.

My turn 3 I have this game well in hand. My middle termie squad moves up to flip another objective, 1, and Belial and his squad start hoofing it towards an objective in the middle of the table. My dread moves up to the river on the right side hoping to lend some fire support to the command squad. My landspeeder on the left with no weapons just keeps flying back and forth to get a cover save. I shoot 4 cyclone missiles and 1 tlinked lascannon at the chimera with the PCS that is 15 inches or so away from belial and do nothing...that will hurt later. I shoot at some chimeras in front of the bridge and don't manage much. This will be my defining turn, though I don't realize it. Keith's Vets arrive and come on the left side of the table, conveniently where he needs them to be since I have an objective worth 2 points back there. His PCS moves over behind a hill so his hatch is fully within 12" of my command squad. His demolisher moves over to start munching on my command squad. His shooting is fabulous, though in hindsight he was using the wrong BS for his PCS, those guys hit on 4s, but he was hitting on 3s, fortunately it probably didn't matter, as they only killed 1 guy with shooting this round. But the demolisher shoots, sticks its large blast and then fires his lascannon...which hits and wounds, so now I have 5 wounds to take on 4 guys....I should have put 2 on belial and let his ass die...but I didn't so I lose belial and 1 guy, if I had taken 2 on belial I may have managed the 3 3+s. His vets chimera shoot at my termies on the objective and whittle 1 more away.

My turn 4 I am still winning big, I hold 5 objective points, have 3 squads accross the table, and have a terminator that can shuffle onto the bridge last turn for that objective, all I need is a decent turn of shooting and this game is mine. I shoot 2 squads at the chimera that just came in....and do nothing, command squad blows up the chimera that has the PCS and kills 3 guys in side, but they do not get pinned...shit! and I shoot some lascannons at the other chimeras hoping to stun or shake them, and manage to immobilize the other one...shit. Keith makes his run for it, he moves his chimera up so that even if it gets blown to shreds, his 5th turn he will be able to claim the 2 objective. He moves his PCS up on the hill to unleash 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol on me, he shuffles his banewolf closer to my lines to throw a flamer on my objective holders next turn. Mostly this turn was Keith moving his stuff into position to attempt a draw or a coo, though he forgets that the bridge is worth points too. His PCS opens up on my command squad, 5 plasma shots on 2 guys that are hitting on 3s...(should be 4s) but he still just manages to kill 1. I can't remember any other major events from turn 4.

My turn 5 sees me sweating, I can see how this is going and I need some good rolls to live. I move my landspeeder 24" to squad near my 2 objective. I shoot 4 more cyclones at the chimera near my objective, still doing nothing. I shoot some random las cannons at the demolisher and do nothing....shiiiiiiiit. Keith jumps his vets out moving up to within 3 of the objective, moves his banewolf over to flame my termies, moves his PCS up to within 3 of the objective across the river. and gets his CCS out to shoot at my last termie that was standing on his objective in the middle of the river. Keiths banewolf throws its chemcannon on both my termies, it wounds on 2+ but is only ap 3....I roll 2 1s....his sentinels then autocannon the speeder, get one pen thru and blow it up....his PCS unleash however many shots they have left and cause like 2 wounds and I fail 1...and Keith deftyly used up 20 minutes of clock shuffling random stuff around and shooting at things that don't matter to ensure no 6th turn. But it was a good game, and even with a 6th turn I couldn't have won it, at best I could have got a few points from holding the bridge. Overall a good game, but I was upset the next day when I looked at my IG codex and noticed the PCS are BS 3 not 4. I'm just glad that it probably wouldn't have had any effect on the game. Keith 16 me 0
-----------------------------------------------------
Round 4: Dan Peely using Codex Daemons
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
1 Blood Crusher
11 Bloodletters (green)
11 Bloodletters (red)
15 Bloodletters (yellow)
15 Bloodletters (blue)
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch

I have played Dan before in a tournament at grand adventures. I won, but it was a close game, he plays daemons super agressive with no shooting. Bloodletters all have power weapons...this could go bad. I win first turn and defer to him, forcing him to drop where I can shoot him. Mission is table quarters. 1 point for the quarter you start in, 2 for neutral quarters, 3 for your opponents. Primary is who owns most quarter points, secondary is modified kps, teriary is most expensive unit. My unit is command squad, his unit is blue bloodletters.

I deploy castled with Vens up front. He rolls for his preferred wave...doesn't get it, so he has to drop all his bloodletters and the 1 crusher. The bloodletters all land in front of me, crowding to drink the blood of their enemies. The Crusher lands hidden all the way across the board.

My turn 1 I flame, frag, and spit all over as many bloodletters as possible, charging 1 dread into a unit (green) and a termie squad into a whittled down unit (yellow). The dread will be there forever, the termies lose a few but kill the squad, but they don't consolidate away enough to stay out of charge range.

His turn 2 he sees only 1 prince and 1 thirster come in, I opened up my notebook and wrote "game over" my shooting means I can easily kill 1-2 MC a turn. His blue squad charges my termies, they slap and tickle leaving me with 1 guy left. My turn I charge a dread into the blue guys, kill the blood thirster with shooting.

His turn 3 2 Princes arrive, but since he is so aggressive, one mishaps and goes back into reserve. His nurgle prince charges the ven dread that is fighting the green squad at the bottom of the table. Bunch of slaps and tickles. My turn Belial leaves his squad and joins another behind him. The command squad moves to to kill another squad of letters (red). I shuffle around so one squad of termies can join the ven dread vs the blue if needed but can also shoot the prince that just dropped. The other Ven dread moves down to join the fight vs the prince and letters thats at the bottom of the map. My shooting kills the nurgle prince. I wipe out the green squad at the bottom, so now I have 1 dread with no arms and a fresh dread fighting a prince.

His turn 4 gets the prince...We go on but I end up killing everything but 1 wound on the prince in combat and the crusher because he hid the whole game. Bad matchup and worse reserve rolls for him....GW fix daemons!!! Please! Dan 0 me 20.

I ended up finishing 7th overall. If only I could have not lost to Keith...now I will hear about it forever lol. I voted Phillip my favorite opponent, mostly because he was super cool under pressure and we talked all day after our game. I hope his club makes it down for Maul in the Mall.

Well enough Deathwing talk, time to start painting Dark Eldar!

Hobby Time!

2011-02-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've allowed myself to get into a mad rush about trying to finish my Guardian-wing up for Battle for Stones River.

These things happen...I guess.

I am still reeling after Chris and I pulled the rug out from under the guys in the last team tournament. Dicehead Games really stepped up the scenarios and it was tough to get max points in any of the 3 rounds. Going into the last round we were down by 14 points, and our stuff was unpainted, so best we could figure we had to table and the guys ahead of us (who were fully painted) had to get 0-3 points...We ended up winning it all!

Anyway, here is the list I have decided on for BFSR:

1863 - Guardians of the Covenant

Belial armed with two lightning claws
Belial Command Squad (5 Deathwing Terminators)
1 Apothecary
1 Standard Bearer
1 Cyclone Missile Launcher
All have TH/SS

3 X 5 Deathwing Squads
1 Twin Lightning Claw
1 Cyclone Missile Launcher
4 have TH/SS

3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twin-Linked Lascannon and DCCW with Heavy Flamer

3 Landspeeder Typhoons

I already owned all of these models, but I haven't played them together in a long long time, mostly because Deathwing was hard to do well with since they were over priced, had crappy storm shields, and after I played a pure Deathwing army at Adepticon last year and tabled him in 45 minutes, I figured out just how bad they are...it hurt my feelings...a lot...but now with the new FAQ the Deathwing have risen from the ashes!

These are pictures of my progress. (Click the Thumbnails for bigger pictures)

Moving along nicely, I just hope I can finish. I still have to cast about 12 40mm round bases, 3 60mm round bases and 3 landspeeder sized bases.

Angels of my heart...the Dark Angels FAQ and you

2011-01-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

It should be no secret to any of my friends or opponents that I am a Dark Angel fan. My marines are painted as a successor chapter, The Guardians of the Covenant, and I use Dark Angel Iconography throughout their design.

Most don't know that when I started playing 40k (again) it was just as 5th edition was coming out, and it was using the codex Dark Angels. Many of you know the troubles that Dark Angels have faced since their initial release, but for those that don't, here is the skinny; Dark Angels are one of the last codices designed for 4th Edition. So their point costs and flexibility (high and none) were reflective of that. In fact chances are if you have only been on the scene for a few years, you have never seen anyone using Codex: Dark Angels, instead you have seen dark green marines with robes using the Codex: Space Marines. So sad...but I was one of those guys...

Flash Forward to the end of December 2010....the DA get FAQed, but in a good way! (See Dark Angels FAQ for details) Dark Angels get upgraded equipment! Dark Angels get Feel No Pain! Dark Angels get good POTMS! These things make us rejoice, not for our power armored brothers, but for our 1st and 2nd company!

Why do they care?

Dark Angels are unique in that they have special characters that open up Terminators and/or Bikes to be troops. The next caveat is Dark Angels Bikers (referred to by their proper 2nd company title Ravenwing) are slightly more expensive than standard SM bikes, but they gain Fearless and a special form of Scout. Oh and they also have another small addition that Terminators may care about.....all Ravenwing Bikers are armed with Teleport Homers. Thats right kids, not only do they scout but they all Terminators to not scatter if they want to land within 6" of a bike.

Now time for the next caveat, Terminators in the Dark Angels (referred to by their proper 1st company title Deathwing) are slightly more expensive than their smurf cousins, and can only be taken 5 to a squad. However, they have discounted cyclone missile launchers and can mix their weaponry within the squad, so you could have storm bolters, lightning claws, thunder hammers and power weapons all in the same squad, and still take a cyclone on one of them. Oh and they also have another small addition that you may care about...Deathwing have a special rule called "Deathwing Assault" which replaces Drop Pod assault for the Dark Angels Army, which allows half of your Deathwing squads held in reserves to arrive on the first turn!

So now you are probably trying to process this information...let me throw another wrench into the wheels. Taking the Deathwing Special Character Belial not only opens up the ability to have Deathwing as troops, it also opens up allowing one of those Deathwing Squads to be a command squad opening up the options for an apothecary (FNP) and a standard bearer (units within 12" may re-roll failed morale and the unit gets +1 attack).

Those scouting bikers dropping in terminators with cyclones on the first turn probably has your mouth watering a little, and it probably should. But remember, those are probably going to be smaller bike squads and those are definitely only 5 man terminator squads that are dropping. Even a 2+/3++ will fail from time to time.

Sample 1863 list for an upcoming tournament.
Guardians of the Covenant - 1863

1 Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing (HQ)
Land Speeder TL Assault Cannon; TL Heavy Bolter

1 Belial, Master of the Deathwing (HQ)
Twin Lightning Claws

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4); Terminator Standard Bearer

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4)

5 Deathwing Terminator Squad (Troops)
Cyclone Missile Ln.; Lightning Claw (x1); Thunder Hammer (x4); Lightning Claw 2 (x1); Storm Shield (x4)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Troops)
Meltagun (x2);
1 Ravenwing Sergeant @ [60] Pts
1 Attack Bike
Multi-Melta (x1)

1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile

1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile
1 Ravenwing Support Squadron: Landspeeder (Fast Attack)
Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Missile

Models in Army: 32
Total Army Cost: 1860

Bonus: Some pictures of my Guardians. This reminds me....I need more pictures...

Dark Eldar Venom: Take 2

2010-12-03T07:27:00.000-08:00

So I posted my Venom prototype up on Dakka and got some good reviews, but I also received some good critisim, which is always appreciated to improve upon your conversions. And after hearing a few people say that my Venom looked like a Dark Eldar Vyper, well I decided to fix the problem.

Special Thanks to DPBellathrom from Dakka. I think he may have taken some inspiration from me, but his design was superior and I took some inspiration right back!

Without further ado:

First step: Get a Vyper and assemble the chassis, but don't glue it together.

Next: Move the cockpit 1 peg further forward, yes I understand that your driver won't have any footholds, he will have to keep his feet up!

Next: Gather the parts that you want to use to make it look more like a Dark Eldar transport and less like an Eldar gunboat.

Next: Trim the sails so that you only have the top most section attached, with the spikes still in place, and dry fit it on the Venom.

Its starting to look like a Void Raven, which is a good thing!
Next: Use the Gang Plank and Keel Blade to form a kind of "standing" area and dry fit.

Next: If you like the way it looks, go ahead and do the second side and glue it in place.

Now that you have all those parts dry fitted, go ahead and glue those puppies in place!

Starting to resemble a Dark Eldar vehicle!
Next: I started working on the cockpit, I wanted a Dark Eldar driver, so I used a Kabalite Warrior Torso and a Reaver head (because those heads rock face)

Next: Venoms need guns, and not sissy Shuriken Catapults, I mean real guns....Like Splinter Cannons! And by "Cannons" I mean two of them! But i went cheapo, since I don't want to waste my Warrior Cannons, I just used disentegrators, since I will never field them on ravagers or raiders (and I have 6 Raiders and 3 Ravagers...)

Next: Now its time to add the spikes and hooks and blades and trophies, but I just wanted to get the basics down, you can customize however you see fit. Here is a size comparison.

I feel like this better represents the Venom, and once I get all my blades and skulls on this puppy, there will be no denying it!

Dark Eldar Venom?

2010-11-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

So I was tinkering around last night with my new Dark Eldar stuff, and though I had convinced myself to wait on the new Venom models, curiosity got the best of me. I bought 2 Vypers before I heard that GW was going to be putting Venoms out next year, so downtime and boredom led to:

What do you guys think? Should I pursue this or wait on some new models? I think this model looks pretty good, and is about the right size for 5 models.

To Be or not To Be (Competitive)

2010-11-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

Often folks in our hobby speak of having to make a choice between a "fun" list and a "competitive" list. I don't understand the difference. And even after I ask these supposed "fun" players what makes them think they are having fun and us "competitive" players aren't having fun, I rarely receive an answer that makes sense.

So what is it that "fun" gamers do different than competitive gamers? They try to justify their lists through "fluff" reasons (fluff for any that aren't familiar with the term, means based on the story or history) or through "comp" (comp is short hand for composition, or the make up of your army. comp scores are given at some tournaments based off your army build) reasons. But to a competitive gamer, these fluff bunnies are breaking their own definition, because by limiting your composition, you are making things less fun for yourself. For instance, one thing that fluff bunnies dislike is spamming the same unit over and over again, however what if the army I am building relies on those core elements for the theme that my competitive list is going for? Or what if its the only option available (i.e. Necron warriors)?

And what exactly is not fun about trying to win? Isn't that the point of playing a game? A game, by definition, is "an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement" Nothing in there says anything about winning, so I guess if I play a game i'm not supposed to win? Tell that to an NFL player, a Nascar team, or a Sculling Crew. Have these people trained their asses off to come out and play? Hell no, they came to win! Winning is fun!

Oh those are team sports you say, OK great, do you play Chess to pass the time? Have you ever played to a draw in Chess? Its the worst feeling on Earth! Do you play checkers because you want to get to know your opponent better? No you play these games to win.

Well folks, there is nothing wrong with playing to win a game. If people weren't supposed to win games, games would have never been invented. Have any of you ever won a game? How does that feel? Winning is one of the greatest feelings humans can ever feel. Its like watching fireworks for 36 hrs straight, it never gets old and it excites you every time!

So why are competitive gamers looked down upon in 40k?

I think it stems from GW putting out battle reports for years where players spend most of the 10 page report talking about all the fun they had using every unit they had available instead of making a list designed to win. I mean most 40kers have read White Dwarf over the years, and we know those lists are not designed to decisively win a game. "Really, Gav took 6 sternguard on foot and gave the Serg a combi-flamer?" "Wow look at all those Bio-Morphs on that Hive Tyrant, why would you spend 280 pts on him when you could just get Swarmlord for better flexibility?" "Wow did you see that Phil Kelly had 5 dire Avengers walking in that battle report against the non-mechanized non-Lash CSM list?"

Another reason I believe competitive gamers are looked down on is because many competitive gamers are also WAAC (Win at all Cost) gamers. Sometimes that term is the same as calling someone a cheater or shady. Nobody strives to be TFG (that fucking guy) but most WAAC gamers are TFG. And many WAACers and TFGs are also self proclaimed competitive gamers. That doesn't bode well for us have fun while winning sort of folks. In reality, these players are not competitive, they are cheaters or assholes. Sometimes both. Nobody likes TFG, not even TFG's mother, nor Jesus.

It boils down to this, if you think competitive gaming isn't fun, maybe you should try to win a few times. I think all us competitive guys will agree that winning is what keeps us all coming back. The challenge of building a list that can completely shalack the other guy is fun, the challenge of breaking that person down on the battlefield is lots of fun, and talking shit to those guys on forums, Facebook, or whereever is also fun.

What do you guys think? Are competitive gamers not having fun? Do fluff bunnies make up excuses to lose?

Web Way Portals?

2010-11-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

This week's article will discuss an oldie that was brought back into the fold in the new Codex, the Web Way Portal.

For you folks that don't know what a Web Way Portal is, or how it works, or how it used to work this article will be particularly enlightening, and may give you a few wtf moments. Rest assured, this is the reaction I'm looking for!

Web Way Portal "fluff": Commorragh is the "capital city" if you will of the Dark Eldar, but referring to Commorragh as a city is doing it a great injustice. If a Hive World of the empire can be considered a city, then Commoragh would be a metropolis. It spans a major part of the Web Way. The Dark Eldar are the Eldar that fled their empire before the Fall and made home within the Web Way. So the Dark Eldar existed prior to the Fall, and for the last time, no they are not Slaanesh worshippers....Anyway since the Dark Eldar live within the Web Way when they go to battle oftentimes they will leave a huge portion of their army in reserve back in Commorragh then on the battlefield they will drop a device that creates a portal back to the Web Way, thereby letting their fellows pour onto the battlefield from an advanced position. Pretty crafty!

Web Way then: The WWP used to be completely disgusting, but you had to build an army completely around it. The way it used to work you declared what units would be entering the game through WWP "reserve" and then that unit couldn't enter any other way except by WWP, even vehicles could enter through it. So if you didn't put down the WWP until the last turn, your opponent couldn't do anything about them except kill the bearers of the WWPs. However all units used to be able to bring along a portal (except Mandrakes). So what you did was take a big heavy hitting close combat units in Raiders with Dark Lances and a couple of throw away Raider squads to deploy a WWP round 2 or 3 and all of a sudden the enemy has no target and you get your entire army on them turn 3 or 4, because if a unit rolled its reserve roll and the WWP wasn't down, it got to wait till a webway was out then the unit became available!

Web Way now: Well now things have changed. They obviously saw that the WWP was a little too good, because they really toned it down. It deploys the same way as it used to, but now only a few HQ choices have the ability to take it, and instead of a "WWP reserve", once the portal is deployed it is treated as a seperate board edge. Not that impressive really, because now I can't hold units back and specifically know i'll get a good portal drop before they become available...boooo!

However, with all that being said, there are still some nasty ways to deploy a webway that I think could be effective.

Consider Harlequins.

Harlequins with the Shadowseer make your opponents roll 2d6 x 2 for night fighting everytime you wish to target them. So they are hard to see. Also consider that a 50 point Haemonculus + a 30 point WWP will be able to join the Harlies giving them FNP and a WWP to deploy. Its a pricey way to deploy a webway, but its the safest route to follow for WWP deployment.

Now if you just had some fast assaulty units to pour out of the WWPs....

Oh! Beastmasters and packs you say? Hellions you say? Even Wyches or Incubi? Wow, I hadn't thought of that ;)

Dark Eldar Wracks

2010-11-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

Why is the internet abuzz with the new Wracks rules? I'll do a little breakdown:

1) Wracks are cheap.
Wracks weigh in at 10 points a piece. What do you get for your points? Marine WS, T, I and 2 attacks base. The caveat of course is that their attacks are poison (4+) which means their str 3 means very little. (for now)

2) Wracks start with a Pain Token.
What does this mean? It means these buggers now have a 6+ save and a 4+ shrug, and unlike other Dark Kin it is not negated by str 6 or 7. That raises their survivability by a factor of 4!

3) Wracks are troops with a Haemonculus in the army.
Wracks become the most survivable troop choice in the DE army when a Haemonculus is present. Put these guys in some cover late game and people will hate trying to get them off an objective.

4) Wracks can take 1 Liquifier per 5 models.
What's a liquifier you ask? Probably the best thing your army can use to deal with hordes or Marine Equivalent armor (MEQ) in cover. Why? Because it is a str 4 flamer whose AP is D6, which means half the time MEQ get no save or cover save...and you can have 2 in a 10 man squad! Wowsa!

5) Wracks synergize with Haemonculus.
Big surprise there right? I mean Haemonculi BUILD Wracks, why wouldn't they work well together? Well consider this: the DE rule "Share the Pain" says that if an IC joins a unit it gets to share it's pain toke with the unit. Haemonculi start the game with a Pain token, Wracks start the game with a pain token...seems like I have an idea here....that's right, when they join the squad gains Feel No Pain and Furious Charge for benefiting from 2 pain tokens...Remember that Strength 3 comment earlier? Turns out that when Wracks charge now they will be I 5 and S 4...meaning against T 4 or less they re-roll wounds! Which means 75% of the attacks that get thru vs marines will wound!

Still not convinced that Wracks are any good? Consider the fact that all Dark Eldar vehicles are open-topped and fast skimmers. This means your raider full of Wracks can fly up 12 inches + 2 inch Disembark + 6 inch assault, means those Wracks can charge an astounding 20 inches, on top of that the Raider can still fire it's Dark Lance!

I believe 1-2 units of Wracks will find their way into most Dark Eldar lists in the future, with benefits like this how could they not?

Dark Eldar

2010-11-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, its been 12 years since Codex: Dark Eldar v2 hit the shelves and 12 years since anyone at GW seemed to give a damn about the Dark Kin. But finally they have arrived! For anyone that's been hiding under a rock for the past 3 months, Codex: Dark Eldar's redux was released this past Friday! Let the torturing begin!

This Codex is packed full of fun new stuff and upgraded old stuff. Mostly they didn't take anything away from the Dark Eldar and gave them some nice new abilities. The Alpha Strike is as strong as ever, despite what all the rumors seemed to point to. The hand to hand army is deadlier than ever. And if you fancied webway portal deployment, its probably safer now than it ever has been. And now finally a Haemonculus coven is finally possible with Haemonculi making Wracks troops in their armies!

So what kind of list will I be running?

Originally I decided that the Coven list would be my new bag, after-all I have drooled over Haemmie fluff for 2 years now. However after play testing a few times and now considering the amount of money I would have to spend...I think my hybrid army will be the weapon of choice.

Consider this 2000 point list(notes in italics):
Kabal of Violet Shadows: Redux
1 Baron Sathonyx
The Baron makes a great primary HQ for my army to ensure that I get first turn for my alpha striking capabilities and for the ability to deepstrike in and threaten devastators and long fangs and the like, he isn't very killy, but he doesn't have to be as long as his shadowfield is up!

1 Haemonculus
Standard cheap Haemonculus HQ to get wracks as troops and to throw a pain token into a Trueborn squad, reaver squad or the Baron as I see fit.

4 Trueborn
4 Blasters
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon

4 Trueborn
4 Blasters
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon

4 Trueborn
4 Blasters
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon
I think you will see a lot of Trueborn squads set up like this with the new Codex. This squad of Trueborn throws out 4 Blaster shots a turn (that is an 18" Dark lance shot), has a ride with an invulnerable save, and the ride can move 12" and still shoot 12 poisoned shots at 36". That is a huge threat bubble! People will learn to fear Venoms coupled with dark lance Ravagers or Voidravens.

5 Warriors
Blaster
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon

5 Warriors
Blaster
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon

5 Warriors
Blaster
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon

5 Warriors
Blaster
1 Venom Flickerfield
Splinter cannon
My Warrior squads serve 2 purposes: 1) they get me some cheap blaster squads on the field, 2) they bring another Venom to the fire fight. With 7 Venoms on the table people will not want to have boots on the ground. 7 Venoms generate 84 poisoned shots per turn that effectively have 48" range. Nasty!

10 Wracks
Liquifier (2)
Acothyst
Agonizer
1 Raider Dark Lance
Flickerfield

10 Wracks
Liquifier (2)
Acothyst
Agonizer
1 Raider Dark Lance
Flickerfield
Wracks are my shock troops. These guys can put out a staggering number of attacks and are pretty resilent with T 4 and FNP. The real beauty for them is the 2 Liquifiers though, these flamers are nasty! Marines fear these flamers, hell even Terminators should fear these flamers. And the Wrack units get me 2 more Dark Lances on the field for vehicle bashing.

3 Reavers 1 Heat Lance
Standard cheap Reaver squad. These guys aren't much of a threat first turn, but with a 36" turbo boost and drugs giving them the possibility of fnp, they become a nuisance. The Heat Lance will make people want to kill them and for 78 points, if they do its no big deal. If they survive though that Heat Lance will be trouble for them, as will being able to Turbo-Boost around running squads out of the backfield and contesting objectives.

1 Ravager 3 Dark Lances

1 Ravager 3 Dark Lances

1 Ravager 3 Dark Lances
Ravagers make fill the role of primary tank hunting. These puppies are only 105 points a piece, making them somewhat of a throw away squad. But when packing 3 Dark Lances a piece and being able to move 12" and still fire all 3 guns, they have to be dealt with.

This list is very shooty, but it also has some deceptively good hand to hand in it with the wrack units. I think many DE players will fold to this Hybrid Style of list.

What do you guys think?