Tournament Results

So went down on Saturday and got 3 games in with my "Shadow Raptors" Dark Eldar.

Bit of a strange system the scoring was via 6 objective cards that each person had available all game, plus a VP for each Objective at the end of the game.

Something Like:

Assassinate - 1 VP per independant character killed this turn

Take and Hold - 3 VP's if you control 3 objectives

Purge - 1 VP for manifesting a psychic power or denying the witch

No Prisoners - 1 VP per unit killed in Assault

Something? - 1 VP per unit killed by Shooting

Linebreaker - 1 VP if you have a unit within 12" of the opponents table edge

Was a bit strange as I'm used to scoring through the game with Maelstrom and I'm not a big fan of leaving the scoring to the last turn, however it is what it is.

Had one big win, one big loss, and one closer game so fairly balanced I guess, although it was a shame as none of the game's were particularly close.

First game (18-1 Win against Space Wolves)

Bad matchup for this guy and I did feel bad for him, He had roughly:

Njal Storm Caller in a unit of 9 Wulfen, 3 Claws, 3 Hammers, 3 

Arjac Rockfist in a unit of 6 Terminators inside a Landraider (2 Flamestorm Cannons)

Giant Flyer thing

2 units of 5 Grey Hunters

With him just really having 2 big dangerous units I was able to dance around and shoot  them to pieces, he had nothing left on the table by the time the Flyer finally arrived turn 4.

Wyches did OK I guess, moved out of their transport turn 2 and knocked two HP off the Landraider with a thrown and then placed Haywire Grenade, before being toasted by the flamestorm.

Game ended turn 5 with 4 units of kabalites chasing after the flyer snap shooting at it and finally bringing it down. Jumped onto the objectives at the end for an extra 6 points. (MISTAKE as it dictated my next matchup)

Second game (20-0 Loss against Eldar)

Brutal matchup and I was almost tabled turn 1 (Just de-meched Kabalites and half a unit of Wyches left with him destroying all 6 skimmers before I got a turn)

His list was pretty brutal for a "friendly" tournament:

Farseer on bike

4 Scat Bikes

4 Scat Bikes

10 Warp Spiders

5 D-Scythe Wraith Guard in Wave Serpent

3 Hornets with 2 Pulse Lasers

3 Hornets with 2 Pulse Lasers

Dark Reapers with Exarch manning an Icarus LasCannon emplacement

so the Scat Bikes took a skimmer out each (16 s6 shots per unit) then the Hornets took a skimmer each (12 s8 shots per unit) then the Warp Spiders accounted for 1, and the Icarus Lascannon plus Dark Reapers plus Serpent Shield and Lance from the Serpent finished off anything that was left.

Fun...

Wanted to call it before my First turn but opponent pointed out we needed to carry on for VP purposes. He finished what was left his turn 2 but my reserves came in afterwards. He then tabled what was left T3.

Funnily enough that list went on to win the tournament having won 19-1 // 20-0 // 20-2

My last match was against a friend of mine with his Tau, something like:

Riptide

Y'Vara (Spelling?)

Ghost Keel

Coldstar Commander

Regular Commander with 5 Marker Drones

1 Crisis Suit with Fusion Guns

3 Crisis suits with S7 / S5 stuff?

2 Broadsides

5-6 Sniper drone things

Pathfinders

Again pretty brutal with 3-4 Skimmers down first turn although I did manage to score a few points in this match at least, losing 12-7 in the end.

Anyway!

Long and short of it is I think if I ever go to anything semi competitive again I'll probably need to bring some Eldar support as it just didn't feel that I could compete with my opponents after the first game. 

Shadow Raptors Background

Going to a tournament on Saturday and part of the entry is that I need to write a piece of fluff for my army.

I always enjoy giving my army a background and doing the "factual bits" (A friend has just politely pointed out they're not real - spoilsport!), similar to what I did with my Craftworld Eldar a few weeks ago, and have done for my Wych Cult in the past. However I hate the process of weaving that into a story! I just can't seem to get it right and it just always seems to read like I'm a little kid again writing "let's pretend" stories.

I am also terrible at generating names for my characters so just nicked a few Dark Eldar sounding names from the "Path of the Renegade" book.

Anyway, it had to be done so I've spent a few days off and on thinking about it and eventually finished it up over breakfast this morning.

The initial task I set was to set the scene for why my kabal was playing these games, and to excuse the fact that I'm bringing a unit of Wyches along (the tournament doesn't "have" to be fully painted but I'd much prefer to play fully painted and there is a slight advantage in VP's if you bring a painted army so I figured what the heck, they've been on the shelf long enough)

This is what I came up with anyway, it's too late for change now but I'd appreciate any feedback you may have so that as and when I come to do it again I can improve upon this offering. (Army list is below for anyone interested)

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Duke Yllithian strode down the ranks of his arrayed kabalites,  daring one of them to blink out of turn. Not known for his patience at the best of times he was currently fuming inside, and looking for an excuse to release that rage on something or someone.

The arrangements for the raid had started well, he was soon to be launching a sustained campaign aimed at raising the stature of the Shadow Raptors kabal, and had begun pitting his warriors against each other to ensure only the very best were given the honour of joining the coming slave harvest.

All had been going well until the insolent Succubus Xelion had dropped from the sky unannounced in her Raider while final preparations were being made.

The wych cult of the Dancing Death was known to Yllithian, a once powerful gladiatorial cult that prided itself on the acrobatic skill of it's Wyches but that had fallen from grace recently as the powerful kabals it used to sell it's services to, found that they would rather fill their ranks with more of their own kabalites. (An arrangement also significantly less likely to end with a knife in the back)

Yllithian couldn't help but take the opportunity to point out the power he now held in comparison to the shreds of a reputation that the wych cult now clung on to and asked what Xelion thought of his assembled warriors.

The lithe Succubus had hesitated, stroking the blade of one of her knives down a thigh just enough to draw blood, before responding with a shrug and launching into wildly exaggerated tales of the feats her Wyches were capable of. Yllithian had cut her off at the point she began to compare his kabalites with the grace of a Squiggoth, a nod to his Sslyth bodyguard Morr the signal to throw Xelion overboard.

Xelion somersaulted out of reach and landed with one foot on the very tip of the Raider's aethersail. "A wager then!" The shout had come down, "one group of my Wyches, to outperform your entire raiding force!"

Yllithian had been left with no choice but to accept or lose face at that point and was raging at the fact that her been manipulated into taking along a group from the wych cult. A webway portal could only be held open for so long and the presence of the Wyches meant he would likely have to leave one of his favoured razorwing jet fighters in Commorragh.

With a mock bow the manipulative Succubus leapt back off the Aethersail and onto a swooping venom, leaving Yllithian to continue with his preparations...

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Shadow Raptors + Guests (1500 pts)

Duke Yllithian - Archon with Agoniser / Armour of Misery / Shadowfield / Webway Portal

Bodyguard - Court of the Archon, 3 Sslyth and 2 Medusa in a Raider with Nightshield

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in Raider

8 Wyches with Hydra Gauntlet and Hekatrix with Agoniser and Haywire Grenades in a Raider with Nightshield

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Disintegrator Cannons and 4 Monoscythe Missiles

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances and 4 Monoscythe Missiles

----------------------

It's not the most optimal of builds, but it's fully painted and the tournament was pitched as "fluffy" so I don't feel so bad including the Wyches and Razorwings over Ravagers and more Kabalites.

I'll let you know how I get on and hopefully add some pictures next week

Dark Eldar Progress

Just a few work in progress pictures of the Dark Eldar so far, I'd just finished the razorwing and my wife had the camera out so took a few pictures.

Unfortunately it turns out I had it on the wrong setting so apologies for the poor quality pics but a friend has offered to help me take some better ones once the 1500 is finished.

Getting there now, I have another 2 venoms in progress right now which should be done by the end of the week, and a couple more units of kabalites, then it's just the ravagers to do for the campaign list.

Anyway, picture dump coming up!

  

Court of the Archon finished (Minus basing) // A few Bolt Action pics

Still need to do the bases but have to wait for those to arrive from the U.S. - Didn't think to order any 40mm ones when I first got them as I didn't have the Sslyth at the time.

Nothing spectacular but I'm happy with the overall effect for a couple of evenings work, Quite chuffed with the colouring on the Sslyth. Not really happy with the green rags on the Medusae but I wanted to try and tie the unit together and think it needed the green to do that.

It's worth noting that my Eldar project lasted all of one game as my opponent just didn't have a good time against my Eldar/Harlequins list (I had tried to tone it down by adding 750pts of Harlequins but obviously not enough) therefore I just decided to finish my Dark Eldar and run those for the campaign instead.

Still have to post some of my Bolt Action bits but I seem to have deleted some of the pictures on my phone so can't post full army pics right now. I'm at the event on Saturday so will try and take some pictures then if not before.

For now just a few pics of some of the bits that I could find. Bit of a mish mash sorry!

A little Painting Progress // And some Blood Bowl!

Haven't had much time to pick up a brush lately as I've either been playing and/or too tired in the evenings to pick up the brush.

Did a little more work on my Autarch though and finished off the armour before laying the first couple of coats down on his cloak (Troll Slayer Orange)

I quite like the contrast with the armour but I'm not convinced on how it'll look with my Purple / Black / Blue Dark Eldar and then Blue / White / Orange Eldar.

I managed to christen my new table last Friday with a 1k doubles game (2k per side total) of Tau/Dark Eldar/Eldar against Marines and Grey Knights which was good fun, ending on T5 with the Imperials 1 VP up. None of our lists were optimised and it was a friendly game but good fun and although we got smashed turn 1-2 we came back strong and only just lost it in the end.

I also got a demo game of Blood Bowl in on Wednesday evening at the club after playing it a lot on my tablet recently. I really enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to getting a Pro Elf team painted up for the "Exe Bowl" tournament in October. 

I'm sure I'll get smashed but hopefully I'll have some fun too!

Finished Second batch of Kabalites and Archon

Nothing much done on Saturday night as my team had a fantastic win over Liverpool (Stoke City 6 - 1 Liverpool) so I had to watch the match in full again in the evening!

I did manage to get the second batch of Kabalites with the Archon finished on Sunday/Monday evening though and it feels good now that at least I have a minimum CAD painted up! (I do have 8 Wyches painted too but the less said about those the better...)

I'm not sure about the Archon, I'm kinda happy he's done, but I'm also regretting just lumping him in with the Kabalites as a batch paint job rather than spending some extra time on him.

Maybe at some point I'll go back over and give him a little more love but at least I can put a painted HQ choice down on the table for now.

I've a 1000pt game on Friday evening for which I'm going to try and field as much as I can painted so will try and take some pictures of everything I have together at that point on my new board.

At the moment then my painted Dark Eldar list looks like this:

HQ: Archon with Shadowfield, Huskblade, Soul Trap
Dedicated Venom with 2 x Splinter Cannon

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: Troop: 8 Wyches with Hekatrix (Agoniser and Haywire Grenades) and Wych with Hydra Gauntlets
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lance and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Disintegrator Cannon and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: 3 Reaver Jetbikes with 1 Blaster and Cluster Caltrops

1000pt First Week Results // Further Eldar Assembly // Imperial Assault Frustrations

1000pt Results (Maelstrom)

2 Games last Wednesday to tell you about, my list was as per last week's update:

Medusae
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster
Solarite with Power Lance (Warlord)

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Disintegrator cannon]

First game was Cloak and Shadows against a mechanised Imperial Guard army with a HQ Tank, 3 Troops Tanks and a Tank Destroyer thing with a massive gun, plus a Vendetta

Took out one of the tanks early on and the scourges dropped in turn 2 and over 2 turns took out another tank each, Lost one of the Ravagers and the Scourge units both died once they'd done their job but generally I flew around and claimed objectives whilst firing off lances and haywire at tanks.

I felt a bit bad for Chris as he's a nice chap but my army is pretty good at taking out armoured targets, and even with the Venom and Medusa being useless in this matchup I had plenty of tools for taking out the tanks. The Vendetta did cause a bit of a problem but my Ravager with DC's got behind him the turn after he showed up (Turn 3) and then followed it around firing shots into it's back armour and forcing him to jink, making it pretty ineffective.

Ended up winning the game 13-2, the mobility of the army really helps for Maelstrom missions!

Second game was Cleanse and Control against a friend's Scout army (Sentinels of Terra)

He ran something like:

ML2 Librarian
5 Bolter Scouts
5 Scout Snipers
5 BP + CC Scouts with a Heavy Bolter
3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers
Mortis Dread with 2 x twin Auto Cannon
Dread with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist
Vindicator
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Aegis Defence Line

Good fun game and really close until turn 5 as I had to jink less and less as threats were taken out I was able to take the game away a little and ended at the end of t5 with a librarian and a couple of scouts left. Ended up winning 7-4.

Overall I was fairly happy with my list, I think the Ravager with Disintegrator Cannons definitely has a place and came in useful both games. There was plenty of anti tank whilst still retaining some decent infantry killing between the kabalites / venom (28 poison shots and 2 blasters in close range) plus the Disintegrator Ravager and the Ap3 Flamer from the Medusa. I'm not sure how I'd cope against a horde army like Nids or Orks but I think I'd still give it a good game.

Scourges I don't think I'd deep strike again, both games they came in and did something but they were pretty much suicide squads which is potentially fine, but if I can take out their targets without getting them killed then even better. Nice to have the option though I suppose.

I think two games in a night is starting to be a stretch now though so I'm likely to only get one game in a week from now on.

-----------------------------

Assembly

Just to keep a track of progress here, I managed to get 6 Striking Scorpions and a Support Platform done over the weekend, the Striking Scorpions took ages as the finecast was pretty bad and had to be very careful cutting bits away, will need to go back over these with green stuff at some point.

The Support Weapon Battery I enjoyed making and I really like the figure, nice to have the options without having to magnetise as well as they just slot on top.

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Imperial Assault

Had another game of this on Friday and we're now on about the 7th mission I think? We played the "Sorry about the Mess" side mission and it just felt impossible for the Imperial Player, I think the Story missions are balanced fantastically well but the Side missions just don't seem to have had that same thought go into them, much less detailed and they don't scale.

If we'd have played this Side mission as the first mission, the Rebels may have had a challenge, but as the 5th? Side Mission they just blew through it.

We'll need to think of a way to balance out the Side Missions I think, or I'll have to play more of a GM type role and add in things randomly to provide that challenge.

Oh well, I'm just a bit disappointed after my initial enjoyment of the game, I still hold high hopes for the Skirmish version though as that seems to be balanced well with a good variety of missions and the deck building element of it looks great too.

Assembly Progress // 1000pt Dark Eldar list

Hi guys,

Apologies I haven't posted for a while, been busy trying to get everything finished for my 1000pt list in the Escalation League and reading through the new Eldar Codex.

Some quick assembly pictures below for my Scourge and final Ravager

Scourges:

The plan is to do 4 with Haywire and 4 with Blasters then make the other 12 with Carbines and I will use them as two units of 6 Swooping Hawks in my Eldar armies for now as I prefer the Scourge figures.

Trying to therefore do all the Swooping Hawks with the Hawk Wings and the Special Weapons with the bat like wings but sadly I'd already made one of them up with Bat Wings so that one will look a little out of place for now.

Ravager:

I probably should do this with Lances but I do like the Disintegrator Cannon version (9 S5 AP2 shots) and I hopefully will have anti tank covered at 1000pts with 2 other Ravagers, plus the Raiders lances, plus two units of Haywire Scourges. This one is therefore my MEQ and TEQ hunter, going after elite infantry and wreaking havoc hopefully.

For those of you interested, this is my current thoughts for a 1000pt list.

Court of the Archon (85pts) [Medusae]
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster
··Solarite [Shardcarbine]

Venom (65pts) [2 Splinter Cannon]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (110pts) [3 Disintegrator cannon]

Finally a small update with a start on assembly for my Eldar:

Brief Report of 750 Dark Eldar vs Blood Angels Drop Pod Assault

So on the back of the tailoring article on Wednesday I did play two games in the evening vs an Imperial Guard player and then Blood Angels.

I won't report much on the first game as it was pretty one sided in the most part.

He ran:

Leman Russ Vanquisher with Camo Netting
Leman Russ Destroyer? with Camo Netting (The thing with a Demolisher Cannon)
Leman Russ Destroyer? with Camo Netting
Vendetta with lots of Las Cannons and Heavy Bolters

Basically my Ravagers blew up one of the Troops first turn while my Blasters and Haywire Blasters from Scourges took out another, my Venom ran and hid on an objective.

Rest of the game was firing absolutely everything at his HQ Tank and him passing 13-14 cover saves on a 3+ and when I finally gave up and flew over him to get no cover shots... he passed the cover saves on a 6.

Regardless though his Vendetta and Vanquisher just couldn't kill enough to stop me grabbing 3 of the objective to his 1 (Went into hover with the vendetta turn 5) and won 11-4 (He had one objective and one for destroying  a Heavy, I had 3, line breaker and first blood)

-----------------

Second game against Blood Angels was much more interesting, as per my article Wednesday I did run a more balanced list (not just kabalites in transports) that I felt would give me more of a chance.

This is the two lists:

Blood Angels:

Sanguinary Priest with Combi Melta and Auspex
7 Sternguard with Heavy Flamer, Flamer, 2 Combi Meltas
Drop Pod

10 Tactical Marines with Heavy Flamer/Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread with Frag Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist
Drop Pod

5 Tactical Marines with Heavy Bolter

------------------

Dark Eldar:

Medusa
Raider with Enhanced Aethersails

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider

5 Scourges with 4 Haywire Blasters

Venom with 2x Splinter Cannon

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

------------------

So looking at his list I was still very worried about the flamers (2 S6 // 3 S5 // 2 S 4), but hoping that by deploying my kabalites in reserve I'd be able to limit the damage done.

Mission was Relic and Night Fighting was in effect, I won the roll and asked Fred to deploy his Blood Angels first and I would go second, reasoning if I went first I'd only be able to hurt the 5 tac marines, and I wanted to be able to go last come the end of the game.

I deployed my Scourges and Medusa (Not joined) in the bottom right corner and spaced all my vehicles to block access to them and try and limit how many vehicles he could catch with one template.

He landed the Dread and Sternguard first turn, pretty much central and as close to my deployment zone as he could get. Frag Cannon explodes a Ravager and stuns a Raider while the Sternguard blow up the venom. Painful but not as bad as it could have been had my kabalites been sat in their vehicles.

I managed to put 2 HP and immobilise the dread but couldn't finish it off, Medusa got 8 marines under the template and wounded 4... which they all save with FNP due to the Sanguinary Priest. Disappointing!

Most of the rest of the game involved me trying to run away whilst firing what I could into the Sternguard to whittle them down. The Dread went down T2 with a Disintegrator Cannon in the back, but by T4 I had 1 Raider on 2 Hull Points hiding on the far left, 1 Ravager on 2 Hull Points and 1 Kabalite with Blaster on the right near his deployment zone, and my other unit of kabalites at full strength about halfway up the field in the centre. He had 2 Sternguard, 10 Tac Marines, and the 5 man Combat Squad. Not looking good!

Turn 5 he started moving his Combat Squad towards the objective but they were still a good 5-6 inches short after running. The Sternguard moved and charged the Ravager, putting a Hull Point on it, while the 10 Marines ran towards the Relic, ending about 1/2 " from it.

I moved the Raider within 1" of the objective and everything moved and fired at the marines by the Relic, between them killing I think 5-6 marines but leaving a few still within 3" of the Relic.

We rolled for end of game and hit a 2 so tallied up the scores. I had Slay the Warlord to his First Blood and Slay the Warlord. I checked with my opponent what detachment he was running and it was the Blood Angels specific one so no Objective Secured. My Raider therefore could steal the Relic from under the nose of the Tactical Marines and claim the win for me at 4-2.

Overall I was pretty happy with the game. I think I played reasonably well and did what I could to minimise the alpha strike, I was unfortunate with the Ravager exploding and my opponent passing 4 FNP on the Sternguard  but that's dice for you. By t2 it was clear that the only way I was going to win was through the objective, so I did what I could to pull the marines after my Ravager and Kabalites etc. to try and ensure they wouldn't go and sit on the objective, which would have made it almost impossible for me to shift them (If they pick it up I'm pretty sure I can't claim it by being in 3")

My main learning points from the 2 games were:

• As long as I've got a plan for my opponent bringing drop pods, I "can" limit the destruction they cause and not automatically lose the game. I think my deployment worked well to limit the damage and although it hurt me (1 Ravager, the Venom and stunning the Raider meant it was pretty much confined to dying t2) I was happy enough after his first turn that I would still be able to strike back. I think if we hadn't been doing the relic mission it would have been easier for me to leave the marines there and fly off, but sadly they were within 10-12" of the Relic the whole game so I couldn't just leave them to themselves.

• Objective Secured is huge, I think the way Dark Eldar play you need to have this and it's fantastic that you can take an absolute pounding, be almost completely tabled, but that one Raider can still win you the game from almost anywhere on the board (12" move, 24" boost with aethersails)

• Scourges with Haywire Blasters are fantastic reliable anti tank, I've not really used them before, preferring to spam Raiders with Kabalites in, but there is a massive difference between glancing on a 4 and glancing on a 2. These have definitely won a bump up my painting queue and I'll likely be using two units with 4 Haywire in most of my games in future. 240pts for 8 haywire shots from 36" away (12" move, 24" range) seems great value, and with a 4+ save and 5+ FNP from T3, they're a fairly survivable unit by Dark Eldar standards.

List Tailoring at 750pts - Thoughts?

Not much painting progress sorry as I've been doing more assembly than painting, getting my 3rd Venom and 3rd Ravager assembled ready for the jump to 1k points.

Also had some problems with my airbrush which have delayed me somewhat so haven't managed to get the basecoats on my other Ravagers yet.

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Tailoring

List tailoring has become a bit of a hot topic in our group of friends the last few days, some say this is how GW wants us to play the game nowadays, and ensures that you bring the right tools for the job, others will say "all comers" lists are much more interesting.

I'm definitely in the all comers camp but have had issues in my last few games with people seeming to have "figured out" my Dark Eldar, meaning that every game I play against, everything is full of flamers.

As you can expect, when my tactic is built around troops in open topped transports, this is NOT FUN.

My last game involved me taking 8D6 hits on my units on the first turn from units of assault marines with 2 flamers in dropping in and toasting my Kabalites/Wyches. When I tried to counter charge with the remaining Wyches, the whole unit died to overwatch fire from flamers.

As I'm sure you'll realise, this leads to games that are... NOT FUN. Wyches, taken for fluff reasons, are rendered absolutely useless as the last thing I want to do is charge into a wall of fire.

So I'm going to give "tailoring" a go tonight and run a list that can hopefully survive against flamers and then give a decent counter punch. I'm still trying to keep it able to deal with a variety of lists but keeping in mind that there is likely to be a flamer around every corner.

This is my 750 list then:

Court of the Archon - Medusae 25pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Enhanced Aethersails 60pts

5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster 55pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon 55pts

5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster 55pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon 55pts

5 Scourges with Solarite (Warlord) and 4 Haywire Blasters 130pts

Venom 65pts

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances 125pts

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances 125pts

The plan would be to deploy empty transports and the Ravagers to ensure not being wiped Turn 1 by drop podding troops/dreadnoughts, T1 there will be 3 Raiders, 2 Ravagers, and the Venom on the table. 

The Scourges will reserve and likely walk on T2-3 hopefully to add some additional anti armour to the Ravagers.

Kabalites and Medusae reserve and walk on when they come in, embarking into their transports which then get them to where they need to be, hopefully after all pods etc. have landed.

Medusae is there as a cheap HQ option and to try and punish any marines who land too close to my Deployment Zone (Should get into a transport 8" onto the table, then it moves 6" and she can fire out of the far end, with a raider I wouldn't be surprised if this can hit anything in my table half with an AP3 template.

The List doesn't have a massive amount of anti tank, but there is still 8 lances and 4 Haywire Blasters which hopefully at 750pts will be enough.

What do you think of the List?

What thoughts do you have on List Tailoring?

Is the list balanced enough to run as an "all comers" List?

Airbrush Stencilling // Hobby Update // 1000pt Dark Eldar vs Crimson Fists this evening

Hi guys,

Quick update with some progress, I'm afraid most of it is pretty boring but just got some progress on assembly / priming.

Before...

Got the airbrush out last night and primed some more of my Dark Eldar bits as well as spraying over some I had bought second hand on ebay. I also managed to get some of the characters primed for my Harlequins so that I can get started on those when I feel the urge.

After...

Managed to Prime:

Dark Eldar Scenery Piece
Archon
12 Kabalites (3 Blasters, 1 Sybarite, 1 Splinter Cannon)
2 Ravagers

Solitaire
2 Death Jesters
2 Shadowseers

Drop Pod
Marine w. Heavy Flamer
Dreadnought

I do find the airbrush a much better way to prime then the spray cans, you're able to direct the spray much better and can put a much lighter coat on them. It is a bit of a pain having to get it all out and then clean and put it away afterwards but I think it's worth it.

I also managed to have a play around with some stencils and I'm quite happy with the results, the stencils are from a recent kickstarter I backed from Anarchy Models and are the Dragon Scale pattern ones, I really like the effect and think it'll look good once they're painted up. I have some hex ones for the Aether Sails of the Ravagers as well as some Diamond ones for the Harlequin vehicles

The picture at the top is a better close up and you can see the one on the right I had a bit of splatter from the airbrush with so I'll need to clean that up, they also look much brighter than they are in the flesh, for a better idea of the colours/brightness look at the army shot.

For anyone interested in how I used the stencils I just held them over the area I wanted to put the pattern and sprayed over with some white paint, then went over the area with a purple shade (Druchi Violet) afterwards to try and tint the white and blend it in a bit more. Might need to put a couple more coats of this on to make the effect more subtle but wanted to consider it rather than just do it on the night then regret it.

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Following that I managed to get another batch of 4 Kabalites started last night and I'm painting my Archon along with them. (Not going to put a lot of time into this model as I plan to convert my own eventually but I'd like to get him on the table painted for now)

That would put me on the following painted:

Archon in Venom
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
8 Wyches with Hekatrix and Hydrae in Raider


Feels like I'm slowly getting there with the army and I have a few other bits at various stages of completion like the two jetfighters above, a unit of 3 Reaver Jetbikes and a second Venom that just need to be finished off.

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1000 pt Game this evening

I also have a friend coming round this evening with Crimson Fists for a game at 1000pts playing a Maelstrom mission. He normally brings quite a competitive list so I'm going to try out the list I wanted to use for the league once it kicks up to 1000pts in May.

Archon with Blaster and Haywire Grenades in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)

5 Kabalites with Blaster in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)

Razorwing Jetfighter (2 x Dark Lance and 4 x Monoscythe Missiles)

Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)
Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)

Hopefully has the tools to deal with a variety of lists, with 9 Lance shots initially and extra as the Blasters come into play and the Razorwing arrives. Not sure the Razorwing is worth it but it's my only anti air if he brings any flyers.

Will try and take some pictures this evening and post them up some time in the next couple of days, possibly as a battle report if I've time, if not then just a few pictures and a brief overview of the game.


Sorry for the info dump, I view this blog as somewhere I can dump my own thoughts so I can look back on it as much as anything and I am aware it's content may not be the best format for everyone!

Rich

Quick Update on 750 League Progress and first impressions of Imperial Assault Skirmish

So still only played one game at 750 I'm afraid as we played our first game of Imperial Assault Skirmish on Wednesday at the club.

I played against my mates Sentinels of Terra scout army and it was a good game, could have gone either way until the last turn really.

I went with the slightly fluffier option as below, it's still a reasonable list I think but the Wyches and Succubus are definitely not a great option at this points level, with that unit coming in at a third of my points (255)

Succubus with Archite Glaive and Haywire Grenades

6 Wyches with Hekatrix (Agoniser)

Raider with Dark Lance

5 Kabalites with Blaster

Raider with Dark Lance

5 Kabalites with Blaster

Raider with Dark Lance

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances

He ran:

Librarian ML2 (Pyromancy)

5 Scouts with BP+CCW and a Heavy Bolter

5 Scouts with Bolters

5 Scouts with 4 Snipers and a ML

3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers

Dreadnought with Ass Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist

Vindicator

Land Speeder with HF and MM

Land Speeder with HF and MM

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By the end of the game I had the Ravager left and one Immobilised Raider, He had the Dreadnought on 1 HP, the Librarian with CC Scouts, and 2 of the Snipers.

Succubus and Wyches got out to deal with the Scout Bikers and then Bolter Scouts when their transport got stunned and probably should have stayed inside, but there was little in the list they could really do much to.

Ravager and Raiders took out the two Land Speeders as early priority, with the Succubus finishing one by charging in with Haywire Grenades. Tried to keep the Dreadnought stunned and did so two turns in a row but it still recovered in time for trashing my last raider on his objective on T5.

Ended with a 7-2 Win for the Fists and I'm going to have to change the list up again to avoid the Wyches I think at least until a higher points level. Not sure though as against a different list with more infantry it might have had more luck. Charging a couple hundred point unit in to deal with 3 scout bikes and 5 scout bolters seemed a waste though.

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Imperial Assault Skirmish

Very quickly - positive feelings about this after our first game, seemed very tactical and I can see loads of variation in list building with the deployment and command decks both offering options.

We just grabbed some random command cards for the first game but I've put together a list now for next time we play Skirmish (Maybe Sunday evening)

On Wed we went with:

Rebel High Command

Luke

Fenn

Diala

Mak

Elite Rebel Troopers

vs

Royal Guard Champion

Royal Guard

Royal Guard

Elite Officer

Officer 

Officer

We played "Get to The Ship" from the core rule book

Was a good game and the last couple of turns was hectic. Fenn legged it in to contest the consoles with the last activation of one round, then activated first next round and used "Marksman" command card to get a shot through my officer and into the last Royal Guard to win the game for the Rebels at 40-38

I really think the game is likely to be popular, the only thing stopping it is likely the buy in as you really need the core box for the map tiles and command cards as well as it giving you a good amount of figures. I think £60 is harder to swallow than the £25 needed for X-Wing, even though that £25 likely turns into £50-60 once you've put a squad together.

Hopefully get an update up after the weekend, I've mostly been doing assembly, so I have my first Harlequin Troupe assembled, along with a Death Jester and Shadow Seer, as well as a new Archon for my Dark Eldar.

Completed first unit of Kabalites // Escalation League moving to 750

Just a quick post to update with progress as I completed the first of my 5 man units of Kabalites yesterday evening.

I'm quite happy with the results and do feel as though I'm progressing as well as starting to understand the need to speed through some things for the sake of painting a full army.

I'm sure it's by no means impressive to most of you, but for me managing to paint 5 figures in just over a week represents a significant improvement.

Not quite sure what to start on next, the escalation league has kicked up to 750 now and I'm considering bringing the Wyches back into play a bit more although I'm not sure I can do so before 1k without nerfing my anti tank a bit too much.

I think I'm going to have to use Ravagers and I currently have 1.5 of those built so I imagine the next project will be to complete assembly on the three Ravagers and then get the hulls of those done using the airbrush.

I'm thinking of something like the following for 750pts, at 400 I ended on 10 games, 8 wins 2 losses and I'm pretty happy with that. I'd like to aim to keep my win ratio around 75% or above.

HQ - Archon with Blaster // Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons (Venom painted)

Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster // Raider with Dark Lance (All painted)
Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster // Raider with Dark Lance (Raider painted)
Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster // Raider with Dark Lance (Raider painted)

Fast Attack - Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances and 4 Monoscythe Missiles (Airbrushed but not detailed yet)

Heavy Support - Ravager with 3 Dark Lances (Assembled awaiting priming)

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If I want to bring the Wyches in instead I could do something like:

HQ - Succubus with Archite Glaive and Haywire Grenades (Assembled awaiting priming)

Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster // Raider with Dark Lance (All painted)
Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster // Raider with Dark Lance (Raider painted)
Troops - 6 Wyches, Hekatrix with Agoniser // Raider with Dark Lance (All painted)

Fast Attack - Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances and 4 Monoscythe Missiles (Airbrushed but not detailed yet)

Heavy Support - Ravager with 3 Dark Lances (Assembled awaiting priming)

Any thoughts?

Last week of Combat Patrol with Dark Eldar

Hi guys,

quick update, Wednesday night I played two more games at the club against the 1st place and 3rd place players (I was 2nd)

First game was against the guy in 1st who was a nice guy and we'd played before and had a good time so I enjoyed the match.

He had something like:

Inquisitor with 10 guys, Plasma Cannon and Heavy Bolter Servitor things in this unit.
10 Guardsmen with 3 Plasma Guns in a Chimera with Multi Laser and Heavy Bolter
5 Guardsmen with Plasma Gun in a Razorback with TL Assault Cannons
5 Guardsmen with Plasma Gun

First turn he advanced and got a shot off with the Assault cannon but the rest was out of range and/or missed.

My turn I moved onto an objective and shot everything at the Razorback, blowing it up and killing all but 1 of the unit inside between everything firing into them (couldn't see the Chimera)

His Turn 2 he moved round with the Chimera, fired the lone Plasma Gunner into one raider exploded it, The Chimera took out a second raider, and the Guys inside fired 3 plasma guns and 2 bolters at the other Raider and destroyed that.

Not a good couple of turns...

So from there I didn't really have much of a chance, two units with Blasters were pinned, all my units were disembarked, and he had his Inquisitor and 10 guys on a 4 pt objective in the far corner... Not happening.

Nice guy though and sometimes the dice just don't work for you, I couldn't pass a jink save for toffee and that Chimera was just absolutely BRUTAL (4 S4 Bolter shots // 3 S5 Heavy Bolter // 3 S6 Multi Laser // 6 S7 Plasma Gun all re-rolling 1's to hit for an objective...)

Second game was against Necrons and this guy was the chap I'd lost as he walked over everyone at Kill Team. (9 Tomb Blades with Ignores Cover Gauss all in single model units at 200pts is crazy)

His list was something like:

10 Tomb Blades with Ignores Cover and 3+ Saves (2 S6 Blast Weapons in here)
5 Immortals
5 Immortals

Dice went horribly for me again and first turn 4 Lance Shots on 2's to wound, and 9 DC shots on 3's to wound, all with no save (didn't jink) and then 36 poison shots left... 2 dead Tomb Blades.

Then to add insult to injury, my Venom holding an objective rolled sabotage, then a 1 for it to explode, then 5 S4 hits, which then blew it up... At this stage I'm thinking this isn't going to be my evening.

Anyway, over the next couple of turns I finished off the bikes for the loss of 2 Raiders and 1 of the units inside them, and one unit of Immortals that had walked across by now. We called it on T4 as he couldn't stop me boosting over to his side of the table for linebreaker without moving his Immortals off the objective which would make the loss even worse, giving me the game at 5-4 (Objective // Slay The Warlord // Linebreaker vs Objective // First Blood)

The dice were horrible to me throughout the game but eventually after firing approx 30-35 AP2 shots and dozens of poison shots the Bikes went down, and the rest was much easier from there, I was saved by the fact that he could only take out 1 target a turn.

After the league table was updated I'm now at 5th with my first opponent still top and the Necron player just below me in 6th. So far I've won 5 of my 6 games but my objective points aren't high enough to lift me any further sadly as some of the games I've won with low scores. (The league is ranked by Objective Score Rate, gained by dividing the amount of Primary and Secondary objectives you have got so far by your win rate)

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Thursday night I went back to my Raiders and did the bases before I move on to the Kabalites, as the ones I'd done "yellow" (Don't ever try and shade this with Nuln Oil) had just gone a slimy green. I think they look much better with the light grey and it makes the Purple stand out a lot more, I'm pretty happy with these now and I think once I've gone back and done the crew they'll look pretty good. (Or at least to a level I'm happy with! :) )

Kabalite Test Figure Complete

Finished the test figure last night and I'm pretty chuffed with it for a quick scheme..

Took a bit longer then I thought to finish off as I started to base it by line highlighting the Alien Temple base but I didn't like the look of it and felt it was taking focus away from the figure so I went back and painted it grey in the end which I'm satisfied with.

Things I'm not quite sure about:

The brown pouch, could be grey instead to limit the palette as it looks out of place?

The red ribbons (For want of a better name) I'm not sure about either, I like the idea of putting a bit of red on the model but I'm not 100% sure this is the right place for it.

Overall though, I'm happy that I can replicate these results at a decent pace and at a standard I'm happy with as I've never been a great painter.

I'm going to try and get another few of these painted up next week as a batch of 5 to see how quickly they can be done and hopefully I will be able to post about my success when I get back from our holiday.

Just as a heads up, as a result of going on holiday next week I'm unlikely to be posting here until the end of the month now (Potentially a quick one on Thursday to let you know how my latest round of the Escalation league went - Last one at 400pts for me this week before the jump to 750)

Kabalite Test Figure // Second attempt at first play through Imperial Assault

Friday - Imperial Assault

Spent Friday evening starting the Campaign for Imperial Assault with a second group on Friday night, this being a group with mates I normally game with on a Wednesday rather than the previous group which was guys from work who were interested in trying it.

It went down much better this time and we had a blast.

A couple of the guys weren't able to make it so there were 3 of us total in the end with 2 Rebels and me as the Imperial. I'd read that the missions are more balanced with 4 hero's and this gives us the option of other people joining in future missions, so each player chose two heroes and we skipped the tutorial to start with the first mission - Aftermath.

The rules were grasped very quickly and the mission went well, with the Heroes quickly blowing away the forces outside the building and getting in, only to have two of them trapped inside and surrounded.

The party fought their way out of trouble though and despite my exploding Probe Droid antics, the final terminal went down on the last round, with a couple of actions to spare.

We then went on to Diala's story mission and I won't pop any spoilers here, but it was awesome, the Rebels seemed to breeze this one a bit but it could have been a lot different at the end when I thought the last Imperial was alive to attack back with 1 health left, only for Diala to use Force Push and smash him back against a wall for the kill. 

By the end of the evening the guys were both asking when we could get the next game in and were very excited about the combination of advances and equipment they now had. (Diala with a lightsaber and Balanced Hilt looks like she'll be nasty)

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Saturday - Airbrushing (Apologies for poor pic)

Saturday evening I managed to pull the airbrush out while my wife worked on a dress for the girls for Easter, I managed to pull my airbrush apart and clean it and finally found what was causing some niggling problems, the Nozzle had some dried paint in it and once that was cleared it was much better again (although I'm still finding it clogs up very quickly and I have to pick paint off the needle every minute or so to prevent splatter)

I got some Kabalites primed black and did my Flying Bases black as well as I have started to prefer that since I did it with my X-Wing mini's.

Then I thought I'd make a start on the flyers themselves and a Venom so I sprayed on a thin dusting of Vallejo "Alien Purple" before going in and trying to pick out the edges and raised bits with the same colour. 

With my Raiders I had previously used "Drakenhoff Nightshade" to wash over them through the airbrush and this had worked well but I had seen a video tutorial that used the Vallejo Purple Ink instead so I thought I'd give that a go.

In the end I definitely prefer the first method using Drakenhoff Nightshade, with the Vallejo Ink I found that the ink coloured by itself, more than blended my colours together which I think is what I liked about the GW version. I'm sure that's working as intended, but for my purposes it wasn't quite what I was looking for so now I'm not sure whether to leave as is, or to do them again with the Drakenhoff Nightshade.

For now I'm edging towards "they'll be ok" but I'll have a look at them next to the Raiders before deciding.

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Sunday - Kabalite Test Mini almost finished

Sunday was Mothering Sunday in the UK so we bought takeaway in the evening from a nice curry house locally, my wife obviously didn't trust me cooking for her and probably a fair shout that.

Didn't have too much time left in the evening but I wanted to test the colour scheme for my army on a Kabalite, given that I seem to be moving away from a Wych Cult and more towards Kabal.

I found a good tutorial on a quick paint scheme here and used that with some changes in colour for my own Kabal. (Subbed the Turquoise for two drybrushes of Alien Purple and then Dechala Lilac for the final highlight, before washing with Draknhoff Nightshade // Eyes were done with Teclis Blue / Lothern Blue and then washed with Asurmen Blue)

It's not quite finished yet but I'm happy with how it's coming out, I did about 1.5 hours on this last night and another half hour it should be finished which for me is pretty quick. I think if I did them in batches of 5 I could do 5 in 6 hours, which is about 3 evenings painting for me.

Hopefully I'll be able to post up the finished Test Mini tomorrow

Dark Eldar Combat Patrol at 400pts - Imperial Guard (No pics again I'm afraid)

Same list as the previous game but repeated here in case you're reading through archives:


5 Kabalites with Blaster (Warlord here)
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Enhanced Aethersails

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons

His list was something like: (Pardon my butchering but I don't know what the leaders etc. are called)

Platoon:
Command Squad: Sergeant, Grenade Launcher, Autocannon, 2 grunts
Squad 1: Autocannon, Grenade Launcher, 8 grunts
Squad 2: Autocannon, Melta Gun, 8 grunts
Squad 3: Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 8 grunts
Squad 4: Missile Launcher, Melta Gun, 8 grunts

Wyvern (I think?) Had 2 Barrage 2 shots at S4 each turn.

Mission: The Scouring (Fast Attack are 1 additional VP, random points for objectives)

First Turn: I win it and deploy first/go first

Deployment:

2 Raiders and the Venom on my right behind a ruins, the other raider goes on the left as I was hoping to get a side shot on the Wyvern (Didn't think that through probably)

He deployed the Wyvern in the far left corner and diagonally, I'm not getting a side shot on that from anywhere. Squads 2 and 4 go on the left deployed separately but both in front of the Wyvern, one in ruins, the other in the open.

Squads 1 and 3 combine into a blob and sit on the right in ruins, with the command squad behind them.

He failed to seize, we flipped the objectives to find them laid out as below:

My near left corner: 3
Far left corner: 3
Central and about 10" on: 2
Pretty much centre of table: 2
My near right corner: 4
Far right corner: 1

Initial assessment is it's quite nice for me, I have the 4 already, and feel he'll struggle to get to it with his horde of infantry, he has a 3 and a 1, but the others are unlikely to be claimed by him as he's not particularly mobile. The Wyvern will worry me once I'm dismounted, but needs a 6 to glance before then, the Heavy weapons are concerning, but there aren't "that" many of them and I'm happy jinking and taking my chances, I'm not sure he has enough weapons to down all 3 raiders and a venom, and if he doesn't manage that, I can dive on the objectives at the end.

Turn 1

Night Fighting is in effect. Top left and bottom right objectives are nothing of note, his blob squad is sitting on re-roll 1's though...

Raider on the left moves forwards and the DC and Kabalites fire into the front Squad with the Autocannon, which breaks and flees off the board.

2 Raiders on the right start chipping away at the blob and kill I think 3 of them, can't draw LOS to the Command Squad.

Venom moves forward and shoots the other squad on the left and kills 3, they stay put though.

No Movement from the Guard, the command squad and blob squad shoot two separate raiders which both jink, one takes a HP. On the left the Wyvern shoots the Raider and fails to glance, the missile launcher misses (jinked raider here too)

 Turn 2

Raider on the left moves forward 6" and fires at the guard in front again, joined by the Venom, I think maybe 3 left in the unit after this but they stay around again.

Raiders on the right get a bead on the Command squad and kill 3 of them, leaving the Autocannon and the commander alive after he passes LOS.

Wyvern fires and hits with 4 again but fails to glance, Missile launcher fires and misses.

On the right the blob shoot one of the Raiders which explodes killing 3 but leaving the Warlord and one kabalite alive.

Command squad move out of site of the other raider and the AC snap shoots at the venom and shakes it.

 Turn 3

The other raider on the right disembarks it's passengers who go and sit on the 4pt objective, it then moves closer to the blob squad.

Venom moves onto the centre objective and snap shoots at the Command Squad, between this and the DC on the left raider they finish them off.

The Squad inside the raider on the left shoot at the remainder of the unit in the ruins and finish them off leaving the Wyvern in the top left, and the depleted blob squad occupying the ruins in the top right (maybe 15 left here still)

Blob squad shoots at the raider and immobilise it. Wyvern hits but fails to pen the other Raider again (Not sure why he didn't shoot my dismounted kabalites but think he had given up by this point)

 Turn 4

Left Raider nudges forward to get Line Breaker and the objective, the squad inside shoots the Wyvern but miss

Right raider is immobilised but fires into the blob squad killing 1, it's passengers are still sat on the 4pt objective in my DZ.

Warlord and the other kabalite jump into the empty, immobilised raider and throw some fire at the blob.

Venom shoots into the Blob squad and kills 4-5 including the autocannon, they pass their LD test.

Turn 5

Kabalites sit on 4pt objective, Raider in top left has a 3pt objective, my Venom moves back 12" into my bottom left onto the other 3pt objective.

Venom and Immobilised Raider fire into the blob squad again and kill a few more, they pass their LD again.

Kabalites in the top left raider fire at the Wyvern next to them again but still can't hit it (it's about 3" away!)

Wyvern fires into the Raider in front of him again but can't pen it still, missile launcher and the grenade launcher from the blob shoot the immobilised raider but can only glance it down to 1HP.

We roll for game to carry on and it doesn't,

13 to 1 victory for the Dark Eldar  (4VP, 3VP, 3VP, Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker)

Conclusions

This list seems very effective as it's able to take on a wide variety of targets and once it gets up close it's pretty brutal with a lot of rapid firing poison. I was worried about the amount of guardsmen but actually the list has the ROF to take out a good amount of them even if most of the time they were in 4+ cover.

I think I played it reasonably well, I probably should have kept all the raiders together, and maybe ignored the blob squad as I never really hurt it much, but overall it worked out well.

Looking at his list I'm not sure how he would ever have got to the objectives he needed to be honest.

Thoughts?

Dark Eldar Combat Patrol at 400pts - Battle Report vs. Orks (No pics sorry)

So took my Dark Eldar down to the club again last night and had a couple of games, this is the list I took down, I've kinda given up on Wyches at this level as I came upon the situation last week where I had NOTHING that could scratch his tanks after first turn because the only real anti tank was the Raiders themselves.

I'll post a second Battle Report later today/tomorrow with my second game

5 Kabalites with Blaster (Warlord here)
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Enhanced Aethersails

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons

First game was against a good mate who I'd arranged to play as I got a bit frustrated with "lack of clarity around rules" last week and just wanted a relaxing game where I didn't have to check the rules every couple of minutes.

He is doing a Luftwaaaghfer (get it!?!?) Ork army with a distinct aerial theme so I was kinda scared of his bomber but hoped to avoid it without taking too much damage. Please note this is a very fluffy list and I'm fairly sure it is not intended to be competitive at this level.

Snikrot

10 Ork Boys with TL Shoota on Nob and a Rockit Launcha
Ork Truk with Rockit Launcha

Some sort of artillery piece with 4 grot crew? S7 AP2 gets hot - Looked really cool :)

10? grots with Runtherder (Warlord)

Blitza Bomber

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Relic Mission

He won first turn and deployed the Ork Truk on his right flank (my left) with the Runtherds on the left and Artillery in the centre in ruins.

I deployed everything on my left opposite the truck and in some cover from the artillery.

Tried to seize and failed, rolled for the plane to come on in T2 and it will do so.

Turn 1

His first turn moved Truk forward a little onto a hill and the grots on my right move forward into some ruins, takes some shots at the raiders with Rokkits and Artillery but they only manage a glance on one of the raiders.

I moved forward with the 3 raiders towards the trukk, while the Venom heads to the middle of the table and targets the Artillery, killing 2 of the crew and putting a wound on the gun itself. everything else shoots at the Trukk and then the Trukks crew and blow it up, leaving (I think) 4 guys left including the Nob and Rokkit Launcha.

Turn 2

The Bomber comes on next to the grots on the right and targets the Venom, it doesn't jink but takes a Crew shaken result from the Super Shoota on the Bomber. Snikrot comes on from my table edge and into some woods. The orks clamber back into their wrecked trukk and use it as cover whilst shooting in vain at the Raiders.

Artillery then fires at the centre raider which jinks.... but it scatters onto the raider next to him and blows it up, killing 2 in the process including my warlord. They pass their pinning and disembark towards the relic

Raiders move forward further towards the remaining 3 guys in the Trukk, dismounted warriors move to claim the relic. Venom moves right up to the Artillery piece.

Shooting everything targets the artillery first and takes it out, before pouring the remainder into the 3 ork boys on the Trukk, who go to ground and make about 11 out of 14 saves to leave just the Nob on one wound. He passes his leadership test.

Turn 3

Bomber zooms over the Venom and drops a bomb on it, whilst the grot on the back shoots into it, no damage however as they either miss and/or fail to penetrate. Remaining Nob shoots and hits the raider again (I don't think he missed a shot all game despite needing 6's most turns!) but fails to glance/penetrate, Snikrot advances to try a 12" charge against the Warriors holding the relic but fails in his roll.

One unit of kabalites disembark to shoot at the Nob in the raider while the other unit of kabalites take the relic and jump into the recently vacated raider, which mvoes 6" back pointing it's guns at Snikrot. The venom also faces Snikrot down and he failed enough cover saves to die.

Kabalites on foot shoot into the Nob and he finally fails a cover save, having passed about 13-14 during the game!

Turn 4

Bomber flies off the table, grots shuffle around to protect Runt Herder.

Raider with objective moves back a bit more, other Raider and the Venom shoot at the grots and kill a couple

Turn 5

Grots shuffle, little they can do really with s3 guns against the Raider/Venom.

Blitza comes back on and bombs the Venom again but it survives.

Kabalites ensure linebreaker and Venom kills a few more grots, they take a leadership test but pass.

Game ends at the end of T5

DE: 5 (First Blood, Linebreaker, Relic) vs Orks: 1 (Slay the Warlord)

Overall I felt I had a pretty brutal list against quite a fluffy list so I'm not surprised with the result but John is a great guy and a smashing opponent so we had some fun imaging the Nob cowering for cover whilst taking surprisingly accurate pot shots at the Raiders!

Hopefully his list will come into it's own at higher points and we'll get a rematch in, those grots would be rather more effective manning the guns in a huge Orky Air Control Towa (Bastion) don't you think?!?!

Dark Eldar Raider Update - Nearly There! (Photo Dump)

Got a bit further with the 3 raiders last night, put some washes on the metals and then went over some of the Hex pattern on the sails to make it stand out a bit more. Picked out a few details and hopefully one more night and they'll be done bar the crew.


Not a great standard but for what for me is a very quick job, (3 Raiders will have taken 6 nights total - or about 12 hours) I'm very happy with them.

Further Photos: