1,500 pts of Eldar

So over the last couple of months I've played in a couple of tournaments and ended up getting Best Overall in the Hobby Town Championships, and Best General over at Wasteland Wars 7 in Lubbock. So now it's time to share some of what I've learned.

First off, ignore all internet chatter, people have no idea what they're talking about (including me lol) some of what people say works, some doesn't. It's all about finding what fits your play style, and the meta game in your area.

But here's the list I used to win the Hobby Town Championship.

-=HQ=-
Farseer
Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Guide

-=Elites=-
Fire Dragons x7
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon, TL Shuriken Cannon

Fire Dragons x6
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon, TL Shuriken Cannon

-=Troops=-
Guardian Jetbikes x6
2 Shuriken Cannons
Warlock, Embolden

Guardian Jetbikes x3

Guardian Jetbikes x3

Dire Avengers x5

-=Fast Attack=-
Warp Spiders x7
Warp Spider Exarch, Dual Death Spinners, Powerblades

-=Heavy Support=-
War Walkers x3
All with Scatter Lasers

Falcon
Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones, Scatter Laser

Total - 1,500 Pts


So just a brief summary of how this army works. The Farseer and the Dire Avengers try to sit there happy butts in the Falcon the entire game. The Seer will either guide the Falcon or the War Walkers, depending on if he's close enough to the Walkers, or if I really need that Str 8 Pulse Laser Shot for popping a transport.

The two small Jetbike squads will start in reserves 95% of the time. Unless it's not objective based and I want the extra shots. But they are there to harass objects towards the end game, and thus must stay off the board to keep from getting killed.

The Dragons of course, are there to take out the biggest baddest thing on the board, they are my demoralizing unit. People seem to start to crumble when their Landraider perishes, and have a hard time pulling things back together. They usually help me win just by putting emotional strain on my opponent.

Then there are the Warp Spiders, these guys are the wild card. No one ever sees them on them board, and I've been falling in love with them over the last couple tournies. The sure weight of firepower is enormous, and wounding almost everything in the game on a 2+ just helps so much. Just remember to always jump back out of assault range :)

So that's my happy little 1,500 list. I'll probably post my Wasteland Wars on here in a couple days.

-CKR

Dark Eldar Teaser Video

Coming this November!

New Dark Eldar Picture Collection

Hey guys,

So I did a little scouring of the internet today and yesterday with the big release of the Dark Eldar, and found quite a few new pictures that people had been taking while at Games Day. Here's an Image dump of them.

Enjoy!

The Dark Eldar Announced

So GW just officially announced Dark Eldar, and sent out some images of the new models. They look quite nasty, and quite frankly I'm jealous that they got the new Jetbike model before us craftworlders did.


It looks like I might have to get my hands on some of these new jetbikes when they come out and do some conversion work, because they are just sick.



And if I could find a use for these guys, I would have them in a heartbeat. Look at that sword. It is just freaking awesome. I could post up some more pics, but they'll be floating around GWs site soon enough. Enjoy :)

What are the Eldar?

Once again there was a wish listing thread on Warseer. I know it's not uncommon, actually almost a weekly occurrence for one codex to start wish listing until it cycles over again. But the main problem with the Eldar wish listing thread was the need to find out how you want your Eldar to play, or how are they expected to play.

From the fluff of the most recent codex, the Eldar are small in numbers, but an elite group. Each unit specializing in the dismantlement of different parts of an enemies army. The Eldar themselves are much more advanced physiologically then humans, with heart rates twice that of a normal human, their mind processes with baffling speeds, and they can physically move almost faster then a human can see.

What we don't want is a generalized Space Marine army, where everything can do everything. Each unit should have more or less a specific task, do it very well, and maybe be able to do something else, but not to any great degree.

To start figuring out what the Eldar are, we should start by looking at the design of the Guardian. As this should be the most abundant unit in the army, seeing as how they make up almost the entire Troops selection.

What we're looking for.
1. Small in Number
2. Specialized in their role
3. Advanced Race
4. Dying Race
5. Technologically advanced Race

To satisfy 3 and 4 I suggest to create new Eldar Special Army Rules. As of now they actually have no special rules. Fleet was given to everyone as Run, and Fleet was actually handed out to quite a few groups.

So other then Fleet being there as a Mainstay freebie I recommend adding a rule called Eldar Agility.

Eldar Agility - The Superior Mental and Physical Prowness of the Eldar shines in everything they do. To represent their speed all eldar with this ability have +1 to cover saves at all times (so in open terrain this would be a 6+ cover save). All Eldar with this ability roll 3d6 for difficult terrain and run checks and take the highest result. In close combat, opponents can never have better then a 4+ to hit an Eldar Model with this ability as their shear speed allows them duck and weave in combat.

To satisfy number 4 we need to look at the fact that they are a dying race. The Eldar do not just go out and fight battles on a whim. They are very tactical, and every battle must be fought to be won, or the entire race may be lost.

Eldar Last Stand - All Eldar units with this ability may always attempt to regroup.

This should satisfy both 3 and 4 and help Eldar to feel more like the race they are portrayed to be.

Now let's move on and take a look at the Guardian, the back bone to the Eldar army. There are quite a few things that are wrong with the guardian if we are to consider those 6 simple rules for making Eldar. First, they are not small in numbers, 10-20 is bordering on Ork levels. Eldar are quite frankly, not Green Skins, and never will be. So first thing is we should limit Guardians to 5-10.

Secondly, Guardians do not represent a dying race, or the fact that they are specially trained to defend their craft worlds. Most people say they are just a militia, but remember militias defeated the Elite British in the Revolutionary War. Not to mention these militia are super humans in prowess and have survived for centuries. Not to mention, a technologically advanced race does not send it's troops out wearing paper bags. I believe upgrading the BS to 4, and armor to 4+ will help satisfy being part of a dying race, and the Eldar physical ability, mental ability, and training.

Now lets talk about Technology, especially technology for defenders. Everyone knows you do not defend a place with pistols when everyone is shooting at you with rifles. The key to defense is range, and 12" allows one volley of fire before you're knee deep in your own guts from the bayonet the 18 year old human was holding. To fix this, it's imperative we give Eldar Guardians a 24" gun. This allows a minimum of 2 volleys, and possibly 3. Now lets look at the gun itself. It's a Shurikan weapon, and fluff wise it basically slices through anything. Now I'm not advocating AP4, but I think AP5 with re-roll passed saves would represent this weapon very nicely.

Let's take a look at what we have.

______WS BS| S | T| W| I | A LD Sv
Guardian 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 4+
Defender

Special Rules
Fleet, Eldar Agilty, Last Stand

Weapons
Shurikan Catapult - 24" range, Str4, AP5, Assault 2, Re-roll Passed Saves
1 Weapon Platform per 5 men
Defensive Grenades, Haywire Grenades

Now how much should these new warriors costs? I think the closest comparisons to these men are Sisters of Battle, Space Marine Scouts, and Imperial Guard Vets

For BS 4 armor 4+ vets, it's 10 points a model, with a Seargent and grenades
For WS 4, BS 4, Shield of Faith, and Act of Faith 3+ Sisters it's 11 points a model
For Str 4, T 4, ATSKNF, Scout, Infiltrate, Move through Cover, grenades Scouts it's 13 points a model

I think 11 Points a model would be about appropriate for the new stats on the Guardian Defenders. Sure it's about 3 points more a model then before, but they'd actually be worth taking, and would feel much more like Eldar then they do now.

Let me know what you guys think.

-CKR

Strength 6 the new 10

Firstly, why oh why don't my Warp Spiders look like that!?!

Ok, moving on. I've recently discovered the secrets of Str 6 weapons. I know what you're thinking, but yes, there is a secret behind them.

In a recent tournament down in Lubbock I tested a new list. I know it's odd to test at a tournament, but school doesn't allow much free play anymore. But moving on, the list contained 1 Str 8 Weapon other then Fusion Guns. And 30 Str 6 weapons, or 80 Str 6 Shots.

Now why is this impressive. Well for starters Str 6 weapons are usually very cheap, and secondly they wound 95% of the models in the game on a 2+. That means for most eldar it's going to be a 4+ to hit then 2+ to wound. Now I don't know about most people but those odds are much more in my favor then normal.

Now lets do some quick math, 80 shots, at BS3 40 hits, 34 wounds, and 11 Dead Marines. I know that doesn't sound very impressive, but being able to take out a tactical marine squad a turn doesn't hurt.

Not only that, but Str 6 will harm almost every transport vehicle out there. I'm actually considering loading up on another 24 shots, which will make quite a few people mad, I already know that.

So bear in mind, Str 6 is great for everything, even Nids as you'll be wounding those Big Guys on 4+s instead of 6+s.

Lizardmen Saurus Proof of Concept

Hey there everyone. So I put aside my school stuff for a couple of hours today because I really really wanted to at least start on something for my Lizardmen army because they had all been sitting in boxes.

So I pulled out a Saurus Warrior, and a Zulu model I had ordered about a month ago, and began working on a proof of concept for these guys to even see if what I was wanting to do would work. Well here is the progress so far. I'm also thinking about taking the backs of the Saurus and having them act like skins for the guy, or picking up some Dark Elf Corsair Capes and doing that. I mean they do all have scaly skin :)

So let me know what you guys think.

Enter the Lizards

So after a couple months of little to no posting I'm going to try to get back on top of things. I've got a couple projects that will be starting up soon, and the first one, and the longest one will be my new Lizardmen Army.


Yes, that's right. The dreaded cold-blooded lizards of Lustria. I picked up their codex a couple of months ago. And after winning the North Texas Champions ships I had a nice pile of loot that I used to get started on the models. Which are unfortunately slightly unwrapped and sitting in the closet at the moment.

But no worries, because I've got an incentive to work on them, but before I do so. I wanted to run my idea by you guys and see what your opinions were. Before making my through the entire codex and fluff, I was thinking that would be really cool to have say jungle men, think Mayan or Aztecs wearing lizard skins being led by a Slann and riding the jungle beasts. The Saurus would be full sized men, and the skinks would be pygmies.

Then I read on some more, and found a reference of Lord Chuqa-xi from the City of the Moon (pg29 Lizdex) actually lobotomizing invaders and using them and using them in his army.

Then on pg42 Lord Ulha'up has actually left the Lizardmen Kingdom to spread the word of the Old Ones. I was thinking that it would be neat to have say followers from the different kingdoms (empire, dwarf, elves) wearing lizard suits following him around and being his army. Note it's referenced that Lord Ulha'up had gone quite mad.

So what do you guys think, would and army of converted men wearing Lizard Armor (Skulls and backs) work or am I just out of my mind?