Kansas City Shuffle.

    This last weekened was a practice team tournament for the Siege at Dicehead Games. Unbroken rolled out in force with three full teams. Which included Pariah Stevo from Tainted by Xenos, The Griz from If it wears power armor. I am teamed up with Wayward to make a Mech IG and Mech Eldar list that we dubbed the Kansas City Shuffle after the awesome movie of Lucky Number Slevin. The basic theme was taking a small but hard hitting Eldar force that does not look all that intimidating at first glance, where the IG have Melta and Plasma Vets in a Chimera wall protecting a Manticore and Vendetta. Like our name sake our primary tactic was to put the Eldar Waveserpents out front making a cover wall for Chimeras first turn then during our movement we would do what we dubbed the Kansas City Shuffle of the Eldar speeding off fast to the side to draw attention then it is turned back to the IG when the overwhelimg fire would hit.

    For the most part the tactic worked very well, with most of the fire power and hostility being directed to the crunchy guard leaving the Eldar to go where they needed to, to get side or rear shots or contest objectives or drop out blade storming Dire Avengers on some mauled squad that had been Doomed. First game we saw us playing against Ork and Chaos SM list. Let me first say the guys we played against that first game were grade A great guys to play with, they cut up with us they talked and all in all it was a very enjoyable game. They gave us a great run for our money with them leading the objectives for a majority of the game with the Eldar screaming in that last turn to contest their obj and the guard to claim one for the win. So 8 pts for the win and then 2 pts for having a scoring troop in their deployment zone for a total of 10.

    Our second game we played against a Tau, and Chaos SM list, a cap and control obj with bonus points for Table quarters. We gave the Tau and CSM the first turn as to get the final say in Eldar Trickery contests. That game started off pretty strong for us with the manticore rocking hard and the Vendetta doing its thing. While we only got to turn three before time ran out, we got to have our last turn which we threw all our shooting at a single unit of plague marines on their obj. After the dust had cleared there stood one lone marine on the obj so both of us got 5 pts for holding our obj but Eldar Trickery and Vendetta in one of their corners saw us holding 2 table quarters and contesting their two for a total of 9 pts for us and the win, and now a grand total of 19 pts.

Our third game was vs some fellow club members for the deciding game in the tournament. It was a Dark Eldar and Grey Knight list. Me and Wayward were saying right before the game we were merely pleased we had made it this far and were just going to do our best. The game started off almost prophetic as they won to set up and go first with us doing our standard set up of waveserpent wall and chimera line. Being a KP mission we attempted to Sieze which the dice rolled across half the table and smaked a wall and bounced rolling around to finally rest on a 6. Thanking the Dice Gods for good luck we proceeded with our standard tactic of Eldar zooming off, though I was concerned as the DE can play the same game only better. But our first turn of shooting pretty much kind of set the pace with knocking our one raider and immobilizing one ravager and stunning the second. On our opponents turn we saw Mordrak and crew land up all in the IG grill in cover. Mordrak took a wound from the terrian and did not spawn another knight. For two turns all our anti termi weapons hammered on Mordrak as he walked across the guard line like a god amongst men to finally fall to a blade storm. Where our dice had worked well it was if the Dice gods cursed the Dark Eldar player with almost all his crucial rolls always failed with his return fire was most of the time misses or little to no pens with his darklances to only roll 1's on the damage table. The game ended with Wayward yielding 8 Kill points to the enemy with 3 additonal pts for them killing our General (most expensive HQ). In turn the Grey knights yielding 5 Kill pts and 3 additional for Mordraks Squad being the most expensive. The Dark Eldar yielded a total of 9 kill points and the Eldar Yielding None. Another Win for the Kansas City Shuffle, when all points were totaled we came out to a over all score of 30 and 1st Place in the Tournament.

Now to get the full gravity of this myself and Wayward had never won any tournament in all our years of playing nor had we even really ranked in where in the top 5 most times. To turn around and win a team tournament against some of the best was a feeling that was just indescribable. Despite being a team the true all star of  the Kansas City Shuffle was Wayward with his Mordian guard that held the line every time they needed to keep the pressure off the fragile Eldar and it was his overwhelimg shooting at time that dug me out of tight spots. So again my good friend my hats off to you.

ATC Practice Tournament Results

This last weekend, The_Warsmith, Ol'Griz and myself went to DiceHead Games for their ATC Practice Tournament. Let me tell you I had a blast playing in that tournament. For starters the mission is by far the funnest mission I have played in some time. For a quick summary of it, it has 3 seize ground objective, cap and contrl objectives and is also measured by kill points. How the scoring work is a possible 10 pts for each KP, C&C and Seize with a total of 30 pts total that can be earned. The reason I like this mission so much is that it forces you to play and think in different ways than you would in a normal game. Also you have to build your lists in a way that you can achieve each of these three mission criteria.

The first game I played was against a SW list with Thunderwolves, Missile fangs and a bunch of Grey hunters in rhinos. The game started out kind of well for me but turned completely sour when one turn of shooting completely wrecked all but one of my wave serpents. The only consolation I had that turn was I wiped a good bit of the Thunderwolves with an amazing bladestorm. By the end of turn 3 it was more about not being tabled for me than pulling out a win, though at bottom of turn six my remaining tanks were contesting his C&C obj while I owned mine but he got a rhino to mine and a s10 ram was unable to take it out. GrumbleGrumble Dice rolls. It ended with a loss for me but I had fun and gave the SW a few surprises.

Second game was vs a drop pod Logan wing with Dawn of War deploy. Going into the game I was really worried about the Logan Wing. But when I chose to go second with DoW deploy I kind of felt bad for the guy as he spread his termies out to get as many obj as he could. When my turn came around and everything of mine flew onto the board I had amazing shooting with my fireprisms and made him pick up 2 full termi squads in one turn of shooting. The rest of the game kind of went with me moving and shooting as I pleased and there was very little he could do about it. I got full 30 pts from that game.

Third game I got the Ol'Griz and laughed maniacally when it was called out as the last time I played against Griz with his Snot marines it was pretty bad for the snotties. However as I have learned many times over in life, laughing maniacally is often tempting fate and as fate would have it he caught my poor little fairies and gave them a solid, brutal thumping. 0 points there. However there was a few gems that truly lit up that battle, for starters a Dire Avenger squad tieing up a Greater Deamon for 4 turns in close combat only losing 1 or 2 guys each turn with the last full turn being the Exarch alone which he made four 5+ invuls in a row. My painted DA squad blade stormed the poopy out of his Pink Demon prince and charged it and killed it in CC. Go Spartan Elves!



Painting Challenge: The Ash Guard (Dire Avengers) pt. 1



Got started yesterday at trying to complete my challenge of getting my Elthrai Warhost painted. I had already some of the Dire Avengers in varying stages of completion. I was able to completely finish one, get another to the step of only needing basing, and three more needing only final washes, detail work and basing. So almost got half of the first squad done one day into the challenge. Boo ya. I am pretty pleased with how they came out. I wanted to do something different from the standard Aspect Warrior colors, atleast for my DA, as they are my beloved models in my army. I wanted them to embody the fluff behind my army, which the short version is an Ulthwe Force upon an Ash world. So I did a Codex Gray base coat and applied several layers of Badab black wash to darken the gray and add the dirty sooty look of fighting on an Ash world. With the wraithbone aspects, I did a bleached bone base and applied one to two washes of Devlin mud to add the desired rough bone look. The crest is a base of Scab red, one wash of Baal red, one wash of Badab black and dry bush of blood red. Most gems are just base blood red to be a sharp contrast to the darker colors. Sadly I am still working on getting gems to have that layered/multicolored effect that you see in most GW gems. Hopefully today I will get the rest of these five Dire Avengers finished and started on the last four plus Exarch. Here is a close up of the one completed and one lacking basing.



The Warhost - A Painting Challenge

Despite being uniform, Naked Plastic Gray makes a poor army scheme.

I woefully admit that despite my long time playing this game I have never had a fully painted army, save my very first army. When I first went to the local game story to inquire about DnD groups I saw a game being played on a table and went to observe, that game was Warhammer 40k. Being a fan of real time strat games I almost instantly fell in love with this game. Despite neither of the armies I observed were painted I got this notion that an army must be painted to play with it. So after my 3rd ed space marines battleforce showed up at my door I frantically got to painting 1500 pts of SM. Now I can't say how I managed that feat  but I got them assemebled and painted in that time, with the only real thing I got from that week of furious painting was a permanent copy of the dialog of StarShip troopers embedded into my brain as I set the movie to loop while I painted.

Now granted that many of the models were poorly put together, flash was rampant, and the paint was caked on to the point where my 'Arch  Angels' were more akin to a marshmallow with a splash of black and red on them than Space Marines. None the less I was pleased with it, then came my first game which my opponent was quite surprised I had painted a whole army in the span of a week. However a majority of the local gamers, which sadly consisted of mostly d-bags and TFGs, completely debased my paint job saying for the most part it would be better if I had simply thrown them in the microwave with an aerosaul can and played with the mis colored mush than what I put on the field. That statement coupled with the fact that I did not know the rules had a profoundly negative impact on me when it came to the game. Looking back on those days now I just shake my head as most of those that insulted my first army had the same army scheme my Eldar have now, Uniform Naked Plastic Gray. Where I am going with this little tale is that after that army I never again tried to paint my armies, because I always felt that I would not be able to paint well enough to truly do the models justice.

However after joining in with a new gaming group for a couple of years and slowly painting little things to increase my skill and confidence my local gaming club, Unbroken, has set a painting challenge out for this month. My pledge was to get my two large DA squads and my Seer Bike squad painted before the first of May and a hopefully a majority of my whole army painted by a tournament on the 20th. This will be the first time I have ever pledge to get things painted, hopefully this will keep my motivated to paint and finish my Eldar. I'll post WiP as I get them.


p.s. Stevo from Tainted by Xenos won the Bash at the Barn this past Saturday, Congrats to him and go Unbroken!

Of Mechdar and Shenanigans

Nothing says Awesome like Rerolls!

    Got another game in with my Mechdar this last Saturday at the Battlebarn. I have to say it was by far one of the best games I have had in a long time. It was a 2500 pt game vs Space Wolves. Normally I don't like to play games above 2k as I feel that the higher you go the more abusive deathstar units you can throw out and that extra 500 pts is just a perfect niche for one. With a 2500 pt tournament next weekend alot of the local guys are wanting to get in some practice for it so I figured I would just throw together a 500 pt squad ontop of my normal 2k list. I chose to build an Eldrad plus 9 warlock buddies squad. Oh... My... God.. what that squad did to the SW. I didn't even use the 6 destructors in that squad either, just mainly assaulted.

Here is my normal 2k List:

The Elthrai Warhost

HQ:

1x Farseer - Runes of Witnessing, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Eldar Jetbike; Doom, Mindwar, Forturne

1x Warlock Unit

    3 x Warlock - Eldar Jetbike, Destructor

    1 x Warlock - Eldar Jetbike, Singing Spear, Embolden

    1 x Warlock - Eldar Jetbike, Enhance

Elite:

1 x Fire Dragon Squad (5)

     1x WaveSerpent - Spirit Stones, TL S-Cannons

Troops:

1x Dire Avenger Squad (9)

    1 x Exarch - Shimmer Shield & Power Weapon, Bladestorm, Defend

    1 x WaveSerpent - Spirit Stones, TL Brightlance

1x Dire Avenger Squad (9)

    1 x Exarch - Shimmer Shield & Power Weapon, Bladestorm, Defend

    1 x WaveSerpent - Spirit Stones, TL Brightlance

1x Dire Avenger Squad (7)

    1 x Exarch - 2 Avenger S-Catapult, Bladestorm

    1 x WaveSerpent - Spirit Stones, TL S-Cannons

Heavy Support:

1 x Fireprism - Holofields, Spirit Stones

1 x Fireprism - Holofields, Spirit Stones

1x NightSpinner - Spirit Stones

    This has been the basic template that I have been playing with, it has changed slightly a few times to test different units or upgrades but thus far this load out has been the most successful. In the game I recently played against the Space Wolves I just switched gave the WaveSeperent that used to belong to the small Dire Avenger squad to the Eldrad Squad of Doooooommm. I kept the now foot DA squad in reserve and hoped they would stay there for most of the game. I have to say having this been the first time I have played Eldrad in a long time his Divination ability is just nice. The set up was two obj, one in each deployment zone, and I put my obj directly across from his and deployed my bikes, the two full DA squads beside them and a Fireprism pretty much surrounding my obj and a staggered line of the rest of my forces stretching out to the other side of my deployment and table edge. As expected the SW player depolyed his LR with Deathstar, and 2 Wolf lords on Thunder Wolves with wolf packs around his obj and directly infront of my forces on my obj. He depolyed his LF squads in a similar staggered line across his deployment to mirror where my tanks where and a razorback in the middle to go where needed close to the second Wolflord squad. Knowing ahead of time of Eldrads Diviniation I had hoped he would build up his forces close to my build up and when it came time to roll I lucked out and rolled a five so I was able to completely redeploy the forces around my Obj and place them near my other table corner across from his weak flank.

I left some the one of the DA squads to hold and harass things coming towards my obj. The game started out real well with my Nightspinner hitting directly one of his Wolf lords and killing a good handful of his wolf shields but the real kicker was pinning him! The first fireprism knocked out the razorback and the second killed a few of the wolf's in the second wolf lord squad. The rest of my shooting wasn't as effective with the Bright lances failing to do anything agains the LR and the rest of my forces going full speed towards his weak flank and the long fangs. The SW turn saw him rushing towards my Obj and shooting at my tanks but unable to do any real damage as most were glancing and were unable to shoot results. The second turn was the true defining moment in the entire game. Apart from my foot Da coming in when I didn't want them to the shooting in my phase was about avg but it was the fact that I wiped out the rest of the pinned wolf lords woves with my Nightspinner not only causing the wolf lord to be pinned again but causing them to take a break test which he failed and ran off the board. To which I jested before he rolled the second pinning test and break test, Beware the Silly String! To which after I pantomimed "Its in my beard, its in my beard!!" So for everyone who is struggling against SW I have found their bane, Silly String.

Good for parties, pranks, and keeping away the Wolves of Fenris.

The rest of the game went well for me baring a turn or two of really good shooting by the SW. I completely swept everything he had in  his depolyment zone, which included his two wolf scout squads he decided to have come in on his deployment to try and reinforce. Which brought me such joy to have made them deploy like normal people. Also it was fun to watch his LR and Termie squad inside start to come back to his Obj to only run into a solid wall of Eldrad, his squad, my Seer Bike squad and promptly reembark and turn around and head back to my obj which by this point had two gunless tanks flying around it to contest. Even though it went to turn 7, a usual bad thing for Eldar, and the last two turns having each of the two contesting tank taking about 20 glancing hits each, the holofield roll 2 dice take the lowest made my opponent clench his jaw and fist in frustration, and cursewords abound. To which I must admit again tickled me greatly. In that final turn it saw my Eldrad squad and Bike squad assault the remaining forces on my Obj and my two contesting tanks flying around and a DA squad sitting on his obj for a Solid Win for the Eldar. After all was said and done I still had a good 75% of my army left with the SW only having 3 things left on the board. Good times was had though probably only mainly by me especially when I failed all but two of my saves on my Seer Jet squad and then picked up all the failed dice and rerolled cause of fortune and made everyone.

Forgeworld.

I apologize for the absence having been lost in the warp known as ASP.net projects I have returned and boy was this weeked productive. Being a victim of cronic laziness that big beautiful str D slinging death machine set in its pretty little Forgeworld bag for about a year now. I can't tell you really what possessed me to finally dig it out and go through the process of putting it together but I started out with the simple goals of just putting its legs on its base. Now as a long time hobbyist superglue + skin + shaving of said skin is a well known and accepted tradition, however.... when it comes to my man beard that crap is off limits. It was on that woeful day that I had to shave part of it to be rid of a jump pack exhaust port that had lauched out of my fingers richocheted into my chin pelt that it became personal. Long after the legs were pinned into place and glued to the base I was trudging away at getting this bad boy finished.


But then in the majesty of the moment I glued the last piece into place, that devil upon my shoulder whispered dreadful words into my ear. When will you ever use this? That got me thinking, I like most people who play Warhammer 40k look at the forge world and see pieces that make me go oooh and ahhh and entice us when we have money to purchase said pieces. Anyone you ask in this hobby about some new hotness in Forgeworld will agree that its cool or say that they are not into it etc etc. but when the subject is brought up to play with said piece most people seem to take a step back and say well they don't play with forgeworld stuff/rules. While I can only speak for the local gaming community I wonder why that is? If we can agree on FW pieces are cool then why do we always seem so resist to try these out. I know the general consensus is that FW rules are usually far from balanced, but if you go to any 40k forum you will find that exact same description for dozens of entries in dozens of codices.  How are FW all that different? Granted their rules are printed in a different book from the Codex but how is that greatly different from the various flavors of Space marines they all seem to adhear to a similar template yet just have different options at different costs with each of their rules in a different book.

Now before anyone starts to cry out well they are play tested and balanced I would just like to mention again about the whole balance/fair issue that was posted above. In the end its really based upon everyone perception and opinion yet even I fall into the masses that agree FW stuff is cool yet are very resist to play with it. One day though I hope that my lovely Titan gets throw down on a table and make some people believers in the might of the Eldar. Until then it would seem he gets to lord over the rest of the mini's on the table.

Bringing a Scalpel to a Knife Fight.

Sadly the pic I posted in the last post would have worked much better for the this topic but alas I did not forsee this conversation. This topic came up earlier today while talking to The Grizz about Stevo's uncertainty on the playstyle of his Dark Eldar. The Grizz's rough description was "He hates the feeling like he has to play gay and fly around and shoot stuff before assaulting instead of just charging in." To which I replied "Thats Eldar, they bring a scalpel to a Knife Fight."

Eldar units are specialized for the most part in performing one primary role, Dire Avengers -> Shooting, Banshee's -> Close Combat etc,etc. Given the right circumstance they can perform their primary tasks quite well. But given the right circumstance, while the banshee's are queens of close combat charging into a thirty man strong orc mob is not going to turn out as well as one would hope. But charging banshee's into a squad that has been softened up by some of our shooting support units or Farseer powers the outcome can be completely different.

Playing Eldar one of the first facts that you must come to grips with is that you are most likely going to be out numbered by the enemy be it in tanks, troops etc. There are ways that the Eldar can out number their foes but in truth when this usually happens the opponent has highly skilled and tooled out choices. While the Eldar boasts some of the most specialized troops in the game they are not the singular best. Other armies can turn out things that the Eldar have no direct counter to, Thunder Hammer Stormshield Termies come to mind. Eldar Units seem to sit at a nice middle ground as for skill and pts cost with usually a rule that gives them an advantage at a right circumstance. Such as Banshees on the charge etc.

Pound for pound the Eldar cannot go toe to toe with equal pt cost troops specialized in the same thing your Eldar troops are specialized in for long on an open and even field. Our stats are just not designed for it, while having a good WS and great I stat our strength toughness and medium to weak armor save means battles of attrition will almost never go in our favor. So you have to play in a manner in which you choose the battles where you have the most favorable advantage. Be it ones the opponents open up for you or ones you create yourself.




While this may sound weird I actually enjoy this fact that my troops did not win because they had super human stats and great armor or overwhelming numbers but struck with percision and overwhelming power. While I will admit it is fun to wade into a nice big blood bath and see who comes out the victor those are just not the fights the Eldar should enter, we are a dying race after all. While your opponent might have some choice words or sigh about you avoiding combat with an obvious assault oriented unit or army remember that once your army starts to take damage the synergy and cohesion of your army breaks apart quickly. This brings me to an important point, our units do not do well alone, yet when working together as one unified entity they can be utterly amazing, like a symphony of destruction and pain, with you as its orchestrator.