Well, this all seems to have died a death as far as Tale Of is concerned. I'm not too bothered - would have been nice to see all the armies come together in the end, but it's not the end of my blog. Far from it!
Planning to get some more work done on these girls over the christmas break. I have some plans to modify my Warp Spider conversions as soon as Ross tells me how he did his pipes. Until then I can finish off the Wave serpent and make a start on the Fire prism chassis.
And finish off the Banshees.
And Fire Dragons.
And make a start on the second Dire Avenger squad.
And finish the Farseer...
*sigh*
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Monday, 12 October 2009
By Khaine, we shall drive back the children of Commorragh!
Right then, got my Fire Prism and Warp Spiders built. Almost finished some funky conversion work with my Warp Spiders, which I will post pics for when I get them done.
Also had a 1250pt game vs Jim's Dark Eldar - Space Elf fight! The scenario was C&C (4 objectives) with a Spearhead Deployment.
Some points of interest:
- Warp Spiders are amazing. Their kill tally was 5 Warp Beasts + Beast master, 5 Dark Eldar Warriors and a Raider. The ability to deep strike, fire, then teleport out of harm's way gave me an edge that helped the rest of my force pull the game back after an initial bad start. Very tempted by a second squad of these.
- Eldrad is broken. Seriously. 3 Psychic powers per turn took out a raider and kept my banshees alive for longer than they deserved when i (stupidly) threw them into combat with a squad of 10 wyches. He then spent the rest of the game dooming the wyches, guiding my fire prism and rerolling his 3+ inv save with fortune!
- Pathfinders are good... when they have cover. Due to some of my area terrain still sitting at Lex's place, i had to make do with careful positioning behind a ruined Stompa. They still managed to take out a lone Dark Eldar Warrior that was threatening to claim an objective, and managed to claim one for me, so they fulfilled their role.
- Fire Prisms are nice, cheap, manouverable firepower. Bs4 blast/large blast makes for a reliable swiss army knife. The only drawback is that it's a 12/12/10 fire magnet. Holo-Fields force the enemy to roll 2 damage dice and pick the lowest, but I felt that 35pts was too much. Suprisingly it survived until the end of the game! A 60" range glass hammer that should stay hidden until the time is right.
- Second Dire Avengers squad were a good choice. My opponent spent the first two turns throwing everything at them to stop me getting into cover and camping the objectives, which meant the rest of my army went relatively unscatched. They shot down an Archon and kept the wyches occupied long enough. I was terribly unlucky with my dice rolls with these guys and, in hindsight, should have cast fortune on them with Eldrad.
The game ended after 6 turns and the end result was 1 objective to me and none to the Dark Eldar - a Victory! This was a great game that (I think) both players really enjoyed. I learned a lot from my mistakes when facing an army that has manouverability equal to or greater than my own - damn those fast open topped skimmer transports!
Next month's purchases? Probably a second squad of warp spiders and an expansion to the banshees. They need more attacks and a few ablative wounds to survive the rigours of the front lines.
Also had a 1250pt game vs Jim's Dark Eldar - Space Elf fight! The scenario was C&C (4 objectives) with a Spearhead Deployment.
Some points of interest:
- Warp Spiders are amazing. Their kill tally was 5 Warp Beasts + Beast master, 5 Dark Eldar Warriors and a Raider. The ability to deep strike, fire, then teleport out of harm's way gave me an edge that helped the rest of my force pull the game back after an initial bad start. Very tempted by a second squad of these.
- Eldrad is broken. Seriously. 3 Psychic powers per turn took out a raider and kept my banshees alive for longer than they deserved when i (stupidly) threw them into combat with a squad of 10 wyches. He then spent the rest of the game dooming the wyches, guiding my fire prism and rerolling his 3+ inv save with fortune!
- Pathfinders are good... when they have cover. Due to some of my area terrain still sitting at Lex's place, i had to make do with careful positioning behind a ruined Stompa. They still managed to take out a lone Dark Eldar Warrior that was threatening to claim an objective, and managed to claim one for me, so they fulfilled their role.
- Fire Prisms are nice, cheap, manouverable firepower. Bs4 blast/large blast makes for a reliable swiss army knife. The only drawback is that it's a 12/12/10 fire magnet. Holo-Fields force the enemy to roll 2 damage dice and pick the lowest, but I felt that 35pts was too much. Suprisingly it survived until the end of the game! A 60" range glass hammer that should stay hidden until the time is right.
- Second Dire Avengers squad were a good choice. My opponent spent the first two turns throwing everything at them to stop me getting into cover and camping the objectives, which meant the rest of my army went relatively unscatched. They shot down an Archon and kept the wyches occupied long enough. I was terribly unlucky with my dice rolls with these guys and, in hindsight, should have cast fortune on them with Eldrad.
The game ended after 6 turns and the end result was 1 objective to me and none to the Dark Eldar - a Victory! This was a great game that (I think) both players really enjoyed. I learned a lot from my mistakes when facing an army that has manouverability equal to or greater than my own - damn those fast open topped skimmer transports!
Next month's purchases? Probably a second squad of warp spiders and an expansion to the banshees. They need more attacks and a few ablative wounds to survive the rigours of the front lines.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Feugan be praised!
Decided to keep the helmets on after all. The Dire Avenger experiment didn't turn out too well with white as a primary colour - they looked way too much like guardians. So, im going to mix them in with the squad im currently working on which have full helmets. It's an aspect warrior thing.
Still wrestling with the female farseer model. I think I need a full saturday to really get the robe sorted out, and probably a magnifying glass. The extra parts from the Dire Avengers I got last week will prove useful in this endeavour.
Second Wave Serpent is still only base coated.
Almost finished my Fire Dragons!
Rangers are finished, and have been for some time!
Warp Spiders are built now. Fire Prism is still in the box, unfortunately.
So, another deadline missed. I feel i'm being slowed down and, sometimes, put-off by the prospect of having to paint white. My Wave Serpent took me a good few hours an evening for a whole fornight, because one mistake meant an hour of fixing. It still isn't perfect. For a single miniature it's fine because you feel the motivation to commit the sheet amount of time and effort to the job. For an entire army, it's another kettle o' elves. I think I need to develop some kind of mass-paint strategy to catch up. My first plan will be to paint the additional members of the first Dire Avenger squad along with the new squad, along with the Wave Serpent along with the Fire Prism Chassis. Do the blue. Do the white. Rinse, repeat.
Perhaps this month's deadline will yield something miraculous!
Still wrestling with the female farseer model. I think I need a full saturday to really get the robe sorted out, and probably a magnifying glass. The extra parts from the Dire Avengers I got last week will prove useful in this endeavour.
Second Wave Serpent is still only base coated.
Almost finished my Fire Dragons!
Rangers are finished, and have been for some time!
Warp Spiders are built now. Fire Prism is still in the box, unfortunately.
So, another deadline missed. I feel i'm being slowed down and, sometimes, put-off by the prospect of having to paint white. My Wave Serpent took me a good few hours an evening for a whole fornight, because one mistake meant an hour of fixing. It still isn't perfect. For a single miniature it's fine because you feel the motivation to commit the sheet amount of time and effort to the job. For an entire army, it's another kettle o' elves. I think I need to develop some kind of mass-paint strategy to catch up. My first plan will be to paint the additional members of the first Dire Avenger squad along with the new squad, along with the Wave Serpent along with the Fire Prism Chassis. Do the blue. Do the white. Rinse, repeat.
Perhaps this month's deadline will yield something miraculous!
Monday, 28 September 2009
Lileath Forgive me
Well, two months and nothing to show for it. I'm a bad mon-keigh.
Well, not that bad. There have been various reasons why I haven't been able to make the necessary purchases for this period, but theres no excuse for not finishing the first 750pts. *Slapwrist*
Anyway, picking up the next 500pt installment tomorrow evening after work:
1x Fire Prism
1x Box Warp Spiders
1x Box Dire Avengers
Some much-needed fleshing out here as well as a second solid offensive troops choice. Rangers are nice but they are damage dealers first, surgical distruption second and objective holders 3rd. Stealth is nice but gretchin can beat them up in cc... :(
After talking to the manager of GW burton over the phone I am very tempted to upgrade my Farseer to an Eldrad clone. He is essentially a discount farseer with all the bells and whistles and it's strategic insanity to take a farseer-based army and not use him.
Painting marathon this week. Watch this space!
Well, not that bad. There have been various reasons why I haven't been able to make the necessary purchases for this period, but theres no excuse for not finishing the first 750pts. *Slapwrist*
Anyway, picking up the next 500pt installment tomorrow evening after work:
1x Fire Prism
1x Box Warp Spiders
1x Box Dire Avengers
Some much-needed fleshing out here as well as a second solid offensive troops choice. Rangers are nice but they are damage dealers first, surgical distruption second and objective holders 3rd. Stealth is nice but gretchin can beat them up in cc... :(
After talking to the manager of GW burton over the phone I am very tempted to upgrade my Farseer to an Eldrad clone. He is essentially a discount farseer with all the bells and whistles and it's strategic insanity to take a farseer-based army and not use him.
Painting marathon this week. Watch this space!
Monday, 27 July 2009
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Month 2 Expansion
Right, my army needed hitting power in cc. Unable to resist the keening wail of the Banshee, and having already planned to incorporate them into the the army from the start, a box of Isha's finest: Howling Banshees.
You get 6 in the box, including an Exarch, which makes a nice squad size. The Banshee Exarch powers War Shout and Acrobatic seemed way too cheap to pass up, so in they went. They needed transport so I bought a second Wave Serpent with the same loadout as the first. With points still spare I swapped my Farseer's singing spear for the Crackshot power for my Fire Dragon Exarch.
The new list:
HQ: Farseer (55) Doom (25)= 80
Troops: 6 Dire Avengers (72) Exarch (12) Diresword and S. Pistol (10) = 94
Troops: 5 Rangers (95) = 95
Elites: 6 Fire Dragons (96) Exarch (12) Crack Shot (5) = 113
Transport: Wave Serpent (90) Eldar Missile Launcher (30) = 120
Elites: 6 Howling Banshees (96) Exarch (12) Mirror Swords (10) War Shout (5) Acrobatic (5) = 128
Transport: Wave Serpent (90) Eldar Missile Launcher (30) = 120
Total: 750
You get 6 in the box, including an Exarch, which makes a nice squad size. The Banshee Exarch powers War Shout and Acrobatic seemed way too cheap to pass up, so in they went. They needed transport so I bought a second Wave Serpent with the same loadout as the first. With points still spare I swapped my Farseer's singing spear for the Crackshot power for my Fire Dragon Exarch.
The new list:
HQ: Farseer (55) Doom (25)= 80
Troops: 6 Dire Avengers (72) Exarch (12) Diresword and S. Pistol (10) = 94
Troops: 5 Rangers (95) = 95
Elites: 6 Fire Dragons (96) Exarch (12) Crack Shot (5) = 113
Transport: Wave Serpent (90) Eldar Missile Launcher (30) = 120
Elites: 6 Howling Banshees (96) Exarch (12) Mirror Swords (10) War Shout (5) Acrobatic (5) = 128
Transport: Wave Serpent (90) Eldar Missile Launcher (30) = 120
Total: 750
Monday, 20 July 2009
Feugan makes Toast.
So, how did I get on last month?
Dreadfully. Between barely any time to paint, a new colour scheme, unfamiliar models and white, I failed spectacularly to meet the deadline. I pleaded with Mat. Begged for forgiveness. Tried to bribe him with bottled water. He slapped me round the head and sent me to detention to do lines on the blackboard.
My game performance wasn't spectacular, either. Eldar take a bit of practice to get right, especially from an army like Orks. I had a few victories against Mat's Sons of Orar and Wigg's Space Sharks, but with Fire Dragons in my initial list, this wasn't too suprising. Daemons gave me a run for my money, scoring one loss and one draw (iirc), as did Ben's drop-pod Space Wolf army. Didn't get to play Orks unfortunately! Let's have a look at each unit's strengths and weaknesses and see what's what:
Farseer
No picture, since i'm scratchbuilding a female versionand it's nowhere near ready. Possibly the most awesome HQ choice in the game. I armed her with Doom, which is a psychic power that allows all friendly units to reroll to wound vs a target enemy unit until my following turn. In tandem with massed shooting from lots of units, this power overcomes the high damage mitigation of other races by heavily increasing the number of successful wounds inflicted. As an Ork player, I know that most things will die if you throw enough dice at it!
The Farseer also provides LD10, which is fantastic for psychic tests and ensures that her accompanying squad will (usually) fight to the last elf. She also wields a Witch Blade, which when combined with a Shuriken Pistol gives her 3 ws5 str 9 attacks when assaulting a vehicle, or 2's to wound all others - handy defence against walkers!
Dire Avengers
Another excellent Troop choice at the Eldar's disposal. They have the firepower of a Space Marine, and can hold their own in close quarters with the support of the Exarch. Even so, they still die to most kinds of shooting, taking the brunt of most of the enemy firepower. A very very good all rounder infantry option.
Bloody Plasma Cannons...
Rangers
My biggest regret, which in 500pts have a tough time justifying their 95pts sink. As a troops choice they can hold their objectives, but don't support the army well enough to be any more worthwhile than Guardians or Dire Avengers. They seem to work well with Doom, but I often have a better target to use this power with. I think if I upgraded them to pathfinders they will pay off more often in larger games. We will see.
Fire Dragons
Beautiful, beautiful. These guys can kill anything, and always seem to do significant damage before being mowed down. The first few games saw their best performance, and the Exarch in particular proved his worth by defeating a wounded Lord of Change in Close Combat - Initiative 6 is nothing to sniff at! Mounted inside the safety of a Wave Serpent allows them to reach their ideal target with ease, which more than compensates for their short range fusion guns.
Wave Serpent
Initially, rubbish. I armed it with a Shuriken Cannon and quickly realised I had no proper ranged AT whatsoever until I committed the fire dragons inside. This often meant that I would disembark, blow up a Rhino (woo.) and be shot to pieces by a squad of 10 or 11 angry space marines in the following turn. Crap, I thought. Waste of 100pts.
I then gave it a Missile launcher, increasing the pts cost to 120. While I was forced to drop a couple of dire avengers, I realised the benefit immediately, knocking out transports and wounding greater daemons, all while protecting it's precious cargo from melta weapons and str 10 psychic nastyness until the time was right.
So, while overall the army wasn't as bad as I thought it was, I didn't use it to it's full potential until later in the month. But this is all part of learning to use a new army!
Here is the army list at the end of month 1:
Farseer (55) Doom (25) Singing Spear (3) = 83
Wave Serpent, EML (120) = 120
6 Fire Dragons (96) Exarch (12) = 108
6 Dire Avengers (72) Exarch (12) Diresword and S. Pistol (10) = 94
5 Rangers (95) = 95
I'll interweave some pictures of each squad in it's current state later on this evening...
**EDIT** Pictures added.
Dreadfully. Between barely any time to paint, a new colour scheme, unfamiliar models and white, I failed spectacularly to meet the deadline. I pleaded with Mat. Begged for forgiveness. Tried to bribe him with bottled water. He slapped me round the head and sent me to detention to do lines on the blackboard.
My game performance wasn't spectacular, either. Eldar take a bit of practice to get right, especially from an army like Orks. I had a few victories against Mat's Sons of Orar and Wigg's Space Sharks, but with Fire Dragons in my initial list, this wasn't too suprising. Daemons gave me a run for my money, scoring one loss and one draw (iirc), as did Ben's drop-pod Space Wolf army. Didn't get to play Orks unfortunately! Let's have a look at each unit's strengths and weaknesses and see what's what:
Farseer
No picture, since i'm scratchbuilding a female versionand it's nowhere near ready. Possibly the most awesome HQ choice in the game. I armed her with Doom, which is a psychic power that allows all friendly units to reroll to wound vs a target enemy unit until my following turn. In tandem with massed shooting from lots of units, this power overcomes the high damage mitigation of other races by heavily increasing the number of successful wounds inflicted. As an Ork player, I know that most things will die if you throw enough dice at it!
The Farseer also provides LD10, which is fantastic for psychic tests and ensures that her accompanying squad will (usually) fight to the last elf. She also wields a Witch Blade, which when combined with a Shuriken Pistol gives her 3 ws5 str 9 attacks when assaulting a vehicle, or 2's to wound all others - handy defence against walkers!
Dire Avengers
Another excellent Troop choice at the Eldar's disposal. They have the firepower of a Space Marine, and can hold their own in close quarters with the support of the Exarch. Even so, they still die to most kinds of shooting, taking the brunt of most of the enemy firepower. A very very good all rounder infantry option.Bloody Plasma Cannons...
Rangers
My biggest regret, which in 500pts have a tough time justifying their 95pts sink. As a troops choice they can hold their objectives, but don't support the army well enough to be any more worthwhile than Guardians or Dire Avengers. They seem to work well with Doom, but I often have a better target to use this power with. I think if I upgraded them to pathfinders they will pay off more often in larger games. We will see.Fire Dragons
Beautiful, beautiful. These guys can kill anything, and always seem to do significant damage before being mowed down. The first few games saw their best performance, and the Exarch in particular proved his worth by defeating a wounded Lord of Change in Close Combat - Initiative 6 is nothing to sniff at! Mounted inside the safety of a Wave Serpent allows them to reach their ideal target with ease, which more than compensates for their short range fusion guns.Wave Serpent
Initially, rubbish. I armed it with a Shuriken Cannon and quickly realised I had no proper ranged AT whatsoever until I committed the fire dragons inside. This often meant that I would disembark, blow up a Rhino (woo.) and be shot to pieces by a squad of 10 or 11 angry space marines in the following turn. Crap, I thought. Waste of 100pts.I then gave it a Missile launcher, increasing the pts cost to 120. While I was forced to drop a couple of dire avengers, I realised the benefit immediately, knocking out transports and wounding greater daemons, all while protecting it's precious cargo from melta weapons and str 10 psychic nastyness until the time was right.
So, while overall the army wasn't as bad as I thought it was, I didn't use it to it's full potential until later in the month. But this is all part of learning to use a new army!
Here is the army list at the end of month 1:
Farseer (55) Doom (25) Singing Spear (3) = 83
Wave Serpent, EML (120) = 120
6 Fire Dragons (96) Exarch (12) = 108
6 Dire Avengers (72) Exarch (12) Diresword and S. Pistol (10) = 94
5 Rangers (95) = 95
I'll interweave some pictures of each squad in it's current state later on this evening...
**EDIT** Pictures added.
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