Gardening in the 41st millenium

Hello and welcome to my lovely, well trimmed Tale of 6 Gamers Eldar blog. Enjoy your stay and, please, stay off the grass.

Well now. Where to begin? I suppose I came to the decision to start an Eldar force because of process of elimination with regards to playstyle - that is, they are the only army that truly suit it. Despite my success with Orks I often found myself limited in the way I smash the enemy to bits by their one-dimensional approach to warfare, and that is Power Klaws. Attacks bouncing off of tough armour? Power Klaw. Nearby tank causing trouble? Power Klaw. Tupperware lunchbox lid? Power Klaw. The nob with the power klaw truly is the swiss army knife of the 41st millenium, and after a while it gets a tad... dull.

I had a look at the various races and wanted something different, but not weak. I had some criteria though:

• No hordes - can't stand painting hordes because it lowers the quality of each paintjob. Additionally, hordes win by attrition, or "I have more dudes than you have bullets". I don't like this because every time you play a game, most of your army must die before you win...
• At least 4+ saves for basics - would love to have an armour save versus boltguns on my troops instead of relying on cover which might not even be there.
• Manouverable - I like to control the battlefield and use tactics to achieve my aims, because it's more rewarding than simply deploying more soldiers, tanks and guns than the other guy. If one squad, used well, kills 2-3 times their pts before dying, I am having a good day.
• All-round capability - I want to perform in the movement phase, shooting phase and assault phase. No more one-dimensional armies, no more gunline vs hordes.
• No humans. Everyone knows how much I detest the fact that the Imperium is central to every event in the WH 40,000 universe and feel that the xenos need more attention - specifically, alone, with no mention of any humans. This would make a nice change! No, i'm not a fascist.

So I decided to go for Eldar. I wanted an elite-heavy army that functioned like a very intelligent toddler who knew exactly which hole to put the square peg into. In other words, i didn't just want to deploy an 'army'. I wanted to form the army from smaller elements who each specialised in dealing with certain types of threats. So, I would need a unit that could go tank hunting, a unit that could go for heavy armour, a unit that could deal with hordes, etc etc...

To this end, I decided to go for Swordwind. This is styled around the Biel-Tan craftworld and their aggressive stance against the rest of the galaxy - but it isn't Biel-Tan. My particular force is centralised around a Farseer and her cadre of warriors as they fight to reclaim one of the lost Maiden Worlds from a bunch of confused, trespassing aliens.

INITIAL PURCHASES

Say it with a loud, booming voice. It's fun.

So, Mat (AKA God, for all intents and purposes) decreed that we each put together a force consisting of the basics - 1HQ, 2 Troops. He also decreed that we spend around about 4-500pts. This posed an inital worry for me, since I didn't want any Guardians - they suck ass, they are expendable (more attrition - BAD!) and quite static. So instead I went for the more l33t Dire Avengers to fulfil an all-rounder choice. With BS4 Avenger catapults and bladestorm, they can dish out more ranged damage than a Space Machine Tactical Squad, and the Exarch can get stuck in with his power weapon and 5+ inv save (across the squad) in close combat. They also have 4+ armour saves, giving them a fighting chance vs boltgun fire and other AP5 nasties.

The second choice had to be rangers. With shots that occasionally count as AP1 they will be helpful in whittling down key threats, or otherwise able to pin down larger, low ld squads, they are ideal for sitting on objectives and harassing the enemy until they go out of their tiny little minds. They also have stealth (+1 cover save) which will make them extra-difficult to shift.

Finally, the HQ. A Farseer ought to do it, since the expedition is led by one, and i'm still debating whether or not to use an Autarch later on.

I still needed some anti tank, and since I like them so much, a squad of fire dragons in a Wave Serpent fitted the bill. Even if they run out of rhinos and wartrukks to kill, meltas are just as good as popping the odd Ork or Space Marine :)