Trueborns - The awesomely spoiled brats of Dark Eldar

Welcome back......

Today, I will be talking about the unit that is all the rage in the 40k world when it comes to the Dark Eldar. I will be talking about the trueborns and what I think about them.

Alright what are trueborns? Fluffwise, they are Dark Eldar that actually have their mommy keeping them in their wombs for god knows how long and was born the normal way, as compared to the evil in-vitro way that usual Dark Eldar are created. In this way, those Dark Eldar that are born the natural way are 'true-born' from their mommy's womb. And just to add up to it, since they are rare, they are spoiled to a fault.

Their fluff alone is a cute thing, but nonetheless with this new sub-unit coming up in the new codex they are now some hot item that a lot of prospective Archons, Haemonculi and Succubi find hard to ignore.

The reason why? They are literally spoiled with the choices of wargear that you could attach to them and you can gear them up for almost everything, even close combat if you will but that would mean that you are almost forgoing their major strength, which is shooting.

Holistic Mumbo Part 2 - Temperaments and Elements

Heya, welcome back to another chapter of Holistic Mumbo.

Today I was checking up on what's in my hard drive and I bumped upon an old treasure of mine; a kind of deep thought topic about how I judge players and what armies suits them. I remembered me posting this up in Tau Online Forums before, but I assume that the thread is kinda lost in the webway. So without further ado, I will just post this out for all to read. Even today I still believe in this theory.

Lady Vespera's Solution - a short story

Urgh......

Lady Vespera wakes up with her heart pounding like blows of powerfists upon a shadowfield, and she hates it when she wakes up with a cranky mood. But then, if it does she must be that time again, a time where she would not even want any contact with anyone. She pulls her bedsheet away, revealing her amorous form and walked towards the dark reflective surface at the end of her room and looked at her form. Despite her impossibly beautiful form, and long, velvety dark turquoise hair running down her back, she knows that she is not in her top form today. What she would kill to go back into her bedsheets and rest away her fatigue....

Unfortunately for her, a loud thumping can be heard on the door.

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" Vespera lied, but that is a rather natural thing for her to say, and indeed if she does not even know how to lie, she might as well end up as one of the slave-things found in Lower Commorragh.

"My lady, today is the day. The Kabalites are getting restless, and personally my Wracks are already eviscerating themselves to put themselves in a rather favourable mood for today...." A muffled but dark and sinister voice, even for a Dark Eldar can be heard over the doors to Vespera's chambers.

It's today?! Urgh....I don't feel like it....

The Rapturous Venom Kabal 1750 pts list

Welcome back, and today I will be posting my army list which I am planning to use based upon my experiences. Without further ado here's the list.

HQ
1. Archon
Agoniser
Haywire Grenade
Ghostplate Armour
Combat Drugs
Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Shadowfield generator

Total pts: 160 pts

Haemonculi
Haemonculus x 2
Liquifier x2

Total pts - 120 pts

Elites
1. Kabalite Trueborns
Kabalite truebornx 5
Blaster x 4

Venom with second splintercannon

Total pts - 185 pts

2. Kabalite Trueborns
Kabalite truebornx 5
Blaster x 4

Venom with second splintercannon

Total pts - 185 pts

3. Hekatrix Bloodbrindes
Hekatrixs x 9
Shardnet and Impaler x 3
Haywire grenades x 9
Syren with Phantasm Grenade Launcher and Agoniser

Raider with Flickerfield and improved aethersail

total pts: 280 pts

Troops
1. Wracks
Wracks x 8
liquifier x 1
Acothyst with flesh gauntlet

Raider with flickerfield

total pts: 180 pts

2. Kabalite Warriors
Kabalites x 10
blaster x 1
splintercannon x 1
Sybarite with venom blade

Raider with flickerfield and improved aethersail

total pts - 205 pts

3 .Kabalite Warriors
Kabalites x 10
blaster x 1
splintercannon x 1
Sybarite with venom blade

Raider with flickerfield and improved aethersail

total pts - 205 pts

Heavy Support
1. Ravager
Ravager with flickerfield

total pts: 115 pts.

2. Ravager
Ravager with flickerfield

total pts: 115 pts.

I will be explaining the logic of this list one by one and then after that, how they work with each other.

Me and Wracks part 2 - Concepts, concepts, concepts

Hello all, and I am now back in the second installment of "Me and Wracks". The second installment is all about the concepts that I am exploring to make my wracks look the part as the horror of flesh and pain.

In the previous installment, I have stated that they look like those buggers from Hellraiser and seeing that I would not go wrong with the idea, so I went about researching some ideas from the Hellraiser movies and stuff for the Hellraiser world.

Me and Wracks part 1 - Why I love them

With every new codex, there will always be new units. This holds true for the Dark Eldar and they indeed introduced a whole plethora of units that just need to be discovered and in the spirit of Dark Eldar, exploited.

One of the new units that come into the fray is actually an infantry unit called Wracks. The Wracks are essentially Dark Eldars modified by their Haemonculi masters into a hellish minion that served to become their bodyguards and also helpers in the torture chambers and are in more ways than one, the successor to the older Grotesque as the new Grotesque are literally Hulk-like creatures. There are a lot of fuss about them over the internet about them, and some of them are also the reason why I like them.

Gamewise, there are several reasons why I like them. One of the reason why I like them is because they are actually one of the few Dark Eldar units that are not Toughness 3, but instead having a toughness of 4. Quite the big leap for the Dark Eldar and for once the Dark Eldar do not have to worry about getting killed by a starcannon or something.

Secondly, they come with a pain token free, and this means that they are already build in with Feel No Pain which means that they will be like a chewing gum in someone's hair; a bitch to take out. Thirdly, they all come with two poisoned weapons (4+), which means that with their toughness they are perfect to hunt down infantry squads like Imperial guardsmen, and with a second pain token works against marines as well and their squad upgrades only proved to serve this purpose. The Wracks also work against Monstrous Creatures as their poisoned weapons can potentially take down even a C'tan

Last but not least, if you take at least one Haemonculus Ancient or Haemonculus in the army, you can make them troops. This last point means that for once, the Dark Eldar have an unit that can essentially hold ao objective if needed to, and anything that comes close enough will suffer its wrath.

However, the reason why I love them for real is not because I want to take advantage of the rules, but it is because the Wracks are just so beautiful in concept and art.

Just look at it....it is just awesome. They really remind me of these guys;

Yeap, actually to be honest Haemonculi, Wracks and Grotesque in the new Dark Eldar makes me think Hellraiser (in honest truth, the fluff also supported this view of mine). This alone is a concept that I can not ignore, as the conversion possibilities is just endless. That of the unit being a very good unit for Dark Eldar is a real bonus which makes me want to field this unit. But now the problem is that the model is as of this moment non-existent. For some, this is a very annoying thing that newer codices are doing, but for me it is a boon as I am allowed to do what I want and try to make this. Of course that saying, a new wave of models might change all of this, but even then I will make one squad for myself just to mark it out as a 'veteran' wrack squad that stands out.

So I guess I will be returning to the webway and ponder upon my next big scheme for my Dark Eldar.

The Archon's first true venture into realspace: Opinions about the evil elves from space

I just came back from my realspace raids and is now quite spirited to talk about my experiences with my evil space elves. First, I will be talking about the two games that I have played with my Dark Eldar (proxied mostly to understand how units worked) and the results. This will then followed by what I think is the fundamental ideas of a Dark Eldar army and finally I will touch upon units that deserve some more detailed mentioning.

The first game I got ever with my Dark Eldar is against their goody two-shoes cousin, the Eldar in a good o' game of Seize Ground. This game is a real setback for me as my opponent managed to seize the initiative and rip apart my army with lots of big nasty weapons. This game serves to prove the point that if your aggression is stopped in its track before it even began, you are gonna die hard. In addition, I can also see that some units got the makings to become extremely destructive if given the chance, as I managed to see how a small squad of Trueborns with 4 blasters with a Venom with two splinter cannons can wreak so much havoc despite its small size, causing much havoc behind enemy lines. It is also here that I noticed that Dark Eldar is better off destroying or denying scoring units than holding objectives.

Holistic Mumbo Part 1 - The Looks of an Army

Welcome back and today I will be talking about the rather holistic way in which I decided to build my army. This is but a first of many parts, and the reasoning behind my actions to make my army the way it is.

Now some of you must be wondering, what the hell is a holistic approach and how does this even apply to what I am doing? Well first we must look at the root word of holistic, holism. The general principle of holism was concisely summarized by Aristotle in the Metaphysics: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts", and this is how I tend to go about my armies. How I go about this, you asked. Well, I'll tell you.

The first thing that I tend to do with an army is to imagine how I want it to look on the table, no matter what the hell I am doing or no matter where the hell I am going in order to make it real and tangible. The reason for this is because this army is going to be mine, and mine alone. I hate to be similar to the person next to me, and I find that I have a streak of individualism that I can't ignore inside. Sure I can go and become a normal vanilla Ultramarines or Marines, but without the look no one would even notice that there is something special about these guys. But when I put an army that is dressed and made for the kill, it will turn heads and make them wonder; Woah...who the hell is that guy? You can call this ego, but I call it being the pioneer of playing in style.

The next thing I tend to do is then make them a story that make me want to go about playing these little plastic men more. I am a guy who loves a good story, and I never find it wrong to make some narrative as to what your boys and girls are all about. It makes for a more enjoyable moment when you decided to play around and just pretend that you are indeed in some kind of epic war movie about these men and women in 40k.

A good example of this approach would be my Orks. My ork's background story is that of them being a rather odd bunch of Deffskull grease monkeys whose boss decided to try and loot everything he can get his greasy fingers on, and while he is at it he will play loud percussive sounds for his own enjoyment. So this also gives me a reason to go about modelling all the things that the Orks salvaged or stole from their enemies as with every adventure, they found more people to break their heads and take their vehicles away to Orkify it. At the bottom, you could see what I go about doing to make it fit to the image I want my Orks to be.



Of course, with more games I played with them, my army grew and now it is a rather healthy chunk of at least 2.5k with the burnas, lootas and the warbuggies to make it fit the image of the junkyard warriors I always imagined my Orks to be. In addition, I also intentionally made it a goal that whenever I defeat a foe, I will try to loot something from the range of the army. So far I have failed to win decisively over the Nids, and due to the string of ties I always had with them I am unable to loot that Carnifex for my own army. On the opposite spectrum, I have yet to buy a tau devilfish/hammerhead to loot as I am currently preoccupied with my Dark Eldar not to mention that I want to buy both a devilfish and an ork trukk to make for a devilfish with wheels. So that fluff alone is already a big factor in the choices I made in my army and also it fits in overall with my style; that of playing fast, efficient armies with lots of tricks up its sleeves.

So I guess this is the end of Part 1. More to come in the far (well actually not that far off) future.....

Sharing is Caring, Gain from the Pain

Pain. None of us like pain, but Dark Eldar does. Dark Eldar loves pain and this is reflected in their trademark rule "Power From Pain". For those who are not even aware what this funky rule does it basically boils down to this; The more a Dark Eldar destroys, the more nasty it becomes.

The specifics is that whenever a unit with the "Power From Pain" kills off an entire enemy non-vehicle unit, the unit will gain a pain token which will give them benefits depending on how many pain tokens you get;

1 Pain Token: Feel No Pain

2 Pain Token: Furious Charge

3+ Pain Token: Fearless

The fun part about this? It can stack. So if an unit kills enough, it will have FnP, Furious Charge, and Fearless all in one go. But if this is not enough, they decided that "Hey, let's make them evil version of Care Bears!" and alas, we ended up with a sub-rule called..."Sharing the Pain".

Can I Haz Painz Tokenz?

Archons, Succubi and Haemonculi - A Few of my Favourite Things

With the release of the Dark Eldar codex and the awesome models that comes with the new release, I have finally embarked upon what I call the final test of my 40k gaming life, using everything I have learned in the past 4 years to start what is often called the hardest army to play in the whole 40k world. So with that I have lost my soul, despite the fact that I already got like a number of armies I am playing.

That aside, I will now go into the things I really liked about the new Dark Eldar.

First things first, the models are SICK. They looked a lot better than the old school models (though I actually do like the old school Dark Eldar Warriors)and seeing that the majority of the range is in plastic, it will make conversion a hell a lot easier than most.


Oh Nom Nom Nom.....


Secondly, the fluff is fun and very enthralling for a connoisseur of fluff like myself. It really portray the Dark Eldar as those boogieman from under our beds and the fairy tale evil creatures, witches and monsters imagery that some of the Dark Eldar units exhibits is really something to marvel at. For example the idea of the haemonculi as an immortal Dr. Frankenstein entertains me a lot as I can relate to the idea of a mad Faustian alchemist of evil. My most favourite story of them all is the rise of Vect as the Overlord of Commorragh and the imagery of a full-scale invasion of Space Marines into Commorragh reminds me a lot of Black Hawk Down.



Thirdly, the army works naturally with my inclinations in 40k. In a game of 40k, I enjoy using fast and deadly armies that work together in an interconnected net of support and logistic to become a rather unstoppable force, and I tend to play in a hit and run manner picking where and when I want to fight. The Dark Eldar works in this sense because the army as a whole is true to its fluff; a fast,heavy-hitting force that is fragile as hell. The idea of them being fragile means that in order for them to survive, all of them must work together and fight together to survive and win. In a way this is akin to those damn Planeteers from Captain Planet having to combine all their rings to summon a perfect Captain Planet.


By Your Powers Combine, I am Evil Eldarz!

And fourthly, it is one of those armies where everything from building to playing them is a true joy. They are those armies where you can put your own brand of awesome into the mix, and make your imagination go wild with the possibilities! One of the things I am looking forward to is actually the Wracks, where the models just scream personalization......(Yes my pretties, Daddy will make you all feel good....*gollum*).

Thus, I am actually rather pleased with this prospects and I am a stickler for making fluffy but also very playable lists with tricks up its sleeves . Now time for me to go into my laboratory and concoct evil in my lair.....*evil supervillain cackling laughter*