Dark Eldar and Me: Initial impressions

Heya and welcome back to the webway!

Now that I get to sit with the Dark Eldar codex, I will be talking about how this book will affect me as a Dark Eldar player. In addition, I am also looking ahead for this book with the shifting meta and the context of 7th edition.

I guess I should start with the stories first.

Now I will say that the art and direction for the fluff parts is a good direction, with the book looking more like a supplement than the previous few codices before it. Deep enough with the story, and the art is utterly gorgeous. Even my Marine and Eldar friends are complaining about how this book utterly trumps their book in that category.

Of course as with every codex, the main reason why people bought the book is so that they could play with their stuff well. In that regards, I am always open to the concept of my book becoming something that I am no longer familiar with and thus I actually do not give a darn about the people who are sore about some things that they used to have that are nerfed and things that no one used became better and even becoming the meta.

My first notice is that the Power From Pain rule is turned from an active mechanic that is isolated in units to a field-wide effect mechanic. Despite me not being fond of the first two turns of the mechanic, but otherwise it does give me something that allow me to have an end game exit strategy. Everytime I play, I noticed that my army becomes significantly weaker as I lose my juice and they can't do much. In particular, I am always desperately in need of some troops that could hold their ground during the final turns for those desperate clutch wins. With the new Power From Pain, I can do just that. It is an improvement in many ways and it provides the dudes with some means of stubborn resistance.

Secondly, I noticed that the army now has an emphasis upon deepstriking with Webway portals (pure win by the way) and also all ground vehicles being able to deepstrike. I will admit that playing the Duke a few times had taught me that deepstriking Dark Eldar vehicles allows for different vectors of attack. This in my opinion is a welcoming change, as I really do not comprehend the idea that Dark Eldar will deploy themselves readily and be honest about it (which is what most Dark Eldar players do by default due to not having units that could infiltrate and deepstrike unless you have the Duke).

The Realspace Raid Detachment is in my opinion one of the best detachments in the game, but that is only because most of the Dark Eldar's best units are in this slot. I really do not care too much about the additional rules, for I just want to get those additional fast attack slots. The Covenite Coterie and coven formations are also interesting to say the least as it does complement nicely with the dark eldar codex.

Another thing I noticed is that Raiders and Venoms have lost some things, but in essence got a slight boost. Venoms in particular have it going for them, as their power level did not change at all. Combined with the cheaper kabalite warriors and also some changes in some of the vehicle wargear, they can hold their own against most of the forces there. 

Now I will admit that I am still sore from the Wave Serpents, but due to the 7th edition deepstriking rules and passenger firing rules, I believe that it will not be as bad as the previous codex. Sadly enough I must also talk about the Ravager's nerfs, as now I really can't move them fast enough and press their unique advantage. However, I can see myself deepstriking them to get those back armour if I needed to.

Sadly enough, I also noticed that the book killed many Wych-based armies. Mass Haywire grenades on wyches are gone, and so are the BeastStar builds. Then there are the hellions......sad day indeed for them. I will honestly say however that I am never a fan of wych units (except the Reavers) and clearly do  not feel the sting other than losing one of my more reliable anti-tank unit.

On that note, I am still unsure about Reavers as they are the only unit I noticed that does not have grenades, but at the same time could mitigate this weakness via their new bladevane and cluster caltrop rules. With their cost reducing and also being able to take up to 12 in a squad means that this unit is an unit that was meant to ram themselves into any target that they see fit and rip it apart via HoW to minimize enemies that will strike them back in assault from behind cover. They also can kill vehicles with those HoW attacks.

However, the Scourges are now the new hotness as not only are they more reliable than Wyches to deliver haywire weapons, but they could do so at range. I know that these guys will be one of my most heavily used units for this edition for they assist me in one of my greatest problems with Dark Eldar; anti-tank.

The aircrafts are in my opinion awesome, and I personally like to use the Voidraven Bombers as they help me with my anti-tank and also horde problem on the fly. Razorwings are of course awesome for their point cost and also that they are moved to the fast attack slot which frees up my heavy support. I just love the Vodraven bomber too much, and I will be playing with two of them for the time being until something convinced me that it is a bad choice.

Talos and Chronos are really good for what they do, and I see no problems with them now that they could be taken in a squad of three. They were alright before, but they competed heavily with the Ravagers and other goodies. Now with the changes done, these guys might get to see the light of day once more.

However, with this book I find myself asking myself if GW is really wanting us all to become collectors rather than gamers. I personally do not mind as I am from a collector's background but for the competitive gaming junkies, this means that they need to grow larger than they wanted to be with very beer and pretzel rules. Their army hopping days are slowly unravelling as there is no way for anyone to predict the meta. As for collectors they will buy less models but they will have soo much options that by default they will have competitve builds for the armies without even trying.

With these thoughts, I will take my dark eldar with a happy stride across the battlefields of 40k. 

Prototype Tournament Format - Need input

Heya all and welcome back to the webway!

These past few days I have been trying to see the feasibility of making a particularly interesting tournament format that is a merging between the NOVA Open format (Which I am fond of their tiers of victory conditions) and also the Bay Area Open Format (The simultaneous Primary Objectives is something I am also fond of) along with some interesting things of my own devising. Comments and criticisms is much appreciated, and if anyone would like to playtest this ruleset for me and give me further information I would also appreciate it.

Without further ado here are the missions;

Mission 1 : Breaching The Stalemate

The killing fields of the battlefront are no place for the foolish to venture into for attacks often sustain severe casualties as a matter of course and it is a fool’s errand to enter into no man’s land.  However, a breach must be made to break the deadlock……

Primary Objective And Victory Conditions:

1)     Purge the Alien – At the end of the battle, each player receives 1 Victory Point for every enemy unit that has been completely destroyed. You MUST score at least Three (3) more Mission Victory Points than your Opponent to win via Mission Points. Units that are falling back at the end of the game, and units that are not on the board at the end of the game, count as destroyed for the purpose of this mission. Remember that Independent Characters and Dedicated Trasports are individual units and award Victory Points if they are destroyed.

2)     Big Guns Never Tire – Players take turns to place a total of 6 Primary Objectives. At the end of the game, Each primary objective is worth 3Victory Points to the player that captures it. In addition, at the end of the game, each player receives 1 Victory Point for each enemy heavy support unit that has been completely destroyed. You MUST score at least Three (3) more Mission Victory Points than your Opponent to win via Mission Points.Units that are falling back at the end of the game, and units that are not on the board at the end of the game, count as destroyed for the purpose of this mission

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting, Objectives, Reserves

Heavy Metal: Unlike other missions, in Big Guns Never Tire, your heavy support units are scoring units, not just your troop units. In fact, in Big Guns Never Tire, even your vehicles are scoring units, providing that they are also heavy support units and are not Immobilized!

Tiebreaking Objective:

Enemy Lines: The player with the most scoring units entirely in the enemy deployment zone achieves the objectives.

Bonus Points:

Linebreaker

Slay the Warlord

First blood

Deployment

Vanguard Strike

Mission 2: The Arms Race

The battlefield is strewn with items of great importance and strategic locations, and both sides have tasked recon units to scour and identify items and sites of great strategic importance, with some items and sites being more important than others and the most important of these items must be brought back no matter the cost…….

Primary Objective:

3)     The Relic – Please refer to ‘The Relic’ (Main Rulebook pg.131) mission for further details. The Relic is worth 3Victory Points to the player that captures it.

4)     The Scouring: Players take turns to place a total of 6 Primary Objectives face down on the table. There should be one marked with 4, two marked with 3’s, two with 2’s and a single 1. Immediately before deciding whether or not to attempt to seize the initiative, flip the six markers over to reveal how many victory points they are worth.

At the end of the game, each primary objective is worth a number of Victory Points to the player that captures it equal to the number on the Marker. In addition, at the end of the game, each player receives 1 Victory Point for each enemy fast attack unit that has been completely destroyed. Units that are falling back at the end of the game, and units that are not on the board at the end of the game, count as destroyed for the purpose of this mission

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting, Objectives, Reserves

The Relic: Please refer to Main Rulebook ‘The Relic’ (pg.131) for more description.

Tiebreaking Objective:

Table Quarters: The Table will be divided into four areas formed by drawing horizontal and vertical lines through the center point. A 6’x4’ table would have four 3’x2’ quarters.

To control a table quarter there must be no scoring enemy unit and at least one scoring unit of your own in the quarter. A unit can only occupy one table quarter – if it is spread over more than one quarter, roll randomly to determine which it is in.

The player that controls the most table quarters at the end of the game achieve this objective.

Bonus points:

Linebreaker

Slay the Warlord

First Blood

Deployment:

Hammer And Anvil

Mission 3: Holding The Hope

After several years of warfare, military intelligence have gotten news that reinforcements are coming. Securing the battlefield prior to the arrival of much greater numbers of friendly troops for a decisive battle will be vital for overall strategic victory. However the enemy is aware of this and it is imperative that the enemy be denied also to allow friendly troops to see that the battlefield is theirs for the taking……

Primary Objective:

1)     Crusade: Players take turns to place a total of 6 Primary Objectives. At the end of the game, each Primary Objective is worth 3 Victory Points to the player that controls it. You MUST score at least Three (3) more Mission Victory Points than your Opponent to win via Mission Points.

2)     Erecting The Banner: At the end of the game, the Center Objective is worth 9 Victory Points to the player that captures it. In addition, at the end of the game, each player receive 1 Victory point for each HQ that has been destroyed within vicinity of this objective. You MUST score at least Three (3) more Mission Victory Points than your Opponent to win via Mission Points. Units that are falling back at the end of the game, and units that are not on the board at the end of the game, count as destroyed for the purpose of this mission

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting, Objectives, Reserves

Who Wants to Live Forever?!?!?!: Unlike other missions, in Erecting The Banner, your HQ units and units that they are attached to are the only units that could capture the center objective. In fact, in Erecting the Banner, even your vehicles are scoring units, providing that they are also HQ units and are not Immobilized!

Tiebreaking Objective:

HOLD OR DIE TRYING!!!!!!:  For every turn that the center objective that HQ units and attached units hold the objective uncontested, the player that holds this objective will receive 1 VP for every turn that they hold the objective.

Deployment:

Dawn of War

Mission 4: Targets of Opportunity

Military intelligence had found that an envoy of extreme importance is currently present at the front lines observing their own forces at the same time as our own envoy is checking our frontlines. It is imperative that this envoy be assassinated, and during the confusion capture the base of operations while defending our own envoy and base of operations…..

Primary Objective:

1)     Emperor’s Will: At the end of the game, the player that have scored the most Victory Points win. You MUST score at least Three (3) more Mission Victory Points than your Opponent to win via Mission Points.

2)     Neutralizing the Envoy: At the end of the battle, each player receives 4 Victory Point for neutralizing the Envoy.

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting, Objectives, Reserves

The Envoy: The envoy has the following rules;

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
2	3	3	3	1	2	1	7	4

Special Rules:

Slow and Purposeful, Independent Character.

Put Their Name To The Test: Unlike other missions, in Immortals, your Elite units are scoring units, not just your troop units., if they are also elite units and are not immobilized. However their dedicated transports are not scoring units.

Tiebreaking Objective:

Killing the Pride of the Army: At the end of the game, each player receive 1 Victory point for destroying the most expensive unit of the opposing player/

Deployment:

Dawn of War

Adapting for the Foreseeable Future for my Dark Eldar

Heya all and welcome back!

Crisis_Vyper return an International player of 40k!!!!

Being back in Malaysia and having to adapt to the meta at home is always a toughie, especially when one have developed their army in the US to near perfection. It is not to say that it is a bad thing, in fact I really enjoy myself as I get to use the lessons learned from the US to increase my fundamentals in 40k which is based upon a Malaysian school of thought (lol). With that, I must say that combining both my 6th edition experiences in both nations I found that there are some things that would affect my finetuning towards the Malaysian meta;

1) Blasterborn in Venoms are not as amazing as they used to be. I am sad about this, but at the same time, things must change. Personally they have not been performing for a while now, and my use of Reavers and Incubi sparingly as fun elements proved to be superior choices to the Trueborns in most of the games they are in. Each edition brings its own nuances, and with that I must adapt to the only constant; change.

2) Eldar allies are important to increase consistency of the entire Dark Eldar army (or otherwise known as 'Dat Farseer!') as they help in being a force multiplier for the Dark Eldar, especially in the twin-linking department.

3) Assault is still alive, just that it is more of a high-risk/high-reward thing. Suits the Dark Eldar just fine to be honest, and an assault element needs to be tough, fast and able to hit hard enough.

I pity the Marine player here.......

4) Mech or some elements of Mech are also alive, especially with the Xenos factions. The prevalence of Wave Serpents among Eldar players is such that Samuel. L. Jackson would be cursing "I am sick of these motherfuckin' Serpents on this motherfuckin' table!' while the existence of Hammmerheads and Skyrays (mostly the latter), Annnihilation Barges and Land Raiders proved to show that everyone is breaking through the inherent meta of having footlists and Str 7 weapons.

Due to this, I am also seeing more meltaguns returning as well to counter the new wave of nonsense. This also means a more Hybrid approach to most lists. I rarely see a full foot-army here as everyone and their mothers are all armed to the teeth with anti-infantry guns to the point that cover is beneficial only when they go to ground to take the hits.

Honest reaction to Space Marines

5) Less Marines, more Xenos. In the US, I see so many bloody Marines (almost 80%) to the point where I often say to myself that any Marine matchup is a 8-2 in my favour, while Xenos are arguably the minority. Over here in Malaysia, there is a greater spread of armies to face, with Marines consisting only 30-50% of the armies here. In fact I like the variety, and thus nnow I am able to get my thinking hat on to make more balanced lists (not that I did not make them to be anti-Marine to begin with, but it is quite a Marine killer).

6) Interestingly enough, there is not a lot of flyer spam. I do not know why, but everyone uses around 0-2 flyers. I blame this on the Tau and Eldar to be honest, and I am fine with this.

American Table......

And the Malaysian table.

7) It is comfortable to see that the terrain here is a lot more than those in the US, especially when 25-40% of the table is covered in terrain, with a balanced mix of area terrain, Ruins, and other terrains. In the US, I often expect to see around 15-25% terrain. A true relief and a greater test of skill rather than pure dice rolling

With these observations in mind, I have also started to go about designing a list that best reflects the current mutation of the meta.

My list is somewhat spartan, but it does offer me a whole load of flexibility in terms of deployment, firepower and tactics. I am assuming that I will always get the worst possible situation for a Dark Eldar player; Being forced to be on Planet Bowling Alley without Nightfight and going second. My US experience opened my eyes about how important every little scrap of terrain is, even if you have to make one yourself using the corpses of your vehicles.

My 1750 pts list is meant to answer all the observations and field experiences I have seen in Malaysia (as stated above), and also throwing in my wisdom from my time in the US.

Baron Sathonyx
Farseer on Jetbike on Jetbike
1 squad of 6 Incubi with a Klaivex in a Raider
1 squads of 5 Warriors with 1 blaster in a Raider
4 squads of 5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venoms with second splinter cannons
1 squad of 3 Windrider Guardian Jetbikes with one Shuriken Catapult
1 Squad of 9 Reaver Jetbikers with 3 Heatlances and an Arena Champion with a Venom Blade
2 Ravagers with Flickerfields
1 Voidraven bomber with Flickerfield and 2 Shatterfield missiles

The Baron is there sadly for one reason and one reason only; Getting me the option in deployment. Not the best use of HQ I know, but he is pure gold in the pre-game setup. However once he is on the table, he will be hanging out with the Windriders until the last possible turn where they will split up and the Windriders contest objectives. For 105 pts, I do not mind it too much.

However if the situation calls for it, he will also be flying forward to join up with the Incubi and charge together as one.

Farseer......this dude is utterly amazing. He is one of the main elements that can make the entire army ever consistent, with the Runes of Fate, Divination and/or Telepathy. Twin-linking is utterly brutal on Ravagers, Venoms and Reavers, and if I can get Doom, I am an utterly happy person. In other words, he's the handyman.

The Incubi provides me with an avenue for close combat, and also I realize that they help balance the army overall with their AP2 Klaives. There are times where I am forced to charge to stall or kill things, and they are the best unit for the job. They are also meant to be used in tandem with the Reavers whenever possible to provide an uneven fight for my opponents. They also play the role as distractions when the need comes for it. For obvious reasons, no one likes a bunch of Incubi with an Archon marching down their alley.

Warriors with blasters are solid dudes, and they only ever get out if the area is cleared. The blasters also provide additional anti-tank for the army and mop-ups if they have to do it.

The Bikers in my army are there for their mobility and also being excellent contesters. Guardian jetbikes are a requisite choice for me to take in an allied list while the Reavers are there to provide three things;

1) Backups for the Ravagers

2) Assault elements

3) Infantry firebase killers

If they are forced to, they could also become a distraction element (and they do excel in this department as well). They can also become anti-air if I need them to be, and with the Farseer around, this makes it a viable choice.

The raiders are there to become meatshields if the situation is such that I am forced to hide behind something. It also doubles up as extra dark lances platforms just in case my Ravagers and Reavers are shot down (which is quite often).

Venoms and Ravagers are just solid choices for anything, and the reason for their inclusion should not need any more explaining to do. The Voidraven is anti-flyer and also anti-tank while the bomb and the missiles it carried acts as both anti-parking lots and anti-horde for my list.

I find that this list has a lot of answers to a lot of things, but in return I sacrifice raw list power. Nonetheless, with the new edition running around and new supplements and codices being thrown into the mix, I find that it is almost impossible to just try and spam things due to the likelihood of pulling out a hard counter or the spam list being obsolete within seconds. The IG blobs are gone and the Cronair are tamer due to the combination of Tau and Eldar shenanigans, while the supplements only creates a meta where anything and everything goes.

In addition with the majority of the missions rewarding a fluid commander, I find that being able to adapt on the fly while also fulfilling the main strategy of the list to be the upmost importance these days. Hard counters are hard to use when some armies do not even have the solution to the problem, and thus having soft counters are more effective in the long-run. This edition is not even through its first year and the constant state of flux now is just amazing for the meta.

I will be testing this list out to see if the theory side of things will be proven in the tabletop. Wish me luck and happy gaming to all of you.

New Eldar and which unit will mesh well with my Dark Eldar

Welcome back to the webway my readers!

With me graduating by mid-June, I am happy to say that I am very proud of myself. What other way that I could do to celebrate this by having what is perhaps the race that is arguably considered to be the perfect Xenos Ally?
Ah....the new Eldar codex.

As a Dark Eldar player, this is essentially a very important release as they are essentially the only faction that I can have a true Battle Brother relationship with. I will personally not bother with the first impressions that I have got from the book, as I am not planning to use it as a main detachment. Instead my review here is more to how some units would make sense in my mind's eye when used in tandem with Dark Eldar. I will mention some rules that will inform my choices, but will not go into detail about the more intricate rules that are interesting but does not have anything to do with my Dark Eldar army whatsoever. This is my honest disclaimer, and thus I hope that everyone would respect this choice of mine in this review.

Now first things first, the HQs.

The most important HQ for my plans with them, Farseers, have a certain buff to them, and yet there are subtle nerfs in them. They are inherently cheaper due to them essentially 'knowing' all of the powers, and also that their wargear have gotten cheaper. However, the nerfs are that their psychic defense is kinda bad now, and their powers are randomized. To be honest I am not bothered with the first nerf, as I am already playing with a force that takes psychic powers like how a convict takes shit in a prison. As for the second one, I am more interested in how the powers will relate to my force, which is primarily a fast and firepower heavy army. Luckily for me, my initial idea about using them has not changed and indeed have improved for the better. The primary reason for that relates to how I see the psychic powers.

The most important power that works for my army, Guide has a significant buff to them with the range of 24" and it is a primaris power. Since my army is rather light on assault, I am not too bothered about the rerolls in close combat that Prescience in the Divination discipline provides and being a Primaris power as that of Prescience, that means that I can always automatically get the power. In fact the 24" range means that my army does not need to get too cozy with the Farseer and are able to do whatever that is needed.

The second most important power for me is essentially Doom, as mmy army is heavy upon the lances and also splinter cannons. With the buff of Doom now allowing me to reroll armour penetration, I could only be happy about this. The only gist is that now I have to roll low to get the power and I would not get this power all the time. No matter, a 1 out of  6 chance is better than no chance at all.

The other powers are essentially very situational for my own good, and personally I can always do without. Among all the other powers, Fortune would be the most applicable due to me having to protect the Farseer himself whenever possible. But even thenn that is a very big stretch

With all of these in mind, they proved to still fit my original purpose with them, and at a cheaper price to boot. Nonetheless I am still tempted to take the Mantle of the Laughing God, as it actually solves the problem that I have highlighted when I talked about Fortune.I will not even talk about Warlock council as they can only be taken in a main detachment for the Eldar army.

The Autarch would not fit my army for the sole reason that he does not help boost my army too much, and since the reason for taking allies is to have something that your army lacks the Autrach sadly will have to stay home.

Spiritseers are cool in their own way, as they could provide me with an interesting option in the form of Wraithguards/Wraithblades. But due to the prohibitive cost of having wraith constructs and how the spiritseer is quite lacking in mobility and also powers that would help benefit my Dark Eldar it will have to stay home as well. Surprisingly enough, this guy is a Warlock on steroids, but yet a budget seer if you can't take the Farseer. But for the sake of this post, he is found wanting.

I will lump the Phoenix Lords and other HQs in one go, as these HQs provide their special thing to a Dark Eldar army, and I do agree that in other builds of my Dark Eldar they might be helpful. But in line with my original concept, these guys are only sitting on the bench as a result of mobility issues and they do not synergize too well with my army.

For the elites choices, I feel that most of  them pale in comparison to the choice that I have in my Dark Eldar list and/or does not synergize well with my army. Incubi are like a combination of Banshees and Scorpions in one go and are superior combat choices than either in its role as an assaulter. Trueborns with blasters and Fire Dragons share similar goals in my army, but the trueborns won out as a result of them being significantly cheaper. Combined these with the superior Dark Eldar vehicle options for both units and one can see why I did not consider them in the mechanics of my army.

In this extension, this is also how I feel about the Wave Serpents in general. I like what it does, but my Dark Eldar vehicles does its job much better and cheaper. In this way I am a min-maxer. This philosophy also goes to my troop choices as well.

For the Eldar troop choices, I find that the Guardians and Dire Avengers perform the roles similar to my Kabalite Warriors, and thus forcing me to look elsewhere. I do understand the concept of ann infantry blob with the Guardian defenders, but for an allied contingent I want something cheap so that I can play around with the toys. Rangers are awesome, but I would rather have something else that can help my army in a more active way.

This leads us to the Jetbikers. Jetbikers are amazing and they mesh well with my plans as I do need something scoring but can also move with the army. Although they are essentially guardians on jetbikes, but it is the jetbike part that won out for me. Mobile, durable enough, and also small enough to hide is a winner in my book.  Not to mention that they are cheaper than rangers really say something about why they are the best troop choice for an allied contingent in my Dark Eldar army.

Fast attack is a very competitive slot for the Eldar codex and I could see many units that have synergy with my own units. For this I will take a moment to talk about them in very simple terms and why I believe that  they synergize well with my army. Only issue here with most of these slot is that some other unit in the force organization slot does their job better, or that their cost is quite prohibitive.

Swooping hawks helps my army in that they can deepstrike reliably without scattering and with that haywire grenade that they are armed with, they can do quite some damage behind enemy lines against those pesky gun platform such as the manticore. With Skyleap, they will be a pest for my opponents.

Warp Spiders also fill this role for me as they are premier harassment units and that monofilament weapons of their would help me against Imperial Guardsmen whom I am not fond of facing against. Their mobility is also something that I am really fond of.

Shining Spears......well, I will be honest and say that I love outflanking units that have Skilled Rider. They also help me in hunting down pesky nonsense that always plague my Dark Eldar such as Manticore platforms. Guns may be short-ranged, but their movement covers up for that.

Vypers also fit well with my army as they provide even more vehicles for my opponent to shoot down, and due to their rather elongated profile they could become mobile cover saves for my other units. Their guns are also nothing to scoff at.

The Crimson Hunter is what I honestly need in my list; a flyer with heavy anti-air weapons that can reliably kill an aircraft with a secondary role in destroying vehicles. Sure the armor is a little thin, but then I am playing with an entire army of paper-mache vehicles so that defect did not hit me as hard as other people. Also it is the first unit in the game with Vector Dancer. On the other hand, the Hemlock is a very bizarre unit for me, as it scares both my units and my opponents, and that flamer of theirs is rather interesting but short-ranged. I would not want an unit that will scare my units away, hence why I am reluctant to even take this unit. And seriously I really wished that the flamer is at least a Str 5-6 so that it could justify the cost of the Hemlock.

In regards to the heavy support, I also see a lot of competition here, but not for the same reasons that I have for the Eldar fast attack slot. Over here I see that the competition is mostly about the guns that this slot can pack.

For the two main battle tanks of the Eldar, I find that they are quite impressive in their own way, but there are reasons why I do not plan to take them in my Dark Eldar allied contingent.

With three modes of fire, the Fire Prism will be well-loved by every Eldar player. Seeing that I am not an Eldar player, I will honestly say that this guy may be useful but my list already does its job with flying colours so it is not as useful to me. Falcons are alright, but if I am not taking Dragons, these guys are not a first pick for me. As for the Night Spinner, the loss of the monofilament rule in causing difficult and dangerous terrain is a big blow for the vehicle, and the Heavy Weapon battery does its job better. However, I honestly believe that one must commit when one takes their main battle tanks (With two Prisms and one Falcon being the best ratio in my opinion), and as an allied contingent this luxury is lost on me.

Dark Reapers are interesting, as they are essentially the Eldar version of Devastators and this is  rather interesting for me. However, their cost is quite prohibitive and also I find that their Eldar toughness of three prevents me from taking them in my Dark Eldar army. The lack of mobility only serve to enforce my opinion about them. Nonetheless I find that if I am playing a foot version of Dark Eldar they will be a strong choice to consider.

The Wraithlord and the Wraithknight are quite interesting as they are inherently better in my opinion than the Dark Eldar monstrous creatures, as their weapons are more effective and their toughness is amazing.  However both have interesting things about them that I can't seem to get off my mind when I see them.

For the Wraithlord, the simple reason that he is slow as hell is the thing that killed it for me. For the Wraithknight, it is the fact that the model is a bloody giant. How am I going to hide it? Even with that invulnerable save, the Wraithknight is a tough model to justify other than being a huge fire magnet. It may be able to fly, but that flying ability is more the reason for it to be shot down. Oddly enough, it is for that reason that I think a Wraithknight may work well with a Dark Eldar army, but I seriously do not want to invest so much on fire magnets.

The Support Platforms Battery is interesting for me as I honestly like the idea the Shadow Weaver, as it would be able to solve my problem of killing lots of horde infantry in one go especially those pesky Imperial Guardsmen. Both the Vibrocannon and the D-cannon are strong anti-tank weapons, but the former suffers from the fact that if even one of the platforms were destroyed its effectiveness goes down significantly while the latter suffers from a very short range. In other words, if I am going with these guns, I am going pure vanilla with the Shadow Weaver. Only thing that I am not fond about them is their static nature, but that barrage, monofilament large blast is a good one on this guy.

The War Walkers are also a solid choice for me, as the buffs in their offensive capabilities only serve to make them much better. Battle Focus is beautiful on this unit, and the new rules for scatter lasers means that mixing weapons could be an option for this unit. However, I still am of the opinion that a full squad of War Walkers with Scatter Lasers is still the choice to go, as they perform the task of anti-light vehicle, anti-air and anti-infantry in one amazing go. That invulnerable save of their is a nice touch, but as my Dark Eldar days have told me about the flickerfield, it is not something that you rely on. Oh did I mention that they can scout? This unit is a very flexible unit indeed.


With this in mind, I have narrowed down the top units that I would like to use in my Dark Eldar army ;

1) Farseer (D'uh!)
2) Jetbikers ( A solid choice here, but can be taken off for the sake of Rangers)
3) Rangers (They are lovely, but the lost of them being able to become Pathfinders without the help of Illic Nightspear is sad indeed.)
4) Crimson Hunter (This will play ball alongside my Voidraven, or become the only flyer in the list as I drop the voidraven for another Ravager)
5) Support Battery Platform (Dat Shadow Weaver!)
6) War Walkers (The utility is just amazing, and I honestly am impressed by their firepower)

The Dark Eldar side of things will become a little smaller as a result of accommodating these clowns, but hey at  least I will be able to get an army that is even more consistent than before. I will  have to see the perfect balance before I finalize my Dark Eldar/ Eldar list now and figure out some ideas to convert these dudes to my Dark Eldar aesthetic.

Cya next time!

New Tau codex and how I feel it changed my playstyle

Heya all and welcome back to the webway!

Now with the new Tau codex coming up on our doorstep, I am now able to see what 6th edition has in stall for my first love. 

Aesthetic-wise, the codex is a very well-crafted book, with the cover that impress and also the extension of the fluff and a given answer to the 'Commander Puretide' question that I have always asked myself; How is it that there is a multitude of master-student relationships between many Tau commanders and also the esteeemed Tau Sun Zi despite the Tau lifespan of like 40 years? Also it is interesting that Shadowsun is technically very old but is stasis-preserved along with other true Puretide students to be used for the Greater Good.

Spicy Baron: Odd kung-fu tricks for the foreseeable future....

Heya and welcome back to the webway.


Today I just want to talk about the weird things I noticed with the odd style of deployment that could be incorporated into one of my rather odd idea that could work.

Just the other day when I was playing a 1750 pts game with my Dark Eldar against a Hybrid Deathwing-Dark Angels list using one of my more adorable testlists that I like to call the 'Cover Mania'.

The 1750 pts list consist of

Baron
1 Haemonculus with Liquifier gun
2 squads of 4 Blasterborn in Venoms with two splinter cannons
20 Hellions with Helliarch with Agoniser
5 Wracks with Liquifier Guns in Raider with flickerfield
3 squads of 5 Kabalite Warriors with 1 blaster in Raider with flickerfield
3 Ravagers with 3 Dark Lances and flickerfields

Since this is a fun game of sorts, I decided to try out a theory.

I reasoned that if I deploy them in a way that would allow everyone to get cover saves provided I had enough terrain/pseudo-terrain to get the hellions to get some cover saves, then I will not need to worry about an Alpha strike list or some mechspam-like lists. In the pic below, I managed to put that theory to the test and it worked.

In this picture, I managed to get my Hellions to get the cover saves they needed from the combination of hiding some of them in the terrain and also behind some of my vehicles while also covering my vehicles with their own massive profile. In return, due to the height of the hellions, I managed to get my vehicles cover saves as well. I managed to get the roll to start first here, but the formation is a one-purpose-fits-all deployment, as I am allowed to actually have enough numbers to soak up the shots if things goes badly for me (either due to them getting first turn or them seizing the initiative) and prevent the uncertainty of an all-reserve game which will feed my forces piece by piece.

This only gets better when my unit started to move.

This is a pic around my second turn. As you can see, some of my units turboboosted as they are unable to target stuff, and thus provided a much needed mobile cover for the hellions. At the same time, the rest of my forces are moving behind the wave, being protected by the hellions. As a result of the deployment of the hellions and also the facing of some of my things, I prevented some of the rhinos from getting cover saves. In this pic unfortunately the Ravagers are slower and thus their targets have to take cover saves, but at the same time, they could also be used to protect the rearguard as well.

My opponent unleashed quite a number of nasty whirlwind shots and also lots of high strength weapons at me, but my casualty in the second turn is just 6 hellions due to the cover saves that I can reap from all the turboboosting and Hellion-wall, while the hellions managed to get their cover raves from the various terrain and also buildings which allow me to get my much desired stealth cover saves.

In turn 3 the hellions dissappeared due to me being overconfident (Damn you Dark Angel scouts?!?!?! HOW YOU WIN COMBAT WITH ONE DEAD HELLION?!?!?!)  but the DA army is quite disoriented from the large amount of targets to kill. Unfortunately for the both of us, we are unable to finish our game and we are forced to stop at turn 4, but the game was very tight indeed as I still have the superior numbers while he is trying to get all the objectives (He managed to get two with one Deathwing squad and a 4 man Tac squad, with one of my warriors getting the other one) but I have enough dark lances and venoms to kill all of them.

This game actually made my 'Cover Mania' list very viable, and despite it being rather abusive it allows for an unseen durability in a Mech Dark Eldar list. In addition, it also provides a very formidable psychological profile as the horde of both vehicles and also the Hellions will force the opponents to struggle with what they want to kill. If they kill the Hellions, the other parts of the army will wreak havoc but if the vehicles are targetted the Hellions will do their nasty deed. If you put the Mathhammer and common sense into the picture you can see that you can't kill everything. Furthermore, iF this is done right, I could actually pop some vehicles and also allow the Hellions to multicharge everything they can reach including vehicles and allow for the protection of the hellions in CC with infantry units as they bust the rest of the mechanized armies apart.

Combined it with the speed of a Mech Dark Eldar army and you can see that the opponent will have very little time to react to the ensuing wave as they got two turns at best to counter everything they see. Combined this factors of durability, speed, Synergy and sensory overload, we could see that this is the strength of this army.

In a 2000 point army, I would put either a Razorwing or for anti-infantry problems or some Reavers for anti-infantry needs and/or also some other units that could further help in harassing the enemy. In essence, this list is meant to make a person have a real big headache, and preferably not me. So far my playtesting with lesser versions of the list is actually quite successful (with one of the lesser version of the list being reported right here) but this is the first time I actually tested the list upwards of 1500 points.

Of course the game would change pretty soon, but the tactics will not differ too much as cover saves for vehicles would still be there (unless we have 4th ed rules again or something happens to cover saves entirely now) and the formation would be a pioneer to hybrid lists. I have heard that some person by the name of Reecius on the internet is now trying a Dark Footdar list with Webway portals and Grots as portal bodyguards. Of course his list is somewhat on the other extreme of what I am planning (I am aiming for a hybrid lists with lots of disruption), but the fundamental ideas apply. Mech Dark Eldar will need to be downtoned a little and the pattern of GW's old ruleset changes of always nerfing whatever is the overwhelming craze for the game of that edition will definitely affect the Dark Eldar in ways we do not know.

I love my Archon and my Mech Dark Eldar, but if I am too attached to it I will not be able to expand as a player and thus I will need to step out of my comfort zones to further advance my skills. Besides, bringing something unexpected is always a good thing as people will be unfamiliar with the way to combat the list.  As of this moment of course, I am taking a sabbatical of sorts with real gaming but that does not mean that I am idle with my 40k theoretical thoughts. Besides this list is a result of a smaller sabbatical which allow me to see the game from an entirely different perspective (Amen Hallelujah Peanut Butter.....).

I will get another chance to test this out, either in 5th or 6th (?), and will see how this hybrid 'cover mania' list would evolve. See ya all later.

A list with the Duke - 1750 pts

Welcome back the webway, and I just want to show a train of thoughts about making a list. Today I will be expanding upon the topic I just talked about yesterday; that of the Duke. Today I will play with the idea of making a list using the Duke despite my beef with him.

The Venom Blade - Could it solve a problem like Maria?

Hello and welcome back to the webway. Today I just want to just let a few flow of thoughts come out, and all of these have got to do with an issue that confounds me; how do you solve a problem like overkilling in close combat?

This is because I realize that my squads can and will be able to go Chuck Norris by themselves. In every match I play, the Wyches and the Archon tend to just wipe out units that they touch (and thus I am unable to capitalize upon the tarpit nature of the Wyches) and expose themselves to the horrors of ranged weaponry, from the humble weaponry of a Boltgun to the destructive psycannon. 

Interestingly I am now trying to solve that with a simple weapon called the Venom Blade.

Eccentrics in warhammer - how they make my games a whole lot awesome

Throughout my gaming experience in 40k, I have fought against a lot of powergamers, good competitive gamers, good thematic players. But for some reason, among all the gamers I have fought against, I for some odd reason love fighting against a certain type of gamer; the Janky good gamer.

Janky is a term used in card games meaning strange, wrong, screwed up and/or no one really knows what it means. In 40k, I tend to use this in its more light-hearted tone; that of strange way of playing or making a list. It so happens that in everyone's time as a player they will eventually meet up with such a player. The fact that this is not comparable to a newb or a noob should be noted, for the former means that they got no idea on what unit to use and for the latter they don't know the rules properly and act like they know everything. When i talk janky good players, I mean that their lists are so weird, but when they play it it is just plain scary good.

You know how it happens and for those who don't lemme run you through it. You being the player decided to go to the local game store, and wanting a 40k match. There you find another player who is an all-round nice guy who woould all be too glad to play with you. But when you see his army, you say to yourself "What the hell?".

There before your eyes, you see a list unlike any other. It is not a cheesy list, not a balanced list, but instead a list that if more akin to some Circus Circus performance, where you see the units that no one ever uses in tandem with each other with other units, creating what looked like a really sub-par list, if not really unplayable. You think he was a noob, or a newb and say to yourself that it will be easy. As he deploys his units, you see that even his deployment is really off, and you wonder what is he pulling at, or not pulling at all. You deploy, with alll the precision and focus of a player who have seen many battles.

However, when the games start, you realized that for some reason, his list is strangely working very well and somehow he is holding out, in fact at some point his army is breaking yours apart. Before long you already ended up with a battle that challenges you to your limit.

I have the privilege to play with a player like this at a somewhat regular basis. His name is Yee How, and he plays Imperial Guard. But the thing about him is that despite the fact that he got lists enough for all types of Guard (from footslogging to Mech), but his personal favourite is his conscripts and Penal legion lists. He loves to spam these particular units, and play them with the addition of a Commisar with some rather weird upgrades and Straken together accompanied by other platoons. He also plays with vanquishers and some executioners, which makes for a rather weird list. What makes it even weirder is that contrary to most guard army, he would personally love to charge you than to shoot you. And due to the unit's rules and the like, he can potentially make my games very interesting.

He would nuke his conscripts with chenkov if it would mean that he can charge you the next turn. He would allocate that shot to the commisar with the large blob of men if it means that he could do some weird shooting and/or charging at you. He would use his tanks as meatshields for his men if it means that his tiny men would be able to do something to you. Almost everything he does with his army borders on madness, but it does work.

Among all the players I have played against, he is the only one I can never truly read as he is just too random for my own mind. I mean I am rather unconventional, but I do have a sense of building a lean and mean army list. But compare that with Yee How, I am as rigid as Barbara Streisand.

Due to this, I rate him rather highly on enjoyability of playing against, as he always make my 2 hours of gaming a worthwhile experience. In addition with his sportsmanship and being of a similar mould of being joker players, we get along very well. In fact, if I were to face im in a tournament, I would either win very big or lose very big against him.

Players like him challenge me, for I learn on how I can use subpar units to my true advantage and win me games. I also learn about how I can use some weird technicality to make my games so much more devastating, and how a small notion of arrangement could affect the entire course of the game.

If I could face more players like this, I would be so much more happier. but alas I am stuck with more conventional players. This not to say that conventional players are bad, but seeing the same o' things can be rather tiring, and seeing a whole new unit on the table is always a treat. I rather see Thunderfire cannons raining down shots on me than seeing a Razorback spam list. I would rather see a Chaos Slaanesh lord with daemonic weapon and a bike than the Lash prince. Sure these units are subpar at times, but when the are used with devastating effect, I am very happy that I am on the receiving end of it as this showed that these people do have some originality in their though processes.

So with that, I bid thee adieu and enjoy your holidays.