1,000 Points of Eldar, Finally on the Table

In late June I decided to ramp up my nascent Eldar collection and rapidly assemble 1,000 points of dainty Space Elves for the Annual Wasted Knights Fourth of July event. In true Mechdar fashion, I came up with the following list:

Farseer - Doom, Guide, Spirit Stone, Runes of Witnessing

7 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with Twin Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit Stones

8 Dire Avengers with a Bladestorm/Twin Catapult Exarch in a Wave Serpent with Twin Scatter Lasers and Spirit Stones

8 Dire Avengers with a Bladestorm/Twin Catapult Exarch in a Wave Serpent with Twin Scatter Lasers and Spirit Stones

5 Pathfinders

Tonight I finally finished that list - just 35 days late! I have proof!

The whole army - 998 points.

One of the Dire Avenger squads.

Fire Dragons.

Pathfinders.

The Farseer. This color (Shadow Grey) worked out very well, and

gives a nice ghostly effect.

One of the Wave Serpents. The blue stones

indicate that this tank carries Dire Avengers.

The Fire Dragons' Wave Serpent, with Twin EML.

It won't win any awards, but it's finished! Next up: Striking Scorpions.

Fixing Necrons: The Lazy, Wasted Knights Way.

Necronoob and I have been talking about how to give Necrons some love while we wait for the update to their 10-year-old codex. With Dark Eldar getting updated as early as November (if the rumors are true), Necrons are now officially the low man on the totem pole, with the rumor mill suggesting that their update will come in March or April of 2011.

So we here at WK have some poorly-planned, half-formed ideas for bringing the Necrons up to par in the interim. This represents a straightforward, modest step forward for the 'crons, to be play-tested and evaluated. If needed, we'll throw some more buffs their way soon.

1. No more Phase Out.
2. New Warrior cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18).
3. New Flayed Ones cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18).

Here's our thinking:

No more Phase Out: In addition to weakening the army across the board, the Phase Out rule also makes the Necron player worry that his low model-count army isn't horde-y enough. It also unfairly penalizes the Necron player for taking some of his most interesting units (like Pariahs and Tomb Spiders), just because they aren't "Necrons," and props up the marginal Warriors, by giving them the dubious distinction of being the cheapest actual Necron (at 18 points a model - no paltry cost).

New Warrior cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18): This reduced cost reflects their lower effectiveness against vehicles in 5th Edition, as well as their total lack of upgrades.

New Flayed Ones cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18): Guardsman currently pick these things up (carefully...) and take them to their Imperial Petting Zoos (Slogan: "Come look at the Xenos before the next bi-weekly invasion of 1.2 million Space Wolves and 340 Njals!").

Rules to be playtested this Saturday, with a Battle Report to come...

Gluing Metal Models

Necessity is the mother of invention and she delivered a small but healthy baby to me tonight. I was attempting to super glue the arms on two lictors and I spent more time separating my fingers than anything else. The dang arms just wouldn't stick on. Metal doesn't like sticking to metal for whatever reason and on some nights it just seems to be worse than others. I know a lot of people advocate greenstuff in this situation but I've never been impressed with the bond. Using pins seems like a huge pain in the ass.

So what to do? For no reason I can think of (other than the bourbon) I stuck a small piece of paper towel in between the metal parts and then put a moderate amount of super glue on the piece of paper towel. Hold the metal/paper towel/super glue sandwich together tightly for 30 seconds... and it sticks together! I tested the bond about 30 minutes later and it seems strong.

No more holding metal pieces together for 5 minutes like a dope for me. Thank you, mama necessity.

Lictor? I hardly know her.

So I finally got 3 lictors and I'm excited about it. A lot of people think the latest codex ruined what was already a bad unit. For me, it's not that lictors are bad, it's just that they compete with Hive Guard and Zoanthropes for the elite slots.

Still, I like the fluff, love the model, and think the rules are fine. So you can't assault the turn you arrive? They give you a 2 shot S6 attack to compensate. Sure CC would be better but 6 S6 shots from 3 lictors aren't bad.

The deployment rules are great - just stay 1" away from any other model and you can place them wherever you want with no deviation. Buh-bye AV10.

The pheromone trail rule is kind of useless as the +1 doesn't kick in until the turn after the Lictors arrive. I suppose they had to do that though. The Hive Commander rule grants +1 to reserve rolls, as does the Swarmlord. Adding +3 to reserve rolls would be nasty. It would have made the Lictors much more useful had GW just given the Swarmlord Hive Commander and allowed the Lictor's +1 to kick in even if it is not on the table. That would make a lot more sense fluff-wise too.

Still, the Lictor gets some great special rules, is S6, and has 3 wounds/3 attacks. I'm happy.

What a difference a day makes...

My weekend goal was to finish the Fire Dragons and their ride. For the first time ever, I seem to have  accomplished my mission.

Here are the Fire Dragons and the Wave Serpent:

Here is a "before and after" - the Serpent on the left is for the Dire Avengers. It's what the Dragon Serpent looked like this morning.

The pictures don't really convey the difference, unfortunately. The yellow of the model on the left is much improved by three coats (!) of Desert Yellow on the model to the right. It's a low-pigment color that takes a lot of work to cover anything, and I was beginning to wish I hadn't used it. But now I'm glad I have something to tone down the Iyanden Darksun - otherwise it's just too yellow and garish next to the Olive Green.

The Joys of Melta

The Fire Dragon recruiting officer has the easiest job in the Craftworld.


Fire Dragon Exarch: "Hey, you wanna be a Fire Dragon?"

Hapless Eldar: "I don't know - I was thinking Dire Avenger..."





"What - the careful art of balanced attack and defense? Yeah, you could do it that way. Or you could just take this fucking meltagun and burn people down with one shot."

 

"What kind of tactics do you use?"

"Every person around you also gets a meltagun."








 



"Is the training hard?"

 "Meltagun."






"Right, sorry."







And that's really it. A Warrior Aspect built entirely around a gun. Swooping Hawks have to master the subtle art of flying. Howling Banshees practice endlessly with their elegant power swords. Even the Dark Reapers have to be good shots. Dragons just get vomited out of a Wave Serpent within 20 feet of the enemy and start pulling triggers. Fifteen seconds later, there's a burning Land Raider next to five dead Fire Dragons and a Space Marine desperately wondering what the hell just happened. The Autarch, a General of the Eldar people charged with overseeing this ancient civilization - this slowly dying race - sees this and thinks:

"Good trade."







Fucking Autarchs.

Sporriors!

Summary

Sporriors – Mycetic Spore Pod-deployed Tyranid Warriors. Did I just coin a term? I googled 'Tyranid Sporriors' and it came back with 0 results so it's mine now. I suppose it’s not surprising given that very few people talk about putting warriors in a spore pod. I have posted about this combo on one or two occasions on The Hive (name is kaiserstole20) but I haven’t noticed anyone else advocating it much less coming up with a silly concatenation of the names of the component units.

Why do I think this is a great idea? I’ll be annoying and answer a question with other questions. What if you could basically guarantee that an objective will be yours no matter where it is on the board? What is that worth to you?

The tactic I use with Sporriors as old as tabletop wargaming itself – suddenly deliver an overwhelming force to a particular spot and watch your opponent cry as you take that objective or eliminate an entire unit in a single round of nerdy pretend violence.

The reason Sporriors are a perfect combo for this tactic is that the two units have great synergy. First, Warriors are great all-around infantry. Good at CC, tough as nails, and with Deathspitters quite shooty. Attach a Prime and you've got a heck of a generalist unit - cheaper, more shooty, and more durable than tactical terminators. Depending on how you configure them, they can slaughter just about any type of infantry in the game. On top of that they provide Synapse, Shadow in the Warp, and are a Troop choice in the Force Org chart. Tyranid Warriors may be the most badass and useful Troop choice in the game.

Second, Mycetic Spore Pods are an excellent delivery mechanism for Tyranids because they save them from the long run across the board. Just like drop pods it’s hard to screw up too badly because if you scatter on top of a unit or impassable terrain they will simply move to the closest ‘safe’ spot. Unlike drop pods they don't come in automatically on turn 1 - but that's a good thing. The later in the game your spore pod arrives the better for you because your opponent will have less time to react.

Unit Composition Details

What does the Warrior squad look like? Most importantly it is as close 10 models (9 warriors and a prime) as you can get it. The point is to hit a spot with overwhelming force and then have enough wounds to keep the objective for several turns if needed. 9 Warriors with a Prime is 30 wounds, 27 S5 shots, and 1 pinning large blast template (from a Barbed Strangler) appearing suddenly right next to an objective. Good luck fending them off or getting rid of them.

The Prime is a must-have. A squad of Warriors with an attached Tyranid Prime is just vicious. WS6 and BS4 with a T5 model to take the krak missile wounds... need I say more?

So with that in mind this is what I play with:

6-9 Warriors with Scything Talons and Deathspitters

0-1 Warrior with Scything Talons and Barbed Strangler

1 Tyranid Prime with 2x Boneswords and a Deathspitter

For Warriors I prefer Deathspitters and Scything Talons vs. all other configurations for a couple of reasons. First, Deathspitters are jack-of-all-trade guns. S5 lets you lay into rear armor with surprising effectiveness. Against a squadron of vehicles you will get 3 penetrating and 3 glancing hits on average. That’s enough to do serious damage if not wipe out the squadron. It also lets you wound T4 better than ½ the time which is important vs. power armor since they will get a save. Scything Talons are just cheap. Free in fact. Against lightly armored or non-cc dedicated troops scything talons are enough. The only thing I might take here is rending claws for a few points more. For me though with 9 warriors to outfit I skip the rending claws.

For the Prime I like 2 Boneswords and a Deathspitter. The Deathspitter gives him something to do when he lands and the 2x Boneswords are multi-wound model killers. Others advocate the Bonesword/Lashwhip combo. Between the two it's a matter of personal preference.

You have probably already started thinking about what a point-sink that unit must be. It's about the same as a full squad of Sternguard and Pedro.

How to Deploy

You’ll do well against just about any troop choice in the game if you drop right next to them, shoot at them, then either take the charge or charge yourself the next turn. However if you’d like to talk strategery there’s some other options you have.

Here’s one example v.s. Sternguard. Since you cannot assault straight from the spore pod, drop your warriors between 13" and 18" away. At this distance 1) they can't charge you; 2) they get 1 shot; 3) you get 3 shots! Trust me, even against Sternguard with their fancy ammunition and 2 heavy weapons you want a firefight.

If the Marine player is smart his Sternguard/Devastators are sitting in cover. Since you don't have frag grenades he's feeling pretty confident. But the math doesn't lie - you win the firefight. Heck, you'll take out 4-5 of them before they can fire back. That could be an entire squad.

Even Sternguard bolters and special ammunition just can't get much done against Tyranid Warriors with T4, 4+ save, and 3 wounds. Remember that the Prime can take the lascannons to the face and uh oh... You will wipe out his squad in about 2 rounds while having plenty of wounds to camp on that objective.

As stated earlier though - the most straightforward deployment style will work great against most opponents.