More U.K Games Day Goodness

Well I thought I would tempt your taste buds with some of the concept models for IA 11 which should drop some time in second or third quarter 2011.  Besides the Phantom Titan we will be seeing a new Aspect shrine and some new tanks and vehicles.

 This new tank called the Lynx looks to be a lighter version of the scorpion with a fixed Pulsar.  Should be interesting.

 Of course the Phantom Titan needs no introduction.  I am curious to see what this bad boy is armed with.  It is sporting a close combat weapon so I am wondering if he will be packing a distortion cannon or pulsar.  I am hoping we have multiple weapon options.

 This is called a Hornet and looks to be a new tank sporting some bright lances or possibly pulse cannons

So here we see the new Aspect warrior temple the Shadow Specters.  Looks as if they are jump infantry of some sort sporting some heavy weapons.  Bright lances or some are speculating mini prism cannons.








So there ya go kids wet your whistle on these tidbits. I am really looking forward to this book.  I better start saving as it looks like Forge world may own my soul this summer.

until then.......



Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 5th the pillaging begins

Well we have confirmation the Dark Eldar will be up for pre Order October 5th.  and oh my god do they look sexy.

Here we have the big man on campus.  The Archon.  I think anyways. This is a very nice upgrade to past Archons.  Very sinister looking.  This whole line is really nice and I know why I will be poor in November.

 This lovely lady has to be a Wych.  Looks a lot like Lelith actually.  Very very nice model.  I really can't wait to see what the rest of the wyches look like.

 I like these new raiders, but I am not a fan of the sail.  They are going to be a pain to store and transport in my opinion.  They are much more baroque looking though.  I can't wait to get my hands on one.

 These new bikes are so much better looking than the old ones.  They are much more evil looking.  They are not as cramped looking.  There was a lot of clutter going on with the original versions.

 These new Incubi are dead sexy.  They look like some hell spawned version of a Striking Scorpion.  I really like the Direction Jes Goodwin went with these guys.  I kinda like the old punishers though.  The swords are an interesting change.

 The new warriors are one of the many plastic kits coming out and I really like the new look. They are not excessively Spiky. They really do look more like Guardians now.  To me anyways.

I am only guessing as I did not really look real hard, but I think this is either a new wych or a new mandrake.  Either way it looks very mean and I like it.












So there ya go.  Some new model previews strait from Games Day U.K.  Next time I will be covering the first Phoenix Lord Asurman in my new series.  The Seven Deadly Venoms.


Until then......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!

Flow Like Water: List Development

List development for Adepticon continues. I have version three of my list and I have gotten three good games in with it. The guys at Evolution games are a good bunch to play with. Austin and his Chaos Marines have played the list twice. He has played version two and version three. Papa Nurgle played me with his loathsome plague infested horde last night against version 3. 2 victories and 2 ties. So far in the lists development. Papa Nurgle and Old school Terminators nids have tied me and I have defeated the forces of the traitor legions twice. I think I need to see if the local Warboss's want to throw down this coming week. One advantage to playing at Evolution Games is we have a pretty esoteric mix of armies and players. We actually don't have the horde of space marines you would expect to find. I have determined I need to face off against some orks and Blood Angels as well as some Space wolves.

Playing a lot of games versus all the different armies is key in developing a tournament style list. You have certain perceptions about how a list is going to do before you use it. These perceptions mean nothing until you play the list. The more opponents you play the more you learn about its strengths and weaknesses. You must expose the weaknesses so they are not a surprise in the middle of a game.

You can deal with a deficiency in a couple different ways.

• You adjust your list to fully of partially compensate for the weakness. For example, you have trouble dealing with lots of tanks. You can swap weapons on your Wave serpents to bright lances. You can add a unit of fire dragons. Basically a minor tweak. You drop a unit or some options to add a unit. I like to do this with my lists as long as they have a solid foundation.
• You totally rebuild the list from the ground up making sure you cover all your bases. This means you start with a solid core and a specific goal. This means you make the list to take objectives and or kill units. The units you use must work as one towards this goal and provide mutual overlapping support. I know its like beating a dead horse but you cannot play an Eldar army like a space marine army. Your units are specialized and must work in conjunction with the others. For objectives I look at it as all the other units are there to protect the troops units and engage the enemy forces as to support the taking and holding of objectives even at the cost of the unit. Granted you don't want to needlessly sacrifice units, but you have to play aggressively and throw caution to the wind. Make your opponent completely forget about the objectives.

If a list performed poorly you must determine why it performed poorly. This is the part most players fail at. They cannot identify why a list failed. People will play a list they believe to be infallible and invincible only to see it utterly destroyed. I see people online posting lists and saying how invincible they are. One man's gold is another man’s garbage. Just because it works well for one person does not mean it will fit the playing style you use. Farseer Re-roll’s over at Dark Future Games and I both play Eldar. We have very different playing styles though. He uses lots of Pathfinders and Warp Spiders. He also uses 2 regular Farseers that are rather minimalistic. I use Eldrad Ulthran quite a bit and one huge seer council. I also like to use Swooping hawks and hordes of Guardians. I also use the Avatar quite a bit. So our approach to the same situations is different.

Basically what I am trying to say is play what feels right and realize when something is not working. Even if you think its an awesome unit, if it does not work with the rest of the list drop it, or build a list that works with it. The later can be very risky though as you generally end up with a very specialized list. A great man was quoted as saying

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

Bruce Lee was referring to Martial Arts training during his time. There is truth in the statement though. You must be adaptable. Eldar armies must flow. Then they can Crash into the enemy like a great wave.

Next time we begin the Seven Deadly Venom’s series. The Avatar of Khaine and the Phoenix Lords.

Until then..........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!

Something Evil This Way Comes: DE Rumors

SO that dark ones will be in attendance at Games Day in the U.K. I am eagerly awaiting pictures of the new models. Jes Goodwin is the master behind the new models and I look forward to his new take on the dark kin.

I have to say from all the rumors floating around I may give my craft worlders a vacation for a month or two. November is the drop date with pre order probably in October. Basically everything has been redesigned so expect a couple waves of new releases.

If the Splinter weapons have been changed to

All poisons are 4+

Splinter Rifle 24" SX, AP5, Rapid Fire, Poisoned.

Splinter Carbine 18" SX, AP5, Assault 3, Poisoned.

Splinter Cannon 36" SX, AP5, Assault 4, or Heavy 6 Poisoned.

Splinter Pods are an under slung weapon for the Hellions, essentially similar to the carbine.

And its a semi big if, GW likes to do tweaks to throw people off at the last minute, but Codexes would be going to print very soon if not already done.

I have also been hearing about a possibly new vehicle called a slaughterer. I know Old School and I discussed this a bit and it could be a new Ravager or a replacement for the Ravager. He had pointed to a rumor saying the Ravager could be as big as a viper in its new incarnation. That would be interesting.

Thanks to Bigred at BOLS as well for the blurry sneak peak pic that has been leaked. They look so spiky and evil. I can't wait to see the rest.  Apologies about the pic being on its side.  I don't know HTML and I don't know how to rotate it.

So what do you guys think? What have you heard? I spend little time on the forums anymore. Chime in.

Next time A sneak peak at my Adepticon list. I also have been thinking about doing a series called 7 Deadly Venom’s: The Phoenix court of Khaine. I realized I covered Aspect Warriors, but did not delve into the phoenix lords or the Avatar yet. SO a new series is born.

Until then.......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!

They see me spinnin they be hatin: Night Spinner tactics.

Games Workshop saw fit to give Eldar players a new tank a few months ago. The Night Spinner was received with mixed feelings and much lamentation by forum trolls. I of course went out and bought one not to build another Fire Prism but specifically to Build a wave serpent. I now find myself scouring eBay for turrets. I really like this tank and in the 3 games I have used it in it has been very effective.

The consensus seems to be that this is a lackluster attempt at a new tank. I just say you are using it wrong. The Night Spinner is an excellent support tank. This is especially true for armies that are in a rush to get to your lines and assault you. Being strength 6 and having a large blast will wound just about anything pretty easily. Add in the Rending and you have a very nice weapon. Add in the fact anything touched by the template is treated as moving through difficult and dangerous terrain you can have some real fun.

Deployment is important. You want to keep the Spinner as far from the enemy as possible. This means moving around. Stay hidden. Since the Death Spinners are ordnance barrage weapons you can fire indirectly. Stay moving and hug terrain to make it difficult for deep striking units to land close. I guarantee they will try as soon as you start laying into enemy units.

To start off my fire I always target units that I know are going to advance. Close combat units, units with short range weapons and the like. This will make your opponent thinks twice about moving them and might even take a few out. Large units are a good target choice as the more dice you roll the better the possibility of a failed dangerous terrain test. Affected units also must take pinning tests at a -1 since its an ordnance barrage. This will keep units out of action and allow you to position your units for maximum effectiveness. Concentrating fire on units that have been affected by the Death Spinner will force leadership tests with enough casualties. This may force them to move and take dangerous terrain tests. If you are lucky and inflicted enough kills it may bring a unit below 50%.

Coordinated fire and fire discipline is key. Hit units first with the Death Spinners then regular fire. Force saves, pinning checks and leadership tests. You can slow down the momentum of an army, especially a close combat oriented one, by hitting key units. Despite the chance being slim you would be surprised how often players will not move units for fear of taking dangerous terrain tests. One thing to remember is not to fire on units you know are not going to move. If you can target multiple units do so. Your opponent will be forced to spread out and this hurts the using units and vehicles as cover strategy. Remember cover is determined from the center of the blast template so you can bypass cover easily. Vehicles and infantry are equally affected. I squared up against a plague marine heavy army this past week. He army was bunched up and ponderously advanced towards the bulk of my forces in the corner of the table. The Night Spinner was positioned behind some walls. Every turn I rained down monfiliment web on the advancing group. The template was hitting three or four units at a time. Every turn one or two plague marines died. It earned it points by slowing the advance and nickel and diming the enemy units to death. To my opponents credit though he still moved forward. Inexperienced players will freeze and not know what to do. Experienced players will wade through so you cannot rely on the Night Spinner to stop the enemy in its tracks. This is where coordinating your fire comes in.

SO I love this tank. I plan on using at least one in my Adepticon list. I have version 3 of the prototype list done for testing. I went from a tie with version one against Old School Terminator Tyranids to a 12-4 KP victory over a Plague Marine Army with version two. I look forward to testing version three this coming Wednesday.

I will be adding an author to the blog soon too. A very good friend of mine is starting into the hobby and wants to share some thoughts and ideas about 40k and Fantasy battle. So I guess its time for me to break out some high elves.

Until then..........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!

The Art of War pt 3: The Seer Council

I really do like Farseers. I think that is why I have always have had an Ulthwe themed Eldar army. Honestly besides the Avatar of Khaine is your only real good HQ choice in the list. I have had smatterings of Seer council advice in a few blogs but I decided for part 3 of the art of war to just cover Farseers and Seer Councils as they are the real backbone of the army. They tie everything together and let all the units do their thing and do it well in support of each other.

The basic Farseer clocks in at 55 points. You get a Ghost Helm, Witch Blade, shuriken pistol and Rune Armor. You then buy your upgrades and psychic powers.

Upgrades

Singing Spear- I hardly every buy this option for my Seers unless I am running two of them. I then equip the Warlocks with the Seer with Singing Spears as well so I have a nice short ranged anti tank, thanks to the strength of 9 against vehicles, / support unit. This option should be considered carefully. As your Farseer only has one base attack you only get 2 attacks in close combat. This can be bad if you are taking on a big unit. Granted as long as you have a warlock with enhance and a doom on the unit you are fighting you will make every attack count and pretty much everything that hits will wound.

Runes of Warding- No Farseer should be without runes of warding. In fact unless you have no threat of facing psykers you should always have this upgrade. Although some forum guys say its a waste to give it both your Seers if you are running two . I ignore this as I want to make sure my opponents psykers are taking tests on 3d6 even if I loose a Farseer. This upgrade really is a thorn in the side of Librarian and Rune Priest heavy armies. Eldar are the best psykers in the game so make your opponents remember that.

Runes of Witnessing- You should always equip your Farseer with this upgrade. Even if you have given a Warlock Embolden in his retinue you are much less likely to fail any psychic tests when you are taking them on 3d6 and taking the lowest two.

Spirit Stones- This is also an upgrade I think of as required. Having the ability to use two psychic powers a turn is very important. It allows you to doom a unit or guide it and cast fortune on the Farseer and his retinue.

Eldar Jetbike- This option is best for a second Seer or if you are doing an all mech list. The mobility you are afforded is awesome. You can get the Farseer into range where his powers are most effective and needed and then move him into cover and out of sight. Things do get expensive very quickly though when you start handing out bikes. You must not be tempted to have the ultimate Seer Council of doom at the expense of the rest of your force. I keep the council small so it can easily get behind objects that block line of sight. You can't do that with 11 models in the squad.

Psychic powers

Fortune- This power is probably one of the best and most important powers to take for two reasons. First it increases the squads survivability by a lot. You can take large amounts of shooting and come out relatively unscathed. Second this really frustrates your opponent and he will either throw everything he has at the council or just leave it alone as he feels he cannot hurt it. Playing Eldar is basically like playing the odds. This power gives you much better odds.

Guide- Like Fortune this is a nice power to take if you are running a seer that is going to be near units on a permanent basis. I use this power quite a bit with my Pathfinder units. Re rolling misses gives them a much better chance of getting AP1 hits. Again you are getting the odds to play in your favor. You really do want to doom any unit that the guided unit is shooting at to really make sure it takes the maximum amount of wounds and saves.

Eldritch Storm- Even though this power is only strength 3 it is a large blast template it is very very useful and not often used. You get 2d6+3 armor penetration and it spins the vehicle in a random direction. It is also pinning. SO you can wreck a lot a havoc with units that are clumped together. I only really use this power though when I am using Eldrad. My other seers are pretty lean on powers for points purposes.

Mind War- This is one of my favorite powers. Being able to inflict very large number of wounds with one roll is pretty nice. Granted its is really only effective when you use it on models with low leadership. This is a nice power to take out all those pesky heavy weapon, special weapons and power weapons. Your opponents really loose heart when they loose their precious power fists and plasma guns. Combine this with fire from the retinue and you can really cut down squads to make sure you wipe them out in close combat. Try to avoid models with invulnerably saves unless its a high one and their leadership is like 8 or lower.

Doom- This is the power that really strikes fear into opponents. Any ability that gives you the ability to re-roll wounds is powerful. This power is so great because you cast it once and any failed wounds the affected squads takes until your next turn can be re rolled. This means massive casualties between shooting and 2 assault phases. Dooming a unit can really discourage its use. So besides the obvious effect of more wounds it is also a demoralizing power.

Warlock Retinue

My Warlock retinues are usually pretty big. At least 6. One Warlock should have Embolden so you can re-roll any failed leadership rolls, which includes psychic tests. One with Enhance so you hit most enemy units on a 3 and go way before them in combat with an initiative of 5. I like to also give 2 Warlocks Destructor so you can deal with large units before you charge them. Destructor is pretty devastating against anything with a 4+ or worse armor save.

If you are mounting your Farseer on a bike I limit my council to 4 Warlocks as the unit gets expensive really quick. I do 4 so I can give the Warlocks the power list I just mentioned.

The Farseer and his retinue is a very powerful unit. They can take out just about anything with very little problem. You can afford to be a little bold, but do not damn the torpedoes so to speak. You want this unit to stay alive so use it intelligently.

OK that’s another 2 cents about the Seer Council. I will have another battle report up Saturday. I got a test run in for my prototype Adepticon list versus one of our local Chaos Marine players. It was not pretty. Th list did very well though.

Until then........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a Bug Hunt: Eldar Vs Tyranids Battle Report

This past Wednesday I got a great game in. I squared off against Dark Future Games own Old School Terminator and his swarm of slavering Tyranids. I was using my still in development 1850 list. It turns out its pretty well suited to killing bugs. It was an objective game with 4 objectives placed in a kind of diamond on the table. Our deployment was a pitched battle.

I had first turn which was seized by old school. He was deep striking most of his army so there was a brood of termagants and some Hive Guard on the table turn one. They milled about for their turn taking some pot shots at my 2 wave serpents. When my turn one came around I concentrated fire on the hive guard with my 2 units of pathfinders which I had positioned in very nice overlapping fields of fire. I eliminated 2 out of 4 of the Guard. The Termagants tasted the web of the Night Spinner and became stuck in the terrain they were occupying.

Turn two saw one Trygon Prime come in and some Ravernors. They opted to hold back a bit as I had Wraithguard on the table and the Trygon did not want to get close. Not having the Eternal Warrior Rule really has taken the teeth out of the Tyranids.

The remaining Hive Guard took out the second Wraithguard units Wave Serpent. The unit on foot moved into one of the objectives. One of my Pathfinder units held one objective from their cover in a building. The pathfinders managed to do 4 wounds to the Trygon Prime on the table.

Turn 3 saw the Arrival of the Tervigon, second Trygon, both Genestealer broods and the Doom of Malen'tai. They moved to engage. The Doom Inflicted no wounds despite being in range of 3 of my units. The trygons unleashed a torrent of spines into Eldrad as the Ravenors moved into position to assault Eldrad and his coterie of Warlocks.

Basically this is the point the battle becomes epically fuzzy as all hell broke loose. The Ravenors were cut down to two out of six by massive amounts of fire from Eldrads unit. The night spinner had also hit them. The doom lasted a couple turns until the immobilized Wave Serpent, caused by the Hive Guard, blasted it out of existence by a krak missile. The trygons were brought down by massed fire and then the Wraithguard as their dying act. Massed scatter laser fire brought down the Tervigon. The pathfinders holding my loan objective were swarmed by Termagants and the second wiped out by Genestealers. Eldrads warlocks were picked off one by one until he alone was left in a pile of Tyranid bodies. I tank shocked a unit of Hive Guard and Termagants off the table. The Night Spinner was the real MVP as ti was shredding units and really helped the other units. When the Hive Tyrant finally came in on turn 3 and misshaped so he ended up in the opposite corner. When he finally came into the game he was blasted away by the remaining unit of Wraithguard.

In the end after 6 turns it was a tie. Turn 7 could have turned into total destruction for the Tyranids. It was back and fourth though. I had one Wave Serpent still mobile, the other Immobilized, Eldrad, one unit of Wraithguard and the Night Spinner left on the table.

All in all it was a very challenging and close game. If not for some well coordinated fire and dumb luck I could have lost. Old Schools reserve rolls were not being kind to him. The trickle of troops onto the board was a big advantage in the early stages of the game. It allowed me to concentrate my fire.

So good battle over all. Well next time we will delve into some more tactics and possibly even my initial plans for the 1850 point tournament at Adepticon.

Until then....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!

The Art of War: Eldar Tactics pt 2

I keep emphasizing mutual support and using your units in concert so your whole army acts like one entity rather than just the individual parts. All your units working together and achieving greater results than they could alone is called synergy. Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

The term synergy comes from the ancient Greek word syn-ergos, meaning 'working together'

I am having a feeling of deja vu. Me thinks Old School Terminator had some things to say about this as well, but in regard to his Tyranids over at Dark Future Games.

So how do you use your units together to achieve greater results. It sounds simple, but it really is not. As any seasoned Eldar player knows, a vast majority of your units are really good at one thing. The problem is that you must make all these specialists work like a well oiled machine and not have the whole army fall apart when one unit is destroyed. This is why many player give up on Eldar. They just cannot make it work.

Unit Interaction

So how do you make it work? The first thing you must do is give your units a job and make them stick to the job. The dire avengers are going to hold the objective. The Dark reapers are going to support the Dire Avengers by eliminating threats and approaching units. Giving a unit a job is basically tasking them with the one thing they are good at. If you re-task a unit every turn you loose efficiency and you potentially throw off the flow of the army. By re task I mean using the unit in a different capacity. Going from anti infantry to anti vehicle with dark reapers and not really supporting another unit. Fire Discipline must be maintained. You must resist the temptation to throw everything you have at one target. If you sacrifice support fire to take down a target that is not an immediate threat you risk loosing a n important unit or a unit holding an objective.

One of the most important forms of support is how you use your Seer Council or Farseer. As psychic powers are one major advantage the Eldar army has, you need to use them effectively and efficiently.

I Ideally like to have 2 Farseers. I use Eldrad Ulthran a lot as he is the best psyker in the game and he is a bargain at 210 points. This allows me to run an inexpensive second Farseer. Mobility is important for the second seer. I usually give the second seer only 2 powers and mount him on a jet bike. Fortune and Doom are your best power options. If there are lots of low leadership models I also give him Mind War. Mind war is an excellent way to deal with heavy weapons squads and specialists. You can remove specific models to assist your other units.

So basically to sum up you must stay on task and keep your eye on the prize so to speak. You will run into instances where a unit will get into a situation it is not equipped to deal with but this is why you must make sure you can support that unit with another that is good at that particular situation. Your opponet may strike at opportunity targets or just fire at the big shiny units they deem a threat. You must keep one thing in mind. If the game is objective based you must make the entire task and mission of the army as a whole to take and defend the objectives. If its a kill point mission then you must systematically eliminate each enemy unit one at a time.

Well there is my two cents. It may not be exact and may even be vague but that's what happens when you play Eldar. You have to essentially learn the army. They are not forgiving and easy to play like marines. Next time I am going to talk about how to approach different army types, IE shooty armies, deep striking armies and so on and so fourth.

Until then....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Road to Adepticon

Well Adepticon 2011 is on April First this coming year. Yours truly will be attending and playing in the Grand Tournament, among others. So I am going to start the chronicle of my Road to Adepticon. I am going to start by saying I am not a big tournament player and honestly I don't pay much attention to the forums when it comes to building a tournament list. If you get in that habit we start seeing the same predictable lists which are very easily countered..

That said I am going to be different and do a themed list. It is going to be Ulthwe Craftworld still but it is going to have mobility as a theme. I am going to be using Swooping hawks, Vyper bikes, Jetbikes and a Bike Council. Thats all I know for now. I will be making some model purchases as I want to configure some things differently.

So I will be doing some modeling and possible list updates as I work through the months leading up to the convention.

I am a pretty seasoned Convention goer, but I have not been to one in a few years. This will be my first major one in several years so I am going to make it count. I have added a count down until Adepticon on the page. Only 207 Days to prepare

More to come later. Have a good labor day Weekend. I should have part 2 of my tactics article up mid week.

Until Then......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!

Run Archon Run: Campaign Game 4

Well The Judge and I squared off in game 4 of our bi-weekly campaign on Wednesday.  This mission was 1500 points and basically all I had to do was run the hell off the board.  The Judge came loaded for bear with lots of attack bikes and land speeders.  Brother Overkill, Chaplin Stonewall and Sgt Badass and his sushine kids were all present to try and stop my Archon from doing what he does best.  Run Away.
Setup had be in the center 3rd of the table.  Exactly 24 inches from the edge I had to escape from.  If I had had first turn I would have had all my forces, except my two ravagers as heavies had to be kept in reserve, off the table turn two.  The Judge had first turn though and scored a kill on a Raider and forced another to stay put.  My turn one sees warriors form the downed Raider covering the escape of the three that did make it to the board edge and the Raider that could not move tried to down a land speeder.  The Judge dished out some melta love on the Raider That could not move in the previous turn and it exploded taking 3 warriors with it.  The Attack bikes finished them off in close combat.  My turn two saw the Archon and his retinue along with two Raider Squads escape, which gave me 4 "Kill Points".  The Raiders turned to fire after the squads disembarked as they dedicated transports did not count as kill points for the Judge.  The onslaught continued as Brother overkill and Chaplin Stonewall, with 5 terminators in a land raider, came in and squished the rear guard warrior squad left.  The Ravagers came out one at a time in turn 3 and 4 and were promptly downed by lascannon fire.  So with the two squads and two Ravagers down for The Judge we had a tie game.
I should have taken Reaver bikes instead of the Ravagers.  I could have had them on the table and escaped very quickly.  Plus if I had them in back the loss of one or two would be ok as long as the squad itself made it off the board.  Lesson Learned.

I was also disappointed by a blurb on BOLS about when we are going to see the Phantom Titan.  Apparently we are getting the Badab War in Imperial Armor 9 and 10 then Some Space Wolves and Imp Guard Versus Eldar in Imperial Armor 11.  Needless to say I want a bigger Titan.  Oh well Guess that means I can buy a second Revenant Titan, this time with Sonic Lances.  Maybe some Fighters.
Well next time perhaps some more tactics.  I know I need to do the next session of Rogue Trader as well.  So many topics so little time for me to write.

  Until Next time.......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Art of War: Eldar tactics pt 1

Well its time to get down to business. I may not be the greatest Seer out there but my Win record is pretty good. So its time to share my thoughts and tactics I have used to win battle for the glory of Ulthwe.

When fielding a War-host in battle you cannot think of it as individual units. You must think of it as a single weapon. The individual units are nothing without the others. You cannot rely on a single unit to carry you through the battle, no matter how awesomely powerful it is. One of the first hurdles for a Seer is to determine the deployment of your force.

Deployment

5^th edition has lead to mechanized forces being almost the norm for any game you play. With the Exception of Tyranid and Daemon armies, which have many ways to Deep Strike, out flank and otherwise get in your face really quick, you are going to be facing units dug into cover or advancing in a transport. When I deploy my War host I have 3 “layers” to the force. The first layer is my units that are mounted up in wave serpents. These form the main attack force. Depending on the number of units this is and if I have any units deep striking I will keep one or 2 of these units in reserve as a relief force to keep momentum up in an attack. Keeping back a Unit of Dire Avengers or a Jet Bike Squad in reserve is a good way to keep your troop choices safe for some late turn objective grabs.

The second layer is composed of the long ranged support troops such as Dark Reapers, support platforms, Rangers and Night Spinners. Fire Prisms can be in the first or second layer depending on your strategy. I personally like to keep them in the second layer to support the advancing forces and supporting the units holding objectives. Ranger are great for holding objectives in cover. I will talk about objective placement in the next section as it will help determine your deployment.

The second layers whole job is to support the advancing force and keep enemy units from the objectives. Attacking units should not be pulled back as this will force a loss of momentum in your attack which gives your opponent time and opportunity to strike back hard as you redeploy your army.

That said you must make sure that your second layer is dug in. You must set up units in cover and make it very costly for your opponent to get them out. Giving your Rangers and Dark reapers a good vantage point of the battle field is important. I favor buildings, but I like to put them on a mid level rather than on the top. This prevents barrage weapons from targeting them indirectly As they can only hit the top floor.

The third layer consists of your deep striking and out flanking units. These reserve troop are essential to continue the push by the first layer or back up a faltering second layer. The whole key, as I have always said, is all the units working as one and mutually supporting the others. Fire discipline is key. Identify targets with the most threat and the ones he needs to complete the game. Laying into a killer unit it all well and good until the troops choice you were ignoring waltzes in and takes the objective.

Set-up

Strait up kill point games are pretty strait forward. Objective games have some nuances. Objective placement is going to help determine where and how you are going to deploy your troops. You must guard your troops choices so that they can take objectives and defend them. This means Wave Serpents. I almost always use Dire Avengers as my objective holders as they are good all around troops and can dish out some pain. Their weapon range is also good.

Objectives should be placed in cover. This way the units holding them can benefit from a cover save and it mucks up assaults for enemy troops. You also want the objectives you place to be in your long range support troops line of sight and range. Overlapping fields of fire are important as this means you can more effectively defend the objectives.

SO theirs a start. I will continue this nest time. I must prepare for tonight’s campaign game. I have another rematch with the Judge and the Archon has one last chance to prove himself.

Until then..........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!