The Webway List Development Continues: Wych Weapons and Beast Masters

Picture By Beckjann

Now that the Dark Eldar codex has been out for a while, I have finally reached the point of discovering things seemingly for the first time. That is wargear or weapon load outs I have dismissed in the past are gaining some ground and in some cases surprising me with their effectiveness. Once you have time to get a real feel for an army this happens. It even happens with armies you have been playing for years, case in point my new love affair with Storm Guardians and Swooping hawks, a very potent combo, more on that later though.

I have been experimenting with the “Freak Show” list, a Haemonculus coven list, and of course my Webway list which is 95% give or take Wych cult. I have been experimenting with different weapon load outs on my Wych squads to keep them flexible, so they can adapt to any situation, and Lethal To stay in line with the 11^th Foundation of Vengeance.

As is the Hekatrixes are armed with power weapons and a Phantasm Grenade launcher to give them a slight edge and because I can't afford to give them all agonizers. All 3 Wych units have Haywire Grenades as will to deal with armor and anybody who thinks they are going to be cute and charge them with a dreadnought. The wych weapons are the things that have been changing. I originally had a pair of Shard Nets and Impalers to start. This was decent as long as I could get them in base contact. I then discovered how good Razor Flails are. Given the toughness of most of my opponents having a re roll to hit and wound is nice so I swapped to just Razor flails. I have decided on one of each in the wych squads now. I could double up on one, but I would have to try and find 30 points in the list to do it.

My real discovery was Hydra Gauntlets. I decided to experiment with them in my game against Old School Terminator last week. My unit of Hekatrix Blood Brides had 3 pairs of them. For those of you who don't know Hydra Gauntlets cost 10 points, as do all the other wych special weapons, and count as 2 close combat weapons. Instead of giving you one bonus attack though, they give you D6 bonus attacks. I figured this would make up for the unit being 10 members as I am going for an overwhelming number of attacks to make up for the lack of powered attacks.

With the Blood Brides having 2 attacks base plus one for two close combat weapons, a bonus attack on the charge and Lelith Hesperax in the unit made it pretty stabby to begin with. The 3 pairs of Hydra Gauntlets kicked the number of attacks up by a lot. My average roll was about 12 more attacks combining all 3 D6's. The 15 member wych squads get give or take about 45 attacks on the charge, 4 of these are the hekatrixes powered attacks. Lelith aside, as she was getting about 11 attacks give or take,all powered, against the Death Wing Termies, the Blood Bride unit was getting almost the same number of attacks as the 15 member squads and in some cases more despite having 5 less members.

A lot of people complained about the Blood Brides and their points cost. The big beef was is the extra attack worth the 3 extra points, you also get a leadership of 9 instead of 8 which is nice. Honestly though other than having extra bodies the numbers all hash out to about the same. The Blood Brides are just more concentrated killy. In fact in this case they were a little cheaper as I left out the Syren as Lelith is attached to the unit. I am still trying to fit in haywire grenades for them as well, but this may be a pipe dream as I am already budgeted on points pretty hardcore.

So take a second look at units you don't usually use and experiment with weapon load outs. One of the major keys to victory is using things people have not seen before. I know I have also bee promising pictures and I have one of my newly constructed clawed fiend. I have Decided to not use any of the beast master models to do my beast master pack.  This Clawed Fiend was made from leftover Chaos Span bits gifted to me from Old School Terminator.  I am also using Chaos hounds as Kymerae which are from Old Schools filed Chaos Marines count as Space Wolf Experiment.   I may have to use Razor Wings if I can't find some sort of bird model I like.We will See.  once I get the Hellions converted I will post some pictures of the Beast Masters Themselves.

I am almost done building all the models in the list.  Ebay has been pretty instrumental in getting all the models.  I really like having a big bits collection.  It pays to get bits off of people when the chance arises, you will never know when you might need them.   Now the task of painting and making a display board begins.  I will try and post progress picks as I make actual progress.

Until then.........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls.............. ….........WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!

The Good With The Bad

Well we have our next wave of dark Eldar.  I have to say I am a little disappointed.  I was looking forward to the Beast Masters.  So what does GW do?  They release them all as seperate models and give you one model for the Beast Master, some decent looking Kymera, a clawed fiend that looks like a skaven or war machine reject and a very lack luster razor wing flock.  The last one is the biggest disappointment.  3 little birds on a 40mm base for $12 bucks each.  The pricing is also a big slap in the face.  The Maxed out Beast Master unit is on par price wise with a  Wraithguard unit.  5 Beast masters, 1 clawed fiend, 6 razor wing flocks and 5 kymera come to just shy or $250 bucks.  The models are also very ho hum.  I really hate the fiend in particular.  The Succubus is a nice model though.  The size of the wave is also disappointing.  I was hoping for another unit, liek a void raven or the Scourges.  oh well At least Forge World is showing the love.

In the build up to IA 11 yet another new Eldar model has been released.  The wasp walker is a war walker in steroids.  It is equipped with jump jets like a Titan and to top it all off it can count as a troop choice.  They can deep strike as well.  The big thing though is the BS of 4.  I like them a lot and for the second time this month I have put in a Forge World Order.  Note to everybody though don't forget to hit the express shipping button.  I am still waiting for my shadow specters I ordered on the 2nd thanks to me not paying attention.

I am thinking we will be seeing IA 11 late spring early summer given the amount of models currently pouring out.  If any of this unit development spills over to GW proper I hope we are seeing some previews of a new codex.  Granted there is some improvement that needs to be made with the current experimental rules, but I think they are on the right track.

Next time I hope to be discussing my new models and giving some more details about "The Test of Khaine" tournament I am running at Evolutions Games in Lansing, MI.

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



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

Unleash The Beast: Dark Eldar Beast Masters

Recently I played against Captain Obvious of Dark Future Games fame and his Daemons. This was the second game using my “Lelith Fair” list. In this incarnation of the list though I had dropped the Harlequin squad and added a Ravager. I also added a squad that I have previously never used. The web forums and blogs are a buzz with how awesome this unit is as well. This of course is the Beast Master pack.

The battle with Captain Obvious was quite the carnal house of slaughter. If it had went to turn 6 He would have been tabled. The rolls were going my way and I was pretty much in full control of the direction of battle. I won't go into details with a full battle report as I am pretty sure Captain Obvious's pride is wounded enough after the brutalizing his Daemons took at the hands of the Wych Cult of Strife. One of the lynch pins of the battle was the Beast Master pack. Lets delve into this unit a bit as it has changed quits a bit since the last incarnation.

The Beast Master pack occupies a Fast Attack slot. You can have up to 5 Beast Masters in the unit. Each can have up to a certain amount of beasties. This means that the unit can get very very large and has quit the mix so you can benefit from a little bit of wound allocation cheese. So first we will look at the Beast Masters themselves and then the beasties.

Beast Masters

The Beast masters are the only part of the unit with the Power From Pain rule. This means only they benefit from pain tokens according to the newly published FAQ. They are armed with a close combat weapon and a Hellion Skyboard. You can upgrade one of them to have a special weapon. I prefer to give them an Agonizer just to have a power weapon in the mix that does not rely on strength. You can also give them a power weapon or Venom blade.. You can have up to 5 Beast Masters as part of the unit. Each can one type of beast up to the limit set on the beast type. You can have 0-5 Kymerae, 0-1 Clawed Fiends and 0-2 Razor Wing flocks. The number of beats masters is important because this limits how many beasts you can have. They also give the unit the ability to shoot. The Skyboards have the Splinter pods equipped so you have a poison 4+ assault 2 weapon with an 18 inch range. Not to bad for a close combat unit. This lets you soften up your targets and at the same time measure a charge range on the sly. Granted a 12 inch charge range will get you there pretty easily, but it never hurts to be sure.

Kymerae

Kymerae are the classic Warp Beasts from the last codex. They are quick and strong with a decent number of attacks. They also have a 4+ invulnerable save. This lets you wound allocate the high strength and instant kill weapons away from your multi wound models. These guys will strike with the Beast Masters at initiative 6 . I like to take 5 of theses just to increase the survivability of the unit.

Clawed Fiend

The Clawed Fiend is a bruiser. With a toughness and strength of 5 he can dish out a nice number of wounds and take hits as well. The fiend starts with 4 attacks and gets an additional one per wound it has. This maxes out at 7 attacks as it has 4 wounds. This guy can take the high strength wounds the Kymerae can't take. Its beneficial as you gain attacks when you put wounds on it. Despite the 40 point cost I take at least one to round out the unit and add in yet another type to help with would allocation.

Razorwing Flock

The Razor wing flock is a wound sync. At 5 wounds it can take some punishment, just as long as its not strength 6. The flock also has 5 attacks that are rending. Each beast master can take up to 2 flocks. I load up 3 of them with Razorwings for a total of 6 bases. Thats 30 rending attacks, 36 on the charge. These guys will make up the bulk of your unit unless you are going for an invulnerable save wall.

There are a couple of obvious weaknesses to this unit. There are also a couple not so obvious. The first real blatant weakness is the fact the best save in the group is a 4+. The second is that all but one of the beasties is toughness 3. This means you really have to watch your deployment. This is one of the not so obvious weaknesses. This unit is big. In fact its huge. It takes up a ton of room in the deployment zone and is prime for blast templates. It is defiantly a unit you want to deploy via web way portal or hold in reserve. You also really have to watch what you engage. Remember they only have a leadership of 8. Given the amount of wounds this unit has it is easy to forget that it can be easy to loose a combat to a very tough unit like terminators or plague marines. If a unit has awesome saves and FNP you must choose your battles very carefully. There is no real option, if you want the unit to be unhampered, to raise their leadership. Be careful about close combats near the edge of the board as well. With a retreat move of 3d6 you will loose them if you are to close to the board edge.

Now the unit is, pardon the pun, a beast. The sheer number of attacks you get is in the crazy range. Combine this with its ability to shoot at a good distance and move fast across the board you have a very lethal unit. It takes some finesse to use though.

So there is my take on Beast Masters. I should have my battle report against CSVinton and his Salamanders up later in the week.

Until next time...................

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