Thoughts on Lady Aurelia Malys

Well I have only two losses so far with the “Lelith Fair” list as I write this. I had a game last night with Old School Terminator and his Tyranids. This took place before we were set to record the first issue of my Podcast “It Came From the Webway”, but sadly The Stormlord backed out at the last minute. He had the equipment. I will cut him a little slack, he is an older guy like myself and just started a Master's program at Michigan State. We did record a video blog though where we discuss the new GW releases. So look for that soon.

So the biggest change I have made to my list is the addition of a Ravager and the Addition of Lady Malys and a retinue of Incubi. Lets take a look at the Lady that makes this a true chic fest of an army list.

Lady Aurelia Malys is the Archon of The Kabal of the poisoned tongue. She is a youngin by Eldar Standards at only 1200 years old. She is a former consort of Vect and has a mind like a steel trap. Thanks to some Webway alien mojo she has a power similar to Eldrads Divination power. She can place units in reserve though. She lacks the usual Shadow field, but still benefits from a 4+ Invulnerably save. She is armed with what is basically a Djinn Blade and an additional close combat weapon.

Her big claim to fame though is the fact she is immune to all psychic powers and also bestows this ability to any squad she joins. This makes her quit the added bonus to a unit that has killing power. Adding her to a unit of Incubi or even a unit of Grotesques can really make the unit that much more nasty, especially if it has pain tokens.

The drawbacks as I have come to find with her is she is only strength 3. Like Lelith she gets a raw ton of attacks in close combat, but still is only strength 3. She does not have combat drugs also so there is no chance of a strength boost. This was a Major thing in the last two games I have played. The big issue was against Old School Terminator as he defended the Honor of Dark Future Games with his Tyranids. Although she was immune to any shenanigans from big Tyranitus , his Hive Tyrant, she and her Incubi got spanked due to the inability to wound it effectively. It would have been better having an Archon with a shadow field, agonizer, soul trap and Djinn blade and you have some staying power with some better potential killing power for only 10 points more. Granted you don't have the psychic immunity. This is really situational though. There are ways of dealing with psychic powers that don't involve blowing an HQ slot. I, for instance, should have kept my distance from Old Schools tyranids and just Dark Lanced the big critters until they died. Note to everybody, blast the hive tyrant first. I was also surprised to see she does not even have a splinter pistol so not shooting for the Lady.

All in all Lady Malys could be a good addition to a game in which you know psykers are going to e a major issue. I think I may be swapping her out for a regular Archon. We will see. I may keep her in just to keep the theme up and work on my strategy a bit.

Well next time I am going to cover some tactics. Namely Eldar in close combat. I have had some revelations after my past two games that I wish to share. Also look for my video blog in the coming days. Its my first so I apologize in advance if it seems rough

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

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

Changing the LIneup: "Leltih Fair" Evolves

The list I call “Lelith Fair” has gone through some development. I have gotten in 5 games with it and it has a 4 and 1 record. My only loss so far is to Inquisitor Lord Vogrin and his hellacious Imperial Guard army. I swear his Manticore is like the hobby project of the Fabricator General of Mars. It is uncanny in its ability to fire 3 missiles a turn. Once again its the sheer weight of tanks overwhelmed me. That and Vogrin uncanny ability to seize the initiative. So far I have squared up against 2 Space Wolf armies and beat them soundly. I have also beaten codex marines. I still need to figure out my issues against Imperial Guard.  I really think it has more to do with the way I deploy rather than the force make up.  The sheer number of tanks is what is getting me down.  Usually I just send in the Seer Council and watch the tank commanders panic as I smack the tanks with Witch Blades.  I can almost do that with Wychs armed with Haywire Grenades.  I am packing a lot of dark lances but I need to really work on deployment and target priority.  The target priority thing is hard when even a bolter can bring down my transports and most heavy weapons glance on a 2 or even just by rolling a dice.  I do have to say though there is really no bad roll on the combat drug table.  All of them have helped, granted the pain token right off the bat is nice.  You all may have also noticed in the comments on my blog and DFG there are a lot of Dr Rockso references. I blame combat drugs.  Wyches love their combat drugs as much as Rick James loved Cocaine.  This lead to me making Dr. Rockso jokes as I played my Wych lists.  Needless to say it lead to some sound beatings as Old School Terminator uses it to get me going and charge headlong into his Tyranids.  Won't make that mistake when I play him with this list.  Lelith Fair has beaten everybody Except Vogrin so far.  I have to play Old School and Farseer Re-Rolls yet.  Should be interesting.

The “Lelith Fair” list has changed only slightly. It has morphed and developed after every game. I dropped Harlequins in favor of Beast Masters. After my Game with CSVinton I dropped the Beast Masters and Hekatrix Blood Brides in favor of Hellions. Now After my Game with The Judge recently I dropped the Hellions and Void Raven. I needed a power unit to deal with power armor and psychic powers. SO I added a Ravager and now it is a chic fest because I also added Lady Malys to the mix.

I am hoping this will give me some killing power to deal with those pesky Rune priests and Librarians as well as dealing with terminators and tough units. I ran into Terminator trouble against both the Judge's army and CSVinton's. Especially CSVinton's as he had a 12 man death star of Terminators that included a Librarian and Vulcan. There is a question though that I pose to the readers. Lady Malys special rule says she ans the unit she joins are immune to all psychic powers.

So does this include force weapons? The entry in the rule book says that force weapons give the user an additional psychic power that is usable in close combat. It also says all the normal rules for psychic powers apply to the use of this power. This means one power per turn unless they can cast two.

So from my interpretation this makes her immune to the instant killing power of a force weapon. Putting her in with a squad of Incubi makes the unit a very effective psyker killing unit. You can deal with most everything standing between you and the Psyker and Those nasty force weapons can't wipe her out. This would even allow you to walk unmolested, no difficult or dangerous tests, to a rune priest and give him a good smack.

So opinions are welcome. Well I know I promised some battle reports vs The Judge and CSVinton, but I have not had time to write them and to much time has passed for me to remember the details. I am however finally doing my first podcast on Wednesday. I will be joined by The Stormlord of Chaos Kingdoms. Since its our normal 40K night at the FLGS I imagine some of the Dark Future Games crew will be present to make some statements and banter a bit.

In a related note Inquisitor Vogrin and I played in the “Bound by Blood” team tournament at Evolution games this past Saturday. There was very stiff competition, but we emerged the victors. The Craftworlders lead by Eldrad and the Imperial guard of Inquisitor Vogrin took the top prize. In fact we had a grudge match against the same team we faced in round 3 of the “End Of Days” tournament this past summer. Go check out Vogrins report on Dark Future Games. Needless to say we dominated and spanked the team that beat us last time.

Until next time......

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