Mandrakes Round 2 and The Test of Khaine

I got to test my Mandrake list this past Sunday and I have to say They have great potential. I played one of our local players and his Noise Marine heavy Chaos Marine army. Like the army itself the Mandrake unit is definitely a unit that must build and keep momentum. I took two 10 man units. One infiltrated and one outflanked. I also included a Chronos Parasite Engine to help boost the unit early on.

The Chronos proved to be not worth my time once again. It lacks the weapon range to really generate tokens and vs power armor of any kind it the weapons, the Spirit Vortex anyway, it fails to really consistently wound. Against softer targets it would be more effective. SO the Mandrakes had to generate tokens the old fashioned way. Once they were in combat they were at home and surprisingly did not really take heavy casualties. In fact vs a 6 man unit of thousand sons I only lost one Mandrake after 4 player turns of combat. Once I had the FNP and bale blast they began to really gain momentum and kept it. They helped out the Archon and two surviving wyches form the squad he was with take out a large unit of Noise Marines. They then boarded a Raider with the Archon and zoomed across the board and wiped out a unit of possessed. The out flanking unit sadly came in on the wrong side of the table in the usual fashion. When I out flank units that’s usually what happens to me despite the 2 in 1 chance they will come in on the side I want.

The Stealth is what really helped though. We had a decent amount of buildings and area terrain as well as craters on the board. I was able to move and run keeping to cover. Having a 4+ or 3+ cover save really helped keep the units alive and well. Move thru cover also allowed me to close in on targets very fast.

As I stated previously Mandrakes are best used as a support unit. A second unit was always present, even if it was only an Archon or 2 wyches, when the Mandrakes hit a unit. Once I had the bale blast I moved and then shot. I then hit the target unit with the second unit to hold it in close combat. This was very important if the Mandrakes could not make it into close combat.

All in all I was happy with the outcome. I am going to drop the Chronos and put something else in. I may just flesh out the small warrior unit I had for holding an objective. I may toy with Incubi or a Venom loaded with Trueborns. We will see.

Next time I hope to post the first Scenario for The Test of Khaine tournament round 1. I have some nice and I hope unique missions thought up for the tournament. I have also made the decision I will not be using Kill Points. Scoring will be done by the battle point system and Kill Points are being replaced with victory points. I have always felt Kill Points do not represent accurately enough the struggle you go thru. You may kill a really tough unit, Like a Thunder hammer wielding Terminator squad or thunder wolf cavalry or yes even a Seer Council, and only get one or 2 kill points depending on the composition of the unit. Using victory points though you get credit for maiming it or killing it out right. I also think this method seems fair to those of the mech persuasion. I have seen people win games just by killing drop pods and out scoring based on the fact they could kill things that had little effect on the battle once the units they carried were deployed. This also has a little to do with my roots at GW. This is how they ran all their tournaments in the past and how they ran them this past summer in the store tournaments I played in. I also have the Awards determined

Of course there will be 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place based on total battle points obtained in each of the 3 rounds

The Disciple of Khaine award will be given to the person with the most victory points.

The Seers Award will go to the person who took the most objectives.

And finally the model voted best painted and or converted will be awarded the Special Bone Singers award.

I am moving this week so Feel free to email or post comments with any questions. I am moving to Ypsilanti, the blog name stays the same though despite the fact Ypsilanti sounds way more Eldar than Lansing. So MI40k guys watch out I will be looking for games at Get Your Game On. Since Lord Solar Steve and I will be carpooling to go to Evolution Games as well, as he lives on the way to Lansing form where I am, you guys can tag along if you want a change of scenery.

Next time scenarios and I may even discuss some Grey Knights. I saw the play test codex floating around and it looks legit, I can tell as I had access to play test stuff when I worked for GW. It will be a major thorn in an Eldar players side to say the least.

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

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

Mandrakes: They're Ok I'm takin'em Back

Out of all the units in the Dark Eldar codex, both old and new, the one that never really jived with anybody is Mandrakes. They have always been an odd unit that people really did not know how to use and never really had a place in the more popular list types. As we all know, despite being a blogger, I am not a fan of “ The internet says its bad so it must be” kind of mentality. I have a bit of a rant for next time concerning this in the wake of a game with Old School Terminator and a “Tier 1” blood angels list that came from the web, but I digress

So lets take a look at Mandrakes. I am determined to take em back from weird obscurity and ridicule. So we see they have a pretty decent stat line. A strength of 4 base is not to shabby in strength 3ville. Weapon skill 4 is on par with the rest of the codex. 2 attacks base is also nice. The have stealth, move through cover, infiltrate, power from pain and night vision. This is nice. They are the only unit in the codex with infiltrate as well. This means advanced set up from cover. It also means outflanking. These can be two very valuable methods of deployment in an army that can basically deep strike or do nothing. I think the two things people fixate on is the lack of a save, or I should say the save is only a 5+. Ok I will give you that, but it is invulnerably and better than a wyches save out in the open. They also have a 3+ save in area terrain. This is countered by the other reason people complain about them, they don't have grenades.

People have to remember that the average armor save in the codex is a 5+. The only real good invulnerably saves are the 4+ Wyches have in close combat and the Shadow Field. The balancing factor in the codex for the crappy saves is the Power From Pain rule. You kill a unit or gain a pain token from a Chronos and you have Feel No Pain. The first pain token is a double bonus for the Mandrakes as you gain an assault 2 AP 4 ranged attack that has a range of 18 inches. Thats 20 shots in a full unit of 10 at a ballistic skill of 4. Pretty nice against anything not in power armor.

I talk a lot about mutual support between units in regard to the Craftworlders. I am seeing an emerging pattern that is almost the same in the Dark Eldar. You have very specialist units mixed in with some very good generalist units that are fast and hard hitting. If you look at mandrakes as a supporting unit rather than a main close combat unit their strengths and uses become to be more obvious.

They can work in close support of a wych or warrior unit. Moving from cover to cover. If you have the ability to get them a pain token they become even more useful and flexible. Killing a small soft unit within charge distance or attaching a Haemonculus after the fact or even using the pain token generating powers of a Chronos Parasite engine. Mutual support is the key once again.

Deploying the Mandrake in cover and using them in guerrilla style warfare is the best tactic. Getting them a pain token as quickly as possible is your first priority. I have been experimenting with tactics involving Wyches and enhanced Aether sails to get amongst the enemy to help break down fire discipline and let the softer units advance and get into position. It basically allows you to tie up exposed units in close combat and chain assault tank walls with haywire grenades on turn 2. Having a unit of Mandrakes to support the Wyches, lets face it casualties will be high in the Wych front, will help keep the momentum of the assault and get them the pain token they need. It also allows you to keep your haywire equipped units engaged with vehicles. Having a Chronos in the back field to suck up the spirits of deep striking and drop podding units will also help the units up long as long as you can keep it within 12 inches.

I will have some more thoughts after getting a couple good games under my belt using the Mandrakes. I will also be talking about what exactly is a “Tier 1” list and who determines why it is so good.

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

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