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 Duke Rides Again: Evolution Games Tourney Aftermath.

This passed Saturday I played in a good old fashioned Rogue Trader style 1850 point tournament at my local FLGS Evolution Games. I decided to bring the Dark Eldar. In fact I went with a mostly Wych Cult army. My list consisted of

The Duke

Lady Malys

3 squads of 10 wychs with Hekatrix armed with an agonizer and blast pistol. All had haywire grenades and the Hekatrix had a phantasm grenade launcher.

1 squad of 8 Kabalite Trueborns with 2 blasters and 2 splinter cannons. 3 had shard carbines while the Dracon sported a phantasm grenade launcher, ghost plate, blast pistol and agonizer.

All squads were mounted on Raiders with Flicker Fields and Night Shields. They also had Grisly Trophy’s and Tormentor Grenade Launchers.

3 Ravagers one of which had all Disintegrators. They too had Night Shields and Flicker Fields.

Game one was vs an ork horde heavy on Nobs. I faced two Nob Squads of doom one of which was mounted on bikes. He rushed forward having gotten first turn but really did not do anything other than that. This put me into position to get Gain some pain tokens. I dispatched his two Defcoptas giving The Duke and his unit and a wych unit a pain token. This put their total to 2 as I rolled a 6 for my combat drugs. The two Ravagers on the table, I opted to keep one in reserve with 2 wych units Immobilized his battle wagon while the raiders blew up the truk carrying one of the Nob squads. Turn 2 saw the further advance of the orks and some shooting which was rather ineffectual. I now had My wyches and the dukes unit In range of the Nob squads. After My reserve rolls being lack luster, I closed in. The Duke and his unit Disembarked And shot the Biker Nob squad, with Warboss, with impunity killing 3 nobs. The wyches did likewise to the now on foot second Warboss and Nob squad, with the support of the raiders. The Ravager continued to pound the battle wagon destroying a big shoota. In the assault phase The Duke killed the war boss while Lady Malys and the Trueborns killed 3 more bikers. Having lost the combat they were swiftly cut down as they only inflicted 2 wounds on the Dukes unit. The other Nob unit was more successful but failed to win for two turns. They were eventually whittled down but managed to survive the whole game, well at least the pain buy was alive. The wyches managed to hold two objective in the end. One after they wiped out a unit of grots and then a unit of burna boys who tried to lend support, the other was in my deployment zone . Sadly the Duke died in close combat after his unit was laid to waste by grotzookas. I won none the less.

Game two I squared up against Vogrin in a grudge match. Sadly this game went down hill fast. Scared of the mystics the Inquisitor brought with him, I deployed on the board despite not getting first turn. That was what sealed my fate. In the opening salvo the Manticore got 3 rockets on the Dukes unit after his raider, and two others had been downed by battle cannon and multi laser fire. The salvo immobilized one of the Ravagers and wiped out the Duke and his unit. I swear I always roll a one on my shadow field saves when it really matters. I managed to kill a couple tanks and a unit before being tabled in turn 4.

My third game saw me facing the Emperors finest, the Ultrmarines. This was a dawn of war mission so I started with everything off the table and gave the first turn to my opponent. He also opted for nothing on the table besides a squad of scouts. He then held most of his forces in reserve. This proved great for me as I just picked apart his army form a distance. It was turn 4 before he got any kill points because by this time I closed the distance. It got pretty bloody, but I manged to wipe out 3 marine units, kill a vindicator, a rhino and a razorback. The scout squad died early as well giving me 7 kill points. MY opponent managed to kill 2 wych units, they ran and got away , but were below 50%, The Duke and Lady Malys and the Trueborns they were with for a total of 5 Kill points. I was worried for a bit as he brought a squad of thunder hammer wielding terminators, big surprise. The Duke and Lady Malys did mange to kill 3 before they died though.

I have to say the Wych Cult continues to impress me. I will be purchasing some new models in the near future and I dare say I will be buying more Wyches than Warriors. I do have some more Craftworlders bits to buy as well, but I must finish some painting with them first. The only real complaint I have is wounding with wyches in close combat. Its rough is you don't have furious charge and don't wipe the unit in the first round of combat. I do like how effective you can make them against a variety of opponents though. I really recommend using the shard net and impaler though for your special weapons. As you stand a decent chance of getting a re roll wounds in combat combat drug result the razor flails are a kind of a waste. I would rather reduce power weapon or fist attacks personally.

So I did not place, but I went 2-1. My loss was to Vogrin who actually tied for first. Sadly the other person who was in the tie was using an internet favorite list. Lash Prince with lots of obliterators. Very sad.

Well Next time I will be going back to the light side and talking about my Ulthwe themed Adepticon Army. I am going to try and get back and do recaps of my ongoing Rogue Trader game as well. One of my players said he missed the game master point of view recaps. I may also have some more Dark Eldar morsels to discuss.

Until then.........

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

Cult of Personality: Wych Cult Armies

So I can admit when I am wrong. I have not given the Wych Cults the chance they deserve. In the wake of the “Freak Show” not doing so well in two games I took the advice of FarSeer Re-Rolls and tried out a nice wych cult list. I played one of our regulars at the shop. He is one of our local Seers, but today he was testing the waters with his Tyranids. This actually was a good thing for me as I never run Wych Cult. So I ran a slightly modified list from what FarSeer Re-Rolls usually runs. He prefers Reaver bikes, lots of Reaver bikes. I opted for only one squad. I did however take 3 maxed out Wych Squads of 10and a Squad of 8 Hekatrix Blood Brides. I also took Lady Malys and an Archon along with 2 Ravagers.

It was not a pretty battle to say the least. I flat out moved across the table as he opted to deep strike his whole army. Turn 2, 2 trygons and his Hive Tyrant came in along with a squad of Genestealers. I was pretty tight in a broad circular formation. He landed both trygons amidst my raiders. The Hive Tyrant came in right next to lady Malys and the Archons transport. Shooting from the Tyrgons brought down a Raider, but only Immobilized it.

This is where it got ugly. All 5 of my Squads and the Ravagers opened fire in a torrent of splinters and dark energy. The Trygons took 8 wounds between the two of them while the Hive Tyrant took 3. Then the Assault phase came and everybody charged. I had the Reavers and one and a half squads of wychs on one Trygon and another 1 and a half squads on the second Trygon. This meant 2 Agonizers on each. The Hekatrix Blood Brides and Lady Malys with the Archon charged the Hive Tyrant. The Succubus's and Reaver champions dealt the killing blows to the Trygons while the Syren of the Blood Bride Unit cut the Hive Tyrant down.

The Next turn saw the arrival of the 3^rd Trygon and the rest of the Genestealers. There was also a Mycentic Spore pod containing 3 Zoanthropes. I now lost some wyches to templates. IN my turn I mounted up all the units that could and moved the wych unit without a transport to an objective.

In the following turn I moved them into position to assault the Zoanthropes and Genestealers. I was worried about the Death Leaper that was lurking about. He attempted to get rid of a raider but failed in the last turn. The Reavers assaulted the Zoanthropes while the wyches moved into position. The Genestealers holding one of the objectives moved off of it to assault the Reavers and wiped them out. This pulled them out of cover and into assault range for a wych squad. I swooped in with the raiders and assaulted two units of Genestealers. This paid off as I wiped both units out. Its not often you get to say “the squad strikes simo with the stealers” The death leaper made the mistake of trying to assault a Ravager. It did get one of the Dark Lances, but this left it out in the open. It died to Dark Lance fire.

It was at this point my opponent scooped. His remaining squad was way on the other side of the table and could not get to an objective in time. It also did not matter as I controlled 3 out of 4 objectives.

So my opinion has changed. I really like this list. So much so I am running it tomorrow at the Rouge Trader style Tournament at my FLGS Evolution games. Granted the Duke will be in attendance rather than the Archon that accompanied Lady Malys. I will probably be dropping the Blood Brides or even the Reavers in favor of a True Born Squad as well.

The Wych Cult army is very effective. It can bring a lot of hurt to both vehicles and units. They lack poison close combat weapons, but the special weapons and 4+ invulnerably save in close combat makes up for it a little. You can equip your Hekatrix's and Syren's with a nice array of special weapons that can really hurt the high toughness critters. The real key is your raiders though. You must deploy and run your army with protection in mind. You must make sure your Wyches are not exposed and if they are get them to cover. The 6+ save out of combat is not so great. Keeping the Wyches in cover and keeping them in close combat actually keeps them alive rather well.

I will post the tournament results on Sunday. I will also start talking about my list development for Adepticon finally. I am determined to run a themed Craftworld list and make it work. 

I also Found a better picture of the new Aspect Warrior shrine that will be in Imperial Armour 11.  

The Shadow Specter shrine should be interesting.  I know I really like this model though.  So here is the pick to drool on until they are released.

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

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