Time To Start Anew: Getting My Game Back

Well February has been pretty eventful. I am trying to get back on the horse as it were. I wanted to just mention something to my readers. Over the past 3 weeks I have been having a pretty bad bout with depression and having anxiety and panic attacks. This I am guessing this has been causing my hobby malaise and lack of inspiration in writing, Or I should say that was the first symptom I really noticed. This kind of thing is new to me. I am not looking for sympathy mind you. Any support given is appreciated, but I wanted to kind of lay it out as to why I have been MIA as of late. On that note I am starting March on a good foot. I have started Therapy and I have also been breaking out the Footdar and plotting the Corsair lists.

I have gotten in a couple games with a list, that sadly, I did not originally concept. OST from Dark Future Games is a kind of an idiot savant when making random army lists. The concept of Footdar has been the major topic of conversation. He presented a list to me that I really had to tweak to make fit into an 1850 point limit. My customary seer council was absent. I had a squad of Fire dragons, yeah on foot, and a pair of Wraithlords supported by a war walker squadron.

I had a small squad of rangers, a 15 man guardian squad and 2 10 man squads of Dire Avengers for troops. The Avatar and Eldrad rounded out the list. All in all it was not a bad list. I played OST and his Tyranids. I had my “A” game back for a while and we played a very bloody game that ended in a tie that OST really had to work for. The only real parts of the list I want to change are the Fire Dragons and the Wraitlords as they did not really contribute and just kind of died quickly.

I know I have said it numerous times, but the Footdar really do Need a long range support line to be effective. I plan on removing the Wraitlords and the Fire Dragons and possibly putting in a second War walker Squadron or actually Running Dual Dark Reaper Squads.

The Corsair List I tried out tonight in the Basement lair against CVinton did not fair so well. I ran A singe Corsair Prince, 3 corsair squads deep striking, a Wasp squadron, 2 Phoenix Bombers, a Nightwing and a Retinue for the Prince in a falcon.

Sadly I went up against CVintons Tesla orgy. His Necron army is pretty tough and the amount of firepower it can bring to the table is pretty scary. I came in piece meal with my Corsair squads while the Phoenix bombers took the brunt of the Tesla Assault. I have to say for the amount of fire they bring to the army they really go down quick once your opponent sees how much fire they can lay down. They are very much glass cannons. At 245 points they are also very expensive.

I have having a real hard time wrapping my brain around this list. Its more specialized than the dark Eldar. Granted I have only really gotten in 2 games in with the army so I am just making a real early judgment. So far I have not found the niche so I am going to back burner it while I really work on the Footdar.

I would also like to not I sold off my Dark Eldar Army. I am trying to rekindle my hobby bug and I think cutting it down to one army is going to really help bring my focus back. It also gives me the chance to fix and do maintenance on the Eldar as they are well traveled and need some touching up and fixing.

Well Back to the trenches. I will be posting information about the “Test Of Khaine” tournament in the next week. It will be April 7^th. Although my location is in question and limbo at the moment. More on that as I find out.

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

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

More Thoughts On Eldar Corsairs: Webway Portals

Well I am officially back in good old Lansing. My time on the path of the outcast is over and it is time to tread the path of the Seer once again. Its been a busy month and the move, although smooth, has taken up a lot of time. I have been remiss in posting and for that I do apologize. The Judge, Samsquatch Monster and I have been setting up the 40K man cave in the basement of the house. The hobby areas are set and the tables are in progress.

I promised some more thoughts on the Eldar Corsairs list. Sadly I have not gotten another game in with them as of yet. I have had some more thoughts as I mill over the list though. I have put some thought into the many forms of deployment available to the army. I had officially dismissed the Void Dreamer. The powers he offers are nice in very specific situations. Sadly they do not have a decent blanket effect, nor does he have the utility of a Farseer to warrant using the HQ slot he takes up. Many of the more observant readers of Codexes and Imperial Armor books will notice that the Void dreamer has 2 entries for a Corsair Jump Pack. This is of course a typo and if you look at the Q&A entry on the Forgeworld site there is errata correcting this. The Void Dreamer demands a second look when you find out that the second Jump Pack Entry should be a Webway Portal.

This Opens up some possibilities. All of a sudden the Void Dreamer fits into a list with multiple deployment options. Using the corsair princes ability to allow up to three units to deep strike if they did not have the ability to do so already in conjunction with a Void Dreamer equipped with a webway portal, let you deliver your army quickly and efficiently. Dual Void Dreamers also opens up the option for a hybrid Craftworld style Webway list. I have been putting together some different list options running one Corsair Prince and One Void Dreamer as well as a Dual Void Dreamer List.

The prospect of delivering Webway portals via Falcon and a decently hardy Psyker is much more appealing than Haemonculis and a group of wracks. The defensive powers and slight offensive capability of the Void Dreamer combined with a small group of Corsair veterans or even just regular corsairs armed with some nice assault weapons ensures a very stable and easily defended beachhead for the army. The Falcons can harass the enemy while the Void Dreamers and their bodyguards establish the Webway portals in good positions. The real bonus to this is that you have 3 options with a lot of the units in the army.

You can deploy the traditional way and walk onto the board edge, or outflank with scouts, deploy via deep strike with your jump pack equipped units and come through the webway portal if no viable deep strike option is available.

This second look is really expanding the possibilities. I am more apt to take a Phoenix Bomber or Nightwing with 2 Falcons on the board. You have a decent amount of fire power on the table while the rest of your army awaits in reserve to react to your opponent. The only real Achilles heel to this style of list is the same one all reserve armies suffer from. The units coming in piece meal.

I will have more on this later, I will be trying the lists out this coming week as well as a Footdar list that I am sad to say I did not come up with. OST has been pondering my Footdar after facing them a few times and seems to have come up with a list of his own that seems pretty legit. More on that later.

Until then

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

Eldar Corsairs: Thoughts After The First Game

Its good to be back in good old Lansing. The move went pretty smooth. I am basically unpacked and the construction of the 40K basement of epicness has begun. Samsquatch Monster has been cleaning and getting the mountain of Tau and Space Wolves stowed away and organized. The Judge will be moving in over the next week. The 40K cave will have 3 tables as well as our 3 individual hobby areas as well as a fume hood for priming and an Airbrush Station. It should be very very nice.

As promised I am going to give my initial thoughts after using the Eldar Corsair list from Imperial Armor 11. I was going to do a full battle report, but the details are a bit foggy as it was a week ago and the game was pretty short. We only went 3 turns. I took on CVinton and his space wolves. I don't believe in doing things halfway so if I am going to test an army list or a new codex I want a tough opponent. I went with a foot list for the Corsairs, since I have been on a Footdar kick as of late.

My initial assessment of the viability of a foot list was flawed. If you look at the army list a foot list is possible thanks to the jet packs and relentless rule it provides. The amount of fire and flexibility of the units is clear. The real issue is the lack of protection. Also a lack of an Avatar means leadership tests. Granted the higher leadership values make the units hardier, but not invulnerable. The low armor saves are akin to Kabalite Warriors. Normally this is not an issue......when they are in transports or in cover.

Because the Corsairs use a high percentage of Craftworld weaponry, my brain decided I could run the Corsairs like Craftworlders. I should have been running them Like Dark Eldar. A strait up foot army hoofing it across the table was not a good idea with the Corsairs. I totally ignored the many different deployment options.

You have whole units that can scout, deep strike, outflank and arrive via webway portal. These deployment options let you run a decently viable foot list as long as you don't come in piece meal. Cvintons Long Fangs tore my army up very quickly and the Wolf Priest lead swift claw pack hit the heart of my army and laid it to waste. The whole lynchpin of the army was the Phoenix Bomber and it was dealt with after the first turn. After that the army kind of evaporated. The bomber is a very potent vehicle. The devastating amount of fire it laid down made it a very high priority target. Despite having a 4+ save it still fell to a torrent of missile fire.

I was also not very impressed with the Void Dreamer. The protections and enhancements the Void Dreamer provides are not that great. The lack of any runes of warding means the one anti psychic power is basically useless to the rest of the army as it only protects the Void Dreamer and the unit he may be joined to.

I am going to have to step back and really take a hard look at how to run this list. It has the weapons of a Craftworld army with the speed and mobility of the Dark Eldar. You can run it many different ways as well depending on your unit selection. I am milling the idea of a Corsair Variation of the Webway list. The main difference being that only about half of the army will arrive via portal, while the other elements will be on board and arriving by deep strike. Having the portal on the board lets you keep your deep strikers safe by giving them the option of coming out of the portal if no decent or viable deep strike position is available.

So I like the army, but I am unsure how viable it is. Granted I have only gotten one game in with it. I hope to get 4 or 5 more with the new list I am building taking advantage of the many deployment options.

Next time I will have some thoughts on Necrons. I played OST this past week with both my Craftworlders and my Dark Eldar. He was using Cvintons new Necron army. I was not prepared for to fight this new codex. Although I have read it cover to cover, I was not ready for how it played and flowed on the table. I was soundly beaten in both games in only 4 turns. The sheer torrent of fire was overwhelming. Tesla is powerful, but more on that next time.

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

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!

A New Eldar Army List: Eldar Corsairs In IA 11

Well the move back to Lansing is going slowly. Returning to the path is going to be rough. By path I mean the hobby. I have been playing, but my painting and model building has been almost non existent. Dark Eldar, Eldar and Orks are all on my plate. I even have added High Elves to the mix. I look forward to the hobby jump start after I am done moving. The FLGS will be there and of course the other Craftworld authors and the Dark Future Boys.

I digress though. I have been reading through Imperial Armour 11 and I have to say I am pretty impressed. Not only does it have every Forgeworld Eldar unit in it, it also gives us a new army list to play. The Eldar Corsair army list.

Since I have been on a Footdar kick as of late I was very excited to see this army list. It lends itself very well to foot lists. In fact I have been toying with the list making a few different foot lists and they seem to work better than my Craftworld Footdar lists. You are limited to Venoms and Falcons for transports so small units, kinda an expensive razor spam for Eldar, seem to be encouraged. Larger units are forced to g on foot, but are not handicapped by it. The one glaring omission form the list though is the Avatar. The fearless bubble is the glue that binds the Craftworld Footdar list together. This is because of my heavy use of Guardians. The Corsairs benefit form an actual squad leader with a leadership value of 9. This is a major upgrade. Throw in a BS of 4 and that you can make them jet pack infantry you have a mobile force with a nice array of weapons. Having Relentless troops with Eldar missile launchers is very nice.

Since we have better leadership values with the corsairs the Avatar is not really needed. The army really is a hybrid of Dark Eldar and Craftworld Eldar. IN fact you can take Kabalite Warriors and a single fast attack or elite choice from codex Eldar as an Elites choice.

I think the thing I love the most about the Corsairs is the Heavy and Fast Attack choices. Night Spinners and Nightwings  are a fast choice while Phoenix Bombers are heavy choices. I hope this carries over a bit in the next iteration of the Eldar codex. Dark Eldar really set a precedent with flier units in the Xenos codex’s. These Units are fast and pack some serious punch. More so than a Void Raven or Razorwing. They are even about the same points cost. The real advantage though is they both have Eldar Titan Holo fields, or I should say an equivalent rule that generates the same save.  I still with they had missiles like their dark kindred though.

So for the Corsair lists I am experimenting with the core units are the Corsairs themselves. In fact I have 40 Headless and Armless Guardians ready to accept the Corsair conversion kits once I get them and finish my 1000 point bike army for the Adepticon Team tournament. This is bolstered by Nightwings and Night Spinners. Leading the force is the Corsair Prince and the Corsair Void Dreamer.

The Prince is a a mix or Autarch and Archon. The prince has wargear from both as well as some of his own, topped off with a Harlequins Kiss. I am looking forward to using this guy in combat. Being able to take a shadow field, jet pack, haywire grenades, melta bombs, a sword that boosts strength to 4 is powered and rending is pretty cool. So is the one time use orbital strike. The Void dreamer is what I wish warlocks were. A good mix of 3 powers that they have access to every turn. Not just single power. When they take spirit stones you get 2 powers a turn. They have a good mix of weapons as well, including witchblades.

I will cover the Craftworld Forces next time. We have the new Aspect warriors, the Shadow Specters, a new Phoenix lord for that Aspect and a Farseer that has a bubble than makes units stubborn. We also have the Wraithseer as well as all the new super heavy goodies. I am most intrigued by the Corsairs as I have all the units already, minus the Nightwings and Phoenix bombers.

So look for a battle report soon as I whip the corsairs out and continue to rediscover Eldar and foot lists in general. Just in time for a new rules set this summer.

Until next time

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!