Dakka? I Got Yor Dakka Right Here!: Ulthwe vs the Green Tide.

In the quest to make an Eldar list for Adepticon I decided not to do the typical Eldar tournament list.  I wanted to avoid the usual  suspects you find in lists that contaminate the forums.  This of course includes lots of dire avengers, duel Seers, Warp Spiders and lots of wave serpents. They lack originality, especially when you have seen them so many times. Then the cliche of the dead horse and beating it comes to mind.  They are a major crutch.  People min max them and tweak them to such a degree it borders on silliness. They also lack any theme.  Themed lists can be very strong.  They also really bring a kind of synergy to the table.  They also challenge you as a player.  Easy wins are no fun if you ask me.  Speaking of wins that are not so easy.

I recently played a 1500 point game against an Ork army. A green tide to be exact. 180 orks on the table that were mostly sluga boys. There was a unit of Flash Gitz and a Big Mek as well.  Despite being outnumbered very badly, my theme list held up and won in a Kill Point game.  Thats Right a theme list.  I have decided to go strait up theme.  I am going to have fun and I am going to make Ulthanash Shelwes Black Guardians strike fear into the Imperium once again.

SO what ended up laying waste to the green tide? What left one Flash Git running from the board at the end?

HQ: Eldrad Ulthran w/ 10 Warlocks, Enhance, Embolden, 3x destructor in a Wave Serpent w/ BL

HQ : The Avatar of Khaine.

Troop: 16 Guardians w/ Shuriken Cannon and Warlock with Embolden

Troop: 16Guardians w/ Shuriken Cannon and Warlock With Embolden

Heavy: Night Spinner

Heavy: 3x War walkers Bright lance, 3x Scatter laser, 2x missile launchers

So I was very out numbered. I really slowed down the rush though thanks to the Night Spinner. Also thanks to massed shuriken catapult fire , the prowess of the Avatar and Eldrad and his Warlocks in close combat I wiped out the horde. I have added a couple things to get the list up to 1850. It is Aspect Warrior free say for a unit of Dark Reapers. This is totally in line with the fluff of the Craftworld of Ulthwe as its heavy on Guardians and lacking Aspects. Dark Reapers are the most common Aspect on Ulthwe according to fluff, even if it is written by C.S. Gotto.  I also have the Single Seer council.  I like the Avatar in the list, but I may opt for Maugan Ra Instead to go total theme as an Ulthwe Strike Force.

I am interested to see how it does against Guard and space marine lists.  I know I am setting myself up for some major fail, but I am sick of all the min maxed net lists.  Its time to put some fluff back into the hobby.

So my road to Adepticon continues. I am officially registered for the GT and I have declared Eldar to be my army for the tournament. I will be using the Dark Eldar in the Team tourney. So I guess I have a list to hammer out and possibly some Models to paint.

Next time I have a bit of a rant about Bases. Also I am going to start really delving into the new Dark Eldar Codex. I started with the Leader of my pirates, now I ma going to detail the fleets backbone. Kabalite Warriors. Once I find an opponent for it I also have a Swooping hawk heavy list with Bahharoth for a battle report.

So until next time....

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

Battle Report: Eldar vs Orks

This past Wednesday I got a game in at good old Evolution Games.  It was also our first bits trading night.  I got a lot of good bits and have given into my temptation to start another army.  I will post some picks in the coming weeks of my new Blood Angels projects.  I know, why mon keigh? I like to paint and Blood Angles is a classic.  Plus gives me time to study the enemy and his ways.  Despite the bits frenzy I got to face one of the regular greenskin players in a Capture and Control spear hear set up game.
I used the round two revision of my GW Store Tourney series list that I was going to be using at said tournament on June 19th.  I found out I will be facing the Imperial Guard so I may change the list to adapt to this new found knowledge. The current incarnation of the list consists of;

Eldrad Ulthran
4x Warlocks.  Two with Singing spears.  Embolden, Enhance, destructor x2
The Avatar
1x Squad of 10 scouts upgraded to pathfinders
1x Squad of 10 Dire Avengers with Exarch.  Exarch has bladestorm Dire Sword and shuriken pistol
1x Squad of 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch.  Exarch has Crack Shot and a Tempest Launcher.
1x Squad of 5 Shining Spears with Exarch.  Exarch has Hit and run skilled rider armed with Star Lance
1x Squad of 10 Striking Scorpions with Exarch.  Exarch has Shawdow Strike, Stalker and biting blade
1x Fire Prism with Holo Fields and Spirit Stones.

The ork horde had one big mob of lootas, two huge mobs of boys in battle wagons, a warboss with a nice big mob of nobs in a truck, a def dread and 2 small flights of death coptas, One and two.

We had lots of terrain and to my dismay I did not get first turn.  After setting up and infiltrating my pathfinders the death coptas used their scout moves to get into firing position of the Fire Prism and the Pathfinders.  Turn one saw the destruction of the Fire prism despite the Holo Feilds, rolled a 5 and a 6 on the dice , and the pathfinders taking fire and then loosing the assault they were forced into by the death coptas.  They ran off the table.  The dire Avengers were holding my objective and stayed put while Eldrad and his Warlocks moved up with the Avatar.  The shining spear advanced as well in support on the flank.  The Striking Scorpions were in reserve doing an out flank.  The Dark reapers punished the loota  mob which despite loosing more than half its number did not run.  The battle wagons advanced on the objective while the warboss and his nobs cut off  Eldrad and the Avatar.  Once they got in range they put the truck between themselves and the big boys and assaulted the shining spears instead of Eldrad and the Avatar.  The Shining Spears were slaughtered.  The Avatar only manged to immobilize the truck. 
Things got bloody quick.  I was not rolling well at all.  The warboss and his nobs killed Eldrad and his warlocks after 2 rounds and then finally managed to off the Avatar ofter 3 rounds of combat.  The death coptas were a thorn in my side.  I did dispatch the lootas and two coptas but the remaining copta and the large mob in one of the battle wagons finished off the Dark Reapers.  I was down to one squad.

As i have said Dire Avengers can hold objective like no other.  When faced with the green tide in turn 6 they braced and blade stormed the nearest mob and cut it down to about 25% of its full size.  This took enough out to make sure they did not have range to assault me.  The game then Ended with me as the victor.  I held my objective and he did nto have anybody claiming his.

A victory for Craftworld Ulthwe but at what a cost.  If the game had gone to turn 7 I would have been done for.  The Dire Avengers Held off the tide despite heavy losses and managed to pull thru.
This list is going to be drastically changed for facing Imperial Guard at the GW Store Tourney.  I did nto do bad.  I had massive losses and still won.  I managed to keep the Orcs focused on what they like.  Shootin stuff and assualting.  Once I lost the Ability to effectively disable the battle wagons I had to change tactics to keeping the orcs at bay and slow them down so they could not reach the objective.  That means sacrificing troops and going all or nothing into that strategy.  It paid off but it was a major gamble.  If it had gone into turn 7 it would have been a very different outcome.

It was a good learning experience.  I have not fought Orcs in a long time and it was good to get a taste of something not wearing power armor.  So guess we will see what Saturday holds as I try a new list and see what I can do against some Imperial Guard.  Unitl Then........

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