The Second Foundation Of Vengeance: Patience

Vengeance is not a thing to be taken lightly or without planning. A wise man once said” Before embarking on a journey of vengeance dig two graves” This of course implies vengeance will eventually destroy those that seek it. If you go into a battle with a bad plan of attack or let yourself be lured into a trap your vengeance will go unfulfilled. I was contemplating this while Squaring off with Old School Terminator and his Tyranids. The game was a very bloody affair. I was using one of my prototype lists and he was using one of his very potent and decently tested tournament lists. As a side note Dakafexes, contrary to the “wisdom of the internets” are very viable and should be killed with extreme prejudice. I saw the error in my plan as I unfolded it. I had fallen for a trap. After my Reavers had dealt with his termagaunt screen with a nice fly by, Lelith and her wyches went to the center and assaulted the surviving termangaunts, some hive guard and a massive unit of Genestealers. The plan seemed good, but thanks to Leliths killing power and the massed attacks of 3 wych squads, with re rolls for failed wounds for combat drugs, I was left sitting in the open. I had underestimated the fury of the attack. The Carnifexes and tervigons started the clean up. I was able to hold on, but my thirst for vengeance and the thrill of the kill got the better of me. I contemplated this and saw what laid before me was the second foundation of vengeance. Patience.

Vengeance is a dish best served cold. This basically means letting time pass and wisdom temper your vengeance. In this case it means to think before you act. Hind site is 20/20. I see what I should have done in my game against OST. The only real problem is I should have seen what was going to happen during the game. I was to impatient. I went right for a tempting soft target while ignoring what was around my forces. I also did not think about what would happen if I wiped out all the units.

I have talked about having a plan and sticking to it. I have also talked about being adaptive. I am talking more about thinking steps ahead and thinking about consequences.

When deploying your force you have to think about your plan of attack. Given the amount of monstrous creatures on the board in my game with OST, those should have been the targets. The Dakafexes and the Hive guard would be first. This eliminates the shooting. Then thanks to mobility I could have picked the vital targets off and then go in for the kill. A good hunter is patient. You wait for the optimal time to carry out the kill. You do it on your terms. You do not let the prey dictate the terms of the engagement.

SO the real lesson here is that you must not get excited. Bide your time and take on the opponents army on your terms. The key to doing this is in your deployment and your plan of attack. You must identify the biggest threats to your army and eliminate or circumvent them. If the enemy is a mobile force try and corral them and direct them where you want them. If it is a force that likes to not move force them to move. Basically you want to maintain control of the game and not act prematurely. A Dark Eldar force has the ability to maintain its distance and close the gap quickly. Use this ability to its fullest.

Be patient and maintain your cool. Emotion can really lead to bad tactical decisions. Stay cool and be in control. I will be trying out the other prototype this coming week. It may be a great example of the next foundation. Surprise.

Until then........

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

The FIrst Foundation of Vengeance: Spite

The first reaction of most people when they have been wronged is to wrong the person who did the deed. The simple act of vengeance or returning a wrong is not enough in some cases. You continue to hurt the person simply because you can. You show no restraint in your vengeance and this my friends is spite. It is malicious intent past the initial infraction.

Restraint is literally what holds players back. Either because of sportsmanship, which is important, or because they don't want to make their opponent mad, players will show restraint when playing. You don't assault a particular squad or you don't fire the big guns on a unit because your opponent is getting creamed.

I was contemplating this as I was playing CVinton of Dark future Games this past week. I had an initial prototype list of Dark Eldar going against a no tank, all foot, Guard army. Blob squads and Heavy weapon teams was all that I saw across the table from me. My force stood no chance. As wyches and warriors died and Raiders exploded all around my Archon and his Trueborns I thought about how I could salvage the game. CVinton kept apologizing and I think showed some restraint when he was holding some of his troops back. Granted for those of you who have not played CVinton he usually does not show a lot or restraint and mercilessly destroys his opponents. Which brings me to my next point.

You cannot restrain yourself. This is especially true if you want to win a tournament. You must not hold back. In fact overkill and being slightly malicious should be encouraged. So This is the First Foundation of Vengeance. Spite.

Dark Eldar, as I have said many many times, is a momentum army. Holding back breaks momentum. You must be without mercy. This may seem like common sense, but if you sat and thought back to the games you have had in the past month, were there instances when you should have done on thing, but did another because you did not want to seem like a jerk. I recently saw at the Test of Khaine tournament a Dark Eldar player stop his raiders mid field. He was advancing and then stopped short. He second guessed his move and hesitated. This cost him the game. CVinton capitalized on this and slew most of his army without mercy. This is how you win. You exploit weakness. Most opponents cannot recover once you break the back of there army. This is not because its not possible to recover, you can really pull a victory out of very little, but you have gotten into their head. 40K is as much about psychology as it is your list or how good of a general you are.

You see it every game. I recently played a Tyranid swarm army with the Lelith fair. I had Lelith in the thick of it cutting her way across the board. Even though my opponent knew it would be bad to send his gaunts into her he kept doing it. He was determined to kill her and saw her as a huge threat, especially after she got a couple lucky hits and killed one of the Tyrant Guard with the Hive Tyrant. She even wounded the Hive Tyrant. He was making bad decisions because Lelith in his mind was an nigh unto unstoppable killing machine. This allowed the rest of my army to advance and pick apart his force. The swarm that had outnumbered me almost 3 to 1 was being laid to waste because I pressed the attack and continued. Even when he had basically given up I had my surviving Incubi continue to an objective not only to contest it, but I actually charged the Gaunts holding it and slaughtered them.

No mercy. No restraint. Destroy everything with malice and a smile on your face.

SO there you go The First Foundation of Vengeance. I plan on keeping this in mind while I prototype up my list and play it. I am not saying to be a huge jerk mind you. Sportsmanship is important, but you want to win to. So be fair and a good sport, but don't hold back when it comes to destroying an opponents army.

Until next time

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

Wraith Seer and Corsairs Revealed

Forge World has the Wraith Seer up for Pre order along with the new Corsair conversion kits.  I really like the look of the Corsairs.  The Weapons look like a mix of Craftworld and Dark Eldar tech.  The jump packs look a bit goofy, but I can deal.  No rules as of yet.  I surmise they are going to be Guardians that are jump infantry.

The real tasty bit is the Wraith Seer.  Clocking in at 185 points he is a bit steep but not to much more than a normal Wraithlord.  Armed with a D-cannon and a Witch Spear it is pretty heavily armed.  The psychic powers are nice.  My favorite is the one that makes a Wraithlord or Squad of Wraithguard Fleet.  Thats sexy.  THe power that lets a Wraith model live after it looses its last wound on a roll of a 6 is nice as well.

My only real issue is the 5+ invulnerably save. Granted the toughness 8 has always been nice, but I think a 4+ would be better.  I mean a freakin storm shield that does not cover the whole body gives a 3+.  The wraithspear is also kind a head scratcher.  It allows you to re-roll failed to hit rolls like a wraithsword.  It also always wounds models with a toughness on a 2+.  So yeah that is all well and good, but unless the model is toughness 9 you will be doing that anyways.  Being a force weapon or doing something else we have not seen would have been better.  SO yeah I like it, but as usual the offering is kind of lacking like most of the Xenos units GW comes up with. A shame really.

SO my Forge World order keeps getting bigger and bigger for the fall.  I guess that is good thing as it will give me some fun stuff to play with until the next Craftworld codex.  In the meantime I will continue with the Dark Kin.

Next time the first Foundation Of Vengeance:  Spite

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






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

The 13 Foundations Of Vengeance: Dark Eldar List Building

Art by Chris Trevas www.christrevas.com

I was happy to see a nice mix of armies at Adepticon this year. The Eldar and Dark Eldar did not have a great showing though. Yours truly included. I noticed the typical Craftworld lists with lots of war walkers, falcons and fire dragons. The Dark Eldar lists seemed to have lots of warriors and wyches and hordes of raiders and venoms. The later, the small squads and venoms, kind of surprised me. Maybe its just how I think about game outcomes and how I build lists, but I saw these spammed lists as a very bad idea.

Although they had lots of fire power and objective grabbing potential in theory, I saw the lists as inherently flawed and very weak in terms of how you, or at least how I, run the army. So what do I see as flaws in the Venom spam and mass small squad trend that seems to have been popular this time around?

The list does play to the strengths of the Dark Eldar army. Its fast, mobile and packs a potential punch with the amount of lance weapons you can pack into it. The real problem comes in when you see that you are losing your mobility when you use dark lances. Granted you can use blasters in your squads, but this lessons your range substantially. Since you can't shoot while embarked on the vehicle if it moves 12 inches you loose your mobility or your ability to shoot. You could disembark, but this leaves you very exposed. This is doubly bad if you have less than 10 in the squad. That was the main thing that really bugged me. You take a very fragile army and make it so the squads can get wiped out in one turn by a combat squad. You have a lot of squads that can get one shot with anti tank weapons. You can address a bunch or targets and maybe get some kills but its kind of an all or nothing deal. The return salvo is going to decimate you if you were not successful in suppressing your opponents fire. You are also going to get wrecked if you don't have first turn. As you know I am also not a fan of lists that have tons of kill points in it. Venom spam lists have tons of kill points in them. All this just won't do.

So what do I think is a good list. Well you have to take in a few different considerations. First you have to consider the type of mission you are playing. Tournament missions typically are multi tiered. This means you have to really look at what the objectives are. Kill points, objectives and some sort of table quarter or deployment zone control or denial is involved. You can't try and do them all, so you should gear the list to do two. As two out of 3 mission objectives wins you the game. I like to go for holding an objective and Kill points. This gives my army model some synergy. I have to deny table quarters and prevent units form contesting or controlling anything and I do this by destroying them. The next consideration is army size. You have to mind how many kill points you potentially could give up. Although its hard to do I try and limit the amount of Kill points in a Dark Eldar list to a maximum of 12, and that is if I am hurting for something. Limiting the amount of transports helps quit a bit as does limiting HQ choices. You have to be able to do the mission objectives while at the same time denying your opponent. Having built in safe guards, such as limiting the amount of kill points in a list, is the way to do this. You also want to go heavy on the troops. Good solid troop choices let you deal some death and complete your objectives. In my mind a solid troop choice is a squad of 10 Kabalite Warriors with a sybarite, deployed in cover or in a transport. You can even go bigger than 10 if you want to ditch the added firepower of the raider, but this limits your mobility and takes away an extra anti tank weapon. It does however eliminate a kill point your opponent could score rather easily. Increasing the survivability of a unit is how you make it solid and deny your opponent the kill. This means pain tokens and using cover for dark Eldar outside their transports. It means keeping your wyches locked in combat. It means using Flicker fields on your raiders and adding night shields to those vehicles that stay at range. In missions using victory points its good to avoid point sink death star units. Even at half strength they can give your opponent the edge when it comes to tallying victory points.

SO some tips to star with. I am calling this road to list building “The 13 Foundations of Vengeance”.   I will be posting more specific tricks ploys and stratagems as I get the list honed. As always though I am not going to post a list as You should develop that for yourself and play the crap out of it.

Now I go to lament my lack of funds and inability to go to Evolution Games tonight due to said lack of funds. If I learned anything form Adepticon, it is to over plan and save money like crazy before I go.

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

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

The War in Heaven: A Campaign In The Making

With the impending release of IA 11 and the revelation IA 12 will be Dark Eldar, Meatban, from March of The Machines, and I have been talking about doing a massive apocalypse game in the future. I have also started planning a campaign that will usher in the new Necron codex. I am talking of course about the awakening of a Tomb world and the Eldar going in to stop it. Granted this probably won't happen until this fall, but we have been talking about kicking off a new chapter in a battle that has raged in the 40K universe since..... well since the beginning. The War in Heaven.

I have always been a major fluff guy. The direction the GW designers and wordsmiths have been taking the universe really agrees with me. The Imperium is teetering on the brink of destruction. The enemies of man are numerous and gaining ground. Signs and portents that the end times are nigh are unheeded. An ancient and malevolent enemy is waking to take its place at the top of the food chain once again. It really makes fro some good drama and great campaign fodder.

So what is the war in heaven you may ask? Millions of years ago the old ones ruled the galaxy thanks to their intelligence and technology. The fostered young races and built the webway. The Necrotyr were also an ancient race, but slower to advance because they were a dying race right out of the gate because of their sun. They were jealous of the Old ones. Enter the C'Tan. The Necrotyr discovered the reason why their sun was dying. A being of pure energy was feeding on it. It was a C'Tan, In fact it was The Night Bringer. Somehow they made contact and then brought it into the physical world. They then set out to destroy the old ones. This started what is known in the mythology of the Eldar as the war in heaven. Some of the Eldar Gods of old were real and some were warp beings much like the gods of chaos, in fact Khaine was an aspect of Khorne in the Rouge Trader days.

Regardless the Necrotyr raged across the galaxy with their C'Tan masters and wiped out all the life they found. After warring among themselves the C'Tan and their Necron servants went to sleep and slumbered for over a million years. The legend of the Ygnir, what the Eldar called the C'Tan, grew and was largely relegated to legend. Now they awaken. The 4 remaining C'Tan are alive and operating, except for the Void Dragon who is imprisoned on mars. He is the real reason man has technology. So the Necrotyr awaken to retake a galaxy they scoured of life. The Imperium is ill equipped to deal with the threat and the Eldar are to few.

I have a war in heaven campaign I will be running this fall or even when the Necron codex comes out. IN the mean time though look for an announcement for a massive apocalypse game in the next couple months where the Necrotyr Lords of Evolution games take on the Seer Council of Evolution games. That is once Meatban finishes his Doomsday Monolith.

Later in the Week I will be trying out a couple of Dark Eldar lists. I have two I wish to run and will be playing the living daylight out of them over the next few months. I plan on playing at a variety of places as well. The ultimate goal is a Dark Eldar list that will do well at Adepticon next year.

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

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

The Future Of War: The Multi Tier Mission

After running the Test of Khaine and playing in the GT at Adepticon I had a realization. It was actually prompted by a conversation with Old School terminator about missions. I was designing the missions for The Test of Khaine and went with a multi tiered style mission. This is the same kind of mission most big tournaments run. So what is a multi tier mission you ask? Great question lets answer it.

A multi tier mission has many different objectives. Not objectives as in a piece of terrain to hold and protect, but rather several different ways to win. Most have 3 different objectives. Fulfilling one objective gives you a point. You win the mission by having more completed objectives and having more mission points than your opponent.

A mission objective could be to get more kill points than your opponent, control more table corners than your opponent, hold more objective markers than your opponent and even ending the game with more scoring units in the enemies deployment zone then he has in yours. My first mission in the GT had Annihilation as the primary objective with controlling table corners and an objective marker in the center of the table that scored me a point if I had an HQ within 6 inches of it at the end of the game. Both my opponent and I could have scored this last one there was no way to contest other than killing the opposing HQ.

Sportsmanship and a soft score for paint was also included at Adepticon for overall score, but it was not the bulk of the score. Soft score like this also can be totally excluded, but for most big tournaments they are a factor.

The multi tier mission is the present and the future. This is a very good thing. Why is this? You may ask. Think about the basic missions in the book and some of the more esoteric ones in White Dwarf and the battle missions book. They typically have one maybe two objectives. You wither have to outscore in kill points or take objectives. Typically there is only one way to win. This is a severe handicap for armies not geared to do such a thing. Guard armies excel at taking multiple objectives, while armies like Eldar and Grey Knights have an advantage in kill point missions because of their small army size and limited Kill Points. The multi tiered mission allows armies to be able to concentrate on objectives they are good at or are able to complete. It basically removes any handicap an army may have. It evens the playing field literally.

Even an army that may be viewed as weak has a chance to really win consistently if it is played halfway decently and a multi tier mission is being used. So what are your thoughts on the subject. You have read how I feel. I love the multi tier mission. I plan on playing nothing but multi tier missions form now on. I want to be in the mindset and it does take a different mindset. You have to be thinking about multiple plans of attack and how to integrate all the different plans to achieve the most objectives. It forces you to up your game. You plateau quickly as a player if you play the same old mission and the same old game. You have to vary your game and the missions you play. You must move beyond a linear mono objective mindset. War is multi faceted so you have to think that way. So do yourself a favor and increase your ability as a general and start playing some multi tier missions.

Ok so there is my two cents. Next time I am going to start the long road to list development for a Dark Eldar army for Adepticon 2012. There was a lot of hating going on due to their lackluster showing. So time to try and silence the naysayers. It may be out of spite, but spite is one the 14^th foundations of Vengeance.

I also wanted to mention Deff Race 2011, a spearhead style tournament run by Dark Future Games, that will take place on May 14th at our FLGS Evolution Games.  Check out CVinton's post here detailing the tournament.  I hope to see some of you there.  I will be bringing the Craftworlders.

Also I would like to congratulate Madtrucker for winning the Battleforce give away.  Out of the 142 drinks bought for the crew he was the winner.  Sorry for the delay OST stealth posted while I was recovering from the weekend.

So until next time................

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

Let There Be Light: IA 11

Just a quickie before I head to work.  Bell of Lost Souls had this up earlier.  All I have to say is the Solitaire is back kids.  2nd edition Eldar lovers rejoice.  It also looks as if IA 12 will be dedicated to the Dark Kin.  So even if we are not getting a new codex, for the Craftworlders, we have some very tasty IA stuff to keep the Mon'Keigh on their crinkled toes.  So enjoy.

IA11

Few months off yet, still finalising the fluff at the beginning. Focuses on Eldar, with some guard and a tiny smidge of Wolves. All eldar models ever made have rules in it, so no need to carry multiple books.

Also the big one...not all models in the books will have models. I asked if there were rules for any models we hadn't seen yet ( a sneaky way of asking if there were more kits for us to see yet). The reply was "Yes, a few more. Also some will have rules that were aren't planning on producing" The Phoenix lord of the spectres was then gestured to. So maybe not getting a model yet?

Artwork is amazing. The pictures of the eldar squadrons stalking through the tundra, with the nights sky are simply astonishing

Shadow spectres get Phoenix Lord, didn't read the stats

Corsairs get Allied DE with craftworlds, and a few new unique units and HQ choices

Solitaire is one of those new HQ. Doesn't make quins troops, is a 0-1 no matter how big the army, not an IC and can carry a vortex grenade in Apoc for 75pts

Apoc data sheets, including one which is a 550pt Avatar, has 2D6 wounds, a 2+ armour save and his wailing doom is upgraded to a Strength D 10" template. However hes still a monstrous creature, not a gargant. He's important in the story as its the avatars last stand so he goes out in a literal blaze of glory. So at the end of the game he takes D6 wounds with no saves of any kind allowed

Phantom Titans rules are above

The Wraithseer is a HQ wraithlord, his physic powers include one which force an enemy unit to take a moral check at -1 or fall back immediatly. Another gives one wraithlord or wraithguard near him fleet (!). And the other, if a friendly wriath unit within 6" dies roll a D6. On a 6 its still alive, with one wound left. It also has a 4+ invulnerable

IA12

Dark Eldar

IA11 full Corsair army list think CA Eldar with access to DE vehicles. Several craftworlds involved Wraithseer is 175pts IIRC. BRAN Redmaw's company for the SW no SW models on show I've seen. Some great SW artwork in there. Scenarios for all the major battles in the campaign as we'll as Apocalypse formations including a very hacked off Avatar in one .

Models more pre heresy stuff. Jump packs. Pistol/CCW arms more heavy weapons. Eldar special weapons team the Wraithseer and Phantom we've seen but both are beautiful models. Astral Claw and Salamander power armour resin pads. Haywire cannon for DE Raider and a twin hull DE Raider
concept.




Here we seem a glimpse of the Phantom rules courtesy of Drlove42 on BOLS


Phantom Titan

WS 3, BS 4, 12/12/11 Init 2, Attacks 3

8 Structure Points

Don't expect it on sale till Gamesday (which is September here in Blighty).
Comes in at a hefty 2300 points. Features the Cobra cannon, the pulsar (which is 3 shots), the starcannon (3 shots instead of 2), which can be swapped for a pulse laser for free. Also has missile battery (S8 AP3 4 shots) and a AA mounted missile battery (S5 AP5 AA Mount). Usual 4+ invuln if it moved, but can chose to turn driver stunned into gunner stunned, so should only stop moving if it gets immobilised. Has the usual rules for fleeting titans as well, and weapons have a 12" minimum range. Only current other weapon is the sword seen previously. Will hasn't finished making it yet, but the sword comes with a 2nd twin linked starcannon built in. He also hasn't ruled out expanding the line of guns

The lady with the rule book (who i'm sure is an important person, i just don't know her name) said the reaction today towards the rules was mixed, so might be changing. (Personally I'm in the mind they are a little too expensive. 2000 points seems a better point...that fleeting instead of shooting rule is overated IMO)

As for magnetising and weapon swapping, the "torso" component comes with the body, the arm, the elbox joint and the hand. The "Gun" comes attatched to the forearm. So either can be magnetised at both ends, or drill through the arm and have a massive pin/rod from elbow to hand.







Looks as if the Warlock Titan is going to be in the pipe as well

I am off to work

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




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