Its all about the list

Here we are again. Today we will be discussing the winning list at the 'Ard Boyz round one at Pandemonium in Garden City Michigan. Despite my lackluster performance the winning player was an Eldar player by the name of Greg Sparks. Those of you who have been around at Adepticon the past few years may have met him. Having played Eldar through 3 editions of 40K I find the army list changing a lot especially since I skipped the horror that was 4^th edition. I find Greg's list very interesting as its a list that I would not have thought to run. It uses many odd elements that seem to work with the strategy that brought it a first place finish. 2 point shy of the maximum of 72 battle points possible I might add. So here is the list

HQ: Eldrad Ulthran

HQ: Maugen Ra

Troops: 10x Wraithguard with spiritseer with Conceal

Troops: 10x Wraithguard with spiritseer with Conceal

Troops: 8x Dire Avengers

Troops: 10x Dire Avengers with Exarch armed with power weapon and Shimmer Shield

Troops: 3x Guardian jetbikes with one shuriken cannon. Has warlock with Destructor

Hvy Sup: Wraithlord with 2 flamers scatter laser and shuriken cannon

Hvy Sup: Wraithlord with 2 flamers scatter laser and shuriken cannon

Hvy Sup: 3x War Walker all armed with duel scatter laser

Fast Att: !0x warp spiders with Exarch armed with 2 spinners and power blades. Has Withdraw

Elite: 9x Harlequins with 1x fusion pistol and a shadow seer.

All this comes to 2500 Exactly. You will notice a heavy amount of troops. This is very important in a tournament list. Most tournaments will have objective based missions so you need to be able to take and hold them. As far as punch goes this has a bit. The Wraithguard and the Wraithlords are the anchors. With that many Wraithguard your opponent will be nervous and theoretically you should be able to really cause some hurt up close. There is a lack of transports as you will notice. Although this makes the army foot slog across the board it frees up a lot of points for units. This is a must with so many Wraithguard. With the Warp spiders deep striking and causing a nice distraction in the back field you can advance a little more easily. I have not tried the list yet but it obviously works given the right strategy. Once I get a game or two in with it I can give better appraisals. I only wish I could have watched it in action but alas I was playing as well.

Still no Seer council in the mail. I hope it comes within the next week. Until then I am going to test this list and begin a series of blog on the Aspects of Khaine. So for the next few weeks it will be all about Aspect Warriors.

So until then................

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

Manipulating the Strings of Fate

Ard Boyz is over and the dust has settled.  The Eldar were victorious...........Just not mine.  Four of us went and two of us placed in the top three.  Third place went to local Evolution games Warboss Luke Slocum and Dark Future Games ( see their blog at Darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com) own Lord Solar Steve led his Imperial Guard to a second place win.  Myself and Samsquanch Monster, with his space wolves, did not do as well.  In fact he had to play Warboss  Luke's war band and I had to face the guns of Lord Solar Steve.  The winner, Greg sparks, led his Eldar to the overall win.
My first Game was against a codex marine force that consisted of Pedro Cantor, 2x 10 man stern guard squads, 4x tactical squads, a vindicator, a land raider and a land raider redeemer.  He broke his squads into combat teams giving him 10 squads capable of holding objectives.  This was a little daunting to say the least.  The set up was odd as well.  it was table corners that were essentially cut in half.  The table was divided diagonally with a 12 inch no mans land on either side of center.

This game went well until the end.  There were 5 objectives to hold.  I had control of 2 right form the start.  I had my large squad of guardians holding one with my dire avengers holding the other.  I had 3 objectives in or within reach of my deployment.  I took objective 3 on turn two once I deployed the other squad of dire avengers at it.  Eldrad and the seer council turbo boosted into enemy territory on the left flank to swoop in and take out some combat squads and one unit of stern guard.  The wraith guard in their wave serpent went to the right flank supported by the dire Avengers holding objective 2 and one of the wraith lords.  The Avatar went right up the middle.  I managed to kill off two combat teams and the vindicator in the first two turns.  The avatar made short work of two more more combat teams before he was gunned down by the land raider.  Now what struck me as odd is the Space Marine player did not advance or kill anything until turn 3.  Despite this and the fact I was killing marines enmasse he managed to come back.  Eldrad and his warlocks got dragged into combat with the stern guard and one combat squad.  The wraith guard destroyed the redeemer then proceeded into close combat with Pedro.  They killed his team and inflicted a wound but Pedro came out o top.  My squad of dire avengers was wiped out and a late game squad of scouts contested my other objective leaving me in control of one. SO I lost with a marginal defeat.
Game two was much the same I started out strong and then things went bad.  Lord Solar Steve brought his guns to bear and blasted me into submission.  A major defeat.  This is only the second time I have faced Imperial guard.  I knew i was going to take lots of fire so I used the terrain to as much advantage as I could.  With Creed and Kell on the table though and the orders flying out I could not hold out.  Lord Solar likes his Heavy weapons teams and i took them out as fast as I could.  Unfortunately he had a good number and some storm troopers to back them up.  He admitted he was worried when I got first turn and I took out a leman russ and the main weapon of the hellhound.  I was starting to see the flaw in my army list.  I lacked bright lances.  I was facing lots of armor. I had a twin linked bright lance on one wave serpent and a bright lance on one wraith lord.  I lacked enough fire power to bring down armor at range.  I had no fire dragons as they tend to become flying targets for fire when they are en route to a tank squadron.  My warlocks could take out vehicles, they did in fact, but it was an inefficient use of them.

Game three taught me a very valuable lesson.  Close combat with Space Wolves is not a good idea when the game is for kill points.  In a pitched battle with lost of terrain in a city scape I had some advantage.  I could move my army around quicker thanks to the wave serpents.  The only issue was the 2 squads of long fangs that seemed immune to death no matter how much fire I poured into them.  I have to say it was a good call on Neils part to put a wolf guard terminator into the long fang squads.  They took a lot of hits that would have otherwise killed a heavy weapon.  I was massacred by the Space Wolves.  Logan Grimnar was a beast and the long fang fire really took its toll.  So i was at the back of the pack but I did not come in last place so that is something.  I had fun and the competition was fierce.  Congrats to Slocum and Lord Solar Steve for their victories. 
I do have a treat for later this week.  I have the winning Army list and my analysis will be the topic for my next post.  I only wish i could have watched it in action but i was fighting battles of my own at the time.

I hope to also get my seer council conversion kits this week.  I have the jet bikes prepped and ready to receive their riders.
So next post we will have some more discussion and analysis of the first round of Ard Boyz as well as the winning Eldar

until then...................................



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

Into the Breach

The Ard Boyz Tournament is upon us.  I have settled on an army list after a decent game VS some Nercrons last night and a sound pummeling at the hands of the Dark Angels.  So the Offical list is as follows.

1.  Eldrad Ulthran with 9 warlocks.  Two with destructor, one with embolden and spirit seer, one with enhance.  The are in a wave serpent armed with scatter lasers.  It has vectored engines and spirit stones
2.  The Avatar of Khaine.
3.  2x 10 Dire Avengers with Exarchs.  Both with blade storm.  One unit has a wave serpent with Missile launchers and spirit stones.
4.  1 unit of 20 Guardians with a shuriken cannon platform and a Warlock with conceal.
5.  2x 10 Striking Scorpions with Exarchs.  Both have stalker and Shadowstrike.  One is armed with a biting blade the other with a scorpions claw.
6.  1 unit of 5 wraithguard with a Warlock.  They are mounted in a wave serpent armed with bright lances and a shuriken cannon.  the warlock has conceal.
7.  2x Wraithlords one armed with a bright lance the other with a star cannon.  Both have wraith swords.

The Wraith guard were added instead of a 2nd Guardian unit that was originally in the list.  I needed some more heavy hitters that will distract my opponent.  SO the Wraithvguard were added.  This was the list I finally settled on as it did rather well.  After playing 7 2500 point games this week I am a little tuckered out.

The Unit including Eldrad has been the lynch pin in the army from day one.  Having all the psychic powers of which  he is capable of using 3 per turn and combine that with the close combat ability of having 9 warlocks and you have a very heavy hitting unit. 
The list has changed quite a bit.  After having Fire prisms that were constantly unable to fire due to lots of fire comming their way I dropped them in favor of Wraithlords.  Despite a lack of an Invulnerably save having toughness 8 and a +3 armor save is nice with 3 wounds.  It rules out close combat wounds from all but the strongest troops. 
I also dropped the pathfinders as my troop choices.  They are great at taking out big targets.  they can hold objectives great, as long as they are in cover.  They loose their value when you must move them.  If they are out in the open they are as good as dead.  Moving to take an objective and not being able to fire is also a waste.
So the only vehicles in the current list are heavily armed Wave Serpents.  Despite being 90 points, plus weapons and upgrades, they are one of the best transports in the game.  They can fight like a tank and can get units into the fight fast.  If only they could have holo feilds.

So now we go into the breach and hopefully to some wins.  Sunday I will post the results.

until then........

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

Farseers and Choppers

Well sadly I did not get a game in Wednesday. There were not takers for the Noise marine army that i was intending on using in the upcoming Ard Boyz torunament here in good old Lansing. 2500 points of chaos goodness.

I know I know, why was I going to use a noise marine army when I have been playing Eldar basically since the fall, otherwise known as the early 90's. I was not happy with the army lists i was making even with 2500 points to work with. Since I did not get a Game in Wednesday I had time to think and confer with other Eldar players.

I came up with a list that makes me happy.


HQ: Eldrad Ulthran with 10 warlocks in a wave serpent armed with scatter lasers, vectored engines and spirit stones.

HQ: The Avatar of Khaine ( who has been very good to me the last 3 games)

Troops: 2x Squads of 10 Dire Avengers with Exarchs. Both have blade storm.
Troops: 1x Squad of Guardians with a warlock. Warlock has conceal. Weapon platform is a shuriken cannon

Elites: 2x Squads of Fire Dragons with Exarchs. Exarchs have fire pikes and Tank Hunter.
both squads are in wave serpents with spirit stones and vectored engines. One is armed with bright lances the other with shuriken cannons.

Heavy Support: 2x Wraithlords with wraithswords one armed with a star cannon and the other a bright lance.
Heavy Support: Fire Prism with spirit stones, holo fields and vectored engines.

Now this list packs a lot of punch. Eldrad and his rather large council will be a major threat in close combat but mostly he will wreak havoc with his ability to use 3 psychic powers a turn and hamper the abilities of any psychers on the board. Most of the Warlocks have the destruction power fro some close in fun should anybody decide to get close. One has enhance to beef up the close combat ability and the other has embolden to make sure Eldrad does not fail any psychic tests.

Paring the Avatar with the Guardians, and any unit for that matter, will make it an excellent objective holder. Since any unit is fearless within 12" of the Avatar they will take a pounding and not run. The Avatar that close also means defense against bigger target that may try to contest the objective. 20 Guardians though makes for a deep wall that will not let a unit get within 3 inches of an objective to contest it though.
The unit also makes a good spear head with the Avatar at the front leading the way. 40 str 4 shots followed by 40 attacks in an assault , str 3 or not, brings weight of numbers and will force lots of saves.

The Fire Dragons and Wraithlords can deal with any armor. Keeping the Wraithlords in range of the Spirit seer in the guardian unit will make them excellent support for a Avatar lead charge. This could potentially break the back of an army, especially one that stays in one spot. Divide and conquer.


Dire Avengers are good all around troops. they pack a punch, are decent on close combat and can hold objectives. 18" range on their shuriken catapults makes it so they can move and keep the fire on. Rapid fire units are forced to move to bring mass fire and this limits the number of shots as well as the ability to assault.

Fire Prisms are a great tank buster and with the prism cannon being a blast weapon it can kill infantry rather well to. holo fields are a must. The survivability of the Fire Prism depends on it.


now all that left to be done is test the list and make some tweaks.

Now that I found my camera and realized pictures of my army and such will be coming this weekend.


I also just ordered the Seer Council Jetbike conversion kits from Chapter House Studios. Once they arrive and I get some Jetbikes I will post the pictures and the review.


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


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