Lets Kill some MOn'keigh: Duke Sliscus

Duke Sliscus is a mad man. He is a Pirate who is about as unpredictable as they come. He left the dark city because he was tired of the petty and lethal politicking. He ply’s the stars raiding and slaughtering with is Pirate band the Sky Serpents and has done so for thousands of years. He is a hero to many Dark Eldar and a thorn in the side of others, especially the 3 Archons he stole his ships from.

I really like the Duke. I am basing my Dark Eldar force on him and his Sky Serpents. The two things that really endeared The Duke to me were two of his special rules. He allows all Venoms, Raiders and Ravagers to Deep strike as he prefers orbital insertion. Second he also rolls two dice for combat drugs and chooses the highest. Add in the fact he can nominate on warrior or Trueborn unit and allow their splinter weapons to wound on a 3+ and his twin venomed blades which wound on a 2+ ignore armor on a wound roll of 5 or 6 you have a very nice character. He is a bargain at 150 points. The Duke is armed with a blast pistol, his venom blades, carries plasma grenades, combat drugs, a shadow field and ghost plate armor.

He also has a nice stat line that will ensure he strikes first and hard. The Duke must start the game joined to a Kabalite warrior squad or Kabalite Trueborn squad. This is really not an issue as he is not an Archon and cannot take a retinue. This means you want him in a unit so he is not by himself and an easy Target.

I have centered my Dark Eldar strategy on the Duke. My current army lists have been using him and 3 haemonculi along with 3 Kabalite Warrior units on Raiders as the core. I have been toying with the other units. The latest version saw action against Vogrin this past Saturday and did not do so well, mostly because of dumb luck. As previously stated this codex is unforgiving and mistakes are disastrous.

I am using the Dukes theme of mobility and vertical insertion, I know sounds bad, to hone the list. I am using Kabalite Trueborns on Venoms as deep striking anti tank units. I am also using Voidraven bombers to wreck utter havoc with exposed infantry and heavy armor. By using the Duke you do not have to upgrade vehicles with retrofire jets, thus saving points, and you essentially get a Dark Eldar drop pod army. You can hit hard and fast. In theory is should work great. This is proving to be a challenge though to make it work. The main thing we discovered is that there is no exceptions for fast vehicles when it comes to occupants shooting out of them when they move at cruising speed. Occupants cannot fire when the vehicle moves at cruising speed. When you deep strike you count as moving at cruising speed . This snagged my plans for the Kabalite Trueborns and the warrior units as I had splinter rack installed on the raiders and the Trueborns had 4 blasters in their small 5 man squads mounted on venom’s. I was forced to rethink the strategy after loosing a lot of troops because I had to dismount them to fire on enemy tanks. I like to blame this on the Dukes tendency to sacrifice all his troops just to get one kill. The guy is kind of crazy after all.

I like the Duke and his crazy ways. The Sky Serpents are defiantly going to be the theme for my army as I paint and collect the new models.

I will post more as I develop the list and use the Duke more. I will have my battle report with Vogrin up later this week. I will also have the last part of the Phoenix Court of Khaine. I will also have a battle report up about my Craftworlders. They fought a Green Tide ork list Saturday night and to my surprise the only survivor was a single flash git. I will post the list.

Until then.....

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

New Forgeworld Sexiness: The hornet

Looks like Forge world is begging me to not buy Dark Eldar.  They have just released a new light tank called the hornet.  It is a fast attack choice and fielded in squadrons of 1-3 tanks.  They can be armed with 2 weapons form the usual list, but the list also includes the pulse laser.  Did I mention they have scout? 
I see some very nasty things happening with a squadron of these little guys.  Granted thay are 55 points base plus weapons and vehicle upgrade so they are quite expensive.  They pack some punch though.  The weapons are not twin linked and they only have a ballistic skill of 3.  This means you will hit half the time but in a squadron armed with pulse lasers that can do some real damage. 12 strength 8 AP 2 shots would be pretty nice on a squad of marines or terminators.  Granted that squadron would be about 400 point give or take  They seem to be a Craftworld version of a Ravager but without the  low cost and nifty tricks.  I will probably break down and buy 3 though just to see how they fit into the mix.
Well I did not get a battle in with Vogrin yet, but Saturday I will be trying my new 1850 swooping hawk Ulthwe list.  Should be interesting.  I will also be finishing up the Phoenix Court of Khaine series with the big man himself.  The Avatar.

Until then.....

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

The Phoenix Court of Khaine pt 6: Baharroth The Cry of The Wind

Swooping Hawks are quite reviled for some reason. I blame the beardy gits on the forums for this. Baharroth is the Phoenix Lord of this much lamented aspect. I personally like Swooping Hawks quite a bit. When used properly they can wreck a lot of havoc with vehicles and light infantry. Baharroth actually fixes one big issue I have had when using swooping hawks. They are prone to assaults when they deep strike. Baharoth helps them with this issue in several ways. Firstly he makes the unit fearless so they will not run away even when massed fire is poured into them. Second besides the usual Exarch powers he also has Hit and Run. This is very Important. This allows you to disengage from an assault so you can hit your primary targets, Artillery and vehicles. Third he is armed with a power weapon and actually has a decent strength, initiative and weapon skill to use it. This helps discourage assaults by the common rabble of your opponents army. Throw a fortune on the unit and you will be able to escape from an assault while inflicting some kills and possibly routing a unit.

Baharroth is also not quite as expensive as the other Phoenix Lords. He clocks in at 200 points. A nice round number. This does take up and HQ slot so the great HQ debate continues. Most Eldar players will opt for double Seer. If you are going the no Seer route though you can have quite a power unit taking an Autarch and Baharroth in a unit of swooping hawks. An Aspect heavy force has rather specialized Fast Attack choices. You can only make one of them fearless though. Only two of them can deep strike as well. Although warp spiders are nice I prefer to go with swooping hawks as they are more flexible and reliable in their movement.

So I view Baharroth as a decent choice for an aspect heavy force or just in general as long as you are running Swooping Hawks. Again I will reiterate that I think the Phoenix lords are a tad overpriced and must have a specific purpose in a list. Otherwise you are wasting points and a valuable HQ spot.

So my two cents about the Phoenix Lords. For the last Part of our series I will cover the man himself. The center of the Phoenix Court. Khaine Himself. SO the last Installment will cover one of the only other HQ choices I ever use if not running double seer. The Avatar of Khaine. Also I am going to introduce you to one of my favorite Dark Eldar Characters. Duke Sliscus the Serpent. Hopefully I should have a Battle report with Vogrin later in the week as well.

SO until then.......

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

The Phoenix Court Of Khaine pt 5: Karandras

Of all the Phoenix Lords there is one that will live in infamy. Arhra was the father of scorpions. He betrayed the Asurya and destroyed the original temple shrine where Asurman First tempered the Eldar's passions into the path of the warrior. Arhras' most gifted student took his place as the Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions. He tempered the murderous nature of Arhra with the patience and cunning of a hunter. He now fights his mentor when he shows himself, although he goes by the name Drazhar now.

Karandras is a hunter. With Mandiblaster and chain sword he cuts down his prey with precision. He also carries the deadly Scorpions Claw which cuts though vehicles and power armor with ease.

Besides the stat line and normal Phoenix Lord rules why is Karandras my favorite? He is a strait up marine killer. He is strength 8 when he uses the Scorpions Claw. He also has 7 attacks on the charge thanks to his Mandiblaster providing +2 attacks instead of the normal 1. He also does not suffer from the one thing I don't like about Striking Scorpions. He is Fleet. Granted if he is in a squad, which he should be, he losses this ability. He does however boost up the kill power of the squad by a lot. As I often do I run an Exarch in the squad despite having the Phoenix lord. In this case the Exarch will not have any powers as Karandras already has them all. So you can infiltrate or outflank and have move through cover. In addition you get stealth. This comes in handy especially when you infiltrate and are faced with high strength weapons hitting the squad. You should always start your scorpions in cover when they infiltrate anyways. The Exarch gives you a second power claw. Granted he only hits at strength 6 but you still wound toughness 4 stuff on 2's. This means you have 9 Scorpions that deal 36 attacks to thin out the ranks of the enemy squad. Basically the only things going before them would be character, Dark Eldar wychs and Genestealers. So you get 11 powered attacks to concentrate on a smaller number of models. All of these will usually be hitting on 3's. Not to shabby.

I almost always infiltrate my Striking Scorpions these days. Outflanking has not been kind and unless you are setup in table corners you get no real advantage. Karandras gives you options and a lot of punch in a unit of scorpions. He gives you the stealth and all the Exarch powers so there is no real reason to not infiltrate

Is he a deal at 215 points? Not really, but that has always been my main complaint about the Phoenix Lords. It is also y complaint on my second favorite Dark Eldar character.

So how does he stack up to Drazhar? Well Drazhar is 230 points to already more expensive. He has the same stat line and he is also an eternal warrior. Drazhar can possibly have more attacks it depends on if he is going 2 handed or double power weapons. He does strike first though and he gains the preferred enemy against IC's as well as gaining more attacks on rolls of 6.

Vogrin and I actually did the math and it comes out almost dead even and it is completely up to the dice as to how it turns out. If Drazhar fails to kill Karandras in the first go Karandras could kill Drazhar. Second round Karandras would die though unless the dice are completely against you.

Well we have one more Phoenix Lord to go and in my opinion one of the better ones. Baharoth will be our last installment of the Phoenix Court of Khaine series.

Also I have some opinions on White Dwarf I want to share. This is mostly because of the Battle report in the latest issue. Dark Eldar versus a non mechanized Imperial Guard army. Think about it for a second. The only question is.....really?

So that and some battle reports later in the week. One will be versus Vogrin on Wednesday. We will be trying out our Adepticon lists on each other and see if the Dark Eldar are as good against a Guard army with some armor. So far not so much.

Until then........

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

Happy Halloween Mon-keigh!

I would like to wish everybody a happy Halloween.  Old SeerK is taking it easy this weekend as we had a nice party last night and had a little too much.  I also remembered I had to run a Rogue Trader game tonight.  So I will return before Wednesday with a Battle report versus the Tau with the new Dark Eldar codex.  Also We will continue the Phoenix Court of Khaine series with Karandras. 
I am all registered for Adepticon as well.  I have to register this coming week for my events.  I will be playing in the GT though.  I will be representing the Craftworlds in the GT and The Dark kin in the Team tournament.  I will be teaming up with Old School Terminator, CSVinton and The Judge for said team tourney.  We have to come up with a team name though.  Any suggestions?  Well off I go my Rogue Trader group has gotten into a tangle with a Tau Fleet.  We will see if they survive.

Until then......


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

The Research Continues: Battle Vs Imperial Guard With The New DE

Well I managed to get a game in this past Saturday with Lord Solar Steve of Dark Future Games. I wanted to test my prototype 1850 Dark Eldar list against Imperial Guard and of course continue to learn the nuances of the new codex. The list actually fared better than I thought it would against the massed guns of the Guard. Considering Lord Solar brought Hydra's and with the exception of the ratlings a completely mechanized force very heavy on the Leman Russ's. Knight Commander Pask on a vanquisher , I think it was anyways, was not a picnic.

As I have never been a fan of Wyches I opted to go for a Kabalite warrior force. The list was Headed by my new favorite character in the codex. Duke Sliscus. I also included some Haemonculi. Three Raider riding warrior squads each lead by one of the haemonculi, one group also included the Duke, were my troops choices. I also took 3 units of Kabalite Trueborns riding Venoms. Three Ravagers rounded out the list.

The basic theme and method to my madness with this list is to kill armor. Kill it hard and then gun down any passengers. In theory it has lots of anti tank power while the warrior squads have the anti infantry power. All the raiders and the Ravagers have their dark lances to take out any pesky tanks. The Raiders were equipped with Splinter Racks, which make all splinter rifles, cannons and pistols twin linked for anybody shooting from the raider. Very nice for killing troops. The real punch though comes from the Kabalite Trueborns. These guys can take a lot of special and heavy weapons. I took three 5 man squads. I also gave 4 of the 5 blasters. Then I mounted them on Venom armed with 2 splinter cannons. The codex states that vehicle mounted splinter cannons fire in the heavy 6 mode. Anybody get where I am going. This allows you to deep strike and dismount blast a transport and then hose the occupants with 12 poison 4 shots. Kind of brutal, in theory anyways. In this case not so much. Maybe it was my lack luster rolling or the fact Lord solar was making smoke saves like a boss.

Basically Lord Solar was all packed into one corner. It was a dawn of war deployment so I had the advantage despite going second. My night vision never came into play as Lord Solar was wise and kept everything off the board. It was an objective based game as well. We had 4 objectives.

I knew it was going to be a bloody and rough affair, as most of my games with Lord Solar have been, when it took the combined fire of 2 ravagers and 2 Trueborn squads to pop just one chimera. I started loosing raiders , which were thankfully within splinter rifle range by this point, in turn 2 and 3 as the guns of the Guard lite me up. The Duke and his warriors laid to waste a squad of storm troopers trying to contest the objective they held. This gave his unit 3 pain tokens. He already had one form combat drugs and the haemonculis gave the unit one as well. Sadly the Duke and his unit were relegated to holding objectives since the rest of the army got caught in the meat grinder that was Lord Solar's front line.

I could go into details turn by turn, but I won't. It was a carnal house of slaughter. The only thing living by the end of the game was Lord Solar's tanks and my super HQ unit on their raider. I had racked up 8 kill points and held one objective. Lord Solar had 14 kill points and no objectives. So I won technically. Granted it was at a very high cost.

The real issue with the list was the amount of kill points it contained. I never really thought about it until it was too late. A very derp moment for me. The vehicles are a major source of the KP. They are just so fragile especially versus Imperial tanks. I should have also given all the Trueborn units haywire grenades as they were kind of one trick ponies after the fired their blasters and just stood there.  I could have assualted the tanks at least. I had one warrior unit caught in close combat for 3 turns with a sentinel squadron I really wish they could take haywire grenades.

So I have some adjustments to do. I am going to remove some wargear to fit haywire grenades in where I can and I am replacing one or two of the Kabalite Trueborns with Reavers. I may loose a little bit of tank killing but I think the heat lances will be more effective and I can just run over exposed enemy troops on my way to the armor. I may try and get a game in tonight with the new list.

More on that later though. I am also trying to develop an Eldar list still as I have not quite decided what to run at Adepticon in the GT. I really am starting to think I will not have the codex down in time to really use it effectively in the GT. Next time will be the next Installment of the Phoenix Court of Khaine. I will be covering Karandras my favorite Phoenix lord.

Until then......

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

Blog Highlight: Chaos Kingdoms

Well I sated previously I was going to add an author to my blog. Well rather than write on mine he decided to start his own.  Chaos Kingdoms is my best friend Chris's new blog.  It details quite a bit of different game systems.  He is partial to Battletech and Warhammer Fantasy.  He also details miniatures as he is just an avid collector.  So check out his blog and remember he is a newb so be nice.

I will have my battle report using the new Dark Eldar codex versus Lord Solar Steve of Dark Future Games up Wednesday or Thursday.  I have a weird work week so between homework and blogging I have my hands full.


So until then.....

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