Here Be Dragons

I’ve been playing a little bit today. Although I like my jetbike conversion, I had already decided on something a little different for my Shinning Spears (sport bike and laser lances seem a recipe for disaster in my humble opinion).

OK, in fairness, quite a few people have used the Dark Elf Cold One Knights as the basis for Exodite Dragon Riders (cough, Shinning Spears), so after much trawling through the interweb, I’ve tried to combine all the best bits from those conversions and add my own take on the idea.

There are a couple of concessions to practicalities, for example keeping the cold one knight legs and trying to limit the conversion to two or three kits, but I’m pleased with the result so far.

The next challenge (possibly tonight) will be to attack certain areas on the model with green stuff. In particular, the chainmail bits are going to be smoothed out and the spiky bit attached to the knee pad will be craved out.

Planning Pixies, part II

Well, I’ve being musing and playing around with the eldar Codex and this is my first stab at a standard 1500 point eldar army list.

The choice of units here represent three things; firstly the models I have, secondly some of the conversion ideas I’ve have and want to include, and finally a particular theme I will be following for the army (which will be obvious once a few units are built).

Anyway, without further ado…

	Autarch (jetbike, laser lance, fusion gun, mandiblasters) Farseer (doom, runes of warding, singing spear)	140 98
	10 Striking Scorpions, Wave Serpent (twin-linked shuriken cannons)	260
	4 Guardian Jetbikes, Warlock (destructor) 4 Guardian Jetbikes, Warlock (destructor)	143 143
	9 Dire Avengers, Exarch (dire sword & shuriken pistol, defend), Wave Serpent (twin-linked shuriken cannons)	257
	3 Shinning Spears, Exarch (withdraw)	177
	3 War Walkers (eldar missile launchers, shuriken cannons) Fire Prism	165 115
		1498

The idea is for the Autarch, Shinning Spears, and Scorpions to be counter assault units, whilst the jetbikes and Avengers perform a short range fire support role.

There’s a lot of anti-infantry in here at the expense of ranged anti-armour capability. This could be an issue, especially against Land Raiders and Monliths which have no weak points. On the other, in my experience hitting tanks with big pointy sticks is more effective than shooting them.

Enforced Hobby Break

I’m in Copenhagen this week for work, and if you think GW's toys are expensive at home, you should see the prices in DKK. Still, there's a few good game shops here (including Faraos Cigarer) and lots of stuff we do not normally see in the United Kingdom.

Whilst here, I’ve picked up a small Feldherr figure case to carry my latest painting project (and paints). It fits very nicely into the bottom of my laptop bag although I’m not sure how well this will work because I fly a lot. However I’m going to give it a try next week!

The Mini case itself is a lovely place of kit and very nicely put together with a address tag slot on the side. Mine came with two 16 figure 25mm mini trays and is the limited edition Deluxe version (pictured above).

Unfortunately it is the wrong shape to fit in my GW Apocalypse bag (I have a KR Aquilla which fits perfectly into one of the pockets). However the intent is to use it in a rucksack or one of the messenger bags I have. In either case, it leaves plenty of room for lunch or a small box with a tank inside.

If you are after something a little bigger, Feldherr do a four tray version called the Mini Plus. This will hold up to 64 infantry models and has a handle of the side. Again, good to throw into a rucksack, however the shape feels a bit weird.  Up from this is the Medium case which is their answer to the GW hard case. This looks really nice, has a pocket for rulebooks on the front and a shoulder strap.

I’m also going to start re-reading "A Thousand Sons" on the way home tomorrow. Since starting this job (which involves a bit of travelling), I’ve found a good book invaluable to pass the time on aeroplanes. And unlike the MP3 player, they don’t have to be switched off during take off and landing.

Hopefully this weekend I can get to some of the hobby stuff!

Planning Pixies

I’m sitting in a hotel and a bit bored, so I’ve started to think about what units I’m going to have in my new eldar army. However to set boundaries, thought I would start by deciding the units I will not include…

Eldrad Ulthran, may be the ultimate farseer and probably one of the most points effective models in the game, but I’m afraid he can not be everywhere at once (almost every eldar army seems to have him at the moment), so he is first on the list. To save the rest of the world from a rant, I shall stop talking about him now.

Prince Yriel, although not quite as busy as Eldrad, I still think Prince Yriel has too much pressing business to be in this army. And don’t get me started on Eldrad/Yriel combos…

Storm Guardians, equipped with flamers, are awesome and the backbone of my existing eldar army. As a result, they will not be appearing in the new army. To my mind there is nothing a normal Guardian can do better than a Dire Avenger, so do not expect to see any of those either.

Howling Banshees and Swooping Hawks, both of these aspects warriors have been central to my old eldar for a long time, however out with the old, so they will make way for something different.

Avatar, there is only one Avatar on Rath-Torhan, and he is part of the old army. Besides the idea of a daemon accompanying my pixies into battle never did quite sit right…

And finally, Dark Reapers, love the idea, models are ok, but they can not move and shoot. This really does not work with my playing style so they will not be included. For the same reasons Support Weapon Platforms will also not be making an appearance. Rangers would be tarred with the same brush if they could not outflank. But they can, so that’s ok.

This thankfully leaves quite a large range of units to choose from, although certain units (wraith guard and vypers spring to mind) are on the grey, waiting for new models list. This said, I have also already decided that certain units will definitely be in, including the new Fire Prism because I rather like the model.

After my Blood Angels managed to out manoeuvre both eldar and tau armies at the weekend, expect the final list to be very mobile and fast.

A Small Matter of Honour

After getting home late Thursday, I spent Friday doing the last finishing touches to the Order of Sanguinius. After putting on a coat of matt varnish on the last three models, it was snow time! With a mixture of artificial snow and PVC glue to hand, about twenty models were ‘snowed’. To speed up the drying time (I wanted everything packed and ready to go Saturday morning), all the models got put in front of a fan heat for a bit.

Anyway today was the day for our club’s annual Warhammer 40000 tournament, A Small Matter of Honour. To recap, my army list is here. So how did it go?

Well the first game (annihilation mission) against Marc’s eldar was really close until the final turn when Marc took advantage of a bold move on my part, claiming two kill points from my razorback and squad onboard. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish off any of Marc’s transports in return. Just for the record, Eldrad seems to the busiest pixie in the galaxy because he seems to be in every eldar army I see these days!

The second game was against Simon’s Tyranids (hundreds of them!) playing Seize Ground. Suffice to say I should have deployed on the board to thin out his numbers a little bit. Combined with my general indecisiveness we run out of time on turn four. Unfortunately Simon (who in fairness had loads of scoring units) had two of the four objectives and easily bagged the win.

After lunch was my third game, this time using the full 1750 point army rather than just 1250. Now on table 17 I was playing Neil’s Tau. For game we were playing Capture and Control with a Pitch Battle deployment. As per normal I outflanked what I could and kept the rest in reserve.

Lucky for me, Neil Kroot’s also outflanked and arrived first, far too close to my table edge. This preceded a rush up that side of the table, trying to survive the three railguns determined to blow my vehicles apart. Once my Chaplain and Honour Guard got onto Neil’s objective and defending fire warriors, the game once decided and it was not pretty.

For my final game I faced Chris’s Dark Angels, playing an annihilation mission. Chris deployed quite defensively along one flank but moved his Chaplain and assault unit too far forward to engage my assault bikes. When my forces arrived the following turn that unit was swamped.

Having learned the lesions from earlier in the day I was far more aggressive in this game in the turn three virtually won the game on kill points. To Chris’ credit, he hung in to turn seven when he was finally wiped out.

At the end of the day I managed two big wins, and two loses, so I’m pretty sure I failed to finish in the bottom half of the results table (my aim to prove I’m not super competitive all the time).

However much to my huge delight, my Blood Angels won Best Army! Considering the competition, including Greg Bachelor's Space Wolves (pictured above), I’m really chuffed.

A big thank you should the guys from muppets for organising a fantastic event, and congratulations should go to Greg Bachelor, Ian Courtney (Space Wolves) and Rob Uter (Tau) for claiming the top three places.

UPDATE: The results are now up on the Sad Muppets' website here. I managed to finish 12th in the end and had the second highest VP total.

Alternative 40K Scenarios

I had a bit of a brain wave last night (these things happen when I’m bored in a hotel room), and thought it could be interesting to tweak the standard Warhammer 40000 scenarios using new deployment options and objectives.

Here are the two variants I’ve come up with. They are designed to be used with the scenario designer in the main rulebook (page 86) but will (intentionally) favour different types of army.

First up is a new mission (page 90 in the main rulebook)…

King of the Hill Both forces are converging on a vital objective. Who ever can take and hold these objective will rule the day. Victory Conditions Before deciding deployment zones, an objective is placed at the centre of the table (a hill or building is perfect). After this objective is positioned, deployment of the forces begins, as described in the type of deployment being used. At the end of the game you control the objective if there is at least one of your scoring units, and no enemy scoring units within 3” of it. As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game where this distance will be measured from.

Second is a new deployment type (page 92 in the main rulebook)…

Poles Apart Both armies are positioned at extreme range. As they move on the objectives, a confrontation is inevitable. The table is divided into four corners. The players roll-off and the winner chooses to go first or second. The player them chooses one of the short table edges to be his own table edge. He then deploys his force within 24” of one of the corners on his side of the table. His opponent then deploys within 24” of the diagonally opposite corner. Deploy any infiltrators and make any scout moves. Start the game! Once deployment has finished, the player that chose his deployment zone first starts game Turn 1 with his first player turn.

Each of these should work with the existing missions and deployments. I hope this will inspire players to mix things up a little. Any feedback gratefully received.

Medic!!!

Next weekend is the highlight of my gaming year. On the 8th May is the Sad Muppet Society hold their annual Warhammer 40000 tournament, A Small Matter of Honour. Anyone who has been reading this blog will probably already be familiar with my Blood Angel’s successor chapter, the Order of Sanguinius, and my long journey to get them ready for this tournament (too much work, not enough painting time!).

However the good news is that I’m almost finished! So without further ado here are the last three models…

   

The last few details on these guys will be finished Friday night once I’m back from Denmark (leaving stupidly early tomorrow and still haven’t packed).

I’m also really happy to get a medic into this list because I’m always liked the concept behind them since they first appeared in White Dwarf 102.

Once these are finished, I can start back on the eldar!

I’m I Really That Much of a Geek?

Well in short, yes. I have a talent (or habit) of tinkering with technology just a bit too much. Thankfully for the sanity of my better half, and the well being for my bank account, this curiously is not all consuming. This said over the past weeks I’ve started using a few interesting pieces of software…