Winter League Divisions and Standing

Biel Tan Division

	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	Battle Points
Jesse Ramey	2	1	1	0	14
Dan Eaton	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Crawley	2	2	0	0	34
Paul Steiner	2	0	2	0	17

Saim Hann Division

	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	Battle Points
Bill Kim	3	3	0	0	54
Loren Bertram	1	0	1	0	4
Ryan Smith	1	0	1	0	5
Eric Gibbs	1	0	1	0	5

* Joe and Nate has withdrawn from the 2013 league for personal reasons.

Iyanden Division

	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	Battle Points
Damian Strong	0	0	0	0	0
Charles Peters	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0

One week left

One week left to get your lists for the winter league.  For a reminder about the details see here.

Winning with eldar

At foodhammer (a great event by the way) that I hope to go to next year, I was lucky enough to “win” the event.  Foodhammer is NOT actually a tournament, more like a bunch of people playing pickup games and earning a few points for each game.  No real rhyme or reason and not designed to determine the best player/best army.  Which made the question I received the end a bit odd.  Someone asked me what I thought of the current state of elder, to which I responded, “They are bad,  the worst codex in the game right now.”   I probably should have put a qualifier in there about sisters (unsure about them) and that with Forgeworld they are still a bottom tier codex but not THE bottom tier.  This was promptly followed up with, so how to do win with them?  I don’t remember what I said, probably something about having some tricks they can do and lots of experience, but the question has bugged me.  So here is more in depth answer to the question.  First a couple of pregame items.

2013 Winter 40k League

Last year I ran a league for the Lansing Chapter of the 40kfightclub.  The league was based off the Great Lakes Warhammer Fantasy League which has been running for many years now.  We had a great time with twelve players (including at least 5 orc armies!).  In fact, it went so well I am comfortable expanding the league to include divisions around the state and outside of the 40kfightclub forum (which I still recommend). 

The rules have remained largely the same (with some adjustments for 6th edition).  Basically everyone creates a fixed list of at least 1500 points.  Once you determine who your opponent is (and see their fixed list) you get to fill in the rest of your army, up to 600 points (2100 points total).  Over the course of two months each player plays five games to determine their division champion.  The division champions (plus wild cards as needed) fight it out to determine the overall champion at the Championships in March.  The Championships is also a regular tournament for league and non-league members. 

I hope you consider joining.  The full rule packet is here.  I hope to have divisions at all the major game stores in Michigan (and probably at least one gaming group).  If you want to form a division and have a logo that you would like me to add to the cover page, please let me know.

Void Dragon Corsairs Falcon Try 2

Two posts in one day, something must be wrong.  I did more work on the Falcon tonight adding scales to the red and trying out brown weapons instead of the grey, not sure which I like better.

Corsairs

As I finish up my Mantis Warriors, it is time to get back to painting my eldar.  I'm thinking about taking them down a slightly different path however.  I've been toying around with corsairs lately so why not, let's paint up a small corsair ally force.  I've got three old falcons that I picked up in a trade a few years ago and a bunch of guardians waiting to be painted (or sold).  So I figured I'd use them as a test case.  I wanted something that would truely stand out and after looking at IA11 my choice was clear Void Dragons.  The other two schemes were either too similar (light blue) or just offensive when combined with my already blue eldar (golden yellow).  Void dragons have a nice black scheme with some red, sometimes scaly areas.  So I broke out the paint and as I waited for ink to dry on the Mantis Warrior rhino painted up a guardian and a falcon.  Clearly they aren't finished, they need icongraphy and I need to figure out how to paint scales onto the red but I really like the basic look. 

Foodhammer

I didn't get to go last year, but those who did had a great time and for a good cause.

Mantis Warrior update

The last couple of months have seen significant progress on the Mantis Warriors as well.  I suspect I will end up running them as codex marines and not take the special Librarian but that is to be determined.  I'm up from 2 marines to about 1250 points.  They all need shoulder-pad decals (plus chipping on the decal) and other symbols still.  I'm going to try the self-printed decals available from Bolter and Chainsword.  After that they will be clear coated and some dust effects added to their feet. 

Eldar Defense Line

The last couple months have not been kind to this blog.  Mostly because I am lazy and didn’t write much up.  I have however been working, first up are my Eldar defense line and quad gun.  The quad gun is just a bunch of Eldar guns mounted on an old support platform with a couple of random bits from various vehicles.  The defense line is something I really like.  It has the gun covers from the war walkers covering an old cutup Mountain Dew bottle and some plasticard support beams.  Ideally I’ll find someone with the Wasp walker upgrades to sell/trade enough gun covers to make all them into the blue shields.  Here are a couple more pictures of it including a WIP.

Choices

So it has been a while since my last post.  I've gotten a few more games of 6th in, including my first tournament which the eldar actually won thanks to 2+ rerollable saves.  I meant to post a recap her but apparently only posted it on the fightclub.  I still think Eldar are weak, especially with just base codex, but they do have some tricks.  The edition of Forgeworld and fortifications however help mitigate this a lot.  The two FW flyers are both pretty solid, gaining a 3+ save thanks to shrouded when evading.  I haven't played with the phoenix yet but BS5 vs. ground targets is probably a fair trade for not being able to shoot all the weapons anymore.

However the purpose of this post is to hopefully figure out a problem I am having.  AFK games is hosting an 1850 tournament on September 1st.  This would be really cool except they aren't allowing any fortifications or forgeworld, so the eldar have 0 anti-aircraft options.  I'm not cool with this as my main goal when building an army is to ensure that I have a tool for every problem.  If the tool is good enough and whether or not I get to use the tool is the point of the game.  Going into a battle knowing I can't deal with something is just not good.  For example in my last game vs. Cvinton he had 4 flyers,  He wisely took out the fire dragons manning the AA gun turn 1 leaving me with just a nightwing (aka not enough) to deal with 4 flyers.  He won the battle for the air but at least he had to fight for it.  If I go to this tournament, flyers would have total freedom which isn't cool.

Fortunately I have another option, Evolution Games is also hosting a tournament on September 1st.  This is a 2000 point affair that does allow fortifications and FW, however it also opens the door to 2 force org charts.  This isn't bad in and of itself, although players that are willing to spam units certainly have an advantage.  A quick 2000 point list I could play would be 18 war walkers, 3 broad sides, defense line with quad gun, defense line with lascannon, 4 units of 5 dire avengers, 1 unit of tau warriors, deep striking tau commander and 2 farseers with improved guide.  (Please note I don't advocate playing this type of list at all).  I'm sure other armies can come up with nastier lists.  I don't know the Evolution Games crowd well enough to know if this type of list is something I have to deal with or not.  My guess is not but who knows.  The other factor causing me to lean towards going to the AFK tournament is that I have an 1850 list that I think could be interesting.

It goes something like this

Barroth

Eldrad

5 harlequins with seer and jester

10 Wraithguard with warlock

2 units of rangers

3 units of bikers

3 war walkers

2 wraithlords

This list plays off one key rule change in 6th.  In order for a unit to leave combat with hit and run, only 1 model needs the rule.  Guess what Barroth has the rule.  So those slow non-fleeting wraithguard can jump out of combat, shoot with their big guns and charge right back in to avoid being shot at again.  In combat they are still fairly bad at hurting this (Barraoth isn't a combat monster) but with majority toughness 6 they still tarpit effectively (at least until they jump out and shoot you down).  If fortification were allowed I would drop a wraithlord for a defense line for at least token anti-air.  The thing that makes me giggle about this list is it is possible for the wraithguard to touch both long board edges in a given turn and be on the opposing board edge turn 1.  Not likely or meaningful in a game but funny.

Game 1 - Done

Game 1 is officially in the books.  Hornblower came over for a game bringing his blood angels.  I played with my eldar.  I tried out a bunch of "new" things.  My list consisted of something along the lines of Eldrad, farseer, avatar, 19 guardians with warlock, 3 bikes with cannon, 3 bikes with warlock, 10 dire avengers with full kit, nightwing interceptor, war walkers, wraithlord, warp spiders with kit, plain old swooping hawks, a unit of rangers and a unit of pathfinders.  I'm not going to do a full battle report as the game was largely decided turn when I shot his zooming storm raven full of death company out of the sky turn 1.

The option of a third HQ is something I really wanted to try out as both two farseer and farseer/avatar builds are interesting.  The one area of the Eldar book that got consistently buffed by 6th are the HQ's.  Farseers, Avatars, phoenix lords are all viable now.  Even the autarch is potentially useful as he makes reserves come in on a 2+.  Taking advantage of the option of taking two force orgs I took two farseers and an avatar.  I still think the elder need to keep their book powers on at least 1 farseer for fortune but a 115 point secondary two power farseer can choose from the book powers for some interesting options.  I think that divination is the stronger of the two choices because of the better default power but telepathy has some great powers to.   A series of mistake for both of us allowed my secondary farseer to live and cast the new guide and the ignore cover on my injured war walkers turn 1 which got two of three hull points off the zooming storm raven.  Unfortunately, even with this great result for the two farseer option, no answer was reached on what to take if you are limited to two HQ's as the avatar was also very good.  Fearless is no longer a bad thing for elder as the "no retreat" wounds are gone.  He did get krak grenade's which wasn't cool but at least they still need 5's to hit with the grenades and 4's to wound with a 3+ save.  We also determined that mind war is a sad now as you would get a look out sir roll if targeting a character.

In terms of troops, I was impressed with the dire avengers, their ability to syphon off wounds from independent characters.  Even though witchblade are really bad vs. things like dreadnoughts, eldrad was able to go toe to toe with a furiso because the hits back would go on dire avenger who still got a shimmer shield save (with reroll).  Frankly anything with a mixed armour save will be better.  Jetbikes with a cannon are now closer to acceptable but they still tend to have only one purpose, win the game, which is what they did getting a secondary objective by being in the enemy dz and holding the relic.  Guardians are still probably best left on the display shelf although fearless with an avatar does make them a viable tarpit, however we have better tarpits.  The warlock giving them a 5+ deny the witch is useful but again we have better.  The rangers didn't do much but they didn't do poorly either.

Random charges, suck!  I don't actually mind this element but my wraith lord failed a 5 inch assault and a 6 inch assault before finally coming in and rescuing the avatar with  a 7 inch assault. 

Reserves on a three plus is great, if you can roll a three plus.  I couldn't so the nightwing didn't come in until the mop up stage, at which point it mopped up a squad that had dodged a wraithlord assault. 

Overall I liked the game.  I'm still worried about the state of Eldar in 6th until they get a new book (even fighting with a  ~600 point advantage for most of the games a few bad rolls and I would have had trouble real.  At the same time, this is good as it means the game isn't static and having multiple turning points keeps things exciting.

Eldar in 6th

Obviously this is jumping the gun, but I'm tired of forcing Excel to do something it doesn't want to.  So figured I'd take a shot at looking at Eldar based off the rumors I've seen.  As an eldar player I can't say I'm particular happy.  Eldar getting hit with some significant nerfs and only gaining a couple items.  That being said I expect to see a lot more eldar on the table or more specifically, Eldrad and a unit of rangers in other armies. 

Pros:

•   Rangers get to choose the targets for their AP1 shots
•   Hull points make killing Armour 12 vehicles fairly easy.  We have a plethora of S6 weapons that can glance them easily alot.  A unit of guided walkers will kill a a12 vehicle in 1 round
•   Some rumors seem to imply you can snapfire while turboboosting vehicles, depending on timing this could be useful.
•   Allies (sort of).  A couple units of Grey hunters could really improve our durability, hydras could help with enemy plans, a rerolling showfield archon could provide a solid punch.  However I think eldar will tend to be called upon as allies more than being the main force.
•   Warp spiders improve.  They now get 3 attacks on the charge thanks to the impact hits.
•   Howling Banshees can be S4 if you can find enough of the old models with axes.  Their mask ignores the unwieldy rule in round 1.
•   You can shoot and gain the extra movement from fleet.
•   Jink save for vehicles (and bikes?)  
•   Wraithlords gan give up 1 attack to have a S20 smash attack  (guessing capped at 10 so really only affects the avatar)
•   Meltaguns get +2 AP (do fire dragons need it?)

Cons:

•   Hull points make holofields worthless.
•   Everyone (almost) can get runes of warding
•   We lose our speed advantage, fleet goes from D6 extra to rerolling a D6.  Not sure the math but this an inch or two difference.
•   Everyone gets 6+ save vs doom
•   Jink save not as good as turbosave
•   3+ to hit vehicles in combat regardless of speed moved
•   Everyone else can throw grenedes (ok we can to but few units have grenedes)
•   Everyone gains move and fire rapid fire full distance
•   Cover saves reduced to 5+
•   Overwatch hurts our assaulting units as they are only T3
•   Everyone else gets access to a bunch of new psychic powers
•   Flyers, unless you play with Forgeworld we have no anti-aircraft weapons
•   Power weapons are AP 3, so the only things that punch threw termintor armour are fire dragons and scorpion claws

Clearly this mostly speculation at this point but what do see in the Eldar's future?

Drop pod

Apparently cutting two tendons and a nerve in your hand makes painting a little harder (typing too).  Who knew?  That being said I've been able to make some progress on my mantis warriors.  The drop pod shows my current limitations fairly well.  I'm able to paint the rough details but adding stylized elements such as army/unit markings is nearly impossible when you can't hold the model.  At some point I'll go back and add that but for now this is about as far as I can take it.  I'm fairly happy with the results.  I didn't have access to wife's camera last night so no WIP pictures but my first tactical squad is nearing "completion" as well.  Here is a link to the closed drop pod.

Mustard Warriors

The main thing I hope to work on with my new mantis warriors is weathering. Over the weekend I got a couple of test "models" painted to try some new techniques. First up was a crashed aquila piece that was lost (cat had dragged it off somewhere) when I painted the rest of the set. I had some pictures but they didn’t turn out particularly well. The mantis warrior scheme is primarily camo green with dark yellow as the secondary color. I started off testing the green. There are some neat tutorials out there on how to use hairspray as a masking agent for airbrushes to get a chipped effect. this is great except I don't have any hair spray and my airbrush is currently out of commission.

Here is the first marine. He is close to what I am looking for but I’m not entirely happy with the result. The mantis warrior symbol is going to be replaced now that muggins was kind enough to point me towards some decals. The red is also a little too red in my opinion so it’s get some brown added on future models. The is also something about the stripping on his face that bugs me, so that will get some touchup. I also have no idea how to base these guys. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

New Army Project

Just in case there weren't enough suits of power armour around, the 40kfightclub and AFK Games are starting a new Babad War campaign. Rules are fairly simple even though they aren't fully defined. Pick an army, paint them up, play some games. After looking at the various color schemes for different armies I settled on the Mantis Warriors. I've never painted a green army before so that should be interesting. The other thing I wanted to do on the Space Wolves but never did was more intensive weathering. Mantis warriors seem to be a good source for this as well since their fluff is that they have been isolated and poorly supplied.

They are also veterans that excel at guerrilla warrior as shown by their chapter tactic, every power armored, infantry squad that doesn't have a transport gets infiltrate. Which is cool until you think about it. You lose a ton of mobility and there are a lot of times you don't want your basic marines so close. It is however, cool for things like devastators, sternguard, and multimeltas. Like my space wolves, this will mostly be a painting project but those loyalist scumbag need to be stopped. I know I want a couple of things in the army. Techmarines (probably with a cannon), a contemptor dread (although it will probably count as a regular/siege one)

I’m thinking something along the lines of:

Mantis Warrior Librarian
Sternguard with combi’s
Vanguard Veterans on foot
3 tactical squads, 1 drop pod, 1-2 rhinos
2 devastator squads, probably 1 plasma cannon based and 1 missile launcher based
Dreadnought (the siege dreadnought seems pretty cool) in fancy drop pod
Thunderfire cannon
Some sort of flyer (fluff says they take good care of their thunderhawks and flyers. Leading candidates are the rumored white dwarf one, storm eagle, assault ram)

Hopefully about 2000 points all said and done. Many of the details will have to be figured out once the rules for 6th edition appear.

Ready for Adepticon

Adepticon is three days away and as I was packing up my army I thought about how much things have changed since the last time I went to a major tournament. The last major event I went to was the first fantasy 'ard boyz final. The new deamon book had just come out and they were so over the top I figured I had little chance of placing but I still planned out my army, played test games, owned all the codees, wrote up opposing lists, did internet searches, read all the books, aka did my homework. This is what I did prior to tournaments. I ended up getting 7th which I think was a great finish for high elves and walked away with two big army boxes as prizes for being the first to complete objectives.)

I've always taken what I had and usually avoid the gimmick armies, such as million+ invincible eldar skimmer in 3rd edition and tried to make powerful army that would get decent comp scores. Instead I did my homework, practiced, knew what to expect and it tended to work out. Fast forward to today. I'm preparing to go to Adepticon. The main event is the team tournament. I'm bringing an army list that I have never actually played, pairing it up with three other armies that I have never played with or against. I haven't opened opposing codexes, let alone own them. And I'm ok with that. I'm there to play some games with some friends. If we do well great, if not whatever. That isn't to say I'm not interested in the results but I'm there to enjoy the games rather than the tournament.

For the fantasy event, I took my wood elves. I've only played a couple games of 8th edition so I have no idea what is good in fantasy anymore other than "wood elves aren't." However the new army comp rules allow for some interesting options. The biggest being the possible inclusion of a level 4 wizard. Wood elf magic sucks but their lord level casters have access to two excellent lores, Life and Beast. Now this presents some dilemmas. 1) I need to decide which lore to take: Life or Beast 2)Do I take a naked level 4 or a level 3 with some protection? 3)Do you even need magic in a 1000 points? (probably when nothing in your army gets a save vs. magic). Now I did play a game but that game was mostly focused on learning the rules rather than testing. I also went back to a forum I use to be active on to see what the current thinking was but ended up taking the models that I liked the looks of the best rather than those that are actually good. I think I have a decent army (it would have wrecked at 1,000 points in 7th edition but is significantly worse in 8th.)

I'm not sure that I am ready to do what the guys at Dark Future Games are doing. But I do know the events that I am looking forward to the most are the least competitive. I really wish that I had signed up for two Kilzone events as the games I've played so far have been a ton of fun and not the seemingly more competitive Combat Patrol on Sunday. I don't think there are significant prizes associated with any of the events which is fine with me.

I'm actually looking forward to going which is a bit of a surprise because I've never been impressed with their attitude. Things like the Gladiator and their FAQ (and the attitude that goes with it) have been very off-putting. I'm hoping that by avoid the main events and concentrating on the side events I can avoid most of the WAAC-ness that you here about.

Joe Harter's Fixed List

Joe Harter
517-512-2342
rjharter at gmail.com
Saim Hann Division

Chaos Space Marines

Kharn the Betrayer (160pts)

5 Chaos Terminators with Mark of Khorne  (272pts) , Icon of Wrath, Veteran of the long war
        3 Terminators with a pair of Lightning Claws
        1 Terminator with Chainfist and Heavy Flamer
        1 Terminator Champion with a pair of lighting claws

Helbrute with Plasma Cannon (110 points)

10 Chaos Cultist (68 pts) Cultist Champion, 9x Autogun, Heavy Stubber

8 Khorne Berzerkers(troops) (195 pts) , Veteran of the long war, Champion w/ Power Weapon
     Chaos Rhino (35pts)


Heldrake (170pts) Baleflamer

10 Raptors (270pts) Icon of Wrath, Mark of Khorne, 2x Meltagun, Champion with 2x Lightning Claw and
         Melta Bombs

Chaos Land Raider (230pts)

Killzone round 2

I got my second game of Killzone in vs. Jesse's Deamons. After trying a aspect warrior heavy version vs. Hornblower's space wolves I went with a harlequin themed list. Not sure which I like better. What i do know is that I really like Killzone. The games are fun, quick and challenging. I highly encourage everyone to check it out.

Battle for Justice Rock

Hornblower at the 40kfightclub is putting together a 1 day campaign to celebrate the launch of a new game store opening in Holt/South Lansing April 1st. The story behind the campaign is the Iron Warriors attempting to take back Justice Rock, a planet which was the first Iron Warrior victory for the Emperor, prior to the Heresy. Can the imperials hold out?

Anyways the campaign should be a fun day featuring Killzone, Planetstrike, Cities of Death and regular 40k games, something for everyone! I'm suspecting the Space Wolves will be coming off the "For Sale" rack to play in this. There is no need to play in all of the events (or even most) and I believe that Killzone games will be played throughout the day as people are available as well.

Defenders of the Fortress Aftermath

Last weekend was the Defenders of the Fortress Tournament and the wrap-up of the 40kfightclub league.

Corsairs vs. Sisters

Nothing like writing a battle report so late that you forget most of the details. Here is what I remember the mission was pitched battle, kill points with the corsairs getting turn 1. The sisters won by 1 kill point 7 to 6 or maybe 8 to 7. I used a similar list to the one I used here minus the warp hunter. This list will always have problems in kill points but if I could suppress the exorcists early I figured I'd be in good shape. This worked to a point, I was able to stun lock them for a couple turns but one turn four (I think) I was unable to stun them and they went 3 for 2, destroying my falcon (breaking the unit inside who never regrouped) and my bomber.

What the game did teach me is that I need to consider making a second prince a mandatory part of my list. They are probably overkill vs. hth armies, but vs. shooting armies they are needed because even if the corsairs get an alpha strike in they are so fragile that the return fire from a shooting army will cripple them. I would probably drop the war spiders in exchange for a prince and a unit of fire dragons.

League finally and Defenders of the Fortress update

The regular season of the first league is now complete. Now it is time for the playoffs! The top two finishers from each division will take place in a direct elimination event as part of the upcoming Defenders of the Fortress tournament.

Eric Gibbs's Blood Angels led the way going 4-1-0 and earning 86 battle points (out of 105)winning the Horus Division. Dan Howard's necrons came in a close second also with a 4-1-0 record but only 70 battle points. The Emperor's Division was won by your's truly Eldar going 4-0 with a default draw and Jesse Ramey orks came in second with a 3-1-1 record. Jesse and Gibbs will duke it out in round 1 with the winner facing the winner of Howard and myself. My prediction is that Gibbs's will get his revenge on Howard for the regular season defeat in the finals.

Corsairs vs. not blood angels!

I got my third game in with a pure Corsair list last night, the first vs. a non-blood angel opponent. It was a pick-up game vs. a new MSU student that I had never played before. He didn't have an 1850 list so we played 2000 points. I added a warp hunter to my core list (if you can call it that after 3 games) so my list consisted of:

Prince with power weapon
8 Warp Spiders
10 harlies with kisses and seer
5 corsairs with flamer in vyper
5 corsairs with flamer in falcon
10 corsairs with jetpacks, 2 missiles
3x 3 jetbikes with cannon
Nightwing
Nightspinner
Phoenix
Warp hunter

He was playing space marines with a 10 man terminator squad that teleported around, a couple of tactical squads, a vindicator, some missile devs, a redemmer and a 10 man assault squad. The mission was kill points. He was "newish" to the game, he knew his rules but his experience to date most consisted of him and his friends.

The game details aren't that interesting, he got first turn so I used a unit of harliquins to pull most of his army to one side and than brought everything else from reserve in on the other side and killed anything that tried to turn back.

I did learn a few things though.
1) Corsairs (like eldar in general) benefit more than most other armies from tactics. The combination of fragility and shooting specialization mean that even minimal losses will severely hamper your ability. Now you may say but imp guard are just as fragile and also awful in hth. The difference is that if you take out a Vendetta or Russ, there are probably at least two more waiting for you. If you kill a squad there are probably 8-10 more groups of guardsman. Corsairs don't have that for hth or anti-heavy armor, they do have plenty of S6 options. Because they rely on their speed and shooting they need to either shorten the game by hiding or making the opponent waste movement (such as chasing some harliquins into a corner)
2) I miss fire dragons. Land raiders are hard to stop when the only thing you have that can pen them is a single nightwing (and if the nightwing stays in reserve for 4 turns ...) Of course if the land raider is polite enough to immobilize itself it is less of a concern.
3) Outflanking jetbikes are cool. In kill point games being able to come in behind the enemy lines is very powerful.

Post game Grey Knights

This post will be an example of why you shouldn't wait a week before posting a battle report. I did my initial analysis of his list here. In the end I went with 2 farseers with fortune, fired dragons in a falcon and a fire prism. The idea would be to fly the farseers with the dire avengers and keep fortune up on the two planes as much as possible. While the bomber killed the dreadknight. (How did this work?

(pre) Game 4 - Grey knights

Later today I've got my fourth league game scheduled. My opponent is playing a Grey Knight list detailed below. Although he was only required to put 1500 points in his fixed list he opted to put his entire list. As a result, I already know what he will be playing and can plan my 600 points accordingly. Below are some of my observations and plans going into the game. Stay tuned for a post game report.

Fixed List Analysis- Phoenix Bomber

As stated in my post about the Nightwing, one of the main reason I went with Eldar for the league was that it would allow me to use my two flyers (or fast skimmers after the rules change). As with the Nightwing the Phoenix was massively overpriced before and now is still expensive but definitely has some firepower.

Fixed List Analysis- Vyper

CVinton over at Dark Future games did a nice article on using little used units, such as the Vyper. One of the nice things about the Eldar codex is that even the worst units in the codex usually have some value. They tend to be overpriced but are usually capable of doing something if used properly.

The Vyper is probably the exception to this rule. Open-topped and Armor 10 make it to fragile to get near the enemy, BS3 makes it too unreliable to shoot the enemy. About the only good thing you can say about this is that is such a non-threat that you don't have to worry about it getting blown up so it can contest an objective late game.

Fixed List Analysis- Nightwing

When I decided to play eldar for the league, one of the reasons was so I could play with my new nightwing conversion (shown to left minus canopy). At the time the unit suffered from a ridiculous point cost but with the release of IA11 it dropped down by almost 50%. It lost some key features as detailed here but became a justifiable expenditure in the process.

For 145 points, you get two brightlances and 2 shuriken cannons. You can get a comparable falcon (2 shuriken cannons, star engines)

Legios Sparticus Defenders of the Fortress Tournament

I am happy to announce the details regarding the March 11 tournament that will conclude the Legios Sparticus  campaign that is currently on going.  This event is completely separate from the league and league participation (or lack thereof) has no impact on the final standings of this event.  The only exception is detailed under the League Championship Sub-bracket heading below.

Corsair Army List Analysis

I was fortunate enough to get a copy of IA11 for Christmas and since then have been trying to get some games in with the new Corsair list.  I've managed to get 2 1850 games in and 1 Apoc game that doesn't really count.  Both 1850 games have been vs. blood angels and I have to say I really like how the army plays.  It is similar to a mech Eldar army but taken to an extreme.  Eldar are shooty, Corsairs are super shooty, Eldar are fragile, Corsairs deem of the day they can be a tough as Eldar.  Craftworld eldar can be fast, corsairs are always fast.  There are a few items that the corsairs really miss, namely quality psychic powers and defense.  Overall I think FW did a good job making an alternate list that is similar but different without making it over/underpowered.  The internal balance could use some tweaking but no codex is perfect.

Here are a few sentences about each unit.

Game 3 vs. Hornblower

I'm going to try a different format for this battle report.  Rather than try to recreate a turn by turn recap, I'm just going to do a pregame and post game analysis.  Let me know what format you prefer.  Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera for this game either (or more accurately I did but forgot about it so you just get this picture of Hornblower's wulfen).


1 kitted out thunderwolf riding Wolf Lord 
5 Thunderwolf Cavalry with lots of options

10 Grey Hunters Pack with Mark of the Wulfen 30, 2 Meltaguns,powerfist 1 Rhino, 35 pts
10 Grey Hunters Pack with Mark of the Wulfen 30, 2 Meltaguns,powerfist 1 Rhino, 35 pts
9 Blood Claws w/ Power Fist

6 Wolf Scouts Pack w, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun
1 Dreadnought with heavy flamer
3 Long Fangs Pack with 2 Missile Launchers

Game 2 vs. OrksesNevaLooz

Unfortunately I was unable to secure a camera for this game so I don't have much in the way of pictures.   Here is his fixed list:

Big Mek with Kustom force field

Warboss Cybork with claw,bosspole

10 cybork Nobz with a bunch of upgrades in a Battlewagon with deffRolla,  Big Shoota  

19 Shoota Boyz Nob with claw,bosspole

20 Slugga Boyz Nobwith claw,bosspole 

30 Shoota Boyz Nob with claw,bosspole 

Deffkopta with rokkits

Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Big Shoota  

Batttlewagon with Deffrolla, Big Shoota

Fixed List Unit Analysis- Jetbikes

This is the first of a series of articles where I talk about how I built my fixed list for the Legios Sparticus League.  This list isn't what I would do next year, even if it was still 5th Edition and the Eldar don't get a new codex.  I had to rush the list a bit because of last minute point changes to the Nightwing and Phoenix in Imperial Armour 11. 

One of the ways this shows in by the inclusion of three jetbike squadrons.  Two squads are pretty much mandatory in my book for claiming objectives but three can be overkill, especially with the warlock upgrade but I was at an awkward point level so I put in a third squad to get over 1500 points.  Three still work just fine and with the addition of a warlock, you can even get some in game use out of the them.

Even though they are all jetbikes, the two three-man squads are very different from the four man squad.  The three man squads are there to claim objectives and that is it.  I use to put a cannon on them, but found that all that did was tempt me shoot with them instead of turbo-boosting them which typically results in me having one less scoring unit the next turn.  Just like all Eldar, you need to have a plan for what you want out of the unit and focus them on the task.  Eldar jetbikes are the only unit in any army that have "win the game" as their sole purpose.  They are unable to fight and have almost no shooting all they do is claim objectives.   66 points for a unit that can move 24 inches, claim an objective, and win you the game is worth it in my opinion.  In a 1850 point game 2 squads will only cost you about 7% of your total points.  The only other thing I ever use them for is they can provide cover for other units, especially if terrain doesn't allow hiding them.  They almost always start off in reserve to ensure that they are turbo-boosting from the start, and frankly the longer they stay off the board the happier I am, as it means they aren't being shot.

The four-man unit includes a warlock.  Much like the cannon, the warlock is really a temptation to use them in a sub-optimal fashion.  The warlock does provide them with embolden so they can re-roll their morale tests and a single casualty doesn't break them very often.  The spear can also be used to take down the occasional vehicle, especially if they are able to get behind enemy lines and hit the support tanks.  They are still there primarily to claim objectives but have a little more diversity.  I am ok, giving them a cannon as well but forgot to in this case.  The added resilience of this squad isn't worth doubling (almost) its point cost but it is still a worthwhile investment.

Summary:  IMO, fifth edition has made these guys a just have.  As other armies get stronger and stronger, the Eldar have to rely more and more on tricks and efficiency and these are one of the best, as long as you can support them with the rest of your army.  I highly recommend 1 unit / 1000 points (or part there of).

Game 1 vs. Bodgerboy

Last week I was able to get the first of my five upcoming league games for the new Legios Sparticus 40kfightclub league I am running.  You can find out more details about the league here. My first game was vs. BodgerBoy one of the three ork players.  His fixed list was:

Big Mek Grotbug with Burna, Kustom Force Field, 'Eavy Armor, Cybork
29 Slugga Boyz w/Nob with Power Klaw, Bosspole
18 'Ard Boyz w/Nob, 2 Big Shootas, Power Klaw, Bosspole
11 Shoota Boyz w/Nob with 1 Rokkit, Power Klaw in a Trukk with Reinforced Ram, Boarding Plank
10 Shoota Boys w/Nob, 1 Rokkit, Power Klaw in a Trukk with Reinforced Ram, Boarding Plank
10 Grots with Runtherd
2 Deffkoptas w/Rokkits
2 Warbuggies w/Rokkits
3 Killa Kans w/Grotzookas
3 Killa Kans w/Rokkits
Battlewagon with 3 Big Shootas, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers

Welcome to Aspects of the Void

Welcome to Aspects of the Void.  This is my first attempt at running a blog so I hope you will be patient.  My goal is to create a blog focused primarily on "regular" eldar, you know the ones that don't run around with million lances and poisoned weapons.  I plan to populate this with a series of battle reports, some unit analysis and maybe even a tactic or two.

Before I get started, here is a brief bio about me.  I've played 40k for about 15 years after being introduced to it during my freshman year at Michigan State (Go State!) by a kid across the hall in the dorm that I played Magic with.  Over the years, I've played a number of armies (marines, eldar, dark eldar, nids, and tau) but eldar have been my main army for most of that time.

I'm not an ultra-competitive player, so if you are looking for tactics on what to do with your three wave serpents with fire dragons this probably isn't the right place for you.  Even going back to my card-flopping days, I've always preferred playing "toolbox" armies/decks, so eldar with their specialized units were a natural fit.  I think the new corsair army list in the Doom of Mymeara will fit this bill as well, so you can expect a heavy dose of them as well over the next few months.

I also plan to track the new campaign found in Doom of Mymeara, Hornblower from 40kfightclub.com will play the Imperials while I beat on him (hopefully) with various eldar.

Opening of 40kFightClub League

Over the next couple months, I am organizing and playing in a local league.  The format is fairly simple, you have a fixed list of between 1500 and 2100 points, any points not spent in the fixed list can be adjusted between games.  Just about anything is legal, even superheavies (with limitations).  My fixed list is a bit off as I needed to make a last minute adjustment as the Nightwing and Phoenix got major point reductions right as the fixed lists were due.  Anyways, here is the list