The point of boredom...

Ah, yes...  The cycle continues :-)  I seem to have painted myself into another corner with my Eldar build.  It's good.  Really good in the local environment at least...  I suspect it would get stomped against a top tier army elsewhere, depending on the match-up at least...  Playing the out of the book missions, it breaks the Annihilation (kill points) mission by simply being ridiculously hard to get a lot of kill points from, assuming I play it right.  OTOH, I think it would almost automatically lose in a "Take and Hold" mission with lots of objectives with only 2-3 "Troops" out there...  So, if I got a good draw in a Tournament and "favorable" missions, I could go far...  But depending on external luck to win is not a good idea, and frankly the army is getting fairly automatic for me and therefore more than a bit boring.

I did play it a bit different this week with the War Walkers deployed behind the Wraithguard for the Guide and I subbed in a Wraithlord for the Fire Prism for even more HtH deterrent...  Turned out I played against a Tyranid list, Dawn of War and I seized the imitative dooming his Hive Tyrant and guaranteeing that my Eldar Castle deployed as FAR away from the Genestealers as they could...  For the record, Guided War Walkers loaded out with Scatter Lasers are a REALLY good way to deal with a horde...  Turn one, 24 shots, 24 hits at Str 6...  I'm ALMOST kicking myself for trading off my other 3 War Walkers as I suspect that 2 squadrons of them, one with AT weapons (ML or BL?) would be brutal against a lot of things...

'course that brings me to the "But the new (to me :-)) models are REALLY nice..." part...  I really like the new War Walkers and Wave Serpents, but with money being as tight as it is these days I'd have to sell off a rifle or two to afford a major upgrade to an army that is barely competitive in the current edition of the rules...  :-)  Mind, I'd do it in a heartbeat just to have to toys, so if anyone is looking for some older firearms I'm sure we can work out a deal...  Just it wouldn't be a short term thing for me...

So, the cycle of boredom continues, where to go next?  Made my first green stuff combi weapon, and it turned out "OK"...  Glad the "Instant Mold" stuff is reusable :-)  I will be remaking the model for the next version and we'll see how it works...  Seems a good way to make smaller pieces for the armies, guessing I'll be making shoulder pads/icons for some of my forces ASAP, weapon swaps, etc...  Simple things at first...

Painted armies...

Well, getting better over the years in terms of fielding mostly painted forces...  My Eldar for instance are almost fully painted, or at least "base coated"...  Need to get some Wave Serpents or to make some more of the ancient Falcon class tanks (the wedge type) to field more than the "Brick of doom".  Foot Eldar are a bad choice overall...  While I CAN do it, fielding large units of troops weaker than IG (Lack of Special/Heavy weapons, good cheap transports, etc...) just doesn't work well in the local "modern" 5th ed environment.  Kevin's Tyranids would feast on them as I would not be able to throw out enough firepower to even slow them down, nor could I fight off even the weakest bugs with my basic troops...  Even the best of the best for my poor Eldar, Scorpions or Harlequins, would be little more than a speed bump for them... So, Brick or Mech...  Mech I think is quite strong, Dave does an excellent one...  Unfortunately lacking the Falcon hulls, I can't really field it...  Besides, I tend to play a bit more aggressively and waiting patiently to try a last turn or two rush just not really fit my style at all...  Not to say it doesn't work :-)...  It does, but that's why I was a REALLY good Wolfen/Kelt player in Confrontation, and had a really hard time playing some of the other forces


My Wolves are the same way, but I have a LOT more rhino hulls ready for them.  My Dark Angels are completed, but then Deathwing is fairly simple...  IG?  Yeah...  Time to get serious about the vehicles there too...

So, Wave serpents are the order of the day it seems...  Wonder if I have a template for this one?  Rhino hulls, Titans, and Land Raiders I KNOW I have...  Guess I'll see what I can come up with...

Karandras, have I played it wrong?

So, Karandras gives the squad he is with Infiltrate and Move Through Cover?  Stealth I knew...  Damn, if this is right, the Wraithguard brick o' doom being able to Infiltrate and therefore flank?  Over 800 points of really bad news hitting the table hopefully up close and personally...  Maybe an Autarch to mess with the reserve rolls and put even more eggs in that basket...  Course, that would mean no Farseer... Hmmm...

Wraithguard for the win...

So, played IG this evening…  Pretty good list, and he had an extra 150 points to play with, so I figured it was going to be a LONG game.  Brought my “Let’s Break the Kill Point Mission” list…  And it did just that.  Having 8 Kill Points in total, and starting a bunch in reserve meant that his list was at a serious disadvantage from the beginning.  The Wraithguard starting in cover with Stealth and re-rollable saves were just on fire…  For his first turn he basically emptied his army’s long range AT firepower into the squad causing the loss of a single figure when the dust cleared.  I sniped a few kill points while marching the brick forward, then his Vet Squads deployed and opened up on the Uber-Brick killing a few, but the majority of the squad lived…  Karanadras broke off to kill off the Company command squad single handedly (some named character, extra orders…  Not that impressive really), then wipe out a Vet Squad while the Wraithguard took a few kill points themselves before finally all dying…  Eldrad himself survived to link up with the Fire Dragons who were delayed a LOT by the Master of the Fleet, thus preserving in that transport almost half of my original kill points…  So, pretty much the one chance in 3 for that one I win on the basis of my army build.  One chance in three that I would have likely lost or at least would have had to bum rush the other side’s objectives…  MUCH more difficult if he plays smart, and Cyrus would likely have played it right…  So, likely a draw at best for me.  The last third, would have been a draw likely with me holding my objective and MAYBE me contesting his on a last turn rush with a fast skimmer if any survived J…  So, now likely I have an extra space on the map with the manufactorum for the 150 point bonus…  Probably will hurt more than help knowing my luck…

Eldar, Breaking the Kill Point Mission...

Mkay, so trying to refine the army a bit...  If IA is OK with the folks, the Fire Prism gets swapped for a Warp Hunter...  The D-cannon template shot is just way too good...  At least on paper, guessing that in actual play it isn't going to be too bad though...

Eldrad
Karandras
Pathfinders (7)
Wraithguard (10 w/ Spiritseer to be "Troops")
Dire Avengers (w/ Exarch in Serpent w/ EML)
War Walker squadron (3, all scatter lasers)
Fire Prism

1500 points, 8 Kill Points.  3 of them are going to be bricked up in a ridiculously hard to kill "Deathstar" of sorts...  But T6, 3+/3+ cover save, eternal warrior in there somewhere and at least a decent threat in HtH...  Oh, and Fearless to camp objectives.  May even remember to start the War Walkers right behind them for the Guide/Doom combo out to long range...  Pathfinders to snipe, camp objectives and flank in kill point missions I think...  Play "keep away" with a fleet unit that ignores terrain and can enter play "later", seems like it might even work...  DA just cruise around from reserve and try really hard not to get killed and maybe even kill a random light vehicle or two here and there...  Might swap them for Fire Dragons in the Serpent just for more "we kill things" firepower at the expense of a Troop to hold an objective...  Comes to almost the same points for a much better shooting option...  Ah well.  Depends on who I play I guess...

Brain dead, but still moving...

Actually left work a bit early today...  Been feeling craptastic for a while now, but figured that throwing up on someone's PC while working on it would be counterproductive.  Took the bike out for a bit of a spin, but not much...  Just pretty brain dead...  Trying to straighten out a few random thoughts, but nothing seems to be working on that end...

Thinking that the ancient Falcon I have for my Eldar will become the base hull for "more" of them...  Cast in plaster or resin... That or some other scratch build sort of thing, I have access to some neat printers at work that apparently can do the cardstock printing pre-cut with patterns...  I'll give that a shot I guess...

My Wolf Combi weapons are coming along in Green Stuff (need to pick some more up soon I guess) and my "Steampunk IG" project is rotating off of "hold" status...  Building a Space 1889 Airship for them to use as Valkyries/Vendettas...  Not an original idea I confess, getting the idea/inspiration from http://22ndpraetorian.blogspot.com/2010/08/air-mobile-praetorian-style.html ...  Check it out, it is a REALLY nicely done build for the lads...

Exhausted ranting :-)

Trying to wrap my head around some things, and I am thinking that I had what to me at least is a minor epiphany,,,  The more recent 40K things that I feel are "overpowered" or "broken" seem to universally be things that break the design rules.  Now, an example of this is the Grey Knight's Falchions...  They are functionally identical to every other Marine (well, not Wolves, but...) Lightning Claws, but they do not have the major disadvantage of the LC.  The Knights' swords still allow their user to wield them and retain the Storm Bolter for a good shooting attack.  So, it is "like" the basic thing but "just better".  It is a pattern that I am seeing over and over in the "top tier" armies.  Not sure if it is an intentional thing like Rackham did with Confrontation 3.5 in an effort to prepare the way for the next major edition to "fix the problems" in the game or if it just the way that codex creep works there...  Kind of why I am a bit concerned about my Eldar getting rewritten, I want a fun but NOT overpowered force.  Something a bit different for me because I feel that pretty much all of the other armies I play are top tier, and so I have to be a bit careful not to fall into the min/max trap and get bored :-)  So, something for me to think about while I am painting my toys... Getting to the point I can field a WYSIWYG and fully painted force for several of my armies....  Eldar now getting close, need to get some more Falcon hulls though...  The ancient Armorcast hull looks nice and I do think it would be a unique force to bring out...