1850 for the next league....

Well, it looks like the next league will be 1850 and more "Hobby" based...  So, points for WYSIWYG, painting, basing, fluff, etc...  So, this leaves me a hard choice, what army do I play?

Dark Angels (Consecrators)...  Terminators are pretty powerful these days, and I am guessing that the less than 900 points for 3 squads of Fearless Terminators with a variety of weapons, including cheap Cyclones... Leaving me around 1000 points for more Terminators, bike squads, Dreadnoughts and...  Well, not sure what else...  Probably need Aegis Defense line with the AA gun, so a min sized Tac squad to man the line I guess...  Being 4th edition I have some decent weapon options for the 5 man squad IIRC, but they would just be there to man the AAA really...

Fleshtearers...  Powerful I guess...  I like my jump troops.  And I suppose I could run a Storm Raven...  The Death Company and DC DN are fun...  Lacking a Storm Raven at the moment though...  I don't know, strong army, and I have a LOT of options...

Eldar...  Interesting army, I think they'll be fairly strong...  Still not sure they will match well against Grey Knights or...  Well a lot.  the Eldar Brick I run is powerful, but slow and easily avoidable...  I do not have the Wave Serpents to do the Mechdar list, so foot it is what I can do...  Not sure what other foot options they have, I know the Avatar might be amusing with his immunity to Melta, etc...  Dunno if it will work or not...

Beyond this, Grey Knights and IG I think are just too powerful for a friendly league and I frankly do not think I will have fun playing them...  And a "vanilla" Marine force would probably just be boring for me...  Leaves Wolves I guess, maybe...  Dunno if they will hold my interest long enough though.  Loganwing was amusing, but his weapon got screwed over by the new rules...  Shame, he was at least amusing...

So, 4 choices I guess...  All at least "mostly" painted, should be easy to get there for the league and tournament at the end...  Have a few weeks to figure it out I guess...  Though, the other major consideration being what fits into the luggage on the motorcycle :-)...

The Eldar Brick still works...

Played a 2000 point game this evening, used the "Eldar Brick" or "Walking Castle"...  Eldar Wraithguard maxed out with a Spirit Seer joined by Eldrad, and backed by War Walkers, Wraithlord oh, and a Wraith Seer...  Using IA rules, this gives me a Fearless Troop block with at the very worst 3 5+ saves against anything...  T 6 as well, so really hard to injure normally and the 3+ armor for a lot of shooting...  REALLY hard to stop, and I just march the block across the table.  Guide cast once or twice along with Fortune along with the casting of FnP...  Heavy weapons, D-weapons, REALLY hard to kill, and impossible to ignore...

Still need to figure out Air cover or some sort of AAA...  Thinking that the Aegis line with the quad gun manned by Pathfinders will be it for the moment...  Tried the Nightwing fighter tonight for 145 points of one turn shooting...  Pretty fragile and ineffective really...  Though the Interceptor rule for the 2 quad guns on the other side of the table  probably kept it from being effective at all...  Not wanting to use Imperial terrain for this, so I'll have to come up with something "Eldar" I guess...  It is looking like there will not be a new Eldar book for a while...

Next projects...

Going through my old files, and I found an Eldar Vampire Raider pattern...  Printed it out on letter rather than legal paper so it would be a bit smaller...  Looking at using it as a Phoenix class bomber.  Kind of a mis naming I think, the bomber does not actually have bombs, but I think it will be a heavy interceptor and awesome ground attack aircraft for me.  Now, it is a Heavy Support choice, and 225 or 235 points, and the new rules for fliers...  Well, Holofields and it coming in from reserve might do really well for a turn or three, and with those turns being critical as I "rush" my Wraithguard block across the table, hoping mostly to keep fliers and other heavy threats under control...  Of course, I left all of my foamboard at my office, so no real progress there...  Planning on doing the frame with foamboard, then using paper mache to do the aircraft's skin...  Should be light, thin and fairly strong.  Between this and my Airship to be my Praetorian IG's Vendetta/Valkyrie replacement, a bit of random model work to do...

More ancient Marines being stripped and repainted...  Found a few squads of Scouts, not sure that they'll get used, but 15-20 sniper scouts and another 10-15 HtH and Shotgun Scouts...  Shame my Wolf Scouts became almost completely worthless between the near mandatory 4 shot AP 4 Interceptor gun and the fact I can no longer Assault when I go behind enemy lines has placed them on the "eh" list for my Wolves.  After SO many years of them being in every Wolf army I played (I used to do something like this when I played Army)...  So, they went from really powerful and I almost always felt kind of bad bringing them against most people (some others, not so much so) to a unit I feel like I am handicapping myself with... So, not sure which of the various Marine forces the lads get painted up as, maybe do actual camouflage and use them for whichever (DA, Fleshtearers, Regular Marines, Shotgunners might become IG Vets in carapace armor)...  We'll see I guess, leaning toward at least one full squad of snipers for my FT force, no clue what the DA will get in their next iteration...

Fliers, Forge World and the local group...

So, the Eldar Nightwing Interceptor in IA 11 can be taken by Codes: Eldar as a Fast Attack option via the FAQ from Forgeworld...  The Phoenix Bomber is a Heavy, and not so sure it will be as good.  145 points for the Nightwing with 2 Shuriken Cannons and 2 Bright Lances...  Yes, Armor 10 all around, and the Holo fields are not so impressive now, but by an odd coincidence, 4 weapons that can all be fired by the 6th ed flier rules...  Against another flier, 8 shots at BS 4 seem like if I can line up and get the first shot off, I might well be able to achieve air superiority quickly and easily...

So, wondering how close this will be to the version in the fliers book or the next Eldar codex whenever it does come out...  But in any case, iff the IA stuff becomes legal, then we have a few options...

New toy from 40K Giveaway...

Well, he's primered up...  Mephiston will be painted up in the Fleshtearer's colors...  So, per usual but with more black trim and shoulder pads...

Just starting there of course, and as you can see the hobby table is still quite full...  Though, cleaning the basement a bit, and I am planning on expanding my hobby area a bit and clean it up quite a bit...  Never used the Vampire Lord, but with the move to 2000 points, Seth and Mephiston might make a really good team...

One of the other things I found:

:-)  LAW tube, just another random souvenir from the Army...  It will go up on my "Klingon Wall" with a lot of my other collected weapons...

First game of 6th ed Eldar for me...

Things went pretty much the way I thought they would...    Swooping hawks are still overpriced crap, Spiders are decent flankers...  Pathfinders are OK, but will not win any battles on their own.  I simply did not bring enough high STR shooting.  Flanked my War Walkers, should have just marched them behind the Wraithguard block to get Guide from Eldrad...  24 Str 6 shots with BS 3 (guided) might have done a LOT better.  Also, got sidetracked trying to take and hold objectives...  Should have simply marched my Wraithguard block and War Walkers right up the field...  I do think next time I bring a Wraith Lord...  Against DE they just die, but most other things will have a difficult choice with the WG and WL right near each other.

In terms of what next?  I think we start to field 2000 point forces, it does seem the level we are heading to.  Also, I strongly suspect that the Forge World things will be "street legal" for 40K games VERY soon.  With the new rules and new FAQ's, it does seem to be moving in that direction.  I am REALLY looking forward to converting one of my many ancient Wraith Lords (Yes, they are "Eldar Dreadnoughts", a few of the Vampire class ones) to be a Wraith Seer...  The WG backed by a Farseer and Wraith Seer (giving the WG say, "Feel No Pain" and decreasing cover saves...  Yes, please) seems to be a hugely powerful block...  Not unstoppable, but damn close...  And still lots of points left for the high Str shooting I think we need to play the current game...

So, Troops?  Dire Avengers I guess come back in a Wave Serpent...  To get dropped off on an objective and have the Light Tank do it's thing until it dies to the 3 glance rule...  A small unit or two of my Pathfinders as well...  Getting precision AP 1 shots is "neat", and since so far I've only been putting those shots into fearless units or taking the long shot to try and glance a vehicle, I suspect it will become MUCH better in the longer run.  Haven't bothered with Guardians...  "Eh" seems to be the best I can say about them.  10 man min squads of crap, overpriced troops mean they simply do not stand up well in the current environment just to have "Troops" sitting in the backfield...  Yea, they have Fleet and Assault weapons so I can rush them to their deaths in close combat after an ineffective round of shooting...  No thanks, just doesn't seem to fit the background of a dying race to have ineffective suicide troops...  Back in 3rd ed when I could bring 5 man squads with a heavy weapon, they hit the field for me a LOT, now?  Not so much...

Fast Attack, if Forge World comes into mainstream, then the Hornets are AWESOME, and will get proxied in...  I do think they might become fliers in the current edition...  Eldar getting some sort of interceptor to match the Marine one would be really nice...  Spiders are staying, and...  Well, that's really about it...  IA 11 had some amazing Eldar stuff, Shadow Specters and the like...  The Corsairs are another amazing list, maybe they'll be part of the next Eldar codex :-)...  Especially nice for me because my RT era Eldar ARE old Eldar Raiders/Corsairs and painted up like that...  we'll see I guess...  Looking forward to the 145 or so point Nightwing fighters...

More 6th ed stuff...

Mkay, got a bit more reading in...  And the more I see, the more I think the time of the Dreadnoughts and other vehicles dominating the game is past...  With grenades hitting on a straight WS roll, and normal vehicles having WS 1 if they move, 0 if not...  Even DNs get hit basically on a 4+, so Krak, Melta and Haywire grenades hit a LOT...  OK, the Krak are not nearly so much a threat, but even Guardsmen these days can hurt most DNs...  Any normal vehicles getting caught by Infantry are simply going to be wrecked I think.  Needing fliers or Infantry screens seems the way things are now...

Eldar are looking pretty good in general.  Or at least something I can work with.  Eldrad is still so much better than the regular Farseers, but I guess I'll eventually use a normal Seer, if only to try the new powers.  MOST of the book is still crap (OK, this is all just my opinion, YMMV) being written for a game 2 editions ago...  And the new rules REALLY hurt some of it.  Help some, the Ranger/Pathfinders seem like they'll do fine.  Warp Spiders are now better than they were in 5th, and since they were a staple for me there, guessing they will continue to be so for me.  Support Weapons look like they will be REALLY good.

Now the other side...  Scorpions are now completely useless for what I used them for in the past (flanking and hitting the backfield), Dark Reapers with the Str 5 weapon simply doesn't cut it as AA/AT, so despite AP 3 it really is just expensive and useless.  Especially compared to say Long Fangs...  I WANT to make them work, but I really am not seeing it.

Somewhere in the middle for me are the Swooping Hawks, Banshees and Wraithlord.  Cover saves for the Lord, he is a Character so can challenge, etc...  Banshees, I'll give them another shot with Fleet, Doom, etc...  We'll see :-)