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.