Primed and ready to be painted...

Well, the whole squad of Dire Avengers is now based and undercoated with Chaos Black. Tonight starts the madness of painting again. Here's hoping I can actually get through it this time. Lately, everytime I paint, I just seem so unmotivated to finished... hence the current state of my multi-hued army of Eldar...

Though some say that's just the way Eldar are heh

Yet another squad ready for painting....

Yeah, so if you look back to my April posts last year, you will see I bought a Dire Avenger squad for my birthday. Well a year and change later, I finally decide to assemble it.

First thing I notice is there are pieces already off the sprue and missing. Odd I thought, and then some vague memories started to surface. I remembered attempting to starting trying to assemble them while I was sick as a dog. I learned something that day, you do not try to assemble plastic Eldar while sick. I got so frusterated trying to put the arms on it, I brought my palm down on it and shattered the model.

So after assembling 9 of the 10 Avengers, I had to figure out what to do about the missing 10th one. Like any good Eldar player, I have way too many Guardians that I will never use. A quick twist of the torso and I had a set of legs to use. Luckily the Dire Avenger sprues come with plenty of extra pieces. So, 1 set of guardian legs, 1 extra exarch loincloth attached behind, and 1 Dire Avenger torso equals a full squad of 10!.

Now to flock em and prime em for painting. The bane of my army....painting

Eldar vs Armored Company

So, over the Memorial Day weekend, a friend of mine and I played another battle also. We decided on 1250 points. He pulled out his tanks and made up an 8 unit strong armored company. I made an up assault force to try to take them down, as last time we played this combination, the sheer firepower nailed me before I could do any serious damage.

Imperial Armor
2 Basilisks
1 Chimera
5 Leman Russ

Eldar Assault Force
Seer Council on Jetbikes (1 Farseer, 4 Warlocks)
Jetbike Guardians (5)
Pathfinders
Fire Dragons in a Waveserpent
2 Vypers with Bright lances
1 Fire Prism

Sister Superior was nice enough to see up the terrain for us and when I rolled for deployment, it was Dawn of War... lucky break for me, long table edges.

I got the first turn and moved in, but couldn't "see" a thing using the night fight rules. Not one shot was "in range". My Guardian Jetbikes paid the price for that as they got shot up... not like they could do a lot anyhow. After that turn though, things looked up. The Fire Dragons got into place, the Seer Council sped up the other side of the board and both started working their way inward destroying armor.

In the end, these two units did all the killing. Between three vehicles with Bright Lances and one Fire Prism, not any of them got even a glancing hit on armor. The Pathfinders managed to shake a tank once.

So... thanks to the Seer Council and Fire Dragons...and long table edge deployment, I left 5 craters and 1 smoldering wreck in the desert sand!

2000 points...no way?

This was my girlfriend's reaction when I guessed at how many points she had in her army already. So, I pulled out the laptop and did some math. With 2 HQ, 4 Troops, 3 Elite, 3 Fast Attack, and 3 Heavies, she was at 2100 points in just basic units, no upgrades hehe. Here's a picture, though somewhat crappy because I just wanted to get her whole army in it.

From WH40K

Ultramarines vs. Eldar, 750 pts

So the Ultramarines decided they needed to come out and wipe out the Eldar on a soon to be named and designed desert planet! My son and I each whipped up a 750 pt army for a quick Saturday evening battle (9 May 09).

Ultramarine Task Force
HQ - Captain with a Relic Blade
Troops - 2 Tactical Squads with missile launchers and flamers
Elite - Dreadnaught armed with an assault cannon and a missile launcher
Fast Attack - 2 Attack Bikes with heavy bolters
Heavy - Predator with an autocannon

Eldar Assault Force
HQ - Farseer armed with Doom and Guide
Troops - 1 Dire Avenger squad and 1 Storm Guardian squad with 2 flamers
Heavy - Wraithlord with a bright lance and scatter laser, and a squadron of 3 warwalkers all with scatter lasers.


The forces deployed out on to the desert terrain, sand blowing over the hills.

From WH40K

The Eldar task force, knowing it had to work quick moved up fast on the Ultramarines, but keeping the warwalkers in reserve to to try flank them. Seeing the storm guardians and wraithlord running up at them on their left, the marines sent out their assault bikes to deal with them. Speeding at them, the assault bikes picked off some of the slower guardians.

From WH40K

Sadly, the dire avengers having deployed too far back had to slog up to the battle. Meanwhile the storm guardians continued their approach through cover by using a downed thunderhawk to hide behind while the wraithlord started firing its bright lance and scatter laser. Seeing the towering giant shooting must have caused the marines to change tactics, because suddenly all firepower down to bear on him. And due to an excessive sand storm, the warwalkers had to make an appearance on the wrong side of the battle field and work their way over to combat.

From WH40K

The marines, taking a moment to attack the wraithlord, gave the storm guardians a second to breath. They took cover and re-evaluated their options. Meanwhile the dire avengers and warwalkers begin their advance. The walkers, seeing the exposed tactical squad unload into it. The hail of laser fire downed 5 of the battle brothers outright and forced the others to fall back for cover out of the field of battle.

From WH40K

At this point, the storm guardians decided to charge the bikes that had given them so much trouble. Rushing in with the warlock, they managed to kill one of the marine bikers, but he held tough and did not give up the battle. Meanwhile, with the help of their farseer, the dire avengers withstood a hail of fire. Also, while the warwalkers moved up, the Predator damaged one and it had to be left behind.

From WH40K

Missed the picture of turn 5, but you can see the results. The storm guardians continued to hold their own against the assault bike, but then the Captain joined in and it was over for them quick. Not without cost though for the marines. A well timed dire avenger bladestorm and volley from the warwalker scatter lasers eliminated the second marine tactical squad. And previously, a volley of scatter laser fire also found a weak point in the side of the Predator hull and blew it up.

The battle ended on turn 6, with an Eldar victory of 3 KP to 2 KP. My son did great and had fun playing. So win/win!

New IG Codex

All I can say is... Wow. When they said they overhauled the Imperial Guard, they were not kidding. I picked it up yesterday and just finished flipping through it this morning while I was running some tests at work. I would say the Guard are a force to be reckoned with now.

The new orders from the officers can boost key areas when needed.

The heavy squadrons...yes squadrons of tanks, well you can imagine the look on your opponents face as you pull out 9 tanks for heavies alone.

And Hydras... don't get me started on Hydras as an Eldar player heh.

All in all, I think this is going to make the Guard a fun army for players again, but you can definately see codex creep.

Oh and this new trend with Imperial Psykers having access to better powers than Eldar... not cool I say!

New IG Release

So I got a chance this weekend to look at the new IG codex at the Alderwood Mall Games Workshop in Lynnwood, WA. It looks pretty slick. The new command squad orders are a nice touch. I have to admit, as an Eldar player, I can not say I am too happy about the IG getting a fast skimmer as a transport (>.< my wave serpent!). Over all though, it looks like a nice upgrade for IG players.