Devil Nacht - Terrifying your Opponent

It's Halloween. I hope everyone enjoys themselves and stays safe tonight (watch out for monsters).

Ive often talked about the "game before the game", and "beating a players moral". Truly terrifying your opponent is often a skill no-one talks about, and most veterans of the game don't even consider. If your opponent is scared to play, even hesitant, you are already starting the game with the advantage.

1. When Players Fail their Moral Checks
2. The Game Before the Game

Check out the links, especially about beating a players moral and Have a Happy Halloween.
(yea Im lazy this morning, but these two links really cover what I wanted to post today, and in more depth).

Tau and Necron Rumors

New or relatively new rumors (about a week old) about new Tau and Necron models. While these are a long way out, the way Dark Eldar and Blood Angels were released, I am excited about any new rumor. Again take everything a huge grain of salt, or maybe even a tea or table spoon of salt.


Tau
New Heavy support platform. Basically immobile deep striked! heavy weapon and crew. Rail and Ion Cannon, and missile launcher are all obvious options here, but nothing solid with the rumor.

Assault Skimmer. Something between size of piranha and hammerhead, fast skimmer open topped, assault on disembark.

Update: Yes, its assault after a flat out move, and has the "drop troops along path" option similar to the storm raven. its supposedly a dedicated transport option for one new unit. (I dont place faith in this last bit, its very rare in current GW systems to see a vehicle kit limited to one unit/role...if GW is trying to sell them they will be available to more than one unit, or be a separate entry unto itself.)

New Drop ship. Not the FW one, but something new. Holds a boatload of fire warriors, or a few battle suits.

New battle suits. Not sure if these are the "next gen" suits or just heavy suits redone with out metal bits.


Necrons
All Immortal based models being redone. Because Destroyers, Lords, etc. were supposedly based on the immortal "chassis" and that has been redone "bigger", its a cascade effect. However, skimmer body base not expect to change.
Immortals possible move to Troops choice.

New Elite options
Pariahs no longer 0-1
Additional C'Tan

Update: This may not actually mean what it sounds like.
plastic Tomb Spyder box to make TS or variant.
New fast attack MC
Pylon may make codex as heavy option


Space Marines
Update: Another interesting rumor that I got back was a new SM kit has been started...similar to the sm captain plastic kit, a SM librarian/chaplain character box. This makes a lot of sense as the existing line of generic librarians/chaplains fail to encompass many of the wargear options in the marine codexes. I see this as a very real possibility, but its a very raw rumor, so it could be a long ways off yet. And instead of a 10 metal blister they can sell a 15-20 box of plastic.

Thanks to Stickmonkey for the rumors

Dark Eldar Tactica - Reaver Jetbikes

Reaver Jetbikes seem to be a little misunderstood. Partially because at first glance their stat lines just seem "OK". What Reavers bring to the table is a very serious advantage on the table top, and capitalizing on it, is not all that difficult.

Reavers have that scary 5+ save everyone is afraid about. In close combat they look like they will get slaughtered, and have a hard time doing much of anything. So I hear a lot of "they might get one shot off before they die horribly to bolter fire or close combat". Well, lets leave noobie land, and get over to how reavers are supposed to be used.

Reavers are able to turbo-boost, and they get an amazing 36" to do so. When turbo-boosting, Reavers draw a line from their starting point to their finishing point. A single non-vehicle unit under this line is hit with D3 S4 AP- hits per Reaver. An upgrade on every third Reaver allows you to get D6 S6 hits. The unit is allowed cover saves as normal. However, if you are simply flying over a unit between armor, or just hidden and not in area terrain, they wont be receiving a  cover save. So a unit of 9 Reavers would be delivering 3d6 S6 hits and 6d3 S4 hits. Averaging around 9 S6 hits and 12 S4. These hits are resolved immediately.

Don't forget that this is done during the movement phase. That means doing 25% casualties, combined with tank shocking raiders, can break units off the board rather quickly. If you do manage to break a unit during the movement phase, don't forget to shoot them and cause another 25% casualties so they will run again during the shooting phase without a chance for another moral check. Yea, that means they all just ran off the board.

Now that you've done your turbo-boosting, during your opponents next shooting phase, you get a 3+ cover save for turbo-boosting. I call that pretty durable. Yes, you might be vulnerable to assault, but don't forget that you get 36" to work with. If you came out of a Webway portal, you now just struck anywhere you wanted, and reached anywhere you want.

Reavers should be turbo-boosting most of the game. You do however have some great weapon upgrades, Heat Lances or Blasters. This makes your Reavers highly vversatile, able to break heavy armor and light infantry with amazing success.

Dark Eldar Tactica Webway Portals

Dark Eldar have many options in the new codex, and it's a wonderful codex. Playing to the Dark Eldar strengths you have several directions to go, and one of my favorites.... Webway Portals.

While you cannot activate one while inside your vehicles, its pretty simple to fly forward, deploy, and activate during the shooting phase instead of shooting. The Webway portal is a 3" dia dome, that must be placed in base contact with it's bearer. Once placed, any non-vehicle units can use the Webway Portal. It acts like a board edge for bringing in reserves, and deepstriking and outflanking units can choose to come in via the webway. It's indestructible and Impassible.

So how far forward can you get activate your Webway Portal. Transport flies forward 12" + Deploy 3" + Activate 3". This puts your board edge possibly 18" forward and only 6" away from the enemy line.

Since only non-vehicle units can use the Webway Portal, lets look at units that make the most efficient use of our portals.

Wyches. We charge out of the webway with haywire grenades. 15 wyches charging into a chimera line should be able to disable pretty much the entire thing. Wyches move 6" fleet forward up to 6" and then assault 6". Yes that means it's possible to reach the opposite board edge.

Hellions and Beastmasters. Emerging from the Webway your reach is up to 24" in assault

Scourges and Reavers are able to move 12" and fire their 18" guns giving you up to a 30" death range. That means if your portal is dead center in the board, you can reach everywhere but the last 4 1/2" of a board edge. Correctly place your two Webway Portals on the board first turn, and there is nothing you cannot get to. Reavers turbo-boosting can absolutely reach anything out of a webway with it's bladvanes and caltrops.

Trueborn, Incubi etc can all move out of a webway, with easy to calculate ranges and effectiveness.

Cronos Parasite Engine and Talos Pain Engine. Want to get these units up quickly into the fray before heavy weapons take them down? The Webway allows an excellent means of getting to a forward position where you can do something effective. Who wouldnt cry as 3 talos come ripping through a webway into the core of your troops.

Using webway portals to quickly get your troops into forward positions for objective grabbing etc, and will be rather shocking for most opponents. Using three you could effectively create an 11" wall of them blocking objectives that you can use as a table edge for your reserves. They will be hard to block in and effectively disable, and multiple webways nearly impossible (even then you have a board edge). Dark Eldar strike hard and fast, the use of webways greatly enhance this, creating a very flexible and dangerous fast army that is able to reach anywhere on the tabletop they choose. Devil Nacht has truly arrived.

Dark Eldar Round Table Part 5 (The Final One / Rules)

Here is the last of the Dark Eldar Round Tables. I hope in the future they continue to do this kind of feature for future codex's. I would love to get a series on Necrons, Tau, Eldar, even the Imperial forces, like Grey Knights, and Sisters of Battle.

Here it is

Creating Wyches from old Mandrakes

Well, I decided that it was time to start somewhere. My old 30 metal mandrakes needed somewhere to go, and they've joined a wych cult. Technically they look more like wyches now in the new model range than they do the new Mandrakes. However, I wanted something besides just saying "Hey these are now wyches".

So first off, I am definitely not the best modeler, and don't have the techniques or the tools. As evident when an old buddy of mine glued his eye lid shut one night. I know it wasn't me, but I'm not much better.

The first thing I did, was take pliers and start bending. The old mandrakes suffer from the single pose syndrome (there are a couple, but they all look alike). So I snapped an arm right off. Dammit.

Couple hours later, arm is back on. 

Basically I'm playing it by ear, and slicing and dicing. Taking bits from Mordhiem, Empire Flagellents, Old Dark Eldar bits and seeing what I can come up with. I've got some filing, a lot of figuring out how to deal with the old paint (which I don't want to have to remove). The models were originally just primered and a couple colors added to them.

I also do not like the Wych hair scenario. Just something about it that bugs me. Especially on the male wyches. Since mandrakes are male, most of my wyches will be male. Perhaps the Hekatrix upgrades will be my females, and keep the hair on them.

Since I have a good idea of what is going to go into my primary lists, it was a good time to start modeling. Get my fingers wet (and stuck) kind of thing. I am having some fun, creating weapons, making sure they have plenty of places for trophies (heads etc), and trying very hard not to bend the metal too far.

I think the old mandrakes will make decent wyches. I'm going to take my time though, and see what I can do.

Dark Eldar Round Table Part 4

Today in the news we have part 4 of our Dark Eldar Round Table interview with Jes Goodwin and Phil Kelly. Part 4 is alot about the exciting new model range, talking about poses, the design process, and "Hey, does it really matter? its dark eldar, lets see it". Here it is.

What Mandrakes Should of Been.

I normally dont like to dwell on what should of been. Mandrakes (not counting the model which is awesome) overall generally suck. They appear to be a design afterthought, "Oops we forgot to do something with Mandrakes". Yes I know I can infiltrate and maybe if lucky get balefire. I enjoy infiltration units, and think there is always a benefit for it, but Mandrakes could of been so much more. Even just giving them the old deployment rules with their updates would of made the mandrakes a better unit than they are stuck with now.

This is the "if they had called me" version of Mandrakes. They never will, but hey, here is my half cent opinion.

Keep everything they upgraded about them as is. Change their point cost to 25pts per model and give them a new ability called Shadow Jump. During their movement phase, if a unit of Mandrakes is in, or partially in area terrain, they may instead of moving, select a spot within 24" (it is possible to scatter beyond the 24" range) that is also inside area terrain. They may jump to this location. Roll the scatter dice as if they are deepstriking and move them to this new location. If a "hit" is rolled, the mandrakes may now assault the round they jumped. Note that any model that cannot appear due to impassible terrain or another unit are lost to the shadows and removed from play.

Dark Eldar Round Table part 3 (Dark Eldar Background)

In the latest news, here is part three of the Dark Eldar Round Table with Jes Goodwin and Phil Kelly. Scroll down to check out the last two if you missed them.

Denizens of Commorragh (Asdrubael Vect)

Asdrubael Vect is the Supreme Overlord of Commorragh. As such, you would expect a lot to come with him. We all love the old slave girls that came with the model, and as of yet, no new model is in the works (so we hear). The old Dias of Destruction was a cool concept, the dais being able to fight in close combat with av14 pretty much all around. Now, as I am sure we all have heard, he comes without his Dais of Destruction. If you want it, get ready to pay out the rear an additional 200 points.

Asdrbuael Vect is expensive. We are talking Mephiston expensive. Yes he is tough. WS8 BS8 S3 T3 W4 I8 A5 Ld10 Sv4+. He comes with a Shadow Field, ghostplate armor, splinter pistol, plasma grenades, and haywire grenades. He also comes with obsidian orbs. These are 12" S10 Ap3 Assault 1 blast weapons that heal  Vect's wounds with each he delivers to his foes. The orbs roll to wound against the leadership of the target instead of its toughness, and models without a leadership value are not effected. His close combat weapon is The Scepter of the Dark City, which is a power weapon that always wounds on a 3+.

Vect comes with the standard abilities of Night Vision, Fleet, Power from Pain, Independant Character, and Fearless. He also has preferred enemy against Eldar and Dark Eldar, and comes with a special rule called Master Tactician. Master Technician allows an army with Vect to seize the inititive on a 4+.

The Dais of Destruction as mentioned earlier is expensive. It is a Av13 on all sides and comes with 3 Dark Lances. It otherwise acts as a raider. You must start Asdrubael Vect on the raider along with 9 other models. Note that you do not get the aerial assault rules when moving and shooting your lances. (no moving 12" and firing everything). Its slow, but hey it has three lances and Av13 all the way around. There are a few lists I can see this working out well with, but most of the time, spending almost 500 points for Vect and his transport are a little much. The rule of where you have to start him in his transport, kind of puts a damper on the flexiblity of spending this many points.

Will I use Vect? Probably not. I dont really see how he can be efficient in most scenarios. There is the possibility that using Vect in an alpha strike style list will help with his Master Tactician. Even two hundred points for his Dais isn't miserable in that kind of straight up list. Dark Eldar are not a blunt instrument, so I will probably leave simple alpha strike lists with Vect to other people.

Where to take your Venom transports.

Someone's Nicely converted Venom.

Here we have this wonderful new transport loaded with two splinter cannons, and all I keep hearing from people is to throw wracks on them, or take wracks and keep the wracks in the backfield for objective holding. Now I while I dont think this is a horrible idea, it does kind of defeat the point for me. Remember that dark eldar cannot take a dedicated transport unless the troops can actually fit on the transport. So no taking 10 wracks and giving them a Venom that can only hold 5. Yes, you can take 5 wracks attach an Independent character to them for the Pain Token, and then detach round one etc.

Wracks are a great new unit to have as a troop choice. They can get up to two excellent weapons, liquefiers. S4 APd6 template weapons. To me this means get them up into the field where they can use these. Other than that they dont have a gun. Once again, get them up into the field to use them. Letting them sit in the backfield to just sit is a waste of points. So are wracks good on a venom? Not unless you really are moving them forward on the thing and 5 wracks are just not enough in my opinion. They are cheap though.

Wyches or Bloodbrides? I wont spend much time on this one. Like the old codex, I generally dont beleive wyches work well in tiny units of 5. 10+ and your good. So no venom for them in my books. A wych army list however might have spare units available, or if you are using them for haywire rd1 assaults.

Incubi? Possibly if you only want 5. Some of us might be going with this option.

If anyone knows where its from, post, Id like to credit

Trueborn? Here is a good idea. It however makes your venom and its crew a serious target. With only 5 trueborn flying on an open top Av10 vehicle, you are going to lose them. If you can accept that, then take em.

Warriors. Here we go. With 5 warriors we can still take a blaster. Then we upgrade one of the warrior to a sybarite, take a blast pistol, and we are good. Against most opponents this reduces their target priority, and you still get two S8 AP2 weapons to do some damage. This seems to be the best layout for getting your venom transport. As long as you take other more durable troop selections and only 1 or 2 warriors choices with the venom. I will be taking two units like this, it gives you good striking range with tank bustin weaponry and great anti-infantry from the venom.

Other suggestions or opinions on how to field the Venom?

Dark Eldar Round Table Part 2 (Video on Dark Eldar Background)

Part 2 of the Dark Eldar round table.

Dark Eldar were the original Eldar, leaving Craftworlders to be just transients, homeless bums wandering around looking for handouts. Dark Eldar were also the green eldar, meaning they spent their time recycling souls throughout the galaxy. Highly misunderstood, and as such, deemed evil. Torturing?, well we had to make sure each soul inside was worth saving.

Without any real background besides "Hey we're evil" it was fun for me to throw down some good one liners for all these years. Before you go and throw some of my dry humor around down at your local gamestore, please remember that telling long time eldar players this, tends to piss them off and create long arguements and many quotations from various eldar books and lore. Just smile and call them transients again, and remind them that dark eldar recycle souls, while craftworlders tend to pollute the galaxy while flying around in their floating garbage piles (full of dead souls).

Yesterday we were treated with Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwins take on the origins of the dark city Commorragh and the Fall of the Eldar race. Now we truly know why the dark eldar are so pushed towards evil. Here is installment 2.

Denizens of Commorragh (Archon)

The Archon is and always has, since it's arrival, been one of the most feared close combat leaders in the game. Since Dark Eldar were my first army, I was exceptionally taken with how well it did. In fact, I had often left my archon drugged OD'd, laying face first on the broken battlefield beneath his reaver, quivering from drug overdoses. It was off to re-hab to drink down the souls from the latest victory and then back to realspace to repeat the process. I was sure back then Commorragh had specialized drug rehabs specifically for Archons.

Well, those days are over. Archons no longer use Reavers, and no longer can we take so many hits of the drugs that we collapse. Don't worry though, we have new addictions now for the over zealous archon who wants to live life on the edge.

WS7 BS7 S3 T3 W3 I7 A4 Ld10 Sv5+ Still a great stat line. We come with a pistol, plasma grenades, and close combat weapon. Power wise, we get Night Vision, Fleet, Power from Pain, and Independent Character.

Your archon starts off cheap and has an excellent selection of weapons and wargear to choose from.  You can chang out your splinter pistol and/or close combat weapon. Here is what you can take. The first and foremost option that everyone should be talking about is the Blaster. A full blown Blaster. Nice. I am sure most people will be doing this route. Other options include a venom blade, blast pistol, power weapon, Agonizer, electrocorrosive whip, and huskblade. You'll quickly note that on the charge you can get 6 attacks pretty easily.

Wargear. You get lots, and can just pick and choose here. Options are Haywire grenades, ghostplate armor, combat drugs, soul-trap, djin blade, clone field, phantasm grenade launcher, shadow field, and webway portal. Very customizable.

If you are fielding units without grenade options, take a phantasm grenade launcher. If you want portals, you got em. Concerned about monsterous creatures, take a venom blade and huskblade (best of both worlds).

Dont forget to add in your Djin Blade. This gives two additional power weapon attacks every round of combat. Roll these seperately, if doubles are rolled, the blade rebels and automatically strikes the bearer. Woot, I have my drugs. Oh yea, I can still take combat drugs to a pre-game bonus. So it is very possible to get 9 attacks on the charge with your archon. Taking a soul-trap, it is very possible to get your archon up to S6 even S10.

Dont forget your shadow field. Make sure you start joined up with some wracks, so you can take a pain token with you at the start of the game. That will give you Feel No Pain, and go to town.

The Archon is a close combat nightmare with great weapon choices (taking a blast pistol or blaster). You will see him on the battlefield a lot, especially if you are facing me.

Dark Eldar Round Table with Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwin

In the news today, Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwin talk Dark Eldar background.

Dark Eldar Inventory

Well, it was time. I knew I had to do it, but I've been avoiding it. I needed a count of what I actually own in my Dark Eldar Inventory since I plan on converting the new and the old, to really customize my dark eldar.

First off, they are in worse shape that I had hoped. A lot of broken models. A ton of bits. A raider not even with the shrink wrap broken from about 10 years ago, and sprues of unmade Dark Eldar. Several moves, getting married, having kids, and only trying to focus my collection towards my Imperial Guard has left what was once my primary army, a complete disaster.

I also ended up with a small 2500-3000 point Blood Angel army, but thats pretty small compared to my Imperial Guard and Dark Eldar.

No reason to post pics on my old fliers that will be converted into Venoms, or any custom jetbikes. Here is just the over-all tally. Consider any pics to be my new "Before" pics. Someday a few keen "After" pics should make a nice comparison.

Here is what I currently have.
110 Kabalite Warriors. Basic troops, no special weaponry, cept a couple sybarites in it.
10 Kabalite Warriors with Blasters
10 Kabalite Warriors with Dark Lances
6 Kabalite Warriors with Splinter Cannons. (I have more of these, just not put together. approx 6-10 more
10 Raiders with Dark Lances (one of which is still in it's original shrink wrap from 10 years ago or so)
3 Ravagers ( I also have tons of Disintegrators that I had purchased seperately)
2 Venoms (my old fliers)
3 Haemonculi (in various conditions)
3 Archons (one was a custom Asdrubael Vect before such a model existed)
12 1/2 Incubi
13 Wyches with at least one of each custom wych weapon they had back then
5 Warp Beasts
30 Mandrakes ( I will be customizing these somehow into wyches, since they now look more like them than they do mandrakes. Did I mention mandrakes kind of suck?)
3 Talos
10 Wracks (these are old Grotesques. I also have lots of zombie and flagellents not being used so that I can make maybe 20 more)
14 Scourges 8 with splinter cannons, 4 with Dark Lances, 2 Solarites. Wow, no standard weapons on these.
15 Reavers I think there are a total of 6 blasters for these.
2 Hellions (guess I will probably customize these into Beastmasters)
1 Drazhar Master of Blades
1 Lilith
1 Urien Rakarth
Tons and tons of bits and parts of models, including some weird skyboard I ended up from somewhere.

Denizens of Commorragh (Ravager)

Talking about an advance in technology for the Dark Eldar in 5th edition. The Ravager will see lots of playtime on the fields of battle. You can order this vehicle now, as it is part of the second wave of models released by GW. It is an excellent choice for your Dark Eldar lists, so lets take a look at it.

The Ravager is a BS4 F11 S11 R10 Fast, Skimmer, and Open Topped. It comes with Night Vision and Aerial Assault (can fire everything moving at cruising speed 12"). It has 3 Dark Lances and a menagerie of options. It's cheap. For the low point cost its hard to argue it's efficiency for the tabletop.

Being able to move 12" definitely protects you against assault (you can move out of the way, and 6's needed to hit). Where Ravagers will crumble is to a barrage of heavy weapon fire. Long Fangs, Hydras etc can very easily and quickly make short work of your heavy armored Ravager as well as pretty much any Dark Elder vehicle.

The Dark Lances may be freely exchanged for Disintegrators. I personally don't like this here, but if your lists design calls for it, I could possibly see it. If you are looking at this option, take a close look at the Razorwing. The Ravager gets the usual Flickerfield and Nightshield options as well.

Unlike either the Razorwing or the Voidraven, the Ravager gets a ton of vehicle upgrades that might make the Ravager your weapon of choice. Shock Prow, Torment Grenade Launchers, Enhanced Aethersails, Retrofire Jets, Chain Snares, Grisely Trophies, and Envemoned Blades gives you a great deal of flexibility to customize it's role. These upgrades are amazing low in their cost.

I can really see the Ravager fitting the roles Dark Eldar players are looking for on the tabletop. At the moment, it is not as sexy as our Jetfighters and Bombers, but none-the-less I will be using these on the tabletop. Three Ravagers quickly field for 315pts with very mobile 12" firing platform.

Grisly trophies on one, could very easily make sure that any backfield objectives don't go anywhere (leadership re-rolls within 12") while the Ravager lays down a hail of fire. They can deepstrike with retrofire jets, or if we take a special character, and fire everything when they appear. If you already have a very heavy Lance list, fielding a Ravager with 3 Disintegrators would give you 9 S5 AP2 shots.

Will I take the Ravager over the other more sexy heavy support choices? In some lists yes. I am very taken with the razorwing and voidraven, as are probably most Dark Eldar players, so I will probably be fielding these over ravagers for the first few months. (once I build them). The Ravager should however see a lot of action on the tabletop. It is quick, efficient, flexible, and can provide a hail of Dark Lance fire to support your army.

Denizens of Commorragh (Compilation Guide for the Dark Eldar Codex)

Ive got enough of these going that it was time to post a single location that you can quickly link up to the rest of them. Nothing I hate worse than trying to go clumsily navigating through windows looking for information.

I am slowly moving through each unit in the codex. This is an exploration of what is in there, and I often come to new revelations and insight as I am writing about each unit. Understanding and playing a new codex that is so far off from our standard type (new guns wargear etc never seen), takes time.

For instance, before the post I had on Razorwing Jetfighters, I believed the missiles were the only purpose of these vehicles. I am now really digging on the idea that the razorwing is extremely good for its points. Equipped with its 4 missiles it gets alot of large templates, but it also can have its other weapons exchanged for a splinter cannon and two disintegrators. This turns it into an infantry killing machine. 12 shots, 6 of which are S5 AP2. It is like a venom on steroids after it loses it's passengers (the missiles are a razorwings passengers). I think we will see lots of people using these in the near future. (I have updated the old post).

Scourges
Kabalite Trueborn
Mandrakes
Incubi
Hekatrix Bloodbrides
Drazhar - Master of Blades
Hellions
Haemonculi
Venom Transports
Razorwing Jetfighters
Voidraven Bombers

Denizens of Commorragh (Voidraven Bomber)

Here he have the ultimate in weapon system technologies for the Dark Eldar. (personally it make me salivate for what the eldar will have in 5th). The Voidraven is heavily armored with heavy weaponry and missile options.

These bombers will be the pinnacle of your dark eldar army whether they go into your lists or not. Personally I would stay away from the Forgeworld models at this moment, because if you are going to proxy a model for something else, why spend so much. I will be building one of these, I just haven't got my bearings yet with the new codex.

The Voidraven is an armored BS4 F11 S11 R10 Fast Skimmer. It gets both Aerial Assault and Supersonic abilities. (can fire everything at cruising and can go flat out 36"). It can also Deepstrike and has Night Vision.

The Voidraven comes with two Void Lances. These are a S9 AP2 36" assault 1, lance weapon. They don't come with any missiles, but you have the option of purchasing up to 4 of them. Here is what you can get. The base cost here is higher than what you pay per missle for the Razorwing Jetfighter.

Monoscythe Missile S6 AP5 Assault 1, large blast, one shot
Necrotoxin Missile SX AP5 Assault 1, large blast, poisoned 2+, pinning, one shot
Shatterfield Missile S7 AP- Assault 1, large blast, one shot. Can re-roll failed to wound rolls.
Implosion Missile S * AP2 Assault1, blast, one shot *models hit take a wounds test or suffer instant death regardless of toughness. cover and invul saves can be taken. This missle is expensive.

Upgrade options. You still get nightshields, and flickerfields as possible options.

The Voidraven Bomber can get expensive quick. However, as dark eldar get used to spending 200pts per unit these will find themselves into more lists. The bomber fits a unique role on the table top for us, as it comes with the super powerful void lances. These should really rip up some armor. Not only that, but they can unleash their 4 missiles in a single volley. Smacking down 4 large blast templates per Bomber should bring your alot of pleasure on the tabletop. Once unloaded, you still have two Voidlances to wreck havoc the rest of the game.

I highly doubt the Implosion Missile will get much use due to its small blast and high cost. At the moment I can only see using them in a list that already has two other Voidravens or Razorwings with full missile loads. This way you would be able to use one of them to drop 4 implosion missiles directly into something that is going to hurt. I just find these missiles to high situational. However, the terror factor once again comes into play, and trying to scare your opponent into making mistakes is something dark eldar will excel at in the hands of a competent player.

I will be making a pair of Voidraven Bombers. Not for the excercise or fun of modeling, but becuase of the terror I believe you will be able to seed on the tabletop. Dont get me wrong, I like modeling something unique like this, but the glee of fielding the ultimate weapon in Dark Eldar technology is simply too hard to pass up.

Denizens of Commorragh (Razorwing Jetfighters)

We get our first non-open topped vehicle. We have an image of what it might look like, so all you modelers out there, lets see what you've got. I know I will be working on mine.

The Razorwing Jetfighter comes with two darklances and a twin-linked splinter rifle. It also comes with 4 one shot only Monoscythe Missles. The missles are a 48" S6 AP5 assault 1, large blast, one shot weapon. The cool thing is we get 4 of them with no additional cost.

You are a BS4 F10 S10 R10 fast, skimmer. It has the standard night vision, along with Deepstrike, Aerial Assault, and Supersonic abilities. Aerial Assault allows it to fire everything moving at cruising speed, including coming in from a deepstrike. While Supersonic allows it to move flat out up to 36".

Other missle options include replacing a monoscythe missle with the following for 5 pts each
Necrotoxin Missle SX AP5 Assault 1, large blast, poisoned 2+, pinning, one shot
Shatterfield Missle S7 AP- Assault 1, large blast, one shot. Can re-roll failed to wound rolls.

The Dark Lances can be changed out with Disintegrators for free, and the splinter rifle can be upgraded to a splinter cannon. Next you get flickerfields and nightshields as options.

When it comes down to points, the Ravager appears like it will be more efficient and the Voidraven more effective with it's voidlances. If you are using Razorwings, you are using them primarily for the large blast missles and for anti-infantry. Voidravens pay alot for the same missles and comes with none. The Razorwing gets 4 monoscythes standard, and swapping out for other types is cheap.

Having a very low armor value, it will be interesting to see how people attempt to use these on the field. You can literally move 12" and unload every missle you got (4 large blasts shots in one rd). Firing them off in pairs or all at once seems the most reasonable depending on your opponent and situation.

I really like the idea of taking two of these and unloading a total of 8 large blasts S7 Shatterfield Missles into a tightly packed area. So tactically deepstriking them or reserving your Razorwings sounds like a decent tactic. Razorwings could also fall very well into an alpha strike list, just dont expect your razorwings to survive long. Precision bombing is a very new tactic for dark eldar, and one we will have to get used to. After the payload is dropped, you still are very nicely armed with dual Dark Lances.

(Edited) I am now really digging on the idea that the razorwing is extremly good for its points. Equiped with its 4 missles it gets alot of large templates, but it also can have its other weapons exchanged for a splinter cannon and two disintegrators. This turns it into an infantry killing machine. 12 shots, 6 of which are S5 AP2. It is like a venom on steriods after it loses it's passengers (the missiles are it's passengers). Can we say dead marine squad. I think we will see lots of people using these in the near future.
What do you think?

The Return of Dark Lance Spam (24 Lances for 1245 pts)

I am going to blame the Internet for this fail. We have been hearing that Dark Lance spam lists are gone by the way of the dinosaur. I had assumed this was the case. Once again I believed in the Internets ability to see something very simple. The truth is darklight spam is not only here, it is much nastier than before.

I do alot of what I call "List Building Exercises". No I am not doing pull ups (maybe I should be). Instead I am working on finding the boundaries of what can be done with a codex. That being said, I attempted my first Dark Eldar exercises. The sad part is that it took me about 5 minutes to find this list once I sat down to do it.

Curse me, call me names. This is how you do 24 Dark Lances in 1245 pts. I was able to get 30 lances at 1665 pts.

The Base. (24 lances for 1245) You will need to build on top of this base to make your list.

Elite

3x Kabalite Trueborn (5) with 2 Dark Lances and Raider = 170 each
total lances = 9
Fast Attack
3x Scourges (5) with 2 Dark Lances = 140 pts
total lances = 6
Heavy Support
3x Ravager with 3 dark lances = 105 each
total lances = 9
Totals are 1245 pts and 24 Dark Lances

Now simply add in what you want. Personally I wouldn't go this direction but we must take the exercise to the logical conclusion, so lets add warriors with raiders.
Troops
6x Warriors (10) with 1 Dark Lance and Raider = 175pts
total lances = 12

This gives us 2295 pts and 36 Dark Lances. It also gives us 9 Raiders and 3 Ravagers with 90 infantry. Look familiar?

Another options is full 10 man scourge units. Here you get 30 lances for 1665. Then you need troops etc.

One thing to remember is that there is alot you can do with this. You don't have to add more lances than the base. You can then add in the Baron, and take massive Hellion troops, or Haemonculi and wrack troops w/raiders or venoms. Even going the wych route with the base firepower behind you would make an interesting list. Oh yea, you can even take Asdrubael Vect and Baron Sathonyx for a +1 to your deployment and a 4+ seize the initiative, there is that many points left over after the base.

This gives you a good understanding on what you can do with lances. It is not a very playable list yet. It's just the first step in figuring out how the new codex will work.

Comments?

Denizens of Commorragh (Venom Tranports)

Everyone is excited about the Venom. If you have been buried in some dark hole, that is no excuse for not knowing about this release.

As far as I can research, I've found that the venom was originally a Harlequin transport in an experimental codex by Gav Thorpe a long time ago. I hadn't read it until recently, but the venom was based on a Viper hull that the Harlequin used to navigate the webway. It has definitely changed over this long time, and now we have a sleek new transport for the Dark Eldar.

First off, I am excited, because back when VDR (vehicle design rules) came out in 3rd edition, I was quick to make some Dark Eldar Fliers I called Wraiths. I used the Viper as my base, and built two of them. This gives me the ideal base model to break down a little and create two very quick and easy Venoms.

Lets look at them. BS4 F10 S10 R10. Vehicle open topped, fast, and a skimmer with night vision. It can carry 5 models, and alot of Dark Eldar units are designed to incorporate this. They come with a twin linked spliter rifle and a splinter cannon. Also built into the base model is a flickerfield. (5+ invul save).

Pic from the experimental codex

Options start off with replacing the twin linked splinter rifle with a splinter cannon. I highly suggest doing this. It gives you a pretty cheap transport with 12 poison (4+) shots at BS4. You can move 12" and fire both of these weapons. Next you can upgrade with the following, retrofire engines, chain snares, grisly trophies, envenomed blades, and night shields.

My old Wraithe fliers

I highly suggest swaping out the splinter rifle for the splinter cannon. For the around the price of a chimera, you get 12 shots. Other than that, the options are nice to allow for some flexibility in your list.

Make sure you note that with this codex, you cannot take a dedicated transport if the squad they come with cant fit in it. Dark Eldar are not marines.

What is nice about Dark Eldar transports is that the Venom is highly anti-infantry and carries 5. The Raider is anti-mech and carries 10. With this in mind, my intitial thoughts are to bring in at least 2 venoms in my lists flying alongside several raiders. What a nice combination of transports we have. I was almost crying with glee, almost.

Use these. You will like them.

Denizens of Commorragh (Haemonculi)

Haemonculi are another one of my favorite units. I know I have to put away my custom Haemonculi Jetbikes, but the new codex really has done some wonderful things so I don't care. Haemonculi are the carriers of our starting Pain Tokens, so I am feeling that 1-3 of these twisted creatures will be in most lists. Lets see what they have evolved into for 5th edition.

You may choose 1-3 Haemonculi per HQ choice. One of which may be upgraded to a Haemonculus Ancient. If you choose to have a Haemonculus as an HQ choice, you can take Wracks as troop choices. This provides a very distinct and different look to the army, and some unique options which I will get into later.

Their stat line goes something like this. WS4 BS4 S3 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld8 Sv6+. An Ancient adds 1 to WS, BS, W, I, and Ld. You can only take one ancient per HQ choice.

Your Haemonculus comes with a splinter pistol and a close combat weapon. They are independent characters, have power through pain and altered physique (meaning they start the game with a pain token). They get an excellent selection of weapons, including venom blades, stinger pistols, mindphase gauntlets, flesh gauntlets, agonizers, huskblades, and electrocorrosive whips.

Haemonculi also get a large selection of Arcane Wargear. These will be alot of fun. Here is what we can choose from. Animus Vitae, casket of flensing, liquefier gun, soul-trap, vexator mask, scissorhand, archangel of pain, hexrifle, shattershard, crucible of malediction, orb of dispair, darkgate, and webway portal. As you can see, you can really get into customizing your haemonculus with a variety of weapons and wargear.

Arcane Wargear of note. The Animus Vitae is a special close combat weapon that if you kill or destroy one or more enemy models (including vehicles) you may take a leadership test at the end of the round. If you pass, you gain a pain token immediately.

What will be interesting is how the Haemonculi work with Sharing the Pain. Sharing the Pain is an army wide rule that basically means that if an independent character with a pain token joins another unit, they pool their pain tokens. When they split up again, you must split the pain tokens as evenly as possible, with the owning player deciding where remaining tokens go. This brings up the possibility of what I am calling "Delivering the Pain", basically handing off pain tokens at the beginning of the game on your first turn.

Example. Haemonculi joins a unit of Incubi at the start of the game (deployment). Game starts. Round 1 your Haemonculi leaves the incubi. Now you would split the pain tokens. There is only one, so someone is getting 0 and the other will get 1. Obviously you simply hand off your pain token to the Incubi, you fly off towards the enemy. Or better yet, a different haemonculi joins them on their raider, and they all take off. This could conceivably give you Feel no Pain and Furious Charge round 1. It could work in reverse as well, with units like Wracks who have a pain token, handing them off to Archons etc. I almost expect this to be FAQ'd. We will see, but for now it looks legal. 

To sum it up, I expect to see Haemonculi in almost every list. It is the quickest and fastest way to take advantage of Power through Pain. It allows for Wracks to become a troop choice, giving you variety and a more durable troop option. They also are no slouches when it comes to close combat, due to the wide variety of weaponry available to them.You will be able to unleash nasty arcane wargear with Haemonculi, and I cannot wait to field them. The only problem is in figuring out your other HQ choice.

Comments?

Denizens of Commorragh (Hellions)

There is alot of internet ravings about these units, so lets take a look at what they are.

Hellions are jump infantry and come in groups of 5-20. They get combat drugs, fleet, power through pain, hit and run, and a hellglaive (gives +1A and +1S). BS4 WS4 S3 T3 I6 1A Sv5+. The Hellglaive means they are going to get that extra close combat attack with 3 on the charge, all at S4. Couple tokens giving furious charge, or a lucky roll on drugs, and that 4 becomes a 5. Over-all not a bad stat line.

Each skyboard is equipped with Splinter Pods underneath. These are an 18" assault 2, poison 4+ AP5 weapon. This will allow for a nice hail of poisoned splinter weapon fire, especially from large squads.

They have no weapon upgrade for the unit, but really they are not going to need it. This is an anti-infantry unit, capable of getting up to S5 even S6 if lucky. Think of it like this. Your 10 man squad is charged by 20 hellions. That's 40 poisoned splinter pod shots. If you survive that, they charge, getting 60 attacks on the charge at S4 base. Even your assault terminators are going to have issues with that. The visual would be very cinematic.

The Helliarch is the units leader getting an extra attack and extra leadership. The Helliarch also gets the units upgrades which include the Phantasm Grenade Launcher allowing for both defensive and assault grenades. Weapon upgrades include venom blade, power weapon, agonizer, and the one item getting alot of blog time.... the Stunclaw.

The Stunclaw allows you on a successful hit and run to grab an opponents independent character that is in the same combat, and pull him with you where ever you hit and run to. To do this you need to roll a 2+, then move 3d6 in the direction of your choosing and place as many of your hellions as you can in base contact with the character. Combat then resumes next round. How fun would that be. Poor Vulcan. lol.

Remember on your hit and run it is an initiative test to run. A 6 always fails no matter what your initiative is.

Hellions are nice, and also the cheapest of the fast attack choices. Taking the Baron Santhonyx, your Hellions suddenly can become troop choices. This option really is wonderful, and is where I personally would take them. I can see lots of options with Hellions. As far as all the criticism goes that Hellions are truly the best choice here, I tend to see them as having a much different role on the tabletop than Scourges, Beastmasters, or Reavers.

The primary weakness of Hellions will become very apparent as soon as people hit the table top with them, bolter fire. Ranks of bolter fire will shred waves of hellions with their 5+Save. Playing Hellions, you will have to cross that 24" distance before the getting rapid fired upon, especially if your squads are not large. New to average players will lose alot of Hellions. If you are afraid or whine when losing models in the game (we all know who you are), Hellions are not for you. Get yourself a pain token though, and you suddenly become a lot more durable, but who cares they are hellions.

A Hellions job is to scream across the board into enemy infantry. They are Anti-infantry, and tricksters with independent characters makes your opponent literally scared about what might be about to happen to his pretty characters. Keeping your opponent scared is what Dark Eldar are all about, and GW did something good here.

I like Hellions, and definitely will be trying them out on the tabletop. Combat Drugs are nice, but really cannot be counted on. Random dice rolls for abilities are not one of my favorite concepts, even if almost all of the abilities are good. Using them as a fast moving troop choice in a large pack really sticks out for me. As for taking them as a fast attack choice, I haven't really decided until I get to creating playable lists.

Advance Orders for the Second Wave. Look Webway Portals!!!

Advance orders are up for the second wave of Dark Eldar due to arrive November 20th. This includes Mandrakes, Hellions, Urien Rakarth, and the Ravager.

Todays suprise though wasnt these new items, it was a Dark Eldar Webway Portal available for a limited time only. It's three dimensional, pre-painted and not going to last long. Place these orders as soon as possible. I am.

Denizens of Commorragh (Drazhar - Master of Blades)

The Denizens of Commorragh series is a close look at what is about to hit the shelves, The Dark Eldar. I will at some point create a set of links so that they are easier to navigate, but for now, just look under this months archive halfway down on the right column of the blog. We have already visited Scourges, Kabalite Trueborn, Mandrakes, Incubi, and Hekatrix Bloodbrides (with Wyches). Next up is one of the special characters of the Dark Eldar, Drazhar - Master of Blades.

Drazhar has been one of my favorite characters in 40k for a very very long time. I really cant wait to see how they update this model into the current model line.

One of the things I like most about Drazhar now is that they expanded upon his enigmatic background. It's something you will have to read. That aside, lets look at his evolution into 5th edition.

His stat line is incredible. WS7 S4 T4 W3 I7 A4 Ld10 Sv2+. Wow. He is relatively expensive, but so is everything else Dark Eldar. Built into this cost is onslaught and murderous assault as well as Demi-Klaives. That's 45 points of upgrades for a normal Klaivex (incubi leader). Given that he will or should gather pain tokens quickly, is he expensive? Not really in my opinion. (I wont post the points because this is not a codex, but a review).

Drazhar is a close combat wizard. He slices he dices, and for a low monthly installment he can be yours. (sorry for the dry infomercial humor, couldn't help it).

The Master of Blades is fleet, has power through pain, eternal warrior, is fearless (and gives to an incubi unit he joins), and is an independent character. What he does not do, is give army wide bonus's for list synergy. I dont buy it that he doesn't fit into the synergy of Dark Eldar. Dark Eldar have the nastiest close combat leaders and characters, and he fits right into it. Backed up by the frightening firepower of Dark Eldar, Incubi are able to cut through enemy squads and spread terror into your opponent. Drazhar pushes that terror beyond the average players tolerance. Lets look at it.

He has eternal warrior, and makes an Incubi unit that he joins fearless. He is S4 and T4. Getting a pain token will not be hard here, and any real str6 or higher shots that hit your unit will be absorbed by Drazhar with his 2+ and soon to be FNP 4+. He will be a serious driver in lists that utilize incubi. His Demi-Klaives can either be used to give him 2 additional attacks at S4, or +2S. A second token giving furious charge allowing Drazhar to strike at S7  with 5 power weapon attacks on the charge or S5 with 7 attacks on init8. Imagine him bouncing between two forward striking Incubi squads, driving hard into enemy lines, with darklight weaponry shooting overhead. That is synergy.

Murderous assault allows you to nominate an independent character at the start of each round. This gives you preferred enemy when attacking that model.

Riposte. If he makes an armor save on a 6+, he gets an immediate attack at base str back at the unit that struck him in close combat.

Darting Strike. This allows Drazhar to move around in the assault phase while in combat. He can move around in the same combat where there is room to place him, as long as he maintains coherency with any unit he has joined. Meaning he goes after those Independent Characters with a vengeance.

Overall, just throwing Drazhar into a list will probably be failure. What he is, is not just a point and click character. I feel that a well designed list with him built into it, will utilize Drazhar and his incubi to terrorize your opponents and slice them up into little bits. I like him alot. I dont yet know where he will fit into my lists, but I have a feeling I will be playing with him in several lists. Incubi and Drazhar will not work for everyone, but I think you will see him in some very nasty lists.

Anyone else have comments?

German and Italian Gamesday take 2 (pics)

Well, it was kind of bad for me to just think in terms of Dark Eldar, but hey I'm a little obsessive and Dark Eldar on my brain. If you havent seen the dark eldar pics, they are here. German and Italian Dark Eldar pics

There was alot of cool looking mini's, a life size chaos marine, and a bunch of other 40k related things to look at. Here are some of them.

German and Italy Gamesday (some new Dark Eldar pics)

It doesnt appear there was any new information that was given out at the German and Italy Gamesdays. What they did do though was show us a whole bunch of new dark eldar models. They are the same types we have seen, just more of them with different paint schemes.  I thought I would share some of what I dug up.

I really like seeing the Hellions, Mandrakes, and Ravager models all done up. I have quite a few more pics, it seems that people at the German Gamesday took a ton photos. They are all mixed in together here.

If you were there and have something you would like to share about it, by all means, drop me an email or comment.