Eldar vs Thousand Sons & Daemons

Today we played ITC 2000pts game. I had to proxy some models, as currently it's quite difficult to get some models due to pandemic (let's hope this madness ends very soon).

Venoms proxy for Vipers, and Fire Prism for Night Spinner.

Rafał won the roll-of and chose to be an attacker. His horde of Daemons and Thousand Sons extended along whole border of his deployment.

I deployed way more carefully, knowing that disciples of Tzeentch will go first. I tried to hide everything I could. Rafał moved everything forward, and shot with only two units that were in range: Rhino and Land Raider. Havoc launcher did nothing, but Land Rider did some serious damage to Wave Serpent, scoring 4 wounds.

In return I fired all Falcons, Wave Serpent and big unit of Reapers managing to destroy Land Raider. I had some bad rolls, so all of this firepower was necessary. After this game I think I made a mistake. Way better use for this whole firepower would be to fire at other units, leaving Land Raider. It wasn't that much of a threat. Hey, that's why we are playing such games, to make mistakes and learn from them. From the wreckage of huge tank emerged some Rubric Marines. Only one of them died while their transport got destroyed.

My Windriders, Vypers, two small units of Reapers and Night Spinner destroyed enough models from two units of Pink Horrors that rest of them fled to warp, securing me the center of the board. One point can make all the difference in some games :).

Second turn began with Rafał advancing all his army. Of all those units everything but two rolled 6 for advance...

Second unit of Rubrics moved out of their Rhino and advanced forward.

The other flank pressed on as well.

Ahriman flew to the top of one of big buildings at the center of the board. Then he rolled some insane dice, leaving all three Falcons and Wave Serpent almost dead. Rafał's rolls this turn were insanely good.

At the beginning of my second turn I thought I will loose. So much damage to my tanks, only two Windriders left after Daemon Prince's charge, generally speaking things didn't look good. I disembarked all of my Dire Avengers, and moved one unit forward, and second to the objective on my left flank.

After such an agressive turn I knew I had to push the forces of Tzeentch back. It's very rare for the Eldar to be cornered. Holding the line is not a favourite tactic of the Eldar (and it ain't mine as well). As two important characters were close to my lines (Ahriman and Daemon Prince warlord) I moved my tanks and psykers forward to kill both of them. Reapers moved from safe hideouts behind the cover.

After loads of psychic (most of it didn't go off or got denied) and even more shooting both characters were dead, remaining Windriders held another objective and Tzaangors fled due to massive casualities done to them by Reapers. Bikers shot the psyker on the Disk, leaving him on single wound. Then they charged, but didn't kill him. I had to spend 2CP to make them attack again, which finally brought him down.

I not only killed several characters, securing my dominance over psychic phase...

...but also pushed Tzeenth's forces out of my left flank. I think I cought up a bit.

Horrors, Skyfires and Rubric Marines moved towards my right flank. Daemon Prince flew to the center of the board to attack my Dire Avengers. Syll'Esske moved closer to Windriders holding the objective.

At this point I knew that my tanks are quite safe as long as big daemons are ocuppied somewhere else.

Daemon charged and killed two Dire Avengers, Skyfires tried to destroy one of my Venoms, but left it on single wound.

Syll'Esske killed rest of Windriders. Those were the losses I could accept. Tanks killed Prince, Reapers - Skyfires and all my indirect - Horrors. At this point there were only Rubric Marines and Syll'Esske left, so we decided to call it and go home :)

The result was 27 to 14 for the Eldar. Rafał is learning fast, each game is way tougher than the last.

My thoughts about the army are:

- Reapers are very powerfull as long as I'm able to feed my enemy other targets to kill.

- Dire Avengers with Superior Shurikens and Bladestorm are AWESOME. IMO the best troop choice in the game (I guess Space Marines' players would disagree).

- Venoms are not as bad as everyone says, as long as they are Saim-Hann and can shoot on 3+ even after move. Despite that I will get rid of one and bring Windriders to maximum unit size (I'm even considering taking second unit). Till the next time :)

Soup vs Daemons

Today my Soup faced Daemons army (Tzeentch battalion + Slaanesh/Khorne battalion).

Last time I got asked on Eldar facebook group about the list, so this time I'll put mine below:

Drukhari Battalion (Kabal of the Flayed Skull):

- Archon (Huskblade)

- Archon (Huskblade)

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- Venom

- Venom

- Venom

Craftworlds Battalion (CC: Masterful Shots, Expert Crafters):

- Warlock Skyrunner (Warlord)

- Farseer Skyrunner

- Spiritseer (Faolchu's Wing)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 8 Shining Spears + Exarch (Star Lance, Swooping Dive)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

Harlequins Vanguard (Frozen Stars):

- Shadowseer (Neuro Disruptor)

- Troupe Master (Kiss)

- 5 Harlequins (3x Kiss, 2x Caress)

- Death Jester

- Death Jester

- Solitaire

We used the new ITC format. I lost the roll and became the attacker. With hammer and anvil deployment I pushed forward everything but two Archons who kept two objectives in my deployment zone safe.

Rafał, Daemon's general deployed strongly into one corner, a bit worried by three Falcons.

On my first turn I fired three Falcons into doomed and jinxed Keeper of Secrets. Well... He lost 3 wounds. Dice are weird :P. My Troupe moved twice (thanx to the Shadowseer). Of course both advances were amazing, 1 inch each (I even re-rolled one with CP, into 1 of course). It didn't matter, as even with such bad luck they moved 18 inches, and only needed 6 inches charge. After consolidation they jumped straight into enemy screen.

They survived all attacks they got in return thanks to -2 to hit and 3+ inv. Then they piled in and fought again, thanks to the strategem.

Even though they didn't kill much (about 10-12 daemons from few units) I absolutely love them. No other unit does such mayhem among enemy lines. Whole turn 1 by Daemons was focussed on killing them.

After psychic phase that killed my clowns Daemons started to press forward.

Daemon Prince killed Troupe Master, Shadowseer died to few smites and several shots from Flamers. Then Prince charged my Warlock, who not only passed all his saves, but gave three wounds to Daemon in return!

I realised I need to clear the midboard fast. All three units of Dire Avengers disembarked and pressed forward, firing their Catapults, and obliterating about 20 daemons. Falcons fired several shots, killing even more, and wounding Kairos.

Then my Shining Spears (Quickened by Spiritseer) and Solitaire charged into combat.

Solitaire had to hit twice, but killed Kairos.

Spears left second Keeper of Secrets on four wounds.

At this moment we had to end our game (after three turns) due to time limit. Next time I hope we'll have some more time. If we played longer, I probably would win, but barely. Daemons are very difficult enemy for Eldar. It's very rare ocasion when all of my spells can be denied by so many psykers, and I run out of psykers to deny their powers. Huge Daemons and hordes of smaller ones are quite difficult to kill as well.

Till next time :) I think I will show you my first Harlequin models painted quite soon :)

Eldar soup vs disciples of Tzeentch

Today I had a chance to lead my weird army against Thousand Sons. 2000pts ITC game.

My army was built around three detachments. Dark Eldar battalion, Craftworlds spearhead and Harlequin vanguard. It was the first time I used Harlequins, and I like them very much :)

Deployment zone was a bit crowded, but thansk to high mobility of my army my plan was to push all my forces forward very fast.

My three Falcons were stuffed with Dark Reapers to bring them a bit forward up the board.

Actually while building my army I took as many new units as possible. Therefore I fielded new Windriders and Shining Spears. I also gave Autarch on foot a try (re-rolling ones is quite usefull).

Of course I wouldn't be myself if I didn't add at least one plane.

As I'd mentioned earlier I pushed most of my army forward, leaving two Archons holding objectives behind. On my first turn I fired three Falcons and Crimson Hunter Exarch into Vortex Beast, killing it and securing first blood for the Eldar.

I tried to destroy Vindicator as well, but managed to score only single wound.

The hole in Thousand Sons' deployment after the Beast was slain.

Chaos sorcerers unleashed full might of their psychic power, delivering five wounds to my plane and five to one of the Falcons.

In return Falcons obliterated Vindicator.

Gap between both armies got really thin.

Tzangors charged Venom holding one of the objectives, but managed to score only five wounds.

I fired most of my shots into Tzangors, killing the whole unit. Crimson Hunter Exarch shot Arhiman to death.

Windriders fired at Daemon Prince, Shining Speard did the same, leaving it on single wound. Then, Exarch killed Daemon with his lance, and two Spears killed four of Rubric Marines, leaving only the Sorcerer. At the same time Harlequins killed another unit of Marines.

Second Prince killed the Troupe, my brave clowns were no match for his mighty claws.

All in all I won 20:3. I must confess, all my Harlequin units were proxied (two Jesters, Shadowseer, Solitaire and Troupe) but just after the game I bought all those units (except Solitaire, I ordered him some time ago. Sadly GW does not work at the moment, so I have to wait :( ).

When I got home I went back to my paint station, and resumed painting the Ravager.

Archons

Recently I painted Craftworlds Eldar mostly, so it's time for me to get some Dark Eldar done. Here are two of my Archons.

I must admit I built them mainly to be able to field the cheapest Battalion available to Eldar, that is two Archons and three units of Kabalites.

After few games I'd changed my mind. For 61 poits Archons are very, very good. Twice they changed the course of game (although it was blind luck on my side), one survived full round of shooting and charge from Agressors, and second killed Smash Captain like he was regular guardsman.

Of course most of the time they don't do so many epic things, but having such guy behind my lines gives me some edge when enemy tries to block my shooting units with charges. Reroll of 1's for my Drukhari is also very nice to have.

After some thoughts I came up with an idea of total-soup army, built around three detachments, one Drukhari, one Craftworlds and one Harlequins. Probably not so straight forward like my Craftworlds list, but with proper handling it will do it's job. More about that later. Cheers.

Asurmen

First model for Eldar army I used green stuff on. I must admit, my skills got a bit rusty. Anyway, here he is. Mighty Asurmen:

Sadly, Phoenix Lords aren't very popular in this edition (were they ever?). Looking at their profiles and point costs it's easy to understand why. Despite my 20+ years of experience with this game I were unable to make them usefull. All but Asurmen.

His main and most important skill is to give my Aspect Warriors 5++ save (4++ for Dire Avengers). Thanks to that all my Aspect units (and I use quite a lot of them) are a bit safer, expecially if I boost that save with Protect.

Other very important use for Asurmen is as a beatstick. He has 5 attacks with S5, AP-3 dealing D3 wounds. Each wound roll of 6+ makes the target suffer additional D3 mortal wounds. That's some serious damage in CC, expecially in Eldar standards. Of course I will not charge him through the board, but if anyone tries to kill my Reapers in CC, he has to deal with Asurmen as well. And that ain't that easy...

Big Reapers

I'm getting crazy here, cause of the virus. I have to stay home most of the time, all the stores, restaurants, cinemas etc are closed... I spend a lot of time painting, so I can show you today my second unit of Dark Reapers:

8 Reapers plus Exarch with Aeldari Missile Launcher. I plan to use this unit with Asurmen to give them a bit more survivability (I might even put Protect on them, getting 2+/4++). Quite a lot of firepower, but the unit is very expensive. I hope it will be worth it's points :).

Apart from reapers, I just finished two of my Shining Spears:

I want to build more, but ran out of Bright Lances. Hopefully I'll get some soon, but this madness dute to virus may slow this down a bit.

Next in line are 6 Windriders, 3 Falcons and Asurmen. After that I'll have to build and paint two units of Dire Avengers (which I already bought) and my 2000pts army will be fully painted.

As you can see, I've ran out of flowers for my Dark Reapers bases. Sadly, those are difficult to get, so the rest of the infantry will have to wait some time to get their bases finished.

Aspect Warriors

One of two reasons I began playing Eldar (second is how cool their tanks look). Fluff-wise all aspect warriors are so freakin' cool I could play using only them if that were possible. Well... It is possible. Is it worth it? Let's find out.

That messy picture above is my workstation with models I'm currently working on. As you can see, there are only aspect warriors, nothing else. Of course in my army there are some other units, but aspects form at least half of the list.

Let's begin with troops. In this section we have only one aspect unit. Dire Avengers are IMO the best troop choice in Craftworlds army. Not very expensive, with a bit better range than Guardians, better overwarch and some cool options for Exarch (Bladestorm!). If you are seriously thinking about Eldar army, get at least one box of them. I just bought my fourth set, but I think I'll get another three, to fill my second battalion, if I ever need to field two battalions.

Then we have elites. Generally speaking Eldar elites are everything but elites. If that section of codex disappeared most competitive players wouldn't even notice.

Fire Dragons look nice on paper, but when you try to field them you'll see that they are very expensive, die easily and have a weapon that has short range and only one shot per model. Of course, S8, AP-4 and D6 damage looks fine, but in Eldar army there are loads of units that can deliver this kind of punishment without dying from few bolter shots.

Howling Banshees do one thing well, and that's shutting down overwatch. Enemy cannot fire overwatch  against them, and after they are in combat, rest of your units can charge without fear of, say, heavy flamers. For 55pts per unit I think one squad may be good, if you are planning on using many close combat warriors, which I don't recommend. All in all, you can buy and use them (expecially after new sculpts became available) but Banshees aren't first, second or even third pick while building an army.

Striking Scorpions are highly underrated aspect warriors. As a matter of fact I'm planning to get a unit or two. First cool thing is their Exarch, who is quite a killer with his claw. They also can deliver some mortal wounds, and appear via deep strike, which  makes them excelent objective grabbers. Not first, but maybe second choice IMO, but if you asked somebody else, they'd probably say "don't use Scorpions!".

Fast attack section has three aspect units. The worst of them are Warp Spiders. Problem with them is that they are quite easy to killand their weapons are less effective than weapons of other unit for the same points.

Swooping Hawks are much bettrer. Fast, with ability to deep strike and then go back to reserves, way to deliver mortal wounds and gazzilion of shots. Of course those shots aren't very powerfull, but sheer number of dice should do something, expecially if you are targeting GEQ's or something like that.

Last but not least, Shining Spears. They have only one flaw. Official models are ugly. Good thing is, it's quite easy to convert Windriders into Shining Spears. Those aspect warriors are very fast and hard hitting unit. If you doom + jinx their target, chances of survival for that enemy are quite thin. Get at least one unit of 8 + Exarch (of course give that Exarch Star Lance). I even think about building second and third unit, giving me an option to field three maxed units. Probably I won't do it, as I prefer Eldar being highly mobile and shooty, but army based on three huge units of spears would do some serious damage.

In heavy support there is only one aspect unit, but what an unit that is! Dark Reapers are very powerfull long ranged warriors, with very important rule that make them shoot on 3+ no matter what. Exarch may take Aeldari Missile Launcher or Tempest Launcher. The later is very nice, as it allows Exarch to fire indirectly. Get yourself 3 boxes, and build two three-model squads and one nine-model, that's IMO the best way. Reapers and Shining Spears are the best aspect units, for now at least.

The last (but not least) aspect warrior is quite a big one. Crimson Hunter is quite a nice plane, which can be used... If you need 6 planes in your list. If not, use up to three Crimson Hunter Exarchs. Their cost is simmilar, but the things CHE can do are way more destructive to your oponent. Currently he can get either 5++ save (Evade) or ignore move penalty while shooting (Hawkeye). Both are very good, I usually use Hawkeye, but Evade is also good.

Well, that's it. All Aspect Warriors (from codex, no FW entries, as those are unreliable as hell.

Let me go back to painting, I'll post some pictures soon :)