The Evolution of Farseer LahnSeiraPartecion of the Alaitoc

I have been wargaming for many years before I got sucked into the realm of 40k back in 2000. It all happened rather quickly. Went to an awesome gamestore in Singapore. Admired the nice demo table with painted Dark Eldar and Black Templars on it. Played a nice beginnner's 4+ game, and went home with the Eldar Battleforce and Codex.

When I got home, I quickly assembled and painted the contents of the battleforce. It was an awesome value - 20 Guardians, 1 Vyper, 3 Jetbikes and a Falcon. When some days later I finally got my 3rd Edition rulebook from Ebay, I learnt very fast that I needed a HQ - in particular, I needed a Farseer.

I really did not like the antler-sporting seers of 3rd Ed, and as my personal resources at that time were far more restricted than they are now, went about to kit-bash my own Farseer (clearly being broke is a great mother of innovation). One of my brothers had a spare mage model from the old Talisman box, and with bits from the Guardians, head from a Vyper gunner, and various other bits (the shuriken catapult was pieced together from 6 different bits), I managed to come up with my very first Farseer, christened Farseer Lahn.

This very first Farseer Lahn was running around with his tiny but ever-growing Guardian force. Off Ebay and friends, I managed to get more Vypers, jetbikes, and most crucially, Rangers.

In 2001, I entered my very first 40k tournament in Singapore. And very quickly had to convert my Farseer on jetbike. Technically, the model used was actually a metal Warlock. I cut him in half, and glued the top half onto jetbiker legs. I repositioned the right sword-arm, and added a straight piece of paper clip into the base of the witchblade's hilt, turning it into a singing spear. I cut off the pistol-weilding left hand and replaced it with a jetbiker's left hand, to suggest the seer casting a spell. I covered the legs with tissue paper and glue so that it doesn't look like Guardian armor. Finally I added a Dark Eldar top knot onto his helmet. This, together with the runes on his jetbike, made for a conversion that I was happy with (at the time), and I was really glad when everyone else accepted it too.

 

I found that Farseers on jetbikes are just amazing, especially with Mind War. And that's how the rest of his name came about - LahnSeiraPartecion, which in Imperial High Gothic roughly translates to Lahn the BrainSmelter, more or less. And even though today he barely touches Mind War at all, the name remains.

So this very first Farseer Lahn on jetbike served me well for 6 years, leading his Ranger War Host in countless desperate battles in the Balau Sector, as well as in tournaments and campaigns throughout the region. Soon after this conversion, one of my brothers got me an Eldrad model for my birthday, but I never really finished painting him. Eventually, when fellow Legio Officer Khairul got into 40k and needed an Eldrad model urgently, he used mine (and painted it too).

In 2007, the new Eldar Codex came with some awesome Farseer models. And my favorite was the metal seer brandishing his singing spear while casting some inisidious spell on unsuspecting mon-keigh. But I still wanted my Farseer to be on a jetbike, yet I really did not want to cut up this particular model. So I cut up the jetbike in two, and pinned each half to the Farseer model, making him look like he's standing on his converted jetbike, casting Mind War at some hapless meltagunner. This was the first time I used green stuff for something more than just filling gaps, and I was quite happy with the result. It wasn't that much green stuff - the gems and runes on his jetbike's carapace, some runes on the rear of his jetbike (along with some Eldar and Tau bits), and some work to make it look like his cape was lapping over the jetbike.

This incarnation of Farseer Lahn actually started to learn other spells, like Doom, Guide and Fortune, but Mind War was still his favorite.

Then 5th ed came into the picture, and coupled with the fact that I really want a more purist Ranger Force, the time came for Farseer Lahn to park his bike and start footslogging like the rest of the guys. Around 2009/2010, I primarily used two kinds of Eldar lists - a purist-ish Alaitoc Ranger Force with no vehicles, and a more competitive combined arms force with huge hitting power in the form of Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions in Wave Serpents. At that time, I used an older metal Farseer model with witchblade (he kept his trusty old singing spear in the garage, netxt to his jetbike), who used to ride around with the Howling Banshees, and occassionally, Jain Zar herself.

At some point during the very short life of 6th Ed, Eldar speed and skimmer technology came back into vogue (actually, they were never out of vogue). I just loved fielding gaggles of jetbikes, Vypers, Wave Serpents, Falcons, and Fire Prisms. So Farseer Lahn went back into battle atop his trusty old jetbike. In fact, the old orginal model converted for the farseer became one his trusty Warlocks on jetbike, leading a Guardian jetbike squad (another squad is led by another more recent Warlock on jetbike conversion). I do also field an all-foot Ranger Force (with the exception of one flyer, called in for air support), and that army is still led by Farseer Lahn on foot with his trusty witchblade. While since 6th Ed he has stopped using Mind War (and now in 7th he's actually looking forward to use Invisibility alongside staples like Guide and Prescience), he still carries the BrainSmelter moniker.

Although, now he has a hankering for his singing spear, even when he's on foot ...