Khorne clash at Balau

 It's been awhile since I had a game with Kadir and on a weekend back to KL, we managed to squeeze in a late-night 40k game on the hallowed battlefields of Balau.

I brought the same 1850pt Alaitoc Windrider Warhost (which is actually a CAD), which is WIP with about 6 bikes, 2 Warp Spiders and 3 Dark Reapers currently being painted. Here's the list:

Eldar Combined Arms Detachment
HQ:
Farseer - jetbike, singing spear, Spirit Stone of Anathlan
TROOPS:
3 jetbikes - scatterlasers
3 jetbikes - scatterlasers
3 jetbikes - shuriken cannons
3 jetbikes - shuriken cannons
3 jetbikes - 2 shuriken cannons
3 jetbikes - 2 shuriken cannons
FAST ATTACK:
6 Swooping Hawks - Exarch with Hawk's Talon
Hemlock
HEAVY SUPPORT:
Fire Prism
Fire Prism
Aspect Warrior Host
5 Fire Dragons with Exarch
Wave Serpent - twin-linked bright lance, shuriken cannon
8 Warp Spiders - Exarch with twin-linked deathspinners
8 Dark Reapers with Exarch, starshot missiles

The Khorne army was quite formidable. Something like:
Kharn the Betrayer
Daemon Prince - Nurgle, wings, Mastery Level 3
8 Khorne Berzerkers - Champion w powerfist
Rhino
8 Khorne Berzerkers - Champion w power axe
Rhino

8 Khorne Berzerkers - Champion w power axe
Heldrake - baleflamer
Land Raider
Predator - lascannons
Predator - lascannons

We got Tactical Escalation with Hammer and Anvil deployment, and while Chaos got to choose table sides, I got to deploy and start first, which is good. Funny enough, my army list was flexible enough for me to not really be concerned about the kind of Maelstrom mission and deployment.

There was single 3-storey ruin in my deployment zone on my right flank, and it was quickly occupied by the Dark Reapers. One Fire Prism hung around behind that ruin, next to the Wave Serpent, while the other Fire Prism covered the left flank. Jetbikes were deployed on each flank and center, shuriken cannon ones to the fore, scatter laser ones in a second staggered line. One of the scatpacks hung around near the Fire Prism on the right flank behind the ruin, joined by the Farseer. Swooping Hawks will deep strike as usual, and for the first time, I'm going to deep strike my Warp Spiders.

Turn 1 Highlights
Kharn's Land Raider is a priority target as it's only 2 turns' charge range away. Lance fire from my Fire Prisms managed to knock only 1 hull point off the beast, and it was the Dark Reapers who almost wrecked the might tank with starshot missiles, leaving only 1 hull point left.

I didn't want to bet that the single twin-linked bright lance shot from my Wave Serpent will take away the final hull point, so that skimmer went flat out forwards to block the Land Raider's path to force it to go through some woods.

Assorted shuriken cannon and scatter laser fire destroyed both Rhinos, serving only to madden the already-crazed Berzerkers pouring out of both wrecks.

Two of the most forward shuriken cannon jetbike squads on my left flank turbo-boosted deep into enemy territory, behind the ruins behind his Predators.

The Nurgle Daemon Prince flew back towards the rear-most jetbike squad, unleashing its terrible vomit torrent, killing 1 jetbiker. While his Psychic Shriek was ineffective, the dousing of the jetbikers with terrible pestilence was enough to break their resolve and they fell back.

One squad of Berzerkers occupied some woods in their deployment zone, while the other advanced towards the Wave Serpent, charging it and easily destroying it, even as Kharn's Land Raider, which is by now Invisible, ploughed into the woods on my right flank in no man's land.

It turns out that the 2 Chaos Predators across from my left flank were sitting on a Skyfire Nexus! Thats' 4 lascannons and 2 twin-linked lascannons with Skyfire. Suddenly my Hemlock doesn't feel like coming in.

Those very same tanks unleashed their heavy las weaponry on my Fire Prism covering the left flank. Some deft jinking manouvers ensured that the skimmer tank was only glanced once.

Turn 2 Highlights
Streaking in on the left flank at full throttle, the Hemlock unleashed its Heavy D-Scythes on the Chaos Predators, but both shots scattered wildly away. The Swooping Hawks deep struck behind the Predators, and the Exarch showed them who's boss, single-handedly wrecking the nearest Predator with his Hawk's Talon.

The 2 jetbike squads in the enemy rear managed to knock off 2 further hull points from the remaining Predator, and shaking it.

On the right flank, I finally managed for the first time ever to cast Eldritch Storm on the Berzerkers and Kharn's Land Raider. But it turns out my Farseer was out of range. Undeterred, the Fire Dragon squad who had bailed safely out of their Wave Serpent moved forward toward the Invisible Land Raider. They scored one hit, and it was enough to wreck the mighty tank.

Massed Dark Reaper, scatter laser and shuriken fire wiped out the Berzerkers that bailed out of the Land Raider, and even left Kharn with just one remaining wound, clinging on to survival. Shuriken, scatter laser and the guided Fire Prism on the right almost wiped out the Berzerkers that killed the Wave Serpent, leaving 2 survivors (they later charged the Fire Dragons, killing the Exarch and another Dragon, but the survivors managed to escape. The Berzerkers were then easily gunned down in Turn 3).

The Chaos marines now didn't have many units left, and even the Heldrake failed to arrive. Kharn joined the Berzerkers that were in the woods, and the Daemon Prince ensured that they were made Invisible to Eldar eyes.

Once again, the Daemon Prince's Psychic Shriek attack on the jetbike squad deep in his lines proved ineffective, but his vomit killed 2 Swooping Hawks.

Turn 3 Highlights
As the Swooping Hawks Skylept back into the heavens, the Warp Spiders deep struck onto the battlefield near the surviving Berzerker squad. This is the first time I tried deep striking them into battle, and I must say I like it! But the power of Invisibility proved too much, as massed fire from the Spiders, nearly all the jetbikes, and the Dark Reapers only killed 2 Berzerkers.

The Hemlock's Psychic Shriek attack on the same squad was dispelled easily, with Kharn in that squad (actually we forgot about that, but he Denied the Witch anyways).

The only successful shooting was by the jetbikes deep in enemy territory on the left flank, who easily killed off the last damaged Predator. Tragically, the Warp Spiders' jetpack jump was only 4" - and they were well within charge range of the crazed Berzerkers.

The Chaos Heldrake finally arrived, and its terrible weapon easily wiped out, finally, the jetbike squad that has been deep in enemy territory since Turn 1. The Daemon Prince had to come onto the ground to capture an objective. However, his attempt to cast Invisibility on Kharn's squad was dispelled.

With nothing else to shoot (they wisely did not shoot at the Warp Spiders), Kharn led the Berzerkers into a frenzied charge on the Warp Spiders. A hail of monofilament overwatch fire felled 1 Berzerker, but it was a foregone conclusion as Kharn hacked and chopped almost the entire squad single-handedly, his minions taking care of the rest.

Aftermath
We called the game at the end of Turn 3 as we had run out of time (Kadir was helping run an AOS tournament the next day and needed the sleep). But without Invisibility on Kharn's squad, and with the Daemon Prince on the ground, it is most likely that the Eldar would have tabled the Chaos army in Turn 4.

In 3 turns, the Khorne army was cut to pieces, with only the Daemon Prince, a wounded Kharn, a squad of Berzerkers and a Heldrake was all that was left. The Eldar lost the Warp Spiders, a Wave Serpent and a jetbike squad. Objectives-wise, the Eldar just managed a 3-2 win.

Kadir would have done much better with his normal army, which had a stream of summoned daemons. That would have done much to dissipate my firepower.

At any rate, it was real fun time, and I totally look forward to my next game.

Keep rolling them dice!

Hemlock!

This fine aircraft didn't take too long to paint. I admit it's not the best paint job I've done by far, but it is the first model I've painted in almost 2 years, and it was done in many many small steps in between my work and life schedules. Now it's done and battle-ready, and I'm happy with it.

I've chosen to paint over the canopy, taking the Wraith theme of the aircraft just one step further. The original aircraft comes with a SpiritSeer pilot with a mirror mask sitting in the cockpit, which is not bad, but also not different enough from the sister fighter Crimson Hunter, flown by the Aspect Warriors.

I've decided that this particular hemlock is truly a Wraithcraft, piloted by the soul of a SpiritSeer whose gem is encased in the cockpit. Relying on waithsight alone, she has no need for a transparent canopy (thankfully we don't need to roll for wraithsight anymore).

Other than that it's a pretty standard build, Heavy D-Scythes in the wing weapon points and the Mindshock Pod under belly. This standard weapon load-out has already proven to be extremely deadly against man, xenos, daemon and machine, and to me, it's just right.

The paint sheme itself is based on my standard upstart Alaitoc Warhost of Farseer Lahnn. As the 16-year fluff of this particular warhost goes, Farseer Lahnn's warhost vehicles are not painted in the standard Alaitoc mottle camo scheme. His younger years as a Pathfinder amongts the Saim-Hann has influenced his approach to battle when it comes to jetbikes and skimmers, and this influence extends to his warhost's vehicle livery, which is reminiscant of the Saim-Hann stripes and diagonal patterns.

So this Hemlock is painted in a similar pattern to the Falcons, Fire Prisms, Wave Serpents, Jetbikes and Vypers of the warhost. But unlike the skimmer tanks, she does not have a light-blue underside. This is similar to the paint schemes for the warhost's jetbikes and Vypers.

The aircraft's base is not quite done yet, and she's currently using the Crimson Hunter's base. The wrecked Leman Russ turret on the base is actually quite befitting for one of the deadliest attack aircraft in 40k. I look forward to seeing this Hemlock create more gaping holes in enemy lines, striking fear amongst all foe who set eyes on her.

Keep them dice rolling!

Monday Night 40k!

This is what Monday nights should be about - dice rolling, nice models, friendly people, friendly store, new friends, and old friends.

I've been due to roll dice at JB's Alexandria Bookstore for a month now. But due to various commitments, and the fact that it was Ramadhan, I had to cancel planned gaming visits a few times. Until last night, whence the stars and planets aligned, and my renegade Alaitoc Windriders found themselves upon the bloody fields of Alexandria.

Still, to make sure that the game won't be rushed, we played an Eternal War mission: The Scouring, on a Vanguard Strike deployment. The Alaitoc Windrider Warhost is actually, rules-wise, a CAD with an attached Aspect Warrior Host formation. This is the 2nd iteration of the list, the first I tried out a couple of months back against some Tyranids. Not much changes, just some tweaking. And here's the 1843pt list:

HQ:

Farseer Lahnn - jetbike, singing spear, Spirit Stone of Anath'lan

TROOPS:

3 Jetbikes - all with scatter lasers

3 Jetbikes - all with scatter lasers

3 Jetbikes - all with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - all with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - 2 with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - 2 with shuriken cannon

FAST ATTACK:

6 Swooping Hawks - exarch with Hawk's Talon

Hemlock Wraithfighter

HEAVY SUPPORT:

Fire Prism

Fire Prism

ASPECT WARRIOR HOST:

8 Warp Spiders - exarch with twin-linked deathspinner

8 Dark Reapers - with starshot missiles

5 Fire Dragons - in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked bright lances and shuriken cannon

My opponent is John, with his Ultramarines. He had a couple of formations in there, including the one that gives free transports, and the one that deepstrikes all the drop pods of the formation in turn 1, and I really don't recall what they are called, but his list is something like:

Chaplain (Warlord)

5-man Tactical Squad (w meltagun) in Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

10-man Tactical Squad (w missile launcher & flamer), split into 2 combat squads, with Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

Bike Squad with 3 bikes and an Attack Bike with multimelta

5-man Devastator Squad (w 4 lascannons) with Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

Venerable Dreadnought in Drop Pod

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 flamers, in Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 meltaguns, in Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 meltaguns, in Drop Pod 

Captain in terminator armor

5 Terminators, with 1 assault cannon

Land Speeder Typhoon

The Ultramarines got to choose table side, but I won the roll for deployment and started first.

Turn 1 Highlights

Since John won the roll for table side, the mon-keigh Devastators set up shop in the tallest building on the battlefield, while my Dark Reapers looked on enviously, and had to make do with an abandoned trench line that commanded a reasonable firing field, even if not the best.

I had deployed to make full use of the cover afforded by the ruins, and planned a main thrust up my left flank. The entire army, except for the Dark Reapers and the Wave Serpent, deployed on the left flank.

When battle commenced, the Warhost advanced cautiously (around 12") and proceeded to open fire on the marines occupying the first ruin in mon-keigh territory. The bike squad was cut to ribbons, the Razorback lost 2 hull points and its lascannon, while both forward combat squads were reduced to half-strength or less.

The Dark Reapers unleashed a hail of S5 AP3 missiles (that's 17 shots at BS5) at their Devastator counterparts. The mon-keigh was smart to Go To Ground, and only the sergeant was lost in the deluge of high explosives.

The mon-keigh struck back aggressively. Drop Pods roared down in front of the Dark Reapers position, and the grim Aspect Warriors received the attention of intense bolter fire, flamers, stormbolters and Deathwind missile strikes. Even with Fortune, 5 Dark Reapers perished.

Two more Combat Squads from the Drop Pods opened fire at point-blank range with their meltaguns on the Fire Dragons' Wave Serpent, but thanks to jinking and the serpent shield, the transport survived the assault with 1 hull point to spare.

On the left flank, a missile launcher, the Devastator's Razorback and a snap-firing Devastor managed to severely damage a Fire Prism, knocking off 2 hull points, shaking the crew and immobilizing it.

The Venerable Dreadnought took on the front-most Jetbike squad, killing 2 Windriders.

Turn 2 Highlights

One of the best things about Eldar is its amazing speed and manouverability. And it was easy for the Warhost to pull back almost the entire army to deal with the drop pod assault.

Swooping Hawks landed near the offending mon-keigh, grenade packs covering the marines in a lot of noise and dust, and nothing else. The Hemlock decided to not turn up from reserves this turn - wraiths!

Starting with Farseer Lahnn's Psychic Shriek, the culling of the mon-keigh warriors began in earnest. While he didn't roll very high, it was enough to put down 2 marines. I see his Psychic Shriek abilities as a progression from his early days as Mind War specialist (pest?), hence his nickname Brain Smelter.

The combined firepower of the Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Jetbikes, Fire Prism, Dark Reapers and the Fire Dragons and their snap-firing Wave Serpent wiped out all the drop pod squads, as well as both Deathwind-equipped drop pods. One of them blowing up and taking 2 Fire Dragons with it.

While all this glorious death was going on, 4 Jetbikes skimmed over the Venerable Dreadnought, turned on a pin, an unloaded shuriken death into the rear armor of the dreadnought, and it exploded in a spectacular display of fire and steel. On the far left, the immobilized Fire Prism got a lucky snap-firing shot into the Razorback opposite it, wrecking the mon-keigh vehicle.

Then with Battle Focus and jump moves, the Alaitoc Warhost resumed their advance up the left flank, such is Eldar manouverability!

The rest of the Ultramarines reserves arrived. The Captain and his Terminator squad teleporting to face the lead elements of xenos, their firepower, combined with the surviving combat squads deployed at the start of the battle, wiping out the lead Jetbike squad. The Devastators could only aquire one target, the immobilized Fire Prism, and put it out of its misery with a well-laid lascannon volley.

The deep-striking Land Speeder Typhoon killed a further 2 Jetbikes with its heavy bolter and frag missiles. Twin-linked lascannons of the Devastator's Razorback took aim at the Warp Spiders, who immediately flicker-jumped. However, the mon-keigh could still see one Warp Spider, who failed his cover save and was subsequently vaporized,

On the right flank, the Ultramarines Chaplain and his Tactical squad advanced in their Razorback, disembarking and shooting at the nearest lone Jetbike, to no effect.

Turn 3 Highlights
The Hemlock finally deigned to arrive, streaking low over the mon-keigh chaplain's head and making an impossible 90 degree turn near the Devastator's position. The Hemlock's Psychic Shriek reduced the Devastator squad to one man, who was forced to fall back. This is the first time I saw first-hand how deadly is the combination of the Mindshock Pod and Psychic Shriek.

Continuing their relentless advance up the left flank, the Alaitoc Warhost focused their fire on the Captain and his Terminators. Psychic Shriek attacks, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, deathspinners, focused blast prism cannon shots drenched the mon-keigh in a deluge of Eldar munitions, and the Terminators were easily wiped out.

Scatter lasers also destroyed the Devastator's Razorback, wrecking it in a single deadly volley. The Hemlock is not done with her death and destruction, and her double Heavy D-Scythes easily obliterated the Land Speeder Typhoon.

On the right flank, advancing Dark Reapers and the Wave Serpent opened fire on the Chaplain and his squad, killing only 3, thanks to good cover (I just realized I was shooting the Wave Serpent at BS4. It should really be BS5 as it's part of the Aspect Warrior Host).

With only a handful of warriors left, the mon-keigh shot back with whatever was left, but could not make a mark. The Ultramarines then decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and conceded the battlefield.

Aftermath
This Alaitoc Windrider Warhost is fast! It was easy to concentrate firepower on chosen targets, switching back and forth between flanks and always gaining localized superiority. It helped tremendously that the Ultramarines arrived piecemeal and their units were never able to link up and lend mutual support to each other.

As it turned out, the battle was one-sided. The only survivors from the Ultramarines' force was the Chaplain, 7 marines, 2 drop pods and a Razorback. The Eldar only lost 2 units (a Fire Prism and 1 Jetbike squad).

It remains to be seen how this army would do against a Knight- or Land Raider-heavy enemy, as the Warhost is short on heavy anti-tank weaponry with only 2 Prism cannons, 1 twin-linked Bright Lance, 5 Fusion guns, and 2 Heavy D-Scythes at its disposal.

At any rate, it was real fun, and I look forward to the next session of furious dice-rolling. Now to finish painting the Hemlock, 6 additional Jetbikes, 2 additional Warp Spiders and 3 additional Dark Reapers. And the terrain pieces too.

Thanks John for a great game, and Quake for great banter from a fellow Eldar!

Keep them dice rolling!

A couple of games amidst the chaos of being in limbo ...

 ... and it was a blast! My entire life, hobby and all, have been rather upside-down for the past couple of months, as I've had to vacate my old house (sold it), but my new one's not quite ready for moving in yet. So I've been officially homeless and squatting at my in-law's for the past few weeks. Far from ideal. Not to mention the job's been rather hectic.

So it was that on the eve of Chinese New Year Eve, I manage to get a couple of games in vs two very elite mon-keigh armies. I used my Eldar because I actually have two 1,850pt lists packed very neatly into a bag and a case (as opposed to the other armies, which are packed in many many different cases).

The first battle was against Amin's elite Ravenwing. It was most unfortunate for the Ravenwing, as being Eldar, his speed and mobility advantage was easily nullified by my skimmers. His army was smaller than my own take on the Ravenwing, but had more long-range punch. Led by Sammael on jetbike and his Command Squad, I think he had 3 full squads (each with 6 bikes, attack bike and Land Speeder), a squad of 2 more Land Speeders and the shroud Land Speeder. The shrouding speeder was the first to be killed, which made the others much easier to shoot down. The Ravenwing gave a valiant fight, but the Eldar won decisively.

Next up was Khairul's Grey Knights. This army is scary-looking. 20 of those Interceptor power-armored dudes, 10 termies, 2 librarians, 2 of those big scary Knight things, all led by a scary-looking mon-keigh sorcerer.  He had like 14+d6 psychic dice or something like that. I had zero psykers, my war-host being led by a venerable Autarch of Alaitoc.

The first couple of turns were nail-biting, with the mon-keigh advancing against my skimmers to try to hem them into a corner. I managed to get first blood by gunning down one of the combat-squadded Interceptor units, but my firepower for the first couple of turns were seriously limited as I had to sacrifice shooting to manouver myself out of the closing noose. However, the Eldar did manage to elude the mon-keigh trap and was then able to lay down carefully lad fire plans and deliver concentrated whithering fire on the enemy. When it came down to the last 4 terminators, the mon-keigh, to their credit, waved defiance before being summarily gunned-down execution style, for my very first TA using this Eldar list.

Two amazing games. Let's hope I get some more before the March tourney.

IG Victorious! Traitors Cleansed!

 

 
In yet another marathon hobby and gaming session, I managed to put in a couple of games, assemble a couple of test figures for my next IG army, have dinner with the guys, and watched some amazing games being played. By the time I got home, I was completely exhausted.

The big game for the evening was my Brandenberg IG fighting off a Khorne army in a Cleanse and Control maelstrom mission. It was the first time ever that my army deployed 2 Hellhounds, and I was really excited to try out my new old toy, freshly painted the night before. I'll share just a brief overview of the game, as my opponent agreed to do a batrep, and I love his batreps.

The Khorne army looked fearsome, with a Lord mounted on steed and with all kinds of wargear, 3 favoured Berzerker squads, a Land Raider, 2 Rhinos, a Heldrake (thankfully with the Hades autocannon), 3 deep-striking Helbrutes with multimeltas and a guest appearance by a Mastery Level 3 Nurgle Daemon Prince. I had my favorite infantry force of 108 men, supported by 4 Leman Russ (1 Exterminator, 1 Executioner, 2 Plain Jane Russes), 2 Hellhounds and a Vendetta.

From the get-go, it did not look good for the Brandenbergers. I had deployed defensively, being overly-concerned about his deep-striking Helbrutes. The problem is, most of the objectives were either in no-man's land or in enemy territory. Either way, it was going to be quite a hike for my troopers. And Khorne got first turn.

The first couple of turns didn't do anything to boost my confidence, as my shooting was ineffective (it took almost the entire army to wiped out a pack of daemon beasts, though I did get First Blood), and both my assault platoons on my flanks were charged by the enemy - left flank by a squad of Berzerkers, right flank by the Khorne Lord himself. To add to the tactical errors I had made, the dice were not cooperating either. I would roll low to hit and to wound, but when in Turn 3 I wanted to sacrifice my conscripts by making the Priest accept the Khorne Lord's challenge, the Priest actually made all his invul saves!

But he must have known something was afoot, as suddenly fortune made a 180 flip. The Khorne Lord, having slain my Priest in my turn, was mocked by his fickle gods and was turned into a Spawn (which is much easier to kill). At the same time, over on the other flank, the other Priest (who also spoiled my plans by refusing to die at the right time), killed the Khorne champion in a challenge. Then everything started going the IG way - the Vendetta blowing up his Land Raider in a single volley, my 2 Hellhounds freely ranging on the battlefield to claim objectives (the Hellhounds' speed contributed more to the victory then their shooting actually), the late arrival of the Helbrutes, which gave me time to prepare for them, and they landed into more or less ambush positions.

The IG finally won 9-7. It helped that I got First Blood (the whole army gets credit for this one), Slay the Warlord (the Exterminator got this one) and LineBreaker (Hellhound, of course). And as I mentioned above, the Hellhounds managed to rush around and throught the enemy lines to score objectives. Of the 6 Maelstrom Objectives the army scored, 3 were done by the Hellhounds. The battle was really bloody and losses were heavy, with a 70% casualty rate amongts my infantry. No vehicles were lost. The Khorne army survived the battle with only an immobilized Helbrute, the Heldrake, the Daemon Prince and 4 Berzerkers left standing.

Before that game, I managed to play another game with my Alaitoc Windriders Eldar army against an Imperial Knights force. I just realized now that it was the first time I played my Eldar in 7th ed, and the first time I've ever played against Imperial Knights. I was obviously intimidated, facing off against 3 mini-titans that were supported by a platoon of IG infantry, IG command squad, stormtroopers and a Vendetta. But the Eldar are super-deadly, and nearly wiped out the mon-keigh army, leaving only a single Knight alive at the end of the game, for minimal losses. I was quite amazed, actually.

And my next IG project, the 2nd Denerair Highland Regiment, started with the assembly of the very first figures, one of which shown below. I'll be doing a test paint job soon, hopefully in time for the next update.

In the meantime, keep rollng them dice ...

The Windriders in 7th Ed - Just as Awesome!

 

Back in 6th, the rebellious Windrider faction of Alaitoc was a pretty strong army, with its super-mobile super-fluid brand of warfare being able to always out manouver the enemy. With the entire army traveling at jetbike and fast skimmer speed, it's always able to achieve local firepower superiority by focusing its guns at just any given spot at any given time, while at the same time being able to get out of trouble - real fast!

So after almost a year of not touching this army (played all sorts of others - IG, Rangers, Thousand Sons, etc), I decided to take it for a spin in the new edition last night. I didn't change the list, and it was made up of:

- Farseer Lahn, on jetbike with singing spear
- 2 Warlocks, on jetbikes with singing spears. Each Warlock attached to a Jetbike squad
- 6 Jetbikes - with 2 shuriken cannons
- 6 Jetbikes - with 2 shuriken cannons
- 10 Guardians - with starcannon platform
- they ride a Wave Serpent with twin-linked bright lances and holofield
- 10 Dire Avengers - including and Exarch
- they too ride a Wave Serpent with bright lances and holofield
- 3 Vypers - each with scatter laser and shuriken cannon
- Crimson Hunter exarch!
- Fire Prism - kitted with holofield
- Fire Prism - also with holofield
- Falcon - because I really like the model - pulse laser, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holofield

The first game was against Alvin's rabid Blood Angels Death Company in the second Maelstrom of War scenario: Contact Lost. The Death Company army is lethal, very ill-fitted to capturing objectives, but more than able to wipe out enemy forces. In fact, the only reason why the Eldar won was because they were able to score VPs through capturing objectives, and the game ended at the bottom of Turn 5. The Eldar survived with only 4 models left alive - 2 Vypers and 2 Jetbikes. Insane. Then again, I did make the horrible Eldar nube error of closing with the Death Company, instead of using my speed to keep my army out of his reach. I guess I was more out of touch than I thought, having not touched this army in so long. Once again, I noticed that my dominant psyker - the Farseer - sucked up all the power dice and dominated my Psychic Phase. The new jink rule was a minor irritant to the Eldar, but otherwise, not really a major problem.

The second game was against Doc Selvam's White Scars with Space Wolves allies. The army had 2 Land Raider Crusaders and a couple of flyers. We played the third Maelstrom mission: Tactical Escalation. This time, I was relearning fast how to handle the army, and while we had to stop the game after Turn 2 (I had a dinner appointment), I was able to blow up one Land Raider and wipe out the passengers - a Space Wolves squad and Jnarl.

The third game was against Patrick's nice looking Wraith Eldar army. We decided this civil war started because my Seers thought that Patrick's armor should be yellow instead of blue. From the get-go, we could sense that it's going to be extremely difficult for Patrick. Except for his Wraihknight and Crimson Hunter, everything moves on foot at 6". We again played Tactical Escalation, and it was unfortunately pretty one-sided as my skimmer army was able to run circles against the infantry-based Wraith army. One thing we realized is that it's extremely hard to use Harlequins now. Veil of Tears is a warp charge 1 psychic power, forcing the Shadowseer to compete for power dice against Eldrad and a Spiritseer. He failed Veil once, but I didn't take advantage of it because I was busy wiping out the Wraithknight. The next turn, he passed Veil with two harnessed Warp Charges, but I threw all 10 of my Deny dice and managed to come up with two 6's. And the really well-painted Harlequin squad was shot to ribbons because of that. Really sad. In this game, I also managed to get Invisibility, which the Farseer used on himself and his squad, but it wasn't tested (would have been great to get this power against the Blood Angels). The lesson Patrick learnt was that he needs Wave Serpents for his Wraithguard.

It feels like my old Windriders of Alaitoc list is more or less still pretty deadly in 7th ed, with the main rules changes to jink not really impacting it that much. It does make it more interesting - there was once when an enemy Crimson Hunter was about to unload on my Fire Prism. Of course, I jinked. The flyer hit my tank with all his weapons - but failed to even glance my tank. Wasted jink there. As I noticed with my Thousand Sons, the army's dominant psyker will dominate my psychic phase, and there will be less spells cast. I'm still curious how crazy Invisibility would be for the Eldar.

Next fortnight I'm going to try one of my less (or even zero) psychic armies - either the Rangers, the infantry IG, the mech infantry IG, or the armored company IG. Let's see what happens then. So far, I'm loving the 7th Ed Maelstrom games.

Keep them dice rolling ...

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 ...

 

 

Last Hurrah of 6th Ed!

So it came to pass that 6th edition became the one with the shortest life ever. There have been all sorts of whining, complaining, fear, doom, gloom and overall trepidation about the coming of 7th. The good thing is, there have also been a fair amount of optimism of late. I happen to be optimistic. Which is why I needed to have a last game on 6th before confining that book into my ever-growing archive of rules of past ages.

My very first game with 6th edition was with my Alaitoc Ranger Force, so I thought it appropriate that my last game in this edition would be with the Ranger Force too. My opponent was the insidious traitorous Eldar corsair Hak'im, who chose to ally his renegade Wild Riders with the Dark Kin. His 1850pt gang of cut-throats was made up of:

- Farseer Hak'im, with singing spear on jetbike
- Warlock with singing spear on jetbike
- Dark Kin Archon scum
- Jetbike squad - 6 Eldar with 2 shuriken cannon
- Jetbike squad - 6 Eldar with 2 shuriken cannon
- Dire Avengers - 5 in a Wave Serpent
- Dire Avengers - 5 in a Wave Serpent
- Dark Kin Warrior scum - 5 in a Venom
- Dark Kin Reaver jetbike scum - 6 with 2 blasters
- Vypers - 2, each with 2 shuriken cannon
- Crimson Hunter with Exarch
- War Walkers - 3 with full load out of scatter lasers
- Fire Prism

The Alaitoc Ranger Force was led by Illic Nightspear himself:

- Illic Nightspear
- Farseer with singing spear
- Pathfinders (5)
- Rangers (5)
- Rangers (5)
- Rangers (5)
- Rangers (5)
- Striking Scorpions (10) - with Exarch w claw
- Warp Spiders (8) - with Exarch and twin-spinners
- Crimson Hunter with Exarch
- Swooping Hawks (6) - with Exarch w Talon
- Wraithlord Agaith
- Wraithlord Pikarid
- Dark Reapers (6) - with Exarch w missile launcher, fast shot and flakks

The battle was Purge the Traitor Eldar Alien Scum, and we played it on Hobby Forge's lovely winterscape table (with a nice amount of ruins and woods), with Hammer & Anvil deployment and Night Fight.

I won the roll and proceeded to deploy one Wraithlord on each flank, roughly 24" from each other,. Between them were the Warp Spiders, spread out in line and masked by ruins. Everyone else infiltrated, except for the Scorpions (my Outflankers), Swooping Hawks (Deep Strike), and Crimson Hunter.

The traitor Eldar were deployed in a long line deep in their deployment zone. The Farseer and his jetbike squad on the right, with 2 Wave Serpents to their left, the Vypers, then the other jetibike squad, then the Venom and Reaver jetbikes, the War Walkers, and in the extreme left and deep in their deployment zone, the Fire Prism.

Then my infiltrators moved in. The tall 4-storey ruins in the center right and closer to my lines was filled to the brim with Alaitoc kinsmen. The top 2 floors were occupied by the Dark Reapers, Illic and the Farseer, the floor below became a Pathfinder warren, and the ground floor was taken up by Rangers. My deployment zone had woods in each flank, and a Ranger squad occupied each. The last Ranger squad deployed forward, behind the tall ruins in center right. They couldn't occupy the ruins as that would take them too close for infilitrators. The idea was to use the first movement phase to creep into the ruin and act as a speed bump against the enemy.

But. The renegade Eldar managed to seize the initative! I fear that forward Rangers squad is all but toast.

Lucky for me the enemy had deployed conservatively, and was not in an optimal position to bring his firepower to bear. Also, Night Fight was really helpful. His allied Reaver jetbikes sped forward and turbo-boosted right into my lines, lopping off some Warp Spider heads as they did so. Concentrating firepower on the Warp Spiders, the War Walkers, Wave Serpents and Venom opened fire on them too and by the end of the turn only half of the Spiders remained. The Farseer's jetbike squad on the right turbo-boosted deep into my territory, while the other jetbike squad took potshots against the forward-most Rangers, who had really good cover. The Fire Prism's fearsome blast against my Rangers in the woods scattered harmlessly away.

I must say I was really lucky to have lost only 5 Warp Spiders and a Ranger after losing the initiative. The Dark Reapers' Guided missiles rained their brand-new S8 missiles into the nearest Wave Serpent, blowing it up in a fiery explosion. A couple of surviving Dire Avengers and the Archon bailed out into the crater, only to be peppered by sniper fire, wiping out the Dire Avengers. Illic had tracked the speeding Farseer on the right and put a sniper round into him. Wraithlord Pikarid peeled right and advanced against the Farseer's jetbike squad, his 2 flamers engulfing the nearest bikers in searing Eldar flame. The surviving jetbikes held firm, and the mighty Wraithlord waded into them, calling out the enemy into a challenge. The plucky enemy Warlock answered his challenge and narrowly avoided death. Wraithlord Agaith in the meantime advanced against the enemy Reavers. The surviving Warp Spiders had jumped behind the Reavers and killed a couple of them before Agaith smashed into them. The 2 survivng Reavers managed to fall back. The forward Rangers and the Rangers in the woods on the left shot up the other jetbike squad, killing half of them. They broke, and narrowly missed fleeing off-table.

The renegade Eldar firepower was still strong, as I had not even begun shooting at the War Walkers. The Archon, who had survived the Wave Serpent wreck, sought shelter in some ruins to the right. The Venom moved forward, disembarking its Warriors into the large ruin, intent to fight off the Rangers occupying half that ruin. But the enemy had seen how deadly the Dark Reapers were, and focused nearly all their firepower on them, killing everyone, including Illic and the Farseer. The rallied Reavers sped forwards again, managing to kill yet another Warp Spider. In the ensuing assault phase, the Warriors in the building attempted to charge the Rangers, but failed to reach them. Wraithlord Pikarid mashed the Warlock, but also took a wound from his cursed singing spear.

Screaming into the battlefield my Crimson Hunter opened fire on the surviving enemy Wave Serpet, easily blowing it apart. Again, the surviving Dire Avengers tumbling out of the wreckage were picked off by sniper fire and wiped out. The Striking Scorpions arrived from their outflanking manouver, gunning down the Archon as the strode onto the battlefield. More sniper fire poured into the Dark Eldar Warriors, wiping them out. In my deployment zone, the surviving Warp Spiders shot at and charged the Reavers, to no affect. Wraithlord Pikarid mushed another 2 jetbikes, but thanks to the enemy Farseer's leadership, the held firm still.

Then the enemy Crimson Hunter dived in, opening up on my jet. There was no way my Crimson Hunter could have survived the attack, and the jet disintegrated in a hail of pulse laser and bright lance fire. The War Walkers and Venom opened fire on Wraithlord Agaith, scoring a wound against the mighty construct. On my right, the Vypers and surviving jetbikes shot up my Striking Scorpions squad, cutting their number by half. They actually broke and started to fall back! In the assault phase, Wraithlord Pikarid dispatched yet another jetbiker. The combat between Warp Spiders and Reavers was well-matched, but one Reaver succumbed, leaving the lone survivor to face 2 angry Spiders.

The situation was grim. Both sides had lost much of their forces, and I had lost most of my anti-tank capability. Wraithlord Agaith advanced towards the War Walkers. The Rangers in the woods on my left did not have any other target, and lent supporting fire for Agaith. Miraculously, a well-placed sniper round took out a hull point and scatter laser from one of the War Walkers. Agaith waded into the enemy War Walkers, destroying 2 but took another wound himself. On the right, my Scorpions rallied, and moved into better cover, while supporting sniper fire took out most of the jetbikes bothering them, leaving a lone survivor. Wraithlord Pikarid smashed the last of the jetbikers, leaving the Farseer to face him alone. The Warp Spider Exarch was felled in the melee, but his surviving Aspect Warrior stood firm.

Now the enemy guns had fallen much more silent, with only the Venom, the Vypers and the Fire Prism being the major threats. The Vipers and jetbike survivor, supported by the Venom, gunned down the remaining Striking Scorpions. In the Assault Phase, Wraithlord Agaith easily ripped apart the last War Walker. Wraithlord Pikarid took another wound from the enemy Farseer, and he prepared to deliver the deathblow to the renegade psyker - and rolled triple 1s to hit.

Wraithlord Agaith strode towards the enemy Venom, holding his fire as he wanted to charge forward and destroy the enemy light craft with his own bare hands. Charging forwards, his initial hammer of wrath impact did not get past the Venom's invulnerable saves, and all his attacks failed to harm the skimmer. The Swooping Hawks deep striked far into enemy territory aiming all their fire at the lone surviving jetbike, but failing to kill it. The bike was then felled by concentrated sniper fire. The Rangers in the woods on the left had no targets, and shot at the enemy Crimson Hunter, with a lucky shot glancing the enemy flyer. Then the enemy Farseer cleaved Wraithlord Pikarid in two, while the Warp Spider and Reaver remained locked in combat.

The Farseer charged forwards into the nearest Ranger squad in the woods ahead of him, easily wiping them out in close combat as the Rangers tried to flee. Wraithlord Agaith was easy pickings for the enemy flyer, blasting him apart with pulse laser and bright lance fire. And still the lone Spider and Reaver remained locked in combat.

 

The enemy Farseer became the primary target for 2 Ranger squads and a Pathfinder squad, and while he jinked his jetbike madly in an effort to evade the concentrated sniper fire, the deluge of sniper rounds was too much, and he fell. And in the closing moments of the battle, the Dark Kin Reaver got the better of the last Warp Spider, emerging as the sole survivor of the drawn-out melee.

That was simply quite an epic battle and totally close run. My Alaitoc Ranger Forde scored 12 VPs, including First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. The renegade Eldar-Dark Eldar force scored 11VPs, including Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. The Ranger squad that was deployed up front, and whom I thought would have given away First Blood when the enemy seized the initiative - actually survivied the battle.

Bloody. A fitting end to 6th Edition.

2013 - Not a Bad Hobby Year After All.

With very limited time available for the hobby, it seemed at first that 2013 was going to be the worst year in a long time as far as my personal wargames hobby is concerned. Funny enough, it turns out that this is yet more proof that fact and perception are often-times at complete odds with each other.

The fact is, I actually did more painting and hobbying in 2013 compared to 2012 and 2011. I did play less games, and attended less events, but the personal hobbying was not too shabby at all.

I guess the highlight would be the completion (finally!) of II Catachan Rgt's Air Mobile Detachment (a.k.a. AirCav), an army that actually started with much fervor with the first Valkyrie completed in 2009, but got completely derailed as I finished off several other projects in between. But largely thanks to the first Throwdown earlier in the year, the project was given a huge kick and restarted with gusto! And now, version 1 is done! I've got version 2 on the cards, but I'll wait for the new codex before doing more work on them (it might turn out I'd have to use the army as a counts-as Elysian list if some of the rumors are true - but we'll see).

 

So in 2013, I actually finished:
- 36 IG aircav infantry (almost all converted)
- 1 Col Straken
- 1 Uriah Jacobus preacher
- 1 Astropath
- 3 Vendetta
- 1 Valkyrie
- 1 Basilisk (happy with the simple conversion for this guy)
- 1 Crimson Hunter
- 6 Eldar Jet Bikes (in one (long) intense hobby session, I might add)

On top of that, I started (but obviously did not finish):
- 1 Eldar Warlock on jetbike (actually, this guy is almost done - maybe another hour or so)
- 1 Ilyic the super Pathfinder
- 1 Dark Reaper Exarch (converted from bits + OOP Eldar warrior)
- 1 Nephilim
- 1 Helbrute
- 1 Heldrake
- 6 Ravenwing Black Knights
- 5 Ravenwing Command Squad Black Knights
- 30 Deathwing Terminators (including command)
- 23 Dark Angels Space Marines (including command)
- 1 Officer of the Fleet

It's not too shabby, given the circumstances.

Now on to the lowlights. I guess the worst part of my hobby year was actually missing Legio's big move to its shiny new premises at Hobby Forge. That was a real bummer. The next one has to be the fact that this was the first year in a long time that I did not play in a tournament. And this was in a year with a bumper crop of tournaments! And I just realized that my proud 6th Brandenberg Imperial Guard never left the shelves all year! That is something that must be rectified this year!

Anyways, I'm not going to dwell in doldrums so early in the day. I am looking forward to 2014. The first project in mind is a quick revisit of Master Ahriman and the Thousand Sons. I'm looking to finish up my first ever Heldrake, the 1.5 models left to paint to complete the Favored Rubric Terminator squad, and the awesome Land Raider that's been WIP for 6 years (I think). After that, it's a bit more work with the Ravenwing - finish up the Black Knights and the Command Squad, and add 3 Land Speeders to the army.

We'll see how far that takes me. Here's hoping that I don't get TOO over-distracted (e.g. WW1 Brit-themed IG with steel helmets, fixed bayonets and tanks that look like Malcadors ... or a Thunderbolt (or two) ... or an expansion of the seedling of the Tzeentch daemons in my collection ... or a 28mm Napoleonic army ...)

Cheers to 2013! Cheers to 2014!
Happy New Year guys!
Keep them dice rolling ...