School is killing me! My schedule this year will be pretty busy, what with my internship, but I'll have plenty of time in the evenings and weekends for my hobby...
Just not yet. I'm still writing up my Battle Reports and comments from BOLSCON, but here's some pics of Mike Strange's Rogue Trader Army that you've been reading so much about.
You know, on someone else's blog - nobody reads this one since Mom gave up on it...
One of the best armies at the event - this was a good idea amazingly well executed.
It's 11pm on Sunday night and I just got back from BOLSCON in Austin TX, hosted (of course) by the Flylords.
Unequivocally, this event was a huge success and an absolute blast! The guys there were very cool, even while keeping this event rolling along almost perfectly on schedule.
I'll have much, much more to post over the coming days; I took a ton of pictures (and bothered people no end I'm sure...) and talked to just about everyone I could run down for 5 minutes.
But what's a blog entry without pictures? This is Dante putting the boot to Eldrad (Altansar style - doesn't ol' Eldrad show up just about everywhere?) in Game 4 with none other than...
*drum roll please*
JAWABALLS!
Yea, Fortune didn't help... and this is after Dante shrugged off 4 fusiongun blasts to the face
Jawaballs and Fritz were very chill guys, willing to take time out to chat with folks. I'm glad to have met them. Gotta say, the internet doesn't do justice to Jawaballs'es miniatures - scratch that, art. His tanks blew me away; seeing them across the table was awesome. Great game. I pulled some Fritz tactics on him at the end, sweeping in to contest. It literally came down to the last dice roll; my Fire Dragons assaulted a 5 man unit on an objective. I lost by one wound and failed the LD test! I needed an 8 on 2d6... oh the shame! He ran me down and won the primary objective.
My wife and I are both students (again - don't drop out of college kiddies!) in our early thirties with no children... DINKS; double-income-no-kids! While not rich, I get away with spending money on my hobbies - so what do you do with all that stuff when you move?
We moved recently. My new game room is smaller, more cramped. At least I have one; my friends report having a game closet...
I'm trying to finish up everything before leaving town for BOLSCON tomorrow. I don't have anything ready for the painting competition, so I've pulled a couple of options for minis I may try to update... if I have time...
Here are some henchmen from my Inquisitor's retinue. I thought I could them by painting the parchment and book with designs, pictures - that kind of thing.
One of my Beastlords. He's respectable, which is probably the best I'm going to achieve anyway. There are going to be some great painters there this weekend...
From my Chaos army; also respectable.
An example of what not to do for a painting competition! Here is my Doomlord. I painted my Beastmen army a month before the Lone Wolf tournament in Dallas this year; with a short timespan to paint that many miniatures, I developed a partial-dip technique to save some time. This worked really, really well on the troops, but I did the same thing to the Lords and Heroes... and I shouldn't have. It looks great for the table, but wouldn't make it past the first round of a painting competition due to pooling, browning, and such. From that perspective, it was much better before I applied the shade. Ah well!
Back to painting... still working on my last Falcon, then I hope to add some free-hand details. See some of you this weekend (though you won't know it, since nobody actually reads this...).
Ah well, a 3+/4+ can't save an Avatar when you roll like that...
Regular readers of my blog (that is, of course, a misnomer; there are no readers of this blog...) will know I've been doing a lot of researching, list-building, and testing of my Eldar army for events past and upcoming. My list for BOLSCON is set, so I'm devoting zero skull-sweat to that: it will be what it will be - but Hard Boyz Round 3 in Chicago is looming, and it is very much on my mind.
So much so I've been bugging the crap out of my friends, emailing them, arguing with them - basically making a pest of myself. Here's a letter Evil Homer himself, follower of Nurgle and in cohoots with the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) himself, responding to my question about troop choices in general and jetbike squads in particular...
ok...really it depends on the mission of the bike squad, if they are in the list, simply to grab or contest objectives in the last turn, and they won't be active during the remainder of the game (generally) you mightbe able to do 5 man. If you want something more out of them then 5 will not cut it.
Wave serpents/Falcons will get popped. At 2500 poiints, in an anticipated heavy mech evironment and with the Meta being what it is, you have to plan on losing 4-5 of those serpents. Which ones go first depends on the opponent. some will see the fire dragons as a threat and move to neutralize them first, Others will look for a way to deny you the win first buy killing your troops. If he can kill or immobilize yours while preservintg 1 of his he has a chance at winning. Especially if he plays to sacrifice units to the seer council to achieve other objectives.
I really think that if all your looking for is objetive campers in vehicles then go with 10 man STORM guardian squads w/warlock carrying conceal and if the serpent gets popped then go to ground and hope to survive on the objective. Flamers help with hordes.
If you want the squad to be active in the game then roll with DA's.
for last minute grabbers then 5 man bike squad might cut it.
I think rolling with less than 4 troop choices is a mistake unless you think your army is going to be tabling guys.
I've been giving this some thought. I'd originally planned to stick 3 squads of 5 Avengers in a Falcon and use this as portable objective claimers. There are some downsides to this plan, some of which Homer points out in the Email above, but also the cost of the Falcon as I'd like to run it is 205; is that a good use of points, especially given the effectiveness of Fire Prisms for much cheaper? For these and other reasons, I'm considering adding Jetbike squads, thus the email I sent out. Regarding Homers other point, I don't think he realizes how difficult it can be to bring down Wave Serpents, much less Falcons/Prisms with Holofield, but that's not really the point, is it? I should plan to lose 5 just as a strategy; after all, good luck is easy to plan for but just how useful is it? I need a plan to win or draw when everything starts going south.
Okay, it's not like I don't already do this. I've got a lot of experience playing this game and it generally serves me well. But I do have a tendancy to buck convention, or play inferior choices to throw people off, but all that pales in comparison with my biggest weakness as a player: my constant need for change. Many times I've bombed a tournament by making last minute changes to my list; speaking from experience, that's never good.
Evil Homer is a tough player. His strengths are planning and consistency - you can see this in his choice of tournament army.
He's not the only dude whose input I've sought, and I appreciate the time people have taken, both on the net and IRL, answering questions and all-around putting up with me. I've been accused to not listening, but ultimately I've got to filter all the ideas and incorporate it with my playing style.
All that said, my list has already changed significantly - and one of those changes prompted the title of this post. My new need for mobility has caused me to drop my Avatar from my final list.
BOLSCON is this weekend. I'm going to have a great time - I know that - but right now I swear I'm so burned out on Warhammer 40K I could just scream. My FLGS had a tournament every 3 months, building to a large event in July. Then there was Rounds 1 and 2 of Hard Boyz. Now I've got BOLSCON and Round 3 of Hard Boyz on the horizon and I still have a ton of crap to do for both.
For BOLSON I'm committed to the 2 Falcon list I posted awhile back, so I need to paint a Falcon and Viper by this Friday. I'm planning a Serpent Spam variation for Hard Boyz, so I'll have stuff to purchase, put together, and paint in preparation for that.
I know, I know - I don't actually HAVE to have a painted army for Hard Boyz... well, yea I really do. It's a personal thing: my days of playing events with unpainted armies is in the past, if I can't paint it, I won't play it.
For that reason I have two painting styles, 'Get It On The Board' and 'Doing My Best Till Bored.' Practically everything I've posted of mine on this little blog nobody reads (my mom has given up on it too) is painted in the first style, but I am capable of more when I choose. Why do I bring this up? Well, I'm going to enter something in the painting competition at BOLSCON but since I don't have time to paint something from scratch, I'll have to update a miniature in my collection.
This has sent me down memory lane some. I'll have pictures tomorrow, but I've uploaded my Goff Rok Bank from my old 3E/4E Ork army.
The style is kinda dated, so I'll probably strip it one of these days, but for now I get a kick out of it.
So it’s been a week or so since the Hard Boyz semifinals.I’ve posted about Game 2 and promised I’d make time to post about Game 3.I’ve had to think about it some, given how disgusted I was about the whole thing.
My opponent was (and forgive me if I butcher this) Simonold, a casual player from Lubbock.I’m fairly sure I’ve got his name wrong but I guess that’s beside the point. He said he didn't play much this year, coming out only for Hard Boyz.
Let’s run through a quick synopsis of the game.
So we have table quarters and an objective in the middle; pretty standard stuff.I set up my Dark Reapers, screened by Pathfinders, at the extreme diagonal with a view of the objective.My Serpents and Council lined up behind cover and my Avatar was front and center; I had two units of Pathfinders on the wings.My opponent deployed in a fairly standard brick, Land Raiders up front ready to blitz forward, providing cover for more breakable units to approach behind.Each Land Raider had a 14 strong Crusader squad (mixed Initiates and Neophytes), one led by the Emperor’s Champion and the other by the High Marshal.I knew the Black Templars were going to teleport a Terminator Assault squad and land a Drop Pod with Crusaders, but I didn’t allow this to adjust my deployment much other than to lay out some bait.Both would have to deploy from reserves, so I judged it safe to assume one would arrive in Turn 2 and the other in Turn 3.My Reapers played bait and I gave him a nice big hole to land in, but when these units arrived they didn’t deploy in my backfield at all.More on this later, but this was the reason I kept my Harlequins in reserve; I didn’t want to give him an easy opportunity to take out this squad. I had the first turn; he tried to steal it but didn’t.The first two turns the armies jockeyed for position.I quickly immobilized a Land Raider and this seemed to throw him off his plan, which naturally was driving both forward and unloading two squads all over me.There was sort of a ‘No-man’s Land’ in the middle, where neither army wanted to step foot since it would give the opposition the opportunity to jump all over them.I was content with this, but it was the bottom of Turn Two when he realized he needed to break the stalemate and move forward, otherwise I was going to have an easy game of it…
(There was some discussion of this later; for the record, I would have turbo-boosted everything forward, deploying my Seer Council as a long screen against his army, backed up by Serpents and Avatar, with troops behind this holding the objective.The Seer Council is a fantastic tar-pit; even his assault-oriented Marines couldn’t have shifted all this for a win.I wouldn’t have bet against the Eldar, either, with the Avatar and Eldrad backing up the army.)
The middle game was a fight around in the center with elements of both armies held in reserve.For the record, I think he was too passive.I destroyed the Land Raider he moved forward to sit on the objective and killed the troops inside it, but this shouldn’t have stopped him from trying.When his Terminators and Drop Pod came in, he teleported the first behind his lines in relative safety and dropped the second on one of my flanks… why?Had I been in his shoes, I would have dropped the Terminators in the middle of the fray and landed the pod right on the objective.Yes, I had the tools to take care of both, but he still should have made me do it – that’s why you roll the dice during a game!Had any portion of these units survived the initial assault they would have made my life miserable.Regardless of all this speculation, we tore each other’s armies up some and tried to be the one holding the objective at the end of the game.
Here's the last pic I took. The poker chip is the objective and I'd placed the Dire Avenger in range to control it but with the squad strung out to take cover behind the close combat. This is from the last movement; after my shooting and assault phase, there wasn't as much left.
*sigh*
Okay, I’ve been avoiding really talking about the bullshit that happened.Let’s cut to the chase: I won the game.It wasn’t that exciting and, except for the argument at the end, I had no real trouble winning it.Simonold was a really nice guy and we both laughed and joked during the game.
That said, we were both disgusted and argumentative by the end of it, because he was one of the slowest players I’ve ever come across and he didn’t want to play the last turn.
Okay, it’s like this.
The people who played him in the first two games told me there was an issue with time, so I told him right up front that I wanted to make sure we got to Turn 5 and beyond.I was nice about it, telling him I understood he was meticulous, but that it was important we have a fair game since it would determine who went to Chicago.I made this point twice and he understood.During the game, I took very little time, hurrying through my rounds.I also played cheerleader during his turns, trying to keep him moving.
Turns 1 and the top of 2 took 15 minutes, the bottom of 2 (his turn) and Turn 3 took 1.5 HOURS.Believe me when I tell you, it wasn’t me.So now we were in a position where we began Turn 4 with about ½ hour of play left.I explained this to him and told him we could do it.After all, this is a competitive event, right?Turn 4 took 15 minutes, so we’re about to start turn 5 and we have 17 minutes left…
And he doesn’t want to play Turn 5.
Why should he?He’d taken his turn knowing he had no intention of going on, so he’d slyly placed one model to control the objective.I’d seen it, of course, but it didn’t matter to me since my Harlequins were going to kill that unit next turn.After all, I’d taken my Turn 4 with the expectation I’d get another.
Even as I write this a week later, I’m getting angry.This, more than anything else, is why tournaments have the reputation they do.The BULLSHIT people pull to win that has nothing to do with the game at hand.
I wasn’t going to stand for it.Had I known we weren’t going to get to Turn 5 I would have played Turn 4 differently.It wouldn’t have been optimal, because obviously I wanted that extra turn of shooting/assault before jumping on the objective, but I tell you truthfully I would have won regardless, barring some outrageous shift of luck.I basically had at him.I said approximately the following, “Look, this is bullshit.We got through the last turn in 15 minutes and we’ll get through this one the same.I guarantee you you’ll get your turn.But this is Hard Boyz and if you didn’t want to finish the game you have no reason to be here… Hell, this isn’t a surprise: I told you we needed to hurry, and it wasn’t me that used the bulk of two hours.My army wins in the last half of the game; you think its right to deprive me of that?Bullshit.We’ve got plenty of time, but we’ve wasted 3 minutes on this shit and I’m getting my turn.If you don’t want yours after that, fine.”
Then I moved and started telling him which dice to roll.I only moved the part of my army that mattered (and I actually forgot to move an element that was going to control a board quarter) and got done in a few minutes, leaving 10 minutes for his turn.He stood around mumbling to himself but finally got around to rolling dice.
So I won, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.After the game he kept saying he couldn’t believe I’d ‘talked him into that,’ pointing out he had the win at the bottom of 4.I was pretty sick of the whole thing but stuck to my guns, telling him that the only turn that matters was the last one and slow-playing to avoid it was a bullshit strategy.
And make no mistake, I found out later it was his strategy.I talked to his opponents from round 1 and 2 afterward and they pointed out something I’d missed: he kept checking his watch throughout the game.He knew exactly how long he had.His game 1 got through 3 turns, which he won; the guy he beat said it was really frustrating to sit through these long turns and to lose knowing he would have won had the game gone on.The dude Simonold played game 2 said the same thing but with the twist that Simonold started playing really, really quickly when one of the random objectives fell into a bad spot for him and he needed more turns to grab it…Guess what?He then asked his opponent to start another turn with only a few minutes left on the clock.
One last thing…While I was adding up points he went to tell his sob-story to the judge, so I felt the need to call him out from across the room.Look, I’m a decent, chill guy for the most part.People tell me they enjoy playing me and I can put up with almost anything, but I’m not the kind to let something like that go.I won’t be walked on in this world, not even over a game of toy soldiers.I tell you three times, I would have taken the whole thing a LOT further.
Bottom line, you have to advocate for yourself.The tournament scene can be really cool and most people on it are decent, honest people, but the sad fact is even good judges can’t do much to the guy that’s cheating, or slow-playing, or pulling some other form of nonsense: the judge or TO only has so much authority.The best tournaments are those where the judge doesn’t tolerate such bullshit, but those are usually local events where he gets a chance to know the players and what to watch for.
Have mobility and tank destroying power. I need units capable of tar-pitting and units capable of destroying a squad in one round. I need the speed and protection to deliver troops to the objective as early as Turn 4. (Because evidently slowplaying is a viable strategy in some circles.) I want to limit the Kill Points I give away. I need an army capable of playing against the known builds that will be represented.
I know I'm asking a ton, but what the hell - shoot the moon, right?
Here's my first draft. Let me know what you think.
Brent
2500 Pts - Eldar Roster - Hard Boyz Chicago, Trial List
1 Eldrad Ulthran @ 210 Pts Psyker; Doom ; Eldritch Storm ; Fortune ; Guide ; Mind War ; Divination; Fleet; Independent Character; Ghost Helm (GH); Rune Armour (RAmr); Runes of Warding (RofWard); Runes of Witnessing (RofWit); Spirit Stones (P:SpStn); Shuriken Pistol (Sp); Witchblade (WB); Staff of Ulthamar (SofU)
Look, I'm aware I don't have much of a following, but I have to give this absolute BS the widest possible dispersion. Nik posts about some nonsense a player hit him with during Hard Boyz (do these stories surprise anyone?), but what makes it more interesting is they are both from the Wrecking Crew. Nik couldn't have been more concise and detailed... Read the thread:
He also says the following, "I feel bad that yet another incident has occurred that shows my club in a bad light. At the Big Waaagh this year I had a perfect score for sportsmanship and one of my opponents told me our game was by far his favorite and he handily won that one."
I don't know who to believe - I wasn't there. What really hacks me off is the response from a MODERATOR from the site and his response. It couldn't have been more diminishing. Read Bdon's response, if you didn't read it on the site.
"I say “we” in quotation marks because an organization like our own is, by its very nature, nothing more than a loose affiliation of like-minded tournament players."
Nothing more?
Peace!
Ok a more in depth response:
"I have decided to bring the issue up here, rather than at some open forum like DakkaDakka or the B&C. I recognize how much heat this would bring down on us, and how"
Holding something against your club over what one person did is not a good idea pal!
"This is where things began to become “murky”. We exchanged lists, and upon closer examination of the list I was handed (my own being accurate), the point total of his roster added up to ‘1850’. I asked him four times (Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?) whether the army roster was correct, and was told that it added up to 2250. "
Sounds like a simple case of not changing the roster value in AB. I make 2k lists all the time without switching from 1850, so it says "1850 list" at the bottom below the REAL points value. Why were you going into this so paranoid?
"1.) Each time a squad was kicked out of a transport, rather than having the squad on the table (or near at hand) to simply place on the board to save time, Steve would walk back to the front desk, sift through a stack of four or five foam flats, take each model out one at a time, share a few comments with the clerk, and return.. and then, painstakingly place each model, one at a time, in the same fashion. Each squad removed from a transport took, on average, 5 minutes to place. These are squads of 5-10 models, not 30 man Orks."
I dont see any cheating here. I hear tell of a crowded place.
"2.) During shooting, targets were frequently not declared. A vague gesture would be made, and dice would be rolled. This happened two or three times, and I often had to stop and ask, again, which unit was firing at what. Twice, I had an issue where Steve tried to fire twice with a single unit, nearly back to back. Checking and requesting verification for every other move an opponent makes is not what I’m used to, unless I’m playing a newb."
That is how he plays. If you dont like it take it up with him at the table, not later in some essay.
3. Then call him on it then call a TO if he does it again. It doesnt sound like you put up much of a fight. Sounded like he thought he was walking into a friendly game since you are in the SAME CLUB and both FOR SURE going to the finals.
4 n 5. I dunno wasnt there should have brought it up with him instead.
6. Tell him to speed up? I will tell you what, last time I played Steve when I was on a trip in Florida I would have preferred he slowed down. Rethink your priorities. If you dont like playing or spending time with us then dont let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
7. "Really Steve?" Should have asked him at the table maybe?
8. Then keep calling him on it?
9. "(It doesnt)" Opinion
"What is the standard by which Wrecking Crew members are judged, and do I want to count myself amongst their number? " HAHA don't pull that two faced BS.
"Here is where I stand: I have nothing to gain from writing this. " Yeah you get to make yourself feel better because youre pissy you didnt win. Your posts read like a childrens story, simple and easy, you arent going to pull this over on me.
"My purest intention in this thread is to resolve my own problem with what took place" YOu do that with a phone call or at the worst a PM.
"I’m also fine with replies to this thread" Damn right.
I think it should be deleted because its a passive aggressive act against a clubmate, one you would rather win agaisnt than play another turn agaisnt. I would love to play Steve at any time.
There is something wrong with the community when we allow this to happen at competative events. Anyone that's travelled has some stories of this or similiar nonsense.
I'm back from the tournament this weekend, the Hard Boyz Semi-Finals (Round 2 of 3) with a disappointing 3rd round finish. Disappointing only in the sense that it's what I earned; who wants what they earned? I'll take 1st on a lucky break and write home about my new 2500pt army GW can pack'n'mail.
But it wasn't to be dear reader (yes, reader singular - as in, there is only one of you). At Challenge Games in Lubbock, TX, a fantastic and friendly venue I highly recommend, Adam took 1st with Mechdar, Bruce took 2nd with Vulcan 'Bestof,Lite', and I scratched for 3rd with my Hybrid Eldar.
I'll write up the other two games over the next few days - look out for Game 3, where it is evidently okay to slowplay a victory - but for now let's take a brief look at Game 2 against the eventual winner, Adam and his Mechdar.
Eldard plus 10 Warlocks Yriel 2 Dragons (8 inc Exarch DBF) in WS w BL SS 3 Avengers minimal in WS w BL SS 3 Fire Prism w HF SS
Look familiar? It's a netlist, and by that I only mean its a variation of a known, agressive build with hard-hitting units and tons of mobility. Let's talk about that for a moment. I know many players look to the net for ideas. Then there are people who copy their army list point for point from their favorite site. The last category of player develops a list over time, learning its strengths and weaknesses over time, molding an army until it works - so many times these lists resemble other lists across the country because like-minded people are bound to work out the same ideas across the board.
There's no right or wrong in any of that; I think most of us dabble in all three types of development over the years, but keep in mind there are few original ideas out there. Recently Stelek championed the Rifleman Dread, that is, a Dreadnought with 2 TL-Autocannons. Now how long has that option been available, staring people in the face, before its truely awesome potential saw discussion? It's where new builds come from, in my admittedly never humble opinion, some smart-cookie having an ephiphany while sitting on the pot reading a tattered codex for the umpteenth time.
Sorry for the aside, but why did I bring it up? Well, Stelek's been championing his view of competative play for over half a year now which I've described before as economy of points, reason and redundancy, and MechMechMech. Adam's list was more the disciple of these tenants than my own, so when all things else were equal...
I was outplayed and could do little about it. Instructive, no?
A few words about the game: I won't bore you with play-by-play in hindsight. It was played in Round 2 so obviously scenario 2 was used. This scenario was 'Fumble in the Dark (With Your Pants Down And A Stupid Grin On Your Face)'...
Okay, I added that last part, but what a bullshit scenario - who thinks of this shit? Nightfight was in effect the whole game and 6 counters were placed, but only 3 of them were worth anything, so on turns 2, 4, and 6 you'd randomly find out where the money was. This was further clusterfucked by having two Eldrads on the board... know what Runes of Warding do to each other? It makes it much easier for your precious psyker to hurt himself playing with fire.
I lost the choice and was forced to go first. I decided I'd have to play aggressively given his obvious advantage in mobility; obviously he'd swoop in and claim objectives on the last turn and I couldn't afford to allow him that. I attacked on the middle/left, blocking and baiting with my tarpit and trying to force his Serpents down. My plan was to try to force a fight in one place while my Pathfinders waited in the wings to identify then claim the objectives.
So I forced his Fire Dragons out of his tanks. He took a turn firing everything at my Fortune'd Seer Council, killing one. That's what they were there for. He then surprised me by throwing both his Dragons in the assault. It was a good move. They were dead regardless, but he tied down my Council when I'd probably have movd them away completely, killing off his Dragons another way. As it was, it gave him the option to break out on both flanks, abandoning the fight but effectively staking his claim to the win. I played my ass off, making a fight of it, but my Pathfinders and Reapers couldn't do a thing about his Wave Serpents and Fire Prisms. (Note: see the black and orange Fire Dragons on the hill? They were from the Serpent I had blocking the rear-armor shot to the middle Serpent... didn't want you thinking I did the in-game equivalent of turning around and bending over.)
This last picture is from his last movement phase. I'd done my best, but he was easily able to contest all the objectives from me, then he cleaned my Pathfinders from off one objective, cementing his win.
So that's it then. Adam was a genuine guy, very cool and very funny. As an example we were joking around about Eldar on Eldar action and shared a faux-passionate huge with everyone looking on. Not a lot of guys get me, but he had a great sense of humor and enough self-esteem not to sweat the homo-erotic humor. My kind of guy.
A few last points...
The Avatar is always awesome. He played the strong linchpin of my force, tying up the enemy and keeping units in the fight that would have otherwise run. That said, he doesn't have a place in the more mobile army I'm going to HAVE to build in the future.
I have a slight issue with craters. A vehicle explosion leaves (can? should?) a crater that is dangerous terrain. I've only ever used this rule if my opponent has a crater to put on the board to represent it, but Adam's FLGS uses the rule at all times, so I went with it and we proxied it, leaving the clear bases behind to represent the crater. Adam later landed a Fire Prism on one and pointed out my Jetbikes require a dangerous terrain test to assault him. I lost a model. Now, I'm not bringing it up because it changed the game, because it didn't. I'm just not sure how I feel about this convention. I'm sure I could have set up an assault that didn't include the crater had it actually been represented. I was taken by surprise, never having really come across this in-game, so I'm going to have to decide how I want to handle it in the future. How big is the crater? Does it block line of sight? Is it shaped exactly like a Serpent, or Land Raider, or what? It's just an oddity and certainly nothing Adam was doing to trip me up. Quite the opposite - I was really out of sorts that game and he was very cool about it.
Last thing: Adam used a 10-strong Seer Council in a Wave Serpent with Eldrad attached. I've heard Stelek blast the foot-option, but it was a tough nut to crack once it was stuck in. Also, Adam seemed to think it counted as a retinue for Eldrad and 1) he couldn't be targeted and 2) he couldn't leave. We had a brief discussion. He showed me the Retinue rule in the BBB and I said "Yes, but show me where it says Retinue in the Eldar Codex." I maintained it was an option opened up by the purchase of a Farseer but otherwise an IC operated as normal. I'm confident I'm right, but I'm putting it out there anyway.
This has gone on long enough - take care all...
Brent
Note: I've written this blog as a submission for Yes The Truth Hurts, Stelek and Co.'s tactica site, primarily because I believe it illustrates many of his points on Eldar builds. I include it here because this is my blog... but nobody actually reads it anyway!
Well, it can hardly be called a conversion, really. After playtesting, I decided I wanted to keep my Eldrad/Avatar tag team, but I really loved the tar-pit potential of a Fortune'd Council, so I'm trying to have the best of both worlds.
This squad obviously isn't going to be as effective as a 10-strong, decked out, Farseer-led Superbrick, but it should be okay for what I need it for.
It can block, contest, screen Serpents, tar pit, and (if all else fails) it won't kill me to sacrifice it.
I can also kill tanks. People who don't play against Eldar much seldom realize the Witchblade counts as str9 against a vehicle in close combat. 16 attacks and 8 hit, assuming the vehicle moved 6 inches, so against a Land Raider that's 2 or 3 Penetrating hits with 2 or 1 Glancing (4 rolls on the chart).
Yea, I hate Mathhammer too - it doesn't work out that way when you hit the green, but it does make it a unit capable of destroying AV14, the single thing I'm most worried about facing.
Fuzzy math... but it is for this reason I take a full squad of Fire Dragons. Yes The Truth Hurts, the only major site for consistent tactica imho, advocates for squads of 5. I can't argue with that; there are good reasons behind it, but I simply have another perspective. The Land Raider is the only Mech I'm worried about - I can crack anything else easily enough - but is 5 Dragons enough? At over 6 inches, only 1.1 will get a roll on the chart but you have a 50/50 chance that's a glance. The weapon is AP1, so even a glance has a chance to destroy the Land Raider, but it's not a great chance. Now closer to the tank that changes: with the Dragon rolling two dice for AP, you can pretty much count on 3 penetrating hits and a destroyed tank... but it's still not a guarantee.
Keep in mind, it's not always easy to deliver the Dragons within 6 inches. Many times you'll have to pivot the Wave Serpent and 'show your ass' in order to get the extra space necessary to do it. Basically you could be throwing away a Serpent to deliver your payload. Now in Stelek's build I'm not sure that's such a problem, since he overwhelms with numerous tanks and a bigass Seer Council, but I go another way.
I prefer to use my Fire Dragons as a... well... Tactical Squad. To mix my terms a bit, but you get the point. I use a full-size squad and I'll target tanks, marines, terminators - whatever shows it's ugly humie-head. My Exarch has a Dragon's Breath flamer but still supports tank hunting by the 15pt Tank Hunter upgrade. I know it's important to avoid unnecessary wargear expense in list-building, but AV+1 means I don't have to get within 6 inches of a Land Raider to get the kill. Usually I'll try to park my Wave Serpent and unload out the back, shooting underneath it and hopefully keeping the tank in the way.
Enough! I've rambled on, and I'm well aware nobody reads this...
Well, I've done it now. I'm just like every other blog, promising updates than disappearing for a week. I hated doing it, since I'm enjoying this aspect of the hobby, but I had no choice. School was simply too tough.
School's out! Today was my final in Zoology. I saved my Sciences for the summer before my senior year, thinking it would be easier to remember all the technical terms and long Latin or Greek names. Got to say, that wasn't smart thinking on my part. It was simply too much. I did okay all things considered, but I'm glad it's over.
Know what a Hirudinea is? I do - that and much more this poor Social Work student will have zero use for in the future...
Enough of that - nobody is interested I'm sure. On the game front, I did submit both my list for Hard Boyz Round II and BOLSCON.
Of the two, the BOLSCON list is probably more competitive, but I'm going to have to buy two tanks before all's said and done. I didn't have that option for HB2, so I did the best I could with my collection.
I did a ton of playtesting these last few weeks. Remember my buddy Bruce from the Battle Report? Well, he tightened up his army and gave one of my test lists a good stomping. I'm hoping to post that game before leaving town tomorrow, but it wasn't pretty. I got it in my head to test things like Swooping Hawks and artillery - more than anything, that's my biggest downfall as a competative player: I have a hard time sticking with things. I'm always wanting to change stuff up or try something new. I'm glad I got that out of my system before this weekend.
I'm going to stick with things I know, with the exception of adding a tarpit unit in the form of the Warlocks on Jetbikes. Here's the list:
2500 Pts - Eldar Roster - Altansar Hard Boyz; Crihfield Round II
I've been trying out a Seer Council and while I really liked what it was capable of, I really missed the combo of Eldrad and the Avatar. I also learned that a Farseer isn't nearly as capable of supporting an army the way Eldrad is. This list runs with the idea that Eldrad can Fortune multiple units from a distance. I'm going to use the Warlocks as a tarpit that I can sacrifice if I need to. Looking it over, I wish I had more tanks; since I don't, I'm going to have to play very aggresively.
Anyway, that's where I'm at now. I'm still painting models, but I'm almost done. I'll have pictures up tomorrow - hopefully of my scratch-built Council!
I'm trying to finish up everything before leaving town for BOLSCON tomorrow. I don't have anything ready for the painting competition, so I've pulled a couple of options for minis I may try to update... if I have time...
One of my Beastlords. He's respectable, which is probably the best I'm going to achieve anyway. There are going to be some great painters there this weekend...
From my Chaos army; also respectable.
An example of what not to do for a painting competition! Here is my Doomlord. I painted my Beastmen army a month before the Lone Wolf tournament in Dallas this year; with a short timespan to paint that many miniatures, I developed a partial-dip technique to save some time. This worked really, really well on the troops, but I did the same thing to the Lords and Heroes... and I shouldn't have. It looks great for the table, but wouldn't make it past the first round of a painting competition due to pooling, browning, and such. From that perspective, it was much better before I applied the shade. Ah well!
Regular readers of my blog (that is, of course, a misnomer; there are no readers of this blog...) will know I've been doing a lot of researching, list-building, and testing of my Eldar army for events past and upcoming. My list for BOLSCON is set, so I'm devoting zero skull-sweat to that: it will be what it will be - but Hard Boyz Round 3 in Chicago is looming, and it is very much on my mind.
So I forced his Fire Dragons out of his tanks. He took a turn firing everything at my Fortune'd Seer Council, killing one. That's what they were there for. He then surprised me by throwing both his Dragons in the assault. It was a good move. They were dead regardless, but he tied down my Council when I'd probably have movd them away completely, killing off his Dragons another way. As it was, it gave him the option to break out on both flanks, abandoning the fight but effectively staking his claim to the win. I played my ass off, making a fight of it, but my Pathfinders and Reapers couldn't do a thing about his Wave Serpents and Fire Prisms. (Note: see the black and orange Fire Dragons on the hill? They were from the Serpent I had blocking the rear-armor shot to the middle Serpent... didn't want you thinking I did the in-game equivalent of turning around and bending over.)
This last picture is from his last movement phase. I'd done my best, but he was easily able to contest all the objectives from me, then he cleaned my Pathfinders from off one objective, cementing his win.
