Collecting a Dark Eldar Army: Missing models

I know quite a few people are out there eagerly awaiting the Dark Eldar FAQ and 3rd wave of models before deciding to collect DE but a lot of people have already decided to start a DE army and whilst the FAQ shouldn't be too far off (let's give them at least 2 months...), the 3rd wave of models likely is. This is problematic as there are a lot of units which don't have models. Although this isn't as large an issue as it was for Tyranids (you mean two of my best units don't have models...say what?), it can put some limits on army lists for the moment (much like many people refuse to buy Kroot Hounds). What this post looks at is alternative ways to field the units without official models yet. Be warned, some amount of greenstuffing, modelling skill, kit-bashing or going cross-eyed is required (or in the case of Forgeworld units, deep pockets).





First, what units do have models:

• Archon, Lelith, Urien, Haemonculi, Drazhar
• Warriors/Trueborn
• Wyches/Bloodbrides/Succubus
• Hellions
• Reavers
• Raider/Ravager
• Mandrakes
• Incubi
• Harlequins

This covers a good portion of the units available and if you include old metal models like Scourges and Talos you've got even more covered (I'll also do some lists with these models only later on). However, these old models are pretty bad when we want something hip and awesome (amirite?). Furthermore, Bloodbrides/Trueborn/Succubus have to be converted from existing kits (Wyches & Warriors) to ensure they are significantly different from their cheaper brethren. This is annoying but part of life, sorry kids! Hopefully GW will release kits for them too but don't hold your breath considering what else they have to release. And that list includes:

Keeping in the Game

We've all played That Game. You get shot with five Bolt Pistols, take four wounds, and three Terminators fail saves. Meanwhile, your opponent can't seem to miss with a blast weapon to save his life and every single 4+ cover is rollin' like magic. It is, to put it simply, the most awful game of your life.

How do you deal with That Game? It's awful, and probably not much fun for either you or your opponent, and it may well put you out of the running for prize. The hardest thing to do is to keep on slogging through it and play it out to the bitter end, but if you really want to make it, that's exactly what you need to do.

Email in: Chaos Space Marines 1750

"I'm attempting to construct a Chaos Space Marine list at 1750. I've ended up with a mishmash of Loyalist and Chaos models and bits and decided to put them to good use putting together a Night Lords army. So I'd like to not use anything to Daemon-y or Obliterators. I'm hoping to go with a sort of Rhino Rush I think. Here is what I have so far.

HQ:
Chaos Lord with Daemon Weapon

Elites X3:
5 Chosen
3 Meltaguns
Rhino w/ havoc launcher

Email in: Dec 4th Tournament - The Eldar case of "I dont wanna!"

"So tournament coming up. Wasn't going to participate cause I've already gotten really bored of playing marines, but then someone pointed out the small selection of Eldar models in the very bottom of my portable cooler... cough, cough, carrying case. I bought, assembled and painted them over 6-8 months ago and played them for about a month. There after I bubble wrapped them and put them at the bottom of my case, laid under a foam cover. Since then I refused to believe that I had bought them or played them.

Reason why I hate Eldar so much, well... There just not marines. They don't have durability, got past that by making use of there mobility and upping my game play. They don't have duality, made up for it by using a pairing strategy for each units. Most of there units can't deal with tough tanks and/or MC's, used Fire Dragon saturation to make up for that.

Transports: The army within an army & doubling up the FoC

It is not uncommon to see most units ‘mounted’ up in 5th edition. Although one doesn’t have to run a mech list to be competitive (hybrid and foot work as well), transports no longer are mere transporting devices but rather bunkers or gunboats unto themselves. This is basically a fancy way of saying transports are no longer uni-dimensional in moving forward at breakneck speed, unloading the contents and then basically being a pretty paperweight. This is in part due to the 5th edition ruleset (transports are no longer deathtraps, favourable vehicle damage chart, etc.) and partly due to codex design.

Firstly, most things got a points drop. What you could take with an older codex you can now generally take plus more. This is particularly true with vehicles (i.e. Rhinos from 50 to 35 points, Chimeras from 70 to 55 points, etc.) and transports in general. Call this a marketing ploy by GW (more stuff in games = more sales), good balancing or whatever you want but it has certainly opened a lot of build options, flexible tactics and armies and very enjoyable games in 5th edition. Let’s look at what I mean in terms of flexibility and options and what the hell the title of the post is about.

Hybrid BA Part II

Progression with my BA! I recently finished assembling and fully magnetizing my hybrid BA army.  It was quite a bit of work to get everything done but wow am I glad its done.  The masses of plastic were intimidating (The Army & List) but I found once I dove in things moved along fairly quickly.

Anyhow, aside from doing the conversions for the assault cannons on the razor backs and the TL auto cannons on the dreads (which will be in a future post with tutorials) I'm on to the painting stage.  So I need to know what everyone would like to see.  I want to paint in a listed codex chapter successor color scheme, so my initial thoughts on each.

Email in: 500pts Dark Eldar for discussion

"Hello Kirby,

I’ve been following your DE reviews and discussions with much interest. 1500+ pts lists being discussed all over the web, I’d like to have your opinion on a low-points one since it’s the style of games I play (not enough time to paint larger armies). I’ve tried to make it balanced enough for a 500 pts environment ^^. The idea is to play hide and seek at range thanks to the mobility and Defensive weaponry of the Venoms, and if need be to be able to focus fire on a single threat to overwhelm it under poisoned shots. The list relies on shooting at range but should also be able to handle close combat thanks to the FnP Incubi.

HQ: Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun (60 pts)
Selected because of overall low cost and the capacity to turn Wracks into low cost Troop units. It rides with the Incubi to give them FnP thanks to its pain token, and gets a Liquifier Gun not to be useless. My initial thought was to take an Archon, but it was too large a chunk of the army.

Troops 1: 3 Wracks (30 pts)
As the cheapest Troops choice, these guys serve as objective sitters. Drop an objective in your deployment zone in cover, and let them go to ground to defend it. 3+ cover save backed by FnP (free pain token) makes them quite resilient in a low points setting. They are a sort of reliable grots ^^

Monday Day Hobby Day

<--- not really sure what this is about, but in true 3++ fashion, it says hobby, so was selected.

Unfortunately I've not done anything hobby related for the last 2 weeks and due to a sudden wave of nausea after a busy weekend of D.I.Y., this will be a quick MDHD. Fortunately I got some nice piccies in the post and another 'recommendation' from Master Kirby.

Firstly, we have some pics sent in from Saramoff. He event sent me two rounds of pics... what a legend. You may have heard of him from such conversation aides such as Chatbox. He's becoming a more vocal member of the community and props to him for the photos.

Quiet Time

Sorry quiet weekend pinkies, had work to do and drinks to consume =D. Will aim to get some e-mail replies up today and some more in-depth articles and don't worry, the Warmachine content won't be so extensive as it was on the weekend! 3++ is still a blog focused on 40k (and Fantasy...), just the way the cookie crumbled this weekend.

I haven't gotten up to much painting at all of late or gaming but hopefully this week will remedy both of those aspects.

Hope everyone had a good weekend :) (my liver didn't).

P.S. some of you may have noticed some dodgy formatting going on lately. No idea what is up with that (it's bloggers fault) but just point it out if anyone misses anything please!

Discovery of a new Codex: Dark Angels

My Kind of Terminator *hubba hubba*

Yeah, I know, welcome to 2006, right?

Well, you all may have seen my efforts to build a decent terminator list.
Result: "interesting" is the best response I have gotten so far... with a hint of "you are an eeediot stimpy!".

So, Sneakydan suggested I roll back the sands of time and have a look at what the good ol' Terminator 'Dex has to offer, Dark Angels.

So, lets look at the list that I came up with, and analyse a few old 4th ed nuances that might let us actually make something of this codex.

Firstly, the thing that we all know of, Deathwing Terminators.
What's the go here?
Take Belial, special character, and they can be taken as Troops as well as Elites.
Second, The Ravenwing. Take Sammael and you can take Bikes and Speeders as a Troops choice, as well as Fast Attack.

Well, I am interested in Terminators, so that choice is fairly simple.

Email in: Small game hunting. 1000k Tyranids

"Hi Kirby,

First of all, I must say I dig 3++ and Your articles. A lot of enlightement came from here since I started to follow You :)
As for me, I'm going to take my chances in our group's first tournament. Since our group is quite young, we decided to play 1k format. It may not ba as competitive as 1750+ but this will make more players come and play. By this we want to make W40K more popular in our club (most ppl play WFB). Until now we were playing small games like 750-1000, learning rules and trying units. Now we want to warm things up a bit :)

Ok, here's my list. I think it's scaled down popular on foot approach, but I can't say, how scaling down to 1000 pts will affect this list. I read Your article about 1k games, it was very insightfull and I tried to cut any 'luck' rolls (played a lot 2xZoans in single spore for 'in case' till then, well I was lucky more than less but tournament is just another case). As far as I know, I'll be facing mainly CSM and Orks with few transports, but can't say what else might come by ;) Ok, let's go.

Warmachine? Hordes? What's the difference? Part 1

Alright well war machine and hordes are like two sides of the same coin, they use the same core rules as each other and are fully compatible with each other. So if you have a hordes army and your friend has a war machine army you can play against each other, if you both have hordes armies you can play against each other and if you both have war machine armies you can still play against each other. But now what is the difference between the two? Well when choosing an army the biggest difference is giant robots or massive beasts but because this is mostly a competitive blog lets look at the rule differences and how they affect list building.

So first up the model leading your army, in war machine you get a war caster and in hordes your beasts are controlled by a warlock. They are largely identical to each other, both vary a lot, both can cast spells, both have a feat and both have a battle group. The big difference between the two is war casters use focus while warlocks use fury, this is a huge difference and really changes how you build a list. Let us look at focus first now my guinea pig for this will be pStryker the cygnar war caster you get in the battle group, all war casters have a focus stat shown on their card. pStryker has a focus of 6 which means at the start of each of his turns he loses any focus on him and then gains 6 focus, there are 4 things stryker may use his focus for which are casting spells, fueling war jacks, increasing his combat power or camping to increase his ARM. Let's take a look at each of them in detail.

Email in: Scaling Blood Hammer to 1500

<- Thanks fester

"Hi Kirby

What do you think about scaling blood hammer to 1500? I've come up with the following from your 2000 point list:

Librarian w/ blood lance + shield, JP

Honour Guard with 3 melta guns, JP

2 Sanguinary Priests w/ JP
Sanguinary priest on foot

10 Assault Marines, 2 melta guns, power fist, JP

Email in: Nipple Jumpers; 1700 points

"Sup Will,

Well as the title says; I'm looking for a list containing Dante + 2 or 3 Sanguinary squads at least. Some other guy builds it, but I help with the list. The preferance would be all Jumpers, instead of Nipplehammer or some other variant; at least if thats viable. And there lies the problem because I'm feeling like points might just be too low for a competative build...

This is what I had in mind myself:

HQ
Dante 225
Libby - Jumppack, Shield + Lance 125
Honour Guard - 3x MG, Jumppakcs 195

So where to start with warmahordes?

So your interested in starting warmahordes but you are not sure where to start? Well first up PP has the basic rules for for WM and hordes on their website, here and here, which is pretty awesome. These quick start rules are also included in the little starter sets for each faction that we will look at later, eventually you will want to pick up the main rule book for either war machine or hordes. Yes there are two main rule books but don't worry you don't need both, the hordes rule book does not have the rules for warcasters or warjacks and the war machine book doesn't have the rules for warlocks or warbeasts but you get their rules for free anyway.
Maybe one day I'll take some pics and post them up but the quality of PP books is amazing, the whole thing is coloured. There is plenty of fluff in the book that is pretty interesting and at the back of the book it includes the stats for some of the models for each of the main factions, cygnar/khador/cryx/menoth for war machine and trolls/circle/legion/skorne for hordes as well as a couple of minions and mercenaries. Now this brings us to the forces of x books which are basically a codex for their respective armies, now in 40k you really need the codex if you want to know what your models do. In warmahordes thou this isn't the case because whenever you buy a model you get a card with them, these cards have complete stats for the model you just brought. So you don't ever need to buy the forces book if you don't want too, of course the books are amazing with some nice fluff and rules for everything in the faction including theme forces but you don't need to buy the book when you get all the rules for the models on their cards.

Centurion: Update and Day 2 Shenanigans

G'day Pinkies. fester again.

Just a quick update on a few things that I feel might be interesting.

Today we hit 30 of 64 players. Wooo... you say. Well, the event is still 4 months out, and this is the first time it has been run. On top of that, the yearly RTT tops out at about 34, so this is actually a spectacular number.

On top of that, I know of at least 4 carloads of supposed travellers coming who haven't actually given me names. Should be great!

Anyway, Day 2 shenanigans.

How To: Midfield

Here’s a recent email...

“Hey Kirby,

I read so much about the midfield and it's importance, especially with SW. Since I'm pretty new to 5ed WH40k, I wonder if there are any tricks to advance into midfield and what to do once controlling it. If there are any deep thoughts about this specific topic, may-be you or one of your blog-fellows could write a little article about that. I would appreciate it :)

Best,
Philipp”

Explanation time! First off, let's explain midfield quickly; basically it's the point between two deployment zones and is often where the battle is fought in 5th edition due to the importance of mech (read: survivability). Mech allows armies to effectively push forward, not die a horrific explosion and then be exposed thanks to auto-pinning (i.e. 4th edition) and opponents need to be able to counter this. The easiest way to counter this is with a boring old gunline yet mech often trumps gunlines because it's just that hard to deal with so many tanks, you have no mobility to allow your defences to be super effective and are vulnerable to disruption tactics. What this means is you also need to go into midfield (or move laterally more sideshots; so no gunlines do not work shut up!) to stop mech with concepts such as blocking and to point blank melta them. Then 5th edition also improved combat armies by allowing them all to Run! (but restricting them from consolidating into combat) and giving pretty much everyone a 4+ cover save. Suddenly the age of 4th edition gunlines are over and you have a very mobile game and midfield gives your mobility the most options as you can go full speed in 360 degrees (compare to being on your board edge or in a corner). I hope I don't have to explain that little bit.

Email in: More Jumpers! (yay) [2000]

"First off I would like to thank you for running a blog which has been both a great source of 40k tactics, and has little to none of the complaining and whin(g)ing seen elsewhere.

Ive been trying to run jumper ba for a while, my first army was very hit or miss. A terrible fluffy concoction. But now I would like to make something much more efficient. The only limits being that the army list has to be effective from a pure reserve format. And I love sanguard. So here is my list at the moment.

Dante-225

2 sanguinary priests-170
Jump pack, combi melta

Sanguinary guard-260
5 infernus pistols, 1 fist,

Greetings!

Hey so I'm another guest author for 3++, yes I am another aussie. We multiply and soon we shall take over the world, be afraid!! You will all be forced into gladiator arena combat with some of deadliest animals in Australia for the amusement of others! The most dangerous combatants include such monsters as funnel web spiders! tiger snakes! and worst of all koalas!!

fester's Project Log: Poll is up

Praise be to the Pink One!

Kirbs has whacked a poll up on the top left/right/side thing ... so get voting!

You have 14 days to make my life's choice for me, and I have the same time to finish painting all my Terminators (one job at a time).

Some of you may notice the Hell Blade has fallen off the list... something had to go, and yeah, it drew the short, fat, hairy straw.

So what are you doing? Vote Now!

Thunderhawk!

Dark Eldar Mech MSU - 3rd ed Lance spam re-vitalised

So we all know what old DE used to look like. You'd spam Blasters and DLs in HQ/Elites/Troops on units and Raiders and then use your Ravagers for anti-infantry where disentegrators were ridiculously good. You'd have a lot of anti-tank, anti-infantry, good mobility and a fair amount of infantry and vehicles on the table. The new codex killed that specific style of list though as disentegrators were nerfed and lances become more expensive overall. However, you can still bring a bunch of lances to the table whilst having a balanced list using some of the new units and rather than rely on disentegrators, we have poison, templates and blasts to call upon.

So what we are trying to do with this list is get as many vehicle hulls on the table as possible (12 ish) whilst having an extensive amount of anti-infantry and anti-tank akin to the old 3rd edition list. Rather than mirroring it directly (which leads to a bad list) we need to utilise the changes in the codex to our advantage. This is going to seem like an odd list in that it doesn't take advantage too much of Power from Pain, Combat Drugs or have much combat ability. Rather it plays very much like the older list but with more options and general killing power.  We also have the issue of DE vehicles being relatively expensive in relation to their survivability. Although they can put out horrendous firepower, AV10 open-topped only goes so far so the new flickerfields and layered screening will be important to getting the best from this list.

Email in: 1750 Hybrid Guard for Centurion

"Hi Kirby,
I'm looking at making a Hybrid Guard army for Centurion. This is the list I was looking at running:

HQ:
Company Command Squad - 2x Meltaguns, AC HWT, Chimera 135 pts

Troops:
Platoon Command Squad - 2x Meltaguns, AC HWT, Chimera 115 pts
Infantry Platoon - Commissar, AC HWT 105 pts
Infantry Platoon - Meltagun, AC HWT 70 pts
Infantry Platoon - Meltagun, AC HWT 70 pts
Veteran Squad - 3x Meltagun, AC HWT, Chimera 165 pts
Veteran Squad - 3x Meltagun, AC HWT, Chimera 165 pts

Elites:
Psyker Battle Squad - 9 Psykers, Chimera 165 pts
Psyker Battle Squad - 9 Psykers, Chimera 165 pts

Fast:
Devil Dog 120 pts
Devil Dog 120 pts

Email in: Triple Land Raider BA list.

"On BOLS, Jawaballs does a write-up of Mechanicon:

I saw this army: (shown to the left)

Near as I can tell the list at 1850 is:

Mephiston - Presumably flying, but maybe he can hitch a ride in a 'Raider
A pair of 5 man Assault Squads (each with a Meltagun), one in the Razorback, and the other in the Godhammer
A pair of 5 man Assault Terminator Squads in Redeemers, each with a Sanguinary Priest (I think)

How is an army this one dimensional even competitive? If you remember, I am the one with two Crusaders and 10 Thundernators. I have encountered Sanguinary Priests; they hardly even slow me down. But I have never played against Meph. Is he really so awesome that one can make a competitive army around him with almost no long range support at all? I don't see one Razor and a Godhammer as adequate in a nearly 2000 point game. I am well aware of the limitations of my own list, and it seems like this BA list has compounded those limitations in exchange for Meph and a wholly unnecessary Godhammer. I really struggle against MSU lists, and especially those with suicide"

fester's Project Log: Suggestion Box

As my terminator painting draws to a close, I have started to want to challenge myself with a build, something cool, something different, and something that adds to one of my armies, or lets me build towards a new army.

The latest thing that has taken my fancy is Ad Mech. This also allows my some interesting opportunity to build something out of the box.

So, as some of you may be aware, I have been staggering around trying to get my mind into gear and make a decision on what to build.

This, my dear pink friends, is the point of this post. Grilling your brains to see what I can build.

As a bit of an ego-flex, you can see the picture is my largest build. The placemat it is standing on is 1ft x 1ft. The only part of this not scratchbuilt is the Techmarine driver. I know, I know, Marines don't drive Titans... but it's all I had available at the time, and is only visible if you really want to look hard.

Dark Eldar Blast Pistols

I saw some questions on this earlier in the Chatbawks so thought I'd address them here. 15 point pistol which has the same profile as a DL but range 6". Six inches I hear people scream! It's the same as an infernous pistol but replaces melta with lance status and no AP1 (which sucks) and there seems to be an excessive amount of dislike for them. Don't really understand why... In comparison to the Infernous pistol it's pretty good if not as good. Lack of AP1 is a thing DE generally just deal with and get lance spam instead. In terms of points it's the same price (15) but has the added cost of needing to buy the Sarge (for now only Imperial Armies don't buy leader upgrades as they are included into the Squad's price). This is annoying but has the added benefit of increased Ld (generally to 9 or 10), more attacks in combat and access to other gear like Agonisers, PGL, etc. All in all it's pretty decent compared to the Infernous pistol, less useful with lack of AP1 and not as good at popping armor when you hit 3" but still a viable option for some squads. Note, some squads.

However, you cannot just hand these guys out willy nilly. This is the same for most upgrades. What blast pistols do is offer some redundancy to certain squads (i.e. Warriors with a Blaster) and duality to other squads (i.e. Wyches). Yes 15 points is expensive and you have to pay for the squad leader upgrade (which again has other benefits) so it's probably not the best bet to take them on every unit you have but the ability for an anti-infantry unit to whack an anti-tank shot into a tank is very valuable. Also being able to operate two anti-tank guns in a 5 man warrior squad (+ Venom) means you can have a bunch of cheap Troops (150) in effective anti-infantry transports much like Space Wolves and Blood Angels have with razorbacks (notice how they operate with two anti-tank weapons as well).

Email in: 1650 is a weird number for melee

Hi there

Really liking the blog and the chat is great for when I'm bored at work :)

I'm currently playing Tyranids and I've finally found a build that I really like, but I feel it still needs some tweaks. We play 1650 points where I live (South Africa), so excuse the point level you may not be used to.

This is my current 1650 list, I'll post it and then highlight what I think is wrong or needs changing.

Alpha Prime w/ Toxin Sacs, Regen, Dual Boneswords, Scything Talons
2x Venomthropes
2x Hive Guard
2x Hive Guard

Email in: Dark Eldar list review

"Hello dear little pink thing!

I'm starting a new army and it's Dark Eldar!

I have read the codex several times and some of the Stelek articles and came up with this list. I mostly play 1500pts in my area so it's a 1500pts Dark Eldar list!

HQ
-Duke slicus=150pts

Troops
-Warriors: 20 warriors with 2 lances=230pts
-Wych squad: 9 wyches with 1 Shardnet and Impaler with Hekatrix with Venom
blade in Raider=175pts
-Wyches squad: 10 wyches with 2 Shardnet and Impaler with Hekatrix with Venom
blade and blast pistol in Raider=210pts
-Wyches squad: 10 wyches with 2 Shardnet and Impaler with Hekatrix with Venom
blade and blast pistol in Raider=210pts

Battle Report: Orks vs Wolves

Hi guys,

I am going to be covering a battle report sent in by one of our followers, A Wolf's Lunch.
Original email in italics, Orks turn in Green, Wolfs turn in blue, my comments in some other colour.

G'day Kirby [ahem], The Wolf's Lunch here.

Thought I'd go ahead and send you this battle report between me and a friend. Title says it all. Used three quarters of a table tennis table (well I did, the Ork Player decided to only use up the left hand side of the table). Unfortunately all our usual terrain was away at the club so we were left scrounging for whatever we had (yes, that building you'll see on the far east is BROKEN! It lost a fight with gravity).
Don't have the army lists, but by looking at the pictures, the orks had roughly:
Wazdakka with some Biker Boys (not Nobz)
A Warboss with his Nobz (incl. Painboy and grot orderly) 
On foot ? *shakes head*
A big mob of 30 'Ard Boys 30 'ard boys, on foot?
A small mob of 9 Lootas
Roughly 8 Tankbustaz
And some Stormboyz with that clawfoot guy, Zagstrukk?

Psychic Defences: Mandatory or Not?

Psychic defence; is it really necessary? Yes and no (don’t you love me?). When available easily and with minimal cost such as Space Marine Librarians/Rune Priests or Farseers with Runes of Warding, it’s almost a case of why on earth not? Other armies like Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters and Daemon Hunters have the option to do so but generally don’t and IG and WH still produce effective competitive lists. And some armies just get it for ‘free’ such as Tyranids; the lucky gribblies. Others however, have no choice. Dark Eldar, Tau, Chaos, Orks, Necrons and Daemons of Chaos are starved for anti-psyker abilities (though there are some counters, there is no stringent 4+ stops psy power, etc.). However, some of these armies are still quite capable on the battlefield and importantly one of them is brand new. What’s this mean?


Ignoring fluff and all of that crap, GW has decided to bring psychic powers back into the mainstream of 40k. Even before 5th edition got underway Orks, Chaos and Daemons of Chaos all had some hefty psychic powers related to their codex releases in comparison to what they had before. As 5th edition army books got released, it was ever apparent GW wanted psychic powers to play a role in today’s game and it seemed like a sure thing each new army would not only have access to decent psykers but decent psyker defences. DE shoved that theory out the window with no real access to either. Which brings us to the original question, is psychic defence necessary?

Email in: SM Bikers - Termies

"Hi kirby, well been working on a couple of SM list, and I wanted to ask you what you though about them, and If you see them competitive.

One is a clasic Bikers-termies mixed list, the other one, Vulkan list. here they go

Vulkan.
Captain, bike, StormShield, RelicBlade, fusion bombs.
HG, 3x LC, 4 SS, 2x melta guns, ThunderHammer

5 x Assault Termies, 4x TH/SS, 1x Lighting claws.

4x bikes, melta, flamer, PF
1x AB, MM
4x bikes, melta, flamer, PF
1x AB, MM
4x bikes, melta, flamer, PF
1x AB, MM
4x bikes, melta, flamer, PF
1x AB, MM

Email in: Dark Eldar 1,750

"Hey Kirby,

I wrote up a list something like this in the store - this is from memory, but how would you feel about something along these lines?

Baron whatshisname

3x Homoculis/some funky wargear of about 15 points - gave them hex rifles.

20x Hellions
- Sarg equiv has agoniser/grenade launcher
20x Hellions
- Sarg equiv has agnoiser/grenade launcher
20x Hellions
- Sarg equiv has agoniser

Tau List Critique with wonky comp restrictions!

Hi Kirby

First of I would like to say that i really enjoy reading yours and the others writers posts on 3++, and some of the articles have really change my view on the game, and especially, on how to play Tau. That being said I have an upcoming  2000 points tournament  and was wondering if you would take a look on my list. Now when I said a "different" tournament, it is because in Denmark, where I am from, we usually have some restrictions to how you can build you army, mainly to prevent spamming 3 of the same unit.

The restrictions are as follows.

- No double or triple choices outside of Troops.
- Max 3 identical Troops choices.
- Max 4 vehicles which have Transport capacity.
- You have the following Force Organisation Chart to make your army from:
1 HQ, 0-2 Elites, 2-6 Troops, 0-2 Fast Attack, 0-2 HeavySupport.


Now these restriction can be broken in the following ways, costing 1 point each, and Tau have a total of 4 points to use.


- 1 extra choice in HQ, 1 extra choice in Elites, 1 extra choice in Fast attack, 1 extra choice in Heavy support( 1 point for each extra choice)

- 1 double choice.
So here is my list, I've noticed that it is a bit like your hybrid tau list, with some more mobility and the cost of high strength firepower(S 10)

HQ
Shas'el w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker
Bodyguard x 2 w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker
Ethereal w/2 x shield drones
Crisis x 3 w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker
Crisis x 3 w/TW flamer, Missile Pod

Troop
FW x 6
Devilfish w/SMS, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pods, Targeting Array
Kroot x 12
Kroot x 10
hound x 6

Tanks, Vehicles and Mech in 5th edition: Changes for 6th?

So in the latest review of the latest Forge World Land Raider variant we noticed how poorly balanced the Achilles was. The weapons themselves were pretty good but lack of transport capacity, assault vehicle status and the combination of ferromantic invulnerability was counter-intuitive (basically the Achilles is quite happy to run into the teeth of an army due to it's melta immunity yet it doesn't have the capacity to deliver such units as Terminators). However, ferromantic invulnerability is where the balance issues come in. Armies which rely on melta and lance weapons for heavy anti-tank become very Ork-like against the Achilles; i.e. bad against AV14. Armies like Tau and Imperial Guard who have weapons which ignore this special rule (i.e. railguns, S10 Ord, etc.) however don't care (it's just like a normal Land Raider to them) and any army built around multiple Achilles enters a rock-paper-scissors 40k. This sucks. However, it does raise a very important part about vehicles in 5th edition and the glaring need for an improvement.

What? Did Kirby just say mech needed to be improved? Yes indeedy. We all know vehicles right now are excellent choices due to their inherent survivability. This isn't to say mech is the only way to play 5th edition but vehicles and especially transports are a highly viable option compared to 4th edition. With the changes to the vehicle damage chart and the importance of AP1, guns like meltaguns have become very important (not to mention the cheaper cost) in a lot of armies. Whilst some immunity to melta is good (i.e. Stormraven or Avatar), when a unit which is generally only killable to certain armies through meltaguns, making it immune to them is poor balance. However, for guns like these there is very little difference between AV10 and AV14. Sure there's ~10% difference between the two in terms of meltagun effectiveness but AV14 is often far more expensive than AV10 and no where near as spammable.

Email in: 1850 Dark Eldar list for tournament

"Hey Kirby,

Been a reader of your blog for a few months now and I really enjoy the content, especially since it's all solid tactics and lists not filler. Keep up the great work!

Hopefully I can get some advice on a list I am considering for a tournament at the beginning of December. Ive gotten a few games in with the new codex and it's been alot of fun compared to the book (ahem, pamphlet) that I've been using for the last 8 or 9 months. With this list I was hoping to achieve a force that is aggressively moving forward while having enough backfield support to hold a rear line in the case of C&C or even Seize ground.

The thought is if I go first the 3 wytch squads turbo boost forward (haemy in squad with 9) with the incubi following behind either boosting turn one or moving 12 if there's exposed targets worth shooting. Trueborn move up behind them possibly getting turn one shots in depending on deployment. Scourges sit on one or both flanks move up behind some intervening cover between them and most/some of the enemy army, while shooting their haywire blasters at potentially hazardous targets like leman russes or predators and stun lock them (well most likely anyway). Ravagers find optimal positions to do what they do best. Wracks are there to hold a rear objective should one be present, and in the case of something coming in from my back edge like wolf scouts or kommandos I can always jump the scourges back and easily support the position with fire.

Monday Day Hobby Day

I apologise for a lack of MDHD last week, I'm sure you all noticed and I almost as sure it's absence ruined your day??

I didn't get any pics sent in, so I've had a trawl of the internet and got a bit of a hint from Kirby to bring this week's episode.

As per usual we'll take a look at some work from the blogosphere and some random pics I've found about the place.

Kirby's 'suggestion' was a shout-out to Roleplayer. You've probably all seen his stuff somewhere about the interwebz and his stuff is particularly striking. Although not a member of the blogosphere (that I know of; he's on the blogroll and you don't know of his blog...shame) per sey, he displays his work on a huge thread over on Dakka Dakka (and a few other forums I know of). Really nice crisp finish to his work and some very nice conversions. The thread linked has been running for over 18 months and displays some great work on his Blood Ravens.

This week, I'm sending out props to Roleplayer. A nice pic displaying his progress as a painter.

GWvsJohn's mailbag: Biker Hyrbid

Hi GWvsJohn,

Not sure you if take such requests but I have a list I have been playing successfully in my local scene but since kicking up the competition I am in need of some tweaking. I was hoping you would have a minute (and the desire to) give me some feedback. I mainly play vanilla marines (painted as crimson fists) The list I have been running is:

Captain on bike w/ Relic Blade, SS, digital weapons

10 man tac w/ MG, ML, in Rhino

10 man tac w/ MG, ML, in Rhino

4 Bikers w/ 2 MG + 1 MM attack Bike

4 Bikers w/ 2 MG + 1 MM attack Bike

Airbrush Basics: What types

The first article I would like to throw out is a pretty basic one, talking about some of the basic things you need to know about buying an airbrush. I have been using an airbrush to paint models for many years now, it is important to understand that airbrushing skills are not instantly obtained. It takes time, practice and patience to understand the ins and outs of your particular brush. Once you learn what you can and can’t do it really makes it much easier to use an airbrush. The image I have attached is an example of the subtle blending that can be achieved by using an airbrush properly, for reference that model is about 12 inches long.

First off let’s talk about expectation. What is it that you would like to do with your brush? Answering this question will help guide you in making financial decisions about your airbrush. If you want to simply apply even coats of paint to broad areas, i.e. applying base coat colors, then you’re life as an airbrushing artist will be easy and inexpensive. It is possible to get some very fine lines with airbrush’s, less than 1/8 of inch even, but these take very precise models and very steady hands. For myself I use my brush to apply a basecoat and a simple highlight or two, I find this adds nice depth to my models and speeds up the painting process. Basically I don’t want you thinking that you will be able to highlight the rivets on your rhino w/ an airbrush. Now that we have that expectation set let’s talk types.

Land Raider Achilles Review & Analysis

New Forge World stuff; w00t. As usual the rules aren't too flash but importantly I think the special rules for this new battle tank open up the potential for some discussion in relation to tanks in 5th edition. Some of you may remember this was discussed on YTTH several months back and there have been some conversations on the CHATBAWKS since then about how tanks should be handled in 6th edition and their main issues currently. The Achilles is a perfect stepping stone for looking at those concepts again. So in this article we'll take a look at the Forge World rules for the Achilles and then next article look at vehicle operation under the current ruleset.

First off the rules can be found here; thanks Forge World and you can see the new model up there. First off, it's expensive, 40 points more than a normal Land Raider w/MM but importantly already includes extra armor (yay!). It also has the ability to take a dozer blade/seige shield which is really a big drawback for the normal Land Raider variants (who aren't Black Templars). However, then we start to notice the problems. Not an assault vehicle, capacity of a Razorback and only side doors... for 300 points this is a bit disappointing as that is the selling point of Land Raiders beyond the all-round AV14. This is very odd when you consider their special rule Ferromantic Invulnerability which covers very expensive tanks biggest weakness in 5th edition (see next article) in meltaguns. This means you can throw the tank forward and not be afraid of a 5pt meltagun slagging your 250pt+ behemoth...yet without an excessive transport capacity, assault vehicle and a weapon like the Thunderfire cannon, why would you want to get close? Sure it defends against lances at range, well yay. Glad I spent 300 points so I have a very difficult tank to kill against DE but still can't deliver my Terminators to the battle-line.

Email in: Dark Eldar army list

"Dear Kirby and all those who will soon drown me in critisim. This list I Created with some knowledge but not all that much...

The Archon will hang with a squad of Trueborn hopefully being effective in his many a role.

Dark Eldar 1500pts
HQ
----
Archon
Agoniser
Blaster
Haywires
Ghostplate Armour
Shadow feild
----

Board Control, and the Dark Eldar Webway Portal.

Board Control, and the Dark Eldar Webway Portal.
By Auretious Taak.

One of the elements which defines an exceptional player of Warhammer 40,000 is the ability to take control of the board. This board control consists of many elements and concepts such as blocking, suppression, Mobility, and Forward Planning (to name a few), all working together synergistically and concurrently to give you control of the battle. Taking control of the board and thus the battle forces your opponent onto the defensive, reacting to what you do whilst allowing you to dictate what your opponent will be doing such that you always have the advantage. In some cases, board control hands you the battle before a single casualty from either side occurs.

Curiously, many reviews and articles which I’ve read online on blogs and forums have dealt with many aspects of the Dark Eldar, but very few have looked at them as they once were widely – as the only TRUE Finesse Army in Warhammer 40,000. By a Finesse Army, I mean an army that is at once delicate on first appearance and indeed taste (like the characteristics of the wines whereby finesse is used primarily as a descriptor) yet which takes a subtle hand to make the most of. An army which isn’t easy to pick up and run straight away and allow even a new player to wargaming in general, and in particular warhammer 40,000, a good ratio’s of wins to losses because the experience, need for actual high end skills and an ability to think outside the box and adapt on the move at a moments heartbeat, is what I would term a Finesse Army. Sure there are the obvious builds within the dark eldar Codex – a bunch of raiders and venoms with a wych payload, killer archon, maybe some Haemonculii and a definite 3 ravagers with dark lancers, as the most obvious example – but the fragility of the army, and it’s need to capitalise on it’s light weight, fast hit and run style of play which hits like a hammer and withdraws to strike again and again in concentrated force, makes the Dark Eldar as an army what I would term a Finesse Army. But ignoring all the obvious skimmer/turbo boosting/supersonic shannanigans which people can and do abuse to play to these strengths, what can we do to REALLY abuse the Finesse way of thinking, and how can we then draw this in to dominate Board Control as only Dark Eldar can?

Email in: Chaos Army List win

"Hey Will,

So I sit here in court waiting patiently for the judge to call my cases and have been looking at your webpage on my phone. Having played Warhammer since the early 90s and having collected Chaos, Space Marines, Space Wolves (in 2nd edition), Eldar, and recently Sisters of Battle. I started looking through your critiques of several armies and I honestly have to say that I agree with most of your outlooks on armies, psychic powers and the sort but the one thing that was like nails on a chalkboard for me was the list you have in the Chaos section. The “winner” now I read what you were looking for and the use of greater daemons and dreadnaughts? WOW that is probably one of the worst lists I have seen out there. Mixing heavy weapons in your CSM squads. Using plague marines as forward anti tank. Yikes. I was just wondering if there was something about this list that I am missing? I am not trying to be a ass and I am far from an “elitist” I am just wondering why would you recommend this list?

Email in: Couple of questions [about tournaments]

"Hi kirby.

First of all Gratz on your blog, been reading it for a time know and like the reports, articles, and everything, quite well explained army lists and with the reasons.

BTW i love your blood rodeo army, I'm currently building a diferent one, but with time and money i will build it. Is it actually competitive?

Well on topic, I have a couple of questions, lets see if you can answer them

First of all about the army.

Here is the thing, i don't like, shinny and pulished marine armors, on the other hand, i do like chaosy look. But i do like some marine background and rules, such as BA and Vulkan lists with a couple of dread podding, amster of the forge, vulkan, so when i got my SM codex, i said, ok im buying SM tanks, and making them look chaosy but as my units im ussing chaos SM. If we go into WYSIWYG there should be no problem, they are still guys in power armor with bolters, only diferecence.......the look as the bad guys, and have horns, so i got a couple of chaos rhinos cuz they come with all the chaos spikes, symbols and such, i got a couple of land riders, land speeders, and dread, and some SM ass. temies, to which, i made wholes on the armors, scrapped SM symbols, and have to start to work on some green stuff (on which im not too good, but still). The idea was going to be the whole armie to look acordingly

Then, BA caught my sight, and thinking, looking arround, checking stuff i like i made up something like this.

Email in: Blood Rodeo

"Hi Kirby

I'm not going to resort to butt-kissing and telling you guys how great you are (you know that already, right?), but suffice to say that I am a big fan of your blog as I seem to share a similar mentality to gaming and list-building.

I am a Flesh Tearers player [see attached image of one of my creations] and am EXTREMELY interested in your Blood Rodeo concept. I want to field a competitive non-Mech force and love Space Marines on motorbikes! My problem is that my gaming club only really play 1000 or 1500 point games. I can see that the Blood Rodeo is unlikely to work at 1000 points - I simply cannot select the 'core' choices and sufficient unit upgrades for less than 1000, so will likely be using a variation on your Jumper list at that point level. However, you have said on more than one occasion that although you recommend the Blood Rodeo for 1750+ games, it can be fielded at 1500 as a bare minimum.

So can I put you on the spot and ask exactly what you would field in a 1500-point Blood Rodeo list? Below is my humble attempt for your critique:

Email in: time sensitive Marine/Black templar request: 1500 pts for specific purpose

"Hey Kirby, it's Me again. I've got a local group that I play with from work, and we've got a game coming up tomorrow on Saturday. The game is going to be set at 1500 points, but the catch that messes up my regular list design is the scenario we will be playing. The board will be 9 feet long and 4 feet wide, with 6 players deploying lengthwise facing each other. There will be 3 players on each team, set up across from each other. In the middle there will be 3 objectives, evenly spaced (each between the deployment zones of the 2 opposing players). Each team can score victory points in a couple of ways: Starting at the end of each team's second turn, the number of scoring units that have an objective (as per BRB, within 3" with no opposing models present) will generate 1 victory point for their team. If that player has an HQ model in either that unit or also within scoring range, that team instead scores 2 VPs. If any player eliminates an opposing HQ choice, they score 3 VPs for their team. The turns will be rolled for as normal, including starting/seizing and when the game ends. Each army has a mandatory 2 HQ choices.

My question is, what do you recommend taking for this unique style of play? I was imagining either a parking lot of plaserbacks and such pelting out enough firepower to allow a librarian in a rhino to score the objective. Alternately, I could see a duel landraider list simply zoom up and park in front of it, giving me the chance to hold the objective and prevent the HQs inside from getting fragged. Teammates will be decided randomly, and lists will be revealed simultaneously so no sort of tailoring or team strategy can take place beforehand. What would an all-comers list for this scenario look like, and how could it operate effectively?

If you can help, thanks. If not, thanks anyways for having such an awesome blog and helping blokes like me when you have the chance.

[Email] Space Wolves at 1850

Kirby,

I have been slowly building up my Wolves and am looking to find a nice all-comer 1850 list. At the moment, I am enamored with 3 units in the codex: grey hunters, long fangs and wolf lords with a cavalry bodyguard.


I guess that is 4 units... Here is what I currently am leaning towards but am worried about my inability to deal with av 14 without sacrificing my troops. Please let me know if you have suggestions.

HQ

• Wolf Lord (250pts): 2x Fenrisian Wolf, Runic Armour, Storm Shield, Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Claw, Wolftooth Necklace, Wolf Tooth Talisman

Troops

• Grey Hunters Pack (230pts): 10x Grey Hunter, Mark of the Wulfen, 2 Meltagun, Power Weapon, Rhino, Wolf Standard
• Grey Hunters Pack (230pts): 10x Grey Hunter, Mark of the Wulfen, 2 Meltagun, Power Weapon, Rhino, Wolf Standard
• Grey Hunters Pack (230pts): 10x Grey Hunter, Mark of the Wulfen, 2 Meltagun, Power Weapon, Rhino, Wolf Standard

Email in: Dark Eldar - 1st army list

"Hi Kirby (and all others),

Nie blog you have going, its friendly and troll free which is always nice. I thought i'd run my Dark Eldar list by you and see what you think. Its been a while since I played Dark Eldar, but feel honour bound to revisit them with their new release. I've stuck to a similar list as my old armies and I think it should over most contingencies.

Sliscus 150
3 haemonculi 2w liquifier, 1w shatter shard 185
--------------
8 Bloodbrides 2w Shardnet/Implaler 1w hydra guantlets 175
+ Syren w powerweapon
Haywire grenades
+ Raider w flickerfield, nightshield. 80
8 Bloodbrides 2w Shardnet/Implaler 1w hydra guantlets 175
+ Syren w powerweapon
Haywire grenades
+ Raider w flickerfield, nightshield. 80

Email in: Triple the 'Fex, Triple the Love.

Hi Kirby&Crew!

You have a nice blog and I really like the articles and the general atmosphere of it. Keep it up!

As I’m going to my first 40K tournament in January it was quite helpful and now I’m starting to put my army together and paint everything. (Also I clicked the banner and bought the stuff I still needed from Wayland. I hope that’s enough to pay the toll? ;) )

I think it works out well, even if it is pretty slow, but I could only test it 2 times against mediocre army lists.
(I could also test a version watered down to 1000P. twice, but I don’t think that really counts.)

So I’m still unsure of certain things, so I figured I could use some good feedback.
The tournament itself has no restrictions or comp.

Email in: New Dark Eldar

"Hey Kirby, and everyone at 3++

I've been following your blog for the last two months or so and i must say it's pretty fantastic. My reasoning for sending you an email is I need help with my 1500pt dark eldar tournament list that I've rewritten four or five times now. Each time it just seems like something is missing that without which the list will just fall to pieces. I've stripped it down to about 1000pts which I like its just the rest i need a hand with. Any help would be fantastic.

Thanks,
Daemon

Haemonculus w/Hexrifle 65pts
Wyches x8 w/Hekatrix w/Agonizer, H. Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades
Mounted in Raider w/FF, Night shield 221pts x2
Warriors x10 w/Spinter Cannon, Blaster 115pts
Ravager w/Flickerfield, 3x Dark Lance, Night Shield 125pts x2
Talos w/Extra CCW, Chainflails 125pts

Email in: Tau 1500pt List Critique

"Hey there Kirby,

As you know I've got my Tau army which I've been making to be competitive, and I'm pretty sure I've shown you my other tau lists somewhere (you could link them here to contrast them maybe?) and after getting a new Hammerhead to fix my old one (and more importantly, getting a second SMS for my second hammerhead) I came up with a new idea for my list. So here it is, and I'll explain why I've changed what I've changed.
Shas'El - Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker - 87

Shas'El - Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker - 87

2x Shas'Ui - Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi Tracker - 124
2x Shas'Ui - Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi Tracker - 124

Fire Warriors - 6 Shas'La - 60
Kroot Carnivore Squad - 10 Kroot, 2 Hounds - 82
Kroot Carnivore Squad - 10 Kroot, 2 Hounds - 82

Salutations!

Greetings ladies and gentlemen. I am SneakyDan, and I'll be your captain for this evening. Kinda creepy isn't it.

Seeing as the pink git has got his hands (pink wing things?) full with real life, I've offered to help. I'll mostly be answering Tau and Space Wolf build emails, but I do have a little treatise on getting the most out of that little demon we call soft scores that I will be putting it up in the near future.

I've been chatbawksing for quite some time now, and hanging around the peripherals, mostly arguing with fester and VT2, and generally swearing up the friendly little community we have here. I also have a real life, and a job, but I'll be doing the best I can to stay on top of the Tau/Wolf requests that filter through. I'll (hopefully) be throwing up some batreps to help support why I give the advice I do, and have a very busy tournament schedule for next year, and if I can remember my camera, I'll take you all along the way.