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I have been playing 40k for the last couple of years now, and I have found I really love the game and hobby. I have thought about entering the tournament scene for about a year or so, and this year have decided to take the plunge. Being married I had to sell it to my wife first though. This hobby already takes up a size able commitment in time and resources, and if I was going to get serious about this and start traveling that commitment would increase.

Thankfully my wife is AWESOME, and not just begrudgingly said yes, but wholeheartedly told me to go for it.

I wanted to go to the LVO and Adepticon, but unfortunately I am an active duty army soldier and currently deployed in Afghanistan. So obviously that kinda precluded them from being a reasonable option for me. So I have set my sites and my planning on attending NOVA. This blog will be a running tally of my prep leading towards this event.

I own several armies that have what I believe to be reasonable builds; daemons, grey knights, white scars, but I will be playing Eldar. Now before I get a lot of hate, I have been playing footdar since well before the new codex, when a local at my previous store told me Eldar could never win, and I offered to swap armies with him. I fell in love. I loved the models, how they played, and their synergy. I don't use wave serpents, but I've been running a seer council for quite a bit now. Since I own all the models, I love the way they look, they are fun for me to play and just because I want to, will be utilizing them. I'll put up my working list in a later post.

I know this first post is getting long, but I'd like to go over a few more things. I don't have the money to pay someone to paint my models, so I will be doing that myself. I know the painting side is a major part of the tourney scene, and as such I will be repainting my army towards a set theme. This will be a major undertaking for me, as I try to improve myself and do my best on these models. I'll be posting a lot of pips on this when I get back stateside here in a bit. I'm spending my time now designing out a theme and paint scheme, as well as planning out my display board, so that when I get home I can go straight to work.

Also, I will be posting battle reports as I practice the NOVA missions, and while I go to as many local tourneys as I can find .

Lastly I leave you with the three goals I have for stepping up into the tourney scene.

1) have fun, meet new people, expand my love of the hobby
2) improve my painting ( my first goal is to earn a score of 50 at NOVA)
3) become a better general, and not totally skunk out, I'd like to make a decent competitive showing of myself

Anyway, thanks for reading. Most posts will be theory and themes for a bit, but pictures will be coming. Any advice, whether on tournaments, NOVA specifically, my army, painting, composition, or likely enemy builds would be appreciated. Talk to you soon.

Sounds like you have a plan. Good luck. I’m no expert on tournaments, but always enjoy watching an army come together.

Thanks Nevelon, I appreciate it.

It's interesting to see such enthusiasm with a new tournament goer; quite a refreshing read!

Good luck man, NOVA attracts some of the best players out there I've heard (I'm not into tournaments myself), hope much fun is had!

My list as of now:
Hq:
Farseer, jetbike, shard of anaris, runes of witnessing (warlord)
Farseer, jetbike, runes of witnessing
Warlock council x8 with jetbikes

Troops:
Windrider jetbike squad x3 with Shurikan cannon
Windrider jetbike squad x3 with Shurikan cannon
Rangers x5

Fast:
Warp spiders x10, exarch with fast shot and power blades

Heavy:
Wraithknight
Warwalker x2, scatter laser and bright lance each

Allied dark eldar:
Hq:
Baron
Troops:
Kabalite warriors x5 w/venom, grisly trophies, splinter cannons, night shield
Kabalite warriors x5 w/venom, grisly trophies, splinter cannons, night shield

1847.

I played this for several monthes before I left, and prior to the new codex played a similar one both with and without dark eldar allies. It's strong when it works, and fast enough that when it doesn't I still have options. I'll talk about how I think it will play against various other builds later on. Mainly I'm trying to decide on a paint scheme and theme. I am leaning heavily towards and Asian/samurai theme, but still open to other possibilities. Any ideas are welcome.



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Thanks Frankenberry, this has been something I've wanted to try for awhile. I'm very excited to bring it all together. I think it will be an amazing experience regardless. But I'm a firm believer that when doing something you should do your best. So I want to start from the beginning and do my due diligence.

Hey man, firstly, thanks for your service! I'm active duty Air Force, myself...and although we are both service members, you soldiers fill a role we by no means can provide. I've yet to go overseas, but I'm sure it's no cakewalk. Thanks for doing what you do, brotha!

As for your post and log, I'm gonna sub. I've also thought for a while about jumping into the tournament scene...although at this juncture, I'm still trying to get back into the game. Moving around so often forces me in and out of the hobby, unfortunately. But I've recently found a good shop and have dove in yet again. However, since I don't plan on getting into the tournament scene, perhaps I can live vicariously though you! I'm located in Maryland currently, and I REALLY want to go down and 'experience' NOVA. Perhaps I can find a 'just for fun' event.

I look forward to keeping up with your progress! Perhaps I'll see you at NOVA if I can make it down there. Good luck, man. Stay safe!

-Bix

Welcome to the scene. While your list is solid, I'd recommend a few tweaks to try and squeeze some efficiency from it.

I think that the rangers are a bit lost in the current meta. As backfield campers they suffer from a strong lack of offense. They are overwhelmingly outperformed by wind riders.

Your venoms will find themselves in close to support the council and will only rarely get use from the NS.

I'd replace the RoW with warding runes to prevent the potential of terrify or other nightmares

Conventional wisdom is that spiders are ideal in units of 7 or 8. That puts out a ton of firepower with a smaller footprint and the extra shots are wasted.

That should add points for a bit more antitank in the form of a Ravager and another walker. Walker armament is a matter of taste. I'd run them with SL x2 to put down large units which are more of a threat to the counsel than light vehicles

@bixeightysix, thanks man, appreciate it, and thank you for your service also. I understand about moving and trying to find new stores. I learned how to play while I was a drill sergeant in Missouri. Fantastic store, if you or anyone ever gets a chance go to the Gamers Hideout, in st Roberts Missouri. Great owner, and great people there.

When I get back I will be in Louisiana. I'm not sure how much gaming goes on there. I have a feeling I will end up making the drive to Houston more often than not to find games.

Definitely check out some of the events, I've been looking over the schedule, there are soo many amazing seminars, and events going on. Not to mention open gaming. If you get down there we will have to link up, and thanks for subbing.

You didn't mention the family meta. If I understand correctly, you're based in LA (Polk?) and are planning on going up to Nova (Washington DC?). Are you going to bring your wife and make a trip out of it?

After a long deployment, I think it would mean a lot to her if you considered this ... leading to more support for the hobby.

@serathnal, thanks for the advice. I will probably drop down on the warp spiders to free some points. I want to play it out against various builds using the nova format missions, and I will def be tweaking it as I play along.

My initial thoughts on rangers are that it's nice to have a unit that can hide and score. Outflank on them can give me options not readily apparent. As well as I often will infiltrate them as a speedbump against scouting unit when I don't get first turn. They aren't as good as last codex, but they often are overlooked and can be occasionally used asymmetrically for an advantage. That being said, I'm by no means committed to them.

I am weak in anti tank and anti mech air, in terms of having a lot of it. I'm not sure yet how I want to address that, the bright lance on the war walkers is there to help that. I Initially feel I have enough shots on the venoms and council to deal with troops. But again, I need to play it in the format with all the line of sight blocking terrain to get a better feel.

Thanks for your thoughts though, keep them coming and I will definitely try some new ideas.


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@Ifurita, oh believe me I understand the family meta. I was talking to my wife today. She is planning on coming with me, she wants to go sightsee in dc, we have friends in the city. I've been married for over eight years now. I've finally learned how to get the brownie points in where I can

Great. Probably not my place, but thought I'd check in. I did my time in the Army too (31B) and learned a long time ago that when the family is happy, the soldier is generally happy. Good luck.

No worries man, it was good looking out. Family is important, if they weren't happy and supportive I wouldn't be where I am in my career. Nor would I be able to take the steps I want to in my hobby.

I've been giving it some thought, and I'm still leaning towards an samurai-esque theme. I want the base color to be dark. I'm thinking a 5/1 black red base coat. Red to pink cherry blossoms, both as trees on the warlocks and venoms, and just the blossoms on the wind riders. The eldar themselves will be painted in dark reds and purples, with pink gems. I've got a bunch of back banners, plus I can make more to help spruce it up. Also I can swap the witchblades out for katana substitutes.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. I have my paints and brushes here with me, I just need some plastic scrap to paint some rough concepts. When I had my paints sent up to me, unfortunately it A) took two monthes to get here and B) my wife only sent grots for models to paint.

Hopefully I should be able to figure out/locate something to work on for some concepts while I still have a little time here. Until then, here is a grot I painted this afternoon. I'll have to set up a photobucket account or something tomorrow for future pics.

Ok, sorry there has been no progress, but as I said earlier I was overseas, and got kinda busy. Anyway I am now home in the states safe and sound, and it's time to get cracking. I have a problem though, I don't think I realized how much hate there is for eldar out there right now, especially seer councils. Now I've been playing this for awhile before I left, but over this last year it seems the scales have really tipped. I want my first major tournament to be a good time, and I don't want every opponent I sit down across from rolling there eyes or complaining. As such I am considering revising my plan to bring eldar. There are several other builds I could bring, and while I will still bring as strong a list as I can, I am strongly considering staying away from the 2++ re rollable ones.

Not sure, hopefully some people can weigh in on what the current feelings are out there. Ultimately, I want to have fun, meet people, and still win as many games as I can. And judging from how the Internet at least is portraying the community bringing my previous list is not going to help me with the first two goals. As such I am working through a white scar bike list as my lead contender.

Lots of updates coming in the future as I start to get ramped up, and as I adjust to being back home. Most importantly though, does anyone know a place to play warhammer 40k in the vicinity of fort polk, la? The one game store in town apparently closed down while I was gone. Or for that matter any people who play in the area? Houston is a bit of a drive for regular weekly play. I am more than happy to host games at my place if need be. If you do know of someone, or somewhere to play please let me know. Thanks.

As a final piece, I started organizing some of my hobby space. I still have another container or so to start going thru.

Good to hear you’re home safe.

White Scars are strong, but don’t rely on what I’d classify as cheesy gimmicks to work. My experience is limited to my FLGS and putting my two cents in here on dakka, so YMMV. But I think you could take them to a major event and not just get tabled. That said, at a big tournament I don’t think people would give you too much flack for playing your eldar list. People expect to see more competitive/unfriendly builds there. Again, take salt, YMMV.

If you are a nice guy and have a well painted army, a lot of cheese can be forgiven. There have been games were I have been brutalized in unspeakable ways, but the guy was cool and the army beautiful, so I walked away having had a good day. I’m not going to say that’s normal though.

I'm hoping to make it to the Nova this year too, looking forward to seeing your progress

Lots of military guys come to the NOVA. It is held practically next door to the Pentagon. Do bring the family. Have fun. They can sightsee while you game.

@RiTides that would be awesome, hope to see you there
@Red Harvest several friends from the army have recommended it to me and will hopefully be there
@Nevelon I figured most people wouldn't bat an eye at the original list at a tournament, however the ones who do, or even the ones who are looking for a reason to complain can find ample reason in that list. White scars seems fun, here is the initial list thoughts.


This is the list I'm considering for a khan bike list. It's based off the forge the narrative super friends concept of using space wolves as an anti psyker meta buster.

Space marines: white scars

Khan w/ moondrakken
Chapter master, bike, shield eternal, power fist, artificer armor, auspex, melta bombs

Command squad, bikes, 4x grav guns, 2x storm shields, apothecary

Four bikes, 2x grav gun, attack bike w/ multi melta
Four bikes, 2x grav gun, attack bike w/ multi melta
Five scouts, 4x sniper, 1x missile launcher, camo cloaks
Five scouts, 4x shotguns, land speeder storm

Stormtalon gunship

Allied detachment space wolves

Wolf lord, storm shield, powerfist, melta bombs, runic armor, wolf tooth necklace, jump pack, saga of the bear
Rune priest, bike, chooser of the slain, runic armour

Five grey hunters. Flamer, rhino


I've played numerous bike lists in fifth, both as eldar and ravenwing. I've always liked the maneuverability. This one has numerous deployment options with scout/outflank, and infiltrate. I think it will be fun to play, strong, but not über miserable to play against.

Thoughts?

Also, I'm still patiently waiting for my paints to arrive from Afghanistan, any day now. I'm still looking for places to play around here. Closest store I have found is about an hour and a half away. I'm probably going to need to try to find some people to play house games too.

Your list looks a little light on anti-tank fire. I think you might be better with less HQs, and more boots/wheels on the ground, but that’s very much my playstyle bias showing. Wolf lord with a jump pack running solo? I like to keep HQs in squads, he just seems out of place. 5 guys in a rhino just says “troop tax” to me. I’d like to see a full squad, so they can impact the battle in a meaningful way.

For White Scars, seek the wisdom of the Khans. Both McManiac and Zambro have White Scars blogs I follow. Zambro in particular put together a mean looking Wolf/Scar list and seems to be doing well with it.

I think I’ve used up all my semi-coherent thoughts for this undercaffinated morning. If nobody else tosses in their two cents, I can give you some more thoughts on your list after more coffee.

Thanks for the blog links. I will def check those out. It does feel a little light on anti tank for high armor value, I've got numerous options for low av vehicles. Worst case is grav guns roll for some sixes, though that would really be the best option if I had nothing else to shoot at. I'm also worried about how it would do against a heavy flyer list, other than me running around the board and avoiding them.

The wolf lord isn't intended to run solo, he will be with the bike squad and other hqs, similar to the baron with jetbikes. It's a mini deathstar, not unkillable or over powered, but does still pack a punch, and gives me a solid piece to manipulate board control with. Bikes can't go up levels, which is why I'm initially thinking of running him with the jump pack instead of on a bike as well. Also I have the option of placing either or both space wolf hqs with the other bike squad to let them reroll their table edge when they outflank.

The grey hunters are kinda a troop tax right now, I agree. I'm seeing their main function as being reserved to walk on and grab backfield objectives while the rest of my army pressures the midfield and my opponents backfield. Sometimes I may keep them in the rhino and drive them up to flame screening troops on games where I don't need them in the back.

I'm considering dropping some of the scouts to get either another storm talon or a thunder fire in there. But I like the scoring options I have now. If I can find a place to get some games in a will run it a few times and see what is what from there. I'm planning on running both this and the eldar list for a bit to see which I want to stick with. I found one place to play on the weekends, but it is about an hour and a half away, so far though that looks like my best option.

Well finally got some good news. My package just hit the post office that I sent from Afghanistan with all my paints in it. So, positive progress will finally start being made. I'm going to go forward with the white scars. To that end the missing pieces for my list have arrived in the mail today's as well. As well I kit bashed up a wolf lord with a jump pack, and for fun had him serve previously in the deathwatch. That will help explain why he is rocking a jump pack as he is more comfortable with unorthodox tactics.


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Also I was going to order custom bases, but I found several squares of cork board at the store the other day, so I'm going to give a shot at doing some rocky shale like basing for the army. To try to give a steppes type feel.

The package from this morning

Nice looking wolf lord. I didn’t even know they could take jump packs. He better watch his beard, or it’s going to get sucked into the air intakes. Which, come to think of it, might be why you don’t see them that often.

If you are picking up bikes, consider grabbing the DA battleforce. The bikes are the same as the old, normal ones, all the DA iconography is on 3 copies of the ravenwing sprue. While you might not need all the extra bits, some work fine for generic use, and others just need a little work to clear the DA stuff off.

I haven't seen them take jump packs often, or really at all. That actually drew me to the idea. Fluff wise he is going to be a very unconventional space wolf. Hopefully the beard stays on, but it does look as if it is being pulled in towards those intakes.

Thanks for the tip on the bikes. I've got a bunch ordered already and they should hopefully be arriving any day. I'm set on construction for those first few kits that arrived. Depending on how long the rest take to get here I should be starting painting any day now, as all my paints arrived safely from. Afghanistan.