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looking good, I enjoy your thoughts on the games you've been playing. I also do DE and find wyches extremely effective. What kind of paint scheme have you got going on?

No paint scheme yet as I'm still building. Thankfully, all my opponents are very accomodating in regards to proxies while I gather up the force. Things do get a bit confusing at the FLGS when new gamers walk by and wonder why Tau and Dark Eldar are facing Space Marines...

As it stands I'm torn between 2 approaches to painting my battle babes. The first being the very clean yet traditional scheme, as inspired by Sorrowshard and his gorgeous work.. The second direction is something more stunning and vibrant, as seen in Mechanicum Jon's great thread. The vibrant route has some definite appeal.

I'm really loving the first scheme the the other one is brilliant to. Luckily for me I have most of the models I use. Have you considered using harlequins? I know there not everyone's cup of tea but I really like them and find there rather good for drawing fire, the amount of times I've had an opponent try and fire at them then not be in range because of the shadow seers power is glorious

Dark Harlequins would definitely be a neat unit to add in but I wonder how effective they would be without Doom & Guide in comparison to Wyches and their lower points cost. From your experience would you say the cost premium of Harlequins works in their favour or would I be better off going with a 3rd unit of Trueborn or 1 unit unit of Incubi instead?

In my experience Harlequins are great fun.

To be effective at all they must contain a shadowseer, and popping them into a transport would help them I think, but I generally footslogged.

But either way - Shadowseer makes them relatively hardy to shooting at range, and they'll generally down most units they come into contact with in CC.

I personally would take the Harlequins over the Incubi, but the incubi are closer to an assassin squad anyway.

Looks great so far. I'm in love with the idea of an all female army. I played around with that idea for my own DE army, but sadly left it behind. Instead, I just sport all female HQ. [:

Keep up the work! Can't wait to see more.

From what I've heard incubi work better (though I've never used them myself) but harlequins are slot more fun to use, you definitely need a shadow seer like ovion said. And as a bonus they look great on the field. The can definitely hold there own on a game if had them rip through anything from terminators to grey knights to even marneus calgar. In my opinion you don't see harlequins nearly enough.

Oh and always use harlequins kisses rending for 4pnts each is great.

On a thought (and something I fully intend to try now being my quins don't see enough field time with my Coven) is try dropping them through a webway portal.

At that point they would unlikely need the shadowseers Veil of Tears (though the model looks cool so prolly use it anyway :3) as they would be coming straight out of the portal and into combat.

But either way:
7 Harlequins
+ 6 H.Kiss
+ 2 Fusion Pistol
^ Death Jester
^ Shadowseer
^ Troupe Master
+ Power Weapon
230

That's not a bad number that'll put out a lot of hurt.
Ok, so you can make it 220 by dropping the Death Jester but the models so cool and I like it

I'm actually really diggin that idea but can you give the shadowseer and death jester harlequins kisses?

When I asked in-store, I was told so long as you buy the kisses before buying the upgrade, you should be ok.

Until I'm told otherwise by a faq I'm going with that

But ultimately, I feel 7 is a 'magic number' for a simple reason - 1x Box Harlequin Troupe + 1x Shadowseer +1x Death Jester = this squad.

Yeah fair enough I usual run 8 but that's just my personal thing. I'm hoping to get some finecast ones when they come out

It would be quite poetic to bring Harlequins into my latest army considering I ran 20 of them back in the days of Rogue Trader, back when Death Jesters could carry lascannons and you could take 2 per squad...

As much as I suck at math, I think just I will definitely have to try and run some numbers to compare 4 squads at a rough comparative points cost.

Squad 1: The Harlequin squad you describe.
Squad 2: Incubi
Squad 3: Bloodbrides (as elites)
Squad 4: Wyches (as troops)

Armed only with my Excel army list calculator I can only the points cost for Incubi and Wyches but this what I can see for some rough squad configs.

The incubi squad would be the following at 265 points.
9 Incubi
1 Klaivex, Murderous Assault, Demiklaives.

From personal experience, this squad is overkill. I've personally been running Incubi in 5's and Marines just vanish. The only unit in the game that works better than Incubi for ripping MEQs IMHO is sword/lash Tyranid Warriors but they are much more expensive. Ideally you want to run about 6 or 7 Incubi so you don't kill off the squad you're fighting until your opponent's CC phase. With 10 incubi, you'll rape anything in 1 CC phase which means you'll die to torrent of fire on the following turn.
Basically we're looking at 10W with a 3+ save and roughly 31+ attacks (potentially 62 if you roll all 6's due to Murderous Charge) on the charge at S4 that ignore armour.

The normal Wych squad would consist of the following at 270points.
16 Wyches, 3 shardnets and impalers.
1 Hekatrix, agoniser, Phantasm Grenade Launcher.
Haywire Grenades to all.

Just looking at my last game, where 11 Wyches practically cleaned up 1 Land Speeeder, 1 iron clad, 1 Captain, 1 Librarian and 1 Techmarine while only losing 3 of their own, I just imagine what 17 of the blood thirsty wenches couldn't take down. By reducing the squad size to 15 I could bring their cost down to 265 and give a blast pistol to the Hekatrix for some extra anti-vehicle/MEQ/TEQ potential.
In this case we're looking at 17W with a 4++ save, 49 attacks at S3 and 3 attacks that would on 4+ and ignore armour.

I don't know how many attack Harlequins have but considering they only have a 5++ save, even if it's not just in CC, does their stealth field and rending rules take them anywhere near the potential of the 2 above mentioned squads? I don't know but it's a really good question. Has anyone either run the numbers or just run these squads to help with some feedback as this seems like the comparison to be considering now.

Looking forward to see where we end up with this.

My (limited) experience is that wyches don't die, but they don't really kill anything either. When they get into combat, the whole s3 thing doesn't really net very many wounds, but they don't take any in return. They're great against vehicles, though.
Bloodbrides are just slightly better wyches who can get more wych weapons. I love running 9 of them with shardnets as a bodyguard for an archon with a clonefield(or Urien, but that's another topic). I find that Incubi have the opposite problem that wyches do. They kill things, and they kill them dead. Of course, they can get stranded out in the middle of nowhere, and just get shot to death.
I've never run harlequins, but the models are so damn pretty, I feel that I need to give them a try. When I do, I'll let you know.

Personally I don't rate Bloodbrides if they could take more than one agoniser I would love them but other wise no. The wyches and Incubi in almost all respect are better than Harlequins, but like it has been said I think Harlequins are more fun to play with and have great models to boot. They each get 4 rending attacks on the charge (Troupe Master with 5 he can also take a power weapon for free) at initiative 6, they also have Furious Charge aswell as Hit and Run. The unit that I normally take is

8 Harlequins - 144pnts
6 Harlequins kisses - 24pnts
Shadow Seer - 30pnts
Troupe Master w/ Power Weapon - 20pnts
Total = 214pnts

In review thats
24 Strength 4 Rending attacks on Charge
4 Strenght 4 Attacks on Charge
5 Strength 4 Power Weapon Attacks on Charge

All at Initiative 7

Good god time flies when it's busy at work.

Harlequins remind of Tau Stealth teams. On paper they don't look so hot but then you put them on the board against horde armies and they just shine thanks to their spotting shenanigans and the volume of shots they can put out. Some call them "fluffy" but they still have their uses, unlike Pyrovores.

For now I'll stick to my Wyches, since I have the models assembled and ready to go, but thanks to you Mandrake I'll be keeping an eye out for some cheap Harlequins. At 1500 points there's no way I'll squeeze them in but at 2k and up...

Speaking of 1500points, seeing as how it was my birthday today, I treated myself to an army upgrade, a Ravager and a new all-comers list.

HQ
1 Haemon | naked (he's just a token carrier)

Elites
2 of the following:
5 trueborn | 2 DL, 3 Blasters aboard...
1 Venom | Splinter Cannon

Troops
10 Kabalites | 1 Sybarite, 1 Blaster, 1 Dark Lance

7 Wyches | Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix, PGL, Agoniser, haywire grenades
1 Raider | Dark Lance, Night shield, flicker field

7 Wyches | Shardnet and Impaler, Hekatrix, PGL, Agoniser, haywire grenades
1 Raider | Dark Lance, Night shield, flicker field

Fast Attack
5 Scourges | 2 haywire blasters

6 Reavers | 2 Heat lances, 2 Cluster caltrops, 1 arena champion

Support
1 Ravager | 3 Dark Lances, Night shield, flicker field

Based on past experience, the Trueborne are not to be trifled with. Some people have advocated to drop the 3 blasters as they don't work with the Lance range but thus far, seeing as how Marines are so common, the blasters work too well once the foe closes in for the "easy" kill. Most of the dying has mostly been done by Marines so why change a winning combo? Once tactic which has been advocated that I will follow however is the use of 10 man kabalite squads on foot. Seeing as how these units only have 1 DL, they tend to be ignored because the lone lance seems like nothing to worry about even though we've all heard the stories of the lone las-cannon popping a Land Raider on the first turn. Hey, it could happen.

As for the Ravager, we'll just see how it fares on the weekend when it faces Chaos Marines. It'll be interesting.

Stay tuned.

As always, it's been a busy couple weeks what with trying to balance work, gaming and prepping 2 armies for an upcoming tournament in November. In light of my Dark Eldar's track record against IG, and seeing as how there are already 3 confirmed IG players registered for the tournament, it seems that Nids will be a safer bet. This will be a quick update as I'm at work, slaving away on some progress pics while on lunch.

First, a glimpse at the chaotic zone that was my project table last Friday.



You'll notice a new addition to the vehicle roster: a Ravager. It seemed like a good at the time but after 3 games it saddens to say that the 3 Dark Glances are performing exactly as planned — poorly. The Ravager is more effective at scaring units with it's reputation than it is as silencing them with its guns.

The plan for the weekend was to finally magnetise the whole fleet of flyers to their bases, along with their sails and weapons in order to facilitate storage.

In regards to the pilot of the Raiders, I was wondering how to magnetise them to the floor of the Raider until I reliased that one of my favourite beers actually comes in steel cans, not aluminium. Why is this cool? Because now that I've found a good and cheap source of steel that is as thin as human hair, magnetising small objects to bases just got a lot simpler. Case in point, the following picture ...



Once the thin strips of steel foil are cut and glued to the model's foot, all that left to do is drill a hole for the small magnet. Installation can be a bit tricky but there's a neat you can use to make the task of holding a tiny magnet in place while CA Glue dries. By filing down the head of an oval head pin till it's flat, you have a perfect a stable and thin applicator that can squeeze into tight places.



Once the magnet has been put in place just use a piece of spree or plasticard to wipe the excess glue and voila, nice flush mounted magnet in your Raider's floorboards just waiting for a model.



Stay tuned for more pics and a 1500-point Battle Report, this time vs. Orks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Overdue Progress Report| part 2 of 2

First off, here's the current state of the table, following the mad dash for magnets that was the weekend. All I will say is: so. much. filing.



Second, after some extra purchases and much building, here's the current state of the kabal.



You'll notice there are only 3 big flyers for now, 1 Ravager and 2 Raiders.



Staying true to my preference for hybrid lists, as exemplified by how I typically run Nids, the list I'm currently considering for 1750 points will feature a mix of big flyers (Raiders and Ravagers, small flyers (Venoms), jet bikes, jump troops and foot troops, rather than go for the more typical Venom MSU spam that is so prevalent in net lists these days. Due to the (seemingly high arbitrary) dollar cost of Ravagers, I'm loathe to field more than 2 at this time. Also, seeing as how many TO's seem to frown upon 3 similar Support choices, I might just save some coin by grabbing a Razorwing instead. My chief concern with a Razorwing is it's size as I doubt it could be magnetised and packed away as neatly as 3 Raider chasis.



A neat trick to keep in mind when packing away Raiders is that, in spite of the spiky bits on the bottom, once the crew, the sails and the rudder are removed, the top of the vessel is actually quite flat and sturdy. All one needs to do is get small enough magnets and a matching drill bit.



The balljoint on the bottom is just perfect for magnets as well.



A small trick regarding the difference between Raider and Ravager sails. To make you always place the sails on the right vessel, invert the magnetic for each ship so that your Ravage sails will only snap on to another Ravager.



You could also use the same trick with the front gun turret if, for some reason, you were using a disentegrator instead of a Dark Glance on a specific ship.



As for the rear blade, save your magnets and cut out the middle axle.

Well there you have it, that's where the Kabal stands thus far. Over the next 6 weeks I'm looking forward to getting another 15 Hellions to fill out the current squad. Also, a Baroness will rise from the Bitz Bin to take charge of the flying rabble .

Stay tuned and I hope this inspires

Whoa lots of progress! I haven't answered your personal message as i'm a bit busy moderating another forum and i'm waiting on some tools arriving that i bought online.

BTW:
Those parts that you sent me in the trade have not turned up.
The original date you gave me was the 22nd August, you said you would post them on that day.
On the 2nd of September you said you had posted them one the 1st because you had been busy.
It is now the 04 of October.
Don't want be an arse but, is there something you need to tell me?

Other than a bonesaw, what tools did you order?

In regards to the crucial question of shipment:

I sincerely apologise for whatever is going on but the bitz were sent however I think the post office (on my end) screwed. According to MadCowCrazy over on Heresy-Online, he hasn't received the bitz I sent either. Both of you should have received your packages by now.

Sadly I didn't send the parcels via certified mail so I can't track them. I'll go to the Post Office on my lunch today to see what recourse I might have, if any, and will let you as soon as I find out.

At worst, i.e. if my bitz are lost, I'll just ship yours back, via certified mail this time.

*** Update about mailing from Canada ***

So here's the scoop!

The following should serve as a big heads-up to anyone who intends on trades bitz internationally.

If you send packages overseas make sure you <strong>do <em>not</em> send via ground</strong>. According to the very helpful Canada Post Rep behind the counter, ground shipping to Europe is expected to take 6-8 <strong>weeks</strong>. What. The. Hell?! I mean really, they must be using donkeys to carry mail because Canada Post excels at making their customers look like an ass.

To make things even more interesting, Canada Post won't even begin looking for a "missing" package until it's been in transit for 6 to 8 weeks.

If I'd known it was going to take that long (I should have asked) I would have spent the extra money for air mail.

So at this time, all I can say is I'm sorry it's taking this long but the bitz should be there in another 2-4 weeks, which should hopefully be around the same you get the tools you ordered online.

No problem mate, i'm sorry i was a bit of an a-hole in my last post but you've gotta check, right?
Thanks for the update, and i'll tell you as soon as something turns up, mate.
As for what tools i ordered... Well;
Jewelers Saw + Blades
50 Rare Earth Magnets
Colour Shapers
Bits for my Pin Vice
36" of Kneadite
Diamond Needle Files
Tamiya Extra Thin
and a Digital Camera
Haha quite a list, i'm just waiting on the saw and blades to arrive.

@ Casey: Here's hoping the bitz show up less than 3 weeks. Maybe the container ship will catch a good wave and get there faster. Keep me updated. As for your list of tools, damn! You're really gearing yourself up. Can't wait to see what you come up with once you put tools to plastic.

After a whole lot of sorting, scraping, filing and gluing, there's finally noticeable progress.



What you're looking at is the remainder of 40 Kabalite Warriors assembled into distinctive squads and ready for paint. Over the course of this building phase I learned something really cool about GW's planning of the sprues. When looking at all the iconography that's built into the sprues, we've been given plenty of ways to differentiate squads and give them a distinctive and coherent appearance. In specific terms, this means that you can build your squads to have a unified look, whether it's the shape of the helmets, the number of bones on the loin cloths, the style of bayonet blades or the shoulder pad decorations.

Based on the availability of options for appearance, a design style guide was devised for all the squads. First the leader and the heavy weapon warriors would have different helmets and shoulder decorations than the rest of the squad. Second, the amount of bones on the loin cloths is to be read as a rank marking, namely, more bones, more experience. Heavy weapons teams are typically veterans so they usually 2 bones or more. Third, bayonets and shoulder pads are unique to each squad.

Here's what this looks like in practice. First up, Scythe Squad.



The downward direction of the blade is echoed in the helmets of the squad.

Next up is Tooth Squad.



The defining element here are the serrated blades on the shoulders and bayonets.

Thirdly is Twisted Dagger squad.



This squad is unique is that it actually has a female trueborn for a squad leader, which was built with a mix of Raider crew and Kabbalite bits. All trueborne are females in this Kabal. Defning elements here are the smooth blades of the bayonets, the spiked helms and shoulder pads.

And finally, the fourth Trueborne squad.



As Trueborn, this squad is composed solely of women. Sticking true to the 40k theme that badasses never wear helmets, I figured it was time to break away from the domed helmets. I need to get some Wyches in order to get that 5th head as right now all I've got is copies of these 4—not cool.

So there you have it.Seeing as how this is a long weekend, I'm hoping to actually start getting some paint on these guys before the next bitz order comes in.

Items of note to look forward to:

a metal Urien Rakarth (after my experience with a Failcast Haemonculus and 5 brittle Incubii, I refuse to buy any GW resin. It's Forge World only for me.)
reaver bodies so I can round out the squad with 2 female riders
domed helmets to finish the Trueborn squads
more vestigial arms to start work on the female wracks.
but best of all, a fresh box of Wyches.

This last one needs to be discussed a bit because it highlights just how good GW's customer service is. When I bought my last battleforce box it was missing the Wyche sprues so I called GW. Within 10 minutes I was off the phone and there was a UPS tracking number in my inbox informing me that an order was incoming. Sure it sucks that the box was missing but the resolution was quick and painless.

Stay tuned

Quite some forward planning! I'll be remembering this once I eventually start my DE...

It turns developing extreme part-sorting OCD with my LEGO when I was 5 would benefit me in the end.

Just a quick post for now as there's much work to do. Here then is the current State of the Table(tm).




*** Short update ***

It was a short but productive painting session. Here is the new State of the Table(tm).



Total painting tally:

1 Ravager with crew.
2 Raiders with crew.
1 Venom (no crew).
1 Talos with 4 weapon options.
8 Scourges.
2 Reaver jetbikes sans riders.

Next phase:

17 Wyches.
6 Reaver riders.
40 Kabbalite Warriors.

Stay tuned (there will actually be some colour soon)

Stay Tuned.

Looking good - Can't wait to see some colour on them

Thanks. I'm really looking forward to finally having a fully painted list.

As an Eldar player and painter, I always take great joy in seeing work being made on our alternate dark-side. Really loving your attention to detail in regards to the planning and magnetising of your army. I will be subscribing to this thread! Cannot wait to see what they come out looking like when painted.

Thanks for the subscription.

Due to the amount of poisoned weapons available to the Dark Eldar, the paint scheme will borrow heavily from a Nurgle scheme. Expect to see a lot of yellowish greens, ochres, plenty of brass and pallid skin. It should make a nice contrast to the usual all black schemes that are typically used.

Major credit goes to Mechanicum Jon for inspiring me to consider the use of colour for Dark Eldar.

Just when I was just about to finally fully paint an army, GW has to release Necrons! Let's just hope I have enough time to paint it all in 2 weeks time or else my DE are done for.

A short update for this evening.

First, a look at my inspiration and thus what I'm aiming for.



No your eyes aren't deceiving you, that's Jabba the Hut's luxury barge. Seeing as how my planned Nid paint scheme is quite dark, I figured I should try my hand at something more bright and colourful. Considering the Wyches and Hellions definitely look like they were heavily inspired by the Mad Max universe, a desert theme seemed quite appropriate. How more appropriate is it then to reference one of the original open topped flyers in the desert?

In so doing I dropped the original idea of going for a nurgle inspired green-tinged paint scheme. There will still be lots of brass but now the other colours will be in the reds to yellow range, with either blues or greens as the accent for controls, gems and vials. Much turquoise on the brass for contrast and weathering.

Moving on, here then is the new State of the Table.



It's a freaking mess in the whole room now, what with tubes and bottles of paint, pigments and solvents all over the place. The airbrush compressor is propped up on the couch so it won't piss off the downstairs neighbours too much.

On top of the high gloss black undercoat I've layered on a Tamiya Hull Red as a base for the Brass. The hulls and some armour plate have been painted with a fitting coat of desert yellow. I was going to work on the sails this evening but I noticed just today that my masking fluid is all dried up so they will have to wait until I can buy some. There's no way in hell I'm painting large flat panels such as the sails with a bristle brush as it'll take 2 hours to paint one instead of one hour to paint all three.

Here's where the Raiders are thus far.



For now my main goal is to just try and finish these vehicles before the Necron Dex drops as I have a very strong feeling that I'll be going back to my old favourite, assuming Matt Ward didn't gimp them too hard. Another reason why I really want to up the ante painting wise with the Dark Eldar vehicles is that I know their lives will be quite short on the table so they might as well be stunning for the short time they're on the field. Let's face it, sooner rather than later, Raiders and Ravagers will end up just like Jabba's Barge anyways, namely:



Good thing it, too, was open-topped

Stay tuned.

It's been a productive couple weeks.

What I was needing to complete my squads finally arrived.



With the Trueborn, Scourges and Wyches finally having the right number of female torsos and the proper weapon loadouts, it's time to add some texture to the bases the easy way, thanks to some Liquitex resin sand gel medium. Took barely 45 minutes to cover 70 bases, and there's plenty left for the vehicle bases later on.



Instead of 3 Ravagers, I opted to go for 2 Razorwings for my army. First, they just look that much more menacing. Second, they're just so much easier to assemble and paint than the fiddly Ravager. I also picked up a third Venom to make sure everyone in the list which didn't already move 12" has a transport.



Regarding their weapons loadout, I'll be sticking with the standard missiles. Since they're already going to wound most models on a 2+ anyways, why spend even more points? Just in case I change my mind down the road, I found these tiny magnets that will help swapping out the loadout.



After basing everything, it was time to bring the airbrush and get to task. Next weekend is the first of 2 tournaments I'm hoping to attend this month and It's going to be pretty tight to try and get some colour on everything by then. At least now, the list is figured out and everything is base-coated. Here's hoping I can find the time to finish it all.



Stay tuned.