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Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

It was only a matter of time before I gave in but it was bound to happen. Every so often, I end up going for the exact opposite of my current force.

From Tau to Necrons. From Necrons to Nids. and now this.



A few months back I bought the codex in case some tricky player in our gaming community would go down the path of quick death and darkness. From what I'd been hearing and reading, Dark Eldar, with all their poisoned and crazy high initiative seemed like they would be the slayers of the Swarm and I wanted to be informed.

Well, that day has yet to show itself so I took the plunge. Running with my current stock of models, the list is likely to be something like this for just below 1250 points.

1x Haemonculus Ancient | Power Weapon, WWP, Liquifier
5x Trueborn | 3x Blaster, 2x Dark Lance
in Venom | Splinter Cannon
5x Trueborn
10x Kabalites | Blaster, Splinter Cannon, Sybarite, Power Weapon
in Raider | Shock Prow, Splinter racks, Night Shields.
5x Wyches | Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire grenades; Hekatrix with grenade launcher, agoniser.
3x Reavers | Heat lance, Grav talon, Arena champion, Power weapon.



Stay tuned.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
A quick progress report after 4 measly hours.

As many others have said before, GW raised the bar by several notches when they released the Dark Eldar range.

The tolerances on the Reaver jet bikes alone are enough to make me hope there is a re-tooling of the Tau Piranha kits. I've never been a major advocate of GW's quality control when it comes to their kits (because I've seen how clean Gundam HG kits can be at half the price) but the 8 pieces that compose the Reaver fit so perfectly it's hard to work on these models and not actually feel like GW actually cares about the quality of the models they produce.

Venoms are very much at the same level of crispness. Flash is minimal to say the least. Tolerances once again are just amazing, especially when looking at how well the trophy racks match the back of the passenger nacelle. Compared to the haphazard fit of Wave Serpents, the new Viper umm... Venom kits just seem to fall together by themselves. Granted, there's probably 13 years of new technology that separates the tooling of the 2 kits but damn!

All in all, other than looking positively tiny compared to any Tyranid unit, the simple act of assembling the Dark Eldar kits has quelled any type of buyer's remorse in my mind.

So here's where this new project stands so far



Stay tuned for more.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/08/11 07:53:06


Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







Pretty models, looking forward to seeing what you've got up your sleeves, especially interested in seeing you convert something thats humanoid! Thus far i've only seen you do 'Nids. On that note...

Why haven't i seen your Necrons and Tau?! What else have you got squirreled away for that matter? Not cool man.
Haha! Seriously though get them up in the Showcase or something so we can all stare at them.

So what are you planning for these guys? Conversions? Kit bashing? Crisp paint scheme? What's the hip-haps?

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

Ok so the list has changed a bit as I've done a trade. Falcon kit for 5 Incubi and 1 Archon, which will be the conversion. Not quite sure what I'll with him yet but a Huskblade seems to be a given. These gentlemen will form one squad and will take my lone Raider.

The revised list reflects these new additions and a new total of 1500pts.

1x Archon | Huskblade, WWP, Phanstasm launcher; (joined to following squad)
5x Incubi | Klaivex, demi-klaives, murderous onslaught ; in Raider | Shock Prow, Flicker field.

5x Trueborn | 3x Blaster, 2x Dark Lance; in Venom | Splinter Cannon
5x Trueborn | 3x Blaster, 2x Dark Lance; in Venom | Splinter Cannon

1x Haemonculus | Huskblade, Liquifier (joined to following squad)
10x Kabalites | Blaster, Dark lance, Sybarite, Power Weapon; on foot.

5x Wyches | Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire grenades; Hekatrix with grenade launcher, agoniser. (waiting for Webway)
3x Reavers | Heat lance, Grav talon, Arena champion, Power weapon.
1xTalos | Chain flails, extra CC weapon, TL Heat lance.

So what are you planning for these guys? Conversions? Kit bashing? Crisp paint scheme? What's the hip-haps?


Conversions? Check. Step one will be to splice up a cool looking Archon. Step 2, nothing major, merely magnetising a Talos,
Kit Bashing? Check. In 6 words: Grotesques, Ebay, Rat Ogres, Talos bits.
Crisp paint scheme? Not sure yet but for some odd reason my brain keeps on going to high gloss latex... probably doesn't help that, for the theme I'm aiming for every model, except for Wracks and Grotesques, every model will be female. Think Sisters of Battle does bondage... Speaking of which, does anyone have Daemonette torsos to trade? I have an "idea" for Wracks.

Also on the painting front, I fired up the airbrush last night and actually put paint to models. High gloss black isn't just good for pants, it's great on vehicles too.

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







Epic, sounds like a great project log has been born. I have some plastic deamonettes on sprue. I hope those Nid's got a look in with the airbrush! Your silence on my Tau/Necron comment is intriguing...

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

My Tau and Necron are in their respective boxes, awaiting more paint, yet still sated from their score of victories. Especially the Necrons.

I might just take them out of hibernation and do a quick out of topic showcase, just for you Casey.

And did I read that correctly? You have Daemonettes on sprue? Hmm, sounds like we have found a token of exchange for some genestealers...


As a great source of inspiration, in case few of you don't know about this blog yet, go check out Rant in E Minor. Not only does it features great unit reviews and tactics, loaded with insight and humour, but the painting...

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2011/08/13 02:56:14


Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







A showcase would be lovely haha. I'll be checking out that blog asap!

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

Had the first 2 games with the new Kabal on the weekend, leading to 2 victories against Chaos Marines.

Working on a Battle Report (illustrated) but in the meantime here is a summary of the discoveries and highlights.

The Good.
1. Reavers. The 3 crazy bikers were the stars of the 2nd game. In total they shook one 1 rhino, immobilised another, killed a Havoc squad and took the last 2 wounds out of Demon Prince... without taking a single wound themselves! They are that good.
2. Trueborn in Venoms. So. Much. Shooting. Fragile? Yes, but so fast that if you move properly, your properly will rarely have a chance to shoot at them while you shoot at your leisure.
3. Liquifiers. Fun and effective with the random AP.
4. Agonisers. Expensive but oh so worth it when they work. Too bad my drug sucked all throughout both games so I didn't have the magic +1 to Strength.
5. Talos with extra CC weapon, liquifiers and Heat Lances. They're a great swiss-army can opener and janitor.
6. Charging into a squad on the first turn, with Incubi and an Archon, without turbo-boosting. Priceless.

The Bad
Huskblades. Total gak for the price if your drug rolls don't pan out. Agonisers or Venom blades are better by a long shot, especially if you're facing Eternal Warriors. Yes, they are so bad they warrant their own category. No really, that's the only bad thing I've found with this list thus far when not a list designed to blow up vehicles.

The Ugly
1. Reavers. When you deploy them inappropriately they just vanish. poof! gone! At least the squad is only 128 points.
2. Liquifiers. Ineffective with the random AP.
3. Talos. With no invul and only 3 wounds, make sure your gimp blimp doesn't fisted, otherwise, in spite of his number of attacks, he'll be the sub not the dom.
4. Lances. Good god they miss often! Granted my Dice rools sucked at times but when it takes 10 lance shots to down 1 Rhino... Lances really need AP1 or S9 or something.

That's it for now, time to get back to actually building models.

Stay Tuned for more.

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

The models are progressing and the army is starting to take shape, slowly but surely.

Arriving from ebay are 4 Rat Ogres (for the Grotesque conversions) and 1 Chronos Body to make a 2nd beast from the left over bitz of the one Talos box.

For what I intended to be a short break from cleaning up Wyches, I figured it was high time to get to work on the Haemonculus.

I'd checked the model in his blister at the store and it seemed to fine in spite of the amount of flash. Banking on what I'd heard and read thus far, cleaning the new material is very easy.

Initial reaction: 7/10 for quality. Things were about to change.






Starting to remove the flash, I'm happy to report that it is in fact, very easy to cut. Due to the material's properties, sometimes the clippers would make this very satisfying clicking sound as they cut resin vents very cleanly away, leaving a much cleaning cut than on plastic. It's as though the resin snaps from the shearing action rather than being actually cut. Once the tiny vents were cut away I run into my first snag. Some of the mounting tabs for the resin were so thick that the clippers couldn't go all the way through so I had to switch to the razor saw. The backpack and the model's round base were the main areas of concern.

Speaking of the base, once the model was taken off the sprue I had the pleasure to notice just how much flash was included on the model. I also spotted some nice bubbles. The small ones along the bottom edge of the coat weren't a big deal but the ones on the arms will definitely need some filing and filling.

2nd reaction: 6/10.



Turning the model over I then got to see the seams running along the model's coat and the other side of the lower spine. Especially on the spine, the amount of flash and the thickness of the seam makes it really hard to clean up the model without obliterating some detail. On one of the arms and on the liquifier, the amount of flash due to the seams positioning was so bad it was just easier to file down some of the detail rather than try to clean up around the tiny protrusions. The backpack, due to a casting mishap of some horrible proportion, barely fits in the back slot. I'll have to fill about 1mm all around that part to make fit with the model.

3rd reaction: 4/10.



Time spent cleaning thus far: 1 hour, 45 minutes... And there's still some filing and reconstruction to do. On the upside, crazy glue really sets up super fast on this resin. Like, 2 seconds fast. Also, if these horribly flashed up seams were on a metal model, I would have needed to fish out some dental burrs and the slow speed dremel. So in a sense it seems as though designers can be a bit bolder with where they place seams now considering they're easier to clean. With the Finecost resin I'm fine with just some needles. FYI, scraping seams with a knife does not yield smooth results so stick to using files.

So in closing, in spite of the claims that this new resin is some kind of magic material that dramatically eases modeling and conversion potential, I'd say Finecost minis are just as finicky as metal ever was. You will need more than just a pair of snips and an knife to clean them up if you want good looking results. Considering the price hike, why wouldn't you? And while the amount of flash is easy to clean, there's so much more of it compared to metal minis that you'll more than likely end up spending even more time cleaning your models if you want them to look good.

Final reaction: 6/10 (A passing grade but I'm not impressed).

More details as work progresses.



Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

That pretty much matches what I got out of my box of Wracks recently, baring missing detail on the faces of two of them, and a freakish casting incident piece of plastic that apparently ended up inside the mold and bisected one of the models front from back from the shoulders up. Imagine that flash cleaning but with a box of five models rather than just one though!

 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

Sounds like you too got a bad batch of casts.

With your conversion skills I'm surprised you didn't make your own Wracks. I've been seeing great results from Skaven plague monks, some GS and the spiky bits from the Talos kits. I'm thinking of using Daemonettes to build my own female Wracks just so I don't have to deal with Finecost.

After a problem with some small bending and breaking off the Incubi, I'm very leary of getting resin from GW. How are the finicky spikes holding up on the Wracks so far?

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in be
Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran





The Fortress Of Macragge

finecast is no improvement IMO.. my sterngaurds are only half of what they are supposed to be..

5000pts W15-D10-L6



 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

In that case I guess GW's marketing was right. Finecost will be a boon for converters... If only because you don't have a choice but to do massive cleaning, restoration and GS work just to get your models to a paintable level.

This type of thing is fine by me but, looking back to my sculpting skills and attention to detail when I first started off (with Rogue Trader in the 80's), I'm thinking that the average young teen starting off in this hobby is being faced by a steep learning curve just to put minis on the table. Metal models were easier to deal with mostly because there was just so much less cleaning involved. Anyone else feel the same?

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in jp
Sinewy Scourge






USA

Man, finecast is such a bummer. I'm going to be picking up 2 Haemys and 4 boxes of wracks this week and I'm totally going to open them up at the store until I have 22 high quality figures.

"drinking liqueur from endangered rain forest flowers cold-distilled over multicolored diamonds while playing croquet on robot elephants using asian swim suit models as living wickets... well, some hobbies are simply more appealing than others." -Sourclams

AesSedai's guide to building a custom glass display case for your figures

Kabal of the Twisting Abyss--Blog Laenea, A Tendril of Hive Fleet Hydra--Blog

Always looking for games in/near Raleigh! 
   
Made in us
Stabbin' Skarboy







I think the holes along the jacket's edge are suposed to be there. I think it might be like the holes that were in the skin before it was flayed and used as a cape.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440231a&prodId=prod1190038a

PM me if you want me to draw anything related to Warhmmer 40k. I will put it in my gallery for all to see.
WAAAGH! Wazrokk
Salamanders - 2000 pts


 
   
Made in gb
Ichor-Dripping Talos Monstrosity






The cost alone puts me off.

Personally, I'm using Plague Vermin as Wracks and Dryads as Haemonculus's (and grotesques) I mean... for the cost of 1 squad of 10 finecast wracks, I get 40 converted ones, and for the cost of 3 Finecast haemys, I get 6 haemonculi with additions of a few choice bits and 6 grotesques... ( or even if you don't like dryad as grots you still get 6 haems) for real quality what I'd do these days is grab a Talos kit or two and use the bts from there. either way - for a little work for 6 haems, 6 grots and 60 wracks you save... just over £300 (end rant)

Look forward to seeing the results here.

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

@ Begel: You may be right and at least those bubbles are hidden underneath the cape. What I'm reallly not liking are the bubbles on the sleeves and the vials on the arm. Maybe I've grown to be picky but I'm of the opinion that when I have to spend more time cleaning and repairing 1 Haemonculus that I spent on 1 tyrant, 1 lictor and 3 hive guard, something's not right with the casting process.

@ Sedai: Good call. With the Haemies, even if you can see part of the figure, make sure to check out both sides, that's how I got screwed with my model.

@ Ovion:For the Grots my plan is very close to what you describe.

Buy 2 talos kits (45$ each), 1 Talos body (14$) and 4 rat ogres from ebay (16$). After some conversions, 3 Talos, 4 Grots for a grand total of... 120$ rather than 218$

The biggest problem I've having thus far isn't with the flesh freaks in the army, it's in trying to find people with which to trade bits. My post in the swap shop has garnered no responses thus far so that's putting my plans of an all female army on hold for the time being.

Right now I'm looking to trade:
21 male kabbalite torsos
4 Scourge bat wings

And I need to somehow obtain:
2 haywire blasters
3 blasters

Anyone have any leads?


Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in us
Speed Drybrushing





I might have some haywire blasters from the scourges set and also some you could convert from the talos.

Send me a pm if you want
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

Dark_Gear wrote:Sounds like you too got a bad batch of casts.

With your conversion skills I'm surprised you didn't make your own Wracks. I've been seeing great results from Skaven plague monks, some GS and the spiky bits from the Talos kits. I'm thinking of using Daemonettes to build my own female Wracks just so I don't have to deal with Finecost.

After a problem with some small bending and breaking off the Incubi, I'm very leary of getting resin from GW. How are the finicky spikes holding up on the Wracks so far?


Well, I'm not using the Wracks as Wracks, I'm using as Drudge Slaves for my Cryx. The slave figs are just too fugly for me to justify using them, where as the Wracks pretty much look like a MUCH cooler version of them if you leave their humps off. Jes' Dark Eldar sculpts are Amazing and this is my third use of them I've found for my Cryx.

Since I'm not using the humps, I've not had a problem with any "spikes" on the Wracks, but the weapons on three of them broke off of their hands and had to be reattached. The resin is Really soft and flimsy, not a fan of it so far.

 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

The resin is Really soft and flimsy, not a fan of it so far.


That about sums up my sentiments as well. I'd rather spend a bit more and get ForgeWorld or a lot less and get plastic.

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







Just found these online:
http://www.darkartstore.darkartminiatures.com/categories/BRUTAL-/True-Human-Gladiators/
They might be useful, man.

   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

Not bad, but not as good as the Wracks. Despite my dislike so far of the Finecast, it's worth putting up with to get Jes' sculpts. I think I'd rather they were still metal though, the metal Mandrakes are solid.

 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







Yeh i agree completely. Most of the DE range is to beautiful not to perceiver with.

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

GW's legal department would kill me for this but, I wonder how much it would cost to hire a jeweler to cast and pour some cleaned-up resin wracks into pewter? For my own personal use of course...

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

It's been a good week and a half of modeling and army is definitely starting to look more completed every day. Here's where it stands so far.



Empty bases represent what still needs to be assembled which includes:

5 more trueborn
10 kabbalites
6 Scourges
1 Haemonculus (partially finished)
1 Archon (partially finished)

I've finally come up with the core idea behind the theme of an all female army. As the name implies, and as befits the Dark Eldar's fighting style, these girls are a twisted version of Norse Valkyries, swooping in from the skies to pluck their prey from the field. As the figure heads of this theme, Scourges have been added to the list and I've decided to go for the feathered wings now, rather than the bat wings.



First, it's a stronger visual reference to the theme.
Second, It means I only to trade for 4 wings rather than 6, which might be easier to do.

As the picture shows too, I've used some leftover Wych heads to make them more recognisable as women rather than beaked freaks.

Next up are the Hekatrixes (or Hekatrii...). Due to their strength of 3 and my crappy luck with combat drugs, the Agoniser seemed like a safer bet for increased wounds. The one on the right is a conversion based on the Venom's Wyches.



Building upon the Agonising Women theme, my Reaver's Arena Champion was given the proper upgrades and, following some judicious arm splicing, was posed as though she's using the whip to rope in victims at high speeds.



And last but not least, the Trueborn squad with their default loadout. As I figured they'd need more visibility than the average Warrior, I chose to give them the dome helmets. This is another bunch of bitz I'll need to get somehow as I need another 6 to complete the 2 squads.

So there you have it.

Comments, critique, feedback?

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in us
Fully-charged Electropriest





Boston!

Looks good to me so far, and I like the theme. Have you considered your paint scheme yet?
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







You've been very busy! The army is making great progress and i really love the twisted Valkyrie theme! Looking forward to seeing lots of paint.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
P.S. I found this thread via google.
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93923

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/08/23 18:02:59


   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

Great find and thanks for that. <Runs off to PM a fellow trader and DE collector>.

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

Things are progressing slowly as I've been busy with work and totally engrossed in Deus Ex. It is <em>the</em> must-have game of the year if you're into smart first person games rather than meathead shooters. A big shout out to Casey for the quick trade. My female wracks have showed up in the form of daemonettes. Time to break out the bonesaw and mush up some GS.

Dark_Gear's Spawning Vats | Follow the evolution of multiple new strains.
Dark_Gear's Webway Portal | A new Kabal rises.
Dark Machinations | Dark Gear's Tumblr. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







Glad to here you got my goody bag! Can't wait to see what you do with the deamonettes. I'm chopping up a Hive Tyrant right now! Big greenstuff work, it's not really looking like the original model any more. Can't wait to get the base built with a few of those building parts.

   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Sechelt, BC

No new pictures but some progress on the list front.

Faced some foot marines for 1500 points today. I know... I was surprised too.

My list this time was for testing the efficiency of Wyches, the survivability of large warrior squads & the validity of 3 man reaver squads.

1 Haemonculus, Agoniser and Liquifier. joined to
5 wyches, Hydra gauntlet, Hekatrix w/ agoniser. heywire grenades
Raider, dark lance, flicker field, shock prow

6 wyches, impaler and shardnet, hekatrix with agoniser, haywire grenades
Raider, dark lance, flicker field, shock prow

20 warriors, 2 dark lances

2x 5 trueborn, 3 blasters 2 dark lances.
venon, night shield flicker field.

2x 3 reaver, heat lance, cluster caltrops, arena champion, agoniser.

5 Scourges, 2 haywire blasters.


My opponent had (as far as I can remember)

1 souped-up Captain
1 terminator Librarian
1 techmarine with a thunderfire cannon

2 Typhoon equipped land speeders

1 Ironclad Dreadnought with 2 CC weapons and 2 HK missiles

10 tactical marines, heavy bolter, sergeant with goodies

10 sternguard

10 scout snipers


Didn't win deployment and didn't steal initiative so I ended going second. For some odd reason my opponent didn't deploy his sternguard in cover. He basically deployed them in the open, ready to run towards the central piece of terrain, a large landing pad. All of his characters were in cover however, close to each other with the dread providing extra support.

Due to cover, and bad rolls on his part, only 1 Raider was blown up but everyone survived. 5 Warriors from 20 died to the thunderfire cannon but that was it.

To try and minimise what his characters and the cannon could do, I shoved the last raider 12 inches forward, disembarked the wyches and multi charged into them. Extra cheery on top of the sundae, combat drugs gave me +1 attacks. Yup, that means assuming they all get there in one piece, my 6 wyches would lay down 25 attacks on the charge, without a single pain token. Although it was just a suicide tarpit move on my behalf, I would soon learn 2 turns hence that it was the best move I could have done. Short story: 6 wyches wiped out all 3 characters, also silencing the cannon, and they were thus able to consilidate into the nearby typhoon, immobilising it and destroying a weapon, while only losing 2 of their own. That same squad would then bound over towards the dreadnought that was engaged by the other Wych squad. Yup, a measly 112 points of wyches either killed or tied up roughly 50% of my opponent's list over the course of this game. 212 if you count that it took a 2nd squad of wyches to tie up the dreadnought long enough for the 1st squad to lay into him.

In his second turn the Marines took out my last raider, killed 3 more warriors and the 2 reaver squads, but other than that, the core of the army (the trueborn) were totally ignored. Although I was sad to see them die, the reavers did their part by making the sternguard stop their advance towards the piece of terrain, thereby buying one more turn of very effective shooting for the trueborn. Still, dragon fire bolts are a painful lesson, especially when 9 strenguard double-tap and then ignore cover...

In return I killed 8 marines, 1 scout and immobolised one land speeder, prepping it for an assault in the following turn.

Turn 3 was the turning point because the CC phase was resolved at last, highly in favour of the Wyches. The shooting didn't do much either as only 2 more kabbalites were killed and 1 venom shaken.

Fast forward to the bottom of turn 4. Scouts have been run off the board, all marines have been poisoned or lanced to death. All that remains is one immobilised dreadnought with 1 arm destroyed and 2 immobilised land speeders with nobody in their firing arcs. I still have 10 trueborne, 11 warriors with 2 lances, 2 venoms totally 3 splinter cannons, 4 scourges with 2 haywire blasters and 7 wyches playing cat and mouse with an ironclad. We both agree that it's over and my Dark Eldar have their first succesful real space raid against (non-chaos) marines.

MVP of the show: Wyches. If you're facing people mech and/or dreadnoughts, take haywire grenades, don't look back. You will not be disappointed, except if you face GK's and their damn unstunnable psychic vehicles.

Runner-up: Trueborn. When your opponent is generous enough to foot slog infantry towards you, do yourself a favour and go on a barrel fishing expedition. Make sure to get night shields too, just to see your opponent's smile vanish when you remind him he can't double tap or melta a venom from 11 inches away.

Hard lesson of the game. Reavers and their turbo-boost move are tricky to use properly. Don't do it right, they die. Quickly. Do it right and they can be the MVP as I saw a few weeks back. Basically, more pratice required.

Final summary. Short of getting more raiders, or some ravagers, or a large unit of hellions, it seems that a large unit of warriors to bait the enemy while the trueborn and wyches do the heavy-lifting seems to be effective thus far. At least if I'm not facing Guard. I'm certain I don't want to face mech guard until I get those hellions...

Thanks for reading. Feel free to send questions my way if you have any.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2011/09/12 04:04:57


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