Santa Klawz will soon descend upon Earth and bring his Waaagh! of Gorkmas Gretchins, so I figured it's time to (re)try and get into
WH40k, at least the figurine side since my group of Dark Heresy Acolytes are doing their duty to the Emperah! Keeping with the spirit of Gorkmas, Eldar of the Biel-Tan craftworld felt a natural choice, complementing the Santa Klawz's Ork horde and the rivers on blood that'll surely be spilt on the snow covered ground as we 'humies' put up a futile resistance.
While I still have a few Guardians and I think a Warwalker (Played last in late 5th/early 6th and only a limited amount), I decided to start from scratch and using any spare models to practice painting and brush up on my skills. Had a chat with the owner of my local gaming store, since I'll be buying a fair deal that'll include: (Spray) Paint, Models, Brushes, Glue, Magnets, Dice, etc, he was kind enough to allow a discount, which is a huge help. Details will be worked out later, as I finalize the list of things I need. Cost is still somewhat of an issue,
WH40k is anything but cheap, so I tried to keep the number of boxes I needed low but there's still flexibility allowed.
Also during the visit we talked of what I could expect in terms of the
WH40k scene and what conventions and unwritten rules the community played around and also the skill-level of the oppenents available.
-One can expect to find someone that's able to match your own level and that of your army, so there's a breadth to the playerbase which is good.
-Gargantuan and Super-Heavies tend to not show up until 2000pts and then only limited numbers, i.e one, so that sets Wraithknight and Wraith-Host at a farily low priority unfortunatly.
-Games organized regularly by the store are 500pts-double, 1000pts and mini tournaments at 1200pts. There've been longer running campaigns that they also manage, but none are currently active and will resume next year. smaller scenarios to large Bring-In-Battles at Apocolyptic scale points do also show up from time to time, again not until next year.
-Our town do host a few tournaments at 2000pts which lean towards the very competitive side, largest drawing 120-150 players. Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Dark Angels, Ad Mech and Imperial Guard as an ally seems to be the current meta and I'll keep an eye on it, see what I can learn and hopefully enter them later on.
Eldar Starter List:
Combined Arms Detachment:
Headquarters:
Spiritseer - 70pts
Elites:
Wraithguards (5) - 160pts
Wave Serpent - T-L Bright Lance, Holo-Fields - 130pts
Troops:
Windrider Squad (3) - Scatter Laser (3) – 81pts
Windrider Squad (3) - Scatter Laser (3) – 81pts
Fast Attack:
Crimson Hunter - Exarch - 160pts
Aspect Host Formation:
Warp Spiders (4+1) - Exarch - 105pts
Warp Spiders (4+1) - Exarch - 105pts
Swooping Hawks (5+1) - Exarch -106pts
Total:
998/1000pts
Notes:
-Only a single Wave Serpents on the field is a concern, they bring a fairly important payload and if they're destroyed early I loose my primary anti-tank until Swooping Hawks and Crimson Hunter can enter, especially since it'll be the traget of all the opponents anti-tank Turn 1 and possibly 2.
-On the Dakka front I feel somewhat comfortable provided I get into range and Scatter Lasers should hold up until then, I think.
-As an option I've considered removing a set of Scatter Lasers from both Windrider Squads to upgrade the Crimson Hunter into an Exarch.
-Maybe a Autarch instead of the Spiritseer, I want to keep it so I can do things in the Psychic Phase but skipping it for simplicity's sake perhaps?
Edits:
-Crimson Hunter Exarch upgrade: Dropped T-L Deathspinners from Warp Spiders and Ghostwalk from Wave Serpent.
My hopes is that this is decent as a starter army and provides a versatile base that can be expanded outwards as I buy new units.
Any input from the Dakka community is greatly appreciated and I hope to draw on your shared wealth of experience in future as well.
