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The Wind that Vanished in the Night



The goal of the army list is that everything either infiltrates or is
mobile. The general tactic is a refused flank scenario, deploying on
one flank and then infiltrating on the other, using the speed of the
gravtanks to quickly redeploy. If my foe similarly focusses his forces
I deploy out of his range with the rangers and play counterattack or
attack and rely on ranger Disruption to hamstring his force (disruption
including pinning snipers).



Waveserpents focus on tanks. Pathfinders work on tough infantry.
Rangers work on Monstrous Creatures or troops with a halfway decent
chance of being pinned. Firedragons alternatively work on killing
bikes/ dreadnaughts / transports/ heavy infantry. They are joined on
the infantry and bike role by the falcons. Swarms (both of the ruled
and unruled variety) are dealt with by the farseer, who in a pinch also
serves to tie up deadlier assault units. Banshees work to mop up
squads. Depending on the objectives, all of the army is capable of
mobolizing via fleet or infiltrate/ fast vehicles to move forward to
grab quarters, and the rangers are cheap scoring units.





I'm interested in first how to improve the army naturally, but secondly
Armylists that you think would give the army a hard time, so I can
ponder and try to work of a halfway decent tactic and perhaps shift my
armylist a bit to cover it's weaknesses.



Without further adue



HQ

Farseer Elaenor Naerien

        Witchblade, Fortune, Shuriken Pistol

        Warlocks- all with Shuriken Pistol and CC weapon

            4x Destructor

            1x Enhance



Elites

Pathfinders x5



Howling Banshees x10

    Exarch w/ Executioner

    Waveserpent w/Twin Linked Bright Lance, spiritstones



Fire Dragons x10

    Exarch w/Firepike

    Waveserpent w/Twin Linked Bright Lance, spiritstones



Troops

Rangers x4



Rangers x4



Rangers x4



Rangers x4



Rangers x4



Heavy Support

Falcon w/ Starcannon, Holofield, Spiritstones



Falcon w/ Starcannon, Holofield, Spiritstones



Thanks in advance for any feedback

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Don't call your army "the wind that passes".
Or people will be able to say interpretivechaos's army is passing wind! 

Is their signature manouvre the Dutch Oven?

Yo ! Few things, are you going with a theme or are you wishing to be competetive ?

I'll make some suggestions and comments.

Firstly, good on you for a mechanised alaitoc- its rare.
I like the dual falcons- its scary.

Your army lacks staying power however. You ave 57 or so models in a 1750. You also have banshees as your main CC element. Not to sound condescending- but you know about the banshees vs scorpion debate yeah? Also- because you cant assault out of the serpents- 4+ armour save banshees are not best for this. Your fire dragons are fine- they can jump out and lay anything to waste - just make sure whatever you shoot doesnt get to shoot bak- or they go down too.

How do the farseer and crew get anywhere? Running? Also- its an expensive squad for a running close attack squad

You're definintely gonna struggle with horde armies (Nids and Ork which you cant pin). You'll give a few marine armiea run for their money with your disruption rolls- but when they get on- its gonna become a battle of attrition that you just cant stand up against.

Id consider losing the finders, and changing the banshees to scorps and reqoring your HQ. Maybe a Phoenix lord to go with the guys in the transport - instead of the farseer.

As much as I love them- i'd also advise against firedragons in this list.

Banshee's vs Scorpions

Owning the models for Banshee's is the main reason for taking them. Originally I geared the list towards my friends tau, and both aspects were designed to kill his fairly annoying Stealthsuits that had a habbit of vaporising ranger squads with impunity.

Now I generally (as a target saturation thing) disembark before moving the Waveserpent, allowing me to move fleet and charge. Since it's a drop off problem, a mobile foe might move around, and the fleet makes me feel better about not exposing rear armor.

As for the hordes, my general feeling is that they are the ones hit the hardest by my mobility and disruption. If they concentrate I move out of the way, if the spread out I feel confidant enough to be able to destroy a single flank (Ranger Disruptionized of course). Judicious use of Tankshock and Fish of Fury like tactics also make me feel safe.

Furthermore, for nids I have very little contest in my games against them, with the snipers and Brightlances destroying the Monstrous creatures and my Skimmers flying around when near imperviousness picking apart units destructor/ Fusiongun/ and banshee assault at a time.

Speedfreaks I have less concern in demolishing their vehicles. Then the smaller squads are pinable. Footslogging depends on my mobility and range to defeat them.

Part of the reason for the Firedragons are that I enjoy surety when destroying enemy fast attack. The Strength six ap 1 does wonders against bikes and most deepstrikers. It is just important that they die, and not be given free reign to eat up my rangers...

Oh, and the Farseer and Retinue fly around in a falcon...

---

On another note, perhaps if I call it the Euphemism that sends the enemy ducking for cover, I can convince my opponent to start pinned...

Anyone have any more armys (or even better, armylists) that they believe would stack favorably against mine. (Or are the strategies I outlined practical in practice as opposed to theory)

I'm hoping not to be caught of guard at the RTT and make a good showing of myself...

Here's the thing about Wave Serpents: I hate them. The thing is, well, they suck. Actually, no. I take that back. They're very good at one thing: getting shot down. I play Iyanden, so I have no choice but to take them. But unless you're an Iyanden player or a crazy Beil-Tan player, I advise heavily against Serpents. "But there's no other way to get my Banshees into enemy lines." I know. That's because GW killed Banshees with the 4th Ed. transport rules. I honestly can't find a use for them. If you must keep them, because you lack scorpion models and don't have the time or cash, then I would say that you have no choice but to keep the banshees in the serpent. But I'd still take neither. And leaving the models in the Serpent for a turn of shooting? God, no! There's just no way. It will never survive. And even if it does (and you know that you don't be putting the exit point near the unit you're planning on assaulting), who's to say that the enemy unit doesn't just move away? 6" back from the front of the Serpent, and even with a 6 for your FoF roll, you're praying to make it.

No, you have to let your Banshees out point blank and FoF forward. Then pray that he misses with his massed shooting. You see where I'm going? Without a very fortunately place terrain peice on a flank, that Wave Serpent is dead where it floats, or the Banshees are dead where they stand. I would drop the Banshees and their Serpent. If you must, keep them both. You can't run one without the other, because T3 4+ CC models should never be running across the battlefield. But don't say that I didn't warn you.

Why put the Fire Dragons in a Serpent? To hell with that! Drop the squad to 6 and grab a 3rd tooled-up Falcon. As a bonus, you can grin maniacally as people female dog about your 3 Falcon army. Shuricannons wouldn't hurt on the Falcons either. They may be AP5, but they still wound Marines on 2s. The mini Seer-Council is an interesting idea. I've toyed with it before. But because each template is resolved seperately, how effective can they really be? I honestly don't see it working that well. I can understand that against Nids you want some flame throwing ability, but I don't know that this is the way to go about it. A squad of 6 storm guardians with 2 flamers is 54 pts. Just a thought. 5 with Flamers (because they're dead anyway) is 46 pts.

But about the mini-Seer Council. What about Witchblades and an enhance? Sure, it's a little pricey, but you are looking for these guys to do things other than launch a bunch of heavy flamers, right? Fortune the unit and pray. I promise that they'll do better than the Banshees. Oh, and be sure to give the Farseer RoW and a Ghosthelm. When your power has a 33% chance of being negated by a Psychic Hood, you had better be sure that you get it off.

I like the Falcons. I like the units of 4 Rangers. I like the 5 Pathfinders. I hate the Wave Serpents.

First, 6 rolls is probalby to many for 1750. I run 5 in 2000, 4 in 1850 and that's usually enough. Secondly, I find that five man ranger squads work better than four. You need to lose 2 before you make a moral check. I would suggest changing the five four man squads to four five man squads.

I would also drop the pathfinders and break up the banshees to two squads of five, or buy a second exarch and do one squad of five and one squad of six. This way they can cruise around in the falcons.

I would drop the warlocks from the farseer, and then he'll be able to cruise with the five woman banshee squad.

With the points saved from that, you could get a five man storm guardian squad with two flamers and a warlock with destructor that can cruise around in the banshees waveserpent to do the job you had for your farseer + retinue. That way when the waveserpent crashes your only out a few points.

You're only out 1 disruption roll (2 if you reorganize your rangers), 5 pathfinders, and 1 flamer template. You gain 1 banshee exarch, and they will have a better chance of making it into combat, and a decent amount points for another squad of something.

5 vs 4 man ranger squads
Keep in mind this is based on my experience, but the even squad strikes the balance in between 50% casualties (can loose two men) and 100% casualties- e.g. A halfhearted attempt to unearth them with say a heavy bolter won't knock them under halfstrength, but a full volley of fire (A basic troop squad) will be overkill. The chance of fleeing when having lost only one trooper is 72%, meaning that most of the squads will still pass. Since both squads need 3 models to die to be under 50%, it becomes harder to knock them out as scoring units w/ 4 man squads. Furthermore 4 is close to the average for one wound, triggering a pinning test.

Waveserpents
I like the little buggers. The average heavy-medium anti-tank weapon s8+ kills them once in every six hits. For IG, that's 12 shots to down them. Of course, I like odds better than 60% for survival so giving BS 4, that makes (Based on the probability function 1-(8/9)^x )That means that 5 s8 shots at BS4 are needed to achieve a 45% chance of knocking out the Waveserpent. Given LOS blocking Terrain, escalation, or first turn, that means that for me to be reasonably confident of sucess I need to ensure that that many weapons don't fire at me- so lets list where we see those types of weapons...

1)Tyranid Monstrous Creatures- Pathfinders/Rangers/ Disruption gives me time/ their annihilation
2) Heavy Weapons Squads Pathfinders Rangers Disruption gives me time
3) Small infantry squads (5 man Las plas, DE "sniper" squads, IG squads w/ Heavy Weapon etc.) Ranger disruption helps weed these out, as can rangers (via pinning) or Pathfinders (on the tougher stuff to actually kill them). In addition, the falcons can be brought to bear and a) Shoot up Las Plas squads, b) Cause Target Priority, c) Tankshock to force them to move to regain coherancy, forfeiting heavy weapon shots d)Shoot up bodier squads and make them make morale tests
4)Other Vehicles- The toughest for me to deal with. First off, 1 tl Bright lance gives a 35% chance of stopping a non skimmer 37% for a skimmer (AV 12+ vehicle from shooting next turn (Shake, Stunned, Destroyed or Weapon destroyed), a feat that naturally improves to 57-58% when the two both shoot at the same target. Now, moving forward, I can reasonably expect to have to deal with only one or two more tougher deals, which likely don't pack more than 3-4 offending weapons.

Lighter vehicles AV 11, can be dealt with by falcons, while av 10 can meet reasonable failure against rangers, with a 1/6 chance of causing a damaging hit.

Finally, the hopeful use of cover only aids me as I move forward, denying weapons oppurtunity to fire and again crushing an isolated flank (Of course, all this is much easier when they are on Deep Striker/ Fast attack alert, where one turn gets them to their destination which I have more control over.

(Well... that was a longer than expected defense of Wave Serpents...)

Pathfinders
It's been a while since I noted why I really like them, so to recap...

How to deal with those Lascannons (or why I like Pathfinders)
1)Tyranid Monstrous Creatures- Pathfinders/Rangers/ Disruption gives me time/ their annihilation
2) Heavy Weapons Squads Pathfinders Rangers Disruption gives me time
3) Small infantry squads (5 man Las plas, DE "sniper" squads, IG squads w/ Heavy Weapon etc.) Ranger disruption helps weed these out, as can rangers (via pinning) or Pathfinders (on the tougher stuff to actually kill them)

And the final defense of my list- Farseer and Retinue.
4x Destructor... I tend to find, except against clumsy paranoid squads it tends to happen like this
Flame 1- 5 dead models
Flame 2-3 dead models
Flame 3-3 dead models
Flame 4-2 dead models
Obviously it varies about, but in practice I usually nab 12-13 models. That's enough to wipe out small horde squads (like IG, or Tau), or seriously dent sqads of 20 or more. Furthermore, given the toughness of the squad (unlike their mini-storm counterparts), they can shrug off most counter attacks, and wait for help to arive or actually win (hopefully causing a wound to none, triggering a sweeping advance, which either way is good news for the flamers.

Also, ap4 butchers many a infiltrator (smiles at the smell of roasting broodlord and genestealers in the morning... that was a fun blow...)