Painted Tervigon

This has been painted for a month or so now but it's taken me this long to get it photographed. Mostly laziness. Here it is!

Any Wood Elf Players Out There?

My very first army ever in any GW system was Wood Elves. I never owned a ton of models because I switched over to Lizardmen after I saw that they were dinosaurs led by bloated space-toads that looked like the end boss of Mario 2. At least the Slann used to look like Wart, the new ones are pretty nice models*. Anyway, with 8th edition around the corner I'm pretty much going to start playing Fantasy again depending on what they do with the rules. I am still torn between Lizardmen and Wood Elves (though in my typical fashion I'll probably play both).

What I want to know is how are the Wood Elves doing? Are they worth getting into at this point or should I wait for an update? Also, if I do decide to start playing them what should be my first purchase (besides the book)?

*Seriously, on a side note, what was the deal with the old metal Slann model? That thing fell apart so easily. I was constantly re-gluing the chair to the bearers. And the banners would break off no matter how I stored them. Plus, he didn't even fit properly in a unit of Temple Guard. The double cavalry bases just didn't fit with the other bases. Furthermore, he looks like he has indigestion, probably because Mario was throwing vegetables at him.

I Won With Footdar?

I tried my Footdar list again for two reasons, firstly because my last results were flawed, and secondly because I never bothered to unpack them and I had to rush down to the game store with no time to make and pack another list. I really, really, really need to buy a proper transport.

This week I played against Orks. And I won. He had a bunch of trukks, some Deffkoptas, some Nob bikerz, a battlewagon, some lootas and a foot mob of Boyz. The mission was Kill Points. Had it been objectives I would have lost, as I never left my deployment zone.

Note that I'm not planning on playing this list again, unless I fail to unpack it another time. It is boring and slow. I'd like to see it against the new Blood Angels and another IG matchup but I'm afraid that won't happen.

My plan was simple, he had deployed in a corner with most of his trukks and battlewagon, so directly opposite them I placed a unit of Rangers as bait, to slow down the big group while I could try and pick apart the other units. The rest of my force I deployed opposite his so that I would have time to deal with the units nearest me.

My trick worked. The Rangers and the other Dire Avenger squad served excellently as bait and drew off three Trukks, the Battlewagon, and the Nob Bikerz. My opponent made some key mistakes, like falling for my bait (one Trukk would have been more than sufficient) and also getting too close with his Deffkoptas. He should have stayed at range taking pot shots, forcing me to come to him since I didn't have the range to deal with them. Finally, around turns 4 and 5 his army arrived at my core piecemeal so I was able to bring them down under doom/guided Guardian fire.

So in the short time of the Footdar experiment, what can we learn?

How Many Models Fit Under a Blast Marker?

I was curious, how many under ideal circumstances could fit? I decided to test it out. I placed the models on top of the templates rather than under, because of that pesky thing called perspective, wherein closer objects appear to be larger. Beware the guy who holds the blast markers high above your models!

OMG I GOT ALL OF THEM

To begin I started with the small blast marker. As you can see below I got 13 25mm bases to fit.

Next up was the large blast marker. I got 31 25mm bases to fit on this one.

Now, the flame template. I got 20 to fit. Notice the inch of space at the beginning, that's assuming the firing model is remaining 1" away from the enemy models. If it were a Hellhound type projected template you could probably squeeze a few more in.
Now, let's try the 40mm bases. I got 7 to fit on the small blast marker.
And I got 13 to fit on the large blast marker. It is possible that you could argue that 6 more would fit but it would be touching by an exceedingly narrow margin.
Finally, 11 fit on the flame template.
One more thing to note about the markers/template- be sure to look as straight down as possible! An angle may mean you're hitting or missing models you shouldn't simply because of the viewing angle. Also, don't bunch up your guys! A few months ago, one of my Mawlocs got to go "OH YEAH!!!" on about twenty-something guys because they were all bunched up in close combat.

My Footdar Battle Results Are Flawed!

I asked my opponent to give me his list so I could include it in the Battle Report, and it turns out he had an extra heavy weapons team that he didn't mean to include! That weapons team inflicted two wounds on the Avatar and he was killed by exactly two more wounds from small arms fire in that same shooting phase- so the game might have gone a little differently. I would have still lost I'm sure, but it wouldn't have been as much of a rout. Or maybe the Avatar would have still died as ignominious a death due to flashlights or something. So we're going to have to rematch if I want scientific accuracy, but I really don't want to play that list again. It is no fun. I love zipping jetbikes and skimmers around, not slogging hordes of guys that are not meant to be in hordes. I like rolling shooting and close combat attacks, not rolling tons of 5+ saves, even fortuned ones.

My list is an exact copy of Mr. Robbins' list, found here. My opponent's list, as he gave it to me:

HQ
Company Command
Plasma Gun
bolter
Vox Caster
Heavy Bolter

5 Grey knight termies
psychic hood

TROOPS
Platoon1
Command Squad 1
flamer
Bolter
flamer
Chimera


Infantry Squad 1
Grenade Launcher
Vox Caster
Missile Launcher

Infantry Squad 2
Grenade Launcher
Missile Launcher

Commissar
Power weapons


Veterans
Plasma Gun
Plasma Gun
Plasma Gun
Chimera
Vox Caster

Veterans
Melta Gun
Melta Gun
Melta Gun

Chimera
Flamer
h. Stubber
ELITES
snipers (10pts each)

Marbo

HEAVY S.
Leman Russ Tank 1
Lascannon
sponson Bolters

Leman Russ Vanq
Lascannon
sponson Bolters

Leman Russ Tank 2
Lascannon
sponson Bolters


FAST ATTACK
Valkyrie
Flame tank

Total: 1999

Plus one bonus lascannon heavy weapons team.

I'm not going to write a full battle report here, just show my pictures and explain my choices and what happened.

25% terrain.
My deployment. I had to keep the wraithlords babysat by my only two psykers. I chose to deploy first as I knew I would take a lot of damage from going second, so I didn't know where to put my Dragons and Harlequins. I stuck them in the middle. By the way, I had to proxy quite a few things so the Banshees are harlequins, and every other aspect warrior is a Dire Avenger. The termagants are also Avengers. I forgot my Eldrad model at home so I used a Spore Mine.
My opponent lined up opposite. He infiltrated two squads of Ratlings in either building.
This deployment is looking just like Fantasy! While writing this I just realized that I forgot to do Eldrad's redeployment thing. Whoops! Now I really have to rematch because that might have changed things quite a bit.
On my first turn my guns all had such a short range that I really just ran forward and couldn't shoot.

On his first turn, I had to take a ridiculous number of saves. Above is my actual roll for taking nine 5+ saves at one point. I still suffered heavy casualties.
My avengers advanced on the other flank and took out the "bonus" squad. This side of the field was really boring.
The Gray Knights killed some Dire Avengers and then some guardians. That's an understatement. They wiped out both units. I killed them with some return fire from Wraithlords.
By the way, during the course of the game I failed three stupidity checks for my Wraithlords once my Spirit Seer got ganked. I couldn't get all of them within 6" of Eldrad.
My Harlequins actually did pretty well. It took them three turns to get into close combat where they wiped out a 20-man Guard squad. And then they got completely and utterly shot to pieces.

In the end this was the last unit I had remaining. A unit of Dire Avengers in a building. They were safe for now, but only because the Vanquisher had been missing its shots all game.

So! This list sucks. The Wraithlords became a liability as there's only three, so there's only so much they can do, especially when they fail stupidity checks because they have to be babysat. Plus all three were killed by rending shots from stupid Ratlings. They're Hobbits IN SPAAAAAACE! The Fire Dragons need a ride because 18" is not long range. Guardians have too short a range to do anything before they get completely shot up, even with Fortune and Conceal. Eldar are too expensive for hordes. I will try this one more time making sure I use Eldrad's special rule but I doubt it will go better.

I Have Fought the Footdar Fight

...and let's just say it turned out pretty much how I expected, but there were some surprises on the way! Full batrep is coming, I need to write it and get the pictures uploaded. I should hopefully have it by Friday. Here's a teaser- one of the lamest units in the 40k universe killed all three of my Wraithlords.

Second teaser: At turn 3 I was winning on objectives.

Third teaser: I did not get tabled.

The Footdar Challenge

So a while back there was some posting on BolS about some foot Eldar list. The author claimed it as unbeatable. I disagree because first off, going on foot cancels out the Eldar's main strength and secondly, exposes their greatest weakness. Yet there were plenty who though this was a good idea. Well, instead of theoryhammering and explaining why, I am going to take a foot Eldar list to the LGS on Tuesday and give a full report on why it is a bad idea. And if I win...well, we shall see.

New Rumors!

As far as I know, I’m the first one on this story. My source at GW gave me a few moist, juicy tidbits cooked to perfection au jus. Here they are- and no, I will not reimburse you for drooling all over your keyboards.

Necrons: Are getting a total look/fluff redesign. Their legs will be replaced with a cylindrical base, covered in spheres. Fluff wise, instead of attacking in silence will shout, “Eradicate!” From what I heard they won’t be able to go to upper levels of ruins, but instead have the ability to destroy terrain in order to come to grips with the occupants. Later, they may be given the ability to go upstairs but this was not confirmed.

Plastic Thunderhawk: Has made a secret cameo appearance in every White Dwarf for the past year. Go back and look for it. It’s another classic case of GW hiding stuff in plain sight.

Dark Eldar: Will get updated. We promise. Totally.

Daemon Hunters/Witch Hunters: These armies will only be updated when enough players read Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, specifically the Parable of the Grand Inquisitor, and write a 20 page paper on why they should be updated in relation to the parable. Otherwise they’ll make up some fluff about how the whole Inquisition and Sisters of Battle went off to look for the Squats. Get to it!

Dark Angels: Will have any remaining fluff and choices nerfed out of them. Tactical squad special weapons? Gone. Types of Land Raider? Only one now. The codex comes with a pre-set list for every points value. Any players found playing another codex with their Dark Angels army will have their models confiscated.