First 9th Edition Battle (Written)

 I had my first 9th edition game recently when a friend came by.  To keep things as COVID19 friendly as possible it was all my models.  I made both army lists and let my opponent choose which to play.  My gut instinct was that the Craftworld list was really hard hitting and probably stronger than the Harlequin list, but my opponent had never tried Harlequins before and wanted to give them a shot.  The table had a lot of -1 to hit coverage, and as that was mostly redundant for Harlequins he opted for the other side of the board.  While it's hard to see the Craftworlders have a unit of Dire Avengers hidding behind the corner tower, and a unit of guardians and warp spiders waiting to deep strike.  The Harlequins had an 11 trouper unit also in the web.  Deployement:

The Harlequins won the first turn, and with the mission rewarding holding objectives they pushed forward really quickly to take as much ground as possible and the further back unit being given a bonus to their invul thanks to Prismatic Blur.

With units in place the psychic phase wasn't really momentous.  Webway Dance failed, but one troupe was gifted a -1 to hit.  Meanwhile the Shadowseer cast Twilight Pathways letting a Starweaver slingshot to a third objective and really put the screws to the forces of Ulthwe.

The two units of Skyweavers opened up with their Haywire cannons on the Wave Serpent, and despite a -1 to hit.  Each unit got 13 shots and after they were done the Wave Serpent was diminished to a single wound.  Unfortunately they were not the collective firepower of the Harlequins.  The Skyweavers shuriken cannons took it down, killing one of the warlocks inside.  Meanwhile the Prismatic Cannons of the Void Weavers crippled the Wraithlord taking it down to one wound.  The Dire Avengers under the tower were reduced to a single model by the combination of Cegorach's Lament and Harvester of Torment.  Despite the -1 to hit 9 shots tore through the unit in a savage display.  The bikes were thinned out with the Neural Disruptors and the Humbling Cruelty Jester.  By the time their combined work was done 5 bikes had been wiped away and the unit had a lone survivor.  Without any assaults the morale phase wiped out the last of the Dire Avenger squad that had been savaged.

After suffering a devastating opening round of fire Ulthwe sought to take over the closest two objectives and hope to hold out long enough to last until their reinforcements arrived.  Most of the positioning was in preparation to take things over in the next turn.

The Combined psyshics of the Warlock Conclave and Eldrad wiped out a unit of skyweavers and dropped the save on the Blurred unit of bikes back to a 4+ while bumping their own save to 3+.

The shooting phase was a bit of a bad turn for the Craftworlds which put a couple wounds on a Starweaver and the combined shooting of the Fire Prisms only managed to kill a single of the doomed bikes.

The phase I was most prepared to do some damage was assault.  It got off to a good start when the Wraithlord got a 9" charge at almost point blank range  However, the Autarch only managed a 2" charge, though he was fine with that.  The real issue was when the Dire Avengers rolled a 3 on their charge, followed by a reroll to a 3.  This meant they didn't get the distance they needed, even with their consolidation, to fully wrap the Starweaver.  When it was eventually brought down the Harlequins and Troupe Master all bailed out with only a single trouper trapped in the wreckage.

The Harlequins got their reinforcements and moved for the cous de grace, surrounding the Warlocks and Eldrad, and preparing for the assault phase.

The psychic phase was a total bust with Eldrad and the Warlocks stopping every spell, noteable for the moment a Shadowseer cast Twilight Pathways on a 10, and Eldrad clutched it with a 12 to deny.

The shooting phase was much more suitable for the Harlequins, with the Harvester of Torment mercilessly wiping out a second unit of Dire Avengers, the bikes spiking a 12 in their random number of shots at a Prism and Void Weaver support assisting in taking the tank down.  Meanwhile the Skyweaver full of Fusion guns finished off the heavily wounded Wraithlord.  As the combined fire of three units of Harlequins took down a few more Warlocks the Troupe Master caught the Autarch with a Fusion gun, likely being saved by his force shield.

The Troupe Master charged into the Autarch while 2 units of Harlequin troupes and the last bikes all charged the Warlocks... and the Solitaire charged Eldrad directly.  The large units that just ported in failed their charge, even with a reroll.

To start the phase the the Troupe Master dispatched the Autarch with complete efficiency using the Twilight Fang.  Then the Warlocks interrupted combat with Supreme Disdain taking down a handful of Harlequins before they could unleash death.  Unfortunately for the Warlocks they didn't take down enough of the nimble warriors.

The warlocks, even with using Lightning Fast Reflexes were cut down by the Harlequins, wiped out to a man, probably after they froze in shock when Eldrad was cut down by the Solitaire using Cegorach's Rose.

At this point, looking at a likely 80 pt deficit by turn 5, with only two very vulnerable models on the table, even the deep strikers would not swing the game beyond the total route it had devolved into.

One thing I learned in this game was that I need to review my terrain to have more central line of sight blocking terrain towards the centre of the board.  But I also learned that Craftworlds are in a really really bad place at the start of 9th edition.  They have arguably the worst troop options in the game compared to points, and suffer greatly in the need for durability.

Another lesson learned was that while choosing good secondaries for a force is helpful, but something you still actively need to account for, choosing the wrong secondaries pretty much wipes 45 points from your game to start.  I need to reimagine what constitutes an "all comers" Craftworlds list, and what secondaries I can realistically pursue since many of them require sacrificing units for any purpose other than performing actions, and when your units get cut down quickly you can't often actively sacrifice performance for a turn.

A Review of Phoenix Rising Assault Bombs

Check out the video below:

Harlequin thoughts, and the Unplayable Webway Gate

With the release of the new Harlequins codex I picked up the stunning new Webway gate. With a few extra models painted and the gate I completed my Harlequin force and added them up to a surprising 2500 pts exactly! It's a massive allied force to my Ulthwe warhost.

I've gotten in a few games with them, tabling an Imperial Soup army consisting of Greyknights and Gulliman. I tabled them in turn 4. An opponent using 1ksons conceded halfway through his shooting phase on turn 1 as I played the 2 CP Stratagem to get them -1 to hit, on top of the psychic power.

For people excited to try out the "Great Harlequin"Stratagem... I've found it overpriced for its effect. I expect in future games I'll skip it and make use of the CPs in game. If it had a more profound effect, or only cost a single CP I'd reconsider and use it again.

Sky Weavers with Haywire Cannons are surprisingly versatile and I highly recommend them.  Neuro Disruptors are still disappointing and should wound on a 2+ against infantry.

One of the things I did in these games is test out the Webway Gate. It's a beautiful model, but it's rules are a hot mess. These are the problems and solutions as I see them -

Issues:

1) Asuryani and Drukhari do not ave access to gate stratagems.

Give them access to generic versions.

2) deployment for gate is too restrictive.

Reduce distance from other terrain features to 1" rather than 3" and reduce the 12" distance from enemy deployment to 3", as it becomes all but impossible to actually place on most boards.

3) deployed units are stranded with no protection and are unlikely to contribute.

Allow units to move after deploying as if they disembarked from a transport.


4) gate has no use beyond first or second turn as it provides no cover.

Make gate offer aura of protection, +1 to save, for units wholly within 3"


5) it's too easy to cheaply prevent large models like Wraithknight from entering play with a single cheap model.

Instead of deploying "wholly within" 3" change the rule so that all deployed models must be within 3", this forcing an opponent to have a tough choice about how they're willing to stop you deploying.


No single one of these changes is really sufficient to make the gate attractive. It really needs all 5 to make it viable for play.

Ulthwe vs Blood Angels Written 2K Battle Report

I took on a new Blood Angels force, and by new I mean, only just built and not painted.  Between this and time constraints I don't have a battle force picture of the Blood Angels.  They had Sanguinary Guard, 10 Death Company, Lamaretes, or whatever his name is, Mephiston, 2 Devestator Squads (one with heavy bolters and one with lascannons), a dreadnought and Storm Raven, and three Intercessor squads.

My Ulthwe force at 2k:

This was my first post-codex game to include a Wraithknight.  With two sizeable wraith squads as well I figured I could test the new Bonesinger by taking 2.

Mission: We were trying the new Eternal War mission with 6 progressive capture objective points and gives you an extra point for destroying units.  I got to choose the deployment zone and went for short edges, putting Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, and the 10 Wraithguard in Deep Strike.  The rangers were, as usual sneaking in from the webway.  

Deployment:

 

While my opponent was going first, I, luckily, stole the initiative.

I was aggressive in my movement, as you have to be when using a slow moving short range army.   10 Wraithguard dropped in range of a Storm Raven and when all their firing was  it sat on 3 wounds left.  I had hit 8 times, but only wounding 3 times and rolling poorly for my wounds left the blasted flyer on 3 wounds, and my wraithknight and warp spiders all failed to wound it with their shooting.  I did get off Quicken and Protect on my Axe guard and my rangers managed 3 mortal wounds on the Heavy Bolter squad and with the grenade mortal wound from the Swooping hawks managed to finish off the squad as the last man standing failed his 2+ armour save.  I used Fire and Fade to move the Wraithknight a second time after shooting to put pressure on my opponent and hopefully keep his army in his deployment zone.  I started off the game with 6 VPs, and had already burned through 4 of my 6 CP.

My opponent deployed everything and was happy to bring his still alive Storm Raven into hover mode and lay into my forces.  A lot of his shooting was used to work down my Wraithknight.  He did 13 wounds to it and I didn't make a single 5+ or 6+ for Ulthwe at this point.  As his dreadnought finished off the last of my Warp Spiders in combat and Sanguinary Guard launched into my Wraithguard his Death company charged my Wraithknight.

Mind you this was not a Death Company entirely tooled up.  There were 4 with Thunderhammers.  Those 4 managed to cause 9 wounds, all of which I failed to save, and then caused 27 wounds.  I Ulthwe ignored 2.  The WK was dead.  250 pts of models easily destroyed a 500 pt model without breaking a sweat.  They needed no assistance.  The shooting it took before hand was inconsequential.  Mind you the rest of the unit hadn't even had to roll.  The Bonesinger that was intended to support it and help it was useless and watched helplessly. He had 3 VP.

I tried to figure out a way to recover, and held to my plan, so I moved my guard out of combat and with 8 models left I split my shooting, 3 to finish off the raven, and 5 to kill the dread.  Meanwhile my Axe guard moved up the field.  

My shooting was awful.  While I did manage to down the Raven, finally, the other 5 left the dread sitting on 2 wounds. My Axe guard made it in to 1 squad of intercessors and slew them.  More importantly I had board control.  I was up at 12 VP, and all out of CP.

The marines moved to solidify their left flank and take out the last of my real firepower.

With startling efficiency the Wraithguard and Swooping Hawks were wiped out.  Less than half of the Ulthwe forces remained, while the Blood Angels had lost barely a quarter of their force.  Yet they only sat at 5 VP, having moved off the only board objective they had controlled.

My forces were reeling, and overpowered, but I could still sneak out a victory if I played smart.  A bonesinger managed to kill the dread with smite, while the combined efforts of Smite from a Spiritseer, and the Wraithaxe assault wiped out the other devastator squad.  I crept up to 20 VP.

The Blood Angels pushed to the center of the table, easily wiping out the rangers and both bonesingers.  They jumped to 9 VP, choosing to abandon a nearby objective for a position closer to my guardians holding my back line.

I had lost a huge portion of my army, but I thought I could put the game away if things went to plan.  I moved my Wraith axes in position to charge the two intercessor squads in the rear of my opponent's deployment zone, while one of my Spiritseers moved to retake an objective I had lost.  In a shameful display, my Axes failed their 6" charge by rolling snake eyes.  This left my Autarch totally in the open and out of position and my whole force vulnerable.  It was a horrifying moment because I could easily see how this roll would cost me the game, and now I was just a spectator to being tabled. I moved up to 24 VP.

My opponent used a stratagem to redeploy his Death Company to my back lines.  They were in all but mop-up mode, with characters splitting off.  Then my opponent made one great mistake.  He boasted to someone else about how he was about to easily get Warlord.  Firing two units of intercessors at my Autarch he only managed to cause 2 wounds.  I had shrugged off their mighty firepower.  Undeterred and pressing his advantage he moved on to the assault phase.  During the assault phase both units of intercessors charged my Autarch, while the sanguinary guard and Mephiston charged the Spiritseers.  The Stratagem to roll 3D6 on the charge allowed his deathguard to slam in to my rearmost unit of guardians, while two characters mutilated the other squad.  By the time he was done and morale was over both Spiritseers were easily slaughtered, one unit of guardians was wiped out, and 3 guardians remained on my rearmost point.  Yet my Autarch still lived on 2 wounds and had killed an intercessor.  He had leapt up to 15 VP.

I had to hope the game ended before I got tabled.  My only moves were to consolidate the three remaining guardians to hold their point at the back, and get my Wraithblades in to combat.  I didn't remove my Autarch, so I couldn't get overwatched.

They did their job well, killing both squads.  At the end of the turn I had 23 VP.

My opponent now had a choice, to play for board control, ignoring my survivors, and win on points if the game pushed to turn 7, or abandon points and try to chase me down and table me.  He opted to try to table me.  He repositioned his entire army and the only interaction of note was when one of his characters charged into my remaining guardian squad, only killing 2, leaving one guardian remaining.  His stretch up the field brought him up to 17 VP.  Fate favouring my opponent, the game continued.

I didn't have much left to do in my turn.  In an act of defiance against doom my guardian broke from assault to continue holding the objective (thanks obsec!) as my Autarch and Wraithblade bodyguards moved to another objective point.  I pushed to 25 VP.

The blood angels zoomed across the board ready to slam into my wraithguard as their standard bearer moved in to kill my last guardian.  

He smote down one of my wraithguard.  I pulled the closest model from the squad.  Suddenly my opponent noticed that made his charge more difficult.

Once again the dice gods punished his hubris for casting Smite, as Mephiston rolled a 4 on his charge, needing a 5.  Then, his Sanguinary guard also rolled a 4 on the charge, needing an 8.  He had 19 VP, but was certain he'd  wipe me out in another turn, with everything he had left.  The dice gods then abandoned him in full as the game ended, 26 - 19, with a close fought victory to Ulthwe.

Post game thoughts:

Wow, that was close!  Blood Angels are positively beastly.  They're the fastest marine faction I've played against, and their Red Thirst rule is probably the best of the individual marine chapter rules.  Nearly everything was wounding my units on 2+ or 3+, no matter how tough it was.  This will be a force to reckon with given their speed, toughness, and ferocity.

The Death Company are insanely point efficient for their damage output in combat.  The fact that they chewed through a Lord of War that cost twice their points without breaking a sweat is pure madness.

This was an odd game in that there are 6 moments that really stand out.  The first is when my dice went cold early for the Wraithguard.  A 400 pt unit that is usually reliable were in an ideal position and fell flat on their faces.  It happens, but hopefully not often.  In this case dragons would have been better as they would have been fewer points, but more likely to get the job done turn 2 with the additional chance of rolling higher damage.  Those failures early game cost me a lot and it was tough to recover from.  But my opponent's luck going cold right at the end of the game, finally failing charges for the first time all game ended up doing him in.

I learned that the Bonesinger seems not worth it, but I'll test it out in other builds.  They never had a chance to use their heal ability because I never had a wraith construct on fewer than full wounds.  It was either full wounds... or dead.  This meant all they ended up doing was holding objectives and at one point casting smite.  I was super disappointed.  But the model is pretty.

Those invul saves on the Wraith axes came in handy since I sped them up with quicken and used Protect.  One thing I forgot was that I wanted to spend a CP to get them to advance a full 6", since I'd get to go a total of 22" with Quicken (thanks to the FAQ for Nids we know with those type of powers we roll once for advance and use it both times).

The Wraithknight is actively bad.  It was as survivable as I could make it and never had a chance.  After actually using it, it might be as much as 150 pts overpriced.  It was hot garbage.  Total swill.  here's why... not only does it have to pay a ridiculous tax to have either no shield or titan killing weapon, or ridiculous tax to have those but not good guns, it's actively not fun to play with.  When you buy the basic package of a Knight it's still a force to be reckoned with because it comes with the invul and either two great long range weapons, or one great and one close combat weapon.  The knight either lacks firepower to match, or simply isn't as survivable, yet costs more.  Watching it get torn apart so easily actually made a very tight tense and fun game... less fun.  I'm not in any way interested in using the knight again, but I might give another load out a chance to see if it can change my mind at all.  Right now I feel like it just needs something to either distinguish it (like a 5+ ignore damage) from a knight, or  to be VASTLY cheaper than a knight.  I can deal with gamble units that can do real well, or real poorly but priced somewhere in between, because I know they're a gamble going in.  Right now it's just a poor unit that can only do well if your opponent is either unlucky or makes an unforced error.

My plan to keep my opponent bottled up while I took the board ultimately won me the game, but I felt like this game was easily winnable by my opponent.  He was still experimenting with his units, and so he was overkilling everything he went after.  He hasn't had enough experience with them yet to know how much damage output he can trust from them so he can just spread out and devour an opponent.  Even still if he hadn't made a few mental errors in regards to how he took objectives early he would have kept pace with the VP total in the early part of the game.  I felt like I learned a lot about Blood Angels in this game and much of it will shift how I play against them in the future.

A Codex Craftworlds review from an actual Eldar player

One of the things that has been bothering me as of late is the number of reviews, especially before the book was released, that were extremely wrong.  I understand that some players use many armies, and most don't specialise in playing Aeldari, but without consulting someone who does specialise in this force as their main army means there are a lot of items mentioned in previews are wrong or not possible.  As someone who specialises in this force I'll give my quick take and hopefully make some corrections.  As a note, I tend more towards narrative play than match play and my army is locked in to Ulthwe, so you won't see the "everything is -x to hit" expectations coming from me.

Overall Grade: B+

Things You Need to Know

Phoenix Lords cannot take Warlord Traits... not any.  Most people are aware that Phoenix Lords have a special rule that allows them to not make you lose your <Craftworld> bonus, but many people did not realise there is another rule above the specific Craftworld traits that prohibits Phoenix Lords from ever getting a Warlord Trait.

Normal Crimson Hunters are BS 2+ in their top damage tier.  This is actually no different from Index 1 and was done by design so they could still hit on a 3+ when moving.  I am still amazed how many times I've seen people argue that only the Exarch is BS 2+, but I'd recommend people carefully read the book cover to cover, for the rules section at least, as if it's a totally new book.

Support Weapons become individual units once deployed.  This is very important as I continue to see people discuss casting Guide on the unit as if they're a single unit, but that is not the case.

If the Autarch is entering through some form of the new Deep Strike you can not regenerate (path of command) or generate (Ulthwe Warlord Trait) Command Points until AFTER they have been deployed.  This is important to remember because using the Webway Strike stratagem can potentially be regenerated if the model is already on the table.

Sunburst grenades were re-named back to Plasma grenades.  I have no idea why, but I wouldn't mind if they made up their mind on that one.

The Good Stuff

Really, most of the book.  With the exception of Wraith units nearly everything received a point reduction between 10-25%.  The individual rules for units were rarely an issue, but the costs were.  I give GW kudos for recognising that, aggressively correcting points, and not fudging around with the rules too much, only lightly making tweaks.

Howling Banshees: They're so cheap and so fast.  I'm having a difficult time not imaging them becoming a mainstay unit for every variation of Eldar.

Runes of Battle: They really make me wish I rolled better for casting psychic powers because there isn't a power in the list that I don't like.  It makes me want to play really large Apocalypse games just to get to cast all the powers.

Fire Prisms: I'm not certain my rolling will improve with them at all... but with the chance to shoot twice... It's like they know I'm ready to love them again.

The Great Stuff

The Stratagems are going to be what lets players set this army apart.  Now I'm not just building a list... I'm building a list around Stratagems, so it's likely my army will actually play differently than other Eldar players.

The Bonesinger.  The rules are spot on and its rules were released as a free downloadable PDF.  As someone who has worked running corporate social media accounts, those posts tend to be planned and written weeks in advance, so it was a great surprise that it went out early enough that you could actually still order the model.

The Not-so Great Stuff

We need to talk about Warlocks.... they're not good.  Other armies have psykers that are far too close to identical with the exception of having double the wounds and access to full strength Smite, something a Spiritseer provides for a 10 pt bump.  Either they need to drop about 10 points per model, or they need Destructor amended to be D3 Mortal Wounds.

The Warlock Conclave is on the right track to getting better in that it's cheaper than an individual Warlock.  This is good since getting an equal number of individual Warlocks was previously superior in every way.  Now it's superior in nearly every way. Much like their individual unit cousin, this unit needs to drop about 10 points per model, or, their version of Destructor should be amended to D3/D6/D6+3 and they need to be able to deny 1 power per model in the unit.  I will still use this unit for narrative forces, but you will likely never see them in matched play because they still widely miss the mark.

Autarch changes.  Considering Grey Knights received a unit without a model and a "how to" for converting it, it seems wrong for Autarchs to have been stripped so bare. Personally I have 1 Autarch that I'm going to try salvage by converting, and one I used often that's going to be retired, and one that I'll use, but clearly has a banshee mask it can't use.  It seems like an odd reduction in utility for the model and really has upset people.  Skimping on extras from the plastic kit to begin with is part of the issue here.  Another is that four of the relics can only go to Autarchs (being the only character that carries the appropriate piece of wargear to swap out), and the actual foot-based one can't even do that.

Some of my favourite models are being retired because their rules got dropped.  While I'm not entirely surprised I am absolutely going to miss my Scorpion Exarch with Chainsabres.  I was so proud of that model and still am.

Triumverate of Ynnead, Deathworld Forest and Ynnari thoughts

As you can see I finished the Triumverate and the Deathworld Forest kit.  As a painting project I found them models challenging in the way that they're layered, and in some ways they're easier to paint before being put together than when they're done, but the final product is striking on the table top.  As far as the Forest, I opted for bright colours for most of the build as it is a stronger contrast to my army.  I may even go back and add some further detail work on the terrain if I get bored enough, but even completing the main roots and trunks without picking out the fungi with a different colour than the rest of the trunk they look great.  If the vines didn't cover the giant runes on the Eldritch Ruins you could probably get away without painting those if you wanted to (though I chose to paint them).

Having used the Deathworld Forest in a game we decided that if you were in overlapping areas that you had to take the effects of both pieces of terrain, which means in some areas you were taking AP 3 wounds on a 1-3.  Over the course of a game the Deathworld Forest managed to kill 2 of my Scythe-Wraithguard, wounded a Wraithknight and took out both a Jetbike AND a Warlock (with sanctuary and Fortune).  It was pretty harsh for me.  My opponent, on the other hand, suffered a total of 0 wounds.  While the 3+ save was handy (or a 2+ for the Nightfight turn) I'm not sure it balanced out the sheer destructiveness it unleashed upon me.  This is definitely NOT to be confused with army friendly terrain such as the Tau wall or any of the slew of imperial stuff.  That said it does look pretty.

Recently I got to play an 8k game against a Castellans of the Imperium force that included Guilliman as its warlord.  We also tried out the Empyric Storm cards and the Balewind Vortex rules we'd come up with (the rules can be found here).  While I did try out some new formations like the Ulthwe Strike Force and Triumverate, the game was big enough for me to include old favourites such as Crimson Death, Aspect Host, Wraith Host, and Seer Council.  I added in a small cad as a complement and I was ready to set the world alight.

Things I learned:

The Visarch is better than I'd anticipated.  Lacking an invul and being... not quite enough of a beat stick in my eyes I didn't have much in the way of high hopes, but the warlord trait that works when he's not the warlord was pretty useful, and since I had him in a small unit of Incubi it became clear to me that it was a substantially good way to deploy him.  He took the first two wounds in the squad and then, as other models in his unit died, he'd regain a wound and gain an attack.  I maxed him to the +3 attacks pretty quickly, but with Rage he really shines in a small unit taking on a greater foe.

The Revenant Discipline doesn't tickle my fancy.  For me the best spell is the one that triggers a soulburst at 24" and all the others are forgettable.

Harlequins feel so much more formidable as Ynnari.  The ability to pull off charges in an early phase, do some damage in an assault in the wrong phase, and then Hit & Run, followed by another charge in the same turn makes even a small squad a bit of a nightmare for opponents.

Wraith blades feel more viable with Strength from Death.  Cannon and Scythe guard, however, feel too good.  I paired up 10 standard wraithguard with an Archon with portal and when they entered play they were effectively guaranteed to trigger themselves for a soulburst.  This meant the moment they drop down they wipe out two priority targets, assuming I place them correctly.  That doesn't even include how likely it is for the scythe guard to self trigger.  I had average luck with the heavy wraithcannons, but the Suncannon firing effectively 3 times every turn was an unholy terror on the board.  I could see people using that build again once they see how effective it can be.

Strength from Death seems to move the game forward at an insane speed, making time to play the game all the way through exponentially quicker based on the game size.  It really is an amazing defence against drop pod armies as they can lose units that haven't even fired yet to either assault or return fire.  In some cases I was able to do more damage to my opponent in his turn than he was to me.  We called the game after 2 1/2 turns when he had somewhere between 700 and 1500 pts left and I had roughly 6,500 pts left.  I had roughly run through the equivalent of 5 turns of shooting in that time.  It was absolutely ludicrous.  Playing against Ynnari will require completely different tactics than playing against any other force in the game.  One thing to recognise is that once the force gets rolling it's an absolutely juggernaut.  In many ways if you're caught off guard it doesn't just feel like you're playing against a new army... It feels like the two players are playing different games.

The Ulthwe Strike Force is interesting, but my predilection for large units means I actually find Battle Focus more helpful to the unit than Strength from Death.

I really, really want to try Shining Spears out in the Ynnari list.  I think they are one of the units that is potentially terrifying.

Cegorach's Jest: The Danse Macabre

It took more than a year, but I finally finished:


When I first painted a single squad of Harlequins I tried as much as possible to make them all individuals.  With the release of the new book I spent a while contemplating how I'd like to use them going forward and what possible masque would be best paired with Ulthwe.  There was one little mention of Midnight Sorrow coming to Utlhwe's aid early in their big reveal, but no real notes since.  Finally Death Masque came out, with a new plastic Eldrad and cementing a tenuous bond between Ulthwe and the Midnight Sorrow, so my decision was made.  While I haven't gotten around to painting the Death Masque Harlequins yet I have painted all the ones I'd previously bought and built.  1750 worth of Harlequins in a full Cegorach's Revenge formation.  In the years since I've first painted them my tremble has made the diamond pattern a bit more difficult, but I approached it as best I could.

I've even gotten to run the formation in a game so I can start understanding them a bit more.  My thoughts on that below:

I played in a game against Minotaurs with a unit of Custodes acting as a bodyguard to their Chapter Master, supported by a Leviathan dread.  My thoughts are, super elite forces are absolutely murdered by Harlequins.  I was worried to start the game, but quickly found that I was able to focus on units and remove them.  The Leviathan was a model I simply avoided, as I had the speed to do so, negating the futility of trying to take it out.  I focused on taking objectives whenever I could, even when it prevented me from being able to engage my foe in the manner I wished.

Keeping the Death Jesters and Shadow Seers as separate units worked well.  While it made them easy targets for First blood or wipe out a unit victory points it also means my opponent is wasting an entire unit's worth of firepower to wipe out a single T3 model.  I really wish the ability to reroll 1's for the invul was somehow built in, because it felt so necessary as the game went on.

Grav Centurions are totally wasted against Harlequins, and since they're such a no brain force you're likely to see them on the table, and boy does it feel good running them down.

I finally lost my solitaire in a game, but my opponent came at him with a drop pod filled with 10 marines and rapid fired at point blank range.  It was mostly a moral victory for my opponent as the marines did not survive to see their next turn.

Overall the Harlequins have a number of weaknesses, primarily flyers and massed small arms fire, but in the right situation they're clearly a dangerous tool.

Jes Goodwin's Eldar Sketchbook

This last weekend was the "birthday" of my local GW, and they had this little baby available:

This may be my favorite GW book release since the 2nd edition Eldar book.

There aren't any Dark Eldar or Harlequins in the book, but most of the Craftworld units appear. The artwork runs from 1989 to 2013.

The notes themselves provide insights into how units were originally envisioned, such as a much beefier Hemlock load out, sporting a D-cannon in the place that eventually became the Mind Shock pod.

Not to mention the little inspirational touches that can be applied to your units for building background:

When flipping through the book the look and feel of the pages gives a sensation like you're flipping through his actual sketchbook, as if you could smudge the pencilling on the page.

In all it's a top notch product and I highly recommend it to anyone that has a chance to get one, and for most Eldar fans it will be an instant must have. I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up on eBay for a king's ransom.

New Eldrad

The New Eldrad hit this weekend and I picked him up as part of the Masque of Death. The Harlequins were enough to bump me to 2000 pts rather than the 1750 they sit at now. In addition I'll need to do a major rework of them to make them a more fluff appropriate force to join my craftworld.

On to my initial thoughts of new Eldrad:

This is a beautiful model. All together it's a similar size to current Eldrad models, but with the scenic base will be considerably taller for most players.  There is a sense of movement that is conveyed by the model that makes it feel dynamic despite a very similar pose to the original. I opted for the casting hand and spun the hand at the wrist because I prefer that to the hi-I'm-Eldrad-nice-to-meet-you angle. They've also added in the faux beard that has become standard for Farseers, which overall updates it nicely in line with the other models in the range.

The reason I have it in pieces is because I'm planning to paint it in sections, from the ground up, because I don't want to miss areas or leave ugly angles to it. I'm trying to avoid the punishment that can occur from too many hard to reach areas, especially since this is the feature character for Ulthwe.

This model will be a big seller, as it's a great base for a feature Farseer for any craftworld, and with a couple quick cuts the staff can be replaced with an ornate witchblade and the model won't really reveal that the staff is intended to be there. All in all a fantastic mode that I can't wait to paint.