I quickly painted up 5 Dark Reaper stands, 4 Striking Scorpion stands and 4 Eldar Fire Dragon stands. I also finished the bases on them as well as the 16 Guardian stands I painted previously. The bases still need a bit of work but if push comes to shove they are usable in a game in their current state.

To finish off the bases I want to add some brown dirt patches to the grey “rubble” bases and also do a test with some of the Secret Weapon Miniatures Cement Wash to see what sort of look that gives to the bases.

In the end I will have spent twice as much time on the bases as I did on the figures :-)

There are no SHT units in the list
While it is true that the inclusion of items like the Cobra and Scorpion would take away tactical opportunities from Revenants and even Titans this makes a lot of sense from the perspective of an Eldar commander. Titans seem to be far more precious and expensive to build than an SHT and so if a commander can fill the same battlefield role with an SHT I assume that they would.

I also like how the SHTs look and perform and so I want a list that has them in it.

Gate of Vaul
The list includes an option for a very large Wraithgate called the Gate of Vaul. This is a Wraithgate large enough for Titans to come through. The idea is very neat but it doesn’t seem to be in fitting with the background for the Eldar Titan formations which appear to be a fast reaction force that the Eldar use to quickly overwhelm opposition forces and just as quickly leave the battlefield.

The idea that anyone would fight anywhere near a gate that let in Titans is insane unless the aim of the game was to destroy the gate. Which seems more like a special scenario to me. The gates are, it would seem reasonable to assume, totally immobile and so any battle next to one implies that the gate is itself the focus of the battle. So as a special scenario this makes sense but as a general part of the army it seems a little far-fetched.

Guardians
The Fir Iolarion list includes options for Guardian formations and Support Weapons. This seems an odd inclusions in the list especially since the formation has no transport options and appear to be a very non-standard Guardian formation that exists just to put Support Platforms on the table. The entire formation would be squished quite quickly in a battle and would quickly lag behind the rest of the army if it needed to move.

War Walkers
Despite having Guardians the list has no War Walkers. There isn’t any reference to the list not using the “May Not Garrison” rules so that means that the list only has squishy, slow Rangers as a garrison option.

So to help rectify these issues and build what I think is a more interesting list that fits closer to the background I am going to start work on the Fir Lirithion list. The focus of the list won’t be Titans but it will be intended to be a fast response list that utilizes Titans. The Fir Lirithion is associated with the Iyanden Craftworld and I chose it for this reason. I thing that the Iyanden focus on machines and Spirt Stone enabled vehicles fits in with the idea of having an effective mechanized list and also provides the background for limiting the use of troops like Guardians and Rangers.

The background for Fir Lirithion also talk about the force focusing on decapitating the leadership of a force to put it into disarray and confusion to help make it easier to destroy. This also fits in with what I see as the purpose of these forces, quickly defeating or nullifying an enemy force with fast, overwhelming force before the enemy can counter-attack.

Themes

So there will be a few design themes that I will utilize to keep the list on track and keeping with its original intent.

Machines focused
Eldar lives are dear and the Guardians in most Eldar armies are the citizens of the Craftworlds. Any effort to reduce the number of Eldar Guardians or troops in the force should be taken. Units like Guardians and Rangers are also quite “squishy” and would probably get eliminated quite quickly fighting next to Titans.

Speed first
The force needs to advance quickly into combat and move out just as quickly to avoid being caught in an attrition battle. No formations should be used that don’t have transport or are too slow.

Titans as a tool not as a focus
A Titan is a tool to apply an overwhelming amount of firepower to a target. Titans are also previous items and so the army should be built to providing scouting and probing elements that identify and pin down targets for the Titans to advance and destroy.

I’ll be starting the list soon and hopefully have a test document in a week or so.

Bad news. It looks exactly like the PC version.

I am sure that there is a technical reason why they had to do this (keeping the code as consistent as possible across platforms jumps to mind immediately) but I thought that the app looked like junk on the PC so the transfer of the UI to the make is a bit saddening.

Still. I can make Epic: Armageddon army lists on my Mac now as well as 40K lists so I am a happy guy.

24,000 fans with little to do on a late, cold evening showed up for the game. Despite having the home field advantage the Ratters brought more fans. Slaves will be “enrolled” for our next home game. Fearing the vast horror that is the Stabber’s fan favourite Rat Ogre Mr. Fluffy, the Ratters hired their own anemic, sickly Rat Ogre in an attempt to counter Mr. Fluffy’s talent on the field.

The Ratters paid a higher bribe and so “won” the coin toss and elected to receive. Ratter’s fans started the game by tossing a hail of, hopefully, rocks on the field stunning Stankwhisper. In rapid succession the Ratters managed to score two TDs using a very suspicious tactic that involved thronging the sideline and running their cowardly Gutter Runner along the sideline for a TD.

Stabbers coach Groat Jurglerbiter elected to draw a defensive line near the opposing endzone to attempt to stall the game until the end of the half before score. This plan worked wonders until the two Gutter Runners with the ball decided to drop an easy handoff meaning that the half ended with the Ratters leading 2-1.

During the halftime celebrations, while the opposing teams mascots were being burned, perhaps in effigy, the cheerful and positive Stabber’s fans offered the Ratters a case of totally fresh, and absolutely untampered, Bloodweiser ale. The Ratters, suspecting nothing happy to be offered a treat, drank down the entire case and then headed to the field for the second half.

The Ratters kicked to the Stabbers to start the second half. The Stabbers quickly scored and then for some reason, still unexplained, the Ratter’s gameplay seemed to take a nosedive. Throwers failed to pick up the ball, Gutter Runners fell for no reason, Rat Ogres were distracted by explosive flatulence and over the course of the rest of the half the Stabbers were able to score three more TDs all based on fumbles or turnovers.

Seeing their ability to score going down the drains the Ratters resorted to attempting to foul Mr Fluffy after he accidentally fell down when trying to attempt to terminally pet and stroke one of the Ratter Linerats. The second attempt at a foul finally woke the ref up and he ejected the Ratter Linerat for a professional foul: failing to attempt to bribe the ref before fouling.

The only sour point of the game was the hail of projectiles that rained on the field near the end of the second half that once again seemed to be targeting Gutter Runner Stankwhisper. This time the dejected Ratter’s fans were able to knock Stankwhisper off the field. What was at first deemed to be a terminal injury was, after a good slapping and kicking, found to be only a minor injury.

At the end of the game the Stabbers had managed to win the game 5-2 and once again prove their superiority over their BBLOC Skaven competition.

Stabbers coach Groat Jurglerbiter was elated at his win and promised that the regular practice sessions of beatings and screaming would be suspended for a game in celebration.

—-

Chris was able to put together a really effective sideline rush that rewarded him with two quick TDs. Even with the Rat Ogre I wasn’t really able to deal with this play. You can’t really clog the field when the opposing team can dodge just as well as you can. I elected to stall on my second possession to stop Chris from scoring at the end of the half and then hope to take the lead on my first possession of the second half.

Sadly I double-oned a handoff attempt and the half ended 2-1 in Chris’ favour.

In the second half Chris’ dice luck when for a trip to some other game and Chris was failing pick-ups, dodge rolls and Wild Animal rolls. The lowpoint of this was when Chriss attempted to dodge one of his Gutter Runners down the sideline next to a BLitzer and made the two “in tackle zone” dodge rolls but then double-oned his “in the open” dodge roll.

Also unmentioned in my game recap is that Chris spent the second half with at least half of his team either KOed or injured/dead/ejected. Oddly, for a Skaven team, I not only caused casualties but also had no injuries or casualties until almost the end of the game.

Chris did the best he could in the second half but the combination of horrible dice rolls and injuries left him with too few players to cover up his fumbles and not enough players to block me from taking advantage of them. It was a pretty frustrating situation to be in and Chris bore it well.

In the end I had five players skill up including my Thrower who now has Safe Pass.

After that I want to finish a set of four Dark Reapers and then some Wave Serpents for the Aspect Warriors to travel in. I started one Wave Serpent as a test to determine how I want to paint them and the difficulties involved in getting them done. Once I have that figured out I can quickly get the other seven done and ready to game with.

Now when you consider the parts in the kits these aren’t actually bad prices. The Immortals box has an insane number of pieces and the Spyder kit has all the parts required for three different types of units. I will not fault GW for giving you value for your money in this regard.

Value aside, I don’t have the funds to build a Necron army from scratch and so I will have to look at repurposing some existing figures for an Adepticon force. I have Marines, Eldar and Imperial Guard available but all of the have their issues.

The Marines would be the easiest to paint but sadly the force I already have built is based on 30mm round-lipped bases and not the standard 25mm GW bases. While this isn’t an issue for friendly play I suspect that it would be problematic for a tournament. I have a suitable start to a Guard army but I really don’t know if I have the time or energy to paint a Guard army. The models I have are all unpainted and all my vehicles are still unassembled so that force would be quite a challenge. That leaves the Eldar. I should be able to trade some of my existing models to get the figures I need to fill out my existing collection of models. I primarily need some vehicles and a few walkers. I have most of the troops and a large number of Aspect Warriors.

So it looks as if the plan is still a go but I now have to catalogue what I have for Eldar figures and start working on trading for the rest of the army.

I am not sure what the underlying reason for this is other than it seems like a hell of a lot of fun and I have always wanted to go to an event like this and just game for days on end.

So that means that I will be starting a 40K force. I already have some painted Marines and some Eldar but both of those forces have been built for 40K Second Edition. I have a strange fondness for the new Necron models and vehicles and so I believe that I will be planning, building and painting them.

I need to start trading to pick up some of the core models though so if you have any Necrons lurking about that you don’t want check out my trade list and see if I have anything you might want to trade for them.

Wraithgate [50]
Avatar [0]
Guardian Warhost [350]
Farseer, 7 Guardians, 3 Support Weapon Platforms, 3 Wraithguard
Guardian Warhost (Mounted) [350]
Farseer, 4 Wave Serpents, 4 Guardians, 3 Heavy Weapon Platform
Aspect Warrior Warhost [550]
4 Dire Avenger, 4 Dark Reaper, 2 Exarch, 4 Wave Serpent
Windrider Troupe [200]
6 Jetbike
Phoenix Bombers [400]
3 Phoenix Bombers
Fire Prism Troupe [250]
3 Fire Prisms
Engines Of Vaul Troupe [250]
Scorpion
Engines Of Vaul Troupe [250]
Cobra
Engines Of Vaul Troupe [250]
Void Spinner
Ranger Troupe [100]
4 Ranger

Mike’s army was (to the best of my recollection):
Great Gargant [850]
2 Twin Soopagun, Warlord
Warband (Big) [490]
12 Boyz, 4 Grotz, 4 Nobz
Blitz Brigade (Big) [525]
8 Gunwagon, Gunwagon (Soopagun Odd Boy), Gunwagon (Supa-Zzap Odd Boy), 3 Flakwagon
Blitz Brigade (Big) [420]
8 Gunwagon, Gunwagon (Soopagun Odd Boy), Gunwagon (Supa-Zzap Odd Boy)
Mekboy Stompamob [575]
3 Stompa, Supa Stompa (3 Soopagunz), 4 Killa Kan
Fighta Squadron [150]
3 Fighta Bomba

Mike’s army was possibly over points but I am not 100% sure. Mike also has a lot of vehicles but very few infantry and so it was a lot more manageable of a force for me. We talked after the game about how to beef the force up and also make the Blitz Brigades more effective.

The game ended on turn three with me having a 3:0 objective count (Blitz, Defend the Flag and They shall not pass). I managed to break on of his Blitz Brigades that was sitting on my Blitz objective and that gave me two objectives and won me the game.

As expected the Eldar were fast, nasty in firefights and utterly fragile. I played without the Spirit Stones rule and I could immediately see the impact of it as I had several formations that kept a single Blast Marker over the course of turn two and three. All of those formations would have been clear of BMs with the rule.

The best moment of the game for me was winning an Assault with my Aspect formation and have a combat difference of +13 before the dice roll. Mike rolled abysmally low and I rolled well but I did seven casualties on his Blitz Brigade and then saved all the hits Mike did in return. So +7 for casualties, +2 for BMs, +2 for doubling and finally +2 for the Inspiring Exarchs. It was a crushing assault and it cleared the way for my Jetbikes to take the Blitz objective the next turn.

There was nothing I could do about Mike’s Gargant and so I just ignored it for the game expect for turn 2 when I fired at it with my Cobra to try to place a BM on it to see if I could get it to fail an activation.

The game went pretty much according to plan (a rarity for me :-) and, as I expected, I had a grand time.

I have been trying to figure out how to tame the official Swordwind Biel Tan army list. It is quite powerful and I really don’t want to put people off the army and/or the game by stomping them with the list. The official Eldar list is very friendly to new players but experienced Epic gamers or people with a lot of experience with the Eldar list can easily crush their opponents.

I checked out the NetEA Eldar list that was created and posted on Tactical Command. There are things that I like in it but there are a few changes that I think are, to be blunt, ham-fisted. There are things that I like about it but there are enough questionable changes to it that I can’t really justify using it.

So what I am going to do is make two changes (both from the NetEA list and also suggested some time ago on the old play testers forum) which is to remove the Spirit Stones rule and also, once I get Firestorms, to remove the AA ability from the Fire Prism. Those two changes should be enough to make the Eldar more fragile and also make them a bit more susceptible to aircraft attacks.