Major Site Reboot in the Works

I've slowly come to the realization over the past couple of months that I do not play nearly enough 40k to support this blog. Hence the general neglect. I have only gotten in two games since 6th edition released and with my work schedule more games will be few and far between.

My desire to maintain some small section of the internet to post projects, voice opinions, and share my exploits is still strong, however and I do have quite a large amount of other games that I do play. So that's what I offer here. Despite my wishes to keep this strictly an Eldar blog, I feel I can produce more posts and fuel my hobbies better by bringing in other games I play.

Smart Phones, Apps, and Aspect Warriors

Ghostwind Corsairs coming at you with my first smart phone post. If you have been checking the new twitter feed you'll already be aware that I finally made my way into the 21st century and got a smart phone. Nothing special just seeing how this blogger app works and typing with Swype, which takes far too much effort. It is however the subject of apps that brings this post to you today.

How 6th Edition Changed My Army

It has been awhile. With a severe lack of games I basically hung up the keys to the Wave Serpent and settled in with some other hobbies. Lack of games of course meant a lack of content and thus I had no reason to update.... until now! BAM! Look at it! It's a book with pictures and words and because of it I can continue updating this blog.

So what can I talk about? Well, you can go plenty of other places to get the skinny on how the rules have changed. Get the book, play some games! This is going to be an interesting edition for everyone! What I would like to talk about first are my thoughts on how this book will change the way I play the game. Let's breakdown the changes to each unit:

Guardian Jetbike Squads
This edition has made the Eldar jetbike a big deal. It is much faster, one of the fastest units in the game. With the ability to move 12", shoot, then move an additional 2d6" in the assault phase. This gives the squad a potential 24" move per turn, with an average of 19" Turbo-boost is where it's at though. The Eldar jetbikes can now move an additional 36" in the shooting phase for a total move of 48". Positioning will never be a problem, ever. The bikes got more durable too. The jink special rule granting them a 5+ cover save just for moving, which becomes 4+ if they move flat out. This on top of the 3+ armor save and jetbikes will be even more of  a pain to kill. It gets better though. There is no more 3(4) for toughness. The bike just flat out improves toughness by 1. This means little for the Guardians, but when the Farseer comes into play it's pretty awesome. Shooting for the jetbikes has gotten more deadly. Overwatch will give them an added volley of fire before being assaulted, but more importantly the Hull Point rules make shuriken cannons to the rear armor a lethal treat and far more reliable. Finally, in assault the jetbikes have Hammer of Wrath giving them an extra volley of attacks on the charge. Sure it's still Guardians, but it certainly helps. In all I see a lot of little tweaks to the rules that add up to a big power boost to these units. Biker armies are looking to be the big thing this edition and it's nice that I am already ahead of the curve.

Vyper Squadrons
The humble Vyper sees some improvements this edition as well. Though hull points will have a devastating effects on vehicles this edition, the Vyper has never been a vehicle known for durability. It got slightly vaster with an 18" flat-out move on top of it's normal 12" move. Though my Vypers sport brightlances the new shooting rules give you the opportunity to dakka them up with two shuriken cannons and fire both like the Dark Eldar Venoms do with their splinter cannons. This is something I'll likely explore as my lists evolve. Jink is also a boon shared by the Vyper which in some ways will assist the durability issue. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Vyper is capable of.

Fire Prisms
My usual list runs two and I don't think the Fire Prism has lost much effectiveness. It's got 3 hull points, but no longer suffers the ill effects on a glancing hit as before. This has an additional side effect in that I no longer see the value of holo-fields. It's not that the holo-field isn't effective anymore, it is. The issue is with it's points cost. It's less needed when hull points are on the line and I can save up the points from two holo-fields to add another Vyper, or Warlock and goodies to the list. Spirit Stones on the other hand have become more useful in that a shaken vehicle may still fire snap-shots. This does nothing to help the prism cannon, but at least the shaken lets me still fire the catapults, or even better a shuriken cannon. Added in the ability jink and you've got a solid tank. I see linking shots as a less useful proposition as you can just as easily take down vehicles with volume fire as a single well placed shot.

Nightspinner
Always a favorite of mine, the Nightspinner is looking to shine this edition. It has a very similar set up to the Fire Prism. I see it shining in this edition simply because of an increased use of infantry, or at least what I expect to see an increase in the use of infantry. The lack of an ability to assault from most transports will hopefully see players compensate by bringing larger squads on foot. This will no doubt make them easy prey for the Nightspinner.

Seer Council
Benefiting from everything this edition gave to the Jetbike Guardian the Seer Council stands to gain the most from these improvements. The Witchblade is disappointing as the weapon is no longer Str 9 vs vehicles, however it is still just as potent against models with a toughness value. The Singing Spear however is under no such restriction though I don't see myself changing the number of spears I bring to the field. The changes to psychic powers I find most interesting. I enjoy the restrictions placed on the psychic hood, but am less exciting out any unit being able to stop psychic powers, fortunately only one of my powers targets enemy units. The new disciplines are very interesting and very appealing however I can discount the effect that fortune has in boosting this unit and as such will stick with my Eldar powers. I do look forward to writing up some other lists that take advantage of the new powers. The Telepathy discipline is greatly appealing. In all, this unit got much more dangerous and I greatly look forward to using it on the field of battle.

In all my list seems quite effective in this edition. Army wide use of the jink rule, extra speed, and an increase in the effectiveness of my firepower should give me quite the edge. I really look forward to seeing how my games will play out

Project Log: Display Board

 

For the past two weeks I have been up to nothing, but Skyrim and Burn Notice (Hooray for netflix!) That coupled with my inability to get into a game has made for a severe lack of content. I did however make some headway on my display board. So here is a kind of run down of what I have done....

Vlog #2: The Tournament Army

So here's my second vlog. In this video I show off my 1500pt Eldar army that I plan to take to tournaments. You get a good shot of how I paint up my units. As I state in the video I am still trying to come up with an idea on how to designate my two jetbike squads and I also need to decide what to do with the Dark Eldar jetbikes that I am using. I am open to feedback and strongly encourage everyone to comment below.

The Big Game - Battle Report

Here's my Battle Report from the Big Game. I had a really good time. The event was co-hosted by Mi40k and Fresh Coast 40k at BC Comix in Fenton, MI. 50,000+ points of Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves, Salamanders, Grey Knights, and Mantis Warriors hit the field exchanging every kind of fire imaginable. We did a Xenos and Traitors vs. Imperial Forces game with the Imperial Guard player fleshing out our Xenos team as traitors. It gave us some much needed super-heavy support as the enemy team was composed of two Titans and a Thunderhawk as well as a combined Space Marine army that in all outnumbered us by 3000 points.

The Big Game

Between elaborate 6th edition hoaxes(?) and painting I have also found time to put together a list for the Big Game. I will be up at BC Comix in Fenton Michigan with over 10,000pts of Eldar. The list is essentially everything I own loaded up with all the goodies. The only problem is that I lack any super-heavy support or titans. Since I am bringing the rest of the Craftworld though it should be interesting. The list comes in four waves.

Snow Bases Vlog

Here is my first every Vlog. Something I never really intended to start making, this one just kind of came together. The main topic of the video are the snow bases I have been working on the past couple of days, but I also lay down some of the basic ideas and strategies for the Big Game on the 21st. There is also some smatterings of the fluff surrounding the Ghostwind Corsairs. Enjoy!

Corsair Eldar v Grey Knights Battle Report Parts 4 and 5

Finally finished editing, rendering, and posting this battle report. Here's the last two parts.

Corsair Eldar vs. Grey Knights Batrep Part 3

I apologize for the delay in completing this battle report, my hard drive went out and I have been squeezing out what little editing I can on my girlfriends netbook. Part 4 is almost complete and Part 5 should be not too long after. Without further adeu, here is Part 3!

I rendered in HD to see if that helped with the quality, but I did not notice much of a difference.

For those looking for the rest of my review of IA 11: Doom of Mymeara you can find a generalized review of the plot and other contents over at Mi40k.com. It is a bit of a cop-out I know, but I still wrote it and it is a good site so check it out. Besides chances are you came from there in the first place.

Corsair Eldar vs. Grey Knights Batrep Parts 1 and 2

I break from our regularly scheduled Imperial Armour review for parts 1 and 2 of my first ever video battle report. I got together with Mr. Nerd Watch and we tested out his 1850 tournament list of Grey Knights along with the Eldar Corsairs army list in IA: 11.

Imperial Armour 11: Part 2 New Eldar Units

With the Corsair List out of the way, let us take a look at the new Craftworld Eldar units. Overall I think Forgeworld did an amazing job here, both in rules and model design. They most certainly put some credence back in, "Their arrogance is only match by their firepower." With the things as they are I was starting to think the Eldar were not very arrogant at all. The major drawback is finding people that will let you use Imperial Armour though and tournaments that allow it are equally rare. That being said, how about we dive right in: