The Witchblade is Back!

Hail fellow Autarch's!

Wow the last post was December last year, sorry about that folks. Well it's been a busy last 8 months or so and the hobby really took a back foot in my life but i'm glad to say i'm back into it now. It's been quite a stressful time lately but now I have my new house and can finally sit down and start painting and maybe take a deep breath :)

Firstly, whats the current state of my Saim Hann army? Well I have a long list of models to paint and I got started on this last weekend. I have 35 Guardians on my painting table at the moment which I hope to mostly get done this week or early next week. This will then be followed by 20 Dire Avengers. For the medium term I have retired the Jetbike horde but they will certainly make an appearance in my new list's from time to time but rarely will I field a full Jetbike army.

I have found that foot Eldar armies are just so much fun. They pack such a wallop and with so many bodies on the table it's kind of like playing an Ork army, just with less emphasis on rage and blood-lust and more on shiny spirit gems and razor sharp Molecular flying discs! The thing with my Jetbike army is that it either suffered a heavy loss or on another day it absolutely smashed my opponent but with this foot based army I am playing it lends for much closer games and that's much more fun for me and my opponent.

I have designed my list on a very strong offence with multiple threats backed up by some long ranged heavy weapon defense that can hold back field objectives.

Offensive Wing:
Avatar - Fast Shot & Disarming Strike
Farseer

10 Dire Avengers - Exarch with Shimmershield and Power Sword
10 Dire Avengers - Exarch with Shimmershield and Power Sword
10 Wraith Blades - Ghost Axes, Shields
Wraith Lord - Ghost Glaive, Twin Heavy Flamers, Bright Lance, Scatter Laser
Wraith Knight - Suncannon, Scatter Laser

Defensive Wing:
10 Guardian Defenders - Bright Lance
10 Guardian Defenders - Bright Lance
War Walker Squadron (3) - Dual Scatter Lasers

I will keep you all up to date on my progress with painting the new army. I have a few pictures from my painting over the weekend which I will stick up after i get some progress done. Once the army is painted I will play a few games and post up some video battle reports along with some tactica. Also I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures of models in this article which of course weren't painted by me but many of the wonderful talented painters we all admire and follow. Particular favourite of mine is the picture just to the right from Thirdeyenuke from the Tale of Painters blog which you can find linked on my site.

Glad to be back!

John.

The Banshee Not So Scary

Happy Wednesday all!

So I have had a couple of games with my Banshee’s in my new list against Sean’s Tau and then against Erik’s Imperial Fists and here’s my thoughts on them so far.

In both games my Banshee’s lived but were severely depleted which I suspect is to be expected from a very fragile close combat unit that has to run the length of the battle field to reach their target. I fielded an Avatar in all the games and generally ran the Banshee’s quite close to him so they were fearless most of the time. My philosophy of running them in an army list that was full of higher priority dangers actually worked wonders and in the couple of games that I did use them, they weren't fired upon until the 3^rd or 4^th turns.
 

The problem was, when they did manage to get across the battlefield their numbers were too sufficiently depleted that their damage output was critically hamstrung. In the games that I played they were down to two or three Banshees’s and at Strength 3 (Strength 4 on charge) and rolling 5’s most of the time to wound you really need to be rolling as many dice as possible. I ran a unit of 6, Exarch with an Executioner but I think you really would need to field them in a unit of 10 to help mitigate the casualties in getting across the battlefield, which then creates its own new problem. 10 Banshee’s are hell of a lot more noticeable than the 6 I was fielding and I am sure they would attract increased fire.

Their kill tally in both games came to one Devil Fish and then two tactical marines so effectively they just mopped up a few of my enemies models near the end of the games. Certainly doesn’t warrant the investment in points into them.

I still love the models and the fluff behind them and I am sure I will get around to painting them at some stage but sadly my little play test has only backed up the general consensus of this unit that exists among Eldar players.

Pro’s:

Fast unit with +3” to run and with fleet

Great if charging a unit that isn’t in cover

Con’s:

No Grenades

Fragile

Damage output too low for Str 3

Needs large unit to be fielded to be worthwhile

No Delivery Mechanism

Recommendation: Do not field this unit

Guardian Defenders Done!

Hey guys,

I finally got my Guardian Defenders completed. I feel I kind of rushed them but they are a decent standard so I'm fairly happy. Tomorrow evening will be spent painting singing spears for my Jetseer and her warlock council. Be sure to check back and see my progress!

NWG Tournament Preparations

Happy Monday World!

Coffee in hand and ready to start another week. But this week is special, because this Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be the NWG national Wargames tournament held in the Grand Hotel in Wicklow Town Ireland which is my gaming Club’s home event. You can be sure I will have plenty of pictures and some videos up on The Witchblade of all the armies and venue and of course the coveted Emerald Daemon Entries too.

So the organizers have released the army lists Here for all to see (mine is entry P). I am really looking forward to this but slightly intimidated by some of the lists entered. I’m surprised there is no Cron Air or massive Helldrake/Vendetta spam. In fact I think my list has one of the strongest air combat lists entered. I was originally going to go with Eldar and Dark Eldar allies as you seen in Here but I wasn’t able to get my hands on the Dark Eldar in time so it’s pure Eldar baby.

I will look to go second against most of the armies but against serpent spam I will need to try and get first turn to pop one or two of them before they do too much damage with ignore cover shots. If I were to rate my list it would actually be the lower end power levels of the lists that have been entered but I am always up for a challenge and plus I rather try test my skill and rely on my own tactical decisions rather than auto-win lists.

Preparation

I really am a lastminue.com sorta fella and this transpired through my school days and into college and now into my wargaming hobby. So I got my two Crimson Hunters completed last weekend and you can see them Here. I started my squad of Guardian Defenders and their support platform yesterday. I got them assembled, highlighted and washed and I just got to paint the details on them and I will of course post them up on The Witchblade as soon as I am finished them. I got to chop the Witchblades off my Warlocks and replace them with Singing Spears and do the same for my Farseer too. Lastly I need to make a display board and all this before next Friday. Simples…..

Crimson Hunters Done!

Hey all,

So I started yesterday after work assembling my two Crimson Hunters and well I spent all day today and finally got them done. They are all ready for NWG next weekend. I still have to assemble and paint 10 Guardians and a support weapon. Easy Peasy ;) I only realised after posting these pics that I forgot to finish the target reticule on the canopy. Will only be a quick fix though so all good.

 

 

 

Bump in the Night

Hi peeps!

So you like Ghost Warriors? BOO!! Ok time to grow up a bit John. I covered Saim Hann in my Fun and Efficient article, but this time I would like to go over my second favourite Craftworld which is Ilyanden.
 

From a fluff point of view it really has everything hasn’t it? Great victories in the early days with Biel Tan against Chaos, followed by humongous losses to a ravaging Tyranid fleet only to be saved by an Outcast Hero and then the devastation inflicted by a renegade pirate fleet caused by nuclear torpedoes (ref Ilyanden Supplement). Now though, Ilyanden is an enormous Craftworld with large sections devastated and devoid of any activity. A true ghost ship amidst the stars where only a handful of the living Eldar tend to the dead and keep them alive in menacing wraith constructs. As is customary on other Craftworlds, the dead are usually released back into the infinity circuit after a battle, but not on Ilyanden for the dead refuse to go to sleep while their drifting cosmic continent is on the brink of destruction.

Bear in mind that if you do decide to do a Wraith army, that all the other Craftworlds keep an extensive stockpile of Wraithguard pattern constructs along with Wraithlords and Wraithknights when desperate times require help from long dead heroes. With that in mind I will be doing a Saim Hann Wraith themed army. You can imagine the wave upon wave of Jetbike clans and Vyper Squadrons supported by aircraft and Grav Tanks zooming on ahead and the Autarch ordering the Wraith Constructs to stay in reserve incase some heavy handed work is required. Standing there with their ornamental loincloth bearing their warrior house insignia flapping in the wind waiting for the order to charge head on into the enemy lines.

So to lead our army we have a number of fluffy HQ choices that would fit the bill very well. The Dire Avenger Aspect Warrior shrine is on Ilyanden so to see the likes of Asurman leading an Ilyanden army wouldn’t be unheard of. Then you have the Mighty Avatar which would be called upon perhaps more than any other Craftworld due to the low numbers of warriors Ilyanden can deploy. Naturally Yriel would be a very fluffy and decent HQ choice to lead your Ilyanden army, maybe you want to do a pirate themed Ilyanden army? Then there is the Autarch who has taken a somewhat revival in the new codex and could be useful. This then brings us on to the Farseer and the Spiritseers. If you want to do a true Wraith army you will need a Spiritseer. These guys make all Wraithguard and Wraithblades troops which is key to this army working. I would take 2-3 of these guys, certainly one for each unit as you can have up to 5 Spiritseers for one HQ slot. I would then take along a Farseer to boost your army and hopefully give it an edge with Fortune and prescience etc.

For the troops section Dire Avengers would be very fluffy if you want some fairly cheap boots on the ground. Throw in and Exarch with Shimmershield and then they are quite solid. Guardians as with all Craftworlds would be quite numerous so taking a squad or two of Guardians might be of interest to you. Of course being a Wraith army we are going to take Wraith Guard and Wraith blades. A unit of 10 Wraith Blades with the Ghost Axe and Shimmershield supported by two Spiritseers would be awesome to say the least. An expensive unit but extremely durable and the core of the army. The Farseer will hopefully be casting fortune on this unit too. I would then take a unit of 5 cheesy Wraith Guard with D-Scythes in a Wave Serpent to cause your opponent some attention. The Serpent is loaded out with Holofields and Scatter Laser and upgraded to Shuriken Cannon.

Finally we need some heavy firepower; ok well we have that but more heavy fire power! Throw in a Wraithknight with standard Heavy Wraith Cannon loadout and a Wraithlord with a Ghostglaive, Brightlance and Missile Launcher and Heavy Flamers and we are laughing. Then a squadron of three War Walkers with dual Scatter Lasers for tackling flyers and transports and infantry alike.

So here goes my list (2000pts)

HQ

Farseer with Runes of Warding

Three Spirit Seers (two go with W.Blades, one with W.Guard)

Troops

Wraith Guard x 5 with D-Scythes and Wave Serpent

Wraith Blades x 10 with Ghost Axes and Shimmershields

Dire Avengers x 10 with Exarch, Power Weapon and Shimmershield

Guardian Defenders x 10 with Scatter Laser Platform

Guardian Defenders x 10 with Scatter Laser Platform

Heavy

Wraithknight with Heavy Wraithcannon x2

War Walkers x 3 with Dual Scatter Lasers

Wraithlord with Ghosglaive, Bright Lance, Missile launcher, Heavy Flamer x2

I could have gone all Wraith units but although it would look awesome, it would get very monotonous after a few games and the fun levels would go way down. So a bit of variety while sticking loosely to the Wraith theme and I think we have a nice army that will look great with those big Wraith constructs and the big intimidating wall of 10 Wraith Blades marching across the tabletop. It should be able to tackle most non power build armies. Would it do well at a tournament? I think it would do ok although against heavy flyer lists it will struggle. I have most of the models mentioned above, I just need a War Walker, a Wraithlord and 10 WraithBlades.

Thanks for reading guys!

Johno

Crafty Craftworlders

Hi fellow Craftworlders, I was out for a long run the other day and I was contemplating things, as you do.. No it wasn’t along the protruding docking ports of Saim Hann or the dark mystical corridors of The Black Library, but along the beach of my town, Bray in Ireland.

Originally when starting out with Eldar, I decided to go down the fluffy route, hence an all Jetbike Saim Hann army (thanks Fritz!). Luckily this army transcended very well into 6th edition and got an even bigger boost with the new Codex. It’s a good army but it’s not going to win tournaments. It seems like Wave Serpent Spam is the new black at the moment but it’s not a road I want to go down just yet. With a lot on my plate in RL at the moment (applying for mortgage etc), I didn’t want to invest too much time and expense into adding that little bit of cheese to my already decent army. I just felt I needed a little bit of a power boost tournament style.

Enter allies

So there are just a few allies I would take since I’m a bit fussy. Everyone and their pet dog are taking Tau as allies these days or Eldar if they don’t already play them. I like Tau I do, the models are nice and they have awesome rules that would surely augmentate my army. But with their sit back and shoot nature I don’t think they would slot into my play-style which is a very fluid and fast moving army.

So I thought of Dark Eldar then, an army which in my opinion has some of the best model sculpts ever produced by GW and the codex itself is just stuffed cover to cover with great fluff and rules. I needed to extract an allied contingent from this codex that would really boost my army.

Baron Sathonyx

So I plan on running my Seer Council again but this time everyone in the squad has a Singing Spear including the Farseer so that’s 6 mobile Lascannons, yippy! Add in Baron and the unit get’s hit and run universal special rule, Grenades to help with charging and hitting on that nice high Eldar initiative which will minimize loses. They get stealth which adds +2 to cover and being on a Jetbike and with a Conceal casting Warlock, means there is a potential 2+ cover save when you move which is awesome.

His last contribution to the army is to add +1 to who goes first. This can be handy because I am possibly going to play three flyers at NWG and being AV10 I don’t really want to be going first. I want to go second so my flyers will come in and blow up my opponent’s flyers. So winning the dice roll I can decide to go second. I have the Autarch in there to manipulate my reserve rolls if needs be and also the Shard of Anaris to give him a good chance in a challenge situation. Although Eldar initiative is high, the Banshee Mask is there to ensure the council hits first. It’s a bit of a gamble since I know there will be a game or two when I don’t get Fortune on my Farseer but that’s life. I think with 505pts invested in fliers I want to control the air engagements as much as possible so I think he Autarch was a better buy for this particular list.

The next addition will be some scoring units or in other words, troops. In order to keep up with my army I decided to go for two Venoms with an upgraded Splinter Cannon. These spit out 12 Poison 4+ shots a turn. These will be transporting 5 Kabalite Warriors each with an upgraded Blaster. Two cheap and fairly effective troop’s choices.

So my potential list for NWG is:

HQ

Farseer on Jetbike
Baron Sathonyx
Autarch on Jetbike, Laser Lance, Shard of Anaris, Banshee Mask
Warlock Council (5) on Jetbikes and Singing Spears

Troops
 
Kabalite Warriors (5) with a Blaster
Kabalite Warriors (5) with a Blaster
Guardian Jebikes (6) with two Shuriken Cannons
Guardian Jebikes (6) with two Shuriken Cannons
Guardian Jebikes (3) with one Shuriken Cannon

Fast Attack

Nightwing Interceptor
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

Dedicated Transports

Venom with Upgraded Splinter Cannon
Venom with Upgraded Splinter Cannon

Is it going to win the tournament? More than likely not as there will be very strong lists there and better players than I but it sure will be great fun to play and for me that’s reason enough!

John.

Eldar Vs. Ork's 1650pts Battle Report

Hi all,

In this battle report the Savage Orks take on the enigmatic Eldar of the Saim Hann Craftworld. If I sound nervous that's because I was! :) I suppose the more videos I do the less nervous I will sound. Anyway Enjoy the video and the pics below.

Johno

Eldar - Fun and Efficient

Sergeant Kanis heard it before he seen it, the high-pitched whine from the thrusters of a Grav Tank pierced the air from over a kilometer away. From his elevated hidden position in the heavy foliage, he used his telescopic sight off the sniper rifle to zoom in on the coming threat. The vehicle was designated Wave Serpent class and was regarded to be extremely dangerous and should not be engaged without armored support according to Imperial Guard spec op procedures.

He continued to view the approaching threat through his telescopic sight as he watched the Eldar tank come to a standstill followed by the rear access door hissing open. A squadron of dark blue armoured Eldar Aspect Warriors disembarked from the vehicle and proceeded to take on a sweeping search pattern heading towards his hidden sniper team’s position.

With drilled military efficiency, Sergeant Kanis indicated with precise hand signals to his team to withdraw to a fallback position. Quietly his 3 man team put their equipment on their backs and withdrew crawling backwards on all fours from their lookout. Without warning, the top of private Sipton’s head sliced open as if by a surgeon’s blade exposing brain matter and bone. The man was lying on his front with his head resting on its side in a pool of gore looking straight at Sergeant Kanis with lifeless eyes. Taken by surprise and no time to wonder how that Eldar squad could have detected them, Sergeant Kanis’s curiosity was soon satisfied.

As if out of thin air five stealthily Eldar Aspect Warriors came into view, weapons drawn and chainsword in hand. Striking Scorpions…

Hi guys and welcome to The Witchblade,

The guys here on The Witchblade love Eldar and hopefully you do too, but with the new Codex not long out we are still only discovering and unlocking new ways to play them. There are quite a few different builds floating around at the moment be it the Monster Build or the Serpent Spam. So in this article I would like to talk about the first of the many different builds for Eldar and how they could be fun.

I will start with the style of list I have been playing for the last couple of years, which is the Saim Hann themed Jetbike and Skimmer list. My normal list would consist of a Seer Council (Farseer & 5 Warlocks) on Jetbikes, 2 Fire Prisms, a Wave Serpent with 5 Fire Dragons, 6 Vyper Jetbikes with double Shuriken Cannons and 4 squads of 6 Guardian Jetbikes with two Shuriken Cannons in each squad. I would also take a Nightwing Interceptor and sometimes an Autarch on a Jetbike.

In 5^th edition this was a decent army, in the few tournaments I played in back then it usually finished mid-table in the final standings. It was fast and fairly durable with mostly 3+sv’s all round but when 6^th edition hit this army took a huge boost. Now we had 5+ Jink cover saves for our tanks and Vypers and also our Jetbikes once they moved, increasing the overall army’s durability significantly.

I played this for about a year and yes it was a welcome boost but it didn’t change the army performance by a huge amount. But once the new Eldar Codex came out this army was rocketed to a whole new level. Now all the Jetbikes are BS4 twin linked and the BS 4 on the Vyper’s was a massive boost to firepower. The Wave Serpent became an absolute beast of a transport and Shuriken weapons all of kinds suddenly could kill terminators and monstrous creatures with ease (Im looking at you Belial! I hate Belial! Did I mention I hate Belial?).

So with these new rules this army has been taken to new heights. I designed the army to be a fluffy themed army and not an overly competitive army. More of an all comers army but I have been surprised how well it has held up over the years to the power builds of the 40k scene. It’s not going to win tournaments but it’s an extremely fun army to play and allows for fantastic amount of flexibility. It’s always fun to get first turn and turbo boost nearly everything up to your opponent’s deployment zone. Usually ends in disaster but its good fun and the look on your opponents face is usually worth it!

I don’t usually run the Seer Council anymore because at 50points each there are just so many other better options out there than a Jetbike Warlock who will die on a roll of double 1 or double 6 on 2d6. So Crimson Hunters to join the Nightwing are the road I am heading down which kind of fit’s the theme as well. No doubt I will have a couple of battle reports up here soon showing how awesome Saim Hann Eldar are!

Thanks for reading!

Johno