A Realm Unbound



"Depth Perception"



Last week I spent a bunch of time reviewing and revisiting the various corners of the internet regarding Dark Eldar tactica. Most things with that name are horrible lists of units and wargear and various combinations - not tactica, codex review. Almost every damn 40k podcast out there take each new (and old) codex and goes through it page by page, unit by unit, one independent character at a gosh darn time, blathering about the whos the whens and the wares. Sometimes they stumble onto actual tactics and strategy but rarely. Thats what you find out there mainly, "take this, do that, this makes my tummy tickle."

Im no stranger to the funky funk of the internets. This horrible display has played itself out time and time again with each new codex or quirky White Dwarf countless times. Ive watched it personally with great interest and HORROR over the last couple years. Its just that this time it was personal. Most people are out there putting the Dark Eldar and Grey Knights to shame in all sorts of ways. Tactics are not "X+Y equals cool, try it out!" Tactics are why we paint little toy soldiers, and good ones are the real General's only true path to glory.

Here are some links to the best Dark Eldar stuff out there, this is where its at for the Dark Eldar, and its the only real good stuffs to be found:

Yes The Truth Hurts - Venom Based Armies - This is the most recent thread but if you following the bouncing white dot you will find actual tactics and strategy discussion here, and not a single useless list of wargear or random quirky unit combos.

Dashofpepper's Dark Eldar Guide - Advocating mainly a Venom based approach also, but with huge tactical and strategic differences, even on how to play similar lists.

Warseer 'Tactica' Thread - The other side mostly. You can skip past the wargear list that has been reposted on every forum on the net. I promise actual tactical discussion here also.

If I have somehow missed something valuable, please inform. Dont get me wrong here either - I didnt call this post a tactica  - that's for sure, and Im not saying these are the only ways to build or play competitive Dark Eldar in the current environment. What I am saying is that these links are where you will find real Dark Eldar tactica being discussed instead of the constant flow of wargear and unit build tabloid garbage that is usually called Tactica by most writers and podcasts.

The Cost Of War

Blood Legion perform final battle ceremonies at the May 21st Warhammer 40k Contest of Champions Tournament, Great Escape Games Sacramento. The competition, the energy, the excitement were everything General Oadius and I had made it out to be to our battle brothers - and for the lucky few that had made the trip with us this round - they were just as amazed and excited! The Wolfbrothers had come for Battle!

 For a "local escalation league" the Contest of Champions is HUGE. Its been great to see some of the armies grow and progress over the last several months. Some people bring a different army entirely each tournament. The competition is Always fierce!

High Sorcerer Ahriman almost ran to his first table he was so excited! Cant blame him, I actually ran to my first table. The Tournament is highly organized and the Great Escape Games staff is really pumped.

Each time we make the trip to Sacramento we are not disappointed. General Oadius never sleeps for weeks before an event. Could you with all those chanting, crazy Blood Angel guys getting ready for a fight? Mission twists, additional victory conditions, new personal bonus objectives... they do a great job mixing it up.  

First Round Matt and Oadius battle out good wins. The Dark Eldar snack on unsuspecting Sisters of Battle... General Ian's Salamanders were Snacked on by Chaos Space Marines Nurgle. The Circle of Life... (maddened Dark Eldar giggle)

Second Round General Ian pounded some hapless stranger with green drop pods and pissed off Dreadnoughts. "Choices, Choices," was the mission - a familiar and straight up Pitched battle, Annihilation. The Dark Eldar general's favorite.

Casey McNamara's Space Wolves smacked around the Archon Prophet and the rest of the shameless Dark Eldar Army. What a horrible show for the Duke indeed! Arriving from reserve very slowly, but with great style, the Dark Eldar Army bounced off Casey's "Longtooth" Pack and lost the round something like 10-1 in kill points. Matt and Oadius added to the falling Wolfbrother Annihilation snubbage (they lost also) - good thing General Ian had those angry Dreads...

Third round saw to it that most of the Wolfbrothers faced off versus Chaos Space Marines. General Ian kept to it and the Dark Eldar and High Sorcerer Matt (??) got back to work. General Oadius could have been asleep at this point, we still aren't sure. 

Frankie G's CSM Army was fantastic! Painted and modeled in all ways possible and necessary, it was a great match up and we both had a good time comparing and appreciating each other's models. His rhinos were marked with custom sculpts based on his Demon princes, he also was toting around black and grey smoke markers that could light up to become wreckage markers. Excellent game.

The mission was called, "The Cost of War," and the Nurgle could feel the vengeance of the Dark Eldar from round 2. Spearhead Deployment, multiple objectives, and your most expensive HQ, Unit, and Vehicle counting as additional objectives when destroyed. The Dark Eldar army deployed into reserve and came screaming onto the board Turn 2. Frankie was a great opponent, and the Dark Eldar pulled every small bit of pain out of his list that was possible as the game kept going through turn 6.

Awesomely done Gary, Sirus, and the rest of you GeG staffers. Thanks again!

Wolfbrothers, activate!

We have a very busy couple of months ahead of us, Wolfbrothers. Here is whats coming up:

June 4th: 1000pt Doubles Tournament at Great Escape Games, Sacramento

http://www.greatescapegames.com/?page_id=577

July 23rd: 2000pt Contest of Champions at Great Escape games, Sacramento

http://www.greatescapegames.com/?page_id=89

July 30th/31st: 1850pt Bay Area Open GT in Antioch, Ca

http://bloodofkittens.com/bayareaopen/

... we will have a Wolfbrothers PRIMER Event in there somewhere also.

The Wolfbrothers Doubles League started Monday May 23rd and will end July 31st. We have three BIG prizes for this league that we will award at our Club event in August. Plenty of time to pump those games in. Same comp rules as the Sacramento Doubles Tournament listed above. If your not planning to go to the Contest of Champions, or The Bay Area Open, then you need to be playing 1000pt Doubles games!

txt,call or email me with any questions etc... 775.997.3268 or panantukanpaladin@hotmail.com

Get in there Wolfbrothers, see you on the other side!

Howl!

MO Disaster! - Escalation League Success!!

I'm writing this blog to congratulate my local store, Heroes Games and Hobbies, for a fantastic escalation league 2011. Our "escalation" from 500 to 2000 points in 3 week intervals was a blast and participation was super strong. I've nominated the man who was there every Monday to set up the tables, match us and give us a variety of missions to choose from, for a Wolf Brothers Purity Seal.....Mr. John Allison. This would be the first award for merit given to an outsider of the chapter. SDM, in his sagacity, is considering all things relevant and will let the chapter know what he decides.

John promoted the escalation league to: young and old, new and veteran, male and female.

John organized the league efficiently and dynamically.

John set up outstanding tables. Heroes has great terrain, lots of space and he made the most of it.

John listened to his league players to find out what they were trying to accomplish and helped them.

John invited disgusting xenos filth so that my Blood Legions would have a spectrum of blood to spill.

Just a quick review of a what was the best escalation league yet! Thanks again to John and Kevin and thanks to everyone who played. Till Next Time.....Play Well, Roll Better!!

Death By A Thousand Cuts: May 21st Contest of Champions!

Great Escape Games, Sacramento hosts an extremely well run and very exciting Warhammer 40k Escalation Tournament every other month. This was our third this year and as always, the competition was brutal! The Dark Eldar Force was assembled and then... disassembled for travel Friday night.

General Oadius' Blood Legion in pre-deployment, parade formation.

General Gahner brought Salamander Drop Pods to his first CoC Event, and went 2-1...

Starting off the first mission, Dawn of War, with the usual tricks...

High Sorcerer Matt, playing the Wolfbrothers Space Wolves Army at his first CoC Event, fresh from the chase and kill Round 1...

Sirus was inspecting the air flow conditions...

Wolfbrothers finish the first round with 3 wins and 1 loss. In the second round we face the Annihilation mission...

BRINGING THE PAIN

1750pt Dark Eldar vs Blood Angels VIDEO Battle Report. Contest of Champions practice mission, "Unstable." Pitched battle, Seize Ground modified...

Five objectives. One in the center of table working like normal. The other four are unstable and can explode each turn on the roll of a 1, can be picked up and moved....

Dark Eldar take the initiative and make the Blood Angels go first...

BATTLE REPORT: 1750pt Crowe GK vs Prophet DE

Only a few days until the May 21st Contest of Champions. Practice mission, "To Kill A Snake" is Dawn of War, Capture & Control, with each HQ counting as an additional objective when destroyed.

Dark Eldar win the roll off and force the GK to deploy first...

The Carnival of Flesh

….it was an insult, Malekith decided after some thought. Not really in an odd way either, after all – the warriors had indeed been clones of himself. The chance to remake them into something even better was great excitement – the twinge of political this and that only served to amplify the anticipation, and he willed his many servo-legs to move faster.

He was eager to get his new project to a stage of completion. Even as he originally grew the warrior-clones and selected the appropriate slave-teachers, he was experimenting with the stuffs that he could now put into full execution. Funny how things worked out, as they always did, his clones now providing all the right materials for the current project. “All in good time…” his ancient teacher had repeated, his endless projects carelessly woven into and out of each other with no regard to, “…starts and finishes…”

The raw bio-material of what was left of his clones after the battle and the various games had already been delivered to his master-lab deep within the Black Ark, the Archon Prophet’s personal battleship. Malekith’s various slaves, servants, and other creations had gone to work on the first stages of his newest designs – distributing the flesh and muscle and sinew amongst the various necessary machines, supplying the incubation pods with the perfect amounts of, “…this and that…” Everything was in perfect working order when he arrived, freshly berated by the Kabal leadership.


He knew that the small amounts of embarrassment and shame were only remnants of his former self. The feelings turned easily to insult and excitement – the Lords of Pain could play their games, and they all had to know of the great gifts they handed to him while their words scolded. As his custom built chem-harness was replaced by his many techno-beasts scurrying to welcome and serve his every wish, he felt a surge of adrenaline and… something else... Death Spice? His clones had done their job on the battlefield, dying quite painfully, and now in victory provided the raw basics he needed for his next wave of personal destruction. Malekith wished he had planned such a feat, as the Death Spice started to kick in, he went to work personally on his latest design – moving diligently from one pod to the next.

 

Cast the bones, slaughter the virgins....

The Dark Eldar Prophet force is taking final form in the last days before we ATTACK the1750pt Contest of Champions Warhammer 40k Tournament at Great Escape Games, Sacramento.

Painting, playing, and even more painting is taking place.... are you ready for pain?

  

The Incubi, the swoopy-killy, the very tip of our long and twisted blade. Poison.

Trueborn, the knife in your lungs. Death.

Blood Wyches, the sword at your back. Murder.

Bling Wyches, the spear in your heart. Scream! 

VIDEO BATTLE REPORT: Prophet Dark Eldar vs Drop Pod Salamanders

1750pt Contest of Champions practice mission, "Intelligent Design." Spearhead, modified Annihilation.

Salamanders force the Dark Eldar to go first....



Dark Eldar Project: Raiders and Ravagers

Since January I have been building, painting and playing the New Dark Eldar. We have a good deal of  Battle Reports featuring the army at our local stomping grounds (Heroes Games & Hobbies) and the Warhammer 40k Contest of Champions Tournament at Great Escape Games, Sacramento. The force has become quite the menace on the tabletop to say the least and the Raiders & Ravagers are taking awesome form as they near finish.

This is just one article of many in the series - you can see the whole project, from the start!

The Trueborn Raider. Aside from unique camo and markings you can tell it apart from the rest of the fleet easily - custom sail, black coloring, glowing shock prow and the numerous broken bells of various sorts. "Grisly trophies" hang from spikes on the front and side.

The most important part besides the base for game play is the dark lance. Its magnetized for easy removal during play. The gunner is pinned, and not attached to the weapon - mostly to allow the weapon to pivot fully if necessary.

Everything else is really about transport and coolness. I don't want the guys falling out of the raider constantly so they really need to be held in place somehow. Glue is a bad option because of transport, sticky tack gets old and boring, magnets are a lot of work compared to pins, so pins it was and is. The entire fleet is assembled and breaks down in the same manner.

One magnet in the front section of the mast, leaving the back plastic peg to hold everything in correct alignment. If it wasn't for transport problems Id just glue it all in place together, but it needs to breakdown for space and durability. All of the vehicle crew have holes in the bottom of their right leg/foot drilled all the way to the knee almost. Tiny thin Pins are mounted inside the Raider, right where the guy will stand.

There is a thousand tutorials and videos about magnetizing Raiders, watch some of them to find out how to drill holes and glue things in them. I was focused mostly on game play, and using the least amount of magnets. Transport really hasn't been an issue yet but could be easily, plus the fleet turns into excellent wrecks when needed. These are strong rare earth magnets - being able to move the models around the table without base issues is a must with 10+ skimmers flying around!

That's tiny 22 calibre wire. Its pretty bendy until you cut it really short, and has worked out perfectly for this application. Oddly enough the raider grate seems to be perfectly designed to mount pins exactly where the driver and gunner need to stand. I drilled nothing here. I put small bends in each wire once it was installed and cut into the raider, and with a little tiny bit of sticky tack inside the holes on the crew's feet makes a nice lock grip.

Shock prow, signature bell and a few of the Trueborn's trophies....

Ravagers aren't used the same way (literally) on the table as raiders. They seemed like a lot more work for the magnets and crew and definitely needed a meatier base. The dark lances, all three need to be easy to remove for game play AND travel. The extra bit of mast holding up those dark lance mounts is not a great piece of plastic to fool around with much...

Exactly the same as the raider. Pins on the crew and magnet on the front lance. Still a bit of sticky tack on the left foot also, more of an insurance and convenience thing than anything else.

Sail/mast magnetized in rear section to help clamp down on the side lance mounts.

No magnets in the side mounts, haven't been necessary yet but will happen one day to make game play a bit faster. The side lances rarely get destroyed and are not hard to swap out during the game, but magnets are cooler anyways right?

No paint on the front Ravager icons yet, but will update very soon. I have been able to mount bits and pieces of Dark Elf Man O War kits all over the fleet - adds some real sex appeal to the swoopy killy.



The Archon, "Prophet" and his haemoculus leadership cadre.