The Harbinger of the Old Ones

o/

Let's see...hmmm, theguide book says its best to bypass this particular planet due to a severe infestation of humanity. 

Here I go, bringing tourism of all things to the Grim Dark. 

While not a tourist per se, it may be more of just an interplanetary traveler perhaps? Regardless this critter is never seen in the same place for very long. Wandering the galaxy, from world to world, cataloging all that it sees for its final expeditionary report when it eventually makes its way back to...well, wherever it came from. 

Walking stick spear-check, fully filled, yet orderly backpack-check, cloak-check, gun-check, rope, clothing, power armor and bedroll-check, check, check, and check!

When asked and translation of languages is somehow achieved, it (I keep saying 'it' as the gender is unknown) ominously calls itself the Harbinger of the Old Ones. It says its task is to travel the galaxy taking stock of the current 'child' species who have risen to prominence in their absence. Inscrutable as this may be...so far, the only 'child' races this Harbinger has been known to have encountered have been the Eldar and the Tau. 

This critter will be used as a 'counts-as' Jokaero Weaponsmith in most of my armies. Fielded as an Auxiliary Support Detachment, costing me 2CPs and 'Battle-Forged' in most cases. 

In the case of the former, it first appeared in the hidden realm known as the Black Library. The vast majority of communications that it has had, has been with the Harlequins with whom the Harbinger has been witnessed to have held extensive conversations. It's language apparently known to the followers of the Laughing God.

In fitting with the background, I've created for it the Harbinger will have its own mission of simply getting off of the other side of the board. If left alone, it will return the favor. However, should one try and interfere with its plans, the Harbinger will fight back aggressively. One would be wise not to threaten it.

Since departing the Black Library, and traveling via the Webway with natural ease, the Harbinger has since had at least made passing contact with the Craftworlders, Exodites, Corsairs, Ynarri and the Dark kin as well. Indeed, the arrival and apparent mission of this Harbinger has caused quite a stir amongst the Farseer community. 

Taking its leave of the Eldar, the Harbinger next appeared within the Tau Empire. Welcomed with open arms as is the way of the Greater Good, the Ethereal Caste has been quite taken by, yet perplexed with this curious creature. It has traveled their Empire extensively, often as a passenger aboard Tau vessels, visiting the homeworlds, Orbital cities, the frontiers of the Empire, and most recently the battlezones along their border with the Imperium. 

Here it is standing atop it's Temple...for a selfie, as suggested by my bemused fiancé. 

The Tau have been trying to convince this traveler to stay within the Empire, no doubt in hopes of fostering relations with whomever The Old Ones are. However, the Harbinger is growing weary of their hospitality and will likely be soon on its way. Perhaps using the confusion of the battlefield to give its 'clingy' hosts the slip!

Downsizing 'da Groop

 lol, I'm sure that just by that title alone Neverness has a knot in the pit of his stomach, and perhaps rightly so.

It isn't news to anybody that I don't play near as often as I once did, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. Thus my pile o' shame is both considerable and taking up a lot of space. Granted I still have some extra of that following the passing of My Beloved Wolfy, but that said I could probably do something better with it were some of it not filled with a literal pile of plastic that I have little want to paint. As such, force reductions are well under way:

First up, the Spess Mahreenz. As y'all may recall, having just sold off all of my non-primaris Spess Mahreenz, Kushial blindsided me with the gift of a veritable horde of them! From that collection both the Astral Claws were reborn, and my Incandescent Coyotes came into being. However with the Coyotes clocking in at about 500 points, and the Astral Claws at about the same, I was still left with a Landraider and 30-odd marines. Not wanting to sell what was gifted to me, I passed those minis on to Neverness. 

My Silver Drakes clock in at about 1000 points, with maybe 1/10 of that painted. No plans to add to or reduce their numbers at this point in time. They're not too high on the list to get painted either...

Next up: Chaos. I mentioned just a few posts back that I sold the majority of  my chaos marines off, reducing them to a mere kill team. 

Then there's My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau. By far my largest army (at the start of this paragraph anyways...), clocking in at a little over 1500 points of almost entirely unpainted minis (the original, paltry collection of painted Fem Fa'Tau minis Wolfy herself fielded are all in my display case). I didn't see meself doing much with these, and burned out after just a few painted up in a new scheme. Still, being hers, I didn't want to sell em, so what to do? Well, my buddy Hoss has flirted with Tau and 40k for years, but the astronomical cost of entry into the game has always kept him from making the jump. He was also one of My Wolfy's favorite folks. As such I have approx. 1K of Tau set aside to suck him into the financial hell that is 40k. The remainder are staying with me to all wear the Fem F'aTau's new colors...someday. 

The Exodites...barely clock in at 500 points, They're good as is. 

And lastly there's Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself. Recently they achieved something like 90+% painted status when 30 or so unpainted minis were sold to another local gamer. Riddled with sentimental favorites, they're all but impossible to sell off in their entirety. They are still fieldable as an army (albeit a small one) as their troops compliment has been reduced to a mere 10-strong slugga boy mob. 

Storage and transport of these little guys will be much easier as well!

That said, just days prior to the above mentioned sale, I purchased 48 new orks (pictured above)...in 15mm scale. Sure they may not be as detailed, nor have as much variety of models, but at the same time a *NEW* 500pt army cost me $50, of which a goodly portion of that was shipping from the UK. 

So...that's the current state of things around here. More minis are likely to go, just not sure what at this point. 

Your end is nigh Mon'Keigh...

o/

This book is so much better spiral bound! Go ahead and do it,
before your binding falls apart in the next 2 weeks...

Welp, I finally got to try out the new edition of kill team and I rather enjoyed it. The modifiers to hit are a bit worrisome for my Orks, but I'll get to see that for myself at some point in the future as I cycle thru my forces. 

Yup, it was mid-game before I thought to actually take any photos...

For my first outing I opted to bring my Exodites, which haven't seen the table top in a hellova long time! As it turns out, Bob had had the same idea and also brought his Eldar, but switched forces when he saw me pulling out my minis. He also had IG with him, except Screech was already fielding those.

I thought this would be a fun fight, but a local house rule allow's you shoot into HTH so as long as you're forces are not involved in said combat. As such, Bob's soul reaper cannon from hell killed all three of these guys before a single punch was thrown!

So is a desperate attempt to maintain variety, he opted for his last resort which were the Thousand Sons, saying (quote): 'If someone breaks out some Rubric Marines then fuck it, I'm packing up and going home...'

Just look at those highligh-oh wait, that's just my camera's
flash reflecting off of the primer. Nevermind!

Luckily that was not the case, and we played using the multiplayer scenario. Just testing the waters myself, I didn't take enough photos or notes to bother with a battle report. Most of you know how the game plays anyways, more so than I do even!

Suffice to say it was fun. Bob and I were in a race to see who had the most cheese, whilst Screech fought a war on three fronts vs. Bob, myself and sadly his Scions' own mediocre rules/stats.  

Look at that enthusiasm as I take away one of Screech's objectives!

In terms of the cheesefest, I think the Rubric marines won out handily! However my Exodites managed to squeak out an extra VP to take the win with 12VPs for me, 11 for Bob and (gulp) 2 for Screech.

My old Exodite spell markers repurposed: stones and imps for flesh wounds,
and if a model is shaken, they's 'get butterflies'... 

The State of my 40k: 8th ed, take 2

o/

Sure, let's resurrect this long defunct series of mine...

So…I tried making another 8th ed list to give the game another try and found the process to be quite frustrating. I figured, I only played one game of the new edition and I have a bucket load of minis so why not give it another go. Sounds reasonable right? Right. So tossing the Orks aside (as usual) I opted for one of my other armies: The Aeldari, ahem: The Eldar.

Still viable...

From the get go it was a mess. Autarchs, what the hell happened to autarchs?!? Forget designing them however you want, instead you have 3 options: the jetbike version, the swooping hawk wing and fusion gun version, or else a footslogger with a spear and grenades, that’s it!?!?!? Where’d all the other options go?

This one, not so much...

Yes, like everybody else I want my army commander to be a footslogger (the generic version of Prince Yriel), who hits on a 2+ in both shooting and HTH and shooting armed with only grenades and a -1 to hit in HTH spear…(NOT EVEN A PISTOL?), what the fuck is he a Tau Ethereal now?

This and the Dragon Knight above are my idea of a footslogger Autarch! At least this guy can still qualify as an Exarch...

But wait! Then there’s the designer’s notes flow chart explaining that if you want an Autarch (or whatever) with options not available in the codex, then just use the index entry instead, but with codex point values. Well why the fuck didn’t they just put that into the codex in the first damn place?!? 

Quality game design right here...

The variety of wargear and versatility of non-special characters, not to mention the convert-ability of the minis has been a hallmark of 40k since the beginning. So why now are they just going for the ‘only if we have a model for it’ mindset. Yes I know they want to appeal more to kids, but us old fuckers are the addicts that have kept ‘em in business all these years, go ahead, alienate us and see where that gets ya…

Separate index for one fucking model, check. Moving on. 

Regular grunts are all but the same as before except that the having to give ‘em all of their specific wargear (half of which is ‘0’ points) making you wonder why they went this laborious route, but that's just a standard gripe of 8th ed., so nothing to add there. Anyways, all was going fine till I got to my Corsairs (requiring index/codex #3). 

Yeah, wow. Those poor bastards really took it between the legs! Whilst an interesting concept, I really never did much beyond paint a small squad and halfway convert (but still not finish) a venom for them (which will now be relegated to the role of a funky looking Vyper I guess). With no HQ’s, they’re no longer a stand alone army and I really feel for the people who had those (and there are countless forum posts of screaming, justifiable nerd rage on the subject). Also the option for a 4+ save is gone too, because that was necessary.

The 1st army casualty of 8th ed...

Basically they’re just guardians with lasblasters. Guardians on foot, guardians with jetpacks, and guardians on jetbikes skyrunners, with a handful of other options, to be added into your Craftworlds army. Yay. No command benefits for them…speaking of, the whole command benefit thing is lost on my eldar anyways. My army is made up of: Exodites, Siam-Hann, Iyanden, and Corsair contingents. So whatever command benefit my warlord would confer, would only effect a squad or two at most. Apparently variety is no longer the spice of the 40k-life.

So yeah, by this point I was annoyed with the whole process. Three index/codex PDFs AND a fucking flow chart are needed to build my list. Plus I have no idea if anything in said three index/codex’s changed even further in the just released chapter approved. Yup, no guilt on using pirated PDFs when considering that I could have $75+ tied up in books whose point values were partially rendered obsolete inside the year that they were released. 

(edit: yup, Corsair point values dropped.)

Regardless, after considerable frustration I did finally manage to make a list. Due to the demise of the Corsair HQ's, and the total lack of incentive to use my storm guardians as corsairs (with 4+ saves), the army now only clocks in at a mere 750 points. Bleh. For the time being I have no idea when, or even if I'll give the army a try though.

Zac n' Cheese!

o/

Zac 'n Cheese himself!

Wolfy and I got together with Mac and Zac at the FLGS to play a round of 40k's Kill team this past Saturday. Mac only plays with painted minis, so we opted to do so as well which really limited our options. Mac fielded his Red Corsairs, Zac had IG, Wolfy was running my Exodites, and I was using my 30k Alpha Legionnaires as 40k Sternguard. Being all brand new models, this would be their battlefield debut which is always a dangerous prospect in terms of their survival...

The valley of death, into which we were all about to enter.

Zac's kill team deploys inside the Chimera, offering a wall of AV:12 and heavy weapons. Neither myself nor Wolfy had encountered vehicles, much less TWO in a Kill Team game (no idea in regards to Mac) and we were all ill prepared for them...

Mac's Red Corsairs

Wolfy's Exodites. She'd only ever used them once before, and hadn't played 40k of any sort in close to 2 years, so throughout the game I did a lot of explaining 'who could do what' to her.

My Alpha Legion masquerading as Sternguard. I forgot about 'chapter tactics' entirely. 

Apparently having read Screech's treatise on the 'Fully Mechanized Parking Lot', Zac's 'team' simply pivoted and unloaded into Ma'c marines. Offering us little aside from reenacting Pickett's charge. With the Eldar obscured from the IG by terrain, Mac and I did our best but managed to inflict no damage while sustaining early losses we could not afford. 

Indeed, we were in the unenviable position of Pickett's Charge on one side, and the quickly advancing Shuriken nightmare on the other!

My casualties were quick to mount, starting with my Team leader and my specialist most likely to take out a tank beyond grenade throwing range...

My sacrificial lamb, intended to hold back the approaching Exodites. A thrown frag grenade killed two before he was blown away. 

Our best hope for killing the Chimera, instead Mac's Raptor with his meltagun suicidally outflanked into the Eldar flank. Rolling a '2' (typical) to hit, he charged the Exodite's Exarch leader. However the marine didn't survive beyond the next round. 

A rare foray outside the Chimera to dump overwhelming lasgun fire into an approaching Raptor (all of which was needed to kill it!). In the background it seems Rob's army didn't survive its 1st round of Warmahordes Mk III.

With the spirit of 'fun for all' somewhat in question, all three players negotiate a shaky alliance to crack the IG out of their little turtle shell in the corner. It would seem that we marine players were also trying to extend teams' lives as collectively, Mac and I had just three models left. 

Not wanting to show 'too much favoritism', my beloved Wolfy only has one guardian shoot at my last Legionnaire. Naturally she rolled a '6' to wound...

Unfortunately My Wolfy's bad back was in anything but the mood to move minis about the table (something Mac and I'd been doing quite a bit for her already), and so with my models all dead, she turned the Exodites over to me. With a crack of the knuckles, the Eldar banzai charge (sticking to cover where possible) commenced! Whilst there are no photos, the Exodite Exarch survived another close combat with a Raptor and it took two FULL turns of the Chimera throwing everything it had at the Exarch before he finally fell! 

Wary of the loss of hull points, the Guardsmen finally exit the tank and promptly lose 4 of their number (including their leader) to a thrown frag grenade!

Despite losing a bunch of Eldar to failed LD tests, the hail of shuriken fire into the vehicle sides and guardsmen slay all but one! However at the end of turn 6 all that remained were 3 models: 2 Exodites and one Guardsman. Victory points were totaled (I forget the breakdown) and it was 9-7 with Zac scoring the win!

Ah yes, another good ol' blood bath! In hindsight, I suppose I ought to have brought my Orks instead (stupidly, whilst list writing I'd forgotten my Tankbustas were all painted!). 10 Rokkits that are required to shoot the closest vehicle (since I still use the old codex) would have changed things up quite a bit I think! We also discussed reversing the Realm of battle tiles set up, thus creating a hill in the center rather than a valley. That ought to block some lines of fire for those unwilling to advance. Likewise, much like the Carnage scenario in 40k, I think we ought to have a center objective to hold rather than just going for kill points as we did here. 

Still, it was a fun game, and I look forward to playing it again. 

The Eldar's path of: The Dysfunctional

o/

After a 4ish month hiatus, I decided to play 40k to see if I still liked the game. Thus I loaded up my biggest army, the Eldar and headed down to the FLGS where I fought against William and his Eldar...dysfunctional Eldar indeed. 1500 points, one of the maelstrom missions which is full of cards that invariably say the same thing as the one you just discarded. As always, the terrain is all Imperial, even in this Eldar vs. Eldar fight because, well GW sucks when it comes to a variety of terrain.

I held the Dragon Knights and Corsairs in reserve. This was my left flank.

My center with a Spiritseer bolstering the troops...

...and what would turn out to be my treacherous Iyanden right flank.

My opponent's left flank and my target priority number one!!!

His center, with the Striking Scorpions deployed far forward...

...and his right which was loaded with a Seer Council, Dark Reapers and bikes.

I failed to steal the initiative, and one of my Expedite Defender squads got chewed up pretty bad but held (the flame template was used to show who needed a LD test).

COWARDS! After just 4 casualties, the Autarch (the schmuck with the sword) and the Iyanden Dire Avengers roll an 11 for LD and flee off the table! With my right flank having already collapsed on turn one, it was probably game over. Suspecting treachery, the Exodites grimly press on with their attack...

The Iyanden Wraithlord stuck around, but took 2 wounds in turn 1!!! The Spiritseer cast renewer on it and it gained one back, but still fell to bladestorm in short order.

Just about all I managed to accomplish in turn 1 was killing off most of the jetbikes. It was pretty sad. Apparently my dice were unhappy with my failed attempts to sell the Exodites on ebay. This experience wouldn't be a deterrent to try again.

Can somebody explain to me why sniper rifles are so fucking useless?

Never mind...they died turn two, so it was a moot point I guess.

I guess I got excited that something was finally going my way because I forgot to take any photos of the Seer council failing to charge my Guardians. They were summarily shurikened to pieces for their failure! Meanwhile the Scorpions charged the other emboldened Guardian squad and in doing so, proved just how lackluster Striking Scorpions really are. This combat would take quite awhile to run its course.

The Corsairs deep strike in and break a squad of Guardians with their shooting!

The also deep striking Venom and Vyper take 3 hull points (collectively) off of the 2 Wave Serpents along with one of the twin-linked Scatter Lasers, but failed to take either of them out.

Turn three and the Corsairs were all but wiped out, however the Dragon Knights (Wraithguard with D-Scythes) arrived from reserve to find that the Warp Spiders forgot to jet-pack out of their cozy little position, hehehe...

Meanwhile this Warlock, the last of his squad, fought to the end and killed the last Scorpion!

This last damned bike was starting to piss me off, between it and the Dark Reapers the other Defender squad was reduced to its warlock and Scatter laser (note, the Dire Avengers and Spiritseer died somewhere along the way). Still, that scatter laser took out the Warwalker which was a nice last gasp effort!

The Corsair prince (sans Blade Sworn and Venom) lobs a haywire grenade, taking a hull point off of the Wave Serpent, but failed to do it anymore harm on the subsequent charge.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE D-Scythes? lol, how do you kill cheesy Warp Spiders? With even Cheesier Dragon Knights of course!

His last words: I'm not getting paid enough for this job...

The Hero of the hour! After taking down the last Scorpion, he turned and finished off the Wave Serpent with his Singing Spear!

Gulp! This will not end well...

With everything concentrating on the Dragons, they too fell. Came right down to the last die roll, or else one would have lived to incinerate another squad. Of course that would only have prolonged the inevitable...

Ouch, that was rough. In the end I had 2 VPs, and William probably had dozens...that's what it felt like. My take-aways from the game? I probably held a bit too much in reserve, the dice really didn't like me and when they finally turned around, it was too little too late. I still dislike the psychic phase, as even with psykers everywhere, its damned near impossible to dispell anything. Seriously if they were going to port the Magic phase out of WHFB, then where the fuck are my damned scroll caddies??? Warlocks would make great scroll caddies I think!

Also I think the Maelstrom cards still suck. Its kind of hard to build a strategy vs the opposing army when I'm too busy chasing objectives that are nothing more than luck of the draw. My opponent got several VPs for holding objectives he was already on top of, whereas my cards drawn were for the same objectives which were clear across the board. Gee thanks, let me just run forward suicidally into enemy fire while my opponent can just sit tight in his 4+ cover. There's already too much random shit in this game to make even my mission objectives purely random.

So do I still like 40k? 

Eh, I'm still kinda 'meh' on it to be honest. There's nothing to shift my opinion that 7th ed was nothing more than a poorly thought out and too rapidly shoved out piece-of-shit product that had no other intent than to raise GW's bottom line after THQ tanked. Oh and no, even had I won the game above my opinion of the game wouldn't be any different either. This sentiment certainly wasn't my opponent: William's fault, his army and friendly manner was just what one would hope for in a good game. Sadly, 40k just doesn't seem to me to be a good game anymore.

Unfortunately, 40k is still the #1 game at the FLGS. So I'll begrudgingly bring out the Spess Mahreenz next week and go thru the motions again. Especially as right now I don't have the heart to even bother with my beloved Orks (what little is left of them). That codex still feels like a kick in the teeth (and no, I'm not dropping another $100 on supplements for the good rules...the so-called 'supplement' concept annoys me so much, I don't even want the free Russian-hacked PDFs of them).