Autarch Master Strategist - Rules Question

Here's something to think about on one of those rainy days...

The Autarch Master Strategist Rule allows you to add +1 to your reserves roll. It's a nifty vice that enables us to shift the game to our own ends. Lets us stay in the game longer by playing less. A whole turn less to be more specific.

On to the FAQ, look here and scroll down a little bit. Look right, down just a little further.. There you are!

"The player may choose each turn whether to add +1 [...] or no bonus to his reserve rolls."

Gaelcon Eldar 1750

Iggy's Mechdar 1750

Remember I was talking about Vypers? Look who joined the party!

Autarch w/ Fusion gun
Autarch w/ Fusion gun

5x Fire Dragons w/ Exarch, DBF, Crack Shot (Autarch here)
5x Fire Dragons (Autarch here)
5x Fire Dragons
3x Wave Serpents w/ Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Cannon, Stones

5x Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Cannon, Stones
5x Dire Avengers

2x Vypers w/ Scatter laser, Shuriken Cannon
2x Vypers w/ Scatter laser, Shuriken Cannon

2x Fire Prism w/ Shuriken cannon, Stones
Falcon w/ EML, Holo-Fields, Stones


Special thanks to Thud on this one, who's had to put up with a torrent of emails from me over these past few weeks. For those of you who don't know him, he hails over at TKE's stellar blog here, has been known to daringly contribute useful tactica over at Warseer, and usually answers to the name 'god'.

So there it is. It's fast, efficient and totally Eldar, with +2 reserves to boot.

Serve.

Enjoy

=Iggy=

P.S. In preparation for any 'Vyper' slander, I have a kettle of boiling water and a mean pair of forks at hand. Come get some!


PPS. Queue - *cue. You'll know when you see it and go WTF? :p

New Eldar Aspect Warrior - Shadow Spectre

If you're thinking somehow that the new Dark Eldar delirium has caused you to have a complete psychotic break, that may very well be true, so it might be little comfort to tell you that what you're about to see is actually real...

Bitten By the Vyper

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, with a lot of tweaking, a lot of fine-tuning of my Eldar warhost to get things moving for the upcoming Gaelcon Event in October. My list is slowly coming together. Banshees are out, even Farseers on the shelf for now. It's fast, it's furious and it's totally Eldar, and zooming up the tabletop alongside those sleek Waveserpents are squadrons of Vypers.


What???


Vypers? AV 10, open-topped? Iggy, are you fucking mad?

Iggy's Mechdar 1500

+2 Reserves anyone? Okay, here goes...
























 

Email in: Eldar Mech 1750

Hello Iggy,

this is stever one of your new blog followers.

ok here is my 1750 list. the purpose of this list is not really to win tournaments, it's just for fun and hopefully somewhat competitive. BTW i am a new 40k player. thanks for your comments on my list

Email in: Eldar help

Hello,
I've created this follow on list after I read some of your blogs and using that info I came up with the following multi stage list ranging from 1500 > 1750 > 2000

Id also like to say thanks for any feedback
Farseer - Doom 80

6xDire Avengers - Exarch - Duel Catapult and Bladestorm 104
6xDire Avengers - Exarch - Duel Catapult and Bladestorm 104
4xJetbikes - Shuriken Cannon 98

Yriel Ebay

Normally, I'd be opposed to buying prepainted Warhammer figurines from Ebay, but the ungodly purple mess of my own Yriel model had me frankly embarrassed to use him of late. It's a tough call when you really pride yourself on your own craftsmanship, and I was always reluctant to ever consider using models painted by anyone other than myself.

Until I saw this...

Maugan Ra

Fresh from the oven, a little something I baked earlier...

"Death is a debt we all must pay."

Probably the coolest Eldar model ever created and certainly my favourite in the entire range. And he's not too shabby on the tabletop either, with 5 str 6 attacks on the charge that ignore armour saves from his Maugetar, that can puncture transports with 4 str 6 Pinning and Rending Shots - Maugan Ra is death incarnate!

The model is easy enough to paint, I did mine above in under 4 hours:

• Base-coated white, two watered-down coats of bleached bone then a quick wash of Gryphonne Sepia.
• The details were then done with chaos black, red gore and blood red for the eyes, dark angels green and wash for the banner hair
• Final touchups with codex grey on the gun and a mixture of bleached bone and skull white for the raised areas.

Hey presto! A Phoenix Lord ready for the tabletop in a matter of hours!

Monday Night gaming

So this week, I took on Keith's Wreckin' Ball, and elsewhere Gredus of Combined Arms took on Dan's Space Wolves painted ala Blood Angels. Pics ahoy!

Pat's Nids facing off against the Ork tide.

Iggy vs Orks 1750 Battlerep

Iggy's Swordwind vs Keith's Wreckin' Ball

It's monday night at our club, dice are rolling, measuring tapes are clanging as Iggy takes on the Keith's angry Orks with a list that has come to be known as the Wreckin' Ball! Game is Annihilation, 1750 points. Eager to get some practice with my Gaelcon list before the Event in October, I've brought Yriel and left my Seer Council at home. Keith wins the rolloff, and knowing all about Eldar 5th Turn trickery, kindly forces me to go first. Curses! The game begins, and I kindly deploy nothing...

Iggy's Mechdar 1750

Iggy's 1750 Mech Eldar

HQ:
Yriel
Farseer w/RoWarding, Doom, Singing Spear

Troops:
9 Dire Avengers w/ exarch: Bladestorm, Dual Catapults
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers

Elites:
8 Banshees w/ Exarch: Executioner
8 Fire Dragons w/ Exarch: DBF, Crack Shot
7 Fire Dragons w/ Exarch: DBF, Crack Shot

Gaelcon 2010

That's right, coming up in October is Gaelcon 2010 in Dublin (see my fail mistake below - I originally posted Galway of all places)- 4 Days of Wargaming, including 40k, Fantasy, Space Hulk and a whole host of other awesomeness.

Eldarology

I had quite an odd day today - it kicked off with a trip down to the comic store, Other Realms with my Eldar in tow to face Dave's nasty Space Wolves, and ended up with me busking on the streets with a pair of musicians, even using my warhammer case like a drumkit, like some crazy sci-fi, post apocalyptic reggae space elf. Great game as ever with Dave, which ended up in a draw by turn 7.

Aside from our monday night sessions at the club, you can get some decent games in at the store on weekends. Other Realms has a sort of gravitational pull that draws in anyone with the slightest disposition towards wargaming or general comic book geekery. It's the kind of place I like to imagine where my Eldar end up when they die. Who wants to buzz around in an Infinity Circuit forever? Not me!

I'd picked up my first ever Eldar about six years back, in New York of all places.

Hello Sweet Prince!

I've been running back and forth in my mind whether or not to use Prince Yriel - after all, he never really fit any of my usual lists. However, after going back and reading not only Dverning's blog, but also every page of Warseer's excellent, though somewhat scattered Eldar Tactics Thread, I've decided to create a new list that kicks his Twilight Spear into action.

Over the last 8 months, I've been using a Saim Hann force that resembles that of Fritz's. Things were shakey at best in my first couple of games. I'd been tabled by an Imperial Guard and Tyrannid force, but with time, I really got the hang of maximising its strengths and working to hide its weaknesses as best as possible. Now, like my old Brightlance list, I can safely say I've mastered it, and at least now, I can win games with it.

Don't Fear the Reaper

The topic of today is Dark Reapers, and more specifically - have they any use anymore?

With the rise of mech that is a staple of 5th edition, they may have taken a backward step on the battlefield, being pushed out of that all important Heavy Support Slot for more popular options, including Fire Prisms and Warwalkers.

The problem isn't so much that Dark Reapers cannot deal with mechanised forces, but rather it's also matter of their effectiveness in 5th edition when they actually do manage to target a unit on foot. With all those units with 2+ saves, and FNP, with cover saves all around these days, it's no wonder that Dark Reapers have found a more suitable place on the shelves.

Runes of Witnessing - The Great Debate

An interesting debate came up during a recent game when I unfortunately rolled 26s and a 3 for my Psychic Test.

I've always played it as - I discard the highest roll when making the test - in this case, I discard a 6 when making my test, so in fact I casually pass the test without melting my brain. My opponent, who, mind you, used to play Eldar, was adamant that my Farseer still suffered Perils of the Warp, and that in fact, Runes of Witnessing is not taken at all by many Eldar players for this reason.

If this is true, that means your Seers, while having a better chance to get a power off, will also have a higher risk of suffering from Perils, with a double 1 or 6. This is really something that hurts the tactical proficiency of Eldar in 5th edition, especially with all that anti-psyker wargear out there, it seems even our own wargear is acting against us.

This is a very confused Iggy asking all you Eldar players out there - is this clearly a case where you suffer a Perils of the Warp, or do you discard one of your 6s and breathe a sigh of relief?


- Iggy

WarpCon 1500 list

After various rounds of playtesting over the past few weeks, I've settled on the following list that will hopefully bring me some luck in the upcoming WarpCon Tournament. I've been using various lists, mostly centered around a smaller version of my larger 'Brightlance' list, but with some sage advise from none other than Aldarionn of Warseer fame, my love of Fire Dragons has been rekindled at last, and after almost a year of sitting on the shelf near my horde of gerbils, they're back in the fray!

Going to ground & Fortune

I recently used this tactic against a heavily mechanised Tau army in a Seize Ground mission, faced with more guns than a lone Mallard at a NRA Convention.

My Dire Avengers have secured an objective, by moving into cover, and my Farseer casts Fortune on them, allowing them to reroll failed armour/cover saves. In a subsequent enemy shooting phase, I go to ground, giving the entire unit a rerollable 3+ cover save against all incoming fire.



This tactic is great in later stages of the game, when the unit involved is isolated from assault. Mind you, I did have to sacrifice 2 turns of shooting with an entire Avenger squad to make this work, but in doing so, my unit claimed an objective and secured me a draw by the end of the game!

Eldar vs Crimson Fists - 1750

Seize Ground



4 Objectives and a mean Crimson Fists force led by Pedro Kantor himself. A Dreadnaught, 2 units of Devastators, a Landraider, Predator, Terminators, 3 Rhinos and 4 squads of marines. I'm using my old favourite Brightlance themed list, hoping to knock out those transports and mop up the remnants, while my Waveserpents and Jetbikes move in to claim and contest. I've placed one counter in cover to my left, and another out in the open, to hopefully lure my enemy out of cover and into my clutches...