Now, this is a practice I despise. An army list should be built to take on all comers, not to disassemble your opponent's carefully chosen, modelled, and painted army. To me, tailoring your army to face another is heresey- metagaming in it's worst form. The counter-argument is that it's just good tactical sense, and I can understand that way of thinking, I just strongly disagree. Now, I come from the side of the game that walks into his Friendly Local Game Store and just grabbs a table and an opponent, whips out his army list, and goes at it. The side of the game that plays tournaments, and therefore has to build an army to face any threat. This, I believe, is how the game should be played.
I have faced opponents who think differently. I have had army lists pulled out of a big binder, each tailored to play a specific type of army. I have faced opponents who have built their army lists while looking at what my army consists of. This second type is one of the lowest forms of gaming in my opinion- just barely above cheating and rules-lawyering.
I don't want to be that second type, but the army I will face is so extreme that I simply have no other way to have any chance at winning. I cannot hope to prevail against that many Orks in close combat, and with a single Splinter Cannon and a handful of Splinter Rifles as fire support, I just don't think I have any way to thin out the horde before it de-mechs me and procedes to beat the hell out of my poor Wyches and Incubi. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I present my revised 500 point list:
HQ
Haemonculus with Liquifier Gun
Elite
4x Incubi
Troops
10x Kabalite Warriors with Blaster & Splinter Cannon; Raider
10x Kabalite Warriors with Blaster & Splinter Cannon; Raider
Now, those with knowledge of the Dark Eldar Codex will notice that I didn't totally tailor my army to face a Green Tide. I still have Raiders, I only have two Kabalites (and they're carrying Blasters), and I kept the Incubi! Yes, I built the best army I could out of what my army will one day become. The inclusion of the Haemonculus with the Liquifier Gun in the Incubi is theonly real "anti-horde" tweak I included, and they're likely to just get charged as soon as they fire their weapon (or simply torrented off the board with Shootas). I still don't hold out much hope at the 500 point level, but I have a lot more than I did before.
In painting news, I started my second Raider. This one doesn't have all the chains attatched to it the first one did, and it's a lot more spikey as it was purchased with the Incubi in mind. I'll have pictures up as soon as I'm done painting it.
I also finished a project I've been working on for a while- a Hordes of the Things army. This time I've been working on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I purchased a bunch of Splintered Light Miniatures' Romano-British range, and painted them up a suitably heroic blue and silver. A little aquarium shop castle is the representation of Camelot under seige. Again, I'll have pictures up soon, it's just been a little tough putting up images lately (thus the picture of the Haemonculi greens rather than my actual models).
Hmm... Maybe I should do a whole post about Hordes of the Things. It would be a good chance to show off some more miniatures that have never seen the light of day (aside from the occasional sunbeam that reaches my display case).
No matter what, my next post WILL contain more pictures, and it should be up tomorrow (providing I can get some time in with my netbook).
Finally, to wrap up this semi-epic post (sorry for the wall o' text) my Plague Marines pulled another one out against Demitra's Blood Angels. Sweet, sweet revenge for the total drubbing of my poor, pathetic Deathwing.
While I can't say I'm excited by this development, I can't really blame you. There's no good point in setting yourself up for failure, and a degree of tailoring is inevitable in a project like this. While I decided to start with the horde of lads for fluff reasons, effectiveness on the table did enter into the decision. I considered starting with the trukk portion of the list, but I didn't think unsupported trukk boys would do too well, especially without the KFF to give them some measure of cover as they race across the board. At such a low points level imbalances are bound to crop up, whether from the army list or what we do with it, so I'm not worried. I am kinda curious about that Incubi squad though, as they're very small and apparently on foot amidst a meched-up list. I'm guessing it's just a point squeeze, a problem I'm looking at in the third or fourth expansion myself. Whatever the case, I'm a little flattered that you felt compelled to change your comp to counter my still unproven horde. Provided you don't make it a habit of course. :P
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, with the exception of which Wych Weapons my squads will carry, my army is set. I was originally going with Shardnet & Impaler as their loadout, but very compelling arguments have been made for Hydra Gauntlets or Razorflails.
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