Dark Eldar Update: Two More Venoms Complete!

The Venoms I recieved from Demitra are now fully painted and ready for Dullcote. I'm down to needing six more vehicles: two Venoms, two Raiders, and two Ravagers. That, combined with the ten Grotesques firmly places a light at the end of the painting tunnel.

Once that's done, I'll be looking to get a game in. I'll challenge Demitra at some point, I don't know if he can put together a coherent 2,000 point Blood Angel army. I'm scared to death of all of his Devastators, those Missile Launchers will tear my Armor 10 vehicles to pieces. I also don't have a lot of line of sight obstructing terrain for my 4' x 6' board, leaving me twisting in the wind. It'll be ugly to be sure, so I'll need to expand my 4' x 4' board by a couple of feet. The addition of some urban terrain will help cut down on fire lanes, and make the game more interesting.

The inability to transport my army is a bit of a bummer, but eventually I'll be able to save up for a Battlefoam bag and be able to transport my minis to my (maybe?) FLGW. I sensed a bit of hostility in the store since the last time I was there I was just killing time, but maybe once I bring in a fully assembled and painted army worth more than a few hundred bucks, they'll warm up to me.

Maybe.

Dark Eldar- Now With More Spam!

Well, I've been going over my Dark Eldar list in my head, and I've decided that maybe, just maybe, it could use a touch more darklight. While this list may not quite count as spam, it does add a few more Blasters, as well as two more Wyches into the mix. The additional anti-armor / anti-monstrous-creature capability may just outweigh the Harmonculus and four Incubi I'll lose. Note that I'll still have eight Incubi, so I'm not scrapping them, but from all I've read Dark Eldar really don't want to get into a straight-up fight with their enemies. They want to lay down harrassing fire and sweep in on objectives late in the game. Even better, they want to simply table their foes. Blasters have the advantage over Incubi in that they'll nuke three Space Marines (assuming one misses or fails to wound) per turn. Incubi can potentially dish out more damage, but they don't inflict Instant Death on their targets like the Blasters do. Each have their own roles on the battlefield, but each have their own drawbacks. If the Trueborn get de-Venomed they're in trouble. If the Incubi assault and get swarmed, they're going to get (rather quickly) eliminated.

Well, I've rambled enough. On with the army list!

HQ
2 Haemonculi w/ Liquifier Guns- 120 pts.

ELITES
4 Incubi; Venom w/ Splinter Cannon- 153 pts.
4 Incubi; Venom w/ Splinter Cannon- 153 pts.
4 Kabalite Trueborn w/ 4 Blasters; Venom w/ Splinter Cannon- 173 pts.

TROOPS
5 Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun; Venom w/ Splinter Cannon- 125 pts.
5 Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun; Venom w/ Splinter Cannon- 125 pts.
10 Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster & Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfield- 185 pts.
10 Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster & Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfield- 185 pts.
9 Wyches w/ Haywire Grenades & one pair of Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfield- 218 pts.
9 Wyches w/ Haywire Grenades & one pair of Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfield- 218 pts.

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield

TOTAL
2,000 points

A bit more Darklight, a bit less hand-to-hand combat bite. I think the tradeoff is worthwhile.

As before, the Haemonculi will go with the Incubi to hand over a Pain Token. They will then be used for crowd control, as their Liquifier Guns deny Space Marines an armor save 1/3 of the time. Swarms will sweat at the sight of teardrop templates, and hopefully will spread out to avoid them, but failing that I've got a TON of Poisoned (4+) shots to keep them at bay. The endgame is not neglected, as I have Wyches to either pry off, or better yet eliminate objective squatters. All of my units fulfil multiple roles on the battlefield, so they won't ever be left wanting for targets.

Hopefully I have all my bases well (or at least better) covered with this list. The reasoning behind adding the Blaster Trueborn to my list is simple- I figured out how to turn a Blast Pistol and a Shredder into a Blaster. Combined with one more box of Kabalite Warriors, this creates a full four Blasters, just enough to fill out a squad.

Well, that's the latest iteration of my Dark Eldar. Here's hoping they work out for the best.

On Army Lists- Optimization

Optimize, Optimus. You get it.

Demitra (my font of inspiration recently) brought up (see the comment) that he would be writing a post about optimization of army lists soon. Well, ever to be one to beat somebody to the punch, I decided to give my two cents first.

I'm usually a fan of building the hardest list you can bring to the table, regardless of the system being played. I don't want to win in a walk, I want to be challenged, and to have a very real chance of losing. Just steamrolling somebody is no fun. I like to get my lists as hard as possible for just this reason. If I want you to bring the nastiest thing you can to the table, expect me to do the same. My Plague Marines are as optimized an army as one can field with this sub-optimal book (hopefully to be rectified soon by the rumored Codex: Chaos Legions, but I digress). I bring two Warptime Daemon Princes, the best infantry in the book, and as many Obliterators as I can cram in. I don't feel bad about it either. It just so happens that this is my fourth Plague Marine army (can't get enough of these nasty dudes). Did I intentionally pick Plague Marines since they're the best infantry in the book? No. I did, however, make the best damn list I could from what's available. I have three Vindicators, two Dreadnoughts, and a whole plethora of other gribblies to field. I don't, as much as I want to, because they're not the best thing to get the job done. Well, I do field the Vindicators from tome to time, as the damage they can do is just so much fun!

In HordesMachchine this approach is expected. Everything should compliment everything else. There should be synergies, and the best bang for the buck. I used to whine about the Winterguard Death Star, but not so much any more. I've learned how to cope with it, and accept it as part of the Khadoran metagame. They're an insanely good deal for insanely good troops. That's how Privateer Press rolls, and I try to optimize my Warmachine and Monsterpocalypse forces whenever I play. It's expected.

In Warhammer Fantasy, 40k, or any other G.W. game, however, this is frowned upon. They design their games to be played "casually" (A.K.A. an excuse not to extensively playtest), and declare those of us who design our armies to win games "beardy" or "cheesy". They do this as they sponsor the 'Ard Boyz events,, which epitomizes the "bring the nastiest thing you have and don't cry when you get tabled" mentallity. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth, however, as when they say their games are not meant to be played competitively they still have a Tournament Circut listing on their website. Is this supposed to be a non-competitive tournament? Is there not a winner? This just seems a bit silly to me.

Games are meant to be played to be won. In wargaming this means to bring the best toolkit available to you to the table. The reason I don't "Venom spam" and "darklight spam" my Dark Eldar is twofold. One, I got into the army for Incubi. They're in the army no matter what. The second reason is financial. Blasters are expensive- there's only one to a box, and for Trueborn this means you need four boxes of warriors just to field a single squad. If I was capable of recasting a billion blaster arms, you'd better believe there'd be a bunch of those dudes running around.

But then, aren't I being hypocritical when I say I'm not going to build the best dang Dark Eldar army I can? Shouldn't I just drop the Incubi and get as many Blasters on the table as I can?

No.

I'm still optimizing my army. I'm tailoring it around my Incubi. I have assets in my army to crack open APCs and get the contents out where I can charge them (Ravagers). I have assets to decimate infantry as they close (Splinter Cannons / Liquifiers) and anti-support assets (Wyches and Raiders). I'm bringing the best I can think of to the table. If I get my teeth kicked in by a superior list that just means one (or both) of two things:

One, I need to refine my army.
Two, I need to practice more.

Of course, I do have a sub-optimal army in my Deathwing, but hey, everybody needs a challenge some times. I just see every aspect of the hobby as a challenge. Assembly, painting, playing the game, and even list building.

In closing, I just want to say that list optimization is not a crime. It's not some horrible affront to the wargaming hobby to bring your best to the table. I build my armies to win games. I feel no shame when I whip out two Hell Pit Abominations against an opponent. There are ways to deal with monsters (flaming attacks) in the game, and people need to learn how to use them. Expect the worst possible element you can imagine across the table from you, and plan accordingly. The meta is still part of the game. It's the game within the game. Learn it, know it, live it.

Conversion Corner- Archon

Last night I finished my Dark Eldar Archon. She's converted from the plastic Dark Elf Sorceress, with the removal of both of her arms and the addition of a Wych Splinter Pistol and a Sybarite Agoniser. From what I hear this is the most economic loadout for her. I originally was going to convert her to be carrying a Huskblade (causes instant death regardless of Toughness), but there just aren't enough multi-wound models out there to warrant the extra points laid out. Plus wounding everything on a 4+ seems to be enough.

More Dark Eldar- Ravager and Venom

Well, no end of year wrap up, but more Dark Eldar. As you can see, I finished my Ravager as well as bought, assembled, and painted the first of 5 Venoms for my army. I'm feeling pretty good, as I'm chugging along at a pretty good clip on this army. Now I just need those two Venoms Demitra owes me. It'll be at least two more weeks before I can actually go out and buy more for the army, so I'm kind of at his mercy as far as my current painting jones is concerned. As I said before, I'm really quite proud of how far I've gotten on this army in under a year, especially after taking a several month hiatus from painting 40k.

What there is of this army is proudly on display in my cabinet. I'll need to move those Hordes of the Things armies into storage soon to make way for the remainder of my force.

Demitra brought up a couple of points a while ago, however. What if I don't like the way the army plays on the tabletop? Well, in that case I'll have a very pretty army to show off my painting skills. What if sixth edition drastically changes how the game functions? Well, the army has always been a mechanized fast attack army, so I'm not too worried that the approach to fielding my army will alter drastically. In fact, I really don't think it'll change at all.

Then there's my worry. What if the army isn't sufficiently optimized? What if my list writing skills suck? Well, that's a whole other kettle of fish. Incubi are a risky proposition to say the least. They're a close-combat powerhouse optimized to take out elite infantry like Space Marines. Against hordes like Tyranids, or my upcoming foe, Orks, I'm fairly well screwed. Volume of attacks is their bane, with low toughness and a 3+ armor save I don't expect them to stand up to much beyond a 10 or so strong Boyz mob.

Wyches are also a gamble. I don't have any Wych Weapons in the squads, and they're (again) low toughness models. Here all I can hope for is for them to make it into my opponent's backfield unmolested to tie up (or better yet, destroy) his ranged support assets. This is actually why they have Haywire Grenades- to off tanks and the dreaded "rifleman" dreadnoughts.

In the end, however, I have a varied army I'm rather pleased with. We'll see how it fares in the heat of battle eventually (hopefully within the next few months) and I'll make a decision as to how (or if) my army needs to be refined. Until then I'll just keep on chuggin' along.