Thursday, April 23, 2015

Battle Report: New 7th Edition Eldar vs Astra Militarum DieCon Mission

Please click this link and play this video in the background for proper atmosphere while reading


Adam (Capnmoe) and I decided to do a test game of the new Eldar Codex vs my 1850 Astra Militarum DieCon list.  I have never seen so much D in one game.  Before I go into what happened in the game, lets take a look at the army lists and a few notes about the units:

Bill's (VaderSeven's) Astra Militarum CAD

No Force Org Slot-
Commissar (Attached to Sabres)
Priest (Attached to Conscripts)
Priest (Warlord) (Bellowing Voice Warlord Trait [can issue orders]) (Attached to Lascannon Infantry Squad)

HQ-
Company Command Squad with Lascannon, 2x Sniper, Camo Gear, Carapace Armor, Krak Grenades, and Officer of the Fleet

Elites-
none

Troops-
Infantry Platoon
    Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Chimera
    Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Chimera
    Infantry Squad with Lascannon
    50x Conscripts
    3x Sabre Defense Platforms with Lascannons and 3x extra crew
    Platoon Command Squad with 3x Flamers and 1x Heavy Flamer (Inside Vendetta)
Veteran Squad with 3x Meltaguns (Inside Valkyrie)

Fast Attack-
Valkyrie (In Reserve)
Vendetta (In Reserve)

Heavy Support-
Wyvern Squadron with 2x Wyverns

Lord of War-
Shadowsword

Fortifications-
none

Adam's (Capnmoe's) Eldar CAD with Dark Eldar Allies

HQ-
Farseer with Singing Spear (Warlord) (Conqueror of Cities) (Mental Fort, Terrify, Hallucination, Psychic Shriek)
Farseer (Terrify, Invis, Mental Fort, Psychic Shriek)
Archon with Webway Portal

Elite-
10x Wraithguard with D-Scythes (All three HQ are attached to this Squad and it is in Reserve)

Troops-
5x Windrider Jetbikes with Scatter Lasers
5x Windrider Jetbikes with Scatter Lasers
5x Dire Avengers in a Waveserpent with Scatter Laser
5x Dire Avengers in a Waveserpent with Scatter Laser
5x Wyches

Fast Attack-
8x Warp Spiders

Heavy Support-
none

Lord of War-
Wraithknight

Fortifications-
none

Since DieCon is quickly coming up we decided to do one of the missions from the packet that was recently released.  We settled on Mission 2.  The Primary Mission was Kill Points with a modification of being able to earn an extra 2 points for every force org slot type eliminated from the primary detachment.  If players did not have a unit in a slot they gave those points up.  The secondary was a modified set of Maelstroms. Bonus Objectives were Slay the Warlord, Solo Blood, and Line Breaker.  To see the mission in detail, visit this link and check out mission 2.

Adam won the roll off to decide who deploys first and choose to deploy first.  He then decided to go first and I failed to seize.  There was three Maelstroms objectives which I have circled in the below picture (they are number 1, 2, and 3 from left to right).  We rolled for Night Fight and there was in fact Night Fight. Let's get into the actual game now.


Battle Report After the Jump!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

X-wing: Wave 7

Hooray!!! The Kihraxz Assault Fighter was one of my favorite ships from Star Wars Galaxies.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/4/20/hit-them-hard-and-fast/

Summary of new expansions:
YV-666 (3, 1, 6, 6):
Scum, Large Base, 180* forward firing arc, TL + Focus, [ept, cannon, missile, crew x3, illicit]
Pilots:
  • Bossk (PS7, 35 pts): When you perform an attack that hits, before dealing damage you may cancel 1 crit result to add 2 hit results.
  • Moralo Eval (PS6 Unique, unknown)
  • Lat??? (PS6 Unique, unknown)
  • Trandoshan ??? (PS2 Generic, unknown)
Upgrades:
  • Lone Wolf
  • Crack shot? (ept)
  • Stay on Target
  • HLC
  • K4
  • Outlaw Tech
  • Bossk (Crew, Scum only)
  • Glitterstim (illicit, cost 2): At the start of the Combat phase, you may discard this card and receive 1 stress token. If you do, until the end of the round, when attacking or defending you may change all of your eye results to hits or evade results.
  • Maneuvering Fins (YV-666 only Mod)
  • Ion Pr??? (Large ship only Mod) x2: Looks like Ion version of APL
  • Engine Upgrade
  • Hound's Tooth (Cost 6): YV-666 Only. Title. After you are destroyed before you are removed from the play area, you may deploy the Nashtah Pup ship. It cannot attack this round. (Comes with Z-95 dial and ship tile but requires model from other expansion to play)
Kihraxz Fighter (3, 2, 4, 1):
Scum, Small Base, TL + Focus, [ept, missile, illicit]
Pilots:
  • Talonbane Cobra (PS9, 29 pts): When attacking or defending, double the effect of your range combat bonus.
  • Graz T??? (PS6 Unique, unknown)
  • Black Sun ??? (PS5 Generic, unknown)
  • Cartel ??? (PS2 Generic, unknown)
Upgrades:
  • Crack shot? (ept)
  • Lightning Reflexes (ept)
  • Predator
  • Homing Missiles
  • Glitterstim (see above)
K-wing (2, 1, 5, 4):
Rebel, small base, 360* turret, TL + Focus + SLAM (see below), [turret, torp x2, missile, crew, bomb x2]
SLAM action: Choose and execute a maneuver on the ship's dial. The chosen maneuver must be the same speed as the maneuver that ship executed this round. Then assign that ship a weapons disabled token (cannot fire this round). Cannot perform SLAM as a free action.
Pilots:
  • Miranda Doni (PS8, 29 pts): Once per round when attacking you may either spend 1 shield to roll 1 additional attack die or roll 1 fewer attack die to recover 1 shield.
  • Esege Tuketu (PS6, unknown)
  • Guardian ??? (PS4 Generic, unknown)
  • Warden Bo??? (PS2 Generic, unknown)
Upgrades:
  • Twin Laser Turrets
  • PlasmaTorpedoes
  • Adv Homing Missiles (cost 3)
  • Bombadier (crew, cost 1): When dropping a bomb....???
  • Conner nets (bomb)
  • Extra Munitions (torpedo, cost 2): When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped torp, missile or bomb Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
  • Advanced Slam (mod, cost 2): After performing a SLAM action, if you did not overlap an obstacle or another ship you may perform a free action.
TIE Punisher (2, 1, 6, 3):
Imperial, small base, Boost + TL + Focus, [system, torp x2, missile x2, bomb x2]
Pilots:
  • "Redlink" (PS7, 27): You may maintain 2 target locks on the same ship. When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that same ship.
  • "Dead???" (PS6, unknown)
  • Black Eight Squadron Pilot (PS4 generic, unknown)
  • Cutlass Squadron Pilot (PS2 generic, unknown)
Upgrades:
  • Enhanced Scopes
  • Extra Munitions
  • Flechette Torpedoes
  • Plasma Torpedoes
  • Adv Homing Missiles (cost 3)
  • Twin Ion?? Engine ??? (mod) TIE Only
  • Ion Bomb
  • Cluster Mines (cost 4): Action: Discard this card to drop 1 cluster mine set (think 3 prox mines side by side). When a ship's base or manuever template overlaps a cluster mine token, that token detonates.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Eldar 7th Edition Inbound: White Dwarf Rules Review


Thanks to Wargamer Shawn for posting this look at the new White Dwarf. Thing's are looking good for the Eldar. Despite the inevitable nerf to Waveserpents, almost everything I see here seems to be a buff for the codex.


Nerfs,Probable Nerfs, and General Gripes
-Scatter Lasers no longer have laser lock for twin linking.
-According to the Harlequin Codex, Holofields will now only give your vehicles a 5++ if they're not immobilized.
Those 2 alone depower the Waveserpent immensely. Hopefully point costs on the unit will be adjusted to fit its new power levels.
-A jetbike Farseer/Warlock model costs $33 freaking dollars. 

Buffs/Generally Good Things
-Bladestorm remains unchanged.
-Wraithknights are now Gargantuan creatures with D-Weapon options abound. My god I love this. I hope they aren't Lords of War which would suck for anyone that bought more than one.
-According to the video, Distortion weapons are now D. 
-Windrider jet bikes leave me dumbfounded. These are so good it's just plain stupid. They are now in my opinion the best troop choice in the game. Every bike can now switch its Shuriken Catapults for Shuriken Cannons or Scatter Lasers for only 10 points per model. That means a full unit of 10 is putting out 40 S6 AP6 shots with a 48" threat range, or 30 S6 AP5 pseudo rending shots with a 36" threat range. The best part is that the point costs on the bikes remains the same. Wow! And lets face it, the new models are exceptional looking.
-Decurion type detachments. I'm gonna have to pick up some Vaul's Heavy Weapon Batteries. 






Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Imperial Knight: 4/5



The last of the normal Imperial Knights is finished except for its base. This is my take on the Freeblade Knight Auric Arachnus. I really wanted to challenge myself with this model. Yellow is not the easiest color to work with and I got to do some freehand work on the spider. I couldn't be more pleased with the way this model looks. 


I also finally got a game in with the Adamantine Lance formation and was pleasantly surprised to see it didn't just walk through my opponent. Game pics after the jump.