Weekly Hobby Update

The lists for Call to Arms were released and almost half the field are Imperium. Strangely out of 42 people I'm the only person bringing Dark Eldar....."No time For Fluff Bunnies". It sad as I think the Drukhari have a lot to offer the game.

I have almost finished my Talos with just the last few details and basing to do. Great to get the old metal models done....must nicer than the plastic version.

Did manage to get a game in to try one of the CTA missions. Played Mark's Black Legion. Game hinged on his Daemon Prince making a charge which he failed the first time. When he did make it "Khloe" my Haemonculus added another notch to her belt. She tends to be under estimated as people focus on Uncle Urien.

This week I hope to finally get to the ITC MDF terrain.

40K - Call to Arms Dark Eldar List

So we have the Warlords annual convention Call to Arms coming up the first weekend in August. At it there is a five round 1750 point 40k tournament sponsored by Mighty Ape.

It has attracted 42 players and I am looking to take Dark Eldar along. I rarely get to attend two day events (my last was CTA in 2017) so I am looking forward to it.

There is a restriction to two Detachments - as per the FOB NZGT - and I am using that to take one each of Kabal and Coven. I am surprised I'm the only Dark Eldar player in the field as I'd heard that they were belle du jour.

Here's my list:

Kabal of the Black Heart Battalion
Archon - Blaster, Huskblade, Relic - Writ of Living Muse, Trait - Labyrinthine Cunning [Warlord]	93
Archon – Blaster, Venom Blade	89
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster	47
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster	47
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster	47
Ravager- 3 Disintegrators	125
Ravager- 3 Disintegrators	125
Ravager- 3 Disintegrators	125
Raider – Dark Lance	85
Venom – Twin Splinter Cannon	75
Venom – Twin Splinter Cannon	75
Prophets of Flesh Coven Battalion
Urien Rakarth	90
Haemonculus - Eletrocorrosive Whip, Hex Rifle	81
5 Wracks - Ossefactor	52
5 Wracks	45
5 Wracks	45
6 Grotesques	210
Talos – Haywire Blasters x2, Chain Flail, Scalpel	98
Talos – Haywire Blasters x2, Chain Flail, Scalpel	98
Talos – Haywire Blasters x2, Chain Flail, Scalpel	98

It competes in three of the four phases in the game. Last year I finished 6th out of 24 so I'm aiming to see if I can make top 25% again this year.

Weekly Hobby Update

The Grotesques got finished and their bases polyfilled ready for battle.

I managed to pick up a metal Talos from John which has now been put together and will be painted to match the rest of my Prophets of Flesh. It has been primed and this morning before work got a very dark charcoal base coat.

Over the week I got two games in, the first versus Sean's Necrons and the second versus John's Knights + Guard. In the first game, I was outplayed by Sean but learned a lot about what the Necrons could do. My ignorance of some of their attributes (Wraiths falling back and charging; need to kill all Destroyers or they come back over subsequent turns - rather than just one) didn't help my cause but I'm wiser now. I almost pulled it back with 11" charge by my Talosi but forgot some rules at a vital time (some of Urien's special rules) that would have made it more interesting. Good fun!

Against John, the game was heavily influenced by the roll to go first. I think I had insulated myself quite well from an alpha strike but was set up well if I did win the roll, which I did. Disintegrators are mathematically superior to Dark Lances against all but T7 and the ability to re-roll 1s to hit and wound on all my Kabal stuff within 6" of the Archon really helps. When this is backed up by a trio of Talos their is some nice anti-vehicle firepower. By end of Turn 2 John had one Knight on 7 wounds left plus his Armiger. The final Knight fell at start of T3 where we called it before the Armiger received 4 Blaster shots. In this game I think John underestimated the Dark Eldar's punch and overestimated the Knights resilience. He deployed on the basis he went first but even if he had deployed further back my mobility still creates a threat to his Knights T1. Again I learned a lot in this game and it was fun and relaxed.

During the week I picked up a lot of a Harlequin army off Facebook. I've subsequently purchased 4 Transports, the codex and cards. Looking forward to this as an airbrush project.

Yesterday I cleaned up my hobby area. I've recently bought two sets of drawers which allowed me to seriously declutter the desktop and cupboards.

Weekly Hobby Update

With the Grotesques finished, my attention can turn to other projects. There are two that have a degree of urgency.

First, is finishing my Nurgle army. For this I have Sloppity Bilepiper, Spoilpox Scrivenor, two Plague Burst Crawlers, a zillion metal Plaguebearers and Nurglings.

Second is the ITC mdf terrain. I've got to assemble this and then paint it. The first look at the assembly instructions wasn't particularly helpful so I expect it will take a few evenings.

Hopefully I'll get a few games in over the next week. I had one lined up last week but had to cancel due to a sick wife.

40K - Prophets of Flesh Grotesques (Kitbash)

GW has done the dirty on me.....well about 10 years ago they did anyway. Grotesque in 3rd/4th Ed have been re-named as Wracks, while actual Grotesques are now new models on 40mm bases.

With my new Dark Eldar list I needed seven Grotesques for the Prophets of Flesh Detachment. Checking the GW webstore I see the models are NZD48 so the unit would set me back the princely sum of NZD336.....ouch.

Checking out downstairs I saw I had a big unit of Crypt Horrors from my Vampire Counts army that is sitting on the shelf. So I went out to GW Lower Hutt and grabbed a Talos box (NZD87) and sat down and kitbashed.

Happy with how they have come up. They are suitably grotesque and fit in with my existing Coven figures.

They are also unique and should tick the necessary boxes for conversions.

Weekly Hobby Update

Right, let's get back in the groove.

The first thing I did in the past week was finish some chemical tanks from Promethium Forge. These work really well to block line of sight and I wanted them in time for the weekend's "The Long War" event. I got them base coated and this week I'll weather and customise them.

On Saturday we had "The Long War - Dropsite". Thanks to the Warlords for hosting this. We attracted a small but strong field (including the Top 3 from last year's Masters) and it provided some strong gaming ahead of Call to Arms. I used Dark Eldar and found that they had a really good box of tools. They are fast, surprisingly resilient and can dish out a high rate of fire with potential for good AP. They certainly felt a step up from my Emperor's Children.

One memorable moment - for me at least - was when Josh's Leman Russ shot its Battlecannon at a Ravager. He rolled double six for shots and eventually did 5 wounds (each being D3). I made 5 5++ save, emerging unscathed. He then shot lascannon and wound - another 5++. Oh how we laughed!!! This was then followed by two more 5++ saves before I finally failed one. It's great when you are on top of your game 😁. It came back to bite me in my last gme vs. Michael's Custodes where he went two turns without failing a Storm Shield 3++ save. I need to "Git Gud".

The hobby work this week is to finished the tanks and then to do some work on my Grotesques. I have grabbed my VC Crypt Horrors and put them on round bases. Yesterday I bought a Talos from Luke at GW Lower Hutt and I intend junking it for parts to pimp out the Grotesques. There seems to be a wealth of injectors, face masks, ccw etc to suitably 40k them. Urien and his "wife" will have fun times modifying them.

40K - The Long War "Dropsite" Results

Yesterday we had the three round 1750 point The Long War "Dropsite". This was the second of the Warlords 2018 40k Super Series - four events open to all gamers but especially designed to get more 40k played at the Warlords.

Event attracted 14 players but there were a couple of drop-outs giving us a field of 12. The missions used were all Eternal War from BRB and CA.

Results were as follows:

Place	Player	Army	Battle	Sports	Total
1	Pete Dunn	Dark Eldar	38	15	53
2	Dave Hodgetts	Imperial Knights	37	15	52
3	Sean Sullivan	Necrons	36	15	51
4	Michael Stewart	Imperium	34	15	49
5	Mark Ternent	Chaos Space Marines	30	15	45
6	Alastair Helm	Tau	29	15	44
6	Ross Brewster	Eldar	29	15	44
8	Josh Barton	Astra Militarum	27	15	42
9	Sam Nightingale	Space Marines	24	15	39
10	Simon Smith	Necrons	20	15	35
11	Jordan Green	Chaos Space Marines	17	15	32
12	Ryan Stuart	Tyranids	16	15	31

Best Sport - Ryan Stuart (3/3 Best Opponent Votes)

Best Army - Josh Barton (Guard)

No-one won all three of their games. You can see how tight the Battle Scores were through the field. A win was worth 12, draw 8 and loss 4 points with Bonus Points for First Strike, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord.

From a personal point of view I found that the Dark Eldar seem a step up in table strength from my Emperor's Children. They seem to be both more resilient and harder hitting. However I've only played a handful of games with them so I'm sure there is plenty to learn.

The Long War Lists

This weekend The Long War - Dropsite is being held at the Warlords, KPC Hall in Khandallah.

You can see copies of the lists here

The breakdown of lists is as follows:

• Necrons x2
• Chaos Space Marines x2
• Imperium
• Space Marines
• Tyranids
• Tau
• Eldar
• Imperial Guard
• Imperial Knights
• Dark Eldar

Expect to see the Necrons and Imperial Knights fight it out.