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Author Topic: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.  (Read 46267 times)

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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #180 on: June 3, 2016, 11:31:05 AM »
Wow, thanks for the compliments. Those were some very kind words and I wouldn't be surprised if I have a pair of red cheeks behind my screen.

so, yes, I will add the yellow shoulder. I think it would bring in a bit more yellow to tie it in with the rest of the army. And it wouldn't be too much work.
Unfortunately, there won't be a whole squad. This is a single model I got from a friend some time ago, and I refuse to get the finecast ones. So unless I stumble upon a group of metal ones, this is where it'll stay. A single howling banshee from the wraithmane shrine (being fielded as an autarch).

Maybe some striking scorpions soon...

Post Merge: June  3, 2016, 06:27:27 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.

So... battle report time!

tournament is tomorrow, and I had one final 'practise round' with my girlfriend.

She had 10 assault terminators divided over 2 land raider redeemers, 2 venerable dreads with assault cannons, a fancy captain, some bikers and some filler marine squads.

me... I had my wraithlist.

In spirit with the tournament, we had a scouring mission, but also used objective cards (of which you could at max win 2 each turn).

so, I allowed her to deploy first, and placed my army opposite. I knew her land raiders and terminators were her hard hitting units, and saw that she had placed her scary bikes with grav guns on the outside. So that's where I kept my wraithknight away from.

big blue and see-through dice are placed near each objective (to keep count of which objective was which and what they're worth)



in the first turn she moved up, knocked 2 wounds off of my knight (she moved faster than I expected), and killed a lone guardian. She did get 3 objective points too - one from capping a certain objective, and two from holding 3 objectives total.
I took this photo right after my movement phase


My first turn saw an aggressive counter response. She had underestimated the amount of damage my wraithguard could do, and after moving forward, disembarking, then running and then shooting, I killed both land raiders. My spiritseer moved into the guardian squad, out of the flamer guards. The rightmost wave serpent did bump into the fuel tank there and immobilized itself. Guardian and wave serpent fire thinned out the disembarked squad in the middle, leaving only two terminators alive. While I tried the same on the rightmost squad, my fire was less effective, but I still killed two. My wraithlord knocked off an assault cannon from a venerable dread, while my wraithknight did the same with the other venerable dreadnought.

I scored 2 maelstorm points for holding objectives

sorry for the blurry picture


Reeling from the heavy blow, she rallied and tried to muster as much as she could. Scoring another 2 victory points from maelstorm objectives, she also managed to shoot down my flaming wraithguards with a combination of her bikes and tactical squad. In assault she took out my other wraithguard unit too, losing a terminator in the process. The last two terminators in the middle charged the guardian squad, losing one in overwatch. And while I used psychic powers to give my guardians, warlock and spiritseer extra strength, that last terminator would last forever and slowly hack its way through my squad over the next turns.
She scored another 2 maelstorm points for holding objectives.



in my turn I moved up a bit more - a combination of guardian, wraithlord, and wave serpent fire finished off the last terminators on my right flank, leaving the captain alone and wounded. I planned to assault him with my wraithlord and finish him off in combat, trying to get the maelstorm objective to get 3 unit kills in the assault phase. In order to get that, my wraithlord shot at both dreadnoughts and the tactical squad in the distance (which later turned out to be a mistake, should've shot the captain). This killed off both dreadnoughts. My wraithblades charged the bikes, after my 2nd wraithlord and the wave serpent had already shot them up a bit.
My wraithlord however failed to roll enough charge distance, I failed to kill the last terminator with my guardians, and my wraithblades failed to kill the bikers (though funnily enough, the firesabre managed to kill one tactical marine in the back, from a unit not even involved in the combat). My 2nd wraithlord got 1 maelstorm objective point for holding the 1 objective (to the far left, objective just out of sight).



From here on out, it went quite fast. While I failed to kill the last terminator and it continued to carve up my poor civilians, and her captain (unengaged) charged the other guardian group and hacked them to pieces, neither group lost their nerve, and in my turn I counter charged the captain and killed him in a duel with my wraithlord (though not before she did 2 wounds to the wraithlord). My wraithknight got 2 more wounds (one from a missile, one from a meltabomb after I charged and failed to rout the tactical squad), and my wraithblades slowly managed to mop up the bikers by the end of my turn (my autarch did wonders in that combat) One game turn later, this was the situation:


By now, my opponent realised all she could do was delay the inevitable, and had no punch left to keep me off objectives. We called it there.

I was a bit more careless with my wraithknight and its target priority this game, and it showed. 4 wounds and allowing the captain to 'escape' would've punished me if I had not been that far ahead already. Switching the spiritseer to another unit saved his life, and saved me a point of slay the warlord.
Other than that, everything worked admirably. I quickly had the most dangerous units in my gunsights and took them out, allowing me to mop up the rest with increasing battlefield control.

« Last Edit: June 3, 2016, 06:27:28 PM by vonny »
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Offline Cavalier

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #181 on: June 4, 2016, 07:59:46 AM »
Excellent stuff Vonny. And again playing 40k with your girlfriend... living the dream! Also look at you with the Realm of Battleboard.... thats very cool! Full credit to your girlfriend, dealing with a Wraithost is no easy task, yet she did well especially with a small elite force like she had. Yet both armies sounded like a lot of fun to play.

Looks like there was some nice glorious combats on both sides with damage being racked up all round. Termies ripping up Guardians, Wraithblades battling Space Marine bikes thats some classic stuff. Also the terrain and armies look very nice... jealous about all those fortifications! I'm dying to add some to the terrain collection.

Anyway so glad to see bat-rep from you Vonny. So awesome to see the Wraithost is action! Great stuff all round. Thanks!
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Offline Irisado

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #182 on: June 4, 2016, 09:06:24 AM »
That game looks as though it was a lot of fun.  It just goes to show how dangerous Space Marine characters and Terminators are to Eldar units in an assault, even when they are operating alone.  A similar thing happened to me a couple of editions or so back when a Space Marine Terminator survived my shooting and proceeded to wipe out an entire Guardian squad, while keeping them locked in combat.

Despite letting the captain escape, I think that you played well and your Wraith units did so much damage to the main attack force of the Marines that there was little they could do to come back from that, so congratulations on the result :).

Also, the table looks good, and I wish I had such comfortable seating around where I set my table up.  It's old rickety swivel chairs here.  However, the table is rather large, so there's no room for anything else.  Excellent placement of scenery on your board too.  More terrain towards the middle of the table always makes for a more closely or intensely fought battle.
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #183 on: June 5, 2016, 03:36:31 PM »
Thanks both.

It does look like my army is primed to set up against hers, so... I feel a bit bad sometimes.
However, I played the tournament yesterday and... I do have some pictures somewhere, but all in all, it's nothing to write home about.
A few tactical mistakes throughout the day, but not too many... but fighting against a battle company (with over 500 pts of free transport, and a free upgraded normal marine bolter to S5 ap2 instant death) in my first game I didn't seem to have any luck. I downgraded 1 out of 5 penetrating hits on my wave serpents to glancing hits (on a 2+), the enemy dreadnought survived 12 D-scythe hits with only one hullpoint and a stun to show for it, failing 5" charges more than once throughout the day (I managed to pull off about 50% of my 5" charges), I didn't manage to get a win until the very last game of the day against necrons.
Scouring missions with all the high scoring objectives on the other side of the field, killpoints games where 4 seperate units survived with 1 model, my luck was down and out. Nevertheless, I had fun, and met some nice people, but I don't think the battle reports would be worth the writeup.

so, up next: soon to arrive photos of the banshee, that's now finished, and figuring out what house my last guardian squad, my warlock and my spiritseer belong to, so I can paint on some freehands on them to.

Everything was done, technically, for this weekend, but I would like to add a few more details to the models :)

 
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Offline Dread

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #184 on: June 6, 2016, 02:25:08 AM »
Sounds like fun, wish my wife liked the games. She likes to see my models painted, but that's all. Your game looks like much fun was had as well as comfy. The main table I play on is too tall and I'm short.
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #185 on: June 6, 2016, 03:23:14 AM »
oh yes... the table. Much comments about that and I failed to reply.

It's a second hand set I bought from someone, so I really do want to paint it still. Some are black with a little bit of dark brown, some are still completely black... and I have a set of mountains that don't quite match up, so I'll invent something for that too. (I have 3 hills that have 2 sides that cover 2/3rds of the board, and one hill with one side that covers 2/3rds and one side covers 1/3rd)
So, yes, looks neat, but will hopefully turn out better.
All the terrain... yes, that's by my hand. I liked building it, and learned a lot while doing it (especially the two-building with walkway piece), but it's tons of fun and it looks good.

As for the comfy seating... right now my girlfriend is recovering from a rather bad illness and has trouble sitting or standing a lot, so the couch on which she can lounge a bit is the most ideal place to sit. Which is why we figured out the solution of playing there.
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #186 on: June 9, 2016, 11:12:17 AM »
ah, small update. 

(Image removed from quote.)

so... the hair looks a bit weird at the edge with the sword, but that's because the paint's still a bit wet, I think. And, of course, crappy phone camera.

I think I'll make the shoulder guard yellow too, but otherwise I think she's done. What do you think?

As I expected Vonny now that you have added a bit of contrast to the model with the darker colours I love it. Painting the shoulder guard yellow will make it look even better in my opinion.
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #187 on: June 13, 2016, 09:44:00 AM »
I need some venting, I think. If this is not the right place for this, please remove the post, Irisado

I've noticed I've had very little motivation to paint the past two weeks, and I think it's got to do with the tournament. As many tournaments have, this one had a prize for best painted. What they did here was that not the TO (because he knew a number of the players personally), but the owner of the store picked 3 to 4 armies which could then be voted on by the rest of the players for best painted. Now this store is a hobby store with lots of RPG's and CCG's as well, and I think that especially the card games are the main focus of the store, and I don't think the store owner has much of a look on painting. Neither did he talk with any of the participants of the tournament, and didn't ask about any of the painting or conversions done.

My army wasn't elected as one of the four to be eligable for best painted, and while I must admit there was some heavy competition in that area, I felt that this kind of voting leaves something to be desired.
There was a heavily converted tau army (I can't imagine the amount of money that went into this, because riptides had pieces from dreadknights and those small marine flyers all over them), which looked really cool from afar. However, when looking up close, I noticed all the highlighted linework was rather broad and sloppy, without much care to layer the colors smoothly. Another contestant was a black dark eldar army with airbrushed purples and greens, and then free-handed white symbols. Again, this looked pretty awesome from up close, and while the shape of the freehands was good, from even somewhat up close it was clear to see the white didn't cover very well, and far from evenly. One army was actually well painted, and I forgot about the fourth...
I feel as though people who actually know a thing about painting would've picked these things out with ease.
Is this a thing with best painted armies? As long as it looks cool from afar, you're done? No use doing subtle little things? What's your experience with this?

Silly though it might be, the fact I didn't get recognized by the official tally really smashed my motivation to paint further, even though I got a few compliments from other players at the tournament. I'm almost feeling as if I could just as well spend half the time on it and get the same results (read: nothing). Which is frustrating because I should be painting for me, and not for some store owner who's too scared to say a word to me because 'oh boy there's a girl in the store' and is likely to not have painted a model in his life.

-end rant
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #188 on: June 13, 2016, 10:21:36 AM »
Here's as good a place as any to make these comments, after all it is about your ongoing project work :).

I've seen the 'oh my goodness there's a girl in the store what do I do?' happen in this country.  Not at Warhammer World, where I played some games with a number of fellow members of this forum, but at some of the smaller stores I've been to.  That happened, in part, because a lot the people in the store painting or modelling were quite young, many in their late teens, and they were clearly so unused to it that they didn't know how to behave.  The reaction of one staff member who ought to have known better was, however, cringe worthy, and he couldn't use age as an excuse.

On the topic of tournaments, I've never really liked them.  I understand why people want to play in them, or indeed have to, in order to game on even a semi-regular basis, but it was never for me, as I dislike the overly competitive nature of them in all respects, be it in terms of winning, army list composition, or indeed the painting.

Here's the thing though, ask yourself who you are painting for.  Are you really painting figures to please a few guys at a tournament?  I have never had the impression that you are.  I have always felt that you are painting for you, because of your love of doing it, and your desire to get the models looking how you want them to for you.  That's a beautifully personal thing to have :).  It would be a shame to lose your passion for what you do just because some random blokes at a tournament didn't notice all the work you had put in.

You only have to read back through this thread to realise how much the members of this forum appreciate what you've done with your painting too :).

My advice, therefore, is to let the tournament organisers think what they like, have confidence in your painting, and carry on with something which you clearly love doing.  Your work will always be valued here :).
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Offline Cavalier

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #189 on: June 13, 2016, 10:30:51 AM »
Yeah that sucks Vonny. I've been there trust me. I've only ever gotten a handful of  compliments from my opponents on my army over the years. Its usually people who don't play at all and are just wandering through the store who ever say anything nice.

I'm not really sure why that happens. My stuff is super popular online but no one says a word to me outside of about 3 or 4 of my regular opponents. I just chalk it up the prevailing rudeness of people today and I honestly don't really care. I paint for personal pride. The best thing for me is when I look at my army and I know I've satisfied all my criteria for a good looking army. 

However I've never been at a tournament where painting was being evaluated, and if I was completely left out of consideration I'd be really pissed. So by all means be upset, but don't let it stop you from painting! Next time you go to the tournament get geared to smash your opponents into the ground. That'll get them to notice!

Anyway sorry that happened Vonny. Your army is one of the best looking and most unique Iyanden armies I've ever seen. Everyone I've showed it too has absolutely loved it. Just remember the crowd you are running with, gamers can be extremely petty, underhanded and insensitive in an already petty, underhanded and insensitive world. People are easily intimidated by excellence and will try to take people exhibiting such excellence down a notch anytime they can. But like I said, vent your fury on them on the tabletop and make them pay! I'll be rooting for you!
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #190 on: June 13, 2016, 09:02:37 PM »
Ditto with the guys. I've been doing this hobby for almost 23 years but been painting minis for even longer. I remember when painting was an actual part of the points in tourny's which could help win or place higher. I've heard everything from wow that's cool to I could a done better job then you too your technique is old school too teach me how to do that. But, I'm the only one who cares about my painting and if I'm happy then all is good. As has been stated, I get to see more here and respond then at either of my gaming stores, which are more card gaming stores then minis anymore. Having fun and contentment while enjoying what you're doing is what matters the most.
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #191 on: June 17, 2016, 11:22:32 AM »
hey guys, thanks for the support

@Cavalier
Actually, some of the other players did give some compliments, when they saw my army. Of course, they saw it (and me) for the first time. I know the old gaming group hardly ever said anything about my painting, and when I once asked why, one answered: "because it's awesome like we're used to you deliviring. There's only so many times I can be amazed about what you paint".

And the judge was apparently unimpressed.

Going back and smashing them in the next tournament is also not really my thing. I paint my armies by what I think is awesome in theme and look, not by what is the most killy in the tournament scene. I did get to hear multiple times I have kind of a soft list, and I know, there's a number of ways I could easily make it nastier. I just don't like to do that.

I'm glad to hear people you've shown it to are excited about my army as well. That's very comforting.

@Dread
Well, there were painting points to be earned for this tournament as well, but while you could technically earn like 50 points, at max 20 would contribute to the overall score. So if you paint it tabletop quality, it's fine. There was a seperate prize for best painted, and this is where my whole episode started.

And yes, I know the story: I paint for my own pleasure and to my own standards, but it's... I don't know. I put my heart and soul into these models and I feel like it's a devaluation of me when people don't value my work (I have a fragile artist's feelings, apparently, because the same can happen with my drawings - which is why I never put them in a contest).

All in all, I think the tournament came at a wrong time too, where I was emotionally slightly off balance already, and this just gave the last kick. Your heartfelt words help, though, even if just a little bit.
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #192 on: June 17, 2016, 12:07:00 PM »
I had similar feelings to you when I received feedback on various pieces of work I wrote.  Some people like to be highly critical or unappreciative, and they're not often very good at providing constructive feedback.  The thing to remember is that they are like that with most people, not just you, so they're not singling you out.  Also, their approach says a lot more about them as individuals than it does about you.  Avoid letting them get to you :).
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #193 on: June 17, 2016, 01:03:28 PM »
Hey Vonny. Sorry to hear you are still bummed out about that tourney debacle. Like I said previously people just tend to be very rude these days and chafe around any sort of excellence and I'm completely convinced thats whats at work.

As for smashing them next time you play, I know how you value your theme, and I wouldn't suggest deviating from it, but going in all practiced up and on top of your game and showing them Iyanden's martial pride could be great fun. But hey its stuff like that gets me fired up... so if it just doesn't do it for you I understand. But still I'd like to see you go in there and give them a good thrashing.

As for people devaluing you, these people obviously don't have very good values, if they can't see the amazing quality of your minis. I say to hell with them!

Anyway Vonny thats my 2 cents, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I just wanted to reinforce how worthless I think their opinions are. I know it doesn't change the crappiness of that situation but your old battle bro Cavalier has your back 100%!  8) 8) 8)

EDIT: If you want a confidence booster, go see that even nasty comments find hobby legends like Scorpion82's, Winters SEO videos. It just goes to show there is no accounting for taste nowadays!
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 01:07:41 PM by Cavalier »
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #194 on: June 30, 2016, 08:10:07 PM »
So, to try and get me out of my bummer mood, I went back to the local store and played another game. With my Eldar.
Funny event was someone saying that my knight looked a little feminine posed like that. So I said "thank you, that was kinda the idea. I also did a lot of minor conversions to make her look a bit more sleek and feminine in body shape, so I'm quite happy the vibe translated :)
But other than that...

Battle report time!

So, 1500 pts armies meant I was bringing:

Waithhost:
1 Spiritseer

5 Wraithblades (axe + shield)
5 Wraithguard (wraithcannon), in Wave Serpent (t-l shuriken catapult and scatter lasers)
5 Wraithguard (D-scythe), in Wave Serpent (t-l shuriken catapult and scatter lasers)

Wraithlord (2x flamer, 2x bright lance, wraithglaive)

Wraithknight (2x heavy wraithcannon, scatter laser)

Avenger Shrine Host
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers, of which 1 Exarch

He brought:
Hq:
Company Command Squad (chimera (hunter killer missile), volkovs cane)

Troops
2× Veterans (forward sentries, 3x melta, chimera (hk missile))
Infantry Platoon:
Platoon command squad (4x melta)
3× infantry squad (flakk missile launcher.
30 conscripts

Heavy Support
Basilisk
Manticore
2x Leman Russ Battle Tank

Ministorum Battle Priest

So... we rolled on the maelstrom missions and got the mission where you start with 1 card and get more cards every turn based on how many objectives you controlled.
I haven't played against guard in ages, so I was kinda happy seeing them. I expected this could make for a fun battle.

He deployed most of his force pretty far back, and with both his artillery pieces well out of sight behind a building. It was all bunched up pretty well, which I didn't mind that much. I did worry that his conscript squad with the priest might tarpit me a bit too good. Especially since I had my knight run 3 turns in a row with 2, 3 and 3 stomp attacks, and rolling 1 on each and every one of them.


I deployed with two avenger squads ready to move up on the left flank upon his one infantry platoon, to claim both objectives on that side of the map. I hid the 3rd one in the building in the back there, which also had an objective. They did nothing but generate cards all game, but I didn't mind. I tried to hide the knight, the serpents and the lord behind respectively buildings and the wraithblades, but didn't quite succeed as you'll see when we start at turn 1.

He basically moved up tentatively, but getting in reach of both objectives right outside of his deployment zone. The right flank also slowly moved up.

His Manticore unloaded, eventually dealing one hullpoint of damage on the middle wave serpent. The basilisk overshot completely, which left me feeling quite confident. The leman russes fired, and between them and a slight scatter, they managed to get a wound on the knight, and 2 more hullpoints on the middle wave serpent stranding my d-scythes and spiritseer out in the open. Combined fire from the three chimeras and an infantry platoon also managed to take out 2 of my wraithblades. He got first blood and the first objective (completely kill an enemy unit).

I responded by moving my knight in sight and range of the leman russes, slowly moving up my blades and lord, and flanking the wave serpent and the d-scythes behind the building, on my way to get an objective there. It was also on one of my objective cards, so that doubled up on the importance of it. The avengers on my left flank slowly moved up, with some rather poor move through cover rolls.

In the shooting phase, the remaining wave serpent managed to kill a single guardsman. The wraithknight missed all of it's scatter laser shots, one wraithcannon shot, and the other rolled a 1 on the D table. My wraithlord managed to knock a single hullpoint off of one of the russes with a glancing hit. After this rather lopsided start (with no opportunity to get my objective either), I felt put on the back foot and needed my units to start performing to get back in the drivers seat.

Turn 2 saw him once again edging in slightly on the right flank, trying to keep me off of the objective there, and with his conscripts in the middle, while holding the rest quite steady. A shot from the basilisk made me decide to go to ground with my leftmost avenger squad - and it barely survived. I even had to use the formation's reroll on the morale test!

Combined fire from chimeras and the leman russes knocked out another wraithblade and took a wound from my wraithlord, while I lost my first d-scythe to the Manticore.

When my turn came round, I finally got the stuff going. My middle avenger squad moved up and claimed an objective, took some shots at the opposing infantry platoon and managed to kill 3 of them. They proceeded to fail their leadership test, and what's more, ran 11 inches back, and straight off the table! I couldn't believe my luck, and I suppose neither can those guardsmen. We joked that at least they gained some valuable experience, and that next time they get in a battle against Eldar they'll be saying "we have some experience in how to survive this.... Leg it!", only to meet a commissar.

In the middle, my wraithknight moved up, shot at the conscripts with the scatter laser (killing one) and missing and hitting one shot against the leman russ squadron with his wraithcannons. This resulted in an exploding Russ, which did no further damage. The knight then went on to safely lock itself in combat, and because of the wonderful world of piling in, stomping actually removed 5 of the happless mon-keigh.
The Wraithlord knocked another hullpoint off the leman russ, and destroyed its Heavy Bolter.

On the right flank, the wraithguard with the d-scythes moved up, ran and fired their horrific weapons. The lone guardsman heavy weapon team that was left standing after the onslaught failed their leadership test as well, and ran slightly back to hide between the armoured skirts of the accompanying chimeras. The wave serpent shot ineffectually against the rightmost chimera, doing no damage.


Turn 3: This is where I forgot to make pictures for half a turn... So I'm glad I'm writing this now.
The veterans on the right flank disembarked and readied their meltas, but couldn't get into melta range for maximum damage. They still tried to down the wave serpent, but as it quickly decided on evasive jinking, none of the fire from the squad or the three chimeras could do any damage to it. The ministorum priest tried to Smash attack the wraithknight, but failed, and the basilisk moved around to get a better shot on the proceedings, having trouble keeping firing with its minimum range if it had to keep firing indirectly. This resulted in me losing my wraithlord, and reduced the wraithblade unit to a lone figure.
In my turn, I moved up the wraithblade, trying to get in range to aid my knight. In hindsight, I should've just moved him back to the objective, because he wasn't going to do much more in a fight anyway, and there wasn't a lot I needed to tarpit (which is one of their main uses). He'd done his job catching fire. As it turned out, the knight managed to stomp his way through the remaining conscripts with room to spare, much to my dismay - this left it open to return fire.

The wave serpent shot everything (including the serpent shield) onto the melta vets in front of it. However, due to it having jinked the turn before, it only killed one of the brave imperial guardsmen, and I had to think of another option to keep my serpent safe.
So I moved and ran the d-scythes up before unloading upon the chimera - which they happened to stand behind. I ended up completely annihilating both targets with the 4 D-scythes I had left. The other wraithguard shot the other melta vet squad's chimera to bits, and managed to get it to explode, killing a number of the occupants, but not much else. Even the missile launcher heavy weapon team still stood their ground (after having rallied). I had hoped to finish off the now disembarked squad with my d-scythes, but I had needed them before. Nevertheless, I dealt a decisive blow on the right flank.

On the opponent's turn 4, he moved up his platoon command squad, and shot with their 4 meltas, the leman russ, and the basilisk upon the knight that was standing right in front. However, completely shaken by such a graceful construct, they failed to inflict much damage (just 1 wound).

Fire from Manticore took out the first wraithcannon wraithguard, while combined fire from the second veteran squad, the remaining heavy weapon team,and the company command squad and their chimera (who had repositioned further back for safety reasons) took out two more d-Scythe wielding guard.

In response, the wraithknight shot a wraithcannon in both opposing vehicles, completely blowing up the leman russ (the explosion of which also took out several platoon command guardsmen), and shot up another guardsman with the scatter laser. Only two remained, who were taken out in the ensuing melee.

I repositioned the wave serpent to get some shots on the manticore, but it failed to do any damage. The scytheguard took out the heavy weapon team and 2 veterans, while the cannonguard completely whiffed their assault on the remaining chimera.


At the end of turn 4 the Imperium had gotten 2 objectives and first blood, and was no longer holding any objective markers with very little hope of reclaiming any. tallying up the eldar score, by then, brought the score up to 7 objectives. Considering the time and his chances, my opponent conceded the game.

Looking back on things, I think there was a bit of a mismatch in power level between the two armies. Despite that, I think the imperial guard gave me a good thrashing at the start of the game, and if the melta squads had worked a bit more cohesively, they might have turned the game around a bit more. The opponent agreed, but confessed he'd gotten distracted and bogged down in the fighting on my right flank, where the elusive eldar refused to give him a very clear target and he had to keep going for targets of not-so-great-opportunity.
The assault over the left flank went well, especially when his unit fled off the board, but it took longer than expected to reach the last objective on his side there due to some bad run rolls and the turn I stood still after having gone to ground. Still, I'm very happy with the dire avengers, and think they perform better than the guardians that I field for the 1850 pts games. Maybe it's because the objectives didn't get really pressured and I didn't need the objective secured from the guardians in the Combined Arms Detachment. But I really like the 18", BS 5, optional 3-shots-once-per-game (that I didn't even use) multiple small units that can adept to necessity on the fly.
I once again made an error, leaving my wave serpents too exposed early game. If I hadn't rolled the warlord trait adding 3" to my run moves, I fear the scythe guard would've done very little this game. It seems I really did have some luck at some key points... maybe the power difference wasn't so great?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the report!
« Last Edit: July 1, 2016, 03:05:40 AM by vonny »
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Offline Cavalier

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #195 on: July 1, 2016, 07:31:01 AM »
Hey Vonny, loved that bat-rep. I really felt the momentum building as the Ghost units made their implacable advance up the battlefield. Super fluffy! The pics were great as well... really nice terrain and your opponents army looked very classic as well. Man I forgot how awesome your Wraithknight was. What a sight!

As for the battle itself, I think you played very well. I liked how you used as much as cover as you did, especially on the Wraithknight. My Wraithknight usually doesn't survive the entire game and I really have to be cautious with him in the early phases of the game. Man despite being stranded your Scytheguard sure did work! They really high-tailed it across the board, congrats on getting them in there. Such a pain stranding those units in the middle of the field.

Also glad to see you got a positive return on your Avengers. I am a huge advocate of them... they are actually my favorite unit in the game. Everytime I field them they reward me. Their leadership and range are superb... and with Battle Focus I've found they don't even need transports especially when taken in a Battlehost.

Anyway great bat-rep Vonny I really enjoyed it. Especially seeing that Wraithknight rampaging across your opponents deployment zone! I think you've got a very good list and it was just fun seeing that implacable advance like I said before. Anyway thanks for the bat-rep Vonny I'm looking forward to the next one!
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #196 on: July 1, 2016, 08:23:04 AM »
Thanks Cav. Yes, I'm usually rather careful with my wraithknight and the wave serpents, because the knight and the contents of the serpents are the only hard hitters in my list, so I NEED them to survive :).

It's a bit of a pity that the opponent talked himself into a corner about the armies being a missmatch, because I think it made him scared to do any proactive moves, which ultimately made him lose the game much harder than it had to be. I tried to compliment him on the moves he'd made turn 1 vs my moves, and how he was in the lead for victory points for the first 2 complete turns, but it seems to little avail.
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #197 on: July 1, 2016, 09:56:07 AM »
Yeah it is a pity when an opponent psyches himself out. It happens all the time... I see opening for my opponent to do major damage but since he feels like he's losing he just sort of freezes.

It was a bit of a mismatch but not hopeless by any stretch. If he had focused the 2x Leman Russ and Basilisk on the Wraithknight he could have done major damage. My brother just beats the tar out of my Wraithknight with his basilisks and its really painful. He's just such a big model the scatters hardly affect him.

I think the big mistake was targeting your Serpents. I would have ignored them completley and just focused on the Wraithknight until the last possible second.

With the tanks focusing on the Knight, he could put some bait units out to attract the Wraithguard, then position the Conscripts to assault and tarpitting them afterwords.

Certainly a difficult task but it could be done. Live and learn though, and going up against a Ghost army certainly can be intimidating when they are just shrugging off fire. 40k is such a mental game though and toughing it out in a mismatch is a big part of it. Easier said than done though! lol  8)
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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #198 on: July 1, 2016, 11:00:42 AM »
It's great to see your army in action once again.  It looks as excellent as ever :).  In fact, the opposing army and the whole table were very impressive as well.  It looked like a very enjoyable game all round.

I think that it was actually a pretty close game for quite a while, until your Wraithknight went on the rampage.  I am surprised at how little your opponent targeted it.  By the time it was into his half of the board it was still late.  Up until that period of the game, it was nip and tuck.

Very well played by you to get the Wraithknight into a prime position to do so much damage.  Congratulations on your victory :).
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Offline vonny

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Re: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.
« Reply #199 on: July 1, 2016, 06:39:21 PM »
I think one of the major contributing factors of it surviving that long was that he didn't target it much, believing he couldn't damage it anyway. Your tactic of coping with the army would've been a real viable one too. Even just rushing the knight with 3 melta squads should've put some serious hurt on it.
If you say it was a mismatch though (and you have way more experience in games than me, cav), then I'll try and see if I can tone it down a bit for the next game.
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