Topic: Croneworld Koxinga Rises

[Ibushi]

Yeah man that is a good summary. What are you thinking with the new book?

Also with the jetbikes/spears outflanking I mean leave the Prince in reserve with them to come on in the enemy back lines, that way I would have (ideally), 1 unit of outflanking Corsair laser bikes + Prince, 1 unit of outflanking Shining Spears, 1 unit of Deep Striking Warp Spiders, Harliestar warp-tunnelling or warp blinking across the table into your face, backed up by the WK. The maximized threat overload is KEY.

If you go with Prince as Warlord, the jetbikes are re-rolling reserves too which is nice, and if you attach the Prince to the Spears, then the jetbikes & spears are Both re-rolling reserves to do their outflanking business, which may be worth Warlord, especially if that makes the Harliestar that much more expendable too.. All food for thought!

In terms of the pros and cons of Warlord, yes mostly I am concerned about the 1 game in 5 at a tournament at the top table where Warlord decides the outcome, it usually happens at least once at a big event. Prince is a bit soft for my liking, not because of being "soft" per se, but because he is wanting to get stuck in there by his nature, so the risk is much higher, right. Farseer is the best Warlord ever, so fluffy, so powerful, pretty good in a fight actually, and very easy to keep fully functional but completely out of harms way.

Really interested to hear what you are thinking to do with the new book Cav, you always have interesting combinations and well thought-out manevres!

[Cavalier]

Thanks man, I am extremely excited about the new book. I think in the right hands it can compete with ANYTHING out there. Just running a CAD I see almost unlimited potential due to the incredible amount of options you can run. You can customize each unit like nothing I've ever seen in an Eldar book before. It reminds me of a deluxe edition of the 5th ed. Dark Eldar book which is probably my favorite codex ever.

The Coterie combinations and the path of your Prince are going to be the secret sauce for the army. I'm leaning towards Sky Burner Coterie and Walker of Forgotten Paths for my Prince. Still digesting how I'm going to use them though. The unit I'm taking a long hard look at right now is Balestrike Band with Dark Lances. Poor, poor Dark Eldar Scourges if only they could use those Dark Lancs on the move. But seriously with D6 Scatter (or appearing out of a Webway Gate) these guys are AWESOME. Scourges with Haywire are a fantastic unit but these guys are better. Far better precision, more speed, better options and more punch. These guys essentially remove the need for an WWP Archon and DE allies for Fire Dragon/Wraithguard deepstrike shenanigans.

With full powered Warp Hunters, Lynx, Hornets, outflanking Laser Bikes (!?) EXCELLENT Warp Spider-esque troops that can be kitted out with the best ranged and CC weapons from the DE and CW book, fantastic psychic powers, high precision deepstrike these guys are going to be ALL OVER your opponent from start to finish. Ally in some Craftworld allies for Deathshroud Wraithknight if you need and you're looking a top-tier army IMO.

I'm still wrapping my head around the formations though... are the only available to Craftworlds codex and not the Corsairs? What about the Auxiliary choices? Do you need to take the Battlehost to unlock them? It seems unclear to me. 

As you can probably tell I'm thrilled with this book. I think its going to take a lot of people by surprise because of sheer unfamiliarity and the fact that you can have a nasty surprise hidden in each and every unit, while their vehicles are probably the best in the game. What are your thoughts my man? I can't wait to see what you're gonna do with these guys! I think we're cut from the same cloth in terms of our overall approach to the game with more an eye towards overall army performance and flexibility as opposed to deathstaring people to death. What are your plans?

[Ibushi]

Haha i feel ya, pretty stoked! Also I agree they have lots of nasty surprises and some really interesting options to hang with the best, but I'm still not sure on a 100% corsair, or even Corsair-primary approach yet, especially after seeing some of those new Eldar formations..

On the one hand I am really excited about Corsairs, but on the other I have reached my limit of ability to purchase new models for a while, so that will be a major limitation on how my foray into a pure Corsair force might occur. Going to let the book percolate a little bit longer and see what initial lists pop up, but first I am focusing on my two Eldar lists in the run-up to TSHFT on january 16th -- it's going to be really tough competition, and I have been off the horse for a while now. Going to play Voidman's proper assault crons tomorrow in a tournament style friendly, let you know how that goes.

Back to IA11, was a bit confused myself as the CWE warhost formations are all also counted as standalone formations (i.e. Aspect Host, Guardian Warhost, etc.), whereas the ones here do not seem to have that distinction. My understanding is that they are additional formations for use ONLY within a Craftworld Warhost formation, which would be a huge bummer, except that the Pale Courts Warhost is a GREAT formation if you think of it as pure damage-dealing and support units, sourcing your ObSec elsewhere. Since there is virtually no 'fat' in the Pale Courts formations, it really is a good deal -- my line of thinking for a "pure" Corsair force is actually to do a Corsair Raiding Party, then bring in a Pale Courts Warhost for some additional condensed power. Also in terms of the Croneworld fluff this seems to make perfect sense too, so I'm 110% happy at this point. Going off the top of my head, I'm toying with something like:

Corsair Raiding Party:
Baron - jet pack (reavers)

Sky Burners Coterie:
Prince - jetbike (for the T4 and mobility), void sabre, shadowfield, armour of misery
Reavers - 2 fusion, jet packs
Cloud Dancers (for outflanking obsec)
Laser Dancers (for outflanking lasers!)
Nightwing - kinetic shroud
Vyper - chainsnares, Scatter Laser (outflanking tank shock & laser, baha)
Warp hunter - kinetic shroud, void burner

Pale Courts Warhost:
Farseer - jetbike
3x5 Warp Spiders + Exarch (faux Reavers, eh)
Wraithknight
Wasp Phalanx with SL

This is more of a themed but powerful army, I think it needs something more, but if things synchronize right it would wipe the table T2.
Put the Farseer + Prince into the small Cloud Dancer squad to bring in a T2 outflank and hopefully use Armour of Misery + Telepathy to ruin someone's day! Meanwhile the Warp Hunter and other units come in T2 and just blow stuff up. The Wasp Phalanx is really really nasty! To prevent getting tabled in return T1, you have the warp spiders doing their shenanigans and a Wraithknight hopefully holding his own, right..

Much food for thought! What kind of list would you build at this point?

[Cavalier]

Hey buddy. I'm actually not really sure what direction I'm going to go... I basically know what I'm gonna rock with my Corsair detachment...

Corsair Prince- Bike, Void Sabre, Shadowfield, Walker of Forgotten Paths
Baron- Attached to Balestrike if necessary
Laser Dancers x3
Laser Dancers x3
Nightwing
Hornets x3- Pulse Lasers
Balestrike Band- Dark Lances x5

But as for my Craftworld detachment I'm really not sure. I really, really am tempted to go for a Seer Council on Bikes as my close-combat unit... I'm tempted to try the Spears as well... I'm just not sure to be honest. I know for sure I'm going to include my Warp Spiders and a Wraithknight of some variety no matter what. I also know for sure I'm going to pick up a Deathshroud Wraithknight to mix things up a bit well. In all honesty once army-builder updates I'm gonna get in there and mess around... cause I'm stingy on points and weak in the math department! But besides that I really need to digest the rules first, contemplate the combinations... the army list is a SUPER dense read and need to really sit-down with the book and have a good think. 

One thing I know for sure is this: its gonna be a rapid-insertion force. Lots of deepstrike and lots of jetbikes. Its gonna be tough to let go of some of my Craftworld units but I think the advantage of all the deepstrike and outflank is too valuable considering the synergy it has with the collection already at my disposal.

Anyway fascinating questions my friend, I wish I had better answers! But I will have better answers soon and a full write-up on the army list as well. Anyway keep up the great work Ibushi and can't wait to read the next bat-rep!

[Ibushi]

Interesting.

Yes that is certainly a good core Corsair build. I've been really toying with going for a 2-coterie build, but I don't think it's worth it, just 1 does all the business, and you avoid Internal Politics as a bonus. I did try out the Titan Breakers coterie, but when you realize that Preferred Enemy Tanks only allows you to re-roll 1's to hit (not to penetrate), it actually it is not that worth the investment except maybe for a Balestrike Squad. But then the Skyburners bonuses are still going to be better...

As for the Eldar side, it sounds like you will have to fiddle around and decide on something. Often I find myself drawn to Seer Councils, but then just find them too boring to play, and people hate seeing them on the tabletop, as an added disincentive. These days I would much prefer to take two squads of Shining Spears and 2 Farseers on bikes rather than a Council. But it is a good close combat option, especially with the Prince added in, and Especially if you give him Ancient Treasures path and take Armour of Misery or Mask of Secrets as it combos REALLY well with Telepathy and Mind War. Nasty!

As soon as you look at Corsairs combined with Eldar it jumps off the page as a T2 rapid-insertion force, for sure. But based on the meta and missions right now I still don't think a fully T2+ based army is going to carry its weight over the full distance of an event. So I'm focusing on a Corsair-ish list for smaller games where the T1 isn't as crucial, like 1k-1.5k, and saving Eldar for the bigger tournament setting. I might tweak that last combined Corsair-Eldar assault aspect build for a competitive showing though, we'll see!

OK back to the Father of the Void -- he was hurting after his Xenos-Witch-Killer Black Templars took such a rolling from aforementioned Corsair-Eldar Away Partay, so he returned in force yesterday for our Monday evening TSHFT training, this time packing the Ancient Nemesis:

Necron Lord - solar staff (the blinding solar pulse one), WARLORD
3x5 Deathmarks
2x5 Immortals
1x Night Scythe
3x5 Wraiths, jeez
2x3 Heavy Destroyers
Doomsday Ark
Void Shield Generator

This list is all business, no fat, but also pretty fluffy if you ask me. So, just like my competitive Eldar then:

Farseer - jetbike, spear, WARLORD
5x Wraithguard - D-scythes
Wave Serpent - Holo-Fields, Bright Lance
3x3 Laser Bikes
2x3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers
Falcon - Bright Lance
Wraithknight - 2x D, 1x SL
Void Shield Generator

Aspect Host:
2x7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
4 Dark Reapers + Exarch - EML

As you may recall, this list utterly trounced the Necrons back in early October, so vengeance was in the air. Imotekh returned to the Tomb World to lick his prodigious D-slap wounds, sending forth this small Necron Lord with an assault force of clickety-clack, snippety-snip wraiths.
+
Mission was ITC 6 - Crusade + Maelstrom + Linebreaker, Warlord, First Blood

Looking at the mission with an even 4 objectives, and the amount of board control 15 wraiths and 6 destroyers will have, I felt pretty sure that this could fight it's way into a draw on the Crusade and Maelstrom front, meaning Warlord and First Blood would be crucial. It is virtually impossible to prevent Linebreaker against multiple deep striking Deathmarks and a Night Scythe with Immortals, but so far the Crons have failed to ever secure Warlord, making me feel good about that, but also getting Warlord off the Crons is really tough -- so First Blood could be critical to prevent a tie. OK.
+
Necrons win roll for DZ, but the sides are very even. Deployment is Dawn of War.
Objectives are placed in a diamond shape from the centre-right (Necron DZ) through the middle to the centre-left (Eldar DZ).
Eldar roll -1 enemy reserves for Warlord trait (was really hoping for Conqueror of Cities as we are on a ruins-heavy board),
Necrons manage to roll up Conqueror of Cities! Gah, 3+ cover and Reanimation is going to be tough to get through.

Psychic powers: Farseer Tanaka the Cannibal is able to remember Psychic Shriek, Dominate, Mental Fortitude, and Shrouding, but no Invisibility this time around -- should be interesting! Don't fancy a Wraithknight's chances against wraiths in combat without a) a D-sword, b) invisibility...

Then Necrons win roll for First Turn as well!
...and it is Night Fighting for Turn 1.
+
Necrons deploy their VSG in the middle of their DZ, with the destroyers stacked up in a 3-level ruin to the centre-right, the Doomsday Ark sitting on top of the VSG looking over the whole battlefield, and the wraiths spread out in a raiding formation along the DZ line. Deathmarks and Night Scythe in Reserves, Lord attached to the foremost Wraiths, and last unit of immortals hiding behind the VSG.

On the Eldar side,  the VSG is placed a careful diagonal 43" away from the destroyers, putting it out of range of the Destroyers for one turn. The laserbikes are bubbled out in a circle to the left of that, to hopefully prevent a single devastating Doomsday Ark hit, while the Farseer is attached to a jetbike unit and hides behind the VSG. Wraithguard and Wraithknight sit up front in a ruin, just in 12" for the VSG shielding, while one unit of Warp Spiders makes a skirmishing line in front of them, and the other is on the right flank in a ruin hiding as much as possible. Rangers prepare to Outflank, while the Falcon hovers on top of the VSG with Dark Reapers embarked.

At this point the plan is to keep firepower units outside of Destroyer range unless they have to break cover, and forcing the wraiths to either commit to a frontal assault, and eat the waiting D-flamers first, or hover around midfield being picked apart by scatter lasers. This can only continue for so long, as the deathmarks will eventually arrive and put their synaptic disintegrators into the Wraithknight or the laser bikes. So until that happens it is important to keep the Wraithknight under the void shields and in cover, saving him for a counter-assault on any wraiths. The Warp Spiders need to get off one good round of shooting on the wraiths to really seal the deal, and then just run interference. One squad on the far right flank is to force the Necrons either to ignore them, or commit (and waste) resources on them, while the skirmish line Spiders are to prevent a long charge on the WK or Serpent, using their Hit & Run to disengage and shoot up the wraiths.
+
Turn 1 - the Eldar fail to Seize.

Necrons move up, blue wraiths with attached lord moving as far as possible to set up an easy T2 charge on the wave serpent, red wraiths move right towards the right-hand spiders a bit, and black wraiths move left to support the blue wraiths. Destroyers jump-shoot-jump out of the ruins, putting shots into the Spiders and causing one casualty. Doomsday Ark pivots on the spot and targets the Spiders also, who then Flickerjump entirely out of LOS.

Eldar respond by thinking how best to achieve First Blood given that all of the Necron units are still under the Void Shield. At that moment the Lord triggers his Solar Pulse, swathing the blue Wraiths in light, and forcing Snap Shots only... First the 3 shields need to come down -- the Wave Serpent, Falcon and Reapers all unload into the void shields, bringing them down with the 2nd to last dice. Laser bikes then shift left (to the board edge) to target the supporting black wraiths through some ruin windows, bringing down 2 creatures with 24 shots. The defending warp spiders make an unholy 15" warp jump to arrive next to the 3 surviving wraiths, bringing down another 2, and the third laser bike squad risks Dangerous Terrain by flying to the top of a 3-story ruin to finally destroy the black wraiths in a hail of laser fire. First Blood, and 5 of 15 wraiths destroyed! Unimpressed by these insolent robots, the Wraithknight steps forward and projects warp energy inside the Doomsday Ark, causing the grav-engines to implode into nothingness, and bringing the engine of destruction clanging to the ground on top of the Necron Void Obelisk. Most fortunately, the Doomsday Cannon is facing entirely away from the Eldar forces now, neutralizing that threat.

Then Tanaka casts Mental Fortitude upon a jetbike unit, sending them flying deep into the Necron backfield to deny a Maelstrom point and interfere in their carefully-planned assault.

Maelstrom: 0-1 Eldar, +1 for First Blood
+
Turn 2

Confused by Eldritch trickery, only 1 of 3 Deathmark units arrive, landing in midst of the Eldar jetbikes on the left board edge and easily slaying a unit with assault sniper fire. Meanwhile the blue Wraiths continue their assault, honing in on the warp spider unit which just eliminated their brethren, killing all but 1 and the Exarch in a brutal onslaught. From the backfield, destroyers pour shots into the marauding jetbike squad amongst them, killing 2, but the survivor is fearless and out of LOS. At the end of the turn, the Warp Spiders successfully hit & run away from the blue wraiths, warp jumping towards the destroyers. In the centre, the red wraiths hold down an objective, and await the second warp spider unit to set up a counter-charge.

The Croneworld Eldar have been waiting for this moment, and unleash the full might of their forces on the death marks and wraiths -- the Wraithguard disembark and hose the blue wraiths for 17 D-hits, but only 9 wound, and all but 2 are saved! Of those, 1 instantly kills a wraith, and the other only causes 1 wound -- wow, most pitiful D-scythe attack ever! Even worse, surrounded by his elite warriors about to commence the assault, Tanaka the Cannibal summons Croneworld spirits to shroud his forces and provide cover -- but at once the Great Enemy is aroused, suddenly penetrating deep into Tanaka's mind and severing it's connection with reality. The Warlord is consumed and immediately DIES! to Perils of the Warp! Wow, rolled a 1 and failed the Leadership test with an 11, ouch! The Wraithknight senses the peril of the Croneworld warhost, staring down a virtually full-strength unit of wraiths and reeling from the loss of the Warlord, and he sets his mighty steps in motion through the ruins before him. Having unfinished business with the Necron Void Obelisk and Doomsday Ark, he sends two wraithcannon shots their way, utterly destroying the Void Obelisk, and bringing the Doomsday Ark crashing to the ground, although it survives. As he continues to stride forwards, he peppers the blue wraiths with scatter laser fire, wounding one, and then he sets his jump jets into action to hurtle into the minions of the Ancient Nemesis -- after powerful blows and crushing stomps, one wraith survives, locked in combat with the towering monster.

Fortunately on the right flank the Warp Spiders also make a successful warp jump and are able to reach the red wraiths, bringing down no less than 3 in a hail of monofilament wire! Dark Reapers also pour fire into the red wraiths, matched with a few shots from the surviving Warp Spider Exarch and single remaining warrior, bringing down the red wraiths in a surprising display of failed saves! Wow, brutal turn for both the Eldar and Necrons!

In the Eldar leftmost backfield, the Falcon and Wave Serpent unload into the newly arrived Deathmarks, forcing them to go to ground for a 2+ cover save, and they take zero casualties. The jetbikes then attempt to get out of rapid-fire range with their jetbike moves.

Despite the onslaught, the Eldar fail to prevent Necron objectives:
Malestrom - Necrons+2 (2)- Eldar +1 (2)
+
Turn 3
Another Deathmark squad arrives, deep striking in next to their pinned allies, and again taking out another laser bike squad while hiding in the ruins. In the middle, destroyers unload into the lone jetbiker still in their midst, finally killing him, while the Necron Lord hides with the Immortals beside where the Void Obelisk once was. Immortals shoot into the small Spider unit, which Flickerjumps away out of rapid-fire range and takes no casualties.

In combat, the last blue wraith is destroyed by the Wraithknight, who now sets his sights on the enemy Warlord to bring the score into Eldar favour.

The wave serpent, which has had a minimal role so far, pulls a classic maneuvre, tank shocking both Deathmark squads into a tight formation, and the Wraithguard then step up and annihilate both squads in a single blaze of D-scythe magic. Score! Warp Spiders jump up and continue their assault by moving towards the Destroyers, but in their fatigue they forget to shoot this round... Instead, the Falcon sends bright pulse beams coursing towards the immobilized Doomsday Ark, which fails its cover save and is finally eliminated.

The Wraithknight bounds forwards and is mere inches from the red Destroyers. He shoots and kills a blue destroyer, then charges and smashes all of the red Destroyers in a hail of metal shards.

Maelstrom: +2 and +2 again!
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Turn 4
Finally the last Deathmark squad arrives, along with the Night Scythe and Immortals -- they zoom straight into the Eldar void shield, looking to finish off the remaining jetbikes and neuter Eldar scoring mobility. Tesla blasts rock through the Dark Reapers, 3 wounds managing to slay 3 Reapers, including the Exarch! Deathmark shooting then eliminates the last laser bike squad, so now there is just one jetbike squad hanging around the Eldar shield generator to score objectives.

On the Necron side of the field, the Lord moves up a level in the ruins, splitting off from the Immortals, and sends blasts of light into the rictus face of the Wraithknight, blinding the creature (rolled a 6!). Immortals send more gauss fire into the nearby spiders, failing to kill any once more, but the Destroyers are able to kill 1 wraithguard across the battlefield.

In the Eldar turn, the Wraithknight attempts to charge the Lord, rolling a 2 on the re-roll! But after clarification that the Lord is not part of the Immortals squad, actually the Wraithknight charges the Immortals and smashes all of them, as he was only 2" away! Brutal!

Meanwhile on the right flank the Rangers outflank to cement Linebreaker, and start sending sniper fire into the Destroyers, to no effect, of course. The Spiders are, however, able to take out another blue destroyer with massed firepower, leaving just one and the Lord on his lonesome in the Necron DZ.

Back in Eldar HQ, the struggle over the body of the great Farseer continues, as the Wave Serpent moves over to send out crew to pick up Tanaka, while the Falcon moves onto the objective nearby. Jetbikes continue to hide, preserving their lives for a late-game rush if needed. Wraithguard roll a 5 for difficult terrain, and are only able to clip 2 deathmarks with their weapons, killing 1.

Maelstrom: 5-6 to the Eldar!
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Turn 5
We decide that this will be the last turn in "tournament fashion" (always run out of time!), and start to wrap up:
The Night Scythe moves up and disgorges its Immortals onto the Eldar home objective, sending gauss shots pouring into the Wraithguard, to no effect. The Deathmarks also send their shots into the wraithguard, killing 1 (only 2 left now), and then the last remaining Destroyer in the Necron backfield moves up and is able to kill one more, while moving onto another Crusade objective. At this point the Necrons have 2 objectives, and the Eldar 1 for Crusade, with another easily, and swinging with a 3rd if the Destroyer can be killed and that objective taken. Lastly, the Necron Lord sends shards of light into the Wraithknight again, blinding him Again (rolled another 6)!

Eldar move up, the jetbikes killing one Immortal and failing to get on that objective, while the Spiders obliterate the Destroyer and claim that objective easily. Finally, the Wraithknight has a score to settle with this pesky Necron Lord, and a message to send to his boss, Imotekh!! He gets a run up and just boots the Lord across the battlefield, slaying him outright with his Hammer of Wrath impact, bahaha!

Maelstrom: 4-6 Eldar
Crusade: 1-2 Eldar
Both have Linebreaker and Warlord, Eldar take First Blood:

11-2 Victory to the Croneworld Forces, at the cost of Tanaka's fevered mind...
+

At the end, the Necron forces are reduced to 4 deathmarks, 4 immortals, and the Night Scythe, while the Eldar have: Wraithknight at full-strength, 6 Spiders + Exarch, 1 Spider Exarch, 3 jetbikes, Wave Serpent, Falcon, Void Shield Generator.

After the battle we discussed the Necrons dropping 5 deathmarks for an Overlord on a barge, which are just so good against certain armies, like Battle Company and Eldar in particular, due to the AV13 chariot, and the combat potential when backed up by wraiths.

Feeling really good about this Eldar list, it seems to have just the right blend of offensive and defensive, throwaway units and resilient units, scoring units and interference units, plus just enough psychic support in one Farseer. Looking forward to putting it through its paces against the New Tau, KDK, and once more their true rivals, the drop Centurions, ugh.

For now, Ibushi out!

[Dread]

Wow that is a good bat rep. I really like the list you have, I'm gonna borrow that one for sure. I'm looking forward to your next report. So the void shield generator is a good thing?

I was supposed to get a game in tonight but like every holiday season for the last several years, I got another kidney stone. Surgery tomorrow. As soon as I can I will get a report up myself.

[Cavalier]

Excellent bat-rep Ibushi. What a bloodbath! I ran something similar against Skyhammer in October as you may remember and wiped the floor with it, even without facing it before. Man Necrons are tough! I commend you on dealing with a 15 Wraith army... that is just ridiculous. How did you feel without your CC units? I'm suprised you didn't bring your Harlies they'd be very good against these clunkers I'd imagine. Anyway congrats man it always brings a smile to face to see Eldar triumph over the Necrons.

Question though about your thoughts on beta-strike. Is it the loss of potential points on turn 1 that dissuades you from employing it? I've only played maelstrom a handful of times (and really liked it) and since my games were not timed I just held my cards and scored them later. I haven't played a game where you are forced to discard a massive amount of cards so my view may be skewed. Outside of Maelstrom games though I have had tremendous success in the beta strike. It certainly is nail-biting but it can be absolutely crushing when it arrives. It really messes with your opponents mentality as it completley reverses the momentum of the game. Perhaps more seasoned tourney players are more mentally resilient... Anyway my man great stuff as always. BTW I'd love to see some photos from these bat-reps to better understand the general movement and placement of models. Yet even without photos its always an eye-opening read. Thanks buddy can't wait for more!

[Ibushi]

Cheers man, yeah I love a good bloodbath -- makes the other player have much more fun even if they lose! It's one reason I prefer more of a Footdar approach.

On the Necrons side, warp spiders are the endgame for wraith armies -- you can just put through so many wounds that their 3++ doesn't pull through. Laser bikes are also really helpful for plinking away at range, although more susceptible to dying horribly.

I actually played a similar list to this with the assault aspect warhost back in late September or early October, it had 10 wraiths plus Imotekh and then 9 scarab bases. Harlies/scorpions eventually took down the wraiths, but couldnt get through Imotekh's armour, while the spears and spiders ran amok and took out most everything else. To be honest I was surprised the assault warhost did as well as it did, I think the wraiths failed a ton of saves or something in that game, as the above list is fo sho a Necron execution force -- D-flamers, wraithcannons, monofilament, psychic powers -- see ya later!

On the Beta Strike side, it definitely can work for a lot of BRB maelstrom missions, especially with limited draws T1, but we play ITC maelstrom, so losing one turn of scoring can really turn the tables. In a 5 turn game the maximum is 10 points, and if you lose T1 0-2 you are at a big disadvantage coming out, then T2 when you attack you don't want to be torn between actually attacking and scoring points, you need to do both and REALLY do both. But even that is surmountable. What I've found is that with the new speed and resilience and power of armies in the tournament meta, if you an experienced player a free turn to mess around, he will take up a dominating board position and make your life really really hard.

Drop pods still work, as you can deploy anywhere and there is the additional pain of having to kill the pods, so I'm thinking Corsairs may be able to function similarly by beta striking T2 on time and on target, then using reckless abandon and jet packs to get a potential 24" away from their drop location. Could be very interesting! But I would still want to have a Farseer, Wraithknight, and 3x5 Spiders in a Pale Courts Warhost hanging around for board control, and some obsec jetbikes for points. Then it might work.

Dialling it back again, one of the reasons my Croneworld Warhost is so successful is because the wraithguard serpent deploys very aggressively, with the squishy nasty stuff behind at the beginning of the game -- now opponents are in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario where they are forced to either rush the firebase, but right into a waiting pile of d-scythe love, or hang back to avoid the wraithguard and get shot to pieces! If any of my units are reserved or deep striking (aside from the rangers and 1x spiders, let's say), suddenly that pressure no longer exists, and they can take up whichever position benefits them most!

With the plethora of T2 shenanigans now available, it is very tempting to put together a cohesive beta strike list combined with the Pale Courts and maybe an Eldar CAD too, and see if it can happen in an ITC mission -- but I will leave that up to you for now!

Cheers

[Ibushi]

Greetings 40kO team, it has been a while, but Croneworld Koxinga's irreverent, maniacal warlord Tanaka the Cannibal has been out on the warpath once more. This time the Koxinga Warhost was at TSHFT, a 6-game 1850pts ITC tournament in Seattle, and what a blast it was!

++ Just FYI I was super focused on the games this time around, so literally only took 3 photos of Vincent's knights in Game 4 -- but I do have some pictures of my fully painted army + display board etc., so will post those once I have them uploaded. Sorry Cavalier! ++

Croneworld Koxinga:
Farseer Tanaka - jetbike, WARLORD
Farseer Ryoshi - jetbike

5 Wraithguard - D-scythes
Wave Serpent

3x3 Scatbikes
2x3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers

Wraithknight - Inferno Cannons, 1x laser

Void Shield Torii

Aspect Host:
2x7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
4x Dark Reapers + Exarch

Inquisitor - 2x servo skulls

++

Game 1 vs Thundercav + Grav Cents

Imperials go first and rush the Eldar. Scared of the drop centurions, the WK starts in reserve -- the rest of the Eldar completely annihilate the wolves in 2 turns, then turn on the centurions and sicarans. Highlight is Tanaka taking on the enemy Warlord, a Rune Priest on a bike, in single combat and slaying him for the win. Did forget to put my models on the Emperor's Will though, costing a few battle points.

Game 2 vs Orks (Zhadsnark Bikestar + Stompa + VSG)

Cagey game between the two forces voted 1st and 2nd Favourite Army, really should have taken more pictures. Have some of the Orks to come soon, watch this space. Relic on Hammer and Anvil -- the bikes finally went for the Relic, the Eldar countered hard, last turn the Relic ends up being contested by a single Ork biker squeezing through a gap in the warp spider bubblewrap, the Stompa D's out the WK in combat, but the Eldar win Tertiaries via First Strike -- a very close win. Highlight was Rangers outflanking and killing a squad of Lootas with their pistols; next turn the Orks failed their WAAGH charge on the Rangers by 1", and gretchen shooting fails to kill them. Rangers reload their pistols and run down the Gretchen in assault, next turn taking out most of the second squad of Lootas with their pistols again, bam!

Game 3 vs Tyranid Air Force + VSG

Tyranid Skyblight of 40 gargoyles plus 6 FMCs under a VSG, playing Kill Points. Eldar Seize first turn, but fail to get First Blood. Tyranids strike back and fail to get through the Torii VSG and wave serpent jinking. Turn 2 the Eldar finally get First Blood and take the lead on maelstrom. Game ends with the Tyranids way ahead on KP, but the Eldar in the lead with Maelstrom and First Blood for the win by 1 point. Highlight was Warp Spiders warp jumping 17" to get behind the FMCs then shredding two squads of gargoyles for no casualties - beastly!

Game 4 vs Knights + Eldar

Hammer and Anvil against Baronial Court plus 4x3 Scatbikes, Hornet, Autarch, and VSG. Croneworld Eldar get a full house of psychic powers -- invisibility, shrouding, and Fortune, and just rush the three knights while the enemy Eldar are all in reserve. By end of Turn 3 there is just one scatbike and a damaged Knight left, so we call it. Great game against a most graceful opponent with truly gorgeous Knights -- look forward to the rematch, as it could have been an utterly different game.

Game 5 vs KDK +Tau

KDK are running a Juggernaut Lord with hounds and a Fist of Khorne Kharybdis Assault Claw with 20 Bezerkers backed up by a Riptide Wing of 3 Riptides with heavy burst cannons. KDK seizes on the Eldar and uses the Assault Claw deep strike hit to destroy the Void Shield Generator and Wave Serpent in one hit -- ouch! Turns into an absolute nail-biter of a game, where the Khorne Lord pulls off an unexpected and long charge to catch Tanaka and his jetbikes in combat, finally slaying him in two turns while claiming Linebreaker and contesting the Eldar home objective. Wraithknight uses his inferno cannons to vaporize a summoned Bloodthirster, and counter-punches the Khorne Lord to try to snatch back Warlord, Linebreaker, and the Primary all in one. Two turns of combat later and it comes down to the final stomp roll -- Wraithknight gets 3 stomps....needs one 6 to win the game...rolls a 3,4,4,....

Game 6 vs War Convocation

Last but not least, the highly anticipated War Convocation -- this one was all foot-based, no pods, and ended up going first. A very tight game for the first two turns, with neither side getting much of an advantage, until the Wraithknight unexpectedly got stuck in combat against some Sicarian Infiltrators after failing to kill a single model in two turns of combat. This allowed the Imperial Knight to cover the distance and charge in, D'ing out the WK and turning the game into a cleaning up operation for the WarCon. Had the WK got out of combat in time, he would have hammered the un-shrouded IK with inferno cannons, charging in Invisible and likely destroying it, leaving the WarCon open and exposed, but it was not to be. Great game with a great opponent, just the right combination of competitive and friendly -- gladly look forward to a rematch where the WK can wound with his stomp rolls, or even just hit with his fists. 

Ended up 4-2 and winning 2nd Best Army which was nice, and it was great to play the last few games on the top tables to admire other beautiful armies and spectate on some very interesting top-level games.

2x Farseer was a solid choice, but I'm not 100% sold at this point. Definitely useful, but part of it may be that I just need more practice.

Wraithguard were bullies as usual; would be interested to switch them out for something else, but nothing jumps out.

Jetbikes were great, but am thinking of dropping one squad of scatbikes for some basic Guardians to hold home base and act as a screen again. Rangers replaced the Guardians of old, but they perform very different roles, and I miss the little guys with their ninja star-slingers and grenades.

2x Warp Spiders were keystone units for this army, the unsung hustlers of the Eldar Warhost. If anything I would pick up a third squad! Being able to charge in and hit and run out was a great option, and deep striking can be useful. Did get burned in Game 6 when the Spiders never showed up despite having re-roll reserves Warlord Trait, so I would refrain from deep striking them again unless i really had to, like in Hammer and Anvil. Outflanking is much better there though.

Dark Reapers were solid hitters, helping immensely with taking out void shields and punking out various units at range with accurate shooting. Not terrifying, so they never died this event, but they also never faced their ideal target of Ravenwing bikers or Skimmers. Would be great to switch them out for long-range S8 AP2, but right now the BS5 and mobile shooting is hard to find a replacement for.

Wraithknight had so much potential this time around -- inferno cannons were truly destruction embodied, but getting into 18" means you do need to commit to what you are doing, as you are in the major danger zone at that point. Tempted to try out Deathshroud cannons, as against Battle Co, WarCon, and possibly Tau they would be really effective, but there is a similar range issue. Plus rolling 10 inferno shots is just terrifying to behold -- that Bloodthister got vaporized by Dark Reapers + Inferno Cannons in one turn straight-up. Lastly though, he is not reliable enough in combat as the single combat element in my army. Need a second puncher for sure.

Inquisitor -- this guy was a boss! OK, he sucked, but his servo skulls prevented infiltrators and scouts really well, and that was clutch. My great temptation as this point is to fork out some extra points to put him in terminator armour with a daemon hammer (modelled counts-as with a 1980s Avatar of course), as then his options and usefulness just explode -- backfield puncher guardian, or for teleporting into the enemy field and just loitering like a creepy old man. Could be really useful, but the servo skulls will be a given for me from now on I'm thinking.

Anyway, let me know if you are interested in a specific matchup army list or battle report, happy to oblige. I will also search around amongst my friends to see if there are more pictures. Eldar and Stompa to come soon!

Cheers
Ibushi

[DCannon ForLife]

Welcome back! May I suggest a Swooptarch?

[Ibushi]

Thanks Mr D!

Oh my goodness, I have the sickest Swooptarch model you have ever seen!!

I did some playtesting the night before the event and decided to double-up on Farseers this time around, so autarch took the backseat, but it is in the works for sure!

[Cavalier]

Great tourney report Ibushi, congrats on your success. So let me get this straight you were more focused on your tournament games than taking photos for me? Priorities man, priorities! lol

But seriously thats awesome man I'm glad your army did so well, earning themselves further repute! Your faithful rangers really rewarded you in the Ork game. I know you're a big fan of them so its awesome that the they had some highlights.

What was the KDK game like? It must have been tough without anyone but the WK to hold the line. That was the problem I ran into a few months back. The WK was my only CC option but losing his shooting was brutal for me.

If you were gonna add some CC what would you add?

Any further thoughts on the Seers? The psychic powers are great but for whatever reason ever since 6th ed. rolled around with random powers, I just don't trust them and the Eldar are slinging so many dice I just don't feel they are necessary. Is it just the Invisibility-Factor? If so I totally understand a lot of tourney games revolve around Invis. Let me know when you get the chance.

Anyway great to see you back my man, and congrats on rolling up on TSHIFT like a boss. Cheers man!

EDIT: BTW your buddy Colinsherlow is blowing my mind with Corsair knowledge. The man knows his Eldar!

[Ibushi]

Cheers man, yes next time i will try and get my true priorities in order!

I'll do more of a breakdown of the KDK-Tau game, it was such a close one:

KDK Primary
Khorne Lord on Juggernaut
2x8 Cultists
10 Hounds

Fist of Khorne:
Kharybdis Assault Claw
20 Bezerkers - Champion with powerfist

Tau Riptide Wing:
3x Riptide - Heavy Burst Cannon, SMS, EWO, FNP

Mission is Big Guns Never Tire primary with Maelstrom secondary and then King of the Hill, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord tertiaries.

Eldar choose DZ with more LOS-blocking terrain, and castle up behind the wave serpent and VSG in the absolute corner of the board to out-range the Riptides. KDK deploy in a line along the DZ edge, hounds+lord on the far left (mostly obscured by a 2-tier hill in the middle), then three riptide strung out in a line; cultists in reserve, Kharybdis coming down turn 1.

For psychic powers, the Warlord had Shriek, Terrify, Mental Fortitude and Hallucination, while Farseer Ryoshi has Shriek, Terrify, Dominate, Shrouding -- no Invisibility, so not great, but Shriek and Dominate should be useful.

Eldar take first turn, but then the dastardly KDK seize the initiative back! Kharybdis comes crashing down and D's out both the VSG and Wave Serpent in one critical hit. It then lands right in front of the Eldar, 20 Bezerkers pouring out and assaulting 2 jetbike squads and the rangers, wiping them out (for a total of 5 Blood Tithe points!), while the Riptides make some warp spiders flickerjump out of LOS and waste a few shots on the Wraithknight for no damage. The Lord+Hounds were unable to scout forward due to the servo skulls, but move up behind the hill and run. One Riptide moves, runs, and jet packs far up the right flank to put some extra pressure on.

Eldar strike back with a vengeance -- the Wraithguard obliterate the Kharybdis and 20 Bezerkers just with their D-scythes, while the scatbikes and reapers start pouring shots into the Lord+hounds, taking out about half. Both Warp Spider squads jump and run to try and catch the flanking Riptide, but with some poor jumps are not going to be in charge range, and after some lacklustre run rolls only get about 10 spiders in range. Between deathspinner and inferno cannon shooting, the Riptide is brought down to 2 wounds after some hot cover saves, so not quite ideal.

Turn 2 and the KDK have already garnered a full 8 Blood Tithe from causing so much damage with the Fist of Khorne, and from the ensuing casualties in return -- as cultists walk on in the backfield, a mighty Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury is sent to the field by Khorne himself! The Bloodthister deep strikes 12" away from the Flesh Hounds, right on the edge of the Eldar DZ and in major threat range. Turns out the Greater Daemon has to be summoned out of a character model after a successful leadership test, but we missed this at the time. Next up the Riptides continue pushing forwards while the hounds also move up behind their hill, mostly out of LOS, but getting a 6" run and getting dangerously close. Shooting is able to take out one warp spider squad, leaving one Spider out of LOS.

Eldar Turn 2 and it is time to kick into Daemon-killing gear! The Eldar army pours firepower into the Bloodthister, bringing it down in an explosion of ichor, but leaving the Khorne Lord and his dogs mostly unmolested. The surviving Spiders scratch another wound off the Riptide, and are just unable to finally bring it down. Wraithguard string out to form a screen for the Eldar, while the Farseers split up and join separate jetbike units and take up positions behind some rocks in order to jump out next turn and start Dominating the Riptides (out of range last turn).

Turn 3 and the KDK continue the advance, the hounds stringing out and lining up a charge into the Eldar -- hopefully the Wraithguard! Riptides continue the onslaught, taking out the lone Warp Spider and 4 out of the other unit, bringing them to 3. One Riptide shoots into the Wraithguard, causing three wounds -- and all three die! In assault the Hounds are able to spy the Eldar Warlord through a tiny hole in his rock defence, and they manage a long charge into the Farseer and his unit, deciding also to multi-charge the Wraithknight to tie him up, while avoiding the remaining two wraithguard. Fortunately the Lord whiffs his attacks the Farseer passes his only Rune Armour save this turn, while the Wraithknight beats down some hounds.

On the Eldar turn there is consternation about whether this will be the last turn due to time, or whether to push on for another. After deciding to go into the lunchbreak for extra time to get into turn 4, we continue. Farseer Ryoshi jumps up and gets Terrify and Dominate off on the Riptide hanging out in mid-board, which then fails his morale test and falls back! In the middle, scatbikes and reapers pour firepower into the Riptide on his last 1-2 wounds, and finally bring him down with some failed 2+ saves. That guy really stuck around! Warp Spiders move forward to be in a position to bait some shooting and get in range to claim King of the Hill. In combat the Farseer takes 6 instant death hits from the Lord, and fails his first save, so him and his unit are killed. The Wraithknight beats out two more hounds and then stomps out some more. That's Warlord right there though, which is huge, and the dogs plus Lord are claiming Linebreaker as well as contesting the home Eldar objective too. Quite the conundrum!

Turn 4 and the KDK use their Blood Tithe to summon a unit of 5 hounds onto the middle of the board for King of the Hill. The Dominated Riptide regroups but fails his test and is unable to fire, and having regrouped is unable to run or jetpack move to get within range of the middle. The rightmost Riptide is forced to move back to claim a Primary objective along with the cultists on the second one, leaving just the hounds at centre. Shooting is able to take out the 3 warp spiders after they roll a 3" for flickerjump... In combat the Wraithknight punches the hounds down to one model and the Lord left, then rolls a 6 for Stomp -- in ITC characters are able to Look Out Sir stomp wounds, and he passes it off to the hound on a 2.

Last Eldar turn and there are two ways to play it -- either keep a unit of jetbikes back to use ObSec and score the primary, winning it and bringing the game to a certain tie unless all the central hounds are killed (somewhat unlikely), or else move the jetbikes up to get King of the Hill (Farseer + jetbikes versus one unit of hounds), and hope that the Wraithknight kills the Lord to give Eldar the victory -- but if he fails to do so, it will be a loss. I decide to go for the long-shot of a major win, forgoing the opportunity of a tie. The jetbikes move up, the Farseer splits off, both jetbike units and the dark reapers hammer the hounds in the middle, and surprisingly wipe out all 10 wounds of them, but now the jetbikes are too far away to get back to the home objective. Oh well, at least the Eldar win King of the Hill -- the big question is the Warlord combat.

Against the Khorne Lord the Wraithknight is ineffective in his strikes, then rolls a mighty 3 for Stomps! Needing just one 6 to remove the enemy Warlord and win the game, I pick up the dice, rolling .... 3, 4, 4.... crap.

Basically this game could have been utterly different in a couple of ways -- in hindsight I should have at least split up the wave serpent and VSG to prevent them BOTH being D'd out. But I was not expecting to get Seized on (of course it would happen haha!), and I was banking on him not rolling so hot if it did, which didn't work out either hahah. If just the VSG had survived, it would have been utterly different. Secondly, if we had caught that the Bloodthirster needed to be summoned 6" out of an actual character model, that would have been HUGE. Indescribably huge. Either he sacrifices his Khorne Lord, rendering the hounds basically lame, and putting the Thirster in the Eldar face, but in a very killable fashion. OR he uses the backfield cultist champion (assuming he was on the field from reserves already), but has to land the Thirster in the backfield and use him primarily for capping objectives, or else bring him down in Flying mode, fly all the way across the board next turn, drop down, get shot up, then assault maybe. Lose-lose for KDK.

In terms of the Eldar list, it seemed like dropping the Falcon for a second Farseer may have been a poor last-minute choice, as the extra long-range AP2 shooting would have made a really big difference against the Riptides, and it is likely the Falcon would have survived the Kharybdis drop.

From the KDK game and the next against WarCon it definitely felt like some more combat would have been really helpful in my army, but the question is how and at what price? Scorpions, even just a unit of 5 with Exarch, could have gone a long way either as a resilient screen to the Bezerkers, or as counter-assault to the Ruststalkers, but I would not swap out Spiders to do that. In fact, I think I would rather just take back my unit of 10 guardians to be a screen, and save some points. Or else Reavers in a Pale Courts Warhost, so they can use Reckless Abandon after Overwatch, mwahaha! The other option of course is to pick up a Corsair Prince or Autarch, but in these matchups he would have been aced out pronto without doing much unless you can roll 2+ shadowfield saves all day.

At this point I can only echo a recent sentiment from over on the Corsair PLOG -- the Croneworld Eldar feel like they are nearing completion, all the key models are basically done, there is not much too add, and its a strange feeling. Next up will be working out how to respond to the current shifting meta, adding in some more layers of detail, and putting the new Swooptarch on show!

Any suggestions or insights welcome!

Cheers



Post Merge: January 19, 2016, 08:37:32 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.Couple of pictures of the Croneworlders:



Up close on the portal (board WIP):

[Cavalier]

Awesome bat-rep as always man. What a freaking weird list you came up against. I love the KDK but come on with that Tau! I actually heard about this list on Signals From the Frontline yesterday and was hoping to hear you mentioned in the podcast. Cheers on a great game though.

As far as changing your list, the only thing I'd suggest is dropping the Inquisitor and the Reapers and perhaps trying to squeeze an assault unit that way. I know the anti-scouting is a huge boon but I think its something you can perhaps mitigate via deployment. However I am sensing that the Reapers/Inquisitor are there not for dealing with Scouts, but rather the very scary prospect of White Scars/Dark Angels bikers which are certainly a major threat. However my only thoughts on that is that a close-combat unit (or the Scorpion Exarch alone IF you can get him into combatare effectively an Ignore Cover threat which can be brought against them. I'm not familiar with the Escape Hatch rules but could you perhaps use that as a countermeasure against having them Alpha-Struck?

My lack of experience against the full range of competitive armies is probably showing but I've just really regretted having to charge my WK into combat when I really need his shooting.

The only other solution I can think of is as I contacted you earlier is the Corsair Prince/Autarch with a Seer Council. It will gives you psychic/close-combat/ and even objective grabbing power like no other unit (split off the Prince/Autarch in the waning phases of the game). Plus it'll ensure you keep the Shadowfield up and running with Fortune if you can get it. However that is a major army overhaul and changes the character of the army a bit which you may not keen on and I totally understand and totally endorse. However you could proxy your Shining Spears and try it out and see if you like how it performs but also if you like playing it or not.

Its a conversation for another day but not being able to assault out of reserves is just so damn frustrating. It was a huge part of the way I used to play and was the reason I bought 20 metal Scorpions prior to 6th edition... probably my biggest miscalculation in trying to prepare for the current era of play. It just such an easy way of getting into combat and having a nice little chunk of assault in your army without having to deathstar up which I hate. I was really hoping for a Scorpion formation with Karandras which would allow you to do that but it was not to be.

Anyway those are just some of my thoughts. But given your tournament experience do you think including CC is worth it? Or is it just better to double-down on shooting. I'm convinced that the reason Eldar have won so few major tourneys has something to do with lack of CC but I could be wrong. I'd love to know what you think. Anyway keep on rocking man the army looks fantastic and its always a blast to read your bat-reps. I'm rooting for you to win it all! Keep it up man and keep us posted!

[Ibushi]

Thanks for the support man, appreciate it! Yeah there was a lot more they could have said about that list on Signals as well, trust me! Plus the Necron player Frankie played was my friend the Father of the Void himself! That was a crazy game too -- Frankie played until about T4 saying his Stormsurges were T8, when someone told them they are only T6! Given that 10 wraiths had been in combat with them for several turns until being stomped out, he put on his Sportsmanship hat and just took the Surges off the table, so kudos to him for that. On the flipside, if those wraiths had been chewing through T6 like they should have been, I can only imagine how the outcome would have differed. Oh well, these things happen!

Yeah I agree with you on the combat side, and I think either Scorpions or Spears would be my go-to, although you can also do a squad of Harlequins via the Pale Courts Warhost which is VERY tempting. To be honest though, you need to look more closely at what specific combat issues you are facing -- Khorne Lord on Juggernaut with Hounds? OK, forget it, just pray you can shoot the crap out of them, and use screening units to tie them up and leave them hanging in the breeze for more shooting. Sicarian Infiltrators/Ruststalkers? Yeah just shoot them with S6 weapons to double them out, preferably with Ignores Cover -- so roll on Divination and try to get Perfect Timing! Scatbikes will DESTROY War Convocation units if they can ignore their cover. I didn't roll on Divination like a fool, but it was because I didn't get Invisibility an decided to put more stock in Shriek than I should have. Next time around I think I would potentially do double-Divination, as then you should get Forewarning for 4++ on the Knight and Foreboding, which will ruin Infiltrators/Ruststalkers, as well as hopefully Perfect Timing. But you have to take the medicine to get the cure, eh!

And I like how you didn't just say "take assault units!", but looked at what we would need to remove to actually achieve that -- and in this case, the only "fat" i consider to be in the list right now is maybe one unit of jetbikes, potentially the second farseer, and actually the wraithguard. Yes D-scythes are disgusting, but against top level players, too often that huge investment of points gets wasted for my liking.

In terms of the Inquisitor/Dark Reapers you got it though -- they absolutely ruin Ravenwing/White Scars/scouts, so they are staying in! Also in the game against KDK it was the Reapers putting high strength low AP ignore-jink shots into the Bloodthirster which was able to just strip wounds really fast. That high BS and ignoring jink is huge, and they pair really well with scatbikes for tapping out squads or for bringing down void shields.

Actually what i AM thinking for some more assault punch is to upgrade the Inquisitor to terminator armour with a daemon hammer. That mofo will chew his way through a tactical squad no problem, especially if you back him up with a stubborn unit of henchmen. Plus what really shines to my mind is that in a situation where you don't need a homebase hammernator, you can always keep the henchmen as a screen but then deep strike the inquisitor as a one-man presence anywhere on the board. This is seriously clutch for linebreaker/table quarters/whatever, even if he doesn't get to smack any mon-keigh.

We talked a bit about Eldar's biggest weakness, and really it comes down to a lack of bodies. When Battle Co is getting free 3HP vehicles, WarConvocation gets free excellent cover saves for two turns, Chaos summon, Tyranids respawn, Renegades have Fearless, x+ FNP zombies, Tau have Kroot and recycling drones, but Eldar at best have Guardians costing almost 10 points and actually less survivable than any of those options... Yes scatbikes are nasty, but you're looking at a total of 15 space marine equivalents for your troops choices haha. Warp Spiders are good too, but if you don't get out of LOS with your flickerjump, prepare to be hung out to dry!

In that light, I had a sudden realization that for the cost of a squad of guardians with warlock, I can potentially have *30* inquisitorial henchmen -- very exciting!  Not obsec, sure, and useless, sure -- but if you think of them as bubblewrap, wrenches, and extra wounds for a terminator inquisitor, wow that's not so bad. Plus for the cost of a brightlance platform you get 3 multimelta servitors to destroy drop pods that come too close. Deal! So with all those thoughts swirling around in my mind, I'm working on a list more like this:

Pale Courts Warhost - Halls of Martial Splendour + Aspect Lord-Shrine
Autarch - wings, fusion, power weapon, mask > yeah, the Swooptarch! Same points as a Farseer! (re-rolls all to Hit in a Challenge, nice)
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
Aspect Host:
6 Swooping Hawks + Exarch
6 Swooping Hawks + Exarch
4 Dark Reapers + Exarch
Deathshroud/Inferno Wraithknight

Eldar CAD:
Farseer - Jetbike, WARLORD
2x3 Scatbikes
3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers or 3 Jetbikes
VSG

Inquisitorial Detachment:
Inquisitor - terminator armour, daemon hammer, stormbolter, 3x servo skulls
1x Psyker ML1
3x Multi-melta Servitor (plus servo-arm, boss!)
7x Acolyte (lasguns)

The main sacrifice here is that ranged shooting takes a bit of hit in favour of much more board mobility and mid-range options, so I'll have to try it out. Autarch dropping in and harassing backfield seems legit, but also he's very easy to kill, so have to be careful there. Not enough points for the shard of anaris IF ONLY soulshrive was still legal!

Cheers!

Edited for excessive stats.  Please see forum rule 1 for details - Iris.

[Cavalier]

Really interesting stuff Ibushi. Thats surprising that Frankie messed up on the Surge's toughness but I've done similar things myself. I remember I messed up on points was 100pts over once because I had Army Builder set to 2000pts and so when the the points counter wasn't red I thought I was all set. The 100pts was a Farseer and I played him with a 3+ Invuln the whole game. Talk about epic flub. At least I lost the game though. 

I definitely see where you are coming from with your list construction. I'm glad you noticed I didn't just blab TAKE ASSAULT! Its always really hard to give advice on list building because you don't know the role people have for their units, or even if they think in terms of "role" at all. Its one of the reasons I seldom comment on army lists in the Eldar section of the forum, yet I think we both have that mindset where every unit has a job so we can have an interesting conversation at the very least.  I definitley see the Reapers having a super important role in your army... and I can definitely see dropping the Wraithguard. They are a huge points sink.

I like the idea you have for an Inquisitor. It reminds me of Frankie from FLG's Dark Eldar list back in 6th ed. where he'd run Vect from the DE book with 20 Guardians and 2 Brightlances on foot and just use them as a crazy meat shield and shuriken machine before going into combat. I was shocked at how well it worked and I think something of that nature could definitely work for you.

Also I hear you on the challenges of playing Eldar against the other "true" 7th ed books like Necrons, Space Marines War Convocaton et. all. No one wants to hear it but there is a reason Eldar have one only 2 major tournaments in the past 3 years. There are weaknesses in the codex and its called fragility. Aside from the WK (and with drop-centurions and grav-spam why are Space Marine players still complaining?) if you can actually land a hit on us we tend to fold which is why Eldar have a hard time winning every match in a tournament. We also don't have high powered assault. Are we one of them top 3 most powerful armies in the game? Definitely but there are big time chinks in the armor.

Anyway your list is very interesting. I love the Autarch with Wings. I wish the Soulshrive was legal too. Why the Space Marine supplements remained legal and the Eldar didn't I'll never know. The only suggestion I'd make it to perhaps put a power-weapon on on the Exarch who'll be buddied up with the Autarch. I've always thought they'd make a good team for dispatching combat squads of Space Marines, Firewarriors etc. My only question is do you have enough anti-tank? The Hawks will ace it as will the Inferno Knight, but you are relying on a lot of Str 6 to get the job done. Its probably because I rock so many lances and pulse lasers that I balk a bit. Yet you'd know best how this core of your army performs against armor, let me know your thoughts if you get a chance. Anyway great stuff as always man... the mad professor always at work, I love it!

[DCannon ForLife]

As shooty as the Eldar are, it is the lack of terrain on tournament tables that has perhaps the strongest influence on their success. Most tournament tables still have 6 pieces of terrain, placed symmetrically by (well meaning) TO's. There is, in general, a lack of smaller terrain pieces (particularly that still block LoS). The LoS pieces that do exist tend to be VERY big (trying to make up in size what the table lacks in variety).

The Eldar codex, in which every infantry unit (and jetbikes too) relies on the ability to move/shoot/move, needs more terrain on the board in order to truly capitalize on its core strength. On a table with 8-10 terrain pieces (not all of which are mammoth sized, but still provide LoS), Eldar dance their opponents to death....

[Ibushi]

Yeah terrain is definitely a major point -- on a table with some solid LOS-blocking terrain, the number of armies that my Eldar will just lay to ruin dramatically increases. As soon as even just Drop Pods and whatnot can get consistent bolter shots into the scatbikes, those suckers will go down like chumps.

The absolute worst 1-2 punch for the pointy ears is losing first turn (assuming you even have defensive psychic powers like Invis/Shrouding), on a table with minimal LOS-blocking terrain, and then the monster hook to the jaw is skyhammer or drop centurions or something on top of that coming down full bore. Prepare to have your face smashed!

At the end of the day the Eldar are super powerful, but pulling through a 5-game or 6-game tournament is always tough just due to their frailty and how expensive just a guardian is. Looking just at defensive stats, an Inquisitorial Acolyte has the same toughness and save, but costs LESS THAN HALF of a guardian. Oh, no shuriken rending 12" weapons, decent WS/BS, Battle Focus, or high Initiative? Oh boohoo, sometimes you just need some derpy-derp boots on the ground to take a chainaxe to the face instead of jetbikers, and Eldar literally do not have this choice. If Kroot still had a standalone list, I would for sure take an Allied detachment of them to just be a nice screen.

Yeah yeah jetbikers are super cheap and put out absurd shooting power, but they really can't take a punch, so its a good balance in many ways.

After all these years of prideful all-Eldar lists, finally I'm folding and taking some allies to beef up the numbers and get some more abilities, and it's making a really huge difference so far.

[Ibushi]

Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a cold summer, but one filled with hot Mon-Keigh blood!

This July was the first defence of the Wet Coast GT title, returning from last year for seconds... but something spicy needed to happen, ye olde warp hunters+inquisition under a void shield was starting to feel pretty stale as it plays the same way every game. Plus there is a lot of antagonism towards warp spiders and wraithknights this year, so I decided to go for something totally different, and try and win the 5-game GT with a pure Corsairs, zero Warp Spider, zero Wraithknight, zero Alpha Strike, all-reserves army -- Bring on the Eldar Corsair Fleet Raiding Party!!!

1850 Eldar Corsairs:

Corsair CAD:
Warlord Prince - jetbike, shadowfield, voidsabre, Reaper of the Outer Dark (Rage, Rampage, must charge units within 8")
3x Scatdancers
5x Ghostwalkers
5x Ghostwalkers
Hornet - pulse lasers
Warp Hunter - void burners, kinetic shroud
Void Shield Generator - 2x shields

Corsair Fleet Raiding Company
Rage Prince - jetbike, shadowfield, voidsabre, Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures (corsair combat drugs), +Rage
Void Dreamer - jetpack, shimmershield, witchstaff, Aethermancy (ML1), +Rage
10x Malevolents - jetpacks, 2x melta bombs, corsair combat drugs, +Rage
3x Scatdancers - +Rage
3x Scatdancers - +Rage
Corsair Nightwing
Corsair Phoenix
Warp Hunter - void burners, kinetic shroud



Warlord Prince on jetbike, Void Dreamer with Malevolents in the foreground:



Rage (Expendable) Prince with Malevolents:



After some playtesting it became apparent that a single Fleet Raiding Company doesn't have enough slots, so I decided to bump out to a CAD+Formation despite the Desperate Allies drawback that Corsairs incur.. On the plus side, two Princes and two Warp Hunters!

Main challenge of the list is that it cannot sustain any firepower or assault really whatsoever, with the exception of the Malevolents who are oddly resilient. Even then, the Malevolents will really struggle to actually deal any damage, so eventually they'll be destroyed in assault too, but they'll hold a unit or two locked in combat for a solid number of turns.

++

Arriving at Wet Coast GT, there is a solid turnout just under 30 people, with a lot of the classic opponents ready to roll, looking to take out the pointy ears once and for all.

Game 1 is a really rough matchup right out of the gate: the imperious boys in blue, of wide repute for being the only BC-based force to defeat the Croneworld Kin before --

Ultramarines Gladius Strikeforce

Captain
Chaplain
5x Command - 4x melta + Drop Pod
3x 5 Tactical - melta + Drop Pod
3x 5 Tactical - guns + Razorback
1x Landspeeder
1x Landspeeder
1x 5 Devastators - 2x grav + Rhino - Sergeant is Warlord
1x 3 Centurions - grav-cannons + grav-amp
3x 5 Scouts

White Scars Allied Detachment:
Librarian - Hunter's Eye (with Centurions)
1x 5 Scouts
1x Drop Pod (Centurions)
1x Stalker

Stephen is a really good player, with a really solid and well-practiced Battle Company, so I was very focused on this game and failed to take any pictures sadly. However, you may recognize these warriors of the Imperium from a previous battle report:



The same ones!

++ Pre-Game ++

Mission is ITC 1 -- Emperor's Will on Dawn of War + Maelstrom + Big Game Hunter, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord

This is going to be a tough one as the Marines can easily cover both objectives in obsec bodies, but since the Maelstrom is so much easier for Battle Co to score, the Corsairs will have to focus entirely on winning Primary. Going second will be key. The Maelstrom is virtually unwinnable against Battle Co, so let's just forget that one. Linebreaker is a wash for both armies, Big Game Hunter could go either way with the Centurions versus Warp Hunter/Phoenix both around 200pts, and lastly the Corsairs will need to get Warlord to break Tertiaries, that will be key.

++

Space Marines win the roll to go first and opt to start the pounding fast and early – they set up the transports spread through the DZ, with Stalker+Devastators+2x Tac in transports very centrally, Speeders to the right with one Rhino, 2x 5 scouts outflank, the others deploy left of centre.

Corsairs are silently crying with pleasure for being handed 2nd turn against the Gladius -- this suddenly became a much more winnable matchup. Void Shield Generator deploys in the far left corner next to Emperor’s Will objective, then the Malevolents+Rage Prince+Void Dreamer string out in front of it to prevent any boys in blue getting within melta range turn 1. Everything else on the Corsair side is screaming down in orbital attack, arriving by Deep Strike or Outflank, hellz yeah! Let's do this!

++ Turn 1

Space Marines bring down the command squad with 4 meltas, they scatter backwards out of melta range and fail to bring down the void shields even. Next comes down a tactical squad with melta, bringing down the shields at least, but unable to scratch the VSG. Lastly the transports and scouts move forwards to extend board presence, and shoot into the Malevolents for some wounds here and there. Not very exciting just yet.

Corsairs dial up their drug dispensers and go hurtling into the newly arrived squads+pods, engaging in a strung out multi-assault with both pods and both units - the Prince decimates a tactical squad, softened up by Malevolent shooting, while the Mallys kind of flap around.

++ Turn 2

Librarian and Captain both arrive with their squads in Pods, trying to land on the Corsair home objective, but both scatter backwards and fail to land in range. The Captain’s unit unleashes some more melta into the Void Shield Generator, finally killing it. The Librarian with Centurions come hurtling down onto a Skyshield Landing pad, but having nothing to shoot at they just chill out for a turn. On the right side some scouts outflank into the Corsair DZ, and a tactical Rhino moves up onto a maelstrom objective supported by both Landspeeders.
 
Combat with the Corsairs continues, while the Chaplain with tactical squad that landed turn 1 charges in to try and exact some damage on the Space Pirates, only for his unit to be brutally cut down by the Corsair Prince before striking blows. Chaplain and 2 survivors are stuck in, still tying up the Malevolents for a turn.

Corsair Turn 2 and the reserves start rolling in… everything arrives except the Hornet and 1 unit of ghostwalkers! Both Warp Hunters drop down in front of the Centurions, one of them having a mishap back into reserves, the other landing right within Template range and vaporizing two Centurions right off the bat. The Phoenix tries to support the Hunter, but then also mishaps and is placed by the opponent facing into the corner of the board, sadly taking it out of the game for another turn at least. Nightwing drops down right in front of the Stalker, daring it to Intercept or die – which it does, and the 2+ jink holds up against a barrage of autocannon shots, the Nightwing then hammering shuriken and laser fire into the Stalker to destroy it despite Snap Firing, with some assistance from outflanking scatbikes. On the right flank 3x scatbikes + Warlord Prince outflank into the SM DZ and destroy the Rhino and tactical squad positioned there, as well as forcing a landspeeder to jink and stripping hull points.

Assault phase and the Prince is able to slay the enemy Chaplain, finishing off the squad – wow what a combat champion! Malevolents keep slapping away at the other squad, not quite able to kill them, but do destroy a Drop Pod and take a wound for their efforts.

Maelstrom is 2-1 to the SM.

Turn 3

We misread the schedule and think that we only have 20 minutes to go at this point, which is truly shocking seeing as the Corsairs only just arrived on the table, and it feels like we are just getting started. After some confusing back-and-forth, we rush to hammer out a Turn 3 as fast as possible.

Marines keep up pressure by moving up on the Emperor’s Will objective, but so far only the Captain+tactical squad are in range, so they bubble out to hold it –2 scout squads outflank in that corner also, ready to cap next turn if needs be. On the right side the devastators and other units are basically all out of range of the scatbikes, but they send potshots into the Warp Hunter with its special re-rolling Kinetic Shrouds save, failing to damage it. The surviving Centurion lends its weight of fire into the Warp Hunter, immobilizing it but failing to destroy it.  Back in assault, the Corsairs keep chewing away at the squad from turn 1, and just two remain, locking them for another turn unfortunately.

Corsair Turn 3 and the Space Pirates have zero hope of catching up on the Maelstrom, so they desperately need to capture the Empror’s Will objective which is currently surrounded by two Rhinos with combat squads, with a third nearby. At the same time they need to recapture the home objective, which currently has a combat squad with Captain sitting on it. No mean feat! As the Corsair Phoenix is forced to fly off the board this turn, that gives away Big Game Hunter to the Marines, both armies will certainly have Linebreaker, so that means the Corsairs also need to slay the enemy Warlord this turn just to get a Tie… can it be done?

To start things off, Reserves continue arriving – a Warp Hunter manages to land perfectly to place a Template on the Captain’s unit, killing them down to 2 models in one fell swoop. A hornet Outflanks right behind the Captain, lacing him with pulse laser fire and wiping out that squad to clear up the objective. Ghostwalkers also outflank and shoot into the Scouts there, then using Reckless Abandon to move 6” further and make it within 3” of the home objective to hold it.

On the SM objective, first the Warp Hunter opens up to try and destroy both transports with his Destroyer barrage – sure enough one is destroyed, but the other survives with 1hp left! Warlord Prince+scatbikes and two more supporting jetbike units move up towards the blue Emperor’s Will objective – the first scatbike unit opens fire and destroys the last Rhino, exposing the enemy Warlord and opening a space for the other jetbikes to contest that objective. If the Warlord Prince can just make into assault the day can be won… Warlord Prince shoots backwards into the Landspeeder, destroying it and propelling the squad forwards with a long Reckless Abandon move – if he can make a 9” charge into the enemy Warlord he can win the day in one brutal turn… but it’s not to be as he fails the charge, but at least his companions are able to contest the objective at least.

Lastly the Malevolents finally kill the last marines, allowing the Rage Prince to consolidate backwards towards the home objective and prevent the encroaching Rhinos from being able to move onto it without risking Death or Glory meltabomb attacks! A pretty good turn for the Corsairs, but by losing the Phoenix to Ongoing Reserves and not slaying the enemy Warlord, if the game were to end here it would be a 6-5 loss. 

At this point everyone around us is still merrily gaming, even though we think the round should have ended… turns out yes we misread the schedule and we have a full 45 minutes left to play the game! We have a bit of a heated argument, as my opponent feels that we verbally agreed to just finish the game this turn, so even though there is time left in the round, we should honour that agreement and end the game… My argument is that we didn’t agree to “finish this turn”, we were forced to rush due to our misled belief that time was about to expire… given that time has not actually expired and given that we haven’t played to turn 4 (turn 4 is considered the minimum length by our Tournament Organizer), then naturally we should continue. The Tournament Organizer agrees with me, but my opponent is very unhappy. arguing that being rushed through last turn has put him on the back foot and made him not take the best advantage of the situation, etc. Hoping to assuage his concerns, I offered to let him move and shoot all of his units that he felt did not have a chance to perform yet, despite it being out of sequence, but he declined. Oh well, we can only play on.

Maelstrom is 4-2 to the SM.

Turn 4

Marines continue moving up, targeting the units on the two Emperor’s Will objectives, and sending a Rhino up over terrain to disgorge more troops onto the Corsair objective, while a second unit deploys and is able to get behind the newly arrived Warp Hunter. In the shooting phase, the Hornet is taken down, the ghostwalkers are wiped out, and the Warp Hunter is actually killed! A very successful turn! Back at the home objective, the Marines shoot into the Warlord and scatbikes, killing one, but are not very effective and don’t have the weight of fire necessary to do the job.

Corsairs respond with a vengeance, feeling like this will actually be the last turn, and now all the cards are in their hands… the Phoenix drops down and makes an attack run on the enemy warlord with his devastator unit, opening up with shuriken cannons, phoenix missiles, and a pulse laser, completely wiping the unit out in an explosion of blue armour and gore! The Nightwing drops down right next to the Phoenix to open up on the surviving Centurion and Librarian, sending laser bolts and shuriken the size of dinner plates rending through the elite unit, obliterating the Librarian but leaving the Centurion standing firm with one wound left. Back at the home objective Rage Prince splits off from the Malevolents and targets the Centurions – first he shoots into the tactical marines on the home objective, killing one and using Reckless Abandon to propel himself right next to the Lone Centurion, who he then mercilessly slaughters with his rending Void Sabre! Malevolents move up on the remaining tacticals, shredding them with dual-toting shuriken pistols, then assaulting the nearby Rhino for good measure, destroying it with melta bombs and plasma grenades. The Void Dreamer also splits off from the Malevolents, holding down the home objective as a single model.

At this point the only units left for the Space Marines are a few scout squads and a tactical unit with grav-cannon in a Rhino in the backfield. The Corsairs have lost a unit of ghostwalkers, the Hornet, a Warp Hunter, and the Void Shield Generator, but they are very much still in the business of death-dealing. With the Centurions and Devastators taken down this turn, that is Big Game Hunter, Warlord, while Warlord Prince holds down Linebreaker plus Primary for the Corsairs. Marines easily win Maelstrom and also have Linebreaker.

Corsair Victory 7-5!

++ Post-Game

MVP – Rage Prince, holy crap! This guy single-handedly took out a tactical squad when it assaulted him, finishing them and the Chaplain off in 3 rounds of combat, then consolidated over and finished off a second unit too! After that he bounced back, took out some marines, then used the Rum Slingshot to murderize the Centurions and snatch Big Game Hunter, ouch! This guy was the king of the backfield, may all those approaching fear him! Oh did I mention that his Shadowfield gave out when he was charged by the Chaplain? So he did all this down one wound and without his incredible invulnerable save, hah. Check out this picture from when official time was called, having just slaughtered the Centurions, with the Nightwing and Phoenix behind him:



Special mention to the Phoenix for having a ridiculous performance of mishapping, going back into Reserves, almost losing Corsairs the game, and then finally arriving turn 4, it was a sad debut. But then when he rolled in on turn 4 he easily wiped a whole squad and picked up Warlord, which was really sweet and ended up clinching the win for the Corsairs hah. Looking forward to seeing this guy get some proper action in games to come! When he does take the safety off and pull the trigger, it's nasty!

Wooden Spoon -- the Void Dreamer for being a pretty big waste of points this game, completely unable to beat down any tactical marines or throw up any useful powers hah, but really looking forward to seeing this guy get into his element, he still seems crucial to the list in my opinion.

Takeaways -- Corsairs rock at the orbital assault, but they are going to really struggle with Maelstrom. Princes tear up MEQ in combat like nobody's business, whereas Malevolents are honestly super weak.

++

Game 2 vs Blood Angels coming shortly!

[Cavalier]

Love it! Total glory my friend. So happy to see you rocking with your Corsairs. The final photo is absolutely sick!!!! I've all but decided that next game I HAVE to try out the new Corsairs in some way shape or form.... the Prince is just too sick! He's what I want my Autarch to really be!

Also loved seeing the Phoenix... its so good! Even with the new Death from the Skies rules its awesome. Arghhh! I gotta play my army as Corsairs! Gonna try and cook up a list right now.

Also what a lame move on your opponents part. Trying to force the game to be over. I guess I can understand though, its so easy to get worked up during these games and not really approach things the way you would normally. Especially at a big tourney he's probably been anticipating for awhile.

Anyway glorious stuff my friend. Keep up the great work and make sure you keep us all posted. This stuff is gold