40k: How To Spend 400pts On Eldar

As the painting of my new (revived) Eldar continues nicely, thoughts naturally drift towards the creation of a usable army list, and the contents thereof.

We're using 4th Edition 40k rules and any legal codexes/lists from the time, so I don't have to concern myself with flyers or big mech (the things that broke 40k for me personally). Also some of the point costs, rules and units available are different from the most current codex so I need to be thinking retro. Luckily I only have 400 points to spend as part of our 40k in 40 minutes reintroduction to the game so doesn't give too many permutations to get bogged down with. But what to take in my list?

Colour-coded Dire Avengers - what an awesome idea!!

First of all I must take a Troop choice. Whilst I could take some Dire Avengers, I've gone down the traditional route and decided upon a unit of 10 Guardians with a support weapon platform and attached Warlock. This is what currently resides on my painting table (lucky that!) and is not too far from being tabletop ready. Tick.

So that leaves me approximately 265 points to spend on whatever I like from the codex. Just to confirm, I decided to use the 4th Edition Eldar codex rather than the 3rd Ed or mini-dex lists (which were all legal with 4th Ed 40k rules at various times).

However, the one fly in the ointment is that I'm not allowed to take any vehicles with a combined armour value of more than 33. This means that Wave Serpents (my main transport option), Falcons (my other transport option) and Fire Prisms are not available to me. That's a pretty big blow and leaves me rather static. However, Vypers are available to me and they're cheap(ish) and very fast. That would give me the fast element that I'm after... it's the Eldar way after all.

The other thing to think about is that I will be facing Orks (at least initially) who will have cheap, fast vehicles and transports themselves and be awesome in combat. Do I try to out fight Orks in melee? Do I ignore melee and concentrate on shooting the Orks to bits? Do I go for a balanced list against the greenskins?

The other units of note that I can include in my 400 points are:

Wraithlords
Back in the day these were near untouchable - they could deal out a lot of death and took a lot of hits to take down. It would draw some attention if positioned well and force the Orks to spend turns of shooting/melee trying to take it down (turns not spend shooting/assaulting other things).
Edit - as noted below in the comments, Wraithlords are off the table due to having 3 wounds!

Wraithguard
These are basically Toughness 5 space marines with a cannon of death. Overkill against Orks perhaps, but if there are Killa Kans and other nasty mech they will go through them like tissue paper. They do require a Warlock or Farseer to be close by or risk stopping in their tracks. They're also very expensive, so would leave very few points left for other things.

Aspect Warriors
Banshees or Scorpions would be a superb melee option. The only problem is that they will always be outnumbered against the Orks and have relatively low Toughness so will drop easily in a greenskin ruck. Reapers, whilst expensive, would make a great firepower base, but the AP3 of their weapons is wasted on Orks. Hawks and Spiders inject some jumping around 'slippery-ness' to play with but I'm not convinced their weapons are decisive enough when the crunch time comes.

Rangers
I love Rangers. I've faced them many a time in tournaments and they can be a pain. However, I'm not convinced they would tip the balance against a horde army like Orks, and certainly not at this point size of game. In a game where the objective was claiming objectives then they would come into their own.

Guardian Jetbikes
The speed injected by the inclusion of jetbikes could make a massive difference against an enemy I don't really want to be engaging with in melee combat. They are a Troop choice so could even replace my Guardian unit already chosen. However, at 22pts per bike I could only take 4 bikes plus Warlock for the same cost as my 10 Guardians plus weapon platform and Warlock choice I have at present.

I've certainly got a lot to think about, but need to make decisions soon.

To be continued...

40k Eldar: Revised Red Recipe

My painting progress continues at a snail's pace, but continues nonetheless. I have a confession to make however, I went out at the weekend and bought some GW paint from a GW store - I know, I know, I'm ashamed.

I was intending to use my traditional red recipe for the Eldar, but have run out of my usual stuff. I did like the red scheme from the latest Warhammer AoS Khorne models and so after some investigation went out and bought several pots of red paint. I did manage to refrain from buying any models - they are so expensive in-store compared to online, plus it's not like I don't have a the model backlog from hell!

I have spent the last couple of evenings tinkering with this weapon platform base, while I get my new recipe worked out in my head. I went a bit further than normal with the highlights, eventually pulling them back with a red wash. Now that I've resolved this I'm hoping I can forge ahead and get a couple of bits on the go at the same time. I just need to get some magnets dropped into the platform and various guns and I'll be set.

More soon.

40k: Eldar Painting Continues

So after a week's holiday I've managed to get into something of a routine with the painting, every evening getting an hour in before everything has to be packed away. It will be short lived as there is decorating to be done, but I'm taking the opportunity to move things forward.

The initial part of my new 40k in 40 minutes for 4th edition Eldar army will consist of a basic Guardian squad and Warlock. The only bit, as you can see, that needed building was the support weapon crew - I only had metal ones previously and they kept falling over so I jumped at the chance of having plastic ones.

So far the red has gone over the top of the old purple armour scheme very easily and, if I'm very careful, won't involve repainting the white Guardian helmets (I've botched a couple with a wayward brush!). For the raw plastic, I'm undercoating in the dark brown, then giving it a second layer as a basecoat - the image above shows this on the support weapon base. Since this photo was taken I have added several layers of red on top of the basecoat and these different elements are starting to come together in a glorious sea of scarlet. The weapon crew will have to be undercoated black however, if they are to look the same as the rest of the guardians.

My plan is to magnetise the support weapon base so that I can swap out the weapon itself without the need for blu-tac. If I can get this little group finished I'll feel like I've achieved something not seen here in a long time - finished miniatures!!!

To be continued.

The Dream Team Are Coming…

Amongst the recent re-painting of Dark Templar marines and Eldar ready for our project "40k in 40 minutes in 4th edition", I managed to get a couple of other models based and undercoated.

I picked out the two survivors from my Zombicide: Black Plague dream team that Mr Awdry and Bull haven't painted between them and got them some paint.

The first is Cadence, my medieval sniper, with her wolf pelt outfit. Then there is Theo, my sprinter. He looks like a stereotypical fantasy adventurer with his cape, two-handed sword and bow. Looking forward to seeing them in a more colourful state, and hopefully they'll provide a good break from all that purple (space marines) or red (eldar) that's in my painting future.

However, I'm away on holiday this week with the family – the first real holiday in two years, the first since junior was born – so no painting or hobby time available (except thinking about it… what I'm best at!)