Killed by Death

I went up against the new Ynnari playing for first at a local store Tournament last weekend. They are very strong. My opponent hadn't optimized his list, just ported over his usual Craftworld list since it fit in their Detachment just fine. Between that and me doing a good job of picking on isolated Units or multi-Charging into everything that could Soulburst off of a given Unit's death, he only managed to Soulburst once, but that once completely changed the Game, taking down a dozen Flesh Hounds and my JuggerLord with a Soulburst on 10 Fire Dragons and then a cleanup assist from a handful of ScatBikes.

I would have had that Game solidly in hand if he'd just had Battle Focus instead. Once people really get some experimentation in, these guys are just going to be disgustingly good. Which is a shame, really, because I love the way they play. It was the most interesting and tactical Game of 40K I've had in a while. But Craftworld Eldar are just about the last Faction in the Game that needed a buff at all, and they definitely got one here.

Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Squaduary: Weather Delay

I have discovered an issue with the Squaduary concept, as opposed to Dreadtober, at least here in the PNW: In October, we can usually rely on at least a couple of days of dry weather each week. February, on the other hand, is pretty reliably rainy, or at least extremely damp and humid, which makes terrible conditions for spray priming. Today is at least sunny and clear, and the humidity is supposed to dip to the lowest it's been for a while in a couple of hours here, so I'm going to hope I can get a decent coat on.

That said, the modeling part went well. I got three Squads of 5 "Scouts" done, one each with Bolters, BP/CCW, and Sniper Rifles. The rest of this is basically just a picdump:

The intensive training the Alpha Legion uses for these operatives takes long enough that they often begin to be warped by the association with Chaos

The Combat Drugs they're pumped up on contribute further to the incidence of mutation in the ranks

The Squad Leaders get the fanciest cloaks

Another consequence of the Combat Drugs is that few of the operatives will survive more than a mission or two, even if they don't die in combat

Only one way to deal with a stealth trooper who won't shut up ;)

The Sniper Sarge calls out targets

The Snipers are the most heavily augmented

The overall effect comes out a bit more kitbashed than I was hoping, rather than mutated, but I'm still pretty happy with them. Hopefully the paint jobs will tie them all together better. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Squaduary

Following on from the idea of Dreadtober, ThousandEyes over at Stepping Between Games has introduced the Squaduary event. Same basic idea as Dreadtober: Build and paint something in a month. The difference is that this one is about Squads of Infantry and such instead of Dreads and other big 'uns.

Before the Legions supplement came out, I had been planning on running my Alpha Legion as Raven Guard Counts-As with the Talon Strike Force. To that end, I'd pulled together a bunch of bits for some heavily armed and trained and boosted Culties to represent Scouts. Despite the awesomeness of the Alpha Legion Rules in the supplement, I kind of feel like I still want to do this, just for the lulz. So here I've got a mix of SM Scout, Tempestus Scion, Catachan, Flagellant, and Chaos Marauder parts, ready to mix and match for some sneaky evilness.

Hopefully I'll have build pics up sometime early next week, and until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!