6th Edition Mechdar List v1

Nick speaking,

With my three Wave Serpents now painted up, it's time for me to revisit my Mechdar list. To be fair, with 6th Edition changing quite a few things up, it's more like starting fresh with this list, rather than a few tweaks here and there. So what to put in my newly painted Wave Serpents? Sadly Howling Banshees are out, but Fire Dragons are still holding up as the main Elites Choice in the Codex. I want to keep the units cheap though, so two small units of five Dragons for two Serpents it is. The third Serpent is going to have to have a maxed out Dire Avenger unit as usual, with the Exarch exchanging his dual cats for a power weapon and Shimmer Shield to offer them a bit more survivability. The third Serpent will also carry my HQ, which will be Eldrad, instead of the usual Farseer. As for the Wave Serpents themselves, I am currently just taking Scatter Lasers with the Shuriken Cannon upgrade, I really can't see the need for Spirit Stones or any of the extra Engines upgrades.

Unfortunately my Falcon and it's small Dire Avenger unit is just going to have to go in this list. I just cannot seem to justify taking the Falcon anymore and the small Dire Avenger unit it carried is just not cut out for the tasks needed in 6th. The tank itself has lost it's survivability and in most missions will not be able to score for me easily. My two Fire Prisms are staying in though, but once again I have dropped all the upgrades except for one Shuriken Cannon, as I had ten points left over at the end. It is amazing how many extra points you get when you dumb down the tanks a bit, which is great, as I now need to pack in some extra troops. Two groups of six Jetbikes with an Embolden Warlock in each will now join my Mechdar list, leaving me with enough points for an annoying group of Swooping Hawks and a single flanking War Walker as a cheap distraction unit.

Here is my final list, any thoughts and comments are most welcome...

IDIC Mechdar v1

HQ

1 x IDIC Eldrad (210)

TROOPS

10 x Dire Avengers/Exarch/Power Weapon/Shimmer Shield/Bladestorm (162)
              *IDIC Wave Serpent/Scatter Lasers/Shuriken Cannon (125)
6 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/2x Shuriken Cannon (152)
              *IDIC Warlock Jetbike/Embolden (50)
6 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/2x Shuriken Cannon (152)
              *IDIC Warlock Jetbike/Embolden (50)

ELITES

5 x Fire Dragons (80)
              *IDIC Wave Serpent/Scatter Lasers/Shuriken Cannon (125)
5 x Fire Dragons (80)
              *IDIC Wave Serpent/Scatter Lasers/Shuriken Cannon (125)

FAST ATTACK
 
5 x Swooping Hawks/Exarch/Skyleap (132)

HEAVY SUPPORT

1 x IDIC Fire Prism/Shuriken Cannon (125)
1 x IDIC Fire Prism (115)
1 x IDIC War Walker/2x Scatter Laser/Spirit stone (65)

Points 1748

Read more ...

Hive Tyrant Conversions ready for painting

Nick speaking,

Time to paint my 3rd Edition Hive Tyrants, I know I have had them for a long time now, but at long last 6th Edition has giving me some inspiration to paint them up, especially my Winged Hive Tyrant conversion. First though, I need to do a bit more work on them. I originally glued my much loved Scything talons on both models, but I think 6th Edition has changed things up enough now, that I need to take them off and switch them over for Twin Linked Devourers. Twelve, strength six, twin linked shots just sounds too good to turn down. Sadly there is no twin linked Devourer made by GW, so I will need to convert some up myself...

I have seen many different conversions for the Devourers, but I wanted to come up with something of my own, rather than copying someone else's work. I ended up making mine out of a Barbed Strangler cut off at the front, with two front sections of the standard Devourer joined to the front of that. I think the gun is about the right size for the larger Tyrant model and the the double twin linked front does the job nicely...

This time I decided to magnetise the Devourers and my original Scything Talons, just in case things change again in the future! So with all the work done, it's time to start painting...

More to come...

Read more ...

Vehicle Unit Markers?

Nick speaking,

Have you ever got confused to what units are embarked in your Vehicles? Or maybe which Vehicles are empty? Maybe forgot which one has your HQ in it? How do you go about remembering which units are where? Or even letting your opponent know what is what easily? Well, this is how I go about remembering mine for my Eldar Wave Serpents...

First I use one of the many Falcon Targeters that I have in my Eldar bitz box. I then paint this up into one of my unit colours, in this case Dire Avengers. I then put a magnet on the underside of it ready for magnetising...

I then glue a strong magnet on the inside of my Wave Serpent right at the front of the chamber. I can now take the unit markers on and off whenever a unit embarks or disembarks. I can paint up different coloured markers for each unit I have, so I can have orange for Fire Dragons, bone colour for Banshees etc.

To indicate my Farseer, I am using the vehicle sensor array, this is magnetised on both the top and bottom, so I can either have both the unit and Farseer mounted, or if the unit disembarks, I can leave the Farseer marker in place with the embarked Farseer. I think this works really well, and lets everyone playing know exactly who is where at just a glance. What do you think, how do your keep track of your units?

Read more ...

Mysterious Objectives Solved!

Nick speaking,

Not so long ago I was talking about Mysterious Objectives and how easy it is to forget to either roll for them or to actually use them during your game! I know GW have now released some objective markers, but from what I have seen and heard about them, they still don't solve the problem very well. The dice fall off quite easily and the pictures on the dice to represent the effect aren't really that great! So, I ended my previous post with a question to you, asking how you remembered your Mysterious Objectives and to see if anyone out there had any solutions?

After the post went up I received a great comment from Frederic Fique. Although his comment wasn't published on the Blog for some reason, he linked me to his Blog and to a post he had done where he shares a wonderful way of solving the Mysterious Marker problem. I loved the work he did on this and downloaded his PDF for printing and laminating. The template has all the options for the standard objective based games in the book and this is what I did with mine after I cut them out...

First, six blank bases with Blu Tack on them so that I can change the template as the objectives change...

When one of the objectives are activated, simply change the template over for the corresponding effect. It's really great that Fred has also written what the effect does on the markers as well, making life even easier. I made six of each effect so that I would always have enough markers regardless of what was rolled...

Finally, there are six numbered markers for the Scouring mission indicating the victory point value for each objective. I think Fred has done a fantastic job with these markers and I am very grateful for him sharing them with us, nice one Fred.

EDIT:
Fred has now updated these markers to include an 'X' to indicate the no effect marker and a Night Fight reminder marker. The new PDF can be found here

Read more ...