Mysterious Objective Markers!

Nick speaking,

Are Mysterious Objective Markers good for our game or are they a waste of time?

I am now well into playing a few games with 6th Edition, and the one thing that I have experienced problems with, are Mysterious objectives! I was just wondering how every one else was doing with this new addition to our game? Personally, I actually like the 'idea' of random objectives, but in reality, I have found them to be nothing more that just something else to do and remember in the game.

It became quickly apparent that we either forget to roll for the effect, or forget to use the marker after we knew what it did! Even to the point where we have thought about ignoring the random abilities and using them as standard objectives instead. It is also amazing how easy it is to forget an objectives effect when it is a bad one, but easily remember it when it benefits you!

Maybe it's just because we have so much more to remember now, like rolling Night Fight on turn five onwards if it's doesn't happen turn one, rolling and remembering our Warlord Traits, rolling and remembering any new Psychic Powers, and of course, keeping track of the mission victory points, and that's all without throwing in some random terrain features as well!

So what do you think of Mysterious Objectives and how are you remembering to do everything?

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How will 6th Edition effect my Saim-Hann Eldar?

Nick speaking,

One thing I love about the Eldar is their versatility when it comes to making lists, and that's the main reason I gave my Eldar the name IDIC Eldar. These pointed ear Vulcan type dudes really live up to the Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. In my mind I actually have three Eldar armies, a Saim-Hann jetbike themed army, a Harlequin themed army and a Hybrid army. In today's post though, I want to have a look at the IDIC Hann...

As you can see from the picture above, the starting point of my army is a Jetbike Seer Council. I have been experimenting with swapping the Farseers powers, but in all honesty, without Fortune, the Council really loses what it needs to keep it up as long as possible. I have concluding that it's not really worth dropping your Doom and Fortune for the random powers, unless you have more than one Farseer on the table.

Both the Council and the standard Jetbikes have a huge range of movement now, and it's especially useful that you can now cast fortune and turbo boost the same turn. With my five Dire Avengers in the Falcon now having issues with being a scoring unit, the Jetbikes are even more important to my army now, more than ever. I am seriously going consider putting in an Embolden Warlock in each group of Jetbikes, and it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up having to buy some more Jetbikes for my list in the future. Talking of Embolden, have you checked out Embolden40k Blog yet? If not, please go and have a look after you have finished reading and commenting here.

As for Vypers, so far it all looks even worse for these flying beauties. Not that they were the best unit before, but they really do fit in with the Saim-Hann theme so well. OK, so we now have a 5+ cover save for just moving and 4+ if we move instead of shooting as before, but we can now move 12" and shoot all our guns at normal ballistic skill. The main extra issue with these guys is both the rubbish two hull points and the new vehicle damage chart modifiers, +3 to the chart if AP1 and +2 to the chart if AP2, as we are open-topped. Ouch, that really hurts, and a 5+ save really doesn't make up for it. I am not writing Vypers off in my list, as I really like the models and they fit into the list too well for instant dismissal, but some new tactics are going to be needed for them, if they are going to work.

My first thoughts are that the two Fire Prisms are staying in my list. The new blast rules and random weapon destroyed results are going to help these two do damage. I don't think it's worth having Holo-Fields on them anymore though, as three Glancing/Penetrating hits will wreck it anyway. Better to spend the points on Warlocks for the Jetbikes instead. The main issue with them and any Eldar Tank now, is the lack of objective contesting, and long range tank shocking. In 5th Edition, I rarely had the big gun left intact, but they were nearly always around at the end of the game with their Holo-Fields, ready to contest objectives, and I think this is the biggest draw back any Mech Eldar list is going to have.

Now we come onto the Falcon, which was once the most survivable scoring tank in the game, is now just basically a gun boat. Is it even worth putting anything inside it? I think the Falcon is still great, but the only reason I took it over a Wave Serpent, was to have a solid Scoring unit in case my Jetbikes went down, and with the Holo-fields, it very often did score. Maybe it is time to change it over for a Wave Serpent, with a twin linked gun instead. To be honest, unless the Falcon was guided, it didn't really shoot very well anyway! The question is, what to put in the Serpent? I want it to have Troops, so it's either Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers?

One thing I want to quickly add in here, is how happy I am that Shining Spears have had a bit of a boost in 6th Edition. They are still over priced, but then again isn't everything Eldar? The main reason I mention Shining Spears, is from a previous post I did a while back, where I talked about how much I liked the Shining Spear models and paint scheme. Now with a Skilled Rider Exarch, they are actually a potential option for me! 

Well, that's my initial thoughts for my IDIC Hann from what I have seen so far. I haven't put any of this into an actual list yet, as my buddies and I are still experimenting with 1k point games until we get use to the new rules.

Any thoughts and comments are most welcome, as usual...

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Eldar 6th Edition Battle Report

Nick speaking,

This was the very first game I had with my Eldar, and it was against my buddies Blood Angels. We were just playing a 1k game, to try and familiarise ourselves with the new rules as best we could. The whole game was just taken as a bit of fun, so I had a go at swapping my Psychic powers for the first time to see how it all worked...
 

Eldar List

HQ
1 x IDIC Farseer Jetbike/Guide/Mind War/Runes of Warding/Spirit Stones (160)
(cheapest psychic powers ready to swap out for new ones)
1 x IDIC Warlock Jetbike/Witchblade/Embolden (50)

TROOPS
6 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/2x Shuriken Cannon (152)
3 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (76)
3 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (76)
5 x IDIC Pathfinder Rangers (120)
5 x Dire Avengers (60)

FAST ATTACK
2 x IDIC Vypers/2x Scatter Laser/2x Shuriken Cannon (140)

HEAVY
1 x IDIC Falcon/Scatter Laser/Shuriken Cannon/Star Engines/Spirit stone (165)

Points 999

Blood Angels list

1 x Dante
8 x Sternguard/Rhino
10 x jump Troops (2x Melta/Powerfist?)
10 x jump Troops (2x Melta/Powerfist?)


Mission: Big Guns Never Tire (four objectives), Vanguard Strike

Deployment

Before we deployed we rolled for our Warlords, we both got the same trait, and we both forgot to use it all game, sadly I can't even remember what trait it was now! I swapped my Powers, and ended up with the 4++ save and the Primaris re-roll to hit power, on the Divination table. We then rolled for Night Fight and it didn't happen. Blood Angels put out the Rhino with the Sternguard in and reserve the rest for deep striking. I reserve the two small Jetbike units and deploy the rest of my army in my quarter. I was then suppose to infiltrate my Pathfinders, but I totally forgot to do it!

Turn One and Two

Blood Angels moved the Rhino fast up to about mid table. I was happy with the 4++ save for my jetbikes, so cast it up on the Mini Seer Council. I then decide to go all out for First Blood with my twenty seven strength six shots and two strength eight shots. I should be able to glance the Rhino and maybe kill a few of the Sternguard when the bail out! I know I needed fours to hit, and hitting wasn't a problem, sadly though, I only rolled one glancing hit of a five and the rest were fours or less.

Turn two for Blood Angels and everything comes in from reserve, deep striking right in my face. I once again roll terribly and don't make a single cover save. Both Vypers go down, four Jetbikes and the Warlock die, even with their 4++ (no fortune sucks), and the Farseer is down to one wound after Dante automatically reduces her by one wound anyway.

I am feeling a bit down now, and to make it worse, I finally realise that I forgot to infiltrate the Pathfinders! Both Jetbikes come in from reserve, but the Pathfinders sulk and stay there. I move 48" with all three jetbike units over to the other side of the board, and use the Falcon to try and kill something my side. All it's shots just kill two jump dudes.

0VP Eldar 1VP Blood Angels

Turn Three and Four

Blood Angels then move over to my Falcon for a Big Guns Victory Point, taking it out with a single Melta shot as I fail my Jinks cover save. Then everything else shoots and kills the five Avengers who bail out. He then has two pop shots at my Farseer and her two bikes and I fail my 3+ save, rolling a one and a two, leaving only the Farseer left! My Pathfinders come on to the right, away from the Jump Angels, shooting Snap Shots but doing no damage, whilst my two bike units and the Farseer hide behind a big rock.

Blood Angels start to spread out over the board and try shooting my Pathfinders, getting his first piece of bad luck, killing nothing. I then continue to hide, destroying the Rhino with my Jetbike Cannons, and killing a Melta gun guy standing at the front of his unit, with my Pathfinders.

0VP Eldar 2VP Blood Angels

Turn Five, Six and Seven (Night Fight does not happen for any of them)

Blood Angels now have the game in the bag, BUT! I think he starts to get some Blood Rage thinking about how I tabled him the week before with my Necrons, and with only a few bikes left, he goes for the table. The Sternguard kill a few Pathfinders with their no cover save bullets, and he moves everything forward towards my bikes to shoot me down, but does nothing. He then realises he is now no longer holding any objectives! I turbo-boost one group of bikes onto one objective, and the rest turbo-boosts to the other side of the table, well out of range to the Blood Angels guns. If the game ends now I win 4VP to 3VP, including the Line Breaker, but the game goes on...

The Sternguard kill the rest of the Pathfinders, and the rest of the army takes one objective and shoots at my Scoring bikes, killing nothing. I then turbo-boost the Farseer to contest his objective, giving me 4VP to 3VP again and we see if the games goes on...

Turn seven, The Farseer loses her last wound from shooting and the Jump guys get into assault range of my Scoring bikes, I hold up in the assault, only losing by one, but failing my leadership and getting sweeped. I now only have one unit of bikes left, and the Blood Angels are holding two objectives. I turbo to a free objective for a bit of respect, and it's all over.

Blood Angels wins 9VP to 4VP

Conclusion

I am just going to put this one down to bad luck with dice rolling! Although I probably should have moved the Falcon over to the other side of the board with the jetbikes on my turn two, when I had the chance. I could have consolidated my loses their, so I would have had another unit to score/contest at the end, plus I wouldn't have given up a Heavy Support Victory Point.

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A disturbance in the Warp!

Nick speaking,

Looks like Chaos Images to me for sure...

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