Part 3: Tzeentch's Eternal Conflagration

Kairos Fateweaver, Oracle of Tzeentch

Now that you guys have been following my posts about my recent army commission, let me take you through how I plan on using the army in Age of Sigmar. I decided to split my tactics articles into two parts; one for AOS and the other for 40K, otherwise it would be insanely long.

Part of the reason why I chose Tzeentch as my army is because I love the look of Flamers. I think they're one of the coolest models ever put out by GW and it's one of the units that symbolizes the chaotic nature of Tzeentch himself. Their pulsating, multi-colored tendrils capable of spewing pure daemonic fire is something that all units fear in Age of Sigmar and rightfully so. That is why when I was designing my list and choosing which models to be commissioned, I wanted to make sure I could squeeze in a few Flamer units for both my AOS and 40K lists.

Part 2: Commission Details and Army Reveal!

Putrid Blightkings

Hey guys, HERO again with an update on how my army commission is going so far. When we left off last time, I talked about how I ended up meeting the artist, Teemu Sihvonen, and hinted at what army I ended up going with. Before I dive into the army and preview some of the pieces, I want to talk to you about how we got started on the business end.

Part 1: A Journey into a Commission

Behold, the power of directional lighting. Gravehammer Miniatures.

This has been a long, hard year for many people. Not just our hobby, but for millions of people around the world experiencing the effects of the pandemic. While some of you might know me for my writing of strategy articles, I want to bring you something slightly different from my usual and into something a bit more personal. This will be the start of the 4-part series of my journey through getting an entire army commissioned.

I am one of the lucky ones that was not as adversely affected by the pandemic that affected many others. Since I was able to work from home, I was not only lucky enough to keep my job, but save throughout the year to buy myself in the hopes of buying a new computer. My gaming computer has needed an upgrade for quite some time now and I committed myself at the start of the year to save up and buy a new one. However, just as new-gen offerings were coming online, the global stock for some of these items have been completed wiped out. With most of the parts from my computer unavailable, I knew my chances for getting a new gaming rig was slim.

Gaming, and more specifically Tabletop has been a very important thing to me growing up. It is a chance for me to get together with friends, socialize and enjoy a fantasy world where I can think of other things outside of school, work and general hardship. While I can go on about the mental effects of quarantine and prolonged social distancing, it is still one of our best defenses against a global pandemic. However, this meant that I haven't been able to play a single game of 9th Ed. 40K as most of the launch parties in my areas were canceled, and most of my friends share the same mindset of staying at home to protect their families. Most of the tabletop clubs in my areas have been closed for months now with little signs of reopening. While some players have tried going online with Tabletop Simulator, I can tell you right now that it's just not the same. Nothing beats interacting in-person and talking smack with your best mates over beer and pretzels.

With tabletop taking a backseat in my life, it was out of complete chance that I stumbled upon an army being sold on Facebook. My jaw dropped. Not just a little, but to the floor.

New points are here! Time to boogy

Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way.

Here we go folks, we got points for days. I hope you guys all took my lead and started making your 1750 point armies with 8th Ed. points ahead of this points drop, otherwise, you are sure to be disappointed. To sum up before I go into anything else, both CWE and DE took a big points hit in some critical areas, but the one Eldar that made it out alive was Harlequins. You see, when I went through and reviewed the upcoming 9th Ed. changes a few posts ago, I specifically mentioned the one saving grace for Harlequins in 9th and that was its point changes. If points were good, Harlequins would be viable. Not top-tier, but playable for sure. Out of all three Eldar races, Harlequins definitely had the last laugh.

Now, let's dive into the previous lists that I tried to build. I'll start with my first love first, Dark Eldar, and then get into CWE, before finally touching on what I would with Harlequins.

1750, using old points:

• 2x Archons with BPs and PGL
• 2x10 Warriors with 2x Blaster, Dark Lance in Dissie Raider
• 4x5 Warriors with Blaster in Dissie Raider
• 2x Razorwings with Dissies
• 3x Ravagers with Dissies

Total firepower coming from the list I built before we saw the points was:

• 19 Dissies
• 8 Blasters
• 2 Dark Lances
• And a healthy amount of Poison shots

With the new points, here's what my 2K list looks like:

Theorycrafting some 9th Ed. Eldar lists

Drafting up some lists again.

With 9th Ed. hot on our heels and with a good amount of information out there already, I figured I'd get down and dirty with some list building and theorycrafting. As most of you already know, I'm a huge fan of Mechdar and that's pretty much all I play when it comes to my Eldar armies. Every single one of my armies is filled to the rim with vehicles and flyers and I've become increasingly proficient with this playstyle over the years. With the return of Obscuring terrain that block LoS, this means that good positioning and focus fire will indeed bring the pain again. The only thing that truly sucks is that now if you Fall Back, you can no longer shoot anything.

Great, so with that said, let's talk about some lists. Out of curiosity, I've started building lists with -250 points from my 2K lists to prepare for that eventual points hike. That means every list I'm going to show you here is 1750 points, mainly because I'm taking a guess that we're going to see ~12.5% increase on average. Like I said before, points are the biggest unknown out of this entire thing. I have no idea exactly where they're going to bump the points, but I don't think they're going to alter CWE or DE too badly. GW has a tendency to target over-performing units that utterly shake up the meta, but they already took a stab at that pre-9th in the last CA. With both Crimson Hunter Exarchs and Ravagers nerfed with points, I don't expect GW to go after them again. If they do, well, then I get sad and we'll have to adjust the list some.

Either way, here's the first of the two lists I've been working on. You'll see a very familiar sight in the form of my mechanized Dark Eldar list.

A closer look at Raiding Force and aircraft engagement

Let the list building begin!

Dark Eldar got previewed today and there's some good stuff here. Raiding Force rules got shown and this is pretty good because it allows us to mix detachments without taking a hit in CP. You get a +4 CP bonus when taking 3 Patrols in the army, so if each Patrol costs 2 and you get a +2 CP bonus from having your Warlord in one of the Patrols, this means you'll still get 12 CP if you're playing a 2K game. Sure, you have to take 3 HQs in total, but look at how much flexibility you get in terms of unit choices. I can for sure see an army with 2 Kabal:1 Coven Patrol ratio.

Our first look at Patrol.

In my article yesterday, I talked about how the DE book is actually 3 armies in one. When it comes to the 9th Ed. meta, I seriously think that DE armies with Meat Mountains will be really impactful for the metagame. There's not a lot of things in the game that can deal with tons of Grots and Talos, both of which are expected to be really good in the new edition. If you can easily take a large unit of Grots, some Talos with Haywires and fill the rest with vehicles/Ravagers. The Meat Mountain can act as your mid-field control and literal meat-shield for your Ravagers in the back.

Get ready for shenanigans.

Another good rule for us is confirmation that you'll be able to disrupt enemy movement with your flyers still. The line to pay attention to is: ".. but it cannot end the move on top of another model (or its base), and it cannot end the movement within Engagement Range (1") of any enemy aircraft." Imagine this for a second: Let's say that you're fighting against Genestealers who can Advance and Charge and moves 8" on average. This is an average of 12" of move, so you measure 12" out from the lead gene and then plop your plane down sideways in front of them. Check out this awful Paint drawing, but you will get the point easily.

Check. Your move.

In this diagram, you plop your plane down around where the opponent's units' max distance will be. The larger the unit, the more you can disrupt them because they are forced to go around the base since they cannot end their movement on top of your base. This means that the larger the unit, the less chances they have to go directly through your base with all their models and end up completely clearing the 1" engagement bubble around the aircraft. Congrats, you basically extended your opponent's charge range substantially. This will make them auto-fail most, if not all of their charges as long as you execute correctly. Needless to say, Eldar aircraft with Wings of Khaine makes this much easier.

Cool, today was a good day overall. Raiding Parties increases our list building capabilities and makes splashing Meat with vehicles quite easy. The aircraft shenanigans means that with good execution, you can make charges a nightmare for the opponent, thus making all-vehicle lists all the more powerful. GG.

9th Ed. 40K and how it affects all Eldar

Bring on 9th Edition.

It's about that time folks. If you guys have been following 40K news in the last couple of weeks, you'll know that 9th Ed. is right around the corner. For a quick recap of everything that's been going on, I suggest you go to Auspex Tactics and catch up. Yes, I'm plugging that dude's channel because he's insanely active and posts updates literally minutes after articles themselves get released. I'd rank him among the top dudes I watch on YouTube.

Without too much mumbo-jumbo, let's get right into it. I'll lay it out the best I can in the only way I know how: As real as it gets. I will warn you ahead of time though, I think Eldar (all races) are not going to do too hot come 9th. There's a lot of rules here that'll take away from the Eldar identity and give it to the other races and are generally harmful to the playstyle of the army. Now, before you get super triggered and go off on me saying that the book's not out yet and we don't see all the rules, I promise you: I don't need to see all the rules to see where this is going. We have a lot of information in front of us already and I've been playing this game for over 20 years now. While the Eldar will get some noticeable benefits, they will be challenged heavily with some pretty stark negatives. Just a head's up, I don't plan on covering Ynnari as I don't consider them a full army yet with just WD rules.