Pixies, and Giant Killer Robots

Despite the fact I’ve actually been doing hobby stuff, it appears I’ve been too busy to update this blog over the last two weeks. This is obviously a bit  rubbish, so what have I been up to?

Well firstly, I still haven’t read the eldar codex I bought on its release day. What I have done is embroidered an Iyanden craftworld logo for a friend as he has cracked out his eldar for the first time in many years. As a bonus, he also the new Iyanden mini-codex to look forward too which is both annoying, because it is only available directly from GW and at the moment it is only available on the iPad; and very cool at the same time.

While I’m not entirely convinced on charging an additional £30 for a digital mini-codex that also requires the eldar codex, I suspect the hardback version will be very nice.

On the Warmachine side, there has been much more activity.

Return of the Space Pixies

Games Workshop seem to be on a roll as far as I’m concerned at the moment. Firstly, they release a new codex for my number two army, Tau, but a mere two months later, my main 40K army is also getting a revamp. Result!

I will reserve judgement on the book until it hits the streets in a couple weeks, however compared to the Tau launch, the Eldar launch is a little lite.

Firstly the bad stuff, no new jet bike sculpts, no plastic aspect warriors and only a handful of new HQs. I suspect after the stock issues following the Tau release, GW are taking a more steady approach, or the Eldar release has been rushed to market before the full release of toys was ready. And why did we need another Farseer sculpt?

Considering the age of some of the existing Eldar miniatures, such as the jet bikes, which have been repackaged (?), this is REALLY disappointing.

On the flip side, the three big plastic kits accompanying this release look absolutely excellent.

The 2012 Review

With only a few days left of the year, I thought a review of 2012 was probably in order. Actually, this is largely an excuse for me to ramble on about nothing in particular (as if I needed an excuse) and reflect upon my first whole year living in a foreign country.

Umm, actually that really doesn’t sound right because this part of the Northern Wastelands (actually, Northern Wetlands at the moment) is now home, and I miss the place when I’m away. Strange that.

Anyway, as this blog is (mostly) about toy soldiers I suppose I ought to get back to topic. 2012 was the ‘year of the elf’ for this muppet, and accordingly I’ve painted space marines, and lots a of Iosans. At the start of the year, I was intending to build my eldar and use them. Well, some of them got built…

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Well, I promised more pixies at some point and here they are! After a lot of swearing, and few messy moments with super glue, and a few injuries; my five man (eldar) bike squad is assembled and painted.

These guys where actually started back in March 2010, so almost two years ago. As I wasn’t happy with the ‘Harley’ look of the normal eldar jetbike, I decided to convert them to something a little more sporty.

The Rise of the Eldar

My new eldar project continues to make progress and after this weekend I have now finished the final conversion project, my warlocks.

These guys were built using the Ranger torsos from Microart Studios together with guardian legs, and an assortment of eldar weapon arms. The cloaks were sculpted in grey stuff and finished with a grey stuff belt.

A little time consuming, but they were pretty straight forward to build and look the part.

Tanks for the Memories

Ever had that feeling that you might have bitten off more than you can chew? Well, rather rashly I have decided my Maugan Ra deathstar tactic could be fun and might even work. This rather obviously requires some eldar.

Whilst I could reuse some of my existing eldar (pictured here), I’m not going too. So instead I will be building and painting almost an entirely new army; before the 5th May and A Small Matter of Honour.

Luckily, the Rangers are almost done; and Bikes are built and undercoated. This is fortunate because apart from the four warlocks, these are the big conversion projects. However there is still a lot of work to do, not least of which will be building and painting five grav tanks.

Sneaky Pixies

One of my troop choices for my new eldar army had to be Rangers. I just love the idea of elf snipers working at the very edge of their society. Happily, they also provide the opportunity for some conversions, which is exactly what I have done!

Rather than using the normal Games Workshop Rangers, my Rangers are based on the resin Ranger Torsos and Legs from Microart Studios.

For the long rifles, it made sense to use the avenger shurkicats I had. Because I would imagine Rangers using many different types of long rifle in addition to the traditional las-based weapon, three of the rifles were converted using Kroot rifles and a bit of plastic dowing.

And then for accessories, I had some fun. All Rangers come with a pistol, and the old gun powder pistols from the Kroot warrior sprue seemed appropriate, so I used some of those, except for the guy with the Dark Eldar splinter pistol. Several Rangers have Tau backpacks, and then everyone had a spare ammo clip from the Dire Avenger sprue.

So there they are, four very cosmopolitan eldar Rangers. Suppose I really ought to paint them at some point…

Raiding for Beginners

I’ve been playing with eldar army lists. Despite the fact I will never get an army fully painted for A Small Matter of Honour in May, I have still been toying with a few ideas of how to run my pixies.

Over the past few years, 1750 points seems to have become the standard for many tournaments, and as ASMOH uses this, it is probably a good place to start.

So, what is the plan?

The first thing to consider is normally troops. These are key for objective based scenarios and those are usually two-thirds of the missions played. In this case, I’ve gone for a mix of units that can hold objectives (Dire Avengers/Rangers), and quickly claim objectives (Jetbikes). I’m also fully intending to use the Rangers as wildcards with the outflanking rule.

We’re DOOMED!

My copy of Imperial Armour 11: The Doom of Mymeara finally arrived in the post yesterday. I’ve always been a big eldar fan so I was really looking forward to this book, despite the fact that like all Imperial Armour books, it is a little pricy (just over £48 with shipping).

However, on the plus side, as a book, it is something hobby related that doesn’t need to be painted! Well, that’s my justification anyway…

First Impressions

I already own several Imperial Armour books, including IA3: The Taros Campaign and I have really enjoyed them in the past. The Doom of Mymeara is a little lighter than IA3, however I have to say I am very very impressed with the production values compared to the old books.

To start with, it is almost all colour, even the black and white bits (if that makes sense), and the artwork is absolutely top notch. A big thumbs up here!

It is also a very substantial book; not quite as heavy as the Taros Campaign, but it feels like £40 worth of glossy gaming book. This is very promising…

Warhost of Rath-Torhan

Planning a new army is full of lots of decisions. The first decision is normally what race or faction take, then for me the next important decision in colour scheme, after that, everything else is details.

After tweaking my initial idea and adding purple, and painting a test model; I think I have that cracked.

The next decision is what to build. Most armies have a set of builds that work, and a few that are outrageously over powered. The over powered route may be tempting, but tends to leave huge weaknesses and can be very boring to play (and play against). In the case of eldar, Eldrad and Seer Councils are very obvious units in this respect.