When all you have is a hammer-Dark eldar Hellions

I think i'm going to try a new thing  here, i'm going to call it "when all you have is a hammer" the gist of the article is a coping mechanism easing the retirement of certain models within codex transitions. IE, when a unit that was suited for several combat roles is now relegated to one niché, or when something that you have a soft spot for and bought a couple of, but now, due to an errata or a new edition for your codex. But you've still bought it, so maybe there's a different way to use it, or at least get a different perspective on it's usefullness.

First up!

Hellions

looking at my blog it sure seems i love these dirty gangers.

Ok, let's be honest, i trawled a lot of DE blog's when i started getting a Dark Eldar army, and i cannot remember anyone ever saying that Hellions were a real game changer. At best they are harassers, flankers or possibly mobile assassin's.

So let's see how the differ from their previous iteration.

changes from 5'th Edition to 7'th

• +a unit of five are now 15 pts cheaper
• +better HoW
• -no chance of getting FnP for combat drugs
• +Phantasm grenade launcher cheaper.
• -Pgl is no longer of&def grenades, IE no charging into cover easily, nor reducing impact of chargers on themselves.
• +Stunclaw for hellarch (sergeant equivalent) is now +1S and ID in challenges, as opposed to +1S and the ability to pull a character from a group after a hit&run
• -No sathonyx (meaning, no way of making them troops, no way of giving them an automatic cover save when in the open or enhancing while in cover)

Now, to me, these units have a suffered a multitude of sorrows. And it all amounts to their main weakness getting all the more glaring. They have about as much durability as a cardboard umbrella. And being in the Dark eldar codex that is something of a competitive place to be, and that is all they are competitive about, true story.

But seriously,let them hug cover like a forlorn lover,stalk it, move in it, ignore the cover when moving in it, but reap it's benefit. That 5+save or 6+ FnP isn't going to save you. And the 5+ FnP isn't exactly bringing home the glory, especially as anything has 6S AP5 is going to straight out murder you either way. 

So why the hell even mention them? 

Well, i bought 'em, i was happy with the paint job, and i don't have a lot of models to replace them with. So let's see what they can do.

Their splinter pod is the straight ordinary bs4 4+ poisoned shots with 18" range, a slight advantage is that they have assault 2, and not rapid fire, this is to allow them to shoot twice and THEN charge, hopefully to mitigate that overwatch. Which will kill you if you aren't careful, everbody except AM is going to laugh at your armour save. 

The Hellglaive is +1S,so yay, S4, possibly S5 if you get decent Drug result, the +1T might be preferable for some, but let's face it, in 7'th a +1 difficulty to wound doesn't make a lot of difference. The Hellglaive is two handed, which doesn't really matter as no one can get a pistol and glaive combo. Your hellarch can have a Power sword (AP 3) stunclaw, covered above, or an agoniser (ap3 poison 4+).

I cannot fathom why you would buy an agoniser for five more points, unless you want to charge T5 or better, Ie you want to tarpit a MC. otherwise, the sword is better, particularly with a good drug result.

Now,the board allows you the +5 Armour save, and the HoW and status as jump infantry. But it also allows you to deep strike. 

Now, lets jazz y'all. 

This is how i use them.

A) Deepstrike assassination squad. 

Turn two you position them to allow them to fire 10 or more poisoned shots into a bunch of guys being evicted out of a transport. Also creating a threat that allows you charge into a flank or tie up some heavy weapons if they aren't eradicated.

B)HEY-LOOK-OVER-HERE

Start them in cover turn one, have the formation that gives you the 6+ cover save and have night fighting. If they don't flee, run them up the side and tie up a unit, combine with a stun claw and some PgL shenanigans to make sure there is a real threat.

C)operation human shield. 

Deploy in front of a loved raider with night shields, pretty much guarantees another turn of survivability for your paper boats. 

Why you probably will skip out on them.

• 65 pts minimum is still more expensive than a group of kabalites with a dark lance.
• Their leadership is pretty bad. 
• overwatch will ruin your day,erry day. 

Now, if nothing else, they do have one other purpose. If you want the kabalite realspace raider detachment you have to have at least one group of hellions. 

The detachment allows your troops a 5+ cover save turn one, and everybody else a 6+ cover save turn one. And the same on night fighting. It also make your power from pain one turn better (IE 6+ FnP turn 1) and if you can get a good hit with the Animus vitae (20 pts for a 8" S4 AP2 shot) then you get two turns better,and with a haemonculus you get a three turn better for whatever unit you put him in. 

These effects are stated to be cumulative. So this isn't RAI, but i'm uncertain if it's worth it. But i am going to try it. 

There you have it, i probably won't be able to make my hellions make their points back, but i will keep running them, and if i find a way to  make them work, i'll be sure to tell HOW. 

What i've been up to lately.

I really need to get my shit together here.

And that, just now? that was the placeholder i wrote, just to upload some relevant pictures, like four weeks ago.

So what have i been up to? Well, so far i've gotten in one low-points game of Dark Eldar 7'th. I was not impressed. I'll be getting back to my impressions with a few more games under my belts, in short though, i don't think the codex is dooming casual players to any greater extent. But i can't really see it as being competitive without some Craftworld lovin'.

Then again, the hell do i know about competitive?


On the Painting front things have faring better. I keep getting in about one session of painting each week, not as much as i'd want, but i usually walk away with a squad or a vehicle painted each time. Which is quite satisfactory to my meager skills. So without further ado. Let's post what i've gotten done.

 

My first venom. 

Now, as with everything else to do with Dark eldar the Venom is a real treat. The model is sleek, predatory and the very design gives the impression of speed and movement.

The kit itself is also incredibly easy to assemble. If you've ever built a games workshop "bike" model, then you're going to be familiar with the whole "two-sides-glued-together-done" assembly. The which is am incredibly gratefull for, as the raiders are pretty finnicky to assemble.

You have two design choices to do regarding your Venom.
A) Do you want an open cockpit with visible pilot/open canopy with clear plastic.
B) underslung splinter cannon or TL Splinter rifle? And some spikes underneath. Because it is a Dark eldar modell.

I went for C. And painted the canopy black, and even chose not to have a gunner in the back. I'm assuming that my evil-space-dark-elves have figured out a way to fire two weapons from the inside.

The painting itself is as complicated or easy as you want to make it.

I went with a detailed "sybarite green" higlight, like this.

Now with shaky cam!

Now with oversaturation in flashes!

To be completely hones i think this makes it pretty damn hot straight up. This is 70% of the work (but as the blog says, i Can't paint) and it really makes the venom look like the predatory hunter that it is.

But i chose to try out some new things.

The horrible leg not included in purchase.

Now, the first thing i wanted to try was getting a good highlighting on the "gems" on the wings, it isn't immediately noticeable, but up close it's pretty clear that i botched it. So i just did the old "half bright red, half dark red, shade and yellow dots" to fix it up. And as a table top paintjob it worked out.

Per my wifes suggestion i did the cut sides in metal, as well as the wing spikes, with a simple silver highlight to make them "pop"

it wound up looking like this.

Which works as table top painting in my opinion.


I've also had the time to paint a couple of kabalites. I've continued with the previous way of painting (highlights and copper weapons) But i have started adding more details, it's a pretty organic process for me. IE trying something out on ,say a sybarite, thinking it looks Neat-o and going back to complete my older ones.

For some reason i kind of dig the ol' "pope" hat size of the 5E kabalites.

These guys have also gotten a matching raider by now, and i need to start up the second one this week. All in all it looks like this.

I'm pretty happy with the red sail offsetting the blue torquoise of the mast.



What is missing right now is the following

* Getting on basing. i've got some SM and Tau bits to add as trophies too.
*doing an Archon. So far i've made do with Sybarite conversions as HQ's
*Getting a final list for what i want to play with for 7'th.

that's what i'm doing right now, and of course, ragging on the codex.

Dark eldar 7'th edition-Hellions: Ride fast die turn one.

As i mentioned in the Dark Eldar opening post, i managed to get my dirty mitts on some Hellions when i bought "the big batch of used modells". only four though, with the minimum size of a unit beeing five. I had the choice of either selling them off, or buying a box of another five. I chose the second option.

Now, again, the modells are incredibly well sculpted, some of the best GW have ever sent my way.And i have to say that whenever somebody said hellions i usually dismissed them as the Lazy greengoblin rip-off's. I was a pretty hard sell, but hot diggity damn the modells are good, i mean the Hell-blades are pretty cool, the skyboards are pretty awesome and the rules....ooooh let me tell you about the rules...he..heee..hee.*cough* they're pretty awfull.

But before i get into the rules, there is one thing i despise about the modells.

The heads, i mean look at this.

'cause gangers need dread-locks to look bad ass. 

Hell-'fro. Seriously, why?

These probably look pretty bitchin' to some. But i mostly find myself reminded of the cracka' wiggas that tried to roll over grade school students when you were a teen.

I just made use of the Wyches spares you get from the raider.


Now, if you've ever looked at Wyches or Hellions you'll notice that they can't afford proper clothing. And they're pretty bare. So you will

A) have a lot of practice perfecting skin tones for DE, yay!
B) Throw a hissy fit and wither in front of the daunting challenge of doing all these skin tones.

Luckily some DE sleuthing gave a me a damn fine answer.

Props to From the warp blog.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.se/2011/01/painting-dark-eldar-skin-tones.html

Now, that post is pretty old. But the equivalent i've used is GW's own

Celesta grey
druchii violet wash.

Which i consider to yield pretty good results. My results are below. I was pretty damn happy with the end result-

Of course, i now realise they mostly look like the Joker. Which is a plus in my book. 

I went with a different colour scheme from my regular kabalites. As the helions canonically are rabble.

Now, as i said they are pretty schizo. The have the standard DE statline, but get a buff to their S with their weapon, and a better armour save with their boards. You'd hope for a +1T on account of the board, but this ain't no bike dawg.It's a fancy skateboard. And you get Drugs, so hope for that magic 6. 'cause that'll afford you a FnP.

If you want them to survive, cling to cover. Hug it like a clingy lover, stick to it like molasses, and other 20's noir quotes. Because that 4+ cover save is what'll save you with FAR more certainty than their buffed wychsuit. And NEVER forget that you can move through cover, since you're a jumper.

Now i've run these in two matches. In the first one i ran Baron Sathonyx, and the cover save out in the open really helped. And oboy, will you need it. Bolters, shuriken rifles, lasrifles,pulserifles. All will kill you easily.

But, i hear you say, what are they good at? assaulting?

Meh? They're good at hounding wounded units, with eight you get 16   4+poisoned shots that will allow you to charge realiably, do not, i repeat, do not charge unwounded troops, as overwatch will shred you.

We'll se what the new codex brings. But without the Baron, i can't see me running them, even with a price drop.

How i stopped Worrying and learnt how to love AV10-a New army project

To be completely honest, my motivation to play Grey knights has been waning ever since i started reading some of the more substantiated rumours earlier this year. I mean, certain things where inevitable, losing none sculpted characters? Sure, getting a nerf to the Psy cannon? we all saw those coming. But my griping mainly concerns the weird surgery they did on the codex as a whole. The wholecloth removals and piecemeal additions.

But this isn't my griping post. I'll get back to that. Just a heads up to anyone that reads that i'll probably be posting more and more of my new army rather than the old.

But before we get to that part.

I've been eyeing a third army for a while now. Initially my wandering eyes started straying towards the CSM, But i was wavering as to wether or not i was going to go Full Nurgle or not. And that's when i realised that i wasn't all that enthused about playing a similar army style, so i started looking at polar opposites of the Grey Knights. So what i wanted was.

* A fast army that can still shoot
* An army that wasn't representated among my playgroup
* An army whose design and estetics were polar opposites of what my current "lego vehicles" "pauldroned bro's" were.

That's when i was gripped by a sudden fancy. There IS an army that has all this, and more. An army that has all the durability of a cardboard umbrella, and the striking power of a razor. I am talking of, of course. The pleasant Gentry of comorragh.

Now, i was fortunate enough to pick up a large collection of Dark Eldar from a pleasant chap that was looking to get into the Waaaauuughing side of life. And an entire BOX of 5E kabalites warriors.

 So i got a hold of the following in quick order.

*god knows how many kabalites (40<)
*four hellions
*one ravager
*two raiders
* approximately five trueborns ( the previous owner had done a bang-up-job of converting them with CC weapons and pistols)


And i picked up a couple of other sundries to round out the army.

The bottom box is filled with ONLY kabalites.

All in all though, i was pretty excited to get started. The sculpts are amazing, the codex was exciting and for the first time in a very long time , i was looking forward to assembling and painting.

Until i was struck by the "oh-my-good-how-the-hell-am-i-gonna-paint-this".

Once again the internet proved to be right about everything all the time, a quick googling for "how to paint dark eldar" yielded this particular gem.

I found a lot of good tutorials. My favorite has to be this one

Particularly the step by step description regarding how to highlight, in the end i chose to do my own a bit more discreet. But i was very happy with the end result.

The first batch ended up looking like this.

An sybarite with a Blast pistol and a Power sword. 

Same one, i should probably borrow a camera to do these. Particularly happy with the chest piece.

I've done a complete squad so far, and now i just have too get my shit in gear and start a proper vehicular Scheme. 

Feeling good so far. 

Now the point i was going to make is the following. 

I think that it is inevitable that we all get some form "painters block", and giving in to that impulse of getting a new army might actually be helpfull with that. I think the important part is to keep your dab hand at it. And just keep painting/modelling something. Obviously it isn't viable at ever juncture in your life, but most of the time? Probably. 

The worst part is probably when you've modelled a large part of the army, you have it in front of you, and you get intimidated. It's probably happened to everyone atleast once, in some form or the other. When it happens to me i find it conductive to just sit down with some mates and try to get a painting circle together, it makes all my painting go slower(interestingly enough) but it is conductive for improving my technique, and makes me eager to practice it and evolve it.

just my two cents. 

Amateur conversion time!

What time is it?
Amateur time!

So as i mentioned in the first posts, when i started out i was pretty keen on saving money. And as such i tended to do everything i could to dodge GK going prices, hunting on Amazon and ebay didn't really give me what i needed. So i tried my dab hand at building some additional troopers. And here are the results, now, these are pretty.....no, VERY amateurishly built, but maybe someone'll take a gander (fowl play,eh,eh nudge nudge) and get a better idea and do those.

Here we go.

What you see here is a "clip on" marine with a bolter, with some purity seals added on to him, the hands and "pegs" for the clip-on bolter cut away, and a falchion hand glued on, a storm bolter glued on, and a terminator shield on the left pauldron. The pose was intended to invoke the feeling of a knight in prayer, or greeting a dueling foe. All in all? you can see it is a silver painted space marine with a sword and a Storm bolter....he usually dies first though.

Yeah i'm not sure where to start, the paint scheme aside? damn, i'd forgotten all about these. This guy has a Venerable dreads secondary head, and a green stuffed incinerator. If nothing else i can mention how easy it is to alter "clip ons" with a bit of knife work and glue, i mean i was wondering if i should even add this, but hey, he's killed a Company command squad on his lonesome. So there is that, even with a crappy modell, if you can see what he is supposed to be, he can play, if he can play, you can try out different tactics while getting in the game. And that nets you experience if nothing else. And that will allow you to learn how you want to play your guys, without spending money. Which is a plus to me. 

Same thing here, a "complete" modell, allowed me to try out some different paint schemes, it got me to learn how to paint the eyes more completely, and wether or not i wanted to do the Storm bolters in grey or not.

Of course, the quality of painting on these modells make me cringe slightly nowadays, but it does give me a measurement of how far i've, if nothing else.

So in closing, horrible modells? sure. Tacky painting scheme? that too.

But i'd like to give a shout-out to kit bashing as a good way to save money and get a bit of inspiration.