Post a Comment On: Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

A couple of weeks ago I played a game of 40K with Duncan (batrep to follow shortly). We played the Astro scenario "Crash Site Recovery." I was running my Dire Avengers lean, without an Exarch.

That's right, Dallas, no more "Blade-storm."

The proof of concept seemed to work out OK. So, I'm looking at a fairly radical change to my 1500-point Swordwind list . Some of the following is based on stuff I read on Warseer and on YTTH (in particular, the second small Dragon squad and the Vyper squadron):

Farseer - Doom (re-roll "To Wound" rolls); Guide (re-roll shooting "To Hit" rolls); Eldar Jetbike; Runes of Warding; Singing Spear

Autarch - Eldar Jetbike; Banshee Mask; Laser Lance; Fusion Gun

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons; Shuriken Cannon

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Bright Lances

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

3 x Vyper jetbikes - each w/ 2 x Shuriken Cannons

5 x Warp Spiders - including Exarch with dual Death Spinner

Fire Prism grav tank

Total = 41 models, at exactly 1500 points

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A fair amount of medium strength firepower (a possible 42 S6 shots in a turn of shooting), plus 11 melta guns, a TL Bright Lance, a Prism Cannon, and lots of Shuriken Catapults. The two Fire Dragon units deal with tank spam and hunt down things like squads of Tyranid Warriors (hooray for Instant Death). The two Dire Avenger squads back up everyone else and try to seize objectives. The Farseer buffs her side's shooting, or helps them wound their enemies. The Autarch allows for putting everything into reserve, and allows heroic "Horatius Cocles at the bridge" type rearguard actions. Very little close combat ability, except for the sacrificial Autarch.

I've been working on the new Vyper squadron. I never liked the idea of a 2-man Eldar bike, with the gunner basically having his ass hanging out in the wind. So, I threw away the turrets and made all the bikes single-seaters:

(Note: click on the photo for a larger image)

[Image]
The leftmost model shows the basic single-seat bike configuration, using castoff bits, putty and wire. It will eventually have an enclosed canopy. It is somewhat based on the work of a couple of modelers I saw on Warseer.

The centre model shows the pewter Shuriken Cannon upgrade used for all three bikes, replacing the bikes' original TL Shuriken Catapults.

The centre and right-hand bikes were cut down even further, to become unmanned drones. I threw their canopies into the bits box and used Eldar "command tank" bits to represent their drone status. In the army fluff, the drones are slaved to each other and to the manned bike. This represents, in model form, the vehicle squadron rules in 40k 5th. edition (i.e. ignore "Stunned" results, but "Immobilized" counts as "Destroyed") .

So, there it is. The army is still very fast, now with more firepower at the expense of reduced close combat ability.

I would greatly appreciate any constructive comments or concerns.

Edited to add: The Vyper squadron was finished and is illustrated here.