Joining a narrative campaign

[micahwc]

I impulsively chose dark Eldar for a narrative campaign, it’s suppised to have missions between 1000 and 1500 points on average, though some may be up to 2000.

 

Faction is chosen at the beginning of the campaign and each list has to have a majority of models from a single sub faction.

 

My plan is to use mobility to play to objectives, and drown my opponents in splinter fire.

 

 

So far we have an imperial guard player, a tau player, an ork player and a ultramarines player signed up. There will likely be a custodes player and some more marine equivalent factions. (Death guard, blood angels, grey knights, death watch)

 

My available forces include 60 warriors, 3 raiders, 10 reivers, 15 hellions, 10 scourges, 3 razorwing jet fighters, 3 sylph, a few archons, a small unit of wytches, a couple of succubus (including Lilith).

 

I’m not too worried about most matchups I can think of except for maybe hoard guard and orks which I haven’t played against in 8th edition.

 

Any thoughts or advice?

[micahwc]

I just put a bid on 4 venoms. I’m running the kabal that gets the bonus to hit from being in a flyer. I’ll run 60 warriors in three raiders and four venoms; with support from reivers, hellions, and razorwings.

[micahwc]

So for 1500 points I have 2 archons with six units of warriors divided into three raiders and four venoms, plus three razorwings.

[WarriorFish]

I can't offer much detailed help on running DE, but it'd assist others if you could provide a bit more on your plans? Do you have any idea what opponents you may encounter?

Generally speaking (and this is quite broad) there's much to be said to sticking to the basics, and what DE does best. Mobility and shooting should be a good foundation, though as DE can be a bit fragile making sure you bring enough bodies to the party is also a good idea (though this also neatly feeds in to the first two!). It sounds like this is your approach so I'll be keen to hear how you get on :)

[micahwc]

Okay, so more info. This is a narrative campaign that will be fought over several weeks.

 

Named characters are not allowed. Each player has to create a warlord using the rules in chapter approved 2018 with four selections. The battle honors system will also be used.

 

So far there is myself as a drukhari player, a tau player, a salamanders player, a thousand sons player, a deathwatch player, an imperial guard player, and an ultramarines player signed up.

 

My faction was declared as Kabal of the Flayed Skull, as I plan on running a lot of warriors in transports.

 

My warlord is Dracon Sahella Wydowbane, second in command to Archon Vraesque Malidrach. For relics I am using the Obsidian Veil to represent a master crafted shadow field. I am using Stealth Assault to help represent this. No one can fire overwatch against him. He is also Hard to Kill because of this; that is he can only be wounded on a 4+ regardless of weapon strength. I am equipping him with a Razor Edged venom blade that has AP -1. I am representing his willingness to fire through his own forces to ruthlessly assassinate enemy officers with Keen Eye, which allows him to shoot his blaster at enemy characters even if there are closer targets.  Finally, his warlord trait is Famed Savagery for +1 attack when charging, charged, or heroically intervening.

 

I have four weeks to prepare, much of which will be spent painting all my forces in Flayed Skull colors.

 

I will have three raiders and four venoms to use; I am thinking of using Disintigrators on my three razorwings as they will work well against all the known opponents so far. I plan on using my warlord and Ssylth escorts to charge into troublesome Tau/guard gunlines since the warlord can't be overwatched. While he is in his transport I will try to blast characters if I get a chance.

 

 

Game 1: I don't know my opponent yet, but looking at the list of confirmed armies it is likely to be a power armored list. The mission is Vital Intelligence from Chapter Approved 2018, 1500 points. Basically there are 5 objectives placed around the board, a d6 is rolled every turn. The number that comes up is worth 2 victory points and each other point is worth 1. On a 6 they are all worth 2. Slay the warlord, first strike, and linebreaker are all used.

 

I am now considering running my reivers with T5 from combat drugs. Just use them and hellions/scourges to keep objectives that are hard to reach.

[WarriorFish]

Sounds pretty cool, hopefully your warlord can get stuck in but seems like you'll need to be wary of enemy warlords too! Four weeks isn't as long as it feels though, how much painting do you need to do? Don't forget pictures :D

 

You have a gamut of opponent types so I think you should go all in for the strengths of DE; be sure to hit hard or you'll probably get blown off the table by a few of them!

[micahwc]

I'm thinking of bringing a succubus with my reivers and hellions for a separate detachment. I will have to bring a second HQ whether I do a second detachment or bring a battalion and the succubus is cheaper than a second Archon; while also granting bonuses to the reivers/hellions.

 

The reivers will be a large unit with the +1T combat drug; their whole purpose will be to take the objectives far away from the rest of my opponents army before getting line breaker. Hellions will try to do this as well.

 

My Archon will be in a venom/raider with the succubus and two or three ssylph. I'll use Disintegrators on my raiders to help with AP against marine opponents.  

 

I'll bring probably three venoms with 5 warriors and 1 blaster each; a fourth Venom if I put my command guys in a raider. I'm thinking about trying to shoehorn at least one of my razorwings into this list.

[micahwc]

Ignore this list

[micahwc]

I’m going to drop the trueborn, I don’t think they are cost effective.

 

Now I’m considering this:

 

 

Battalion

 

Archon with blaster and venom blade

Archon with splinter pistol and venom blade

 

6x5 warriors with 1 blaster

 

2x5 scourges with splinter carbines

 

4x venoms with splinter cannon and 2x splinter rifles

 

2x raiders with d cannons

 

Auxiliary detachment (-1 cp)

5x reivers with 1 blaster

 

Airwing Detachment (+1 cp)

3x razorwing fighters with d cannons and 2x splinter rifles

[WarriorFish]

Looks like a mobile force, should help you concentrate your efforts and confound your opponent's :tu:

[micahwc]

I spent last night base coating as much as I could get done with my airbrush. I'd normally use black primer for this but I am almost out of black, so instead I am using thinned Paynes Grey artist paint from Hobby Lobby. It's a pain in the backside as if you don't thin it just right you either get a clogged airbrush or watery paint; but it covers really well and it dries to a nice almost black color. It's a blue based dark grey. I'm hoping it will contrast really well with the red I'll be adding later.

 

I've got all my vehicles, reivers, and hellions base coated but I still need to finish my scourges and about 20 or so warriors.

 

I ordered some parts for my Iwata Eclipse that will be arriving today so hopefully it's .3 nozzle will be less touchy than the .2 nozzle I've been using on my Badger Krome.

 

Now I have to develop at least two paragraphs of fluff for my warlord, which the organizer will use to generate special missions and other cool stuff for future games.

[micahwc]

My fluff is as follows:

 

Dracon Sahella Wydobane (I stole the name from one of the wiki's, it's the second-in-command of the Flayed Skull)

 

Described as "cold and heartless, even for a Drukhari", Sahella Wydobane is the Trueborn Dracon to Archon Vraesque Malidrach; leader of the Wydobane Truebloods; the only unit of Trueborn whose loyalty remains with Malidrach. Wydobane's disdain for serving under a halfborn Archon is kept in line by his opportunistic desire to use the Kabal of the Flayed Skull to strike at Asdrubael Vect. Wydobane waints until he can take control of the Kabal for himself, and allies himself with Malidrach's court; being gifted the envenomed spear Sorrowthirst from the Archon's own Lhamean courtesans and frequently being accompanied on raids by the Archon's personal Ssylph bodyguards.

 

Understanding the usefulness of halfborn warriors on the battlefield in the role of fodder, Wydobane selects only the best warriors of the Spearsworn; each warrior having sworn an oath of fealty to Wydobane at the tip of his envenomed spear. Wydobane has no real care for these halfborn warriors, and is more than willing to fire his blaster through them to hit his targets.

[micahwc]

I found a cool video on YouTube about using acrylic Inks through an airbrush and decided to give it a try.

 

These are the inks I used and a test razorwing jet fighter.

 

The model is base coated black, and then highlighted with white; it is then base coated in dark red and highlighted in a more orange red

 

https://imgur.com/a/ZRBb3TZ

 

I am happy with this and will be using this for both Kabal of the Flayed Skull as well as Blood Angels.

[micahwc]

Airwing

https://imgur.com/a/eznDqn0

[WarriorFish]

Really nice red on them :tu:

[micahwc]

thanks.

[micahwc]

https://imgur.com/gallery/cIgfzpO

[WarriorFish]

I take that back, this is even better :P Really nice ruby red going on makes me want to paint my DE flyer up!

[micahwc]

The red inks are really nice to airbrush. They don't require any thinning to spray which is really helpful. They dry a little slower than most airbrush paints, but because they are transparent you can get a great effect by painting them over a different color; the more coats you apply the redder it gets.

 

The white is also an ink; its a bit thicker because it's white but it's by far been the easiest white I've sprayed (which means its still harder than most other colors due to pigment size).

[micahwc]

My venoms

 

https://imgur.com/a/c2REVwz