Void Hornets Aspect Warrior Shrine

[Brother Tyler]

First, here is the first draft of the rules.

 

Introduction to the Void Hornets

 

Void Hornets basic rules, explanation of masks

 

Void Hornets stratagem and alternate Exarch powers (a la Phoenix Rising), shrine color scheme examples

 

Selgairhán

[Brother Tyler]

I've convinced myself that I need to change the stock weapons. I seriously considered changing the shuriken pistol to a [special?] laspistol, but the practicalities of having to convert them stopped me. I have several of the old 1st/2nd edition Eldar Weapons sprues with laspistols, but I'm pretty sure I'd screw that up. So the stock power blade is being changed to an Aeldari shortblade (it is to the Aeldari blade what the power blade is to the power sword). The Exarch options then allow changing the Aeldari shortblade to a power blade or shuriken pistol (a la gunslingers!) or a star glove (which just becomes a power glove, no shooting profile), or exchanging the Aeldari shortblade and shuriken pistol for a pair of power blades. This change (Aeldari shortblade) brings their overall power level down, which will be compensated via a special rule. This will probably be something enhancing them when they charge or are charged - I'll have to be sure to make it distinct from the Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions.
 
The Exarch will retain the option to take a shimmershield separately.
 
I'm also going to change a bit of the lore. Currently, the lore talks about how they are a rare Aspect with few shrines. That is going to be changed to their "rarity" really being due to most of their shrines being located on the spacecraft of the Aeldari. They should remain uncommon in most Aeldari warhosts, and that might be represented by a rule limiting them to 0-1 per army except in a boarding action scenario (not sure how to make that stick).
 
I'm also going to change the image a bit. First, the power blade needs to be shortened a bit. Also, there needs to be an Aeldari shortblade option. Then I'll have to make a left-handed power blade option and a right-handed shuriken pistol option (which will include a holster). I'll also have to make a star glove option (that will suck as I'll have to actually draw that from scratch rather than tracing out an existing image). Something I'm going to incorporate from drawings in older Eldar codices is making the forearms and lower legs a separate layer that can be colored differently from the rest of the arm/leg undersuit, representing extra part of the extra void-hardened armour that this Aspect wears. This was inspired by the schemes for the Striking Scorpions seen in a book/section titled Dark Millennium (this was the setting book in the three-volume 7th edition rules, but I can't find the image therein). I'll also need to create some Exarch layers - special masks, extra decorations on the armour, shoulder plates, probably some loincloths or other elements common to the Exarchs of the other Aspects. Lastly, I'm thinking about making some layers for the Phoenix Lord, Selgairhán (so special mask, even more Exarch doo-dads, special power blade, special glove, etc.). All of that will take some time, of course.
 

[Ioldanach]

I like how the graphics came out. Including the weapons was a good choice, but it clearly took a lot of work to get there. One thing I'm considering is resizing the graphic, making it 2x or even 3x larger and then shrinking the finished schemes down. That might reduce some of the choppiness of the lines. Getting there will take some work - less for me than for you, but it might be worth the effort.

 

The aspect is an interesting concept. I think that changing the power blades to mundane weapons was probably a good choice in terms of both balance and distinguishing the aspect from the Howling Banshees.

 

The exarch power alternatives seem fine, especially since they're already proven via the other aspects from which they were taken.

 

I think you're selling yourself short regarding converting the shuriken pistols to laspistols. If you have the old eldar laspistols, it shouldn't be too difficult. That would further distinguish the aspect from the Striking Scorpions. The only two issues I could see would be in terms of making it worthwhile (i.e., a basic laspistol sucks, so you'd probably want to enhance them a bit) and potential for overlap with the Swooping Hawks, who also fly and have las weapons. I wouldn't be too concerned about the latter, though, since the Swooping Hawks are decidedly shooty whereas this aspect is decidedly stabby.

 

I like the warlock masks idea, and adding plumes both distinguishes this aspect from the psykers (not that the rest of the miniature profile doesn't do that already) and allows for the use of existing heads for the exarchs. You might even find it easier, though not more economical, to simply purchase from among the current range of psykers. One skyrunner seer council set, for example, would give you all of the heads you need while leaving heads for the actual skyrunner seer council. You might then chop the plumes off the storm guardians sprues for your void hornets, minus the exarch (you might file off the embellishments from the farseer head for the exarch).

 

Do you plan on converting a model to represent your phoenix lord?

[Brother Tyler]

I like how the graphics came out. Including the weapons was a good choice, but it clearly took a lot of work to get there. One thing I'm considering is resizing the graphic, making it 2x or even 3x larger and then shrinking the finished schemes down. That might reduce some of the choppiness of the lines. Getting there will take some work - less for me than for you, but it might be worth the effort.

2x or 3x larger might work. I was thinking about trying a different method for blurring the outlines (i.e., blur them more).

 

I think you're selling yourself short regarding converting the shuriken pistols to laspistols. If you have the old eldar laspistols, it shouldn't be too difficult. That would further distinguish the aspect from the Striking Scorpions. The only two issues I could see would be in terms of making it worthwhile (i.e., a basic laspistol sucks, so you'd probably want to enhance them a bit) and potential for overlap with the Swooping Hawks, who also fly and have las weapons. I wouldn't be too concerned about the latter, though, since the Swooping Hawks are decidedly shooty whereas this aspect is decidedly stabby.

I'll think about it.

 

I like the warlock masks idea, and adding plumes both distinguishes this aspect from the psykers (not that the rest of the miniature profile doesn't do that already) and allows for the use of existing heads for the exarchs. You might even find it easier, though not more economical, to simply purchase from among the current range of psykers. One skyrunner seer council set, for example, would give you all of the heads you need while leaving heads for the actual skyrunner seer council. You might then chop the plumes off the storm guardians sprues for your void hornets, minus the exarch (you might file off the embellishments from the farseer head for the exarch).

The full council is a bit rich for my blood. I did buy the single skyrunner model to get one or both heads. I have a lot of the older metal warlocks, and most of them are armed with laspistols, making them useless (unless I convert the laspistols to shuriken pistols).

 

Do you plan on converting a model to represent your phoenix lord?

Maybe. If I do that, it will be much later. I want the model to be distinct from the other Phoenix Lords (rather than looking like, say, Karandras with a Farseer mask).

[Brother Tyler]

Here is some further thought on this, primarily driven by the possibility of changing the shuriken pistol to some sort of laspistol.

 

What I've considered is that the Void Hornets might wield a special laspistol, similar to how the Shadow Spectres wield special las rifles ("prism rifles"). They would have two settings. The first would be a diffused beam, weaker than a normal laspistol, but with the potential to cause damage to more targets (so D3 for damage?). The other setting would be a focused setting that is slightly more potent than a laspistol of the Imperium.

 

This sparked another line of thought, though. Since the wings that the Void Hornets use don't control flight the way the Swooping Hawks' wings do, perhaps these "wings" serve another (additional) purpose. Perhaps the wings are also like solar panels in that they collect light energy to power the special laspistols (and potentially the thrust of the jet packs). That's not too bad in that it doesn't inherently complicate rules or anything, but...

 

...What if there were some effect that resulted in rules. The idea occurred to me that the "wings" are so effective at absorbing light energy that they effectively shroud the Void Hornets [when the wings are in use]. They basically darken the area around the Void Hornets, making it more difficult for enemies to shoot at them. This is sort of the opposite of the holo-suits of the Harlequins (and the similar devices used by the Shadow Spectres). It's also another play on the "void" in the Aspect's name - a void of darkness when they are striking. The challenge here would be in ensuring that the rules don't duplicate the effects of the Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, or Shadow Spectres. What I was thinking was that models shooting at the Void Hornets when they use their "wings" (i.e., when charging or performing their deep strike) suffer a slight penalty.

 

Of course, the wings of the Swooping Hawks were said to be prismatic when in use during 2nd edition (I forget the exact wording), but they don't have a game effect, so I don't need to incorporate the whole darkness aspect. It might be enough to say that the wings serve the dual purpose of helping the Aspect Warrior to maneuver when flying as well as collecting energy to power their wargear.

 

I'm probably going to change their base weapons to Aeldari blades, with options for the Exarch to replace their Aeldari blade with a power sword or a power glove, or their Aeldari blade and pistol with a pair of power blades. This keeps conversions simple (though the shuriken pistol - to - laspistol won't be simple if I decide to do that).

[Ioldanach]

I would skip the darkness field thing, leaving it as a lore explanation of the functions of the wings. I think that the darkness field thing would infringe a bit on some combination of Howling Banshees/Shadow Spectres/Harlequins, and the aspect is already a hodgepodge of Howling Banshee/Striking Scorpion/Shadow Spectre/Swooping Hawks. The laspistol is probably sufficient to distinguish them further from the Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions.