Craftworld Iybraesil - Battle Witch Yvraine and Yncarne

[TrawlingCleaner]

I haven't painted Craftwolrd eldar since last October, and when I did I didn't finish much as I got hit out of left field with a Death Guard idea and project. Whoops!

I've always vowed to come back and I want the rest of this year's painting mojo to be focused towards my Knife-ear projects. I spent a while figured out what I wanted to do with the Dire Avengers as this army scheme is a light blue and Dire Avengers are usually a lightish blue. I went with a dark blue and red crest to add a bit of contrast to my army.

 

I had already painted the Guardians and part painted the Warwalker so I based them and finished off the walker before moving onto the Avengers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up next is another 10 Avengers for my Vow for the Eldar event

Edited September 15, 2023 by TrawlingCleaner

[TrawlingCleaner]

I've started on the 10 for my vow, the blue highlights aren't obvious enough so I will do another layer with a mix of the last highlight and a lighter blue

[Dwango]

Nice, I like these! Whats next after the avengers?

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thanks Dwango! After these guys is a unit of 5 Rangers. I have a 1000 point list that I'm building to as I may use that as my Crusade starting roster. I like to get the troops out of the way first then paint all the fun stuff

[TrawlingCleaner]

I brightened up the highlights of the Dire Avengers as it was too dark as they were, the highlights are now a mix of Caledor Sky and Macragge blue. Got the Catapults started and washed. Next up is to tidy the catapults up then the gems

 

 

 

Then I got the white layer done on the Rangers as the washes were drying on the Avengers. These guys are the "89 Rogue trader sculpt, which makes them 7 years older than me

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by TrawlingCleaner

[Captain Coolpants]

Loving the elderly Aeldari!

[TrawlingCleaner]

Loving the elderly Aeldari!

[TrawlingCleaner]

I got my 10 vowed Avengers done and also got the rangers done, I actually really like how they've come out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is these three:

[Greywing]

Lovely! I wish I could get my DA helmets that smooth.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Lovely! I wish I could get my DA helmets that smooth.

Thanks Greywing! The way I do it is:

Black basecoat

Dawnstone layer (doesn't matter too much if it's patchy)

Several Ulthran Grey layers

 

If you're struggling to get an even coat, I'd recommend a coat of Celestra Grey between dawnstone and ulthran grey

I've only got there through trial and error to be totally honest

 

I totally forgot to put my Warlock progress on here too, just need to tidy around the face plate and I'm waiting on some paint arriving to do the sword but otherwise very proud so far

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

I haven't posted any progress/completion pictures in a while but I've finished a Wraithlord, 5 Banshees and a Wave Serpent. I think my gem work has really improved recently

 

Wraithlord

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banshees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wave Serpent

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

I got another Warwalker done, the gems look pretty good on this one.

 

 

On the first one I had a starcannon and a multilaser on so I took the multilaser off and gave it another starcannon. Looking at the armaments of the warwalkers, I feel like Starcannons are really the way to go. Shuriken isn't bad if you haven't got that much Anti-horde but my force is lacking reliable anti-tank and anti- heavy infantry as the majority of my gaming group plays Space marines or Necrons. I really need something that can deal with Intercessors, Gravis and Destroyers. For only 10 points more than a Warwalker with dual Shurriken, it seemed to be a bit of no brainer for me.

 

 

I've also been working away at the Farseer for a little while now, I'm very proud of how she's come out, and with just a simple conversion I've managed to get a cool looking and different Farseer.

 

Farseer Aleerith, the Banshee's Wail

"Once set on the Path of the Warrior she rose quickly through the ranks of the Howling Banshees before the Path of the Witch called to her. Now she leads Craftworld Iybraesil often found in the thick of fighting surrounded by her Banshee squad mates"

 

Rerevow is done, I'm not too sure what I'll vow next. I think it might be some Wraithblades, I just got my hands on an old school Fire Prism but I need to strip that and spray it which might not be possible for a while with Good old British weather

 

I'll get a picture with all the painted guys together when I get home tonight

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

1200 point Eldar vs Orks Battle Report:

 

I got my first real 9th game in and with my Eldar army no less. 9th plays very differently to 8th IMO and eldar really play differently than most other armies I have played. I absolutely loved this game and it was a blast. Our lists were:

 

Orks, Deff Skulls:

1 Warboss with a relic claw

1 Big Mek with shokk attack gun

1 30 man blob of boys

2 15/14 blobs of boys

10 Loottas

1 Morkanaut

 

Eldar, Biel Tan:

1 Farseer, Guide and Doom

1 Warlock, Protect/Jinx and Witchstrike (swapped out for smite)

2x 10 Dire Avengers, Bladestorm

5 Rangers

2 War Walkers, SCannons

5 Banshees

5 Wraithblades, Axe and Shield

1 Wraithlord

1 Wave Serpent

 

The Gamemode was centre ground. He took the Mission specific secondary and Slay the Warlord, I took Mental interrogation and Thin their ranks.

I deployed very conservedly, whacked my walkers and Banshees in deepstrike. I had 10 Avengers and 2 HQs in the Serpent in the back field with the Wraithlord back there too. I hid the Rangers, Blades and 10 Avengers behind line of sight blocking closer to the centre of the board.

My opponent had everything with toes on the deployment line and he won roll off choosing to go first.

 

Turn 1 Orks

He Advanced everything that couldn't draw line of sight to my units, the Morkanaut only had one gun in range so I popped lightning fast reactions on the Wraithguard. Nothing happened this turn.

 

Turn 1 Eldar

I flew the Serpent up to the far objective point to his models and about 18" away from the closest ork, I had the Avengers that were hiding advance to get line of sight to a 14 man unit of boys. The Wraiths advanced towards the Morkanaut on the right flank of the board but kept line of sight away from the Lootas. In my shooting the Avengers in the centre wiped the 14 man unit of boys bar the Nob on 1 wound, Biel-Tan really came into it's own here and in this game in general, they then Fire and Faded back behind line of sight blocking so that only the Morkanaut could see them. The Wave Serpent killed 5 of the Lootas and my Rangers plinked 3 wounds off of the Big Mek.

 

Turn 2 Orks

Lootas and Big Mek stayed still, everything else smashed forward. The Morkanaut killed a Ranger, and dealt 9 wounds to the Serpent. Ouch. I lost 2 Avengers to the Lootas and the Morkanaut charged my Wraiths. He did the sweep attack and only killed one of the Wraiths, they only did 3 wounds back.

 

Turn 2 Eldar

The Farseer piles out of the Serpent towards the Morkanuat on the right, as does the warlock to hold my futher back objective while the Serpent leapfrogs and takes the centre objective on the left flank. The Wraithlord advances forward also towards the 'naut. My now 8 man Avenger moved into range of the other 14 man unit in the centre. The walkers came in on my right hand side table edge and the Banshees came in behind the Bigmek in the back right corner. The Farseer was out of range for Doom on the Morkanaut but managed to Guide the Walkers and Smite a loota. Between my Wraithlord and Serpent, the Lootas were wiped, the middle boys unit was wiped to two models. The rangers and the walkers could only put their shots into the 30 man boy blob behind the Morkanaut and killed 6.  Combat between the Wraiths and the 'Naut ended with another Wraith dead and the 'Naut only taking another 3 wounds. My Banshees entirely whiffed, they didn't kill the 1 wound Big Mek and to make it more awkward, he killed 2 in return. The wraithlord had failed to make combat with the 'naut

 

Turn 3 Orks

The 14 man squad that were nearly wiped last turn were Greentided, the warboss climed out of the 'Naut. The 30 man unit shuffled forwards but kept about half within range of the Banshees. The Bigmek vaporised a Walker, the boys finished my Banshees. The 14 man unit killed 5 Avengers with shooting from the 10 man unit. The Warboss charged my Wraithlord, the 14 man squad charged the 8 man Avenger squad on the left side of the battlefield. The Warboss only did 3 wounds to the Wraithlord and took nothing in return, the Boys wiped the Avengers and the 'Naut combat was a stalemate.

 

Turn 3 Eldar

The 5 remaining Avengers failed combat and I lost another 3. Ouch. I used the Feigned retreat strat on the Wraithlord to get closer to the 'naut. I doomed the 'naut and Guided the Serpent. I also got Protect on the Wraiths. Between the Serpent, the Rangers, walker and Wraithlord, I managed to get the 14 man unit in the centre down to one Nob again. The Wraithlord charged the 'Naut. The Wraithlord only got one wound through and I rolled a 6 for damage. Being Deff Skulls they ignore on 6s and my opponent rolled 4 6s. The Morkanaut then turned to the Wraithlord and one shot it as it's smash attacks are -4AP. Even with Doom I only got 4 wounds through with the Wraithblades.

 

Turn 4 Orks

The 30 man unit was getting ever closer to my lines and the Warboss moved to be right next to my Farseer, the lone nob moving forward right next to the 4 wound Serpent. The Warboss and lone Nob both made their charges. The Nob killed the Serpent and it detotonated killing it which was pretty handy. The Wraiths put in a great showing and with Doom they managed to deal enough damage to the 'Naut that they would have one shot it. The Warboss and the Farseer trade some blows with the Warboss taking 3 wounds from the Farseer only to take 1 wound in return.

 

Turn 4 Eldar

The wraiths move to intercept the 30 man blob and the Warlock moves to help the Farseer. Smite fails to casts even with Runes of the Farseer and then I do the Mental onslaught Mission power and gain 3 VP. The warlock casts Witchstrike on himself and makes the charge into the Warboss, the Blades make it into the Boys too. The Wraiths rolled exceptionally well and kill 8 boys between 3 of them but do lose one in return. The Warlock steps up and deals 5 wounds to the Warboss and 4 with another hit, not needing both but very handy as he would have likely killed the Farseer next turn.

 

Game ends 40-24. I really manged to run away with the points here as I was raking in the kill points but also holding at least 1 objective a turn whereas the orks were struggling. Really enjoyed this game and I'm looking forward to playing more

[Karhedron]

Great showing for the first game of a new edition. Lots to digest here but the takeaway seems to be that Orks are tough and killy but you managed to win the game by keeping an eye on the mission objectives.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thanks man, Orks are very tough to shift especially when they've got a FNP save. They moved a lot quicker than I thought and my opponent lamented not taking a Weirdboy instead of the Big Mek to teleport units up the board. To be honest if he did that I think my army would have crumbled from the pressure.

 

9th definitely feels very different from 8th in that killing stuff doesn't really matter that much unless it's to deny points. The Wraithblades managed to hold one of the centre points for nearly 3 turns by themselves which got me 15 of the 40 points total. I think very tough units like this are going to be super important in a glass cannon type army

[TrawlingCleaner]

Over the last two weeks I've gotten the Wraithblades done and also the Spiritseer, which bring me up to 1250 all together. I've got a game this weekend against my friends orks, he's taking 2K and a friend of mine that also has Craftworl Iybraesil eldar will be adding his 750 to my list which will be very cool. I'll take pictures this time!

 

Wraithblades:

 

 

 

 

"Spiritseer Barahir leading his undead charges. Always dour and deathly silent, befitting personality for a mortician of a dying xenos race" I went for a much darker set of colours on this model as he's essentially an undertaker:

 

 

 

 

 

Also got my shelving unit up which houses 3 of my other armies too, but this shows off my 1250 points nicely. Next onto another 6 Banshees!

[Captain Coolpants]

Loving the force! It very much reminds me of my own craftworlders.

But you've definitely gone with a better colour for the weapons haha.

Might have to steal it when I eventually start tidying up my army.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thanks Captain! I stole the melee weapon effect from another person that painted up some craftworld iybraesil models

 

 

I expanded the Howling Banshees to 11 with the end of my last vow for the Aeldari event. I managed to snag another 6 for very cheap on eBay and am currently in the process of painting Jain Zar

 

 

 

 

I had last week off, so I decided to do a few 1 day challenges where I'd paint up one model in a day. I actually got more done than I thought I would. So I really expanded the Iybraesil armoury with: a Fire Prism, another wave serpent, a Falcon and a Crimson Hunter:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also went through and finished the bases on all the completed models but haven't taken pictures of them yet.

 

I got 2 games of 9th in last week too, the first was a 2k vs orks. I took 1250 and a friend of mine took 750 of Craftworlds too. It was a great game that came down to my warlock trying to step up and take out a Morkanaut that was on 3 wounds. He had cast Witchstrike on himself so all he needed to do was get in and get one wound through. He whiffed and was promptly stomped

 

 

The second game was against DA at 1k points. Again my warlock stepped up to save the day but got promptly skewered by the Burning Blade. He did at least hold him up in combat saving me some time to win the game by one point

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

Got some work done on another Farseer, this time made out of a Fantasy High Elf Mage

 

 

 

 

 

 

Size comparison next to a firstborn for those wondering:

 

Plenty more to do!

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

Got some more work done on the Farseer the night before last, he's bloody dainty so it's taking a while

 

 

 

I'm getting there!

 

I also totally forgot to post up the full army so far, I've gotten just under 2k points done and I'm proud of how I've done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dwango]

You should be. It's a cracking force!

[Prot]

I've commented on this elsewhere, but again, that's a fantastic force you've put together there.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thank you guys, I've said it once and I'll say it a million times but it's very rad when you're chugging away in your own little niche part of a niche hobby and someone likes what you're doing. It's a very big motivation boost!

 

I should finish off the Farseer tonight as well as a second Fire Prism. From there I've got a Farseer on bike to paint and an Autarch with wings, I've also got plenty of Wraith units to do and some more Dire Avengers. I might also be getting 10 Windriders 2nd hand at an absolute steal. I was going to do Armies on Parade this year with them but I may have left it too late to be honest.

With the Death Guard and Dark Eldar codexes on the way I think I'll be Side tracked with them for a little while which will be a nice pallette cleanser.

[Captain Coolpants]

I wish I had your motivation at the moment! Ive just felt so burnt out. I was barely painting anything before, but I've had no motivation to do anything lol.

 

 

So I commend you on your fine efforts sir! Lovely army.

[Mordas]

amazing looking stuff here! making me want to get back to mine now.

 

Keep up the good work!