Wraith Crusade - GW 40K League

[Focslain]

So my local GW is doing a league of sorts in the next two months (April/May). Basically the idea is to get a force done and play some games alongside others with a few awards for those that get objectives done.

 

Anyway, so I looked at what I had in the backlog and since I needed to make an AoO detachment with this force I had 3 options, Sisters, Marines and Aeldari.

Eldar won a public poll by a landslide. So here we are.

 

I have three of the old Start Collecting boxes, the Iyanden ones, they were going to be the base for wraith force. I also have two wave serpents and a pair of webway gates for this.

 

Later I’ll post picts of the colour scheme as I have a wave serpent painted as well as a wraithblade to get my scheme figured out. 

 

For the games we are looking at 1K pts AoO matches, though the manager is placing a two week hold on games to allow those starting fresh to get a force ready. I made a preliminary list so I know what units to get on the painting block first. 

 

WRAITH CRUSADE

 

ARKS OF OMEN DETACHMENT
    - Faction: Asuryani
    - Sub-faction: Iyanden

HQ
Farseer (110)
    - Warlord
    - Singing spear
    - Traits: Iyanden: Enduring Resolve 
    - Psychic Powers: Guide, Fortune
    - Stratagems: Warlord Trait

Spiritseer (75)
    - Psychic Powers: Protect/Jinx
    - Relics: Kurnous’ Bow
    - Stratagems: Treasures of the Aeldari (Asuryani)

 

Elites
Wraithguard (200)
    - 5x Wraithguard
Wraithlord (145)
    - 2x Starcannon, Ghostglaive
Wraithblades (225)
    - 5x Wraithblade: Ghostaxe, Forceshield

 

Heavy Support
War Walkers (75)
    - Bright lance, Shuriken cannon

 

Dedicated Transport
Wave Serpent (165)
    - Twin bright lance

 

Stratagems
    - Warlord Trait (1CP)
    - Treasures of the Aeldari (Asuryani) (1CP)
Total Command Points: 2/6

Total Points: 995/1000

 

General idea is to have the spiritseer and wraithblades in the wave serpent as a flanking unit, I’m also thinking of placing a planned wraithguard unit with d-scythes instead of the wraithblades if the opponent is hordy. 

 

From what I’ve gathered we are looking at at least 3 marines, one chaos, a guard tank company, nids and one if not two orks. At least from the recon of the group I’ve been able to gather so far. 

 

I’m open for suggestions on weapons and swap out on most of this, but like to go mostly wraith constructs for this. I have a decent motor pool of hornets and nightspinners as well as a small bike force. I can get a more detailed list of my ‘reinforcements’ later as I gather the supplies and do a little house cleaning. I literally found a full repulsor on spure while gathering the SCs for this. Isha knows what I’ll find later.  I’d like to not have to buy new models if possible to keep up with the whole Backlog thing I’m doing as well. 
 

[Focslain]

So due to irl just being a pain I haven’t had nearly the time to paint or remember to grab some pictures for you all. The first day of gaming part of the league is this sunday. Below I have what I’m thinking of taking as I don’t have much of the list in the OP done as i wanted. So taking from my current lot of done models.

 

WRAITH RECON

Army Faction: Aeldari
    - Game Mode: Grand Tournament
    - Army Size: Incursion
ARKS OF OMEN DETACHMENT
    - Faction: Asuryani
    - Sub-faction: Iyanden

HQ
Farseer Skyrunner (140)
    - Warlord
    - Singing spear
    - Traits: Mark of the Incomparable Hunter 
    - Psychic Powers: Guide, Fortune
    - Relics: Sunstorm
    - Stratagems: Warlord Trait, Relic

Elites
Wraithguard (200)
    - 5x Wraithguard - D-Scythes

Fast Attack
Hornet (95)
    - Bright lance, Scatter laser, Crystal targeting matrix
Hornet (80)
    - 2x Shuriken cannon, Crystal targeting matrix
Windriders (90)
    - 3x Windrider: Shuriken cannon

Heavy Support
Night Spinner (155)
    - Shuriken cannon, Crystal targeting matrix

Dedicated Transport
Wave Serpent (175)
    - Twin bright lance, Shuriken cannon, Crystal targeting matrix

Stratagems
    - Warlord Trait (1CP)
    - Relic (1CP)
Total Command Points: 2/6
Reinforcement Points: 50
Total Points: 950/1000

 

I got both the d-cannon and d-scythe wraithguard done(ish), below is a pict of 9 of the 10 cause I frakked up the gems on one and needed to repaint them.

 

I’m thinking of replacing the nightspinner with a squad of wraithguard, so I would would have a more mid-field presence, but the nightspinner can help with the enemy’s backfield.
 

[Xenith]

Looking good! Can you sneak a warlock in there for Protect on the wraithguard also? That will make them nasty, especially cmbined with the AP reduction from Iyanden.

 

Personally I'd go doom over guide - an autarch can basically provide 50% of guide to multiple units with the reroll 1's aura while rerolling wounds is more tricky - but hits are maybe more important on the dscythes. Maybe statistically if you're shooting t6+ stuff reroll to wound is the same, but then better as the D weapons get a free mortal on 6's to wound, so doom lets you reroll and fish for those. 

[Focslain]

6 hours ago, Xenith said:

Looking good! Can you sneak a warlock in there for Protect on the wraithguard also? That will make them nasty, especially cmbined with the AP reduction from Iyanden.

 

Personally I'd go doom over guide - an autarch can basically provide 50% of guide to multiple units with the reroll 1's aura while rerolling wounds is more tricky - but hits are maybe more important on the dscythes. Maybe statistically if you're shooting t6+ stuff reroll to wound is the same, but then better as the D weapons get a free mortal on 6's to wound, so doom lets you reroll and fish for those. 

 

Thanks.

 

As for the warlock, that is kind of what the Spiritseer is for in the original list. i just don't have the model as I'm waiting on some parts to covert it. I should have them this weekend after my game. 

 

As for the Doom idea I like and I was still semi-thinking on old edition rules. Haven't played Eldar since early 8th when I built the vehicle heavy version. Doom also gives the farseer the ability to fish for 6s since his WLT makes him cause MW on 6s as well. Plus the bonus AP from the shuriken to boot.

 

Yeah, Doom it is. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Focslain

[Focslain]

So got in my first league game and spoilers, got my teeth kicked in.

 

Since i was playing against a new player and on a smaller board. The mission was AoO Sacred Ground, but only using the primary scoring part. The guy wanted to go full on the secondaries which was ok by me. Later in the game he had trouble tracking them but at least he was going through the motions.

 

Played against Death Guard, he had 25 plague marines (10/5/5/5), 10 pox walkers, Foul Blightspawn, Lord of Contagion, and a malignant Plaguecaster. 

 

I made a lot of mistakes and my opponent, even being new, was way on the ball. Good sign for later.  I’ll give you the highlights as I was trying to write a full report the events started getting scrambled in my head.

 

 - The Plaguecaster was on fire, literally as he periled himself twice, almost killing himself.
 - The DG player had nurgle’s luck as he was making a lot of saves.
 - I forgot about the Ulthwé 6++ as he melta’d the nightspinner and a hornet
 - I really needed to look at the strats as Lightning Reflexes could have helped a lot.
 - Also the +1 to psychic tests and re-roll wound abilities as I didn’t remember until turn 3 and it was too little too late.

 

Due to board size he managed to take two of the objectives quickly and I didn’t have the numbers at the start. This gave him a lead I couldn't recover from. Especially since I didn’t turn one deploy the wraithguard. Which with the farseer on bike would have at least made the points more even.

 

My idea of a flank attack was blunted by the small field. We are playing Incursion level battles on a combat patrol sized board. This is due to the small size of the store and I understand that. Just forgot how small the board was for what I designed as a fast army. 

 

The DG player had fun and I did some damage, the store manager also wanted me to go easy on the newbie, which I did in a way, just not by choice. 

What I’m going to look into is dropping the serpent for another wraithlord, this one focused on shuriken weapons (catapult x2, cannon x2) or replace it with the nightspinner. Another league game started about halfway through our game and it was GK vs TS and the only vehicle on the board was the GK nemesis dread. 

Also need to make some stratagem cards for the few I know I might need for this army. 

 

Here is a pict of my wraithguard taking the DG charge. I’ll try and get more picts in future games. As well as more detailed reports.

 

 

I have all 15 done (5 blades, 5 wraithcannon, 5 d-scythes) and I’m working on the wraithlord which is almost done, just needs the spare heavy weapons. Going to do those in a batch and get the war-walker up and running before I hit the next wraithlord. 
 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Focslain

[Focslain]

Over the weekend I was hoping for league game but was requested for another training bout. The store event had brought in a decent number of new hobbyist and the manager tries to pair up newbies with veterans as a teaching tool. It's not a bad idea if you have a helpful group.

 

Luckily the number of WAAC in our area (at least the two stores I frequent) is near zero.

 

While this didn't count towards the league, at least it was a game so I got more practice with the army. 

 

My opponent was a new admech player, like this was his first game. After a quick list build we did a basic 'kill them all' bout just to run through the game. Amazingly we actually had to go through all the phases during the game. Think the only thing we didn't do was degrading profiles.

His list is below:

 

ARKS OF OMEN DETACHMENT
    - Faction: Adeptus Mechanicus
    - Sub-faction: Mars

HQ
Tech-Priest Enginseer (50)

Troops
Kataphron Destroyers (120)
    - 3x Kataphron Destroyer: Gravcannon, cognis-flamer
Skitarii Rangers (110)
    - 1x Skitarii Ranger: Arc rifle
    - 1x Skitarii Ranger: Plasma caliver
    - 6x Skitarii Ranger
    - 1x Skitarii Ranger: Transuranic arquebus
    - 1x Skitarii Ranger Alpha: Radium pistol, Taser goad

Skitarii Vanguard (110)
    - 1x Vanguard Alpha: Radium pistol, Taser goad
    - 1x Skitarii Vanguard: Arc rifle
    - 1x Skitarii Vanguard: Plasma caliver
    - 1x Skitarii Vanguard: Transuranic arquebus
    - 6x Skitarii Vanguard

Elites
Sicarian Ruststalkers (80)
    - 1x Sicarian Ruststalker Princeps
    - 4x Sicarian Ruststalker

Fast Attack
Ironstrider Ballistarii (85)
    - Twin cognis lascannon

Heavy Support
Kastelan Robots (170)
    - 2x Kastelan Robot
Onager Dunecrawler (100)
    - Cognis heavy stubber, Daedalus missile launcher, Gatling rocket launcher and Twin Icarus autocannon
Skorpius Disintegrator (125)

Elite Character
Cybernetica Datasmith (35)

Total Command Points: 0/6
Reinforcement Points: 15
Total Points: 985/1000

 

I went with a full wraithguard list

 

ARKS OF OMEN DETACHMENT
    - Faction: Asuryani
    - Sub-faction: Ulthwé

HQ
Farseer (110)
    - Warlord
    - Singing spear
    - Traits: Fate's Messenger 
    - Psychic Powers: Doom, Executioner, Fortune
    - Relics: The Ghosthelm of Alishazier
    - Stratagems: Warlord Trait, Relic

Elites
Wraithguard (200)
    - 5x Wraithguard: Wraithcannon
Wraithlord (140)
    - 2x Aeldari flamer, Scatter laser, Ghostglaive, Shuriken cannon
Wraithblades (225)
    - 5x Wraithblade: Ghostaxe, Forceshield
Wraithguard (250)
    - 5x Wraithguard: D-scythe

Heavy Support
War Walkers (75)
    - Bright lance, Shuriken cannon

Stratagems
    - Warlord Trait (1CP)
    - Relic (1CP)

Total Command Points: 2/6
Reinforcement Points: 0
Total 1000/1000

 

Pict of my force

The wraith guard wall managed to servive most of the fire. I made sure to stall out the ironstrider asap as well as the bots. Do to poor positioning on my part it took two turns for the wraithlord to engage his tanks. Once it did, it cut them in half easily. It wasn't unopposed as both tanks fired into it once I moved it into sight. I had to use Tears of Isha on it twice during the game to keep it up. The enhanced bionics Admech have now made them almost as tough as the wraithguard. That is if I wasn't wounding on 2's with most of my weapons.

 

Overall it wasn't a steam roll, but a glacial one as we got in a full five turns. All the wraith units were below 50%, not bad for not using Strands of Fate die. To be fair the admech player wasn't using Canticles/Doctrina either for easy. Plus not having objectives meant I could push forward faster then I might normally have. He had just the Enginseer left by the end.

 

I'm looking into using the webway strat to deep strike my d-scythes. Get them next to a large unit or just a back unit to wreck havoc.

 

Pict of the wraith wall by the manager.

 

Also going to go back and mag all the weapon mounts as the push-fit was not working. And I forgot my wraithlord had flamers, that might have ended a squad or two sooner in the game. The Nurgle player from my first game is looking for a rematch and figured let's see how this foot list works out. 

[The Yncarne]

This game has a lot to remember and I don't blame you for forgetting things. You clearly have a plan and I can't add anything constructive there. Getting new models on the tables is always a nice feeling though. 

 

The photos you do have show off some nice boards and terrain. It is nice to see a store have such nice assets for players to use.

 

Have fun!

Edited April 25, 2023 by The Yncarne
spelling

[Focslain]

On 4/25/2023 at 4:04 PM, The Yncarne said:

This game has a lot to remember and I don't blame you for forgetting things. You clearly have a plan and I can't add anything constructive there. Getting new models on the tables is always a nice feeling though. 

 

The photos you do have show off some nice boards and terrain. It is nice to see a store have such nice assets for players to use.

 

Have fun!

The manager has been in the hobby as long as I have (we both started in 2nd Edition) so his been pretty up to how to play and what the store needs, which is good. Even with 4 of those combat patrol boards running at the same time we had terrain to spare without having to take from the demo boards.

 

This is also the sixth army I've played this year. Think I've reached my memory limit. For context this year I've played Tau, Knights, Guard, Votann, and Marines. Heck I'm doing Marines and Eldar at the same time between the league at the GW store and the new 40K campaign at my FLGS.

 

So yeah, wires will be crossed

 

Think the list I have now is pretty good. I'll try the webway strat next game to see how that works. Figure have the wraithblades lead the charge with Fortune applied. So that would be a T6 squad with a 3+/4++/5+++ save. Plus DR1 for the multi-damage weapons.

 

Also really need to remember to get pict during battle as well as unit shots. Got a few from my last boarding action, not getting them for this army.

[Karhedron]

Great photos and battle reports. I have played Wraithhosts of one flavour or another since 3rd edition (I still have 3 squads of old metal Wraithguard). The Eldar army does have quite a lot of moving parts to get to grips with but it is great once you start getting those synergies coming together. 

[Focslain]

So I got in a proper game this weekend, might have had two but was feeling under the weather sunday so didn't risk it.

 

Did Sacred Grounds, this time in full. Was against a Guard player, pretty basic list (see below, at least what I remembered):

Army Faction: Imperium
    - Game Mode: Grand Tournament
    - Army Size: Incursion
    - Regimental Doctrines: Born Soldiers
    - Faction: Astra Militarum

HQ
Cadian Command Squad (75)
    - Warlord
    - 1x Cadian Commander
    - 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman (Master Vox)
    - 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman (Regimental Standard)
    - 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman: Meltagun
    - 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman (Medi-pack)
Tank Commander (195)
    - 2x Multi-melta
    - Relics: Gatekeeper
    - Stratagems: Imperial Commander's Armoury

Troops
Cadian Shock Troops (65)
    - 1x Shock Trooper Sergeant
    - 9x Shock Trooper
Death Korps of Krieg (80)
    - 1x Death Korps Trooper (Plasma gun)
    - 1x Death Korps Watchmaster
    - 1x Death Korps Trooper: Death Korps medi-pack
    - 7x Death Korps Trooper
Death Korps of Krieg (75)
    - 1x Death Korps Trooper (Plasma gun)
    - 1x Death Korps Watchmaster
    - 8x Death Korps Trooper

Fast Attack
Armoured Sentinels (50)
    - Sentinel chainsaw, Militarum plasma cannon

Heavy Support
Field Ordnance Battery (130)
    - 2x Ordnance Team
Rogal Dorn Battle Tank (295)
    - Oppressor cannon, 2x Meltagun, Co-axial autocannon, 2x Multi-melta, Armoured tracks

Stratagems
    - Imperial Commander's Armoury (1CP)

Total Command Points: 1/6
Reinforcement Points: 35
Total Points: 965/1000

 

It was a brutal and close game. He got an early lead on his secondaries. As we ground each other to paste I was holding desperately to the two objective I could while doing my best to keep him off the third via killing everything on there. Wraithblades did ok, it was hard to hold off the amount of melta he was throwing at me. They did manage to take off more then half dorn's wounds in a single combat, at least until he vaporized them in melta-fire. It did hold it back enough for the wraithlord to engage the tank commander and kill it before moving on to the dorn and doing the same. 

 

The wraithlord was the mvp, pretty much killing the commander, command squad, dorn and a bit of infantry on it's own. I had to heal it twice, but it was worth it. The D-scythes did well wiping out the cadian squad and finishing off the kriegs men as well as held down the tank commander for a turn. Game ended 52-50 in my favor, basically won by two points. With only the lord and walker left by turn 4. It was bloody close. It was hilarious that he parting shot the farseer into oblivion when the dorn died. 

 

Pictures of the game curtesy of the store manager.

[Focslain]

So I didn't get in a game last weekend due to illness. Did get a game in this weekend though. It was a short one as Isha smiled upon my dice that game.

 

It was against a Space Wolves player his list is below:

ARKS OF OMEN DETACHMENT
    - Faction: Adeptus Astartes
    - Sub-faction: Space Wolves 

HQ

Primaris Chaplain (75)
    - Litanies: Exhortation of Rage
Primaris Lieutenant (65)
    - Master-crafted power sword
Ragnar Blackmane (110)
    - Warlord
    - Traits: Warrior Born
    - Stratagems: Warlord Trait

Troops

Assault Intercessor Squad (170)
    - 9x Assault Intercessor
    - 1x Assault Intercessor Sergeant
Intercessor Squad (90)
    - 4x Intercessor
    - 1x Intercessor Sergeant
Assault Intercessor Squad (85)
    - 4x Assault Intercessor
    - 1x Assault Intercessor Sergeant: Plasma pistol
Elites

Brutalis Dreadnought (200)
    - 2x Brutalis talon , 2x Multi-melta
Redemptor Dreadnought (185)
    - Macro plasma incinerator, 2x Fragstorm grenade launcher

Stratagems
    - Warlord Trait (1CP)

Total Command Points: 1/6
Reinforcement Points: 20
Total Points: 980/1000

 

The terrain was in a five piece X shape of obsructing terrain and some cover between. Mission was the old Scared Ground cause I knew the layout as did my opponent. he had his 10 man assault and 5 man bolter interccessors in one comer and the rest in another corner well hidden behind the blocking terrain. I had the d-scythes in the webway, the wraithguard and farseer in a building up center of my zone with the blades and wraithlord on the border nearest to a center objective, the war walker next to my home objective.

 

He got first turn, moved his dreadnaughts and characters up, advanced the 5 man assault squad to the center and tried to get the 10 man squad moved out via the center, which he could have gone straight towards me over a wall section, but didn't. His redemptor had range and fired at my wraithguard and failed to wound. I advanced most of my line. the wraithguard jumping down and getting within range of the dread. I doomed the redemptor and Fortuned the wraithguard just in case. I had a hit and wound fate die and used them, then rolling the other four I still managed three hits, then a six to wound on one, rerolled one into another six. So with three MW on the table and rolling for damage I got pretty low, ten total in base damage after the dread's DR was factored. Which meant I did 13 wounds. Just enough to drop it. It didn't explode though.

 

Next turn save him move up the burtalis  and advance the 10 man and his characters. The lead 5 man squad made for the other objective that my wraithlord was heading to. His dread fired into the wraithguard and only managed while hitting and wounding with half his melta shots, I saved one and the other only did three damage, so two after the wraith DR, didn't make my FNP saves. His one five man squad failed to damage the wraithguard as well. His brute was just in melta range and he didn't want to risk a good OW phase if he tried the charge. 

 

This round had given me a psychic and two wound fate rolls. I brought the d-scythes from the webway and doomed the brute, then executioner the large assault squad, doing a combined 5 MW, the trap set and I fired.  

 

The wraithguard blasted the brute, between doom and the two fate wounding I did 16 damage to the hulk and turned it to slag. The d-scythes got a massive 23 attacks versus the now eight man assault unit. Most hit and several added MW to the count, wiping the squad whole sale.

 

He called it after that. 

 

I felt sorry for the dude, though his next game against a tyranid player he took all the stuff he should have used against me. Wulfen, thunderwolf cav, bladeguard, things with invs and decent damage. It was just a bad list pairing.

 

The league ends in two weeks, so I'll be lucky if I get in two or three more bouts. I'm not near the running for a top slot, but that is fine. I got a lot of models painted, build a pretty brutal force if fate wills it.

 

Also here are some pictures of my other units I did for the army in the past. It started as a vehicle heavy force.
 

Farseers on bike



 

small bike squad



 

Wave Serpent and Hornet



 

Nightspinner



 

[The Yncarne]

Always nice to see newly painted stuff in games. Nothing wrong with vehicles either. 

[INKS]

I love wraithguard, always wanted an army of them but I continue to look and it's odd and hard to tell how competitive they really are. seems like they really need spiders or hawks to help on the movement side of things. 

[brother_b]

38 minutes ago, INKS said:

I love wraithguard, always wanted an army of them but I continue to look and it's odd and hard to tell how competitive they really are. seems like they really need spiders or hawks to help on the movement side of things. 

Play it cause you love it! I feel the same way but have a box set and am so tempted to start some wraith minis going.

[INKS]

Yeah I should. I always feel like I need to have an army list or something planed out ahead of time to know what to buy and build towards, I am odd like that. lol