What is the purpose of Shadow Spectres?

Shadow Spectres, Forgeworlds contribution to the Eldar's Aspect Warriors. In their trial rules they were quite obviously tank snipers with their ghostlight special rule and lance. Also their individual shots were short ranged anti TEQ.

Now however I feel they have become a bit like Swooping Hawks, unsure of what their role is supposed to be. They have had their individual prism rifles range increased which is quite nice and their invulnerable save has also improved from shooting >12", however the rest of their rules as awkward and weird IMO.

The basic prism rifle range increased by 6" so it now has the range of a Avenger Shuriken Catapult, it also had its AP drop so it is now anti MEQ (however with their low rate of fire, Dark Reapers out perform them). In addition it can also fire a small blast with the basic small arms strength and AP stats.

The Ghostlight rules are a bit awkward I believe, now you require two additional firing models instead of one to increase strength and range rounding odd numbers down. Also range only increases 6" per two, instead of the trial rules 12" per one additional firing model. Here's a break down of both the trial and finalised rules firing their ghostlights at maximum.

Trial 5 models
60" Str 10 AP2 Lance

Finalised: 6 models
36" Str 9(Str 10 only achievable via Exarch with his gun upgrade) AP2 blast.

The range is nearly halved and it lost lance, replacing it with blast. What on earth is the purpose of this? Is it designed to shoot at Nob bikers and hope it scatters slightly so it can hit more than one model?

So Exarch's Prism blaster. This is where things get slightly more convoluted. It's a two shot anti TEQ weapon. It however doesn't have a blast option.

The Phoenix Lord, Irillyth, three shot anti TEQ weapon. No blast option.

So you want to run the full squad? You have 5 small blasts or 5 anti MEQ shots, 5 anti TEQ shots, or a medium ranged strong small blast.

So they're no longer armour snipers though they can still do a number on most things. Bit of anti horde, bit of anti MEQ, bit of anti TEQ. An Exarch power allows you to use Hit and Run USR. It's all over the shop.

Also they're now Fast attack, which will please most people from the impression I got however it shafts my Taste the Rainbow list as my Fast attack is full. Guess I won't need to ask BIV's TO if I can run them anymore -_- More Dire Avengers here we go!

I'll be running them in my upcoming Apoc game, I'll deep strike them in turn two alongside my Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks, between these three squads with two Phoenix Lords they should be able to harass the flank decently hard.

Apoc project: List and what needs doing.

So I figured a good way to measure what needs doing and what is done is to make a check list of my army list and then take photos at a later date of the completed items. So here is my 10,000pt list:


Autarch, Power weapon, Fusion Gun, Mandiblasters

Autarch, Mandiblasters, Jetbike, Laser Lance, Fusion Gun

Farseer, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding, Fortune, Doom

Warlocks x 10, Enhance x 2, Embolden x 2, Destructor x 2, Singing Spear x 2
Wave Serpent,Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Vectored Engines, Star Engines

Avatar of Khaine

Asurmen

Jain Zar

Baharroth

Karandras

Fuegan

Maugan Ra

Irillyth

Striking Scorpions x 8,Exarch,Scorpions Claw, Shadow Strike, Stalker

Striking Scorpions x 6, Exarch, Biting Blade, Shadow Strike, Stalker

Striking Scorpions x 6, Exarch, Scorpion Claw, Shadow Strike, Stalker

Fire Dragons x 5

Fire Dragons x 5, Exarch, Fire Pike, Tank Hunters
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Fire Dragons x 5, Exarch, Fire Pike, Tank Hunters
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Wraithguard x 5, Warlock, Destructor

Howling Banshees x 10, Exarch, Executioner
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch, Power Weapon/Shimmer Shield
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch, Dual Cats, Blade Storm, Defend
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch, Dual Cats, Blade Storm, Defend
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Scatter laser, Star Engines

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch, Dual Cats, Blade Storm

Rangers x 7

Gurdians x 10, Scatter Laser

Gurdians x 10, Scatter Laser

Guardian Jetbikes x 9, Shuriken Cannon x 3

Shining Spears x 5, Exarch, Star Lance, Withdraw, Skilled Rider

Warp Spiders x 9, Exarch, Dual Spinners, Withdraw

Swooping Hawks x 8, Exarch, Sun Rifle, Intercept

Shadow Spectres x 6, Exarch, Prism Blaster

Hornet, Pulse Laser x 2

Hornet, Pulse Laser x 2

Vyper, Scatter Laser

Vyper, Scatter Laser

Dark Reapers x 5, Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot

Wraithlord, Eldar Missile Launcher, Brightlance

Falcon, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones, Eldar Missile Launcher, Shuriken Cannon

Falcon, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones, Eldar Missile Launcher, Shuriken Cannon

Falcon, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones, Eldar Missile Launcher, Shuriken Cannon

Fire Prism, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones
Spirit Stones

Fire Prism, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones

Night Spinner, Holo-fields, Spirit Stones

Warp Hunter, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon

Scorpion, Eldar Missile Launcher

Cobra, Bright Lance

Formations:
Aspect Assault Wave
Cloudstrike Squad
Shadow Sect of Karandaras

HQ 2476
Elite 1593
Troops 1604
Fast 1254
Heavy 1602
S. Heavy 1145
Formations 325

Total 9999


Items that still need painting:
HQ - Jetbike Autarch, Irillyth, Warlocks Wave Serpent.

Elites: 2 Scorpion Exarchs 4 Scorpions, Wraithguard, one warlock, 1 fire dragon.

Troops: 4 rangers, touch ups on guardians, weapon platforms, all 9 jetbikes.

Fast: 4 Warp Spiders, 3 Swooping Hawks, Vypers scatter lasers, Shadow Spectre Exarch, both Hornets

Heavy: Repaint wraithlord (might do this last as it's already painted just badly), 1 Falcon, touch ups on another, Warp Hunter, Night Spinner.

Super Heavy: Both the Cobra and the Scorpion.

So over all there's not really much left I need to paint! I'm really excited. I'll upload pictures soonerish/later of all the units in their FoC slots.

Reinforcements! The Apocalypse Project.

So with the release of IA 11 I've gone a tad crazy with my spending. In the last month I have bought a Wave Serpent, Night Spinner, Scorpion, Cobra, Warp Hunter, 2 Hornets, Shadow Spectre Exarch, Phoenix Lord Irillyth. IA 11 of course.
Since my purchase I have assembled everything bar one hornet and the two shadow spectres. I still need to base my two super heavies, I think I'll head to the local hardware store and have a browse for some ideas.

The Warp Hunter came with the Fire Prism sprue minus the crystal, so I have assembled it and given it a pulse laser and a EML, then I went to ebay and purchased the top and bottom hull of a falcon to create what I'm going to call "type 3 falcon", which will act as my command tank in the Cloudstrike Squadron.

So this marks the beginning of the Apocalypse Project! My goal is to have 10,000 points ready to play in 5 or so months. It's not all that bad as I have a considerable amount painted already, around 5000 - 6000pts are all ready!

Dark Eldar updates.

Whilst these pics aren't really good quality - nothing new there - I have to keep this blog alive!

Here you can see my two succubi





What I've painted so far of my Blood Brides



And here is some regular wyches



So far I have both Succubi, 4 Blood Brides and 13 wyches painted. Long way left to go :)

Duelling Banjos!

Last Sunday my gaming club Cessnock Wagaming hosted a games day against a neighbouring club Morisset. The day was referred to as "Duelling Banjos".

I had originally planned to post battle reports for the day but I never took enough pictures of my battles so I thought I'd just upload pictures from the day instead. So here they are in no particular order.

Over all it was a great day with 29 people being there. Thanks to Paul and everyone else involved in getting this idea off the ground and the Morisset boys for travelling out to play us. Look forward to coming back to the return visit!

Dark Eldar Stuff

So I've ordered a medium sized wych cult through The Warstore which will be arriving soon hopefully! I've decided to run them as Drow from D&D. I've got all the paint schemes worked out in my head so hopefully that'll look good.

I've though, as Drow worship a spider Godess Lloth so I thought if I ever run beastmasters (they dont really appeal to me) I could use the spiders from the goblin spider riders to be either khymeras and clawed fiends.

Also I could use that new large arachnid model to represent a talos.

I've also thought if I wanted to run wracks or grotesques I could possibly use spider models here intead, claiming the haemonculi are drow wizards and using sudden swarm. Just a thought atm neither of these options appeal to me.

I'll have to come up with a spider design to paint on the sails of my raiders/ravagers.

Good times ahead.

As a side note I've finished painting 6 warlocks now :)