And so it begins…

With the ETC and last 5th ed tournament finished, I find myself with a mere two weeks to get ready for the my first 6th ed event: NWG 2012

This was held on the first weekend of September, before any of the new FAQs had come out. The missions were not quite that straightforward, and called for a very robust and flexible army. In any of the objective missions, you couldn't just park a unit beside the enemy objective on turn 5 to contest it, the entire area had to cleared of all enemy troops to gain control. Each game also had a secret secondary mission, which was randomly assigned at the start of the round, so the army had to be able to complete any of these missions at any time.

With this in mind, I set about making the smallest and easiest list I could get together and learn the rules for at short notice: A Dark-Harliestar army with lots of allies and guns.

Introducing the Buddy System:

Vect

Baron

Eldrad

10 Eldar Harlequins: Shadowseer, Deathjester, 8 Kisses

10 Kaballite Warriors: Splinter Cannon

10 Kaballite Warriors: Splinter Cannon

10 Wraithguard: Spiritseer: Conceal, Singing Spear

3 Guardian Jetbikes

Ravager: 3 Dark lances, Night Shields

Ravager: 3 Dark lances, Night Shields

Ravager: 3 Disintegrators, Night Shields

3 War Walkers: 6 Scatter Lasers

Most of the list is pretty straightforward.

The Ravagers would be the main anti-tank units. I wasn't expecting that many vehicles, so one lucky ravager got a set of disintegrators just to see what they could do.

The Kabalite Warriors were there just to sit on an objective and try not to die. Any additional firepower they could put out was a bonus. Whilst it would have been cheaper to go with just five dudes, the reduced cover saves and general fragility of the guys themselves meant that ten felt a bit safer.

The Jetbikes were there to complete the Linebreaker variant secondary mission.

The War Walkers added some fantastic firepower to the DE arsenal, especially with guide and/or doom up. The new Hull Points system means they are also great at getting rid of pretty much anything that isn't AV13 or higher. The could even have a go at bringing down flyers.

Now onto the fun stuff!

You probably all know about the Dark-Harliestar by now, it's a nasty little unit that gets 2+ rerollable cover saves (with fortune) and can mince things in combat. My plan was to stick Vect with these guys to give them Preferred Enemy and add some more close combat killiness. The Death Jester would issue/accept any dud challenges and pump out some extra s6 shots to get rid of any pesky transports.

The Wraithguard were a fun little experiment I was trying out. The idea is that Eldrad and the Baron join these guys, giving them stealth for 4+ rerollable cover saves, even in the open, assault and defensive grenades, and Hit & Run! WIth guide up, they could also have a good chance of brining down any flyers that got too close. This unit is ridiculously tough to shoot at, can but out some nasty close range firepower, and can't be bogged down in close combat. And they can claim objectives!

Between the Harlies, Wraithguard, and 3 Special Characters, roughly 1200 points of my army was tied up in two very hard to kill units, which could deal with pretty much anything the opposition could throw at them. Rather amusingly, I had now spent more points on allies than on the actual Dark Eldar army itself. Whoops…

With the traditional 3 hours of sleep before a tournament, I boarded the bus with my shiny new rulebook in hand, and set about trying to learn how to play 40k before the first game started.

See how the Buddy System performed next…