Back To The (Grim, Dark) Future Pt3

Part 1 is here and part 2 is here.

Using the last game for rules of thumb we decided to throw points values out of the window.  We then tweaked the scenario to represent the disruption by Harlequins of a daemonic summoning ritual by the Sin-Eaters.

The main reason for that scenario was that I wanted to use some of the daemon and other miniatures that I painted for the army years ago that never proved viable enough for regular play.  It is always fun going back to play with figures that were fun to paint that never got much table time for whatever reason.

GAME 3: Harlequins Vs Sin Eaters Chaos Space Marines

We set  up as above but doubled the number of sentries as the Harlequins had too easy a time avoiding them in the previous game.

Nonetheless two troupes made short work of the sentries on the Western side.

That didnt slow down the summoning ritual though.  Swarms of Nurglings and and a group of Plaguebearers poured through the rift that was being opened by the Plague Marines.  Sin-Eaters Bikers also came in from the East in support.

Nurglings swarmed over one squad of Harlequins, catching them unawares and killing them unexpectedly.  The fight between the Plaguebearers and the second troupe caused casualties on both sides.

Eldar Guardians from the Kouranaya Craftworld stepped through their webway portal (the tacky looking golden pyramid) to support the Harlequins.  The Sin Eater bikers adjusted to an intercept course.

Tough as they were the Plaguebearers were finding it difficult to withstand the repeated hit and run attacks from the Harlequin troupe.  The Nurglings unexpected run of luck didnt hold and a fully expected obliteration occurred at the hands of the third troupe.

Sin Eater Havocs moved in from the South West and deployed their heavy weapons to cover the altar.

A solitary Plaguebearer was all that remained of the unit as the troupe disengaged ready to charge in again.

The armoured bikers were too tough for the guardians who were wiped out after a protracted fight.

More Guardians came through the Webway portal just as the Bikers finished off the first Guardian squad while the surviving Harlequins circled the altar ready to assault.

With heavy casualties on both sides the Harlequins nearly dislodge the Plague Marines from the altar…

…but a Chaos Spawn congeals out of nowhere and lands behind the surviving troupe.  It looks bad for the Eldar.

The Harlequins on the altar are killed by the remaining Plague Marines, Chaos Spawn and solitary Plaguebearer.  The Harlequins backflip out of combat with the bikers as the guardians kill another, leaving only the Sergeant.

This frees up the last Harlequin troupe to rush back towards the altar.  Unexpected supporting fire from the final Guardian squad that just warped in proves lethal in combination with the Harlequins sidearms.

The Guardians finally tear the biker sergeant from his saddle and riddle him with close range shuriken fire while the remnants of the last troupe send the final daemon back to the hole that spawned him.  Bloody but victorious the Eldar prepare to set explosives and counter wards to ensure that the altar can never be used again.

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Conclusions:

Although at this stage we were tiring of our trip down 40k memory lane, with all of its dead ends and turn offs that go nowhere and for no real reason, that game ended up being quite fun, if a bit linear and predictable.  It was close in the end and it was evocative of the source material.  That is the most that we could have hoped for in fairness.

Parts FOUR and FIVE.

Iacon Eldar: Striking Scorpion Squad Seth

Striking Scorpion Exarch Seth

Squad Seth was painted up in 2002 along with most of the rest of my Iacon Eldar.  The concept was vaguely Egyptian themed, for a few different reasons.  I am not a Stargate fan but I do like the look of some of the elements.  Nonetheless, Stargate wasnt really an influence.

Mostly the colours chosen have Egyptian relevance.  Gold is the colour of the flesh of the Egyptian gods.  Lapis lazuli/faience (the turquoise/blue) is a common feature of Egyptian decoration, as is red.

Each squad is marked with a unique glyph.  While I used hieroglyphs as reference when coming up with these, they are not really very Egyptian in look.  Thats fine really though as while I like using that imagery as a reference, that is all it is supposed to be: a reference.  These guys are supposed to be spacemen after all.

Some of the glyphs worked out better than others.  Painting bright red detail on black like that was time consuming.

Biting Blade and Shuriken Pistol

Another element of the Iacon force was that I used a lot of Dark Eldar parts in with the regular Craftworld bits.  While this was justified conceptually it was mainly just because I wanted to put together some stuff that wasnt directly off-the-peg.  Additionally the variety helped to keep me interested while painting.

Striking Scorpions

Part of the concept was to make the Aspect Warriors bare headed.  As the helmets are an intrinsic part of the Aspect Warrior concept, using different heads was going to make the Iacon Aspect Warriors unique immediately.  It was a lot of work chopping off all of those heads and replacing them with others, something that I am not going to be in a hurry to do again.

Rear shot showing armour banding.

The concept of these Eldar walking the line between light and dark which is pursued a little via the bare headed Aspects, was pushed a little further with the Exarch.  The Dark Eldar Incubi are essentially a “dark aspect”.  This origins of the dark aspect come from the only Eldar Phoenix Lord to turn to the dark side: Ahra, Father of Scorpions, the Fallen Phoenix.  Incubi have tall helms with a blaster mounted on the top that functions similarly to the Striking Scorpion Mandiblasters, so I went with a similar look on the Exarchs helmet.

Dark Aspect Warriors

Looking back at these guys I quite like how they turned out.  Painting the gold areas was a huge chore however.  Even if I had the patience to go to all of that trouble converting those figures again I would approach the painting of the gold areas very, very differently and probably more effectively now.  I still think that the gold areas mostly look good, but they dont really reflect the large amount of grief that they caused me.

Chainsword and Shuriken Pistol

Despite all of the hassle that I had with these guys I do get a kick out of taking a look at them again some years later.  I think that they are a cool looking unit and there is something about the slightly unusual colour scheme that I like.

Squad Seth gets ready for ritualised bloodshed.

Iacon Guardian Squad Nephtys

Old GW metals

Two Iaconian Guardians

The Iacon Craftworld was the last 40K army that I painted, and it broke my heart 😉

A bit of an aside here, bear with me:

The first army that I painted for 40k back in my teens was Eldar.  I have always been more interested in the creative side of the hobby than the gaming (although I love that too) and as such always chose what forces to play based on one of two things: either they were the figures that looked the nicest to me (Eldar) or that I thought that I could have a lot of fun with them as a modelling project (Sin Eaters).

Squad Nephtys Guardians

Squad Nephtys Guardians

I played a lot of games with the Sin Eaters and they were pretty well regarded aesthetically.  That meant that when I finally got around to doing another Eldar army that I wanted to do “a good job” on them.

The Sin Eaters each took a very long time to paint and although it may not look like it, the Iacon guys possibly took even longer.  Painting that gold took ages and it doesnt even show.  Oh well.  They still look good I think, they just dont really look as good as they should considering the time spent on them.

This army was a turning point for me when I decided that the painting methods that I was using were too time consuming and that I needed to rationalise the process more.  That principle has continued up until the present day.

Nephtys Gunner and Guardian

Nephtys Gunner and Guardian

There is a vaguely Egyptian theme running through the force (it isnt really that visible other than colour choice in Squad Nephtys) that should hopefully be more apparent in some of the other units.

Hephtys Gunner and Star Cannon Grav Platform

Nephtys Gunner and Star Cannon Grav Platform

The hand painted symbol on the cannon fairing is repeated on the right shoulder plate of each squad member.  Although the plates used varied from squad to squad, that variable glyph motif continued through the whole force.