ZeroTwentythree's Post-OWAC4 Eldar Pirate Wrap-Up Post (2013.5 pts.)

I survived OWAC IV. That's about most succinct statement I can make to summarize how this OWAC went for me. 2021 was a struggle for me compared to past years.

However, standing at the finish line and looking back at what I did.... I like what I see. I was aiming for a very stylized early Rogue Trader era Eldar force, I got that: the pirate crew of the Cold September. I mentioned in my intro post, this was a big nostalgia trip for me.

I do wish I could get a better photo to share, though. All those bright colors on a black background really mess with my phone's camera. Also, I couldn't manage a live pic with the army, so ended up having to Phn0otoshop myself into the background... and, hell, if I'm doing that I may as well add a suitably Oldhammer mullet.

 

...

 

Had to take three separate pics just to get more of the final army in focus somewhere. Click to enlarge at your own optical risk.

 

I strayed a bit from the initial plan, but not far. I was missing an entire month of troops, but made up for that with a couple of custom squads. I swapped out one of the D-Cannons for a scatter laser for variety. Two champions were swapped out for alternate figures. And the highlight of the OWAC (for me) was switching out the war-walker for GOTHMOWER. Best decision I could have made!

So there were a few Left Behind. Like I said, two champion level characters (Probati) were swapped out for Nik (GOTHMOWER pilot) and the musician in my Leader month. I'd still like to paint the original figures. Same goes for the second D-cannon that was replaced with a scatter laser. The one figure that dropped out entirely was a psychic lieutenant. Maybe he's like the Bad Lieutenant, but Psychic? Not sure. But my plan was to convert him as a tribute to the Eldar drop troops with insect like wings in the RT rulebook. I never had the time to work out the details. In the big picture, these swaps/omissions didn't impact the completeness of the project, but I still plan on finishing all of these figures and more. Like the not-pictured war-walker and far too many dreadnoughts/spirit warriors.

 

Midway through the 2021 OWAC, an additional inspiration hit that falls outside the pirate crew of the Cold September. I had somehow (i.e. drunkenly) ended up with a bunch of Eldar scouts, mostly off eBay, that don't really fit within my vision of the pirate crew. I also picked up the original Farseer model in a fit of extreme nostalgia. By far he/she is my favorite figure from the 1.5 ed./Craftworld 40k Eldar.

 

I came up with an idea for a Farseer who seeks to bring stray Eldar back into the Craftworld fold, but uses other Outsiders (scouts) to accomplish this. Sort of a "walk the line" character taking risks for greater gains. I like the idea of them as tag-alongs with/on the Cold September. But they are within the family of the crew -- only tolerated as useful, if somewhat annoying at times. Like missionaries. I'm looking forward to painting them up as a post-script to the OWAC.

Looking beyond the post-OWAC 2021, I've got a couple of ideas for a possible OWAC 2022 project, though I've got to admit I'm running out of legitimate OLD "oldhammer" figures. Plus most of the projects I've wanted to do have already been started, making it hard to come up with a new, complete and neatly packaged OWAC project like the last three have been. We'll see -- hopefully I turn something into an entry for OWACV....

ZeroTwentythree's June Eldar Pirates (376 points)

Squad Month  #4

Again... started the month with the best intentions. I even got the first of two squads of finished in the first week! Then work & work travel unraveled the rest of my plans.

In the end, I was once again up way past bed time, but managing to finish the painting -- but with two days to spare this time! The next two days were packed with work & family stuff, so I figured I'd better use "the weekend" as a good excuse to stay up late and finish.

Back to Troops, I painted two Dragon Squads. Dragon Squads are like the baseline Serpent Squads, but with even more flamers and plasma. Rogue Trader Eldar really liked the heat/fire more than ballistics or lasers. Outside of the usual shuriken weapons, they were heavy on the flame, plasma, and melta weapons.

 

I was on the fence about using the harlequin figure in one of the squads, but really wanted to add more variety and think it's sort of OK with the pirate theme. Plus they had the right equipment, and when painted in the same colors as the rest of the squad, it feels less harlequin-y.

Sort of a blah way to finish the challenge, just more vanilla troops. But I did some cool stuff in the middle part of the challenge, so it's OK I guess. This month it was two by the books Dragon squads, a bookend with the first month's Serpent squads.

 

I have also inadvertently (music on shuffle) ended the 2021 challenge the same way as its inception, with "Drive My Rocket" by ASF blasting through my headphones) as I put the last of the last of the paint on the figures. (NSFW, probably.) So that's a good omen, I suppose. I wrote about the inspiration, musical and otherwise, a bit before, I may elaborate  (/ramble) further in my wrap-up post.

 

Squad Month #4:.

Dragon Squad.................188

Dragon Squad.................188

 

June Total............ 376 pts.

Grand Total........ 2,013.5 pts.

 

ZeroTwentythree's May Eldar Pirates (237 points)

Leader Month

 

I started May with the best of plans. May was going to be squad month #4. Hot off the last-minute completion of my April figures, I just kept painting the first few days of May and got half way through a new squad of five troops for May, and even completed the second murder-bot. But then work and personal stuff came up and weeks went by. Earlier this week I acknowledged that there was no way I could finish my goal, and the day before I left for a few days out of town I prepped and (barely) started painting two command figures.

 

I had initially planned for three command figures, but the third involves some kitbashing/sculpting and I wouldn't have time for that (and still haven't sketched out exactly how I want to do it.) So a lieutenant and champion would have to do -- plus the 'bot I had already finished. So here I am, back home for a couple of days before heading out on the road again, and I spent a bit of my holiday (Memorial Day here in the US) hiding out in my damp, funky cellar trying to paint a couple of figures before the deadline.

I had them planned out in my head -- the colors, etc. I could "see" them. I just needed to get the paint on them. The Prefector (lieutenant) is the most senior leader of the crew to be painted in the OWAC. I had planed on a lot of color for the pirate crew when I first started, but ended up limiting the number of colors on my squads of rank & file. I figured the characters in the could exhibit a bit more individuality (I'll post a separate pic of all of them together in my final wrap-up post -- provided I can complete my June entry in time and avoid the dreaded Field of Bones.) Tar'El, the prefector, should stand out but doesn't entirely break the color palette of the rest of the force. Kell, his aide/minstrel/Probati is a bit of a reference to the lone squad of Eldar I kept from my original RT era army. It was a squad painted black with flame colored accents, mostly with flame weapons. I happened to notice this time (having painted the original musician a good 20 years ago....) that the harp also has a pistol weapon on it.  I guess I'll have to call it a las-pistol, that's what he comes equipped with in the list. Cool little detail that I enjoyed discovering as I painted.

 

The second murder-bot of the crew is an executioner class ghost warrior, One-Arm. I don't have the energy to post my usual fluff in the form of a few lines of fiction/narrative, but the gist is that he lost one arm and had it replaced with a saw blade and is the BFF/nemesis of last month's Goblin. Inspired by my recent choice of reading material, which may be obvious to some who are not so behind in their fantasy fiction library as me. ;)

 

Click to enlarge!

 

So that means my last entry -- June, will be the rank & file # 4 that should have been done in May. Wish me luck. Falling in the Field of Bones in the final month would be embarrassing.

 

May's addition to the crew of the Cold September is...

 

Leader Month:.

Tar'El - Prefector (lieutenant)........ 94 pts.

Probati............................................. 25 pts.

Executioner Class Ghost Warrior... 118 pts.

May Total............ 237 pts.

Total so far........ 1,637.5 pts.

ZeroTwentythree's April Eldar Pirates (526.5 points)

Rank & File #3

"Kel!!"

The stories always seemed to start out this way. 

 

The drop crew had been hunkered down outside an isolated refinery for half a rotation, observing the defenses. All automated. Big, heavy armored mechs. Company policy was to only go in with overwhelming odds & minimal losses. Luckily the crew was equipped for this sort of finesse.

"Sir?"

Get the murder-bots. One of them. I don't care which. I've got a job.

 

"Find a ghost warrior?"

 

"Two of them. They probably won't be far apart."

 

"But how will I..."

 

"There will be a quiet ruckus. Signs. You'll find them."

Another half a rotation later, Kel was approaching forward observation, a hunched but elegant mechanical unit striding just in front of him. They approached the Captain.

"Goblin..."

"I think I shot One-Arm, he's stuck in a gulch. He came out of nowhere and jumped onto Goblin, flames..."

"He'll be fine," the Captain replied.

Kel had only been with the crew short time and was still sorting out the two ghost warriors. On the craftworld they were revered. But these two... The constant pranks, the bickering. Enough to jeopardize the entire crew. But the Captain and most of the rest of the crew seemed to take it in stride. He was trying to do the same, but it was a difficult adjustment. Anytime he had to deal with them it was as if he was dealing with wayward infants...

"Goblin," the Captain struck direct, "take down that mech pacing the nearest quad, then jam the comms-main. We'll be right behind you. Grab whatever wave assets you can after that. Whatever catches your fancy."

The lithe ghost warrior darted away in an instant. Not five pacs later, the nearest lumbering mech toppled over, onto the perimeter fencing creating a gap for the crew to cautiously surge forward...

This was the toughest month so far. Not because of the painting, just the time. We had a four day family vacation at the beginning of the month. That was a very good thing. After that it sort of went downhill, I had my second vax shot, got the expected side-effects, and then two weeks of mystery illness that was not covid. I don't even remember a lot of the second half of the month, which is when I painted the Viper Squad and the Ghost Warrior.

 

Yes, the inspiration for the Ghost Warriors might be obvious to some. ;) As with everything else, I've got more backstory & fluff for them in my head.

 

One of the exciting things about this Challenge is that I acquired one each of the Ghost Warriors. They were figures I really wanted when I was young, but was never able to lay my hands on. For whatever reason, getting Eldar as a kid in the '80s was difficult and I just had to settle for whatever I could find until the first boxed set of Guardians (metal bodies, plastic arms) and the Craftworld/Aspect Warriors were released & easy to find. I never had D-Cannons before, either. So this is another bonus!

 

There are a couple of quirks to the list again. As with last time, the Venom Squad is my own invention, based on the existing Serpent Squad, but making use of more figures that are part of the original Eldar range, but didn't fit with the list in Chapter Approved. (MOST of the figures available didn't match the list -- a mystery to me.) This one was to make use of the lasgun & las-cannon equipped figures. Click the template (and all the other pics) to enlarge.

In addition, the D-Cannon was the first released artillery piece for the Eldar. Shortly (a month or two later...?) they released a new platform design for las-cannon, scatter laser, and plasma cannon. But as far as I can tell, there were never any rules or Chapter Approved unit entries released in White Dwarf to accompany the new release adverts like they did with the D-Cannon. Not only that, but there's no official points for the scatter laser until later editions. Even the D-Cannon left the crew up to your imagination. So a bit of reverse-points-engineering, and I've got crew and scatter laser costs...

 

Eldar Artillery Crew ("Crewdar"):

Eldar.... 8 pts.

Mesh Armour.... 1 pt.

Refractor Field... 1 1/2 pts.

Knife.... 1/2 pt.

Laspistol.... 1/2 pt.

Photochromatic Visor.... 1/2 pt.

Communicator.... 1/2 pt.

Respirator.... 1/2 pt.

 

Total per Crewdar.... 13 pts.

 

 

So, for April, the crew of the Cold September is up to...

 

Troops Month #3:

Venom Squad................. 178 pts.

D-Cannon Platform........ 96 pts.

Scatter Laser Platform.... 96 pts.

Assassin Class Ghost Warrior... 156.5 pts.

April Total............ 526.5 pts.

Total so far........ 1,400.5 pts.

ZeroTwentythree's March Eldar Pirates (347 pts)

Rank & File #2

The prefector and the main body of his troops were pinned down by a small group of private security troops hunkered down behind a makeshift strong point of  heavy cargo containers and industrial equipment. "Kel!!"

 

"Sir?"

 

The quick reply from just behind nearly made him jump. The rest of the crew tended to drift towards individualism, he often forgot that his new aide, Kel, was more likely to shadow him.

"We'll never get anywhere til we root those mon-keigh out of their shell. Bring up the D-cannons."

 

"But sir, we can't. The D-Cannons haven't been painted yet."

 

The prefector wasn't sure what irked him more, being called "sir" or the fact that the D-cannons weren't ready. He made a mental note to demand the ship's artisan to paint them for his April entry. Hammering away at them with the D would have been perfect for opening a gap in their defenses.

"Well, if we can't give them the D, send Noods."

"Sir?"

It was possibly a risky proposition. The Danger Noodles were an odd bunch that favored close combat and gory weapons. He suspected that more than a few were former Scorpions. But they were good at what they did, rivaling the Vipers in terms of skill and experience. Nobody liked to be on the receiving end of unexpected Noods.

"Send Noods. One squad. That will throw them off guard."

 

March was another rough month for me. My goal was two squads of heavy (for Eldar pirates) infantry. Very rough. I won't bore you with the details. I probably made it worse by drifting off into working on other things besides OWAC Eldar.

 

The first of my goals was a squad of Vipers. They're an upgrade from the Serpent squads, get power armour and all troops count as champions. So I picked through the figures with the heaviest looking armour and weapons to match the squad build. The only one that seems off is the melta trooper, but that;s the only figure produced who has the right weapon. I'm OK with that. As I was painting these I realized that I never quite made the connection before -- the two "pointing" figures aren't actually pointing. They both have Jokaero digital weapons on their fingers!

 

I decided to paint all the power-armoured figures in a different color from those equipped with mesh armour.

 

Next I worked on a new, custom addition to the pirate list... 

I'm guessing the way the list in Chapter Approved: Book of the Astronomican were created is similar to the way early WFB lists and regiments of renown were created -- they were generated by early games & play-testing by the author(s) & their friends (studio team?) So the lists are specific -- not just "orks" or "space marines" or "eldar" or whatever, but a specific group of ork raiders, space marine chapter, or eldar pirate crew. So, in RT fashion, I'm customizing the list. I will have no "Zoat Terror Squads" but I'm going to make a couple of new squads to utilize the RT era Eldar figures that have no other place in the Chapter Approved list in the hope of fielding most, if not all, of the old range.

I came up with two squads. Sticking with the serpentine naming conventions, one is the Venom squad (not yet painted.) The second was a squad using some of the heavy armoured & melee equipped figures. I opted for "elite" status similar to the also power armoured Viper squad upgrade. At first I was going to name them Rattler squads, since several figures have chainswords. But after further consideration, that seemed too "wild west." So I went to the ultimate cultural reference: memes & t-shirts. "Rattler Squad" was now replaced by... Danger Noodles!

I also made a small photo/display board and started working on a skirmish board and terrain so they wouldn't look so awkward being photographed on my fantasy terrain. Also working on a 3x3 terrain board for small skirmish games.

So I made it through March. Barely.

Troops Month:

Viper Squad..... 179 pts.

Danger Noodle Squad..... 168 pts.

March Total....... 347 pts.

Total so far........ 874 pts.

ZeroTwentythree's February Eldar Pirates (289 pts)

Discordant engines struggled to keep the awkward vessel on a smooth trajectory. The coffin-like slab of reinforced plasteel eventually settled among the smouldering corpses that it's multi-laser had annihilated moments before.

The lone bio-meat crewman jumped out of the hatch and surveyed his surroundings. "Mrs.! Up on the ridge, 70 degrees." A fusillade of red laserfire lit the dim haze and the pieces of three more guards fell to the ground. He sat down on the hull of the GOTHMOWER and waited for the rest of the raiding party to catch up.

GOTHMOWER is the fusion of several  sources of inspiration. Rather than recount the initial brainstorm here, I will just direct you to the story I posted on my personal blog. When I received a mystery package from Shadespyre that included the plastic housing from some sort of remote-control, I knew I had the chassis. After the model was put together and primed, I decided to stick with a good & gothy black, black, dark grey, more black, and little bit of red color scheme.

I had initially planned to paint another ten infantry for February, but that didn't work out for various reasons. During one of the brief painting sessions in which I tried to paint some infantry, one final reference for inspiration hit me.

While not part of the original plan -- at least not on a conscious level -- I was already 90% of the way there. So I painted a face and glued decapitated statue head (from a more suitable subject matter). After far too much whiskey, I painted a checkered band on the ass-end of it as one final nod to the Deathmobile. I had previously been planning to paint the "GOTHMOWER" name on it in similar lettering, but decided that would detract too much from the Eldar-ness of it.

 

The grav attack technically doesn't need a crew. It's equipped with auto-drive & auto-aim. But if I stick with the minimum requirements of the army list, I've got more heroes than I know what to do with. The list gives the option to make heroes crew for the grav attack, and it inspired me to convert a figure as such.

 

Nik is a former cargo pilot who worked the most dangerous sectors of the galaxy before joining the crew of the Cold September. More comfortable in a pilot seat than on his feet, he saw an opportunity on one of his first raids with the pirate crew and captured an imperial PDF grav attack. Space being confined on the September, the crew were initially reluctant to bring the captured machine on board. Since then, they have come to appreciate the additional quickly deployed fire support it offers.

GOTHMOWER has been modified from its original imperial configuration, shuriken catapults and a multi-laser replacing the original bolt-weapons, and new auto-drive & auto-fire system installed -- an infinity circuit Nik refers to as "The Mrs."

Wild Card Month:

Probati (Officer)..... 25pts.

Grav-Attack..... 264 pts.

February Total....... 289 pts.

Total so far........ 527 pts.

Adrian's Doom of the Eldar - Introduction

The darkest hour of Iyanden is approaching… our enemy is unavoidable. The high command is planning the defence of the craftworld.

[The exarch rised the eyes from the holomap]

What will happen if the enemy tries to cut-off the main lines to the webway portal. We must secure a path for the reinforcements, if our allies come to help us...

[Farseer Kelmon pointed to the south west dome in the map]

The easiest point to defend will be at the entrance to the halls of the House Delgari, in the Forest of Sorrows. There, farseer Ylshor will deploy his troops in layers. The fleet will assist us and force a tyranid landing far from the city, at the glades and the other side of the Forest.

If the swarm override the troops near the glades, the shrines and the ghost warriors will come to halt their advance and give us time to regroup near the city.

The battle will be difficult, but our troops are prepared. They shall not falther, no matter how numberless are their foes. We will resist.

Hi again.

This is my second OWAC and I am glad to participate again in this exciting challenge. After last year orc horde I will try something different in this edition.

First of all, I will include a short story for the different units and advance both the paiting and a little piece of lore for my force in each round.

The second and more importan, bright colours for everyone! From the grim and dark tones of my orc army to bright and saturated colours of Iyanden. I am more used to the latter, so not a big deal in that regard.

Now, the upcoming units:

Holding the first defence line, a unit of 10x Guardian with lasguns (110 points) and a Plasma gun in a grav platform (59 points). Amazing and underrated sculpts, now that I have the entire unit.

A fierce unit of 9x Dire Avengers (198 points) and their Exarch with power sword (56 points)

When the enemy is up and close, they will be met by a unit of 7x Howling Banshees (189 points) and their Exarch (69 points).

If any bug is left, they will be roasted by 4x Fire Dragons (112 points) and an Exarch with the Firepike (75 points).

Fear not their behemoths, the heroine Kelrye piloting a mighty (temporarily headless) eldar wraith dreadnought (190 points) is watching.

A bit of spoilers ahead, the call for help does reach to their allies, and a unit of 9x pirates (135 points) commanded by the veteran captain Avele Swifteye (31 point) will show up.

For the wildcard month, the wildest allies emerge from the webway portal to help the defenders: a unit of 4x Exiled Dragon knights (152 points) commanded by Exiled veteran lord Calsaar Firebreath (50 points).

The army is commanded by farseer Ylshor (170 points)

But he’s not alone, because the Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra (179 points) himself and his retinue of 3x Dark Reapers (268 points) and an Exarch (90 points) came to the rescue in the direst moments of the battle.

The army has a total of 2074 points, which seems huge but in the end they are 59 miniatures. Much lesser than last year orc army which was barely 1000 points!. Will see if it is too much to handle or I can get everything in time!

Last, but not least, my offering to our beloved Overlord (this year finished in time! hurrah!)

The poor Eoan Fireheart who is about to be nomed...

See you in the first month. Adrian’s out.