Kill Team - Maesenir's Rangers

Despite a table full of Imperial Guard... the first Kill Team I have ready for the imminent release of the New Kill Team are Aeldari Rangers!?  

From what I've seen on reviews, a Craftworld (Asuryani) Kill Team consists of two fire teams. The fire teams can be selected, in any combination, from; Guardian Defender Fire Team, Storm Guardian Fire Team, Ranger Fire Team, Dire Avenger Fire Team. The Guardian teams have five members, the Rangers and Dire Avengers have four. 

While I could field any/all of those, part of my re-org has included rebasing of miniatures. Many of the metal miniatures I have are still based on washers and, partly for consistency, and partly so I can write their names on the backs of their bases (to remind me of who is whom), I have been rebasing the older 40K minis I'm going to be using for Kill Team onto plastic bases. 

While i was at it, I thought I'd jazz up the bases to look like some alien world - as, there are a MILLION systems in the Imperium alone, and they're not all going to look like Holy Terra's brown dirt with green grass! 

I also wanted to get as many ready as possible, so I just did the two fire teams of Rangers... partly I did Rangers because they seemed the sort that would be involved in the sort of small scale special ops Kill Team battles are supposed to represent. Also, I just really dig their camo cloaks... 

I think, for campaign purposes, You can have up to twenty fighters on your Roster and Teams are drawn from these. If so, I could easily have a team of each. What I'll probably have is the two Ranger Fire Teams, a Dire avenger Fire Team and a Guardian Defender Fire Team - as I don't actually OWN any Storm Guardians. Or, quite possibly, I could just have three Ranger Fire Teams and two Dire Avenger teams...? 

I'd planned to come up with some "fluff" for each of these Kill Teams... but between RPGaDay and ALL THE KILL TEAMS I'm trying to get ready... I'm a little burnt out and just don't have the time. It was an effort just to come up with names for some of them... 

I can say, as with all Rangers, they walk the Path of the Outcast. All of Maesenir's Rangers hail from the Biel-Tymm fleet - an independent fleet that once was part of the Biel-Tan craft world, but has been off on it's own for many centuries, pursuing it's own agenda. The rangers do tend to wander where they will, but do report back to the fleet and are willing to sometime take direction or eve orders from the fleet. 

Maesenir's Rangers

The full Kill Team ready for action. 

Ylessar (on the left - of the picture), Aurelyc (in the back), Maesenir (up front), and Klorandos (on the right)

Lechanna (on the left - of the picture), Kaedoreth (in the back), Tallariel (up front), and Jairyllian (on the right).

What's next? Hard to say. I have. LOT of Kill Teams I'm organizing and touching up. Will I do posts for each of them? Maybe. Currently on the workbench are Harlequins, Drukhari, Valhallans, Tallarn, Guiacans, Armageddon Steel Legion, Necromundans... (is that enough Imperial Guard...? Because by tomorrow I'll also have the Death Korps of Kreig to add to them!?). I also have Space Marine Scouts and a Forge World Kill Team and Orks and Daemons and Traitor Marines and Grey Knights, and probably others I'm forgetting... Some will need touching up, others (like the Grey Knights) are ready to go with names on their bases and everything! And then Finnegan has Orks and Death Watch Space Marines and Tyranids and Genestealer Cult.... We have no shortage of options. 

I also have a bunch of terrain to paint up - some of the Sector Mechanicus and Sector Imperialis stuff I picked up when the PREVIOUS Kill Team cam out (that I STILL haven't gotten around to painting!?) and I'll have all the Orky scrap fort terrain that's coming in this new one... 

Should keep my busy and out of trouble.... 

Path of the Outcast

I finished up the Rangers I need for the Strange Bedfellows tournament coming up in June.

"Need" is a funny word to use there, as I did not NEED them at all. I have other painted rangers I could have used...

But they don't MATCH!?



It's true, I AM a special kind of stupid...



MORE Aeldari Rangers in the Cool Alien Camouflage (cool as in cool colours - Blue, Green, Purple... as opposed to the Warm Alien Camouflage).

One of them is a conversion that I used a Drukhari head on. not because I thought, "Hey, it would be cool to put a Drukhari head on one of these rangers...", but because one of the Ranger minis I got in the recent Big Batch of Eldar didn't have a head... and I had lots of Drukhari heads... and I recently read Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe and one of the Striking Scorpion characters is later revealed to be a Drukhari that was captured or surrendered in a battle against the Alaitoch craftworld and somehow became one of them...? I thought, of all the paths, the Path of the Outcast (which the Rangers follow) seems the most likely to take in wayward Drukhair... If you can call a Drukhari that no longer wishes to be a BDSM Murder Elf "wayward"...?



The Whole Squad

Because of the acquisitions made in the Big Batch of Eldar, I will, eventually, be able to field three full squads of ten Rangers!

Now you see them...



....now you don't! Can you spot all the Aeldari Rangers in the Deathworld Forest!?


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

The plan is to finish off all the stuff I need foe my own force THIS WEEK! That means six Wraithguard and ten Dire Avengers. Then I have FIVE WEEKS to paint 1000 points of Drukhari!

MORE Aeldari Rangers

Following hot on the heels of my first batch, here are some MORE Aeldari Rangers!



A second squad of Aeldari Rangers from Games Workshop.



These I did on the reverse side of the "reversible cloak" I painted on the others. Still with the alien camouflage. I've feeling like the black on this one made it a little too stark - the blues and greens were a bit more subtle. Maybe I could have used a dark brown...? Ah, well.. I'm not going to repaint them or anything...

I have one more squad of five rangers to paint up at some point, but I'm going to wait on this for a bit, as I have other things I need to finish up for the Battleforce Recon tournament in just FIVE WEEKS!



The force so far - Could put together a pretty good Kill Team out of this lot...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:



Probably more painting updates. The REdemptionists are still on the workbench, but all the Eldar I need for the tournament are also on there now... Not sure which I'll do next...

Aeldari Rangers

I've decided to work on some of the Aeldari figures I've collected up over the last few years. Though I've been meaning to get working on them for some time, the impetus for this was seeing all the other people playing Imperial forces at the Battle of the Abyss last weekend. I don't think there was anyone at all playing Eldar, so the likelihood of me having to play "blue-on blue" games at any local events I happen to attend should be greatly diminished. Also if I have two full-sized opposing forces I'll be able to set up games, with narrative scenarios, that no one has to bring minis to.

I think the Eldar were my first 40K love. I can't say they were my first 40K miniatures, as those would be that original box of plastic "beaky" marines - the very first 40K minis that were available at the Wizard's Corner - my FLGS in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in the late 80s). I also bought a few Space Orks - a few Gretchin that were produced under license by Rafm at the time (which I think were the first METAL 40K minis I saw at Wizard's), the box of space Ork raiders and I'm pretty sure I had a buggy and a wartrack/flamer at one point - they were mostly picked up to have an opposing force - and because my first Warhammer Fantasy Battles army had been Orcs (though that force was composed of almost  entirely of Ral Partha miniatures). But the first real force that I but a number of units for , and thought of as MY force for this game, was the Eldar.

It was pretty much all Guardians - as that was all that was available at the time - and a Wraith Lord (though it was called an Eldar "Dreadnought" at the time) and a tripod mounted lascannon. Later I think I picked up a few Rangers and Dire Avenger-like figures as they were the first Aspect Warriors to make it into the store. Actually, a couple of these Rangers I'm painting up are ones I've had for 30 years and stripped and am repainting to match all the others I've picked up more recently.

(Oh, I also had some Harlequins - which I still have, original paint jobs and all - but nowadays they're sort of a separate faction - I'm talking about the Asuryani - the Craftworld Eldar - here).

Over the last decade or so I've been re-collecting up Rogue Trader era Eldar. It started when I was putting together a few sci-fi forces to play with Savage Worlds: Showdown. The force got a considerable boost when I acquired a number of Aspect Warriors in a trade with my friend Cory. And I've continued to pick stuff up - especially when I could find a really good deal on them (there were a LOT of good deals around the time 7th Edition was winding down... not so much since 8th kicked off though). The only stuff I've picked up over the last year were a small handful to complete units that were a figure or two short.

Taking stock of this mountain of unpainted lead, I figured I have enough to, once it's all painted, field a rather large "Brigade" detachment of about 100 Power Level/2000 points - and two Auxiliary Super Heavy Detachments totalling another 92 Power Level/1900 Points (If I just picked up one more Lord of War, I could field a complete Super Heavy Detachment....?).

In the meantime, however, I am trying to put together a 1000 point force for the upcoming Battleforce: Recon tournament coming up in April - just five weeks away! I had hoped I might be able to squeeze in a Brigade detachment, like I did last year with the Tallarn (using the cheapest possible options - minimal unit sizes ). But it just wasn't possible with Eldar, so I'll be fielding a "Battalion" detachment with a Farseer, a couple of Warlocks, two units of Rangers, single units of Dire Avengers, Swooping Hawks,  Warp Spiders, and Dark Reapers, and two Wraith Lords... I have NO IDEA if it will be any good... but I think it required the least number of minis... and it looked like fun... the Rangers, Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks are all "deep striking" units - they can be set up in reserve and brought on after the first turn anywhere on the board that isn't within 9" of any enemy units. Although, last year we played on extremely small tables (3'x4' - half of a 4'x6' table) and there wasn't much space that a unit could deep strike INTO!



This unit is made up of old metal Eldar Ranger figures from Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop.

These Rangers I actually started about a month ago. I was painting them in case they were needed for player characters in the Wrath & Glory RPG Weekend - y'know, when I foolishly thought we MIGHT actually get through all five adventures... ha... ha... ha....



Rather than some sort of terrestrial coloured camouflage I went with something far more alien. The smocks are reversible (on a few you can see an alternate reddish/warm colour camouflage pattern peaking through) - the next unit I'm working on will have the reverse side on. I have a third unit that I will likely paint in an altogether different scheme (probably yellows and browns...?).

If I could find a few of the metal versions of the newer Ranger models I might like to pick up a unit of those, just because I think they look interesting.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Redemptionists are still on the workbench and very nearly complete - as are a pile of Ratskins... but I have a feeling it may be the second unit of Rangers that get finished up next.

I may try and sneak in a game of 40K or Kill Team with Finnegan on Sunday...? He figures he'll be finished all his course work for the science class he's working on later today, so I thought it would be fun to play some games together before he launches into his next class on Monday or Tuesday. I've been toying with the idea of playing full-sized 40K games with the Kill Team turn sequence - with some alternating activations - just to shake things up a little!

Also The Girl has finished painting her Wraith Knight - she just needs to finish up painting the base. When she gets that done I'll likely post pics of it here as she's done a really good job on it.