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.