Wednesday, September 22, 2021

40K - Biel-Tymm Combat Patrol Force

Finnegan actually suggested, in addition to a Kill Team campaign, we could organize forces for a parallel Warhammer 40,000 (9th Edition) Crusade Campaign - for when we wanted to play slightly larger actions. As the new Kill Team focuses more on using regular squads (or PARTS of regular squads) from regular 40K (and less take whatever you want!?) it should be easy to integrate a Kill Team into a force for a Crusade Campaign in 40K9E.

I have slowly been rebasing all of my 40K stuff - most of which were originally based on metal washers. At the time they were originally based, I liked the slimmer bases, but for many and varied reasons I've decided to rebase everything onto the standard plastic bases they were originally meant to be based on. Some of these reasons include weight (the metal minis plus metal bases mean a LOT of weight in those plastic drawers in my storage system!) and naming (with a thicker base, i can paint the names of each warrior on the sides of their base - for easier identification) and just a chance to do something more fun that the generic dirt and green and/or yellow/brown/dried tufts of grass, etc. 

I do have a lot more Aeldari forces - like enough to field armies of many thousands of points. A lot of them aren't painted yet. Those that are painted, but not nescessarily rebased and considered for organization in the starting Combat Patrol  for the campaign can be seen on the 40K - Aeldari page:

Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 40K - Aeldari Page

A Patrol Detachment is made up of 25 Power Level worth of Troops and must include one HQ element and one Troops element. It CAN include a second HQ Element, up to two more (three, total) Troop elements, and up to two Elite elements, up to two Fast Attack, Up to two Heavy Support, up to two fliers and up to one Transport PER Infantry element included in the Detachment. 

I had lots of options to chose from, but can only start with 25 Power Level - additional forces can be added to the force, for more options and tactical flexibility - even while playing Combat Patrol level games. 

Starting Force

Headquarters

  • Farseer Thymiltelyir - Shuriken Pistol and Witch Blade - 6 Power Level 
  • Warlock Conclave (Adryllewi and Broelwyn) - Shuriken Pistol and Witch Blade - 4 Power Level 

Troops

  • Rangers (5 - Maesenir, et al) - Shuriken Pistol and Ranger Long Rifle - 3 Power Level 
  • Rangers (5 - More of Maesenir's Rangers) - Shuriken Pistol and Ranger Long Rifle - 3 Power Level 
  • Dire Avengers (5 - Shrine of the Fading Night) - Avenger Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades plus Exarch with Shuriken Pistol and Diresword - 2 Power Level

Heavy Support

  • Wraith Lord (1 - Kloethades) - Two Shuriken Catapults, Wraithbone fists, Aeldari Missile Launcher  - 7 Power Level 

The Troops Element of this force is, essentially, Maesenir's Rangers Kill Team. The Patrol Detachment could basically be seen as representing The Big Boss - Farseer Thymiltelyir - and his two attendant Warlocks showing up with a Wraithlord to deal with something a little too big for Maesenir and his lot to handle on their own! 


The Whole Force

Farseer Thymiltelyir

Warlock Conclave  (Adryllewi and Broelwyn) 

Maesenir's Rangers

Exarch Bylizek and the Dire Avengers of the Shrine of the Fading Night (who often operate in conjunction with Maesenir's Rangers

Wraith Lord (Kloethades) 


I originally considered adding a Squad of Dark Reapers

Loesenyth, Naerthyn, Dysenira, and Vielnivar of the Srhine of the Sunset Bouquet (it makes more sense in the original Aeldari...). only three will be fielded for the time being as they are fielded as three for 5 Power Level or five for 9 Power Level - I need one more to field a unit of five (or TWO more to simply field two units of three...). To bring these as a part of a Patrol Detachment I'd have to lose the Wraithlord and add in something worth 2 Power Level... 

Other stuff I have painted that could be added as options (when I get to rebasing them):

  • 5-10 Warp Spiders
  • 10 more Scouts
  • 10 more Dire Avengers
  • 2 more Wraithlords
  • 5 Wraithguard
  • 5 Howling Banshees

At This point, playing at Combat Patrol level engagements, only one or two could really be added and would pretty much always mean leaving the Wraithlord back on the ship - or leaving some of Maesenir's Rangers behind... which... I GUESS is a possibility. I could just take the ONE Ranger unit of five - THAT could represent Farseer Thymiltelyir bringing out the BIG GUNS of the more hard hitting Aspect Warrior Shirnes to deal with a bigger problem and Maesenir is just along to guide them to the target that he has discovered...? 

Of course I have PILES of other stuff I could finish painting up to add to and Asuryani force:

  • 3 MORE Warlocks 
  • 15 MORE Rangers
  • 30+ Guardians and weapons platforms
  • 9 Swooping Hawks (need one more to make even 10!) 
  • 9 Fire Dragons (ALSO need one more to make even 10!) 
  • 11 Striking Scorpions (willing to trade spare Scorpion for Swooping Hawk or Fire Dragon!) 
  • 5 MORE Howling Banshees
  • 10 More Warp Spiders 

not sure how many of these I'll get to painting while we're just playing with Combat Patrol level forces. I doubt our Crusade Campaign will grow beyond Combat Patrols any time soon. I think I'd like to concentrate on getting ALL of my own factions up to Combat Patrol readiness first.  MOST of Finnegans 40K forces (Genestealer Cults, Orks, T'au, and Deathwatch) could be fielded as a Combat Patrol... but probably not Strike Forces... yet... (Maybe the Orks... MAYBE). Hopefully playing Kill Team and Crusade campaigns over the fall and winter, with a few of the different forces available to us will get him excited about enough about ONE of those factions he has to expand to the next level!

Next up should be LAST week's game(s) with Orion... 

7 comments:

  1. Very exciting stuff. As I draw near to finishing my own Eldar force, I need to start thinking about this sort of organizational stuff, rather than just painting whatever. (or lately spending time converting/fixing figures for future painting).

    Also, I thought you had like 1001 guardians from that big lot you got a couple years ago. Maybe in the 9th edition codex they will be worth taking??

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    1. Haha! Yes, we did get a LOT of plastic Guardians I kept about 30 of them for myself to - someday - paint up as a small Ulthwé force to go along with the Eldrad Ulthran I also got in that lot. I think Ulthwé is a craftworld that is totally cool with throwing their citizen soldier into combat on the regular... or... maybe I'm getting it mixed up with another. They have the Storm Guardiand, don't they?

      I have to admit, don't love the plastic Guardians... they just don't have the character the old metal eldar have. Maybe it's me being nostalgic... maybe it's just that those plastic eldar guardians are some of the oldest plastic models they still have in production...? There ARE a lot of really cool, plastic models that are FULL of character these days!

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    2. New guardians seem like a shoe-in for the new codex (rumored for early next year). The current ones are pretty poor in comparison to all the other troops, and so old as well.

      Ulthwé is the one with the loads of guardians, although I think they are called "black guardians" and the storm one are the ones with close combat weapons and fusion guns.

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    3. Ah, yes, you are correct! Black Guardians are from Ulthwé! Storm Guardians are close combat specialists from ANY craftworld!

      I'm not holding my breath about new models this edition - I thought for sure there'd be new models with 8th - especially with the Ynarri on the rise! But all they got was a new Jain Zar and Howling Banshees!? It's CrAzY how many of the current Asuryani models are finecast based on 25+ year old metal models!?

      What I'D really like to see is an Emperor's Children book - like the Death Guard or Thousand Sons books... or even like the Space Marine ones for White Scars or whatever... and some PLASTIC NOISE MARINES!?

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    4. Yeah, there are a lot of Eldar kits I would like to be replaced. (particularly if I could trade in my old but unbuilt versions!) I am sure there will be some unlooked for additions too, which are necessary for competitive play (e.g. jetbikes suddenly with scatter lasers)

      Current rumor is that Chaos is getting a bunch of new kits, but World Eaters are "in the pipeline", so who knows. Two Chaos marine releases in a year seems unlikely.

      Emperor's children would be amazing, and really the longer they hold off on making them the better they will look...

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    5. True... to be honest, I have more Noise Marines than I'll likely ever need. I think I ended up with about 30 or them...? a Mix of older metal one and some newer plastic/finecast ones - and a few that are a mix of metal and plastic parts!?

      It's just with the Thousand Sons and Death Watch books they got a bunch of their own special models and characters - Especially the Death Guard!? They got Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of Nurgle, Chosen of Mortarion, Plague Marines, MORE Plague Marines, Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort, the Lord of Virulence, Myphitic Blight-hauler, Foul Blightspawn, Nauseous Rotbone: the Plague Surgeon, a Plague Marine Icon Bearer, Plague Marine Champion, Scribbus Wretch: the Tallyman, Biologus Putrifier, their very own Nurgle Daemon Prince, Typhus - Herald of the Plague God, Plague Drones, Deathshroud Bodyguard, Plagueburst Crawler, Foetid Bloat-drone, Blightlord Terminators, and a Miasmic Malignifier... it is just NOTS how much Death Watch specific stuff there is!?

      It's be nice to have a few more Emperor's Children specific things that are plasic and readily available at my FLGS... not special order finecast stuff you can add to already crazy expensive Chaos Space marines to convert them into Noise Marines... which aren't all that amazing anyway...

      Or, once World Eaters and Emperor's Children have their own books and specialty models, maybe I'll get to USE my Noise Marines in games like Kill Team - just like how the Death Guard get to use their Plague Marines and the Thousand Sons get to use their Rubric Marines!

      Yes, the longer the wait the better they are... but also more expensive! 3-5 guys for $50-70!? Yikes!?

      I like that they're pushing smaller operations with rules for Combat Patrols. It would suck to be new to the game and not a millionaire these days. There was a tournament nearby that was billed as "for beginners" or "beginner friendly" or something like that... but it was a 2000 point tournament!? What BEGINNER is going to have 2000 points worth of STUFF these days!?

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    6. Back to planning... Yes! Get on with it!!

      I do find that planning out my force a little bit helps with motivation - and the different Tiers of play really helps.

      Start with a Kill Team - which is generally just a squad, maybe a squad and a half - and *boom* you have something you can play with!

      Expand that Kill Team to a 25 Power Level Combat Patrol - in this case that's just adding a Farseer, two warlocks and a Wraithlord to the Kill Team I've already built and *boom* you have a force you can start a Narrative Crusade Campaign in 40K9E. I do LOVE the narrative campaigns!

      Once that's done, worry about what you'll add to expand to a Strike Force and beyond - or just do it organically by playing the campaign and adding a unit at a time as your Crusade force gains requisition points after each game and starts adding units to their force!

      Actually PLAYING something - even a small game, like Kill Team or Combat Patrols - is a huge motivator (for me at least) to get painting MORE!

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