40K: Building A Themed Army
I build the army based on the visuals first, followed by a sit down to look how it is going to work on the table. I know it won’t be a WAAC army, but with the correct tactics I want to at least put up a good fight and win most of my games…
…so for this week’s post we are going to look at building themed army, how to do it in terms of a framework model which you can then apply to your own army. For the example we will be looking at Eldar…
So let’s say I love the models and fluff of swooping hawks. I want to paint and collect a ‘hawk themed army, but I don’t want to lose very game I play. Can such an army be created and work? The internet says “no” so it must be true.
When creating a themed army you want to take the max of that theme which means thirty hawks as a starting point. Think about how rainbowific that will look. From there we need to select units that will both make the ‘hawks work followed by a visual theme to unify the army.
But first the swooping hawks- the key to a themed army is to look at what the units do, this is your core, and you are going to select units that can make this core work. This is the same formula I have applied to my Harlequin army– get as many clowns on the table, look at what makes them tick, and find a way to deliver that right into my opponent.
3 X 10 Swooping Hawks W/ Exarch, Sunrifle, Intercept, Skyleap @ 717 point is the starting point.
Now we have to ask ourselves, what do ‘hawks do besides prancing around with their wings? Well, they appear to be a shooty bunch till we see they are only S3 and not AP 2/3 which means they will shoot at a unit of space marines, kill two, and then die from the return fire of marines since they are only T3 and have a 4+ save. Clearly we don’t want our ‘hawks to shoot like that going toe to toe. We’ll need something else for that later…
What ‘hawks do is drop grenades and bounce around on the table- hit and run style, so that is the skill we want to build the army around. Work with the swooping hawks to appear anywhere as needed, hit, and run the highland way. This is the first unit filter for the army- everything needs to be fast and be able to strike and then fade away. Slow ground units like wraithlords will be left behind, ganged up on, and taken out. Time to work down the force org chart.
Building the List
HQ: Well if you are playing a ‘hawk themed army you need Baharroth to lead the pack right? Well, he has some abilities that we are going to use, in addition to saving us some points so write him down on your list. Since he gives the exarch powers to a group he joins, we can drop one of the exarchs and powers from the hawk groups and replace him with a normal model. This saves a few points, while changing the battle field role of that single unit. The unit with Baharroth in it is the unit that we are going to deepstrike closest to the enemy- not that I want to get close, but sometimes you have to get close to contest, or even when there is no room on the table. Baharroth is eternal warrior with a 2+ save- take the wounds on him to keep that ‘hawk group up alive a bit longer, and if you get assaulted, you potentially have the hit and run option, which we will also use tactically later. So with those adjustments out list is at 891 points.
Tactically we want to take another HQ unit to support the hawks and the theme of the list, and this is where an Autarch fits in @ 110 points.
Autarch W/ Swooping Hawk Wings, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun.
The Autarch join a second ‘hawk unit to take wounds, and most importantly add the +1 to the reserves to allow the swooping hawks to pop in and out throughout the game. Finally we need some troops that are fast moving, resilient, and can support the swooping hawks. Jetbikes fill this perfectly so we are taking three large groups with shuriken cannons. Since this is a theme army, you can paint them like the hawks, or clip the jetbike wings and use ‘hawk wings, or Blood Angels angel wings for the jetbike wings to tie in the theme. A step further, and perhaps more economical would be to use Warhammer fantasy based flyers/cold ones, etc. modeled with Eldar riders since we are going to need thirty of them.
Jetbikes of course: 3 X 10 W/ 3/3/2 Shuriken Cannons @ 740 points.
Notice I didn’t take any vehicles in the list for the 740 points on troops. Why? Can you see why? I’ve got almost 1/3 of the points sunk into the ‘hawks, followed by my HQ units. Since everybody is playing mech, gearing up for mech, and built to deal with mech, if I throw down a wave serpent or two they will just eat all those las cannon shots and go down. I need to either throw down 9+ skimmers or none at all. And I can’t put down the nine with the points…
So, all those las cannons and anti-mech shots will kill a swooping hawk or two, maybe a bike with cover saves, assuming I’m even around to shoot at…
So how are we going to make this army work in the game?
Tactics
This itself if going to be another part of the process. Coming up with a plan and then refining it over a number of games, adding units, changing units, etc. till we get to the final product. Thanks to the +1 of the Autarch, the ability to deepstrike, and the speed of the jetbikes this army can suddenly appear anywhere. Tactically we are going to want to get our opponent to spread out so we can wolf pack up on single units, take said unit out, and then melt away. With multiple objectives we want to spread them out, etc.
Next we want our opponent to go first so they set up. We then reserve everything. If they make us go first then we set up the three ‘hawk units one right, one center, and one left and reserve the jetbikes. Spreading out the hawks will encourage our opponent to spread out to engage them. Then on our first turn we skyleap away, ready to enter reserves on turn two.
When the units arrive you are going to use the jetbikes to come on and shuriken cannon rhinos and razorbacks- using marines as the generic opponent example. The cannon’s jobs is to get masses of troops out for the grenades to fall from the hawks. Keep the hawks on one side and the jetbikes on the other- encourage your opponent to go for the hawks.
As for deathstar units, land raiders, etc, just ignore them, they won’t catch you. The first half of the game is keeping the ‘hawks up, and the second half is about getting them killed. Later in the game my jetbikes are going to want to take objectives- wolf packing them 20+ jetbikes shooting at close range twin-linked pumps out a lot of shots. If I think I may need to shoot and then assault something off an objective then Baharroth and/or the Autarch will leave the ‘hawks and join the bikes for some extra punch. Hawk’s en mass can also now work with the jetbikes to get objectives or contest as needed.
Keep in mind that not having 10+ las cannons and 15+ missile launchers like a “standard” marine net list means your army really isn’t going to be killing much at all. That’s not how it will work based on the template of the swooping hawks. You will need to manipulate your opponent’s movement on the table to create opening to kill a few units to slip your jetbikes into positions for objectives, while frustrating the rest of the units with the swooping hawks.
I supposed should finish out with a disclaimer that the idea of a themed army, (and this article) is not to create a WAAC army- by its very nature it can’t be. WAAC has no theme or style, just spam out the best and forget the rest. What I hoped to do was outline the process to building your own themed army that at least has a plan on the table, and how the core units that you select for your theme are what you want to build around since you already have some many of them on the table.
Have fun out there, and watch the skies -Fritz!
