Troops with Firepower.

I've always kinda liked Dire Avengers. But when they got nerfed and the range of their Shuriken Catapult dropped to 12" in 3rd edition...they hit the shelf for a LONG time. The 4th Edition codex saw the range of their Shuriken cats extend to 18". Still shorter than marines bolter of 24", but a huge improvement.


Another change was the ability of the Exarch to "Bladestorm"...a skill that allows all shuriken cats in the unit to fire one extra shot in the fire phase. Going from 22 shots to 33 shots is kinda handy when a unti of orcs is about to charge yah. Downside is you don't get to shoot the next turn...but chances are you will be in hand to hand anyway.


I only had a small unit of 5 Dire Avengers painted up, back from 2nd edition when they came only in units of 5. So with the new Troop being necessary, I had to increase the numbers of this unit. The tell tale item that makes a Dire Avenger is the roman style headdress on the helmet. Going through some of my older minis, I had a bunch of the very old Eldar Guardian figs that had a roman headdress on their helmets. So little dip in some Pine Sol to strip the paint, some time of the workbench...and I have a full squad of 10 Dire Avengers.

Toughest Troops in the game.

With the changes brought about by 5th edition Troops are very necessary. I'll admit in piror editions, I took the minimum amount of troops that were required. One edition allowed a squad of 3 Rangers as a Troop choice. Six figures filled out the whole two squads of troops. Now that 2/3 of the games depend upon grabbing and holding objectives with Troops, haveing solid units for troops are a must.


Eldar on the whole are a very fragile bunch. Toughness 3 across the board. However the Wraithguard are another story. Their Toughness of 6 and their armor save of 3+ makes them a very sturdy unit. Put in a Warlock, and you don't have to worry about their wraithsight weakness. Give the warlock the Conceal power and they will get a mobile 5+ coversave. Throw a farseer next to them with Fortune...letting them re-roll their saves and you have the toughest unit in the game to move off an objective. Just keep a Close Combat unit nearby to help incase they get swarmed.


I had 5 Wraithguard painted up, but they only count as troop chioce if you have 10 in the unit. You will find through all three of these Army Projects that I am a cheap bastard when it comes to gaming. I'm not about to dish out $50-$75 for 5 minis. You really need a plastic Wraithgurd box GW. Anyway...I had some of the really old Epic Eldar Knights, and one of the ancient Eldar Ghostwarriors. They are close enough to the Wraithguard that i painted them up to finish the unit.