"I want to taste defeat!" - As several characters said in the Baki anime.
I now understand why.
Good morning everyone! This is the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame and I am Zak Ludick. It is stime for me to find a game I cannot win! But I won't just be grabbing the worst match-up I can possibly go for! I need to get a variety of opponents to fight!
I have not played enough Warhammer 10th Edition games.
- I played a Leviathan Box set Marines vs Tyranids against my son(
) - I won by wiping the Tyranids off the board.
- I played another Leviathan Box set Marines vs Tyranids game against my friend
. - I won by wiping the Tyranids off the board.
- I played a 2000pts game, Space Wolves vs Space Wolves vs
- I played an Eternal Carnage with my 4,160pts vs three opponents (including
Thus it is time for me to take on a new opponent. But it is also time for me to play more 2000pts games which is the standard tournament battle size.
Why do I wish to taste defeat?
Because it is the only way for me to IMPROVE! And I cannot give the enemy an easy win. I need to fight with everything that I have and he needs to beat that.
In around two hours I will be going through to Sword and Board Hobby Store and picking up a game against a man named Anton. Anton shall be fielding Drukhari. Or Dark Eldar as I like to call them xenos, because why would I learn their language... filthy xenos!
Firstly - who are the Drukhari?
They are a faction of aliens of the Eldar race, which is what humans call them. Aeldari or Craftworld Aeldari are the "good-ish" cousins, especially in comparison to the evil Drukhari.
These guys love causing pain and fear and offer the souls of their victims to the Chaos God Slaanesh (Or Silaanthresh as they call it) so their own souls are not consumed by the evil God. This is because the Aeldari Race are responsible for the creation of that God, and the Dark Eldar were are the centre of that calamity.
So they are depraved and deranged and their society has three main sectors:
- The Kabals - power and pain
- Wych Cults - drugs, gladiator arenas and pain
- Haemonculus Covens - pain and pain (wear your guts as a hat)
Despite all this, in the 10th Edition of Warhammer 40,000, the Drukhari are NOT the top tier army at the moment. Neither are the Space Wolves. Also, I am not so vain to say that I am a top tier player either.
I am merely a grizzled veteran. I have played during 3 editions in the past and a part of 9th and I am now in 10th Edition.
I shall be bringing my "Dinosaur List" which is to say, my Space Wolf army that is in majority the same as it has always been. Mechanized. Sort of mobile.
Though the recent tournament stats show that Drukhari are not winning too many games (around 43%), there is something that the wargaming community is not taking into account that I know well: Drukhari are scary.
The reason for this is that they are usually an army that is hard to master, but once they are mastered, they are deadly. Most new players quit playing this faction and choose something else because of the learning curve.
But they are able to deal insane amounts of damage and move extremely fast. They are even able to move after shooting quite a bit.
This is to work against their big weakness: They are fragile.
Nothing in their army is particularly tough. There is a Character called an Archon with a 2+ invul save and there are some Haemonculus units that are pretty though. Beyond that, the toughest thing in their lineup are the Talos.
But their ability to win will revolve around their ability to field an average of 14-18 units on the board that will be able to move all over the place and shoot the hell out of my vehicles and then able to pick off the survivers.
Depending on how he plays, I might not be able to get to grips with him until it is too late: And he has dealt horrendous damage.
But I do have something of an advantage on my side: Experience.
There is no hiding from Drukhari. You cannot hide massive Space Marine tanks well enough for Drukhari to not be able to move and see you and pick you out. If you try to hide, you cede over board control to them and they back you into a corner. Fighting them means that you will feel pain.
The idea is to use my toughness and resillience to counter this. I will take the brunt of their attacks while hiding out in the OPEN, giving them more target than they can handle and take control of the centre of the board and key objectives.
When they over-extend themselves I shall eradicate whatever is so foolish as to put themselves out in the open.
In that time, I plan on completing Sagas and Objective. I may need to decide on decent Secondary Objectives to ensure victory. I am not sure if I want to play Tactical Secondaries...
So we shall see! Wish me luck!
