40K Friday - Eldar Allies

So what do you do when you end up with a nicely painted tank that doesn't really fit in with the rest of your force? Build up an Ally force!

So I had a nicely painted Falcon I picked up as part of a deal. It's done in Iyanden colors and I decided some time back not to paint my Eldar as Iyanden. So ... orphaned Falcon - what to do?

Well I also have some very yellow Fire Dragons...

Fire Dragons are the perfect unit to transport in a Falcon and the colors line up nicely. That gives me a heavy support slot and an elite slot. I need an HQ and a troop choice to make this work. HQ is easy enough...

I had a spare Farseer and I though about painting him up in Iyanden colors but I decided to continue the tradition and pick out a painted one instead. Now I need troops.

Minimizing point cost and effort-to-field I picked up a painted Ranger squad. That's enough to make it strictly an ally only force as you only need 1 HQ & 1 Troop unit to achieve that. In the interest of flexibility though I decided to add a second unit, a nicely painted squad of Dire Avengers. Now I could potentially field the group as a normal CAD.

The original theory here is that this is a nice little self-contained anti-tank force and a psyker/sniper team. It could really be used with any army as it doesn't need to interact with anyone. The Falcon zips across the board, drops the Dragons, and both units then annihilate whichever target is deemed worthy. The Ranger squad hangs out in some ruins or woods, likely on an objective, and pops targets as needed. The Farseer could go with the Dragons or stay with the Rangers depending on the needs of the fight.

Then I went and added a pair of Wraithlords. Now we're starting to make the turn towards becoming a "real" army.

Here's how it shapes up right now:

1 Farseer (HQ) @ 120 Pts
     (character); Ancient Doom; Battle Focus; Fleet; Independent Character; Runes of the Farseer; Psyker (Mastery Level 3); #Ghosthelm; The Spirit Stone of Anath'lan; Rune Armour; Shuriken Pistol; Singing Spear; Warlord

5 Dire Avengers (Troops) @ 65 Pts
     Infantry; Ancient Doom; Battle Focus; Fleet; Defence Tactics; Aspect Armour; Avenger Shuriken Catapult; Plasma Grenades

5 Rangers (Troops) @ 60 Pts
     Commander: None; Infantry; Ancient Doom; Battle Focus; Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Shrouded; Mesh Armour; Shuriken Pistol; Ranger Long Rifle

5 Fire Dragons (Elites) @ 110 Pts
     Infantry; Ancient Doom; Battle Focus; Fleet; Assured Destruction; Heavy Aspect Armour; Fusion Gun; Melta Bombs

1 Falcon (Heavy Support) @ 125 Pts
     Commander: None; Vehicle (Fast, Skimmer, Tank); Capacity: 6; TL Shuriken Catapults; Scatter Laser; Pulse Laser

1 Wraithlord (Heavy Support) @ 160 Pts
     Commander: None; Monstrous Creature (Character); Ancient Doom; Fearless; Flamer (x2); Starcannon (x2)

1 Wraithlord (Heavy Support) @ 180 Pts
     Commander: None; Monstrous Creature (Character); Ancient Doom; Fearless; Flamer (x2); Eldar Missile Launcher (x2)

Models in Army: 20


Total Army Cost: 820

At 820 points it is fairly "heavy" for a small army. With a bunch of anti-tank and a sniper unit it should be fine against tank armies and monstrous creatures. I think horde armies would give it a lot of trouble but then again at 800 points how much horde could you be facing? That's one of the reasons for taking the dual missile launchers on one of the Wraithlords - flexibility and to try and help  vs. armor, hordes, and air units.

As an ally force it could be as cheap as 400 points for Farseer + Rangers + Falcon + Fire Dragons. That adds a significant amount of anti-tank to any other army, plus a nice psyker. My orks might appreciate that kind of help.

For the future I don't feel a tremendously pressing need to expand this army but I do have some ideas:

• A Spiritseer would be a slightly less expensive HQ for this force, flavorful,  and probably still very effective. 
• A second Ranger squad would be an even cheaper troop unit to allow it to incorporate more heavy or elite units - if only they weren't so terrible under the current rules.
• A Crimson Hunter would be a nice tool to have in the toolbox as an ally force and as a full army.
• Wraithguard would up it's power quite a bit and are the obvious thing missing to make this even more of an Iyanden themed army.
• Wave Serpents are pretty much required if you're going to field Wraithguard so they are definitely on the list. They would make the Avengers more mobile too.
• A Wraithknight - well, maybe some day. It's another thematically appropriate unit and a very effective one too. 

I am not terribly interested in adding Guardians, Jetbikes, Artillery, or even most of the Aspect Warriors as this is supposed to be a simple side force while I paint my main Eldar army. Vehicles and wraith units will be the priority if an opportunity arises. I don't need to turn it into one of the other formations from the codex - a traditional CAD is fine.

In order to not split my focus I decided a while back to only add painted units to this army. So to some degree, this army's growth depends on what I find and when I find it. That keeps my army ADD under control and it also avoids adding any more to my already impressive backlog. I do need to unify the basing and that may happen as soon as this weekend. Right now I'm leaning towards snow but I won't really decide until I sit down and start digging in.

That's the update for this week - next time we will talk Iron Warriors!