The Glorious Dead

Kaevern Mournsong - Iyanden Spiritseer

In my quest to, it would seem, collect every single force vying for attention in the 41st Millennium, i recently decided after some truly appalling defeats with my Tau that i would go back to one of my old favourite armies.  The Eldar.

And not just any Eldar, an Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army.  As with most new releases from Games Workshop, many mewled and cried and moaned about the price of the new Iyanden supplement, and while they were complaining i was ignoring them as i couldn't hand over my money fast enough. 




I was, and will always be an enormous Iyanden fanboy.

I always thought they looked cool and had tried and failed several times to collect an army in the past, but when the 5th edition rolled around with Prince Yriel in the picture i was captivated.  Like Huron Blackheart, Prince Yriel was a name i had read many times in 40k background before he had a model, and had always wondered just what a badass Eldar Corsair prince would look like.  And they had pretty much nailed it.

Illic Nightspear - Iyanden Scheme

He was lofty, he was arrogant, he had sharp dress sense, he was everything an Eldar should be.  And he was totally sweet in 40k too.  An absolute Demon in close combat, but insanely fragile under firepower, and to add to all the Pathos, his cursed Spear did a wound to him at the end of the game, to represent it's draining energies.  It really wasn't long before i was collecting an entire Iyanden army based around his personal cadre of Piratical Iyanden Eldar.  And i probably only won about 50% of the games i played with that army, but i loved it dearly and i couldn't have cared less.  It ticked nearly all the boxes as to what i wanted from a 40k army, and for a time it was definitely my go-to force.

Sadly, with time, more and more new codexes were released, and my army, lacking in Unkillable Falcons and boring tricks of the time, quickly fell by the wayside.  My 50% win ratio, slouched to 25%, and then down to about 10% (essentially if my opponent rolled abysmally i might steal a victory.) and the Eldar just weren't cutting it any more, they languished for a time unplayed in a case and eventually i decided to sell them so that someone else could enjoy them like i had.  I reasoned that i just wasn't playing them properly and that my playing style suited Imperial Marines more as my new Iron Lords force began to smash all comers.

Iyanden Craftworld Rangers

Anyway, cut to nearly present day and the glorious empire of GW has begun to ignore nearly everything but 40k in terms of its release schedule (which i think is absolutely grand quite frankly.) and then a new Eldar book crops up!  Not only that, but there are models and rules for Spiritseers!  In the main book!  And plastic Wraithguard!  With new Weapons!

As you can imagine, it took me all of 2 days to cave in and start the Iyanden army anew.

Wraithguard of House Divinesh

As well the new Eldar codex i was obviously a bit stunned by the fact an individual Supplement was being released just for Iyanden.  I heard laments that there were very few rules contained within and that it was mostly background, which i found a preposterous to complain about as well-written background stories are one of the things that have always driven my painting.  When i finally got my hands on the physical copy i devoured the text in a number of days and was captivated by the expansion given to the back story of the Ghost Warriors, all throughout history.  Where i had collected an army off the back of a few pages background, i now had an entirely fleshed out Craftworld.  Complete with more of that god damned Pathos i love so much.

Iyanna Arienal - Spiritseer of Iyanden

I had a High Elf Everqueen model kicking about that i had always intended to use as Iyanna Arienal even though she now lacked rules, as a nod back to the 3rd edition codex.  I always imagined her in a swaying robe, delicate in contrast to the enormous ghost warriors, so this is the version i went with, and i'm quite happy with how it aturned out!

As for how well the army will do, i am not sure yet! 
I played my first 1000 point game with them today, clashing against an inquisitorial force led by Inquisitor Coteaz on a Crone world, complete with daemonic forests writhing to life and attempting to tear the forces apart as they clashed, a few timely shots from the Wraithguard and superhuman(?) feats of endurance from the Ghost axe wielding Wraithblades brought the game into my favor, and it was brought to a close when Illic Nightspear blasted Coteaz head clear from his shoulders with a sweet 6 to wound and a failed look out sir roll!

Oh, and Kaevern Mournsong, my counterpart Spiritseer managed to fell an Eversor assassin in combat by doing a wound with his witch staff and then having the Eversor collapse in a ball of flame from Soul Blaze!  Sweet!

I'm quite enjoying 6th Edition 40k!