Stronghold assault Ideas

I now have a copy of stronghold assault, and I’m quite amazed by it. When both stronghold and escalation were announced I expected escalation to be the one that captured my imagination and leave the other in the dark, but it’s not happened. While I appreciate how game changing escalation is, I am seriously considering some of the fortification networks we can now buy.

Eldar vs Orks 1500: Stompa strike

Big Mek Zaapcrackle has been a thorn in the side of the Eldar of Dem-Kirath for far too long, the time to destroy the menace is now. However the Big Mek is riding in his pride and joy, the Stompa Morkatron, so it’s time to bring in the heavy artillery, an Eldar Lynx. The game is a 1500 point game of Ultimate Line breaker (escalation mission), with dawn of war deployment.

Merry Christmas

I would just like to say a Merry Christmas to all of the followers and readers of Skulkers Surprise, each one of you help me to carry on doing this.

Hope you have a good day.

Lord of War: Eldar Lynx

With the forgeworld PDF release the other weak it has opened up A LOT more options for us, as I am sure you are aware, as now practically every forgeworld model can be used in a game of 40k. As the only super heavy that I own is the Eldar lynx, this was a great boon to me. I have only used it once, in a game of apocalypse, which I didn’t think about using it, I just wanted a big D on the table, so now, I have to consider if I should take it or not in a 1500 point game.

Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Imperial Guard 1500: Starting the Escalation

This is my first game of 40k since the strong hold assault and escalation rules were released, but it was before the forgeworld released their PDF about what can be used as a Lord of War (So no lynx for me). Anyway it’s a 1500 point game of Big guns never tire between my Eldar with Dark eldar allies, and the Imperial Guard.

List for taking on a Lord of War

We now have super heavies to worry about, so I came up with a list that could potentially take down a super heavy if I come across it, but still must be able to deal with a regular army if I don’t come across a lord of war. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. 

Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Space Wolves 1500: Lupine Decent

My third and final game with my current Eldar/Dark eldar list and its facing off against a Space wolf drop pod list. It’s been a while since I have faced a list which will be in my face turn 1 so it will be an interesting challenge. The game is Crusade and deployment is hammer and anvil.

Bringing New guys into the Hobby

Over the years i have had the pleasure of teaching friends how to play 40k though out the different editions, and it has always been quite straight forwards, you move, you shoot you assault. Recently a friend of mine asked me to teach him how to play as he wants to get into the hobby and i whole heartedly accepted, and he even had a few models already from a while back when he first found out about warhammer. However it got me thinking, how do you effectively teach 6th edition?

Changing nature of 40K: My view

The nature of 40k is changing, recently we have had a mass of updates and new units that can and probably have changed 40k for us all forever. With the two big books coming out adding lords of war and massive fortifications we have many many options available to us now and data slates adding formations to regular 40k, it will be interesting to see where 40k is heading, will it all be good though?

Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Orks 1500: Windrider reserve

Once again I take out my eldar with dark eldar allies force out for a spin and end up playing against an Ork force. The game is emperors will (1 objective each) with hammer and anvil deployment, so the game is not quite what I was hoping for as not much room to move makes Eldar a sad army…

White Dward December 2013

Well it’s December and a new white dwarf is out, i didn’t buy last months as it didn’t interest me, and I was very nervous about buying this months as they seem to be getting progressively worse. Regardless I took a risk and bought it on account of the release of Escalation and stronghold assault. I had hope that the white dwarf would give me an insight into the new expansions.

Orcs and Goblins vs Dark elves 2000 points: Bolts of spite

A change in pace this week as I have a fantasy battle report for you, the hordes of Warboss Drongo face off against the dark elves in a 2000 point game. The first book of this edition vs the latest... let’s see what happens.

Renegade Guard continues

A while back i may have said that i am only going to make one unit at a time for my renegade guard, well i got bored and i couldn't spray the dudes that i have made, so i may have made a few more units than just this one squad, jump to see what i did...

40K skirmish game: Preliminary thoughts

With the rumours not so long ago about a 40k skirmish game based on the inquisition a friend of mine got very excited, and honestly, I did a little. I have played several games workshop skirmish games and they are always fun, so another one that actually got support was an exciting prospect... until it turns out that it’s not going to happen. So with that disappointment, I and a friend have been thinking about how to create a 40k skirmish game, but this one based around small skirmishes with one or two squads per side engaging in a fire fight.

By A sent ones Request...

The light isn't great right now but this is the first time i have had a request for more pictures of my hawks so here they are. I have taken a fair few pictures but these are the best 3, i hope it shows what ever you are after.

Swooping hawks Finished

Just a little post today, and its showing off my newly painted swooping hawks. Before the tournament i started painting them so they weren't all purple but i never got round to finishing them, until now. So here they are.

Eldar/dark eldar vs Blood angels 1500... Spears and Claws

The Dark kin have joined the ranks of the craftworld Dem-Kirath once more after a long pause in order to fight off the forces of the Imperium at stronghold 14. This game is 1500 points of eldar with dark eldar allies vs Blood angel space marines in a game of the emperors will with dawn of war deployment.

Post-Tournament thoughts

The tournament ended about 3 weeks ago now and I have only just got around to getting back into 40k. I don't know if I just overloaded myself on the game in such a short amount of time that I momentarily had to stop, or if I just generally need a break. Either way I have had one, and now I think it’s time to look over how I did and see what I can get from it.

Tournament game 3: Eldar vs Daemons/chaos 1850 'death from the sky'

The third and final game of my tournament, so far I am 1 win and 1 loss so I need this game to be good one. I am drawn up against a chaos daemons army with chaos space marine allies, I can only describe it as a flying circus, and I have never played against such a list before so it was definitely an interesting experience. The mission was 6 objectives and I was rather worried.

Tournament players

I know I have only been to two 40k tournaments but something that irritated me while I was at my 1850 one was the attitude of one of the players, which quite frankly baffled me. Every one that I talked to and two of the players I faced where great guys, friendly, took their punches, were graceful in victory and knew their rules. Yet the last guy that I faced was the opposite.

1850 Tournament: Game 2 Eldar vs Chaos Space marines/Necrons 'Purple Rain'

Game 2 and i'm up against Chaos Space marines with Necron allies. A lot of flyers, it has to be said he brought a lot of flyers. I have only ever played against Necrons once before and it didn’t go well, so I was rather nervous about this game. Oh and a lot of purple models were on the table this game.

1850 Tournament: Game 1 Eldar vs Chaos space marines 'Opening shots'

My first game of the tournament and I was paired up with a very friendly guy who was running a chaos space marine list. His list was heavily themed and was not one of the lists which scared the hell out of me, so I got to ease into the tournament gently. So read on and see how the game went…

Rules questions from the tournament

A few interesting rules came up across the day of the tournament which I thought I would see your opinions on them. The first one is quite interesting, and was hotly debated as both sides of the rule refused to accept the other. The second, not so much, more of a query from me.

1850 40k Tournament: First Impressions

Having taken part In my first 1850 40k tournament I thought I would share with you how I felt about the experience as a whole before I go into the battle reports that I’m sure you can all laugh at me over. The event consisted of 3 games over 1 day and 24 people took part over all.

Serpent Spawn... Eldar vs Chaos space marines 1500

The forces of the plague god once again defile an unsuspecting world and it is up to the eldar to prevent such rot from spreading. This is a 1500 game between Eldar and Chaos space marines, the mission is purge the alien with hammer of anvil deployment.

Tournament Prep: Getting the army ready

With the tournament fast coming upon me i need to get my models up to scratch, and indeed i need to find a way to represent an iracus lascannon as i only have a quadgun right now. A few of my models need rebasing, and i have been stripping old models so they can be primed purple to give my force a more cohesive look. Thankfully i dont need to have my army painted for this tournament. 

Using Dark Eldar allies as Eldar Aspect warriors

Untill the release of the 6^th edition Eldar Codex I used dark eldar allies to help fill the gaps in my old army lists. This mainly took the form of some dark eldar warriors and a ravage, as with the old 4^th edition book anti-tank weaponry was vastly expensive. Now I have found myself wanting to reintroduce the dark eldar into my lists but instead of using them as dark eldar, I was contemplating using them as rather unusual aspect warriors instead…

Duel of Knights... Eldar vs Eldar 1500

Once again the Craftworld of Iyanden gets in the way of the glorious craftworld of Dem-Kirath so must be put in their place. The loss of Eldar life is regrettable but necessary for the future of the craftworld. If you hadn’t of guessed, it’s some Blue on Blue action, in a 1500 point game of Purge the Alien, with vanguard strike deployment.

Temple of Khorne W.I.P

For those of you who have watched my blog for a while might remember this from a LONG time ago, its my temple of khorne. Finally i have gotten around to painting at least a bit of it so hopefully it will be finished soon. But still here are my current WIP photos of it.

White Dwarf October 2013

October white dwarf, now I would say I was going to review it but I think that has long gone, I don’t think for the last few months I have done a proper ‘review’ of it for a while so instead of lying to you all I will say I am just going to give a general comment on the magazine in general. Plus I just makes this whole process easier for us both.

Birthday Give Away - The Winner!

So to make things a little different and so you can't say that i have cheated any of you i have recorded and got a neutral party to pull a name out of a hat for me! Watch the video to see who the winner is!

And if you would contact me, winning person, it would get the ball rolling on me sending your prize out to you.

Email me: malduran546@gmail.com

Can't wait to hear from you.

Free Give Away: Last Day

If you haven't already, you need to follow me and leave a comment on the following post in order to stand a chance to win the Games day 08 Space Marine Captain. The Draw will commence Sunday 6th October at 12:30 GMT. Good luck all.

For a link to the post click HERE.

The Forgotten Battle... Eldar Vs Deathwing 1750

Unfortunately this week I don’t have a proper battle report as I lost my notes from the game and it was about 2 weeks ago so I can’t really remember what happened all too well. Regardless I have some pictures and a rough idea of what happened. It’s Eldar vs Deathwing, 1750 points, the game was purge the alien, with vanguard strike deployment.

Renegade Guard squad 1 completed

Finally i have finished my first unit for my Renegade guard army. Its just a simple infantry squad but for now i think its a good start. It took a lot longer than i expected but such is life. I am starting on my second squad shortly but i still have a few eldar units that need to be finished.

Give Away competition - 5 days left

Just a quick reminder that you only have until the 6^th October to enter my competition to win a Games Day 2008 exclusive Space Marine with thunder hammer. Entry is quick and easy just follow the link. 

Wraith-Star still viable?

I was reminiscing about my old wraith-Star list that I used before the 6^th edition elder codex came out and it got me thinking, is something just as deadly possible? Well I think I have something, but will it be any good on the table? Not a clue but if someone tried it I can imagine it being hilarious to use.

Fist of the Emperor... Eldar vs Imperial fists 1850 tournament practice

This is my first practice game for my 1850 tournament that I will be attending in October, I know it’s quite late to start preparing but that’s the way it’s gone. It’s a game of Crusade with 3 objectives vs Imperial fist Space marines using Dawn of war deployment.

1500 Evolving List and 1850 Tournament List

With less than a month till my tournament I have decided on a list that I will be taking, I will be practicing with it as much as I can and see what I need to do to win with it, or if anything dramatically needs to change. I have also come up with a 1500 point list that I feel will dramatically improve my odds in that arena as well as my previous evolving list failed dramatically, a kind of re-boot if you will.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Skulkers Surprise

Well today is my blogs 2^nd birthday. I don’t know how I made it to 2 years but I did, bloody amazing if you ask me as I expected to give it up after a month. Anyway to celebrate making it this far, I am going to be shamelessly promoting the blog but also a prize give away for one of my followers. Read more to find out the details.

Tears of Isha... Eldar vs Eldar 1500

When Craftworld turns on craftworld, the tears of Isha flow freely. This is a game between my Dem-Kirath Eldar and a friends Iyanden Eldar. Codex vs Supplement, Wraith vs Guardians, numbers vs a big ass scary wraithknight. The mission is Emperors will with dawn of war deployment.

Call to War... 1850 Tournament list

In about a month I will be going to an 1850 point tournament, this will be the second tournament I will have attended and the first time I have properly played at the 1850 point level. Looking at it right now I don’t think it’s a great idea. So I need your help reviewing my list etc...

Rolling Plague... Eldar vs Deathguard 1500

In the ruins of a shattered city the Death Guard chaos space marines are ambushed by the Eldar of the Dem-Kirath Craftworld. So this is a game between my new evolving eldar list and Daves Death guard chaos space marines in a 1500 point game of The scouring, with vanguard strike deployment.

200th post: Reinventing my 1500 point list.

I never thought I would see he day that I have posted 200 times. IT has almost taken me 2 years but here I am, and I would like to thank all of you for your comments, views and followings. Really I would never have had the patience to carry on if it wasn’t for all of you so thank you, every last one of you. I am not going to do anything special for this land mark, but soon the blog turns 2 years old, so maybe i will do something for it then. We shall see. Any way onto the actual content.

Codex Space Marines: First Impression

With the big book of marines now out I thought I would share my observations of it with anyone who cared to listen, encase some of you haven’t bought t yet and are still interested in its contents. I will just be going over some of the broader things in the book and the new units, so it’s more of a brief overview.

Misguided Kin... Dark eldar vs Eldar 1500

A slight rest from my Eldar in order to use my Dark eldar, totally different I know. This is a kind of rematch against my chaos opponent the other weak (here) but instead of using his Chaos he used his Eldar. So a rematch but between different forces. The game was 1500 points, Crusade with 4 objectives, with Dawn of war deployment.

White Dwarf September 2013

The Big release is here, at least in the eyes of Games workshop. The boys who bring in the money are having a new codex so that spells good news for games workshop. So what does this month spell for the space marines? Well let’s go through the new white dwarf and see what we can find.

Avalanche... Eldar vs Orks 1500

This is my final game with my current evolving list against Battle wagon Orks, in a 1500 point game of the scouring with vanguard strike deployment. I have played these orks before so I know what he is capable of but he has changed his tactics this time compared to our last game.

Imperial Armour: Apocalypse - Review

With the release of the new Apocalypse rule book, forgeworld shortly after released their new imperial armour book covering all of their fancy pants models. Having always loved the forgeworld models and actually owning two (only one super heavy unfortunately) I was eager to buy the updated rules. So here I will share my thoughts on this new book, Imperial Armour: Apocalypse.

Ice and Blood (for the blood god)... Eldar vs Chaos space marines 1500

I get to play a new opponent this week, which was rather exiting me for. While I have played chaos space marines a fair few times, this opponent has a somewhat different list to what I am used to facing, again rather exiting. Instead of having a primarily nurgle/plague marines force this one was more khorne orientated. The game was the relic, with vanguard strike deployment.

Painting Renegade Guard

It has been a while since i last showed you these guys, and i have only just started painting them. It has been so long in fact that i forgot how i painted the test model so i have had to come up with as similar a colour scheme as i could again. That aside i have painted the first 3.

The sergeant does stick out like a swore thumb, In future i don't think i will make any more like him. This guy can get a nice back story about betraying the Cadian 117th to join the renegades. I love how everything is possible in 40k. 

I love the vox caster model. 

Hopefully i will get some more painted soon.   

Skies of Blood... Eldar vs blood angels 2500

This week I got challenged by my friend to play his blood angels in a 2500 point game, and I thought it was about time that I used the Iyanden supplement as I have had it since release. So a few more rules for me to use, the mission of the game was purge the alien, with dawn of war deployment.

Codex Eldar: Dire Avengers VS Guardian Defenders

Around my local club the debate about which unit is the better troops option for Codex Eldar, it’s quite hotly debated, some believing the aspect warriors are the superior unit while others go with the humble guardian. While I prefer the guardian myself I haven’t looked into it very deeply, until now. This post is a look at the pro’s and con’s of each unit and how they compare on the battlefield to give myself an idea of which unit might be the superior choice.

Battle of Veridian Planes... Eldar vs Blood angels and Imperial guard 1500

My second game with my new evolving list and its against my old foe the Blood angels. This time he has brought some guard allies to increase him numbers so it could be a harder fight. The mission is the relic, and deployment is hammer and anvil, so i will have less room to maneuver. 

White Dwarf August 2013 – Review

Another month, another white dwarf, and this month it’s the lizards from Lustria getting a new army book. I have always liked lizardmen, in fact in 6^th edition I had a small (about 500 points) army of them using the old 5^th edition models with the ravaging hordes rules... them were the days. It was fun and since I have had an interest in them. So this month had potential to entertain me.

Back in the Saddle: Finished Eldar Lynx

Sorry its been so long since my last post but i just couldn't get motivated to blog last week after getting back from holiday, but that's changed now, and here i am, so from now on the blog should (hopefully) be back to normal posting. And to start it off, here are a few more pics of my Eldar Lynx, as it is finally finished.