Craftworld Tor'Talidos
Drifting on the fringes of known space, the Craftworld of Tor'Talidos has long managed to evade the attentions of many potential foes. Deeply traditional and isolationist, the craftworld has appeared intermittently throughout history, disappearing and reappearing like a ghost. In recent years, this has begun to change as a young farseer has challenged the current leadership of the powerful Farseer Lyanna Allurial, also known as "the Banshee". This young farseer named Illiyander Eltherion has gained allies in those who follow the outcast path including a corsair prince and his band. A somewhat small craftworld, it has maintained its history with almost fanatical devotion, leading to a strong, well represented force of aspect shrines and their warriors. Like Craftworld Alaitoc, Tor'Talidos is deeply conservative, and like Alaitoc, many young Eldar's wanderlust has led them to the path of the outcast. The hallmark of the craftworld in battle is its swift, brutal speed.
I started playing fresh with 3rd edition, not long after its debut and I was immediately attracted to the hit and run of the Dark Eldar. Eventually, I got bored with the limited selection and moved on to Eldar. I have never been a good painter, and it showed with my dark eldar. A friend gave me some pointers and my Eldar benefited with a lot better paint. Probably only 20% of my total models were painted, although my technique was rapidly improving when I stopped playing around 2005.
Although a frequent practitioner of the black arts of the VDR, I am much more a kit basher then a modeler. Now that both the Night Spinner and Warp Hunter are kits, neither of my kitbashes are needed. I have picked up some new techniques since starting again so I hope things will look a lot cleaner.
A friend is trying to get me to get back in in preparation for 6th edition, and while my ability is lacking; I was improving and had begun to enjoy painting. I am hoping by posting this and a P&M blog, I might keep motivated to actually paint and finish more of my army. Coming back after close to a decade, has been a brutal shock, but there are some really neat things that have been released. Most exciting to me are the Warp Hunter, Hornets and Shadow Spectres of Forge World and the new Fire Prism/Nightspinner. Both a warp hunter and night spinner had been in progress with the VDR rules when I left (part of why the two tanks in back are missing turrets). I have a lot of ideas and wants with all the new models, so we'll see what happens with my main opponent 2.5 hours away. all total, right now I have about 8000 points worth + an unassembled armorcast Phantom, so I may reduce my extra aspects at some point. Or who am I kidding, increase them into actual formations.
Primary Color: Enchanted Blue for Vehicles, Wraith units and CW units
Secondary Colors: Black, Silver, Bronze
Aspects will tend to follow a more codex scheme
No fixed army list, but have always favored mechanized. Alaitoc and Iyandon were my preferred 3E.
Current plans:
Start playing again
bring vehicles up to paint standard and rebuild for current standard by dropping lances in favor of scatter lasers on the serpents
Paint up two additional fire prisms + add a warp hunter+ add capacity to swap at least two night spinner turrets onto fire prisms
Add a wraith seer, Autarch to HQ
Formations
Seer Council
Tears of Lyanna (Spirit Host, would like to upgrade to Spirit Host of the Lost)
Spear of Khaine (Aspect Assault Wave)
Wings of the Sky Hawk (Cloudstrike Squadron)
Fires of the Dawn Light (Doom Serpent Squadron)
Shards of the Void Weaver
Thorns Shadows Shifitng (Shadow Sect)
I have been absolutely fascinated by the formations since returning so will be using these as set of goals to paint towards since these are formations I already have models for.
Leadership
Farseer Lyanna Allurial, also known as "the Banshee" (counts as Eldrad)
Farseer Illiyander Eltherion (Farseer and Farseer on Jetbike)
The Blades of Kain (counts as Phoenix lords)
These are the most powerful of the Exarchs of the various temples, serving as the ultimate masters of their craft of war.
For the moment, these are the main players. I have yet add an Autarch who will serve as the leader of the Blades. I have always had a problem with every craftworld having all the Pheonix Lords, so I just think of them as super Exarchs. I never imagined that special characters would take on such a huge role. For that reason, I am going to have to add an Eldrad, Not super huge on the model so wanted to do something unique, hence the Banshee will eventually appear. Eltherion on the other hand is just a general farseer as well as a jetbike version. I hate some aspects of this conversion, especially the baggy pants so will probably redo him at some point. I would love to start a corsair band if I actually get to play very often so we will see if I add a Corsair Prince. Even If I don't I will probably have to pick up Yrial anyway, loved him in Gothic.
I dislike my jetbike conversion, nor did it fair well in moves and storage and I still have some work to do on the regualr models. The Banshee is still a figment of my imagination, but I have the idea on how to do the conversion so she will probably be my first major project since returning. I wish my modeling skills were half as good as my imagination.
The Aspect Shrines
Howling Banshees
Fire Dragons
Striking Scorpions
Warp Spiders
I have squads worth of aspect warriors unpainted that I really want to paint up, including at least one of scorpions, two reaper squads, two swooping hawk squads, another fire dragon squad and another squad of spiders. I also have a box of avengers I never messed with back in third, that looks to change. The Banshees and Scorpions were my first aspect warriors, and while I am very proud of the lovely ladies, the scorpions still need work. Its interesting looking at the pictures as I see flaws I had not seen before. The warp Spiders I did a bit later, and while I am happy with them, technique wise they are far inferior to the banshees. The two more completely painted fire dragons were the last two models I was working on when I quit. The third fire dragon was painted two days ago with what paints I rescued after nearly a decade. I want to get at least one squad of fire dragons done, after that I want to to do a squad of Swooping hawks purely for fun. I would LOVE to get a squad of Shadow Spectres if I start spending money on the game. I really need to learn how to do gems, but at that size, my hand isn't very steady. We'll see.
Path of the Outcast
Pathfinders
Rangers
4 squads of rangers and 2 squads of Pathfinders. The rangers are in my standard blue scheme, the pathfinders are in a much more interesting green.
These were the core of my 3E main army, Although I played Iyandon and Biel-Tan on occasion, Alaitoc was where my heart was. I was thrilled how these guys came out. I also have about 50 original Harlequins. I was fascinated by these guys so picked up the CJ33 rules, but I never got to put them in play on a serious basis. I actually like the new models better so I may sell these all off.
Tears of Lyanna (Spirit Host)
Although the primary power of Tor'Talidos is its aspects, tanks and outcast allies, another force remains in slumber only awaiting the order to waken and defend the craftworld. These are the Tears of Lyanna, the Wraith Guard and Wraith Lords of the craftworld.
15 wraithguard + 3 wraithlords
Although I occasionally played Iyandon, I was never comfortable with footslog eldar since we tended to play on larger then normal tables. Still, I always had ideas for these guys and someday I'd like to finish them off. I now have a paint scheme and have figured out how to do something resembling bone.
Vehicles
You can see from the overview picture I have a few tanks, back in 3e I seemed ot have plenty, now I am not so sure since it seems mechanized eldar is even bigger then I remember. For some reason, I am missing a few turrets I had left loose for swapping, I fear they were lost in a couple of moves, luckily i have extras. I want to finish these up, as it stands it should be 4 wave serpents, 2 falcons, a fire prism, 3 vipers. I want to add another fire prism, a night spinner, and a warp hunter to this. I wouldn't mind adding some hornets as well. I had been working on a warp hunter and night spinner with the VDR back in third, but never finished them, hence the half finished hulls in back. When I started to get out of 40k, I actually sold of my forgeworld Scorpion and Revenant Titan, somehow though, I forgot to get rid of my Armorcast Phantom, so he may fund my expansion into 6th.
I will soon post vehicle pics, after expermenting a little I now have made an addition to my paint scheme of mottling and am very happy with the results.
Final thoughts
You'll notice theres no guardians mentioned, I have a severe distaste for them so have never used them. A lot has changed since 3e and one can easily see gaps in my forces. Lots of half finished ideas, it took me years to paint what I have, but by the time I quit I was greatly improved. So far, I have been happy with how much I remember and hopefully I can finish some of these off. Something I really need to work on is basing. One thing that has intrigued me is the addition of formations. I will be looking I think at organizing and completing formations as a set of goals.
