2005 Tasmanian State Championships Best Army (40K)

Name: Matt Cleaver
Game System: Warhammer 40,000
Army Type: Saim Hann Eldar
Army Name: Warhost of Eseehc

When and why did you start collecting this particular army?
I started collecting this army in grade 8, when I made a masterful trade with a rich friend who gave me a falcon grav tank in exchange for the old Ghazkull model. The grav tank took several days of paint stripping to reveal any sort of detail from beneath its caked black paint shell, but in the end it scraped up pretty well. I was intensely proud of my paint job, dispite several pieces being missing, and it became my model of choice when I wanted to show off my painting (which was alot for the 13 year old Mattling) It was at this stage that my craftworld was decided. I chose the Saim Hann colour scheme simply because it looked cool. When I found out they were famous for their jetbikes I was actually rather sad, as wraithlords...(or eldar dreadnoughts back then) were the models that inspired me to start collecting Warhammer in the first place. The army evolved slowly through college as the new eldar models came out, but it always took a back seat to other things, and was rarely used. It wasn't until th e Tournament this year that the last 2 thirds of it were added..in the space of two weeks. The decision to use this army at all was based solely on the Falcon (which had by this stage been somehow changed into a Fire Prism) It's paint job was still one of my best after 6 years, and my plan was to confuse the judges of the painting component with an army that looked best from three feet away, so they would be distracted from looking at all the other contestants too closely!

What particular things about the army do you like?
I like the overall look of it. It is by far my most cohesive army, probably because it was painted nearly all in one go. It's ancient components were touched up to make them fit in with subtle changes I have made to my style since then. I love the Eldar vehicle models as well.
I also like the way the army plays, its quite fun. Its so cheesy and ridiculous and 'one trick ponyish' that it either steamroll's an opponent or gets totally trashed. Its insane number of crystal targeting matrixes and jetbike moves means that every unit in the army can make pop up attacks to completely annoy any opponent, resulting in several very low sportsmanship scores on the day, dragging my score down! But oh well, I regret nothing.

What things do you not like about the army, or the way it plays?
I dislike the expensiveness of my units, it can really hurt when I don't have enough cover to use my special abilities. I only have a dozen or so models as opposed to nearly a hundred in most 1500 point armies, and when fighting stuff like Iron Warriors (curses!) my lack of toughness can really hurt.

Has your view about the two previous questions changed over the course of your time playing with them?
I really haven't played with them very long. I hadn't used them at all in their current form until the tournament itself and I have only used them once since then. But I guess the lack of man power is something I just have to deal with...unless the cost of jetbikes magically goes down in the next incarnation of the eldar rules!

What is your style of play with this army?
Hit and run. I run out, use guide, shoot in the movement phase, get back behind cover, use my wide range of weapons to tackle anything that comes my way, and fire dragons to mop up anything that gets through. If this doesn't work then I am seriously up that certain creek.

Which are your favorite units to play with?
I absolutely love the wave serpent and the fire dragons. The serpent is a conversion from an old white dwarf that I made like, the day before the tournament, and it has two star cannons made of fimo. Between these and the fusion guns and guide, space marines just die a lot whenever they are around.

What are your favorite units/Characters to have modeled or painted?
My farseer is a very old old paint job, but its still one of my best...back before I got into speed painting and didn't give a stuff about too much detail anymore. The wild rider kindred though, just to contradict myself, is my latest added unit and these are probably my favorite of all. They all have some conversion work and hand painted canopy art...I'm such a nerd.

What are your plans for this army in the future?
I haven't played warhammer for absolutely ages, but now that the tournament has forced me to finally make a good looking army, I think I'll use it wherever I can. I haven't been in any tourneys lately, but I'm sure to use the army at games clubs when I go next, in order to absorb all the wonderful praise and death threats.

Is there something that makes this army stand out from others of its type?
Yeah, there's never ever been anything like it that I have seen, besides the games workshop studio Saim Hann army. I think a jetbike force is something a lot of people think about, but never can be bothered doing. It was sort of an accident that I ended up with it, but now that I have it, I'm very glad for its uniqueness.

What (if any) background and theme have you created for this force?
Well, I guess the theme is kinda basic and obvious...its a Saim Hann wild rider host. I didn't want to go for the standard beardy idea of totally vypers with starcannons...since I wanted to keep to the theme of how I picture a host to look like. Therefore it had to include two units of jetbikes and a wild rider kindred, even though these units perform relatively poorly for me. I also included a jetbike warlock for the theme...since its a must, and every unit is mounted. There isn't terribly much background, since the army is very new...and I never really go into backgrounds..but some characters do have names. Most of the names are various cheeses spelt backwards.

Have you entered other tourneys or events before?
Yes, when I was in college there was an event at the games club in town that had prizes from games workshop...I got the painting prize there too...which was a box of catachans....which ended up being chaos cultists somehow. My stingyness means that models tend to be reborn a lot of times. I was also at Jester con in 2000...I think it was...or 2001. I got the painting portion of that too...using the same grav tank that inspired me to use this saim hann army! The Jester con victory was what made me think I might have a chance at golden demon 2001.

How was your experience of them?
I love tourneys. In the one in town, I was neck and neck with my best friend points wise, and in the last game we happened to be fighting each other, like, totally cheesy teen movie style. The game ended up being a draw...except that in the last turn my bloodthirster did one wound to his avatar that won me the game. That tourney was awesome! The jester con one wasn't so good. I consistently do a bit better than average in these things..nothing special.

How did you find the experience of the TSC tourney?
It was the most friggin awesome and well organized thing I've ever seen! Everything ran like clockwork and everyone had such a great time! I cant believe that I only decided to stay in it at the last second! Up until the day before the event, I was dead set on withdrawing from it! I'm so happy I didn't.

Is there anything you would do differently next time?
Next time I would focus on not having cheesy tactics that make people vote me down in the sportsmanship. I cringed sometimes as I made my fall back moves, knowing how peeved my opponent was getting, but if I didn't do it I would be dead...its not like I didn't pay for that ability by being uber weak.

If you enter again, will you take a different force/army, and why?
Yeah, and probably for the reason I just stated. In such a friendly environment as a tournament, I don't want to be so cheeserific next time, I don't want to be hated for anything but my painting (head enlarges to phenomenal size) Next time I will probably use the army I was going to use this time but didnt...my better painted army, which has more conversions, wins, history and credentials...my orks. Yeah I know I like flowing from one side of the spectrum to the other...I just cant stick with one style of army.