Warp Missile Battery

This deadly weapon combines the best of Eldar missile and warp technologies as well as an advanced targeting system for enhanced accuracy. A single salvo can open a number warp holes at once, tearing apart any target unfortunate enough to be caught in the rift of reality.
To fire a Warp Missile salvo, place the blast template within 24" of the Black Unicorn - no line of sight is necessary. Scatter the template D6". You can reroll for scattering once if you are not pleased, but if you do so you must accept the second result.
Once the blast template is in place, add two extra blast templates touching the first one as described in the rulebook for firing batteries. It means you have to roll a scatter die and position extra templates touching the first one, accordingly to the direction given by the scatter die or freely if a HIT is scored. Everything fully covered by templates is automatically hit; half-covered models are hit on a roll of 4+.
Victims suffer a Strength 10, AP 2 hit. If any casualty is taken, a pinning test is required.
Vehicles damaged by a warp missile roll penetrating hits on the artillery damage table instead of the regular one, even if the warp missile is not an artillery weapon.

To summarize, the whole battery has the following profile:
G24" S10 AP2 Blast/Heavy3, Pinning, use Artillery damage table against vehicles, first scatter can be rerolled.

Designer's notes

Feel free to change everything to suit your taste. No justification is needed. You can decide that a Black Unicorn has some transport capacity, that the vehicle is only agile, add more protection to it, whatever you want. Game abilities described above are just an example of what you can do. As the hobby is model-driven, the Black Unicorn model is typical enough to justify nearly any modification to the Falcon's profile. I just wouldn't recommend that you go above AV12 for any facing, as it would not be very Eldar.

Despite the whole bunch of special rules attached to it, the model is perfectly legal point-wise as it has been built with Vehicle Design Rules (VDR).

For all players wondering how I could pull out a warp missile battery from Eldar arsenal, it's quite simple: The warp missile battery consists of one twin-linked D-Cannon and two co-axial D-Cannons. The three blast templates must touch each other as explained in battery fire rules of W40k. The scatter dice for the first template (and only the first!) can be rerolled. Of course, the D-Cannon is a powerful weapon of its own and it explains why there are so many rules attached to the warp missile battery - pinning, artillery damage, and so on.

With all the work involved in the model, I wanted it to be powerful - I mean, able to change something in the course of battle. It's difficult since VDR tanks are so overpriced that it's usually a bad idea to use them unless you carefully take the most of what they offer. There are powerful Eldar weapons but they are notably expensive. The most powerful is the Fire Prism but it's just a laser cannon with a blast template, and its price tag is insane.
I turned then to the D-cannon. More affordable, the weapon is nonetheless short-ranged and not very accurate, but both issues were easy to address. Mounted on a fast moving skimmer, the range became irrelevant, especially with the indirect fire ability to keep the Black Unicorn out of harm's way. For accuracy, adding extra templates and twin linking the first one would be enough to crush something juicy.

If I ever change my mind, I won't have any modeling work ahead - that's the beauty of missiles. Eldar specialists will just have changed the warheads, and I can duplicate the effects of any weapon: armor-piercing ammo (effect of a Brightlance), plasma (effect of a Starcannon), sub munitions (effect of a Scatter Laser), the sky's the limit! And I can give this beast the rate of fire I want, since there are eight different missile tubes divided loosely in several groups, allowing any combination of Gatling and Twin-linked fire.

A bit of history around this model

It all started with a need for some serious Wave Serpent action. I could have just bought a couple Wave Serpents from Forgeworld, but I disliked their appearance as they were just souped-up Falcons. In my opinion, Eldar main transport had to stand out. Anyone seeing both should perceive no more than distant cousins. My first goal was just to build a Wave Serpent variant but as the design and model took shape, it evolved... Further.

Before the modeling took place, I spent months (hopefully, not full time) thinking and figuring out how the model could be. Since Eldar design is elegant and clean, building a custom tank is very hard - you have to control every detail of the output from the start, with no room left for interpretation. I knew that I would have to rely on a Falcon shape somehow, because a full custom tank would have been too much trouble. I simply had to alter it enough to make it unrecognizable.

Early drawings

So, knowing that one way or another I had to rely on the Falcon hull, I let my imagination loose. I quickly had the idea of using the Falcon turret as the only cockpit. Using some kind of servo-arm fitted in the hole of the original falcon cockpit the turret would be in a nice forward position. But that was not enough: the change was too small.
I went back to the drawing board, trying to figure out how I could change the shape of the turret to turn it into something different. Something more than a displaced falcon turret. After some time I was struck by a sudden idea - a Wave Serpent should look like a snake! And better than a mundane snake, a Cobra!
A Cobra uses its menacing hood to warn off other animals. It would be the perfect animal for inspiration. The hood would change the shape of the turret and break from the Falcon's appearance.

I used paper and scissors for the hood prototype, ending with two "wings" made of cardboard. But there was still something missing - the tank front was too much detailed and complex while the back was still the basic Falcon design, and without any turret. I knew I would have to close the turret socket, but what with? A plain cardboard circle was not enough. Another turret? Homing radar? Support weapon? I browsed through Games Workshop's bitz online but had little inspiration. The answer came from Forgeworld, in the form of a weapon upgrade for the Eldar Vampire Raider. I had it! The final touch.

More pictures

Enough reading. Here are additional pictures of the beast.

The big question

So, you want one too, uh? Then rejoice, for I have included detailed articles explaining how to create a Black Unicorn. Nothing would delight me more than seeing fellow Eldar players build theirs. Your reading continues here.

published on 13 Jun 2004