Carnival of Pain

The Dark Eldar supplement allows for the Carnival of Pain, a collection of the entire Minagerie of 6 different formations in the book working as one (yes there really are six...awesome right?)

But when I wrote out the outline for it to see how many points I'd have left over to spend on options, just writing down the MINIMUM you can take for the differnt formations, this was the list I got:

Carnival of Pain

Grotesquerie (315pts)
105pts Urien Rakarth

105pts 4 Grotesques

105pts 4 Grotesques

Scarlet Epicureans(270pts)
70pts Haemonculus

100pts Cronos

50pts Wracks

50pts Wracks

Scalpel Squadron(210)
50pts Wracks

55pts Venom

50pts Wracks

55pts Venom

Corpsethief Claw(600)
600pts 5 Talos

Dark Artisans(290pts)
70pts Haemonculus +

120pts Talos +

100pts Cronos

Covenite FleshCorps (385pts)
70pts Haemonculus

50pts 5 Wracks

55pts Raider

50pts 5 Wracks

55pts Raider

50pts 5 Wracks

55pts Raider

Total: 2070pts


Well as you can see, at ABSOLUTE minimum, my list has to exceed 2K!!!  

So really, to play the Carnival of Pain is going to require a 2500 point game.

Now I get that this Carnival of Pain is "Just another option for you to enjoy your games of Warhammer 40,000" or so I can imagine GW saying.  OKay fine.  But I won't lie.  I was really excited about the prospect of playing this and then to find that I gotta track down some poor sod and make him play a ARD BOYZ sized game to use it?  Darn it!

Hard enough to get through normal games without the added complexity and size of game that would be.  

Anywho I was really disappointed because the Carnival of Pain was pretty much my theme ever since the 3rd Edition codex died out in favor of a new one and it was why I got into Dark Eldar.  

the ability that comes with the Carnival of Pain is really cool too.  ALL non vehicle units get Uriens Father/Master of Pain special Rule and re-roll 1's to wound in close combat.  Thats really cool.  But...  you gotta play a 2500 point game basically.

Grotesquerie is 140pts too much. No need to take Urien and grots are min 3. But it's still over 2k.

I fixed the Grotesquerie, and am just so darn used to playing with 4 in a unit!

I see what you mean on Urien.  Without Urien and knocking off the extra Grotesques, you do indeed reach exactly 2K.  NO upgrades though so...  You still kinda DO have to play a bigger game but at least I can see how to play a game at 2K with it.  It wouldnt be optimaized inthe least but it WOULD be cool.

Gotta have 6 Talos and 2 Cronos just to pull it off. yikes!

Urien is 140 - not 105.

Dang it. My dr appointment has me squinting. I should maybe wait to even post til I can actualy see.

Anywho so yeah. 2500 points or bust with the Carnival.

Yeah, adding up all those points was near the first thing I did when I got the supplement. And yeah, I was majorly disappointed too.

I've been hoping GW would surprise us with a quick followup release of a Wych Cult Supplement, but thinking about it, it would probably just be a major disappointment too. Or not...I don't know. They'd probably have to give us SOMETHING cool to convince people to spend money on the book.

You have to buy the Wych Cult supplement to get haywire grenades on wyches again. lol

I was never a fan of Wyches anyways, not ever from the dawn of time so for me this change is just going to mean I see less of them and Im not sad. I dont know and cant explain my aversion. I just never liked them.

Hey, some people are attracted to muscly men in masks and leather. I don't judge.

Others prefer their leather-clad domination delivered via the fairer sex.

But in all seriousness, I was attracted to DE to begin with by Wych Cults and Kabals/Incubi. I never had much interest in running armies based on Covens. The only reason I ever even got Haemy's and Wracks was for cheap HQs and semi-free venoms, respectively.

Now that wracks aren't troops choices, I'd rather not even own any, and since we can't take 3 haemy's in 1 slot now, I'm overstocked on them as well.

Well... Your need four to run the Carnival though so maybe not overstocked?

I will never run the carnival. It requires too many models and is outside my competitive range. If I could conceivably run a carnival at 1850, I'd consider buying the models I need. As is, I won't. I rarely ever play 2k points.

INteresting. I play 2K almost all the time!

As for competitive, I can compete with anything. So i dont worry bout that.

I'm able to compete at any points level, but where I play competitively, they don't have 2k point tournaments.

First time the carnival of pain was ever mentioned it was in the Eldar vs Tyranid apocalypse book. I assume they've just copy-pasted straight from that, and haven't added "apocalypse only" to it in case people want to try it.