The raven and the serpent... Eldar vs Marines 1500

So this is my first 40k battle report for Sulkers Surprise, so please, doesn’t expect much from it. The game was against a vanilla space marine force representing a dark angel’s raven wing force. The mission for the game was Seize ground (4 objectives) with dawn of war deployment. Not exactly what I wanted but it would have to do.

Here are the two army lists we were using, we had no idea what the other was using, and so no list tailoring was possible, leaving us to make an all comers list.

Raven wing army list 1500 (from what I can remember(ish))

Khan on bike

Command squad w/ apothecary, 2x melta, flamer, storm shields and lightning claws everywhere.

Chaplin on bike

3 x 7 man bike squad w/ power fist, 2 x melta and attack bike w/ multi-melta.

Eldar 1500

Farseer – 85 w/dire avengers

Fortune

6 Fire dragons – 96 in flacon

8 Fire dragons – 128

Wave Serpent – 130

Spirit stones, twin linked missile launcher

10 Dire avengers – 152

Wave serpent – 130

Sprit stones, twin linked missile launcher

15 guardians – 140

Missile launcher

2 vypers – 130

Missile launcher

10 swooping hawks – 210

Flacon – 180

Missile launcher, holo field, spirit stones

2 war walkers – 120

2x scatter laser

We rolled and I won and opted my opponent to set up and go first ( I wanted to know what he was going to do, if he was outflanking I didn’t want to be sitting in the middle of the table praying that he comes in bit by bit).

To my surprise he took an offensive stance and set up his two troops and HQ in the middle of the board claiming two of the objectives from the get go. He puts the remaining unit in reserve so it can outflank later in the game.

I deployed my dire avengers with farseer in a wave serpent in the far corner hoping to pull some of his force away from the rest. Also placing two units in reserve, my war walkers, who will be out flanking, and my swooping hawks who will deep strike.

My plan was to attempt to split his force so I can deal with it in manageable chunks, normally I would out manoeuvre my opponent to do this but as his entire force in on a bike I can’t exactly do this, so I will have to do it another way... with bait.

Attempting to seize the initiative a go ol’ 5 was rolled to mock me about what could have been... on with the game.

Raven wing 1

With nothing much on the board the command squad move down the centre and the unit on my left turbo boosts towards my wave serpent.  With nothing else he passed the turn.

Eldar 1

First things first, my farseer casts fortune on his wave serpent. Moving the rest of my army on from the board my guardians decide the best way to approach the field is hiding in a ruined building on my right flank so they can sneak towards the objective (hopefully) unhindered. The rest of my army, seeing this, hides behind the building so they can pounce on the bike squad on the right next turn. The wave serpent on my right turbo boosts up the table away from the bike squad.

Raven wing 2

Reserves and nothing came on. The bikes on my left chase after the serpent, hoping to pop it open with the abundance of melta weaponry in their arsenal.  On the right flank the regular bike squad moves towards my falcon also bearing melta weapons. The command squad diverts its attention towards my army moving towards my right.

Shooting and a mixed result, on the left the bikes open up on the wave serpent and after hitting with all 3 melta weapons only one penetrates the vehicle but thanks to fortune the hit is saved by the cover save provided my going flat out.  Unfortunately on the other side of the field the falcon didn’t have as much success even with its holo fields being wrecked. The fire dragons bail out only to lose one of their numbers to the command squad’s long range bolter rounds.

Eldar 2

Rolling for my reserves both the hawks and the war walkers enter the battle field. The war walkers out flanked onto my right flank hoping to add some much needed fire power to take down some bikes while my hawks drop down into the back of the table to attempt to deal some damage to the command squad (ok, I admit it, I kind of forgot the weapons were only str 3 at the time so yes, it was a little suicidal). The hawk’s grenade pack was dropped onto the command squad but did nothing (As expected).

Movement phase and the guardians continue their stroll through the wrecked building, being joined by the fire dragons, who were rather rudely ejected from their falcon. The remaining dragons in wave serpent were dropped off just in front of the bikes allowing them to avenge their fallen brothers. The vypers turn their attention towards the command squad while the wave serpent on the left flank continue running from the bikes on its tail.

Shooting and the hawks open up with a salvo of fire while did nothing, followed by the vypers who somehow manage to kill a veteran in the command squad. The combined fire from both of the fire dragons manage to wipe out the regular bike squad on the right bar the sergeant. This valiant hero unfortunately then came under fire from the war walkers who just about manage to down him.

Raven wing 3

Once again the outflanking bike squad is a no show so my opponent must carry out without. The command squad, seeing the new targets, move towards the hawks ready to destroy the xenos scum, while the remaining bike squad turbo boosts towards the centre to aid the commander. Forgoing shooting the command squad charge headlong into the hawks decimating them all with no loss to their own, khan himself took 3 lives himself. The bikes then moved towards my lines with their massacre roll.

Eldar 3

Job done, the dragons embarked back onto their wave serpent, to hunt more pray elsewhere. The avenger’s serpent drops off the dire avengers within range of the command squad hoping to down a few members with sheer weight of shots. The war walkers move to shoot though a ruined building to target the command squad as well. The vypers continue their targeting of the command squad edging closer, to stay in range.

Shooting and the combined fire from the war walkers and a blade storm from the dire avengers manages to take down both the melta gunners from the command squad. This is a bad sign for the dire avengers.

Raven wing 4

The reserves finally outflank on my right flank right behind the war walkers. Noticing it was turn 4, the bikes in the centre turbo boost back to the left in order to claim two objectives for the raven wing. The command squad focus on the dire avengers.

Seeing a chance to even the odds the new bikes destroy one war walker with melta fire, blowing a weapon off the other. The command squad use a flamer on the dire avengers killing two of them.

Both units then charge their targets, with the command squad once again removing a squad on its own with no loss to them. The bike squad have a little more trouble with the war walker refusing to die and stubbornly staying in the fight.

Eldar 4

Continuing with their slow walk though the ruins, the guardians finally decide to almost emerge from the ruins. The dragons on foot also just about emerge; ready to take on the bikes when the fight between them and the war walker stops. The wave serpent carrying dragons goes flat out over to the left in an attempt to next turn, kill some bikes.

With seer dumb luck the vypers kill another veteran in the bike squad leaving the command squad with just kharn, Chaplin apothecary and one last vet.

The war walker combat continues with it being shaken again but nothing major.

Raven wing 5

The command boost towards the guardians in an attempt to prevent them claiming the objective.

In combat the war walker is finally destroyed and the bikes massacre behind the building.

Eldar 5

The dragons jump out of their serpent on the left whilst the 5 man dragon unit combined with the vypers move towards the command squad intending the finish them.  The guardians finally get out of the ruins and get within range to claim the right objective.

Shooting and on the left the fire dragons (with help of the two serpents) reduce the bike squad down to one man. One the over side of the board the command squad is finally destroyed thanks to some unlucky rolling of the opponents behalf.

We roll to see if the game continues...

Raven wing 6

The remaining bike squad boost towards the middle objective taking it while the lonesome bike on the left charges into the fire dragons only to be killed in combat by them thanks to some very lucky rolls of 6 to wound (got to hate that +1 T from bikes).

Eldar 6

And it’s just a matter of contesting the objective and taking a few pot shots at the remaining bikes. The vypers move to contest the objective.

The game ends. So that’s 1 – 0 to the elder.

Well that was an interesting game. It was mainly down to my opponent’s bad luck with his invulnerable saves with his command squad that let me win, but other than that I was quite happy with how I played that. Next time maybe not waste my hawks, but if I hadn’t who knows what the command squad could have done to my army. The two units of dragons defiantly help, but possibly were over kill. I’m happy over all, for now.

Any comments please leave them for me.

Hope you enjoyed, Malduran.