Brothers unite... Eldar + Dark eldar vs Blood angels 1500

With my new list under my belt, I felt a little more confident about what I can take on with my list so I asked my blood angel faring friend for a re-match, and to bring a hard list for me to test my list against. So this week is a game of the relic, with dawn of war deployment.

For those of you who haven’t looked at my post referring to my new list here it is.

Eldar 1499

Farseer - 148

Runes of warding, runes of witness, spirit stones, singing spear, Guide, Doom

10 Guardians - 95

Scatter laser

10 Guardians - 95

scatter laser

10 Dire avengers - 120

Wave serpent - 115

scatter laser

6 Fire dragons - 96

Wave serpent - 115

scatter laser

6 Fire dragons - 96

Falcon - 135

Missile launcher

3 War walkers - 180

scatter laser x 6

Haemonculus - 55

venom blade

7 Wyches - 84

haywire grenades

Raider - 60

Ravager - 105

Using dark eldar allies, including a falcon and the wyches I should have plenty of ant-tank as well as anti-marine fire power if needed. I hope its a lot better than my last list. And here is my opponents list:

Blood angels 1500

Reclusiarch – 130

7 Death company – 155

Power sword

Land raider - 250

5 Assault marines – 115

Infernus pistol

5 Assault marines – 115

Infernus pistol

Honour guard – 115

Razorback – 90

Twin-linked lascannon

Land speeder – 60

2x heavy bolter

Devastators – 145

3 x missile launchers, lascannon

Devastators – 145

3 x missile launchers, lascannon

A very small army I'm facing here, but packed full of lascannons... he knew I would be taking a couple of tanks and my god he wants them to die. Probably problematic but we shall see.

We set up terrain and had a bit of a city fight going on, ruined buildings, bunkers and tank traps, it was quite cluttered but interesting. Warlord traits and my Farseer got Divide to conquer (useless as he didn’t have any reserves) and my opponent got Dust of a thousand worlds). We rolled for set up and I won, and decided to set up first. As I had a large building in the centre I hid my wave serpents and falcon there in case my opponent stole the initiative. The dark eldar set up on the left behind a building and the war walkers didn’t really have much place to hide so they where stuck in the open.

Eldar deployment

My opponent set up with his two devastators occupying his ruins with the land raider to its left. The predator set up on the right with the land speeder.

Blood angels deployment

We roll for night fight and didn’t get it, then steal the initiative and he gets it... damn that wasn’t what I wanted. Combat drugs and I get pain bringer (re-roll failed to wound rolls).

The battlefield from above

Blood angels turn 1

The land raider moves up at combat speed towards the tanks, hoping to get some lascannon shots off. The land speeder moves sideways to view the war walkers and the two assault marine unit’s move forward.

Shooting begins with devastator squad 1 shoots at the war walkers and manages to explode one war walker and immobilises a second. The land raider shoots at the wave serpent holding fire dragons but fails to penetrate thanks to the force field. The razorback shoots at my ravager and penetrates it but only destroys a dark lance. The second devastator squad fires at the wave serpent that land raider shot at and they get a single penetrating hit but as it was obscured I make the cover save. The predator then shoots at the wounded war walkers and gets 3 hits, 3 pens, and destroys them all. First blood goes to the blood angels. The assault marines then run.

Eldar turn 1

The Farseer sees the tides of fate turning in the favour of the marines so guides his guardian comrades and dooms the assault marines just in front of them to return them to the eldar’s favour.

Movement starts with my tanks all moving forward to target the key units of the enemy. The farseers guardians move forward in the ruins and hide while still letting the weapon platform target the opponent.

The wave serpent on the right shoots at the land speeder and blows it out the sky with its scatter laser. My ravager shoots its two remaining dark lances at the land raider and manages to get a single penetrating hit, but It’s only shaken. The guardians shoot at the razorback but only glance it but the other wave serpent manages to finish it off glancing it two more times. The falcon shoots at the assault marines but misses with all 3 of its shots... yay. The raider also misses.   

Blood angels turn 2

The assault marines closest to the guardians, move towards them, attempting to assault them this turn. The other squad go after the ravager and get within 6 inches. Blazing forward, the land raider moves toward the wave serpent and the death company jump out, getting close to the wave serpent hoping to charge the dragons (if they pop it open). The honour guard then move away from teh wreckage of their razorback towards the relic.

One wave serpent cracked

Shooting phase starts with the assault marines firing their inferus pistol at the ravager but fail to penetrate it. Firing both lascannons at the wave serpent in front of it, once again the force field comes into play and stops one while the other penetrates it and shakes it. However the devastators finish it wrecking it with two glances after saving a penetrating hit with jink, the fire dragons are then forced to jump out. The predator shoots at the wave serpent on the right but all 3 hits are stopped by jink. The second devastator squad make the ravager explode which kills the sergeant of the assault marines who tried to kill it before.    

In a rather unsurprising turn of events the death company charge the fire dragons, they fail to do any damage with over watch. However charging over the dangerous terrain kills one of the death company who then murder the fire dragons, no problem, just dead. So dead... the death company then consolidate back into the wreckage for a cover save from the fury that will soon be unleashed. The assault marines are in range of the guardians and assault them, they kill 8 of the guardians and I fail to inflict any wounds regardless of doom, and lose combat by 8. They run but escape.

The farseer flees from combat

Eldar turn 2

Again the Farseer guides the guardians and dooms the assault marines regardless of them running. I roll for regrouping, and the Farseer regroups. The remaining wave serpent moves to the objective (I was planning on letting the dire avengers out next turn and make a run with the objective). The falcon moves forward a little and the fire dragons jump out aiming their guns at the death company. I move the raider 6 inches towards the land raider and death company unloading the wyches towards the death company. I move the large unit of remaining guardians out of cover towards the assault marines.

Shooting phase was a little disappointing; the fire dragons shoot at the death company and deal 4 wounds, killing two of them. The falcon then tries to add its fire power to the death company but miss... all the shots again. The raider then misses the land raider. Both guardian units then shoot at the assault marines and kill 2 of them.

Combat phase and the wyches charge the death company; the wyches then lose 4 of their number to the death company while failing to kill any death company in return. The haemonculus then adds his fighting ability and some how kills two death company. I lose the combat and run, once again getting cut down.    

The death company come after the Fire dragons

Blood angels turn 3

As I'm in trouble with my troop choices my opponent takes advantage and moves the larger assault marines unit towards the relic. The other remnants of assault marines again go after the Farseer. The land raider then moves to get better targets again. The honour guard move to the objective.

Unloading its pay load on the wave serpent the predator blows off the scatter lasers. Devastator squad 1 then shoots at the wave serpent but the two hits jink off. The land raider uses power of the machines spirit to target the raider (which looses its weapon) and the wave serpent (stuns it). The other devastators shoot at the falcon and mange to blow off its missile launcher.

Assault phase begins with the death company charging the second unit of fire dragons who manage to kill a member during over watch. They then kill four of the death company and make the rest run but fail to catch them. The assault marines team up with the honour guard and assault the wave serpent and wreck it with their sheer number of attacks. The other assault marines assault the Farseer and guardians and manage to kill them all (1 guardians’ dies to hammer of wrath).

Eldar turn 3

The fire dragons fair to regroup with a roll of 11 and run off the table. The dire avangers then move to assault range of the assault marines, they aren’t going to be able to escape, but I might be able to hold them down. The guardians continue to be in range of the assault marines in my deployment, while the falcon moves to get behind the chaplin so he is the closest model to his guns.

Shooting the falcon shoots it pulse laser and hit once, and wounds the death company. He fails his look out sir roll, and then his invulnerable save. The guardians shoot at the assault marines and manage to kill 2 of them leaving the sergeant alive.
I'm getting very desperate now, so i declare an assault with my dire avengers into the assault marines next to the objective. No wounds are caused with over watch but as i charged through cover i strike at initiative 1... 4 aspect warriors die and i fail to deal any damage. I run, get cut down and don't have much chance left.

Blood angels turn 4

The honor guard move out of the way of the assault marines over the wreck so they can pick up the objective. The lone assault marines moves to the guardians.
Shooting starts with the predator picking off two of the guardians from the other side of the table and the assault marines killing one with his pistol. one devastator squad shoots at the raider and make it explode. while the other targets the remaining guardians and finishes them off.
Combat is only the lone death company charging the falcon and managing to get a single glance on it.

The assault marines approaches the guardians before they get gunned down

Eldar turn 4

I have a single model left... the falcon. I move it so target the assault marines holding the relic but miss all my shots (this guy can only hit warlords apparently).

Brave falcon... it didn't know what it was getting into

Blood angels turn 5

The falcon doesn't stand a chance, a predator, two devastator squads and a land raider... he explodes.

Victory to the blood angels (again).

Well i got tabled again... this is starting to be a bit of a pattern. But at least this time i can see where i went wrong. Even if i am going to go first i should be more careful with my deployment. Of course i'm talking about the war walkers here. I should have started them in the ruin instead of the guardians so they had a fighting chance instead of right out in the open. That was a major mistake. The sheer number of lascannosn didn't help my cause either but still, i feel that i had a chance to win that game and it just never materialized. So anything else that i have noticed about the list?

• Wyches: I should have sent these guys against the land raider or to the back field against the devastators, or predator. Anything other than what i did. They are meant to stall combat units but the sheer number of attacks they suffered from the death company made them just a wast of points. Pick tanks over stupidly high attack units. I'm not sure to be honest.
• Fire Dragons: I didn't really get a good chance to see what 6 can do as the death company had a cover save from them. but i just couldn't ignore the DC as they would have run rampage though my lines. Irritating.
• Guardians: They died very quickly, and a warlock would have been useful for the farseers unit, but i'm thinking maybe he shouldn't be with them any more, maybe place him with the dire avengers or fire dragons. I will mix it up next game and see.
• Ravager: Could have been better, but it might have just been a bad game with bad deployment. I will keep an eye on him.
• Going first: maybe i should start going second and deploying to hide my more valuable units, its something i want to try next game defiantly. 

So there you have it, yet another crushing defeat for me. What do you guys think? how could i have improved my game?