Upon the Anvil... Eldar vs Blood angels w/ Guard 1500

So this is my 3^rd and final game with my current eldar list, and once again it’s against blood angels (obviously I don’t like wining). This time I’m going to take what I have learnt and try a totally different tactic. Let’s see if my pointy eared space elves can beat the vampire marines.

Game 3 and it’s against blood angels, for a recap here is the army list that I took to this game.

Eldar 1495

Farseer – 145 (warlord) w/ guardians

Runes of warding, witness, spirit stones, Doom, guide

 11 guardians – 133

Scatter laser, warlock, embolden

11 guardians – 133

Scatter laser, warlock, embolden

10 Dire avengers – 153

Exarch, 2 x catapults, blade storm

Wave serpent – 125

Twin scatter laser, shuriken cannon

8 Fire dragons – 128

Wave serpent – 125

Twin scatter laser, shuriken cannon

8 Fire dragons – 128

Wave serpent – 125

Twin scatter laser, shuriken cannon

2 vypers – 120

2 x shuriken cannons

3 war walkers – 180

2 x scatter laser

In an attempt to get the most out of the army this time I decided to do something different this time around. So listening to my past advice to myself I decided I would keep everything on the table and see what the eldar can do if I go balls to the wall and get all of my transports in my opponents face turn 1. Hope fully the jink save will be able to save them long enough for the fire dragons to get out and nuke whatever they want. Hopefully this will do some real damage. We shall see if it does or not.

Here is my opponents list.

Blood angels with allied Imperial guard 1499

Reclusiarch – 130 (warlord) w/honour guards

10 Assault marines – 205 (combat squad)

Power sword

10 Tactical marines – 190 (combat squad)

Plasma gun, lascannon

5 Honour guard – 130

5 storm bolters

Devastator squad – 130

4 x missile launcher

Dreadnaught – 120

2 x autocannon

Predator – 180

Twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons

Allies

Company Command Squad – 97

Vox caster, officer of the fleet, power weapon, bolt pistol

Psyker battle squad – 60

Infantry platoon command – 32

Boltgun, vox caster

Infantry platoon – 70

Plasma gun, vox caster

Infantry platoon – 70

Grenade launcher, vox caster

Heavy weapons squad – 75

3 x autocannon

So we rolled for the mission and got crusade, and set up Dawn of war. Rolling for warlord traits I get intimidate for my farseer while the blood angels get acute senses for out flanking units... well both of those aren’t useful at all. Once again warlord is pointless.  We rolled for who goes first and I won, setting up first and behind the woods on my left hand side of the table.

Eldar deployment

He then set up his army across his deployment zone. We then realised we hadn’t placed objectives so put them down, he placed first, putting three in his deployment zone, I placed one in my woods and one in the middle of the table to the left so hopefully I can claim it later on in the game. We rolled for seize the initiative and he failed to. So I go first. We rolled for the mysterious objectives and I got sabotaged in my deployment zone objective, while my opponent got two with nothing and one with a scatter field.

Imperial deployment

For once I remember to move the war walkers with scout move. Night fight is in effect turn 1.

Eldar turn 1

I cast guide on my war walkers then move up my wave serpents and vypers forward towards the marines and guard directly in front.

Shooting starts with the vypers gunning down 3 guardsmen from infantry squad 1 followed by the guardian’s firing their scatter laser killing a further 2. In an attempt to guarantee first blood the war walkers fire finishing them off (looking back this was a little over kill, but yay first blood). The guardians on the other side of the table shoot at the half a tactical squad they can see and manage to take one down. The wave serpents then go flat out and move the full 18 inches forward.

End of the turn and my objective explodes killing a single guardian.

The tanks go flat out

Blood angels turn 1

The marines and guard move forward to take out the wave serpents almost upon them. The predator however backs off in case the fire dragons survive. The rest of the army shuffles forward.

Orders and the company command (CC) tell the heavy weapon squad to Bring it down! But the order fails. No other orders. The psyker battle squad attempts to use a soul storm but fails, thanks to my runes of warding. The predator then targets the wave serpent holding the dire avengers. It gets two penetrating hits but I only manage to jink off one of the hits, the other one makes it explode. Not a great start. % of my dire avengers die in the explosion.

The marines counter attack

The heavy weapon team shoots at the vypers and gets 3 penetrating hits, but thanks to night fighting I manage to jink all the shots off. The devastators shoot at closest wave serpent and two penetrating hits manage to get past the jink saves and once more, a wave serpent explodes. The explosion is 6 inches and kills 2 fire dragons, 3 dire avengers and a single assault marine.  Everyone else is too far away to shoot.

Assault phase and the assault marines charge the dire avengers, over watch fail to do any damage. In the skirmish 1 aspect warrior falls and the rest retreat only to get cut down. A similar tale happens to the fire dragons that are assaulted by the honour guard, but 1 marine dies a very painful death from melta fire during over watch. 1 marine dies to the 4 fire dragons so they flee and are cut down.

The CC charge the final wave serpent and using frag grenades and a str 5 general, the wave serpent takes 4 glancing hits and it wrecked. The fire dragons jump out rather pissed off.

The fire dragons are charged

Eldar turn 2  

 

With a large portion of my army dead already I’m starting to feel that maybe balls to the wall was a bad call. Ah well the game must go on. I cast guide on the war walkers again and doom the assault marines who just killed my dire avengers. The walkers move slightly to get a better view on the devastators. The vypers move back to get a jink save. The fire dragons move to get a better shot on the honour guard and Chaplin who killed their brethren.

Shooting starts with the dragons releasing their rage upon the honour guard and kill them all, including the Chaplin who failed his invulnerable save (warlord kill). The guardians target the assault marines in front of them and snipe two marines. The vypers follow suit and finish the assault marines off. The war walkers then shoot at the devastators and from their 24 shots, deal 6 wounds, enough to take down the squad in one turn.  So that turn was better for me, being smart and not just throwing my army into a meat grinder works better. So playing eldar like eldar is a good idea... strange.

The fire dragons have their revenge

Blood angels turn 2

The CC moves towards the dragons hoping to avenge the astartes, backed up by the other half of the assault marines. The guardsmen move to the centre objective (it’s another scatter field). The other half of the tactical squad then moves towards the guardians on the right.

The tactical half that didn’t move shoot its lascannon at the vypers but only manage to glance one. The predator shoots at the war walkers and destroys 1 and takes a hull point of another. The dreadnaught determined to not let the war walkers escape so easily destroys the remnants with its two autocannons. The HWS fire their autocannons at the vypers and wreck one. The psyker battle squad manage to cast soul storm and kill 3 guardians with the blast.

Combat and the assault squad and CC charge the fire dragons and dominate them, I lose 6 fire dragons and fail to deal any wounds. They run and are cut down.

Eldar turn 3

With the situation getting more desperate I have to pick my targets carefully, so I intend to take out as many troops a I can. The farseer casts guide on his guardians and dooms the assault marines not far from him. To ensure the assault marines die the guardians move so every gun is in range. On the right my guardians make a break from their hiding place so they will be able to assault the tactical marines in front of them (I’m hoping i can kill most then finish them in the marines turn, giving me a possibility of grabbing a second objective). The lone vyper moves forward and is places between all the guard units, I’m not expecting him to live so if he explodes, hopefully he can take a few humans with him.

The guardians on the right take down 2 tactical marines in a hail of shuriken fire, while the guided guardians take down all 5 of the assault marines thanks to a combination of doom and guide. The vyper then shoots at the CC and kills 3 of the veterans guarding the commander.

Assault phase and the guardians’ charge the tactical marines and I issue a challenge hoping to keep the sergeant alive so I don’t kill them all in one go. This back fires however as the warlock dies and I only manage to kill a single assault marines. The combat is a draw.

The combat continues

Blood angels turn 3

As I only have 3 units left on the table the guard are sent in to clean up, so as many men as he can muster are thrown towards the guardians on the left. The marines in his deployment then go for the objectives.

The predator shoots at the lone vyper, surprisingly it only does one penetrating hit as I jink off the other 2. The vyper is stunned. The HWS then finishes it making it explodes killing a guardsman from the platoon command and 2 from a nearby infantry platoon. The psyker battle squad attempts to use weaken resolve on my farseer’s unit and cast it, but it is stopped by my farseer only needing a 4+ to deny the witch. The dreadnaught they shoots at them, killing two as does the platoon command, sniping 1 guardian.

Combat and the CC attempts to charge the guardians through difficult terrain but fails and lose all but the commander due to over watch. On the other side of the table the guardians aren’t so lucky and lose 2 men and only inflict 1 wound on the enemy. I run with a 12 for my moral test but escape this time.

Eldar turn 4

I cast guide on the guardians again and doom the infantry command in front of me. The fleeing guardians continue running but stay on the table.

Starting with the fleeing guardians I shoot at the single marine behind them and manage to kill him with a large number (8!) of snap shots and he goes down. Revenge at least. The other guardians kill the infantry command in front of them, bracing for the charge of the commander next turn.

Blood angels turn 4

The marines consolidate on the objectives and the Commander of the CC moves into the terrain about to charge the guardians.

In the shooting phase however the guardians are blasted off the table by the combined fire of the HWS, Dreadnaught, predator and a few long range guardsmen shots. The poor blighters never stood a chance, even with a cover save. The psyker battle squad then casts weaken resolve on the running guardians who fail to deny it.

Eldar turn 5

My last models run off the table...

Well that’s game, instant win to the Blood angels for tabling me.

But for the fun of it, the score would have been

Blood angels 8 (2 objectives, Warlord, Line breaker) – Eldar 2 (first blood, warlord)

So that was the final game with this list, have I learnt much? Well yes actually I have. This wasn’t the greatest game in the history of the game but from each loss I’m learning more and with my next list hopefully I will rise like a phoenix from flame... but we shall see.

·         Guardians: I have been tossing and turning with these guys over the course of using them and I have come to the conclusion if they stay at the back they are OK, not great, but OK. I will try to keep them in the list but remove the warlock and keep them at the back, sniping at whatever they can get to.

·         Fire Dragons: Squad size is important for these guys, and I feel 8 is just two big. While they were useful this game I am going to reduce the size down to 6 and see if they are just as effective. I feel they will be.

·         Wave serpents: Don’t throw them at the enemy’s strong point, Muppet. I’m going to drop the shuriken cannon to make them cheaper and skirt around the table until they are needed, but NEVER put them in reserve, that just never seemed to work for me.

·         War walkers: Very useful, use them to take out the small dangerous squads.

·         Vypers: I feel I might drop them in the next list, they never did all that much.

·         Anti-tank: I need to add some long range anti-tank to my list, and how will I do this? I'm not 100% sure yet.

·         Farseer: His powers are useful, but is there a better role for him? I'm not sure.

And that's this game over with now. I need to think long and hard over how to improve my list; it needs to be able to take on a lot more than the current one can. Hope you enjoyed the battle report.