A clash of steal... Eldar/Dark eldar vs Imperial guard 1500

My second game with the allies list and I’m up against imperial guard in a 1500 point game of the relic with vanguard strike deployment. With a loss with this list under my belt already I feel that I may have learnt something and will hopefully use this list a bit better tactically.

So for those of you who haven’t seen my  past posts, I’m attempting to learn from my past mistakes and get a list that I am happy with that won’t get beaten every time. Currently I am on my second incarnation of the list and here it is:

Eldar 1499

Farseer – 148 (warlord) w/ guardians

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

So from what I learnt last game and the advice I have been given in the comments section I need to remember to keep the war walkers in cover so they don’t get wrecked in the first turn again. This is paramount as they have a lot of shots I don’t want to lose. Then after that it’s just a case of looking after what I think will be most important in the game, so against IG, I’m guessing it will be the ravager with its triple dark lance arsenal. Then the dragons (but if they do kill something big, I doubt they will last long after that) as they are quite killy. And here is my opponents list:

Imperial guard 1500

Primaris psyker – 70 (warlord) w/ ogryns, biomancy

5 ogryns – 210

Chimera – 55

5 storm troopers – 105

2 x melta

5 storm troopers – 105

2 x melta

Veterans – 145

3 x plasma, carapace

Chimera – 55

Veterans – 145

3 x plasma, carapace

Chimera – 55

Battle tank – 165

Lascannon

Exterminator – 185

Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons

Executioner – 205

Lascannon

So we set up the table with randomly generated number of terrain pieces like the book suggests and get quite an empty table this time round. Rolling for mission we got the relic, with vanguard strike deployment. I won to go first so set up in my corner. The guard then set up, I moves my war walkers into the trees with their scout moves (we weren’t doing mysterious terrain) and there was no night fighting. The initiative failed to be seized.

Eldar turn 1

My farseer casts guide on his guardian unit to start the game off, my tanks generally move forward getting as many into range of the imperial tanks as possible. The guardians hold position though and the war walkers stay in cover but move to its edge to get a few shots off.

The ravager can’t get in range so boosts behind the trees for cover. The falcon and wave serpent holding fire dragons go flat out for the added jink save and to get the dragons closer to the enemy tanks. The raider is in range of the exterminator and shoots, hits, but fails to penetrate its front armour. All of my scatter lasers shoot at the chimera holding the ogryns but all 3 fail to get a single glance.

Imperial guard turn 1

The chimeras move forward and create a gun line, as do the leman russes. The exterminator and executioner are looking directly at my transports...

Shooting starts with the three chimeras shooting at the flacon but all 3 fail to get a single glance (its fine, we both did the same). The exterminator shoots at the wave serpent holding fire dragons and gets a single penetrating hit but the 4+ jink save prevents any damage. The regular russ shoots at the wave serpent holding fire dragons and locks on with its battle cannon and its snap shooting lascannon. But thanks to the force field neither manages to do any damage to the transport. The executioner shoots at the same wave serpent and gets two hits but fails to do any damage again thanks to jink. The veterans in the chimeras see this tragic affair and join in with their plasma guns and blow the pulse laser off the falcon and add a further glance to the falcon, reducing it to 1 HP.

Eldar turn 2

The farseer again guides his guardians. And I’m in a strange predicament, my dragons are still alive and able to threaten a tank... odd. To both transports move forward 6 and drop off the fire dragons, one unit by the executioner, the other by the exterminator. The ravager moves into range of the enemy tanks while the wave serpent holding the dire avengers move up to add fire power to the chimeras. The raider moves closer to the fight in case the wyches are needed next turn.

Shooting starts with the fire dragons making the executioner explode (First Blood) followed with an explosion coming out of the exterminator. Two for two, that's amazing, and unheard of with my fire dragons. The flacon shoots its lone missile into a chimera holding veterans and manages to get a lucky penetrating hit which makes the transport explode, failing to kill and inside though. The guardians then fire at a difference chimera each and both get a single glance... this turn is going amazingly well so far. The ravager then steps up to the plate and shoots the ogryns chimera, getting 3 hits, 3 pens and an explosive result. In the inferno an ogryn takes 2 wounds and 3 nearby guard die (we look at the FAQ and it says they can’t charge in their next turn... wtf? That's far too restrictive, I’m not happy with this rule). That was an amazing turn.

Imperial guard 2

Neither of the storm troopers arrives from reserve; this is very unlucky as he could have used both at this point in time. The ogryns move out of cover of the wreckage and bear upon the fire dragons. The lone chimera moves towards the guardians who are stranded on their own. The primaries psyche uses endurance on the ogryns and the guard in the crater of the explosions move around to get better lines of sight.

Shooting starts with the vets’ firing plasma into the flacon which does nothing. The other vets then shoot at the wave serpent holding the dire avengers and strips 2 HP from it with glances but one of the vets die from overheating. The chimera then fires its multi-laser and strips the last HP off the serpent.  The last russ fires its battle cannon but the shot scatters into the middle of nowhere. The ogryn shoot the dragons and kill 3 of them, but they hold.

Eldar turn 3

The farseer again guides the guardians and dooms the ogryns. The larger unit of dragons moves to russ backed up by the remains of the smaller one. The tanks back off to make sure they don’t block line of sight for the war walkers. The dire avengers now without a ride make a run for the relic.

Both units of dragons shoot at the russ but not a single shot penetrates... a get 1 glance but that's it. My dragons are back on form. The raider shots it dark lance at it and manages to immobilise it. With their mass of shots the war walkers manage to kill 3 ogryns backed up by the dire avengers who manage to add a few extra wounds.  The guardians and flacon shoot at the chimera but fail to do any damage to it.

Imperial guard turn 3

A single unit of storm troopers arrive and deep strike in next to the ravager. The dregs of the ogyrns move towards the relic followed by the vets who are not in the chimera.

The storm troopers start the shooting phase well exploding the ravager with their melta guns... however, 3 die in the explosion and run off the table. The russ shoots at the larger unit of dragons and locks, killing all 6 of them. The vets still in the chimera shoot their plasma guns at the flacon and manage to get a penetrating hit, making it explode killing 3 dire avengers in the flames.  The chimera shoots at the raider and knocks the dark lance off it. And to end the shooting phase the ogryns shred the 3 remaining dragons in a hail of fire.

Eldar turn 4

As the Russ is being a pain, the wave serpent moves towards the russ and in the shooting phase goes flat out to end up behind it so I can shoot it in the rear next turn. Encase that doesn’t work the raider moves up with the wyches to aid next turn as well. The guardians on the flank of the chimera try to move to get out of its line of sight and get a good shot in its side armour with their scatter laser. The dire avengers get to the relic and pick it up.

The guardians manage to reduce the chimera to 1 HP getting an immobilised result on it with the scatter laser. The war walkers finish the job they started last turn and kill all the ogryn but the psyker survives. As they are in range the dire avengers shoot at the vets and kill 5 of them.

Imperial guard turn 4

The storm troopers appear and deep strike right next to the raider, intending to stop the wyches. The vets get out of the chimera and move towards the dire avengers.

With their dramatic entrance the storm troopers continue on their streak of stylish behaviour and make the raider explode killing 2 wyches in the effort (but kill 2 of their own). The russ seeing an opportunity shoots at the clustered survivors or the wych squad and scatters a little but not enough to matter killing all bar 1 wych. The chimera shoots at the war walkers and manages to case a single glance.

We then get to the first combat phase of the game. The psyker declares a charge on the dire avengers or go into over watch and get 4 hits, 3 wounds and he fails all his invulnerable saves (warlord kill). The vets that didn’t just get out of the chimera charge as well and get into combat. The dire avengers going first kill 2 guard and take no wounds in return. The guard hold.

We go to take the next turn but my opponent concedes as we are running out of time and he claims he can’t win. So we finish the game there.

Eldar 2 – Imperial guard 0

Eldar victory.

That game went a lot quicker than I expected. I wish I could say I won that with skill alone but I think it obvious that a lot of luck on my part and bad rolling on my opponents let me win the day. Especially lucky jink rolls and damages chart rolls. But either way I enjoyed the game and having two mech armies fight it out was a difference challenge for this list. So what have I learnt?

·         Wyches: Having the wyches as a multi-role unit is very useful; as they could damage tanks it meant they weren’t just dead points. Granted they didn’t do anything this game but the potential threat was there, so the second deep striking storm troopers squad didn’t go after my wave serpent.

·         Ravager: Again he didn’t do much this game but he did blow something up and distract the storm troopers who could have been an irritation somewhere else. I’m questioning having him in the army, should I swap it out for a razorwing jet fighter? I don’t know. I just don’t know.

·         Fire Dragons: As they made it to where they were intended to they were useful this game. But just as a suicide squad. I'm starting to think it might not be the best use of points as if they failed to do anything (like the second shooting round) that's a lot of points wasted. This is a crazy idea but... wriathguard in a wave serpent... could they do the job and survive the next turn? Maybe I should try it out, what do you think?

·         Farseer: I might just swap his powers for book powers next game and see what happens. Doom never does anything turn 1 so I feel it’s a waste. Unless I put him with the dire avengers? I think I will put him with the dire avengers and see what happens next game.

·         Troops: A lot of people have been suggesting I drop the guardians and take rangers instead. I might drop 1 unit next list to see what they are like, but I can’t help but feel with them not having the heavy weapon platform they will be restricted in their use. I like having the option of a emergency tank popper and infantry shredder having at the back of the table.

·         Deployment: I think I’m getting slightly better at this but I still have a long way to go. Would you guys have deployed the same? If not comment on what you would have done.

And that's it for this week guys, as always let me know what you think.