Lighting strike... Eldar/Dark eldar vs Bike Marines 1500

This is my last battle of 40k in 2012, and as such it felt right that I keep on using my evolving list, to see how it handles at the end of the year. As of 2013 I'm planning of getting a real kick start on my renegade guard so I might not have as much time for the eldar as I would like. But we shall see. Anyway back on topic, it’s a 1500 point game of the emperors will, with vanguard strike deployment.

The Armies

As I said I carried on with my evolving list: Eldar 1500

Farseer – 140 (warlord: Master of offence) w/ Dire avengers

Runes of witness, Runes of warding, Spirit stones, guide, mind war (swap for prescience and precognition)

5 Rangers - 95

9 Dire avengers – 108 

6 Fire dragons – 96

Falcon – 135

Missile launcher

Fire prism - 115

3 War walkers – 180

6 x scatter laser

Succubuss – 75 w/Dire Avengers

Venom blade, Haywire grenades

10 warriors – 100

Splinter cannon

10 Warriors - 100

Splinter cannon

8 Incubi - 176

Raider - 70

Dark Lance, Night shield

Ravager – 115

3 x dark lance, night shield

And my opponent brought his space marine bike army. I have struggled against this army in a past report (link) so I had to up my game this time around.

Space marines 1500

Captain – 180 (warlord: co-ordinated assault) w/ Command squad

Bike, Artificer armour, Thunder hammer

Command Squad – 345

Bikes, lighting claws, storm shield, melta bombs

5 Bikes - 225

2x plasma gun, Melta bomb, attack bike w/ multi melta

5 Bikes - 225

2x plasma gun, Melta bomb, attack bike w/ multi melta

5 Bikes - 225

2x plasma gun, Melta bomb, attack bike w/ multi melta

Land speeder – 100

Multi melta, typhoon missile launcher

Land speeder – 100

Multi melta, typhoon missile launcher

Land speeder – 100

Multi melta, typhoon missile launcher

So he brought a very small army but very fast and if he can an isolated part of my army, I'm going to be in trouble. With this in mind I need to keep my guys together and target the bigger threats, like that command squad.

The mission

As I said earlier the mission was The emperors will, with vanguard strike deployment. We set up the terrain rule book style, and got a clustered corner and the rest of the table quite open. Quite a challenging table lay out I think, so I would be hard pressed to get a good cover save for my foot troops... not what I wanted. We rolled for who goes first and I won, setting up first. I hid my tanks behind the only line of sight blocker in my deployment, with the war walkers on my left flank, and the warriors and dire avengers on the right so they could hopefully take out a few bikes before they hit my lines. I keep my Prism right at the back where he can shoot without worry of getting targeted and infiltrated my rangers in the ruins. I really wasn’t sure about this deployment.

Eldar deployment

My opponent then set up with his command squad right at the front and centre of his battle line flanked by bikes to each side and behind them. The land speeders then set up behind the front line.

Marine deployment

We get night fight turn 1, and he fails to steal the initiative. I get +1 strength on my combat drugs (pointless).

Deployment

The battle

Eldar turn 1

Starting with psychic powers my farseer casts prescience on the warriors squad on the right and precognition on himself. As its night fight and the eldar won’t be much use this far away I move my falcon up the left flank and the war walkers move forward. The prism gets into position for next turn while the ravager who doesn’t care about the darkness gets to where her can target the command squad at maximum range. The warriors on both move forward to try and shoot at the command squad, follows by the dire avengers.

Unconcerned by the darkness the ravager unleashes its dark light weapons on the command squad and managed to leave a gaping hole in a marine. So 1 dead, not bad. Shooting at maximum range the warriors fail to kill and of the command squad. The falcon and raider both boost into a better position. And with a shot in the dark, the rangers get a penetrating hit on a speeder, stunning it.

Space marines turn 1

Responding to the shots coming out of the darkness the marines jump into action, with a bike squad going down my right flank towards the warriors, another towards the ravager and the final squad driving down the rocky hill (losing a single biker to dangerous terrain) to the rangers. The command squad drive towards the centre of my battle line. The speeders spread out.

Both the speeders able to shoot target the ravager but thanks to the 3+ cover save (jink + shroud) its fine. The bikes by the rangers manage to mow down 4 of the unlucky guys, leaving a lone survivor, who holds. Two squads of bikes shoot at the warriors on the right, the first squad killing 1, the second (and closer unit) kills 8 as I don’t get any cover save... the lone guy runs but stay on the table. The command squad then boost towards me and are within spitting distance of my farseer, damn.

The bikes surge forward

Eldar turn 2

Calling upon his eldritch powers, the farseer casts prescience on the warriors that are left, but when he attempts to cast precognition he leaves himself open to a daemonic assault from the warp (triple 6 for his test... rare, very rare) but thanks to his ghost helm, he is fine. The lone warrior then tries to regroup and does with insane courage!! Well done my son. The dire avengers and warriors all see the command squad as the biggest threat and and get into rapid fire range. The falcon moves out to see a speeder as does the ravager. The war walkers move forward.

Unleashing everything they have, the warriors and dire avengers shot at the command squad, but didn’t manage to down a single marine. With its 3 dark lances, the ravager shoots at a speeder and wrecks it (First Blood!), the falcon follows suit downing the damaged speeder. With their torrent of shots the war walkers kill a single model from the command squad... great. The prism then shoots at the final speeder but it jinks out the way.

Space Marines turn 2

Seeing an opportunity, the captain leaves the command squad and goes after the prism on his own while the command squad go after the dire avengers and farseer. The last speeder goes after the falcon, while the bikes close to it go towards the centre, not wanting to get toasted by the fire dragons. Not content with wrecking only 1 warriors squad, the bikes on the right flank move into my deployment zone and towards the other squad of warriors.

Unloading both barrels on the single warrior (not sure why) he dies. The other squad shoot at the full unit of warriors, killing 5, then the final squad of bikes shoot at the warriors as well, wiping out the squad. This leaves me with only 2 troops left, one very depleted, the other about to get assaulted... not great. Hoping to down the falcon, the speeder unloads all its shots but only managed to glance the falcon once. The command squad then shoot and kill 3 dire avengers.

Combat is engaged, with the captain assaulting the fire prism, and the command squad assaulting the dire avengers. The captain makes the prism explode with his hammer with ease. The other combat doesn’t go as smoothly. Stepping up first (after I lost a dire avenger to hammer of wrath) my succubus manages to kill 2 bikers! The eldar fail to do anything, and I lose two as well, losing combat by 1 but I hold.  

Eldar turn 3

The farseer casts precognition on himself, this time succeeding. As his commander is out in the open, on his own I see a change to get slay the warlord and take it. I move my falcon on top of hte ruin to see him, and the ravager behind the tower to see him. The war walkers move forward again and the raider goes towards teh bikes in the middle of the table as the incubi need to get into combat.

Shooting starts with my gamble, the ravager shoots its 3 dark lances, getting 2 wounds, both of which are saved by the iron halo. The falcon then shoots, gets 2 hits, 2 wounds... and he fail both saves, I slay the warlord! That was stupidly risky, I'm not sure I would do that again. The war walkers then shoot at the bikes where the warriors used to be and kill a single marine. The raider then shoots them as well wounding the attack bike.  

Combat and the succubus kills the final member of the command squad with her venom blade, and the unit consolidates towards the other bikes (I should have done it towards my objective).

Space marines turn 3

With their command gone, the bikes regroup in the middle of the table, consolidating what they have left, while the bikes in my deployment zone go after my warlord.

Incubi are forced to walk

The bikes shoot at the dire avengers but the 4+ armour stays true and all the shots bounce off. The marines in the middle combine fire on the raider and after 3 penetrating hits manage to wreck it making the incubi walk. Again unleashing its load on the falcon, the speeder does nothing.

Eldar turn 4

I move my falcon over the speeder but still able to target it, while the incubi move to charge the closer bike squad. My ravager moves forward to target the bikes in my deployment zone, the war walkers move forward again but can’t see the bikes in front of them clearly thanks to the downed raider.

Shooting starts with the ravager failing to wound the bikes in front of him, but this is made up by the dire avengers who kill 2 with their shuriken catapults. Giving back a little of what I has been taking the falcon shakes the speeder. The war walkers try to target the bikes the incubi aren’t going to charge but one can’t see them. Still the combined fire of two of the walkers drags down a single bike.

With blood lust in their veins, the incubi charge the bikes in front of them but lose a single model to over watch. The make it into combat and kill 6 bikes!! That was very good considering they needed 5’s to wound. The single model remaining, tries to flee but it caught, so nothing happens and combat continues. The dire avengers and characters charge the bikes next to them killing two of the marines, leaving 1 left who holds.

Space marines turn 4

The final squad of bikes falls back to their objective as it’s the only way they can win now while the speeder moves to the lone ranger.

Trying to snap shot the ranger, the speeder misses.

Combat and the incubi murder the final marine gaining a pain token and consolidating towards the remaining bikes. The succubus once again shows her worth and kills the final marine gaining her second paint token of the game (so when she charges she will be strength 5, re-roll to wound with poison now!!).

Eldar turn 5

The incubi go towards the bikes

Targeting the speeder the war walkers wreck it.

The incubi kill all of the remaining bikes in combat. And my opponent is tabled.

Eldar victory.

Post-battle

Well I end the year with a victory!! Makes a change but I still need to change my list, this one is less than perfect. The only reason I stood any chance was because of his low model count, and my incubi could wreck him if they get into combat. But still a few things can be learnt here:

·         Warriors: they are too fragile to be left out in the open, I need to put them in a raider for a little protection, which means splinter racks.

·         Succubus: I know mercer over at Imperiousdominatus doesn’t rate them, but she did well this game, so for only 75 points, I'm going to give her another go. Compared to the haemonculus I normally use, she did a lot more than he does.

·         Rangers: not a clue if they are any better as they just died, that was my bad deployment though, I will try them again.

·         Prism: I think I will drop this guy when I can, again as people keep telling me, they apparently need to be used in pairs. So he will be dropped.

But that's it for this year, I have enjoyed it. I hope you all have enjoyed my blog, and let’s see what this new year holds for us. See you in 2013.