1000 point tournament: Practice game 1

I tested out my two lists for the tournament against two totally difference armies. My first game is the wraithlord list vs imperial guard and the second game is wave serpent list against blood angels. Both games are on the same 4 x 4 table with just a few bits of terrain to make it a fair test, as i can't grantee what the tables will look like. This is the first game of the two.

Game 1 vs Imperial guard

The Armies

My first list I used was the wraithlord list:

Farseer – 90 w/ guardians
runes of warding, guide (swapped for prescience)

10 guardians - 95
scatter laser

9 dire avengers - 108

3 war walkers - 180
scatter lasers

5 fire dragons - 112
exarch, tank hunters, crack shot

wraithlord - 155
missile launcher, lance

Wraithlord - 155
missile launcher, lance

Defense line - 100
quad gun

And my opponents list was a very infantry heavy army which didn’t combine squads.

Company command squad

Plasma gun, 2 x grenade launcher, bolt gun

Chimera

Multi laser, heavy bolter

Platoon command squad

Bolt gun

Infantry squad

Plasma gun

Infantry squad

Plasma gun

Heavy weapon squad

2 x lascannon, autocannon

Veterans

3 x sniper rifle, heavy bolter, Harker

Platoon command squad

Boltgun

Infantry platoon

Lascannon

Infantry platoon

Lascannon

5 Storm troopers

2 x melta gun

Leman russ Punisher

Heavy bolter

The Mission

The first game was the emperors will mission with dawn of war deployment. To make this a straight forward game we ignored warlord traits, night fighting and stealing the initiative. While these are part of the game they are too unreliable to bet on, so this was meant to test my army on what most counts (theoretically).

He won the roll to set up first and deployed fully across the table, the veterans hid in the cover, heavy weapons on the hill, punisher in the middle of the table and infantry everywhere else.

I set up the wraithlords both on the left side of my table, so they can target the russ while staying out of the sight of the heavy weapons team and lascannons. The defence line was set up in a box with the guardians and fire dragons inside them. The dire avengers hid in the woods on my left. For some unknown reason I panicked and put the war walkers into reserve as I thought they would just get destroyed first turn (outflank). (don’t worry I set the defence line up at the right time before either of us deployed).

Before the game begins the storm troopers scout forward.

The Battle

Imperial guard turn 1

As I am hiding behind the defence line he decides to move towards me apart from the veterans who stay still, the russ moves towards the wraithlords.

Shooting starts with the veterans targeting the dire avengers, the sharp shooting of the snipers and Harker brings down 4 of the aspect warriors. An infantry squad follows suit downing another 2 of the dire avengers. On the other side of the table an infantry squad shoots at the fire dragons and another 2 aspect warriors die, luckily the exarch is fine. The chimera shoots at a wraithlord but just bounces off the wraithbone shell.

Eldar turn 1

With little in the way of army I moved the wraithlords forwards towards the russ to get a clean shot.

I have never used a quad gun before let alone a fire dragon exarch on one, let’s see if it’s any good. He targets the chimera and all hit, but only 1 penetrates, thank god for tank hunters, another pen and a glance. No cover save from crackshot and it’s wrecked, not the best but better than nothing. It takes both wraithlords to shoot at the russ and get a single glancing hit. The guardians shoot at the storm troopers and kill 2, while the dire avengers do the same and kill a single model. Not a great first turn.

Imperial guard turn 2

As a wave the infantry squads push forwards supported by the russ.

The heavy weapons team take a shot at the blue wraithlord and take a wound from it. An infantry squad hit it with a lascannon and strip a second wound from the monster. The russ shoots at the unharmed wraithlord with its punisher cannon but he sheer toughness of the beast prevents it from coming to any harm. An infantry squad shoot at the fire dragons and kill all 3. To finish of the phase the veterans shoot at the guardians and get many placed shots which all get put on the farseer and he takes a single wound, and 2 guardians die.

Eldar turn 2

The war walkers appear! On the right flank. The wraithlords carry on forward. With the quad gun unmanned the guardians take control of it.

War walkers unleash the pain on the heavy weapons team and kill all 3 of them. Both wraithlords shoot at the russ and do nothing at all, all shots bounce off the armour. The dire avengers shoot at a infantry command squad killing 2. The guardians aim at the infantry squad on the right killing 5, making the others run.

Imperial guard turn 3

The running squad regroup. Backing up the russ moves and faces the war walkers. The infantry command on the hill next to the war walkers turn to face them.

The russ starts the shooting phase, and deals with the war walkers a lot better than it did with the wraithlord. 20 shots, 5 damaging results, 2 wrecks and a stunned walker. The veterans shoot at the guardians again and kill 2 more. The rest of the army shoots at the wraithlord which is damaged but all the shots fail to do anything.

Combat phase and the command squad next to the war walker charge it! The walker fails to stop anyone with overwatch and gets wrecked with krack grenades.

Eldar turn 3

The wraithlords go their separate ways this turn as one goes after the russ while the other goes towards an infantry squad to its right.

A bright lance and missile launcher to the rear armor finally bring down the russ, exploding it. The second wraithlord sprays both of its flamers into the infantry squad killing 7 guardsmen who then run. The dire avengers shoot at the storm troopers killing 2, leaving a melta gun alive. The guardians target the veterans and kill 3 of the unimportant veterans.

Imperial guard turn 4

The running guardsmen regroup and everyone else moves towards the wraithlords with the company command squad leading the way.

The lone storm trooper uses his melta gun on the unwounded wraithlord and deal a wound to it. Again the veterans shoot at the guardians and get a large number of placed shots all of which go onto the farseer and actually kill him and a guardian, the rest of them run off the table.

Assault phase is short lived as the command squad charge the wounded lord but 4 of the guys die to flamer over watch and then the commander gets a fist to the face and dies.

Eldar turn 4

Wraithsight finally fails me as the blue wounded lord can’t do anything. The other moves towards the infantry around him ready to flame them.

Flames appear and 9 guardsmen die with the last guy running.

Imperial guard turn 5

The army swarms the wraithlord.

A lascannon shot from the infantry bring down the wounded wraithlord. The veterans manage to destroy the other with lucky sniper shots. A long range shot from an infantry squad bring downs the dire avengers to a single model.

Eldar turn 5

The dire avenger runs to the quad gun and kills a single guardsman.

We roll to see if the game carries on… if it doesn’t I win on a technicality, if it goes on…

Imperial guard turn 6

I lost the game as even though the dire avenger goes to ground he dies to the second shot. Damn.

I get tabled.

Post-battle

Well that was a very revealing battle for the army list, and it doesn’t appear to be good. My army got shot to bits by a not very shooty army, if it came across a semi shoots marine army it would have died faster. If I was against tau even faster, shooty orks and im in trouble. I won’t be using this army in the tournament as I don’t think I will do very well, while I thought it might be good, in practice is sucks.

Just something I found out later, you can still look out sir from placed shots, gotta make sure I remember that in the future