Smoke and Oil... Eldar vs Orks 1500

The first test for my new evolving list is an ork list that is being tweaked for competitive play. I’m rather concerned about how I will do in this game, as the orks will be on me very quickly and get me in combat, somewhere I don’t want to be. The game is Emperors will with dawn of war deployment, 1500 point game.

The Armies

This is my new Eldar list that I am testing out, 1500 points

Farseer – 100 (warlord: deep strikes don’t scatter) w/ lance guardians

Guide, fortune, doom

Spirit seer – 70 w/ lance guardians

Conceal, enhance

10 Guardians – 110

Scatter laser

10 Guardians – 110

Bright lance

6 Rangers – 72

6 Wraithguard – 192

Wave serpent – 150

Holo field, vectored engine, twin linked scatter lasers

6 Warp spiders – 114

Crimson Hunter – 160

Fire Prism – 140

Holo field

3 War walkers – 210

Scatter lasers

4 Dark reapers – 152

This list is short range so with the orks getting close to me might not be terrible but if he charges me I'm dead.

Orks 1500

Ork Warboss (warlord: scoring unit) w/ meganobz

Mega armour, attack squig, cybork body, boss poll

4 Mega nobz

4 x skortcha

Battle wagon

Kannon, death rolla, 3 x big shoota, riggers

20 Ork boyz

Shoota, nob, power klaw, boss poll

20 Ork boyz

Shoota, nob, power klaw, boss poll

20 Storm boyz

Nob, klaw

2 Trakks

Twin-linked rokkits

2 Trakks

Twin-linked rokkits

Battle wagon

Death rolla, big shoota, rigger

Battle wagon

Death rolla, big shoota, rigger

3 Kannons

This list is very aggressive, the boys can all move very fast, and the kannons and trakks can take out my AV 12 vehicles. It’s a very scary list to face with Eldar. I need to take out the troops, but they are all hard to kill. Wish me luck.

The Mission

Rolling for mission we got Emperors will, and deployment was dawn of war. Rolling for table edges Orks win and select the half with most terrain. Our objectives were placed, ork objective in a ruin in his deployment, and I placed mine in between the rocks in my deployment zone. Just so you know we forgot to roll for mysterious objective, but it doesn’t really matter. Rolling for set up he win again and elects to go first. The Ork deployment is simple, the 3 battle wagons go in the middle, with the warboss’s ride the centre one. On each flank go the trakks, the storm boys hide behind and the kannons are on the left.

I respond by placing the scatter laser guardians on my objective so they can shoot at the kannons or trakks supported by the warp spiders and dark reapers, the other guardians with farseer and spiritseer go on the right to take pot shots at the battle wagons. The wraithguard are in their wave serpent behind a building so hopefully it won’t get shot at. The fire prism and war walkers are placed on the far right so hopefully they can get some side shots while not really being anywhere near the ork guns. I then infiltrate the rangers onto the Aquila landing pad on the right hand side of the table.

Night fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Ork turn 1

Orks advance

All 3 battle wagons go straight forwards towards the eldar battle line flanked by the trakks on either side, right into the ruins. The storm boys jump behind them and a single boy crashes into the ground.

The explosions start with the kannons targeting the dark reapers, using frag rounds. The guns cause 8 wounds and 2 of the aspect warriors die. The trakks on the right shoots at the wave serpent and manage to get a single glance on the tank. The battle wagons go flat out and the storm boys run behind them. They will all be on me next turn...

Eldar turn 1

Seeing the fall of the eldar, the farseer attempts to prevent it by casting fortune on his guardians and dooms the warbosses battle wagon. The spiritseer attempts to help but roll 11 for both of his powers... really not the right time. The dark reapers move forwards as do the warp spiders. The wave serpent drops off the wraithguard in front of the battle wagons while the farseer’s guardians move backwards. The war walkers move forwards attempting to either kill a battle wagon or some storm boyz.

Shooting begins with the wraithguard on the warboss’s prize battle wagon, but they almost do nothing, but thanks to doom, they get a single explodes result, resulting in a meganob taking a wound. The wave serpent then shoots at the nobz and manages to kill off the wounded boy. Aiming their death spinners the warp spider’s target the trakks on the left and explode both, but unfortunately I just got too close and 2 spiders die, but the rest run back with battle focus. The dark reapers shoot star shots at the kannons and kill a single kannon. The rangers snipe 2 of the storm boyz lagging behind the squad, distracting them until the war walkers run forwards and shoot at them, killing 10 of the orks. Unfortunately the turn doesn’t carry on this way as both the fire prism and bright lance from the guardians both miss the battle wagons. Moral and the nobs and boys are fine, but the kannon crew bail and run of the board.

Ork turn 2

Now the eldar are putting up a fight the orks get stuck in! The storm boys move off to the left after the dark reapers while the trakks move to target the war walkers. With his favourite wagon in ruins the warboss yells at his boys to kill the wraithguard. The battle wagon on the left unloads its boys on the left to go after the warp spiders while the battle wagon on the right moves forwards, then lets the boys jump out after the farseer and guardians.

WAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!!!!! Is all that can be heard over the battle field, and all the orks are filled with unnatural speed and desire to kill. The mega nobs use all 4 skorchas on the wraithguard and kill 2. The trakks shoot at the war walkers and get 2 penetrating hits but the force field protects them. Unloading their shootas, the boys on the right shoot at the guardians but only kill 2 thanks to fortune saving the day. On the left the boys do the same to the warp spiders, killing 2, leaving a single aspect warrior alive.

Assault phase, and here comes the pain. The warboss and nobs declare a combined charge on the wraithguard and wave serpent and the wraithguard manage to inflict a single over watch wound. In the combat the wave serpent is wrecked, 2 wraithguard die and not a single ork takes a scratch. On the left of the table the boys charge the warp spider and again a single ork dies. The orks beat a single spider to death and the lone aspect warrior holds his ground. The storm boys attempt to charge the guardians on the left but fail, even with the fleet re-roll, but the guardians fail to get any over watch kills. On the right the boys charge into the guardians and again no over watch kills. The Nob issues a challenge and the spirit seer step up to accept, dealing a single wound to the nob but survives the encounter. The guardians and farseer manage to kill 2 orks but 6 guardians die in the process. The eldar hold their ground.

Eldar turn 2

The crimson hunter comes in and goes for the battle wagons. The farseer casts guide on the war walkers and fortune on his unit while the spiritseer manages to cast enhance. All my movement consists of it the war walkers moving forwards and the prism moving away from the combats.

Shooting starts with the war walkers targeting the left side battle wagon and manage to wreck it with the sheer volume of shots they can pump out. The crimson hunter targets the other wagon but even with all of its high strength weaponry it only manages to take off 2 hull points! The fire prism attempts to finish the job but again it misses its mark. On the left the guardians shoot at the storm boys and kill every last ork. The dark reapers now with very little to target shoot at the remaining battle wagon and fail to get past its armour.

Assault phase and things end badly; the orks kill off the last warp spider easily while the warboss personally kills of the wraithguard. The combat of the farseer vs the boys goes a little better with the spiritseer killing off the nob in the challenge and the farseer kills 2 boys. Unfortunately the guardians both die and the farseer takes 2 wounds himself for his trouble. The eldar once again hold their ground.

Ork turn 3

On the left now the boys are free from combat they go after the guardians on my objective, the warboss hides in the wave serpent wreck to avoid getting shot at. The trakks go after the fire prism hoping for a trophy kill.

Fight to the last!

Shooting from the trakks pass through the fire prisms hologram leaving the tank unharmed thanks to its holo fields. The mega nobs shoot at the crimson hunter and somehow manage to get 2 hits, none of them glance it though.

Assault phase and the boys charge into the guardians and again 0 over watch kills. In the combat though the guardians fair better killing off 3 orks before 8 guardians die. Somehow they hold their ground though. The other combat sees the two seers back to back fighting off green skins, both down a single beast, but the spirit seer takes a flesh wound, so both are down to their last wound. Drawn combat.

Eldar turn 3

Again the farseer casts fortune on himself and the spiritseer and doom the trakks. The crimson hunter too close to shoot at the battle wagon goes after the trakks. Seeing an opportunity to steal the objective from the enemy the rangers jump down from the landing pad. The war walkers move towards the mega nobs.

Going full pelt the rangers run towards the objective. The war walkers run then shoot at the mega nobs killing off the wounded ork. The dark reapers this time shoot true and wreck the final battle wagon just as the crimson hunter explodes a single trakk. The fire prism then finishes off the other trakk.

Combat, and the guardians on the left die to the orks, giving them my objective. On the right the pair of seers dispatches an ork each, but again the spiritseer’s lack of experience gives the orks an opening and gets a big green fist to the face, snapping his neck. However the farseer wins the combat but the orks are fearless. His dying gift to the orks, the soul blaze counter kills 2 more orks thanks to the spiritseers attacks.

Ork turn 4

The mega nobs move towards the objective but stay out of sight of the eldar vehicles.

Under a hail of shots from both the boys and nobs, the dark reapers finally die to the orks.

Fighting like the hero’s of old, the farseer kills 2 more orks, but even he cannot stop the green tide. The orks numbers favour them allowing them to drag him down, and kill him.

Eldar turn 4

Carrying on their path the rangers go after the objective. The crimson hunter moves into the middle of the table unable to see any target. Full of fury and vengeance the war walkers go after the boys who took the life of the farseer, and swear to Khaela Mensha Khaine, he will be avenged.

Running the rangers make it onto the objective, claiming it for the eldar. Hitting with almost every shot, the war walkers kill every last ork who was responsible for the death of their warlord. The fire prism goes to full beam and targets the boys on the eldar objective. The shot scatters wide and only a single boy is killed.

Ork turn 5

Not able to do much the mega nobs hide from the fire prism while the boys take a firm grip of the objective. Again they shoot at the crimson hunter but fail to do any damage.

Eldar turn 5

The crimson hunter moves to target the ork boys as does the fire prism. The war walkers move back hopeing with a good run they will be able to see some orks.

In the shooting phase the war walkers don’t run far enough and the fire prism again misses the orks. The only greenskin blood shed this turn is from the crimson hunter killing 2.

We roll to see if the game continues...

Ork turn 6

Again the orks shoot at the crimson hunter and fail to do any damage.

Eldar turn 6

The war walkers move to see the ork boys and kill 8 of them. The fire prism opens fire and hits this time killing 2 more, leaving the nob alone who runs for it.

Ignore the farseer model.

The game ends

Eldar: 5 (1 objective, first blood, line breaker) – Orks: 1 (slay the warlord)

Eldar Victory

Post-Battle

Well what a game that was, I can’t say I won that by skill, only sheer dumb luck and some heroic seer’s. The first thing that helped me out was the storm boys failing their charge turn 2, that was huge as it meant I could kill them and delay the ork boys for another turn. The other major thing that helped me was the farseer and spiritseer refusing to die for so long. Without fortune and their invulnerable save that flank would have folded and the ork boys could have either gone for the war walkers or fire prism. Both of which were useful. His list is a solid list and if we played that again I probably would lose the majority of the time as it has shown a glaring weakness of the list. His list I would say only has 1 weakness which is flyers, but with the number of shots the boys can put out, maybe he can down them with glances, I’m not sure.

 Anyway what have I learnt from this game?

·         Anti-tank: I don’t have enough to blow though AV 14, granted I shouldn’t face it that often but it is defiantly something that I need to consider. Maybe swap the scatter laser for another bright lance? Not sure.

·         Rangers: why have I never used them to sneak after objectives before? I need to do that more often, if they can’t kill something big and scary I will be doing that again.

·         Crimson hunter: a little disappointing this game, if he carries on like this its getting dropped for something else, maybe more spiders?

Overall I’m quite happy with how this list played out this game, will it be so good next time? I don’t know. Next week I’m on holiday so there won’t be a battle report, just a little collection of photos from an apocalypse game I had last weekend. In my absence I will leave a post of some awesome blogs you should visit instead of mine, but make sure you come back in 2 weeks... please.