Ice and Blood (for the blood god)... Eldar vs Chaos space marines 1500

I get to play a new opponent this week, which was rather exiting me for. While I have played chaos space marines a fair few times, this opponent has a somewhat different list to what I am used to facing, again rather exiting. Instead of having a primarily nurgle/plague marines force this one was more khorne orientated. The game was the relic, with vanguard strike deployment.

The Armies

I use my evolving list again to test its limits against a new opponent.

Farseer – 100 (warlord: ) w/ lance guardians

Guide, fortune, eldritch storm

Spirit seer – 70 w/ lance guardians

Conceal, embolden

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

And the hordes of chaos I will be facing...

Chaos space marines 1498

Chaos lord – 185 (Warlord: Hatred ) w/ chaos spawn

Axe of blind fury, juggernaut of khorne, mark of khorne, sigil of corruption

24 Cultists - 128

autoguns

25 Cultists - 110

Pistol and ccw

10 Khorne bezerkers – 230

Chain axes

2 Chaos spawn – 60

5 Warp talons – 160

Heldrake – 170

Bale flamer

Forgefiend – 200

2 x hades autocannon, ectoplasma cannon

5 Havocs – 155

4 x lascannon

Aegis defence line – 100

Quad gun

This army is very different from the chaos armies I face normally. No plague marines, no Typhus, and a lot of cultists. I have never faces a Heldrake before and from what I have read, they are scary so my crimson hunter will have a prime target. The forgefiend isn’t great in my opinion; if it was a maulerfiend I might be scared. Let’s just see how the game goes.  

The Mission

Rolling for mission we got the relic, the deployment type was vanguard strike. My opponent won the roll for deployment zone and selected the one with the large ruin. He set up his defence line in a semi-circle along the long table edge next to the ruin. A Quad gun, not quite what I wanted to see when using a crimson hunter.

I won the roll to set up first and set up the two units of guardians in the two area terrain pieces. The war walkers set up between the two but set back to avoid a large hail of fire if he steals the initiative. I place my fire prism far at the back to prevent it getting shot up. The dark reapers go on the left out in the open to hopefully see something that needs to die, or at least to draw something out into the open. Finally the warp spiders go on the far right to hopefully get behind the defence line and kill whatever is set up there.

The chaos space marines set up with a large unit of cultists manning the defence line, the havocs go on the left side of the cultists. The other unit of cultists are placed into the ruin along with the warp talons, waiting to attack me from concealment. On the far left he places his chaos lord with spawn, then the berzerkers to the right of him. Finally the forge fiend gets set up between the berzerkers and the ruin.

Finally the rangers infiltrate into the area terrain that just juts out of my deployment zone.

Night Fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

Observing the strands of fate, the farseer sees what must be done to destroy the chaos taint upon the battlefield. He casts guide on the war walkers and fortunes the wave serpent. The spiritseer is less skilled with his abilities and emboldens the guardians but fails to conceal them. The wave serpent leads the attack on the chaos moving forwards 12 inches towards the defence line while the dark reapers move to get a clear shot on the forgefiend. Jumping into the warp, the warp spiders get a 15 inch move towards the defence line.

Opening salvo comes from the war walkers targeting the havocs, taking out the lascannons would be key to victory. The only manage to get 2 kills unfortunately. The dark reapers shoot starshots at the forgefiend, but only get a single penetrating hit past the deamonic resilience, and shake it. Showing why they are feared though out the galaxy, the rangers attempt to finish off the war walkers job and get a hand full of hits, and two of the shots rend, and kill their targets cleanly, only a single havoc remains. A bright light shins from the fire prism and hits the forgefiend in the head, blowing off its plasma cannon, but even that shot is not enough to topple the beast. With large holes left in the metal monster the guardian manning the bright lance sees a chance, just a slim one and takes it. The forgefiend explodes in a nova of daemonic energy, first blood to the Eldar. Aiming at the quadgun itself, the other guardians target the emplacement and manage to deal a single wound to it. Shooting from the warp spiders is disappointing as it only kills a single cultist, but as my turn has been so good so far I can’t complain. To finish off the turn the wave serpent utilises its serpent shield and scatter laser, shooting at the cultists, killing 6 of them. They hold however.

Chaos turn 1

The cultists hiding in the ruins charge out, intent on taking the relic before it can fall into eldar hands, backed up by the warp talons. On the left the berzerkers move out heading towards the dark reapers, while the chaos lord and his spawn skulk in area terrain (boo!).

With little to shoot the majority of the army runs, the cultists in the open run, the bererkers run. The lone havoc aims at the oncoming wave serpent and hits the tank squarely in its front armour, the shot would have had enough force to penetrate its armour if it wasn’t for the pilot having a vision of what was to come from the farseer, and jinks out the way (I failed it first roll, but thanks to fortune he re-rolled and passes). The cultist shoot the quad gun at the same target and gets 2 penetrating hits, but again the pilot jinks out the way. The champions of chaos are now in trouble.

Eldar turn 2

Again the farseer guides the war walkers and the spirit seer emboldens the guardians. From reserve the crimson hunter streaks onto the battlefield but I place it behind a large slab of ice, hidden from the view of the quad gun. Seeing the danger the dark reapers move back while the rangers and guardians move towards the relic and cultists. The farseer move though his guardians to get within 24 inches of the chaos cultists. Again the wave serpent moves forwards as the warp spiders jump over the defence line behind the cultists.

Conjuring his powers, the farseer casts eldritch storm on the cultists next to the relic, 5 cultists are killed in the mystical vortex and die. 2 more die from his guardian bodyguards scatter laser. The other squad of guardians use battle focus to move towards the remnants of the cultists and then the sheer weight of fire power removes them from the table. From their new position the warp spiders shoot at the cultists but only manage to kill 4 of the chaos worshippers  the wave serpent then does the same killing 5. Using swarmstar ammunition the dark reapers target the spawn and manage to bring down a single abomination. The crimson hunter follows suit and kills the final spawn and wounds the chaos lord. With the lord now on his own the fire prism targets him, and his beam hits and takes another wound from the puppet of chaos. To finish the shooting phase the war walkers target the warp talons and bring 2 of the marines down.

Assault phase and the warp spiders charge into the cultist, but the sheer number of overwatch shots downs 3 of the warp spiders! In the actual combat its very different and the warp spiders kill a single cultist and don’t take any casualties. The cultists run and get cut down by the aspect warriors who consolidate onto the quad gun.

Chaos turn 2

The Heldrake comes in from reserve over the war walkers vector striking them for 3 penetrating hits, but thanks to the force field the war walkers are fine. Jumping to the sky, the warp talons go towards the guardians by the relic. Blood for the blood god! The chaos lord moves towards the dark reapers wanting to get more skulls for the skull throne. At the end of the movement phase the warp spiders use the quad gun to intercept the heldrake, and I manage to get a single glancing hit past its daemon save.

Flaming the walkers who defy it, the hell drake gets 2 hits on the war walkers and hit 4 members of the farseers guardians. The guardians don’t fare well and 3 die, but again the force fields glow brightly and prevent them from coming to harm. The lone havoc targets the wave serpent again and gets a penetrating hit, but once more the pilot jinks out the way.

In true khorne style the lord attempts to charge into the dark reapers but he fails to make the distance. In a very bold move the warp talons declare a charge on both the rangers and the guardians. A lone guardian downs a warp talon with overwatch. The guardians strike before the marines and somehow manage to kill off the 2 remaining marines, I was rather astonished.

Eldar turn 3

Once more the farseer casts guide on the war walkers who move back to target either the heldrake if needed, or the khorne berzerkers. The crimson hunter turns and goes after the heldrake. The guardians take the relic while the warp spiders make sure they are in range of the havoc.

Doing what he does best, the crimson hunter shoots at the heldrake, hitting with 3 shots, then fails to penetrate or even glance the flyer. Thankfully the hunter can re-roll and gets nothing again. In a desperate attempt to down the flyer the war walkers unload into the heldrake's rear, and thanks to guide, gets about 7 hits and 4 penetrating hits, causing the flyer to explode in the sky. With the lord upon them the dark reapers shoot at him and only manage to deal a single wound, leaving him with a single one left. The fire prism comes to the dark reapers rescue, and kills the lord with a beautifully placed lance shot. Slay the warlord.

Chaos turn 3

With only the khorne berzerkers left they run out of cover but only roll quite low on the move though cover. They then run but only roll low again.

Eldar turn 4

With only a single unit left this turn can end the game for me. Seeing the strands of fate in favour of the eldar converging, he casts guide on the war walkers again. The dark reapers move forwards to get a better line of sight, the guardians rush forwards to get into range.

Shooting starts with the dark reapers who only manage to down a single berzerkers. The war walkers carry on the onslaught and knock down a further 3 marines. The wave serpent unleashes all of its fire power and kills 2 of the khorne worshipers. 1 marine is left standing, the rangers shoot and fail to kill the marine, the scatter laser from the farseers guardians shoot and fails to kill him. This leaves the guardians closest to him and I forget to measure before hand and only a single guardian is in range, but the favour of khaine is strong with him and he manages to get a single shuriken through the eye killing the marine.

Victory to the Eldar

Post-Battle

That battle was different to how I expected it to go. Tabling him in 4 turns was definitely not what I expected, and I got very lucky with the chaos lord failing its charge on turn 2. Again target priority was very important this game and I think that was key to my victory as if I hadn’t taken out the havocs the war walkers and wave serpent would have been destroyed very quickly. What did my army show me?

·         Farseer: The eldar powers were very powerful thing game and really did have a massive part in my victory. However I am very tempted to try using divination + guide as the powers might help a little more. Granted fortune was nice, but if I could give an extra re-roll to hit a game that would be potentially game braking. I will have to test it out in the future.

·         War Walkers: It has been commented that I should swap one of the scatter lasers for something else to benefit from the twin-linking ability. I have tried this but I find the scatter lasers so much better. The volume is key to this unit making its points back.

·         Dark reapers: By not getting assaulted turn 2 the dark reapers made an impact, so I am happier with them this game than against the blood angels.

Well this game was a real eye opener and as such my opponent has challenged me to another game soon, where he will play his eldar vs my dark eldar. So look out for that coming soon.