Rolling Plague... Eldar vs Deathguard 1500

In the ruins of a shattered city the Death Guard chaos space marines are ambushed by the Eldar of the Dem-Kirath Craftworld. So this is a game between my new evolving eldar list and Daves Death guard chaos space marines in a 1500 point game of The scouring, with vanguard strike deployment.

The Armies

I use my new guardian force: Eldar 1495

Farseer – 100 (Warlord:Ambush of blades) w/ lance guardians

Guide, prescience, foreboding

Spiritseer – 70 w/ lance guardians

Conceal, protect

Warlock – 40 w/ storm guardians

Singing spear (protect)

10 Storm guardians – 110

2 x fusion guns

Wave serpent – 160

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 90

Wave serpent – 160

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 110

Bright lance

Crimson hunter – 160

5 Warp spiders – 95

3 War walkers – 210

Scatter lasers

5 Dark reapers – 190

Starshot

I'm still not 100% happy with this list, its balanced and theoretically can take on a fair number of armies, but looking at what i was up against... well judge for yourself.

Deathguard chaos space marines

Chaos lord (warlord: Black crusader) w/ Chaos spawn

Bike, mark of Nurgle, black mace, aura of dark glory, melta bombs

7 Plague marines

Champion, power fist, 2 x melta gun

Rhino

7 plague marines

Champion, power fist, 2 x melta gun

Rhino

7 Plague marines

Champion, power fist, plasma pistol, 2 x plasma gun

Rhino

Heldrake

Baleflamer

4 Chaos spawn

Mark of Nurgle

Vindicator

Dozer blade

Vindicator

Dozer blade

The deathguard grouped together.

This list could be a problem as I don’t have all that much long range anti-tank, so the vindicators worry me. The plague marines themselves shouldn’t be a massive issue, but the spawn and bike lord might be. We shall see.

The Mission

We roll for mission and get The scouring, with Vanguard strike deployment. I win the roll for deployment zone and pick the one with a large building in for my guardians to chill in. We place objectives in the ruin bottom right (4 points), the hill middle right (3 points), ruin middle center (2 points), ruin in the middle on the left (1 point), the woods top middle (2 points) and in the open top right of the table (3 points). The Deathguard win the roll to go first and set up first, all 3 rhinos are placed next to each other facing my deployment zone side by side. A vindicator goes on each flank and the spawn with lord hides behind them. Heldrake in reserve.

I deploy with the guardians on the objective in my ruin, the war walkers behind them to have a good view of the battle field. The warp spiders go at the front on my right, starting on the objective. Both wave serpents are at the back to respond to what ever threat they need to. The crimson hunter is in reserve.

Eldar and Chaos Deployment

Night Fight: Turn 1

Steal the Initiative: No

The Battle

Chaos turn 1

All 3 rhinos move forwards into the ruin and none of them fail the dangerous terrain roll. The spawn move behind a building on the left but they can still be seen. Crashing through the woods the vindicator on the left takes cover in trees while the other moves forwards unhindered.

Shooting phase in uneventful with all the rhinos popping smoke to get a cover save from my salvo of shots. The spawn run 2 inches while the vindicator on the left goes flat out. Firing a shell at the warp spiders the vindicator on the right scatters and only manages to kill a single warp spider.

Eldar turn 1

Strands of fate are converging on the death of the eldar so the farseer acts to counter this, he casts guide on the war walkers and prescience on the dark reapers. The spiritseer casts protect on the guardians as he failed to cast conceal. The warlock also casts protect on his unit.

Taking an offensive position, the warp spiders warp jump 10 inches forwards but roll a double losing 1 to the warp. Transporting its guardian defenders to an objective, a wave serpent moves up the right side while the other stays back, following suit the war walkers move back to target the spawn.

First shots come from the war walkers shooting at the chaos spawn, causing 8 wounds but night fight makes it hard to see and he saves 3 of the wounds, killing 1 spawn and grievously wounding another. The wave serpent in my deployment shoots at the spawn as well and causes 6 wounds, killing 2 spawn and leaving 1 left with a single wound. Aiming their weapons at the closest rhino, the warp spiders manage to get a penetrating and glancing hit on the tank, but the smoke and gloom of night makes the shots go off target as both are saved.

Assault phase and the warp spiders jump back towards the objective and cover.

Chaos turn 2

No heldrake comes in thank god. All 3 rhinos move forwards but the marines stay inside the tanks protection. The vindicator on the right moves forwards to target the spiders again. On the left the lord leaves the spawn and carries forwards into the eldar lines while the spawn runs back to protect an objective.

A colossal explosion kills 2 warp spiders on the right, sent from the vindicator. Its brother on the left hits the war walkers and manages to wreck a single war walker as it over loads the force field. The rhinos and bolter shots from the marines snap shot into the warp spiders but fail to do anything. The bike boosts behind the rhinos and the spawn runs into the woods.

Eldar turn 2

Again the farseer casts guide on the war walkers and prescience on the Dark reapers. Both the spiritseer and warlock casts protect on their charges. The wave serpent moves towards the vindicator on the left and drops off the storm guardians who go straight for the tank. The war walkers move away from the vindicator while the remains of the warp spiders jump forwards.

Fusion guns and singing spear are fired at the vindicator on the left and I manage to get a single penetrating hit, and immobilise the tank... the one result I didn’t want. The guardians attempt to finish it off but its lance misses. The warp spiders target a rhino and now the smoke has cleared, the tank explodes killing 2 of the plague marines in the process. The wave serpent on the right shoots at the second rhino and wrecks it. War walkers trace their sights onto the last rhino but only manage to take off 2 hull points off it and stunning it. With a lot of marines now able to be shot at the dark reapers use swarmstar shots to target the plague marines on the right, killing 3 of them.

Chaos turn 3

Still no Heldrake from reserve. With the storm guardians now in the open the chaos lord goes straight for them. The wounded plague marines get out of their crater and go after the wave serpent on the right. The other plague marines move into the place of the other marines.

The vindicator on the right shoots at the war walkers and the shot scatters 8 inches, hitting the wave serpent but the shot is ignored by its jink save. Following suit the vindicator on the left shoots at the wave serpent and the shot is again saved. Plasma from the plague marines is targeted at the war walkers, a single penetrating hit causes the walker to explode killing a nearby guardian.  The rhino snap shots at the remaining warp spider and kill him.

Assault phase and the lord on bike charges into the storm guardians, and a fusion gun manage to wound the lord during over watch. He issues a challenge and the warlock steps up to the mark, but is unable to wound him and gets smashed to bits by the black mace, the guardians hold. The curse of the black mace then takes effect and 8 of the storm guardians fail the toughness test, being dragged to their death. On the right the plague marines charge into the wave serpent and penetrate it and glance it, immobilising it.   

Eldar turn 3

All the powers are cast again, guiding the war walkers, prescience on the dark reapers and protect on the guardians. From reserve in comes the crimson hunter on the right flank towards the vindicator. The guardians get out of the wave serpent aiming to get the plague marines off their ride. Aiming to hunt down the rogue spawn the mobile wave serpent moves past the vindicator on the left.

A blade storm of pain kills all of the plague marines off the wave serpent letting it survive for anther turn, thanks to the guardians. With the wave serpent able to see now it shot at the last rhino and wrecked it, forcing the plague marines out. Lances streak from the sky and the vindicator on the right gets shaken by the crimson hunter. The dark reapers target the marines in the crater, but only manage to kill 1. The war walkers follow suit and kill a single marine from the same squad. Finally the farseers guardians shoot at the plague marines and kill another marine. To end the shooting phase the wave serpent on the left boosts towards the spawn.

Combat and the lord smash the remaining 2 guardians into the ground and moves 4 inches towards the guardians.

Chaos turn 4

From the fires of hell in zooms the drake vector striking the immobilised wave serpent and ending its move next to the dark reapers. Its vector strike wrecks the tank. The lord and the plague marines go after the guardians while the spawn goes for the wave serpent hunting it.

The vindicator on the right pops smoke hoping to survive till next turn as it can’t shoot this turn. Flames from the heldrake cover the dark reapers and they all die, poor aspect warriors. The plague marines on the right shoot at the guardians next to the wreck of the wave serpent and 3 die (and they run) but not without a plasma gun exploding and killing its user.

A combined charge of plague marines and the chaos lord goes into the remaining guardians and a single plague marine dies to over watch. The plague marine champion issues a challenge and the spiritseer accepts but fails to kill the marine, who then punches a great hole in the spirtseer instantly killing him. The chaos lord kills 4 guardians and the plague marines kill 3! The farseer, not alone lives and escape, letting him survive for another time. The spawn charges into the wave serpent and gets 8 attacks on it, and is able to get 3 penetrating hits on it, causing it to explode and the spawn dies in the inferno.

Eldar turn 4

The farseer casts guide on the crimson hunter and prescience on himself. The farseer rallies and move towards the chaos lord. The guardians run off the table. Moving towards its favoured pray, the crimson hunter gets behind the heldrake.

Lasers fly from the war walkers but only a single plague marine falls. The crimson hunter fires at the heldrake, lances and pulse laser tare into the metal beast and it explodes under the brutality of the attack. Its remains crash to the ground missing everything.  

Chaos turn 5

Both plague marine units go after different objectives, the largest squad goes for the 4 point objective at the top of the ruin while the other goes for the right hand one. The lord goes after my farseer.

A melta shot from the marines in the ruin meltas a war walker leaving only 1 left. The lord fires his bolters at the farseer and takes 2 wounds off my warlord.

Assault phase and the lord charges into the farseer, the seer causes 2 wounds on the monster but he passes his save. Fortunately for me the daemon weapon fights back and wounds the chaos lord and he can’t attack this turn.

Eldar turn 5

Again the farseer casts guide on the crimson hunter and prescience on himself. The war walkers go after the plague marines on the 3 point objective determined to shift them. Vector dancing, the crimson hunter moves to target the plague marines on the 4 point objective.

Shooting from the war walkers annihilates the plague marines on the 3 point objective, freeing it from their control. The crimson hunter manages to kill 2 of the plague marines off the 4 point objective.

Combat and the challenge between the farseer and chaos lord final ends when the chaos lord rolls +6 attacks and smashes the farseer into oblivion, claiming his soul for Nurgle at the expense of slaanesh.

We roll to see if the game carries on...

Chaos turn 6

The vindicator on the right moves a little to get a better shot on the war walkers while the plague marines ascend higher into the ruin so the whole squad control the objective. Not wanting to take a wound from the crimson hunter the chaos lord drives away to hide behind the immobilised vindicator.

A well places shot from the vindicator destroys both of the war walkers taking away any hope for a victory. The plague marines shoot into the sky at the crimson hunter but their shots all fall short. The chaos lord then turbo boosts.

Eldar turn 6

The only eldar model remaining is the crimson hunter who moves to keep shooting at the plague marines but fails to kill any of them.

And the game carries on...

Chaos turn 7

Both the lord and plague marines target the crimson hunter, but again nothing hits.

Eldar turn 7

As I misplaced my crimson hunter he can no longer target the plague marines so must instead go for the chaos lord and manages to kill him! A shallow victory in the face of defeat.

Chaos: 7 (4 point objective, slay the warlord, line breaker, 1 fast attack) – Eldar: 4 (First blood, slay the warlord, 2 fast attacks).

Chaos Victory.

Post-Battle

Not a terrible loss, I could have been tabled I guess, but its not one of my best games. What went wrong? Was it my list or my tactics? The chaos list was very fast for a Deathguard army, something which is meant to be slow and it was upon me very fast. That chaos lord though hit like a train, and the storm guardians never stood a chance, let alone the farseer. Night fight turn 1 didn’t work in my favour as it saved a rhino from a shot or 2. And i didn't use my warlord trait, i need to remember to. 

·         Storm Guardians: My opponent even said to me that he was surprised and rather delighted when the storm guardians came out to play. I got too focused on the vindicators and sent them straight in when maybe they should have either gone for the chaos lord, or held back a little longer to engage the plague marines.

·         Guardians: The lance guardians let me down, and the guardians in the wave serpent did ok, but died very quickly. I knew that would happen, let’s see what happens next time.

·         Dark reapers: Having 5 in a unit didn’t seem to do much more than 4. Granted they just died in a single turn to a heldrake... damn heldrake.

·         Warlock: He added nothing and died quickly, maybe drop him.

·         Target priority: It was way off this game, I got too caught up with the vindicators and then later on I get too focused on destroying rhinos, I should have destroyed 1 rhino, killed the marines, then moved on. Having 3 half squads are a lot worse than 2 full. Less units to assault me, less units to take objectives. Kill a unit before moving on next time.

Well that’s it for this game, next game is Eldar Vs Eldar, not looking forward to that at all.