1850 Tournament: Game 1 Eldar vs Chaos space marines 'Opening shots'

My first game of the tournament and I was paired up with a very friendly guy who was running a chaos space marine list. His list was heavily themed and was not one of the lists which scared the hell out of me, so I got to ease into the tournament gently. So read on and see how the game went…

The Armies

I use my elder list

Farseer – 115 (warlord: Falcons swiftness) w/dark reapers

Spirit stone of Anath’lan, Fortune, Prescience, forewarning

Spiritseer – 70

Conceal, protect

5 Wraithguard – 160

Wave serpent – 135

Twin-linked scatter laser, holo field

10 guardians – 110

Bright lance

Wave serpent – 135

Twin-linked scatter laser, holo field

10 Guardians – 110

Bright lance

Wave serpent – 135

Twin-linked scatter laser, holo field

5 rangers - 60

6 Swooping hawks – 96

8 Warp spiders – 152

Fire prism – 140

Holo field

2 War walkers – 140

Scatter laser/Bright lance

5 Dark reapers – 207

Exarch, fast shot, night vision, 4 x starshot

Defence line – 85

Lascannon

Total: 1850

My opponent brought a themed list, having exactly 777 points worth of nurgle units and 888 points worth of khorne. The rest was filled with none marked units to fill the list.

Chaos lord (warlord)

Terminator armour, mark of khorne, axe of blind fury

Daemon prince

Daemon of khorne, black mace, wings

Chaos space marines

Mark of khorne, some sort of icon

Chaos space marines

Mark of nurgle, 2 x plasma gun

Chaos space marines

Mark of nurgle, 2 x plasma guns

5 Chaos terminators

Mark of khorne

5 Havocs

4 x autocannon, mark of khorne

2 chaos spawn

Mark of nurgle

Heldrake

Bale flamer

The Mission

Each game is worth a possible 20 victory points and that will decide the rankings after number of games won. This game was called ‘widows and kings’ and has 3 relics, each worth 6 victory points, then line breaker and slay the warlord secondary objectives.

The Mission

I won the roll for first turn and set up quite centrally, with the dark reapers manning the lascannon. I hide the swooping hawks at the back to jump first turn. The warp spiders took point at the front of my army on the right flank. All 4 tanks went at the back hiding the hawks. I infiltrate the rangers.

Chaos responds by setting up the khorne marines in the forest on the right, the terminators next to them. The 2 units of nurgle marines are placed in the centre. On the far left the havocs hide behind a barricade and the spawn and prince are in-between them and the marines.

I set up the rangers in my deployment zone so they can see the terminators.

Deployment

Night Fight: no

Steal the initiative: Yes

The Battle

Chaos turn 1

The prince jumps to the sky and comes straight for my line backed up by the spawn who trail behind him. Across the table the marines move forward but are slowed down by terrain, causing their advance to be a little broken.

Shooting starts with the havocs shooting at the rangers and he gets unlucky, only causing 3 wounds but the rangers all survive thanks to their 4+ cover save. Bolters and reaper autocannon shots hit the war walkers but the front one only get stunned by the blows, but are otherwise unharmed. The rest of the chaos army runs forwards in his turn.

Eldar turn 1

My spiritseer casts protect and conceal on the dark reapers, awaiting the arrival of the heldrake. My farseer casts guide on the warp spiders and prescience on his dark reapers. The warp spiders get a big jump with their warp jump generators and move straight towards the terminators. The wraithguard’s wave serpent moves 6 inches to the left and drops off the wraithguard who take the risk at taking out the prince. A wave serpent move forwards to help out with the prince while the final one moves towards the right hand objective. I move the fire prism 12 inches to the right so it can see the khorne marines.

In a desperate attempt to deal with the prince the dark reapers aim to the sky and the exarch using the icarus lascannon wounds the prince and downs him, but the prince takes no damage from the fall. Now he’s on the floor the wraithguard shoot at the prince and manage to cause 2 wounds, which kills the prince out right thanks to instant death. The fire from the wraithgaurd wave serpent (including using it’s serpent shields) manages to kill off the spawn in a single turn. On the right hand side of the table the warp spiders run forwards to get everyone in range of the terminators and unload their shots, killing all 5 terminators! The re-roll to hit meant not a single shot missed and then I just got lucky with the 6’s to wound. With the chaos lord now open the war walkers shoot at him and manage to wound him with a scatter laser, reducing him to 2 wounds. Opening its beam to full the fire prism shoot at the khorne marines but scatter off only killing 1 of them, but the right wave serpent makes up for it and kills 2 more marines. The final serpent in the middle of the table shoots at the left side unit of nurgle marines and kills off 3!

Assault phase and the warp spiders jump back 11 inches away from the rather pissed off chaos lord. That was a very lucky turn for me.

Chaos turn 2

Rolling for reserves, no heldrake this turn. Again the chaos marines advance forwards, but the chaos lord joins the unit of marines in the centre (looking back now he shouldn’t have been able to, different marks).

Shooing from the havocs targets the warp spiders as they are rather deadly if left unchecked. The marines manage to down 2 of them. What other marines that can see them also shoot at the spiders but only a single spider dies. They hold.  The khorne marines run.

Eldar turn 2

Again I cast protect and conceal on the dark reapers, then prescience the reapers and guide the spiders. The swooping hawks deep strike in my opponent’s deployment zone to shoot at the khorne marines and potentially distract the chaos lord, as if he charges into my lines I’m in trouble. Their grenade pack does nothing. I move the wraithguard back into their serpent and it moves forwards 6 inches. As the khorne marines are close to picking up an objective I move the spiders, the war walkers and a wave serpent to deal with them.

Shooting from the fire prism again scatters but kills a single marine. The hawks manage to kill 2 marines, the warp spiders kill 2 more and then the wave serpent reduces them to 3 models. I try to get the war walkers to finish them off but they just bounce off the marines armour. The dark reapers shoot at the marines in the centre, they are in cover but I somehow kill 4. Shooting from teh last 2 serpents is split between the 2 marine units and only a few models fall.

Chaos turn 3

Still no heldrake. With the hawks behind him, the chaos lord breaks off from his unit and goes chasing after the birds. The marines on the left go to take the left relic but don’t make it. The khorne marines go straight for the warp spiders, determined to get into combat this game.

Shots bounce off the wraithguards wave serpent as the havocs attempt to destroy it. They manage to strip 2 hull points off it.

Assault phase and the khorne marines charge into the warp spiders and kill them all in a single charge. The chaos lord charges into the hawks and kills 4, the last guy runs for his life as the terminator can’t sweeping advance.

Eldar turn 3

Guardians rush the ruins

Same old drill, protect/conceal the dark reapers and then prescience them and guide the war walkers. I move the wraithguard’s serpent forwards towards the marines trying to steal the left side objective and get out, ready to bring the pain. In the centre the guardians get out of their serpent to try and gun down the marines on the centre objective. The hawk fails to regroup but only runs a few inches.

Unloading everything they have , the wraithguard kill 4 of the marines going for the left objective, then their wave serpent kills off the last of the squad. On the right the fire prism has a clear shot of the chaos lord and uses its focused beam and manages to instant kill the chaos lord, thank god for strength 9! In the centre the dark reapers take their toll on the centre unit of chaos marines who are then finished off by the guardians. To finish the turn the war walkers shoots at the 3 remaining khorne marines and gun them all down. Just the havocs left (and the drake).

Chaos turn 4

The heldrake comes screaming in and vector strikes the guardians, killing 4 of them. I then intercept with the dark reaper exarch who gets a penetrating hit, and stuns the heldrake. He rolls for deamonic possession and rolls a 1, so the result sticks!

With the drake stunned he can’t flame this turn, but the havocs didn’t have that problem and shot at the guardians, reducing them down to 2 guys, but they hold.

Eldar turn 4

Psychic powers again are the same, protect/prescience on the dark reapers and guide on the war walkers. I move the wave serpents to see the heldrake and my troops to the objectives.

Shooting is rather uneventful as I fail to get many hits on the heldrake, and I don’t score even a glancing hit. Uneventful.

Chaos turn 5

Because of how he positioned his heldrake he had 2 options, hover mode and get shot down next turn or fly off any hope he can come back. He flew off, leaving only 1 unit on the table.

Attempting to make their mark, the havocs shoot at the guardians again, who go to ground in the ruin, and live.

Eldar turn 5

My whole army faces the havocs and they get blown off the table. With no other units I win by default.

Eldar: 20 points (full game points) – Chaos: 0

Eldar victory

 Post-Battle

That game ended with me tabling my opponent, I was hoping it would end this way but I instantly regretted as soon as it happened as it meant I would likely play a high end player next game. But regardless I defiantly made the right priority choices, taking out the prince and chaos spawn as quickly as possible, as they were the big threats. I got very lucky with the heldrake not arriving till turn 4 and it failing to do anything to me.

I wouldn’t say this was a good test of the list though as it felt like a weaker list than what I expected. My opponent was great and took his loss with grace, and he was good to talk to, he was tired of taking a full on tournament list so went with this theme instead, and good on him. Fortunately for me this meant I was unlikely to end dead last now.

My next game will be posted next Friday, and I face a Chaos space marine list with allied Necrons. Place your bets now…