Serpent Spawn... Eldar vs Chaos space marines 1500

The forces of the plague god once again defile an unsuspecting world and it is up to the eldar to prevent such rot from spreading. This is a 1500 game between Eldar and Chaos space marines, the mission is purge the alien with hammer of anvil deployment.

The Armies

I take out my evolving list for its second outing. Last game I wasn’t very happy with it but we can see how it goes this game.

Eldar 1495

Spiritseer – 70 (warlord: Seer of the shifting vector) aka deep strikes don’t scatter in 6 inches

conceal, protect

5 Wraithguard – 165

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

Wraithknight – 300

Suncannon, scatter laser

2 War walkers – 140

Scatter laser/Lance

Fire Prism – 140

Holo field

Chaos Space Marines 1500

Chaos lord (warlord: -1 to reserve rolls) 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

I have played this list numerous times and it’s fun to play against but it can still pack one hell of a punch. The way my list if made I should be able to ignore the vindicators as at most they will take a single hull point off the wave serpents. The fire prism and war walkers should be too far away from them to be worried about them. First targets have to be the rhinos and spawn. If I take away his speed I will be able to control the game and hopefully win.

The Mission

We rolled Purge the alien for the mission and then hammer and anvil for deployment type. We set up the terrain up till we were both happy with the table and it had more terrain than my last few games, it really does make it look better. Chaos won the roll for deployment and set up first. One vindicator was set up on each side of his deployment zone. A single rhino goes on the left and the other 2 go on the right. The chaos spawn and lord hide behind the rhinos. The heldrake is in reserve.

To counter this I deploy at the back of my deployment zone waiting for them to come to me. The 2 guardian’s wave serpents went on the left with the war walkers. The fire prism went in the centre and the wraithknight and wraithguard serpent went on the right. Yer I forgot I had rangers but I realised this game if that counts for anything.

Deployment

Night Fighting: No

Steal the initiative: YES!!

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

My spiritseer casts protect on his wraithguard unit. I move forwards with the wraithknight and war walkers a little and the wave serpents edge forwards to get their jink save.

I go against my plan straight at the beginning for some reason and target the vindicator on the left with the war walkers but the lances bounce off the hull. The first wave serpent on the left shoots at the rhino on the left and I manage to get a single penetrating hit which luck for me explodes the tank. 1 plague marine is trapped inside the wreckage and dies in the explosion. Attempting to thin the herd the second wave serpent on the left shoots at the plague marines but fails to kill anyone. The fire prism targets a rhino but misses his mark. Shooting from the wave serpent on the right hits a rhino but fails to penetrate its armour. To finish the turn the Wraithknight targets a rhino, its scatter laser does nothing to the tank but its suncannon fails to do anything to the rhino but a shot stays off and wounds a chaos spawn.

Chaos turn 1

The 2 rhinos both move forwards 1 inches followed by the chaos spawn. The vindicators move up their respective flanks, as the plague marines move forwards through the wreckage of their rhino.

A shot from the vindicator on the right hits the wraithguards wave serpent but the tank manages to jink out of the way ignoring the hit. The left vindicator hits another wave serpent but again the tank jinks the shot away. The rhinos go flat out 6 inches and the spawn run 2 inches behind them. The plague marines run 2 inches.

Eldar turn 2

Again the spiritseer casts protect as the wave serpents move back, aiming to get away from the advancing chaos host. The fire prism goes towards the left vindicator.

Shooting starts with the war walkers exploding the vindicator on the right with their bright lances. Another rogue shot from the fire prism misses its rhino target. The wave serpent on the right shoots at one of the rhinos and it explodes but doesn’t kill anyone. The wraithknight shoots at the last rhino but again doesn’t even scratch it but a stray shot does kill a single plague marine. To end the phase the wave serpents on the left shoot at the plague marines on the left but the combined fire fails to down even a single marine.

Chaos turn 2

The heldrake came in from reserve this turn and streaked up the left side of the table. The vindicator moves forwards 12 so can’t shoot this turn. Both units of plague marines move forwards again and the chaos spawn start to overtake the marines.

Flames from the drake hit both of the wave serpents on the left and 1 takes a glancing hit. The lone rhino goes flat out again. The chaos sawn run 6 forwards and the plague marines manage to glance a wave serpent with a plasma gun.

Eldar turn 3

Again I protect the wraithguard. The 2 wave serpents on the left move to face the Heldrake and the war walkers reposition to take on the remaining vindicator. I decide to pull the prism back a little as the spawn are getting a little close. In a rather bolt move I drop off the wraithguard next to the remaining rhino so hopefully the wraithknight can kill off the plague marines when they are forced out.

Wraithknight attempts to step on some bugs

Light strakes from the war walkers but the lance shots fail to penetrate the vindicators armour. The fire prism shoots at it as well but this time gets a hit, penetrates its armour but rolls a 3… +2 from ap 1 and its immobilised, the worse result I could have rolled. On the left side the 2 wave serpents shoot at the heldrake with both scatter lasers and serpent shield, but I fail to penetrate its armour, even though I got a lot of connections. Back on the right the wraithguard explode the rhino and a single plague marine dies, the ruined hull his tomb. I get very lucky and 2 more plague marries die to shrapnel coming off the exploded tank. So now the wraithknight shoots at the newly disembarked plague marries, but the scatter laser does nothing, and the suncannon scatters a little and faisl to kill a single plague marine, but a few scatters allows me to kill off a spawn. To finish the phase the wraithguards wave serpent shoots at the plague marines and kills 1.

Assault phase and I want to kill off the newly emerged unit of marines and charge the wraithknight into them. I roll badly though and miss every single to hit roll. I forgot the plague marines have plague knives and they will wound me on 4+, but they fail to get past its armour.

Chaos turn 3

Swooping over the war walkers the heldrake vector strikes them and explodes 1 and rips off the bright lance of the other. The spawn leave the chaos lord behind and move towards the fire prism. Setting his sights on bigger targets the chaos lord goes after the wraithknight. All plague marines move forwards.

We look and see the vindicator can see the wave serpent and shoots at it, clipping most of the wraithguard. The serpent shield fails me and he gets a penetrating hit causing the tank to explode. 2 of the wraithguard die to the vindicator as well. Flames from the heldrake takes the last hull point off the remaining war walker. The plague marines shoot plasma guns into the wraithguard killing all but 1 of the wraiths.

In a risky move the chaos lord charges into the rear of the wraithknight. The lord and knight strike at the same time and I manage to hit the lord with all of my attacks, wound with all 4 of them but he saves 2 of them, staying alive on 1 wound. I wasn’t too worried about the lord but then I found out he has fleshbane… he wounds the knight a few times and I make all, but 1 armour save. I have to make a toughness test or instantly die to the black mace and roll a 6. The wraithknight dies. The plague marines and lord consolidate. The chaos spawn charged into the fire prism and wreck it.

Eldar turn 4

Well I didn’t expect that, I though the wraithknight would anchor the flank for the rest of the game letting me kill off his army. Apparently not. I protect and conceal the wraithguard and they go towards the plague marines in front of them. One of my wave serpents moves towards the plague marines sneaking up on them and drops off the guardians, the other moves the same way but keeps its load.

The unloaded wave serpent shoots at the heldrake with its scatter laser and manages to destroy its baleflamer, it’s not as scary any more.  The guardians shoot at the plague marines and 4 of them die to the bladestorm. Boosting to get out of the way the final wave serpent goes flat out on top of the building in front of it.

Combat and the wraithguard charge into the plague marines in front of them and the spiritseer accepts the challenge. In the challenge neither model can land a blow but the plague marines drag down the wraithguard.

Chaos turn 4

With the guardians now on the floor the spawn have better targets and go after them. The wounded chaos lord hides in my deployment zone to avoid giving up slay the warlord. Not wanting to go into hover mode the heldrake moves off the table. The plague marines on foot converge on the wave serpents.

The plague marines shoot at the boosting wave serpent but 2 over heats keeps the tank alive and 1 of the marines dies to his own weapon.

Assault phase and the spawn charge into the guardians aided by the plague marines. I fail to wound any of the spawn with overwatch. My guardians fail to wound any of the monsters and lose 5 of their number, they attempt to flee but get cut down. Nothing again happens in the challenge.

Eldar turn 5

Well my options are rather limited right now so I move back my wave serpents, 1 away from the spawn but staying in range and the over moves 6 to drop off the guardians in range of them.

I unload all the shots from the guardians onto the spawn and only deal 2 wounds. The combined fire of the 2 wave serpents manages to kill off the spawn.

The challenge carries on but again nothing happens as neither can get past the others armour.

The challenge continues...

Chaos turn 5

Coming in from his deployment zone the heldrake comes back in to play. The remaining plague marines go after the guardians and get very close.

We go straight to the assault phase and both units of plague marines charge into the guardians. Again overwatch fails and both make it into combat. Attacking first the guardians fail to get past the power armour of the marines. The marines strike back but mainly fail to hit and only get 2 wounds, both of which are saved! In the spiritseer challenge again nothing happens, what a slap fest.

We roll to see if the game carries on…

Eldar turn 6

One wave serpent moves towards the vindicator and the other to the heldrake.

Shooting at the vindicator results in the tank exploding under the assault. The other serpent fails to do anything to the heldrake.

Assault phase and it doesn’t end so well, all of the guardians get killed by the poison blades. The challenge ends this turn as the plague marine champions power fist connects to the spiritseer crushing him under the sheer force.

Chaos turn 6

The heldrake vector strikes a wave serpent but it jinks out the way. Both wave serpents get charged by a plague marine squad this turn and take hull damage but not enough to wreck them.

We roll and the game ends.

Chaos: 10 (line breaker, slay the warlord, 8 units destroyed) – Eldar: 7 (first blood, 6 units destroyed)

Chaos win.

Post-Battle

Well that went terribly, the game went my way, I stole the initiative, the deployment was in my favour and I threw it away. Granted having the wraithknight get killed in combat in 1 turn wasn’t great. At the start I think I had a good plan, it’s just a shame I didn’t carry on with it as I think it might have worked. Either way this game I liked the list a lot more as I was forced to make decisions rather than feeling bad about using the list. While it’s still a NETlist and I want to change it, I’m happier to keep using some wave serpents. Anyway what did I learn about the list?

·         Guardians: I should have gone all or nothing, either get both units out to destroy the plague marines in a single turn or hide them in the serpents and only get them out when they had no choice.

·         Wraithknight: I kind of wish he had the heavy D-cannons this game to destroy transports which would have opened up a few more points elsewhere. The suncannon was good last game but disappointing this one. Which to equip him with?

·         Wraithguard: Maybe I shouldn’t have got them out to quickly, and destroyed the rhino with another unit first. Next time I will be a little more cautious with the guard.

Anyway that’s it this week. What did you think? Did I make any more mistakes? Please comment and let me know.