In game 1 I won full points against a chaos space marine player, see
here for the report.
The Armies
Eldar 1850
Farseer – 115 (warlord: out flankers get acute senses) w/dark reapers
Spirit stone of Anath’lan, guide, prescience, dominate
Spiritseer – 70
Conceal, enhance
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
Chaos/Necron 1850
Daemon prince
Daemon of tzneetch, wings, black mace
Sorcerer (Warlord) w/ spawn
Level 3 (hallucination, invisibility, dominate), bike
10 Cultists
11 Cultists
Heldarke
Baleflamer
Heldarke
Baleflamer
4 Spawn
Mark of nurgle
Defence Line
Comms relay
Allied Necrons
Destroyer lord
Mindshackle scarabs, Sempiternal weave
5 warriors
Night scythe
5 Warriors
Night Scythe
5 Wraiths
Annihilation Barge
Well that is one hell of a scary army, 4 flyers, 1 flying monstrous
creature and 2 very fast and hard hitting units. Honestly I panicked when I saw
the list.
The Mission
This game the mission was a 6 objective game, rather reminiscent to the old apocalypse scenario. Both players had to place 1 objective in his own deployment, no mans land, and then his opponents deployment. I lost the roll for deployment zone. We both placed our defence lines, and then rolled for first turn. I won the roll and decided to go first.
Unsure what to do, I set up centrally with my tanks, on the left side I had my warp spiders and the fire prism on the right. Dark reapers manned the lascannon backed up by the dark reapers. I placed the hawks behind the defence line ready to jump up. As I didn’t know what to do I placed the walkers and rangers into reserve, outflanking.
He placed his wraiths with destroyer lord behind the defence line, the
annihilation barge was hidden from sight as was the spawn + sorcerer. The
cultists and flyers went into reserve.
 |
| Deployment |
Steal the Initiative: Didn’t attempt to
The Battle
Eldar turn 1
I cast prescience on the dark reapers. I don’t bother any more as I
don’t want to risk any perils that I don’t have to. The hawks jump to the sky
and I move the wave serpents and fire prism forwards, with the logic as there
is such a large line of sight blocking terrain I will need to move to see. The
warp spiders jump forwards as well, with a massive 18 inches (and a spider dyeing).
Shooting phase is more second movement as the tanks move again
forwards, then the dark reapers shoot at the wraiths, but they fail to get past
the 3+ invulnerable save.
Assault and the spiders jump again.
ChaosCron turn 1
Jump infantry, the wraiths are jump infantry. Didn’t realise that.
They move straight towards my tanks as the prince jumps to the sky straight
towards the dark reapers, but hides behind a bunker. Moving to see the warp
spiders, the annihilation barge sets its sights on the warp spiders.
The crack of tesla lightning arcs towards the warp spiders and a
single spider dies, the lighting doesn’t arc to any other units.
Assault phase and the wraiths need an 8 to catch the closest wave
serpent. They make it, charge it and get 3 penetrating hits and roll explodes
the tank, 3 guardians are caught in the wreckage and can’t escape. They fail there
pinning test.
Eldar turn 2
Well that wasn’t what I wanted. None of my outflankers arrive from
reserve thanks to the -1 reserve roll. Prescience is cast on the dark reapers,
guide is cast on the warp spiders and conceal is cast on the dark reapers. The
hawks land within 24 of the prince and the spiders jump towards the prince.
Both wave serpents move away from the wraiths.
Aiming to the sky the hawks shoot at the prince and manage to hit him
a couple of times. I fail to wound him but his wings suffer a puncture and he
plummets to the ground but spreads his wings and lands gently at the last
second. A torrent of shots comes from the spiders at the prince but thanks to
his god he remains unharmed (3+ save, re-rolling 1’s is hard to crack, and no
6’s). The wave serpents shoot at the wraiths and deal a single wound to them.
Assault phase and the spiders jump away from prince.
ChaosCrons turn 2
From reserve two heldrakes scream in from reserve, one going towards
the swooping hawks and the other going down the middle. A single night scythe
comes in on the right side of the table. The destroyer lord leaves the wraiths
and goes after the wave serpent at the top of the table while the wraiths go
after the warp spiders. Seeking cover the spawn go into the fortification but
the sorcerer is forced to stay on the floor. Gliding low to the ground the
daemon prince gets ready to charge the dark reapers. I intercept with the
Icarus lascannon on the middle heldrake and only manage a single glancing hit.
The night scythe targets the fire prism and its lightning hits my tank
hard, causing it to get stunned by the force as well as stripping a hull point
with a glancing hit. Flames from the heldrake on the left kill all of the
swooping hawks while the centre drake kills off all of the pinned guardians.
A battle cry from the destroyer lord rings across the table as he
charges the wave serpent containing guardians. He hits something important and
the tank explodes, killing 4 of the guardians inside. The wraiths declare a multi-charge
on the warp spiders and remaining wave serpent. The attacks manage to explode
the wave serpent and kill all of the warp spiders. The prince charges into the
dark reapers and declares a challenge, which the spiritseer accepts but the
hammer of wraith attack kills the seer out right. I hold.
Eldar turn 3
I can’t really do much so the prism shoots at the destroyer lord and
manages to hit even though it can only snapshot. The shot wounds him. The
guardians now in the open shoot at the lord and again but fail to do anything
only getting a single hit which fails to wound. Shooting from the wraithguard
at the wraiths does nothing.
Assault and the prince again issues a challenge and the farseer
accepts, but he dies to the flurry of attacks. The curse of the black mace
fails to kill off the dark reapers.
ChaosCrons turn 3
The 10 man unit of cultists come in from reserve, on the left side
objective. He manages to keep the other unit and night scythe out with his
comms relay. The two heldrakes move over the wraithguard who are now in the
open (well the wreckage of their tank) and vector strike them, killing 3.
Flames from the sky drop on the wraithguard from both heldrakes but only
a single construct gets destroyed. Lightening from the annihilation barge hits
the fire prism and it explodes.
Assault phase and the destroyer lord charges into the guardians, they
fail to do any damage with overwatch and in combat. 2 guardians die to the lord
and the rest run for it and escape. The lone wraithguard gets charged by the
wraiths and is over whelmed, without taking any necrons with him. The on-going
combat between the prince and reapers ends with the prince smashing the reapers
into the ground.
Eldar turn 4
Thank god the guardians didn’t get cut down as I’m not tabled,
allowing my war walkers and rangers to arrive from reserve. They both arrive on
the left side of the table and I place them at the top to kill the cultists. The
guardians rally and face the destroyer lord.
Shooting from the guardians does nothing to the destroyer lord, but
the rangers and walkers fair a little better killing 6 cultists, they hold
though.
ChaosCrons turn 4
The cultists arrive from reserve on top of the top right side
objective, the final flyer comes in facing the guardians while the prince jumps
to the sky moving towards the walkers. The wraiths move towards the guardians. The
drakes move back towards the war walkers as does the first night scythe. Casting
invisibility on the spawn the sorcerer moves back towards the walkers.
Shooting from the new cultists kill 2 guardians, they then get cut
down by the night scythe. On the left side of the table the walkers get wrecked
by the annihilation barge, rolling 2 6’s on the hit. They never stood a chance.
Assault and I get tabled by the spawn murdering the rangers under the
unrelenting number of attacks.
ChaosCron Victory
Post-Battle
Well that game went downhill very quickly; I made so many mistakes
this game I was on te backfoot before turn 1 even started. AS I got tabled I received
0 points for this game and sent my opponent straight into the lead with 2
victories and full points. For those of you interested he went on to win the
tournament, so I don’t feel too bad about the loss. But I could have done a lot
more to fight back. Where did I go wrong?
·
First turn: I selected to go first, I shouldn’t
have done that. As it was an objective game with night fight and only 3 units
on the table turn 1 I should have selected to go second. It would give me time
to react; hopefully I would be able to draw him out into the open to shoot him
first instead of running into the meat grinder.
·
Deployment: I wouldn’t say my deployment was
terrible but it had a lot to be desired. As his defence line was in the corner
and hidden I should have castled up in the opposite side of the table with the
greatest lines of sight.
·
Movement: Why I moved straight towards him
instead of hanging back and shooting I will never know. It meant he could
vector strike me straight away and I was in assault range! If I had stayed back
and waited for him I could have had a chance to shoot down his flyers. Such a
massive mistake.
Sometimes you just need to get your head kicked in to be able to learn
and develop tactics. This happened to be one such time. So I now plunge into
the middle of the rankings. My next game is against a Chaos Daemons list with
Chaos marine allies. Place your bets now…
"Jump infantry, the wraiths are jump infantry. Didn’t realise that."
ReplyDelete...this is not a thought you ever want to have. Gave me a good laugh though.
I'd like to rebring up my previous comments though that a Crimson Hunter in place of your Fire Prism might be really good for this list. If it had gotten the jump on even one of those Hellturkeys this game could have, maybe, been salvaged, or at least turned into a closer thing.
How are Swooping Hawks working for you? They've always been my favorite aspect warrior in the fluff but, until now, never seemed work taking on the table.
Im thinking the hunter might have been useful this game as well. I will consider it more in future tournsments.
DeleteThe hawks have been good for me. The sheer torrent of shots they put out is good at hitting a flying monstrous creature and hopefully grounding it. Plus sky leap is great for line breaker.
They arent great vs marines but you cant have everything.
All of my comments are the things you realized at game's end. While I was reading, I asked myself these questions:
ReplyDeleteWhy is he going first? His opponent has a primarily assaulty army, they HAVE to come to him to be effective.
Why is he moving forward an not just shuffling around his deployment zone, awaiting the assaulting units and staying out of range of the Vector Strikes?
The terrain was very beneficial, having a Fotress of Redemption to hide behind was very good for your opponent. I agree with you, your ADL could have been placed better to get better sight lines.
I would have for sure put the Walkers on the table to start with just because of the firepower they put out. Outflank is nice, but just because they have it, doesnt mean you have to use it every time.
Sucks to lose like that, but hopefully you learned some more strategy and can build onto it in your last game of the tournament and in future games!