Eldar vs Orks 1500: Rising Sunz

The Hordes of the Evil sunz need to be contained, and it’s down to the Warhost of spiritseer Antaris the warp forged to cull the beasts. This is a 1500 point game of the emperors will with vanguard strike deployment between Codex Orks (no supplement) and Codex Eldar (no supplement).

The Armies

Eldar 1500: Combined arms detachment

Spiritseer – 70 (warlord) w/ dire avengers

[empower, embolden, conceal]

Warlock – 35 w/ guardians

[quicken, conceal]

10 Dire Avengers – 140

Exarch

Wave Serpent – 135

Holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

10 Guardians – 110

Scatter laser

Wave Serpent – 135

Holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

10 Guardians – 110

Scatter laser

Wave Serpent – 135

Holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

5 Fire Dragons – 110 (in falcon)

Vyper – 60

2x shuriken cannon

Vyper – 60

2x shuriken cannon

Falcon – 135

Scatter laser

2 War walkers – 140

4x bright lance

This list is a slight variant on my tournament list, it drops all units on foot (wraithknight, warp spiders) and goes for more vehicles, so it feels more like a mechanised list. I wouldn’t say it’s very competitive as they are key units getting dropped, but it’s a little more thematic.

Orks 1500: Ork horde detachment

Warboss (warlord: +1 strength) w/ boyz

Power klaw

Painboy w/ boyz

20 Boyz

Nob, power klaw, boss pole, 2x rokkit launcher

20 Boyz

Nob, power klaw, boss pole, 2x rokkit launcher

20 Gretchin

5 Meganobz

Kombi-skorcha, 3x kombi-rokkit

Trukk

10 Bikes

Nob, power klaw

2 Skorchas

ram

10 lootas

3 Kannons

3 Killer kans

Rokkit launchers

The Mission

Rolling up the mission we get Emperors will (2 objectives) with vanguard strike deployment. The roll for deployment zone is won by the orks who select the deployment zone with the large ruin in. We then place our objectives, I place mine inside some ruins, and he places his inside his as well. The roll for who deploys firs is won by the Eldar and I elect to set up first.

Deploying the eldar force was quite simple, I place the war walkers in the middle in the ruins and to either side gets placed the wave serpents and falcon. The wave serpent to the right of them contains guardians. The one to the left contains dire avengers with spiritseer and the last is the guardians with warlock. You can’t see it in the picture but the fire prism is in the corner at the bottom of the pic.

Orks deploy by placing all of the infantry in the middle ready to race towards me, the bikes, trukk and skorchas hide in the ruin. On the right on the hill are the kannons and killer kans. Lootas are hiding in the ruin to the left of his deployment zone.

Night fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

The Eldar vehicles move up to get in range of their targets, both wave serpents on the left move to target the lootas while the right hand vehicles move to target the killer kans. Both vypers move around to support the attack. To get a better line of sight the fire prism moves up.

The first volley of the game comes from a wave serpent shooting at the lootas, and manages to kill 4 with the serpent shield as the cover save it too much for the scatter laser. The second serpent shoots as well killing 4 more, reducing the squad down to 2. The vyper on the left takes a chance at the trukk hoping to get a lucky shot on the trukk (an immobilised result would be great) but fails to do anything. On the right the falcon shoots at the killer kans with its scatter laser, wrecking one, it’s pulse laser than shoots and gets 2 pens which are saved by the cover save from the woods. The supporting wave serpent adds its fire power to the kans and manages to wreck 1 and take a hull point off the other. With no high priority targets (that I have a chance of killing) the fire prism instead shoots at the horde of orks but it scatter off and only kills 3. The kans take a test and end up shaking themselves.

Ork turn 1

With the engines roaring, the bikes and trukk move straight for the eldar lines. The skorchas follow but 1 gets immobilised on the ruin. The horde of boyz surges forwards and the remaining kan stumbles forwards though the woods.

The two remaining lootas shoot at the vyper closest to them and manage to get a penetrating hit, shaking it. The lone kan shoots at the falcon but fails to hit. The bikes target the damaged vyper who elects to jink, but the pilot isn’t skilled enough to dodge a wall of death and it gets wrecked. The kannons target the wave serpent on the right and I decide not to jink, the grots manage to get a single glancing hit but the 6+ holo field save stops the tank taking any damage. Both the trukk and skorchas go flat out while the boyz shoot a few stay rokkits which do nothing.

Eldar turn 2

With the meganobz trukk so close I move away from it as much as I can and still shoot. The war walkers however move towards them.

It takes the combined fire from 2 wave serpents and a vyper to wreck the trukk... it should have just taken 1 wave serpent. The mega nobz jump out and fail their pinning test keeping them in place. The war walkers then take the chance to kill some but only get 1 hit which fails to do anything thanks to the cover save from the wreck. The falcon manages to wreck the final killer kan removing the unit form the table. Again the prism fires at the boyz with its large blast but it scatters again and only kills 1. In a rather stupid move I make the final wave serpent target the kannons thinking maybe I can make them run but the 3+ save stops them taking any damage.

Orks turn 2

Carrying on forwards the mobs get closer to my tanks, and the bikes move into a central position.

Snap shots from the mega nobz miss the intended target of the war walkers while both the bikes and skorcha goes flat out. The two pesky lootas target the war walkers and manages to shake one, then the kannons explode the other! Not a great turn.

Assault phase and the boyz on the right make a charge against the falcon and the wave serpent, and thanks to ere we go get a good charge of 10 inches and make it in with all the boyz. Even though they needs 6’s to glance the mob of boyz get enough and both tanks are wrecked in a single turn.

Eldar turn 3

With the hordes upon me I panic at this point and go for a rather odd move. The wave serpent next to the nobz, unloads the guardians next to them, while the other serpent moves into the ruins to drop off the dire avengers.

The first psychic phase of the game and the warlock manages to cast quicken on the guardians, and the spiritseer casts horrify on the warboss’s mob.

Shooting and the guardians run 7 inches then shoot at the meganobz, but only manage to kill 1. Firing all it has, the vyper tries to take out the skorcha but only shakes it. The guardian’s wave serpent shoots at the bikes and kills 2 while the fire dragons and other unit of guardians shoot at the boyz who killed the tanks but only kill 1 boy each. Long range shuriken fire from the dire avengers kills 5 of the warboss’s unit and they fail their moral test, but kill 4 orks in order to restore order. The fire prism attempts to kill the boyz huddled together by the wrecked tanks but once again the shot scatters wide and does no damage. Snap shots from the war walker does nothing.

Orks turn 3

Irritated by the guardians feeble attack the mega nobz go straight for them. Not able to shoot this turn the skorcha goes for the firm prism ramming it, somehow the ork vehicle is fine yet the prism takes a glancing hit! The bikes move to see the dire avengers while the boyz surround the fire dragons and guardians.

Firing the kombi-skorcha the meganobz manage to wipe out 5 guardians and the warlock in a single shot. The vast number of shots from the bikes manages to kill off 6 of the dire avengers and the grots even manage to deal a single wound to the spiritseer.

Assault phase and things start getting a little hectic. To prevent me overwatching anything useful, the gretchin multi-charge both the dire avengers and the guardians making it into combat and not taking any wounds from over watch. The boyz then charge into the guardians and fire dragons while the bikes go after the dire avengers. The spiritseer issued a challenge to which the biker nob accepted. The seer dealt a single wound to him setting his unit on fire but took a power klaw to the face getting killed. By the end of the combat 3 fire dragons, 1 guardian and 3 dire avengers are left and all of them run for it and manage to escape. In the middle of the table the mega nobz charge the guardians and the war walker, the walker manages to kill a nob with over watch but it’s not enough, and all the eldar are killed.

End of the turn and 2 bikes die to soul blaze.

Eldar turn 4

In a desperate attempt to salvage something from this game the lone wave serpent moves out towards the enemy deployment zone. The dire avengers and fire dragons rally but the guardian carries on running.  I move the fire prism back.

In a rather unexpected turn of events the vyper shoots at the meganobz and kills 1, who then run. The wave serpent goes flat out and everyone else fails to really do any damage, the fire prism missed... again.

Soul blaze does nothing.

Orks turn 4

The warboss and buddies go after the remaining wave serpent while the bikes go hunting the fire prism. Wanting to finally burn some eldar, the skorcha moves to target the dire avengers. The grots grab my objective while the boyz encircle the fire dragons.

Slugga shots from the boyz kills a single fire dragon and the kannons shoot at the vyper. The light skimmer again jinks out the way unharmed. A few shots from the lootas target the wave serpent which doesn’t jink but the holo field save again ignores the glance (6+ cover saves are handy). The skorcha kills 2 of the dire avengers and the last guy runs for it.

Assault phase and the boyz charge the fire dragons who each kill an ork with over watch, but they get pummelled into the ground by the mass of orks. The other boyz charge the wave serpent and wreck it before the warboss can even have a chance to attack (he won’t be happy about that). The bikes charge the fire prism... as well the pattern is rather obvious, it gets wrecked.  

Soul blaze kills a biker.

Eldar turn 5

The dire avenger runs off the table but the guardian rallies with a double 1! He shoots at the bikes but does nothing.

Soul blaze goes out.

Ork turn 5

They table me, killing the vyper with the bikes and the grots kill the last guardian.

Ork Victory

Post-Battle

Well that was rather unexpected, I thought I would be fine against that ork list but I look too much time to stop the trukk and I just let the boyz hit me at practically full strength. That was a disaster. Looking back now what should I have done differently?

·         Deployment: Separating my tanks like that might not have been the smartest move, I should have had them together to support each other and make sure a threat is dead before moving on.

·         Attack the fast elements first: I should have left the kans for a turn or two as they weren’t exactly an early threat. If I had moved away and targeted the bikes that would have made a massive difference as they had a massive toll of dead. Also when i should have cast horrify on the bikes to try and force them to run not the warboss.

·         Tanks aren’t invincible: I didn’t think the tanks would be wrecked by a charging mob, I should have but I thought they would be ok if they got to close. I was wrong and I need to make sure I don’t mess that up next time.

That game was just a disaster and I deserved to lose that, but it does mean I am still yet to defeat the orks with the 6^th edition eldar codex yet. I better sort this out.

Hope you enjoyed reading.