Eldar vs Elysians 1875 points: Birds Of Pray

Again the Eldar take on the Elysians but this time in a 1875 point game of Cloak and Dagger. I haven't got much experience in mealstrom missions so we decided to play one so we could both learn from it.

The Armies

Eldar

Combined arms detachment

Spiritseer – 70 (warlord: ) w/ dire avengers

Conceal, Destructor, Protect

9 Dire Avengers – 117

Wave Serpent – 135

holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

10 Guardians – 110

scatter laser

Wave Serpent – 135

holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

6 Fire Dragons – 132

Wave Serpent – 135

holo field, twin-linked scatter laser

6 Swooping hawks – 96

7 Warp spiders – 103

Crimson hunter – 180

exarch

Fire Prism – 140

holo field

Lynx – 420

Total: 1873

We knew we were going to be playing a mealstrom of war mission so with this list I wanted fast elements and hard hitting units. So taking wave serpents filled both roles. The hawks and warp spiders should allow me to grab objectives, while the fire prism and fire dragons can take care of tanks. If I come across a lord of war the lynx should be able to knock it out as well as hopefully destroying what ever unit isn't in cover that needs to die.

Forces Of Elysia

Elysian Combined arms detachment

Company Command squad (warlord: -1 enemy reserves)

officer of the fleet, long range ground scanner

Infantry platoon

Platoon command squad

auxiliary grenade launcher, 4x grenade launcher

Infantry squad

aux. Grenade launcher,

Infantry squad

aux, Grenade launcher

Heavy weapon team

3x missile launcher

Veteran squad

forward observers, 2x sniper rifles

Taros Venerator

Twin-linked lascannon,

Vendetta

Vendetta (proxied by stormraven)

Sentry Gun Battery

twin-linked lascannons

Elysian D-99 Allied detachment

D-99 command squad

4x plasma guns

5 D-99 Veterans

D-99 executioner squad

7man, 6x melta gun

Drop sentinel squadron

3x multi-melta

Vulture

Punisher cannons

This list was a bit of a test for my opponent, so he has a lot of proxy models to test out the list as buying more elysian models is very expensive. He has a lot more units coming in from reserve, so this will be a difficult game, and the best manoeuvres will win the game. Also a rather interesting thing he has in this list is -2 to enemy reserve rolls thanks to officer of the fleet and the scanner. In this game his warlord trait increases this to -3 so I will really struggle to get anything in from reserve.

The Mission

As its mealstrom of war and we aren't really used to it, we had to check everything. So first we set up the 6 objectives, and just threw them around everywhere. Then rolling for deployment we got dawn of war, so its nice and simple. Next the actual mission is Cloak and Dagger, so 3 cards each and we don't know what the other has.

Next we roll for who picks deployment zone and the Elysians win the roll, and select their deployment zone. He then deploys his force. At the back In the ruins he places his Elysian Command squad. In the ruins to their right he places the heavy weapons team with missile launchers. Then on his left he places the D-99 Veteran unit so he has another unit on the table. Next to the veterans on the other side of the building, he places the tauros (cut out of the pick i'm afraid). All of the fliers are in reserve, the drop sential unit starts in reserve ready to deep strike as does the infantry squad. His elysian veteran unit is held back ready to infiltrate.

My deployment is a little restricted as I know he can just deep strike next to me and destroy my harder hitting units. So with this in mind, I place the lynx in the middle of the table surrounded by wave serpents then my left of them I place the warp spiders for some added protection. The hawks go right at the back ready to jump turn 1. I place the fire from away from the missile launchers, next to the tauros (probably a mistake).

Infiltrating his veterans, he places them out of sight behind the woods.

Night Fight: No

Steal the Initiative: No

The Battle

Elysians turn 1

Getting dropped from above, the forward sentry guns combat drop in front of the tanks, and don't scatter because of the veterans beacon. The Valkyrie drops next to the warp spiders, and again doesn't scatter because of the beacon. Damn. The D-99 veterans move up towards the wall in front of them (with an objective) for cover while the regular veterans move into the woods.

First the sentry guns shoot at the closest wave serpent, which jinks, all 3 shots hit, 1 fails to do anything and the other 2 are saved. The Valkyrie shoots at the warp spiders but fails to kill any one, so the veterans in the woods fire at them and kill 1. Three krack missiles target the fire prism but it jinks, and it takes no damage. Stepping up the Tauros shoots at the prim but again it avoid all damage. I got out of that turn unscathed.

Scoring: Claim objective 3, claim objective 3, Ascendency (1 point)

Elysians: 3 – Eldar: 0

Eldar turn 1

The guardians wave serpent (that was in front of the lynx) moves to the objective held by the sentry guns. Trying to take another objective the fire dragons wave serpent moves to my left (right in the photo) to take the objective in the ruin. As i'm after ascendancy the fire prism moves closer to the table edge to claim the other objective. Warp spiders jump forwards towards the middle objective while still able to shoot at the flier. The lynx turns to face the command squad while the swooping hawks jump into the sky.

Aiming to get slay the warlord and first blood, the lynx fires its Pulsar at the command squad in the ruin, both shots hit and they go to ground. Unfortunately I don't roll many 6's and I only 3 guys die including the scanner. Shooting into the sky, the warp spiders attempt to damage the Valkyrie but they do no damage, to finish their move they battle focus and run to claim the objective in front of them. Combining fire, the wave serpents shoot at the sentry guns and manage to kill off 2 and reduce the last one to 1 wound.

Scoring: Objective 1, Ascendancy (2)

Elysians: 3 – Eldar: 3

Elysians turn 2

Everything comes in from reserve this turn. Both of the vendettas come in straight for the Lynx while the vulture aims for the warp spiders. As a back up for the vendettas, the drop sentinels go for a risky deep strike right next to the lynx, and locks on, damn it. The D-99 command squad aim for the fire dragon wave serpent but scatters back behind the ruin. The first infantry squad comes in by the warp spiders and scatters off into the river. The second aim next to the warp spiders and scatters onto the spiders and mishap, going back into reserve. The platoon command locks on next to the fire prism. Their isn't much room to move anymore so the Valkyrie moves off the table. Moving out of cover the Tauros gets into position to target the rear of the guardians wave serpent.

The lone sentry gun targets the wave serpent closest to it, so the wave serpent jinks, which was a good call as it would have penetrated its armour. Trying to destroy the lynx, the sentinels fire their mulit-meltas at it, but two of them hit the titan holo field instead and the other just takes a single hull point off it. In a desperate attempt to finish it off the vendettas both target the lynx but most shots hit the hologram and end up only taking a single hull point off it. Vendetta shoots at the warp spiders and kill off 6 of them with ease, leaving 1 left. The sniper rifles in the veteran unit in woods kills off the last spider gaining first blood. Shots from the tauros shoots at the rear of the guardians wave serpent but it manages to jink out the way. Plasma shots from the D-99 command squad shoots at the rear of the fire dragons wave serpent and it gets a single penetrating hit. The platoon command tries to grenade the fire prism but fails to do anything.

Score: Claim objective 5, Claim objective 5, first blood

Elysians: 6 – Eldar: 3

Eldar turn 2

Dropping in behind enemy lines the swooping hawks drop their grenades on the enemy warlord and kills every one but the warlord. The guardians get out of their wave serpent and go after the platoon command before they do anything. Moving away from the melta threat the lynx moves back a little.

Guardians kill off the platoon command before they can grenade the rear of a vehicle. Before the sentinels can do anything the lynx tries to kill them off but both shots scatter off, with only 1 hit which gets a 1 to damage, doing nothing. The hawks shoot at the warlord and manage to do 2 wounds to him but he still lives. Focusing the prism, the fire prism targets at the Tauros and explodes the buggy. The D-99 command squad gets murdered by the wave serpents.

Score: Behind enemy lines

Elysians: 6 – Eldar: 4

Elysians turn 3

Coming back for another go, the infantry squad left in reserve deep strikes onto objective 4. the roar of the Valkyrie engines can be heard as it comes back onto the table straight for the guardians. Turning to take on a new threat, the vulture hunts down the swooping hawks. The infantry on the ground spreads out and goes after the wave serpents, attempting to grenade the tanks. With little room to manouver, one vendetta sticks to its attacking run on lynx while the other pulls away and goes after the fire prism.

First the vendettas attack run on the Lynx, only 1 of the shots hit the holo field the other two actually hit. Thankfully one fails to penetrate, but the other takes a single hull point off the lord of war. Lucky to be alive, the sentinels make sure the lynx doesn't have another chance to shoot at them and all 3 multi-meltas hit and get past the holo field. With ease they explode the lynx which has a titanic explosion but scatters and does no damage to anyone. The other vendetta shoots at the fire prism but it jinks out the way, and I save all the shots. Using both rocket pods on the guardians the Valkyrie manages to cripple the guardians. The D-99 veterans fire their lasguns as the guardians and kill and extra 1, reducing their number to 3, thankfully the guardians hold. Proving who is the greater bird of pray the vulture destroys the swooping hawks.

Assault phase and the veterans charge out the woods into the fire dragons wave serpent but only manages to to score a single glancing hit.

Score: Objective 4, behind enemy lines (3)

Elysians: 10 – Eldar: 4

Eldar turn 3

The wave serpent up front moves after the warlord, that guy has been a hassle long enough and must die. The others move away from the veterans and the dire avengers jump out with the spiritseer after the closest infantry squad. Trying to avenge the lynx the fire dragons get out of their transport and runs straight for the sentinels.

First psykic phase of the game and the spiritseer casts protect on the dire avengers with ease. Next he throws 3 dice at destructor and get 3 6's, casting it but getting a perils. In the warp flame 8 of the infantry die and the spiritseer rolls a 1, and gets sucked into the warp after failing his leadership test.

Finally the enemy warlord is slain after getting gunned down by wave serpent. Running then gunning, the fire dragons shoot at the drop sentinels and manages to explode 2 of them and reduce the other to 1 hull point. With the spiritseer getting sucked into the warp, the dire avengers spirits are not dampened and finish off the infantry squad while the other is killed off by the combined fire of the the wave serpents. The guardians attempt to finish off the damaged sentinel but their shuriken fail to hit their mark.

Score: take no prisoners (3), kingslayer (2), slay the warlord [Elysians: Slay the warlord]

Elysians: 11 – Eldar: 10

Elyaisns turn 4

One of the vendettas leaves the battle field while the other hunts a wave serpent. Going into hover mode the Valkyrie drops off the executioners and they go for the fire prism. The lone sentinel goes after the closest wave serpent to him. Again the infantry get closer to the wave serpents to use grenades on them. Vulture moves around.

Again the D-99 veterans shoot at the guardians killing 1 more. Using their ridiculous number of melta guns on the fire prism (it jinks) they manage to shake it and destroys its shuriken catapults. Again the punishing fire power of the vulture kills off another unit, this time its the fire dragons. The heavy weapons team shoots at the closest wave serpent, it jinks, but still takes a glancing hit. All three lascannons from the vendetta target the wave serpent but it manages to jink out the way.

Assault phase and the infantry squad charge the fire dragons wave serpent and wreck it.

Score: king slayer (1)

Elysians: 12 – Eldar: 10

Eldar turn 4

Finally the crimson hunter come in from reserve and goes towards the vulture. The dire avengers move to attack the infantry that just wrecked the wave serpent.

Firing all of its weapons at the vulture, which jinks, all the crimson hunter manages to do it blow off a lascannon. The dire avengers kill a few of the infantry and luckily the sergeant is closest to them, killing him. They then and run towards the objective in the ruin next to them. The jinked wave serpent shoots at the vulture as well but fails to do anything to it. As I can't do much with the fire prism it snap shoots at the vendetta but it misses.

Score: assassinate

Elysians: 12 – Eldar: 11

Elysians turn 5

All of the fliers go after the crimson hunter while what remains of the infantry attempt to grab objectives.

The last of the guardians get killed while the lone sentry wrecks a wave serpent. It takes all of the fliers to target the crimson hunter to wreck it, but it still dies.

Assault phase and the executioners charge into the fire prism, wrecking it with krack grenades.

Score: blood and guts

Elysians: 13 – Eldar: 11

Eldar turn 5

With only a few dire avengers left they kill the D-99 command in the ruins with them, while my last wave serpent grabs objective 4.

Score: objective 1, objective 4

Elysians: 13 – Eldar: 13

We roll to see if the game continues... it ends. So the Elysians get line breaker to win the game.

Elysians: 14 – Eldar: 13

That was a very close game, and well done to the Imperium for a close game.

Post-Battle

That was a very close game, which came down to bloody line breaker. A very good and close game. I enjoyed trying a mealstrom mission for once instead of an eternal war one, and it really does change the whole game. This one I found enjoyable as we both kept getting similar cards which I am sure balances out the game, but it could have gone very differently if some of the cards had been different. It was unfortunate losing the spiritseer as soon as he got out of his transport to perils, but that's just how it goes sometimes, I can't really complain, I can be bitter, but not complain. Anyway what did I learn from this game?

• Objectives or kills: I found that I had a few choices in the game where it came down to do I kill an enemy unit, or do I go after an objective? A few times I may have made the wrong choice. It makes me think that mobility is a very important fact in this game type, so you can almost do both in a single turn. I need to figure out when I can afford the risk of not killing something now so I can gain a dew victory points, and vice versa.
• D weapons: They aren't the been all and kill all weapon they used to be, and I need to get used to it. I prefer it the way they are now, but I kind of forgot that cover can really bugger you up. I should have just targeted the lascannons turn 1 with the lynx and killed them off, leaving the wave serpents to take out command, or at least another unit instead. Keep that in mind next time, don't go gung ho thinking D can kill all.
• Fliers: While they are hard to target, they weren't as broken as some would make out. I think I did the right thing not focusing on them heavily this game, and taking out the infantry as they can't really take objectives. However they did force me to jink constantly.

Anyway that was a great game, and I look forward to trying out more mealstrom missions in the future. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did playing it. And sorry for the poor quality pictures.