Friday 13 July 2012

First game of 6th... Eldar vs Blood angels 1000 points


I know i'm quite behind every one with posting my first battle report for 6th edition but its not my fault... GW posted my copy late and so i was knocked back from then on. And if that excuse isn't good enough, gutted for you. Anyway here is my Eldar against blood angels for a small game of 6th edition 1000 points, Hammer and Anvil, the relic.

The new rules are quite interesting, with vehicles taking a slight hit (but fast vehicles being able to put out more fire power) and shooting becoming more prominent with overwatch and AP to combat weapons toning down most power weapons, shooting has defiantly become the aspect of the game i feel i should focus on now. More psychic powers now at my disposal i though i would try swapping out and trying the new ones. Unfortunately eldar still have to buy powers so i bought the two cheapest for my farseer to swap. So here is my list bearing in mind these changes. 


Eldar 1000

Farseer - 115 (Warlord, Master of Vanguard) w/ 10 Dire avangers
spirit stones, guide, mindwar, (swapped for invisibility and psychic shriek)

8 Path finders - 192

10 Dire avengers - 120

8 Dire avengers - 96

6 Fire dragons - 96

Wave serpent - 120
Spirit stones, Twin shuriken cannon, shuriken cannon

2 Vypers - 120
2 x shuriken cannon (each)

4 Dark reapers - 140 

As its a small game i decided to go troops heavy and tone down the vehicles. With fast vehicles being able to move 12 and still fire ANY two weapons i took advantage and gave everything shuirken cannons. And i wanted to see how dark reapers now fare on the battlefield now cover is mainly 5+ instead of 4+, it might make a difference, it might not. But we shall see, looking at this it feels like a weak list by 5th edition standards, but maybe not now.

Blood angels 1000

Reclusiarch - 130 (warlord, master of defense,) W/ death company

10 Tactical squad - 180 (combat squaded)
Plasma gun

Rhino - 50

5 Death company - 100

Razorback - 55

Furioso dreadnought - 125
Blood talons

Dreadnought - 120
2x autocannons

Predator - 180
twin lascannon, lascannon sponsons

Land speeder - 60
2 x heavy bolter

And that's my opponents list, i feel he still had 5th edition in mind even though he owned the 6th edition rule book. Im a little concerned by the death company as they now get +2 attacks on the charge instead of running after the closest enemy, shame, i always enjoyed kiting them in my previous battle reports. 

We roll for mission and we get 'the Relic', one objective and you can pick it up. A very interesting sounding mission, i was looking forward to this. For set up we got Hammer and Anvil, so the long length of the table, a very interesting and very different kind of game compared to 5th edition already. We roll for set up and i win, deciding to go first (as i can't reserve my whole army any more) so i can attempt to deal as much damage as i can. Blood angels attempt to steal the initiative but fail. We roll to see if we get night fighting turn 1, we don't.

Deployment
Eldar Turn 1

First thing first, the new psychic powers, i attempt to cast invisibility onto the Farseer and his dire avengers and cast it, they now have a 2+ cover save if they are targeted though the dire avengers in front of them, not too bad. 
Movement was quite bland, my two vypers hide behind the building in the middle of the board while my wave serpent moves slightly to see the rhinos hoping to target them (i totally forgot that i can pre-measure now, if i did my moves would have been totally different). The dire avengers both surge forward towards the relic, hoping to grab it before the marines can get to them. 
Shooting phase was disappointing as my wave serpent was out of range and the dark reapers and rangers failed to glance a rhino. A disappointing first turn.



Blood angels Turn 1

At this point we realise we can pre-measure, yay! So from this point on we start measuring everything, how far away each model is, how far a predator has to move to shoot, how high the trees are etc...
The Predator moves forward 6 inches to target my wave serpent while both dreads move forward to get closer to my line. The rhino containing the tactical marines moves at cruising speed while the land speeder moves 12 to get into range.
The rhino continues moving in the shooting phase going flat out. The predator targets my wave serpent with all 3 lascannons, all hitting but only 2 penetrating. Luckily my jink save negates both shots, i love new skimmer rules. The dreadnought fires its autocannons at my dark reapers and some how manages to bust through their armor killing two of my men. The razorback targets the 8 man dire avenger squad reducing it to 7, while the land speeder fails to wound them with a staggering roll of four 1's. To finish the shooting phase the furioso dreadnought runs but rolls a 1. Not a bad first turn for me.



Eldar turn 2

Again i cast invisibility onto the farseer and his dire avenger bodyguards. I move my vypers forward to make sure they are in range of the predators side armor, that many (12) shots has to at least glance it a few times. My wave serpent moves towards the the rhino that just moved flat out and the dragons jumped out, moving so they are in range to melt the tank. Both units of dire avengers then converge on the relic, i need to grab it before the marines can.
Shooting starts with the vypers shooting at the predator, those 12 shots managed to penetrate it twice and cause an explosion, destroying the tank (First blood, 1-0). The fire dragons then continue my tank destroying streak making the rhino explode, wounding two tactical marines in the process.
The dire avengers then combine fire to take down a further 3 marines. The wave serpents combines its two  cannons on the last marine, wiping out one of the combat squads. The dark reapers target the other combat squad but miss with all their shots. How ever the rangers manage to do a bit better, downing one of the marines. Over all a good shooting phase.

Blood angels turn 2

The razorback surges forward and lets the death company out to try and avenge their battle brothers. The remaining tactical marines move though cover out of the crater left from their rhino. The dread move forward as well.
Starting with the dread with autocannons, a vyper explodes in the sky while the other one gets a weapon blown off of it. The land speeder once again shoots at the dire avengers in front, killing 3 of them, followed by the death company (DC) who fire pistols killing a further 1. The few remaining dire avengers hold their ground though. The tactical marines rapid fire into the invisible dire avengers and manage to take down 2 of them. Then finally the furioso runs 5 inches, its getting uncomfortably close to my soft guys now.



Eldar turn 3

The single vyper moves up away from the battle but still in range of the speeder to try and down the skimmer. The fire dragons move to target the DC as do the wave serpent and dire avengers (who happen to be moving away from the furioso. The almost depleted dire avengers move to claim the objective and manage to pick it up.
Shooting starts with the dark reapers shooting at the tactical marines and this time manage to hit and wipe out the 3 marines. The farseer manages to cast psychic shriek on the DC and rolls 11, killing 1 DC. The dragons shoot at the DC but only 1 causes a wound, the Chaplin is the closes model so takes look out sir, but only rolls a 1... he rolls for his invulnerable save and a 3 appears... his warlord gets inst-killed (2-0) to my amazement. I didn't see that coming. The rangers then shoot at the DC getting two rends, killing two more (FNP really isn't helping my opponent). Then my luck ends as the wave serpent and vyper do nothing. Still a good phase for me.

Blood angels turn 3

The razorback moves forward again as does the furioso. The DC, only two left now, move towards the dire avengers holding the relic.
The razorback targets the dragons seeing as they are a major threat, but again thanks to rolling 1's to wound they are fine. How ever the land speeder does a lot better killing 4 of them. The autocannon dread then finishes off the final vyper.
Combat starts this turn with the DC charging into the dire avengers. I quite like range now it gives +2 attacks... just a shame that i was on the receiving end of it. My over watch manages to down one of the DC though to my amazement. In combat though i fail to kill off the final DC and lose one of my avengers to the raging beast. I hold however.

Eldar turn 4

As i have a dreadnought next to my army its hard to ignore it, so i decide to take a chance, and send the farseer at it, alone. I'm hoping that the witchblade, while not as good as it used to be, with armor bane, has at least some small chance of stopping it. The wave serpent also takes a chance, moves to face the side armour of the furisos hoping i can stop it before the farseer has to engage it.
Shooting with the wave serpent i manage to take off a hull point with a glancing hit from the wave serpent. Not quite what i was after. The rangers, having done little so far this game prove their worth by shooting at the land speeder, managing to glance it to death. And a hull point is stripped off the razorback from the dark reapers who manage to get a single glance on its side armor.
Combat starts with the farseer charging the furioso but with two hits, i manage to get nothing. But thankfully i save the two wounds the dread inflicts on the farseer. The combat against the DC ends with no one dealing any wounds.



Blood angels turn 4

The razorback seeing as the dire avengers not in combat might swing the balance against the DC decides to park in their way. The dreadnought attempts to reduce incoming fire by moving to be obscured behind a tree. However the dread can still see the wave serpent shoots at it with its autocannons but the jink save comes in hand again, ignoring it. The razorback manages to take out 3 dire avengers.
Combat between the farseer and the dread ends, the farseer glances the dread but then gets crushed as i fail his armor save, instant killing the farseer (2-1). The DC combat again does nothing...



Eldar turn 5

We roll for night fighting and again nothing happens, we must have started the battle at a reasonable time in the morning it seems.
The wave serpent again moves to target the dread as do the dark reapers as they can only see the side armor if they stay still (praying on snap-fire).
Shooting starts with the reapers who unsurprisingly miss, but the wave serpent manages to glance the dread and takes off its final hull point, wrecking it. The rangers attempt to glance the auto cannon dread but fail to do anything.



Blood angels turn 5

The dread again moves to target the wave serpent. It shoots at it and manages to strip the twin linked cannons off of it. The razorback then fires at the dark reapers and manages to kill one of them. The final reaper holds his ground. The combat again is a draw. That has to be the worst combat i have ever seen in my life.

We roll and the game continues further.

Eldar turn 6

The dire avengers try to hide from from the razorback (yes i forgot to move them last turn) by running around the building. The wave serpent then boosts away from the battle field. The rangers then target the dread again.... doing nothing. The DC combat again does nothing... that combat is dragging.

Blood angels turn 6

The dreadnought targets the final dark reaper but the 3+ armor save pulls him though.  The razorback then moves to target the dire avengers killing two, they then run. The DC then finally kills a dire avenger leaving the combat 1 v 1. I still hold though.



Again we roll and the game continues, with out night fight.

Eldar turn 7

The wave serpent moves behind the dread, targeting its rear armor. The reapers shoot at the razorback taking its final hull point of it. The wave serpent takes off a hull point from the dread reducing it to 2 HP. And with another stroke of luck the rangers manage to roll amazingly and glance the dread but unfortunately leaving it on 1 HP.
In combat the DC kills the last dire avenger, finally winning the combat, and consolidating 4 inches.



Blood angels turn 7


The dread turns and fires on the wave serpent but jink saves two penetrating hits. The DC charge the rangers killing two of them, the rest then run and get caught. End of game.



Eldar 2- Blood angels 1


With no primary objectives completed only secondary come into play. I quite like that in the game now. A lot of interesting changes. Anyway what did i learn form this game? quite a bit:

  • Snap fire: while its not over powered or makes that much of a difference i like that its an option. It made no difference this game but i hope it will in the future. 
  • Glancing hits: Now that glancing hits don't stop a vehicle from doing anything straight away instead they build up to wreck it i feel the nature of tanks are changing a lot. The fact that light tanks like vypers and speeders only have 2 HP seems right to me, but that heavier tanks but preds only have 3 HP, i feel they should have 4, while the really heavy tanks like land raiders should have 6. While that's not the rules, its just how i feel right now. In the future i will probably change my mind. But this was just my first game. 
  • Fast vehicles: now that my vypers and wave serpents can move 12 and still fire two weapons its made the under slung shuriken cannons a lot more viable, giving a lot more fire power for each of my vehicles. 

That's all i got from that game, but for now, i'm looking forward to more games of 40k.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting report! It will be interesting to see how my first 6th ed. battle goes, I'll be keeping your observations in mind. Thanks for sharing this.

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  2. Enjoyed this report very much, make more soon!

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  3. Good report, congrats on the win!

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