The dead walk again... Eldar vs Imperial guard 1500 points

Eldar with dark eldar allies take on the imperial guard in this game of the scourging, with hammer and anvil deployment. This is my first game with my first revolutionary army list (I need to start giving my army lists names to avoid confusion). So can eldar trickery overcome the tanks of the imperial guard? Read on and find out...

The Armies

Let’s start with my current army list for those of you who haven’t been reading the evolving list posts.

Eldar/Dark Eldar 1501

Farseer - 100 (Warlord) w/ wraithguard
Runes of warding, Fortune

10 Wraithguard - 396
warlock, conceal

5 Rangers - 95

3 War Walkers - 180
Scatter lasers

2 War Walkers - 120
Scatter lasers

4 Dark reapers - 140

The Baron - 105 w/ Wraithguard

5 Warriors - 60
blaster

Venom - 65
2 x splinter cannon

5 Warriors - 60
blaster

Venom - 65
2 x splinter cannon

Ravager - 115
Night shield, 3 x dark lance

The basic plan for my force is to attach the characters into the wraithguard and fortune them up to keep them alive while the rest of the army should hopefully be able to take the enemy apart. But we shall see.

Imperial guard 

Company command (Warlord)

Straken, flamer, regimental standard

Chimera

Multi laser, heavy bolter

Platoon command

Infantry squad

Grenade launcher, lascannon

Infantry squad

Grenade launcher, lascannon

Heavy weapons squad 

2 x lascannon, autocannon

Veterans squad

Harker, heavy bolter

5 Storm troopers

2 x plasma guns

Chimera

Multi laser, heavy bolter

Marbo

Hell hound

Leman russ battle tank

Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons

Leman russ executioner

Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons

Griffin

An interesting army for me to face, and its different to the imperial guard army I am used to fighting. My other friend who has played IG for a while likes to ram about 4 russes down my throat and veterans everywhere. So this will be a change, especially with straken leading the way. If he’s surrounded by the infantry I may be in a bit of a problem. But we will see.

The Mission

The battlefield

The mission was the scourging and we placed the objectives around the table, on the imperial base, a crater, behind a wall, inside a ruin, on top of a ruin and on top of the rocky hill. We got hammer and anvil for deployment and the imperial guard won the roll to go first. So he deployed first setting up a defensive line with the veterans at the front and centre, backed up by the executioner. On the left flank he placed the other russ and hell hound with an infantry squad at the back on the objective. The second infantry squad deploys on the ground floor of the ruin on the right while the heavy weapon squad held the objective on the top of the ruin. The griffin hid at the back.

Imperial guard deployment

I then deployed (a little poorly) with my wraithguard front and centre behind a wall, with the baron at the front to hopefully take any plasma shots with his shadow field. The dark reapers went at the top of the imperial base, the ravager hid out of site as did the two venoms. I outflanked both units of war walkers to hopefully do a lot of damage. The rangers infiltrate onto an objective just ahead of my deployment zone.

Eldar deployment

Turning over the objectives, the 4 is with the dark reapers, my rangers hold a 2, a 3 is held by the guard and a 1 was in the middle on the ruin. The other 3 and 2 where the other two objectives.

Deployment

Night fight: Turn 1

Steal the initiative: No  

Note: We forgot to roll for warlord traits... sorry guys.

The Battle

Imperial guard turn 1

With night fight in effect turn 1 I was a little relieved, it would seriously reduce the amount of damage I would take. The rumble of engines could be heard in the night as both the hell hound and the leman russ battle tank go down my left flank towards my line. The rest of the army holds still aiming into the darkness.

Roaring with its battle cannon, the russ targets the dark reapers locking on but they are saved thanks to the cover save provided with shroud and the fortification. Firing shells high into the air, the griffin kills a single wraithguard from its barrage (just wait till I get fortune going) even with the 2+ cover save. The executioner vets its plasma at the wraithguard and I pass the wounds off on the wraithguard (thanks look out sir) but two die (the rolls aren’t going great). The rest of the shots either fail to hit or wound.

Eldar turn 1

I need to take advantage of the turn as I didn’t take much damage from his shooting. I cast fortune on the wraithguard with the farseer then I move the ravager towards the battle tank and I move both venoms forward. The wraithguard then move forwards towards the enemy.

Shooting starts with the ravager targeting the battle tank, but I only hit once and fail to penetrate the armour. Both venoms then unleash the 24 shots and kill 4 of the veterans in front of them.  The wraithguard then run forward. The dark reapers and rangers fail to do anything... thats a bad turn.

Imperial guard turn 2

Marbo doesn’t appear this turn. Again the battle tank and the hell hound move towards my lines. The storm troopers jump out of their chimera and move towards the wraithguard.

Starting with orders the company command yells at the veterans but with a double 6, orders are over. Again unleashing its plasma over the wraithguard but thanks to the shadow field and the re-roll from fortune, no damage is taken. The battle tank shoots at the wraithguard but two wounds manage to get past the cover save, killing two of the constructs. The squads starting to thin out now. The hell hound then shoots at the wraithguard as well, but I only take 1 wound... on the warlock. Damn that’s really bad now. The heavy weapon team shoots at a venom and makes it blow up (First blood), killing the 4 regular warriors. It was to be expected. 

Eldar turn 2

Rolling for reserves I got both squads of war walkers in, outflanking on different sides of the table, the two man squad on the right, and the three man squad on the left. I cast fortune on the wraithguard again. Movement and the ravager goes after the russ battle tank again while the wraithguard move forward into the line of fire. The lone warrior from the exploded venom moves to get in range of the hell hound.

Shooting from the ravager is less than impressive, only managing to shake the russ. The warrior on his own and the warriors in the venom both shoot at the hell hound but neither manage to penetrate the armour of the tank. The war walkers that appeared on the right flank shoot at the heavy weapons team killing all three. The war walkers on the left shoot at the storm troopers but only kill 4, leaving the sergeant alive. Not cool.

Imperial guard turn 3

Marbo appears from reserve and is placed next to the wraithguard. Straken decides to lead by example and get out of his chimera towards the war walkers. The executioner, platoon command both move back away from the oncoming wraithguard and the russ battle tank backs up against the table edge to avoid getting shot in the rear.

 Unleashing its torrent of fire, the hell hound shoots at the dark reapers but fails to do any wounds. The chimeras combine fire and manage to wreck two of the war walkers on the left flank. With a very lucky shot, the lascannon from the infantry squad at the far left of the table shoots down the ravager, making it explode. That was a bit of a blow. Prepping his demo charge, Marbo throws it at the wraithguard, killing 3. The final kill of the shooting phase it by the griffin shooting and killing 2 rangers.

Trying to avenge his fallen comrades the storm trooper sergeant charges the war walker but nothing happens. No wounds are caused so next turn.

Eldar turn 3

Again I fortune the wraithguard. The venom moves 6 to be inbetween both the hell hound and the russ battle tank so I have options. The wraithguard march on.

Starting with the dark reapers, they shoot at Marbo, killing him before he can inflict any more damage. The lone warrior shoots at the hell hound but fails to penetrate. The warrior in the venom follows suit a little too much. The venom shoots at the last remaining veterans but they make their cover saves. The war walkers on the right shoot at the infantry squad in front of them killing 3. They hold.

Trying to finish the job, the war walkers charge the infantry squad, killing 4 under their metal hooves but they hold. The war walker on the other side of the table kills the storm trooper leaving it exposed. The final combat of the round is the wraithguard charging into the veterans, managing to kill them all before they take any damage. They consolidate behind the wall for a cover save.

The Baron leads the charge

Imperial guard turn 4

The russ battle tank turn around to target the wraithguard while the rest of the army moves away as far as possible from them.

Shooting starts with the griffin doing nothing to the wraithguard. The executioner managed to kill a single model but the hell hound fares better killing a wraithguard and wounding the farseer. To finish the shooting the battle cannon is fired at the wraithguard killing off the remaining constructs, leaving the two characters alone and exposed.

The infantry squad get a lucky grenade and wreck a walker while I kill a single guardsman. The combat goes on.

Eldar turn 4

The farseer fortunes himself and goes after the hell hound. The baron brakes off and goes after straken himself, might as well try to get a kill point for the warlord. As the end of game is close, the lone warrior runs back to try and claim the 4 point objective next turn. The lone war walker moves towards the russ battle tank, I will try and kick it to death. The venom drives close to let the blaster do its work first if it can.

Shooting into its rear armour the dark reapers manage to get a penetrating hit on the hell hound and immobilise it. The blaster on the venom shoots at the chimera close to it and it explodes it. (I changed my mind at the last second).

Laughing with dark glee, the baron charges into straken where he is met with a challenge, which he happily accepts. The combat goes on but neither side does any damage. The war walker charging the russ does nothing. And the war walker fighting the infantry does nothing either. Luckily the farseer managed to rip off the flame cannon off the hell hound. Better than nothing.

Imperial guard turn 5

With the wraithguard gone, the russ battle tank targets the venom instead. The platoon command moves towards the single walker on the left as does the executioner. The remaining infantry squad move to the aid of straken.

Targeting the lone warrior, the griffin snipes him, no objective for me I guess. The russ hits the venom with its battle cannon and a snap firing lascannon. The battle cannon is stopped but the lascannon immobilises it. The executioner wrecks the war walker on the left. The remaining chimera shoots at the farseer reducing him to a single wound.

Combat and the infantry squad charge into the baron trying to aid straken. But even with his re-rolls nothing happens. Do I decide to be tricky here and hit and run towards the board edge. I make it but I roll too far and it would take me off the table. We aren’t 100% sure what this means and roll, 1-3 he stays on an inch away, 4-6 he runs off. He runs off. We looked but couldn’t find any official ruling on this? What do you guys think? The war walker kills the remaining infantry squad and moves towards the griffin. As the farseer is still next to the hell hound he goes to town on it, wrecking it. Well done old man.

Eldar turn 5

The farseer fortunes himself and hides behind the hell hound wreckage.  The warriors jump out of the venom wreckage and are forced to move towards the 1 point objective.

Shooting from the war walker wrecks the griffin, glancing its side armour several times, while the warriors run for the objective.

We roll to see if the game carries on...

Imperial guard turn 6

With the baron now gone, the infantry squad get back on the objective, spoiling my chances of winning. The chimera moves to be able to target the war walker.

Unloading its plasma, the executioner brings down the farseer giving away another point. The infantry squad shoot at the venom but this time thanks to the flicker field, nothing happens. Straken shoots at the warriors on the objective but I go to ground and only lose 1 model. The battle tank shoots at them as well killing the two models on the ground floor.

The platoon command desperate for glory charge the war walker glancing t, reducing t to 1 hull point but the walker crushes a member of the squad under its cloven hoof.

Eldar turn 6

The only thing that happens this turn is the war walker kills two guardsmen and wins combat, cutting the rest down. Nothing else can do anything worth noting.

And does the game carry on?

Imperial guard turn 7

Nothing happens, every shot misses or rolls a 1 to wound. I felt really bad for him this round but it gives me a glimmer of hope of getting a draw.

Eldar turn 7

I don’t get a draw. The venom and war walker shoot at the infantry squad, killing 6 out of 10, but they hold. And the game ends.

Imperial guard – 5 ( 3 points for objective, slay the warlord, first blood)

Eldar – 1 (1 point objective)

That's quite a bad defeat for me.

Post-Battle

So this new list faced the imperial guard and lost. The wave of Eldar broke upon the rocks of the Imperium and it all went to pot. But I like the list, I feel it has a lot more potential than the previous lists. It uses a wraithguard deathstar unit (Wraithstar) to weather the storm and deal damage to key units. I miss-played the army this time round. That's obvious and I will try this again to see what happens. So what have I learnt?

·         Wraithguard: Very hard to kill, it takes a lot of shots to bring it down but it will go down if you let the enemy have their way with it. Next game I will try to reduce the amount of fire it takes so it can stay a real threat while taking away a small amount of fire power.

·         The Baron: He is a lot more expensive than the haemonculus and the succubus. But he was a lot more useful. He adds so much more than just combat potential, he adds to the unit he joins and the army as a whole. Thanks guys for suggesting I use him.

·         Rangers: Still disappoint me, they never do anything great, just do a single wound every other game. I used to love these guys, but they are just sucking right now. I know it’s not them, just what has happened in the game. Maybe swap them for a small unit of guardian jetbikes? How would that work? Objective grabber instead of doing nothing at all.

·         Venoms: I like the number of shots, they will be tried again. I’m sure they have a lot more use.

·         Dark Reapers: The aspect warriors are expensive, but they have potential. Should I try them again?

And that's it for this battle report. What do you think I can do to improve this army list?