Rumble of the Engine... Eldar/Dark eldar vs Orks 1500

Second game at my gaming club and again I'm up against orks. A different player this time round, a guy named Dave, who was trying out a tournament list for an up an coming tournament he is going to. It’s a good test for my list so I was more than happy to play him. Its 1500 points, Big guns never tire, vanguard strike, 4 objectives. We played on a beautiful ice table, it was a nice change.

The Armies

I brought my Wraithstar V 2.1 list (a slight change from what I posted with wraithstar V 2) to the club as I wanted to see how it does against other armies.

Eldar 1500

Farseer – 140 (warlord: conqueror of cities) w/ wraithguard

10 Wraithguard – 396

Warlock, spiritseer, conceal

10 Guardians – 95

Scatter laser

6 Warp spiders – 149

Exarch, 2 x spinner

3 War walkers – 180

Scatter lasers

2 War walkers – 80

Shuriken cannon

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 – 105

3 x dark lance

And the army that am up against is a tournament ork list, he is still working the kinks out of hte list so its not quite perfect. I didn’t get his list just a general idea of his army.

Orks 1500

War Boss (warlord: scoring) w/ Mega nobz

Mega armour, cybork body, attack squig

6 Mega Nobz

 4 x combi scorcher, 2 x combi rokkit

Battle wagon

3 x big shoota, kannon, death rolla, grot riggers

20 Shoota Boyz

Nob, power klaw

Battle wagon

Big shoota, death rolla

20 Shoota boyz

Nob, power klaw

Battle wagon

Big shoota, death rolla

10 Grots

12 Loota boyz

3 Kannons

3 extra crew

Aigis Defence line

Quad gun

So very different from the last ork army I faced. Three battle wagons full of orks, one with a 2+ save, the other just full of boyz, then at the back is a gun line. I have never faced an ork army like this, and I'm not 100% sure how I will deal with it. An interesting challenge for my poor little list, lets hope I have a chance.

The Mission

As I said before, it was Big guns never tire and we rolled 4 objectives, 1 placed behind his defence line, 1 in the open in his deployment zone, 1 on top of the hill and the last placed in the rocks in my deployment zone. The deployment was vanguard strike. We forgot about mysterious objectives.

He won the roll to set up first so had his defence line on the left, with the kannons, lootas, and the grots manning the quad gun (on the objective). The battle wagons where in the middle ready to plow straight towards me.

Ork deployment

I deployed my guardians on my objective, the warithguard in front to hoefully destroy a a battle wagon before getting murdered by the mega nobz. The ravager and venoms deploy on my right flank to stay out of range and hopefully destroy the battle wagons. I keep the warp spiders in reserve to deep strike in, the scatter walkers in reserve and the shuriken walkers out flank. I just hope I can pop a battle wagon and kill the boys while my reserves destroy his gun line.

Eldar deployment

Night fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

Deployment

The Battle

Ork turn 1

In true orky style my opponent starts the game with a very aggressive move forward as all three battle wagons steam forward. The orks behind the defense line hold their ground trying to draw a good bead of sight.

Shooting starts with the lootas getting 36 shots at the wraithguard but only 1 wraithguard dies (I’m ok with it), followed by the quad gun which fails to do any damage. The battle wagon on the left goes flat out. The warbosses battle wagon however opens up all shots on the wraithguard but fails to do anything, but the mega nobz then shoot and some how drag down a wraithguard. I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these orks next to me.

Eldar turn 1

I go straight for an aggressive move here, if I hesitate I will just give the game away. The Farseer casts both fortune and guide on the wraithguard as they go straight for the warboss battle wagon. Meanwhile the three skimmers move up the right hand side but keeping all the guns in range of the right battle wagon. The guardians stay still.

Not very often the first turn is so important for me, but here we go. Starting with the venom closer to the battle wagon on the right, the warriors shoot their blaster at the boy battle wagon, and miss. The second one shoots, and misses. The ravager how ever fairs better, 3 hits, and makes the battle wagon holding the ork boyz explode killing 6 of the boyz inside. I then shoot with the wraithguard at the warboss battle wagon and that explodes as well, wounding a mega nob. With no more anti tank shots I turn both venoms on the ork boyz on foot and kill 9 boyz and an extra one from the guardians. 4 boyz remain and hold their position. I have mixed feeling about that game, not sure if that was the best way to play with the mega nobz so close to me.

Ork turn 2

Quite an important turn now as well with the mega nobz so close. The battle wagon remaining moves towards the wraithguard as do the mega nobz. As the loota boyz couldn’t really see any targets he moves them over the defence line to try and get a better line of sight.

Shooting starts with the shoota boyz in the battle wagon having a go at the wraithguard but from all the shots not a single one wounds.

The first combat phase and its looking daunting, the mega nobz charge into the wraithguard but I don’t get any over watch hits. The baron issues a challenge to the warboss to take his attacks out of the equation. In the challenge the baron actually manages to wound the ork some how, and the warboss gets 1 wound past the shadow field but thanks to fortune, I re-roll and make the save. In quite an astonishing turn of events teh wraithguard manage to deal a single wound to the mega nobz, and I only lose 4! (I get lucky there, 15 attacks, only 4 hits, lucky me). I hit and run out of combat with the wraithguard with no issue.

Eldar turn 2

I roll for reserves and only the warp spiders come into play and deep strike in front of the lootas now outside of the defense line. The quad gun kicks in here and intercepts them, killing a single spider. I then cast fortune and guide on the wraithguard again. They move back towards the mega nobz and the skimmers stay on the right to stay out of range of the kannons.

From there ambush the warp spiders manage to kill 7 of the lootas and they run for it. As the mega nobz are very dangerous, the whole army shoots into them. The ravager manages to instant kill 2 nobs, the wraithguard deal a hand full of wounds, as do the venoms. After all the dust settles the only remaining models are the warboss (2 wounds left) and a wounded nob. I’m happy with that move.

Ork turn 3

Lucky for me the lootas fail the leadership test again and carry on running from the spiders. The battle wagon moves towards the guardians and the shoota boyz jump out intending to charge the guardians.

In a surprise turn of evens the grots shoot at the warp spiders and kill a aspect warrior and the Exarch! I’m not happy with that. The kannons then shoot at them but all miss thank god.

Combat phase and the shoota boyz declare a charge on the guardians to which I over watch, and kill the front 4 boyz. He rolls charge distance but thanks to my overwatch he is just out of range so stays where he is. The warboss however doesn’t have this issue as he charges the wraithguard, who kill the nob with over watch. Again the baron issues a challenge to neuter the warboss and I hit and run away after all is said and done.

Eldar turn 3

Reserves and both war walker units come in, the out flanking unit comes in behind the quad gun (which again intercepts, destroying 1 and blowing a weapon off the other) and the others by the large ork mob out in the open. Fortune/Guide wraithguard again. The skimmers turn to face the new threat of the large boy mob.

Shooting starts with the wraithguard shooting at the warboss and I manage to get 4 wounds on him, two of them cause instant death, killing him. The venoms combine shots to kill a large number of boyz, followed by shots from the guardians which kill a couple more. He has about 5 boys plus the nob left so it seems like overkill for the war walkers. However I made a mistake here and put them behind a defence line I didn’t notice... so I only manage to kill the boyz and wound the nob, leaving him alive. On the other side of the table the warp spiders and the war walker shoot at the grots and manage to kill them all, leaving the quad gun open.

In the assault phase the warp spider’s jump back to get a cover save from the defensive line.

Ork turn 4

He is in a bit of trouble now and decides to go for it, and makes the battle wagon ram into the war walkers! The ram does nothing but the death roller explodes a walker and immobilises another! Damn that was unexpected. The lone nob then moves towards the walkers intending to finish the job. The lootas regrouped and jump over to the quad gun.

Angry at the spiders the lootas shoot at the aspect warriors and kill a single spider, but they run from the torrent of shots.

Combat and the nob charges into the war walkers and I fail to do any wounds, and then the power klaw rips the walkers to shreds then consolidates behind the battle wagon. That was a horrible turn of events. The remaining boys I have been ignoring charge into the ravager and glance it once. They won’t live much longer after that.

Eldar turn 4

The warp spiders rally and move a little towards the lootas. A venom turns to face the boyz and drops off the warriors inside to hopefully get line breaker later in the game. The other venom moves to go after the nob. Fortune/guide wraithguard and they go after the battle wagon.

Shooting from the ravager manages to get two hull points off the battle wagon, the warriors in the venom gets a third hull point off and the wraithguard manage to glance it for the final time, wrecking it. I was hoping it would explode to kill the nob but no such luck. The venom and warriors combine fire to kill the other ork boyz.

Ork turn 5

The nob moves more to get out of sight and claim the objective under it.

The kannons shoot at the spiders and kill them all. Checking to see what he can see, the lootas can see the ravager and shoot it, and with a great explosion, its taken out the game.

The ravager has disappeared

Eldar turn 5

I cast fortune and guide on the wraithguard again and the move towards the objective towards his deployment zone in the open. The venom that went after the nob drops off its warriors as they go after the objective to contest the nobs claim. The other warriors move forwards to try and get line breaker.

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

Ork turn 6

He doesn’t have much option and shoots the lootas at the warriors contesting the objective but I go to ground and lose 3 but hold.

Eldar turn 6

Fortune/Guide again, and the wraithguard move towards the objective and make it into range to claim it. The venom moves and gets to see the nob and the warriors in his deployment zone defiantly get into line breaker territory.

Shooting and the venom kills the nob while the other venom shoots at the kannons and only deal 1 wound to them.

We roll again...

Ork turn 7

The kannons shoot at the wraithguard but fail to do anything, the same result happens with the wraithguard.

Eldar turn 7

The warriors make sure they have the objective and that’s it.

End of the game

We calculate the scores as it tallies up as:

Orks: 6 (1 objective, 3 heavy support choices) – Eldar: 14 (3 objectives, 2 heavy support, first blood, warlord, line breaker)

Eldar victory!!!

Post-Battle

Well that was a very interesting game against a tournament list, and the result was very good for me. The end result however doesn’t give the game credit to how close it was. It definetly came down to two major things, both of which happened Ork turn 2.

First: The mega nobz failing to wound. With 15 attacks, he should have had 7.5 hits, and 6.25 kills. So I should have lost 6 wraithguard not 4, which could have effectively neutralised the unit as they would have gone down to T3, not 6. That lucky even meant they would still dominate the battle field with hit and run. So more of the time that won’t go in my favour.

Second: The lootas getting out of the defensive line. He forgot about my reserves which I punished him for, as it stopped the lootas being effective for two turns and killed the grots. This again was a mistake from him and not skill on my part.

So that game shows that my list can punish unlucky rolls but I wouldn’t say I won due to any tactics on my point.  The ork boys failing the charge on the guardians was also key as if they killed the guardians I would have had a little difficulty taking them out with them in area terrain.

Anyway, did I learn anything from this game?

·         Wraithguard: While they can take a lot of shooting on the chin they can’t take an assault with average rolls. I should have just got them in range of the battle wagon turn 1 so I could shoot it and hopefully reduce the chance of me getting charge turn 2. While 9/10 this wont help, every now and then (I guess 1/10) it might just mean they fail their charge on me. Just something to think about.

·         Interceptor: This is my first game facing a quad gun and that ability to interrupt game play and shoot is more valuable than I would have though. Adding a defence line to my eldar army might be useful but I don’t want to take and points out of my army. Maybe for bigger games it something to think about.

·         The baron: Using him to tie up big power houses like the warboss was defiantly a good call, do that more often.

·         Reserves: With this opponent I decided that reserving both war walkers was the best bet to get the most out of them. My original intention with the scatter walkers was to walk in close to his defensive position and just murder a unit or two. With the threat of the ork boys that was too much of an opportunity for me which I had to go for. While this is the opposite to what I would normally do I'm starting to think I need to keep my plan up in the air depending on what opponent I’m against. If I had just kept them behind the wraithguard they would have been useless and probably died early on.

What do you guys think about how I played? What would you have done differently?