Friday 11 July 2014

Council of war June 14: Game 3 Doubles 1500


 The third game of Council of War and this one’s different to the first two, this is a doubles game. The army consists of 1500 points split however you want between the two players. It must have two armies included so you can’t just have a single force org and split the units, each player must have their own units. The game is Eldar and Iyanden vs Iyanden and blood angels, with Purge the alien mission.

To see my previous games click for Game 1 and/or Game 2.

The Armies

When making your force the rules weren’t clear, you are just use allies, but as we where both taking Eldar we emailed GW and asked if we can use allies or if we have to have 2 CAD detachments, and we were allowed to ally, so we did.

Eldar-Iyanden Alliance 1500

Combined Arms Detachment: Iyanden

Spiritseer
Spear of Teuthlas, Guardians helm of Xellethon [quicken, voice of twilight, +1 strength]

10 Wraithblades
Axe and shield

10 guardians

Wraithknight (warlord: re-roll failed armour saves
Scatter laser, suncannon, scatter shield

Wraithlord
Bright lance, scatter laser

Allied: Eldar

Farseer
Psychic shriek, hallucination, shrouding, dominate

5 Dire Avengers
Wave serpent
Twin-linked scatter laser

Wraithknight
Heavy D-Cannons

Iyanden-Blood angels alliance 1500

Instead of using allies our opponents used two combined arms detachments to get more heavy support choices.

Combined Arms Detachment: Iyanden

Farseer
Death mission, guide, doom, fortune

6 rangers

15 Guardians
Star cannon

Wraithknight (warlord: feel no pain)
Suncannon, scatter shield, scatter laser

3 War walkers
6x bright lance

Combined Arms Detachment: Blood angels

Librarian
Force sword

5 scouts
Sniper rifles

5 scouts
Sniper rifles

Storm Raven
Assault cannon, multi-melta

Storm Raven
Assault cannon, multi-melta

The Mission

This mission is Purge the alien, so just murder the other team. Deployment was vanguard strike (surprise, surprise). Rolling for who deploys first we win and select to deploy first. We placed both wraithknights on the left flank ready to plough forwards, and in the middle we deployed the wraithblades to they can push forwards. On the right behind a ruin we put both the wraith lord and my wave serpent. The spiritseer and farseer join the wraithblades. We keep the guardians in reserve.

To counter us they place the guardians in a crater and the war walkers hidden in the middle. Behind the walkers they place their wraithlord. At the back on his own the librarian goes for some reason. They then infiltrate rangers on the left and both scout units in the ruins to the right of our deployment zone. In reserve both of the storm ravens stay.


Steal the initiative: No
Night Fight: No

The Battle

Eldar/Iyanden turn 1

Not wasting and time we push both of the wraithknights forwards, the D-cannon one attempts to see the opposing wraithknight while the other jumps up a building. On the right the wraithlord goes after the scouts with its flamers and the wave serpent moves back to support it. The wraithblades moves up the middle.

Psychic phase and we attempt to cast quicken on the blades but they deny it, so the farseer casts shrouding.

Shooting phase and the wraithlord flames the closest scouts but only manages to kill 3. My wraithlord shoots at the enemy one, hoping to get lucky and instant-kill it but I only manage to strip a single wound, better than nothing. Wanting to get first blood the wave serpent finishes off the wounded scouts getting first blood. Running, the wraithblades move a whole 1 inch. The other wraithlord shoots at the war walkers but they manage to save 2 pens with their force field.


Us: 2 – Them: 0

Iyanden/Blood turn 1

Their wraithknight move straight to mine wanting revenge for the damage inflicted upon it. The war walkers move back a little.

Psychic phase and they roll a 6 for dice, and attempt to cast fortune on the wraithknight but we throw a lot of dice to deny it. They then cast guide on the guardians, not worried about that.

Sniper snots from the scouts targets the wraithlord but fail to do anything to it, the guardians star cannon targets it as well but he proves too tough to be wounded by the shots. Wanting him dead the war walkers all shoot at him and kill him off. Using its suncannon the wraithknight targets the purple knight and manages to get 2 wounds on it!

Assault phase and the wraithknight charges into our purple knight and just gets lucky, his hammer of wrath does a wound then he punches mine knight into the floor while I miss all of my attacks. That could have gone better...


Us: 2 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 2

The wraithblades move as fast as possible towards the enemy wraithknight, it must be stopped and they have to axe it a question. Jumping down from its perch our remaining wraithknight goes after the war walkers, 6 strength 8 shots must be stopped as well. The wave serpent moves a little to try and get out of sight of any incoming fliers.

The powers of the warp betray us as we only get 1 extra dice and then we proceed to fail every psychic test. Never mind.

Firing everything it has the wave serpent shoots at the scouts but only manages to kill 2 of them. They hold.

Assault phase and the fun begins, the wraithblades charge into the wraithknight with no problem, he attacks first stomping a single blade flat, but they then deal a wound back. In the centre the wraithknight charges into the war walkers and only manages to wreck a single one.


Us: 2 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 2

In from reserve comes a single storm raven and it goes straight for the wave serpent, the scouts not wanting another volley from the wave serpent get deeper into the ruins where they can’t be seen. The rangers move forwards trying to get into cover. The librarian moves towards the combat between the wraithknight and war walkers.

The only power they get off is force on the librarian.

Running the rangers make it to the tree line on the left, as do the scouts (run that is, not make it to the trees). Firing its assault cannon, multi-melta and 2 of its missiles, the storm raven really wants the wave serpent dead, but the skimmer jinks and saves 2 penetrating hits. The Guardians starcannon however manages to glance it.

Assault phase and the librarian charges into the wraithknight, not wanting to risk the strength 5 (furious charge) librarian instantly killing the knight we direct all attacks on him and turn him into paste, 3 wounds, all strength 10, that's just a horrible way to die. Our knight takes no wounds from the war walkers. In the other combat my farseer steps up and deals a single wound to the wraithknight (only 3 left) and the knight fails to do any wounds to the blades. They also fail but we are slowly chipping away at him.


Us: 3 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 3

From reserve the guardians come in on the right hidden behind the ruin. The wave serpent turns around to face the storm raven.

Psychic phase and we attempt to give the wraithblades +1 strength but they throw all their dice to deny it.

Shooting from the wave serpent fails to even hit the flier, and the guardians run.

Combat and the wraithknight finally destroy all of the war walkers letting to lose for next turn. The grind between the knight and blades ends with a single blade dyeing.

Us: 4 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 3

The second storm raven comes in and only moves 18 inches to face the wraithknight who now a target. The other goes into hover mode to keep shooting the wave serpent.

They manage to cast fortune on the wraithknight this turn, we just couldn’t stop it.

Sniper fire from the scouts targets the wraithknight (apparently not concerned about the guardians) and manages to rend him and get though his 5+ invulnerable. The new storm raven shoots it and deals and extra 2 wounds. On the other side the storm raven shoots at the wave serpent but again its pilot jinks out the way avoiding harm.

Assault phase and the blades lose a single model but the spiritseer and farseer deal a wound each reducing the knight to a single wound! 

Us: 4 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 4

Intent on getting rid of the scouts the guardians enter into the ruin ready to attack. The wraithknight moves towards the guardians and the wave serpent has no reason to move so stays put.

Psychic phase again does nothing.

Throwing a plasma grenade, the guardian hits the wall of the ruin and it bounces back killing 2 of his squad mates instead. The survivors shoot their catapults and kill 1 enemy. Shooting from the wave serpent this time causes a single glance on the storm raven. The enemy guardians are rather clustered so make a perfect target for the suncannon, scatter laser first kills 1 but then the blast manages to kill 3 more (damn cover save). End of the phase and the guardians run for it!

Assault phase and the guardians charge into the scouts and beat them down to 1 model but take no damage. The lone scout holds. The blade and knight carries on doing nothing thanks to his damn fortune but we take no damage either. 


Us:4 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 4

Both storm ravens go into hover mode, and the one which has been hassling the wave serpent moves to target the wraithknight. The farseer and guardians rally.

Thinking clearly now the panic is over, the farseer casts doom on our wraithknight which we fail to stop, and then death mission (we let it though).

Both storm ravens target the wraith knight but even with all that fire power only a single wound manages to get past its invulnerable save.

Assault and the guardians lose a single model to the cornered scout who lashes out desperately. The guardians fail to do anything to him though but hold thankfully. The combat that has been going on forever finally ends with the blades hacking the ankles off the wraithknight, gaining us a kill point and slay the warlord. They then consolidate up into their deployment zone.

the storm ravens are off their bases for ease at this point

Us: 6 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 5

With a hovering storm raven so close to the wraithknight, it makes such a tempting target which we go for. The wave serpent moves its attention to the rangers who are in our deployment zone. We talk about this, and we could send the blades towards the guardians to try and kill them, but chances are we will fail the charge and risk getting killed by a hail of rending shots and then possible die to the death mission farseer. So we just move deeper into their deployment zone and out of range of the guardians.

For fun we attempt to cast hallucinate on the guardians and we manage to get it though, reducing their WS and BS by -1.

Shooting from the wave serpent manage to kill 4 rangers but the last 2 hold their ground.

Assault and the wraithknight charges into the storm raven, it manages to rip through its armour and detonate its ammo supply, exploding the flier. In a less dramatic manor, the guardians knife the last scout in the shadows of the ruin.  

Us: 8 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 5

The guardians attempt to move towards the blades in a desperate hope to charge them.

The last storm raven targets the wraithknight but just can’t get any wounds through.

Unsurprisingly the guardians fail their 12 inch charge.

We roll to see if the game carries on, it doesn’t. So the farseer dies at the end of the game and gives up an extra kill point.


Us: 10 (slay the warlord, first blood, line breaker, 7 units killed) – Them: 3 (wraithknight and wraithlord destroyed, line breaker)

Victory to Eldar/Iyanden.

Post-Battle

That game went a lot better than I thought it would, with the enemy having 2 fliers and our army seriously lacking in any good anti-air I thought they would just stay back, avoid the wraith blade and kill us with fliers. This was not the case though, and why they went into hover mode next to a wraithknight I will never know.

This was the last game on day 1 and it wasn’t the most enjoyable, we had constant rules arguments with the blood angel player and the opposing Eldar player trying to play a few rules wrong. Now if it was an honest mistake that’s fine, but with there being so many and then practically having a little tantrum after we showed him the correct wording of the rules, it just spoilt the game a little. The battle brother wasn’t much different but at least has given me an idea for a future rules post.

The last tournament I went to the same thing happened game 3 with my opponent getting a little moody, maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s the long day that does it to people. I’m not sure. This isn’t really a proper post game analysis as I won’t be using his list ever again; it was just a bit of fun, seeing if all the wraithblades would be any good, they were ok considering they went up against a T 8 monster.

Next game took up all of Day 2, the 8k a side BIG game. Come back next Friday to check it out.

Hope you enjoyed.

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