@Vonny- Thanks!
@Tangi- Thanks!
@Grizzlykin- Could you tell I was excited? lol I will be playing the Avatar from time to time, especially in bigger games. I really wish they'd hadn't lowered his Invuln to 5++.... or at least give him access to the exarch 4++ upgrade.
@Irisado- Thanks. Despite getting off to a rough start with their paint jobs (I was going through a painting skills slump don't know why) they came out very nice in the end. Not as nice as my Wraithblades but I still like em and I'm glad you do too.
So I got in two games this weekend, one against Space Wolves which I won, the other against my brothers IG which I'll give you guys a bat-rep on. The first game was interesting, my opponent had a mix of drop pods, the stormwolf (which wasn't as scary as I thought) and thunderwolf cav. Overall it wasnt very difficult to play against. I was sweating it in the end as the Thunderwolf cav reached the middle of the board after outflanking but lots of little squads of Marines dropping right in front of my units is easily dealt with.
The second game was far more interesting despite playing against an IG gunline. We played Emperor's Will which I think is harder for Eldar to win against IG because they can't rely on their opponent coming out of cover to grab objectives mid-field. Most opponents are gonna castle up and you have to enter their fields of fire which is exactly what I had to do. Despite what I perceive as a unfavorable task I think I handled it well.
So the game began with a gamble on my part. I went second and I reserved my entire army except for my 2 Wave Serpents which I hid out of line-of-sight. My brother's basilisk fired on one of them, scattering once and I jinked the other. Bottom of 1, I pivoted and shot up some guardsmen and flew one of the Serpents to better LOS blocking cover.
Good layout shot of the board
Top of turn 2 I had realized by pivoting a 1/4 inch of one of my Serpents forward-wings was peaking out of LOS blocking cover and my brother gave ignore cover orders to his missile launcher squad and wrecked my Serpent. It was very tough but I was right next to a huge LOS blocking piece of terrain so the Avengers inside were protected from everything.... but his basilisks which luckily scattered off the Avengers both times!
At this point I was sweating it. One serpent down, one up with a hull point on it and my Avengers sitting there as basilisk bait. I could get tabled this turn and lose on turn 2! Time for reserves... and EVERYTHING came on and my army went on the warpath. My Wraithknight and Nightwing blew up a basilisk and stunned/shook the other (protecting my Avengers from barrage attacks). My Wraithguard Archon/Autarch destroyed a leman russ, and put two hull points on Pask in his Punisher. Also my Swooping Hawks came in and bombed out the Plasma Vets hiding behind my brothers Leman Russ. Meanwhile my Wave Serpent and Venom combo succeeded in taking out his Ratlings which are always a threat to my Wraithknight while my Hornets failed to take out Pask. My brother was rattled but he soldiered on.
Turn 3 on his part accomplished little. Pask unloaded into the Wraithguard and despite 20 Str 5 rending shots, plus sponson heavy bolters only 1 Wraithguard went down and my Archon whose purpose is as bodyguard to my Archon tanked the rest of the shots though his Shadowfield went down (luckily I had Armor of Misery as backup). His Vendetta also came on shot at the Wraithknight behind cover but I passed my cover saves and thus my army went unscathed... this turn.
So turn 3 for me I pushed home my Advantage. The Hornets could see straight down his lines to the Basilisk and blew the last one up. My Hawks skyleapt for another bombing run while my Autarch, Wraithguard and Archon finished off pask. The Wraithknight held back behind cover due to my brothers big infantry block of Plasma Vets, Lascannon Heavy Weapons teams, Missile Launcher Heavy Weapons teams, and Autocannons all near to his Company Commander whose orders rolls were heating up. I could risk running into a "Take it Down" barrage of that magnitude and I knew I might need to get into his lines later so I held pot-shotting the Vendetta. Likewise I moved my Venom back behind cover to shoot up some more Vets which they did taking out a few more plasma guns.
Turn 4 was a game changer. My Autarch, Archon, and Wraithguard were not yet in cover after taking out Pask and his squadron mate and my brother unloaded on them in a bid for Warlord. I succeeded in all of my look-out-sirs but an errant plasma shot got through, I failed my invuln and my Autarch was felled! The glorious Eldar route was halted and my forces began to reel. A squad of Storm Troopers with double plasma deepstruck behind my Wave Serpent and between them and the Vendetta wrecked my last serpent. My Avengers were stranded in no-mans-land near to the Storm Troopers but too far away from the enemy lines to do any damage. My well coordinated battle-plan was starting to fall apart and I suddenly realized my brother had first blood, warlord, plus his Emperorer's Will objective, linebreaker and I only had my own objective and linebreaker! After taking out half his army I was actually losing!? I couldn't believe it but the game was so exciting and fun I hardly cared. I now needed warlord to tie, but also I had to deny him linebreaker as well. Yet with my transports down it would be up to the Swooping Hawks, Hornets, Wraithknight and Nightwing to go in their fish him out of cover. Not an easy task as he was out of LOS and shielded by multiple units. The game was now truly ratcheting up!
So bottom of turn 4 I drop my swooping hawks back onto the board bombing out the ruins where the HQ and a smattering of other units are hidden and remove a bunch of models but the warlord remains unscathed. I battle-focus and shoot my lasblasters and remove another smattering of models thinning out the shield protecting the company commander for a charge next turn. Now I have a tough decision to make…. with only 2 hornets (one died), nightwing, Wraithknight and Swooping Hawks in position to take the warlord which I need to tie…. do I have something fall back and try to knockout my brothers Vendetta which is now in my backlines and capable of going into hover mode and thus claiming linebreaker? Or do I press forward and grab warlord turn 6 and hopefully knock the flyer out turn 7? I decide to go all out for the Warlord and thus rush everything forward to try and remove all the remaining screening units. Turn 5 would determine whether the gamble was worth it.
Turn 5- My brother puts his Vendetta into hover mode to claim linebreaker, and then comes the move which ultimatley won him the game. He shoots a team of autocannons I had ignored into the Swooping Hawks (I thought he'd go for the Hornets) whittling them down to 2 Hawks…. So to wrap up the game ended up going 7 turns and I threw everything to getting Warlord but since everything committed to grabbing Warlord I couldn't deny linebreaker (even with last ditch attempts from my Avengers in the backfield shooting for rear armor on the Vendetta). So all in all a phenomenal game. I was really happy for my brother to get the win because my army was on the warpath early and he seemed a bit demoralized. But he soldiered on (true IG player that he is) hung in there and outplayed me. Great game and one I'll remember for a long time.
Anyways for those who took the time to read this thanks! Enjoy the pics… and stay tuned cause I'm gonna share a commission project I've been working on and hopefully some of own models which have been woefully neglected! Thanks guys!