@Saim-Dann- Thanks man. I'm the same way. Everytime I sit down to paint and Scorpion82 has uploaded an Army Development video or Codex release and I see that 2hour time code I couldn't be happier! The next one will probably be pretty long and we'll have a special guest so stay tuned!
@Magenb- Thanks buddy. I really appreciate it. Read on and find out where I stand! Thanks as always Mage!
Cyclops Cluster Campaign: Mission 3
Outflanking Maneuvers! Alrighty guys back again with another Cyclops Cluster Campaign report!
To recap, in the first mission, the Eldar force was brutally defeated as they tried to prevent an Imperial Guard force making planetfall as both factions vied to obtain an Eldar relic in an unexplored sector of wilderness.
In the second battle, the Eldar viciously destroyed an Imperial Guard column trying to push forward into that same sector of wilderness.
In this third battle, a splinter of that initial Imperial landing party was sent ahead of the column destroyed by the Eldar, completed a flanking maneuver successfully ambushing the recently triumphant Eldar only hours after their victory.
ELDAR 1500ptsAlaitoc BattalionFarseer- Shiftshroud of Alansair, Singing Spear, Guide + Doom
Spiritseer- Conceal + Protect
Rangers x5
Rangers x5
Rangers x5
Dark Reapers x10
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Saim-Hann Outrider DetachmentAutarch- Jetbike, Laser Lance, Melta Gun
Wind Riders x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Wind Riders x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Shining Spears x5- Exarch- Starlance
Imperial Guard 1500ptsCadian Vanguard DetachmentCompany Commander- Relic of Old Cadia
Company Command Squad- Plasma x3
Veterans x10- Plasma x3
Veterans x10- Plasma x3
Leman Russ Executioner
Basilisk
Hydra
Cadian Vanguard DetachmentCompany Commander- Outflank Relic
Veterans x10- Plasma x3
Leman Russ Vanquisher
Basilisk
Vendetta Gunship- 6x Lascannons
Eversor Assassin!
Mission and Deployment: So beyond the narrative, we were trying to rectify the huge advantage given to the Eldar in game 2, when the Imperial Guard should have had the advantage for their Game 1 victory. To that end we played Hammer and Anvil, giving the not only a huge benefit to their long range artillery, but also a huge terrain advantage. They were also given 1st Turn.
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Turn 1Imperial Guard: Imperial Forces rolled out aggressivley. 2 Leman Russ plowed forward down the center of the board with a unit of Veterans screening them, to put pressure on any units webwaying in. After movement, the IG struck hard and fast obliterating all but 1 Wind Rider. The outflanking Eversor and the accompanying unit of Infantry combined fire with the artillery to inflicting heavy casualties on the Shining Spears as well. Reducing them to only 2 Spears. The Rangers took a number of hits as well, with one squad being reduced to only 2 Rangers. Careful removal of models placed the Eversor and outflanking Infantry squad well outside of charge range, giving me some crucial manpower to respond to the threat in my backfield and solidify my board control in my own deployment zone. Yet the loss of the Jetbikes would be very important meaning my Swooping Hawks who I wanted to hunt the Imperial Command units would be forced into clearing multiple units of Veterans, the Assassin and the Infantry Squad.
Eldar: The Eldar were already feeling a lot of pressure out of the gate. Yet I knew I had to respond aggressivley. I brought down the Swooping Hawks in my backfield to work with the remaining Shining Spears and Autarch to remove the Assassin and Infantry squad. They combined fire to remove all but 2 Infantry men and ignored the Company Commander alongside them. The Rangers all fired into the Assassin but only successfully wounded him once. In the assault phase the Autarch did very well, bringing him down to only a single wound, with the Eversor only inflicting 2 wounds on my second in command. Meanwhile, the Farseer + Spiritseer and Dark Reapers arrived via webway and struggled terribly. The Farseer even with his Runes of the Seer failed to cast Guide + Doom, while the Dark Reapers inflicted zero wounds on the nearest Leman Russ Executioner. Disaster! However the Spiritseer did cast Protect + Conceal meaning the Reapers would get a chance for redemption in later turns. Meanwhile the last Jetbike killed a few Veterans before charging a Leman Russ and getting killed on overwatch. The Crimson Hunters dove in and did a decent amount of damage, inflicting 4 wounds on the Manticore and 4 Wounds on the Leman Russ Executioner. If only the Reapers had held up there end of the bargain. This was a VERY bad turn. A massive amount of command points went into Webway Striking the Reapers and the Spirit Seer, plus command point re-rolls in attempt to get off Doom. Also not killing the Eversor who had one wound left was a dangerous proposition for the Autarch. If he got hot killed the Autarch and the remaining Shining Spears I could be in big trouble as the Dark Reapers could be his next target.
Turn 2Imperial Guard- The Imperial Guard continued to press forward, attempting to get within 12” of the battle group of Rangers, Dark Reapers and Eldar seers. The Executioner and its screen of Veterans pushed forward, while the Vindicator alongside it held ground. The Manticore and one of the Basilisk poured firepower into the Dark Reapers but to little effect. Meanwhile the Vendetta + Hydra attempted to deal with the pair of Crimson Hunters, cutting away 4 wounds off one of them, while 6 Plasma Guns managed to take wounds off the other. Not good! The final Basilisk tried to deal with the Swooping Hawks but poor dice a -1 to hit due to Alaitoc rules saw the Basilisk largely whiff killing only one the Hawks. In combat the Eversor rolled red-hot and I failed all but one of my saves and the Autarch was slain! However the Shining Spears avenged their Autarch killing the Eversor and the Company Commander in return, but it was still a costly blow in a Kill Points game. Especially considering how weakened the Shining Spears were after the exchange. I knew they wouldn’t survive the game and Shining Spears hanging out in your deployment zone in a Hammer and Anvil Game on Turn 2 is not a good place for them to be.
Eldar- I was furious with my lack of results in Turn 1 and the frustration continued in Turn 2! The Farseer failed on both Guide + Doom despite the re-rolls. The Reapers turned their attention to Executioner again with mediocre results and to my frustration I was forced to divert attention from both Crimson Hunters to finally bring it down. Thus far in the critical early goings the Reapers and Crimson Hunters are struggling to take down their targets. Whats more I made a go for broke move with one of the Crimson Hunters hoping to get a clear line of sight on the Hydra…. but when the Reapers and the first Hunter failed to eradicate the Executioner I had to commit it against the Executioner… leaving it vulnerable to a lot of firepower with only a -1 to protect it. I think I made a bad move there… I should have played more conservativley but if I could take out the Hydra and the Executioner in one turn it would have taken a TON of pressure off of me as the Crimson Hunters would rule the skies totally unthreatened. Luckily the Swooping Hawks which did perform well continued the trend and barraged the advancing unit of Veterans that had been screening the Executioner. Other than that not much happened. Another frustrating turn for the Eldar. Things were getting shakey… not performing well with your heavy hitters when they are at full strength is ultra dangerous ground in 8th edition
Turn 3Imperial Guard- The IG hunkered down and just rocketed off everything they had at the Reapers. A massive amount of 6’s reigned down on the Reapers as the Basilisks, Manticore and Vendetta pummeled them. Yet amazingly the Protect spell worked wonders keeping 5 of them alive. The Spiritseer was truly carrying his weight this game getting off his powers where the more powerful Farseer failed. Meanwhile the Hydra, heavy bolters from the Basilisks and plasma fire form the Veterans managed to knock one of the Crimson Hunters down to its final bracket. I was truly regretting moving the Crimson Hunter so close to enemy lines. It was a gamble and I was on the losing side. While nothing was destroyed, losing 5 Reapers and downgrading the Crimson Hunter’s accuracy was very tough, especially with a Hydra, a full strength Vanquisher, 2 Basilisks and a Manticore still rocking steady. I had to make something happen this coming turn.
Eldar- I knew I had to be careful at this point and be protective of my fragile that were out of position and not throw away anything in a reckless gamble. So I Skyleapt the Swooping Hawks to make a better go of it next turn and get at Veterans bunkered down behind a mountain of LOS blocking terrain and hopefully get at the Commander. To that end I moved my Rangers into the only piece of area terrain within reach (there was none at all in my DZ), scooted another unit out of LOS completley and used the one squad reduced to two men into a screening position to help protect my Farseer and Spirit Seer who were clustered with the Reapers. With that done I made the fateful roles for Guide and Doom and FINALLY got the powers off. Of course I immediatley went on to land EVERY hit with no re-rolls needed on the remaining Reapers, pummeling the Vanquisher, while my full strength Crimson Hunter lended its firepower and destroyed the Leman Russ. The Crimson Hunter down a bracket then fired into the Hunter and did serious damage knocking it down a bracket, which was a BIG achievement as my Crimson Hunters were vitally important. While not a big win in the KP game, it removed the heaviest armor on the board and cleared everything but the Imperial DZ of threats to the Eldar. For the sake of board control and taking off a bit of pressure especially with the Hydra’s accuracy knocked down a bracket, it was a solid turn.
Turn 4Imperial Guard- The IG were nowhere near throwing in the towel at this point. Even with their big bruisers the Leman Russ out of the game… Big Guns Never Tire. The Basilisks and Manticore combined fire and ripped the wounded Crimson Hunter out of the sky. With the Relic of Lost Cadia providing re-rolls of one, they over came challenging odds and destroyed one of the Eldar’s best weapons. It was a brutal blow to the Eldar and meant their mobility was almost completley gone. A shocking moment also happened when the Vendetta was able to position itself so that the closest model was the Spiritseer. It fired off everything into the Spiritseer but the saving throws were hot and he blocked 2 Lascannon hits! Unbelievable! Well a tough blow for the Eldar for sure… but if Spiritseer had gone down and the Reapers could no longer be Concealed or Protected it would’ve doomed the Eldar. Man what a game this was. This game was only getting more and more intense!
Eldar- The Eldar consolidated into the middle of the board to better protect the all important Seers especially guarding against Warlord. The Farseer managed to get off Guide once again but was out of range to Doom anything and instead elected to Smite the Vendetta but only inflicted a single Mortal Wound. I gambled on the Spirit Seer and Concealed the Reapers, but tried to Smite the Vendetta to knock it down a bracket (effectivley silencing its guns, or forcing it to go into Hover Mode where my Crimson Hunter could prey on it) but I only scratched it with another single mortal wound. The Reapers vented their fury on the Hydra finally destroying it, giving my Crimson Hunter some breathing room. Meanwhile the Crimson Hunter focused its fire on the Vendetta knocking a few wounds off it but still not knocking it down a bracket. The Swooping Hawks also returned to the field and levelled a ton of firepower into the Veterans killing 4 of them, with the survivors mainting morale. At this point we were tied on Kill Points and I felt very confident going forward. The Manticore was out of rockets, only 2 Basilisks remained and my heavy hitters were all still up and running. All I had to do was hold on, eliminate the Basilisks and I would be in the driver seat as the Veterans would be forced to enter my LOS against the firepower of the Reapers they stood no chance.
Turn 5Imperial Guard- The IG focused fire on the Rangers who were not in cover and the Swooping Hawks but only managed to kill one weakened squad of Rangers while the Swooping Hawk Exarch held on for dear life. That was SUPER lucky for me… because even if I did kill both Basilisks next turn to tie the game, I would need to get past a big piece of LOS blocking terrain to get at the Veterans, Company Command Squad and Commander hiding there. Luckily I was only down a single KP and I had those basilisks lined up in my sights.
Eldar- So while I dodged a huge bullet with my Swooping Hawk Exarch surviving… I had a big dillemma… he was so close to the enemy he couldn’t escape the Guardsmen he had just attacked on my Turn 4. He was almost a guaranteed kill and I was down a point already. If the Game went on it could spell trouble. So I decided to Skyleap and get him out of there and just pray I could take out both Basilisks this turn and the game would end. So… The Farseer Guided the Reapers, Protect + Conceal went up on the Reapers just to be safe and we let rip with our remaining firepower. The Reapers were able to destroy one of the Basilisks, but the other managed to survive the attack from the Crimson Hunter. That wrapped up the Turn so I rolled to see if the game continue and it didn’t! Disaster! I threw away the tie by Skyleaping the Swooping Hawk Exarch! Oh what a way to lose the game! I clawed back after to disastrous Turns to open the game only to lose on account of Skyleap! I could Isha weeping for me somewhere in the Warp. With the Eldar replled the Imperial Forces were able to march on to seize the wraithconstruct relic. The Eldar would now have to pry it from there hands in the next game. What drama!
Conclusion- To say this was an intense game would be an understatement. This was an absolute DOG FIGHT. Probably one of the most intense but also rewarding games I’ve every played. This was two top-tier armies tearing each other apart in a tense tactical game full of gambles, tricks, positioning for board control, figuring out angles for the flyers, a super tense psychic phase and exciting battles between characters. My brother took almost a 1/2 hour just to figure out where he was going to launch an attack with his Eversor on Turn 1!
While it killed me to lose the game in such a fashion, this was a GREAT game of 40k. The brotherly rivalry, the narrative of the campaign, the debut of new units, overcoming a SUPER challenging mission for myself all made for a great experience and amped me up big time for big game to take control of the Relic itself next time out.
Anyway hope you guys enjoyed the bat-rep. Sorry there were not too many photos but we got so caught up in the game we just had to forgo them at a certain point. Stay tuned for the conclusion of Arc 1 of this Campaign and stay tuned for a special announcement regarding the podcast… there is a tie in with the forum that I’m sure you’ll all enjoy. Stay tuned!
