@Dread- Thanks buddy, glad your enjoying the updates. Stay tuned because I've got some cool stuff on the way!
@Irisado- Thanks as always Irisado. My brother and I both considered very heavily the look of terrain in comparison to the colors of our armies. My brother's Guard are meant to blend into the terrain while mine are meant to stand-out.
@Vonny- Thanks Vonny. In my mind these Walkers in particular are for the front-lines of the Warhost, perhaps operating behind an Aegis defense line or flanking my Wraithknight. The next squadron will be in all black and will indeed be a part of my "stealth brigade" alongside the Scorpions, Rangers and future black shuriken-cannon monster hunter Jetbikes!
Battle Report@Everyone- Time for another bat-rep. So this'll be a bit short since it was a short game but I took a lot of photos so hopefully that offsets it. So to begin with the mission was essential a 3-on-3 free for all/king of the hill type mission. The 3 forces were my Eldar, Space Marines and Tyranids at 1250 pts each.
Eldar
Autarch- Banshee Mask, Fire Sabre
Spirit Seer- Cleansing Flame,
Wraithblades x5- Axes
Avengers x9
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons
Avengers x9
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons
Hornets x2- Pulse Lasers x4
Nightwing
War Walkers x2- Scatter Lasers x4
Space Marines
Lysander
Terminators x5- TH/SSx4, Lightning Claws x1
Vanguard Vets x8- Mix of Weapons
Drop-Pod
Scouts x5- Sniper Rifles
Tac Marines x5
Tac Marines x5
Land Speeders x3- Missile Launchers, Multi-Meltas
Devastators x10- 3x Lascannons
Tyranids
Flying Hive Tyrant- x2 Twin-Linked Devourers
Flying Hive Tyrant- x2 Twin-Linked Devourers
Hive Guard x2- Homing Missiles
Lictor
Lictor
Genestealers x7
Genestealers x7
Genestealers x7
Spore Mines x5
MawLock
MawLock
Opening Impressions- To begin with we all agreed to write up casual lists for a fun game. But I feel I continue to overly handicap myself in this regard as I had no answer whatsoever for two flying Hive Tyrants with with nearly 30 twin-linked high strength shots coming in from those dual devourers especially in a 1250 points game. I knew this was going to be a tough one as those Mawlocks were sure to be a pain as well. Nevertheless I gave it my best and played very well.
Tyranids went 1st, Eldar went 2nd, Space Marines went 3rd. So lets begin!
Turn 1 Tyranid Turn 1-
The Tyrants go airborne and fly to the center of the board. The Spores begin to drift towards my right flank where my Walkers, Wave Serpent and Command Squad are tucked behind cover. Meanwhile the Hive Guard pot shot my Walkers with their homing missiles racking up 2 penetrating hits, one of which I negate with my power field save the other which shakes the Walker meaning its going to snap-fire next turn. Finally the Genestealers and the Lictor also on my right flank shuffle behind LOS blocking cover to prepare to move out next turn. Other than that all is quiet!
Eldar Turn 1-
I know if I have any chance I have to chew up any Tyranids encroaching on my right flank ASAP. So the Walkers move out and annihilate the Spore Mines. The Wave Serpents move out of LOS from the Flying Hive Tyrants as I cannot afford to be jinkng turn 2 and I basically position myself to deal with any incoming threats and bring my full force to bear turn 2 as my opponents begin to move out.
Space Marines Turn 1-
The Marines deploy a Drop Pod right in the middle of the board on top of the objective…. and directly in front of both the Flying Hive Tyrants! Why my opponent did this I'll never know. He then pot-shots the Flyrants but to no effect. Turn 1 comes to an end with very little bloodshed. That is changes quickly in turn 2!
Turn 2 Tyranids Turn 2- The Bugs begin their assault. The Hive Tyrants converge on those very expensive Vanguard Vets and annihilate them netting the bugs First Blood. Then one of the Mawlocks pop up smashing my Walkers, and taking out a single Wraithblade. The loss of the Walkers very much hurt, but I made some very good rolls to avoid any serious damage on my command squad. Then the Genestealers and Lictor begin to move out in support of the Mawlock converging on my embattled right flank. Yet little does my opponent know this exactly what I wanted.
Eldar Turn 2- Time to bring the heat! My Nightwing shows up promptly which was very good while my Hornets fail to arrive. My command squad moves out to engage the Mawlock while my Wave Serpent moves to support my them alongside my Avengers who deploy to nullify the Genestealers and Lictor. Combined Psychic powers from my Spiritseer, shuriken fire from the Avengers and fire support from the Wave Serpent eliminate the Lictor and Genestealers, and in the Assault Phase my Autarch, Spirit Seer and Wraithblades rack up 4 wounds on the Mawlock. Yet frustratingly he is able to Hit and Run out of combat and much to my chagrin… I really wanted to bag that big bug. Meanwhile my Flyer fails to deal any damage to Flying Hive Tyrants which does not bode well for my beloved Ace Fighter. Neverthless mission accomplished for the Eldar Turn 2. They've smashed the Tyranids encroaching upon their flank and taken no damage in return.
Space Marines Turn 3- The Space Marine devastators fire another couple of pot-shots at the Flying Hive Tyrants but to no effect. The Landspeeder shows up and fires everything at my Wave Serpent protecting my left flank and absolutley whiff doing no damage after getting a lot of hits. They are very much out of position and with poor firing lanes thus taking them out of the fight which really stinks as I need them to at least distract the Tyranids but its not to be!
Turn 3Tyranid Turn 3- This is when the Tyranids move into position for the kill. The Hive Tyrants move-off from the center of the board and with one focusing on my Wave Serpent, the other on my Nightwing. With one of my Serpents I choose not to jink and suffer two hull points in response… as I think I may need maximum fire-power next turn (which was a mistake because I should have realized I'd be firing at those Hive Tyrants). The other Hive Tyrant gets a load of hits, pens, and glances on my Nightwing but by some miracle I pass my 2+ jinks and only suffer a single weapon destroyed (brightlance). This was a very good turn for the Tyranids, one I'd be very hard pressed to counter.
Eldar Turn 3- Luckily the Hornets arrive and promptly respond by unloadng on the offending Land Speeders killing all but one. The Nightwing enters on-going reserves to come back on at full firing capacity after jinking. My badly damaged Wave Serpent swings-round to unload everything it has on the Hive Tyrants firing off its Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons, and Serpent Shield in a wild bid to wound one of the Hive Tyrants. Despite a lot of lucky sixes to hit, only a single wound gets through and the Tyrant passes its grounding check. Meanwhile my other Serpent moves out and backs up to the center hill to try and get my Avengers in a good position to grab that key objective Turn 5, while my Avengers fail to get up to the second level of the ruins to avoid the Mawlocks which'll be returning turn 4. At this point I know I'm in trouble but I'm praying my injured Nightwing can bail me out and take down at least one of those Hive Tyrants…. but even that is a longshot.
Space Marines Turn 3- Lysander and his Terminators finally arrive, deepstriking right on top of the central objective. Perfect Timing and Prescience allow the Devastators to destroy my Wave Serpent emptying out my Avengers. Pot shots coming from all angles reduce them to 4 Avengers and they break. Not sure if this was the best move on the Marines part because now there is almost nothing left to contest the surging Tyranids. In the next turn its going to be all about surviving the Tyranid storm… relying heavily on that 2+/3++ of the Termies.
Turn 4- End of the Game
Tyranid Turn 4- The bugs move in for the kill, one Winged Hive Tyrant Vector strkes my last remaining Serpent removing the last hull point. The Mawlocks both pop up removing 2 more Wraithblades and ALL the Dire Avengers castled up near my command squad (which I planned on moving to the 2nd story to gun down anything on the central objective). The second winged Hive Tyrant shoots down my Nightwing… which is sadly the first time its ever been brought down. Then some shenanigans come into play… the Tyranid player suggests I use all my Dispel Dice against some random psychic power, which I do, then he casts a malediction which reduces the Terminators WS, BS and I to 1! I should have been paying closer attention but the store was a zoo and there was a lot of banter going on. This was a critical mistake and a little cheesy on the Tyranid players part (but not a big deal) because of what happened next. The Lictors and Genestealers come bursting over the hill all but wipe-out Lysander and his retinue of Terminators, thunderhammers, stormshields, feel no pain and all. This was a big deal for both the Space Marine player and myself because I needed the Space Marines to do some damage to those Genestealers if I was going to have a chance to rally my Avengers and have them hop on the objective turn 5. Like I said it wasn't a big deal, and I should have been paying attenton but the appears nigh.
Eldar Turn 4- My last surviving Hornet kills one of the Mawlocks. My Autarch, Spirit Seer and Final Wraithblade eliminates the other one. The Avengers continue to fall back. I at least got revenge on those freaking Mawlocks but victory appears to have slipped away.
Space Marines Turn 4- The Marines pot-shot the flying Hive Tyrants to no effect, and Lysander and his last remaining Terminator are eliminated. At this point we decide to call it, as there is no way for us to challenge the all but unscathed due of flying Hive Tyrants, and the mob of Genestealers led by the Lictor.
Final Thoughts- The Good- On the positive side I continue to be VERY impressed by the performance of the Wraithblades. Furthermore, the utility of the Spiritseer has really impressed me. Very cheap, but very useful and even rolling up the two powers I wanted least ended up having a huge impact on the game when he imolated the genestealers, lictor and even hurt the Mawlock. My Autarch also had a big game racking up 5 wounds all on his own against the Mawlocks. Impressive stuff indeed, especially with only a Strength 4 weapon! Though a frustrating game, I thought the format was very fun. Besides not asking the other psychic powers the Tyranid player had to cast, and not jinking the Wave Serpent when I was going to target the flying Tyrant next turn I don't feel I made any noticeable mistakes and performed very well against a brutal match-up with double flying Hive Tyrants in a 1250 game.
The Bad- The one mistake I made was not bringing a tougher list. My brother has been on my case for awhile about handicapping myself when no one else is. I feel this is definitley true especially when my opponents openly admit they are list tailoring, which was a bit suprising.
The Take Away- The Eldar close-combat experiment is working. Its made a big impact on my game, the Wraithblades in particular have shined in some very tough match-ups. That little bit of psychic support has paid off very well too. But I do need to continue to add to my army… I tend to favor a take all comers approach which makes for very fun games and in which I've had a ton of success. Yet when tackling opponents who are playing the "bad-matchup game" forcing bad-matchups through list building I feel that I very rarely have a similar element to my army and find myself on the backfoot. I feel that the core of my army makes for a perfect "take-all comers" foundation but that bad-matchup wild card is needed especially against opponents who utilize power-combos and spam. What that new addition will be remains unclear, but I have a couple of candidates in mind.
Future Updates- Stay tuned because I have an exciting new Corsair adapted Aspect Warrior unit which is about to be unveiled, as well as a potential candidate for that bad-matchup type unit! Also I'm going to playing a couple of games this week so expect a new bat-rep and some photos soon. Anyway stay-tuned guys and expect some new stuff to be coming quickly down the pipe- talk to you soon!