Alrighty guys coming at you with another bat-rep! Played against my buddy Mike who's just a stellar guy. A true hobbyist and a loyal servant of the Emperor. So we agreed to play a "Single Formation OR a Single LoW" a little system I made up for the campaign I ran a while back. So it was 1850 Eldar Vs. IG lets dive in.
Eldar
Autarch- Banshee Mask, Fusion Gun, Soulshrive
Wraithbladesx5- Axes, Shields
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Dire Avengers x10
Nightwing
Hornets x2- Pulse Lasers x4
Hornets x2- Pulse Lasers x4
-Aspect Host-
Scorpions x10- Exarch: Claw
Warp Spiders x10- Exarch
Fire Dragons x6- Exarch
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Imperial Guard
Pask- Punisher
Demolisher- Multi-Meltas, Lascannon
Veterans x10- Flamer, Melta, Melta
Chimera- Multilaser, Heavy Bolter
Veterans x10- Plasma, Plasma, Lascannon
Eradicator
Eradicator
Valkyrie
Manticore
Basilisk
Imperial Knight- Glove and Sword
Alright, so we played Maelstron: Spoils of War. I'll give just a rough estimate on points generated as I go.
Turn 1Eldar- I won the roll to go first and I went first. So only putting my Spiders and my 2 Serpents out there (Dragons and Wraithblades). He deployed his Knight away from my Dragons, so I forwent all attempts at shooting and just did some turbo-boosting to get my Dragons closer to the Knight and hide my Spiders out of LOS as best I could. I scored a couple of lucky points as I deployed on top of 2 objectives to begin the game. Lucky! My opponent was somewhat bewildered at how fast my turn went as I only moved 3 units and took no shots. But thats how I roll!
IG- So the Basilisk, Manticore let rip on a Serpent and removed 3 of my Spiders. That stung a little but not too bad. I was out of LOS or range of everything else so with that he moved forward... including his Knight right next to my Dragons? I couldn't believe it. This was the second time he has done this in a game, even after asking me where they were a couple of times... Not sure if it was first turn jitters (which I doubt, Mike plays all the time) or a simple mental mistake. Anyway I knew what I was gonna do next turn.
Turn 2Eldar- So my Nightwing, a unit of Hornets, all my Jetbikes and my Scorpions came on. I decided to keep my Scorpions (uncharacteristicall
y) in reserves to avoid just getting pounded by the Basilisk, Manticore and more importantly ignore cover shots of the Eradicators. There wasn't a lot of area terrain so I was going to expose them needlessly. The Scorpions and Hornets outflank together on the left hand flank behind the Knight, and next to the Chimera with Veterans. My opponent puts his shields on the back to protect against the Hornets, so the Dragons pop out of the Serpent and get an excellent 6" battle-focus run forward to get within melta range on side armor. My jetbikes zip up out of LOS and onto objectives, while my beloved Nightwing goes solo on the extreme right flank to try and silence the Manticore.
So lets start with the beginning of the shooting phase. The Dragons annihilate the Knight with fusion fire and take no damage in the ensuing explosion. This was a huge mistake by my opponent freeing up the rest of my army to go after everything else. So Hornets silence one of the Eradicators stunning it. The Nightwing aces the Manticore with lance and shuriken fire (as always my ace does me justice!) and the Scorpions chip in with 2 HP's stripped off the side armor of the Chimera with pistol fire, and the Spiders finish it off. Arachnid double team! As usual my Turn 2 counter-attack was absolutely deadly. I cannot say enough about the value of the Autarch and his ability to change the Reserves game.
IG- So the IG were reeling after that. Out of Reserves comes the Valkyrie, dropping their Veterans via Grav-Chute insertion and sadly the unit hits the base of the flyer and is lost! Terrible, outcome... my opponent really needed them to help out. The Eradicators pull back to try and avoid the Dragons, firing on one of the Wave Serpents but scattering and missing. Meanwhile the Basilisk unloads on the Scorpions who are ready to pounce on the Guardsmen who've been forcibly ejected from their wrecked Chimera, killing 2 of the Scorpions who made excellent 4+ cover saves. To close out the turn Pask and the Demolisher shoot what weapons they can at my flyer whose deadly close to them with his lances. I elect to Jink as my Nightwing is a key anti-tank unit in this particular list. I pass my Jink saves after a decent number of successful snapshots and take no damage. An ineffectual turn from my opponent. The noose is tightening already....
TURN 3Eldar- I go in for the kill! My opponent for whatever reason elected to ignore the Fire Dragons, who were out in the open thus enabling them to hunt down the Eradicators. They moved out 6", battle-focused 6" into melta range and nuked the entire squadron. These guys are rolling! The Scorpions move out to deal with Veterans whom they promptly slaughter while the Hornets pepper the Basilisk leaving only a Single hull point. My second unit of Hornets which also came on shot up the Demolisher stripping 2 HP's. Meanwhile my other units just zipped around grabbing Maelstrom objectives. I was up by about 4 or 5 points at this point and feeling very comfortable. Another good turn, though the removal of the Basilisk would have been nice.
IG- The Imperial Guard struck back well in this next turn. Pask and his Punisher took out the Fire Dragons, the Stormtoopers which arrived via Deepstrike took out a unit of bikes. The Basilisk wiped out 4 Wraithblades forcing a bunch of Look Out Sirs! to avoid losing Warlord. While the Valkyrie flew off the board. If only he had deployed a little better and not rushed the Knight up the board I think it would have been a different game. That being said, Mike NEVER throws the towel in early and we soldiered on.
End GameWe played on till turn 5, but it was all but certain that we were in for an Eldar win. I took out the Basilisk and Pask on Turn 4+5 leaving only the Demolisher and Valkryie alive. I went up big time on Maelstrom points, while my opponent still managed to take out another Jetbike unit.
It was a bit unfortunate in the beginning the way he ran the Knight right into my Dragons. That, silencing the Eradicator and taking out the Manticore all in Turn 2 really sent the train off the tracks, making my target priority very clear. Nevertheless it was still fun and it was my first time playing in a new store which was very nice. Tons of room, good lighting and nice people. Also Mike is a stellar guy and while the game wasn't as tense and close as I'd like we still had fun and some more glory was won for the Lions of Asuryan.
Anyway guys hope you enjoyed the bat-rep. Stay tuned I'll have another one up next week in a rematch against Patrick who played his Imperial Fists against me last time. This one will be a toughy! He's got tons of Knights and 6k points worth of Ad-mech. I'm scared!