@Dread- Thanks bud. Glad you are liking the new models... Yeah you got my idea with the Necrons. I wanted these guys to look really post-apocalyptic, like they've been in a warzone for weeks on end. Anyway hope to see some new models from you soon bud. Thanks for the kind words, always appreciated.
@Everybody- Bat-rep time! This time against Tau. We played 1500pts as my opponent Nick was new to the army and didn't want to get bogged down in too many details. So... lets dive in.
Eldar
Autarch- Bike, Soulshrive, Fusion Gun, Banshee Mask
Farseer- Bike
Scorpions x10- Exarch: Claw
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Shining Spears x4- Exarch, Star Lance
Hornets x3- Pulse Lasers x6
-Aspect Host-
Reapers x5- Exarch: EML
Warp Spiders x5- Exarch: Power Blades
Warp Spiders x5- Exarch: Power Blades
Tau Empire
-Crisis Team-
Commander Shadowsun- Drone Controller
Crisis Suits x2- Plasma x2
3x Missile Drones
2x Shield Drones
Crisis Suits x2- Shield Drones x2
Marker Drones- x5
Riptide- Ion Accelerator, Various and Sundry
-Optimized Stealth Cadre-
Ghostkeel- 3x Drones
Stealth Team x5
Stealth Team x5
-Drone Controller Network-
Marker Light Drones x5
Marker Light Drones x5
Marker Light Drones x5
Pre-Game Notes- So to begin with, both lists were interesting. I've begun my Shining Spears journey in the hardest way possible against the mighty Tau Empire! But it was a conscious decision as I wanted to see how tough it could really get. Also the Tau list was very interesting. Tons of Drones... far more drones than actual Tau warriors. I knew right off the bat the Ghostkeel was gonna be the biggest threat and it was as you'll see. Anyway lets dive in!
Set-up & Deployment- We got Vanguard Strike deployment. Relic for the mission. I rolled to deploy and go first which I did.
Turn 1Eldar- So with Vanguard Strike deployment and the medium range of the Tau I decided to deploy everything for once and use my Scout moves to my advantage (which I always forget). The picture above illustrates my deployment... but using my Infiltrate, Scout normal moves and run move I shifted my Scorpions ultra aggressive up after the Ghost Keel and Stealth Teams with the Shining Spears leaping ahead of them to spearhead the attack. I fanned out all my Jetbikes and moved my Spiders and Reapers up the field to get in range for turn 2. Then similarly I used Scouts and normal moves to shift my Hornets all the way to the right flank to target the Riptide... using my
NEW DICE. So I let rip with the Hornets and my new dice didn't fail me! All 12 Hit, all 12 Wounded... and killed the Riptide for 1st blood! Woo hoo! New dice were on FIRE on the first rolls of the game! Jetbikes harassed some drones, downing a few of them but other than that, that was it. -Also! I grabbed the Relic right from the get-go with the Spiders.-
Tau- So the Tau wasted no time and were quite aggressive making all the right moves. The Ghost Keel and the Stealth Team poured shot after shot into the Shining Spears... they all went down except for the Exarch and the Farseer... including the Autarch! I failed my Look Out Sirs and failed one of my armor saves and he got doubled out by a lucky blast. What a bummer! I had a devious plan to break him and the Farseer off to tangle with the Stealth Team to powerup the Soulshrive (my Autarch also had Furious Charge for his warlord trait)... but it was not to be. Also a Spider who couldnt quite hop out of range got sniped by a Crisis Suit as well. Bit of a bummer for me but things still looked good.
Turn 2Eldar- So reeling a bit after the turn of events I committed to still going for it with the Exarch and Farseer. If I could just lock up the Ghost Keel for a turn until my Scorpions could get him, I'd be good. I tried to begin the process of weakening his "Group Overwatch" with Executioner from the Farseer but it failed, as did Doom and as did Guide! I could only get off Will of Asuryan which was good but I really needed to get off Executioner as it'd bypass the Cover Saves. Oh well. Still had to go for it. The Spiders moved up ultra aggressive going after one of the Crisis Suits (killing one plus some of the many attached drones, including a pesky shield drone) and positioning to make an assault on the Stealth Team if possible. So I pumped fire from the Jetbikes into the Drones, downing a mess of them and also targeting the Stealth Team dropping two of them despite their Stealth+Shrouded saves. Overall nothing of note happened in the shooting phase as Stealth+Shrouded were making my life miserable! But moving on from the shooting phase the all important assault phase began. My Shining Spear Exarch and Farseer made their desperate charge... they made the charge distance, but we're cut down by Coordinated Overwatch. What a bummer! After that I pulled everything back with Jetbike and Thrust Moves. Arghh! So close... with Monster Hunter and that nasty Star Lance my Exarch was primed to do work... Oh well. They had as hard a road to go as can be expected moving about 48" up the board, getting pounded by Tau Firepower and then going into a hail of coordinated overwatch. Was not disappointed by them as against anyone else I know it'd have been much easier. Oh well... a disappointing turn but I knew I could easily bounce back. Also worth noting... I had the Spiders drop the Relic which was picked up by the Reapers.
Tau- So Shadowsun dropped in and immediatley went after the Hornets. She and her crew blew 1 up and downed the rest. I knew that was coming but I was ok with it. The Hornets had done great work and their was no hiding from all the Ignore Cover and Melta being slung around by Shadowsun and her crew. But here is where my opponents frustration began... all my units except the Spiders has used assault moves to get clear away from the Ghostkeel who'd backed all the way up to the far edge of the board. Everything except the Spiders. So the Ghostkeel and his Stealth Team focused their fire on the Spider but they Flickerjumped out of LOS with very good rolls... and that was it. My opponent had so many Drones but only 3 other units to buff (Shadow Sun, Stealth Team and a lone Crisis Suit) and they had either fired or were out of range!
Turn 3So one unit of Spiders after bouncing way out of LOS. Jumped back up to shoot and assault the lone Crisis Suit. I killed all but 1 Drone and did a single wound in shooting against the Crisis Suit. I assaulted him, but because of their formation they had hit and run stranding the Spiders in front of a load Stealth Suits and the Ghost Keel. The other Spider unit shot up the Ghost Keel and bounced backwards. At this point the Scorpions (who had lost 4 of their number from shooting over the previous turns) began to run backwards... towards the Relic. The Assault thrust of the Eldar had failed and I couldn't run them alone through another Tau shooting phase and then try and assault them through coordinated overwatch the turn after. So they were on a mission to rendevous with the Relic which had been grabbed by a unit of Jetbikes. So with the Shadowsun and her crew in my backfield I had to destroy them and just try and grab the Relic and continue to fall back. I blasted all 9 Scatter Laser Jetbikes and the Reapers into Shadowsun's unit dropping them all but a single drone and a lone Crisis Suit. Not bad. I took the teeth out of that unit and I know I could deal with them later. Everything else continued to fade away back towards my DZ. The Jetbikes used their thruster moves to shift the Relic even further back into my DZ (its behind the big rocky outcropping at the bottom of the picture with the Scorpions closing in to grab it).
Wrap UpSo to summarize the rest of the game which went 5 Turns. It was a cat and mouse game of between the Ghost Keel and Spiders. The Spiders were executing delaying tactics, just trying to keep the Ghost Keel at bay. They also finished off the last remaining Crisis Suit team (not Shadowsun's) in the process just driving my opponent nuts. My real goal was preventing him from going after the Relic and instead focusing on the Spiders in which I succeeded. Meanwhile the Jetbikes struggled to pin down Shadowsun though they had succeeded in even grabbing her in combat, but she hit and ran out, hiding out of LOS of most of my army.
Sadly my opponent just randomly sort of conceded. He was within 24" of the Relic and could have started targeting the units holding it with the Ghostkeel but for whatever reason he just wanted to stop. Even though he had 10 Stealth Suits, the Ghostkeel on max. wounds, tons of Drones and his Warlord with a Crisis Suit alive. He said he felt like he just gone through "Final Exams" in terms of all the strategy and was just ready to call it... Very disappointing for me. This was the 1st challenging game in a very long time and just when things were getting to the nitty gritty my opponent bailed. He wasn't chatting at all during the game (after we had spent a lot of time bantering pre-game waiting for store to open having a lot of fun doing so) and so I could tell he wasn't having a lot of fun. It was strange though because I wasn't killing much since the Stealth Suits were shrugging off everything with Stealth and Shrouded and Shadowsun was dancing left and right... with the Ghostkeel coming in hot to help her out. Anyway it was a real bummer. Think I'm gonna just focus on playing some games at home for awhile where the fun is all but guaranteed.
Anyway despite my opponents lack luster enthusiasm, it proved to be a VERY exciting game for me. I was loving it. I just wished my opponent was. It was my first time facing the new Tau units and they were super tough which I was glad to see. The Ghostkeel is very cool, very hard to remove if you can't nail him in combat. Overall a very exciting game and tactical game.
So beyond that my takeaways are... continue to rock the Shining Spears! I'm dedicated to learning them and think they will pair up nice with the Scorpions. I really liked this list in general... and would certainly run it again. Big take away, get a second unit of Scorpions in there and combine them with the Spears to make an Assault Aspect Host! Can't wait!
So stay tuned guys. More hobby stuff on the way and a battle between me and my brother is already in the works. Alright guys thanks for stopping by and talk soon!
Also how about those dice! They stayed white hot all game. Getting monofilament shots too! Thanks Ibushi!