1750 Imperial Fists Vs Eldar: The Big Guns Never TireIn the quiet solitude of a wraithbone forest, where no leaf stirs, Anathiel Voidspeaker waits for illumination. She reaches forth with her mind and brushes against the mysteries of the Infinity Circuit. She listens to the dead as they whisper.
"The galaxy is in chaos." They speak in half-heard whispers, things remembered as a dream. "The Changer of the Ways laughs in his labyrinthine throne."
"It has always been the way." Anathiel whispers back. "You do not remember. You are dead."
"We remember." Their is no reproach, no pride in their words. They are simply correcting her. "This time is different."
"War is unchanged." Anathiel says, to herself as much to them. "We will prevail as we always have."
"Not always." The dead whisper, cold as the void. "This time is different."
Anathiel withdraws from her contact and opens her eyes. The garden has not stirred. There are many meanings to what the dead say, many fates that might be made known. The words, however, will remain with her always. "This time," she says softly, layering the words of time as instance and time as span together into a single sound, "is different."It's been a long hiatus from actually playing games (a couple months) which was largely due to my rushing to finish a third novel (bought
my bookyet? Buy it, damn you!), but at long last I got a chance to sit down with my friend, the Eldar player, and give both the new Space Marine Book and the new Eldar Book a test run.
Imperial Fists Combined Arms DetachmentLysander
3 Assault Centurions w/Hurricane Bolters, 1x TL Meltagun, 2x TL Flamers
--in Land Raider Crusader ("The Bastion of Terra") w/Multimelta
Tactical Squad Attica (10) w/Grav Cannon, Grav Gun, Vet (Grav Pistol, Meltabombs)
--in Rhino
Tactical Squad Macedon (10) w/Grav Cannon, Grav Gun, Vet (Combiflamer, Powerfist)
--in Drop Pod (Deathwind Launcher)
Storm Talon w/Skyhammer Missiles
Dreadnought w/Multimelta, Hvy Flamer
--in Drop Pod
7 Devastators w/ 4x Lascannons
Thunderfire Cannon
Eldar Mechanized Invasion ForceCombined Arms DetachmentFarseer on Jetbike w/Singing Spear (Guide, Doom, Mind War, Courage-boosting Power; Eye on Distant Events trait)
10 Guardians w/Shuricannon (+Warlock w/Conceal + Destructor)
--in Wave Serpent (TL Shuricannon, Shuricannon)
10 Guardians w/Shuricannon (+Warlock w/Conceal + Speedy power)
--in Wave Serpent (TL Shuricannon, Shuricannon)
10 Guardians w/Shuricannon (+Warlock w/Conceal + Jinx)
--in Wave Serpent (TL Shuricannon, Shuricannon)
Falcon w/Brightlance, Hull Shuricannon
Fire Prism Squadron (2)
Aspect Host (+1 BS)6 Fire Dragons w/Exarch
8 Warp Spiders w/Exarch
8 Swooping Hawks w/Exarch
Terrain, Mission, and DeploymentThe board's chief terrain feature was a forest that stretched across the center of the board from about mid-board to the east. In the Northwest there was a large hill and a small, rubble-pile hill. In the Northeast there were some boulders and ridges. In the Southeast there was a frozen lake and some more rocks. In the Southwest there was a bunker and two trenches. Board center also had a very large rock formation.
The Mission was The Big Guns Never Tire with 4 objectives. One went behind the bunker in the southwest, one went behind the big hill in the northwest, one went about board center by the edge of the forest, and one went deep in the northeast quadrant.
I won the pre-game roll. Deployment was Vanguard Strike, so I picked the southwest corner for my DZ, seeing that the trenches and bunker would work very well for my firebase units. Accordingly, the Devastators deployed on the rampart atop the bunker (which the Techmarine bolstered) and the TFC went in the trench as far back towards my board edge as possible, in order to get the most out of that wonderful long range it has. The Land Raider deployed as far forward as possible, just east of the TFC trench, whereas the Rhino deployed behind the bunker, using it for cover. The Drop Pods and Storm Talon would deploy in reserve, as usual.
The Eldar deployed in their parking lot of Grav Tanks, as is their usual habit. Wave Serpents in Front, Falcon (with Dragons) and the Fire Prisms in back. The Jetseer lurked behind the tanks, hidden from LOS. The Spiders and Hawks were held in reserve to deepstrike.
Deployment
Imperial Fists DeploymentEldar DeploymentThe BoardTurn 1The Eldar do not steal the initiative, so I get things started. The Land Raider heads straight for the Eldar lines, cruising 12" right up to the forest and firing its multimelta/Assault Cannons at the closest Wave Serpent, which jinks and prevents a penetrating hit. The Rhino goes flat-out to catch up with the Land Raider, and they are both in good position to get where I want them to be next turn, barring any mishap. Tac Squad Macedon drops in its pod atop the NW objective. I did this for two reasons: (1) I could lock that objective down with Objective Secured pretty easily, since the squad and the pod's Deathwind would be able to cope with any late-game objective stealers pretty well and (2) *if* my opponent wanted to push my off that objective, it would take a lot of doing to do so and would divert forces from his main column. I also hoped the grav weapons could be brought to bear to support any mid-field firefight that developed, if it came to that.
The Devastators try to take out the Falcon, but only shake it and take off hull point thanks to Jink. The Thunderfire Cannon dropped a lot of explosions right on the Farseer's head, taking off two wounds (ooo! so close!), and that really ought to teach him not to fly around by his lonesome.
Top of Turn 1
Tac Squad Macedon hits the turf!Hmmm...we look outnumbered, captain!In the bottom of turn one, my opponent takes a hard look at Macedon camped on that objective supported by a Deathwind Launcher and decides "the hell with it" and moves everything east (that, incidentally, is an advertisement for a Deathwind Launcher right there--his exact words were "I don't want to deal with that deathwind"). A lot of Shuricannons shoot at the Rhino, taking off a hull point and shaking it. The Fire Prisms score a pen on the Land Raider, shaking it as well. I dutifully roll Lysander's leadership to ignore the effects of the pen on my Centurions and I roll and 11. Yep. Lucky me--snap shots for them next turn. Bleh.
The Falcon, with its cargo of Fire Dragons, was too far away to get a good shot at the Land Raider this turn, so the aspects bided their time until next turn.
Bottom of 1
You see! We have shifted *slightly* to the left! Such Eldar Trickery!Turn 2In my next turn, I get both the Dread (Brother Hektor) and the Storm Talon from reserve. The Dread I drop directly in the enemy backfield and he uses his heavy flamer to try and hit the Farseer while shooting the Fire Prisms, but it doesn't work--the Farseer is undamaged and the multimelta misses the primary targets. Still, there *is* an angry dread in their faces. The Storm Talon zooms on from the eastern side of my deployment zone (in reterospect, I should have come in from the west--ah well) and tries to kill the Falcon, taking off another hull point and forcing another jink. The Devastators target Wave Serpent 1 (not 2, as depicted in the map) and take off two hull points and immobilize it, despite it jinking. The Land Raider moves forward and takes a pot-shot at Wave Serpent 3, which forces a jink and (I think) even manages to take off a hull point, despite the snap-shots. Lysander and the Centurions disembark, moving forward for a charge, but their meltagun does nothing against the closest Wave Serpent.
The Rhino tries to move forward but promptly immobilizes itself on a tree (Dammit! The ONE TIME I don't buy a dozer blade!), meaning my tacticals will not be seeing much action this turn. They deploy anyway, since the Rhino only has 1 hull point left and its a good placeholder for that objective at the moment. I'm *just* out of range for my Grav Cannon to take a shot. The other tactical squad, Macedon, juggles its configuration a bit to get the grav cannon into range for future turns. This makes me kinda wish I had a plasma cannon, instead. Oh--the Thunderfire Cannon hits a bunch of tanks with its high-strength shot, but doesn't manage any damage. It *may* have caused a tank to jink--I don't remember.
Finally, Lysander and his buddies try to charge the closest Wave Serpent...and fail. Sadly, had I *remembered* that Assault Centurions have Move Through Cover and that the ability transfers to the rest of the unit, they would have made it. Alas. They will now get pounded in the face by a million shuriken. Let's see how they do.
Top of Turn 2
Surprise!DEATH FROM THE SKIES...errr...hull points. Hull Points from the skies.The Role of "Assault Centurions" will be played by "unpainted Armored Sentinels"In the bottom of two, the Eldar player goes all-in. All transports disgorge their cargo of guardians and close in on Big L and his assault centurions. The Fire Dragons, meanwhile, hop out and make a Battle-focused Bee-line for the Land Raider. The Hawks don't come in and the Spiders, trying to ambush the Storm Talon, scatter into a mishap and go back into ongoing reserve. The rest of the turn goes like this:
The Farseer Dooms the Centurions and Lysander. The Warlock fails to Jinx them.
Lysander and his buddies are shot with 60 Shuriken Catapult shots, 33 Shuriken Cannon Shots, 18-ish Serpent Shield shots, a pulse laser, and a brightlance. All with Doom.
After missing pretty much the first 8 saves in a row, killing off Lysander and two Centurions (well, not quite that bad, but really the first unit of Guardians and the first Wave Serpent killed them all),
everybody else can't so much as scratch the paint on that last guy, who makes about a gazillion saves in a row (many of them 5+ cover saves, too!).
He then promptly rolls an 11 and falls back. (Where were these 11s when I was rolling for charge range?)
Then, the Fire Dragons demonstrate just how terrifyingly good they are these days by wrecking the land raider without breaking a sweat. That used to be a 50/50 deal, but not anymore. BS5 + Assured Destruction? Ouch! Add in Battle Focus? Bad news, Eldar-fighters. Bad news indeed.
Bottom of Turn 2
Ummm...uh-oh.Turn 3After a pretty dismal turn 2, I now need to capitalize upon the fact that all the squishy eldar are out of their transports. I swear, playing the Eldar sometimes feels like being a seagull cracking snails.
But I digress.
Anyway, the first problem I face is to figure out what to do with the Storm Talon. It can't zoom and have a good target this turn, even though that would keep it relatively safe. I opt, instead, to go into hover mode and fly behind the Fire Prisms, shooting one down. The next problem is presented by all those grav tanks blocking line of sight selectively to various units (as well as the forest), meaning I can't focus fire as I'd like. Now, the Thunderfire Cannon doesn't care about this--it obliterates one squad of Guardians with little trouble. The Devastators put some hull points on one of the transports--not sure which, but you can bet it jinked in order to survive (I was scoring 3-4 pens/glances on every volley with my Devs all game, and those sneaky little grav tanks just kept dodging!). The Tac Squads each did as much damage to the other two guardian units as it could. I would have moved closer with Tac Squad Attica (the Rhino group), but they only rolled a measly 2 or 3 on their difficult terrain test. Anyway, between the tacs and the storm bolters on both the Dread-pod and the rhino, I kill about half of both other guardian squads. Neither of them run, though.
Not to be counted out, the Assault Centurion shoots and charges the Fire Dragons, killing three of them and running them off. Sadly, the big guy is too slow to catch them and is left sheltering in the forest. Finally, the Dreadnought stomps over to the Farseer and smashes him flat, scoring me Warlord (though my opponent already has Warlord and First Blood at this point).
Top of 3
The Tacs get stuck in the mudThe Storm Talon takes the Fire Prism from behind.In the bottom of Turn 3, the Hawks and the Spiders show up, both dropping into the enemy DZ (as suits me just fine). The Hawks drop their grenades on Attica, and I continue my run of terrible armor saves by losing three guys or something. Sheesh. The Fire Dragons rally and the Warp Spiders are able to get a couple shots on the Dreadnought's rear armor, destroying him. One Wave Serpent, taking advantage of the fact that the Storm Talon is hovering, shoots it down, but its crash-and-burn hits nothing. Everybody else (everybody) tries to kill that lone Centurion, but that little dude just will. not. die. He passes all his saves with flying colors.
The remaining guardians get into the remaining mobile Serpent and the Falcon. The Falcon and the empty Serpent cruise South, looking to flank my firebase.
Bottom of Turn 3
The Aspect Warriors play clean-up in the DZTurn 4In the fourth turn, things are looking pretty good as we're moving towards the late-game. I've got 3 objectives locked down, I've got the enemy clustered in his DZ, and I still have some weapons active, but I've lost a *lot* of valuable stuff. My offense is flagging. I need to stop those guardians from getting into my DZ, so I turn to the Devs and the TFC. The Devastators shoot the Fire Prism (I don't like AP 3 blast templates) and forces a jink and takes a hull point, but that's it. The TFC, though, nails the Falcon and destroys it, spilling those guardians back into the ditch.
I fire grav weapons from both tacs at the immobilized serpent, but nobody secures a kill. Lastly, the remaining Centurion charges Wave Serpent 2--the other one with guys in it--and causes a massive explosion that kills 3 Hawks, a Spider, and a couple more guardians, leaving 3 or 4 alive. That guy is earning his keep.
Top of Turn 4
This is a weirdly orthogonal crater. Don't ask.The Thunderfire Cannon knocks out a tank.In the bottom of Turn 4, the Warp Spiders and Fire Dragons advance on the mid-board, with the Spiders putting enough shots into the Tacs there (along with that immobilized wave serpent) to knock them down to 4 guys. I make a morale check and what do I roll? Yup--11. They fall back.
Back in the Eldar DZ, the Hawks assault the Drop Pod there and embarrass themselves, only taking off 1 hull point. The guardians consolidate atop the objective.
Finally, in the south, the remaining guardians hop into their third ride of the game and fly that Wave Serpent towards the center objective. Hmmm...
Bottom of 4
Aspects Advancing!The Hawks FumbleTo Be Continued...