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Author Topic: 1,500 point Alaitoc Civil War  (Read 892 times)

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Offline bca11

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1,500 point Alaitoc Civil War
« on: January 20, 2018, 03:40:21 AM »
I played a match today at my LGS with another Eldar player.

His list:

Farseer
Spiritseer
15 Rangers
5 Wraithguard
5 Wraithblades
2 Wave Serpents
2 Fire Prisms
9 Warp Spiders
My List:

Farseer
Autarch with Reaper Launcher (warlord)
3 Warlocks
Illic
15 Rangers
35 Dire Avengers (5x5 & 1x10)
5 Swooping Hawks
10 Striking Scorpions
10 Dark Reapers

Mission: No Mercy

Deployment:

He easily finished first with both wraith units embarked on transports, and all tanks hidden from LOS by large buildings. I put a quicken warlock and 10 dire avengers into the webway, and set the scorpions and hawks up for deep strike as well. I redeployed with phantasm (I had 12 command points so what else was I going to do?) and piled into a sheltered corner.

Turn 1:
Despite deploying most of my army well after he was finished, I rolled a 6 and got first turn. I used this turn to shoot all of his rangers off the board with my reapers, autarch, and rangers. The exarch got double 6's on his tempest launcher, which was nice. I left the reserve units off the board for the time being.

His turn comes and he does exactly one thing - peeks the fire prism furthest from the reapers from behind a building and proceeds to use the linked fire stratagem to fire 4 volleys at my reapers. Shockingly, he killed none of them, but I knew I was lucky and couldn't let this continue.

Turn 2:
I drop all of my units in next to the offending fire prism, quicken the striking scorpions, and open up on the fire prism with everything (hawks, dire avengers, warlock, & scorpions). I do some good damage (7 wounds) in my shooting phase, and feel good about my chances in assault to finish it off. I charge and, when the fight phase rolls around I learn an important fact about striking scorpions - mandiblasters don't work on vehicles. Oh well, I hadn't used them in matched play yet, so I needed to find out some time, plus I still have a powerfist that can knock off those remaining wounds. The tank was in cover, so I pop supreme disdain to get bonus attacks on 5+. The exarch manages 1 hit on the tank for 1 wound, and the squad does 1 more, leaving it at 3 wounds. My heart sank a little... Why didn't I start moving the reapers this direction the previous movement phase?

He responds by falling back, deepstriking his warp spiders next to dire avengers, disgorging his wraithblades from a nearby wave serpent, popping linked fire again (which he can still do because he still has 2 fire prisms) and completely wiped out my webway assault / deep strike force. At this point I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of such an aggressive gambit, especially since it didn't pay off in the form of a dead tank.

Turn 3:

I advance everything, essentially redeploying to another building closer to the center of the board where I can get range on both fire prisms if they show themselves again. I make a dire avenger screen in front and load the reapers up with buffs (fortune, conceal, protect). 

He re-embarks the wraithblades and the start to head my way. The wounded fire prism peeks out and kills a couple of dark reapers with linked fire. Meanwhile the warp spiders jump behind a nearby building out of LOS, waiting for the right time to strike.

Turn 4:
The reapers more forward as far as possible without leaving cover, get range on the offending fire prism, and finish it off. Several also shot at the wave serpent, delivering 5 wounds after his spirit stone rolls.

He brings his second wave serpent and fire prism from behind a the other building. Both wave serpents advance and get right in my face. The fire prism blows up one of the small 5-man dire avengers unit without any difficulty while the warp spiders jump in and kill several more.

Turn 5:
I spread my dire avenger screen as efficiently as I can, but it won't take much more shooting to make it possible to charge through it. I doom the fire prism and shoot it down with the reapers, while everything else focuses on the wounded wave serpent. Through a miracle of dice, I keep getting 6's on my shuriken and longrifle shots, and it dies, taking 1 wraithblade with it. However, they are inches away, and it's about to be his turn. It's not looking good.  The warlord charges the warp spiders, killing 4 with his star glaive and causing one more to flee. It's a short-lived victory.

His wraithguard step out of the remaining wave serpent and position themselves directly in front of my warlord, who is left exposed after the warp spiders fall back. I fail to deny his jinx against my warlord, so I know I'm about to be facing a 5++ against wraithcannons. 1 failed save could kill him. 2 would probably kill him. I failed 3... Meanwhile, the remaining wave serpent and warp spiders shoot a big enough hole in the dire avenger screen for the wraithblades to make successfully charge into combat with the dark reapers. The also killed one of my warlocks as well. When the dust settles, only the exarch and 1 holdout remain.

At this point we called the game and didn't roll to continue, as there was no way I was going to beat 4 wraithblades, 5 wraithguard, and a full-health wave serpent with shield intact at close range with a farseer, a warlock, 2 dark reapers, and 10 rangers. He came very close to tabling me, and probably would have with another turn.

Result: Defeat!

He definitely exploited his range and mobility advantage well. The only error I think he made was deploying the rangers in sight. He doesn't use dark reapers, preferring a more mobile army, so he thought his rangers were reasonably safe, forgetting about inescapable accuracy. My errors were numerous, and luck was not on my side that even with exploding attacks at 5+ I couldn't take the last few wounds off his fire prism. In hindsight, I definitely needed more anti-vehicle firepower. I had considered taking fire dragons instead of scorpions when building my list, and had they popped out of the webway, they probably could have killed the fire prism with ease (and I wouldn't have needed a quicken warlock to boost them). Still, we didn't tell each other our lists beforehand, and I had been wanting to try scorpions out in 8th for awhile. At least now I can say I've done it.

Overall it was a fun match. I never mind having my ass handed to me by someone who out-played me, which is exactly what happened today.

If you've read thus far I hope you have enjoyed the report. Don't let the senseless deaths of my models be in vain - never let wraithblades charge your dark reapers!

Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: 1,500 point Alaitoc Civil War
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2018, 07:33:15 AM »
Fire prisms are scary good, and can't really be stopped until you destroy them, as the can just flee combat. I've learned to fear prisms first hand.

Anti-tank does seem to be a weakness to your list. Wraith guard with Wraith cannons are also phenomenal webway strike are great at taking down vehicles, and tough enough to survive to shoot a second time.

Good game though. If your assault payed off against the prism, it could have been a different game. But, that's the dice sometimes. 
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: 1,500 point Alaitoc Civil War
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2018, 09:47:53 PM »
G'day bca11!
What a game! The dice dictated that game, mate, not your tactics. Keep'm come'n!

Offline Blazinghand

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Re: 1,500 point Alaitoc Civil War
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2018, 04:43:01 AM »
Losing the Warlord to wraithcannon shots like that is pretty brutal. Warp Spiders are so mobile, they're always glad to jump out of combat when the time is right. Seems like quite a game, thanks for the report!
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