I played two games yesterday with my wraith host from craftworld Fa’alnor. The list I used was quite different than ones I’ve used before, but I still was quite successful. The first game was against Orks, the second against necrons. Here is the list that I used:
HQ:Farseer, Fortune, RoWarding
3x Warlock, Bikes, 2x Destructor, 1x Enhance
Autarch, Bike, Fusion Gun, Power Weapon, Mandiblasters
Troops:10x Wraithguard, Spiritseer, Conceal
3x Guardian Jetbikes, Shuriken Cannon
Elites:5x Wraithguard, Warlock, Enhance, Serpent with TL Shuriken Cannons
4x Harliquins, 4x Kisses, SS with Kiss, TM with PW, DJ
Fast Attack:Vyper, 2x Shuriken Cannons
Vyper, 2x Shuriken Cannons
Vyper, 2x Shuriken Cannons
Heavy:Warwalker, 2x EML
Warwalker, 2x EML
Wraithlord, BL, Star Cannon, 2x Flamers
The Ork Player’s list was more or less*Boss of some sort with 8-10 orks in 2+ Sv armor, Boss Pole. I think it was a special character, but am not sure all mounted in a battlewagon.
*Warphead special character leading a squad of 20-30 cc boyz with a nob with powerclaw.
*8-10 Boyz with FNP and 2 wounds in a trukk.
*8-10 orks who could deepstrike but had to roll a D3 to see how many died when they landed. They had jumppacks.
*About 20 boyz who could enter from any table edge, 2 flamers, a leader with a power claw (I think).
The Opponent:He was a long time ork player who has about a bazillion points of orks. He has done a lot of really nice conversion work. Tau, Eldar, Marine and other race's equipment, armor and weapons have been added to his boyz giving a really nice fell of orks scrounging around the battlefield and using whatever they find and can adapt to their purposes. He is a great opponent who is a lot of fun to play against win or lose.
The Mission:It was a rogue trader mission. You could deepstrike a unit at the start of your turn. Other than that it was basically victory points.
The Board:Basically six pieces of 12”x12” ruins, three more or less evenly spaced along my edge, three along his edge. There was about 6-10” separating the terrain on his side from the terrain on my side.
Deployment:He deployed three units. The squad in the trukk deployed out of line of sight on the left corner from my perspective behind the ruins and out of line of sight. The large squad on foot led by the warphead deployed in ruins in the middle of the field deep enough to be out of line of sight. The Boss and his squad were in the battlewagon which was largely hidden and in ruins to the right and was hull down.
I had everything on the board. The jetbikes, a vyper and the autarch were all on the left. The foot wraithguard were between the left and center ruins, with the farseer nearby. The warlocks were behind the guard and next to the center ruins. The harlies were in the center ruins far enough back to be out of sight. The warwalkers were both behind those ruins and the wraithlord was in the center of those ruins. A vyper was between those ruins and my board edge. On the right side the guard were in ruins with the waveserpent behind those ruins. They were there to push back infiltrators, an unnecessary precaution since all the infiltrators did use normal infiltration rules. A vyper was near the serpent.
The board looked something like this after deployment:
Orks on the bottom, the units left to right are battlewagon, boyz with warphead, trukk. Eldar on top. To the left are wraithguard, vyper and wave serpent. Behind the ruins in the middle are the walkers. The wraithlord and harlies are in the ruins. The farseer is the small green dot in the open next to the wraithguard squad, and the warlocks. To the right are the other vypers, autarch, and jetbikes.
My Game Plan:I wanted to try to get away from the board edges so that the squad coming in from the board edge wouldn’t be able to assault the first turn. I didn’t realize one squad would be able to deepstrike and assault in the same turn. I had my less mobile elements in the center and the more mobile elements on the edges so that only a small portion of the force could be threatened at a time and so that I could bring support over to any area that was in duress.
Turn 1:He won deployment and used the mission’s deepstrike special rule to deepstrike the warphead and friends right in front of my wraithguard. The trukk sped forward into the ruins on my left side just inches away from the bikes, autarch and guard. The battlewagon slowly moved out of the ruins on the right.
Three guard dropped to the combined shooting of the battlewagon and deepstriking squad. The warphead tried to turn my farseer into a squig but failed the psychic test thanks to runes of warding, but the perils roll failed to wound.
I fortuned the wraithguard. The bikes moved to the far side of the trukk. The autarch moved toward the middle hugging the ruins on the left. The wraithguard moved forward toward the squad which had deepstruck, but also was in position to fire on the trukk. The warlocks moved in front of the guard and to the right of the deepstruck squad preparing to hit it with the destructors. Two vipers moved to block potential assaults from the rear on the wraithguard. The harlies moved to the front of the center terrain piece, the wraithlord moved forward to shoot at the battlewagon. The walkers rolled poorly for difficult terrain. Both entered the center terrain piece, one near the left edge with shots on the truck or deepstrike squad, one on the right hoping for a shot on the battlewagon. The guard on the right hopped into their serpent which moved forward along that board edge getting into position to attack the battlewagon if it moved toward the center. The vyper likewise moved forward to protect the rear armor of the serpent. Neither had any shots lined up for that turn.
The autarch destroyed the trukk with his fusion gun and the boyz all got out in place. Combined fire killed three, but one got up again thanks to FNP, they failed their leadership test and started running. Combined fire (flamers, plasma missiles, shuriken cannons/catapults/pistols, shrieker cannon) dropped the deepstriking squad to just two members. They passed two pinning tests and the leadership test for taking all the casualties. I had waited to fire the pinning weapons until they were no longer fearless, but they passed all the tests anyway. One walker wanted to fire on the battlewagon, but had too much terrain to see through, the wraithlord fired his lance at it but didn’t do anything.
I decided to assault the warphead and remaining nob with the warlocks hoping just to tie them up for a round. I lost one bike, but won the assault and swept the remaining wounded warphead. I wasn’t expecting this. The bikes moved toward his DZ ending up on the far side of the terrain piece on my left with their assault move. They were in position to escort the running squad off the board. The autarch used his move in a similar manner ending up on the right of the running squad which was now bracketed by my units.
Turn 2:The deepstriking squad comes in from reserve, the squad that could enter from the board edge did not. The deepstrikers tried to land near the guard and warlocks but scattered badly, and losing three members on the landing. The broken unit fell back. The battlewagon moved full speed toward the center and the squad inside hopped out in easy range of the harlies and wraithlord.
The falling back squad shot at the jetbikes but killed none. The squad in the heavy armor which had just disembarked from the battlewagon killed two harlies with shooting.
The heavily armored squad charged the harlies and wraithlord killing both, but losing half their number in the process. They were strung out in the center ruins following the assault.
I fortuned the wraithguard again. The jetbikes moved to cut off the retreat of the falling back squad. The autarch moved to fire his fusion gun on the battlewagon. The guard move slightly forward and toward the center to fire on either the deepstrikers or the heavily armored unit. The Vypers moved forward as well trying to avoid potential charges from the infiltrating squad and shielding the guard from such a charge. They were positioned to shoot at the heavily armored squad. (They probably should have positioned to shoot at the deepstrikers, but I wanted to be sideways to most effectively block an assault from the infiltrator). The warlocks weren’t quite sure what to do and sort of split the difference between the deepstrikers and heavily armored squad. The walkers both moved to the left looking to get shots on the deepstrikers. The serpent moved to the middle dropping the guard to shoot at either the battlewagon or the heavily armored orks. The vyper tagged along and had shots on both as well.
I killed most of the deepstrikers with shooting, but couldn’t kill them all. The autarch blew up the battlewagon. Combined fire killed all the heavy armored orks save one and the boss.
The autarch moved away from everything in the middle. The warlocks positioned themselves to shield the wraithguard from the heavily armored orks. Between the vypers and warlock the boss had no way to charge the guard.
Turn 3:The last ork squad enters from my board edge preparing to assault my warwalkers. The heavily armored orks try to get around the warlocks moving toward the center of the board. The jump pack orks moved for an assault on the guard. Only two or three remained.
The walkers are assaulted. The walkers don’t kill anything with their attacks, but one explodes killing 6-8 orks. The other walker survives and the orks pile in. The jump pack orks assault the guard and the Boss and his last boy assault the warlocks killing both and piling into the wraithguard. The wraithguard killed all but the leader of the jump pack squad.
The farseer fortunes himself. No sense fortuning guard who won’t get any saves in cc. (Then I make a big mistake. I forgot that the mission rules allow me to take my guard out of cc and deep strike them. Had I done this, the last jumpacker would be stranded in the open as would the Boss and his last escort. Instead I had nothing to shoot at with my 3 vypers, wave serpent 2 squads of guard, jetbikes, autarch and farseer.) The farseer moves around the cc planning to assault the Boss. The autarch moves to assault the last boy in the Boss’s squad. The vypers move away from everything so they can shoot whatever is left when the assaults are over. The small guard squad hops in its serpent. The jetbikes move away from the mess so they can get in some shots later.
The atuarch and farseer charge doing nothing. The wraithguard don’t do anything either. I lose the autarch and a few guard. I lost combat, but passed the leadership tests. The other ork squad kills the walker and stands around in the ruins.
End Game:We called it here. My opponent was trying to squeeze in our game before another scheduled game. His opponent has showed up so he wanted to start it. I was pretty much in mop up mode by this point though. I had plenty of mobility and firepower to drop what little he had left with few casualties of my own. He only had about 10 models left. The vypers and serpent could have concentrated fire on the last large squad during my turn probably killing most of them. The guard in the serpent could have finished off the boss and his boy once the combat in the middle was done. The bikes could just pick stuff off at range. I had his force surrounded with speed on all sides so there was really nowhere to go.