@Morachai- Hey man thanks for the intel. They certainly are exceptional sculpts totally on par with some of GW's best. Do you know the sculptor? Thats awesome "The Kelly" picked up his Baron from him. Really cool stuff. Anyway thanks for stopping by man and thanks again.
Eldar Vs. Death WatchAlright guys had to bang this out before it slips out of my memory banks. So managed to get in a game with my new gaming bud Patrick, who if you remember, brought Imperial Fists last time. This time he brought his Death Watch and boy did we have a throw down! Lets dive right in.
Death Watch
Librarian Level 2: Terminator Armor, Force Axe
Librarian Level 2: Force Sword
Librarian Level 2: Force Sword
Chaplain
Tactical Squad x10: 2x Bikes, 3x Special Shotguns
Tactical Squad x10: 2x Assault Marines, Thunderhammer, Watch Sgt- Power Sword
Tactical Squad x10: Terminator Cyclone Missile Launcher, Stormshield, Heavy Bolter
Drop Pod
Death Watch Flyer: Re-rollable Jink, Missiles, Assault Cannon
Death Watch Flyer: Re-rollable Jink, Missiles, Assault Cannon
Eldar
Autarch- Banshee Mask, Fusion Gun, Soulshrive
Farseer
5x Wraitblades- Axe and Shield
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Dire Avengers x10
Dire Avengers x10
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers
Hornets x3- Pulse Lasers
-Aspect Host-
Scorpions x10- Exarch, Claw
Fire Dragons x6- Exarch
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Warp Spiders x8- Exarch
Dark Reapers x5- Starshot Missiles, Exarch- Starshot
Setup: Hammer and Anvil, Maelstrom Mission: Tactical Escalation. Eldar deployed 1st, went 2nd.
Turn 1Death Watch- So with almost everything except the Reapers, Spiders and both Wave Serpents off the board he clearly saw the kill zone I had established and wasn't about to drop his guys in my DZ. So he went for an objective instead but dropping his guys WAY out of the action. At the very least he had presence near the objectives opposite my army.
Eldar- So I drew some good cards and shuffled my serpents to grab them. Took some pot shots at the Marines and killed one with my Serpents, but that was it.
Turn 2Death Watch- The attack run begins! The flyer comes screaming on firing assault cannons, and a bunch of missile at the Serpent with my Wraithblades, Farseer and Autarch. I jink a ton of fire but do take 2 HP's. Considering the firepower that came in I was fine with it. Meanwhile the squad which Drop-Podded in shuffles to the left to lend support fire with the Cyclone Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter but are out of range. This is still the calm before the storm
Eldar- All my reserves come in. The Scorpions come in on the left to support the Wraithblades who deploy. I'm trying to saturate the left flank with bodies to divide fire power and prevent any one squad from taking all the heat. I know I'm gonna have to deal with a huge assault in the next couple of terms. The bikes come on opposite the assault wing, to stay clear of the fracas. The Avengers come in middle of the board preparing for the second flyer to arrive. This was poorly played on my part. I should have started with the Avengers on the board, as my opponent would not have podded in turn withe even with his AP 4 weapons just to kill them. These guys would be relatively out of position for the rest of the game. Meanwhile shooting from the Reapers and Serpents stripped only a single hull point off the flyer. I shuffled about and grabbed a few objectives and I was up 5-1. Still... the quiet before the storm.
Turn 3Death Watch- INCOMING! The Deathwatch explode on to the scene. The flyer slams into hover mode and they deploy. The Psyker charges up giving the squad a 4+ invulnerable save via Forewarning, plus Iron Arm and a bunch of other stuff to make them Eternal Warrior, x+ feel no pain etc. I try to deny the 4+ invuln to hopefully get some
low AP attacks from my Autarch and Wraithblades through but to no avail. Shooting commenses and only a single Wraithblade goes down. Meanwhile the second flyer enters the game and is streaking towards the middle of my board towards the Avengers/Jetbikes and kills a Jetbike after I made some hot armor saves. However here comes the hammer! In assault the Deathwatch unit ANNIHILATES my entire command squad. The beefed up Librian, the insta-death
max. strength hammers just wreck face and my Autarch rolls horribly in combat. Total disaster! I'm fuming over the ineffectiveness of my assault unit but there is little I can do. However... the Deathwatch flyer is in hover mode, right next to my Wave Serpent with 2 HP's on it. I have a counter-attack plan.
Eldar- Alright without reserve manipulation my Hornets fail to come in again. Argh! Nevertheless I have my plan. The Serpent which deployed the Wraithblades and Commanders swings round to the back armor of the flyer. I pop the Serpent shield and down goes that very expensive, very deadly flyer. The Scorpions run from the squad that has already deployed and make a good move through cover, requiring only a 7 inch charge to reach the squad which had drop-podded in on turn 1. The Spiders, unit of Avengers, Reapers and 3 units of bikes UNLOAD into the squad of Deathwatch which wiped out my command squad but after all that... the Librarian is still standing.
MEQ Armor, 4+ Invuln, x+ Feel No Pain... and I'm tearing my hair out!
Whats worse.... is that after all that shooting my Spiders roll a 1 for battle focus, and 4 inch thrust move with their Jump Generators. They are in easy assault range for the remaining Librarian. This would be a theme for rest of the game... Battle-Focus, Fleet and Charge Distances would totally fail me from here on out. However the Scorpions make their charge distance... until ridiculous Overwatch with re-rolls galore take out 4 of them and they fail! This was really bad. The Scorpions would have wrecked the Death Watch leaving only 2 units on the board. However with the Librarian near the Spiders, the Scorpions out in the open and 2nd flyer and its Marines closing in for another charge I knew I was in trouble.
Turn 4Deathwatch- The Marines coming screaming in. Drop out of their flyer right in my backfield. The Drop-Pod Marines make mince-meat out of my loyal stalwarts the Scorpions wiping them out. The flyer likewise shoots a unit of Bikes off the board. The Librarian charges into the Spiders and wipes them out. Then the Deathwatch split-fire into a unit of bikes and the Avengers. Uh-oh. The bikes get pummeled in combat, however in assault the Avengers hold. While this disallows me from shooting into them it means I can fan out and grab some more objectives and try to re-group and use my speed to out-run the marines and get to a better position. Also the Dragons which had deployed previously and the Serpent go completley untouched. A second counter-attack opportunity has opened up and I seize it.
Eldar- I fly one of my Serpents all the way to the otherside of the board for Linebreaker and also to get away from the rampaging Librarian. Meanwhile the Hornets finally show-up and take aim alongside the Dragons and the Serpent to take out the flyer. No way he can survive all that. Serpent shield pops and inflicts only a single hull point! Then he makes re-rollable jinks against all 12 shots from the Hornets and all the melta shots from the Dragons and I fail to freaking put a melta-bomb (a lone melta bomb due to the FAQ) on the stupid flyer! Arghh! Disaster, red ruin! My opponent is also only 3 Victory Points below me in the Maelstrom race. I'm getting very nervous!
Turn 5-
Death Watch- With little left to do, the Drop Pod squad of Marines chases the Serpent a bit but is out of range and LOS. Then the remaining squad charges into the Dragons, losing a guy due to overwatch but then annihilates them. Very frustrating for me. I'm still burning after failing to take out that damn flyer! My opponent is sitting on a Maelstrom objective that will score him 4 points which will leap-frog my lead. I've got to do something!
Eldar- My Hornets swing away from the failed attempt at the flyer, to get away from the 2 bikers now on the board. I've got "Overwhelming Fire Power" for a card (kill a unit in the shooting phase) and I want to support the Wave Serpent for Linebreaker. So they fly back into my opponents DZ and unload on the Marines. Killing only 2!!!! He's got a stormshield guy tucked in there and he passes every save against my AP2 guns! Damn it! However the Reapers turn their specially guided Missile Launchers on the flyer and finally take it down! Then the remaining bikes unload into the Terminator Librarian and finally remove him. However... I did not score any points this turn! My opponent will surely score that 4 pointer card should the game go on. I roll the dice to see if we continue.... and we dont! The game ends... a classic turn 5 victory. Wowzers what a game!
Conclusion: Patrick is an awesome dude and a great player. I loved his army construction... he had tons of specialist weapons that I cant quite remember and made total advantage of his transport flyers, the close-combat abilities, split-fire and supported the already ridiculous amount of re-rolls the Death Watch get with even more Pyschic buffs make them insanely potent in combat and ultra-resilient.
If I made one mistake it was probably not starting with the Avengers on the board. The bikes, Hornets etc. probably could have started on the board as well now that I think about it, but I value the 1st guaranteed volley of firepower. And once you start jinking sometimes its impossible to get to a point where you can get get out LOS and then pop out and shoot at full BS later.
Fighting Hammer and Anvil against a highly mobile force with assault heavy hitters is also very difficult. The mixed armor with Terminators, storm shields etc worked probably just as GW envisioned it with him tanking wounds against small arms with his Terminator armored models.
Overall it was a FANTASTIC game! Patrick is an awesome player and furiously trying to finish painting his new army. After only having his force for 2 weeks he'd already gotten a lot done.
Anyway guys thats it for now. Hope you enjoyed the bat-rep. The lighting wasnt the best so the pictures don't look great but I hope you got some good intel for when facing Deathwatch yourselves. Anyway talk to you soon guys and look out for Deathwatch!!!
Edited for excessive stats - Iris.