Hi
Here are 3 quick battle reports from my day at the UK 40Konline tournament. All the guys were great fun to play against and very sporting and all minor rules problems were quickly resolved- just how games (and tournaments ) should be. All the pictures are taken at the start of turns unless otherwise stated. Click on any picture to see a larger version.
If anything is not clear or confusing, please let me know.
My list was a hybrid Eldar list as follows:
HQ
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Farseer, runes of Warding, singing spear, doom 98
Elite
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6x striking scorpions (inc exarch, claw and stalker) 128
6x firedragons (inc exarch, crack shot, dragon's breath) 113
8x Harlequins (inc shadowseer, death jester, 7x kisses) 212
Troops
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5x pathfinders 120
5x pathfinders 120
3x guardian jetbikes (inc shuriken cannon) 76
Fast Attack
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5x warp spiders (inc exarch, additional death spinner, power blades) 137
1x vyper (missile launcher) 65
Heavy support
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1x Falcon (holofield, spirit stones, shuriken cannon) 165
1x Fire prism (holofield, spirit stones) 160
2x vibro cannon 100
total 1494
There is a thread discussing the choices for this list here:
http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=155050.0All missions would be gamma level and we would be told what each one would be before it started. I hope my accounts are accurate, if I played you and I get anything wrong, do let me know.
Game 1
Opponent: Anthony (from Bracknell Forest gamers, not the forums)
Army: Drop trooping IG
Composition (as near as I can recall): Griffon mortar (w smoke shells), 2 Leman russes: one with 24” gun, 2 plasma cannons and a lascannon and one with 60” gun and heavy bolters, 2 autocannon sentinels, lots of drop troopers: some flamers, grenade launchers, meltas, plasma (5 squads) and a drop trooping command squad. Iron discipline and many voxes ensure they are never going to run.
Mission: Take and hold.
Turn 1
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click for a bigger picture where you can read the text!
The black circle denotes the objective.
This is the deployment at the start of the game (my farseer is with the harlequins). The trench was 4+ cover for troops and the green areas were 5+ lvl2 cover.
I won the roll for first turn and elected to go second as most of his army was deep striking. Guard movement was uneventful: the russes and the sentinels shuffled forward. Shooting was unlucky too, the griffon failed to damage anything, the short range russ missed and the long range russ scored a direct hit on the viper but only succeeded in blowing off the missile launcher even with ordnance (the 2 partials on the jetbikes missed).
The eldar turn went much better. The skimmers and jetbikes moved past the building and the spiders moved to where they had been. The vibro cannons prevented the griffon from shooting, and the rest of the army glanced the plasma russ and one of the sentinels preventing them from moving or shooting.
Turn 2
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The drop troops start arriving. 4 squads turn up: a melta squad, 2 flamer squads and a grenade launcher squad. The flamers land perfectly in front of the vibrocannon crew and incinerate the 1000 year old artisans leaving the guns untouched. The second lot of flamer land in the trench near the objective and very near the pathfinders- flamers render their cover save useless and the all die in fiery agony. The grenade squad strike midway between the harlequins and jetbikes, their shooting kills 4 harlequins and wounds the farseer but his Ld means they hold. Things went less well for the melta squad- clearly whoever did the first 3 strikes went on a teabreak- landing on top of the prism ensured they took no further part and meant the tank needed repainting. All the vehicles were ineffective: either they could not shoot or missed or the trench absorbed the impacts.
Things were heating up, but more targets gave the Eldar many options. The harlequins moved to the back of the board to keep them out of reach of the approaching tanks and to make deep striking near them risky- unfortunately it left them 2” out or range of the sentinel. The pathfinders stun the griffon and the vipers kill 2 of the grenade launcher squad. The spiders headed towards the flamer squad, shooting kills 3 (carapace armour paid off) and a decent assault distance roll of 5 gets them into contact. The powerblade exarch kills one and the squad kill another, winning the combat but these guardsmen were tough and shrug it off on Ld10. The scorpions show them how it should be done, killing 5 (only half the squad was within range) and running the rest down, a decent massacre move got them back into the trench). The falcon zooms forward, deploying their anti tank present in front of the russ and its shooting destroys one of the sentinels. Unluckily for the flamer squad the dragon exarch’s flamer catches them on the way to the tank killing 8 and the melta guns blow off the russ’s turret, left plasma cannon, immobilise it and leave it unable to shoot next turn.
The vyper decides that discretion is the better part of valour and decides to preserve its scoring status by hiding behind the building for the rest of the game.
Turn 3
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Things were getting tense and only one more squad arrived this turn, again landing perfectly between the pathfinders and dragons, right next to the falcon. Their massed plasma fire got through the falcon’s thin armour 5 times but only succeeded in destroying the pulse laser and preventing it from shooting. The remains of the flamer squad shoot and assault the dragons killing 4, the officer showing that he must have earned the Hororifica Imperialis he was wearing, continuing the fight on despite horrific wounds. His companion was less fortunate, being no match for the speed of the eldar, despite the loss, aspect warriors are harded in many battles and held their ground. In the spider/guard combat one man goes down but they easily hold. The 60” gun of the russ claims 2 scorpions and a jetbike.
The tide was turning, but it was no time for the Eldar to slacken off. The scorpions head towards the dragons to rescue them, the falcon turbo boosts out of the way next to the griffon and the vyper continues to skulk behind the building. The harlequins edge forward, allowing the deathjester to stun and blow the autocannon off the remaining sentinel. The jetbikes miss, but cheekily use the blind side of the russ as cover from the other tank. Pathfinders show their worth against the griffon by glancing twice and penetrating once, it blows up. Unfortunately for the guard, deepstriking and a functional prism do not go well together- 8 of the plasma squad die. Things went much less well for the guard/spider combat- one spider went down and they lost combat (clearly the exarch needs more practice with the powerblades) but did not break.
Turn 4
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(At this point Anthony realised that he had forgotten to roll for his deep striking command squad for the previous 2 turns but at least they turn up now…)
The command squad again lands perfectly behind the nearly wrecked russ, hopefully safe from harm, they are an assault squad so they should have time to get stuck in near the objective. The flamer squad hold their ground against the spiders and the sentinel runs towards the objective, hoping to stamp on some troops. The dragons finally win their combat and a 5 for consolidation means they are getting nearer to the command squad than the commander would prefer.
The farseer felt the battle was won, but how many eldar would die in the clear up?
The dragons and jetbikes destroy the command squad, the prism takes out the damaged russ and the death jesters destroys the sentinel. The spiders finally win their combat and the snipers kill one of the remaining 2 guardsmen on the field.
Turn 5
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The russ misses and the guardsman is ineffective.
The snipers gun down the last trooper and everything with an anti tank weapon heads for the russ.
Turn 6
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The russ, realising it can’t avoid all the anti tank weapons, moves forward for a shot at the dragons (melta weapon plus bombs are not good and being stationary for auto hits would be worse). It open fires with the heavy bolters, smearing the dragons thinly across the ground.
Everything legs it towards the objective apart from the jetbikes and the farseer. They move for a rear armour shot at the russ and he separates from the harlies and heads towards the tank. Everyone else has a model within 6” of the marker (the ruling for the VPs, note we did not bother physically moving the spiders as they were easily within range). Shooting starts, the prism misses, the jetbikes hit but the shuriken cannon fails to get through even the thin rear armour, can the farseer save the day? The 6 he rolled for difficult terrain leaves him 11.5” from the tank, but he is still in the front arc for the singing spear…. He shoots…. he scores… the tank blows up leaving nothing left.
End of the game picture:
Not many Eldar died, but a single life is worth more than a battalion of guard…
Results:
Eldar 2509
Guard 333
Men of the match:
Eldar: everyone performed admirably so I can’t really pick anyone.
IG: The flamer squad, they destroyed the vibro cannons and tied up the spiders for 3 turns, including winning combat once, despite the exarch having powerblades.
Game 2
Opponent: Tim O (don’t know forum name, sorry)
Army: footslogging Eldar
Composition (as near as I can recall):
HQ: Avatar, Farseer with guide, fortune and stones
Elites: 10 harlequins with everything (kisses, death jester, troupe master and shadowseer)
Troops: Wraithguard, spiritseer (conceal), 8 avengers with exarch and dual catapults
Heavy support: wraithlord (brightlance and missile launcher), 5 reapers (inc exarch with tempest launcher and crack shot)
Mission: secure and control (we ended up with 5 loot counters, they are the small computer/ammo chests you can see in the photos)
This looked quite interesting as I have not tried this list against Eldar and have not played against wraithguard for ages. Nicely themed all foot slogger too.
I asked Tim O how he would prefer to handle the interaction of runes of warding and witnessing. He said he normally played “roll 4 dice, discard the highest and add the remaining 3” so we went with this. After what happened in the game, I should work out the statistics for whether this is a good option (wait and see).
Hills block LOS, walls give a 4+ cover save for troops just behind them, green stuff is lvl 2 area terrain. I won the roll for first turn and chose to go second- most of Tim O’s army is short ranged, my tanks are behind hills and the advantages of last turn for objectives was too good to pass up.
Turn 1
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click for a bigger picture where you can read the text!
black circles denote the objectives.
The farseer fortuned the wraithguard and tried to guide the wraithlord but suffered a perils tests (gotta love that ghost helm). The avengers, Avatar, wraithguard and harlequins all moved forward. Shooting allowed the avengers to get behind the wall and the wraithlord to shake the falcon. The reapers tempest launcher killed all the vibrocannon crew (nasty- now a high priority target).
My farseer elected to not use any power given the risks involved. Everything moved forward (the scorpions in a conga line between the pathfinders- this will be important later). The prism was placed perfectly to shoot round the wall at the reapers and the small blast hit them all, but a single 1 to wound kept the exarch alive (grrr). Shooting from the bikes and pathfinders killed 3 avengers. The other snipers failed to stop the reaper exarch. No one runs because of the avatar. The vyper missed the wraithguard.
Turn 2
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Tim O’s farseer guides the wraithlord and suffers another perils test (three 1s out of 3 dice!!) but again lives… Everyone strides forward. The avengers move and fleet into assault with the pathfinders killing 3, the remaining 2 holds their ground. The wraithlord shakes the prism. The harlequins get a great fleet roll and and elect to assault the scorpions, they kill everyone in range (2 models due to the conga line) and the scorpions break and run. The harlies consolidate into the pathfinders. Now I am seeing the other side of things.
My farseer is frantically trying not to think in case his head explodes
. The scorpions rally. The prism hides behind the hill and the vyper moves to the other side of the hill for another shot at the wraithguard (it misses…). The jetbikes and falcon are ineffective. The warpspiders assault the avengers killing them. The farseer leaves the harleqins and they move, fleet and assault the enemy harlequins (somewhere I can hear the fluff crying…). Furious charge completely hands the combat to them (that and 8 rending hits from 7 kisses!!)- all but the shadowseer dies and he then fails his outnumbering saves (fearless due to the avatar). The harlies consolidate 1”.
Turn 3
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The farseer’s luck ran out- another perils test and he dies (runes of warding are very nasty), so I can now use doom. The avatar moves and assault the harlequins, going simultaneously, killing 4. Another unbelievable 6 rends later and the avatar is dead. The reaper exarch kills all the warp spiders (how I hate the tempest launcher…). The wraithlord blows the vyper out of the sky.
Finally free the farseer dooms the wraithguard. The scorpions start their trek towards an objective near the board edge going behind the wood. The falcon heads towards the rear objective and shoots at the reaper exarch, finally killing him. The pathfinders run round the house to hide from the wraithguard (hopeful I know). Everything that can shoot, shoots at the wraithguard, killing 2 of them.
Turn 4
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The wraithlord shake the prism. The wraithguard move up and shoot the harlequins, killing 3, the remaining shadowseer breaks and runs.
The wraithguard get doomed again and a further 2 die to shooting. The falcon travels towards the objective but fails to hurt the wraithlord.
Turn 5
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The wraithlord moves towards the objective and shakes the falcon. The wraithguard kill the remaining pathfinders.
Doom and shooting leaves on 2 wraithguard and the spiritseer. The dragons deploy behind the falcon, but forget to shoot the wraithlord (oh dear…).
Turn 6
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The wraithlord fails its wraithsight and just sits there. The wraithguard try to hide in the house garden.
I completely forgo shooting to run or turboboost everything I can, claiming all 5 objectives (the lord was 2” out from one of them)
end of the game picture:
Results:
Eldar (me) 2637
Eldar (Tim O) 694
Men of the match:
Eldar (me) : Must be the harlies for their rending performance
Eldar (Tim O): The wraithguard were virtually unstoppable, but the reaper exarch did kill the vibrocannons and the spiders on his own.
Hmm that took rather longer than I planned. The third game will have to wait for another day (hopefully before I go on holiday on Wednesday!)Well, I am now back from holiday and so here is the final battle report as requested. It is in the next but one post as I have exceeded the maximum post length with this (20000 characters!)....