Topic: 860 pts Eldar-vs-Chaos, Battle report, game cut short.

[Grizzlykin]

Disclaimer: This was originaly in my project blog but i though it was better suited for here so if you already read it, well don't read it again If any of you have tips to give me to improve based on the things i did wrong in this game pls tell me... I'm starting to feel depressed over so many losses.


Hello everyone, hope you are doing ok, on my side i'm beginning to get dishearten quite a bit. I had to game yesterday witch where in both case complete and ultmost deafeat... One was a 850 point games with a chaos dude who destroyed me twice already, and the other was 350 point initiation game. Remind me to never go easy on people who have good dice roll, EVEN if they are beginner...

Ok so let's get going my list for the 860

1 farseer singing spear

2 squad of 10 guardians 1 with lance platform 1 with starcannon platform

1 unit of 6 warp spyder with on exarch and twin linked deathspinner

1 unit of 2 vyper, starcannon and shurican for each.

1 Crimson Hunter Exarch bright lance

1 Falcon starcannon pulse lazer holofield.

that list was far from being optimal but i had to put it up in the morning just before the game as my oppponents didn't told me the size of the game he wanted before he got there... defenetly things to change there even before the game starts.

His list was

1 chaos lord stock or with very few upgrades

1 unit of 10 cultist

1 unit of chaos spawn nurgle mark(4 of the)

1 unit of 5 terminators stock i think), with landraider stock

1 unit of 3 obliterator Nurgle mark

and i think that was all.

we did not play the full game because time got short but well 3 turn was fairly enough to see where we were going.

for warlord trait i had the reroll dice roll of 1 to wound for all turn in eldar table. I went for psychic focus in runes of destiny, getting guide, fatality, asuryan will, and the storm.
He had the warlord trait that gave all his unit stealth in ruins... yeah all our table was filled with ruins and we had said beforehand that everythings was concidered as such... Just my luck.

The scenario was the 5th one in maelstrom of war
 
I had the initiative and had deployed along my table edge spreading, was hoping to utilize the mobility of eldar to move forward and push him as much as I could. bad choice, like nearly every time so to say >< well you shall witness it.

Guardian with star canon plateform on the right, warp spyder there aswell slightly on there left, vyper beside it  further on the left but right in the middle of the table. In the building on the left there was my guardian on the first floor with my farseer and the falcon under them. Crimson hunter in reserve.

he deployed on the other side getting his chaos spawn in the open wich i though was quite the bold move, that was before the night fighting role. he said yeah i wanna night fight roled the dice got a 6 and we had a night fight turn one. the landraider on the right, the further away he could from the lance platform, his obliterator were in a building on the left. The chaos lord and cultist were in front of the obli building.

Turn one

I'm sorry i have no pic of deployment, i beslubber up and they are impossible to understand.
For comprehension purpose Guardian 1 is the starcannon squad on the right and Guardian 2 the farseer guardian squad on the left.

So i advance Guardian 1 to hug the building in front of them, leaving 2 guardians out in the open and the platform so i can shoot at the chaos spawn. Vyper advance hugging the platform up in front of them, trying to get cover against the obliterator. My falcon moved up staying in between 2 building to avoid giving line of sight to the obli, and the guardian 2, while staying in building, got closer to the wall and try to see sometihng throught the window with the plateform. The spyder moves up aswell, but are not in range of anything, and i wanted to avoid being to close to the chaos spawn. I think i should have just rushed for them, it would have been better.

Night Fighting oh god night fighting ... i fired 14 str 6 shot (ten from vyper 2 from starcanon platform, and 2 from falcon) at the chaos spawn that had not save what so ever and 2 str 8 shot...  and i mangaed to only do 2 wound, you can't imagine then number of 2 and 3 and 1 there was in this rollz... Ah i had forgoten the psychic phase aswell. so no guide on the vyper wich would have been clutch as they only hit twice out of 10 shot... T-T. Well amphetamine parrot happens. I fire with lance on obli as i had no better target... 3+ cover save with the building and warlord trait... how do you expect me to kill this... well nothing happened as you should have guessed by now. This marked the end of my turn one.

turn one chaos.

chaos lord and his squad moves to the building they were close to, obli no moves, landraider moves fast trying to get close to my guardian squad while being the further away as possible from my platform with bright lance. the chaos spawn rush down the center.
He fired at my falcon with obli no effect, he snap fired at the guardian with the landrider killing one. and i think that ended the shooting phase.
He charged my vyper with his chaos spawn getting and 8 inch charge in i was pretty annoy, btw he killed them all. That mark the end of his turn. he got first blood out of this, and a point from a card about cc destruction. So far it was 0-2.

end of turn one board

on the other side


turn 2

My most efficient weapon against the chaos spawn (vyper), gone away, I had to have my crimson hunter coming in to be able to do something to that land raider and give me some air... rolled a 2 to reserve roll i wich i had my autarch there T-T. Well that's the game. For the movement phase i decide to move my spyder close to the side of the platform they were on to shoot at the chaos spawn. the guardian 1 goes around the building they were hiding at to get away from the land raider and get some view of the chaos spawn. Guardian 2 on the other side gets a bit further in front getting out of there building. the faclon move front a bit getting his turret to see the obli in the building. No line of sight to the chaos spawn better try to get the obli.
I tried to cast fatality on chaos spawn, failed, tried to cast guide on the spyder but get canceled by my opponent with 2 dice... like come on... ok well we will deal with it them without it.
In the shooting phase i manage to kill one chaos spawn with the spyder and guardian shooting combined, get a wound on an obli, and i assault move with the spyder to get them close to the obli, the spawn were gonna rampage on the guardian, better get away and try to cap an objective.
Assault phase, nothing happened if i recall correctly.

chaos turn 2

the land rider move in 12 so snap fire once again, he tries to catch up to my guardian. he moves his chaos spawn to get onto the objective not doing anything more. that mark the end of his movement phase.
he snap fire with the landrder not doing much, the obli fire at my guardian 1 killed a few but nothing more happened. no assault this turn. By getting his landrider in my edge he got line breaker from a card and scored two point for taking an objective and controlling twice as much as me so it's 0-5 now --'

eldar turn 3

the crimson hunter comes in, the guardian 2 move up a bit further, the falcon goes back toward my table edge. the crimson hunter comes fliying every weapon turned toward the landrider. guardian 1 moves a bit more to see the chaos spawn once again. spyder goes toward the obli once more.
psichic phase see my farseer casting guide to get canceled while he had only 2 dice once again...  damn it. well dice luck is part of the game let's get over it. shooting phase se my spyder wounding once the obli to get cover saved, btw he cover saved a few wound on the chaos spawn aswell last turn this was so annyoing, 3+ cover everywhere nearly. my guardian wound 1 more chaos spawn, the crimson hunter and guardian 2 plateform fail to crack open the landrider. and my falcon fire at the chaos spawn killing one i think, or wounding one but not killing it. i take an objective with my spider earning me a victory points (1-5 yeaaaaa). and that mark the end of my turn.


Middle of my moving phase turn 3


chaos turn 3

there you go he move only 6 with the landrider disembark his termy and the that's the only movement, he fire at my spyder with his obli while i try to juke him with the warp move, nearly managed it but one spyder was still in view so 2 of them dies to the salve. his cultist fire at my spyder aswell, nothing happened.
Assault phase see his chaos spawn and the termy assaulting the guardian who manage to kill one chaos spawn with overwatch ^^ they got obliterate afterward but it was to be expected.

we had to call the game here cause I had the initiation game coming up

To make it short i got tabled by turn 4 in this game but my list wich was supposed to be new player friendly just could not fight the list on the other side. I will do a report but i have a few things to attend to before so here are some sneak pic

[Irisado]

The report isn't the same, this version is more detailed, so I'd encourage others to read this version.  Besides if it were identical, it would have been against the forum rules on crossposting, so it's good that it's different .

The main thing that I've noticed from this game is that your deployment and target priority were the main problems, along with poor luck in the psychic phase, which adversely affected your chances of winning.

When you're playing Eldar, deploying across the entire length of the table is not usually a good idea.  Concentrating your units across a maximum of two-thirds of the deployment zone, assuming it extends the length of the board, is usually a much better strategy.  Eldar units, being fragile, work best when they are in relatively close proximity to each other, and can thus offer mutual support, as well as concentrate their fire.

Your target priority was a bit off in this game in my opinion.  The Spawn were there to distract you, and you fell into the trap.  So far as I understand it from your report, that Land Raider transporting the Terminators was a much bigger threat.  You needed to immobilise it to force those Terminators to walk, yet you never really tried to do this.  That said, it wouldn't have been that easy.  Brightlances are not the ideal tool for stopping Land Raiders, Fire Dragons are, but you did have enough Brightlances to give yourself a chance.

My final suggestion is to play slightly larger games (around 1000 points).  I say this because Eldar, in my view, have never been that easy to play at low points levels.  You may, therefore, find them easier to play if you could manage to field a slightly larger army.

[Grizzlykin]

well last time i played him i think i made the same mistake, spreading and focusing onto the wrong target. His spawn are always a pain in the ass to deal with, they destroyed my wraithlord in the previous game and my warlord soon after. that why i was trying to eradicate them and they were the only one i could arm with my str6 shot, that did not had a 3+ cover save because they were in ruins with some random lucky warlord traits.

There was also the fact that he deployed intelligently against my spread force by putting some distance between the land raider and what could harm him, my crimson hunter that did not came in turn 2 was a huge problem because he was supposed to be my anti land raider solution. well that's the game can't do much about it.

I agree that eldar are better in higher points game, played one, even if the opponent forgot his deathwing termi that never saw the table, I obliterated him. It's just that we knew we were short on time so we were trying to not make the game drag on for too long.

I would gladly take fire dragon inside my falcon to get that landraider but ... I don't have any yet >< and as long as my army is not fully painted i don't plan on buying new model. So i will have to find a solution at some point.

I was thinking that maybe in lower point games like this i should take the fire prism rather than the falcon the point cost being the same the versatility of the fire prism should make for a better choice in those lower points game.

I will try to keep in mind these tips for the next game thank Irisado.

What do you think?

PS : crossposting rules.... meh seems like i missed those>< will need to re-read the forum rules i guess. Thank for letting that slide

[Irisado]

If you're going to continue to play small games, then I think that you can leave the list unchanged.  If you can get your deployment right, and have some better psychic phases, then I feel that you will have a more rounded impression of how your army plays in its current guise.

Other than that, my only recommendation is to keep posting the battle reports .