No worries Grizzly, I appreciate you catching irregularities as you see them though.
I was actually very surprised myself when he got off all the powers to give them a 2+ save, battle focus, fleet, and +3" on running -- too bad there was only 5 of them, right in front of a wraithknight...
Here is a photo from the end of my Turn 1 -- you can see his dragons out on the far right, and my group of dark harlequins and bikes way over on his side of the table. 2 of his walkers are shot down in between the buildings on the left, and his other units are mostly hiding behind there.
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OK onto the 4th and final game!
Game 4 against Sam's amazing thundercav space wolves.
The croneworld kin have squared up with Sam's thunderwolves before, and the first two turns were terrifying, but we pulled through. This time the two of us are totally exhausted from nonstop playing, and I have a significant number of extra advantages. So let's see how this goes!
I win roll for deployment zone, but the table is very even so it doesnt really matter. But it does mean i can take first turn, which is key against such a fast, hard-hitting army.
Warlord trait sees my wraithknight pick up a FnP 6+ bubble, not bad, although it has never saved anyone for me before. For psychic powers I try to get invisibility but just go with psychic shriek, and instead of getting perfect timing or forewarning i just take prescience. Plus summoning to put some speed bumps down.
For deployment, I put my army in two bunches, guardian serpent, 1x bikes, war walkers and wraithknight on the right, and reaper serpent, bikes, warp spiders and farseer on the left. Sam puts his thundercav unit behind a row of shipping containers on the right, and a squad of terminators on the left, with scouts and two marine squads holding objectives. He also has an assault cannon razorback covering the thunderwolves from the left.
Sam then rolls to seize the initiative, but does not go first. We had a laugh here about rolling to seize, getting the 6, but then not wanting to actually go first despite rolling, and whether you would then be rules-bound to go first anyway. I dont know! Anyway, the game begins.
Eldar Turn 1
Objectives: Capture obj. 2, in wolf DZ held by scouts and next to termies. I think not?
I shuffle some models, deploy the reapers in the second floor of a ruin on an objective, and roll up Targeting Relay which is pretty nice. Also this game the Reapers also benefit from Ignores Cover due to my campaign Command Bunker benefit, which is pretty nasty.
Psychic powers see my farseer cast prescience on the war walkers for some double pew pew.
In shooting, half of the scouts get taken out by the reaper wave serpent, the wraithknight obliterates the razorback (shooting from such a height it only had a 6+ from night fight), and the guardian serpent, walkers and reapers all go into the thunderwolves for 3 wounds (1 model removed).
Wolves Turn 1
Sam moves and runs all the wolves as fast as possible, and manages to kill one of his own guys with a plasma gun.
Eldar: 1 (First Blood)
Wolves: 0
Picture taken during Sam's turn 1:
Eldar Turn 2
Nightwing flies on and just does some vector dancer trickery to stay on my back board edge, facing the wolves.
Farseer brings in some Dark Harlequins who run up to block the thunderwolves. With the imminent demise of the scouts, I zip a unit of jetbikes up to nab their objective and tempt a sideways charge from the terminators, but meanwhile all my other units stay put.
Shooting sees another couple of dead thunderwolves, one dead terminator from the jump-shoot-jumping spiders, and the scouts are eliminated by the reaper serpent. High rolling for serpent shield shots is really rough on the wolves, and the reapers ignoring cover and re-rolling 1's to hit is brutal too. Not to mention prescience on the war walkers. Jetbikes claim objective 2 for 1 VP.
Wolves Turn 2
Because of the dark harlequins, the thunderwolves can't move very far, but they can definitely charge the harlies that's for sure. Sam decides to throw his termies in against the jetbikes as well, rather than moving towards my firebase, but they fail their charge through DT.
His stormwolf also comes in and decides to unload into the nightwing (which is why i bring it!), for no damage.
In assault, the summoned harlequins are totally destroyed, for no wounds in return.
Eldar: 2
Wolves: 0-1
Eldar Turn 3
The wraithknight moves up to pose a threat to the remaining thunderwolves (1-2 plus lord), and the nightwing scoots along my back board edge.
Serpents and reapers shoot into the stormwolf to take it down in a hail of cover-ignoring shooting, while spiders, jetbikes, and war walkers cause the terminators take a few casualties, and the thunderwolves are destroyed down to just the wolf lord. The wraithknight then instagibs him with a wraithcannnon, but we take it back so they can at least duke it out in combat as warlords should. Wraithlord instagibs the wolf lord again.
Wolves Turn 3
Not much Sam can do really, with his key unit smeared across centre board, and the terminators down to 1-2 models, but he trucks on.
Eldar: 4
Wolves: 1
Eldar Turn 4+
Seeing as the only thing able to hurt the wraithknight at this point is krak grenades, he just spends the next two turns pulling the legs off the pesky armoured mon-keigh who ruined his picnic on Croneworld Unagi.
MVP: Wraithknight for sure. Aced a razorback turn 1, doubled out a thunderwolf turn 2, took the warlord's head turn 3, and another squad a turn in both 4 and 5. What to say, this guy is a must-have. But the trick seems to be guarding him closely for turns 1-2, even 3, and then unleashing him like the fury of morai-heg herself.
Close runners up would be the dark reapers, who are really flexible now that they have slow and purposeful -- i love it! They started every game in their wave serpent, quickly deploying for best LOS while hiding from return fire to maximum effect. Choosing between starshot and starswarm missiles is amazing, but when they go for starshot i'll be sure to guide or prescience them every time in future. 4-5 jink-ignoring krak missiles will ruin a lot of days.
The warp spiders also continue to be a menace, i would say a unit even just of 5 is a must-have as well, but 7-8 seems to be a great number. They really can do anything, and make for a great screening unit too -- 3+ saves with hit and run, nice! Stand in front of my reapers with attached farseer please!
Last but certainly not least, I am pretty sold on the Nightwing. It has pretty decent shooting, and vector dancer is clutch, but most importantly, it is a crazy flying terminator, soaking up the shooting like it's nobody's business! Whoever gave it a 2+ was having a laugh, especially for such low points. Will include wherever possible.
++
In conclusion, the tournament was a blast, with a huge turnout of tyranids and eldar (3 of each in a 12 player tournament), and the rest mostly marines or IG tanks. My most feared matchup was actually the first one, as the speed and firepower of the Flyrant can devastate my key units turn and again, but fortunately Ryan made a crucial mistake in giving his warlord away -- he was much more careful with his flyrant in later games and did very well, overrunning the other eldar folks.
The croneworld eldar defended their grimy homeworld from the arrogant imperium, handsy eldar, and drooling tyranids to claim the day undefeated, and because of how many campaign points they racked up, manage to take the lead in the campaign as well.
Next year everyone gets to gang up my eldar to get the new campaign rolling, but the requirement is that to play on my territories you must have a top-knot.
Anyway, thanks for reading, it was a total blast playing in the campaign and the tournament, and now my croneworld eldar are warming up for some more competitive play around the PNW area, probably 1750-1850 range, so look out for some more batreps and tactical musings!
Cheers
Ibushi
