Hello, one and all; I hope this is the start to a long list of battle reports that will hopefully get better and better quality as time goes on.
http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=176674.msg2158959#msg2158959 this is the discussion of the army list being built and modified.
Hopefully there will be a painting and modelling blog added at some point, too.
Game 1 - versus EldarUnfortunately there will be no pictures at the moment because almost all the army is being proxiedSpace Marine list (it will have more character added as it develops, plain, boring and vanilla at the moment)
Librarian w/ Gate of Infinity + Null Zone
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Powerfist, Razorback
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Melta, Plasma Cannon, Powerfist, Razorback
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Melta, Plasma Cannon, Powerfist, Razorback
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Melta, Plasma Cannon, Powerfist, Razorback
Ironclad w/ Drop Pod
Predator Destructor w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Predator Destructor w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Predator Destructor w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Eldar list:
Yriel
Farseer w/ Fortune, Runes of Warding
10x Wraithguard w/ Spiritseer, Conceal
5x Pathfinders
9x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Shimmershield, Defend, Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Shuriken Cannons
5x Harlequins w/ Shadowseer, 5 Kisses
Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Missile Launcher, 2 Flamers
Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Missile Launcher, 2 Flamers
Spearhead, Kill PointsKill Point missions worry me the most as this army is 14 without combat squads. This army loves combat squads due to my Razorbacks.
DeploymentTerrain was dense, some good forests all about the board, some ruins and 2 large pieces of terrain which blocked a lot of line of sight. Eldar won first turn, deployed everything hidden, but in positions to advance using terrain. Farseer in Wave Serpent with Avengers, Yriel with Wraithguard, all left flank (closest to my board edge). 2 Wraithlords and Harlies right flank (furthest from my board edge).
I pretty much setup a gunline in return, despite line of sight wasn't great. Hoped to take his army apart piece meal - focus fire each target to destruction. Ironclad in reserve, as well as the Tactical Squad with a flamer.
He infiltrates his Pathfinders right by my board edge where the Tactical Squad can come on (despite it isn't my original quarter). I found this quite odd.
Turn 1Tried stealing the initative but failed (rerolled it out of curiousity because I'm contemplating Sicarius in my army - still failed). Fortune goes up, left flank advances cautiously, right flank moves the Wraithlords to have good line of sight to 2 Predators, Harlies babysit with Shadowseer.
Shooting sees one Wraithlord blow up a Pred. Pathfinders take some shots, too, but fail to do any damage.
I drop the Ironclad deep in enemy territory, behind some nice pillars that block line of sight (his Wave Serpent orignally used them to hide). Pod scatters 4" onto some terrain and blows its Storm Bolter off due to Dangerous terrain. Nothing else moves.
Ironclad blows smoke, despite being relatively safe as he might have moved 5 Wraithcannons into range. Whole army opens up on the Wraithlords and takes one down, not harming the other. I really love the shooting phase with this army all ready.
SM: 1 KP
Eldar: 1KPTurn 2Ironclad has put him in a difficult situation, it is hidden this turn and if he moves to shoot it, smoke has been blown for 4+ cover. He decides to wait it out and runs the Wraithguard away behind one of the large line of sight blocking pieces of terrain so out of charge range and the rest of my army can't see them either. Serpent lets out Dire Avengers and boosts behind the Ironclad, now putting me in a difficult situation (juicy rear 10 armour next turn).
Farsee Fortunes Avengers and they shuffle tightly together so they can hide from almost all my army, especially the Plasma Cannons, but so can five can shoot one of my Tactical squads. Surviving Wraithlord runs with the Harlies further down the right flank, out of line of sight.
Shooting kills 4 Tacticals. Amusingly, they fall back but only 3" so don't go off the table. He suddenly realises this will be a problem next turn.
Tacticals consolidate with their regroup so Plasma Cannon has line of sight to the tightly bunched Avengers. Tactical Squad in reserve comes on and positions flamer so it will also have a field day against the tightly packed Avengers.
As I now have the reserve squad on and the Ironclad in a position to be offensive, I want to try and make target priority really troublesome for my opponent and pressure him with another Tactical squad so the Librarian tries to Gate forward. I hate runes of Warding. My Librarian can't afford to fail again (on a 50/50 chance) because that will be a free kill point for my opponent. I move the Ironclad forward anyway to be offensive, really wishing I had another chance to use smoke as he is out of charge range. Two of my Tactical squads move up the right flank to hunt the Wraithlord and Harlies and for the next few turns play hide and seek around the large building.
Shooting saw the Plamsa Cannon now with line of sight to the Dire Avengers get a hit, hitting 8 of them and 2 Wraithguard. 1 Wraithguard dies and only 1 Avenger dies to the Cannon due to cover saves and Fortune! 4 Bolter shots do put down another 2 Avengers though. Predator and a Razorback put down another 2. My reserve Tactical squad tries to be clever by bolt pistolling the entrenched Pathfinders (wasting the Flamer shot I had setup for the Avengers) which did nothing, but enables me to dual assault the Pathfinders and Avengers.
This almost worked out as a beautiful move as the flimsy Eldar do no damage in combat and I kill a pathfinder and 1 Avenger (stupid Defend). Avengers pass moral, Pathfinders break but can't be swept. It suddenly occurs to me I hadn't planned on Shimmershield and Defend for the ongoing combats AND the Farseer's Fortune.
SM: 1 KP
Eldar: 1 KP
Turn 3Movement sees the Wraithguard moving to approach the Ironclad, Farseer attaches himself, Yriel detaches ready to help out the Avengers. Wave Serpent moves for squishy shots on Ironclad's rear. Wraithlord and Harlies continue to play hide and seek.
Shooting sees Ironclad shaken, stunned and one arm blown off with the Melta. Yriel tries for a decent fleet so he can move into the Tacticals at such an angle as to use the Eye of Wrath (as Marines that were killing Pathfinders were lagging behind). Lucky he fluffs his fleet roll so won't be able to use the Eye.
Even better, when in combat misses with 4 attacks then fails to wound with the one that hit. This will be my only chance to try and win the combat from now on... stupid Avenger Exarch bags 2 marines and I kill an Avenger. I try to Combat Tactics out but naturally, Yriel catches me and kills another one due to No Retreat! Warlock manages to kill Ironclad before it swings. They consolidate to kill the Drop Pod next turn. I'm regretting being so offensive with the Ironclad.
My turn sees the Tacticals hunting the Wraithlord and Harlies further on the right flank (my Librarian cursing the Farseer on the other side of the board as it is too risky to just gate into rapid fire range) and the tanks shuffle about to get better shots (assume the tanks are constantly shuffling about here and there for the rest of the game with no
huge affect).
Shooting sees a Melta shave a wound off the Wraithlord and some decent shooting from the left flank Pred and Razorback kill 2 Pathfinders so they can't rally, netting me a Kill Point.
Yriel still not warmed up, kills only one Marine. Exarch kills one more. I kill one Avenger. Fail moral (not deliberately) but get caught and stay in combat but no No Retreat! casaulties.
SM: 2 KP
Eldar: 2 KP
Turn 4Farseer is too far away from the Avengers but just in range of Yriel to Fortune him. Wraithguard move up in range of Drop Pod. Wraithlord and Harlies prepare a charge against the Librarian's Tactical Squad.
Shooting sees 16 hits from the Wraithlord's Flamers, killing 4 Marines (one being the Plasma Cannon). And the Drop Pod getting obliterated. I Combat Tactics far enough from the Wraithlord but not from the Harlies.
Combat kills 3 Marines from Harlies for no casaulties in return. Yriel has finally got into the swing of things and kills all but two Marines. I try Combat Tactics Yriel and the Avengers again but they catch me. Unfortunately I make both saves for the two remaining Marines so Yriel can live happily through my turn.
Librarian has a tough choice to make here: he can either get liquified by some Halrequin Kisses or tempt some Daemons into consuming his soul. He decides the daemon is a better choice by rolling a 17 on his Psychic test, leaving his poor Marine squad stranded with the Harlies.
I shave another wound off the Wraithlord with a Melta, leaving it with one.
Yriel fluffs it again leaving that combat a draw and surprisingly the Harlequins kill nothing (so my Librarian would have survived) but suffer no casaulties in return.
SM: 2 KPs
Eldar: 4 KPs
Turn 5 Movement sees the Serpent boast to the corner of his board as it can do nothing further to the game but give me a potential Kill Point and the Wraithguard realise they have almost nothing to do either but hide. The Wraithlord moves for a 46" Krak Missile across the board at one of my Predators. It does nothing.
Combat sees Yriel kill the last two Marines and the Harlie combat end in a bloodless draw again.
My turn the right flank Tactical squad move so they can help their poor battle brothers out of combat with the Harlies. And the left flank Pred moves 12" through the wreck of the first one (passing dangerous terrain) so hopefully on turn 6 it can try and shoot the Dire Avengers for that blasted Kill Point. Tacticals next to the Pred move into a better position to fire, too.
Shooting sees nothing.
Combat sees one Marine out of the survivng three die, and the rescue squad butcher the Harlies. They then consolidate in a 1" semi-circle around the Wraithlord so it can't move forward to try and kill the last 2 Marines.
SM: 3 KP
Eldar: 5 KP
Turn 6 I roll for another turn and get it (whoever wants the extra turn rolls for it in our gaming circles). Yriel and the Avengers hide as best they can. The Wraithlord moves around the semi-circle slightly to flame them better and the Wraithguard have a bit of a think about what they want to achieve in life.
Wraithlord decides a Krak Missile and Bright Lance shot would be better as if he kills more than two marines I can Combat Tactic out of charge range. He bags the two of them (for laughs I roll my cover saves of the two Marines that this squad was protecting from a charge and I fail them both, lucky he didn't shoot them then). Combat sees the Wraithlord get punched out cold by the powerfist and masacre into a decent position to fire the Plasma Cannon at the Wraithguard (only hoping it will scatter onto the out of sight Avengers).
My turn the remaining two marines take safety in a Razorback.
The left flank Pred and Tactical Squad open up on the partially visible Avengers and kill one. It is enough for a morale test and I point out if he fails it I get 2 KPs because they will take Yriel with him... I really need him to fail this Ld10 test...
He doesn't. Oh, and the lucky scatter I was after with the Plasma Cannon rolled a hit.
SM: 4 KP
Eldar: 5 KP
Turn 7It is a desperate struggle for the last 2 Avengers to survive the game. They take the best possible cover they can. Yriel joins the Wraithguard (safest 3 Kill Points ever in that unit) and try and get as close to the Pred as they can, Yriel misses with his spear and the one Cannon in range does nothing.
Last turn, the only thing that can kill those two Dire Avengers is my Pred and a single Plasma Cannon with line of sight. Plasma opens up first and Avengers go to ground, which makes his cover save just high enough to survive that.
Pred is last chance for a draw. 3 hits which is respectable as only one Heavy Bolter sponson could see.
3 wounds.
Exarch is allocated the majority. Exarch fails both.
The normal guy passes his bastardised 3+ cover save thanks to going to ground.
Eldar win by 1 KPConclusionsIt was a close game all the way throughout, several moments could have swung it either way and I'm very happy with how the Tacticals, Razors and Pred performed. I was worried that the Razors would have given easy KPs, but not one was shot at all game.
I enjoyed the threat the Ironclad put down, but in a KP game I think I should have been more defensive with it. It's such an easy 2 KPs for the opponent to gain when operating in deep territory like that. In objective games, I think it'll be a great asset.
The Libby, what a disappointment. Admittidly, Runes of Warding were what shut him down all game and the two times he tried to cast (sparingly as well) he fried his poor brain. He couldn't even bring his Force Weapon to bear on the one combat he was involvled with the Harlequins (missing all 3 attacks).
In hindsight, what really lost me the game was being too greedy to gain Kill Points. I thought if the Tacticals in reserve could clear up the Dire Avengers and Pathfinders in one fell swoop that would be enough for the rest of the army to advance aggresively against the Wraithguard, as the Ironclad depended a lot on their help. As it happened, I hadn't factored in the consquences of if the combat lasted as those Dire Avengers are
THE tarpit unit of the game.
If I played a tad more defensively, the reserve Tacticals could have cleared the Pathfinders easily, taken their bunker and had a fun firefight with the Avengers. The Ironclad would just be waiting behind those pillars for a lot of the game chasing the Wave Serpent round in circles and protecting the KP which was its own Drop Pod (not to mention itself).
Live to learn, and the army performed much better than I had originally anticipated in a KP misison. Next time, just have to be sharper and cagier. I had a gunline which even if he had approached it, could have rushed forward and taken him in combat as well. Instead, I spoonfed him some easy KPs.
The list will stay the same for the next battle. I want to see what it will do Combat Squadded for objectives!
