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1750 Daemons Vs Mech Eldar: Dawn of War

Submitted By: Wyddr Date: January 4, 2012, 01:52:13 PM Views: 2448
Summary: Wyddr's Daemons face off against McComas's Mech Eldar for a second time. Dawn of War, Annihilation, and a nail-biter to the very end.

Daemons Vs Eldar, Annihilation

Those my brother and I consume do not understand our generosity. They are mortals, and so they see their lives as the most valued of things. They are wrong; life, when thought of as a great swath of discrete, concrete entities, has no more 'worth' than any other collection of particles. They are patterns in the sand, nothing more. What we give to the mortal world is permanence; we take the immutable--their souls--and transfer them to a state of existence far more significant and beautiful than mere life. To be consumed by the warp is to be given a great gift--the gift of the whole, unvarnished Truth, in all its contradictory splendor.

Of all beings, there are few who deserve this gift more than the pathetic Eldar of the Craftworlds. They are fools, blinded by their own simplistic desire to 'live', as though life were infused with meaning. To keep these wretched lives of theirs, they warp and bind their own souls until, ultimately, the lives they lead are even less 'alive' than those of the common ork or human. So it is that my brother and I seek to illuminate these poor, emaciated souls to the great opportunities the Warp affords them. We are, at our heart, philanthropists of the highest order.

But of course you wouldn't understand. You would need to die, first, just as we have so many, many times.


The other day, my friend Fraley (McComas), brought his Eldar back for another round of daemon trouble. Last time did not go so well for him and his crew of mechanized space elves. We were playing Annihilation this time, though, which I felt stacked the odds a bit more in his favor. Let's see...

The Host of the Flame

HQ
The Flame of Aahanat (counts as the Blue Scribes)
Lord of Change

Elites
4 Bloodcrushers

Troops
9 Horrors w/Bolt
9 Horrors w/Bolt, Changeling
8 Bloodletters
8 Bloodletters

Fast Attack
5 Screamers
5 Screamers

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince Hamath (Wings, Iron Hide, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch)
Daemon Prince Xemoth (Wings, Iron Hide, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch)


Eldar War Party

HQ
Farseer w/Fortune, Doom
Autarch w/Power Weapon, Fusion Gun, Mandiblasters
4 Warlocks w/Embolden x 2, Enhance, Destructor

Troops
11 Storm Guardians w/Warlock, 2 Fusion Guns, Spear, Embolden
--in Wave Serpent w/EML, Shuricannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines

11 Storm Guardians w/Warlock, 2 Flamers, Destructor
--in Wave Serpent w/EML, Shuricannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines

10 Dire Avengers w/Exarch, Power Weapon, Shimmershield, Bladestorm, Defend
--in Wave Serpent w/EML, Shuricannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines

Heavy Support
Falcon w/EML, Holofield, Spirit Stones, Star Engines
Fire Prism w/Holofield, Spirit Stones
Fire Prism w/Holofield, Spirit Stones

(I may be wrong on where, precisely, the Star Engines were in this list; they were around, at any rate)


Terrain and Deployment
We played on a board totally lacking in ruins, for a change. Instead, we had tons of hills and even a lake to contend with. In brief, there was a big hill in the NW corner rather close to a small forest. The SW quadrant saw an enormous hill (two levels) plus some rocks, a statue and undergrowth. Board center had another hill, with a lake and a rubble pile just to its NE. There was a small hill with rocks in the NE corner, a bigger hill along the eastern board edge, and a long, thin hill in the SE as well as a larger forest. Plenty of terrain, no buildings.

I won the roll-off and commanded that the Eldar go first (clever me). Fraley elected to deploy nothing at all, so the board started empty.

Deployment is a bit of a bust

Turn 1
Unsurprisingly, I do not try to sieze the initiative. Mistrusting his luck with reserves, Fraley elects to bring his whole army on at once. They zoom in at top speed (mostly), arranging themselves in a bit of a circle at the northern central part of the board. With nothing to shoot at, the Farseer fortunes his own Falcon and that was pretty much it.

Top of Turn 1:


Circle Them Wagons, Boys!

In my half of the turn, my preferred wave is the Lord of Change, the two Daemon Princes, and two Screamer groups. I get it (yay!) and I try to drop them in the eastern half of the board but with a fair amount of distance between me and the Eldar tanks, as I have no interest in getting bushwhacked early by an aggressive Seer Council or Dire Avenger group. The Lord of Change scatters unhelpfully out of Bolt range, but Xemoth and Hamath land more-or-less on target (Hamath takes the plunge in the lake). Both groups of screamers land in the NE quadrant and wind up more-or-less where I want them, which is good. I expect they will draw lots of fire and only hope that my new dice are up to the challenge. In shooting, both Bolts that are in range fail to do anything to the Avenger Serpent, which I designate early on as a high target priority.

Bottom of Turn 1:


Splashdown for Hamath
The Lord of Change is out of position

Turn 2
So, seeing a bunch of big monsters in the east, the Eldar do the Eldar thing, which is to run away. Everybody moves 12" or so west, pointing all their EMLs at one group of screamers. Things go fairly well and I only lose 2 Screamers to the barrage. The Falcon, having no line of sight to the screamers thanks to a fortunately-located tree, peg the Prince Hamath in the lake for one wound.

Top of Turn 2:


You can't spell 'Courage' with E-L-D-A-R

In the bottom of the second, I only get the Changeling and his Horror escort from reserves. I plan on dropping them at the eastern edge of the NW forest, but they scatter all the way to the western edge. Fortunately they are mostly in cover, but their bolt fails to hurt anything. As the rest of my forces close in on the fleeing Eldar, all of their Bolts of Tzeentch do nothing at all, just pinging off the apparently robust AV12 of the Eldar tanks.

The undamaged screamer group turboboosts towards the Falcon while their cousins, the one with 3 guys left, charge at the Avenger Serpent, losing one to dangerous terrain along the way. Their charge is joined by Prince Hamath, but all of them miss the speedy Eldar Skimmer. I have now gone two turns and I have yet to damage anything at all in Fraley's army. Not good.

Bottom of Turn 2:


Turn 3
Turn 3 is an awful lot like turn 2 for the Eldar, since they keep running away, this time pushing themselves against the western edge of the board, arranged in roughly a half moon. Their firepower this time is focused on blowing up Changeling and his pals. They quickly go to ground and lose only 7 of their 9 members, leaving Changeling and the Bolt carrier still alive and pinned in the woods. Changeling failed to fool any of the skimmers with his glamours, but I did get the satisfaction of making Fraley sweat over it--he has a bad record against little ol' Changey.

Top of Turn 3:


The Horrors cling to the trees for dear life

In turn 3, I get one group of Bloodletters and the Horrors + The Flame (Bluescribes, remember) from the reserves. I drop both groups towards the southern edge of the Eldar horseshoe; the Horrors scatter close to the Falcon while the Bloodletters do okay and run their way into the valley between the big hill, center hill, and the NW forest. While the Lord of Change and Xemoth continue to bounce closer (their Bolts of Change still do nothing), Hamath and the damaged screamers assault the Avenger Serpent *again*. They still do nothing. Finally, the second screamer group assaults the Falcon and interposes itself between the Horrors and the Seer Council that may decide to hop out. They, for a change, manage to score a hit. Of course, thanks to the holofield, the Falcon only winds up shaken. We have now gone three full turns and nobody has scored a single kill point. We are wondering if the score will end up 1-0 or something.

Bottom of Turn 3:


I get more guys!
Good news: I'm arriving faster than he can kill me. Bad news: I can't even scratch the paint on these damned skimmers!

Turn 4
Well, the stalemate had to end sometime, and Fraley decides he's the guy to end it. While the skimmers continue their shuffle, now moving south, the Avengers hop out and bladestorm Prince Hamath into ichor and smoke. The Seer Council also hops out and, hoping for a decent fleet roll, intend to charge both the Screamers and the horrors. They only get a '1' on the fleet, unfortunately, and only charge the screamers. As should come as no surprise to anyone, the Screamers all die in short order. All the tanks that can, meanwhile, try to shoot the hell out of Changeling and his little buddy. They go to ground again and, surprise surprise, nobody dies. The remaining tanks shoot at the screamers, killing one and leaving only one left.

Top of Turn 4:


Eldar Counterattack!

In turn 4, the rest of my army finally arrives. Oddly enough, I feel like this late arrival has worked out for me, as now I've got Fraley pinned and all my slow stuff is joining the battle now. The Bloodcrushers drop right in the line of skimmers faces--they'll run, I'm sure, but I'll be close enough to assault one of them, I'm betting. The second group of Bloodletters drops to the north of the Changeling's forest and stumble on their run move, so nothing much exciting there.

Prince Xemoth flies NW and finally gets some mileage from a Bolt of Change, which immobilizes the Avenger Serpent. This is a great relief, since I was worried about the little bastards jumping back in their transport and denying me what is sure to be a juicy kill point. The lone remaining Screamer in the north, pursuing his single-minded vendetta, assaults the now-immobilized Avenger Serpent, knocking off its missile launcher. With the Avengers thus stranded and effectively unsupported, I'm am sure I'll be able to bag them my next turn with a group of Bloodletters.

Then for the best part: The Horrors warpfire the hell out of the Seer Council, taking two wounds off the Autarch and killing two warlocks. During the barrage, the Flame uses Gift of Chaos on the Farseer and BAM--I get myself a brand new Spawn! Woo-hoo! I knew I'd do it someday! I have the Lord of Change assault the remainder of the Seer Council, hoping he'll take care of the rest. He, however, chokes in his attacks and the Autarch, evidently enraged by the mutation of his buddy, scores TWO wounds on the Greater Daemon--two! The guy's only S3, for crying out loud! TWO? Stupid giant bird.

Bottom of Turn 4:


The Gang's All Here!
SPAAAAAWWWWN!

Turn 5
It's turn 5--game's almost over. Current score? 2-1, Eldar. Fraley seeks to pad his lead in the late innings, here. First, the Avenger Serpent targets it's Shuricannon at the last screamer in its face and fires--gone, 3-1. Next, the Avengers charge Changeling and his buddy, wiping them out, and consolidate into the forest; 4-1. Finally, and most improbably, the Lord of Change continues his absolute choke-fest and dies beneath the witchblades of the two remaining warlocks; 5-1. Ouch.

Most of the vehicles that can shoot fire at the Spawn, their former Farseer (a fact which I remind Fraley of at every opportunity). They only manage to do 1 wound, though, thanks to the intervening cover atop the hill. Yay Spawn!

The Eldar tanks keep encircling my southern flank, keeping on the move and as out of trouble as they can manage.

Top of Turn 5:


The Tanks keep running
Good shot of the whole field

Okay, bottom of five. You ready for this?
-Prince Xemoth shoots/charges the Avenger Serpent, wrecking it. 5-2
-The Flame uses the Pavane to scoot the Avengers so they are *mostly* out of the wood, setting up a double Bloodletter charge that wipes them all out with no casualties of my own. 5-3
-The Horrors warpflame the crap out of the remaining Seer Council, now un-fortuned. I kill both Warlocks. 5-4
-The Bloodcrushers charge and wreck one of the Guardian Serpents, blowing it up and leaving half the Storm Guardians inside dead and all of them pinned. 5-5.
-The Spawn charges his former buddy, the Autarch, takes no wounds, and KILLS THE ELDAR COMMANDER IN SINGLE COMBAT. 5-6

Bottom of Turn 5:


One
Two
Three
Four and Five

We roll for another turn. Guess what, baby? TWO! Game over!

Final Score
Daemons: 6
Eldar: 5

Post Mortem
Holy...freaking...c rap. How's *that* for a comeback! That game was bonkers--the first few turns I thought I was doomed. My bolts were totally useless against the wall of skimmers I was facing, and it was only a matter of time before I felt that Fraley's guns and guys would crush me, piece-by-piece. Amazingly, however, my invulnerable saves held on and I kept the Eldar from effectively eliminating any one part of my army easily. My staggered reserves actually helped me pin the elusive skimmers in place, and the last turn really, really paid off. It is very possible Fraley might have tied it up or won in later turns, but still that was an amazing late game for me.

In terms of tactical analysis, I felt my opponent was too reserved in this match. I thought he could have pounced on my harder than he did in turns 4-5, but doing so would have exposed his Stormies, so maybe it wasn't worth it. I'll leave it to the Eldar players to chime in on that. As for my own army, I wish my dice had been better earlier in the game, but I really can't complain. When I needed my little beasties to come through, they did. A special shout-out goes to the Bluescribes, who were major force-multipliers in this match. The Spawning of the Farseer was a major coup which accounted for, essentially, 3 of my 6 KPs and made a fourth one easier to manage (denying the avengers cover).

Anyway, a fabulous game and a fun time. Thanks for reading and thanks, as always, to my opponent!     

Rating: ***** by 2 members.

Comments

Wyddr
Author Eminence: Hereticus Liber Daemonica | Fio'shas Shi
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February 13, 2012, 12:03:26 PM
We consciously don't tailor our army lists based on opponent in our group, so he brought an all-comers army, just as I did.
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February 13, 2012, 08:00:00 AM
Seems like a very good game. Assuming that your opponent went in knowing he was facing deamons, he didn't have the best army set-up going, and certainly his reserves play style wasn't the best thought out, but you did well to take him out. Nice work!  ;D
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February 4, 2012, 08:31:54 AM
looks like a good game, personally, turboing the tanks a few times could have helped him spread out your army's deployment (you are dropping everything on his tanks) so once its all there, you wipe the closest, and then the next, then the next... That said, doing that has its own flaw in that he wouldnt be shooting as much and the board would eventually get very crowded, which is again a bad thing.
Wyddr
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January 11, 2012, 08:46:42 AM
This is my regular Eldar opponent, and he usually has issues with being aggressive.

I think his lack of an early assault is due to the wish/need to not get caught in the open by dropping Horrors (which I did on purpose) and the fact that my forces were generally too far away to be assaulted in the first turn or two, so anybody getting out of those transports would be fair game if they didn't shoot their target to death. With the exception of the Dire Avengers, none of his infantry units had enough shooting power to seriously trouble the units I started on the table. It would have been a big risk on his part to try for an early kill, so he didn't take it. I, personally, probably would have taken the gamble (though probably in turn 2). In any event, I was lucky to win as it was. Daemons do terribly against fast mech forces, for the most part.  
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January 11, 2012, 04:08:13 AM
Nice report.  I like the combination of description, diagrams, and pics.  Congrats on a good win!  As an Eldar player, and a player in general, I do have to say the reserved style was quite silly.  While he had a lot of vehicle fire, which is never to be underestimated (I've downed more IG vehicles from side/back shots with empty waveserpents than with any other unit, not even to mention the damage wrought by my falcon and fire prism!), but his army was not built to be harassment style, so depending on that early on the game when he had far numerical superiority, only bringing the bulk of his forces out later lost the game for him.  If I were playing you, I want have moved forward, shot everything I could at targets of priority, and jumped you, trying to wipe out every unit I could before your units entered the field.  I could then face them, or remount and backpedal if there was too much heat.  Also, Eldar transports really shouldnt be reachable by land forces.  If he split his forces into two sooner, he could make you chase one or the other, firing with both groups of vehicles at range and you either can only attack one and he can then redeploy to attack half of your army with all of his, or you just sit there still chasing while he backpedals.  He wasn't playing to his strengths by not taking advantage of his numerical superiority when it was present and didn't use his mobility to control the distribution/presence of your forces, using it instead for half hearted hesitation based harassing attacks.

Hats off for a good win.



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