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Modeling => Projects Blog => Topic started by: Ibushi on October 25, 2015, 03:53:22 PM
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Hobbyists of all kinds and flavours, today is the founding of the Croneworld Koxinga PLOG.
This army has been through many iterations and paint schemes, as some of the models date all the way back to Christmas of 1999, and they have always been my main army. Most recently I got back into 40k in early 2015 and am finally bringing the army back in cohesion.
Going way back into the past (2006-7) when the Koxinga Eldar still fought valiantly to keep the touch of She Who Thirsts from their planet, and kept close ties with Ulthwe in their fight around the Eye of Terror:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FELite%2FBansheeSquad.jpg&hash=e0389ffa27c16d1d47b2566532af21d115e5be03)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FELite%2FExarch2.jpg&hash=dede3c9b2410ebcb6febfa2854ac49a64c5508e1)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FELite%2FFullSquadFront.jpg&hash=110194d96fad69901b93adb27fa467c5809e6bc5)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FELite%2FBansheeSerpent4.jpg&hash=5d4a0adb60eba0c66e34953ec094df068ce13dd2)
Banshee Squad and their trusty Wave Serpent
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FTroops%2FDA3.jpg&hash=f4b27135479520f53417c0e27110f888423acf1f)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FTroops%2FDA2.jpg&hash=6cba3b90abfcc86a46f4ac3606f24e36fc9f9615)
Dire Avengers with Defend and Shimmershield
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHeavy%2520Support%2FFalcon1.jpg&hash=3902317542a83645d4c866f4ea051ccd2f7ae0b5)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHeavy%2520Support%2Fwraithlord3.jpg&hash=940746359b2f0fd8739ade44c8ff0e40f8e53927)
War Walkers:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHeavy%2520Support%2FWalkers.jpg&hash=6d5b7f1f4bed971d551d51c9dfd8cbceb640bee2)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHeavy%2520Support%2FFirePrismsRight.jpg&hash=87ae345808dcde5c5647e773788eabe8c5dd4db1)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHeavy%2520Support%2FFIrePrismsLeft.jpg&hash=4b56c977404c90761dbb47c4e583a3d1700fea55)
Webway Portal (played as Ulthwe Strike Force WWP):
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FMisc%2FJapaneldar086.jpg&hash=2f332f30dab00609b93de3bbbd4e7b448c0cee64)
Last but not least, Warlord Tanaka in his still-noble years:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FHQ%2FFarseerRight.jpg&hash=8e80fa542e95b38ca5b5265918803b2309372d56)
In the gap from 2007 to 2010 the Eldar mostly languished in the cupboard as their numbers were whittled down by the Enemy, and slowly they had to resort to more and more unusual and desperate strategies in the struggle to maintain control over their system. Throughout these years, the Enemy made a game out of the Koxinga Eldar, deciding not to invade in full-force, but rather toy with their minds and souls, giving them unnatural powers and strength, and filling them with a bloodthirsty will to survive. From the rubble of what is now Croneword Koxinga emerged Tanaka the Cannibal and his sinister warhost.
Here is a picture of this army from back in 2010 at a tournament, when the Croneworld theme first started:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FEldar%2520army2010.jpg&hash=2c1e91ee40e0ca3b6c3a7898aac0a988d89d6760)
As of January 2015 I have shipped my models across the continent and settled down somewhat, and finally have been able to dedicate the time to making Tanaka's cruel warhost a faction to be reckoned with in the Pacific Northwest, on the tabletop and hopefully on the painting table as well.
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Croneworld Koxinga is a tragic location on the outskirts of the Eye of Terror, occupied by the Eldar for millenia, but increasingly contested by the Necrontyr, Imperium, and of course the forces of Chaos. It is not a Daemon planet like some Croneworlds, but is covered in seemingly uninhabited ruins, and many Imperial armies have established defensive positions there for a time. On every occasion communications simply cut out, as robed figures stalk from the shadows and brutally end the lives of their unsuspecting prey.
Completely out of contact with the Craftworlds, the gnarled Eldritch inhabitants of Croneworld Koxinga slaver over the arrival of their haughty kin in their elegant ships and polished vehicles, as feasting upon their tender flesh is the only way for Warlord Tanaka the Cannibal, Fellseer of Koxinga, to feel invigorated and psychically powerful once more. As the disciplined Craftworld Kin come looking for spirit stones in the Eye of Terror to replenish their stores, Tanaka's minions lie in wait to harvest their living soulstones in return, nourishing their campaign to take back a fallen Empire at any cost.
Tanaka the Cannibal, jetbike retinue, and void shield generator/bunker
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1968.jpg&hash=2ed6c895cc847f9536371edff267af9f72d45d29)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1966.jpg&hash=4b66bbbdde0b85fd5858960c945e74ed70b906e0)
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(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1980.jpg&hash=88a8aae800f78e9d88879028bcbb37f3cdedd6bb)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1978.jpg&hash=c65677c98e7776f14dfef8064ec627ffae8ce82a)
Shining Spears + Autarch/Exarch
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1942.jpg&hash=5196b9be4758cebfbe56a265d523e4f47e37e602)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1944.jpg&hash=38afc8383726fd3f24c8559a1f35977dcba01e51)
Rangers + Dark Reapers
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1940.jpg&hash=104ffb88047f9c94cb3946a18c9880a812240728)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1938.jpg&hash=241b1557efe27142ea20aeb73a45bfed36211cf4)
Warp Spiders
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1950.jpg&hash=9605779721f6e69bb8dea20155fd7fa05412d993)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1952.jpg&hash=b36d7eb9f5dcbb8602313e0fc62cd51a98e9eeac)
Jetbikes + Fallen Comrade Relic marker
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1956.jpg&hash=7307158268720f19bd6a019232653d40293756c3)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1958.jpg&hash=9c0fa1ea7ad56cdc21e0861f8412a2995d45d3ef)
Heavy Hitters
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Fire Dragons + Wraithguard
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1982.jpg&hash=80d9c94774182b0db6135da6ba4b35b29b2da02a)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1988.jpg&hash=54d2934fea5559123e301c8456cb860d2ea44884)
Hemlock Wraithfighter
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1984.jpg&hash=364f0399150c48c6412bce06f80e1ab4afb15ada)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1986.jpg&hash=ff7217743c6fb7f38bec3fb215f50bf2f52ed4f1)
Samurai Scorpions + Croneworld Avatar (lost his claws to the WK though)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1990.jpg&hash=d4aaf1d7467b693e4f06a077f8102ebd4a8200fc)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1996.jpg&hash=532a8f0e14930492ef99e6aa9d544f7e26108cba)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1998.jpg&hash=595be34294cea282c9ab9954cf1daab19e84c318)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_1992.jpg&hash=17f30a25a5a84c8458c37b3fc35b2fc544479aa1)
Wraithknight
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2003.jpg&hash=c5e33adc377d96517d03e1875d155092fcaab546)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2005.jpg&hash=2fb3b5e813b07d39b027eae77d26fb4fd399e932)
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Kabuki Harlequins
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2015.jpg&hash=3332569d7d646d459120c46e6b9fa17a5e7d8825)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2019.jpg&hash=699177a26a759dc9a38319a6635e8cf65440fc31)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2009.jpg&hash=928d3aa6fde80c4b43ee1c8ca71905eb803dd5be)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2011.jpg&hash=cf2684a6fcabaa5a7e7b36d1f659a9c418e79f79)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2013.jpg&hash=126d02fc77a03806c6a1cea37da28aee43da42a3)
Shadowseer Tora
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Old Troupe Leader (now its the 1980's Avatar model)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2037.jpg&hash=0ba2e08163c518674d3c908f4a1085cde021d7af)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2039.jpg&hash=ef6e88a36be78acd45ccbfbe951f499d25cef556)
Swooping Hawks + Autarch/Exarch (wings WIP)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2023.jpg&hash=636eb4499fffdb13f338637467becac7e303c51f)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2025.jpg&hash=9698f955868ff0a68bda62ae994ba5ef8ba30f0d)
WIP Farseer Tsume + incense markers (usually for marking DZ or objectives)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2029.jpg&hash=abbe383e3f32da9d2aa4d99b73a082b125d698ba)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FIMG_2033.jpg&hash=9e491e7b5d07e7ee3983dbbc621b1e90a48cdb83)
So there you have it!
In terms of modelling, all of the robes on the jetbikers, fire dragons, guardians, scorpions, harlequins, etc. are green stuff, along with some of the banners, but the smaller banners (like on the scorpions or jetbikes) are from Perry Miniatures, which is also where the to-scale katanas come from. Tanaka himself is a composite of an Elf Mage, Avenger Exarch, Witch Elf Sorceress, Undead, Perry banner, Eldar of course, Epic Eldar, and samurai models from two different model makers. The samurai rictus mask head was actually a gift from a TO at a tournament, and really sets the whole model off I think -- shoutout to Dale for that!
From a painting perspective, I really poured my heart and soul into gems and highlights on the previous iteration of this army (blue armour with up to 4 highlights, red gems, turquoise hakama pants), and since then my goal has been to just meet decent tabletop standard to get everything on the board for tournaments, and I'm slowly adding detail in as I go.
At this point in time my tournament list that I'm working on can be found in my other thread GT list to think on (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=229126.0">GT) , along with battle reports from 5 tournaments (two 2-day ones) that the Croneworld Eldar have rampaged through this year. I'll be consolidating these threads together a la Cavalier's almighty thread for convenience's sake. Here is a sneak-peek of the new "scorpion's claw" katana I am adding to scorpion exarch right now, in honour of his epic performance at a tournament recently:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FMisc%2Fphoto%25202.jpg&hash=1a4aee3283c97b142e7175bf05086d18a4dbd79e)(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FMisc%2Fphoto%25201.jpg&hash=e21b01821ef6ae49548a1c1dfc9ec52cb0007bb5)
For local events and games, the other list I am running is close-combat and deployment-shenanigans oriented and has also been doing really well, you can check it out in the Eldar Close-Combat (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=229204.0"); thread.
Watch out for some more mean-looking katanas and brutal batreps to come!
Cheers,
Ibushi
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Wow this is great stuff Ibushi. There is some INCREDIBLE stuff here. The Warp Spiders, Swooping Hawks, Hemlock, Jetbikes and Wave Serpents are fantastic looking. I love the freehand petals and the color choices are simply phenomenal. Very original, and some of this stuff is truly nightmarish.
If you could please give us a close-up shot of those Warp Spiders I really love them.
Thanks so much for posting this stuff here Ibushi. Its very original, very well done. I'm really looking forward to following your hobby progress, bat-reps and army development. Keep it up Ibushi you're on fire right in your first p-log post!
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Wow...Just wow. Fantastic job coming up with a solid, cohesive theme and having the dedication to stick with it for so long. Those vehicle patterning is just sick.
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Incredible work Ibushi. I am genuinely in awe of the amount of time and skill that you have put into your army. The cherry blossom (if that is what it is) is mind blowing. Is it free hand as Cav said? If so you must have the patience of a saint. Likewise your green stuff cloaks are simply brilliant making your kabuki Harlequins in particular something uniquely fantastic.
Cannibalistic Eldar! Could they really be allowed to exist?
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Wow this is great stuff Ibushi. There is some INCREDIBLE stuff here. The Warp Spiders, Swooping Hawks, Hemlock, Jetbikes and Wave Serpents are fantastic looking. I love the freehand petals and the color choices are simply phenomenal. Very original, and some of this stuff is truly nightmarish.
If you could please give us a close-up shot of those Warp Spiders I really love them.
Cheers man, appreciate the rave review, and glad you think I captured something nightmarish here. Looking at classical warriors, one of the things that really jumped out at me about the samurai when I was working on my theme, was that often they wore demon masks and had really creepy nightmarish stuff going on, but next to bright colours and elegant weapons -- mix in some GrimDark and sounds like its working! Yeah sorry those warp spider pics are a bit lacklustre, them and the reapers were the first shots I did -- I'll try and get some more. To be honest the spiders have one of the most basic paintjobs of my whole force right now, looking to add a lot more detail there soon. Of all the models here, the Hemlock was painted most recently if that tells you anything.
Wow...Just wow. Fantastic job coming up with a solid, cohesive theme and having the dedication to stick with it for so long. Those vehicle patterning is just sick.
Thanks DW, really appreciate it! It definitely was a labour of love coming up with a theme that finally "clicked". The older models have been painted probably 4 times before finally settling on this scheme, but the trick was narrowing down my palette and restricting the number of colours I wanted to use.
Incredible work Ibushi. I am genuinely in awe of the amount of time and skill that you have put into your army. The cherry blossom (if that is what it is) is mind blowing. Is it free hand as Cav said? If so you must have the patience of a saint. Likewise your green stuff cloaks are simply brilliant making your kabuki Harlequins in particular something uniquely fantastic.
Cannibalistic Eldar! Could they really be allowed to exist?
Thanks Alienscar, it is true the green stuff part can take a long time! Once you get a technique down though, and if you do it squad by squad rather than individually, it speeds up a lot. Yeah everything is oldschool brush and freehand work, but same with the sculpting -- once you get a technique down and have the right brushes and mix ratios ready to go, it is much faster. I do mix the paints separately every time I use them, but that is part of the magic with the blossoms, as it means different areas can shade at different speeds which I like. Makes it a bit more "natural" seeming, ironically. The Kabuki harlequins have to be my favourite unit, I put the most time and effort into them for sure. Plus on the tabletop they are absolute beasts, and have won me many games and several tournaments.
From a fluff perspective, the blossoms are meant to be both a plum blossom colourscheme of the Koxinga Eldar, as the plum blossom is known to bloom during the winter, representing the resilience of the Eldar during their harshest hour. But on the other hand, in some areas it is clearly not a painted scheme, but more like an infection spreading through the Croneworld warriors, representing the touch of their cursed planet, giving them horrific powers and tastes, and slowly claiming their bodies (possibly souls).
You'll notice that the Warlord himself, Tanaka the Cannibal, staves off this kind of corporeal influence from the Enemy, by imbibing the energies of slain Craftworld psykers to increase his psychic resilience and physical longevity. This is also how he is able to keep his mind sharp in the ways of strategy, avoiding slipping into mindless bloodlust, and stopping the Koxinga Eldar from rushing headlong into battle and ultimately their demise, in a hostile system surrounded by foes. Instead the Croneworlders wage a careful asymmetrical style of warfare thanks to his generalship, utilizing the webway, warp jumps, and many jetbikes, much like Corsairs.
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Back to the real world, I am really ecstatic to see the Eldar Corsairs finally being redone, and their rules look absolutely stupendous. We do have to wait and see what the points costs and fine print will be, but right now I am just loving the options available. Might have to start stocking up on guardian bodies and dryad bits to build a Corsair Raiding Force of "jetpack" troops converted like the warp spiders, but with corsair or dark elf heads instead of dryad ones. Not sure how I would do lasblasters -- I quite like the converted lasblasters from the Swooping Hawks where a splinter carbine barrel is spliced onto a shuriken catapult -- what do you think?
Thanks for the support guys, I am inspired to tighten up my painting on these guys, and start really setting my sights on Best Painted. So far I have never been able to win a painting award at a major event, but I have some plans afoot.
Cheers
Ibushi
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Well it took quite some time to read everything, and oh my god...I had already seen your army somewhere in the eldar board or something else, but this pattern and style, i never get enought of it !
Ibushi i had guessed buy your name that japan related stuff was something that intrested you... you surely are one of the most dedicated painter i have ever seen. Even if you say me: "once you have the technique it's pretty easy to do", it's like total godlike stuff for me. If i was in front of you now, i would probably be on my knees praying to you like some kind of mistical being.
I may be a huge fan of the overall army and how sick looking those cherry blossom patern looks on your tank, and i may like japan stuff a lot aswell, i think the things i'm not really fond of the most might actually be the japanese warrior you use as banshee (or scorpions i don't remember), as to me they feel completely out of place >< it's just personal feeling and even if i don't like the model all that much, the paint on the other hand is pretty cool :D
My prefered piece as to be that void generator it would make for such an excelent piece of terrain if you did not use it as a void shield.
Well for now nothing really productive as comment on my end but for sure you have a wonderfull army.
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Not sure how I would do lasblasters -- I quite like the converted lasblasters from the Swooping Hawks where a splinter carbine barrel is spliced onto a shuriken catapult -- what do you think?
I'm not sure what a Splinter Carbine is but if your Swooping Hawks are carrying weapons converted in this manner they look great. Much better than the conversions where two Shuriken Catapults have been used.
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I can only echo the earlier sentiments expressed in this thread. Sublime executions of a very neat theme. You chose a theme and stuck with it and it seems to work all throughout your force.
As everyone, I really like the cherry blossoms on your tanks. I really like how this cherry blossom idea is instead a form of corruption on the wraithknight, and it even has 'slaaneshy' claws. Neat detail on how they are slowly being corrupted by she who thirsts.
Overall great work, can't wait to see more of your painting and of course battle reports!
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Well it took quite some time to read everything, and oh my god...I had already seen your army somewhere in the eldar board or something else, but this pattern and style, i never get enought of it !
Ibushi i had guessed buy your name that japan related stuff was something that intrested you... you surely are one of the most dedicated painter i have ever seen. Even if you say me: "once you have the technique it's pretty easy to do", it's like total godlike stuff for me. If i was in front of you now, i would probably be on my knees praying to you like some kind of mistical being.
Haha thanks grizzly, I appreciate your overwhelming support for my plastic crazy-elves. You would have seen the painting scheme before in my battle report thread from earlier this year, I posted quite a few pictures from a couple of tournaments, but nothing close-up.
I will keep up the croneworld samurai theme, but am definitely not a mystical being hahaha. Also I can see why you don't like the samurai models, as they are wearing robes and running around looking all fancy in a futuristic age of grimdark warfare, so are pretty out of place. That is partly what got me started on the theme -- originally they were warlocks, which makes more sense for the robes and running around.
I can only echo the earlier sentiments expressed in this thread. Sublime executions of a very neat theme. You chose a theme and stuck with it and it seems to work all throughout your force.
As everyone, I really like the cherry blossoms on your tanks. I really like how this cherry blossom idea is instead a form of corruption on the wraithknight, and it even has 'slaaneshy' claws. Neat detail on how they are slowly being corrupted by she who thirsts.
Overall great work, can't wait to see more of your painting and of course battle reports!
Thanks Vonny, appreciate it! Sounds like people really like the tanks in particular, which works for me. Part of my strategy is having a few eye-catching tanks (and wraithknight) to hopefully draw fire, so if the painting scheme is drawing attention to them over my bikes and infantry, sure!
Definitely will be bringing more battle reports, watch this space!
I'm not sure what a Splinter Carbine is but if your Swooping Hawks are carrying weapons converted in this manner they look great. Much better than the conversions where two Shuriken Catapults have been used.
Cheers Alienscar, yeah I think I will work with something along those lines so long as there are enough splinter weapons to salvage. The splinter carbine is the standard weapon of DE scourges, so I chopped the barrels off and spliced them onto the shuriken catapults, making them longer and giving a different silhouette. Of course the other option with corsair reavers is to model them all with dual-wield pistols, and I am definitely very tempted to do that hehe.
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OK team, so I threw down against my CWE/DE friend again this week, and we managed to get in two games pretty quick. He is running the Autarch, fire dragons, warp spiders, hornets, scatbikes+Void shield alongside WWP archon + grotesquerie. This time around I brought my gloves-off tournament list with the d-flamer wraithguard and 2x 7 warp spiders.
Game 1 he made a crucial error in assuming he could bring down the wraithguard wave serpent in one turn of shooting, which he failed to do, and that let the d-toters move up, jump out, and hose two raiders with grotesques and the warlord plus a unit of scatbikes in one round of shooting. Since the grotesques and characters were mounted in open-topped vehicles, each template that just touched the Raider dealt D6 hits to the occupants -- brutal! When the explosions settled and the dust cleared, there were about 3 grotesques (of 6) remaining, the autarch+ haemonculus. Actually he got pretty lucky as I rolled super low for the D6 hits, and then rolled a lot of low D3 wound rolls. But anyway, it was still a backbreaking hit, as now the heavy hitters were stranded on his side of the table. On his turn 2 (that all happened turn 1!), he failed a ton of reserve rolls, so instead of calling it, we let him have ALL of his reserves to see if he could bounce back. Long story short, he took out the Farseer and then got tabled next turn.
Game 2 we decided to try stacking the deck against the Croneworld Eldar a bit more, so I got a useless Warlord trait while he had conqueror of cities on a ruins-infested table, and I was given Terrify, Dominate, and Mental Fortitude plus Shriek for powers (the "worst" telepathy ones), and was forced to go first in an objectives mission.
Turn 1 the Croneworlders move up and are able to take down the CWE/DE void shield along with the dark reapers (should have deployed them out of LOS!), while the Tanaka the Cannibal moved up and was able to cast Terrify on a squad of scatbikes, who duly failed their check and ran off the board! Ouch! He also cast Mental Fortitude on a squad of jetbikes who turbo-boosted onto the maelstrom objective to tie it up for a turn and hopefully deny it if they survive.
Turn 1 CWE/DE and they take down the void shield, snipe a few jetbikes, and send a squad of grotesques charging into the 3 Fearless jetbikes in their DZ. Amazingly, only 2 jetbikes die, and the third refuses to run away, inspired by Tanaka's cannibalistic thoughts! Haha, brutal, telepathy is such a good discipline.
Turn 2 the Croneworlders unleash another brutal round of shooting and clear out a lot of the CWE/DE even through 3+ ruins saves, but the wraithguard and warp spiders keep a defensive position ready for the CWE reserves, and two void shields come back.
Turn 2 CWE/DE and all the reserves come thundering in again, this time just failing to take out Tanaka with fusion guns (passed his jink save, but his squad got melted), and failing to wipe out a scatbike squad due to good jink saves. Not so great. That void shield really puts a spanner in it. Back in assault the Autarch and grotesques easily dispatch the last jetbiker, but too little too late...
Turn 3 and the Croneworld Eldar move backwards to deal with all the outflanking, deep striking reserves. Wraithguard bail out and light up the fire dragon+archon in a raider, obliterating all but the archon. Jetbikes move backwards through ruins to shoot the hornets, but fail 2 of 2 DT tests and 2 of 2 armour saves, and just die instead! hah! Reapers kill a hornet instead, while on the far left board edge rangers move up to shoot a squad of warp spiders. They pull out their pistols and take aim...the warp spiders flickerjump a measly 4"..the unleash the shuriken, and manage to rend out 2 and cause another armour save! Ouch! The Exarch is closest and decides to take the armour save, but fails and dies! Double ouch! The Rangers then go charging in and somehow kill a warp spider, passing their own armour save, and are able to run down the elite aspect warriors in a haze of bloodlust! Wow, go rangers!
On the other side of the table the other warp spider unit deep strikes in and laces the autarch with monofilament wire - due to positioning they don't get a cover save, the grotesques fail their Feel No Pain saves horribly, and the Autarch fails his armour save as well -- Warlord eliminated! What an atrocious turn for the CWE/DE.
Turn 3 and the last hornet comes in, and the Wraithknight decides to go balls to the wall and take on the Croneworld wraithknight, but he fails to make it. The Haemonculus and second grotesque unit move up and charge the Croneworld wraith construct instead, locking him in combat for about 4 turns and eventually bringing the beast down through poison instant death attacks! This could only happen with the Grotesquerie as they get special combat drugs, and this time around he managed to get T6 which prevented him from being splatted immediately by S10.
Unfortunately for the CWE/DE, this combat is the only thing keeping him from being tabled, and the game ends on the bottom of Turn 7, when the grotesques surprisingly are able to kill the wraithknight and escape back to their creepy webway hideaway. Good riddance!
But seriously, we had a hilarious couple of games, and it was a lot of fun trying to stack the deck against one player to see if they could fight out of a corner. The big thing for this matchup (and many others) was that the DE units could not get close to the Croneworlders due to the imminent threat of the d-scythes, but at the same time they couldn't out-shoot the Croneworlders in a firefight, due to the investment in assault capacity, and since both sides have void shields protecting them, but the DE have a harder time bringing them down. Though we have had some truly epic, close-fought moments, the dirty coalition is now 0-4 against Tanaka's croneworld cronies, so the plan is for my friend to just wait out November and put together a hopefully competitive Corsair build over Christmas, and then we'll try again and see how the Felarchs perform!
From my side, November I will be heading back to Beijing for business, so not going to get any painting done unfortunately. But December is going to be a big push to get everything up to a higher standard for TSHFT in January! Really looking forward to it! Plus there is the wonderment of the Corsair book dropping soon, and seeing what kind of Corsair "Away Party" Tanaka will decide to assemble. I'm envisioning a badass biker prince, some corsair jetbikes, a few jet pack reavers, and lots of wasps. We shall see!
Thanks for all the support and feedback! If anyone has any suggestions for how to slightly modify some jetbikes to become corsair riders, give me a shout!
Cheers
Ibushi
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Uh, well,WOW! Love seeing the old metal wraith lords, I have 3 as well. Such a cohesive paint scheme. I can only reflect what the rest of the others have said.
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Hey bud. Great bat-rep and another great victory. But man I feel for the Dark Eldar... my little Dark Eldar army is just dying for a new codex. They just seem to become more beleagured with each passing month. The Grotesquerie, Venoms and the Razorwing are really their best units. Its such a challenge... I don't know how Skari from Skaredcast does it. He's really an expert player that has mastered the army but for anyone else its such a struggle. I don't know how Phil Kelly let GW drop the ball with that one. Shame on you Kelly!
Anyway I'm stoked to hear you are going to do a Corsair force! For making Corsair JB's, Forgeworld didn't even kitbash their Corsair Jetbikes. It was just box-standard jetbike pilots with Corsair rune transfers and it looked very slick. However if you do want to do a bit more, I put Corsair heads on the regular old Craftworld bodies sprinkled some Wych weapons into the units. However Reaver Jetbike pilots fit perfectly onto the new Jetbikes also. I'm going to sprinkle those pilots into my squads as I flesh out the squads to their full size.
Anyway enjoy your trip to Beijing and can't wait to see some more photos. Anyway great update can't wait for MOAR!
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Uh, well,WOW! Love seeing the old metal wraith lords, I have 3 as well. Such a cohesive paint scheme. I can only reflect what the rest of the others have said.
Thanks Dread! Yeah I like the old Wraithlords too, although I swapped out their heads for Vyper gunners to make them look like chunky oldschool war walkers...pictures to come with 2016 Croneworld Corsairs!
Hey bud. Great bat-rep and another great victory. But man I feel for the Dark Eldar... my little Dark Eldar army is just dying for a new codex. They just seem to become more beleagured with each passing month. The Grotesquerie, Venoms and the Razorwing are really their best units. Its such a challenge... I don't know how Skari from Skaredcast does it. He's really an expert player that has mastered the army but for anyone else its such a struggle. I don't know how Phil Kelly let GW drop the ball with that one. Shame on you Kelly!
Yeah it's really true, DE were the front end of that strange codex-simplification train that went through briefly, and then Necrons hit and everything exploded. As we have played more games, it has just made us more and more sad how much the DE codex struggles. Don't get me wrong, my friend went 4-1 at our last GT and consistently is top ranked, but if we went 100% CWE he would be right up there on the top tables, that's the thing. Skari does a great job, it has to be said, but I'm not itching to emulate right now.
Anyway I'm stoked to hear you are going to do a Corsair force! For making Corsair JB's, Forgeworld didn't even kitbash their Corsair Jetbikes. It was just box-standard jetbike pilots with Corsair rune transfers and it looked very slick. However if you do want to do a bit more, I put Corsair heads on the regular old Craftworld bodies sprinkled some Wych weapons into the units. However Reaver Jetbike pilots fit perfectly onto the new Jetbikes also. I'm going to sprinkle those pilots into my squads as I flesh out the squads to their full size.
Yeah man, it's going to be rad! We have a local campaign from around January to April, the games are only 200-1350 pts, so I figure it is a prime time to put together a Corsair away party for doing recon off-world, and pursuing vendetta's against Tanaka's enemies of course. I'm thinking jetbike and walker heavy right now, maybe a Falon, but waiting really hard for the rules to drop. Not sure if I will scale up to 1850, might leave that to the original corsairs on here.
In terms of models, I have 5 oldschool jetbikes here waiting to be smashed up, so I'll start with those, and I may creep ebay to pick up some more oldschool bikes for cheap. Right now I still don't have any of the new ones, so I might try and make it into a theme. The other thing I'm doing is trying to collect the classic chaingun scatter lasers for the bikes and other heavy weapons, but I might need to make some casts for that as they are really hard to find. Imagine 15 jetbikes, 6 wasp walkers, a Falcon, and 5-10 balestrikes all with Eldar chainguns!
The way you do CWE bodies with the odd DE legs or arm is really tight, but I'll leave the clean conversions up to you -- I like to make things messy and/or covered in robes, and the corsairs will be no different! They will definitely still be rocking the MC Hammer pants, and I think I'll use a black/white/gold pattern of diamonds and triangles. For the japanese banners the obvious choice is to choose a slightly different colour from blue, maybe space wolves grey blue from ages past? But then again I might just stick with blue for consistency, and add a different character. Appreciate your stylistic feedback!
Anyway enjoy your trip to Beijing and can't wait to see some more photos. Anyway great update can't wait for MOAR!
Thanks man! Really looking forward to it, and it means I'll have a full 30 days away from 40k, so my brush hand and modelling knife will be itching to go by the time I get back!
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE! (old digital camera, not great quality, but since I'm going away in 36 hours I thought I'd do my best..)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWarp%2520Spiders%2FDSCF2132.jpg&hash=87afba63e23dcd03033b16bfda64086685499c1a)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWarp%2520Spiders%2FDSCF2131.jpg&hash=e5952d47236a42d97ae316490d9c44ac34d251e3)
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWarp%2520Spiders%2FDSCF2128.jpg&hash=487eedd46fb58518cc40226ac7ff6e36315c70e8)
Cheers
Ibushi
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Those counts-as Spiders are definitley rocking. Stuff like that is exactly what I'd expect to see on a Eldar croneworld. Excellent stuff my friend. Anyway enjoy beijing and can't wait to see more bat-reps. Happy trails!
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Thanks man! I'm collecting more dryad and daemon bits to kitbash another load of these guys, it's going to be nastay.
OK so coming back from Beijing I set up a game with long-time underdog and local opponent playing Sisters, with his updated list:
Cannoness with the biznass
Inquisitor with psyocculum & nastiness
3 henchmen with shields, 3 with plasma
Valkyrie with missile pods
2x5 sisters with flamers in Immolators
2x5 Dominions with 4 meltas in Repressors with flamers
3 Exorcists
Knight with cannon, stubbers, AA autocannon, and chainsword
Maybe some more stuff I have forgotten about.
Mission is ITC 1, Dawn of War with Emperor's Will and 2 Maelstrom objectives.
Eldar win roll for First Turn/deployment and take it. 1 Maelstrom objective is in the centre of the board, one further to the right flank, and the Emperor's Will objectives are on the right side of the board across from each other.
The Eldar teleport their bunker with void shields onto the right flank as close to the two maelstrom objectives and Emperor's Will objective as possible. Bikes and Farseers hide behind the bunker behind some ruins and out of LOS as much as possible, while the Wraithknight prances on the bunker ramparts. Shining spears deploy mostly out of LOS in the farmost left corner, with the Scorpions infiltrated centre-left board in a ruin for a 2+ cover. Harlequins hunker down inside the bunker, and put their escape hatch up at centre table.
Sisters counter-deploy as best they can, but outflanking the dominions (they have scout!), putting the two immolators at centre behind barricades for cover saves, then to the left the Imperial Knight, shielding all three Exorcists behind a huge destroyed manufactorium. The Cannoness + Inquisitor + Henchmen are awaiting in reserves in their bird.
In this one the bloodthirsty Eldar warlord has a vision of the battle ending in clouds of gore, so decides to start the day swinging his katana with both hands, before the sun is able to rise on this forsaken moon. In fact, Night Fighting is in effect.
Eldar Warlord Trait & Powers - Night Attacker; Invisibility x2, Shriek x2, Dominate x2, Terrify, Hallucination.
Imperial Warlord Trait - Strategic Genius
Turn 1
Eldar rush forward to slick their blades with Imperial blood. The Spears turbo-boost to within 1" of the three Exorcists, out of LOS of the Knight. Swooping Hawks leap forwards into centre-table, jetbikes shuffle around, Wraithknight bounds forward to centre-table, scorpions shuffle next to him. For Mysterious Objectives the Eldar roll a Targeting Array, ouch, and then Skyfire Nexus in centre-table -- double ouch!
Psychic powers make the Farseer's unit invisible, and the Scorpions just in case the Knight decides to charge them. After rolling the Psychic dice I realize the Harlequins forgot to disembark from the escape hatch, ugh, rookie mistake -- that's what a month in the Chinese capital will do!
Shooting is able to blow up an immolator and pin the unit inside, while the Wraithcannons fail to penetrate the Knight's shields. A jetbike squad also turbo-boosts into the Imperial DZ to score maelstrom.
Sisters do what they can, the Knight deciding to be patient and stepping sideways slightly to blast the marauding jetbikers to deny maelstrom points. Shooting kills 2 but the last biker holds. One immolator moves forwards and pops smoke, hoping to regain some board control later. The exorcists pour all of their fire into the 2+ jinking Shining Spears, managing to slay 2, but they hold.
Turn 2
Eldar turn up the heat -- the Harlequins disembark finally, and cast Invisibility, but then fail to cast Fog of Dreams on the Imperial Knight (it was denied), which is bad news. the Wraithknight decides to go whole hog and charge the IK, without invisibility, to see if he is up to the challenge, and moves up. The swooping hawks drop down on the edge of the Imperial DZ, in the face of the Knight, and right in front of the Harlequins. Shining spears set up their charge into the rear of an Exorcist, killing it! Shooting blows up the remaining immolator, and the disembarking sisters are assaulted and annihilated by the Scorpion Exarch alone (woo +3 attacks in a challenge!). Over in the far right corner, Rangers sneak into the Imperial DZ for maelstrom points, while the Wraithknight fails his charge.
Sisters muster their strength and strike back! Both Dominion squads move on from Outflank, on opposite flanks. One squad decides to move up and torch the Rangers, which all die. The other moves into a forest on the lonely left flank, hugging cover. The Valkyrie also moves on via the right side, blasting its missile pods at the invisible harlequins, causing minimal casualties. Meanwhile the Knight moves up and splits its fire between the Harlequins and Wraithknight. Cannon blasts do not scatter, and eviscerate the Harlequins, killing many, many of them in one fell blow. Three hawks are also killed, while the Wraithknight is then charged, aaand 6'd out! The Knight is left with 3 HP left, and manages to neuter the Harlequins and eliminate the Wraithknight in one fell swoop! Ouch!
Fortunately the Eldar are still way ahead on Maelstrom.
Turn 3
Eldar reel from the loss, but knuckle down to tear out the throat of the mon-keigh before them -- the swooping hawks pass their morale check and are able to get 2 HP of damage on the Valkyrie with their haywire attacks, while the laser bikes move onto a skyfire nexus and strip the last hull point off the Warlord's bird. It comes crashing down, killing several of the occupants, and the remainder are brutally gunned down by the Eldar warlord's laser bike entourage on a targeting array...zero survivors. The hawks then throw a grenade at the dominion's repressor, and miss. On the left the shining spears shoot and assault an Exorcist and fail to do any damage...ouch, rolled so many 1's in a row! In the middle the Harlequins bait the Knight but do not actually charge, instead casting Invisibility and Veil, then attempting to cast Fog of Dreams on the knight and succeeding, preventing him from firing his cannon next turn. Nice!
Sisters try to claw their way back into the fight, with the Exorcists brutally gunning down the Shining Spears finally! The surviving bodyguard died to a snapfiring stormbolter, so the Exarch got doubled-out by an Exorcist missile. Gah. Back in the middle the Knight realized that charging the scorpions is a free kill, so runs in to carry out mayhem, but only manages to kill 1 due to Fog of Dreams and good armour saves. On the left the Dominions continue cautiously moving up, while those on the right also move up and torch the Swooping Hawks, killing them all.
As the sun rises higher in the sky, the forces of the Eldar start to dwindle.
Turn 4
After a friendly reminder from the Imperial player, the Scorpions utilize "Our Weapons are Useless!" and fall back, unable to regroup as the Knight is so close, but not yet off the board.
Taking advantage of the Knight's preoccupation with the aspect warriors, the Harlequins move onto the enemy Emperor's Will objective, casting Veil of Tears to ensure there will be no reprisal. Laserbikes are not very useful, as the Repressors and Exorcists are all front amour 13, along with the knight, so one squad and the warlord farseer turbo-boost into the Imperial DZ to create more angles. Meanwhile the Warp Spiders. that had been nonchalantly lurking in midfield, jump out and are able to put 3 rending shots into the rear armour of the Knight, bringing it down in a blaze of glory! The explosion kills several Spiders, bringing them down to 1+Exarch, but surely that will be enough to seal victory for Tanaka's cruel forces.
Sisters try to get back into the fight after this huge loss, with both Dominions going straight for the Eldar home objective, while the Exorcist tries to get some shots off and makes the Warlord's entourage jink.
Turn 5
Scorpions are finally able to rally, and start moving up behind one Repressor. On the right the laserbikes are able to get side armour and burst open the other Repressor, while suddenly the Spiders bound forth and destroy the remaining one. A Farseer charges the disembarking Sisters, not taking any hits from Overwatch, and cuts them down in combat.
The game ends Turn 5, Eldar have both Emperor's Will objectives, Maelstrom Secondary, Big Game Hunter (Knight), Warlord, and Linebreaker Tertiaries, but only the two Farseers, 5 jetbikes, 4 scorpions, 2 warp spiders, and 3 harlequins survived. 11-1 to Eldar.
MVP: Warp Spiders! Holy crap, taking out a Knight and securing the home objective for the win!
Wooden Spoon: Actually I dont think there was a wooden spoon in this game, everyone pulled their weight in some way or other, nice!
The Sisters player was experimenting with a fully mechanized approach to try and deny the potency of psychic powers and with maximized AV13 to deny the effectiveness of scatter lasers, which for the most part was very effective! Unfortunately he went too far in the counter-deployment, removing himself from being able to control the table around the objectives. By throwing units away and keeping him distracted, the Eldar were able to fully control all of the Maelstrom and Primary objectives throughout the entire game, even if at a heavy loss.
From the Eldar side, this was a pretty tough matchup on paper, but the board layout, winning First Turn, and the deployment choices made the gameplan very simple and effective -- go straight at 'em! Rolling double invisibility helped, although not using any other powers the whole game was a bit sad haha. Just goes to show that the power of this list isn't in having all the psychic shenanigans, it just helps.
Also even though the Shining Spears flopped a little bit, the fact that they drew THREE full turns of three exorcists shooting them is utterly absurd. What a great unit.
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Next up a similar grudge match after a month away -- a rematch with Father of the Void, that indomitable Necron player who just keeps swinging for Tanaka and coming up just short.
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Great bat-rep Ibushi. Glad to have you back man. Sisters are surprisingly nasty... the Exorcists are absolute beasts! As are their scout tanks. Great win my man.
The Warp Spiders continue to impress. I'm so glad I jumped on the bandwagon after reading your bat-reps as mine have really rewarded me as well.
Can't wait to see how you do against the Necrons... what kind of list does he play? Also what is your preferred way of taking out Wraiths? Your CC oriented Eldar should do very well against them can't wait for the bat-rep!
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Welcome back!
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Surprisingly this time good old Father of the Void came with a list somewhat similar to the above, but Black Templars style, putting his Necrons aside entirely:
Command Land Raider - grav cannon, lascannons, command array
Command Rhino - plasma gun, orbital strike, command array
5 scouts with sniper rifles
5 Templars with cc weapons
Land Raider Crusader
Thunderfire Cannon, ugh gross
3 Grav Centurions
Land Raider
3x Vindicator formation with the giant ignores-cover blast, ugh
Void Shield Generator, as usual!
OK so a massive load of AV14 this time, great. Behind a void shield, oh wonderful. I think the assault aspect list is going to struggle.
Fortunately for this engagement Tanaka the Cannibal has enlisted the help of his equally crazy Away Party:
Corsair Prince - Shadowfield, ML2 (Malefic), WARLORD
Void Dreamer - ML3, jetpack
Corsair Jetbikes - lasers
Baron - ML1 Malefic
The rest of the Eldar were:
Farseer - jetbike
8 Scorpions
3 laserbikes
5 rangers
7 Warp Spiders
4 Shining Spears
Wraithknight
Bunker
Warlord Traits -- Templars roll -1 enemy reserves, a great warlord trait. Eldar roll Strategic Genius but foolishly re-roll to get 3 enemy units take pinning test... against all-mechanized army :(
Psychic Powers:
Farseer - Shriek, Shrouding, Invisibility, Hallucination -- JACKPOT
Dreamer - Path Ward, some 12" large blast, a 4+ cover save power, and WARP TUNNEL, HOLY CRAP > basically, you can effectively deepstrike his unit anywhere on the table without scattering, taking some damage in return, but then what is truly nuts is you can CARRY ON AS NORMAL, like nothing happened. Double jackpot!
Prince - Prescience & Summoning (not for casting, but it is required)
Baron - Summoning & Possession -- bahaha yes please!
Strategy:
OK so this is the worst possible matchup in many ways: a wall of AV14, even with obsec, behind a VOID SHIELD, against my mass of infantry, lots of S6, and primarily assault units..Great. To top it all off he has a thunderfire cannon to reinforce terrain and give his tanks a great cover save, and to pile cover-ignoring blasts on my guys. Bad news.
We roll up ITC mission 2, Vanguard Strike with 3 Maelstrom objectives (1 in each DZ, 1 is centre table), and then Purge the Alien.
Templars win first turn and put their tanks down in the centre of their DZ under the Void Shield. Interestingly he decides to keep the Vindicator formation in reserves.
Eldar counter-deploy by putting the bunker as far away as possible on the far right, with the Farseer out of LOS behind it. The Wraithknight lurks out of range of all the Grav weapons in the righthand table corner, while the rangers and scorpions infiltrate on the left and centre. The Templars scouts also infiltrate on the far, far left close to the Eldar DZ. Everything else is in Outflank or Deep Strike reserve.
Turn 1
Eldar Seize the Initiative! The Lucky Gits!
The Harlequins pile out of the Bunker (not Escape Hatch), and are joined by the Farseer -- the Void Dreamer dials up Warp Tunnel and gets it on 5 dice with no Perils, PHEW! Corsair Perils are brutal. Meanwhile the Farseer powers up Invisibility as well as Shrouding, while the Void Dreamer also gets his 4+ cover save power off. Nasty!
The Harlequins immediately redeploy in a no-scatter Deep Strike fashion behind the Centurion Land Raider, Command Rhino, and VSG, unleash some Shrieker cannon shots into the Rhino, and charge and destroy both the Rhino and Raider in one fell swoop -- BRUTAL!!
In the backfield the Wraithknight has no desire to waste shots on the void shields, so kills a few scouts and shuffles around, along with the Scorpions and Rangers, who hop on the central and Eldar DZ maelstrom objectives in cover.
Now the Templars have a raging Harliestar with a medley of Eldar and Corsair characters attached deep in the bowels of their army, bahaha.
Templars about-face and unleash all of the firepower into the Harliestar -- fortunately for my opponent we are playing ITC rules, so Invisible units are hit on BS1 rather than only Snap Firing, so all the blasts from the Thunderfire Cannon really go to work and gut a large number of harlequins, including the Shadowseer unfortunately. But the Harlequins are certainly not going anywhere!
Turn 2
The game is far from won, as the Templars still have a Vindicator formation ready to roll in from reserves, as well as the Command Land Raider, grav Centurions, Land Raider Crusader with templars inside, and the Thunderfire Cannon, plus some scouts.
Eldar roll for reserves, hoping for the Shining Spears and Corsair Cloud Dancers to come in from Outflank, and the Warp Spiders to Deep Strike in -- but every single Reserve roll fails miserably, leaving everything up to the Harliestar again.
Wraithknight moves up to mid-field and blasts the scouts again, eliminating them, not wanting to shoot the void shield still. The Harliestar forms up and charges the Centurions, not having to worry about overwatch fortunately, but mostly they bounce off, as almost all of the Caress-carrying harlies were slain. That's fine, now they can't be shot, bahaha!
Templars turn 2 and guns retrain on the Wraithknight, stripping two wounds. The Vindicators also fail to come on, which might be a good thing in this instance. Templars also disembark from the Crusader and charge the Harliestar, doing some wounds -- also I forgot that Corsairs have defensive grenades, so they should have had less attacks. Oh well. At the end of combat the Harliestar hit & runs out again.
Turn 3
Finally the reserves arrive, with the Corsair Cloud Dancers and attached Baron along with the Shining Spears both coming in on the left in the Templar DZ. They target the Thunderfire Cannon, but are just outside the Void Shield so put their shots into it, and bring all 3 down. The Wraithknight then moves up and puts some D-shots into the Command Land Raider, causing 3 HP of damage. The Harliestar again charges into the Templars and Centurions, grinding them down some more, but not wiping them out, fortunately.
Templars strike back by taking another 2 wounds off the Wraithknight, bringing him to his last 2. Vindicators roll on board right, but turn around and put a giant, cover-ignoring combi-blast into the Spears + Corsair bikes, managing to kill all of the Spears and 2 corsair bikes after a good scatter. Ouch! the Land Raider Crusader takes out the remaining Corsair bike, leaving just the Baron, while it also empties its magazines into the Scorpions, whittling them down combined with Thunderfire cannon shooting. But since the Scorpions have not shot or charged anything yet, they still have Shrouding + Stealth + Cover for a 2+, heh. In combat, the templars are cut down, but one grav Centurion survives the onslaught of the Harlequins, who then hit & run away towards the horrible thunderfire cannon.
Turn 4
Finally the Warp Spiders and Laser bikes arrive, the Spiders gunning for the Thunderfire cannon, but they mishap and are placed far back in the Eldar DZ. Fortunately they are usually lightning fast at getting across the board! The Laser bikes line up shots on the lone Centurion, although there is a single Void shield remaining to contend with.
The Harliestar decides to finish off the Thunderfire cannon in protracted style, first killing the cannon itself with shooting, then charging in and tying up the Techmarine by not using any special weapons that round. On the other side, the Wraithknight splits fire between the newly arrived Vindicators and the Command Land Raider, which only has 1HP remaining. Both Destroyer shots hit, needing a single 2+ to destroy the Raider, and both come up 1's -- gah! The plan to blow up the Land Raider then charge the Vindicators is thwarted! Instead the Wraithknight just charges the Raider and easily destroys it, taking out an important, special rule-slinging and grav gun-toting unit out of the fight, as well as claiming Warlord. Unfortunately Psychic Shriek on the lone Centurion was Denied, so next turn the Knight will have to weather some Grav fire...
Templars warm up their grav guns and vindictor cannons, pouring firepower into the Wraithknight, who passes a goodly amount of cover and Feel No Pain saves, but finally is brought down by the Vindicator formation's onslaught of high-strength pie-plates. On the other side, the Techmarine is slowly dismembered by the Harlequin Troupe Leader, freeing the star up to engage their next target on the Eldar turn. Back in the middle the Land Raider Crusader again pours firepower into the Baron and Scorpions, slaying the Baron and leaving just 2 Scorpions remaining on the central objective. The Baron had tried to cast Possession twice on 5 dice and failed both times by 1 warp charge, so his death was inevitable in a certain way...
Turn 5
The Harlequins+Corsairs+Farseer are very few in number at this point, with 1 harlequin, 1 harlequin with caress, the Troupe Leader with 1 wound, the Void Dreamer with 1 wound, the Corsair Prince with 1 wound, and the Farseer on a jetbike with 2 wounds remaining. They move up between the lone Centurion and Land Raider Crusader, looking to take out both if possible. Invisibility goes up successfully as in ever other turn, then Psychic Shriek finally goes off and is not Denied -- a 6, 4, 4 is rolled, and the Centurion's mind is horribly sautéed by Tanaka's fevered screams into his consciousness. The Star is then free to charge the LRC, dealing a sad 1 HP of damage, and now forced to tank another turn of shooting. Meanwhile the Scorpions and Rangers continue to hunker down, the Warp Spiders continue their trek across the battlefield, and the Laser bikes decide to turbo-boost up into the Templar DZ left corner to get side armour on the Vindicators next turn if possible.
Templars put all of their remaining firepower into the Harliestar, and are able to kill a harlequin, wound the Farseer, and kill the Corsair Prince for Warlord! A brutal turn of shooting!
The game continues!
Turn 6
In a coups de gras, the surviving Harliestar charge into the Land Raider Crusader and manage to get 4 glancing hits between two Caresses, a Witchblade and a Witchstaff -- the last Land Raider dies! On the right side the Warp Spiders are able to get unobstructed side armour on a Vindicator, glancing it 2 times.
Templars are not giving up, and the Vindicators turn around to blast the laser bikes as much as possible, but not very successfully, while shielding their damaged vehicle as best as possible.
The game still does not end!
Turn 7
Warp Spiders jump up and glance out one Vindicator, while the Harliestar decides to go balls-out and casts Warp Tunnel one more time, landing behind the Vindicators, glancing one, assaulting and destroying the last members of the squadron in Caress + Witchblade glory!
Mwuahahaha!!!
MVP: the Troupe Leader for laying SO MUCH smackdown on the Templars with his Harlequin-rending Katana, he seriously racked up so many kills and hull points of damage. Close runners-up are the Void Dreamer for Warp Tunnel and a consistent 4+ cover save, combined with the Farseer for Invisibility and Shrouding, who also managed to take out a good number of hull points with their witchblades.
Wooden Spoon: Sorry but the Corsair jetbikes really went wet-noodle this game, Outflanking a turn late and just doing..nothing. Then failling to cast Possession twice in a row, once on 6 dice and once on 5. Sadface. But if you could outflank them and manage to get a successful Possession deep in the enemy DZ that would be super nasty.
Lessons Learned:
The Void Dreamer is really nasty, he has some GREAT powers for an Eldar army that has key units to be transported around the table. If you get Warp Tunnel, perfect, otherwise Warp Blink is pretty good too. Not such a big fan of the other ones though.
One problem is you HAVE to take a Corsair Prince in order to use Corsairs, and I'm still not 100% sold on how to use him. Right now as a combat character I would prefer an Autarch to be honest, but maybe the Prince is good just basic, with a Shadowfield to tank wounds and a relic like Armour of Misery, keep it cheap as possible. But then he HAS to be Warlord, so that is not ideal. Thinking on this one...
I think without the Void Dreamer and Warp Tunnel, this would have been an incredibly different game, that's for sure....
Next up I'm working on some war walkers for a Wasp Phalanx (assuming we count them as Jump models to be able to deploy by Deep Strike, otherwise their rules are pointless!), and also looking into picking up a Warp Hunter to try out with deep strike and kinetic fields for a nasty Turn 2 surprise! We'll see, still not sure what other surprises the Corsair list might be able to bring, and the Pale Courts Warhost is truly a thing to behold, I never expected it would have so much potential -- will be reassessing the Assault Aspect build in light of this, and we'll see where it takes us!
Looking forward to also finding some games to play against the new Tau, and maybe some Adeptus Mechanicus and the Decurion sooner or later -- all of those armies sound like super tough nuts to crack!
Cheers
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Edit:
Thanks guys! Good to be back! Working on some more projects, look forward to unveiling when they're ready :)
Also to answer your question about Wraiths, Cav, my strategy is pretty simple:
- against opponents who just rush right at you, hit them with D-scythes and call it a day. Any survivors you can easily clean up with WK.
- or you can force his hand by casting invis. on the D-guard wave serpent and shove it right in his teeth -- he either has to pull back, or charge and hope for 6's, then next turn you pop out and *whooosh!
- the next most reliable thing is Warp Spiders, however you like. I've had good luck deep striking and raking them, and also infiltrating and doing the warp spider rubber-banding maneuvre on them, as you can keep right at the edge of their range, so even if they go after your spiders, they would be too isolated. Besides, they might not kill the spiders in one round, and you just hit & run. Ugh, spiders.
- alternatively, just hammer them with laser bikes until they are soft enough for the WK to engage, and hopefully your WK has invisibility and an invulnerable save, as they will tear through a standard WK with enough numbers.
- my final strategy is to use psychic shriek on them as much as possible, as usually they don't have Reanimation Protocols whereas other Necrons would still get that save against Shriek. Yes you have to get through a 3+, but they are also usually closer to you than other Necron infantry, and you ALWAYS have to get through that 3+ gah.
Round here it is pretty normal to see 10 Wraiths, I find this manageable. 15 Wraiths is really tough, even without RP. But if just one unit gets out of position, it releases a LOT of pressure, so the Necron player has to know his stuff.
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Great bat-rep Ibushi. Man I'm super jealous of all the great fun games you've been having. Its getting tougher and tougher to get any 40k action in my neck of the woods. That Templar list sounded really awesome. Really cool variety of units with classic choices like the Land Raiders.
I really liked your list. Super eclectic but I can still see the cohesion.
As for the Corsair Prince what about the giving the Void Sabre (if what I've read about it is correct, basically a better Fire Sabre), Shadow Field. The only choice left would be what unit to stick him with. Personally I plan on going Void Sabre, Shadow Field, Webway Portal and pairing him with an Autarch so I can maintain reserve manipulation. If I can I'm gonna squeeze in allied DE with a WWP Archon and basically experiment with unit choices. I've had great success with him Wraithblades, and Wraithguard. I can't imagine how durable the unit would be with 2x Shadowfields at majority T6.
Anyway Ibushi great bat-rep man keep on reaping them skulls!
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Cheers man, I will definitely continue to do that!
My one question to you is with all your cut foam terrain, do you always use a foam-cutter, or can you just use a regular knife to chop it up? I'm planning to mess around with some terrain also, but don't have a foam cutter around.
Agreed it is eclectic, but everyone does their job and it comes together! Really enjoy the assault aspect list, will keep refining it for sure.
Haha that concept of wraithblades or wraithguard plus no less than all 3 Eldar warrior leaders would be insane, so much stacked in one place haha -- look forward to seeing how that turns out!
One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the Corsair book has Scout, and therefore Outflank, so I'm super tempted to split up the Prince from the Harliestar and have him come in via Outflank with a unit of Corsair Jetbikes as a 3rd harassing element on top of the Spears, or just to join the Spears possibly.
If you take a Sky Burners Coterie, the units can re-roll reserves which is nasty, plus on the Deep Strike they only scatter D6" which is great, so there is that option for him too -- but then he HAS to be Warlord, and is a bit exposed. Drop the Coterie and take an Allied Detachment, no reserves benefits, but then he's not Warlord either.
You have the rules in hand yet Cav?
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Hey Ibushi yeah I used the foam-cutter to make the basic shape of the terrain. I then take a little screwdriver and chip away and drag the flat end down the piece of foam to texture it. Its super easy and is a lot of fun.
Yeah that Wraithblade/Wraithguard idea is ridiculously crazy. I probably wont have the points to do it in a regular game but I would in some of the higher points game. I'm sure it'd drive my opponents nuts.
Also yep I have the rules in hand! :)
Yes I like the idea joining the Prince to a unit other than the Harlies (although I think the Harlie combo definitely works and may try it myself). I think the Jetbike idea is certainly a good one... start him on the board with the bikes, split him off to join the Spears when they come on. Its a shame they don't have close-combat options for the Jetbikes (been thinking about all those Venom Blades). Although another option would be to have him join a unit of Harlie bikes if you could somehow finagle it. Mirage Launchers, Prince with Shadowfield on a bike... Farseer on a bike with fortune could be ridiculous. Or hell join him to a Seer Council!
The whole thing with the Prince being the Warlord can be a bit of a conundrum. Honestly I'd just go with whatever gives you the best options and to hell with worrying about giving up Warlord. I play with my Autarch as Warlord every single game just for the sake of fun and have never regretted it. The rest of my army is usually causing so much mayhem my opponents more worried about stopping the carnage than going for Warlord. However you play a much more competitve crowd with crazier lists... but still if Corsairs as primary gives your army an overall advantage, I'd take it over any concerns about giving up Warlord.
Man I cannot WAIT to start playing my army as Corsairs its gonna be absolute blast.
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Yeah man that is a good summary. What are you thinking with the new book?
Also with the jetbikes/spears outflanking I mean leave the Prince in reserve with them to come on in the enemy back lines, that way I would have (ideally), 1 unit of outflanking Corsair laser bikes + Prince, 1 unit of outflanking Shining Spears, 1 unit of Deep Striking Warp Spiders, Harliestar warp-tunnelling or warp blinking across the table into your face, backed up by the WK. The maximized threat overload is KEY.
If you go with Prince as Warlord, the jetbikes are re-rolling reserves too which is nice, and if you attach the Prince to the Spears, then the jetbikes & spears are Both re-rolling reserves to do their outflanking business, which may be worth Warlord, especially if that makes the Harliestar that much more expendable too.. All food for thought!
In terms of the pros and cons of Warlord, yes mostly I am concerned about the 1 game in 5 at a tournament at the top table where Warlord decides the outcome, it usually happens at least once at a big event. Prince is a bit soft for my liking, not because of being "soft" per se, but because he is wanting to get stuck in there by his nature, so the risk is much higher, right. Farseer is the best Warlord ever, so fluffy, so powerful, pretty good in a fight actually, and very easy to keep fully functional but completely out of harms way.
Really interested to hear what you are thinking to do with the new book Cav, you always have interesting combinations and well thought-out manevres!
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Thanks man, I am extremely excited about the new book. I think in the right hands it can compete with ANYTHING out there. Just running a CAD I see almost unlimited potential due to the incredible amount of options you can run. You can customize each unit like nothing I've ever seen in an Eldar book before. It reminds me of a deluxe edition of the 5th ed. Dark Eldar book which is probably my favorite codex ever.
The Coterie combinations and the path of your Prince are going to be the secret sauce for the army. I'm leaning towards Sky Burner Coterie and Walker of Forgotten Paths for my Prince. Still digesting how I'm going to use them though. The unit I'm taking a long hard look at right now is Balestrike Band with Dark Lances. Poor, poor Dark Eldar Scourges if only they could use those Dark Lancs on the move. But seriously with D6 Scatter (or appearing out of a Webway Gate) these guys are AWESOME. Scourges with Haywire are a fantastic unit but these guys are better. Far better precision, more speed, better options and more punch. These guys essentially remove the need for an WWP Archon and DE allies for Fire Dragon/Wraithguard deepstrike shenanigans.
With full powered Warp Hunters, Lynx, Hornets, outflanking Laser Bikes (!?) EXCELLENT Warp Spider-esque troops that can be kitted out with the best ranged and CC weapons from the DE and CW book, fantastic psychic powers, high precision deepstrike these guys are going to be ALL OVER your opponent from start to finish. Ally in some Craftworld allies for Deathshroud Wraithknight if you need and you're looking a top-tier army IMO.
I'm still wrapping my head around the formations though... are the only available to Craftworlds codex and not the Corsairs? What about the Auxiliary choices? Do you need to take the Battlehost to unlock them? It seems unclear to me.
As you can probably tell I'm thrilled with this book. I think its going to take a lot of people by surprise because of sheer unfamiliarity and the fact that you can have a nasty surprise hidden in each and every unit, while their vehicles are probably the best in the game. What are your thoughts my man? I can't wait to see what you're gonna do with these guys! I think we're cut from the same cloth in terms of our overall approach to the game with more an eye towards overall army performance and flexibility as opposed to deathstaring people to death. What are your plans?
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Haha i feel ya, pretty stoked! Also I agree they have lots of nasty surprises and some really interesting options to hang with the best, but I'm still not sure on a 100% corsair, or even Corsair-primary approach yet, especially after seeing some of those new Eldar formations..
On the one hand I am really excited about Corsairs, but on the other I have reached my limit of ability to purchase new models for a while, so that will be a major limitation on how my foray into a pure Corsair force might occur. Going to let the book percolate a little bit longer and see what initial lists pop up, but first I am focusing on my two Eldar lists in the run-up to TSHFT on january 16th -- it's going to be really tough competition, and I have been off the horse for a while now. Going to play Voidman's proper assault crons tomorrow in a tournament style friendly, let you know how that goes.
Back to IA11, was a bit confused myself as the CWE warhost formations are all also counted as standalone formations (i.e. Aspect Host, Guardian Warhost, etc.), whereas the ones here do not seem to have that distinction. My understanding is that they are additional formations for use ONLY within a Craftworld Warhost formation, which would be a huge bummer, except that the Pale Courts Warhost is a GREAT formation if you think of it as pure damage-dealing and support units, sourcing your ObSec elsewhere. Since there is virtually no 'fat' in the Pale Courts formations, it really is a good deal -- my line of thinking for a "pure" Corsair force is actually to do a Corsair Raiding Party, then bring in a Pale Courts Warhost for some additional condensed power. Also in terms of the Croneworld fluff this seems to make perfect sense too, so I'm 110% happy at this point. Going off the top of my head, I'm toying with something like:
Corsair Raiding Party:
Baron - jet pack (reavers)
Sky Burners Coterie:
Prince - jetbike (for the T4 and mobility), void sabre, shadowfield, armour of misery
Reavers - 2 fusion, jet packs
Cloud Dancers (for outflanking obsec)
Laser Dancers (for outflanking lasers!)
Nightwing - kinetic shroud
Vyper - chainsnares, Scatter Laser (outflanking tank shock & laser, baha)
Warp hunter - kinetic shroud, void burner
Pale Courts Warhost:
Farseer - jetbike
3x5 Warp Spiders + Exarch (faux Reavers, eh)
Wraithknight
Wasp Phalanx with SL
This is more of a themed but powerful army, I think it needs something more, but if things synchronize right it would wipe the table T2.
Put the Farseer + Prince into the small Cloud Dancer squad to bring in a T2 outflank and hopefully use Armour of Misery + Telepathy to ruin someone's day! Meanwhile the Warp Hunter and other units come in T2 and just blow stuff up. The Wasp Phalanx is really really nasty! To prevent getting tabled in return T1, you have the warp spiders doing their shenanigans and a Wraithknight hopefully holding his own, right..
Much food for thought! What kind of list would you build at this point?
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Hey buddy. I'm actually not really sure what direction I'm going to go... I basically know what I'm gonna rock with my Corsair detachment...
Corsair Prince- Bike, Void Sabre, Shadowfield, Walker of Forgotten Paths
Baron- Attached to Balestrike if necessary
Laser Dancers x3
Laser Dancers x3
Nightwing
Hornets x3- Pulse Lasers
Balestrike Band- Dark Lances x5
But as for my Craftworld detachment I'm really not sure. I really, really am tempted to go for a Seer Council on Bikes as my close-combat unit... I'm tempted to try the Spears as well... I'm just not sure to be honest. I know for sure I'm going to include my Warp Spiders and a Wraithknight of some variety no matter what. I also know for sure I'm going to pick up a Deathshroud Wraithknight to mix things up a bit well. In all honesty once army-builder updates I'm gonna get in there and mess around... cause I'm stingy on points and weak in the math department! But besides that I really need to digest the rules first, contemplate the combinations... the army list is a SUPER dense read and need to really sit-down with the book and have a good think.
One thing I know for sure is this: its gonna be a rapid-insertion force. Lots of deepstrike and lots of jetbikes. Its gonna be tough to let go of some of my Craftworld units but I think the advantage of all the deepstrike and outflank is too valuable considering the synergy it has with the collection already at my disposal.
Anyway fascinating questions my friend, I wish I had better answers! But I will have better answers soon and a full write-up on the army list as well. Anyway keep up the great work Ibushi and can't wait to read the next bat-rep!
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Interesting.
Yes that is certainly a good core Corsair build. I've been really toying with going for a 2-coterie build, but I don't think it's worth it, just 1 does all the business, and you avoid Internal Politics as a bonus. I did try out the Titan Breakers coterie, but when you realize that Preferred Enemy Tanks only allows you to re-roll 1's to hit (not to penetrate), it actually it is not that worth the investment except maybe for a Balestrike Squad. But then the Skyburners bonuses are still going to be better...
As for the Eldar side, it sounds like you will have to fiddle around and decide on something. Often I find myself drawn to Seer Councils, but then just find them too boring to play, and people hate seeing them on the tabletop, as an added disincentive. These days I would much prefer to take two squads of Shining Spears and 2 Farseers on bikes rather than a Council. But it is a good close combat option, especially with the Prince added in, and Especially if you give him Ancient Treasures path and take Armour of Misery or Mask of Secrets as it combos REALLY well with Telepathy and Mind War. Nasty!
As soon as you look at Corsairs combined with Eldar it jumps off the page as a T2 rapid-insertion force, for sure. But based on the meta and missions right now I still don't think a fully T2+ based army is going to carry its weight over the full distance of an event. So I'm focusing on a Corsair-ish list for smaller games where the T1 isn't as crucial, like 1k-1.5k, and saving Eldar for the bigger tournament setting. I might tweak that last combined Corsair-Eldar assault aspect build for a competitive showing though, we'll see!
OK back to the Father of the Void -- he was hurting after his Xenos-Witch-Killer Black Templars took such a rolling from aforementioned Corsair-Eldar Away Partay, so he returned in force yesterday for our Monday evening TSHFT training, this time packing the Ancient Nemesis:
Necron Lord - solar staff (the blinding solar pulse one), WARLORD
3x5 Deathmarks
2x5 Immortals
1x Night Scythe
3x5 Wraiths, jeez
2x3 Heavy Destroyers
Doomsday Ark
Void Shield Generator
This list is all business, no fat, but also pretty fluffy if you ask me. So, just like my competitive Eldar then:
Farseer - jetbike, spear, WARLORD
5x Wraithguard - D-scythes
Wave Serpent - Holo-Fields, Bright Lance
3x3 Laser Bikes
2x3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers
Falcon - Bright Lance
Wraithknight - 2x D, 1x SL
Void Shield Generator
Aspect Host:
2x7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
4 Dark Reapers + Exarch - EML
As you may recall, this list utterly trounced the Necrons back in early October, so vengeance was in the air. Imotekh returned to the Tomb World to lick his prodigious D-slap wounds, sending forth this small Necron Lord with an assault force of clickety-clack, snippety-snip wraiths.
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Mission was ITC 6 - Crusade + Maelstrom + Linebreaker, Warlord, First Blood
Looking at the mission with an even 4 objectives, and the amount of board control 15 wraiths and 6 destroyers will have, I felt pretty sure that this could fight it's way into a draw on the Crusade and Maelstrom front, meaning Warlord and First Blood would be crucial. It is virtually impossible to prevent Linebreaker against multiple deep striking Deathmarks and a Night Scythe with Immortals, but so far the Crons have failed to ever secure Warlord, making me feel good about that, but also getting Warlord off the Crons is really tough -- so First Blood could be critical to prevent a tie. OK.
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Necrons win roll for DZ, but the sides are very even. Deployment is Dawn of War.
Objectives are placed in a diamond shape from the centre-right (Necron DZ) through the middle to the centre-left (Eldar DZ).
Eldar roll -1 enemy reserves for Warlord trait (was really hoping for Conqueror of Cities as we are on a ruins-heavy board),
Necrons manage to roll up Conqueror of Cities! Gah, 3+ cover and Reanimation is going to be tough to get through.
Psychic powers: Farseer Tanaka the Cannibal is able to remember Psychic Shriek, Dominate, Mental Fortitude, and Shrouding, but no Invisibility this time around -- should be interesting! Don't fancy a Wraithknight's chances against wraiths in combat without a) a D-sword, b) invisibility...
Then Necrons win roll for First Turn as well!
...and it is Night Fighting for Turn 1.
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Necrons deploy their VSG in the middle of their DZ, with the destroyers stacked up in a 3-level ruin to the centre-right, the Doomsday Ark sitting on top of the VSG looking over the whole battlefield, and the wraiths spread out in a raiding formation along the DZ line. Deathmarks and Night Scythe in Reserves, Lord attached to the foremost Wraiths, and last unit of immortals hiding behind the VSG.
On the Eldar side, the VSG is placed a careful diagonal 43" away from the destroyers, putting it out of range of the Destroyers for one turn. The laserbikes are bubbled out in a circle to the left of that, to hopefully prevent a single devastating Doomsday Ark hit, while the Farseer is attached to a jetbike unit and hides behind the VSG. Wraithguard and Wraithknight sit up front in a ruin, just in 12" for the VSG shielding, while one unit of Warp Spiders makes a skirmishing line in front of them, and the other is on the right flank in a ruin hiding as much as possible. Rangers prepare to Outflank, while the Falcon hovers on top of the VSG with Dark Reapers embarked.
At this point the plan is to keep firepower units outside of Destroyer range unless they have to break cover, and forcing the wraiths to either commit to a frontal assault, and eat the waiting D-flamers first, or hover around midfield being picked apart by scatter lasers. This can only continue for so long, as the deathmarks will eventually arrive and put their synaptic disintegrators into the Wraithknight or the laser bikes. So until that happens it is important to keep the Wraithknight under the void shields and in cover, saving him for a counter-assault on any wraiths. The Warp Spiders need to get off one good round of shooting on the wraiths to really seal the deal, and then just run interference. One squad on the far right flank is to force the Necrons either to ignore them, or commit (and waste) resources on them, while the skirmish line Spiders are to prevent a long charge on the WK or Serpent, using their Hit & Run to disengage and shoot up the wraiths.
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Turn 1 - the Eldar fail to Seize.
Necrons move up, blue wraiths with attached lord moving as far as possible to set up an easy T2 charge on the wave serpent, red wraiths move right towards the right-hand spiders a bit, and black wraiths move left to support the blue wraiths. Destroyers jump-shoot-jump out of the ruins, putting shots into the Spiders and causing one casualty. Doomsday Ark pivots on the spot and targets the Spiders also, who then Flickerjump entirely out of LOS.
Eldar respond by thinking how best to achieve First Blood given that all of the Necron units are still under the Void Shield. At that moment the Lord triggers his Solar Pulse, swathing the blue Wraiths in light, and forcing Snap Shots only... First the 3 shields need to come down -- the Wave Serpent, Falcon and Reapers all unload into the void shields, bringing them down with the 2nd to last dice. Laser bikes then shift left (to the board edge) to target the supporting black wraiths through some ruin windows, bringing down 2 creatures with 24 shots. The defending warp spiders make an unholy 15" warp jump to arrive next to the 3 surviving wraiths, bringing down another 2, and the third laser bike squad risks Dangerous Terrain by flying to the top of a 3-story ruin to finally destroy the black wraiths in a hail of laser fire. First Blood, and 5 of 15 wraiths destroyed! Unimpressed by these insolent robots, the Wraithknight steps forward and projects warp energy inside the Doomsday Ark, causing the grav-engines to implode into nothingness, and bringing the engine of destruction clanging to the ground on top of the Necron Void Obelisk. Most fortunately, the Doomsday Cannon is facing entirely away from the Eldar forces now, neutralizing that threat.
Then Tanaka casts Mental Fortitude upon a jetbike unit, sending them flying deep into the Necron backfield to deny a Maelstrom point and interfere in their carefully-planned assault.
Maelstrom: 0-1 Eldar, +1 for First Blood
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Turn 2
Confused by Eldritch trickery, only 1 of 3 Deathmark units arrive, landing in midst of the Eldar jetbikes on the left board edge and easily slaying a unit with assault sniper fire. Meanwhile the blue Wraiths continue their assault, honing in on the warp spider unit which just eliminated their brethren, killing all but 1 and the Exarch in a brutal onslaught. From the backfield, destroyers pour shots into the marauding jetbike squad amongst them, killing 2, but the survivor is fearless and out of LOS. At the end of the turn, the Warp Spiders successfully hit & run away from the blue wraiths, warp jumping towards the destroyers. In the centre, the red wraiths hold down an objective, and await the second warp spider unit to set up a counter-charge.
The Croneworld Eldar have been waiting for this moment, and unleash the full might of their forces on the death marks and wraiths -- the Wraithguard disembark and hose the blue wraiths for 17 D-hits, but only 9 wound, and all but 2 are saved! Of those, 1 instantly kills a wraith, and the other only causes 1 wound -- wow, most pitiful D-scythe attack ever! Even worse, surrounded by his elite warriors about to commence the assault, Tanaka the Cannibal summons Croneworld spirits to shroud his forces and provide cover -- but at once the Great Enemy is aroused, suddenly penetrating deep into Tanaka's mind and severing it's connection with reality. The Warlord is consumed and immediately DIES! to Perils of the Warp! Wow, rolled a 1 and failed the Leadership test with an 11, ouch! The Wraithknight senses the peril of the Croneworld warhost, staring down a virtually full-strength unit of wraiths and reeling from the loss of the Warlord, and he sets his mighty steps in motion through the ruins before him. Having unfinished business with the Necron Void Obelisk and Doomsday Ark, he sends two wraithcannon shots their way, utterly destroying the Void Obelisk, and bringing the Doomsday Ark crashing to the ground, although it survives. As he continues to stride forwards, he peppers the blue wraiths with scatter laser fire, wounding one, and then he sets his jump jets into action to hurtle into the minions of the Ancient Nemesis -- after powerful blows and crushing stomps, one wraith survives, locked in combat with the towering monster.
Fortunately on the right flank the Warp Spiders also make a successful warp jump and are able to reach the red wraiths, bringing down no less than 3 in a hail of monofilament wire! Dark Reapers also pour fire into the red wraiths, matched with a few shots from the surviving Warp Spider Exarch and single remaining warrior, bringing down the red wraiths in a surprising display of failed saves! Wow, brutal turn for both the Eldar and Necrons!
In the Eldar leftmost backfield, the Falcon and Wave Serpent unload into the newly arrived Deathmarks, forcing them to go to ground for a 2+ cover save, and they take zero casualties. The jetbikes then attempt to get out of rapid-fire range with their jetbike moves.
Despite the onslaught, the Eldar fail to prevent Necron objectives:
Malestrom - Necrons+2 (2)- Eldar +1 (2)
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Turn 3
Another Deathmark squad arrives, deep striking in next to their pinned allies, and again taking out another laser bike squad while hiding in the ruins. In the middle, destroyers unload into the lone jetbiker still in their midst, finally killing him, while the Necron Lord hides with the Immortals beside where the Void Obelisk once was. Immortals shoot into the small Spider unit, which Flickerjumps away out of rapid-fire range and takes no casualties.
In combat, the last blue wraith is destroyed by the Wraithknight, who now sets his sights on the enemy Warlord to bring the score into Eldar favour.
The wave serpent, which has had a minimal role so far, pulls a classic maneuvre, tank shocking both Deathmark squads into a tight formation, and the Wraithguard then step up and annihilate both squads in a single blaze of D-scythe magic. Score! Warp Spiders jump up and continue their assault by moving towards the Destroyers, but in their fatigue they forget to shoot this round... Instead, the Falcon sends bright pulse beams coursing towards the immobilized Doomsday Ark, which fails its cover save and is finally eliminated.
The Wraithknight bounds forwards and is mere inches from the red Destroyers. He shoots and kills a blue destroyer, then charges and smashes all of the red Destroyers in a hail of metal shards.
Maelstrom: +2 and +2 again!
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Turn 4
Finally the last Deathmark squad arrives, along with the Night Scythe and Immortals -- they zoom straight into the Eldar void shield, looking to finish off the remaining jetbikes and neuter Eldar scoring mobility. Tesla blasts rock through the Dark Reapers, 3 wounds managing to slay 3 Reapers, including the Exarch! Deathmark shooting then eliminates the last laser bike squad, so now there is just one jetbike squad hanging around the Eldar shield generator to score objectives.
On the Necron side of the field, the Lord moves up a level in the ruins, splitting off from the Immortals, and sends blasts of light into the rictus face of the Wraithknight, blinding the creature (rolled a 6!). Immortals send more gauss fire into the nearby spiders, failing to kill any once more, but the Destroyers are able to kill 1 wraithguard across the battlefield.
In the Eldar turn, the Wraithknight attempts to charge the Lord, rolling a 2 on the re-roll! But after clarification that the Lord is not part of the Immortals squad, actually the Wraithknight charges the Immortals and smashes all of them, as he was only 2" away! Brutal!
Meanwhile on the right flank the Rangers outflank to cement Linebreaker, and start sending sniper fire into the Destroyers, to no effect, of course. The Spiders are, however, able to take out another blue destroyer with massed firepower, leaving just one and the Lord on his lonesome in the Necron DZ.
Back in Eldar HQ, the struggle over the body of the great Farseer continues, as the Wave Serpent moves over to send out crew to pick up Tanaka, while the Falcon moves onto the objective nearby. Jetbikes continue to hide, preserving their lives for a late-game rush if needed. Wraithguard roll a 5 for difficult terrain, and are only able to clip 2 deathmarks with their weapons, killing 1.
Maelstrom: 5-6 to the Eldar!
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Turn 5
We decide that this will be the last turn in "tournament fashion" (always run out of time!), and start to wrap up:
The Night Scythe moves up and disgorges its Immortals onto the Eldar home objective, sending gauss shots pouring into the Wraithguard, to no effect. The Deathmarks also send their shots into the wraithguard, killing 1 (only 2 left now), and then the last remaining Destroyer in the Necron backfield moves up and is able to kill one more, while moving onto another Crusade objective. At this point the Necrons have 2 objectives, and the Eldar 1 for Crusade, with another easily, and swinging with a 3rd if the Destroyer can be killed and that objective taken. Lastly, the Necron Lord sends shards of light into the Wraithknight again, blinding him Again (rolled another 6)!
Eldar move up, the jetbikes killing one Immortal and failing to get on that objective, while the Spiders obliterate the Destroyer and claim that objective easily. Finally, the Wraithknight has a score to settle with this pesky Necron Lord, and a message to send to his boss, Imotekh!! He gets a run up and just boots the Lord across the battlefield, slaying him outright with his Hammer of Wrath impact, bahaha!
Maelstrom: 4-6 Eldar
Crusade: 1-2 Eldar
Both have Linebreaker and Warlord, Eldar take First Blood:
11-2 Victory to the Croneworld Forces, at the cost of Tanaka's fevered mind...
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At the end, the Necron forces are reduced to 4 deathmarks, 4 immortals, and the Night Scythe, while the Eldar have: Wraithknight at full-strength, 6 Spiders + Exarch, 1 Spider Exarch, 3 jetbikes, Wave Serpent, Falcon, Void Shield Generator.
After the battle we discussed the Necrons dropping 5 deathmarks for an Overlord on a barge, which are just so good against certain armies, like Battle Company and Eldar in particular, due to the AV13 chariot, and the combat potential when backed up by wraiths.
Feeling really good about this Eldar list, it seems to have just the right blend of offensive and defensive, throwaway units and resilient units, scoring units and interference units, plus just enough psychic support in one Farseer. Looking forward to putting it through its paces against the New Tau, KDK, and once more their true rivals, the drop Centurions, ugh.
For now, Ibushi out!
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Wow that is a good bat rep. I really like the list you have, I'm gonna borrow that one for sure. I'm looking forward to your next report. So the void shield generator is a good thing?
I was supposed to get a game in tonight but like every holiday season for the last several years, I got another kidney stone. Surgery tomorrow. As soon as I can I will get a report up myself.
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Excellent bat-rep Ibushi. What a bloodbath! I ran something similar against Skyhammer in October as you may remember and wiped the floor with it, even without facing it before. Man Necrons are tough! I commend you on dealing with a 15 Wraith army... that is just ridiculous. How did you feel without your CC units? I'm suprised you didn't bring your Harlies they'd be very good against these clunkers I'd imagine. Anyway congrats man it always brings a smile to face to see Eldar triumph over the Necrons.
Question though about your thoughts on beta-strike. Is it the loss of potential points on turn 1 that dissuades you from employing it? I've only played maelstrom a handful of times (and really liked it) and since my games were not timed I just held my cards and scored them later. I haven't played a game where you are forced to discard a massive amount of cards so my view may be skewed. Outside of Maelstrom games though I have had tremendous success in the beta strike. It certainly is nail-biting but it can be absolutely crushing when it arrives. It really messes with your opponents mentality as it completley reverses the momentum of the game. Perhaps more seasoned tourney players are more mentally resilient... Anyway my man great stuff as always. BTW I'd love to see some photos from these bat-reps to better understand the general movement and placement of models. Yet even without photos its always an eye-opening read. Thanks buddy can't wait for more!
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Cheers man, yeah I love a good bloodbath -- makes the other player have much more fun even if they lose! It's one reason I prefer more of a Footdar approach.
On the Necrons side, warp spiders are the endgame for wraith armies -- you can just put through so many wounds that their 3++ doesn't pull through. Laser bikes are also really helpful for plinking away at range, although more susceptible to dying horribly.
I actually played a similar list to this with the assault aspect warhost back in late September or early October, it had 10 wraiths plus Imotekh and then 9 scarab bases. Harlies/scorpions eventually took down the wraiths, but couldnt get through Imotekh's armour, while the spears and spiders ran amok and took out most everything else. To be honest I was surprised the assault warhost did as well as it did, I think the wraiths failed a ton of saves or something in that game, as the above list is fo sho a Necron execution force -- D-flamers, wraithcannons, monofilament, psychic powers -- see ya later!
On the Beta Strike side, it definitely can work for a lot of BRB maelstrom missions, especially with limited draws T1, but we play ITC maelstrom, so losing one turn of scoring can really turn the tables. In a 5 turn game the maximum is 10 points, and if you lose T1 0-2 you are at a big disadvantage coming out, then T2 when you attack you don't want to be torn between actually attacking and scoring points, you need to do both and REALLY do both. But even that is surmountable. What I've found is that with the new speed and resilience and power of armies in the tournament meta, if you an experienced player a free turn to mess around, he will take up a dominating board position and make your life really really hard.
Drop pods still work, as you can deploy anywhere and there is the additional pain of having to kill the pods, so I'm thinking Corsairs may be able to function similarly by beta striking T2 on time and on target, then using reckless abandon and jet packs to get a potential 24" away from their drop location. Could be very interesting! But I would still want to have a Farseer, Wraithknight, and 3x5 Spiders in a Pale Courts Warhost hanging around for board control, and some obsec jetbikes for points. Then it might work.
Dialling it back again, one of the reasons my Croneworld Warhost is so successful is because the wraithguard serpent deploys very aggressively, with the squishy nasty stuff behind at the beginning of the game -- now opponents are in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario where they are forced to either rush the firebase, but right into a waiting pile of d-scythe love, or hang back to avoid the wraithguard and get shot to pieces! If any of my units are reserved or deep striking (aside from the rangers and 1x spiders, let's say), suddenly that pressure no longer exists, and they can take up whichever position benefits them most!
With the plethora of T2 shenanigans now available, it is very tempting to put together a cohesive beta strike list combined with the Pale Courts and maybe an Eldar CAD too, and see if it can happen in an ITC mission -- but I will leave that up to you for now!
Cheers
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Greetings 40kO team, it has been a while, but Croneworld Koxinga's irreverent, maniacal warlord Tanaka the Cannibal has been out on the warpath once more. This time the Koxinga Warhost was at TSHFT, a 6-game 1850pts ITC tournament in Seattle, and what a blast it was!
++ Just FYI I was super focused on the games this time around, so literally only took 3 photos of Vincent's knights in Game 4 -- but I do have some pictures of my fully painted army + display board etc., so will post those once I have them uploaded. Sorry Cavalier! ++
Croneworld Koxinga:
Farseer Tanaka - jetbike, WARLORD
Farseer Ryoshi - jetbike
5 Wraithguard - D-scythes
Wave Serpent
3x3 Scatbikes
2x3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers
Wraithknight - Inferno Cannons, 1x laser
Void Shield Torii
Aspect Host:
2x7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
4x Dark Reapers + Exarch
Inquisitor - 2x servo skulls
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Game 1 vs Thundercav + Grav Cents
Imperials go first and rush the Eldar. Scared of the drop centurions, the WK starts in reserve -- the rest of the Eldar completely annihilate the wolves in 2 turns, then turn on the centurions and sicarans. Highlight is Tanaka taking on the enemy Warlord, a Rune Priest on a bike, in single combat and slaying him for the win. Did forget to put my models on the Emperor's Will though, costing a few battle points.
Game 2 vs Orks (Zhadsnark Bikestar + Stompa + VSG)
Cagey game between the two forces voted 1st and 2nd Favourite Army, really should have taken more pictures. Have some of the Orks to come soon, watch this space. Relic on Hammer and Anvil -- the bikes finally went for the Relic, the Eldar countered hard, last turn the Relic ends up being contested by a single Ork biker squeezing through a gap in the warp spider bubblewrap, the Stompa D's out the WK in combat, but the Eldar win Tertiaries via First Strike -- a very close win. Highlight was Rangers outflanking and killing a squad of Lootas with their pistols; next turn the Orks failed their WAAGH charge on the Rangers by 1", and gretchen shooting fails to kill them. Rangers reload their pistols and run down the Gretchen in assault, next turn taking out most of the second squad of Lootas with their pistols again, bam!
Game 3 vs Tyranid Air Force + VSG
Tyranid Skyblight of 40 gargoyles plus 6 FMCs under a VSG, playing Kill Points. Eldar Seize first turn, but fail to get First Blood. Tyranids strike back and fail to get through the Torii VSG and wave serpent jinking. Turn 2 the Eldar finally get First Blood and take the lead on maelstrom. Game ends with the Tyranids way ahead on KP, but the Eldar in the lead with Maelstrom and First Blood for the win by 1 point. Highlight was Warp Spiders warp jumping 17" to get behind the FMCs then shredding two squads of gargoyles for no casualties - beastly!
Game 4 vs Knights + Eldar
Hammer and Anvil against Baronial Court plus 4x3 Scatbikes, Hornet, Autarch, and VSG. Croneworld Eldar get a full house of psychic powers -- invisibility, shrouding, and Fortune, and just rush the three knights while the enemy Eldar are all in reserve. By end of Turn 3 there is just one scatbike and a damaged Knight left, so we call it. Great game against a most graceful opponent with truly gorgeous Knights -- look forward to the rematch, as it could have been an utterly different game.
Game 5 vs KDK +Tau
KDK are running a Juggernaut Lord with hounds and a Fist of Khorne Kharybdis Assault Claw with 20 Bezerkers backed up by a Riptide Wing of 3 Riptides with heavy burst cannons. KDK seizes on the Eldar and uses the Assault Claw deep strike hit to destroy the Void Shield Generator and Wave Serpent in one hit -- ouch! Turns into an absolute nail-biter of a game, where the Khorne Lord pulls off an unexpected and long charge to catch Tanaka and his jetbikes in combat, finally slaying him in two turns while claiming Linebreaker and contesting the Eldar home objective. Wraithknight uses his inferno cannons to vaporize a summoned Bloodthirster, and counter-punches the Khorne Lord to try to snatch back Warlord, Linebreaker, and the Primary all in one. Two turns of combat later and it comes down to the final stomp roll -- Wraithknight gets 3 stomps....needs one 6 to win the game...rolls a 3,4,4,....
Game 6 vs War Convocation
Last but not least, the highly anticipated War Convocation -- this one was all foot-based, no pods, and ended up going first. A very tight game for the first two turns, with neither side getting much of an advantage, until the Wraithknight unexpectedly got stuck in combat against some Sicarian Infiltrators after failing to kill a single model in two turns of combat. This allowed the Imperial Knight to cover the distance and charge in, D'ing out the WK and turning the game into a cleaning up operation for the WarCon. Had the WK got out of combat in time, he would have hammered the un-shrouded IK with inferno cannons, charging in Invisible and likely destroying it, leaving the WarCon open and exposed, but it was not to be. Great game with a great opponent, just the right combination of competitive and friendly -- gladly look forward to a rematch where the WK can wound with his stomp rolls, or even just hit with his fists.
Ended up 4-2 and winning 2nd Best Army which was nice, and it was great to play the last few games on the top tables to admire other beautiful armies and spectate on some very interesting top-level games.
2x Farseer was a solid choice, but I'm not 100% sold at this point. Definitely useful, but part of it may be that I just need more practice.
Wraithguard were bullies as usual; would be interested to switch them out for something else, but nothing jumps out.
Jetbikes were great, but am thinking of dropping one squad of scatbikes for some basic Guardians to hold home base and act as a screen again. Rangers replaced the Guardians of old, but they perform very different roles, and I miss the little guys with their ninja star-slingers and grenades.
2x Warp Spiders were keystone units for this army, the unsung hustlers of the Eldar Warhost. If anything I would pick up a third squad! Being able to charge in and hit and run out was a great option, and deep striking can be useful. Did get burned in Game 6 when the Spiders never showed up despite having re-roll reserves Warlord Trait, so I would refrain from deep striking them again unless i really had to, like in Hammer and Anvil. Outflanking is much better there though.
Dark Reapers were solid hitters, helping immensely with taking out void shields and punking out various units at range with accurate shooting. Not terrifying, so they never died this event, but they also never faced their ideal target of Ravenwing bikers or Skimmers. Would be great to switch them out for long-range S8 AP2, but right now the BS5 and mobile shooting is hard to find a replacement for.
Wraithknight had so much potential this time around -- inferno cannons were truly destruction embodied, but getting into 18" means you do need to commit to what you are doing, as you are in the major danger zone at that point. Tempted to try out Deathshroud cannons, as against Battle Co, WarCon, and possibly Tau they would be really effective, but there is a similar range issue. Plus rolling 10 inferno shots is just terrifying to behold -- that Bloodthister got vaporized by Dark Reapers + Inferno Cannons in one turn straight-up. Lastly though, he is not reliable enough in combat as the single combat element in my army. Need a second puncher for sure.
Inquisitor -- this guy was a boss! OK, he sucked, but his servo skulls prevented infiltrators and scouts really well, and that was clutch. My great temptation as this point is to fork out some extra points to put him in terminator armour with a daemon hammer (modelled counts-as with a 1980s Avatar of course), as then his options and usefulness just explode -- backfield puncher guardian, or for teleporting into the enemy field and just loitering like a creepy old man. Could be really useful, but the servo skulls will be a given for me from now on I'm thinking.
Anyway, let me know if you are interested in a specific matchup army list or battle report, happy to oblige. I will also search around amongst my friends to see if there are more pictures. Eldar and Stompa to come soon!
Cheers
Ibushi
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Welcome back! May I suggest a Swooptarch?
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Thanks Mr D!
Oh my goodness, I have the sickest Swooptarch model you have ever seen!!
I did some playtesting the night before the event and decided to double-up on Farseers this time around, so autarch took the backseat, but it is in the works for sure!
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Great tourney report Ibushi, congrats on your success. So let me get this straight you were more focused on your tournament games than taking photos for me? Priorities man, priorities! lol
But seriously thats awesome man I'm glad your army did so well, earning themselves further repute! Your faithful rangers really rewarded you in the Ork game. I know you're a big fan of them so its awesome that the they had some highlights.
What was the KDK game like? It must have been tough without anyone but the WK to hold the line. That was the problem I ran into a few months back. The WK was my only CC option but losing his shooting was brutal for me.
If you were gonna add some CC what would you add?
Any further thoughts on the Seers? The psychic powers are great but for whatever reason ever since 6th ed. rolled around with random powers, I just don't trust them and the Eldar are slinging so many dice I just don't feel they are necessary. Is it just the Invisibility-Factor? If so I totally understand a lot of tourney games revolve around Invis. Let me know when you get the chance.
Anyway great to see you back my man, and congrats on rolling up on TSHIFT like a boss. Cheers man!
EDIT: BTW your buddy Colinsherlow is blowing my mind with Corsair knowledge. The man knows his Eldar!
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Cheers man, yes next time i will try and get my true priorities in order!
I'll do more of a breakdown of the KDK-Tau game, it was such a close one:
KDK Primary
Khorne Lord on Juggernaut
2x8 Cultists
10 Hounds
Fist of Khorne:
Kharybdis Assault Claw
20 Bezerkers - Champion with powerfist
Tau Riptide Wing:
3x Riptide - Heavy Burst Cannon, SMS, EWO, FNP
Mission is Big Guns Never Tire primary with Maelstrom secondary and then King of the Hill, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord tertiaries.
Eldar choose DZ with more LOS-blocking terrain, and castle up behind the wave serpent and VSG in the absolute corner of the board to out-range the Riptides. KDK deploy in a line along the DZ edge, hounds+lord on the far left (mostly obscured by a 2-tier hill in the middle), then three riptide strung out in a line; cultists in reserve, Kharybdis coming down turn 1.
For psychic powers, the Warlord had Shriek, Terrify, Mental Fortitude and Hallucination, while Farseer Ryoshi has Shriek, Terrify, Dominate, Shrouding -- no Invisibility, so not great, but Shriek and Dominate should be useful.
Eldar take first turn, but then the dastardly KDK seize the initiative back! Kharybdis comes crashing down and D's out both the VSG and Wave Serpent in one critical hit. It then lands right in front of the Eldar, 20 Bezerkers pouring out and assaulting 2 jetbike squads and the rangers, wiping them out (for a total of 5 Blood Tithe points!), while the Riptides make some warp spiders flickerjump out of LOS and waste a few shots on the Wraithknight for no damage. The Lord+Hounds were unable to scout forward due to the servo skulls, but move up behind the hill and run. One Riptide moves, runs, and jet packs far up the right flank to put some extra pressure on.
Eldar strike back with a vengeance -- the Wraithguard obliterate the Kharybdis and 20 Bezerkers just with their D-scythes, while the scatbikes and reapers start pouring shots into the Lord+hounds, taking out about half. Both Warp Spider squads jump and run to try and catch the flanking Riptide, but with some poor jumps are not going to be in charge range, and after some lacklustre run rolls only get about 10 spiders in range. Between deathspinner and inferno cannon shooting, the Riptide is brought down to 2 wounds after some hot cover saves, so not quite ideal.
Turn 2 and the KDK have already garnered a full 8 Blood Tithe from causing so much damage with the Fist of Khorne, and from the ensuing casualties in return -- as cultists walk on in the backfield, a mighty Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury is sent to the field by Khorne himself! The Bloodthister deep strikes 12" away from the Flesh Hounds, right on the edge of the Eldar DZ and in major threat range. Turns out the Greater Daemon has to be summoned out of a character model after a successful leadership test, but we missed this at the time. Next up the Riptides continue pushing forwards while the hounds also move up behind their hill, mostly out of LOS, but getting a 6" run and getting dangerously close. Shooting is able to take out one warp spider squad, leaving one Spider out of LOS.
Eldar Turn 2 and it is time to kick into Daemon-killing gear! The Eldar army pours firepower into the Bloodthister, bringing it down in an explosion of ichor, but leaving the Khorne Lord and his dogs mostly unmolested. The surviving Spiders scratch another wound off the Riptide, and are just unable to finally bring it down. Wraithguard string out to form a screen for the Eldar, while the Farseers split up and join separate jetbike units and take up positions behind some rocks in order to jump out next turn and start Dominating the Riptides (out of range last turn).
Turn 3 and the KDK continue the advance, the hounds stringing out and lining up a charge into the Eldar -- hopefully the Wraithguard! Riptides continue the onslaught, taking out the lone Warp Spider and 4 out of the other unit, bringing them to 3. One Riptide shoots into the Wraithguard, causing three wounds -- and all three die! In assault the Hounds are able to spy the Eldar Warlord through a tiny hole in his rock defence, and they manage a long charge into the Farseer and his unit, deciding also to multi-charge the Wraithknight to tie him up, while avoiding the remaining two wraithguard. Fortunately the Lord whiffs his attacks the Farseer passes his only Rune Armour save this turn, while the Wraithknight beats down some hounds.
On the Eldar turn there is consternation about whether this will be the last turn due to time, or whether to push on for another. After deciding to go into the lunchbreak for extra time to get into turn 4, we continue. Farseer Ryoshi jumps up and gets Terrify and Dominate off on the Riptide hanging out in mid-board, which then fails his morale test and falls back! In the middle, scatbikes and reapers pour firepower into the Riptide on his last 1-2 wounds, and finally bring him down with some failed 2+ saves. That guy really stuck around! Warp Spiders move forward to be in a position to bait some shooting and get in range to claim King of the Hill. In combat the Farseer takes 6 instant death hits from the Lord, and fails his first save, so him and his unit are killed. The Wraithknight beats out two more hounds and then stomps out some more. That's Warlord right there though, which is huge, and the dogs plus Lord are claiming Linebreaker as well as contesting the home Eldar objective too. Quite the conundrum!
Turn 4 and the KDK use their Blood Tithe to summon a unit of 5 hounds onto the middle of the board for King of the Hill. The Dominated Riptide regroups but fails his test and is unable to fire, and having regrouped is unable to run or jetpack move to get within range of the middle. The rightmost Riptide is forced to move back to claim a Primary objective along with the cultists on the second one, leaving just the hounds at centre. Shooting is able to take out the 3 warp spiders after they roll a 3" for flickerjump... In combat the Wraithknight punches the hounds down to one model and the Lord left, then rolls a 6 for Stomp -- in ITC characters are able to Look Out Sir stomp wounds, and he passes it off to the hound on a 2.
Last Eldar turn and there are two ways to play it -- either keep a unit of jetbikes back to use ObSec and score the primary, winning it and bringing the game to a certain tie unless all the central hounds are killed (somewhat unlikely), or else move the jetbikes up to get King of the Hill (Farseer + jetbikes versus one unit of hounds), and hope that the Wraithknight kills the Lord to give Eldar the victory -- but if he fails to do so, it will be a loss. I decide to go for the long-shot of a major win, forgoing the opportunity of a tie. The jetbikes move up, the Farseer splits off, both jetbike units and the dark reapers hammer the hounds in the middle, and surprisingly wipe out all 10 wounds of them, but now the jetbikes are too far away to get back to the home objective. Oh well, at least the Eldar win King of the Hill -- the big question is the Warlord combat.
Against the Khorne Lord the Wraithknight is ineffective in his strikes, then rolls a mighty 3 for Stomps! Needing just one 6 to remove the enemy Warlord and win the game, I pick up the dice, rolling .... 3, 4, 4.... crap.
Basically this game could have been utterly different in a couple of ways -- in hindsight I should have at least split up the wave serpent and VSG to prevent them BOTH being D'd out. But I was not expecting to get Seized on (of course it would happen haha!), and I was banking on him not rolling so hot if it did, which didn't work out either hahah. If just the VSG had survived, it would have been utterly different. Secondly, if we had caught that the Bloodthirster needed to be summoned 6" out of an actual character model, that would have been HUGE. Indescribably huge. Either he sacrifices his Khorne Lord, rendering the hounds basically lame, and putting the Thirster in the Eldar face, but in a very killable fashion. OR he uses the backfield cultist champion (assuming he was on the field from reserves already), but has to land the Thirster in the backfield and use him primarily for capping objectives, or else bring him down in Flying mode, fly all the way across the board next turn, drop down, get shot up, then assault maybe. Lose-lose for KDK.
In terms of the Eldar list, it seemed like dropping the Falcon for a second Farseer may have been a poor last-minute choice, as the extra long-range AP2 shooting would have made a really big difference against the Riptides, and it is likely the Falcon would have survived the Kharybdis drop.
From the KDK game and the next against WarCon it definitely felt like some more combat would have been really helpful in my army, but the question is how and at what price? Scorpions, even just a unit of 5 with Exarch, could have gone a long way either as a resilient screen to the Bezerkers, or as counter-assault to the Ruststalkers, but I would not swap out Spiders to do that. In fact, I think I would rather just take back my unit of 10 guardians to be a screen, and save some points. Or else Reavers in a Pale Courts Warhost, so they can use Reckless Abandon after Overwatch, mwahaha! The other option of course is to pick up a Corsair Prince or Autarch, but in these matchups he would have been aced out pronto without doing much unless you can roll 2+ shadowfield saves all day.
At this point I can only echo a recent sentiment from over on the Corsair PLOG -- the Croneworld Eldar feel like they are nearing completion, all the key models are basically done, there is not much too add, and its a strange feeling. Next up will be working out how to respond to the current shifting meta, adding in some more layers of detail, and putting the new Swooptarch on show!
Any suggestions or insights welcome!
Cheers
Post Merge: January 19, 2016, 08:37:32 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.
Couple of pictures of the Croneworlders:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FDSCF2359.jpg&hash=395d8211794872565446fa2426db7e888b490864)
Up close on the portal (board WIP):
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FDSCF2348.jpg&hash=dd7d937df9ff384fef638346806f7deae148a1cc)
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Awesome bat-rep as always man. What a freaking weird list you came up against. I love the KDK but come on with that Tau! I actually heard about this list on Signals From the Frontline yesterday and was hoping to hear you mentioned in the podcast. Cheers on a great game though.
As far as changing your list, the only thing I'd suggest is dropping the Inquisitor and the Reapers and perhaps trying to squeeze an assault unit that way. I know the anti-scouting is a huge boon but I think its something you can perhaps mitigate via deployment. However I am sensing that the Reapers/Inquisitor are there not for dealing with Scouts, but rather the very scary prospect of White Scars/Dark Angels bikers which are certainly a major threat. However my only thoughts on that is that a close-combat unit (or the Scorpion Exarch alone IF you can get him into combatare effectively an Ignore Cover threat which can be brought against them. I'm not familiar with the Escape Hatch rules but could you perhaps use that as a countermeasure against having them Alpha-Struck?
My lack of experience against the full range of competitive armies is probably showing but I've just really regretted having to charge my WK into combat when I really need his shooting.
The only other solution I can think of is as I contacted you earlier is the Corsair Prince/Autarch with a Seer Council. It will gives you psychic/close-combat/ and even objective grabbing power like no other unit (split off the Prince/Autarch in the waning phases of the game). Plus it'll ensure you keep the Shadowfield up and running with Fortune if you can get it. However that is a major army overhaul and changes the character of the army a bit which you may not keen on and I totally understand and totally endorse. However you could proxy your Shining Spears and try it out and see if you like how it performs but also if you like playing it or not.
Its a conversation for another day but not being able to assault out of reserves is just so damn frustrating. It was a huge part of the way I used to play and was the reason I bought 20 metal Scorpions prior to 6th edition... probably my biggest miscalculation in trying to prepare for the current era of play. It just such an easy way of getting into combat and having a nice little chunk of assault in your army without having to deathstar up which I hate. I was really hoping for a Scorpion formation with Karandras which would allow you to do that but it was not to be.
Anyway those are just some of my thoughts. But given your tournament experience do you think including CC is worth it? Or is it just better to double-down on shooting. I'm convinced that the reason Eldar have won so few major tourneys has something to do with lack of CC but I could be wrong. I'd love to know what you think. Anyway keep on rocking man the army looks fantastic and its always a blast to read your bat-reps. I'm rooting for you to win it all! Keep it up man and keep us posted!
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Thanks for the support man, appreciate it! Yeah there was a lot more they could have said about that list on Signals as well, trust me! Plus the Necron player Frankie played was my friend the Father of the Void himself! That was a crazy game too -- Frankie played until about T4 saying his Stormsurges were T8, when someone told them they are only T6! Given that 10 wraiths had been in combat with them for several turns until being stomped out, he put on his Sportsmanship hat and just took the Surges off the table, so kudos to him for that. On the flipside, if those wraiths had been chewing through T6 like they should have been, I can only imagine how the outcome would have differed. Oh well, these things happen!
Yeah I agree with you on the combat side, and I think either Scorpions or Spears would be my go-to, although you can also do a squad of Harlequins via the Pale Courts Warhost which is VERY tempting. To be honest though, you need to look more closely at what specific combat issues you are facing -- Khorne Lord on Juggernaut with Hounds? OK, forget it, just pray you can shoot the crap out of them, and use screening units to tie them up and leave them hanging in the breeze for more shooting. Sicarian Infiltrators/Ruststalkers? Yeah just shoot them with S6 weapons to double them out, preferably with Ignores Cover -- so roll on Divination and try to get Perfect Timing! Scatbikes will DESTROY War Convocation units if they can ignore their cover. I didn't roll on Divination like a fool, but it was because I didn't get Invisibility an decided to put more stock in Shriek than I should have. Next time around I think I would potentially do double-Divination, as then you should get Forewarning for 4++ on the Knight and Foreboding, which will ruin Infiltrators/Ruststalkers, as well as hopefully Perfect Timing. But you have to take the medicine to get the cure, eh!
And I like how you didn't just say "take assault units!", but looked at what we would need to remove to actually achieve that -- and in this case, the only "fat" i consider to be in the list right now is maybe one unit of jetbikes, potentially the second farseer, and actually the wraithguard. Yes D-scythes are disgusting, but against top level players, too often that huge investment of points gets wasted for my liking.
In terms of the Inquisitor/Dark Reapers you got it though -- they absolutely ruin Ravenwing/White Scars/scouts, so they are staying in! Also in the game against KDK it was the Reapers putting high strength low AP ignore-jink shots into the Bloodthirster which was able to just strip wounds really fast. That high BS and ignoring jink is huge, and they pair really well with scatbikes for tapping out squads or for bringing down void shields.
Actually what i AM thinking for some more assault punch is to upgrade the Inquisitor to terminator armour with a daemon hammer. That mofo will chew his way through a tactical squad no problem, especially if you back him up with a stubborn unit of henchmen. Plus what really shines to my mind is that in a situation where you don't need a homebase hammernator, you can always keep the henchmen as a screen but then deep strike the inquisitor as a one-man presence anywhere on the board. This is seriously clutch for linebreaker/table quarters/whatever, even if he doesn't get to smack any mon-keigh.
We talked a bit about Eldar's biggest weakness, and really it comes down to a lack of bodies. When Battle Co is getting free 3HP vehicles, WarConvocation gets free excellent cover saves for two turns, Chaos summon, Tyranids respawn, Renegades have Fearless, x+ FNP zombies, Tau have Kroot and recycling drones, but Eldar at best have Guardians costing almost 10 points and actually less survivable than any of those options... Yes scatbikes are nasty, but you're looking at a total of 15 space marine equivalents for your troops choices haha. Warp Spiders are good too, but if you don't get out of LOS with your flickerjump, prepare to be hung out to dry!
In that light, I had a sudden realization that for the cost of a squad of guardians with warlock, I can potentially have *30* inquisitorial henchmen -- very exciting! Not obsec, sure, and useless, sure -- but if you think of them as bubblewrap, wrenches, and extra wounds for a terminator inquisitor, wow that's not so bad. Plus for the cost of a brightlance platform you get 3 multimelta servitors to destroy drop pods that come too close. Deal! So with all those thoughts swirling around in my mind, I'm working on a list more like this:
Pale Courts Warhost - Halls of Martial Splendour + Aspect Lord-Shrine
Autarch - wings, fusion, power weapon, mask > yeah, the Swooptarch! Same points as a Farseer! (re-rolls all to Hit in a Challenge, nice)
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
7 Warp Spiders + Exarch
Aspect Host:
6 Swooping Hawks + Exarch
6 Swooping Hawks + Exarch
4 Dark Reapers + Exarch
Deathshroud/Inferno Wraithknight
Eldar CAD:
Farseer - Jetbike, WARLORD
2x3 Scatbikes
3 Jetbikes
5 Rangers or 3 Jetbikes
VSG
Inquisitorial Detachment:
Inquisitor - terminator armour, daemon hammer, stormbolter, 3x servo skulls
1x Psyker ML1
3x Multi-melta Servitor (plus servo-arm, boss!)
7x Acolyte (lasguns)
The main sacrifice here is that ranged shooting takes a bit of hit in favour of much more board mobility and mid-range options, so I'll have to try it out. Autarch dropping in and harassing backfield seems legit, but also he's very easy to kill, so have to be careful there. Not enough points for the shard of anaris :( IF ONLY soulshrive was still legal!
Cheers!
Edited for excessive stats. Please see forum rule 1 (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?action=rules) for details - Iris.
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Really interesting stuff Ibushi. Thats surprising that Frankie messed up on the Surge's toughness but I've done similar things myself. I remember I messed up on points was 100pts over once because I had Army Builder set to 2000pts and so when the the points counter wasn't red I thought I was all set. The 100pts was a Farseer and I played him with a 3+ Invuln the whole game. Talk about epic flub. At least I lost the game though. ;D
I definitely see where you are coming from with your list construction. I'm glad you noticed I didn't just blab TAKE ASSAULT! Its always really hard to give advice on list building because you don't know the role people have for their units, or even if they think in terms of "role" at all. Its one of the reasons I seldom comment on army lists in the Eldar section of the forum, yet I think we both have that mindset where every unit has a job so we can have an interesting conversation at the very least. I definitley see the Reapers having a super important role in your army... and I can definitely see dropping the Wraithguard. They are a huge points sink.
I like the idea you have for an Inquisitor. It reminds me of Frankie from FLG's Dark Eldar list back in 6th ed. where he'd run Vect from the DE book with 20 Guardians and 2 Brightlances on foot and just use them as a crazy meat shield and shuriken machine before going into combat. I was shocked at how well it worked and I think something of that nature could definitely work for you.
Also I hear you on the challenges of playing Eldar against the other "true" 7th ed books like Necrons, Space Marines War Convocaton et. all. No one wants to hear it but there is a reason Eldar have one only 2 major tournaments in the past 3 years. There are weaknesses in the codex and its called fragility. Aside from the WK (and with drop-centurions and grav-spam why are Space Marine players still complaining?) if you can actually land a hit on us we tend to fold which is why Eldar have a hard time winning every match in a tournament. We also don't have high powered assault. Are we one of them top 3 most powerful armies in the game? Definitely but there are big time chinks in the armor.
Anyway your list is very interesting. I love the Autarch with Wings. I wish the Soulshrive was legal too. Why the Space Marine supplements remained legal and the Eldar didn't I'll never know. The only suggestion I'd make it to perhaps put a power-weapon on on the Exarch who'll be buddied up with the Autarch. I've always thought they'd make a good team for dispatching combat squads of Space Marines, Firewarriors etc. My only question is do you have enough anti-tank? The Hawks will ace it as will the Inferno Knight, but you are relying on a lot of Str 6 to get the job done. Its probably because I rock so many lances and pulse lasers that I balk a bit. Yet you'd know best how this core of your army performs against armor, let me know your thoughts if you get a chance. Anyway great stuff as always man... the mad professor always at work, I love it!
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As shooty as the Eldar are, it is the lack of terrain on tournament tables that has perhaps the strongest influence on their success. Most tournament tables still have 6 pieces of terrain, placed symmetrically by (well meaning) TO's. There is, in general, a lack of smaller terrain pieces (particularly that still block LoS). The LoS pieces that do exist tend to be VERY big (trying to make up in size what the table lacks in variety).
The Eldar codex, in which every infantry unit (and jetbikes too) relies on the ability to move/shoot/move, needs more terrain on the board in order to truly capitalize on its core strength. On a table with 8-10 terrain pieces (not all of which are mammoth sized, but still provide LoS), Eldar dance their opponents to death....
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Yeah terrain is definitely a major point -- on a table with some solid LOS-blocking terrain, the number of armies that my Eldar will just lay to ruin dramatically increases. As soon as even just Drop Pods and whatnot can get consistent bolter shots into the scatbikes, those suckers will go down like chumps.
The absolute worst 1-2 punch for the pointy ears is losing first turn (assuming you even have defensive psychic powers like Invis/Shrouding), on a table with minimal LOS-blocking terrain, and then the monster hook to the jaw is skyhammer or drop centurions or something on top of that coming down full bore. Prepare to have your face smashed!
At the end of the day the Eldar are super powerful, but pulling through a 5-game or 6-game tournament is always tough just due to their frailty and how expensive just a guardian is. Looking just at defensive stats, an Inquisitorial Acolyte has the same toughness and save, but costs LESS THAN HALF of a guardian. Oh, no shuriken rending 12" weapons, decent WS/BS, Battle Focus, or high Initiative? Oh boohoo, sometimes you just need some derpy-derp boots on the ground to take a chainaxe to the face instead of jetbikers, and Eldar literally do not have this choice. If Kroot still had a standalone list, I would for sure take an Allied detachment of them to just be a nice screen.
Yeah yeah jetbikers are super cheap and put out absurd shooting power, but they really can't take a punch, so its a good balance in many ways.
After all these years of prideful all-Eldar lists, finally I'm folding and taking some allies to beef up the numbers and get some more abilities, and it's making a really huge difference so far.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a cold summer, but one filled with hot Mon-Keigh blood!
This July was the first defence of the Wet Coast GT title, returning from last year for seconds... but something spicy needed to happen, ye olde warp hunters+inquisition under a void shield was starting to feel pretty stale as it plays the same way every game. Plus there is a lot of antagonism towards warp spiders and wraithknights this year, so I decided to go for something totally different, and try and win the 5-game GT with a pure Corsairs, zero Warp Spider, zero Wraithknight, zero Alpha Strike, all-reserves army -- Bring on the Eldar Corsair Fleet Raiding Party!!!
1850 Eldar Corsairs:
Corsair CAD:
Warlord Prince - jetbike, shadowfield, voidsabre, Reaper of the Outer Dark (Rage, Rampage, must charge units within 8")
3x Scatdancers
5x Ghostwalkers
5x Ghostwalkers
Hornet - pulse lasers
Warp Hunter - void burners, kinetic shroud
Void Shield Generator - 2x shields
Corsair Fleet Raiding Company
Rage Prince - jetbike, shadowfield, voidsabre, Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures (corsair combat drugs), +Rage
Void Dreamer - jetpack, shimmershield, witchstaff, Aethermancy (ML1), +Rage
10x Malevolents - jetpacks, 2x melta bombs, corsair combat drugs, +Rage
3x Scatdancers - +Rage
3x Scatdancers - +Rage
Corsair Nightwing
Corsair Phoenix
Warp Hunter - void burners, kinetic shroud
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWet%2520Coast%2520GT%25202016%2FEldar%2520Corsairs%25201850%2520Wet%2520Coast%25202016.jpg&hash=276303521c99d3d4d079f40828eaebf4a4904cab)
Warlord Prince on jetbike, Void Dreamer with Malevolents in the foreground:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWet%2520Coast%2520GT%25202016%2FCorsair%2520Warlord%2520amp%2520Void%2520Dreamer.jpg&hash=f7df0e9e68a2a201246383e1676ed61d7218b646)
Rage (Expendable) Prince with Malevolents:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FCroneworld%2520Eldar%2FWet%2520Coast%2520GT%25202016%2FCorsair%2520Rampage%2520Prince.jpg&hash=0d858baf39cceeb9c2199461626b84094592e37e)
After some playtesting it became apparent that a single Fleet Raiding Company doesn't have enough slots, so I decided to bump out to a CAD+Formation despite the Desperate Allies drawback that Corsairs incur.. On the plus side, two Princes and two Warp Hunters!
Main challenge of the list is that it cannot sustain any firepower or assault really whatsoever, with the exception of the Malevolents who are oddly resilient. Even then, the Malevolents will really struggle to actually deal any damage, so eventually they'll be destroyed in assault too, but they'll hold a unit or two locked in combat for a solid number of turns.
++
Arriving at Wet Coast GT, there is a solid turnout just under 30 people, with a lot of the classic opponents ready to roll, looking to take out the pointy ears once and for all.
Game 1 is a really rough matchup right out of the gate: the imperious boys in blue, of wide repute for being the only BC-based force to defeat the Croneworld Kin before --
Ultramarines Gladius Strikeforce
Captain
Chaplain
5x Command - 4x melta + Drop Pod
3x 5 Tactical - melta + Drop Pod
3x 5 Tactical - guns + Razorback
1x Landspeeder
1x Landspeeder
1x 5 Devastators - 2x grav + Rhino - Sergeant is Warlord
1x 3 Centurions - grav-cannons + grav-amp
3x 5 Scouts
White Scars Allied Detachment:
Librarian - Hunter's Eye (with Centurions)
1x 5 Scouts
1x Drop Pod (Centurions)
1x Stalker
Stephen is a really good player, with a really solid and well-practiced Battle Company, so I was very focused on this game and failed to take any pictures sadly. However, you may recognize these warriors of the Imperium from a previous battle report:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi56%2FPrinceIbushi%2FIMG_1904.jpg&hash=102289df12bd082661e84fb2dfa8d5c6ca2d61ad)
The same ones!
++ Pre-Game ++
Mission is ITC 1 -- Emperor's Will on Dawn of War + Maelstrom + Big Game Hunter, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord
This is going to be a tough one as the Marines can easily cover both objectives in obsec bodies, but since the Maelstrom is so much easier for Battle Co to score, the Corsairs will have to focus entirely on winning Primary. Going second will be key. The Maelstrom is virtually unwinnable against Battle Co, so let's just forget that one. Linebreaker is a wash for both armies, Big Game Hunter could go either way with the Centurions versus Warp Hunter/Phoenix both around 200pts, and lastly the Corsairs will need to get Warlord to break Tertiaries, that will be key.
++
Space Marines win the roll to go first and opt to start the pounding fast and early – they set up the transports spread through the DZ, with Stalker+Devastators+2x Tac in transports very centrally, Speeders to the right with one Rhino, 2x 5 scouts outflank, the others deploy left of centre.
Corsairs are silently crying with pleasure for being handed 2nd turn against the Gladius -- this suddenly became a much more winnable matchup. Void Shield Generator deploys in the far left corner next to Emperor’s Will objective, then the Malevolents+Rage Prince+Void Dreamer string out in front of it to prevent any boys in blue getting within melta range turn 1. Everything else on the Corsair side is screaming down in orbital attack, arriving by Deep Strike or Outflank, hellz yeah! Let's do this!
++ Turn 1
Space Marines bring down the command squad with 4 meltas, they scatter backwards out of melta range and fail to bring down the void shields even. Next comes down a tactical squad with melta, bringing down the shields at least, but unable to scratch the VSG. Lastly the transports and scouts move forwards to extend board presence, and shoot into the Malevolents for some wounds here and there. Not very exciting just yet.
Corsairs dial up their drug dispensers and go hurtling into the newly arrived squads+pods, engaging in a strung out multi-assault with both pods and both units - the Prince decimates a tactical squad, softened up by Malevolent shooting, while the Mallys kind of flap around.
++ Turn 2
Librarian and Captain both arrive with their squads in Pods, trying to land on the Corsair home objective, but both scatter backwards and fail to land in range. The Captain’s unit unleashes some more melta into the Void Shield Generator, finally killing it. The Librarian with Centurions come hurtling down onto a Skyshield Landing pad, but having nothing to shoot at they just chill out for a turn. On the right side some scouts outflank into the Corsair DZ, and a tactical Rhino moves up onto a maelstrom objective supported by both Landspeeders.
Combat with the Corsairs continues, while the Chaplain with tactical squad that landed turn 1 charges in to try and exact some damage on the Space Pirates, only for his unit to be brutally cut down by the Corsair Prince before striking blows. Chaplain and 2 survivors are stuck in, still tying up the Malevolents for a turn.
Corsair Turn 2 and the reserves start rolling in… everything arrives except the Hornet and 1 unit of ghostwalkers! Both Warp Hunters drop down in front of the Centurions, one of them having a mishap back into reserves, the other landing right within Template range and vaporizing two Centurions right off the bat. The Phoenix tries to support the Hunter, but then also mishaps and is placed by the opponent facing into the corner of the board, sadly taking it out of the game for another turn at least. Nightwing drops down right in front of the Stalker, daring it to Intercept or die – which it does, and the 2+ jink holds up against a barrage of autocannon shots, the Nightwing then hammering shuriken and laser fire into the Stalker to destroy it despite Snap Firing, with some assistance from outflanking scatbikes. On the right flank 3x scatbikes + Warlord Prince outflank into the SM DZ and destroy the Rhino and tactical squad positioned there, as well as forcing a landspeeder to jink and stripping hull points.
Assault phase and the Prince is able to slay the enemy Chaplain, finishing off the squad – wow what a combat champion! Malevolents keep slapping away at the other squad, not quite able to kill them, but do destroy a Drop Pod and take a wound for their efforts.
Maelstrom is 2-1 to the SM.
Turn 3
We misread the schedule and think that we only have 20 minutes to go at this point, which is truly shocking seeing as the Corsairs only just arrived on the table, and it feels like we are just getting started. After some confusing back-and-forth, we rush to hammer out a Turn 3 as fast as possible.
Marines keep up pressure by moving up on the Emperor’s Will objective, but so far only the Captain+tactical squad are in range, so they bubble out to hold it –2 scout squads outflank in that corner also, ready to cap next turn if needs be. On the right side the devastators and other units are basically all out of range of the scatbikes, but they send potshots into the Warp Hunter with its special re-rolling Kinetic Shrouds save, failing to damage it. The surviving Centurion lends its weight of fire into the Warp Hunter, immobilizing it but failing to destroy it. Back in assault, the Corsairs keep chewing away at the squad from turn 1, and just two remain, locking them for another turn unfortunately.
Corsair Turn 3 and the Space Pirates have zero hope of catching up on the Maelstrom, so they desperately need to capture the Empror’s Will objective which is currently surrounded by two Rhinos with combat squads, with a third nearby. At the same time they need to recapture the home objective, which currently has a combat squad with Captain sitting on it. No mean feat! As the Corsair Phoenix is forced to fly off the board this turn, that gives away Big Game Hunter to the Marines, both armies will certainly have Linebreaker, so that means the Corsairs also need to slay the enemy Warlord this turn just to get a Tie… can it be done?
To start things off, Reserves continue arriving – a Warp Hunter manages to land perfectly to place a Template on the Captain’s unit, killing them down to 2 models in one fell swoop. A hornet Outflanks right behind the Captain, lacing him with pulse laser fire and wiping out that squad to clear up the objective. Ghostwalkers also outflank and shoot into the Scouts there, then using Reckless Abandon to move 6” further and make it within 3” of the home objective to hold it.
On the SM objective, first the Warp Hunter opens up to try and destroy both transports with his Destroyer barrage – sure enough one is destroyed, but the other survives with 1hp left! Warlord Prince+scatbikes and two more supporting jetbike units move up towards the blue Emperor’s Will objective – the first scatbike unit opens fire and destroys the last Rhino, exposing the enemy Warlord and opening a space for the other jetbikes to contest that objective. If the Warlord Prince can just make into assault the day can be won… Warlord Prince shoots backwards into the Landspeeder, destroying it and propelling the squad forwards with a long Reckless Abandon move – if he can make a 9” charge into the enemy Warlord he can win the day in one brutal turn… but it’s not to be as he fails the charge, but at least his companions are able to contest the objective at least.
Lastly the Malevolents finally kill the last marines, allowing the Rage Prince to consolidate backwards towards the home objective and prevent the encroaching Rhinos from being able to move onto it without risking Death or Glory meltabomb attacks! A pretty good turn for the Corsairs, but by losing the Phoenix to Ongoing Reserves and not slaying the enemy Warlord, if the game were to end here it would be a 6-5 loss.
At this point everyone around us is still merrily gaming, even though we think the round should have ended… turns out yes we misread the schedule and we have a full 45 minutes left to play the game! We have a bit of a heated argument, as my opponent feels that we verbally agreed to just finish the game this turn, so even though there is time left in the round, we should honour that agreement and end the game… My argument is that we didn’t agree to “finish this turn”, we were forced to rush due to our misled belief that time was about to expire… given that time has not actually expired and given that we haven’t played to turn 4 (turn 4 is considered the minimum length by our Tournament Organizer), then naturally we should continue. The Tournament Organizer agrees with me, but my opponent is very unhappy. arguing that being rushed through last turn has put him on the back foot and made him not take the best advantage of the situation, etc. Hoping to assuage his concerns, I offered to let him move and shoot all of his units that he felt did not have a chance to perform yet, despite it being out of sequence, but he declined. Oh well, we can only play on.
Maelstrom is 4-2 to the SM.
Turn 4
Marines continue moving up, targeting the units on the two Emperor’s Will objectives, and sending a Rhino up over terrain to disgorge more troops onto the Corsair objective, while a second unit deploys and is able to get behind the newly arrived Warp Hunter. In the shooting phase, the Hornet is taken down, the ghostwalkers are wiped out, and the Warp Hunter is actually killed! A very successful turn! Back at the home objective, the Marines shoot into the Warlord and scatbikes, killing one, but are not very effective and don’t have the weight of fire necessary to do the job.
Corsairs respond with a vengeance, feeling like this will actually be the last turn, and now all the cards are in their hands… the Phoenix drops down and makes an attack run on the enemy warlord with his devastator unit, opening up with shuriken cannons, phoenix missiles, and a pulse laser, completely wiping the unit out in an explosion of blue armour and gore! The Nightwing drops down right next to the Phoenix to open up on the surviving Centurion and Librarian, sending laser bolts and shuriken the size of dinner plates rending through the elite unit, obliterating the Librarian but leaving the Centurion standing firm with one wound left. Back at the home objective Rage Prince splits off from the Malevolents and targets the Centurions – first he shoots into the tactical marines on the home objective, killing one and using Reckless Abandon to propel himself right next to the Lone Centurion, who he then mercilessly slaughters with his rending Void Sabre! Malevolents move up on the remaining tacticals, shredding them with dual-toting shuriken pistols, then assaulting the nearby Rhino for good measure, destroying it with melta bombs and plasma grenades. The Void Dreamer also splits off from the Malevolents, holding down the home objective as a single model.
At this point the only units left for the Space Marines are a few scout squads and a tactical unit with grav-cannon in a Rhino in the backfield. The Corsairs have lost a unit of ghostwalkers, the Hornet, a Warp Hunter, and the Void Shield Generator, but they are very much still in the business of death-dealing. With the Centurions and Devastators taken down this turn, that is Big Game Hunter, Warlord, while Warlord Prince holds down Linebreaker plus Primary for the Corsairs. Marines easily win Maelstrom and also have Linebreaker.
Corsair Victory 7-5!
++ Post-Game
MVP – Rage Prince, holy crap! This guy single-handedly took out a tactical squad when it assaulted him, finishing them and the Chaplain off in 3 rounds of combat, then consolidated over and finished off a second unit too! After that he bounced back, took out some marines, then used the Rum Slingshot to murderize the Centurions and snatch Big Game Hunter, ouch! This guy was the king of the backfield, may all those approaching fear him! Oh did I mention that his Shadowfield gave out when he was charged by the Chaplain? So he did all this down one wound and without his incredible invulnerable save, hah. Check out this picture from when official time was called, having just slaughtered the Centurions, with the Nightwing and Phoenix behind him:
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Special mention to the Phoenix for having a ridiculous performance of mishapping, going back into Reserves, almost losing Corsairs the game, and then finally arriving turn 4, it was a sad debut. But then when he rolled in on turn 4 he easily wiped a whole squad and picked up Warlord, which was really sweet and ended up clinching the win for the Corsairs hah. Looking forward to seeing this guy get some proper action in games to come! When he does take the safety off and pull the trigger, it's nasty!
Wooden Spoon -- the Void Dreamer for being a pretty big waste of points this game, completely unable to beat down any tactical marines or throw up any useful powers hah, but really looking forward to seeing this guy get into his element, he still seems crucial to the list in my opinion.
Takeaways -- Corsairs rock at the orbital assault, but they are going to really struggle with Maelstrom. Princes tear up MEQ in combat like nobody's business, whereas Malevolents are honestly super weak.
++
Game 2 vs Blood Angels coming shortly!
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Love it! Total glory my friend. So happy to see you rocking with your Corsairs. The final photo is absolutely sick!!!! I've all but decided that next game I HAVE to try out the new Corsairs in some way shape or form.... the Prince is just too sick! He's what I want my Autarch to really be!
Also loved seeing the Phoenix... its so good! Even with the new Death from the Skies rules its awesome. Arghhh! I gotta play my army as Corsairs! Gonna try and cook up a list right now.
Also what a lame move on your opponents part. Trying to force the game to be over. I guess I can understand though, its so easy to get worked up during these games and not really approach things the way you would normally. Especially at a big tourney he's probably been anticipating for awhile.
Anyway glorious stuff my friend. Keep up the great work and make sure you keep us all posted. This stuff is gold
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Yeah man get to it, the Prince is freakin insane! On the one hand he is what the Autarch probably should be (force shield instead of shadowfield mayhaps), but then on the other the Autarch does get Path of Command which is super amazing. Though Sky Burner rules play an equivalent role which is great for Corsairs.
Would love to see how you roll a Corsair army -- would you go purestrain or mixed? Also I highly recommend the Phoenix to all readers, he comes across as a bit expensive initially, but then you realize he has Vector Dancer, Deep Strike, and most importantly Stealth and... STRAFING RUN! Wow that rule makes Flyers into to the utter business, rocking out so many reliable shots its very unexpected. Deep strike let's you bring him in at very strange angles too; you can run but you really can't hide from this guy.
OK moving onto game 2, here is the list:
Blood Angels
Chaplain -- kitted to the 9s with jump pack, 2x lightning claws, special gear
3x 5 Vanguard Vets - jump packs & lightning claws
10x Assault Marines
1x 5 Tac - imperial marine + Pod
2x 5 Scouts
2x 5 Devastators - lascannons/missiles
Storm Formation:
2x Storm Talon
Landspeeder
Not sure if the BA was a formation or the Vets were a formation, or just basic rules, but the 3x5 Vanguard deep strike turn 1 and can assault.
++
Mission is the Relic on Hammer & Anvil, Blood Angels snag first turn, deploying the Devastators and assault marines on their DZ line in a solid front -- Devs on either flank, assault marines with Chaplain leading the charge in the middle towards the Relic. Vanguard dropping in for some assault action and scouts infiltrating.
Corsairs measure devastator range and can stay almost entirely out of range or LOS, deploying the VSG behind a huge ruin. Warlord Prince and one unit of scatbikes deploy behind the VSG to start popping shots into the incoming assault marines, accompanied by a Hornet, while the Malevolents with Void Dreamer and Rage Prince deploy up front to prevent the Vanguard from catching the Warlord or VSG turn 1. Ghostwalkers win the roll to infiltrate and prevent the enemy scouts from getting too close by infiltrating 18" from the assault marines... then they use Scout to get away from those blood-lusting maniacs!
Corsairs elect not to seize and the Blood Angels come roaring in...
++ Turn 1 ++
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Vanguard Veterans go balls-to-the-board-edge in a crazay effort to take out the Corsair Warlord turn 1 -- first squad scatters off the board and mishaps back into DESTRUCTION for First Blood, second squad manages to Hit! Then the third squad tries coming down next to the VSG, scatter into the Malevolents and go back into Reserves. Meanwhile you can see the infiltrated scouts in the far right corner behind terrain, and the Drop Pod is arriving right in front of the Malevolents -- but it scatters backwards so the unit is outside the void shields, effectively doing nothing. Not such a great turn of deep striking..
Straight to the assault phase, the Vanguard Vets charge into the Warlord's unit and lose 1 member to Overwatch in quick measure. The Warlord challenges out the Sergeant and rapidly slays 2 more veterans, leaving just 2 to strike back -- one hits into the Void Shield Generator with a melta bomb, blowing it up in a single hit, while the other punches into the jetbikes and kills 2, locking them in combat.
Corsairs strike back by shredding the tactical squad in front of them with shuriken pistols, then retreating in towards where the VSG was to protect against the incoming assault marines. The Warlord lashes out once more, killing the last Veterans for no casualties.
++ Turn 2 ++
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The third and last vanguard vet unit drops in to make a second pass at the Warlord and his weakened unit -- after successfully landing they again lose veterans to Overwatch, are denied charging attacks due to blind grenades, then lose 2 more to the Warlord's vicious voidsabre. The survivors strike back and fail to penetrate the Warlord's shadowfield...
In the midfield, Blood Angels assault marines charge up the field, failing an 8" charge into the Ghostwalkers in cover, while the Storm Talon wing arrives, blasting into the Malevolents for a handful of wounds.
Corsairs turn up the gas, all of the reserves arriving and setting the incoming 10 assault marines and Warlord Chaplain in their sights... the Phoenix goes full auto and quickly shreds 6 marines, the warp hunters send destroyer barrage blasts arching through the squad, and scatbikes, ghostwalkers, and the hornet light up the remainder, killing all 10 in practiced efficiency. Meanwhile 2 units of scatbikes outflank behind the devastators in the Blood Angels backfield, killing the important missile launchers, while the Nightwing forces a Storm Talon to jink.
Last but not least, the Rage Prince + Malevolents throw a grenade into the nearby Drop Pod, causing no damage, but then use Reckless Abandon to propel the Prince 9" towards the lone Warlord Chaplain -- this brings him within 8" charge range, which the fleet murder machine easily makes on the re-roll. Rage Prince finally gets a chance to show up his upstart rival Prince, laying into the Chaplain with blow after rending blow, bringing the champion of the Emperor to his knees, before impaling him through the neck to sever his progenoid gland.
Reduced to ruin and beaten in assault, the Blood Angels make a rapid retreat from the battlefield... Corsairs win 11-0!
++
Wow what a brutal game -- don't be fooled by the mountain of gore, with just a few key rolls it would have easily gone the other way. Had the first unit of veterans not scattered off the table and been destroyed, it would have been a very different game. Even just going into reserves would have made a big difference. Only being able to assault with 1 unit of marines at a time made it entirely manageable for the Corsairs. 2+ units of assault marines charging in at once would have overwhelmed their combat abilities and locked down the Malevolents for the Chaplain to arrive. Locked up in combat, there would have been a dogfight between the Storm Talons and Corsair Flyers, which could have gone either way, then the deciding factor would have been whether the Blood Angel assault elements would be able to wipe out the Princes and entourages with enough strength left over for 3 turns of punishment from scatbikes in order to hold the Relic.
Oh well, those first few rolls threw the game, but to be honest until that happened I was quite on-edge.
++
MVP goes to the Warlord Prince -- single-handedly taking the sting out of the Blood Angel assault and protecting 3 jetbikes from assault by 10 vanguard veterans with lightning claws is no joke! Really love the Princes in combat against marines.
Wooden Spoon - the ghostwalkers again... they infiltrate, they scout, they shoot... they fail.
Takeaways - get the Princes stuck into combat early and profit! Also the Rum Slingshot move by Rage Prince to cap the enemy Warlord was a really fun trick, but cost me a LOT of Sportsmanship points this round, need to beware of using shenanigans too much at the expense of others enjoying the game.
Onto game 3, just a few undefeated armies on the field now, notably a DE/E army of great renown that has 11-0'd both opponents, then a Necron Decurion which I've played many times and never had issue with, and lastly a double Warp Hunter + Corsairs Eldar army played by my teammate Colin that I helped listbuild, and have absolutely no desire to play!!
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Nasty DE/E -- keep your eyes on this one!
++
Roll up to the table for Game 3 and this time we pull the Decurion, playing Purge the Alien on Vanguard Strike -- great, Kill Points against the Decurion!!!
Overlord
1x 5 Immortals
2x 10 Warriors
5x Tomb Blades
2x 5 Deathmarks
Destroyer Cult:
Destroyer Lord - tricked out Warlord
3x 3 Destroyers
1x3 Heavy Destroyers
Canoptek Harvest:
6x Wraiths
6x Scarabs
Spyder
Looks fast and tough. Also worth noting that in this event the TO formally ruled that gauss strips Void Shields, which is huge.
Corsairs win the roll for first turn and decide to try out the Alpha Strike, deploying everything except the Flyers and Ghostwalkers, seeking to bang out as many destroyers and scarabs/wraiths as possible before they get to spread out or activate Reanimation.
Necrons deploy in a phalanx with the Wraiths up front, Scarabs behind, Warriors behind that, 2x Destroyers on either flank -- the Warlord Destroyer on the left, while the Tomb Blades are on the right. There is an objective right at the middle of the Vanguard DZ line of both deployment zones (opponent place objectives in this one), while Tertiaries are Table Quarters, Ground Control, and Linebreaker.
Corsairs deploy with the VSG far forward to be within 3" of the home objective, warp hunters and scatbikes bubble underneath, hornet at the back and Malevolents with attached Rage Prince and Void Dreamer to the front. Dreamer again rolls useless psychic power, the large blast poison 3+ one... Then not realizing Warlord is not a tertiary objective, I hide mine behind LOS blocking terrain like a big sissy.
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Sissy.
++
Necrons fail to Seize.
++ Turn 1 ++
Corsairs open up by shuffling slightly forwards, then unleash destroyer barrage into the robit-mens -- warp hunter 1 aces the Heavy Destroyer unit in one horrendous onslaught, while warp hunter 2 kills 2 scarab bases, ouch! Opted not to go for the Wraiths due to their 3++, the barrage doubles out scarabs and they don't even get cover! Sure enough the one hit on the Wraiths gets saved. Next the scatbikes pour lasers into the scarabs, finally killing them all with the very last few shots -- 2 KPs to the Eldar, and one very mobile threat down! Everything jetpack moves backwards, and the Malevolents hold the DZ line, ever so slightly forward to tease an 11" charge from the Wraiths.
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Necrons move up, the Destroyers notably terrified and fanning out max 2" coherency to the left, the Tomb Blades and Destroyers pushing up to the right as fast as possible to get within gauss range to start hurting those scary D-slingers. Eldar forget that gauss can affect void shields (classic!), making the Malevolents into a serious liability by bringing the otherwise ineffective Necron army all into 24" range. Great. Sure enough the shields go down and Malevolents start taking saves, just a few scratches. Wraiths roll up their long charge and fail despite fleet.
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++ Turn 2 ++
While KPs may be 2-0 at this point, the Maelstrom is looking 2-0 the other way due to bad rolls and the Eldar being too scared to cap objectives near the Necrons (fair enough!). Both Ghostwalker units outflank this turn on the far right way out of the action which is too bad. Flyers both drop in, right at centre table to provide some movement-blocking and shooting shenanigans. This turn ticket item number one is to destroy the Wraiths and deal with the Tomb Blades...
Malevolents move up on the Wraiths, unleashing with pistols for some wounds surprisingly.. they then Reckless Abandon towards the Tomb Blades to be within easy charge-distance of either unit. The Rage Prince disengages, shoots the Wraiths, and propels himself beyond the Tomb Blades to try for the Destroyers, getting a bit greedy and wanting to make his mark after the Warlord's stellar performance last game.
Warp Hunters, scatbikes, the hornet, and both Flyers pound the Wraiths, just removing the last model with the very last few shots, but the good news is they are dead, dealing with all the Necron fast movers, and thats a KP. Added bonus is a scattered destroyer barrage clips the trailing Tomb Spyder and rolls a '3' for wounds... acing it in one unexpected hit!
Malevolents then charge into the Tomb Blades, hoping their +1 Strength from combat drugs will help down 1-2 and force a failed leadership... but to no avail as both units slap each other. The Prince then tries for an 8" charge into the Destroyers, re-rolling with fleet, but fails, argh.
Despite losing the Wraiths and getting tied up, the Necrons just keep pushing forwards, tightening the noose! Both Deathmark units arrive from deep strike, which is a nasty surprise! They target the backfield scatbikes, dropping one unit down to a single model (passes morale), then obliterating a second unit entirely, ouch. Destroyers on the left keep shifting forwards behind cover, blasting into the Warlord's scatbike unit for one casualty as opportunity arises. On the right side the Destroyers move back from Rage Prince and blast into him with gauss, causing 2 wounds and forcing him to fail his shadowfield save on the first roll -- drat! In combat the Tomb Blades and Malevolents just keep slapping each other. Most importantly this turn, the Necrons again are able to score Maelstrom while continuing to deny Corsair points by killing the scatbikes.
++ Turn 3 ++
Corsairs are really freaked out by the Deathmarks, as well as the encroaching Destroyers to the left! Warp Hunters target one unit of deathmarks, just a few inches from the VSG, but fortunately do not scatter and destroy the unit with some help from the Hornet. Warlord Prince moves away from the Destroyers to charge and hopefully eliminate the Deathmarks, charging in and doing one kill for no failed morale, thanks to Reanimation protocols, gah. Rage Prince goes again for the Destroyers on the right, charging in and taking a wound from Overwatch, then doing no wounds in return -- Fool, should have ganged up on the Tomb Blades till they were dead!!! Suddenly realize that the Warlord should have split off from his scatbike unit so they can go and score objectives while he beats up the Deathmarks... huge mistake here.
Necrons don't really have anything to shoot at, so just fan out some more and push table quarters -- one Destroyer unit moves and jet moves into the Corsair DZ to deny another maelstrom point and acting as a distraction, sealing the Necron lead. Combats continue as three total slapfights once more, tar pits of endless regenerating robots!
++ Turn 4 ++
We realize this will be the last turn due to time constraints... the Corsairs have lost Maelstrom but have a good lead in KPs 6-1 (Wraiths, Scarabs, Spyder, Heavy Destroyers, Deathmarks versus 1 unit of scatbikes), which brings the game to Tertiaries.. Ground Control, Table Quarters and Linebreaker. Linebreaker is no problem, thanks Ghostwalkers, but the other two are going to be really tough... all the key mobile and resilient models are locked in combat! Crap.
Currently top right Quarter has Tomb Blades+Destroyers versus 2x Ghostwalkers+Prince (Eldar) then Malevolents but they don't score, home quarter has VSG, 2x Warp Hunter, Hornet, and Prince versus Deathmarks and potentially Destroyers (Eldar), while Necron home base has Overlord, 2x Warriors, Immortals, and then bottom left has 2x Destroyers and Lord, but he could easily spread his units around between those two. OK so there is no way to win TQs, but we can draw.
Ground Control is trickier as anything moving onto those objectives will get slaughtered by Destroyers and the Destroyer Lord. Warp HUtner 1 and possibly Hornet could flat-out there, but I only realize in the shooting phase and it's too late. Oh well we can only hope for the Rage Prince to run down the Destroyers this turn and pop out of combat, likewise with Warlord Prince, which would put us back in the game.
Warp Hunter 1 does use its template attack to kill a unit of Destroyers contesting the home objective, so thats 7-1 KPs.
Corsair assault phase and the Princes both strike out while the Malevolents just violently slap the Tomb Blades.
Necron turn 4 and the Lord and Destroyers move and jetpack move to get on the middle objective for Ground Control. Table Quarters is tied I believe 2-2. In the assault the Princes again strike out and the Malevolents again slap out, no result.
Corsairs lose 5-6 :(
A close-fought loss, but felt like one where the Corsairs made a few mistakes and lost it from the grasp of victory. Yes a shaky grasp, but was the Corsairs' game to lose, and they fumbled the ball!
MVP goes to Warp Hunters for a stand-out performance of banging out the Destroyers and then the whole Canoptek Harvest in 2 turns, ouch, followed by roasting the Deathmarks and some more Destroyers.
Wooden Spoon -- Rage Prince and Warlord Prince equally dropped the ball in this one, but maybe the lesson is that power weapons just do not chew through the Decurion... what really hurt was not having a Wraithknight in this one.
After this game I realized three cardinal mistakes in my approach:
1. Not enough scoring units in the list.
Having a unit of stock jetbikes instead of 1 of the ghostwalker units would have changed this game a lot, dropping the Nightwing for 2x 3 splinterbikes for more MSU scoring, mobility, and firepower, would have been a better choice too;
2. NEVER take first turn with Corsairs, even if it seems like a really good idea!
Yes the Wraiths and Scarabs would have been in our face turn 1, but by focusing down the Wraiths with shooting, the Malevolents could have easily counter-tarpitted the Scarabs for the whole game, neutralizing that unit. Made some bad choices in this regard this time around.
3. Corsairs have absolutely no board resilience outside of Shadowfields, watch for missions with Ground Control or Table Quarters very carefully, as the Princes need to step up and score those -- everything else will die horribly!
Ah well, not going to face down the DE/E deathlist list I was hoping, but with any luck the other top players fight their way into draws and the Corsairs can make a play for Best Overall from the shadows -- just like they would!!! Now just need to start dispensing special Corsair Rum to all the other contenders...
++
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Both were great bat-reps. Classic stuff against the Blood Angels and very nice to see the Prince's doing work in that one. The battle against the Necrons was very interesting... the Warp Hunters certainly did work in that one. Taking out those damned Heavy Destroyers so easily is brilliant... They don't get re-animation against the Warp Hunter right?
But man its tough having the Prince's be the only ones who can do anything worthwhile in combat. Brutal how their isnt even a sort of "Storm Guardian" equivalent for Corsair bikers (I believe there was in the 5th ed version of the Corsairs)... but I'll touch-up on that in my own thread.
Also 3x Vanguard vets assaulting from deepstrike... I'm assuming this wasn't from the Angels Blade book. I think he was running the Ravenguard formation where they come in near the Scouts or some such... in which case I think they don't scatter. May be wrong on that.
Anyway brilliant stuff as always. Both were well played games. Keep it up!
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Thank you sir, appreciate it!
Yes now that I think about it, he was using the Raven Guard formation, and wanted to infiltrate his scouts closer then use scout moves to get in extra close, which is why i dropped the ghostwalkers to create some denial space.. so that paid off pretty well for the Corsairs!
Destroyer weapons do ignore Reanimation which is really massive, then the only other thing you can do is Instant Death, which... reduces them to a 5+. So basically not that helpful when you have to get through 6-10 wounds for a squad. Last great solution is 6 on Stomp, which is why ive never struggled with Necrons until not having a Wraithknight to rely on! A good lesson to learn...
Coming in for Day 2 with a loss under the belt, get matched up against an absolutely astounding Grey Knights/Ravenwing army, really gorgeous stuff:
GK Librarian
GK Librarian
10x Terminators
2x Dreadknight
Ravenwing Librarian
4x Bikes
Attack Bike
Storm Talon
Storm Talon
Landspeeder
> people really like this formation!
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Great army!
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Mission is Scourge on Hammer & Anvil, tons of objectives and tons of room to play around... Corsairs win second turn, hooray! GK deploy everything except the Storm Talon wing.
Corsairs deploy... not very much:
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Actually this photo is from the bottom of turn 1 -- the Void Dreamer rolled up Webway Breach, which when cast successfully pops your unit back into Ongoing Reserves. Normally a pretty useless power, since it can't be used when locked in combat, yet in this particular matchup it looked like it could be fun for using the Malevolents with Void Dreamer to draw in the Dreadknights for some easy killing, then *pop* -- back into Reserves and no Corsairs for you!
I thought this was hilarious, but my opponent was not exactly happy about these shenanigans, so that was a bummer. On his turn he does successfully destroy the VSG, but doing so has pulled his attack bike and Dreadknights so far out of position they are effectively out of the game (at least for 2 more turns).
Corsairs come thundering in on turn 2, the GK player says "For your shenanigans, now your dice will be cursed for Reserve Rolls!" Which proves to be correct, as the Phoenix and one warp hunter fail to come in, despite re-rolling 3+! Ah well, could have been worse... In shooting we then have a major disagreement around barrage weapons interacting with Shrouded and being in cover. His models are standing on an elevated metal walkway which affords 4+ cover, yet the barrage blast lands dead-on, so there is no intervening cover between the blast and the cover, meaning that according to Barrage rules you would not benefit from that save... dropping a juicy 2+ down to a less-than-impressive 5+ thanks to some accurate shooting. TO is called over and makes that exact ruling, resulting in 4 dead terminators.. after a failed 2+ Look Out Sir, one of them turns out to be the Warlord, so that was a pretty eventful phase. Not particularly enjoying the game though, hopefully we can pick things up... the GK player really needs to go for a turn 6-7 play on the objectives, relying on resilience to grind down the Corsairs, let's see if he can manage it.
GK start top of turn 3 and at this point deployment, turn 1 and turn 2 have taken so long that the clock is running down really fast.. he moves some stuff, casts some powers, shoots some things, then assaults the Rage Prince with the Ravenwing and takes horrendous casualties, immediately regretting it.
Corsairs keep up the shenanigans, bouncing around the map to keep out of range of the GK, their shooting doing absolutely nothing to the Emperor's Finest except immobilize a Storm Talon, which is then vector-locked and survives. Very uneventful. Ravenwing Librarian hit & runs away from the Prince after an equally uneventful combat phase.
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Turn 4 and at this point there's about 30 minutes left so we split it 15-15 and plan to call the game there...
GK move up to get near some objectives, but are looking at a draw on Primary, winning Maelstrom (the Corsairs were barely on the board, let alone scoring Maelstrom this game), while Tertiaries are Linebreaker (tie), Warlord (Corsairs), and Big Game Hunter (GK), so basically a draw if they can hold the position. This turn they do manage to drop Rage Prince, send some firepower and a failed charge into Warlord Prince, and down a Warp Hunter for Big Game Hunter.
Next turn the Corsairs drop a Dreadknight and jump on all the objectives to win Primary and take the game thanks to Warlord+Linebreaker versus just Big Game Hunter in the end.
Corsairs win 6-5!
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Takeaways from this game are that losing Maelstrom to Grey Knights shows that my Corsair list has major issues in the scoring department, you have to really be careful about the Tertiaries or risk losing all the games based on Maelstrom... Next time will definitely be increasing the scoring unit and hopefully resilience potential of the Corsairs! Saying that, it was a great experience to do a full-on denial play, just killing a handful of models in the enemy army (less than 10!) and cruising in to win on objectives.
Also just generally speaking this was a lot of fun to play, as it just FELT like Corsairs on the tabletop... huge glaring holes in the army, but tons of firepower, weird janky movement and shenanigans, and winning by the skin of the teeth at the last second right under the noses of the enemy, hah! Unfortunately my opponent did not feel that way, Corsairs really do not get other people excited, so that's too bad.
MVP - Void Dreamer! Yeah this guy gets it for once, thanks to creating the ultimate diversion, although he did ultimately get crushed in combat by a Dreadknight along with all of the Malevolents.
Wooden Spoon - Phoenix, for not showing up despite 3+ re-rollable, then really just doing absolutely nothing versus Terminator armour. That is a big weakness for this gunship. Shooting the Ravenwing bikes would have been useless too, with their re-rollable 3+ jinking.. Just wasn't a great matchup for the Phoenix really.
Onwards and upwards to Game 5, crawling back up to the Top Tables once more! Turns out the nasty DE/E and Necrons did in fact play each other into a dead Tie, so that was some good news for the submarine crew... but also disheartening that the Necrons had walked through no less than 3 Eldar armies in a row and not taken a loss!! What is the world coming to?!?!
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Post Merge: September 22, 2016, 03:55:32 AM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.
Game 5 is a super interesting Inquisition list, something I have never seen before, but which earns immediate respect as both clearly well-crafted for what it is meant to do (earn Inquisition ITC points, and act as a giant Ecclesiastical deathstar), and in the hands of an able player, currently ranked ITC #1 for Inquisition (unsurprisingly!)... should be fun!
Coteaz
Inquisitor - pskyer, LIber Heresius, power armour
Cypher** WHAT?
12x Warband - psyker, daemon hosts, crusaders, priests, etc. Fun stuff!
4x Warband - plasma gun
Chimera
4x Warband - plasma gun
Chimera
Grimnar's War Council:
Njal Stormcaller
Ulrik the Slayer
Iron Priest - thunderwolf, TH/SS + 5 dogs
Rune Priest
LIbrarius Conclave:
Tigerius
3x Librarian - ML2, bike
Also, looking at his display board there are a LOT of Daemons. I see tons of Horrors, Screamers, and Daemonettes... I think I know what's coming!
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Mission is Big Guns Never Tire on Vanguard Strike, which is OK for me, although he gets bonus points for killing the Warp Hunters which the Corsairs won't be able to earn back. With only 4 objectives which are easy to tie on, that could be a key tiebreaker to watch for.
Maelstrom is the usual, should be quite even as he is a deathstar, and clearly Corsairs really really struggle with Maelstrom... will need to watch closely.
Tertiaries are Big Game Hunter, drat -- Warp Hunters again, and no way to earn this back. Then Warlord and Linebreaker, which should both be a wash unless something crazy happens.
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Inquisition win the roll for First Turn and give it to the Corsairs... double drat! But there is one way to get around this -- his War Council gives him a 4+ to Seize, and Coteaz allows him a very reliable chance at getting that Seize, so obviously he's just testing the waters to see how the Corsairs deploy. If there's enough threat on the board to gut his star on turn 1, he can't let me go first... Corsairs deploy 1 unit of 3 scatbikes and then a single Warp Hunter all under the VSG, backed up by some ghostwalkers which can screen assault if necessary.
As expected, the Inquisition deploy the giant blob and nothing else, then Seize back the initiative to avoid being hit by destroyer barrage and scatter lasers before they can power up Invisibility, Veil of Time, Endurance, Forewarning, etc. So many powers!
Also this was a very exciting and enjoyably tense game, so I completely neglected to take any pictures, I am so sorry! Really wish I could have, this was a very fun one.
++ Turn 1 ++
Turn 1, the blob moves forward pretty far -- with so many bikers and wolves, it can string out and cover a lot more distance than I was anticipating. Then with Telekinesis he uses Levitation on the whole thing and jumps forward another 12", yikes! To top it all off he summons a unit of Horrors in the backfield to start scoring and juicing up the warp charges...
Corsairs opt not to send off a volley of destroyer barrage and instead retreat out of range.
Both armies score 1 maelstrom.
++ Turn 2 ++
One chimera with warband comes in, driving toward mid-table, while Horrors move backwards and summon in a second unit of their friends, so now there are 20 horrors in the backfield. Deathstar continues the move and jump forwards, putting a stack of dice into defensive powers again, then summoning a third unit of Horrors into the backfield as well... oh very nice, 30 horrors now.
Corsairs come streaming on, both Princes attached to scatbikes in the top left corner as far away from the VSG and approaching action in the bottom left corner as possible, and they try and hammer out the Chimera but only glance it twice, sadly. Malevolents, the Phoenix and Nightwing all drop in the Inquisition backfield, targeting a unit of Horrors and succeeding in wiping it out through combined firepower. The second Warp Hunter also drops down in the INQ backfield, with its nifty reduced D6" scatter... roll a 5 and just clip the Malevolents, causing a mishap... roll a 1 and *bam!* there goes the Hunter, Big Game Hunter, and a Primary bonus point. Ouch! Fortunately the Horrors did die for a Maelstrom at least..
++ Turn 3 ++
The deathstar is right on the Eldar doorstep now, just inside the void shields... the Warlord must have balls of absolute steel as he decides to cast Vortex of Doom on the last Warp Hunter before him, successfully manifesting his own Destroyer barrage, which Hits, then rolls a 6 to destroy the fell engine of destruction! Oh dear, two for two! But the Winds of Fate are oh so fickle, and while casting Veil of Time the almighty Tigerius rolls a double-6, causing a Perils of the Warp! He then rolls that fateful 1, attacked by daemons, and we joke that all he needs now is an 11 and big things will happen... he rolls his leadership test and its... AN ELEVEN! Tigerius explodes from the inside out, warp energies coruscating around him and claiming another two members of the warband. HUGE blow for the deathstar, and this will be the last turn they have Veil of Time too!
In the backfield the Horrors decide to just run away from the invading Corsairs as best they can, while the Chimera moves further into mid-table to take advantage of ruins and to cap the objective there.
Corsairs smell Tigerius' blood mixed with daemon ichor on the wind and go into Overdrive -- they hit their drug dispensers and dial up the shuriken slingers to full auto! Phoenix lays into a unit of Horrors, easily slaying half, the scatbikes finally destroy the Chimera while the Nightwing sends dinner plates shrieking through the dismounted Warband (they Go to Ground and 2 survive, gah), not quite the result we were hoping for. Some more scatbikes shoot into the deathstar but it is fairly inconsequential. OK so the Rage has started and the combat drugs are coursing through the veins of the Space Pirates, they are poised to strike, but it is yet to come... Sensing the tide of battle changing, a third Scatdancer squad sacrifices their lives to the deathstar to prevent them scoring a Maelstrom point on a whim, reducing the Imperial lead in points this turn to 3-2.
++ Turn 4 ++
The Inquisition are in a good spot now, ready to split up and assault the ghostwalkers & VSG, while holding both home Eldar objectives. Hopefully with the Warp Hunter bonus points that should be enough to take Primary, even with losing Tigerius and some of the deathstar's resilience. Maelstrom is still in the lead by one point, so that is looking good, and Tertiaries are a win for Inquisition thanks to Big Game Hunter! Now, this is the only moment I was unhappy with -- on ending the Corsair turn I carefully looked at how the Ghostwalkers were positioned behind the VSG to deny LOS and therefore deny the Space Wolves getting a charge off and denying my Maelstrom point. I also pre-measured how far the wolves could move, to make sure. Then I went for a quick bathroom break only to come back and find that the ranges and LOS actually all worked out, and the dogs would have a 9" charge into my scouts. Maybe I didn't accurately estimate, maybe my measurements were wrong, or maybe the dogs got about 3" of extra movement... we will never know!
Deathstar starts to split off characters, the Iron Priest and wolves going for the Eldar home base, the others circling back and juicing up defensive powers to weather the inevitable storm of Eldar firepower! Out of fear of the smackdown, the deathstar has not had any warp charges left over for summoning more daemons, so that is perfect.
In the top right the last Chimera with Warband comes in, and they opt to shoot into the rear armour of the Hornet rather than into the scatbikes who would easily jink. I think this was a mistake, but he did manage to glance out the Hornet after the Chimera added its shooting.
Corsairs Turn 4, we are 2 maelstrom points behind, looking in a bad spot on the Primary, and there is no way we can get Warlord so forget Tertiaries. Hm.... roll up Maelstrom points and we get Kill a Unit, Kill a Unit... I'll take three or nothing! (For those unfamiliar with ITC format, each turn you roll 3D6 and pick two as objectives based off a table of 6 -- if you roll 2x objectives or 2x KPs as options then you can choose to go for 3 points as a bonus option, i.e. kill 3 units for 3 points, but if you don't get all three you lose your points that round!) Risky business! Can the Corsairs take out 3 units this round?!
First off, the Malevolents move up on the 2 remaining Horror units, finally getting within assault range... they unleash their shuriken pistols and grenades into the low-strength unit and obliterate it with some help from the scatbikes, then they charge in, frothing at the mouth, into the second 10-horror unit -- 40x drugged-up bonus strength, high initiative, high weapon skill attacks later, and the unit just evapourates. Go Malevolents!
On the left side, the Rage Prince, scatbikes, and a newly-arrived unit of Ghostwalkers face down the Chimera and disembarked 4x warband... they shoot and shoot but just can't do any damage to the vehicle hiding its warband. In comes the Phoenix, pivoting from the Horrors and moving 36" to get in range.. it easily vapourizes the Warband with stacks of wounds to spare, while its little brother the NIghtwing pulls a tight turn to finish up the other 2-man warband in midfield for good measure, bam! For good measure the Rage Prince charges into the Chimera with his drug-amped Strength and nasty rending void sabre, not to mention Rage.... he hits a lot, gets those nasty 6's and kills the Chimera in one round of brutal combat -- wow, 5 KPs! That's Maelstrom to the Corsairs right there!
The last scatbike unit comes around and hammers the deathstar, causing a number of casualties but nothing too serious.
Overall a glorious turn for the Corsairs, now it's time for the endgame!
++ Turn 5 ++
At this point it is tight on time but fortunately there isn't too much to do... the deathstar spreads out as much as humanly possible to cover Eldar home objective 2, the Iron Priest+wolves and 2x Librarians on bikes zoom over and bubble out Eldar objective 1 to prevent any turbo-boosting jetbikes from getting there -- looks like those two are locked down. The last librarian moves and turbo-boosts onto the Inquisition central objective, hoping to contest it on the long odds he doesn't get killed.
Psychic powers go off and the deathstar buffs itself up with Invisibility and all that goodness, then pulls a really nice trick and summons a unit of Daemonettes for their +3" run ability... he tries to drop them right near the Eldar objectives to run them out and make that area completely impassable to jetbikes, but alas they scatter 7" backwards and are of no use. That's what you get for fooling around with daemon girls!
Corsairs see the end in sight, with one last trick up their sleeve... the Phoenix bomber again pivots hard left, zooms 36" to crest a high cliff in the Eldar DZ, just spying the biker Librarians. The gunner unleashes the full remaining Phoenix missile payload and empties the entire shuriken magazines into those unlucky imperial witches, easily killing them and creating a nifty little space for Rage Prince to turbo-boost his single-model base into..
Meanwhile in the Inquisition backfield Warlord Prince, who has been gliding around mostly trying to just not die to lose Tertiary points, makes an attack run on the lone Librarian, slaying him with his shuriken catapult before he can even swing his void sabre. What a disappointing day for the Warlord. Maybe he shouldn't have been such a sissy again... Anyway, he does secure that objective to net Primary 3-1 so that's a plus.
We tally up the Maelstrom, and thanks to that sacrifice of the jetbikes on a whim, followed by the epic and fortuitous killing spree in turn 4, the Maelstrom FINALLY goes to the Corsairs! Hooray!!!! Was incredibly lucky for this to work out haha.
Victory Corsairs 10-1!!
Really the inquisition were in it to win it though, don't be fooled. A swing by 2 Maelstrom points and it was theirs, or else a single model surviving a turn of shooting and it was theirs... and that's after exploding Tigerius' head all by himself... sad way to go, poor guys. Great opponent and a lot of fun. The scare tactic turn 1 by putting down the warp hunter was key to force him to juice up the star and not summon more daemons too -- if he had been able to bring in some more daemon units earlier, this would have been really tricky. As it was, good game and good tournament!!
MVP - Phoenix bomber, hellz yeah!! This guy literally tore it up, claiming bodies left and right from as soon as he hit low orbit. Clutch game-winning kill by jetting across the entire board and sniping out an independent character, loved it! Special shoutout to the Malevolents for seriously tearing up the Inquisition backfield -- clearly their ideal prey is anything with lower toughness than a Space Marine, as they can rock out HARD on the charge against low toughness units. Between the Phoenix and Malevolents they killed pretty much all of the 30 horrors so that was great.
Wooden Spoon -- ughh, the Warp Hunters. The first one did OK as a distraction, whiffed his only shot, then got exploded by a vortex. Had he survived he was going to drop the destroyer template on the deathstar to get some maxed out hits and ignore their cover saves, that would have been super nasty, but it was not to be. Then the other warp hunter just aced itself on the drop, very very sad. Next time I think just one Warp Hunter will be more than enough, two seems to be a bit too much investment when one can get the majority of jobs done anyway.
Takeaways -- don't go to the bathroom during movement phases! Also even though Corsairs suck at maelstrom, it's still important to try, as you never know what might happen by turn 5 apparently!
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Overall the Corsairs did really well going 4-1, even if the wins were mostly just scraping by with 4ish points most of the time hah. Very frustrating loss where fatigue, lack of focus, and making a few mistakes lost the game, but you really need those in order to keep you sharp in the future, like a slap in the face! Colin also took Corsairs, allied with CWE cousins with a nasty double-Hunter list, but then he took two Byes to end up in 2nd place which was kind of funny, then the pure Corsairs ended up in 5th of 28 so not too bad. 6th place actually ended up taking Best Overall with huge bonuses from Best Painted and Best Sports, so huge kudos to that player and his gorgeous Nurgle army. Finally, despite taking a Tie, the dastardly decurion took Best General, beating out Colin (literally) and earning the respect due to the Ancient Nemesis in many ways..
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Few thoughts for next time....
1. Corsairs are super fun, but have to be more engaging with the opponent so that they dont feel like the game is just being broken sideways by the crazy wargear and rules Corsairs bring.
2. At the same time, need a way to deal with slow players, wow this was so tough to bear -- when you army doesnt show up until turn 2 and often doesnt get properly stuck in until turn 4, those games ideally go to turn 5 at a minimum. As you can see a lot of the time we barely squeezed past turn 3, so that was very very stressful as a player.. that many hours of that kind of stressful waiting and urging takes its toll!
3. MORE SCORING -- Corsairs need to pull some tricks to get more scoring, primarily in the list-building part of the game. Some key ideas:
3.1. Less non-scoring models, i.e. drop the Nightwing, trim the Malevolents, drop the Void Dreamer probably, and pick up more dancers.
3.2. Hate Bringers -- turn the Ghostwalkers into Hate Bringer Cotories for a few more points, nominate a weak unit on the table turn 1, destroy for bonus Maelstrom points! in a mission that swings by single points, this would have made a difference in half the games, particularly if (knowing that) the Corsairs had tried a bit harder.
This gets particularly juicy if you can squeeze in double or triple Hate Bringers through multiple detachments, so that killing a single unit on the table can net you 2-3 maelstrom points right there. Thanks Colinsherlow for this sneaky-ass Corsair style idea!
4. RESILIENCE -- realized that the only models that can weather the storm for a turn really are the Malevolents, who are not scoring, and the Princes, who are risky.
4.1. Option 1 - pick up a Farseer and some warp spiders purely to bring in Shrouding, Invisibility, and then objective presence and interference factor
4.2. Option 2 - pick up more barons and slap shadowfields on them, save them for specifically when you need to score objectives and use them to tank! This may not be very successful, but worth trying I think. Probably 1 extra baron will work, max 2
Last but not least, some reviews of the units:
Prince - one word, BALLER, and you really can play him to taste with any of the Path of the Prince powers, they are all pretty cool. You do have to select opponents carefully though, 2+ armour is a tough one, whereas tactical squads are the bread and butter. Basically he's a bully not a bruiser, like all the Eldar stuff.
Dreamer - very interesting, definitely throws off the opponent due to his funky powers, but mostly not that useful. Only a couple more points than a Baron, but also comes with a nifty witchstaff which is really good.
Malevolents -- really liked these guys, they are surprisingly tough, but also usually pretty wet blankets (except against Horrors on the charge!). You have to know exactly what you expect of these suckers, and dont expect an iota more. Good at helping the Corsairs not get tabled in turn 1, thats for sure
Scatdancers - extra points are so worth it, leadership is a minor risk really as usually they just die anyway, and Outflank is SICK, oh so sick, but Reckless Abandon is absolutely RIDICULOUS, cannot stress enough. Arguably its too much, FW went too far.
Ghostwalkers - one unit is really solid for the infiltrate+scout/outflank; dual-wield pistols is cool but marginally useful, but the biggest thing is having Stealth instead of Shrouded like Rangers... that really sucked, and also no Move Through Cover... what!? Reckless Abandon does not make up for these shortcomings whatsoever.
Phoenix -- is THE BOMB, Strafing Run is so amazing, and Stealth just for extra cream on top, wow what a gunboat
Nightwing - just kind of falls flat, not enough shooting to get a job done in one turn sadly. A pair would be great, but too expensive. Yes they are the ultimate flyer killers, there just arent many flyers i worry about, and yes 2+ jink is phenomenal, but meh, clever players dont shoot him
Hornet -- solid, but I think 2 is the magic number for being able to just bang out targets. One was not that reliable, and pretty easy to kill
Warp Hunter -- really boss, but two of them was unnecessary, and hard to place on the table. One, well placed, can gut the key targets in the opponent's army just fine while avoiding return fire, and costs half as much!
The biggest takeaway of all though, based on this event and then a whole range of friendly games afterwards, is that people in my area really really do not enjoy playing the Corsairs... they are just too extreme, it feels like they are completely powerless to stop them. Turn 1 nothing is on the table, you are forced to either go for the bait or just sit on your hands... turn 2 not much to do, bottom of the turn BAM suddenly all your important stuff is just horribly dead, and the Corsairs bounce so far out of range and LOS the only way you know they are there is because your stuff is dead.
On that note, I am going to keep practicing the pure Corsairs in the background for upcoming competitive events potentially, but for now I'm going to go ahead and transition back to the Croneworld Warhost like good old times, but with all the additional extreme tricks and tactics from playing the Corsairs -- I'm really looking forward to it!
Thanks for reading folks, let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, army list ideas or nightmare match-ups... and if I find any more pictures from these events I'll post them, I promise!
Cheers
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I am of the opinion that double hate bringers could work really well. Especially in the ITC format. Those 2 easy to get points go a long ways into making your life mush easier and your opponents much harder.
I will come back on here soon to discuss possible lists and ideas behind this super awesome fantastic double hate bringers idea.
Also do corsairs want other space elf allies? Probably craft world eldar. But what about their darker cousins? Could a corpsethief thief claw be amazing?... or even just for razorwings jet fighters or reaver jet bikes for the corsair prince? Do corsairs need a VSG?
One other thing I would like to discuss is Av12 spam for corsairs. Could it work? Would it work? How would it work exactly? Maybe save this for another day.
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Great stuff bud. Way to go on all the battles and it was cool to see what units proved to be the MVP's in each match-up. Still stoked to see how well the Phoenix has been performing. That thing looked DOA on points alone, but as usual, you cannot truly evaluate anything in 40k from afar. You gotta play to know.
I agree with you on your unit appraisal for the Corsairs as well. Particularly the Malevolents... they function more or less like DE Wyches. They are a tarpit unit that'll whittle down basic infantry.
My only disagreement is the Nightwing. I'm not sure if you guys are playing Death From the Skies... if you aren't I've found my Nightwing to be a dark horse MVP. He always aces tanks, flyers and even had him strip some HP's off Knights in the past. I've had mine go solo against 3 Flyers and take them down over the course of 4 turns. I love my Nightwing to death.
If you are playing Death from the Skies yeah, he becomes a lot less useful. But i'll be interested to see how that plays out over the long term... especially in the tournament scene. Reece and Franky went to some East Coast tourney not too long ago and people were abusing the hell out of Death from the Skies. Going up against 4 Vultures with strafing run and twin-linked punisher cannons is not fun. I don't know... whenever I don't have him I find myself up against a flyer which the player will not jink... and with 90% of my opponents being Imperial its all AV12 which makes those lances super helpful. Anyway I'll cease in my tireless praise of the Nightwing... but yeah I love that dude!
I see what you are saying about scoring options too. Scoring maelstrom at the bottom of the turn is brutal. Especially for ultra-fragile Eldar units. No wonder Battle-Company has been crushing the ITC. Hmmmm gotta have a think on that one.
@Colinsherlow- Hey bud! Nice to see you. Yeah I love the Hate Bringers idea. I'm totally with you on that one.
As for AV12 spam... it could work taking Falcon transports for everything. They'd be decent scoring options too if you are placing objectives in your backfield. It's certainly hard to dislodge them. But they are expensive and their damage output is limited.... Hmmm. I'll be interested to see what Ibushi thinks.
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Thanks guys, glad you enjoy the reports and find food for thought in there!
@Colinsherlow -- I am VERY interested in both the multiple Hate Bringers Corsairs for shoring up the maelstrom scoring weakness, let's look into that, I'll see what hybrid lists I can come up with this weekend. Also very interested in the AV12 spam, although to be honest I don't see this one having very long legs. Tanks die so easily, just a few lucky 6's and your huge tactical investment just vanishes. Sometimes you see those tricky triple Land Raider lists as an upset army, but you'll never see them walking through a 5-game event for that exact reason.
@Cavalier much appreciated man, and yeah I like to identify the MVPs and Wooden Spoons to help keep tabs on what parts of my army are actually performing. Often during a game or immediately afterwards I "think" it was a certain way, then I play it back while writing the batreps and probably 50% of the time I realize there was a certain unit that did a lot of heavy lifting. Also I realized which units I am under-utilizing, as a large number of the Wooden Spoon moments are my own fault as the general... bad placement, that kind of thing. So it's very useful.
The only thing that YOU MUST TAKE BACK RIGHT NOW is comparing Malevolents to Wyches, ughhh Wyches. Yes they used to be a cool, cheap, fast tarpit assault unit, but now they are officially the worst unit in the game, whereas Malevolents are freakin hilarious and super useful. IF wyches could take 2x melta bombs and had feel no pain stock, and 2 wounds, without changing their points, then yes maybe. :P
Agree to disagree on the Nightwing, I know you love that boy and I definitely see his merits, in fact you'll notice I brought him to a major 5-game GT and gave him a shot at the big time! He certainly was useful, but I just found that when I needed a certain Rhino dead specifically in one turn, he very rarely could deliver in a reliable fashion (this is without Death from the Skies), partly because i ALWAYS miss with his Bright Lances, it's just a horrible weird luck thing, and then the other is he just doesnt quite have enough shots to chew through the statistics. Most times I'll have to lend a unit of scatbikes shooting to finish off the Rhino instead of slaughtering the contents, and it sets me back a step. Then I played a LOT of Flyers with all the Storm Talons everywhere, and his shooting against AV11-12 just didnt quite hold up to consistently punch out a Storm Talon in one turn. Next up I may invest in double Nightwing to see if that is the secret sauce, and in larger games I for sure will bring him for fun factor.. but at the competitive level he needs more support than he delivers in my books, without some single-shot missiles or something to give that extra edge.
OK team, so next up I put the Corsairs on the shelf for a bit while I build a revamped list including some splinterdancers, a dancer Baron, and of course a foot Baron to go with the Ghostwalkers and turn them into the nasty Hate Bringers for extra scoring!
While I got those models built and undercoated, another event rolled around -- Attack-X out in Kamloops BC, which is now on the ITC circuit which is fantastic. As the reigning Best Overall/Best General from last year, it was time to get back on the road and head out there to defend the crown!!!! For this occasion it had to be the Croneworld Kin, but with all the delicious tactical lessons of playing full Reserves, Beta Strike mayhem, but also constantly losing Maelstrom of the Corsairs... The other thing I is really wanted to bring some more assault potential, and in particular some of my favourite models in my collection: the Shining Spears!! Check out my Croneworld 1850 Warhost:
Farseer Tanaka the Cannibal - jetbike, singing spear, Warlord
Autarch Oroshi -- hawk wings, banshee mask, power sword
3x 3 Scatbikes
1x 3 Jetbikes
1x 5 Rangers
Warp Hunter
Skathach Wraithknight - inferno cannons, laser
Void Shield Generator - 3x shields
Aspect Host:
3x 5 Warp Spiders + Exarch
Aspect Host:
1x 4 Shining Spears + Exarch - star lance
1x 5 Warp Spiders + Exarch
1x 6 Hawks + Exarch - power sword
A lot of fast-moving, hard-hitting stuff. Dropped down to one Warp Hunter in order to pick up some more assault elements, then play-tested 4x 5 Warp Spiders and found that to be really brutal without just unleashing the can of spam (6x or even 9x). Likewise with the jetbikes, I've found 3x3 Scatbikes gets the job done without investing too much in the spam strategy, while 1x3 stock jetbikes can be really useful for sacrificing onto an objective without losing firepower, or just cruising around with the Farseer as extra wounds. The big one from the last Croneworld Excursion is the addition of Autarch Oroshi, the debut showcase tournament for me with a Swooptarch!
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Game 1 coming soon...
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lol... yeah I was comparing the Malevolents to OLD SCHOOL Wyches. Not the 7th ed. garbage. Sorry I should have put that in bold, underlined XXL font as thats some major 40k smack-talk... its borderline fightin' words!
Yeah that SUCKS the Nightwing didn't perform for you. Yeah I usually miss with one lance... but I usually go berserk with everything else. I'm really bummed he spit-the-bit in the big time. His target of choice has always been Rhino's, side armor on Basilisks, Manticores. I've had him tear-up Dark Eldar transports and infantry too. Such a bummer man! Its his movement, vector dancer, double lances, double shuriken cannons is so nice! Oh well if he doesnt perform what can you do?
Also the new list looks good as well. Good luck buddy!
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Ah man I was just checking this thread as I had written the first 1-2 batreps, but looks like my internet must have crashed when I posted... oh well I will do it again with some quick summaries!
Game 1 was against a really neat Space Wolves list with a SW special CAD led by Bjorn the Fell-handed in a Dreadnought Drop Pod (so cool!), along with Grimnar's War Council formation for a stackload of characters and benefits, then backed up by deep striking terminators.
Not a super optimized list, it came out swinging and looked like it was actually going to do really well after the Eldar failed to do any damage turn 1... Space Wolves summarily exploded the Warp Hunter and took out some Warp Spiders, ouch! But then the Wraithknight and warp spiders got rolling, turn 3 quickly turned into brutal mopping up.
11-1 for the Eldar
Game 2 was against the Ancient Nemesis, a precious grudge match with Josh and his Decurion -- the defeaters of the Kaizoku Corsairs back at Wet Coast!
Josh brought his usual Decurion, but in an interesting twist dropped the Canoptek Harvest in favour of the C'tan Shard formation, Conclave of the Burning One. Very, very interesting!
Overlord
5x Immortals
10x Warriors
10x Warriors
4x Tomb Blades
4x Tomb Blades
Destroyer Lord - Warlord
3x Destroyers
3x Destroyers
3x Destroyers
3x Heavy Destroyers
C'tan Shard
Cryptek - Veil of Darkness
Cryptek - Solar Pulse, God Shackles
Mission is Relic with ITC Maelstrom plus First Strike, Big Game Hunter, Table Quarters, on Hammer and Anvil.
Necrons choose to deploy and go first, which suits the Eldar just fine, just fine. We have a plan for this, and it involves last turn. The Decurion sets up exactly how you would expect, with everything on the table in a giant phalanx formation, the C'tan up front flanked by Destroyers with Warlord.
Eldar decide to deploy most of the fun stuff, just sending a unit of jetbikes, the rangers, and 2x Warp Spiders into Outflank reserve (Master of Ambush). Importantly, the Shining Spears string out all the way up to the DZ line while keeping the Exarch under the VSG, just in case we can get on the Relic first turn. Thanks to his Warlord trait, the Farseer deploys via infiltrate on his own behind the VSG, happy to command from the rear by casting Guide on the warp hunter.
Turn 1 and the Necrons decide to go completely balls-out -- Josh deploys the Veil of Darkness to teleport the C'tan shard across the table to land mere inches from the table edge, right under the Eldar void shields! He scatters a couple of inches, but makes it, wow both of our hearts were in our mouths with that one. If he had mishapped off the table into Ongoing Reserves, he would have had to walk back on via his table edge, which would have been both hilarious and tragic. Fortunately for him, this brazen play worked out, and he unleashes C'tan mind bullets upon the nearby scatbikes, killing 5 of 6 (the survivor passes morale). The rest of Necron shooting takes down the void shields but fails to do any damage. The main thing is he used jetbike thrust moves to move all the Destroyers and Tomb Blades further forward to really be aggressive. A lot of robots incoming!
Eldar turn 1 and first off the C'tan pops his Solar Pulse, meaning we can only Snap Fire against that unit. Man that will be virtually impossible to kill. Thinking long and hard, the Farseer comes up with a solution -- the Swooping Hawks bound forth, and entirely surround the C'tan unit so they will be trapped next turn. With that out of the way, Eldar focus on the Relic and chewing through some Destroyers, but with Night Fight and shooting into Ruins there is not much to write about. Importantly, the Shining Spears jet forth and pull off an assault into one unit of Tomb Blades, killing 2 and then chasing them down for First Strike to tie up the Tertiaries, phew that was huge. The Spears roll low for consolidation which is unfortunate, otherwise they would have been perfectly poised to continue their onslaught.
Turn 2 and the Necrons keep pushing forwards, the Warlord slaying the Shining Spears in assault, the C'tan shard slaying the Swooping Hawks in their entirety, and Deathmarks teleporting next to the C'tan to shoot some jetbikes (unsuccessfully). (Probably he should have avoided shooting them, and used Smash in combat to avoid killing them, locking the C'tan in combat for one more turn, but it didn't occur to us at the time.)
Eldar strike back with a VENGEANCE -- all of the reserves come in, the Wraithknight steps up to the C'tan, and the Farseer casts Guide juju on the Warp Hunter. Marked for the death, the C'tan shard with crypteks, along with the deathmarks, get sent back to the Warp by horrifyingly accurate Distortion blasts from the Warp Hunter -- rolled 4 shots with 3 direct hits thanks to Guide! Once the warp dust settles, only the C'tan is left with 2 wounds, which the Wraithknight's inferno lances quickly dispatches! 3 Deathmarks are also left standing, and Autarch Oroshi charges in with his power weapon, cutting them down in a single turn. In one fell swoop, the Eldar end of the battlefield is re-taken, and the fight transitions to the Relic.
Turn 3 for the Necrons and the Deucurion needs to start hunkering down on the Relic, bringing it back towards the Necron DZ. The Destroyer Lord assaults into a unit of Warp Spiders and kills them down to the Exarch, who successfully hit & runs away to deny a KP for Maelstrom. Tomb Blades, Heavy Destroyers, and a second unit of Deathmarks pour gauss fire into the Warp Hunter, glancing it twice but failing to kill the abominable Eldritch war engine. The tide has turned.
Eldar continue their onslaught, obliterating the Necron Warlord and his unit with Distortion blasts, inferno lance shots, and scatter lasers, and the game turns into mopping up. Warp Spiders and the Wraithknight push all the way into the Necron half of the table, claiming every unit before them in dominating firepower and assault. At the last moment, jetbikes turbo-boost into a gap created around the Relic, claiming it with objective secured, while Warp Spiders use their jetpack moves to spread into nearby table quarters. The Decurion is still able to win Maelstrom and have First Strike, but the Eldar take Primary and all three Tertiary points to win 7-5. A crushing victory!
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Josh made a fantastic and ballsy play by deep striking the C'tan shard turn 1, my hat goes off to him, I dont think he could have played this one any better than he did. Had the dice not fully converted to the Eldar persuasion in turn 2, he would have been in a very strong position.
MVP - Warp Hunter! While only getting in 2 solid rounds of shooting, those 2 rounds absolutely tore the heart out of the Necrons (C'tan and then Warlord, ouch).
Wooden Spoon - Scatbikes! Doesn't happen very often, but these guys basically sucked in this game. Die easily, and just can't chew through Reanimation Protocols.
Honourable Mention - Shining Spears, for a valiant turn 1 charge that kept the Eldar in the game with First Strike, and could have been truly glorious but for a low consolidation move.
Next up another brutal, brutal grudge match, this time against the True Kin with Craftworld allies -- I feel a bloodbath coming on!
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Nice victory Ibushi. Very good bat-rep too. Very well played by both you guys. Good work by the Spears... sometimes all you need is that little bit of a lift in the assault phase, so you can focus your shooting elsewhere. Yeah the Warp Hunter is the bane of the Necrons. Learned a lot from this one as I've struggled hardcore against Necrons in the past.
Great stuff buddy. Hope you get a chance to share your hobby progress on your Harlies when you get a chance. Awesome stuff bro, keep it up!
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Just caught up with this army and it's fantastic! Really striking colour scheme, great conversions (never got the hang of GS myself), and the freehand is stunning!
I also really like the fluff :) you've managed to make evil Eldar without making them Chaos worshippers. They're in exactly the same boat as the rest of the Eldar species, but they've adapted a different (cannibalistic) coping mechanism :)
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@Cavalier -- thanks man, yeah sorry I've dropped the ball on posting the next few games in this series, now with the holidays here I will get on it! That Shining Spears + Warp Hunter list has been so much fun to play and also very effective. Just try to never shoot the Warp Hunter into units in cover unless you can help it. I've found that if your ideal target is in 4+ cover or better, you're better off just shooting a suboptimal target in the open, as in that case at least you will just REMOVE what you're shooting at, and the certainty is gold. Saying that, in missions these days you often have to shoot whatever is on the objective and hope they fail cover saves... life is never that simple!
@Ynneadwraith -- really appreciate it man, glad to have you on board! As my good friend Colin Sherlow always says, don't be fooled that the Eldar are the good guys, really they are creepy super villains, and that's the way I like it! Certainly helps the fluff bunny in me when I throw down for those many kinslayer games -- Tanaka is here to consume your Farseer's twitching flesh!
Alright friends, onto the action here:
Game 3 vs JT's DE/CWE + Inquisitor -- you'll notice that JT is the top-ranked DE player in the ITC, so that's something
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(Same army, but from Wet Coast GT -- slightly different list)
DE CAD:
Lhamaen + Venom
Medusae x2 + Venom
3x Warriors x8 + Raider - splinter racks
Reavers x5
Raider
Venom
Ravager
VSG - 3x shields
Farseer - jetbike
Autarch - jetbike, mask, lance
Wraithguard x5 - D-scythes
Fire Dragons x5 - Exarch
4x Scatbikes x3
Dark Reapers x4 - Exarch
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor - servo skulls x3
Mission was ITC mission 2 or 3 -- Purge the Alien on Vanguard Strike
Farseer Tanaka rolls up Telepathy, getting Shriek, Mental Fortitude, Shrouding, and Invisibility -- FULL HOUSE! For Warlord trait he gets Master of Ambush which is also great. The enemy Farseer I believe was Strategic Genius this game.
Pre-Game Analysis:
The table has a large quantity of ruins everywhere, but VERY FEW pieces with LOS blocking capabilities (not at all like Cavalier's ruins!), which is very bad news for the Croneworld Eldar, who are surprisingly outgunned here. This is a really tricky one for the Cronekin, as the DE can out-gun us from turn 1 thanks to all those splinter weapons and scatbikes, then can also bring a really nasty Beta strike with the Medusae+Dragons+Wraithguard via Deep Strike. The Wraithknight is as good as dead if those guys drop in on him, and we dont want that to happen. Not to mention that the DE seize on a 5+ with a RE-ROLL, damn. OK so looks like we should aim for turn 2 Full Reserves and hope that our reserves come in AFTER the DE drop...
DE win the roll for First Turn and take it, setting up for a big Alpha -- PHEW! When he won that roll I was terrified he would take second turn and force the Cronekin to go first. Can totally understand that he wouldn't want to do that, as the Cronekin alpha strike could easily cripple his non-Reserved army, but still, that is what I was afraid of. DE sets the VSG central up front, flanked on either side by all 4 scatbike units, the Reavers+Farseer+Autarch, the Ravager, and Raiders with Warriors, the Dark Reapers are on the VSG battlements. In reserve are the Medusae, Fire Dragons, and Wraithguard, all waiting to Deep Strike in and bring the pain.
Tanaka has a sense of what the True Kin are up to, and quickly goes into Outflank reserve along with the Wraithknight, and two units of scatbikes (thanks Master of Ambush!), while 3 units of Warp Spiders prepare to Deep Strike alongside the Autarch+Hawks, the Shining Spears, Warp Hunter, and Scatbikes stay in regular Reserves, leaving just the 3x regular Jetbikes, Rangers, and 1x 5 Warp spiders deployed on the table spread through some ruins, with the VSG tucked far, far away in the extreme right corner as far away from the DE as possible.
Cronekin opt not to Seize.
Turn 1
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DE homebase (notice the Dark Reapers on the VSG battlements)
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DE moving up on the assault -- sorry for the blurry photos, I was pretty exhausted during this game :(
DE Raiders move up, scatbikes pour firepower into the Warp Spiders and Rangers which they can see, killing 1-2 from each squad, while one Raider with Warriors and one unit of Scatbikes turbo-boosts into the far left corner for a maelstrom point and to put a lot of pressure on the Eldar DZ. Well played so far by JT, but we are both noticeably fatigued as this game gets going.
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Cronekin scouts spy the enemy and hunker down, awaiting their fierce Warlord as he makes a flanking maneuvre
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Jetbikes hunker down behind the Croneworld temple in the far corner of the board before the shooting begins..
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Scatbikes turbo-boost up the Cronekin left flank
Cronekin just reshuffle a bit, and turbo-boost the 3x jetbikes into the far top right board corner to deny DE a maelstrom point. Go jetbikes!
Turn 2
All of the DE reserves come in -- Autarch wasn't able to stop them. Medusae drop down in the DE right corner to destroy the jetbikes, while the Dragons drop down in front of Rangers and Warp Spiders to send them back to the Croneworld. Wraithguard drop near the VSG but scatter backwards and mishap into Ongoing Reserves -- ouch, this is an amazing result for the DE, well played.
Shooting opens up and the Rangers take a few more casualties and run off the board, drat. Warp Spiders get shot down as well, dropping on the last armour save -- double drat. Well played by JT again, forcing the Spiders to flickerjump and then taking them out from another angle. Out in the right corner, the Medusae easily wipe the jetbikes too, ouch.
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It was nice knowing you, young jetbikers...
On the Eldar turn all the Reserves come in except for 1x 5 warp spiders and the Warp Hunter, crap. Was REALLY hoping the Warp Hunter would come in, as he is the least threatened unit in my army. Oh well, them's the dice. Tanaka and his scatbike entourage Outflank to the left, just sneaking inside the back of the DE void shields. Swooping Hawks drop down next to Tanaka in the back board corner, eyeing up some scatbikes. The second and third scatbike units come in right next to the friendly VSG, with the Wraithknight rolling the wrong side for Outflank and joining them in the Cronekin back right corner. Warp Spiders drop down centre table and mishap -- JT places them over near the Medusae for some easy killings next turn. Second Spider unit drops down where the Rangers once stood, and the 3rd Spider unit stays in Reserves. In the psychic phase Tanaka casts Invisibility on himself and attempts to Shriek the Dark Reapers, but is stopped.
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Tanaka brings the fight to the enemy, appearing where they least expect it, eliminating their cowering warriors in a blaze of firepower, then fading into invisibility once more
Shooting opens up with the left flank, Tanaka's unit easily wiping out the Dark Reapers before they could even shoot in this game. Swooping Hawks shoot into the scatbikes they targeted with their grenade blast, wiping them out too, nice. On the right flank the Wraithknight starts things off by split-firing his Inferno cannons into the Fire Dragon's Venom and the Medusae's Venom, hoping to destroy both. After some TRULY ABYSMAL rolling, he fails to do any damage. Fortunately the mishapped Warp Spiders are able to run 4" and get 2 models in range of the Medusae, rolling really hot and exploding the transport to also kill both occupants - score! 4 KPs so far. Next up the scatbikes open up on the nearby DE scatbikes which are not protected by void shields, wiping out a unit, then they shoot into the Fire Dragon venom, destroying it but failing to explode it, that's 6 KPs. Warp Spiders and Shining Spears shoot into the disembarked Dragons, killing several but leaving the Exarch and a single aspect warrior but failing to pin or destroy them, darn. The scatbikes then use assault thrust moves to bubble out around the Wraithknight to prevent D-scythes from killing him next turn. A pretty solid Beta Strike from the Croneworld Eldar, but will it be enough? The DE still have a large number of units, and a lot of teeth!
Turn 3
Wraithguard drop in and try to go after the Wraithknight anyway, landing just outside the void shields. Raiders continue pushing forwards, going after Warp Spiders on the right flank and centre, while the Reavers with Farseer and Autarch go backwards to hunt down Tanaka and Autarch Oroshi.
Shooting opens up with a very sneaky move -- the Wraithguard dismount and target the Shining Spears, clipping 2, and incidentally getting a stackload of hits on the nicely bunched up Warp Spiders, oh dear! When the dust settles the 2 spears are dead, and JT starts rolling for the Warp Spiders... he easily wipes the unit and then rolls wounds for the Exarch, which survives on a single wound left! Amazing! Next up Dragon fusion, Raider disintegrators and warrior splinter rifles pour into the remaining Shining Spears, but the Exarch survives on 1 wound as well! Champion! Raiders also shoot into the Warp Spiders on the far right, shooting them down to a single model but failling to destroy them just yet - nice! On the left side the Farseer with Reavers charge straight at the Swooping Hawks, making the assault and wiping the unit out with ease for 2 KPs. That puts the total at 5 to 6, very close still.
The Cronekin continue their assault, Warp Spiders dropping in centre board, but the Warp Hunter yet again fails to arrive! Gah! Oh well, have to work with what we have... Wraithknight moves up towards the Wraithguard, hoping to wipe them out in shooting, but poised for a dangerous assault if necessary. He switches the Inferno cannons to full auto and unleashes into the wraith constructs... then he ONLY GETS A SINGLE HIT, crap!!! 4 wraithguard left to go, and just the 5 newly arrived Warp Spiders to do it.. they roll a 6 for Battle Focus and get into range and clear LOS, open up with their BS5 shooting and hit all 10 times, ouch, then roll 3 rending hits and 5 regular wounds to easily wipe out the infernal Wraithguard out, game-changers! Scatbikes reposition ever so slightly and send shots through some windows to snipe out the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, easily doubling him out for another KP and to deny a Maelstrom objective. KPs 8-5 now. Second Scatbike unit shoots into the Wraithguard raider, eliminating it for 9-5. Tanaka and his scatbike unit decide they are too scared of the Reaver star and so cast Invisibility on themselves and turbo-boost back across the table into centre board. Over on the right side the lone surviving Warp Spider rolls Warp Jump to move up and hopefully get out of LOS... rolls Snake Eyes and disappears into the Warp. Darn, free KP for DE there.
Back in the Eldar DZ, the lone Shining Spear Exarch makes a run on the Fire Dragons, charging in and dodging a nasty snap shot from the Dragon Exarch with his 3+ jink (that was close!), he then quickly kills the last Aspect Warrior and remains locked in combat. At this point the Croneworld Eldar are pushing ahead in KPs, but are still a few points behind on the Maelstrom -- looks like we will need to play for the Tertiary objectives to win this one, which are Table Quarters, Ground Control, and Linebreaker. DE still vastly outnumber the Cronekin, so this is going to be close.
Turn 4
The Dark Eldar assault is starting to falter, and the clock is down to the final 30 minutes, but it is still their game to win if they successfully deny the last Eldar Maelstrom point, get Ground Control by contesting 2 objectives (they currently hold 2 and contest 1), by keeping Linebreaker, and by spreading out to win Table Quarters. DE home quarter currently has the VSG, Farseer+Autarch+Reavers, 1x 3 Scatbikes, the Ravager, and 1x Raider+warriors; top right quarter has 1x Raider+warriors; bottom left quarter has 1x Raider+warriors and Fire Dragons currently in assault, while the Eldar control their home quarter. There may be two units of scatbikes left still actually, not sure.
Meanwhile Eldar have Shining Spears, 1x 5 Warp Spiders, 1x Spider Exarch, 3x3 scatbikes, Farseer, Wraithknight, VSG, and the errant Warp Hunter, so… not many units. DE just need to deploy all their Warriors to max out units on the board and the only way Eldar can win Table Quarters is by going into a killing frenzy, especially if the dark Autarch, Farseer, and Reavers split up.
Instead, the fatigued DE general goes for the Eldar Warlord -- invisible Tanaka and his scatbike entourage! (Actually they had to, as they had no ability to take down 3 void shields and target anything else as they were all cleverly protected…). The DE Farseer+retinue and all three Raiders+warriors as well as Ravager all unleash into the unit, ultimately killing two scatbikes and not wounding the Warlord – and they pass morale. Scatbike shooting then pings through the Warp Spiders, laying several low but not wiping the squad. In assault the Fire Dragon Exarch lands a clean blow on the wounded Spear Exarch but his armour save holds and he then runs the Fire Dragon through with his lance -- take that!!! The Shining Spear Exarch consolidates forwards 5” and sets his eye on the Ravager!
Eldar Final Turn!
The Warp Hunter finally arrives and puts its D-flail template into the Raider, failing to destroy it outright but taking it down to 1 hull point and killing two embarked warriors. Scatbike shooting then takes down the Raider and the warriors spill out. At the same time Tanaka splits off from the surviving scatbike rider and joins with the Shining Spear Exarch to lance the Ravager – they both hit, penetrate, and ultimately destroy the Dark Eldar skimmer tank, surviving the explosion without a scratch – Eldar now firmly claim this quadrant and have a massive lead in KPs!
The top right quadrant, potentially claimed by 2x Raiders and 2x 8 Warriors, but because JT neglected to deploy the troops it is only held by 2 units… No point shooting them as they will just deploy, so 2 scatbike units move and turbo-boost alongside the Warp Spiders to claim the quarter 3-2, another quadrant for the Eldar!
Lastly the home quarter is held by the shield generator, Warp Hunter, and Wraithknight, who unleashes his mighty firepower into the enemy void shields for fun, knowing this battle is a victory for Croneworld Koxinga yet again.
Final score:
DE = Maelstrom + Ground Control + Linebreaker = 6
Cronekin = Primary (KPs 11-7) + Ground Control + Linebreaker + Table Quarters = 7!
A hard-fought victory over the Dirty Cousins! Very, very close to being a loss. In fact, DE should have won this to be honest.
MVP: Shining Spear Exarch for clearing out the Fire Dragons AND Ravager in a single turn to win a Table Quarters pretty much single-handedly! Not to mention after tanking SO MANY shots. Close runners up to the two Warp Spider aspect warriors who managed to take out the Medusae Venom with only 4 shots, and the 5 Warp Spiders who aced 4 Wraithguard with 10 shots – some fine, fine work there comrades!
Wooden Spoon: The Wraithknight for literally killing nothing despite three rounds of shooting, pretty shocking. At least he looked good? The Rangers failing morale to run off the table was not a good performance either, but at least they tried.
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Next up Day 2 and onto the top tables to defend the crown hopefully! Coming next is Tyranids with Genestealer Cult, followed by Craftworld Cheddar, the ultimate in soul-destroying Eldar lists! Can Tanaka maintain his honour as a tactician and a kinslayer?
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Great battle report!
Love seeing such close games, not having the Warp Hunter turn up until so late can be really damaging, they are such strong units and can do so much damage that they really can be game winning units.
Disappointing to see the Wraithknight do so poorly as well! I've been wanting to try a Skathach Knight for a little while now, I think I would probably lean towards the Deathshroud cannons rather than the Inferno though. Have you tried both?
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Yeah agreed. A lot of people assume that the Eldar (usually Craftworld) are 'good guys' because they're basically space elves and they hate Chaos.
They're not good guys. They're just insidious bad guys. Even the nicest of Craftworlders would throw humanity under a bus to save their own kind. It just so happens that some of their goals are the same as the poor, fumbling Mon-Keigh...for the moment at least ;)
And you've taken that a step further ;)
"Trust not in their appearance, for the Eldar are as alien to good, honest men as the vile Tyranids and savage Orks. There is no understanding them for there is nothing to understand - they are a random force in the universe."
-Imperial Commander Abriel Hume
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@Ynneadwraith -- YES, love it! The Craftworlders are just patiently waiting for their moment to strike at the Achilles Heel of the Imperium and bring the whole thing crashing down. Meanwhile on a Croneworld in the Eye of Terror... survive by any means!
@AuricsPride -- Cheers man, glad you like the batreps! This one really was a zinger, and just a couple of months back we had played each other on this exact scenario with the same lists (but pared down to 1500pts, which is VERY different for his army), and I had made a really mean Seize the Initiative on a 6 and just tabled him... so, he was prepared this time, and it was different. Really looking forward to playing JT again.
Alright team, time for the beginning of day 2 and the fight to defend the Crown!
Game 4 vs Matt's Flyrants+Genestealer Cult list (old GSC rules, not the new ones)
I had seen this list terrorizing the other tables, and given how unprepared my list is to deal with flyers or FMCs, was really hoping he would lose a game to Tau or something and I wouldn't have to play him... oh well, let's see how this goes. List as follows:
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Warlord Flyrant - FNP, Lance
Hive Flyrant – Scream, FNP, Run & Shoot
3x Mucolid
2x Lictor
Tyranid Starter Formation:
Hive Flyrant – Scream, Paroxysm
15x Gargoyles – with special Deep Strike redeployment ability
3x Warriors
Genestealer Cult:
Broodlord – Shriek, Invisibility, Terrify
Telepath – Shriek, Dominate, Shrouded
5x 12 Genestealer Cultists
Simple and to the point, looks like an elegant take on Flyrant spam with a very effective ground force with the Genestealers. Fortunately they don’t have come with Shrouded stock like most Tyranid lists do, but he rolled some nice psychic powers to cover that weakness (so long as he gets first turn).
Mission is ITC 4 – Hammer and Anvil, Scouring (6 objectives!), with Linebreaker, Warlord, and crucially Big Game Hunter – this will be very hard for Eldar to avoid losing, as the Tyranids only have to kill either the Warp Hunter or Wraithknight to pretty much guarantee this point. Not possible to keep both of those targets alive all game, so it's a writeoff in my mind. Going to be an uphill battle in my mind for sure...
Farseer rolls up Shriek, Dominate, Terrify, and Shrouded – had to keep rolling Telepathy to try for Invisibility or Shrouded to stop from getting assassinated really easily by 4 flying murder beasts, so really happy that Shrouded came through. Most importantly the Farseer also rolled up Master of Ambush for Warlord Trait, which is PURE GOLD on Hammer & Anvil deployment -- hello Outflanking scatbikes! Meanwhile the Tyranids got Strategic Genius, a solid trait.
Tyranids do win the roll to take First Turn and deploy first – and take it! The Eldar then just deploy the Void Shield Generator at max range, one unit of Warp Spiders strung out front in the shield, the Swooping Hawks + Autarch bubbled out for fun, ready to Skyleap, and the Wraithknight up front with a toe in the shield to provide some threat, plus he’s tough to kill without graviton. The plan here is that with all the Outflanking reserves, we can just reposition away from where the Flyrants are, hooray!
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The Tyranid swarm all set to go!
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This many models was legitimately intimidating, i'll admit
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Lictors then infiltrate in the centre on an objective, and then at the front-left edge of the Eldar DZ on an objective. Eldar put Shining Spears, 3x scatbikes+Warlord, and Rangers in Outflank, 3x Warp Spiders in Deep Strike, and the Warp Hunter and stock jetbikes in regular reserves, hoping they will stay out as long as possible.
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Cronekin hiding out in the bottom right corner, out of range.
Turn 1
Tyranids roll up hard and fast, wow they covered a lot of ground turn 1. The Flyrants open up on the shield and roll really well to bring it down with just two big bugs. The Warp Spiders then roll an abysmal 3” for Warp Jump and the third Flyrant kills 3 of them, but at least one gets out of LOS which is lucky. Finally the fourth big monster shockingly takes a wound off the Wraithknight! Well played by the Tyranids.
Eldar roll up Destroy 2 units for Maelstrom, so the Wraithknight decides to try and go for gold with the Lictors – he moves 12” towards one Lictor, setting up an 8” charge, and then pumps all of the inferno lance shots into the other Lictor for 4 wounds, but the dirty bug passes all of his 3+ cover saves and survives, while the other gets squashed under the Wraithknight’s boot to the Hammer of Wrath hit. Hawks Skyleap up and the Spiders shred 3 gargoyles then hide as best they can.
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Turn 2
Tyranids continue the onslaught, 3 Flyrants and the Gargoyles on a beeline for the Wraithknight, blasting him with devourer worms and Psychic Screams, causing 3 wounds and locking him up in assault with fearless Gargoyles. Genestealers keep moving up, holding a strong position in centre board with a Shrouded bubble in Ruins going on, then one unit of Genestealers on the far left max spread out around an objective. A second unit on the back right bubbled around an objective there, and 3 warriors in a ruin in centre backfield on objective 1.
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Bottom of Nid turn 2
Time for Eldar to turn up the gas – Shining Spears and Rangers outflank to the rear left, slicing up 7 genestealers with shuriken and falling back into cover out of charge range. Three scatbike units outflank right, joined by the Swooping Hawks, setting up a Shrouded bubble of their own and then pummeling the genestealers holding objective 3, wiping them out entirely, as well as obliterating the 3 tyranid warriors on objective 1. Good shooting from the Cronekin! Warp Hunter arrives and moves up behind the Void Shield Generator, sending barrage blasts into the shrouded Cult Telepath for a few wounds, then Warp Spiders Deep Strike in and shred the foul hybrid psyker and several of his entourage, eliminating one Shrouded bubble, while two units of Warp Spiders stay in reserve (double 1’s!). A decisive round for the Croneworld Eldar.
In combat the Wraithknight easily dispatches the gargoyles and finds himself in the open again – he moves away to hopefully deny genestealers an assault, sitting with 2 wounds left.
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Bottom of Eldar turn 2 - no Gargoyles left, but you can see the problem... Also the Warp Hunter is just "hanging out" up top there
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Outflankers in the top left corner after shredding some 'stealers
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Tanaka and his jetbike minions in the top right corner, after blasting away a lot of gribblies
Turn 3
Tyranids keep their focus on the objectives within their control, and on banging out the Warp Hunter and Wraithknight for Big Game Hunter – Psychic Screams tear through the Wraithknight and he goes down to 1 wound, two Flyrants shoot into him and finally bring the behemoth toppling to the ground. He really did not roll very well for saves or FNP this game, but it was going to happen sooner or later.
A third Flyrant circles around behind the Warp Hunter and manages to destroy its shuriken catapults and take down two hull points – it survives!
The Warlord Flyrant turns around and heads backfield, sending burrowing worms into the Shining Spears for one casualty, nothing else is really in range and Warp Spiders just get out of the way with LOS-blocking containers nearby. The wheels are starting to come off somewhat, but a unit of genestealers does make a solid charge into a unit of Warp Spiders, rending them to death in a fit of gore, but shockingly the Exarch survives on 1 wound and successfully hit & runs away!
Eldar hit back with a vengeance, targeting the key objectives to clear them for next turn in case the game ends. One more Warp Spider unit arrives, along with a unit of jetbikes, which hunkers down in the Eldar backfield to force a Flyrant to stay there to deal with them. Warp Spiders drop down centre-left and scatter backwards into an unfortunate position near the Shining Spears, so they waste their shots into the Tyranid Warlord for lack of targets, then run and jetpack out of LOS of the genestealers. Shining Spears move up to send shuriken into the Warlord also, for three hits but no wounds. Scatbikes pour firepower into the remaining Lictor, trying to score a maelstrom point for destroying a unit, but the tough critter survives with one wound left. The Warp Hunter moves and turbo-boosts onto an objective with some Warp Spiders, while the Swooping Hawks previously there opt to Skyleap once more.
Turn 4
Scrambling for time the Tyranids try to hold as many objectives and target the Eldar Warlord for tertiary points, along with Linebreaker and Big Game Hunter for a winning position. Shooting takes out a few jetbikes and the Warp Hunter, but is not spectacular.
Eldar know it is the death knell of the Tyranids, the Hawks dropping down to clear one 3-point objective of xenomorph hybrids where the Warp Hunter once was, the last Warp Spider unit joining their cousins to clear off a 2-point objective on the middle left, while jetbikes join the Hawks on their objective for obsec, the Shining Spears hold Tyranid objective 1, and the 2 surviving Warp Spiders from turn 1 bubble out from the VSG to prevent Flyrants from landing on the Eldar home objective.
With 5 minutes left, we decide to crank out another speed turn!
Turn 5
Tyranids move in on the jetbikes and swooping hawks, blasting both jetbike units into oblivion but running out of damage output and out of charge range on the hawks. More shots pour into the Eldar Warlord but to no effect, and finally the Tyranid Warlord lands and unleashes into a Warp Spider unit on objective 2, killing only 1 warrior, and contesting that objective.
Eldar turn around and put the one remaining obsec jetbike on the 2-point objective by the Tyranid Warlord, the Swooping Hawks on a 3-pointer, then hold both 1-pointers plus a bonus point for Gargoyles, versus the Tyranid bonus point for Warp Spiders then 1x 3 and 1x 2 for a total of 8-6 on the Primary. For good measure the Eldar unload all their weapons into the Tyranid Warlord, wounding the big bug but failing to kill him.
Eldar manage to deny enough Tyranid maelstroms on the last 2-3 turns to take the lead as well, winning Secondary.
Tertiaries are Big Game Hunter and Linebreaker to Tyranids, with Linebreaker to Eldar plus Primary AND Secondary for a 9-2 victory to the pointy ears!
Man this was a tight game, with good tactical decisions, mistakes, and pretty decent dice on both sides. Had Matt played a bit faster with all his horde deployments and movements to get one more turn in, he definitely would have won it, so that was both a good feeling and a guilty one at the end of the game, but so it goes.
MVP is really tough to pin down in this one, as it felt like pretty much the entire army pulled its weight really well, working as a cohesive whole to bring down the enemy. Autarch+Swooping Hawks did cause a serious amount of damage in this one, and survived to boot, so kudos to them, while several units of Warp Spiders really screwed around with the Tyranids to cause damage, distract, draw fire, and then escape with just 1-2 models left to deny KPs and bonus points, so kudos to the Spider Shrine warriors too.
Wooden Spoon goes to the sad Warp Hunter in this one, who just didn't have the right targets for his weapons, and without Corsair-style Deep Strike just had no way to cover the distance. He was pretty much destined for death in this game, and that's exactly how it played out. This is a major reason why the list has transitioned away from using double Warp Hunter to just a single grav tank, for weak matchups like this where Hunters can potentially cost you the game...
Onwards and upwards to the top table and the final showdown with Craftworld Cheddar!
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Great batrep :) good to see a close matchup with Tyranids. Well played on both sides.
Oh, and came up with the perfect descriptor for the Eldar's attitude towards the Imperium yesterday: 'The enemy of my enemy is my meatshield' ;)
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Great bat-rep as always bud. Fantastic game... always a nightmare going up against those dang Flyrants. Sounds like he had a really cool list. I'd love to play against something like that.
Really nice to see the Hawks+Autarch get to do their thing. They really excel against armies like Bugs, Tau, Guard, Ad-Mech etc. Its Marines where they don't have any obvious targets (besides their flyers if they have any).
Tough match-up for the Warp Hunter... he's such a target against little hordey type armies supported by flying beasts its no easy task for him.
Well played as always my friend.
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@Ynneadwraith -- baha 'The enemy of my enemy is my meatshield', love it!! So perfect! The other thing is that back when I played Craftworld Eldar I used to be really defensive about losing models, deep down wanting to protect the race and everything, but now, playing Croneworld Eldar, death is but a fleeting detour on the path of adaptation... These days I have absolutely no qualms about suiciding my troops and taking horrendous casualties on the assault...
@Cavalier -- Cheers man glad you enjoyed it, agreed that Matt's bug list was pretty cool, bringing together the old GSC elements with the Flyrant spam you would expect. Was pretty lucky to face him in Hammer & Anvil though, and had he gotten in even a single more turn his Flyrants would have utterly punished my army, it was a mean list!
OK team, it's been a long time coming but here is the gruelling finale to this tale of tournament destruction -- table 1, two undefeated Eldar armies: the Crone-kin versus Craftworld Cheddar...
Farseer - jetbike, singing spear, Spirit Stone, Warlord
2x Warlocks - jetbikes
Scatbikes x3
Scatbikes x3
Scatbikes x3
Scatbikes x3
Scatbikes x3
Hornet x1 - pulse laser x2
Hornet x1 - pulse laser x2
Hornet x1 - pulse laser x2
Warp Hunter x1
Warp Hunter x1
Warp Hunter x1
Skathach Wraithknight - Deathshroud Cannons x2
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Wow the Alpha Strike list from absolute hell.
See now when people hear I am playing Eldar, this is what they think is in my army case. However when this kind of list appears across the table from a raggedy pointy ear like myself, my first thought is that this guy probably hasn't been playing Eldar for very long! Not necessarily true, just often is what pops into my head. Anyway, Craftworld Cheddar has at this point tabled 4 opponents up till now, so we know that Farseer Iain is not messing around, and it turns out he is a well placed ITC general too (reminded me a few times about this), so I was looking forward to some down and dirty dice rolling action.
Time for Tanaka the Kinslayer to step up and work his magic -- a quick reminder of Croneworld Koxinga's Warhost for this event:
Farseer Tanaka - jetbike, singing spear, Warlord
Autarch Okomori the Fox - wings, banshee mask, power sword
3x Scatbikes x3
Jetbikes x3
Rangers x5
Warp Hunter
Skathach Wraithknight - Inferno Cannons x2, Scatter Laser x1
Void Shield Generator
Spider Host:
3x Warp Spiders x5 - Exarch
Aspect Host:
Shining Spears x4 - Exarch - lance
Warp Spiders x5 - Exarch
Swooping Hawks x6 - Exarch - power sword
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Mission is Vanguard Strike, Big Guns Never Tire, Ground Control, Linebreaker, Warlord
Farseer Tanaka rolls up Shriek, Terrify, Dominate, and Shrouding… not bad
Farseer Cheddar rolls up Guide, Prescience, Doom, pretty good too.
Both Farseers roll Conqueror of Cities as their warlord traits, and both deployment zones have a ruin, with a couple more in centre table, so pretty good as well! Night Fighting rolls up, so that works for the Croneworlders nicely.
Now for the big one -- Cheese-dar win the dice-off for First Turn and, after some deliberation, Iain opts to go for the Alpha. Vanguard Strike gives him lots of options, and doesn’t let the Croneworlders escape very easily, as there’s virtually no LOS-blocking terrain, just a ruin and some area scrub. This will be big. There is a good chance the Craftworld warhost can just gut Warhost Koxinga before it can move. Either that or just table the models on the board before reserves can come in...
Cheese-dar deploy in force, placing their Void Shield Generator centrally and filling up the shield area with scatbikes, the Farseer+warlocks, Wraithknight, and the three warp hunters, keeping two Hornets out to the further right edge and one in the middle.
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After carefully measuring the ranges, it looks like deploying anything on the table looks like sheer suicide. The Croneworld plan for Turn 1 is to hopefully roll “hold objective 1 in your DZ” and most importantly to not get tabled. Fortunately we have units just for that kind of assignment – Rangers deploy in a zig-zag through some ruins to prevent shooting from a single scatbike unit from wiping them out, and guaranteeing 2+ cover, while holding objective 1. Void Shield Generator doesn't quite fit in the corner of the board due to terrain, it’s about ¼” too close, argh. Drop it down behind the Rangers instead, in range of 2 warp hunters – pretty sure that’s a goner.
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Brave Rangers?
After much, much consternation, finally the Wraithknight deploys in the absolute corner of the board, with the Shining Spears in front to possibly provide some cover and tank some shots. The Wraithknight is out of range of the Warp Hunters for turn 1, but the Hornets will easily be able to draw a bead on him, as well as some scatbikes, and then the biggest concern of mine is that the Warp Hunters with Guide and Prescience will be able to 'walk' templates over to him and kill it despite being out of range... Oh well, knowing that we will likely need every minute we can get to take this game to turn 6-7 to try and win, no point messing around -- let's get this party started! Everything else is staying in Reserves, either coming on via the table edge or by deep strike.
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Brave Shining Spears!
Turn 1
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The Warhost Advances!
Cheese-dar have to destroy two units, and ideally roll hot and go for the tabling. Two Hornets first scout and then move further out to the right, getting mostly clear LOS on the WK. Bikes and Hunters shuffle up and unload into the Void Shield Generator, taking down 2 shields with pulse lasers, the third with scatter lasers, then obliterating the fortification with two loads of Destroyer barrage. Deathshroud cannons reach out and kill two Rangers as well, who then fantastically fail their morale check and run 9” – it’s so close to the board edge we decide to dice-off for whether they are off the table or not, and they survive with some luck. Not so bad! But they are still running away which is unfortunate. Pulse lasers also pound the Wraithknight for some wounds, taking off 1-2. Overall some decent damage, but nothing major and the Croneworlder's are in a position to get busy.
Croneworld turn 1 and the Wraithknight has had enough – he pops back into Ongoing Reserves with his warp generator. The Rangers fail their regroup morale check and actually do run off the board now, giving up a second Maelstrom point in their cowardice. Shining Spears shimmy into the absolute corner of the board to try and bait the Cheese-dar into moving up into range and stretching out a bit to try and tag them. An uneventful turn, but we are still in this game!
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The Rangers and Wraithknight leave the battlefield for their nefarious purposes... cowards!
Turn 2
Cheese-dar don't go for the bait this time, and instead condense the forces somewhat for the impending Croneworld counter-attack. Farseer and WK shift slightly right, scatbikes stay in a big group, nicely spaced at 2” of course, under the VSG. Warp Hunters are in a triangle of death, one in the far back left, one in the front of the void shields in a ruin, and one on the right corner at the edge of the shields, in front of the WK and Farseer. One Hornet moves up on the left to send some pulse laser shots into the Shining Spears, while one Hornet on the right also stays out wide. So far just the two Hornets are not under the shields for next turn.
Farseer Cheddar throws out Guide and Prescience, and his entourage put up Conceal for some nice Shrouding.
In the shooting phase, all three hornets send pulse lasers streaking into the Shining Spears as well as two mega blasts from the Deathshroud cannons, all for just one casualty. That 3+ jink save is clutch!
Now for the big moment… Reserve rolls. In a feat of unholy rolling, every single unit comes in on a 2+. Scatbikes move up in the left corner to shoot their jetbike counterparts and warp hunters, warp spiders deep strike on the far left to try and Battle Focus inside the VSG if necessary; two squads scatter back 8-9” while the third scatters forwards 4”, but fortunately none of them mishap so that is a real turn of luck too. The fourth Spider squad decides to drop on the far right, in front of the Warp Hunter and WK, partly as a distraction, partly to go after the Warlord if left unchecked. Farseer Tanaka comes on with a shuriken jetbike entourage, throws up a Shrouded aura, and turbo-boosts into the leftmost corner of the Cheese-dar DZ just to confuse everyone, and also to put some very resilient Obsec on a maelstrom over there. Swooping Hawks deep strike right beside Farseer Tanaka with a toe inside the void shields, looking to drop a grenade attack on some unsuspecting scatbikes, but in a fit of excitement I forget to do the attack before we start the Pyschic Phase. Wraithknight decides to walk on board right, back to where the Rangers were in their fancy ruin, with solid LOS and range on a Warp Hunter in the open. Meanwhlie the Croneworld Warp Hunter moves up behind a ruin centre-left and draws a bead through some windows onto the enemy Void Shield Generator.
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The assault begins! This is what a real Warhost looks like ::)
After thinking about whether it’s better to start off with the Inferno lances or scatter lasers or destroyer barrage to take down the void shields, finally the Warp Hunter goes for glory and lets rip. Rolling up a solid 3 shots and hitting with all of them into the Void Shield Generator itself, it manages to take down 2 shields. The Inferno lances then open up, scoring an almighty 10 shots, 7hits, taking the shield down and causing 4 punches on a Warp Hunter, two of which get through the jink save, and which cause the loathsome artillery tank to explode with incandescent splendour, taking two scatbikes in the explosion but also claiming a friendly Warp Spider. Wow what a fireworks show! Finally the Wraithknight hits the enemy Warlord 4 times with his scatter laser, killing a Warlock through his 2+ cover. Damn!
With the shields gone, it is open season over on the left… Hawks, warp spiders, and scatbikes unleash a cascade of firepower, taking out 2 scatbike units, maiming a third, destroying the leftmost Hornet, and critically glancing out a second Warp Hunter. Over on the right side, the Warp Spider unit there also maims a fourth scatbike unit, while the Shining Spears turbo-boost up next to the WK on objective 1 behind the Ranger ruins. At the end of the phase one of the lone cheddar scatbikes fails his morale and falls back 13” to stop just before the board edge, leaving just one more lone scatbiker, one unit of two, the Farseer and his warlock bodyguard, an unscathed Warp Hunter, two Hornets out on the far right, and the Deathshroud Wraithknight. What a brutal turn for the Croneworlders – not pulling any punches this time at all.
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Monofliament mess - not much left to look at
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A few Cheddar survivors on the right flank, but not many
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Heavy hitters waiting to strike
Turn 3
Cheese-dar weigh the options and go into survival mode – the Wraithknight along with Farseer+warlock decide to assault the Warp Spiders right in front of them, and so move up but don’t shoot. Hornets shift towards the right board edge, sending pulse lasers into the Wraithknight for two more wounds (2 left), then the Warp Hunter carefully weighs his options of either attempting to escape via Flat Out, or unleashing a last deadly barrage. He opts to make a last stand and shoots into the Inferno Wraithknight, clipping him twice and causing three wounds, no cover or FNP saves allowed – the beast is imploded into the warp in an aurora of wraithbone and fell energies! The blast didn’t quite catch the shining spears though, who escape unscathed yet again. Scatbikes do decide to turbo-boost out of range, escaping to the far top right corner, hoping to stay alive for a couple more turns to finally score objectives if possible. Wraithknight and Farseer Council charge into the Warp Spiders and are able to slaughter them, but not before losing a Warlock to some feisty aspect warriors, and a nasty rending wound on the Wraithknight from Overwatch, ouch.
Croneworld Koxinga feels the rushing frenzy of the smell of blood in the air, closing in on these ill-intentioned Craftworld invaders. Shining Spears boost forwards, considering going for the Warlord kill with the Star Lance, or a multi-charge on the surviving Hornets packed together, finally choosing the Hornets. Croneworld Warp Hunter pivots and unleashes Destroyer power into the Deathshroud Wraithknight, hitting him twice and causing 5 wounds, enough to bring the construct toppling down in warped pieces. Scatbike shooting then rips into the enemy Warlord, unceremoniously breaking his Rune Armour with focused light and burning searing holes through the slowly crystallizing body beneath. Further shooting puts a hull point on both Hornets, causing both to jink, and the Shining Spears charge and destroy one of them, for no casualties. Over by the enemy shield generator, Swooping Hawks prepare their haywire grenades and also charge and destroy the Warp Hunter lingering there, removing that last awesome threat from the field. Another brutal turn.
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The Strike of Spears -- ending game 5 in style
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Autarch Okomori claims her first victim of the tournament -- the last Warp Hunter! Pretty sure she didn't do any other damage this event ha
Turn 4
The turns are going quickly now, and with just a Hornet and 3 scatbike models left, and no LOS-blocking terrain to hide behind, it is looking like the Cheese-dar have finally been overpowered by their own foul stench and are beginning to regret opening the package. Scatbikes send 12 laser shots ripping into the Shining Spears for 1 casualty, but they pass morale, while the jinking Hornet uses Skimmer Assault to Flat Out and take potshots at Farseer Tanaka himself! Hitting with 2 shots, one failed Look Out Sir later and it suddenly all hangs in the balance for what may have become too cocky of a Warlord, but both jink saves are passed and the threat is quickly dealt with. At that point Iain concedes the 11 point win to Croneworld Koxinga, understanding that the Shining Spears will easily clean up the remaining Scatbikes, while the Hornet is dead meat in the face of 9 scatbikes and a Warp Hunter this turn. Another hugely successful Beta strike counter-deploy for the history books. This one I had anticipated becoming a late game burn, but the turn 2 drop was so unrelentingly severe that it quickly turned into a massacre instead of tit-for-tat like often happens with Eldar. Great game, throroughly enjoyed myself and Iain said he did too, despite the brutal loss. Look forward to hopefully playing the man again soon, and in the meantime I'll do up some dead yellow Eldar bits on my Croneworld scenic bases...
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Moments before Iain concedes....
MVP: Shining Spears for being the only unit from Turn 1 that survived until the end of the game. And they were the skilled riders to put the nail in the Cheese-dar coffin to boot! They easily could have aced the enemy Warlord in turn 3 as well, busting him up with S8 Star Lance double death, but the Hornets were a better tactical choice. Jinking on a 3+ or 2+ with Stealth is just so amazing, plus the re-rolling leadership 9 and Skilled Rider makes them that much more survivable, even if they are basically just expensive shuriken catapult bikes 90% of the time in terms of offensive output. Love the additional subtle options these guys provide.
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With that the bloodthirsty warriors of Koxinga once again stood victorious over the many corpses of alien, human, Eldritch and other tawdry creatures of the galaxy, defending the Attack X crown for the second year running! Man this was probably the hardest schedule of matchups I've played in a row too -- 4 just brutal games in a row of strong opponents with mean lists, grudge matches with solid tactics, and some really good looking armies to boot. Hugely fun event, very competitive and very satisfying to take Best Overall for a second time running. Most shockingly, and arguably more impressively to be honest, my teammate Garry also managed to win Best Sportsman for the second time running (also taking 3rd place Overall with a 4-0-1 score, very very well played). Can't wait till next year and the third go at this event, the Cronekin will be ready!!
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That was a real nail-biter! I would have been sitting there paralyzed, if someone unpacked an army like that in front of me. I probably would have ended up shaking his hand, thanking him for his time and packing up my army before he even deployed. You really came to the table with a plan and it shows. Bravo!
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You and me both! I've always been reluctant to thrown Guardians into the frey, and the whole army in general, just because I'm such a fluff hound!
So, I've come up with some fluff for my craftworld that sidesteps that :) basically, they had a similar Iyanden-style extinction event against Nurgle Plaguebearers, but instead of looking to their ancestors for help they turned to their treacherous kin in Commorragh.
In exchange for their support in inter-kabal strife and safe harbour in realspace, the Commorrites provided access to their cloning technology. They used this technology to bolster their battered warhosts, with each clone earning its right to citizenship (and a name) by surviving combat. If they die, then it's one more soul into the gestalt consciousness of Ynnead :)
Great batrep, really nailbiting stuff against a really evenly matched foe :) lucky that the turn 2 shooting was so brutal for the Croneworlders. Really thought you'd get blown to smithereens on planet bowling ball!
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The brutality of that list cannot be understated. I remember seeing it in Lawrence's LVO report on Tabletop Tactics. Wowzers beyond tough! Wish you had some photos to accompany, because despite the cheese this guy's army does look very striking. Anyway great report and a classic win. Great stuff as always ;D
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Thanks team, appreciate the comments! Yes this game truly was a nail biter, and was super fun to play. It seems like more of a blowout victory in hindsight, but at the time it really felt like walking a razorwire tightrope where one misstep and you lose your nuts...
Most importantly, I'm finally back home with solid internet coverage, and so I've uploaded ALL the pictures. I repeat, ALL THE PICTURES -- check out the last three batreps for some added pictorial quality.
Here are some more photos of the Croneworld Koxinga Warhost from its raid into Cavalier space (I'll put my Lions of Asuryan photos on Cav's thread):
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The Two Brothers Tanaka: one a Farseer, the other the High Kabuki
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Croneworld Koxinga circa 2010 -- oh how far we have come! You should still be able to spot the two Tanaka brothers in there... along with some of my favourites like Prince Ibushi -- the Croneworld Avatar, and the Croneworld Wraithlords
Ok that's all for now, will be back next week with some updates on TSHFT and venturing out to Seattle
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Update! Do it!
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Oh man, just read your last battle report!
That Cheesedar army is really nasty, massive tip of the hat to you for being able to outplay him and take such a convincing win!
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Any thoughts on the new Aeldari and Black Guardians?
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There's plenty of discussion about the new Black Guardians to be had over here (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=230058.0).
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Thanks Auric, glad you enjoyed it! Man it got my heart rate going, that's for sure! When everything came in turn 2 and just obliterated the lion's share of his army it was truly a glorious moment and a massive relief... Also it gave me new experience in playing null deploy style where there is literally no point in putting models on the table. Glad it worked this time, and this is an experience that has served me very well since then...
Thanks Colin! I will do some updates for you my friend! Thoughts on the Aeldari and Black Guardians... Well the Ynnari look super strange to me, I think they bring a mechanism that can help Eldar deal with being Alpha struck in a whole new and strange way, but your model positioning will have to be laser perfect. The thing I am probably most excited about is the mashing up of the factions into the Aeldari concept (now the Reborn Ynnari), but the amount of excitement this brings my Harlequins is extreme. The other thing that gets me excited beyond words is... THE YNCARNE! Oh my goodness Ynnead is awakening, this stuff is BONKERS, I *NEVER* would have believed GW would start moving in this direction and bringing out fresh new crazy like this even 6 months ago. Already picked up my Yncarne model and did one test game and it kind of blew my mind, that beast is very very interesting.
Black Guardians... well as some of you may know, the samurai Eldar concept began as an Ulthwe Strike Force under the Eye of Terror rules, so Black Guardians are very close to my heart. I am very excited for these rules for the potential they offer, and I love that they can bring something unique. The fact that you oddly cannot take any psykers with them bugs me a lot, the fact that you cannot join ANY characters to the unit (yes to avoid deathstars, but still) also bugs me quite a bit as I would love to put the Visarch or Yvraine in there, even just an Ulthwe Farseer and Autarch would seem reasonable. But OK I get it. At the competitive level I could see 1-4 units of scatbikes being very effective for the nominal points increase, or maybe 2 units of scats and 2 single war walkers for a bit less points. Saying that, I think they will be much more fun as a mid-tier fluff & fun army at lower points levels, say 1k-1500 points, where Guardians are really cool and can actually be a menace.
The real craziness right now is Strength from Death, it truly is beyond understanding in some ways. Eldar always struggle with alpha strike armies, particularly Marines with a lot of drop pods etc.
I did a playtest against Battle Company featuring 6 drop pods with a lot of meltas/flamers a Dreadnought and 3 grav centurions and then 6 scouting Razorbacks/Rhinos loaded with grav. It is clear that jetbikes benefit from the Ynnari rules inordinately, so I took a lot of jetbikes, scatbikes, reavers, and then a few warp spider units, backed up by one squad of dark reapers under a void shield, and the Yncarne! Basically what happened is the SM pods arrived turn 1 and killed a jetbike unit, this triggered 2 units to Soulburst back and kill a comabt squad, which triggered a further 2 units to Soulburst and shoot, which took out a Rhino, which triggered the Yncarne to appear near the end of the shooting phase right in the middle of the SM forces. Panicking, the SM player decided to unload the rest of his graviton shooting into that terrifying creature, taking down 3 wounds, but also sparing the many jetbike units he could have devastated. On the next turn, the Ynnari moved up and just BLASTED the SM forces to smithereens, it was truly horrendous. Right now it seems that Strength from Death soulburst actions happen EACH PLAYER TURN which just seems overpowered. Playing it this way the Ynnari were able to get a free shooting phase in the SM turn, then with some good positioning you get two shooting phases for each Ynnari unit in your own shooting phase as well. Truly, truly insane.
The Yncarne was pretty solid, not at Wraithknight levels without stomp or a shooting ability sadly, but the Fearless + FNP bubble is no joke, and his movement shenanigans are THROUGH THE ROOF. Each turn I would send a jetbike or reaver unit into the SM backfield.. if he didn't kill it they would just loiter around and deny maelstrom. If they DID kill the jetbikes, *pop* Yncarne suddenly appears in their backfield and is ready to charge on the following turn. Really egregious stuff. Oh the Yncarne is on a single wound left? Shoot a unit far away from the action and *pop* suddenly he is miles away. And so long as you keep some jetbikes around him, every time they die he regenerates a wound on a 3+!??!?! Haha so much fun.
Last but not least, I was not a fan of the Revenant discipline at first, since it is mostly witchfire focused and has very mediocre buffs (6++ in a 7" bubble? Yeah I think not), but after playing the Yncarne with 3-4 witchfires, it is actually a lot of fun being able to throw those attacks around in the psychic phase like candy, especially the Nova one... love it! Unfortunately the Revenant powers really struggle with vehicles and artillery, but against infantry they are mean. Yeah the primaris kind of sucks, but if you can get it off with 2 warp charges it does let the Yncarne easily snipe out heavy weapons.
Huh this post ended up being way longer than I expected, I'll leave it there for now. But coming up... TSHFT report!! My list from TSHFT was virtually identical to the Attack-X one, and these were the matchups:
Game 1 vs Seer Council + scatpack + hornets + dark reaper spam, ouch
Game 2 vs ITC #1 Space Wolf player rolling Superfriends deathstar... this was an intense tactical match
Game 3 vs. Aurelio's War Convocation (ITC #4 ranked Skitarii) > VERY close game
Game 4 vs. Geoff "inControl" (ITC ranked #2 GSC) and his GENESTEALER CULT aka the ELDAR KILLERS >> I almost cried during this match
Game 5 vs. Alex Gonzalez's Renegades (ITC Best Knights Renegades) > think double chaos knight, zombies, and artillery to the 9s
Game 6 vs. Jonathan's Bark-bark star... what a wacky game, great way to end things
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Great stuff as always Ibushi. PfD is ridiculous... definitely will be covering that in Splintermind. Recording the Fracture of Biel-Tan next week... I'm expecting some scathing commentary from Thor. Feel you on the Ulthwe stuff too. Trying that out this weekend. Looking forward to your report too, hope you did well. Great little teaser there... some doozies for lists lol.
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Dear Cavalier! What is this splintermind that you speak of? Link me!
Looking forwards to hearing your battle reports Ibushi.
And yeah I am stoked to give the black guardians and the Yncarne a try. I know the VSG is great, but I feel that the black guardians will give me more of what I want. Which is to fully null deploy when that suits my needs. An Autarch will for sure be required.
And you know I love to null deploy.
I have also been thinking that black guardian and sky burner corsairs could work really well. Again with CWE to get an Autarch. But right now I am interested in the fancy new Eldar. I have so much Eldar/Dark Eldar and harlequins it's not even funny. So stoked
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Dear Cavalier! What is this splintermind that you speak of? Link me!
Take a look at Cavalier's signature for the link ;).
I'm glad that you're enjoying your games Ibushi and I hope that the battles went well. Looking at the lists you're up against, all I can say is rather you than me.
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Alright team, glad to see this thread getting some love -- ask and ye shall receive!!
Game 1 versus Eldar from the Craftworld, those cranky old gits
Mission is ITC 1 - Emperor's Will + Linebreaker on Dawn of War
Player is an old hand with lots of classic Eldar models (and a lot of new also), but not super familiar with 7th ed competitive play, so that is a good start for my end as this year at TSHFT we are here to win, or die trying!
Josh's Eldar:
Farseer – jetbike [Fortune on this guy]
4x Scatbikes x3
3x Hornet
Wraithknight – 2x inferno cannons, 2x scatter lasers
Seer Council - jetbikes
2x Farseer – Warlord [Shrouding and double Shriek, but no invisibility!]
5x Warlocks
Aspect Host:
3x Dark Reapers x3 – Exarch - starshot
Josh opted to deploy and go first, spreading out from left to right across his DZ, with the Wraithknight, Seer Council, and Dark Reapers grouped towards the centre, two hornets out on the far right, and one on the far left.
He made a big mistake with his psychic powers, rolling both Seer Council Farseers on Telepathy in the hopes of getting Invisibility, but ultimately failing. Then he rolled the third Farseer on Runes of Fate and got Fortune, but strangely didnt join him with the Seer Council during deployment. This created a significant weakness in his defences.
The Cronekin did not fancy being shot off the table in turns 1 and 2, so went into reserves almost entirely. Only the Wraithknight (out of range of much of the enemy shooting), Rangers, and two units of Warp Spiders deployed to hold the shield generator, hiding under the void shields. Really hoping the Wraithknight will survive turn 1 so he can pop back into reserves and do a turn 3 fake-out redeployment.
Turn 1 Josh cautiously moved forward while blasting away the void shields and almost destroying both the shield generator itself as well as taking the Wraithknight down by 3-4 wounds in turn 1, really nasty stuff! In response the Crone-kin played around terrain and reserves, the Wraithknight popping off the table and Warp Spiders staying out of LOS. While we didn't achieve much, Josh was fatally over-extending his troops throughout the board by going after maelstrom points, positioning to get around terrain, and generally feeling confident instead of castling up.
Turn 2 the majority of Tanaka’s reserves arrived, coming in on the extreme left corner away from most of the Craftworlds firepower and focusing down the Fortune farseer, Wraithknight, and jetbikes on that side of the field like a finely honed laser. The next two turns were absolutely devastating for the Craftworld army, as the Cronekin made their way across the battlefield eliminating all in their path and using terrain and range to avoid any return fire. 3 units of Warp Spiders also deep struck on the right corner to take out all the hornets and distract the seer council and dark reapers while Tanaka advanced from the left. Finally in turn 5 the Craftworld Eldar were completely eliminated with time still left on the clock -- 11 to zero victory for Tanaka, and no less than three Farseer soulstones to claim!!
Looking back at this game, had Josh been more focused and aggressive in turn 1, it would have been a really hard fight for the Cronekin, but by detaching the Fortune farseer and spreading out his whole army, it made the Reserve play all the more powerful as it was able to focus fire at will. Being more aggressive, Josh probably should have put all his Farseers together, juiced up Fortune and Shrouding, then turbo-boosted straight at the void shield generator and hidden underneath it until the reserves came on. That would have been scary.
OK onto game 2 and a totally different experience...
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Game 2 vs. Mike’s Superfriends-star: Relic on Hammer & Anvil
Rune Priest – thunderwolf, claw, storm shield
Iron Priest – thunderwolf, hammer, storm shield
Iron Priest – thunderwolf, hammer, storm shield
15 wolf puppies
Servitor
Servitor
Ravenwing Chaplain – bike, Warlord
Ravenwing Chaplain - bike
Scouts
Scouts
Fire Raptor gunship - Legacy relic for Monster Hunter
Ravenwing Librarian – bike
Ravenwing Librarian – bike
Ravenwing Librarian – bike
Wow a really mean list here! The Ravenwing re-rolling jinks just shuts down offensive firepower so hard, and the Space Wolf 2+/3++ backed up by 4+ FNP and Eternal Warrior with Endurance from the Librarians just makes the unit virtually impossible to take down. I've seen many lists like this but to be honest have never actually faced one, so this should be fun. Of course, as Mike points out -- being Hammer and Anvil and Relic, the Eldar can always just take 2nd turn and essentially win the game with turbo-boosting obsec jetbikes, but where's the fun in that?
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Eldar do win the roll to go first and decide to forget jammy last turn wins, let's try and start chewing through the big star as much as possible – probably not the correct choice, but we had high hopes of banging out some characters early and just getting things over with. The pointy ears set up in a phalanx formation in the centre of the DZ right on the line, ready to go. Superfriends set up in a vast deathstar of resilience on the other side. (Actually he also set up two servitors inside a ruin and to my discredit I 100% had no idea, although in fairness Mike probably should have pointed it out.) Imperials fail to Seize the Initiative.
Turn 1 and the Eldar firepower opens up, and does almost nothing, it is really really shocking. Everything moves up and shoots like crazy business, taking out a puppy here and there and scraping off a wound or two, but nothing of significance and no First Blood as all the characters wounded do manage to survive, drat. Swooping Hawks bounce forwards and land 1” away from the star to hold them at bay for one turn hopefully, while of the 3 units of Warp Spiders that moved up, one unit rolls too low for assault jumps and has to also suicide forwards rather than draw the star closer – probably not quite the right choice, could have risked the charge, but oh well. My concern was that if the star could pull off a long charge into some warp spiders, it would catapult them A LOT closer to my lines, which was just not worth it in the long run.
Superfriends comes back and casts Haemorrage on a unit of Warp Spiders, forcing them all to take Toughness tests with a re-roll, and they ALL fail, dying to a man and giving up First Blood – brutal! Next the star easily kills the Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders in front of them, and only gets 2” for consolidation, which is perfect, effectively freezing them in place, but losing TWO units of warp spiders turn 1 was a nasty shock.
Turn 2 and the Eldar scoot the Relic backwards into the home DZ, way out of threat range and under the void shields. This turn a unit of Warp Spiders deep strikes behind the star to take out a servitor and contest a home objective to keep the Maelstrom tied up, which is good. Shooting continues to pour into the star and just refuses to do any significant damage – the Wraithknight jumps up and hoses them with the Deathshroud cannons for 20 wounds but fails to really kill anything! At the end, one librarian is down to one wound, and an Iron Priest is taken down to one wound as well, but nothing really came through. For instance the Warp Hunter rolls just 2 shots and scatters off the star, killing a single puppy. Not significant. This game is starting to look increasingly daunting...
The star keeps coming forwards, while the Fire Raptor screams on from the back table edge. The big angry bird eyes up the Wraithknight and opens fire with all the weapons, causing a stackload of wounds and shockingly the Wraithknight just gives up and dies!! 4 wounds maybe 5, but all 6 in one go?!?!? Ridiculous!! There goes the plan of charging into the star and doing some stomps at least. Fortunately the star is not able to touch anything else, although a few characters do split off to go backwards and lay out the warp spiders that just arrived, easily wiping them out. Scouts outflank under the void shield to try and tap out the Hornet, but it survives.
Turn 3 and the Shining Spears keep scooting the Relic backwards, further and further away, it should be at the back board edge soon, which is scary as then there is no further to go. The army shuffles a bit left and tries to blast the leading characters of the deathstar some more, killing a librarian, but still nothing really major has come through. In the backfield, Autarch Okomori charges into the scouts to try and assault them to death, but a single model survives to deny a maelstrom point, very frustrating. The Cronekin just can't catch any breaks in this game it seems...
The star moves up again and tries to cast Haemorrage on some Warp Spiders – they all fail toughness tests and die, again! Brutal! Then we have a bit of a kerfuffle as I have pictorial evidence that the librarian now “casting” haemorrage is not the one that originally did so, and in the end we bring the Warp Spiders back to life to remedy the situation. But that was almost totally brutal! The Fire Raptor screams forwards and blasts into the Warlord’s jetbike unit as well as another unit, one jetbike from the single unit dies and they fail their leadership check and run off the board! Cowards! Tanaka’s unit also takes a casualty or two, but they hold. Scary times, gah really cannot catch a break in this game at all. Finally in close combat the Autarch is able to kill the last scout and claim a maelstrom point, so that is very good -- maelstrom is tied.
Turn 4 and the Eldar are thinking of the end-game and how to block the Deathstar from getting to the Relic, and how to keep objective secured models alive if at all possible. Autarch Okomori Skyleaps into the air to get out of dodge, everything else starts shuffling towards the back-right corner away from the encroaching star. Rangers finally outflank into the Superfriends’ backfield, but come in on the wrong side and look like they will get hosed next turn, so that is again unfortunate, man alive. (In hindsight: a really clever bugger would have brought them on in the home corner and then shuttled the Relic towards them to increase the number of obsec models there, that would have been clutch. Next time!)
In the shooting phase the Warp Hunter opens up on slightly bunched superfriends, targeting the Warlord and scoring a load of hits –- the Warlord fails a couple of Look Out Sirs and then fails a single re-rolled jink save! A miracle! Rolling the d3 Destroyer wounds a 5 comes up and the Ravenwing Warlord gets aced!! What a great moment, finally! Other units shoot into things and kind of don't do anything, then scoot away towards the back right corner. Bagging Warlord is a great moment, but sadly it's not going to stop the Superfriends.
The Star splits up, Librarians attached to Ravenwing all moving and turbo-boosting towards the Relic corner, while the remaining Space Wolves follow up behind, moving and running, while the Fire Raptor pours fire into the Shining Spears and Warlord for some wounds, but only kills 1-2. This is it folks, can we do it?!?! Whoever wins primary is going to win it, as Maelstrom is tragically still tied up, very, very frustratingly.
Turn 5 and the Eldar shimmy the Relic into the absolute back right corner, with a single obsec jetbiker standing guard over it. The Shining Spears and Farseer space out to try and block models from getting too close, while the Warp Hunter moves up to try and take out the Librarians and Chaplain with his template shot. The template comes up and hits all four models, then wounds 3 of them (crap!), finally the Chaplain passes his invulnerable save so only two models die. Very unfortunate, as that could have been it! Hornet also shoots into them in a hail mary move, but fails to do any damage. A better move would have been to move up and block them I think.
Last turn for the Superfriends and he is able to blast away the last obsec jetbiker with the Fire Raptor, assault the Shining Spears with the Iron Priests (claiming Warlord), and turbo-boost the Librarian and Chaplain onto the Relic to score it and win the game. A very close loss, and just a few dice rolls away from a win!
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This one really got me thinking, and at the end of the day if the Wraithknight had survived that turn of shooting I think it would have gone the other way – he would have popped off the table then walked back on right where the Relic was, ready to molest the star as it tried to make a play for the objective. Even as it was, just a few dice rolls and it was the Cronekin's game I reckon. Impossible to know, but well played to Mike for sure, he was clearly very experienced, knowledgeable, gamey, and a bit greasy, but also very genial and affable – a top table cat if ever there was one.
In hindsight the better play in this game was to hang back and completely abandon the Relic, but play 110% for Maelstrom. If the Superfriends get locked out of Maelstrom then they HAVE to win Relic and Tertiaries, which were Table Quarters, First Strike, and Warlord. The Star is really tricky as they can break into so many tiny pieces for scoring late game if it needs to, but if the Eldar hang out of range this doesn't really get him very far. Should have gone with deep striking all of the Warp Spiders, outflanking the spears, then just shooting out of the void shields with the jetbikes and Farseer - something to think about for the future!
Ok team, that was two epic slaughterfests at TSHFT with solid tactics and mean, mean lists, and we are just over half way through day 1 -- wow I am exhausted just writing this up, can you imagine what it felt like at the actual event?!
Next up, WAR CONVOCATION
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Wow that was a close game :) right down to the wire.
Can't wait to see what the War Convo brings :) I haven't seen Skitarii in action yet, and I'm very curious as to how effective the Canticles are...
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Cool reports Ibushi. Sounds like you had some rough luck against a killer list in that 2nd game. It's especially rough that it was such a tight loss despite some frankly brutal turns against you.
I look forward to the rest of the reports!
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Cheers guys, yeah it was a tough one that 2nd game, especially knowing that with a slightly different approach it should have been a much easier victory for the Eldar -- but in my pride I wanted to win the "hard way" and just went for it! Even so, I highly value my losses at big competitive events like this, they are always really great learning experiences (much more than the wins most of the time).
@YnneadWraith -- I will be sure to give some extra detail to how the War Convocation works for you! They are a truly brutal army, with Canticles and Doctrina Imperatives. NO JOKE AT ALL. The biggest thing against them too is just trying to remember what on earth everything is and does, too...
Alright here we go:
Game 3 vs. Aurelio’s War Convocation: Purge the Alien on Vanguard Strike
Tech Priest Dominus - all the free gear
Kataphron Breachers x3 – haywire cannons
Kataphron Destoyers x3 – heavy grav-cannons
Kataphron Destoyers x3 – heavy grav-cannons
Skitarii Vanguard x10 - some 18" plasma weapons
Skitarii Rangers x5 - rad carbines etc.
Sicarian Infiltrators x5 - claws and music blades
Sicarian Ruststalkers x5 - tasers and uzis?
Sydonian Dragoons x3 - taser lances
Onager Dunecrawler - icarus array, dataspike
Imperial Knight Crusader - battle cannon, gatling cannon, missile pod
Inquisitor Coteaz
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Aurelio was a real gentleman, a very nice man indeed, and the best possible War Convocation player to face since this army is so complicated and confusing! Especially after a mentally fatiguing technical game like against Mike’s deathstar. (Also Aurelio's models were very nice.)
Fortunately for me I have at least played War Convocation one or two times before, and the really big thing to know is that turns 1-2 their ENTIRE ARMY will be Stealth+Shrouded, so get some ignores cover on that or prepare to get roasted. To that end, Tanaka rolled on Divination and was able to get Perfect Timing so that was great, without it we would have to either full-reserves and hope for the best, or get first turn. Aurelio rolls the dice and wins first turn, so there goes that option. Going into Reserves is also not very attractive against War Convocation as they have multiple fast, mean assault elements that will get up to your board edge and assault whatever comes on. Plus if you are hiding off the table they just won't trigger Stealth+Shrouded until just before you arrive, so you still have to deal with that madness either way. OK, onto the action.
War Convocation deploy fairly spread out, with a core of Breachers and Destroyers with attached characters, the Knight and Dunecrawler out on the right flank, the Dragoon chicken-walkers are on the left, and the various Skitarii infantry bring up the centre. After infiltration and scout moves, the Skitarii had a formidable centre-table presence, very fearsome -- to be honest I had no idea the Skitarii units could all scout, that was a nasty surprise and gave Aurelio some huge board control right from go. Mission is Purge the Alien and I have a lot more Kill Points than he does, so it's clear he is just going to go for the throat...
Eldar deploy on the far left table edge as is typical by now, range and movement being the two best tools of this army. 3x 5 Warp Spiders stay in Deep Strike reserves along with the Hawks and Rangers, but everything else hunkers under the void shields behind terrain hoping to weather turn 1 and start giving as good they get from turn 1.
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Eldar fail to Seize.
Turn 1 and Aurelio sends the Ruststalkers and Infiltrators barreling towards the Eldar, getting within a few inches but out of LOS thanks to a huge window-less ruin, really scary stuff. If those units get into assault next turn that will be the end of the Eldar. (I hadn't realized the position I'd put myself in since the ruin was working for my army to block LOS to most of my units -- it never occurred to me that Aurelio could use it to cover his own advance too! D'oh! Also the fact that the Infiltrators and Ruststalkers both got to scout forwards got them MUCH closer than I had thought they would get turn 1... )
Shooting opens up and the Breachers get started with 6 haywire shots, easily stripping down the void shields – I am a fool, should have seen that one coming! Previously haywire did not affect void shields, but of course it does now thanks to the GW FAQ! Knight Crusader then opens up into the Warp Hunter, stunning it in the water!! What a terrible start! Going from bad to worse, the Dunecrawler scores 1 glancing and 2 penetrating hits on the Hornet as well, which fails 2 of the 3+ jink saves to give up First Strike – terrible! Just awful. Should have gone in Reserves.
On the Eldar turn, we need to get rid of those Sicarian Infiltrators on our doorstep and just hunker down against the War Convocation shooting for one more turn until the reserves come in and go from there. As expected, the entire War Convocation is rocking 2+ cover thanks to Stealth+Shrouded, so not going to do much damage realistically. Let's focus on surviving.
Wraithknight moves up and realizes he cannot actually see enough of the Infiltrators to warrant using the Hellstorm template on them, so instead he moves backwards shoots into a unit of Destroyers and causes a couple of wounds through the Stealth+Shrouded (yay!). Farseer Tanaka powers up Perfect Timing and leads his unit of scatbikes on the warpath, gunning down 4 of the 5 Infiltrators with ease – the surviving Princeps fails leadership and runs away, so that is a good thing! Meanwhile on the left flank a unit of Warp Spiders and the Shining Spears gang up on the Sydonian Dragoons – they kill one with shooting, charge in and kill another on the assault, leaving the third with just a single hull point and taking one casualty in return – pretty solid stuff! No full KPs earned yet, but we are shutting down some of the War Convocation’s assault options, and that is good enough against such a tricky army. Finally I get Aurelio to roll his leadership on the Destroyers that lost one model – and he FAILS! They also run towards the table edge and will need to regroup next turn or be destroyed! Wow that is a huge lucky break, it practically makes up for all the tough times in game 2...
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Turn 2 and the War Convocation keep up the pressure, moving forward and popping Stealth+Shrouded once more. Breachers again easily take down the void shields and lay into the generator itself, bringing it to 2 hull points. Knight Crusader sends firepower pouring into the Warp Hunter, killing it and also putting some wounds on the Wraithknight. Dunecrawler and heavy stubber shooting is able to take out a unit of 2 jetbikes as well, making the volley of fire from the right side of the field very effective this turn. In combat we make a rules mistake and the shining spears roll at strength 6 when they should have been strength 3, and they cause a single glancing hit to destroy the chicken walker. If it is any consolation he would have probably killed the unit that turn and been destroyed the next turn by the Wraithknight, so it was much of a muchness. The Shining Spears just hung out behind a giant 41st millennium billboard for the rest of the game until they got murdered, so not much of a loss as they didn't contribute much this game. The biggest thing this turn is Aurelio goes to make his morale check for the two Destroyers and they fail AGAIN, running off the table and gaining the Eldar their first KP. This Is big! Lastly the Sicarian Ruststalkers also moved up towards the Eldar, keeping up mad assault pressure.
Eldar roll up Reserves and two units of Warp Spiders arrive along with the Rangers outflanking in the top right. One unit of Warp Spiders drops behind the Knight and Dunecrawler in the bottom right corner, lacing the Dunecrawler with monofilament and stunning it, which is pretty decent, before getting out of LOS of reprisal from the Knight with Battle Focus shenanigans.
Over by the Shining Spears, one unit of Warp Spiders drops in to lend weight of fire into the Warlord's Destroyers, but mishaps back into reserves. Phew that was close. Psychic phase sees Tanaka juice up the Perfect Timing again, before shooting all the Ruststalkers down to a single Princeps as well! Other shooting pours into the Warlord’s Destroyer unit for a casualty or two, gradually chipping through the 2+ cover to grind away their firepower one model at a time. The Eldar are really just setting up the positioning at this point to spring a massive assault next turn once the Stealth+Shrouded goes away, and just need to avoid those nasty assault units until then. The plan of just surviving has gone pretty well so far, despite losing both the Warp Hunter and Hornet a bit earlier than I'd like. Next turn should be the turning point of this game...
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Turn 3 and the War Convocation keep moving forwards and pounding away at the Wraithknight and jetbikes – Knight Crusader gets the Wraithknight down to 2 wounds and also chews through another hull point on the VSG to get it to 1 HP, while a jetbike is also blown up by cannon fire, but they don’t run away this time fortunately.
Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard have pushed up on foot all through the centre of the table by this point, putting major pressure on the Wraithknight in particular, for fear of all that high-wound volume of fire from the radium carbines. They aren't actually in range, but this is still good play by Aurelio as it prevents my Wraithknight from moving forward even 6" as then he will get blasted. Otherwise I would have just charged him right into the Warlord's Destroyer unit when he still had 6 wounds. Good play all around really, this is a close game.
Aurelio does pull another nice trick at this juncture, using Canticles or something to make his falling back Infiltrator Princeps become Fearless and immediately regroup! This allows him to act normally with immediate effect, meaning he can now assault into my nearby Warp Spiders in a most unexpected fashion... oh dear. Shooting then continues on the right side, and finally we get to the assault phase and Aurelio seems to forget to declare a charge with his Princeps (probably just mental fatigue at this point), so the Warp Spiders are off the hook for this round.
Turn 3 for the Eldar and the last two Warp Spider units as well as the Swooping Hawks come in finally – Hawks drop on the right side and lay into the unit of 5 Rangers at centre table with the grenade blast, killing two, then killing 2 more with lasblaster shooting. Warp Spiders drop down table right just next to the Hawks, but critically within range of Coteaz and his powers – the lone remaining Destroyers and Coteaz with the Tech Priest Dominus shoot into the Spiders for 2 casualties, can't believe I forgot about that ability! Could have been worse though. Those Spiders then turn around and are able to wipe out the Ranger princeps with s6 shooting.
The Warp Spider unit on the far right side then moves up and is able to destroy the Dunecrawler which is a relief, that’s two KPs so far this turn. Warp Spiders on the left then jump forwards from behind their billboard and unleash into the 10 Skitarii Rangers, wiping out all 10 for a 3rd KP with some help from scatbikes. On the left the scatbikes tear into the Warlord’s Destroyer unit, killing the destroyer for a 4th KP, while the Wraithknight puts the hellstorm templates and scatter laser into the last Ruststalker princeps – the Princeps passes both invulnerable saves against the template attack, goes to ground, but fails a 2+ cover save agains the scatter laser. Bam, 5KPs and now the only ranged shooting threats remaining are the Knight (which is still legitimately scary!), and the Breachers with their 6 haywire shots. A VERY good turn! That about puts the Eldar and War Convocation neck and neck for scoring, it's still anybody's game -- but now the edge has definitely shifted to the pointy ears in terms of killing power and mobility.
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Turn 4 and it feels like it has been a marathon already. Aurelio continues the pressure, this time his Infiltrator Princeps, who has passed all his invulnerable saves against Shining Spear shooting so far, charges the Spears and wipes them out, brutal! The Knight Crusader keeps stepping up and blasts away at the Wraithknight, blowing the wraith construct apart and scoring 2KPs! The Knight then sends its gatling cannon into Farseer Tanaka and his jetbike unit, obliterating the entire squad and scoring Warlord and a further 2KPs! BRUTAL! On the right, Breachers unload into the Rangers of all units, trying for an easy KP, but they go to ground for a 2+ cover save and don’t take any casualties. A good idea, but probably not the best call. The Warlord and Coteaz just sit tight out of LOS as best they can, hoping not to give up Warlord.
Turn 4 and endgame for the Eldar – Warp Spider unit 1 annihilates the Infiltrator Princeps at last, Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders annihilate the Breachers, Warp Spider units 3 and 4 shoot into Coteaz and the Warlord and fail to kill them, which brings Purge the Alien to a dead tie at 9 points!! Thanks to Warp Spiders jumping around contesting objectives, and the relative lack of mobility of the War Convocation after turn 1 scouting, the Eldar have handily taken the lead in Maelstrom, and with Warp Spiders scoring King of the Hill versus Aurelio’s First Strike and Warlord that gives the game to the Eldar 7-4!
Lesson Learned: Perfect Timing was HUGE in this game, but the risk of not getting it is also very high. Not rolling that quintessential 3 on Divination would have cost the Eldar this game easily. A good option is probably going to be bringing a single Warlock on a jetbike to zip forwards and cast Reveal, and in other games he would be useful as a little scoring unit. Something to think about for sure.
Ok, back to the room to rest up (finally!), and then let's gird our loins for the big showdown in the morning -- Geoff "inControl" Robinson and his gorgeous but terrifying Genestealer "Eat Eldar for Breakfast" Cult!
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HOLY CRAP BATMAN!! what a game. I'm missing out on so much. I'm going to try and get a game in next week, should be interesting, I'm soooo rusty.
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Wow that seemed like a great game! It's excellent to see that Skitarii/War Convo have a real character of their own as an army, and GS Cults next which are the same!
Can't wait :) and congrats on the hard-fought win :)
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Helluva game Ibushi! I thought after that 1st turn that you were in for some rough times, but it looks as though you made all the right moves after that initial turn whilst also getting some nice luck thrown in for good measure.
I look forward to the next Bat Rep...which I'm guessing is going to be super tough for the Eldar.
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Thanks guys, yeah you all hit the nail on the head - War Con are no joke in the hands of a skilled player like Aurelio, you have to keep a really tight ship to hang in there with them, but GSC is even worse if they get the jump on you.
The great thing about playing Aurelio was that it was the last game of Day 1 (exhausted!) but he was very, very nice, and the way he played was so "out of the book" and predictable that it made my job as an Eldar player on the back foot a LOT easier. The strength of War Convocation is that with the Scout movement, +3" moves on the sicarian units, huge amounts of shooting and assault threat, and the Stealth+Shrouded 2+ cover on everyone for 2 turns, they basically can grind through most armies in that amount of time. The downside is that they don't have much tactical flexibility or ability to reposition if plan A doesn't come through.
Once I realized that there was virtually no hope of taking out his Knight, I just ignored it and accepted the casualties it was going to cause (A LOT! Hornet, jetbikes, jetbikes, Wraithknight, jetbikes, Warlord.... wow), but that allowed me to focus on the other side of the table and overpower that half of Aurelio's force. I see why he split his forces up, so he could catch my units wherever they tried to flee, but that's probably what lost him the game as I was able to just force one flank. Never let Eldar force your flank! But for us Eldar players, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS force the other guy's flank, by which I mean focus 100% of your units on just one side of their battle line, and use terrain and range to avoid and ignore stuff you don't like.
Yes the Knight got to pummel my forces for 4 turns in this one, but you'll notice it never got into assault range, so in that sense we halved its damage output from what it could have been, and I'm happy with that. Very sad to lose my Warlord, that is a low point in all of my games as good old Tanaka is a beast. Oh well, I'm sure he guzzled down some Farseer juice and got his spirits up once more....
Ok game 4 coming up soon! Genestealer Cult is a very tough matchup, but at least I knew what I would be facing that evening, and got to go to bed early and rest up for the morning, so it was an ideal situation in that regard.
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Coming soon...
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Excited to read about the GSG game. I haven't had the chance to play against them yet.
And yeah Warcon can be really annoying, but if your play your cards right you can put the hurt on. Just don't expect to kill much for 2 turns.
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Alright team, here it is: the much anticipated showdown between the Warhost of Croneworld Koxinga and the vile Genestealer Cult uprising that sprung a vicious trap upon them...
Game 4 vs. Geoff Robinson’s Genestealer Cult: Scouge on Hammer & Anvil
Genestealer Cult
First Curse:
Patriarch + 20x Purestrain Genestealers
Lord of the Cult:
Magus lvl 2
Brood Cult:
Iconward
2x Neophytes x20 – 2x seismic cannons + 2x flamers
Acolytes x5 – demo charge
Acolytes x9 – demo charge
Acolytes x10 – demo charge
Metamorphs x5 – hand flamers x2
Purestrains x5
Subterranean Uprising:
Primus
Metamorphs x10 – claws, hand flamers x2
2x Acolytes x10 – 2x hand saws
Aberrants x4 – hammers
1847 – BRUTAL
Mission was Scourge on Hammer and Anvil, board was very open with just one LOS-blocking hillock. I figure a big part of this mission will be deploying the objectives cleverly – so I start in his DZ by putting #3 out in the middle of the open at the edge of his DZ line, then work backwards until we have the objectives pretty well spaced out around the table, with big juicy gaps between them and not much cover around. I'm thinking if Genestealer Cult doesn't get you turn 1, their survivability (without shrouded) and mobility go down a lot, so the late turns will be key.
Psychic powers, Farseer Tanaka goes for Divination and gets Prescience, Foreboding (4++), Perfect Timing, and Scrier’s Gaze – all great powers in my books. Genestealers get some witchfires and the summoning power, which is moderately intimidating. Tanaka gets Master of Ambush for Warlord Trait, which I think may make for some fun shenanigans. Genestealers get an insignificant trait, i.e. not the one that lets them choose Cult Ambush rolls, phew.
The Cult does win the roll for deploy first-go first and opt to take First Turn, unsurprisingly! This is looking scary for the Eldar! Crone-kin deploy in a far corner, Warp Hunter and scatbikes huddled behind the VSG, 3x 5 warp spiders and the Shining Spears strung out in front to prevent first turn assaults as best as possible. Wraithknight, Warlord Tanaka, and one unit of Warp Spiders decide to Infiltrate, hoping to counter-deploy the cult. Meanwhile the Hornet and Rangers are Outflanking, while the Swooping Hawks +Autarch opt to deep strike.
In the infiltration phase the Genestealer cult rolls pretty well, 2x units get to shoot immediately, taking down 2 shining spears after some solid jink and armour saves, although I foolishly left them outside the void shields.. The metamorphs with claws roll a 2 and outflank INSIDE the VSG, very sneaky. Other units bubble out pretty far, literally putting a unit in every corner of the board and on every objective, as well as bringing 2x 20 acolytes with guns to bear on the Eldar corner. One unit of 5 hybrids rolls a 6 to assault turn 1 and duly lines up on the Shining Spears. Finally, last but by far not the least, the First Curse then with the final die roll gets a big nasty 6 for a First Turn assault, which is HUGE. Without that it was looking pretty peachy for the Eldar to be honest. Having the Patriarch and 20 purestrain genestealers barelling into our lines turn 1 really puts a damper on things...
Once the Genestealers are all down, the Eldar realize a HUGE mistake – there is nowhere for the Wraithknight or other infiltrators to legally deploy!!! After scouting around, nope, nowhere to go that is more than 12" or 18" away from enemy models – so the Warp Spiders go into Deep Strike reserves, and the Wraithknight decides to Outflank… Eldar fail to Seize (if ever they needed to Seize, now is the time!!), and so the Genestealer cult gets rolling…
Turn 1
Shooting opens up again, a demolition charge thrown from inside the VSG hurtles into the Farseer and kills a single jetbike after jinking, but they pass morale. Seismic cannons and autoguns hammer into the Shining Spears once more, taking them down to just the Exarch with one wound, but still not dead, so the hybrids are forced to charge them, taking two casualties in the process but killing the hapless Exarch with ease – should have checked they were under the shields!! The new FAQ of “whole units” under is definitely more tricky.
Magus tries to go for a summoning, but fails. Then the First Curse charges right into all 3 units of Warp Spiders, successfully multi-charging them right across the deployment zone with 20 purestrain genestealers and the Patriarch – brutal! Fortunately overwatch and Spider bites account for a handful of the bugs before they can strike, so while the Patriarch does kill an entire unit on his own, one unit of Spiders escapes with 4 models, and the third escapes with the Exarch and 1-2 more, then both units do pass their initiative checks and decide to hit & run forwards into the mid-field. That was a blow, but it certainly could have been worse. Oh and of course after working out which objectives need to be capped, the Genestealer cult burrows a handful of units underground to reemerge next turn...
Turn 1 for the Eldar and after weighing the options it seems silly to hunker back, since the First Curse is rocking 2+ cover in a ruin, one of the scatbike units is snap-firing, and next turn everything will get assaulted and murdered. Instead the jetbikes and Warp Spiders all move diagonally across the board as far as possible, getting out of charge range and LOS of as much as possible. The Warp Hunter and VSG stay behind to sacrifice themselves and prevent the First Curse from returning to the shadows by being within 6”. What little shooting there is fails to do much – kill a few acolytes here and there. Forgot that there was a small unit of 4 hybrids from the Shining Spear assault that would have been an easy KP, but when you are literally backed into a corner you don't think that clearly all the time ha.
Turn 2 opens up for the GSC with a bunch more units coming back via Cult Ambush (they had Returned to Shadows turn 1) – a big unit with Primus attached rolls a 6 for assault out of ambush and hurtles into the Farseer and two units of jetbikes – they are all massacred under a tide of rending attacks. There go two obsec units and the Warlord with his delicious psychic powers, sadly. Shooting also goes into the Warp Spiders for little effect, and one unit gets assaulted but escapes relatively unharmed. Units are popping up and going under all over the board at this point, it is almost impossible to keep track, so I’ll stick to the main kills instead. Also it becomes painfully evident that the GSC is going to run away with the Maelstrom, so Eldar pretty much give up on that one immediately. Instead we'll need to focus on winning the majority of the 6 objectives (plus bonus points for Fast Attack kills), and the on Tertiaries: Warlord, Linebreaker, and Big Game Hunter. Back in the DZ corner the Purestrains and Metamorphs assault into the Warp Hunter and VSG and easily destroy both, without any explosions or casualties. Not looking too good, as the Warp Hunter gives the Genestealer Cult an easy Big Game Hunter unless we are able to take out the entire First Curse. (Which is also the only way to get their Warlord...). Hopefully Reserves come in hot next turn!
Eldar turn 2 and with the -1 to Reserves from the Genestealer formation, only the Hornet and one unit of Warp Spiders come in from Reserves this turn, dang! No Wraithknight, ouch. Also Rangers might have been useful for denying the Purestrains from going under for one more turn, but oh well. The Hornet comes in back in the opposite Eldar DZ corner, hoping to just stay out of trouble for as long as possible – Scourge gives bonus points for Fast Attack kills, and the Hornet is not a difficult KP. At least with AV11 on the front it is somewhat difficult for GSC to shoot down. Warp Spiders drop down where the surviving 3x scatbikes, Exarch, and 3x Warp Spiders are hanging out, trying to create some Eldar-controlled space. Time to bang out some units – no point clipping models here and there, each GSC unit has to be completely eliminated in a single turn to make it worth it or else they simply burrow away and regenerate D6 models. Everything shoots into acolytes, taking out two units and then repositioning to create a huddle of warp spiders around the jetbikes, seeking to preserve that precious objective secured.
Turn 3 and the Magus comes back in from Cult Ambush, rolling the dreaded 6 and exploding out from under a ruin with 20 acolytes to shoot and assault the 3 jetbikes and 4 warp spiders. Shooting kills 1 jetbike, then the acolytes charge in and issue a challenge – the Warp Spider Exarch accepts, dealing a wound to the Magus and sustaining one in return, then a Warp Spider is killed while taking down his opponent also, and lastly the jetbikes pass all their armour saves while slaying an acolyte with their bare hands! Winning combat by 1, the Eldar feel good, even if they will be drowned in bodies next turn anyway. Then the Magus goes to roll morale on a 9, but brings up boxcars and fails! Thanks to the Iconward 24” away that just walked on from the back board edge, the Magus gets to re-roll....and rolls an 11!! With that the Warp Spider Exarch shoots him in the face and goes on to run down and massacre the entire Acolyte unit, consolidating back into the ruins covered in purple blood. Wow what a game-changing moment. It is still rough times for the Eldar, but maybe if the stars align… Meanwhile in the backfield the Metamorphs and Purestrains all burrow under again, ready to pounce next turn. If either of those units roll a 6 to assault out of Ambush next turn I think the Eldar will be toast, but only one way to find out...
Eldar Turn 3 and the Wraithknight finally comes on from Outflank reserve, rolling that delicious “choose either side” result and coming on right beside his Warp Spider brethren and ready to lay down the pain. Placing the Hellstorm template, he his able to hit over 10 models with each, wiping out the entire 20-man neophyte squad and attached iconward in one shot - bam! His scatter laser trains itself on the nearby 5-man purestrain squad, killing another 3. What a brutal moment of destruction, big boy is in the house! Warp Spider and Hornet shooting also gangs up on some neophytes, eliminating another unit and clipping a few more from a third. Wow turn 3 we really took a huge chunk out of the Genestealer Cult forces, this was a big turning point for the pointy ears.
Back on the other side of the board, the Rangers outflank in the home corner to hide under the wreckage of the VSG and hopefully be ignored.
Turn 4 GSC
Genestealer cult really needs a lucky break this turn, the First Curse emerge via Cult Ambush and are hoping for a 6 to assault and murder the Wraithknight, but alas Geoff only rolls a 5. They hop on a 3 point objective instead (the one I placed way out in the open at the beginning, my plan begins to bear fruit!). The Patriarch uses psychic shooting to kill off a Warp Spider Exarch that had eluded them last time, scoring a bonus point for primary and removing one of my precious units.
Acolytes pop up and outflank, opting to move up on the newly-arrived Rangers and overpower them with bodies in future turns back in the Eldar DZ. Also in the Eldar DZ a unit of acolytes ambushes the Hornet, hoping to kill it in assault, but they fail to get any rends through and get stuck in the open, phew.
Eldar turn 4 and the Swooping Hawks finally arrive – dropping down near the Hornet and exacting cruel revenge via plasma grenades and laser fire on the exposed Acolytes. Combined fire wipes the unit out, and the Hawks sit in a nice central position to move on a number of objectives next turn with that juicy 18” jump move. Also BS5 lasblaster fire is no joke against guardsman-equivalent models!
The Wraithknight, scatbikes and remaining warp spiders move up to focus fire on the First Curse, pouring monofilament shooting into the unit and leaving just two purestrain genestealers and the Patriarch with 1 wound left… the Wraithknight then needs 8-9” to charge in and finish them off, but fails the charge by 1" despite a re-roll for Jump. Still, a very brutal moment so long as there is one more turn to finish the job and secure Warlord and Big Game Hunter in one swoop. Genestealer cult are still winning Maelstrom by a landslide, so getting Warlord and Big Game Hunter as well as the primary objectives is going to be crucial.
Back in the Eldar DZ the Rangers get ballsy and decide to just assault the Acolytes before it gets done to them anyway, shooting them with pistols and assaulting like bosses. Unfortunately they don’t at all roll like bosses and get murdered immediately for no casualties. Oh well, it was going to happen anyway.
Turn 5
With 10 minutes each on the clock, Genestealer cult powers through turn 5, bringing a new unit of acolytes in to threaten the Hornet and my 3-point objective, as well as 4 Aberrants onto a nearby 2-point objective, Neophytes on the backfield 1-pointer, and the current Acolytes on the Eldar 1-pointer standing over the corpses of the Rangers.
Shooting from the newly arrived units goes into the Swooping Hawks, killing 2 or 3, while a demolition charge and pistol shooting goes into the last unit of jetbikes, taking them out despite jinking. Not bad, but if the remaining Hawks, Autarch and Hornet can clear out the 10 acolytes they will take back the 3-point objective with some luck.
The remaining non-First Curse purestrains move up to try and assault the Warp Spiders, but fail to kill them on the charge and the Exarch is once again able to hit & run away like a boss.
Over by the Wraithknight, the Patriarch casts Life Leech on the last two Warp Spiders over there, rolling a Perils and taking off his last wound for Warlord! Ouch! Life Leech also misses with both shots, leaving the Warp Spiders unharmed, adding insult to injury. There goes Warlord! At least he can say the Eldar didn't get him... Or maybe it was Tanaka's cruel mind reaching out through the Veil from the Warp to turn his brain to mush...
Eldar turn 5 and time for the killing blow, victory is in our sights if we can just eliminate enough foul aliens. The Autarch and Swooping Hawks split up and jump to either side of the Acolytes, while the Hornet shifts to be exactly at 3” from the 3-point objective (so it is contested at minimum). The Wraithknight jumps onto the other 3-point objective and shoots the last two First Curse genestealers with his scatter laser before assaulting and killing them. Meanwhile he shoots the Deathshroud cannons 48” across the table into the Acolytes by the Hornet, blasting away several of the cultists but also scattering off and unceremoniously murdering the Autarch – sorry Okomori! The Hawks throw grenades and shoot lasers, doing quite a lot of damage, the Hornet adds its firepower, then the Hawk Exarch charges in and finishes off the last 2 acolytes with her bare hands to claim that objective for the Eldar. This was really the turn of the plasma grenades, wow they helped a lot. Warp Spiders shuffle around in the mid-field, shooting away the last few Aberrants and claiming both 2-point objectives with the two exarchs and couple of models left. The Wraithknight already has the other 3-pointer, so that claims Primary for the Eldar.
Tallying up the points, GSC has maelstrom by a mile, Eldar score Primary by a mile though. Both armies have Linebreaker and Warlord, but thanks to finally catching and destroying the Purestrain Genestealers, the Eldar are able to wrest back Big Game Hunter to win the mission 7-6! Brutal!!!
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Wow what a nail-biter! I definitely thought I was going to get tabled in this game turn 1, and then again turns 2-3 when the reserves just didnt show up. Just goes to show you, always have a plan and hang in there! Also sometimes the best strategy is just to run, and keep running until something crazy happens (like two failed morale checks!). If the Magus hadn't failed those morale checks though, pretty sure the Eldar would have lost as there wouldnt have been enough firepower and units left to successfully take down so many genestealer models and still score. A very close shave today.
MVP in this one goes two or three ways: Firstly the Warp Spiders basically won the game by being so damn slippery, and also causing a decent amount of damage, especially when focus-firing like a piranha swarm as multiple Exarchs converged on a single target. Ultimately they won the game by staying alive, running interference, and scoring the objectives. Go Warp Spiders!
Secondly, the Swooping Hawks were surprisingly important when they came in delayed, as it allowed them to become key damage-dealers instead of easy targets. Hunting down 10-man acolyte units in the open with plasma grenades and lasblasters is the perfect work for Swooping Hawks, and splitting the Autarch off to throw two plasma grenades at a single target was super effective. With a few more points it would be great to give the Exarch and Autarch power weapons, as they do get opportunities to assault fairly often. This game that final assault really clinched it, although to be fair even if that objective was contested the Eldar still would have won Primary. Even so, the Hawks did a lot of work, which is great when they do -- shoutout to Cavalier for inspiring me to keep these boys in the list!
Last but not least, the absolute boss of this game and let's just go ahead and say MVP – the Skathach Wraithknight with Deathshroud cannons! Coming in via Outflank was a huge deployment error, but ended up being a boon to the army through sheer luck really. Outflanking in and just eliminating that 20-man squad and Iconward was huge, then walking over and doing the same to the First Curse was absolutely clutch. Way to go Wraithknight, this game is why we bring you and it showed!
On the Wooden Spoon front, yes the Rangers were subpar but actually the real wooden spoon here was the general at play, for making so many deployment errors! Shining Spears not under the void shield turn 1?! Outflanking Wraithknight?! Some not great decisions here. Had the Wraithknight been on the table turn 1, he likely would have done SO MUCH damage to the First Curse, despite them assaulting in right away, that it could have clinched things sooner. But hey, this was the first outing against Genestealer Cult, and even with a loss I would have felt pretty good about the performance overall. Finally, Deathshrouds are in! Was really on the fence about bringing the Deathshroud cannons, and the last three games I really didn't feel like they did anything of particular worth -- but NOW, wow my opinion has totally changed, it is so clutch to ignore cover and just remove entire legions of troopers. Saying that, the trick is going to be predicting what your meta at a given event will be. In Seattle or the West Coast, I would expect plenty of Cult armies or Renegades or War Convocation, which the Deathshrouds should be useful against. Up here in Canada I would expect more mech and more Eldar, which makes the Inferno Lances much more attractive.
Enough from me, enjoy the game and let me know if there are any questions about how to play against GSC, I feel like I have a handle on it after TSHFT -- there were a LOT of GSC armies there. Also if you remember back to the 4x Flyrant and Genestealer army I played at Attack-X, Matt was also at TSHFT and ended up placing Best Tyranids, so hopefully we will cross paths again at Attack X this year and have a rematch with his newly improved army.
Ok onto game 5, feeling pretty energetic and ready for another challenge! Oh and a challenge it will be... Renegades with masses of artillery, two Chaos Knights, and the Chaos Cyclopia Cabal!! Nasty nasty stuff!!
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Wow! Just wow Ibushi!
I genuinely kept scrolling down expecting you to say that you were tabled by the end of turn 2 or 3 or something like that. Then I started thinking that you might at least make a good account of yourself. To win the game though? I never thought that was a possibility after the first couple of turns.
It definitely looks as though the luck from Game 2 has finally been balanced out though!
Great win Ibushi, can't wait for the next instalment!
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Haha I'm right there with you Loosh, hard to believe, eh?! Really fun game, total nail-biter, I would play it again and probably play it the exact same way too. If Geoff had rolled just a single more 6 on Cult Ambush I think he would have actually tabled me... But he's going back to playing War Convocation using Belisarius Cawl, so I don't imagine that this game will have any possibility of a repeat sadly.
Moving on to another brutal matchup --
Game 5 vs. Alex’s Chaos Renegades: Big Guns Never Tire on Vanguard Strike
Ordnance Tyrant
Command Squad (10)
3x Plague Zombies x20
3x Thudd Guns x2
2x Rapier Laser Destroyers x2
Renegade Knight – gatling cannon
Renegade Knight – gatling cannon
Cyclopia Cabal:
Sorceror – ML1
Sorceror – ML2, bike
Sorceror – ML2, bike
Sorceror – ML2, bike
Alex Gonzalez is a solid player and I was very much looking forward to this game – I’ve never played Renegades under ITC with Eldar, only previously with Corsairs at Foodhammer the one time, so it should be a challenging game. (Alex did end up winning best Chaos Renegades this ITC season, so we know this man is serious.)
Psychic powers are pretty solid with Farseer Tanaka getting Shriek, Mental Fortitude, Dominate, and Shrouded. The Cabal mostly rolls Chaos powers that I’ve never heard of and don’t really understand, then the foot Sorceror rolls Telepathy and gets Shrouded. The main thing for the Cabal is they get some Endurance-style powers, which would be really good on zombies etc., and they also have their stock Cabal power which is a malediction on an enemy unit and lets the sorceror's shoot WITH THAT UNIT for that psychic phase. Mean!
Looking at the table there is one decent LOS-blocking hill at each end of the table, then pretty much nothing through the middle, nasty open stuff, but probably a good thing. Deploying objectives I pull a sneaky move and place the first objective on top of a hill in the open over in Alex’s DZ, which he did not expect, so he tries the same thing and puts an objective in the middle of my DZ out in the open – but that frees up space to put my own home objective way back in the left edge behind the one hill I have, in a nice spot for the VSG. So that is great, advantage Eldar already as now we are effectively playing Hammer and Anvil. Alex then wins the roll to go first and gives Eldar the first play, to ensure that he gets the last turn of shooting! Clever move, but also plays right into the Eldar’s hands…
Crone-kin decide to go for the reserve play, deploying Tanaka with Shining Spears, one squad of scatbikes, the Wraithknight, and the void shield generator, all bunched up behind my LOS-blocking hill. The hornet also deploys way up front, ready to Scout-move backwards into the shields. All the aspect warriors deep strike, two squads of scatbikes come on from the board edge, and Rangers outflank. Deploying, the Renegades split up their Knights one left one right, which was probably a mistake, then do the regular and plop all the artillery backfield with the Warlord hiding, then all the zombies up front – one unit of zombies with attached Sorceror does go into outflank reserves which is nifty, so we’ll see how that plays out. After deployment I notice that Alex's army is a little bit light on strength 8+ weapons, with really just the 2x2 rapier destroyers able to chew through my void shields. On top of that, he deployed the laser destroyers a bit too far back to threaten me, as they are only 36" range... juicy.
Turn 1
Eldar pre-measure all the scary guns (rapier destroyers and gatling cannons), and put dice down to show their max range – the Hornet moves backwards under the void shields and bangs out some rapier destroyer crew at max range. The Wraithknight holds tight and also bangs out some rapier destroyer crew, trying to kill the unit – but they go to ground and make a lot of cover saves, ugh. Warp Hunter shoots into the nearest Knight and scatters off, killing a couple of zombies. Scatter bikes bang out some zombies with s6, and that’s pretty much it. Being extra careful, Tanaka casts Mental Fortitude on the jetbikes and then Shrouding on himself to create a little bubble in case the shields go down somehow.
Turn 1 Renegades and they just keep moving forwards and spreading out like good little Chaos minions. Shooting is unable to take down the void shields, pretty uneventful. In the psychic phase though the nearest Chaos Sorceror is able to get the Cabal power on the Wraithknight, which lets him shoot the big monster as if it is his own unit!! Unfortunately for Alex he opts to split the templates between the Warlord+Shining Spears and the VSG+Warp Hunter, not maxing out the number of hits really, and then the TO adds insult to injury by calling that the Wraithknight sees majority side armour on the Warp Hunter, meaning it does nothing at all to the vehicle. So really not much happened, but it could have been brutal for sure. It was partially my mistake for not realizing the full threat range of that power as it has an unusual distance like Tau SMS shooting.
Turn 2
Three units of Warp Spiders arrive and just go right for the throat, dropping in a line from centre table all the way into the teeth of the artillery. Hawks also drop down, blasting the central zombie squad with their plasma grenades and lasblasters, before running back into the VSG. One unit of jetbikes comes on, and decides to turbo-boost into the artillery to deny them a Maelstrom point at the cost of their lives. Probably a good choice overall, as scoring maelstrom is generally more difficult for Renegades, so it should help Eldar get in the lead. Shooting opens up with the Warp Hunter hitting the leftmost Knight twice in the left shoulder pad, only one hit goes through (damn 3+ Craftworld destroyer) but it causes the max 3 HPs to score a KP and take the Knight down by half – nasty! Next up the Wraithknight, Warp Spiders, Hornet, and Scatbikes all shoot into the rapier destroyers and two zombie units with Sorcerors – the rapier destroyer crew is taken down to one model, but still hangs on! The first zombie unit is obliterated down to a single model while the Sorceror is killed by monofilament shooting, so quite effective really. The other zombie unit also takes a handful of casualties, putting it down to less than 10 models. Nasty stuff once more!
Renegades push the offensive, outflanking the third zombie mob with sorceror to right behind the VSG and near that objective, while both Knights continue moving forwards, one along Alex's long board edge and one along mine, and the central zombies make a line for one of the newly arrived warp spider squads. Psychic opens up with sorcerors not really doing much, but trying really hard. Shooting goes a lot better, with the thudd guns taking one Warp Spider unit down to just the Exarch on one wound (but he survives!), and then clipping a model or two from a second unit, while the right hand Knight shoots into and obliterates the jetbikes. Then the zombies and sorceror charge into the Warp Spiders, doing some damage but not wiping them out – they hit & run deeper into the enemy DZ into the artillery and Warlord. Warp Spiders are just so tricksy and tough to kill! Flickerjumping to spread out to the max 2" coherency makes a huge difference against blast weapons.
Turn 3 and the Autarch and Hawks split up to make a pincer move on the damaged Renegade Knight, both throwing haywire grenades and clipping hull points. The Warp Hunter also opens up with barrage shooting at point-blank range (risky business!) and is able to entirely destroy the Knight – the explosion doesn’t even scatter, so no Eldar models are harmed in the process this time. Under the VSG, the Wraithknight steps up and lays down the Deathshroud Hellstorm templates, covering no less than 18 zombies with the templates and scoring something like 34 wounds after shred – the unit is completely removed, including the sorceror. (To be fair, one model was just out of range with the templates, so the WK shoots it with his scatter laser... Problem solved!) At this point Alex is getting really intense that he heard we only had "2 minutes" of game time left -- what a huge rush!! So I say OK fine, I’ll just shoot my hornet and turbo-boost my jetbikes then you go ahead – the Hornet scores 3 hits and 2 wounds, finally killing off the lone Rapier Destroyer crewman for a Heavy Support bonus point towards the primary, and the Farseer +Spears and a unit of scatbikes turbo-boost onto my home objective 2 in a spread out formation, casting Shrouding and bubbling out the objective to prevent barrage blast damage or assault from the nearby Knight.
Alex starts moving things around, zombies and sorceror moving into midfield and killing the lone Spider Exarch, Knight moving up towards the Farseer, and the TO shouts out “40k, 15 minutes left!” So Alex must have heard “20 minutes” and thought it was “2 minutes”, an understandable mistake – frustrating to not finish all my movements and shooting, just a couple more minutes would have been fine, but oh well the main stuff is done. The only thing would have been drowning the central sorceror and 10 zombies with Warp Spider monofilament and scatter lasers, then running and jumping onto the midfield to score King of the Hill against his one unit for a 3rd Tertiary point but whatever.
Anyway, he takes out that middle Warp Spider Exarch for King of the Hill with said zombies and sorceror, then focuses his entire army’s shooting into my Farseer – fortunately the meanie is rocking a 2+ jink thanks to shrouded, as well as re-rollable Leadership 10 thanks to Aspect Host Shrinekeepers. When the dust settles, only two spears have been killed, and the Eldar win Primary as both sides have their two objectives, but Eldar scored a bonus off the Rapier Destroyer. Eldar also ended up just tying Maelstrom, then scoring Linebreaker, for a 7-4 victory!
Was great to play a game where the Warp Hunter finally did what he is supposed to do! Taking out a Knight in two turns is pretty mean, although on many occasions he should just take it out in one shot. Next time old Warpy! Next time. Also it was great to finally play Renegades in a competitive setting to put some of the theory-hammering to rest. Kiting out of range under the VSG then dropping in warp spiders to deal with artillery was a great solution, even if the Spiders didn’t have enough time to get to actually killing the artillery. Had this game gone the full 5-7 turn distance, I think the Hornet and Wraithknight would have continued killing the leftover Rapier Destroyer unit, the Warp Hunter would have destroyed the second Knight, jetbikes would have eliminated all of the Zombies and sorcerors, leaving just thudd guns which are immobile and unable to get out of their DZ. All of the Eldar aspect warriors would most likely have died to barrage fire, but would have won maelstrom, and the result would have been 10-1 or so. Good game, Alex! Look forward to playing this stylish gentleman again hopefully.
Next up, BARK BARK STAR oh noes. If you don't know what that is, start preparing yourself, oh my
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Haven't read the Renegades batrep yet (shall do soon!), but wow what a rollercoaster that GS Cults game was! I must admit, I nearly cheered when the Wraithknight jumped in and nuked a 20-strong Neophyte squad ;)
That Cult Ambush tactic is brutal. If used effectively, I can definitely see it being able to completely prevent an opponent from ever getting a solid battle-plan together as there's so little consistency in where any unit will be each turn, or even how many dudes there is in said unit!
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looking though your blog was an adventure, Ibushi. Your freehand, colour choices and custom modelling is suburb. My favourite piece is the wings on those flying thingies, (From DE I think). The Warlock purple was an amazing choice for them. Thank you for sharing, mate.
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Cheers guys, glad you are enjoying the Koxinga Rises thread!
It has been a truly splendid run getting these boys back up to scratch from being all war-torn and a bit scruffy, and I think you can really see the difference on the tabletop and in the dice rolls. Well painted armies always roll better!! Just see the kinds of dice rolls Cavalier gets and you'll know what I'm talking about haha.
Just to finish off that TSHFT tournament report, I had the absolutely most absurd game against a puppy star that I have ever experienced, wow what a tournament that was. After games 4 and 5 I thought it wasn’t going to get any crazier, then I get to the table and encounter Johnathan Kohatsu’s Bark-bark star…. :
Azrael
Sammael
2x Ravenwing Librarian on bikes
5x sniper scouts
5x scouts
Rune Priest – thunderwolf, runic armour, storm shield, power fist
Iron Priest – thunderwolf, runic armour, thunder hammer
Iron Priest – thunderwolf, runic armour, thunder hammer
75x Fenrisian wolves - in one giant unit. Oh goodness.
This army is literally just 3 units - the 2x 5 scouts (in reserves), and the bark-bark star monster unit. This monster unit deploys and takes up an entire DZ, benefits from a 4++ and FNP, can Scout forwards, has Hit & Run, and moves 12” ignoring terrain. Wow, just wow.
Mission is Crusade with 4 objectives, not the worst really – the trick will be not getting tabled. Deployment is Dawn of War, which is ideal for the Bark-star really, guaranteeing a turn 2 assault and leaving virtually nowhere for the pointy ears to escape to.
For psychic powers Jonathan's Librarians fail to get Veil of Time, which is GREAT. Re-rolling saves on that whole blob would have just been depressing. Farseer Tanaka goes for Runes of Fate in this one, getting Guide, Executioner, Doom, and Eldritch Storm – this ALWAYS happens, where I roll 2-3 witchfires, rather than Fortune. Fortunately in this matchup it wouldn’t hurt to drop some giant fleshbane plates on the blob, and Doom could definitely come in useful, so not all bad.
Jonathan wins the roll to deploy/go first, womp womp. Really needed to cause those early casualties, but gotta play the hand you're dealt. Bark-star deploys across the ENTIRE zone, from board edge to board edge, with characters sprinkled throughout and the scouts in reserve.
Eldar place the VSG in the far left corner on top of objective 1, meaning the superfriends have to deal with it somehow, but the army then deploys away from any objectives way out in the far right board corner. This is also because Sammael was deployed on the right side relatively on his own near the front, ripe for the plucking. Killing Sammael would remove hit & run from the star, allowing it to be tied down in combat. A plan emerges, heh heh.
Turn 1
Bark-star moves up 12” to the DZ edge (thanks to Scouting forwards 12” before their turn started), Sammael shoots a plasma cannon into some jetbikes, forcing them to jink but failing to do any damage, surprisingly. Psychic powers go off with Smite, but he targets the Farseer’s unit, which easily Denies.
Autarch Okomori splits off from the Swooping Hawks and Sky Leaps into the air, the Swooping Hawks then also Sky Leap separately (I realize now that you may not be able to do this?). The rest of the army moves right, literally in base contact with each other, to force the right flank and blast away all the puppies within 6” of Sammael. Tanaka successfully casts DOOM, and the pain train is about to get rolling... Wraithknight opens up with 20 odd hits from the Hellstorm templates, but killing just a handful of dogs thanks to 4++ and FNP. Scatbikes shoot into Sammael, taking away a few more dogs and maybe a wound from the big man himself. Warp Spiders step up, and this is where the real damage goes through thanks to hitting on 2s and then wounding on 2s with a re-roll – each unit does 9-ish wounds and finally all the dogs are cleared away and Sammael has to start tanking all these wounds himself... after a mighty stackload of re-rolled Jink saves, finally Sammael goes down!!!!! Booyah!! Shooting then goes into the next model – a Librarian, who tanks some monofilament and pulse laser shots before dying as well, and then finally the Warp Hunter kills a couple of dogs but doesn’t do anything amazing. Good turn, wow! Last but not least, the Wraithknight goes for glory and charges 10” into the far right flank of the bark-star, killing some dogs but mostly just tying it up for the foreseeable future, given that the punchy characters are all ~12” away. Ha! That really could not have gone better.
Turn 2
John had split off the Rune Priest turn 1, and he charges left and destroys the VSG. He forgets to roll his Scouts, so we just do that next turn. Bark-star consolidates right, towards the Wraithknight, while losing a few more dogs to punches and stomps, but nothing serious. The Iron Priests will probably close in and punch out the Wraithknight next turn.
Eldar turn 2 and we need to get some KPs for maelstrom again – the Hawks come down and the Shining Spears come in stage left, targeting the isolated Rune Priest. Plasma grenades, lance shots, laser fire, and 3 wounds from the Hornet out at max 48” range all finally bring the Priest down, nice there’s our KP! Meanwhile scatbikes turbo-boost to the opposite board edge, one unit in the far right corner, one in the opposite mid-table edge, one in the near mid-table edge, one unit of Warp Spiders going each way also, and the last two Warp Spider units actually charge into the Bark-star to waylay the Iron Priest on his way to punch the Wraithknight. This was a nifty trick to delay the Priests for one more turn, as they will easily kill the big boy. One unit of Warp Spiders gets destroyed, the other loses 2-3 models and hit & runs away. The Wraithknight again kills some stuff but nothing major yet.
Turn 3
Bark-star is definitely barking up the wrong tree now, the two units of scouts come in and shoot the Hawks for 3 casualties but that’s it. Back in combat the Iron Priests make it into the Wraithknight and take down some wounds before losing lots of dogs to stomp – the WK rolls that critical 6 and even kills one of the Iron Priests which is clutch.
Eldar turn 3 and the trick is getting away from the Bark-star for when they finish the Wraithknight. Autarch bounces over to one unit of scouts and kills three with a plasma grenade – they fail morale and run off the board! Wow s4 ap4 grenades are mean! The other three Hawks do the same and then assault into the last scout, locking him in combat. Farseer Tanaka moves and turbo-boosts into the far left board corner, as far as possible from the Bark-star on the table, while scatbikes also scoot into the absolute corners and out of LOS where possible. Warp Spiders get into positions to shoot but also get out of LOS of the Bark-star next turn, and screen the scatbikes from assault where possible. In combat the Iron Priest and Librarian finally slay the Wraithknight thanks to Force on the Ravenwing biker’s weapon – but the monster did his job holding the star in combat until turn 3! What an MVP moment!!
Turn 4
Bark-star moves left and spreads out to try and get some last-ditch charges and hopefully cap some objectives. Iron Priest splits off to get Linebreaker and destroy the Hornet, which he does. Chaplain splits off for middle objective, Wraithknight-slaying Librarian splits off to get right objective. Dogs assault left and right to get the Autarch and a unit of Warp Spiders, but fail to catch a unit of Scatbikes. The Autarch is eliminated, but the Warp Spiders take minimal casualties and hit & run across the star to go after the Librarian. Overall not a great play – should have gone after just the bikes or autarch.
Eldar turn 4 and we agree it will be the last turn due to time and fatigue (sure we could have played out another one after, but wouldn't have made a difference). Scatbikes and Warp Spiders pour into the left flank of the Wolves to punch them away from the objective, and Spiders battle focus inside 3” to contest it. Warp Spiders on the right flank easily kill the Librarian and take his objective from him. Shining Spears way out on the left flank already have their objective, so that is 3-1 on Primary. Eldar won Maelstrom by a mile, so that's game right there. Somehow Eldar also got First Blood, both sides have Linebreaker, and despite some good Warp Hunter shooting neither side has Warlord – game is 10-1!!
Wow what a hilarious game, and Jonathan was probably my favourite opponent for general cheer and good times, despite running the cheesiest list that I have ever had the (mis)fortune to face.
MVP was clearly the Wraithknight for being the ultimate spanner in the works! The whole army really came together to perform well overall though.
Really looking forward to a simplified edition without all this insane multi-layered psychic Deathstar stuff though, the bark-bark star is just silly to face on the tabletop on a consistent basis. Please GW, no more!
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G'day Ibushi! That was a hoot to read. Cheese players will always find a way to play cheese, mate. Don't think there's much GW can do about it. Thanks for sharing!
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Ah, ya, defiantly limbergur. We're they all painted? Really no class at all. No imagination just mathhammer. But you did great against that, really great.
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Wow what a game! Really nicely done :)
It is bonkers that you can regularly run a list like that. It'd be fun and fluffy if it's one massive humungous blob of cultists though...
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Thanks guys! Glad you are enjoying them, man it really was an experience. I was on the fence about going to that event just due to timing, but really happy I made the effort and trucked out there. There are a few photos that I will be sure to upload soon -- actually the Genestealer cult army was particularly good-looking, and yes the space puppies were at least all painted haha.
Overall we ended up placing 5th, just a single battle point behind Mike Kriegler's space wolf deathstar that we lost to in Game 2, so that was pretty awesome. He ended up going 4-0-2 with two ties, whilst the Croneworld Eldar finished as the top ranked spot with a loss at 5-1. It was a super intense day, there was something like 60 people, and my good friend Garry of Necron and Space Marine repute placed right behind me at 6th, so that was awesome.
So right after this tournament was the release of the Gathering Storm series, most importantly the Ynnari, which was absolutely bonkers and took the Eldar to the next level. It is seriously ridiculous. I pretty much gave up on the Eldar for friendly games and our local campaign, instead picking up straight Harlequins and starting to paint up those fantastic space clowns. With the Strength from Death rules and working alongside an Avatar of Ynnead, space clowns suddenly become really terrifying!! So look out for some updates on that front, although I'm tempted to do it in a separate project log as they are a really different force from the Croneworld Eldar...
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There was another big tournament in our area back in February right after the Ynnari came out though, so I'll give you a really quick rundown of what I took and how that went.
Ynnari Reborn Warhost:
Farseer - jetbike, spear
Autarch - jetbike, mask, fusion gun, laser lance
2x 3 Scatbikes
3x Shining Spears - Exarch - star lance
2x 3 Reavers - blaster
the Yncarne, Avatar of Ynnead - WARLORD
Ynnari Reborn Warhost #2
Archon - webway portal, splinter pistol
2x 3 Scatbikes
1x 3 Reavers - blaster, cluster caltrops
Wraithknight - heavy wraithcannons, 1x SL
Aspect Host:
2x 5 Warp Spiders + Exarch
5x Fire Dragons + Exarch
Wow this list is absurdly mean. On a normal day it can trash people, but with Ynnari soulbursting left and right it will just wreck people, it's not even interesting to play against "normal armies", although it is still interesting against very competitive lists and players. You have to be super duper careful about model positioning and shooting/combat action sequencing as the player facing Ynnari, and most people did not have a handle on that by the time this tournament rolled around.
Also I basically did away with traditional drop pod defences in the VSG and Rangers, etc., after a couple of play tests against drop pod armies that ended up getting tabled turn 2. Drop Pods are the ultimate Ynnari bait, as they come down super close and trigger these insane chain reactions of soulburst attacks. It's very likely that you can kill off almost all of the drop pod units before they get to even shoot... Then again, against a clever general who is just out of 7" range, you just get pasted. So, there is some skill involved.
Game Recaps:
Game 1 vs Chaos Space Marines - this was a player getting back into 40k after a long time away, had some cool models and units in his army, but very much not optimized. From turns 3-5 we played it that he could use everything on the table, but I could only use the Yncarne to hunt him down and hopefully not die and give up Warlord, kind of like a big Kill Team mission. That was a lot of fun, and the Yncarne floated around on 1 wound for a long time before time was called. Ynnari victory 11-0.
Game 2 vs Genestealer Cult - Ok this was much more intimidating. This guy had a HUGE genestealer army, oh my goodness it was so many models. Something like 150+. GSC win the roll for first turn, which is huge. Ynnari castle up in a corner just like the last game, but with some extra sneaky plans thanks to Strength from Death. We bubble out a whole corner of the board with Warp Spiders and Reavers screening up front, the only unit in Reserves is the Yncarne. GSC rolls up deployment and gets a significant number of 6s for assaulting turn 1, but not with his Patriarch and Purestrain genestealer deathstar so that is good. Well, if ever there was a game to Seize the Initiative on, this would be it ........ 6!!!!!! Ynnari roll a natural Seize and just blow the Genestealer cult away. It was truly epic how much damage the Ynnari did in turns 1-2, being able to double-shoot and assault. Ynnari win 11-0, but if the Cult had gone first it would have been MUCH closer!
Game 3 vs Space Wolf Blackmane Strikeforce -- this is an interesting one....
Wolf Lord - thunderwolf, storm shield, power fist
2 Iron Priest - thunderwolf, thunder hammer, storm shield
10x Marines - 2x melta, fist + Pod
4x 5 Marines - flamer + Pod
2x 5 Marines + Pod
1x 5 Marines - plasma + Pod
= 8 total drop pods with guys inside
5x Scouts - bolters
5x Bikers - fist, melta, stormshield
10x Fenrisian Wolves
Librarius Conclave:
Tigerius
Libby on foot
2x Librarian on bike
The rules for this formation mean that ALL of the drop pods come in turn 1 -- all EIGHT of them! Also the drop pods are free, so there's something like 2250 points in this army haha. Then of course the biker unit becomes a giant psychic deathstar thanks to the thunderwolves and librarius conclave, who can also... wait for it... summon daemons! Yes, there is daemon summoning happening too. So basically the wall of marines and pods drops in your face, the bikestar holds the midfield and smashes your Alpha units, then daemons get summoned into the backfield to hold that. Its a good army, but looking at the units it does have very low damage output except for the bikestar... Ynnari go ahead and just deploy everything in a corner bubble again, Yncarne in reserve.
Blackmanes win the roll for first turn and opt to go for it, try and just bang out as many pesky Eldar as possible... They come down with an insane number of pods and units, so many that they cant all actually get in range with flamers and rapid fire shooting haha. When the dust clears, they actually fail to kill a single unit, but the Shining Spears are down to just the Exarch on one wound, and the Warp Spiders have both been clipped a few times. Amazing. In the background the bikestar moves up and juices up psychic powers to make it invisible and re-roll armour saves, but no daemons yet.
Ynnari turn 1 and it is really a mixed bag. There is so much dang stuff right on our doorstep that we spread shooting a bit thinly and don't quite eliminate all the things that need to be tied up. In a last-ditch effort to tie up the 10 grey hunters with power fist which really didn't take many casualties, I charge in a unit of Warp Spiders -- they lose a couple to overwatch, and then get punched out by the Grey Hunters in combat! Crap!! Oh man that is so bad, as now both of us have First Strike and purely through my own silliness. Denying the Space Wolves First Strike would have been huge. Oh well, what's done is done. At least this does trigger some Soulburst shenanigans and I charge in some jetbikes to tie up the unit. On the other side, the Wraithknight is able to wipe out TWO units in combat thanks to punching one out, Soulbursting, then stomping out the second. Ha. Ynnari Wraithknights are such a menace.
From turn 2 onwards the Space Wolf ground presence is basically eliminated, but the bikestar is able to keep the Ynnari pinned in place out of fear of being smashed by them, and drop pod stormbolters keep grinding away wounds from the Ynnari jetbike units, whittling them down to just a handful of models. There's one more trick up my sleeve though! A reaver jetbike turbo-boosts across the table into the Wolf backfield, contesting a Maelstrom objective -- the Wolf Lord peels off to punch out this miscreant with ease, but *pop* the Yncarne appears! He didn't see that one coming! The two Warlord duel it out for two rounds in mortal combat, the Yncarne bouncing off the Wolf Lord's stormshield, but finally he gets the hits through and is able to slay the wolf-rider!! Aroooooo!!!! We do have a big rules dispute at this point because the marine player thought I had disengaged from combat and re-assaulted him that turn (for whatever reason, it was a misunderstanding), which meant we would be striking at initiative 1 simultaneously. He rolls it out and actually kills the Yncarne, so we take both Warlords off as a double-slay, as it doesnt affect the final outcome even though it was not what was *supposed* to happen. It was a bit of an odd one.
When we tally up the final results, it is SUPER close. The Space Wolves have their librarians and bike unit alive, along with a unit of daemons, scouts, and fenrisian wolves, plus a smattering of drop pods still alive. The Ynnari have the Autarch, Farseer, one unit of scatbikes with 1 model, the Archon, Fire Dragons, and Wraithknight, that's all! The Ynnari tie Primary - the Relic, but win on Maelstrom, then both sides have First Strike and Warlord, but the Wolves take Table Quarters. Final score 8-5, Ynnari Victory, but VERY VERY CLOSE! One more turn and he would have won, I'm pretty sure.
Ok moving on to day 2 and Game 4 and the real power of the Ynnari comes into play - we are facing Renegades with a huge horde of zombies and mutants, backed up by artillery and wyverns under a void shield and a Khorne Knight. This is a huge whackload of models with really really tough resilience.
Ynnari go first and just go straight at him, turbo-boosting the Farseer and 2x 3 reavers over the zombie mobs and into the backlines, while Warp Spiders and Shining Spears+Autarch and Fire Dragons+Archon wait in reserves. Renegades easily kill the reavers, but in pops the Yncarne, right in the middle of all that artillery! Turns 2-4 are an absolute slaughter-fest, as the Yncarne walks through all of the artillery and slays the Warlord in a challenge, the Shining Spears zip around shooting and killing all the vehicles, Warp Spiders appear and double-shoot with Soulburst to take out all the backfield and flanking units, and the Fire Dragons appear and completely annihilate the Chaos Knight even with his 4++. We finish on turn 4 or 5 with the Renegades COMPLETELY TABLED and 5 minutes left on the clock. Wow I didnt even think that was possible. Ynnari win 11-0.
Game 5 and the final top table game, versus, you guessed it, Garry and his space marines!
Command Land Raider - grav-cannon, 2x lascannons
Command Rhino - TL plasma gun, Orbital Relay
Techmarine - Hunter's Eye
Ironclad Dreadnought - heavy flamer, TL hurricane bolters + Drop Pod
5x Scouts - combi-melta + Landspeeder - melta
5x Tactical marines - melta/combi-melta
Drop Pod
3x Quad Mortars
3x Centurions - grav, omniscope
Void Shield Generator - 3x shields
Skyhammer
2x 5 Assault Marines - melta bomb
5x Devastators - lascannons, cherub + Drop Pod
5x Devastators - multi-meltas, cherub + Drop Pod
Garry is really freaked out by the Ynnari and not sure what to do... he thinks about doing a null deploy and going second, or going first and going for the Alpha Strike. It's a tough one. He opts to go SECOND, but deploys his mortars and land raider under the void shield generator, with centurions embarked alongside the techmarine. The tactical marines stay in reserve inside the Command Rhino, and the Skyhammer opts to come in turn 1. In m opinion he should have gone second and done full null-deploy, or gone 110% alpha strike and hope I don't seize.
Ynnari decide to be a bit mean, and put the Farseer, Autarch and Archon into the Fire Dragon unit as a webway portal deathstar. Jetbikes, Reavers, and Shining Spears start on the board, and the wraithknight.... deep strikes! Turn 1 the Ynnari assault jetbikes just turbo-boost right under the VSG into his face, while the scatbikes move backwards out of range, right into the board corner. Space Marines turn 1 and they are forced to disembark the centurions and destroy the shining spears and some reavers, but that brings about the mother of all problems -- THE YNCARNE, right in his DZ. Oh dear. Turn 2 the Eldar reserves all show up, Fire Dragons appearing next to the Land Raider and sending it sky-high, Warp Spiders appearing and destroying the Landspeeder with scouts, surviving Reavers and the Yncarne charge into the Ironclad Dreadnought and Centurions and eventually kill them. In the backfield the scatbikes fire and maneuvre around the Skyhammer marines, eventually wiping all of them out. The Wraithknight drops in and just goes after drop pods, killing all of them. Turn 5 the Space Marines just have a lone Drop Pod with 1HP left, and a solid 30 minutes left on the clock. We roll to see if the game ends, and it does, so it wasn't quite a tabling. Ynnari do struggle with drop pods a little bit we've found. But still, an overwhelming victory and just egregious amounts of firepower.
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Ynnari win the tournament and pick up a box of the Triumvirate of the Primarch as a prize, which is freakin awesome! Love Big Bobby G!
Takeaways from the tournament are that we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT for GW to reset 40k and bring out 8th edition. These games were JUST SILLY. A lot of them came down to seizing (the Genestealer Cult), and just wiping him, or armies with absurd extra points which my army just doesnt have enough time to get rid of. Really really cannot wait for GW to change some of the game dynamics to be more streamlined, provide some more army composition and mission options, and generally to reset the Codex rules. Ynnari are such a cool faction, the fluff and concept of the army gets me so excited, but the current rules are just ridiculous for the average gamer. Now, using those same rules but playing only Harlequin units... yes, that makes it MUCH more interesting, but doing the full jetbiker thing is so powerful and overwhelming. My favourite games are close games, and Ynnari very rarely seem to have close games.
The other thing I learned at this tournament is that the Yncarne is absolutely awesome - a great model with really fun rules that are not too over the top, but very powerful. He brought a totally new dynamic to the Eldar which I really enjoyed, and the idea of an Avatar of the Eldar pantheon actually being a regular in tabletop games is very exciting to my mind. Something to look forward to for sure! It might be too much to hope that the Avatar of Khaine gets a similar facelift in the future, but hey here's to hoping!
Thanks for reading 40kO friends, I do really enjoy keeping a project log here even if uploading pictures always make the website crash for me. The big question moving forwards is how the ruleset will affect Harlequins and the Croneworld Eldar, as that will shape what army we take forward in the new tournament season. Look forward to seeing what lies ahead!
Cheers
Ibushi
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Thanks for posting that Ibushi. Your right, mate. There is a lot of cheese out there, however, I suspect they panic listed once they heard about Ynnary release.