@Dread- Thanks man. Always appreciate your input. Can't wait to show you some of the new stuff I'm working on I think you are going to like it!
Hey guys! Back with another bat-rep… sort of. I've been having real bad luck with getting these games in lately. My opponent had to bail after 3 turns because his son, who had come along, puked at the beginning of turn 3! Felt bad for the young guy he really looked bad.
Anyway it was still very interesting and despite not finishing the game its represented the final push for me to run a far more powerful list and really has helped me realize the very important elements I've lost in my lists since the new codex came out.
So to begin with my opponent Chris and I have always played very casual games. He has a very casual approach to the game in general bringing whatever he feels like because he thinks its cool. However its led to him losing a lot of games and probably bumming him out in the process. Well he pow-wowed with the other competitive players at the store prior to our game and brought a very tough list, one which I was not prepared for.
My Opponents ForceSo to begin with we played 2000pt game and he brought Battle Company, with 8 lascannon razorbacks, filled with 5 man squads all with meltas, two three man bike squads, one with Khan, the other with a Chaplain kitted out with grav, Thunderfire Cannon with 2 Techmarines, the Librarius Formation attached to two devastor squads (both of which rolled perfect timing/ignore cover) and the vindicator formation for good measure with its enormous apocalyptic str 10 ignore cover blast. This is a far cry from anything I've faced from Chris. I have no problem with the army he brought at all, and was happy to see him bring something firmly planted in the realm of competitive because Chris is one of my favorite opponents and a friend, and its no fun seeing a guy all downcast after a game.
I strongly suspect he won't be turning his back on this approach to the game anytime soon, because he was finally getting the results that had so long eluded him.
My ListMy list was pretty straight forward, light on the cheese and just designed to showcase some new units and options such as the Aegis Defense Line, my Fire Dragons, and to continue to experiment with the Wraithblades and Spirit Seer. Boy was this list in trouble though against all that armor, 8 twin-linked lascannons, 8 ignore cover missile launchers and 3 Demolisher cannons His list was truly designed to take away my strengths and force me into the defensive roll which does not suit the Eldar at all. I knew I would be up against it this weekend but I gave it my best.
Autarch: Banshee Mask, Firesabre
Spirit Seer
Wraithblades x5
Fire Dragons x5- Exarch, Fire Pike
Wave Serpent: Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons
Avengers x9
Wave Serpents: Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons
Avengers x9
Wave Serpents: Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons
Hornets x2- Pulse Lasers
Nightwing
Dark Reapers x9- Exarch
Aegis Defense Line- Icarus Lascannon
Wraithknight
The Game:
We were playing The Scouring, Vanguard Assault deployment. My opponent deployed first and went first. He left nothing in reserves while I left quite a bit: The Hornets, the Wraithknight (all those lascannons+ ignore cover devastors plus the Vindicators) and of course the Nightwing.
Space Marines Turn 1
Everything moved up, the Razorbacks focusing on the Wave Serpents stripping a few HP's. A barrage of missile killed 3 of my Dark Reapers which meant losing anymore would be very deadly. While the rest of his army unloaded on the exposed Icarus Lascannon which I forgot could count for first blood, which he ended up killing. At least I didn't have any flyers I was up against otherwise it would have hurt even more. At first glance it wasn't too bad for me, but having two of the Wave Serpents each lose a hull point, give up first blood and losing numbers on the Reapers was certainly not good.
Eldar Turn 1
This was a very defensive turn, the goal being to survive until my reserves show up, and prevent anything from getting into my lines, namely the bikes. So brought my Serpents and Reapers just within range of the bikes, keeping them out of range as much as possible from the Vindicator squadron and unloaded on the bikes. I did well, wiping both out killing the Chaplain, and a bunch of Grav and the Warlord. Else where I shuffled the Wraithblades and the Fire Dragons in their Wave Serpent off towards a pair of Razorbacks flanking towards me. I was happy with this turn. Rebounded nicely from the blunder with the Icarus, and exposed only two vehicles to the Vindicators with their apocalyptic blast which hopefully I could jink or at the least downgrade damage with my Serpent shields. I didn't like exposing them like that but I had to stop those bikes and either way they were going to take shots from all those lascannon platforms. Anyway the die had been cast.
Space Marines Turn 2
The Space Marines layed the hammer down this turn. I failed every jink and 4 out of 5 Serpent shield saves and all my Serpents went up in smoke! Disaster, red ruin! The dice just were not with me this turn, but even so weight of fire was incredibley stacked against me. 400 free points of armor felt like 400 tons of pressure and without my Wave Serpents I was in trouble. The Avengers took some damage as well from the Thunderfire, but some good saves and poor scatter rolls saved me. This turn really hurt and I could feel just how fine tuned this list was to deal with my army.
Eldar Turn 2
Luckily everything arrived. The Wraithknight, Hornets, Nightwing all show up. The Avengers run forward to the Aegis line, the Wraithknigh hugs cover but has a clear angle on the Vindicator formation which must be stopped if I'm to survive. The Nightwing angles on the Vindicators as well, while the Hornets attempt to deal with some of the Razorbacks. Meanwhile The Fire Dragons, and Wraithblades all advance on the pair of Razorbacks flanking me. So the Wraithknight and Nightwing manage to destroy 1 of the Vindicators and put 2 hull points on the others. The Fire Dragons wreck one of the Razorbacks and the Wraithblades charge the contents and destroy them completley. The Hornets destroy a single Razorback, while the Reapers and Avengers fail to do anything. My list just doesn't have enough punch to effectivley beat back this huge wall of Space Marine armor. The game is going poorly for me and I'm beginning to realize the important game winning unit combinations that I've shelved in an effort to keep things casual.
Space Marines Turn 3
At this point Chris' son is feeling real crappy so we decide we're gonna call it after this turn. Everything unloads onto the Wraithknight but only cause a pair of wounds! Bad rolls on his part, good rolls on mine and tons of lascannon fire either bounces off, or is ignored due to Feel No Pain. The Avengers, and the Reapers take a ton of fire and a big chunk from both Avengers squads falls dead while the Reapers get lucky and take no damage. Scattered fire from various units fells only one of the (non-jinking) Hornets, but my Nightwing which also didn't jink gets destroyed by a twin-linked Lascannon. The Nightwing represented an integral element to me getting back into the game and its loss was sorely felt. Other than that the Fire Dragons and the Wraithguard go unharmed. I've got a fighters chance but its looking grim.
Eldar Turn 3 -End of the Game-
So I went all out in this turn. The Wraithknight stepped up and whiffed with both his cannons, the Fire Dragons wrecked another vehicle. The Hornet caused a couple hullpoints, the Reapers failed to do anything and the Wraithblades ate up another 5 man unit. With that we call it because his son actually puked in the middle of this turn.
Concluding Thoughts So my first experience against the Battle Company and Librarius formation was an eye-opener. Anyone who says that the free points given to the Battle Company are in anyway comparable to Scarab farms, Tervigon breeding, or even Summoning are way off in my estimation. It makes a huge impact on the game, and my experimental list was just not up to the challenge. The sheer volume of twin-linked lascannons, ignore cover missile launchers, with the apocalyptic Vindicator blast forced me to keep my Wraithknight in reserves because even with good cover he could have very easily been eliminated turn 1. Even with the very good anti-tank options I just didn't have the firepower to chew through 12 tanks.
The big take away was that my store has become very competitive. Now this isn't a problem for me. I'd rather everyone play a good competitive list with no expectations for quarter being given in the list building deparment. I've been very gun shy since the new Eldar dex has dropped, not wanting people to ostracize me for playing Eldar and winning as much as I have. Yet in doing so I realized I've dropped probably the biggest hammer unit in my army: that being my Webway Portal Archon bomb. The incredible impact of being able to deepstrike an incredibley potent unit into the heart of my opponent and essentially erasing a unit of my choosing was a huge component of the incredible run of wins I have had. Removing it has led to me going roughly even in the wins and losses in the past month or so. Part of this is due to the limitations I have in my collection. I simply do not have unit options to fill the gap given the units I currently own. This however is going to change. I'm going to put a huge emphasis on restoring that power Deepstrike element of my army with not only the return of my Dark Eldar allies, but also some other very powerful units as well.
I'm going to put a greater emphasis on high volume of anti-tank fire, deepstrike ability and forcing bad matchups through unit combinations. Playing repeatedly against Necron Decurions with double Canoptek Harvests, Space Wolf Thunder-Cav Stars, my brothers incredibely tough IG list and now the Space Marine Battle Company all one after the other really compelled me to get back to that winning formula I had, my opponent whining and crying about Eldar cheese be-damned (thats a sarcastic joke)!
All that being I wont be getting away from keeping a hardcore close-combat block in my army, so expect a hybrid of my 6th ed. and 7th ed. lists.
Hobby StuffSo after about 2 weeks of waiting my Corsair conversion kit finally shipped and should be here soon. In the meantime I finished my other Warp Spider in anticipation of his squad mates arriving soon. I'm dying to get this unit on the battlefield along with the other units and formations I intend to run.
So anyway guys get ready for an Eldar tour-de-force as I re-tool my army for vengeance! Get ready for more bat-reps and a flurry of hobby stuff as I put the final touches on my Eldar mk.3 list concept and get ready to move beyond to new armies in the months to come. Stay tuned!