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Offline Ibushi

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #80 on: March 3, 2017, 06:27:29 PM »
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
Check out my PLOG! Croneworld Koxinga Rises

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Offline Ynneadwraith

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #81 on: March 7, 2017, 06:22:10 PM »
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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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #82 on: April 23, 2017, 09:23:28 AM »
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. 

Offline Ibushi

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #83 on: April 26, 2017, 05:35:39 PM »
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!

++



Check out my PLOG! Croneworld Koxinga Rises

Wet Coast GT 2015 Best Overall
TSHFT 08-15 3rd Place, Best Eldar
Guardian Cup 8.5 Best General
Attack-X Best Overall
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Tanksgiving 2015 Best Overall

Samurai Eldar, Coming to a Croneworld Near You.

Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #84 on: April 27, 2017, 03:04:30 AM »
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!

Offline Dread

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #85 on: April 27, 2017, 03:18:24 AM »
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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Offline Ynneadwraith

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #86 on: April 27, 2017, 09:11:32 AM »
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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Offline Ibushi

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #87 on: April 27, 2017, 02:19:44 PM »
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...

++

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.

++

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


Check out my PLOG! Croneworld Koxinga Rises

Wet Coast GT 2015 Best Overall
TSHFT 08-15 3rd Place, Best Eldar
Guardian Cup 8.5 Best General
Attack-X Best Overall
WGWB 2015 Best Overall
Tanksgiving 2015 Best Overall

Samurai Eldar, Coming to a Croneworld Near You.

Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: Croneworld Koxinga Rises
« Reply #88 on: April 27, 2017, 06:18:00 PM »
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.   

 


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