So, to try and get me out of my bummer mood, I went back to the local store and played another game. With my Eldar.
Funny event was someone saying that my knight looked a little feminine posed like that. So I said "thank you, that was kinda the idea. I also did a lot of minor conversions to make her look a bit more sleek and feminine in body shape, so I'm quite happy the vibe translated
But other than that...
Battle report time!
So, 1500 pts armies meant I was bringing:
Waithhost:
1 Spiritseer
5 Wraithblades (axe + shield)
5 Wraithguard (wraithcannon), in Wave Serpent (t-l shuriken catapult and scatter lasers)
5 Wraithguard (D-scythe), in Wave Serpent (t-l shuriken catapult and scatter lasers)
Wraithlord (2x flamer, 2x bright lance, wraithglaive)
Wraithknight (2x heavy wraithcannon, scatter laser)
Avenger Shrine Host
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers, of which 1 Exarch
He brought:
Hq:
Company Command Squad (chimera (hunter killer missile), volkovs cane)
Troops
2× Veterans (forward sentries, 3x melta, chimera (hk missile))
Infantry Platoon:
Platoon command squad (4x melta)
3× infantry squad (flakk missile launcher.
30 conscripts
Heavy Support
Basilisk
Manticore
2x Leman Russ Battle Tank
Ministorum Battle Priest
So... we rolled on the maelstrom missions and got the mission where you start with 1 card and get more cards every turn based on how many objectives you controlled.
I haven't played against guard in ages, so I was kinda happy seeing them. I expected this could make for a fun battle.
He deployed most of his force pretty far back, and with both his artillery pieces well out of sight behind a building. It was all bunched up pretty well, which I didn't mind that much. I did worry that his conscript squad with the priest might tarpit me a bit too good. Especially since I had my knight run 3 turns in a row with 2, 3 and 3 stomp attacks, and rolling 1 on each and every one of them.
I deployed with two avenger squads ready to move up on the left flank upon his one infantry platoon, to claim both objectives on that side of the map. I hid the 3rd one in the building in the back there, which also had an objective. They did nothing but generate cards all game, but I didn't mind. I tried to hide the knight, the serpents and the lord behind respectively buildings and the wraithblades, but didn't quite succeed as you'll see when we start at turn 1.
He basically moved up tentatively, but getting in reach of both objectives right outside of his deployment zone. The right flank also slowly moved up.
His Manticore unloaded, eventually dealing one hullpoint of damage on the middle wave serpent. The basilisk overshot completely, which left me feeling quite confident. The leman russes fired, and between them and a slight scatter, they managed to get a wound on the knight, and 2 more hullpoints on the middle wave serpent stranding my d-scythes and spiritseer out in the open. Combined fire from the three chimeras and an infantry platoon also managed to take out 2 of my wraithblades. He got first blood and the first objective (completely kill an enemy unit).
I responded by moving my knight in sight and range of the leman russes, slowly moving up my blades and lord, and flanking the wave serpent and the d-scythes behind the building, on my way to get an objective there. It was also on one of my objective cards, so that doubled up on the importance of it. The avengers on my left flank slowly moved up, with some rather poor move through cover rolls.
In the shooting phase, the remaining wave serpent managed to kill a single guardsman. The wraithknight missed all of it's scatter laser shots, one wraithcannon shot, and the other rolled a 1 on the D table. My wraithlord managed to knock a single hullpoint off of one of the russes with a glancing hit. After this rather lopsided start (with no opportunity to get my objective either), I felt put on the back foot and needed my units to start performing to get back in the drivers seat.
Turn 2 saw him once again edging in slightly on the right flank, trying to keep me off of the objective there, and with his conscripts in the middle, while holding the rest quite steady. A shot from the basilisk made me decide to go to ground with my leftmost avenger squad - and it barely survived. I even had to use the formation's reroll on the morale test!
Combined fire from chimeras and the leman russes knocked out another wraithblade and took a wound from my wraithlord, while I lost my first d-scythe to the Manticore.
When my turn came round, I finally got the stuff going. My middle avenger squad moved up and claimed an objective, took some shots at the opposing infantry platoon and managed to kill 3 of them. They proceeded to fail their leadership test, and what's more, ran 11 inches back, and straight off the table! I couldn't believe my luck, and I suppose neither can those guardsmen. We joked that at least they gained some valuable experience, and that next time they get in a battle against Eldar they'll be saying "we have some experience in how to survive this.... Leg it!", only to meet a commissar.
In the middle, my wraithknight moved up, shot at the conscripts with the scatter laser (killing one) and missing and hitting one shot against the leman russ squadron with his wraithcannons. This resulted in an exploding Russ, which did no further damage. The knight then went on to safely lock itself in combat, and because of the wonderful world of piling in, stomping actually removed 5 of the happless mon-keigh.
The Wraithlord knocked another hullpoint off the leman russ, and destroyed its Heavy Bolter.
On the right flank, the wraithguard with the d-scythes moved up, ran and fired their horrific weapons. The lone guardsman heavy weapon team that was left standing after the onslaught failed their leadership test as well, and ran slightly back to hide between the armoured skirts of the accompanying chimeras. The wave serpent shot ineffectually against the rightmost chimera, doing no damage.
Turn 3: This is where I forgot to make pictures for half a turn... So I'm glad I'm writing this now.
The veterans on the right flank disembarked and readied their meltas, but couldn't get into melta range for maximum damage. They still tried to down the wave serpent, but as it quickly decided on evasive jinking, none of the fire from the squad or the three chimeras could do any damage to it. The ministorum priest tried to Smash attack the wraithknight, but failed, and the basilisk moved around to get a better shot on the proceedings, having trouble keeping firing with its minimum range if it had to keep firing indirectly. This resulted in me losing my wraithlord, and reduced the wraithblade unit to a lone figure.
In my turn, I moved up the wraithblade, trying to get in range to aid my knight. In hindsight, I should've just moved him back to the objective, because he wasn't going to do much more in a fight anyway, and there wasn't a lot I needed to tarpit (which is one of their main uses). He'd done his job catching fire. As it turned out, the knight managed to stomp his way through the remaining conscripts with room to spare, much to my dismay - this left it open to return fire.
The wave serpent shot everything (including the serpent shield) onto the melta vets in front of it. However, due to it having jinked the turn before, it only killed one of the brave imperial guardsmen, and I had to think of another option to keep my serpent safe.
So I moved and ran the d-scythes up before unloading upon the chimera - which they happened to stand behind. I ended up completely annihilating both targets with the 4 D-scythes I had left. The other wraithguard shot the other melta vet squad's chimera to bits, and managed to get it to explode, killing a number of the occupants, but not much else. Even the missile launcher heavy weapon team still stood their ground (after having rallied). I had hoped to finish off the now disembarked squad with my d-scythes, but I had needed them before. Nevertheless, I dealt a decisive blow on the right flank.
On the opponent's turn 4, he moved up his platoon command squad, and shot with their 4 meltas, the leman russ, and the basilisk upon the knight that was standing right in front. However, completely shaken by such a graceful construct, they failed to inflict much damage (just 1 wound).
Fire from Manticore took out the first wraithcannon wraithguard, while combined fire from the second veteran squad, the remaining heavy weapon team,and the company command squad and their chimera (who had repositioned further back for safety reasons) took out two more d-Scythe wielding guard.
In response, the wraithknight shot a wraithcannon in both opposing vehicles, completely blowing up the leman russ (the explosion of which also took out several platoon command guardsmen), and shot up another guardsman with the scatter laser. Only two remained, who were taken out in the ensuing melee.
I repositioned the wave serpent to get some shots on the manticore, but it failed to do any damage. The scytheguard took out the heavy weapon team and 2 veterans, while the cannonguard completely whiffed their assault on the remaining chimera.
At the end of turn 4 the Imperium had gotten 2 objectives and first blood, and was no longer holding any objective markers with very little hope of reclaiming any. tallying up the eldar score, by then, brought the score up to 7 objectives. Considering the time and his chances, my opponent conceded the game.
Looking back on things, I think there was a bit of a mismatch in power level between the two armies. Despite that, I think the imperial guard gave me a good thrashing at the start of the game, and if the melta squads had worked a bit more cohesively, they might have turned the game around a bit more. The opponent agreed, but confessed he'd gotten distracted and bogged down in the fighting on my right flank, where the elusive eldar refused to give him a very clear target and he had to keep going for targets of not-so-great-opportunity.
The assault over the left flank went well, especially when his unit fled off the board, but it took longer than expected to reach the last objective on his side there due to some bad run rolls and the turn I stood still after having gone to ground. Still, I'm very happy with the dire avengers, and think they perform better than the guardians that I field for the 1850 pts games. Maybe it's because the objectives didn't get really pressured and I didn't need the objective secured from the guardians in the Combined Arms Detachment. But I really like the 18", BS 5, optional 3-shots-once-per-game (that I didn't even use) multiple small units that can adept to necessity on the fly.
I once again made an error, leaving my wave serpents too exposed early game. If I hadn't rolled the warlord trait adding 3" to my run moves, I fear the scythe guard would've done very little this game. It seems I really did have some luck at some key points... maybe the power difference wasn't so great?
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the report!