All the details are below, my personal reflections are in red.
Points value: 1500
Lists:
Eldar
– 1496
HQ
Autarch –
Jetbike, Laser Lance, Fusion Gun, Banshee Mask, Mantle
Troops
10xGuardians –
BL
Wave Serpent
–SL, Cannon, Holo
10xDA – Exarch,
PW/Shield
Wave Serpent
–SL, Cannon, Holo
3xJetbikes –
Cannon
Fast Attack
2xVypers –
Dual Shuricannon
2xHornets –
Dual Pulse Lasers, holo
5xSpectres –
Exarch w/ SoD, H&R, Blaster
Heavy
Wraithknight
Deldar 1500
HQ
Archon w/ Venom Blade, Shadow Field, Haywire Grenades
Haemy w/ Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun
Elites
5x Trueborn w/2xSplinter Cannons, 3xShardcarbines - Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
(these are the Splinterborn)
3x Trueborn w/2xDark Lance - Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
(these guys are the DLborn)
4x Trueborn w/4xBlasters - Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
(and these the Blasterborn)
Troops
5x Warriors w/Blaster - Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w/Blaster - Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
8x Wytches w/Shardnet and Impaler, Haywire Grenades - Raider w/ Flickerfield
Heavy Support
Ravager w/3xDL, FF, NS
Ravager w/3xDL, FF, NS
Razorwing w/ Splinter Cannon, Flickerfield, 2xShatterfield
Pre-game stuff:
Mission:
The Relic (interesting...the mission no-one ever likes)
Deployment:
Dawn of War
Night Fight: No (few. Night fight HURTS against Deldar)
Drugs: +1S
Traits: Eldar, Split-Fire, (so pretty much the only useless trait I could have rolled...)
Deldar, Outflank, (this could be interesting as an outflanking raider full of Haywire Wyches was not something I was prepared for...)
First
Turn: Deldar wins the roll off.
Deployment:
Deldar:
There is a ravager at the back on each side, all the blasters on the right and the Splinterborn and DLborn on the left (the DLborn are outside their venom, in the ruins). The Haemy an Archon are accompanying the Wyches in their Raider, which is outflanking.
This is an interesting deployment and I see the initial reasoning behind it. They have deployed to try and make the most of the available cover. There isn't a lot and some LOS blocking terrain would be preferred really for the Deldar. He also seems to be tempting me to split my forces and allow him to surround me and pick his fights where he is strongest. There's not much I can do about the Raider except hope I survive it's first arrival and then stop it haywiring my tanks.
Eldar:
The Serpents are defended most, they're my best bet of taking down the Razorwing outside of my Hornets (and they're carrying my troops which I need for the objectives). The Vypers are covering the serpent, the woods are covering the Mantarch and the Wraithknight is forming a scary centre.The hornets I edged forwards to try and swoop round to attack straight away. My Spectres and Jetbikes are in reserve for later.
I decided not to take the bait. I have the speed to catch him (a beautiful change considering my usual footslogging lists) even if I deploy on one flank and I have an immediate chance to smash one of his flanks before he can support it. I chose to deploy against his strongest flank because if I can destroy that then he's at the biggest disadvantage (and my best chance of smashing it is straight from the off).
Retrospectively, I should have deployed on the other flank. Despite the improved cover from the top left ruin, it would be an easier fight to win and it would reduce his firepower more as none of the blasters (which are all on the right) would be able to get into range.
I fail to seize. If I can survive the initial firepower, my first turn should be decisive.
Deldar Turn 1:
movement
·
Right flank slides forward round the trees (to get the blasters on the Hornets. There's 6 of them...I begin to see my error)
·
Left flank moves out of the ruins
·
Venom passes difficult terrain
· The Ravager fails it's terrain! However it passes its invun on a 6! (So close...)
· DLborn in ruins get back in their venom on the
left (That cuts down the anti-tank I'm facing. I'm good with this)
Shooting
·
Blasterborn on hornets: 4shots: 1 pen (fails to save by rolling a 1), Weapon destroyed loses me 1 PL & a HP
·
Green warriors : 1shot, 1 pen (saves on a 4)
·
Orange warriors: 1 shot: hit but no pen
·
Right Ravager: Guardian serpent: all miss (all
1’s, the Deldar players luck was not with him this turn)!
·
Left Ravager: flat out
·
Both other (Left) Venoms flat out, go round the
trees to avoid rolling terrain
·
Blasterborn venom: Wraithknight: 4Wounds, saves
3 -- takes 1W
·
Other 2 venoms also on Wraithknight: together
get 4W (from 14 hits! Again unlucky), saves 3 – takes
another 1
At the end of this turn I breathe a sigh of relief. The luck was against the Deldar this turn and that is going to cost him. I expected to lose the Wraithknight (or at least more than 2 wounds) and take a lot more damage on the Hornets. I was very lucky that those blasters didn't just terminate my units, mainly the Hornets Time to capitalise on this good fortune.
Eldar Turn 1
Movement:
·
Everything moves up on the right flank to wolf
pack the isolated units
·
Wraithknight passes terrain, as does Mantarch.
·
Both serpents pass terrain for going into/out of
terrain
·
Hornets shuffle for jink, I didn't want to swoop them into the trees in case I lost them to terrain.
Shooting:
·
Mantarch pens the front (orange warrior squad) Venom with his fusion gun: Pens
(not saved): and the venom explodes!!
· This nets me First Blood!
· On top of this the explosion wounds 4, but only kills 1 , they aren't pinned
·
Hornets on blaster born venom, 2 pens, 1 glance, all the saves are failed: anothe Venom explodes!!
·
Explosion wounds 2, kills 1
·
Wraithknight blasts the Ravager, 1 pen, not saved:
explodes (see a trend here?)
·
Explosion hits 2 trueborn (1 wound, dead), 1
warrior (1 wound, dead)
·
Vypers green warrior venom, 8 hits, 3 pens, 1
saved: no explosion (still dead)
·
No pinning
·
DA serpent on trueborn, scatter laser (2 wounds
1 dies), cannon (2W, kills)
·
Blasterborn are wiped out (and a load is off my mind)
·
Guardian serpent on orange warriors: (6W), 5
wounds, all dead
Assault phase
·
Thrust the autarch 5” forwards
End of this turn I have all but annihilated the right flank with just one warrior squad to wipe off the table. There were so many failed saves followed by explosions that it began to get unusual. Venoms just go down to the kind of firepower Eldar can kick out, no questions asked. At this point though it's an uphill struggle for the Deldar as he has lost pretty much half his army and only taken out 2Ws from the Wraithknight and 1HP from a Hornet.
Deldar turn 2
Movement:
·
Razorwing comes in from reserve
·
Raider +Wyches outflank and arrive on right
flank (this is the worst possible result as although it makes a nice battle line for him, he really could have done with dropping haywire grenades near my fast vehicles to take them out and ensure he had movement superiority)
·
Razorwing comes in from right side of his original
edge and faces my cluster of Eldar
·
Raider comes in at the bottom (hugging the bottom table edge. This is probably to try and get a rear armour shot from the DL on the Raider, but it leaves it vulnerable as we shall see)
·
Other 2 Venoms and Ravager jump over the trees
towards the Eldar
·
Warriors hop to next venom crater (on the right, moving away from the Relic but staying in cover)
Shooting:
·
Raider goes flat out down the bottom edge (unusual, but I suppose he doesn't want to get stranded away from the fight with his Wyches)
·
Ravager shoots viper squadron: (2pens, 1 glance)
save 1 pen: 1 explodes and a glance goes on the second
·
2 venoms go flat out (presumably they were out of range)
·
Warriors blaster the hornets: miss on a 2
·
Razorwing fires 2 shatterfield missiles & 2
DLs at the hornets: First missile clips 1 hornet then the second is a direct hit to both (nothing happens from these however as he rolls 1,2,1), 2 DLs =1pen, fail save, my healthy Hornet is now immobilised.
Not too much to say here. I got lucky with the Raider's outflank going wrong as it meant he couldn't pop any vehicles. This meant that the Razorwing had no real targets to shoot as its missiles at least are devastating against infantry. At this point the entire remains of the Deldar force is in play so it's here that I need to make my advantage stick.
Eldar turn 2
Movement:
·
Bikes come on, spectres don’t (on a 1!)
·
Bikes fly on to shoot the rear armour of the Raider (if this works it will strand them in the open, far away from my forces. This is only made possible because he hugged my board edge on entering instead of coming on further up)
·
1 hornet moves to bother right hand vehicles, the other is immobilised
·
Viper moves to take out a venom
·
Wave serpents position to fight razorwing (the guardian serpent twists to have the option of shooting something else if I get lucky)
·
Autarch goes to wipe out the Warriors on the right
·
Knight moves to take out any tank that I feel needs to go
Shooting:
·
Immobilized hornet does 2Ws to green Warriors as it has no other option,
kills 1
·
Autarch uses his Catapults on the Warriors but does squat
·
Viper fires on the Splinterborn Venom: hits with 5, does
nothing (woo....)
·
DA serpent on razorwing, SL (hits but does nothing, but it at least twin links my other weapons), the shield fires 4 times (1 pen, ignores cover, saved on a 5 because of the nightshield being an invun!), cannon (1 glance, failed to save on a 1 to it loses 1 HP)
·
Wraithknight on 2xDL venom, 1 pen, saves on a 4 because of moving flat out
·
Jetbikes on Raider, catapults do nothing, cannon
pens once though– not saved (on a 2!), immobilizes it. (looking back, because it moved flat out last turn this should mean it was wrecked, but we forgot this fact, not that it matters too much as the Raider is pretty much out of the game at this point)
· The moving hornet shoots the 2DL venom, 1 pen, it fails its save and explodes!!
·
Explosion wounds 2, 1 dies – they are not pinned
·
Guardian serpent shoots razorwing as well, SL (1
glance), shield fires 7 shots (does nothing – 2 hits, both roll 2s), the glance is saved on a 5
Assault
·
Bikes thrust away from the raider 2” (lightning speed there boys)
·
Autarch assaults the green warriors, passes all
his terrain & distance rolls.
·
Overwatch does 1W, he saves it
·
HoW fails, does 5Ws normally and kills everyone!
Consolidates left towards the fight
So my shooting has been fairly effective. I've done nothing to stop the Razorwing, my Serpents were my best hope after the only Hornet I could bring to bear only had 2 shots so was unlikely to hit it but I have stopped the Raider death package. To do this I've sacrificed my Jetbikes to the Wyches (because of their terrible thrust move) but it's a trade off I can handle. They were only cheap anyway. I'm still feeling very good about this.
Deldar turn 3
Movement:
· Wyches and HQs disembark to go for the bikes
· Razorwing swoops down for the guardian serpent
· Ravager and last venom shuffle around for shots
Shooting:
· Raider shoots guardian serpent, misses on a 2
· Haemy liquefies bikes, (AP6) hits 3, wounds 3, saves 2, 1 dies
· ALL THE PISTOLS FROM THE WYCHES!! (well, 8 pistols), hits 5, wounds 2, saves 1, 1 dies, (cannon still lives!)
· The last Jetbike fails his LD test spectacularly on boxcars and pegs it off the battlefield, this means the wyches now have 2 pain tokens (meaning they gain furious charge)
· Last venom on the wraithknight, 5Ws, saves 2, (down to its last wound)
· Guys inside also shoot the Wraithknight, 8 hits, 1W, SAVES ON A 6!
· Ravager on DA serpent, 1 pen 1 glance, saves both on a 4 (go Holofields)
· Razorwing shoots the Guardian serpent, 2 DL, 1 pen, fails to save on a 1, the result is Crew shaken
· DLborn on DA serpent, 2 pens, saves 1, crew shaken as well
The Deldar are still swinging, despite their bloody nose. By some fortune none of my units died (aside from the Jetbikes but they were gone no matter what, at least the fleeing cannon survived 'technically'). This does mean that almost everything I have left is on very low health (the Vyper, Hornet and Wraithknight are all on 1W) so my force is a little less intimidating than it looks at first. I can still hit hard though, the Spectres are still to show and my troops are still safe to go for the Relic.
Eldar turn 3
Movement:
·
Spectres decide to enter the battlefield
·
They try to deepstrike near the Wyches, but scatter quite far back to my
own lines
·
Everything moves closer to the centre field for
shots/relic grabbing (I need to bring the pain while I still have most of my stuff)
·
Both serpents have practically volunteered for Razorwing duty as they’re
snapshot-ing anyway because they are stunned (again mind-fart happens because they shouldn't have been able to move because they were stunned not shaken...but this thankfully didn't make too big a difference in the end as you'll see)
·
Mantarch goes to clean up the DLborn
Shooting:
·
Guardian serpent on the Razorwing: SL (1 pen),
shield (1 glance), cannon (1 pen), saves neither of the pens, saves the glance but it's still dead
·
Razorwing crashes on itself so nothing is hurt
·
Spectres run 5” towards Wyches to try and get within range
·
Spectres are in range to shoot the Wyches: the guys fire blasts (9 hits, 2
scattered off the board), 5 wounds, go to ground for 6+cover, 2 unsaved after FNP.
·
Exarch: hits 1, kills 1 for 3 kills in total
·
DA serpent on Venom, just SL, does nothing
·
Last Hornet on last Venom: 2 pens from 2 shots but both are saved
·
Wraithknight on Ravager, 2 pens, both saved (again!)
·
Vyper on last venom, 4 pens, saves 3(!) but finally it explodes (thankfully the Spectre's run move took them far enough away from the venom to not be caught in the blast)
·
Explosion, wounds 3 and kills 3.
·
Mantarch was out of range so boosts to between DLborn and
Wraithknight to give it cover
·
Splinterborn are not running or pinned despite the Spectre's presence
·
Wyches not running either
Assault
·
Spectres move 8” back to get away from the wyches
Deldar Turn 4:
Movement:
·
Wyches are pinned, everything else stays put (by now the Deldar are just out for kills)
Shooting:
·
Splinterborn on Wraithknight, 4W, only 1 fail but it finally drops dead!
·
Ravager on the Hornet, 1 pen, fails its save and it explodes!
·
DLborn on Vyper, hits once but rolls a 1 on the pen and
does nothing
·
Raider on Guardian Serpent, 1 pen, fails save on a 1 and it loses its cannon
There's now a big gap in the middle of my army where (mainly) my Wraithknight was, but also the Hornet. I'm lucky to still have the Vyper though but my Serpents and Spectres are still on the go.
Eldar turn 4
Movement:
·
Serpents converge on the Relic (finally), Guardian Serpent
passes all its terrain rolls
·
Mantarch swoops in for the DLborn
·
Vyper shuffles forward for jink and Ravager shots
·
Spectres move back in to shoot wyches
Shooting
·
Vyper on Ravager does squat
·
DA Serpent on same, SL (2 glances), shield = 6 shots (4pens), saves 3
pens and 1 glance (!), shakes the crew but stays alive
·
Guardian Serpent shoots at Splinterborn, kills 1
with shield, the last guy runs 3” (thanks to the Spectres)
·
Mantarch catapults the DLborn and kills both
·
Spectres S6 the wyches to ignore FnP (also
vassal was dead here and it wasn't worth reloading it to work out the blasts), they cause 4W, the Wyches go to
ground, 2 wyches die, Archon saves 1 then fails his shadowfield and pops (so not a bad result really)
Vassal had died at this point so the Deldar concede rather than bother spending time reloading the whole thing.
The Deldar had left:
3 Wyches
Haemunculous
1HP Ravager
Whilst the Eldar had:
2 Wave Serpents with their full strength squads in them
The Mantarch
The lone immobilized Hornet
The last Vyper
Reflections
So by the end it was fairly clear what the result was. The game was pretty much decided by the end of turn 1 really because so much of the Deldar force had been wiped for little damage in return. The deployment was what really hamstrung them here as it meant the left flank ended up out of range and the right flank was isolated and fighting a lot of Eldar. Against my normal footsloggers however, that would be a horrible deployment as if I attacked one flank the other would just sit out of range and blast me, and if I deployed in the middle they'd just circle me and devastate my units.The speed of Eldar is really important.
With regards to the list, what have I learnt:
- The Mantarch is a fantastic HQ. No-one even bothered shooting him because of how tough he is and he can plug in almost any gap I need, be it tank hunting or just clean-up.
- The Hornets are lovely. They didn't do a lot but they are a nice threat to distract from the Serpents. I would definitely include these again.
- The Vypers turned out to be better than I expected. 120pts for 12 S6 shots is very nice and when there's other threats around if they get ignored they can bring the pain. They do need to be ignored though, so I don't think I'll want to put holofields on them, that just makes them too expensive and not resilient enough
- The Spectres didn't get chance to do much, but they seem pretty fun. They're quite expensive though and I could fit more fun in for that.
- Wraithknight. Drew a lot of firepower...didn't really see much of it but I reckon it will be useful.
- Serpents are stupidly survivable, but currently my main anti-air (with the Hornets) Therefore...
- Needs some anti-air! When the Serpents are shot then I'm struggling with how to deal with it.
Other than that I just want more Wraith. They're just expensive and I can't fit them in yet. Hm...
Still, I hope you enjoyed the battle-report.
Until the next time.
--Transmission ends--
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