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Game 2 with my current build. Played Thing 2 again with a slightly revised Eldar army and shuffled terrain.

Scenario: The Relic
Deployment: Vanguard (diagonal)
First Turn: Eldar

Mantis Warriors:
HQ: Redth (warlord power = roll extra die when running)
EL: 5 sternguard (2 plasma cannons, 2 combi-plas, srg w/ combi-melta)
TP: 10 tacs (flamer, las cannon, combi-melta)
TP: 10 tacs (flamer, las cannon, combi-melta)
FA: 4 scout bikes (3 gren launchers)
HV: 5 devs (3 ML, 1 LC)


Eldar: (roughly 1150 pts)
HQ: Avatar (warlord power = scoring)
EL: 7 Banshees w/ exarch (executioner)
TP: 6 Pathfinders
TP: 10 Dire Avengers with exarch (blade storm, defend)
FA: 7 Warp Spiders with exarch (power blades, twin guns)
HV: 3 War Walkers (2x BL, 2x SL, 2x SL)
HV: Fire Prism

Thing 2 wins the roll off and elects to go first. Given the scenario, I elect to use Redth's combat tactics and infiltrate my entire army. Thing 2 rolls the PERFECT warlord trait given his army and the scenario... the one that makes his (Avatar) scoring. Ouch! I can see it now, the Avatar marches up to the relic, grabs it & marches off the table, shrugging off shells as he goes. He deploys well with his avatar as close as possible. I forgot where the warp spiders were deployed... somewhere out of camera sight. Probably back with the Avatar I think.

In my deployment, I keep in mind an earlier discussion with Solar_lion and think about how my army is designed to be used before deploying it willy-nilly. It's a shooting army... I should deploy & use it as such. I find both the devs and the sternguard a nice open firing lane in cover that protects the relic. I put a combat squad with the libby hidden behind a building so that he can use null zone to force invul save re-rolls at the table center. The bikes are also there as my counter-punching unit. I put one full tac squad in the open in the upper left to cover the relic from that angle so that anything that tries to make a grab for it will have to deal with them (or be plinked at). Also they're kind of a decoy to draw the Eldar away from my main force. The other half of the combat squadded tac squad is in the wood as close to the relic as I can get it in case they can make a dash for it once the dust settles. He then deploys his pathfinders right near the relic.



My nice shooting lane. The relic is the small red blob that you can just barely make out in the upper right by the pathfinders.



Turn 1:
The Eldar move forward aggressively. The pathfinders (being closest) grab the relic. The Fire Prism's shot thankfully deviates off my tac squad and the combined fire of the War Walkers only manages to kill 1 devastator. In return, the plasma blast templates with supporting fire from the big and small tac squads wreak havoc on the Eldar center, killing 4 pathfinders, 3 banshees and 3 warp spiders. So far my "decoy" tac squad is drawing off the Avatar, fire prism and banshees, not too bad. The dev squad takes out the first war walker with a couple of pens & a roll of 6.



Turn 2:
The pathfinders pile in with the dire avergers in order to get out of my main firing lane. The dire avengers and the fire prism open up on the full tac squad which I'd left stupidly bunched up and kill all but 1 (the las cannon), who passes his leadership. The Avatar, banshees and warp spiders all move towards my deployment zone but are too far away to do much. Shooting from the War Walkers kills yet another dev. In my half of the turn, the lone las cannon beats feet around the building to either draw eldar forces further off, or if ignored... go for the linebreaker point. On the other side of the table, my entire army opens up on the Avatar, and thanks to Redth's null zone... kills it, getting me both "slay the warlord" and "first blood" in one shot (well, more like 20 shots). One of the sternguard plasma cannons overheats, killing the gunner. Typical.



Last man standing...



Turn 3
The dire avengers and pathfinders (still with the relic) make for the hills. The banshees and warp spiders continue to advance while the fire prism blocks my view of the fleeing panzy relic carriers. Shooting sees the war walkers wipe out the devs, while the banshees and spiders take out two of the right hand tac squad. The warp spiders, looking to repeat their performance from last game... charge in, unfortunately snap fire takes one out and they fail their charge roll. The resulting morale test sees them falling back towards their board edge... now under 50% so they can't rallyl. In my half, the two combat squads and the sternguard fire their weapons at the approaching banshees, killing 3. The bikes re-position themselves so they can swing around the back of the building and harass the fleeing eldar troops with astartes grenade launcher fire.



Turn 4
Combined shooting from the fire prism and war walkers kill 2 sternguard who pass leadership. The lone banshee charges but is killed in combat without doing any damage. The relic carriers continue their 6" progression towards their board edge.



Unfortunately, that's where we had to call it. My plan was to use the bikes to harass the retreating relic squads while going for linebacker with the lone las cannon in the upper left and the remnants of the combat squad in the lower right. I think I would have gotten one of them to score the point. Even unimpeded... he'd not have gotten the relic off until turn 6 or maybe even turn 7... so I think I had a decent shot at winning this one or at least tying.


Analysis:
The army works better when I actually use it like it was designed to be used. Redth's powers actually made a difference this game. The 9-year-old played a pretty good game. Got a little frustrated there at the end but overall made some good decisions.

Very interesting write-up. I can see why #2 may have become despondent when you took out the avatar first turn! Seems like you had a better handle on your force also. Would you change anything on your list?

That's another great bat rep Git's. I think #2 needs to watch out for your bike squad as they can change position very quickly and could have taken away his victory by killing the pathfinders in turn 5.

A suggestion for #2 is to try replacing the banshees with Fire Dragons and advance them up behind the avatar but close enough to gain fearless.

Edit: The shot with your plasma cannon guys is excellent they look really good.

inmygravenimage wrote:Very interesting write-up. I can see why #2 may have become despondent when you took out the avatar first turn! Seems like you had a better handle on your force also. Would you change anything on your list?

A friend of mine who travels all over the country to play 40k competitively once told me that you never change your army until you've played it several times. I've played this one 3 times now (third bat-rep not up yet) and I'm definitely getting better at it and it's looking like much less of a disaster. Granted my opponents are not seasoned adults... still, they can give a decent game. I really miss having any kind of assault capability or mobility... but that's NOT the idea that the army was designed around. Problem is... like normal... there are no really optional points to be had (for power swords and such). The other variation of this army is to replace the bikes with a 5-man assault squad. Gives me a bit of assault but takes a real hit from the shooty perspective which the scout bikes exceed at. I will run a series of games with the other variation though... just to try it out.

OH, and the Avatar was taken out in turn #2... not first turn.

GiraffeX wrote:That's another great bat rep Git's. I think #2 needs to watch out for your bike squad as they can change position very quickly and could have taken away his victory by killing the pathfinders in turn 5.

A suggestion for #2 is to try replacing the banshees with Fire Dragons and advance them up behind the avatar but close enough to gain fearless. Oh and thanks... they do look good on the table.

Edit: The shot with your plasma cannon guys is excellent they look really good.

That was the plan. I didn't think of fire dragons. Great guns but very short range. To be honest, with the performance of the dark reapers in the first game... I'm not sure why he gave them up.

I think with the new rules gits, you get your normal rally LD until past <25% and even then can rally on Double . The relic does not actually go off the board, you just have to be in possession of the relic to get the points.

I think Thing #2 did pretty well I think. I will see you Saturday. May be we will get to play eachother.... bumm bumm bumm baaaa baa baa baa baa bummmmmm