This was Mark (Vanilla Marines - Exemplars) vs Russ (Altansar Eldar). My words are in WHITE, his are in
BOLD YELLOW.
We were playing a match from the Battle Missions Book. I think it was called Mobile Defense, but Mark will be able to correct me. I had finished my board that afternoon, and the only scenery I had was craters, so Mark brought along some scenery for us.
Mark had a beautifully painted marine army. A pair of dreads (one "rifleman", one
plas/
SB fist), a pred, two
Tac squads, each combat squaded into a Razorback, and Librarian in one of the Razorbacks.
Here's my take on the game...! (I think I'm a little vague on turn3/4... Maybe missed some action?? Anyways thanks for the game, I really enjoyed it.
My list;
1 x Librarian with Avenger/Might of the Ancients
1 x ML/flamer Tac squad with R/back with T/L heavy bolters
1 x LC/meltagun Tac squad with R/back with T/L heavy bolters
2 x MM/HF speeders
1 x Predator (AC/HB)
1 x Dreadnought with PC/DCCW
1 x Dreadnought with 2 x T/L AC
Game; Eldar mission from Battle missions - Pre-emptive strike. (DOW/Ann. with modified VP's) All played on his fantastic scratch-built board. No skull pits; huzzah!
Being still devoid of Eldar transport, I had a rather flimsy foot-slogging Eldar list. I only want to use stuff that is painted, especially as we are posting bat-reps throughout this campaign, so I had a Hawk-autarch accompanied by a squad of 5 Hawks, 10 Avengers with an exarch, 5 avengers, 5 banshees, 5 dragons, 2 x 3 Reapers, 3 jetbikes and a wraithlord. I actually went quite a few points over my points allowance, but my hawk exarch did nothing that had any impact on the game, so he would have made back the difference... (but still, *erk*, two games in a row I have messed up my list)
I set up first, as per the mission briefing. I left my hawks and jetbikes off for the start... Mark cornered up top-left, except for a combat-squad over in the tall ruin on the right
My Turn 1) My Banshees and Dragons advanced and ran, while my Avengers hopped from cover to cover. My Wraithlord took potshots, but missed. My Reapers took out some of the cowering
Tac Marines.
Mark Turn 1) Everything shuffled around in the corner. One of the Land Speeders shot forward.
Steal initiative fail!
All Eldar units pick across the battle field trying to close with the SM vehicles. The wraithlord gets a hit but fails to pen the dread. The Back-most reapers open up on some marines in cover killing one, the other reapers are out of range.
The marines shuffle around the scenery, their searchlights scanning across the fields for their quarry, but for the most part the Eldar prove to be almost ethereal as most guns miss in the darkness. A frag. missile explodes in the midst of the banshees/fire dragons, but fails to wound.
A brace of Dire avengers are picked off by long range bolter and lascannon fire and a landspeeder, anxious to close in, streaks into the heart of the advancing xenos. VP's 0/0
My Turn 2) My Autarch and Hawks deep-struck. Their pie plate did a bit more damage to a
Tac Squad. My Wraithlord managed to blow the Plasma Cannon off of the Dread, which was good as it took some heat of off the deep-strikers, who had scattered out to be be a bit exposed. My Dragons blew up the Land Speeder, which left behind a big ol' crater.
Mark Turn 2) His rifleman moved up, and a whole bunch of stuff shot at my Banshees and Dragons. Eventually, after a few thinsg were dead, the Rifelman had no choice but to engage the remaining Banshee, who, unable to even hurt the Rifleman, gave her life to valiantly protect the Dragons behind her. I realise now that I had forgotten to take any morale checks from shooting, but neither Mark nor I remembered to take one all game!
Turn two;
The Dragons and Banshees keep close to the sandbags and used fuel barrels as they close in. The Dragons fusion guns bring the down the speeder a with an almighty explosion, but the aspect warriors all make their saves from the conflagration. The Autarch and his swooping Hawk body guard deep strike near the foremost Marine combat squad, the imperial troops rapid fire into the hawks killing two of them. The Wraithlord takes an arm off the plasma dreadnought with a long range lance and the reapers pump rounds into the rear combat squad, wiping them. The rifleman and the heavy bolters on the razorbacks take out all of the banshees except one, but their sacrifice has at least kept the dragons alive. The dread then charges into the last banshee and clubs her to the ground. The predator tries to cut down the dragons, but can only kill a couple. The avengers slink across the temple floor looking to close with the Marines. VP 3/2 Eldar
My Turn 3) My jetbikes arrived and sped forwards. At this stage I was still hoping to pop some transports and kill the people inside. My big squad of Avengers bladestormed the hell out of the
Tac Squad in the tower, and then my Autarch and Hawks took dangerous terrain tests to get up high enough to charge. They promptly wiped out the remaining men. The photo below is a staged version of that fight, but it looks real good! My Fire Dragons took out the Rifleman Dread.
Mark Turn 3) Mark's Dread with the Plasma Cannon knocked off reduced my small Avenger squad to one man. I should have just left that squad back on my own table edge anyway, and turned tale and ran away a little too late... The last of my Dragons were killed this turn by his Land Speeder Heavy Flamer (I think, or it may have been next turn)
Turn three;
The avengers bladestorm the lascannon combat squad killing a couple, before the autarch engages them and single handedly wipes them out. The Dragons turn their guns on the dreadnought that is closing in on them, and vaporise it with another massive explosion. The marine razorbacks redeploy to get some clear shots, so have to wait another turn before firing. The predator fires ineffectually at the reapers and the other dread runs forward towards a squad of avengers with its stormbolter blazing, thinning them to a single unit. The second landspeeder moves to within striking distance of the dragons and wipes them with the heavy flamer. The Wraithlord's firepower goes awry this turn and he fails to hit. The reapers fail to do enough to glance a R/back. VP 6/4 Eldar
My Turn 4) My Wraithlord moves up to try and protect the lone Avenger. Everything else shoots, but can't do meaningful damage.
Mark Turn 4) Mark's Dread with the Plasma Cannon knocked off managed to wipe out the last man of my small Avenger squad. The squad I should have just left back on my own table edge anyway, and turned tale and ran away a little too late... The last of my Dragons were killed this turn by his Land Speeder Heavy Flamer (I think, or it may have been next turn)
Turn four;
The Eldar sensing a situation that will cost them many lives start to pull back and try long range fire-power to halt the marines. The reapers glance and stun the landspeeder and the wraithlord pens the dread, but can only immobilise it. The autarch and his Swooping hawks take to the sky and leave the field. The Marines sensing the change in Eldar philosophy, move forward to try and salvage the win. The predator opens up all its guns on a squad of dark reapers and despite their tough armour, takes them out. (All eight shots hit and wound...!) A razorback finally guns down the fleeing remnant of the smaller avenger squad an the rest of the armour consolidates forward. VP 6/8 Marines
My Turn 5) I realised that things were looking quite grim. Although I was still in the lead on
VPs at this stage, it did not look good. I made some speculative shots to try and flukily pop a transport open, but flopped. My Dark Reapers were just in range of his Land Speeder, but could only stun it, and it had not moved far the turn before,
IIRC. I immobilised his
Plas Dread with my Wraithlord's Bright Lance, but could not take it out to get the
VPs. My jetbikes realised they could not hurt anything, so turned tail and fled rather than give away easy
VPs. My Avengers hid in the building the
Tac Squad has been in. My Hawks and Autarch hopped off the board.
Mark Turn 5) Things suddenly went very Pete Tong. My left-most Reapers got killed, the other squad had one killed and I forgot to roll morale...
By now though, it was 8
VPs to Mark to my 6VPs. I had failed to kill the Dread or the Speeder, either of which woul have given a tie...
I rolled and the game ended, giving victory to the Marines, but he only got the win on the last turn. Had things gone further, it would have been unlikely to swing back though, unless I had some very lucky rolls with my Bright Lance and
EML on the Wraithlord to pop open a transport.
Turn Five;
The pred tries to wipe the second squad of reapers, to no avail. The reapers rake their guns across the landspeeder again, but cannot do enough damage to down it. The wraithlord again tries to take down the immobilised dread, but can only stun it. A razorback fires on another squad of avengers, but only kills a couple. The Eldar slink back into the shadows as the Marine armour rolls through the once great cathedral. The threat is averted for the time being. VP 6/8 Marines
It is fair to say my Eldar definitely need some transport...
I have Falcons waiting to be built and at least Base Coated, and Wave Serpents on order with Dark Sphere, so things are looking up
My thoughts: I played a semi-refused flank and it worked pretty well. Two of Fifty's units spent most of their time slogging across the board. I separated my speeders on turn one; which was a mistake, as it cost me some valuable VP's as he picked the first one off easily. Also I have learned to fear the reaper... Despite cover, they really hit the exposed Marines hard.
My main tactic was to try and get rid of the dragons as soon as I could, and they again showed why they are feared. Toasting a dread and speeder in quick succession. The latter turns was more a containment game as Fifty ran out of anti-tank and began to pull back.
To his credit, he did have further dragons/wraithlords and a falcon, but as they were unpainted, he didn't field them, so I tip my cap for keeping the game aesthetics pure! When he gets these and his new Wave-Serpents painted up, I can see his army becoming much, much tougher. 5th Ed. certainly favours the tank, and despite a valiant rear-guard, today was proof of that.
Captain Celestin was troubled; the Eldar were becoming stronger and more overt, even despite the early successes of the Marine raids. Moreover, they were showing no signs of abandoning their attacks on this sector. A further concern was that his advanced scouts were reporting more Eldar tanks were appearing. He knew that these early actions were mere delaying raids sent to confuse and waylay the Marine response. Something far bigger was happening in this sector. He would have to talk to the Khan about this....
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Lessons are - I needed more tank-busting ability in this list. I needed more mobility. Both of these are issues about painted models though, not necessarily lack of realising that beforehand.
I moved my small Avenger squad forward when I shouldn't have, as they were never going to achieve anything and just landed up giving away 2 easy
VPs.
Another squad of Dragons might be more effective than the Banshees, as they never got into worthwhile combat against Mech-
MEQ...
Automatically Appended Next Post: I am really enjoying this campaign so far. It has been a couple of smaller games so far, and we'll be progressing the sizes soon, I think.
Luckily,
40k is a game that I can still enjoy while losing! Some games are quite unenjoyable when losing, and I get quite frustrated and/or bored, but
40k still offers opportunities to get little moral victories right up to the last turn.
