Hi everybody. This is my first try at an extended battle report, so hope you will forgive me if I put too much or too little detail. Any comment will be appreciated.
Last week I played a 1000 points game against the new codex eldar of a friend. I was fielding my Ultramarines, and for once, my list wasn’t based on a jump-pack chappy and the associated assault squad. I had just finished painting my ultramarines scouts and was eager to try them on the field, so my list was a scout heavy one….
The Table
A semi destroyed city… Some commanding buildings (dark grey) on each deployment zone, some ruins, and a city park in the center with some trees and a couple of sculptures (yellow dots).
My list was something like this:
HQ
- Terminator Librarian “L”, with Fear and Fury
- Terminator command squad “T”, 5 terrmies, with 2 assault cannons
Elite
- Dreadnought “DR” armed, with Twin linked lasscannon and missile launcher, extra armour and smoke
Troops
- Scout squad “s”, 6 scouts armed with bolters and 1 heavy bolter
- Scout squad “f”, 7 scouts armed with sniper rifles and 1 missile launcher
Fast Attack
- Land Speeder Tornado
Heavy Support
- Devastator squad “d”, 7 devastators armed with 4 missile launchers
The eldar list I faced wasn’t specially optimised. It was created around whatever minis my opponent has already painted. It was something like this:
HQ
- Autarch with wings, shuriken pistol and power sword
- Warlock “w” with some psiquic powers, shuriken pistol and power weapon (this one joined the guardians squad)
Elite
- WraithLord with starcannon, two flamers and the spectral sword (or whatever that big sword is called)
Troops
- Dire Avengers squad “a”, 6 dire avengers with exarch, bladestorm and some others abilities.
- Guardian Squad, “g”, 12 or more eldar guardians with 1 starcannon heavy weapon platform “P”
Fast Attack
- Vyper armed with eldar missile launcher
Heavy Support
- War walker “ww” armed 2 bright lances
- Falcon armed with Pulsar and MultiLaser
- Dark Reapers squad, 6 dark reapers with exarch armed with Tempest Launcher and with fast fire ability….
Due to time limitation we played a simple game of aniquilation, getting points from surviving units and forgetting about quarters…
I won the deployment roll and made my opponent go first…
Eldar deployment
Dark Reapers got a commanding position on his right with good fire lanes and 4+ cover… The Dire Avengers embarked in the Falcon, which deployed in a free space between ruins which make him obscured from my firepower. They formed the center of eldar force, joined by the WraithLord. On his left flank the Guardians bunched on the little cover available, with the extreme left maintained by de Vyper and de War Walker. His close combat tooled up autarch was kept on reserve.
Ultramarine deployment
Devastator deployment was a simple choice. They got the better commanding position on my deployment zone, the building on my left. also with 4+ cover. The snipers scout got the corner of the destroyed building with various floors still standing, and the other scouts bunched on the other corner of that building. I wanted to “fury” from the first turn, so the termines didn’t use the deep strike. They and the librarian where out in the open on the right flank, but they were hidden from the dark reapers fire across the table. Both the dready and the tornado were hidden because I didn’t want to lose them to his (possible) first turn of shooting. Hidden them I ensured at least one turn of shooting for each one
Well, we roll for first turn, and I won it after 3 ties…..that proved quite crucial as at so little points the first turn of shooting really make the difference.
Ultramarines Turn 1
The tornado and the dready came out from their hidden places to add their fire to the missile storm I was preparing. The termie squad advanced a little making some adjustments to avoid LOS-sniping against the librarian and to get a better angle for “fury”. That was it. I start the shooting phase using fury on the viper and guardian. The librarian passed the test and after a lot of dice rolling the result were 3 dead guardians and the rest of the squad pinned. The assault cannon termies added their fire against the Vyper, achieving only a shaken result… Then the devastator and opened up on the dark reapers….due to cover saves they achieve only two casualties…Another one was achieved by the scout snipers missile launcher. Then 6 sniper rifles fired on the remaining reapers, 2+ to hit, 4+ to wound. 4 hits became 3 wounds and my opponent failed all 3 armor saves…, which means a dark reapers squad gone for good… The other scout squad fired their heavy bolter against the war walker but failed to glance the armour. Finally the dready fired his lasscannon at the falcon, getting a shaken result ( I forgot to fire the missile launcher) The tornado, had not LOS to any enemy, and there were no assault chances, so I finalised my turn being quite happy with the results achieved
Eldar Turn 1
My opponent was shocked at the loss of the Dark Reapers. He was pretty much confident that their 3+ armour save and 4+ cover save should have maintained them out of trouble during the all battle, but now he needed to adjust his tactics… He advanced with his all army but the pinned guardians and warlock, trying to use as much cover from the central park trees as possible. The Dire Avengers disembarked between the trees and the only units able to shoot did it. The Wraith Lord fired his starcannon at the scout snipers achieving 1 casualty, and the war walker failed both bright lance shots at the dready. No one was on assault range, son this was the end of turn 1.
Ultramarines Turn 2
There were little movement, the termies shifted to the left to get a better “fury” angle, the Tornado came to front line to add his fire and the dready moved to get an non obscured view of the eldar lines… I initiated the shoot phase by failing to fury (dice roll of 11, so I avoided the perils of the warp attack). The rest of the termies fired at the viper without effect, and that was the same result achieved by the heavy bolter of the scout squad… The devastator get 2 glances (shaken and armament destroyed) and 1 penetrating hit (stunned) against the falcon. I decided to get rid of the pulsar, thinking that it was a biggest threat than the multilaser. The dready blown the war walker with a well directed lass cannon shoot, the Tornado put a couple of rending wounds on the dire avengers, and finally the scout snipers tried without luck to hurt the Wraith Lord
Eldar Turn 2
My friend continued his advance with what was left of his army…He now was trying to get the Wraith Lord into close combat asap, to avoid the fire of my heavy weapons. The autarch made a deep strike close to the devastators on a die roll of 3 (I thought it has to be 4+, but new autarch has some nasty special rules) The Dire Avengers got into range of the termines and used the bladestorm power of the autarch to make up to 5 wounds, but the saved them all but 1. The Vyper fired a plasma missile, hopping to pin the snipers, but failed miserably. On the other hand the starcannon of the Wraith Lord shake the Tornado and the starcannon of the now advancing guardians achieved hits on those pesky snipers, getting a couple of kills. The scouts passed the ld test and stayed put ready to fire again in the following turn
Ultramarines Turn 3
Nothing moved this turn as everybody was getting ready to fire… first the librarian “fury” and the assault cannons of the termies combined to put to run the guardian squad, never to come back… The bolter scouts put 3 wounds on the autarch, nullifying my opponent idea of charging the devastator to tie them…The rest of the fire was quite ineffective, just shaking both the falcon and the vyper and failing (again) to hurt the Wraith Lord
Eldar Turn 3
At this point my opponent was so much centered on getting into HtH that he forgot tactics and forgot to take the shaken vehicles out of harm way. The guardians ran out of the table. Then he just advanced the Dire Avengers and the Wraith Lord, firing the starcannon at the dready and stunning it. Then the Avengers charged the entrenched bolter scouts. Two kills for each (the scouts attacked first due to cover) and that resulted on a draw combat.
Ultramarines Turn 4
Just trying not to lose what was already won. Devastator finally achieved to blown out of the sky the eldar falcon. The Tornado shifted to the right and then proceeded to stun the Vyper. The termies and librarian (forgot to try fury this turn) advanced into charge range and took a wound from the WL with assault cannon fire. Another wound was achieved by a lucky sniper rifle shoot. The avengers versus scouts combat continued without losses this turn. The termies charge on the WL ended with the librarian taking two wound from the spectral sword, then the WL dodged all the libby force weapon attacks, but there were to many power fists swinging so the WL took their final wound and was removed from play. That was it. My friend conceded at this point.
A fun game played against an opponent that was very good sport on his lose. Have to say that at so little points to get the first turn shooting seems crucial to victory. Hope next time we may play a bigger game on a bigger table. I think he made a couple of bad tactical choices…. There was no point in deep striking the autarch. Using his wings and cover he could have get a second turn charge with him on the devastators, tying them for the rest of the game. In addition he should have ignored the sniper scouts (low target priority and with good cover saves) and should have concentrated his fire on the termies (out of cover). Just with this two changes and a little of luck I think that the WL would have won the day for him in the 5th and 6th turns
I think I got a very good result from the devastator and the scout sniper squads (it was the baptism of fire of both units, which were just drying from the last painting touches the previous night). In addition it was the first time I used the termie librarian, and I think using it with fury it’s an overkill (to good for little points)
