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Hey all,

So, I intend to put the many, many pictures we took during the game in, but I'm at work. For now, this is a textual report.

This is an experimental game for both of us. We are currently building our armies to the 1850 level, but we are testing core changes
at 1500 until we are solid with them.

After picking up 10 Warp Spiders painted, and getting my falcon and 3 serpents painted by Behind
the Mask, I was excited to try a change in lists. I chose to toss out Yriel, lower Farseer cost, an entire 10 man Scorpion squad, and instead
I took 6 dragons and 10 Spiders. I also went complete dakka on my DA squad instead of my usual tarpit to use with scorpions.

Gitsnak's list usually runs 3 Wagons and a Trukk, KFF Mek, Boss w/Nobz, and Lots of Boyz. He altered it and tossed out the KFF Mek, Trukk,
and Nobz for a 3 Wagon, Megaboss/Meganobz unit, 40 Choppas, and a Biker Boss w/5 Nobz.

Some notes: He's never used a Megaboss or Bikerboss, or Bikernobz, and I've never used fire dragons or warp spiders... ever. So this game
was much different than our previous games and in some regards we were overly cautious in the early game, and perhaps tactically unsound
in later turns as we felt the new units out.

Ynnead Cult Eldar
Farseer w/Guide, Doom, Stones, Warding, Witnessing, Spear
10x DA w/Exarch, Dualcats, Bladestorm
-Serpent w/TLBL, Cannon, Stones

10x S.Guardians w/2 flamers + Warlock, Destructor, Spear
-Serpent w/TLBL, Cannon, Stones

5x DA
-Falcon w/BL, Holo-field, Stones

6x Fire Dragons w/Exarch, DBF, Crackshot
-Serpent w/TLSC, Cannon, Stones

10x Warp Spiders w/Exarch, Dualspinners, Powerblades, Withdraw

Blood Axe List

Megaboss
5x Meganobz (2x Combi-Skorcha)
-Battlewagon, Deffrolla.

Bikerboss w/PK
5x Bikernobz (cybork, painboy, 2 PK, 2 B. Choppa, Banner, Pole, etc)

20 Choppa Boyz w/Nob, PK
-Battlewagon, Deffrola, Kannon

20 Choppa Boyz w/Nob, PK
-Battlewagon, 4x B.Shoota, Kannon, RPJ

Terrain

6 x 4 table. From my POV, I had a small Eldar Shrine near my table edge on the right, and a medium copse of trees on my left. My centerfield was fairly clear.
Gitsnak's table edge had a larger copse of trees on my right, a 4-level high L-shape gothic ruin, middle left, and mesa/plateau with two levels on my left near his table edge.
He tossed the last piece, a ruined basilisk in between the mesa and gothic ruin, effectively setting up a diagonal section of terrain that non-skimmmer vehicles would have to go around.

Deployment/Scenario
Dawn of War/Annihilation --

Gitsnak wins roll for deployment/first turn and deploys his Bikerboss and chooses to walk on everything else. They were deployed next to the tank/gothic ruin, center left--behind cover and pushing my deployment near my table edge.

I deploy Dire Avenger serpent and Storm Guard Serpent centered on my table edge--no cover needed. He's flat out going to assault me, and I'm not worried about Dakkaguns on front armor.
Knowing he's got no KFF and he's walking everything on, I wasn't worried about my deployment except to keep my mandatory 18" distance.

I fail to seize initiative with an underwhelming '2'

The Game

T1 Ork: The Wagons roll on maximum move-no cover except the gothic ruin guarding my left side. From left to right, the Rolla Boywagon, Megaboss wagon, Dakka Boywagon. The Bikers stay put between their cozy triple cover area and the wagons. Gitsnak was being cautious with them. No shots fired.
T1 Eld: I roll on the dragon serpent on the far right to set up a T2 Wagon Kill on the dakka wagon/create a denial area to give my skimmers some maneuver room if they need to bail on T2. The Falcon comes on left and gets obscured by the DA serpent. The Guaridan serpent runs left of the ruin to prepare for counter-assault/flamer shots on the inevitable Waagh! Spiders move on left as well behind trees. I had to guide the DA's since the falcon wasn't on the board until the move phase. Guh. I had LOS to all of the wagons, but the far left one would get a coversave from the gothic ruin. I pick targets, try firing, but night vision owns me. I am now set up in a wide crescent. He's got a spearhead of wagons incoming on T2.

T2 Ork: Bikes decide to go into harrassment role. They turboboost behind the wagons and continue to sit behind the trees on my right near his table edge. My dragons sitting on mid-right wondering what they're doing. The Boywagons move forward full as expected. He wants my falcon/DA serpent gone. Disembarks both boy units. The Megaz were still between the two wagons and slightly behind for a T3 push. Waagh! Left boyz roll 2" move, right rolls 5". With that he's denied a shot at my falcon and has to settle on using 40 boyz to drop my serpent that is sitting in front of it. Obviously the 40 boyz wreck the serpent. Gitsnak said something about using the bikernobz for shocking next game rather than disembark, waagh!, to kill transports. I agreed. I looked across at those nobz near his table edge and was glad they weren't anywhere near me. The DA squad and Farseer get out by the wreck.
T2 Eld: Here's where my generalship error happened. I guide the DAs (again falcon too far off) and doom the right boyz squad. I push my dragons back towards the centerfield in range of the Dakkawagon and the 40 boyz. I move the the Guard serpent 6" right, disembarking the flamers near the left 20 boyz and getting ready for a TLBL and SC sideshot on their BW. The falcon moves 6" left away from the boyz. I stupidly disembark the 5 DAs not thinking about easy killpoints. Spiders move behind the Guard serpent on the left prepping either sideshots or a few potshots on the boyz. The left serpent fails to affect the left BW. The dragon serpent on the right fails its shots as well. The falcon fires its 3 shots into the left wagon doing nothing with 3x 1's on the roll. I know I'm going to get deffrolla'd if I don't kill the left wagon. I fire the spiders into the side. The exarch rolls 3x 1's and the rest follow suit, no results except a shaken. The dragons DBF/melta the boyz, killing at least half, and the DA's choose not to bladestorm and shoot down the rest of that boyz squad. The 5 DA's from the retreating falcon fires on the left squad, killing 2. The tri-flamers kill the rest. 2 KP to 1. My entire army is now on the ground.. I have 3 BW's in front of me, and 2 bosses with nobs on the board. I've lost a serpent. I assault move the spiders left again out of reaction range. Keeping my denial on the left side. I am already cursing my decision to commit the dragons and the small DA squad. It was overkill.

T3 Ork: Left BW pivots to my left, and Tank Shocks the guardians out of the way (2 dying to deff rolla, they break and run 11" to just at the table edge between the falcon and the DA serpent) and rams their serpent (which dodges). That made room for the Meganobz wagon to move forward, disembarking in front of my DA's (about 10" away) Right Dakka wagon sits tight to fire its crap into my squads. The bikers realize they should have been in the fight and run back around the trees next to the dakkawagon on my right. He wants the dragons gone since he can't assault them. Dakkaguns open up, killing 2. Kombi-skorchas from the megas drop the rest. The dakkawagon opens up kannon, Big shootas all over my DA's. They break. They run. They contact the board edge. Bu-Bye.
T3 Eld: Reeling from the complete ownage on my center and right, I move the right serpent and fire its cannons into the side of the dakkawagon, the guardian serpent on the left moves 6" for another shot at the deff rolla boy wagon's side armor, the falcon with another 6" move bottom left near my trees and shots into the same target. Spiders jump up again near the BW and shoot at the megaz. Small DA squad retreats with the falcon and fires at megaz. Stormguards regroup at the table edge (2" away) and move their 3" and all they can do is flame the hell out of the megaz, or toss a spear at the wagon. End result of shooting: Dragon serpent wiffs on the dakkawagon so the Falcon takes it out (FINALLY). Spiders and Guardian serpent (mostly the spiders) drop the left rolla wagon. I feel better about the wagons with only 1 deff rolla on the table and flame the megaz and kill 1, wounding 2. I bounce the spiders up by the ruin, out of range of the megaz, out of direct tank shock range of the remaining wagon. I make another mistake... I assault the megaz with my SG's. I do 3 more wounds before he hits me back. I lose all of them but the warlocks, who breaks, and is gone. The megaz use their 6" consolodate to get nearer to my falcon. Now they're looking to be in assault range. Uh oh. That was stupid--but at least there are only 3 of them and the Warboss has 1 wound left.

T4 Ork: Remaining wagon pivots and kannons my guardian serpent. It drops.... The now-triumphant megaz run at my falcon near the board edge and with a shield of DAs in the way settles for just DA crunchy snack. Again, they never should have left the falcon. Poor bastards. Needless to say they don't survive and now the megaz are in my falcon's face. The bikerboss and nobs consider the my right side no longer juicy enough and leave my serpent alone (slightly out of assault range and dakkaguns would be useless) so they again... turbo-boost to the left side of the table to try and hunt down the spiders that are poised for jumping in for a rearshot on the remaining wagon or on the megaz. They are now the biggest threat on the table. I take some dakkaguns on the spiders, they lose a spider.
T4 Eld: I go for it. Spiders jump through the ruins wall a couple inches, land behind the wagon, and do something like 10 penetrating shots before jumping back 11 inches left. The Dakkaguns are going to keep following me, but now there are only 2 bosses and 2 nobsquads left. The Falcon moves 12" left, fires a pulse laser and kills a mega. The dragon serpent is now alone in the center of the board. It moves up 6" and fires both cannons into the bikers near the gothic ruin. I do 1 wound only thanks to FNP. I now know I am losing hard. I started with 10 KP and he with 9. I only have 3 left on the table and he has 4.

T5 Ork: The bikernobs run around the terrain and do 13 wounds with dakkaguns on my spiders. I made 11 saves. We both rolled a lot of high dice and laughed if off. The megaz are just out of charge range of the falcon so they ran 5" at it to make it have to either run nearer to the bikers in the center left, or past them to the right, denying shots.
T5 Eld: Spiders know that if the game continues they want nothing to do with dakkaguns. I jump over the trees and land right next to my falcon and megaz and along with falcon fire, erase the nobz/boss.

Game ends. I kill 7/9 of his KP. He kills 7/10 of mine. Forcing a tie at the end.

Warp Spiders were insane for my first crack at them. I think I'll drop them to 8 next time, but damn they're good harrassers. With a BW, boss, meganobz kill... the 250ish points was worth it.
Next time I'm going to probably run a firepike instead of DBF and use them for what they were meant to be used for and not overkill boyz. the 5 man DA in KP missions will stay in the falcon. I told Gitsnak I think a KFF and using the bikers more aggressively would have really screwed me over. He agreed at least on the bikers, but he is still a bit unsure on HQ choices in his list at 1500. Hard to really evaluate when one of the bosses was ineffective because he never got in assault.

This all from memory, so Gitsnak's notes may tweak some of this later, but essentially, that's a wrap. Originally I think he won by 1 KP but now that I count it, it must have been a tie unless that dragon serpent died and I can't remember.

Thanks for reading, I hoped you learned something from my mistakes. =) Awesome game though.

Good Battle Report. I think you learned but, Fire Dragons should have been used on the MegaNobs or the Battlewagon... That was their job. And like you mentioned, the only point of a 5 DA squad is to make the Wave Serpent Scoring. They should never leave their ride.

Thanks again for the report!

Interesting report. I've always loved Warp Spiders. They always seem like alot of points, but they can do so many things. Would like to see those pictures sometime.

Awesome report!! I agree with adding the Firepike and using them against the MegaNobs or BattleWagon. The Warp Spiders were a good addition. I agree with Limey, they are well worth the points. I also personally like using Storm Guardians, but they need some backup. They would have fared better supporting your Scorpions. In my Ulthwe Strike Force (RIP *sniff* *sniff*) they rocked backing up my Avatar, but then again, anything rocks when an Avatar is involved LOL. I would suggest using Enhance instead of Destructor though, then you are WS 4 and Initiative 5.

Zain,

My actual list was

Blood Axe List

Megaboss wif cybork
5x Meganobz (2x Combi-Skorcha)
-Battlewagon, Deffrolla. big shoota

Bikerboss w/PK, cybork
5x Bikernobz (cybork, painboy, 2 PK, 2 B. Choppa, Banner, Pole, etc)

20 Choppa Boyz w/Nob, PK
-Battlewagon, Deffrola, Kannon, RPJ

20 Choppa Boyz w/Nob, PK
-Battlewagon, 4x B.Shoota, Kannon

You were spot on with all the information, though I don't remember my Kannon killing any vehicles, so that might be off.

I very much regret keeping my bikers back, and I will definately use them in a more aggressive role next time. I am looking forward to the pictures. Thanks for the good game, I look forward to our next. I should have all my FW biker nobs by then!

Ah! I thought it was a Kannon, but I can't remember anything else killing it. I do know it was definitely dead on that turn though. I have a picture of it with cotton ball smoke =p

The game was good indeed. I hope you bring the pain more next time with a KFF and shock trooping bikernobz. That will keep me on the defensive and likely make it extremely hard for me to win. The spiders will continue to be hard to stop for you though.

I just remembered. My bikers assaulted it.

I am being stubborn with the KFF thing, so you might not see one. You will definately have the bikers up close and personal immediately next time.

Dude, sounds like you have identified the points that may have been run differently, hence the last stage in any plan (monitoring).

Good BR, was a nice read. I love the SG charging, I guess it was a point of charge or be charged.

I always love it when mech armies jump out before being forced out (certain situations excluded), saves me a step.

Cmac - Thanks! Yea... I am still beating myself up for over-committing on T2. Exactly right on the SG. They were going to be charged and bounced off of anyway, I thought I'd get the extra attack... but it still looked stupid to me when / after I did it. Gitsnak and I definitely have some tweaking to do, but we're learning a lot. Obviously KP missions are different for me, I played a total of 3 games in 4th before leaving the hobby for LotR for a few years. Now that I'm back, It's hard to play so conservatively when I'm used to VP in 3rd.