While the Nova Crux campaign waits to move on to the next phase, David and I snuck in a quick Marines vs. Eldar game. Maybe it will affect the campaign in some way, maybe not...
Neither of us are massively experienced at W40k, so we played a mission from the main rulebook. It came up as a Capture & Control mission using the regular Pitched Battle setup. I've only used Eldar twice, and lost both times. This time though, I had some tanks!!
The Eldar forces were:
Eldrad & Maugan Ra
Eldar Falcon with 5 Dire Avengers inside.
Eldar Wave Serpent with 9 Dire Avengers, including Exarch with both powers and a shimmershield
Eldar Wave Serpent with 5 Fire Dragons, including Exarch with fre pike and both powers
7 Pathfinders
3 Dark Reapers, including an Exarch with an EML and both powers
Marines Forces were:
A tooled up Captain with his tooled up Command squad, all in a basic Razorback
A Vanguard Veteran squad with a Chaplain in a twin-linked lascannon Razorback
A 6 man Tac squad in a razorback
A 6 man Tac squad in a razorback
A 10 man Tac squad
A Predator with Autocannon and Heavy Bolters
A Whirlwind
The two images show initial setups. Maugan Ra, Eldrad and the 7 Pathfinders were hiding away in the Bunker, both of which we decided were AV14. My Dark Reapers were in the tall tower to lend fire support in any direction. I had decided to use the guys inside the Wave Serpents (Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers) to go after the enemy bunker. I put the Falcon out of harms way, and had not decided whether it would go forward or fall back and support.
David's large
Tac squad stayed back to defend his bunker, along with his Whirlwind and Predator.
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n
turn one, I failed to steal the initiative, so the Marines began their advance, driving their Razorbacks across the table and hiding the Whirlwind behind the bunker until it could actually wound anything on the table. Not a lot happened, and the shooting was thoroughly ineffective.
On the Eldar turn, guiding the Pathfinders and Maugan Ra proved spectacularly effective, as they managed to pull off a fluke and destroy the Captain's command squad Razorback. Other shooting meant that one or two of the squad fell.
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In
turn two, on my right flank, the marine Razorbacks kept coming, and the Captain and his cronies started to leg it across the field. In the Eldar turn, good shooting, aided by Guide, Doom, etc.. hurt the now footslogging Command Squad and reduced it still further. With the benefit of hindsight, it has occurred to me now that maybe Dave should have had the Command Squad commandeer another Razorback from the
Tac squad, as they were not going to enjoy the shooting coming their way for the next couple of turns...
The Lascannon Razorback got unlucky again, and failed to harm my bunker.
On my left flank, my two Wave Serpents were moving into position and trying to keep a little cover. Almost ready to strike... Fortunately the
Tac squad Lascannon was a terrible shot... He would prove this time and time again during the battle...
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On
turn three, it was time for the Eldar to strike...
On the left flank, after laughing at more terrible shooting from the Lascannon marine and weathering some more hitting but non-penetrating shots from the Predator, the Wave Serpents moved up to make their mark. The Fire Dragons jumped out and promptly reduced the bunker to molten slag. Only one marine died as the structure collapsed, but they were now exposed to a Dire Avenger bladestorm just waiting in the back of the other Wave Serpent.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, the marines continued to advance. The Lascannon started making its presense felt, and it shook the bunker this turn, leaving the occupants unable to fire. However, the Dark Reapers polished off the last of the Captain and his Command Squad. This was something of a relief for the Pathfinders, although Maugan Ra was disappointed to lose the oppurtunity to kill the Captain himself in personal combat.
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In
turn four, over on the left flank, the Whirlwind gunner laughed as he prepared to rain death upon the Fire Dragons who had just so exposed his allies...
Fortunately he laughed so much his aim was off... If only he'd misaimed 30deg counter-clockwise, he could have wiped out half of the
Tac squad now in the crater.
Moments later though, the
Tac squad bundled out of their bunker to send the Fire Dragons packing.
They were able to consolidate back into their bunk... crater, and get some shelter.
Shortly after that, the Dire Avengers piled out of their own Wave Serpent and put the hurt on the marines with a 24-dice bladestorm. Sadly, not much hurt, as only one marine fell!
On the right flank, the Chaplain and his Vanguard Vets began their run (their Razorback may have been stuck in place - I forget), and the other Razorbacks completed the encirclement.
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In
turn five, on the left flank, the Dire Avengers bundled back into the Wave Serpent to reload their shuriken catapults, but as they did so the marines unloaded into them and killed two. To be honest, they got off lightly, as the Whirlwind was shaken from Wave Serpent Bright Lance fire the previous turn. Those damn marines migt be a problem...
On the left flank, the Chaplain and his buddies reached the bunker and started attaching melta-bombs to the walls. Fortunately, despite being Ultramarines, they must have been skipping lessons, because all they managed to do was shake the occupants. Once again the lascannon on the Razorback achieved nothing.
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So, it came to
turn six, as thankfully the game did not end...
Still back on the left flank... The Dire Avengers jumped out of their Wave Serpent for yet another attempt. This time, they did a damn good job, and left just a lone marine stranded in the middle of the crater. Even Dire Avengers fancied their chances against a long marine, so they charged, got far enough and promptly slaughtered the poor shmuck!
On the right flank, the marines all bundled out of their rhinos, but without any melta-bomb wielders left, they were relying on the Lascannon to pop the bunker open. When this failed, they were left as sitting ducks for Maugan Ra to run out and slaughter them, as the bunker occupants were not shaken for a change. the Reapers and Snipers finished off the remains of the other
Tac squad. Eldrad ran out of the bunker, just in case there was a lone
Tac marone who might need killing.
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In
turn seven, it was clear that the Eldar would retain their own objective, and that the marines had no troops to hold their own, but there were still a few stings in the tail...
On the left, the predator single handedly killed enough Dire Avengers and send them fleeing, memories of slaughtering the lone marine now driven out of their minds by heavy bolter shells...
On the right flank, Eldrad looked around and suddenly had a very bad feeling... As the heavy bolter shells thudded into him, he knew what was coming, but could do nothing about it. The Pathfinders watching assumed Eldrad's Rune Armour would protect him from most of the harm from the shooting, but Eldrad himself knew better, and as he took three 3+ invulnerable saves, he said his goodbyes...
Determined to avenge their fallen leader, the Eldar had some revenge of their own...
The Falcon blew up the Lascannon Razorback who had failed all game to blow up the bunker...
Maugan Ra wrecked the closest Razorback in close combat. Gotta love that Maugetar.
The snipers got no lucky hits, and had to leave it to the Dark Reaper Exarch to immobilise the central Razorback.
The Scatter Laser Wave Serpent got round to the side armour of the Predator and immobilised it...
This left the Whirlwind as the only Ultramarine model left able to do anything... The Wave Serpent used its Bright Lances and blew the weapon off of this Whirlwind, leaving Tank Shocking as its only way of doing anything...
Eldar Win
What I learnt from this battle
Mainly - Eldar Tanks RULE. This is the first game I have had any for, and they came through completely unscathed.
Eldrad RULES. I would never go without either Eldrad or a Farseer.
Maugan Ra RULES. But is not indespensible.
Bladestorm is very very variable. It can be utterly ineffective, or totally devastating. Fear them if combined with Guide and/or Doom.
Dark Reapers are still great, whatever anyone says.
Fire Dragons WILL feel the pain once they have done their job. I really can't see how to avoid them being disposable troops without denying them the chance to ctually do their job...
Pathfinders are good, and a decent size squad will benefit greatly from Guide/Doom.
Razorbacks take some popping, despite being only AV11. Concentrated firepower is needed.
