Hello! This batrep is my first after a longish spell (10 months) out of the hobby due to real life and crap
so my opponent and I were a little rusty on some of the rules. Hopefully the more astute of you out there will be able to correct us on our mistakes
I would be using my Ulthwe Eldar which have been a love of mine since Codex: Eye of Terror (shame we lost those webway portals and Black Guardians
) and my opponent would be using part of his rather large
DA army. This is the first time he has tried a Deathwing army and is a bit of a novice player only having approx 20 games under his belt so it wasn't the most optimized list he could have built. The game would be played across my desert board.
Anyway, enough of the chit chat and on with the details;
Mission: Capture & Control
Deployment: Spearhead
Points: 2000
Ulthwe Eldar
HQ
Eldrad
Avatar of Khaine
ELITES
5x Wraithguard, Spiritseer, Spear, Conceal
TROOPS
10x Pathfinders
10x Guardians, Scatter Laser
10x Guardians, Scatter Laser
11x Storm Guardians, 2x Fusion Guns, Warlock, Enhance
Wave Serpent,
TL EML, Shuricannon
11x Storm Guardians, 2x Fusion Guns, Warlock, Enhance
Wave Serpent,
TL Scatter Laser, Shuricannon
HEAVY SUPPORT
D-Cannon Support Weapon Battery (3)
Fire Prism, Holofield
Fire Prism, Holofield
DA Deathwing
HQ
Belial,
TL LC's
Ezekiel
ELITES
Venerable Dreadnought,
TL Lascannon,
DCCW, Hvy Flamer
Venerable Dreadnought, Plasma Cannon,
DCCW, Hvy Flamer
Drop Pod
TROOPS
5x Terminators, 1x Cyclone, 2x THSS, 3x
LC's, Deathwing Company Banner
5x Terminators, 1x Hvy Flamer & Chainfist, 2x THSS, 2x
LC's
5x Terminators, 1x Hvy Flamer & Chainfist, 2x THSS, 2x
LC's
HEAVY SUPPORT
Land Raider, Stormbolter
Land Raider Cusader
Vindicator, Dozer blade, Stormbolter
Al won the dice-off and chose to go first. He deployed his objective as far forward as he could in his quarter, not wishing to engage my Eldar at distance for too long. The
LRC contained Belial, Ezekiel and the first Deathwing squad with company banner (a lot of eggs in a large basket
) The normal
LR had one of the other Deathwing squads in whilst the
LC Dread took position hoping to take pop shots at my vehicles. The third Deathwing squad would be held in reserve along with the Plasma dread in a pod.
My deployment saw me castle everything around my objective marker far back in my corner, only my Pathfinders would infiltrate. My initial plan was to sit back and engage at distance if possible, hopefully sending out the Wave Serpents in a pincer move on his objective late on.
The Pathfinders then infiltrate far up on his right flank to give his Lascannon Dread something to think about and maybe go for a late game rush on his objective once the dread is out the way.
I carry out my free scout move, spreading out my snipers as I spot the Hvy Flamer on his Dread.
TURN ONE
I fail to sieze the initiative and watch as his vehicles advance. The Vindicator pops smoke whilst the front
LR immobilizes one of my Prisms. I don't force a reroll with the holofields as the second result might be worse, at least the gun is still operational. My turn had Eldrad casting Fortune on the Wraithguard squad accompanying him whilst the rest of my forces fanned out to avoid a potentially lethal shot from the Vindicator. I sent one Wave Serpent ahead hoping to hamper the
LR's advance with the Avatar in close pursuit. Nothing was in range yet for my D-cannons so they just sat tight. The other Serpent positions itself for a side shot on the Vindi with it's
EML but the smoke saves it. I try a
TL focussed blast from the prisms at the lead
LR but only mange to stun it. At least it will only be able to fire one weapon next turn thanks to
PotMS.
As suspected the Las Dread cannot ignore the Pathfinders taking potshots at his rear armour and is forced to deal with them. He advances towards them as fast as possible readying his heavy flamer to burn the xenos scum. In my turn they open up and manage to shake the Dread, stopping him dead in his tracks as his sensory & motor suite takes a hit from a glancing shot.
TURN 2
Al rolls for reserves, his Plasma Dread arrives in style, landing dead on in a small gap near the board edge and proceeds to burn one of my D-cannons whilst the plasm cannon veers off wildly. This is going to be a bit of a problem for me
It was a risky move but he pulled it off, now I was going to have to deal with it. His shooting also saw the Vindicator shell the bejeezus out of the immobilized Fire Prism killing a Guardian in the resulting explosion, whilst the lead
LR's
PotMS activated one of the Godhammer pattern lascannons to life, blowing the turret off the advancing Wave Serpent. The white
LR peppered the Wave Serpent with its Assault cannon to little effect. Things are not looking to clever for the Eldar at this point.
My turn saw my initial plan go from bad to worse. The dread in my backfield had to be dealt with so I open up with my D-cannons, scatter and end up sucking 5 Guardians into a mini black hole
. It doesn't stop there though. My lone Prism takes a shot, also scatters and blows one of my D-cannons sky high
. Meanwhile my Snipers open up on the Las Dread, six of them miss and the other four don't even scratch it.
Meanwhile My Storm Guardians deploy out of the Serpent and roll snake eyes for their Fusion guns... no surprise there then
. Finally I manage to turn the tide of bad dice rolls with the Guided Wraithguard who managed to destroy the Vindicators main weapon
Right then, time for plan B
I'm going to give up my objective to the Dread as he can only contest it and I'm going all out for his.
TURN 3
Al rolls for his Deathwing squad from reserves but no luck. My Pathfinders get torched and assaulted but manage to keep morale in check;
... while the D-cannon battery get butchered to a man;
The Vindicator turns it's attention to the Wave serpent on it's flank and decides to ram it but to no avail. Not enticed by the expendable Storm Guardian squad both Deathwing squads remain in their vehicles. Two Godhammers open up on the Serpent, one immobilizing it whilst the other stuns it. Two Guardians fall to heavy bolter fire whilst the Avatar shrugs off assault cannon and hurricane bolter fire.
My turn sees the Vindicator wrecked by the Scatter laser from the deplted Guardian unit... Huzzah!!! The Storm Guardians finally hit the command
LR with their Fusion guns, exploding it in a 6" fiery ball of death (well, for them it was as six died in the explosion
, the rest throwing themselves at the Deathwing hoping for that very slim chance I could tie them up for a turn, but instead were wiped out. The Avatar used his Wailing Doom to wreck the other
LR, forcing it's occupants out into the open. The Fire Prism opened up on them but veered off whilst only a couple of Wraithguard were in range and failed to do any damage.
The other Wave Serpent move flat positioning itself behind both the Deathwing objective and in line of sight of the Las Dread who is happily chasing down the remaining Pathfinders in the distance;
TURN 4
Al rolls for his Deathwing squad from reserves... and gets a one
.Things started to get hairy as the Deathwing squad accompanied by Belial and Ezekial charged the Fortuned Avatar whilst the other squad made very short work of Eldrad and friends (thanks to me failing a rerolled 3+
inv to a hammer
) . The Avatar manges to kill one of the THSS termies whilst taking one wound in return (off the other
TH). Locked in combat;
My Serpent full of Stormies in his backfield casually cuised onto his objective, letting of a stray krak missile at his Las Dread. My Fire prism took a shot at his
Plas Dread on my objective but scattered wildly. Luckily no friendly fire incidents
The Deathwing squad that killed Eldrad & Co. were swiftly dealt with by combined firepower off the Wave Serpent and both Guardian squads whittling them down to a man before he was finished off in close combat by the larger of the two squads, taking down two Guardians on the way.
The Avatar meanwhile killed another
TH termie, taking another wound in return (fortune had worn off at the begining of my turn)
TURN 5
Finally Al gets his remaining squad from reserves. He places his model close to my Serpent sat on his objective and rolls a scatter and double sixes, right off the board
. Much swearing was to be heard at this point before I calmly tell him all is not lost and to roll on the mishap table. He rolls a two!!! Lost in the Warp
How the dice gods change throughout the game. His Plasma dread sits tight and opens up on the Prism but fails to scratch it. The Las Dread in the far corner takes a pop at my Serpent but again fails to cause any damage although some consolation was had as he finally defeated the Avatar in close combat .
Not much happened in my turn apart from moving my Guardians towards his objective whilst making sure I was out of charge range of his remaing termies;
Al let me roll the dice for another turn and I rolled a TWO!!! I had snatched victory at the death.
Afterthoughts
Well, that turned out to be an interesting game with lady luck making a mockery of us both
. At one point I thought it was all over for my Eldar but with some poor decisions on Als behalf he let me back into the game (albeit with the help of lady luck
) My initial plan kind of worked out but I did not expect him to drop his plasma dread where he did. It was a risky move which paid off as I would have had to split my attacking force to deal with it, something I didn't want to do as I needed as many bodies as possible to deal with the termies in their tin cans. The Avatar exceeded himself in tying up his main squad for the length he did. Admittedly the dice were going terrible for Al in this combat, especially his THSS saves and in return could not roll the sixes he needed even with the rerolls for the
LC's, but once Eldrad was gone and the fortune wore off he was eventually brought down.
Ezekiel was a passenger in this game and could have been put to better use in the other
LR. In the end it was the humble Storm Guardians that won me the game, all my expensive units were destroyed bar one Fire Prism.
Man of the Match
Eldar: It has to go to the Avatar for tying up so many points at a crucial stage.
Deathwing: Goes to the cocky Venerable Dread that podded in behind my front line and casually contested my objective.
Chump of the Match
Eldar: D-cannon battery for poor positioning, friendly fire incident followed by being butchered.
Deathwing: I know it's not their fault but the Squad that failed to arrive from reserve and when it did became lost in the warp. Pure unlucky.
Thanks for reading!
1250
1000
Death Guard 5100 pts.
Daemons 3000 pts.
