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Allo, one, all. We at my gaming club are preparing a big tournament for november, so we've beem making scenery and writing missions, and this weekend we got to test them. I took the opportunity to get a rematch with a friend's Eldar army, after losing badly to it a few months ago (no BatRep because there were no pictures). I wanted to test my new army config, and who better than the enemy that bested me last?

It was both a good and a poor decision. Good because it was challenging, poor because...well, the odds quickly became steep. My opponent had set the table (though he didn't know he'd be playing in it) and we rolled a variant of Dawn of War, which was exactly the mission I lost to him previously. Still...new list, right? Let's not panic.

The lists!

ELDAR

HQ
Avatar of Khaine
Eldrad w/Seer Council (6 warlocks geared to the gills)

ELITES
10 Banshees, Exarch with Executioner, Wave Serpent w/TL starcannon and star engines
6 Fire Dragons, Exarch w/uber-meltagun, Crack Shot, Tank Hunters, Wave serpent w/ Starcannon, star engines

TROOPS
2x18 guardians w/ Starcannon Hvy platform, Warlock with Conceal.
2x18 guardians w/ Brightlance Hvy platform, Warlock with Conceal.

CHAOS MARINES

HQ
Kharn the Betrayer
Daemon Prince (Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime)

ELITES
5 Chosen (3 flamers, 2 meltas), rhino w/ combi-flamer
3 terminators (2 combi-meltas, 1 heavy flamer)

TROOPS
9 Khorne Berserkers (skull champ w. power weapon)
8 Plague Marines (2 meltaguns), rhino
10 CSM (champ with combi-flamer, 1 melta, 1 flamer), rhino

HVY Support
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators
Chaos Land Raider (Daemon Possession)

The mission was called 'Kill the HQ'. It's like Dawn of war, except it works with victory points and a single designated HQ on each side is worth double points. I picked Kharn, since he can hide in a vehicle and the eldar's fire dragons murdered my Daemon Prince instantly in a previous game. He picked the Avatar of Khaine.

I win the roll and go first, after reserving the chosen and the termis. He reserves the fire dragons and banshees along with their rides.

TURN 1 - CSM

I start alone on the table, with my troop rhinos and Daemon Prince hiding behind ruins on the center-right. The rest arrive from the table edge and start to crawl upward. Obliterators -really- suffer in DoW, as I can't place them in high terrain and get clear lanes of fire. I run them to at least get them on a hill and ruins, respectively.


Where is everyone? Did we take a wrong turn in the Warp again and missed the battle? Damn Mapquest!


Does anyone have a spare Hubble telescope so we can see the enemy?

TURN 1 - Eldar


Possibly the manliest deploy ever. I like to picture them also piling their old ladies and deaf children between them and the enemy.

The sneaky space elves deploy in a tight block on the -extreme- left corner of the table, both HQ's hiding behind a bunker, guardian mobs doing interlocking conga lines to always be in reach of the Avatar in the back while presenting their heavy weapons to me. They are also behind a wide river. And since I stupidly forgot to deploy smoke on my vehicles, they all fire at my lead black rhino after eldrad buffs everyone. Thankfully, it merely gets stunned thrice in a row. Phew.

TURN 2 - CSM

No reserves arrive. My opponent actually asks what the Chosen are and looks terrified when I explain their outflanking and flamers, seeing his army all bunched up like that. He's safe...this turn! The plague Rhino runs through the center of the field while the Land Raider also drives north toward the Eldar lines, but can't advance fully thanks to the river and the stunned black rhino.


Wait...I sense doilies and hear Justin Bierber in the winds, brothers! The Eldar must be near!

Oblits march sllooowwwlyyy left and forward to get range. The green pair lands a plasma cannon hit on the nearest guardioans (who are still 35 inches away!) and causes 5 wounds, but he makes 3 cover saves. Stupid warlocks. The other pair is waaaaay further back and actually fires lascannons at the guardians, (over)killing one. The Daemon Prince moves left and hides in terrain, passing his test. I don't want him being focused by Guided star cannons.

TURN 2 - Eldar

No eldar reserves arrive either. Eldrad fortunes the Starcannon guardians and gives the Avatar a re-roll to saves (not that he can be hit, being fully obscured). Brightlances wreck the CSM black rhino and makes the black lgeionnaires spill out, and starcannon hits kill three of them. They pass morale. He seems very disappointed by the low kill count.


So you guys ever watch A Bridge Too Far? Bridge on the River Kwai? Umm...Bridges of Madison? We could use a bridge, is all.

TURN 3 - CSM

All chaos reserves arrive! If the chosen come on the left table side, it's almost a guaranteed wipe, as 4 flamers should be enough to clear at least 2 guardian mobs, and that's not counting the termis and their heavy flamer. 2 chances in 3 to pull off a wonderfully gory feat for the Dark Gods...so of course I roll poorly and they arrive on the right side of the table, 3 turns of pedal-down driving away from ANY action.
Still, let's not be hasty. The terminators scatter a little bit, but still land in front of his Brightlance guardians. The heavy flamer glances them and along with the bolters cause 3 casualties. The daemon prince leaps over a block of ruins and also runs, positioning himself for a sure charge next turn, and the land raider and its murderlicious cargo braves the river.


"It's the third time we arrive from the warp and find a crowd of elves watching us like we're putting on a show, guys. I think my dark past as a chippendales dancer is out now."

Plague marines drive next to the river and disembark into it, rapid-firing into Starcannon guardians and killing 9. Not to be outdone, the remaining black legion marines also walk forward into the river. The flamer can't reach the guardians, but their bolters can and kill 6 from the other Starcannon squad (I really should have fired both at the same sqaud, but I srot of hoped the flamer would reach the closest one...). Oblits toss more plasmas cannon shots as the trudge up, but they scatter away.

TURN 3 - ELDAR

Banshees and their ride come from reserves. He walks them in from the center, since my plagues are within charge range unless they roll horribly on terrain. The Starcannon Guardians move forward around the bunker to try to fire at my termis, but the river doesn't let them get too far. He fires brightlances, shuriken catapults and starcannons at the terminators, but even with Fortune he rolls a ton of 1's to wound and kills only two, leaving the heavy flamer intact.


We got them cornered, boys! See, they're even sending their most womanly Eldar (a feat in itself) at us with glowing gift swords as peace offerings!

On the bright side (for him), the Banshees uterly murder the plagues on a charge, killing six and losing only one back. They take no fearless casualties, and leave the banshee's in combat where I can't shoot at them.

TURN 4 - CSM

Chosen drive 12' left, but are still light-years from any action. The Land Raider drive up into the river and jams itself between the bunker and ruins, finally getting close. I don't disembark the zerkers or kharn because nothing is in charge range, but next turn, for sure...


Ahh, to thin the Eldar herd. It's for their own good and...hey! They're thinning our plague marines! Karma works fast these days.


Black Legion moves further up and now atomizes a guardian squad with flamers and bolters. Daemon Prince flies up withing charge range, but fails to activate warptime thanks to Eldrad's Cheeserunes of Gouda. The lone terminators walks 6 inches up, barely three inches away from a full guardian squad. He fires the heavy flamer and kills 9 of them, then charges in to avoid getting shot and kills two more. The Daemon Prince charges the squad to the left, killing three, taking no wounds and then causing two more fearless wounds.


Real men charge into 9-to-1 odds by themselves!

On a sad note, the plagues get zipped and Banshees consolidate 4 inches toward my csm. I stupidly forget to use the intact plague rhino to shield them! Obliterators spend another turn walking and being ineffectual. Dawn of war is a tragedy of the human race and makes heroes of the ebola viruses! There, I said it.

TURN 4 - ELDAR

Fire Dragons come in. They fly in their Wave Serpent from the left corner and land in front of my Land Raider, desembarking their melta maniacs. Banshee move well through the river and get into charge range of my csm. The Banshee Wave Serpent flies 30 inches to the middle of the table, very close to my front oblits (for some reason).

The fire dragons fire at the Land Raider with everything they have and destroy both lascannons, but by some miracle fail to do anything else, missing a lot at point-blank range.


It's not my fault I missed, exarch! The target is distant and flawlessly camouflaged!

The avatar and Eldrad walk left and join the assault with the Daemon Prince, Dooming him and Guiding his enemies.. The Avatar puts 3 wound s on the big monster, then Eldrad finished him off. I failt to get Warptime off again and try to focus the daemon's final hits on Eldrad, but he makes all his saves. It was a longshot anyway.


Alas, poor Daemon Prince. He left a gap in out CC with his passing. See, right to the left of the Avatar?

Banshees do what they do best; kill MeQs. They zip the whole squad of black legion and consolidate one inch back. The lone terminator kills another guardian and makes all his saves. I like the cut of his jib.


"Silly banshees, we can never be defeated! We're Abaddon's men and...-"

Alright, I'm thinking. It's going bad, but I can turn it around. Still have the land raider, and I can wreck the wave serpent and the fire dragons in a single charge. My oblits can nuke the other and make even make the banshees run with a good plasma cannon double-serving, and if the game goes to turn 6, my Chosen can finally arrive and roast everything that is not the Avat....

--beeeep--

Game time over. Matches are restricted to 2 hours and a half, like in the coming tournament. No new turn is initiated. He killed over 600 points of my stuff, and I got only 300 and change of his stuff back. Minor victory to the Eldar.


The board after the end. So full of murderous possibility! It's like Schubert's Unfinished Symphony...or Gaudi's Unfinished Cathedral, or other things that are not completed to satisfaction!

Analysis: Both times I fought this army I got Dawn of War , which -severely- cramps my style as I have no fast units beside the prince. His refused flank was also a pain, though had my Chosen come on the proper side, he would have paid a heavy price for it; as my opponent himself admitted, had he been really aware of them he would have deployed differently, but in the end the gamble paid off for him. Two of my deadliest units never got to fight!

I liked my new list. I need to test it on some MeQ armies to make sure I didn't go too light on meltas, but the flamers help a lot when facing hordes, things in cover, or even just avoiding bad luck to hit.

My friend's footdar are a hellish army to play. It can take casualties on its cheap, fearless troops all day and still fire its fortuned low-ap weapons, and has Eldrad and the Avatar as a strong CC core, along with mobile threats in the form of the banshee and fire dragon serpents. But with normal deployment, with my oblits in high ground from turn 1 and all vehicles advancing together, I could counter it better.

Best Units:

-Eldar : The Banshees. They cleaned two squads off the table and suffered only a single casualty.

-Chaos Marines: The terminators. They came the closest to paying for themselves, point-wise.

Worst Units:

-Eldar: Fire Dragons. They whiffed when it mattered. Had there been another turn, they'd be cleaned from the board and still leave a big threat behind.

-Chaos Marines : Obliterators. A non-factor in this game. Through the Daemon Prince also didn't cover himself in glory.

lol awesome batrep. Love your little quotes and phrases under the pics.
The banshees did what women do best -- cleaned house.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:The banshees did what women do best -- cleaned house.

I really thought the plague marines would be able to at least hold them for two turns, since banshees needed to roll 6s to wound them and after the charge their number of attacks would drop...but my friend rolled 6s like a champ. If only I rolled all those 6s for the rending weaponry...

Hah! Kidding. Chaios has no rending weapons.

Great batrep. DOW really messed you up, but you did well all things considered. Shame Kharn-and-friends, Oblits, and the Chosen never got to play. Your last turn could've been one big kill-smash. It's a pity when a game ends that way.

Yeah, there were 280 points of transports within easy wrecking distance that by themselves would have tied the game, and fire dragons as a bonus. Though then I'd take the counter-charge by the avatar and the seer council with Eldrad unless I consolidated -really- well or used the Land Raider as a barrier (which would likely have surrendered a lot of point too)

Still, very instructive game. Made me sorely wish for some battlecannons or other long-range artillery, too!

Nice report man; a LOT of fun to read, great little narrative and humour and good battle. The only thing that I'd complain about is the table/terrain and lack of paint on the Eldar.
As I said though, really nice report and well worth the read. Thanks for sharing man!

My highlights:

Sephyr wrote:Dawn of war is a tragedy of the human race and makes heroes of the ebola viruses! There, I said it.

The lone terminator kills another guardian and makes all his saves. I like the cut of his jib.

Alright, I'm thinking. It's going bad, but I can turn it around. Still have the land raider, and I can wreck the wave serpent and the fire dragons in a single charge. My oblits can nuke the other and make even make the banshees run with a good plasma cannon double-serving, and if the game goes to turn 6, my Chosen can finally arrive and roast everything that is not the Avat....

Few things:

- How did it take 4 turns to get a Land Raider across the table and still not be in Assassult range? It moves 12" a turn and the guys can still debuss 2" and assault 6"?

- The terrain was set-up horribly and really screwed you.

- Your opponent gimped your Daemon Prince; Guide only lets him re-roll hits in the shooting phase.

Nice report, but yeah there are some serious rules oversights in this. I was impressed how his Starcannon managed to kill 3 guys from the destroyed Rhino (who could have easily got themselves cover btw) when it only has 2 shots. Also unless the Banshees were declared NOT to be in their transport and were rolling reserves separately he cannot choose to walk them on (which allowed him to assault). They also rolled incredibly well on the charge though, Defensive Grenades and T5 means he is wounding on 6's with 2 attacks each, which puts his chances of getting 6 kills at under 5% even with Doom (which I think was on Terminators) , dropping to under 1% without Doom.

@Powerguy
There are 3 starcannons in the list BTW. Although... I see 4 platforms, 2 with Starcannons's and 2 with BL's, so I guess there is 4 starcannons? Oh well.

Banshees did cheat by not being in their transport, but in terms of the assault results the banshees get 27 Str3 attacks on the charge, exarch gets 3 str5 attacks. That averages to 3 kills against T5, so with only three bonus 6's to wound he could inflict the 6 kills. Not average of course, but by no means a Christmas miracle.

Godless-Mimicry wrote:Few things:

- How did it take 4 turns to get a Land Raider across the table and still not be in Assassult range? It moves 12" a turn and the guys can still debuss 2" and assault 6"?

- The terrain was set-up horribly and really screwed you.

- Your opponent gimped your Daemon Prince; Guide only lets him re-roll hits in the shooting phase.

1- The Land Raider didn't start on the table but arrived from the back in turn 1, per DoW deployment rules. I could not start deployed becuase it was not the dedicated transport of its troops (and you can only have 1 HQ and 2 Troops choices). So it arrived in turn 1 with only a bit of movement left. Then it got bogged down by the black legion rhino becoming wrecked with its crew right between ruins and the river, all but wasting a turn. The next 2 turns it moves 12 inches into the river, but even that wasn't quite enough.

2- To be fair, I picked the side of the table. It might have been a tad better if i had picked the other side (no issues with the river), but then the oblits would have had to walk a lot more to get in position. And I didn't expect him to deny the flank so extremely.

3- Agh! Well, what do you know.

@Powerguy - Each Starcannon is Heavy 2, so those 2 platforms were putting out 4 shots a turn, often with Guide. And my cover rolls are usually abysmal. But even if i had made them, the Banshees crashed into them with such force that I doubt 3 more would have helped.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Just Dave wrote:Nice report man; a LOT of fun to read, great little narrative and humour and good battle. The only thing that I'd complain about is the table/terrain and lack of paint on the Eldar.
As I said though, really nice report and well worth the read. Thanks for sharing man!

The thing is, my friend is a veteran of the hobby and is an -amazing- painter. Except he's a perfectionist and takes forever to paint each model, and has just redone his army. So he'll have it all painted in 2122 or the day before the heat death of the universe...whichever comes latest.

The Raider still comes 12" off the board edge, and it still could have moved around the Rhino through the river judging by the pic. By right you should be in assault range by turn 3; 12" turn one, 12" turn two, 12" turn 3 + 2" debus + 6" assault = 44", and the board is only 48" across.

You forget that when he arrives on turn 1, he's not on the table, so you lose a lot of inches getting him on the board. And you're also thinking he appeared right in front of the Eldar bunch on the corner, needing to move only in a straight line. In fact, he came closer to the center (to get some cover against Brightlances) and had to drive left a bit as he advanced.

Please read my post above properly, the loss of not deploying on the board is already calculated in there; basic math still says you should easily be in there turn 3.

Your pics of turn 2 have him almost directly opposite the Eldar. As for Bright Lances, two Lance shots at BS3 aren't something to be that worried about, especially when you still get cover one of those turns by popping smoke.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:@Powerguy
There are 3 starcannons in the list BTW. Although... I see 4 platforms, 2 with Starcannons's and 2 with BL's, so I guess there is 4 starcannons? Oh well.

Banshees did cheat by not being in their transport, but in terms of the assault results the banshees get 27 Str3 attacks on the charge, exarch gets 3 str5 attacks. That averages to 3 kills against T5, so with only three bonus 6's to wound he could inflict the 6 kills. Not average of course, but by no means a Christmas miracle.

Yeah my bad on the Starcannons. The way the sentence was phrased it made it sound like it was from a single Starcannon, which is of course impossible.

Banshees don't get 27 attacks on the charge against Plague Marines, they get 18 + 2 from the Exarch because the Plague Marines have Defensive Grenades. This means he has to roll incredibly well to get 6 kills. So 9 hits, 1.5 wounds, its seriously less than a 1% chance of rolling 6 wounds.

Powerguy wrote:

Lt. Coldfire wrote:@Powerguy
There are 3 starcannons in the list BTW. Although... I see 4 platforms, 2 with Starcannons's and 2 with BL's, so I guess there is 4 starcannons? Oh well.

Banshees did cheat by not being in their transport, but in terms of the assault results the banshees get 27 Str3 attacks on the charge, exarch gets 3 str5 attacks. That averages to 3 kills against T5, so with only three bonus 6's to wound he could inflict the 6 kills. Not average of course, but by no means a Christmas miracle.

Yeah my bad on the Starcannons. The way the sentence was phrased it made it sound like it was from a single Starcannon, which is of course impossible.

Banshees don't get 27 attacks on the charge against Plague Marines, they get 18 + 2 from the Exarch because the Plague Marines have Defensive Grenades. This means he has to roll incredibly well to get 6 kills. So 9 hits, 1.5 wounds, its seriously less than a 1% chance of rolling 6 wounds.

Touché. One fail for both of us then. I'm more of a collector than a player and I tend to forget (ignore more like) grenades when I play, so oops

To add specific details to the plague marine skirmish:

The Exarch wounded and killed 2 plagues, needing only a 4+ to wound. The remaining Banshees hit 11 times and came up with 4 6's on the to-wound roll. Would have been 5, actually, but one of the 6's was a bit cocked and he rerolled it, getting a 3. Yes, a fair bit of luck, but I've seen better and worse (Like when Irolled Kharn's 7 attacks and got four 1's).

GG. Argument for a defiler here replacing 2 of the oblits. i think generally your list might benefit from a large blast vs hordes.

Nice batrep. You could consider replacing some obliterators with a defiler, that way you can blast grouped enemy units from afar with the battle cannon. I've used obliterators a few times but never had a great deal of success with them. Other than that I like your list.

Yes, a Defiler would have come in handy. Though I wonder if it wouldn't have suffered the same issue my vindicator does when I field it: a single model can sometimes scatter off-target and not have that big an impact, and a few lascannon/missivle shots can tear that nice cannon right off.

But I guess you can't have everything, right? And 72' range is quite cool.

Yes, a defiler with two close combat weapons so you can either blast stuff from way off or charge (don't forget they're fleet) into close combat and rip up tanks etc. Extra close combat weapons as you're probably only ever going to fire the cannon, the problem is as soon as you get a 'weapon destroyed' result your opponent is going to take away that cannon, but by then you should hopefully be close enough to get into close combat.

Run 3 defilers its the only logical decision
Good batrep

Ithani wrote:Run 3 defilers its the only logical decision
Good batrep

But then my berserkers will have to walk! They can't be seen in a rhino after having a Land Raider! People will think the recession got to them!

Sephyr wrote:But then my berserkers will have to walk! They can't be seen in a rhino after having a Land Raider! People will think the recession got to them!

3 defilers + 72" range ordinance... You dont need tanks to get you up the map when the opponent has to come to you Skull champ: "And now we play the waiting game..."