This past weekend I went to the TSHFT tournament and had a couple of really fun games. First tournament I ended up losing three of my five games. However I thought I did fairly well with the list that I ran.
HQ
Eldrad Ulthran
Autarch: Warp jump pack, fusion gun, mandiblasters, power sword
Troops
DA (5)
DA (5)
Pathfinders (5)
Jetbikes (3)
Elite
Fire dragons (5) In a scatter serpent
Wraithguard (4) w/conceal lock in a scatter serpernt
Eldrad joined these guys.
Harlequins (6) All w/kissses, + troupe master, power sword, and deathjester.
Fast attack
Warp spiders (7) Exarch w/dual spinners, power blades, surprise assault.
Autarch goes here
Swooping hawks (5)
Heavy
Falcon w/
EML
Falcon w/
EML
Night spinner
The enemy.
Space wolves
HQ
Rune priest
Rune priest
Troops
Three or four grey hunter packs?
two in rhinos, two in razorbacks
Elite
Scouts
Fast attack
Thunder wolf cavalry (5)
Heavy
Two long fang squads
One all missiles.
One all las cannons
The mission was to place three objectives in your opponents spearhead deployment zone. You could contest the ones in your zone, but not control them. Secondary objective was to assassinate your opponents
HQ. Tertiary was to control or contest all battle points, and to kill fewer kill points then your opponent.
Set up.
The tables terrain was set up for more of a pitched battle, so in a spearhead with the first turn I simply took the well covered corner that left my opponent in the open. I placed warp spiders, swooping hawks, and harlequins far forward behind terrain. Heavy tanks went behind another piece of terrain with the pathfinders in the terrain. My three jetbikes hid in reserve as usual.
My plan was to skip forward and take out the long fangs as quickly as I could. With them out of the way I felt I could overwhelm any one section of his army. I had just played a game against snikrot for the first time. So he said he had an outflanking unit I got it stuck in my mind it would be the thunder wolves. I wanted to get my tanks away from the edges as quickly as possible.
Space wolves terrain was close to the middle of the board. He set up his two long fangs there. Then packed his rhinos and razorbacks together to provide each other cover. His scouts and his Thunder wolves hung out in reserve.
I rolled for Eldrards divination and got to reposition three squads. I shifted my spiders and hawks as close to his long fangs as I could, and put Eldrads serpent right next to them.
Eldar turn one:
The eldar quickly swept forward. Tanks jumped up onto the terrain and prepared to take pot shots at long fangs if any survived. The harlequins hopped into the terrain they had been hiding behind and moved up to create a zone of charging when he advanced. Eldrard and the wraithguard zipped forward to get those big beastly guys in range early.
Shooting decimated his long fangs. Most of my weaponry is not
ap 3 anyway, so I have no problem firing into cover. Space wolves had some pretty un lucky roles, but in general I saturated him with so much guided fire he ended up with a single missle launcher in one squad, and a single las cannon in the other. Nightspinner hit the closest razorback, but didn't pen.
Space wolf turn one:
He was a little floored by the wiping of his long fangs before they even got a shot off. Unloaded the razorback who had been hit with the night spinner to move into the cover with his lascannon long fang. Razorback managed to immobilize itself. His other three tanks sped cross board and slightly angled to move towards his objectives. His remaining limited heavy weapons combined on the wraithguard wave serpent. and managed to miss everything, except for one pen which immobolized it.
That went very well in my favor. I wanted to continue the plan, work my tanks farther up, avoiding the scary outflankers. (really just scouts) I expect his thunderwolves will come on the board near eldrad, that's the greatest threat to him and something he really needs to eliminate.
Eldar turn two: Jet bikes came on, so I boosted them across the board. Tanks shifted forwards, still not immobolizing on the terrain. Wave serpent with fire dragons shifted around behind the harlequins terrain, they are in a pretty central location so whichever way his block of transports go I can interdict them. Harlequins shot up the missle launcher long fang. Scatter lasers take out the las cannon long fang. Spiders hit the exposed grey hunters, swooping hawks helped hit the same guys. Falcons take out the stuck razorback. Only the sarge was left from the first grey hunter squad. Because they had no targets, I ran my pathfinders so they contested two of his objectives.
Space wolves turn two:
Thunderwolves came on the board and set up next to my warp spiders and wraithguard. He sped his tanks and popped smoke to give them cover. His lone sarge charged in on the warp spiders, while the thunder wolves multi charged eldrad's wraith guard and the spiders. My high initiative allowed me to take out one thunder wolf and put a couple of wounds on the others. Autarch and eldrad holding their own. He managed to kill a spider and a pair of wraithguards.
About what I expected. The wolves are big hitters and I'm a little worried about them, however, this is what I had the harlequins nearby for. I will shift to counter his troops and disable his transports first.
Eldar turn three:
Harlequins moved up to the big melee. Swooping hawks jumped over to provide more fire power against his troops. Fire dragons serpent zipped over the terrain and set up for a good shot. The falcons wiggled around for good line of sight. Eldrad doomed the thunderwolves and fortuned his own squad. Falcon popped the smoked rhino, fire dragons popped the next one. Many scatter lasers, night spinner, and the swooping hawks knocked both of his troops down to about half. Harlequins charged into the fray, troupe master whiffing on all of his attacks, but the rest of the squad killed off two more thunderwolves, and by the end of combat, those two only had one wound left apiece.
In return he killed off another two wraithguards.
Space wolf turn three:
Scouts came in on my side nearby his three objectives. However they were just out of repeat range against my pathfinders. 2+ cover saves protected all but one of my guys. He moved his space marines to attempt an assault on my fire dragons with one squad of grey hunters, and approached the swooping hawks with the other. Shooting killed one fire dragon, and that was it. Razorback whiffed it's twin linked las cannon. My serpent was nice and close to his rhino wreck which forced him to move through terrain, his roll kept him out of charge range. Swooping hawks got eaten alive, although they killed one hunter. In the thunderwolf fight he was unable to hit eldrad and the warlock to any effect. The harlequins killed one more wolf rider then bailed through hit and run.
Battle is getting fairly one sided at this point and my opponent is getting frustrated. I got the harlequins out so they could assault the grey hunters who killed my swooping hawks. I will try and wipe out the scouts, with a falcon and attendant dire avengers. Knocking out the last razorback is the only other goal.
Eldar turn four:
Falcon shifted around to give the dire avenger good range on the scouts. Harlequins moved right close to the hunters. Second falcon zipped over everything and landed next to an objective so avengers can get out next turn and grab two of them. Bikes zip full speed again, landing next to the third objective. Pathfinders, avengers and the falcon take out half of the scouts. I destroy the final razorback and the troops who were inside. Harlequins wipe out their grey hunter squad. Eldrad fells the final thunderwolf. Warp spiders consolidate to attack the half squad of wolf guard left over next turn.
Space wolf turn four:
He concedes.
At this point my opponent conceded. He only had three troops left and they couldn't reach any of the objectives. I had claimed all my objectives, and contested all of his. His half squad of scouts was the only other unit on the table. All in all I thought I played it well, got some lucky first shots in and his dice just didn't like him at all. By placing my harlequin and fire dragons in the middle of the board I allowed him to come to me, and in particular the placement of my wave serpent helped keep the fire dragons from being a suicide squad. Instead they slagged two tanks and had only suffered one loss. Swooping hawks turned out to be a fantastic distraction. They took out two grey hunters and two long fangs, as well as absorbing a charge. Worth it in my opinion. Wraithguard once again ended up in close combat and just sucked up wounds. Power weapons eat right through them, but again it tied up his largest unit.
I'll have the other game that day up soon as I can. Had a lot of fun playing a non-standard eldar list and all the challenges that come along with it.
Shine bright like Iyanden 