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Hello there, been a long time lurker here on Dakka and finally got back into the game a week ago and bring my space elves out against a Tau player. I've always enjoyed narrative my battles and finally decided to give it a try, hope you all enjoy.
Fluffy stuff
Spoiler:
It had been more than a year since they had left now free to roam the galaxy the small craftworld of Ishil’Ra enjoyed a small respite from its eternal conflicts with the forces of humanity and the astartes. Time to lick its wounds and mourn the venerable dead. But no peace is everlasting within the grimm universe and once more the craft world found itself in the presence of its foes. Wandering towards the Eastern end of the galaxy the outriders soon came across a new race, the Tau. Having learned of them from the words of other craftworlds the rangers were cautious in their observations seeing the fledgling tau race
But a discovery was made on a small moon near the outskirts of this Tau sept that could not be ignored. A cache of ancient weapons from before the fall hidden away in great vaults beneath the moon’s lush surface. These weapons were quickly secured and most were moved to the craftworld without the inhabitants notice. But the farseers of the craftworld foresaw the excavations being discovered and the fates showed the loss of many ancient devices still on the moon, this could not be allowed. Farseer Niena took up the cause and the aspect shrines again mobilised for war.
Donning the mantle of battle Niena selected a mobile force to make the strike. The host swiftly arrived to the lush moon where it convened with a group of outcasts already there. The outcasts had identified the enemy needed to be destroyed, a small expeditionary force in the nearby jungles that would stumble onto the tombs in a days time defiling the artifacts within and inhibiting their removal. Steeling herself for battle Niena moved ahead of the war host with the outcasts to scout the enemy before the main advance.
Army lists
Spoiler:
His list;
Farsight- 2 drones
bodyguard x2- plasma and fusion, 2 drones
fire warrior x9
Shas’ui
fire warrior x9
Shas’ui
pathfinder x8
stealth suit x5
Shas’vre- 2 drones
broadside x1- TLSMS, 2 drones
Riptide- ion blaster, twin linked SMS,2 drones
Piranah- fusion blaster
Skyray gunship
My list;
Farseer-Long rifle, Singing Spear, Stones of Anaris, RoW Warlord trait; No scatter within 6 (absolutely useless)
Powers- Guide, prescience, death wish
Spiritseer
Powers- Conceal, Protect
Avengers x9
Exarch- dual catapults
Wave serpent-dual scatter lasers holo fields
Avengers x9
Exarch- power weapon and shimmershield
Feeling the cool grip of the longrifle in her hands. It had been some time since she had walked the path of the outcast, but the ancient firearm would prove useful in the battle to come. The tau force lay assembled across the grasslands eyes wearily searching for targets, at the center of the line stood a massive construct towering over the ruins it’s cannon gentling purring in the quiet before the battle. Arrayed around it were smaller infantry squads seeking cover in the ruins; along the left flank sat two skimmers floating above the grass land, one appeared to be a fast attack craft lightly armored; the other a lumbering battle tank laden down with heavy missiles. Niena and the pathfinders moved ahead of the main warhost into a ruins overlooking most of the tau lines. From here hopefully their longrifles would cover the main armored advance. Settling into her position the farseer sent the signal for the attack to begin, instantly sleek tanks moved into positions onto the nearby hills bearing aspect troops ready for battle.
As the eldar arrived the tau sprang into action much faster than anticipated, from the forests to the right a single blast from a battle suit shrieked past barely missing the hull of an arriving fire prism. On the same flank from a concealed position several smaller suits emerged and fired a storm of fire into the banshees scything down half their number, the exarch Eyena held firm though the sisters crying out for vengeance.
Finally the great walker lumbered forward directly towards Niena‘s position, leveling its cannon the farseer had barely a breath to dive for cover before the blast hit. Searing fire engulfed the ruin as the outcasts were vaporized in the blink of an eye leaving the farseer alone but unscathed.
Vowing to mourn their losses once the battle was over Niena dove out of sight of the monstrosity and turned her attentions towards the skein of fate. Seeing the enemy vehicles moving up the left flank she directed the heavy tanks towards them the first lanced out and pierced a vital area of the heavy missile tank sending shrapnel across the battlefield. The second shot true as well, but the pilot of the fast skimmer was skilled and managed to avoid the tanks deadly blast, only to be crippled by precision fire from the nearby wave serpent. Unfortunately not every attack went so well, the banshees enraged with the loss of their sisters charged across open fields only to be cut down by swathes of fire before they could make blows with the enemy.
The situation only worsened when the enemy commander descended from the skies to the vulnerable rear of the nearby transport, it’s shields all but useless against the commander's weapons and the vehicle detonated sending the avengers within sprawling to the ground below. Any that were luck enough to survive the blast were soon annihilated as the tau force slaughtered them one by one, exarch Karnoth the last to fall was finally cut down to waves of pulse fire.
It seemed as all was lost, but they needed to continue onward regardless of how forlorn hope may be. On the left flank Niena could feel the presence of Arwin her apprentice far across the battlefield, he was with the second avengers squad having much greater success as his squad and their transport began cutting down the tau in the ruins with disciplined shuriken fire.
Furthermore the warp spiders from the Bloody webs shrine arrived, lead by their exarch, they quickly cut down the smaller battle suits with contemptuous east before moving into the bunker now filled with their dead banshee sisters. The twin fire prisms combined their power against the enemy commander and his retinue, through the crater rose only the commander and a single bodyguard heavily wounded from the blast.
With the loss of their marker lights the tau shooting seemed to lose most of it’s bite, the walker turned it’s attention towards the closest fire prism but its shots seemed to merely glance off of the vehicles armored plates, the right side turned its full attention towards the newly arrived warp spiders and a maelstrom of fight was brought down upon them, exarch Akamon shrugged off no less than 8 pulse rounds his ancient armor smoldering and scared but still he and two spiders remained.
Taking the initiative the avengers cut down the remaining squads within the ruins and precision fire from the heavy prisms felled the last bodyguard. Seizing the opportunity exarch directed his squads remaining fire against the exposed commander, his shields overloaded from the prisms assaults the commander was riddled with monofilament webs and finally retreated from the field before he was slain, his warriors quickly following suit leaving nothing but the dead in their wake.
Results and ending fluff
Spoiler:
Tau 5 points- Banshee squad, Wave serpent, Avenger squad, Rangers, First blood
Eldar 7 points- Pathfinder squad, Fire warrior squad, Bodyguard squad, Stealth suits, Skyray, Piranah, Linebreaker
Victory to the craftworld !!
“We have one this day farseer.” Exarch Akamon said joining her in the ruins. Niena simply cursed motioning to the remains of the outcasts strewn about the ruins.
“This was no victory exarch, too many were lost,” She shook her head resigning their souls as casualties for the good of the craftworld. “At least the artifacts are secured.” The exarch simply nodded refusing to push the subject any further. “Let us be on our way before these wretched Tau return in greater numbers.” Again the exarch simply nodded following the farseer to a nearby wave serpent. Turning back Niena caught a last look at the field, now filled with the dead, shaking her head she knew that these souls lost today would not be the last. With that thought she turned and left the accursed moon and its inhabitants, never to return.
Final thoughts
Spoiler:
Well that was a fun game, we only went three round in the end as we were both really hungry and wanted to grab something to eat.
Overall I really like the new Eldar, they performed well even though i made a ton of mistakes and basically threw away a serpent and full Avenger squad without doing any shooting with them.
Definitely going to trim the farseer next game, the stones of Anaris were useless, and i should roll twice on divination as it seems to have way better powers for less warp charges (God i really hate death wish), the double twin linked prisms were very nice though didn't miss a shot all game and only one lost 2 hull points thanks to holo fields.
The spiritseer was also nice, giving my avengers 3+ armor saves and shrouded, defiantly worth keeping even though his squad was never even shot at.
I really really love banshee's and am going to give them another game, but I feel I should just leave them at home from now on for obvious reasons.
Spiders on the other hand work wonders, fast killers with power armor is always welcome in my list sadly they didn't quite kill off Farsight even though they rended 3 times and he failed all 3 invul saves; oh well.
Hope you enjoyed the report, looking forward to doing it again next week where I may even break out the camera.
Come watch me and my friends play good games poorly on Boss Room Ahead
Amazing first post. Very nice! The pictures were just perfect and I actually liked the fluff style of writing (but the diagrams were clear enough to see what was going on if you wanted to skip reading).
The only thing I have to comment on is that i don't think farsight can take drones, could be wrong there though. I haven't really read the special character parts of the codex much.
P.S. Also tell the Tau player he needs more markerlights. Ditch the pirahna. Not enough room in a farsight list at 1500. Also the stealth suits might get cut depending on preference. I think there's better options, maybe a squad of kroot would fill a role similar to what he was using the suits for (plus you can buy 5 kroot for the price of one suit).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/25 05:27:08
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BrianDavion wrote: Between the two of us... I think GW is assuming we the players are not complete idiots.
Rapidly on path to becoming the world's youngest bitter old man.
Really good battle. I pretty much agree with your post battle assessment, though I wouldn't get rid of the Banshees after one game. In a largely mechanized list like this, having them on foot makes them too vulnerable. Perhaps putting them in a Wave Serpent as well will be more useful, or if you don't want another Wave Serpent, perhaps take Striking Scorpions for infiltrate.
Really enjoyed the way you wrote the report. You made it interesting and fun to read while maintaining the clarity of a normal report. Great first post, and please keep them coming.
My suggestion for the banshees is to keep them in a serpent until the turn before you want to assault, then either try to pin their target (rangers + a pysker with horrify could help here) so they can assault next turn or just hold them in combat with another unit.
I prefer the pinning myself as it is highly synergistic, which is how the eldar should be played.
Chaos Space Marines - Iron Warriors & Night Lords 7900pts