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2015/10/30 16:50:32
Subject: Dragonfall GT Battle Report 4 of 5 Eldar v CSM, Tzeentch Daemons, and KDK *WIP*
So, the next morning starts as I'd hoped: Several players decided not to attend the second day, including my scheduled opponent.
Once everyone is paired off, those of us without an opponent are paired. I draw a player with a lot of CC potential.
He's playing Black Legion CSM (CAD), Daemons (allied), and a Daemonkin formation--15 dogs and two small units of bikers. There might be something else in the formation, but that's what stood out to me. The Black Legion alignment was key for the artifacts. In particular, his Warlord was equipped with an artifact that made him immune to instant death. His Sorcerer was going to roll on Biomancy, for another chance for immunity to instant death. So much for my Duelist-Autarch. He had a Land Raider Proteus with a relic that gave +1 to the invulnerable saves of nearby (khorne?) units. His Daemons consisted primarily of a unit of tzeentch daemons and Tzeentch Herald with the Grimoire. There was also a Portaglyph. He has no Heldrake.
The mission was a version of Crusade with three objectives, where one goes in each player's DZ and the third is in the center of the board. With regard to Maelstrom, my objective counted as 1 and 2, his counted as 3 and 4 and the one in the middle counted as 5 and 6. Deployment was Vanguard Strike
Key to this game, I rolled up the Infiltrate Warlord Trait. My opponent won the roll to choose deployment zones, and then won the roll to deploy first/go first. He put the Tzeentch unit, with the Grimoire and Portaglyph, directly on top of his objective. I decided that, since his options to get to mine (I buried it as deep in my DZ as possible) were limited, I would concentrate on winning the one in the middle, and not waste time shooting at the Tzeentch. He deployed the Proteus fairly forward, not in his corner and set up his dogs + warlord + sorcerer in a broad screen. With such good terrain on the table, I had two 'good' possibilities for infiltrating my Distortion Cannons (i.e. with a cover save), and any number of locations without a cover save. It's not like his army has much shooting. He puts both the 3-man bike units on my right flank, pushed up as far into the corner of the vanguard deployment as possible. He has no reserves.
Before I begin making my deployment, I remind him that I will be able to infiltrate 18" away if any of his units can draw line of sight, and that the DCannons have a 24" range. I confirm with him that he is done with deployment and doesn't want to move anything. He has no infiltrators, and infiltration happens before scout moves. So, I will get my pick of turn one targets. I decide to go after the Proteus. For deployment, I set the Swooping Hawks on my objective. They're so far away from having an impact on the game that it's laughable. However, I'm determined to score Maelstrom points when they come up. I think about setting up the Warp Spiders out of LoS on a ridge that split the left side of the table horizontally, following the mid-line of the board, but decide to deep strike them. That was it for deployment.
In the infiltration step, I set up my cannons (with the Autarch attached) so that the dogs, from where they are deployed, would have a 10 or 11" turn one charge. I infiltrated one Wave Serpent on the far left and one on the far right. The one on the far right was within range for a turn one assault by the bikers, but my Autarch was strung out to the right for an easy counter-charge. The Fire Dragons went into the Cloudstrike (which I resolved to deploy more carefully than I had in the previous game).
When I finished my infiltration, my opponent declared he was going to make a scout move with his dog/character unit. He pushed them up at least 10" or so, but keeping his Warlord and Sorcerer out of range of the Distortion Cannons.
Then I stole the initiative.
Turn One: Eldar
Spoiler:
I slide the serpent on the right around the corner and line up on a bike unit. The other serpent moves up to 36" range from the dog unit (and most everything else, actually). I could Skyleap with the hawks but see no reason to. I start my shooting by centering a small blast template on his land raider, ending up with two hits on the raider and one on a dog. Rolling the results, both do damage, but I fail to roll that '6'. The Proteus is hulled-out, and I do not blow it up. The cultists inside are pinned after disembarking. One dog dies. The serpent on the left unloads scatter lasers and shield into the dogs, killing one or two. The serpent on the right unloads everything (scatters, shuriken cannon and shield) into one of the bike units...and kills one. They make their morale check.
My Maelstrom for turn two will be to hold my objective (yay!) and destroy a unit.
Turn One: CSM
Spoiler:
My opponent admits that he should have buried his Proteus in the corner and screened it better. He then moves his dog/character unit to within a few inches of my DCannons. He puts the Grimoire on them too, and drops the Portaglyph in his backfield. He moves the bike units to within an inch of the serpent on the right. In the psychic phase he summons another Herald. The Sorcerer gets Iron Arm (and something else--he's super buffed). I think the Portal birthed just a couple of daemons. He shoots a melta and throws krak grenades at the serpent on the right, to no effect.
In the assault phase, he declares a charge on the serpent and then declares one on the DCannons. I say, 'Sorry, you can't do that because you made a Scout move.' Unfortunately for him, he was operating on the mistaken idea that scouting units could not assault on the TOP of Game Turn One, but since I had stolen the initiative he would be able to. We looked up the rule (units making scout moves cannot assault in that player's first turn...). He's now made a couple of major mistakes. He runs the dog unit instead, realizing that he is going to take another round of D and spreading them out to mitigate the damage. The bikers barely manage to destroy the serpent. The Dire Avengers disembark and are not pinned.
I don't recall his Maelstrom, but remember that they were practically impossible for him to achieve.
Turn Two: Eldar
Spoiler:
Everything comes in. The spiders drop danger-close to the dogs/characters. I place the Cloudstrike judiciously, within 24" of the dog unit, but on the WAY left flank, daring him to divert the pack to go after it. I break off the Autarch and position him for a very short charge against the 3 man bike unit. The Dire Avengers kill the 2 remaining from the other unit. I move the serpent from the left more toward center, but do not disembark. The Distortion Cannons fire at the well-spread pack, but only manage to kill a dog or two. The spiders and Cloudstrike and the remaining serpent, however, do a number on the dogs (and, I think, on one of the cultist squads, who fail their morale), pushing them WAY back (as they were strung/spread out). He has maybe 5 dogs left.
My Autarch easily makes it into assault (I remember the Banshee Mask's special rule; yay), and kills the Aspiring Champion outright but nothing more. The bikers hold. The spiders get a poor Jet Pack move and are unable to get completely out of LoS of the dog pack. It will be easy to multi-assault both them and the Distortion Cannons, if that is what he chooses to do.
I score both my Maelstrom, but draw an impossible one (hold HIS objective), so am likely to only score one next turn.
Turn Two: CSM
Spoiler:
He has no reserves. The Cultists rally. The Grimoire goes on the Tzeentch guys. The dogs move to within 3" of my spiders and 5" of my artillery (he focused more on moving toward the spiders). The portal spawns more daemons/heralds or something. The psychic phase makes another herald (not going to lie; easy to understand and keep track of during the game, but thinking back it was like daemons were popping up everywhere). I think the tzeentch guys spread out to get one in range of the Dire Avengers, which they kill in the psychic phase.
He's unlucky in assault again--lucky hits and unlucky saves see the dog closest to the artillery taken out by overwatch, increasing the distance needed to more than 5"; he rolls a 5, failing to reach the cannons (easily reaching the spiders, though not enough to bring both his special characters to bear). I only lose 3 or 4 spiders, auto-pass my morale check for losing combat, and then hit-and-run. He consolidates as close to the Distortion Cannons as possible. The Autarch and bikers draw combat with no wounds taken on either side.
I think he only scores one of his Maelstrom.
Turn Three: Eldar
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2015/11/09 19:08:55
2015/10/30 17:52:20
Subject: Dragonfall GT Battle Report 4 of 5 Eldar v Daemonkin of Khorne & CSM *WIP*
