A week ago I claimed that the new Eldar players are lazy and incapable of making lists that arnt Scatter-bike/ WraithKnight spam, so I made a challenge, give me a bad list and I will do a battle report to show that the you dont need an easy-button list to be able to win games.
The list given to me.
Eldar
HQ
Karandras
Elite
Striking Scorpions x10 (Exarch with claw)
Troop
Dire Avenger x5, Waveserpent with
ML
Dire Avenger x5, Waveserpent with
ML
Rangers x5
Bikes x5 (scatterlasersx5)
Fast
Swooping Hawks x6 (Exarch with Sunrifle)
Allies
Archon (huskblade,
WWP, Shadowfield, Blast Pistol)
Warriors x10 (Splinterrifles x10) Raider (night shields, splinter racks, Disintegrator Canon)
My opponent Nate's list
Inquisitor
Xenos Inquisitor, 3 servo-skulls
8 Crusaders
Assassin
Eversor
Militarum Tempestus
Airborne Assault Formation
Scions x10 (melta, volly gun, plasma pistol), Valkyrie (Lascanon, hellstrikes)
Scions x10 (melta, volly gun, plasma pistol), Valkyrie (Lascanon, hellstrikes)
Scions x10 (melta, volly gun, plasma pistol), Valkyrie (Lascanon, hellstrikes)
Command squadx5 w/ Commissar (medic), Valkyrie (Lascanon, hellstrikes)
Pregame:
$%@&#^& He has 4 flyers and lots of AP3, The only Anti-air I can rely on is just 2
ML from the Waveserpents, and he packs enough anti tank to deal with the Waveserpents easily. This will require splitting his units as much as possible and lucky Jink rolls.......
Game: Spoils of War
Night fight: no
First Turn: Tempestus
Deployment:
Nate elects to deploy first and sets his Inquisitor, assassin, and retinue in a building denying as much
LOS as possible. He then puts a Servo-skull on Obj1 and 6 to keep me from infiltrating forward as much as possible, the third goes in his deployment center. His plan is clear, he expects his Inquisitor to survive long enough for the reserves to come and do all the scoring, I have to score early and control the table as much as possible during the early game!
My deployment is simple, One Waveserpent is deployed foward on the left flank, the other on the right flank. The Swooping Hawks prepare for a Skyleap. The Rangers deploy on Obj3, the Raider behind a building on Obj4, and the Archon goes in reserves with the bikes to
WWP later. Karandras and the Scorpions infiltrate as close as possible to the inquisitor and Obj2.
Objectives: 1 - large building in upper left corner, 2- woods in left/center, 3- Collapsed Colosseum Ruins, 4- Small building ruins in my center deployment, 5- Woods on right/center of table, 6- Colosseum ruins in upper right of table
Turn 1
I stole the initiative! Game time suckers!
Eldar T1:
Cards: Big Game Hunter (discarded) Behind Enemy Lines (held) Secure Obj5 (scored)
The left Waveserpent pushes forward and shoots a plasma missile while the Crusaders are all bunched close, but only 1 dies. The Hawks leap off the table. The right Waveserpent pushes forward looking to take obj6 if needed. The Raider moves to Obj5. The rangers and Scorpions sit still as they have no good action this turn.
Tempestus T1:
Cards: Kingslayer (held), Blood and Guts (held), Secure Obj4 (held)
Having only 2 units on the table Nate wisely spreads his Crusaders out to minimize incoming wounds, and his Assassin decides that attacking is better than getting attacked on my turn, his Eversor blasts through the wall of the building like the Kool-Aid-Man and charges the Scorpions taking a wound on Overwatch. Karandras calmly hands his beer to the closest Scorpion and Challenges the assassin. In a hail of Initiative 10 Mandiblaster fire, the Eversore dies without ever getting a swing in......Karandras turns and walks away from the exploding assassin without looking. (and takes a wound) The squad consolidates 4" towards the Inquisitor. Eldar get first blood!
Eldar -2, Tempestus - 0
Eldar T2:
Cards: Behind Enemy Lines (scored/2) Hold the line (scored) Secure Obj6 (scored)
The left Waveserpent pulls back to my deployment zone, and with the Rangers and Raider (who pulls back to Obj4) score Hold the line, The Hawks land in Nate's table corner to my left pop the Servo-skull and kill 3 Crusaders as well as blinding the squad. The Archon and Bikes land on Nate's center table edge and kill off another 2. The right Waveserpent moves forward
pops the skull located on Obj6 claiming both the Secure Obj6 card as well as Behind Enemy Lines with the Bikes and Hawks. The Scorpions now charge the blind Retinue of Crusaders, set their helmet cams to "record" and make a very special episode of "Will it Blend - Inquisition Edition" At the end of the turn I score Nate's Obj4 card as well.
Tempestus T2:
Cards: Kingslayer (held), Blood and Guts (held), Secure Obj4 (held)
At this point Nate is tabled and his only chance is rolling his reserves........he rolls a 2, the entire formation is held in reserves! I almost feel bad, I dont like winning on bad dice rolls, and then we see it........the saving grace.......the best bit of luck for him since the game started...........the formation gets a reroll on reserves.......and he rolls a 4! GAME ON, here comes the Calvary!!!!
Nate moves all four of his Valkyries into the center of the table, dropping their loads all over the table like a cheap porn. Two Valkyries aim for the Rangers in my deployment zone but cover saves absorb all wounds, the other two aim for the Raider who jinks all but 1 hit for a Shaken result. Meltas are fired at the Waveserpent on Obj6 but basic cover ignores the hit, however tha Archon and Bikes are violently removed from the table with a combination of 33 AP3 wounds and my sudden superpower of being able to roll nothing but 1s, even the Archon failed his very first Shadowfield save ......so majestic!
Eldar - 7 Tempestus - 0
Eldar T3
Cards: Secure Obj2 (scored), Secure Obj6 (scored) Hungry for Glory (held)
Its clear to me that I must hit his troops as hard as i can ASAP, the flyers I can kite, but those Hellguns are just going to have me playing wack-a-mole if I stay in cover, and his guns are better than mine! The dire Avengers in the right Waveserpent bail out and get into firing position killing 3 Scions while claiming Obj6, the right Waveserpent itself shooting at the rear of the closest Valkyries causing them to Jink. The left Waveserpent pushes forward to force the Valkyries to fly over it or hover. Despite my wanting to get the Raider to better cover I hold place and claim Obj4 from Nate's cards hoping that the Jinking Valkyries cant hit it next turn. The Scorpions throw caution to the wind and run out to claim Obj2 as well as prepare to assault next turn. The Hawks take some bad shots and Battlefocus behind cover in the building. Ranger shots into the Scion Command squad are absorbed by the medic!
Tempestus T3
Cards: Kingslayer (held), Blood and Guts (Discarded), Secure Obj5 (scored)
Nate decides that the safety of his flyers is no longer more important that getting those objectives and rather than fly away giving me Obj5, he puts his Jinking Valkyries in hover mode to claim it, doing yet another hull point to my Radier, this time its Stunned! His other two Valkyries again unload on my rangers killing 1 for their efforts, 2+ cover is a hard thing to beat! One scion squad shoots that the obj6 Avengers and cover is still king! Another Scion Squad puts a glance on the right Waeserpent. But the Scion squad and command squad together obliterate the Scorpions until only Karandras with his 2+ armor is left standing!
Eldar - 10 Tempestus - 1
Eldar T4
Cards: Hungry for Glory (scored) Overwhelming Firepower (held) Strands of Fate (Obj4 scored)
All right son, its game day! Hawk leap over the building to get in charge range of the Scion Command Squad, but fail to blind or wound anyone. Karandras prepares to assault the Scions that just melted his disciples. The Dire Avengers and Wave Serpent at Obj6 reposition to deal with the Scions moving up and between the two of them destroy the small squad. The right Waveserpent ignores the flyers and fire Plasma Missiles into the squad infront of Karandras killing 2. Rangers put a wound on the Commissar, and the Raider scores Obj4 yet again with the warriors inside killing 3 of the command squad! The assault phase sees Karandras go ape on the Scion Squad and then curbstomp the remaining guys when they tried to run away. The Hawks also won their assault against the wounded Command Squad, killing the Commissar in the process for a Warlord kill.
Tempestus T4
Cards Kingslayer (held), Secure Obj3 (score), Secure Obj3 (score)
Getting 2 cards for Obj3 made for simple planing this turn. The left most Valkyries go into hover and hop to the unprotected side of the ranger and finally kill the squad of snipers off while claiming 2 points. The right Valkyries stay in hover now in both a desire to get rid of the Raider that has scored 5 points this game, and foolishly thinking he was safe from the ineffective fire of the WaveSerpents, not noticing the Hawks sitting only inches away! His last scion squad shot and failed to wound Karandras as Nate tries one last time to get Kingslayer!
Eldar - 12, Tempestus - 3
Eldar T5
Cards: Overwhelming Firepower (held), Scour the Skys (scored), Supremacy (scored)
The Swooping Hawks leap over one of the Valkyries on the right doing 2 hull points from their Interception Grenades rule, throw a Haywire grenade for another
Hp, and the wipe the squadron of hovering flyers in assault. Karandras assaults the remaining Scion squad and as expected slaughters the squad and then riffles through the pockets of the dead looking for loose change and getting Linebreaker.
Nate opts to skip his turn and we call game as all he has left is 2 Valkyries and is unable to score enough points to catch up.
Eldar - 15 Tempestus - 3
Eldar win this matchup against 4 flyers and tons of AP3 weapons, and all without resorting to Wraithknights, D-weapons, or 15+ scatterbikes. Most of what allowed me to win was proper allocation of forward and backfield units, as well as holding fire with some units such as the Hawks to allow the opponent to forget that they are on the field while a bigger threat such as the Scorpions drew all the attention and Aggro, Seeing that my best chance to score was in the first couple turns, I made sure my deployments allowed all of my units a chance to cover parts of the table that might get used. To be fair, this game was won in the Deployment phase, I had table control, the ability to pull form my opponents cards, and 2 turns to do it unchecked. Keeping myself close to table edges minimized the likelyhood that his flyers could get angles which forced him to deploy troops to shoot at me rather than deploy them over objectives.
7000+ Aliatoc Eldar
3000+ DeamonHunters
