Scorned by their saviors and kin after a 10,000-year marinade in the Eye of Terror, the Eldar of Craftworld Altansar sail through the void in search of a new home and respite from a galaxy at war. But who would trust a race of aliens that has lived in the warp for so very long? And who could resist taking potshots at a Craftworld with a magenta color scheme?
An Eldar patrol force encounters a detachment of the Knights of the Dragon chapter of Space Marines. The Knights are ornery, invigorated by a new codex and are not about to take any guff from xenos in magenta gimp suits. It's go big or go home in:
ELDAR VS. SPACE MARINES, 1500 POINTS
We roll Capture and Control and Dawn of War deployment. We set our objective markers on diagonally opposing corners: mine in a graveyard, his behind a forest. I get deploy and first turn, he fails to seize initiative.
Our lists:
Craftworld Altansar
Autarch, warp jump generator, fusion gun, power sword, mandiblasters
8 Warp Spiders, Exarch with dualies, power blades and Withdraw
10 Guardians with brightlance platform, Warlock with Embolden
10 Guardians with brightlance platform, Warlock with Embolden
10 Dire Avengers, Exarch with Defend, dire sword
10 Dire Avengers, Exarch with Defend, dire sword
5 Dark Reapers, Exarch with Fast Shot, tempest launcher
Fire Prism, "Fury of Altansar," holofield, spirit stones
Fire Prism, "The Way To The Dawn," holofield, spirit stones, shuriken cannon
Knights of the Dragon
Captain, relic blade, bike
5-man Command squad, all on bikes, apothecary, power fist, power sword
10 Tactical Marines, power fist, flamer, some manner of heavy weapon, in Rhino
10 Tactical Marines, power weapon, flamer, some manner of heavy weapon, in Rhino
10 Bikers, melta gun, power sword
Attack Bike, heavy bolter
10 Vanguard Veterans, jump packs, power sword, power fist, plasma pistol
I put one squad of Guardians in an intact stone building by my objective. The building counts as Armor 12. The brightlance gunner takes up a firing spot on the second floor. The other Guardians are on my right side of the table, poised to advance toward his objective. He puts a single Rhino on the board, facing my objective.
The board from my side, before turn 1
Turn 1 - Eldar
20 Dire Avengers rush to support the stone building by the graveyard on the left. The Autarch and Warp Spiders jump in behind some central ruins. The Fire Prisms appear, flanking my Dark Reapers in the middle.
Everyone lucks out on Night Fighting rolls. The brightlance stuns the Rhino, and a bank shot from the two Prisms finishes it off.
Turn 1 - Space Marines
The Knights of the Dragon come out in force. The Captain and his Command Squad turbo right for my objective. A second Rhino cringes behind the destroyed hulk of the first, while the disembarked Marines advance through cover toward my objective.
On the right side, the bikers split into combat squads, 5 on his objective, and 5 menacing my Guardians. They fire their mounted bolters, and with the assistance of the attack biker, shoot down two Guardians.
Take the battle to the enemy
The Knights of the Dragon defend their giant relic calculator at all costs as their shrink-wrapped battle brothers smile down from the store shelf
Turn 2 - Eldar
The Fire Prisms get into position. The Warp Spiders jump ahead into some ruins, phasing in without incident and ready to fire their bloop-bloops at the bikers. The Dire Avengers start to form up by their objective, anticipating a painful charge from the Captain and his command squad.
On the right, the Prisms bank shot and fart a S6 AP3 pie plate on the bikers, but kill only one for their trouble. The Guardians take aim with their brightlance and blow up the attack biker. The Warp Spiders and Autarch pour it into the bikers, turning four into a thick, red paste and leaving only the melta gunner.
On the left, the Dire Avengers bring down one of the Command Squad bikers. The Apothecary is too busy ridin' that hog to jab the narthecium up his battle-brother's nose or whatever. The Guardians in the stone building miss with their brightlance. The Dark Reapers try to thin out the
Tac squad that spilled out of the destroyed Rhino, but the reaper missiles just cinematically destroy a bunch of trees and gravestones in slow motion.
Turn 2- Space Marines
The Vanguard Veterans become available. My opponent splits them into two combat squads, one dropping by my Dark Reapers, the other right in front of my Dire Avengers. The
Tac squad in cover advances with care. The intact Rhino goes 12" and pops smoke. The Captain and retinue zoom in to charge the Dires threatened by the Vanguard vets.
There is an awful lot of pain converging on my objective really fast.
Surprise!
Meanwhile, the sole surviving melta biker zooms toward one of my Fire Prisms, hoping for a Hail Mary shot before elf guns turn him into chutney. The surviving biker squad takes a risk and scoots off its objective into the forest to get a better shot at the incoming Guardian Squad.
The biker misses his melta shot, to my profound relief. The objective-squatting bikers cycle up their bolters and hose down more Guardians, who continue to march brazenly forward.
On my left, 5 Vanguard vets, one with a power fist, and the Captain's biker posse run a train on one of my Dire Avenger squads, wiping out all but the Exarch and then running him down to die ignobly as a red flapjack under a bike tire. The other half of the Vanguard vets plow into the Dark Reapers, killing the Exarch and one other, but the Reapers stick around till the bitter end.
murderous posthumans with bikes and jump jets are no match for plumed helmets and ass capes
Turn 3 - Eldar
I am riding the double donkey now. I have one prick with a melta gun threatening my Fire Prisms. There are still too many bikers on the Knights' objective to shake with just a Guardian Squad. My Reapers are not long for this world. About 30 Space Marines are at or near my objective, ready to steamroller over my poor space elves.
The Prisms line up a bank shot on the Vanguard Vets by my objective, but more Universal Studios graveyard props save all but one of the bastards. The Dire Avengers dump shurikens into the Vanguards and then kill the two survivors in close combat. Their Guardian buddies, holed up in the building, are disinclined to join them, staying put to kill another Command Squad biker with a point-blank brightlance.
The right side of the board fares better. The Autarch and his Warp Spider retinue kill three of the bikers on his objective, with two remaining. The Way To The Dawn tries to bring down the lone melta biker with its shuriken cannon, but fails. The rightmost Guardian Squad closes the deal with a brightlance blast, killing the melta biker. My tanks are, for the moment, safe. Only two lonesome bikes stand between me and his objective.
The Vanguards continue to menace the Dark Reapers. God love 'em, they hang in there with one Reaper left, continuing the fight into the next turn.
Turn 3 - Space Marines
The Rhino-less
Tac Marines fart around in difficult terrain, then run closer to my objective. The second Rhino flies up to my Dire Avengers, does a bootlegger turn and barfs out a full squad with a flamer and bad intentions. The Captain and his merry band line up a second charge at the sole suriviving squad of Dires. 10 marines on foot and five on bikes cut loose with flamer and bolter, killing half the Dire Avengers.
The Eldar existential dilemma summed up in one image
On the right side of the board, the two bikers go for broke, popping wheelies out of cover and flying straight at the oncoming Guardians. They run down a couple more Eldar, but the Warlock cuts through one bike Advent Children style and sends its rider flying.
In the middle, the surviving Vanguard veterans hack the last Dark Reaper to pieces, then consolidate into a wide spread.
On the left... the bikers charge and the Exarch goes crazy with his dire sword. Defend and pre-emptive deaths keep the bikers' attacks low, and when the dust clears, the Command Squad is gone. Only the Captain remains. He rolls an 11 on his Morale test and finds the better part of valor, fleeing. In return, they killed only one Dire Avenger.
Turn 4 - Eldar
Here's where I'm at: I have four Dire Avengers by my objective and a full Guardian Squad holed up in the stone building. In front of them are a full Tactical Squad that just came pouring out of a Rhino. A second squad of
Tac Marines are jogging up to join them. Five Vanguard Veterans have just finished butchering my Dark Reapers, and are one hop away from charging my objective. The Captain is fleeing, but he'll rally next turn.
That's 15 Eldar, backs to the wall, staring down about 26 charging Marines.
I start with the right side of the board, where my fortunes are better. The Autarch and Warp Spiders pile into the last biker. With 10 power weapon attacks on the charge at Initiative 6, it isn't even close. Two Guardians and a Warlock limp away from the fight, ready to take the Knights' objective.
I see a ray of hope on the left side of the board: the Tactical squad that just came out of its Rhino are all bunched together, and Fury of Altansar is in just the right place to deny them any sort of a cover save. The Fire Prism banks a dispersed S6 AP3 shot into them, killing eight. The four remaining Dire Avengers charge and kill the last two.
The Guardians choose this moment to pile out of the building onto my objective, sending a cloud of whickering shuriken and a brightlance blast right up the Captain's tail pipe. The Captain lucks out, making his armor saves and deflecting the brightlance with his Iron Halo's energy field.
The Way To The Dawn shoots its Shuriken Cannon at the Vanguard Veterans, killing one.
Turn 4 - Space Marines
I've killed 11 of the Space Marines coming toward my objective, but there's still too many left. The Vanguards hop into assault range of the full Guardian Squad who just shot at the Captain. The surviving, footslogging Tacticals get into rapid fire range. The Captain loses his nerve and turbo-boosts diagonally across the board, hoping to contest his own objective at the 11th hour.
The Marines end up doing just fine without their Captain. The Tacticals kill two Dire Avengers, who finally lose their nerve and run off the board. The Vanguard Veterans run through my Guardians like gak through a goose, killing all but two of them. The Guardians fail their Morale test and flee.
Turn 5 - Eldar
My Guardians and Dire Avengers put up a valiant fight, but they couldn't stop the avalanche of fast-moving Marines. I have a few weak and weedy Guardians claiming his objective. He has an entire cow's ass of Tactical Marines and four Veterans squatting mine. It looks like a draw...
...OR IS
IT
Fury of Altansar turbo-boosts within 3" of my objective, surrounded by Marines with krak grenades. The other fires a S5 AP4 pie plate that scatters uselessly. I need that Prism to stay intact, and I need to stop his Captain from making it to my Guardians.
The Warp Spiders intercept the Captain. They force him to make 10 armor saves. The Deathspinners rip the Captain slowly and painfully apart under clouds of monofilament wire.
It's up to you, Fire Prism.
Turn 5- Space Marines
The Vanguard Veterans jump behind the Fire Prism and shoot a plasma pistol right up its butt. It does not penetrate.
A squad and a half of Marines pelt the grav tank with krak grenades like rice at a wedding. They roll not a single 6 in the cartload.
We roll the die, and it comes up for an extra turn... but the store closes. If the game had continued to turn 6, I would have just sent my second Prism to turbo and contest.
You won! I bet your eight dead squadmates would have loved to savor this moment
VICTORY: CRAFTWORLD ALTANSAR
ELDAR CASUALTIES: APPROX. 40
SPACE MARINE CASUALTIES: APPROX. 32
First of all, can I just say I hate these guys.
Huzzah! We cost close to 400 points!
Vanguard Veterans will play hob with Imperial Guard, Tau, or any other infantry-heavy army. It's true they die just like other Marines do, but they shut down my Dark Reapers and helped kill about half of my Troops. There's a lot of stuff in the new Space Marines codex against which you don't have time to react.
The Vanguards would have cornholed my Dark Reapers no matter where I ended up putting them, but I could have deployed my Dire Avengers on the left side to support each other better. If both squads could have shot the Captain's bike posse on turn 2, I could have killed more of them earlier.
I think my opponent could have parked a Tactical Marine squad on his objective instead of bikers. Squatting an objective didn't really play to the bikers' strengths.
It was fun to actually play my Eldar against one of the better Space Marine players in the store, and someone with the courtesy to have painted his models.
(homegrown chapter)
