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Last Saturday we decided to play a large scale battle. Pretty much all my friends Eldar versus a Sister of Battle force with inducted Imperial Guard.

I don't have the army lists to hand but pretty much every Eldar unit you can think of, barring The Avatar, was used in some way. I went for a high model count infantry based army with only two Immolaters & one Exorcist deployed in reserve. Lots of Sisters, an IG infantry platoon & 50 conscripts.

We rolled for deployment & mission type (take & hold). The objective was the centre of the table where there was a hill we had to reach & hold onto. My friend deployed about 1/2 his Eldar & I deployed all my infantry save for my jump pack Seraphim & my vehicles. My mate gulped a bit at the mass of troops facing him, especially the Commissar led & priest supported 50 conscript meat shield.

Turn one had the Eldar advancing slightly & opening fire with Ranger Snipers, Dark Reapers, Support Platforms & War Walkers. I easily absorbed the casualties, as the conscripts were more often than not the closest target & they had an effective Ld of 10. All my Commissars had wargear which allowed them a single re-roll if they failed a Ld test so I wasn't especially worried. My turn one consisted of a human wave of IG, backed up by power armoured Sisters. Massed IG heavy bolter & SoB bolter fire wiped out almost all of his basic Guardian troops, much to his concern.


Turn two had some of the Eldar reserves deploy (Aspect Warriors, Falcon grav-tanks & a Wave Serpent) and the Eldar advanced further into effective small arms range. Many more conscripts fell, but they kept advancing to contact. The static Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon took some casualties but kept their massed heavy bolter fire up. The Conscripts crested the hill whilst the Sisters reached the base of it. The two heavy bolter armed Immolaters arrived & lent their support. More Eldar died, especially under the massed (5!) flamers the Conscripts carried. My arco-flagellants went quietly insane & as their combat drugs kicked in & they charged towards the Eldar lines, the better to distract incoming fire at my Sisters. I'm aware of the arco's limitations but my friend hates them & they are a usefull distraction from him shooting at anything else.


Turn three and the Eldar Aspect Warriors truly came into their own. As the two lines exchanged fire support with missiles, plasma, las & bolter fire they began to assault in HtH and I started to suffer. Through acts of Faith the Sisters were able to pummel the Eldar (+2 to strength, so a St 5 powered armour punch), but only after taking huge numbers of hits first. Striking Scorpions get insane amounts of attacks (their basic profile, +1 for charging, +1 for mandi-blasters & +1 for extra weaponry) & have an annoyingly high initiative. Shock troops indeed. The Sisters power armour helped, but it meant the Sisters raw fire power that had obliterated the Eldar in turns 1 & 2 were countered. Harlequins - whilst elite close combat specialist - are not, in fact, unstoppable. A large squad of fifteen Sisters managed to beat ten of them to death in melee, but there is no guarantee this success could be achieved again. In the midst of the Eldar lines the Seraphim assaulted the War Walkers with melta bombs to great effect.


Turn four and the Eldar onslaught began to stall my advance. My troops were bogged down so could no longer advance quickly, if at all. The Eldar were starting to roll up my flanks & a distinct salient in my line was created, with all the tactical problems that created. My Immolaters had their turrets blown off and one ground to a halt, its transmission shot (literally). More support fire flashed across the battle field but the Eldar Banshees entered the fray & began to systematically butcher the Sisters. Powered armour is nice, but power weapons ignoring basic armour saves. Damnit!

Turn five (last turn). A desperate attempt for me to get as many units within 12" of the objective centre, but easy for the Eldar as they were taking my army apart, as usual, in close order. Harassing fire between the two sides continued but his push was too strong for the Imperium of Man. My Retributor multi-meltas finally took down one of the Eldar skimmers, but when the dust settled the Eldar had seven scoring units around the objective whilst the humans only had three. A decisive victory to the Eldar & the humans withdrew their decimated forces to lick their wounds & return another day (Commissarial executions all round!).

So, a long game but a good game. True to past form the first few turns went my way with raw firepower devastaing the Eldar, but by turns three & four the Eldar had me on the defensive in melee & they are much more manouverable than my own forces.


My lack of HtH / assault worthy units definitely was my achilles heel, however the Sisters did a reasonable job of bloodying the Eldar at their own game (before they died). They are dependable & viscious, but just not that great at HtH.


In the current Codex the IG are just not good at HTH all, no matter how you tool up charachters with fields or armour. As 'Uncle Joe' Stalin once said quantity has a quality all of itas own. The 50 Conscripts acted as a very good brake on Eldar shooting effectiveness, as they were always a sacrificial unit & proved impossible to break. Getting them into flamer range was fun once the five flamer weilding troops - standing shoulder to shoulder - opened up & torched some Guardians. However, once any of my units were tied up in HtH the only options left to me were to either pull following or flanking units back out of the enemy follow-up range (up to 3" or 1d6" if a unit is wiped out) or pile more troops into the fray. As I had to advance on the table centre objective I opted for the latter.


So, my lessons learned;


1) Take more Commissar led Conscripts, or field another IG Infantry platoon with no heavy weapons. Why send in a 50 man meat-sheild when 100 would be better?

2) The IG doctrine Sharp-shooters, allowing any missed shot one re-roll to hit, is worth it's points every time in large battles.

3) Heavy bolters are very good at taking down Eldar. Field more!

4) Sisters of Battle are solid troops under fire & in melee, but the odds are always going to be against them in HtH.

5) Flamers are fun. Five flamers are hilarious!

6) Arco-flagellants must be screened better to avoid them being shot to hell. On saying that, they do provide a distraction that cannot be ignored (but another 50 conscriptss cost only slightly more & are more surviveable).

7) Multi-meltas are very good at turning vehicles into slag… if you don't keep rolling weither 1's & 2 's to either hit or penetrate on consecutive turns, damnit!

8) Melta-bombs are great when used en masse.

9) If Eldar deploy 1/2 their army in the 1st turn, thank the Emperor you have less tagest to focus your fire on!

10) When facing Eldar with massed anti-tank weaponry deploying from reserve is a good idea. You might lose your vehicles in his next shooting phase, but the turns firing you are guaranteed when they arrive can make up their points with some decent dice rolls.



My friends lessons learned (as he wrote);


1) Remember to use the Harlequins fusion pistols against power armour. Doh!!!!

2) Fleet of foot can make the elder very mobile.

3) Paint avatar for next time immune to flamers and melta weapons. SOB have lots of them.

4) Concentrate your firepower to destroy each threat in turn. IG are surprisingly difficult to get to break even when suffering hideous casualties.

5) I still hate heavy bolters.

I like the lessons learned section........I should probably do that do after each battle.

Thanks,
Rick

I agree with ivyoda lessons learned are good, nice report keep em coming.

Good to see another guard/sisters player, makes an old man proud. Though, I do have to critique things a bit.

Conscripts? Was the base army sisters or guard? Because sisters can't bring in conscript units. Nor can priests join them. I'd probably be cool with it in a friendly game/or apoc, but mostly because I don't imagine it would be all that effective.

Also, you might want to think about throwing your sisters in rhinos. No clue what someone would think they were going to acomplish footslogging sisters. Rush them up in transports and hop out to double tap/flamer the bad guys.

Were you playing fourth or fifth? Personaly, melta bombs on seraphim is a waste of points, especialy in fifth. Krak grenades work just fine against pretty much anything, and seraphim should be whacking infantry anyways.

Looks like a closely fought game! I'm curious about the eldar players' army list though.

The Sister's side isn't a legal army. IG with WH allies can't have an Exorcist (0 heavy support slots), while inducted IG can't use doctrines, Commissars, or conscripts. The addition of a command platoon could make it a legal multiple detachment force.