Ultramarine Master with Gauntlets of Macragge
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Today I fought Eldar, 1500 points. Spearhead, killpoints.
Guard:
Company command with 3x plasma, medic, powersword
Harker's vets with 3x plasma, vox
Vets with 3x melta, vox, chimera
Platoon 1
+Platoon command with 3x GL, power weapon, vox
+Blob of 30 with 3x lascannon, GLx2, flamer
Platoon 2
+Platoon command with 3x flamer, power weapon, vox
+Blob of 20 with flamer, plasma gun, vox
+Heavy weapons squad of autocannons
Leman Russ x2, heavy bolters, heavy stubber on one, squad
Leman Russ x1, Demolisher x1, heavy bolters, lascannon, squad
DUKE
Eldar:
Eldrad
20 Guardians with Warlock, conceal, spear, scatterlaser
6 Fire Dragons in a Falcon with brightlance, pulse laser
3 War walkers, scatter laser, brightlance
10 Banshees with executioner Exarch
Avatar
3 Jetbikes with shuriken cannon
6 pathfinders
He set up in one corner, with his three warwalkers holding down the back in cover. In the front and center he had the big Guardian squad, attached to Eldrad and with the Avatar right behind them. Banshees were in the middlefield, next to the loaded Falcon. Jetbikes were on the far right of the table, and the pathfinders sat in a building pretty much in the middle.
I set up in a refused flank, with my Leman Russ squad in the far back and the demolisher squad on the left. My big blob of Cadians held up and around a building, with their platoon command and veteran chimera behind them. Screening the leftside Demolisher and Leman Russ was my Catachan platoon, with their command behind them. In the middle corner of all this was my command squad and autocannon teams. Duke and Harker were in reserve.
I fail to seize and he goes first.
TURN 1
Jetbikes turbo boost to my table edge. Eldrad fortunes the Avatar and and the Guardians, and the Warlock conceals them. Blob of Guardians and Eldrad moves up the center with the Avatar in tow. Banshees move towards the Guardians, but are too far behind from a bad run roll. Snipers shoot and wound one of my gunteams, but they don't get pinned. A brightlance from one of the warwalkers blows up one of my two Leman Russes. We found out on like Turn 3 that it was actually out of range, but whatever, I was fine to roll with it. He missed his brightlance and pulse laser from his falcon so I figured it was a wash.
My Chimera drives up 12" and pops smoke, making a beeline for the Falcon. The Catachan platoon moves up to match the Guardian mob and are ordered to First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire! at the Guardians. Their tricksy protective magic only helped so much, as five of them went down. My autocannon batteries thundered and stunned the entire warwalker squadron, ensuring no fire from them for the next turn. My Demolisher and his Leman Russ buddy opened fire at the Avatar, causing one wound and killing two Guardians. The surviving Leman Russ from my other squad peppered the pathfinders, blowing two of the snipers out of the tower. My blob of lascannoneers shot the Falcon, but merely stunned it.
TURN 2
The jetbikes move into cover, but in doing so lose their shuriken cannon to a dangerous terrain test. Wild riders my ass. The Guardians move up and Eldrad guides them to shoot my Catachan blob. 10 of the burly dudes go down. Banshees hide behind the building with the rangers, waiting for my vets to drive up in their chimera. The snipers kill my wounded autocannon team in the squad, but I pass morale and pinning. The Falcon whiffs its shooting at my Chimera, my smoke is unnecessary. Warwalkers are still stunned, so nothing's happening there. My Catachans fail morale and deny Eldrad and his buddies their glorious charge.
DUKE NUKEM and Harker's vets come in. Duke pops up next to the Banshees, and Harker's vets come in behind the Falcon. Unfortunately they're out of plasma range. The Chimera rolls up and pours its cargo out in front of the Falcon. The Catachans regroup, and their platoon command squad takes their place. Said squad unleashes three flamers into the Guardians, and roasts 9. Duke Nukem proclaims that his balls are indeed made of steel, and kills 4 Banshees with his pipe bomb. The melta vets all fire their guns at the Falcon. One misses, one fails the penetrate, and one gets his shot deflected down to a stunned result from the holofields. Harker's heavy bolter shakes it. Welp. Cadian Platoon command hunts after the jetbikes but the bikers make their saves. The regrouped Catachans shoot the Avatar and fail to wound him. Leman Russes do what they couldn't and put one more wound on the big guy, bringing him up to two. The remaining Leman Russ shoots the Pathfinders and kills another one. The round ends with Catachan command charging the Guardians, who are now just 6 men, Eldrad, and the Warlock. The round ends with my squad locked in combat, down one man, but they killed three of the prissy elves.
TURN 3
The jetbikes move in to get side armor on my Chimera. One of them crashes into dangerous terrain. These guys are good. Somehow the surviving bike blew the multilaser off my Chimera from my side armor. Fire dragons pop out of their stunned Chimera in hopes to move somewhere next turn. They shoot at Duke, and his steel balls aren't enough to make all those cover saves. The Banshees fleet towards my vets, ready to get some swordfighting in. Eldrad fortunes the Avatar and his own squad, hoping to keep everything alive.Warwalkers and pathfinders fail to hit or wound anything. The Avatar charges my routed Catachan squad and kills two. One of them headbutts the Avatar in the balls, causing a third wound. I whiff morale and the Catachans get overrun anyway. The Banshees charge my meltavets, killing four. The surviving six kill three in return, somehow. Morale holds. Finally, there's the melee in the center. Nobody hurts anybody. I think it's love, or witchcraft.
My command squad, sensing how dire the situation with the Avatar is, move up to attack it. Harker's vets move up on the Fire Dragons. The command squad orders itself to Bring it Down! on the Avatar, but I fail the order. They then order the lascannon battery to bring down the Avatar. The Avatar gets shot up but makes his saves, thanks to fortune. Autocannons shoot him and miss, and things look bad. Then my Demolisher and his buddy show my Guardsmen who's boss and blow the big bad Avatar to kingdom come. My other Leman Russ shoots the pathfinders and finally knocks them completely out of their position, killing them all. Harker's vets wipe the Fire Dragons out with shooting, and the Chimera shoots the surviving jetbike but fails to hit. Grenade launcher platoon command also fails to hit the surviving jetbike. It comes down to melee, where my veterans aren't as lucky as last round. Three die and they cause three wounds, but the damned Eldar save all three. The vets barely get caught, but they're overrun. The middle melee grinds down to just the warlock, Eldrad, Catachan platoon commander, flamer, and vox guy.
TURN 4
The Falcon shoots my Chimera, missing with everything. Then the shuriken catapult shoots and stuns it again. This tank is impervious to anti tank fire but it likes small arms an awful lot. The Banshees charge Harker's vets and kill a few, causing a retreat and overrun. The jetbike tries to hide and doesn't crash. Warwalkers that aren't stunned shoot my chimera and fail to do anything significant. Melee sees my flamer guy getting killed but platoon command holding.
The Chimera about faces and tank shocks the banshees, but they make their morale test. Leman Russes shoot the warwalkers for lack of better target. I shoot the warwalkers with pretty much everything, stunning the lot again, and blowing both guns off one. Results. Platoon command finally falters in the middle, and the warlock and Eldrad overrun the cheeky lieutenant.
TURN 5
Eldrad and the warlock charge colonel Sturm and his squad. I lose two plasma gunners and wound Eldrad, but hold my ground. Falcon shoots my chimera, does nothing.
The Cadian blob are alarmed at their colonel being in trouble. They abandon their lascannons and all 30 of them rush to his aid. In the ensuing melee, the warlock is killed, along with one Steel Legion plasma gunner. In other news, grenade launcher platoon command shoots and finally kills the last jetbike. Leman Russes kill one of the warwalkers and bounce off the Falcon. We roll to see if the game ends, and it comes up a 1. Game over.
Imperial Guard score: 6
Eldar score: 6
If the game went on another round I feel I could have won - I just had to kill Eldrad, who is frustratingly hard to kill with a rerollable 3+ save. Then again, he could easily have killed my Chimera, and I can't see that Falcon dying anytime soon. It was fun fighting against an Eldar list that was a little more "craftworldy" with so much Guardian-centric units, like the Guardians themselves or the Guardian-crewed vehicles he ran. I was also surprised at how good my Guardsmen did in hand to hand, and how much of it there was. Makes me wish I gave my veteran squads some powerfists or something silly like that.
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