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We played a 2v2 Dessorag's Eldar and Space Marines against Skyde's Space Wolves and NullReplicant's Tau. As two armies each, we play with two warlords per side, whose trait only affects their own force (Allies of Convenience and all)

Dessorag’s Eldar:

HQ:
Farseer w/Singing Spear, Eldrich Storm, Prescience, Foreboding
Elites:
Howling Banshees x6
Troops:
Dire Avengers x8 – Exarch w/Diresword + Pistol Mounted in a Wave Serpent w/ TL-Brightlance, Combat Targeting Matrix, Vectored Engines.
Guardian Defenders x16
Rangers x10
Jetbikes x6, w/ Shuriken Cannons x2
Heavy Support:
Dark Reapers x4
Wraithlord w/ 2x Starcannons + Ghostglaive

Dessorag’s Space Marines:

HQ:
Captain w/ Storm Bolter + Powerfist
Command Squad w/Bolt pistol + chainsword, Banner Bearer, and Company Champion w/ Powersword and combi-melta
Elites:
Dreadnaught w/ TL-Lascannon and Missile Launcher
Techmarine
Terminator Assault Squad – 4 Lightning Claws, 1 hammer + shield
Troops:
Tactical Squad x10 – w/Flamer
Tactical Squad x10 – w/Flamer + Heavy Bolter
Tactical Squad x5
Fast Attack:
Bike Squad x4 – Plasma Gun, Melta Gun, Sargent w/ Powersword, Meltabombs
Heavy Support:
Devistator Squad x6 – 2 Missile Launchers, Lascannon
Land Raider
Vindicator

Skyde’s Space Wolves:

HQ:
Rune Priest: Prescience, Life Leech (one had a sword and terminator armor, the other a staff, forget how the powers matched up)
Rune Priest: Prescience, Hemorage
Wolf Priest
Elites:
Wolf Guard Pack x3 (powerfists, split to squads)
Wolf Scouts x5 (Sniper Rifles)
Troops:
Grey Hunters x10, 2x Plasma Guns, Wolf Standard
Grey Hunters x10, 2x Melta Guns, Wolf Standard
Rhino Mounted Grey Hunters x9, Flamer, Wolf Standard
Rhino Mounted Grey Hunters x10, Plasma Gunx2, Wolf Standard
Fast Attack:
Landspeeder Squadron x2, Heavy Bolter and Multimelta each
Heavy Support:
Longfang Squad: x6 – 5 Heavy Bolters
Longfang Squad x6 – 5 Missile Launchers
Land Raider Crusader

NullReplicant’s Tau

HQ:
Cadre Fireblade
Elites:
XV8 Crisis Team x3 w/Shas’ui, Fusion guns, Stim Injector, Shield Generator, Bonding Knife Ritual
Stealth Team x3 w/Sha’vre, Burst Cannons, Bonding Knife Ritual
Troops:
Fire Warrior Team x12 w/Shas’ui, Bonding Knife Rit, EMP grenades, Pulse Rifles
Fire Warrior Team x12 w/Shas’ui, Bonding Knife Rit, EMP grenades, Pulse Rifles
Fast Attack:
Piranha, Advanced Targeting System, 2 gun drones
Heavy Support:
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Stim Injector

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire
Night Fight?: No
Wolves Tau/First Turn
No Initiative Stolen

Deployment:
Wolves and Tau win the toss and Deploy first. The Wolves form a battle line with their Wolf Priest (Warlord) and Terminator Rune Priest in Land Raider with one of the Grey Hunter Squads. The other Rune priest formed up with unmounted Grey Hunters. The Tau took the forest on the near side of the table, and the Riptide claimed his place atop the Ziggurat. The Heavy Bolter Long Fangs took the Aegis line, and the Missile fangs claimed the pond. One objective is in the Aegis line (Scatterfield) and one is in the forest with the Firewarriors (also, Scatterfield). The Scouts and Stealth team deploy in the tank traps and behind the ruins respectively.

The Eldar kept their Aegis line farther back, filling it with a Devastator squad, Dark Reapers, Wraithlord, Dreadnaught, Marine group w/Heavy Bolter, and the Farseer with his Banshee meatshields. The Land Raider took the Command Squad on the far table edge, and the Vindicator squared up against the Wolves Raider. One marine team deployed into the forest, with the bikes behind it. The Waveserpant and jetbikes took up position near the rear and one marine squad deployed on each objective (Rear Forest and Hill, both Skyfire Nexi) The guardian blob used the land raider as cover, and the ranger were forced to deploy behind the ruins as well to break line of sight.
Note: all forests and the ruins are area terrain. Those are the 3rd ed starter box ruins, well before the new, nicer ruin rules, so we are adapting. All forests and lakes are mysterious, the tau got Overgrown Spinethorns, the marines got two Ironbarks. The lake is a lake. So the Tauian Wolves have a slight objective advantage but the Eldar Marines got some better terrain.




Wolf/Tau: Turn 1
All the vehicles move up, and the Rhinos pop smoke. The Rune priest squad moves up and the stealth team moves into the ruins. The Landspeeders hop the Aegis line. The Stealth team shoots up the Rangers, doing 3 casualties, and forcing a moral check, which the Rangers fail, promptly leading to them running like children. The marines in the forest get shot up by the Tau blob, though the weight of fire (36 shots thanks to Cadre Fireblade) is immense, it doesn’t even matter because the marines got their armor at the discount store and promptly fail 5 of the first 6 saves (First Blood!). The Devastator squad also decided to shop there as well, getting completely mowed down by the Heavy Bolter Longfangs. The banshees take a couple wounds from fire, including a blast from the riptide and scout snipers, but they make their moral checks, losing 3. The missile Longfangs blow the ever living bejesus out of the marine squad with the heavy bolter, leaving only bolterman and one buddy left. The Reapers take 2 casualties, failing their morale check and falling back as well. It was a strong first turn for the Wolves and their Tau friends.



Eldar/Marine: Turn 1

The Dark Reapers and Rangers both recover. The marine bikes rolled forward and melta’d the rhino, exploding it and killing 3 wolves, the Marine Land Raider got two lascannon hits on the wolf raider, one glanced, one Pen’d, but only stunned the Wolf Raider. The Aegis cannon put three damage into the landspeeder squadron wrecking one and blowing the heavy bolter off the other. The Farseer unleashed his Eldrich storm on the scout squad, killing all but one, and pinning the last guy. The Wave Serpent shot it’s brightlance at the Land Raider, but rolled double 1s on its twin link. The jetbikes assault moved up and tucked in behind the forest. The Vindicator rolled up, dropped a pie plate on Cadre Fireblade, killing 8, but the unit kept it’s morale up, and Fireblade made his Look Out Sir!





Wolves/Tau: Turn 2
The Missile Longfangs shot a bunch of Krak Missiles at the bikes, dishing out 5 wounds, but the bikes make 2 jink saves to keep one guy alive. The wolves in the Rhino crater fired a bunch of pistols at the bike in an attempt to charge it, which they fail because they are still struggling around in ruins. The Wolf Raider disgorges it’s cargo into the vindicator, which is smashed to bits by power fists. The scouts try to melta the lander, failing, the landspeeder meltas the land raider, failing as well. The Heavy bolter Longfangs finish the job on the banshees, but the Farseer had detached last turn and is now hiding behind the gun, out of LOS. The Crisis suits deepstrike into the backfield, and vaporize the Dreadnaught with their fusion guns. The Riptide drops a large blast on the Rangers, who apparently traded armor with the poor Devastator squad from turn one, making a couple 6+ cover saves.





Eldar/Marine: Turn 2
The Eldar decide to assault everything.

The Farseer’s Eldrich storm wasn’t effective this turn, as all saves were made. The jetbikes hop the forest, shooting up the marine squad, but only kill one as it seems they forgot to load their guns before the battle. The land raider rolls up, drops its cargo, fires a couple shots into the Wolf Raider, successfully immobilizing it. The Wave Serpent again fires its bright lance, and is again unsuccessful. Everything in the backfield shoots the Crisis Team, killing 2 and wounding the last one (with 1 wound from Interceptor fire). The Terminators arrive via Deepstrike, hitting near the heavy bolter Aegis line.

Pretty much everything then assaulted. The Rangers Assault the stealth team in the ruins, the Wraitlord assaults the Wolves’ Warlord, the Command Squad Assaults the other Rune Priest, and the Dire Avengers who got out of the Wave Serpent assault the Crisis Team. At this point, we discovered that the Stealth Team has an ungodly number of attacks, beating the rangers in close combat, who manage to hold on with their morale check.

Furthermore, Wolf Standards are Ridonkulous, with their “Reroll all 1s”, which pretty much negates any failures by the Rune Priests squad. Two casualties appear on each side, partly due to our misreading of the rules for banners. We read the Chapter Banner, instead of Company Banner entry, so everyone on the Marine side got +1 attack. (Editor’s Note, which makes me a jerk, yes. Teach me not to trust my electronic source). The Champion challenges, and kills the Squad Leader, but the rest of the attack is a draw (missed the +1 to results part as well, so two wrongs make a good game?)
The Wraithlord walks up and squashes a bunch of Marines, including the power fist sergeant before he can strike. Unfortunately, the Wolf Priest doesn’t know what’s good for him, being fearless, and he hangs on in combat.







Wolves/Tau: Turn 3
The marines in the surviving Rhino take a few inconclusive shots at the guardians. Everything shoots at the terminators, wiping them out. The Command Squad wins its fight this time, with the champion slaying the Rune Priest in a Challenge, and the last wolf runs away. The Lone Wolf charges the walker, but it squishes 3 more guys. The Landspeeder tries again to melta the Land Raider, failing once again. The Wolf Raider takes a few pot shots, hurting the Farseer, who is brought down. (Slay the Warlord!)The Stealth Suits wipe out the Rangers in close combat, teaching the guys with guns why they should never, ever charge anything. Team MVP, Stealthsuits. However, it looks like the Wolf charge has been blunted.






Eldar/Marines: Turn 3
The Rhino is shot up by a number of units in the back, doing 2 HP of damage, and stunning it, but not destroying it. The Land Raider, tired of these speeder shenanigans, rams it, wrecking it and teaching it why you stay away from metal boxes. The bikes hop the forest again, putting some wounds on the marines in the crater this time, then hoping back. The Wave Serpent picks the Dire Avengers back up, preparing to move out. The Command Squad attempts to charge the Aegis line, but fails, much to their detriment. The Wraithlord finishes squashing the Marine Squad, providing instant death to the foolish Wolf Priest (Slay the Warlord!) The Techmarine charges the Stealth Team in the ruins, squashing one with his Servo-arm.

The Wolves and Tau have a slight advantage in points right now (10 to 7), but the Eldar and Marines are beginning their push.




Wolves/Tau: Turn 4
Everything shoots up the command squad this time, killing it. The Heavy Bolter marine hanging out in the Eldar/Marine Aegis line is finally brought down by the Land Raider. A bunch of rockets smash into the guardian blob, killing half of them, but they keep morale high. The Riptide blasts a Dark Reaper apart, but their morale remains high. The Techmarine kills another stealth team with his Servo-arm, methodically squishing the Tau.




Eldar/Marines: Turn 4
The bikes do their forest hopping trick again, shooting up the Firewarriors, with the assistance of the nearby marine squad, killing enough to force a morale check, which is passed. The Wraithlord moves up and shoots up the smaller squad of fire warriors, killing 2, forcing a morale check, which is failed, so the remaining two turn and bolt. The Wave Serpent performs its once per game “Jump to the other side of the table and Bright Lance the Rear Armor” trick, again, missing. The Land Raider moves up, shoots the Heavy Bolter Long Fangs, killing a couple. The Techmarine finishes his grisly business, triumphantly smashing the last Steath Team Tau.




Wolves/Tau: Turn 5
Cadre Fireblade discovers, much to his dismay, that the friendly neighborhood Wraithlord is exactly one inch out of rapid fire range… “Clever girl…”. He does manage to put a wound on her however, but that only puts her at 2 (one from earlier in the Warlord fight). The Wave Serpant was glanced twice by missiles, and the Land Raider was shot by them too, because split fire is another cheap wolf trick. The rhino charged forward, the Piranha fly right up in front of the quadgun, now crewed by the final marine from the Heavy Bolter Squad. The Riptide is dead set on hurting itself this turn, putting two wounds on itself, but Feeling No Pain to one. The wolves in the wreck hole moved up and tried to assault the jetbikes, but failed that attempt.


Eldar/Marine: Turn 5
Most everything moved forward. The bikes again jumped the forest and shot up Cadre Fireblade’s squad. The Wraithlord and marines also shoot up Cadre, but it took the Dire Avengers walking into cover to wipe him and his squad out (Slay the Warlord!). The Waveserpant blows its shield, and shoots up the heavy bolter Longfangs, killing one. The Land Raider was equally ineffective. The quad gun blows up the rhino, the guardians shoot the wolves, the last Reaper shoots the wolves, and the fail a morale check to run like wusses. The Aegis Long Fangs make their morale however, so it keeps that objective contested. This puts them at 6 (First blood, Linebreaker(Pirranha), 2 Heavy Kills, and 2 Warlords) with the Eldar/Marines at 12 (3 objectives, 2 Warlords, Linebreaker).

Lucky for the Wolves and Tau, it goes on to turn 6! (Editor’s Notes: We are reasonably new players and forgot that Heavy Support kills are scores. We were seeing this as 4 to 12, and it slightly colors our decision later)


Wolves/Tau: Turn 6
The Missile Longfangs kill the Wave Serpant. The Riptide hops down and shoots a blast at the Land Raider, which scatters and puts a wound on one of the Heavy Bolter Marines, but we give him a cover save (seriously though, Riptide 3 inches from him kinda shoots over the cover but the Eldar were feeling generous, mostly due to the late hour), which he makes. The Piranha moves up to contest the rear forest object. The wolves from the original Rhino charge the jetbikes, tying them up in combat. Some Additional missile shots ( jebus split fire!) kill a dire avenger in the forest. Few shots go into the guardians, kill one. One bike dies in the assault. The Tau Rally, and move up to contest the object. This gives 6 to 6 at the bottom of turn 6.

At this point, we fail to count the Heavy kills, leading to a forfeiture by the Wolves and Tau. That said, in further analysis, the lone two fire warriors weren’t going to keep contesting that objective, and had we known, the Land Raider was likely going to be charged by the Wraithlord for a point, which would have lead to about 10 to 6, giving a victory to the Eldar/Marines anyway.














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