Mate visiting from Kununurra (if any of you know where that is!) and got a couple of games in over the weekend.

Army Lists

Yme-Loc Eldar

WARLOCK TITAN [850]

PHANTOM TITAN [750]

ENGINES OF VAUL WARHOST [450]
2 Cobra

ENGINES OF VAUL WARHOST 1 [250]
Scorpion

ENGINES OF VAUL WARHOST 2 [250]
Scorpion

ASPECT WARRIOR TROUPE [250]
6 Swooping Hawk, Exarch

YME-LOC WIND RIDER TROUPE [200]
6 Vyper

Scions of Iron

LAND RAIDER [500]
4 Land Raider, Supreme Commander in Land Raider

TACTICAL 1 [400]
4 Tactical units plus transport, Predator Annihilator, Vindicator, 2 Razorback (twin lascannon), Predator Destructor

TACTICAL 2 [400]
4 Tactical units plus transport, Predator Annihilator, Vindicator, 2 Razorback (twin lascannon), Predator Destructor

HEAVY TACTICAL [375]
4 Tactical units, 2 Land Raider, Librarian

WHIRLWIND [375]
4 Whirlwinds, Hunter

BIKE [175]
4 Bike Unit

TERMINATOR [350]
4 Terminator units

THUNDERHAWK SB [250]
Thunderhawk (Saturation Bombing configuration)

FIGHTER SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

Perspective: Left and Right is as the Eldar player saw it.

Objectives:

SM set up Blitz center, Take & Hold 1 on center line at left table edge and Take & Hold 2 on center line about 45cm from right table edge.

Eldar set up blitz on right table edge, Take & Hold 1 just beyond 30cm from SM Blitz and Take and Hold 2 30cm from SM Take & Hold 1.

Deployment:

SM set up Tactical 1 on left behind a hill; Heavy Tactical, Whirlwind and Tactical 2 in center behind and within a forest; and Land Raiders and Bikes on right. Terminators held off board.

Eldar set up Vypers and Scorpion 1 on right; Warlock, Scorpion 2 and Cobra’s center; and Phantom on left. Swooping Hawks held off board.

Turn 1. SM win strategy.

SM - Thunderhawk Saturation Bomber ground attacks Vypers, avoids all AA and kills two (3BMs).

E - Phantom doubles and after first move shoots at Heavy Tactical. Only two marines (with librarian) survive (broken) and flee forward into some ruins. Phantom moves behind a hill. These two Marine stands would come back to haunt the Eldar…..

SM - Tactical 1 doubles forward into woods near Eldar T&H2 and SM T&H1 and shoots Phantom. (1 BM).

E - Scorpion 1 activates and doubles forward shooting at Land Raiders. Two 1s to hit! (1 BM).

SM - Thunderbolts ground attack Vypers. No hits from AA and kills 1 breaking the formation. It flees forwards into central ruins to screen Scorpion 1 and loses another to a DTT.

E - Scorpion 2 advances shooting at Land Raiders. 1 hit which was saved (1 BM).

SM - Land Raider double into the central ruins and shoot at the Vypers. Disaster strikes - 3 fail DTTs…..including the SC…. Vipers wiped out.

E - Cobra’s activates and doubles forward shooting Land Raider formation, killing one (yay for TK!) and breaking them. Land Raiders have to withdraw to get out of 15cm of Cobras and flee backwards to Eldar T&H1.

SM - Bike activate and triple into ruins (lost one to DTT again!).

E - Warlock doubles forward into same central ruins. Shoots at the bikes killing two and breaking the formation. Bikes move a little to be outside 15cm of Warlock.

SM - Whirlwinds sustain and target Warlock. Template clips Scorpion 1 and Cobra. No damage, but a BM for each.

SM - Tactical 2 double forward into central ruins. Lose two Razorback to DTT (oh dear….) and shoot at Warlock (1BM). This set ruins is becoming a graveyard….

Disengagement - Thunderhawk Saturation Bomber and Thunderbolts leave via elder players table edge (BM each).

End of turn. Everyone rallies and removes BMs.

Turn 2

Terminators teleport into central ruins near Warlock (1BM).

SM win Strategy

SM - Tactical 2 sustains at Warlock. 4 Hits - 1 saved by Holofield, all other saves failed - no critical 3DC (4BMs).

SM - Terminators fail to retain for an engage….no SC re-roll….they shoot at Warlock. No hits (1BM)

E - Cobra’s sustain at Tactical 2 and kills Vindicator, Predator and 2 Marine Stands (5BM).

E - Warlock Retains and engages Tactical 2 and calls intermingled with Terminators and bikes. After resolution, the Warlock wins but takes one point of damage and is broken fleeing backwards towards Eldar Blitz. Tactical 2 and Bikes are wiped out and a single Terminator stand remains and is broken fleeing backwards.

SM - Whirlwinds sustain at Phantom and get a single hit through Holofields and armour…which is critical…..no more holofields (2BM).

E - Phantom sustains at Tactical 1. Kills a Vindicator, predator and two razorbacks. (5 BMs)

SM - Heavy Tactical advance and shoots at Scorpion 1 for 1DC (2BM).

E - Scorpion 1 fails to activate so regroups.

SM - Thunderbolts fail to activate and stand down.

E - Scorpion 2 advances and shoots at Terminators wiping them out.

SM - Land Raider marshals.

SM - Tactical 1 fails to activate and regroups.

SM - Thunderhawk Saturation Bomber targets the broken Warlock. One BM from Cobras on approach. Does one DC leaving the Warlock on 1 DC!

Disengagement - Thunderhawk Saturation Bomber flies off Eldar board edge.

End of turn - Everyone except Tactical 1 and Scorpion 1 rallies and clears blast markers.

Turn 3

Eldar Teleport Swooping Hawks on SM board edge behind Eldar T&H2 (2BMs)

Eldar win Strategy.

E - Phantom doubles towards Eldar T&H2 and shoots Tactical 1 and breaks the formation. Tactical 1 moves to consolidate in some ruins.

SM - Whirlwind sustain and targets Cobras, clipping Scorpion 2. 1 DC on Cobra’s (2BM) none on Scorpion (1BM).

E - Scorpion 1 doubles to Eldar T&H1, shoots at LR contesting objective and hits nothing (1 BM). Mistake here - Eldar didn’t see the two stands left from Heavy Tactical lurking nearby in some ruins…..

SM - Thunder Hawk Saturation Bomber ground attacks Warlock. AA hits from Cobra’s and Warlock saved. Warlock is destroyed (BTS).

E - Scorpion 2 advances and shoots at Land Raider (BTS) killing it.

SM - Heavy Tactical engage Scorpion 1. SM does one DC then ties combat. SM do another DC second round killing the Scorpion and consolidate onto Eldar T&H1.

E - Cobra’s double to Eldar T&H1 and shoot at Heavy Tactical wiping them out (claiming objective).

SM - Thunderbolts ground attack Swooping Hawks. Killing 1 (2BMs).

E - Swooping Hawks double to claim Eldar T&H2.

Disengagement - Nil aircraft Shot down.

Eldar win 3-1. Eldar have They Shall not Pass, BTS and Take and Hold. Space Marines have BTS.

Afterthoughts:

Why did so much of the game end up in that bit of area terrain in the middle of the board? Eldar was angling to steam roll down the centre to capture the SM Blitz and Eldar T&H1 with Warlock and mates. SM player’s intent was to hold that thrust back and hopefully destroy the Warlock (BTS). It all ended in a bit of a stalemate with evermore formations being thrown into the meatgrinder, but it was very tense in turn 2. It’s amazing how one roll in this game makes all the difference. If the Terminators hadn’t gotten the BM when teleporting, or hadn’t failed their activation test, or the SC had not died to a DTT test it could have ended a lot differently.

Failed DDTs did not help the SM player either. At the end of turn 1 Eldar had killed 2 Bikes, 3 Land Raiders and 2 Tactical Marine stands. Space Marines had killed 5 Vypers. One piece of area terrain (about 30cm by 20cm) had killed 1 Vyper, 1 Bike, Three Land Raiders (including a SC) and two Razorbacks….. That is bloody unlucky. SM made 15 DTT rolls and failed 6 of them….oh also failed one on a Vindicator, but Walker saved that unit…

I thought with the AA on the Cobras, Warlock and Phantom Eldar would have enough. It didn’t really do much and the Thunderbolts and Thunderhawk did pretty much as they pleased. Including finally killing the Warlock (BTS).

Two Cobra’s in a formation were excellent, and they even got to use their 4+ TK shot for the first time in a while. Single Scorpions (although I admit they were used very aggressively) were very brittle. Maybe make them a pair next time which would make room to either upgrade the vipers to Aspects, add an SC or a couple of Farseer character’s to summon an avatar. 6 activations though…ouch…

Activations were fairly balanced (7 Eldar to 9 Marine) and formations on both sides just kept rallying like champions.

SM player was not concerned with the two titans. He did ask if the list could fit more in, and I must admit you can make room for one more at 3000 points (3 Phantoms and 3 single EoVs; or 1 Warlock, 1 Phantom, Reverants and 3 EoVs) I regularly bring a titan (it’s the ‘centrepiece to an army’ thing that I can’t get away from). Holofields and Warlocks don’t phase him and he often just tackles them head-on knowing they’re always the BTS and the plan usually hinges around them. Phantom started well, but after it lost it’s holofields and the Warlock was lost, Eldar got very cagey with it.

Next game I’m going to try the Phantom with a power fist and be more aggressive with it and hold back the Scorpions instead. The Swooping Hawks were taken for flexibility and although they secured an objective, I might look to swap them for Warp Spiders or Shining Spears next game.

2 more reports to come. As an aside, I don't think I've ever seen quite so many 1s and 6s rolled in the one game. I'm sure it will balance out.....

Regards

Harry

Hi Harry

very nice to read, intense match very much so.

thanks for the battle report

_________________
Regard
Trent

Hi

Thanks for the report..sounds like it was fun. looking forward to the other two..

Yeah those DTT suck when you don't pass them.

_________________
Regards
Greg

*************************************************

Not against change, so long as it done fairly and no one is left behind....

I'm human and not a !@#$%^# Robot..