Here is another battle report from my ongoing engagement against the vile Eldar. This was my second game using the Krieg list from Siege, and I must say I love using them. I used what I have referred to as my Heavy Assault Force:

1st Company (Reg HQ) – Gorgons
2nd Company – Gorgons
Death Riders
Shadow Sword Company
1st Heavy Tank Company
2nd Heavy Tank Company
11th Grenadier Company – Centaurs
Red Squadron (T-bolts)
White Squadron (T-bolts)

This force is designed to be very aggressive, and I enjoy the ranged firepower I can bring with it. I was thinking to use Bombards instead of Grenadiers, but let’s be honest, Void Spinners make that a waste of points. I am light on AA, but I don’t have platforms yet and the T-bolts should be enough for most. The force did a pretty good job in the previous game, and, despite the loss, I enjoyed the play style. Now with some lessons learned, I am ready to see if I can stop my losing streak.

Brian brought his typical Eldar strike force. Extensive use of webway assaults makes this list hit hard and fast.

Wraithgate
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Aspects – Shining Spears, Autarch
Guardian 1 – Wraith Guard
Guardian 2 – Wraith Guard
Rangers
Void Spinner
Storm Serpent 1
Storm Serpent 2
Swords of Vaul – 2 Firestorms
Phantom – 2 Pulsars

He set up his objectives at both sides of the table, whereas I set mine up to form a triangle with his blitz on my left side. He split his deployment with most of his heavy stuff on my right. I set up to the left with my Grenadiers and HTC2 to contain and delay his flanking force. My infantry set up on the far left in order to get T&H+Blitz. I started 2nd Company out of their Gorgon in case he set up his Phantom to counter.

Turn 1: Initiative to Eldar
In typical opening fashion the Void Spinner opens fire on the Shadow Swords, doing no damage but placing 3BMs on them. The Phantom then retains to double through the woods and succeeds killing a Macharius from HTC2. HTC2 attempt to return fire, but end up botching the action, and instead break.

SS2 doubles on the right side to kill a Centaur and Grenadier, but leaves itself open to counterattack. 11th company, eager for revenge, makes an engage move. Some jammy attack rolls ensure the Storm Serpent is destroyed for no losses. Even if they all die, I am well satisfied with the outcome. Reducing his webway assault is a high priority for me. The next moves see the Rangers doubled on my left, and I counter with 1st Company moving forward in set up for an assault on the Eldar right.

Seeing an opening against 11th company, the other Storm Serpent marches to the right side in preparation for a webway assault against them. Guardian 1 spills out to clip the formation and bloody combat ensues. The Eldar lose 2 Wraithguard, but kill 3 Grenadiers and 5 Centaurs which breaks the Grenadiers. They fall back towards the center of the board, while the Guardians take position on a forested hill.

2nd Company moves closer to the Eldar side of the board, but maintains a healthy distance from the Wraithgate. The Swords advance to shoot at 2nd Companies Gorgons, and immobilize one of them. Red Squadron rocket attacks inflict damage against the remaining Storm Serpent, while skirting AA coverage from the Phantom. Guardian 2 doubles out of the Wraithgate to attack 1st Company, and manage to damage one of the Gorgons.

HTC1 advances against the infernal Guardians and manage to kill 2 to prep the coming assault from the Death Riders. I think the Shining Spears march at this point down my right side at this point. Death Riders leap into action against Guardian 2. The Death Riders kill 3 on the charge, including the Farseer, and then pick up another kill from supporting Gorgon fire, but lose 3 in return. I am feeling confident at this point being up by four, but then proceed to roll snake eyes, Brian rolls a 6. I lose by two, and then go walk outside for a bit  The riders fall back to the corner, while the Guardians break due to casualties which made me feel a bit better.

The last activation was a stand down on White Squadron, so we go to rallies.

Rally fails – Guardian 2, HTC2, Shadow Swords, 11th Co, Death Riders

Turn 2: Initiative to Eldar
The Phantom starts the fun off with an advance move. I wasn’t paying attention to threat ranges, and this saw a Shadow Sword die. The formation broke, and pulled back to a safer position on the left. The Shining Spears engage the broken 11th Company, and reduce it down to the Commissar stand (who managed to make 2 5+ armor saves, go Krieg!). They lose 1 spear in the assault and then quickly 2 more when Red Squadron makes a strafing attack against them.

The Storm Serpent hiding on the forested hill manages to removes its BMs and moves towards the center of the table. HTC1 doubles to the middle of the board, and accurate fire breaks the Aspects who had taken up position next to the central rocky hill. Not to be outdone, the Eldar retaliate with the Swords. They double up the middle left, and their fire completely destroys the broken Shadow Swords.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, their double move cannot get them out of engagement range of 2nd Company. Despite losses due to dangerous terrain, 2nd Company makes the engage move. They lost 4 stands of infantry, but were still victorious. With the Swords completely wiped out, the Eldar were hurting on their long range firepower.

Keeping up the pressure, White Squadron strafes the Void Spinner, and succeeds in breaking it. Both T-bolts have been doing amazing jobs over the last couple of games, so I am going to have to name them something like Rogue Squadron. Seeing things going to hell and a handbasket, Guardian 1 quails in fear and must hold. 1st Company, seeing the way being clear, doubles forward and inflicts 2 BM’s on the Rangers

The rally phase was brutal to the Eldar, as all of their forces facing my left flank fail to rally.
Rally fails – Guardian 2, Void Spinner

Turn 3: Initiative to Eldar
I almost never get initiative. I am at a good spot right now, as I have two objectives ripe for the taking. However, the Eldar are not out of it yet. The Storm Serpent manages to sustain against HTC2 and wipes them out. The men of Krieg retaliate by sending in air support. The T-bolts manage to put BMs on the Rangers on the left, and the Aspects on the far right.

With 1st Company in position to make an engagement, the Rangers march towards the center of the board. The Phantom manages to get in range of the lead Macharius from HTC1 and kills it. The Death Riders hold and so does Guardian 1. 1st Company, seeing the Blitz open, marches towards it. A long line of infantry is strung out in order to prevent the Eldar from contesting the Blitz.

With the Blitz objective down, the Eldar have to keep the Imperials from getting the T&H for the win. The aspects march an amazing 105cm to contest both Imperial Objectives. Unfortunately, they have no more activations, and now I have free reign. The last Grenadier with Commissar doubles towards the center objective and lays a BM on the Aspect warriors. 2nd Company, bogged down by an immobilized Gorgon, has to move after failing its activation roll. They do get in position to control the Wraithgate objective. HTC1, despite being 1 BM away from breaking, manages to double in-between 2 hills to draw a bead on the 1 Shining Spear in the open. The Commissar expertly directs the crews’ fire and the Eldar warrior is pitched from the saddle of his jetbike and the unit breaks.

Krieg wins 2-0 (Take and Hold, Blitz)

Conclusions: This was a good and bloody battle. I am finally getting the hang of stopping the Eldar. My right flank executed a collapsing defense, and managed to keep the Eldar from gettting too close. We both had some problems with activation rolls, but it really hurt the Eldar when the Guardians and Voidspinner failed to rally

I am really enjoying the Krieg list. I enjoy the assault nature of the force, and have (surprisingly) not missed artillery in this game nor the last. I have a concern about AA coverage against 1st turn aerial assaults, but I think proper deployment can mitigate that so I have enough time to put my aircraft on CAP. The Shadow Swords do well in soaking up the attention of the opponent, and the Macharius's have proven to be valuable.

I got much better use out of my Grenadiers this time in the counterassault and blocking role. I had marched them in the first game, and over exposed them. They soaked up a lot of fire, but I am conviced I should keep them in the second line to capitalize on any opportunities that open up. They definitely get the Unit of the Match for rallying against all odds and holding an objective.

It seems that you are allowing multiple Eldar formations to exit a single wraithgate in a turn. If so, this is incorrect - the Eldar may only exit one formation from each gate per turn. This is why the Eldar should always buy the wraithgate (50 points) to give themselves some options, oherwise he risks the events you portrayed here in what seems to have been a good game.

Thanks for the report

Gak, I forgot to put the wraithgate in his army list. The second Guardian squad came out of the wraithgate and not the Storm Serpent on turn 1. Thanks for pointing that out, and I'll amend his list.

I don't have any comments about Krieg, as I've never faced them, but not retaining after moving a storm serpent into assault range is an Eldar cardinal sin. The whole purpose of Storm serpents is to deliver fms into assault (in my mind at least) so they're no.1 targets and relatively vulnerable, so if they're left in the enemy's face they'll die without doing their job.

Sounds like an awesome game though!

I was talking with Brian about the move, and he wanted to bait my Grenadiers. I had BM's and he didn't, so if I was to engage there was a good chance that he would win the assault. I have come to the conlcusion that if a Storm Serpent exposes itself you attempt to take it out. I was a little lucky on the assault rolls, but, considering my (bad) luck in previous games, I am going to just say it was a long time coming.

Krieg are fun to play. The big infantry and Death Rider companies are very intimidating to the opponent, but your main formations are very light on long range fire. I will eventually mess around with a force revolving around artillery platforms and some of the other things in the list, but that is for when I get the models. I need to put together trenchworks too.

i'd love to see a defensive game but the aggressive play suits my style of bringing the combat to the enemy

Thanks for the report. Looks like a good game.

@Dughan
I like playing aggressive. I haven't been bothering with too many support batteries b/c they get ripped up by void spinners. I did manage to put together a more defensive 11 activation list ( I am still not sure how I did it that I am going to use against Brian. I might try to put that one together as a batrep. I have a lot of fun playing this aggressive style of list though.

Well with 80% of the forces i play i end up going for the gamblers style of aggressive play.... its the.. hmmm,, wonder if this works and lets see if my luck holds... maybe because i've only played about 12 games so far.. 4 ork, 1 imperial, 1 marine,1 Demiurg and 3 eldar from my knowlege... (maby 5 orks with one being feral).
I also enjoy the agressive play, but i'm still curious how i would make a slow pondering style woudl be to which leads to the kreig list by its looks.. But ya.. i'd love to have three gorgons loaded to assault a flank and cause as much havok as possible while using that as a huge distraction, carving away at my real objective.

The Krieg list is definitely slanted towards offensive play. Baran siegemasters are much more defensive if you want that. However, I am seeing what I can do. I put together a large number of weapons platforms, and will look to see how they perform. I have played a little with the Heavy AA platforms, and have gotten great results. They work well garrissoned forward, and placed on overwatch.

Hmm.. i'm currently making trenchworks and some bunkers( out of DRM blister plastic) with some plastic card and such. i was just curious. This list looks like it can defend and attack. drawing attention to one thing while shifting your drive elsewhere.