Battle Report #8 2000 points: Eldar vs. DE
We both wanted to try some new units for this one. He was
using wraithguard for the first time and I wanted to try out my beasts. I
really expected him to have some armor, but he came out with an almost entirely
foot slogging army.
The armies:
DE
HQ
Duke Sliscus
Haemonculus: LG, Hexrifle
Haemonculus: LG, venom blade, Hexrifle
Troops
8 Wyches: RF with Hekatrix, in a Raider with DC, NS, Haemonculus
starts here
8 Wyches: RF with Hekatrix, in a Raider with DC, NS
Haemonculus starts here
10 Warriors: SC dedicated raider but do not start in it.
5 Wracks, LG in a Venom with SC X 2
Elites
4 Incubi, SC X 2, NS
Fast
4 Reavers with HL
4 Reavers with HL
3 Beast Masters with 5 Khyemera and 4 Razorwing Flocks
Heavy
Ravager NS
Ravager NS
Razorwing, 2 DC, FF, NS
Eldar
HQ
The Avatar
Maugan RA
Troops
14 Guardians, Warlock (conceal), Weapons Platform with
Scatter Laser
14 Guardians, Warlock (conceal), Weapons Platform with
Scatter Laser
Elite
10 Wraithguard with a warlock (conceal)
5 Harlequins, Death Jester and Shadow Seer
Fast
Vyper Jetbike, scatter laser
Vyper Jetbike, scatter laser
Heavy
3 War Walkers, dual scatterlasers
4 Dark Reapers (one autarch with rapid fire-the one that
gives the extra shot)
4 Dark Reapers (one autarch with rapid fire-the one that
gives the extra shot)
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Special Issues: None
Warlord Traits: He got city, I got night fighting
Terrain: See diagram
Ability rolls: I rolled for combat drugs and got +1 to
Weapon Skill.
Night Fighting: Yes
Deployment: He won the roll off and placed all his forces
near the center. I hid mine as much as possible behind terrain and way back. The
beasts up near the top left corner with the khymerea in front, to try and come
around the back side and my reavers on either side of my formation.
I realized after I finished this that I forgot to put in the
objectives. We rolled for four objectives. Three of them were in the no man’s
land of the hammer and anvil deployment. One in the dead center with the other
two about halfway to the ends of the 24 inch corridor between the two armies.
The fourth was in his deployment zone behind the ruins in the middle back of
the field.
I then stole the initiative.
Turn 1 Bloody Claw:
I moved almost everything back to stay out of the 36 inch
range. The beasts moved over onto the hill. Reavers moved just a bit.
In the shooting phase one group of reavers turbo boosted
over the Dark Reapers, who made their saves (didn’t realize they were 3+). The other
turbo boosted into cover to prepare for harassing the war walkers. The one
warrior with a splinter cannon was just within 36 inches and killed the lead guardian.
Turn 1 Eldar:
In the movement phase he moved everything but his dark
reapers forward. He sent one vyper back to deal with the jetbikes.
In the shooting phase the the vyper jetbike killed one
reaver. Then the dark reapers killed two more and Maugan Ra (attached to the
dark reapers) killed the last one. First blood to the Eldar. He fired his
scatter laser at the eldar in the building but they made their 2 saves. The
other scatter laser from a weapons platform shot at the beasts who made all
their one save. Everything else was beyond range and the reavers behind the
ruined walls were out of sight of the war walkers.
Turn 2 Bloody Claw:
The Razorwing came in 18 inches from the back corner. The
wracks did not. The beasts moved towards the guardians to prep an assault.
Everything else moved over, keeping as much cover as possible but with some
line of sight to his war walkers. The reavers moved out to get a shot off at
the war walkers.
In the shooting phase the razorwing dropped two missles and
the DLs on his wraithguard killing the warlock, five wraithguard and four
guardians. The venom then took a wound off the avatar with its 18 splinter
shots. The reavers took a hull point off the first war walker, then a raider
finished it off. The ravager on the right then took out the next war walker.
The warriors in the building got off the splinter cannon killing one guardian.
Another random DL shot killed a dark reaper in the building.
In the assault phase the beasts came in killing 10 guardians
and losing one. The guardians were fearless due to being just at 12 inches from
the avatar, which was great for me or they would have been sitting ducks for
shooting next turn. The reavers jumped back into cover and out of sight of the
war walkers.
Turn 2: Eldar
In the movement phase he came forward to get all my vehicles
in range. His vipers jumped around.
In the shooting phase he managed to take two hull points and
a weapon off a ravager and a hull point and a weapon from a venom. He killed
one reaver that was not covered well enough. He rolled incredibly poorly, but
he needed 5s or 6s to glance with most of his shots and just kept rolling twos
and threes and was concentrating on my ravagers, but couldn’t get through and
all the night shields cut his 36 inches to 30 putting things just out of range.
In assault the beasts finished up the guardians and
consolidated 4 inches towards his mass of troops.
Turn 3 Bloody Claw:
The venoms came in behind the avatar. The Jetfighter moved
forward 18 inches. Everything else adjusted to get into firing line of sight.
The reavers jumped out to take another shot at the war walker.
Shooting: The reavers took a hull point off the last war
walker, then a raider took the second, wrecking it. The monoscythe dropped more
on the wraithguards again, killing five guardians and their warlock, and one
wraithguard. The venom with the wracks put two wounds on the avatar and then
the other venoms lone cannon took his last killing him. A stray DL shot killed
a dark reaper. A raider missed a vyper. A ravager took a shot at the wraithguard
and missed.
In the assault the beast pack multi-assaulted the
wraithguard and the harlequins, loosing nothing to overwatch by making one 4+
invulnerable save. The harlequins killed two khyemera but the khymerea and two
razorwing flocks killed three harlequin. The rest of the squad managed to kill
one more wraithguard. The wraithguard managed two wounds on a razorwing flock,
ending in tie combat.
Maugan Ra split off from his dark reapers and moved toward
the combat. His vypers moved toward vehicles to try and destroy them. The
guardians moved to get in rapid fire range of my ravager.
Shooting: The guardians fired at the ravager with one hull
point left but failed to destroy it. The vyper on the left exploded the raider,
killing three wyches, but the passed the pinning test. His other vyper fired at
the venom with its scatter laser but failed
to even glance it. Both squads of dark reapers fired at the venom as
well, but missed and scattered enough that the few hits did not glance, so it
survived.
Assault: In the assault phase, Maugan Ra rolled a five
ending up two inches short of getting into combat. Two more harlequins died,
but there was no other damage. They passed their leadership.
At this point he conceded, seeing that even if he could kill
my beasts, I would take out all his scoring units next turn.
Game was a blast and even though it became lopsided pretty
fast and he rolled very poorly, we both were laughing at the entire thing. He
realized that he should have used reserves and that he probably should have
tried to come around the sides and not right up the middle, but had too much
faith in the 3+ saves on the wraithguard and under estimated the amount of
firepower the DE can put on the field, especially with the flier. Also, losing
the first play really hurt his plan.
If he had gone first, it may have been a little different.
He still would not have been able to do much to me first round, but he would
have had two turns before my flier came in. He did not realize how much damage
the missiles could do, and he was using his guardians as a meat shield for his
harlequins and wraithguard, but it didn’t help with the missiles and only left
him bunched up, as did the terrain which channeled him into the middle where
the objectives were.
The beasts were monsters in combat, but not sure how they
would do against more powerful units.
