This was a 1000 point game featuring my Alaitoc Eldar, against Brennan's Khorne Chaos force. The mission was the relic, and the floor space we marked out was just a 4x4 (we find it works just fine for games 1000 points or less).
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| The Battlefield |
Alaitoc Eldar
HQ:
- Illic Nightspear - 140
- Farseer with the Spirit Stone of Anath'lan - 115
Troops:
- 10 Rangers upgraded to Pathfinders - 250
- 6 Dire Avengers - 78
Heavy Support:
- 5 Dark Reapers with Starshot Missiles and Exarch with Fast Shot - 210
- Falcon Grav Tank with Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, and Holo-Fields - 160
Fortification:
- Aegis Defence Line - 50
Total: 1003
This army was meant to do several things. Firstly, it was to be thematic. Since I started playing Eldar as an Alaitoc player, because I thought Rangers were the coolest, I wanted to go back to my roots, thus I brought in a big unit of Pathfinders, led by Illic. Second, the force needed to be fairly small, as I envisioned them as a small strike team with some good fire support, hence the low model count, and the lack of transports, or monstrous creatures. Thirdly, it needed to be at least relatively effective, and able to deal with plenty of threats. The Dark Reapers are very versatile, so they would be good for that, and the Falcon can sort of do it all as well. Last, I wanted to use some unconventional units, and get away from the crutch of Wave Serpents and Wraithknights, so I brought in a Falcon (a unit I haven't used since 5th edition, and even then sparingly), Illic Nightspear (who I have never seen in a battle report), and Rangers (who have been largely ineffective this edition). So with my fluff bunny list set, I was ready to take to the field.
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| Alaitoc Eldar |
HQ:
- Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne, on a Juggernaught, with the Axe of Blind Fury, Sigil of
Corruption, Meltabombs, and a Gift of Mutation - 185
Elites:
- 20 Possessed with Mark of Khrone, Icon of Wrath, and 2x Gift of Mutation on the Champion - 618
Troops:
- 22 Cultists - 102
- 21 Cultists - 98
Total: 1003
This list was quite intimidating to look at for me, mainly due to the fact that he had nearly three times as many models as me on the table, and while the Dark Reapers could potentially cripple a squad in a volley, and the Pathfinders may be able to pin down some of the Cultists, there was still a lot of bodies to deal with. There was also the fact that the Juggerlord could easily beat up my entire army on his own if I wasn't able to deal with it, and he would likely be protected either by the Possessed, or a blob of Cultists, and with fleet on the Possessed, he could easily be assaulting me turn 2. My strategy therefore had to be to take down the Juggerlord's unit as quickly as possible, while stalling the others, long enough for me to get some breathing room, then systematically pick apart the remainder of the army. Sounds great in theory.
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| The Khornate Hordes |
There was really minimal upkeep this game. I rolled my Farseer's powers on the Divination table and got Prescience, Foreboding, Perfect Timing and Precognition. Brennan rolled his Boons and got +1 Wound and Poisoned Attacks on his Possessed Champion, and something useless on his Lord. He rolled a personal trait and got one where he would gain a VP for every character that his Lord killed in a challenge. We rolled for First Turn and Brennan won, choosing to go first.
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| Khorne Deployment |
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| Alaitoc Deployment |
Turn 1
With nothing else to do, the Lord spurs his army straight forwards, in a mad dash to get to the Eldar line as quickly as possible, all three units foregoing their shooting attacks to run up as quickly as possible.
With the Hordes of gibbering mutants and cultists advancing, the Dire Avengers unload from their transport, ready to make them pay dearly for each step they take. Sending his mind down through the skeins of fate, and drawing power from his mystical Spirit Stone, the Farseer casts Prescience, Foreboding and Perfect Timing on his unit, expertly guiding the fire of the Dark Reapers under his command.
With a single command, the Dark Reapers open fire on the approaching possessed, their Starswarm Missiles striking their targets. Unfortunately, the monstrous toughness of the crazed Possessed Marines sees only a few of their number fall under the volley. Seeing a cursed Icon in the unit of Possessed, Illic Nightspear orders his loyal Pathfinders to cast down the accursed banner, while he turns his attention to the Cultists sprinting towards the Eldar lines. Though the Icon bearer falls, as well as one or two of his fellows, Illic's shot is ineffective against the blood crazed cultists. With another unit of Cultists threatening the other flank, the Dire Avengers unleash their Shuriken Catapults into the enemy, dropping nearly half of the humans, and causing them to panic and flee. Meanwhile, the Falcon sets its guns on the Possessed as well, killing several more of the mutants.
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| End of Turn 1 |
Heedless of their Casualties, the Lord continues his blood-crazed dash straight into the guns of the Eldar, stopping just short of the small patch of trees in front of the Eldar lines. The Cultists follow, running into another patch of trees to take shelter before the next phase of the assault. Seeing their masters charging heedlessly forward, the fleeing Cultists rally, and head to try and get some cover behind a nearby ridge, to launch a second assault. Content with their current position, the Cultists fire their pistols at long range at the half-seen forms of Illic's Pathfinders, but cause no damage.
With the Lord and his retinue still coming on, Illic decides to pull his Pathfinders away, in order to prevent the army from being completely overwhelmed all at once. The Dire Avengers and Falcon do likewise and move away from the Dark Reapers, ready to unleash their weapons on the Possessed and Lord. Once again sending his mind into the Warp, the Farseer casts Prescience on the Dark Reapers, but this time, his vision is blocked when he attempts to cast Foreboding.
Once again, the Dark Reapers fill the air with missiles, hoping to destroy the Possessed before they can make the defence line. At this closer range, their fire proves more telling and even more of the Possessed are destroyed. The Pathfinders, Falcon, and Dire Avengers all lend their support, and by the end of the blistering storm of fire, the Champion is wounded and only 3 more Possessed, and the Lord remain.
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| End of Turn 2 |
Turn 3
With the enemy in sight, and his squad depleted to almost nothing, the Lord issues the order to attack, moving around the trees in order to get a clear assault on the Dark Reapers. The large unit of Cultists advance as well, moving directly towards the Pathfinders. The last unit continues to advance around the ridge, ready to pick up the relic soon.
With a monstrous warcry, the Lord and his unit charge, and though the overwatch fire from the Dark Reapers destroys all of the Possessed except the champion, and wounds the Lord, the remaining champions of Khorne finally make it into combat. The Cultists make a charge of their own, and the Pathfinders' frantic fire proves much less effective. The Cultists make it into melee with great numbers. Though The Dark Reaper Exarch manages to wound the Lord again, and the rest of the Eldar drag down the Possessed Champion, the Lord with his Daemonic Axe is easily able to hack apart the entire squad of aspect warriors, and their leader, in a gory show of martial prowess. The Cultist Champion issues a challenge to Illic Nightspear, and though Illic's attacks all appear to hit the Champion, his favour with the ruinous powers allow him not only to survive, but even beat down the enigmatic Ranger. Though the Pathfinders fight valiantly, and slay a few Cultists, they are easily overwhelmed and killed.
With their leaders slain, and the enemy all around, things look grim to the remaining Eldar. Still, determined to save this world from the forces of Chaos, the Eldar begin to move around. Both the Falcon and the Dire Avengers unload their entire payload into the Chaos Lord, and manage to cut him to a bloody heap under massed Shuriken fire.
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| End of Turn 3 |
Turn 4
Now with both armies leaderless, the Cultists begin to make preparations to seize the relic and open their Warp Gate. Both squads move towards the Dire Avengers, who seem few indeed against their numbers. As the large unit moves into the patch of trees, they discover that it is a Brainleaf Forest. One of their number is infected with the parasites and slays one of his brothers before he is subdued. As the Cultists prepare to charge the Dire Avengers, a storm of Shuriken from the aliens' weapons peppers the trees around them, causing them to shrink back into cover.
Moving quickly, the Falcon places itself between the Cultists in the trees, and the Dire Avengers, using its armoured bulk as a blockade. The Dire Avengers move forward, and target the trees where they last saw the Cultists. Firing their catapults as they run to the relic, a few of the cultists are killed, but the unit holds firm, prepared to die for their gods. The Falcon picks up the other unit on its sensors, and unleashes its entire payload into the unit, killing all of the Cultists that aren't completely obscured by the ridge.
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| End of Turn 4 |
Turn 5
With the Eldar right on top of the relic, the Cultists all advance, ready to slay in the name of their gods. However, so caught up in their bloodlust are they, that they do not fire their pistols, and instead opt to charge headlong into the steadfast Eldar. Turning their guns upon the nearest squad, the Eldar tear apart a few of the Cultists, causing the others to flee once again in the opposite direction. The other unit nearly makes it, before the Relic's strange gravitational properties slow their advance, causing the charge to falter and fail. With the Dire Avengers holding the objective, and the Falcon ready to pick them up, the Cultists finally admit defeat and flee, leaving this world, at least for a time.
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| End of the Battle |
Post-Game Thoughts
That was one of the bloodiest, and closest battles I've had in quite awhile, and while I think that overall I did pretty well, there are a few things that I would have done differently. First, I should have deployed the Pathfinders further over to begin with, instead of having to move them later. This really reduced that round of shooting, with some of the unit needing to make snap shots with their rifles (they were out of pistol range) Second, I probably should have had the Pathfinders fire at the Cultists right away, and taken out the Champion, hopefully pinning the Cultists. I still could have split fired Illic into the Possessed, and it would have probably saved the unit for at least a turn or two.
I also made a mistake deploying the Dark Reapers. I put them right up to the Defence line to make sure that he wouldn't get cover from it, even though I had gotten perfect timing. I didn't want to have to rely on it, but the extra cover save still probably wouldn't have been as bad as getting charged a turn earlier. If I had deployed back more, I likely wouldn't have gotten assaulted turn 3, and would have gotten a whole extra round of shooting.
On the other hand, I did like how the Falcon performed. With the Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, and Pulse Laser, it can really put out a ton of hit strength firepower. I really think that the only reason we never see these things, is because they compete with the all powerful Wraithknight and War Walkers for a heavy support slot. It's a shame, because most other armies would love to have a battle tank that can fill as many roles as a Falcon can.
In terms of Brennan's tactics, they were pretty solid, except for that one thing at the very end. He decided to not shoot the Dire Avengers off the Relic because "It was cooler". While I can understand not wanting to accidentally put yourself out of assault range, he didn't end up making the assault anyways, and it totally cost him the game. Had he shot the Avengers, there's a chance that I wouldn't have been able to recover in time, and if the game hadn't gone on, he would have won.
One other important note about this game, and sort of a rules question as well. We ended up not scoring First Blood this game. The reason being that my Dark Reapers destroyed his Possessed unit, at the same initiative step as his Lord wiped out everything else. Does that mean that neither person gets First Blood? Do we both get it? Is it a roll off? We weren't sure, so we just called it nothing and moved on, as it was a friendly "whatever" game anyways, but I would definitely be interested in knowing for future games.
Anyways, that's all for now. Keep checking the blog, as I finally have managed to get ahold of the new(ish) Codex: Harlequins and will be doing a review/analysis/tatical overview article (maybe series) very soon. There will also be some pictures and highlights of an upcomming Apocalypse game that I'm running this weekend (I'm busting out the Orks with a Green Tide and a Stompa filled to the brim with Mekboyz).
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