Competitive Eldar vs IG and Warhound

[DarkLink]

So my buddy Ben picked up a Warhound Titan a couple months ago for a steal, and is also converting up an Admech army, so we decided to give the str D rules a test run. First, my list (I haven't assembled jetbikes yet, so I threw in a fourth hornet instead):

Farseer, Mantle of the Laughing God, Singing Spear, Jetbike

5 Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent, TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Catapult, Holofields
5 Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent, TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Catapult, Holofields
10 Guardians, Wave Serpent, TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Catapult, Holofields

2 Hornets, dual Pulse Lasers
2 Hornets, dual Pulse Lasers
8 Warp Spiders

3 War Walkers, Dual Scatter Lasers
Wraithknight



This is more or less the list I would take to the LVO were I to take Eldar. It's not the Seer Council or Serpent Spam, but it's still a pretty nasty take all comers list. We'll see how it stacks up against the D.

Ben's list, iirc:

Coteaz (for the cheese!)
Company Command Squad
Veterans, 3 Meltas
Platoon Command Squad w/ flamers
Platoon w/ Autocannons, 6 Lascannon Saber Platforms
2 Vendettas





and...

Warhound Titan, dual Tubolaser Destructors



This was supposed to be the most stupidest str D list Ben could make with the models at hand.




On an unrelated note, whipping out a Titan attracts nerds like puppies attract girls.

[DarkLink]

We played on a table with lots of terrain, the way 40k should be played. This matters later on. We roll up the Scouring, which benefits me as his scoring is fairly static and I have lots of FA units, Dawn of War deployment.

Coteaz rolls up Prescience to twin-link all the Titan's guns, and Forwarning to give it a 4++. Yay.

My Farseer goes all out for Puppet Master. I get Terrify (or whatever the denies Fearless power is called), Puppet Master, and Psychic Shriek. My Warlord trait out of the Escalation book grants my Warlord Armorbane and Fleshbane against his Lord of War.

I win the roll to pick who goes first, and I know I have to try to go first, so I don't just get shot off the board. I've got plenty of range, so I deploy very spread out. The War Walkers, Wraithknight, Warp Spiders and Farseer will rush him from the center, and the Wave Serpents will just hide and try to live while trying to kill some guardsmen. The Hornets are both outflanking.



Ben sets up centrally, camping on his middle objective in terrain. He then promptly Seizes the Initiative, to much bragging on his behalf (what a great rule, thanks GW).







He promptly blows up one Wave Serpent and puts 3 wounds on the Wraithknight (and the Wraithknight only lived because he rolled a bunch of 1's). His Sabers kill two War Walkers as well. I now have 2 meager Dire Avengers hiding on the 4pt objective, and he gets First Blood.




I respond by running towards him as fast as I can. My Warp Spiders cross the board in one massive jump. My Farseer boosts forward and Puppet Masters the Titan, who then kills a couple of Guardsmen. I also kill a couple more with Psychic Shriek. The Serpents pick off a few more. The War Walker glances away the Titan's Void Shields, and the Wraithknight puts two hull points on the Warhound. Only 7 more to go.




His turn, and both Vendettas come on from reserves. He brings one on each of his flanks.

[DarkLink]

Naturally, the Wraithknight goes bye-bye. He puts the other gun into the Warp Spiders hiding in the far building, but I'm spread out and he massively whiffs his to-wound roll and only kills 1 out of 6. He drops my two remaining Wave Serpents down to 1 Hull Point each. Coteaz charges my Farseer, but only does 1 wound and I make my 4++, then Hit and Run out of assault.



The Farseer casts Terrify on one unit of Saber platforms, so they lose their Fearless from the Titan, and fail their morale check and run off the board. Unfortunately, I'd placed myself to assault that unit, so I'm out of charge range now. I turboboost directly behind the Titan instead.



One unit of Hornets comes on, and one is killed by Interceptor. The survivor fails to do anything to the Warhound. My Warp Spiders kill some guardsmen, and my Serpent does a few hullpoints to the Vendetta.



He retaliates by turning the Titan around, dropping some Str D on my Farseer and on the Wave Serpent, which also clips the Hornet, so both auto-explode. My Guardians fail their pin check, while he kills all but one Warp Spider with his flamer unit and the Vendetta, which drops into hover mode. Funnily enough, despite Prescience, one blast scatters off my Farseer and kills a Saber platform and puts 2 Hull Points on the Titan.



He drops out his melta vets and kills my last Wave Serpent, but the Dire Avengers don't take any casualties.

[DarkLink]

My second unit of Hornets come on, and try for his rear armor, but he makes all of his 4++ (in retrospect, I should have ignored the Titan and just killed everything else, namely the Vendetta). My Dire Avengers kill five of the melta vets. My War Walker drops one of his Vendettas, and my remaining Warp Spider kills one flamer, but doesn't charge due to all that overwatch.





His Titan turns back around and murders the Hornets. It's killed over 1000pts so far, and it still has 5 HP left.

My Guardians run up, kill some Guardsmen, and then the Titan kills all but 2. It ran out of other viable targets to shoot.



My Dire Avengers kill off the remaining Guardsmen, then hide on the 3pt objective where he can't get LOS with anything but his Vendetta, and it has to shoot at my other unit of Dire Avengers hiding on the 4pt objective. He kills one, they fail their morale check, and run.





Bottom of turn 5, and I now have 2 Guardians and 4 Dire Avengers left on the board. 70 whole points. However, I've shot him off all but one of his home objectives, which is 1pts, while my Dire Avengers are holding a 3pt objective (and if I hadn't failed a morale check, I'd have the 4pt objective as well).

We roll to see if the game goes on, and Ben rolls a 1. Game over. That's what he gets for Seizing the Initiative.

I have 3pts on objective, I killed one Vendetta for a +1 from the Scouring, I have Linebreaker with my Guardians, and I did more than 3 Hullpoints to the Warhound, granting me another +1.for 6pts. Ben has First Blood, +3 for my three Fast Attack units he killed, and his 1pt objective, plus Slay the Warlord for 6pts total. He also has well over 1000pts remaining of his army, but on the actual mission, we tie.

[DarkLink]

So a couple of take-aways.

1. Terrain is really ****ing important. I only tied because I was able to hide stuff out of LOS of his big guns.

2. Playing to the mission means that a good player and army can still stand up to a vastly superior foe.

3. Str D is stupid. The Titan was absurdly lethal. The only two times it didn't obliterate what it shot at what when he rolled a bunch of 1's to wound against my Warp Spiders and Wraithknight. It massacred everything else. Str D itself alone made such a huge difference that it simply wasn't a fair match. Ben could basically pick 2 units a turn, and I just removed them. Had the terrain not blocked LOS as well, or had the game gone on, I would have easily been tabled. However, large blasts can only hit so many models at once, and he can only shoot at so many units at a time. Low model count armies, like Grey Knights, will basically auto-lose, but armies with lots of distinct units will be able to play to the mission and just absorb losses. Also, hiding in a vehicle protects the occupants very well.

4. Without Str D, superheavies aren't that scary. Against plasma blastguns and the like, I still would have taken losses, but he couldn't have shot down multiple vehicles per turn and just automatically killed them like he did. Lacking that massive advantage, I would have retained a lot more models, and would have had a pretty resounding win due to the fairly static nature of his list.

5. Farseers with Mantle of the Laughing God are boss.

6. I really need to finish basing my dudes. The Dire Avengers are pretty much done, but I'd forgotten I'd ripped the bases off of my Guardians and Warp Spiders before this game.

[Garradh]

I thoroughly enjoyed this battle report. How many points was the game?