Game 3:
For Game three I drew an Eldar player on a very dense City table. The table was dominated in the center by a 4 story solid building that measured about 12” by 12” with a couple of pieces of ruins in each quarter. The mission was a mix of kill points and Capture and Control. We would set up via spearhead and a single objective was placed into the center of each of the quarters that we did not deploy into. This placed both of the objectives into a ruins.
His List:
1 farseer with mindwar, fortune and singing spear.
1 avatar
3 vyper jetbikes with scatterlasers
3 shining spears
10 man unit of troops wraithguard with warlock and conceal
10 man dire avengers unit with bladestorm in a serpent
6 man unit of fire dragons in a fireprism
10 man unit of dire avengers with bladestorm on foot
6 Swooping Hawks
To begin this game I won the dice roll but due to the thick terrain I knew it would be more beneficial to take the second turn. My alpha strike would have been largely neutered by the blocking terrain if I took first turn. I gave him first turn and he deployed with his avatar in the middle. From his deployment, it was clear that he was going to send the unit of foot dire avengers, swooping hawks, the mounted fire dragons and the wraithguard directly across the board toward the objective along my board edge. It looked like he would send only vypers, the mounted dire avengers and shining spears to take the objective nearest his board edge.
I elected to reserve my platoon Command Squad with meltas and a Veteran Troop Squad to bring in off my long board edge, hoping to surprise any of his surviving troops with my mounted units coming in and rapid firing on any of his troops that had made it onto the objective. I knew I would need to destroy his wave serpents to prevent last turn objective grabbing while preserving my vendettas for the same purpose.
I deployed my Demolisher out of line of site but positioned so that when the wraithguard left cover and advanced forward I would have at least a couple of shots at them. I positioned a psyker squad on either side of the large central building, along with a vendetta on each side. The central building was so large it actually blocked line of site to both vendettas. That was a first. I deployed my hydras way back in my corner (remember this is an 8’ table) along with my manticore. With no outflankers or deepstrikers I knew they would fire unhindered with safety from deep in my deployment corner. They Hydras had narrow fire lanes but would get opportunities to fire at units moving toward either objective. I also positioned my platoon command squad and my other veteran squad to move across the table to try to take the objective at his board edge.
First turn his army advanced as I thought it would. The fire dragons wave serpent led the charge toward my demolisher and his wraithguard stayed out of sight behind ruins. The swooping hawks and foot dire avengers shot across the board trying to run to get to the objective near my deployment zone. His Wave serpent blocked line of sight to the avengers. The avatar advanced down the middle, not giving me LOS waiting to see which objective would need his support. The other wave serpent, shining spears and vypers turboboosted along his back edge to the cover and his objective near his deployment zone.
On my first turn I gambled that I would be able to eliminate the wave serpent full of fire dragons. I was greedy and wanted my demolisher shell to harass the wraithguard in later turns. The vendetta and demolisher both failed to hurt the fire prism though and I knew that my demolisher would pay for those failed attempts to open the transport. My manticore fired across the table and removed the entire unit of foot dire avengers. I moved my chimeras forward toward both objectives and managed to land a single wound on the avatar.
On his second turn he moved his swooping hawks forward, and moved his wraithguard up near my table edge. The fire dragons disembarked moved up and turned my Leman Russ into molten slag to make me pay for my gamble and greed. The wave serpent turbo boosted away across the board out of the combat zone – I knew it would be back if I didn’t deal with it before the last turn. On the other side, the vypers swept around the cover and took shots at my psyker chimera stunning it.
On my second turn Marbo came in and demo charged the wraithguard from the cover of a second story ruin. The fortuned conceal saves were on though, and he only lost three. Both my reserved units came on. They managed to remove the fire dragons – those were target priority number one, but they only inflicted one wound to the swooping hawks. The manticore shots failed to find purchase this round. On the other side of the table my veterans chimera squad punched through a ruined wall to take up position on the other objective and to stare down the other mounted squad of dire avengers. The chimera took up a position directly under the second story objective. At the moment I was claiming it. Torrent of fire from hydras and multilasers destroyed all the vypers and left a single shinging spear on the board.
His turn three – The wraithguard smoked my chimera filled with Command Squad, then assaulted the squishy squad once it got out. To my horror my unit then grew a pair and held which meant I would have no chance to shoot the wraithguard next turn. I knew I could not allow the wraithguard troops to move onto that objective late game! The swooping hawks assaulted the chimera filled with my veterans but couldn’t get anything done. The avatar begin to sprint toward the objective in his deployment zone to add some pressure. He threw his wailing doom but only stunned my Command squad chimera.
My turn three – I tank shock the Swooping Hawks and moved the veteran squad onto my objective nearest my board edge. The Hawks held against the tank shock, only then to get assaulted my guardsmen Marbo, who killed 4 of 5 of them, but they remained locked in combat. The wraithguard finished off my command squad. Again, my vendetta failed to penetrate or open the lurking wave serpent! My Command squad disembarked their stunned chimera and tried to open up the wave serpent near his objective and failed! At this point I knew I did not have the fire power to deal with the remaining wraithguard, so I made the decision to reposition my second vendetta and inner squad to support the objective closest to my board edge. If worse came to worse I would contest his and try to claim mine. I still felt like I had a very good chance at taking both, but things were going to have to go right in both places. The Hydras took open shots at the avatar put only put two wounds on him. I knew this would be their last turn to shoot him as next turn he would assault and be hidden by the dense terrain. I also finished off the shining spears with multilas fire.
My opponent was on the ropes, but the cover was going to make it difficult for me to draw LOS to finish him off. He didn’t have a lot left but I wasn’t finding purchase on the units I needed to eliminate!
On his fourth turn his remaining swooping hawk wounded marbo and saved all returning wounds. The wraithguard advanced toward my chimera nearest my objective, fired and exploded it. The veteran squad inside was pinned so would not be able to fire on the wraithguard in turn! Yargh! He also tried to ram my vendetta with his lurking wave serpent but it evaded. His avatar assaulted my Command Squad and killed them to the man. The wraithguard were just outside of assault range on the veteran squad that had evacuated the exploded chimera. Marbo used hit and run to evade out of combat.
My fourth – I fired vendetta into the rear of the lurking wave serpent and finally destroyed it. The other vendetta managed to kill a wraithguard. The manticore fired and killed a wraithguard and a veteran guardsman. Marbo had to reassault the swooping hawk and finally managed to finish him. I disembarked my other veteran squad onto the second story ruin objective. They rapid fired on the avatar and put him down. I knew the guardsmen were about to endure bladestorm but I was hoping the cover would cut it and my return fire coupled with weaken resolve would make them flee. At this point, I am pretty sure I will only be contesting the objective though. I still have a chimera directly below the objective and he has a wave serpent also sitting right near it.
Turn 5 sees his wraithguard assault and kill the veteran squad to the man that was holding my objective. He now controls it. He bladestorms my other veteran squad on his objective and kills 6, leaving all my plasma behind! But I fail my panic check with a 10 and break! Now I have only the chimera and a psyker squad nearby to contest. On the other side of the board, I assault the wraithguard with marbo after peppering them with vendetta fire. I manage to kill all the wraithguard between the las fire and Marbo, but the farseer also kills Marbo on my turn. Now there is a farseer standing on my objective and I have no troops on it!
His Turn 6 – he advances his dire avengers onto his objective but cannot remove my chimera. It remains contested. I move one vendetta 24” filled with troops to land on the other objective next to the farseer near my board edge. Now it is contested and if I kill the lone farseer I will win objectives 1 to 0. I move a psyker squad, their chimera, the other vendetta, and its disembarked cargo of a full squad just far enough to where they can draw LOS to the farseer through a ruins window. Nothing else will be able to shoot him. The troops and chimera shoot at him and his fortuned 3+ save sees him survive and take no wounds. The psykers try to blast him and instant kill him but his runes of warding stop the blast. The last model of the game – the vendetta shoots him and wounds him twice. Cover saves – He makes one. Now comes Fortune. The last roll of the last shot of the game. If he makes his save on a 4+ we tie. If he fails the 4+ roll I win. He rolls a 3!
Another great game against another wonderful opponent. I had the model count superiority half way through but due to intelligent play, good use of cover and some scrappy fighting he really made me work! You can’t ask for any better of a game that when it comes down to the last die roll! The most fun game I have played in years! I nominated him for sportsmanship since he was so much fun to play against.
The overall tournament was wonderful and it was nice to play against some different folks and different armies. The 8’ tables took some getting used to, and they certainly helped me in every case except the last game. The more mobile eldar were able to use the range and dense terrain against me for sure! I am looking forward to returning to more of MetaGames tournaments. If Springfield, MO is within your drive range I really encourage you to attend some of their tournaments. I know they will hold a two day tournament in August and you can watch here for more information on it as it becomes available.
So how did we fare overall?
I massacred all three of my opponents, but so did my club mate Dannato. We actually tied on battlepoints but he had more victory points. So the win went to Dan! Congrats Dan! I pulled second place and was also awarded with best painted. Blake, another of our clubmates, won best sportsmanship!
My surprise unit of the matches: MARBO! He killed 6 plague marines, 5 lootas and a unit of grots, a unit of swooping hawks and a chunk of some wraithguard. He made a huge difference for me.
My bleh unit of the matches: The Demolisher. It didn’t do much over the course of the games, but man did it draw fire. It was worth the points just to keep all the guns trained on it.