My list consisted of a supreme command detachment of a Captain with jump pack, Librarian with jump pack and Lieutenant with jump pack (spotting a theme here?). I also had a Vanguard Detachment with a Chaplain with jump pack, a 6 man Death Company with 3 plasma pistols and 3 power mauls and jump packs, a 5 man Death Company with 2 Thunder Hammers with jump packs, a 5 man Vanguard squad with 2 sets of power claws, a power fist and 2 power axes, all with jump packs and finally a 10 man Assault Squad also with jump packs.
My opponent had a Aultach on Skyrunner, a Farseer, 3 Dire Avengers, 2x 5 man squads and a 10 man squad, a 5 man Fire Dragons squad, a 10 man Striking Scorpions squad and a 10 man Dark Reapers squad.
Turn 1
Despite finishing setting up first, we decided to go with the Chapter Approved type roll off and I managed to secure first turn. I had decided to keep my Death Company squads, Librarian and Chaplain in to reserve and with first turn I decided to drop them in behind the main threat, the Dark Reapers. This was my first mistake and probably my biggest! Dark Reapers are a big threat, with the -2 ap missiles, long range and there always hit on a 3 rule. I wanted them gone quick and decided to throw the 6 man DC squad, Librarian and Chaplain at them. However, I got hit with Forewarned, a very powerful stratagem. This enabled the Dark Reapers to fire at the DC squad, wiping out 5 of the 6 members, leaving just one with a power maul. The Librarian and Chaplain remained, but the majority of the hitting power was gone. I still went for the charge but only the Chaplain got in. This was the only part of the plan that went right, as the Chaplain was wearing the Angles Wings jump pack, meaning no overwatch from the Dark Reapers and in the ensuing fight, he managed to put down 3 Reapers on his own. Unfortunately, the as the rest of the squad failed there charges, including the other DC squad going in on one of the Avenger squads, the first turn carnage turned out to be exactly that, just it was BA blood that was spilled and not Eldar.
In the Eldar turn I got hit with a second stratagem that pretty much finished me. Even though I had failed to eliminate the Dark Reapers, I though that I had at least stopped them shooting but no, my opponent playeea second stratagem, enabling the Reapers to fire, wiping out the Chaplain and last DC marine, with the newly arrived unit of Friends Dragons (who had been set-up in the Webway) turned the librarian in to dust. The second squad of DC marines also fell to the combined fire of the Avengers and newly arrived Striking Scorpions.
At the start of the bottom of turn 1
Just before the carnage started again.
My remaining forces at the end of turn 1
The Eldar forces at the end of turn 1
By this point the battle plan was in tatters. The DC should have pounded the Reapers to dust and now be starting on the squad of Avengers in the far building and the chaplain and Librarian should be chasing down the Farseer and Aultach. Instead I had nothing in range to threaten any Eldar models. So I decided to just throw caution to the wind and go for it, using my last command points to jump my vanguard vets forward, this time making sure that they were out of site of the Reapers. They managed to get in to combat, but due to some rather rubbish dice rolls, I managed not to wipe out the Reapers!
The end of the top of turn 2 and the Vanguard vets are looking a little isolated.
The view of my deployment area and there isn't much left.
You can see one of my assault marines combat squads moving up the table. They just failed to reach cover in the central building.
The Eldar didn't hold off on the punishment and while the Dark Reapers couldn't fire after falling back, they didn't need to, as the combined fire of the Aultach and Avengers took out the last two vanguard vets. The Fire Dragons moved to capture and hold an objective and the Avengers and Scorpions on my left flank took out the assault squad on that flank.
Bottom of turn 2 and it's looking dire.
Turn 3 and I was really in trouble. I had half and assault squad, a captain and a lieutenant. I moved up to see what I could do, which wasn't a lot. In reply the Eldar dropped there last unit in, a full unit of Dire Avengers. These dropped in to the centre and tried to kill off my last units. Fortunately they failed, everything else just moved up to prepare for the killing blow.
Turn 4
I knew that this was going to be the final turn and I decided that I really didn't have many options, so i did the proper thing and charged everything in tot he only unit I could, the newly arrived Dire Avengers. The assault marines went in first and managed to survive overwatch, taking just 1 wound, the captain followed suit. The lieutenant however, was just to far away and failed his 10 inch charge. The Angles did there stuff taking out the full unit with ease, the assault marines taking down half a dozen or so and the captain making short work of the rest. They were however now out in the open and exposed. So the scorpions and Farseer finished off the captain and a few of the marines whole the fire dragons toasted the lieutenant and the last remaining marines. And with this the game ended in a crushing defeat.
The final result. Lots of Eldar and no Blood Angles.
The final score at the end of turn 4. The red dice is mine.
In the end the Eldar lost just a Dire Avengers squad and 7 Dark Reapers, while I was tabled. Not really what I would call a good result under any circumstances. So what went wrong? Well, quite a lot really.
The big mistake was deep striking all the death company. I should have used the Forlorn Fury stratagem and placed the death company on the table. Of I had done this I could have moved one squad right up the table withing just a couple of inches of the Reapers and then used the Descent of Angles stratagem to get the Chaplain with angles wings in, denying the Reapers overwatch and also stopping the forwarded stratagem from destroying anything. I should also have moved everything else up in the first movement phase as well, rather than sitting back and waiting for the deep striking units to do there stuff.
The second big error was then throwing the vanguard vets forward unsupported, this was a desperate move really in an attempt to destroy the only unit with the capability to out range me, it didn't really work and while I learned from the first failed attempt by placing them out of line of sight before charging, i really should have known better than to just throw them in.
Other minor mistakes include not shooting in the fire shooting phase as I was so taken a back with the destruction of the death company squad that i forgot all about it. I also didn't really have any plans other than plan A, and I really should have. Always have a back up plan or at least don't put everything in to just one option.
I think the real lesson that I learnt from this game though is that the list doesn't really work. Yes you can make it work but it lacks a lot of options. It's a short range assault army and all it takes is to loose one unit and it all falls apart very quickly. I think that you could play this very differently and have some success, but as a standard list it doesn't work. If I was playing a 2000 point game, joing this up with a 1000 point guard list would be excellent, as the guard would provide the long range fire and the Angles the short ranged assault, plus you'd have CP's to spend. For my next game, I'm going with a very different list, back to a similar list To my first game and bringing back the tactical and devastator squads.
No comments:
Post a Comment