Woo! Ok, so I'll do my best to summarize game 2 & 3 more quickly than the first, with an emphasis on key moments.
For starters, both games followed the same scenario (we didn't re-roll to save time):
Game 1
1500 pts, Eldar vs. Salamanders
4' x 4' table, The Relic (6), Vanguard Strike deployment (3) *diagonal deployment zones
(1 Objective (3 pts), Slay the Warlord, 1st Blood, Linebreaker (1 pt each))
We chose to place the relic dead-center of the board (to keep things interesting) and roll 1d6 scatter.
My list is again here:
http://eldradhallett.blogspot.com/2013/10/making-eldar-army-list.html
After my game on Thursday, I made a few tweaks based on performance. First, losing the Guardians that way was *bad,* so I split them into two squads of 10x. That also allowed me to switch the Falcon to a second Wave Serpent (better choice). I was considering changing the Seer Council to Wraithblades (something I will still experiment with) but instead decided to give them a few more games to really prove themselves. I took the Council on foot, to help Eldrad out. I also rolled different powers/traits:
Eldrad - Misfortune (2), Precognition (3), Doom (2),Mind War (6) Guide (prim.)
Jetseer - Invisibility (6), Hallucination (5), Dominate (1)
Warlocks - +3" run/can't run (Ulthwe, Alaitoc), +1/-1 WS, I (Saim-Hann), +1/-1 Sv (Iyanden), +1/-1 St. (Biel-Tan)
Trait: Ambush of Blades (Once per game, friendly units within 12" re-roll 1's to wound)
*Does anyone know if Warlock powers stack or not? I would love to get a ruling on that, I haven't found it personally. It hasn't come up yet critically in-game.
Salamanders army:
Vulkan
8x Assault Terminators (Thunder Hammers/Stormshields)
Land Raider Redeemer
10x Tactical Marines (flamer, meltagun)
Rhino
10x Tactical Marines (flamer, meltagun)
Rhino
Ironclad Dreadnought (Missile, Hurricane Bolters)
Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons)
10x Assault Marines (2x flamers)
Interesting list. This is the same player who my Tau friend and I played against recently, and as we recommended he invested in transports for his footsloggers. Other than that, I personally would have invested in more meltaguns and flamers (I'm looking at you, Predator and Dreadnought) to really take advantage of the Salamanders rules, but it's a quibble - and it would have been more points that could have been spent elsewhere.
That Assault Squad and Land Raider worried me. It's hard to deal with AV 14, and a quick squad with a few flamers could have taken out an entire Guardian squad easily.
Salamanders went first, and we started deployed more or less as below. I kept my Guardians running in and out of cover, sniping with Lances (to little effect) then dancing back to avoid most counter-fire, forcing the Salamanders to come to me. Same for the Seer Council, although with their shorter range, they were mostly there for Eldrad's Psychic powers for the first few turns.
I tended to hit the more visible Guardian squad with Precognition (4++), and made great use of Invisibility (Shrouded + Stealth) on one of the Wave Serpents when it was in range (2+ cover save? Yes please!)
This is a picture from a few turns in. My army is still more or less in their diagonal deployment zone (closest to the camera) while the Salamanders are inching out. The Land Raider made straight for me, while the Assault Squad and Rhinos full of Tactical Marines came up the right and left sides of the board.
I intercepted the Assault Marines with my Jetseer, making great use of Dominate and Hallucination to lock the squad down and cause a few self-inflicted losses. The Rhinos I stopped cold with the Wave Serpents (the one still pictured was Immobilized on my first turn, the other was just out of frame on the left before it was destroyed).
Shortly before the picture above, there was a second Rhino on the center left. I Deep Struck Warp Spiders 9" from it to be in range but also "safe" from mishap.
...They scattered a whopping 12" in a straight line towards the nearest table edge, putting them less than half an inch off the edge of the board and mishapping. Followed promptly by a '1' roll on my part, destroying the unit. Curses!
Around the same time, my squads of Jetbikes arrived. The first was wiped out by a lucky volley from the Ironclad Dreadnought's Hurricane Bolters. That was the first squad wiped out, netting the Salamanders First Blood (1 - 0)
Skipping ahead, the Land Raider came too close to the Seer Council (which, with 2x Warlocks speeding it up, was running d6 + 6") while Doomed and lost two HP to Guided Singing Spears. It pulled back and deployed the Terminators + Vulcan (who came out on my far side, hoping to survive a round of fire). He rolled to charge, but my Guardians were too far away (in the picture above they've moved up, and shortly after did Battle Focus to get closer). My Crimson Hunter also came in this turn.
Now, this is where things got (quite honestly) a little silly. I have a squad of Terminators facing down two squads of Guardians, a Seer Council, a Jetseer, and 2x Wave Serpents. Not to mention, said Terminator squad is at S3, a 3+ Armor Sv, I/WS 3, has to re-roll successful saves, has to roll Leadership to do anything next turn, is Hallucinating, and everything that shoots at it may re-roll to-wound, and one of those Guardian squads is Guided.
At this point, I pulled out the sound generator on my phone and said, in the words of Darth Vader, "I have you now!"
Here is the result:
The Crimson Hunter finished off the Land Raider (hence the receipt on it), and the Terminator Squad (including Vulcan) was utterly wiped out. Easily. Now, back in 5th, I could throw my entire army at a small Terminator squad and they would survive. I had hoped to do better with the new Codex, but this? This was ludicrous. GUARDIANS!
Slay the Warlord to the Eldar (1 - 1)
It turns out, when it works well, *twelve* Psychic Powers per turn really is as nuts as it sounds. I also got the surviving Jetbikes into the Salamanders' Deployment Zone, gambling for Linebreaker.
This was a critical turn. It was the beginning of turn five, and the Salamanders rolled magically to repair that surviving Rhino (with one HP) and promptly moved it Flat-Out (passing dangerous terrain from the lower level of that ruin) to the line seen above. The Predator did the same, driving up at top speed.
A moment of strategic brilliance- a line of armor, some wrecked some not, between my entire firing line and the tiny squad of Tactical Marines at the Relic. The Marines moved up and captured the Relic, while the five-man assault squad charged my Seer Council, hoping to hold them back. Then he sat back and held his breath to see if I could crack it...
And I couldn't. The wrecked Land Raider I could do nothing about, I managed to wreck both the Predator and Rhino, even got the Rhino to explode, but when the dust settled I had no guns left to shoot. The Rhino was gone, leaving a hole, but the wrecked Land Raider and Predator still blocked most of my army from firing. The Wave Serpents had a clear shot though, so chances were if I got another turn that it would all be over for the Salamanders.
But I didn't get the chance!
The photo above is of the final roll - Tacticals safely under my Crimson Hunter where I couldn't shoot them, and the '1' that ended that game with a win for Salamanders. While Eldrad handily beat the Assault Marines, leaving the Salamanders with only one intact Tactical squad and two Marines left of the other on the table, the Salamanders pulled it out:
Salamanders: 4 (1st Blood + the 3pt Relic)
Eldar: 2 (Slay the Warlord + Linebreaker)
What a game! I felt good, really good, about my army and how it did. But it was also awesome to see an army that was on the back foot the entire game stick it out for a miraculous win. Nice!
Game 2-
Same board, warlord traits, Psychic Powers, now 1500 pts. Eldar vs. Space Wolves.
Space Wolves army:
Librarian
Arjax (sp?)
10 Space Wolf Terminators
2x Dreadnoughts (ranged guns)
Drop pod (for one Dreadnought)
10x Grey Hunters
Drop pod
10x Grey Hunters
10x Assault Marines
Whirlwind
The second game, the terrain was set up by the Salamanders player (a theoretically neutral party, who turned the entire board into one huge open kill zone) Space Wolves hid behind that big rock. I deployed more or less the same way, except that this time I deployed the Warp Spiders in cover rather than risk them in Deep Strike again.
The picture above is around when things were thoroughly decided. Again, the Terminators are screwed - cursed up the wazoo and facing down a wall of Shuriken fire. The Spiders and Jetseer easily handled the Grey Hunters, and my Wave Serpents took down the second Dreadnought.
At the last turn I had the Relic, First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker and only 4 Tactical Marine wolves and two drop pods remained on the table.
Space Wolves: 0
Eldar: 6
Endgame analysis-
At the end of the day, I was very pleased with how my army performed. Especially the sheer mass of Psychic powers flying around the table, and the devastation Guardians were able to dish out with that kind of support.
And, after three games, a perfect spread! One win, one loss, and one tie. Amazing, I couldn't have planned better!
Army breakdown and possible list tweaks to follow
For starters, both games followed the same scenario (we didn't re-roll to save time):
Game 1
1500 pts, Eldar vs. Salamanders
4' x 4' table, The Relic (6), Vanguard Strike deployment (3) *diagonal deployment zones
(1 Objective (3 pts), Slay the Warlord, 1st Blood, Linebreaker (1 pt each))
We chose to place the relic dead-center of the board (to keep things interesting) and roll 1d6 scatter.
My list is again here:
http://eldradhallett.blogspot.com/2013/10/making-eldar-army-list.html
After my game on Thursday, I made a few tweaks based on performance. First, losing the Guardians that way was *bad,* so I split them into two squads of 10x. That also allowed me to switch the Falcon to a second Wave Serpent (better choice). I was considering changing the Seer Council to Wraithblades (something I will still experiment with) but instead decided to give them a few more games to really prove themselves. I took the Council on foot, to help Eldrad out. I also rolled different powers/traits:
Eldrad - Misfortune (2), Precognition (3), Doom (2),
Jetseer - Invisibility (6), Hallucination (5), Dominate (1)
Warlocks - +3" run/can't run (Ulthwe, Alaitoc), +1/-1 WS, I (Saim-Hann), +1/-1 Sv (Iyanden), +1/-1 St. (Biel-Tan)
Trait: Ambush of Blades (Once per game, friendly units within 12" re-roll 1's to wound)
*Does anyone know if Warlock powers stack or not? I would love to get a ruling on that, I haven't found it personally. It hasn't come up yet critically in-game.
Salamanders army:
Vulkan
8x Assault Terminators (Thunder Hammers/Stormshields)
Land Raider Redeemer
10x Tactical Marines (flamer, meltagun)
Rhino
10x Tactical Marines (flamer, meltagun)
Rhino
Ironclad Dreadnought (Missile, Hurricane Bolters)
Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons)
10x Assault Marines (2x flamers)
Interesting list. This is the same player who my Tau friend and I played against recently, and as we recommended he invested in transports for his footsloggers. Other than that, I personally would have invested in more meltaguns and flamers (I'm looking at you, Predator and Dreadnought) to really take advantage of the Salamanders rules, but it's a quibble - and it would have been more points that could have been spent elsewhere.
That Assault Squad and Land Raider worried me. It's hard to deal with AV 14, and a quick squad with a few flamers could have taken out an entire Guardian squad easily.
A "close up" of my Seer Council. Like all of my pictures from the night, it's pretty blurry. But it's enough to show the squad colors - one Warlock representing each of the main Craftworlds. I liked the idea of a united force, rather than the classic image of a disparate race, and in-game it's made for a great way to remember which Warlock has which power.
(I know they're modeled with Witchblades but I play them with Singing Spears, something on my list to fix)Salamanders went first, and we started deployed more or less as below. I kept my Guardians running in and out of cover, sniping with Lances (to little effect) then dancing back to avoid most counter-fire, forcing the Salamanders to come to me. Same for the Seer Council, although with their shorter range, they were mostly there for Eldrad's Psychic powers for the first few turns.
I tended to hit the more visible Guardian squad with Precognition (4++), and made great use of Invisibility (Shrouded + Stealth) on one of the Wave Serpents when it was in range (2+ cover save? Yes please!)
This is a picture from a few turns in. My army is still more or less in their diagonal deployment zone (closest to the camera) while the Salamanders are inching out. The Land Raider made straight for me, while the Assault Squad and Rhinos full of Tactical Marines came up the right and left sides of the board.
I intercepted the Assault Marines with my Jetseer, making great use of Dominate and Hallucination to lock the squad down and cause a few self-inflicted losses. The Rhinos I stopped cold with the Wave Serpents (the one still pictured was Immobilized on my first turn, the other was just out of frame on the left before it was destroyed).
Shortly before the picture above, there was a second Rhino on the center left. I Deep Struck Warp Spiders 9" from it to be in range but also "safe" from mishap.
...They scattered a whopping 12" in a straight line towards the nearest table edge, putting them less than half an inch off the edge of the board and mishapping. Followed promptly by a '1' roll on my part, destroying the unit. Curses!
Around the same time, my squads of Jetbikes arrived. The first was wiped out by a lucky volley from the Ironclad Dreadnought's Hurricane Bolters. That was the first squad wiped out, netting the Salamanders First Blood (1 - 0)
Skipping ahead, the Land Raider came too close to the Seer Council (which, with 2x Warlocks speeding it up, was running d6 + 6") while Doomed and lost two HP to Guided Singing Spears. It pulled back and deployed the Terminators + Vulcan (who came out on my far side, hoping to survive a round of fire). He rolled to charge, but my Guardians were too far away (in the picture above they've moved up, and shortly after did Battle Focus to get closer). My Crimson Hunter also came in this turn.
Now, this is where things got (quite honestly) a little silly. I have a squad of Terminators facing down two squads of Guardians, a Seer Council, a Jetseer, and 2x Wave Serpents. Not to mention, said Terminator squad is at S3, a 3+ Armor Sv, I/WS 3, has to re-roll successful saves, has to roll Leadership to do anything next turn, is Hallucinating, and everything that shoots at it may re-roll to-wound, and one of those Guardian squads is Guided.
At this point, I pulled out the sound generator on my phone and said, in the words of Darth Vader, "I have you now!"
Here is the result:
The Crimson Hunter finished off the Land Raider (hence the receipt on it), and the Terminator Squad (including Vulcan) was utterly wiped out. Easily. Now, back in 5th, I could throw my entire army at a small Terminator squad and they would survive. I had hoped to do better with the new Codex, but this? This was ludicrous. GUARDIANS!
Slay the Warlord to the Eldar (1 - 1)
It turns out, when it works well, *twelve* Psychic Powers per turn really is as nuts as it sounds. I also got the surviving Jetbikes into the Salamanders' Deployment Zone, gambling for Linebreaker.
This was a critical turn. It was the beginning of turn five, and the Salamanders rolled magically to repair that surviving Rhino (with one HP) and promptly moved it Flat-Out (passing dangerous terrain from the lower level of that ruin) to the line seen above. The Predator did the same, driving up at top speed.
A moment of strategic brilliance- a line of armor, some wrecked some not, between my entire firing line and the tiny squad of Tactical Marines at the Relic. The Marines moved up and captured the Relic, while the five-man assault squad charged my Seer Council, hoping to hold them back. Then he sat back and held his breath to see if I could crack it...
And I couldn't. The wrecked Land Raider I could do nothing about, I managed to wreck both the Predator and Rhino, even got the Rhino to explode, but when the dust settled I had no guns left to shoot. The Rhino was gone, leaving a hole, but the wrecked Land Raider and Predator still blocked most of my army from firing. The Wave Serpents had a clear shot though, so chances were if I got another turn that it would all be over for the Salamanders.
But I didn't get the chance!
The photo above is of the final roll - Tacticals safely under my Crimson Hunter where I couldn't shoot them, and the '1' that ended that game with a win for Salamanders. While Eldrad handily beat the Assault Marines, leaving the Salamanders with only one intact Tactical squad and two Marines left of the other on the table, the Salamanders pulled it out:
Salamanders: 4 (1st Blood + the 3pt Relic)
Eldar: 2 (Slay the Warlord + Linebreaker)
What a game! I felt good, really good, about my army and how it did. But it was also awesome to see an army that was on the back foot the entire game stick it out for a miraculous win. Nice!
Game 2-
Same board, warlord traits, Psychic Powers, now 1500 pts. Eldar vs. Space Wolves.
Space Wolves army:
Librarian
Arjax (sp?)
10 Space Wolf Terminators
2x Dreadnoughts (ranged guns)
Drop pod (for one Dreadnought)
10x Grey Hunters
Drop pod
10x Grey Hunters
10x Assault Marines
Whirlwind
The second game, the terrain was set up by the Salamanders player (a theoretically neutral party, who turned the entire board into one huge open kill zone) Space Wolves hid behind that big rock. I deployed more or less the same way, except that this time I deployed the Warp Spiders in cover rather than risk them in Deep Strike again.
This game was, quite simply, a rout. The Space Wolves had a decent strategy - advance under ranged supporting fire. The Whirlwind and Dreadnoughts would hammer away from range while the hunters and Terminators advanced. Elements on foot would be supported by elements from Drop Pods, and the Librarian (with Jump Pack) would loop around the edge of the board to flank the enemy (me).
It was a good thought, but he was something of a new player, took no transports, and engaged the wrong units. His Assault Marines tackled my Warp Spiders, who gleefully dismantled them while jumping in and out of range in turn. He never fired on the Seer Council (killing them early at range might have saved him the game), my Wave Serpents took out the Dreadnoughts as soon as they appeared (which was great luck on my part), and the Crimson Hunter strafed the Whirlwind on turn 2.
One moment worth noting - his Dreadnought blew up that Wave Serpent in the middle there. It exploded, killing half of the Guardians around it. A positioning mistake on my part I'll have to watch out for
The picture above is around when things were thoroughly decided. Again, the Terminators are screwed - cursed up the wazoo and facing down a wall of Shuriken fire. The Spiders and Jetseer easily handled the Grey Hunters, and my Wave Serpents took down the second Dreadnought.
At the last turn I had the Relic, First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker and only 4 Tactical Marine wolves and two drop pods remained on the table.
Space Wolves: 0
Eldar: 6
Endgame analysis-
At the end of the day, I was very pleased with how my army performed. Especially the sheer mass of Psychic powers flying around the table, and the devastation Guardians were able to dish out with that kind of support.
And, after three games, a perfect spread! One win, one loss, and one tie. Amazing, I couldn't have planned better!
Army breakdown and possible list tweaks to follow
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