"Last night's" (re: more than a week ago's) game went swimmingly!
In the end it was very one-sided, so I'll throw up some pictures and quick notes, but not go in to much detail.
It was:
1850 pts, Eldar vs. Salamanders with Black Templars allies.
Purge the Alien (No Objectives, 1 kill point/unit destroyed, Linebreaker, Slay, First Blood)
Vanguard Strike Deployment (again)
Night Fighting: No.
The Space Marines rolled to go Deploy/Go first, and won the roll for table sides. Not an auspicious start, but we can work with it.
I made some interesting list choices in this game, which definitely changed the way my army played a little bit. I also had a runaway victory, despite some truly atrocious dice rolls.
The Lists:
Salamanders/Black Templar
Vulkan He'Stan
Scouts (5x, Snipers, 1x Missile Launcher)
2x Tactical units (1x Flamer, 1x Multi-Melta each)
Predator (lascannon sponsons, Autocannon turret)
Devastators (5x, Multi-Meltas)
Legion of the Damned (Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta)
Reclusiarch
Stalker AA Tank
2x Tactical Squad (5x, Flamers)
Assault Squad (*No Jump Packs, Flamer)
2x Razorback (Lascannons)
Rhino
2x Landspeeder (Missile Launcher)
Ironclad Dreadnought
Drop Pod
Eldar
Farseer (Jetbike, Mantle o'TLG, Spear, Stone of Anath'Lan)
Eldrad
Warlocks (5x, Singing Spears)
Jetbikes (9x, 3x Squads of 3x w/Cannons)
2x Guardians (10x, Scatter Laser)
2x Wave Serpent (Scatter Lasers, Holofields)
Dark Reapers (5x, Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Fast Shot, 4x Starshots)
Warp Spiders (8x, Exarch, TL Deathspinner)
Crimson Hunter (Exarch)
Vaul's Wrath Support Batter (Shadow Weaver)
**I hope I didn't make any mistakes here, these lists are from memory, and it's been a while...
Here's the deployment - Space Marines fairly aggressive, Eldar defensive (as usual). I deployed my Jetseer on the edge by himself, what I tend to do in deployment and should reconsider (he get's Alpha-struck half the time). Black Templars were all loaded up in Razorbacks (the Assault Squad was in the Rhino). The Land Raider is a stand-in proxy for the Stalker.
Both of my Wave Serpents are full of Guardians, the Support Battery and Reapers are hidden behind cover (Reapers close to a corner, so they can move out after the first round of shooting)
Shortly after this, a unit of Scouts (snipers, 1x missile launcher) were Infiltrated on top of the big white ruin.
Psychic powers abouuuuund! Wave Serpents did terrible things across the board, Reapers did their usual blowing up light vehicles and wiping the table with infantry.
In the picture above my poor Jetseer was cornered. I'd kept him there, dancing back and forth and blasting the Scouts with Psychic Powers, but it left him very vulnerable to these cover-ignoring Legionnaires of the Damned...
Legion of the Damned! Awesome to see these guys on the table, and their new rules for arriving from Deep-Strike (with all the scatter re-rolls and all) were an unfortunate surprise. And their hail of Cover-Ignoring ammunition was a problem for my Mantle-equipped Jetseer, even with them out of range on the Heavy Flamer. But it's ok! He has a good toughness, and a 3+ armor save. He'll be fine as long as I roll 3+ for all but two dice.
The entire Damned squad opened up on me, and scored a middling (but not shameful) six wounds. It should be challenging, but entirely possible, to roll 3+ for all but two!
...Or we could roll that, that's fine too. I guess, heh.
Bye bye Jetseer (Slay the Warlord to the Marines). The following round of shooting did in the Legion, between Reapers, Jetbikes, Serpents and Guardians. To their credit, they're tough as nails though, it took nearly all of that to bring them all down!
Here's the beginning of the end, around turn 4. The Scouts on top of that ruin lived (well, one of them did) as did Vulkan with a single wound. But that Tactical squad in the corner didn't, and neither did any of the stuff in the middle of the table, and the Crimson Hunter took out that Predator at long last.
Final score:
Eldar - 18 (Kill Points + Linebreaker & First Blood)
Salamanders/Templars - 4 (Kill Points + Slay the Warlord)
Still, it was a very fun game, and my newbie gaming buddies are getting much better at playing and designing lists! The Legion of the Damned was a brilliant solution to my Jetseer, and putting their troops in transports was a great improvement.
Taking the AA tank was also a great idea, had I not taken that out, my Crimson Hunter probably would have been toast.
The new things I'd pulled out were the Support Battery (meh, not going to use it again) and the Aspect Exarchs. This is my first time using either Reaper or Spider Exarchs since 6th. They lost a lot of the abilities I used to love (double shots for the Spider, Crack Shot (Ignores Cover) for the Reaper), but also got new abilities I hadn't used yet.
I still think the double shots was better for the Spider Exarch (hitting on 2+ most of the time, he hardly needed twin-linked, except against Flyers), while trading Ignores Cover for Barrage (with the Tempest Launcher) was an interesting change in the Reapers.
At the end of the day, both were worth the points (the Spider was cheap, and the Reaper was *amazing*). But the Reaper Exarch with a Tempest Launcher and Fast Shot (that's 3x S4, AP3 Blasts per turn) really stole the show. Reapers are scary with line of sight, but having the option to tear up (and pin, Barrage!) infantry without Line of Sight is brutal - I highly recommend that upgrade to any Eldar army!
And that's all for now, I'm sorry I was so late getting this report out there.
Happy Gaming!
In the end it was very one-sided, so I'll throw up some pictures and quick notes, but not go in to much detail.
It was:
1850 pts, Eldar vs. Salamanders with Black Templars allies.
Purge the Alien (No Objectives, 1 kill point/unit destroyed, Linebreaker, Slay, First Blood)
Vanguard Strike Deployment (again)
Night Fighting: No.
The Space Marines rolled to go Deploy/Go first, and won the roll for table sides. Not an auspicious start, but we can work with it.
I made some interesting list choices in this game, which definitely changed the way my army played a little bit. I also had a runaway victory, despite some truly atrocious dice rolls.
The Lists:
Salamanders/Black Templar
Vulkan He'Stan
Scouts (5x, Snipers, 1x Missile Launcher)
2x Tactical units (1x Flamer, 1x Multi-Melta each)
Predator (lascannon sponsons, Autocannon turret)
Devastators (5x, Multi-Meltas)
Legion of the Damned (Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta)
Reclusiarch
Stalker AA Tank
2x Tactical Squad (5x, Flamers)
Assault Squad (*No Jump Packs, Flamer)
2x Razorback (Lascannons)
Rhino
2x Landspeeder (Missile Launcher)
Ironclad Dreadnought
Drop Pod
Eldar
Farseer (Jetbike, Mantle o'TLG, Spear, Stone of Anath'Lan)
Eldrad
Warlocks (5x, Singing Spears)
Jetbikes (9x, 3x Squads of 3x w/Cannons)
2x Guardians (10x, Scatter Laser)
2x Wave Serpent (Scatter Lasers, Holofields)
Dark Reapers (5x, Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Fast Shot, 4x Starshots)
Warp Spiders (8x, Exarch, TL Deathspinner)
Crimson Hunter (Exarch)
Vaul's Wrath Support Batter (Shadow Weaver)
**I hope I didn't make any mistakes here, these lists are from memory, and it's been a while...
Here's the deployment - Space Marines fairly aggressive, Eldar defensive (as usual). I deployed my Jetseer on the edge by himself, what I tend to do in deployment and should reconsider (he get's Alpha-struck half the time). Black Templars were all loaded up in Razorbacks (the Assault Squad was in the Rhino). The Land Raider is a stand-in proxy for the Stalker.
Both of my Wave Serpents are full of Guardians, the Support Battery and Reapers are hidden behind cover (Reapers close to a corner, so they can move out after the first round of shooting)
Shortly after this, a unit of Scouts (snipers, 1x missile launcher) were Infiltrated on top of the big white ruin.
Psychic powers abouuuuund! Wave Serpents did terrible things across the board, Reapers did their usual blowing up light vehicles and wiping the table with infantry.
In the picture above my poor Jetseer was cornered. I'd kept him there, dancing back and forth and blasting the Scouts with Psychic Powers, but it left him very vulnerable to these cover-ignoring Legionnaires of the Damned...
Legion of the Damned! Awesome to see these guys on the table, and their new rules for arriving from Deep-Strike (with all the scatter re-rolls and all) were an unfortunate surprise. And their hail of Cover-Ignoring ammunition was a problem for my Mantle-equipped Jetseer, even with them out of range on the Heavy Flamer. But it's ok! He has a good toughness, and a 3+ armor save. He'll be fine as long as I roll 3+ for all but two dice.
The entire Damned squad opened up on me, and scored a middling (but not shameful) six wounds. It should be challenging, but entirely possible, to roll 3+ for all but two!
...Or we could roll that, that's fine too. I guess, heh.
Bye bye Jetseer (Slay the Warlord to the Marines). The following round of shooting did in the Legion, between Reapers, Jetbikes, Serpents and Guardians. To their credit, they're tough as nails though, it took nearly all of that to bring them all down!
Here's the beginning of the end, around turn 4. The Scouts on top of that ruin lived (well, one of them did) as did Vulkan with a single wound. But that Tactical squad in the corner didn't, and neither did any of the stuff in the middle of the table, and the Crimson Hunter took out that Predator at long last.
Final score:
Eldar - 18 (Kill Points + Linebreaker & First Blood)
Salamanders/Templars - 4 (Kill Points + Slay the Warlord)
Still, it was a very fun game, and my newbie gaming buddies are getting much better at playing and designing lists! The Legion of the Damned was a brilliant solution to my Jetseer, and putting their troops in transports was a great improvement.
Taking the AA tank was also a great idea, had I not taken that out, my Crimson Hunter probably would have been toast.
The new things I'd pulled out were the Support Battery (meh, not going to use it again) and the Aspect Exarchs. This is my first time using either Reaper or Spider Exarchs since 6th. They lost a lot of the abilities I used to love (double shots for the Spider, Crack Shot (Ignores Cover) for the Reaper), but also got new abilities I hadn't used yet.
I still think the double shots was better for the Spider Exarch (hitting on 2+ most of the time, he hardly needed twin-linked, except against Flyers), while trading Ignores Cover for Barrage (with the Tempest Launcher) was an interesting change in the Reapers.
At the end of the day, both were worth the points (the Spider was cheap, and the Reaper was *amazing*). But the Reaper Exarch with a Tempest Launcher and Fast Shot (that's 3x S4, AP3 Blasts per turn) really stole the show. Reapers are scary with line of sight, but having the option to tear up (and pin, Barrage!) infantry without Line of Sight is brutal - I highly recommend that upgrade to any Eldar army!
And that's all for now, I'm sorry I was so late getting this report out there.
Happy Gaming!
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