40K Unbound list Battle Report!

This post is long overdue! This is a report from a month ago when I took an Eldar list of nothing but HQs, just to see what would happen.


Pre-game:
I'm playing Unbound, going up against a Battle Forged list that I happen to know includes at least three Troop-filled Drop Pods. Which, leaves me in the unenviable position of actually having to blow up Drop Pods. He also will be bringing a LOT of deep-striking Tac. Marines - which, with my teeny tiny army presents a very real danger.

The Lists:
Eldar list-
Asurmen (Warlord)
Avatar (Fast Shot)
Eldrad (+1 Warlock)
Illic Nightspear
Fuegan
Maugan Ra
Jain Zar
Karandras
Baharroth

Ultramarines list-
Tigurius
3x Centurions (Grav Cannons, Grav Amp.)
5x Tactical Marines (Missile Launcher)
5x Tactical Marines (Heavy Bolter)
10x Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Drop Pod)
Dreadnought (Assault Cannon, Flamer, Drop Pod)
Razorback (TL Assault Cannon)
Command Squad (Apothecary, Plasma Guns, Combi-melta)
8x Assault Marines (Jump Packs)
Chaplain (Jump Pack, Power Maul)

Ok, so he didn't bring as many Drop units as I expected, but he is dropping the Dreadnought, and he has a new Chaplain in the Assault unit (although they've never given me trouble before!)

So how best to tackle this?
I have two Warlock powers (Psychic Focus) and four Farseer powers. I'm going with two rolls on Runes of Fate hoping for Fortune, then I'll take Prescience from Divination and one roll on Telepathy hoping for Invisibility. Normally I would go Psychic Focus Runes of Fate to get Guide, but in an entire army of BS 5+, I don't need it.

For Warlord, I have to take Asurmen as the man in charge. When I first wrote this list I remembered his rules as "3 Warlord Traits" from any table. I checked to find, sadly, that it's D3 from the Eldar table only. Still good, but I was hoping for a lot more (three Strategic Traits...)

 This is 1850 points (forgive the proxies) the smallest high-point army I have ever fielded! There's a lot of punch there, but also a real small basket brimming with breakable eggs.

 Post Deployment. Most all of my units are hidden, ready to jump out and abuse Battle Focus all up and down the board. Karandras is just barely visible there in the center, having infiltrated up to try to ambush the Centurions. Illic is on the high ground capturing that point, while Maugan Ra is in the dark building. Asurmen is in the farthest corner, Baharroth is in Reserve, Jain Zar and Fuegan are hiding behind the big hill, and Eldrad, his Warlock, and the Avatar are all in the middle.

 Alpha Strike from both a Dreadnought and a Tactical squad. They shaved a few wounds of Fuegan, but in the ensuing firefight, the Dreadnought was wrecked (by the Avatar) and Jain Zar rolled in against those Marines, grinding to a sad, sad drawn combat.

 Beware the teflon Centurions - this was how all of my rolls went to hit them. This was the scatter for an Eldritch Storm. Around this time, Karandras popped around the corner, only to roll 4" for his charge range (twice, with the Fleet re-roll also coming in at 4")

 My second (and last chance) at hitting with an Eldritch Storm. This time Eldrad failed the cast. And his once per game re-roll. On the following turn the Assault Marines made their 12" Charge (?!) and Eldrad was killed by Hammer of Wrath.
 The same Assault unit went on to duke it out with the Avatar, who killed more than half of them, but was brought down by the Chaplain, who made some stellar saves.

When the dust settled, I'd done some damage, and done all right on the Maelstrom Objectives, but was down to just Baharroth and Illic, and Illic was down to one Wound, and sitting on an exploding (Sabotaged) Objective. In the final turn, the Assault Squad took Illic down to massed Bolt Pistol shooting.

Post game:
In short, it did not go well. I did roll the worst I've *ever* rolled in a game, but it's a poor general who blames the dice. I knew being outnumbered so badly would be a problem, but the biggest problem (and the single biggest killer of my units) was the dreaded Grav Cannons. In an army with majority Save of 2+, and not that many Invul. saves scattered throughout, a gun that wounds vs. Save at AP2 really makes a mess of your stuff.
Really though, no matter how beefy, an army entirely of Special Characters will be brought down by simple attrition. Particularly against a Marine army that so heavily favored points-efficient basic units like Tacticals and Assault Marines.

Stars:
Baharroth - The lone survivor! Took out one Tactical unit, and secured Linebreaker
Maugan Ra - A real threat at range, didn't actually do that much damage, but he sure kept people in cover
Illic Nightspear - What a shooter! Had he had a clean shot at the Centurions for more than a single turn, things may have gone differently. As it was, he was picking off specialists left and right!
Asurmen - The only Character who did exactly as predicted. He was brought down eventually, but it took the lives of 15 Tacticals and almost four turns to do it while he held them off solo.

Disappointments:
Jain Zar - Tied up in Close Combat with a *Tactical* unit for four turns. Sure, she was solo, but at S4, AP2, re-roll to wound and 4-5 Attacks, striking first and hitting on 3's, getting one kill per round (barely) was just sad.
Karandras - Infiltrated up during Deployment, had the one and only chance to tie-up the dreaded Centurions in CC (and win the game!) only two fail an 8" charge. Twice. What's worse, both the original roll AND the Fleet re-roll were 1 and 2. 3" total. He was predictably cut to ribbons by Grav Cannons in the following turn.

Forgot to show up:
Eldrad - Rolled terrible Psychic Powers, and then proceeded to fail half of his casts, fail every Deny the Witch roll (even the one with the +2 bonus from runes), roll 12" on every Psychic Storm scatter, and then was killed by Hammer of Wrath from an Assault Marine.
Avatar - Shed wounds to a Command Squad, Drop Pods, and then was killed by a Chaplain in CC. Even failed to bring down a Dreadnought with Fast Shot and a clear shot at his rear-armor.
Fuegan - Got shot to death. Killed that Dreadnought (front armor, no less), but then died to Tactical Marine fire.

In conclusion - It was fun!
But probably not enough fun that I would try it again, unless it was against another all Special Characters list (which could be a lot of fun!)