Monday 1 June 2015

1850pt battle report - nids vs nu-new Craftworld Eldar cash grab not wave serpent spam anymore, no! just some other cheese :P

PeteB and I got a Blog Wars rehersal in the other week, its taken a while to get round to writing it up so I'll be hazy in places. i think I was just trying to forget the result *SPOILERS* but as you'll see if it's Purge the Alien it was never going to end well for me!

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant WTervigon Plain Tr

DominionDominion

OnslaughtParoxysm

Catalyst



The low down:
  • Purge the alien but based on the Blog Wars 9 rules - Unit Points for killed units, half points for half killed units which then translates to VPs - Hammer and Anvil
  • Warlord Trait - Night Fighting in turn 1
  • Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 

I lined up, trying to cover the Skyshield so nothing could land on it, I really should work on my Skyshield positioning a bit more I need to make it so folk can't actually assault anything unless they can get under it [when I say 'folk' I mean anything big and nasty]


We were a bit hazy about Pete's new Eldar terrain, we went with it behaving a bit like the Fortress of Redemption - a 3 part building with AV14 all round, no that it was going to protect the Genestealers, but where else was I going to put them?


Deathleaper hid behind a tree because I had nowhere else to put him.


Pete's Wraithknight headed for the Genestealers while the Fire Dragons disembarked from the Wave Serpent and tried to do some damage to the building but it shrugged it off.


The Wraithkight smashed into the Wraithbone building -


And levelled it taking all 5 Stealers out int he process. BW has a First Strike rule - you get a VP if you kill a unit outright in your first turn. This replaces First Blood so both players can get it but as it's only first turn there's a slight difference. Anyway, I swooped my Flyrant forward and took my chances killing the Fire Dragons. I whittled them down to three and a wounded Exarch but couldn't get the First Strike - damn Devourer's AP-!


The Stealers moved into different sections to get away from the Wraithknight or at least draw it near something I could have a chance at overwhelming it with numbers - a mix of tarpit and anything that might scratch it.


Everything else moved forwards and tried to conga and keep shrouded by the Venomthrope.


Turn 2 and the Striking Scorpions arrived with Karrandras - eek!


Weight of fire from the Dire Avengers who just decamped from their Wave Serpent out of picture left, manages to put a wound on Deathleaper, despite the Snap Shots. While the Hemlock Fighter arrives


and removes my Carnifex without blinking, I'm wishing I had two Venomthropes now!


My turn and Genestealers Assault the Dire Avengers which may have been whittled down by the Flyrant. Deathleaper managers to challenge an Autarch, gets 6 attacks, hits twice on 3s and there's my wounds on 2+ dice - snake eyes! Thankfully the Autarch is equally rubbish and does nothing to the galxies most feared ambush assassin killer... as I won the combat the Eldar fail their morale and run off I fail to beat their initiative, yes with Genestealers too!


I think the Wraithknight managed to wound the Tervigon with it's Hammer of Wrath and takes another wound, my Smash fails to hit in return but the Stealer managed to make a wound [or two] and then the Wraithknight Stomps all over them leaving just one and takes out the Hive Guard while it was at it!


Not sure who the Flyrant is targeting here but I think I cast Catalyst and perilled in the process but stayed in the air. The Dire Avengers rallied, obviously, so thos Genestealers were dead even with FnP


With the Striking Scoprions threatening my back field I sent the Termagants and Warriors. mandiblasters were once again successful with my shooting being less than stellar before the assault. Most of the Termagants suffered but the Warriors fared a little better killing a few Scorpions.


The Hemlock lined it's sights up on the Venomthrope, although by this stage his Shrouding was benefitting very few.


45pts is 45pts though and theWarp Spiders had cleared the landing pad of Biovores so who else could it target?


I think Deathleaper may have been killed at some point, it looks like he killed the Autarch but was then out in the open and all the shooting from the Dire Avengers wa stoo much for his Chameleonic Skin. This was probably the least effective performance I'd eve had of him, which bodes well. I'm not sure at what point the Mawloc turned up but he missed his target so was no use in the remianing time he was on the board.


The Scorpions sliced through the Warriors but there was only a lone Scorpion and Karrandras left but I think they prevailed in the end. Meanwhile the Tervigon got smooshed by the Wraithknight, it had managed to Smash a wound onto it and the remaining stealer also managed to wound it, I think I'd managed 4 but it had also saved a couple thanks to FnP.


Ultimately this was a bit of a white wash. Once again I was reminded of just how little guaranteed killing ability nids have. Flyrants are universally fêted as our 'best' unit but those Devourers, however strong, just do not kill thanks to AP-. And it can't score while swooping so although it's a lot harder to kill it costs a lot of points and it doesn't impact things as much as it should. The Mawloc was useless which reminded me that without a Comms relay relying on Reserve rolls is guaranteed to make you go grey, or lose your hair! 

So the Mawloc is out and although the Warriors didn't do too bad I've binned them and the Biovores too. Deathleaper was awful but I've painted him now and I may well try and find a way to make him work this time... The great thing is this rehersal has allowed me to excise some of the elements I don't rate but were in my list regardless and now I've added in some new and different things. I'll get one more game in against Ben before BW9 but I definitely need ot make more use of my Skyshield, particularly in this mission. I need to remember I can't kill so I must survive, lure things to me and position things better on the Skyshield so I can't be assaulted.

6 comments:

  1. I think I would keep the biovores, while not as useful against hard targets, marines eldar vehicles, they make a mess of lighter targets such as tau, orks, guard, probably quite good against the new skitarii. Only reason I don't have any in my list is due to not owning the models.
    New eldar are a pretty bad match for nids as well. We don't have the firepower to take out wraithknights and rules such as bladestorm really kick the bejesus out of out MCs. That's not to say that they are unbeatable. Just difficult.

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    1. You're not wrong about our lack of firepower. Sadly I just couldn't justify the Biovores, they can be useful but I think I got better options by dropping them and some other items although technically I've ended up sacrificing a lot of 'wounds' things that may be more durable, or at least interesting/fun, we'll see.

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  2. Nice bat rep Dave. Eldar is quite the hard army to face. Still enjoyed the photos of the two armies clashing :) Glad to see death leaper is finally doing something!

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    1. I'm not sure he did very much aside from be a target, but maybe that is his value. Eldar are tough, that's the one silver lining, there's no shame in a defeat to a superior army, even if it was one sided. The hope is that constantly fighting at a handicap may one day result in me doing well against other forces.

      Unless of course nids are just nerfed beyond pity and really I'm just deluding myself that I can be competitive with what I've got. Not that winning is my goal, I just want to be challenging and thus have great games.

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  3. You could also run a Swarmlord as your HQ if you want reserves to come in sooner.

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    1. True, but he's the most expensive HQ and I don't have any Tyrant Guard to protect him. I suppose I could proxy in some Warriors or finally get that one I was kit-bashing finished but that'll have to be for next time.

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