1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar, Game 2

Game 2 PeteB and his footdar

The low down:

• Dawn of War
• Kill points Blog Wars Maelstrom Rules
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and stole the initiative :). Amusingly both games 1 and 2 for both tables resulted in stolen initiatives!
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Dominate
3. Invisibility
4. Hallucination

As per most Maelstrom games I tried to cover as many objectives as possible in my Deployment. Being able to snatch a quick couple of points without having to slog all the way there first is handy. Anyway you should just be able to make out the 6 objectives - the numbered MDF discs.

Having stolen the initiative I drew Secure Objective 5 [2VP], destroy a unit in the assault phase and secure objective 2. I already had objective 5, it was in front of the Basiton but I also secured the centre objective, in case I drew that next time, and moved the Scouts on top of the man-made hill.

Which was an ill-thought out decision as they were promptly shot to pieces by the Warp Spiders, Camo Cloak and all! First Strike for PeteB

Pete drew - kill a character, secure objective 5 and secure objective 3. As I had all the odd numbered objectives he was going to have to dislodge me off them first. Karandras and his boys sprinted across the battlefield.

The Warp Spiders followed up their Scout slaughter with a little Warp jump, having killed the Sergeant in the Tactical squad Pete had also gained a VP for killing a character. The Fire Prism then turned it's sights on the Deathwing Land Raider.

And was able to pen and Explode it with only the Techmarine suffering a wound in the blast.

I had discarded objective 2, it was in Pete's deployment zone and picked up secure objective 4 and 3. Swift was my retribution as the second squad of Terminators arrived and I was able to kill some of  the Warp Spiders. I also moved one member of the Tactical squad out of the watchtower to secure objective 3 in front of it.

Given their exposed position Ezekiel cast Invisibility on the Terminators, as they advanced to secure objective 4. I came away with 4VPs for both objectives.

Pete now had 3 objectives, rolling objective 4, as the new one and still had 5 and 3 to claim. The Swooping Hawks landed right behind the marine holding objective 3 and conveniently out of sight from my Quad Gun.

The ensuing firefight allowed them to secure the objective 3 and cinematically shoot and kill all the Marines standing above them on the grated floor, with only one surviving thanks to the intervening cover of the tower lift shaft.

Over on the far left I've managed to whittle all the Striking Scorpions down to Karandras and even he had not gone unscathed.

Undaunted my troops assaulted but he killed them with ease

consolidating out of sight behind the future container boxes. Now after the game we remembered that Karandras was ObSec [as per Blog Wars rules] so he could have claimed objective 5 at this point but we'll discuss the whys and wherefores at the end.

I now had secure objective 1, 2VPs if I hold any three objectives and still had destroy a unit in assault. The newly advanced War Walkers were just in range of my Storm Bolters and I was able to kill one. They still held objective 4, my remaining Tactical squad member held the centre objective 1 scoring me 2 VP and the Bastion had objective 5 so that was three objectives secured for another 2 VP

The other terminators and Ezekiel managed to wipe out the Fire Dragons in assault, I think they'd suffered in the previous turn due to the remaining numbers. This cleared me of all my Maelstrom missions and won 5 VPs in total.

Pete still had to secure objective 4, but those Invisible Terminators were proving difficult to remove from the board [I see Invisibility is no longer legal at Blog Wars so again that would have been different] He also still had to secure objective 5 and 1VP if he killed Ezekiel. Karandras launched himself at the surviving members of the Plasma Cannon combat squad, killing the remaining marines while spinning up and off the future container crate.

Karandras ended up just out of fire arc of the Bastion and it's occupants with the Swooping Hawk Exarch also supporting. Once again he'd have stolen this objective off me if we'd remembered the rules correctly but it's a bit difficult to work out what we would have done if that objective had already been scored.

My new set of objectives were - kill 1 enemy character, have 3 scoring units in your own DZ and none of your enemy's, and 2VPs if I hold2 objectives and at least twice as many as my opponent. Well I had the two objectives, Pete only controlled objective 6 in the ruins. But I was going to struggle to clear out my Deployemnt Zone as Karandras and the Exarch just wouldn't die. Meanwhile I think the Reapers and War Walker had done the business on my Terminators now that Ezekiel failed to be make them Invisible.

Karandras managed to punch apart the Bastion but my sole surviving Marine held the objective to contest. Once again this was incorrect as he's a Devastator Marine so if we'd remembered Karandras was ObSec objective 5 would have been Pete's.

My turn didn't amount to much, I rolled objective 6, which was under the War Walker and just didn't have enough models left to kill Karandras and the Exarch or have 3 scoring units to survive in my DZ. I think all I had left was Ezekiel, the Devastator Sergeant and possibly one Deathwing.

Pete's turn 5 and he was also able to kill the last of the Deathwing and finally secure objective 4. He also won objective 6 and Karandras killed the Dev Sergeant to secure objective 5 - 6 VPs

To cap it all Ezekiel stood exposed on the man-made hill.

And was picked off by the last two Warp Spiders giving Pete Slay the Warlord.

So the final score was 13 VPs to me and 11 to Pete. Of course if we'd played ObSec on Karandras we'd have had a different result potentially. We can see what Objectives Pete subsequently rolled, and when we tried to figure it out it still looked like 13-12, but we can't predict whether his actions on the board would have remained the same. Ultimately neither of us played our heroes with ObSec so that was consistent, the only real issue being I was contesting an objective when it would have been lost earlier in the game. Anyways, I was tabled so although I technically won it feels like I lost so I think we called it a draw in the end. It did show me this list was slightly more viable and mobile than I thought but I was really helped by the mission choices.

And on to Game 3

The Autumn Awesome - Ben's pre-Blog Wars 1,500pt mini tournament

Ben suggested a little mini-tournament for last weekend, using Blog Wars rules but at a reduced points size because I'm already struggling to make 1,500pts and I was worried about game times too. Inbetween my own games I took a few pictures of the other guys games so thought I'd share these separately so you can enjoy the miniatures. Although PeteB won't be able to make BWX he brought his Eldar, mainly footdar with a Fire Prism and some War Walkers.

Ben went with his Ork horde with Ghaz and a bunch of bosses and nobz.

This was the kill points game, first of the day.

Ghazghkull did a magnificent job of sneaking up on these Dark Reapers.

Such a great lunch, worth waiting until about 1pm for anyway ;)

To save time moving around, Pete and Liam ended the day on my board. Sadly the footdar found it tough securing the three objectives on this board but by the howls of frustration from Liam it sounded like Karandras was up to his usual awesomeness, he certainly did my Dark Angels over!

Darn Hellflies.

Liam's MVPs - the Obliterators

It still amazes me that that Land Raider is scratchbuilt!

The Walking Dead

And by the end of the night their was Blood for the Blood G.O.D. [even if there was no Khorne on the battlefield!]

1850pt NOT a battle report - 'nids v Craftworld Eldar

I had a battle with Otty the other nightbut for one reason or another I decided not to take too much notice of events to make it a battle report but I still took a few pictures because who doesn't want to see my nids versus Otty's Star Wars Empire themed Eldar fighting on the ice planet of Hoth? And boy does that snow effect Realm of Battle board bounce light back up at ya.

Otty was trying out his Blog Wars army list so we did the mnission with three objectives, your own is worth 5pts, the middle one is worth 10 and your opponents is worth 15pts to you. Now obviously the nids I took wasn't a legal Blog Wars army, because I had two Tyrants and no named character, although the Spawn of Cryptus is present he's not one of the special characters available to use, which I may petition Alex to look into for future Blog Wars. I also took a Sporefield Formation to see how it works. I was up against Otty's 'undead' list made up of many Wraithguard and a Wraithknight so, lots of D.

The first turn was pretty ineffective for both of us although my Flyrants happily dodged almost anything that was shot at them on some nifty Jink saves usually 6's, much to Otty's annoyance/amazement. I was equally flummoxed by his Jink saves, failing to destroy a Vyper with my Flyrant. It would take two turns for first Blood to finally be scored by Otty.

 

I also found his battle focus a major annoyance, it was like the Edlar get two goes each turn and when you add in psychic abilities that convey twin-linked when everything moves, shoots, re-rolls shooting and then moves again quite often it takes longer than moving my horde army! Obviously that's not Otty's fault, that's the way Eldar play now it's just part of me is hankering after a no frills gaming approach where constant re-rolls are not the order of the day but a rarity. However, re-rolls seem to be the defining mechanism now with FnP, twin-linked, re-animation protocols all being used to beat the odds of a single set of dice rolls. Maybe an Age of Sigmar simplification is about due [not that I've read the rules for AoS].

The Spawn of Cryptus got smooshed by the Wraithlord/seer but his children stepped up and avenged their daddy. I really like this unit now, they make a nice second chepaer option instead of Manfactorum Genestealers. Their greater numbers and Stealth mean they're more durable and the added Scything Talons ups their assaults to make them more killy too.

It was round about this point that I finally started to close on Otty's line and suddenly the D-weapons started to hit home. After the Venomthrope was killed pretty much all my big gribblies folded one after another - flyrants, T-fexes, Carnifex and then the Tervigon blew up.

Most of my Deep Striking spores managed to mishap, one did get to assault ssome Warp Spiders and kill two or three but as first outing I was particularly underwhelmed. I'll still have another go with them but it seems a real pain just having them to draw fire because it almost always feels like your giving him things to shoot at when ordinarily they wouldn't shoot at anything. I may not be losing VPs to them but it still feels liek a pointless exercise.

All I really had left at the end was termagants and Spore Pods. We were at the end of turn 3 iut was 1am and I couldn't foresee how I could actually achieve any type of comeback so I called the game. I'm not sure what I could have done better, perhaps kept my flyrants together to maximise their output. I knew that all that D was quite tricky, Ben and PeteB have been discussing the horrors/benefits of it for a while now. This was clearly evidence of how effective it can be because it all happened at once, which is a relief in a way because the game had been really entertaining up to then. Otty couldn;t seem to do anything and I was just Jinking all over the place, we had a great laugh.

So a disappointing result but a really fun game, what more can one ask for?

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar

Having promised to take my Dark Angels to BWX I created a list that had most of what I've got painted, plus some other bits that will 'make do' and some I can hopefully achieve in the intervening period. However I found myself in the unpleasant position of having a new army/codex to get to grips with and I need to do it now and I can only achieve that with some part-painted models. So I arranged a game with PeteB and he was actually shocked [as you, good reader will too] to see me turn up with figures that weren't painted.

So I have 2 tactical squads with a Rhino, 5 Scouts with Sniper Rifles and one Missile Launcher. Asmodai as my Warlord with a Techmarine and 5 Deathwing in a Land Raider Redeemer, a Ravenwing bike squad, and a Missile Devastator Squad in a bastion with Quad Guns.

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Some Maelstrom mission, we only ended up drawing an objective or two per turn, I think we messed the rules up a bit
• Warlord Trait - Asmodai - 3 VPs if I kill the opposing Warlord in a Challenge.
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and failed to steal the initiative.

Pete B

Missile Devs, in the Bastion.

Combat squadded Tacticals, there's an objective the other side of the tower.

Two Wave Serpents filled with Fire Dragons, Striking Scorpions, Dark Reapers in the watchtower a Fire Prism, some Swooping Hawks amongst other things

Pete's first turn and he manages to wipe out one of the Tactical Combat Squads for First Blood. Typically I fail just enough cover saves to lose all five. He surges the Wave Serpents forwards to pressure the Land Raider.

With the Wave Serpents in my face I had to deal with them. Not having any experience and this being a learning game my immediate thought was just to ram the Wave Serpent in front but Pete gave me some advice, the plan was to hopefully wreck one or both of the Serpents with the Devs, Quad Gun Plasma Cannon and Krak Grenades on the bikers and potentially mop up the contents with the Flamestorm Cannons. However, thanks to Jink only one Hull point was taken off it and I lost my Plasma Gun Tactical to 'Get's Hot' when he fires from the top hatch of the Rhino :( We did discuss later on the merits of the Terminators charging out of the Land Raider and and breaking a Wave Serpent apart, with the view to starting the turn again, to achieve that as a learning experience but I decide to press on with my original tactical choices.

Swooping Hawks arrived in my Deployment Zone in the newly vacated watchtower.

Their grenades targeting the Dev squad in the Bastion, not sure how effective it was.

After quite a while trying to find the Ravenwing special rule in my electronic Codex and being super stoked for re-rollable Jink saves I was then immediately deflated by having my tiny biker squad obliterated.

Matters made worse by the now de-bussed Fire Dragons destroying my Land Raider. It survive the initial fusillade from the Dragons on the right, only one pen, but the second squad melted it and one of the terminators in the process.

I'm now left with only the two Devastators, which became none! At this point I realise I've made no mention of objective, well in fact it doesn't really matter, most of mine ended up being unobtainable, Pet was scoring with objectives in his deployment zone and I think the Land Raider scored him a point so he was well up on me at this stage.

I get an objective to destroy a unit outright but if I destroy 3 I get more VPs. I split Asmodai and the Techmarine from the Terminators. The Deathwing head for the Fire Dragons on the right they shoot them and assault losing one of their member but killing the dragons outright. I take a gamble to get my three units, the Techmarine assaults the Wave Serpent, I take two hull points, but fail to destroy it with my pens. Meanwhile Asmodai assaults the remaining Fire Dragons, which are down to just two thanks to some lucky shots but he fails abysmally in assault, but thankfully so too do the Dragons.

Pete's War Walkers turn up.

I'd had the Scouts in the really tall tower on the right but moved them towards my deployment zone and the central tower. There were actually quite effective with some shooting, or did they capture the objective in front of the tower? I can't quite recall what it is that they did, I think they wrecked the Wave Serpent but they became a target for Pete this turn and I was happiest with their performance, which says a lot as they didn't really do much else!

As the War Walkers finished their movement  my Quad Gun Intercepts and kills one.

The second War Walker wrecks my Rhino which had been moving round the back to get away from the Swooping Hawks and deploy my combat squad of tacticals.

Warp Spiders move up, into the position previously occupied by my Deathwing so I'm guessing they ate them or something.

My Tac squad assaults the War Walker.

The Techmarine joins Asmodai who was only able to kill one Fire Dragon in the previous assault phase, seriously if you can kill a Warlord with this guy then you deserve more than just 3VPs, he is absolute rubbish and I'm thinking Ezekiel for 5pts more may be a better choice for BWX, although my Librarian is a proxy whereas this is the proper character model..

The central tower gets wrecked but my scouts stand fast in it's smoking ruins.

The Scouts prepare to go down fighting, which is more can be said of the slightly more experienced units that have fallen like dad leaves around them.

The last Fire Dragon succumbs to Asmodai and the Techmarine [well probably the Techmarine] and they consolidate.

My Tactical Squad manages to destroy the War Walker, they really are quite vulnerable to almost anything.

And the final insult - Pete 'claims' my Bastion for his own, no VPs awarded, just bragging rights.

I think the final score was 5:1 to Pete, but I only had the Scouts, 4 Tacticals Asmodai and the Techmarine. I'm thinking back to when Dawn of War II came out and they said that reduction in unit numbers was to give you the impression that every Marine matters, a single loss is a huge loss. Of course no one wanted that sort of game and ultimately the expansion increased the numbers significantly to levels similar to the original DoW. Well I certainly mourned every lost Marine here. I was genuinely disappointed about how fragile things were. I expected Power Armour to shrug off all sorts but it was the cover saves I was reliant on. The Land Raider was more vulnerable to the Fire Dragons some of my Tyranid MCs, just one Pen will kill a Land Raider but it takes 6 to kill a Tervigon!

In all honesty when I see the amount of figure I'm putting on the board then this is actually how I imagine the outcome is going to be but I know on paper they should be more durable and effective but I actually felt my nids are superior and that's despite me often bemoaning their ineffectiveness. It's early days though so I shouldn't throw in the towel just yet. I am thinking though that the Dark Angels will be more a show army, that is unless I go Ravenwing which really do look quite durable and effective, that is if I can actually paint up some bikers to deploy.

But it does make me appreciate my nids a little more, I did have an epiphany a few months back when seeing my MCs all aligned about how chuffed I was not to have space men in vehicles, even if it did have a Tervigon or two transporting  gaunt embryos. I was just pleased just to have an army of creatures, no tanks or giant robots to cover weaknesses Anyway, I've a game with Otty coming up where I'll take the nids because as a fellow nid player it's nice for him to see how I approach them, maybe share tactics and theres a chance he may take nids too which is always an interesting match up. Then my next game against Ben will be Dangles again so I can get in some more experience.