Swordwind Vs Chaos 2-1-11

Yesterday I had a game against my friend Scott whom has “inherited” Tristan’s army, he’s been doing really well getting back into 40k so I decided to step things up a bit and play him with my mechdar list. I haven’t used this list in what feels like 2 months so I have been dying to have a game.



Scott in the grips of Chaos.

Mission: Capture and Control.
Deployment: Dawn of War.

Biel-Tan Swordwind:
Farseer, Doom, Fortune, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding
10 Howling Banshees, inc Exarch w/ Executioner
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Shuriken Cannon

6 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Shuriken Cannon

6 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Shuriken Cannon

10 Dire Avengers, Inc Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapults, Bladestorm
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Scatter Laser

10 Dire Avengers, Inc Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapults, Bladestorm
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Scatter Laser

10 Dire Avengers, Inc Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapults, Bladestorm
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Scatter Laser

Fire Prism, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones

Fire Prism, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones

Forces of Chaos:
Daemon Prince, Wings, MoS, Lash of Submission

Daemon Prince, Wings, MoT, Bolt of Change

3 Terminators, 3 Combi Meltas

8 Plague Marines w/ flamer
Rhino

8 Plague Marines w/ flamer
Rhino

8 Khorne Berserkers
Rhino

8 Raptors, Champ w/ Power Weapon, MoK

Defiler

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators
Notes: The 3rd rhino was still being assembled so we’re using 2 paint pots to represent it. The noise marines are Raptors; my Avatar is proxy as a Daemon Prince. The Thousand Sons are Khorne Berserkers and the regular CSM are Plague marines. Might’ve been easier if I just listed what is what.

Scott wins the roll and places his objective in a tower; in response I place mine right in the left hand corner of my board edge in the open.

Chaos Deployment:




The Daemon Prince and a squad of Plague Marines take up position in the centre of the board. (note the Eldar forces are not actually in play in this pic).

Eldar Deployment:

I choose to deploy nothing, not held in reserve just using the DoW rules to come on turn one.
My plan is to come in on the right flank then depending on what my opponent does either sweep in behind him and clear his objective claiming it for myself and then contesting my own objective or if he doesnt fully commit to my objective then swap it around, claim my own objective and contest his.


Chaos Turn 1:
Scott, unsure of my plans decides to go for a pincer style approach, deploying his Berserkers and second squad of plague marines on my left along with my Avater/Prince.
The Defiler comes onto the middle of the board behind some buildings.
The 2 squads of oblits come down my right side along with a decent sized squad of Raptors.
His original Prince and Plague Marines head off towards my objective.



(Once again the Eldar forces aren't in play yet).

Eldar Turn 1:
Having somewhat fallen for my ploy I ignore my objective and come on the opposite side of the board from my objective. My Banshee, 2 Dragon and single Dire Avenger serpents go Flat Out up the flank.

My Fire Prisms link up their beams and fire at the exposed Raptors, 3 Raptors manage to duck for cover and save themselves. The rest weren’t so lucky.



Chaos Turn 2:
Thrown off by my choice to come in on the other side of the board, Scott re-evaluates the situation and moves his foremost squad of Plague Marines and the Daemon Prince towards my army.
The rear Plague Marine squad leaves their rhino and heads towards the tower objective.
The Berserkers head down my left Flank towards my objective.

All the Obliterators open up upon my Banshees Serpent but either miss or I pass my cover saves. The Defiler takes a shot but it scatters too far to do any damage.



Eldar Turn 2:
Doomed the right most Obliterators and Fortuned the Banshees.
The Banshees bail out of their Serpent and start running towards the Oblits (not sure what I was thinking here they were a looong way off).
As a backup to the Banshees I drop my Green gemmed Dire Avengers in position to lay down fire onto the Oblits.

One squad of Dragons jumps out in position to melta the left Oblit squad whilst the rest of my forces shuffle around.

The Banshees make a fantastic “2” on their fleet roll and decide to head into the area terrain instead leaving the Dire Avengers to Bladestorm the Oblits, combined fire from them and a Serpent or two kills 2 oblits.

The Dragons easily dispatch the Oblits in the centre of the board.

Wave Serpent fire drops the Avatar/Prince down to a single wound.

Having used up more fire than I anticipated taking out what I had (and messed up movement) I opt to link my Fire Prisms beams to twin link the small beam making sure I don’t scatter off the Raptors and onto my own tanks. The focused beam eliminates them with ease.





Chaos Turn 3:
Terminators deep strike in my back field and drop my prism with their combi meltas.
The Plague Marines leave their rhino and run towards the area terrain whilst the Daemon Prince flies up behind their rhino.

The Defiler takes a shot at the Banshees but it scatters onto the Dire Avengers who go to ground and lose only one of their numbers.

Oblit shoots into my Dragon Serpent but misses.

The Avatar/Prince flies up and engages the Fire Dragons; whiffing most of his attacks the Dragons hold their ground.



Eldar Turn 3:
I figure Doom would’ve been out of range for the winged Prince behind the empty rhino so instead I doom the Terminators and Fortune the Banshees.

One of my Dire Avenger Serpents makes a beeline for my objective.

I figure with most of my Serpents firepower going towards the Winged Prince that it’ll die and I don't want to risk immobilization of my Prism so I leave it where it is.

The second Fire Dragon squad flies up to fire on the now exposed Defiler.



Destroying it and half their numbers in the process. -_-



Every Serpent fires upon the Winged Prince dropping him down to 1 remaining wound forcing me to fire at it with my fire prism… and misses.

At the end of the combat phase my Dragons are all dead.



The Banshees shooting and then assaulting a Doomed 3 man Terminator squad slices them to ribbons, they get a 6 on their consolidate and head into the area terrain towards the Avatar/Prince.



Chaos Turn 4:
The Avatar/Prince flies to engage the other Dragon Squad.
The Winged Prince flies up to my Fire Prism.
Plague Marines make their way to my Flat out Dire Avenger Serpent.
Ramming being a new concept to Scott tries it out using his empty Rhino against my Banshee Serpent, the strength of the hit being so weak it doesn’t bother the Eldar.

Avatar/Prince kills all the dragons with ease.



The Winged Prince, slightly confused by the holo-fields only manages to destroy the cannon and shuriken catapults.



The Plague Marines land a single Krak grenade that downs the Dire’s Serpent.



Eldar Turn 4:
Doom fails to cast.

My plan has gone awry with the loss of my prism cannon and my “winning” serpent going down.

Several tanks move into position for last turn contesting.

My gunless Prism goes Flat Out at the Avatar/Prince daring him to tank shock but he simply steps aside.

I Position two of my Dire Avenger squads so that they both have secondary targets should the Serpents gun down their primary ones and jump the Banshees back into their Serpent heading over towards the Red Gemmed Dire Avengers.

One of the Dragons Serpents manages to immobilize the Berserkers rhino with a lucky glance (I don’t want them coming to counter charge my Banshees/Dires whilst they’re in combat with the plagues).

2 Shuriken Cannons, 2 Scatter lasers and 2 bladestorms later I barely manage to drop both Daemon Princes on the last armour save.



The Red Gemmed Dire Avengers have to go it alone, bladestorming and charging into the Plagues. I did contemplate simply running them towards the objective and hoping the game would end at turn 7 so they’d have a chance to make it there but opted to attack instead, hoping I could kill off all the plagues with my Banshees next turn (no blight grenades if they were already in combat so all the Dires had to do was hold their ground).

Well Bladestorm kills none that’s a good start. The Dires charge into combat filled with the fury of Khaine at losing their pimped out ride and manage to kill 1 Plague Marine and win the combat.



Chaos Turn 5:
Not much for Scott to do now, fires his Oblit who misses again and gets his Berserkers out to start hoofing it to the combat.

Dire Avengers and Berserks fight to a stalemate 0-0



Eldar Turn 5
Doom the Plague Marines.

The Fire Prism does what Eldar do best, piss people off with last turn tank shocks.



Banshees and the Farseer bail out and fleet towards the melee.

Serpents move around to block access to the combat (and close by for the Dires to embark ASAP) and open fire on the Berserkers killing several.

The Banshees charge in killing 3 Plagues, winning the combat but 4 Plagues still remain.



Dice is rolls a 1 and the game ends in a draw.

The game was fun. Bit stuffed from writing it all out I'll leave more comments later and hopefully get Scott to come and comment on his thoughts of the game and what was going through his head.

Vs Orks 2000pts 23-8-2010

This was my first time trying my 2k foot slogging Biel-Tan army against my friend and old rivals Orks. You'll have to excuse the cruddy terrain and unpainted models. As this is my second string army list it's all WIP.

So my list was:
Avatar
10 Fire Dragons - Exarch, Fire Pike, Tank Hunters
10 Striking Scorpions - Exarch, Claw, both powers
10 Banshees - Exarch, Executioner, Acrobatic
10 Dire Avengers, Exarch, PW/SS, Defend
9 Dire Avengers
9 Dire Avengers
9 Dire Avengers
6 Swooping Hawk - Exarch, Sunrifle
6 warp Spiders - Exarch Dual Death Spinners, Withdraw
5 Shining Spears - Exarch, Star Lance, Withdraw
5 Dark Reapers - Exarch, Missile Launcher, Fast Shot

My opponents list
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Mad Doc Grotsnik
10 Nobs, eavy armour, 3 power klaws, cybok bodies, painboy
Battle Wagon, Armour Plates, Kannon, Deffrolla
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 2 big shootas, Nob, Power Klaw
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 2 big shootas, Nob, Power Klaw
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 1 big shoota 1 rokkit, Nob, Power Klaw
3 Deffcoptas - Cybok bodies, 3 rokkits
3 Deffcoptas - Cybok bodies, 3 rokkits

Mission - Annihilation
Deployment - Spearhead

I won first turn and took it deploying in the corner with the ruined building trying to make layers out of my squads for protection. The Shining Spears are held in reserve.
My friend deploys as much stuff as close as possible and scouts his deffcoptas.

Top of turn 1


I shuffle my forces around a little trying to get some long ranged shots off. Reapers and Dire Avengers hit the Deffcoptas killing 1 and wounding another but they pass their leadership.
Few pot shots here and there may have killed some orks.

End of my turn 1


Bottom turn 1
Orks do what orks do and run forward.
The battle wagon shoots it cannon and Ghaz puts some shots into the full Dire Avenger squad (the white primed one -_-) and do some wounds
The 3 Deffcoptas manage to shoot and kill a girl or two with their rockets
the original deffcoptas assault my isolated Dire Avenger squad. He wins by a couple of wounds but my boys hold.



Top of turn 2
Shining Spears failed to come in - Kinda needed them to wipe out the 3 deffcoptas.
I shuffle back slightly keeping his force at 17-18"
I brought the Scorpions up a bit so they could rush forward to meet any attackers. I left my flank 'weak' but screened to prevent the nobs getting into the back field.
Banshees fleet up the side towards the deffcoptas.
Reapers shooting kills 2 deffcoptas and puts a wound on the last one but once again my friend passes his leadership test on them.
Avatar climbs over the wall to take a long range shot at the battle wagon (and try and taunt the nobs to go to him) but he falls short by less than an inch.
Unsure whether the girls would be in range for the single deffcopta the Reapers were shooting at I decide to throw them in with the Dire Avengers to try and break them out of the combat, I could then screen my Banshees with the Dire Avenger squad from Grotsniks squad and then counter attack. Great plan but it helps if I win the combat first, right?



Might've been a draw I'm not sure. Either way they got stuck there.

Bottom of Turn 2
My friend moves his battle wagon in front of my Avatar and piles out his nobs and Ghaz. Rolling a 4 on difficult terrain with Grotsniks squad he decides to head to the banshees/Dires knowing he'll fall short of the red gemmed Dire Avenger squad (the one in front of my Dragons). His other boy squad heading towards my avatar whilst the back squad falls further and further behind on his terrain tests.
He calls a Waaagh!
Nobs not taking the bait of my weak flank head to the scorpions
Boy squad reaches the Avatar
Grotsniks squad reaches the Dire Avengers that are tied up in combat with the Deffcopta
The other deffcopta joins the fray attacking the banshees.



Somehow the Avatar won.
The banshees kill one deffcopta, all my Dire Avengers in that combat die. My Banshees hold (thankfully he didnt have the movement to get his boys into the girls I only ended up taking a Ld test at -3).
Scorpions did 1 wound perhaps? Something garbage.

Banshees fight on!


Top of Turn 3
My shining spears arrive - I had planned to use them to 'snipe' Grotsnik knowing how hard orks become when they get FNP though in his pile in move he managed to hide him. So there's not any viable targets so I boost them onto the board behind my main lines so they can move in to assist where need be.
My Warp Spiders jump behind the battle wagon.
Fire Dragons shuffle around so they all have LOS to the nobs.
Hawks and both the red and green gem Dire Avenger squads move around to get LOS to the nobs. The pinning/primed Dire Avengers position to protect the Dragons.

I first fire with one Dire Avenger squad hoping to put a few wounds into his squad (hoping he wouldn't put any on the pain boy so I could 'snipe' with mass melta fire and instant death). I do a couple of wounds nothing dies.
Dragons step up 10 meltas. 6 misses including the exarch. Great! 4 rolls to wound and I roll three 1s. To rub salt into the wound he makes the cover save. I then fire the Reapers (Exarch fast shooting a EML to which he misses both shots...). A wound or two gets scattered throughout the squad. The two remaining Dire Avengers and hawks contribute fire. I may have dropped one maaaaybe two. He's still Fearless from the Waaggh call of Ghaz. 12 Instant Killing shots and in the end he only had to roll 1 cover save. Ffs that was my trump card!

Warp Spiders take out the Battle Wagon at least.

The Avatar kills 2 orks and takes a wound in return.
Spiders jump back out of range of the last boy squad.
Banshees somehow kill 6 orks (wish I threw my Spears into the squad now) they took a pounding but Grots and the Nobs fists kill the last Banshee with 1 last wound getting through.



The Avatar holds back the tide!


Bottom of turn 3
Grots and the wounded deffcopta scoot forward into the next Dire Avenger screen
The nobs split off from Ghaz and circle round the building.
The back boy squad still plods on forward slowly.

Grots and the Copta make short work of the red gemmed Dire Avengers.
The nobs needing a 6 to get over the fence and into my dragons... make it. -_- Somehow the dragons hold though.
Ghaz charges into the pinning Dire Avengers (I had decided not to charge him in the previous round as I was sure I would've lost so he could've just bounced forward with consolidation). The Dire Avengers take heavy losses but hold.

The Avatar with my awesome rolling skills misses 3 attacks (I really hope he gets preferred enemy next edition seriously I'm really happy if I hit twice with the Avatar). He takes another wound so he's left down to two.



Top of Turn 4
If things start going my way I can still pull this off.
I move my shining spears towards Grots, my green gemmed Dire Avengers shuffle back. Thinking I have got this in the bag I move my hawks into position to shoot at the back squad of boys and my Warp Spiders jump forward to start hitting them too.

I guess this is my best round of shooting. Sadly.
Dire Avengers and reapers shoot into Grots squad (fast shooting Krak missiles to avoid FNP and to wound easier). The shining spears also shoot into them the Exarch firing his Star Lance to negate FNP. 24str 4, 8 str 5, 3str 8 (BS5). Killed 5 orks.

At least the Swooping Hawks and Spiders did better they killed 10ish.

I charge in with the Shining Spears. Grots was protected so wasnt able to position for any Instant Death. One shining spear attacked the wounded Deffcopta but he made his inv save. I ended up killing 3 orks. They lost combat but the Exarch lived and withdrew.
The Dire Avenger exarch manages to live by himself but is killed from the Avatars Fearless bubble.
The Avatar managed two wounds which both got saved thanks to the Cyboks. He then took a wound in return and died for a Fearless wound.



Bottom of 4

My lines are completely broken now and this turn is just a clean up for him really. Kinda funny/sad the Shining Spear exarch died to a deffcopta rocket in the back.

Here's the orks doing their victory dance.




Regardless of being tabled on turn 4 I still think the foot slogging aspect list is quite fun to play so I'll stick with it. The only mistakes I felt I made this game was creeping the Scorpions too far forward and in hindsight if I knew I'd roll so well with the Banshees I would've moved my Shining Spears up to join that combat I just didnt see them killing 6 orks without charging or doom. I was a bit surprised he didn't multi assault the nobs into my Avatar and use fearless to bring him down, the last couple of days I've been thinking and anticipating this (still put myself in a position for it...) at least it didnt happen.

Another battle Vs 'crons 1500 (Fluff list) - 1/6/2001

So my list:

 

Avatar                                                                         

10 Fire Dragons                                                          

10 Striking Scorpions                                                        

10 Howling Banshees                                             

10 Dire Avengers                                                         

10 Dire Avengers                                                         

6 Warp Spiders                                                            

6 Swooping Hawks                                                            

5 Shining Spears inc Exarch                                                             

5 Dark Reapers

 

Total 1495

 

My opponents’ list was something along the following lines
Necron Lord Warscythe, res orb

Necron Lord Warscythe, Solar Pulse

Pariahs (decent size 6-8)

Immortals (once again decent size 6-8)

10 warriors

10 warriors

10 warriors

3 wraiths

5 or so scarab swarm

5 or so scarab swarm

 

 

Board: 4x4

Mission: Annihilation

Deployment: Dawn of War

 

Deployment:

Winning the roll off I decided to go first deploying my first Dire Avenger squad behind the left building near the centre of the board, my Avatar behind it as well and my second DA squad in the woods.

 

My opponent deployed his res orb lord about centre of his board and 2 warrior squads in a long line; the lord was attached to the squad on my left.

 

Turn 1

My opponent failed to seize the initiative and so the rear of my forces had to leg it to catch up.

My Banshees entered on the left edge inside them was the warp spiders who teleported up behind the small square spire.

My Reapers came in the middle I didn’t want to risk too many turns of bad rolling to try and get them up into a building so they made their way into the crater in the middle (I figure forcing my opponent to make 4+ cover saves from turn 2 is better than risking them not shooting till turn 3 or 4).

On the right side of the Reapers were my Scorpions beside the crater. Next to them the Dragons and flying up behind the building on my right was the Hawks.
he Shining Spears turbo boosted to behind the building middle right.

 

The left Dire Avengers moved and fleeted to the top of the building, the Avatar and right Dire Avengers moved forward and took shots at the left warrior squad downing 3-4.

 

Bottom Turn 1

After WBB I think 1 warrior died.

My opponent turbo boosted his wraiths into the crater middle left and both scarabs across the middle in front of the forest and in front of the Avatar who was between the forest and the left building.

He brought the 3^rd warrior squad in behind the building in his DZ his Pariahs in the middle behind his other lord and warriors. The Immortals came in behind the right Warrior squad.

He cast Solar Pulse then shot at the Avatar the combined shooting took a wound or two off him.

 

Turn 2

My Banshees move up I figure a good fleet roll will see them into combat with the wraiths.

Warp Spiders teleport forward they are now between the spider and the centre-left building.

Scorpions move up keeping close to the Reapers in case the Wraiths survive and attack them.

Dragons stumble into the building.

Hawks fly over the building they are now between the right building and centre-right building.

I’m not sure what to do with the Shining Spears, I’m worried the Scarabs will tie my units up but at the same time I have a big gamble in mind, I fly them over the centre-right building and up in front of the 2 warrior squads in the middle.

 

Spiders and Reapers kill the wraiths.

Both DA squads shoot at the warriors w/ the lord maybe taking down 1-2.

Hawks shoot and assault the scarabs near the forest. I lost the combat but held.

Avatar shoots and assaults the scarabs in front of him. I was oddly worried about these units tying me up and being a hassle so I thought I would assault them on my own terms. I thought the Avatar would clear through them faster than he did and the Hawks role was to hold them up till the Scorpions got there.

Now for the big gamble, I did minimal shooting with the Shining Spears for fear of knocking down too many models to multi assault. This was a fairly big gamble, as I didn’t want to just throw away my Spears for another unit. So I charged both Warrior Squads I figured there was little chance all 5 would die and there’s no way Id lose on combat resolution so even if they didn’t break the warriors they’d prevent 20 odd gauss weapons coming my way. I killed something like 7 Necrons and only lost 2 in return from the Lords warscythe. Obviously winning the combat my opponent failed both Ld tests and the Shining Spears ran them down before flying away as far as the dice roll would let them.

 

Bottom of Turn 2

My opponent moved his remaining warrior squad up into the building in his DZ.

His Immortals and Pariahs who are now centre-right move towards the Shining Spears.

The Warriors shoot at my left Dire Avenger squad inflicting a couple of casualties.

The Immortals shoot at the Dire Avengers in the forest and I opt to go to ground with them – I'm a fluff player I didn’t want them dying! Besides I figure I can relieve the pressure next turn.

The Pariahs shoot at my Shining Spears killing the Exarch and one other. He’s just out of the Avatars bubble range and falls back outside of the Pariahs assault range and right into Fearless bubble range and he regroups immediately! How fortunate!

 

The Scarabs kill my Swooping Hawks – I think I lost 2 from Fearless wounds last turn. And consolidate.

 

Turn 3

My Banshees move up behind the middle-left building.

Spiders Jump over the building in between middle left building and the building in my opponents DZ in which the remaining warriors are hiding.

Dragons and Scorpions move forward The Shining Spear filled by Khaines’ blood lust heads straight back towards the Immortals.

 

Spiders and Dire Avengers in the building shoot the Warriors (DAs in the forest are still pinned).

Dragons shoot a couple of Scarabs not too many to keep them within range of the Scorpions.

Reapers take out a Pariah or two.

Scorpions charge the Scarabs that killed the Hawks. I think they held.

The Shining Spear shoots and charges the Immortals, winning the combat but they hold.

The Avatar kills his way through the Scarabs and consolidates forward.

 

Bottom of Turn 3

Warriors do some WBB rolls as they weren’t all wiped out, they have lost some numbers now though.

 

Warriors shoot the left Dire Avengers.

Pariahs shoot and charge the Avatar (Back in Feb I managed to buy a Rogue Trader era Avatar so I named him Babatar the baby Avatar) Babatar kills a few Pariahs and takes a wound in return dropping him to 1. High WS + T is good!
The Shining Spear is busy trying to kick Immortals whilst their attacks bounce harmlessly off the Jetbike.

The Scorpions finish off the Scarabs and head towards the Immortals though they are a little ways off.

 

Turn 4
Banshees move and fleet towards the Avatar and his combat.

Scorpions continue towards the Immortals the Dragons following behind.

 

Spiders and both DA squads shoot the Warriors dropping them to two.

The Reapers had no LOS.

 

Only 5 or so Banshees got into range of the combat I managed to kill several Pariahs.

The Immortals and Shining Spear continue to do nothing to each other.

 

Bottom of Turn 4

WBB brings the Warriors up to 6ish who shoot at the Warp Spiders killing 2, they fall back and land on-top of the building next to the left Dire Avengers.

 

The Immortals finally kill the Shining Spear.

Babatar and the girls kill the Pariahs, the Necron Lord makes some 4++ saves and he slays Babatar!

 

Turn 5

Spiders re-group.

Scorpions and Dragons move into range of the Immortals.

 

Dire Avengers and Spiders shoot the warriors dropping them to 1 I think.

Dragons opt to shoot a few shots at the Immortals to make sure the Scorpions are in charge range.

 

Scorpions charge the Immortals and kill them all.

The Necrons fade away….

Not the most interesting battle but the Shining Spears certainly shone brightly.

1500pts Vs Necrons 11-2-10

1500pts Vs. Necrons

Nightbringer
Necron Lord, Destroyer Body, War scythe, Resurrection Orb, Phylactery, 
10 Warriors
10 Warriors
4 Destroyers
4 Destroyers
2 Heavy Destroyers
Tomb Spyder

The board was 4x4 with 3 large L shaped ruined buildings, two in the centre and one on my left in my opponents’ deployment zone and there was two hills on opposite (diagonal) table edges.

Scenario – Annihilation, pitched battle.

I won the roll for first turn and decided to take it.

Deployment:
I deployed my Banshee/Farseer Serpent in the middle flanked by the Fire Dragon Serpent and the Shuriken Cannon Dire Avengers and I placed my two Lance Serpents on the hill to my right, due to the two buildings near the middle my whole force was relatively protected.

My opponent castled up to my left behind the ruined building in his DZ he had his Heavy Destroyers at the board edge next to them towards the middle was one squad of Destroyers towards the centre of the board, in front of those was his twenty warriors in-between them the Nightbringer the Lord was placed near the centre in front of the Destroyers. Off to my right a little isolated was the other squad of Destroyers and in front of them was the Tomb Spyder.

My opponent failed to seize the imitative and I went first.

Eldar Turn 1
I fortuned my Banshee Serpent and went flat out towards the very centre of the board in between the two buildings and behind that I went flat out with my Dragons and following that my Shuriken Dire Avengers. On my right I moved my Lance Serpents out 12” gaining LoS to the Tomb Spyder

Both Lance Serpents fired at the Spyder my opponent failed his cover save and it was killed off.

Necron Turn 1
The Lord moved out to intercept my Banshee Serpent the Nightbringer shuffled closer to the centre of the board as well.

Lots of shots were fired and I was forced to take 5 cover saves on my Banshee Serpent which thanks for Fortune I made them all.

The Necron Lord assaulted my Banshee Serpent but failed to hit it.

Eldar – 1 Necrons – 0

Eldar Turn 2
Currently looking at the board my opponent had a strong castle in the corner and with his warrior squad near the centre I wouldn’t have been able to move in close enough with my Aspects and feel safe at taking enough out in one blow without being destroyed in a counter attack so I decided to be bold and play risky.
I Doomed the Necron Warriors and I fortuned my Banshees who got out and moved up whilst their serpent with the Farseer still inside flew off to my left so he was behind the ruined building that was guarding his castle. My Dragons flew 12” and they piled out now within range to the Necron Lord whilst my Shuriken Dire Avengers went flat out to my left in case he tried to flank me. My two Lance Serpents both flew up 12”.

My Banshees were a long way out so I decided to Fleet them first, if I didn’t end up with a good enough roll I could always turn them around to assault the Necron Lord, thankfully they rolled a 6. Now with them in charge range I was able to proceed with the rest of my shooting phase. My eight Dragons unloaded onto the Necron Lord knocking him down. All my serpents that were able to shoot fired upon the Destroyers that were positioned to my right downing three.

My Banshees weren’t out of hot water yet, I didn’t really take into account how close the Nightbringer was, my girls charged in only just managing to keep from bringing the Nightbringer into CC (it was less than 1cm). He did his defenders react and found himself 2cm out of res orb range. Needless to say my Banshees decimated the Necron Warriors killing them all. Opps now they’re in the open with a Nightbringer, 10 Warriors and lots of AP 4 guns right next to them. I feel though this was the right thing to do there was no way my Dire Avengers would be able to put out enough shots to wipe the squad or even if they did they’d get WBB from the squad next to them I also didn’t want to get too close to all those gauss weapons. Not to mention it brought him 10 deaths closer to Phase Out. Looking back on this turn I had ridiculous amounts of luck first with the fleet, then not bringing the Nightbringer into the combat (he really was that close) and finally having all the Necron Warriors 2cm away from the Res Orb. I feel if any of these things had gone against me then the game would’ve played out differently.

Necron Turn 2
Res Orb + Phylactery brought the Necron Lord back to 3 wounds and one Destroyer made his WBB roll bringing the squad that was on my right back up to two models.

A little shuffling of his troops here and there not much moving.

Rapid Fire from the Necron Warriors only killed four Howling Banshees (after Fortune) a squad of Destroyers fired I went to ground and took one of the shots on my Exarch so in the end I lost another two. The rest of his shooting managed to shake one Serpent.

He assaulted my Banshees with his Nightbringer and my Dragons with his Lord. The Banshees failed their leadership roll for counter attack and the Exarch failed to wound they were all quickly eliminated.
The Necron Lord on the other hand took a fair few wounds but made all his saves though he only managed to kill two or so Fire Dragons who held their ground.

Eldar – 2 Necrons – 1

Eldar Turn 3
Now with the centre of the board opened up I was able to plan and execute my crippling blow. I doomed the large squad of Destroyers and then backed the Farseers Serpent out a bit to allow room for the Shuriken Dire Avengers to get closer (also it was the Farseers Serpent that got shaken).
So I moved my 2 Lance Serpents right up 12” and jumped one squad of Dire Avengers out the back (I couldn’t get the other squad out without exposing my Serpents rear armour so I opted against it). I moved my Shuriken Dire Avengers up so they were poking around the edge of the ruined building in my opponents DZ and I intended to move my now empty Dragons Serpent up to block the Nightbringers approach till I remembered he can move through things, so I just moved it closer to offer supporting fire.

In my shooting phase I let lose two Blade Storms onto the larger squad of Destroyers taking them all out, I fired all my shuriken serpents onto the smaller squad of Destroyers taking them all out as well. This opened a clear firing lane from my 2 lance Serpents onto the Heavy Destroyers, which killed both of them.

In the Assault phase the Fire Dragons lost another one or two but continued to fight on.

Necron Turn 3
The only things he had left on the field now were a squad of Necron Warriors the Nightbringer and the Lord. He decided to move and run the Warriors around the corner of the building to hide them whilst with the Nightbringer he flew through the ruined building and assaulted the Dire Avengers who had no way of hurting the Nightbringer so needless to say they lost the combat, they failed their moral test and fell back. The Fire Dragons once again held their ground!

Eldar - 5 Necrons – 2

Eldar Turn 4
Not much happened this turn I Doomed the Lord and Fortuned my Serpent and moved several Serpents Flat Out to gain better firing positions next turn. I had 2 Lance Serpents at the top and the Fire Dragon serpent up there as well and I moved my Farseer and my empty Shuriken Dire Avenger Serpent to the left.

Fired some Shuriken Cannons and a Lance at the Warriors who he elected to go to ground with to try and keep the Lance from whittling him down. I think he made all his saves but he was now pinned either way.

The Fire Dragons now with Doom on their side failed to do anything and were eventually killed.

Necron Turn 4
The Nightbringer follows after the Dire Avengers and he charges them they rally to meet the charge but are killed soon after.

Eldar – 5 Necrons – 3

Eldar Turn 5
This was more or less hammering the last nail into the coffin. I Doomed the Warrior squad and pummelled them with Bright Lances, Shuriken Cannons and a Blade Storm wiping the squad down to 1 guy

Necron Turn 5
If my opponent lost 3 or more models after WBB it would have phased him out, he was unable to make enough rolls and Phased Out.

I felt brimming with confidence after this battle until I started thinking deeper into it. On the table it looked very dominating for me on the last turn I still had 5 serpents 3 of which had something inside them but using kill points my opponent was only 2 kills behind so it was a lot closer than it seemed. Also as I mentioned in the Battle Report if the Banshees hadn’t have been so lucky, had the Warriors been in Res Orb range or if the Banshees didn’t make the fleet roll or worse still if the Nightbringer had been brought into the combat and used his AoE ability to knock all the girls out of CC before they managed to land any blows. If any of these things had happened it would’ve been a lot different I think.

Also my opponent said before the game that he left his box that he stores his Monoliths in at home and thus was unable to field his normal list I asked him what he normally took in 1500 and he said he drops the Nightbringer for a Monolith and spends a few more points here and there. Hopefully Ill be able to play him again another day when he’s fielding his optimum list J

Also this was my first time playing at a new store it was great to play new people and hear the bustle of lots of gamers together I'm looking forward to going out and playing again next week.

1750pts Vs. Salamanders 22-5-09

Vulkan (joined one of the tac squads)
2 x Iron Clad dreads in drop pods
3 Tac squads in drop pods
7 Assault termies (3x LCs 4 x TH/SS)
3 Land Speeders deep striking with multi meltas

The board was 4x4 with 4-5 pieces of ruined buildings scattered around. 

Scenario – Annihilation, pitched battle.

I won the roll to go first and gave it to my opponent and I held all my forces in reserve.

Salamanders Turn 1
With his first turn he dropped down his 3 tac squads kind of centred with some ruined buildings all around (he told me later he was under the impression the Eldar vehicles can deep strike).

Eldar Turn 1 

Whole Force remains in reserve.

Salamanders - 0 Eldar - 0

Salamanders Turn 2
He dropped his first dread near the back of his forces and the second dread about 15” in from my right board edge and 20” or so from my board edge. Also his termies came in and he placed them pretty much right in the middle of the board surrounded by his tac squads. Still nothing to shoot at ;) I was hoping for his speeders to have come in that turn so I could pounce on them but it wasn’t to be.

Eldar Turn 2 
My Farseer + Banshees and both Fire Dragon Squads come in (I rolled pretty shocking on the reserves >.>)
He had boxed himself in pretty hardcore and didn’t have much room to move on my right flank thanks to drop pods blocking most of the way so I went to the right with my banshees and one dragon squad and the other dragon squad near the middle and for some reason I thought drop pods were AV 10 all around… I stopped smiling when I found out I could only glance with my shuriken cannons. I shot at the dreadnaughts drop pod as I judged that walking around he wouldn’t be able to get close enough to enter CC with my Serpents so I fired my Banshee serpent at it and managed to knock off a gun, I then fired my middle dragon serpent and wrecked it! My last dragon serpent fired at the tac squads Pod that was on the right all hit I then rolled all 6s! 3 glances oh baby! Too bad he had cover and proceeded to roll three 6s for his cover saves :p

Salamanders - 0 Eldar – 1

Salamanders Turn 3 
His speeders came in and landed in front of my Banshee serpent he moved his 2 tac squads up the middle and started walking both dread off to the middle of the board whilst the termies moved 5” thanks to the wrecked drop pod.
Shooting saw 3 multi meltas aimed for my banshee serpent, only managing to immobilize it. With the tac squad that didn’t move he fired a mutli-melta through a building at my middle dragon serpent it failed to damage it.

Eldar Turn 3 
Fortuned my banshees + Farseer and doomed the closest tac squad (I wanted to go for the one furthest left but wasn’t sure on range oh well). I got in my Autarch + DA serpent and one of my BL serpents from reserves, positioning them left and middle respectively and both squads jumped out. I then got my girls and Farseer out of the immobilized serpent and moved them behind a building and I moved my right dragon serpent back to be out of any range of the termies should they come closer, I then moved my middle dragon serpent to the left.
Shooting from my immobile serpent + dragon serpents saw 3 dead land speeders. My Dire Avenger squad’s blade stormed, sadly coz of terrain I had to split targets the doomed squad only lost 3 or so guys whilst the non-doomed squad lost 5-6 it was massive. Neither unit’s fell back.

Salamanders - 0 Eldar – 2

Salamanders Turn 4
He moved the doom squad up the middle through an open building his other 2 tac squads (Vulkans’ in one of them) went to my left whilst his termies continued to climbed over some rubble towards my immobile serpent getting into charge range (come to think about it they had lost a termie from something earlier I think a shuriken cannon perhaps?) His dreadnaughts were heading to the left as well.

His tac squad in the middle shot their pistols at my middle DAs killing 1 maybe. One squad on the left shot a melta at a wave serpent not able to pen one dread then fired a melta as well failing to pen (this happened to many times I LOOOOOVE the energy shield) and iirc the other tac squad fired at some DAs killing a couple.

He then charged his middle tac marines into my middle DAs and the DAs backhanded him something shocking killing 2-3 marines. The marines did a few wounds too and we stayed in combat. His termies managed to charge my immobile serpent of course destroying it.

Eldar Turn 4 
I fortuned my banshees and doomed the tac squad that was fighting the DAs my last wave serpent came in and I deployed it on the very left board edge 12” up and obscured by a building.

My eyes lit up as I saw in my opponents back field had 3 drop pods all by themselves so I went flat out with my right fire dragon serpent I shuffled my middle dragons a bit further to the left into the open, jumped my autarch back into his serpent and I moved my other Serpent (the ones that belonged to the DAs who were locked in combat) around and got my banshees inside of it I didn’t want to charge a full squad of banshees into killing 3 or so marines as it’d leave them stranded and in rapid fire range not to mention 2 dreads looming nearby. A few of my wave serpents shot not much happened. The DA serpent on the far side shot its brightlance at one of the back drop pods and blew off its storm bolter. Woo!

A death or so on each side of the combat, it stayed drawn.

Salamanders - 1 Eldar – 2

Salamanders Turn 5
My opponent moved his termies towards the combat, one tac squad went towards the combat (all in the middle more or less on my side of the board). Both his dreads went left into the clearing, as did Vulkans’ squad.

A few melta shots at my dragons serpent failed to pen (<3) though one managed to explode the autarch+ DA serpent and killed half the poor lads.

He then charged his tac squad into CC and the DAs eventually fell, holding the line and giving up their lives, the banshees looking on from the monitor inside their wave serpent that was nearby…

Eldar Turn 5
Fortuned the Banshees and doomed the larger squad that had killed the DAs, they jumped out of the serpent and moved between both marine squads setting up for a multi assault.
The dragons in the backfield dropped off next to a drop pod.
The serpent my Banshees were in flew up a bit to draw LoS to the remaining drop on the right. My DA serpent that was furthest left flew into the clearing and dropped off its Dire Avengers.

Dragons in the back bagged a drop pod their serpent failed to do anything to any of the others back there.
My recently deployed DAs blade-stormed Vulkans’ squad killing a few in the process.
Serpent fire didn’t do much.
Held back firing the banshees pistols in case they somehow forced the marines to fall back out of assault range

My lovely ladies multi assaulted both marine squads finishing them both off before they could react though they only managed to massacre 3”

Salamanders - 3 Eldar – 5

Salamanders Turn 6
Vulkans’ squad and the termies both moved in against the banshees the dreads didn’t do much (perhaps a few more failed to pen meltas?).

Vulkan fired his heavy flamer thing at the girls causing 4 wounds so I took one on my exarch and one on my Farseer (fortune was still up) they both lived though I lost 2 ladies =(

Vulkans’ squad then charged the girls who managed to kill the rest of the tac squad he was with before he hammered them. I think I love combat but the girls held.

Eldar Turn 6
Fortuned my banshees + Farseer

I moved my left dragons (the ones who hadn’t done a thing the whole game cept sit in their tank and shoot) up in front of the front dread and dropped them off there. DAs jumped back into their serpent. The dragons in the backfield moved towards the next drop pod back there whilst their serpent flew in to get LoS on the back dreadnaught.

The dragons in front of the dreadnaught fired managing to stop it shooting and blowing off its hammer arm (I have terrible rolls with them). 
The serpents on the left failed to do squat.
Dragons in the back bagged the drop pod and their wave serpent managed to immobilize and blow off the heavy flamer arm of the back dread (the dreads are standing right behind each other in kind of an alley way to give you a better idea of what’s going on).

The banshees either failed to hit or failed to wound Vulkan even with fortune. Vulkan focused his attacks onto my Farseer 3 hits 3 wounds, failed 2 saves. Rolled fortune… failed one save, poor lad got instagibbed.
The girls held their ground now only 3 left.

Salamanders - 4 Eldar – 7

Yes, it went to turn 7!

Salamanders turn 7
Not much left to do, termies got within charge range of the banshees and the ironclad that could move charged the dragons.

My ladies got killed =( Horribly!
The termies and Vulkan joined up and then started marching back across the field towards the combat between the fire dragons and the dread.
Dragons missed all their melta bombs and the dread killed one but they held.

Eldar Turn 7
The dragons in the backfield moved towards the drop pod on the middle/right, their serpent moved right up behind the back ironclad.
Both remaining DA squads got into position to fire upon the termies.

The dragons failed to do much damage from shooting at the drop pod (sigh) even with them all in <6” range too (Think they all missed bar one who failed to pen)! Their serpent didn’t do much to the back ironclad. 
Both DA squads blade stormed, their serpents fired and after the smoke had cleared only 2 termies had been killed.

I charged my dragons into his drop pod and they managed to blow it sky high with their melta bombs, the other dragons who were in CC with the dread missed all their bombs again, the dread killed one in return but still they held.

Salamanders - 5 Eldar – 8

This is an older battle report I had wrote up it was my first time versing the new Marines. In future Im going to colour code my Dire Avenger and Fire Dragon squads so its easier to follow (or I could just buy a camera right?).