(Blurry dreadnoughts FTW)Hey folks!
I got in some 40k today with possibly my favorite foe. Seriously, I enjoy every game with this guy. It's always a close call, especially when he uses his blood angels, for I have never seen someone use them so well. Anyway, it's time for a battle report!
I decided to use my eldar for once. Now, my eldar have never played over 750 points, and I am relatively new to them. I had a feeling that in my game against my friend's speedy marines, one of us would get completely decimated...
Now, here are the lists!
Eldar:
-Eldrad Ulthran
-6 Howling Banshees, 1 exarch w/ an executioner, counter attack
-Wave Serpent, shuriken cannons
-9 Fire Dragons
-Wave Serpent, shurken cannons
-5 Rangers
-5 Dire Avengers
-8 Dire Avengers, 1 exarch w/ 2 catapults, knows bladestorm
-5 Warp Spiders, 1 exarch w/ 2 death spinners
-3 War Walkers, each has 2 scatter lasers
-Fire Prism
-Wraithlord, shuriken cannon/scatter laser
Blood Angels:
-Librarian, storm shield, terminator armour, blood lance, sanguine sword
-5 Assault Terminators, all have thunder hammers/storm shields
-Sanguinary Priest, terminator armour
-5 Assault Marines, no upgrades
-Razorback, TL lascannon
-5 Assault Marines, no upgrades
-Razorback, TL lascannon
-10 Assault Marines, 2 meltaguns, 1 powerfist, jump packs
-Land Speeder, multimelta
-3 Bikes, 2 have meltaguns, 1 has powerfist
-Baal Predator, TL assault cannon, 2 heavy bolters
-Vindicator, siege shield
So, we rolled for mission and deployment...
Annihilation, Dawn of War. He won the roll off and decided to go first. He then chose to reserve everything. I copied this move, not wanting to take the first casualties (which I still would). The battlefield had random rubble and ruins scattered across it. In the center of my table edge, there was a large, abandoned ruin. This ruin would be my main deployment area.
Top of turn 1: Nothing happens.
Bottom of turn 1: Nothing happens.
Top of turn 2: His baal, vindicator and land speeder come in from reserve. His land speeder zips to the my left, his vindicator and baal deploy in the center and roll up.
Bottom of turn 2: My fire dragons, fire prism, 8 man avenger squad, rangers, warp spiders and wraithlord come from reserve. I deploy all of my infantry behind the large ruin in my deployment zone to prepare for his boys to rush me. My prism and fire dragon wave serpent deploy behind some rubble on the left side of my table edge. The wave serpents turbo-boosts over to the side of the ruins and turns sideways to block any visible infantry of mine from LoS. Thanks to night fighting, none of my shots hit.
Top of turn 3: The rest of his army shows up. He throws his jump pack squad behind his tanks to prepare to roll up. He deep strikes his terminators right beside the ruin that has my guys behind it. His land speeder rushes up to help to terminators. His baal kills a single ranger with its heavy bolter.
Bottom of 3: Eldrad/banshees, war walkers and the other dire avenger squad come in. The rest of my army moves out from behind the ruins. The terminators are now surrounded by my entire army basically. I'm forced to load every single shot I have into the terminators. I manage to kill every member of the squad except for the librarian. I am forced to charge the librarian with Eldrad and the banshees. I cause 6 power weapon wounds to him, and he makes every single 3+ invulnerable. He swings at the banshees and misses completely. The score stands at
Eldar:2 BA:0
Top of turn 4: His vindicator, baal and troops move up a few inches to take advantage of my troops moving out. My infantry is still obscured from my wave serpent, though. His baal unloads its 10 shots on my warp spiders, who make every single save. The vindicator then lobs a shell right into the heart of my compacted mass of eldar. My fire dragons go to ground, and I lose 2 dragons. I also lose 2 warp spiders from the vindicator blast. The enemy land speeder lines up a rear-armor shot on Eldrad's wave serpent, immobilizing it. My other wave serpent is also stunned by lascannon fire. The librarian/Eldrad/Banshee combat continues. I cause another 6 wounds to the librarian, finally killing him. I make my 1 inch consolidation move with pride.
Bottom of turn 4: My infantry runs back behind the ruins for safety, except for the warp spiders, who dash towards the land speeder. My wraithlord also lumbers from behind cover to face a razorback that has gotten too close to my ruins. The prism finds a nice little gap in the ruins it's hiding behind, which it can shoot through. Now, the shooting phase. The warp spiders zapped the land speeder, managing 5 penetrating hits and wrecking it. The wraithlord then unloads its heavy weapons into the closest razorback, blowing it up. The war walkers, who are covering the retreating infantry, also manage to penetrate a razorback's armor 6 times and glancing it twice. My enemy makes 4/6 cover saves on the pens, and 1/2 of the cover saves on the glances. The results are an immobilize and 2 weapon destroyed, which means a wreck on the razorback. To cap it all off, my fire prism makes the shot of the day, hitting the vindicator's side armor through a gap in some ruins from about 50" away. The vindicator then exploded and killed a marine or two. The score stands at Eldar:7, Blood Angels:0 with most of my forces now behind the ruins again.
My foe ran out of time and was forced to throw in the towel.
Victory, Eldar!
Overall, my enemy had the advantage of range and a newer codex, but he wasn't accustomed the playing against eldar, and that's why I won probably. He was also trying to go quickly because he had to go as soon as possible. Still, I am proud to say that I won this game by using eldar sneakiness and eldar trickery alone.
