First game in six years

[a1elbow]

I'm writing this report up for a few reasons. One, there is somewhat of an artform to battle reports and I want to get pretty good at it. Two, I think sorting indepth through a game is beneficial to a player. Three, I'd like any advice on things I might have missed, tactically or in terms of rules.

 

I played this game last Friday and typed up a report earlier but right at the end something happened and the page reset, deleting everything (what I get for starting at midnight). This was a 2000 point Seize Ground battle between my Sisters and an Eldar player. I had seen him play a game before, but didn't get to pay much attention as I was also watching another game.

 

Here are the lists, mine is exact, while the Eldar list is approximate in terms of some of the equipment,but otherwise correct

 

Sisters:

Cannoness w/ Bless Weapon, Plamsa Pistol, BoSL, Cloak of St Aspiria

5 Celestians w/ Melta and Heavy Flamer, Vet w/ Combi-Flamer and Evis (oops), and Immolator w/ Smoke Launchers

10 Sisters w/ Melta and Heavy Flamer, Vet w/ BoSL, and Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers

10 Sisters w/ Melta and Heavy Flamer, Vet w/ Combi-flamer, and Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers

10 Sisters w/ Melta and Heavy Flamer, Vet w/ BoSL, and Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers

10 Sisters w/ Melta and Heavy Flamer, Vet w/ Combi-flamer, and Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers

7 Seraphim w/ 2 Twin-flamers and Vet w/ Evis

6 Dominions w/ melta, 3 flamers, vet w/ combi-melta, and Immolator w/ smoke launchers

6 Dominions w/ melta, 3 flamers, vet w/ combi-melta, and Immolator w/ smoke launchers

Exorcist

Exorcist

 

Eldar:

Farseer w/ Guide and Fortune

Fuegan w/ Fire Dragons in a Falcon

Fire Dragons in a Falcon

Guardians w/ 2 Flamers, Warlock w/ Heavy Flamer (I assume a psychic ability, but forgot to roll against it), in a Wave Serpent

Guardians w/ 2 Flamers, Warlock w/ Heavy Flamer, in a Wave Serpent

Guardians w/ 2 Flamers, Warlock w/ Heavy Flamer, in a Wave Serpent

3 War Walkers (all scatter lasers)

2 Night Spinners

 

Setup:

Terrain was fairly light, mostly around the edges in except for one quarter. Two diagonally opposite quarters had large, three level buildings in them, one near the center of the board and the other farther back. Both buildings had some small ruins spread out around them, running up along the board edge. These were too small to block line of sight, but would provide good cover. The other two quarters had very large mesa-like hill deep in each of them.

 

The roll for objectives came up five, but we forgot to put them out until after deployment zones were chosen. The Eldar won to deploy/go first, and I took the quarter with the building near the center as it provided more cover for the first turn. Right before the Eldar deployed we noticed the lack of objectives. One went on each mesa, one went in a ruin on the outside of each player's zone, and finally one went in the center building.

 

The Eldar placed the 'spinners behind their large building, two serpents on his right flank, one on his left, the firedragons in the center, and finally the walkers in a ruin near his board edge, the Farseer joining them.

 

I placed my tanks out looking to make a strong left flank move through the mostly open terrain on that side of the board. Three Rhinos, a Dominion Immolator, and my HQ Immolator were placed on this side in such a way that the front Rhino would provide cover for the rest. On my right I put out another Sister squad (one with a BoSL) and the other Dominion Immolator, again so the Rhino would cover up the Immolator. The Seraphims were behind the building and the two Exorcist in a line, one in a ruin and the other between two ruins. My plan was to take the two objectives closest to me (the building and the ruin by my quarter) and use the rest of my army to keep off at least two objectives. I thought moving up along the left board edge and then falling back would get it down.

 

The game, turn one:

The right flank serpent and the falcons moved slightly forward, but held back to make a move in the second turn. The serpents on the left ranged down to take the two objectives along there. Shooting was light. The front rhino in the mass was blown up and a large part of the unit taken out by the walkers. My right flank rhino was immobilised by one of the serpents. The Nightspinners targeted the Seraphim, but scattered too far and didn't affect them, even with the twin-linking.

 

My turn started out poorly, the Dominion Immolator being forced to move through terrain to get around the stuck Rhino and failing it's test, becoming immobilisied itself. However, it was close enough to the three-level to fire it's heavy flamer on any Eldar attempting to take that objective. Next I began moving the tanks on my left. Two Rhinos moved farther up the board towards the far hill and the objective on top. The last Rhino moved towards the center through terrain, which test I failed, sticking another transport. My Immolators on that flank moved in behind the Rhinos. The Sisters in the right Rhino got out and moved towards the building, along with the Seraphim. Finally I attempted to move the foremost Exorcist up and into a ruin, but failed that test too. The only effective shooting was from the stuck Exorcist, which blew up the lone Wave Serpent. My HQ Immolator and the Rhino out in front blew smoke.

 

Turn two:

The Firedragons moved in looking to blow up some tanks. Both moved into the dead center of the table and got out. The now transportless Guardians worked their way towards the hill, and the other two serpents floated into the area of both objectives on that side. The Dragons blew up a Rhino and the Dominion Immolator, the smoke deflecting some of the damage from the scatter lasers on the Falcons. I screwed up here, forgetting to roll to wound and skipping straight to the armor saves and so lost four sisters from the squad and three Dominions. The Spinners dropped both shots on the mass of Sisters and Seraphim, killing only a couple of models but inflicting the annoying difficult/dangerous terrain tests.

 

I went into attack mode on the Firedragons and their Falcons. My Cannoness and Celestians deployed and moved up to surround Fuegan, as did the Dominions. The remains of the two Sister squads raced for the hill, although one moved into difficult terrain and even with running only moved 3" (I rolled a 1,2 for terrain and a 1 to run). I got tenative and with all the ones I was rolling for terrain tests, I didn't move the Seraphim or the Sisters. The Dominions got out of their stuck Immolator and moved towards the objectives on my right. I put just about everything into the Dragons and the Falcons. In the end, I blew up a Falcon, stunned the other, killed three dragons from one squad (Fuegan shook off several wounds), and four from the other. The War Walkers (with Fortune) shook off Exorcist missles, while the other killed a couple Guardians from the squad out in the open. Finally my HQ charged Fuegan, killing the last two Dragons with him and inflicting two wounds on him. In return the dragons killed a Celestian, and the 2+ invulnerable on my Cannoness shrugged off the Eldar's MC attacks (thankfully). Combat continued.

 

Turn three:

 

Very little movement from the Eldar, just the Guardian squad posturing around the three objectives. The two Fire Dragons blew up my last active Immolator, the War Walkers killed off one of the partial squads of sisters, and the serpents killed some of the Dominions moving towards them on the right. The Spinners again hit my Sisters and Seraphims, again killed some, and again laid out magicial mesh around to trip them up. In Combat Fuegan attacked the squad, but couldn't kill any before my Cannoness finished him off.

 

My Cannoness booked it towards the Walkers, which had survived a lot of fire I haven't mentioned with Fortune, and whose Guided Scatter Lasers had done a lot of damage. I hoped rolls would go in my favor and I would be able to get the Heavy Flamer, the Evis, and the Blessed Weapon/Plasma Pistol into them. The rest of my army continued to advance on the objectives, including the squad getting pelted by the Spinners. The last three Seraphim jumped over the building to kill the fire Dragons. Shooting saw the last Falcon shot down, the last two Fire Dragons removed by the Twin-Flamers, and a lot of running from my squads. Also, the Walkers shook off yet more Exorcist missles due to re-rolled cover saves and the serpents out right survived another turn from my other exorcist. Most importantly, the Rhino sitting around with the full squad in it churned to life, ready to move in the next turn.

 

Turn four:

No movement for the Eldar, already in ample position to fire. The Walkers started off breaking my heart, inflicting seventeen wounds on my Celestians and destroying them in one swipe. The rest of the Eldar shooting did little, only inflicting a few wounds here and there, but finishing off the left and right (very partial) Dominion squads, leaving just four models from the sister squads on either side of the board.

 

With my army getting blasted I was just about in desperation mode. As it stood the Eldar were up 3-0 and I was mostly on foot. The full squad in the Rhino ran up to the Walkers, hopped out behind them. The partial squad out on the right moved under the hill, positioning to get the best use of their Heavy Flamer and Combi-Flamer. The sisters and Dominions on the right moved up to go after the serpents. Finally able to inflict some real damage on the troop choices, I burned the entire squad on the far left hill. On the right a meltagun took down one serpent, the squad getting lightly toasted by the flamers in the Seraphim squad. An Exorcist knocked out the last Serpent, leaving the Eldar without possession of any objectives. Most importantly, the full squad blew up two Walkers and stunned the third.

 

Turn five:

The Eldar started off turn five opposite of how they had turn four, in very bad shape. The two guardian squads moved to take the two objectives and shot down the dominions and two seraphim. To get on the hill and take hold of the objective, the Eldar had to pack themselves tight. One Spinner shot at the full squad nearby , but killed only one. The other fired at the last seraphim (who had a twin-flamer), but it scattered into the Guardians.

 

Finally, my sisters on the left climbed the hill and took an objective. The full squad in the rhino got on board and moved towards the nearest objective. The other sister squad to my right lined up to toast the Sardine-packed Eldar. Shooting was short but sweet, the Seraphim killing a couple of guardians. A flamer and a Heavy Flamer racked the Eldar on the hill, with the unit getting reduced to one model who was promptly blown off by four wounds from the Exorcist. Lastly, the Seraphim charged the Eldar, whose react move pulled them away from the objective. The Seraphim died, but in so doing the Eldar lost control of the objective. At this point the game ended.

 

Game end:

I left it to my opponent to decide if his guardians were within range of the objective as it was difficult to measure with a wall between them and it seemed they were right at the thre inch point. I would have been fine with a draw, but he settled on giving me the win, I assume either because he knew it was my first game in a long time or because if the game went on any longer he wouldn't have been able to stop me from taking out his last few guardians and because I still had a full squad. Either way, I didn't say no.

 

I had some terrible luck at the start with all the failed terrain tests, but on the other hand I never rolled less than a four for the Exorcist Launcher's random number of shots. I never lost hope since I knew that once I blew open his transports, everything inside was conplete Heavy Flamer fire. Once I shot down his last two Serpents and took his Walker squad out of the next turn I felt I had a 70-30 chance of winning.

 

I made some bad mistakes in terms of forgetting rules, losing half of two squads when their vehicles were destroyed and losing a few models to what I assume is a psychic power from the Warlocks. I thought my tactics were suitable, although I used to pride myself on knowing my enemy as well as them and forgetting that Eldar Warwalkers are nasty and underestimating their ability to dish it out and take it with Guide and Fortune in cover. All in all though, I had a good time and was glad to finally get in a game after a long time out.