1,000 point Death Korps of Krieg versus Eldar

[FashaTheDog]

As there was a 500 point game going, we only had a 4'x4' space to work with as we were too lazy to pull one of the sheets of 4'x8' wood off and set up a second table.  In all honesty the extra table would have made no real difference either, so it was just as well.  We deployed a trench network on opposite corners, a large building complex in my other corner, a tall building in the opposite one to that, and a crashed Aquila Lander around the central portion.  With the mission being Big Guns Never Tire with four objectives, I placed both of mine as close to my corners as possible while my foe placed one in his trenches and the other in front of my network so I had to leave shelter to go get it.  We diced off and he opted to deploy and go first.

 

With a pair of Rangers to start he placed one unit upon his objective in his trenches while the other found cover in the top floors of the tall building, protected from my lethal artillery thanks to the roof above them.  Following this his matched set of Wave Serpents full of Dire Avengers and his Falcon with embarked Fire Dragons stayed spread out and ready to rush forward.  Only his Autarch remained in reserve, waiting to deep strike in when the time was right.

 

Not particularly caring about where he deployed I had already decided and dropped my models into their chosen places.  A Medusa Siege Gun went in each corner to claim an objective with an Infantry Squad in front of them; the meltagun squad in the trenches and the plasma gun squad in the building complex on the upper floors.  I put the Platoon Command Squad with the standard, pair of plasma guns, and a plasma pistol in the trenches while the ten strong Engineers with their demo charge and mole mortar went on the far side of the building complex, placing them near the center.  A lascannon Heavy Weapons Squad went between the Engineers and the plasma gun squad in the complex while my Company HQ stood behind line of sight blocking walls behind the Engineers.  To finish I put a Cyclops in front of the Medusa using the complex to hide the operator and his remote while the Heavy Mortars went next to that same Medusa.

 

At this point I failed to seize the initiative and informed my foe that even though the list says my HQ has a refractor field, I would not ever take the invulnerable save unless he insisted I did as the fluff is pretty clear that Krieger see no use in silly expensive things that protect life.

 

As expected the trio of grav tanks zipped forward to end right on top of my lines in preparation for part two of his cunning plan.  The Rangers took a few shots at the artillery and lascannons, inflicting a wound each.  In response I blasted a hull point off a Wave Serpent and killed two Rangers in the trenches.  Overall a quiet first turn. 

 

The second turn was much more lively as he decided that fortune favors the bold and placed his deep striking Autarch in a spot where if he scattered it was a guaranteed mishap and as I predicted, he rolled a hit so now his HQ was right in the heart of my backfield, but just in the complex.  Both units of Dire Avengers disembarked with one advancing upon my trenches standing 1" away from my metlagun squad and Platoon Command while the other unit marched into the complex to face off against the Engineers.  His shooting saw the lascannon squad destroyed (that never would have happened in the last list as they would have been combined with the plasma gun squad), another wound taken from the trench side Medusa crew, and a couple of Kriegers killed from the meltagun squad and Engineers.  My return fire wounded the Autarch from my Company HQ, and killed about half of the Dire Avengers, with the trench side squad reduced to three and both Exarchs were included in the dead.  The Dire Avengers in the complex fell back 3".

 

Maneuvering the Falcon into the complex he unleashed the Fire Dragons who discovered that their fusion guns needed 3+ to wound my artillery and he was in the mood to roll loads of 2s. The fleeing Dire Avengers rallied right back to where they fled from.  More shooting saw each Medusa lose a crew, leaving one gun with only a single crew member to continue the barrage.  Launching the assaults, the trench side Dire Avengers crashed into the Platoon Command while the other unit was content to shoot a couple of Engineers dead.  The Autarch charged into the Heavy Mortar crew but took a wound to overwatch.  While he won both combats, the Death Korps refused to yield. 

 

I sent the meltagun squad into the fray to finish the three Dire Avengers while my Cyclops positioned for a charge on the Autarch, so I was content that both assaults would see optimal reinforcements sent in.  The shooting phase was looking a little lackluster with my workhorse unit (Heavy Mortars) tied up in combat, but I did kill the Dire Avengers with the Engineer's shooting so I felt good about it before I opened up with the Medusi.  The first Medusa failed to do anything so I tried the other, this time on the Fire Dragons knowing a scatter would result in friendly fire, which I find hilarious.  Sure enough the shot scattered, but where you ask?  Right into the Autarch's assault!  I know many of you think that was a miss, but I can assure you it is exactly where I would have placed the template had I been allowed fire into the assault so it was really a hit; I just needed the scatter to fire into the assault as planned.  I still caught four of the five targeted Fire Dragons, but I also caught one of the Company HQ, all but one of my Heavy Mortar crew in the assault, and the Autarch.  Of those hit, only a single Heavy Mortar crew was not wounded and everyone who had a cover or invulnerable save failed!  Emperor be praised for the pinpoint accuracy of Krieg artillery!  So with the assault resolved the two survivors returned to their guns.  With the Autarch gone, the Cyclops veered left, right into the Falcon, detonating and blasting the grav tank into a flaming crater.

 

With what looked to be an assured victory now looking to be an imminent loss, the Eldar hunkered down to weather the Krieg fire.  At this point the only real action thanks to all the Eldar cover saves was the remaining assault that ended with a bunch of dead Dire Avengers.  Thanks to WS4, all the many 3s my foe rolled to hit throughout that multiple turn assault were misses and was the sole reason they did not win that combat every turn.  He had a Wave Serpent hovering next to my trench side Medusa the last few turns and the best I could do was glance it once.

 

We tallied up the points and each of us had an objective, cancelling each other out.  He had first blood and line breaker, but I had slay the warlord  and killed one of his heavy supports, making the game a draw.  I must be slipping as my last two games saw me only lose a small number of models; this game saw 29 of 90 models killed, or 32.22% casualties.  I am much more accustomed to 80-90% losses, win or lose.  I must work harder to martyr them in the future.

 

It was a fun game that seemed to go very much in the Eldar's favor right up until that one Medusa turned it all around.  That's not to say it was one of those nonsense situations where one roll upset a sweep; far from it.  The game was fairly close with both of us struggling to get an edge over the other until he assaulted with a unit I had no answer to.  He was poised to finishing off my artillery in my turn, assaulting the Medusa or my HQ and killing that and leaving me in a bad position to respond as those Fire Dragons also needed addressing, which meant that his "crushing" advantage consisted of six models.  With my usual tendency to scatter into assaults with my artillery, it was not an impossible turn around, just not a probably one (I do miss accurate on Heavy Mortars as that gave me two chances to shoot them into the assault, but I can take Griffons in the Assault list if I feel I need that).

[Dam13n]

A good (but difficult) read (thanks to the wall of text), thanks for the report.

 

Some pictures or a couple of maps would've be nice (if only to see some cool models, or help the reader visualise the game a little easier)

 

Still, congrats on a healthy, well fought, draw against an Eldar army.

[Axagoras]

Having some pictures or diagrams would help immensely in clearing it up but otherwise was a good read