Rogue Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Sons of Medusa vs Eldar | 750 | The Emperor’s Will The xenos had come from nowhere. The orbital sensors indicated no fleet, nor even a landing craft. And yet, here they were, flitting through the ruined munitions factory like shadows, barely presenting a target. Amos’ target matrix suggested others approaching from the north. He snapped orders: "Naphtali, secure the flank. Judah, with me. Prepare to engage, and let the Emperor’s will be done." This is a 750 point ‘The Emperor’s Will’ engagement with two objectives, played across the table. My marines (Sons of Medusa, using Imperial Fist chapter tactics) against Eldar. The battlefield was dominated by a fortified industrial complex in the southeast – its northern access ramp was defended with tank traps and glacis which extended across most of the northern side of the board, and the sheer bulk of the complex cut off the southeast corner of the battlefield. In the southwest corner stood a pair of cooling towers, and towards the northwest was a small hill. The centre of the board was littered with the remains of previous defensive lines. The objectives were both towards the west, behind the hill and between the cooling towers. Eldar Farseer on jetbike: witchblade 10 guardians: scatter laser platform 3 guardians on jetbikes: 5 fire dragons: 5 warp spiders: 2 war walkers: scatter laser and starcannon Wave serpent: scatter laser and shuriken cannon The eldar deployed first, in the northeastern corner. The larger guardian squad, the wave serpent (with fire dragons inside) and the farseer all tried to gain as much cover as possible from the northern tip of the industrial complex. It seemed likely that they would advance along the board edge, using the complex to shield them from incoming fire. The warp spiders, war walkers and jetbike guardians remained in reserve. Sons of Medusa Codicer Amos: force staff and bolt pistol, psychic shriek Tactical squad Judah: 5 marines, flamer Tactical squad Naphtali: 5 marines, flamer Devastator squad Issachar: 5 marines, 2 heavy bolters, 2 lascannon Devastator squad Zebulun: 5 marines, 2 heavy bolters, 2 lascannon Dreadnought Cain: 2 pairs of twin-linked autocannon 2 Razorbacks: twin-linked assault cannon The marines deployed second, in the southwest corner (around the cooling towers). The devastator squads took station on either side of the towers, with the razorbacks (containing the tactical squads and the librarian) outside them – one facing towards the nearby eldar objective behind the hill, the other towards the industrial complex. The dreadnought stood behind the right-hand devastators. Should the marines steal the initiative, the lascannon of that squad and the dreadnought’s autocannon had line-of-sight to the wave serpent. [i did consider deploying opposite the eldar, in the southeast corner; with only half their force deployed, it would be an opportunity to take on a weakened force with my whole army. However, from that corner, the entire rest of the board was out of sight – had the eldar diverted their line of advance away from my marines, my whole force would be cut off and forced to spend several turns repositioning.] TURN 1 Sadly, the marines couldn’t steal the initiative, and the eldar began their advance. As predicted, they disappeared into the shadow of the complex, taking them out of sight of the marine force. Well, almost. The wave serpent, which had taken the lead, overshot the southern edge of the buildings slightly, leaving the front of its hull exposed. DRAW 0-0 The marines advanced cautiously. The left-hand razorback, containing tactical squad Naphtali, moved along the western edge of the board, heading for the deserted and undefended eldar objective. Next to them, devastator squad Zebulun (bereft of targets), moved forward around the towers, bringing their guns to bear on most of the battlefield. On the other side of the towers, the dreadnought moved into position to target the wave serpent. The combined fire of the four autocannon and two lascannon caused a single glancing hit, leaving the serpent on two hull points, and with no further cover between it and the waiting marines. [i’m going to point out here that I completely forgot about the tank hunters rule conferred by Imperial Fist chapter tactics. For the whole game. Yes, I know.] DRAW 0-0 TURN 2 The eldar reserves began to arrive. Sort of. The warp spiders tried to drop in behind the marine lines, scattered into a nearby rock formation, and promptly returned to reserves, joining the waiting jetbikes. The war walkers were more successful, entering play behind the hill, and taking position on either side of the objective marker. The wave serpent advanced towards the marines, now firmly within their deployment zone, whilst the guardians continued their long trek behind the industrial complex. The farseer bravely remained in cover to supervise them, but did cast guide on the serpent. The eldar shooting was limited but effective. The war walkers killed three of squad Zebulun, leaving just a lascannon and a heavy bolter. The wave serpent opened up at the dreadnought with its scatter laser and shuriken cannon, causing six hits and (despite needing sixes) three glancing hits. The dreadnought was dead, and the eldar had scored first blood. [From here on in, the lack of cover in the marine deployment zone began to count. Although I was tucked up against the cooling towers, they were line-of-sight blocking terrain – if I took cover, I’d have no way to return fire either. With the walkers’ starcannon now in play, and the fire dragons getting closer in the wave serpent, I needed to get some quick kills.] ELDAR LEAD 1-0 Attacked on two fronts, the marines split their firepower. To the north, the razorback advanced and deployed squad Naphtali, and both opened up on the war walkers, killing one. The survivors of squad Zebulun fired on the remaining walker, and the lascannon punched a hole straight through it, causing it to explode. One set of reserves had been dealt with. To the south, the lascannon of squad Issachar and the assault cannon of the other razorback tried to finish off the wave serpent, but despite landing all six hits, were unable to register even a single glancing blow on the skimmer. [Hmm. I’d wanted the wave serpent dead by now. So far, it had soaked up two turns of strength 6, 7 and 9 firing at the cost of a single glancing hit. By way of contrast, the serpent itself had flattened the dreadnought in a single turn, despite having nothing over strength 6.] ELDAR LEAD 1-0 TURN 3 Once again, the jetbikes failed to appear from reserve. The warp spiders did turn up, and made a second attempt to deep strike behind the marine lines. Again, however, they scattered, this time landing off the table completely, finding themselves returned to reserves for the second turn running. The wave serpent advanced on the marine position, finally joined by the farseer, who took a sheltered position on its left flank. The fire dragons disembarked from the rear, and found cover behind a low glacis, but out of range of their fusion weapons. The wave serpent and the farseer fired on squad Issachar, killing three marines (leaving the two lascannon). ELDAR LEAD 1-0 Tactical squad Naphtali, having contributed to the death of the war walkers in the previous turn, now advanced to take control of the eldar objective (and scored linebreaker in the process). Their razorback turned and headed back towards the action at top speed. To the south, squad Judah and the librarian deployed in front of the razorback, and squad Zebulun moved to find new targets. The surviving members of squad Issachar fired both lascannon at the wave serpent, glancing it once. Hoping to finish it off, the razorback opened up, but was unable to find the vital glancing hit. In desperation, squad Zebulun and the other razorback both snapfired – the lascannon missed, whilst the razorback make use of its twin-linked weapons to score two hits and a single glancing blow, but at the last moment, the wave serpent jinked and survived another turn. Squad Judah rapid fired at the farseer, but the extra toughness conferred by his jetbike meant that only one wound was inflicted, and he was able to deny the librarian’s psychic shriek too. [The wave serpent had now survived three turns of firing. With the misfortunes of the warp spiders, and with the guardians still stranded behind the complex, I had hoped to crack the serpent and have time to take out the stranded fire dragons too. Instead, I was now staring down the barrel of several heavy weapons and the untouched fire dragons. Not good.] SONS OF MEDUSA LEAD 4-1 TURN 4 Finally, the jetbikes arrived from reserve, and joined the still advancing guardians behind the industrial complex. The warp spiders also appeared, but suffered their third scatter and third mishap, this time materialising immediately next to one of the razorbacks (within an inch), and being cast back into reserves for the third turn in a row. The wave serpent gunned its engines, skimming up and over the razorback to bring its weapons to bear on the rear armour. The fire dragons advanced, and the farseer tried to find cover behind the cooling towers whilst guiding the shooting of the fire dragons and engaging the librarian in a mind war. Surprisingly, the marine won, reducing the farseer to WS and BS 1. Unsurprisingly, the wave serpent made short work of the razorback, destroying it with the scatter lasers. The fire dragons proved equally deadly, reducing the whole of squad Judah to ash in a single turn of firing. SONS OF MEDUSA LEAD 4-1 The last razorback reversed, bringing the wave serpent back into line of sight, and the librarian prepared to charge the weakened farseer. Between them, the three lascannon of the surviving devastators and the assault cannon on the razorback scored only one glancing hit on the serpent, and once again, it was deflected by the jink save. The librarian took one wound from the farseer, but the two remained locked in combat. [it was at this point that we began to realise that the wave serpent wasn’t going to die. Ever. In the combat, the librarian could have attempted to force weapon the farseer to death, but chose to remain locked in combat instead, to avoid the guns of the serpent.] SONS OF MEDUSA LEAD 4-1 TURN 5 The warp spiders finally arrived on the battlefield. They still scattered, but having aimed for the hill, ended up landing just behind the last razorback, which they promptly shot to pieces. The wave serpent advanced northwards, bringing squad Naphtali into sight, and killed four. The fire dragons faltered slightly, killing one of squad Issachar’s lascannon, and leaving one still standing. The guardians and jetbikes advanced into the marines deployment zone, scoring linebreaker. The librarian and farseer contined their duel, but neither was able to cause a single wound. SONS OF MEDUSA LEAD 4-2 The last tactical marine holding the eldar objective fired at the warp spiders and missed. The last member of squad Issachar felled one fire dragon with a lascannon blast, whilst the lascannon of squad Zebulun hit the wave serpent, but failed to cause a glancing hit. The librarian and farseer continued to swing and miss at each other. [i’d hoped that the librarian would finish off the farseer in the eldar turn, freeing him up for a desperate charge against the rear armour of the wave serpent, which his strength 6 force staff had a fair chance of cracking. However, in a stunning display of ineptitude, the two psykers seemed to alternate between failing to even hit and failing to wound (on 2s). As it turns out, if the game had finished here, despite their massive losses, the marines would still have won, as I held the eldar objective, and no-one held mine. Sadly, it was not to be.] SONS OF MEDUSA LEAD 4-2 TURN 6 The warp spiders turned and obliterated the last marine holding the objective (also removing the marines’ linebreaking unit). The wave serpent gunned down the last two members of squad Zebulun, and the fire dragons finished off the last lascannon marine. The jetbikes advanced past the fire dragons, ready to gun down the librarian if necessary. The librarian finally remembered how to fight, and killed the farseer, gaining slay the warlord. ELDAR LEAD 2-1 The librarian, by now the only marine left standing, shot one jetbike out of the sky with his bolt pisto, before charged into the other two. Here, he proved less effective, and no further wounds were caused by either side. ELDAR LEAD 2-1 TURN 7 The wave serpent drifted back around the cooling towers, giving itself a line of sight to the librarian. The fire dragons retreated a little to give the skimmer a clear field of fire. Over two rounds of combat, the librarian finished off the jetbikers, but was left facing the wave serpent, two squads of aspect warriors and the untouched guardian infantry… ELDAR WIN 2-1 Turning from the lifeless xenos psyker, Amos saw the last few embattled green points disappear from his display. Overcome with rage, he hurled himself into the jetbikers, feeling their shuriken discs patter of his armour like a child’s toys. One fell to his bolt pistol, the jetbike twisting into the towers behind him. The second was swept from his mount by Amos’ force staff, and the momentum carried both the staff and the broken body into the path of the last jetbike. Gritting his teeth, Amos felt the impact even as his armour braced against it. Before the last jetbike hit the ground, Amos was aware of the distance between himself and the cursed xenos skimmer-tank. To his right, the enemy warriors raised their fusion weapons. Amos offered a silent commendation to the Emperor, and prepared to sell his life dearly. What was that wave serpent about? Over the course of the game, it soaked up 4 twin autocannon shots, 11 lascannon rounds, and 16 assault cannon attacks, all of which caused just two glancing hits. In return, it single-handedly dropped my dreadnought in a single turn, and then repeated the trick with the razorback in turn four, killed three devastators, four tacticals and then two more devastators – that’s around 400 points, or more than half of my army. Ouch. I’m aware that I probably became obsessed with putting it down, and in retrospect, the assault cannon may well have been better off firing the fire dragons, or even the farseer, as it would have had a much better chance of doing real damage that way. I also think that I should have left the eldar objective alone early in the game. Going for it took one of the tactical squads out of the game, and meant that the razorback arrived later than it should have to the main fire-fight by the cooling towers. A more condensed force early on would have let me really benefit from concentration of fire against the skimmers. On the other hand, I would’ve lost the chance to pop the walkers straight away. What would I do differently next time? Honestly, I’m struggling to see past the wave serpent. Nail that in turn two, and everything else falls into place. That said, I think I could have used the razorbacks better – don’t waste assault cannon rounds on AV12, and don’t let skimmers get too close and skim over the top. Backing away would have prevented that, and might have kept the razorback alive for another turn or two (and would have moved it away from the fire dragons to boot). The split weapon devastators were interesting. This was a suggestion from GreyCrow (thanks), and turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. Had the lascannon been together, I could have had twice as many lascannon shots at the wave serpent in the first couple of turns. However, the split meant that I still had three operational lascannon until late in the game, and always had at least one with line-of-sight to the serpent. It’ll be interesting to see how they go when I’m winning one. And yes, when I remember to use my own chapter tactics. Still kicking myself on that one. Always keen to take on advice, so if you fancy chipping in, feel free. (And you can see this lot doing slightly better against the Grey Knights over here, or add your thoughts regarding the army composition over here instead. Cheers.) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/292027-sons-of-medusa-vs-eldar-750-pts/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
librisrouge Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I completely understand your frustration with Wave Serpents. Have you started using the 7th Edition rules yet? The change to jink should help to kill them since many Eldar will likely not jink in order to still shoot, at least against things they don't normally register as threats (such as assault cannons.) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/292027-sons-of-medusa-vs-eldar-750-pts/#findComment-3709584 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 No, we're still on 6th. I haven't got the rules anyway (which is my tenuous defence for forgetting the tank hunters thing), so it'll depend on when other people pick up 7th ed. I'm going to hang on till the started set makes an appearance. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/292027-sons-of-medusa-vs-eldar-750-pts/#findComment-3710417 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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