2000 pts Vs Eldar Bat Rep

[Pigshead]

Yesterday saw my second game of the weekend. The first was a smallish 1000 pts game against my friends Eldar force. Like me, he hasn't been playing very long after a 20+ year absence from the game. His collection is primarily as yet unpainted ebay bargains. The 1000 pts game was his first of 7th Edition. The main event was yesterdays game, as he was staying at my house for the weekend. I spent a long time agonizing over my list, before settling on the list I used against Chaos Marines last week, and then changing it a bit, changing it a bit more, changing it back to it's original form, emailing it to myself, opening it in Battlescribe to discover I was inexplicably 221 points over the limit, deleting the list, making a Deathwing list, and then going back to the second list I made.

Azrael
Ezekiel
8 veterans, drop pod with Deathwind launcher, power fist, power axe, 2 power swords.
Tactical Squad, plasma gun, Heavy bolter, Rhino, dozer blade.
8 Deathwing Terminators, Plasma Cannon, chain fist, 3 Thunder Hammer and Storm shield. Land Raider Crusader, multimelta, dozer blade, extra armour.

3 Black Knights, grenade launcher
Nephilim with Mega Bolter (yeah, I know, but it was my opponents first game with his flyer, so I took this to have some sort of dog fighting fun going on)
Predator, las cannon sponsons, twin linked las cannon, extra armour, dozer blade.

His List
Eldrad
Avatar of Khaine
5 Warlocks.

5 Harlequins, Death Jester, Shadows Seer.
5 Rangers

5 Rangers
5 Dark Reapers

5 Dark Reapers

5 Dark Reapers with Exarch and Star shot missles.

10 Warp Spiders

10 Warp Spiders

Crimson Hunter.

There may have been upgrades in there, I'm not that familiar with the Eldar codex. I think we both counted on one another taking things that neither of us took. He took his Dark Reapers thinking I would be heavily infantry or bike based, and I took a predator for anti armour, which wasn't needed at all.

We played a Maelstrom mission, the one where you generate cards based on how many objectives you hold.

I deployed first, like this excuse the board and the scenery, this is my latest project I've barely started:
http://i.imgur.com/lmVQQqf.jpg

 

The Eldar spread themselves out a bit more. With Rangers infiltrating deep into my left flank...
http://i.imgur.com/1z0AJ9q.jpg
While the Dark Reapers took up positions in the furthest reaches of the battlefield, Eldrad, the warlocks, and the remaining Rangers occupied the building in the middle of the Eldar deployment zone...
http://i.imgur.com/XqgD2ba.jpg

While the Avatar and the Harelquins lurked in a handy bunch of trees.
 

[Pigshead]

Dark Angels turn 1

 

The Predator rolled forwards a little, utilizing the cover afforded by some trees and subsequently preventing one las cannon from having clear LOS, but since I was snap shooting anyway I wasn't too fussed. With no enemy armour on the field, and the Avatar cowering behind some trees, the heavy weapons lashed out across the field of battle at the distant Dark Reapers, and missed entirely. The Rhino re positioned where it could sit on onbjective 6 and still claim cover, the heavy bolter marine snap shooting at the distant Dark Reapers to no avail.
http://i.imgur.com/CuHs7d5.jpg

The Land Raider rolled menacingly forward, the Eldar player suddenly realizing there was little he had that could deal with that tank. the Multi Melta, Assault Cannon, and both Hurricane bolters let rip at Eldrad and his warlocks in the building, one bolt round wounding Eldrad as he failed a save and his look out sir rolls.

http://i.imgur.com/ir5pVwd.jpg

This next picture is the intended site of Azraels veteran laden drop landing. Can you guess what happened?

 

http://i.imgur.com/QIpmup1.jpg

 

So the vets went back into ongoing reserves. On the plus side, the Eldar first turn now consists of having three tanks to shoot at, and not much anti tank weaponry. 

Eldar Turn 1

 

Eldrad tried to get his wound back, and failed, luckily one of the warlocks managed to cast renew on him, thus undoing my only success from turn one. Eldrad then csast Eldritch Storm, and passed, but it scattered wide, narrowly missing the Land Raider. Then cleverly followed this up with Fortune on his own unit, after realising the Land Raider was an assault vehicle full of angry terminators.

The Warlock used their singing spears against the Land Raider, with no damage, and two of the three dark reaper units fired at the Rhino, causing two penetrating hits, destroying the storm bolter and shaking the crew inside up a little. 

http://i.imgur.com/jPC4fTu.jpg

The Harlequins darted forward, clambering onto objective 5, whilst the Avatar staked menacingly towards the crippled Rhino.

http://i.imgur.com/QFq3Cjm.jpg

Dark Angels 0 Eldar 0

[Chaplain Lucifer]

I'm interested in the development. What happened to the drop-pod? Did you forget any Drop pod special rule?

[Pigshead]

Dark Angels Turn 2

 

The Black Knights outflanking, darted into the ruins where the rangers were biding their time, waiting to sneak deeper into enemy lines and take an objective. Grenades and plasma rained down on the sneaky eldar, leaving only one left alive. The Nephilim soared into the battle, raking the roof top of the building in which the Eldar warlord cowered. Killing a total of one Ranger, while the Land Raiders massed bolter and Assault Cannon fire killed another 3.

http://i.imgur.com/NwFCNCy.jpg

The Tactical Squad leaped out of their stricken Rhino, pouring bolts and plasma into the harlequins on objective 5. All the Harlequins perished, save for the shadowseer, as usual the plasma gunner killed himself. And the Objective turned out to be a Skyfire Nexus, which brought a smile to my face as I remembered the armour value of the Eldar flyer.

http://i.imgur.com/TLimbwA.jpg

 

The Predator managed to get a bead on the Avatar, and despite snap shooting two weapons, managed to cause a wound. The drop pod landed pretty much where I wanted it this time, and the vets got out, hammering the Dark Reapers with bolter fire, but only managing a single kill. Ezekiel dominated one squad of Dark Reapers. And the Deathwind launcher almost hit my own squad. 

http://i.imgur.com/zXB2GMQ.jpg

The Terminators came rushing from the Land Raider, screaming obscenities about Eldar witchcraft as all their shots were deflected, before throwing themselves bodily at the Warlord and his coven. Essentially removing both units from the rest of the game as they ineffectively slapped each other silly whilst passing their saving throws.

http://i.imgur.com/1A14XbK.jpg

The only points scored this turn came from the Rhino sitting on objective 6.

Eldar Turn 2

 

The Crimson Hunter came screaming down from the clouds, punching two sizable holes in the Nephilim after it failed it's jink. The Dark Reapers on my left flank avenged the fallen Rangers by cutting down two of the Black Knights. On the right flank, the Warp Spiders appeared, one squad totally destroying the tactical squad, whilst the second riddled the veterans with flouncy eldar cheese rifles, before they charged in alongside Khaine. Between the shooting and the demonic charge, the veterans took 6 wounds, all saves failed despite  Azraels 4++ and Feel no Pain for being 3" from an objective. 

The surviving Ranger in my half fled from the lone Black Knight Huntsmaster, and the Dark Reapers once again opened up on the distant Rhino and Predator. While the second ranger squad scored the Eldars first point on the roof of the scorched building.

 

The terminators and Eldrad continued to mince about each other to little effect.

And I forgot to take any pictures...





Dark Angels 1 Eldar 1

[Pigshead]

Dark Angels Turn 3

 

The Rhino repositioned itself to objective 6, while the Predator rolled over to objective 1, scoring a point and then snap shooting at the Crimson Hunter, but totally missing as expected.

http://i.imgur.com/ByTTzLj.jpg

Azrael, Ezekiel and the remaining veteran continued to slug it out with the Avatar, managing a wound from the sword of secrets. And the nearby drop pod killed three warp spider.

http://i.imgur.com/Edwtprx.jpg

 

The Land Raider and the Nephilim opened fire at the squad of Warp Spiders, killing three between them, as the Terminators continued to brawl with the Eldar witches in the building, this time managing to kill two of the warlocks, but leaving Eldrad intact.

http://i.imgur.com/sx24hLq.jpg

And the lone Black Knight Huntsmaster, fired his bolt pistol at the surviving ranger, hoping he wouldn't kill him, which he didn't allowing him to assault and hopefully springboard off and out of line of sight of the Dark Reapers. It worked, with Hammer of Wrath causing the killing blow, and much merriment to myself at the idea of the Ranger getting run down, and the biker reached the nearby woods with his consolidation.

http://i.imgur.com/KBLpgZs.jpg

Eldar Turn 3

 

Through a combination of failed rolls and good deny rolls, Eldrad failed all his psychic powers this turn. And the two Dark Reapers squads on my right flank failed to wound either the drop pod or the Nephilim. The third Dark Reaper squad, over on my left flank, successfully took out the huntsmaster, despite his attempts to block line of sight with the trees.

http://i.imgur.com/GaoSMSA.jpg

 

Using their Eldar trickery, the Warp Spiders bounced about a bit like hyperactive children, coming to rest next to the Rhino, which they promptly finished off for good.

http://i.imgur.com/vm9RAoh.jpg

And I learned a lesson about how the Vector Dancer rule worked, as the Crimson Hunter managed to get tight on the Nephilim again, but luckily failed to wound it.

http://i.imgur.com/Gu9MlLy.jpg

The second unit of warp spiders jumped in to assist the avatar or khaine, but caused no wounds, before three of them were cut down by Azrael. Ezekiel tried to use his force sword on the Avatar, and failed, while the Avatar himself killed the last veteran in the squad.

http://i.imgur.com/SCPZtwy.jpg

Eldrad continued to smack the Terminator Sergeant in the head, but still couldn't hurt him, and the Sergeant was equally pathetic, but his squad managed to kill two of the warlocks. 

http://i.imgur.com/wu5CX7G.jpg

The surviving ranger on the roof once again scoring a point.

At this point, the game felt really close...

Dark Angels 2 Eldar 2.

[Pigshead]

Dark Angels Turn 4

 

The Predator, still looking for a better target, fired halfway across the board at the Dark Reapers he had witnessed kill the last Knight, but the cover of the ruins absorbed the high powered weapons beam. The Land Raider continued its inexorable crawl towards the Skyfire Nexus, with the Crimson Hunter soaring over head. It's Assault Cannons and hurricane Bolters slaying a further 3 Warp Spiders. 

http://i.imgur.com/6JhAvH1.jpg

The Nephilim roared off the board, and began circling back for another pass. While the two close combat fights yielded no wounds, as Azrael and Ezekiel probed for an opening on the Avatar, whose fury was deflected by the 4++ save of Azrael time and time again. The warp spiders, realizing the futility of being in this fight, used the opportunity to hit and run.

Eldar Turn 4

 

Finally, the Dark Reapers with the star shot missiles blew the drop pod, which had been little more than a line of sight blocker all game. While the Crimson Hunter darted into a position where it could began an attack run on the Land Raider next turn, with my opponent unaware that a flyer that has left the board can come back the following turn. I felt bad that I hadn't explained this to him, but Karma kept the balance on this, as you will see... The Dark Reapers, for want of anything to shoot at, began the slow march to a nearby objective.

http://i.imgur.com/wpB4IuL.jpg

The Shadow Seer, who hadn't done a great deal for a couple of turns, took the opportunity to clamber behind the drop pod, in order to take cover from the slowly approaching Land Raider, while the Warp Spiders tried to do the same with a wall.

http://i.imgur.com/k8UfPbf.jpg

 

The slug fests in the ruin once again ended ineffectively, with neither terminators or Eldrad taking a wound, but Azrael managed to reduce the Avatar to his last wound. 

Dark Angels 2 Eldar 2

[Pigshead]

Up until now, the game had been a somewhat grindy slug fest, with two fairly clunky close combats going on, and little other action. This was the turn that the game suddenly flew off in a totally different direction.

 

Dark Angels Turn 5

 

The Nephilim screamed back into the area, it's heavy bolters tearing two hull points of the Crimson Hunter, but the Mega Bolter disappointingly not finishing the aircraft off.

http://i.imgur.com/mPp8q3z.jpg

The Predator spun on it's axis, using all three las cannons to blast the warp spiders, and only managing to kill one. The Land Raider rolled onto the Skyfire nexus at last, but being out of range of the enemy jet, it opted to kill two more Warp Spiders from the other unit. The Predator scored a point for holding objective one, and the eternal conflict of Eldrad and the terminators played out with them ineffectually tickling one another in the ruined building once more.

But then... it happened...

After failing a series of wounds from the Avatar on both Azrael and Ezekiel, stripping them both down to their last, Ezekiel charged up his force sword and finally pierced the demons heart, felling the monstrosity and scoring a point for Big Game Hunter in the process. As the creature screamed it's way out of existence, Azrael turned on the Dark Reapers who had charged in earlier, and cut them down to a man. Before turning and running towards the nearby Reapers and Warp Spiders. Things were looking like they were taking a turn in the Dark Angels favour!

http://i.imgur.com/Fz3yExo.jpg

For about 3 minutes...

Eldar Turn 5

 

The Dark Reapers on the left flank fired at the distant predator, but the nearby walls took the brunt of the damage. Until the tricksy Warp Spiders popped out of the warp right behind the tank, and with some awesome shooting managed to blow it up, luckily surviving the resulting explosion before leaping over the nearby wall to claim objective 1.

http://i.imgur.com/XAltahe.jpg

The Shadow Seer in the shadow of the burning drop pod fired at Azrael, but to no effect, but the Warp Spiders had better luck, gunning down the Grand Master right before the chief librarians eyes. Stunned, shocked, very alone, and without an invulnerable save or feel no pain, Ezekiel dropped beside his leader as the nearby Dark Reapers tore him to shreds with Star Shot missiles before the unit scored from the nearby objective.

http://i.imgur.com/nTgw3AJ.jpg

 

Finally, Eldrad killed a Terminator, the Sergeant no less. 

http://i.imgur.com/qmCgkQo.jpg

Elsewhere, points were scored for linebreaker, slay the warlord, and for having twice as many objectives as me, and a couple of other things.

To say I was stunned by the score line at the end of this turn is a massive understatement.

Dark Angels 4 Eldar 11

Yes....11.....

 

[Pigshead]

I could not see a way of me winning. But I really didn't want to conceed, I wanted to kill Eldrad, and I wanted to shoot down that flyer.

 

Dark Angels Turn 6

 

The Nephilim poured vengeance into the Dark Reapers that had slain Ezekiel and ended them, and the Land Raider exacted it revenge upon the Warp Spiders that had taken the Grand Master. And after the frustration of only taking one wound from that unit, I invoked power of the machine spirit on the Multi Melta and reduced the shadow seer to a sticky mess.

http://i.imgur.com/hdvax4f.jpg

 

Eldrad killed another terminator, and I realised there and then how this was going to play out. I wasn't going to claw back a few points, or even avenge the dead, I was going to be humiliated.

Eldar Turn 6

 

The Crimson Hunter came back after flying off the board last turn, and popped the Nephilim, which proceeded to crash on the roof of the ruined building where the remaining Ranger was hiding! The explosion shook the lone Eldar Ranger, but did him no harm. And to add insult to injury, the annoying little space elf scored the only point of the turn from the objective on the roof!

http://i.imgur.com/GexQAYm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/818omMH.jpg

At this point, it was getting dark, so LIGHTS OUT FOR THE COOL EFFECTS SHOT!

http://i.imgur.com/gvn4A1Z.jpg

 

Eldrad and the Deathwing, meanwhile, were putting down their weapons and starting to talk about their feelings.

Dark Angels 4 Eldar 12

[Pigshead]

I should have conceeded.

I can not stress how much I should have conceeded...

Dark Angels....Turn.......7......sigh

The Land Raider, hugging the Skyfire Nexus, and pivoting, opened fire with everything at the Crimson Hunter...

After a bit of explanation about how the model is where the model is, and not higher up and therefore not out of range of the bolters and assault cannons, I blew it out of the sky.

http://i.imgur.com/n7Lbzyo.jpg

That was literally the only thing that really happened this turn. The Terminator continued to be a waste of almost 500 points. Eldrad was still a total cheese monger, and killed another terminator.

Eldar Turn 7

He could have left it at 12 points. But nooooooooooo, he had to draw the card for objective 6, then he drew the second card for objective 6, followed by the third card for objective 6.

Witchery.

Eldar bloody witchery.

I couldn't believe it.

The warp spiders bounced and teleported across from objective 1, passing over the wrecked Rhino and landing on objective 6, scoring 3 points.

Oh, and that also gave them linebreaker too...

And Eldrad?

He suffered Perils of the Warp casting Fortune on himself. Then he rolled a 1. The one where he must pass a leadership test or suffer a wound with no saves...

Did I mention he was on his last wound after 6 turns fighting terminators?

No?

Well...

Leadership 10, right? Sure, it's a small chance, but a chance nonetheless.

My opponent reached for his dice....

Anything but an 11 or 12.....................

he rolled a 7.

Dark Angels 4 Eldar 16

Game over, man. Game over.

Damn Eldar witchery.

[Pigshead]

I'm interested in the development. What happened to the drop-pod? Did you forget any Drop pod special rule?

 

It scattered off the board completely and went into ongoing reserves.

[Polythemus]

nice report,

 

you've got way to many termies for an Azreal list man. I think you'd be better off with some kind of drop podding dread or assault squad.

[Pigshead]

They worked well for me last time I used them in my Azzy list, and I did pretty well with Deathwing in general against Eldar last time I played them, hence why I put them in. Plus I wanted to try something a little different to my last list.

But point taken, there maybe was too many, but I actually expected a wraith knight and wraith guard in this battle, and took them to counter.

As for your suggestions, I never really have much luck with either Dreads or Assault Squats. so I don't tend you use them much, despite having four and loving the models.

[Pigshead]

Turns out I was wrong about Eldrad only having one wound left, he had only taken one wound. I got excited for nothing.

[MadMek83]

That was rather unusual Eldar list. Usually Eldars have lots of Fire Prisms or War Walkkers + Serpents. No wraith units. Nice report, nice photos. Thanks for sahring.