Sons of Medusa vs Eldar | 750 pts | 08.14

[Rogue]

Sons of Medusa vs Eldar  |  750  |  Maelstrom of War

 

This time, the boot was on the other foot. The marines had moved into position long before nightfall, and had lain motionless through the long hours of darkness. But as predicted, the xenos band had come to the abandoned ore refinery. This easy passage through the mountains was too good an opportunity to miss, even if it was a trap. As the first of the suns rose over the distant horizon, Amos saw flickers of movement stretching across the width of the valley. The xenos had come in force.

 

This is a 750 point ‘Maelstrom of War’ engagement with six objectives, played across the table. My marines (Sons of Medusa, using Imperial Fist chapter tactics) against Eldar.

 

The battlefield centred around a small manufactorum – the solid walls of the lower level blocking line-of-sight through the middle of the board. To the east and west, against the board edge, were small hills. In the south-east corner, an abandoned container bridged the gap from the hill to a small wood. Further north, a second small wood faced the manufactorum, with a stack of containers towards the west and another to the east. A bunker sat towards the southwest corner. Objectives were scattered across most of the board – the western hill, the stack of containers, the manufactorum, the northern wood, the southern wood, and the open ground between them. Night fighting was in operation for the first turn (his call, not mine).

[because the maelstrom missions switch around so fast, I’m not going to try and itemise them all. Some will get mentioned, I’m sure, but others will just register as points scored at the end of the turn. Sorry.]

 

Sons of Medusa

Codicer Amos:                          force staff and bolt pistol, flame breath, nova

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 first, in the southeast corner. The two devastator squads took cover in the woods (with Issachar’s heavy bolters to the fore, and Zebulun’s lascannon squad slightly further back). To their right, in cover behind the container, was Cain the dreadnought, accompanied by one of the razorbacks containing Codicer Amos and Judah’s tactical marines. Naphtali’s squad and their razorback remained in reserve.

[Having played against eldar a couple of months ago, when I was split up, reduced to just the librarian, and lost, I was determined to keep my force in close order. The south-eastern corner allowed for this, whilst providing good sight lines across the table (apart from the blind spot behind the manufactorum). Putting tactical squad Naphtali in reserve would hopefully give me some options once I’d seen the eldar deployment.]  

 

Eldar

Farseer:                                              

20 guardians:                                     2 bright lance platforms

3 guardians on jetbikes:                               

7 warp spiders:                                

5 rangers:                                           

Wraithlord:                                         brightlance and starcannon

 

The eldar deployed second, to the north. The jet-bikers stationed themselves out of sight behind the stack of containers to the west. The main body of the eldar force, including the farseer, wraithlord and guardians were positioned between these containers and the northern wood – this put the manufactorum between them and the marines. The rangers took cover in the wood, with clear lines of sight to the devastators, and the warp spiders started behind the last container in the north-east corner.

[With the choice to take first or second turn, I opted for first. I had targets (the rangers, a couple of guardians, and by moving the dreadnought, a shot at the wraithlord. Conceding the first move would only allow him to fire first, and would slow the arrival of my reserves. He tried to steal the initiative anyway, but failed.]

 

TURN 1

With targets available, the dreadnought shifted position into the gap between the edge of the woods and the rusty container, filling the narrow space with its armoured bulk. Judah’s razorback choose to hold position, unable to bring anything into range of its assault cannon, and unwilling to advance into open ground covered by several bright lances. The devastator squads were going nowhere.

With only the rangers to aim at, both the heavy bolters and the lascannon opened up. Despite the cover afforded by the foliage, and the gloom of the early dawn, three of the eldar were cut down. The other two lost their nerve and fled, leaving the field of battle. First blood to the marines. The dreadnought contemplated an exploratory salvo against the wraithlord, but opted to find its range against the large guardian squad, killing two.

 

The eldar advanced. To the west, away from the developing fire-fight, the jet-bikers moved over the containers, ending up on the hill and claiming an objective. Their foot-slogging brothers began to spread out – one end of the line scaled the containers that the bikers had just left, taking control of a second objective [one targeted by the marines, but in this mission, still worth a point to the eldar]. Further east, the other end of the line moved into the recently vacated woods, readying their bright lance platforms. Towering over them, the wraithlord positioned itself so that it could see the dreadnought, but remained out of sight of the devastators. Finally, from the eastern corner, the warp spiders hurled themselves forward, landing within range of the heavy bolters.

After all that, the eldar shooting phase was fairly ineffective. The bright lances of the guardians, coupled with that of the wraithlord, scored two penetrating hits on the dreadnought, leaving it temporarily unable to move, and firing snapshots, but still alive. The warp spiders (with 14 S7 shots) managed to kill just two of the marines. Worse, their jump away move was a mere 2”, leaving them wide open to return fire.

ELDAR LEAD 2-1

 

TURN 2

Before the vengeful devastators could pull the trigger, Naphtali’s razorback arrived from reserve. With the castled marines looking pretty secure, this new tactical squad headed towards the west. The razorback pulled up in the shadow of the southwest bunker (shielding it from any potential heavy weapon fire), and the marines disembarked. The razorback and the tacticals opened fire on the exposed jet-bikers, killing two.

Over by the main marine position, the other razorback went into reverse, ending up hard against the wood, but in sight of the warp spiders. The combined fire of the assault cannon, dreadnought and heavy bolter marines killed five of the spiders, before Zebulun’s lascannon squad delivered the coup de grace.

[The lascannon squad gave me an interesting choice. They had sight of, and range to, both the last jet-biker and the last two spiders, and sufficient firepower to finish off either. Whilst the chance to clear the western end of the battlefield was tempting, it was the more immediate threat of the spiders (and the need to stop them bouncing in and out of cover) that settled it.]

 

The eldar were shaken. Two squads of specialists gone, and a third reduced to a single jetbike. The survivor decided to abandon the hill, heading back towards the main force and taking cover behind the manufactorum. The guardians continued to edge into and through the woods, and the wraithlord held his position, clearly reluctant to risk exposure to the lascannon devastators.

The bright lances continued to target the dreadnought, and another penetrating hit reduced it to smoking wreckage (scoring an objective point in the process).

ELDAR LEAD 3-1

 

TURN 3

To the west, Naphtali’s squad advanced, bringing the edge of the guardian squad into range, and killing the two who remained on top of the container. Their razorback moved around the bunker, looking to target the farseer, but found itself out of range. To the east, with the threat of the warp spiders removed, Judah’s razorback headed around the back of the wood, trying to bring itself closer to the remaining action. The devastators, denied the option of targeting the wraithlord, turned their fire on the guardians, killing two more.

 

Recovering his composure, the last jet-biker spun his bike again, and headed back towards the tactical marines who had killed his team. Inspired by his new-found bravery, he cut one of them down with his shuriken catapult.

This turn saw the farseer attempt to cast three psychic powers (to win an objective point) - after launching executioner (but failing to kill the target), and guiding the wraithlord, his attempt to bring fortune on the guardians was denied.

In the main fire-fight, with the dreadnought now out of action, the heavy weapons of the wraithlord and the guardian squad turned on the heavy bolters of squad Issachar, and two more were killed, leaving just one survivor. Unmoved, he continued searching for targets in return.

ELDAR LEAD 3-1

 

TURN 4

Seeing that the farseer remained horribly exposed on the flank of the guardian squad, Naphtali’s razorback moved up, bring its assault cannon to bear and battering the eldar psyker into a bloody pulp (slaying the warlord, and killing an enemy psyker to boot). Behind the transport, Naphtali’s squad moved forward, and as the bike-mounted guardian swept past, fired into him, throwing him from his bike.

The other razorback moved forward too, closing rapidly on the manufactorum, preparing to deploy its cargo if necessary.

Finally, the devastators continued their uneven duel with the guardians, killing three more.

 

Giving up any pretence of taking on the devastators, the wraithlord withdrew (or hid) behind the manufactorum. The guardians, also losing stomach for the long-range pounding they were receiving, swung back towards the west, facing off against Naphtali’s squad, and glancing the razorback that had so brutally dealt with the farseer. In the process, they claimed the central objective.

ELDAR LEAD 5-3

 

TURN 5 (or 4b)

[Now, I’m not sure how this happened, but as far as I can figure, we managed to play turn four again at this point. As in, it was turn five, but we thought it was turn four. Again. Hmm. Of course, this makes no difference to the action, but has an effect on the end of game rolls later on.]

Codicer Amos and tactical squad Judah finally set foot on the battlefield as they disembarked from their razorback. With both tactical squads, and both their razorbacks, advancing around the corner of the manufactorum, there were suddenly a lot of guns pointing at the remains of the guardian squad. The resultant barrage, coupled with the fire from the devastators in the wood, saw the guardians reduced to just two, with both weapon platforms destroyed too. The marines had now established a second firebase near the centre of the field, and looked firmly on top in every area except victory points.

 

The last two guardians headed back towards the objective in the wood again, taking control of it. Covering their retreat, the wraithlord charged into the newly arrived tactical squad, killing two on the approach, and two more in close combat. The marines struggled to touch the T8 wraithlord, with their krak grenades unable to land a wound. With the sergeant and librarian surviving, the devastators would be unable to draw line of sight to the eldar construct in the following turn.

ELDAR LEAD 6-5

 

TURN 6 (or 5, sort of)

Believing the end of the battle to be near, and still lagging behind the eldar despite the reduced numbers of the xenos, Naphtali’s squad made a move for the eldar deployment zone, but were unable to reach it, even with a run move. Hoping that the librarian might pull something out of the bag in combat, the razorbacks moved to cover as much of the area around the wraithlord as possible, hoping to deny it any cover. The devastators finally finished off the guardians.

In the event, the wraithlord crushed both marines without sustaining any damage itself (slaying the marine warlord in the process), and consolidated towards the other tactical squad.

 

With little else to do, the wraithlord fired into the marines, killing three, before smashing the other to pieces on the charge. Perhaps surprised at the ease of the victory, the construct was caught a little flat-footed, and its consolidation move was unable to take it out of sight of the lascannon squad in the wood.

[Had the game ended here, the eldar would have won on objective points, despite the disparity in the surviving forces. Sadly for them, the battle continued into the next turn.]

ELDAR LEAD 7-6

 

TURN 7 (but kinda 6)

The damaged razorback gunned its engines, sped into the deserted eldar deployment zone, scoring linebreaker and gaining a tactical objective too. Everything else remained still, focusing weapons on the wraithlord…

The speeding razorback hit with two snapshots, but failed to wound. Its twin went one better, inflicting the first wound of the battle on the eldar war machine. Everything rested on the four lascannon of squad Zebulun. One was firing through cover, which deflected a potential wound. The other three managed two hits, then two wounds. In desperation, the wraithlord went to ground, but it was too late. The lascannon struck home, shattering its spirit stone, instantly reducing the construct to a pile of wraithbone.

The battlefield belonged to the marines.  

SONS OF MEDUSA WIN 8-7

 

The war machine crumpled inwards. For a moment it hung, still in the cold morning air, then toppled forwards and lay still. Its final rampage had cost the marines dearly, but such desperate aggression had come at a cost, as the construct had exposed itself to Zebulun’s lascannon battery. They had not needed a second opportunity, placing two shots through the fragile gemstone that adorned the xenos’ armour.

The trap had sprung, the pass had been held, and the alien psyker was dead. And into the sky rose the second sun. It had been a good morning’s work.

 

 

Reflections

 

Well, it’s nice to get back to winning ways, if only just. In terms of victory points, I was only ever ahead twice in the whole game – once when I scored first blood, and again at the end of the last turn as a double-point linebreaker saw me edge over the line in every sense. That’s a good game.

 

Tactically, I think the stars of the show were the lascannon devastators under sergeant Zebulun, even though prior to turn 7, they didn’t really kill all that much (two warp spiders and a few guardians). Their effectiveness came from their threat – from the wood, they created two killing fields, one to either side of the central manufactorum, into which the wraithlord was scared to tread (rightly, as it turned out, given its fate in turn 7). This put a massive crimp in the eldar advance, particularly once the more mobile elements (the spiders and the jetbikes) disappeared in turn 2. From then on, I seemed to spend the battle whittling away at the massive guardian squad while trying to match their ability to acquire objectives.

 

The objectives were interesting. I’d castled up in the wood, which contained one of the objectives (handy when that came up as a card late in the game). In fact, I did very little chasing of the fixed objectives – I don’t think I controlled or even contested any except the one my devastators were standing on. My victory points came from secondary objectives (all three of them), and from the more simplistic tactical objectives (at least two of which mirrored the secondary objectives anyway, with a third rewarding the death of the warlord yet again, as he was also a psyker). In the end, nailing the farseer on turn 3 netted me three of my eight points by the end of the game. This was my first experience of maelstrom (and of 7^th at all), and we both liked it. It certainly felt less focused on being in the right place at the right time (ie, the end of turn 5), and more on engaging with the enemy and, to an extent, the battlefield itself.

 

The dreadnought, after a good showing against the tyranids, fell short again here. I suspect he’s likely to be swapped out for a stormtalon in the near future. I could have kept him out of sight a little longer, but then the heavy bolters would likely have taken all of the anti-tank fire he attracted, so it was probably worth it in the end.

 

The librarian, Amos, did nothing. He had one shot at a psychic attack and fluffed it, and was then promptly beaten up by the wraithlord. Still, he’s mostly there to be a cheap HQ, and if his nova attack had come off in turn 5, it would have made a mess of the guardians.

 

Overall, I felt that the tight castle deployment worked well – the devastator squads in tandem had a very effective threat bubble, and denied large parts of the board to the eldar. The only squad to really try and breach their defences was the warp spiders, and they paid for it. The tacticals in razorbacks worked better, as I took care to shield them from anti-tank fire, and deployed the squads at the right time – both had at least one turn of full strength firing, and both claimed their fair share of guardian scalps.

 

 

As ever, it'd be great to hear any thoughts, criticisms, ideas or the like, so feel free. Thanks.

[markham82]

+1 for revenge because nobody does it better than marines. +2 For going one better and wiping the space elfs off the board, it warms my heart.

 

Well done on learning from the previous battle.

[Rogue]

Thanks.

 

It wasn't quite revenge, as it was a different set of eldar (this is the guy who usually plays as Grey Knights), but it's still nice to know I can beat them (and yes, nice to have made a tactical switch that came off - life-long learning in action!)

[Konnavaer]

Really enjoyed reading the rep brother, congratulations on the win, its always heartening to see the pointy eared xenos get beaten