1500 points Raven Guard versus Eldars, trickery vs sneakery!

[GreyCrow]

Greetings Battle Brothers !

So, today's special battle report, a very fun battle and a major bloodbath involving the sneakiest Space Marines from the Raven Guard Chapter played by yours truly, against a very agile Eldar force played by a very cool chap. It had been 10 years since my Marines didn't face the Eldar, and it was great to battle them again with all their shiny new toys !

This was a warm up match up for a league with our FLGS with a special format. 1500 points without the ability to take copy of units, save for Troops choices as long as : 1) you have taken at least one squad of all available troops in your codex ; 2) Their equipment differs from other Troops choices. In addition, the battle was using the ETC format but on a 4x4' table with a maximum of 8 pieces of terrain.

The Forces

Raven Guard

Captain - Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Lightning Claw, Auspex

Librarian - Force Staff, ML2 rolling on Biomancy

10 Tactical Marines - Veteran with Power Sword, Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon, Rhino

5 Tactical Marines - Combi-melta, meltagun, Razorback with Las/Plas turret

5 Scouts - BP + CCW, Landspeeder Storm with Heavy Flamer

5 Scouts - 4 Snipers, Heavy Bolter with Helfire Shells

10 Assault Marines - 2 Flamers, Sergeant with Power Sword

2 Landspeeder Typhoon

Predator - Trilas

Stormraven - TL Lascannon, TL Multi Melta, 4 Stormstrike Missiles

Eldar

Autarch - Mantle of the Laughing God, Swooping Hawk Wings, Firesword

Warlock Council - 1 Warlock (couldn't take more than 1 due to the rules of the league)

12 dire Avengers - Exarch with Power Sword and the shield that gives a 5+ invulnerable, Wave Serpent with scatter laser, holofield and ghostwalk matrix, spirit stones

5 Rangers

Crimson Hunter

6 Swooping Hawks - Exarch with the improved gun, splitfire and precision strikes on 5+

6 Dark Reapers - Exarch with Tempest Launcher (all had regular missiles though)

Nightspinner - Holo-field, Ghostwalk matrix, spirit stones

Wraithknight - Scatter laser, Suncannon and shield

The mission

It was both the Relic and the Spoils of War for the Maelstrom missions with a Dawn of War deployment. We deployed 3 objectives in the No man's land, 1 in one deployment zone and the 2 remaining in the other deployment zone.

The deployment

Eldar got to choose their deployment zones and they chose the side with only one objective. Very smart move as it would be forcing my relatively close range force to keep there to get to draw the objectives !

Raven Guard won the roll off the deployment (sorry, no pic of the deployment, but you'll see from the pics !), decided to Infiltrate the sniper Scouts, Outflank the Landspeeder Storm and obviously kept the Stormraven in reserve. We combat squadded all squads (Assault and Tactical squads) with the Captain joining the Assault combat squad without the Sergeant but that retained one flamer. The Librarian went into the Razorback along with the melta Tactical squad.

Everything was on the table with a Rhino and a Predator to the left hand side of the board, the two Assault squads in the middle of the board, and the Landspeeder Squadron along with the Razorback was deployed on the right side behind a building.

Eldar deployed his Dark Reapers behind the Bastion terrain, infiltrated his rangers on top, and deployed the Wraithknight in the open to cover them. Nightspinner and the Wave Serpent were deployed on the right side (from my perspective) of the battlefield, behind cover, diagonally opposed from the Predator.

Swooping Hawks and Crimson Hunters were kept in reserve. His Autarch wasn't deployed with the Swooping Hawks and was deployed behind the Dark Reapers as well.

After that, the Raven Guard Scouts infiltrated and did their Scout move in cover boldly towards the Wraithknight. It definitely wasn't the best firing position, but they were at least supported by the rest of my army. Brave bold Scouts ! I scouted the Rhino forward 12" in support of the Scouts and to free up the firing lanes of the Predator so he could see his tanks. The Razorback Scouted forward to get a nice vantage point on the Eldar Skimmers while still remaining obscured.

For the warlord traits, he rolled Split Fire after a reroll on his Autarch which was useless, while I rolled the Strategic Trait that allowed to pin 3 units at the beginning of his first turn, which I kept. Raven Guard assaults are scary after all, and it's no surprise that even the stoic Eldar would get confuzzled !

He tried and failed to steal the initiative.

Early Game

First of all, I apologize that I didn't keep track of all the victory points for each turn. We had a 3h30 time constraint and my reporting was probably incomplete because of that

The first turn for the Raven Guard was a nice little opener ! The Plasmacannon from the Tactical Squad killed off 2 rangers that failed their cover saves and got their squad to run down from the bastion. Combined firepower from the Razorback, the Predator, and the Landspeeders that boldly moved out of their hiding place took a mighty hull point off the Wave Serpent. That Serpent Shield is for sure useful !

The Assault combat squads moved up, on the left led by the Sergeant to provide a counter assault force, and on the right led by the Captain to capture objective 4 which was a Tactical objective, thus opening up the score.

In Eldars Turn 1, the Warlord Trait got both the Rangers AND the Dark Reapers pinned, which was a massive relief for me ! In retaliation, the Wave Serpent's Serpent Shield cracked open the Razorback of the Librarian in glorious firepower, netting the Eldar first Blood. The Nightspinner targeted the Captain's combat squad, but was unable to penetrate their blessed Power Armour. On the left flank, using both his Suncannon and Scatter Laser, the Wraithknight opened up the Rhino effortlessly. They scored a tactical objective by stealing one "Control Objective X" from one of mine, and I swore revenge for that offense.

At the end of the first turn, the Raven's Guard transports are all but burning wrecks, but the Space Marines stand fast !

Captain Aajz Solari of the Raven Guard's 2nd Company leads his Assault Squad straight into the Eldar lines, their Power Armour protecting them from exotic xeno weapons.

The Raven Guard's second turn was when they unleashed their full fury. Both the Stormraven and the Scouts came in, with the Scouts arriving on the left flank which was what I wanted ! Unable to fire their plasmacannon due to having disembarked, the Tactical combat squad moved towards the Relic and ran there. The other combat squad advanced, fired in defiance at the Wraithknight but failed to wound with the Plasmagun. Bellowing orders to his trainees, the Scout Sergeant ordered the Scout Squad to remain calm and still despite the impending doom of the Wraithknight and fired off a volley of snipershots and heavy bolter shells despite two Scouts unable to see the Wraithknight, and they actually managed to take a wound off the monstruous beast !

On the left flank, combined firepower from the Landspeeders and the Stormraven cracked open the Wave Serpent, whose contents were ripe for an Assault by the Captain, while the Librarian's Squad moved up. He sucessfully casted 3 Psychic Powers granting me an extra VP despite the D3 being unkind. The Assault was devastating, wiping out the Dire Avengers in Sweeping advance despite losing two Marines to overwatch and in combat.

Deep behind enemy lines, the Scouts fired their bolt pistols at the dire avengers but were unable to hit properly due to having moved at cruising speed, but the Heavy Flamer incinerated the remaining Rangers.

Damn, these Scouts pulled weight this turn !

Eldar Turn 2 was very devastating for the Space Marines. Undaunted by the snipers and poisoned rounds, the Wraithknight leaped over the Scouts and wiped out the Assault combat squad with a whim of his Suncannon and took out 2 Marines from the Tactical Squad as well, while the Swooping Hawks descended from the sky and dropped their grenade pack on my Scout Squad, killing one and 2 extra Marines from the other Tactical combat Squad. Landing behind the Predators, they tried to throw a haywire grenade at it, but it failed to do any damage. Blessed be the Omnissiah !

Deep behind enemy lines, the Reaper Exarch split fire on to the Raven Guard Captain, emboldened by the victorious assault against the Dire Avengers, decided to shield his squad from the incoming firepower and took 2 wounds by failing his invulnerable saves ! The rest of the Dark Reapers fired at the Landspeeder Storm who did not jink (couldn't get the saves anyways) and only dealt one hull point ! The same squad tried to finish it in melee but failed.

The Warlock did manage to increase the armour save of the Dark Reapers to a 2+ due to Eldar psychic trickery !

The Crimson Hunter arrived and targeted the Stormraven, only inflicting a Weapons Destroyed result which took out the Lascannon thanks to careful evasive maneuvering from the Techmarine inside.

On the right flank, the Nightspinner once again used his torrent monofilament net, and this time managed to kill 3 Marines flat out by shredding their armour with his monofilament weapons.

The Autarch charged the Scouts and only managed to kill the Sergeant. In response, one brave Scout furiously angered by the death of his comrade dealt one wound to the Autarch by striking him with the stock of his sniper rifle !

The Crimson Hunter strikes and attemps to get revenge for the massacre of the Dire Avengers Squad !

In the face of certain death, Tactical Squad Robenz stands defiant.

Despite severe casualties, the Raven Guard squads hold their ground.

End game

Raven Guard Turn 3 continued the story of the rampaging Captain. In a combined assault, the Scouts disembarked from the Landspeeder Storm right in the face of the Dark Reapers squad and failed to penetrate their unnaturally reinforced armour, and neither could the heavy flamer. The Captain would not tolerate vile xeno witchcraft, and sneaked upon the Dark Reapers while the Scouts charged them. The Scout Sergeant challenged and killed (!) the Warlock in glorious challenge, and while the Captain was preparing to strike a mighty blow to the foul Reapers with his Thunder Hammer, two more Assault Marines were felled by the quick reflexes of the Eldar. It wasn't enough, though, as the Captain blew the heads off of 4 of the Reapers which were promptly cut down in their cowardly retreat.

On the right flank, the Librarian led his Squad who finished off the Nightspinner with two glancing hits from the meltaguns, which had been previously weakened by the Typhoon Squadron.

On the left flank, the crippled tactical squad only took the life of one swooping hawk with the plasma cannon, while the Veteran Sergeant's retinue charged the Autarch and challenged him in order to save the precious lives of the Chapter's recruits. But even the grizzled veteran was downed by superb swordplay from the Autarch. The Marines did not inflict wounds in return.

The Predator inflicted one additional wound on the Wraithknight, the abomination slowly showing signs of battle damage.

Eldar Turn 3 was the eye of the storm. The Wraithknight now turned his attention on the Landspeeder squadron and strode rapidly towards them, destroying one through firepower and stomping them in melee. The Swooping Hawks claimed 2 casualties including the Plasma Cannon on the Tactical Squad, with the last remaining member tactically retreating to nearby cover.

The Crimson Hunter switched his target to the Predator, causing 2 penetrating hits that immobilized it and blew away his right sponsoon weapon. Was it the end of the mighty Predator ?

The Autarch continued to gently murder the Tactical Squad, leaving only the Plasmagun alive who inflicted one wound in return.

Raven Guard Turn 4 saw the Scouts doubling back to the Landspeeder Storm under direct orders from the Captain to go and secure the Imperial Fist relic containing but were not fast enough to reach the Storm in time. The Captain and his last remaining Assault Marine, although severely wounded, stormed towards the Autarch to stop him before he could continue his playful slaughter of his fellow Astartes. Bellowing with rage, the Assault Marine proudly led the charge in front of the Captain and broke the Autarch's back when landing his Hammer of Wrath hit. At last, the Autarch has paid for his arrogance in taking his sweet time to dismember the Raven Guard Marines. The three squads consolidated into cover, turning to face the Wraithknight that now seemed to have turn his attention to the Librarian and the remaining Tactical Squad.

The Librarian, embolden by an Iron Arm and force tried a desperate charge over the burning wreckage of the Landspeeder but failed to reach the Wraithknight, although the Predator, once again, took another wound off it. At last, the Raven Guard started to hope to destroy the Wraithknight !

The Stormraven failed to do anything despite firing at the Wraithknight, his twin linked multi melta missing the target by quite a large margin, while the Landspeeder repositioned further away to lure the Wraithknight.

Eldar Turn 4 was a methodical retalition. The Wraithknight, undaunted by the Librarian's simple mastery of the Warp, fired his Suncannon and wiped the Librarian's escort away, then cut him in half in melee before he had a chance to reply, which would have certainly be the end of the Knight.

The Swooping Hawks witnessing the disrespectful execution of their leader decided to direct their fury at the Captain's squad, killing the Assault Marine under a storm of monofilament blades before charging the Captain, who held his ground and killed 4 Swooping Hawks in response.

The Crimson Hunter once again failed to lock the Stormraven, due to both good jink saves and the fact that we forgot to reroll armour pens for the hits. My opponent did not want to reroll the roll.

The Librarian takes comfort in the fact that he has served the Emperor for two centuries

The Swooping Hawks hold nothing back and go for the kill on Aajz Solari

Raven Guard Turn 5 was the turn of victory. Finally climbing in their Storm, the Scouts turbo boosted towards the Relic and secured the perimeter for the Imperial Fists although they didn't carry it just yet.

With all the gunline supported by the Stormraven and the remaining Typhoon ready to fire at the Wraithknight, while the lone survivor of the plasmacannon combat squad secured another objective, it was the Landspeeder Typhoon who fired the first volley and felled the Wraithknight with two well placed Krak Missiles. Falling down from the impact, the Wraithknight's suncannon finally silenced.

In melee, the Captain managed to survive the incoming attacks from the remaining Swooping Hawk Exarch, and stabbed him 4 times with his Lightning Claw.

In face of defeat, the Crimson Hunter jumped into the webway to fight another day.

With bitter casualties, it was a Raven Guard victory !

Triumphant, Solari prepares to finish off the Swooping Hawks Exarch !

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only death. Suffering grievous casualties, the Raven Guard has proudly defended the Imperial Fist shrine from an Eldar ambush, and silently return to their battle barge only to leave wrecked vehicles and the bodies of the Eldar as sole testament to the battle that took place today.

______

Conclusion

So, the Raven Guard won this game due to a very early lead in tactical objectives. The end score was 11 to 3 for the Raven Guard, mainly due to the fact that the army was mobile enough to steal his objectives which was a very big deal.

For the Raven Guard, the MVP of this game was clearly the Captain who managed to kill off 4 squads mainly by himself (except the first one) including the warlord. The Scouts were the second MVP only taking 2 casualties the entire game and pulling some pretty cool tricks like wounding the Wraithknights and really being a thorn in the opponent's backfield. I am definitely going to play with them more often, Scouts are awesome even if they look like hunchbacks

The Predator was a pretty solid firebase and I enjoyed it a lot. It only was its second game, but it lasted till the end and it did pull off consistent firepower throughout the game. Compared to a Devastator Squad with 4 Lascannons, it might deal more damage in absolute terms but I really loved the fact that I could place him relatively everywhere on the battlefield without beind too scared of what would happen to him.

For the Eldar, the Wraithknight is a serious beast, single handedly taking down half of my army. It is resilient as hell and I got quite scared after I saw him casually murder my troops from Turn 2 onwards. Spreading out if a good strategy against him if he's armed with the suncannon, but it is better to accept that squads will be destroyed by him and keep pressing on !

I am really loving the trickiness of the Eldar army, it's definitely a very strong army with lots of specialty units that have awesome special rules. In the end, it all came down to board control and I can definitely see that Eldar army be very efficient during the league due to its mobility ! I can't wait to have a rematch against this army

I definitely did have good dices on average and my opponent not so much. Had I lost more Marines Turn 1, the game would have been completely different, and I think I'm going to keep playing them conservatively in the first turn of most of my games from now on !

______

The grim news however is that despite the list fitting all the rules for the league, the T.O. decided to not validate it due to too much redundancy because he wants people to bring various models to the table.

To be perfectly honest, I really don't understand why he would allow a squad of 3 Broadsides but not allow a squad of Landspeeders... Nor would he allow both a single Landspeeder and the Landspeeder Storm. But tracing back my tabletop roots to Black Templars, I'll Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds, and came up with a new list that I'd love to get your comments on. In that league, I will settle for nothing less than the utter obliteration of the Emperor's enemies ! FOR THE EMPRAH !

Captain - Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Lightning Claw, Artificer ArmorAuspex

5 Vanguard Vets - Jump Pack, 2 BP + Plasmagun, 1 BP + Grav Gun, Sergeant with Stormshield (to tank for the Captain), Bolt Pistol + Power Fist

10 Tactical Marines - Veteran with Power Sword, Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon, Razorback with Las/Plas and Dozer Blades

10 Scouts - 5 BP + CCW, Landspeeder Storm with Heavy Flamer + 4 Snipers including the Sergeant and Heavy Bolter with Hellfire Shells (you can't take the Scouts from me !)

10 Assault Marines - 2 Flamers, Sergeant with Power Sword

Stormtalon - Assault Cannon, Typhoon ML

Predator - Trilas

Stormraven - TL Lascannon, TL Multi Melta, 4 Stormstrike Missiles

So, I have a feeling that this list will be definitely a lot more challenging to play than the previous one... I lose quite a bit of dakka in exchange to for slightly more assault capability. :/

I don't like bringing 2 fliers at 1500 points because it means less boots on the ground and because it's a bit cheesy, but since the T.O. wants me to have less troops I definitely don't feel bad wreaking havoc from the skies !

[Cpt Rana]

What a narrative battle report. A really good read. 

Too bad you aren't allowed to bring your original list I really like it. I have almost all the model for it and might copy it with few changes (don't have a storm raven). 

I see you always kit your sergeant with a vet upgrade and a sword controversial to the usually recommended combi weapon. What is your experience with a CC-weapon on a shooty squad. Is it worth it?

Im still not convinced about combat squading the assault marines but I guess it depends on your opponent. Well could be due to that Im using the chappy and gain more boost on the reroll using big squads.

Now you removed the libby but you seems to use him a lot. I don't see benefit in this guy. Is he any good? Can you rely on getting the wanted powers?

 

Regarding the predator against the devastators: On boards filled with tall ruins and terrain I feel the devastators is superior to the tank, because they can sit in a tall building all game long with good overview of the field. The opponent always knows where they are and can circumvent them but thereby affect the game through fear factor. On the other hand the tank gives as you mentioned the ability to redeploy 12' or even 18' in one turn but don't have the same overview of the field and is therefore better on boards with sparse terrain where the AV is stronger. 

 

The good thing about bringen both the raven and tallon is that you can use the escort rule and thereby bringing two flyers to the board the same turn which would fit nice in your plan about a second turn blow. The bad thing about this is that you may be unlucky and having 400 points not contributing to the fight until turn 4.

[GreyCrow]

Thanks man ! I tried to fluff it out to make it funnier to read ^^

 

So, the Veteran upgrade on the Sergeant is because in his first battles he performed admirably that I felt he earned the honour of becoming a Veteran :p While the rest of his squad was destroyed, he single handedly made a Fearless Conscript Blob flee (after executing the Priest that was keeping them there) in melee, wiped out a special weapons Imperial Guard Veteran squad and in another game he finished off Pask's Punisher with a Krak Grenade.

In that game against the Eldars, he almost slayed the Autarch. It was a bit of a stretch to expect him to succeed, but the Autarch only inflicted a wound to the Sergeant and was one one wound left :p

In other games, the Ld bonus made the difference between running and not, and finally, the extra power sword attack always helped. I keep kitting him with a Sword because I want the option to be able to Assault and do better than without the upgrades, if staying in the open and shooting isn't tactical viable. So far it has paid out I feel. Tactical squads aren't dedicated assault units, but against many armies it is preferable to go get the charge rather than stand and shoot.

 

I loved combat squadding the Assault Marines in this game, because it gave me 2 mobile units and redundancy :) With your Chaplain I can understand that you'd prefer to keep them together to maximize the Zealot rule, but you should really try combat squadding in a game. You might or might not like it, but it gives much more mobility and potential Hammer of Wrath hits due to an easier time positioning :)

 

The libby is indeed awesome ! In that game he got me one VP because of casting a psychic power (I casted 3 but the D3 only gave me 1 :p ). With ML2 and the Psychic Hood, he's a good psychic defense for the army, allowing units within 12" to DTW on 5+ or 4+ if the caster is ML1. After trying a few games, I think Pyromancy and Biomancy are the safest options for a Librarian. Pyromancy is much more efficient against hordes but Biomancy is the go-to general power.

In this specific game, I rolled for Iron Arm and Life Leech, plus getting Force and Smite as part of Psychic Focus. In the turn where I tried to attack the Wraithknight, I had Force and Iron Arm on, meaning 4 S9 AP2 (thanks to Iron Arm giving Smash and the Force Staff being +2S AP4 base) with Instant Death, so had I gotten that charge my 2 Marines would have sacrificed themselves to tank the WK's attacks while the Libby would have likely finished him off in one fell sweep.

 

Regarding the Psychic Powers I don't expect to get anything, but I play the Libby depending on what I roll for. With Iron Arm he becomes a big game hunter with his melta squad. With Lifeleech he becomes a firebase with that, Haemorraghe and Smite. With Enfeeble and Endurance he becomes a buffer/debuffer. He was never useless, except perhaps in this very specific game where he was deployed on a flank and a more central position would have been preferable I believe.

 

You are totally right about the Devastators. I think that overall they have a better killing power than the Predator, but the Predator trades that off for staying power and deployment options. on that specific board, my Devastators wouldn't have much cover available as you can see (and I tried to get my Sniper Scouts to stand on the rooftop but they didn't stand :p ) and the Predator's ability to stay in the open was pretty nice. I guess both fit the same role but in different fashions, but both are a pretty serious choice for long range firepower which every SM army needs to have imho.

[Lucumon]

 

I don't like bringing 2 fliers at 1500 points because it means less boots on the ground and because it's a bit cheesy...

 

Can you expand on why this would be cheesy?  I plan to make the Angel's Fury formation a cornerstone of my drop pod/stormraven army... and playtest the hell out of it.  As I've moved to a new area recently, I'd prefer not to be that guy (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/That_guy) right off the bat... In a tourney, should I ever play one, all bets are off however.

 

Edit: wanted your thought process as I've been out of the game since before flyers were introduced... 

[GreyCrow]

Well, two fliers are hard to deal with, and the Stormraven + Stormtalon are pretty potent units. What I meant by cheesy is that I wasn't sure whether my opponent would be able to deal with one flier, let alone two ^^

 

It's strong but not overpowered, so don't feel bad about bringing it. As long as the opponent has his anti air covered, the only thing he would have to be worried about would be the Stormraven (well, its contents) which he might not be able to take down due to AV12, flier and Jink. But hey, you're paying a 200pts+ transports that can crash and burn killing your entire unit and that unit will not see combat before Turn 2 at the earliest :D (that's the point of this formation right ?).

 

Besides, the Blood Angels are known for being very fast and brutal, so I'm pretty sure he could brace himself for that ! The fire output of the Stormraven is decent (pretty good if you take the TML+HB sponsoons actually), but by no means game breaking. And that's 40% of your army in 1500 points games (I'm assuming you have to take 3 right ? )

[Jacques Corbin]

Grey, if I am ever in France, I'll go with you to the tournament, and if the TO tries that nonsense yet again, I'll punch him in the nose for you. Seriously, I hate that snarky behavior where some people are favored and others picked on. My grandparents were the politest, fairest people ever. Why? Because when they were growing up, it was be civilized, or face violent consequences.

 

Still, great game. I wish you many more victories in the name of our immortal emperor.