Battle rep. Deathwatch vs Eldar Wraith host 1750 pts

[Vash]

Hello, 

 

Got my act together and recorded my last battle. And of course... because of that the dice gods decided to show my grand loss for all to see. 

But, in my "defence" this is a new list I am trying out. Infernos heavy bolters have made them self into the list and some rearrangements with the weapon load outs. 

 

Some unlucky rolls on both sides, but my main loss was the mission cards I drew... I couldn't keep up with the cards Eldar drew. 

I also was a bit to eager with my drop pod and Beacon of Angelis. First army I am using a drop pod and I am still eager to drop in with "no risk". I should be more conservative and not drop right into the middle of everything. 

 

Rhinos also made their first appearance, and I must say... I am very impressed by them with Deathwatch. Veteran teams pull som much attention, that the rhinos can "room free" on the battle field. 

Given I met an Elite army, and he had few units within range to target them. And since they don't pose a threat, why bother?

But, I could have used the Rhinos better, and reposition my self a lot more. I got greedy twice during the game, and it punished me hard.

 

Now... this is my first battle report video. So bare with me! I know for a fact it is way to fast presented. But this video will act as a guide line for future battle reports for me and my friends. I need to keep the video at maximum 15 minutes to be able to upload to youtube, so that my goal. 15 mins battle reports. 

I do not intend to talk during my battle reports, as I don't think my voice is a voice many people would enjoy. And I also tend to talk way to much. So I will keep it strictly by text that explains the battle. But who know... perhaps in the future I'll scare the world with my presence on screen. 

 

Here is a link to the video for this interested. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cG92MSkrbo&feature=youtu.be

 

 

I did learn a lot from the game. 

 

1. Do not deep strike into middle of the enemy force (even if there is a very lucrative target)

2. Fall back if into rhino if you can't kill your target with 90% chance. Live to fight another day (turn). 

3. Make better use of Rhinos 

4. Remember Warlord trait :)

5. Ask about formation rules... (missed out on Battle focus on the Wraiths...)

6. Do not expect to get objective secure cards... *

 

* This was my "grand plan". I spred out and controlled the battle field turn 1 and partially turn 2. But I didn't get andy of the 4 objective markers I controlled. I could have gone for objective marker 4 (as I did get), but I got eager to try out my bikes. Funny part is... once I was in the middle with them... I had no clue what to charge och shoot. There was a huge Wraithknight standing in the way. 

[Aleax]

There was a huge Wraithknight standing in the way. 

an unkillable blue monster it looked like! sometimes we feel harmless, er

 

deathwatch will get their revenge soon hopefully.

May the Emperor be with you in your upcoming tourny!

 

cheers ya!

[Vash]

 

There was a huge Wraithknight standing in the way. 

an unkillable blue monster it looked like! sometimes we feel harmless, er

 

deathwatch will get their revenge soon hopefully.

May the Emperor be with you in your upcoming tourny!

 

cheers ya!

 

Well I had two options. Put a lot of effort into it, or just ignore him and let him massacre his way through the game. 

 

I did do some calculations and test play against him. If I had been more aggressive on him, and using Psychic shriek on him from all three librarians. It would have been dead in a turn or two. Combined with Frag cannons (not template mode) and the rest of the unit who does some poison shots (6+), it would be possible. 

Of course, better planning, I could use my Heavy thunder hammers as counter charge instead. Keeping him away from my units. 

 

So for the next game (perhaps next week) against the eldar. I'll be doing som smal changes in the list (not because of his list, but because I found some flaws in my list, specially against close combat). 

[CptMaturin]

Thanks for the video mate. I appreciate the post production but I have one critic to make. Sometimes the text goes way too quick or the camera span goes way too fast too for us to fully appreciate what has been going on.
Otherwise please keep up with this !

[Vash]

Thanks for the video mate. I appreciate the post production but I have one critic to make. Sometimes the text goes way too quick or the camera span goes way too fast too for us to fully appreciate what has been going on.

Otherwise please keep up with this !

Thanks for the watch and common mate. 

As I said in the opening post, this is my first video and I know its way to fast as you say :) But its good to hear from others so I will really learn from this misstake. 

 

Hopefully a new battle against the same Eldar is up next week. It will be fighting uphill again for sure. But I have decided to field the Deathwatch for this tournament, and there will be these kinds of units I need to either deal with or "live with". 

[Prot]

Great job Vash.

 

I really enjoyed this format, as so many Video Batreps have far too much filler or narrative for my taste making for 90 minute videos. I liked the pace and simply paused each section I found going too fast. Obviously I couldn't... go run at a treadmill while watching this, because pausing requires interacting with the video, but it was a nice change. Very enjoyable.

 

About the game:

 

Eldar: I liked his list. Very potent, but did not take the typical spam I see at tournaments. Still a very good list, but at least required thought, execution, and strong decision making to be potent with. It's a very good test for your army.

 

Deathwatch List: It's unsolicited advice, so I won't bother with the changes I would make to the list, but I'll just say imo it has squads that are a touch too inefficient because of our horrendous point totals. Overall a good list though, and I think you know that there's things during execution of the army that you would do differently. 

 

Strategy wise:

 

You can toss this all in the garbage... it's just my two cents. I'm not going to be overly critical because there's not much to be critical about really, but one thing that I think is key is our Alpha. If it's performed correctly it sets the pace for the entire game (good or bad).

 

 

 

1. Do not deep strike into middle of the enemy force (even if there is a very lucrative target)

 

 

I think this is half true. Do it right and you profit. I would suggest you do hit very hard, very deep into his lines, but you do it tightly, and overwhelm with 120% commitment. Whatever you land on is (mostly) going to die. If there's a question mark in it, then don't commit. 

 

Wherever you do this, make sure when the dust settles you can run/move/transport to/teleport towards approximately 3 objectives. 

 

Also when you do this, KNOW in advance _exactly_ where this will happen before you deploy. All other units must support this action from 24"-36" inches away. (you still need to get Objectives, and this is why BSSF is bad. Use your ObSec Boxes to sit across from numerically superior foes and rob them of Objective X.)

 

When you do this the goal is the early game lead, because every game you play against Tau, Eldar, Necrons, etc, you will die out. You will have next to nothing on the table every game you play against a competent Xenos player. You MUST start with the lead, because you will fade to nothing by T6. Every time.

 

So that alpha is so critical in so many ways. And I know 90% of what I'm saying is far easier said than done, that's why it takes practice... as you'll note most of what I'm saying is actually decided in your head before your first model hits the table. 

 

Also note, for being Xenos hunters we have no answer for the Xenos big baddies. It's very, very hard for me to understand (being the "anti-Xenos army"), but you have the gist of it: Commit to kill or just stay way from it. Unfortunately we don't have the numbers to throw chaff at it.

 

That's all I'm going to say about playing strategy. I think you're going to pick up a lot of other things as you go, and you'll be a better player for it. I think you did awesome, and it's a tough army at that level of play. You really can't make many mistakes.

 

It was a really fun batrep I hope you do more, and I learned from it as all of us do. I encourage everyone to do any sort of battle report for us to learn/grow from. Losses are just as important (if not more so) than wins to share with us.

 

Looking forward to more! Awesome job.

[Sheesh Mode]

 

Also note, for being Xenos hunters we have no answer for the Xenos big baddies.

 

Grav-guns, frag-cannons, melta bombs, and Heavy thunderhammers, but those require specific deployment and execution.

[Prot]

 

 

Also note, for being Xenos hunters we have no answer for the Xenos big baddies.

 

Grav-guns, frag-cannons, melta bombs, and Heavy thunderhammers, but those require specific deployment and execution.

 

 

Well those are technical answers, but in real life execution? I don't know... maybe the answer is burried in there somewhere.

While any/all of the things you mention do work, it's more than a side note to say "execution"... it's really where the game is won or lost.

 

For example, Heavy Hammers were what I originally thought would be the go to in this scenario. By the time I had the execution part of it figured out, I found I didn't have the points to let the rest of the army do what it's supposed to do. 

 

So right now (everything is subject to change) I flip back and forth between planning to engage such models, or just trying ignore them/rack up points. 

 

On a 'wishlist' sort of note, I really think our Stalkers should have had a 'Nuke-Poison' round that still has Sniper rule, but wounds on a 4+ against GC's. 

 

I have a batrep coming up against a no holds barred Stormsurge/Riptide wing army. I'll try to post it early next week. 

Heavy Hammers were my greatest hope. And

[Vash]

Ha ha I was hoping you would turn up here Prot. 

Don't worry about commenting on how to build a list. I would love to hear it. 

But I wanted you to comment on it so I could defend my self :) But you didn't go there :P

 

Anyhow, I will "defend" myself anyway haha. 

 

This list had a lot of experimenting, hence a "practice run" before the tournament. The restrictions are not really in Deathwatch favour (or my way of building Deathwatch). 

Infernos heavy bolter team, have not tried them out before, but noticed really fast that I need a rhino for each combat squad and give them 2 infernos heavy bolters each. This is of course if I decide to keep them. Given, against this particular Eldar force it doesn't really make much sense, as normal boltguns would do better in many cases. 

 

The pricy units are going to be toned down, and their equipment given to other units. 

 

Deep striking in to the middle of the enemy was my biggest misstake in this game. But I hear you on the tactics. I just need to keep my head cool and think ahead. 

I should have checked the Wraithblades position before I deep striked, and I should have been more on his flank for this attack. I would have still been within his Wriathknights charge range, but that I was expecting. 

My initial idea was to deal with him, with my Heavy thunder hammers and psychic shriek (plus 4 frag cannons in lascannon mode). But... due to my greedy nature of opportunity, I totally got blinded by the exposed Farseer and the Windrider units I could take out. 

 

As it did turn out, I got first blood, slay the warlord, and killed off two Windrider units. It was a huge blow for him morally, As his Farseer and warlock both got wiped out. 

But from there on, he drew better mission cards (not holding objectives unless they were in his tight corner), and I was struggling with getting decent cards. 

My hope was to get some "Secure objective" cards, as I could easily control 4 of them (hence my really spread out deployment and movement). 

 

Second misstake was that I again got greedy. In turn two I still had a mission card, that said that I should take out all psyker from the enemy army. He had one spiritseer left, and my Rhino unit who got drawn in was right infront of him. I was down one frag cannon, but still had a ton of fire power. 

In the psychic phase, I totally did something wrong. I was "overconfident" for some reason that my boltguns, meltaguns, and frag cannon would kill the 5 wraithguards and the spiritseer, so I casted psychic shriek on the wraithblades who lost 2 members. 

 

In my shooting phase I did mediocre shooting, but enough to kill them all. But since its a game of chance, anything can happen. I rolled fairly below average and he rolled above. 

Thanks to this I lost another Veteran unit and a psyker. And didn't get any points. 

What I should have done, was to jump into the rhino (parked right next to them) and do a tactical retreat (because space marines never retreat!). Shoot out form the top hatch in the psychic phase and shooting phase. 

 

By doing that I would have gathered my forces and not given him more points towards his mission objectives. Forcing him to chase me. 

His Wraithblades had a field day, as I was blind sighted, and could see two close combats with ease. If I had been smart, I would have made him walk. 

 

Anyhow, we will get another game next friday. And I am hoping I can get one of the missions by then. Because we won't be playing Maelstrom missions. It will be something in style with set objectives on the field, forcing the armies to spread out/move towards something in different sections. 

The Eldar will have the speed/mobility advantage, but I think I can hold him off fairy well if I just redo the list a bit (not tailoring) and think more carefully. 

 

A question for you guys who use the Infernos heavy bolters. Do you think they are worth it in a CAD, and in a tournament setting? I think they can bring some advantages. As said before, they have a set AP of 4. And this will decimate many units (except space marines and the like). The heavy bolter on the move I think is useful too. I can stay back with a unit or two and still lay down some covering fire while grabbing objectives. 

 

 

And for the "We don't have any answer for the BIG guys". Well, we don't really have the big guys our selves. But I do think we can manage. 

With the Wraithknight, my "plan" is to avoid close combat. As his Heavy D-cannons are not something I really fear. They will kill, for sure, but its two shots at seemingly worthless things in the eye of the Wraithknight (Rhinos, Drop pod or infantry). 

If he charges into combat, I would like to plan for it to be on "my terms". Have a bait unit, and counter attack with the heavy thunder hammers. 

Combined with Psychic shriek, frag cannons and meltaguns, I think he will take a fair amount of wounds. Heck the only wounds I did on the guy (2 wounds) was from boltguns (hellfire round on 6+). 

Alternatively I would do as I did this game (not super obvious), and just let him roam free. Focus on other things, and try to weaken the rest of the army. 

My misstake here was letting the Wraithknight fight alongside his Wraithblades (and that won't happen again if I get my way).