Another batrep vs Eldar

[Blackcadian]

Gentlemen,

 

xenos guile has reached new levels of filth! I present to you my battle against - 10 Dark Reapers in a bastion (amongst other things).

 

 

 

 

 

1850 points

Maelstrom (Targets of Opportunity - 3 cards/turn that can only be scored in this turn)

 

Alaitoc filth (7 CP):

 

Farseer

Jain Zar

Illic Nightspear

3x 5 Rangers

10 Banshees

10 Dark Reapers

10 Dire Avengers (whose name we quickly found quite similar to "Power Rangers" which resulted in a lot of theme song humming) (Webway)

5 Swooping Hawks

5 or 6 Fire Dragons (Webway)

2 Fire Prisms

Imperial Bastion

Wave Serpent (Banshees & Jain Z)

 

Not even super nasty in hindsight, but the shooty core turned out to be pretty brutal.

 

 

Blood Angels (10 CP)

 

Captain Smush (Hammer, SS, Relic JP)

Mephiston

Sang Priest

Lemartes

12 DC (2 Hammers)

3 Inceptors (Plasma)

3x 5 Scouts (2 HBs)

2x 5 Intercessors

5 TACs (ML)

5 Devastators (4x Grav Cannon)

Ancient

Drop Pod

Rapier Quad Bolter

 

Miner

3 Acolytes

 

My plan was to cripple the expected Dark Reaper castle with the Devastators in the Drop Pod, as well as one of the expected Prisms with the Inceptors. All would fit nicely around the Ancient making sure they'd get the job done even if dying in the process. Then the Death Company could swoop in without fear of getting blown up without doing anything due to the silly stratagem. Mephiston was there because everybody says he's good.

 

 

Deplyoment was Hammer and Anvil. Took some pics this time of our deployment :) Eldar begin, like seemingly almost always.

 

 

T1 - Eldar

With few valuable targets on the board my Scouts get completely cleaned up by all the firepower. He scores all 3 cards (manifest a psychic power, destroy 3 units, defend objective 4 - the last one he scored in my turn)

 

T1 - BA

After some ho-humming I see that I there's no way around getting that bastion cleared, so I drop the Pod, the Inceptors and my Captain. Some, hm, after doing the math just now, actually pretty good shooting I got the damn bastion down to 3 wounds. (16 Grav, 6D3 overcharged Plasma, all with Captain re-rolls, plus whatever else I had to shoot). Bastion has T9, 3+, 20 wounds by the way. Mephiston has Wings blocked of course, the other +3 movement power, too.

 

I score 2 of 3 cards for 3 points.

 

 

T2 - Eldar

As expected I get shot up pretty bad again, at least he again fails to cast Guide on the Reapers so there's that. Inceptors and Devastators get wiped. Only 2 4+s made for the Ancient, I again shoot everything at the bastion but it's still on 3 wounds. I think he scores again all 3 cards. Avengers and Swooping Hawks did show up here, too, all in my DZ killing the Tactical Squad.

 

T2 - BA

I try to take down the bastion so I can charge the contents, but only take 1 more wound off of it. My 2 squads of Intercessors turn right around to face the new threat in my backfield and drop some Eldar with their shooting (all but 1 of the SHawks, the last one flees).

My WL move move moves away from the xenos.

 

The remaining Drop Pod contents and the Captain surge forward. Captain is the only one to make his charge (Wings get denied again), but he manages to get an 11 with a CP re-roll (had one 6) to get both the bastion and the Farseer behind it. I spend another CP for the +D3 attacks, roll a 1 for it as always. 6 attacks, 3 on the bastion 3 on the Farseer (here I fully expect to either Only in death or Honour the Chapter). I get one attack through on the bastion which promply blows up in a MASSIVE explosion - 6 units get hit and only the Farseer takes only 1 wound, all other units take 3, including my Cptn, ouch. Farseer survives the onslaught with 2 wounds remaining (4++ and the Phoenix Gem for 6+++s). Farseer strikes back, and of course kills the Captain. I then Only in death, all 6 attacks on the Farseer, 4 wounds and he makes 4 invuls. Hilarious. At that point I know that the game is pretty much over but I hate to be a sore loser so I try to pull myself together. I admit that when things go downhill fast in a game and the conclusion seems pretty obvious that I find it hard to remain cheerful.

 

Oh by the way only 8 Reapers made it out of the bastion alive.

 

I score one or two cards here. Killing the Farseer would've netted me warlord and D3 points instead of just one.

 

 

T3 - Eldar

Fire Dragons show upto intercept my WL. Banshees and JZ disembark toward Mephistion. Rapier dies, a few Intercessors, too, as well as my tactical squad and an Acolyte. My warlord gets toasted by the FDragons. Mephiston miraculously lives to get charged by the Banshees and JZ. JZ finally kills him but with his dying breath Mephiston cleaves the frail alien in half (made my Ancient roll).

 

T3 - BA

The Intercessors move closer to the Dire Avengers, shoot them up pretty good and then charge them. The DC, Lemartes and the Priest have landed to and charge the Banshees and a unit of Rangers. No Intercept stratagem as my opponent has just 1 CP left. Crazy charge rolls see the DC make it into both Eldar units with room to spare, and Lemartes makes it in, too. Unfortunately I manage to wipe only the Rangers, leaving 2 Banshees alive which make their LD test. On the other side of the battlefield 2 Dire Avengers survive and also make their LD.

 

 

T4 - Eldar

Everything moves out of combat. All but 1 DCompany Marine die to guided Dark Reapers thanks to being Doomed. Lemartes dies to a Prism and Rangers/Illic.

 

T4 - BA

I try to take down the slightly wounded Serpent because this turn I have to kill a unit with FLY. I fail.

 

T5 - Eldar

Everything dies, I am tabled.

 

 

Verdict:

Originally I had blamed :cussty dice for my loss rolling which I did have, but seemingly not to the extent I had thought. I believed I should've been able to take down the bastion with average rolling when focusing everything on it which seems to not be the case at all.

 

Which begs the question - how do I take it down next time before getting completely shredded by the Reapers and Prisms? I could've dropped the DC in obviously, but after Intercept there wouldve been a lot less left. Definitely too few to surround the bastion which would've been nice, too. Considering he didn't even screen the bastion it could've been even worse I guess. Anything that can't be dropped in from reserves is heavily reliant on me getting first turn which doesn't happen often, considering I'm usually the 2nd to finish my deployment. I had thought about bringing a Leviathan instead of the Grav-Bomb but it's crazy expensive and I'm not sure I would've done more wounds to the bastion.

 

I'm not really sure what I could've done different so if anyone has an idea I'm all ears.

 

Also, Psykers seem to be completely useless when playing Eldar.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Blackcadian

[Karhedron]

Sounds like a tough match for sure. I play Eldar and even so, taking 10 Reapers in a Bastion just feels..... dirty!

 

I think the best solution might actually be NOT to kill the Bastion (or at least, not to fixate on it). The level of protection is supplies is impressive so you have to consider what would have happened if all the damage you focussed on it had been applied to the rest of his army instead.

 

Your Inceptors and Devastators should have been able to do quite a nice number on the Fire Prisms off the drop and Captain Smash could have done similar damage to the Wave Serpent. Of course without a clear view of the table, I can't tell how well screened these units were.

 

Reapers are scary, there is no doubt about it and I can understand your desire to shut them down. But I don't think the Reapers would have been able to win the battle on their own so next time, taking down some of his other units early on to reduce his firepower would probably keep your army alive longer than trying to crack such a hard target as a Bastion.

 

If you really do want to try and take out the Bastion, Mehpiston might be your best option if you can get him close. Quickening plus Red Rampage will give him an average of 8 attacks hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s and doing D3 damage apiece. That is 11 points of damage in a single phase and you always have the option of using "Honour of the Chapter" to double that. Mehpiston can quite conceivably kill the Bastion on the charge albeit at the cost of 4CPs and getting a psychic power off.

 

Captain Smash can do a similar result without needing a psychic power. Charge both Mephy and Captain smash after softening up slightly and you can probably get away with just 1 CP for Red Rampage.

[Blackcadian]

Thanks for reading and the helpful reply! Yes it was a tough matchup as most have been ever since we started this years league table with a proper ELO ranking haha!

 

Thinking about what you said makes a lot of sense. The 20 wounds on a T9 model are extremely hard to chew through, and it's probably better not to "waste" my alpha strike on it, as much as I'd like the Reapers gone. I originally had planned to shoot the Inceptors at a Prism - they should severely weaken it and one would have been in range, too. The Devastators could've shot at the other Prism although with -1 to hit. Shooting the Serpent would've been a waste thanks to the serpent shield, but like you said I could've charged it (probably sacrificing my Captain to shooting and/or the Banshees counter-charge).

 

It probably would've ended somewhat better as at least the incoming firepower would've been reduced somewhat I guess.

 

Thanks!