Mini-Rep Eldar vs Astra (Pics)

[Prot]

Eldar (Expert Crafters/No Cover) vs Astra+Scions.

Sorry I don't have more time, but here's a super quick run down of my test game from my other thread:

We played out of the tournament book, and the deployment was Dawn of War. I ended up going first which of course is critical.

Astra is loaded with tanks. 2 Command Demolisher tanks, normal Leman Russ, Manticore, Eradicator, Chimera(?). 2 squads of Sentinels (Las squad + Flamer Squad). 5 Bullgryn protecting.

My army is based on the Wraith theme I used in 8th, except I have no idea what to do with our cruddy troops. This game I experiment with 2 squads of Dire Avengers, and 2 transports for them. And a squad of Rangers.

The core of the list is super expensive: 8 Axe wraiths, Foot Farseer, Spirit Seer. And a pair of Wraithlords with ELMs.

The secondary core of the list is 5 Shining spears with an Autarch and Farseer on Bike.

With big point hikes, and a nerf to fly move/shoot ability, I had to drop my typical 3 Night Spinners down to 1. I got rid of all my Vibro Cannons with the limitation to Modifiers (I don't think it's worth it now.) and I take 2 pricey D-cannons. At least they can move and shoot.

Let's have a look at the game:

This is our deployment:

- I've stacked the Waiths on my Left Flank, the Spears on the right flank. Wraithlords in the middle with the 2 D-Cannons.

- Here's a closeup of the tanks on the Astra side.

- I get first turn, and decide to just buff up the Wraiths, and stay up behind the Obscurring ruins. The mobile stuff HAS to move up because if I can't engage some of those tanks, I know I can't win the battle of attrition.

- Wraiths are cuddled up the ruins.. Psychic phase is 100 % successful.

The right side flank does not do nearly as well.....

- Everything is in the right position to 1) take out the chaff guarding the Manticore (hidden behind building), and 2) Charge the Manticore.

- The problem is he has 3 Flamer Sentinels that will make short work of my obsec Dire Avengers. I have to throw literally half the army at them, and he still has1 left. Incredible. I fail to kill all the chaff in front of the Manticore.

- I wanted to shoot they Brightlances on the Serpent as the command tank but I can't because of all the fail on the walkers.

- On this right flank, I try to charge the Manticore: I make the charge over the troops and... get this: Manticore overwatch + strat to hit on 5's and 6's, I lose 3 of 5 Shining Spears including the Exarch who was 'tanking' the hits (Failed all saves).

- The Serpent manages to assault a tank.

Back on the left flank:

- I only kill one Chimera Flame Tank and some plebs. So I figure I have to sit still, in Turn 2 the Dire Avengers get out, and charge a squad of plebs... My Dire Avengers can't kill anything.

- He has Scramblers, so Deepstrikes a squad of Scions to plant them, the only way I can prevent this is the Forewarning strat. I planned for this, so the Farseer on foot is within 6" of the Night Spinner, AND it has Guilde Cast on it. Two times this game I cannot kill all the 5 men Scion squads that come in, this results in him planting all the scramblers he needs for an auto 10 points. Bad luck on my part, and a waste of 4 CP during the game. I don't know if I'd do that again.

The tanks are super hard for me. I just can't do anything. Honestly the 1 shot missile Wraithlords were incredibly disappointing. The only thing I am really doing here is assaulting tanks with transports to stay alive, gain points.

- This is the total fail assault. The only thing helping me on the left side is I've tucked a lot of my core assets behind Obscured terrain.

- His Bullgryn hit hard, but I have to sacrifice yet another Wave Serpent here....

- The Serpent holds up, and I get a charge off and this is a game changer on the left flank as I have all my buffs up. It's a super expensive pack of units, but this pretty much 'bumps' into tanks, one at a time, after killing the Bullgryn.

- It's not all gravy though... the Wave Serpent charged the tank and took overwatch on 5+ and died... and blew up! I took damage but so did his 3-4 units around the tank. I figure just before this charge I should not have DOUBLE discharged my Shield because all I did was 2 wounds to the tank (it was down to 3), and I lost my ability to 'tank' damage and died during the charge as a result. That's two devastating charges that went backwards on me.

- On the right side, I bumped into his command tank there to prevent shooting. I'm also down to my last Shining Spear who is just continually plinking away at the Manticore, preventing it from shooting: Eventually I back it into a corner, and I destroy it with an explosion which kills the last Spear!

- I finally get through the infantry here, and get one of the last 2 tanks here.

- Finally in turn 4-5 I have two of the EML Wraithlord shots hit and wound. It only results in one dead Lascannon Sentinel.

- A D-Cannon continues to do an average of... 2-3 damage a turn on T8 tanks. All that's left on my right flank is above: Autarch, Farseer, Wraithlord, D-Cannon.

- I'm trying to pad my points, to secure a win, so in an act of desperation (and knowing we are in T5) I move the Wraithlord around the Obsuring Ruins, and I zoom the Autarch, and the Farseer over the ruins, and charge a Command Demolisher tank.

- As a result my Farseer is overwatched on 5's, and takes a few demolisher hits (I thing 4 got through!) in the face and dies. The Autarch charges in to shut the tank down....

- My Wraithlord takes two lascannons to the head as well, going down at mid field.

- At this point we are done T5 the game is over. It's about a 20 point differential in favour of Eldar.

Post Game:

- My opponent had trouble with the primary in this game which surprised me. Astra typically hold '2-3' all game preventing a real landslide here, but I capped on Primary, and my opponent only had 25 points (I think he had 2 turns of only holding 1).

- We both took engage on all fronts. I think we agreed this was not a good choice for his list at this configuration. I took quite a lead there.

- I took Bring it down, and even though I had terrible trouble damaging him, I maxed out because of the Sentinels to 15 points. He got about 7 I think.

- I had thin their ranks... I knew I had won so didn't bother adding it up. I estimated about 8-10 points there.

- HIs scramblers gave him 10 points.

At the end of the game I could tell my opponent was exceptionally frustrated. I had to be shifty with movement, expose very little because I strongly believed he far out gunned me. I had to 'sneak' up, then launch an assault and cross my fingers. Sometimes I'd have pretty heavy losses doing this... but would tap a tank in the end which is huge.

I think it was not until my Turn 5 that I killed a single Russ chassis tank! What I did have was table control over the Asrta in this game. I felt I had to outscore early, then hide from his big guns.

It almost didn't work... so many of the Eldar are flakey and fragile. In fact I saw my Wraithlords were so lethargic with a single missile shot a turn, he ignored them mostly until T5, then he just looked at one and it was gone. The real pressure from my army came from the entanglement of Wave Serpents, and Wraiths, and the (semi-successful) Shining Spears.

The list otherwise really doesn't have any teeth. It just moves 'well' and can engage at will. As a side note the Eldar troops are so horrid... I've seen others try Dire Avengers and Asurmen . I don't think that's a good answer for me because I have so many units dedicated to the Wraiths.

I think this seals my attempt at getting the Yncarne in a game at 300 points. I don't think it's going to work at that point cost.

Anyway, it was a tough game, and won simply by movement I think...my opponent spent almost the entire game on his backline, making a lot of 'real estate' based secondaries very difficult. He doesn't like the secondaries for his army and was pretty frustrated by the whole thing by the end.

I didn't know what to expect at all. Eldar are getting a very bad wrap, and I'm not seeing much success so this was a bit of an unknown for me on the matchup.

Thanks for checking out the batrep.

[Dwango]

I enjoyed reading that. I'm glad you're back on with trying eldar. I can't offer and foresight into tactics etc as I don't play, but eldar was my first ever army and one I hold dear. I always want to see then hold their own and do well.

[Prot]

Thanks for checking it out, and the comment. There isn't a lot that Eldar players are very excited about in 9th... but hopefully the codex release changes things for a lot of factions in a similar state. :)

[MasterAO]

I haven't had a chance to play any 9th ed games yet, and as I only play causal games against my brothers Tau army I don't consider my choices to be competitive enough. I usually field what I think an Alaitoc force would consist of when we do get to play a game.

[Karhedron]

Thanks for the batrep Prot. Sounds like you pulled off a difficult win in the circumstances although it sounds like it was a bit of a frustrating game for both you and your opponent.

 

9th is interesting. How you play the game seems very similar to 8th but how you win is totally different. I think veteran players will have to take some time adjusting.

[Prot]

That's a pretty fair assessment.

 

I think the Astra player really should have won, and I think his choice in secondaries was the biggest let down for him. 

 

He outshot me by a strong margin, but out survived me by a larger margin. That's a bad combo.

 

His frustration was in not scoring, and then when my Wraithblades reached him, that was a difficult thing for him to overcome. However I will point out in turn 5 when I could not pass my buffs for the Wraithblades, they really floundered! It was a tense moment because my list pretty much hinges on them.

 

My frustration was in feeling like I couldn't dent his really good units. He thought I did plenty of damage, but honestly I disagreed. Sure his troops died... as easily as mine, however I continually would shoot at tanks... one has a 2+ save, and they are mostly all T8. At best I'm wounding on 4's with only -2 AP missiles. The rest is fishing for 6's. Ouch.

 

That was the frustration for me. Sure he had dead 'stuff', but until my Wraiths reached his lines, I was really just throwing stuff at him (transports/even HQ's!) just to tie up a tank for a turn. That frustrated him, but I think he can mitigate that in some ways. 

 

So there I am continually sacrificing units to prevent being riddled with tank shells. My own vehicles struggled to damage his tanks, and by Turn 5 we were both beaten up, however I had been scoring all along. That was the difference in a nutshell.

 

Eldar really don't feel like they have a strong angle to play in this edition. It feels like a strong consideration is going to be the Fire Prisms because I couldn't believe how little I could damage vehicles.

 

I am putting in a Wraithseer with a D-Cannon to help out with the Wraiths, and lethargic damage. The Wraiths are good, but need help. I am considering the Warlord ability to shoot at characters too. (another problem for me if they are protected by vehicles.)

 

I'd hate to face Tau with this army right now. :)

[The Yncarne]

First, thanks for the battle report. Your opponent's models and list look similar to my opponents.

 

I only have two games experience and it seems so far that unless you're marines, you focus on capping objectives and not let the inability to kill anything but chaff not get you down. IMO for Eldar that remains wraith units and wave serpents. What do I know; just lucky so far. 

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

[Prot]

Thanks for reading the batrep.

 

It's a really weird way to play 40K for Eldar. I'm used to the army being looked at as having very potent, surgical strike type units. Now I'm playing bumper cars, and hiding a lot. lol

[MithrilForge]

Thanks for the write up and pics Prot, 

another tough one I see but movement and tactical choice over straight firepower won through... gone are the days of just trying to wipe someone, you can still win if you execute the plan  ... your Astra friend shouldn't feel too bad, you don't learn if you don't lose... 

Question though - when he's overwatching he's paying a CP every time right ?...

 

Mithril

[Prot]

Yes, overwatch is a strat (for everyone except tau which is crazy). So it is unique, and he would pay the CP, and then use the additonal strat so he got max shots on his variable shot weapons. (I don't know what it's called).

 

This was very punishing, and I believe he had a way of hitting on 5's (another strat?) in overwatch. So he knew he can't fire Blast into CC, and most of his weapons on the tanks are blast, so he wisely chose to get the shooting in overwatch before being tied up. There are situations... like my last batrep (just previous to this game) where he was actually able to kill all but one Shining Spear in overwatch... that was incredible. (I even CP re-rolled the first failed save on my Exarch Spear with the 3+ invuln).

 

I am seeing an increase in flame tanks of the Chimera variety just because they are so effective at clearing out infantry tie ups.

 

Thanks for reading the batrep. 

 

Next game is tomorrow. I have to make some minor changes. Just too much stuff that isn't really doing damage. (I'm not sure how to fix that.)