Battle of the Long Road (1850 Eldar vs Grey Knights)

So, it’s been a fair while since my last blog post. Mal and I have only had one game of 6^th edition since it came out – well, in Birmingham at any rate. So this game is a long time coming. Fortunately, with the foolish lad having moved to Birmingham there’ll be many more games ahead (ready yourselves for a series of battle reports as I try and really hone my anti-Eldar skills!)

The game was played with a few proxies (a broken war walker, totally the wrong figures for interceptors, a random grey knight for my inquisitor, howling banshees for some fire dragons) as we were perfecting our lists. So if you note that the photos look odd, that’ll be why.

ELDAR ARMY LIST

HQ

Eldrad

4 Warlocks, 4 * Destructor

Avatar

Troops

10 dire avengers, exarch, bladestorm, xtra catapult

Wave serpent, EML

10 Guardian defenders, Scatter laser

5 Rangers

6 Jet bikes, 2 shuriken cannons

Elites

10 Fire dragons, exarch, fire pike, crack shot

Wave Serpent, EML

Fast attack

5 swooping hawks, exarch, skyleap

Vyper, 2 Shuriken Cannons

Vyper, 2 Shuriken Cannons

Heavy Support

War Walker, 2 Shuriken Cannons

Falcon, Scatter Laser

GREY KNIGHT ARMY LIST

HQ (Grey Knight)

‘Krise, Lord of Thorpe’ Librarian w/ Dark Excommunication, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Smite, Warp Rift.

‘Inquisitor Shanks’ Ordo Malleus Inquisitor w/ terminator armour, daemon hammer, psycannon and psychic powers (psychic communion.)

‘Three Dead Men Walking and a Git with a Shield’ 3 Acolytes w/ melta gun and 1 Crusader

Dedicated Transport: Chimera

Troops (Grey Knight)

‘Brother Hamley’s Parade Unit’ 5 terminators w/ psycannon and three hammers.

‘Adriar Leesh’s Squad’ 10 man strike squad w/ two psycannons

Dedicated Transport: Rhino

Fast Attack (Grey Knight)

‘Noel Krik’s Counterattack Force’ 5 Interceptors w/ psycannon

Heavy (Grey Knight)

‘Brother Mack’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons.

‘Brother Sando’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons.

HQ (Imperial Guard)

‘Commissar Hugo Lambert’ Lord Commissar w/ melta bombs

Troop (Imperial Guard)

‘Sous-lieutenant Lachance’s Squad’ Platoon Squad w/ mortar

‘Maréchal de Logis Avant’s Squad’ Infantry Squad w/ plasma gun and mortar

‘Maréchal de Logis Dupré’s Squad’ Infantry Squad w/ plasma gun and mortar

‘Brigadier Dautin’s Mortier Squad’ Heavy weapons squad

‘Hugo’s Highly and Finely Trained Men’ 34 Conscripts

Heavy (Imperial Guard)

‘Le Seul Revancher’ Leman Russ Battle Tank

THE GAME

Here's a shot of the battlefield:

We rolled up the Scouring, playing corner to corner.  I pile three objectives in a triangle near the Temple of Skulls, whilst Mal spreads them out on the other side. When I roll up the choice of sides, I take the Temple-side (unsurprisingly.)

Mal lays down the Brigade of Slim Cowards with jet bikes and vehicles at the back, and an Avatar with a bunch of Guardians just behind the Vernon (that’s the building on the hill.) I shunt my henchmen out of my chimera, and put them behind the rhino on the far side (they should count themselves lucky: yesterday , in a game I didn’t battle-rep, I made them walk across the battlefield); the chimera has room for the psycannon strike squad, librarian and inquisitor (as I rolled a bunch of cover save denying, lose your save powers, and intend to drive up and fire three psycannons out the hatch and blow up his vehicles.) I reserve the other 5 man strike squad and the terminators. Now, funny anecdote: it was only at Xmas, when rereading the Codex that I realised that the ‘Deep strike’ special rule applied to *both* the interceptor squad *and* the Strike Squad. I never knew. This is annoying given that I once foot slogged men to fight a Tau army and they died en route (they must’ve *hated* the general that day.) Anyhow, I intend to rectify this error and try out some Strike Squad deep striking action.

The Eldar bastards redeploy. Ironically, having just left the room saying ‘I always ignore your deployment anyhow because of your special redeployment powers’ I managed to pay too close attention to his guardians and avatar and, to an extent, set up accordingly. So I’m pissed off when his guardians shift back into reserve, leaving his avatar on his tod. I presume this is some sort of bait, although I’m not sure if I should take it… Next we turn to the hidden victory points (I need to get some counters to better represent this stuff.) I get two 3’s and a 2 in my half, whilst the objective next to the avatar – the closest, and most likely, point of contestation – gets a 4 (NB: It later transpired that I never even got *close* to this objective, and threatened every other one except this one. Ironic.) So that leaves the Eldar with just a 2 and 1 safely in their hands. I settle on giving up on them: I reckon when I hit reserves I can drop my troops mid-point, and take the 4, allowing them to back everyone up there as well. (As I read this in retrospect, I laugh.)

We shift to Mysterious Objectives. I’m just out of one with my conscripts (hope that doesn’t turn out to be sabotaged…), my mortar team (safely hidden behind sandbags) get the scatter field with the bonus to cover save (woo hoo!) and the two units with the Leman Russ on the temple of skulls get the chance to reroll their 1s. (Mal’s rangers get nothing from the objective in their crater.)

Here's a  shot of deployment, post redeployment:

ELDAR TURN ONE

Mal wins the toss and I fail to seize. The rangers and avatar stay where they are, whilst the jet bikes and tanks move round. They open fire on Brother Sando (the dreadnought.) The Falcon, guided, scores two pens and immediately destroys him (no save, you see. I didn’t see how I could get him in cover without threatening the chimera – later, Mal pointed out that hiding behind the Leman Russ might be the way forward, although I worry that this means it’s difficult to shoot with both autocannons.) The Viper near the Avatar opens up on the mortar team, but they don’t even need the scatter field as its shots bounce harmlessly off. Another tank shoots at Brother Mack, but bounces. The next launcher manages, however, to blow him up too… Here's a shot:

So, one sixth of my army is now dead.

The other viper, mashed in with the group, fires on the mortar team. But their cover saves stop the 3 instant death wounds. They’re not so lucky when the jet bikes instant death two bases with shuriken cannons  (the remaining base flees, but then rallies back onto the objective in my turn.) The jet bikes then shift into reverse in the assault phase and do the ‘French Elf’ manoeuvre, fleeing behind the ruins.

THE GOOD GUYS TURN ONE

Fuck me.

1/6^th of the army dead.

Fuck.

Me.

The boys pile into their respective tanks, although my “psycannon’d HQ plus strike squad” number in the chimera are a smidgen out of range of his Falcon. As I want to save my wounds (which I’ll lose from perils inflicted by his runes of warding) I decide not to use my powers. We advance forwards slightly, and my conscripts unearth another scatter field at their objective. My Interceptors leap past the hill and blast the Avatar (3 wounds, 2 saved), whilst the mortars open up on the jet bikes (killing a base.) Everyone else opens up, but after a battery of melta gun fire, battle canon fire (totally missed!) and psycannon shots, I’d managed to kill but one more jet bike (and that was with the flipping rhino and its mounted storm bolter!) Useless. I do manage to get the bikes to flee into the open as they fail their morale, but – overall – as opening salvos go, this isn’t stellar. 

Here's a shot from into the movement phase:

ELDAR TURN TWO

The bikes make their regroup check, but at least they’re stuck, dangling, on the road. His War Walker makes the reserve roll, and the correct outflank roll, coming in on my arse end behind  Maréchal de Logis Dupré’s squad. The hawk  land and blast the conscripts. There’s a rules conflab about how to resolve the blast – do they get cover saves from the cover between where the Hawks now stand or does the bomb ‘come from above’ and they lose it. I think the correct interpretation is that they do, in fact, get the cover. Answers on a postcard… In any case, six of them die, but Commissar Lambert just cries for them to continue charging forwards! The Dire Serpent advances, as does the Fire Serpent, which deposits 10 Fire Dragons right next to my rhino. This is *not* going well. Having made no progress on destroying any of his vehicles, which means he has a fully armed and armoured fusion gunned Fire Dragon squad ready to plow through my Terminator unit, I get this sinking feeling in my stomach. As my interceptor squad watch the Hawks hurl back up into the sky, their line of sight returns to the sight of Eldarad’s Coward Mobile (a.k.a. the Falcon) swerve around from behind the Avatar ready to demolish them…

The Fire Dragons shoot the rhino, blowing it up and replacing it with a crater:

 It takes out two melta guns. The bikes fire at them, but as only one can see it does nothing. The Viper fires at the squad. My Crusader never survives in any game and, true to form, rolls a 1 on his first save, making sure he doesn’t survive in this one either. The rest of the fire finishes the squad off. Let’s see: the rangers fire at the conscripts (nothing); the Falcon on the Interceptors (focus fire, killing three of them); Viper fires on the remaining Interceptors (killing the Justicar); the lone interceptor then sucks an elder missile, wiping him out; War Walker on some of the guard takes out four; twin linked launcher from the Fire Dragon kills a single conscript. 

GOOD GUYS TURNS TWO

We are seriously screwed. 

The guard unit fail to rally. Gits. I manage to do some decent deep striking, though, as my reserves all come on in. Looking for cover for my strike squad, I drop them onto the ruin itself – I’m willing to risk those dangerous terrain tests (and, again, I point out that we *really* need to base the ruins so they’re proper area terrain.) They scatter, but fortunately scatter just behind the ruin, with a perfect LOS to the Fire Dragon squad, yet still receiving a cover save. AND no dangerous terrain tests. Go Grey Knights! The Termies do badly on the roll as well, ending up 11” off target, but – again – with a bead on the Dragons. The Chimera switches to ‘neutral’, and the humming sound of psycannons can be heard as we eye up the Dire Avengers’s transport. The Librarian tries for the chance to ignore cover saves, and blows a blood vessel instead for a wound. Risking it for a biscuit, and seeing that my Chimera isn’t meant long for this world without it, he psyches up a 4+ inv save for the tank. That he gets (I’m thinking my only chance at the moment is the fully functional psycannon squad at the beating heart of that tank managing to blow away most of his army.) Next I need a plan for the war walker. It’s AV 10, making my flash lights useless, so Lambert weighs that melta bomb in his hand, and orders the conscript squad back the way they came. I’m not confident that I’ll get them in this turn, so they should probably run, but it’ll also give me some objective claiming squads (which I’m likely to run short of come the end of the game) so abandoning my original plan – which was to run them up and shoot jet bikes and/or tarpit an Avatar – is just a sacrifice I’ll have to make. (And I’m not entirely sure what alternative there is: that War Walker might just run rampant around the back of the squads!)

Over to shooting. Mortars and combined storm bolter fire from the Strike Squad kill the Fire Dragons, except the Exarch. The psycannons fire their bullets, and manage to do an excellent round of hitting, but not damaging, and does a mere 2 glances to the Dire Serprent, which leaves it fully functional. The Chimera itself shoots away two jet bikes, but they’re in 12” of the Avatar so no morale roll there… The Conscripts run (a mere 2”). The Leman Russ shoots at the Bikes, but deviates and, again, does nothing. The terminators, who I’ve left until last, eye up their choices. We’ve got a ranger squad, fearless from the Avatar in a crater (not them, then), only two of my termies can see the Avatar (not that then), we can only see *one* jet bike (that’s them out) and the Fire Serpent is AV 12. Oh look: there’s the lone Exarch of the Fire Dragons. DIE DIE DIE DIE! (More wounds than were needed were spent on massacring him; he deserves it given what he’s probably done to terminators across the galaxy.)

Here are two shots from the opposing sides of the table:

And:

ELDAR TURN THREE

The Guardians make their  reserve roll and wander in on the edge. The Hawks come down and kill a conscript. Value for money those Hawks. Eldarad’s Coward Mobile shoots over to my side of the table, to – presumably – act as cover for the Dire Serpent that sweeps behind it, and then deposits the Avengers facing my Strike Squad. (Who are now *really* wishing they teleported onto the ruin as planned – I reckon that bladestorm will wipe them out.) The Jet Bikes scuzzy off.

The Rangers fire at my terminators. But, whilst 2 AP 1hit, only one wounds. The Dire Avengers bladestorm the strike squad. They manage to kill three, but that’ll generate a morale check… The Dire Serpent manages to kill the Justicar with focus fire, followed up by the Viper that finishes them off.

The Avatar continues his advance on the Termies, whilst the Viper and War Walker lay down the pain on the conscripts for seven in total, and a scatter laser from the Guardians makes ten. Blimey. Will they manage to deliver the melta bomb on the war walker? Let’s see…

The Fire Serpent finishes off the phase with a glancing hit on the chimera that is shrugged off with a 4++. 

GOOD GUYS TURN THREE

My valiant Librarian decides to go for it. He throws up the Divination power that lets him and the squad he’s with ignore cover saves. Then, thinking we could really do with the invulnerable save, I have him try and stick another 4++ on the chimera. Seconds later, Inquisitor Shanks is worrying about the smell of fried brain stinking up the joint as the Librarian falls to bottom of the tank dead as a dodo… [There was a discussion at this stage about whether the rules meant that we now lost the use of the Librarian power – answers on a postcard. As a kindness, it was decided I could press ahead with the power in effect.]

Whilst the fleeing imperial guard infantry rally, my conscripts continue their slog to the War Walker, and I figure my Guard – who are ensconced in the Temple of Skulls – might as well give up firing mortar and leg it to the objectives lest a few bad difficult terrain rolls leave me wanting for half an inch come turn five. (The terminators, of course, move on the Avatar.)

In the shooting phase my Leman Russ turns on the Dire Avengers. The Battle Cannon strikes home, killing a whole five Avengers and clipping the back of the tank, turning it into a wreck. But, whilst not terrible, it hadn’t been a great success for the Leman Russ… The Chimera doesn’t manage to pick up the slack: the psycannons manage two hull points on the Coward mobile, leaving it quite functional. It’s around this point I stick two and two together and realise that his warlocks are going to come into the back ranks and lay down multiple templates on my guard, massacring them. Decided I need to try, desperately, to finish them off I fire the Chimera’s multi-laser at it. No effect.

Meanwhile, at the back, the rallied dudes turn their attention on the War Walker, firing a plasma gun at it for a point of damage (maybe I should’ve let the plasma do the talking rather than sending in Lambert with the melta bomb… ah well.) The conscripts charge, taking a man in damage, but miss with the melta bombs. Poor show Lambert! The rest of the Guard are busy using their run rolls to spread into the most template resistant formation I can stick them in.

Over to the terminators on the north side (well, we’re rewinding in time a little, given I just described the assault phase, but you see where I’m going!) The Terminators charge the Avatar who calls out my Justicar. He, sensibly, hides. They whack on in for a wound, but the damn Giant Smurf saves! Ramming a lava spear through the hide of one of the terminators, I lose a figure. We lose the morale check, and then get caught up in the subsequent sweeping advance. Yet they hear the Emperor’s words: ‘AND THEY SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!’ Locked again in combat, I fear that the remaining three lads won’t fare quite as well next round when the psyk-out grenades aren’t pushing the Giant Smurf to initiative 1…

Here's the back of the table, where my conscripts are caught in cmobat with the war walker:

ELDAR TURN FOUR

Eldarad fortunes himself and the Coward Mobile. The Hawks come down and template some Guard over in the Temple of Skulls, taking out a handful of figures. Everything starts coming for me: the jet bikes do a huge movement to the objective in the far corner; Vipers moving forward; the tanks advance ominously; the warlocks get out…

Whilst the Rangers ineffectually shoot the Chimera’s side, the inevitable happens and the Warlocks let rip with Destructor. They kill everyone they can see, although this doesn’t actually mean *everyone*. One man, the sargent, and the mortar team he’s with a impossible to see atop the hill, so they survive.  The nearby Viper takes offence, though, and shoots the Leman Russ up the backside, blowing it up and wiping out the unseen mortar team, leaving the sargent , Avant, on his tod (the blast even manages to take out a Fortuned Warlock!) Avant makes his morale check to the nose. Another unit of guard don’t fair so well as a scatter laser does them for three and then the viper totals them; the hawks do likewise, finishing off another load. Eldarad then does something funny: he mind wars the sole, remaining mortar team. That does a wound. But, heh, there’s a missle launcher on the tank left so it fires at them, but its scatter fielded cover save protects!

In the assault phase, the avatar does in another Terminator. I come back, landing only one hit and failing to wound with a ‘1’. Meanwhile, Lambert *again* fails to melta-bomb the War Walker and *again* the walker does the conscripts for a man. Then it’s over to my dwindling forces.

GOOD GUYS TURN FOUR

What do I do? Tanks can’t contest, and Vipers are worth points. Working on the assumption that it’ll all end on Turn Five, I settle on a Chimera taking one Viper and the psycannons taking out another. The remaining choice (everyone else being dead, or in an assault) is what to do with my one, lone, serj: Maréchal de Logis Avant. Avant hunkers on down next to one of the skulls. Maybe, just maybe, if both Vipers die then Eldarad’s Falcon will wheel around and, when it shoots him, the cover save will keep him safe. At least, that was my thinking. Here he is, hiding on the left, the falcon just over the Temple crest:

The result? The Chimera manages to do only a single point to the Viper, although the other is annihilated in a rain of psycannon fire. Not exactly the success story I was hoping for. Another downside: Lambert gets around to melta bombing the war walker to death. Great. I needed it to do that next turn or last turn, not this turn… I manage to consolidate them so a single man stands on the tip of the crater.

And the terminators? Dead. Totally dead. Wiped out to a man.

Useless.

ELDAR TURN FIVE

The Sweeping Hawks come on in on the conscripts, ready to – presumably – assault them. The jet bikes do a super zoom all the way over to the Temple of Skulls to contest the objective over there. Everything else just edges closer and closer to my men.

The few remaining Avengers clear away the remaining mortar team, whilst the tanks smash missile after missile into the back of my Chimera, wrecking it. Amidst the smoke and the heat, my Inquisitor and the Strike Squad – leaving behind the body of Krise, Lord of Thorpe, Holy Librarian of the Emperor – disembark out the back into the incoming Destructors of the Warlocks. Again, my luck fails and while I needed only one man to maybe survive and leg it to the objective protected merely by a Viper, he annihilates the squad. Shanks – the Inquisitor – survives, untouched.

Speaking of that Viper he fires at Avant, who is now schooched on down in the Temple of Skulls. He gets wounded by two, but makes the saves to survive. The Hawks, though, focus fire, catching Lambert in the open (so putting some dudes in cover and others not was distinctly a disadvantage here!) and the conscripts end up fleeing.

THE LOSERS TURN FIVE

Unsurprisingly the conscripts don’t snake eyes their morale roll, and keep running. Avant hunkers further down the Temple of Skulls so he can control the objective.  My plan is to kill the Hawks and the Viper – if I can do that, I’ve still almost certainly lost but not as bad as one might think. Shanks maledicts the Viper and he fires his psycannon. Alas, of the three hits NONE penetrate. The Viper survives again! The conscripts fire at the Hawks, but with no wounds. Avant fires as well, but whilst he wounds they save.

Not what I needed.

ELDAR TURN SIX

Night fighting kicks in (we forgot about it during turn five…)

 ‘Just get on with it’, I say, as a victim might say to his inevitable murderer. The remaining Viper incinerates Avant, who cannot hold his luck out any longer, whilst the Falcon instant kills Shanks.

That leaves a single unit: the conscripts. The Hawks laser three of them down. The Jet Bikes, hovering near the objective, shoot as well, but each of the three hits fail to wound the remaining solider. Clutching his arm, but still alive, he grits his teeth and goes on! Then the Guardians, at quite a long range, let rip with the scatter laser. Three wounds. But, with night fighting in place, he manages his cover saves. That’s right. So there he is. Everyone else is dead. There’s no way he can get to an objective. Hell, the man isn’t even trying to stay on the battlefield. He’s fleeing from it as fast as possible. He’s the lowest, cheapest miniature in the list – and, ever so almost the worst and cheapest model in the game. And he’s surviving. He means to LIVE.

So Eldrad steps out and Mind Wars him. That’s right. Eldrad – the ten thousand year (and more!) old leader of the Eldar race has to bring his psychic powers to bear on the poor shit. He didn’t survive – hell, I’ve seen a Carnifex bite it from Mind War. But he at least knows this: TO DIE, ELDRAD HAD TO PERSONALLY MIND WAR HIM TO DEATH! I’d honour him in some way, but I don’t honour dead men.

Here are the photos of my humiliation:

RESULT

Eldar victory from tabling. For the record he also got all minor objectives, and had a bunch of other objectives. Poor show lads, poor show…