Ruins of Station 5743b

The place was dead. There was no sound save for the incessant wind howling through the ruins of the station. It seemed an unlikely place, but the skeins of fate had shown the Farseer that that a weapon lay hidden beneath the ground. A Weapon that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could spell the doom of the Biel-Tim fleet.

They were not alone. The Star Soldiers of the Mon-Kee where here. The ignorant, meddling, unpredictable Mon-Kee. So belligerent and full of blind hatred for all they do not understand. And there was just so much that they did not, nor could they ever, understand.

Last night Other Tim came by to try out Warhammer 40,000 (8th Edition). Other Tim is an old school 40K player that played the game for over 20 years, through 6 editions off the game, but finally threw in the towel at 7th Edition. For some reason, however, he's dragged his toys out of the closet, dusted them off and decided to have a go at 8th.

We played a smaller game (1000 points) for him to just try out the rules and for me to try out my 100 point Eldar force I'm planning to use at the Battleforce: Recon tournament in just over two weeks.

There isn't as much detail or fluff in this report as I might have liked for two reasons. #1, I am not totally familiar with Eldar - so many more rules and different weapon stats to remember compared to my Imperial Guard - so I spent a lot of time looking things up, rather than taking notes and pictures like I normally do. The other is I have injured my elbow and am trying to keep it immobilized for a few days, so I am "hunting and pecking" with one hand here, so....

SCENARIO

The scenario we played was one that will be used in the tournament. The board played on was (approximately) 4'x3'. There were objective markers in the centre of each quadrant - at the end of each turn you scored 1 VP if you controlled more markers than the enemy, or 3VP if you controlled three of the markers, BUT only models of the "Troop" tripper could contest the objectives (i.e. no HQ, Elite, etc...). In addition to that, there were tactical objective cards to draw which gave other opportunities to score victory points. Also points were awarded at the end of each round if one side eliminated more units than they list during the round, plus the usuals for matched play - First Blood, Killing the Warlord, and Linebreaker...

FORCES

Battle host of the Biel-Tim Fleet
Battalion Detachment (8 CP) - as Biel-Tan

Headquarters
1x Farseer
2x Warlocks

Troops
2x Ranger Squads (5)
1x Dire Avenger Squads (5)

Fast Attack
2x Warp Spider Squads (8)
1x Swooping Hawks (5)

Heavy Support
2x Wraith Lords
1x Dark Reaper Squads (4)


Emperor's Brethren Space Marines
Battalion Detachment (8 CP) - as Ultramarines

Headquarters
1x Librarian
1x Chaplain
1xTechmarine

Troops
3x Scout Squads (5)

Elites
1x Ironclad Dreadnought

Fast Attack
3x Attack Bike Squads (1) with Multi-Meltas

Heavy Support
1x Whirlwind
1x Thunderfire Cannon


THE GAME



Farseer Thymiltelyir lead a group of Dark Reapers from the Shrine of the Pulsating Rod to a ruined building near the centre of the station that the Rangers had been scouting out. He'd hoped to suppress the Mon-Kee before they advanced too far into the station and disrupted their search for the weapon.



Another squad of Rangers, covering the Farseer's advance, exchanged fire with the Star Soldiers scouts, while a Wraithlord tried to keep their heads down with a volley of rockets. The attempts to keep the Star Soldiers Heads down were largely ineffective and brought withering fire down on the Dark Reapers, and called in artillery from their supporting units...

My Dark reapers could see nothing in their initial location and had to advance to get into a position where they could - and so were unable to foreign their first turn. On Other Tim's first turn, he wiped them out with a combination of fire from the Scout Marine Snipers and indirect fire from the Thunderfire Cannon. So... I have no idea if they're any good, as they never got a shot off... Guess they're good at drawing fire!!



Ugh... I can't keep up with the fluffy narrative - too much typing for one hand!

Dire Avengers moved up into a position where the were both in cover and controlling ab objective. Wraith lord put a nice neat hole through the Ironclad Dreadnought - one shot - 6 damage! Boom! (it still had 2 left...)



Warlock Adrellewi, controlling another of the objectives, was cut down by fire from the Scout snipers as well...



Ironclad Dreadnought charged, and subsequently wiped out, a squad of Rangers.



The three units of Attack Bikes shot the Dire Avengers to crap, leaving only the Exarch! So the Exarch and Warlock Bro'wyn charged one of them... got in there, but just couldn't hurt it...

On Turn Two, the Swooping Hawks I borrowed from the Girl dropped out of the sky and shot up a couple of Marine Scouts... but not much else. I was expecting these to be big performers, as they've done well for her - but now that I think about it, that was always against Guard or Cultists, are Hormagaunts or other T3, low armoured targets... they are less effective against /marines.... 

The Warp Spiders also arrived in two turns they wiped out two squads of Marine Scouts... Maybe I'll be painting a few more of these instead of my swooping Hawks...? If my arm gets better!!

The Farseer fell back to the other Rangers position.



Attack Bike fell back and shot up the Exarch and Warlock.



Swooping Hawks went down in a blaze of glory....



Other Tim and our small game set up on the kitchen table.



Warp Spiders finishing of that second unit of Marines and controlling one of the objectives (for one of the Tactical Card conditions - the couldn't count as holding it for the scenario conditions - but at least they cleared the Marine troops off of it!)



Farseer set up in a building with two Wraithlords - allowing them both to re-roll all failed hits - one with his warlord ability, the other with the "Guide" psychic ability. Wraith lords were far more effective than the Dark Reapers... I'm going to have to figure out how to modify then to carry a second heavy weapon (as they are allowed two!)



Wraith lords finished off the Ironclad and exchanged fir with the attack bikes, blowing up one.

The Thunder Cannon and Whirlwind all but wiped out the Warp Spiders, so I had the Exarch (with one wound remaining) blink into the enemies rear to try and exact some revenge for his fallen warriors... i'm not sure he did anything there but die... maybe took out a Scout, but didn't finish off the unit...



Wraithlord anf Farseer moving up to charge an Attack Bike in hopes of taking it out and moving up to control the objective beyond it - for a tactical card objective. They succeeded!



The last remaining Attack Bike moved up, trying to break through for a line breaker point (1VP for having a unit in the enemy deployment zone at game end)



In the end he didn't need it, as he concentrated all of his indirect fire on these rangers and wiped then out. Ended the game with 8 VP to my 7....

It was a pretty fun and exciting game. I think it's going to be fun playing the Eldar - I just need bunch more practise to learn all their special rules and stratagems and weapon stats and such - and how to use them all together effective!

I have to admit, I think these "Maelstrom of War" type scenarios - with drawing Tactical Objective cards to see what you get victory points each turn - are kind of silly. It's hard to build narrative around them...

Wraithlords are pretty badass - they're like little walking tanks. I might have to find a way to convert them to carry a second heavy weapon each (as they are allowed to!).

The Warp Spiders were also surprisingly effective. I had some really good luck with rolls for them, but the speed with which they could dart about the field is really useful for a scenario like this.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I was going to try and finish up the Swooping Hawks, but now I'm not so sure...? Maybe the third Wraithlord? More Dire Avengers and Warp Spiders? Do I change things up at this point? Get in more games with the same force? I probably won't get any painting done over the next few days (because of my arm)but maybe I'll be able to talk Amanda or the kids into playing a game or two over the weekend!!