Batrep: 1850 Eldar vs Dark Angels

It was the night of the Tyranid book launch here so Marshall and I headed down to GRX to watch the fanfare and get a game in. 

Been quite enamoured with the Eldar recently. Have been tweaking a list that I have built which is a take all comers type of list. This is the breakdown of that list:

Farseer: Mantle of the Laughing God, Runes of Witnessing, Witchblade, Jetbike [Warlord]
Farseer: Runes of Witnessing, Singing Spear, Jetbike
Fire Dragons x6: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers (proxy), Shuriken Cannon (proxy)
Guardians x10: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers (proxy), Shuriken Cannon (proxy)
Dire Avengers x10: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers (proxy), Shuriken Cannon (proxy)
Windrider Jetbike x3
Windrider Jetbike x3
Warp Spiders x8
Warp Spiders x8
Fire Prism: Holo Fields
War Walker x3: Bright Lance (proxy), Scatter Laser

Farseers rolled up the powers:

Seer 1 [Warlord]: Guide, Forewarning, Mind War; Ambush of Blades [Warlord Trait]

Seer 2: Guide, Doom, Prescience

Marshall my opponent brought a Dark Angel list. Fully painted too! 

Azrael [Warlord]
Deathwing Terminators x5: Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Inner Circle, Sergeant (Storm Bolter + Power Sword)
Deathwing Terminators x5: Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Inner Circle, Sergeant (Storm Bolter + Power Sword)
Deathwing Terminators x5: Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Inner Circle, Sergeant (Storm Bolter + Power Sword)
Ravenwing x5: Meltagun x2, Teleport Homer, Sergeant
Tactical Squad x9: Sergeant, Plasmagun + Droppod
Devastator Squad x5: Sergeant + Signum, Lascanon x4
Devastator Squad x5: Sergeant + Signum, Lascanon x4
Devastator Squad x5: Sergeant + Signum, Lascanon x4
Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

I felt a little ashamed not having a fully painted army when my opponent did. I have resolved to paint faster!

We rolled for missions and for the first time in 6th Edition, I will be playing the Relic! 

Rolled for first turn and I managed to take the first turn. 

Eldar deployment - kept my Fire Prism far back owing to it's long range and supported my flank with the War Walkers. Spiders took middle ground with my Wave Serpents coming around the rims. Kept my Fire Dragons' Wave Serpent back to plug any gaps in the deployment lines

Marshall's deployment. Two Devastator squads in the ruins on the right and centre of the picture. The ones in the right was badly deployed. They had little line of sight to anything as the windows were pointing to the quarter that was empty. 

A bird's eye view of the said deployment

Marshall rolled to seize but no luck. Phew!

Deployment for both sides with Reserves waiting on the sidelines (white jetbikes and Terminators)

DA makes their Scout moves bringing them much closer to the objective

Eldar Turn 1: Advanced aggressively in the middle. I knew that his Terminators would be able to come in Turn 1 with a Drop Pod supporting their push so I had to keep my units together and give him no room to deploy. 

Managed to buff all my units using the Farseer powers. Disembarked my Guardians to attempt to seize the objective and pull it back into my table side. 

Managed to take 2 Marines out despite the Night Fight and Aegis Line

DA Turn 1: Marshall lands the Drop Pod right in front of my War Walkers. In fly a unit of Terminators as well

Another successful drop by Marshall. I was going to have to kill them all to get the Relic from him

The bikers move around the building to attempt to take out the Wave Serpent

The Terminators opened up on the Guardians mowing them down

While the Bikers charged in and take out the Wave Serpent

Eldar Turn 2: This was what I was waiting for. The full DA force has committed itself. Now to return the favour. My Reserved Jetbikes turned up unfortunately. I buffed my unit of Spiders with both Guide and Forewarning. I Doomed the unit of Terminators holding onto the Relic

Closed all my units in and disembarked my Fire Dragons on the right to counter his bikes. My Dire Avenger Wave Serpent moved further north to attend to his 2 other units of Terminators. 

It was the Terminators' last stand

Warp Spiders are currently my favourite unit. The amount of damage they do is Godly. Add in Farseer powers, these two combined make a powerful foe. I Battlefocussed the units back out of range and LOS to the Terminators in the north. 

"Fall back and regroup"

DA Turn 2: With vengeance, the Terminators took out my Dire Avengers' Wave Serpent. I lost 3 to the explosion. He managed reduce my Guardians to the last man who fled

Eldar Turn 3: Could not rally my last Guardian which would flee the battlefield. Buffed up my Spider Superfriends.

Moved the Dragons into the ruins and moved some of my units at the back around to tackle his blob of Terminators

Superfriends all buffed up ready to take on another unit of Terminators and earn themselves a place in the annals of the Craftworld. The Avengers were in Dire need of help. 

Moved my Avengers as far as possible towards the building.

And WOW! The Spiders again proved their worth! This time without Doom, I managed to delete not one but TWO units of Terminators. Of course the Avengers helped out but WOW! 

DA Turn 3: Marshall felt the pressure now. He had only one unit of Troops who could realistically capture the Relic. I had units between him and the Relic. 

He moved behind the Drop Pod and managed to drop one of my War Walkers. Was it going to be enough?

Eldar Turn 4: I moved the remaining armour to the left knowing that his Tactical Squad could not really harm them. A unit of Spiders moved into the ruins to support the Dragons. The other unit of Spiders moved into the bunker and enveloped the poor Tactical Squad. 

Everything opened up on them

Having accomplished that, I moved my units back out of range and into cover

Battlefocus is so bloody powerful. 

Side note: Spiders are jetpack units. I can make a 2D6" move in the assault phase if I did not assault a unit. Wow! So I have 6+2D6" Movement, D6" Battlefocus and 2D6" Jetpack move. Potentially moving from 10" to 36" per turn! 

MORE SPIDERS PLEASE!

Moved my units around to hug the Relic and out of LOS from his Devastator squads. 

DA Turn 4: There was little that they could do to capture the objective. Marshall did have First Blood so went for the Warlord. He shot my Warlord and at St8, one shot the frail Farseer. 

Eldar Turn 5: I advanced my Spiders up and over the building to take more shots at his Tactical unit. At the end of this round Marshall called it. There was nothing he could do to kill off the Avengers who were hidden behind this building. 

Good game. Close start but it started swaying my way once the Terminators died. The combination of powers and firepower by the units were amazing.

In hindsight, Marshall should have chosen my table side. The Relic was covered by the building, cutting the field in half. Considering his bulk is long range fire power, he should have taken the side with ample firing lanes.

I collected my Tyranid book and minis too so keep your eyes posted for other batreps coming soon!