Batrep: 1850 Eldar Altansar vs Salamanders Space Marines

Finally managed to get some play time with our resident tournament goer, Patrick Poh, or better known as BatrepPat here on ABO. He plays at tournaments regularly and places regularly in podium. Let's jump into the game proper.

Pre-game

Eldar Altansar, 1850 Points

HQFarseer: Jetbike, Witchblade, Runes of Witnessing
Farseer: Jetbike, Witchblade, Runes of Witnessing
TroopsDire Avengers x5: Wave Serpent (TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo Fields)
Guardians x10: Wave Serpent (TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo Fields)
Guardians x10: Wave Serpent (TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo Fields)
Jetbikers x3
Jetbikers x3
Jetbikers x3
Fast AttackWarp Spiders x8
Warp Spiders x8
HeavyWar Walkers x3: Each armed with Scatter Lasers x2
Wraithknight: Heavy Wraithcannons x2

Things I need to paint

Jetbikes need some drivers

Army ready for war

Space Marines, Salamanders Space Marines 1850 Points

Chapter Tactics: Salamanders
Command Squad: Veterans with Meltaguns & Bolt Pistols x4, Apothecary, Drop Pod
HQ
Vulkan He'Stan, Forgefather (Iron Resolve)
Elites
Legion of the Damned: Legionaires x4: Meltagun, Multi-Melta and Sergeant: Chainsword, Combi-weapon
Legion of the Damned: Legionaires x4: Meltagun, Multi-Melta and Sergeant: Chainsword, Combi-weapon
Troops
Tactical Squad: Space Marines x8, Sergeant with Chainsword and Combi-weapon, Drop Pod with Stormbolter
Tactical Squad: Space Marines x8, Sergeant with Chainsword and Combi-weapon, Drop Pod with Stormbolter
Tactical Squad: Space Marines x8, Sergeant with Chainsword and Combi-weapon, Drop Pod with Stormbolter
Fast Attack
Assault Squad: Space Marines x6: 2 Flamers and Sergeant: Bolt Pistol + Chainsword
Heavy Support
Centurion Devastator Squad: Centurions x2 and Sergeant: 3 Grav Cannons and Grav-amp
Thunderfire Cannon
Fortifications
Imperial Bastion with Escape Hatch and Icarus lascannon and Heavy Bolters x4

Pat's army

The mysterious Legion of the Damned

Old school flame! 

They are without jump packs in this game

Lovely banner

Another banner

Psychic Powers

Warlord got Prescience, Guide, and Doom. Rolled for Strategic Warlord trait and got Master of the Vanguard

The other Farseer secured Guide, Eldritch Storm and Prescience

Deployment was Vanguard Strike

Mission was The Relic

Table was set up by the lovely guys at Titan Games. We rolled off and Pat chose to go first. 

Deployment

3 Centurions and a Thunderfire Cannon. The Escape Hatch was located in that building which was Fortified

Did not realise that you cannot shoot at a Fortifications that is not occupied, meaning I could not take out the Imperial Bastion unless Pat moved his men into it.

I kept most of my units in Reserve except for the Warlord, 3 Serpents and the Wraithknight

Hid my Warlod in this building

Did not try to seize initiative.

Turn 1

With a loud crash, Pat dropped a unit of Marines right next to my back field

Note: Pat only bought 8 Marines in each Drop Pod but deployed 10 in game! Honest mistake I am sure.

Vulkan drops right next to Warlord with the intent to hunt and kill

The 3rd unit drops next to my Wraithknight to support the kill

Pat moved the Centurions into the Bastion

Fires into Wraithknight and kills it off. First Blood 1VP

Vulkan and passe takes out my Warlord, netting him 1 VP. The Tactical Squad takes out 2HP from my Serpent

In my turn 1, I deployed the Guardians from the Serpent and focused all fire into Vulkan and passe

The other 2 Serpents lent their fire into the ruin and I managed to kill off Vulkan. 1VP for Slay the Warlord

End of Turn 1

Turn 2

In come the Legion and another 2 units of 6 Assault and Tactical Marines, all armed with Meltas. He daisy chains the centre one to capture the relic

First unit advances to take out my Serpent

While the other envelops and kills off some Guardians

The Tactical Squad immobilizes my Serpent 

While another manages to destroy it and kill off 3 Guardians in the ensuing explosion

Assault Squad then flamed the Guardians killing them

Another concentrated volley destroyed my other Serpent forcing my Avengers to disembark

Killed off another 2 Avengers using Bolt Pistols

Charged the Serpent and destroys it

Eldar Turn 2 saw my Jetbikes and War Walkers turn up. 

For some strange reason my both units of Warp Spiders and Farseer did not want to turn up.

Concentrated fire on the Assault Squad

I was aware that I had nothing that could penetrate that Arm14 Bastion so my only chance of winning this game was to kill the Tactical Marines off while they were still outside. The Walkers were armed with Scatter Lasers.

Moved my jetbikes out to prevent death to template

Ray: I think here is where I may a critical error. I should have sped one unit of Jetbike to Pat's back table to secure Line Breaker. 

Turn 3

Pat proceeded to delete two of the War Walkers

Thunderfire Cannon took out a few jetbikes and pinned the unit on the right (the one with the dice on '1')

While his other unit start running back into the Bastion to tuck the Relic away

Combined fire killed off my Avengers

Turn 3 Eldar finally saw the arrival of my Warp Spiders. I chanced dropping them next to the Tactical Squad otherwise I would have lost the game. Unfortunately for me my 2nd Farseer decided to not turn up

With only 2  models from Troops left, I had no choice. Dropping my Warp Spiders to rescue my Jetbikes would have lost me the game as Pat would just move his Tactical squad into the Bastion. I had nothing to damage Armour 14

I opened up on his Legionaires and killed off 1 Marine with the Jetbikes

While the rest of my Warp Spiders hosed down his Tacticals. They surprisingly still had 3 men surviving from 30 shots

The last War Walker killed off 2 more Legionaires

This was a desperate gamble

It was at this point that I felt I had lost the game. Even with my ace up my sleeve turning up, I could not wrangle the Relic from Patrick. There was nothing I could really do but to try to draw. He had First Blood and Slay the Warlord while I had Slay the Warlord but no First Blood. My Jetbikes needed to survive Turn 4.

Turn 4: The turning point

Pat killed off not only the 2 last Troop models, he also destroyed my War Walker, effectively denying me the opportunity to capture the Relic

I badly needed to kill this unit but it survived the last turn. Pat deleted the other unit of 8 Spiders with his Centurions

My Farseer finally appeared at Turn 4. Done with tea time it seems

I moved my last unit of Spiders in the Eldar Turn 4 to shoot and if that failed engage his Marines. 

Thankfully shooting killed them off so I moved the Spiders out of range using their 2D6 jump pack move

Turn 5 - The Conclusion

In Pat's Turn he opened up and destroyed both the Farseer and Spiders, effectively tabling me. 

End game

Wow, a true ass kicking there! I had never been tabled before and this was truly a humbling experience. Learning from the master himself is both refreshing and humbling. Even then, this list isn't his most competitive list! Pat was telling me that this is a fluffy list.

I noticed from this game that understanding the rules beyond the core rulebook is important. He knows how to use the Bastion, effectively gaining 24" in one turn using the Escape Hatch.

I also realised that I need Bright Lances in my list to handle ARM14 stuff.

Keeping the Wraithknight out of 24" is critical against these Centurions, even with cover saves, it was not going to be enough.

Really glad for this game. It really made me realise that in order to compete this September, I needed a stronger list. Pat has made suggestions which include a very sickly blue species of Xenos or a very killy star of future telling unit.

Changes are coming!