Batrep: 1850 Eldar vs Space Marines

Was invited to a game yesterday at our LGS. Marshall got me to play before I head off for the Christmas holidays. Ironically, I ended up playing with another chap named Su Jin, but I will call him Jin for short. 

I prepared a 1850 list based on a balanced list I had in mind for awhile. This is what I brought:

Autarch: Firesabre, Jetbike 

Farseer: Mantle of the Laughing God, Runes of Witnessing, Witchblade, Jetbike

Fire Dragons x8: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers (proxy), Shuriken Cannon (proxy) [I actually have the conversion bits from FW, just have not gotten round to doing it as I was working on the Warp Spiders]

Dire Avengers 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, Shuriken Cannon (proxy)

War Walker x2: Bright Lance (proxy), Scatter Laser

My opponent brought an interesting Space Marine list with a few key items:

2 Techmarines to bolster defences for 2 major ruins which played a huge part in keeping a lot of his units alive

1 large death star with Medic and a few assorted minions

Thunderfire cannon

3 Librarians which all brought along Prescience - technically he rolled for other spells but defaulted to it

The rest are in the pictures so you'll see them! 

Mission: Emperor's Will

Deployment: Dawn of War

My Farseer took the powers: Guide, Prescience and Executioner

Night Fight was rolled and it was in effect Turn 1. I won the roll off and chose to go first

My left flank anchored around the objective on the 2nd floor. Wave Serpent on the right contains the Fire Dragons

My right flank anchored by Walkers in the ruins with the Fire Prism on the furthest right flank

My powers

My other unit of Warp Spiders hidden behind the ruins. The Autarch on the Jetbike will be supporting the push to the right where the other objective lay

2 units of Jetbikes in Reserve - planned to keep them in as long as possible

Left side of my opponent's field. It's a WYSIWYG army except for the Rhino which was a Razorback. This terrain had 3+ from the Techmarine bolstering defences

Jin's deathstar deployed right in the middle of the field. I felt this was a huge mistake. My entire army would now focus everything it had at it

This other terrain piece was also reinforced (3+ cover) and held the other objective. I was going to contest and push on the right

And right behind, his Warlord hid next to his Vindicator

Thunderfire cannon on the ruins

I moved my Fire Prism up the right targeting the Deathstar

While the others move up and open fire on that same unit. Meanwhile the Spiders on the left made a 12" teleport move into the terrain but one stayed in the Warp! 

And more shots

Leaving only one chap remaining, the Librarian. Firstblood was mine! 

Score:
Ray: 1
Jin: 0

In Jin's Turn 1 he quickly pulls back the remaining biker to his backfield. He then opens up on the Spiders. Nothing much really happened due to Night Fight as I was pretty much at long range to most things

My first Jetbike unit arrives in Turn 2 despite the Autarch

While the Serpents all move up at 6", readying the Serpent Shield

Focussed my fire into the Scouts in the ruins to the left 

Unit of Warp Spiders contribute to the hail of shots and remarkably 3 men fell back, but still very much alive

Meanwhile the other unit of Spiders together with the Autarch moves up on the right flank to engage his Scouts

Shooting did not do much to wound them so I had to charge

Managed to kill enough to route them. Did not pursue to see if they fell off the board. They didn't, naturally

Jin's Turn 2, he moved the remaining Land Speeder up the middle field. Unfortunately nothing much happened in his shooting phase

Jin charges his men back into combat with my unit of Spiders + Autarch

While I slowly encircle his army and inch closer to the objective

In my turn 3, my Walker gets immobilised when it tried to leave the ruins. 

So it does it's best to snipe the Razorback in the ruins

While the combat continued. Important note: USE HIT AND RUN especially at the end of the opponent's turn. Lesson learnt

Kept holding on the left flank not wanting to let Jin creep his men up. I believe I removed his Thunderfire cannon here after a concentrated volley of fire from the Serpents

Turn 3, the aftermath

Jin manages to wreck my Serpent carrying my Dire Avengers (proxy). Out they spill

Turn 4, I moved the Dire Avengers up and then the final unit of Jetbikes arrive. I move the Farseer up to assist the combat as well, a mistake in hindsight

Jin's Scouts move back up while I disembark my other unit of Dire Avengers into the ruins that contained the objective

Ran into the ruins, capturing it in 4

Opened up on the Missile Launcher Marine on the 3rd floor and took him out

Combat is joined

The rest of my army on the right flank

Managed to kill off the final Scouts in Turn 5

But in Turn 5, Jin charged and killed off my Farseer and the other Jetbike unit. 

Then I learnt about Hit & Run and opted to run

The left side of the field

The Eldar jaws were closing in

The other Jetbike unit moved up to reduce the Marines but the 3+ ruins really saved their bacon

Since I set up the charge, I moved in to charge the Scout, supported by my Autarch. The Spider remained to contest the objective

Unfortunately the Scouts didn't run off the table. 

Scouts regrouped and both units charged into my Autarch, Spider and Jetbikes. 

Score:
Ray: 1 - Firstblood + 1 Objective =2
Jin: 1 - Slay the Warlord

We rolled for Turn 6. If it ended, I would win by 1.

4 came up. Turn 6 then!

In Turn 6 I moved my Serpent up and quickly disembarked my Fire Dragons to contest the objective

A wider shot of the table and what was left 

Dead pile at the right but both ruins still had a ton of his Marines

Jin managed to kill off my remaining Jetbiker

In Jin's Turn 6 he moved forward to shoot then charge my Dragons. 

He charged his Inquisitor (proxy) into my Warp Spiders

But did not manage to do enough. My Spiders chose to Hit & Run, moving them closer to Jin's objective

End of Turn 6, the score was:
Ray: 1 + 1 = 2
Jin: 1 + 1 = 2

Jin managed to secure his objective. Turn 6 gave him the point he needed to draw the game!

So we rolled for Turn 7. Boom, I rolled a 6! Another turn!  

In an amazing show of Warping, the Spiders made a 17" move (11+6) and made it super close to the objective

The Wave Serpent at the back left took aim and started raining fire on the squad holding the objective

With this many Eldar shooting on them, it was over. The last Marine fell over and the game was won.

I managed to score Line Breaker

Final score:
Ray: 1 (First Blood) +1 (Objective) +1 (Line Breaker) +1 (Slay the Warlord) = 4
Jin: 1 (Slay the Warlord)

This was one of the few games that I will remember for a long time. Starting with the game, I didn't know what I was actually knowing. I spent the first 2 turns flipping the book and Jin was nice enough to let me refer. I will be doing my homework for the next game. Then I saw this unit right at the front of his army, I took the bait and went all out on it, destroying and netting me some good early points. It put Jin on the back foot allowing me to move where I pleased. I thought I had the game in the bag until I realised how difficult it was to dig them out of the reinforced ruins. Shot after shot, they survived. In hindsight, I would have used the Serpents to further wither them down and force them to move out of the terrain. The Spiders just didn't have the hitting power compared to shooting. Close Combat should really be the last option for this army.

That being said, I enjoyed every minute of the game and am looking forward to the next one.