Some Recent Gaming

Last night I was able to get in a game of 40k at the local game store, Tier 1, at the last minute.  I was expecting to model last night, in all honesty.  I was going to try out the Space Wolf army that I recently acquired (though to be fair, I've had quite a bit of it laying around as random models), but after I punched the numbers I realized that I'd need to build quite a few more marines before it'd be anywhere close to viable.  So instead, I took the reviled Eldar.

Now, before I start talking about the battle, I'd like to touch on the Eldar subject.  The new Codex Eldar: Craftworlds recently came out and has created quite a bit of controversy and revuslion amongst the gaming community at large (re: Internet).  I've been playing Eldar for quite some time, but I don't really see what the total fuss is, except the D-Weapons, and the Wraithknight - those are legitimate complaints (the WK more than the D, if I'm being honest).  The rest of the book it a bunch of fun (and good!) units and formations.  They're even pretty fluffy.  So, with keeping that in mind, I've been limiting the D-Weapons in my army as much as I can, but it is a little bit of a bummer as the Wraith stuff is my favorite in the book.

I like to play armies that aren't netlists.  I've always felt like running my own units and combinations are what works best for me, and I like...no, love redundancy.  It's part of what makes the gaming experience for me fun; wherein I can trade my units for my opponents, and hopefully the trades will go in my favor.  I also like boots on the ground, so I typically take foot-slogging armies.  While I like the idea of a mechanized force, I've never really been able to make it work for me on the table, with the exception of Dark Eldar (which you pretty much are forced to run mechanized).

Here's my list:

Codex Eldar: Craftworlds; 1850 pts

Eldar Warhost Formation

Guardian Warhost
Farseer w/ Singing Spear, Jetbike
3 x 15 Guardians w/ Shuriken Cannons and Warlock Leader w/ Singing Spear
Vyper w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
War Walker w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
Vaul's Wrath Support Weapon Battery w/ 1 Vibro Cannon

Seer Council:
2 Farseers w/ Singing Spears, Spirit Stones of Althalan (or whatever)
8 Warlocks w/ 4 Singing Spears

Aspect Host:
3 x 5 Dark Reapers w/ Exarch and Starshot Missiles

As you can see, the list has decent long range firepower (18 Krak Rockets), decent short range with all the Shuriken weaponry, and a hideous 20-warpcharge Psychic phase.  I figured it was pretty fluffy for Ulthwe to run a bunch of psykers and Guardians.

I played against Justin - super great guy to fight war-dolls with.   Justin brought a Sentinels of Terra list.  He took:

Sgt Garadon (name of the Sentinel guy who is a squad upgrade)
ML 2 Terminator Librarian w/ Telepathy
2 x 10 Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Vet Sgt; 1 Rhino
10 Scouts; All Camo, 4 Snipers, 1 HB, Bolters on rest
5 Centurions w/ TL-Heavy Bolters, Hurricane Bolters
2 x 5 Devestators w/ 4 Missile Lanchers and 4 Lascannons
Allies:
Knight Errant

Overall, pretty static.  More bodies than Justin brought last time, which is good.  The last time we played, it was under the old Eldar book, and I was able to dominate his army fairly quickly, but was unable to stop him from getting a lot of Maelstrom points; and his fliers really put the hurt on my poor Footdar, so it ended up being a tie.

We played  Emperor's Will, with a Vanguard set-up.  Justin won both set-up and first turn.  I failed to seize.

I managed to get pictures of our deployment, but not really of the rest of the game.  I need to work harder on my battle report skills; taking pictures in the middle of a game is not conducive to how I play.  Clearly, it's my turn again, and I really want to play!

Here are pictures of deployment:

My Objective is in the crater in the corner next to my (shamefully) bare metal Vibrocannon.  His is in the far central tower, towards his own board edge, and is guarded by the unit of Lascannon Devastators.

The Game:

 On the first turn, sufficiently frightened of my Seer Council, Justin pours all his firepower into them, wiping them out before I get to go.  I take a few assorted casualties, but nothing major.  I get a little bummed, as this was the game I was hoping to get to try them out.  That's okay though, I clearly made a mistake putting my best unit in the firing line.  I should have either tactically reserved them deeper in my deployment zone, or literally reserved them, and had them walk in on my board edge.  Either way, no biggie.  My turn one saw the Guardians make a full on frontal assault on the Centurions, killing three or four of them (I think three), and the central Reapers killed all the marines from the foot-slogging Tactical Squad bar one (because they couldn't see him).  I also managed to get one hull point off the Knight with the other two squads of Reapers (3/4 4++ saves).

After the first turn, it becomes sort of muddled.  Another take away - write better notes.  So, the knight advanced up the center of the table, shooting as he went; taking down two units of guardians that I threw in his way to slow him down.  Meanwhile, the Jetbike Farseer and his unit ran around the ruins in the center towards the opposite objective, with the Farseer detaching mid-way and turbo-boosting onto Justin's objective.  The War Walker and Vyper accompanied him, helping to thin out and eventually destroy the Devastators guarding his edge.  Meanwhile, the Reapers racked up an impressive rally by the end of the game - killing the other tactical squad (plus Warlord), taking all but one hull point from the Knight, and killing most of the Devs.  The Knight and the Rhino (with one hull point also) ended the game on my objective, having cleared the Vaul's Wrath battery and most of the surrounding Reapers.  The game ended on Turn 6, with the First Blood kill on Turn 1 sealing the game for Justin, with a score of 6-5.

Take Away:

1. I like the Jetbike Farseer.  I had not ever used one before (always on foot), but it was nice having him run around by himself at the end of the game Mind Waring and Executioner-ing any and all available targets.
2. Seer Council:  I need to work on deployment for these guys.  Yes, I know I'd be better off playing them on Jetbikes, but that's a lame unit to play against.  With just T3 and a 4++ save keeping them alive, they're not super tanky.  I'll give them at least one more try before I write them off completely.  It was super cool to roll up all the powers they had before the game started.
3. Reapers were great.  The unit sizes and formation benefits were amazing.  I'll definitely have to give them another go - they're a shoe-in for my next tournament.  Thought I have been playing around with point for a Wraithlord heavy list (like 5-6 of them).
4. Tactically, I should have played a little better.  There were a couple things that I did at the end of the game that might have helped; like moving a Shuirken Cannon over closer to my objective to try and nail the Rhino.  That being said, my biggest mistake was the deployment of the Seer Council.  Other than that, it was pretty tight.
5. Justin played much better this game that the last one, when he played against Eldar.  Just two games in against the elder (that's a joke) race, and he's already showing some marked improvement.  I feel like with just a little bit more experience under his belt, he's going to be a real force to be reckoned with. 

So that wraps up this post - stay tuned for some hobby updates later this week!  Let me know what you think in the comments section!