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| I've been meaning to do this for a while actually, and now that I am doing it I'm going to admit the army list I am going to use is a slightly less than perfect example to use. However I am confident in its ability despite its obvious short falls. Essentially my brother and I are going to play a 1250pt game of 40K, me using my Eldar and my brother using his Plague Marines. Its been a while since I've played a game of this size, however I thought I'd take this opportunity to capitalize on my tactica that was written not to long ago. Essentially its time I backed my words up with a reported game to my credit. Now the game hasn't been played yet, in fact my brother is still writing his list. So I'm taking this time as an opportunity to post my list, and explain, using references from my own tactica, the choices I made when writing this list. I'm hoping in putting my tactics to the ultimate test it will be beneficial for newcomers to see an explained list put into practice, and to see some examples of how certain units can literally work together in the fragile instrument of death that is the war host of the Eldar. And for a bit of fun, I've decided to fluff this whole thing up as I do best! ;D Finally, after the battle report is posted, can we keep all discussion about the battle itself in its respective topic, and any discussion/critisism of the list itself and the way it performed in this topic. [center]Daemon Slayers of Hades Pass[/center] HQ - Farseer Ethandel Iyaarl, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom, Guide Total: 145 Troops - 6 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Additional Shuriken Catapult, Blade Storm Total: 104 - 6 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Dire Sword, Defend Total: 109 Elites - 6 Daemon Slayers (Harlequins), 2x Warp Blades (Kiss's), 2x Fusion Pistol, Marius (Troupe Master with Power Weapon) Total: 156 - 6 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Fire Pike, Tank Hunter Total: 131 Heavy Support - Falcon, Scatter Laser, Vectored Engines, Holo-Field, Spirit Stones Total: 195 - Falcon, Scatter Laser, Vectored Engines, Holo-Field, Spirit Stones Total: 195 - 5 Dark Reapers, Exarch, Crack Shot, Tempest Launcher Total: 217 List Total: 1252 When explaining my choices I will begin by starting at the top of the list and going down. The Farseer was chosen as my HQ choice for two main reasons, the first of which was I simply hadn't used one in a while and was going to enjoy using all the advantages he came with. The second reason was because of 'Doom', which is an incredably useful power against tougher armies such as the Death Guard. So I guess that explains my choice in powers as well. I chose Doom against a hard as nails oponent, and Guide because the majourity of my list was a fire power styled list, and I didn't want my Farseer close enough to the cc action to be able to cast Fortune. Had I been facing a weaker foe like Guardsmen or Tyranids I may have put my Farseer on the offensive and opted for the powerful Eldritch Storm, but for obvious reasons this would be of little use against Plague Marines. I also didn't take Mind War because I wasn't concerned about any individual characters. I wanted my Reapers or Avengers to have as much help as wiping the table with whole units as possible. I chose two squads of Avengers for my troops, which wasn't the most tactical thing I could have done. However I don't own any other troops choice, so I'm hoping they'll still be able to hold their own in the end. Ultimately I would have liked to have dropped one squad and replaced it with some Rangers/Pathfinders. I may have even dropped abilities off my Farseer to free up some points for this. But as I don't yet own Pathfinders this is what I'm sticking with. Now we get to Elites, with two very interesting choices here. I'll begin with the Daemon Slayers, whom use the exact same rules as the Harlequins, but are a converted unit who tie in very nicely with the fluff of my Craftworld. I've never taken these before in a full game of 40K, only played Kill Teams with them in which they usually performed quite well. This however is a huge risk, and I will explain why I chose them over a squad of Banshees or Scorpions. Firstly the Banshees would be needing 6s to wound their oponent, which, even with doom, would be difficult for them to do and they would struggle to take apart an entire unit in one swift blow. Secondly, Scorpions would be wounding on 5+ and my oponent would still get an armour save, which makes them very hard to kill. Now I did carefully consider taking Scorpions because of the Exarch's Power Fist with which he could potentially remove 3 to 4 Plague Marines a Turn, which is a good chunk out of the squad. But I thought that the Fusion Pistols, Rending Weapons and high number of power weapon attacks from the Troupe Leader wold ultimately get me more kills in the end, plus Lord Visharon said Harlequins were cool. We shall see if taking this squad was a stroke of tactical brilliance, or a foolish mistake. I might also mention that this game was origionally going to be 1500pts, but my brother couldn't reach it with his Death Guard. This meant I had to cut out a unit of Banshees in a Wave Serpent who were going to bolster the Harlies, making this unit all the more risky. The Choice of the Fire Dragons was also something out of the ordinary for me. My brother takes in his army a particularly nasty Predator that can be very difficult to destroy. I thought 'why not use Fire Dragons to take this monster out'. Not only is the tank pesky to my other transports, but it is worth a lot of points usually. It is also generally deployed quite far back, so that is why I am taking a transport tank to get the Dragons to it quickly. Their weapons are also incredably potent against tough troops, so after their primary goal is realized, of if the situation calls for it, the Fire Dragons are also perfectly capable of melting a unit of PLague Marines down to size. The two transports are pretty straight forward. Vectored Engines and Holo-Field to protect the troops, and Spirit stones to keep the tank moving at all costs. The weaponry I bought for them is also really cheap, simply because I am using the Falcons not as weapons platforms, but as transports as they are intended. I plan to fire with them only when their cargo is deployed because the rest of the time they will be shooting across the field to get their unit to where they need to be as quickly as possible. I didn't want to waist points on expensive weapons when I wasn't planning to do much shooting with them. I think its also worth mentioning that I had given the Fire Dragons transport star engines to get them to the back of the board especially fast, but had to scratch it when points were needed elsewhere. Finally I took the Reapers for a very stright forward reason. They're really good at blasting Space Marines into the ground, and with Doom cast on their target unit the Plague Marines will be hard pressed to survive. Plus with the Tempest launcher and Crack shot, not even cover will be able to save those servants of the Lord of Decay. So essentially the tactics of the entire list are simply to allow me to choose the fight. I intentionally chose long ranged and fast units so that I could disassemble his army one unit at a time at my whim, while he struggles to bring the bulk of his force upon where I've chosen to strike. Very tricky, and very Eldar! Finally I think there is some good in mentioning the units I didn't take. No Warp Spiders for example, because they can struggle to cause damage to normal Space Marines, and though their weapons are high strength, too often are their attacks turned away by power armour. Secondly no Avatar or Wraith Lord, who both would have surely chomped through those Plague Marines. True enough, but I chose the Farseer for the reasons above instead of the Avatar. Plus both units are slow and would take some time to get into combat at all. It was a much better choice to take the fast moving falcons and long ranged reapers than the slow and clumbersome Wraith Lord. So without further adu, the battle is about to begin. Look for the report in a few hours in the Battle Report section. Cal |
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| Anyway, two games have been fought using this list, one against Death Guard (Eldar Victory), and one against Necrons (Necron Victory). The Battle Reports can be found here: http://www.pwl-tech.co.uk/csg/index.php?to...g44117#msg44117, for details on how those games went. Now, at the conclusion of those games I decided a few things. 1: My Farseer wasn't really doing much, yet he was very expensive. Casting Guide on the Reapers I suppose was helpful a few times, though he never really got close enough to cast Doom on the enemy, and never in a situation that really called for it. So what do I do? Change HQ choices? Change powers? I've decided to give the Farseer a second shot, simply because he is quite helpful when he wants to be. Perhaps it was just poor circumstances that led to him performing poorly. But if, in the next game he performs badly again, I will swap him for my beloved 'Exorcist', who is really good at cutting through tough power armoured units. My second observation was that the Harlequins performed reasonably poorly against both foes. I can pin point this on two reasons, and the first is that Doom just wasn't there when it needed to be there. But even when Doom was cast against the Immortals the Harlequins had a bit of a difficult time dealing with their foes, and thats probably because their enemies were T5, meaning that after the turn they charged they needed 6s to wound. However I have just realised that I totally forgot to make use of their Hit & Run special rule, which would have meant they could continue to fight at S4 and gotten the extra attack. Thus, I will give the Harlequins a second chance as well, and perhaps choose their targets more wisely this time. I am not arrogant enough to think that my own tactics weren't to blame as well, particularly with my Falcons. They were not making their drop offs early enough, nor at the same time. Thus, I was feeding my oponent just a little bit of my army at a time which he could well handle. I need to make both the drop offs earlier, and together if I am going to overwhelm my oponent. Secondly I kept going on about how my Falcon's were not going to be shooting much during the course of the games. I know I didn't say they would never shoot, but I was utilising their weaponry far too early in the game and not making the drop offs fast enough. In doing this I risked being labeled a hypocryte, as shooting became the prime role of the Falcons it seemed. Though their weapons did come in use a lot during the games, I won't deny it, the squads they were carrying were too little too late to help the outcome of the game by the time they disembarked. That said, the Fire Dragons filled their role perfectly in the first game against Chaos in destroying the Predator early. Finally, my horrific loss at the hands of the Necrons was also partly my fault in another way, and a lot of bad luck. I wrote the List myself for my brother to use against me, which just so happened to turn out to be one of the best Necron lists I'd ever writen at 1250pts. Plus his luck with WBB rolls was amazing, and I guess I got served a taste of my own medicine when I felt the frustration of his Immortals and Destroyers rising again and again and again! It was a really well played game and one that will haunt me for years to come, I literally felt the darkness closing in around me as I watched my warriors slowly kulled as they vainly tried to hold off their enemy. ;) In sum, I'm keeping the list the same for one final time, but changes may be imminent depending on the outcome of the next battle. It will be an Eldar/Necron re-match, and will further the story of Olympus, and Hades Pass. Cheers, Cal P.S. If you guys are wondering the Necron List was as follows: Necron Lord, Wraith (Destroyer) body, Resurrection Orb, Phase Shifter, Warscythe Necron Lord, Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb 6 Immortals 10 Warriors 10 Warriors 4 Destroyers 6 Scarabs (no disruption fields) Total: 1250 exactly Phase Out: 8 |