Battle Report: Marines V Eldar

I am certainly getting good use out of my games board and scenery. Over the Easter weekend my dad came down with his steadily growing Eldar army.

He has only been collecting for about 1 year and has managed to get a fair bit of stuff. I recently purchased a job lot on Warseer for about 50% of cost which really boosted his collection


As this was his first game of 7th we kept the points low (1500)

His list (CAD)

Autarch
Spiritseer
4 dire avengers + exarch
4 fire dragons + exarch
5 Scorpians + exarch
10 Guardians
10 Guardians + missile launcher
10 Guardians + missile launcher
2 falcons
5 wraithguard in a wave serpent

My list was a pretty standard battle company (well as much as I could fit in)

Chapter Tactics: Ultramarines

Librarian in terminator armour
5 terminators with CML
10 tacts in rhino flamer missile
10 tacts in rhino plasmagun/cannon and pistol
5 scouts in a storm
Dakka predator
Landspeeder typhoon
10 Assault marines 2 flamers and a plasma pistol power sword
10 devastators with 3 missile and 1 lascannon

the army (without typhoon)

I tried to field a bit of everything as this was one of his first games and he still learning the rules. This would allow him to face most stuff and get an understanding of what he would be facing. We agreed no flyers as he did not have any.

We rolled for the mission and it was the escalation objective missions. Turn 1 – 1 objective, turn 2 – 2 objectives and so on.

Again I am not going to give a turn by turn report, but here are some of the main highlights.

• Forgetting I had a typhoon until turn 2, which it then stayed in reserves until turn 4! I could have done with it as in trying to get first blood I had a falcon left on 1HP and 2 missiles could have killed it.
• Forgetting about Chapter tactics: Ultramarines are not a permanent force “buff”. You have 3 doctrines to use throughout the game
• 1 round of shooting from a guardian squad taking out my terminators and librarian (turn 2)
• Spirit Seer psychic checks. Turn 1 perils looses a power, turn 2 perils rolls 6, turn 3 fails to cast warp charge 1 with 3 dice, turn 4 perils rolls 6 turn 5 perils rolls 6, turn 6 fails to cast with 3 dice.
• Scouts and storm were rubbish again (punishment for scouts not being painted and using a stand in model for storm?), combi melta failed to hit the falcon, storm gave up a VP for first blood.

This is now the second game in a row where my marines did not do anything great. They did a lot of nothing really. But yet again their versatility pulled off an unlikely win. At the end of turn 2 I was 7-2 down and had just lost my terminators and warlord about a 5th of the army, and yet after that my dad failed to score a VP despite getting more cards. We did manipulate the objective cards once or twice, blowing up a building and destroying a flyer we got rid of. Generally I say we play the deck and tough if you get a duff card, but that is the luck of the draw. In the end I won 16-7.

It was an interesting game where again sticking to plans and focusing on the objectives in hand were key to what I did. We tried to do that with my dad’s game plan too, but the elder just don’t have the versatility that marines do (when you are playing a non spammy list)


Pictures:

setup

 

Striking Scorpions (painted by my brother as a present for my dad)

In Game pictures

I see you

What is this snap fire rule........

I survived being hit bu teh aurtach in a challenge.......I hit back and all 3 attacks with teh power fist hit. 2's to kill........

Pictures towards the end of the game

Final positions

I have one more game tonight and then I will be back on expanding the chapter

Battle Report: Marines V Necrons

 

Battle report (again). Like busses, you wait ages then 2 turn up at once.

 

This time I was up against my old sparring partner commandojimbob. He has been out of the hobby for a while and is starting to get back in to it. He has bought the new Necron codex and cards and fixed up his models.

 

As this was his first game of 7th we kept the points low (1500)

 

His list (CAD)

 

Cryptek
Illuminor Szeras
5 Triarch Praetorians
Triarch Stalker
10 Immortals
10 Immortals in a Night Scythe
15 Warriors
3 destroyers
3 destroyers
Spyder
Spyder

 

For my list I wanted to try out a formation.

 

Librarian in Term
Tactical Squad in rhino
10 Sniper Scouts
5 scouts (CC) in a storm
Speeder Typhoon
Speeder Typhoon

Formation (Skyspear Assault (I think)
Raven
5 CC terms (all LC)
5 terms with Assault Cannon
Venerable Dread

 

We did each choose 3 lists and rolled to see which one we played with. You should try it sometime it adds another little dimension to the game.

 

We rolled for the mission and it was the 3 objectives and they are kept secret during the game until you claim it.

 

I set up first. This was a bit difficult as over half my list was in reserve. All the units combat squaded and I set up on 3 objectives in my deployment zone. For the second game in a row my opponent stole the initiative scuppering my best laid plans!

 

Again I am not going to give a turn by turn report, but here are some of the main highlights.

After stealing the initiative the crons immobilise the storm (I suppose it serves me right for using a proxy), but could only kill a few scouts. The thing with necrons is that they only have short range (24” or rapid fire)) weaponry so I had chosen plenty of long range stuff like missile launchers. The typhoons did their job and with 4 krak missiles took out a spider.... first blood.

 

My main issue during the game was my librarian and close combat terminators. They spent 9 rounds of combat trying to kill 15 warriors and his HQ. FAIL. There was a lot of poor to hit rolls so I could not make good use of the shred rule. Enfeeble proved invaluable as he had buffed them up. (Edit, just doing some quick maths and that is about right! I would have thought they would have been better)

 

The Necron reanimation is very useful for them as it is basically an additional inv save! He also passed some low morale checks rolls. The game was close throughout.

 

Here are the scores at the end of each of our turns

 

Nec1: 0-0
Mar1: 0-3
Nec2: 1-3
Mar2: 1-5
Nec3: 4-5
Mar3: 4-5
Nec4: 5-5
Mar4: 5-7
Nec5: 8-7
Mar5: 8-9

 

Game continued

Nec6: 11-9
Mar6: 11-13

 

Game continued

Nec7: 13-13
Mar7: 13-14 then we each got a point for linebreaker

 

Over all I am not sure how I won. My marines were very poor. No one unit stood out to have done anything useful. The typhoons killing a spyder on turn one was a standout moment. But the terminators (both squads) were poor. The storm was immobilised turn 1 and the scouts couldn’t hit a barn door. The Raven made little impact, but I suppose the versatility of the marines and my great commanding won me the game!

 

Would I use that formation again?  Unlikely as it were a lot of points to commit especially in 1500. The small bonuses it had weren’t really enough to justify it. I rarely run 2 squads of terminators and a venerable dread, so I can’t see it being used regularly

.

Next is a painting update in a few days and hopefully more games in April.

 

Pictures:

The Army

 

The battle field

 

 

 

Setup

 

 

 

ASSAULT and challenge!

 

 

 

mid game

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end



 

 

 

I have also nearly completed Ashmantle on the Battle Automata. They require few more details and then they are complete. 

 

 

Afetr this i have the terminators and scouts to complete



Battle Report Marines V Tau

Battle report

7th edition has been out a while now and I have not yet tried using an Unbound list. I have read the usual whinging on the web that hey are over powered and cheese lists destined to bring the end of the universe, but I wanted to try them out for myself.

I think the first major thing was to let my opponent know what I was thinking, he agreed so he knew I was taking an unbound. We also agreed we would be playing maelstrom missions, as these I think are the best to play and would balance the unbound potential to take whatever I wanted to its lack of having objective secured.

My list was:
Chapter Tactics – Salamanders
BRAY'ARTH ASHMANTLE
5 Assault terminators (5*TH/SS)
5 Assault terminators (5*LC)
5 Assault terminators (1*TH/SS, 4*LC)
5 Terminators (no upgrades)
5 Terminators (Assault Cannon)
5 Terminators (Heavy Flamer)
5 Terminators (Cyclone Missile Launcher)
This was a venerable dread leading members of the 1st company in to battle, hopefully more Tesco cheddar than some Colston Basset Stilton.

My opponent (Wulfen_Kind) list was:
Dark Stider
4 *12 Firewarriors in Devilfish
Stealth Squad
Pathfinder Squad
2 Hammer heads with Ion Cannons
TAU XV107 R'VARNA BATTLESUIT

We played mission 1 where each turn we had to have 3 objectives to get, and the set up was diagonally. I won the roll and set up 3 squads and Ashmantle, the 3 Assault terminator squads and the heavy flamer squad went in to reserve (forgetting that they are not Deathwing and would not start coming in on turn 1)
Another slight hiccup in my plan was WK stealing the initiative and getting to start he shooting on my straight away.
I am only going to do highlights as I did not take detailed notes throughout the game

Turn 1 – I only lost 3 terminators to shooting, most of it was out of range, but one squad did kill 2 of the terminators. 2 1’2 on 3 dice rolled.....I had a horrible feeling 1s would haunt me all game! More importantly he picked up all his objectives. In my turn I was only able to achieve 1 of them. 3-1 WK

Turn 2- a stellar turn from WK. He drew objective 46 (control all objectives and gain 3+D3VP’s). He had enough objective secured stuff to sit next to my squads and still claim the objective. He got all of them, and 4 VPs in addition to the 2 other ones totalled 6 for that turn. This move did leave his forces spread out and close to my units. I only lost another 3 terminators, so still no first blood. In my turn all of the assault terminators turned up and dropped close to his lines. I got first blood, but managed to lose a remaining terminator in a squad to over-watch fire!  I got another bonus VP for Ashmantle killing a vehicle in close combat. The score was 9-3 to WK

At this point my big problem was covering the board (and on one turn I got a real duff objective or destroying a building) being able to collect the objectives if and when they came up. I changed tactics a bit and went for the kill. If I could kill enough and stop him scoring more I may be able to get objectives to kill thing and get lucky on being near an objective.

This was going to plan, and by the and o nturn 5 I corned his big battle suit and killed a drone in combat.....he failed the following break test and ran off the board! He only had a fleeing pathfinder, a Hammer Head and a devilfish (down to 1HP) left on the board. I still had 10 terminators and Ashamantle left, but the score was 12-8 WK. I could just do this with another turn.......YES!

Turn 6 – he got no more points and tried to manoeuvre stuff away from my guys. In my turn I drew objectives I was near and I had linebreaker, so the game was 12-12, but I was able to take out the last of his stuff and clear the table of Xenos scum.

In the end it turned out to be a very close game indeed.

What have I learnt?

1. Mobile units with eth objective secured rule are a must have!
2. Big expensive models don’t really get their points back. Both Ashmantle and the big suit killed a bit but were generally ignored and didn’t make their points back. Ashmantle could do with a drop pod but in the current marine codex that is unavailable for him without ally BA/SW shenanigans. He got a bonus VP and may have done more against a more aggressive army
3. Unbound can be fun and not necessarily chesses fests. They are hard to play with against Battle forged list and playing Maelstrom mission. They would probably be quite strong in the older Emperors Will games
4. Maelstrom missions are a great leveller, and I think they are the best part of 7th edition, to win games it is not about just killing the enemy (difficult to say when I won the game by killing all the enemy!) but other games that I have played have showed this. Previously all the other missions you would sit about killing each other for 4 turns then go grab an objective with what was left. Now form turn to turn things can change and you always need to be able to get around the whole board on any given turn.
Pictures

Battlefield

The Boys

The Enemy

 

 

Mid Game

 

Not sure how i won with dice rolling like this....

A close up of my current terrain project:

 

Must get on an finish off Ashmantle, and the terms, and scenery and......on and on and on.

Chapter Expansion

I have been reasonably productive this last month. My main 2015 objective is to clear the back log of models i have.

First up here are a Tactical Squad and a Drop Pod.

The tactical squad is my 10th for my chapter, and the 3rd for my drop pod company. It is made up from bits I bought in a job lot a while ago. I stripped them down and repainted them. The Sergeant is an old MkII veteran model. Originally he had a bolt pistol and chain sword. I have enough squad leaders’ armed like this and wanted something different. Initially I was going to give him a plasma pistol. Unfortunately I didn’t have any in the left hand only right handed ones. In the end I rummaged through my bits box and found suitable kit options for him, a Grav-pistol and a Power Fist.

 The other change is the blue cloak. I noticed on this model there was book. So it got me thinking why would he be carrying this item? The story I have for him is that he starting to show some psychic potential and so has started his training with the companies librarians. He has the honour of wearing a blue cloak as a result of this

 

The Drop Pod is another one of my cheap purchases. I got a load of pods about 4 years ago for about £10 a pod. Unfortunately they were painted already. Some of my paint has had difficulty covering it. Over all I am happy with it as a gaming piece, rather than any well painted model.

 

I have also been buying more Forgeworld goodies.

First is Bray’arth Ashmantle, the Salamander Venerable Dreadnaught. I have completed about 80% of him and am currently working on detailing him.

 

Next up is a Battle-Automata. I really like the model, but don’t see collecting an army of Ad-mec. I do see an inquisitor with close ties to the Ad-mec being given one as a body guard. That is how I will use him. Again he is about 80% complete with a bit more detailing and highlighting required.

 

Finally I have built up some more models I got in the job lot. In total I got 8 Assault marines, 30 Tactical marines, 5 Devs, 10 Terms  (AoBR) and 5 scouts, all for £30. This month I aim to do some terms and some scouts.

The terms I have converted to lightening claw ones. I had a full set of claws so I only needed to buy some shoulder pads. I was able to pick them up off eBay for £3.  Here they are all built up.

 

The scouts I wanted a close combat squad. They will eventually get a storm as transport. I think a good load out for them is close combat blade and bolt pistol. They were all armed like this. I wanted the sergeant to be armed with a combi melta and a power fist. I had loads of spare combi weapons from the sternguard squads I bought a while ago, and the fist came from the command squad set I got with Sevrin Loth.

 

Both of these squads have now been under coated and are on my painting table. The expansion contiues

Showcase; Forgemas 14; Eldar Corsair Hornet

Hi All

At last, after a mere 3 months, my Eldar corsair Hornet is finished.
I must say I've enjoyed this project immensely, apart from the water effects fiasco of course, but even that led to a much better base in the end.
It bodes well for the rest of the army I'll be building and painting that I've enjoyed the paint scheme and I've learnt some stuff whilst doing it and also improved my method since I developed the scheme on the test figure. I'm looking forward to it a great deal.
Here's some pics of the finished model...

I say it's finished but in truth it's not quite complete; I want the army to have a symbol which will be some form of stylised scorpion or possibly just the tail. My Corsair Band are called the Scions of the Scorpion; their back story being that the Corsair Prince and his Bladesworn Retinue were at one time Striking Scorpion Aspect Warriors, hence the green and yellow colour scheme and the fact that I will be converting striking scorpions to represent my HQs.
Anyway back to the symbol, or lack thereof, I haven't nailed down the design yet so I'll be leaving all the models without varnish and I'll come back to them all once I'm happy with the symbol.

So my next project will be some scenery for an upcoming Code 40K event; Worcester War IV, more on that in later posts, and then back to finishing off my Imperial Knight Freeblade.

Hope you like what I've done with the Hornet, c and c as ever is most welcome.

Bluddtoof