Pages

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Bat Rep: 1,000 pts Clan Raukaan Iron Hands vs. Eldar

To round out the weekend's gaming, Chandler and I faced off in a 1,000 point showdown on a 4'x4' board typical of our LGS's monthly tournament. Chandler brought a list using the brand new Clan Raukaan Iron Hands while I brought Eldar in a sort of cut down version of my 1,850 list.


My List:
Farseer: Runes of Witnessing (Precience, Guide, and Forewarning)
5 Dire Avengers: Wave Serpent w./Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
5 Dire Avengers
6 Rangers
Wraithknight: Scatter Laser
Wraithlord: Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance, Flamers

My list includes the Wraithlord in part to field the brilliant model I got from Moridian7th.

Chandler brought the full glory of Iron Hands, featuring three dreads and a Master of the Forge.

Master of the Forge: Conversion Beamer, The Ironstone (Iron Hands Special Wargear)
Techmarine:  Servitor w/Servo Arm
10 Man Tactical Squad: Missile Launcher, Grav Gun, Grav pistol, Rhino
5 Scouts: Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks
5 Scouts: Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher
Ironclad Dreadnought: Seismic Hammer, DCCW, Drop Pod
Dreadnought: 2 TL Autocannons
Dreadnought: Missile Launcher, Plasma Cannon

The mission was Big Guns Never Tire with 5 Objectives. They ended up being more or less in the four corners with one in the middle. Deployment was Vanguard Strike. We each had a ruin in our deployment zone, and a ruin in the opposite corners, with a large hill/ruin in the center. Chandler deployed first and had one set of scouts, a dreadnought, and his Master of the Forge in the ruin. The Rhino was deployed to the side of the ruin alongside another dread, with half of the tactical squad in the rhino, the other half in the woods. The final scout squad was deployed to the far corner, ready to scout move onto one objective.  Chandler's Warlord trait was from the Clan Raukaan table and he got Merciless Resolve which gives the Crusader special rule to the Warlord and all friendly Clan Raukaan units within 12".

I deployed my forces with the Swooping hawks along the back corner, the Wraithknight standing on the objective, the Wraithlord to the side, one squad of Dire Avengers and the Farseer in the ruin, and the Wave Serpent deployed in the back corner. The Rangers then infiltrated onto the other corner objective in a ruin.

We rolled to determine what each objective was, and both mine were Sabotaged. Then we began the game with the Scouts moving up to one of the other free objectives.

Turn 1:
Chandler started by dropping his Ironclad into my corner and flamered a couple Swooping Hawks off the board. The Rhino went at cruising speed toward the center objective. Shooting was otherwise fairly ineffective.


In my turn the remaining hawks jumped off the board and the Wraithlord moved toward the Ironclad, while the Wraithknight jumped forward. The Rangers took shots at the Master of the Forge to little effect. Other shooting from the Wave Serpent killed off a few of the Scouts and the Wraithknight destroyed one dreadnought. The Wraithlord failed to hurt the Ironclad with shooting and chose to assault, and was promptly smacked down by the dread on three hits, three wounds.

Turn 2:

The Tac Squad-half dismounted from the Rhino just inside Grav range to the Wraithknight and fired, managing 3 wounds with the help of their fellows in the woods back on the Iron Hands side of the board. The rear dread and Master of the Forge wrecked the Wave Serpent, forcing the Dire Avengers to disembark right next to their fellows. The Ironclad fired on the Dire Avengers in cover, then failed his charge.

The wraithknight moved well away from the Tac Squad and lined up a shot at the Ironclad, blasting it away. The Swooping Hawks dropped down, hitting the far scout squad with their blast, killing all but one of them. Then their fire into the other scouts removed a couple others. The Rangers managed to take out the Forge Father while Dire Avengers shot at range at the Tactical squad, killing a few.

Turn 3: 
The Autocannon dread moved up and assaulted the Hawks after removing all but two and the exarch with shooting. The Tac squad missile launcher killed the Wraithknight. The dismounted tac squad fired on the Wave Serpent Dire Avengers and took them down to 1. In combat between the dread and Hawks, the dread wiffed and the hawks hit with 1 haywire grenade and then failed to even glance. They then hit and run from the combat.


In my turn the Rangers killed off the Master of the Forge with sniper fire while the Hawks killed all but one ranger on the center objective, assaulting him and losing one of their number to no wounds in return. The Dire Avengers took down the Grav weapons in the tac squad, but nothing else.

Remainder of the game:
The game went to 7 turns, but not a whole lot happened. The autocannon dread walked up to the center objective, removing the lone Dire Avenger who was sneaking up. The swooping hawk exarch never managed to remove the final scout. The tac squad moved up and exchanged fire with Dire Avengers and the Farseer for 2 turns from about 2" apart. The tac squad in the rear, despite terrible runs and difficult terrain rolls, eventually made it to one corner objective in Turn 7.


The final tally was 7-6, Iron Hands. Eldar got Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker (with 1 hawk) and 1 objective while the Iron Hands had 2 objectives and Linebreaker.


It was a brutal game that went quick toward the end, with the majority of firepower on each side wiped out by the end of turn 3.

Post Game Thoughts:
I was in for a bit of an uphill battle after throwing away my Wraithlord Turn 1. I should have swapped roles, allowing the Wraithknight to shoot him in the back while the wraithlord stayed in cover and fired on the dread on the hill in the middle. This game showed me I'm being a little reckless with my Wave Serpents. The temptation to fire the shield is great, but unless I have a particular target of opportunity, I might want to use a bit more caution with it.

The MVPs of the game were probably the Swooping Hawks, who nearly wiped out both scout squads. Had the game ended turn 6, I would have won because of their work. One mistake might have been jumping out of combat with the dreadnought when I did. I had horrible luck in the first round with haywire, but sticking it out might have seen the combat go for two more rounds, seeing the construct dead in the end. That said, maybe not - Chandler regenerated two or three hull points throughout the game, as well as a wound on the Master of the Forge. Iron Hands can be tough.

No comments:

Post a Comment