FTGT Invades FTW; Iron Hands vs. New Nids and Iron Hands vs. Eldar

A couple weekends ago, three-quarters of the Blog got together in Richmond, VA. It was an incredible time that was filled with a lot of excitement, a lot of anticipation, and some incredible games.  Now I would like to say that it was great to meet Rob Baer of Forge the Narrative, Spikey Bits, and For The Win Games.  He was out, talking to us, mainly Evan, and just talking to us about some of his thoughts on the Tyranid Codex. Next guy we met was Kenny Boucher of Forge the Narrative and owner / operator of Next Level Painting. He was joking, talking to us about all things 40k, and was awesome to joke around with.

Iron Hands away!

It was an awesome weekend where the blog met some very influential guys that have had an impact on not only our blog, but also on some other ideas coming down the pipe.

First I have to say that Rob has an incredible store.  It has everything you could imagine for your hobby needs.  Ranging from all kinds of paints to Magic to Board Games to Games Workshop and almost every table top game that you could think of.  There is an incredible space for card games, board games, and enough tables for 40k to not only have an incredible game on a 4' x 6' board with great terrain but also move them to do Apocalypse, clear space, and also store your stuff under the table.  He's got a great table top area for painting that also has lights ready to go.  His store is awesome and I suggest that anyone who lives within range should make that place their home for everything gaming.

The weekend saw my (stand-in) Iron Hands getting two games, going up against 6th edition Nids and Eldar.  Ron ran Nids and his brother in law ran Eldar.  It was a great night, and I learned some incredible stuff about my army and both of those armies.

Eldar saw 1500 points:

2 Farseers
2 squads of Dire Avengers
two Wave Serpents
Wraithlord
3 Jet Bikes
Guardian Squad with heavy weapon platform
Vyper
group of Swooping Hawks
Striking Scorpions

Iron Hands was:

Librarian in Terminator armor with Storm Shield (Ironstone)
Sniper Squad with camo cloaks
2 Tactical squads with Gav Gun and Heavy Flamer (1 had a Grav pistol)
Rhino
Landraider Redeemer
Autocannon Dread
CC weapon / Lascannon Dread
Storm Raven
Storm Talon

It was Vanguard Strike with One Objective each.  The Eldar won the roll and started Turn 1.  Turn 1 saw the Vyper move up along with the Wraithlord and one of the Wave Serpents.  Shooting went off with not too much happening to the Iron Hands.  The Iron Hands returned the favor by moving up the Dreads so that targets were in view.  Only a single hull point was done to the Eldar.

Turn 2 saw greater fortune with the Swooping Hawks deploying directly behind the snipers, where they killed one sniper. The Wave Serpent moved up with a huge killing blow against the Rhino, earning first blood.  The Autocannon Dreadnought was destroyed. The Iron Hands came right back bringing the fight; the Swooping hawks were taken out by the squad within the Rhino.  The Land Raider moved forward along with the Last Dread moving for a kill on the Vyper and Wraithlord.  The Vyper didn't make it.

Turn 3 saw the Wave Serpent move forward, unloading its crew, and trying to do work on the squads in the ruins.  The Jet Bikes moved up trying to put fire on the second Rhino.The Wraithlord with the the Support gun continued to throw fire into the Dread and Land Raider with no effect.  The Second Wave Serpent began its slow move forward trying to help with blessings and bringing the pain.  The Iron Hands began a slow maneuver back to try to take out the wave serpent.  The Storm Talon came on and began to punch holes in it.  Finally getting some hull points on it.  The Land Raider moved to try to get out of sight, and the Dreadnought began to make his way back towards the objective.

Turn 4 saw combat from the Dire Avengers and crew making an assault where they began to fight with the scouts and Tact squads that would last until the end of Turn 6.  The rest of the groups moved to try to get fire with the Wraithlord crashing the Storm Talon.  Eldar began taking out everything in close with Striking Scorpions and the Dire Avengers.  The bottom of Turn 4 saw the Land Raider move back to unload his crew to battle everything in a massive melee.  The Storm Raven came on and nearly blew up the Wave Serpent.  The Dreadnought got some crucial hits on the Wraithlord to hurt it.  The Crew made it into combat where everything was still hitting everything.

Turn 5 saw more shooting, more close combat, and not a whole lot more except for the one wave serpent finally dying.  Turn 6 is where the Battle finally started to turn.  The Second Wave Serpent was up in the fight.  The Wraithlord, with one wound left, had gotten a hit on the Land Raider, and finally blew it up.  The melee continued to rage with the Scout Squad reducing to one guy, who didn't run, one Tact squad reduced to 6 guys, and the Other being reduced to the Librarian and 4 guys.  Bottom of the turn saw the wave serpent move up, and get blown up by the dreadnought and the storm raven.  The storm raven nearly killed all the bikes as well leaving one.  The combat was finally over with the Librarian moving towards the Eldar Warlord, the Rest of the groups moving to get up to the objective.

Turn 7 the saw the Jet Bike get to the objective on a turbo boost, the Warlord tried to kill the Librarian and the Wraithlord move on the Storm Raven.  The Raven took off for the back line, the Librarian tried to assault and kill the Warlord, and the Tact squad assaulted the Jet Bike.  Turn 7 saw nothing really change.

A tough fight for both squads with the Eldar coming out 5-0 over the Iron Hands. A tough game for sure.

The Nids vs. Iron Hand battle only got to a second turn before the store started closing.  This game can be summerized by one thing:  Haywire Templates.  The Nid Flyers were able to cut the distance, put in work, and killed 1 Land Raider and 1 Dreadnought in the second turn.

Nids were going to win, and that's when we realized how brutal Haywire was with the Monstrous Flyers.

In short, the Iron Hand army looks to be a very versitile and tough army, while the Nids appear to have a strong build in the Flying Circus Snakes.

Thanks again to Rob and the guys at FTW for an incredible weekend of gaming in an awesome store.