Saturday, July 24, 2010

Brocon Game 2

So after my first game draw I was put against Mike and his Eldar. I had no idea about what he had as I'd never played him before but my buddy Floody told me in passing that he was a very good player so I was expecting a tough game. I've always had trouble with Eldar - Fortune has been a curse against me in many of my games and when you seeing Holofields and Spirit Stones on Falcons you know you're in for a long day. Mike had both. Multiple times. Gaysauce Double-Penetration.



Eldrad
5 or 6 Warlock with Enhance, Embolden
Farseer with Fortune

5 Harlequins with 1 Kiss, 1 Poop Leader (heh, poop)
5 Fire Dragons
5 Fire Dragons

6 Dire Avengers
2 x 10 Guardians with Scatter Lasers

2 War Walkers with Missile Launchers

Wave Serpent with Stones, Twin Missiles x 2
Falcon with Holofields, Stones, Scatter Lasers x 2

We ended up with the Draw mission (one objective each - is it Capture and Control) with Pitched Battle deployment.

I deployed across the board with one part defending my objective and the other pressing forward (the Wolfblob). From L to R:
Wolfblob, Long Fangs, Long Fangs on right hill, Empty Lasback, GH in Rhino, GH in Lasback. I put 2 Rhinos in Reserve, one with the Rune Priest in it as I didn't want him being focused on too early.

His deployment was just putting 4 tanks behind cover in the far left corner. From Left to Right I think it was:
Dragons in Falcon, Dragons in Serpent, Seer Counci in Serpent and Farseer and Harlies in Falcon. He put everything into reserve with the Walkers Outflanking.

In my first turn I shuffle some tanks to get into range and push the blob forward. I do no discernable damage (one of them couldn't shoot or something). His turn 1 sees him Conga-line Flat-out into the centre left of the table casting Fortune and Guide as he went.

My 2nd turn saw a Rhino squad arrive and reinforce my objective while the Blob on my left moved up and attacked 2 of the 4 tanks. I was wondering about whether to get the characters out of blob and getting shot or risk leaving them in there and losing combat by tonnes if the Wolves were mauled. With plenty of AP 1 and 2 firepower available (Pulse Lasers, Fusion guns) I figured that at least in combat I'd get my 2+ saves from any No retreat! wounds, not to mention the fact that he could quite easily assault me after shooting me with other units anyway making things easier for him. So, I decided to risk staying with the Wolves.

The unit charged the 2 front tanks and managed to stop a Serpent shooting while the Hammer Lord destroyed a Falcon. The resultant explosion killed a pile of Harlies including the Poop master. The remaining Harlie and Farseer weren't pinned though.

His turn 2 saw an angry Seer Council charge the blob and they were positioned in such a way that the Lords were unable to reach them and thus unable to attack. The other tanks moved away with a Fire Dragon squad hopping out to BBQ some Long Fangs who were thankfully in cover (we played all terrain as difficult 4+) and only 2 died while the squad passed their Morale test. In the combat phase the Seer Council dive in and kill 12 Wolves with the help of the last Harlie who Hits and Runs. o_O The unit predictably fails its test and takes 12 No Retreat! wounds with the last wolf predictably dying and the Claw Lord taking a wound. 

Rule issue: After this we were wondering about No Retreat! wounds and how they're applied. Someone said that each of the characters would take 12 wounds and the wolf would take another 12 but because the last wolf was alive they were still a unit so I could split them amongst the 3 survivors. I don't have my rulebook handy so I'm not able to quote (page 39 I think) but I'm pretty sure they would only take 12 wounds each if they had started the combat as 3 seperate units and thus taken 3 seperate Leadership tests, failed and were caught.

Back on topic, and we end up with this at the end of Turn 3:


That Long Fang BBQ? Fucking food poisoning for the Fairy Dragons - I chose to assault them rather than shooting them with a cover save (from being behind the tank) because I could reasonably expect to tie them up and not allow them to simply fly away and hit another target later. As it happened I killed one, they failed their Morale test and I caught and killed them all before bouncing back into terrain. Vets leading by example.

In the centre of the pic you can see the Seer Council and Wolf Lords handbagging each other while in the background a Serpent with Farseer in it has moved to cockblock his objective. A unit of Guardians and Avengers had also arrived as had his Outflanking War Walkers which thankfully showed up far away from my objective. He shot some stuff but did no major damage (the Rhino with Rune Priest had arrived and he shot that and stopped it shooting).

he next round of combat thankfully went my way:
Eldrad and co had Fortune cancelled by the Priest waving his stick nearby and I managed to do 2 wounds and he failed his Ld test as Mr. Embolden had been killed off. They were all caught and killed freeing up the Wolf Lords to do some shenanigans. Mike moved a squad of Dragons in another Serpent up and disembarked the unit which promptly destroyed the Rune Priest's Rhino, killed 3 Marines when they were shot at by the tank, and pinned the squad. I was very pissed as they had 2 Meltas, a Fist and Living Lightning and could have blown away both squads but what can you do?

The victorious Wolf Lords seperated and moved off.

Mistake #1 - not quite no. 1 but a big one. The Claw Lord did this when he should have chased down the Fire Dragons and left my Grey Hunters that had just jumped out of a Rhino shoot at the tank instead of the Dragons. End result? This and dead Dragons but the tank was free to move Flat-Out, Ram and get within 3" of my objective. 2 Melta shots might have stopped it from getting away.

The Hammer Lord chased down a tank which forgot to move and predictably tore it to pieces. A rather scared looking Farseer and Avenger squad emerged. He did end up in front of an Eldar gunline though. That wasn't going to end well...

His turn saw his army open up on the Hammer Lord for...no damage. 6 Avengers, 20 Guardians, 2 Scatter Lasers and 3 Missile Launchers can't crack his 2+ saves so the Farseer gets stuck in. We handbag each other.

The game goes onto turn 6.

His Serpent that has moved onto my objective is subjected to 3 Missile Launchers, 2 linked Lascannons, 2 Meltas at close range, 4 Krak Grenades, Mark of the Wulfen attacks and a Power Fist. I tear off a gun. That makes me a Sad Panda.

Mistake #2 - I had a Rhino floating about in my lines in the centre and the formerly pinned GH and Priest hopped into it while the other GH squad that had killed off the Dragons moved toward an immobilised Falcon nearby.

I thought you could use the Fire Points in the Rhino to shoot at 2 different targets so I rolled to hit with the sole Melta and missed the Falcon. The Rune Priest was going to shoot at the lovely exposed AV 10 of the turbo'd Serpent when my opponent told me how the rule worked: you can shoot 2 weapons but only at 1 target. I ended up stunning the Falcon with Living Lightning rather than blasting the contesting Serpent).


The Hammer Lord eats himself a Farseer and once again ends up in front of the Eldar gunline but at least he's contesting Mike's objective. I hammer at the Wave Serpent again and do nothing. Sad Panda is crying a fucking river at this stage.

The remnants of his army again fire at my Wolf Lord and again I survive a hail of shuriken fire. On one wound. Again - this song comes to mind.

Mike had forgotten to move his Serpent to make it harder to hit and we rolled for the game ending but he reminded me to hit the thing in his turn as he hadn't moved away. It was sound out of him in fairness. His good graces were repaid as I fluffed my rolls again - the Pack Leader's Fist glanced once and wobbled it again.

And thus, the curtain came down on the most enjoyable game of 40k I'd had in ages. It went right down to the wire and to be honest I'm not entirely upset his Serpent survived when the Wolf Lord pulled the same shenanigans over on his objective and he could have chose not to remind me about the Serpent in combat but he did all the same. Overall it was a fantastic game with a classy guy and it ended up 11-9 to me.

2 comments:

  1. What?! No Tankshock? There isn't a single objective game I can think of where I didn't Tankshock the shit out of my opponent. Your Eldar buddy is missing out!

    Great battlerep.

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  2. Cheers lad. It was one of the best games I've played actually although I made plenty of mistakes and could have swung it my way by doing one or two things differently.

    Tank shock? The Serpent did it when it rammed and destroyed the Razor, although my squads passed their tests. I used Death or Glory with a Long Fang but did nothing and I should really have hung onto him instead as the extra missile might have proven useful at the end.

    Still, it was hilarious to see the Wolf Lord stand up to over half the Eldar army's shooting for 2 turns. I won't forget that for a long time.

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