ETC Battle Report Round 5: Switzerland

3+ saves? We can't make them.

So after our draw with Denmark we were paired off with the hosts Switzerland and this would realistically determine which of us would get a top 10 finish. I was paired off with Michel 'Giles Le Breton' Weibel and his semi-mech Eldar. The transports and Avatar didn't worry me but the War Walkers did - with their hail of shots they could realistically take out a Razor or unit of Long Fangs a turn while I would have to batter them into submission, forcing me to dedicate my firepower.

It wasn't an army I wanted to face as I couldn't rely on Stormcaller due to Runes of Warding and the Walkers would be a balls to get rid of, as would the Falcon with its Holofields. Have I mentioned before that I despise Holofields?

Primary: Draw Mission
Secondary: Kill Points
Deployment: Dawn of War

The Eldar list was:
Farseer with Runes of warding, Fortune
Avatar

7 Firedragons with Exarch with Dragonsbreath Flamer
Wave Serpent with Spirit stones, Star engines and twin-linked Shuriken cannons
7 Firedragons with Exarch with Dragonsbreath Flamer
Wave Serpent with Spirit stones, Star engines and twin-linked Shuriken cannons
7 Firedragons
Wave Serpent with Spirit stones, Star engines and twin-linked Shuriken cannons

5 Dire Avengers
13 Guardians with Scatter Laser
3 Jetbikes with Shuricannon

Falcon with Spirit Stones, Holofields & Shuricannon
3 Warwalkers with 5 Scatter Lasers and 1 Shuricannon
3 Warwalkers with 5 Scatter Lasers and 1 Shuricannon

Michel won the roll to go first but gave me first turn. I chose my side as I could conceal my Razors on the left and pull units toward my objective, hopefully luring a unit of Walkers to my left board edge where I could pound them and deal with them one unit at a time. Meanwhile, the Scouts were to cause problems near the Eldar objective before getting eaten as they usually do.

Turn 1
I rolled everything on, spread out and set up firelines with Fangs spread across the table and most of my Razors on the left ready to push towards the Eldar objective. The Eldar had put everything into reserve.

There's my army hiding behind the central grey building.

Turn 2
A unit of Scouts showed up on the right. That was a turn too early so I said goodbye to them and plonked them in a woods near the Eldar objective to distract them a bit while the Razors pushed up toward the building in the middle.

A few Eldar units showed up with Guardian Defenders and boosting Jetbikes on my right and a Fire Dragon transport in the centre. The Scouts get mauled but 2 survive because they go to ground and thankfully they've now become a problem.

All up in their crib but no people to steal up.

Turn 3
Some of the Razors push forward so they can make a dash for the Eldar objective if the xenos are late in arriving and I move 2 of them aggressively but behind terrain in wait. I can now finally start opening up with my firepower and I succeed in bringing down the Wave Serpent and killing a couple of Fire Dragons, pinning the squad. To top it off I take out all of the Jetbikes in a single volley. Nice.

The Avatar, a unit of Walkers, a Wave Serpent and the Falcon DAVU & Farseer all show up to join the party and when Michel brings everything on my right, bar the Serpent, near his objective I can see he will play for a draw and make no attempt to get at my objective despite his Walkers being well-able to get in and cause problems due to my lack of Powerfists. Anyway, the Scouts are shot to death before they can bring their Meltagun to bear and the Eldar have cleared their lines. That's on top of popping one of my Razors with the Walkers. 

Turn 4
The second unit of Scouts arrives and I'm presented with a dilemma: do I try to clear the Guardians off their objective and force more of the Eldar (Falcon DAVU etc) into a corner or do I try a multi-charge and go for KP and try to guarantee that I'm uncatchable on the secondary objective?

The Scouts show up with a judge watching the multi-charge.

There were a few things for me to consider:
1. There was an Avatar nearby that would eat the squad in the following turn. Guaranteed.

This is how the multi-charge happened.

2. I could potentially take out the Falcon with rear Melta shots and assault the Dire Avengers, Farseer and Guardians trapping them in combat and getting 2 turns to snipe the Farseer out of the DAVU for another KP and removing Fortune from the game. I could throw enough attacks at Avengers to mangle them in one turn and the Wolf Guard could use his Claw to snipe the Farseer who didn't have Fortune up or, seeing as the units were all Fearless due to being within 12" of the Avatar I could mangle them so they lose combat and get destroyed by Fearless wounds while the Guardians were unable to shoot at me before the Avatar arrived.

So my options were that I'd be able to cause problems and possibly grab 3 KP into the bargain (the Falcon, Farseer and DAVU) or I could bag the unit of Guardians and pull them off the objective to boot. In the end I went for the big score - not only could I get the Falcon, Farseer & Dire Avengers Kill Points but I'd also get the Victory Points for them before the Scouts went down.

I fired the Meltas and Pistols at the Falcon and only managed to Immobilise it. Fucking Holofields. At least I was still able to multi-charge both it and the GUardians in the hope I'd bag the tank with Kraks. Predictably I did sweet FA overall as I bagged a few Guardians and tore guns off the Falcon. Fucking Holofields.

And here's the Scouts bogged down.

At least I managed to bag the central Serpent but the unit runs away due to casualties suffered. I had really wanted them to stay as I had a unit of Grey Hunters nearby that would have bagged them in combat and netted me a KP but now the squad was exposed.

The The Avatar counterattacked and mangled the Scouts in his turn. Plus, the Walkers started to make their presence felt by bagging a Razor, pinning their unit and wiping out a unit of Long Fangs while the Hunters in the middle were pulverised. Having seen Michel punch the air after the Fangs died I counted up the KP and realised he was ahead by one. And he had the final say in the matter. Balls.

Bewbs.

Turn 5
I pounded one squad of 2 remaining Fire Dragons and managed to get rid of it. The rest of my turn is spent trying to manoveure my vehicles out of range of the Eldar guns which is how I manage to immobilise one in the centre.

The last squad of Dragons shows up on my left while everything else moves to my right behind terrain apart from the Walkers that are hunting Razorbacks. Which they are doing with aplomb by bagging another. All of this happens while the rest of the Eldar army backs off.

Thankfully the game goes on giving me a chance to even things up. 

Turn 6
All of the Missile Launchers take out the Wave Serpent on my left while all of the Lascannons largely bounce off the Falcon - there might have been a Shaken/Stunned in there. At least I'm tied on KP now.

The War Walkers take out another Razor and the Eldar are up by one again. Oh, and the Eldar back off. Again. And the game continued. Again.

Immobilised. Oh for want of Dozer blades...

Turn 7
I manage to bring enough guns to bear on a unit of Walkers and do just enough damage to wipe them out, all the while trying to hide my Razors but it's not enough as I see Michel guess that the Immobilised one is within range of the second unit of Walkers if he moves. Which he does and opens fire on the Immobilised Razor. He gets one glance and one pen and I fail both cover saves. It takes a Weapon Destroyed glance and explodes due to the Pen which is just enough to swing secondary his way.

Final Result
12-8 to the Eldar. As it turned out the Swiss stomped all over us in this round casting us down into the bottom half of the tournament and giving us a mountain to climb if we were to make it to the top half.

Overall I wasn't too gutted with the game as I could have drawn it had I passed one of the cover saves (the pen obviously) but it was the 2nd squad of Scouts multi-charging where I think it went wrong - had I dedicated them to taking out the Guardians I could have gone through them eventually (a round of shooting, a round of combat, Fearless damage, another round of combat) getting another KP into the bargain and tying things up but with other results going against us (if I make the team again then Quigley is banned from being on the table next to me while playing against Wolves) I knew that the team needed points so went for it. It didn't pay off in the end but at least I managed to get 8 points out of it.