Opponent: Gary
Campaign: Phoenix campaign game 1
Mission: Cleanse
Level: Alpha
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1500
Location: Tyro Harbour (location 4), Tyro Peninsula, Kutch, Salazar systems
Background: The Eldar infiltrate the Tyro peninsula and run into an Exigators patrol at Tyro harbour. The Eldar Rangers win the skirmish which allows the full Eldar force to strike at the Chaos Space Marines.
Chaos Space Marines
- Chaos Lord Sebastian Jaxx - Bike, Lightning Claw
- The Machine Cursed - 3 Obliterators
- Squad Myre - 8 Chosen, 2 plasma guns, aspiring champion with powerfist
- Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
- Squad Hotep – 8 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with warptime
- Squad Scrementor – 6 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon
- Squad Imber - 6 Havocs, 4 heavy bolters
- Squad Abraxar – 6 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher
- Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
- 4 warlocks, enhance, embolden
- Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
- Arroth - 8 Guardians, 2 fusion guns
- Nazrain - 10 Gaurdians, starcannon
- Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
- Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
- Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofeild
- Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
- Isenrain - 8 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
- Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
Gary had come up with some homebrew infiltrating rules so we used these to kick off the campaign. They involved having all infiltrators and scouts having a stealthy firefight before the game proper with the winners allowing their army to choose the location, mission, level and choice of first turn.
The Eldar Rangers and Warwalker killed 2 of my chosen for no casualties so the Eldar won.
Terrain and deployment
Having the guaranteed first turn, Gary set up for the killer punch. Here's how we deployed.
See if you can spot the Eldar mistake (answer at the bottom of the page).The game
The Eldar Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons and Falcon pummelled my Chosen, squad Myre, and squad Imber, my heavy bolter Havocs. Both were wiped out before they fired a shot. I advanced the Obliterators around the temple and they plasma cannoned the Fire Dragons into oblivion. My other squads targeted the starcannon Guardians but they held firm.
Sebastian Jaxx didn't fancy taking on the Banshees and fusion blaster toting Guardians so he turbo boosted up to help out the Obliterators. The machine cursed withstood a lot of Eldar firepower until the Falcon pulse laser instantly killed two of them.
Jaxx exploded out of the ruined temple and tore into the Dire Avengers. The Farseer and his retinue piled in and did enough to distract my Lord so that the Dire Avenger exarch killed him outright with his Diresword.
Sporadic Eldar fire kept chipping away at squad Krall until they were reduced to four marines. Their aspiring champion decided that the battle was lost and ordered a tactical withdrawl.
Squad Hotep had been advancing into the centre of the battlefield, laying down covering fire into the two Guardian squads. Now they were hit by the Howling Banshees and Farseer unit. Despite a spirited combat the Thousand Sons were destroyed.
The Eldar Warpspiders teleported in close to squad Abraxar and my second Havoc squad died in a withering hail of fire.
My only surviving unit, the Raptors, who had been skulking around on my right flank, swept out to claim some ground, but it was too little too late.
Result: Loss
Commendations
- Chaos - Raptors
- Eldar - Farseer and warlocks
Those two failed leadership tests in the same turn; my Lord failed on Ld 10 to fall to the Diresword and my CSM squad fled off the board on Ld 9.
Learning points
- I really enjoyed the pre-battle skirmish game that Gary suggested before the 'real' game. It was very characterful (without being terribly balanced) and perfect to kick off the hostilities. It set the tone for the whole campaign; where the story is at least as important as simply winning games.
- I was comprehensively beaten. The Eldar had significant advantages in that Gary chose the scenario and automatically took first turn, but his army was also quicker and boasted formidable firepower. Meanwhile I'm still struggling to get my head around the new Chaos codex. Everything seems so expensive and I don't have the models to include any mobile firepower, which I believe is the key to winning 40k games at the moment.
- Psychics. Mine can't be relied on against the ELdar Farseer while I can't stop theirs. Only Gift of Chaos could get through the Farseer's invulnerable save.
- Ideally, I need smaller squads to to give better cover to each other. I also need some mobile firepower; perhaps I need to drop the static Havocs and include my Predator.
- Did you spot the mistake? Gary had played a Vyper in the game but didn't actually have it in the army list! As it happened it didn't play a great part in the game so it wasn't a problem; It missed in the first turn of shooting then he zoomed it behind the large ruined temple and didn't bring it out for the rest of the game. Still, it just goes to show that you should never trust those sneaky Eldar.
Chaos Space Marines
- -100 Chaos Lord Sebastian Jaxx - Bike, Lightning Claw
- -100 The Machine Cursed - 3 Obliterators
- -100 Squad Myre - 8 Chosen, 2 plasma guns, aspiring champion with powerfist
- -100 Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
- -100 Squad Hotep – 8 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with warptime
- +270 Squad Scrementor – 6 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon
- -100 Squad Imber - 6 Havocs, 4 heavy bolters
- -100 Squad Abraxar – 6 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher
- +560 Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
- 4 warlocks, enhance, embolden
- -100 Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
- +250 Arroth - 8 Guardians, 2 fusion guns
- -100 Nazrain - 10 Gaurdians, starcannon
- +300 Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
- -100 Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
- +200 Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofeild
- +200 Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
- +300 Isenrain - 8 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
- -100 Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
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