CHAOS SPACE MARINES versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Campaign: Phoenix campaign game 2
Mission: Night Fight
1st turn: Chaos Space Marines
Points: 1500
Location: Tyro Weapons Testing Area (location 5), Tyro Peninsula, Kutch, Salazar systems
Background: Tchoi Guerez learns of the Eldar attack and tries to weed out the Eldar infiltrators on the peninsula. He strikes at the strategically important weapons testing area where the Eldar infiltrators have been hiding.

Chaos Space Marines

• Chaos Lord Tchoi Guerez - Terminator Armour, Lightning Claw, Combi-Plasma
  
• The Machine Cursed - 3 Obliterators
• Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
• Squad Hotep – 9 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with warptime
• Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon
• Squad Imber - 6 Havocs, 4 heavy bolters, icon of chaos glory
  
• Squad Abraxar – 6 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher, icon of chaos glory
• Arableuerakiar - 8 Lesser Daemons (Furies)
  

Eldar

• Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
• 4 warlocks, enhance, embolden
• Icareane - Autarch, Swooping Hawk wings, power weapon, fusion gun
  
• Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
• Arroth - 8 Guardians, 2 fusion guns
• Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
  
• Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
• Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
• Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofeild
• Lothcirith - 5 Dark Reapers
  
• Isenrain - 8 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
• Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike

Following the Vyper error in our last game Gary continued in his sneaky Eldar vein by making a mistake in his list again. Can you work out what it is? I'll tell you later.

Background
The battle was taking place in a former weapons testing area where clouds of chemical gas were drifting across the landscape, acid pools gave off waves of hideous pollution and radiation disrupted sensitive equipment. As a result the entire battle was fought with Night Fight rules in effect.

Terrain and Deployment
Gary set up the board before the game. There was a large avenue diagonally bisecting the board which ended at a ruined temple. Given that the Exigators had attacked this location it was fitting that they got to choose the table quarter. I picked the least crowded, hoping to give my units clear line of sight to each other and negate the cover that the Eldar would hold and have to move out of.
Guerez commanded the Exigators to set up in a classic gunline, braving the Eldar gunline. He hoped to attack up the left with the Thousand Sons and Raptors and use the Obliterators to hold my right flank. Guerez himself would teleport in and the lesser daemons would be summoned. The Eldar had a strong firebase in the middle with the Dark Reapers, two Warwalkers, Warpspiders and Fire Dragons in the Falcon. The riposte to the Chaos left flank attack was the Dire Avengers and Farseer and retinue. The Guardians were far out on the Exigators right flank.

The game
Squad Abraxar broke left and took cover behind a line of sandbags. They now had a good view down the avenue, but would they be able to see anything in the gloom? Squad Hotep crested the central hill and opened fire on the Dark Reapers. Two of the Eldar fell and the squad broke. The rest of the Chaos Space Marines couldn't spot any enemy in the smog.

The Eldar began to envelop both flanks. In the centre, the Dark Reapers rallied and moved back up to their initial position. The rest of the firebase couldn't see the black armoured marines.

The Thousand Sons continued to march over the hill and lay down fire on the Dark Reapers. Another aspect warrior died and the squad decided they had seen enough and fled from the battlefield. On the right flank, the furies were summoned to try and tie up the Warpspiders and Fire Dragons.

The Eldar firepower again proved largely futile as their delicate range finders were rendered useless in the radiation. Only the Warpspiders managed to cause some casualties on the furies on the right. The Falcon positioned itself for an attack run.

The Thousand Sons continued their implacable advance into the guns of the enemy. Now they targetted a Warwalker and their shooting impressed again as the Eldar vehicle exploded spectacularly. The second Warwalker fell shortly after to the heavy bolters of squad Imber. The Eldar firebase had now been reduced to a squad of Rangers. Guerez chose this moment to enter the battle personally. With the left flank a stand off he decided to reinforce the right flank and teleported in next to the Obliterators.

The Eldar attacked on both flanks. The Dire Avengers went over the top and downed some of squad Hotep with the Farseer's help. On the right the Falcon swooped in and killed an Obliterator. The Fire Dragons remained in their transport. The Warpspiders wiped out the Furies then jumped back behind cover.

Virtually every Chaos unit shot at the Dire Avengers. Only squad Imber got them in their sights and the formidable firepower of four heavy bolters annhilated the Eldar. The Raptors broke cover to move toward the Farseer and retinue. The Eldar Falcon made a dramatic move close into the Exigators right flank and the Fire Dragons trusted to the armour of the Falcon as they stayed inside.

Guerez ordered that the Falcon must be destroyed. He shot his combi-plasma at it, squad Krall shot it with their lascannon and plasma gun, the Obliterators shot their plasma guns at it then assaulted it and squad Imber assaulted it with their krak grenades. The only effect was that the Eldar tank was prevented from shooting.

Now the Fire Dragons leapt from the Falcon and instantly killed another Obliterator. They assaulted the survivor. Two Eldar were squished but their Exarch kept them in the fight. The Warpspiders killed three from squad Imber. Finally the Eldar Rangers proved their worth as they got a member of squad Krall in their sights. He died to a headshot and the squad went to ground, pinned. The Farseer sallied out to attack the Raptors. The Eldar slammed into the Chaos troops and in a stunning display killed six of them. The Farseer personally ran down the two survivors.

Squad Hotep and squad Abraxar poured fire into the Farseer and his retinue but failed to cause a wound. Guerez charged into the Fire Dragons and his lightning claw tore them apart. In a final act of spite the Falcon's pulse laser wounded Guerez.

Guerez looked around the battlefield and saw that his attack had been repulsed. He ordered the retreat and teleported away.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• Chaos - Thousand Sons
  
• Eldar - Warpspiders

Turning point
The Farseers destroying the Raptors in a single turn.

Learning points

• Read the mission! I thought this was a victory points fight, like cleanse, where I would get 375 points for the neutral quarters and 750 points for the Eldar quarter. That's why I was quite happy to chip away at the Eldar firebase and get a victory point advantage before scrambling for the quarters in the last turns. Halfway through the game I found that it was simply down to scoring units, and with the Eldar mobility and their higher number of scoring units I was in trouble.
• Kudos to Gary for making a game of it anyway. He could have hung back and used his speed and the fact that he had last turn to draw or maybe win the game. Instead he made an effort to attack and it paid off when I couldn't hurt the Falcon and he wiped out my Raptors.
  
• Did you spot the mistake? Gary had four heavy support choices. This is because he thought that the Warwalkers were Fast Attack. It also meant that he deployed them in the wrong order before the game. Like the last game with the 'extra' Vyper it didn't really have a big effect on the game anyway so it wasn't a major problem.

Experience points Including previous games

Chaos Space Marines

• +250 Chaos Lord Tchoi Guerez - Terminator Armour, Lightning Claw, Combi-Plasma
  
• -150 3 Obliterators
• +50 Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
• -250 Squad Hotep – 9 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with warptime
• +70 Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon
• -150 Squad Imber - 6 Havocs, 4 heavy bolters, icon of chaos glory
  
• +150 Squad Abraxar – 6 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher, icon of chaos glory
• -100 8 Lesser Daemons (Furies)
  

Eldar

• +660 Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
• 4 warlocks, enhance, embolden
• -100 Icareane - Autarch, Swooping Hawk wings, power weapon, fusion gun
  
• -200 Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
• +450 Arroth - 8 Guardians, 2 fusion guns
• -200 Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
  
• +600 Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
• -100 Gilgard - 1 Warwalker, brightlance, scatterlaser
• +400 Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofeild
• -100 Lothcirith - 5 Dark Reapers
  
• +620 Isenrain - 8 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
• -200 Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike