CHAOS SPACE MARINES versus Ulthwé Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: ?
Mission: Patrol
1st turn: ?
Points: 1850
Date: 22/04/2003

Chaos Space Marines

• Daemon Prince Bellicus - Mark of Chaos Undivided, Daemonic Stature, Daemonic Armour, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Resilience, Dreadaxe, close combat weapon, Daemonic Spawn
• Squad Surculus - 5 Possessed, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Daemonic Talons
• Squad Hotep – 9 Chaos Space Marines, Mark of Tzeentch, Aspiring Champion, Bolt pistol and close combat weapon, Bolt of Change
• Obliterator
• Squad Infractis – 7 Chaos Marines, Infiltrate, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt pistols and Close combat weapons, 2 x Plasma Pistols, Aspiring Champion with Power fist
• Squad Profuge - 7 Chaos Marines, Infiltrate, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt guns, 2 x Plasma guns
• Squad Krall – 5 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt guns, Lascannon
• Squad Brakar – 5 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt guns, Heavy Bolter
• Squad Abraxar – 8 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt pistols and Close combat weapons, Aspiring Champion with Power fist, Rhino
• Squad Scrementor – 5 Raptors, Flamer, Aspiring Champion with power weapon, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• Squad Imber - 5 Havocs, Infiltrate, Mark of Chaos Undivided, bolt guns, 3 x Heavy Bolt guns
• Torius - Predator, Twin-linked Lascannons, Heavy Bolt gun sponsons, smoke
• Atrocitor - Dreadnought, Twin-linked Lascannons
  

Ulthwé Eldar

• Seer council
  
• 3 large Guardian squads (2x star cannons, 1x scatter laser)
  
• Dire Avengers
  
• Howling Banshees
  
• 2 Wraithlords (bright lances)
  
• 5 Wraithguard

Terrain and deployment
His strategy was based upon a large firebase of Black guardians and the wraithlords protected from incoming fire by the Wraithguard (who were in turn protected by fortune from the seer council). A small assault contingent was present in the form of dire avengers and Banshees.

The game
My largest solo game so far at GW was a complete disaster. This was largely due to my poor reserve rolls (although his weren't great either). I only got 4 squads (out of 12) onto the table in my second turn, then 3 of the remainder on my third turn. My Tzeentch unit did not reach the table until turn 5! To add insult to injury they entered the table slowly and purposefully 1” (snake eyes) and then got a combined total of 5” on the three turns they were on the table.

I suffered terribly from star cannon and scatter laser fire in the early turns; as quick as a unit entered the table they were blown into oblivion. Squad Profuge were killed without firing a weapon, my Raptors got hit by 5 scatter laser shots over two turns and I failed five consecutive 3+ saves, and squads Imber and Hotep both lost half their number to enemy fire.

I tried to execute attacks on both the left and right flanks but the late arriving reserves meant that instead of a concentrated assault I simply had to rush units forward in the hope of getting into assault range.

On my left squad Infractis were halved in number by the banshees and got stuck in a drawn out combat with the Wraithguard, only to be struck down by the Seer council. My Daemon Prince was killed by the Wraithguard shooting. The only success was the Possessed who killed off the Dire Avenger Exarch and the Howling banshees then assaulted and killed an unwounded Wraithlord. The Seer council finally did for them and any chance of a win on this flank died.

Eventually squad Hotep and Squad Brakar got embroiled in a scrap with the Seer Council and were destroyed, leaving the whole left flank deserted.

On the right the Raptors fell to scatter laser fire leaving squad Abraxar to take on a Wraithlord. The Wraithlord barrelled into the Rhino, blew it up and guess who the only casualty was? Yep, the aspiring champion with a powerfist. The squad were in close combat with the Wraithlord for several turns until they finally broke and ran 9”. The Wraithlord rolled a 10 on the sweeping advance.

The game finally ended on turn 8(!) with only the predator surviving for Chaos and all the Guardians and most of the Seer Council fighting for the Eldar.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• The Possessed were once again my men of the match, showing their flexibility by taking out the banshees and then the Wraithlord.

Turning point
Poor reserve rolls.

Learning points

• Eldar can cope with bad reserve rolls better than Chaos due to their inherent mobility (fleet of foot).
• The Wraithguard screen were very effective, soaking up most of my heavy bolter fire which would have been better off hitting the guardians.
• I had to use Gary’s models to pad out my army for this game and he has been complaining of bad luck for several games; well this definitely continued for me (the raptors were his models). Oh the fickle Gods of Chaos!
• I think the Chaos army in its current form is not inspiring me. Essentially I have only collected them in order to play the Daemon Prince model and in his current incarnation he is a bit too powerful for a 1000pt game. Really, what I need is a lieutenant and one or two more troops choices to make the list more balanced. But then the Daemon Prince won’t be in the list and the whole reason for the army won’t be there. I might drop this list in favour of my Nurgle army for a while.