IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Seek and Destroy
Level: Omega
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1500
Location: Ellix, Strophious Reaches, Skolarii sector
Background: Captain Kennell orders patrols to try and locate Inquisitor Tieral as well as the elusive Eldar. Instead they come across Cypher and a small band of Fallen. As Kennell comes up from the rear to question the mysterious Marine, the Eldar launch a surprise attack. The Cadians, with Cypher's help, drive off the Eldar. Cypher reveals the location of an Eldar webway portal to Captain Kennell.


Imperial Guard

• Command Squad 77, Captain Kennell Junior officer, Standard, 3 meltaguns
• Anti-tank Squad, 3 lascannons
• Mortar Squad, 3 Mortars
• Commissar Ord Bulman, Power Sword, Bolt Pistol
• Cypher with 6 Fallen, 2 plasma guns, aspiring Champion with powerfist
• 4 Ogryn, Bonehead
• Infantry Platoon
• Command Section 36, Lieutenant Dophan Junior Officer, Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
• Armoured Fist Squad, Missile launcher, flamer, Chimera with Heavy Bolter, Multi-laser
• 20 Conscripts
• Sentinel, Multilaser, smoke
• Basilisk, Indirect Fire
• Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter
  

Eldar

• Farseer with retinue of Warlocks
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• 10 Guardians with Starcannon
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns
• Falcon
• 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch
• Vyper with Bright Lance
• 9 Warp Spiders with Exarch
• 5 Fire Dragons
• 8 Howling Banshees with Exarch

Background
I had finally finished a unit of Ogryn in time for this game so I threw them straight into the fray. I was under no illusions that my army list was junk. Characterful junk, it's true, but junk nonetheless. Cypher is too expensive, the Mortars don't hit hard enough, I don't have enough Infantry squads for 1500 point games and I didn't expect the Ogryn to do anything.

Fortunately for me, Gary brought his Eldar army. His list has very serious limitations in 4th Edition and Gary is in a similar predicament to me; not enough core models (in his case Guardians) and no real choice about of units to change in the army list.

So while the army lists aren't really competitive I was at least expecting an interesting game.

Terrain and Deployment
We had about five pieces of large area 3 ruined buildings for this game as well as two forests and a couple of hills. The right flank was most congested with the left flank a close second. The centre of the table was a little more open.

With escalation in play we had relatively few models to deploy. Gary put his Fire Dragons on the right flank with his Guardian Storm Squad and the Banshees. The other Guardians with the Starcannon went on the left with his Farseer unit. The Dark Reapers set up centrally in a wood.

I had my infantry in the centre and on the right, covered by the Mortars and 3 Lascannons. Cypher and the Fallen hid behind a building on my left. The Ogryn and Captain Kennell were my counter charge behind the central wood.

The Game
Gary won first turn and took it. He pushed forward on both flanks, moving quickly through the ruined buildings. The Dark Reapers shot but couldn't see due to concealment.

I pushed the Conscripts forward, tempting the Banshees to assault them (so I could counter with the Ogryn). My shooting was pretty poor, though I did manage to pin the Guardian Storm Squad.

Gary couldn't decide whether to stick or twist with the Banshees. He would need decent difficult terrain tests and fleet of foot to get into combat but if he hung back the Mortars were sure to hit them next. In the end he went for it and came up an inch short. I blasted them to pieces in my shooting phase.

His reserves began to arrive in the shape of the Wraithlord and Vyper. They came on in the centre but their shooting was abysmal. The Dark Reapers came good, though, killing eight Guardsmen from a single squad. I hid the two survivors away for the rest of the game to preserve their victory points. Still the Eldar pressed forward on both flanks.

I got my Basilisk and Leman Russ from reserve. I put the Russ on my right and it killed all of the Fire Dragons in a single shot. On the left my Basilisk hit the Farseer and retinue and killed a single model. On the left I pulled Cypher and the Fallen back, away from the Farseer. I was determined not to use my counter charge elements too early in this game.

Gary got his Falcon and Warp Spiders in this turn and things started to hot up. The Falcon went for my Basilisk but fluffed it's attacks. In fact it took three turns to kill my open-topped artillery piece, and subsequently had no more effect on the game.

The Warp Spiders helped out the beleaguered right flank but rolled poorly in the next two shooting phases amid much gnashing of teeth from Gary. In the centre his Guardians recovered from being pinned and assaulted the Conscripts. All of the Conscripts died, then my Ogryns steamed in to finish off the Storm Guardians. His attack on this side of the table was crushed.

My Armoured Fist squad arrived in the centre, to take on the Dark Reapers. By turn five I had driven them off but my Chimera was destroyed. The left flank was all the Eldar had now and the Farseer was the most dangerous enemy there.

I managed to decimate the accompanying Guardians but the Seer made it into combat with the Ogryn. All of Gary's bad luck suddenly switched, and he beat off the Ogryn, the platoon HQ and Captain Kennell's squad by the end of the game. My counter attack from Cypher and chums was ineffective because of the wrecks of my Chimera and Sentinel creating a bottleneck I just couldn't squeeze through quickly enough.

Thankfully for me the game ended after six turns (my last against the Eldar had gone nine turns).

Result: Win- Imperial Guard 1593.5 victory points, Eldar 1420.5 victory points

Imperial Control: +7%

Kennell's Commendation: The Mortar squad for pinning the Storm Guardians and forcing the Banshees out into the open. And they also survived with no casualties, giving me 80 victory points.

Learning points

• A familiar shape and tempo to the game, with my early dominance disappearing once the enemy make combat. Then my army folds faster than a knackered deck chair. In my previous games I would have drawn or lost this game, but I just squeaked a win. That was due to little things, like hiding the survivors from an Infantry squad and keeping my reserves until later in the game. Of course it almost backfired when Cypher and the Fallen couldn't get to the Farseer. On the other hand, Cypher was worth 151 points on his own, so I denied those points to the Eldar and contributed them to my own total. Still, I know that Cypher isn't an effective counter attacker anyway due to his speed; I could really do with Rough Riders.
• Another way of playing my Guard army could also work, based on the way my recent games have panned out. What if, from say turn 4 onward, I just ran away from the enemy, to try and prevent him from making combat and therefore gaining victory points? Forget standing to shoot and forget counter-charging, just back off with my nearest units and shoot with the rest. I'll try it out in my next game.

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Take and Hold
Level: Omega
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 1500
Location: Ellix, Sub sector 4, Skolarii sector
Background: The Ordo Xenos discover an Eldar base of operations on Ellix. Captain Kennell and the Cadian 271st are called in to exterminate the aliens. Before the battle Kennell is joined by Inquisitor Kurven. Apparently, Inquisitor Tieral disappeared on Ellix some 56 years before and Kurven believes he is still alive. The Cadians and Daemonhunters track him down to the ruined city of Varltix but the Eldar arrive at the same time. Both forces fight to a stalemate and Tieral disappears again.

Imperial Guard

• Command Squad 77, Captain Kennell Junior officer, Standard, 3 meltaguns
• Anti-tank Squad, 3 lascannons
• Mortar Support Squad, 3 Mortars
• Commissar Ord Bulman, Power Sword, Bolt Pistol
• Inquisitor Lord Kurven, Psycannon, Sanctuary, 2 Acolytes with Bolt Pistols, 2 Mystics, 1 Hierophant, 2 Sages, 1 Gun-Servitor with Plasma Cannon, 2 Imperial Guard Veterans with plasma guns
• Death Cult Assassin
• Infantry Platoon
• Command Section 36, Lieutenant Dophan Junior Officer, Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
• Armoured Fist Squad 812, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Chimera with Multi-laser and Heavy Bolter, Smoke
• 6 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, 2 Plasma Guns
• 6 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, 2 Melta Guns
• Sentinel, Multilaser, Searchlight
• Sentinel, Multilaser, Smoke Launcher
• Basilisk, Indirect Fire
• Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter
  

Eldar

• Farseer with retinue of Warlocks
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch
• 10 Guardians with Starcannon
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns
• Falcon
• 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch
• Vyper with Bright Lance
• 9 Warp Spiders
• 3 Rangers
• 3 Rangers
• 5 Swooping Hawks with Exarch

Background
I had made a few minor modifications to my list in order to accommodate my newly painted Mortar Squad. I had demoted an Eversor Assassin to a Death Cult Assassin and trimmed Inquisitor Kurven's Retinue. I still kept the Daemonhunter allies, though, as I was expecting to face Gary's Chaos army. I was therefore surprised to be lining up against his Aspect-heavy Eldar force.

Terrain and Deployment
This was yet another game on a terrain heavy board; at least 50% of the table was covered in area 3 ruins. We diced for the mission, rolled a six and then compared strategy rating rolls. Unsurprisingly Gary won and went on to pick a take and hold mission knowing full well that my largely immobile Guard would have trouble with it.

The objective was in the centre of the board, loosely surrounded by buildings in a 12" circle. I chose the board edge with the building closest to the objective, mainly to deny it to the Eldar. I feared a last turn push from Eldar units hiding behind it for the whole game. That's what I wanted to do!

I put Kennell's Command section at the rear of the ruin along with Inquisitor Kurven and his retinue.

The rest of my Infantry went into the ring of buildings overlooking the objective. Lines of sight to my own units were non-existent, though, so there would be no split deployment for me yet again.

Gary set up his Guardians, Rangers and Dark Reapers overlooking the objective too, safely tucked away in 4+ cover. He hid his Storm Guardians and Dire Avengers behind buildings on my left flank, and his Farseer and squad on my right. There were a lot of buildings on either flank and they provided Gary with excellent lines of advance, well shielded from my firepower. I decided to use my reserves to deal with these threats. The rest of my army would dig in and try to take the objective.

The Game
The opening turns of the game saw the Dark Reapers and a Ranger squad vapourised under my heavy fire (I won 1st turn). My return casualties were very light. It was clear from the start that the battlefield would break down into three main areas.

The Right Flank
I had infiltrated my Assassin wide right to threaten a Ranger squad. I hoped Gary would divert his Farseer unit to kill him and therefore drag the expensive squad well away from my lines and away from the objective. Instead, Gary brought his Warp Spiders on from reserve and shot him to pieces.

Gary also dropped his Swooping Hawks onto this flank to hit the Mortar Squad. I was hard pushed to repel the Eldar. My Armoured Fists zoomed onto the table and vaped the Hawks, while I whittled the Spiders down to three models (the survivors broke and ran). Unfortunately for me, I couldn't stop the Farseer and Retinue from making combat and they munched through an Infantry Squad and a Stormtrooper Squad. That put them in a good position to threaten my centre and the objective near the end.

The Left Flank
Things didn't go much better on my left. I hosed the Avengers and Storm Guardians with fire on their way in (I brought the Basilisk and Leman Russ onto this flank), but the Avenger Exarch and two Guardians contacted my Platoon HQ. To my surprise they took down the two Guardians in the first combat phase but that Exarch did for my entire flank single-handedly. Over the course of the rest of the game I put about eight armour saves on him but he passed them all and took out my Platoon HQ, Lascannon Squad and a Stormtrooper Squad (17 models worth nearly 250 points).

The Centre
With my flanks folded I should still have won the game in the centre. I routed the Guardians off the table and blew up the Vyper but I just couldn't blow the damn Falcon out of the sky. It had the Holofield upgrade which meant I was rolling two dice on the damage table and picking the lowest. I shook and stunned it numerous times but I just couldn't kill the bastard. It ended up inches from the objective and giving Gary a ton of victory points.

Gary kept his Wraithlord back until the end of the game then marched it onto the objective, shooting at Kennell's squad as it went. On turn six I pushed Kennell and Kurven out into the open to get fully within the requisite 12". We diced for the end of the game and got an extra turn.

The Wraithlord advanced but I ignored it, putting most of my shots onto the Falcon or Farseer unit. I reduced the Eldar HQ below 50% but still couldn't destroy the skimmer. The Farseer assaulted Inquisitor Kurven while the Wraithlord killed off the rest of Kennell's unit with it's Starcannon. I desperately needed the game to end but we rolled another 4+ and had to play the full nine turns.

That let the Wraithlord charge Inquisitor Kurven's Squad and take it below 50%. The Eldar had convincingly contested the objective.

Result: Draw - Imperial Guard 957 victory points, Eldar 1039 victory points

Imperial Control: No change

Kennell's Commendation: The Anti-Tank Squad for helping to take down the Reapers then holding up the Avenger Exarch for several turns in combat.

Learning points

• This was the first game where I tried a victory points denial approach. Normally I would take a risk to get in a shot, but this time I put safety first. As a result all of my tanks survived a nine turn game and saved me 400 victory points. The only other expensive unit was Inquisitor Kurven's but I had to risk them for the objective
• I absolutely shattered the Eldar army (they only had seven models on the table by the end) but I still didn't win due to one or two models making combat and destroying a disproportionately large section of my army. I really need some counter chargers to finish off those last few models.
  

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Take and Hold
Level: Gamma
Location: Mangalore
Background: With Habour retaken for the Imperium, and the Eldar exodites that lived there exterminated, Captain Kennell thought his work done in Sub-Sector four. There was one last battle left in the campaign, though, as it became clear that Mangalore was being used as a staging point for attacks on Habour by the Craftworld Eldar. The Cadian 271st went back into the fray.
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 2000

Imperial Guard

• Command Platoon 77, Captain Kennell, Heroic Senior Officer with power weapon, Company Standard, Medic, 3 Meltaguns, Sanctioned Psyker
• Commissar Yarrick
• Anti tank squad 3, Lascannons
• 8 Stormtroopers, 1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, Chimera
• 10 Stormtroopers, 2 Flamers, sergeant with plasma pistol and surveyor
• 10 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns
• Infantry Platoon 1
• Command Squad 36, Junior Officer with power weapon and plasma pistol, 4 plasma guns
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Platoon 2
• Command Squad Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 609, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 812, Missile Launcher and Flamer
• 20 Conscripts
• Sentinel, Multilaser, smoke
• Sentinel, Multilaser, searchlight
• Sentinel, Autocannon, Extra Armour, Improved Comms
• Heavy Support
• Basilisk, Indirect fire
• Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter
  

Eldar

• Farseer with retinue of Warlocks
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch in Wave Serpent
• 10 Guardians with Starcannon
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns led by Warlock
• Falcon
• 6 Fire Dragons and Exarch
• 8 Howling Banshees
• 5 Striking Scorpions with Exarch with infiltrate
• 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch
• Vyper with Bright Lance

Background
Another game against Gary's Biel-Tan Eldar. He had dropped the War Walkers to add Dark Reapers and the Vyper, while I had dropped the Inquisitor allies to add two large units of Stormtroopers. We rolled randomly for the mission and got take and hold at gamma level.

Deployment and Terrain
I won the dice off for board edge, so chose the side with most cover, leaving the Eldar out in the open. In particular I wanted to utilise a ruined building in my right centre deployment zone, having my command section behind it and my anti-tank lascannons inside it. Gary helped out enormously by putting the Wraithlord directly opposite; in fact he decided to mount his main attack against this area.

I effectively went for a split deployment, adding the Basilisk, Conscripts, 3 Infantry squads, the plasma Command section and the Stormtroopers in the Chimera to my right.

On a large hill on my left I had the Russ, 3 Sentinels an infantry squad and the missile launcher command section. I placed my two infiltrating Stormtrooper squads last, one opposite the objective building and another in a wood on my left.

The game - turn 1
I won first turn and moved the Conscripts forward. Yarrick moved up too, joining the Stormtroopers with the flamers who ran toward the objective building. All the Sentinels on the left shot at the Vyper, but failed to kill it. The Falcon went down to a missile Launcher shot and four of the five Fire Dragons inside were killed. Gary's shiny new Dark Reapers came under heavy fire in the centre and only the Exarch remained. The Scorpions too were shot up badly, reduced to just two models. With nothing else to shoot at, the Leman Russ took a wound off the Wraithlord. An excellent turn for the Guard.

The Eldar responded by pushing everyone forward on my right flank. The only damage they did was to shake the Basilisk. On my left the Warp Spiders shot up a Sentinel and then assaulted the Stormtroopers in the wood. The Guardsmen fell back and were wiped out. The Vyper targeted the Russ and shook it. Finally, the Banshees moved in behind the objective.

Turn 2
Yarrick and the Stormtroopers took the objective and flamed the Banshees to oblivion. The Wave Serpent was stunned by a missile launcher shot and the last of the Scorpions were destroyed. The last Dark Reaper was dispatched by a krak missile. The two remaining Sentinels combined to take out the Vyper.

The Eldar Swooping Hawks dropped in and killed five Guardsmen on the left with their Grenade Packs. The Hawks then shot up Kennell's Command squad. The Storm Guardians assaulted the Conscripts who failed their morale check and fell back. The Farseer and Wraithlord diverted to the centre to contest the objective. On the left, the Warp Spiders assaulted the Infantry squad and become locked in combat.

Turn 3
The Conscripts rallied and with the help of other squads on the right, killed the Storm Guardians. The Stormtroopers with Yarrick killed the Farseer's retinue in a flurry of failed saves. The Wraithlord was taken down by plasma and las-cannon fire. The Stormtroopers in their Chimera dismounted and gave some rapid fire loving to the Defender Guardians, killing them all. The combat with the Warp Spiders continued as the Sentinels moved closer. As the Eldar unit only had three strength they couldn't harm the Walkers at all in combat, so I knew I would tie up this expensive unit for the rest of the game with a very cheap unit.

The Farseer assaulted the Stormtrooper unit on the objective but no-one died and the fight continued. The Dire Avengers dismounted from the Wave Serpent and fleeted over to a Guard squad. Gary declared the charge but this time I remembered that you can't assault out of vehicles any more. That left the aspect warriors right out in the open.

Turn 4
Rapid firing reduced those Avengers to just two models, a Sentinel joined the combat with the Warp Spiders and Yarrick killed the Farseer with his power claw. Gary conceded the game.

Result: Win - victorious slaughter

Imperial Control: Increased 40%

Kennell's Commendation
The infiltrating Stormtroopers get the commendation for this game, no contest. They killed the Banshees, then the Farseer's retinue and took the objective.

Learning points

• Another slaughter of Eldar at the hands of the guard. I think this is for a few reasons; the Eldar are hurt badly by the 4th edition rules, my army deals with tough, elite units well, and my lasguns and hellguns come into play against the frail xenos.
• We're still getting to grips with the new rules. Gary tried to assault out of the Wave Serpent but we caught it this time. We also found out later that the Warp Spiders can't rapid fire and assault in the same turn. Lastly we keep forgetting the LD test for targeting. Practice makes perfect, I guess.
• My luck is starting to improve and I have won first turn and had good shooting phases in my last couple of games. I hope it keeps up.
  

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Seek and Destroy
Level: Gamma
Location: Nomolos
Background: Captain Kennell makes several decisive strikes against the Exodite population centres and exterminates the Xenos, effectively claiming Habour for the Imperium. In a last vengeful attack, the Farseer of the unknown Eldar Craftworld vows to kill Commissar Yarrick. Captain Kennell rushes to his mentors' side.
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 2000

Imperial Guard

• Command Platoon 77, Captain Kennell Heroic Senior Officer with power weapon, Company Standard, Medic, Master Vox-Caster, Sanctioned Psyker
• Commissar Yarrick
• Anti tank squad 3, Lascannons
• 8 Stormtroopers, 1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, deep strike, meltabombs
• Inquisitor Severus, Daemonhammer, bolt pistol, Emperor's Tarot, Holocaust, 3 Combat Servitors, 1 Hierophant, 2 Acolytes with power armour and bolt pistols, Rhino, smoke
• Infantry Platoon 1
• Command Squad 36, Junior Officer with power weapon and plasma pistol, 4 plasma guns
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Vox
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Vox
• Infantry Platoon 2
• Command Squad, Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 609, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, vox
• Infantry Squad 812, Missile Launcher and Flamer
• 20 Conscripts
• 10 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns, rhino, extra armour, smoke
• Sentinel, Multilaser, smoke
• Sentinel, Multilaser, searchlight
• Sentinel, Autocannon, Extra Armour, Improved Comms
• Basilisk, Indirect fire
• Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter
  

Eldar

• Farseer with retinue of Warlocks
• 6 Rangers
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch
• 10 Guardians with Starcannon
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns led by Warlock
• Falcon with 6 Fire Dragons and Exarch
• 2 Warwalkers with Brightlances and scatter lasers
• Wave Serpent with 8 Howling Banshees
• 5 Striking Scorpions with Exarch with infiltrate

Background
This was our first game after a five week lay off, and Gary surprised me by showing up with an Eldar army. He had finally gotten round to painting up a nine man squad of Warp Spiders and was eager to try them out. I had done little to no painting, so I had to rely on a contingent of Daemonhunter allies to round out my Cadians.

Terrain and Deployment
The table was covered in ruined buildings which we agreed would be size 3 area terrain. I had a large building to my left and one to my right, while Gary had a large ruin right in the centre of his deployment zone.

I made two distinct firebases. To my left I placed infantry squad 812 and their command section in the building, with the plasma command section behind, along with the Inquisitor and Inquisitorial Stormtroopers to set up a possible counter charge. They had the Eldar Wave Serpent to contend with, as well as the Striking Scorpions, War Walkers and Warp Spiders.

On my right I placed the Basilisk, Leman Russ, anti-tank squad, an infantry squad and Captain Kennell. The vehicles were over here because Gary made a mistake and deployed his War Walkers first, on my left flank. I knew he had few Bright Lances and the ones he did have were in that unit, so by putting my tanks on the opposite flank I knew they would be safer.

In the centre of my deployment zone I placed two infantry squads and the Conscripts, with Yarrick leading them. I hoped to march the Whiteshields forward to force leadership tests if the Eldar wanted to shoot at further away targets and try to draw the Eldar into an assault in this open ground. Most of the Eldar were in and about the large building near the centre including the Wraithlord, Farseer unit, Dire Avengers, Rangers, Falcon and both Guardian units.

The game
My Sentinels used their free pre-game moves to race forward on both flanks. My plan was to pull the Eldar off into futile assaults on the extreme flanks and bring my other shooting units to bear. If the Eldar ignored the Sentinels, then I would have them in good flanking positions to fire from later in the game.

I won first turn. My very first shot was the Basilisk into the ruined building. I knew that even with a large scatter I would hit something, as the Eldar were tightly packed in. As it happened I hit a Ranger and the Farseer unit, killing the Farseer himself, 2 Warlocks and the Ranger. Nice shot!

The rest of my first turn was similarly rewarding as I stunned one Warwalker, killed half of each Guardian squad, took two wounds off the Wraithlord, blasted a couple of Dire Avengers and wiped out two more Rangers.

The Eldar were left reeling but still tried to force home their attack. On my right the Falcon zoomed out and dropped off the Fire Dragons. The Dragons shot at a Sentinel but only the Exarch was in range and he rolled a 1 to hit. The Falcon itself took aim at the Leman Russ but it emerged unscathed. The Storm Guardians also ran out on this flank, fleeting toward my lines.

The Dire Avengers left the building and headed straight for the Conscripts but were just out of assault range. The Guardians shot their Starcannon at a Guard squad, killing two, while the Wraithlord killed two members of my anti-tank unit.

On the left, the Wave Serpent zoomed forward as the Scorpions and Warp Spiders moved into position for a next turn assault on the Guard in the building.

My Stormtroopers arrived from deep strike straight away and they landed smack on target in a ruined building in between the Warwalkers and Wave Serpent. They shot at the Serpent but the plasma gunner blew himself up and the melta gunner missed. Bloody Stormtroopers! At least they had melta bombs to use in future turns.

I continued my effective shooting by rapid firing the Conscripts into the Dire Avengers and killing four of them - the rest were finished off by other infantry squad fire. Yarrick had left the unit at this stage and moved toward another infantry squad. The Storm Guardian squad were all but wiped out too, with only the Warlock remaining. I knocked a scatter laser off a Warwalker and also shook the crew of the Falcon, preventing it from firing next turn.

The Eldar brought in their own deep strikers, the Swooping Hawks, right into the open centre of the board, behind the Conscripts and between two infantry squads. Unfortunately for Gary he forgot to fire them this turn or utilise their grenade packs. I guess he was flustered. They were later assaulted and ripped up by Yarrick.

The surviving Warlock charged the Conscripts and became embroiled in a long combat that was only ended after several turns when the Whiteshields failed their morale check and were run down. One Warlock kills over 15 men. Unbelievable!

Gary managed to drive home his assault on the left by disembarking the Banshees out of the Serpent and charging the foremost Infantry squad. The Scorpions also managed to contact this unit, who now looked doomed. The Warp Spiders shot at the Sentinel and blew it up as they didn't want to get stuck in combat with it.

Still on the left Gary shot the Stormtroopers with his Warwalkers and killed two, just enough to force a morale test. I failed it, of course, and they began to run back to the Guard deployment zone (and the Banshees and Scorpions). Aaaaaarrrrggghhh!

As predicted the Infantry squad were slaughtered to a man and the Banshees consolidated into my command section. The Scorpions couldn't make it though, so they pulled back deeper into the ruins.

Time for the counter assault! Both rhinos raced around the side of the building to take on the Banshees and Scorpions...and then we realised that you can't assault out of vehicles anymore. Like the Banshees had just done. D'oh.

I shot up the Scorpions with my plasma command section of death™ and lost one model (on an overheat) to their three, while the impotent Severus killed another with his bolt pistol. The Exarch promptly failed his morale check and ran away.

On the right things weren't going so well for the Eldar. Gary flew his Falcon 24" deep into my corner in order to get loads of tank shocks going next turn and he felt confident that I wouldn't be able to take it down. Unfortunately for him he didn't check out the weaponry in Captain Kennell's command section (they were set up behind the building, out of Gary's line of sight). I marched them over to the Falcon with their 3 meltaguns and blew that baby out of the sky. Heh heh heh.

The Warlock was killed by a missile launcher shot and a couple of rounds from the 'Russ did for the Fire Dragons. My Sentinels took the Rangers below half strength but were destroyed in turn by the Wraithlord. His Guardians with the Starcannon also took a pounding and routed off the board, leaving only the wounded Wraithlord alive on this side of the table.

Gary needed something special from his remaining units to get anything out of this game. The Warp Spiders shot at the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers and killed four. The six survivors fell back after a fluffed morale check. The Banshees had finished off the command section by this time and set their sights on Severus. They shot their shuriken pistols to soften them up first and killed the Hierophant and a combat servitor (damn majority saves) and, you guessed it, my Inquisitor failed his morale check. My whole flank was in disarray now as I had 3 separate units running away.

The Banshees charged the Inquisitor eventually anyway and in a titanic battle (due largely to the dismal Eldar dice rolls and Holocaust) they emerged victorious but only the Exarch and a couple of Banshees remained. They ran into the deep striking Stormtroopers who were still falling back. It should have been a foregone conclusion in favour of the Eldar but the Stormtroopers won, with the sergeant the only survivor. Sweet.

The last few turns of the game were all about claiming those last few victory points. I didn't quite manage to take the Warp Spiders below half strength but I felt pretty confident I was well ahead on victory points anyway. Those Spiders shot at a Rhino in the last action of the game but could only blow its storm bolter off.

When we totted up the victory points at the end I was surprised to learn that the War Walkers gave away no victory points, even though one of them was immobilised and the other was missing a weapon. Added to the considerable points value of the Warp Spiders the difference was only 230 points. Still, it was just enough for me to claim a solid victory.

Result: Win

Imperial Control: 14%

Kennell's Commendation: The Basilisk gets the nod here, for numerous shots, including the one on the Farseer.

Learning points

• That charge by the Banshees was annoying, but we forgot all about the new vehicle rules in the heat of battle. It kind of balanced out another mistake though; the first Basilisk shot that killed the Farseer was illegal as it was within 36" and indirect. Silly mistakes that I'm sure we'll not make in the future.
• I just loved that move by the Falcon and it's subsequent destruction: priceless. To add insult to injury my psyker also had machine curse. I haven't stopped laughing yet.
  

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Pitched Battle
Location: Habour
Background: 976.M41. Rocked by defeat by Eldar Exodites living upon Habour, Captain Kennell commits more forces to the conflict. The mysterious Eldar Craftworld sends forth more defenders in turn.
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 1000

Imperial Guard

• Command Platoon 77, Captain Kennell, Junior Officer, Honorifica Imperialis, Company Standard, Medic, Missile Launcher
• Anti tank squad 3, Lascannons
• 8 Stormtroopers, 1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, deep strike
• Infantry Platoon 1
• Command Squad 36, Junior Officer with power weapon and plasma pistol, 2 meltaguns, 2 plasma guns
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Platoon 2
• Command Squad Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 609, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 812, Flamer
• 20 Conscripts
• Basilisk, Indirect fire
  

Eldar

• Farseer with Mind War
• Wraithlord with starcannon
• 5 scouts
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns
• 5 Fire Dragons with Exarch in Falcon
• 5 Howling Banshees with Exarch in Wave Serpent
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch
• 5 Swooping Hawks with Exarch

Terrain and Deployment
Another warm up game for the Gauntlet tournament which was only a week away. Gary still hadn't decided whether to take his Eldar or Chaos army, and this battle would help him make up his mind.

We played on a 6x4 table with moderate cover, including a few fantasy ruined buildings across the middle of the table. The Eldar had a large wood in their deployment zone (Gary won choice of board edge).

Most of my Guardsmen deployed on the right, against the predicted Eldar attack with the Basilisk on my left behind a tall building. Sick of deep strike, I began with my Stormtroopers on the table. Gary set most of his army up in the woods, ready to spring forward, with his skimmers on my left opposite the Basilisk.

The Game
I won first turn for a change and hit the skimmers with all of my heavy weapons. I took down the Wave Serpent with my first shot then did nothing to the Falcon. The Basilisk took out some Guardians. My Stormtroopers pushed forward into a ruined building.

The Eldar Falcon zoomed around the building and did for the Basilisk while the rest of Gary's army sped forward out of the forest. The biggest surprise to me was the scouts, which Gary fleet of footed forward and into combat with my scouts. Even though I was in terrain and went first, I lost the combat and my men routed.

I downed the Falcon and left the Fire Dragons isolated and effectively out of the game, while the rest of my army decimated the Eldar Dire Avengers and Guardians in the centre. The conscripts were killed to a man in combat but that left the Eldar in rapid fire range of my guns. Every time an Eldar unit looked like it might reach my lines I concentrated all of my guns on it and destroyed it, and because they arrived one after another I was rarely in trouble.

The Swooping Hawks arrived late and shot up a Command Section but were wiped out quickly in a hail of lasgun fire.

A convincing massacre.

Result: Win

Imperial Control: Increased 46%

Kennell's Commendation: No-one squad in particular. The missile launchers in the infantry squads won the battle, taking down the Wave Serpent, Falcon and Wraithlord in quick succession.

Learning points

• What a difference it made facing Gary's Eldar with my Guard (and their heavy weapons) rather than my Radical Daemonhunters. I dominated the game to such a degree that Gary chose to drop his Eldar for the forthcoming tournament.
• Bloody Stormtroopers! I still can't use them right or roll any decent dice for them. Maybe they're saving all their luck for the Gauntlet?
  

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Pitched Battle
Location: Habour
Background: 976.M41. Under advisement from Cypher, Captain Kennell leads an Imperial assault on the small community of Eldar Exodites living upon Habour. Before the native Eldar can be attacked, the Cadian 271st are confronted by Eldar from an unknown Craftworld.
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1000

Imperial Guard

• Command Platoon 77, Captain Kennell (Junior Officer), Company Standard, 2 Meltaguns
• Anti tank squad, 3 Lascannons
• 5 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns, deep strike
• Cypher
• Infantry Platoon 1
• Command Squad 36, Junior Officer with power weapon and plasma pistol, medic, 2 plasma guns
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Platoon 2
• Command Squad, Missile Launcher
• Infantry Squad 609, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 812, Flamer
• Heavy Support
• Basilisk, Indirect fire
  

Eldar

• Farseer with Guide and Witchblade
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• Wave Serpent with Starcannons carrying 5 Howling Banshees and Exarch
• Falcon carrying 5 Striking Scorpions and Exarch
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch
• 8 Storm Guardians with 2 fusion guns
• 8 Guardians with scatter laser

Terrain and Deployment
This game was played on the store 6x4 table which has a massive hill modelled on the centre of the table (completely screwing lines of sight). The terrain was fairly sparse and I won the choice of table edge, so I took the side with a large building to try and hide my basilisk.

I had to set my Guardsmen up further forward than I would have liked, just so they would be on the hill and have some lines of sight. Virtually all of them were in the middle, as was Cypher.

Gary placed most of his infantry directly opposite with his two skimmers on my left flank threatening the basilisk. In response I put my lascannons out there to target the Eldar vehicles.

We both knew that first turn would be crucial and a number of people came over to our table to watch the roll. I threw a two. Gary rolled a two. Phew! I got a five on the re-roll. Get in! Gary beat me with a six. Boo!

The Game
Gary had a superb first turn.

He raced the skimmers out to my extreme left and hit the basilisk with a glancing star cannon shot which destroyed it. Every other element in his army raced forward. He didn't roll less than a five for fleet of foot or difficult terrain. A second turn charge was now a distinct possibility.

I needed an equally good first turn. I didn't get it. I scored several hits on the vehicles but only took the scatter laser off the Falcon. The rest of my army killed two Guardians.

TWO GUARDIANS!

The skimmers zoomed 24" around my left flank and now stood right in front of my lascannons (which were only screened by a single infantry squad). Gulp.

The Guardians and Dire Avengers continued their advance up the centre and decimated two guard squads with their shuriken catapults. The Wraithlord was in amongst them and getting closer to my lines.

I was screwed but I was determined to take as many Eldar scum down with me as I could. My entire army, bar one infantry squad, shot at the vehicles. I took down the Falcon. That was it. On the bright side I took out all the Scorpions with my last unit (three went down to a frag missile shot!). That left the Banshees in the Falcon and the Farseer free in my lines. Oh, and I got a one for the Stormtroopers reserve roll.

Gary tank shocked my infantry squad with his Wave Serpent, hoping to dismount the banshees behind to get at the lascannon squad. With nothing to lose I chose death or glory and fired the Grenade launcher first. Two rolls of sixes later and the skimmer was a smoking wreck! Now the Banshees had to dismount from the rear of the wreck and could only hit the infantry squad. Maybe I was back in the game.

Of course my optimism was short lived.

The Banshees hit the infantry squad and the Exarch leapt acrobatically over the Guardsmen to put her within consolidation range of the lascannons for next turn. The Farseer charged another infantry squad nearer the centre. That squad lost one model and failed it's morale roll (despite using Kennell's leadership with a re-roll for the standard), ran and was chopped down by the Farseer. Righto.

The Guardians and Avengers swarmed forward and began to eye my command squads.

I still vowed to fight on. I knew I had taken out a big chunk of points of the Eldar army in those vehicles and could still put some hurt on the fragile pointy ears.

My first priority was to kill the Farseer who had swept into my plasma command squad. Kennell stepped up and directed his two melta gunners to vape the psyker. Double one. Okay.

Cypher took two wounds off him. Better.

A command squad targeted him with their missile launcher and lasguns. Nothing.

Now I was forced to rapid fire the plasma squad at him (I'd been saving them for the Wraithlord) six plasma shots and four lasgun shots didn't hurt him. Holy hell. I had one chance left to take him down with a missile launcher and finally downed the bastard. Oh, and I got a one for the Stormtroopers reserve roll.

I staggered on for one more turn as first the lascannons were slaughtered by the banshees, then Kennell's command section. They went on to combat Cypher who actually took four of them out, including the Exarch. It was far too little too late. The rest of the army evaporated under heavy shuriken catapult fire. Oh, and I got a one for the Stormtroopers reserve roll.

We didn't work out the victory points as it was painfully clear that the Eldar were massively ahead on victory points. Gary still had enough units over half strength to claim all four table quarters. Ouch.

Result: Loss

Imperial Control: Reduced 5%

Kennell's Commendation: I was tempted to go for Cypher because of his combat with the Banshees, but on the other hand he is a 150 point special character. Instead I'll go for the 6 point trooper with the 8 point Grenade Launcher who destroyed a 120+ point Wave Serpent. Bull's-eye!

Learning points

• I lost this game for two reasons which were beyond my control; Gary won first turn, and I had poor shooting phases. If I had won first turn I feel sure I would have shot down one, if not both, Eldar skimmers. This would have meant the surviving assault troops slogging over the board to get to my lines, under fire, and it would also have meant my basilisk surviving and getting some shots off. My shooting was poor because I underachieved every time. It took my entire army shooting to take down just one skimmer (although I did get lucky with eath or glory subsequently). Similarly it took my entire army to kill just the Farseer, when I could have instantly killed him with a single meltagun shot. I just never had any shots spare to hit the Guardians or Dire Avengers, which allowed them to get into my deployment zone. Contrast this with Gary's first shot of the game which destroyed the basilisk. It meant he could shoot all of the rest of his star cannons and scatter lasers at my Guardsmen.
• I rolled a 1 for the Stormtroopers reserves roll four times! What is it with me and reserve rolls lately?
• Cypher was only included in this game because I wanted a break from painting Guardsmen. He didn't really add enough to my army to make him a must-have choice, so he'll be going back on the shelf for a while.

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Ambush
1st turn: Daemonhunters
Points: 1500

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Master-crafted Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, 1xAcolyte with power weapon and las pistol, Combat Servitor, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• Inquisitor Kurven, Psycannon, Power Armour, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Mystic, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• 2 Daemonhosts
• Squad Matoso, 8 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns, Veteran with Bolt Pistol and Power Weapon, Rhino, Smoke launchers, Extra Armour, Hunter Killer Missile
• Squad Godirtho, 5 Stormtroopers, 2 plasma guns
• Armoured Fist Squad (inducted Imperial Guard) Sergeant, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Flamer, Chimera, Multilaser, Heavy Bolter, Smoke Launchers, hunter killer missile, heavy stubber
• Infantry Platoon (inducted Imperial Guard) Command squad junior officer with power sword and plasma pistol, medic, vox caster, 2 plasma guns, Infantry squad missile launcher, grenade launcher, vox caster, Infantry squad missile launcher, grenade launcher, vox caster
• 3 Sentinels, 2 Multilasers, 1 Autocannon, Extra Armour, Searchlight, Improved Comms
  

Eldar

• Farseer with mindwar and singing spear, Warlock retinue with witchblades, All tooled up with psychic powers
• 5 Scouts
• 8 Dire Avengers including exarch with power weapon
• Wraithlord with starcannon
• Falcon with scatterlaser and holo-field
• 5 Fire dragons including exarch with burning fist
• 5 Striking scorpions including exarch with powerfist
• Waveserpent with twin-linked Starcannons

Terrain and deployment
Gary was actually playing with only 1400 points in this game against my 1500 points so I allowed him to choose the mission, to try and balance things out. Gary diced off between a breakout and an ambush and we ended up with my Daemonhunters being jumped by the Eldar.

With a large contingent of men on foot I knew I wasn't going to get units off the board so I set up a static firebase in and amongst the trees that lined the road I was moving along. My plan was to go for victory points, ignoring the bonus for escaping the table.

However, I knew I would be getting assaulted on turn 1 as I had used that trick when I was the attacker against Tyranids in an earlier game. This was going to be close.

As expected the Waveserpent unloaded a squad of Striking Scorpions within assault range of my Guardsmen and they were slaughtered. Unfortunately I passed the morale check and the Scorpions were safe from my shooting in combat. It was the last successful morale check I would see for quite some time.

I chose to ignore the assaulting Eldar and concentrate my fire upon the rest of the Eldar army, hoping to get a sackful of victory points in my first shooting phase. I took two wounds off the Wraithlord when I should have killed it, the Waveserpent emerged unharmed despite its rear armour being exposed to virtually my whole army and the Falcon survived 7 plasma weapon shots unscathed. In that appalling round of shooting I lost the game.

The Scorpions took out the rest of the Imperial Guard squad and then assaulted Stormtrooper squad Godirtho and the Guard Command squad. The Stormtroopers were wiped out and the command squad routed. They failed three further morale checks until they hit the board edge and then were tank-shocked off the table. My remaining Guard squad had already been routed by this stage and had run off too.

Stormtrooper squad Matoso had the rhino shot out from under them but still managed to catch the Fire Dragons off-guard and killed everyone but the Exarch. The Fire Dragon assaulted and killed Matoso's veteran sergeant and yes, you've guessed it, failed their morale check several times and ran off the board edge.

Inquisitor Kurven and the Sentinels were assaulted by the Farseer unit and they were all wiped out. The Farseer unit munched their way down my column, taking out the Chimera and armoured fist squad, until they hit Severus who gave them a good spanking.

My Daemonhosts arrived at the top end of the table and did for the scouts. The wounded Wraithlord peeled back to take them on but the Daemonhosts tag teamed to kill him (although one Daemonhost was instantly killed). The survivor was then within range of the Dire Avengers shuriken catapults and he was sliced apart by the razor sharp discs.

By the end of the game it was painfully obvious that the Eldar had won so we didn't even add up the victory points.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• What a panelling! Gary felt a bit guilty about picking the ambush mission but I reckon I had a chance to win. The main problem I had was very bad luck with the dice. At one point I failed at least seven morale checks in a row! And that shooting phase. Uggh.
• The one positive was my Daemonhosts that assaulted the scouts on the turn they arrived and wiped them out, and then rolled decent powers to tackle the Wraithlord.
• After such a comprehensive defeat, with Wave Serpents, Falcons and a Wraithlord wandering around the battlefield with impunity, I am going to make a rock hard army to play in my next game!

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Nightfight
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1000
Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Master-crafted Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, Consecrated Scrolls, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, 1xAcolyte with power weapon and las pistol, Combat Servitor, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• Inquisitor Kurven, Psycannon, Power Armour, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Mystic, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• 2 Daemonhosts
• Squad Matoso, 8 Stormtroopers, 2xFlamers, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Rhino, Smoke launchers and Extra Armour
• Squad Godirtho, 7 Stormtroopers, 2 plasma guns
• Squad Seralvo, 7 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns
  

Eldar

• Farseer with mindwar and singing spear, Warlock retinue with witchblades
• 5 Scouts
• 8 Dire Avengers including exarch with power weapon
• Wraithlord with starcannon
• Falcon with scatterlaser and holo-field
• 5 Fire dragons including exarch with burning fist
• 5 Striking scorpions including exarch with powerfist

Terrain and deployment
Hooray for the new bunker! With all the new tables there was no-one shoving us out of the way to get their game in so we set up and went at it again.

This time we rolled up a nightfight and I suspected this would favour the Eldar. In particular it would allow their slower units to get into the fight and reduce my already meagre shooting phase even further. Additionally, Gary had the Wraithlord and Falcon which I could barely scratch. Straight off the bat he had two table quarters.

The game
The game was pretty exciting. This time the Farseer and retinue were in the Falcon and they sped forward to engage Squad Seralvo on my left flank. Lord Severus counter-charged and forced the Farseer and remaining Warlock to rout. Next, the Dire Avengers were charged and destroyed by Severus who raced into the Eldar deployment zone in his sweeping advance. Now he was threatening to loop around and get the Scouts.

In amongst the carnage Severus was mind-warred by the Farseer and managed to make four out of five invulnerable saves.

All was not so good on my right flank. Squad Matoso lost their rhino to a lucky glancing hit from the Wraithlord's starcannon and were then wiped out by the Fire Dragons. The Dragons then went on to kill both of the deep striking Daemonhosts who rolled useless powers and I failed all of their saves.

In the centre the Falcon was keep getting shaken but then tank shocked everyone in range, including squads Godirtho and Kurven. Godirtho lost all of its plasma weapons to death or glory and the survivors were reduced to below half strength by the Scouts. Kurven continued to shoot at the Falcon but couldn't bring it down.

In the end Gary claimed 2 table quarters (1 with the Fire Dragons, 1 with the Wraithlord) and contested 1 (Kurven and the Falcon).

Result: Lost

Learning points

• Boy is that Falcon tough. In my two games against it I must have rolled eight times on the damage table but couldn't roll higher than a 3. In fact most of the time I rolled 1's or 2's. I really needed my Guard allies for this bad boy.
• Severus showed his abilities again by wiping out the Farseer and Dire Avengers for the second game running. What I could really do with is swapping some of the acolytes with combat servitors. I already have my eye on the arco-flagellants from the Witchhunters range.
• My Daemonhosts were pants in this game. One was instantly killed by a shot from the Fire dragon Exarch and the other was beaten in combat by them. Even then, if he had just killed one more Dragon it would have stopped them from claiming a table quarter.
  

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Patrol
1st turn: Daemonhunters
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Master-crafted Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, Consecrated Scrolls, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, 1xAcolyte with power weapon and las pistol, Combat Servitor, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• Inquisitor Kurven, Psycannon, Power Armour, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Mystic, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• 2 Daemonhosts
• Squad Matoso, 8 Stormtroopers, 2xFlamers, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Rhino, Smoke launchers and Extra Armour
• Squad Godirtho, 7 Stormtroopers, 2 plasma guns
• Squad Seralvo, 7 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns
  

Eldar

• Farseer with mindwar and singing spear, Warlock retinue with witchblades
• 5 Scouts
• 8 Dire Avengers including exarch with power weapon
• Wraithlord with starcannon
• Falcon with scatterlaser and holo-field
• 5 Fire dragons including exarch with burning fist
• 5 Striking scorpions including exarch with powerfist

Background
The store Battle Bunker is now fully operational so we managed to grab a six foot table straight off the bat. Excellent!

I had brought a 1500 point army including Imperial Guard allies, hoping to get a larger game in, while Gary had his brand new 1000 point Eldar army. Because we had the table, and it was the first outing for the Eldar, we decided to play each other. This left me with a bit of a headache as I had to lose 500 points from my army. The obvious thing to do was to drop the Imperial Guard. Now I had just over 100 points to add to the Daemonhunters to get them up to 1000 points and luckily I had brought some extra Stormtroopers. So I bought Squad Seralvo and padded out Squad Godirtho.

Then Gary put his army on the table replete with Wraithlord, Falcon and 'mini' Seer council.

I was screwed.

Although Inquisitor Lord Severus is good in close combat, even he would baulk at taking a Wraithlord on in close combat. The only other way for me to kill it would be to hose him down with plasma weapons, but somehow I didn't think he would stand around in rapid fire range with a big target around his neck.

The Falcon is mega tough with the holo-field. This bit of wargear forces you to roll two dice on the damage tables and take the lowest. Combined with my lack of armour-busting ability it would run riot in our game.

Terrain and deployment
Despite my reservations we got on with the game. I knew mission would be vital for me to stand a decent chance and we rolled a patrol. Pretty good I thought, although I would have loved to have still had my Guard for this mission. With only one troop choice on the table I could have started with 25 men including 2 heavy weapons, and 4 special weapons. Additionally I would have had 3 Sentinels on the board too. Ho, hum.

I started with Squad Godirtho and Gary deployed his Scouts.

The game
I advanced the Stormtroopers into a large ruin on my right. Gary surprised me by running his scouts straight at the Stormtroopers and in a flurry of high fleet of foot and difficult terrain rolls he assaulted my men. In the combat that followed I went first because of the terrain and I had a veteran sergeant. Nevertheless I took more casualties and fell back!

Meanwhile my army had begun to arrive. Squad Matoso and Squad Seralvo came on to my left and Inquisitor Kurven deployed on my right. Only the Farseer and Dire Avengers came on for the Eldar.

Squad Godirtho rallied and charged back into the scouts. The combat was more even now and went on long enough for the Farseer unit to join the fight. The Stormtroopers were wiped out, as were the scouts and the Farseer swept forward. By this stage most of our units had come on from reserve. The most noticeable exception was the Striking Scorpions who didn't arrive until turn 5 and didn't play any part in the game.

One Daemonhost was assaulted by the Wraithlord and killed, but he held out for a couple of turns, effectively keeping the behemoth out of the game. The other Daemonhost landed near the Dire Avengers and charged into combat, holding them up for several turns. Inquisitor Kurven blasted and Squad Matoso flamed the Farseer and his Warlocks and killed everything but the Farseer who lost two wounds. I have never seen such poor saving throws.

In the centre, Inquisitor Lord Severus had his rhino shot out from under him by the Fire Dragons who had been dropped off by the Falcon. The Dragons then charged in and killed an Acolyte and the combat servitor before they were dispatched.

Our two commanders were now facing off against each other. The Farseer cast mind war, which caused no wounds, and then assaulted but was beaten down by the Inquisitor's Daemonhammer. That left Severus free to charge the Dire Avengers still tied up with the Daemonhost. The squad was wiped out in short order. All that was left was to tot up the victory points.

There were barely any Eldar units left on the table but the ones that were there were worth a lot of points. I had only taken a wound off the Wraithlord, and despite getting a lot of rolls on the damage tables I just couldn't take the Falcon down. Most of the time it was stunned or prevented from shooting so it had little effect on the game but it still counted for victory points. Also, the Scorpions were untouched and worth full points. So a game I clearly had by the scruff of the neck ended up much closer than I had expected.

However, many of my units were still intact and I finished over 100 points in the lead.

Result: Win

Learning points

• My army was not suited to taking on such a tough opponent. This is a longstanding problem with the Radical list and recently I had overcome it by adding an assassin or some Imperial Guard. Fortunately the mission helped to level things somewhat, what with my two units in rhinos and especially with Gary's poor reserve rolls. Additionally he actually has one of the slowest Eldar armies I've ever seen. The Striking Scorpions and Wraithlord can only move 6 inches per turn and the scouts lose their shooting ability if they move. I'd imagine Gary will shake the list up quite a bit by the next time I fight him.
• The 6 foot table really makes a difference. I could spread my units out so that enemy assaulters could be shot up on the way in, and it also allowed me to deep strike one of the Daemonhosts on a flank. Me likey.
• Lord Severus is nasty in his current incarnation. Every unit he went up against he obliterated in a turn, what with his Daemonhammer attacks and especially the Holocaust power. He costs a lot of points but is probably worth it.

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Campaign: Vogen campaign game 5
Mission: Recon
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, 2x Acolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, 1x Acolyte with Close Combat weapon and las pistol, 3xCombat Servitor, 3x Mystics, Rhino with Smoke Launchers, Hunter Killer missile, Searchlight
• Inquisitor Kurven, Psycannon, Power Armour, Emperor's Tarot, Purity Seals, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Hierophant, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• Daemonhost
• Eversor Assassin
• Squad Matoso, 7 Stormtroopers, 2 meltaguns, Rhino, Smoke launchers, Extra Armour, Hunter Killer Missile
• Squad Godirtho, 5 Stormtroopers, 2 plasma guns
• Squad Seralvo, 5 Stormtroopers, 2 Grenade Launchers
• Squad Vargas, 5 Stormtroopers, 2 Flamers
• Squad Devaux, 5 Stormtroopers

Eldar

• Farseer with Guide and Witchblade
• Wraithlord with Starcannon
• 2 War Walkers with Bright lances and Scatter lasers
• Wave Serpent with Starcannons carrying 7 Howling Banshees and Exarch
• 8 Dire Avengers with Exarch
• 3 Scouts
• 5 Swooping Hawks with Exarch

Vogen Campaign
My second campaign game of the night was against Gary's Eldar. Gary had missed several weeks of the campaign, like myself, so neither of us had any real chance of making it to the top. Nevertheless I was keen to keep my unbeaten record in the campaign against a very tough player. I did have a materiel advantage to help me; I had 1075 points while Gary had 950.

Terrain and Deployment
This was played on the same table as my previous game against the Chaos Space Marines. It was covered in terrain of either medieval type buildings or woods. Gary set up first and pushed me back fairly centrally with his Wraithlord. He placed his War Walkers nearby, along with the Scouts and the Farseer. They were all in the cover of a building and were effectively his firebase. His Wave Serpent started deep in his deployment zone toward my left flank, behind a wood. His Dire Avengers threatened my right flank, looking to advance through a building.

I set my shooty units up on my right in a wood. They had decent lines of sight into the building hiding the Eldar firebase. Squad Vargas started on my extreme right so I could push them forward unopposed to claim the bonus 200 victory points. Squad Matoso were hiding behind a building on my left to threaten the Wave Serpent and Wraithlord, and Squad Seralvo was in the centre screening the Eversor assassin. Severus lurked about behind Kurven's unit in the woods to counter-charge and confer the mystic ability upon them if those Swooping Hawks appeared nearby.

The Game
I won first turn and Squad Vargas began their long trudge up the right flank. Virtually everyone else stood still except for Squad Seralvo and the assassin who pushed through the wood in my centre, directly opposite the Wraithlord. My shooting disposed of the Scouts, who were the only unit I could get to shoot clearly.

The Eldar responded by revealing their guided War Walkers and killing Squad Devaux in a volley of scatter laser shots. The Wave Serpent surprised me by sneaking over the woods on my extreme left and taking a crafty shot at the rear armour of Matoso's rhino. True to form it was destroyed and the surviving Stormtroopers were left stranded deep in my deployment zone with short-ranged weapons.

Most of the Eldar hung back to pepper my lines with shots and Squad Seralvo was driven off but I passed numerous saving throws and was largely unharmed. In return Kurven took out a War Walker and then turned their attentions on the Dire Avengers. Between the Inquisitor and the Stormtrooper Squads Vargas and Godirtho, the Aspect Warriors were wiped out.

The Banshees hacked Squad Matoso apart in combat and then jumped back into their Wave Serpent. The Eldar convincingly held my left flank. I controlled my right but Gary dropped in the Swooping Hawks to shoot up Kurven's squad. I forgot to use the Mystic's ability but fortunately the Inquisitor's retinue emerged with light casualties. Severus now had something to assault and they finished off the Hawks in short order.

We were down to the last couple of turns in the game now and it was finely balanced. My Daemonhost finally arrived and I brought him in behind the Farseer and the last War Walker. After rolling Warp Strength he ripped apart the Eldar construct and got stuck into the Farseer. Severus and Squad Vargas pushed up on my right to get into the Eldar deployment zone and bag me a hatful of victory points.

That move left my firebase unprotected and Gary took advantage of this by wiping out Squad Godirtho and Squad Kurven with his Banshees. But I've saved the best combat to last.

In the centre the Wraithlord was moving slowly toward my deployment zone, advancing through cover. The only thing opposing him was the Eversor assassin who had lost his screening unit and was down to one wound. Thinking he was just going to get blasted apart by Starcannon fire anyway I charged him forward at the Eldar Dreadnought. Because it was in cover the Wraithlord went first. Two threes and a one. So I would get a chance to attack. I rolled a six, the maximum number of bonus attacks. Hitting on a three plus I got eight blows on target. And then, using his neuro-gauntlet, I wounded it four times, more than enough to kill it. Outrageous!

That pretty much sealed the game for me as I was ahead on victory points.

Result: Win

Campaign effect: None

Campaign results: Played 5, Won 5, Lost 0

Learning points

• What a combat by the Eversor Assassin! I'll remember that for many a year. Gary was absolutely flabbergasted by it while I was leaping around like an idiot. I was making such a fuss that many other gamers came over to see what was happening (I, of course, filled them in on every detail).
• This game was close, with either army capable of pulling out a win in the final turns. I struggled to get to grips with the Eldar shooting but the heavy terrain coupled with some decent saving throws helped me out. If I had remembered the mystic when the Swooping Hawks arrived I could have won a bit more convincingly but in the end it was a humble 60 point squad that made all the difference. Squad Vargas were virtually unharmed throughout the game, and were so inconsequential that they were ignored by the Eldar, but they bagged me an extra 200 victory points. Nice.
• Another win for the campaign to give me a very good record so far. In order to test myself further I challenged the current campaign leader to a game next week. Watch this space!
  

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: ?
Mission: Cleanse
1st turn: ?
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Combat Servitor, 2xMystics, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• 3 x Death Cult Assassins
• 2 x Daemonhosts
• Vindicare Assassin
• Squad Matoso, 9 Stormtroopers, 2xFlamers, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon and Krak Grenades, Rhino, Smoke launchers and Extra Armour
• Squad Vargas, 7 Stormtroopers, 2xPlasma Guns, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma pistol, Auspex and Krak Grenades

Ulthwé Eldar

• Seer Council
• 2 large units Black guardians with star cannons and warlocks with witch blades and conceal
• 1 large unit guardians with scatter laser and warlock with witch blade and conceal
• D cannon

The game
My second game against Eldar on the same night.

A blitz up the left flank this time, but the storm trooper rhino was taken out on turn 1. The Inquisitor hit one guardian squad and were soon embroiled in a sprawling combat. The Seer council joined in and it looked like the combat might last until the end of the game.

Meanwhile on the right two death cult assassins impacted another guardian squad and although they killed 10 or so men between them they were soon pulled down by weight of numbers. The Daemonhosts appeared in front of the Eldar deployment zone and one was instantly obliterated by massed shuriken catapult fire. The other made it into combat but only managed one or two kills per turn as he gradually lost wounds in return. The sweetest moment was when he rolled the blood boil power and wiped out eight guardians in a spectacular psychic display!

True to form the Vindicare assassin couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo and he failed to kill a single model in the entire game. The storm troopers were largely ineffective due to star cannon fire and their ap 5 hell guns were negated by conceal. The decisive action was to be the Inquisitor vs Seer council and it looked like I had the game in the bag when the Seer council failed a rout test and ran off the table.

However as I began my next turn, my opponent remembered he had a re-roll for leadership and I allowed him to reposition the models. He passed the re-roll of course but I wasn't too worried as both the Daemonhost and assassins had made it into contact. Sods law dictates that the assassins died, the Daemonhost struggled to rout the guardians and Inquisitor Lord Severus failed 3 2+ saves. The Seer council were victorious and helped mop up the rest of my forces.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• Assassins are good on the offensive but not great on the defensive - large hordes will pull them down. They are best employed against small units.
• Daemonhosts are vulnerable to massed small arms fire - bear this in mind when deep striking them.
• Drop the Vindicare - I cannot roll higher than a one when I use him.
• More storm troopers required to capture objectives, absorb casualties, etc.

DAEMONHUNTERS versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Ken
Mission: Cleanse
1st turn: ?
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Combat Servitor, 2xMystics, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• 3 x Death Cult Assassins
• 2 x Daemonhosts
• Vindicare Assassin
• Squad Matoso, 9 Stormtroopers, 2xFlamers, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon and Krak Grenades, Rhino, Smoke launchers and Extra Armour
• Squad Vargas, 7 Stormtroopers, 2xPlasma Guns, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma pistol, Auspex and Krak Grenades
  

Biel-Tan Eldar

• Farseer with guide
• 2x3 man Dark Reaper squads
• Wraithlord with star cannon
• 3 Vypers (2x star cannons, 1 bright lance)
• 10 Guardians with D-cannon
• 10 banshees with exarch in Wave Serpent with twin-linked star cannons

The game
I hadn't finished painting up enough stormtrooper so I included a Vindicare assassin, thinking his firepower could be useful.

Things started well as I attacked up my right flank with the rhinos, wiping out the Wraithlord with my Inquisitor and sweeping into the guardians. Unfortunately the Inquisitor and his retinue were then star cannoned to death. The banshees ripped through a storm trooper squad and another squad routed. The Vindicare failed to hit a vyper with a turbo penetrator on a 2+, then he missed for the whole game due to poor dice rolls and Ken's vehicles blocking line of sight.

Both my assassins and Daemonhosts used deep strike to hit the Eldar deployment zone. The assassins were wiped out immediately but the Daemonhosts hung around and killed off the guardians and both reaper squads. I could have pulled off a freaky win on the last turn as a Daemonhost teleported in next to the banshees but he scattered 11" out of assault range.

Funniest moment: Inquisitors rhino tank shocking the Farseer and driving him off the table.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• Will I ever roll a 2+ for the Vindicare? He is not the answer to more firepower in the Daemonhunter army
• Need more long range hitting power to deal with things like the Wraithlord at a distance
• Daemonhosts are tasty! They struck into the heart of the enemy lines and created mayhem - and they both survived the game.

CAMPAIGN: Phoenix campaign aftermath

Following the tenth and final battle in the Phoenix campaign we totted up the locations that each faction held and found the Eldar controlled five to the Chaos Space Marines four, with one uncontested. That meant the Eldar scored a narrow victory in the overall campaign.

The Exigators were forced off Tyro Peninsula and abandoned their plans to spearhead the Chaos invasion of the Sector. Tchoi Guerez threw himself at the mercy of Abaddon the Despoiler and has not been heard from since.

For the Eldar, Farseer Lauthelias regained his standing within the Seer Council of Alaitoic and Autarch Icareane was lauded for his victorious campaign. The Exodites of Habour had been spared a bloody death at the hands of the Chaos attackers.

And yet, Lauthelias still foresaw a great black wave crashing upon the Skolarii Sector...

Once the campaign had ended, Gary and I asked ourselves four questions:

1. Which parts of the campaign rules did you like?
2. Which parts of the campaign rules did you not like?
3. If you were going to play another 40k campaign, what would you change?
4. What did you think of the experience system?

I'll look at each of those questions in turn.

Likes
Gary liked the variety of missions which were dependent on the location he attacked. We played a few funky games like Bunker Assault and Sabotage, which made for exciting dramatic battles. I liked that element too, as it gave a nice bit of narrative to the games. It also allowed us to stretch our tactical muscles as we were challenged in new ways. Choosing army lists after the mission was known was cool too, as again it forced us to re-examine our tried and trusted tactics. We both knew what army we would be facing off against (Chaos Space Marines and Eldar) and that meant that the pecking order of 'best' units was completely changed. Instead of building the best 1500 point all comers list we could actually tool up to take on the enemy and complete the mission. Good stuff.

Dislikes
We both didn't like the way the locations worked during the campaign. For two players of similar ability it was inevitable that most of the fighting would occur around the centre of the map. The dice rolls required to move along 'difficult' routes and the fact that you could only capture a location if you had attacked it (each player could attack and defend once during each campaign turn) meant that there was no incentive to try an attack other locations. If you did and failed the die roll (as Gary did once) then you lost your chance to capture a location for that campaign turn. We fought four battles at Emerald Ridge and three in the Weapons Testing Area and none in five of the locations!

It also had the effect of making it seem as if we were getting nowhere. There was no sense that we were building upon our previous games. Instead, Chaos would win one game, then defend an attack from the Eldar, then fail a further attack and finally get kicked back off the objective. After four games you would be right back where you started. We had a very similar problem in an earlier flowchart campaign where we went in circles for game after game and eventually lost interest in the campaign.

Changes
Fortunately I had already spotted a major flaw in the victory conditions as they were written in the 40k rulebook and changed them. Originally, you had to capture every single location to win the campaign. Imagine how many games two balanced gamers would have to play to complete the campaign? You might never finish it at all!

My solution was to cap the total number of battles at ten and the winner would have the highest number of locations. In the end ten was still too many games and we would both have shortened the number to five or six. This would be just long enough to get some sense of a narrative story but short enough to hold interest.

Experience
I love the idea of units building up experience points over the course of a campaign. Some units would stay green as their ranks were filled with newly qualified rookies while others would become grizzled veterans with an array of battlefield skills. Unfortunately, the experience rules do not really let you achieve this.

The first thing is that the points themselves are a pain to track. It's true that we would have been better off if we had been better organised, with master rosters, but it's still a hassle to tot up all the bits and pieces of action that took place during the game.

The second thing is that the table is incredibly harsh for certain units. Assault units can die in five out of six games so they will just never accrue enough points to gain a skill. Other more shooty units will only pick up about 150 points per game (if they survive) so if you're lucky you'll get a skill after the seventh game. After ten games in our campaign only three units had gained a skill, out of about twenty units in total! Then you have to roll on the skill table and take whatever you get.

If I was playing another campaign I would either drop experience points altogether or come up with a totally different system.

Conclusion
We both enjoyed this campaign but the next one will be even better. Watch this space!

CHAOS SPACE MARINES versus Eldar

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Campaign: Phoenix campaign game 10
Mission: Bunker Assault
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1500
Location: Emerald Ridge (location 6), Tyro Peninsula, Kutch, Salazar systems
Background: The Eldar attack upon the Weapons Testing Area was a just a feint; the real attack was, inevitably, upon Emerald Ridge. Tchoi Guerez's command bunker was the primary target. If the Eldar could drive the Chaos Space Marines off the ridge once and for all, the peninsula would finally be theirs.

Chaos Space Marines

• Tchoi Guerez - Chaos Lord, Terminator armour, Lightning Claw, Combi-plasma
• Ppbhuln'naks - Greater Daemon
• Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory, Rhino with Extra Armour
• Squad Brakar – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
• Squad Kanker - 7 Plague marines, plasma gun, flamer, aspiring champion with power weapon, personal icon
• Arableuerakiar - 8 Lesser daemons (Furies)
• Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon, Icon of Chaos Glory
• Squad Hotep – 9 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with Gift of Chaos
  

Eldar

• Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
• 5 warlocks, enhance, embolden
• Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
• Nazrain - 10 Guardians, starcannon
• Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
• Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofield
• Isenrain - 9 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
• Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
• Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
• Moradon - Wraithlord
• Lothcirith - 3 Dark Reapers

Terrain and deployment
We used our biggest piece of terrain, a large ruined temple, as the centrepiece for this, our last game. It counted as two adjacent bunkers with a 4+ save. A ruined shrine lay on the Chaos left flank while a three storey ruined hab block was located on the right flank.

The Eldar refused the Chaos left flank entirely. Their centre consisted of their long rang firepower in the shape of Dark Reapers, Rangers, the Guardians with their Starcannon. The Farseer deployed behind the Wraithlord which could also contribute Starcannon shots as it advanced. The Howling Banshees, Warp Spiders and Falcon made for a strong force on the Chaos right. The Fire Dragons began in the Falcon.

The Exigators ignored the far flanks and deployed in and around the bunkers. Squads Brakar and Krall held the bunkers with Terminator Lord Guerez. The Plague Marines and Thousand Sons held the fortifications outside the bunkers. The rest of the Chaos units would be called in from reserve.

The game
The Eldar began to advance upon the bunkers. A withering hail of fire fizzled in and Squad Hotep took heavy casualties. Lascannon and plasma gun fire lanced back at Moradon the Wraithlord which was rocked on its heels. The survivors of the Thousand Sons moved behind the ruined building on their right.

Squad Brakar was punished as the Eldar came on. On the right, the Warp Spiders appeared behind the ruined hab block.

Squad Hotep moved into the ruins and killed several Aspect Warriors with their Inferno Bolts. A lascannon shot crumpled the Wraithlord. Aspiring champion Krall succumbed to the whispering in his head and the Greater Daemon manifested in the bunker. Lord Guerez discharged his combi-plasma into the Falcon and stunned the driver. He was simultaneously screaming into his communicator for the Raptors to join the battle, but they were nowhere to be seen. Similarly, the Furies were conspicuous by their absence. Surely no Eldar would dare to try and contest the bunker against a Greater Daemon and a Chaos Lord?

Still the Eldar came on. The Howling Banshees lithley leapt through the hab block and slaughtered the Thousand Sons. The Warp Spiders appeared on the far side of the ruin and combined their fire with the Dire Avengers, Rangers and Dark Reapers to destroy Squad Brakar. Farseer Lauthelias revealed his impetuous nature once again as he led his retinue into close combat against the Greater Daemon. The Falcon also gambled and made a bold, low-flying swoop forward and pushed the Plague Marines out of their fortifications. The Fire Dragons emerged from the Falcon and obliterated Lord Guerez.

Squad Krall moved over to the right of the bunker and rapid fired the Howling Banshees into oblivion. Squad Kanker made it back to the foremost bunker. The epic combat between the Greater Daemon and Farseer continued.

The Warp Spiders poured more fire into Squad Krall but caused few kills. The Dire Avengers, Guardians, Rangers and Dark Reapers poured shots into the Plague Marines but they shrugged most of it off. Still the fight raged on between the Farseer and Greater Daemon.

The Exigators made a last desperate attempt to repulse the Eldar. Leaving the Greater Daemon to determine its own fate, they attacked on all fronts. Finally the Raptors made the field. They swooped down on the Warp Spiders and doused them in promethium flames. The few survivors were hacked down in close combat. Squad Kanker charged down the steps of the bunker and into the Dire Avengers. A brutal fight developed. Squad Krall ran up and over the bunker to face off against the Fire Dragons. Their firepower proved largely ineffectual, though, as the Aspect Warriors survived the barrage.

Despite horrendous casualties the Dire Avengers first pulled down a Plague Marine and then Laconfir personally disemboweled Plague Champion Kanker with his Diresword. Laconfir was the only survivor from his squad, but he waved the Guardians on toward the bunkers.

The most important conflict of all was decided at the same moment. Farseer Lauthelias uttered ancient words of power as he executed another attack. The Greater Daemon crushed three Warlocks with his fists but the Farseer ran him through with his Witchblade. It's body crumbled to dust and blew away on an unnatural breeze.

The Fire Dragons slagged several of Squad Krall. The rest of the Chaos Space Marines charged in to avenge their dead. Despite the ferocity of the Exigators attack, Lothost inspired his Aspect Warriors to fell the enemy. He emerged victorious from the struggle with the enemy dead at his feet.

The Raptors felt the full force of the Farseer's rage. Squad Scrementor fled before the onslaught and were cut down.


The Furies were summoned to the battlefield by the last Marine from Squad Krall. The Daemons fluttered into the bunker to deny the Eldar at the last.

The Exigators had prevented the Eldar from taking the bunkers but only at the cost of their entire army.

Result: Draw

Commendations

• Chaos Space Marines - Squad Kanker
  
• Eldar - Farseer and retinue
  

Turning Point
Poor reserve rolls for the Exigators.

Learning points

• What a bloodthirsty game to end the campaign with! The Eldar caused so much carnage that they made up for the 750 point victory point deficit as the Furies captured a bunker, and the game ended in a draw. That means that both the Eldar and Exigators withdraw from Emerald Ridge and by my reckoning the Eldar win the entire campaign by the narrowest of margins; holding five locations to the Exigators four, with one uncontested.
• There were a few factors that conspired to help me lose this game. The first was that I had built my list and tactics in advance around the mission in the book but we changed the rules just before the game. I had planned on putting down two small bunkers in a corner of the table, surrounding them with fortifications a certain distance apart and refusing the rest of the battlefield. I had thought that this would reduce the Eldar mobility advantage and allow my units to support each other. Just before the battle Gary suggested we use the ruined temple as the centrepiece, counting as two bunkers. The clear terrain on the top meant we only gave it a 4+ save and it meant that enemy units could charge straight into it. The temple is so large I could only put it in the centre of my deployment zone and I had to clump my units on and around it. It's size also meant that it divided my forces; units on one side of the temple could not support those on the other side. I couldn't even place the fortifications in decent locations. While the changes we made undeniably helped the storyline and aesthetics of the game it posed me some tactical headaches.
• It wasn't all about the mission and terrain, though. Gary surprised me by changing the dynamic of his army by including more 'shooty' elements, like the Dark Reapers. He had a significant advantage in the 25"-48" range bracket and used it well to pummel my troops. Being able to move and shoot with the Wraithlord, Guardians and Falcon, as well as the Warp Spiders, meant I had suffered heavy casualties before the assault hit home.
• My reserve rolls were shocking. I got the Greater Daemon early, when I didn't need him, and then got the Raptors on turn five and the Furies on turn six! I especially needed the Raptors a couple of turns before to threaten the Fire Dragons on one side of the bunkers or the Banshees and Warp Spiders on the other. In the event the Eldar could concentrate on taking out one or two of my units at a time while I had little to throw back at them.
• I might still have scraped a win if some of my combats had worked out better. I had a decent chance of the Greater Daemon instantly killing the Farseer but I fluffed his attacks and/or the Farseer saved them all. My two Plague Marines were wiped out by the Dire Avengers and then the Fire Dragons killed three charging Chaos Space Marines! If even one of those combats had worked out in my favour I would have squeaked ahead.
• I was also feeling strangely listless before the game. I don't know whether I was bored of the campaign, sick of playing with Chaos Space Marines/against Eldar, uninspired by the table or just plain tired, but I really wasn't as psyched up as I could have been.

Experience points Including previous games

Chaos Space Marines

• +350 Tchoi Guerez - Chaos Lord, Terminator armour, Lightning Claw, Combi-plasma
• +1310 (Tank Killer) Ppbhuln'naks - Greater Daemon
• +250 Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory, Rhino with Extra Armour
• -250 Squad Brakar – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory
• +460 Squad Kanker - 7 Plague marines, plasma gun, flamer, aspiring champion with power weapon, personal icon
• +230 Arableuerakiar - 8 Lesser daemons (Furies)
• +170 Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon, Icon of Chaos Glory
• -250 Squad Hotep – 9 Thousand sons, Sorcerer with Gift of Chaos
  

Eldar

• +1180 (Tank Killers) Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
• 5 warlocks, enhance, embolden
• -850 Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
• -150 Nazrain - 10 Guardians, starcannon
• +950 Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
• +1550 (Reinforced Armour) Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofield
• +730 Isenrain - 9 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
• +400 Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
• -600 Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
• -200 Moradon - Wraithlord
• -50 Lothcirith - 3 Dark Reapers