It's an 1850 one day, three game tournament and I took the following list thinking I was taking the FILTH.
Eldar "Biel-Tan" 1850
Farseer Skyrunner w/ Singing Spear
10x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch (Twin Linked Avenger Shuriken Catapult)
Crimson Hunter Exarch
3x War Walkers w/ Bright Lance and Scatter Laser each
3x Vaul Support Battery (D-Weapons of course...)
Aegis Defence Line
Aspect Host
10x Fire Dragons w/ Exarch (Firepike)
+ Wave Serpent w/ Bright Lance and Holo-Fields
10x Swooping Hawks w/ Exarch (Sunrifle)
9x Dark Reapers w/ Exarch (all have the super str shots)
Rationale:
This can be a scary list as it even shocks elder players. I think its fairly nique as far as Eldar armies go (hey no wraithknight so must be good right?). The Dark Reapers rightfully scare people as being able to crap out 19 s5 AP3 shots from 48" away ruins your unit. Hell they ruin your Wraithknight with 10 s8 ap3 shots (unless it's invisible as I was about to find out...)
I'm often asked about why the Fire Dragons are in a unit of 10 and the simple answer is redundancy. 5 will probably get a tank killed...10 will. As it turns out they will also one round a Wraithknight when Dark Reapers fail their job!
After a heads up that some very good players were coming I still felt comfortable.
Oh god. I walk into the room and there's not one but TWO titans....Zeus' Beard....TITANS! A guy with a Pale Court list with FOUR Wraithknights.
Game 1: vs Eldar
I guess I should count myself lucky then that my round one draw was only against three Wraithknights.
We rolled for Night fighting and it was in play *
* Lets just take a little rage induced break here...I don't like night fighting being randomly rolled for at tournaments as it removes a level of consistency that I feel should be applied to everyone. so no rolling - its' either IN effect for everyone or it's not...
The game was actually really fun!
Turn 1 I did absolutely NOTHING - as in EVERY single shot in my army failed to hit or to wound. Yes. That bad. Now the stupid night fighting had a lot to answer for there but not as much as the RETARDED rule that a 12" Wraithknight model can step a mm into a piece of terrain designated as a ruin (with night fighting in play) and claim a 3++ cover save. /sigh
Fortunately he also had a fairly poor first turn. Aside from his three knights his army was largely a windrider host and an aspect shrine of 3x 5/6 Warp Spiders. Fun.
The pendulum swung my way around turn 3 when, after the Dark Reapers had failed for three straight turns to wound a wraithknight (at all) and had subsequently died for their inadequacy, the Fire Dragons ran from the chunk of metal formerly known as a Wave Serpent and proceeded to melt the fuck out of a Wraithknight. Inspired by this act of courage, the D Weapons not only hit another wraighknight but 6'd his ass off the table too!. The Dire Avengers tore into a unit of Warp Spiders and I actually thought: wow...I might have this one!
...then I realised he still had his reserves (a warlock skyrunner, a unit of windriders and a warp spider unit)...who promptly came on a dry humped me to a (rather fun) loss.
Still...
Game 2: vs Space Marines
So I know this guy and like him and think, "yeah, marines - I can take them even though he's good".
He had a space wolf detachment from the new Wulfen book that essentially allows a Wolf Lord Thunderwolf star to charge me turn one. To put that into perpective, we were deploying on the SHORT TABLE EDGE.
To add to that, he also had a lovely Space Marine Formation exclusive to Warhammer World that allows two drop pods of Devastators to fall turn one and fire with the relentless rule, but also two Assault Marine squads to deep strike on the same turn 1 and CHARGE on that same turn one.
He went first.
He won.
Stuff happened in between but to be honest it was never in doubt and I really don't like formations that do that. To lose half your army before you've moved it is really not fun and whilst I had cover from the aegis defence line that didn't stop his assault marines from trashing me (eve though one scattered off)
Game 3: vs Dark Eldar
So yeah by now i'm firmly on the bottom table playing for a Kit-Kat (wooden spoon) and hoping my ASDA lunch imparted Death Farts aren't silently killing off the competition.
The guys army consists of all transports and heavy support skimmer things. He has FOUR fliers and a giant ForgeWorld Tantalus which I'm pretty sure should've had Princess Leia in a gold bikini on it...
His planes then go fucking Syria on me...and it's an even fight again.
45mins on the clock, we start turn 5.
25mins on the clock - this war of attrition is brutal and we're down to a few models a piece. We roll for a turn 6...and get it (at this point a quick adding up meant it was a well played and very fun draw)
Turn 6 happens and (quite rightfully) fucks my opponent right off! So the Crimson Hunter Exarch who somehow has managed to stay alive despite facing FOUR fliers (he was concentrating on the ground targets) feels lucky and shoots his heavy flier clean out of the sky. The two remaining war walkers run to an objective and, inspired by the crimson hunter, manage to snap shot with their Scatter lasers and bring down another flier (on one hull point).
The icing was the two remaining Dire Avengers running to another objective and, not wanting to be outdone by the cocky shit in his plane or that rich fuck in his war walker, turn round and snap shop another plane from the sky...
For my opponent, having played a very good game with Dark Eldar no less, against Eldar...I did kinda feel bad as it was obviously a total swing and he now didn't really have anything left for a last turn.
Final Thoughts
I was so woefully unprepared for the meta at the Sanctuary (along with the cold...for fucks sake I actually went OUTSIDE to warm up...). Next month (actually only 2-3 weeks away) I will try something a little more deviously sinister! Mwa ha ha!
It was a fun day overall and Dave runs a good ship but I didn't like the second mission which utilised a cut down maelstrom deck which removed all the repeats for "capture objective x" which meant I was stuck getting my ass drop podded off whilst trying to "destroy 3 units in assault, destroy 3 with shooting and hold every fucking objective that coincidentally had FUCKING drop pods on them...)
Seriously though. Great tournament! Already signed up to the next. Great people. Great TO and absolutely recommend you come down and sign up!
No comments:
Post a Comment