1500p: Blood Angels vs Eldar Corsairs (with a twist)

So, in WD400 they talked about games with Game Masters. I've always wanted to play in a game like that, but as they say the best way to get something done is to do it yourself. So I took the scenario from the battle report in WD400, changed it a bit to be more doable for both sides and asked some friends if they wanted to play. And here we are.

The scenario is this:
We have an Imperial Bunker where I (GM) will place three Objectives. These Objectives can only be captured by the Defender, but can be contested by the Attacker. They are worth 1VP each. In the middle of the board there is an artefact, with rules like a Relic from that scenario. This can be captured by the Defender and is worth 3VP. This Artefact is however guarded by a squad of Thousand Sons with a Sorcerer controlled by me (GM), who will try to escape with it on the opposite board edge and fight anything in their way (taking their turn after the two players).
The Attacker on the other hand is doing Killpoints. Pure and simple. However, the Thousand Sons doesn't give away any Killpoint. Both sides also have Slay the Warlord for an extra VP.
I reckon this is roughly balanced for 1500p armies.

And for players we have the defending Blood Angels and the attacking Corsairs! But why would they fight here and now? Simple, the Chaos Sorcerer broke into the Imperial Bunker by night and stole the portable Library containing many of the secrets of the Blood Angels. Secret rites, not often talked about and when they are in whispers. However he was discovered just before dawn, and the Blood Angels mount a force to reclaim their portable library. Meanwhile the Eldar Corsair notice the commotion on their scans, and takes this opportunity to attack the Imperial Bunker in a quick raid to grab whatever goods or values they can, or even capture some slaves to sell to the Dark Eldar.

And well, with all that backstory in place, and me not playing... we'll see if I can't just write this report up in story mode...

Lists (approx.)

Blood Angels
HQ
Librarian - Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter

Troops
10 Tactical Marines - Missile-Launcher, Meltagun
+Rhino
8 Assault Marines - Plasma Pistol

Elites
5 Assault Terminators
5 Terminators
Dreadnought - Missile Launcher, Assault Cannon

Fast Attack
Baal Predator - Flamestorm Cannon

Heavy Support
10 Devastators - 2 Plasma Cannons, 1 Lascannon, 1 Missile Launcher, 2 Heavy Bolters

Eldar Corsairs
HQ
Prince

Troops
10 Corsairs - 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Flamers, Jetpacks
10 Corsairs - 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Flamers, Jetpacks

Elites
8 Harlequinns

Fast Attack
Interceptor

Heavy Support
Warp Hunter
3 Warwalkers - Missile Launchers
3 Warwalkers - Missile Launchers

Deployment.

+++

D'raeldn couldn't quite believe it. He had almost done it. So close!

'Move move move you worthless noisy chunks of metal!' he screamed over the warning sirens to his Rubricae, knowing that they were all ready commanded to move as quickly as they possibly could.

The encryption of the mobile library was much too complex for him to break through on the move. He would need a quite strong ritual to defeat the guarding spirit and get access to it's contents. He wasn't quite sure it would contain the data he was looking for... but he was quite certain he would find some clues on how to reach the Webway on this world. He just WOULD get into the Webway by any means necessary... 

Wait, what was that? His psychic senses detected something... Eldar? No, surely it was just his thoughts about the Webway that confused his senses? Then he saw familiar shapes in the pre-dawn darkness. No, there were really Eldar here. Surrounded... where did they come from?!

+++

'Prepare to teleport in front of those heretics Brothers, we shall pursue from behind so that we may catch them between us. Our sacred texts must be recovered at all costs.' Brother Librarian Michelangelo voxxed to the other Terminators at the teleportation bay.

He saw those dark shapes, barely visible in the pre-dawn gloom. 'Brother Bael, can you catch them?'

Getting hot...

'Affirmative Brother Librarian, I will toast them and you're invited to the party!' the reply came as the screeching sound of the Baal Predators engines started sounding in the dark, and suddenly the darkness was lit up by the flames. Several of the traitor Marines simply melted away.

One of those days... first roll is a yatzy!

 
'Target acquired and well lit, fire!' the voxx came from Brother Didier leading the Devastators. After the barrage only a few of the Traitor Marines were left standing. This would be an easy recovery after all, how could those heretics have thought to succeed with so few?

Left after turn 1.

Librarian chasing the Chaos Sorcerer.

+++

'The Mon-keighs are moving out of the bunker, Prince. Have they detected us?'

'I'm not sure, they seem to be fighting amongst themselves. But bring that Tank down anyway, it's dangerously close!' 

The Corsair Prince was not pleased. This was supposed to be a surprise raid to stop the guard patrols of the supply convoys sent in this system. How had those inferior creatures detected his approach so soon? Lost in these thoughts he heard the whistling sound of missiles fired from the War-walkers... and watched the smoky arc with his keen eyes... and winced in dismay as the missiles simply bounced off the blasted tank. In the distance he could see the bunker lit up by Warp energy unleashed by the Warp Hunter, hopefully that was more successful than the missiles had been. Meanwhile he ordered the advance, staying hidden in these ruins.

+++ 

D'raeldn's Rubricae was falling all around him, only three of the automations was still with him. Blasted Blood Angels. He was trapped between the newly arrived Eldar, but thankfully they seem to ignore him at least. He moved as fast as he could towards those ruins...

+++

'Brother Librarian Michelangelo, the teleportation device is struggling we suspect interference by those heretics while they were inside the bunker. We will be delayed' Veteran Terminator Sergeant Pardos crackling voice came from the voxx caster. Brother Michelangelo was not worried however, he had seen the Chaos Marines futile attempt to harm the mighty Baal Predator... all though those missiles had come from a strange direction... best order the Assault Marines up to retrieve the Mobile Library as soon as possible. He started to get a bad feeling...

+++

D'raeldn watched the last of the Rubricae go down around him. Not good, not good at all... then suddenly those Eldar in front of him let loose their full arsenal in the dawning light... and the Tank behind him went up in flames! Ah, maybe a chance after all! He saw more of those missiles coming in, the Dreadnought went up in a large explosion as well, the flames spreading well over the bunker. Even those hulking Terminators went out by a Warp-blast. D'raeldn felt the psychic presence of the hated Librarian go out. Suddenly it looked as if his pursuers were not so numerous after all... 

He noticed some Eldar in front of him, the only thing between him and freedom. He quickly channelled his focus into hot searing flames, watching those hated Eldar melt before him with glee. He readied himself to charge in and finish the last ones off... but first he had to check to the Library... yes it was still intact. 

When he turned around to start his charge he was suddenly hit square in the chest by a missile and all went black.

+++

'Command, Brother Librarian Michelangelo has gone down, I take command of this situation. We've just landed inside the ruins. There are Xenos here! Seems those heretics weren't so few after all. Take defensive positions now!' Brother Pardo voxxed on all channels.

Behind him the Assault Marines landed on top of the Sacred Library, and he saw them let loose their Bolt Pistols at nearby Eldar forces, but restraining themselves from charging in. Good he thought, that Library is more important than some filthy Xenos.

He watched the movements of the Xenos in front of him while receiving acknowledgements from the forces around the bunker as the repositioned to face the new threat. So few of them all ready? No matter, faith in the Emperor would see them through this day.

+++

'Interceptor to Prince, a lone transport vehicle is sighted. I'll take care of it.'

The pilot watched as all his missiles and lance bursts shot out around the lone Rhino. Not a single hit.

'Erm, Prince... Target still stands.'

---

The Prince himself was much too bust ordering his Corsairs to let loose on the Terminators that had arrived in front of him. A barrage of Shuriken, Plasma missiles and flamers were let loose. He was pleased to see that not a single Mon-keigh was left standing. Surprisingly easy.

He spotted the Jump Marines in the distance and quickly ordered the Warp Hunter to lock on them. The ensuing Warp blast killed most of them, and he was further pleased to note that the last survivor holding some strange artefact was blasted to pieces by missiles without his direct command. Ah, the day was won! 

'They are completely decimated now, we retreat from this field and turn towards the supply convoy instead... this will be a great raid indeed...'

+++

D'raeldn woke up by the shaking ground and as he opened his eyes he saw a large explosion right next to him... he just glimpsed the Portable Library before it was engulfed in the flames...

Blasted Eldar. They had catched on to his plans it seemed. But he would have his revange...

+++


Conclusions

So... it was just one of those days it seemed. The Blood Angels rolled extremely poorly. I think he failed about 50% of his 2+ armour saves... and the fact that the Terminators didn't show up in turn 2 was just adding more bad. Then you combine that with the fact that the Corsairs rolled 'Explodes' for every single penetrating hit they got, and hitting well above average... it turned out very one-sided unfortunately. I mean, when the Dread exploded it took FOUR Devastators with it...
The other part that didn't help was my set up of the board, when I imagined the scenario I thought of the attacked as a close range army, like in the WD-battle report. Instead Corsairs are very much ranged, and I definitely should have thought of this and set the board in a different way. The Bunker should've been in one of the middle sections, that way the Blood Angels would've at least had the chance to have some guns in range... As it were they were completely outranged, and the Devastators only got to shoot once at the Thousand Sons... 
So as a first time GM I learned that I should focus on balance more first, and less on the fun stuff... as it turned out most of my fun stuff never even happened anyway... ah well, until next time! 
 

CARNAGE: Battle for the Duck Pond - Part II

If you haven't read part I all ready I highly recommend that you do so now. Not that it has much to do with this game, but you get more context that way! So since the first game was so much fun we decided to do another one! And as with the first game, this is based on my old notes. This was my last game of fifth edition. Great way to end the edition we thought!



SPOILER - if you don't want to know who won part I, don't read this section -


Since my Berzerkers claimed the pond in the last game I thought about making them "guard" the objective and charge everything that got too close automatically. But decided it'd be too much hassle for this time. But a funny idea for another game at least! So instead we simply used a Berzerker as the objective marker, standing in the middle of the pond (the same model that was in the middle of the pond by the end of the last game of course).


END SPOILER



Quick recap of the scenario, very old, every model is scoring, four players free for all with one objective in the middle. We used a Duck Pond counting it as Dangerous Terrain.

This time we also had two other players who wanted to take a bath. First we have the Blood Angels who fielded TWO Baal Predators. Ouch. Also a Librarian and some Devastators. The other new player was the Eldar Corsairs, with a flyer and all his Eldar-trickery he could stuff into 1000 points. The Orks then returned however this time with two Warp'eads and also returning were my Chaos Space Marines - but with Thousand Sons and Plague Marines in this game.


Let the Carnage begin!


The Corsairs took the first turn, but apparently Eldar can't see in the Dark, as the only thing that got a single shot of was the Nightspinner which made all terrain dangerous and difficult for a unit of Stormboyz that was so fresh that the primer had barely dried yet. Said unit then rolled a 1 for it's move and one boy died. Another 4 died to Dangerous Terrain. The Grots sitting in their Killa Kans has cat eyes though, they see everything and make sure that the Nightwing and the Nightspinner can't shoot next turn. One of the Warp'eads rolls a Deep Strike for his psychic power... and suddenly a large squad of Boys appear in front of the Chaos Troops and two Baal Predators. The Blood Angels take their turn first and didn't have to think long before torching 17 boys. My Raptors with flamers got inspired by the smell of BBQ and flamed some more of them before charging in. My Defiler then finds a unit of Corsairs that looked hungry, and decided to give them a pie plate. Half the squad died.

In turn two the Corsairs starts to shoot all their missiles. They have lots of them. But even without night fighting they can't hit anything after all. The Stomboyz then roll another 1 for their move so another dies... But they get close enough to shoot their sluggas at the Night Spinner... which dies! Revenge! As the battle between Orks and Eldar goes on (seems those Orks really doesn't like Eldars around their ponds) the Blood Angels turn against Chaos. He starts the shooting phase by trying to get a Bloodlance off, and he does... and on 4 dice he manages to roll 5" so thus misses everything... He does however manage to immobilize the Defiler and stun a Rhino. So Plague Marines jump out of the Rhino and manages to charge one of the Baals and kills it with Krak Grenades. The Aspiring Sorcerer with the Thousand Sons then fails to use the Bolt of Tzeentch to kill the other Baal.

Turn three and the war between Corsairs and Orks continued. Not going well for the Corsairs, as one of the Warp'eads gets his psychic melta off on the last remaining Nightwing that dies. On the other side of the board the remaining Baal flamed the Thousand Sons Rhino to death. The Rubrix-rines jumped out and slaughtered most of the Assault Marines coming for them in return.

The Eldar finally manage to cleanse the Stormboys off the board, but only has two decimated squads of Corsairs and their Prince left on the board. So the Orks decide it's time to move for the middle. The Assault Marines takes help from the Furiouso Dreadnought and charges the Thousand sons. The Aspiring Sorcerer has melta bombs though, and blows the dread to pieces. The entire squad of Thousand Sons are then wiped out because of Fearless-wounds and combat resolution though... The Plague Marines who have all ready killed one Baal goes for the other one. They manage to take a lot of weapons of it but it survives. The Defiler then fries five Marines in the back as well.

In turn five the Warp'ead who earlier in the game teleported away which is now the lone survivor of that group (perhaps they had offended him before the battle and that's why he put down the entire mob in front of two flamestorm cannons?) blasted his own head off... except that he actually survived! The other Warp'ead then also got a Deep Strike and pretty much joined up with the first one! Two of the boys managed to run into the Pond from there... and they actually survived!! The Blood Angels want none of that however, as their Assault Marines jumps over a building and drags them off the objective due to pile-in and away from his Tactical squad with the Librarian running in from behind as well. Orks didn't manage a single hit and are cut down with out mercy. Enough survived for them to still be Fearless though so they stayed. The Baal then finally dies to Plague Marines in the Blood Angel turn since he forgot to move it... In the Chaos Turn the Defiler finds it too tempting not to shoot at the large fight in front of it, unfortunately it scatters off and only kills 4 boys. The Plague Marines then join the fray since this large battle is in their way to reach the objective. They cause a wound on the Warp'ead and kills one Assault Marine and take no casualties in return. But everyone stayed in combat.

The Corsairs now make a run for it, the Prince is the only unit on the board with Fleet, so he shoots his blast weapon at the lone Warp'ead that it survives, then charges in and cuts him down no problem. He then consolidates right on top of the Berzerkers head! The Killa Kans who were the second closest to the objective (remember all models are scoring in this mission) didn't appreciate the joke and fired two rokkits at the Prince. Both hit... and then double one to wound! The remaining Warp'ead then gets another Deep Strike so he teleports his unit out of the close combat as far away from the Assault Marines and Plague Marines as they can but still staying close to the objective. So they want to show who's boss and fires their sluggas at the Prince... he gets to wounds through... and the Prince fails both his saves and dies!
The Tactical squad that are no longer in combat now runs for the objective and just reaches the edge of the pond. The Sanguinary Priest then gets chopped down by the Chaos Lord and they consolidate closer to the objective right behind the Tactical Marines. Then we reached the Chaos turn which could be the last turn of the game. I however got so eager to shoot the Defiler on the Killa Kans to get them off the objective that I forgot to make my move with the Plague Marines... Had I remembered that they would've been right on the objective! Instead the Defiler scattered off and killed 5 boys. I then also forgot to charge the Tactical Marines... We rolled the dice and the game ended!

At this time there are less than 15 models on the board, but who won? Both the Blood Angels and the Orks have units right at the edge of the pond and the scenario states that the player with a model closest to the objective at the end wins. Time to measure! Easier said than done though... after a lot of measuring we could however conclude that the Blood Angels Sargent was 1mm closer to the objective than the Killa Kans! An incredibly close Blood Angels victory!

1500p: Black Legion vs Eldar Corsairs

So, this is possibly my last battle before I get my hands on my new codex and this time I face off against none other than the sneaky Eldar... I've only faced them once before, that was a really horrible game for me. I made lots of mistakes plus we were playing 1000p as well as I was playing a Thousand Sons army... no excuses though, it was mostly due to my mistakes! So what should I bring this time?

First I took my "normal" core of four troops, as they're working pretty well in any situation. Made sure I got lots of Plasma against any Wraithlords as well as some Berzerkers to chop some squishy Eldar up close. I'm guessing they'll have to eat a lot of firepower on their way in though, so I decided to support them with my Terminators. It has been a long time since I last fielded them, and I reckon they should do pretty well against Eldar. But we'll see!

Then for HQ. This is probably my last chance to field a Lash-Prince. So I'm going to do it, ignoring his Farseer-runes that will kill me with perils... If it's his last show at least he'll get a chance to go out with a boom! Now, Lash is good for two things - first one is dragging stuff into assault range so he can support the 'Zerkernators like that - the other thing is to clump stuff up and deliver pie plates. So in goes Defiler. I also added two groups of two Obliterators - they could use either Plasma Cannons or Flamers at clumps or try to snipe stuff with Lascannons. Probably going to deploy them all this time, but we'll see how the pre-game turns out. And that's it, pretty simple! We'll see what the Eldar will throw at me in return... I'm not sure I have enough anti-tank should he bring the Mech-Eldar, but I'll take the risk.

Goal is to get in his face! Plan is to put one objective on my board edge which the small squad of Marines will claim coming from Reserves and then one objective midfield which the Plague Marines or the large squad will claim. The Berzerkers and Terminators are there to drive him off the objectives on his side. I run a pretty big risk of getting out-manoeuvred having an all infantry army, but hopefully I will be able to dictate where he goes with the Obliterators as well as Lash.

Edit: So I was expecting Crawftworld Eldar but instead got to play against Eldar Corsairs. Good news: No Wraithlords! Bad news: Remember that part I wrote about being out-manoeuvred? Corsairs have jetpacks all around so are even more mobile than regular Eldar... Oh well! At least there's no Farseers!


LISTS

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Daemon Prince - Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission

Elites
5 Terminators - 1 Champion w. Power Fist and Heavy Flamer, 3 Pairs of Lightning Claws, 1 Combi-melta + Power Axe

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines - Aspiring Champion w. Power Fist and Twin-linked Bolter, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 Plasma Guns
5 Chaos Space Marines - 1 Plasma Gun
8 Berzerkers
7 Plague Marines - 2 Plasma Guns

Heavy Support
Defiler
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators


Eldar Corsairs
HQ
Void Dreame - Neural Shredder, Jet Packr

Troops
10 Corsairs - 2 Flamer, 2 Missile Launchers, Jet Pack
10 Corsairs - 2 Flamer, 2 Missile Launchers, Jet Pack
10 Corsairs - 2 Flamer, 2 Shuriken Cannon, Jet Pack
3 Wasps - 6 Missile Launchers


Fast Attack
Nightwing
3 Hornets - 6 Scatter Lasers

Heavy Support
Warp Hunter - Under-slung Shuriken Cannon

(After the game I found out he forgot that he also had another Void Dreamer in the list so he landed on 1386 points in total... whoopsie!)


PRE

We rolled for mission, got the Scouring and Dawn of War deployment. He won the roll off for sides, and then also for who to go first. I got Legendary Fighter for my Daemon Prince and he got the one where you can run further. No Night Fighting for turn 1 and I didn't steal initiative.

So since I have no pictures this time, the objectives were spread out, basically I put two of mine in either corner for my small squad to grab and then since I was planning to come to him I put one on his side - making it so that he had four objectives on his side in a rough line pretty much. Turned out the one on my side were both worth 3VP and the one closest to one flank was worth 4.

He deployed his force to one side pretty much, turned out it was on the side were the 4VP objective was (revealed after deployment of course), which suited me fine. I set up my Berzerkers on that flank and the large group of Marines as well planning to drive for him, while the Plaguemarines took the other side and the Defiler the middle. Decided to put one squad of Obliterators in reserve after all because he had a scary tank...




Turn 1 - Eldar Corsairs

The Wasps started of by blowing the Defiler off the board. First shot and First Blood. Then the Warp Hunter shot it's large blast on the Terminators, it scattered off and only killed one. The Hornets then shot at the Berzerkers, causing 13 wounds... I failed exactly 8 so they all died. Pretty rough first turn...


Turn 1 - Black Legion

I basically moved up with everything. The Daemon Prince decided, perhaps foolishly to fly into the middle to try and Lash the closest squad of Corsairs over the hill so the Marines and Terminators would be able to charge them. It went off, but then I failed to hit despite needing a 2+. Bah. Obliterators shot Plasma Cannons and killed two pirates at least.


Turn 2 - Eldar Corsairs

The Nightwing arrived. He moved forward with almost everything to reveal some objectives as well as getting into a better firing position. The Large Blast then was landed on the Terminators... killing three leaving a lone survivor... He also killed two marines with missiles as well as revealing that one objective was sabotaged with his Wasps (meaning he wanted to stay away with them since they're only AV10!). The Hornets turbo-boosted to flank my Obliterators on one side, hiding behind a forest. And since I left my Daemon Prince in the middle of his army two troops and the Wasps shot at him and managed to kill him. That's what you get for missing with the Lash, you silly Daemon Prince...


Turn 2 - Black Legion

Both my units came in from reserve. The Marines came on the side where he wasn't for obvious reasons. Then the Obliterators Deep Struck behind the Falcon, without scatter. Perfect!

Everything else moved forward once again. The Obliterators shot two twin-linked meltas at the Falcon and blowing it up, despite him making one of his Jink-saves. Good times, no more of those scary AP2 Large Blasts at least! The Marines who were now on top of a hill decided to try their chances at the Nightwing, and one Bolter as well as one Plasma actually did hit! Only the plasma went through though and he failed his Shrouded Save. The I rolled a 1... so only snap shots. Oh well, better than nothing! The Obliterators on my side of the board shot plasma guns at the Hornets, only managing to destroy one weapon after all saves were made.


Turn 3 - Eldar Corsairs

The Nightwing and the Hornets were moving up on the left flank again, trying to deal with those two Obliterators on my side of the table - doing nothing. The rest of his army backed off to try and get out of my range. Except for the Warlord and his unit who moved into the forest to use their flamer-templates on the Plague Marines. Luckily for me he forgot to use his power that would've let him re-roll Leadership-tests. Lucky why? Because the forest turned out to be a Brainleaf forest - and he promptly failed his Leadership... and the random model who'd attack his own unit became the Void Dreamer which killed three guys... He got his shooting at the Plague Marines anyway though, killing 3. Then he used his jet packs to back away again. Sneaky Eldars.

The two units of Corsairs on the other side of the table tried to (with the aid of the Wasps) shoot at the Obliterators on his side of the board only managing to cause one wound in total. So to at least deny me shooting next turn he charged one unit in - loosing two in the assault for no wounds back but staying in place.


Turn 3 - Black Legion

The Marines kept moving forwards, the Plague Marines as well. Luckily his jetpack-move wasn't long enough last turn so they still got in Rapid Fire range of the Void Dreamer's squad. I actually managed to hit and wound with all 4 of the plasma shots and his Void Dreamer was almost in the front rank! He made his Look Out, Sir!-rolls however and the Void Dreamer and one Missile Launcher were the only survivors. The Obliterators on my side chased after the Hornets and got in Rapid Fire range with plasma guns. Managing to explode one of them and cause a Shaken on another. So there were two left with 1HP each.

The Obliterators in Close Combat killed another two but the pirates stayed put.


Turn 4 - Eldar Corsairs

The Hornets turbo-boosted their ridiculously long way across the entire board to get away from the Obliterators. The Nightwing used it's Vector Dancing skills to stay on the board and still be able to shoot stuff. The Void Dreamer decided to go towards the Sabotaged objective (not sure why though?). Of course his presence triggered an explosion and he failed his save... one wound left. He jumped the Wasps down in front of the Hornets to shield them from the trigger happy Plasma wielding Plague Marines, killing the two remaining Bolter-ones in the process. The Nightwing with the help of one unit of Corsairs with Misslie Launcher killed all but 2 of the Marines who'd gotten real close to the 4VP objective.

The Obliterators in the close combat then killed one guy, and the Corsairs broke and fled... they were about 6,9" from the table edge and rolled a 7... off they went! The Oblitarors then consolidated 6" towards the other squad of Corsairs.


Turn 4 - Black Legion

The two Marines grabbed the 4VP objective and the Plague Marines stayed put. The Oblitarors on his side moved closer to the Corsairs who had lined up and tried to get as far away from them as possible and the Obliterators on my side moved closer to the Nightwing.

The Plague Marines hit the Hornets with 3 shots... the fourth one got hot. And I failed both armour save and Feel no Pain... the three plasma shots then failed to do anything. The Obliterators in his zone as well as the Marines killed all but two Corsairs but they passed their morale. I then decided to use Rapid Fire Plasmas against the Nightwing instead of Meltas despite the higher S... and I actually managed to hit and get one Penetrating hit. With only one HP left he of course decided to Jink, and with his special rule of always being Shrouded that means a 3+ Cover Save, which he made on a 3. Lucky!


Turn 5 - Eldar Corsairs

At this point I held the 4VP objective with 2 Marines, the 2VP objective with 1 Plague Marine and the 3VP objective with five Marines (and one completely hidden out of sight for him). He could easily take one 2VP objective. So his goal was to shoot me off the 4VP one and the 2VP one as I held the 3VP one quite firmly. So all his movement went towards this. And he barely managed to complete his mission and killed the two Marines as well as the Plague Marine. It wasn't that much left to shoot with after all and only Snap shots with the Nightwing since it had jinked! So at this point I still held the 3VP objective and he the 2VP one, he had First Blood and Slay the Warlord and I had Linebreaker. 4-4 and my possibly last turn coming up.


Turn 5 - Black Legion

I only had 4 Obliterators and 5 Marines (who were out of range of everything except for the Plasma Gun which I had moved barely in range of the Nightwing) left on the board. So all my shooting went into his Fast Attack choices, knowing if I killed one or both I'd be in the lead.

The Plasma gun from the Marine missed the Nightwing. Then the Obliterators were so far away so they had to use Lascannons. One squad shot the Nightwing, but failed to do anything. The other squad shot the Hornets and also failed to do anything. D'oh.

Does the game end? Yes it does. So a draw at 4-4 it is!



Lessons Learnt

Corsairs are scary in the first couple of turns, that's for sure! I thought I was doomed when he slaughtered two of my hardest hitting units in turn 1, and then taking the third in turn 2... But once I started to get in range things died. My Obliterators did extremely well, doing pretty much everything I wanted from them. Drawing a lot of fire power and being annoying for the whole game. And I didn't even lose a single one (only took one wound in total!) this time! The Immortals!

In retrospect I reckon that I did a really bad move with the Daemon Prince. I guess it'd been fine if I had got Lash off, since that would've been one unit less shooting at him the next turn (which if the rolls had been the same would've been enough to save him). But at least I didn't fail any Grounding tests this time...!

I think that I should have been more conservative with him and placed him behind my troops instead, that way he could've helped with both the Flyer as well as the Hornets... but I was too eager to Lash something I guess! Other than that I don't think I would've changed anything really, I was only one failed 3+ save (on the Nightwing) from winning the game after all...