40k Battle Report -1500pts Eldar VS Chaos

Warhammer 40k Battle Report 1500pts Eldar VS Chaos

In a bit of a larger game we decided to hold a 1500pt battle of Eldar against Nurgle themed Chaos Space Marines using our new Realm of Battle boards. The mission was Big Guns Never Tire (D3+2 objectives, 4 this game) with Vanguard Strike rolled as the deployment type. Eldar won the roll to go first and Night Fighting was on Turn 1.

Eldar

Eldrad

Avatar of Khaine

x5 Dark Reapers (x1 Exarch + Crack Shot, Tempest Launcher)

x6 Fire Dragons (x1 Exarch + Firepike, Wave Serpent + Shuriken Cannon, TL Missile Launchers)

x10 Guardians (x1 Scatter Laser Platform)

x6 Guardian Jetbikes

x3 War Walkers (x6 Missile Launchers)

Fire Prism (x1 TL Shuriken Catapult)

x5 Pathfinders

Chaos Space Marines

Typhus

x5 Terminators (MoN, x5 Combi-bolters)

x7 Plague Marines (x1 Flamer)

x7 Plague Marines (x1 Flamer)

x11 Plague Zombies

x5 Havoks (MoN, x4 Autocannons)

x4 Chaos Spawn (MoN)

x3 Obliterators (MoN)

Forgefiend (x2 Hades Autocannons)

(Note: We decided before the game started that this game would end on Turn 5. My opponent forgot that the weapon platform in his Guardian squad was actually a Scatter Laser and instead spent the whole match treating it as a Missile Launcher.)

TURN 1 ELDAR

Unlike the last time these two armies faced each other, I was unable to steal the initiative meaning Eldar still got to go first. Eldrad had joined up with the squad of Guardians with the Avatar close by on his right flank and his turn opened with casting Fortune on them and Guide on the nearby Dark Reapers perched on a building. Eldrad and the host of Guardians around him then moved towards the centre table where we had positioned a decommissioned Fortress of Redemption. Around half the Guardians made it up onto the ramparts of the fortress but the others and Eldrad didn't quite make it. The Avatar lumbered along the side of the fortress instead.

On his left flank the Fire Prism repositioned itself to have a reasonable firing lane down into the side of my deployment. The Wave Serpent carrying the Fire Dragons turbo boosted along the edge of the fortress towards the same flank essentially splitting his army into two, coming at me from both sides.

The shooting phase opened with the Fire Prism firing at my Havoks that had deployed inside the upper floors of a ruin. Despite getting the first of many, many direct hits this game, Night Fighting helped ensure that their cover saved them. The Walkers were on a slightly raised bit of land and could just about make out my Forgefiend and fired six missiles at it but none made a dent.

The turn ended with only the Exarch of the Dark Reapers firing at the nearest of my deployed Plague Marine squads. Two managed to get hit, but only one died. The Pathfinders who had begun on an excellently placed high ruin were actually out of range to fire at anything.

TURN 1 CHAOS

Facing a split force, I debated where to move my troops for some time. I had my zombies guarding one home objective and one Plague Marine squad was doing the same so on my left flank that left the other Plague Marines, Typhus, the Terminators, and my Obliterators all fairly close together. My right flank was decidedly weaker since, even though the Havoks had perfect line of sight down it, the only moveable unit there was my Chaos Spawn that had deployed at the very front of my lines sheltered somewhat by the size of the fortress.

A combination of two things made me decide to leave my right flank largely unguarded. I needed a lot of power on my left to take on the Avatar and to get through Eldrad's buffs – where as on the right flank I noticed that my Chaos Spawn could easily get into combat with the Wave Serpent to remove it as an immediate problem and my Havoks could exchange fire with the Prism.

Typhus and the squad of Terminators he had joined moved and run up behind nearby ruins with the Obliterators and one Plague Marine squad close behind. None of them would shoot this turn, but I needed to close the range a bit. My Forgefiend moved slightly to get inside a crater and to get a line of sight on my left flank. My Chaos Spawn moved their full 12” to be sure of a successful charge.

A short shooting phase began with my Havoks opting to shoot at the Walkers rather than the Prism as a last minute decision to protect my Forgefiend from missile barrages. We decided that only three out of the four Autocannons could see, but they still managed to get a penetrating hit on one War Walker and it exploded. The Forgefiend brought its rain of bullets down on the Dark Reapers and despite Night Fighting improving their already substantial cover to a 2+ save, two managed to die. Their moral held, however they did became pinned.

My assault phase saw the Chaos Spawn make their short charge into the Wave Serpent. Not surprisingly, they managed to penetrate and trigger an explosion. One of my spawn took a wound from the resulting blast, but two Fire Dragons inside were also turned to ash. The destruction of the transport netted me First Blood.

TURN 2 ELDAR

This turn could probably be christened 'Operation: Get Revenge on Spawn', but we'll get to that.

The Guardian Jetbikes came in from reserve a safe distance from any action near the building in which the Pathfinders hid. Despite getting a Perils of the Warp, Eldrad took no wound and used Fortune on his Guardian squad and the nearby Avatar. While the Avatar carried on around the edge of the fortress the full Guardian squad then hopped up onto the ramparts to get a good line of sight at my approaching Plague Marines. The Walkers moved around a little just to carry on getting a line of sight on my Forgefiend.

Pathfinders opened the shooting phase by taking out one of my spawn. The Fire Prism then took out another. The surviving Fire Dragons out for revenge then blasted straight into their faces and took out another one, leaving behind a melted puddle. This left one spawn alive at this point.

My opponent debated how much more fire to waste on that last spawn but eventually decided that an assault would hopefully do it. The Walkers once again fired a barrage of missiles at my Forgefiend and the Guardian's joined in but they all managed to either miss or fail to penetrate the armour. The Dark Reapers could only fire Snap Shots because they were pinned and missed entirely.

The Fire Dragons charged into my surviving spawn, who rolled a 1 for number of attacks. The dragons put one wound on him and he failed to do anything back. I considered the fact he kept them busy for at least one more round of combat as a win, for now.

TURN 2 CHAOS

My movement phase began with my Obliterators moving sideways rather than forwards so I could see down my left flank with them. Typhus and his Terminators moved between them and the approaching Avatar while my Plague Marine squad took a short cut through a ruin. The Forgefiend once again only shifted very slightly to force the Walkers to come further forward.

My Plague Marines decided to shoot at the Guardian squad on the fortress but were unable to do anything thanks to re-rollable cover saves. My Havoks also began a rivalry with the Fire Prism and fired their Autocannons at that – however Jink saved it. My Forgefiend fired at the Avatar and largely misfired. Two out of eight hits got through but both were saved thanks to Fortune. In an obscene act of overkill for range more than any other reason, my Obliterators morphed their weapons into Lascannons this turn and shot at the Dark Reapers. Sadly cover protected them for the most part and only one died.

In the on going assault my last spawn managed to die before even getting a chance to try to chew on a Fire Dragon leaving them to freely consolidate slightly closer to my half of the battlefield.

TURN 3 ELDAR

In a replay of last turn, Eldrad began by giving Fortune to his Guardian squad and also the Avatar. The Fire Dragons now free from combat clambered up onto the far side of the fortress and the Guardian Jetbikes that had thus far done nothing Turbo Boosted onto one of his own objectives hidden from sight (which prior to this point had both been unclaimed). After a short debate on whether he wanted to send the Avatar against Typhus and his bodyguard or my Plague Marine squad, he opted for the former. I was hoping for the latter.

Eldrad attempted to cast Doom on Typhus at the start of shooting but I successfully Denied the Witch. The Dark Reapers now unpinned fired at the Plague Marine squad nearing the fortress in the middle of the board and amazingly only managed a single cover ignoring AP3 wound which Feel No Pain saved. The Fire Prism shot at the Havoks but cover saved them once again.

The Guardians fired their imaginary Missile Launcher at the Forgefiend and failed to do anything with it. The War Walkers then unleashed hell on it for a third turn in a row and managed four hits. Of these a glance and a penetrating hit got through, sadly resulting in an explosion.

The shooting phase closed with the Avatar using the Wailing Doom on Typhus and his bodyguards but invulnerable saves protected them. He then tried to charge but failed by a centimetre or so.

TURN 3 CHAOS

The Avatar was a problem that couldn't really be ignored and was the whole reason I continued to keep so much of my force on my left flank. Assault would be a last resort and I still had a lot of shooting I could put its way. Typhus and his Terminators moved into the Avatar's face with the Obliterators close behind. The Plague Marines also moved closer.

Yet again my Havoks fired at the Prism, however this time a penetration managed to get through and caused it to become immobilized. I opted to fire my Plague Marines at the Guardians on the fortress nearby purely because I realized that my flamer could do some damage. Sadly it wasn't quite as much as I hoped as combined rapid fire and the flamer only resulted in two dying.

My attention now focused on the Avatar. Using Assault Cannons this time, my Obliterators opened the barrage of bullets and managed to bust through his re-rollable save to do a single wound. The Terminators fired their Combi-Bolters and failed to do anything to it.

With no other option, Typhus and his Terminators charged. Opting instead to buy time for the rest of the army, when my forced challenge was issued I opted that the Terminator Champion would take role instead of Typhus. I expected him to be crushed until the sheer number of AP2 attacks, though unbelievable he survived. He was unable to do any wounds back, however.

TURN 4 ELDAR

The Avatar was out of Fortune range now and that felt like a good thing. For lack of anything better to do, Eldrad decided to cast Fortune and Guide on his Guardians. Noticing that for two out of the three previous turns the Pathfinders couldn't do anything due to my army largely being on the far side of the battlefield, they opted to start descending down the building to hold the other objective hidden there. With the Forgefiend dead, the War Walkers now moved again to get a nice view of the Havoks.

Eldrad's Doom managed to hit Typhus and his Terminators this time. The surviving Dark Reaper Exarch shot at the Plague Marine squad near the fortress and managed to kill four out of seven more than making up for bad luck in previous turns. The Guardians also shot at them and killed two more, leaving a single one behind. The Fire Dragon Exarch tried to take out the surviving marine but missed (the others were out of range to fire).

In a combined effort to punish my Havoks for sitting still unhindered for the game thus far, both the Fire Prism and War Walkers shot at them with a mixture of missiles and a AP2 blast with neither being able to claim a kill. This seemed like the unit that had the most luck on the battlefield.

The Avatar rolled better this time and, combined with Doom, easily crushed the Terminator Champion into a fine paste.

TURN 4 CHAOS

In a fairly quick turn my Obliterators moved forward a little, now safe from the Avatar tying them up in combat. My surviving Plague Marine moved back and ran behind a ruin purely out of spite to deny the kill of the entire squad even though it would make no difference to the score.

Realizing that it was far easier to kill a Walker than it was a Prism, my Havoks changed target and rained fire down from their very secure location upon them. The Walkers were utterly blown to bits in a decisive chain explosion.

Opting to use Plasma Cannons this turn and (for once) failing to roll any 1s for Get Hot, my Obliterators took out the last Dark Reaper.

I had no choice but to throw Typhus against the Avatar in a fresh challenge. Naturally, my opponent opted to use Smash to hopefully instant kill him, but his attacks failed to get through. Typhus retaliated and dealt a single wound to the Avatar. Knowing that sooner or later he was going to be instant killed anyway – I chose to try and activate Typhus' force weapon on three dice (because of Eldrad) and failed, meaning he took a wound from that.

TURN 5 ELDAR

The final Eldar turn began with Guide and Fortune being cast on the Guardians for no real reason. The Fire Dragons continued to move across the fortress but nothing would be in range for it to matter either. Just to ensure his death, Eldrad tried to cast Doom on Typhus but once again Deny the Witch occurred.

The Fire Prism fired at the Havoks for yet another turn and finally (FINALLY) was able to kill one. The Guardian's fictional Missile Launcher then fired at them and managed to kill another.

The only other thing to happen in this turn was the challenge. Before even getting to strike, a single Smash Attack from the Avatar got through and Typhus fell to Instant Death giving my opponent Slay the Warlord.

TURN 5 CHAOS

There wasn't much to do in my final turn as I knew I had already done enough. While the bulk of my army had been tied up on my left flank what had really mattered – what had always mattered – was what was happening on the right.

My Obliterators moved forwards some more to get into combat with the Avatar just for fun. The single Plague Marine also did the same because, why not?

The Havoks shot at their nemesis the Fire Prism and finally managed to wreck it causing what passes for a cheer to sound out from the zombies that had been hiding in the lower floors of the building for the whole battle.

The pointless assault began with the Avatar failing to do anything. The surviving Terminators and single Plague Marine didn't manage anything either, but the Obliterators did managed to put another single wound on the Avatar reducing him to one.

RESULTS

Around about turn three I realized that my left flank didn't matter much on the assumption that I made sure that the Avatar couldn't reach the Obliterators. My Havoks had more than done enough on the other flank along with my departed Chaos Spawn.

We both still successfully held both our objectives and my First Blood was countered by my opponent's Slay the Warlord. This match had been decided by the bonus points gained from killing Heavy Support choices. Whereas I had only lost my Forgefiend, the Eldar had lost all three (the Dark Reapers, War Walkers and Fire Prism). This concluded the match as a 10 – 8 Chaos victory.

We picked our MVPs for this match pretty easily. My opponent loved that the Avatar had instant-killed Typhus and I loved that not only had my Havoks survived a shocking amount of fire being aimed at them but had also been instrumental in ensuring the victory.