1850 Eldar vs Chaos

Well, this fight actually happened Tuesday, but I kind of had to write and edit a paper due tomorrow for Contract Management, so yeah. I botched only one detail in the batrep, so there you go.

I rolled with the same Jain Zar + Harlie-led mech Eldar hybrid build, aka the 'Bizarro' build. Boc, one of my pupils of spite, rolled with this CSM list:

Kharn
2 10-man fist/2 melta Khorne-marked 'tactical' squads in Rhinos (the green rhinos)
7 or 8 man Khorne 'zerker squad w/ fist (the pointy Rhino)
5 Plague Marines w/ 2 plasma guns
6-man Raptor squad w/ 2 meltas, lightning claws, Chaos Glory
Defiler
3 Oblits
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade, Daemonic Possession

Mission: Capture The Flag
Deployment: Spearhead
First Turn to Chaos
Failed to Seize the Initative

Deployment

Boc reserves the Raptors as an experimental exercise. The blue triangles are on the objectives. The troops circled in red are not on the table; they're either in transports or in reserve. The purple-marked Falcon is Eldrad's ride; the blue and teal Serpents are full of Fire Dragons. Red is the Dire Avenger ride.

I deploy back to cut his range, and set the Vypers forth as cover where I can. Might as well use them for something.

End Turn 1

Unsurprisingly, Chaos advanced. Boc was apparently jonesing pretty bad for a smoke; he brain farted and thought I'd reserved my entire army but the Vypers. His Oblits light up a Vyper with three lascannons, and it kind of explodes violently. (Note the purple 'x') His Defiler lands a direct hit on the other Vyper, and promptly rolls snake eyes on penetration. I managed to lose the picture of snakeyes by the Vyper, but you get the idea.

He smokes everything else and advances. I Fortune up a Wave Serpent and Guide my Falcons. Grav tanks jockey for shots. NOT A DAMN THING DIES. This is the story of my shooting for the game, amazingly.

Bottom Turn 2

Fortune proves woefully ineffective. He dumps a squad out to fire on the fortuned fire dragon serpent, flubs. Three oblits land all three hits, stun it twice and explode it. No saves were made. Past that, his shooting is largely inconsequential, as is mine. The disembarked dragons decide to nuke a rhino; gotta stop that mech SOMEHOW. His Oblits prove adept at making cover saves against pulse lasers.

Turn 3 Bottom

First, let me show you what happens when you think 'Oh, he'll never land THAT deep strike.' Iffy rear arc shot? Check. Raptors show up, deviate back six inches, and end up in melta range. Do you know what meltaguns do to AV10?

His shooting stuns up the other Fire Dragon Wave Serpent. I manage to knock his Oblits down to one guy after that, but naturally lose those Fire Dragons. I kick myself a bit for going for the Rhino instead of the Oblits, but what the hell. I stopped his mech, which was probably more important in the long run. Other stuff advances and/or shuffles. My Wave Serpent exploded violently, too, but that's no real surprise.

Turn 4 Bottom

It takes two squads of meltaguns to do it, but he KOs the Fire Dragon serpent AND the other Vyper. His Raptors also eat my Dire Avengers, but they at least shot a few of them to death. Berserkers draw closer to my objective. Fire Dragons in turn pop another Rhino, and at least cost him more mobility.

Turn 5 Bottom

More bullets fly in the midfield. I take his Vindicator and his Berserker's Rhino, but don't get the rolls I need to charge the Zerkers.

Turn 6 and Final

He gets greedy, rapid-fires the Fire Dragons, and...doesn't kill them all. His Berserkers don't get the charge off, so the Harlies and Jain do. Kharn gets wounded once; his squad dies, and then Kharn takes six No Retreat wounds, and dies. Somewhere along the way his Raptors got shot down to only one man, and it falls back.

End Result

Objectives

1-1

Victory Points

666 Eldar to 730ish in Chaos Kills.

Under 10% of game total difference; tie.

That's some of the most comical dice luck I have SEEN on my end in some time. He also had some amazing luck with saves; one time I dumped about 7-8 wounds into a squad and he made them all. I should've been more conservative with my DA's Serpent and just NOT given him a rear-arc shot. I mean, it was a low-odds shot, BUT it came off. At least it kept them from doing more, but it also made it hard for me to get over to try to contest him.

Of course, his shooting was also pretty amazing; he had to dump two khorne-tacs into them, and then stun it and assault it the next turn to kill it. There was also that whole 'battle cannon does not scratch Vyper' on turn one.

It was a blast, but the epic shooting fails hurt, since I had to spend freaking Fire Dragons on Rhinos.

And, unsurprisingly, Harlies + Doom + Jain = DEAD STUFF.

Demonic Possession probably has a place on a Vindy in that it makes it a threat all the time; you have to immobilize it, kill the gun, or just drop the tank.

Other Bits

I got in another game against Chaos Marines today, but the dice were the polar opposites. He had a bad setup, and it wasn't 'til turn FIVE that he killed something. In part he got a bad deepstrike on Oblits when he gambled, and the others failed to kill anything. I lost the Fire Dragons and their Serpents in that game, and in turn killed 2 full Chaos Marine squads, their Rhinos, a Plague Marine squad, Nurgle Lord w/ Daemon Weapon, a Defiler and a Dreadnought.

I should also have pictures up of my recently-painted stuff. The Seer Council finally got a clear coat, and the two additional Crisis Suits are going to be done 'ere long.