Dark angels - 6CP
Captain in terminator armour
Liutenant
5 Tataros terminators
5 Marines
5 Marines
10 Marines
Rhino
Stormraven gunship
Deredeo Dreadnought
Ulthwé Aeldari - 6CP
Farseer
Warlock conclave
10 Guardians
10 Guardians
6 Rangers
5 Fire dragons
5 Swooping hawks
5 Dark reapers
2x Wave serpent
2x Nightwing
Fire prism
The last battle report of the year will be a battle of 8th ed wh40k. This game has got at lot of attention at our gaming community lately as it now faster and more enjoyable than before. It does however have a very clear alpha strike syndrome, at least for many shooting armies, where the opponent easily can be reduced beyond fighting abilities after the first round of combat.
We roll a No mercy battle with a bit awkward spearhead setup, where the aim is to get as many kill points as possible. Dark angels hold Terminators in deep stike and eldar have Swooping hawks and rangers in reserve.
Turn 1
DA begin the battle but lacking a large fire base of heavy weapons, mainly advance into position. A few guardians are killed bu the storm raven and the dreadnought dish out a lot of firepower and takes two wounds off a wave serpent.
Eldar strike back and fire dragons and guardians destroys the storm raven. Most of the firepower is aimed at the dreadnought, but its thought and suffers only a few wounds.
Turn 2
Terminators deep stike behind the wave serpent and blasts away at the flyer. The few remaining wounds after shooting are easily taken down in close combat. The Dreadnought attempts to down a Nightwing, but magic invulnerable saves saves it from destruction, and it stands with 5 wounds left. The lieutenant overcharge its plasma to finish it of, but rolls a double "1" and suffers the feared death of overheat.
Eldar shooting take a few wounds off the dreadnought and the rhino, while the dark reapers struggling to find fire angles kills a single marine.
Turn 3
The few remaining marines in the forest kills the guardians but only one of the two fire dragons. The Dreadnought again takes aim at the wounded Nightwing, witch once again magically rolls eanought saves to keep it alive with 1 wound left. The marines in the rhino dismount in the ruins and fires upon the dark reapers and the Nightwing, but only kills a single reaper!
Rangers suddenly appear from their hiding place in the ruins, and the swooping hawks lands on the battlefield. The rangers go for the gamble and aim at the dreadnought, scoring 3 mortal wounds with their rifles! The lance armed wave serpent then kills the dreadnought by taking its 2 last wounds. The last remaining fire dragon destroys the rhino.
Turn 4
The marines in the ruins instead fires upon the guardians, but the combination of warlock powers jinx and protect and the Ulthwé save is just enough to save them all. A last chance for the terminators appear to down the single wound Nightwing with their auto cannon, but the shot just miss the target. The last firedragon is finally killed!
The full wrath of the eldar army concentrate on the isolated units of marines, somehow killing them all except a few terminators.
Turn 5
With only two terminators and the captain left, the DA reconsider their plans and move to the end of the forest.
With most units in wrong position, the eldar fire base fail to destroy all of the remaining units, as the heroic DA captain teleport away with only 2 wounds left at the end of turn 5.
Eldar
Linebreaker, first blood, 8 killpoints
DA
3 killpoints
A battle that sadly turned out to be a bit one sided after the first two turns, as many times in wh40k. But I had a chance to test the eldar codex for real. A few moments were well decided by good (surviving Nightwing) and bad (overheating lieutenant) dice rolls.