The lists
Orks:
Cap’n Orkhab the Warboss, with mega armor, twin-linked shoota
Mega Nobs (taken as troops) 5x with 2 shoota/burnas, 2 twin-linked shootas, and 1 shoota/rokkit
Da Boyz, x20 with 1 Nob with power klaw and ‘eavy armour, 2 big shootas
Warbikes x10
‘Da Hamma” Deff Dread, 2 big shootas
835pts
Saim-Hann Eldar
Farseer Aleyr’rin, jetbike, singing spear, spirit stones, Doom, Guide
Guardian Jetbike Squad x6 with x2 shuriken cannons
Dire Avengers, x7 +Exarch with dual shuriken catapults and bladestorm
Mounted in Wave serpent with twin-linked brightlances
Vyper Squadron x2 with starcannons
Wraithlord with x2 flamers, starcannon and wraithsword
836pts
Annihilation Mission using the Dawn of War deployment. Eldar have 1st turn.
The Dire Avengers in their Wave Serpent and Farseer Aleyr’rin deploy to the very edge of their deployment zone in the center of the table. (At first I deployed the Jetbikes as well, but quickly realized that the Wave serpent counted as one of the two troops units I could deploy and removed the jetbikes to come on as reserves in turn 1. Hey, it was our 1st battle using 5th ed rules, I’m allowed a mistake or two, right?) The Orks deploy the Mega Nobs over in the corner and they are joined by Cap’n Orkhab their Warboss. Da Boyz deploy in between the hill and the petrified (aka unpainted) forest.
Eldar turn 1: The rest of the Eldar army moves on in turn 1, only the Farseer can find a target due to night fighting rules and kill one of Da Boys. The jetbikes turbo-boost to get in range for turn 2 killiness on Da Boyz. Vypers hang out by the hill waiting for the sun to rise and the wraithlord advances onto the battlefield ready to do battle with Cap’n Orkhab and his Nobs.
Orks turn 1: The rest of the Ork army moves on in turn 1. The bikes come screaming on in the middle of the table but fail to find any target other than the Wave Serpent, but can do no harm to it. Da’ Hamma moves up to add support to da boyz. Da boyz manage to catch a glimpse of the Farseer but the shots from their big shootas bounce harmlessly off of his Rune Armor.
Eldar turn 2: The wraithlord advances towards the Warboss and Nobs managing to wound one of the Nobs with his starcannon. The vypers add their shots to the wraithlords but to no effect. The Farseer Guides himself and dooms Da boyz. The Dire avengers disembark from their wave serpent. During the shooting phase the Dire Avengers, Jetbikes, Wave Serpent and Farseer all take aim at Da Boyz killing all but four who fail their morale check and fall back. During the assault phase the Jetbikes use their 6” move to drop back behind the hill for some cover, while the Farseer uses his to move closer to the jetbikes.
Orks turn 2: Da Boyz fall back off the table edge giving the Eldar the 1st kill point. Da Hamma, undaunted by the loss of Da Boyz advances towards the Eldar Ranks, it’s big shootas failing to find purchase in the farseers rune armor. The Warbikes come speeding around the petrified forest to find a nice juicy target for their dakka guns in the Dire avengers. After an obscene number of dice are rolled the Warbikes manage to kill 5 of the Dire Avengers. The Exarch his lone avenger manage to pass their leadership test and stalwartly fight on, denying the Orks a kill point. The Warboss and his Nobs march ever on towards the wraithlord.
Eldar turn 3: The remaining Dire Avengers embark back into the wave serpent before the warbikes can finish their grisly massacre. The Vypers and wraithlord continue to pump starcannon shots into the Nobz but fail to land a single wound! The Wave Serpent, farseer and jetbikes all pump shots into Da Hamma but only manage to stun and shake it.
Orks turn 3: The Warbikes denied satisfaction on the dire avengers by the wave serpents armour and shields look instead for some retribution and close on the Vypers pumping loads of dakka gun fire into the squadron. After the dust settled they only managed to stun 1 (counting as shaken) and shake the other. The Cap’n and the Nobz continue their march towards the wraithlord.
Eldar turn 4: The vypers move flat out to escape the dakka guns of the warbikes, but one lands too close to the edge of the hill and fails it’s dangerous terrain test! The wraithlord recognizing it will be overmatched by all the powerclaws of the Nobz moves back continuing to fire its starcannon and kills off one of the Nobz. The Farseer and Jetbikes swing around to gain line of sight to Da Hamma’s vulnerable rear armour, but still only manage to stun and shake it and blow off one of the big shootas. The wave serpent fails to crack the deff dreads armour as well.
Ork turn 4: The warbikes give chase to the Vypers but can’t manage to hit them on the move with their dakka guns. The Nobz and Orkhab continue their march towards the wraithlord. Meanwhile Da Hamma bemoans the loss of control of his mechanical body.
Eldar Turn 5: I realize that I have been forgetting to roll for wraithsight on the wraithlord (hey, like I said 1st game in years and 1st under 5th edition rules. Oops!) I plan on moving him up and hitting the Nobz with a couple flamer templates before assaulting, but karma has a funny way of paying it forward and I promptly roll a 1 for his wraithsight check, turning him into a big toughness 8 statue! The Vypers take aim at the warbikes but can’t find a target in the cloud of dust and smoke of the bikes (they make their cover save!) The rest of the Eldar force continue to pump shots into Da Hamma doing little damage until finally with a mighty heave of his singing spear Farseer Aleyr’rin manages to bring down the Deff Dread.
Ork turn 5: The warbikes take aim at the lone Vyper again and manage to destroy all it’s weapons and immobilize it, but fail to destroy it. Cap’n Orkhab and his Nobz assault the defenseless wraith-statue, and Orkhab himself single handedly tears it to pieces adding the head to his bosspole as his greatest of trophies!
Mark rolls to see if we have a turn 6 and rolls a 4, game continues.
Eldar turn 6: Farseer Aleyr’rin Dooms the warbikes and guides himself and the jetbikes, then they and the wave serpent all pour fire into the warbikes killing 4 of them.
Ork turn 6: The warbikes turn their attention to the jetbike squad and pump all their dakka guns into them (causing 6 wounds!) but the shots all bounce harmlessly off (made all 6 3+ saves!) Cap’n Orkhab and the Nobz turn their attention toward the fallen Vyper and begin a desperate march towards it.
Eric rolls to see if we have a turn 7 and rolls a 4 also, game continues.
Eldar turn 7: Again Farseer Aleyr’rin dooms the warbikes and guides himself and the jetbikes. The dire avengers sensing that victory is close at hand disembark from the wave serpent and bladestorm at the warbikes. The wave serpent, farseer and jetbikes all pump tons of fire into the warbikes as well. When the shuriken settled two remained and Aleyr’rin and the jetbikes took matters into their own hands and assaulted the warbikes, wiping out the remaining two and securing another victory point.
Ork turn 7: The Warboss and Nobz realizing that victory would have to come another day took a couple of parting shots at the damaged Vyper, but failed to hit it.
Game ends with an Eldar Victory 4 kill points to 1, but the victory comes at a cost. The Farseer gathers up the spirit stones from the fallen Dire avengers and the mighty wraithlord to add them into the infinity circuit later.
A few rules snafu’s occurred (on my part) but the first was recognized and corrected before any harm could come of it and the other I think I paid for karmicly with the loss of the wraithlord. Overall, though, it was a really fun battle, with the warbikes causing me all sorts of tactical headaches the whole game long. Seriously, those things are sick!
As this was our 1st battle in years we wanted to keep the points low and we were only fielding painted models so Marks army selection was a bit limited. I had many options available to me but selected this list for a few reasons. The farseer on a bike and the jetbikes are always going to be staples of any list I run. The Dire Avengers in the current codex are far superior to the DA's of 3rd ed. and a 10 man squad in a serpent will be a staple as well (as soon as I finish painting the rest of the squad!) The Vypers I ran because I feel they fit well with the Saim-Hann fluff and theme, though in the future I plan to swap out the starcannons for scatter lasers as the starcannons really got hosed in this edition while the lasers got quite the boost. I normally never ran a wraithlord, which is a big part of why I was forgetting the wraithsight (that and I don't remember them having it in 3rd ed, just wraithguard as I recall), but I think the new model is a sexy bitch and will be running one from time to time.
Now a few observations I had along the way:
Dire Avengers are now a kick ass unit. The dual shuricat + bladestorm combo is awesome!
Ork Warbikes are sick! 30 twin linked shots at str5 is devastating! Even with the Orks crappy BS2. If more of them had been in range when they took aim at the DA's the whole squad would have been wiped out. The 18" range is the only thing that saved the squad and denied Mark that KP.
I almost felt bad that Mark didn't get a KP for the Vypers, one was gone and the other was useless, but it needed one more 'damaged' result to count as destroyed and the rules state that KP's are awarded for completely destroyed units only. Please correct me if I am wrong. (and like I said, I only "almost" felt bad!)
Wraithsight, grrrrr! Having to just take it as Orkhab and his power klaws tore into my defensless wraithlord sucked, I am going to give Mark an old style wraithlord head to add to a banner pole for Orkhab for it though as that would make a nice trophy for any warboss!
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