So I have finally gotten my Eldar out on the tabletops for a few games again recently. I don't have any battle reports, but I do have some pics! So far in their return the Eldar have won one game while losing one and drawing a third.
The first game back was a 2000pt game against the Imperial Guard. We were playing a kill point mission with dawn of war deployment. This game overall did not go well for me, though it had an interesting dynamic to it. The guard player was running Al'rahem and a whole bunch of other stuff that could outflank. My basic strategy was to line up one board edge with grav tanks to destroy any of his units that came on that side. Unfortunately for me with an Astropath providing re-rolls for him he managed to avoid having a single unit come on from that board edge! Then by the time Al'rahem's squad showed up in turn 4 (the last thing to arrive btw) it was too late for me to cover the distance and do any real damage to him. Meanwhile his Lascannons and a Leman Russ were able to take out a couple of my tanks and I lost a squad or two of Jetbikes. The game ended on turn 5 with the guard up 4 kill points to 1.
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| Here's me trying to be a clever douchebag. It didn't work out so well! |
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| And here's me not being so clever and throwing some jetbikes to the slaughter giving my opponent a couple of easy kill points. |
The next game I got in with them was an 1850pt game against the Dark Eldar. This game served to remind me of a couple of things about using the craftworlders. First is that BS3 really sucks! I have gotten so used to having BS4 with the Knights of Blood that it was quite the system shock. The other thing I had pretty much forgotten is that in objective missions if the Eldar aren't tabled then they have a chance to draw at the very least. That's just what happened in this game. I got my ass kicked for a full 7 turns. Brightlanced let me down like they always have. I forgot psychic powers (doh!) but managed to contest enough objectives in the end to draw the game despite only have 6 models left on the table.
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| Here a squad of Jetbikes is feeling pretty good about themselves after wiping out a squad of Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbikes, unaware of the horrible fate that awaits them. |
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| Gulp! The Wyches prepare to enact some vengeance on their craftworld cousins. |
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| Some reinforcements arrive from reserves. |
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| The amount of movement in this matchup is truly amazing! |
My opponent in this game is a fellow blogger and he has a full write up of all the action on his blog. I highly reccomend you check it out here
http://naughtybadfun40k.blogspot.com/
My third game was against the might of the Grey Knights. The game was a 1500pt battle with 5 objectives and spearhead deployment. My opponent was running both Draigo and Coteaz. He had a 5 man squad of Paladins in a Land Raider Crusader, some Death Cult assassins with Crusaders in Razorbacks and a couple of squads of psykers. In this game the mobility of the Eldar really shined, and Runes of Warding was just invaluable. One of the psyker squads was wiped out when RoW forced them into a perils of the Warp. I was able to take out both razorbacks fairly early and with fortune up and running I mostly ignored the LR. In the end I managed to kill all of his scoring units but the Paladins who had one left with Draigo and Coteaz attached. He also had the Land Raider left but it just wasn't enough to contest enough objectives.
I have really been missing my Eldar so it was good to get them back out on the tables, but it's also frustrating. They really are showing their age. Their firepower is just not up to snuff compared to the 5th edition codex's. I could easily be 1-0-2 with them if it weren't for the Dark Eldar firepower kind of fizzling out late in the game. That said they will remain in play. My plan is to d6 off every week about which army I will be playing that week. So expect to see them around more often.
