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Craftworld Eldar (MMS v1.7) vs Space Marines
1100pts
Cruiser Clash (but deployment in corners)
CWE:
Dragonship ? Cerysheal, Ld9
Craftmaster (Eriel Erychien), Batteries + Launch Bays, Vampire Raiders
Wraithship - Destiny, Ld10
Farseer, Pulsar + Torpedoes
Wraithship ? Infinity, Ld8
Pulsar + Torpedoes
Wraithship ? Soul keeper, Ld8
Ghostship, Farseer, All batteries
Shadowhunter x4 ? Nightspeed , Ld8
2x battery, 2x lance
Space Marines:
Battle Barge, Ld10
Master of the Fleet
Strike Cruiser x2, Ld10, Ld8
Nova escorts I x3, Ld8
Nova escorts II x3, LD8
Zone:
Medium planet central + 2 moons, few gas clouds + asteroid fields.
Summary:
I started in the left down corner from my point of view with sun to the left on the short table edge.
Turn 1
Space Marines go first and surge forward using AAF. My Dragonship + Ghostship fly down long table edge. Wraithships + Shadowhunters fly down short table edge.
Turn 2
Space Marines once again AAF, little faster this time. The barge uses the planet to turn a little towards the long table edge (my side). The Dragonship + Ghostship AAF along the long table edge, the Dragonship launches fighters. The Wraithships hook around an asteroid field just outside range (argh, dumb eyes), the Shadowhunters fly into the top left corner, about 20cm behind the Wraithships.
Turn 3
The Barge use the planet to move forward and turn to get behind my Dragonship + Ghostships. His Strike Cruiser and Novas turn to meet my Wraithships. The two Nova Escorts reach them and attack the first Wraithship. No damage done, but the ship is braced.
My Dragosship & Ghostship move forward and reach the right table edge, always staying outside the Barges range.
The Wraithships sweep past the Nova's and engage the ld10 Strike Cruiser, the last in line. They inflict 1 hitpoint, mainly because of the braced one rolling better with the single Pulsar, the hit becomes a critical though and caused engine room damage (+1hp). Torps wasted. The Shadowhunters attack a Nova Squadron but fail beautifully. Nova's brace( just like the Strike Cruiser).
4 Thunderhawks from the Strike Cruiser attack my Ld10 Wraithship and cause Superstructure damage (+1hp).
Both ships fail to repair the damage.
The splitting of the Space Marine fleet (Barge goes opposite direction) was a mistake in my opinion. He should have stayed together.
Turn 4
Both Strike cruisers failed to reload ordnance. The Battle Barge keeps following the Dragonship and Ghostship at great distance, still using the planet?s gravity well for a better turning rate. The Nova escort squadrons position themselves in the rear of the Shadowhunters, but are only able to drop a shield because of abysmal dice rolls. The undamaged Strike ?Cruiser positions in the prow of the Shadowhunters just behind the second Wraithship. The damaged Cruiser flies in a straight line and parks next to the second Wraithship. The shooting on the Shadowhunters dropped another shield but no damage done. Following fire inflicted 1 hit on the second Wraithship.
In the endphase the Wraithship managed to repair the superstructure opposed to the Strike Cruiser which remains damaged.
The Dragonship & Ghostship move along the right short table edge, edging inside a little to prepare their attack runs. The Wraithships (braced) move out of the melee and swoop to the other side of the planet behind the Battle Barge. Their Pulsars dropping 2 shields on the Barge. The braced Shadowhunters swoop down on the damaged Strike Cruiser and manage to cripple it.
The Strike Cruiser continues to fail repairing the engine.
Leaving the Shadowhunters alone was a gambit to buy more time for the Wraithships to harass the Barge
Turn 5
The Nova escorts and undamaged Strike Cruiser turn and follow the Shadowhunters. In the end they manage to destroy 3 of them. The Barge keeps turning around the planet and gives pod shots on the following Wraithships, dropping shields on them. The crippled Strike Cruisers keeps moving forward?
The Ghostship turns tight and bursts through a gas cloud to meet the Barge head on. The two Wraithships stay in the rear of the Barge, fully reloaded and unbraced. The Dragonship keeps distance behind the Ghostship to secure the rear of the Ghostship. The remaining Shadowhunters moves of the table and disengages. The Ghostships takes down a few shields on the now Braced Battle Barge. Following Pulsar Fire and Torpedoes from the Wraithships inflict a couple of hits on the Barge.
Finally the crippled Strike Cruiser repairs the damage. Disengaging the Shadowhunters was a given.
Turn 6
The braced Barge moves forward and turns in front of the Ghostship towards the planet. With little effective shooting it inflicts 1 hitpoint on the Ghostship (braced). The undamaged Strike Cruiser + one Nova Squadron move towards the planet and try to setup a run to get behind my Wraithships. The other squadron takes a move towards the other side of the planet. The repaired but crippled Strike Cruiser makes a turn to try and get back into the battle.
The braced Ghostship moves away from the Barge and engages the lone Nova escorts, battery fire eliminates one of them. The Dragonship now engages the Battle Barge, with its batteries it takes down all shield on the Space Marine vessel. The Wraithships keep following ?the Barge and their furious Pulsar fire plus follow up Torpedoes ?manage to cripple the Barge even though it is braced. Bombers from the Dragonship fail to do further damage.
Turn 7
The two remaining lone Nova?s engage the Dragonship from very close but fail to do damage. The Strike Cruiser and other Nova Squadron sweep around the planet and manage to cripple one Waithship (Infinity), mainly because I did not brace. The vessel saw its holofield damaged as well.
The Dragonship continued to attack the Barge but with little success. Its Vampire Raiders killed of the two remaining Nova escorts though. The healthy Wraithship continued to attack the Barge as well and reduced the vessel to 3 hitpoints.
The crippled Wraithship turned away and attacked the other Nova squadron, killing one with its torpedoes. The Ghosthship swooped around the planet and destroyed a second Nova escorts.
Then we called it end of the battle at 23:30 / 11:30 pm
After some fast calculating:
Craftworld Eldar Victory Points: 349
Space Marine Victory Points: 90
A decisive Eldar victory. Seen the placement on the board the Space Marines would have had a real hard time clinging back into it, the Barge was on the brink of destruction and the escorts had been decimated to one. Only one Strike Cruiser was healthy. On the Craftworld Eldar side only a Wraithship was crippled and the other two had 1 hitpoint removed.
From my, the Eldar, point of view I think there are a couple of decisive moments/occurances in this battle:
1) Once again my opponent succeeded in rolling far below average when it comes to hitting my vessels. Fifth battle in a row.
2) The fact he parted the Battle Barge from the rest of the fleet. The fact I made two strike forces made my opponent a little unsure about leaving his rear exposed.
3) That the first hit I scored on the Strike Cruiser resulted in engine room damage. This effectively put the cruiser out of action for the remainder of the game.
4) The Shadowhunters use to make sure the Wraithships had a couple of turns to engage the Barge without other things to worry about.
When you look at which ships performed great in my fleet it surely were the two Wraithships, disabling a Strike Cruiser, killing a Nova and scoring 9 hits on the Battle Barge. The Dragonship acted as a command vessel giving long range fighter assistance and swooping in at the right time. In the end it only destroyed two Nova?s but that ensured 150 victory points. The Ghostship was also okay for what I used it for, also 2 escorts destroyed. The Shadowhunters crippled the disabled Strike Cruiser.
All in all I really like how the Craftworld fleet played. And how it looks! What a great fleet to see.
small Eldar MMS notes
? AAF, down to 5D6, no special rule.
? Ghostship: not crippled at 50% strength but at 25% strength. In v1.7 they aren?t really worth it.
? Farseers function really well.
? Shadowhunter phantom lance reduced to: 4-5 = 1 hit, 6 = 2 hits.
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