I think I worked out that the Leman Russ tanks have a move of less than 25 cm (20 cm) so they could only counter charge 5 cm and I debussed the Wraithguard more like 10 cm away.

I have been assuming that infantry in a fast transport (eg 35 cm move) get a 10 cm countercharge by the transport then a 5 cm dismount move for an effective counter-charge of 15 cm. Is that right? The FAQ mentions the restriction if the transport is in B-to-B contact but does not address the possible combination of 10 cm for fast vehicle plus 5 cm for slow infantry.

GAME TWO vs Fir Iolarion (Tim_NZ)

Spirit Host with Wraith Seer, 6 Wave Serpents [750]
Spirit Host, 6 Wraithguard + Spirit Seer, 6 Wave Serpents [650]
Spirit Host, 6 Wraithguard + Spirit Seer [350]
4 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms [300]
4 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms [300]
Farseer, 4 Guardians, 3 Heavy Weapons [150]
3 Night Spinners [175]
5 Rangers [125]
4 Rangers [100]
4 Rangers [100]


Watching the Titans bounce forward, shoot and bounce back into cover through the early stages of Turn 1 as they laid down fire on the forward scouting screen was a quandary. Eventually I started, what was the expression, “offering up bait to try and tempt them out of position” like a “sneaky Eldar” (Yeah Right, to quote a well known beer advert in New Zealand).

One trick I discovered during this phase was to hide scouts just over 10 cm inside a wood. That meant the nasty Eldar Warlock supreme commander would have to FF/CC engage the formation or stay outside ZOC range and hence out of Line of Sight and therefore unable to fire. Cool, another dodge for those plucky Rangers.

Anyway once the Titans had moved through all their activations on their left flank I eventually found the Knights, guarding their left flank, within 70 + 5 + 15 = 90 cm range (double with wave serpents, dismount wraithguard and shoot). These guys did some extra damage to break the Knights, another critical hit on that rather unlucky formation.

Note to self: I must get a set of markers that will allow me to position units without moving the originals. I am fairly certain (honest) I did not nudge any of these units beyond their allocated distance in the dismounting shuffle but was aware of how it looked as the wall of firepower deployed. As an aside I really enjoy Lost Battles, which involves no use of a tape measure as compared to DBA for example which has a strong geometric element. Anyway, . .

Since I had conveniently lost the initiative on the first round (having won the Strategy Roll the Titan Warlord directed the Iyanden to move first!) rushing troops forward seemed a good move as I was odds on to win the initiative in turn 2. Following a little more positioning and getting the other mounted Spirit Host forward we duly started the next turn and luck was with the Iyanden.

The second turn began with the now increasingly familiar: double, dismount, shoot, retain, assault, support fire, consolidate, retain, assault again support fire, consolidate and hide. With the Wraith/Spirit Seer giving the 2+ Initiative Spirit Host an extra +1, and also with Farsight cancelling the -1 to retain these were initially on an automatic initiative pass to launch the assaults. Seems a bit like the objections to the Ulthwe?
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21944
and/or
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21985

The first target, a Revenant Titan just hiding in the ruins, went on to a draw in the first round of the combat. Despite the subsequent counter charge there was enough firepower to take it down in round 2. Next up was the Phanton Titan a rather tougher beast but the closest Iyanden units were from the force that had consolidated in such a way to ensure that all 12 Wraithguard units, 11 or so Wave Serpents and the assaulting Falcon unit were all still within FF range. The fall of a second titan left me on a “high” as it were but having run the course of a triple activation it was the Titan’s time to run the triple, . . .

So now it was time to take the lumps. I had been careful up to this point to keep my units well spaced out [sic] using the lid to a very old tin of “High Admiral Special Mixture” which happens to hold my dice and is exactly the diameter of the barrage template. Note this was my second aide memoir to engage the enemy more closely, but not too closely.

Too much congestion (necessary to take down the Phantom) left multiple units from two formations under three successive rounds of the dreaded Sonic Lance/Tremor Cannon multiple template barrages. Amongst other things this killed my supreme commander, the Wraith Seer. Oooops, he at least should have been better positioned.

With several activations trimmed from the Titan Horde the final turn was bloody but not quite so damaging. The move back to the centre by the Warlock Titan was still intimidating with multiple firepower/ordinance falling on the remnants of the Wraith Seer’s BTS command. The sole remaining Wave Serpent and Wraithguard passenger broke and retreated to the far corner of the board to hide behind a forest. I dismounted the infantry into the woods (beyond 10 cm from the front edge) to avoid the chance of both dying from a single direct fire shot. However with the deluge of BP weaponry around perhaps it would have been better to stay loaded?

With the Warlock back in the middle and pushed across the centre line of the table there was more room for me to close off some objectives with the remaining Ranger formations. The final turn saw the surviving titans facing off enemy in all directions.
http://sites.google.com/site/epic40k/home/battlereports/180312tourni


Ooops, the boss died. No problems the final list added in a fourth Spirit Hosts in anticipation of such errors, . . .

In terms of the Living Few rule (if made more restrictive) I’d drop the Guardian formation, reduce the 5 Ranger formation to 4 units and replace with a second Night Spinner formation. That would help keep the artillery viable for longer in the face of serious counter battery fire. And provide a better response to more horde oriented armies. Everybody I encountered on the day had a very armour heavy list and this was undoubtedly the real “secret of my success”.

ah, I see now. Countercharging would have been pointless/ worse then as it would have brought more of your support fire into play.

you're right on the "mounted infantry in fast transport countercharge" thing. It's a valid tactic, especially with a hard as nuts CC units, like an Ogryn unit in a mech IG fm.

heh, I didn't think about the +1 boost to initiative allowing a triple auto retain..

It is at least possible to kill the unit with the Spirit/Wraith Seer during the game and that formation loses the auto-triple-retain. Conversely the character is attached to a pretty tough unit!

GAME THREE (and final) vs Orks (Mark’s)

Spirit Host with Wraith Seer, 6 Wave Serpents [750]
Spirit Host, 6 Wraithguard + Spirit Seer, 6 Wave Serpents [650]
Spirit Host, 6 Wraithguard + Spirit Seer [350]
Spirit Host, 6 Wraithguard + Spirit Seer [350]
3 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms [250]
3 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms [250]
4 Rangers [100]
4 Rangers [100]
4 Rangers [100]
4 Rangers [100]


Hoped that I could find somewhere for the walking Spirit Hosts to double/march towards some objectives. As a default I expected to line them up at garrisoned troops and engage the enemy as quickly and as directly as possible. I was worried about the fragility of the Swords of Vaul troops and ironically this game saw me facing aircraft for the first time! Got to love those Ranger units though: sneaking around quietly, well dispersed to avoid artillery fire, burning activations when required and occasionally covering themselves in glory. OK, I think it is a playing style sort of thing.

A beautifully modeled ruined city sat quietly in one corner of the table as the third round approached. There was the ruined cathedral with wind whistling through the gaps in the wall and the souls of the dead entwined around the rubble. For those who know Christchurch’s recent history, with a major earthquake just over a year ago and many aftershocks since, the scene was entirely evocative. I personally attended the de-consecration service for our real life cathedral and would previously have been attending church in the building on a Sunday. Next Sunday I am reading Jeremiah chap.31 v31- to the congregation, arrh, fate!

If you want to look at a real life ruined cathedral see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4BElQdjeM&feature=player_embedded

So the objectives went down and it was clearly to be a tenacious final defense of the city of the dead by the Wraithguard of Iyanden, . . . by the souls of the dead. This gave the walking Spirit Hosts perfect terrain to advance forward behind the garrisoned scouting screen. Mark felt the terrain also suited his very stompy ork list, so battle was joined.

A view of the board after deployment is posted on Mark’s website:
http://sites.google.com/site/epic40k/home/battlereports/180312tourni


I was rather cautious of moving against those Stomper Mobs garrisoned forward on overwatch. A number of cautious attacks and some dancing by the scouting screen finally tempted Mark to activate them so that problem solved itself. Because they were so far forward I was well placed to swamp them with multiple Spirit Hosts, both mechanised and walking, and did so. A gap in my AA umbrella lured the Ork fly boyz down the table edge to attack my hiding Wave Serpents. This was probably an error on my part but did tempt the Fighter Bomberz into attacking the toughest of my armoured units, and in a location where walking did not impair the formations mobility too much. There was a certain level of amusement from spectators who observed the lone wraithguard unit that kept processing up and down the cathedral as the formation assaulted and then consolidated back into cover.

When I was planning the army list I thought there was enough firepower available to go hunting RA4+ armoured war engines. This proved to be the case in this game (blowing the head off the Super Stompa and taking down the Gargant):
(1) Move and shoot with Swords of Vaul, expect 5.3 AT hits
(2) Double and shoot with walking Spirit Host, expect 2 MW hits
(3) Assault with mounted Spirit Host, expect 6.5 normal + 3 MW hits on FF, with 3 (Falcons) + 3.5 (Spirit Host) normal + 3 MW hits from the support fire.
For a total of 18.3 normal and 8 MW hits from the triple activation. With a little prior preparation that ought to be enough to break the beast. The odd critical hit perhaps tipping the balance.

The game ended with the Ork Desecration driven from the outskirts of the City of the Dead.

I had a great day out. It is good to finally have meet up with the local Epic community and a very friendly bunch they all are.

Was great to have you along! Andrew, and thanks for the thoughts on the Iyanden!.

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One final thought (more on topic here)

Two views of the Living Few rule have been expressed and discussed above.

As an intermediate option what about saying that you can only have one (entirely) living formation (Aspects, Guardians without Wraithguard/lords, Rangers, Windriders) for each Spirit Host in the army. So if you take a Guardian formation with Wraithguard/Wraithlord upgrades then they do not count towards the living count limit

Alternatively you could also go a step further and say the number of entirely living formations cannot be greater than then number of Host formations that include Wraithguard/Wraithlord units. Effectively in this case a Guardian formation with Wraith upgrades would count with the spirit hosts.

Supporting desperate civilians with some Wraithguard sounds like the final line of defense for the Iyanden Craftworld. It might also help reduce the armour heavy flavour that seems to come with the stronger rule. And would give a little encouragement for people to move away from all Fearless formations.

The other living formations are already small (remnant?) formations compared to many other Eldar lists: 4 Aspect Warriors plus 2 to 4 transport, Rangers at 4-8 units and Windriders only 6 units.

The lack of spirit stones make these formations weaker than they would be in the Epic UK list. Epic UK has the intermediate step of three rules:
Number of Spirit Hosts greater than or equal to the number of Aspect plus Guardian Hosts.
Number of Ranger Hosts no more than the number of Spirit Hosts
Number of Windrider Troupes no more than the number of Spirit Hosts.


The Souls of the Dead Salute You

Nice Game by Game berak down Andrew, and a nice dramatic yet locally relevant game 3 in the city !

"The Dead should stay Dead!" haha

To me, Iyanden shouldn't have Guardians at all. If your numbers are so limited you're resorting to necromancy, maybe you shouldn't stick your population in the line of fire?

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But if you are desperate enough to wake the spirits of the dead then surely everybody living is in the line of fire anyway. So they might as well fight.

In the few games I've played the Guardians have been there to boost activations and provide a farseer to call the Avatar. As a cheap activation formation without transport they kept their heads down and protected the home base (blitz marker).

There really ought to be Rangers on that list I'd have thought.