Oct 8, 2010

Ive got a real cliffhanger for you today. Of that I promise!

I haven’t played a game of Epic since May, but in my proselytizing at the FLGS I discovered I was not alone in my love for this amazing game. I set up a demo for next week, and in the interest of warming up, and refreshing the memory of a friend who will be helping with the demo, we sat down today for a game.

Rules Used: Epic: Armageddon GW-2009
Scenario: Tourney rules from 6.1
Alternate/Playtest rules used: none

Attacker:
Eldar Saim-Hann v6.3 played by the villainous “me”

[475] Wild Riders Warhost #1 (BTS Target)
1 Wild Rider Unit with Autarch
4 Jetbike units
2 Vypers, 1 with Farseer
3 Shining Spears

[300] Wild Riders Warhost #2
1 Wild Riders unit
5 Jetbike units
1 Vyper w/ Farseer

[350] Shining Spears Aspect Warhost
2 Shining Spears units, each with Exarchs
6 Shining Spears units

[300] Swords of Vaul Troupe #1
5 Falcons
1 Firestorms

[300] Swords of Vaul Troupe #2
5 Falcons
1 Firestorms

[175] Night Spinner Troupe
3 Night Spinners

[250] Engines of Vaul Troupe
1 Scorpion

[300] Aircraft
3 Nightwing Interceptors

[375] Saim-Hann Guardian Troupe
4 Guardian units
2 Wraithguard units
4 Wave Serpents

[125] Rangers Troupe
5 Ranger units

[50] Wraithgate
***
3000 points, 10 Activations


Opponent:
Ultramarines, using Adeptus Astartes list, played by my friend Bryan

List from memory:
Tac Squad, 4 Rhinos, 1 Commander, 2 Dreadnoughts
Dev Squad, 4 Razorbacks, 1 Dreadnought
5 Landspeeders
4 Predators
2 Warhounds
6 Attack bikes
Terminators with 4 Land Raiders + 1 Vindicator
2 Thunderbolts

***
3000 Points, 8 Activations-ish?


Some of his neat Objectives:


Deployment


Eldar left (top) to right (bottom):
Swords of Vaul
Wave Serpents (old style Falcons)
Scorpion in front of Shining Spears
Swords of Vaul
Night Spinners


Ultramarines left (bottom) to right (top):
Tac Squad
Dev Squad
Landspeeders
Predators
Warhounds
Bikes
Termies

Turn 1

Eldar get Initiative and start off in AWESOME fashion! Swords of Vaul #1 on the right fail to activate properly, so advance once with a BM



Tac Squad advances on the SM left, deploying the troops from their Rhinos, and draw fire from the Eldar Rangers on Overwatch. When the smoke clears, 1 Ranger is dead but 2 Marines drop as well.



Night Spinners launch their webs, sustaining on the Tac Squad. 4 BM are inflicted as a Rhino and the Ultramarine Commander are killed.

Warhounds charge up the middle, using their considerable speed to catch the struggling Swords of Vaul off guard. Their Plasma cannons wipe out two Falcons, breaking the formation and sending them packing.



Revenge! Swords #2 on the Eldar left sweep towards the titan duo and let loose. Both titans have their Void Shields stripped, and the closest Warhound takes a wound.

Fearful vengeance grips the Eldar minds, and the Wild Riders #1 pour out of the Eldar Wraithgate, retaining in an assault against the Warhounds. Wounds are scattered across both titans, while only one Shining Spear is lost. The supporting Swords add more damage, bringing each titan down to 1 wound remaining (but I forgot to support with the Rangers…lol).



The Eldar won the battle but Fearless kept the titans alive, and they did not retreat. The Wild Riders fell back behind the cover of buildings.



The Dev Squad comes rushing to the aide of their flailing titan bretheren. The troops dismount from the Razorbacks and fire on the Swords of Vaul. A missile wipes out one Falcon.

Hoping for the coup d’grace, the Scorpion doubled to his right and lined up his devastating shots on the titan pair.



Rolling snake eyes didn’t cut the mustard and the broken titans remained.

On the Eldar left, the Terminators march-moved up in their Land Raiders and sat squarly on the Eldar objective.



Out of range of a quality assault, the Shining Spears queue up behind the downtown area with others…



The air war begins. Thunderbolts came roaring in to seek retribution on the Wild Riders, but the cannons on the Firestorm nearby shot one out of the sky. Undeterred, the sole remaining plane dropped low over the formation and missed with all guns. (Rolled all 1’s here too…its an epidemic!)

Tit for tat, the Nightwings came in after the Warhounds, and dropped both of them. Sham-POW!



<can you see the sun fading? We were talking more than playing here…having a blast…>

Landspeeders singled forward and fire at the Swords of Vaul again. Melta guns kill 1 Falcon, and the Swords break and run. See how they run?



The Guardians hope for the last kills of the turn. Doubling forward, the Wave Serpents dropped the Wraithguard and Guardians off in the ruins. Together they killed 2 Speeders.



<Edit: This was illegal, as I noticed later that the Landspeeders are Scouts, and I couldnt have gotten this close to them without assaulting. Oh well...>

Last activation of the turn saw the Marine bikes jump onto their own right-corner objective.


End of Turn 1


Rallies:

Horrible! Wind Rider #1 and BOTH Swords of Vaul fail to rally, leaving both tank formations broken and the Riders with 2 BM’s. Rangers shed 1 BM, and the Marine Tac Squad shed 3 of their 7. Should have been 4 I think, but…

So, I promised you a cliffhangar today. I swear I did. Its at the top…

The game ended here. The day was getting long, we started late, the kids needed to eat, and we were having a blast and talking WAY too much.

So, WHAT a JERK! Why would I post some such drivel!

Well, to show some of the neat terrain Ive been working on, to show Bryan’s neat models, and to prove that I actually do still play. And to remind myself that I still love the Saim Hann. At least it was a good mental exercise for next week’s demo.

Bryan didn’t have any artillery or AA, which was a little scary for him, and was remembering the rules after years of not playing. Me, I felt I had a good, balanced list, and really liked where the battle was heading. Other than not rallying the two Swords formations, which would have been really bad had we actually played Turn 2, I felt I had the right side under control. Yes, he had all sorts of objectives, but it was 2 turns too early and I wasn’t focused on that at all.

I’ll try to get in a “real” (ie “complete”) BatRep in the next few weeks, promise.

This was the fun scrum after Turn 1:

It was a nice enough read. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for posting this, Kealios! Would've been good to game with you in Cali... maybe some day...

Saim-Hann could use a bunch of batreps/playtests, against various foes...