My second game of EA.

Salamander List
Land Speeders
Scouts
Scouts
Strike Cruiser
Thunderbolts
Whirlwinds
Devastators with Hunter and Land Raider
Devastators with Dreads in drop pod
Devastators with Librarian and Salamander Devs in Thunderhawk
Predaotrs (3 Dest, 1 Annih) with Hunter
Terminators with Chaplain in Thunderhawk
Tacticals with Salamander tactical, supreme commander and hunter (BTS)



Eldar List (from memory)
Guardians with Farseer, weap platforms and wraithguard
Shining Spears
Banshees in wave serpents with Autarch
Scorpions (BTS)
Dark Reapers
Nightspinners
Falcons with Prism Cannon
Rangers
Revenants
Vampire (not transporting)
Nightwings

Salamander left flank. Tacticals and whirlwinds, screened by scouts. My blitz and one obejective in my side was over here.


Salamander right flank. Scouts and land speederrs screening devastators and predators.


The other four objectives were alll crowded into the Eldar left flank.


Shinning spears on the eldar left flank, rangers screening in the village, dark reapers ready to enter the space port.


Eldar right flank. Scorpions, night spinners and banshees. Guardians and falcons at the top of shot. I'd been planning to concentrate my forces on taking the cluster of objectives on my right, but he deployed more than expected to his right, forcing me to spread out a little.

TURN 1

Eldar nightspinners took out one scout squad, after which my whirlwinds were able to advance safely into firing range.


Again, my intent had been to concentrate on my right, but those scorpions sitting exposed on the end of the line were too juicy a target. Devastators assault via Thunderbolt and break them before they fire a shot.


My scouts advance on the right and exchange fire with Eldar Rangers.


The Eldar get in their head that they must destroy my landed Thunderhawk.
They loose a nightwing in the first attack run, then send their vampire in. My Thunderbolts move in and take the vampire out. At this point, with zero damage to the Thunderhawk, my opponent is becoming very dispirited.


Dark reapers move to occupy the spaceport, and destroy my scouts -- only the rhinos survive.


My land speeder screen advances through the centre.


Falcons join the futile attack on my mighty Thunderhawk.


Howling banshees are suddenly at my door, threatening my whirlwinds. My scouts forced them wider than they wanted to go, but this is a serious concern. My predators advance and take out a couple of wave serpents, but the problem is not resolved.


I have no choice but to deploy my termies to assist. This is absolutely not where I wanted them, but at least their heavy flamers make a mockery of the banshee's cover. They're still a serious threat, but their numbers are thinned.
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Meanwhile, my ground-pounding devastators are nearly completely destroyed by the revenants. My right is suddenly looking very fragile. Things would have been worse, but at least my speeders forced the Eldar titans far to the right flank, rather than allowing them to engage closer to the centre where they wanted to be.


The eldar had also wanted to sweep their shining spears around the flank, but were stymied by my scouts, and held their ground.

TURN 2

I win initiative, and my termies unleash another infrerno into the banshees, breaking them before they've had a chance to engage anyone.


I then hold initiative, and my devastators unleash a torrent of fire into the scorpions, which had managed to rally. Unfortunately, I don't quite manage to break them again.


The scorpions then take out a couple of landspeeders. The Eldar consider retaining, but decide against it, and my whirlwinds then finish the job of rebreaking the scorpions, and place a blast marker on the night spinners.

The shining spears attack what's left of my ground-pounding devastators, taking a casualty in the process, but the Marines are forced to withdraw under the weight of fire and wild xenos assault.

My orbital strike manages to kill a couple of dark reapers, and my devastators land in the rear of the village. Not as much from the orbital strike as I would have liked, and I have no airborne troops available to support my newly landed forces stuck in the enemy rear. I'm not overly happy with how that all worked out.


My predators advance, and inflict some more casualties on the banshees as they flee.


Guardians advance into the village. The Eldar have a solid position holding a bunch of objectives. It's not clear how I'm going to be able to deal with this. Eldar player is in somewhat better spirits now.


My thunderhawks are busy strafing the shining spears. I'm deeply concerned about what they're going to do to me if allowed to run loose along my rear.

Meanwhile, my thunderbolts manage to take out 2 of the broken scorpions.


My scouts move from the left flank in an attempt to screen my predators from those shining spears (I forgot about one scout that was way out on the flank, and left him behind).


Nightwings intercept my thunderbolts, but do no damage.

TURN 3

My predators continue advancing, trying to finish off the last scorpion, which rallied again, Unfortunately, I loose two predators to return fire, and manage nothing but putting another blast marker on them. The revenants then finish off my predators.

As they're now screening nothing, my scouts pack up, and are able to engage the scorpions after I break them again, finally taking out the last one.


My third thunderhawk strafing run finally breaks the shining spears, then my termies double over and cleanse them with fire. I'd wanted to collect my termies for another thunderhawk assault next turn, but it just wasn't going to be feasible.


The Eldar player was on the verge of winning on turn three, with They Shall Not Pass and Hold the Line. However, I'm able to land a thunderhawk to eliminate both of those as options.

TURN 4
The Eldar call their Avatar!

My landed thunderhawk is eliminated. I move my scouts over to contest a different objective, but they're swiftly broken, and I have to march my termies into the forest to keep contesting.


In preparation for an assault by the guardians, the Avatar moves towards the terminators and hurls his vulgar xenos spear, but does not damage, for the Emperor protects. I send a Thunderhawk in for some close support, strafing the Guardians before they can mount their assault.


Disrupted by the gun run, the guardians give up their plans to assault, and advance more cautiously instead. Wraithguard take out some terminators, but can't break them.

My thunderbolts break the dark reapers that are holding the Eldar blitz. There's an outside chance I can win this now.

My tactical squad moves forward to contest an objective.


I had thought my two scout rhinos might be able to make a run at the blitz. As it turns out, they would have been a few cm short, but it becomes a moot point anyway, as the Eldar rangers redeploy to ensure they're still contesting it.

At game end, Salamanders hold BTS, Eldar hold nothing.

Final result is a marginal Salamander victory, 2025 to 1637.5,

Was a really fun game, with a lot of ebbs and flows. My opponent and I used to play 40k 2nd and Epic 2nd back in the day. I would always smash him in 40k, but I did not once beat him at Epic, so this is my first ever win against him.

After our first game (which ended 0-0 with a very slim Eldar win on points), I said he should be using his vampire as a transport, but he was too afraid of potential disaster. Seeing the way my devastators mangled his scorpions right at the start of this game has changed his mind on that moving forward.

We were both extremely impressed with the ability of scouts to screen. He had none last game, and I didn't make the best use of mine last time, but they had a big impact on this game. I also played a pure ground-pounding force last time. While my thudnerhawks were never used the way I'd planned them, they're massively versatile.

I was also a bit iffy about Salamander termies with their short range AP, but the IC came in very handy, they trashed two very dangerous formations, and managed to hustle over to contest a critical objective so I'm extremely happy with how they went.

Next game, I should be giving my Minervan Traitor Regiment a spin at 2,500pts.

Thanks for the report.

Was one of the Nightwings shot down by the landed THawk? They can safely ground attack from its side, staying 16cm away to get all their shots without receiving any flak from it. Also, an easy way to destroy a landed aircraft is to break it (either by shooting or an assault) while you have troops within 15cm of it, that would just automatically destroy it (unless it's fearless).

_________________
Dave

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NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

It was attacked head on, and yes, it shot one down. It ended up with three blast markers, picking up a fourth when it disengaged, by which time it was a flier again.