Had another game last night. Many thanks to Steve C for bringing Biel Tan rather than his beloved Squats.

Iyanden (Net-EA)
675 5x WG + 5xWS + Wraith seer (Black)
475 4x WG + 4xWS (Blue)
275 4x WG (Yellow)
275 4x WG (Red)
275 4x WG (Silver)
250 Falcons
250 Falcons
200 Vamp
200 Vamp
125 Ranger
(and no Void Spinner . . . )

Biel Tan (E-UK)
475 Guardians + WG + WL
350 Aspects + Ex + Ex (5x DA, DR, 2x FDEx)
400 Warp Spiders + Aut + Ex
275 Void Spinner
250 Storm Serpent
250 Falcons
250 Fire Prisms
200 Vampire
175 Night Spinner
125 Ranger
100 Ranger
100 Ranger
50 Gate

Given I was outactivated (again! ) the Iyanden strategy was to push forwards if possible, using the Vampires to pick up and deliver one or two of the smaller formations in turns #2 and #3 whilst trying to find some way of dealing with the other threats. Concerned about the Void Spinner and strikes by Vampire and Storm Serpent, I loosely castled on my left centre, Steve deployed centrally.
Saim-Hann strategy was pure Eldar; use a table wide Ranger screen to slow the opponent down, countering attempts to break through and then concentrating on key points.

Setup

Biel Tan at the top of the photo, Iyanden at the bottom. BT Ranger garrisons spread across the table and surrounding their Blitz and Void Spinner.

Biel Tan off-table:-
- Warp Spiders (webway)
- Guardians (Webway)
- Vampire + Aspects

Iyanden
- Vampire
- Vampire



Turn #1
Iyanden initiative - so I let Steve go first . . .

1a. BT Rangers on OW
1b. I Rangers fail to go on OW, so remove BMs

2a. BT Rangers on OW
2b. I WG (Red) marched to the woods on the right flank.

3a. BT Rangers on OW
3b. WG (Silver) march up left flank. Were OW by 2x Rangers who threw 2x '6', killing one WG.
(I was playing the odds here. Only 2x Rangers could shoot so I was expecting a possible hit which I have a better than even chance of saving . . .
Note to self, don't play the odds ).

4a. BT Fire Prisms double, advancing to shoot a WS off WG (Blue) before retiring behind central wood.
4b. I WG (Blue) marshal forwards removing BMs.

5a. BT Vampire flew around avoiding the board avoiding flak to shoot another WS off WG (Blue)
5b. I LH Falcons double forwards targeting two barely visible fire prisms, which they destroyed. Remaining FP withdrew to central buildings in deployment zone

6a. BT Void Spinner bracketed the Falcons, killing one
6b. WG (Yellow) fail, so advance to buildings ahead of them

7a. Night Spinners sustain on WG (silver) causing 3 disrupt hits which were all saved, but broke the formation. WG retired out of 30cm from Rangers.
7b. I RH Falcons Double to shoot Rangers laying a BM and retire behind buildings in front of deployment zone

8a. BT Falcons doubled to shoot Wraithseer (Black), killing a WS and turning this into another footslogger, before retiring behind buildings in front of deployment zone
8b. I Vampire braved Falcon Flak (which caused 1 damage) to shoot the Night Spinners, destroying 2 and breaking the formation

9a. BT Storm Serpent failed to activate, so removed BMs
9b. I Wraithseer (Black) failed to activate (snake eyes), so advanced ahead of buildings and disembarked.

10a. BT Warp Spiders assaulted Falcons out of Wraith gate, destroying the formation for the loss of a unit. They consolidated back into the woods, claiming the I T&H.
10b. I Vampire landed by WG (yellow) and picked them up.

BT Guardians stand down and do not activate. Steve treats this a little like formations on OW at the end of the turn which may decide to stay on OW, thus ending the player's turn.

End of turn
Biel Tan Rangers and Warp Spiders remove their BM, Night Spinners and Fire Prisms both recover !
Iyanden WG (Yellow) in the Vampire remove their BM off-table, the other formations fail to rally !!


Turn #2

Iyanden Initiative
Down on activations, after a lot of thought I decided to take out the Storm Serpent using a ground assault. The idea was to try to break other nearby formations, but the intervening Ranger meant I could only get one of the two on offer. . . . .
(The other option was to assault the void Spinner, which meant I might just be able to break both, but running the risk of 4x ranger shots on OW together with lots of AA seemed too risky)

1a. I Vampire + WG (yellow) assaults the Storm Serpent. 1 damage from AA is not sufficient to stop the WG destroying the SS for no loss, placing a BM on nearby Falcons, Rangers and Night Spinner which is broken.
The WG consolidate back towards their T&H objective, the Vampire remains broken on the ground.
1b. I Rangers double forwards to screen WG (Blue), with two able to shoot Warp Spiders killing one.
1c. BT Falcons sustain on WG (Yellow) merely laying a BM.

2a. I March WG (Red) up right flank into the woods to claim the BT T&H there.
2b. BT Void Spinner bracketed WG (Blue) causing three disrupt hits killing a WG which broke the formation. It withdrew back to the starting point.

3a. I double the Falcons, shooting the Rangers to their front and killing two, before retiring near their own Blitz. Rangers withdrew to the hill to their rear.
3b BT Rangers double to 5cm from WG (red), laying a BM

4a. Vampire activates to ground assault the Rangers while picking up WG (Red). Fire Prism shoots causing 1 damage and 2BMs - - - - and a huge dilemma (see the discussion here). We diced to assume the Vampire could continue the assault (with the WG onboard), and the Rangers lost a unit and the assault.
4b. The Warp Spiders used their Infiltrate move to move into the ruins clipping three rangers and claiming intermingled on the Wraithseer (Black) . . . and then only gained three hits, two of which were saved. They lost the resolution by one, withdrawing to the hill to their rear, while the WG and Rangers consolidated forwards slightly, remaining out of assault range of the Wraith gate.
4c. This did not stop the Guardians doubling out if the gate to shoot the Wraithseer, followed by
4d. Vampire + Aspects assault the Wraithseer (Black). I WG wave serpent countercharges the Guardians to allow all I WG units to fire. A lot of dice later, the Biel Tan win the assault killing 4x WS and 2x WG for the loss of a single WG.

I cannot remember what the BT Fire Prism did if anything

End of turn
Biel Tan
Warp Spiders rally to 2x BM, the nearby Rangers rally to 1 BM and Night Spinner rally clear. Only the Right hand Rangers fail to rally !!!

Iyanden
Vampire with WG flies off table edge gaining a third BM, other Vampire returns home with 2BMs.
WG (Yellow) and WG (red) clear their BMs and Wraithseer (Black) rallies clear, WG (Blue) and WG (Silver) remain broken.

Turn #3

Biel Tan initiative (groan)
As we were running late at this point, we agreed that the BT Guardians and Aspects would demolish the Iyanden Rangers and Wraithseer, and the Void Spinner would bracket WG (Yellow), breaking them.

My only chance was to assault the Void Spinner with the Vampire, but it died to AA thus ending any realistic hope of scoring any points .


End of Game
Iyanden 0, Biel tan 3 (BTS, DTF, T&H) and it could have been 4 if I failed to get something into the Biel Tan table half.

Interesting battle report, thanks Ginger. I get the feeling that the Iyanden just didn't get started in this game. Is that how you felt?

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Yes in part Tim. It was a really tough game, with Steve's army being an almost perfect foil to my strategy and weaknesses. Hats off to Steve C for staying cautious and countering everything I could do. He even got more '1's (30-27) , while complaining bitterly that I threw almost as many sixes as I did '1's - I did point out that usually I only throw 'extreme' dice.


Conclusions

• 4x WG formations are relatively easy to break (though hard to destroy), and once broken tend not to recover. This makes them hard to use individually, but the Eldar 2+ initiative makes them equally hard to work together since it is difficult to avoid them gaining BMs.
• The relative fragility of the Vampires themselves makes their use problematic. Essentially they are fine when used to take out enemy formations on the periphery of the battle but tend to struggle if used against well defended central points.
  In this case, the combination of Rangers and two AA formations was just too much. This option therefore needs long range options to deal with enemy AA (Phoenix bombers?), which in turn places cost constraints on other options.
• Wave Serpents are still susceptible to shooting; their armour will fail if shot enough, and especially if you fail to keep them under your AA umbrella. That said, 5x WG in Wave Serpents is still tough - it took two major formations or 1025 points to break the formation, and even then there were three WG remaining (which could have conceivably run away from the final assault . . .)

I did anticipate some immobility so kept the T&H objectives close together, but also failed a good number of activations at key moments in the game which robbed me of any chance of advancing. To be fair, I had no real counter to the Storm Serpent or Wraith Gate; in the recent tournament Steve 54 ruled that the 'gate could not be blocked, allowing the webway formation to assault the blocking formation. In this case the upgraded Guardians would have been able to decimate any Iyanden formation foolish enough to try this, especially under the fire of two artillery formations with disrupt.

In summary, my list had no real answers to the multiple threats of superior activations with long-range artillery, ground AA and Ranger screens protecting Webway and Air assaults. In trying to include more formations, this particular Iyanden list ended up with small WG formations, together with relatively fragile mobility and assault options that were effectively disrupted from the start.

Thanks for another great Batrep Ginger.
Well written and easy to follow. I have been wanting to see how Iyanden would fair against another eldar player and this was a great demonstration.

It still cracks me up that you keep running tallies of the number of ones rolled. I also note that you did fail some critical imitative rolls despite the SC reroll that hurt.

When all wraith formations are deployed in the table it seems easier to set up counters and defences against them. I noted how effective disrupt arty is against the small Wraith formations.

I agree with you that vampires require a fair bit of consideration as where to strike and how much they can take on the way in. Maybe phoinex to soften the area up first could offer some value.

How do you think foot slogging wraith force would go centred around a warlock?

Cheers

Mic

Great battle report, I don't have much to add to what Ginger's already said.

I guess from the view of playing that list, what I really didn't want was for more than one wraithguard unit to be able to move quickly towards my lines. Hence the effort to pick off 1 wave serpent in every unit. I had to basically give up the fire prisms to do that but it was worth it as it meant I could pick my battles and had Iyanden outranged with the void spinner and night spinners. That said, the wraithuard are really hard to kill, as Ginger says I had to throw about 1000 odd points at this bts (twice) to actually remove it. I can see the plan with the vampires picking up the wraithguard units and redeploying them and it's definitely scary to face. I guess the weakness of that is the lack of support for the units still on the board. Hence the fact the Iyanden BTS ended up quite isolated. I also suspect a unit of jetbikes to clear out scout screens etc could be very useful.

It was actually a very enjoyable and interesting game, normally I'm pretty gung ho with the Eldar so it was really against character to sit back and try and draw them on!

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Mic, I am unsure about footslogging WG with a Warlock, mainly because of the reduced activation numbers which I would expect to exacerbate the issues rather than reducing them. As a thought experiment, consider the bare minimum list available to a Warlock, which is approximately 3x WG, 3x Night Spinner and 3x Ranger or 10 activations

In the UK, tournaments tend to have 10 activations minimum and usually 11-13. Indeed, I have run "pop-corn" 3K Eldar armies of 16 activations and 21 activations at 4K, and I fancy that the Iyanden lists would not fare well against these either. Further, the small WG formations and fragility of the others do not bode well for such a list . . .

Next time I think I will try out Wraith Blades and the 1:1:1 construct along the lines presented, probably with 'gates as the principle delivery mechanism.

Ok, so here is the next test army

455 4xWG + 2xWB + Wraith seer
315 4xWG + WB
315 4xWG + WB
315 4xWG + WB
250 Storm Serpent
250 Storm Serpent
250 Falcons
250 Falcons
200 Bikes
150 Guardians
100 4x Ranger
100 4x Ranger
50 Gate

3000 points, with 12 activations using the 1:1:1 construct and Wraith formations that have five units, which I believe are likely to be the minimum for resilience. The Guardians will contain a single Heavy weapon for laying BMs, and may be delivered by Gate either to defend the Blitz or to support the assaults. Despite the Falcons and Bikes, IMO this is still a relatively 'slow' list because the WG really need to be delivered to the same point for mutual support, which will result in the slow moving units getting to the same location. The SS are fragile as singletons and prime targets for the enemy, so I anticipate them being used only once each, and would probably keep only two formations off table. Also the tendency is to retain when using them, reducing activation parity. Finally the Wraithseer probably needs to start on-table to ensure the SC re-roll is available.


I did consider putting the Storm Serpents in a single formation which requires juggling with the few spare points to avoid making it the BTS. This is a possible list with 11 activations:-
575 4xWG + 4x Wave Serpents + Wraith Seer
500 Storm Serpent
275 4xWG
275 4xWG
275 4xWG
250 Falcons
250 Falcons
200 Bikes
150 Guardians
100 4x Ranger
100 4x Ranger
50 Gate

Although it has potential, I rejected this as a test list because of the lack of WB and the relative fragility of the three 4x WG formations which has already been demonstrated.

& lets you add another WG.

In fact you could swop to all WB and raise another 200pts and give yourself another activation or beef up the smaller Wraith formations/Guardians.

(Although I have just noticed that Wraith Blades don't have a FF so that would probably be a mistake.)

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I would love to go with 450 for the combined Storm Serpents, though the current ruling prevents it. That said, it would allow the BTS to be smaller, thus saving 100 points. By replacing the Bikes with a further set of guardians the 200 points can be used for 5x WB, spread as you see fit. Certainly worth considering - if the ERC would reconsider allowing the second EoV to be 200 points . . . .

That said, this is down to 11 activations, 9 if you retain twice following the activation of the SS, which would be a 'challenge'. That said, the threat of the SS delivered WG is considerable, and if the Rangers are used aggressively to contain the enemy in their half of the table, it might just allow the remaining formations to advance close to the mid line . . .

I dislike the "all WB" formation for exactly the reason cited. Even if delivered by SS to get into an assault, their lack of FF means the formation cannot support anything else which is a big liability. Using them as upgrades to WG formations is a different matter altogether as they provide some defence against CC assaults and add to the formation size.

Hi guys

Kenny and I managed another game the other night.

Ken run his Gazkulls Ork waagh!
Ork Warband (OW2) 250
2xNobz, 6xBoyz, 2xGrotz & 2xStormboyz

Big Ork Warband (OW1) 425
Warlord, Oddboy, 4xNobz,12xBoyz
4xGrotz & Big Gunz

Stormboyz Warhorde (SW) 150
6xStormboyz

Kult of Speed (KOS1) 200
8xSkorcha

Kult of Speed (KOS2) 200
8xSkorcha

Blitz Brigade (BB1) 200
Oddboy Flakwagon & 3xGunwagon

Blitz Brigade (BB2) 200
Oddboy Flakwagon & 3xGunwagon

Blitz Brigade (BB3) 200
Oddboy Flakwagon & 3xGunwagon

Mekboy Gunzmob (MG)175
Oddboy & 5xBig Gunz

Gargant 650
Blasta Gargant

Landa 200
Landa

Fighta Squadron (FB)150
3xFighta- Bommer

I tried something a little different last night.

Incompertus, 3000 POINTS
Iyanden Craftworld (4.2)
==================================================

AVATAR [0]

SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST (WG1) [575]
4x Wraithguard units, 4 Wave Serpent, Wraithseer

SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST (WG2) [475]
4x Wraithguard units, Spiritseer, 4 Wave Serpent

SPIRIT WRAITHBLADE WARHOST (WB1) [225]
4x Wraithblade units, Spiritseer

SPIRIT WRAITHBLADE WARHOST (WB2) [225]
4x Wraithblade units, Spiritseer

VAMPIRE RAIDER (1) [200]

VAMPIRE RAIDER (2) [200]

NIGHTWING INTERCEPTORS (NW) [300]
3x Nightwing Interceptors

SPACECRAFT [150]
Wraithship

NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE (NS1) [175]
3x Night Spinner units

NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE (NS2) [175]
3x Night Spinner units

RANGER TROUPE (RT) [100]
4 Ranger

WINDRIDER TROUPE (WT) [200]
5 Jetbike, Vyper

The Table


Deployment phase
Iyanden call corners and set up in the bottom left of the picture with Orks opposite.

Objectives
Iyanden Blitz placed midway along the long board edge of their deployment. Both Iyanden forward objectives were on halfway line to the top right of the picture.

Orks placed their blitz midway along their short edge with one forward objective on the halfway line to bottom right of the pics and the other close to the Iyanden blitz.

The Iyanden Wraithship declared it was coming in first turn for an orbital bombardment.




Ork Force Deployment


Iyanden Force Deployment




Turn 1.
Orks win Strategy and elect to go first.
O-KOS1 double forward
O- retain BB1 double forward to cover
I – Wraithship fires bombardment laying down a bombardment where KOS1 had just been but still hits BB2 for a kill and two BM.
O- SW double forward in a dispersed formation
I – RT go on OW
O- BB2 double forward
I – NW fail to activate but SC re-roll saves the day
O- BB3 doubles forward
I – WB1 go on OW
O- MG go on OW
I – WT double forward firing at KOS1 put a BM on
O- FB ground assault WT for a single BM
I – Vampire 1 lands and picks up WB1
O- Gargant doubles forward into the screen of the SW
I – WG2 double forward
O- KOS2 double forward and fire on the WT killing three and breaking the formation
I – WG1 advance and fire killing 5 from KOS2 breaking the formation who then retreat to cover
O- OW go on OW
I – Vampire 2 fails to activate
O- Landa stands down
I- NS1 fail to activate and clear blast
I- NS2 advance to cover


Rally Phase
All flyer fly off without incident
I – Jetbikes fail to rally
O- KOS2 failed to rally
O- KOS1 failed to clear BM
O- BB1 rallied with the SC reroll



Turn 2
Orks win strategy and go first
O- Gargant fails to activate for an advance despite the SC re-roll. Gargant fires at WG1 for a single BM
I – NS1 fail to activate and clear BM
O- KOS 1 failed to activate
I – NW fail to go on CAP but SC re-roll means they passed
O- BM1 double forward and fire on WG1 for single BM
O- Retain, SW engage the WG1 and with the support of KOS 1 and BM 1 (clipping). Orks win by 3 running down the remaining three stands of WG retreat back to cover. SB take two BM for the two casualties they took.
I - Vampire 1 fails to activate
O - FB Ground assault WG2, NW on CAP intercept shooting down 2 FB for 3 BM the remaining one pulls out of the attack run with some fancy jinking.
I - WG2 double forward firing on BB1 killing 1 and breaking the formation
O - BB2 sustains on WG2 killing 1 WG for 2 BM
O - Retain BB3 double forward firing at WG2 killing 1 for two more BM
I - RT failed to activate and clear BM
O - OW went on OW
I - NS2 sustain and destroy KOS 2
O - BG go on OW
I - WB2 in Vampire 2 engage KOS1 destroying them for no return damage
O - Landa and OW2 engages NS1 destroying the formation for the loss of a grot and Ork stand. The RT take a extra BM due to the range to the NS1

Rally Phase
All flyers flew off avoiding further AA fire.
I - WG2 cleared 2 BM,
O- SW clear a BM
I - WG1 failed to rally
O - Gargant rallies
I - RT clear BM
O- BB1 fails
O - BB2 fails
O - BB3 fails



Turn 3
Avatar is summoned by the wraithseer in a position to engage the OW2 that were from the Landa.

Iyanden win strategy and elect to go first.

I - RT sustain on OW2 killing a Nob a awarding 2 BM
I - Retain The Avatar engages the OW2 and wins by 3 breaking the orks.
I - Retain WB2 engage BB3 killing 2 and winning wiping the BB3 out. WB2 consolidate back onto the objective
O - Gargant doubles on to an objective and fires on WG killing 2 WS for 3 BM
I - Vampire 2 failed to activate
O - FB failed to activate
I - NW attack the SW killing 1 and breaking them
O - OW1 double forward to hold objective
I - WT march forward to contest the objective OW1 just claimed
O- MG maintain OW on the Ork blitz
I - Vampire 1 with WB1 engage and kill BB2 for no casualties back
I- NS2 advance back to the eldar blitz

Rally Phase
Avatar disappeared and flyers flew off
All eldar formations except WG1 rallied. Only the SW passed for the orks.

Iyanden win 2-0
Defend the flag
None shall pass

Sorry guys I forgot to get a final shot of the table at the end of the game.

Thoughts
It was a good game with the orks and we both suffered a lot of fail to activates which I think balanced out in the end. Again the Animated Construct rule didn't impact. I did feel the WraithBlades had a good game and were critical in clearing the eldar half and taking the objectives. I felt the MW EA+1 worked well. I tried a risky gamble of deploying a formation on the table and have them picked up by the Vampire in turn 1 to try and gain some activations, it worked this time but it's high risk.

I really like the Wraithguard in Waveserpents formations as they make wonderful anvils for supporting assaults.

The Wraithship nearly had two ork formations fully under the orbital bombardment but after Ken won initiative his sixth sense seem to tell him where the sky was going to fall in.

I was fairly happy with the list however I would love some ground based AA but the Night Wings are the best interceptors in the game so I guess they will keep busy.

Anyway I hope to get another game in soon.

Cheers

Mic

thanks for the report!

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Interesting battle report, thanks for sharing

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Nice report, thanks. Seems that you were still using the 1:1 ratio

The WB in Vampires assaulted well when they did not fail to activate, though it seems that they had little defensive AA to go through. How did you plan to use them subsequently in the game had they arrived earlier? Once they have got into position, it is quite easy for opponents to keep out of 15cm range.

I agree on the use of Wave Serpents with WG, it allows them much greater freedom to shoot (8-10 MW shots is not to be sniffed at, especially when they sustain) and support. Main issue is the relatively fragile nature of the transport, lose a Wave serpent and you have a very expensive walking formation.