Objective Secured

Game 2 rolls around and the match ups are sorted – I will be facing Matt and his Craftworld Eldar. The mission is Hammer and Anvil, Purge the Alien. This is about the worst I could imagine…

Matt is no slouch – he has been the Eldar player 2 years in a row for the WA ATC team – but his list this weekend is softer than that…

So I need to deal with Eldrad and Baharroth joined up to a 20 Guardian blob with 2 bright lances who are then backed up by 2 Wraithlords with 2 bright lances each as well as an Avatar of Khaine. 2 Units of swooping hawks with their large blasts will be bad for me as they get around Veil of Tears and he still managed to get 2 units of 6 Windriders with Scatter Lasers AND 2 Hornets with 2 Pulse Lasers each.

I won the roll off for first turn and made, in hindsight, a critical mistake that potentially cost me the game.

We were playing on the same table as my previous game but after a word with the TO about the poor terrain, they shuffled it and added an extra piece. I elected to take what was my right hand flank in the last game as the deployment zone as it had the best places to hide. This was a fundamental mistake and its slightly embarrassing to admit making it as its so obvious and simple in hindsight.

My reasoning at the time was about denying him places to hide with the scatterbikes and hornets. I had Dark Reapers who would make short work of these units all from the safety of an AV14 building. I placed the bunker on my right flank and they had a commanding field of fire – and if Matt used the big piece of terrain in the centre of the board to try and loop around me – he would have to get too close to the harlequins and risk me charging him. What I SHOULD have done was the opposite. I should have taken the flank with little terrain, knowing I wanted to close while he wanted me at arms length and he amount of terrain had I taken this side was much more beneficial to the plan.

We roll powers and warlord traits – he misses invisibility but gets everything else in telepathy (I think he missed mental fortitude as well) and his Avatar gets feel no pain as his warlord trait. I get a good mix of powers and roll on light and get Webway Walker – which I then use and elect to give the solitaire and void weaver infiltrate while the ministar gets scout.

His deloyment is simple – he makes sure his bikes and hornets are more than 48”away from the bunker while the guardian blob is used to screen the Avatar and Wraithlords.

With me going first I move up and deploy the escape hatch as far up as possible to allow the wraithguard options for turn 2. The ministar joins the solitaire out of line of sight in the big ruins in the middile of the board while the starweavers move up as well hugging terrain as bets they can. I dump the reapers fire into a wraithlord along with the shuriken cannons on the star weavers and manage a kill for first blood.

Matt responds by shuffling the units about – the bikes and hornets make short work of the void weaver and star weavers and I lose a couple of harlies in the blasts as well. Its here I realise my second mistake…

I should have hidden myself, kills the wraith lord and then let him come towards the reapers – baiting him in with the fact I had first blood and a kill point to his none. By exposing my units I had allowed him to take back control and force me to try and cover the open ground to charge.

So I bite the bullet and do what I can but its not going to be anything like enough to win the game now short of tabling him. I disembark the wraith guard from the hatch joined by the death jesters and the solitaire makes an impressive 11” charge into the blob and takes nothing from overwatch. When I issue a challenge and he accepts with bararroth I think – this could work… and then fail to land a single blow. He responds by killing the solitaire outright! I litterally fails 4 saves from the 4 hits and wounds that the nasty bird man scored! I had intended for my ministar to join that fight but I failed the charge ofcourse and thanks to the solitaire dying he had consolidate plus a move so that the guardians could shoot and charge me in his turn.

His turn 2 saw me mostly lose both small squads of harlies, both death jesters and the 5 wraithguard they were attached too to the bikes and hornets as well as half the ministar to the guardians despite the buffs I had. He charges in and I challenge baharroth out with the troupe master, sneaking 2 wounds past his 2+ save. I then die in the process so he gets warlord. The 3 shadow seers though recover the fight and manage an impressive 8 kills between them and another couple come out from the remaning players in the troupe. Despite this he had 10 guardians to fight with noi less than 30 attacks with S4 thanks to the avatar giving them furious charge and rage. My 3 shadowseers somehow survive but the rest of the squad is toast. He hit and runs away from me thanks to baharroth.

In my turn, I split one of the shadow seers off and the rest join a squad of 3 harlies nearby. I throw the lone seer into the guardians to soak overwatch (he dies of course!) while the new small unit with 2 seers follows shortly after. I fluff the attack rolls, loose combat and then get swept. The last 3 harlies end up in combat with the Avatar and that combat is very one sided as well.

A look at the table says it all. I have the reapers in an AV14 building and he has lost a single wraithlord and most of the guardians but that’s it. Next turn the hawks will deploy and while I will kill 1 unit, the other will haywire the bunker to death and then the bikes can finish the reapers. We call it there as its obvious who has won.

Despite such a poor showing, with the 2 errors I made early in the game, I am confident had I identified them at the time I could have drawn or even won that game through denial of KP and playing conservative. Little sleep and an over arching assault goal in my mind saw to me losing this game. I like to play aggressive and it cost me here.

Game 3 is announced and I get that sinking feeling – I am to face the horrid combination of the Imperial Knights, Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus – Next post… the War Convocation!