Mrs. Sandwyrm was feeling particularly generous tonight, so I got to head down to the North Store even though I'd already gone down to the South Store on Sunday. I didn't even have to ask, she just told me I could go. I love my wife!
Anyhow, I got there too late to grab a game with anyone else, so Gibbs (the store guy) agreed to play me with his Mech Eldar at 2K.
I apologize for not taking the pictures for a proper batrep, but I was pretty convinced that I'd be tabled by Turn 3. Gibbs had 6 Grav tanks (all with AP2 Weapons), and 2 units of Fire Dragons. Backing these up, he had 2 Dire Avenger Squads for capturing objectives (both with Farseers), and a unit of Banshees. He had some Pathfinders too, but he forgot to put them on the board.
We rolled up a Sieze Ground mission with 3 objectives and a Pitched Battle deployment. Gibbs won the roll to go first, but decided to make me go first instead, so I took the side with 2 of the 3 objectives on it.
I put Mephiston and a Sangpriest (not joined) in cover between the objectives on my side. The Speeders were in reserve, while everything else would deep-strike onto the table.
Gibbs put down two Wave Serpents, one with Dire Avengers on my left, and the other with Fire Dragons on my right.
Here's what the end of turn 7 looked like:
Gibbs has 2 units (both Serpents) left alive. One of those is an immobilized and weaponless hulk in the middle of the table, while the other is contesting an objective. I've still got 2 Speeders, Dante, a Sangpriest, and 2 squads of SangGuard left.
Dante and Company are holding the objective in the middle of the table.
While the other squad is protecting the objective that Gibbs contested. The first tank to contest it was wrecked by their Infernus Pistols.
The first couple of turns were a little rough for me. Dante's squad and another SG squad dropped on a Serpent in turn 2, but spent all their firepower killing the Grav tank instead of killing the tank and then the shooting the Fire Dragons inside. So Gibbs killed 2 squads of SangGuard pretty quickly with his Dragons and other AP2 firepower, leaving Dante on his own.
But, once the rest of my troops came on I suddenly realized the pickle that the Eldar were in. In a tactical sense, I was faster than they were. As the only way to get out of my reach was for his skimmers to move flat out... away from the objectives.
With the 18" melta/charge threat from my troops, combined with the multi-meltas on the 3 speeders, there just wasn't any safe place for Gibbs to go. And in case you didn't know, Mephiston is fleet. He was able to fly out of cover, run, and assault a Grav tank that was 22" away. Nasty.
Once Gibbs' tanks started cracking, I mopped up quickly. Dante killed 2 squads all by himself.
The speeders also proved invaluable, killing 2 Grav tanks and torching the Banshees after they wiped out a SangGuard squad. People laugh at the Multi-Melta/Heavy Flamer combo, but I would never take any other.
So, it was a good game for the Emo-Wing. I feel a lot better now about the idea of facing mech armies.
Nice work! Don't be so surprised, you put a lot of thought and work into this army!
ReplyDeleteHow you finding Angels Sandwyrm? They're all infantry aren't they besides Speeders?
ReplyDeleteI've put a Angels list on my blog, take a look if you can ;)
I'm in a pickle... do I spend my tax return expanding my Black Templars or do I spend it on starting up Sanguinary Guard.
ReplyDeleteDamn you Sandwyrm. First Stelek tempts me and now you with your emo wing. *shakesfist*
And congrats on the win :)
Messanger
Drop Armies scare the pants out of Eldar when they start dictating the pace of the game. The fact that you can get rear shots occasionally is also nasty.
ReplyDeleteOh, and you didn't need to say Mephy and the Priest weren't joined, as units of 1 can never be joined by Independent Characters. :p
@Mercer
ReplyDeleteSangGuard turning out to be a lot more killy than I thought they would be when I started them. They may lack an Invul save, but they're damn quick on the table. Everything in this army moves 18-24" per turn, everything has meltas or S10, and every unit has LD10 to keep them from running.
I'm still not prepared to say that they're first-class competitive, but they're way more competitive than people initially gave them credit for.
The real test will be how I do against Guard or Farmpunk's Sisters. :)
@TKE
ReplyDeleteI made the mistake of joining them a few games ago, so I thought I'd be explicit.
Also, I'm not sure I like the image of getting rear shots on de-panted Eldar. :P
Love the Emo Wing SandWyrm, glad to see it's working for ya.
ReplyDeleteThey make me want my GK's updated so bad. Mostly just so I have another type of army to play.
ReplyDeletealthough getting to play Anonymous Foodie with the mixed =I= last night was fun.
Who won that game? I had to leave before it was done.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was waiting for updated GKs myself, but then stjohn posted his budget SG army...
well, We got to turn5, and in the back half of the turn, I shot down all 3 Monsterous Creatures, killed the last gargoyle, and last of the Gaunts
ReplyDeleteFoodie was left with his Warriors, his Hive Guard, and the lone Biovore.
It was a crazy round of shooting, and took away most of his damage dealers, and netted me 5Kp's.
We called it, as in the one turn, I'd done as much to him as he'd done to me all game. I counted up that at that point in the game, he'd gotten 6kp's. I think I got 10 Kp's on him.
my 2K list is tough to deal with, but I don't think it's as optimized as it could be.
You're just making me want to play against the SG list that much more. I'm curious to see how it does against BA mech.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping one of you guys might be at the South store on sunday, I've been doing team games the last few weeks, and while fun, I want to see how I handle on my own against a skilled opponent.
I saw the carnage of that game... it was pretty. I'll be bringing the DE back into the shop soon (they've been whining about a lack of fresh slaves) so maybe I'll have to try my luck out. My lances may not be able to crack AV10, but I can pop infantry with them blindfolded.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah... Farmpunk and I were trading blows pretty steadily up until turn 5. Then his dudes said "Feth this noise, we're goin' home!" (I think it was past their bedtime and they were gettin' antsy). The ebb and flow of the battle became a raging tsunami and my little tiki hut got drenched.
But hey, that's what happens when you start rolling dice. I'm just happy that for the most part I was matching blows against not only a solid mech army, but a solid army/player in general.
And hey, maybe next time my Hive Tyrant will actually shoot something >.<
I call the next game against Sandwyrm. I have long wanted to see how the Cherry Marines do against the Wintergreen Marines of the Space Wolves. They are both pretty awesome armies. Soon I hope!!
ReplyDelete