EEC 2017 preparations - Eldar

I'm testing the Codex Astartes list I put together for the upcoming EEC 2017 in Copenhagen. This is what I'm planing to bring:

Codex Astartes (NetEA Tournament Pack 2015)
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TACTICAL [450] - 6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, Hunter, Rhinos
TACTICAL [275] - 6 Tacticals, Rhinos
PREDATOR [325] - 4 Annihilator, Hunter
SCOUT [175] - 4 Scouts, Razorback, Rhinos
SCOUT [150] - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Captain
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Chaplain
THUNDERHAWK [200]
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] - 2 Thunderbolt Fighters
MARAUDER SQUADRON [250] - 2 Maurader bombers

This time I was facing Biel-Tan Eldar. The Eldar player is one of my regular opponents and I have faced similar armies many times before, and he has helped me to design mine. So we both know what to expect and how to deal with each others formations...

Biel-Tan Craftworld (Biel-Tan Craftworld (v4.2))
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ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [400] - 8 Shining Spear, Exarch, Autarch
ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [350]  - 8 Warp Spider, 2 Exarch
GUARDIAN WARHOST [150] - Farseer, 6 Guardians, Heavy Weapon Platform
GUARDIAN WARHOST [150] - Farseer, 6 Guardians, Heavy Weapon Platform
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [250] - 3 Falcon, 2 Fire Storm
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [250] - 3 Falcon, 2 Fire Storm
RANGER TROUPE [125] - 5 Ranger
RANGER TROUPE [125] - 5 Ranger
RANGER TROUPE [125] - 5 Ranger
RANGER TROUPE [125] - 5 Ranger
PHOENIX BOMBERS [325] - 3 Phoenix Bombers
VAMPIRE RAIDER [200]
VAMPIRE RAIDER [200]
WINDRIDER TROUPE [200] - 4 Jetbikes, 2 Vyper
AVATAR

As I wrote this up I realized that there are som pictures missing from time to time. I hope you can follow the action anyway.

 

Deployment

I deployed my army fairly tight with Warhounds on each flank and Scouts garrisoned in front on overwatch. I wanted to keep everything under the air cover of both Hunters as I was expecting Phoenix Bombers to alphastrike. My Blitz is placed behind my predators and both my T&H are in the left side of the battlefield (left and right of the forest). The Eldar T&H objectives are placed just above the ruin in the lower left edge of the picture and the other one wide on my right flank. Both Assault Marine formations are loaded into the Thunderhawk.

Eldar deployment. Scouts are chained out everywhere on the Eldar side. In the deployment zone are (from the left) Falcons, Guardians, Shining Spears, more Falcons, more Guardians and the Wind Riders. The Warp Spiders are in one Vampire and the other one is empty.

 

Turn 1

E1: Eldar wins initiative and as expected the Phoenix Bombers hit the Predators. The Hunter miss it's AA but only one Predator is killed.

SM1: The Warhound on the left flank advances and, with some very precise shooting, wipes out the leftmost Ranger squad.

E2: The Rangers in the forest fails to go on Overwatch, and shoots the Scouts in front of them. One of the Scouts die.

SM2: The second Warhound advances and breaks the Rangers in the ruins behind the forest, three of them withdraws behind the ruin.

E3: A Guardian formation marches into the center ruins

SM3: The Thunderbolts go on CAP

E4: The second Guardian formation marches into the ruins the Rangers used to guard.

SM4: The Tacticals doubles forwards and places a BM on the Rangers in the forest.

E5: The Empty Vampire stands down.

SM5: The Scouts on the left engages the Rangers in the forest. Three Rangers are killed and the rest are hacked down in resolution.

E6: The Falcon group on the left advances (with SC re-roll) and takes 2 DC from a Warhound, breaking the titan. The Warhound retreats back behind a ruin in the Marine deployment zone.

SM6: The Predators double towards the Falcons but fail to do any damage.

E7: The Warp Spiders air assaults the Predators, wiping out the formation for no losses to the aspects. The consolidate towards the unbroken Warhound

SM7: The Supreme Commander doubles towards the Warp Spiders and places a BM.

E8: The Shining Spears marches towards the action on the left flank

SM8: The Assault Marines assaults the Warp Spiders. The Thunderhawk takes a DC from the Firestorms but survives. The Eldar are wiped out for no losses to the Assault Marines.

E9: On the other flank the Windriders doubles into cover from the buildings and puts a BM on the Scouts.

SM9: The Marauders immediately react to this new threat and kills one Jetbike and one Vyper in a ground attack, breaking the formation. The nearby Rangers are also clipped for two BM. The Windriders falls back towards the Marine Blitz.

 E10: The final Ranger formation fails to activate and puts a BM on the Scouts

SM10: The Scouts attempts to engage the broken Windriders, fails and removes BMs.

E11: The Falcons on the right fails and moves ahead.

End Phase

The Tunderhawk exits without incidents but one of the Marauders are shot down by the Firestorms placed to block their exit. The Vampire raider remains on the ground.

Everything rallies!

Turn 2

The Avatar is summoned into the forest where the action is.

SM1: Marines win initiative and the Supreme Commanders advances and places a BM on the Shining Spears.

SM2: The Assault Captain orders an combined assault on the aspects. As I'm writing this up I realize we made a major mistakes here. The Shining Spears managed to drag the Scouts into the engagement which should not have been possible due to the 10cm scout ZoC.

Anyways first round is brutal, 4 Spears for 5 Marines (mostly Scouts) and the Eldars are up by one. Snake eyes from the Eldar and a 1+2 from the Marines and it goes to a second round. With some very accurate firefight shots the Assault Marines manages to kill all Shining Spears in the second round! BTS to the Marines! The Scouts are wiped out and the Assault formations loose one unit each.

E1: Falcons advance and takes out all tanks from the S.C. formation

E2: The Guardians engages and wipes out the Assault Chaplain but loose their Farseer in return

E3: Finally the Avatar engages the Marine Supreme Commander in a firefight. There is a lot of 4+ support nearby and the Marines can't beat the odds this time. The formation is wiped out and the Eldar claims BTS.

SM3: The remaining Tactical formation engages the Falcons and wipes out the grav-tanks.

SM4: The Warhound retains and advances towards the landed Vampire Raider. He manages to score one DC with his Megabolter (plasma is recharging) and the air transport is broken and killed.

E4: The Phoenixes kills the second Warhound in a ground attack.

SM5: The Thunderbolts hit the rallied Wind Riders by the Marine Blitz, killing two and breaking the formation.

E5: The surviving Falcon formation doubles towards the Marine Blitz and kills the Razorback and one Rhino from the Scout formation.

SM6: The Scouts double and hack down one Jetbike.

E6: The rallied rangers on the left advances and kills the Assault Marine Captain.

SM7: The surviving Marauder stands down

E7: The Ranger formation on the right fails and moves forwards.

SM8: The Thunderhawk stands down

E8: The empty Vampire lands by the left Eldar T&H and breaks the Assault Marines with a BM. They retreat into the ruins in the center of the Marine side.

E9: Finally the remaining Guardian formation backs up to guard their Blitz.

End Phase

One Thunderbolt is lost to the Firestorms during disengage.

Everything rallies.

Turn 3

E1: Eldar win initiative and the Phoenixes hits the Tacticals, killing one Rhino and two Marines.

E2: The landed Vampire sustains on the Warhound taking out both shields.

E3: The Guardians triple retain and engages the Warhound. With some very lucky armor saves the titan repels all shurikes flying his way and wins the combat. The broken Guardians moves back into the forest.

SM1: The Scouts doubles to defend the Blitz and breaks the lone surviving Jetbike.

SM2: The Tacticals fails to marshal and are forced to move towards a T&H with all their BMs remaining.

E4: The Falcons contesting the Marine Blitz sustains fire on the nearby Scouts. The Rhino saves two hits and all AP shots miss! Very disappointed and surprised Eldars fails to claim the Blitz...

SM3: The Marauder puts a BM on the Rangers near the left Marine T&H.

E5: The Rangers puts another BM on the Tacticals and moves to contest the left Marine T&H, placing the Warhound in their ZoC.

SM4: The Thunderbolt stand down.

E6: The Blitz guard doubles to contest both Blitz and the right Marine T&H. They place another BM on the Tacticals.

SM5: The surviving Assault Marines marches over to the Warhound to help contest the left Marine T&H.

E7: The remaining Rangers fails and moves to grab the right Eldar T&H.

SM6: The Thunderhawk lands to contest the left Eldar T&H. It shoots at the Rangers to regain control of the left Marine T&H and to remove their ZoC form the Warhound. One of the Rangers die and the formation breaks.

SM7: With the last activation of turn 3 the Warhound advances towards the right Marine T&H. He manages to kill all guardians in range of the objective and thereby secures the victory for the Marines.

The End

The Marines managed to pull off a 2-1 victory with BTS and T&H. It was a very close game until the final activations of turn 3. The Eldar lost their chance to win when the Falcons failed to break the Scouts contesting the Marine Blitz. Would this have succeeded (which it should have) the Marines would have been forced to play for a draw.

Thanks to my opponent for another great game of Epic.

EEC 2017 preparations - Tyranids

I'm testing the Codex Astartes list I put together for the upcoming EEC 2017 in Copenhagen. This is what I'm planing to bring:

Codex Astartes (NetEA Tournament Pack 2015)
==================================================
TACTICAL [450] - 6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, Hunter, Rhinos
TACTICAL [275] - 6 Tacticals, Rhinos
PREDATOR [325] - 4 Annihilator, Hunter
SCOUT [175] - 4 Scouts, Razorback, Rhinos
SCOUT [150] - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Captain
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Chaplain
THUNDERHAWK [200]
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] - 2 Thunderbolt Fighters
MARAUDER SQUADRON [250] - 2 Maurader bombers

This time I was facing EpicUK Tyranids. For some reason I always have trouble handling Tyranids...

Tyranids (100815)
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NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [365] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 4 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant, 3 Malefactor, Zoantrope
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [300] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 8 Termagant, 3 Biovore
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [290] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 6 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant, Zoanthrope
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [225] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 4 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant
BRUTE SWARM [245] - 1 Hive Tyrant, 3 Carnifex
BRUTE SWARM [200] - 1 Hive Tyrant, 3 Exocrines
DOMINATRIX SWARM [500] - 1 Dominatrix
GENESTEALER SWARM [150] - 6 Genestealer
SPORE MINE SWARM [150] - 6 Spore Mine Clusters
SUBTERRANEAN SWARM [250] - 1 Trygon and 2 Raveners
LICTOR SWARM [250] - 5 Lictor

Setup

This is the table setup, I choose lower right corner as I didn't want the Tyranids hiding inside the 4+ cover houses...

Objectives were placed around the center forest with one Marine objective barely visible to the left and one Tyranid T&H to the right. The second Tyranid T&H was placed in the city and the Marine T&H in the upper right corner. Marine blitz was paced in the corner (not vissible) as far away from the Tyranids as possible while the Tyranid blitz was placed behind the upper forest.

I forgot the fact that the Tyranids have some nasty teleporters when I garrisoned my Scouts, one in the left forest and one in the buildings. I should have saved one of them as a screen...

I tried to compensate by placing both Tacticals and Warhounds closely together so that they could support each other in case the Tyranids decided to teleport turn one. The Predators are deployed behind the tall building on the right.

Tyranids garrisoned Genestealers in the center (within CC range of my Scouts) and Spoar Mines chained from the upper right T&H. In the deployment zone from the lower left are the Biovore swarm, a plain Assault swarm, Exocrine swarm and Carnifex swarm behind them, Malefactor Assault swarm, Dominatrix and the boosted Assault swarm.

Turn 1

Space Marines wins initiative and decides to go for the Genestealers before they have the Marine Scouts for breakfast...

SM1: A Warhound advances and miss all but one shot, which is saved by the Genestealers!
SM2: I retain to save my Scouts and try to engage the Genestealers, but the Scouts fail even with help from the Supreme Commander! Not a good start for the Marines...

T1: The Exocrines double forward and removes both shields from the Warhound

SM3: Marauders breaks the Biovore swarm, killing all Biovores and some brood.

They move towards the Marines

T2: The Genestealers engage the Scouts, but roll terribly and only manage to kill the two Rhinos. The Scouts kills a few Genestealers in return and the Genestealers loose the combat and are wiped out in resolution.

SM4: Tacticals double ahead and kills two brood from the rightmost swarm.

T3: The Dominatrix double, with a Supreme Commander re-roll, and shoots at the Tacticals. Only one Marine dies.

SM5: Predators advance and kills 3 Spoar Mines, breaking the formation.

T4: The rightmost swarm doubles and puts another BM on the Tacticals.

SM6: Thunderbolts hit the Malefactor swarm, loosing one plane to the Zoantrope. The Zoantrope is killed by the remaining fighter.

T5: The Malefactor swarm marshals, removes all blast markers and moves up behind the Dominatrix.

SM7: The second Warhound advances and kills four brood from the rightmost swarm.

T6: The plain Assault Swarm marches, closing in on the Marines from the left.

SM8: The Supreme Commander doubles towards this new threat and places a BM.

T7: Last activation from the Tyranids. The Carnifex Swarm fails and moves forward.

SM9: The Assault Marines wipes out the assault swarm in an air assault. The Chaplain looses one marine and the Captain two.

SM10: Finally the remaining Scout formation marches to screen the Tacticals from at least one upcoming assault.

End of Turn: All aircraft disengage without incidents, both broken Tyranid formations (Spoar Mines and whats left of the Biovore swarm) fail to rally. Overview after turn one: Marines are holding the center forest but the Tyranids are closing in.

 

Turn 2

Lictors and the Trygon teleport in behind the Marines into the city. No blast markers for any of the formations. Marines are in a bad position at this point, with macro close combat monsters on all sides!

SM1: The Warhound tries a desperate engage on the Lictors, also setting up a crossfire on the Trygon for the Predators. Only problem is that the Warhound looses the combat and breaks.

SM2: The Predators retain anyway, and advance on the Trygon. They roll really bad and the Trygon saves very well and the end result is a single BM.

T1: The Malefactor swarm engages the Scouts. Two Scouts survive the massive amount of fire, at least long enough for the Tacticals to give them some support. The Scouts are wiped out by support fire from the Dominatrix, but with the support from the Tacticals they in return manage to kill half of the brood and two Malefactors.

T2: Retaining the Dominatrix engages the Tacticals. They are wiped out for a single DC on the Dominatrix.

SM3: The Supreme Commander decides it's time to take care of the Lictors, he doubles over and places a BM.
SM4: Retaining, the second Warhound engages. The Lictors are wiped out.

T3: The rightmost swarm engages the remaining Scout formation. The lone Razorback escapes the carnage.

T4: Retaining, the Exocrines sustains fire on the Assault Chaplain. Two marines die and the lone survivor moves forward into a forest.

SM5: With the Trygon threat remaining the marines orders the Thunderhawk to do a ground attack, hopefully killing the Raveners and breaking the formation. The Thunderhawk fails it's 2+ activation, even with a Supreme Commander re-roll!

T5: The Trygon engages the Predators, and wipe out the formation.

SM6: The Marauders retaliate, killing one Ravener and breaking the Trygon.

T6: The Carnifex swarm marches into the center forest

SM7: The remaining Thunderbolt stand down.
SM8: The Assault Captain formation doubles over to the city, positioning themselves for the next turn and making it harder to rally for the Trygon.

End of Turn: For marines the Assault Chaplain and Warhound fails to rally. Tyranids rally everything but the Trygon. The Warhound moves towards the upper right T&H and the Trygon towards the marine Blitz. The remaining marines have been forced to retreat towards the city...

Turn 3

T1: Tyranids win initiative and the Dominatrix doubles towards the Supreme Commander, killing one marine and one Rhino.

T2: Retaining the rightmost swarm engages the Warhound. The combat goes to two rounds and in the end the Warhound is killed by supportive fire from the Dominatrix.

SM1: The Supreme Commander decides it's time to get out of Dodge, and marches across the board towards the top right T&H. He is a few centimeters away from getting to the objective.

T3: The Spoar Mines marshals, fails and removes blast markers.

M2: The Razorback doubles to put a BM on the Malefactor swarm.

T4: Whats left of the Biovore swarm engages and kills the Assault Chaplain securing an objective.

SM3: The Thunderbolt hit the Malefactor swarm but fails to kill anything important.

T5: The Carnifex swarm fails and moves to secure a T&H

M4: The Assault Captain marches to grab the Tyranid blitz.
T6: The Exocrines double back to contest, killing one marine breaking the formation.

SM5: The Marauders finally manages to break the Malefator formation. Only one Warrior and a Hormagaunt survives.

SM6: The Thunderhawk wipes out the Spoar Mines with it's Heavy Bolters.

End of Turn: Neither side has secured any victory conditions, but the Marines are at this point only focused on trying not to loose... All broken formations rally.

Turn 4

SM1: The Razorback doubles and puts a BM on the Trygon.

T1: The Trygon marshals and grabs blitz.

SM2: The surviving Assault Marine marshals and secures the T&H, but at this point i must have been tired and did not measure his move correctly and he ends up short of the objective...

T2: The Biovore swarm defends a T&H

SM3: The Supreme Commander finally secures the T&H, hiding form the Tyranids.

T3: The Exocrines doubles and puts a BM on the Warhound.

SM4: Marauders stand down.

T4: The dominatrix doubles to secure a T&H, failing to kill the Razorback.

SM5: The remaining Thunderbolt is killed by a Zoantrope.

T5: A swarm marches back so secure the Tyranid Blitz.

SM6: The Thunderhawk breaks the blitz guard.

T6: Carnifexes rushes home to secure the Blitz

SM7: With the final activation of turn 4 the surviving Warhound moves to contest the T&H held by the Dominatrix. He also manages to kill the swarm holding the other Tyranid T&H objective, saving the marines form a 2-0 loss.

End of Game

The game ended in a draw. We were pretty close on points as all broken swarms failed to rally. I did some mistakes in turn four, and maybe there would have been a slim chance for me to grab the Tyranid blitz if I would have played better but in the end I was lucky to get away with a draw.