If you came here looking for one of those British tabloid articles, I'm afraid you will be sorely disappointed.
On the other hand, if you wanted to read about the inaugural outing of my Iyanden in their first ever battle report ("WEB EXCLUSIVE" ELEVENTY!!!), then you certainly came to the right place.
On the other hand, if you wanted to read about the inaugural outing of my Iyanden in their first ever battle report ("WEB EXCLUSIVE" ELEVENTY!!!), then you certainly came to the right place.
Greg couldn't resist putting this image up.
Sooo, one of my long time friends, El Jefe, brought out his Grey Knights to take on my Dead Men Walking Eldar army. Jefe has been playing GKs through thick and thin and remained loyal to them throughout their several incarnations.
How can the observer know that? Quite simply, really. All his Grey Knights are metal. So he's a serious, since 4th edition, GK player. When the codex changes, he makes adjustments, but he remains true to his original army. He is a consummate GK kind of guy, certainly quite canny, very crafty, and amusingly jammy.
How can the observer know that? Quite simply, really. All his Grey Knights are metal. So he's a serious, since 4th edition, GK player. When the codex changes, he makes adjustments, but he remains true to his original army. He is a consummate GK kind of guy, certainly quite canny, very crafty, and amusingly jammy.
Our armies (Black Templars vs. Grey Knights) have a long history of battles against each other over the years, documented over at Bolter and Chainsword, so we only thought it proper to start off a new iteration of battle reports here at Feed Your Nerd (tm).
We opted for a 1500 point battle, pretty much because that was everything I have painted and I assumed, correctly as it turns out, that there would be many nuances and capabilities when fielding Iyanden that I wouldn't see right out of the gate. Some of those "nuances" are going to seem really obvious and I have no doubt that this report will cause some Eldar players to roll their eyes and all I can really say about that is:
"Dude, cut me some slack. I've been playing Imperials longer than you've been alive."
We opted for a 1500 point battle, pretty much because that was everything I have painted and I assumed, correctly as it turns out, that there would be many nuances and capabilities when fielding Iyanden that I wouldn't see right out of the gate. Some of those "nuances" are going to seem really obvious and I have no doubt that this report will cause some Eldar players to roll their eyes and all I can really say about that is:
"Dude, cut me some slack. I've been playing Imperials longer than you've been alive."
The Battle of Blue Table Mesa
Honda: "Yes, you in the back with your hand up."
Dude: "Umm, it's called Blue Table Mesa, but all the pictures look brown. Why is that?"
Honda: "Great question. I'm guessing that something with the flash drowned out the blue paint for some reason. The table is actually painted a pale blue. No more questions till later please, we're trying to get this battle report done."
Honda: "Yes, you in the back with your hand up."
Dude: "Umm, it's called Blue Table Mesa, but all the pictures look brown. Why is that?"
Honda: "Great question. I'm guessing that something with the flash drowned out the blue paint for some reason. The table is actually painted a pale blue. No more questions till later please, we're trying to get this battle report done."
Iyanden
1 x Wraithlord, Ghostglaive, flamers
2 x Spirit seers, 1 x Ghosthelm, 1 x Wraithforge stone, 1 x Shard of Annapolis (or whatever it's called)
1 x Wraithguard
1 x Wraithblades
2 x Wave Serpents, twin linked bright lances, shurican, holofields
1 x Firestorm, holofields, spirit stones
1 x Wraithlord, 2 x star cannon
1 x Wraithlord, 1 x bright lance, 1 x Eldar missile launcher
I'm sure the more tournament astute of you (third row on the right with the Bangles shirt, I'm looking at you) will wonder why a list like this?
1. It's what I have painted, which is a prime consideration for me. 99.9999% of the time, I will only play with painted figures. That's just how I am.
2. It's all I have at this point, so just like in the Real Life(tm), sometimes you have to play the cards you are dealt and do the best that you can.
Also, it seems that as a core to build upon, this isn't a bad start if you are interested in playing Iyanden, which I obviously am.
1 x Wraithlord, Ghostglaive, flamers
2 x Spirit seers, 1 x Ghosthelm, 1 x Wraithforge stone, 1 x Shard of Annapolis (or whatever it's called)
1 x Wraithguard
1 x Wraithblades
2 x Wave Serpents, twin linked bright lances, shurican, holofields
1 x Firestorm, holofields, spirit stones
1 x Wraithlord, 2 x star cannon
1 x Wraithlord, 1 x bright lance, 1 x Eldar missile launcher
I'm sure the more tournament astute of you (third row on the right with the Bangles shirt, I'm looking at you) will wonder why a list like this?
1. It's what I have painted, which is a prime consideration for me. 99.9999% of the time, I will only play with painted figures. That's just how I am.
2. It's all I have at this point, so just like in the Real Life(tm), sometimes you have to play the cards you are dealt and do the best that you can.
Also, it seems that as a core to build upon, this isn't a bad start if you are interested in playing Iyanden, which I obviously am.
So nothing earth shattering there, other than the Wave Serpent turret weapons. If you look at the meta of most serpent lists, twin linked scatter lasers seems to be the default choice. I must profess that option confuses me. I get that it's a lot of shots and most people are just trying to get you to roll your armor save, but it seems like when your weapons can't address heavy infantry or armor, you're going to have issues. Now I know that very often there are supporting units to deal with heavy stuff (i.e. Wraithknights), but the Serpent is a very good all rounder and it just seemed to me that if you equip it with some serious punch, then that would open up the heavy slots, because the Eldar are pretty crowded there.
Perhaps that will initiate a discussion in the comments.
Perhaps that will initiate a discussion in the comments.
Grey Knights (from memory)
1 x Chapter Master guy with a demon hammer
5 x Terminators, 4 pig-stickers, 1 demon hammer
10 x Strike Squad Knights. They probably had something that glows in the dark in one hand
10 x Purifiers with four...psycannons? Incinerators? Not sure on these.
1 x Venerable Dreadnought with plasma cannon and DCCW
1 x Dreadknight with huge freaking sword that glows and a fist that does the same thing
1 x Rhino
1 x Land raider Crusader (LRC) with Multi-melta
1 x Storm Raven with twin linked lascannons and twin linked multi-melta
Does that look like a lot of fun to you? Yeah, me either.
1 x Chapter Master guy with a demon hammer
5 x Terminators, 4 pig-stickers, 1 demon hammer
10 x Strike Squad Knights. They probably had something that glows in the dark in one hand
10 x Purifiers with four...psycannons? Incinerators? Not sure on these.
1 x Venerable Dreadnought with plasma cannon and DCCW
1 x Dreadknight with huge freaking sword that glows and a fist that does the same thing
1 x Rhino
1 x Land raider Crusader (LRC) with Multi-melta
1 x Storm Raven with twin linked lascannons and twin linked multi-melta
Does that look like a lot of fun to you? Yeah, me either.
We rolled and got the Relic mission, one of my favorites, and the long ways set up. Jefe surprised me and took the more open side of the table and chose to go first. I attempted to steal, but would come up just short.
Jefe opted to get stuck in and shunted his Dreadknight into the top of building. I thought that was rude. His other units shifted around, but generally move towards the relic.
Then it was the psyker phase. Now I do have to admit, up till now, I always felt that psykers were those things that you tossed on a large roaring fire to add colorful sparkles and interesting sound effects, so as far as I was concerned, how this whole part of the game worked was pretty irrelevant.
All I can tell you is that he rolled dice, I rolled some dice and stuff may or may not have happened. I think this turn, whether or not my dice did something, not a lot happened for this phase. I did note that we was rolling a ton of these witch dice all game.
Looking at that Dreadknight standing on top of the building, I was reminded of some lyrics from the band Yes, "In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky...and they stand there".
Then it was the psyker phase. Now I do have to admit, up till now, I always felt that psykers were those things that you tossed on a large roaring fire to add colorful sparkles and interesting sound effects, so as far as I was concerned, how this whole part of the game worked was pretty irrelevant.
All I can tell you is that he rolled dice, I rolled some dice and stuff may or may not have happened. I think this turn, whether or not my dice did something, not a lot happened for this phase. I did note that we was rolling a ton of these witch dice all game.
Looking at that Dreadknight standing on top of the building, I was reminded of some lyrics from the band Yes, "In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky...and they stand there".
No, I'm not a child of the 60's, I have no idea where this stuff comes from.
His other notable action was in being able to just barely spot my Wraithguard unit on foot and take two of them out with the plasma cannon from his Dreadnought. Grrr...
In my turn I shuffled my vehicles around and lined up on the bright and shiny guy that turned a two story building into a four story building.
I shot a lot of stuff at him.
He lost two wounds. Not good.
Not good at all.
Next turn, Mr. "Hey look at me, I'm a big silver skyscraper" jumps down and gets real close to my Wraithlord, three remaining Wraithguard, and a spirit seer. His dreadnought shoots at the other side of the table and kills my spirit seer with venomous envy and me not rolling my rune armor saves, but mostly me not rolling my rune armor saves.
His other notable action was in being able to just barely spot my Wraithguard unit on foot and take two of them out with the plasma cannon from his Dreadnought. Grrr...
In my turn I shuffled my vehicles around and lined up on the bright and shiny guy that turned a two story building into a four story building.
I shot a lot of stuff at him.
He lost two wounds. Not good.
Not good at all.
Next turn, Mr. "Hey look at me, I'm a big silver skyscraper" jumps down and gets real close to my Wraithlord, three remaining Wraithguard, and a spirit seer. His dreadnought shoots at the other side of the table and kills my spirit seer with venomous envy and me not rolling my rune armor saves, but mostly me not rolling my rune armor saves.
Rune armor, what is it for?
This spirit seer also had the Walmart item that allows you to get a wound back on a roll. The hits just keep coming folks.
The LRC shoots at a wave serpent and glances it to death. My first thought was, "Ok, tell me again why people freak out over Serpents?" Admittedly, I was moving through open terrain and didn't have a cover save...actually is that correct? I guess I should at least of had a 6+ correct?
I think so, not that a 6+ will save the world, but it might have helped. Live and learn.
(Greg Note: Wave serpents can jink (4+) improve their jink to a 3+, then turn pens into glances on a 2+ if the shield is up)
The Dreadknight combi-assaults my Wraithguard and my Wraithlord. The Spirit seer sends happy thoughts to both units and says, "You guys got this right?"
The Wraithlord replies, "Dudette, don't sweat it. We got this."
This spirit seer also had the Walmart item that allows you to get a wound back on a roll. The hits just keep coming folks.
The LRC shoots at a wave serpent and glances it to death. My first thought was, "Ok, tell me again why people freak out over Serpents?" Admittedly, I was moving through open terrain and didn't have a cover save...actually is that correct? I guess I should at least of had a 6+ correct?
I think so, not that a 6+ will save the world, but it might have helped. Live and learn.
(Greg Note: Wave serpents can jink (4+) improve their jink to a 3+, then turn pens into glances on a 2+ if the shield is up)
The Dreadknight combi-assaults my Wraithguard and my Wraithlord. The Spirit seer sends happy thoughts to both units and says, "You guys got this right?"
The Wraithlord replies, "Dudette, don't sweat it. We got this."
Sigh...
We go back and forth, the Dreadknight puts two wounds on the Wraithlord, I whiff on all my hits. Just unreal. However, I'm thinking, Ok, I get some re-rolls here for master crafted and I got the Warlord trait that gave me two re-rolls on anything during the game. So I do my re-rolls.
Bupkis. Nyet. Nein. Nada. No. Nothing. No saved wounds, so now my "go to" guy has one wound left.
The Walmart dealie that could put one back on is over on the other side of the able burning in a crater filled with plasma. Also, the LRC puts two wounds on the star cannon equipped Wraithlord.
The Spirit seer thinks, "Hey, we're the Eldar, masters of the Web way, Supremely psychic. Dudes you can count on me, I got this."
Good news: The Storm Raven did not arrive.
My turn, I shoot at the LRC to no effect. My super awesome psychic powers that cause galaxies to tremble...yeah, nothing there either. My Black Templar dice, sitting in my back pack, keep saying "Dude, we warned you this would happen."
In my assault phase, I kill the Dreadknight, but not before he kills two more Wraithguard. Sigh...
The dead guys consolidate towards the objective.
We go back and forth, the Dreadknight puts two wounds on the Wraithlord, I whiff on all my hits. Just unreal. However, I'm thinking, Ok, I get some re-rolls here for master crafted and I got the Warlord trait that gave me two re-rolls on anything during the game. So I do my re-rolls.
Bupkis. Nyet. Nein. Nada. No. Nothing. No saved wounds, so now my "go to" guy has one wound left.
The Walmart dealie that could put one back on is over on the other side of the able burning in a crater filled with plasma. Also, the LRC puts two wounds on the star cannon equipped Wraithlord.
The Spirit seer thinks, "Hey, we're the Eldar, masters of the Web way, Supremely psychic. Dudes you can count on me, I got this."
Good news: The Storm Raven did not arrive.
My turn, I shoot at the LRC to no effect. My super awesome psychic powers that cause galaxies to tremble...yeah, nothing there either. My Black Templar dice, sitting in my back pack, keep saying "Dude, we warned you this would happen."
In my assault phase, I kill the Dreadknight, but not before he kills two more Wraithguard. Sigh...
The dead guys consolidate towards the objective.
We were getting close to closing time, so it turned out that the third turn would be the last, which would be the Universe's way of showing me mercy.
Jefe got his Storm Raven on and I knew I was going to have problems. The land raider pulled up in front of the Wraithlords and unloaded their cargo of terminators with glowing pig stickers. My guys are starting to make oinking sounds.
The Storm Raven blows apart the Firestorm, then the machine spirit turns the lascannon turret towards my Spirit seer and exclaims, "You are so mine".
However, my Spirit seer pushes the Rune armor button on and the lascannons burn dirt. She
immediately exclaims, "So that's what that button does!"
Honda: Ok, you in the front row, no cracks about her hair color.
Oddly enough, the Wraithlords put up a pretty tough fight and although the twice wounded Wraithlord eventually dies to the Chapter master, he does put one or two wounds on him. The other Wraithlord facing the terminators kills two termies and wins the combat with no wounds incurred. Both Jefe and I scratch our chin and go, "hmm..."
Jefe got his Storm Raven on and I knew I was going to have problems. The land raider pulled up in front of the Wraithlords and unloaded their cargo of terminators with glowing pig stickers. My guys are starting to make oinking sounds.
The Storm Raven blows apart the Firestorm, then the machine spirit turns the lascannon turret towards my Spirit seer and exclaims, "You are so mine".
However, my Spirit seer pushes the Rune armor button on and the lascannons burn dirt. She
immediately exclaims, "So that's what that button does!"
Honda: Ok, you in the front row, no cracks about her hair color.
Oddly enough, the Wraithlords put up a pretty tough fight and although the twice wounded Wraithlord eventually dies to the Chapter master, he does put one or two wounds on him. The other Wraithlord facing the terminators kills two termies and wins the combat with no wounds incurred. Both Jefe and I scratch our chin and go, "hmm..."
The store is closing pretty quick, so I zoom through my turn. I move the Serpent with the Wraithblades squad over to the objective and they get out and pick up the crate of Hersey bars.
I do what I can with my guns and kill off the termies. The Wraithlord with the Ghostglaive and two gaping wounds takes on the Chapter Master and turns him into tinsel for the big Christmas tree at the Eldar's Company Christmas party.
And we call it a wrap.
Final results, 2-2 tie. The Grey Ker-niggets got First Blood and one VP for slaying a character (from Warlord traits). The Iyanden got Slay the Warlord and owning the Primary Objective.
Summary
Great game and always a blast when Jefe and I can throw dice. The Wraithlords were surprisingly (to both of us) resilient. I liked both versions that fielded (shootey and swordey). The Wraithguard didn't really get a chance to shine, though when I needed some hits on the Dreadknight, I didn't get them. I know I need more of these guys, so my purchasing agents have been informed to escalate their priority in all the near future acquisitions.
I thought that the Wave Serpents performed very well for what I needed them to do and validated my idea of using them as tanks. I'll need to get more of those as well.
The real question is how many Spirit seers should I be fielding. I was out diced in the psyker phase the entire game. Now, I realize that the GK are particularly nasty in this regard, but it still seems like I could have used maybe one more. I'll have to think on that a little more and get more data via games.
Things I can do better. Yeah, that Rune armor button, it works when you press it. In the last turn, Rune armor saved the last Spirit seer's bacon at a minimum of two times, maybe three. Spirit Mark. Didn't hear too much about that did you? Yeah, that ended up being another Turn Three new found ability.
So, lots of fun and I look forward to the next time.
Cheers
And we call it a wrap.
Final results, 2-2 tie. The Grey Ker-niggets got First Blood and one VP for slaying a character (from Warlord traits). The Iyanden got Slay the Warlord and owning the Primary Objective.
Summary
Great game and always a blast when Jefe and I can throw dice. The Wraithlords were surprisingly (to both of us) resilient. I liked both versions that fielded (shootey and swordey). The Wraithguard didn't really get a chance to shine, though when I needed some hits on the Dreadknight, I didn't get them. I know I need more of these guys, so my purchasing agents have been informed to escalate their priority in all the near future acquisitions.
I thought that the Wave Serpents performed very well for what I needed them to do and validated my idea of using them as tanks. I'll need to get more of those as well.
The real question is how many Spirit seers should I be fielding. I was out diced in the psyker phase the entire game. Now, I realize that the GK are particularly nasty in this regard, but it still seems like I could have used maybe one more. I'll have to think on that a little more and get more data via games.
Things I can do better. Yeah, that Rune armor button, it works when you press it. In the last turn, Rune armor saved the last Spirit seer's bacon at a minimum of two times, maybe three. Spirit Mark. Didn't hear too much about that did you? Yeah, that ended up being another Turn Three new found ability.
So, lots of fun and I look forward to the next time.
Cheers
