Eldar Vs Blood Angels

After the last game, I made some changes to my 1k list in an attempt to make it more all round for the purpose of just having a competitive list I can put on the table without having to write a list every time. Plus it gives me the goal of getting that small part of my painting list completed.

This game however, would end up being one of the best and most brutal games that I had ever played with hardly anything left on the table come the end.

We rolled a Dawn of War deployment and Relic mission, I deployed second and had to react to a small deployed force of a couple of scout squads and a hidden Whirlwind. I started by deploying my Fire Prism with a view to covering the relic and the scout squad in the building, the Wraithknight took the other flank with a view to neutralising the Whirlwind. I placed the Wave Serpent near the right flank with a squad of Guardians in a building behind them, and the other Guardians more centrally. The Spiritseer rolled Embolden/Horrify and Empower/Enervate and deployed between the Wave Serpent and central Guardians, the Warlocks took Conceal/Reveal and sat in the Guardian squads. I failed to seize the initiative and started the first turn.

First of all, a Drop Pod fell from the sky, ejecting it's contents of a Terminator Librarian and Sternguard right in front of my lines. The first scout squad moved up and took the relic whilst the other stood still. That second Scout squad then let rip a single Krak missile right toward my Fire Prism, scored a 6 to hit, followed by a 5 to cause a penetrating hit, then a 6 to take it out of the game. A disappointing start, as I really wanted that Fire Prism to control the objective, it threw my plans a bit, but that's what happens when dice are involved. The Sternguard then proceeded to take half of the Wraithknights wounds and the Whirlwind dropped a direct hit on my open Guardian squad, reducing their number by Eight. The remaining two passed their morale check before it rolled onto my turn.

It was a bit of a hard first turn for me, one of my big guns was down and I had lost pretty much the effectiveness of the Guardians. I needed some equalization, so I moved the Wraithknight towards the Whirlwind and scored two penetrating hits, sadly, I only managed to immobilize it and stop it firing for a turn. It really needed to die. The Wave Serpent moved into view of the scouts, hitting it with Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons and Serpent Shield to drop them. My depleted Guardians took a couple of shots at the Sternguard and the other squad jumped out of the building, unloaded 20 shots then ran back into the building. A single man fell, the Librarian which was in front of the larger Guardian squad just absorbed all of the shots.

At the start of turn 2, the Stormraven turned up and dropped five Death Company onto the field. The shooting phase was dominated by the loss of the Wraithknight which took the focus of the fire from the Raven and the Sternguard squad. On his last wound I was forced to make 7 saves, of which I passed 6. I thought that would be the story of the game, just missing out each time.But luck evens out, and the Whirlwinds shot towards the full Guardian squad scattered off the board on a double 6. The Wave Serpent then let rip at the Death Company, reducing them to 3 before I deposited my Wraithguard in front of the Sternguard, and moved to surround them. Again the full Guardian squad jumped out, losing the Warlock in the process to a Perils of the Warp on a double 1, unloaded 20 shots, then dived back into the building, this time taking down the Sanguinary Priest, and crucially, that Squads Feel No Pain roll.

Turn 3 is where the game changed. The Stormraven hovered as the game now focused down to one tile. The Wave Serpent took 2 penetrating hits, but with the Shield back up, they were downgraded to glances. My accursed armour save luck lost me 3 of the Wraithguard before I got a chance to respond. The shooting was good this turn, My Wave Serpent moved to finish off the Whirlwind and get into a Linebreaker position. The Guardian squads then unleashed another volley into the Sternguard, and the lack of Feel No Pain and a handful of Bladestorm shots dropped them, leaving me with a straight run at the objective. The Wraithguard then picked off one of the Death Company before charging them in an attempt to tie them up for the rest of the game.

During turn 4, the Scouts who were holed up in the building made a break for the Relic, they had run out on the previous turn, and managed once again to move 12". Later on it, they would be disqualified after a doping test. The Stormraven thinned out the larger Guardian squad who rued the lack of a cover save after the Warlock derped to death the previous turn. Thankfully, the Wave Serpent was ignored, so he unleashed his weapons at the Stormraven scoring three glancing hits, of which two were jinked. Later on I would realize my mistake that the Serpent Shield ignores cover, so the flyer should have taken those two wounds. Oh well, you learn these things the hard way some times. The Spiritseer reduced the strength of the Death Company by one, which helped combat by making sure they couldn't harm the Wraithguard. but even at full strength, both sides just stared at each other.

As the game drew to a close over two more turns, the Scouts made another 12" move to grab the relic, before the were forced to drop it by the Guardians, the other squad, which had been reduced to one grabbed the relic and dived into cover. The Scouts were held up in combat by my other remaining Guardians who had dropped to a single man themselves after a round. The Spiritseer tried to drop the Stormraven with his Witchstaff, but even 2D6 for armour penetration only gave a 7 when I needed an 8 plus. The Wraithguard managed to drop one more of the Death Company, but with the relic safely in Eldar hands, the game ended after turn 6.

So in the end,  I was left with a Spiritseer, two squads of one Guardian and two Wraithguard and the Blood Angels had a Stormraven, two Scouts and one Death Company Marine. Crucially, I had the Relic and Slay the Warlord compared to First Blood giving me a 4-1 victory!

The list worked well, and although the advantage swung massively towards the Blood Angels at the start of the game, as the turns rolled on, the advantage came back to me. The Fire Prism was unfortunate to suffer an almost perfect shot at the start of the game, but the Wave Serpent was invaluable, nearly taking out a good chunk of the Blood Angels points singlehandedly. In this game though, everything worked, it was a game that was very balanced where insane good luck was almost immediately balanced by insane misfortune.

Next up is a game against the Dark Angels of the Master of Sanctity.