First 2k Tourney in 8th Ed!

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. And an even longer time since I played in 40k tournaments.

I have been slowly dipping my toes back into 40k tournaments for a couple of months now - but nothing serious. By not serious, I mean I just use existing models and paint jobs, and have zero practice games in.

I played a doubles event at Alexandria in the dying days of 7th ed, using a 1,000-pt version of my AirCav, teaming with Amin's Ravenwing. And a 1,000-pt 8th ed kick-off tourney using my Brandenberg IG.

But last Saturday was what I regarded as my first real 40k tourney since 2009, which was also in Singapore. In between then and now, I was very involved in a lot of the early Legio tourneys, but not as a player.

The Road to War 2,000-pt 40k tournament held at and run by the good folks at Gamersaurus Rex was a blast! It was a tiny tourney, but the terrain, the TOs, the players, the atmosphere and the whole thing was just a lot of great fun! I also really enjoyed that they chose to use the ITC ruleset. It was my first experience with the ITC rules, and I must say it's a brilliant set of rules and scenarios for tourneys.

I brought my Eldar Windrider army for the tourney. In the run-up to the tourney, the army went through several iterations. The list started off as a direct port from my 7th ed list, complete with Fire Prisms and Warp Spiders, but without the scatterbikes. After a few weeks of lots of 40k games, learning the Craftworld Eldar index, learning 8th ed itself, trying out stuff, and lots of fine tuning, I ended up with the following list:

FALCHU WARHOST OF ALAITOC

Windriders of Alaitoc - Outrider Detachment
Farseer Skyrunner - jetbike, singing spear
8 Fire Dragons, with Exarch
3 squads of 4 jetbikes, all armed with shuriken cannon
8 Dark Reapers, Exarch with tempest launcher
2 Wave Serpents for the Aspect Warriors, both armed with twin shuriken cannon in the turret and a chin-mounted shuriken cannon. The Fire Dragons' Wave Serpent was also equipped with spirit stones

Wings of Khaine - Air Wing Detachment
2 Hemlocks, one with spirit stones
1 Crimson Hunter Exarch, with bright lances and pulse laser

This tiny list came in at 1,996-pts, with 5 CPs. Going in, I was expecting to have a hard time against hordes, but I really like the speed of my army.

Round 1: vs Tsui's Defenders of Macragge
ITC Combined Arms Mission 1 - Retrieval
It's a real pity I didn't manage to get a pic of Tsui's army, and of the game itself for that matter. Really nice-looking army. His list was:

Roboute Guilliman
Tigurius
Sergeant Chronus
2 Venerable Dreadnoughts with plenty autocannon dakka
5 Terminators
3x 5-man Scout squads with bolters
2x 5-man Devastator squads with heavy bolters
1 uber Predator with the funky autocannon and lascannon sponsons
2 Rhinos
1 Lord Commissar
20 Conscripts (nicely painted as Macragge PDF)
1 Acolyte
Eversor assassin
Culexis assassin

Deployment was Dawn of War and most of his army was deployed on his far right flank, anchored by a hill. His center was held by the Conscripts and a Scout squad and his left by the 2 other Scout squads. My deployment pretty much mirrored his - heavy on my left, light on my right.

I managed to get first turn and the Air Wing proceeded to attack his anti-aircraft assets, destroying one venerable dreadnought and severely damaging the other. Because of Chronus, I largely ignored the Predator until later in the battle (the tank survived with 3 wounds left).

A couple of highlights of the battle:
On turn 3, I switched flanks, abandoning my left flank and hitting his weak left and center. All the Scouts and PDF troopers were wiped out, and I easily controlled all objectives on that flank. The bulk of the Ultramarines were simply too far away to respond.

I had been using one of the Wave Serpents to screen my Farseer against infiltrating assassins. At some point, I actually forgot about that assignment and moved the Wave Serpent up to support the attack on his left flank. A Culexis assassin appeared and I was really lucky that he failed the 9" charge (with CP reroll). The nearby Dark Reapers then took care of that threat.

Aftermath: Decisive Eldar victory. I controlled almost all the Eternal War objectives, and scored almost all Maelstrom ones too, and scored Linebreaker. Neither of us got Big Game Hunter (mine were the Dark Reapers, and his was Guilliman) or Slay the Warlord. I lost a Wave Serpent and both Hemlocks. Ultramarines lost all their Scouts, the Terminators, a Rhino, both Venerable Dreadnoughts, the Commissar, the Conscripts, the Acolyte and the Culexis.

Round 2: vs Chris' IG horde
ITC Combined Arms Mission 3 - No Mercy
I really didn't want to be paired against Chris. Not only could we have done this game back home in JB, but I somehow suspected that his army's got more bodies than I had ammo. His list was:

4x Company Commanders
4x Commissars
4x 50-man Conscripts (that's 200 guys, with a potential of 800 lasgun shots combined!)
2x 10-man Infantry squads
2 mortar squads
2 Manticore
1 Baneblade
2 Taurox

I felt a little outnumbered.

Deployment was Vanguard Strike, and 3 of his Conscript blocks were deployed in line forward, with one more immediately behind the center block. The Baneblade, Manticore and other hard hitters were deployed in the rear, making ready for a first strike by my jets. My deployment was heavier to my left flank, except for the Fire Dragons on the right (which proved to be a mistake).

Again I managed to get first turn, with the Air Wing sallying deep into enemy territory. The Hemlocks made easy work of one of the Manticores, scoring my First Strike. The Crimson Hunter, with supporting long-range starshot fire from the Dark Reapers, quickly stripped away 10 wounds off the Baneblade.

Some battle highlights:
The IG return fire in turn 1 was not effective at all, which denied him what turned out to be a crucial point for not scoring First Strike.

Mortars! I would say the IG's most effective units that day were his mortars. They wiped out a jetbike squad that got within range, helped kill my Fire Dragons after their Wave Serpent was destroyed, and was even harrassing my flyers (with some special airburst shrapnel rounds I assume).

Engaging and wiping out large blocks by rolling up the flanks works just like clockwork. We all probably know this, but to see it in action is pretty cool. When I remembered to do it, I was able to wipe out more than 100 Conscripts by creeping up his far right flank and firing away. I should have done that right from turn 1, instead of waiting for them to come closer.

Spirit stones are awesome! The Hemlock with the spirit stones eventually died, but it took the IG the entire battle to shoot it down.

Aftermath: Perfect Draw. I scored more Eternal War kill-points (based on Power Levels - the Baneblade alone was 30 points). He dominated Maelstrom objectives (no way I could contest those, which is why I needed to use my massed shuriken cannon firepower from turn 1 against the hordes). I scored First Strike, he easily did King of the Hill and no one got Slay the Warlord. I lost a Wave Serpent, a jetbike squad and the Fire Dragons. The IG lost the Baneblade, both Manticores, a Taurox and 2 Conscript blocks.

Round 3: vs Gavin's Imperium Tourney Warhost
ITC Combined Arms Mission 6 - Secure & Control
Gavin came into the final game by tabling both his earlier opponents. I only managed 1 win and 1 draw. So I did feel like the underdog - a little. His list was:

Roboute Guilliman
Celestine
2x 5-man Scout squads - sniper rifles. One of the squads had a heavy bolter, the other a missile launcher
3 Primaris Aggressors
5-girl Retribution squad with heavy bolters
Thunderfire cannon with attendant Techmarine
Lord Commissar
50 Conscripts
Culexis assassin
2 Stromravens

Deployment was Spearhead Assault and Gavin made good use of the huge ruined complex near the center to anchor his line, Conscripts bubble-wrapping the ground quite effectively and Stormravens in the rear in defensive positions. He was prepared to go second. I won the roll-off to start - and then he proceeded to seize the initative!

A combination of orders and Guilliman's presence saw the mon-keigh bound forwards like World War Z zombies, both Stormravens sped forwards and focused fire on my spirit stone-less Hemlock. And he survived with 2 wounds left!

Some highlights:
Scoring First Blood. That was a good feeling - starting second and still scoring First Blood. I got lucky his shooting was not so good in his first turn. The heavily damaged Hemlock sped forwards as best as it can and unloaded Heavy D-Scythe death onto the nearest Scouts, sending them to oblivion. One of the Stormravens was also destroyed under the combined firepower of a Hemlock, Crimson Hunter and massed shuriken cannon fire.

That one time when my Hemlock went for Smite instead of Conceal was a bad move. It was easily shot down in the turn after that.

Not going for Celestine was a mistake that cost me the battle. At one point, Celestine had sallied forth and charged my Dark Reapers. I could have easily fell back with the Dark Reapers, disembarked the nearby Fire Dragons and fried Ms Celestine to a crisp. He would be less aggressive with the second incarnation of the girl. Celestine was really the only unit he had (other than the flyers) that could chase down my army. Instead, the Fire Dragons went for another close target - the second Stormraven. Although they easily killed it (overkilled it, more like), the Stormraven would also have easily been crippled by massed shuriken cannon fire.

Also, with only 50 Conscripts, I should have used my shuriken firepower from turn two onwards to thin their numbers down, or even destroy the unit.

Aftermath: Decisive Imperium victory. I only managed First Blood and Linebreaker. Ignoring the Conscripts cost me the Maelstrom and Eternal War points. My army was doing ok until after my mistake with Celestine, and only the Fire Dragons and one Wave Serpent survived the battle. I managed to kill both Stormravens, the Retributors, both Scout squads, and the Thunderfire cannon.

Thoughts on the Tourney:
I thoroughly enjoyed it! Had a superb time with some excellent games with great people. A road trip to go play 40k with new opponents in a different environment is always fun, and the TOs for this tourney really helped make sure that it is indeed fun.

I ended up 3rd overall. I'm not sure what my generalship score was, but I imagine it wasn't that high with only 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss.

If I were to use this Eldar army again in another tourney, I will definitely give all eligible vehicles spirit stones. They are just awesome and totally worth the 10 points.

I enjoyed all the games I played, and each had its own character. In the first game, I was able to use my army's speed to outmanouver the mon-keigh, but his skill in using the assassin threat minimized the effectiveness of my hard-hitting aspect warriors. In the second game, I got over my horde-phobia, realizing that they die faster than you think - though by turn 3, Chris just wanted to game to be over as he was getting physically exhausted moving around 200++ dudes. The last game was really enjoyable and was the most tactical for me. I had to plan and execute each move purposefully, and there was simply no room for tactical errors at all. Unfortunately, I made a few.

Thanks again to my cool opponents, the other participants, the Malaysian contingent, and a huge thanks to the awesome TOs and hosts at Gamersaurus Rex. It's a great store, and I highly recommend a visit there. I ended the day buying some excellent terrain kits from the store.

On to the next tourney!

Monday Night 40k!

This is what Monday nights should be about - dice rolling, nice models, friendly people, friendly store, new friends, and old friends.

I've been due to roll dice at JB's Alexandria Bookstore for a month now. But due to various commitments, and the fact that it was Ramadhan, I had to cancel planned gaming visits a few times. Until last night, whence the stars and planets aligned, and my renegade Alaitoc Windriders found themselves upon the bloody fields of Alexandria.

Still, to make sure that the game won't be rushed, we played an Eternal War mission: The Scouring, on a Vanguard Strike deployment. The Alaitoc Windrider Warhost is actually, rules-wise, a CAD with an attached Aspect Warrior Host formation. This is the 2nd iteration of the list, the first I tried out a couple of months back against some Tyranids. Not much changes, just some tweaking. And here's the 1843pt list:

HQ:

Farseer Lahnn - jetbike, singing spear, Spirit Stone of Anath'lan

TROOPS:

3 Jetbikes - all with scatter lasers

3 Jetbikes - all with scatter lasers

3 Jetbikes - all with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - all with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - 2 with shuriken cannon

3 Jetbikes - 2 with shuriken cannon

FAST ATTACK:

6 Swooping Hawks - exarch with Hawk's Talon

Hemlock Wraithfighter

HEAVY SUPPORT:

Fire Prism

Fire Prism

ASPECT WARRIOR HOST:

8 Warp Spiders - exarch with twin-linked deathspinner

8 Dark Reapers - with starshot missiles

5 Fire Dragons - in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked bright lances and shuriken cannon

My opponent is John, with his Ultramarines. He had a couple of formations in there, including the one that gives free transports, and the one that deepstrikes all the drop pods of the formation in turn 1, and I really don't recall what they are called, but his list is something like:

Chaplain (Warlord)

5-man Tactical Squad (w meltagun) in Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

10-man Tactical Squad (w missile launcher & flamer), split into 2 combat squads, with Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

Bike Squad with 3 bikes and an Attack Bike with multimelta

5-man Devastator Squad (w 4 lascannons) with Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

Venerable Dreadnought in Drop Pod

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 flamers, in Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 meltaguns, in Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

5-man Tactical Squad with 2 meltaguns, in Drop Pod 

Captain in terminator armor

5 Terminators, with 1 assault cannon

Land Speeder Typhoon

The Ultramarines got to choose table side, but I won the roll for deployment and started first.

Turn 1 Highlights

Since John won the roll for table side, the mon-keigh Devastators set up shop in the tallest building on the battlefield, while my Dark Reapers looked on enviously, and had to make do with an abandoned trench line that commanded a reasonable firing field, even if not the best.

I had deployed to make full use of the cover afforded by the ruins, and planned a main thrust up my left flank. The entire army, except for the Dark Reapers and the Wave Serpent, deployed on the left flank.

When battle commenced, the Warhost advanced cautiously (around 12") and proceeded to open fire on the marines occupying the first ruin in mon-keigh territory. The bike squad was cut to ribbons, the Razorback lost 2 hull points and its lascannon, while both forward combat squads were reduced to half-strength or less.

The Dark Reapers unleashed a hail of S5 AP3 missiles (that's 17 shots at BS5) at their Devastator counterparts. The mon-keigh was smart to Go To Ground, and only the sergeant was lost in the deluge of high explosives.

The mon-keigh struck back aggressively. Drop Pods roared down in front of the Dark Reapers position, and the grim Aspect Warriors received the attention of intense bolter fire, flamers, stormbolters and Deathwind missile strikes. Even with Fortune, 5 Dark Reapers perished.

Two more Combat Squads from the Drop Pods opened fire at point-blank range with their meltaguns on the Fire Dragons' Wave Serpent, but thanks to jinking and the serpent shield, the transport survived the assault with 1 hull point to spare.

On the left flank, a missile launcher, the Devastator's Razorback and a snap-firing Devastor managed to severely damage a Fire Prism, knocking off 2 hull points, shaking the crew and immobilizing it.

The Venerable Dreadnought took on the front-most Jetbike squad, killing 2 Windriders.

Turn 2 Highlights

One of the best things about Eldar is its amazing speed and manouverability. And it was easy for the Warhost to pull back almost the entire army to deal with the drop pod assault.

Swooping Hawks landed near the offending mon-keigh, grenade packs covering the marines in a lot of noise and dust, and nothing else. The Hemlock decided to not turn up from reserves this turn - wraiths!

Starting with Farseer Lahnn's Psychic Shriek, the culling of the mon-keigh warriors began in earnest. While he didn't roll very high, it was enough to put down 2 marines. I see his Psychic Shriek abilities as a progression from his early days as Mind War specialist (pest?), hence his nickname Brain Smelter.

The combined firepower of the Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Jetbikes, Fire Prism, Dark Reapers and the Fire Dragons and their snap-firing Wave Serpent wiped out all the drop pod squads, as well as both Deathwind-equipped drop pods. One of them blowing up and taking 2 Fire Dragons with it.

While all this glorious death was going on, 4 Jetbikes skimmed over the Venerable Dreadnought, turned on a pin, an unloaded shuriken death into the rear armor of the dreadnought, and it exploded in a spectacular display of fire and steel. On the far left, the immobilized Fire Prism got a lucky snap-firing shot into the Razorback opposite it, wrecking the mon-keigh vehicle.

Then with Battle Focus and jump moves, the Alaitoc Warhost resumed their advance up the left flank, such is Eldar manouverability!

The rest of the Ultramarines reserves arrived. The Captain and his Terminator squad teleporting to face the lead elements of xenos, their firepower, combined with the surviving combat squads deployed at the start of the battle, wiping out the lead Jetbike squad. The Devastators could only aquire one target, the immobilized Fire Prism, and put it out of its misery with a well-laid lascannon volley.

The deep-striking Land Speeder Typhoon killed a further 2 Jetbikes with its heavy bolter and frag missiles. Twin-linked lascannons of the Devastator's Razorback took aim at the Warp Spiders, who immediately flicker-jumped. However, the mon-keigh could still see one Warp Spider, who failed his cover save and was subsequently vaporized,

On the right flank, the Ultramarines Chaplain and his Tactical squad advanced in their Razorback, disembarking and shooting at the nearest lone Jetbike, to no effect.

Turn 3 Highlights
The Hemlock finally deigned to arrive, streaking low over the mon-keigh chaplain's head and making an impossible 90 degree turn near the Devastator's position. The Hemlock's Psychic Shriek reduced the Devastator squad to one man, who was forced to fall back. This is the first time I saw first-hand how deadly is the combination of the Mindshock Pod and Psychic Shriek.

Continuing their relentless advance up the left flank, the Alaitoc Warhost focused their fire on the Captain and his Terminators. Psychic Shriek attacks, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, deathspinners, focused blast prism cannon shots drenched the mon-keigh in a deluge of Eldar munitions, and the Terminators were easily wiped out.

Scatter lasers also destroyed the Devastator's Razorback, wrecking it in a single deadly volley. The Hemlock is not done with her death and destruction, and her double Heavy D-Scythes easily obliterated the Land Speeder Typhoon.

On the right flank, advancing Dark Reapers and the Wave Serpent opened fire on the Chaplain and his squad, killing only 3, thanks to good cover (I just realized I was shooting the Wave Serpent at BS4. It should really be BS5 as it's part of the Aspect Warrior Host).

With only a handful of warriors left, the mon-keigh shot back with whatever was left, but could not make a mark. The Ultramarines then decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and conceded the battlefield.

Aftermath
This Alaitoc Windrider Warhost is fast! It was easy to concentrate firepower on chosen targets, switching back and forth between flanks and always gaining localized superiority. It helped tremendously that the Ultramarines arrived piecemeal and their units were never able to link up and lend mutual support to each other.

As it turned out, the battle was one-sided. The only survivors from the Ultramarines' force was the Chaplain, 7 marines, 2 drop pods and a Razorback. The Eldar only lost 2 units (a Fire Prism and 1 Jetbike squad).

It remains to be seen how this army would do against a Knight- or Land Raider-heavy enemy, as the Warhost is short on heavy anti-tank weaponry with only 2 Prism cannons, 1 twin-linked Bright Lance, 5 Fusion guns, and 2 Heavy D-Scythes at its disposal.

At any rate, it was real fun, and I look forward to the next session of furious dice-rolling. Now to finish painting the Hemlock, 6 additional Jetbikes, 2 additional Warp Spiders and 3 additional Dark Reapers. And the terrain pieces too.

Thanks John for a great game, and Quake for great banter from a fellow Eldar!

Keep them dice rolling!