Battle Report: Ynnari vs Alpha Legion (1500 pts)

The final in the series of battle reports today from the "End of 7th" tournament we had. This time, I am using my 30k Alpha Legion forces against Eldar Ynnari, in the third match of three (following on from the Tau in Game Two). 

I also have a confession to make. This was the first time ever that I'd faced a true Ynnari Eldar force. I really had not much of a clue what to expect beyond knowing the mechanics of the "burst" a little bit.

My forces remained unchanged from the previous matchup: 

Alpha Legion List: 

HQs: Autilon Skorr (Pride of the Legion Rite of War), Master of Signals 

Elites: Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought (Kheres) 

Troops: Assault Squad (plasma pitols, serg with thunder hammer); Terminator Squad (Axes, plasma blaster, thunder hammer); Veteran Squad (two melta guns) 

Fast Attack: Storm Eagle (las cannons) 

Heavy Support: Heavy support squad (missile launchers)

The Ynnari were running the following.

Ynnari Eldar List:

Reborn Host

HQs: Eldard, Farseer with singing spear and Anath'lan stone

Elites: 5 Wraithguard, Death Jester with lost shroud, haywire grenades, shrieker cannon, Shadowseer with mask of secrets, haywire grenades, mastery lvl 2, neuro disruptor

Troops: 5 Rangers, 3 wind riders with scatter lasers

Aspect Host Formation: 4xDire Avengers with exarch; 6xDire Avengers with exarch and wave serpent (target matrix, holo fields, shuriken cannon, spirit stones, bright lance), 5xWarp Spiders with exarch.

Ulthew Strikeforce:

Elites: 10x Black Guardians with eldar missile launcher platform 

To be honest, I was dreading facing this list. Plenty of firepower in there and nothing I can do against the psychic strength of the list either. 

The one thing -- and it was a very critical thing -- that I had going for me was that I managed to gain the initiative to go first. Deploying across the board, I decided that I wanted to take out the Eldar piecemeal style and target their key assets. The game objective was the simplest one possible: annihilation of the enemy. The winner would be decided by the points value of the opposition we managed to take down. Really as simple as that.

Early Turns (and the flank).

In the early turns, I advanced my foot-slogging veterans up the table to try to out gun the dire avengers that they had in front of them. They took several out.

But they were rapidly reinforced by the jet bikes who retaliated well against my marines.

A game of cat and mouse followed on this particular side of the board featuring me trying to keep pace with the Eldar and gunning them down whenever I could. The chance to charge the Eldar never really materialised, so I relied on the bolters and the melta guns I had to do the dirty work here. But it was not without significant casualties. 

Middle Turns (and the rest of the board).

In the middle of the game, several key things happened, broadly in swift succession.

The first one was that I made the mistake of killing the warp spiders with the Master of Signals. This prompted the Death Jester to spike in his burst. Its a very nasty combination that I hadn't really thought about too hard. The Death Jester shot at my assault squad, forcing them to take a morale test. Which they dutifully failed and started fleeing backwards off the table.

Rallying them the next turn, I charged them toward the Jester. Shooting on overwatch, the Jester killed again. By the time I'd taken out the wave serpent with my contemptor dreadnought, he was bursting again. I really didn't think that vehicles could cause a burst, but they do. Drat. I'll remember that for next time.

Hence, by the time I actually managed to get in to combat with the Jester, the situation looked grim for my assault squad.

However, the thunder hammer marine was able to prevail here and finish the job finally. But it was a close run thing.

The turning point in the game really only came about when I managed to get my storm eagle on to the board though. With its extra fire power, it soon started to eliminate wraith guard and shadow seer. Eldrad lasted a little while longer, but eventually Skorr claimed his head for the Legion. Not bad for the King head hunter!

Late Turns.

By the end of the fourth turn, there were few Eldar left on the table due to the fire power (and fluke die rolls that I was managing to pull off). The sheer firepower that the storm eagle was pumping out eliminated any threat to it from the board.

The last few threats were the highly mobile units that were still around.

My decimated veteran squad finally did the trick though, seeing off the final jet bikes and their dreaded scatter lasers to ensure that the Alpha Legion scored a decisive Massacre victory by the 5th turn. No eldar left on this world whatsoever.

I hindsight, I was very lucky. Although I played my set up correctly, the fact that I went first really sealed the match up. I think if I went second, it would have been a completely different story altogether. 

Combined with the master of signals doing a lot of the (lucky) dirty work with the orbital blast and the storm eagle coming on to team up its firepower with the contemptor, the game was sealed by the fourth turn. 

However, the lessons learnt here were painful. The Ynnari burst moves thanks to the death of nearby units is immensely powerful and one that I won't forget in a hurry!

Battle Report: Alpha Legion vs. Tau (1500pts)

Going in to this match from my victory over the Salamanders in a 30k match-up, I wasn't so sure that I could do well here. The Tau have a (rightly) fearsome reputation for firepower. That said, I was confident that I could at least pull off one charge by turn 2 with my assault marines and hopefully put them on the back foot for a turn or two. That was at least the plan. The battle would be fought over the beach table with two objectives to secure.

My forces remained unchanged from the previous matchup:

Alpha Legion List: 

HQs: Autilon Skorr (Pride of the Legion Rite of War), Master of Signals

Elites: Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought (Kheres)

Troops: Assault Squad (plasma pitols, serg with thunder hammer); Terminator Squad (Axes, plasma blaster, thunder hammer); Veteran Squad (two melta guns)

Fast Attack: Storm Eagle (las cannons)

Heavy Support: Heavy support squad (missile launchers)

Meanwhile, the Tau had plenty of firepower to call upon:

Tau Army List:

HQs: XV86 Coldstar with shield generator and stimulant injector 

Elites: XV104 Riptides (early warnings, earth caste pilot array, ion accelerator, plasma rifle, velocity tracker)

Troops: Strike Team (missile pod support, marker light, Devilfish transport); XV8 battle suits (2xShas'ui, 1xShas'vre); XV8 battle suits (2xShas'ui)

Fast Attack: 2 Pathfinder teams (marker lights) 

Heavy Support: XV88 Broadside (drone controller, seeker missile, high yield missiles, smart missiles).

Early Turns.

The set up is pictured below. And as a general health warning -- I took too many pictures for this one!

Off screen to the right are a bunch of suits that I'm aiming to charge at early in the game with my assault squad. My heavy support are holed up in the Eldar ruins on the left and I have my contemptor with my veterans near the top left who are foot-slogging along. 

Luckily, I manage to get the first turn. 

Not much happens, but the drones and the marker lights start lighting up everything that causes me to start to worry a whole lot. I distract myself by taking some cool pictures :)

Things start to get much more interesting in turn 2 as my assault squad enters close combat. Sadly, I completely forgot about the insane over watch that the Tau are capable of pulling off. All the surrounding squads take pot shots at my poor charging marines and whittle them right down before they can get truly stuck in to the enemy. 

Much pain ensues.

Middle Turns.

The combat with the battle suits pictured above will go on for another few rounds as I fail to kill them on my charging turn.

Meanwhile, the footsloggers are making good progress and are being supported by an incredibly lucky shooting contemptor who is really whittling the wounds off the enemy. (And I think this shot looks awesome as well, so I had to include it in this report). 

Despite lots of casualties on both sides by this point, the fun really starts when my storm eagle arrives and disgorges the terminators plus Skorr in to the melee. It is only at this stage that I recall the mission is to control the objectives (one in each deployment zone), so I make sure that the terminators can not only charge, but get back again to reach the objective nearby. In this game, they are classed as troops for scoring purposes due to the rite of war I'm running.

Late Turns.

The terminators try to finish off the enemy HQ, but do not succeed, and take casualties in exchange. For their troubles, the Tau HQ flies away in a hit and run effort to survive and shoot again next turn.

All of my assault squad are dead now following the melee. They took plenty with them though. 

The above picture shows the game position at turn 4. Much carnage has occurred, and more blood and fuel are yet to be spilt across this beach landing paradise board. This comes in the form of the remaining Tau shooting my Storm Eagle out of the skies. It narrowly avoids anything on the way down, but otherwise is wrecked.

Critically, the terminators are able to slog it to the objective marker nearby, whilst finishing off the remaining Tau troops. The veterans have meanwhile perished due to incoming fire. The contemptor has only one Kheres left. The Tau make a run for it to try to claim the opposite objective. But I manage to kill most of them along the way. Sadly not enough.

The game ends in a tie on the major objective: 1 objective secured each.

The game ends up being decided by secondaries. I have just one more than my opponent (in terms of line breaker), hence I win. But only just.

This was a very tough slog to say the least. I was very happy with the photos that the game produced, but tactically, it could have gone either way. I thought I was going to lose when the storm eagle got taken out and the Tau jetted away for the opposite objective. The terminators and the heavy support squad held on though and a draw ensued. 

Battle Report: Salamanders vs. Alpha Legion (1500 pts)

In the Goodbye to 7th Edition Tournament, the first battle was a brutal 30k face off between the Salamanders Legion and the Alpha Legion. Whichever way it would go, the Emperor was sure to win. Or at least that's what we both thought when the game began (!)

Alpha Legion List: 

HQs: Autilon Skorr (Pride of the Legion Rite of War), Master of Signals

Elites: Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought (Kheres)

Troops: Assault Squad (plasma pitols, serg with thunder hammer); Terminator Squad (Axes, plasma blaster, thunder hammer); Veteran Squad (two melta guns)

Fast Attack: Storm Eagle (las cannons)

Heavy Support: Heavy support squad (missile launchers)

Salamanders List:

HQs: Praetor (thunder hammer, halo, combi-melta; Covenant of Fire Rite of War); Master of Signals

Elites: Contemptor Dreadnought (multi melta); Contemptor Mortis (Kheres); Dreadnought Talon (2x Multi Melta and one with 2 CCWs)

Troops: 2x Tactical squads (serg with power sword)

Heavy Support: Heavy support squad (volkite culverins)

I will freely admit that out of all of the lists taking part in the tournament, this was the one that I feared the most. No less than 5 dreadnoughts combined with the Covenant of Fire rite of war in the Salamanders legion is very strong. Those heavy flamers in the hands of the dreadnoughts are to be feared, and those melta weapons were always going to be deadly.

However, the battle was to be fought over a pair of objectives -- one in each of our deployment zones. I figured that my approach here was to almost entirely ignore the dreadnoughts and instead take out the troops. That way, without any objective secured units, I could potentially still win. If I could figure out a way to stay alive.

Of course, one thing that the Alpha Legion has going for it is the mutable tactics. Hence, I decided to select Tank Hunters. Combined with the Master of Ambush warlord trait, I can still infiltrate three units -- and this is exactly what I ended up doing.

The Salamanders deployment was pretty much a straight line as pictured below.

This provided the first opportunity for me really. I would infiltrate my assault squad and try to eliminate one of the troops squads (top right) whilst using the master of signals to take out the heavy support (bottom centre on the crates). I would then shoot the remaining squad (not shown, but located further down and left). 

This plan actually worked very well. By the middle turns, I was engaged deeply in close combat. However, despite my initial alpha strike (pun semi-intended), the dreadnoughts in close combat really slew my troops very quickly. However, with the good fortune to have the first turn, coupled with my Storm Eagle coming on very early in the game from reserves, the tide slightly pivoted in my direction. 

As my units got stuck in, losses on both sides mounted up quickly. With dreadnoughts in close combat, all of my assault squad got wiped out, and most of my veterans too. The Storm Eagle brought in the terminators to the fight and eventually, I managed to seize control of the objective on the opposite board edge. The enemy master of signals started to wipe out my missile launchers, but not before they accounted for a couple of dreadnoughts. Meanwhile my mortis managed to wreck a few of the enemy. With only a few marines left and my contemptor, I had secured one objective and was pinging away at the remaining enemy dreadnought. 

As turn 5 rolled around, the game was almost mine -- just one dreadnought remained to be killed. But rather than yield the massacre to me, this dreadnought went on the run behind cover to ping my storm eagle from the sky. 

The game ended here. I had one objective, lots of dead things (basically only my mortis and a few marines left) and the Salamanders had one hiding dreadnought. The game was won. But only narrowly and at a very steep cost. 

Battle Report: Alpha Legion vs. Death Guard (1500 pts)

Overview.

With a new mat from Game Mat EU, I had a game of 30k vs 40k with JK last Friday. I brought 1500 points worth of Alpha Legion using the Pride of the Legion Rite of War to make my terminators and veterans in to scoring units (as it means I can take them as troops).

I was using Skorr with a large blob of veterans inside a storm eagle transport and a master of signals. This was complemented by a squad of terminators riding in a land raider. A scout squad with rifles and a heavy support squad with missiles rounded out my list. More can be read about this style of list here which is essentially the same but without the transports.

My opponent was using a double vindicator approach coupled with two plague marine mechanised units (with flamers, melta guns) in rhinos with havoc launchers, a chaos dreadnought, heldrake and a Forge World blight drone. Templates everywhere basically. Oh, and did I mention the chaos lord on a bike with the Burning Brand? No? Well, he also had a pet chaos spawn for laughs. Or a meat shield. 

Set up and Early Turns.

The game was being fought over two objectives placed in the deployment zone of the enemy after regular squads had been deployed. I infiltrated my sniper squad on to my enemies as he castled up in the corner. This, I thought, gave me a tactical advantage. I had my missile launchers in a ruins on the lower right of the picture and kept the storm eagle in reserves.

The Death Guard, meanwhile, were deployed in a "castle" formation with the fliers in reserves. 

The early turns saw some significant damage to my forces thanks to all of the templates that were going around. Plasma carnage from the dreadnought saw off a heavy support marine, and the scouts got repeatedly whacked by a vindicator and havoc launchers. The land raider came through un-scratched though.

Middle Turns.

There was great carnage as the game progressed. My scouts got whittled down. My land raider moved up and disembarked the terminators to kill the rhino that they successfully charged. And the smelly Death Guard oozed out of the wreck to counter attack the terminators. The chaos lord and the spawn joined in the fun.

I immobilised one of the vindicators though from the heavy support squad.

By now though, the plasma dreadnought was truly whittling them down and the heldrake came on to finish a few off. I got a lucky shot in to kill the heldrake thankfully. But this did not stop the blight drone from killing off all my missile launchers a turn later.

Late Turns. 

Some unlucky reserve rolls saw my storm eagle spend a lot of time off the board. But when it finally came on, I disembarked the veteran squad on to the objective in my board zone. 

However, the other side of the board was looking grim. My scouts had been wiped out and the other Death Guard squad sat comfy on the objective inside their rhino. The storm eagle killed the rhino, but I couldn't dislodge the rest of the squad from the objective.

Meanwhile, the chaos marines slew my terminators eventually. The image above shows the near final board situation. We both have one objective each. And there is little that either of us can do to dislodge the other player from these objectives in time.

The game ends on turn 5 with a draw. Both of us have one objective each. If the game had continued, I think the storm eagle might have done more damage to the death guard on the objective. But equally, the blight drone and the chaos lord on the bike would have made it to my veteran's position for some template carnage. 

Overall, a very entertaining, tactical game full of carnage in the middle. And -- this is not our last 7th edition outing either. There's a tournament on Friday that we'll be doing using this (and more) scenery. 

 

Kill Team (Alpha Legion vs Chaos Space Marines)

Today, a battle report from Round 1 of our local Kill Team tournament. We are using modified Kill Team rules, particularly in reference to army selection (e.g., no more than two fliers, two heavy weapons, etc.; basically if its anything other than a "normal" troops selections, then you can only have 2 of them at most. And no named HQs, as might be expected).

I am running an Alpha Legion 30k Kill Team. The one draw back here is that I cannot infiltrate more than two marines (the rule of two applies here as well). So I opt for counter attack instead. Meanwhile, the Chaos Space Marines have a particular Khorne flavour to them (they're a borrowed force - the enemy miniatures belong to me! So no excuses.). I'll leave you to watch the video, but I will note that there were some dire die rolling going on in this game!

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Alpha Legion (1300 pts)

Background.

"Whether it was due to warpstorms, mutiny in the ranks, bad luck, or poor judgement, your strike team has found itself marooned on an icy world whose name is simply recorded as Fahrenheit’s Landing in the cartographic surveys of the segmentum. Little is known about the planet other than it has low temperatures all across it and that a long time ago, the Imperium used to have a presence here. But no longer. Whatever disaster afflicted Fahrenheit’s Landing happened a long time ago and only relics remain. There is no life here other than yourselves and whoever else got flung here in the warp storms."

Video Battle Report.

The video below is a battle report for combined chaos space marines and chaos daemons versus my Alpha Legion force. It is played out at 1300 points.

Now, I know that that points value seems like a strange one. We are actually engaged in a Planetary Empires campaign wherein the points value will vary from week to week. The first few frames of the video includes a map overview of the planet we are playing for. There are 4 players: Alpha Legion (me!), Space Wolves, Chaos, and Eldar. Nominally, we're going to have 5 rounds, but we'll see how it goes ultimately. 

We had a good time in this game -- particularly the late turns which proved hilarious for reasons you'll see if you watch the video!

Battle Report: Eldar vs. Alpha Legion (1000 points)

This is a video battle report -- one of the first I've ever made. The game is a Crusade Mission (with 4 objectives) and secondaries of Slay the Warlord and Outnumber (i.e. have more units left than the opponent at the end of the game). It is also part of a local league that we're playing out, hence victory is only decided on the primary objective and the secondaries give points in the league table at the end of the day. 

I am playing my Alpha Legion force, the army list for which is described here. The Eldar force is described in the video.

We're playing on the Deep Cut Studios gaming mat, for those interested. The terrain is deliberately a little bit on the sparse side -- I'm aware that a few buildings would not have gone too amiss here.

Okay - hope you enjoy the video and please be kind if you're going to comment - editing skills are being learnt and we probably mince our words rather a lot (I know I did when talking about scouts vs. infiltrate -- to be clear: Skorr is providing the infiltration via selection of warlord traits here for a few units and the Alpha Legion mutable tactics is giving scouts; the eldar similarly are infiltrating via warlord trait).

BAO Tournament: First round, Dark Eldar vs. Grey Knights and Tau

Hi all, Eldrad Vect here, it's been a while and I've had a busy year so far but I'm back and blogging about our gaming groups latest tournament campaign thing. Its based off the Bay Area Open rules pack with a funky points handicap system that grants extra points to list comped weak by the other players. I'll be blogging my games from the campaign with some 'narrative forging' to give comprehensive battle reports on the carnage caused by my Dark Heart Kabal. I shall also be posting the standings for each round of the tournament too.

"It was cold, colder than usual upon the planet, Kazarai Dodechius. Mist hung in the morning air and thin rimes of frost clung to the Paladin's Terminator Armour as they marched behind their Grand Master. Faint rays of light began to creep along the horizon and the only sound that could be heard was the thump of boots and quite hum of Tau battlesuits. "Are you sure their were Daemons here Fireblade?" questioned the Grand Master, but before the Tau leader could respond great beams of darklight tore through the trees.
"Worse than Deamons," responded the Fireblade "denizens of the Dark City"...

Ok, the army lists.

Dark Eldar 1850 pts (with extra 50 pts)
HQ
Lelith Hesperax   175 pts
Baroness Katteryna (Baron Sathonyx)   105 pts
TROOPS
10x Wyches with Raider   250 pts
12x Hellions  237 pts
10x Kabalite Warriors with Raider  190 pts
7x Kabalite Warriors  63 pts
ELITES
4x Grotesques with Raider   260 pts
5x Hekatrix Bloodbrides with Venom   150 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
1x Ravager  130 pts
1x Cronos Parasite Engine  110 pts
1x Voidraven Bomber   230 pts
 TOTAL: 1900 Points

Grey Knights with Tau Allies 1850 pts
HQ
Grand Master Draigo   270 pts 
Tau Fireblade 84 pts
TROOPS
10x Paladins    735 pts
5x Terminators   235 pts
12x Fire Warriors  142 pts
ELITES
1x Dreadnought  135 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
3x Broadside Battlesuits   243 pts
TOTAL: 1849 Points

First Round, Deployment: Dawn of War, Missions: Emperor's Will and Crusade (three objectives for Crusade placed within three inches of the centre line).

Deployment Phase:
The Grey Knights had the advantage of setting up first, having already been on the planet and prepared for combat. Only one squad benefited from Draigo's Grand Strategy special rule and scouted forwards. The Dark Heart Kabal deployed as far away from the big guns of the Dreadnought and Broadsides could reach and the benefits of Night Fighting as well as the Dark Eldar vehicles Night Shields meant that in the position they were in nothing could touch them. Fire Warriors deployed entrenched is ruins whilst Terminators and Paladins deployed out in the open with all the hubris of the Grey Knights they were. Kabalites and Hellions cowered behind tall ruins. the only adventurous deployment by my Dark Eldar came with the Bloodbrides and their Venom deploying behind a large piece of terrain and thus out of sight from the Broadsides.

I do apologise for the terrible quality of the pic, but I have since then upgraded my phone with a better camera... I'm on the left and my opponent on the right, when I make references to placement of things it'll be from my perspective on the left. Emperor's Will objectives are where the Fire Warriors are and at the big piece of terrain at the top of the board where my vehicles are.

Turn 1:
Grey Knights turn.
The Grey Knights strode up the field with little regard for the enemy, the Paladins moved on an angle matching the trees and the Terminators moved into the craters with an amazing move through cover roll of 6 and then a run roll of 6 too, aiming to hold the right Crusade objective. Everyone else stayed more or less in the same spot. In the shooting phase the Broadsides took aim at the Cronos, being the only thing in range, but due to some ridiculous cover save rolls the Cronos only took a single wound.

Dark Eldar turn.
Engines screeched as the Raiders moved and with the aid of Enhanced Aethersails they covered most of the board in a single move, entering the enemy deployment zone and planning to creep up the flanks. The Cronos rolled and abysmal 4 when moving through cover and a 2 when it attempted to run. The Ravager opened fire on the Paladins but poor luck on the Ravagers part and divine intervention of the dice gods on the part of the Grey Knights meant that only a single wound was taken. The Venom had similar luck as it only managed to kill a single Shield Drone from the Broadside squad. Also the Hellions and Baroness took and held the left Crusade objective which resulted in an early lead for the Dark Eldar.

End of Turn 1. Once again, sorry it's really blurry, but the basic shapes and positions are still there...

Turn 2:
Grey Knights turn.
This was a good turn for the Knights, the Paladins moved behind cover to avoid being a target for the Ravager and the Terminators continued to march towards the objective. As you'd expect all the Tau and the Psyfleman Dread stood still the get off there maximum shooting potential. The Fire Warriors and Dreadnought torn through the Cronos with a torrent of firepower, after the terrible shooting of the Dread it was the Fire Warriors who delivered the death blow to the foul creature. The Broadsides claimed their first victim of the game by blowing up the Wych squad's Raider, luckily the resultant explosion only killed a handful of Wyches. But the most horrifying thing this turn was the Paladins and Terminators decimation of the Bloodbrides and their Venom, wiping them from the board with a hail of bolts.

Dark Eldar turn.
After the considerable losses inflicted by some great shooting from the Grey Knights and Tau, the Dark Eldar had to do something considerably epic, hence the action taken by Lelith Hesperax's personally Raider which was to penetrate the opponent's back line as fast as possible and that is just what she and her squad did. With brilliant positioning, the Ravager traced a clear line of sight to the Paladins whilst being completely hidden from the Broadsides and Dreadnought, it managed to inflict 2 wounds killing the Paladin it had failed to last turn. The remaining Wyches moved inconspicuously toward the central-most objective through cover. The Kabalite Raider followed slowly behind Lelith's laying down firepower as the Splinter Cannon wielding Kabalite slew a Fire Warrior at range. The Voidraven failed to come on this turn as well adding even more desperation to the Dark Eldar efforts.

End of Turn 2. This pic is a little clearer and boy did Lelith's raider move far...

 Turn 3:
Grey Knights turn.
Frantic, the Fire Warriors, Dreadnought and Broadsides turned all their guns on Lelith's raider. As the Paladins and Terminators continued, undeterred, up the field towards the Dark Eldar deployment zone and to get greater cover from the horrendous guns of the Ravager. The Broadsides made short work of the Raider, blowing it up and injuring one Grotesque in the resultant explosion. But it wasn't over yet for the Grotesques as the Fire Warriors and Dreadnought unloaded into them. Thanks to the Fireblade's Special Rule Volley Fire, the Fire Warrior let off an ungodly 30 shots into the Grotesque, but because of there incredible resilience only two Grotesques were slain. The Dreadnought however was not as lucky, failing three of it's to hit rolls, even with the re-rolls for Twin-Linked and the one shot that did hit home was saved by the Abberation's Feel No Pain.

I can see where this is going...

Dark Eldar Turn.
After surviving Tau firepower, Lelith and her Grotesques were keen to spill blood. The Kabalite Raider continued to creep up the flanks and the Wyches speed towards the central objective under the cover of large rocks. This was a most devastating turn for the Grey Knights as the Voidraven Bomber came in from reserve. It flew over the Paladins, dropping it's Void Mine in it's wake, vanquishing three Paladins in its blast. Not only did it slaughter Paladins, but it abolished the Broadsides with a flurry of incredibly accurate Implosion Missiles leaving only a single Broadside and a Drone standing. The bloodbath wasn't over yet, the Kabalite Raider fired its Dark Lance and with a lucky shot blew it up, that wasn't all however the blast radius of the explosion hit all but one member of the Fire Warrior squad and slew some drones and Fire Warriors. Lelith threw a Plasma Grenade into the unprotected Tau killing five of them and the Liquifer Gun wielded by a Grotesque rolled an AP of 3 with resulted in a further four Fire Warriors destroyed. Not content with crippling Lelith and her squad moved in for the kill, assaulting the remaining drones and Fireblade. Lelith ravaged the Fireblade in a challenge as did the Grotesques as they smashed drones, by the end of the turn nothing was left of them.

Lelith and Fireblade locked in a brutal (and rather one-sided) Melee.

End of Turn 3... 

Turn 4, 5 and 6.
Grey Knights turns.
Predominantly, for the next three turns the Paladins pretty much U-turned to try and get to the enemies at the other end of the board, this left them pretty much useless for a few rounds doing nothing but locking the Voidraven's velocity with Psycannon shots they also in Turn 6 finally destroyed the Ravager which had been foolishly moved too close to the Paladins. Only the Grey Knights themselves were still standing at the end. Draigo also called Lelith out for single combat which was more for fun than actual strategic advantage since I was holding two of the Crusade objectives and at the end of turn 6, both Emperor's Will ones. This combat last two rounds until of course Draigo Instant Deathed my poor Lelith Hesperax.

Lelith and Draigo's epic combat...

Dark Eldar turns.
Purely moving towards objectives and futilely trying to kill Grey Knights. The Kabalite managed to bring Draigo to one wound in a single round of shooting after he had slain Lelith and the Voidraven and Grotesque crushed the remaining Broadside and co. in turn 4. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was the objective the Hellions had been holding since Turn 1, which was also sabotaged, blew up and killed a Hellion.

Overview
All up it was a really fun game that could have really gone either way at many points of the game. I could have been a bit more brazen with the Bloodbride but lesson for next time. and my Cronos' placement was horrible too. Also my Voidraven actually did something for once, not scattering a single missile blast template and it was really effective against the Paladins, most definitely the Unit of the Match, at least on my side that is.

Tournament Standings after Round 1 (still need to find out the names of each army):
1st: Dark Heart Kabal (Dark Eldar)
2nd: Reavers (Ultramarine CT)
3rd: Tyranid
4th: Salamanders
Joint 5th: Blood Ravens (Raven Guard CT), Necrons, Grey Knights and Orks.

End of Turn 4

End of Turn 5

End of Turn 6

Battle Summary: Daemons vs. Space Marines (1500 points)

Another League Match, this time against what I expected to be a strong Space Marines contingent.

Space Marines List:
Sevrin Loth (IA9)

Full Tactical Squad, flamer, lascannon
Full Tactical Squad, multi-melta, melta, rhino transport
5 scouts, sniper rifles, camo cloaks, missle launcher
5 sternguard veterans, 1 power fist, 2 combi-meltas, 3 combi-plasmas, drop pod
5 Terminator assault marines
Stormtalon gunship, twin-linked assault cannon, twin-linked lascannon
5 devastators, 3 missile launchers, 1 plasma cannon
Whirlwind

Daemons Army List:
Herald of Tzeentch, chariot, bolt of Tzeentch, breath of chaos, master of sorcery, we are legion
Herald of Tzeentch, chariot, bolt of Tzeentch, breath of chaos, master of sorcery, we are legion

Herald of Khorne, juggernaught
Flamers of Tzeentch x 3
Bloodcrushers x 3
Pink Horrors x 9, icon, bolt of Tzeentch, the Changeling
Daemonettes x 12
Plaguebearers x 7, instrument of chaos
Screamers x 5
Daemon prince, iron hide, wings
Soul Grinder, Mawcannon Phlegm

Scenario and set-up:
Mission = The Relic (mission number 6 from the 6th ed rulebook), with hammer and anvil deployment (short table edges). 

My warlord trait is rolled as "Night Attacker" which means I can elect to start the game with night fighting in effect.  Which I do!

Early Turns.
My opponent sets up on the short edge that I've chosen for him.  The terrain is a mixture of ruins, open ground and area terrain.  Deepstriking in to all this will be risky and my opponent is forcing me to go first so that he ensures he has an extra turn of shooting at me!  Sevrin is deployed with the terminators which I find curious, but don't question.  The squad in the open looks like a prime target for some of my breath of chaos guys (heralds and flamers) whilst I think I'm just going to have to tangle those terminators up for a few turns to be honest.  The scouts scuttle in to some scenery to begin the game to gain a cover save.

In my first turn, my preferred wave comes on and I suffer a deepstrike mishap with the daemonettes -- they get repositioned in the far corner of the board and will play no further part in the game (other than getting shot up in the last turn by the stormtalon...) as they try to slog to the centre.  Most of my deepstrikes scatter and I take two dangerous terrain checks, but no wounds are caused.  My opening volley sees off most of the scouts by the flamers (so much for cover saves!) and one terminator from my pink horrors.  They hold the centre of the board and capture the relic.  I'm going to back them slowly away during the game!

The first of my Tzeentch heralds sees to the tactical squad on the flank with breath of chaos and some gazing.  The take a wound or two off him in exchange from rapid fire.  The drop pod with the sternguard join the party and take more wounds off.

The terminators charge in to the bloodcrushers (just in front of the pink horrors) and both sides take a few wounds.  The devastators meanwhile are holed up in a fortification and cannot see much due to night fighting (phew).

Middle Turns.
The game gets interesting during turns 3 and 4.  A squad of marines disembarks from their rhino to try to shoot down my flamers.  But the Changeling is in range and by some miracle takes over their shooting!  I've not had the Changeling's ability work for me in a long, LONG while -- to see it go off at such a critical juncture changes the momentum of the game for me I think.  The marines shoot at other marines (and not me!) and my flamers follow up by consuming the entire squad in Tzeentch's fire.

Still locked in the centre of the board, my bloodcrushers are taking punishment: the herald of Khorne is gone back to the warp, but not before a few terminators are also contributing to the skull throne.  Sevrin has a wound from perils of the warp, but everything is still even and locked up.  My pink horrors retreat further with the Relic, shooting as they travel.

With more of my reinforcements on the board, I head quickly for the fire support.  The whirlwind has already destroyed 5/6ths of my pink horrors and it needs to explode quickly.  So, I set my screamers to the task.  A handy explosion results as can be seen from the just-after-charging image below.

Late Turns.
The extra herald makes an appearance and combined with the first one sees off the sternguard and the remains of the tactical squad.  The flamers take care of the devastators.  Meanwhile, the plaguebearers join the bloodcrushers to completely tarpit the remaining terminators.  Several poisoned weapon attacks later, Sevrin is dead and the terminators are wiped out.  Only the stormtalon remains on the board and it has already had one weapon destroyed result.  At this point, my opponent concedes as my soul grinder finally puts in an appearance after being repeatedly deepstike mishapped.  A full victory to the forces of chaos, and perhaps a little unexpectedly.  The daemon of the game for me is the Changeling for finally doing what I pay the points for him to do (it doesn't happen often!).  But Sevrin was really scary.  A regular 2+ invulnerable save coupled with a ridiculous number of powers (think: assault terminators with feel no pain) meant that I almost wished I'd had taken boon of chaos instead of breath, or bolt of Tzeentch on one of my heralds.  I think I got lucky this time.

Battle Summary: Space Wolves vs. Daemons (1500 pts)

Round 1 of the new league saw my daemons take on a mighty force of Space Wolves.  I thought I was going to lose for sure.  And that was the way it was looking until about turn 2...

Space Wolves Army:
Wolf Lord, runic armour, frost axe, storm shield, thunderwolf, wolftooth necklace
Wolf Priest, runic armour, plasma pistol, wolf tail talisman
Rune Priest, runic armour
Grey Hunters x 8, plasma gun, power axe, wolf standard, mark of the wolfen + Wolf Guard, power fist, combi-plasma + Drop Pod
Grey Hunters x 8, melta gun, power axe, wolf standard, mark of the wolfen + Wolf Guard, power fist, combi-melta + Drop Pod

Blood Claws x 8, power axe + Wolf Guard, pair of wolf claws, melta bombs
Wolf Scouts x 5, plasma gun, melta bombs + Wolf Guard, combi-plasma
Lone Wolf, frost blade
Long Fangs x 6, melta bombs, missle launcher x 5

Daemons Army List:
Herald of Tzeentch, chariot, bolt of Tzeentch, breath of chaos, master of sorcery, we are legion
Herald of Tzeentch, chariot, bolt of Tzeentch, breath of chaos, master of sorcery, we are legion

Herald of Khorne, juggernaught
Flamers of Tzeentch x 3
Bloodcrushers x 3
Pink Horrors x 9, icon, bolt of Tzeentch, the Changeling
Daemonettes x 12
Plaguebearers x 7, instrument of chaos
Screamers x 5
Daemon prince, iron hide, wings
Soul Grinder, Mawcannon Phlegm

Scenario and set-up:
Mission = Crusade (mission number 1 from the 6th ed rulebook), with 3 objectives (all mysterious), dawn of war deployment. 

Handily, my warlord trait is rolled as "Divide to Conquer" which means my opponent has -1 to reserve rolls. 

Early Turns.
Daemons gain the first turn, and their preferred wave (one herald of Tzeentch, herald of Khorne with the bloodcrushers, flamers, pink horrors and daemonettes arrive).  The Space wolves have two drop pods in reserve.  The long fangs take position in the corner of the board, granting a commanding view of the terrain for their fire arc, whilst the blood claws skulk behind cover with the wolf lord.  The lone wolf takes point in an advanced position.  Almost all of my deep striking daemons scatter: but none of them scatter badly.

The daemonettes arrive behind hard cover with no line of sight to enemies and they immediately race up to the first mysterious objective.  It turns out to be a grav-wave generator (meaning any unit attempting to charge my daemonettes halves their charge range).  The daemonettes huddle around it for the moment, daring anyone to come and take it from them.

I place my Khorne herald and bloodcrushers in the open, aiming to charge right for the wolf lord and some of the blood claws.  The horrors scatter backward, so I reinforce them with the Tzeentch herald for the moment.  The flamers meanwhile cunningly hide behind some ruins and wait their next turn to zoom around.

Running my bloodcrushers up the board was probably a bad move.  In my opponent's turn, the wolf lord comes to meet him, with avengeance.  The blood claws pile in and in two combat rounds, its all over.  At least we got to reveal the second mystery objective was "nothing of note" -- i.e. a regular objective that does nothing else.  My bloodcrushers and herald failed to perform -- indeed, the herald went down to the wolf lord in a one-on-one challenge that the wolf lord issued. 

In the rear of the field, a drop pod arrives with the rune priest with a nova power.  He readily whacks my units (horrors, Tzeentch herald) and I fail a good number of saves.  Ouch. The bolt pistols also take their toll, and the Changeling fails to take over their minds.  Darn.

Middle Turns.

At the start of turn 3, its looking bleak for me.  Only my daemon prince has come on from reserve and I've not caused many space wolf casualties yet (one or two from the bloodcrushers who attacked the blood claws, and a few scouts who infiltrated up the field too close to the herald).

To my amazement, my luck changes this turn with several battle turning events.  The first of which is the zooming of my flamers up to the long fangs who have been whittling down wounds on my herald of Tzeentch and daemon prince.  In one fell swoop, the flamers remove three quarters of the long fangs.

Secondly, the Tzeentch herald also uses breath of chaos to see the scouts off and proceeds to daemonic gaze the grey hunters that arrives with the rune priest.  The pink horrors decimate the squad further, leaving only the rune priest and one grey hunter left.

The drop pod of other grey hunters fails to show up until turn 3. This leaves me much more chance to level the playing field.   On turn 4, my plaguebearers arrive from reserve and put a wall of pestilence between the rune priest and my more valuable pink horrors.  Although they will get charged by the rune priest, they can tar pit him for the rest of the game if need be. 

Meanwhile, the daemonettes face off against the blood claws and slaughter them all in one turn, taking only 1 overwatch casualty in exchange.  Although this has taken me off my precious objective, I aim to run back soon.

My second herald of Tzeentch shows up and mops up the remaining bodies (e.g. lone wolf) in the vicinity.  The flamers finish off the long fangs. 

And the wolf lord does something brave: he decides to charge the flamers.  This is where I get a true introduction to 6th edition.  I hadn't realized my flamers could overwatch against a charge.  Apparently they can and score d3 hits on the charging unit in question each. This is rolled as 6 hits.  Now, breath of chaos is nasty: it causes a wound on a 4+ with no cover or armour save permitted.  The wolf lord fails his last two invulnerable saves and gets blasted to the warp as he tries to charge the flamers.  The tide has well and truly turned now.

Late Turns.
The rest of my crew arrive.  The soul grinder launchers a phlegm against the newly arrived second drop pod and kills many.  The daemonettes suffer many casualties as well: down to 4 left.  But the second Tzeetch herald zooms in over the terrain and uses breath of chaos to finish them off.

The plaguebearers finally take down the rune priest, leaving the screamers nothing to charge at.  The daemon prince gawks around and thinks about wrecking a drop pod that has been taking pot shots for several turns, but my opponent concedes at this point with only two drop pods left on the board.

Although first blood went to the Space Wolves (with the slaying of the herald of Khorne and the bloodcrushers), all other objectives belong to the chaos daemons. I still can't help but feel this is a game I should have lost.  I cannot believe that my flamers took down the wolf lord with overwatch shooting.  Heck, I didn't even know template weapons could do overwatch before this game.  I feel like such a noob with 6th.