So I made it out to Battlefront Saturday for the first time in ages. I got in a test game for my 2000pt league list and it was my first time fielding my Eldar Allies or using psychic powers.
The game only made it to the bottom of turn 4 (there were 3 objectives, and I had no way to contest 2 of them and only had 1 troop left to claim one so I had clearly lost by that point), so I won't bother with a full write up on it, but here are some highlights.
My first observation is that playing at a different venue than normal with different terrain available makes a huge impact on your game. Where my list was well tailored for BKG's terrain, it was near worthless in the face of Battlefronts 18' tall 18" wide monolithic buildings that totally block LOS.. Because of those buildings I had to deploy 2 out of 3 broadside teams all the way up to the front edge of my deployment zone just to shoot at anthing. This resulted in them being in range of massed enemy fire, and one team had to assault an HQ squad on Jetbikes on turn 2 lest they be assaulted immediately there after, or shot up with ap2 weapons.
Next observation is that running firewarriors en masse just isn't worth it. Twelve firewarriors are just as apt to die in an assault as 6, and with their lousy shooting and lack of AP even in rapid fire range they only ever take out 1 or 2 models a turn before getting assaulted.. Six Firewarriors in a DFish is the only way to play them unless you are facing hordes with 5+ or 6+ saves only.
Facing an eldar player with Eldrad Ulthran really makes your own Eldrad less usefull. Their abilities cancel each other out, so your opponent gets to roll 3 dice taking the lowest, rather than the highest when making psychic checks. That said having your own Eldrad attached to a 3 suit team of broadsides to ignore cover is quite handy.
Three squads of 3 broadsides are hard to support even at 2000pts.. They are potent, and with SMS can have good volume of fire up close, but they cost between 250 and 300 pts for a team of 3.. Thats 100 pts a shot past 24" almost.. Very costly compared to what other armies can get for that many points.
All said and done it was a good learning experience, and I'm glad I got a game in with my allies before playing a league match, I'll have to see if I can tweak it a bit before Tuesday.
Thanks to my opponent for the schooling.
Ha. Sorry about that. I take it you fought with the cardboard ruins terrain they recently acquired?
ReplyDeleteIt's a very different experience than the BKG (and, by extension, the Barn, where they got their terrain from) board setup. Something you have to keep in mind while playing, I imagine doing the by-the-book terrain setup (read the one where you know exactly where you/your opponent will be setting up first) can help mitigate some of the negatives of over-packed/over-sized terrain.
Also, Eldrad vs Eldrad was so much simpler in 5th, when Runes of Warding simply canceled out Runes of Witnessing (in the case that the Farseers were on opposing sides.) to the tune of they both just roll 2d6 like a normal frickin' psyker.
According to the new FAQ'd version of the rules, the only way my brain can resolve the two at the same time is roll 4d6 drop the highest and the lowest... which, well, it's weird, and I'm not sure if there's a statistical difference between that and just rolling the 2d6...
*EDIT* Ah, nevermind, they do still just cancel each other out and just roll 2d6:
Q: What happens when a Farseer with Runes of Witnessing rolls for his Psychic test when there is an enemy Farseer with Runes of Warding on the battlefield? (p26)
A: The two pieces of wargear cancel each other out; neither takes effect.
So now you know, and Knowledge is Power!
No, well, yes. But it wasn't the cardboard terrain I find egregious.. It's the left over remnants of the old city fight board. Especially the chunk that is 3 levels tall, and the bottom two levels are almost completely solid, with just a slot on the 3rd level for troops to fire from. That in addition to the other piece that is 12x12x6 give or take that is completely solid walls, and the other piece that is the same only open on one end. The cardboard skyscraper style buildings atleast have openings covering the majority of most levels so you can't get 100% LOS Blocking from them (well, one of them was a solid U on the ground floor that of course the Deathspinner sat in.. All in all, it was an ugly board with no cohesive design motif between the disparate elements..
ReplyDeleteWe did terrain by the book, and rolled hammer and anvil for deployment.. It didn't help at all really.. I got some flat hills in the center of the board, and the curved archaic 3 story ruin behind my defense line center back of my board edge. The 12x12x6 terrain ended up in the front left corner of my deployment zone, the other piece of the same size ended up in the no-mans land on the right most side, and the 3 story high ruin with solid bottom floors ended up dead center at the front edge of his zone.. The 2 towers were in his zone to the right of the tall ruin, and he put a solid wall in the back left corner to hid his deathspinner in, which I blocked by putting a small industrial looking building there, but he then placed the second tower by his other corner and just put it there instead.
We totally messed up on the wargear for Eldrad, as he was rolling 3 dice taking the lower two, and thus so did I assuming that to be correct.
I also exploded a wave serpant top of turn two that was carrying some striking scorpians, whom on his turn moved 6 inches into the nearby ruin, shot my Firewarriors then assaulted them killing 7 and the remaining 5 failed moral and were swept. Did you catch that? Cuz I didn't until the end of his turn when I suddenly realized that the Scorpions couldn't assault that turn as it was his subsequent assault phase after they had disembarked from their vehicle..
I let it stand as I didn't catch it at the time, and he had a unit of Swooping Hawks there that could have assaulted but didn't.. So the end result would have been the same..
All in all, he was a good opponent, and it was nice to play an Eldar list that composed of different units than I am used to so I could see what potential units I might want for my allies.
Speaking of which, I just won an Ebay auction at 20% of retail on 2 Wraithlords, a Vyper, and a War Walker.. And even though 3 of those models directly conflict with my Dark Reapers for a heavy slot, I may hang on to them just so I have some options, or I may even play Eldar with Tau Allies occasionally. Just think Tau Allies, Farsight with 7 bodyguards.. That would be one Crazy HQ choice.. LOL.
You know, I don't think I've EVER used those big foamy ruins (aside from that one Tourney they did, the one where I pretty much gave up on and let you club me like a baby seal during the last round.) I almost always err on the side of hills (with or without trees on them) and the round archaic ruins. And the Crystal growth thingies... man, I love them. They do next to nothing for generating actual cover, but I still just like having them on the board.
ReplyDeleteI remember Wraithlords... they didn't like Space Wolf Missile Spam (that was back in 5th, when they almost never got a cover save.) War Walkers are good (always take the Scatter Laser... I think... whichever one has the high number of Str6 shots...)
I've never seen a Vyper in person, but from what I've read it could be good...
Well, at least you were both playing Eldrad wrong equally, though I'm kind of concerned that the player more familiar with the Eldar codex didn't know how to play that correctly... maybe he just hasn't ever played *against* Eldar before, and therefore never had to worry about it. Hmm...
Just how many points is The Bomb, anyway?
The bomb varies depending on wpns load out, and number of drones included. If you include the Shas'O I usually attach to it, and assume 4 drones, It runs 800 minimum with cheap wpns like tlflamers MP's and burst Cannons. If I'm planning on playing Marines, They cost a lot more as I'll add shield gens and Plasma/Fusion on all of them.
ReplyDeleteAs to the other Eldar player I'm not sure on his experience level, I only just met him. I should have read the relevant faq's etc.. before fielding them myself, so the error was ultimately mine.
Low Cost bomb for IG/Nid opponents:
ReplyDelete1500 Pts - Tau Empire Roster - Tau League 1500 Flamesight
Total Roster Cost: 1496
HQ: Commander Shas'o (3#, 218 pts)
1 Commander Shas'o, 188 pts = (base cost 75 + Airbursting Fragmentation Projector 20 + Cyclic Ion Blaster 15 + Ejection System 15 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Iridium Armour 20 + Stimulant Injector 10 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
HQ: Commander Farsight (10#, 661 pts)
1 Commander Farsight, 170 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)
Expensive Bomb for Marines etc..
ReplyDeleteHQ: Commander Shas'o (1#, 178 pts)
1 Commander Shas'o, 178 pts = (base cost 75 + Ejection System 15 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Iridium Armour 20 + Stimulant Injector 10 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20 + Vectored Retro-thrusters 10)
HQ: Commander Farsight (12#, 912 pts)
1 Commander Farsight, 170 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 100 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 97 pts = (base cost 35 + Fusion Blaster 12 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Plasma Rifle 20 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
The nice thing with the expensive list, is the shas'o gives the bomb hit and run. And Farsights I5 means they are likely to succeed. So I can disengage, unload with a ton of AP2 AP1 shots, then assault again if need be.
ReplyDelete