PREDATOR: Battle Narrative, Part I

Set-Up and Overview

Space Wolves and Eldar of Craftworld Ka’tana clashed on the field of battle on Sunday, leaving the mud crimson and the crows well fed.  I hadn’t used my Eldar in some time and wanted to break them back out (and now I really want to go back to them in prime time), giving my opponent a chance to see what aspect warriors could do, even against the strong and savage Space Wolves.  We played 1500 pts in an attempt to actually complete a game (the last two didn’t get past turn 4 before time ran out on us).  And we did that: the game went all the way to turn 7! 

I always name my lists, in this case PREDATOR, which seemed appropriate with my stalking Scorpion Lord and the Space Wolves and all.  Of course, knowing that I’m trying to maintain a blog now, I should have treated this like a journalist and taken my camera with me.  But as usual, I forgot.  So I don’t have pictures, which makes for a poorer report.

It turns out 1500 points doesn’t go very far for Eldar or SWs (though I could have told you that before).  Without going into all the wargear details, the lists looked roughly like this:

ELDAR

           

HQ	Avatar
HQ	Karandras, scorpion phoenix lord
E	Striking Scorpions (7) with exarch
T	Dire Avengers (10) with exarch
T	Guardian Jetbikes (4) including warlock
E	Harlequins (8) with master, shadowseer, and death jester
HVY	Night Spinner grav-tank
HVY	Dark Reapers (4) with exarch
FA	Warp Spiders (5) with exarch

SPACE WOLVES

HQ	Logan Grimnar
T	Grey Hunters (10)
(T)	Wolf Guard Terminators (5) including Arjac Rockfist
*	Drop Pod
HQ	Rune Priest
FA	Thunderwolf Cavalry (4)
HVY	Long Fangs (5)
E	Wolf Scouts (5)

We rolled out Annihilation on a Spearhead deployment, the Eldar deploying and going first.  Knowing the Wolves were going to be aggressive and want to come in close, the Eldar pulled back in the their corner of the board, patient and brooding, allowing their long-ranged weapons to fire across the field.  That plan was disrupted when the SW drop pod landed in their midsts, but by the first half of the game the Eldar were looking good with a lot more models on the board and their molten god burning bright, an inspiration for bloodlust.  But by the end of the battle, in the span of only a few turns, the Eldar population was decimated.  At the resolution of Turn 7 there only four Eldar models and three Wolf models on the board.  It was pretty brutal.

Lessons learned (other than take your camera): I realized a lot of mistakes we made the day after the battle, forgetting a few key rules of the 40,000 Rules we had to remember.  Turns out my wonderful infantry-death Night Spinner tank’s primary guns are twin-linked; I knew that before we started but forgot during play.  So it would likely have been of some great use to me had I remembered that, rather than just spraying the scenery with monofilament webs for purely decorative purposes.  I later realized we also forgot to use And They Shall Have No Fear in the Avengers vs Wolf Scouts fight, and also when the warp spiders managed to turn the long fangs into a retreat—I could have ran them off the board had I pursued.  But alas, that’s how it goes in a long, exhausting game of 40K.  I also finally got some use out of my warp spiders, rather than having them leap ahead and get killed alone.  I think J found out that doesn’t work well with his terminator drop pod.  Had my night spinner been twin-linked and I’d have actually hit his grey hunter unit, he’d have also learned again the value of an armored transport for foot troops.  Of course every game is a learning experience (especially when they change all the damn rules on you every few years...).

And now, I suppose, you’d like to know what happened…