Crazy Psykers battle test

Recently I wrote about my new idea for Eldar list. Last Tuesday I had a chance to put my concept to the test.

I had to proxy quite a lot. Sadly, due to covid-19 problem the supply of new minis is seriously restricted. Don't get me wrong, in this whole situation this is quite small problem ;).

My psykers with friends faced Arhiman, big unit of disco-tzaangors, even bigger unit of regular tzaangors, two units of Rubric Marines, one unit of Rubric Terminators, Land Raider, 11 and 20 strong units of Pink Horrors, huge unit of Plaguebearers, two slaaneshi harphs, Masque, Daemon Prince and Furies.

I was the attacker, so my deployment were quite agressive. We played hammer and anvil, and I put most of my units as close to the enemy as possible.

During my first turn I resisted temptation of charging with my Conclave turn one. Rafał set his forces up a bit backwards and put huge screen at the front. Charging wouldn't work well.

Instead I set my forces the way that will let me charge on turn two. Only my Falcons did some damage, but not enough to destroy the Land Raider.

Forces of Chaos moved slowly forward. Everything but discotzaangors kept their distance, knowing what may happen if I charge my Council at Ahriman and other characters.

Unit of Terminators used dark matter to move behind my lines.They shot at my Farseer and Dire Aveners, scoring one wound on the former and killing two Avengers.

Then they managed to perform 9 inch charge, trying to kill my psykers. Luckyly for me 4+ inv proved enough to keep my heroes safe, only Warlock took one wound. In return brave Eldar killed two Terminators.

My second turn. Now was the time to charge with Seer Council. Shooting went well, they killed all Tzaangors, but in close combat I scored only single wound on Daemon Prince. Good thing was, thanks to dead Tzaangors I were able to teleport Yncarne behind enemy lines.

Daemons and Disco's moved closer to the center of the board, to secure objective. Sadly, they killed most of my Dire Avengers and Falcon.

Falcons fired their Shurikens into Horrors, and heavier gunst at Discotzaangors. Then I deepstriked Scorpions behind enemy lines.

One harph shot my brave aspect warriors, killing all but the Exarch. Then, Exarch proved that messing with Scorpions ain't a good idea and killed disciple of Slaanesh with few blows of his claw.

Yncarne finally delivered a few blows, but failed to kill Ahriman. Good thing was, he kept all enemy forces busy trying to kill him...

...only to escape before they fought back thanks to last Dire Avenger dying.

Pink Horrors charged Yncarne, but he jumped again, leaving them with jaws dropped.

Falcons charged at lesser daemons, cause why the hell not, if I didn't have anything to shoot at?

In enemy deployment zone everything tried to kill Council. After Daemon Prince's death they had to fight two units of Rubric Marines, Ahriman and huge unit of Plaguebearers.

Yncarne jumped back, thanks to my psykers who finished Enlightened. Of course I could have jumped him after my last Scorpion died to deny my oponent an objective, but that was my first time with this model and, gosh, it's very hard to play with. But I love it :)

After turn three we decided to call it. The result was 18:13 for the Eldar.

I must say, I like this list very much. There will be some changes, but Council and Yncarne stay for sure :).

Eldar vs Thousand Sons & Daemons

Today we played ITC 2000pts game. I had to proxy some models, as currently it's quite difficult to get some models due to pandemic (let's hope this madness ends very soon).

Venoms proxy for Vipers, and Fire Prism for Night Spinner.

Rafał won the roll-of and chose to be an attacker. His horde of Daemons and Thousand Sons extended along whole border of his deployment.

I deployed way more carefully, knowing that disciples of Tzeentch will go first. I tried to hide everything I could. Rafał moved everything forward, and shot with only two units that were in range: Rhino and Land Raider. Havoc launcher did nothing, but Land Rider did some serious damage to Wave Serpent, scoring 4 wounds.

In return I fired all Falcons, Wave Serpent and big unit of Reapers managing to destroy Land Raider. I had some bad rolls, so all of this firepower was necessary. After this game I think I made a mistake. Way better use for this whole firepower would be to fire at other units, leaving Land Raider. It wasn't that much of a threat. Hey, that's why we are playing such games, to make mistakes and learn from them. From the wreckage of huge tank emerged some Rubric Marines. Only one of them died while their transport got destroyed.

My Windriders, Vypers, two small units of Reapers and Night Spinner destroyed enough models from two units of Pink Horrors that rest of them fled to warp, securing me the center of the board. One point can make all the difference in some games :).

Second turn began with Rafał advancing all his army. Of all those units everything but two rolled 6 for advance...

Second unit of Rubrics moved out of their Rhino and advanced forward.

The other flank pressed on as well.

Ahriman flew to the top of one of big buildings at the center of the board. Then he rolled some insane dice, leaving all three Falcons and Wave Serpent almost dead. Rafał's rolls this turn were insanely good.

At the beginning of my second turn I thought I will loose. So much damage to my tanks, only two Windriders left after Daemon Prince's charge, generally speaking things didn't look good. I disembarked all of my Dire Avengers, and moved one unit forward, and second to the objective on my left flank.

After such an agressive turn I knew I had to push the forces of Tzeentch back. It's very rare for the Eldar to be cornered. Holding the line is not a favourite tactic of the Eldar (and it ain't mine as well). As two important characters were close to my lines (Ahriman and Daemon Prince warlord) I moved my tanks and psykers forward to kill both of them. Reapers moved from safe hideouts behind the cover.

After loads of psychic (most of it didn't go off or got denied) and even more shooting both characters were dead, remaining Windriders held another objective and Tzaangors fled due to massive casualities done to them by Reapers. Bikers shot the psyker on the Disk, leaving him on single wound. Then they charged, but didn't kill him. I had to spend 2CP to make them attack again, which finally brought him down.

I not only killed several characters, securing my dominance over psychic phase...

...but also pushed Tzeenth's forces out of my left flank. I think I cought up a bit.

Horrors, Skyfires and Rubric Marines moved towards my right flank. Daemon Prince flew to the center of the board to attack my Dire Avengers. Syll'Esske moved closer to Windriders holding the objective.

At this point I knew that my tanks are quite safe as long as big daemons are ocuppied somewhere else.

Daemon charged and killed two Dire Avengers, Skyfires tried to destroy one of my Venoms, but left it on single wound.

Syll'Esske killed rest of Windriders. Those were the losses I could accept. Tanks killed Prince, Reapers - Skyfires and all my indirect - Horrors. At this point there were only Rubric Marines and Syll'Esske left, so we decided to call it and go home :)

The result was 27 to 14 for the Eldar. Rafał is learning fast, each game is way tougher than the last.

My thoughts about the army are:

- Reapers are very powerfull as long as I'm able to feed my enemy other targets to kill.

- Dire Avengers with Superior Shurikens and Bladestorm are AWESOME. IMO the best troop choice in the game (I guess Space Marines' players would disagree).

- Venoms are not as bad as everyone says, as long as they are Saim-Hann and can shoot on 3+ even after move. Despite that I will get rid of one and bring Windriders to maximum unit size (I'm even considering taking second unit). Till the next time :)

Soup vs Daemons

Today my Soup faced Daemons army (Tzeentch battalion + Slaanesh/Khorne battalion).

Last time I got asked on Eldar facebook group about the list, so this time I'll put mine below:

Drukhari Battalion (Kabal of the Flayed Skull):

- Archon (Huskblade)

- Archon (Huskblade)

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- Venom

- Venom

- Venom

Craftworlds Battalion (CC: Masterful Shots, Expert Crafters):

- Warlock Skyrunner (Warlord)

- Farseer Skyrunner

- Spiritseer (Faolchu's Wing)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 5 Dire Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm, 2 Catapults)

- 8 Shining Spears + Exarch (Star Lance, Swooping Dive)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

- Falcon (AML, Crystal Targeting Matrix)

Harlequins Vanguard (Frozen Stars):

- Shadowseer (Neuro Disruptor)

- Troupe Master (Kiss)

- 5 Harlequins (3x Kiss, 2x Caress)

- Death Jester

- Death Jester

- Solitaire

We used the new ITC format. I lost the roll and became the attacker. With hammer and anvil deployment I pushed forward everything but two Archons who kept two objectives in my deployment zone safe.

Rafał, Daemon's general deployed strongly into one corner, a bit worried by three Falcons.

On my first turn I fired three Falcons into doomed and jinxed Keeper of Secrets. Well... He lost 3 wounds. Dice are weird :P. My Troupe moved twice (thanx to the Shadowseer). Of course both advances were amazing, 1 inch each (I even re-rolled one with CP, into 1 of course). It didn't matter, as even with such bad luck they moved 18 inches, and only needed 6 inches charge. After consolidation they jumped straight into enemy screen.

They survived all attacks they got in return thanks to -2 to hit and 3+ inv. Then they piled in and fought again, thanks to the strategem.

Even though they didn't kill much (about 10-12 daemons from few units) I absolutely love them. No other unit does such mayhem among enemy lines. Whole turn 1 by Daemons was focussed on killing them.

After psychic phase that killed my clowns Daemons started to press forward.

Daemon Prince killed Troupe Master, Shadowseer died to few smites and several shots from Flamers. Then Prince charged my Warlock, who not only passed all his saves, but gave three wounds to Daemon in return!

I realised I need to clear the midboard fast. All three units of Dire Avengers disembarked and pressed forward, firing their Catapults, and obliterating about 20 daemons. Falcons fired several shots, killing even more, and wounding Kairos.

Then my Shining Spears (Quickened by Spiritseer) and Solitaire charged into combat.

Solitaire had to hit twice, but killed Kairos.

Spears left second Keeper of Secrets on four wounds.

At this moment we had to end our game (after three turns) due to time limit. Next time I hope we'll have some more time. If we played longer, I probably would win, but barely. Daemons are very difficult enemy for Eldar. It's very rare ocasion when all of my spells can be denied by so many psykers, and I run out of psykers to deny their powers. Huge Daemons and hordes of smaller ones are quite difficult to kill as well.

Till next time :) I think I will show you my first Harlequin models painted quite soon :)

Eldar soup vs disciples of Tzeentch

Today I had a chance to lead my weird army against Thousand Sons. 2000pts ITC game.

My army was built around three detachments. Dark Eldar battalion, Craftworlds spearhead and Harlequin vanguard. It was the first time I used Harlequins, and I like them very much :)

Deployment zone was a bit crowded, but thansk to high mobility of my army my plan was to push all my forces forward very fast.

My three Falcons were stuffed with Dark Reapers to bring them a bit forward up the board.

Actually while building my army I took as many new units as possible. Therefore I fielded new Windriders and Shining Spears. I also gave Autarch on foot a try (re-rolling ones is quite usefull).

Of course I wouldn't be myself if I didn't add at least one plane.

As I'd mentioned earlier I pushed most of my army forward, leaving two Archons holding objectives behind. On my first turn I fired three Falcons and Crimson Hunter Exarch into Vortex Beast, killing it and securing first blood for the Eldar.

I tried to destroy Vindicator as well, but managed to score only single wound.

The hole in Thousand Sons' deployment after the Beast was slain.

Chaos sorcerers unleashed full might of their psychic power, delivering five wounds to my plane and five to one of the Falcons.

In return Falcons obliterated Vindicator.

Gap between both armies got really thin.

Tzangors charged Venom holding one of the objectives, but managed to score only five wounds.

I fired most of my shots into Tzangors, killing the whole unit. Crimson Hunter Exarch shot Arhiman to death.

Windriders fired at Daemon Prince, Shining Speard did the same, leaving it on single wound. Then, Exarch killed Daemon with his lance, and two Spears killed four of Rubric Marines, leaving only the Sorcerer. At the same time Harlequins killed another unit of Marines.

Second Prince killed the Troupe, my brave clowns were no match for his mighty claws.

All in all I won 20:3. I must confess, all my Harlequin units were proxied (two Jesters, Shadowseer, Solitaire and Troupe) but just after the game I bought all those units (except Solitaire, I ordered him some time ago. Sadly GW does not work at the moment, so I have to wait :( ).

When I got home I went back to my paint station, and resumed painting the Ravager.