Titan and Autarch debut

[Speaker to Machines]

Battle report: 4K battle between Eldar (me) and Space Marines (Nighteye)

I'm fielding my Warlock Titan and Autarch Aspect host in Wave serpents for the first time; I'm looking forward to testing their capabilities.



Battlefield overview (EP's very nice epic terrain), where we'll be fighting over a Defence Laser installation in the middle of a ruined human city.

Objectives as indicted on the map.  The one furthest away is an Eldar webway portal, recently powered up and aligned to the Phoenix Craftworld.

Deployment; Marines deploy garrison tacticals.

Marines then deploy (front to back) land speeders, Devastators in rhinos, bikes, Land Raiders and Vindicators, Whirlwinds, Predators, Tacticals in Rhinos, Warlord Titan and more devastators in rhinos.  A pair of Marauders in reserve.

Eldar deploy Scorpion, Warlock, Autarch/Aspects in Wave serpents, Falcons with 2 firestorms, Guardian host with everything, Fire Prisms, another Scorpion and Falcons with 1 firestorm. A fully-loaded guardian host, a windrider host and a Nightwing group stay in reserve.


The Warlock timidly hide behind the ruins (we played the ruins as blocking LOS;  We need a bit bigger terrain to play it true LOS).


View of the Marine force, ready to roll out.


The marine speed forward to block the webway portal (or at least force anything coming through it to engage).  The Scorpion advances and destroy a rhino.


Tacticals, and supreme command, advance to secure the center objective.


I planned to advance the Warlock and soften up the marine garrisoning the leftmost objective in preparation for an Aspect assault; The Titan's firepower exceeded all expectations though, and the single surviving marine stand fled in panic (after inflicting a blast marker through overwatch fire).


Devastators advance on the flank, blasting the Warlock a bit more.


Falcons jump forward, wreak vengeance on the devastators by destroying all their rhinos, and scoot back in cover.


Land speeders advance on the far flank, moving into assault range.

Scorpion advances and break the devastator unit, which retreats into the ruins.


Land Raiders move quickly forwards, and actually damages the Warlock; It is now very close to breaking (being very conscious of the value of its immortal skin).


Eldar guardians advance on the center, coming under somewhat ineffectual fire from Whirlwinds.

Fire Prisms shift left, and scares the Land Raiders a little. No damage done.

Predators advance and fire on the Warlock, damaging it further and causing it to retreat.


The guardian host in the Webway arrives, utterly flattening the spooked devastators sitting around the portal, and contine into the cover of a small copse.


Falcons shift left, firing with little effect at the predators.

Off-camera, the Marauders perform a bombing run on the guardian host that arrived from the webway, losing one craft to nightwing interceptors.


The Autarch assaults!  The Wave serpents speed forward, disgorging their cargo of Aspect Warriors, engaging the Marine Predators.  The firefight wipes out the predators with no Eldar losses...


... and the victorious host consolidates into the ruins where the broken marines are hiding.

Marine bikes takes up positions right outside the ruins, preparing for an assault.


But the sneaky Eldar seize the (turn 2) initiative, and strikes first!  The Autarch's host assaults both bikes and Land Raiders, sustaining from a preliminary Falcon attack...


... wiping out both units, and consolidating back into the ruins.


The Nightwing flight commander gambles that the imperial Marauder won't get flight prepped this turn, and launch an opportunistic sortie against the Marine speeders, killing two.


On the right flank, the Scorpion takes position behind the small woods where the guardians a taking cover from the Warlord firepower, and opens return fire on the Warlord.  Two shields go down.


Land speeders advance, killing a Falcon tank.


The last remaining unscathed combat formation, the Supreme commander's own tactical squad, engages the Autarch's retinue, supported by the badly rattled devastators inside the ruins.  Luck is not with the Marines, though, and the attack is repulsed.

At this point, we agreed that there was little point in continuing; The Marines were, effectively, down to a Titan and a whirlwind formation, and the Eldar has suffered only light casualties.

[Nighteye]

Du har meget bedre billeder end mig

Tak for kampen. Det var en alvorlig røvfuld.

[Speaker to Machines]

Du har meget bedre billeder end mig

Heh.  Jeg skulle lige til at sige det samme til dig; Jeg synes mine er overbelyste og ufokuserede

Tak for kampen. Det var en alvorlig røvfuld.

Jaeh, det var lidt ensidigt...  Men jeg er da glad for at min Autarch og Warlock fik en god start på deres karriere på spillebordet

Skulle vi ikke prøve til næste slag at finde på noget andet end den sædvanlige tournament-pitched-battle-yawn-har-vi-set mission? Måske endda en eller andet historie-baseret scenarie-kæde med bonusser man kan bære videre?

[Speaker to Machines]

D'oh!  I think I made a technical default here

But the sneaky Eldar seize the (turn 2) initiative, and strikes first!  The Autarch's host assaults both bikes and Land Raiders, sustaining from a preliminary Falcon attack...

I can only treat the LR formation as intermingled if it is within 5cm of the target (bike) formation (not, as I thought, if it is within 15cm of the assaulting formation...).  So, the fairly decisive attack only actually destroyed the bike formation.

The effect on the actual outcome would not have been significant, since I could probably have broken the LR formation with a (3rd) retain and a couple of TK shots shots from the Warlock.  But it does mar an otherwise flawless victory 

[Math details: 1 blast on the LR for supporting fire. 3rd retain from Warlock on 2+ (1+  for retaining farseer, +1 for blastmarkers), with an option to use the autarch reroll.  4 TK shots at TK6+ from psylance, 2  shots at TK4+ from pulsar, 2 shots at AT5+ from missiles. With, conservatively, 1 kill, the formation would have had 3 LRs and 7 blasts...]

[Belial]

Flotte billeder og lækkert terræn.

Prøv evt. at bytte hære næste gang. Det kunne være sjovt at læse, hvad der så skete.

MVH

Belial

[Speaker to Machines]

Prøv evt. at bytte hære næste gang. Det kunne være sjovt at læse, hvad der så skete.

Heh, ja, jo, jeg ville nok få bank   Jeg tror det er almindeligt kendt at en standard Warlord Titan er "the pants", og jeg tror generelt der mangler lidt flere assault elementer i Stevens liste til at støtte de devastators og tacticals der er.  Bikes og speeders er fine, men lige rigeligt skrøbelige, så de kan ikke stå alene.

For de 850 pts Warlord'en koster, tror jeg 3x Assault marines, med en captain og to chaplains ville gøre mere gavn; og så er der endda råd til et par thunderbolts også.

[Belial]

Øv, bøv... 

MVH

Belial

[Speaker to Machines]

Øv, bøv... 

Jah, det er lidt syndt.  De er jo ret flotte på slagmarken...

Måske hvis man skiftede den ene Turbolaser ud med en Apoc Multi-launcher (60cm BP3)?  Så bliver det en rigtig jack-of-all-trades Titan, der kan genere infanteri også?  Som den er nu er den ret dedikeret anti-tank, og hvis man står overfor Eldar tanks som er for hurtige til at man kan fange dem og som ellers gemmer sig bag bygninger så man ikke kan se dem, så er den svær at tjene hjem.

Man kan spille den defensivt, stille sit blitz objektiv så langt fra cover som muligt og så ellers parkere titanen på det i overwatch, men det hjælper ikke meget; Især Eldar kan sagtens ignorere den indtil resten af hæren er nedkæmpet og så ellers zappe den med langdistanceskydning.

[JacobFrandsen]

Jeg tror at en warlord kan fungere. Nok bare ikke mod snydealfer.

Problemet med alferne er, at de tager initiativet med deres større mobilitet, pop-up angreb og move-shoot-move. Det efterlader marines med nogenlunde samme rolle som IG'erne - de er bare væsentlig dårligere til den rolle.

Løsningen kan være at nappe initiativet tilbage.

Land speeders i garrison langt fremme, termies der deepstriker, thunderhawks med devastators og tacticals. Resten af hæren kan så have en kerne af holdbare enheder, som kan tage objektives, e.g. oversize tacs med SC, razorbacks og hunters.

Så kan man lægge pres på eldarne og udnytte, at de ikke er super holdbare, når det er dem, der bliver angrebet.

Det giver også tid og plads til at dine jordbaserede enheder kan komme frem og positionere sig.

En warlord vil bare være endnu et håbløst forsøg på at blive lige så shooty som IG-erne.

Warhounds kan nok være ok, da de kan følge med frem, men de er ret skrøbelige og vil derfor tage point fra enten dit dropelement eller dine holdbare tage-objektiver-enheder. Men måske giver droppet dem mulighed for at slippe nogenlunde ubeskadigede frem. Bør prøves, men jeg foretrækker nok flere marines.

/jacob

[Nighteye]

Nej nej han er slet ikke det værd, især ikke når han kun får lov at skyde infantry. Han er dog stadig ikke en man har lyst til at komme tæt på, så han kan absolut bruges defensivt.

Og ja, generelt manger min hær reinforcements (hint hint  ). Speeders var bare første skridt.