Timlin turned his gaze from Brighton to the industrial complex in the west. Explosive gunfire spit from the complex into the unseen reaches of hedges in the far northwest. ‘We’ve destroyed two of the vile machines,’ the silent message from his entrenched rangers forming in Timlin’s mind. ‘But now a swarm approaches us. We will be overrun.’
‘Can your dark reapers help our rangers, Exarch?’ Timlin mentally asked the mighty warrior. ‘No, the swarm is too fast. By the time we train our reaper launchers onto them, they will be upon our valiant scouts. However, I report that our first has taken down a Necron Destroyer. No, wait, it is floating back up. Vile machines.’
Timlin watched as Brighton recalled his Wraithguard squad from the ruins. ‘We were taking too much fire, Farseer.’ ‘Brighton, lead your squad up the middle, along with warlock Proklor’s squad.’ ‘As you wish,’ Brighton answered.
His rangers overwhelmed, Timlin instructed his bodyguard, a mighty Wraithlord, to open fire on the remaining Heavy Destroyer left unfazed by the rangers. The Heavy Destroyer tumbled to the ground, awash in blinding Starlight. As the light faded, his Wraithlord wracked backward under the force of a Gaussian blast. Scowling, Timlin looked to the east and saw the cause -- another unit of Heavy Destroyers. ‘Exarch, we need your assistance in the east.’ ‘Negative, Radian Farseer,’ the Exarch mentally responded. ‘We are engaged with a swarm of mechanical scarabs! Assistance requested.’
Timlin made his first error. ‘I am sorry, Exarch, but my Wraithlord is needed elsewhere. Hold strong, brother.’ As soon as the words were out of his mind, another blast smacked his Wraithlord. The mass of re-animated Wraithbone slumped to the ground. Timlin fired his jetbike engine and claimed the Wraithlord’s spirit stone. “You will fight again, my friend,” Timlin whispered in a bow of respect. On this side of the trees, Timlin saw his dark reapers in fierce battle with the swarm of scarabs. Blessing them with good fortune, he turned to face the backs of the advancing Wraithguard. His jetbike lurched forward as roared toward them.
As Timlin reached the front, he doomed a squad of Necron warrior, and blessed his frontal Wraithguard force. Both actions were effective, as Necron fells under the ripping force of Wraithcannon blasts, and green Gauss fire bounced harmlessly off his re-animated infantry. Timlin smiled as Brighton’s squad fired on the now-in-range Heavy Destroyers. All three collapsed in a mass of metal. ‘Thank you for avenging my Wraithlord, Brighton,’ Timlin mentally said. Brighton glanced over his shoulder and quickly bowed before turning his attention on to the Necron warrior squad that was charging into him.
Timlin continued dooming and blessing, watching his Wraithguard descend into melee with the vile machines. Both sides accepted crippling blows from the other, with minimal ill effect. Suddenly, Timlin’s head roared in pain. He had just doomed the Immortal squad surrounding Proklor’s Wraithguard, and as his doom fell upon them, an explosion had distracted him slightly, and the vile creatures of the Warp surged into the tear in reality he was holding open. He gathered himself and repelled their assault, unharmed. His ancient Ghosthelm glittered with Wraithbone, having been called into service yet again against the vile Warp monsters.
A shock wave of fear hit Timlin. He turned to see his Exarch lead his two remaining dark reapers back toward base. The swarm of scarabs, while smaller, rushed toward the combat. Timlin’s jetbike screamed as he soared behind the ruins. As his bike settled down behind the ruins, he sensed a ripple. Turning to his right, he saw the squad of Immortals blink into existence, led by the great Necron Lord. Before he could bring his jetbike’s shuriken catapults to bear, green light lanced out at him from the mass of troops, and he fell, jetbike smouldering.
This was a great game. The premise was that I was to use two wraithguard squads as troops, a Farseer, and a wraithlord, and then fill up 400 points with whatever, versus Ryan’s anti-wraith army. I chose to fill up my 400 points with pathfinding rangers and dark reapers.
My rangers had actually taken out all 3 heavy destroyers in turn 1, but as we had not specifically clarified a terrain rule, I allowed one heavy destroyer to come back. Ryan did an amazing job using his strengths, rushing his fast units around the flank to neutralize my fire support troops. He took the rangers out in 2 turns, then rushed my reapers. Now, I must say, the reapers held their own against 8 scarab swarms. They took out a few swarms and went unharmed until the final turn, turn 6. At which point 2 were wounded, and due to a wormhole in the rules, their morale test had to be taken on a <=5 roll (ridiculous number of wounds on those scarabs), and they fled. I erred greatly by not assaulting the scarabs with my wraithlord, instead leaving him as a sitting duck for the heavy destroyer squad Ryan had left. However, the lord did draw fire that otherwise would have been directed at the wraithguard squad, so maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. Tough call.
In short, Ryan played a great game, and managed his strengths well. I played well, but was hampered early by his fast forces engaging my most powerful ranged troops. Once we reached melee, my wraithguard were more than a match for his necrons. But with both sides having a 3+ save, the battle was very slow going. Ryan pulled a great trick out of his hat in the last turn, teleporting and killing my Farseer. I had guessed that he didn’t have that skill, since he didn’t use it earlier (way to keep me off-balance, Ryan!). Boy was I mistaken.
The game ended with Ryan the victor, at the level of a Solid Victory according to victory points.
1 comment:
I can't deny that it helped me out tremendously that I knew you were limiting yourself to 2 units of wraithguard and a wraithlord. I mean, part of the difficulty in playing the Eldar is trying to guess what crazy combination you will put together. However, all I can say is, "welcome to my world."
I was wondering if having 6 Heavy Destroyers was a bit overkill, but I'm glad I did. Just wish they could've stuck around to take out some of those pesky wraithguard (those things are freakin' tough!).
That was a great game, though, and I was amazed at how well my scarabs held the right flank almost entirely by themselves (those poor Rangers never had a chance). One rule that I realized we messed up was when your Dark Reapers finally retreated, they should have been destroyed outright because they were completely surrounded. Didn't matter, because they fled off the table anyways, but for future reference...
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