Jetbike Eldar vs. Blood AngelsThis was the game today from the 40k campaign in my local shop. I was challenged by a younger guy with his blood angels army. He is doing decently well in the campaign against the other space marine players (8 different marines types, 1 eldar, 1 tau, 1 ork, 1 SoB). Playing marines every week does get a bit bland, but at least they were a slightly different flavor this time.
He had:
Mephiston with Honor Guard (they have various doodads like a banner), 2 10 man tac squads, 1 5man assault squad, 5 Death Company, 1 Venerable Dread, 1 techmarine with 4 servitors (2 gun and 2 regular), 2 whirlwinds.
I had:
2 farseer + bike squads (the usual), Warp Spiders, 3 warwalkers with scatters, 2 squads of 2 vypers with starcannons
I won the roll and chose first turn. Setup was like this. I put the one objective on my side, he put the one behind the rocks, and I put the last one on his side out in the open. I hoped that he would place his guys across me and out in the open so I could easily kill them and zoom over the at the end to contest/claim if I had to.
On my first turn I moved everything but my spiders. I wanted to go easy this turn, so I spread fire around. I killed a few tac marines in a combat squad with a missile launcher, 1 honor guard, and a few assault marines.
His assault marines fail their leadership and run off the board. I hop back with my bikes to give cover to my walkers and vypers. My other vypers are save from fire as they are already behind cover.
He moves his honor guard, dread, and death company forward. The death company don't have jump pack so they move slowly (he didn't field his rhino for some reason). Now I have only ever played again 2 BA players before, but they both just moved their honor guard out in the open. This time it was with Meph, and the other with Dante. Is this a common tactic? His two tac squads on the right move so they can see/claim. He fires his missile killing a jetbike. His assault cannon dread does nothing, and his two whirlwinds don't do anything either.
Well with the honor guard out in the open the choice is easy. I have seen this before and it fared just as well the first time. My left hand jetbike squad goes after the dread to get character campaign points, otherwise I probably would have just ignored it. Everything else moves and fire on the honor guard and Mephiston, killing them.
I assault the dread, take an arm off and immobilize it. My other jetbikes hop back to protect my walkers and spiders move in front to cover the vypers.
He runs his death company into terrain for cover from the starcannons. Each missile fires at a different vyper squad, destroying one on the left and stunning one on the right. A plasmacannon fires on my bikes killing one. He fails to repair his dread.
I finish off the dread, it explodes killing 2 servitors but my bikes are fine.
My vypers, jetbikes and warp spiders all move up to engage different units. My walkers move forward to have a clear shot on just about anything. My spiders wipe a unit by themself with some poor armor save rolls, the lone vyper kills the lone missile marines, and my bikes and the other vyper combine to kill the other missile tac squad. My jetbikes on the far left fire on his objective holding tac squad, killing the Sergent and 2 others.
I assault the marines and kill them taking no damage. My jetbikes and warp spiders jump out of assault range.
With nothing to attack he runs his death company in between to cover both objectives. He moves his techmarine in and flames by bikes, but it does nothing.
He called the game. Another victory for the Eldar.
Not the best game as it was very one sided, but I hope that this will give those of you not familiar with my Battle Reports an idea of what to expect.
I look forward to the local tournament in a month where I will be bringing my sisters of battle. Those should be some great fights and hopefully some even better reports!