40K Battle Missions - Scorched Earth

The other night I had a fun game of 40K with MikeA. It had been awhile since we had gotten together, and it was good to catch up and shoot the breeze while we played.

I went with a slight tweak of my Swordwind list:

Farseer - Fortune; Doom; Eldar Jetbike; Runes of Warding; Singing Spear
Autarch - Eldar Jetbike; Banshee Mask; Laser Lance; Fusion Gun
6 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent w/ TL Shuriken Cannons and Shuriken Cannon
6 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent w/ TL Missile Launcher
5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent w/ TL Shuriken Cannons
5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent w/ TL Shuriken Cannons
3 x Vyper jetbikes - each w/ Scatter Laser and Shuriken Cannon
5 x Warp Spiders - including Exarch with dual Death Spinners
Fire Prism grav tank

Total = 37 models, at 1497 points

Swapped the TL Bright Lances for TL EML on a Serpent; longer range and can still pop transports. Swapped one shuricannon for a scatter laser on each Vyper jetbike - longer range and greater firepower when moving up to 12". (Against forces like Saim Hann, with their "jetbike slide" fade away move, the extra range may be crucial.) Also, brought back Doom for those times when an enemy squad just has to be put down.

Mike rolled with Nurgle Chaos forces, including a winged Daemon Prince (with Warp Time), 3 squads of mechanized Death Guard with meltaguns and a couple of Icons, a pack of daemons, a Vindicator assault tank, and a Defiler walker. The tanks are very old school, which really suits the theme of the army.

Scenario: Chaos forces landed and were implementing a scorched earth strategy. All area terrain was either smoking (no LOS through it), or on fire (smoking, plus dangerous terrain). D3+2 objectives were placed randomly (in our game, three objectives were rolled up); whoever controlled the most objectives at the end of the game would win.

Below can be seen our initial setup. Looking west, Chaos are in the northeast table quarter, mostly near an objective in the ruins. Another objective was in the warp gate to the west. The Eldar set up behind the burning woods, near the final objective located on the hill in the southwest. The Eldar kept the Warp Spiders, a Dire Avenger squad and both Fire Dragon squads in reserve. Chaos were to deep strike their Obliterators.



The Swordwind's plan was to hold on to the southwest objective, kill the Chaos transports so their scoring troops couldn't get there too, and contest the other objectives.

(Click on the photos below for larger images.)



There were some real tense moments. The Swordwind lost both Dragon squads, a Wave Serpent, and most of the Warp Spiders in the fight around the easternmost objective. Mike tried to kill off the last of the Spiders with a reduced pack of daemons, but the daemons surprisingly lost the hand to hand fight.



Mike teleported in his Obliterators right by the warp gate. In retrospect, he suggested that this was an error, since they were Doom-ed and quickly went down to close range fire.

In the centre, I ended up sacrificing the Vypers, the Farseer and the Autarch, who acted as speed bumps trying to keep the Chaos troops bottled up by the warp gate.



The game ended after 6 turns. Despite losing their ride to an errant Vindicator cannon round, a squad of Dire Avengers managed to retain control of the southwest objective. The remaining objectives were contested by Swordwind tanks and the surviving Warp Spiders. Where have I heard that before?

Result: Eldar Victory

All in all, it was a fun game. Mike's Chaos army is shaping up rather nicely. The Daemon Prince, in particular, is an imposing and impressive model.

Mike and I look forward to a re-match, maybe with Mike's WIP Eldar army.