The Green Dawn Battlereport. After-battle Impressions

So I managed to score my first victory, and clearly a rather comfortable one, with a quite wide margin, so I decided to write here my impressions on how my units behaved during the battle.

To be honest, I do not think I faced a strong list, nor was the opposite army well played. Alongside a large list of mistakes, I think we should count the scouting of the Dominion units at the start of the game. Perhaps it was a long gamble for Seizing the Initiative, for detaching those units from his frontline just let me handle his army piecemeal, as in waves. I never felt the impact of all his army hitting at the same time, as I did when I advanced. I think I never faced more than two of his units at the same time. I dealt with Dominions the first turn, with Battlesister the second turn, and with Penitent Engines the third, but I think the fact that he committed his units one by one had a large part on his demise. I think he would had done way better by castling up with all his units, keep shooting with the Knight as long as he could, and save other units for countercharges and blocking, even going to ground if needed. 

On the other hand, the Imperial Knight was a tough nut to crack. My particular list, as much mobility and shooting power as it has, tends to face issues when paired against Super Heavy Walkers and Vehicles, mostly because its long range shooting (the scatterbikes), is designed for infantry and light vehicles, but it can't trade blows with heavy ordnance for long. The fact that I need to get close to heavies to deal with them might be problematic in the future, so I have to take into account how much should I rush. Perhaps Shining Spears should TurboBoost into position sooner?

As for the psyker potential of the Seer Council, it did not dissapoint. While not a full-fledged Seerstar, it did hold its own both dealing damage with the Spears, and tanking hits with the +2 rerollable save. The couple of Eldritch Storms I managed to get off were instrumental in my victory as they disabled an Exorcist on turn 1, and also managed to take two vital Hull Points off the Imperial Knight that would had required a suicidal charge otherwise. 

Regarding the Shining Spears, I still think they are a strong choice. They are durable, and pack quite a punch against anything they face. The fact that they have two weapons available for different tasks, (twin-linked catapults and laser lances), makes them extremely versatile. In defense, they are perma-jinking bikes as long as they move without the need of jinking, sport the 3+ armor, 4 toughness common in bikes, and with the Autarch able to deny Overwatch for them they can charge anything and get good chances of wiping them off. I think the trick is knowing how to use them without getting them stuck. Also, Skilled rider allows them to go into terrain as infantry without penalty, a huge boon for a unit that needs to rush the enemy lines and stay in close quarters. In offense, Str6 lances can glance to death most things they encounter, and are pretty deadly as marine hunters. I think the Autarch complements them perfectly given his assorment of grenades and his higher number of attacks. and lastly, the Exarchs, that with a Str8 AP2 weapon can crack anything and sport WS6, which makes them hard to miss. Also, they do reroll any non-penetrating hit against vehicles and wounding against Monstrous Creatures, which makes them the perfect big game hunter. The only thing they are not good against are hordes, and even then, it is better for them to plink at the hordes with their shuriken catapults and disengage until they reach a size they can manage. 

Overall, I am happy with my debut, and I think I got a good plan, implemented it, and got it executed almost flawlessly, although I was too greedy for Victory Points in a couple of occassions. Regarding the luck, I think I got mostly average rolls, without extraordinary nor extremely poor rolls, except a couple of cases, which means the list can be responsive without trusting in too much dice magic.

I'll soon post my next game, Eldar vs Raven Guard Space Marines!

A Green Dawn: Eldar Third Turn

So I reached the last of my compulsory turns, and I knew I had managed to keep a rather large advantage of points over my opponent, even after I lost a couple of units during his last shooting phase. My plan for this turn was to get as many Maelstrom objectives I could, while trying to finish off the Knight, a task that I thought ardous given it was well on half its initial Hull Points and my best options to do it, mainly the Shining Spears, were still too far away to do it.

With my central firebase gone, I'd have to dispose of additional units to control objectives, while still trying to aim my opponent's best unit on the field, as otherwise it would likely dispose of another couple of bike units on his turn. For objectives this turn I got:

Harness the Warp (1VP for casting a power, 1d3 for 3)
Khaine's Wrath, (1VP for charging a unit, 1d3 for 3)
Secure Obj1

The first one was easy to achieve as 1d3, given the average amount of powers my Seer Council was casting, while the second depended not just on me having units in place, but also having targets! As I surveyed the field, I realized I was quickly running our of targets to charge, and I was at risk of shooting everything up before being able to score the Khaine's Wrath.

I decided to separate the Autarch from the rear Shining Spears squad, giving me an additional unit with which charge or score, and placed the Spears on Objective 1 while the Autarch decided to go Tank Hunting, and to do the same with my farseers and the Warlock council. On a positive note, my Swooping Hawks arrived into the battlefield, and I was able to deploy them behind the Knight thanks to their Herald of Victory rule.

On my Psychic phase, I rolled a 3, which I deemed enough as to achieve Harness the Warp. With 15 Warp charges I decided to risk it and try to cast the Eldritch storm, this time centered on the Knight, to try to shave more Hull Points off, but I realized that casting it on the Exorcist could hit both units, so I went that way. these are the powers I cast:

Farseer casts Psychic Storm with 8 die : Cast with 6 sucesses
1 Haywire hit on Imperial Knight: 1 glance
1 Haywire hit on Exorcist: 1 glance
Farseer casts Fortune on Seer Council with 4 die : Cast, deny fails
Warlocks cast Protect on Council with 2 die: Cast
Warlocks cast Conceal on Council with 1 die: Failed

This is how the map looked after I moved my units and finished my psychic phase:

During the shooting phase, the Autarch on his own tossed a grenade at the disabled Exorcist, removing another Hull point from it with Haywire, while the rear Shining Spears squad fired their lances point-blank at the remaining Penitent Engine, wrecking it thanks to a penetrating hit from the Exarch's Star Lance. The recently arrived Swooping Hawks also allowed their Exarch to throw another Haywire package at the Knight, who was now pretty vulnerable with only one Hull Point left. The Shining Spears still commanded by an Autarch decided to turboboost right next to the still functioning Exorcist, the last Scatterbikes also boosted to grab Objective 3 for an additional point, and finally the Seer council unleashed their spears into the Knight and despite a fierce number of saves, took it down before it could annihilate any other eldar unit.

During the Assault Phase, after focusing so much into the Autarch, and having run out of targets in range, all I could was to charge the lone Autarch into the disabled Exorcist with one hull point remaining and finally wreck it with yet another Haywire Grenade, letting me achieve the Khaine's Wrath objective.

This is how the map looked after I finished my third turn:

When his Knight went Nova, my opponent clarified that he was not interested in playing his third turn, as it was clear my Shining Spears would easily finish off his last Exorcist, and either the Seer Council or the Swooping Hawks were going to murder his lone Priest without too much trouble at the start of my fourth. So we decided to write off his turn as "nothing unenventful", (we are compelled by the rules to play 3 full turns), and clarify he conceded at the start of the fourth turn, giving me the same result in kill points as if I had tabled him off the board, (which more likely would had happened in my fourth turn anyway).

So with the game over, I decided to recount how many Victory Points I managed to get:
3rd turn:
2VP Harness the Warp
1VP Khaine's Wrath,
1VP Linebreaker
1VP Secure Obj1

1VP Secure Obj 3 (Stolen from my opponent)

So in the end the total was:

ELDAR: 17

ADEPTA SORORITAS: 3VP

ELDAR VICTORY!

A Green Dawn: Adepta Sororitas Second Turn

In the position my opponent was, with the score so hard against him, he just needed to scrap as many Victory Points as he could and get some kill points as to not get entirely kicked out the zone, so he decided to rush out for a final push with everything he had left. I don't even think he was going serious, given the amount of weird manouvers that followed.

For the objectives draw, he got:
Secure Obj3
Secure Obj6
Behind enemy lines (1VP for a unit in Enemy deployment zone, 3VP for 3)

Objective 3 was out of his reach entirely, and he did not have the speed on his remaining units to grab linebreaker, but that did not stop him from attempting it...

 So this is the map after he finished moving his units:

He had managed to grab Objective 6 with his lone priest, which I had left unattended, while his Knight returned to his original deployment position. during this phase a couple of funny and kind of spectacular things happened. He decided to Tank shock both units of Shining Spears in front of his disabled Exorcist, not having much more to do with it, trying to buy his penitent engines some time to get a better position. Both units made their checks but ended displaced enough as for the Autarch being forced to corner himself. The Rhino on the other flank, after being stunned for a round, tried to do the same thing with the Seer Council as to push them against the trees. After passing my test, and realizing he had only one Hull Point Left in that Rhino, I decided to gamble a Warlock from the Council in a Death or Glory stand. (I was pretty sure at this stage I had comfortably won). Funnily enough the Warlock hit with his Spear, and glanced the vehicle into a wreck. He had just won a Tilt Joust against a tank!

during the shooting phase, however, things turned into the grim side for me. The Knight rusader opened up again on my Scatterbikes, who had risked not returning into cover out of his line of sight to grab objectives last turn. Even although both units jinked, one was completely wiped out by the Rapidfire Battlecannon shells, while the other was reduced in half right before the remaining Exorcist mopped up and finished the job. I had lost both units of Scatterbikes, and the Knight proved he could erase two of my small units every turn. On the left, the Penitent Engines ran towards my Shining Spears, and prepared themselves for a long charge.

This is how he prepared for his Assault Phase after the shooting:

In the Assault Phase, the anticipated charge of the Penitent Engines finally reached its objective, with my opponent rolling an impressive 11" charge that brought us to the second funniest moment of the afternoon. During overwatch, I managed to hit with a Star Lance shot from the Exarch, and took away a Hull Point from the Engine, and then the Autarch slid a Haywire grenade down its tailpipe to finish it off before it had a chance to hit my squad, leaving a wreck in front of the squad, also causing the charge from the other engine to fail.

So for objectives, my opponent got just 1VP for controlling objective 6 with his lone Priest, aand this is how the field looked before the start of the third turn for the eldar.

A Green Dawn: Eldar Second Turn

My strategy seemingly had paid off after the first turn, having collected more points than my opponent, and also able to disable his vanguard of vehicles without too much complications. However, I started to worry about the fate of my list pitted against the knight, given that he could easily era one or two units of bikes off the table every turn. I decided to bait him with the Seer Council, the only unit seemingly able to withstand its fire, and focus the rest of my army into wiping the minor threats. He had way more units on the left side, so I thought that on principle I should block him there and see how the Council fared on the right on its own. Yet, my tactics were dependant on which objectives I got for the turn, which were:

Secure Obj4
Secure Obj5
No Prisoners (1VP for killing a unit, 3-5 units for 1d3, 6+ units for 1d3+3)

With those aims, I needed to control the center of the board this turn, unless I wanted my opponent to rob me of all those points on the next turn. No prisoners seemed easily to do, but hard to get more than one point given the circumstances. To make things worse, I counted on the Swooping Hawks to come in on this turn and help me grab any objective, but I got the worst reserves result possible and ran out of scoring units. This is a schematics of how I moved.

I rushed my Shining Spears towards his wagon fort on the left, hoping to overwhelm them in close quarters and dig them out. Taking risks, I advanced my scatterbikes on the center hoping to reach both objectives in the town's plaza with my assault moves. On the right, the Seer Council, as I had planned, ignored the Battlesister Squad next to their position and squeezed themselves between the building and the Rhino, drawing line of fire to the Knight.

My psychic phase diminished in power, surely syphoned away by the storm, and I got only two dice to add to my now 12, for a total of 14. Plus, I had to discard a power from the Warlock Squad, as their Mastery Level had been reduced after suffering casualties. I went with Destructor/Renewer, as I did not think I could heal autarchs that were on the other side of the board, and there was only one infantry unit that could threaten me on that side of the board.

As for the powers cast, they went like this:
Farseer casts Fortune on Seer Council on 4 die= Cast
Warlock Council cast Protect on council on 3 die= Cast, deny fails
Farseer casts Terrify on Battlesister Squad on 2 die= Cast
Warlock Council cast Horrify on Battlesister Squad on 2 die= Cast
Farseer cast Psychic Shriek on Battlesister Squad on 3 die= Cast with reroll
Current Ld = 4, 3d6 = 11, 7 wounds. Morale Check= Stay

So with half my pool I renewed the powers that allowed me to kept the aura of invencibility around my Council, mainly Fortune and Protect, that my opponent tried to stop to no avail. With his Deny die already counted for, I decided to use my remaining 7 die on the Battlesister I was leaving behind, and to which I still had line of sight with my Telepathy Farseer and Warlocks. Thanks to the allmighty 3+ to activate charges, I launched my power combo perfectly, landing Terrify and Horrify on them for a massive -4 leadership penalty before hitting them with Psychic Shriek, rolling 11 and causing 7 wounds, making sure the squad was mauled enough as to not cause me further problems on that lane. 

During the Shooting Phase, I resolved the situation on the right flank first, with the Seer Council letting fly as many Singing Spears as they could on the Knight, and managing to scrap a couple of Hull Points off from it. Next, the Scatterbikes on the right opened up against the decimated Battlesister Squad and scored two more casualties, leaving the Priest leader alone. On the center, with the HQ squad as the only target, the other Scatterbikes units scored a good round of shooting, first one unit disposing of the shielded crusaders on front, and the second wiping out the Assassins and the Canoness with their volley. Finally, on the left, one unit of Shining Spears tried to get rid of the Rhino without success, just managing to shake it, while the other two units shot at the Battlesister Squad between the two vehicles, scoring 6 dead, more than half the squad. 

This is how the battlefield looked so far:

For the assault phase, I planned to focus on getting the No prisoners Objective, as I had already killed one unit during shooting, (the HQ conclave), and had two pretty close to being wiped out as well.  Both units of Shining Spears shot into the targets they had weakened during the shooting, the Sororitas Rhino on the upper left and the castled Battlesister squad. The Exarch finished the Rhino without problems even although his squad failed to do so, and the Autarch unleashed his attacks on the poor sisters, who ended wiped out without being able to answer, letting the Shining Spears consolidate back in front of the disabled Exorcist. Finally, I repositioned the Seer Council, forcing a couple of terrain checks, but not daring to assault the Knight with them this turn, and also grabbed both central objectives with my Scatterbike squads.

This is how the map looked as my turn ended:

For this turn I got:

1VP Slay the Warlord

1VP Secure Obj4

1VP Secure Obj5

1VP Secure Obj5 (Stolen from my opponent)

2VP No Prisoners 

And those were another 6 points. At this stage, even with the Knight looming over my forces, I think I had him against the ropes. The advantage on VP was huge, and I had slain mostly his entire infantry while almost all my force was still present on the field. I don't even think he had any chance of recovering in VPs at this stage, but the campaign forbids to concede before turn 3, as the Victory Points are cumulative.  

In that situation we went for the second half of the turn,

A Green Dawn: Adepta Sororitas First Turn

Well, it was the moment for my opponent to counter my alpha strike, but I thought I had mauled his vanguard enough as to dent his possibilities. However, I had not count with the power of his Knight...

Here are the objectives he got during his turn:

Recon (1VP for capturing or holding an objective, changed for this campaign)
Secure Obj5
Secure Obj2

Here is the map with a simplified view of his movements, (as with all maps on this blog , the positions are as approaximated as the schematics drawn during the game would allow, as sometimes I realized that line of sight or cover are not exactly represented as it was).

Shuffling his knight to behind the farm building, he managed to draw line of sight towards my scatterbikes, while he disembarked and advanced in turn with both his units of Battlesisters, hoping to scorch as much as he could my vanguard units in the flanks. Also, he redirected a lot of force towards my Shining Spears on the left, with the squadron of Penitent Engines, the disabled Exorcist and even his HQ assault Conclave displacing on that direction, leaving his Knight to deal with my right.

On his shooting phase, he let the imposing Crusader Knight rip on the Scatterbikes on cover, killing three with a double tap from his Battlecannon. Not even jink helped there, although I saved one. With his Avenger Gatling gun he raked the Seer Council, but got no rends, and the +2 rerollable field around the psykers protected them all. The remaining operative Exorcist munched the remaining Scatterbike. Battlesister Squads, on their part, opened fire on the shining Spears on the left, but the sturdy Aspect Warrior Heavy Armor wasn't scorched by their flamers, although two brave Eldar Knights perished riddled by bolter holes. On the right, the Battlesister Squad couldn't get in range of their flamespitters, barely touching the tip of the Seer Council unit with one before forcing an ungodly amount of armour saves upon the psykers with their rapidfire fusillade, but to no avail, as not even one casualty was suffered.

During the rest of his turn there were run moves and a couple of vehicles flat out forward, trying to form some sort of castle up "Rhino of Fury" formation on the disembarked Battlesister squad on the right. Without any charges, there was nothing of note on his assault phase. This is how the battlefield looked like when the dust settled on the Windriders' corpses.

He got only:

1VP Recon
1VP Secure Obj2 (on his deployment zone, warded by the Knight)

So with a sizable Eldar advantage of 3 Victory points, we moved into the second turn. 

A Green Dawn, Eldar First Turn

I quickly developed a tactic as I surveyed the field, concluding that my best bet, as I had planned during deployment, was to de-mechanize his forces as quickly as possible, so I opted for an "encirclement" approach, keeping the scatterbikes as a central firebase to try to defuse any advance he might attempt on the center of the map, while the Seer Council advanced on one flank and the three squads of Shining Spears with the Autarchs rushed the other. I had to take as much advantage as I could of my higher mobility, while trying to deny his own and forcing him to crawl towards the central objectives. I still had no answer to the knight occupying the center of his zone, as Scatterbikes were unable to harm him upfront, but I hoped the Shining Spears could reach him before it could do too much damage. I was also trusting to be able to move, shoot and then retreat out of line of sight with the scatterbike units at the center.

It was time to generate my first three tactical objectives, that would dictate my final strategy for the first turn.

I got:
Combined Strike (1VP for killing a unit in a phase, 1d3 for killing a unit in each phase)
Secure Obj4
Overwhelming Firepower (1VP for klling a unit in the shooting phase, 1d3 for killing 3)

As in the Spoils of War scenario all "Secure" objectives can be achieved by both players, I decided that to achieve that one would be the priority, and that meant dealing completely with the Dominion Squad inside the vehicle right next to it. I didn't have much chance of achieving Combined Strike, but was pretty sure I was in the perfect position as to destroy three units, (mostly 3 transports at least), with average rolls from my units. So I decided to rush early with as many units as I could. 

This is the map after I did my opening moves:

I tried to open line of sight for my scatterbikes into different targets, so they could defuse as many threats as possible on this turn, but also retreat to safe positions once they had done their job and repeat the barrage next turn.

In the Psychic Phase I got a 6 for a total of 19 warp charges, so I had plenty of fuel to buff my units and had power to spare. Drawing line of sight into his cluster of units in the center, I decided to go in hard and cast an Apocalyptic Eldritch storm into his formation, hoping to get lucky through haywire and disable as many things as I could. The resume of the psychic phase goes as follows:

Farseer casts Eldritch Storm with 9 die: 5 successes, deny fails (all 6 die with Adamantium Will on the Penitent Engine I targeted.
Apocalyptic blast Scatters 5"-5=0
Hits Penitent Engine, glance, no save, 1 HP lost.
Hits Penitent Engine, glance, no save, 1 HP lost.
Hits Exorcist, penetrating, no save. Weapon destroyed, 1 HP lost.
Hits Imperial Knight, glance, no save. 1 HP lost.
Farseer casts Fortune on Shining Spears with 3 die: Cast
Warlocks cast Protect on Council with 3 die: Cast
Warlocks cast Conceal on Council with 2 die: Cast
Farseer cast Doom on HQ Immolator with 3 die: Cast

Thanks to the 3+ rule of activation for the Seer Council psykers I got all 5 spells right, after my opponent blew his Deny die trying to stop the extremely dangerous 4WC storm haywiring his Knight on the first turn, to no effect. Apart from taking 1HP from several of his hardest units, I had turn an exorcist tank into a paperweight by destroying its main and only weapon, (Advice: 5 points for a pintle bolter might prevent events like this). The expected Protect/Fortune/Conceal on the Council to protect them from possible fire on the next turn went off, and finally decided to Doom the central Immolator so I could at least cripple it with a Scatterbike squad or two.

With all guns aimed, I opened fire. On the Left flank, a Haywire grenade from the Autarch combined with a penetrating hit from the Exarch's Star Lance into the side of the Immolator wrecked it. On the right side, the seven Singing Spears of the Council were enough as to wreck the other transport, forcing both units of Dominions into forced disembarking right inside the sights of my scatterbikes. The Shining Spears in the back slipped some shots from their shuriken catapults into the disembarked Dominions on the right, killing two with rending shots, before the scatterbikes shot the remaining to bits, although it took two units to dispose of them. So far, I had already achieved First Blood and Overwhelming Firepower with my Alpha Strike, but I still had three units in position for more shooting. Another Scatterbike unit shot the Doomed Immolator in the center, getting lucky and wrecking it in one volley, also forcing the HQ assault squad to be on foot for the rest of the game. Finally, being confident of assaulting the remaining Dominions in the right with the might of the council, I decided to switch fire into the Rhino on the right corner, not managing to destroy it, but doing a penetrating hit that stunned it for the next turn.

This is how the map looked after my psychic and shooting phases:

All I had left was to deal with the Dominions on my right with a well placed charge from the council, that was barely able to draw line of sight into them. After an 11" charge that guaranteed all my models would be there, the Dominions Overwatched with their Meltas, getting a hit and vaporizing the closest model, one of the two warlocks armed with Witchblades, which meant I had lost one Warp Charge and one psychic power for the next round. Although the Hammer of Wrath attacks bounced off, after piling in I dealt enough strenght 9 attacks as to wipe them out, leaving the right flank pretty open for the rest of my advance. 

This is the map after my assault phase ended, which included plenty of jetbike moves trying to get all units into some sort of cover before the next turn. Sadly, my Scatterbikes on the right were unable to roll high enough as to reach Objective 4, so I wasn't going to score what I had labelled as my main objective for the turn. 

At the end of the turn, I had achieved:

1VP for Combined Strike (1VP for killing a unit in a phase, 1d3 for killing a unit in each phase)
3VP for Overwhelming Firepower (1VP for klling a unit in the shooting phase, 1d3 for killing 3)
1VP for First Blood

Taking a comfortable lead with 5, but not able to Secure Objective 4, and not able to discard it neither, leaving open the chance for it to be stolen by my opponent. 

First Battle Report: A Green Dawn

So, for the first battle report, I was paired with the Sisters of Battle player, a new guy who was playing with his older brother's miniatures to bring his new Imperial Knight into the table. The map assigned to us was in the Woodland territories, and it was supposed to describe the landing of the eldar forces on the wilderness and the Detachment of Sororitas sent to intercept them and refuse them a beachhead on the planet.

The Sisters of Battle list, without point costs, was composed of:

HQ:
Canoness
Power Sword
Rosarius

Inquisitorial Battle Conclave:
3 Crusaders
2 DeathCult Assassins
Embarked on an Immolator with MultiMelta

Ministorum Priest
Bolter
Close Combat Weapon
Melta bombs

Ministorum Priest
Bolter
Close Combat Weapon
Melta bombs

TROOPS:
Battlesister Squad:
6 Battlesisters
1 Heavy Flamer
1 Flamer
1 Sister Superior
Embarked on Sororitas Rhino

Battlesister Squad:
6 Battlesisters
1 Heavy Flamer
1 Flamer
1 Sister Superior
Embarked on Sororitas Rhino

FAST ATTACK:

Dominion Squad

4 Dominion with Meltagun

1 Sister Superior with Melta bombs

Embarked on an Immolator with MultiMelta

Dominion Squad

4 Dominion with Meltagun

1 Sister Superior with Melta bombs

Embarked on an Immolator with MultiMelta

HEAVY SUPPORT:

Exorcist Tank

Exorcist Tank

Penitent Engine Squadron:
2 Penitent Engines

OATHSWORN DETACHMENT:
Knight Crusader
RapidFire Battlecannon
Heavy Stubber
Avenger Gatling Cannon
Meltagun

It was a typical Sisters of Battle list, but the addition of the Knight made me feel unease, knowing that although I had units that could deal with it eventually, (mostly charging Shining Spears or even the Seer Council), I had no dedicated anti-tank on this list, and I knew anything stuck with in on close combat was going to end squashed. Also, all his infantry was riding in vehicles, none on the open, so I had to de-mechanize them or end trapped by an avalanche of Rhino chassis.

As a couple of clarifications, during the entire first round of the campaign, each warlord keeps the same Warlord Trait for every battle.

Let's start with the map, mission and deployment:

Mission type: Maelstrom The Spoils of War

Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Deployment Order: Eldar first/Crusaders second

Nightfighting: No

Warlord Trait for Autarch: An eye on distant events (1d3 units get scout - I rolled 2 units)

Warlord Trait for the Canoness: Beacon of Faith (Units in 12" use Warlords Ld for AoF checks)

Regarding the map, it was a pretty diorama of four country-like houses forming a square in the middle of the field, with some trees and stacked lumber logs to the sides. It felt pretty symmetric, prepared to give no advantage to any players, a fact that made me feel pretty good about the abilities of the judges of the campaign. After rolling a Vanguard Strike deployment, however, it became apparent the map was going to be uncomfortable with such huge farmhouses occupying so much of it. Luckily I got to deploy first, which guaranteed me the first turn and to try some sort of Alpha strike with my scouting units. the objectives were placed two each on our deployment zones, and then a couple in the middle of the town, for sure where most combat would take place.

Given that he had no psykers, I was the only one to generate psychic powers at this stage, getting as follows:

1st Farseer (with stone): Runes of Fate
Guide (Focus)
Eldritch Storm
Doom
Fortune

2nd Farseer: Telepathy
Psychic Shriek
Dominate
Mental Fortitude
Terrify

Warlocks: Runes of Battle
Conceal/Reveal
Protect/Jinx
Destructor/Renewer
Embolden/Horrify

As I got Fortune on the first Farseer, a vital spell to keep my Council alive, I switched to telepathy with the second Farseer trying to get invisibility, but not being lucky. Getting Horrify and Terrify with a Psychic Shriek on board could be useful, however, and the Protect/Jinx power guaranteed I could pull the 2+ rerrollable Armor save with the council. Overall, a solid average.

The deployment was as follows, including me scouting the Shining Spears and the Seer Council, and the Adepta Sororitas player scouting both his units of Dominions forward:

At this stage, I was worried that he could steal the initiative from me, as although he was trying to block possible moving lanes with his Dominion vehicles, he could indeed disembark and hose both my scouting units with an unhealthy dose of melta. He rolled low however, and the game started with the Eldar taking first turn.

SEIZE THE INITIATIVE: FAILED

Check the next entry to see Eldar First Turn