lunes, 18 de julio de 2016

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. 

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