Chroma - Of Eggshells and Sledgehammers

I don't think ever I've heard the phrase "F'n Eldar!" muttered as many times as I did this weekend.

BloodNGuts, Squint, and I got together for a little EPICing. We played 2500 point tournament-style games on our little 4x4 table and managed to get three games in, so we all got to play two. The first dust-up was BnG's Nomads (using White Scars' rules) vs Squint's IG. The Guard held onto a ruined city while the Marines tried to dig them out; an infantry company in some ruins withstood something like 6 barrages from BnG's paired Whirlwind detachments and only lost *two* stands! In the end, the intractible IG beat back the suffering (mofos?) Space Marines in turn 4. It was a great game and really showed how tough dug-in troops can be... we just gotta get some ignore cover weapons to use against them! *laugh*

Well, the next fight was the one we'd all been waiting for: after using Orks and LatD I finally brought my Eldar out of mothballs. They still need some paint and bases, but they were good enough to play with.



Or so I thought.

This was the first time I'd used Eldar in the new ruleset, but I had some "cunning plans" in mind. My favourite goal to achieve is "Break Their Spirit": it eliminates the "strongest" enemy unit and it's demoralizing for the opponent; I think Eldar would favour that kind of decapitation strike if the enemy Supreme Commander was in that unit. So, I had a little Jetbike Troupe as my bait. BnG set up in the ruined city while my Eldar claimed some forested hills. I had a couple of Aspect Hosts off board waiting to teleport/Vampire in. The turn begins, and I'm pulsing, and lancing, and shooting up the enemy big time, I'm retaining the initiative all over the place, and both BnG and Squint are cursing the Eldar and their technology.

So, most of my army has activated, and I march my little bait unit along the flank near BnG's Supreme Commander tactical/razorback formation... and he jumps on it! Now, I don't know if it was the wings for lunch, the Twinkees for snack, or just dust on my Seer Stones, but I send in my Aspects and pounce! A vampire, 4 Dire Avengers and 4 Striking Scorpions dive into action with the Autarch in the lead! "F'n Eldar!" The bikes are close enough to support... but they had marched... oh yeah, I forgot to bring in my Swooping Hawks... oh, you've only activated two units while I've been retaining the initive? So, my units are annihilated with very little to show for themselves... "F'n Eldar!" and BnG gets a grin on his face... which I promptly wipe away as Scorpions pulse that crap out of his armour... "F'n Eldar!" And all my units get rid of their blast markers... "F'n Eldar!" In the end, the battered and bruised Marines managed to squeek out a win and send the f'n Eldar packing in Turn 3.

I learned a lot about the fragile nature of the Eldar, they can pack a punch, but shouldn't hang around for the counterattack!

I'll await to see what Squint has to say about his battle... other than "F'n Eldar!"

BloodNGuts - Eldar, Schmeldar!

So, the day finally came. Chroma brought out the pointy-headed hosts to lay an elegant smack down on us poor slobs. I'll tell ya, I hate to see them come at me but I love to watch them zip around the battlefield! Take a look at these beautiful (and nasty!) Eldar:



A few of you may remember Chroma's reign of terror with his 40k Eldar. I still bolt awake some nights to what I imagine is the sound that shuriken catapults would make... Well, now the Eldar may have some sleepless nights as they contemplate their ebbing fortunes in this new campaign. Or maybe the Nomad Marines were just fed up with losing!

Our game had some early (and ludicrously pathetic!) mistakes on both sides. Turn one saw the hardness of Space Marines proven once again as Tactical Marines in Razorbacks engaged and wiped out the Eldar BTS objective. Throughout the game, the pointed gave the rounded lots of pointers about bringing the hurt. The volume of fire the Eldar can effortlessly toss around the battlefield is staggering. Of course, Marines just stagger and then lean in and kick some pointy butts.

When we calculated victory points at the end of turn 3, I came out ahead but most of my remaining detachments were broken! Turn 4 would have been ugly (well uglier!) but I had BTS and HTL and the Eldar were wailing and sobbing over their complete lack of victory points.

So, to those of us who play Marines, I say this: We Shall Know No Fear of Eldar. Maybe some trepidation, a little apprehension and a great deal of caution, but No Fear! You guys may have seen Chroma's Eldar, but until you share a table with them, your EPIC experience is not complete.