My 2nd Ever W40K Game

Yeah, those big hammers seem to be more than capable
of squishing Scorpions

Last night at Axes & Ales - my local wargaming club and pub - I played my 2nd ever game of W40K (8th Ed.).  It was a fun game: 750-points apiece, with me fielding Eldar who teamed up with The Emperor's Children no less, pitted against a combined Tau and Death Watch force.  Yes, some unlikely alliances but apparently anything is possible in the grimdark, distant future.



The game itself was a straight-up battle to the death.  During the opening Turn my Chaos ally took out the #1 Tau giant mecha thingy which surprised everyone.  I ended up packing all my Banshees and Jain Zar into the Wave Serpent and making haste to the front-line.  Wave Serpents have a once-per-game the Serpent can discharge its serpent shield which, coupled with a pack of Howling Banshees caused a ton of disruption to the Tau and Death Watch. 

The Namreb Craftworld on display

Jain Zar is a machine, slicing and dicing all manner of enemies, ignoring overwatch, 4 strength 6 attacks at AP-3 hitting on 2+ and re-rolling failed wounds... she caused a lot of trouble.  Coupled with her pack of Banshees, they all got the first strike in Melee and could charge up to 15-inches.  Definitely my unit of the match.

My Striking Scorpions got locked into melee with a squad of Death Guard jump assisted Assault Marines.  They didn't do too bad all considered: their Mandiblasters accounted for more than one Marine.   If we were playing objectives I could see them being particularly useful.

The Wraithloard plods into battle

The Dire Avengers did what they needed to do and also managed to shoot down a Death Watch bike using overwatch - liking their 1/3rd chance!  The Rangers just hung back and took pot-shots - unfortunately, I didn't appreciate they could both redeploy and target characters... next time!   My Wraithlord looked rather impressive with his flag but failed to do much else - he was really there as my anti-vehicle option but we didn't have too much opposition in that regard.

Banshee Frenzy!

What neither I nor my ally did was select a special army attribute (I would have likely gone with Biel-Tan: Swordwind to reroll 1's with Shurkin weapons if I had a choice) nor did we use any Command Points - had we done so, we might have caused even more havoc - I'll have to read up on them.  Things like using that Wave Serpent shield overload twice could be handy.  Also, I could have taken a psychic unit e.g., a Warlock or two... that could have been fun as well.  Not to worry.

This was overkill - just how Eldar like it!

In the end, our opponents conceded and the Eldar and Emperor's Children laid into one another - the alliance barely lasted 2-hours 😆 It was good fun and I'm looking forward to another, similar-sized game before too long.  Maybe trying the new W40K Apocalypse rules?

You can see the great Knights of Dice terrain we are lucky enough
to use each week.  It was a lovely big table.  If I had realised, I would
likely redeployed my Rangers on the top-left rooftop to that massive
structure in the middle of the shot.

For the sake of records, here's my army list:

++ Unbound Army (Faction) (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [46 PL, 742pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Craftworld Attribute: None (Mixed Detachment)

+ HQ [7 PL, 115pts] +

Jain Zar [7 PL, 115pts]: Craftworlds Warlord

+ Troops [9 PL, 171pts] +

Dire Avengers [6 PL, 111pts]
. 9x Dire Avenger [99pts]: 9x Avenger Shuriken Catapult [27pts]
. Dire Avenger Exarch [12pts]: Shuriken Pistol & Diresword [4pts]

Rangers [3 PL, 60pts]: 5x Ranger [60pts]

+ Elites [13 PL, 212pts] +

Howling Banshees [6 PL, 133pts]
. 9x Howling Banshee [117pts]: 9x Power Sword [36pts]
. Howling Banshee Exarch [16pts]: Shuriken Pistol & Executioner [7pts]

Striking Scorpions [7 PL, 79pts]
. 5x Striking Scorpion [55pts]: 5x Scorpion Chainsword [5pts]
. Striking Scorpion Exarch [24pts]: Biting Blade [5pts], Scorpion's Claw [9pts]

+ Heavy Support [8 PL, 105pts] +

Wraithlord [8 PL, 105pts]: Bright Lance [20pts], Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Catapult

+ Dedicated Transport [9 PL, 139pts] +

Wave Serpent [9 PL, 139pts]: Twin Shuriken Cannon [17pts], Twin Shuriken Catapult [2pts]

++ Total: [46 PL, 742pts] ++

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