The Swordwind Descends

Farseer Loeghair Fasineak studied the skeins of fate that fluttered before him.  Memories, some long past while others yet to come, came at him like a blizzard of emotion.  The centuries of training provided him the ability to move past the personal and look to the future of the precious race.

Images and emotions of happiness and ease flooded his mind.  Children smiling at the parade of the Winterfell Blades festival, a coy giggle shared between lovers, an artist perfecting the final ice shard that fell at the Battle of Rayzice Ridge.  Then the emotions changed.  He felt cold and alone.  The images that flashed before him where that of a proud Dire Avenger warrior screaming the pains that can only be caused from She Who Thirsts, a grimace of despair from an old woman seeing the destruction of her genetic legacy, and the confusion of a young boy never knowing how he came to be in a cage. 

Farseer Loeghair focused his attention and followed the rails of time of each of the three: Eoghan Pairt who served as a Dire Avenger, Dohnand Morai the woman near the end of her time, and the captive child Luihgsec Garmahc .  Many times did the paths of each cross one another but to a man it would all seem inconsequential or perhaps coincidence; any farseer would know otherwise.  The moment of clarity came and the course of action became obvious.  He awoke from his trance and laid his hand on the smooth wraithbone floor of the mediatation chamber and summoned a small strike team to meet him at the webway gate.  The whispers of the infinity circuit carried his message to those that were fated to answer his request.

The militant nature of the Biel-Tan craftworld lusted at the call and were already waiting at the webway gate a few moments later.  Farseer Loeghair activated the webway gate and turned to his men-at-arms, "It is time for the swordwind to cull the devious legions of man as they disturb the resting place of the Ebidonhtl."


Mission: The Relic
Points: 1500
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Biel-Tan Eldar
1 Farseer w/Guide, Prescience, Scrier's Gaze
8 Dire Avengers with Wave Serpent (Holofields, Scatterlasers)
7 Dire Avengers with Wave Serpent (Holofields, Scatterlasers)
6 Jetbikes
10 Rangers
8 Swooping Hawks
5 Warp Spiders
2 War Walkers with 2 BrighLances
1 Fire Prism (Holofields)

Traitor Guard
1 Command Squad (Sniper rifles x3, Company Standard
2 platoon command
4 infantry squads with Flamer
2 Heavy Support teams with Autocannons
1 Veteran Squad with Meltaguns
1 Vendetta
2x 3 Armored Sentinels with Autocannons
3 Hydra
1 Leman Russ Battle tank

Highlights of the Battle:

This was the first time with the new Eldar codex and I had a blast with it but I am not sure Jonny feels the same way. This was the first time I have played a game and been able to do everything I wanted from the outset.  Overall the codex is pretty solid with only a few things I am a bit unsure.

Off the bat before we start, the warlord powers in the codex are pretty useless.  Most are one use only, while others seem inconsequential.  I don't even remember what I rolled because it didn't impact the battle one way or the other but I am sure it was from the standard book list. 

Rolling for psychic powers sucks but it does have its benefits.  In exchange for the randomness I get a farseer that costs me about 40 points less than I use to run in the old codex and get an additional power to cast.  On top of that most of the powers have a longer range then they did in the old codex.  Then the cherry on top of this psyker sunday is that no matter what I am guaranteed to get prescience and guide as they are both primaris powers.  So all in all, I am not complaining too much because I can always build a list around being able to twin link two units per turn and be perfectly happy. 

 Deployment: 

 

 Jonny was going first and set up the mech wall to move his troops forward in rolling cover.  Against my guard army that would have been very effective as I would have had only one turn to fire with my effective Anti-tank (vendettas) before I would have to pass over it and go off board or take on other targets in the backfield.







I set up with everything in cover.  Both Wave serpents (loaded with Avengers), Fireprisms, War Walkers, Rangers, Jetbikes all in cover.  I left the Scorpions, Swooping Hawks, and Warp Spiders in reserves. 

Everything was hull down and with holofields that gives +1 to cover for 3's all around. 

 

Turn 1:

Jonny's first turn was horrible.  He missed or failed to wound just about everything.  He killed 3 rangers and penetrated a wave serpent but the wave serpent shield took it down to a glancing hit. His ineffectiveness in this turn really changed the game.

 

Speed.  The Eldar are fast.  I mean really fast.  4 of the 6 units I had on the board at the beginning of the game could move at least 30" a turn.  The jetbikes are ridiculous with 12" move, up to 36" turbo boost, and another 2d6" in the assault phase.  I took full advantage of the jetbikes by moving them something like 42" to get behind the building.  I had another plan for the wave serpents so they rolled up 12" to get into position for the next turn.

 

 

Thanks to the farseer being able to cast prescience and guide in the same turn and a transport that is actually better than the main tank of the army everything that fired this turn, except the fire prism, was twin linked. 

 

Needless to say my shooting went pretty well with what was available to me. The fire prism putting some wounds on an infantry squad, one wave serpent shooting off its scatter lasers and shield killing 6 and causing pinning, and a wave serpent killing a couple of  autocannon teams.  The only thing that disappointed me were the war walkers as they only put a glancing hit on the leman russ that was ignored by the hull down save it got. 

 

Turn 2:

 

 

 

Jonny continued to move forward and have awful luck at his rolls or with me making mine.  The stolen snowspeeder made its way on to the battlefield to shoot at a wave serpent only to have the penetrating shot ignored by my improved jink save.  His hydras, which he took with the express purpose of killing skimmers, continued to hit but not even glance.  He failed to hurt the fire prism, wave serpents, or war walkers but did kill 2 jetbikes, and 2 more rangers.  His soldiers did move to seize the objective, if only temporarily. 

 

Scrier's Gaze is a ridiculous power.  My farseer was lucky enough to roll the power.  3 dice for all reserve rolls and choose the one you want to use.  Granted in most cases it will only be used once a game but when you use it, it can be devastating.  This power completely negates the reason to take the Autarch, who by my estimation, is the weakest HQ choice in the book and probably the weakest entry in the whole codex.  The character is supposed to be a master strategist but all he does is allow you to manipulate you reserve rolls by 1.  Lame.  Especially lame with Scrier's Gaze as a power available to the farseers to roll up on the divination table from the main book. 

After a quick couple of rolls with scrier's gaze all of my reserves arrived on the table and carnage ensued. 

• The wave serpents moved up and unloaded their cargo of dire avengers who then proceeded to decimate the infantry squads around the objectives. 
• The wave serpents fired into another squad of infantry killing a few from each. 
• The swooping hawks dropped a large blast on the company command squad then shot up the rest besides the company commander. 
• The warp spiders shot the back of the Leman Russ with its S7 shots and blew it to pieces killing 4 other traitors along with it. 
• The jetbikes came around the corner of the building and shot the autocannon team killing two bases.
• The scorpions came on through outflank and killed another 4 traitors.  Not being able to charge on the turn that you outflank is BS.  That almost makes it worth infiltrating them. 
• The War Walkers continued to pop out, shoot without damaging anything (this time at the flyer), then jump back into cover.
• The fire prism shot scatter off and missed its target. 
• The rangers found target of opportunity and killed a platoon officer.  I really like that marksman rule. 

Ouch!

Turn 3:

 

At this point its mop up duty.  Jonny flamered the Striking Scorpions.  And killed zero.

Jonny's veterans grav chuted in and scattered, killing 1.  They shot and killed a few avengers only to have the avengers turn and finish them off.  The snowspeeder shot the fire prism only to do nothing, yet again.  Holofields - I love them.



A couple of squads of broken infantry shot at the warp spiders only to kill nothing. 

The commander assaulted the jetbikes, killed one, then died in my phase.

The sentinels assaulted the wave serpents only to miss on all attacks.  The wave serpents moved to their sides and demolished the one squad and left 1 from the other squad. 

The swooping hawks used their haywire grenades to fry the Hydras.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the way this list played.  Fast, hits hard, and creates all kinds of havoc in the back field.  A few notes on the codex:

Striking Scorpions have got better on paper but with the changes to assault in this edition I'll have to think long and hard about their role.  They are light years ahead of banshees and harlequins as far as close combat goes.  Their mandiblasters changed so that they are basically hammer of wrath attacks now so not the +1 attack like they used to be.  Trade off is they now have stealth, move through cover and infiltrate as standard. 

Swooping Hawks may become my go to anti-tank infantry. Fire Dragons and Swooping Hawks basically switched point values.  The hawks deep strike without scatter, carry medium range light infantry killing weapons, have haywire grenades, take a special anti-medium infantry blast template, and are jump infantry.  The turn after they arrive any tank is basically gone with on average 19" move and charge range.

Warp Spiders are now a must take unit.  Really fast, high strength weapons, and the monofilament rule make these guys able to deal with pretty much anything except the heaviest tanks. 

War Walkers didn't function like I thought in this game but I will stick with them for now.  I had planned on using them as tank hunters with a permanent hull down save by moving out, shooting, then running back to maintain hull down 4+ save.  With guide they would be able to reasonably hunt flyers with only bright lances. 

Anti-flyer in the codex is light.  Only war walkers and dark reapers, and then only the exarch can do it, have skyfire special rule.  They are also very expensive which seems to be the way GW is keeping flyers viable. 

Speaking of flyers, the Eldar flyers in the book are underwhelming, very underwhelming.  If the Eldar codex is the way that future flyers are going to be priced, the Valkyrie/Vendetta are going to be like 200 points. 


Farseer Loeghair Fasineak strode across the battlefield into the rubble strewn forest glen.  Amongst the ruins, in the lap of a confused dire avenger, sat the large glowing spirit stone known as the Ebidonhtl.  It flickered a pale red light from an otherwise polished onyx stone.  "What do you see, Avenger?" queried the farseer.

"I see the fate that we all fear, the fate worse than death.  I see the devouring of my being by She Who Thirsts."

"Place the stone at your feet and back away.  Do not break your link with the object.  Continue to concentrate," ordered Fasineak.

The mental battle mask that the psychically sensitive Eldar wore to protect himself from the  trauma of battle began to fade and the panic of the ultimate fear washed over him.  His mind waivered then the fear became real.  The Ebidonhtl turned bright red and flashed a pure white light.  Farseer Fasineak averted his eyes but could hear the horrifying scream and then silence.

As the light dissipated Farseer Fasineak glanced about only to find the other dire avengers mulling in the routine of securing the area.  Fasineak hurried to the spot where he last saw the avenger and felt for the slightest psychic trace only to feel nothing.

"Farseer, the area is secured," reported a dire avenger.

Perplexed by the lack on curiosity on behalf of the missing squad mate Farseer Faineak asked, "Where is Eoghan Pairt?"

"Who?"