Hello again Internet,
As promised some 40k related content today, specifically a battle report from a game I played a few weeks ago. I haven't been able to get in very many games lately as the end of the school year has been approaching, but I did have a chance to play against my friend Cody's legion Imperial Fists.
Now a few things to bear in mind, this is the first batrep I have ever written and I still have no access to a camera (something that is going to change here in the next couple weeks) so if you have any suggestions to make this better I would love to hear it down in the comments section.
First things first, the lists. Cody was playing Forge World Legion Imperial Fists, something new and exciting, with lots of shiny resin on the field. His list was roughly as follows:
HQ:
legion Siege Breaker
Troops:
Legion Tactical Squad x10 with Vexilla, Vox, and a rhino
Legion Tactical Squad x10 with Vexilla, Vox, and a rhino
Legion Support Squad x6 with Volkite Calivers and a rhino
Heavy Support:
Legion Heavy Support Squad x5 with missile launchers
Legion Medusa Artillery Tank
And representing my Girlfriends Eldar Warhost:
HQ:
Farseer on bike with mantle of the laughing god
Troops:
Dire Avengers x5 in a scatter laser wave serpent with holofields
Dire Avengers x5 in a scatter laser wave serpent with holofields
Fast Attack:
Swooping hawks x5
Heavy Support:
Fire Prism
Wraithknight-no upgrades (his name is Binky)
This was the first game I had played with the new Eldar codex and so was a little unsure of how to play them, we rolled off for mission and got The emperors will, and each placed an objective in our deployment zone. Cody won initiative and chose to go first we were set up with hammer and anvil deployment.
Turn 1.
Cody went first as I failed to steal the initiative and moved up his rhino's before firing on Binky with everything in his force stripping off 1 wound from a krak missile, and stripping one hull point from the fire prism with a shot from the medusa.
On my turn I moved up the wave serpents on the left flank to intercept his rhinos, Binky moved up to center field and fired on the lead rhino wrecking it with an explodes result and killing 3 tactical marines inside. the wave serpents fired and wrecked the other two rhinos, the farseer didn't do very much this turn, just twin linked the guns on the wraithknight with prescience.
Turn 2.
This is where I learned that Fury of the legion really hurts. Cody's first tactical squad passed their pinning test and closed to rapid fire distance from the wraithknight, the second tactical squad moved in and both used fury of the legion for something like 60-80 bolter shots and 5 krak missiles (from the heavy support squad) into Binky, this reduced him to 1 remaining wound. The medusa finished off the fire prism, with a penetrating hit and an explodes result. the caliver armed support squad fired at the lead wave serpent but failed to do anything.
The wave serpents moved in and attempted to shoot the full strength tactical squad only causing 1 wound. the Farseer cast a 4+ invulnerable save (forewarning) and prescience on Binky who subsequently charged the full strength tactical squad. promptly killing one and loosing no wounds.
Turn 3.
the remainder of Cody's tac marines close with binky, as do the support squad, but fail to kill the wraithknight.
The wave serpents re-position, very badly almost costing me the game, swooping hawks deep strike behind Cody's medusa and binky falls to the mass of infantry attacking him.
Turn 4.
This is where I learned for the second time that fury of the legion is horrible. Cody's missile launcher squad (who have tank hunters thanks to the siege breaker) fire on the lead wave serpent, downing it to one hull point, and his tactical squads fire another 60 shots into the rear armor of the other wave serpent, which is also brought down to one hull point. In addition his medusa turns and heavy flamers the swooping hawks, killing the entire squad.
Things were looking really bleak for my eldar at this point in the game. All I had left on the table was two wave serpents (1 hull point each) and a farseer to Cody's 15 tactical marines, 6 support marines, 5 missile launchers and medusa.
The first wave serpent jumps over the building the Medusa had been hiding behind all game for rear armor shots and the second moved onto the roof of the same building to deal with the heavy support squad. In one turn both were wiped out, which also scored slay the warlord for the Eldar. The Farseer cast prescience and forewarning on the dire avengers who had gotten out of one of the two wave serpents.
Turn 5.
Cody makes a mad-dash for his home objective to try and tie up the game in case it ends on turn 5, shoots some potshots at the wave serpents but causes no damage.
the second wave serpent moves in to claim Cody's objective, dropping off the remaining 5 dire avengers on it, both serpents and both squads fire and wipe out the contesting tactical marines and the game ends.
In summary this was one of the most tense games of 40k I have played in a long time, with both sides causing seemingly huge swings in the balance of power each turn. I really thought once the wraithknight and the fire prism were dead I was done for, and I really underestimated the sheer amount of awesome contained in the wave serpents. Cody's Fists will be back for a re-match before too long, as this was his first game with the legion rules he made a few mistakes and hadn't quite gotten the hang of the new army but I have learned that Fury of the Legion is one of the craziest rules I have seen in a long time, Cody was telling me some of his plans for 2000pts. One of which being to stick 20 tactical marines and a prescience librarian in a spartan assault tank, unload right in front of a unit and drop 80 twin linked bolter rounds in one turn, enough to wipe out pretty much anything it touches. We will be doing a re-match at 1850 points in the near future and I promise to take pictures and maybe even video, to help clarify what is going on. Final score Eldar: 6 Imperial Fists: 0.
Thanks for reading,
-John
