Training exercise, another Battle Report:

My friends and I are planning on going to the Sprue Posse grand prix tournament (http://www.chaoswins.com/p/sprue-posse-grand-prix.html) and I decided to get a practice game in with one of them. This game was between an experimental Jetbike list vs my friend's experimental IG list. To clarify, both Chris and I were trying new things so we were playing a list and making choices we might not normally try just to see what would happen.



My list: 2000 points

HQ:546
Autarch: Fusion Gun, Laser Lance, Jetbike, Mandiblaster=140
Farseer: Jetbike, Fortune, Runes of Warding=130
Jetlocks: X5, 2 Embolden, 1 Enhance, 2 Destructor, 2X spears=276

Elites:380
Fire Dragons: X5=80
Wave Serpent: Stones, Cannon=110

Fire Dragons: X5=80

Wave Serpent: Stones, Cannon=110

Troops:364
Jetbikes: X6, 2X Cannon=152
Jetbikes: X6, 2X Cannon=152
Dire Avengers: X5=60

Fast Attack:280
Vypers: X2, Scatter Laser, Shiruken Cannon=140
Vypers: X2, Scatter Laser, Shiruken Cannon=140

Heavy Support:430
Fire Prism: Stones=125
Fire Prism: Stones=125
Falcon: Stones, Holofields, Eldar Missile Launcher=180

Ok, I wouldn't consider his list Chimera spam but I couldn't resist!

The IG list: 200 points

HQ:
Command Squad: 4X Melta, -1 reserves guy, Chimera

Elites:
Psyker Battle Squad: X10, Chimera

Troops:
Vet squad: 3X Melta, Chimera
Vet squad: 3X Melta, Chimera
Vet squad: 3X Plasma, Chimera
Vet squad: 3X Plasma, Chimera

Heavy Support:
Manticore
Manticore
Demolisher Squadron: X3 w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Pre-game and first two turns:

We decided to randomly pick one of the Sprue Posse missions and got Pitched Battle deployment with Annihilation for objectives. I won the roll to go first and chose to let my friend Chris go first. I held everything in reserves and let him do his deployment and first 2 turns of movement. He moves everything except for his Manticores up and pops smoke.

Chris' deployment

First and Second turn movement.

My second turn starts and all I manage to get on are 2 Jetbike squads, 1 Vyper squad and 2 Fire Prisms. Not that much but since he is spread out across the board I choose to come on the extreme left so I am not exposed to all of those Demolishers and Chimeras on the right side of the board. Well, everything in my army shoots at the front 2 Chimeras that I am practically point blank range from and I either miss with everything or he passes his Smoke cover save. Not even a damage roll to be rolled for my first turn of shooting-Ouch!

What do 26 S6 shots and 2 Fire Prisms do against smoke'd Chimeras? Apparently nothing!

Turn 3:

On Chris' turn 3 he shifts his army to face my forces and brings what he can into range. Luckily, he returns the favor of rolling poorly and between his Manticore shooting scattering wildly off target to me making all my cover saves on my Vypers, all he managed to do was make my Yellow Jetbike squad LD2 from his Psycker Battle squad and force a LD test (he did 2 wounds to them). Well, I fail my LD 2 test and run off the board and then it goes on to my turn.

On my 3rd turn, I got in my Autarch/Seer Council and 2 Fire Dragon squads. Seeing how Chris was so close, I decided to try something gutsy and have my Fire Dragons walk on so that they could charge some tanks!
-My seer council flies on and combo charges the demolisher squadron and the battle Psyker squad's Chimera, destroying the Chimera and 2 Demolishers while shaking the last Demolisher.
-My Autarch splits off to try and engage a separate target and what his Melta gun fails to do, his Laser Lance succeeds and he takes out the Chimera of a Plasma Vet squad.
-My surviving Jetbikes, Vypers and Fire Prisms manage to take out the Chimera of the closest Vet squad and I put enough wound on them for them to take a break test which they fail.
-One of my Fire Dragons walk one, one squad fleeting and charging the Command squad's Chimera and a Demolisher, they stun/Immobilize the Chimera and do nothing to the Demolisher. My  other Fire Dragon squad kills a Melta Vet squad's Chimera and charges the guys inside and hold in combat.
-My Fire Dragon Wave Serpents just shoot at some Chimeras and are unable to do any damage.

Turn 4:

On Chris' turn 4, he made sure to punish me for taking a Seer Council by seeing how many saves I could fail!
-His Melta Vets on the left  keep falling back, not being in range to take any pot-shots.
-His Manticores take out some Warlocks in my Seer Council.
-His Demolisher was shaken so he just moved it as far back as possible.
-The plasma Vets (with the Chimera my Autarch blew up) unloaded 6 plasma gun wounds on my Autarch and I fail my invuls.
-The Command squad gets out of their Chimera and destroys my Fire Dragon squad in the middle.
-The Psyker Battle squad takes a perils due to my awesome Runes of Warding and just sit their.
-The Plasma Vets on the right move into the middle and shoot up my seer council along with their Chimera bring my Seer Council down to just one Warlock and the Farseer.
-Melta Vets and Fire dragons suck it up in CC and each loses one member.

My 4th turn brought in the rest of my army and the consequent death blow to Chris'.
-My Vypers put wounds on the Plasma Vet squad in the open, forcing them to go to ground.
-My Jetbikes shake a Manticore.
-My Seer Council wipes out his Command squad.
-Falcon immobilizes the remaining Plasma Vet's Chimera.
-Rest of my tanks tankshock stuff and all my shooting scatters wildly off from my Fire Prisms.

The end:

The rest of the game was a pretty brutal exchange of blows but I managed to clean up enough of the Guard to pull out a win. It ended 8KP for the Eldar and 4KP for the IG.

The end of the game looked something like this

Overview:

Overall, I picked the wrong targets with my Seer Council/Autarch and Fire Dragons and both our dice sucked but it was a fun learning experience for both of us. For me, I should have just moved up and shot my Fire Dragons at the Demolisher squadron taking it out and then just keept my entire Seer Council together and taken out a Chimera then charge the squad inside to get locked into combat. My initial plan was to have the Autarch kill a Chimera, charge contents and then have the Seer Council combo charge multiple vehicles but I rolled 1s like a madman and couldn't help the results. Chris admittedly moved up way too close to me and should have held back more in the middle which would have forced me to use much different tactics.

All in all, while I like the Seer Council, I can't roll for beans so I am going to stick with filling in more vehicles for the points and sticking with dual Autarchs.