GW 1500 mini GT:

This past weekend I played in a 1500 "GT" style tournament thrown at a local GW store. I originally wanted to take the list I posted here but seeing as how the requirement to play was to have fully painted and based models, I was forced to bring the only painted Eldar models I had.

The army:

The army I ended up bringing was Eldrad, Yriel, 2 10x Wraithguard squads (1 with Enhance, 1 with Conceal) and 2 Wraithlords with EML and BL configuration. I did not expect to do well with this army as it didn't really seem too competitive to me (not much to work with) but seeing as how it was all I had painted I took this list and ran with it.

The missions:

Mission 1: Plant the flag; roll to place d3+1 buildings on the board, table quarters deployment. Troop units can place a flag in said buildings and remove enemy flags in the movement phase. The player with the most flags at the end of the game wins. 20 points if you have most flags and opponent has none, 17 if you have more, 14 if both have the same amount and 11 for a loss.

Mission 2: Take the hill; the person with the most Troops in the center of the board wins, pitched battle deployment. 20 points if you have Troops and opponent has none on the board, 17 if you have more than the opponent, 14 for tie and 11 for loss.

Mission 3: Modified kill points; HQ and Troops are worth 3 KP, Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy are worth 2 HP and dedicated transports are worth 1, Dawn of War deployment.

The games:

Game 1:

My first round opponent was against my friend Chris, who brought a standard CSM army. His army consisted of a Chaos Lord with Demon Weapon in Terminator armor, 7 Chaos Terminators with a Reaper Autocannon and misc Combi weapons, 3 squads of 10 CSM, Mark of Glory, Power Fist, 2 Plasma Guns and a Combi weapon on the camp, a Vindicator, a Predator with Autocannon turret and Lascannon Sponsons.

Setup/Game: We rolled 2 buildings for this mission and it ended up looking like we were going to play a classic capture and control mission. I started my WG close to the building I placed and dropped a flag there and Chris did the same for his building and from then on it was a game of chess trying to keep our flag planted while taking the other person's flag.

After we set up, we just generally advance towards the middle waiting to make our move. A few potshots put some wounds on my Wraithguard /Wraithlords and my shooting manages to take out his Vindicator (few!).

Once I get close enough, Chris decides to spring his forces on me-he drives up with some squads, gets out of his Rhinos to put some wounds on Wraithguard and downs a Wraithlord while his Terminators advance to put some more wounds on my other Wraithlord with their combi-weapons.

Weathering the storm of his Plasma/Melta Combi-Weapon doom, I return the favor... I Doom the CSM squad on the left, charge it with Yriel and wipe it out completely with Yriel's Eye of Wrath ability. 1 Wraithguard squad lights up  his Terminator unit in the middle causing them to fall back while the other Wraithguard whittle down the right CSM squad and my remaining Wraithlord charges and does some more damage to the nearly depleted CSM squad my Wraithguard fired at.

Well, after that crazy turn of events, it became apparent that being in range of Yriel, a Wraithlord charge and 20 Wraithguard shots is not fun so Chris gets his infantry squad in his Rhino, tries to make a run for my building to take away my flag and used his remaining Rhinos to try and block off my Wraithguard from getting to his building, clever! The CSM in his Rhino manage to instantkill Yriel with thier Plasma guns as I fail 3 re-rollable 4++ saves, His Predator finishes off my Wraithlord and his Terminators rally and move up towards my lines again. After killing my Wraithlords Chris suggests that he wins and that the game should end.

Towards the end of the game, it became apparent that he was not going to make it to my building in time so he moved back towards his and tried to hold my Wraithguard with Eldrad at bay and pull out a 1-1 flag tie. I managed to shoot/charge and take out his Terminator squad with an Enhanced Wraithguard squad+Eldrad and then get into his building and shoot up/charge/destroy his last remaining CSM squad allowing me to plant a flag and get a major win (20 points) with 2 flags to 0.

Game ends 2 flags to 0.

Game 2:

The second game, with the "take the hill" mission was against a Space Wolf player I've played a few times (one of which was at the 'Ard Boyz semi finals). Looking at his list which had a Rune Priest, Wolf Priest, 3 Greyhunter squads (2 in Rhinos), a Wolf Scout squad, a Lone Wolf and a large Bloodclaw bike squad given preferred enemy infantry, it was looking like a really tough fight.

The game pretty much involved my opponent turbo-boosting his bikes around trying to get a good charge off on me while I was skirting my way around the middle objective. The only noteworthy thing that happened in the meantime was my Wraithlord being able to take out one of his Rhinos first turn forcing one of his Greyhunter squads to walk. Eventually, he got close enough and tried to take down a Wraithlord with some Plasma/Melta shots but failed to kill it so seeing how my Wraithlord was in charge range, I made a move for it and charged.

My Wraithlord charged his Greyhunter squad that had his Rune Priest and no powerfist, I was happy. Then I rolled dice and with my 2 hits on his Rune Priest, I rolled 2 1s to wound him and was sad inside.

My opponent then charged that Wraithlord with another Grey Hunter squad and his Wolf Scouts, hoping their powerfists would bring my Wraithlord down, so after some more epic fail from my Wraithlord (failing to hurt his Rune Priest with no invul save yet again) I take 2 wounds from Powerfists and fail my no retreat saves. He also charges my other Wraithlord with his Lone Wolf and we both suck up a storm there.

His surviving Rune Priest continues to shut down every one of my psychic powers so I just charge in Yriel who does his Eye of Wrath leaving only a wounded Rune Priest and 1 more Grey Hunter left who manage to put 2 wounds on Yriel (out of 2 saves, I failed 2) and I move the rest of my army further from his.

Eventually he gets a crazy charge off on my WG squad in a building with his Bloodclaws, helps out his Lone Wolf (fighting a Wraithlord) with a Grey Hunter squad and engages Yriel with another Grey Hunter squad and the Wolf Scouts finishing off my Wraith Lord and Yriel but not before taking wound on the Lone Wolf and having Yriel finish off the Rune Priest and remaining Grey Hunter.

So at this point, my engaged WG squad is tying up his Bloodclaws and the rest of his army moves up towards my remaining Wraithguard squad and Eldrad. We move around a bit and my Wraithguard shoot and charge his Wolf Scouts, Eldrad breaks off and charges a Grey Hunter squad. The Wolf Scouts die from the Wraithguard and Eldrad manages to win combat against the Grey Hunters (who fail their LD test) and Eldrad fails to run them down causing them to fall back way off of the objective (since my Wraithguard squad was in their way they kept falling back and were out of the game). The game is now 1 Grey Hunter squad for him on the hill and 1 Wraithguard squad for me on the hill, unless he can take out my last Wraithguard squad the game is a tie!

So in the end, he managed to finish off the Wraithguard squad in the building with his bloodclaws, charge my remaining Wraithguard squad with them and the Lone Wolf but only bought my Wraithguard down to 4 models making the game 1 Greyhunter squad to 1 Wraithguard squad-Huzzah. Game is a Tie, 14-14 and on to the next game.

Game 3:

Well, I forgot to take pictures of this game but it was a fast one. It was my Eldar VS someone else's Mechdar and his list had a Farseer (Fortune/Doom), 2 Dire Avenger squads in Wave Serpents with Bright Lances, 1 Banshee squad in a Wave Serpent with Scatter Laser, 1 Falcon that had Fire Dragons in it and a Ranger squad.

The game started with him infiltrating his Rangers in my deployment zone and my Wraithlords coming on and flaming them to death, already 3-0 KP I fan out my Wraithguard in hopes of trapping him.

-He corners himself and sends his tanks at me almost piecemeal, first with a Falcon and Fire Dragons which manage to take out a Wraithlord but in turn get downed by Wraithguard shooting and a charge from Yriel. Eventually, He gets out with everything, shoots everything and charges a doomed WG squad and ends up losing everything except a few Grav tanks. There really wasn't much his army could do against mine I guess so the game ends with me losing Yriel and a WL and him losing all but 3 Skimmers. With the mobility he had, he could have pulled out a win if he stayed back and just took out my Wraithlords but the game didn't go that way =(.

Wraithgaurd stand victorious.

Tournament overview:

In the end, I had the most battlepoints but two people had way better painting scores bringing them into 1st and 2nd place leaving me with a neat and tidy 3rd place overall score.

Footdar, especially the Wraithguard kind, are extremely potent when they get you in that "sweet spot" and you either need to avoid getting near them at all or risk entering that horrendous kill zone when dealing with this army. All in all, I had fun and was impressed most of all with how my Wraithguard performed in close combat.