Small 750 point tournament Battle Report:

I played in a 750 point tournament yesterday. This was my first set of games in 6th so I thought I'd write up a mini battle report for everyone and share some of my thoughts on Eldar in 6th.



First off, my Army List:

HQ: 380

-Farseer: Bike, Warding, Fortune=130

-Seer Council: 5 Warlocks, 2XDestructor, Embolden, 4 Singing Spears=262

Troops: 132

-Guardian Jetbikes: 3 bikes=66

-Guardian Jetbikes: 3 bikes=66

Heavy Support: 225

-Vibro Cannon: 1 gun, Warlock=75
-Vibro Cannon: 1 gun, Warlock=75
-Vibro Cannon: 1 gun, Warlock=75

I wanted to see how the Eldar bikes worked in 6th and I threw in some Vibro Cannons since auto-glancing shots are pretty nice (and unless FAQ'd otherwise, they can affect flyers, yay). Overall, I think every unit was an MVP in its own right and I'll discuss why in the Tournament Overview section at the bottom.

Missions:

The missions were Crusade (multiple objectives), Purge the Alien (Kill points), and The Relic (movable objective in the middle). Deployments were randomly rolled but we ended up doing Vanguard (corners) for the first mission, Dawn of War (old pitched battle) for the second mission and Hammer and Anvil for the third mission.

Game 1:

This game was against a Necron player with Night Scythe and Doom Scythe flyers, 2 Necron Warrior units, 1 Immortal unit (all with lance Crypteks) and a Lord with a Warscythe/mindshackle scarabs.

This game basically involved my Seer Council zooming up to engage the Necron infantry that were deployed while my Vibro Cannons plinked away at whatever was in range until the Flyers came on.

*First few turns saw me lose a Warlock to shooting while I roast a Necron Warrior unit with Destructor and finish it off in close combat. Vibro Cannons tickled the Necrons.

*Third turn saw one of his Flyers come on and disembark his HQ/Immortal unit that shot up my Council downing 2 Warlocks.

*Next turn all 3 of my Vibro Cannons hit and took out his flyer while my Council charged and won combat but the Necrons held. Interestingly enough, Mindshakle Scarabs almost ensnared a warlock but thanks to Embolden I passed the Ld test.

*Rest of the game my council ran down his other infantry unit while his remaining flyer tried to shoot my GJB units but after taking and surviving a round of shooting I simply moved behind the flyer so he couldn't get LOS to them and he was forced to shoot at my Vibro Cannons that only managed to take off 2 Hull Points the rest of the game.

End of game, I had 2 objectives to his 0 and got the First blood, Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker mission points.

Thoughts about the game: Jetbikes are FAST, the turn my GJB units came on they were in the enemy deployment zone trying to avoid shots from Flyers then at the end of the game they just went to whatever objective they wanted. I definitely think I will always include at least 1, maybe 2 GJB units simply for their speed and objective grabbing capability. Vibro Cannons worked like a charm against flyers and the Warlock Upgrade payed off (being able to use his BS for the one shot was huge). Seriously, Vibro Cannons are perhaps the only way to reliably deal with flyers in such a small points limit and they definitely helped me win this game.

Game 2:

This game was against a Space Marine player with a Captain on bike, unit of bikes with an Attack Bike/meltas galore; 10 man Tac squad in a Drop Pod, 10 man Tac squad in a Rhino.

I won first turn and deployed in an extreme corner (accidentally though because the table was so huge it was not clear where the table edge was) but it was ok as in the end my opponent deployed in his other extreme corner which suited me just fine. No Nightfight first turn and my Warlord trait was useless (redeploy oh goody...).

*First turn saw me fortune up and spread my seer council out to protect my Vibro cannons from any potential Drop Pod death and nothing else was in range. I held my GJBs in reserve. His Drop Pod came in relatively close to my Council but scattered back 9" and combat squaded up then shot at my Council which passed their saves. Rest of his army moved up.

*Next part of the game just saw my Vibro Cannons get hits on both Combat Squads and the Drop Pod giving me First Blood (yay for easy KP drop pods) while his Combat Squads eventually got whittled down by Destructor/Vibro Cannon hits.

*The only other thing worth noting was my Seer Council trying to get within 12" of his bike squad to take some pot shots which manage to take out the first 2 bikes (1 was an attack bike and another was a random melta gunner) and then I tried to get a good 2d6 roll to get out of charge range but rolled double 1s!! Luckily he moved up and rolled equally bad for his charge move...I then charged his Bike unit and Hammer of Wrath hits took out a bike while my Farseer challenged his captain and hilarity ensued as I eventually beat down his bikes and Captain in combat with Wychblades. Game ended with me getting    3 KP, First Blood, Line Breaker and the game ended before I could get the Slay the Warlord and finish off the bike squad though we played it out to see what would have happened and the Council prevailed.

Thoughts about the game: My opponent deployed too far away for much his his army to be able to support his Drop Pod squad so he came at me peacemeal which ultimately that gave me the biggest advantage. Other than that, the speed of the GJB units was nice. Being able to escape danger and stay hidden was key and the Council in conjunction with the Vibro Cannons put so many wounds on things that it just worked out in the end for the Eldar. This game the Seer Council could have probably single handedly won me the game IMO.

Game 3:

This game was against a rival Eldar player of all people! We've known each other for a while so it was a fun, laid back game. He took a Fortune Seer, Avatar, 5 Pathfinders, 10 Guardians with Scatter, 10 Dire Avengers with Bladestorm/Defend and 2 Vibro Cannons. He won the roll to go first but let me have it thinking that my mobility would make going first for him irrelevant. My Warlord Trait was useless (outflank nonsense) and no Nightfight first turn.

*I actually deployed my GJB units this game since it was the Relic mission. I successfully cast Fortune on one GJB unit who went for the objective and it was a good thing too because I caused 3 wounds on them from my own Vibro shot and failed all the saves initially (fortune saved them all though!). He infiltrated a pathfinder unit in a ruins 18" from my army which was the target of my vibro cannons and surprise surprise he passed all of his 2+ cover saves.

*My Seer Council then roasted the Pathfinders with Destructor and I moved my Vibro Cannons up to get in range of his stuff. The GJB unit which took a few hits passed the relic off to the full GJB unit and that unit moved around a Ruins to get out of range/LOS from his army.

*Hilarity ensued as my Seer Council lost the Farseer who passed all but 1 LOS save and then failed his fortuned save (he took 2 wounds earlier due to poor rolling) and everyone else survived. I then tried to engage his Dire Avengers with my Seer Council but I rolled really bad for my charge distance and he almost killed a guy from his Overwatch. Seeing as how my Farseer was dead, he then boasted about only having to roll 2d6 for Fortune and promptly rolled an 11 but that was ok since he Blade Stormed my Seer Council and took out all but 1 guy (he then failed charges with every one of his units hooray).

*My remaining Seer guy moved to charge a Guardian unit but failed every hit and got beat down by his S3 beefcake guardians... Game ended with the Relic in my hands and First Blood/Line Breaker while he only had Slay the Warlord.

Thoughts about the game: This game was pretty silly with our Vibro Cannons plinking away at each other putting a few wounds here and there and my Seer Council getting owned so hard by some Guardians and Dire Avengers. Overall, the GJB units won the game since they got the objective so fast and hid with it safely the rest of the game. One lesson this game for both my opponent and me was how frustrating random charges can be, but also how thrilling as you can roll a 3 and cry or roll a 10 (as my opponent did with his Avatar in a prior game) and rejoice.

Tournament Overview:
I ended up getting first clearly establishing Eldar as being the best evar. There were players there that tried taking some cheese monkey lists like BA with 2 Storm Ravens, 2 scouts with Libby/FNP elite guys (the jerk, lol). All in all the more balanced lists won out in the end as they were able to secure the objectives.

For me, every unit I had was an MVP in its own way. The Seer Council was a big threat and target that diverted the opponent's attention away from the GJB and Vibro units. The GJB units were great in either getting to objectives/moving with the relic or just zooming into a deployment zone for the "Linebreaker" point. The Vibro Cannons were a great boon against enemy vehicles/flyers as well as providing some decent fire support against enemy infantry even pinning a few squads.

In conclusion, until we get a solid answer to flyers, I can see Vibro Cannons as being a great choice for Eldar as they fulfill great anti tank and anti infantry rolls. Our Jetbike units definitely got a boost with true T4 (now your Farseer can tank a Plasma/Multi Laser shot) and they have superb mobility (48" potential move in a turn and 2d6 move in assault if you don't flat out are huge). We really have virtually no limitation on where we want a Jetbike unit to go now and this is good news for Shining Spears.

Regarding missions, I think that Eldar can still compete as we have a lot of mobility in getting out of the way objectives thanks to GJB units or we can get some solid scoring units to hunker down on an objective such as Rangers, Wraithguard and even Dire Avengers-when properly supported that is. Vehicles no longer contesting and the fact that you have to be outside of a tank to get an objective help us out in that anti tank is not as huge of a problem as it was in 5th but I still think we could use a boost in that department.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little write up, I'll be posting more stuff as soon as I have time!