Epic 4K: Titan Legion vs Eldar

A second game using Titan Legions, this time at 4000 points, and against Tim's Eldar.

I took a similar list to last game, but taking three Warlords this time!

Legio Gryphonicus (NetEA v3.24 *APPROVED*)  4000 POINTS 
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WARLORD TITAN [875] 
2 Gatling Blaster, 2 Apocalypse Missile Launcher, Legate

WARLORD TITAN [850] 

2 Turbo-laser Destructor, Volcano Cannon, Gatling Blaster

WARHOUND TITAN [275] 
Inferno Gun, Vulcan Megabolter

WARHOUND TITAN [275] 
Inferno Gun, Vulcan Megabolter

WARHOUND TITAN [300] 
Plasma Blastgun, Turbo-laser Destructor

WARHOUND TITAN [300] 
Plasma Blastgun, Turbo-laser Destructor

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [150] 
2 Thunderbolts

THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [150] 
2 Thunderbolts

Tim used his beautifully painted Eldar, taking a Biel Tan list.

Biel-Tan Craftworld (NetEA Army Compendium v2014 (v4.2)) 4000 POINTS 
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ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [400]
2 Dire Avenger, 2 Dark Reaper, Exarch, Autarch, 2 Fire Dragon, 2 Striking Scorpion

SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [325]
5 Fire Prism

SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300]
4 Falcon, 2 Fire Storm

SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300]
4 Falcon, 2 Fire Storm

GUARDIAN WARHOST [150]
Farseer, 5 Guardians, 2 Heavy Weapon Platform

GUARDIAN WARHOST [150]
Farseer, 5 Guardians, 2 Heavy Weapon Platform

RANGER TROUPE [100]
4 Ranger

AVATAR [0]

WRAITHGATE [50]

ENGINE OF VAUL TROUPE [250]
Storm Serpent

VOID SPINNER [275]
Void Spinner

WINDRIDER TROUPE [200]
4 Jetbikes, 2 Vyper

ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [350]
8 Dire Avenger, 2 Exarch

NIGHTWINGS [300]
3 Nightwing Interceptors

VAMPIRE RAIDER [200]

REVENANT TITANS [650]
2 Revenant Titans

Turn 1

Here's the setup, all my Titans on the right flank, with Warlords in the middle of the line.

Tim's right flank.

Tim's centre.

Tim's right flank.

From behind my line. Eldar objectives, including webgate, are directly ahead.

I storm forward with the Warlords, doubling and marching. Eldar target the leading Warlord with their Void Spinner artillery, and then Shining Spears attack out of the webgate, with their armour piercing lances at the ready.

Two Shining Spears are lost, and the Warlord takes two damage.

The Warlord loses combat, with suppression and Eldar Exarchs swinging the result in the Eldar's favour. I elect to stay where I am though being a big fearless War Engine, and the bikes fly back behind a hill.

Mission successful for the Shining Spears!

My Titans keep coming, positioning themselves for a drive into the Eldar side of the table on turn 2.

A Warhound races around the Eldar right flank.

On my baseline the Eldar Vampire Transport arrives, my intercepting fighters failing to stop it.

The Warhound is attacked by disembarking Aspect Warriors and loses its void shields, but does not take any damage.

Nonetheless it breaks and retreats to the ruins, with the Eldar Aspect Warriors in hot pursuit.

The Eldar Revenant Titans then charge forward blasting and damaging the broken Warlord, and the reactor takes a critical hit.

As do the Eldar Nightwings. One of my Thunderbolt interceptors is shot down by Revenant AA fire, trying to intercept the Nightwings unsuccessfullly.

Eldar Grav Tanks race forward behind the building to my left flank and drop a couple of void shields from the nearest Warlord.

Another Warhound swings around the Eldar right. End of turn and my two broken Titans rally.

End of turn 1, the right Warlord is on a single hit point remaining, with reactor still damaged, but the rest of the force is intact, and in a good position to wreak havoc on multiple Eldar formations.

Turn 2

Eldar win Strategy Roll, and unleash a deadly series of attacks.  First the Fire Prisms blast the damaged Warlord and destroy it.

Next near my baseline my Warhound is engaged again by the Aspect Warriors and this time destroyed.

And lastly the Revenant Titans sustain fire and destroy another Warhound! I've just lost three titans in three activations!

My two remaining Warhounds attack. Somewhat stupidly I move the the anti-tank one to attack the Shining Spears, and the anti-infantry one attacks the Fire Prisms and Storm Serpent. The Shining Spears take 3 losses and run away. The tanks are untouched.

The Eldar Grav Tanks swoop in and pepper the next Warlord with fire, dropping its shields and doing two damage.

While doing Eldar hit and run attacks to stay out of line of fire.

The Warlord attempts to marshal, falling back towards my now exposed blitz objective. Unfortunately it rolls double one and so only regains a single void shield!

My remaining Warlord, with two Laser Burners, assaults the Revenants in a firefight - damaging each one, breaking them and causing them to retreat.

Eldar Guardians engage another Warhound and it breaks and retreats minus its void shields.

It is then attacked by the Eldar Vampire.

And destroyed!

My retreating Warlord is hit by Nightwings and even Vyper jetbikes join in.

End of turn and my forces have been decimated! The Eldar are largely untouched.

Turn 3

Eldar win strategy roll and the Fire Prisms race forward and finish off the damaged Warlord near my baseline.

Ouch. Stay away from these if you're a Titan!

My Warlord doubles and fires it's volcano cannons at the Revenants, but rolls a double one to hit. My Warhound wrecks a grav-tank formation.

At this point the Eldar have many activations left and I'm down to two titans... I concede.

Here's the embarrassingly small number of enemy units I managed to take out all game, for the loss of two Warlords and three Warhounds...

Conclusion

Well that was an even worse performance than the last game! Time to analyse this a little!

Eldar have a lot of good anti-titan weaponry, but Tim's force was perhaps only slightly above average in anti-tank ability for an Eldar force, and that was only part of the difficulty. So what went wrong?

As Tim agreed, the first turn set-up by the Titan force was good and all set for some devastating strikes exploiting the Eldar placements on turn 2. Perhaps I could have kept them a little closer for mutual firefight support in the centre but not a big issue.  However the pre-emptive attacks by the Eldar winning Strategy Roll turn 2 (which was most likely), ended up being very destructive - knocking out three titans, and it was always going to be a hard ask after that.  Things weren't helped though by wrong choice of targets by the Warhounds subsequently, and wasted marshal move by the Warlord. I should have concentrated on the Grav Tanks at least, as they subsequently wrecked my Warlords and I could have neutralised two or three units of these. This would have at least given me a better chance to hold on against lesser threats afterwards.

Also, I skimped on points and didn't add carapace multilasers to a Warlord, which would have given me some much needed anti-aircraft protection beyond just the Thunderbolts. And at 4000 points three Warlords was probably a bit too much, limiting my numbers of activations. Ah well, learning points for next time!