Epic 40K: Eldar Knights

Some newly painted old school figures - Epic Eldar Knights, 90's figures long out of production. I've had these for some time, but only just got around to painting them.

 
Towering Destroyers.

Fire Gales.

 

And Bright Stallions. Space elf space ponies...?

Epic 4K: Fir Iolarion vs Hawk Lords

After a previous mistaken encounter with the Fir Iolarion list where my army was under-pointed, I made sure I brought the full 4000 points this time! Andrew turned up with an experimental marine list (Hawk Lords), using his Starship Trooper minis. 

Looking at the Titan force I was bringing, Andrew knew it was going to be a difficult battle... Hawk Lords are mainly Assault Marines and Assault Devastators (Devastator Marines with Jump Packs), plus Landing Craft. Having to close and assault Eldar Titans is a tough mission!

Eldar Fir Iolarion - 4000

Warlock with D-Cannon, Powerfist, Bonesinger - 875
Phantom with twin Pulsars - 750
Phantom with twin Pulsars - 750
Revenant with twin Pulsars - 350
Revenant with twin Pulsars - 350
Revenant with twin Pulsars - 350
Revenant with twin Pulsars - 350
2 Nightwings - 225

Mobile Infantry Company, Heinlein's Hawks [Counts at Hawk Lords]

1st Platoon - Deploying by planetfall in Landing Craft

A Section, with MI Captain Heinlein, [counts as 4 Assault Marines, Supreme Commander, 2 Hawk Wing Devastators]

B Section [350, counts as 4 Assault Marines, Chaplain, 2 Hawk Wing Devastators]

Hvy Weapons Section [375, counts as 4 Whirlwinds, Hunter]

Landing Craft [350]

2nd Platoon - Deploying by planetfall in Landing Craft

Cmd Group, with MI Lieutenant 2-in-C [300, counts as 4 Hawk Wing Devastators, Captain]

A Section [225, counts as 4 Assault Marines, Chaplain]

B Section [225, counts as 4 Assault Marines, Chaplain]

Hvy Weapons Section [375, counts as 4 Whirlwinds, Hunter]

Landing Craft [350]

3rd Platoon - Drop Capsule deployment prior to combat

A Section [350, counts as 4 Assault Marines, Chaplain, 2 Hawk Wing Devastators]

B Section [350, counts as 4 Assault Marines, Chaplain, 2 Hawk Wing Devastators]

Landing Craft [350]

Some new Epic beer varieties appropriate to the occasion, thanks Andrew!

Turn 1

Setup, my Titans castled near my blitz. And no Marines on table! My two take and holds are in top right.  Marines are in centre.

Marines win Strategy Roll and make me go first to waste an activation.  I put a Revenant on overwatch.

Marines do their first drop and a Landing Craft with Marines and Whirlwinds arrives. I double towards them with the Warlock, shooting and killing a single marine. Return fire from the marines causes a point of damage and knocks out the Warlock's holofield with a critical!

My Phantom doubles forward and blows up the Landing Craft, killing another couple of Marines. 

(Note: we decided to make the Landing Craft's critical hit result only hit nearby units on a 6 rather than auto as otherwise the game would be over very quickly, and we wondered if this critical result which seems very harsh was correct...).

The Marines direct more fire onto the Warlock, damaging it further and breaking it, and it falls back.

Marines rush forward and fire ineffectually at the Warlock.

Before another Revenant advances and kills most of them. Fire breaks one of the Revenants in turn and it repositions to the centre of the battlefield.

Another drop, right next to my lead Phantom which had been cunningly lured there it seems! The Marines attempt a combined engage, but fail, and then using the Supreme Commanders reroll fail again!! (Double 1).  Disastrous result for the Marines!

My other Phantom jogs up and eliminates the next Landing Craft. Return fire damages the Phantom and knocks out its holofield.

The Marines try two further engage actions against the lead Phantom, but get unlucky and lose both of them, though the Phantom does take a point of damage.

End of turn. The last Landing Craft flies by and shoots the Warlock doing no damage, and the Nightwings miss when they intercept the Landing Craft.

All formations rally.

Turn 2

Eldar win Strategy Roll. The two Phantoms sustain fire and eliminate most of the remaining Marines from the drop near them last turn - barring the Captain who failed to order the combined assault last turn, which got everyone killed.  The opposite of justice...

The Warlock is dropped to a single hit point by artillery and broken again. Otherwise though the Eldar Titans jog around shooting up Marine formations pretty much with impunity, and only sad remnants of the Marine force is left.

Turn 3

Boom! The Warlock Titan is finally destroyed. 

But too late as there is no Marine army capable of resisting the Eldar now. One more Revenant is broken in an engage action, but the Eldar are then free to take objectives. 

Victory to Eldar 3-1 with Take and Hold, and Blitz. Marines achieve Break their Spirit for destroying the Warlock Titan.

Conclusion

A very difficult matchup for this Marine list, relying on close assault for the most part, against an army that outranged them and had just the right weapons for dealing with them and their Landing Craft. To the Marines credit they destroyed the Warlock and damaged several other Titans! Would they have been better to have taken out the easier to break Revenants and then relied on out-activating? Possibly, but given pre-plotted moves of the Landing Craft, and the larger units the Marines had, they didn't really have that option. Nonetheless an interesting experimental list to see on the table.

Two rule issues I noticed. First the Bonesinger shouldn't have been on the Warlock (would be on a Phantom) as the list has changed since I last used it and I didn't notice. Secondly criticals for Landing Craft seem amazingly brutal, wonder if that is really meant to be the case? Will ask on Tac Command.

Warhammer 40k 8th edition playtest

Mucking around trying out the new 40k rules, seeing as they are free and simple (for example, and example), and rumour has it the basic rules are going to be free download like Age of Sigmar perhaps.

I used to have quite a few 40k figures but sold them all many years ago. All I have left is these marine and alien figures which are from the Space Hulk box set.  But good enough to try the rules out!  (Terrain is for 6mm as I have a game of Epic later tonight and couldn't be bothered changing it, slack I know).

I made two roughly equal forces using the rules power system (and most of the figures I had)... 

Marines (26 power)

Terminator Squad Alpha - 5 Terminators (Heavy Flamer)

Terminator Squad Beta - 5 Terminators (Assault Cannon)

Genestealers (23 Power)

Patriarch

5 Genestealers

5 Genestealers

5 Genestealers

5 Genestealers

Game

And away we go. I started the marines in the centre of the board, and randomised which side of the table the bugs would come on, and gave marines first turn. After terrible initial shooting from the marines, and cunning use of cover by the bugs, the bugs had made it to charge range. Here's the end of third marine turn. Squad Alpha had just killed off 4 genestealers in close combat in the bug turn for the loss of only one wound (Terminators have 2 each). They move to make the Patriarch the closest target and shoot, doing 3 wounds to it (it has 6 wounds total, and Genestealers have 1 wound each).

Squad Beta has lost two troopers and has one trooper wounded, and has killed 3 of the 9 bugs that had charged it.

Bug turn 3, overwatch fire from the Alpha squad causes one more wound to the Patriarch as it rushes them, and also guns down 3 Genestealers charging them. But then 4 terminators go down in close combat and the remaining sergeant does no damage. Patriarch is very brutal in close combat...

Squad Beta kills one genestealer and again just the sergeant survives.

Marine turn, Alpha sergeant swings at the Patriarch and misses again, and goes down, as does Beta Sergeant. Victory to the bugs for the loss of 14 Genestealers...

Verdict?

Surprisingly entertaining for such a small game, which took about 30 minutes. The new rules seem similar in style to Age of Sigmar, with only about 8 pages of rules. While I wasn't a fan of that system for the fantasy genre where I prefer ranked units, it suits the 40k setting I think. Definitely easy on the brain (unlike the previous edition as I understand it).

After the game I also remembered I had forgotten the 'rapid fire' ability on Alpha squad's stormbolters (doubles their fire power at half range!), which may have changed the outcome of their shooting at the Patriarch significantly!

A couple of questions I had at the end of this, which are likely covered somewhere I didn't notice, I'll post them and someone can help me out I expect.

1. You can only only shoot a character in the shooting phase if they are the closest target. But what about in the charge phase with overwatch fire if characters charge you? (You fire all your guns with overwatch fire but need 6's to hit rather than your usual to hit number). I presume you always get to shoot at characters charging you in this phase as it is not the shooting phase?
2. Heavy flamers always hit (causing D6 hits), but what about overwatch fire? Do they always hit again in overwatch fire or do they need 6's to hit?