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1750 Point Tournament Recap - Eldar

Started by Arguleon-veq, September 08, 2013, 08:04:07 PM

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Arguleon-veq

So this will be my third fairly big tournament in the last 2 months. I had been using my Bike Council but got sick of not getting Fortune with 6 rolls so I opted for this:

Farseer
; Bike, Mantle of the Laughing God
5X 5 Dire Avengers;
5x Wave Serpents; Holo-Fields, Shuricannons, Scatter Laser
2x Wraithknights
Skyshield Landing-Pad;

There were 60 players signed up but only 54 turned up. It was to be 6 games, I usually prefer 5 game tournaments but as it was local the fact there was an extra game wasnt so bad as there was less traveling time. It was using a 20 point scoring system, so you could get 8 for winning the primary mission[4 for drawing it], 4 for winning the secondary mission[2 for drawing] and then there were up to 8 points up for grabs based on VP difference.

Game1 vs Dark Eldar/Eldar
Primary; 4 Objectives
Secondary; Kill Points


Baron;
5 Warriors;
5 Warriors;
5 Warriors;
3 Trueborn
; 2 Blasters, 1 Cannon
3 Trueborn; 2 Blasters, 1 Cannon
3 Trueborn; 2 Blasters, 1 Cannon
5 Beastmasters + 20 Chymera;
Ravager
; Lances, Night Shield
Ravager; Lances, Night Shield
Ravager; Lances, Night Shield
6x Venoms; Extra Cannons
Farseer; Bike, Shard of Anaris
3 Bikes;
3 Bikes
;

Recap: He rolled Fortune for his Farseer and won the roll for first turn which got me very worried about facing this army. He would be in my lines early and there was no way I could shoot down that beast council thanks to fortune and I couldnt even tie them up with my Knights thanks to Hit and Run from the Baron. His Venoms could also do a number on my Knights before I could blow them away thanks to first turn and his lances could drop a Serpent or two before I could get my 2+ cover save going. Lucky though I did get the warlord trait that makes my mantle seer scoring!

His first turn thankfully wasnt as bad as it could have been but he did do 4 wounds on a knight. I fortune up the wounded knight and start to shoot down Venoms that have troops in after I back off from his beast council.

His second turns shooting does very little now that I have downed a lot of venoms and im getting a great cover from those lances but that beast council is getting dangerously close.

I back off further with the serpents but throw my knights in the way of his beast council to block him off. I continue to shoot down his venoms and ravagers whilst my mantle seer fortunes himself and zooms off into his backfield onto an objective.

Thankfully he charges a knight but his ravagers do manage to down a serpent now that ive had to abandon my skyshield. His 2 bike units and his warriors in reserve all arrive and pour some fire into my mantle seer  to no avail. The knight and beast council dont manage to do anything to each other.

My mantle seer fortunes up again and shoots down 2 dark eldar warriors, my tanks continue to shoot down his venoms and ravagers leaving him with just 1 ravager and 1 venom with a warrior squad in. I charge the mantle seer into the warriors and run them down whilst my other knight dives into the beast council combat, not much is done but he then hit and runs out of combat with me.

Thanks to this he then gets a combo charge off in his turn on 3 serpents, whilst his shooting manages to down my two wounded knights. Knowing he can never shoot down my mantle seer he charges him with both jetbike units but no damage is done.

I dart my surviving serpents clear of his council whilst shooting down his last ravager, the avengers who had bailed out of my wrecks block his routes to get at those retreating serpents. In combat my seer kills a bike and one unit flees the table.

In his turn 5 he drops his last warriors out of his last venom onto an objective whilst the beast council kill some avengers. My seer beats and runs down the last bikers.

I drop off some avengers next to his warriors whilst their serpent shoots them down and I take that objective. My other drops off more avengers on another objective whilst my mantle seer gets a third.

The game goes on to turn 6 and he does get a long charge off on my serpent/avengers and kills them but this still leaves me with 2 objectives to his 0 and miles ahead in kill points.

Result; 19-1 Win
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

Arguleon-veq

Game 2 vs Necrons
Primary; 1 Each
Secondary; Scouring


Lord; Scythe, Scarabs, Weave, Phase Shifter, Res Orb
Lord; Scythe, Scarabs, Weave, Phase Shifter
Command Barge;
Command Barge;
Ghost Ark;
Ghost Ark
;
5 Warriors + 2 Lance Crypteks;
5 Warriors + 2 Lance Crypteks;
5 Warriors + 2 Haywire Crypteks;
5 Warriors + 2 Haywire Crypteks;
A. Barge;
A. Barge;
A. Barge;
Night Scythe;
Night Scythe;


Recap: I knew this guy from another tournament and hes a really nice guy so I knew it would be an ok game, I actually really rate his list and have been trying to get a friend who plays Crons to run this for a while with the change in the meta, the game would really be decided on who performed better out of my wraithknights and his lords.

I stole the initiative and it got pretty brutal from there, my wraithknights were on great form blowing up both command barges turn 1, this let me shoot his lords down with my serpents, next turn the wraithknights killed an barge each and could advance with impunity.

It was pretty much a mopping up process then although he did manage to kill a knight and a serpent but my matle seer contested his objective, I jumped on quite a few of the scouring ones and had my own held, he only had a gunless flyer and a cryptek left by the end of the game.

He remained a good sport about it though which is always nice and was doing what you should do in a situation like that and just having some fun trying to bring down some big target like a wraithknight.

Result; 19-1 Win

Game 3 vs Tau
Primary; Kill Points
Secondary; Big Guns


Aun'Va;
Riptide;
3 Broadsides; 6 Missile Drones
3 Broadsides; 6 Missile Drones
3 Broadsides; 6 Missile Drones
10 Fire Warriors;
10 Fire Warriors;
10 Fire Warriors;
8 Pathfinders;
8 Pathfinders;
8 Pathfinders;
Defense Line;


Recap: I wasnt too worried about this list and thought it was the weakest I had faced so far, there was no way he could beat me in a shootout and I had better scoring.

I went first and my whole first turn shooting did 1 wound on a broadside. His return fire killed a wraithknight in a single turn.

I threw my other knight down a flank so only some of his army could shoot at it and poured fire into his pathfinders killing 2 units.

His stripped half the wounds off my knight and somehow snuck a pen through on a serpent and blew it up.

I pour more fire into his broadsides and again only do a single wound although my knight kills one with shooting, he then launches a charge and dies to overwatch thanks to his remaining pathfinders getting 4 hits out of 8 snapshots!.

He actually starts advancing towards me with his riptide and broadsides which is great for me as it brings my shuricannons into range which will hopefully bypass all the 2+ saves he is passing, I do down the riptide but it takes more fire than it should as he passes a few 6+ Feel no Pains thanks to his ethereals power.

I finally start doing a number on his broadsides and in the end kill every single broadside BUT after every round of shooting t here would be a couple of drones left from each squad who could then go and hide behind a big LOS blocking terrain piece.

This was made worse by the fact that he had 3 objecives on his side of the table all behind LOS blocking terrain. He managed to down another serpent before I finished off his firepower and so he was up on kill points with no way for me to really claw that back but I had 2 objectives to his 3 so my mantle seer contested one of his last turn, who is then shot down despite a 2+ re rolled cover save.

It was a very frustrating game because there was no way I should ever have lost that shoot out, I was failing 2+ saves all game and he was passing them, at one point he finally failed 6 saves on his broadsides, then passed 5 out of 6, 6+ Feel no Pain saves!. I couldnt believe it.

He actually beat one of the top 5 players in the country the game before this who was using pretty much the same list as me, in the game after this he beat the top player in the county who was again using the same list as me! every game it was a case of us failing 2+'s and him passing them, against those two players he actually hardly lost a thing, at least I killed his firepower but couldnt get those drones to actually grab those kill points. Very frustrating for all 3 of us because it just shouldnt happen, especially 3 games in a row! haha.

He was a nice enough guy though and I just had to laugh at the dice in the end.

My mate actually went to this tournament with a far better Tau list than that, it was similar but he squeezed in two more riptides and eldar bikes for better scoring but he finished really badly and he is a good player, it just shows what a difference some good armour save rolls can make.

Result; 19-1 Loss

Game 4 vs Necrons
Primary; Scouring
Secondary; Kill Points


Lord; Scythe, Scarabs, Weave, Phase Shifter
Lord; Scythe, Scarabs, Weave, Phase Shifter
Command Barge;
Command Barge;
Ghost Ark;
Ghost Ark
;
5 Warriors + 2 Lance Crypteks;
5 Warriors + 2 Lance Crypteks;
5 Immortals + 2 Haywire Crypteks;
5 Immortals + 1 Haywire Crypteks;
A. Barge;
A. Barge;
A. Barge;
Night Scythe;
Night Scythe;


Recap: So a very similar list to what I played in game 2, this guy is currently 4th in the UK and he won one of the recent tournies I went but with Daemons. Again it was really down to Lords vs Knights.

I went first but thanks to night fight, did nothing, this let him get his lords barges right up in my face turn 1.

The knights did down both barges in my turn and my serpents shot down one of the lords whilst my knight charged the warlord.

It was a very back and forth game, he managed to get around my skyshield so was putting some damage on my serpents and he shot down my unengaged knight which meant i was really struggling to hurt his armour, I did down a flyer and had my mantleseer camped out on his most valuable objective [worth 3].

The game was going to come down on who would win between my knight and his warlord who had been locked in combat for ages, I finally killed him but when I did he was then shot down by his remaining tesla. We both dove on objectives late game which ended in a dead draw for scouring points, we also had a draw in kill points but I had first blood, warlord and linebreaker so I won secondary giving me the win overall.

Result; 12-8 Win
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

Arguleon-veq

Game 5 vs Eldar
Primary; Big Guns
Secondary; Table Quarters


Farseer;
Spiritseer;
20 Guardians
; 2 Scatters + Conceal Warlock
10 Guardians; Shuricannon
2 War Walkers; Scatters
2 War Walkers; Lances
Wraithknights;
Serpent
; Scatter, Holo
Serpent; Scatter, Holo
5 Fire Dragons;
3 Bikes;
3 Bikes;
Vyper
; Scatter, Shuricannon
Defense Line; Quadgun

Recap: I think this guys problem was that although almost every choice in his list is a pretty solid choice, it just wasnt focussed enough although he must have been doing well to be here on game 5. Thanks to everything being a good choice he probably dominates other more balanced armies.

I went first and took out his things that could threaten mine which meant in the first two turns I took out his fire dragons serpent, wraithknight and lance walkers. This left my serpents and wraithknight next to impossible to kill for him and so It was just a mopping up process after that although he did take out a wraithknight in the end.

I managed to table him turn 6. It was all down to the lack of focus in the list allowing me to take out the things that could threaten my units and then be almost immune to the rest of the list.

Result; 20-0 Win

Game 6 vs Eldar/DE
Primary; Relic
Secondary; 1 objective in the centre of each quarter


Farseer; Shard, Witnessing, Warding, Bike
Farseer; Witnessing, Bike
Baron;
20 Chymera;
5 Swooping Hawks
;
3 Bikes;
3 Bikes;
3 Bikes;
3 Bikes;
5 Warriors;
Venom
; Extra Cannon;
Wraithknight;
Wraithknight;


Recap: I was pretty gutted, I was currently in 5th place [had it been a usual 5 game tournament id have been happy with 5th] and there was only 2 armies on the top tables i wanted to avoid, this and a screamer council. Its a very effective list when it goes first with fortune because you end up with the beast council and the knights in your face turn 1 plus the guy playing it almost always finishes top 10 [usually top 5].

His warlord trait made his warlord scoring, so I had essentially just lost the relic and therefore primary with that one  roll. His very first psychic power rolled was fortune so I wouldnt be able to deny him the relic by actually killing his beast council and he won the roll for first turn so i could even put damage on them before he powered up...

He darted onto the relic with his beast council and then with his first shots of the game one of his wraithknights gets 2 hits on one of mine, he then gets double 6 to wound and I fail one of my 3+ cover saves and im instant killed. That was pretty much game.

I put as much firepower as I could into his council killing a fair bit of it so that they couldnt really continue to push on my lines but this meant his knights were getting in on me, I engaged one in combat with my remaining knight, i missed every single attack in combat and was killed in return...

I knew I had to try and pick up a couple of points so as to not drop too far down the placings so I focussed as much as I could on killing his troops to deny him the normal objectives so that his VP difference on me wouldnt be too big, I managed to take him down to just 1 unit of bikers and 2 warriors in the end but all I had left were 2 damaged serpents and 2 avenger squads. I was actually a little unlucky because I put a serpent and 5 avengers into those 5 warriors which should have easily wiped them out and left my avengers the objcetive which would have actually drawn secondary but 2 survived annoyingly.

This did mean he only beat me by 1 objective in secondary so I picked up 2 points from the game.

Result; 18-2 Loss
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

Arguleon-veq

Final Position; 11th out of 50 [Should have been 54 but 4 people didnt turn up day 2 and rather than leaving their scores at what they got on day 1 they just removed them from the roster].

I was on the same points as 10th but he had a few more VP's than me. In the end not a bad finish when the two games I lost I had pretty terrible luck in although I was using a terribly broken list  :-* .

Skyshield Eldar come first [but with 3 Wraithknights and 4 Serpents]
Skyshield Eldar come second [with a list just like mine]
Tau that beat me come third [after beating 3 skyshield eldar he lost to the winning skyshield eldar list last game]
Beast Council that beat me game 6 come 4th.
Then it was a mix of Eldar and Tau or Eldar/Tau down to me in 11th. Although there were a few Crons in the top 20.

X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

Fhanados

Nice recap!

Tough break against the Tau. I'm very surprised you didn't take down those Broadsides earlier.

I honestly had no idea that Eldar/Dark Eldar and Eldar + Skyshield were such a powerful and/or common build. The only Eldar player I know is a beginner with a very sub-optimal list that's basically a leftover from our non-competitive games in 4th edition.

Glad you placed well! Much better than my standing record of dead last in every event I enter  :D

Arguleon-veq

You'll turn it around dude!, its just a case of getting to know the scene and finding what really works or at least what the overall meta is and bringing something to counter it  ;).

Me and a mate actually come up with a hard counter to Skyshield Eldar before this tournament but he couldnt make it;

Mantle Bike Seer with Spear
3 Teleport Shunt Dreadknights with Incinerators
Wraithknight
10 Warp Spiders
2x9 Bikes with 3 Cannons in each
4x3 Acolytes
Coteaz

He tried it out against the UK's top Eldar player, using Skyshield Eldar, and smashed it. Shame he couldnt make it as it would have made people think twice in about using Skyshield Eldar in the future but I actually think Skyshields will get banned from tournament play soon anyway.

This was actually one of very few tournaments I have been to where I didnt have problems with people complaining or getting moody in games etc, it was really nice and I think that was the case this tournament because everybody I played was a very good player, you tend to find that good players just take it on the chin because they already know they are good at the game and just accept that these things happen.
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

Chicop76

My broadsides are rather hard to kill. Personally I think 1 squad is enough, I have thought about using another squad. Personally I think the tides are better since they are more versitle and have much longer range. I may run another squad of sides, not sure if I will use rail or high yield with them.

That being said I think you should had won against that Tau player. When I get my O'Shova codex I am thinking about adding the riptide IC to a squad of broadsides with missile drones, andd in an support commander twin linking and igoring cover saves for every one. Off course the whole squad will hve target locks except the commander. I think the strength 9 pie plate will be great against a vehicle since you can roll two dice and re roll due to tank hunter and having an ordanance weapon.


BigToof

Great recap!

Loved to see how the list is coming along.

Do you feel like this is where it is going to stay or is there any changes you see in the near future?

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

Arguleon-veq

I think going into that tournament it was deffo the hardest build in the game and it should have won every game if it wasnt for some poor dice.

In uncomped tournaments [so no skyshield banning] it would still be brutal but one GW FAQ that you can take cover off tanks it will take a hit.

New Marines also really hurt them as I think the new White Scars build will blow it away too. So with that in mind and the fact I think Skyshields will be banned at every tournament that knows what they are talking about im going to drop the Sky Shield which does help me to be more mobile.

That leaves my 1850 looking like this;

Mantle Seer
3 Bikes
3 Bikes
4x Usual Wave Serpents
3x 5 Avengers
10 Guardians
3 Wraithknights

I used it against a Cron/Tau build the other day and beat it fairly well.
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33