12/12/09

The Inner Circle Holiday Beatdown.
Here is a quick recap.

Round 1: I faced MARC!

He brought with him a Khan themed Bike army.

Khan
7 bikes, attack bikes, meltas
7 bikes, attack bikes, meltas
7 bikes, attack bikes, meltas
Dreadnought w/Multimelta
Dreadnought w/Multimelta
Dreadnought w/Multimelta
Land Speeder w/Multimelta
Land Speeder w/Multimelta
Predator w/Autocannon, Heavy Bolters
Predator w/Autocannon, Heavy Bolters
Predator w/Autocannon, Heavy Bolters

I, of course, kept everything in reserve.
A good amount of my stuff came in turn 2. I was quickly able to start firing and killing things at my leisure. Marc suffered from some unfortunate rolling (having a skimmer Scatter into me whilst deep striking, failing a few ld tests) I was able to stay out of melta-range for a good part of the game, although I lost a few tanks to melta fire. I combined prism fire to great effect in this game, using it to whittle away units of bikes. In the end, I had destroyed all of Marc's scoring units while having all of mine intact. A solid victory for the Eldar.

Game 2: Mark Ferek
Mark brought with him some Tau!

Shas'el: Plasma Gun, Missile Pod, Poitional relay, multitracker, 2 Shield Drones
2 bodyguards: plasma guns, missile pods, multi-trackers, targeting arrays
3 Crisis Suits: twin linked missile pods, flamers
2 Crisis Suits: missile pods, fusion guns, targeting arrays
2 Crisis Suits: twin linked fusion guns, targeting arrays
12 fire warriors: shas'ui, bonded
12 fire warriors: shas'ui, bonded
4 pathfinders Devilfish: smart missile system, multi tracker, targeting array, disruption pod
4 pathfinders Devilfish: smart missile system, multi tracker, targeting array, disruption pod
Hammerhead: railgun, smart missile system, target lock, multi-tracker, disruption pod
2 Broadsides: targeting arays, leader, HW target lock, 2 shield drones
2 Broadsides: targeting arays, leader, HW target lock, 2 shield drones

As usual, I set up i reserves, and came in on turn 2, where I promply killed 1 pathfinder, on a miffed scatter. Mark fared a little better he destroyed the fire dragons ride and de-gunneanother serpent. During my next turn (bottom of 3) I killed the crisis suits that had deep struck behind my fire dragons serpent, seems like the eldar did not feel like hitting with their "advanced" weaponry. During Mark's turn he exploded the rest of my wave serpents, killing about 1/4 of each avenger squad, he destroyed a fire prism, and took all of the guns off another. So, at the top of turn 4, i had one unharmed fire prism, one with no guns and some infantry that was hugging their craters. (did I mention there was only one piece of area terrain on the board?) At this point, the game was effectively over, I could just try to get a many points as possible (I only managed to kill 1 4 man pathdfinder squad the rest of the game)
A crushing defeat for the eldar. I have not been beaten this bad in a very long time. Good thing is, I know exactly what I did wrong.
Good job Mark!

Game 3: PJ Brady and his "Space Angels" (Space Marines w/Dark Angel iconography)

Master of the Forge
5 scouts: sniper rifles
10 marines: lascannon, melta, power weapon, Rhino
10 marines: lascannon, melta, power weapon, Rhino
10 terminators: Chain fist, 2 Assault Cannons
5 Assault Terminators: 2 lightning claws, 3 thunderhammer, stormshield
Ironclad: heavy flamer, Drop Pod
Ironclad: heavy flamer, Drop Pod
Ironclad: heavy flamer, Drop Pod

I did the same routine, all in reserves, everything but the guardians came in turn 2. I popped a Rhino. PJ was a little unlucky with his assault cannons and did nothing. In my next turn I moved some vehicles around to get into position. PJ managed to shake a wave serpent. I disembarked my dragons and doomed the scouts. My fire dragons killed about 6 terminators. Sadly, I was unable to do anything else. PJ hit my dragons with assault cannon fire, killed 7 and they broke. PJ assaulted them and they were instantly wiped out. His dual-iron clad beatdown saw my guardians break and run, at under half strength. In my turn (bottom of 5), I deperately moved as many serpents as I could onto objectives and to try and contest some. I finally managed to kill 2 scouts and get them to break. Sadly, that and 2 marines were all I was able to kill with my fire. Unfortunately, the game ended at the bottom of turn 5!
At the end, I had one objective, PJ had one and we each had 2 kill points. Seemed to be a draw, but there were special mission rules for a draw, tiebreaker came down to...painting!!

Ironically, (or karma) the time I had spent painting the Iyanden payed off in giving me my 50th win in 5th edition. Had this game gone another turn, I think I might have been badly beaten.

This tournament brings me to 50W 18L, 19D.

Some thoughts. In most of my games I was simply unable to reliably kill anything! In the last 2 games, I wiped out 4 units, combined. The Eldar codex just seems to overpriced and underpowered when it comes to busting tanks and reliably killing power armored infantry...
The fire dragons only seem to kill one thing a game befoe they are rendered useless...

The fire prisms had an awful day, they accounted for one unit in the last two games. (it was a unit of 4 pathfinders with a disperssed shot). Hmm. All in all, I was not pleased wth my performance in this tournament. I think I made a lot of bad decisions, while my opponents made pretty sound tactical decisions. The tournament itself however, was great fun.

Until next time.

-Mike