Tournament reports Part I

Well, as I mentioned in a couple of postings before, I went to two tournaments in the last 5 months. I hope that number will increase a bit over the course of the year, the next one is on the pentecost weekend this month. Don't anticipate much from the reports, since I don't intend to write full battle-reps anyway. My reason to host them is mainly to create a background for the changes my eldar force will go through in the next weeks.

First tournament this year was the 1. Ratisbona 2days tournament. The guys from the local club - called TTCR- stay at my home every year for the german Throne of Skulls, which is hosted in my hometown. Regensburg, or Ratisbona as the romans called it, lies in Bavaria (the beer and bretzel state of Germany) and the distance between it and my home is ~350miles.


I travelled to the south with two other 40k players with only a codex, a measuretape and some dice in my bag. My Eldar aren't painted yet and you could earn a lot of softscore points for having a fully painted army, so I borrowed my hosts eldar army.

I didn't want to field a jetlock council, so I went for the Yriel+serpentcouncil approach. So I ended up with the following list:

Yriel
Fortune-seer with RoW
+7 Warlocks, 2xembolden, 1xenhance
+ serpent with stones, EML &chin-cannon

2x5 Fire Dragons with a Brightlance/Stones-Serpent each

2x5 DA
1x5 DA + Serpent with stones, EML &chin-cannon
5 rangers

2xFalcon with BL, Holo/Stones
1xPrism tank with holo/stones

I wasn't 100% satisfied with the list (for example the size of the dragons squads), but is was a borrowed army after all, so I was gratefull for just getting those softscorepoints. I also didn't manage to play a single testgame with the list. Well, nothing new for me... but that is a point I want to correct in the future.

My memory is kind of foggy, thanks to not taking any pictures or notes, so I keep the reports of those 5 games rather short.

Game 1:

Lots of objectives and I played against a CSM army build around 2 Raiders, one Defiler, one Khorne Blood Slaughterer and Zulfor+Retinue (both FW Models). Add some more Zerkers and some Deamons and you should have most of the CSM List. I won the roll of but decided to go second (objectives) and put my army into reserve, since I didn't want him get the first shot with his tl. LCs. In hindsight that was a bad idea. All I can remember from the game is, that I failed to roll decent result with both dragon squads and that the game ended on turn 5, with him leading in objectives. Thus a major loss for the eldar.


Game 2:

Killpoints against another Mech-Eldar player. He fielded EU+Avatar, 2xDragons in Serpents, 2xAJ in Serpents, 2x3 Jetbikes, 2xHolo-Prism and a Holo-Falcon. Deployment was spearhead on a cityfight table. I went for a more aggressive plan, instead of just sitting in back out of reach for his FD-Squads and hoping that my superior long-range firepower would win me the game. It ended with a draw and lots of hilarious moments, like the avatar getting eaten by a decimated council and myself shooting both falcons and one DA-Serpent in the rear armor of a already immobilized FD-serpent for 3 whole turns, before it blew up.


Game 3:


Capture&Control against a badly build CSM army. Greater Daemon, Abaddon+terminator retinue, lashsorc+noise marine squad in a rhino, large CSM squad with a rhino and 2x3 Oblis + Vindicator. DoW Deployment. I only placed my rangers into a large ruined cathedral. He played too aggressively (DS Abi+retinue right in front of my objective, with me having everything in reserve), I only rolled hit symbols or scattered 0-1" with the prism tank and scored 2 out of 3 shots with the falcons over the whole game. In turn 5 I tabled him with minor losses and scored a massacre.


Game 4:

Table quarters against eldar again. This time a foot slogging list with Ava,Eu+Scorps, large FD squad, some guardians, jetbikes, harlequins and 2 squads of walkers. My ranger did nothing, my DA got wasted trying to kill his harlequins (rolled snake eyes for the veil of tears test) and my lack of multi-shot weapons turned to be a major fault in that list. The Avatar kept his guardian lines fearlines and I failed to remove his mobile elements, leading to a minor loss or a draw (can't remember anymore).

Game 5: 

3 Objectives and eldar again. There were 7 eldarplayers incl. me and I played against 3 of them! Footslogging again with EU+Ava, quins, 2xDragons in serpents, 2 Lords and guardian defenders+jetbikes. He placed most of his units in a huge ruin, with the guardians building "conga lines" with the majority of the unit staying in the ruin and the rest incl. the gunners advancing towards the center. I failed to stop his dragon-rush and the quins, so the game ended in a minor loss again thanks to variable length. One turn less and I would have won, thanks to holding one objective and contesting the other with the remainders of my army.



So in the I didn't manage to win more games than I loose. Which is kind of ironic, since I turned away from "fluff-themed" lists. My first eldar tournament list in ed5 had things like banshees, large DA-squads  and spiders in it and now I used Yriel-lead council with DAVU-tanks. What really hurt me in that tournament was the lack of multishot weapons on my tanks, flamer templates and the the fact that my council did nothing worth mentioning in 4 out of 5 games. Heck, I neither played my jetlocks, because I didn't want to face the IG and SW spam with them, nor did I field my own night spinner (because I wanted those painting points). Now let's imagine how much  havoc a 7 guys strong jetlock council with 3xdestructor and FW-Spinner with a 7" template would have wrought unto my opponents.