Well as usual it's been a bit since the last post. I made a promise to myself not to hash up personal reason in here, so I'll just say that it's been a while.

I haven't been able to get any painting done since the Falcon but I wanted to put up a nice little battle report from a game that I got to have during a long trip. Thanks to business travel for training I was sent to Baltimore Maryland and I decided that I'd take my Eldar with me. I knew the Baltimore Battle Bunker was a pretty nice place to play after reading all of the posts on the web and I hadn't gotten a game for a bit so I decided that I'd take an evening to head down there and check it out.

**I just want to say one thing, if you ever decide to go to the Bunker in Baltimore, you must have a car. The Bunker is in an unfriendly location to anyone on foot.

The playing area is nice and big and there are a good assortment of tables. The two guys on staff the night I was there were really helpful and in my opinion they asked the right questions. I never liked going to a Games Workshop and having to get my own games. It's just odd to me to approach a perfect stranger and ask if they are looking for a game. I've always thought it was cool when the staff greet you and see you have models, then ask if you're looking for a game. They have a little closer relation with the other customers than I do and makes the game setup a little less uncomfortable. I guess I'm just weird that way. I had 1500 points of Eldar with me and they found a game for me. +1 for the Baltimore Bunker.

My opponent was younger kid (upper teens) named Zach and he was playing vanilla Marines. He asked if I could bump up to 2K and I told him that I only had the 1500 with me. He said no problem and pulled some stuff out of his list. He was a great person to play against. He told me that he'd only been playing a year and hoped I didn't mind. His army looked kind of like mine in the painting department so that was nice. I asked if he was painting up a specific chapter and he said no, some were Blood Angles looking and others were not particularly colored as a certain chapter. I'll see if I can get the couple of pictures off of the phone and make them viewable.

His List (as I can remember)

HQ

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Captain: Lightning Claw, Artificer armor

Command squad (5): Champion, Banner, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

TROOPS

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Tactical squad (10): Missile Launcher, Flamer

Tactical squad (10): Missile Launcher, Flamer, Rhino

Tactical squad (10): Plasma Cannon, Melta Gun, Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

FAST ATTACK

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Assault Marines (7): Power Fist, Plasma Pistol

HEAVY

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Vindicator: Extra Armor, Siege Shield

Land Raider

My List

HQ

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Farseer: Bike, Spear, RoWar, Stones, Fortune, Doom

Autarch: Bike, Lance, Reaper Launcher

TROOPS

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Guardian Jetbikes (6): 2 x S.Cannon, Warlock, Conceal

Dire Avengers (10): Exarch, Power Weapon & Shimmer Shield, Defend, Blade Storm

Wave Serpent: TL Bright Lance, Stones

FAST ATTACK

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Vyper squadron (2): Missile Launchers, S.Cannon

Warp Spiders (7): Exarch, Dual Death Spinners, Power Blades, Withdraw

HEAVY

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Falcon: EML, Holo Fields, Stones

  Warning!

  (Pictures from phone)

Here is a shot of the table that we used.

I loved the feel of the desert city. Space Elves fighting super humans over the ancient city in Egypt. Heh.

I asked if Zach wanted to roll the Mission or the Deployment and he asked if we could just play Annihilation. I figured since I got him to play a list that he wasn't used to then I could go with his choice of missions. I asked if he wanted to roll deployment and he said he wanted to just play table sides. It really felt like we were playing 4^th edition that night.

We rolled off to see who went first and Zach won. He placed his land raider on my left flank with the command squad and captain in it. Next to that was the assault marine squad. Then the Rhino with Tac squad. Dead center of his deployment zone was the Plasma Cannon tac squad on a piece of step like terrian. Then the the last tac squad and finally on my right flank was the Vindicator. Very gun line like deployment.

I placed my Falcon with Dragons embarked behind a building on my left. The Wave Serpent with Dire Avengers was parked on the Falcons right, and the Warp Spiders on the Falcon's left.

On my right flank I put the bike squad with the Autarch and Farseer attached. The Vypers stayed in reserves. I rolled to take the initiative and didn't so Zach took the first turn.

He moved everything except the plasma cannon squad forward, the Rhino popped smoke. The Assault squad moved to the other side of the building that the Falcon, Serpent and Spiders were behind. I love one bike to shooting.

I moved the Spiders forward along the flank and the falcon with them. The serpent slide to the left filling the spot the falcon left. Bike move forward. I shoot up the Assault squad killing 3 and then jump the spiders forward more. The wave serpent offs the storm bolter on the rhino. The bikes slide out of the sight of the vindicator behind a building.

Turn two, Zach moves the land raider forward into terrain and the assault squad moves back into a position to hit the spiders. Rhino slides forward next to the land raider and the tac squad hops out. The vindicator moves forward to get a shot off at the bikes. The tac squad on the ground moves forward. The command squad hops out of the land raider preparing to pop the Falcon. The vindicator shot swings wild off the side of the table. Everything fails to stop the falcon (best Zach could get was a 2, I love Holofields). The assault squad shoots the spiders and take out two. He assaults into the Spiders. I kill a marine and he takes two spiders. I make my morale check.

My turn, no vypers yet. I figure that he is going to keep shooting the falcon till it drops so I disembark the dragons. The Serpent slides out to the right of the building and the Dire Avengers hop out to prepare to blade storm the tac squad. Bike squad moves into position to pop the vindicator. I was hoping to kill it in the shooting phase and fall back in the assault but I knew it was going away this turn. The bikes shoot and fail on the vindicator. In a stroke of surprise the Fire Dragons shoot everything at the command squad. I was hoping to get enough wounds to maybe strip off the apothecary. Since this was all AP1 fire they weren't getting their FNP and I was more worried about neutering the command squad then trying to drop the land raider. I killed three of the Command squad but not the Apothecary. Oh well. The Avengers blade storm the tac squad and kill one or two. Nothing impressive, should wait to get a doom on a unit before I try that again. The bikes assault the vindicator and it explodes killing a bike. The Warp Spider exarch kills two more marines, Zach is down to the sergeant now. The SGT kills two spiders and I'm left with just the Exarch. The bikes fall back a couple of inches.

Turn three, Zach starts to move the center tac squad out of the stairs terrain. The right flank squad moves up to flame my bikes. The left tac squad moves up to pop the Avengers. The command squad moves forward to waste the Dragons. The rhino slides back now that it dropped off it's cargo. The land Raider sits where it's at. Shooting sees four of six dragons fall, the DA squad lose 4 and break morale which runs them off the board. The Falcon is shot by the raider and is only shaken this time. The tac squad opens up on the bikes and they break morale. Thankfully they only fall back enough that they can't be assaulted. In the assault the Warp spider exarch slays the SGT and hides in the corner of a building. The Captain moves into melee with the dragons and they are wiped out.

My turn three, the Vypers show up at last. The biles rally and are close enough to fire everything in the tac squad out in the open. The vypers move on the board on my right flank and support the bikes. The warp spider continues to hide and the Falcon sweeps around to Zach's deployment zone edge in between the center tac squad and the Spider exarch. The Serpent speeds across my back field to get the cover save. In the shooting I doom the right tac squad and open up with everything that can hit them. They are taken down to three marines and they break with the final shots coming from the vypers.

A quick tally of the kill points has the score with Zach 2 (Dragons and Avengers) and me with 2 (Assault and Vindi).

Turn four, and Zach continues to move the center tac squad out of the terrain, now toward my falcon. The right tac squad rallies (hate marines) and they stay put. The rhino starts chasing the serpent down my back field and the land raider tries to back out of the terrain. The land raider busts it's drive and is stuck facing the right board edge with only one Las sponson that can fire at my falcon. The tac squad sits still to fire the missile and the command squad forgets about the lone warp spider and start down behind the rhino. In the shooting the raider and the tac squad fire at the falcon and only get a 2 max for penetration. The right tac can't fire their missile since they just rallied. The left tac fires their missile and they fail to hit the serpent. The command squad runs forward toward the serpent.

My turn, I move the serpent even further to my right but only enough to still let me fire. The bikes move forward to blast the last of the right tac squad. The vypers move to the back of the building on my right to get a shot at the center tac squad. The warp spider continues to hide. I over estimated the distance I moved and attempt to fire at the land raider, but I'm out of range. I should have fired at the rhino, but I always think the bright lances fire the same as a pulse laser. Silly me for the confusion. Bikes blast the right tac squad off the board and the vypers take pot shots at the center unit, killing one.

I'm now leading with 3 to Zach's 2 kill points.

Turn five, and Zach sees the warp spider sitting in the terrain. He tells me that he forgot about him, and starts moving the command squad and the tac squad back to get him. Center tac squad moves off the terrain toward the falcon. Shooting stuns the falcon this turn. The command squad and the tac run.

My turn, I look at the board and realize that the spider has no where to go and he's sure to die if he has to get into combat. I hoped the game would end on five. The bikes and vypers move up to get a good bead on the center tac squad. Shooting for me is pretty good with Doom and the combined bikes I work the center tac squad down to just a few marines. But the don't break. The Serpent turns to fire at the rhino and it turns to slag.

Zach rolls to see if the game continues and it does.. 4 to 2 my favor.

Turn six, Zach continues to try and get the tacs and the command squad to the Spider but aren't able to. The center tac squad is now clear of the terrain and are preparing to open up with everything on the falcon. Shooting actually sees the falcon take no hits. The Marines run up to just within reach of the spider for next turn killing.

My turn, I move the bikes up to finish off that center tac squad and the vypers are right behind them. The falcon moves to get in the way of the Command squad in case the games goes to turn seven. Shooting for me with a Doom and all the bikes the center tac squad is wiped out.

I roll to finish that game and it's over. Eldar win 5 to 2.

I have to say this was a pretty fun game. It proves again that the cat and mouse tactics are working. I made a few mistakes but then again so did my opponent. That warp spider never should have made it, Then again that was my winning move in the last battle against marines. Holo fields were the big winner of the battle. My Falcon just refused to die. A close second was the Fortuned bike squad. They are hard as nails as well. I decided to swap the dragons in for the scorpions in the list to see how they would do since I didn't even disembark the scorpions last time I played. I think I'll keep the dragons for a bit longer to see how it goes. Can't wait to play this list again..

Unitl next time.

Tim.