Prot's War in the Warp

So once again due to time restraints I’m forced to do a very brief batrep. So brief in fact, I won’t have the full lists, but don’t worry there should be enough here to piece together a sound battle report, with pictures.

This takes place well past both armies receiving their respective Psychic Awakening treatments and we are both trying ‘new’ things. For me, this is a combination of Eldar trickery, new and old, and reborn! (See what I did there?)

I will be using DIY: Expert Crafters, and Masterful Shots for the majority of my Craftworlds. But also, for only the second time, I will be using the Yncarne, and Yvraine (Proxied by a WIP Thousand Sons Sorc!) in a Ynnari detachment.

Wow that’s small. I keep thinking I’m forgetting something, but that’s it.

The Genestealer Cult List is far too complex and janky for me to repeat here. Let’s just overview by saying it was clearly full of cheating, weighted dice, and the normal allotment of typical GSC shenanigans. 🙂

A Patriarch was the Warlord. There were a lot of infantry units, with an array of bombs, flamers, etc. Some squads had basically a hardware store’s worth of drills, and saws, and then a few other squads had low end mining devices that somehow are converted into portable lascannons that just about any subhuman can get.

This is all supported by what feels like the entire special character section of the codex. And finally we have the lowly Ridgerunners x 3 a Leman Russ, and a jerk on a dirt bike that improves B.S. of surrounding units hitting a marked target. Of course the dude with all the handpistols was there, and the relic rifle sniper with the anti-Psyker shots who always seemed to have LOS all game long!

We are playing Maelstrom. A CA19 mission that lets the current loser increase his hand to 6 cards. A really good way of keeping the game attainable by the losing player.

I win to go first, but I don’t want it. I give it to GSC as usual. We end up playing on pointy Dawn of War.

Early Game:

The GSC deployment is the typical series of ‘blips’ which amounts to me doing a wide eyed glance at a pile of card board chips spread through the GSC deployment.

My deployment looks like so:

The early game is very typical of this match up. I basically wait for the inevitable swarm of the 4-armed Emperor cronies.

So this is what some of that looks like. Using some strats the deep striking squad in the upper left would get hit with Forewarning by my Night Spinner. I couldn’t have possibly asked for better results. I hit 11 times, and wounded 10 times, taking a very large chunk out of that squad. However, as noted by my opponent, I didn’t actually kill anything useful. That said the GSC do use a strat to move D6″ closer after deep striking, rolling a 1, then CP re rolling into a 2!

Note above that there is another squad full of bombs and hand flamers that has used a strat to deploy out of Deep strike to outside of 3″, setting up a nasty alpha strike…

Another squad (not shown) is going to deploy higher up in the ruins, and come attack my DScythe Wraiths.

• All of that shooting results in 4 lost wounds on a Night Spinner and I completely tank a shed load of shots and lascannons on the Shining Spears. I use my 3++ invuln on the Exarch to make it all happen. I get very, very lucky here, and save the lascannons *using a CP reroll, and then take 3 wounds total on the other Shining Spears from all those handflamers. Not bad really. This is huge to absorb that much.
• Other shooting is nasty too, but what can I do? I use-1 to hit Strat on my Axe Wraith based Wave Serpent back in turn one so it hardly takes any damage from his tanks. However this turn it is destroyed and the Yncarne comes out of the ashes for her first appearance in the game.
• My Psykers get hit with snipers. I make a mental note to move my psykers which apparently doesn’t matter later in the game.
• The Close Combat is suitably brutal. It’s close and some 6++ Feel No Pains from Yvraine/Yncarne do help, but I just lose ALL the DScythe Wraiths. By the way, they did get to overwatch 1 flamer… for 1 wound! (but still died to getting hit by two GSC Squads with hammers/drills/saws and a few philips screwdrivers.

Midway Counter Punch

The Eldar move in position to hit hard. No one is engaged at this point since all my D Scythe Wraiths died.

• Vibro Cannons take down a Ridgerunner.
• Rangers put some wounds on his anti Psyker Relic Sniper. (He can offload wounds, I forget this so I made a big boo boo. I should have shot the surrounding squad with Night Spinners first then the sniper would have died.)
• All the flamer/bomb dudes are killed…except 1, by the Night Spinners and Skyrunner HQ’s.
• The one bigger squad of GSC that assaulted is mostly killed by bikes, and the other Nightspinner.
• Basically a LOT of infantry died here. The GSC will be looking for new membership at a planet near you.
• This all basically sets up a buffed up squad of Shining Spears going into close combat Vs. the Partiarch and 1 or 2 other HQ’s.
• And while the Yncarne, and Yvraine with the Axe shield Wraith annihilate the rest of the troops that charged in previously, once again the Shining Spears disappoint me. I put a grand total of 2 unsaved wounds on the Patriarch who would wipe the squad with ease in return. Thank you Shining Spears for showing up with wooden spears apparently.

Late Game:

So Yvraine is still not…. assembled and the best stand in I had at the time was a WIP Thousand Sons Sorc, just so you know. This isn’t an illusion. Secondly it’s hard to tell from the photo, but behind the big bad Patriarch is the entire planetary political party which is acting in the best interest of the 4 armed emperor, and casting powers, buffing, etc. This scene was unfolding as the Wraiths, and characters mopped up, and the Patriarch would kill all but one of the DULL Spears.

• In the GSC turn they would smite off the last spear. This truly sucked. I couldn’t block it and it freed the Patriarch to move, and assault my Yncarne.
• Every turn after the first I asked the GSC player to point to his Sniper. I would say, “Okay I’m moving this half dead warlock, and Yvraine so they can’t be shot by snipers”. Then he would proceed to shoot Yvraine and the Warlock with his snipers. Go figure. I kept thinking I moved them out of the way, but apparently never did so once. Yvraine would die, and the Warlock would as well to Sniper fire.
• Now the nitty gritty: Shots are fired, stuff dies, blah blah blah. The good part is the Partiarch would charge my wounded Yncarne, (who would regain a wound from a dead Yvraine). The fight is viscous. Yncarne takes a few wounds, and fails to wound the Partiarch!
• The good news is the Wraiths only lose one model, and they tank everything else.

• Finally in my turn the Banshees try to ‘slow’ the shooting of GSC. It results in a lethargic multi charge where the Banshees hit 2 Ridgerunners, and a squad of dudes, and quite can’t consolidate into the Russ. (I can’t kill much). The Banshees fade like a fart in the wind, and all but one dies in return, essentially barely able to stay in contact with 2 Ridge runners…. ouch. It’s a good thing they are hairdressers by day.

• I have a stellar turn: I shoot up 2 squads with barely surviving Night Spinners, and the Wraiths multi assault (kill all his support characters) and then go upstairs in these ruins (unshown), and assault 2 more squads to stop them from shooting.
• But the game would come down to this… so many turns…. the Yncarne would have 3 rounds of CC with the Patriarch and never, ever wounded him once. His 4++ was incredible. However this turn I had my Farseer just smite him to death and without his political support party, he had to take the wounds. Finally the king is dead. That gets me a lot of points this turn.
• However it would not be enough, and in turn 5 we call it with the GSC pulling out he heinous victory and winning by a single point.

A great game, a lot of fun. I learned more about the Yncarne, and continue to be disappointed by the spears as a solo unit in 40K.

Thanks for checking this out!

Prot.