Frontline News – Warhammer 40K 8th edition Blood Angels vs Aeldari

Drenthal, Konor system. Horror. It was like Fall all over again. Ground crumbling and disappearing beneath our feet, forces of chaos coming from every possible direction. We were on our position guarding one of the last ports on this planet. The information was passed that large Khorne force is in vicinity, so it was understandable when rookie pilot of Wave serpent, barely seeing through ruins and dust, opened fire on some red vehicles on horizon. When we realized that that was blood angels, it had been too late, battle already commenced.

Shadow weaver gunner, spearhead detachment of Eldrich riders in Konor system

Points: 2000

Campaign: Fate of Konor

Mission: 5 –  Drenthal: Countdown to destruction

Defender: Aeldari Spearhead detachment

HQ

Spiritseer (66)

Shuriken pistol; Witch staff;

Shadowseer (134)

Hallucinogen grenade launcher; Miststave; Shuriken pistol;

Elites

5x Wraithblades

(260)

§ 5x Wraithblade ; Ghostaxe; Forceshield;

5x Wraithguard

(225)

§ 5x Wraithguard ; DScythe;

Fast attack

5x Shining

Spears (218)

§ 1x Shining Spear Exarch ; Twin shuriken caatapult; Star lance;

§ 4x Shining Spear ; Twin shuriken catapult; Laser lance;

Heavy support

Fire Prism (195)

Prism cannon; Shuriken cannon; Crystal targeting matrix; Spirit stones; Vectored engines;

Night Spinner (192)

Doomweaver; Shuriken cannon; Crystal targeting matrix; Spirit stones; Vectored engines;

4x Dark

Reapers (144)

§ 1x Dark Reaper Exarch ; Reaper launcher;

§ 3x Dark Reaper ; Reaper launcher;

Transport

Wave Serpent (184)

Twin bright lance; Shuriken cannon; Crystal targeting matrix; Spirit stones ; Vectored engines;

Wave Serpent (184)

Twin bright lance; Shuriken cannon; Crystal targeting matrix; Spirit stones; Vectored engines;

Flyers

Voidraven (194)

Void lance(x2); Voidraven missiles;

Attacker: Blood Angels

Dante

Sanguinor

Sanguinary priest with power sword

10x tacticals, plasma cannon

5x scouts, sniper rifles all

5x scouts, 4 sniper rifles and one MLauncher

10 Assault Marines, jump packs, hand flamer, flamer, power sword

10 assault marines, Jump packs, power fist

Land Raider

9 assault marines, no jump packs, power sword, combat shield, flamer

5 Death company marines (bolter, chainsword)

Razorback with twin assault cannon

4 Sanguinary guard, 2x encarmine sword, 1x encarmine axe, 1x power fist

Blood Angels deployment

 

Aeldari deployment

 In moments like this, bad condition of our Spiritseer is most obvious. Instead of fighting Chaos, we, unwillingly, had to fight Marine chapter of Blood angels. Our first directive was to protect Shadowseer, who was in the center of the battlefield, where majority of Blood angel forces was heading. We tried to move our forces to the right wing, but Wave serpent that was sent to pick up Shadowseer find itself under heavy fire, and was charged by, suddenly appearing, assault squad with jump packs. The other Assault squad appeared on right wing and had charged other Wave serpent.

BA pushed hard in direction of Aeldari lines in their first turn

Defensive fire from wraithguard gets rid of assault marines on left flank, while on the right flank assault marines were facing wraithblades. Only 2 from that group skipped through our lines after charge from wraithblades. We had to stop blood angel vehicles heading straight to our Shadowseer, so most of our army opened fire on them, leaving land raider heavily damaged and Razorback, charged by shining spears, where demaged beyond repair.

Aeldari counter attack - end of round 1

Faced with the fact that their Land raider cannot bring them to safety of the Port, Assault marines with priest in front of them, spilled out of it, and had charged straight in to the wraithguard. Following their lead, deathguard disembarked from demolished Razorbeck and had charged Shining spears. The rest of BA army took down damaged serpent.

Almost without their vehicles, Blood angels still pushing hard through Aeldari lines

We weathered their charges good, and both units disengaged, wraithguard killed whole unit that had assaulted them, and shining spears finished Land raider. But we had left open road for Sanguinor and his entourage to skip to safety of Port through the middle of our lines.

End of Aeldari turn two

They took that opportunity, but the rest of the marine units perished between collapsing ground and falling buildings. Our flayers took to the skies. World of Drenthal size to exist in front of our own eyes.

Beginning of Blood angels turn 3 - open path to escape

At this point (beginning of turn 3 for BA), my opponent used Stratagem that grant him to roll 3 dice and pick highest for advance. Both of his characters and Sanguinary guard rolled 6 amongst their respective 3 dices, and my opponent quickly added power levels of escaped troops. He reached 39 and for victory he needed 40. So his only chance was to escape with Sanguinary priest.

So close, but so far away 

To do that, he needed to get 10 for charge distance, so he could end his charge move 1 inch away from my Wave serpent but out of the board. I roll my dices for over-watch, and get two 6, one for Bright lance and one for shuriken cannon. I made the bl wound roll, and rolled 2 for damage. It was not enough to kill priest, so I used my last command dice to re-roll. I rolled 5, and priest had been downed. Aeldari victory.

But...

My opponent summarized his escaped units power levels again, and find out that 41 PL had escaped - more then third of his army (40PL).

Blood Angels victory!

End of the game

This scenario enabled for a very fast game. All ended at the beginning of the 3rd round in less than 2 hours. There was little time to correct mistakes, and inability of wraithswords to finish assault marines in one round of close combat cost me a game (I have to remember that they have re-roll of 1 to hit when close to Spiritseer).