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So we finally got around to playing our first 9th ed game. We had been excited for a while to try the new rules, but then excitement waned a bit as the weeks rolled on. Getting excited to start a Necromunda gang overtook 9th ed for me too. The initial plan was to pay a nice simple battle 2v2, 2000pts per side. Treating each allied force as a single army with 2 warlords. However we ended up playing a 1v1, 1000pt game. We narrowed the board size to 4'x4' and set up the terrain with a central plaza surrounded by buildings. We ended up with Drukhari (Jack) vs Eldar (me), with Sam watching on with rulebook in hand.
We then rolled a scenario and discovered that terrain is set up after objectives, so we had to shuffle a few things around. So that was the first of quite a few mistakes to be made.
We had 4 objectives 10" away from the centre of the field with scoring of 5pts for holding one of them, 5pts for two and 5pts for more than the opponent. There was an optional secondary for bonus points for holding opposite objectives. In hindsight this would have been better than taking domination.
With the terrain re-set, we went about picking secondaries, this almost took longer than the game, trying to work out a balance between easy points and quantity of points. The small game size meant a lot of them would be difficult to claim, and we wanted to try out a variety of different objectives. None of us had ever really played ITC games in 8th, so secondaries was a new experience for us. I went with Slay the Warlord, Attrition & Domination. These probably weren't the smartest choices, but I wanted to try some different things to Jack. Plus I thought my Dire Avengers and Guardians might be able to hold out against the smaller Kabalite units and pick up enough objectives to claim Domination.
Army Lists
Sorry, forgot to note down the Dark Eldar list. Though I think it was 2x5 kabalites, 1x Incubi, each in raiders, 1 Archon, and scourges.Army Lists
Biel Tan 1000pts Battalion
Farseer: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade
Smite, Guide, Doom
Warlord: Natural Leader
Warlock: Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade
Protect/Jinx, Focus Will
The Spirit Stone of Anath'lan
6 Dire Avengers
Dire Avenger Exarch: Shimmershield & Power Glaive
Exarch Power: Bladestorm
4 Dire Avengers Dire Avenger
Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults
Exarch Power: Shredding Fire
10 Guardian Defenders: Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Shuriken Cannon
4 Fire Dragons:
Fire Dragon Exarch: Fusion Gun Exarch Power: Crack Shot
Falcon: Bright Lance, Twin Shuriken Catapult
Night Spinner: Twin Shuriken Catapult
Wave Serpent: Twin Shuriken Cannon, Twin Shuriken Catapult
Secondaries:
- Slay the Warlord
- Attrition
- Domination
This list isn't anything amazing. I wanted to play an Eldar list that felt different to my campaign force, which meant more vehicles. I decided to drop the Shining Spears mostly because I use them as a bit of a crutch in the campaign and wanted to try playing without them. Having recently finished painting the Fire Dragons and reading that the new marine eradicators are really good, it occurred to me that older and wiser soldiers with super-tech melta should be even better! They aren't. But I already knew this, just wanted to put the models on the table.
Finally, I thought I'd give the humble guardian a try. In WFB I really liked the concept of the Elven militias of spearmen and archers, but I just can't seem to get behind the idea of the poets, artists, teachers etc heading out into the far flung reaches of the 41st millennium to wage war. I still don't know why I don't like it, but something just doesn't sit with it. But I need to get over it, so into the meat grinder they go.
For the vehicles, it was essentially just putting in whatever I had painted, then totaling up points to define how many upgrades they got (none was the answer).
Battle Rep
I'll keep the actual reporting of the game short so I can spend more time discussing the choices I made, changes for 9th and how we found it all.
With only the vehicles to deploy and a farseer, it was pretty simple for me. However I misunderstood the terrain rules for ruins and deployed my Night Spinner within the ruin rather than behind it. However if I left it behind I wouldn't have been in range of the objective and would have had to act to claim that one. From there it was a matter of putting the Wave Serpent with Fire Dragons, Dire Avengers and Warlock on my left flank opposite a kabalite raider and the Khymeraieaeouie (or however you spell it). The Falcon with its cast of Dire Avengers with shimmershield opposed the Incubi Raider. Not sure if I got this right, but with the alternating deployment I had to take a gamble.
With the Drukhari taking the first turn they sped forwards to the two side objectives with a raider a piece, leaving the third on their centre objective. The shooting plucked a few wounds off the Eldar vehicles, but there wasn't too much to shoot at.
On my turn I was faced with the new pressure of 9th objective scoring. Knowing that the Drukhari had both side objectives secured and a home one I couldn't do anything about, meant I had to wrest control, or at least contest both of those side ones. With Obsec Dire Avengers within reach of both objectives I leapt out of the transports and dashed towards the two side objectives. In hindsight I probably should have maneuvered the transports to contest and worried about capturing them later in the game. The other poor choice here was getting the Fire Dragons out to shoot a Raider. Destroying the Raider meant the Drukhari ObSec stuff was now on the objective, but I had hoped I could kill enough with Dire Avenger and Wave serpent shooting.
The second turn was a bad turn for my forces. The Drukhari shooting did a number on my troops, while the Incubi made a mess of the Falcon leaving it on only a couple wounds, and the Archon slaughtering the Shimmershielded Dire Avengers, but leaving the Exarch on a single wound. On the other side the Khymera made a mess of the Fire Dragons, again leaving the Exarch on a single wound, while the Dire Avengers and Night Spinner only just removed the kabalite warriors from the objective. I felt comfortable I would still manage to score some good points this turn with the Dire Avenger and Fire Dragon Exarchs just standing. This would have given me Attrition points and stopped the Drukhari scoring so many objectives. Confident in my high Biel Tani morale, I immediately rolled a 6 for both morale tests, causing them both to run and coughing up a lot of VP's. The biggest mistake however was reversing the Falcon out of combat, but still leaving it just within Heroic Intervention range of the Archon, which allowed him to finish it off.
With the loss of most of my troops on either flank, and the vehicles gone it left me with essentially the Guradians to play with, they arrived from the webway near my opponents deployment zone objective and shot the Drukhari off it, before moving on later. From here they hunkered down with the Celestial Shield stratagem and did what they could.
In the end though the game was well and truly lost, and we called it there.
Post game debrief
Post game debrief
So, what do I think of 9th from that very brief and bloody game? It doesn't feel any different to 8th when playing, but we didn't have many cases of blast, hordes, vehicles shooting while engaged. We didn't really have to use the new interpretation of Look out Sir, so it wasn't a very good example of 9th to whet our whistle.
Also, we didn't really think about terrain enough when we set it up. I think we spent so long mulling over secondaries that we just wanted to start, so just played with the table as it was. We could have much better set it up to limit shooting and maneuver lines. In the end we didn't really get much benefit from the new terrain rules. I especially stuffed this up deploying my night spinner in the ruins. From there it could be easily seen and shot at. Had it been further back, behind the terrain it would have been out of sight.
It does feel like a different game going second. I always felt on the back foot to try and deny Jack earning points more than scoring them myself. Whether or not there is any improved chances going first or second, I can't quite see yet after only playing a single game, but it definitely is a different feeling. But I guess mid game we would both be thinking about limiting opponents scores.
In terms of Secondary Objectives, I probably chose poorly. But it was quite tough to pick good ones in 1000pts
As far as the dice were concerned, they were generally fine except for that one morale phase. Rolling a 6 for my Fire Dragon Exarch and Dire Avenger Exarch, resulting in both fleeing (meant the kill more I had flipped). Irritating as I didn't even say or think 'Anything but a 6' before rolling those tests.
I made some bad gaming mistakes (perhaps disembarking out of vehicles too soon in order to try and ob sec objectives). Also, retreating with the falcon into Heroic Intervention range of the archon wasn't a smart move. And finally, I don't think I shot with the vehicles in combat which might have helped me a bit. In the end none of these mistakes were significant enough to impact my score. But may have helped here and there.
Incubi are scary!
And finally, yay for 10 points for being painted.
MVP: Archon
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