Chaos Daemons vs Aeldari, 2020.07.04

Aeldari

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) ++

• Custom Craftworld: Headstrong, Wrath of the Dead
• Specialist Detachment: Wraith Host
• Farseer: 0. Smite, 2. Doom, 3. Fortune, Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade, Faolchu's Wing
• Spiritseer: 0. Smite, 4. Protect/Jinx, Craftworlds Warlord, Revered By The Dead, Shuriken Pistol
• Warlock Skyrunner: 3. Ghostwalk, 5. Quicken/Restrain, Shuriken Pistol, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Witchblade
• 2x 5-man Dire Avengers, Dire Avenger Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults, Exarch Power: Shredding Fire
• 8-man Storm Guardian - Aeldari Blade: 8x Aeldari Blade, 8x Plasma Grenades, 8x Shuriken Pistol
• 10-man Wraithblades: Ghostswords
• Wave Serpent: Twin Scatter Laser, Twin Shuriken Catapult

++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) ++

• Custom Craftworld: Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots
• Spiritseer: 0. Smite, 3. Enhance/Drain, Shuriken Pistol
• 3x Night Spinner: Twin Shuriken Catapult
• Crimson Hunter Exarch: Two Starcannons, Exarch Power: Exemplar of the Hunter Shrine, Hawkeye, Marksman's Eye
• Hemlock Wraithfighter: 0. Smite, 4. Protect/Jinx, Spirit Stones

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Aeldari - Drukhari) ++

• Detachment Type: Kabal of the Black Heart
• Archon: Splinter pistol, Venom Blade
• Yvraine
• 3x 5-man Kabalite Warriors
• Raider: Chain Snares, Disintegrator cannon, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shock Prow

++ Total: [118 PL, 12CP, 2,000pts] ++

Mission: What's Yours is Mine

I won the roll-off, but made my opponent the Attacker after seeing how much power the Defender has when accomplishing hold/take more type primaries.

I rolled the exalted rewards for Arbra'Gax (with so much AP, a 2+ save did not make much sense) and got the maximum 8 damage per phase. Looking good.

Deployment

With the Aeldari long range firepower either ignoring line of sight/cover or being extremely mobile, I gave up on hiding my Bloodthirsters behind cover.

Turn 1

I did not expect much from this game, but the way it went did not make me happy nevertheless. The idea of all my monsters being very resistant and making my opponent take tough choices did not work out at all. Both Bloodthirsters went down to 8 wounds, taking their maximum for the shooting phase. A unit of Bloodcrushers evaporated.

On my turn, I advanced my lines and tried the one possible charge: Arbra'Gax into the Hemlock. With a CP reroll on the number of shots, I did not survive the overwatch. Sad reacts only.

Turn 2

This went little better. The fighters exchanged positions while everything stayed back and fired. I lost the second Bloodthirster (I was so distraught that I forgot to revive him with D6 wounds), the second Bloodcrushers, the Flesh Hounds that threatened the Dire Avengers on my left flank.

I advanced to get more resilient units on more objectives, but I was not killing anything. All landing zones were blocked by the jets, so I left the Bloodletters in reserve.

The Aeldari characters disembarked to Smite me to death.

But I did have some things going for me. The Plague Drones ate the overwatch of the Crimson Hunter, then the Daemon Prince pounced in for the kill.

Turn 3

By now everything I had in terms of fast killing power was dead. The Aeldari finally turned their attention on the Plaguebearers, killing enough so they would die to morale. Which they did, thanks to Agents of Vect on the auto-passing stratagem.

The Raider landed in my backlines to harass my objective holding Nurglings.

The Bloodletters landed to annihilate the Storm Guardians while tri-pointing the Dire Avengers. However, they failed to accomplish their main objective, which was to kill the far right Nightspinner. Thus I did not get my Big Game Hunter points, nor did I kill more.

The Prince and the Plague Drones swooped in to hold the Wraithblades back, but barely scratched at them, failing me Gang Busters.

Turn 4

The Wraithblades fell back to charge my Bloodletters. Anything else of note died to shooting. 

My remaining two Bloodletters auto-passed morale to fall back and score and extra point for holding an objective.

Turn 5+

The Aeldari were dominating the board now, and slowly took over everything. The Great Unclean One held out, and was the last thing to be killed on turn 6. He failed to do anything else however, including a 6" charge with a reroll.

Aftermath

34-18 for the Aeldari, which was actually better than I expected it to be. Not much tactics to discuss. Ranged firepower outclasses melee. Hope to do better in the next edition.