Chaos Space Marines vs Aeldari, 23.04.2024

Out with the new, in with the old. Time to take the Word Bearers into battle, ahead of the upcoming codex. My army: an experiment in what stuff does. My opponent: an Aeldari warhost of nothing but wraiths. The mission: the most vanilla Take and Hold/Search and Destroy/Chilling Rain. 

Battle round 1

The eldar constructs cautiously advanced unto the objectives, with only the Wraithknight fully exposed. I marched up, realizing that the only serious shooting unit was the Wraithguard. Surely, they can't one shot done my army?!

After all my right flank advanced up, the Wraithblades also phantasm'd up. I had no shooting there, but I did unleash into the Wraithknight, doing 0 damage.

Battle round 2

The eldar moved out unto the objectives, and I suddenly had necron flashbacks, being held up in my zone.

The Wraithguard decimated my Chosen.

On my turn, I went all in. 

A Daemon Prince and 10 Possessed + Master of Possession cannot take down the 10 Wraithblades, even with Profane Zeal. Note to self: learn better positioning. Also: consolidate into the Wraithguard next time. You can only Feigned Retreat once.

I used up all my CP's for Grenades and Tank shock to down the Wraithknight. I didn't. The Disco Lord only did two wounds. Very sad. The wraith hit Cypher with everything it had to score Assassination.

I said all in, so all in. The Terminators exited their transport and charged the other squad of wraiths. I did not expect them to kill everything, and sure enough, they didn't.

An overview of the carnage, but note my suspicious positioning on the objectives.

The Terminators rolled very poorly on their saves, otherwise this could have been a better outcome.

The dead were piling high on both sides.

Battle round 3

The eldar only had to hold me back, and they did so pretty well. Especially with the Wraithblades retreating to charge the cultists, then the Wraithguard unloading into the Possessed. They are weirdly resilient.

I retreated from the Wraithknight, aiming at the other flank for next turn. Then some grenades and shooting downed the big construct.

I tried to avoid the overwatch by sending in my Dark Apostle into the Wraithguard, but he failed a rerolled charge. Thus, the Possessed took it to the face. I killed a lot of them, but I was loosing models as well.

I retreated my surviving Terminator Sorcerer, to keep the Wraithblades there for one more turn.

Battle round 4

Finally, my primary began to creep up. The Disco Lord once again proved that he's useless in his current iteration. Sure, he has some vehicle utility, but a) no vehicles in this eldar list and b) they are all short ranged. Cool against front line vehicles maybe? I'll just shelf him for now.

Cultists to the rescue, stealing the objective for Extend Battle Lines.

With the Daemon Prince already dead, and the Dark Apostle failing a charge once more... he's a disgrace to Lorgar! the Possessed went into the Wraithguard again.

Battle round 5

I did it. I killed enough eldar so they only scored 5 primary. And in a surprise turn of events, I still had stuff on the board. Enough to score 15 primary (by backing the Land Raider unto the middle objective and having killed just enough Wraithblades with the Disco Lord). I also scored both secondaries.

With such a rich last turn, I made a surprising comeback, with a final score of 80-68 for the Aeldari.

Aftermath

Not bad for a first outing of an army against a skilled opponent. I know that the eldar can field much more cheesy stuff, and I'm grateful for the wraith build. The chaos marines can also do a lot better, but I used what I have.

The experience was surprisingly familiar, as I have been battling necrons lately. Large units that don't die in the first turns, then start growing back as the game goes on. With some better positioning (and better knowledge of what my stuff does), I could have focused them down and taken more objectives.

As for my army, the Disco Lord goes onto the shelf. Everything else did its job, I think. I'll have to try Bikers for secondaries, and a couple more units await to be tested. I need a better understanding of the interplay of marks and stratagems, but that will come in time.