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FLG League Update #2

Reecius

The League continues to roll on and has been a ton of fun. here’s an update and a bat rep, too!

We’ve been getting in some really good games and everyone is enjoying themselves a great deal which is goal #1.

It’s also been awesome to see the ITC Champion’s Missions in the wild and observe them closely. Obviously, we got hundreds of games in with them at SoCal Open but in the league we’ve been closely observing them and tracking who goes first, which missions are being chosen, etc. It’s been a great way to really test the crap out of them. Here’s an interesting stat though:

Player going first wins: 9 Games
Player going second wins: 15 Games

Now, obviously 24 games is not statistically significant, but it is pretty telling as we have a wide variety of armies being played, from Necrons, to Drukhari, to Imperial Soup to Eldar, etc. And, a wide range of skill levels, too. It will be interesting to see if this ratio holds true though all 66 games that will be played in the league. I know I almost always go second as it gives you such an advantage in winning the mission, but we also use solid terrain coverage which I am sure plays a part in this.

Here are the current standings:

First Name Army Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Total Score
Reece Biel-Tan 1033 1029 1036 1034 1039 5171
Paul Imperium 1036 1035 1024 1038 4133
Anthony Valhalla 1033 1028 9 1029 3099
Andrew Genestealer Cults 17 1035 1031 26 2109
Frankie Sisters of Battle 1031 1030 2061
James Alpha Legion 1034 27 1061
Ted Astra Militarum 13 1032 16 1061
Cooper Adeptus Astartes 9 15 1035 1059
John Drukhari 1029 27 1056
Steve Ultramarines 15 1018 14 1047
Mark Imperium 1037 1037
Larry Heretic Astartes 1030 1030
Adam Astra Militarum 1029 1029
Casey Adeptus Astartes 1023 1023
Jeff Saim Hann 1020 1020
Pascal Chaos 6 20 11 14 51
Andy Orks 20 14 34
Garrett Necrons 10 7 17 34
Jason Grey Knights 15 18 33
Pablo Imperium 22 22
Yu Sapace Wolves 10 7 17
Quentin AdMech 11 11

So, obviously a lot of games yet to be played, but we’re about half way through all of them. And as you can see, you don’t have to play games in order, just get the games in! The old Biel-Tan have been doing me proud and I have been lucky enough to not lose a game yet. It’s been great to get practice in and hone the list and tactics a bit. Speaking of which, here’s the Footdar in their latest iteration.

Unit Force Org Cost # Total Weapons Cost # Total Total Notes
Biel-Tan Brigade Eldar       Command Points 9     965
Asurmen HQ 175 1 175 0
Avatar HQ 250 1 250 0
Farseer HQ 100 1 100 0 Natural Leader
Warlock Council HQ 30 4 120 0
Dire Avengers Troops 8 5 40 Shuriken Catapult 4 6 24
Dire Avengers Troops 8 5 40 Shuriken Catapult 4 6 24
Dire Avengers Troops 8 5 40 Shuriken Catapult 4 6 24
Dire Avengers Troops 8 5 40 Shuriken Catapult 4 6 24
Dire Avengers Troops 8 5 40 Shuriken Catapult 4 6 24
Storm Guardians Troops 7 12 84 0
Swooping Hawks Fast 6 5 30 Lasblaster 7 4 28
0 Hawk’s Talon 10 1 10
Warp Spiders Fast 10 5 50 Death Spinners 8 6 48
Shining Spears Fast 18 3 54 Twin Shuriken Catapult 5 3 15
0 Laser Lance 8 2 16
0 Star Lance 10 1 10
Howling Banshees Elite 9 9 81 Power Sword 4 8 32
0 Executioner 7 1 7
Striking Scorpions Elite 13 6 78 Scorpion Chainsword 1 6 6
0 Scorpion’s Claw 12 1 12
Fire Dragons Elite 7 6 42 Fusion Gun 17 6 102
Dark Reapers Heavy 5 7 35 Reaper Launcher 22 7 154
War Walker Heavy 50 1 50 Shuriken Cannons 10 2 20
War Walker Heavy 50 1 50 Shuriken Cannons 10 2 20
Totals     87 1399       600 1999  
Command Points: 12       Detachments: 1

I moved some stuff around and got a few more War Walkers in there as I like the ability to outflank them for mission objectives. The core of the army stayed the same, though. In my latest match, I played the to that point undefeated Valhallan player, who had a very cool army.

My missions:

My opponent’s missions:

So, a really cool army and quite good, too. The damage output is pretty scary with 3 super heavies that largely ignore the damage table and get fixed every turn, too. We rolled up mission 1, and Dawn of War deployment, and my opponent won the roll to go first and took it. However, he quickly realized he should have gone second as most of my army was deployed out of LoS, leaving only the unit of Storm Guardians to be shot. I popped the 4++ stratagem on them and between a combination of rolling above average on my saves and pulling casualties in such a way as to deny the third super heavy any models to target, was able to survive with a single Storm Guardian left who was fearless thanks to the Avatar, who was in turn protected by the Guardians being closer to the enemy. This was huge because it meant not only did my opponent not kill a unit, he also didn’t get First Strike for Old School.

I knew fighting the big boys would be tough and so the crazy fast Eldar spread out over multiple objectives to give my board control. I then bum rushed my opponent with my punchy characters and my Dire Avengers who, thanks to Asurman, are pretty tough to kill. This forced my opponent to have to choose between killing them or trying to get units off of objectives. I also dropped in Fire Dragons on a flank, and they and the Dark Reapers who were twin-linked thanks to the incredible Natural Leader Warlord Trait, managed to destroy the Baneblade with some hot dice!

The Fire Dargons then got smoked to counter fire, of course, lol, but the Dark Reapers used the Fire and Fade stratagem to hide behind cover after shooting. They did this multiple times throughout the game to be ultra annoying. As I was covering nearly every objective I was wracking up points quickly and as I kept throwing threats at my opponent’s fire-base, he was struggling to get out and win the mission even while gunning down a few units a turn. Interestingly, the Dire Avengers were able to largely destroy the Stormlord nearly on their own thanks to Doom and Jinx being cast on it. What this means is that the Shuriken Catapults were hitting on 3’s re-rolling 1’s as I was Biel-Tan, and then wounding on 6’s but ignoring the tank’s armor thanks to the Suriken Catapult rule. As each 5 man unit gets 12 shots, and you hit with roughly 9-10 of them due to the Biel-Tan re-roll, you average 3 wounds every time you shoot! They did over 20 wounds to it over two turns, and the Avatar finished it off with his Spear. The dang thing exploded, even with a CP re-roll, and killed a lot of stuff, but left my opponent with only a Shadowsword which wasn’t that much of a threat to my infantry army who largely are rocking invul saves.

On the other flank, my Howling Banshees and outflanking War Walkers were playing for mission points. I never cease to be amazed at how useful Banshees are. They FLY up the table and engage targets from so far away. They don’t kill much without support but they are so dang fast and the ability to ignore overwatch and the -1 to hit in melee means they are an amazing thorn in your opponent’s side. In this game I had them engage two characters to get me Head hunter and Kill Points and to steal an objective from my opponent, too, which forced him to fire at them with a Super Heavy, diverting some of its firepower from the rest of my army. A combination of the Matchless Agility stratagem, plus the Concordance of Power stratagem to hit them with Quicken from 36″ away to make them move again, then charging with a +3″ bonus and all of a sudden they were in my opponent’s lines chopping up their support characters. If you are an Eldar player and you are not using them, you should try them out! Especially if you are struggling with some powerful shooty units, Banshees are the cure for what ails you.

My Swooping Hawks had dropped down and aced two more of the Primaris Psykers as with their speed, they were able to make them the closest targets. They then moved on to an objective to earn some points but were gunned down by end game. However, they more than did their job! At this point, my opponent was in a really tough spot as he had not been able to earn many mission points. He fought to the bitter end and charged his conscripts into me and blasted away with his Shadowsword bravely, but my characters were able to chop the Conscripts up and then eventually defeat the remaining forces. To his credit though, he rallied and won his net league game, sitting pretty with a 3-1 record!

It was a very fun game, we were having a good laugh the entire time and I learned a lot. Every single Aspect Warrior has a use on the table even in a match-up like this one where many of them can’t actually do much damage to the other army. I knew this game was going to be a real test as my list didn’t have a lot of obvious tools for dealing with the big boys. The Swooping Hawks I usually use to take objectives away from light infantry or to go after things like Devastators, etc. where they can really harass them. The Warp Spiders I didn’t play that well in this game, letting them die too early. They’re amazing for grabbing objectives and holding them at a distance due to their Flicker Jump rule giving them a -1 to hit which can be further increased with either being Alaitoc (obviously) or with the Lightening-Fast Reactions stratagem for a -2 or even -3 to hit. In cover, with a 2+ save, they’re very difficult to shift. They would have been better served holding a back-field objective in this game and with their amazing speed, would have been great for that.

The Shinning Spears unfortunately got blown up when a Super Heavy went poof, lol, but they are often very powerful. However, I have found them to be luck dependent as if you biff some of their hit rolls, they end up doing no damage and you really need them to kill or severely damage what they charge. The Striking Scorpions likewise didn’t have an exciting game in that they didn’t even fight anything, but they deep-struck into cover and held down an objective all game which was a huge contribution to victory. Lastly, I really enjoyed the Warlock Council as getting the two powers and the +1 to cast on both of them thanks to Seer Council meant I was getting all my powers off consistently which can be hard to do for Eldar as their good powers are often warp charge 7. As my opponent lacked any barrage weapons and I kept them near my back lines, they never even got targeted. The ability to double the range of one of their powers is awesome, too. Definitely a solid unit but if you play in a meta with lots of barrage weapons and your opponent wants them dead, they will die. So bear that in mind.

I continue to love playing Biel-Tan and am really gaining more and more confident with the Swordwind. The combination of Warlord Trait, Craftworld Trait, relic and Stratagem it provides compliments my play-style to a T. Making it work really comes down to realizing each unit is valuable even if it isn’t killing anything, and utilizing the amazing Eldar stratagems to dance circles around your opponent. Especially in progressive missions like the ITC Champion’s Missions, NOVA Missions, Renegade Missions, etc. Eldar have some amazing tools at their disposal. I look forward to getting more games in with them and especially for my big showdown with Frankie’s Sisters, as that is my final game in the league!

 

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