Aeldari Hammer in The New Year: Game 2

In game two I square off against the Astra Militarum and a horrifying Baneblade!

My opponent was actually running pure Astra Militarum. That is no small feat in the Marine meta. He was a super fun guy to play against. The type who had named each of his squadrons according to different pop-culture behemoths, like the Harry Potter characters and figures from the Marvel comics universe.

My opponent had some irregularities in his list construction I didn’t notice until after the game. That being said, I don’t believe he had any ill intent. I believe he just brought his awesome-looking and highly personalized army to a tournament in order to have a good time. I know that we had a great game and I would play him again.

Here is his list:

Super Heavy Auxiliary Detachment

• Baneblade (Baneblade Cannon, Autocannon, Demolisher Cannon, 2 Lascannons, 3 Twin Heavy Bolters)

Spearhead: Armored Platoon

• Knight Commander Pask (Battle Cannon, Lascannon, 2 Heavy Bolters, Storm Bolters)

• Leman Russ (Battle Cannon, 2 Heavy Bolters)
• Leman Russ (Battle Cannon, 2 Heavy Bolters)
• Wyvern

Battalion

• Company Commander
• Lord Commisar

• 10x Infantry (Plasma gun and Autocannon)
• 10x Infantry (Plasma gun and Autocannon)
• 10x Infantry (Plasma gun and Autocannon)

Fourth Detachment

Tempestor Prime

• 10x Tempestus Scions (Meltagun and Plasmagun)
• 10x Tempestus Scions (Meltagun and Plasmagun)
• 10x Guardsmen

• Valkyrie (Multilaser, 2x Rocket Pod, 2x Heavy Bolter)
• Valkyrie (Multilaser, 2x Rocket Pod, 2x Heavy Bolter)

I figured this game would be decided upon when I could get a wrap off on his Guardsmen. In deployment, he ended up applying most of his tanks on one side, his artillery pieces on the other, and the Baneblade in the middle. His imperial guard squads were in the center of the board inside his NOVA L, acting as a screen and middle objective holder. He deployed the Valkyries in the middle, towards the back of his board edge.

I castled up my units in the NOVA L, careful to make sure they could all hide if I didn’t get the first turn.

I put my Nightspinners in the back corner, trying to hide them as best I could. I figured they would still be pretty easy fodder for his long range tanks. That is one thing I notice about the Nightspinners. If they are the only vehicle on my side they tend to get shot up quickly.

He ended up going first but was unable to target much of my army. He did pick up a Nightspinner and actually flew into my face with his three Valkyries jumping out with all of us Tempestus squads to nearly kill a second Night Spinner. I was OK with this, figuring the Yncarne would be able to kill a plane. He also rushed the middle of the board with three of his guard squads so I would be able to engage with those guys pretty soon.

In my turn I jammed all of my Grotesques into my NOVA L and I knew that this would be a waiting game. My guardians and Spears would be able to do the heavy lifting against the Tank Commanders and the Baneblade. I chose not to go for a charge this turn, and just advance my grotesques into the NOVA L to hide and make the charge a sure thing in my next turn.

The Yncarne went up against one of the Valkyries and promptly whiffed, only doing one or two words to it. This tends to happen with her against vehicles that are toughness seven or higher. Her wounding on fives, even with a re-roll, is not super reliable. Sure, the attacks are D6 damage and ap4, but if you can’t roll fives you tend to be a sad individual.

I turned the clock over to my opponent and he continued to push up the right side of the board with his tanks but was still unable to draw a clean line of sight on to my Grotesques with all his firepower. He did get a couple of tanks into one of the squads but I didn’t lose too many and at this point was feeling pretty good. His tanks were not really screened out by his Guardsmen, So I would be able to drop on them with the Guardians and Spears. I was going to rely on ghost walk to get my Spears into combat and get a wrap off into one of the Tank Commanders. Once the wrap happened, I would be able to start popping around with the Yncarne and doing some good work.

In my turn the game jumped off for me. He had flown his Valkyries into my back field and his turn, and it did make my drop zone a little bit constricted for the Guardians and Spears. I need them to come in between the tanks and all my my characters. After much measuring I was able to jam both squads in to one side of the board and stretch them out to declare a charge on the Guardsmen he had in the mid-board, and charge the tanks.

My psychic phase went well and I was able to get all my buffs and debuffs off. Ghostwalk went off, which was essential because I knew I would be able to kill one maybe two tanks this turn and the key to the rest of the game was getting a charge off and wrapping something.

I did rush the middle with my Grotesques, intent on chopping up some Guardsmen and wrapping others. He still had those Valkyries and some of the remaining Tempestus squads running around, but I wasn’t too concerned about those. The meat of the game was with the tanks and the Guardsmen in the middle of the table.

I was able to kill one tank with the Guardians, and then Yncarne went up into his Valkyries in the back and killed one. My Spears laid into another one, and I was able to pick it up.

I managed to get my charges off and get wraps, which I’ll admit I was a little nervous about. If I fail those charges, and I have in the past, I was going to be in a sticky situation even with protect onthe Spears. Fortunately, the dice were in my favor.

At the end of my turn my Spears were wrapped up with a Leman Russ along with a big unit of grotesques. The Guardians failed their charge, but I could play Celestial Shield on them for protection.

In my opponents turn he took a chunk out of the Guardians but wasn’t able to do much else since most of my army was characters or wrapped in combat. He actually charged my Spears with the Baneblade.

In my turn and I was able to fall back for 2CP with the Spears, and In had in my opponents previous turn I teleporte the Yncarne to the midboard after killing some Guardsmen in combat with the Grotesques. I was ready to start having her go to work on the tanks and possibly the Baneblade if I could find a way to ignore the over watch.

In shooting I put all my shots into the Baneblade but was unable to kill it, leaving the tank on 7 wounds. The Yncarne was poised to charge in along with the Spears, but the shooting from that thing is prodigious, even in overwatch. I charged it first with the Guardians, and after they soaked up a lot of fire they failed their six inch charge. This was bad. I did not want the Yncarne to die, or to lose a bunch of Spears in my turn. I ended up re-charging the Leman Russ with my Spears to get a wrap, and teleporting my Yncarne into the backfield after my Farseer barely killed the final Valkyrie with a valiant charge.

In my opponets turn my army was still mostly untargetable. THey only exposed unit was my last Grotesque squad. His remaining guns were a lone Tank Commander and the near-dead Baneblade. The GRotesques soaked up a bit of firepower and took two casulties.

In my turn I delivered the final blow. I zoomed my Farseer over to the Baneblade in order to Smite it, and jumped my Spears, who had killed the Tank Commander they had been wrapped with in combat, over the Baneblade for the option to tag his final Tank Commander on a hill in his deployment zone.

The final action of the game was killing the Baneblade and tying up his last Tank Commander, and we called it after that. A solid win for the Aeldari, 33-14

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