SN Battle Report: Space Marines vs Corsairs

Here we have our first primary objective, a moving, talking and very epic Captain of the Raptor alliance. Mission for the Raptors is to keep this man alive at all costs for 5 turns which will gain them 3 victory points. The Captain is rocking a power axe and the Eternal Shield, granting him Eternal Warrior and a 3+ invulnerable. He is also equipped with Artificer armour for 2+ save. The Captain, who isn’t happy at all at this point after losing most of his platoon, can move as normal and join any unit he wishes if possible. Our secondary objective is explained just below the introduction of the Report.

The two Balestrike units are deployed making good use of some of the high buildings for cover and line of sight. Each of these units are packing a hard punch as they are armed with either shuriken cannons or missile launchers.

Wow what a roll by Julian on his Psychic powers! Two of his Psykers now have the possibility of having a 2+ rerollable invulnerable save! Cheesy stuff there lad! However, as these lists were fairly competitive we decided to use the ITC ruling where the reroll could only be on a 4+. Therefore as ITC was in play, it also meant that the Corsair Jetbikes will not be able to use their reckless abandon rule during overwatch. Divination is always massive with the prescience ability as it’s psychic focus power, especially when using them on units that can dish out a lot of fire power.

Steven’s turn now and would you look at this amazing sight! Told you it would get better. Most of Steven’s army infiltrates into the centre of the table, defending the Captain straight away. Cunning strategy! Both powerful squads deploying on the top level whilst the two scout units deploy below, giving some support when needed. The Librarian leads one of the Centurion squads whilst The Chapter Master leads the other. The highway was also giving them a 4+ cover save if obscured, that subsequently meant a 2+ cover save with shrouded first turn due to the Ravenguard Chapter Tactics.

Absolutely loving this new custom made Lias Issodon model painted by our friend Karim from KB Studios. Thanks Karim, awesome job mate!

The two last remaining scout squads make use of their extra sniper range and deploy further back in the ruins, giving them a good line of sight over some of Julian’s units.

Lias tricks come in to play already. Lias’s infiltrate, isolate and destroy rule managers to kill three Balestrikes before the game even begins. Nasty little trick from the raptors having the ability for a free D6+3 auto wounds on any toughness squad before the game begins, or D3 haywire hits on a vehicle, if Lias is taken as your Chapter Master. Go Raptors! Ok Steven now tries to Steal the Imitative, and the gods grant him his wish as he rolls a 6! whuppeeee….but wait…… Steven is thinking if he really does want to go first most of his firepower is our of range and he already said his Skyhammer force would come in turn 2 making him have the advantage to being able to kill the units dropping into reserve before him. Amazingly he denies his roll and lets Julian carry on with turn one! Good choice? what would you have done?

Turn 1 (Eldar Corsairs) Julian starts his movement phase by straight away moving all of his Jetbikes forward, making sure he is just about in range of the enemy units with all his bikes. The Prince and Barons leading them on from the front to shield the unit with their 2++ shadowfield saves.

Turn 1 (Eldar Corsairs) The Balestrikes that were weakened before the game even started moves into position to fire their shuriken cannons onto the scouts below the highway. These guys become relentless with their jetpacks and can move and fire their heavy guns and then make assault jumps. An extremely mobile army to say the least!

Turn 1 (Eldar Corsairs) The first unit managers to wipe out a total of four scouts and then Julian finishes the squad off with his scatter laser Jetbikes on the other side. This has granted the Corsairs first strike!

Turn 1 (Eldar Corsairs) The other two remaining Jetbike units fire everything they have got in a hope to weaken Steven’s Centurions. As night fighting was in play, the Jetbikes Cotorie special rule (Night Hunters) allowed them to, not only ignore nightfighting, but also gain preferred enemy everything. Madness! With that level of firepower there was little that Steven could do and two of the Centurions were eradicated

Turn 1 (Eldar Corsairs) The Balestrike unit with missile launchers didn’t have a lot of options but to try and pepper the Centurions, which did not work. So from there it was off to the assault phase and Julian used his eldar assault move shenanigans to his full advantage and get the Jetbikes as much out of sight as possible.

Turn 1 (Raptors) Over to the Raptors and Steven attaches his Captain (i.e.the Objective) to his Centurion unit to give him some added protection. The scouts also moved onto the bridge to get them out of sight. As Steven had opted to bring all of his remaining forces to counter Julian’s reserves, most of his army remained stationary,

Turn 1 (Raptors) The Librarian cast Might of Heroes raising his Toughness and Strength by 2. Now as his unit now contained one toughness 4, 5 & 6 model, it meant the whole unit effectively now was rocking a toughness of 6.

Turn 1 (Raptors) With the majority of the Corsairs behind cover, or out of range, the only option was to fire both Centurion units at the Balestrike squad armed with missile launchers. Only two of the models were in view and it wasn’t difficult for the Raptors to blow them to dust. The Balestrikes did manage to succeed passing their leadership of 8, and with that it was the end of their turn. For now the Raptors will have to remain patient.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) Julian passed all of his reserve rolls due to the rerolls granted to them by the Skyburners Cotorie special rule. Even with the 1D6 scatter for the Reaver unit, they were still able to scatter a full 6 inches in the opposite direction. Luckily the fusion guns were still just about in range.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The dreaded Warp Hunter moves onto the corner of the board. This is a high priority target for the Raptors as it can quite comfortably wipe out the toughest of units with every hit. But for this turn they will have to hope he scatters enough inches with his D barrage.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The Phoenix Bomber moved up and vector danced in plain sight of the Raptors along the central bridge. One of the jetbike units also takes vantage point along the same trajectory. There is a possibility for a great deal of pain to be thrown at the Raptors path this turn. Loving this picture as the Flyer passes under the Jetbikes…

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The Prince and his retinue come out of hiding looking for targets who may be in sight.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The last remaining Jetbike unit also follows suit looking for any exposed enemies.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The Prince casts precognition giving him a reroll on his save. 2++ then a 4++ reroll! That will be a severely hard character to take down if he successfully able to cast it every turn. (We are using ITC rules)

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The two surviving Balestrikes with shuriken cannons were able to pull off two bladestorm Ap2 wounds and kill off a Centurion.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The final unit of Reavers that arrived from deepstrike used their flamers to try and fish out the scouts. They managed to kill off three of them to drastically remove their efficiency.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) The other Skyburner Reaver unit shot with both their fusion, 3 lasblasters and a brace of pistols to score zero wounds on the Centurion. They made a tactical withdrawal of 11 inches from the wreckless adandon rule after their total fail and embarrassment.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) It’s now the part of the shooting phase that Steven has been dreading the most, the Warp Hunter’s turn.It scores a direct hit and and was able to get 3 barrage hits.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) With seven D wounds inflicted, the first was allocated to the centurion. It only took one of the D hits to remove both of his wounds.

Turn 2 (Eldar Corsairs) There was little to no chance the unit was going to be able to survive so many D hits, and as expected, the Librarian and Captain were blown to dust. That gives the Corsairs 3 victory points for killing the Captain under our custom mission rules. The Raptors are now in dire need of their reinforcements!