Iggy's Swordwind vs Keith's Wreckin' Ball
It's monday night at our club, dice are rolling, measuring tapes are clanging as Iggy takes on the Keith's angry Orks with a list that has come to be known as the Wreckin' Ball! Game is Annihilation, 1750 points. Eager to get some practice with my Gaelcon list before the Event in October, I've brought Yriel and left my Seer Council at home. Keith wins the rolloff, and knowing all about Eldar 5th Turn trickery, kindly forces me to go first. Curses! The game begins, and I kindly deploy nothing...
Eldar Turn 1
Everything is in reserve, and I make a nice cup of Tea.
Orks Turn 1
Keith moves his three Wagons along the edge of the board, making sure they're all close enough together to get the 4+ Cover save from the Big Mekk Kustom Force Field, embarked in the middle Wagon. His Lootas run wildly into the nearby woods and wait. A lone Trukk carrying 5 Meganobz thunders forward, and parks just beside them.
Eldar Turn 2
Reserve time! 4 Waveserpents and 1 Falcon manage to enter the fray, thanks to Yriel's Master Strategist. The falcon manages to explode the nearby Wagon carrying the Meganobz, marked by the 'X' in the picture below. Luckily, it's too far away from the Big Mekk to claim a cover save. The Nobz gleefully pass their pinning check and remain unscathed. A salvo of Shuriken Cannon shots from 4 Waveserpents almost wipe out the Lootas, who fail their morale check, and they flee, below half strength, so they cannot regroup.
(keeping track of what's inside each transport can be frustrating, especially if you have 6 skimmers - I often place models bside each to make sure no mistakes are made, as you can see in the pic)Orks Turn 2
Unable to regroup, the Lootas run off the board edge, giving me a lot more breathing room with my Skimmers for the rest of the game. Keith drives his three remaining Wagon forward toward the Eldar lines.
Eldar Turn 3
My second Falcon arrives from reserve, and comes in on the far side, away from the rest of my skimmers. It targets the back armour of the Big Mekk Wagon and manages to immobilise it.
Needing those Meganobz to die, I move up two Waveserpents hoping to block incoming assaults and disembark two units of Fire Dragons. Their combined fire manages to wipe out the entire unit of Meganobz.
Orks Turn 3
A huge mob or Ork Boyz and two large units of Nobz disembark from their Wagons and charge into the Eldar lines, declaring Waaagh! Unfortunately, they're able to make it past my Skimmer wall, due to some risky placement on my part. In fact one of the Wagons manages to squash three Fire Dragons with a Deff Rolla. It was pretty hilarious.
The ensuing assault phase is short but very brutal. 2 squads of Fire Dragons are smashed by Nobz and a Waveserpent is felled from the sky, despite Keith needing 6's to hit with his power klaws. Another Waveserpent loses it's Twin-linked Shuriken Cannon. They don't call it the Wrecking Ball for nothing!
Eldar Turn 4
My Waveserpents zip around to get the back armor of Keith's Wagons, and one of them explodes, taking with it 5 Ork Boyz, bagging the Eldar another killpoint. The Boyz are finished off with a round of Bladestorm and shots from the 5-man unit of Dire Avengers. Yes, that's right, sometimes my DAVU Falcons aren't just a Tour Bus for the Dire Avengers!
My Farseer Dooms the closest mob of Nobz, and the Banshees disembark. The remaining serpents pour shots into the Nobz and cause 4 unsaved wounds, despite FNP. The banshees disembark and pop off a few pistol shots at them to no effect, but wipe them out in the assault phase.
Orks Turn 4
Not much left, except two Wagons, one of which is immobilised, and a large unit of Nobz. They embark into the immobilised Wagon and the other rams straight towards a nearby Waveserpent at full speed, which I dodge.
Eldar Turn 5
I go flat out with everything away from the Ork lines in true Eldar fashion. Yriel could have easily destroyed the Immobilised Wagon, but I didn't want to risk him dying to the full unit of Nobz inside it, so he stays inside the skimmer, drinking tea and polishing his spear.
Orks Turn 5
The Orks can't reach the Eldar and the game ends.
Eldar 6 killpoints
Orks 4 killpoints
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Thoughts
In annihilation games, it's a good thing sometimes to keep your Independent characters inside their transports, if it means keeping them alive. Remember, Annihilation isn't just about killing more than your opponent - it's also about conceding as little killpoints to them as possible, and Eldar are true masters of this trick thanks to reserve denial, and extremely durable transports.
Target priority - what poses the gravest threat to your army? Identify it and neutralise that threat, with everything you've got. With the Lootah taken care of, my Skimmers were relatively safe for the rest of the game, allowing me to systematically wipe out other units with ease.
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