I have always thought that IG were pretty broken after my necrons got utterly pasted by turn 3 when we were using night fighting! It was with some trepidation then that I watched as a new IG codex was brought out:
more men,
bigger tanks, valkyries,
more powerful weapons. I started to think of couple of tactics for defeating them with my eldar. However, in every scenario I thought up the IG numbers worked against me infallibly. Eventually I gave up , concluding that if I faced IG then I would simply be doomed to failure.
However the other day I went down to the store and actually beat an IG player. He was a bit new to the rules but its still a win!
Mission was annihilation with dawn of war deployment. He had a command squad with feel no pain (medic), two squads of guard , both with snipers and vox casters, and a Valkyrie with missile pods and a lascannon. I was using my anti-horde list. I'm going to attempt a bit off fluff here.
Panting from running into the cover pete noticed Tom the sniper peering worriedly into the distance.
"come on man, this is just a routine patrol before the main invasion force arrives. we're just seeing if there are any natives here"
"yeah, well I've got a bad feeling about this, and my gut doesn't normally let me down."
Captain baltha heard the call come in through the vox net. "yeah this is pete we think we can see somthing In the distance. Its coming closer, it seems to be some sort of skimmer. what are yo-"
(sound of shruiken fire and and then just static)Farseer Sarai sighed in satisfaction before climbing back into the wave serpent. She allowed her mind to recover from the psyhic stain of assisting the dire avengers arond her, who were now busy reloading their catapults from bladestorming as the nimble skimmer transported them closer to the enemy.
"men we have company, prepare for action!" squad Beta ran into a building to take cover whilst captain baltha anxiously scanned the horizon for any sign of his attackers. Suddenly he saw them: dextrous jetbikes sliding between the buildings, always just out of sight.
But captain baltha was too busy concentrating on the jetbikes to notice the main threat coming up the other flank. The wave serpent poked its nose out from behing a building.
Farseer Sarai felt through the walls of her craft seeking the minds of the enemy. She found them. seaching through the infinite, she found their doom.
the eltritch storm exploded suddenly around captain baltha. Raw pyshic energy suddenly crackled through his squad and he watched in horror as two members of his highly trained command fell as if doomed.
"er...captain baltha, sir? Ive just remembered that there is a valkeryie in base-"
"well what the hell is it doing there! get it out here now" emperor protect, we need the help.
The valkeryie swooped onto the field, with lascannon and missiles streaming towards the wave serpent. However, luck was not with the pilots, as the missiles fell just short and the lascannon missed by a whisker.
The wave serpent sped away behind a building so just its missiles were showing. Captain baltha watched as the jetbikes continued to turbo up the flank. The twin linked eldar missiles smashed into the valkeryie and it visibly shook, as its weapon systems went tempoarily offline.
"Incoming!" captain Baltha called and his squad hunkered down into cover, the medic readying his tools. The valkeryie sped away, the pilot still shaken.
The wave serpent moved up and again the eltritch storm smashed into captain baltha. However this time his squad were ready and they took no casualties. The jetbikes and the wave serpent both opened up on the valkeryie, but doing no damage. The jetbikes jumped back behind a building.
The valkerie sped forwards again, and catching a glimpse of the jetbike opened up with its missile pods, killing two. Still suspecting the worst, captain baltha ordered his squad to stay down.
The lone jetbike bravely fought on jumping out of cover to shoot again at the valkeryie, before hiding. the wave serpent charged at captain baltha, but he held his ground. However he felt he was doomed and as the guided dire avengers jumped out of the wave serpent, bladstorming as they did so, this proved prophetic. He actually survived the volley of shruiken, fighting bravely on amongst the body's of his comrades with blood gushing from a woun in his leg. However the assault that followed proved too much for him and he was dragged down if not by numbers then by the skill of farseer sarai with her withcblades. The dire avengers then consolidated back into the wave serpent.
The wave serpent again fired ts missiles at the advancing valkeryie, and this time the shock knocked the pilots against the inside of their cabin stunning them.
It was at this point that frseer sarai recieved the surrender message. She smiled, and gave her terms: "I demand you leave this maiden world and never return.". Victory for the eldar. They had lost two jetbikes and all the Imperial guard had was a terrified squad in a building and an empty valkeryie with the crew still reeling.
eldar KP: 2
IG KP: 0
Final thoughtsI think that my opponent made a mistake in bringing a valkeryie at such a small point limit and also in not putting anything in it. However I think my tactics worked well and reserving everthing at the beginnig definutely put him of track, and helped keep my men alive. I think I shall try this more in future. I was also fortunate with the forward placement of one of his squads. This allowed me to come on and wipe out a squad first turn without fear of retribution. also I was very glad when he forgot about his valkeryie for a turn ( to tell you the truth so did I!).
