Pre-Harvester Game

I finished the army last night around 11pm.  I'm dog tired, but ready and chomping at the bit to get to The Harvester this weekend.  I need to run to the store this week and get some more ink to print off my Army List, but here's what I am bringing, and what I tested out last Saturday against another Harvester list, run by my buddy Jase (who was also the winner of our Feast of Blades qualifier, but couldn't attend the event.)  I don't have the list he brought to the table, but I do remember her had a nightspinner, two fire prisms, I believe 3 or 4 wave serpents with troops, 3 squads of jetbikes, and a flyer.  Eldar are pretty tough.  But we'll get to that soon enough.  (heh, that rhymed)  For now, here's my list:

Khuster's Cav  1850 points
Space Marines (White Scar Chapter Tactics)
HQ - Chapter Master Khuster w/SM bike, Artificer armor, and Primarch's Wrath
TR - Bike Squad of 6, with 2 meltaguns, meltabombs, and attack bike with Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad of 6, with 2 meltaguns, meltabombs, and attack bike with Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad of 6, with 2 meltaguns, meltabombs, and attack bike with Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad of 6, with 2 meltaguns, meltabombs, and attack bike with Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad of 6, with 2 meltaguns, meltabombs, and attack bike with Multimelta
TR - Scout Squad of 10, with camo cloaks, sniper rifles, meltabombs, and missile launcher with Flakk missiles
FT - Land Speeder Squadron of 3, with Multimeltas and Typhoon missile launchers
HV - Predator with Heavy bolter side sponsons
FR - Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

This is what I brought to the table on Saturday against Jase's new eldar army.  It was Big Guns Never Tire, with 3 objectives, and Vanguard deployment.  I still have trouble putting all of my army on my side of the board, and this causes a lot of observers and opponents to utter "that's a lot of bikes".  Music to my ears.  Jase did make a comment on how template weapons will ruin my day if I go second, and I agree.  Packing the entire army onto the board leaves little room between models, and an IG army with artillery will probably win if they go first.  Having said that, Jase decided not to seize the initiative, and I went first.

I will say this about WS bikes:  Cover saves rock.  Jase stuck his vehicles in the far corner, and reserved his jetbikes and flyer.  So I had to spend the first couple of turns turbo boosting to get into range.  Of course, Khuster needs no such maneuver, and used his Orbital Bombardment in turn 1 to hit the far corner.  Goodbye Nightspinner.  Gotta love that special rule for Chapter Masters, just another reason to take them over Khan with White Scars.

The next two turns were going well for me, the cover saves of 3+ helped stave off a lot of hits, but his saves were also amazing.  Turn 3, my speeders Deep Striked in and had a mishap.  The result was that Jase got to deploy them, and so they ended up in the back corner of my deployment, instead of in the face of his wave serpents.  That was the turning point in the game.  Without the firepower to target the wave serpents, his troops almost eradicated my bikes, and when the game ended, only two more of his vehicles were destroyed.  Even so, I only lost by two points.

While the bikes have an advantage of being able to get to where I need them, I also have the ability to more or less out run most units, and that's a big advantage as well.  Also, his eldar flyer fell to my TL bolters on the bikes (since he took out my ML with Flakk and Quad Gun in the first two turns).

All in all a fun game, and next time I face his army, it will be a lot closer.  My great take away from this game was the fact I wasn't tabled on turn 4, like I was often with the DA list and as 5th ed Space Marines.

Now onto The Harvester!!!