XXX-Transmission Intercepted 0.65432-XXX

My Lord Cyrus the Eldar scum have made planetfall and are making for the ruins in the outskirts of the city.

Prepare the Disciples of the Raven.

Yes my Lord.

We must stop them gaining control of the artefact.

Of Course my Lord. All are assembled and await your orders.

XXX-Transmission Ends 0.65434-XXX

"Cyrus Bloodswathe watched and waited as he saw the twinkling lights of the Eldar arriving through the ripple in time and space. They were fast, very fast indeed, but he saw them. His eyes had grown accustom to their movements when he had fought their forsaken darker cousins months before. Around him his brothers were twitchy and aching to fight. Even the Cultists under Malik Servon were chanting and muttering dark songs and psyching themselves up for the inevitable conflict. Cyrus lowered his power axe and let the heated head of it sizzle and crackle by his side sending a tinge of burnt grass up into the air. Soon all would burn for the artefact within the ruins."

Prepare The Dark Legion!

In an effort to get back into the world of Warhammer 40,000 you might remember I played a Kill Team game a week or so ago. Well this time a friend and I stepped it up and delved into a 500pt game between my Chaos Space Marines called the Disciples of the Raven and his Eldar. Here is the list I ran with...

Chaos Lord (60) Terminator Armour (40) Power Sword (-) Combi-Flamer (10) = 115pts

5x Chaos Space Marines (75) 5 More Chaos Space Marines (65) Close Combat Weapons (-) Flamer (5) Flamer (5) = 150pts

5x Chaos Space Marines (75) 5 More Chaos Space Marines (65) Missile Launcher (15) Plasma Gun (15) = 170pts

10x Cultists (50) Autoguns (9) Heavy Stubber (5) = 64pts

499pts

I would have probably taken a Rhino to rumble ahead carrying one of the squads but I didn't have a lot of space in my box for that so went for all infantry instead. The idea was that one squad would look to pour in firepower while the other advanced through heavy cover avoiding getting shot. The Cultists were there as a nice bullet shield and would potentially be a headache when it came to the objective in the centre of the table.

Secure The Artefact!

The game we would be playing was spread over a 4x4 table and focused on a singular objective in the middle of the table worth 3 points. As well as that we were playing First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord and giving a Kill Point for each squad that was eradicated from the table. Overall there were plenty of opportunities for victory.

Each of us set up on either side of the table with a 12'' deployment zone. I took up a central deployment as did my Eldar opponent although his Swooping Hawks and Jetbikes took up flanking positions on the left and right.

With that the battle began!

Suffer Not The Weak To Live!

The battle began with me going first. My Chaos Lord and his retinue of dark brothers walked around the ruins in the centre of the battlefield. I was hoping to use the cover to avoid the weapon platform the Eldar Guardians had on top of the hill and then potentially leap on the enemy from behind. My other unit pushed forward and would begin bringing their guns to bare. To their right the Cultists moved up using the trees to hopefully give themselves a better chance of survival.

A bit of shooting later and my Chaos Space Marines had gunned down two Dire Avengers and my Cultists had managed to pick off a pair of Guardians up on the ridge. My Chaos Lord just muttered angrily and ran forward a few more inches. The Eldar response was dangerously effective. The Dire Avengers with their Farseer walked forward and hugged the ruins. In response to the killing of their brethren the Farseer bought down a Doom (re-roll to wound) upon the Chaos Marines and then an Eldritch Storm followed shortly afterwards. This wasn't too bad in terms of casualties with only two Marines dying but the fatal twist of the knife was me failing a pinning check and having to hit the dirt!

The Guardians fired their weapons too and managed to blow a few of the Cultists off their feet. The flanking Jetbikes continued zipping through the ruins and the Swooping Hawks launched themselves into the sky.

The following turn my Chaos Space Marines, being pinned, could do little bit fire their weapons from the dirt and although they were dug in they did manage to snap shot quite well killing one more Dire Avenger from the resulting shooting. The Cultists tried to keep on fighting the Eldar on the hill but the cover saved them from the worst of the shooting. My other Marines with the Lord continued to flank and closed in around the Dire Avengers.

The Eldar turn that followed was nasty to the extreme. The Swooping Hawks landed and their plasma grenade exploded killing one more of the marines that had just stood up from the dirt. Their rifles then fired and scythed through a good number of them too. Sadly with so few dark brothers left it ended with the Dire Avengers finishing them off and cutting the last two Marines down with their barbed weapons.

The Eldar also managed to bring a full complement of Guardian fire down on the Cultists and when they were reduced to three men they decided enough was enough and fled off the board. The silver lining was that the Warlock with them found himself lost to the warp and vanished in a puff of smoke. I think Cyrus will have something to say about those Cultists when he finds them.

The remaining few turns resulted in my Chaos Lord dashing around the corner of the building and firing flamers and bolt pistols into the Dire Avengers. With this done they launched themselves into combat with a massive 12'' assault. My Chaos Lord challenged and the Dire Avenger Exarch accepted and so blood was bound to be spilled. Or not. Despite all the clashing of blades my Chaos Lord could not wound the damned Exarch with his flickering shield and my Chaos Marines couldn't do that either. The only blood spilled came at the hands of the combat against the Farseer as my men managed to strip him of his wound down to a single one.

The next turn was more combat as the Guardians, Jet Bikes and Swooping Hawks closed in on Cyrus. The combat was much the same in terms of being bloodless apart from one fallen Chaos Space Marine which meant I lost the combat and had to roll a test or run...

Note: Here is where I made a mistake. I forgot that my leader was Fearless and therefore so were the rest of the squad. I shouldn't have fled!

...with Cyrus running he rallied the turn after and bought flamers to bare but they seemed to almost just tickle the Dire Avengers rather than hurt them. It was then just a case of the Eldar moving in and mopping up with masses of firepower being bought to the fore.

The game ended with a very definitive Eldar victory.

Read Your Rules!

As you might have seen above I already noticed my first lesson but here are a few points I think I would have worked on...

• Read your rules carefully. Sometimes you forget things and they can be key!
• Bring a Psyker (or two) against Eldar. The ability to Deny the Witch a little easier would be very helpful.
• Raptors & Vehicles - In this case I should have bought some Raptors with Flamers which could have landed behind enemy lines and started causing trouble. A vehicle might also have been a winner as it could have rolled up the field with reckless abandon.

There are still a few things I am hazy on when it comes to Warhammer 40,000 but hopefully at this level I will begin to learn the ropes one game at a time. I have also found that playing games at this 500 to 750 point level work extremely well and we're going to do a few more of these as time goes by.

If there are any rules I should have taken a note of, or indeed done differently, then please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments below.

"The Exarch bent down and picked up the blood covered helmet of his foe. Their target had escaped, activating a teleporter as his kinsmen had surrounded the rest of his men. He was a coward, but the daemon follower had lived to fight another day. Casting the helmet aside he watched the wounded Farseer stumble into the ruins and begin enacting the rituals needed to safeguard against the artefact within them. The sooner they could leave this planet the better."

Pictures thanks to Molemantle.

Chaos Space Marine by DevBurmak

Eldar Farseer by Aberzheim

Do you prefer your games at this smaller points level?