Warhammer 40k - Battle Report. Ultramarines versus Eldar

It's been a while since 40k has made an appearance in my blog. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Games Workshop and I'm sure many gamers can sympathize.

We played 1850 points and I won't go into complete detail about my army but I did take the man himself, Marnius Calgar. I also tried out the Skyhammer Assault formation, 2 Devastator Squads in Drop pods and 2 Deep Striking Assault Squads.

I even painted a few new Ultramarines to go along with my army.

Grav Cannon Devastators and a new Sargent

The Eldar set up and move first. The ultramarines keep in their vehicles, gauging what the Eldar are up to and elect to bring the Skyhammer formation down on Turn 2.

Ultras Deploy

The Eldar deploy, they will be coming after me.

these guys look serious

Scout take the high ground

Harlequins infiltrate ahead of the main force

On the Eldar right flank a squadron of Jetbikes and a Voidweaver.
The Eldar hold their Wraithknight and Harlequins in a transport in reserve ready to deep strike.

Turn 1 for the Eldar is pretty non eventful. The Harlequin independent characters, Solitaire, Death Jester and Shadowseer move forward in cover, Eldar shooting is poor, with a single point of damage scored on a Rhino.

Turn 1 - Ultramarines -   With the Eldar Deepstrike waiting in the wings I elect to keep my troops embarked on their vehicles. Shooing goes well with the Predator Exploding the Wave Serpent and leaving the deadly but  short ranged Wraithguard stranded in the middle of the board.


Turn 2 - Eldar -    The Deepstrike arrives behind my lines!

This can't be good

The Eldar arrive on target and open up on my Predator. I flurry of bad dice rolls from Mark sees the Predator and the Vindicator only damaged. However the Vindicator can't shoot next turn and the Predator is only firing snapshots. I realize I got away pretty lightly due to Mark's poor rolling.

The Solitaire and his buddies get closer to my right flank but he's not their yet.

Turn 2 - Ultramarines - Skyhammer Assault time! I drop the large Devastator squad right in front of the Wraithknight, the second Drop Pod his in No-man's land in front of the Eldar Jetbikes. 1 Assault marine squad fail in their deepstrike roll going into reserve, the other deep strikes (Struck?) in the Eldar backfield with the intention of going after the Eldar Scouts.

shooting is outstanding for the boys in blue. in all I think I score 12 ot of 13 Grav Cannon shots on the Wraithknight. it barely failed it's invulnerable saves and was destroyed! I couldn't destroy the harlequin Transport though.

The other Devastator Squad fired on the Jetbikes destroying them as well.

Turn 3 - Eldar - The Harlequins revenge!

This is going to hurt

Shooting goes better for the Eldar this turn. They manage to destroy the damaged Predator. However the Rhino on my right flank survives a close combat attack from the Solitaire and falls back.

The Harlequins charge my Devastators, defensive fire drops two of the eldar clowns but the rest plow into my unit, killing 6 marines, the Harlies lose another in combat as well. The Marines don't lose their nerve and stick around, passing their morale check.



Turn 3 Ultramarines - Calgar and his boys get out of their ride to deal with the harlequins, hopefully before the Devastators are totally wiped out. This plan fails as the Eldar attack first killing the remaining Devastators.

The Harlequins do their Job and to make matters worse a single Harlequin survives the combat with Calgar!

On my left the Devastator Marines there turn their Heavy Bolters on the Scouts and kill them to a man. These guys are on a tear! The Assault Marines start climbing the tower that held the Scouts, aiming to claim their objective.



Turn 4 - Eldar - The Solitaire charges the damaged Vindicator and kills it.

The Last remaining Harlequin challenges my Chapter Champion and kills him and a honor Guard!, In return Calgar turns him into Jelly.

Turn 4 - Ultramarines -  Things start to get fuzzy in the memory department.

 Calgar started heading towards the Eldar lines with a single honor guard in tow. The Assault marines attack the Solitaire.

The sneaky elf kills two marines before dying.
My Heavy Bolter Devastators and Tactical Squad kill the Wraithlord

My other Assault squad makes it to the top of the Tower, only to look over and see the Wraithblades heading their way.

Turn 5-6   The Wrathguard turn their D Weapons on Calgar, and although they kill the honor guard and wound him they leave him with a single wound. The Land Raider thinned the ranks of the Wrathguard before Calgar made it into combat.

hi killed a Psyker and the last Wrathguard.

The Wraithblades climbed the tower and slaughtered the Assault Marines. In return the Heavy Bolter Devastators thinned them down to 2.

When the game came to an end we counted up the victory points. The Eldar won 11-6! With Eldar mobility they were able to really build a number of victory points and I couldn't keep up.

However I did get the Eldar down to 5 models, 2 Wraithblades, the DeathJester and Psyker and a Voidweaver. If it went another turn I might have been able to table him. But of course that's a pretty big "might"!

Overall it was a great game and Mark was a treat to play against, his Eldar looked amazing and I really need to up my painting game to keep pace.