If you read this blog regularly you might have seen some of these pictures in my post about my game night on 5/24/2025. I promised a battle report, and here it is! As you can see from the overall table the Imperial Guard spread out across the table while the Eldar primarily clustered on their left flank, with their War Walker taking cover behind a bunker on their right. My buddy playing Eldar hadn’t played since 2nd Edition was new so we skipped objectives and got on to the business of killing each other!
The Eldar got the first turn but first they had to withstand the Imperial Guard preliminary barrage which killed the Exarch on the roof of the bunker as well as two guardians. Not a good start for the Eldar!
Eldar turn 1 the Eldar forces began their advance and fired their heavy weapons at the Imperial Guard vehicles. The Dreadnaughts lascannon killed the driver of the stationary Basilisk and the War Walker missed the Leman Russ. The Warlock was able to cast Fortune and with that the turn passed to the guard!
In the Imperial Guard turn the Leman Russ advances and opens fire on the Wraithguard. It managed to put 3 wounds on the unit and knocked down one of the constructs but managed to jam both its Heavy Bolters in the process! The Basilisk threw it’s Earthshaker rounds at the Wraitguard and managed to finish off the wounded construct and kill two more! Meanwhile the one of the squads heavy bolters killed another Wraithguard, while it’s partner squad Krak Missile hit the dreadnaught but bounced right off! The bigger constructs were much tougher!
The Eldar knew they couldn’t stand in the open and advanced upon their enemy. The War Walker opened fire on the Leman Russ but failed to penetrate while the scatter laser opened fire on the mortar squad and failed to hit! The lascannon on the dreadnaught failed to hit the Leman Russ and with that things started to really look good for the guard!
In the Imperial Guard second turn the Leman Russ moved up and one of the squads moved over to confront the advancing Dire Avengers. Meanwhile the Leman Russ returned the favor of inept shooting and missed every shot it took. The Basilisk had better aim and rolled two 6’s to hit the Dreadnaught lurking behind the comms building but failed to penetrate!
In the Eldwar turn 3 the Dreadnaught charged the Leman Russ while the rest of the Eldar killed a smattering of guardsmen across the board. The Dreadnaught managed to get two hull penetrations causing two chances of each crewman dying. All three gunners died but the driver lived and would have a chance to try and make a break for freedom!
The Leman Russ driver mashed the throttle down and attempted to ram the Dreadnaught who with his impressive initiative of 6 dodged away from the lumbering machine! Drat!
The Krak missile hit the Dreadnaught but only damaged the leg. While this would force the beast to only move D3 inches a turn it had already caused sufficient damage to the Imperial Guard forces, plus it still had it’s deadly lascannon! A smattering of Eldar infantry went down to the massed firepower of the guards guns. The mortar squad managed to get a wound on the Eldar piloting the War Walker but turns out it has a 2+ invulnerable save on the pilot, sooo at least I had that going for me.
If you thought things were looking bad for the Imperial Guard you haven’t seen anything yet! In Eldar turn 4 the remaining Wraithguard fires it’s one shot against the Leman Russ and with a 50-50 chance of destroying it due to its tricky cannon you know it did! Off to the warp went the Leman Russ. The Dreadnaught didn’t want to be left out so it fired on the Basilisk penetrating the heavy bolter which caused a chain reaction through the hull causing the artillery piece to explode. The resulting explosion would kill three guardsmen from the squad next to it and kill two members of the command squad. Meanwhile the War Walker, realizing he wasn’t as safe as he might have thought, opened fire on the mortar teams and killed three of their number. In return the Imperial Guard missile launcher hit the Dreadnaught and ripped off it’s arm with the shuriken catapult.
In the final turn of the game the War Walker killed the rest of the command squad members and wounded the Colonel and the guard killed a solitary Guardian. With that it was a 9-5 victory to the Eldar!
Well, after a lucky pre game barrage I have to say my luck went downhill very fast while my opponents steadily increased. I hit that darned Dreadnaught almost every single turn but never took it down while a single Wraithguard finished off my Leman Russ, and a chain reaction from an exploding heavy bolter took out my whole Basilisk and then some! Still, it was a good game, but man those Eldar have some mean tricks up their fancy sleeves!
I did learn some valuable lessons. If you don’t need to get close to a power fist armed dreadnaught don’t, make sure you kill EVERY Wraithguard, and when you roll a 2+ on the interference level of your comm link don’t forget ANY squad leader can call in the barrages, not just the commander! I’m pretty sure the last lesson hurt the most as I really should have known better but it is what it is. I’ll get those pointed eared gits next time!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 