Victory is MINE!

Adam and I had our Grudge Match last night, 5000 pts per side of Epic madness.

My army was based around lots of small fast units with decent durability, and Adam's was much similar. Both of us had four scout titans and no other bigger war engines, and both of us had one squadron of aircraft for AA cover. That battle was going to be won up close and personal.

We used a 4'x7' table (sorry no pics, camera battery was dead) and proceeded to play the game. I decided to flank on the west side and drive to the blitz in the middle of his table edge, while Adam responded by driving on the east flank and attacking my blitz. Both of us sent forces into the middle of the table, looking for control of the quickest routes to either blitz.

Adam won the Initative in turn 2 (as well as turns 1 and 3, but we won't go there) and attempted to break my back in the middle theatre. He summoned the Avatar, advanced two scout titans, and prepared to move in an aspect warrior host to kill my raptors and a Feral titan.He failed the action test and the Autarch was not on the board yet. He chose to advance the aspect warriors as part of his Hold action anyways but was forced to turn play over to me.

I made him pay. In Spades. I advanced a feral titan and bathed the aspect warriors and wave serpents in Hellfire and cannon shots, killing a handful and breaking the squad. I then charged with daemons and raptors on the Revenants and brought down one, breaking and severely damaging the second. Adam struck back with the avatar and while he broke the raptors, they dragged the Avatar down first and threw praise to the sky in the name of Quintara. The streets were littered with bodies but chaos held the centre.

On the west flank I advanced agressively with 2 bike companies, 2 large platoons, and 2 deathwheels, pushing aside the rangers with ease and breaking the Falcons which promptly fled through rough terrain and destroyed themselves. But I was still ~60 cm from the BLitz and some rough terrain was in the way as well as a large guardian formation.

On the east flank Adam went for the win by driving at my flank with swooping hawks, jetbikes, more aspect warriors, more falcons, and the other Revenant titans. Defending the BLitz was my platoon with defilers, one forlorn hope detachments, and one damaged Feral Titan. Yikes!

The swooping hawks attacked first in turn 2 but were slaughtered by the platoon of marines. I marshalled and prepared for the second wave that was setting up for a turn 3 massacre. Desperate to stave off losing both my BTS and Blitz, I teleported in the two terminator formations to hold the line. Adam scoffed as he won Initative and blasted the terminator with the aspect warriors and revenants, decimating and breaking them. I howled in pain, Adam screamed in fury and battlelust. The Falcons and Jetbikes were ready to engage my poor platoon I could tell so I fired on the jetbikes causing a blast marker, and then called in air support. The Hellblades flew in and depsite losing one to the Revenant AA fire the remaining two hosed the jetbike detachment killing two and getting enough blast markers to break them. Adam flipped the table in uncontrollable rage and murdered two innocent bystanders.

Once the uproar settled down, he tried to break my platoon using the falcons alone but had no success and I held my blitz.

Going into the last few actions of turn 3, the score was zero-zero and the Eldar were all tapped out. Only one eldar Guardian formation in cover guarded the Blitz so I doubled one platoon to kill a stand and get some BMs. Then some Forlorn Hope doubled in to lay some fire, and then I doubled a Deathwheel in for more firepower, breaking the guardians! With my last activation on 2+ I sent in a second platoon on a march from far to the west to grab the blitz and secure the Blitz and Take and Hold goals, winning the game by the skin of my teeth, 2-0.

Analysis: This game could have went either way with the roll of a single die. That turn 2 misstep by Adam with his aspect warriors trying to retain broke his advance in the centre and gave me the room to both advance on his blitz and defend my own. Had he not rolled that fateful one, he could have broken my raptors and feral titan and forced me to consider how to defend my blitz as well as the nearby objective, putting him soundly in the driver's seat and me in defensive posture. The result would still have been up in the air though as I had a lot of marines advancing on the west flank.

Great game Adam! I fully expected a turn 4 and sneaking in turn 3 to win it was pure luck for me.