Descent of Angels v. Eldar- A Real Life Battle Report!

This week, I have gotten two games in!  That is amazing.  One was the Vassal game I reported on earlier this week. The other was an actual, real life game.  I haven't had one of those in ages!  I had to take some commission jobs up to my LGS to drop them off and get paid, so I brought up my Blood Angels opting for a list similar to Blood Hammer from 3++.  I played a 1,500 point battle against an Eldar player. I took:

Libby-jump pack, sword, lance

3 Sanguinary Priests- 2x jump packs
5 Sanguinary Guard- chapter banner, 2x infernus pistols

10 Assault marines- 2x meltas, power fist
10 Assault marines- 2x meltas, power fist

5 Vanguard Vets- glaive, power weapon, power fist, 2x ccw

5 Devestators- 4x missiles
5 Devestators- 4x missiles

My opponent took, what I think was (didn't see an army list):
Eldrad
Maugan ra

9 Harlequins- troupemaster w/ power weapon, shadowseer, 2x fusion pistols, harlequins kisses on 7

3 eldar bikes- 2x shuriken cannons
3 eldar bikes- 2x shuriken cannons

5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle
5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle
5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle

Nightspinner- holo-fields
Fire Prism- holo-fields
Fire Prism-holo-fields

Which it turns out looks like it is about 1,650 or so.  If I drop all upgrades, it is still quite a bit higher than 1,500.  I also discovered that my opponent was giving Eldrad 2 base attacks +1 for pistol instead of 1 base +1 for pistol.  That made a difference. 

Overall it was a fun game which came down to the wire at turn 6.  We played capture and control with spearhead deployment.  I set up my devs with a priest in a building in my corner and waited to shoot some stuff.  They didn't do much all game aside from contest my home objective.  I deepstruck everything else: libby and priest with sanguinary guard, priest with an assault squad, and assault squad, and my vanguard vets.  One devestator squad and the sanguinary guard got red thirst. 

My opponent deployed his harlequins forward-ish in his quarter behind some impassable with Eldrad and Maugan Ra inside.  His nightspinner and fire prisms went behind in the very corner of the board. 

I stole the iniative, which I probably shouldn't have done.  Not much happened in turn 1, with me only losing squad leaders in my devs. 

In turn 2, my sanguinary guard, and two assault squads came down in his quarter and wrecked the fire prisms.  He then counter assaulted into my sanguinary guard.  His shooting took out all but the chapter banner, the libby, and the priest.  When assaulted, everything died except the libby who took a single wound.  He dealt two back allowing him to lose by 1 and he passed his test. 

In turn 3, both of my assault squads went in to the harlequin combat to seal the deal there.  In the assault, I lost about 12 models, but luckily was able to take out the entire harlequin squad and Maugan Ra (died to 2 power fist models).  I actually lost the combat, but stayed put and piled in to Eldrad. 

Turns 3-6  The whole game his hawks dropped templates and jumped back up into the air until turn 5.  The templates did very little, taking out maybe 2 devestators.  My Vanguard vets came on turn 4 and plastered a unit of jetbikes and then b-lined it for his objective.  They got very close and then were hosed down by the nightspinner, a unit of jetbikes and a unit of swooping hawks. 

The big deal was that in the combat with Eldrad, I had about 8 models, including a priest and two fists.  I couldn't put a wound on him due to his fortuned 3++ save.  However, the extra attack my opponent gave erroneously paid off in dividends, taking care of all but one power fist model over the course of turns 3-5.  On turn 5, my last remaining power fist lost combat when the sanguinary priest was finally killed and actually broke from combat.  He wasn't caught and Eldrad moved away from him.  He then rallied and found some cover in jump range of my opponent's objective in turn 6, but the game ended there. 

In the end, it was a victory for the Eldar, but I take some solace in the fact that I was out-pointed and fought in some unjust combats.  Excuses aside, I really enjoyed playing a majority DoA list.  I actually didn't get much play out of my devs in this game as he kept the harlequins and tanks away from them.  I might actually investigate going full DoA because when everything came down and started mopping up, it was a thing of beauty.  I really enjoyed having that much concentrated pressure on my opponent, turn 2.  One of things that really messed me over was losing my Librarian so early.  If he has survived (perhaps in an assault squad), he could have helped to prevent some of Eldrad's powers as when he was alive he blocked all but a single psychic attempt. 

Again, this was a fun game and I really enjoyed getting to play a real-life game with real models with a person, face-to-face.  Hopefully, I will get a chance to do so again soon.

Other Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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