Eldar vs Space Marines, 2nd ed 40K battle (new rules re combat resolution)

Warburton 40K, AAR / Battle Report, Eldar, , , , , , ,

Last night my Alaitoc Warp Hunters took on Jason’s Dark Angels in a bloody battle. I remembered to take a few photos this time and I wrote up a brief report of the battle (but this is not a comprehensive battle report). We also used our own house rules for combat resolution for the first time.

The combat resolution rules basically import the rules from 6th/7th edition fantasy to work out combat resolution – to deal with the fact that assaults in 40K are not decisive and bog down units for too many turns. What is the point of assaulting though except to force a decision? Basically you charge and conduct combat as normal, then work out the result as follows:
Outnumbering: +1
Leader/character model present: +1
Charged?: +1
Defending from cover/bunker/prepared position/etc: +1
Number of kills/wounds won by: Add to score
Final result should see someone win the combat by a certain number of points, the loser then has to take a leadership test with that number of points deducted. If they fail they break and can be pursued and destroyed. Fearless units simply fall back and the victor can perform a sweeping advance if they wish.

This was a test for this game and it worked pretty well and the combats were quicker to come to a conclusion. We will keep working on this.

Onto the game itself:

I had the Witch Hunters and Assassins missions and my opponent had High Ground and Take & Hold. I set up on a refused flank and tried to avoid the Deathwing terminators in the middle of the table as much as possible keeping only a small blocking force in the centre dugout hidden behind a forest and deploying everything else to the flanks.

The Dark Angels advanced on three fronts with Terminators and a dreadnought in the centre and the left flank comprising a captain and tactical marines, and the right flank Ezekiel himself and a combat squad of tactical marines, with Ravenwing leading the way.

I crushed the Ravenwing in short order and then a lone Warp spider destroyed Ezekiel and the tactical marines by warping in and shooting and warping away before they could shoot back. My farseer who had been intending to kill Ezekiel himself ended up twiddling his thumbs a fair bit.

The rangers and some infiltrating Striking Scorpions did a good job of bogging down the Dark Angels’ left flank, holding them up for a few turns, at the cost of too many irreplaceable eldar lives though. The wraithguard and a warlock were slowly advancing down this flank keeping behind the treeline to avoid any fire from the terminators. Unfortunately the Scorpions were all killed in combat by the Captain and his squad, who then charged the wraithguard, who had been hoping to shoot up the tactical squad whilst the scorpions dealt with the Captain. However, the wraithguard and their warlock leader destroyed what remained of the Captain and the veteran squad, the Captain killing a wraithguard in combat only to be sucked into the warp himself as the wraith’s spirit stone collapsed! The eldar warlock butchered the demoralised survivors with his witchblade and was the sole remaining survivor out of the two squads that had entered the melee!

Our combat resolution rules worked well to resolve the combats on this side of the board and we will keep refining them and eventually publish a proper rule addendum.

In the centre the war walkers (after completing their flanking move after destroying the Ravenwing) and guardians shot the terminators to pieces and the dreadnoughts met each other in close combat after a long range lascannon duel failed to be decisive, with the eldar dreadnoughts prevailing in the end!

In the end I had achieved my objectives and the game ended up in an emphatic points victory for me though it was closer on the table…with a hefty butcher’s bill on both sides the dazed eldar survivors were left to contemplate if their victory had been worth the cost.

16 thoughts on “Eldar vs Space Marines, 2nd ed 40K battle (new rules re combat resolution)”

  4. Oh, this is pure love! I need more reports! And more pics!
    I totally agree about the close combat rules. When I play 2nd Ed we replace combat with WHFB4th rules, which is kind of an equivalent of your choice. Hm, I’d have to have a look to 6th to compare!

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    • Thanks Suber – I will definitely post a few more game reports this year! Good to hear you agree about the rules – I think they are fairly similar but my friend wrote the mod so I didn’t actually look at the rulebook to check. There were only two close combats in this game so they didn’t get much of a try-out but we will keep trying and see how it goes. We kept the combat rules the same though, so you still had the classic 2nd ed individual combats, but we just changed what happens to resolve the combat at the end.

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    • Thanks! Yes they probably do but in my view there needs to a level up to close combat troops because shooting is so devastating in 2nd ed but CC is just…not much happens because it doesn’t reach a decisive result often enough and combats drag on for multiple turns without a result (when in reality once combatants hit CC a result is happening one way or the other…!). So overall I thought it made for a better game but we still need to do more testing and refinement no doubt.

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    • Overall I like it, I like the way the individual models actually matter and combat between characters can become quite cinematic as they take each other on…but combats drag on sometimes for multiple turns and this rule really just tries to make it a decisive result after one round, which in reality most close combat would be. Let me know how you go!

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    • Thanks mate – we actually enjoy the Herohammer aspect but overall combats drag on too long so we are enjoying this modifier – it also makes characters a bit more vulnerable too if they can be taken out if their unit flees on losing a combat…

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