Tactical Errors in-game: Deployment

So with the respective girls out on the lash (no, not off of Slaanesh) and my regular Friday night boys up in the depressed North for a night out I hooked up with my regular gaming buddy Steve for some 40k and Malifaux.

I asked if I could play his Eldar as I wanted to challenge the Loganwing (list can be found here, but with 1x Wolf Guard replaced with a Dread w TLAC, DCCW and 1xcombi-plasmas all round for each guard unit) with a different army – I’ve only ever played Mech Eldar once with these boys, I drew, but this doesn’t give me any real frame of reference for tactics/experience.

So he whopped out (1500 points);

Eldrad

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch – Shimmershield, Defend

Dire Avengers x 10, Exarch – DualSC, Bladestorm

Wave Serpent – EML

Pathfinders x 5

Warp Spiders x5, Exarch – Dual Deathspinners

Howling Banshees x6, Exarch – Executioner

Wave Serpent – SL

Fire Prism, Holo Fields

Dark Reapers x5, Exarch – Crack Shot, Tempest Launcher

We rolled up Dawn Of War and Seize Ground with 4 Objectives

End result, Eldar won.

I hear you. With my immense tactical genius how did this happen? Let me show you…

My deployment looked like this:

Three objectives were clustered about a sq ft around the terminator with white CML. Only the 2 s

quads around the middle of the board were deployed as per DoW, the rest rolled on turn 1.

The final objective was in the bottom left of the board. I chose to ignore this one, knowing that I only needed one more objective than the Eldar to win. Even with end game contesting shenanigans, I felt that I could kill at couple of skimmer to stop them contesting everything!

Eldar deployment was just the pathfinders as shown (very top right in

picture in the cover/ruin), then everything else moved and ran or moved flat out onto the board as so:

I focussed all my energy till turn 3 on this corner with skimmers, spiders et al.

The result was…..

My lovely troops who were there…are not.

I completely forgot about the Dark Reapers.

With the Tempest Launcher.

And the AP3 Missiles.

D’oh.

After one turn of shooting, I’d lost almost half my boys.

Idiot.

But this is not just about forgetting a unit. The following turn I removed the whole unit of Reapers using my 3 Long Fang units.

The 2 full Dire Avenger squads then removed the remnants of 2 squads of troops. Tit for tat.

Lets go back to that deployment and this quote…from me:

“…One was in the bottom left of the board. I chose to ignore this one, knowing that I only needed one more objective than the Eldar to win. Even with end game contesting shenanigans, I felt that I could kill at couple of skimmer to stop them contesting everything! …”

With my clustering of objectives and Eldar tricksy-ness in mind I ‘refused flank’ the objectives, but then (looking at picture 1, of deployment and turn 1 movement) I spread myself across the board.

The dread, 1x Long Fangs, Rune Priest and Grimnar…did bugger all most of the game, plinking away shots at fortuned, cover provided Eldar skimmers and even Pathfinders.

Over a full third of my army was out of position for where I had decided the game should take place.

I listened, Sun Tzu.

I decided where the battle should take place.

I had the engagement on my terms from before the game.

I then decided that it would be useful to contest the far, lone objective with a unit of relentless-Long Fangs, rune priest, dreadnought (which everything around the objective CANNOT HURT) and the Lord of all Space Wolves. Nob.

Ugh. Disgusted.

At one point in turn 2, I even walked around the Reapers and the DA’s and PLACED MY HAND OVER THEM, saying “…ignore them, they are not on yet…”

Nob jockey.

Breathe.

And learn.