1500pt REMATCH "Waylaying the Saim Hann": PART 1

INTRODUCTION

A month ago, I dealt a fairly dismissive annihilation battle victory on my good friends Ant's much dust encrusted Saim Hann Eldar force. At the time I crowed my victory thanks to the 'rubix cube' of the Tarpits and Imperial Armour that gave me a solid win. Mortars were my mainstay, with 15 of the buggers pounding the Jetbikes into submission.

It quickly became clear that (thanks in no small part to the specialist assistance of Fritz from Way of Saim Hann and Dwoemer from Maunderings of a 40k Gamer that I'd survived my first outing against Saim Hann in a state of unknowing arrogance.

The combination of a S9 shot or close combat attack, combined with the use of destructor makes Saim Hann Seer Council's absolutely lethal to Guardsmen. Simply put, there is nothing in the guardsmen list which can gain any kind of 'save' from this attack.

Now, many players were suggesting Deamon Hunters or Witch Hunter Allies (with their anti invulnerable armour shots AND anti-psyker hoods) or maybe Psyker battle choirs or Assassins... or Vendettas/Valks ... or some other intervention...

I'm not a big fan of doing this. I'd challenged Ant to a rematch, one he deserved, and I wasn't going to besmirch my honour by 'buying my way out' of trouble. I was fixed on beating Saim Hann with a standard guard guys and tanks ... surely there must be a way of nullifying or overcoming the seer council with my normal army??!?

KOCHI 'TURTLE' - ANTI ELDAR TACTICA

This approach isn't fullproof, but it does give you an even chance of cancelling out a seer council while still holding your lines. Let's face it, the Seer Council rules, but they have one weakness - the witchblade...

'Wohwohwoh!' I hear you cry, the witchblade? Yes the witchblade. While the witchblade is a S9 weapon against tanks and wounds everything on a 2+, it is neither a force or power weapon. This nutshell means that the opponents of the witchblade get both a saving throw AND other bonuses like FNP etc! This significantly reduces the efficiency of witchblades, and undermines the benefit of bonuses like 'doom' for the witchblade or destructor. Why bother, you wound everything on a 2+ anyway?!? This means that a Seer Council would still really struggle against the likes of a Space Marine Command squad with apothacary ... 3+ (or 2+) saving throw plus 4+ FNP ... that kinda beats your 4+ rerollable.

This doesn't help Guard very much, as I have no MEQ equivilents (my squad of DeathWatch Killteam Space Marines would have been perfect!). The best I could do on this front would be a carapaced and medipacked command team. They would effectively 'equal' the seer council on saving throws ... but at +50pts, plus weaponry etc - they weren't actually that useful. I could consider beauties like Straken (but I don't have him!)...

So I went away to a small room and did a little Math-Hammer. I established that (ignoring uber death destructor), a farseer and crew would do on average 10 wounds on the charge and 6 wounds per turn in combat. 6 wounds per turn is rubbish. Now if only I could 'catch' him in close combat with a 30 man tarpit with a stubborn Commissar ... goodbye and goodriddence!

So the next question ... how do I get to charge and uber fast unit with plebs and without being flamed to death on their charge? I came up with the followingGo for open terrain or difficult terrain you can park your vehicles on (craters etc) honeytrap:

1. Deploy a line of Chimeras across the front (this presents a nice big 'shoot me' target to the opponent)
2. Deploy 3-4 combined Guardsmen between the Chimeras and behind. The ideal is to place 4 lascannons/autocannons in the open between three chugs. Majority of Troops are 8" behind Chug/HWTs.
3. Deploy a 10 man RoughRider unit nearby.

This results in the following options:

1. If Seer Council goes in for assault, can only achieve a maximum of ten hits with Destructor (ie 2 each for heavy weapon teams and then kills 10) they are then tied up in a 10-20 men tarpit. Add more guardsmen to keep them tied down.
2. If the Seer Council attack a Chimera and then retreat max 18" away. Charge and assault with the Rough Riders. The Rough Riders should hold them for a turn and may cause 1-2 wounds. Follow up with tarpit and trap them.
3. If brightlance/starcannon etc hits and then Seer Council attacks - you're dead meat.

Soooo not exactly fullproof, but it gave me options... finally I backed this up on

ARMY LISTS

Kochi 'Waylayers' -1500pts

NB: All Chimeras are armed with Multilaser, Heavy Bolter and Heavy Stubber

• HQ: Command Squad with Regimental Banner, Vox-caster, Heavy Bolter in Chimera.
• Troops: Platoon #1: Command with 2 Sniper Rifles and a Heavy Bolter in Chimera.
• 3 Infantry Squads with 3 Autocannons, Commissar and vox.
• Troops: Platoon #2: Command with 1 Sniper Rifle, 1 Grenade Launcher and a Heavy Bolter in Chimera.
• 3 Infantry Squads with 3 Lascannons, Commissar and vox
• Additional Chimera
• Fast Attack: Rough Riders [5]
• Fast Attack: Rough Riders [5]
• Fast Attack: Banewolf, extra armour, heavy bolter, heavy stubber, smoke
• Heavy Support: Leman Russ Battle Tank, 3 Heavy Bolters
• Heavy Support: Basilisk, Heavy Bolter.

Ant's Saim Hann Force 'the Fat Bottomed Ladies'

• Seer Council, Farseer (Doom, Furtune, Mindwar, Runes of Witnessing), 6 Warlocks (Destructor), 2 with Singing Spears.
• 3 x 6 man jetbikes squads (2 Shuriken Cannons)
• Fire Prism, Holofields and spirit stones
• Falcon Grav Tank, Starcannon (the S8 AP2 Heavy 2 one) and a scatter laser
• 3 Vypers (twin shuriken cannons)

PREFACE

So it was going to be my thin tank line and horde versus Eldar speed and Fortune tomfoolery ... we rolled for battle and Ant groaned as we rolled Annihilation - but that wasn't so good for me either with all this transports... and we rolled for Spearhead.

I won the roll and opted to go first ... time to turtle up in the corner gents.

So place your bets, ladies and gentlemen ... who do you think will win? Vote on the Poll! Give me your reasons ... what will be the final score?