Kirtonian Conflict XII - Part One

 

Dick Jones convinced myself and Dick Nixon to attended Kirtonian Conflict XII, this weekend at Kirton Games. It's a 1000 point, 3 round event and should be a good day out. I've enjoyed their events for a variety of game systems, although this is my first 40k attendance since Kirtonian Conflict VIII

I took the Drukhari to that one, and had a really good performance. For this one though, I'm going to stick with my beloved Iyanden. Despite GW's best efforts to put me off Wraith units.

Aeldari Incursion (1000 points) 

Battle Host 

CHARACTERS 

Autarch Wayleaper (115 points) • Warlord • 1x Dragon fusion gun 1x Mandiblasters 1x Star glaive 

Death Jester (105 points) • 1x Jester’s blade 1x Shrieker cannon • Enhancement: Fate’s Messenger 

OTHER DATASHEETS 

Dire Avengers (70 points) • 1x Dire Avenger Exarch • 1x Avenger shuriken catapult 1x Avenger shuriken catapult 1x Close combat weapon • 4x Dire Avenger • 4x Avenger shuriken catapult 4x Close combat weapon 

Falcon (140 points) • 1x Bright lance 1x Pulse laser 1x Twin shuriken catapult 1x Wraithbone hull 

Fire Dragons (85 points) • 1x Fire Dragon Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Firepike • 4x Fire Dragon • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Dragon fusion gun 

Fire Prism (180 points) • 1x Prism cannon 1x Shuriken cannon 1x Wraithbone hull 

Rangers (55 points) • 5x Ranger • 5x Close combat weapon 5x Ranger long rifle 5x Shuriken pistol 

Rangers (55 points) • 5x Ranger • 5x Close combat weapon 5x Ranger long rifle 5x Shuriken pistol 

Swooping Hawks (80 points) • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch • 1x Aeldari power sword 1x Close combat weapon 1x Hawk’s talon • 4x Swooping Hawk • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Lasblaster 

Warp Spiders (115 points) • 1x Warp Spider Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Death spinner 1x Death spinner 1x Powerblades • 4x Warp Spider • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Death spinner

When the Dicks have posted lists recently, I've been posing them the following questions (stolen from Goonhammer) 

1. What's your plan for dealing with Hordes?
2. What's your plan for dealing with Vehicle/Monsters?
3. How are you approaching the Primary?
4. How are you handling Secondaries?

This ensures that you are already making plans during the building stage, and not just taking units that look cool or defaulting to your faves. So, what are my answers?

1. Geoffrey Dester, on Sustained mode. Getting anywhere between 6 and 12 hits with decent firepower and potential Dev Wounds is amazing into Infantry hordes. This is backed up by the Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Dire Avengers and the alternate firing mode of the Fire Prism. I should have little trouble clearing chaff.
2. The Fire Prism's main gun is flat 6 damage. If that fails I have the guns on the Falcon and the unit of Fire Dragons, plus the Autarch in a pinch.
3. The Primary is a difficult one. With so many abilities granting bonuses when units target enemies on Objectives, and Toughness 3 making most of my Elite army fragile, I can't afford to sit and hope to survive any attempt to shift me. I will have to claim Objectives where I feel safe from retaliation, while using my killing power to try and stop my opponent from getting too far ahead on the Primary themselves. Hopefully I can catch up/overtake in the second half of the game.
4. The Rangers let me start in good positions for scoring, and the list has a lot of mobility. I'm likely to start the Warp Spiders in Deep Strike, as well as the Falcon. It's payload will be match-up dependant. My choices are the Fire Dragons or the Dire Avengers, both can be great when dropped in behind the right foe. The Swooping Hawks ability to jump off and on the table is also key to this.

I've only managed a couple of games for testing, both against Necrons. The Obeisance Phalanx and the Annihilation Legion. Both were very different builds and playstyles despite being from the same book.

Against the Phalanx, my list had a Wraithlord and a D-Cannon platform instead of the Falcon, Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers. The Wraithlord hitting on 4s makes it a massive liability at 160 points, which upsets me as it's one of the models that got me into the game. The D-Cannon, long one of my favourite weapons, is very expensive now for d3 shots. I understand how good it is, but feel it needs to be taken in multiples, which you can't afford in a 1000 point game.

This lead to me swapping to help with scoring in the second game, at the cost of the Iyanden flavouring. Hopefully having the extra units should give me a little more table coverage, while also being much more manouvreable than the Support Platform was. 

The Dataslates have been unkind to Aeldari, rightly so given their tournament performance. But point increases based on 2000 point armies are always going to make list building for 1000 points more difficult. Making Guardians cheaper almost makes them feel useable, but they are still very fragile. And a unit size of 10 makes them difficult to hide. Add in a Leader to Bodyguard and that's 20% of your list already gone. So I'm not happy with them in an Incursion

That's the list and the logic. Now to see if the plan survives contact with the enemy tomorrow