Sabotage the Bridge

I can't play Kill Team with others as often as I want so the NPO rules have been a godsend as now I can point at the table and say "I'm not playing with myself really, I'm playing agains the NPOs!"

Anyway, all that to say I played again against the NPOs, this time with the Corsairs against the Chaos Marines on the derelict Ribicon Dynastry, where the Void Hunters needed to sabotage the bridge controls before the chaos legion took them into the warp.

The board setup as the mission describes with lots of added flair from my ITD terrain collection.

91 wounds of Marines and a chaos Arbites.

The Void Hunters preparing to storm the bridge.

On the right.

Centre forces to fight over the main control.

The left flank.

On the left the marines take first blood as the Corsairs advanced too close to the blades.

On the right the chaincannon sends bullets flying through the open hatch.

The wraithcannon heavy gunner continues to prove his worth as he rips apart the marksman.

The Felarch tried the trick with the warding shield and once per game interrupt to bait and kill a brawler but my rolls were terrible and it killed the leader with one wound remaining.

The Fatedealer retreated to try and keep the marines from overrunning his position.

In the centre, both sides moved up but no shots were exchanged.

The mortally wounded brawler was finished off and the Eldar advanced on the right flank.

Turning point 2 starts and the marines have the initiative. Wasting no time, a brawler quickly dispatches the Shaderunner.

But the duelist's pistol barrage of fusion and shuriken return the death.

Seeing an opportunity where the NPOs left the centre objetcive too undefended, the gunner runs in and sabotages the control panel.

Furious, the heavy marksmen returns fire with deadly accuracy before the Arbites finishes the wounded corsair off.

On the right flank, the objective is sabotaged without effort.

On the left, the Marksman advanced and threw smoke so that the Fatedealer's return fire is not effective.

End of Turning point 2, the Eldar control the right flank while the marines control the centre, with the left flank locked in combat.

Turning point 3, the Eldar get initiative and the wraithcannon again proves its worth as it sends another NPO to the warp.

This gives the chance to the Marksman on the left to advance to negate the cover of the fatedealer. He survives the first salvo, but not the second.

The psychic Wayseeker uses the warding shield on the heavy gunner and goes on guard.

The renegade Arbites runs out and is quickly lightning struck.

Turning point 4 the heavt marksman in the control room comes out to shoot at the threat at the rear, but is quickly overwhelmed by the fire[power.

The last marine runs back to try to defend the last objective from being sabotaged, but the agile Eldar quickly ran in and destroyed it with ease.

Victory to the Eldar!

Time for the Corsairs

 I broke out the NPO rules again, this time to try my hand with the Corsair Voidscarred kill team versus NPOs of heavy brawlers and marksmen.

The Eldar Fatedealer and Heavy Gunner try to own high ground while the rest of the team run forward...

... but the Black Storm have more and higher high ground. Eek!

In hindsight, the Breach mission which is just an "eliminate the other team" mission in which the NPOs get a 9 inch deployed zone gave the NPOs access to too much high ground, an unfair advantage.

The heavy gunner with wraithcannon dealt 12 damage to a heavy brawler even in light cover.

But the heavy marksmen in the tower took care of the fatedealer in light cover even more easily. I should have deployed him with conceal in heavy cover to avoid this.

The Kurnathi hunter sends the Falchu to Seek out the wounded marine and finished him off while another heavy marksmen wounds the Kurnathi beside him.

After one turning point things are not looking too bad.

The wraithcannon proves its worth again killing the marine in the tower and throwing more smoke to stay safe.

The tide begins to turn as a heavy brawler charges and kills two Eldar before they do anything. The heavy NPOs get 3 action points and the heavy brawlers can fight twice while the heavy marksmen can shoot twice.

The Wayseeker finished off the marine for revenge with some well placed lightning.

A heavy marksmen used that double shoot to zero in on the wraithcannon gunner and eliminate him.

The Felarch tried to lure a heavy brawler into a door fight which would allow the Eldar warrior to strike first since he was in the stronghold while the marine was outside and maybe kill the marine, but the die rolls were against me and the Felarch fell while the marine survive with 2 wounds left.

I conceeded for the Voidscarred when there was just two left, the Kurnathi blademaster and the soulweaver.

In hindsight, the extra high ground and the 98 wounds of heavies proved to be too much, plus I made some rookie mistakes with the Eldar. I decided to try again with a more equitable board layout and one fewer marine (3 heavy brawlers and 3 heavy marksmen instead of 4 and 3).

The high strongholds are in the middle, and while the marines start 3 inches closer the Eldar are faster moving.

After one turning point, already the Eldar are leading. The two heavy marksmen on the high ground were baited out of conceal with some bait Eldar to shoot at and the wraithcannon, fatedealer, and wayseeker lightning made them both pay for it dearly. A heavy brawler on one flank killed an Eldar but was killed by fusion gun fire in return, a favourable exchange.

The Shaderunner got to slice the throat of a wounded marine and put him out of his misery with a slicing attack. The marine was mortally wounded by the wraithcannon, who is quickly becoming my MVP versus elites.

The Felarch again tried to bait a charge but this time was successful. He has a once a game ability to interupt an action to fight or shoot the operative he is interrupting, so the heavy brawler charged, I interrupted to fight meaning I could strike first. AND the Felarch had a warding sheild from the Wayseeker so could ignore the first damage. And I rolled decently so I was able to apply 12 damage before the first 5 damage from the brawler got through, and then had one more hit to kill him.

The finish the game, the duelist used the fusion pistol to finish off the last brawler.

Heavy NPOs are much tougher opponents than the light NPOs. The 14 wounds and 3+ armour save definitely makes them more survivable, coupled with 3 APL and double fight/shoot. Going to try a mixed NPO team next time.