First battle with an Ynnari list - 1600 points vs Ultramarines

Fought my first battle using the Ynnari list last night. I lost but I think this was mainly due to bad luck and some list design issues rather than any issues with the army itself. My list was:

Ynnari Reborn Warhost (7 units)
HQ
Succubus
Archite Glaive, Armour of Misery, Webway Portal, Haywire Grenades
The Visarch
Warlord Trait: Master of Death

Troops
Windriders
Scatter Lasers
Windriders
Scatter Lasers

Fast Attack
Reavers
Cluster Caltrops
Reavers
Cluster Caltrops
Reavers
Cluster Caltrops

Ynnari Reborn Warhost (11 units)
HQ
Archon
Blaster, WWP
Spiritseer
Psychic Powers: Psychic Shriek, Empower/Enervate

Troops
Kabalite Warriors
Kabalite Warriors

Fast Attack
Beastmasters
Beastmaster, 5 Khymerae
Beastmasters
Beastmaster, 4 Khymerae
Starweaver

Elites
Fire Dragons
Exarch

Formation – Cast of Players
Shadowseer
Mastery Level 2, Mask of Secrets
Psychic Powers: Veil of Tears, Peal of Discord, Mirror of Minds
Inriam’s Spectre
Troupe
2 Players, 5 Players with Caress, Troupe Master (Warlord) with Caress and The Lost Shroud
Warlord Trait: The Hero's Call

1599 Points, 56 models, 31 Dark Eldar, 13 Eldar, 11 Harlequins, 1 Ynnari

I was up against an Ultramarines army with an Imperial Knight (Cerastus Knight-Castigator). We had Tigurius, 3 Grav Centurions, 3 SM Tactical Squads in Rhinos, a Contemptor, a squad of Scouts and a formation with 2 Land Speeders and 2 Storm Talons. Not sure what it was called.

The Marines set up first and deployed the Cents (and Tigurius) and the Tacticals in Rhinos on my right flank with the Contemptor in the middle and the Knight on my left. I deployed everything in or behind ruins on my right, other than a single unit of Kabalites who went in ruins on my far left. This left the Knight and Contemptor fairly isolated and needing to reposition. He then infiltrated his scouts into a ruin in the middle of the table. mY Deathstar (Cast of Players, Visarch, Succubus, Spiritseer) and the Archon and Fire Dragons in the Starweaver remained in deep strike reserve.

With +4 on my roll to seize (from my warlord trait), I managed to avoid rolling a 1 and off we went! The beasts and 2 units of Reavers immediately advanced towards the Rhinos as fast as possible whilst the scatbikes moved out from behind a ruin to draw a bead on the closest Rhino. The last unit of Reavers moved as close as possible to the Scouts in the middle.

The scatbikes wrecked a Rhino (First Blood), forcing the marines to disembark. The beasts and Reavers then ran/turbo'd even further forward, crowding into a ruins right in front of the marines. I knew he had no blast/template weapons so I wasn't worried about bunching up. The other Reavers assaulted the Scouts, losing 2 models but killing 3 and then used H&R to return to safety out of LOS behind some ruins.

The Marine turn was our first introduction to Strength from Death as the Knight and Contemptor moved to get LOS to my scatbikes (but couldn't quite get there), the Marines disembarked from their Rhinos and Tigurius and the Cents emerged from some ruins to draw LOS on the selection of Reavers and beasts in front of their lines. They chose to shoot the Reavers (as they would need 6's to wound anything else) and promptly annihilated them. As my units were closely bunched up though, that triggered SfD, and due to the Warhost of Ynnead rule I was able to take 3 Soulburst actions, which I used to charge 2 units of disembarked Marines with my Beasts and Turbo boost the remaining unit of Reavers behind the Cents and out of LOS of pretty much everything else. Nothing else had LOS to anything so we moved onto the assault phase, which saw 2 units of beasts nearly chew through 2 units of Marines but ATSKNF kicked in and the combats continued into the second turn.

Turn 2 arrived and I promptly failed both 3+ reserve rolls. I'd be lying if I said that didn't make the battle an uphiill struggle as most of my AT capability was still in reserve and I still had a Knight and Contemptor to deal with! I just had to cope as best I could in their absence.

The beasts were tied up in combat so I moved the scatbikes to shoot up the remaining Rhinos, whilst the Reavers on my right prepared to engage the Cents. The sole surviving Reaver in the middle again moved as close to the Scouts as possible. No psychic phase so we moved onto shooting. The Scatbikes wrecked a Rhino but nothing was close enough to trigger SfD. The Reavers shot up the Cents but did no damage. They then assaulted and managed to cause a single wound. The Cents and Tigurius then retaliated and wiped them out. This would have triggered SfD but the only unit close enough was the Beasts and they were already locked in combat. The lone Reaver once again assaulted the Scouts, survived overwatch, killed two, took no wounds in return and H&R back out of LOS! The beasts and marines continued their combats but both were draws. The Scatbikes used their thrust move to get out of LOS of as much as possible.

Marine turn two saw the arrival of one flyer and the Land Speeders which all deployed on my left to try and remove my sole unit of Kabalites and be able to claim the objectives on that side of the table later in the game. The Knight moved to my left (not really sure why) and the Contemptor advanced into the middle. The Cents had nothing to shoot at so moved towards an objective. The forces on my left shot everything into the Kabalites, who went to ground and somehow only took 2 casualties. The Contemptor fired at a unit of Scatbikes, wiping it out but that enabled me to shoot with the other unit and take out the last Rhino. The combats between marines and beasts continued. One unit of beasts rolled shockingly, doing no damage, losing 2 beasts in return, rolling a 12 for morale followed by another 12 for their fall back distance (they weren't swept). The other unit was kept in combat by one Marine who refused to die and ATSKNF kept him in the fight.

My turn 3 and no Fire Dragons but the Harlequins finally arrived, dropping in behind some ruins near Tigs and the Cents. My beasts rolled another 12 for their regroup test and another 12 for their fall back distance and were suddenly dangerously close to my own table edge. The scatbikes moved to target the last unit of marines. The psychic phase was superb. I managed to cast Mirror of Minds on Tigurius, who failed to Deny it. My LD of 9 vs his reduced Ld of 6 was not a sure thing but I managed to beat him 3 times on the trot and down goes the mighty Tigurius! It later occurred to me that he should possibly have been using the lowest Ld in the unit, due to the Visarch, which would have made it a sure thing, but never mind. Soulburst from slaying enabled me to move the Harlequins into cover (which proved highly advisable). Shooting was pretty much uneventful and the lone Reaver repeated his Scout assault trick yet again!

Marine turn 3 and the last flyer turned up on my right. The forces on my left finally killed off the cowering Kabalites. The Contemptor moved towards my table edge and shot at the last scatbikes but only killed one. The Knight positioned itself with it's rear arc against a wall because it knew my Fire Dragons would be arriving next turn. The Cents shot everything at the Harlequins in cover but with Shrouded from Inriam's Spectre they had a 2+ save and made every single roll. The Stormtalon also fired at them and did nothing. My luck was running red hot there but was about to take a turn for the worse (see turn 4). No psychic or assault phase.

Turn 4 and my Fire Dragons arrived, emerging belatedly from the webway. The Starweaver positioned itself to fire at the Land Speeders but, due to positioning of the Knight, the embarked Fire Dragons were forced to fire into it's front arc (he chose to Ion Shield the side). The psychic phase saw the Cents wiped out by Psychic Shriek. The Harlequins moved into some ruins in the center, using Soulburst. The scatbikes moved to try to get into the side or rear of the Contemptor so there was little shooting other than from the newly arrived Fire Dragons, Archon and Starweaver. In a flurry of shuriken, darklight and fusion fire they managed to inflict a grand total of 1HP on the Knight and none on the Land Speeders. A couple of mates who were watching the game fell about laughing at the sheer awfulness of my dice rolling. One of them even picked up the dice himself and gave it a shot. If he'd been rolling, the Knight would have died and one of the Land Speeders would be dust!

Marine turn 4 saw my last units of scatbikes and Kabalites die and the Knight shot at exploded the Starweaver and then charged the survivors, who didn't carry on surviving for long. That pretty much ended the game as I had very little left and no means of securing enough objectives to get the win.

Overall, a very fun game but the lack of reseve manipulation (I'm probably dropping the Visarch and getting an Autarch instead) and some awful luck with the Fire Dragons put an end to any hope of victory.

Strength from Death is a very interesting rule and once the book has been properly FAQ'd I think it will make for some fun games. I purposefully chose a majority Dark Eldar list. Obviously it could be much better with Craftworld units but I'm a DE player so I wanted to see how it helps us. I think it makes us stronger but the loss of FNP is noticeable.

@Count Adhemar excellent report good sir! Did you find that certain units benefitted more from Soulburst than others?

The Scatbikes certainly benefitted greatly but you'd expect that as getting a second shooting phase with so many scatter lasers is never a bad thing. The Beasts and Reavers also benefitted as they were able to either reposition or charge quite easily.

It's quite interesting to get used to the style of play needed. You want to bunch up to get the benefit from SfD but that can be tricky if you're facing anything with lots of templates or pie plates so that will take some careful consideration.

Target priority is also important. You want to make sure you kill stuff that's within 7" of your units but you can then use the Soulburst action to take out stuff further away.

Some interesting points there! I imagine it will need some careful planning. I imagine the more this army is played, the harder it will be to pull off as people grow wise to our shenanigans

Do you think going more Revenant-heavy could have changed something?

Count Adhemar wrote:

(I'm probably dropping the Visarch and getting an Autarch instead)

I think the Visarch would make a great Autarch conversion. He already has 2 slots on his back for the trophy racks or whatever they are to swap in some swooping hawk wings instead, then give him a banshee head and you're off to the races with a swooping hawk winged, shard of anaris-toting, banshee mask autarch!

"My LD of 9 vs his reduced Ld of 6"

I think you mean LD of 10 vs his reduced Ld of 6. If you roll a 1 he would need a 6 to beat.

I meant to share my own first game from last night, against GSC, but it was such a cluster and there was so much soul burst popping off that I couldn't possibly make a coherent report of it. So color me impressed.

Thx Count for posting! How do you feel Heatlance Scourges would gave done? Cheaper than the FDs with Archon, same hitting potential

Dalamar wrote:

"My LD of 9 vs his reduced Ld of 6"

I think you mean LD of 10 vs his reduced Ld of 6.  If you roll a 1 he would need a 6 to beat.

No, it was a Spiritseer casting Psychic Shriek and they're Ld9. But I should have been rolling against the lowest Leadership in the unit, which was the Centurions (Ld8) so in fact, with the -4 LD from Mask and Armour it was an auto death

@fisheyes I took the Fire Dragons because I wanted them in a vehicle as I was fairly sure I'd be facing a Knight and I wanted to be able to fire at his unshielded arc. Fat lot of use that did me lol.

are you sure,

"I managed to cast Mirror of Minds on Tigurius, who failed to Deny it. My LD of 9 vs his reduced Ld of 6 was not a sure thing but I managed to beat him 3 times on the trot and down goes the mighty Tigurius!"

It had to be a shadowseer for MoM. and Psychic Shriek is not focused.

D'oh! Getting myself tied up in knots. You're right, it was the Shadowseer casting MoM, and Spiritseer casting Shriek. So it was indeed Ld 10 vs what should have been the lowest Ld in the unit (Ld8 for the Cents) with a -4 penalty due to Armour and Mask, which is a guaranteed kill.

I just got my hands on the Fracture book the other day. I have a question about the Marine player's first turn. How you were able to make 3 Soulburst actions? I know you get one for the Ynnari special rule Strength From Death, then you get an additional one for the Warhost of Ynnead rule in your Reborn Warhost Detachment. Where does the third Soulburst come from?



EDIT: I've included a quoted sentence so you can Ctrl+f the line I'm talking about.

"As my units were closely bunched up though, that triggered SfD, and due to the Warhost of Ynnead rule I was able to take 3 Soulburst actions, which I used to charge 2 units of disembarked Marines with my Beasts and Turbo boost the remaining unit of Reavers behind the Cents and out of LOS of pretty much everything else."

Likely 2 units were killed with split fire from the cents. I know I have never seen a cent star without an omniscope.

Yeah, that might be it. Each unit can only Soulburst once so maybe only 3 units were in range and any extra Soulbursts were wasted. I guess it's an older report now so it might be hard to remember the exact circumstances.