BR13: The Black Buzzards VS DE Venomspam - 1500pts

A new report. This time a Dark Eldar Civil War! Unfortunately I don't have access to a windows machine at the moment so I had to use Vassel for the report, and improvise with funky football tactics style arrows!

The armies:

Black Buzzards (BUZ)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade
Archon, shadow field, venom blade

TROOPS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, Sails, NS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, Sails, NS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, Sails, NS

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

Shadows Revenge's Dark Eldar (SR)

HQ
Baron

TROOPS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS
5 Warriors, blaster
Venom, extra cannon, NS

FAST ATTACK
4 Beast masters, 4 razorwing flocks, 10 Khymeras

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager, NS
Ravager, NS
Ravager, NS

Mission: The Emperor's Will
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night fight on first turn: Yes
First turn: Shadows Revenge
Warlord Trait BUZ: Night Attacker (Night fight)
Warlord Trait SR: Devid to Conquer (-1 reserves)
Drugs BUZ: Hipex (3d6 run pick the highest)

Deployment:

SR spread out, whilst I tried to hide what I could and kept the rest in reserve.


Turn 1(SR):

SR's forces move forward and everything fired into the reavers, after a turn of shooting there were four reavers still standing, however they failed their leadership test and flew off the board earning SR first blood.

Turn 1(BUZ):

The moved Reavers forward and fired at the beasts killing two. And then proceeded to assault, pulling off a 9" charge. Assault was lost six to three and the surviving reavers fall back and don't get caught. The two raiders moved flat out towards the centre line.

Turn 2 (SR):

A ravager fired at a the archon's raider destroying it, the explosion killed six wyches, and leaving the survivors pinned. Another ravager fired at the succubus' raider destroying it, the explosion killed six wyches. Everything else finishes off the archon and his unit (2+ cover saves from going to ground in an area terrain ruin), and shooting also killed the succubus' escorts, leaving only the succubus standing. The beasts charged here and the baron defeated her in a challenge (having two re-rolls from outnumbering her). DE Victory!

SR VPs: Over 9000! BUZ VPs: 0 (Tabled!)

Conclusion

Where to start? I lost the game at deployment, because I was overestimating how dangerous venoms were (first game against DE in 6th), I should have deployed my whole army. I also played too passively because again I was scared of the venoms. The assault on the beasts was more of an experiment (never having used or played against beasts) and a result of not wanting to be left exposed to enemy shooting. For some reason I didn't stick to my usual plan of mass target saturation and tried to play differently. As you can see this was a bad idea. Having yet to play an army with so much long range anti infantry fire power that can afford to spread out like that due to mobility really made me panic, I'm used to being able to hide part of my army and keep the rest out of range of most threats.

Although short the game was a lot of fun and a really good eye opener, revealing a few flaws in my list that I need to look into (although bad deployment was the main culprit here). Shadows Revenge was a gentleman opponent and the fact that he won the game at deployment was very impressive. Looking forward to our next game.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

Nice, yeah I see where your mistakes were! Quite often the game can be lost against a shooty army first turn. Just look at Imperial Guard back in 5th! I think though you would have had a hard time from the start, an Infantry army against one of the best AI lists available... have you ever heard of the charge of the light brigade because this was it Good bat rep as ever though!

It was a great match Mush, and anytime you want a rematch, just ask We already discussed this after the game, but Ill try and cover some of what we talked about.

First off like you said you should of deployed agressively. A list like this in many ways is like an IG list, the more you make your opponent move, the more they open up for mistakes. Sure, its way different with DE (as I match you speed for speed mostly) but still saturating the board with targets to shoot at T1 might of made me make a few mistakes.

Also I think you should of deployed more towards your left, with the reavers hugging the middle area terrain for cover. I deployed the way I deployed to force you into the sights of my venoms, or the jaws of my beasts. By opposing my beasts with your raiders, you had a chance to beat them with the combined attack of both your succubus and Archon.

But you would of have to be careful of my pincer move with the venoms, to counter that I would of used the reavers to kinda create a killzone for my venoms. I would instinctly want to try to get the warriors in range to help the beasts once they hit and run out of combat, but buy dangling that hook out that is your wych squads in the open, you might of been able to catch a venom or two open for a heat lance.

Overall I think you played too conservitive, which hurt you this game. But live and let learn aye

Wow, savage batrep. Unexpectedly brief, to be sure. No patented Mushkilla comeback on this one!


Also, SR, sorry, just because it drives me crazy: "should have", not "should of". (You could also use "should've".

Haha, that ending sure was unexpected! Short, yet nice battle report. Also I might be one of the few who likes Vassal better than BattleChronicle for the reports, since you can really see the units for what they are.
All in all, cool report. I've yet to play a mirror match and this makes me realize how powerful we can be against ourselves!

@Foo and SR:
I was really thinking the same about all the "should of"s and considering to comment on it, too. No offense, SR, but "should of" instead of "should have" makes less sense than "their" instead of "they're", "would of have" even less. And yet, both mistakes are astonishingly common on the internet.
Again, nothing personal!

This battle report turned into a Language Arts class!

Ouch.

lol no offense taken guys, Im never been great at english (actually hated that in highschool)

LOL you got Night Fight trait... first step to disaster I guess!

You should ask for a rematch, but I think this list is quite though for yours. Reasons: too many targets for you to kill (venomspam), almost the same mobility as you have and better mid and short range shooting. The only thing you can kill easily is beasts, but it would be a mistake because against you its only threat is being a bait.

Try to counter this how you can!!

Night Fight is good when NOT against DE.... reason? Night Vision. as both of you were DE you had a trait which was useless in this battle