Battle Report – Dark Eldar v Tyranids

This was not really a proper battle as my opponent is new to 40K and did not have access to his usual army (Orks) so was forced to borrow some Tyranids from a friend, who also wrote his list for him. He’d never played Tyranids before and wasn’t really familiar with the army so this was really nothing more than a casual practise game. His inexperience with Tyranids was slightly offset by the fact that this was the first time I’ve used my Dark Eldar in a full-size battle. Previously I’ve only ever played small battles or used them as allies. So it was a bit of a learning curve for both of us but in the interests of fairness I would have to say that I’m a much more experienced player than my opponent so any mistakes he made are entirely understandable. New player with an army he’d never used before against an army he’d never fought before!

Anyhoo, onto the details of the game! We decided to keep it simple and so we opted to play Purge the Alien with Dawn of War deployment. I won the dice off and opted to deploy first. The terrain was fairly symmetrical, with a tower and a ruin on each side of the table, a Skyshield Landing Pad (counted as Ruins) in the middle and a hill just off centre on my side of the table.

My list was:

Baron Sathonyx

Haemonculi
Liquifier Gun, Hexrifle

Kabalite Trueborn
4 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Kabalite Warriors
10 Kabalite Warriors, 1 Blaster, 1 Splinter Cannon, Raider, Splinter Racks, Night Shields

Kabalite Warriors
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Kabalite Warriors
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Beastmasters
3 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 4 Razorwing Flocks

Reavers
6 Reavers, 1 Heat Lance, 1 Blaster

Ravager
Night Shields, Flickerfields

Ravager
Disintegrators, Night Shields, Flickerfields

Eldrad Ulthuan
Prescience, Foreboding, Misfortune, Perfect Timing

Rangers
8 Pathfinders

The Tyranid list was (roughly):

Hive Tyrant
Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms, Armoured Shell, Iron Arm, Life Leech, Warp Speed
3 Tyrant Guard
3 Venomthropes
3 Zoanthropes (I only realised after the game that he’d used 4 Elite slots but never mind)
10 Tyranid Warriors
10 Termagants with Devourers
3 Carnifexes
Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms

Deployment
I deployed first, placing all my vehicles on my right behind a large ruin to give them some cover against any shooting. I put the Beastmasters (with Baron, Haem and Eldrad) on the far left. The Reavers were in reserve. The Tyranids deployed the Termagants in a ruin opposite my parking lot, with the Tyranid Warriors and Zoanthropes next to them, protecting all units with a Venomthrope. His Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard deployed slightly to my left and the Carnifexes were place on my far left, looking to eat my poor little beasties. I then deployed my Eldar Rangers in the upper levels of the ruin on my right. Before the first turn though I used Eldrad’s Divination ability to pull the old switcheroo and redeployed the beast unit with all characters over behind the hill on the right of the table, leaving the Carnifexes with nothing to munch on and hideously out of position.

The Tyranids failed to seize the initiative and we rolled Night Fight for the first turn. I forgot to roll for combat drugs.

Turn One
The Haem and Eldrad left the Beast unit and joined the Rangers in the ruins, with Eldrad casting Prescience and Perfect Timing on the unit. The Beasts, with the Haem’s Pain Token, surged forward towards the Zoanthropes, running a further 4” in the shooting phase. The Venoms shot forwards into midfield, positioning themselves to fire on the alien horde. The Raider stayed out of sight behind the ruin and the Ravagers shuffled about a bit to get LOS on their targets. In the shooting phase the Ravagers opened fire on the Zoanthropes but did nothing. The Venoms opened up on the same target but 36 shots caused a grand total of 1 wound. The Rangers killed 6 Termagants. Pretty rubbish really! The Tyranids ran the Carnifexes towards the middle of the table but they were too far away to influence the battle just yet. The Tyrants mob also moved towards the middle, casting Iron Arm as he went. The Zoanthropes shuffled about to get within range and LOS. Their shooting was hampered by Night Fight but still saw 3 Khymerae killed and a Venom stunned.

Turn Two
The Beasts surged to within an inch of the Warrior Brood. Everything else maneuvered to get better angles of fire. The Reavers showed up and moved into the ruins behind the Rangers. The Raider dashed forward to get into the action a bit more. Shooting was slightly more successful with 5 Warriors going down along with one of the Zoanthropes. The Reavers turbo-boosted across the battlefield and lopped the heads off of two termagants, landing behind the ruin that the termagants were huddled in. In assault, the Beasts charged the Warriors but managed to kill only 1 warrior. In return, the warriors killed both surviving Khymerae and put some wounds on the Razorwings. The Beasts lost the combat but made their Morale check.
On the Tyranid turn, the Zoanthropes moved further forward to get my vehicles in range of their Warp Lances. The Termagants turned around to bring their Devourers to bear on the Reavers. One of the Venomthropes also moved towards the sleek jetbikes. The Tyrants brood moved up to the combat between the warriors and beasts and the Carnifexes continued their marathon trek across the table, reaching the ruined Skyshield pad in the middle of the board. The Zoanthropes opened up on the nearby Venoms but Eldrad’s Runes of Warding limited them to one shot as one took a wound from Perils of the Warp. That shot however would have been sufficient to wreck one of the venoms but their Jink save allowed them to live to fight another day. The termagants opened fire on the Reavers but failed to damage them (the last time that the Reavers managed to make a saving throw in this battle!). The Tyrant Brood charged into the ongoing fight but one of the lowly Beastmasters was callously thrust into the Hive Tyrants path by Baron Sathonyx, forcing the alien monstrosity to waste valuable time tearing him limb from limb. The rest of the combat was a draw, with 1 Razorwing and 1 Warrior being pulled down. The Beasts again made their morale check and the fight looked to continue. Baron Sathonyx had other ideas and attempted to disengage his unit from the combat but they refused to listen and his cunning plan to Hit & Run came apart at the seams. The Venomthrope charged the Reavers, taking a wound from Overwatch fire but then killed 2 of the Reavers for no loss, who managed to pass the morale check and stay in the fight.

Turn Three
The Carnifexes were starting to get close now so I pulled both Ravagers back to maximum range and prepared to open fire. The venoms positioned themselves to be able to fire on either the Zoanthropes or the Carnifexes. The Raider shuffled forward to get within rapid fire range of the termagants in the ruins. A storm of dark lance and disintegrator fire engulfed the lead Carnifex and when it was over, there was nothing left of the alien beast. The Venoms were now out of range of the other Carnifexes so they elected to shoot the Zoanthropes instead, finally downing them and, on turn 3, finally earning First Blood! The Eldar Rangers, the Raider and its passengers all shot the termagants in the ruins, killing 7 of them. In the assault phase, the Hive Tyrant attempted to butcher the annoying beasts but was again forced to waste time destroying a confused Beastmaster. In the end it didn’t matter though as the Tyrant Guard, Warriors and Venomthrope finally managing to kill off the Beasts, the last Beastmaster and the Baron himself, earning the Tyranids a VP for Slay the Warlord, as well as 2 KPs for the unit. The Tyrant Brood consolidated towards the venoms and the Warriors moved to get a better LOS for their Devourers. The Venomthrope fighting the Reavers again killed 2 of them and took no damage in return but the fight carried on.
On the Tyranid turn, the Tyrant Brood moved towards the Venoms, the Carnifexes moved closer to the fight and the Termagants prepared to charge the Reavers. Shooting was not too brilliant but did manage to wreck one Venom, with the passengers disembarking behind the wreck. This left the Tyrant Brood about 10” from the disembarked unit and they decided not to attempt the charge.

Turn Four
I pulled the Venoms back away from the approaching Tyrant Brood but positioned the Raider to allow the passengers to rapid-fire them. I also move the Ravagers to be able to shoot either the Carnifexes or the Tyrant Brood. The Raider opened up first, its Dark Lance cutting through the toxic miasma surrounding the Venomthrope and obliterating the creature (also removing any cover save for the Tyrant Brood). The Raiders passengers then opened up, with the Venoms also adding their weight of fire and eventually bringing down the last of the Tyrant Guard, leaving the Hive Tyrant standing alone. Eldrad Ulthuan then pointed a slender finger at the Tyrant, giving the signal to the Eldar Rangers to bring it down. A total of 4 AP1 or 2 wounds from the Rangers did exactly that, earning Slay the Warlord, plus points for the Venomthrope, Tyrant Guard and the Tyrant himself. The Ravagers killed another Carnifex and the Venomthrope and Termagants finished off the Reavers. At this point, there was only 1 Carnifex, 2 Venomthropes and about 6 Termagants left so we decided to call it a night, as it was getting late.

Conclusion
The VP tally was 6-5 to me but we agreed that if we had played on, I would almost certainly have tabled him within the next turn or two. it was a good, fun game though, with plenty of mistakes made on both sides but we were both new to our armies and that was to be expected. Overall, I think I was lucky that the list I chose was well suited to play the Tyranid list I was facing. I was able to outmaneuver him to keep the Carnifexes out of the battle and let me bring my longer range firepower to bear against his units.

Great report! I have yet to play against tyranids (haven't played against them since 4th) so I always enjoy reading reports against them and the valuable insight it gives. Thanks for sharing the pain.

Thanks. My use of the Reavers left a great deal to be desired, although in fairness I would have expected 6 Reavers to be able to deal with a lone, wounded Venomthrope, leaving them free to cause some more havoc. Other than that though I was reasonably happy with the way I played although I suspect against a more experienced foe I would have had a lot more difficulty!

Hi, thanks for putting this up, I enjoyed reading it - I recently had a couple of warm-up style games vs inexperienced opponents myself, but never thought to take any notes! Oh, but I do remember my succubus charging into combat vs a crisis team, causing four hits with her venom blade, then rolling a magnificent four 1s to wound (a 1 in 1296 chance)...I was later reminded that since I had furious charge & therefore S4, I could have re-rolled them all! But that's 40k.

Your list looks pretty well put together and economical (not sure about the mixed weapons in the reavers though!), but I was a little disappointed by the performance of the beasts+Sathonyx. Been thinking of switching a unit of reavers for something similar, but may hold off for now. But I suppose a horde of tyranids would ruin the day of most units in assault anyway!

I use Eldrad in my Ulthwe force (been an Ulthwe player forever) and find the divination powers totally awesome, but I wasn't sure how much you used them in the game; for example you rolled misfortune which should have been very useful vs the high-save monsters. I suppose I'm asking if a normal farseer would have done instead?

Cheers!

I did use his psychic powers every turn but forgot to note down exactly which I used so I didn't bother putting it in the report. I know I used Prescience every turn on the Rangers and also Perfect Timing, which proved very useful. I also used misfortune a couple of times, once on the Zoanthropes and once on (I think) the Warriors. I actually forgot that he could use the same power twice or I'd have used them even more. Definitely worth the points for Eldrad in my opinion.

The Beasts and Baron were a let down this game but have performed really well in my earlier games so they're staying in the list.