Battle Report – Dark Eldar v Chaos Space Marines

Mission: The Emperor’s Will
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil

An abbreviated report this week as, frankly, the game was almost over before the start of the 2nd turn!

My list was pretty much the same as last week:

Haemonculus (Warlord)
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Dark Lances
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
Ravager, Night Shields
Ravager, Night Shields
Ravager, Disintegrators, Night Shields
Eldrad Ulthran (Prescience, Foreboding, Forewarning, Perfect Timing)
5 Pathfinders
5 Dark Reapers, Exarch, Fast Shot, Crack Shot
Bastion, Icarus Lascannon

The Chaos Space Marine list was:

Lord (Warlord) – not sure on Wargear
10 Plague Marines, 2 Meltaguns
10 Plague Marines, 2 Meltaguns
5 Havoks (autocannons)
3 Obliterators
5 Terminators
Helldrake (Hades Autocannon)
Aegis Defence Line (Icarus Lascannon)

Everything except the Helldrake had Mark of Nurgle

Deployment
Objectives were placed in the ruins on my right in my deployment zone, and in area terrain on my left in his deployment zone. His Aegis Line cordoned off the far left corner of the battlefield and my Bastion was placed centrally just under 24” in.

I deployed first. All my vehicles were placed on the right behind a large ruin except one Ravager just behind the Bastion. I put the Trueborn inside the Bastion with the Hameonculus. The Dark Reapers and Eldrad went on top of the Bastion.

The Chaos Space Marines deployed their Aegis Defence Line to cordon off the far left corner of the battlefield and placed the Icarus Lascannon in the corner, manned by one unit of Plague Marines. The Havoks also went behind the Aegis Line. The Helldrake went into reserve and the rest of the units were Infiltrators.

With nowhere useful to infiltrate in the enemy half I deployed my Pathfinders in the upper levels of the ruin on my left, guarding my objective.

The Warlord Trait rolled by my opponent allowed him to infiltrate 3 squads and he chose to do so, placing the 2nd Plague Marine unit with Chaos Lord out of sight behind a ruin in the middle left of the table. He then, probably fatally, chose to place his Obliterators and Terminators in the open on my left, about 18” from my own table edge and 18” from my Bastion.

Eldrad then used his Divination ability to move the 3 Venoms and Disintegrator Ravager over to the left, forming a firing line just over 18” from the Oblits and Termies.

The Chaos Space Marines failed to seize the initiative and there was no Night Fight for the first turn.

Turn One
I won’t go into too much detail. My firing line edged forward to get within 18” (Blaster range) of the Obliterators and Terminators. The DL Ravagers moved to get LOS to the Plague Marines behind the ruins. The Venoms and Disintegrator Ravager opened up on the Oblits and Termies to soften them up and the passengers on the Venoms then finished both units off, earning a pain token for 2 of the units. The Pathfinders and Ravagers fired on the Plague Marines behind the ruins, killing 4 of them. The Dark Reapers targeted the Havoks and, with the benefit of Prescience and Pefect Timing, killed 4 of them, with the remaining man opting to flee from the battlefield.

He ran his remaining Plague Marines towards my Venoms and the Icarus fired at a Ravager but Jink did its job and no damage was inflicted. The game was pretty much over at this point.

Turn Two
The Venoms went flat out to get up the other end of the table near the ADL and hid behind some ruins. The Ravagers all moved away from the Chaos Lord’s unit but stayed in range to shoot it. The Dark Reapers opened fire on the Lord’s unit, killing most of the unit and the first 2 Ravagers finished it, and the Lord, off. The last Ravager then went flat out to head towards the Venoms.

The Helldrake arrived and, to my relief, did not have the Baleflamer! The Hades Autocannon opened fire on a Ravager, taking 1 hull point off it. I forgot to use the Icarus to intercept it!

Turn Three
The Venoms and Ravager moved in range of the Plague Marines and Icarus. The other Ravagers moved back towards the Bastion. The Venoms and Ravager wiped out the Plague Marines and Icarus. The Ravagers took a hull point off the Helldrake.

The Helldrake used Vector Strike on one Ravager and Autocannoned another. This resulted in my only casualty of the game – one Ravager!

Turn Four
The Helldrake had left it’s rear exposed to the Eldar in the Bastion and they opened fire, along with the Icarus. The Helldrake crashed in flames and the battlefield belonged to the Dark Eldar!

Conclusion
Victory through superior firepower!

Another great game Count Adhemar! I have to say I really like your list. The reapers/eldrad/bastion element especially. A really interesting tactics, that seem to be doing well for you.

As usual thanks for sharing the pain.

At 1500 points it seems to be a pretty decent list. I think I might struggle against a list with lots of armour or flyers but in the group I play in, I'm the only one who has more than 1 flyer (2 Stormravens for my BA) and nobody else has much in the way of tanks. Rare to see more than 1 or 2 tanks in their lists.

Next game is against the 11 year old son of the guy I played this week and I'll tone down/change the list as I think he'd get upset if I did to him what I did to his dad!

I like your list. I am currently running MSU transports with baron in a beastmaster group. What I come to think on as the "standar net list". :-/ It is just til I get my 6th edition sea legs back up. But I have been thinking of having a bastion and some eldar allies. I am having a hard time juste fying the dark reapers because of the cost, but they seem so good on top of the bastion.

Preferrably I would like to test out a WWP with Eldar allies and a bsation foot list with two flyers.

How mutch was your game at, 1500 points? I like how Eldrar let you make deploying hard for your oponent. He sounds like he gambeled a bit to get first turn. :-/

Yeah, we're playing 1500 at the moment, although I prefer 1750. I don't think he realised that Eldrad could allow me to redeploy units and thought he'd be pretty safe with his Termies and Oblits on the left. To be honest though, I don't think it would have made much difference if I'd not been able to redeploy, as with 12" move and 36" range the venoms and ravagers would easily have been able to do exactly the same. I just would have needed to fire the other Ravagers at them too as the Venom passengers would probably have been out of range.

Great result! I think around 1500 is our sweet spot. Nicely done