Battle Report 3: Dark Eldar v. Grey Knights

Hello all,

It's been a long time since I have written a report but I may as well jump right in.
For this one, I have decided to give the Vassal Software a try. I guess we'll see how it goes  

My List:

The Kabal of the Howling Abyss' Stormreavers-

HQ

Archon, Huskblade, Shadowfield, Huskblade, Soul Trap, Combat Drugs

Elites

3 Trueborn, 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom, Additional Cannon

5 Incubi, Raider, Dissie, Flickerfield

Troops

5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Additional Cannon

10 warriors, Cannon, Raider, Splinter Racks, Nightshields

Fast Attack

5 Scourges, 2 Splinter Cannons

10 Helions, Heliarch, Stunclaw

3 Reavers, Heatlance

Heavy Support

Ravager, Nightshields

Razorwing, Dissies, Flickerfield

Talos, Twin-linked Liquifier



My Opponents Grey Knights-

HQ

Inquisitor Coteaz

Inquisitor, Twin Daemon Blades, Mastery Level 1, 3 servo skulls

Troops

Henchmen Squad, 5 Crusaders, 10 Arco-flagellants

3 Servitors, Plasma Cannons

3 Servitors, Plasma Cannons

10 Terminators, Halberds, Justicar has a Daemon Hammer, Pysbolt

Fast Attack

Interceptors, Halberds, Incinerator, Justicar with Daemon Hammer, Pysbolt

Heavy Support

DreadKnight, Heavy Incinerator, Personal Teleporter, Greatsword



Mission- Emperors Will
Deployment- Hammer and Anvil
Night Fight- Yes
Combat Drugs- Splintermind (Pain Token Woo!)
DE Warlord Trait- Princeps of Deceit (Useless because I forgot it  )
Grey Knight Warlord Trait- Master of Defence (Useless because my opponent forgot it too!)
First Turn- DE

Deployment:



Picture isn't the greatest because I don't have any programs to crop and enlarge it. (may be a stupid excuse. You can find almost anything on the net these days  )

I deployed first, placing my ravage behind the LOS blocking terrain at the top, trusting night shields to keep me out of range of Pysbolt storm bolters and Plasma Cannons. The Venoms deployed near behind the other LOS building next to the talos, the scoring warrior venom is placed up top to make a run for any objectives set up in that section of the board. The Archon and Incubi deployed in their raider (the one farthest from the bottom board edge) ready for a flanking move. The Warrior raider is set up below to support them. Helions, Scourges, reavers, and razorwing were all left in reserve.

My Opponent Deployed his Inquisitor with the henchmen warband below the forest and Coteaz with the acolytes on the lower board portion under the aegis line. The large terminator squad combat squaded and deployed in front of both henchmen squads to act as mobile cover, with the half with the justicar parked in front of the Arco-Crusader squad. The two squads of plasma cannon servitors set up in the forest. He held his Dreadknight and Interceptor squad in reserves. The purple counters are servo skulls.



He attempts to seize with the re-roll granted by Coteaz but fails.
We remember to place the objectives now, so mine is behind the building at the bottom and his is held by to squads of scoring servitors.

As an another note, Coteaz generated Perfect Timing and Precognition for his powers and the regular inquisitor got Prescience. His multiple daemonblade rolls for his inquisitor gave him fleshbane, 3+ strength and attacks, and vampire which gives him wounds back for every kill he makes in combat. This turns out to be pretty nasty.

DE Turn 1

The Warrior Raider moves up and fires its disintegrator cannon into the bubble wrap termies on the bottom and kills two. The Ravager banks round the tower and kills one terminator with its lances. The other vehicles turbo, the Archon's raider hiding behind the lower building and the venoms spreading themselves out. The talos moves and runs through the building (its ruined and has a hole in the wall on my and on the bottom so he can move through and still be out of sight).
That rounds off my very minimalistic turn.



GK Turn 1

Most of the Grey Knight force moves and runs with the exception of the Servitors who just edge up a little since they won't be in range to shoot anything anyway. Nightshields help out a lot  
Everything waits in anticipation for dark elder reserves.



DE Turn 2

Reserves roar on with the razorwing, reavers, and helions arriving. The helions deepstruck to double tap the acolytes in the shooting phase with splinterpods, but I forgot about Coteaz' rule allowing his unit to shoot and things arriving from reserve. After the hail of bolter fire and a plasma pistol, only four helions died thanks to some incredible FNP saves (They were out of cover when they landed). Combat drugs saving me from disaster there! The Helions dished out revenge by gunning down four acolytes in return. The razorwing screamed on and unleashed a horrendous amount of dakka from its dissies, missiles, and yes, a twin-linked splinter rifle All on the henchmen war band. 4 crusaders were shredded  from dissie fire due to poor stormshield saves and the splinter rifle added insult to injury by plinking away the last one. Then came the missiles! One of them scattered off target thanks to a nearby servo skull but the remaining one hit and decapitated five arco-flagellants, Yikes!
On a less impressive  note, the ravage and two raiders combined fire on the justicar terminator squad and cut down three leaving the justicar all on his lonesome. Venoms boosted towards the board edge, anticipating a dreadknight drop. Reavers came on and turboed in amongst the refinery stacks at the back of my deployment zone. Then it was onto the ground pounders. The Archon and Incubi disembarked from their ride and prepared to charge the remaining termies still alive in the lower portion of the table after the talos flames them with a pathetic ap 5 roll, killing none. The Archon and incubi charged, losing none to overwatch and the Archon cut down one terminator before he could strike. The remaining terminators hit next using their high initiative halberds and activating their force weapons to kill three incubi (ignoring their FNP). The two incubi hit last and killed one more terminator and the combat remained locked up.



GK Turn 2

Dreadknight deepstruck in and flamers the archon's empty raider and the warrior raider, causing a hull point on the empty one and stunning the latter. One of servitors moves back onto the objective, the other squad of servitors drops three plasma cannon blasts on my poor helions who hit the dirt and lose a couple. Coteaz and friends open fire as well and kill all but the helliarch (with the help of perfect timing), who sits tight where he is. The lone Justicar snapfires up at the razorwing with his pysbolt storm bolter and fails to hit it. His warlord inquisitor attempts to jump the defence line to help out the acolytes but falls just short. In assault, the Archon slays the last terminator before he or the incubi can even strike. They pick up their second pain token and consolidate towards the acolytes, merrily stamping on a servo skull in the process.



DE Turn 3

scourges fail to arrive this turn. All vehicles back away from the dreadknight, except the stunned raider. Archon and remaining incubi run up to tackle Coteaz and co. The talos does an about turn and heads for the dreadknight. The reavers bladevane the lone justicar hoping to pick up a pain token but fail to cut through his armour. The Ravager and razorwing pair up, each gun for a servitor squad forcing both to go to ground, however two still die from the lower squad and the ravage still manages to kill one from the other. The empty raider fires into the acolytes softening them up for the charge, the stunned raider snap fires harmlessly. Everything else that has a gun on it unleashes on the dreadknight, but despite getting well over forty hits, I only inflict a single wound on it.
Incubi + Archon Charge, an incubus dying on overwatch. Archon challenges and has to face a lowly acolyte sergeant instead of the epic swashbuckling one on one he expected to have with Coteaz, Even then he just barely kills the acolyte out of his six strength four huskblade attacks. Ahem, he was merely playing with the monkeigh  
A highlight of the fight was when the final incubus wounded with all three of his attacks almost killing Coteaz who failed all his lookout sirs!  
Silly Archon, we incubi will show how its done!
Coteaz evidently was not impressed and pulped the poor incubus with his daemon hammer



GK Turn 3

His interceptors arrive this turn landing next to the reavers without scatter, thanks to a nearby servo skull. Not much for him now. The interceptors flame the reavers killing one and gunning the rest down with stormbolters. The dreadknight flames both venoms causing one pen on the closer warrior venom that was saved by flickerfield, he then charges it and blows it up killing three warriors and causing the lone two survivors to flee a millimetre away from my board edge.
The lonely justicar moved and ran toward my objective. The inquisitor (his warlord) and flagellants pile into the on going combat between the wounded Coteaz, My Archon, and the two acolytes who somehow managed to survive the carnage up until now. Archon Strikes first, removing Coteaz and the last two acolytes then the inquisitor gets to attack with an insane 9 flesh bane power weapon  attacks on the charge! Archon steps up however and impressively passes all his shadowfield hits for once, only to shorted out by a metric ton of strength five attacks from the flagellants. He remains on a single wound.



DE Turn 4

Scourges auto come on, scatter directly onto the objective. The Razorwing flies off into on going reserves (It does come back on to help later, but I forgot to add it in the remaining pictures!). The two warriors rally and move forward allowing the venom to zip in behind them to block assaults from the dreadknight. Now unstunned, my warrior raider backs into rapid fire range of the baby carrier too. The Heliarch who had been quite forgotten moved to save the archon. The ravager advanced on the interceptors in the open and fired at them along with the scourges and the empty raider to remove them from the board. My last venom showered then dreadknight in front of with the help of its trueborn passengers. The warriors tried to snap fire a rifle and their blaster into it as well but failed to even hit, but it was up to the warriors in the raider with splinter racks who achieved two more wounds on it, just barely unable to finish him off.
The Heliarch charged into the inquisitor and the archon issued a challenge which my opponent denied believing that I couldn't use my stunclaw to snatch him out of combat at the end. He was wrong  
Archon kills four arcos but dies to the last one, netting slay the warlord to my opponent.
The Heliarch hit and ran trying to drag the inquisitor with him and rolled a one! NOOOO! (bear in mind that roll may have decided the game) He zoomed a massive 13 inches deep into my opponents deployment zone. The inquisitor and the last flagellant consolidate towards the empty raider.



GK Turn 4

Very few things left for him now but he still keeps up the pressure with his dreadknight flaming and smashing the trueborn venom in combat (overwatch fails to remove his last wound), killing all the trueborn inside and forcing a very traumatized kabalite high tailing it off the board back to Commaragh. Justicar, Inquisitor, and last arco blow my empty raider sky high and it actually kills the last flagellant in the explosion! Go Raider!
Servitors bomb the scourges with intensely accurate plasma blasts thanks to the servo skull. They go to ground and remarkably only lose one of their number.
That's it for him.



DE Turn 5

Potentially the last turn so disembark my large warrior squad and run onto the objective while my last raider swings round the building and scythes down the lone justicar. The razorwing, invisible in the picture, intended to fly on to take care of the terminator as well but the raider did so well the jet fighter just had to fire on the inquisitior taking him down a couple of wounds.
My Ravager hums menacingly around the refinery to finally put down the dreadknight for good.
Scourges snap fire on the larger servitor unit but cause no wounds. The Heliarch charges a servitor but dies to a power fist hit from the servo harness.



GK Turn 5

Everything revolved around the battle between the scourges and the servitors as my scourges are contesting his objective and have at the moment get linebreaker. If the game ends here I win with my objective, first blood (Terminators), and linebreaker. With that in mind he attempts to charge my warriors on my objective with his inquisitor and fails his charge, taking one wound on overwatch leaving him with two. His servitors are successful in charging the scourges who kill the lone servitor from one squad on overwatch and kill another in combat, leaving the remaining one to mash up a couple of scourges.

We roll the dice and the game continues!



DE Turn 6

Everything fires on the inquisitor leaving him on a single wound. In combat I hit first but fail to wound, Servitor punches a couple more of my scourges leaving one who passes morale. 



GK Turn 6

Inquisitor assaults and annihilates my warriors who couldn't kill him fast enough before his vampire ability brought him back to five wounds!  
Scourge slaps at the servitor and fails to hurt him! Servitor socks back.....But the scourge passes his 6+ invul!  

We roll again and its.......... a five! the game goes on!



DE Turn 7

Raider and Ravager block off the objective just in case the inquisitor survives (not that it mattered really). Luckily the Ravager takes him out for slay the warlord. The combat on the grey knight objective is fruitless.



GK Turn 7

Only one thing left to do... the EPIC combat!!! My scourge hits first in the combat that will decide the winner. I hit. Wound. My opponent rolls.......................................................................................A SIX!!! FOR HIS ARMOUR SAVE!!

The Servitor prompt squishes my scourge and the game ends.


DE: 2 points (Firstblood, Slay the Warlord). GK: 4 (Objective, Slay the Warlord).


Wow! That was an ace game! very tense especially towards the end and we drew quite a crowd as well. Something like twelve people leaning in to see how it ended. As I hinted earlier, the stunclaw roll decided the game. If the heliarch snatched his inquisitor I would have dragged him back to his starting position in his zone, assuring my victory. If only I hadn't rolled that 1!

It was a blast and the vassal software is really cool to illustrate games with. Even if I forgot to add my razorwing into the end pictures! It never did anything else but fly aimlessly around so I suppose no harm done!

I look forward to a next one and hopefully another nailbiter, because those are the best kind of games!

Comments are welcome as always.

Cheerio

Great battle report! One thing though, you mention the Razorwing unleashing with two disintegrators, twin-linked splinter rifle and two missiles - I think aircraft can fire a maximum of four weapons a turn, two of which can be missiles, so you might have fired one too many if you're speaking literally. Other than that, great report, and nice to see someone else spreading the Scourge love!

What would you have done differently, if anything?

Interesting, I was lead to believe that the flyer with supersonic rule could fire all weapons bar the restrictions on missiles, I'll check it to make sure  

Just four I'm sure
Also, I think you over watched twice in one turn as well, cant do that either.

That is correct, I flyer can fire four weapons at full ballistic skill. I now recall that the rifle was snapfiring and hit because its twin linked.

Pg. 80 BRB

"Zooming flyers can fire up to four of their weapons at their full ballistic skill if they have moved at either combat or cruising speed that turn"

We interpreted it to mean that any other weapons would have to fire snaps shots.

@Dominicj: you may have misread on this, but feel free to contradict. If you can point out the exact instance that will help me quickly rectify the problem.

@Mr. Believer: I believe I could havefired the ravager at the dreadknight on turn four rather than his interceptors as the scourges killed his incinerator anyway and the ravager could have put down the big babycarrier sparing me two warriors, a venom, and true born who died to it in the next turn. Other than that, I think I did what I could  

GK T5, my mistake.
Some charges warriors, someone else charges scourges, I read both as scourges

Great report (added to the sticky).

Shrike423 wrote:

Picture isn't the greatest because I don't have any programs to crop and enlarge it. (may be a stupid excuse. You can find almost anything on the net these days  

Here's a link to one that's free (and awesome). You don't necessarily need to crop the images, but changing the format to .jpg at about 60-75% quality will save you a load of bandwidth as in their unmodified state the vassal images are rather large.

Shrike423 wrote:

His multiple daemonblade rolls for his inquisitor gave him fleshbane, 3+ strength and attacks, and vampire which gives him wounds back for every kill he makes in combat. This turns out to be pretty nasty.

I like the double daemon blade combo, that's something I haven't come across before. Though it's worth noting that only the rolls that specifically state they affect the wearer stack, the ones that affect the weapon only take affect if you use that particular daemon blade.

Shrike423 wrote:

Dreadknight deepstruck in and flamers the archon's empty raider and the warrior raider, causing a hull point on the empty one and stunning the latter.

This was an illegal move if the diagram is accurate. BRB page 52 states that "the template must be placed to that cover as much of the vehicle as possible". Torrent weapons are still treated as template weapons for this, so there was no way he could clip both raiders unless they were less than an inch away from each other.

Shrike423 wrote:

His interceptors arrive this turn landing next to the reavers without scatter, thanks to a nearby servo skull.

I'm surprised your reavers/razorwing did not come within 6" of that survo skull during their move the turn before causing it to self-destruct.

The rules for servo skulls state "should an enemy unit move to within 6" then the servo skull will self destruct", notice it doesn't say end it's move within 6" just move within 6" so if you fly over them with reavers they self destruct.

Shrike423 wrote:

Servitors bomb the scourges with intensely accurate plasma blasts thanks to the servo skull. They go to ground and remarkably only lose one of their number.

Again this servo skull should have self destructed, if your scourges deepstriked within 6". As per the GK FAQ:

Q: Does an enemy unit arriving by deep strike or deploying within
6" of a servo-skull count as moving to within 6" of it? (p62)
A: Yes, remove the servo-skull from play.

On the whole I think you underestimated the servo skulls (or your opponent wasn't following their rules properly), they are really easy to remove with a unit like reavers/razorwings. His army really depended on them to reduce the scatter range of their weapons deepstrike by 1d6.

Great game none the less.

Thanks for sharing the pain! Look forward to the next one.

EDIT: how many points was the game?

Hello Mush,

The game was 2000pts btw.

Ooh that dirty dog! I didn't know that about flames and vehicles  

There are two reasons for neither servo destructing.

The diagram isn't amazing but the reavers performed you classic "L" bladevane move to catch the terminator. The angle of the path made them just seven inches from that skull.

As for the one by the scourges, my opponent argued that the final position would determine of the deepstrikers would determine whether the skull was destroyed rather the position they aimed at. It made sense to me so I went with it.

Thank you for the link, it will be extremely helpful in the future!

Shrike423 wrote:

Ooh that dirty dog! I didn't know that about flames and vehicles  

I see people do it all the time, especially hell drake players!  

Hell drake...oh how that thing affects my mood...

Well, my opponent was a nice guy, so I'll let it slide, but I'll definitely make sure to remind him next time we clash