Dark Eldar vs Raven Guard Space Marines 1000 points

Hi Dark City. This is my first battle report and I hope it turns out well. However I must warn that we did have to end the game very early (end of turn 2) as we took more time than expected. So I do apologize for that, but even as short as it was I still hoped to post this and see if anyone could perhaps give hints, advice, ect. to my me and my friend.

Dark Eldar list (My Army):
Haemonculus with venom blade and liquifier gun
10 Mandrakes with a Nightfiend (Yes, that says mandrakes)
2x 5 Kabalite Warriors with a blaster in a Venom with extra splinter cannon and Night shields
2x 10 Kabalite Warriors with a blaster, splinter cannon in a Raider with Splinter racks and Night shields
Ravager with Night shields


Space Marine Army:
Raven Guard chapter tactics
Chaplain with a jump pack
2x 10 Tactical marines with plasma gun and lascannon in a razorback with Twin-Linked lascannon
Dreadnought with 2 Twin-Linked Autocannons
10 Assault marines with 2 flamers, Veteran Sergeant with a power maul and meltabombs
Whirlwind

Mission was Crusade
Deployment was Vanguard Strike
Terrain was done semi-randomly as per the d3 per 2'x2' section rule.
Warlord Traits: Dark Eldar gained -1 enemy reserve rolls. Space Marines gained fear on warlord and unit (Which we ended up forgetting...)
There was Night Fighting turn 1
Dark Eldar was given first turn with Space Marines choosing table edge.
A total of 5 objectives were rolled.
Space Marines do not seize.

Deployment:
Dark Eldar Mandrakes and Haemonculus are held in reserves for outflank.
The turret less predator is counting as the Space Marine Whirlwind, and the other 2 tanks are counting as the razorbacks.
Tactical Marines have been combat squaded with the lascannons outside the razorbacks.
Additionally the circled d20's are our objectives. We did not use mysterious objectives this game.





Next the ravenguard redeployed a lascannon tactical squad up into the ruins, as well as the far side razorback via scout.






Game Turn 1


The raider moved to the left while the ravager and venom get into slightly better firing positions.


The ravager takes down the razorback gaining first blood as well as costing the squad inside two dead marines from the explosion and having the unit fall back. A single marine was also removed from the squad on the hill from the razorback explosion. Poisoned shots were otherwise ineffective this turn (though they were taken at the unit on the hill). The squad from the razorback regrouped on their next turn and moves/runs around the hill.


This venom and Raider turbo-boosted all the way around to the side in order to set up better positions for the following turn.


The Space Marines moved to line up shots at the ravager, with the dreadnought firing first. Saves were made, but the ravager was illuminated by searchlights. However between the lascannon marine in the ruins and the razorback only a single glance was caused. Whirlwind shot was fired at the ravager/venom but scattered and caused no damage. Finally, the assault marines prepared for the arrival of the mandrakes.


Game Turn 2
Mandrakes arrived next to the assault marines in an attempt to cause SOME sort of damage. They unfortunately had little else for targets, although in hindsight shots at the back end of the tactical marines in the ruins may have been good.


Dark Eldar shooting resulted in the remaining razorback to become weaponless and immobilized.
The 3 man plasmagun razorback squad was finished off, as well as another model from the unit on the hill.
Mandrakes kill 3 space marines thanks to the Haemonculus's liquifier gun.

The Space Marines ended up stunning the ravager with the AT fire as well as taking out 4/5 of the venoms 'crew' with the whirlwind who had moved out to try and shoot the squad that had been on the hill as well as start splitting shots from the enemy. Not the best idea but I still had a scoring model on an objective and very little else had been hurt.



Hill team proceeds to gain some better cover/line of sight blocking around the side of the hill.

The assault marines proceed to demolish the mandrakes in close combat after having lost the haemonculus and a single mandrakes to shooting. The nightfiend got away though! (and yes I proxied for mandrakes.)

This is unfortunately where we had to end it. While the Space Marine player did say he was probably at a disadvantage at this point, we both agreed he was far from out and simply settled for a tie/both called out sort of deal.

Anyways, thank you for your time and I hope you liked it.

Nice report, can´t wait to see evertything painted and done

That was a good report to see. I was intrigued to see how the mandrakes would perform. I think if they were picking on one of the combat squad Tactical units they would have proved useful. At least they got to tie up the Assault Marines!

Any ideas on how you'd put the Mandrakes to better use in the future? (If you use them again)

Calindor wrote:

Nice report, can´t wait to see evertything painted and done

Thanks, unfortunately I am just having a terrible time actually getting stuff painted. I'll get 3 loincloths painted and then stop... And my vehicles still need some finishing touches/maintenance before I want to start on those.

Cavash wrote:

That was a good report to see. I was intrigued to see how the mandrakes would perform. I think if they were picking on one of the combat squad Tactical units they would have proved useful. At least they got to tie up the Assault Marines!

Any ideas on how you'd put the Mandrakes to better use in the future? (If you use them again)

Yeah my normal idea when I used them is basically an assassination type unit. Sneak in and try and kill/weaken something sitting on the backboard (Devastators, fire warriors, IG vets/command squad, lootas ect.) Unfortunately in 2 other games I've used them, they killed the same or MORE points in vehicles than my ravager did because of rear armour 10 and there just were not any better infantry targets in range when they came in. One game they killed a predator and a landspeeder where my ravager only took out a single Rhino before getting killed itself.

The reason I sent them over to that blob of the enemy though was that they would have been out of range of anything had I not and I figured (at the time) maybe getting a little gutsy would pay off.

Unfortunately I have not seen what they can or can't do against units who their AP 4 weapons matter against (I had one game against an ork player, but he surrendered before he even took his first turn...). Other than that, maybe see about outflanking a combat archon with them?