1500 Points - Dark Eldar vs Dark Eldar

Been a long time, but I've finally managed to get some stuff for battle reports! I played in a tournament yesterday, and managed to recap games 1 and 2 (didn't get much of game 3 as my opponent had to leave, and we were forced to call a halt after a lightning fast 2 turns). So, the list:

Realspace Raiders detachment - 1496 points
HQ:
Succubus, Archite Glaive, Armour of Misery, Haywire Grenades -115

Elites:
4 Incubi, Klaivex, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon - 155
5 Trueborn, 4 Blasters, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon - 180

Troops:
10 Warriors, Sybarite, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks - 165
10 Warriors, Sybarite, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks - 165

Fast Attack:
Razorwing, 2 Dark Lances -140
Razorwing, 2 Dark Lances -140
6 Reaver Jetbikes, 2 Heat Lances, 2 Cluster Caltrops - 146
5 Scourges, 2 Haywire Blasters - 100
Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon - 65

Heavy Support:
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances  - 125

Very similar to my previous lists, I originally had a Talos in there, and the Succubus and Incubi would Webway Portal into battle. Wasn't happy with this, so dropping the Talos and the WWP freed up enough points to buy a Venom for the Succubus/Incubi, and with 25 points going spare I tossed haywires on the Succubus and a sybarite into each warrior unit as I wasn't sure where else to put the points.

Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Vanguard Strike

For this game, I'm squaring off against a fellow Dark Eldar player! He's running:
Archon with all the trimmings (Huskblade, Shadowfield, Soul Trap, Parasite's Kiss)
3 units of warriors in raiders, all raiders have lances, there's blasters/lances in multiple raiders and a cannon in the third I think, Archon's running with a unit of 9
A 3-lance Ravager
A Razorwing
10 Scourges with 2 haywire blasters, 2 blasters, and a solarite with agoniser and blast pistol
And some Incubi on foot.
All of his vehicles are teched up as well. Splinter racks on the raiders, aethersails on most skimmers, and everything has a night shield.

Pre-Game
I roll up Blood Dancer as a warlord trait, and I can't remember what the Archon gets. Roll for combat drugs leaves me with a bonus point of leadership on my Succubus and Reavers. The opposing Kabalite Force wins the roll and elects to deploy first.


Deployment. We agreed that the massive guns would be non-functional for the game as otherwise whoever got that corner would have a ridiculous advantage. His deployment, left to right from my view, is Ravager, Scourges, then 3 raiders. Incubi are footing it between the 2 rightmost raiders. His archon is in the central one. I counter-deploy by leaving my scourges deep striking, and deploy as out of range as I can be. Trueborn venom is to the right, succubus venom to the left of the ravager, empty venom hangs back. The game's likely to hinge on who can de-mech the other fastest. I've deployed my trueborn where they cannot be hit turn 1 accordingly, as they're my trump card in the anti-vehicle duel. My opponent elects to take the first turn, and I let him. For the sake of sanity, I'll be referring to my opponent's forces as "Archon" and mine as "Succubus".

Turn 1 - Archon:
Everything advances, except the Scourges, who stay put - I assume he wasn't willing to put them in range of my splinter raiders or Reavers. All three raiders move into a central position, and the ravager moves in front of the ruin. Incubi run up behind the right hand ruin. He fires, but due to my deployment I don't need to jink (thanks to the cover saves I'll be getting) on anything with a lance, and I survive unscathed. A venom jinks, but nothing untoward happens to my forces.

Turn 1 - Succubus:
Reavers jump over the ruin and eye up the ravager, as everything else advances. Two venoms (trueborn and empty) go right, and the succubus centralises. I have lances aplenty, and am able to force most if not all of his vehicles to jink (at most, 1 raider is firing normally) - nothing gets through his night shields except on the Archon's ride, which I immobilise. I plink off a scourge or two, and the two venoms on the right shred several incubi. The reavers attempt to charge, and fail (9" charge against the ravager, vs the same to get them all into the ruins on a jetbike move. I banked on the option that had First Blood as a reward).


Bottom of turn 1. Archon - 0; Succubus - 0

Turn 2 - Archon:
The Razorwing shows up, flying over the scourges. One raider moves right, past the incubi, who continue their slog to the ruin. The other moves left, towards the jetbikes, and the Scourges line up their shots. The Ravager, useless for firing, moves back behind the ruin to preserve it. Shooting sees him pile everything he can (raider, warrior squad, archon's raider, and Scourges) into my Reavers - I manage to keep one alive. The Razorwing shoots at my raider or my succubus' ride, but I jink to no ill effect. Nothing untoward happens to my venoms either, again thanks to jinking. I might lose the occasional hull point, but no vehicle goes down. Lastly, my bike passes his leadership check and doesn't flee, thankfully.

Turn 2 - Succubus:
Scourges decide to stay in reserve, but I bring on both Batplanes; one down the left side and the other centrally, both aiming at his razorwing. The lone jetbike hops back into the ruin and gets out of sight. I advance both my raiders into central positions, and retreat the right hand venoms slightly (one is snap-firing). My 4 blasters can't do more than shake/stun his raider, and my central lances can only grab a hull point too. I manage to cut the Incubi down to one with the venoms, and the warriors in the rightmost raider finish him off through the windows for First Blood. The first Razorwing scores a pair of penetrating hits on his Razorwing, and he fails both 3+ jink saves. I roll double 5s, immobilising it twice, and he fails one of the two rolls to downgrade to 'stunned' sending it screaming from the sky.


Turn 2. Archon -0; Succubus - 3

Turn 3 - Archon:
He moves his Ravager out, now free to fire at full effect. He makes a very bold move of disembarking his Archon, alone into the middle of the table - plan is to wreck a transport, and assault the remnants. There's lots of movement, lots of shots, and lots of jinking, and he finally manages to wreck my succubus' venom. I respond with the tactical move, which is to disembark on the far side of the venom. I also lose a lance off of a raider. Unsurprisingly, his Archon fails the resultant 9" charge through cover.

Turn 3 - Succubus:
I deep-strike my scourges into the back-left corner; Succubus and incubi advance on the archon. I bring both warrior raiders up centrally, and the razorwings overlap. Shooting, and I kill several scourges, but can't do more than put the odd hull point on his raiders and force things to Jink. Finally, a warrior-raider dumps everything into the Archon, and successfully manages to short out his shadowfield. I charge with the Succubus and incubi, and he issues a challenge; I accept with my Klaivex just in case, even though the Succubus should slap him down with ease. The decision's immediately vindicated as the succubus immediately whiffs with all bar one of her attacks, and does a single wound. Archon swings back and does a solitary wound, dropping the Klaivex; my two surviving Incubi (lost one somewhere, can't remember how) swing back but either fail to wound, or he makes his Feel no Pain saves. I've really lucked out, as now my Succubus and Incubi are in combat rather than in the open.


Turn 3. The blurriness is an artistic choice to reflect the sheer speed of the Dark Eldar forces at play, rather than any damning indictment on my ability to take pictures competently.
Archon - 1; Succubus - 3

Turn 4 - Archon:
Really not much. As ever, he moves, he shoots, I jink, and escape losing vehicles, though some are perilously low on hull points. His scourges, now a Solarite and one Scourge, charge my 5; he kills one, and I pass morale. The Succubus finally steps up a gear and backhands the Archon into the middle of next week, netting me Slay the Warlord.

Turn 4 - Succubus:
I hide my damaged raider out of sight to preserve the last hull point. One Razorwing goes off table, and the other goes after the Ravager. I continue forcing him to jink, but can't break anything open to charge with my succubus and Incubi. In the end I'm forced to attempt a 6" run to get into the ruin, but only make it 1" (I re-rolled with fleet because nothing but a 6 would have got me into cover). The two sets of Scourges continue their slap fight.


End of turn 4. Score's now Archon - 1; Succubus - 5. But I have 3 points just sitting there in the open, and a lot of damaged vehicles, and scourges in combat...

Turn 5 - Archon:
Once again, the pattern continues - movement, shooting, Jinking. It turns out that something CAN now see my Jetbike through a doorway, but fortunately I manage to jink it. It takes the full weight of firepower from both raider squads to pick off my Incubi and leave my succubus on one wound, but he still has a dark lance to fire and my Armour of Misery lets me down, giving up Slay the Warlord. Scourge-fight goes nowhere.

Turn 5 - Succubus:
I move into position to try and finally swat a blasted vehicle or two, as the game's still close. I move the jetbike behind the building out of the way. I take some pot shots, but his jinking night shields hold firm. We get to the assault phase, and if his Scourge and Solarite can finish my 4 remaining Scourges off then the game will be a 5-5 draw... as it stands, we kill a scourge each and remain locked as the game ends.


End of the game!

Final Score: The Archon's forces have killed my Incubi, Succubus, and a Venom, and have picked up Slay the Warlord for a total of 4 points; I have slain my opponent's Archon, Incubi and Razorwing, and have First Blood and Linebreaker for a total of 6.
Victory to the Dark Eldar! (Led by the Succubus)

That was close. It became apparent early on how the game was going to go - I couldn't break through my opponent's Night Shields due to not having enough lance saturation, but the trade off was that he couldn't hit me due to jinking. The fact that only two vehicles got taken down out of the thirteen that started says a lot. I think there were two main factors that contributed here - the foot-incubi gave me a target which I wouldn't have had, and my opponent's decision to take the first turn. I deliberately counter-deployed so that I wouldn't need to jink on turn 1, giving me a protected turn and then being able to force him to jink and go on the back foot. It also meant that my Razorwings would almost likely turn up after his, giving me air superiority. Lastly, passing the leadership check on the last surviving Reaver singlehandedly won the game, as if he'd fled then I would have lost an extra kill point, and my opponent would have gained First Blood, meaning the game would have been 6-4 the other way. C&C welcome, really not sure if I played this perfectly but I've got another game against Space Wolves incoming soon!

+Edited to make the images work+

What becomes apparent quickly is that DE are not suited for AT/AA. Blasters, scourges and reavrers look good on paper but ... The loss of wyche venoms and haywire really dictates a new approach. Interesting batrep panic. Thanks.

I'd say what really comes through from that report is that against an opponent who's firing small numbers of high-strength guns at our transports, jink makes them very survivable. Of course there aren't that many other armies out there that don't have a higher proportion of higher strength weaponry such that weight of fire can bring down AV10 skimmers (I'm thinking massed bolter fire etc)

It seems to me that aside from the Ravager, the majority of your lance fire is provided by the razorwings - I think in this game that really hampered you - breaking open the transports early was important but you had 4 lances that didn't arrive until turn 2, and only really 5 others with range on turn 1. The scourges would have helped if they'd started on the board, but 4 haywire blasters in the unit really is important - they need to either kill a transport, or bring it to the point where other weapons can take it down. It's sometimes counter-intuitive (I know, I've done it myself) but because scourges can deep strike you tend to want to place them further forward than is actually necessary, I'm more inclined to deploy mine on the board now, particularly if I have first turn, since their 36" threat range and 4 shots will almost certainly threaten most vehicles (example: why jink a ravager against 2 haywire blasters, you invalidate its shooting for a turn and the HWB can't drop you in one turn, even if both hit - a canny opponent might just take the hull point loss to get the ravager some shooting next turn)

I completely agree about Scourge usage. The entire reason I didn't deploy them was due to the mission, as they were a very easy point I wanted to deny my opponent as long as possible. I'd estimate I deploy them on-table 75% of the time. I also agree that it's instructive as to the importance of Jink, as against armies that can't spam S7+ we're actually pretty survivable.