1850 LVO Practice Written Bat Rep

So yesterday I played a practice LVO game for a LVO-like GT ran in Denver, CO in about a month.

My list:

HQ
Archon, Portal, Haywire, Armor of Misery

TR
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon

Fast
Razorwing, Lances, Cannon
Razorwing, Lances, Cannon
Raider, Lance

Eldar Allies
Spiritseer (Psychic Shriek, Destructor/Renewer)
x7 Fire Dragons, Serpent w/ TL-Scatter Laser, Cannon, Ghostwalk Matrix
x5 Wraithguard, D-Scythes, Serpent w/ TL-Scatter Laser, Cannon, Ghostwalk Matrix
Wraithknight

My Opponents List: CSM Primary

Lord, Mark of Slaanesh, Lightning Claw, Gift, Maybe other things
x10 Noise Marines, x2 Blastmasters
x5 Noise Marines, Blastmaster
Helldrake, Flamer
Maulerfiend, Lasher Tendrils

Greater Brass Scorpion (AV 14/13/10, 9 Hullpoints, 24'' str. 10 AP 2 large blast ignores cover, 2 Str. 6 AP 3 flamers, 36'' str. 6 AP 3 10 shot gun, 3D6 charge range, auto Perils if he is the target of a spell... My opponent did not have the book on him so I could not verify all the rules so I just rolled with it.)

Daemon Allies
Herald of Nurgle, maybe some gear?
x10 plague daemons (cant remember their name right now... Not Nurglings)
Soul Grinder, Mark of Slaanesh, Battle Cannon upgrade

Primary Mission: Purge the alien
Secondary: Various Maelstorm
Tertiary: Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker

Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Pregame Thoughts:  I have never played against the Brass Scorpion.  The guns on that thing can literally kill anything in my army and with relative ease.  Luckily I have my Fire Dragons and Wraithknight to battle it.  It has relatively short range, but I should be able to bring it down.  The rest of his army isn't much to deal with.  The Helldrake will be a pain as it can kill a Venom and the guys inside in one shot.  I feel rather confident though in my list and think I can take him down.

First Turn: CSM, I deny to seize.

My opponent deploys all but the Drake and the Nurgle Daemons. Then  throws his Grinder, Scorpion, Fiend, and the Rhino w/ 5 man squad and Lord as far forward as possible hiding behind a big Ruin.

I answer by only deploying my Wraithknight in my corner in a ruin.  The Dragons w/ Archon, Seer in the Raider will DS, everything else will come on the board edge.

For Maelstorm, tere is 3 objectives w/ 1 in the very middle and 1 in each of our DZs.

CSM Turn 1:
He moves everything up and runs.  He is out of range with all of his guns.  

Yeeman Turn 1:
I take a couple shots at the Fiend but Ruin saves are too strong.

Opponent grabs a Maelstorm point for being on middle objective.

Killpoints:
CSM: 0 Yeeman: 0
Secondaries
CSM: 1 Yeeman: 0

CSM Turn 2: Helldrake comes in as do the Nurgle Daemons.  He moves everything up as far as possible.  Shooting sees him strip a wound with the big cannon but fails to get through with the Blastmasters and the Tail gun.  Helldrake does nothing.  

Yeeman Turn 2:
Dragons, both Serpents, 2 Venoms, and 1 Razorwing come in.  Venoms come in on far edge (away from Scorpion/Knight corner) and look to target the 10 man Noise Marines.  Razorwing sizes up the Nurgle Daemons who are all grouped up.  Serpents come in the middle of my board edge looking to down the Rhino w/ his Warlord.  Dragons DS next to Scorpion hoping to down it with the Dragons.  Knight moves up to assault the Fiend.
Shooting sees the Venoms down 6 of the Noise Marines, among those 3 of the Blastmasters.  Razorwing lands on target with both missles, cause 22 Wounds of which my opponent rolls and fails enough to kill the whole squad + the Herald!  (First Blood!) One Serpent sizes up the Rhino and the Ruin saves (+ Stealth Ruins from Warlord Trait) is too strong as my Shield only had 2 shots and failed to pen!  The second Serpent then shoots and downs the RHino without the Shield!  Looks like I should have shot that one first!  Wraithknight whiffs on the Fiend even with Spirit Mark.  
Now the big test, the Dragons.  7 shots at the Scorpion within Melta range and.... 3 hit... Damn it!  He had the rear armor back up against the ruin for a 3+ so I go after the side AV 13.  With 2 dice on my 3 hits I proceed to roll... 4, 5, 6.  So nothing, Glance, and a Pen.  YES!  He then Daemon saves the Pen!  DOUBLE YES!  I throw a Haywire, hit, then roll a 1 for dmg.  TRIPLE YES!
Assault phase rolls around and I make my charge into the Fiend with the Knight.  I fail with HoW with a 1 but then hit 3 times!  Then roll 1,1,2 for dmg.  He then saves the glance... GREAT!  Then causes a wound back to me!

My opponent grabs the objective in his zone for another Maelstorm.  I fail to grab my objective and have more units in No Man's land than my opponent.

Killpoints:
CSM: 0 Yeeman: 3
Secondaries
CSM: 2 Yeeman: 0

Thoughts: This turn started off pretty good!  Killed marines, all the daemons, and the Rhino.  Then turned to bad with the major whiffs by the Dragons and the Knight.  I needed to kill or at least hurt the other 2.  This next turn could hurt with all of his threats.

CSM Turn 3:
My opponent shuffles the Scorpion to maximize his damage on all of the units by me.  His Lord's squads moves fully within the ruin, and hunkers down.  The Grinder moves up toward the Venoms.  Helldrake Vector Strikes a Serpent and blows off the Laser.
Shooting sees his Scorpion torch the Dragons +Seer+ Archon with his Flamers and kill the Raider to Boot!  Big Cannon aims at the weakened Serpent and scatters off.  Tail Gun aims at Razorwing, I do not Jink and he glances once.  Helldrake barley gets the tip of my Venom (thought I was safe and I had poor placement) and shakes the Venom, and kills the 5 guys inside.  Grinder aims at the weakened Serpent but only glances it.  Blastermasters scatter off.
Assault Phase sees his Scorpion try to charge the weakened Serpent, but fails.  Wraithknight Immobilizes the Fiend and Glances him.  He then des another wound back to me and regains a Hullpoint back with IWND.  Awesome...

Yeeman Turn 3:
Razorwing and 1 Venom comes in.  New Razorwing follows his brother to target the Lord and Noise Marines in the Ruin.  Other Venom comes in close to my objective near all of the melee.  He can target the Lord as well.  Far functional Venom moves up to target Noise Marines and the other Razorwing goes towards the Grinder.  Serpents move to target the Drake. I could not get a good line on the rear armor of the Scorpion and I had rear armor on the Drake with 1 Serpent.
Shooting sees the 2 far right Venoms target the Noise Marines and kill all but 1.  The Razorwing and new Venom target the Lord and his squad and kill them all for Warlord.  Serpents strip 2 Hullpoints off of the Drake w/ a couple Glances.  Grinder feels nothing from the Razorwings as they whiff hardcore.
Assault sees the Wraithknight immobilze and just because it had been a pain, strip another HP off of the Fiend to finally destroy it.

I grab both Maelstorms and my opponent grabs 1 of his.

Killpoints:
CSM:5  Yeeman: 6
Secondaries
CSM: 3 Yeeman: 2

Thoughts:  Not a bad turn for me.  I have limited the number of units my opponent has to only 4, but 3/4 will be tough for me to get.  I can't keep pace with the KPs I think so I will need to win via Secondaires/Maelstorm also with the Tertiary objectives.  However, I need to keep the Scorpion in my zone so I grab objectives and Linebreaker at the end of the game.  

CSM Turn 4:
Helldrake Vector Strike my new Razorwing before flying off of the board.  My opponent tells me Vector Strikign Fliers is D3+1 hits against fliers.  I did not know this and being that he plays with a Vector Striking flier, I believed him.  (Checking after the game it is only D3)  He does 4 hits and 3 glance results and kills my Razorwing.  (Knowing it would have been only 3 hits instead of 4 could have saved my Razorwing potentially, but not knowing the rules is my fault)  He moves his Scorpion around to target the new Venom and the Wraithknight.  Soulgrinder moves towards the center objective.
Shooting sees his Scorpion target the weakened Serpent w/ his big cannon and kill it.  Flames and destroys both the Venom and the 5 guys inside.  Then plinks off a wound from the Knight with the Tail Gun.  Soul Grinder goes through my Jinking Razorwing and blows it up with his Str. 7 gun.  Lone Noise Marine hides... Or attempts to!
Assault sees the Scorpion charge my Knight.  My knight strips 2 HP off of the Scorpion before dying very very very miserably to him.  (He has like 8 attacks on the charge at Str. 10) He regains a HP due to IWND.

Yeeman Turn 4:
Other Venom comes in and joins his buddies on the far right.  Serpent with Wraithguard jumps over the Scorpion to get Rear Armor and unloads the Wraithguard for a final attempt to down it or atleast grab a couple HPs off of it for an extra VP.  (In retrospect, I should have gone after the Grinder as I did not know under LVO rules those extra VPs for HPs gone on a Super Heavy count towards secondaries and not primary.
Shooting, I kill the lone Noise Marine and strip 2 more HPs off of the Scorpion with Guard and Serpent after my opponent make 4 5++'s!!!!  Obviously the Scorpion does not want to die!  I Flat Out my new Venom on the center objective.

My opponent grabs no Maelstorm Objectives and I grab 2.

Killpoints:
CSM:11  Yeeman: 7
Secondaries
CSM: 3 Yeeman: 4 (+1 for HPs, will add up later)

Thoughts:  Really hoping I could have done more damage to the Scorpion.  But I still feel confident I can at least tie or even win with Secondaries!

CSM Turn 5:  
Helldrake comes on and fails a Vector Strike on the Serpent.  Aim for the center Venom.  Scorpion turns around to target the Guard and the Serpent.  Grinder goes toaward the 3 Venoms.
Shooting sees him kill the Serpent with the Tail Gun as the Main Cannon scatters off.  The Flamers only kill 4/5 of the Guard.  Helldrake fails to hurt the Venoms and only kills 2 Warriors inside!  Grinder does nothing to a Venom.
Assault sees the Grinder fails its charge. Scorpion makes it through Overwatch and decimates the lonely Wraithguard there.  Scorpion regains a wound.  (Only missing 3 now...)

Yeeman Turn 5:
Knowing this could be last turn and with little targets (None!) I Flat Out around and grab Linebreaker and my opponents and the center objective.  
No shooting.
No assaults.

My opponent can't grab any Maelstorms (my ObSec Venoms are on them) and I pick up 2 more.


Killpoints:
CSM:13  Yeeman: 7
Secondaries
CSM: 3 Yeeman: 6 (+1 for HPs, will add up later)

We roll the dice and its a 3 so we play another turn!

Thoughts:  Well this sucks!  I had the 3 Tertiaries and Scondaries on my opponent while he only had Primary and 1 Tertiary so I would win.  Now he can tie or potentially win by killing my units!

CSM Turn 6:
Moving sees the Helldrake fly off the table as he has no targets.  Grinder goes to target a V3nom and the Scorpion moves towards the center and not my board edge to target my middle Venom.  (Not smart for my opponent)
Shooting kills the middle Venom and the occupants due to the blow up.  Grinder does nothing to the Venom he targeted.  Scorpions regains another HP with IWND. (only 2 gone now so no extra VP)

Yeeman Turn 6:
I Flat Out a Venom on the center objective  and unload my other Venom on the objective in my opponents zone.  

I grab 2 maelstorms and my opponent grabs none.

We roll a dice and it comes up another 3 and the games ends!  

The final count is:

Killpoints:
CSM:15  Yeeman: 7
Secondaries
CSM: 3 Yeeman: 8

My opponent has Primary for 4 pts + Warlord for 1 more pt= 5 Points
I have Secondary for 3pts+ Warlord, Linebreaker, and First Blood= 6pts

Yeeman wins 6-5!

Now my opponent should have moved his Scorpion in my zone for Linebreaker but said he thought he couldn't kill my Venom (didn't need to) without having clear LOS.  

Overall thoughts on game:
I had fun and it was pretty intense.  If the game had gone on to turn 7, I feel I would have been tabled due to the my opponents overwhelming firepower.  

The Good:
Venoms- They killed the infantry and held objectives like I need them to do.
Razorwings-  Killed infantry, but maybe should have targeted his armor.
Serpents-  They did ok and absorbed a good amount of firepower.

The Bad:
Wraithknight- 3 rounds of combat with a Fiend?  Not good enough for him.
Wraithguard- Didn't do anything.  No real targets, but still contributed nothing to the battle.

The Ugly:
Fire Dragons + Archon + Seer-  They had one job... Kill the Scorpion... Not only did they not kill it but only doing 1 HP is not acceptable.  I can't see them whiffing that bad again, but I know it can happen, and I cant afford it to against something like the Brass Scorpion.

I like this list and will continue to roll with it for a bit.  I like that I can WWP in the Dragons or the Guard on a unit of my choosing.  No Reserve Manipulation sucks, but I like the potential of Shriek+ Armor for some extra damage to something like a Barbed Hierdrole or other MC that is tough to deal with.

Sorry for no pictures, I just did not think to take them on my phone.  

If you guys have any comments or questions please let me know what you think of the Bat Rep or my list!  Also, if someone can verify the rules for the Brass Scorpion and let me know if in fact it does have all that, that would help too!  My opponent plans on going to the same  tournament (Battle for the Mountain GT) in Denver next month as me and I would like to make sure everything is legit.

Until next time!

YEE YEE!

side question.

Will try and read report soon and comment.

Are you going to the LVO? I will be there for sure. Prob bringing my Dark Eldar/Eldar there

I wont be making it. I originally had the Friday off, but my work changed it on me and wont allow me to take it off. This tournament I am going to is ran by 11th Co. Podcast member Kevin McDermott and he is running it just like the LVO. The tournament is the weekend before LVO. I originally was going to use this as a primer, but work put a wrench in those plans!

Would have liked to meet up though!

Quote :

Greater Brass Scorpion (AV 14/13/10, 9 Hullpoints, 24'' str. 10 AP 2 large blast ignores cover, 2 Str. 6 AP 3 flamers, 36'' str. 6 AP 3 10 shot gun, 3D6 charge range, auto Perils if he is the target of a spell... My opponent did not have the book on him so I could not verify all the rules so I just rolled with it.)

All correct for the latest update on the rules (IA13 - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned).
On top of these, it also has the standard Daemon rule (5+ invul), and makes 1d3+2 stomp attacks instead of the regular 1d3. And it adds +2 to the roll on the catastrophic damage table, should it go down.
It only has 6 attacks, though

Awesome to know! Thanks for the reassurance! That thing is a bargain I think at only around 700 point I believe he said! Defintely dishes out the pain in shooting and CC against anything not 2+ AS or with a high invuln!

Nice report! It was easy to fallow and you highlighted the main points well.

Target priority can definitely be difficult sometimes.  Especially with say razorwings as their missiles are so tempting to use right away.  I do think that they should probably have targeted the armour first as you had lots of venoms to deal with the troops, and his vehicles seemed to be the bigger threat at the time.  stupid scorpion!  You did have some really bad luck shooting at the scorpion though.  That was a bummer for sure. Had you not whiffed that roll so badly the game probably would have turned out much different. I think that your army definitely had the tools to deal with his army with not too much trouble.  But a few bad rolls. or goods 5++/IWND on his end changed a lot.

I like your army design, but think that you could use a few minor changes.  These are just my opinions of course. Everybody has a different play style and meta of course. I have played Dark eldar since 3rd ed and love them to death.  (Had a break playing orks for a good while)
I tend to play my Dark Eldar as a reserve army as it makes the games quicker and often throws your opponent off guard.  Having an Autarch for reserve manipulation is definitely priceless. I have tried without him, but found that my army works much much better with him.


I agree that the spirit seer can be fun and Shriek/Armour work well together. But I do think that an Autarch would work much better in your style of list.  I know you would lose the wraithguard, but all is not lost.  I'd almost say take a cheap Autarch with a fusion gun. OR you can go the Mantle/bike/fusion/lance rout which makes him a great unit mopper upper/vehicle/maelstrom/objective grabber kind of guy.  If you really want the second serpent then maybe consider avengers in a serpent for another troop choice, and turning one of your Kabalite units into a unit of Blasterborn. Maybe even some ravagers.  you should be able to fit that into 1850. I would also consider giving the Archon a blaster (maybe over the armour of misery?).  When the Archon drops with the Dragons and possible Autarch you can split the unit into 3 direction as to be able to target 3 different targets if you feel so inclined. I do this all the time and it is lots of fun and effective.
I am a little confused about the raider though? What is its purpose in the list besides a ride for the Spiritseer? Those points could be used on something awesome like an Eldar Hornet if you have one, or warpspiders or haywire scourges or something?

Here is the list that I am trying out for the LVO

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t11244-1850-dark-eldar-eldar



Here is a slightly modified version of your list that I think would be fun and work really well.

HQ
Archon, Portal, Blaster

ELITE
5 Trueborn w/ 4 Blaster, Venom w/ Extra Cannon

TR
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Extra Cannon


Fast
Razorwing, Lances, Cannon
Razorwing, Lances, Cannon

Eldar Allies
HQ
Autarch w/ Fusion gun

ELITE
x6 Fire Dragons, Serpent w/ TL-Scatter Laser, Cannon, Ghostwalk Matrix

TROOP
5 Dire avengers, Serpent w/ TL-Scatter Laser, Cannon

HEAVY SUPPORT
Wraithknight


This list is 1672 points. which gives you 178 points to spend on something else.

Maybe  5-8 Warpspiders for being super annoying and give you a great way to deal with armour and good against flyers. a small unit of spiders and blasters on warriors is always a good idea. OR instead of blasters and unit of the always amazing Guardian wind rider jetbikes. They are also fast enough to plug holes in your battle line which is always great (the spiders, not the bikes). or even 3 duel scatter laser war walkers if you can find 2 points to spare for more amazing AI and light AT. Haywire scourges are also great for stripping off HP for vehicles, but I think spiders are better at being a good multi purpose unit.  I haven't tried the reaver jetbikes in the new dex, but people seem to really like them with caltrops, so that could be something to consider.


Anyways keep up the good work.  Hope to meet someday. I live in Canada and attend a good chunk of the west coast tournaments. Especially Seattle and Vancouver Canada (my home).

Appreciate the feedback! I think I could have definitely had some better target priority looking back at the game. Rolling a little better and having less 5++/IWND would have made the Scorpion easier to handle. Had I gotten in both Razorwings, I probably would have gone after the Drake since he can really ruin our day!

I had the Spiritseer in more for the Wraithguard than the Psychic Shriek really. I threw the Armor on the Archon because I had some points and thought it could be a nice combo. Plus, I did not expect to Reserve my whole army like I did. I love me some Autarch and will proabably switch back to him, I will just miss the Wraithguard a lot because of the str 10 gun and the tough troops that can be hard to remove off of objectives. But the reserve manipulation is key and will always be useful in my list. He would help add another reliable Melta and can take some incoming fire for the squad if need be as well unlike the Spiritseer.

I have never been a fan of Blasterborn with their cost. 180pts is quite a lot and they have never worked well for me. And the new Ravager more or less just pisses me off. I have tried it, but only moving 6'' for the 3 shots is tough. I need to relearn how to play with them with their new rules, but right now I am leaving them at home with the point increase and the fact I cant move them more than 6'' without SFing a Lance.

The Raider was in there for the Dragons. They would DS down with the Archon and Seer. I bought them a Serpent so I can have a second serpent on the board without paying the tax for another unit. They can DS down and stay in the Raider for extra protection and not have to get out like they would if they had the Serpent.

I always go back and forth on the Archon. I give him a Haywire over the Blaster because it is cheaper and is more reliable for tank hunting I think. Plus, getting locked in with a Walker or any vehicle, the Haywire helps there. Plus he has a pistol to shoot at infantry!


I like your list a lot. I feel we have similar ideas when making lists. Personally I would add a Raider so you can DS the Dragons + Autarch + Archon and stay inside and shoot a unit at full BS, or get our and move 6" and shoot multiple targets. With the rest of your points, grab 6 Warp Spiders to keep your theme of reserve and DS. They will help out in a pinch.

Again, appreciate the time taken to respond! Good luck at LVO!