Coven vs Eldar Ghost Warriors 1750

I'm posting this a couple weeks after the fact, so details will be limited. This is a 1750 point game of Emperor's Will.

Dark Eldar Army

Dark Artisan Formation
Haemonculus (warlord)
Talos - Ichor Injector
Cronos - Spirit Probe

Grotesqurie
Haemonculus - Scissorhand
4 Grotesque - 1 upgarded to Aberration with Scissorhand in a Raider with Enhanced Aethersails
4 Grotesque - 1 upgraded to Aberration with Scissorhand in a Raider with Enhanced Aethersails

Combined Arms Detachment
Haemonculus - Scissorhand and Armor of Misery
5 Warriors - Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
5 Warriors - Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Scourges - 4 Haywire Blasters
Scourges - 4 Haywire Blasters
3 Reavers - Cluster Caltrops
3 Reavers - Cluster Caltrops
Ravager - 2 Lances, 1 Disintegrator (points were really tight)
Ravager - 3 Disintegrators

Eldar Army

Wraithknight - ranged weapons
Wraithknight - melee variant
Wraithlord
Wraithlord
Wraithlord
5 Wraithguard
5 Wraithguard
5 Wraithblades
5 Wraithblades
3 Windrider Jetbikes

I don't know these units that well so I think there was something else in there to do an allied detachment along with the Ghost Warriors formation.  Spiritseer maybe?

My opponent won the rolloff to go first and he deployed as far forward as he could knowing that I could trounce him in a firefight with all my poisoned weapons.  I alternatively castled up in one corner so he wouldn't be able to take any shots in his first turn and opted to focus on the melee wraithknight side first.

Eldar Turn 1

He advances ahead as quickly as he can including lots of run moves.



Dark Eldar Turn 1

I advance with the Dark Artisan and everything else shuffles around a bit to get clear shots with the disintegrators and lances.  I put all poisoned shots into the Wraithknight and despite firing some 46 poisoned bullets at him I managed a mere 2 wounds.  It was an atrocious start but hopefully my bad rolling is getting out of the way early.  The disintegrators barely do better killing 3 Wraithblades.

Eldar Turn 2

The Wraithknight charges into my Dark Artisan and the rest of the army marches forward.  The distant Wraithknight fires into a raider and stuns it.  During the assault phase I did 2ish wounds to the melee Wraithknight and I may have taken 1 back.

Dark Eldar Turn 2

I shift my Venoms, Warriors, and Reavers over to engage the second Wraithknight causing 4ish wounds from shooting while one raider full of Grotesque disembarks to assist The Dark Artisan.  Disintegrators continue shots into the Wraithblade and Wraithguard causing a couple more casualties.  I charge both Reaver squads into the shooting Wraithknight while my Grotesque rush into the melee Wraithknight thinking I should be able to take both down this turn.  Sure enough, one of the Reaver squads fails a 4" charge so I knock him down to 1 wound and he stays.  For the melee Wraithknight, I whiff again with the Dark Artisan and 2 haemonculi and he also survives on a single wound and takes advantage of the opportunity to crush 3 grotesque but at least they finish him off with their attacks back.  

Not pictured, in the far corner of his table his 3 windriders guard his objective alone.  One of my scourge units deepstrikes in and almost scatters on top of them but wipes them out with their haywire blasters in a single volley!



Eldar Turn 3

Wraithlords march forward and wipe out or break both Reaver squads and blow up one of my raiders.  A brave wraithblade charges the dark artisan and dies to overwatch.  The various wraithguard start getting wounds into the Dark Artisan though.



Dark Eldar Turn 3

Reavers fail to regroup, but my venoms finish off the remaining Wraithknight and knock down a Wraithlord to a single wound.  My ravagers and raiders pretty well wipe out the second wraithblade unit.  I'm continuing to have terrible rolls in thinking that a single venom can get a wound in on a wraithlord but having to fire 2 or 3 units at them to achieve the result instead.  Worse still, I charge the Dark Artisan and Grotesque into the wraithguard unit and they get two overwatch hits with 2 instant death shots knocking out both the Chronos and the Haemonculus from my Dark Artisan causing them to fail their charge.  Sigh...

Eldar Turn 4

One wraithlord rushes towards my objective and flames most of the warriors on the terrain before charging and killing some from the other unit as well.  His wraithguard shoot down my talos with more instant death shots.  The wraithguard that I charged with my grotesque are finally brought down and I consolidate around behind the remaining wraithguard unit.

Dark Eldar Turn 4

Reavers fail to regroup again and go off the board (so close to being fearless).  Second Scourge unit finally deepstrikes but can't do much since everything left is high Toughness.  I shoot 2 venoms and the warriors at the wraithlord with a single wound left and fail to kill him...  Grotesque have to finish him off on the charge. My ravagers get a single wound on another wraithlord and my weakened grotesque unit loses another model to an instant death overwatch shot leaving just the haemonculus to fight them now.



Eldar Turn 5

He fights desperately to get to my objective but can't get through the barrier I've placed around it nor deal with all the units I have contesting it.  He concedes the game because he can't catch up score wise.

Closing Thoughts:  I hope I've used up all my bad luck for a long time on this one.  I had way too many easy rolls completely fail me on this including easy charge ranges I missed, easy wounds to inflict through poison that failed, and unlucky instant death shots coming into my ranks.  Again, I didn't get to rush into their zone turn 1 as I designed the list to do, but I believe that would have gone terribly for me because of all of his strength 10 melee attacks.  Maybe if I'd brought more venoms I would have risked it.  I do think I'll add some mandrakes to this list so that I can have them, the Grotesquerie, and some Reavers all in their deployment turn 1 putting a lot of pressure on them and stretching their resources thin.  I like the idea of this aggressive coven list and hope to get more games in soonish.

There was quite a debate recently about the viability of mandrakes (well, I should say there was another debate about their viability). I tried them as two squads of five in my last game and they were actually pretty good fun. Not necessarily better than something else, just... different. They obviously aren't much of an aggressive unit, but they're good for getting onto objectives turn one and also pretty useful in maelstrom games generally.

Anyway, good game, congratulations on the win!

Another nice win. I was actually surprised by how close it was as DE are tailor made to murderize Wraith units who rely on their high toughness. But as you mention in your report, it sounds like the dice gods had forsaken you in this game which probably allowed your opponent to hang around longer than he normally would. Overall, nice batrep and good game. Really enjoying your list as I think it has a lot of good synergy as constructed. Thanks for writing up another entertaining batrep.

Thanks, I like the idea of the mandrakes because it's a win if they draw any firepower from the reavers and raiders I boost into the enemy's face turn 1. I also find infiltrators encourage opponents to spread out their deployment more to avoid having something show up behind them or on their side which lets me focus down one side of an army more easily. It's a small point investment, so even if all they do is eat an overwatch for the other units I'd be ok with it.

The game definitely should have been an easy win but the dice were not my friends at all. Interestingly, my opponent completely stomped his opponent in his first game because nobody else present really had the output to deal with all that T6 and T8. There was never a risk of me losing since he didn't dedicate anything to reclaiming his back objective and I had first blood, but I thought I had a 9-0 or 9-1 win in hand at deployment. Boy was I in for a surprise and a far more stressful experience than anticipated.