Dark Eldar vs Eldar (6th edition) - 2000 points

I played my friend's 6th edition Eldar in a VERY casual game today.  He hadn't played in a year and a half and is getting back into 40K.  He also planned to play Space Wolves originally, but several of his key units aren't painted yet and he didn't want to play with unpainted models.  So he substituted his Eldar at the last minute.  

Here are the army lists:

Dark Eldar
Dark Artisan:
Haemie w/ Scissorhands, Nightmare Doll, and Panacea Perverted (WL)
Talos w/ Chain Flails
Cronos w/ Spirit Probe

Corpsethief Claw:
5 x Talos w/ HWB

CAD:

Lhamean w/ Venom

4 x 5 Warriors w/ Venoms

3 x Incubi w/ Klaivex

3 x DL Ravagers

Eldar (from memory so I may forget a few things)

Autarch w/ Swooping Hawk Wings, Melta Gun, and Laser Lance (WL)
Farseer (he rolled Guide, Death Mission, Eldritch Storm, I forgot his other power.  My opponent would forget to cast any of his Psychic Powers for entire game. Even when I reminded him and asked if he wanted to, he elected not to.  He's not a big fan of the Psychic phase)

2 x 10 Guardians w/ Shuriken Cannon Weapon Platform
6 x Jet Bikes w/ 2 x Shuriken Cannons

10 x Striking Scorpions w/ Exarch in Wave Serpent
10 x Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent
10 x Warp Spiders
2 x 6 Swooping Hawks

1 x Fire Prism
2 x War Walkers w/Bright Lance and Shuriken Cannon on each
1 x Shadow Weaver

Pre-Game Thoughts:
I was terrified he would bring 4-5 Wave Serpents and Wraith Guard, both regular and of the D-Scythe variety.  I was quite relieved when I saw his list and then I kind of felt like I brought a gun to a knife fight.  The only things I found really scary were his Warp Spiders and his Fire Dragons.  If I minimize the damage they could do, I liked my chances.  

Objectives:
We each place three.  I place mine all near the midfield.  He places one in the vicinity of midfield, but still closer to his deployment zone and the other two firmly in his deployment zone.  

Deployment:
He won the roll-off and elected to go second.  He kept his bikes, Hawks, and Spiders in reserve.  I deployed everything everything behind LoS blocking terrain with the CtC and DA in the center, and the Venoms and Ravagers off to one flank.  The Incubi started off in ruins.  

Turn One:  
DE:
I shuffled the CTC and the DA around and moved the Ravagers to one side of the board.  Nothing was in range or LoS to shoot at.  

Eldar:  
He moved the Wave Serpents with his Fire Dragons and Scorpions up 12 inches.  He moved and ran his War Walkers forward but nothing was in LoS to shoot at.  

Turn Two:
DE:
Anticipating his Hawks and Spiders Deepstriking I spread the DtC out in case I need to charge behind me or in front of me.  The DA shuffle a bit to stay within six inches of the CtC and the Incubi.  No shooting again this turn as he is staying behind LoS blocking terrain out of fear of my Ravagers.  

Eldar:
Thanks to the Autarch, all of his Reserves arrive.  This will be the last mention of his Autarch because he spent the remainder of the game cowering behind some ruins, as is the Eldar way.  His Spiders stick their landing six inches away from the CtC. Uh oh.   His Hawks land just to drop their grenade pack on my Incubi before they Skyleap back into Ongoing Reserves.  His Scorpions and Fire Dragons move up also.  His Spiders open up on the CtC.  After 20 shots, including 3 AP1 wounds, one Talos has taken two wounds thanks to the 4+ FNP and Covens WL trait that lets me re-roll ones on FNP.  My opponent's shoulders sagged visibly and a look of concern spread across his face as he fully grasped what  a precarious situation his Spiders were now in.  HIs War Walkers and two Wave Serpents also shoot at the CtC but do no damage.  His Hawks drop two large blast grenade packs on the Incubi and kill one.  

Comment:  You know how in boxing they say that in the early rounds, the two fighters will feel each other out with jabs?  Well, that's how the first two turns were.  Except instead of throwing jabs, the boxers stayed in their respective corner and shook their fist menacingly at one another.    

Turn Three
DE:
I advance the CtC towards his Warp Spiders ready to pocket a sure thing in the form of a sweet, sweet VP for killing the Spiders in CC (this is called ironic foreshadowing, folks).  The Ravagers adjust their position to draw line of sight to the Fire Dragon's Wave Serpent.  I fire all three Ravagers at the Wave Serpent and manage three glances (hooray for Dark Glances, our premiere anti-tank weapon!).  He opted to Jink and promptly rolls three ones.  First Blood (finally)!  I shoot the CtC HWB at the Spiders and cause no wounds.  The CtC then easily make their charge into the Spiders.  All right, it's clobberin' time, is what I was thinking right up until I rolled mostly ones and twos to hit.  In total I only killed seven Spiders.  He fails his Leadership.  Then I roll a two on the Initiative test and he merrily jumps away, living to fight another day.  Now my shoulders were the ones sagging, as a deep sigh encompassing the depths of human despair issued forth from my lungs.  On the bright side though, his Fire Dragons are now out in the open and his Warp Spiders are falling back.  

Eldar:
His Spiders rally, as the gods mock me for hubris.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, his Scorpions' Wave Serpent advances closer to the CtC and the DA.  His Hawks land just long enough to drop their grenades on the two remaining Incubi but cause no wounds, before Skyleaping back into the warm embrace of Ongoing Reserves.  In an unexpected move, his Fire Dragons retreat backwards.  His two Guardian squads shuffle forward closer to two objectives.  His bikes park themselves on another objective.  His Shadow Weaver, Wave Serpent, and War Walkers, and Fire Prism all shoot at the CtC but thanks some lousy rolling on his part, do no damage.  

Turn Four:
DE:  
I find the Fire Prism and the War Walkers to be irritating so the CtC and the Ravagers turn their attention to each.  I move the DA forward to deal with the Wave Serpents carrying the Scorpions.  I bring the Venoms out to deal with his bikes on the objective closest to midfield.  In shooting, I explode one War Walker, put a hull point on the Fire Prism and make it Jink, and kill all but one bike (seriously, 48 total Venom shots killed FIVE lousy jet bikes), which passed its Leadership.  Curses.  In assault, the DA charges the Wave Serpent with the Scorpions and explodes it, killing one Scorpion but they pass their Leadership.

Eldar:
Anticipating the game's end, he moves his two Guardian squads onto two objectives and brings his Hawks back in to target the Incubi again.  Again, his grenade blasts fail to do any damage to the Incubi. The remaining War Walker fires at the CtC but does nothing.  The Shadow Weaver also targets them, but fails to wound.  The Scorpions shoot their pistols a the DA but cause no damage.  The Fire Prism snap shoots at the CtC but fails to hit.  

Turn Five:
DE:
With things winding down, it dawns on me that I've played way too passively this game, staying around the midfield where I'd placed my three objectives.  Even if I flat out, I won't get Line Breaker and War Lord looks to be a remote possibility as well.  Thus I move the Venoms to secure my three objectives and flat out two Ravagers to the midfield objective his lone bike is holding.  If he wants to continue to hold it, he needs to keep his bike there.  If he turbo boosts to contests one of mine, none of his other units are in three inches.  In shooting, the CtC and DA kill three of the Scorpions.  In the assault phase, the CtC charges into the Scorpions and wipes them out, earning me one additional VP.  

Eldar:
He brings his Hawks in near my back table edge to secure Line Breaker.  He mostly stays put otherwise as he is also holding three objectives, with his lone bike opting to stay where it is.  The Fire Dragons Battle Focus looking to take out one of my Ravagers.  His War Walkers and remaining three Spiders turn their attention on the other Ravager.  In shooting, the Ravager being targeted by the Fire Dragons passes, nine out of ten Jink saves(!!!), but the one it fails ends up exploding it.  The Warp Spiders, War Walker, and Shuriken Cannon platforms from the two Guardian squads end up wrecking the other Ravager.  His Swooping Hawks drop their grenade packs AND shoot 36 Las Blasters at my two remaining Incubi...and kill one.     We have a good laugh.  Okay, I have a good laugh.  He gives a murderous glare in the direction of his Swooping Hawks as if to say, "YOU HAVE FAILED ME FOR THE LAST TIME!"  And then we roll to see if the game continues.  I want it to continue and he wants it to end.  I roll for it and roll a two.  The game ends.

I am holding three objectives and have First Blood as well.  My opponent is also holding three objectives and has Line Breaker.  It's a draw. OR IS IT???  I got one additional VP thanks to the CtC wiping out the Scorpions in CC.  Thus, the final score is Dark Eldar 11 to Eldar 10.  Victory!

Post-Game Thoughts:
I played way too timidly with the CtC and the DA.  I advanced to midfield and was then content to just loiter around there, daring him to move forward, forgetting the fact that he'd placed his three objectives closer to his deployment zone so he didn't have to move very far forward.  I should've been more aggressive in pushing forward on Turn Three and Four to be in a better position to contest/steal objectives with my obsec Venoms during the late game.  Once I wrecked his Fire Dragon's Wave Serpent and weathered the storm of his Warp Spiders' arrival, I wasn't really afraid of his shooting at all, so I definitely took my foot off the gas a little once those threats were neutralized and lost the momentum.  Lessons for next game.  

In terms of my MVP, I would have to say it was a tie between my CtC and my DA since the 4+FNP and WL trait allowed the CtC to shake off pretty much all of his shooting without losing a Talos.  Granted, it wasn't an optimized Eldar list, but he still poured a decent amount of shots into the CtC with nothing but frustration to show for it.  Plus, the CtC ended up securing the winning point, so they were well worth the investment.  I'm not sure about the HWB on the Talos though.  I was quite underwhelmed.  I'm thinking next game I might keep the Splinter Cannons or try to the Heat Lances.  Overall, it was a fun, albeit sloppy game, but  we both had a good time and were surprised the game was as close as it was due to the fact that it felt like the DE had the upper hand throughout the game.  

Thanks for reading.  If there's a enough interest to justify all the typing, I'll try to do one of these after every game.

Hi,

Nice report, would love to read more.

I've always worried about the points cost of the CtC and the DA.  Do you think they would work in smaller games, say 1750 ?  Do the CtC need the 4+ FnP from the Cronos, and is the DA worth it on their own ?

Odd weapon loadouts on some of the Eldar stuff, how do you think we will fair against a more optimised list from their new codex

Rathstar

Thanks for reading.

In smaller games, it may be too many points to run both DA and CtC. It may be better to run the Grotesquerie and DA or just CtC at lower point levels, since the DA and CtC accounted for just over half my points in this game. I think the 4+FNP coupled with the WL trait that lets Talos/Cronos re-roll ones on FNP is huge. You're basically giving your giant squad of T7 MCs Necron Decurion-level survivability. Even though I didn't face an optimized Eldar list, they still took a decent amount of Str6/Str7/Str8 and pseudo-rending shooting with very little damage to show for it. Plus, they kept my opponent away from the midfield and were very effective at board control.

I'm going to keep using the same list and hope it gets a stiffer challenge from the 7th edition Eldar and my friend's Space Wolves which includes a large TWC pseudo-deathstar. New Eldar Warp Spiders, Scat Bikes, and D weapon Wraith Guard should prove to be a much tougher challenge.

I always support having more battle reports posted, so I hope you'll keep em coming especially because the corpsethief claw is an expansion I've considered for my own army so I'd really like to see more results from them. Where they excel, where the falter, etc.

I do wonder how much damage the corpsethief claw would have taken even without the spirit probe nearby. I suspect you wouldn't have taken much damage to the unit even if their fnp was dropped to 5+ instead of 4+ and I would be afraid of hindering my mobility by trying too hard to keep them within 6" of each other. If the only thing you brought the Dark Artisan for was the +1 fnp, I'm not sure it would be worth the significant cost in it especially since the two units would seemingly compete with each other for targets while trying to stay close together.

Because the CtC takes up such a large area when spaced out to two inch coherency, I didn't find it difficult to keep them within six inches of the DA and since they move at the same speed, I don't think it would've been much of a problem if I had pushed further up the board. Without the 4+FNP, I estimate I would've lost 2-3 Talos during the game. My opponent was rolling pretty hot with his Bladestorm and Monofilament weapons. The DA, in addition to making the CtC tough as nails, also acts as a second large threat which can soak up huge amounts of punishment and kill things in CC. It is not as killy as the CtC, but it will still kill most things, barring elite CC units like TWC and can tie Wraiths up for the whole game with decent rolls. Plus, it makes a superb bunker to hide your warlord in.