Battle Report - Dark Eldar versus Necron Decurion

Dark Eldar versus Necrons
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire (3 Objectives)
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Night Fight? No

My list was:

Combined Arms Detachment - Dark Eldar
Lhamaean, Venom
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
10 Kabalite Warriors, Raider, Splinter Racks, Dark Lance
10 Kabalite Warriors, Raider, Splinter Racks, Dark Lance
7 Incubi, Klaivex (Warlord), Raider, Night Shields
Razorwing, Dark Lances
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances

The Necron list was (roughly):

Overlord (Warlord) – Warscythe
20 Warriors
10 Warriors, Ghost Ark
10 Immortals (Gauss), Night Scythe
C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer
6 Wraiths
Stalker
5 Tomb Blades

Deployment
I lost the roll for first turn and the Necrons decided to deploy second. Terrain was roughly symmetrical with ruins in each corner and some craters in the middle of the board. Objectives were placed roughly in a diagonal line, with one in a ruin in each of our deployment zone and the last one in a central crater.

I deployed my entire army, other than the Razorwing, in or behind ruins in my deployment zone. My warlord trait gave me Stealth (Ruins) and Move Through Cover meaning that I didn’t have to worry about immobilizing my skimmers on the terrain. I disembarked one unit of warriors and kept them out of LOS by my objective. The Lhamaean got out of her Venom and hid out of LOS in some ruins, where she would saty all battle.

The Necrons warlord trait gave him 3 infiltrating units so he infiltrated the 20 Warriors and Overlord, Tomb Blades and the Wraiths. The Wraiths were out in the open (as they don’t really care about cover with a 3++ save!) as close to my right flank units as they could get but the Warriors remained in ruins as close as possible to the central objective. The Ghost Ark deployed just behind them and the Stalker was near their own objective. The Tomb Blades infiltrated on to my left flank.

The Necrons failed to seize the initiative.

Turn One
All of my Venoms moved to get LOS on the Nightbringer and the big Warrior unit in the middle of the table. The Raider gunboats moved forward to get into rapid fire range of the Wraiths and the Ravagers lined up on the Ghost Ark and Stalker. The Incubi’s Raider moved toward the Tomb Blades. Everything opened fire. My first Venom inflicted 6 wounds on the Nightbringer who promptly failed 4 of the saves and exploded, taking a couple of nearby warriors with him and even inflicting a wound on the Overlord. First Blood to me and onto the rest of the shooting. The Ravagers took out the Ghost Ark and killed a couple of the passengers. Most of the rest of my army shot the central warrior unit and killed 11 of them. The rest shot at the Wraiths, killing 2. A pretty devastating Alpha Strike! The Necrons passed all required Morale tests.

The Necrons responded by moving the remaining warriors into the middle of the table, camping the central objective. The Wraiths moved into my skimmer park, getting ready to assault (we forgot that they had infiltrated and therefore couldn’t assault!). The Stalker shot at and exploded a Venom, taking out 1 of the passengers. The rest of the army shot at me but the combination of ruins and stealth prevented any major damage. The Wraiths assaulted a Venom but only managed to wreck it, allowing the occupants to disembark into ruins.

Turn Two
The Razorwing failed to show up. The Incubi disembarked and moved to within an inch of the Tomb Blades. Everything else moved to either get in rapid fire range or LOS of their chosen targets. Shooting removed all but 2 of the (formerly) large Warrior unit, killed the Wraiths, destroyed the Stalker and took out a couple from the other Warrior unit. The Incubi took 2 casualties from overwatch but then killed 2 of the Tomb Blades for no loss, but the robots held their nerve and remained in the fight.

The Night Scythe arrived and deposited the Immortals close to my objective. The Overlord and his remaining Warriors moved towards one of my Venoms. The other Warrior unit remained camped on the central objective. They shot at one of the Raider gunboats and wrecked it, with the passengers disembarking into the central crater, close to the Warriors. The Immortals shot at a Ravager, causing it to Jink but only doing 1 HP. The Night Scythe shot at another Ravager, which also Jinked and avoided any damage. The Overlord charged the Venom, losing one of his Warriors to Overwatch from the passengers and somehow only managing to inflict 1 HP. The Incubi wiped out the remaining Tomb Blades and consolidate back towards their Raider.

Turn Three
The Razorwing failed to show up. Again. The Venom that had been assaulted by the Overlord swiftly moved away and then went flat out to reach the now unguarded Necron objective, also securing Linebreaker. The Incubi embarked on the Raider which moved towards the centre of the battle. The warriors that had disembarked from the wrecked Raider moved up to contest the central objective. The Ravagers that Jinked last turn moved to get good LOS into the Night Scythe. Everything else moved to get LOS on the remaining Necrons. Shooting wiped out the rest of the Overlords Warriors and brought him down to the last wound. It also wiped out the Immortals and inflicted 3 casualties on the remaining Warrior unit. The Night Scythe was undamaged but I’d moved all my units so that they were within its minimum 18” move or out of its potential fire arc and it was therefore not a threat.

The Night Scythe flew off the table. The Overlord moved towards the centre of the table. The Warriors shot at and then assaulted my Kabalites but the plucky Dark Eldar survived with 1 warrior, who then refused to break, which was unfortunate as I could not now shoot the Warriors next turn.

Turn Four
The Razorwing finally showed up and fired both Dark Lances at the Overlord, finally killing him (he took a phenomenal amount of firepower!). The Incubi charged the warriors and killed them off. Game over.

I’d claimed all three objectives plus First Blood, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord. All my Heavy Support units survived to the end of the battle and the Necrons didn’t have any. 12-0 victory to the Dark Eldar, tabling the Necrons for the loss of 2 Venoms, a Raider and a handful of Dark Eldar infantry.

Impressive! I find Dark Eldar to be a little more resilient than most people give them credit for. It seems like you played a smart and almost flawless game! Congrats!

Thank you. It went far better than expected to be honest. Taking out the Nightbringer with my first attack of the game seemed to set the mood for the rest of the battle and it was rarely in doubt from the end of the first turn.

Thank you for the write up, Count! I'll make sure to try a similar list against my Necron buddy next. So far, trying to out-shoot him has always failed hard, but my lists weren't optimized I think.

That's a nice report. Good game!

Did he bring this super reanimation Detachment? How did you manage to kill them so quick? They got a 4+ Armour Save and 5+ reanimation, right?

CptMetal wrote:

That's a nice report. Good game!

Did he bring this super reanimation Detachment? How did you manage to kill them so quick? They got a 4+ Armour Save and 5+ reanimation, right?

It's 4+/4+ RP for Warriors (due to Reclamation Legion bonus) and 3+/4+ for Immortals. Outside of close combat, the only way to bring them buggers down is by pure weight of fire. Force them to take as many saves as possible and hope they fail them. I was firing ~140 splinter shots per turn plus any Dark Lances that I could spare from Ravagers and Raiders that weren't able to fire at vehicles. That's enough to down about a dozen Warriors with RP so it was just a case of keeping up that firepower and relying on Flickerfields and cover saves from Ruins to protect the Venoms from return fire without the need to Jink. I only really Jink with Raiders as the loss of their firepower is hardly noticeable. I did Jink with the Ravagers after the Night Scythe came on as I knew I'd be trying to shoot it anyway, with no other vehicles left to target, and therefore wasn't losing anything by jinking.

Necrons get rerollable 2+ and 4+ protocols. And the fron guy can LOS AP2 wounds to Wraiths.

Normally I try to kill the Harvest Spider that deals out the protocols. After that they die normally.

Congrats on the win Count and thanks for shareing.

Incidentally, I took exactly the same list last night against a Nurgle Daemon army and scored a 10-5 win in The Scouring. And that was with nearly 700 points of extra troops summoned by the Daemon player throughout the game!

I took the same list again tonight against Eldar and Grey Knights. We called it on turn 5 as the absolute best the Eldar player could achieve would be a 10-6 loss.

Woah! Many kabalites!
Nice list and good (relatively fast) win!

Personally, I will always bring the archon because I love the fluff and the model, but I like the "Kabal-ish" theme list

We did a Maelstrom mission last night (my opponent's idea!) and that played right into my hands with 12 ObjSec units, all of which are (or are in) fast skimmers. Not feeling the blasters on the warriors to be honest. They rarely do anything and I'm wondering if I could spend those points better elsewhere.

I feel ya. I like having single purpose units that way I'm not wasting points on something that isn't getting utilised every turn.
I like Trueborn for Blasters

I'm going to carry on with the same list until it loses and then I might make a few changes.

You may not feel the blasters now, but multi-use units are Dark Eldars strong point. Against a full mech army, your venoms are worthless. If they have blasters in them, they are not.
Besides, the one str 8 ap 2 shot insta kills most marine characters, makes FMC's jink, and removes feel no pain from most units. I always take them if I have the points, and most times, they have a use.

Skulnbonz wrote:

You may not feel the blasters now, but multi-use units are Dark Eldars strong point. Against a full mech army, your venoms are worthless. If they have blasters in them, they are not.

In the last three battles I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times that any of the blasters have achieved anything at all, although that is at least partially down to my appalling dice rolling with them. Then there's the fact that if I need a blaster to be firing at a vehicle then the rest of the unit is doing absolutely nothing.

Quote :

Besides, the one str 8 ap 2 shot insta kills most marine characters, makes FMC's jink, and removes feel no pain from most units.  I always take them if I have the points, and most times, they have a use.

I don't tend to face many SM characters that are on their own and don't have an invulnerable save and/or are not in cover, a FMC would have to be pretty cautious to jink a single shot that needs a 6 to hit and I don't tend to face many enemies that have FNP other than on large units that a single blaster shot is not going to make a huge dent in.

I might see if I can trim points anywhere to put all the blasters in a Trueborn unit instead of scattered about the place. Or maybe just take some Scourges instead.

Count Adhemar wrote:

I might see if I can trim points anywhere to put all the blasters in a Trueborn unit instead of scattered about the place. Or maybe just take some Scourges instead.

I love my trueborn, but I do like to mix it up a bit. (which is why i can't understand people who only play the same list over and over and over - what's the point then? )
I try to make sure i have all bases covered while still being true to fluff. I find that the best feeling is winning with a fluffy, not-superoptimised list. It means your tactics are spot on, and that's more satisfying than being the guy who bought the most effective models

Twice games ago, a very lucky overwatch blaster shot ista-gibbed a much more pricey GK. It was priceless.

like the list, especially them incubi's

RCZ wrote:

Twice games ago, a very lucky overwatch blaster shot ista-gibbed a much more pricey GK. It was priceless.

i had a game vs orks:
the last guy from a 5man blaster squad happened to be the blaster when a loaded up deff rolla attempts a tank shock, blaster snap shoots, explodes the tank and the ork players face ! LOL