I wanted to boast a little about a mid-sized tournament I attended which went pretty well.
It was 1650 pts for three games of three hours (I finished all games with 5 turns for the first time).
I basically went there to get game practise, playing this list for the very first time and not playing a lot the last half year. (5 to 6 games, so hardly one per month and only with my new Tau project).
But Dark Eldar are more fun to play.
The tournament set up a matrix depending on the points difference for maelstrom/markers/killpoints and the added bonus points for linebraker, warlord and kill the most expensive unit.
Also, you roll off once before the game and the winner chooses to take the side or to go first.
I played:
Dark Eldar CAD:
Lhamean in Venom, two units of warriors in venoms, two units of Haywire Scourges, six reavers with caltrops and seargent (warlord) ans one Cronos.
CTC: four times ichor injector, splinter cannons
Eldar:
Windrider Sorcerer with four Scatbikes
Game one:
Grey Knight Deathstar:
SM Libby Conclave, two Wolf Lords with two Servitors,
Nemesis with two Knights, Termis with two more Magicians and the little dudes wearing only 3+ pants.
Mission: Maelstrom, Eternal War Marker, Tertiary (most exp. unit, warlord, linebreaker)
Deployment: Vanguard
He hid behind LOS while I went first and since I rolled for infiltration, I put my Talos greedy into his deployment zone to get some shots at his deathstar before his firs psychic phase. First that was stupid and second that was stupid as I clearly should have shot at his conclave. I did one wound on a Wolflord.
He charged the Talos early with the small group of normal Grey Knights and one Wolflord, getting of Instant Death, Invisibility and Hammerhand all the time, but two Talos made it into turn four. He charged with one Dreadknight even, but through cover and I instagibbed him instead of the other turn around. In the end my Talos kept his troops occupied for a long time, the scourges scored some points, his Knights jumped around flaming my Jetbike-Warlord and I learned by bad positioning that a monstrous creature can multicharge now with the new FAQ in place (that were used that day).
I was way ahead in Mealstrom as I set up on the side with most markers (he made me begin by choosing the wrong side). But as holding a marker the last turn added one point to maelstrom, he made up a lot of points in the last turn – he had four, I had one. I could have gotten a 3-3 here, also linebreaker, as “tertiatry” was somehow more important (I did not read the points system careful enough). Also I forgot that my Talos also killed one Wolflord for an extra point. So it was a fairly earned draw.
I have to note here that the GK wanted to go for the ne psychic discipline, but forgot about it. There apparently is one spell that makes you swap two friendly units. So boost the small unit forward, swap it with the pumped up deathstar, charge (allowed!) and win. So I was pretty lucky I guess.
Game two:
Necron Reclamation Legion with 5-6 Wraiths, Desi-Lord, Destroyer cult and lots of other stuff.
Business as usual.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.
Mission: Maelstrom, Eternal War Marker, Tertiary (most exp. unit, warlord, linebreaker)
I went first and well hid my Talos in cover right in the center, surrounded by marker, so that they were able to shoot. As I got Invis with one roll (and two times twin-linked from the eldar table and Divination) I invised the DE jetbikes and twinlinked the Eldar bikes and a venom. All shooting killed one unit of Destroyer as I was very afraid of losing my Venoms early on. The DE Jetbikes boosted deep into his deployment zone and I scored three Maelstrom points.
He tried to shoot my DE Jetbikes (invis and night fight saved them) and I killed his Jetbikes after he charged me.
The next turn I shot a second unit of Destroyer with all my shooting (including Talos) again, and also charged and overran a unit of warriors with my DE Jetbikes. As I could not use Hit and Run, they died in his next turn and he charged my Taloi with his wraiths. I was pretty happy about that, as I had Invis and twin linked to hit rolls from Divination, but it turned out differently.
Until turn five, my Talos killed the Desi-Lord and all but one Wraith, losing three of their number. And only with the help of invisibility. Statistics, what went wrong?
It was a very close game, but as I forgot (!) to score a marker two times (Jetbike jump in the CC phase) and forgot about linebreaker, it was a draw again. But it was a very nice game and my opponent was super fun to play.
Game three:
Chaos+KDK AV 13 Spam.
He brought Fateweaver, three Fiends (one Dakka and two CC), two of the armor 13 Chaos walker, a Helldrake and some Horrors to summon hounds.
Deployment: Dawn of War
Mission: Maelstrom, Eternal War Killpoints, Tertiary (most exp. unit, warlord, linebreaker)
I choose sides and put everything behind a huge LOS forest on the far left flank. The Farseer joined a unit of scourges and the plan was to perform an about-turn around the LOS, slowly advancing into the marker zone and eating up the walkers one by one.
Then I stole initiative. My opponent had missed a critical spot in between the opposing LOS forest, where Fateweaver tried to hide. The whole Talos formation got to shoot through the woods and I got Warlord and most expensive unit turn one. I twin-linked all units of scourges and also got the psychic shrouding bubble on my Farseer, who were protected by the Scatterbikes for a 3+ cover.
The plan worked better than expected, also my opponent had a hard time rolling high numbers outside the chaos table that hit his own dudes on a 6. In addition, my dice were hot that game.
Long story short, I lost some warriors and venoms due to underestimating Pink Horrors and due to the Helldrake, but I killed on average one walker per turn and killed nearly all of his units.
He had one immobilized walker, the Horrors, one and a half base of nurglings and one unit of summoned hounds left.
The Scourges and Scatbikes did all the work this game other than the Fateweaver and one Maulerfiend, killed by the CTC.
With this win I made rank 10 out of 26, with options for more.
As I am not so experienced, I am pretty happy with the outcome.
The CTC with a Cronos behind and a Farseer are amazing. Also, lots of Dakka the opponent can’t get rid of easily. The Scourges did their work as harassment unit in the first two games and as heavy lifter in game three. The DE Jetbikes do OK, but I really need my warlord to be out of there. They only survived game three. Scatbikes are Scatbikes, they fulfill many roles OK and therefore are amazing overall. They hold points (if you don’t forget them), they glance vehicles and boost onto objectives.
Venoms and Warriors are still ok as they are super cheap and can fire some shots, just make sure the opponent has more important things to shoot as they only pay out if they survive long enough.
I often jinked and then repositioned them.
The Lhamean nearly killed a Wolflord and that is better than most 10 pts units do.
The Cronos did surprisingly little. In game one he could not help anyway and got killed by a dreadknight, in game three the Taloi did not suffer many wounds, only in game two he helped a bit. Still crucial in many games I guess, but as I only played three games with this list, I will have to find out.
What to do about the Warlord and what to add for the usual 1850 pts. games? More Eldar? More DE Jetbikes? A Wraithknight? Let me know your suggestions!!
Subject: Dark Eldar, Eldar and the Corps Thief Claw go to a tournament 
Tue Jul 19 2016, 23:42
