Turn 4 xenos raid
Movement phase both my ravager and scourges move in to position to get a bead on the now hovering stormfang gunship while my objective kabalites move a tad to hide from the wulfen and the trukk moves to block the way. the big ork mob and killa kans have finally reached an enemy in the form of the thunderwolves!
Shooting phase I completely whiff against the flier but I do force it to jink as 1 haywire would have got through. my venom kills a long fang and ork shooting takes 2 wounds off of the thunderwolves.
Assault phase! the locked incubi and terminators kill 1 each and ghaz charges the wulfen with his last remaining mega nob. they manage to kill 1 but are subsequently wiped out in turn giving the imperials slay the warlord (again! XD).
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Now for what we have waited 4 turns for. the ork mob and killa kans charge the thunderwolves! a thunderwolf is killed and 16 boyz die. The mob rule ensures the nob in charge smacks the nearest boy on the head to get them all back in line (literally, a base strength attack on one of his own boyz! survives though).
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The orks hurl themselves at the thunderwolf cavalry, dragging one down with sheer numbers but they pay a heavy price in blood at half of them are stomped, chewed, smashed and splatted by the desperate fighting of the fenryka of legends.
Turn 4 imperial alliance
Essentially the mopping up phase. more wolf guard deep strike near my kabalite objective holders and a lot of units move to consolidate or get in to position for firing lines and/or assault (my notes are abit thin here).
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The psychic phase we get abit of good luck as ezekiel kills himself with perils of the warp. this gives us slay the warlord and another victory point for trophy hunter tactical card (yay dark eldar!).
Shooting phase the mek boy is finally killed as the nephilim unleashes its firepower, giving the dark angels 2 victory points for disrupt their command. my venom dies to a well placed lascannon shot, my last raider is destoryed and 2 warriors from the 3 earlier survivors die. the last warriors dodges sniper and bolter fire but is finally ended by the long fang's multi melta. my ravager by the crater objective is also destroyed and my warriors on the objctive are shot to death by the teminators.
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Assault phase some thunderwolf HQ guy manages to get up to my scourges and proceeds to chop them in to tiny pieces with his axe. My last incubi is killed by the sergeant (he named him hatho so expect him to replace the dead praetor in future battles ^^) and my last ravager is destroyed by arjak. I am tabled!
The last combat. all the boyz except the nob is killed and 1 killa kan remains by the end though another thunderwolf is killed. crater objective is contested.
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Imperial alliance victory!
Arjak looks at the devastation he and his brothers have wrought around them. everywhere lay wrecked and burning xenos vehicles and even more xenos bodies littered the field. The commorites had seemed unusually aggressive, a desperation in their eyes to take the centre. This suited arjak's purpose just fine, the easier to smite the unclean xenos filth. The orks hadn't even made it this far, the wulfen and the thunderwolfs slaughtering all in their path. As he looked at the field once more before departing, only a single thought passed through his mind. Suffer not the alien to live.
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So, the tally! Us xenos scored:
Slay the warlord + 1
Trophy hunter +1
Defend obj 6 +2
Various objectives were worth points too with the centre one worth the most We scored 7 from objectives to make a total of 11 VP
The imperials scored (brace yourself):
First blood +1
Slay the warlord x2 for +2
Cleanse and burn +2
Disrupt their command +2
Area control +3 (obj on fortress of redemption, we had no way of stopping that at the time)
Defend obj 2 +2
From controlling objectives, they scored 9 for a total of 21.
The analysis
What I did right:
My deployment was fine and having everything on the board was ok too. as for my army list I mostly kept to the "if you are going to have something, have it in quantity" save for the razorwing and the scourges. I took them because I wanted to try them out, the same with using 3 talos. still, 400 points wasted because they were both too slow with such a huge board and got completely creamed by the wulfen. fair warning to anyone thinking of assaulting them with a unit. DON’T xD.
Deploying troops on the nearest objective and remembering most of the rules. This was quite the challenge and I am happy overall with it. uhm, that was it xD
What I did wrong:
Going for the central objective as fast as possible. The good thing though is my speed meant we actually GOT a game, rather then tit for tat killings and then game over. What I should of done was deploy my kabalite sin firing positions and let the orks take the brunt of the firepower. also, I should have kept all my vehicles together to concentrate fire at one thing such as wulfen or thunderwolves. target the enemies fastest units, always.
Again, I will say my list. for what we was suppose to be having, it might have been fine but it was seriously outmatched here. Also, jinking raiders means practically no return fire from me and getting that close to powerfists in skimmers is just plain stupid of me. I do like the obscene amount of firepower the raiders and ravagers DID jink, firepower which would have wrecked ork vehicles 3 times over.
What I learned:
One learns more from defeat then victory and this was a tough reminder of many things. I will list what I learned.
1.Dark eldar are fragile – use speed to keep AWAY from troublesome enemy units
2.Don't be so eager to assault the enemy
3.Deploy kabalites in to firing positions if mounted in a raider, not right in front of the enemy.
4.Be clear on what the objectives are.
5.Bring more razorwings, 1 just can't survive on its own
6.Raiders are assault vehicles, so load up on assault troops!
7.Concentrate firepower. even 3++ and 2+ can go down with enough shots
8.Have fun!
9.ALWAYS bring night shields. so much more stuff would have survived with a 3+ jink
10.Keep calm and remember the rules!
If I was to do this battle again:
Footdar, more incubi, no talos, more razorwings and drop the scourges. I can clearly see why people like venom spam but atm I only have 1 xD same for razorwing and I have a total of 10 incubi. But I can realistically get 2 razors and more incubi. should I get another ravager or a voidraven bomber though? choices choices. with the list I was using though, I'd deploy kabailtes on objectives on our side of the baord and set up the rest in the ruins near the crater objective so they can shoot stuff coming down it. I'd keep my incubi and archon back and try for a turn 4 assault on the central objective. As for the talos, they would assault the wulfen and/or thunderwolves...with alot of back up from the orks. like, his whole army. and maybe a grot. just to be funny ^^
Summary
My second time with 7th edition and this codex, it really hammered home that even though hull points and jinking make our armour tougher, our units are still very lightly armoured xD I did ok in 3rd, 4th and 5th but need to remember that everyone has had codex upgrades (the wulfen is a very new one, it was the SW players first time using them. I think he is very happy with their performance ^^). the match left me shaken and it took a week for me to kinda recover. still, was fun and am looking forward to the maybe 3500 points match in october. I will take pics and notes of that one too. Hope you have enjoyed reading this and beware the wulfen! it will not die, fast moving , storm shield and thunderhammer, and lots of other rules makes these guys insane. you have been warned =D
I took alot more pics of this battle so message me if you want the link to them all