His army: 2 LARGE units of Ork Bikers stuffed full with Painboyz and Warbosses. The Buzzgob Stompa, with SIX Voidshields (ridiculous to even try to get through 18 Hull points) and a couple Gretchen Squads along with a 2 Kannon squad for objective campage. It was a very elite Ork force. Not many units but all of them with a definite role. Kommandos were in reserve for this Hammer and Anvil game. Night Fighting was invoked.
My force?
Total Roster Cost: 1850
: Combined Arms Detachment (41#, 1270 pts)4 Incubi, + Demiklaives
1 Raider,+ Enhanced Aethersails
5 Kabalite Warriors
1 Venom+ Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors
1 Venom+ Splinter Cannon
Court of the Archon:
1 Lhamaean
2 Medusae,
6 Sslyth
1 Raider,+ Enhanced Aethersails
Beastmasters:
1 Beastmaster
3 Khymerae
3 Razorwing Flocks
4 Clawed Fiends
1 Ravager, + Dark Lance x3
1 Ravager, + Dark Lance x3
1 Razorwing Jetfighter,+ Splinter Cannon x1 + Night Shields
Formation: Grotesquerie (13#, 580 pts) 1 Haemonculus,+ Stinger Pistol 5)
4 Grotesques,
1 Aberration,+ Agoniser 25)
1 Raider,+ Enhanced Aethersails 5
3 Grotesques,
1 Aberration+ Agoniser 25)
1 Raider,+ Enhanced Aethersails 5
1
The Dark Eldar shot every single raider to within an inch of his army and cut them completely off from moving forward. Ravagers and Venoms took shots into the larger of the two Bike squads and killed 4 of them. The Beast pack moved to the objective to the rear.
The Ork response was violent and effective. They miraculously downed all 3 of the 4 Raiders that were camped in front of them. Only the Court of the Archon Raider survived it. The Warlord and 3 of his Grotesques were obliterted by the Buzzgob blast. Even with a 3+ Jink, that many biked twin linked had the juice and the Buzzgob was effective as well. All of my assault troops were laid bare but the Court. As he had retreated one bike unit only one was close enough to assault and did so, attacking the singular Grotesque from the Warlords unit that survived and the Raider the Court was in, killing several of the court because they couldnt get out. His placement was in dispute on this one but oh well.
2
The Razorwing Jetfighter came on and obliterated most of the bike squad that had retreated, causing 19 wounds but their Feel No Pain was of enormoususe here and saved about 4 of them including the 2nd warboss leading them and his Painboy. Still, it was impressive.
The Court of the Archon and the second Grotesque squad closed in on the weaker bike unit that blew them out, with his Warlord, that were in some rocks on the left. The Court made the charge but the Grotesques missed. Hoboy. This was VERY bad for my Grotesques as it left them right in front of Buzzgob thanks to the retreat of the other bikes. The Court won the combat and killed the Kannons (one of their maelstrom objectives that turn) and stayed entrenched.
The Incubi came around the corner of the rock formation to my right that the Gretchen were using to cower behind and the Venoms opened up on them but they were remarkably resilient (Read: I rolled like poop and he did not). the Incubi missed their charge there also. More good news.
The Beastpack retreated with the Relic and passed it off to another guy behind the front line for safekeeping.
The ork bikers that were free to move moved towards the Gretchen on my right and lined up shots on the Incubi but created no damage.
Buzzgob dropped the fury, killing four BeastPack, blowing a Ravager skyhigh (my Jinks failed me with regularity in this game) and forced another to Jink. He then charged the Grotesques. Only one Grotesque survived and couldnt run because it was now fearless.
The Court of the Archon rolled great and...Feel No Pain boned me big time. The Warlord fisted all but one dead and the last Sslyth in the unit fled.
3
The last Grotesque lost his fight with Buzzgob, freeing the Beast.
The Incubi charged and hit the Bikers that had come around the bend to help their gretchen buddies, but AGAIN Feel No Pain was huge for him and he stood his ground. I totally forgot to challenge the darn leader. My own Feel No Pain helped a little also to be fair.
The Lone Ravager hid around a building and snapfired, amazingly killing a biker from the Warlords unit that had just run the Sslyth away. Pretty cool. The Razorwing hit the same unit and the frigging Feel No Pains saved him as did my poor rolling. I hgave to say, he was very lucky. he got out of the whole round of shooting losing maybe one biker total.
The BeastPack retreated again, scoring objective and generally being annoying.
The Venoms fired down on the Gretchen and utterly failed to do a thing to them.
The shooting could not have gone worse.
The second unit of gretchen moved and ran towards the Gretchen I had been firing down on to help camp the Objective
#1, and Buizzgob backed up to give everyone fearlessness while the Warlord forged forward to chase down the Sslyth that was running away to get a Maelstrom point, and killed him on the charge.
Buzzgob positioned himself and fired at the Venoms, planting a hull point on one, killing the other and pinning the Kabalite Warriors that spilled out. The Lootaz inside tried to contribute as well but didn't.
The Incubi remembered to challenge this time and I put a wound on the leader but the (now fearless) Gretchen charged in and between them and the orkz it was too much and the Incubi died but they did do damage that turn to the Gretchen and the Orks.
4. The Ravager now free to fire normally zapped the Warlords unit.
The Ravenwing and Venom were going to fire down on the second Warlord and the Warriors were going to go contest Objective
#1. In the end, there was no winning for the orks, as they simply had no more mobility or way to get to the Relic, nor overcome the Maelstrom advantage the Dark Eldar had built up, and so the orks conceded. It was a VERY bloody game though and the Orks took it to the Dark Eldar something fierce. Had we played it out his Buzzgob would have ended the game untouched and would have obliterated enough to be satisfying in the extreme but not enough to actually win.
I think there could have been an outside shot for him to TIE the Relic. Heres how: if the game went to extra innings, he might have had enough time to kill the Beastpack. It was an outside chance given scatter of ork weaponry and my own spread, but still a chance. Unfortunately he would ALSO have to kill the AV 11 Ravager which means splitting his shots, but
possible? Absolutely. He had the range. it would have just come down to line of sight, some luck and my 4+ cover saves (going to ground).