Two 1000point 8th Ed games

Hi chaps,

I had my first two games of 8th yesterday vs a friend who is trying out his new chaos (undivided) army.

My list - ~1000 points

Archon
- agoniser
- blast pistol

20x hellions
- leader with phantism launcher
(+1 attack drugs)

12x reavers
-aggy on champ
-4 x grab talons
(+1 T drug)

Voidraven bomber
- missiles

He was using;
Termi lord, combi melta and power axe
A second lord with just two L claws
Two squads of marines with a plamsa in each, powerfist and plasma pistol on champs
A squad of champions(?) with some special weapons
Some havoks with two heavy bolsters
Squad of chosen(?) cc guys?
And forge fiend, ecto face and two mini gun arms

I got to go first. Got just about everything within shooting range easy. Shooting wasn't very effective because of marines in cover = mini termies!
Weakened a few squads.
Reavers and hellions made some messy multi charges. destroyed most of the basic marines at this point.
this left L claw lord and a few marines with the reavers, chosen and termi lord vs hellions

He swung and killed 4 reavers and half my hellions.
His turn (1!) everything stays in combat, forgefiend shoots flier and takes off 4 wounds.
Combat.
I use a cp to strike first with reavers (that's a thing right?!

I use a cp to strike first with reavers (that's a thing right?!)
The reaver kill most of the remaining marines and a put a few on the L claw lord.
He leaves about 5 hellions alive from the chosen attacking. I kill perhaps one in return.
I used two CP's last turn to auto pass the hellion morale btw.

My turn 2
Reaver stay in combat. Archon moves up (near combats now) hellios move from combat. VRB flies over the now exposed chosen and bombs; this kills half, hellions finish the rest with shooting. Bomber shoots into fiend but only does a few wounds and that thing heals.
Hellions charge back in to lord.
Archon fails an ambitious charge to his termy lord.
Hellions swing and do a few wounds on his lord, get killed in return.
I do maybe a wound from the reavers onto his L claw lord but hes a monster and kills another 3 bikes in return.

His turn two
he shoots his lord into my archon by my SF holds.
forge fiend shoots into the flier and puts it down to two wounds.

His termy lord fails charge on archon. His L Claw lord kills even more bikes, im down to 3-4 by now, hes nearly dead in the return combat.

My turn 3
Bikes move out of combat. Flier repositions. Archon moves and fires into lord but he rerolls save with CP.
Bikes shoot the L claw lord and kill him. VRB puts a few on the forgefiend but not enough to degrade its shooting. Archon charges termy lord.
Archon nearly kills the lord but gets his SF taken away from him in return combat.

His turn
His forge fiend splits shots and downs both VRB and all the bikes, and his termy lord kills my archon.

Game two.

I keep the same models but split the hellions into separate squads and put aggies on all leaders. Swap out grav talons for calthorpes on the bikes. Take away archon pistol to balance this out.

He takes same list but drops the chosen for a helbute with auto cannon and missiles.

I deploy with archon in the middle, one squad of hellions on the right flank, everything else on the left flank. (bikes have +1 t, hellions have a mix)

He deploys quite evenly, with all his basic guys in ruins. Hellbrute, forgefiend and termy lord on the right corner castled.

I go first.
All my units fly into ruin or behind cover. My archon moves up the center behind large building out of LOS, one squad of hellions with +2 move move into this building. VRB moves up into his deployment lining up to bomb next turn.

i get to shoot with all the reavers and a few squads of hellions. This is lack luster again because of the 2+saves but combined with the VRB they wipe out his havok squad.

His turn 1
Everything stays put and shoots. This reduced two of the hellions squads to half health. He almost degrades the VRB with his vehicles focusing into it. no charges.

My turn two.
Everything moves up. bikes and two squads of hellions flank to the left. VRB flies over just about everything from his back field left to right. squad of hellions in center fly up into his last few inch of deployment. Hellions on the right move to the center building with archon out of LOS.

Bomber drops bomb on chosen squad and kills them all (!). The remaining shooting on the left Weakens everything to a few marines left on all squads (VRB helps out too). his L claw lord is reduced to a few wounds.
I charge in a group of hellions and reavers into remaining squads on the left. Center hellions charge the L claw lord.
Reavers and hellions wipe out left flank. Center hellions don't kill his L claw lord (down to single wound) and get wiped out in return.

His turn 2
He pours shooting into my VRB and kills it.
He attempts charges from a weakened squad of marines on this right to hellions but fails and suffers a dead marine from over watch. His L claw lord charges hellions and dies to over watch.

My turn 3 (onwards combined)
I move my bikes and hellion squad from the left out infront of his remaining lord, fiend and brute. My weakened hellions from the right and center along with the archon follow suit.
All shooting goes into Fiend (cant target lord) - does a few wounds.
I do a messy multi charge vs everything. End up killing his lord, and wounding his brute one (which then got to attack again!) and puts fiend down to half health. I'm down to 6 bikes, full unit on hellions, half a unit of hellions and archon.

Next few turns are just combats. He tried to run from my bikes with fiend and suffers a few mortal wounds from the clusters. He doesn't make the distance he needs though. Basic slap fest for the rest. He doesn't have many attacks, so cant get through my units. I have lots of attacks but no rend and aggies are useless vs vehicles. I win via combats in turn 5 with half a squad of hellions, 5 bikes and archon left. What a mess!

Lessons learned:

Dark eldar are more resilient but not by too much!
Fliers are quite easy to kill compared to before.

We can alpha strike the hell out of things but lack the teeth (REND) to do the necessary damage vs armored foes.

Command points are utterly frustrating when your opponent uses them to reroll 2+ saves at key times!
Phantism grenade launchers really aren't all that. - you have to kill alot in most cases to start checks and they can always use CP's to auto pass.

Chaos i think are a difficult counter. They have very good Armour and invul saves but are brutal in melee.
His lords have a re-roll 1 buff that meant he could shoot overcharged plasma with little risk.
Lightning claw lord was crazy. 2+ re-roll and 3/4+ reroll with -3 ap was nasty.

I'm looking forward to swapping the archon for yvaine or just going for SfD. PfP is nice but being able to move away from danger or kill the danger with more attacks / shots 'should' make for some nice synergies. We will see.
Perhaps blasters would of saved my day but vehicle hunting is hard with DE (or at-least what i used).

Quote :

Command points are utterly frustrating when your opponent uses them to reroll 2+ saves at key times!

check your rules...
...no reroll!

purple wrote:

Quote :

Command points are utterly frustrating when your opponent uses them to reroll 2+ saves at key times!

check your rules...
...no reroll!

Is there something specific about 2++ saves? Otherwise...

The only 2++ off the top of my head is the shadowfield, which specifically states that it can't be rerolled for any reason.

Sorry, my post should have just said 2+ saves, not 2++, as I was referencing purple's earlier post.