DE vs Chaos, 75pl

I had some positive feedback on my last battle report so here is another one.

Pre-Game Details
For this game we played 75 PL and again used the Renegade Open Format again. A brief description can be found in my previous battle report here

Army Lists

DE Army List:

Chaos Army List:

After exchanging army lists we selected our primary missions. In this case there was a huge differential in units, 16 for me vs 8 for my opponent. My opponent smartly chose Kill Points as I had some weaker small units and once they killed half my army it would be impossible for me to prevent them achieving their primary. With my opponent a small number of larger units neither of the killing objectives were appealing so that left progressive table quarters or end game objectives. I chose table quarters as I felt once I took the middle I would be able to easily control 3 quarters and I was worried a bit about my late game mobility once my transports were taken out.

Warlord traits:
Archon: +1 A on the charge
Sorcerer: 6+ FNP

Combat Drugs:
Succubus: +2 M
Wyches with Agoniser: +1 A
Wyches with Power Swords: +1 S

Psychic Powers:
Sorcerer 1 (HQ): Presence, Infernal Gaze
Sorcerer 2: Warptime, Infernal Gaze


We rolled dawn of war deployment, I chose my table edge, and my opponent placed the first unit. There were two large buildings directly across from each other that we both deployed the bulk of our army in with the exception of a big units of cultists in one of the far corners. The Sorcerer with Presence was in the building with the Havocs and the one with Warptime ran with the big unit of Marines. All of my units deployed in transports with the Kabalites in Venoms, both squads of Wyches in a Raider, and the Archon, Succubus, Sslyth, and Incubi in the other raider. Since we both had 8 drops my opponent finished deploying first and got +1 on the roll for first turn. Despite the bonus I won the roll anyways but they really wanted to go first and seized the initiative on me!

The Table


DE Deployment    


Chaos Deployment




Chaos Turn 1
There was very little initial movement from the Chaos forces. The large unit of Marines moved into the table center and the Helldrake decided to get up close and personal with the DE in the building. Chaos shooting saw the Venom on the left destroyed, the Archons Raider damaged and the Razorwings suffer some wounds. The Helldrake then charged into the Archons Raider but didn’t find it very appetizing and failed to destroy it.




Dark Eldar Turn 1
I shuffled my skimmers around and fell back with the Archons Raider. The Razorwing flew up the table into my opponent’s deployment zone to prevent them getting a maelstrom objective and my flocks just moved up to get in the way of the marines and be a general nuisance. For the second game in a row the Dark Lance gunners came out hot! These guys need a promotion because the first Ravager opened fire on the Predator and after 3 wounding hits and 12 damage the Predator was a pile of goo. The Helldrake was more resilient and it took the remainder of my army’s firepower to take it down. Not wanting to go out quietly it then exploded doing d3 mortal wounds to pretty much my entire army. Finally the Razorwing took out a few marines in the center of the table leaving the Sorcerer all alone. For my primary we scored table quarters at the end of each of my turns for a running tally throughout the game. TQ: DE 2 / Chaos 2






Chaos Turn 2
Turn two saw the Marines in the center continue their march forward towards the DE forces. The Cultists repositioned to open fire at the Razorwing and the Havocs stayed put. The Chaos forces once again opened fire and when it was all over both Raiders and the Razorwing were badly damaged (1-2 wounds remaining) and the flocks were gone.





Dark Eldar Turn 2
Both Raiders disembarked their passengers before limping away. All of my melee troops moved to surround the advancing marines. The Venom with the Trueborn moved into position to take out the Sorcerer alone in the middle of the table and the Razoring flew up behind the building containing the Havocs. The Trueborn need some lessons from the Ravager gunners because they completely missed the Sorcerer. The sorcerer did, however, take a couple wounds from splinter fire. The combined fire of the Ravagers and Razorwings killed a few Havocs and the rest of the DE softened up the Marines with Blast Pistols and Grenades before they charged. The Sslyth was ordered to charge first by the Archon and took some wounds to overwatch. The rest of the DE followed and the Marines were slaughtered. The Venom (which was damaged by the exploding Helldrake) also charged the Sorcerer which quickly smashed it to pieces, stranding the Trueborn alone in center field. TQ: DE 4 / Chaos 4







Chaos Turn 3
The cultist squad from the far corner began pushing towards the middle, while the cultists and Havocs in the building stayed put. The psychic and shooting phases saw most of the Wyches and Trueborn cut down. The Havocs tried to finishes off the damaged raiders but some lucky Night Shield saves saw them hang around while the Razorwing was finally downed by small arms fire.




Dark Eldar Turn 3
The Archon and Incubi moved in for the kill on the Sorcerer while the surviving Wyches and Succubus moved to engage the Cultists on the far side of a large tank. The Ravagers continued whittling down the Havocs and only the ones with heavy weapons remained. The Archon and Incubi charged and finally killed the Sorcerer, consolidating into cover. The 2 surviving Wyches made a long charge on the Cultits and didn’t have to suffer overwatch thanks to the tank being in the way. Several cultist were killed and miraculously one Wych survived thanks to making an obscene amount of dodge saves and power from pain. TQ: DE 7 / Chaos 5




Chaos Turn 4
The Chaos forces in the building targeted the Ravagers and did a couple wounds. The last Wych was slain in combat and consolidated so that the flamers were out front in anticipation of a charge from the Succubus next turn.

Dark Eldar Turn 4
The Ravagers advanced towards some objectives and killed the last of the Havocs. The Archon and Incubi advanced towards the cultists but would be too far away for a charge this turn. Thanks to her drugs giving her a 10” move the Succubus was able to move around the tank and charge from out of LOS into the back of the cultists. Some cultist died and the Succubus took some wounds but survived. TQ: DE 10 / Chaos 6 (We stopped counting at this point as there was no way for Chaos to catch up)





Chaos Turn 5
The remaining cultists and the Sorcerer moved out of their building and continued to target the Ravagers to little effect. In combat the Succubus was killed by the cultuts




Dark Eldar Turn 5
The Ravagers shot and then charged the Cultists killing a few. The Archon and Incubi wiped out the rest of the cultists on the far side.






Turn 6
Not much happened in the final turn. The Archon and Incubi were to far away to do anything. The Sorcerer got involved in the melee and wrecked one of the Ravagers. The surviving Ravager moved away and attempted a contentious shot at getting slay the warlord that will be discussed below.

Game End
We both achieved our primary missions, and DE won the secondary maelstrom. Nobody got slay the warlord, DE had line breaker and Chaos got solo blood because I was unable to kill anything on the last turn. The final score was 13-5 for the Dark Eldar.

Tactical points
I wanted to end with a few points that I noted throughout the game.

The first is that being able to charge units that are out of sight is a huge boon for weaker melee units if you are able to pull it off. It allowed me to get my Wyches into combat with the blob of cultists without having to suffer overwatch from the flamers that surly would have killed them. Also don’t forget about weapon ranges when charging as they still need to be in range for overwatch.

The second point is regarding my attempt to kill the Sorcerer at the end of the game. The Sorcerer and Cultists had piled into the Ravager and on my turn I moved away and attempted to position it so that the Sorcerer was the closest model using the prow (see the picture below). In the end it didn’t really matter and I just killed a couple Cultists instead but in a tournament setting the extra point for the warlord could prove important. I’m wondering what people think of this move (legal/illegal/cheesy/fine/ect.) and what people define as ‘hull” on their Raiders/Ravagers for the Hover rule.



As always I look forward to hearing your thoughts or questions.