The Dark Journey, (Army Development,Tactica and Pics!)

It has been over a year since the new book hit the shelves. And with a great number of games under my belt I am hoping to embark on a quest to find the keys to success commanding the Dark Kin. I shall be taking you all on 20 realspace raids. I shall be reporting the battles and will then embark on more detailed tactical discussion and general comments on the performance of my army. It is widely accepted that at -least- 20 games with a certain army against a plethora of opponents will give you insight as to the ebb and flow of an army list. Hence I seek the wisdom of the Kabals and invite you to join with me on this journey. I ask you to gain inspiration from these feasts and insight to the path you will each embark on yourselves. And the end of these 20 games we shall have a better understanding of the deadly tools at the disposal of the Kabals and how to use them with tactical and strategical efficiency in game.

Cheers!

If you are also interested, you can follow the painting of my Kabal here: Kabal of the Deadly Mist
You can also follow my Archons Painting Challenge here:
HQ Edition

Great idea! I look forward to reading it!

May the Pain be with you, young Archon.

Thanks to all for the comments stay tuned!

I shall post the first game up soon. Vs Necrons at 1850pts, a lesson in refused flank.

Cheers!

Good luck with this, I kinda tried it last year with my tournament list but it sort of fell apart due to not being able to take enough pics and notes during games without interupting the games. I'll be watching with interest.

Recording games at least on audio will be a great use in this. You can decloare everything relevant and after battle create battlereport based on record.

@above commwnts:
Thanks for the support, your continued enthusiasm will help with the journey (even though you kabalites are secretly going to use this against me in the future, like any true dark eldar).
Ok, so on to game 1. I decided to do this journey after this game so its not as detailed and more meant as a prologue to the journey itself. So, on to the lists and generals, ill begin with the crons:
Mark is a good general, played crons religiously since their previous release, all through 3rd, 4th and up to the new book, with good results. He is a great tactician and general and every time we play its more a chess match then a 40k game, he has been trying a few concept lists and his latest one is aimed ad destroying transports and eating the insides.
Vanguard Obyron and His Overlord. (Amazing combo)
5 cryptect with s8, 36" assault funs
Lord with resorb and power weapon
6 lychguard with sword and board
5 6 man warrior units
2 5 man wraith units with 2 pistols and 2 sets of coils
10 scarabs
That was it.
My list:
Archon, agon, drugs, shadow, phansasm launcher
2 heamies with liquifiers
4 incubi with venom dual cannon
2 sets of 9 wyches, hex with agon, haywires , one with gauntlets, one with s and I.
Raiders with ff
10 warriors with syb,sc, bl
Raider with ff
5 warriors blaster
Venom dual cannon
3 wracks
Venom dual cannon
6 rbj with champ, 2 heatlances
2 lance ravagers with ff and NS
Razorwing, sc, ff and dissies.
Each list was 1850 pts. We played a local tournament mission with 3 objective levels:
Pitched battle, victory pts primary, sieze ground secondary and kill points tertiary
We rolled off and I won the roll, although I knew he had a lot of guns I let him deploy first. He then deployed in a line across the table, I would usually reserve everything and I think he was expecting that, but then I sprung this little gem on him:

The refused flank.
When we return ill discuss this further.

Cheers!

To sum it up. Even having first turn he was unable to bring enough firepower to bear, and the little that he did have was uneventful. This allowed me to rush up his one flank and pick his force apart. I also kept a venom warrior unit in reserve to come in and later affect the battle and the razorwing, that loves to arrive and cause mayhem. In order to keep him on his toes I left the rjb unit on my far left (top of the pick) this deterred him from moving towards my main force with his second wraith unit keeping them out of the real fight for 3 turns. A few notes, I am paying for heatlances on the rjb's, but I feel the blasters would server the way I run the unit better. I have run them with hl for 2 games so its too early to tell, but this is the most glaring thing.

AnywayN thoughts?
Next game:
2k vs space wolves. Crazy invasion mission from the battles mission book.

Cheers!

I love that photo! You have given me a new insight into denied flank... although that is more like denied flank and middle!

A worthy endeavor. Something I may soon be taking up as well. I am still a Dark Eldar newbie when it comes to the current book edition, so my success may fare worse in the beginning, but such is the growing pains of an upstart Archon.

Keep it up!

Great concept, great photos, great tactics!

As a relatively new player to the dark eldar I have yet to try the multi-raider/venom list as I prefer the concept of a WWP based army.

How would you suggest this tactic of the refused flank be combined with WWP use?

The Archon looked upon the Mon'Khei landing pad. Its crude and gothic architecture a key landmark. The first units had infiltrated into position and taken the sentries out during the night. Retaliation was going to be swift... the Archons plan was unfolding. As the dawn sun rose there was a deep humming that began to emanate from the old teleportation pad near the landing zone.
"It is time" The archon signaled the remaining forces of the Kabal waiting in ambush. The wolves were about to arrive.

So! Welcome all. To the first game in the 20 games series. This time I faced off against my friend Shawn and his Space Wolves. We played a 2000pt battle, and rolled for a random mission from the Battles Mission book. (this is something that we have been doing very frequently, what better way to test your mettle and generalship skills?)
The mission was the Invasion Mission. This mission is a deamon mission and the space wolves rolled to play the role of the deamons. As per the mission, this meant that he would split his army into two waves, the first wave would arrive T1 from any table edges and/or the portal in the middle of the table. I was allowed to place anything in reserve as well... we determined that my reserves would also arrive from any table edge. I deployed a few units on top of the landing pad. The idea was simple, get the wrack pain token onto my Incubi and then use them to kill grey hunters. Alas that is not what happened. This was my list:

Archon, PGL, Agon, SF, Drugs, HWG
4 Incubi Venom Dual Cannon
Min Sized Archon Court venom Dual Cannon

Heamy with Liquifier
9 Wyches, Hex w/ agon, S&I, HWG
Raider FF
Heamy with Liquifier
9 Wyches, Hex w/ agon, Gauntlets, HWG
Raider FF
10 Warriors, Syb, SC, Bl
Raider FF
10 Warriors with a DL and Bl
3 Wracks in Venom dual cannon

6 RJB with 2x HL and champ

2 Ravagers, FF, NS 3 lances
1 Razorwing, FF, dissies, SC

Total 2000pts

- This is basically my 1850 list. All I did was upgrade the 5 man warrior squad to a 10 man with DL & Bl and then added a court of the archon to take their venom. This then gave me 5 pts to give the archon HWG's. I like the versatility of this list and it works great in a variety of environments.


Now, my opponents list, please excuse the memory loss:

Wolf Lord, Frostblade, Storm Shield, Thunder Wolf
5 Thuder wolves, one fist, 3 shields, 1 meltabomb (all wound allocated)

2 x 9 Grey Hunters, wolven, standard, meltagun in Rhino
2 x 5 Grey Hunters, one with flamer one with MG, in Rzrback with TL lascannon

2 single land speeder typhoons.

Dreadnought with TL autocannon

Longfang Pack with 3 ML and 2 LC.
Longfang Pack with 2 HB and 3 ML

4 Wolf Guards, 2 with PF and combimelta (in rhino squads), 2 naked (for long fangs as extra wounds)

- His list is a thundercav list. With a decent number of bodies on the table and a lot of shooting. With the versatility that the wolves grant on the table I was up for a tough game.

Here is a picture of deployment, I decided to deploy on the landing pad to prevent the Thunder wolves from charging (as cav they can't go up floors) on turn one and give me a good base of operations/serve as decoys. The rest of my army stayed in reserve.
My opponent rolled for his waves, and did not get the preferred wave, therefore the moved up with a speeder, dread, one razorback squad and a longfang pack. This is what the table looked like:

In his first turn, he moved on, immobilized the venom that I had deployed, and eliminated the Incubi with a volley of frag rockets from the land speeder. I failed some saves and the lone survivor ran off the table... His long fangs moved into a position at the centre of the table supported by the dreadnought. It is important to note, that in this mission 6" all round from the centre of the table is impassable to me... and if I move through that area at any point, any unit that does just dies... as it is sucked away into the "vortex".



I shall post the conclusion to this wall of text soon. What do you think? What will happen? Was my tactical use of units flawed? The objectives in this mission are 4 of them on the mid lines dividing the table quarters. Capturing them means winning the game.

Cheers!

Well, from what it looks like, he bunched up and rushed the guys that are set up already. Too bad for the Incubi. The Speeder, if you pay attention to it, will go right on down. Is one of his Rhinos off to the far right of the photo? If so, I am assuming he's setting up for a charge into the landing pad. That's not good, but hey, you've got some bodies pouring in next turn, right?

When you bring a ravager on the board, I ssume the Dread will be knocked out. Hopefully the Razorwing comes on after the Thunderwolves come one, and hopefully he bunches them up so you can get a handful of wounds on them to limit their effectiveness.

If you steal any momentum he has built up with his push, then this will be a decisive victory for the raiders.

A further analysis of this is that he is using this unit in a way to force you to focus on them instead of your much more dangerous units. If that's the case, I hope you didn't fall for it!

The unit of to the right is actually a lascannon razorback filled with GH's with a flamer. They moved into the sandbag building.

Ok so, after that first turn volley and loss of the incubi I was at a great disadvantage... I also had a flamer getting to my position... so I had to think fast. I took the pain token from the wracks with the archon and made him join the 10 man darklance unit. This, I hoped, would keep them alive. The wracks then moved into the immobilized venom, from there they would be safe, for now. And would maybe later move out to take one of the two objectives near their position.

- I falied to take pics over the next few turns, so bear with me.

In his turn 2, the thunderwolves, other lngfang pack and razorback unit failed to arrive, the other land speeder and the second rhino GH unit did. He proceeded to pelt the 10 man unit that I had with about everything he had, frags, flamer, bolter... heavybolter. The FNP from the archon was a godsend and they survived with only 4 left. The lance and blaster were unscathed thankfully.

On my turn 2 I had one of the worst reserve rolls that I have ever had... well. I had one ravager show up, the reaver jetbikes, the razorwing and the archons court. I moved the bikes near the speeder, now, it is important to remember that I had rolled +1 str on my drugs, something that I had completely forgotten about! I could have charged the land speeder with the jetbikes once both heatlances had failed to hit but I moved them back instead. The archons court tried to stun the other one and also failed. The ravager moved on and shot at the dread, only stunning it, and the venoms shot into the long fangs after the razorwings volley had let loose, only one long fang remained. The archon moved away from the unit and charged the 5 man GH unit, he lost his shadow field in the process and only killed 1 model, I was lucky that there was no PF in the unit.

His turn 3 saw the entrance of the thunder wolves, they moved onto the back to keep the speeders alive, charging both the bikes and the archons court and wiping them out, my guys able to get only a few wounds through. The Reaver jetbikes then went ahead and rolled snake eyes for insane courage! (aww dang, this meant that I was not shooting at them next turn!). He moved the two rhinos to different objectives, the long fangs and the other unit in the razorback failed to show up once more. The archon continued to fight the HG unit on that side but only had one wound left.

On my turn 3 I had the other reserves arrive, the only one that had not was the warrior unit in the raider. I knew that I needed to focus on the mission so I decided to kill some troop. I moved up and engaged a rhino filled transport on the left most objective. I disembarked wyches and got them ready to assault the occupants. Sadly I was unable to open the transport with all that shooting! I was able to down a land speeder, In a desperate move I ran the wyches up and surrounded the rhino, I was lucky to wreck it with haywires and the unit failed morale and broke. (in the mission the SW units had to flee towards the center of the table, and if they made it to the middle they were removed) He was unable to rally in the next turn and the GH ran off the table. The archon finally dispatched of the remaining GH's and prepared to receive the charge from the Thunderwolves that had easily dispatched the remaining bikes.

This is what the game looked like at the 4rth turn mark:


He tried to wipe out the wyches with a bolter volley, but cover and FNP really helped them out. His razorback showed up and the other longfang pack was still not arriving. He killed my Archon in cc, and shot down my secondary wych raider. In my turn I was finally able to get a bead on the thunderwolves and every poison shot that I had was directed at them, leaving only the lord alive. I was able to secure the left and the bottom center objective, while contesting the north center one. He tapped out turn 6 having only 4 models left on the table.



So that was game.


Tactical notes:
- Wyches with FNP are awesome keep them in cover and they can take a pounding.
- In a game like this when reserves can come on from any place, keeping the incubi in reserve would have been a better idea, then they could have shown up and taken a unit by surprise hopefully.
- Fun game.

Anything people would want me to try?

Fantastic posts and reads... Keep it up, I'm thoroughly enjoying it
I'm also a Space Wolf player, so the last post was an interesting read.

As for your suggestion to try something, do you mean list wise or opponent army wise?

Great idea, I'm definitely keeping an eye on this topic.
The batreps are nice so far, it's a shame you forgot to take some pictures, but it's still nice to read.

Looking forward to seeing/ reading more!

Thanks, Ill make sure to post more as soon as I can. I was going to play today, sadly life got in my way .

Stay tuned!

Liking this so far. How about a match against our nemisis, the Hydra/Vendetta/Chimera melta vet spam IG list. Making it more difficult, the IG get 1st turn.
Interested to see your thoughts on deployment, reserves etc against this. It's an army I am still struggling to beat.

are they candles on the table?!

where would you say did the SW lose the game? From what I could tell the TW did not do much, and you were able to destroy the rest of the army piecemeal as they came onto the table.

He spread out too quickly had he used the middle more as a safe guard, and then moved onto objectives later in the game it would have been a lot harder to do anything at all. Also his TW were on the far side of the table allowing me to stall them as much as possible and take on his other troops on the other side of the table.


Also, latest game. Vs a Dark Eldar Kabal.

Stay tuned!

Game 2:
Dark Eldar on Dark Eldar (also known as "How to advance ones self in the Dark City")

My list was my basic 1850 all commers list. His was:
Baron + 10 hellions agon
2x 10 wyches with agon and haywires in raiders
10 warriors, DL, bl in raider
4 blasterborn in venom with a heamy with liquifier
6 RJB with 2 heat lances
5 scourge with 2 haywire launchers
3 ravagers, one with 3 dissies.

All tanks of his had Night Shields and flicker fields (this was a royal pain)

So, I completely did not take -any- pictures... but his army was not painted so I shall save you the eyesore.

Basic overview:
Mission was one objective each, and spearhead. He deployed objective baron and hellions deep in his deployment zone. I placed warriors and raider behind building, 2 venoms, wracks with archon, incubi behind wall.
He had deployed all his tanks and being out gunned I reserved everything else.

He boosted his bikes up to bait me into charge of his wyches... my archon took the challenge with the incubi, luckily I rolled poorly and the lone bike remained locking them in combat. In the following turn a full squad of wyches ran into them, and that combat remained until the top of the 5th turn, when 2 wyches walked out having finally killed the archon, his shadowfield held on for so many rounds of combat!

I was able to put a lot of pressure on him, but the highlight of the game was when I was able to get the jump on his ravagers with my ravagers.... six misses later... i had done nothing, in return, his ravagers blew mine up, this meant that he had shooting superiority. But eventually my crazy wyches were able to catch up to them with haywires and take them all down. My unit of jetbikes also boosted over the last scourge to take the token and then tied up a full 10 man wych squad until they actually won the combat! At the end of the game we were both battered... but I was able to win, turn 6 all he had left was one lone wych hex with an agon, and I was in control of both objectives.

What a fun game.

Tactical Analysis:
The archon did well
The jetbikes and wyches really shined this game, the pain tokens from the heamies are proving to be must takes... it makes the wyches become all the better at surviving.
Fighting against Night shields is annoying.

Cheers!

Thanks again fpr the report, even though it would have been nicer with some pictures, I guess it's still better than nothing, eh?

Looking forward to the next report.

3 More games to report. vs IG, vs SW and vs SW again (back to back games). This has been a productive weekend.

Stay tuned!