Vespera has finally recuperated, or to be exact reformed after her unfortunate incident with the Space Marine whom she now knows as Draigo. She was essentially dead in body, but alive in spirit when they came back to the Dark City, and she was forced into one of the Coven's sarcophagi to heal her injuries in full. A destroyed liver, severed intestines, a ruptured lung, broken ribs....those injuries would have killed a lesser Dark Eldar. But of course she is not a lesser Dark Eldar. Nonetheless The Haemonculus of the Giggling Suffering have told her tat she should not push her body too much, and instead enjoy the little things in life.
Nonetheless, her road to recovery will have to wait for a little while as her 'dear' father have called for an audience with her. Whenever that happens, it is bound to be a very annoying day for her. As she entered in, she sees the ancient Dark Eldar's back facing behind her. She could literally try to backstab her father from this position but she knows better than to do so. He did not rise up from the dregs of Low Commorragh to found the Kabal she is now in charge of for a reason.
"Ah, silent as always Vespera. You would make for a fine backstabber, I am so proud of you." The raspy, but sinister voice speaks.
"Yes father..."
"But alas, I was quite disappointed in your last endeavour. I did not expect that you would have the courtesy to allow your enemies to hurt you. If I were to take a stab at it, you are too careless." Vespera could only keep vigil over her silence as her father drives the verbal wounds deeper. It was her first time falling on the battlefield, and she hated it.
"Still I would not put the blame entirely on you. No matter how much we could revive ourselves and live forever, we are all mortals in the end. I remembered my first fatal death. I was stabbed in the heart by Karandras and was eviscerated by his might. Made me hate our unenlightened kin a lot. I always wanted to have my revenge against him, but alas I am too old for this."
The hints......She could do something about this mentioning of Karandras. If she could kill this 'Karandras' she would earn his favour once more. Despite being in power in the Kabal, she knows that her father's influence is what keeping the other more established Kabals from forcefully seizing power. Of course, The Kabal of the Turbulent Star is not such a Kabal and thus does not count among the hallowed ranks of those Kabals.
"I would hope that someday....I could make that Phoenix Lord fall to his knees." Now it is out. Vespera could take this challenge and redeemed herself. Just as she was to proclaim her willingness to take on the challenge, a voice defiantly preempted her attempts.
"I will take that claim as my own." Vespera recognized that voice, that cool, calculating, rogue voice. From the blackness of the hallowed halls, a figure clad in emerald green armour and grey, tattered cloak emerges. The jet-black hair and fiery blue eyes are filled with a refined anarchic presence, and as he walked towards Vespera and her father one could that there are studs implanted into his face.
"You!" Vespera was shocked at the presence of this Dark Eldar. What is he doing here?
"Yes, dear sister. I am back. And I bought company." Before long, from every dark spot in the hall Hellions came out in echoing laughter. Scoundrels, Vespera said to herself. But her father is not surprised at the presence of the Hellions defiling the hall with their presence, but instead her father embraced her brother in a rather surprising show of affection, and even more suprising her brother returned in kind. There is a feeling of insurmountable malice within her that she did not know of, but at the same time she wished that she was in his position as well. A new emotion, and she does not like this emotion. To add more insult to her disapproval, her brother looked at her and smiled.
"So good to see you, Aethandir."
"Yes father, so good to see you. Being one of the hellion lords is quite the challenge."
"I wished that you would be here with me instead, son. But alas, you always know how to make an old heart suffer." Vespera could only hide her fits of anger at her brother, for despite the bitterness of the old Archon's voice, he approves of how his son have treated him and made him suffer and leave a void in his heart. This is why he prized his son greatly, for his methods of inflicting suffering is an art.
"Father, to make up for my lack of presence in your court, I will bring this Karandras' head to you. How does that sound?" The old Archon could only express his approval and joy at his son's proclamation.
"Vespera? Provide some of the Kabal's resources for him to use." Vespera could not contain her anger any longer. She marched towards them and speaks to her father in fairly unrefined response.
"But father...! Kabal resources are not to be given to some imbecile's cheap thrill!!!" The old Archon just listened, and then Aethandir speaks which silenced the female archon. The other hellions could only giggle and laugh as the drama unfolds.
"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me. And right now, I want this challenge to be the thing that defines me." Her father's disapproving look at her only serves to make her emotional wounds that much deeper. With her father looking at her this means only one thing; she will have to play along now. She regains her composure and speaks to her brother in restrain spite.
"Alright dear brother, define yourself. You are welcomed to use some of the Kabal's resources for your challenge." The Hellion Lord could only smile as he secures his helmet into place. Before long, he is marching out from the hall with his hellion court in place."I am so going to get you someday for this Aethandir......"
Alright, this will be my first time using the Hellions and the Baron and for some reason I felt that I wanted to play with the 'wing' theme.
Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus
4 Trueborn with Blasters in Venom with two splinter cannons
4 Trueborn with Blasters in Venom with two splinter cannons
3 Wracks in Venom with two splinter cannons
15 Hellions with Helliarch with Agoniser
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with two splinter cannons
5 Warriors with 1 blaster in Venom with two splinter cannons
Ravager with 3 dark lances and Flickerfield
Ravager with 3 dark lances and Flickerfield
Razorwing with 4 Monoscythe Missiles, 2 Dark Lances, twin-linked splinter rifle and Flickerfield.
My oppponent's list;
Jain-Zar
Karandras
6 Howling Banshees with Exarch (with powers) in Wave Serpent
6 Scorpions With Exarch with powers and power fist
6 Fire Dragons with Exarch (with powers) in Falcon
9 Dire Avengers with Exarch (with powers)
9 Dire Avengers with Exarch (with powers)
3 Dark reapers Exarch (with powers)
The mission that we rolled is Capture and Control and the deployment is Dawn of War. I managed to get the higher roll, but opted instead to go second. Here's how both of us deployed.
BTW, that Urien is my objective and not my Haemonculus.
He went ahead and put the Scorpions into reserves, and I went on ahead and put the Razorwing in reserve. I then proceed to roll for my drugs and I get to start with a Pain token (thereby making my HAemonculus kind of useless now, and made my job somewhat easier with the pain token shenanigans). I then tried to seize, but I failed. With that, our game begins.
Turn 1 The Masked Rider prepares himself for combat, accompanied by his Wrack surgeons. They are now doing the final preparations for enhancing his muscle, and as he looked upon the night skies, he could only wonder how he could play to insert Sathonyx' influence within his family's Kabal. So far everything is working according to plan. He is going to ambush those Eldar around the night, and just wreak as much havoc as he could. But before he could even imagine how he will go about the battle, shuriken blades covered the sky and several of his hellions are down.
"Nicely done. Now it is our turn. Aethandir activates his skyboard to speed across the battlefield and joined his hellions in brutal bloodletting, as his forces responded in kind.Eldar
The Eldar's first turn is to just move his reapers closer to his objectives, and moved the rest of his army to my face. His Dire Avengers rolled for night fight and managed to see my Hellions and proceed to Bladestorm it. But thanks to FNP and cover, I managed to only suffer 5 casualties. I rolled for leadership for the Hellions and they stood their ground.
Dark Eldar
I proceed to move my Venoms and Ravagers from the table edge, and move the Hellions and the Baron forward. The Wracks proceed to hug cover.
During the shooting phase, I managed to spot the Serpent with my Ravagers and cause it to explode...twice. The second Ravager managed to shake the Falcon, and thus I managed to just prevent torrents of firepower for the moment. With a much more dangerous target exposing itself, I aimed the majority of my Venoms at the Banshees and killed everyone but Jain-Zhar with a single wound. The Venom on the far right proceed to shoot at the Dire Avengers at the far right and killed three of them.
I proceed to charge with the Hellions and the Baron into the second Dire Avenger squad, losing 2 Hellions in the process (despite the rerolls on dangerous terrain) and proceed to butcher all but one Dire Avenger. UNfortunately for me, the Dire Avenger managed to run like there is no tomorrow, and my Hellions consolidated into the terrain.
Turn 2 "This is just too easy." Aethandir said to himself as he sees the lone Dire Avenger running away. But then before he could give chase, a loud shriek pierced through his ears and caused him to writhe in pain. But due to his enhanced physique, he managed to dodge several glowing attacks and he could see that a maddened hag is attacking him. He could only parry against the thing, and as he sees that a wave of dire avengers are coming his way, he could only dodge some more. As he is within striking distance of the Dire Avengers, he hooked some of them and threw them at the maddened hag. Unfazed by the projectiles of Dire Avengers, the warrior sliced them apart.
The surge of adrenaline within him is rising, and Aethandir could only hope that somehow he could kill this thing. But alas, the thing threw her blade and managed to knock him out from his skyboard....EldarThe Eldar player rolls for his Scorpions but it did not enter into the game.
In the movement phase, the Falcon rammed one of my ravagers and exploding it. He moves Jain-Zar and the Die Avengers closer to the Hellions.
In the shooting phase, his Reapers opened fire upon my Ravager and managed to immobilized it. Jain-zar and the Dire Avengers runs closer to my Hellions
In the assault phase, Jain-zar and the Dire Avengers crashed upon me, and as the resulting melee ensues, I manage to kill off enough Dire Avengers with my hellions to almost win combat. But alas, they all stood their ground and we proceed on in beating faces.
Dark EldarI rolled for my Razorwing and it entered played. I just turboboost it a full 36".
The rest of my forces moved ahead, and I deployed my Trueborns and a squad of warriors to try and kill the Falcon, while my wracks entered into the Trueborn's Venom.
My shooting phase did not went well with the Falcon, as I only managed to shake it once again. However, the venoms managed to kill the lone Dire avenger (I realized that I made several mistakes here by not firing the ravagers at the Reapers and not turboboosting some of the venoms closer to his objective, and only realized it as I passed my turn).
Assault phase, My Baron and hellions are wiped out, and his lone Dire Avenger and Jain-Zar consolidated.
Turn 3Reeling from the mighty blow, the Masked Rider proceeds to seek some form of respite from this madness on legs and notice a pile of dead hellions. He buried himself into the pile and hope for the best. To his relief, the wailing warrior looked around for him before moving away charging to Khaine knows what. But nonetheless, he is here for one Eldar and one Eldar only; Karandras. Where is that Eldar?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Karandras enters into the battlefield with his entourage of Scorpions and looked upon the battlefield. The dins of explosion and projectile singing in the air only serves to ignite the passion of bloodletting within. He sets his eyes on several of the Dark Kin firing on the lone Falcon and went to work.EldarHe rolled for the Scorpions and they came in from the left flank.
I swear to god, this Eldar player is just really a happy rammer. He tankshocks my Trueborn, but I passed my leadership and moved away and proceed to attempt to ram my Razorwing, but I managed to dodge it.
His shooting is uneventful as he attempted to shoot at my Ravager, but failed to do anything. His assault phase however is much more successful. He managed to kill off the Hellions, and he managed to explode the Ravager, and killed my Trueborn in a multiple charge. He consolidated into the terrain.
Dark Eldar
I decided to move my forces accordingly to try and kill of Karandras, as he is in a position to contest my objectives while one venom attempts to kill Jain-zar. The Razorwing fired all its missiles at the Scorpions but fully three missiles flew way of, and only one missiles hit. Added with the weight of the Dark lances, I only managed to kill three of them.
As for my Jain-Zar shooting, that went bad as well.
Turn 4 Aethandir's priority now is to try and get into a transport to escape from it all. He knows that the battle is not going his way, and as any good Dark Eldar know retreat is always a good option when your life is on the line. But then he sees somethings that overrides that desire: Karandras.
"I will get your head if it is the last thing I do." Aethandir proceeds to run to the closest vehicle he could intercept.....Eldar
He moved his falcon forward and turned it around to deploy his Fire Dragons.
In his shooting phase, his Reapers managed to immobilized one venom and his Falcon destroyed another Venom, causing its Kabalite warrior crew to abandon ship. His Fire Dragons immobilized my Razorwing. Karandras attempts to charge another Venom, but failed. However Jain-Zar managed to kill immobilized Venom, and gorging out the haemonculus. The explosion caused the Haemonculus a single wound.
Dark EldarI just moved some of my Venoms around, and moved the Kabalite warriors to be in range of that Falcon's back armour .
In my shooting phase, I just went ahead and fire my guns at the last Dire Avengers, Karandras, Falcon and Fire Dragons, killing the Dire Avenger, leaving Karandras with one wound, doing nothing to it and killing 2 Fire Dragons respectively.
Turn 5 Aethandir managed to hop onto one of the speeding Venoms, and to his surprise his wrack surgeons are on board. To his surprise, they are just standing there doing nothing. Aethandir wonders why until he realized that they couldn't do anything; the gunner is dead, and their mechanical appendages are not designed to hold things. Aethandir decides to take matters into his own hands when suddenly a loud clank is heard and their vehicle crashed down into the ground. Aethandir is Aulma'd that he is always falling off things today, but then he understands why. Right in front of them stands the Phoenix Lord himself; Karandras. But Aethandir could not afford to spend time basking in its glamour and just opened fire. As the splinter shards splintered off from the Phoenix Lord's body, Aethandir wondered if this is the end of the road. But just as the Phoenix Lord raised his powered claw and prepares to charge, a darklight beam disintegrated the Phoenix' lord's arm, and several darklight streams only serve to make the Phoenix Lord darts away into the darkness.
Aethandir slips down from the mounted weapon, and just kneels down. The only thing that the Masked Rider could say to himself is one single word."Damn".
EldarThe Dark Eldar moved his Falcon sideways towards the ruins, and his Dragons and Karandras went on marching towards the closest vehicle.
His Falcon fired at another Venom, destorying it, and Jain-Zhar funky shooting exploded the Razorwing and killing the Haemonculus with it . His Dragons attempted to fire at the Trueborn boat, but my epic flickerfield blocked all 4 penetrating hits. Jain Zar shot the Haemonculus and the haemonculus died.
In the assault phase, his Karandras managed to immobilized the Venom and busted one of the splinter cannons as well, while his Meltabombs destroyed the Venom, but none of the Trueborns take a hit. His Dragons however suffered crippling casualties, and only the exarch remains.
Dark Eldar
Within a single turn, I went from riches to almost bankrupt. I do not like how the turn is coming up, but I decided that there that a few magical moments need to be in place to allow me to win this;
1) I kill Karandras, this allowing no contestation of my objective
2) There will be no turn 6.
With that in mind, I decided to move my warriors and Trueborns closer to Karandras. With the conbined might of a immobilized Venom, a squad of Warriors and a squad of trueborns I killed of Karandras. With one objective captured by my Wracks to his contested objective by his Reapers, it all went down to one roll to see if I win this. If there is another turn, he could boost and contest the objective and with the amount of blasters that I have remaining, I highly doubt that my shots will kill it.
So we rolled for it and..
The roll is a 1. With that the game draws to a close.
Post-Game and Afterthoughts Aethandir did not get the head of the Phoenix Lord which he promised. For that he failed the challenge. The old Archon looked at the arm of the Phoenix Lord for a long while, and as the silence thickens the atmosphere, Vespera could only smile inwards at this failure. The old Archon looked at his son, and he looked at his daughter.
"Vespera?" Vespera lit up as her name was called. She positioned herself next to her father, looking at her brother first, and then to her father.
"Yes Father?"
"Why do you think I did not have your head for your last endeavor?" The old Archon removed his flayed face helm, his unnaturally shrunken look now paying attention towards his daughter. Vespera was caught by this sudden question, and is stunned into silence.
"It is because you deliver. There is nothing you have not delivered yet, and for that I gave the Kabal to you. Aethandir, I enjoy your boldness and confidence, but next time do deliver. I know you tend to be foolish when your sister is around, but the next time you pull this nonsense of, I would have your head."
"Yes....F-Father." Vespera enjoyed her brother's humiliation so much now, but if there is one thing she knows about her brother, it is that he hold deep grudges. She will now have to be on her guard against her brother....ResultsObjectives Captured
Dark Eldar: 1
Eldar: 0
Dark Eldar victory!
The game was to my advantage initially as I have way more scoring units and managed to slaughter enough of his scoring units to make the pace of the game dancing to my tune. But my hubris caused me some tactical oversight, and I did not take the chance to boost towards his objectives and kill off those Reapers to truly be certain of my dominance. When all my vehicles went down at turn 4, I was actually forced to wrestle the tempo away from the Eldar player. Another mistake I did is to deploy the Hellions too far forward as I should have taken advantage of Night Fighting and prevent the harm to begin with. If I did not do these two mistakes, my game would have been much quicker and more decisive.
As for my opponent, I noticed that he had a lot of opportunities to make me suffer for my mistakes, but he did not take advantage of it properly (most prominently during that last turn he did not went ahead and boost that Falcon to my objective and contesting it. If he did so, he would have tied the game.) and thus allowing me to maintain that advantage.
Another thing that sparked my curiosity is the fact that he deployed his forces haphazardly during deployment and his first turn with his Dire Avengers and vehicles and I asked my opponent about his reasons. He stated that he wanted to put the pressure on my forces and also to mitigate my long-range advantages with his close-range advantages. Personally I think his Dire Avengers should not be out there to begin with and instead camp on his objectives rather than being slaughtered upfront by the combined might of my army.
Subject: The Outcast's Challenge - Dark Eldar vs Eldar 1500 pts 
Fri Jan 06 2012, 20:11
