Dark Eldar in 30000pt Apoc Battle

This saturday just gone, I was invited to play in a 15,000 point per side Apocalypse game, for one of our FLGS' Open Day
(Gamestars in Langley). Here's a write up - I've got turns 4 and 5 a bit muddled, I was super tired by then having been up until 4am the night before getting things painted!

Here are some pictures of the event:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150684584392792.447718.514552791&type=3

Here's my army:



3x Ravager (DL) in Titan Hunter Formation
1x Ravager (Dissies)
2x Raider (10 x Kabalite, Blaster + SC)
2x Raider (9x Wych, 1xHaemonculi)
2x Venom (3x Trueborn + Blaster)
1x Venom (5x Kabalite + Blaster)
1x Reaper
1x Raven
1x Razrowing (Dissies, Monoscythes)
1x Raider (8x Incubi, Drazhar, Lelith)
4x Grotesques with Rakath
6 x Reaver (HL, Blaster)
2 x Kabalite Squads(10 KW with Darklance and Shredder)

I was supposed to supply 5000pts, but came in short at 4400, so gave away some points to my allies (Orks and Tau).

Enemy forces were IG with Baneblade and Shadowsword and many Leman Russes, a Reaver titan, some DOA Blood Angels and some Spacemarines in Land Raiders with over 10 dreads in drop-pods.

a very quick description of the game:

Turn 1,

Imperials deploy on table, and are struck by Dark Eldar raids (str5 on single model units) and Roks dropped from orbit! Imperials lose a few Leman Russes due to 2 Roks on their giant tank park, and a couple of vehicles are damaged by the DE
Xenos chose not to deploy to force the SM drop pods onto the table, and because the enemy asset stops them from talking before the game. Among their other assets is some kind of disruptor screws deep strikers and reserves arriving with 48" of it - things are not looking good for the Xenos...

Turn 2,

Imperials blanket the board edge with dreads, drop podding in, to prevent xenos from deploying, but the sneaky Xenos squeeze onto the table throught little gaps, and by DS outside 48". Orks arrive Tokyo Drift style (sideways) and Deffrolla a few dreads! DE arrive in the left wit the Titan Hunters, engaging the Reaver, but not managing to do any damage that sticks. Other DE fire is ineffective, but the Tau enjoy a good shooting phase with their flyers, and manage to knock all the shields off the titan.

Turn 3,

Imperials send in the Blood Angels amongst the DE and Tau, hoping to beat the blue skins up close and personal. More Orks arrive and start steaming through the town, heading for the IG, who in response deploy Ogryns and start sniping at the DE jetbikes supporting the Ork rush with a Basilisk!

Shooting is good for the both sides this turn, one squad of BA get shot up by the combined firepower of Raiders with Splinter warriors and Tau railguns, but in return the DE Ravagers get popped by long range Leman Russ fire! Damn you Vanquisher cannons! The DE assault some Dreads with Haywires, hoping to make holes allowing other forces to squeeze in. More Ork tanks roll onto the board and shoot up some more Russes and take pot shots at the titan.

Turn 4,

We allowed the Xenos to keep deploying reserves just to keep the game flowing, and because otherwise the Ork playerwould have been very unhappy!

The battle amongst the DE/Tau and BA really hotted up with all of the BA being shot up and wiped out by massed firepower and the arrival of more Ork boys who Waaghed in and overwhelmed the last couple of BA who had withstood shooting. The BAs though got the revenge in first by popping 2 Raiders and a Venom including the Incubi's transport and that of the Duke, leaving them, and their character friends hiding in a crater. These brave warriors of the Kabal are then wiped out by a Volcano cannon shot from halfway up the board! Well except Drazhar who's Eternal Warrior, but he fell to 5 power weapon hits in the assault phase! The red marines then bumped off the Duke and his entourage, plus the Venom's crew, before being overrun by Orks. The Reaper managed to squeeze off a shot too, but somehow managed to miss the Land Raider that was less than 12" and showing it's side profile!

Turn 5

Last turn of the game....

The Reaper is destroyed by Marauding Dreadnoughts, the Orks still haven't reached the IG in the town, the Reaver titan is slightly damaged but still kicking ass and taking names and the DE are dying in droves. The Raven does a banzai run on the titan damaging the drive, but not much else happens, other thank Snikrot sneaking on behind a baneblade and popping it!

We caleld it after this as the Ork player had to head home, Objectives were all contested so it was a draw, but we wear losing far ore than the enemy.


It was a lot of fun, but showed me quite a few new sides tio 40k, plus taught me som things to htink about next time:


1) titans are very tough
2) Bringing an infantry or anti infantry army (2 of the Xenos) is useless if the other guy runs 10 squads of inf in 15,000 points!
3) DE really can't cut it when superheavies and titans abound, they need Destroyer weapons too!
4) Flyers are great, lets hope they are in 6th!

Epic report. "Orks arrive Tokyo Drift style"-my inner Ork approves As a DE player looking to play in an Apoc event this Spring, any advice on what you would take/leave at home? Assets?

It was the only way to get the battlewagon on the table!

I would find out if you are facing heavy mech, or a more balanced force.

If it's mech, load out on DL, min the troops, roll out the Voidraven and take allies to get Apoc templates and destroyer weapons. The assets are a very mixed bag - all depends on what your enemy has tbh.

SirTainly wrote:

1) titans are very tough
2) Bringing an infantry or anti infantry army (2 of the Xenos) is useless if the other guy runs 10 squads of inf in 15,000 points!
3) DE really can't cut it when superheavies and titans abound, they need Destroyer weapons too!
4) Flyers are great, lets hope they are in 6th!

1. They are really only somewhat tough as far as survivability. The 'tough' thing about them is the damage output they can generate very quickly. If one side lacks any Titans/super heavies and the other has multiples of them it will be tough for the side without.

2. It's always wise to bring a balanced force I certainly agree the matchup looked pretty bad for the Xenos forces right from the get-go as they seemed to be lacking in range (Orks and DE both) and on top of that the DE had limited anti-mech shooting and Orks are known for having cruddy anti-mech shooting. As soon as the board situation became an Imperial gunline it was going to end badly for the Xenos.

3. I wouldn't be sad to get 'D' weapons - but that said, I find Lances work *really well* in dealing with super heavies - the only thing better is to catch a Baneblade or one of its ilk after it didn't move and just dumping a bunch of Haywire Wyches onto it - good times. What was making you suffer was you had a 4400 point force and were fielding, what, around 20 dark light weapons? I field more than that at 2000 points. If you'd brought 40+ lances onto the field then let me assure you the Warhound would have been quaking in its little booties. I've toasted one of those things in one round of focused fire, and it's always awesome.

4. They are a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to using them more in future Apoc games. If you liked them you might want to check out the Splinter Raid Force formation - it will allow your DE to focus on needed targets easier and also make you "relatively" safe for your initial turn.

SirTainly wrote:

If it's mech, load out on DL, min the troops, roll out the Voidraven and take allies to get Apoc templates and destroyer weapons. The assets are a very mixed bag - all depends on what your enemy has tbh.

Flank March is generally considered the "broken" asset - especially paired with Careful Planning. Disruption Beacon - as the one real counter to Flank March is also pretty potent.

There is a lot of variance in asset power after that.

I think for DE Flank March or WWP Assault are pretty optimal - we're a mid range army with a lot of speed, so having a lot of entry points to the board favors us greatly.

Sadly, I don't have that many DL wepaons, only 25 I think on the tank this time. I mostly play 1500 points, so buying another full squadron on Ravagers for Apoc seems wasteful if I get 2-3 games a year.

What really hurt me was the disruptor becon thing, it forced all my DL boats into one corner of the table where they spent all game chewing up the Red Marines.

btw it was a Reaver, not a pifling Warhound!

For the next Apoc game (in Sept as we're now heading into the tournament season here), I'll be rolling out my Spikey Marines as that'll give me 3 superheavies, and since now everyone's going to binge of them after the success of our game I can't afford to be left behind, and I really don't wnat to paint anything else purple!

Flank march was outlawed for our game, the Tau player took careful planning, but with our lack of deployment it didn't help him much.