First 6th Edition game with my Dark Eldar

Joined a league that goes for 6 games at 2500 points per game. No dual FOC, no mysterious terrain. it is almost a "primer" to get people used to 6th edition.

My List:

Asdrubael
9 bloodbrides 3x hydra gauntlets, champ w/agoniser, raider with ethersails

Baron S.
15 hellions, champ with agoniser

4x 5 warriors with blasters in venoms 2x sc

1 10 man warrior with dark lance/blaster in raider w/ splinter racks

2 triple disintegrator ravagers

1 void raven bomber w/flicker fields

4 beastmasters, 10 khymerae, 4 razorwing flocks

10 reaver jetbikes, 3x heatlances, 3x caltrops, champ w/power spear


Arrayed against me were a space wolf/tau army, a tau army, a salamander army, a grey knight army, a 5 flyer demon army, 2 vanilla marine armies and an IG army with 14 vehicles and a blob squad!

Random roll, and I got the IG army! great!
His list (from memory, so believe me, it is not exact)
Command squad with MOO and officer of the fleet in chimera
5x veterans in chimeras (3 triple melta, 2 triple plasma)
2x Psychic squads in chimeras
40 man blob squad led by al rahim, 2x triple demo charge, 1x triple melta, 1x heavy bolter, etc etc etc. this unit outflanked.
2x medusa tanks
2x earthshakers
1x plasma leman russ
1x hellhound (melta variety)

OUCH!

I won the roll (due to the baron, we both rolled "4's") and decided to deploy first.

Setup was: Hammer and Anvil
5 objective markers
Asdrubael rolled a +1 to his charge rolls... not bad, but never needed to use it.
We rolled for nightfight, and Yup, turn 1 nightfight.
I rolled my drugs= 6! Whoot!

Pre game:
I am deathly afraid of being seized on and seeing half my army disappear, but due to night fight, that fear was allayed a bit. So, i deployed with asdrubael, the jetbikes, the beasts and the baron and hellions all forward to get to the enemy asap. The venoms screened the ravagers (as they have a 5+ even if they dont move you know) and were within a few inches of objectives. the raider warriors were in terrain, on an objective, ready to shoot em up!

He deployed all but his HQ chimeras forward (as i had 3 objectives on my table half to his 2) his medusas, russ and earthshakers were on the back table edge.

Turn 1:
Guard do not seize. Asdrubael and bloodbrides activate ethersails and zoom right up next to his medusas and leeman russ! my opponent is stunned at how far the raider was able to go. (12 + 10 for sails, + 18 turbo = 40 inches!)
The jetbikes turboed as well (man they are FAST!) right in front of his whole chimera battle line. ( i figured 3+ cover and 5+ fnp at toughness 4 would help me survive the shooting, if not, no biggie, because if he is shooting them, my other vehicles are safe)
The duke, hellions and beasts all move forward as far as possible, then run. I reroll the dukes run roll of a "2", and got a "4'...

Shooting opened with every single dark lance shot i have only taking out 1 centrally located chimera. What killed it? Well, lances and blasters dropped it 1 measly hull point and shaken, but a ravager on side armor glanced the other 2 off. the unit inside (melta vets) were rapidly wiped from the table from venom shots.
First Blood

IG turn 1: My opponent said to me: "And now the pain starts!"
I tended to agree with him, but we will see...
He moves almost every vehicle just a bit, so no auto hits. he then concentrates on the baron and hellions. Chimera #1 shoots, and lights them with a spotlight. The unit takes no casualtys due to a 3+ cover save. The master of ordanance shot scatters and clips 1. He claims they get no cover, as the shot comes from above. Fine, 1 dead hellion. Earthshakers remove 4 more, again, no cover save.... (not sure about that, but oh well) 4 other chimeras, troops inside them, etc.. take another 3 models off the board.
he is starting to panic. he shot a lot of his army at the hellions with little to show for it. he is worried about the beasts and the reavers that are right up in his grill. he decides to use his psykers to make the hellions LD 2 (smart thing to do) but fails the first test on an 11. The second one passes, but i roll a "6" and DENY THE WITCH! The only time it worked the whole game, and it did not matter anyway as the hellions failed their basic LD test and fled, but still... It is great to have a CHANCE to stop that stuff!
He potshots at the beasts and reavers with other units, but manages to only kill 2 dogs, and not hurt the reavers at all!
His medusas and leeman russ shoot at asdrubaels ride, destroying it and killing 3 wyches in the explosion, and putting a wound on Vect (using his ghostplate, not shadowfield of course!)
Vect, being fearless, does not get pinned.

At the end of the IG shooting phase, my opponent says to me "Well, not as much pain as i hoped!"
And, as stated, the hellions fled.

dark Eldar, turn 2:
No bomber (i rolled a "3", but he had the officer of the fleet)
hellions regroup.
Bloodbrides and vect move close to all three tanks that shot at them last turn to multi assault.
Bikes jump over to say "hello" to the erthshakers
beasts line up a triple charge on chimeras
ravagers and venoms premeasure to make sure all are in range, and that ravagers have side armor.

Shooting sees Vect toss a haywire and glance a point off of a medusa. Three heat lances destroy 1 earthshaker and put a point on the other.
Ravagers combined drop a plasma chimera.
Venoms wipe the squad that fell out.

Assault sees a triple charge by vect and bloodbrides on medusas and russ, beasts triple charge chimeras (1 psyker) bikes double assault earthshaker and a chimera. For some STUPID reason, I thought bikes gave the riders +1 str (last DE edition maybe?) so the only one able to hurt the vehicles was the lance toting champ, who did nothing. Now the bikes are all grouped up (albeit in a crater) for the big templates!
Vect and brides destroy both medusas, and put 1 hull point on the russ.
Beasts do 2 hull points to each of the chimeras! No pens, none dead! Got a little too greedy! If I assaulted 2, i would have destroyed both, as it is, all 3 were good to go! lesson learned!

IG turn 2:
Blob squad is a no-show
Slight movement where needed by the tanks, and he went quickly to the shooting!
The beasts were pummeled, i mean pummeled! From 18 models to 4! All masters were dead as well. The jetbikes took 2 casualties from the earthshaker, psyker squad big template and some troops.
The hellhound ripped a gun off of a venom
The last psyker squad made my beasts LD 2 (I did not have the heart to tell him that was wasted, they were gonna run anyway! lol) and off they ran, never to regroup! Shooting from the CCS chimera and Leeman russ killed another 3 wyches. (gotta love cover!) leaving Vect, a champ with agoniser and 2 hydra gauntlets.

Dark Eldar turn 3:
Raven shows up. Vect and crew move at leeman russ. A venom jumps forward on an enemy objective. Bikes fly between earthshaker and psyker squad. Hellions fly up 12 to get close to other psyker squad and the three wounded chimeras.

Shooting sees the bomber open the psyker chimera by the baron.They fail the pinning test! Dark lances and blasters and ravagers open the other two, including the OTHER psyker squad by the jetbikes (glanced to death). The bikes had to choose between shooting the now exposed psykers or the earthshaker. After a few seconds, i decided to kill the psykers, and they shot them down to 5 models.
vect lobbed a haywire at the russ, and took another point off.
The venoms opened up, eliminating most of the psykers and all of the vets that fell out (with the help from embarked troops of course).

Assault saw vect and his brides destroy the russ, the jetbikes destroy the psykers and gain another token (NOW they are str 4 on a charge! lol) and the baron and hellions polish off the other psykers.

IG turn 3
Things are looking bleak. His army is in disarray and getting beaten to a pulp. He has destroyed 1 raider and has a beast pack running. he rolls for his blob, and they come in! they outflank by 2 objectives, and line up neat shots on the raider with warriors and my jetbikes.

Shooting sees the bikes take 1 wound from demo charges, but a bad scatter kills 4 of the 6 people that threw it! My opponent said i had to take a laughing test or the bikes cant move, as they laughed at the IG as they killed themselves. Luckily, i passed!

Plasmas exploded the warrior raider, killing 6! they passed pinning and panic.
More shots at the fleeing beasts (for some reason.. not sure why as they were not a threat) and his turn was over.

Dark Eldar turn 4.
I have a serious threat on my flank! a 40 man blob squad! So, i fly my voidraven over and drop the bomb. I kill 8! he claims it comes from the direction of the flight, but i said like his shots earlier, it comes from above, so the models hit are the models removed. He said no, and i laughed and said no biggie. I just thought it... amusing. The jetbikes flew over toward the squad... venoms moved in range, and the fun started. Shooting from the troops inside a venom and the 4 remaining warriors from the raider squad wiped al-rahim and his 4 man unit from the board. The venom opened on the big squad. As did the other venom, and then the jetbikes bladevaned em!
14 str 6 and 6 str 4.
the entire blob squad threat was wiped.
other shooting saw the last chimera, the CCS one imobile and the laser ripped off. the hellhound was weaponless.

Vect, bloodbrides, hellions and the duke were heading for them, and at that point, my opponent threw in the towel.

At the end of the game, he killed 1 beastpack (running), 2 raiders.
All he had left were 2 satchel charge throwers, an immobile damaged chimera with a ccs inside, a weaponless hellhound with 2 points left, and an earthshaker with 2 points left.

Dark Eldar had all 5 objectives.

Massacre Dark Eldar! with Linebreaker and First Blood, as well as the headhunter one as he quit, saying there was no way he could survive what was coming.

Afterthoughts:
man, Dark Eldar are FAST! I mean really really FAST!
Vect was worth his points three times over. His thrown grenades were automatic. the brides, well they rocked as well, being perfect tank hunters as well as great in HTH if needed.

Beasts were a dissapointment, but I got too greedy and played them wrong.
Warriors were solid as always, and being able to shoot at 24" is amazing, even though i FORGOT I could do that until after turn 2! DOH!

The heroes of the match though were without a doubt the jetbikes. Great at anti tank, and even better at anti infantry. The range they can go and bladevane is just stupid! 12" plus 36" means they can hit you wherever on the table you are!
A great 3+ cover when turboing and if they have a pain token... sweet!

The baron and hellions were... well, they were as expected. I forgot about the impact hits, but they were a distraction and annoyance, as they were supposed to be!

So, a good showing for the Dark Eldar in 6th. If we made any mistakes, well, let me know, but that was what this league is for.. to learn 6th!

Well, the second game of the 6th edition league is under my belt.
I made a few tweaks to my original list, and changed all agonisers with venom blades:
vect/ 9 bloodbrides/3x hydra/syren w/blaster/venom blade/ raider/ sails
Baron/15 hellions/ champ/ venom blade
4x warriors/ blaster/ venoms 2x cannons
1x 10 warriors/ blaster/ cannon/ raider/ racks
4 beastmasters/ 10 khymerae/ 4 flocks
10 jetbikes/ 3x heat lances/ 3x caltrops/ chanp/ venom
2x triple dissie ravagers
1x voidraven/ 2x missles/ n/s


I was paired against: (from bad memory)
A Space Wolf/ Tau alliance!
He had: (tau)
3x broadsides/ shield drone/ gun drone/ black sun
1x jetsuit commander/ drones/ fusion/ missle
20 Firewarriors/ blacksun

(fortification)
1 defense wall with laser that had intercept and skyfire

(wolves)
2x 3 thunderwolves w/storm shields
2x thunderwolf lords/ 1 w/ hammer, 1 w/ blades

1 rune priest
10 marines w/ melta/plasma/fist
10 marines w/ 2x plasma/ fist (maybe some melta?)
longfangs with missles and lascannons

scouts w/melta


Whew.. a lot of anti tank, and he had a ton of speed with the wolves. Would be a rough game.

We rolled for traits- I got the night fight one, and selected round 1 nightfight. (Turning out to be dark Eldars best ally!)

Combat drugs = +1 ws (turned out to be pivitol!)

roll to go first: Barons +1 was not needed, as i rolled a natural 4 versus a 2.

Deployment (left to right) other vehicles behing venoms to give them 5+ so ALL vehicles have it no matter what, even if seized.
baron and hellions, 2 venoms, ravager, asdrubael and bloodbrides, ravager, 2 venoms, warrior raider, jetbikes.

His deployment (all behind cover, weather ruins or defensive wall) (left to right)
His commander and wolfs (thunderhammer), 10 man space wolf squad (multi plasma)tau battlesuit and warriors with AA laser, other wolf marine squad, broadsides, longfangs, thunderwolves with frostblade lord.

He rolled to seize, and failed on a "4"

turn 1.
Hellions and barons fly up to shot the crap out of his commander and thunderwolves. both venoms also move forward 6" to help.
ravager stays back, but lines up on the same squad. They have a lot of splinter pain coming their way.
On the other side, both venoms and warrior raider take aim at the broadsides and longfangs. the jetbikes fly out to bladevane either the longfangs, broadsides or the 10 man marine squad.
Asdrubael activates the sails, and rolls an "11". he is in front of the tau, right at the defense line! the beasts move right up the middle.

Shooting sees the beasts roll a "1" for run, reroll for fleet to a 4. Vect and brides turbo 18 behind all the wolves lines. He cannot ignore them, they are right in the thick of it.
I then start with the baron and friends. 5 were out of range so I ONLY could shoot 22 shots at the thunderwolves!
I wasnt smiling when all was said and done, his 2+ lord had one measley wound on him! So the venoms and their crew opened up! Venom 1- no damage. Crew- no damage. Venom 2- no damage, crew- 1 wound on his lord!
Holy crap! That was not good at all! So my 9 disintegrator shots will take them down for sure..... 2 hits! 1 wound! 3+ stormshield save!

So, to reiterate- 63 shots that wound on 4's... 2 wounds! This is NOT looking good! those wolves will rip into the hellions on his turn!

So i swing over to the other table side, and start with both venoms on his broadsides. After 2 venoms and a ravager got done, both drones were gone, but that is it! I gave up and with the warrior raider shot the longfangs. I killed the seargent, and that was all.

Not looking good.

the jetbikes turboed over the 10 man marine squad, killing 5. I did this to make his thunderwolves on that side choose to go for my raider and venoms (and 2 objectives) or go backwards and handle the vect/ reaver threat in his backlines. i was HOPING he would go forward....

He rolled his panics, and made them all! What a horrible, horrible opening round for the Dark Eldar!

Wolves turn 1:
he moves his wolves on the left up within inches of the baron and hellions, the wolves on the right he moves BACK to the reavers (Damn!) Other units shuffle around a bit, pretty much just to get ready to blast vects ride, then waste the unit inside!

Shooting-
It seems Matt, my opponent, read my last battle report, and laughingly said "this is where i say here comes the pain, right?"
We both laughed, but i reminded him what happened to my last opponent who said that!

Then, he went about and brought the pain!
Broadsides destroyed my left ravager with ease.
Longfangs destroyed my right ravager just as easily!
All my decent ap2 shooting gone in seconds!
the depleted marines took aim, and ripped a hull point off vects ride.
Doubletapping firewarriors took the last 2, dropping vect and the bloodbrides out behind the wreck, where they were protected (a bit) from the 10 man marine squad.
Matt only had LOS to 2-3 wyches, and felt that charging them would be better than killing only a couple, and getting charged next turn. so the 10 man marines held their shots to not shoot themselves out of charge range.

Assault- wolves on the left charged the hellions, on the right they charged the reavers.
Reavers stand and shoot saw 1 wound sneak through.
Combat saw a challenge accepted, and the champ wounded the lord! the lord squished him like a bug, but hey, the reaver champ claimed some honor!
Combat saw the reavers lose by 4, and roll a "3" to stay around! (Damn, i wanted to flee!)

The thunderwolves over on the hellions were in for a rude suprise! They charged, and my overwatch shots (32 of them) saw like "8" sixes! And, with the lord having 2 wounds already, he LOS them all, giving each and every thunderwolf a wound. All 4 models had only 1 wound left, and the hellions get to strike first!
A challenge was issued, and the champion pushed the baron out of the way to accept, and die like a chump. the other hellions and the baron killed off the other 3 wolves before they could swing (YAy +1 WS! hitting on 3's was amazing!)
The wolf lord lost by 2, but didnt care. At this point, the baron and crew hit and run at the enemy lines. I rolled a "6" for the initiative test, but thatnk god for the re-reoll and just like that, the hellions were 12 inches closer to the tau lines!

The 10 man marine squad charged, and no overwatch shots hit. As he was moving the models, he suddenly stopped and said "um, vect is in this unit, isnt he?"
He was not a happy camper, as vect chewed through his guys (killing 3), then the hydras (17 attacks from those 3 models alone!) and his entire squad was wiped.
Vect and brides consolidated twards the other marine squad, as the beasts and hellons were inches away from the tau commander and firewarriors.

At the end of his turn, mat said " I should never have said here comes the pain!"
we both laughed again, but his didnt seem as heartfelt as mine!

DE turn 2:
Reserves- the voidraven did not come in.

movement saw vect and brides inches away from the marines with runepriest, the baron and hellions and beasts inches from the firewarriors.

Shooting saw the firewarriors reduced to 4 models, vects grenade rolling an 11" scatter to clip a razorwing (you kidding me?), the wolf lord getting munched by the first shot from a venom crews blaster (yay pain token), the other venoms softening up the marines by killing the rune priest,but causing a panic test which they failed and ran 11" away from vect! , the longfangs getting wiped, and 2 broadsides dying. Great phase.
Combats saw the thunderwolves finish off the reavers, vect try his best to charge the now far away marines, but failed.
beasts charged the tau first, taking overwatch fire but no casualties, then the hellions charged in. that combat was UGLY. And fast.

Wolves turn 2.
reserves came in behind the warrior raider.

he was in a rough way to go. he had 1 broadside, 3 marines and 4 thunderwolves (1 a lord) and his newly arrived scouts. vect, the beasts and the baron were all in his deployment zone, and 4 venoms and a raider, all full with warriors were untouched!

He decided "better to go out in a blaze of glory than with a whimper!"
he detatched the lord and went for vects unit. the other 3 wolves went for the hellions.
Shooting saw the scouts pen the raider with a melta, but i 5+ it!
the broadside shot the far venom, destroying it and wounding 4 models! My saves failed to save any, but wait! it was the unit that had a pain token! so I roll 4 FNP... and still fail em all!
I passed the panic and pinning.

Charges saw vect in a challenge. I was going to refuse, but the wyches would need 6's to wound, so he took it. I saved the reroll from the squad size for a failed shadowfield if needed.
It was not needed. Vect killed the lord.

The other combat saw 2 of the three wolves die.

At this point, Matt threw in the towel, as I would hit and run, and wipe the last theunderwolf, vect and crew would hit his last 3 marines, and the beasts, dark lances would kill off the broadside.
His scouts were surrounded by 3 venoms and a raider, all full with people.

I lost a venom a raider and 2 ravagers.

Victory for the Dark Eldar!

Afterthoughts:
Once again, i am STUNNED at how increadibly fast this army is. I had 2 units BEHIND his lines turn 1 before he even moved! I am thinking 3 10 man wych squads in raiders with sails would be devestating, especially if led by a haem for the token!

Jetbikes, though not used correctly did better than expected in tying up his best unit for 2 turns! the hellions were gold this game, killing everything they hit, and were pretty much unstopable!
Vect once again was a god. rerolls of 1's in all phases for the entire unit was key. Anyone who says he is not worth his points, just smack em!

Well, onto game 3 of 5 for the 6th edition league.

this week, i was paired against the only other undefeated player, Mike and his flying circus of demons!

My list was:
Vect, 9 bloodbrides/3x hydra/champ w/venom blade in a raider w/sails/ disintegrator

10 bloodbrides/ 3x hydra/champ w/venom blade in a raider w/sails/

2x 10 warriors in raider/racks with blaster/cannon

4x warriors in venoms w/blaster

10 jetbikes/ champ w/venom/ 3x caltrops

4 beastmasters, 1w/venom, 10 khymerae, 4 razorwings

2x ravagers w/triple disintegrators

1 jetfighter/ dissies and cannon


He had (from memory)
5 flying MC's!
Fateweaver
Lord of change
3x demon princes (tzeentch)
3x 4 man flamer units
5x 5 horrors
1x 10 horrors, banner, changeling

Mission was capture and control (or whatever it is they call it nowadays)
Combat drugs= Pain tokens1 (Whoot!)
Strategic roll= night fight, which i took for turn 1.
Deployment= diagonal

He won the roll to go first and gave it to me.

My deployment:
well, to be honest, he had what, an ungodly amount of flame templates that glance on a 4+, 14 bolts (str 8 ap 1!), and a possible 156 str 4 shots a turn! Not to mention, 5 flyers! in other words, this army is going to be rough!

My deployment was basicaly turtled up in my corner. Bikes in the back, ravagers ringed around them, raiders ringed around the ravagers, venoms around them, and beasts out in the outer ring. I did this to ensure he cant drop in behind me, and to make his flamer templates hit 1-2 vehicles at a time at most, while still keeping my army close together.

My turn 1- I move everything 1/10th of an inch to get my jink saves (not that they are any good against flame templates!)

His turn 1- he rolls and gets his preffered wave of:
fateweaver
Lord of Change
all 3 princes
10 man squad of horrors
1 4 man flamer squad

He then goes to roll 4 out of 7 direct hits, and the three scatters were only a little bit, and were beneficial to him. ALL of his models were within flamer range except the 10 man unit of horrors!

My opponent did not say "Let the pain begin" before shooting... rats!

fateweaver and a demon prince knocked down a venom. Another prince exploded another one. His 10 man horror unit took a point off another (4+ cover due to night fight!) His flamers took out 2 khymerae 9yay 4+ invl) and finally, the last demon prince bolted the wounded venom to an explosion, killing all but 2!

Dang! three venoms down just like that!
My turn 2 saw the jetfighter come in, and my vehicles shuffle about for better shooting lanes. the beasts took off for the 10 man horror squad, the bikes got ready to bladevane a flying MC out of weavers reroll range, and the vectless bloodbrides activated the sails and flew over towards the enemy objective.

Shoting saw a demon prince knocked to the ground by the beasts from a warrior raider, the flamer squad wiped from combined shooting by the riders in the blown up venoms, and a wound or two on other big flyers... nothing to write home about.
Vects raider tried to shoot, but decided against it due to the changeling trying to make him shoot my own troops!
the bikes then turboed over a prince, decapitating him with their bladevanes (and caltrops)

Assaults saw the bests dual assault the fallen prince and the 10 horrors. It also saw them promptly fail their leadership test, and have WS1! At the end of combat, the beasts lost by 1, but held.

Demons turn 2 saw 4 of the 5 horror squads come in, but no flamers.

The horrors dropped in, the flyers moved around, and the shooting started! the last venom exploded, killing all but 1 who failed his morale and started running. 2 horror squads shot at the jetbikes, killing 2. Both warrior raiders had the disintegrators ripped off of them,the jetfighter got blown out of the sky and that was it. An acceptable shooting phase.
Assault saw ANOTHER failed fear test, but the combat was won by the beasts by 1, but fearless demons dont care!

DE turn 3 saw the bloodbrides on the far end of the table disembark and threaten 2 horror squads. Vect zoomed out to join in, disembarked and went for a third. bikes got ready to vane the lord of change, even though he was within 6 of fateweaver. Warrior raiders did a little shuffle for better shots.

Shooting was decent. 2 wounds were put on the lord of change and fateweaver, and a few horrors here or there got hurt. The jetbikes finished off the lord of change.
Assault saw vect and crew assault a horror squad, losing 1 to overwatch, while the other bloodbrides multiple assulted 2 horror squads and lost 5! All fear tests were passed!
vect wiped his opponent, the beasts polished off the changeling but couldnt kill the prince yet, (he had 2 wounds at this point), the other bloodbides knocked one squad down to 2 models and the other one to 1.

Demons 3 saw everything in, horrors back on his objective,on MY objective, flamers in the thick of things!
Having enough of the bikes, he encircled them and unleashed! All but 3 were wiped from the table, but morale was passed. A flamer unit also wook out 5 warriors from a destroyed venom and all but 2 bloodbrides in vects squad.

Combat saw the demon prince die, the horrors die, and both the beasts and brides consolidate twards the enemy objective.

DE 4 saw the warrior raiders move, 1 squad deployed and surrounded the enemy on my objective. Beasts and jetbikes moved a bit, and the bloodbrides continued for the enemy objective. vect and wyches went looking for an enemy. 2 warriors on foot hoofed it to an empty raider to try and reach the enemy objective with a scoring unit.

Shooting saw the last demon prince die, leaving fateweaver the sole surviving m/c.
The demons on my objective were removed with a torrent or rerollable splinter fire.


Demons turn 4 saw weaver fly over by vect, and his last horror unit wipe the empty bloodbride raider off the board. (lotsa glances!)

Shooting saw weaver bolt the squad of 2 wyches and vect, and rather than lose 1/3 of the squad, i took the hit on vects 2+.
Yup, rolled a 1!

De turn 5 saw beasts and brides move at last horror squad, other brides move by weaver in case he got knocked down.
troops in raider FORGOT TO MOVE TO THE ENEMY OBJECTIVE! Stupid!
I started the shooting with the 2 brides by fateweaver both rolling 6's, and weaver falling from the sky. No wounds, but he was grounded! All other shots did nothing, and bladevanes did 2 wounds to the last horror squad.

Assaults saw a wych die from the breath attack from weaver, beasts fail the roll, but brides make it, losing 1 to overwatch.
Brides eat the horrors, and the fight between the last of vects brides and weaver was a draw!

Demon turn 5 saw the bloodbride die, and die bad.
We roll to continue and it does.
he has fateweaver, on the ground, with beasts within charge range, and a crap ton of shooting coming his way.
he concedes.

This game was much rougher.. i lost 4 venoms, a jetfighter, a raider, and 3 5 man warrior squads.

Still, a victory for the Dark Eldar.

So... some hints for other Dark Eldar players out there I learned this game:
1. Bladevane the flying monsters! No reason not to, and it worked like a charm!

2. If you have a splinter cannon, shooting at a flying creature, ALWAYS fire it as heavy! 6 shots is better than 4! You can choose to do that now! Dont fall into the trap of thinking since you moved, you must fire it as assault. You need 6's to hit anyway, grab those 2 extra shots!

3. Sad as it seems, shooty dark eldar sems better than fighty dark eldar!

I've read through the first game, was a nice read and good game. I had to reply about the blast weapons before I forget. Regular blast weapons allocate wounds as for normal shooting; so from the direction of the firer. Ordinance counts as coming from the center of the template. So the models closest to the center get hit first, and you count cover saves the same way; from the center of the template. I imagine this would cancel any benefit from night fight as you'd probably measure distance from the center of the template, but not sure about that.... Area terrain would still give you cover either way. The Baron gives you stealth and always gives you at least a 6+, so you'd get that no matter what. Pages 33 and 34 in the big book.

Sig121 wrote:

Ordinance counts as coming from the center of the template. So the models closest to the center get hit first, and you count cover saves the same way; from the center of the template.

This is wrong, only Barrage weapons remove models closest to the centre first.

Oops. Thats what I meant. Both things he was shot with were both ordinance and barrage. I put the wrong one.

Doing well so far! You're now the only unbeaten player in the league then, nice one! Enjoyed the daemons report most, utter carnage, that sounded like it could have gone either way a few times! Five FMCs is just ridiculous. And expected, I suppose. How come you opted not to go with the Baron and Hellions though? They seemed like they were pretty nasty in your first two games!

Good Question. i wanted to see how another unit of bloodbrides did, if they were more effective or less. Turns out they were less effective, but still much better than the flyers I took.

So Next game, i am going with:
vect and 9 bloodbrides
10 bloodbrides
Baron and 15 hellions

and dropping the flyer and 2 jetbikes.
I will miss the lance/caltrop on the bikes, and it will make them less devestating, but I am gaining a whole unit of bloodbrides in a raider with haywire, which against most vehicles is miles better than any flyer we have.

pretty much, i am slowly optimizing and narrowing my list to a hard, tournament style list.

Variety is the spice of life I guess! Seeing people using Hellions with the Baron is making me seriously tempted to get my converting hat on and get that unit myself, they look like really good fun to use.

Played the 4th game of the 6th edition league against "uncle" Adam and his Guard/Space Wolf list.

When I arrived to set up, I was a bit stunned at the huge pile ot tanks that was there waiting for me, as well as longfangs, psykers and 3 flyers!

This time, I wanted to try something new.. a list I normally would not have taken in 5th, but want to see how it does in 6th. I went with GROTESQUES!

My List:
Asdrubael
Urien Rakarth
10x grots, better strength, champ w/scissorhands, flamer

4x 5 warriors with blaster in venom
1x 10 warriors w/lance and blaster in raider with racks
3x ravagers (1 with triple disintegrators)
1x 5 wychs in venom w/champ/venom blade
beast pack of 10 dogs and 4 flocks
10 jetbikes w/caltrops (no lances)


I was facing a Dark Eldar Players worst nightmare... the perfect anti- skimmer and troop list! He also had a fortification.

He had a tower with a quad gun on it, on top was a company command squad with a master of ordanance (moo), inside it was a psyker battle squad. Holy crap!
1 command squads with MOO, in a chimera
Vetran heavy weapons team with lascannons
platoon squad spread across 4 chimeras and a total of 7 autocannons
3 vendettas
1 penal legion (in a vendetta)
2 hydra flak tanks
3 griffon mortars
platoon command squad w/ heavy weapon
rune priest with power that makes all skimmers take tests
longfangs with 5 missle launchers
drop pod with a wolfen model and grey hunters
Oh, and all units had flamers!

So all in all, a metric ton of shootng, vehicles that deny my skimmer saves, flamers everywhere, 3 large blasts that insta gib my beasts, and enough autocannon shots alone to drop every vehicle twice in 1 turn!

We rolled for traits. he got +1 to reserves. i got "Night fight!" Well, there is a small gleam of hope!
My drugs were: reroll to wound

Mission: The relic. deployment: LONGWAYS! (man, what a time to have my main unit on foot! It will take them all game to reach the enemy!)

He won the first turn, and deployed from my left to right:
chimera, pcs, heavy weapons (in ruins), tower, hydra, chimera, chimera, 3x griffons, hydra, chimera

My deployment was I pre measured everything back 42.1", so even if he moves 6", I am out of range due to my night fight strategic roll. If he moves more than 6", i will have to risk the snap shots. My beasts and grots were all the way up, everything else was spread out and hiding as best i could.

Turn 1.
I roll to seize, and do! (got a 6... did'nt even need vect! :biggrin: )

Dark Eldar 1:
Jetbikes fly up to hit the 3-4 squads in the ruins. Venoms move up to get the guys in the tower, and to help whittle down the ruins units. Dogs and grots move up as fast as their little feet will carry them. ravagers line up on vehicles, the triple dissie ravager lines up on the units in the ruins. the warrior raider flew into terrain, and lined up some shots.

Shooting saw vect roll a 3 for run, the beasts roll a "1". good thing they had fleet, so i reroll it, and got a "1". <_<

The dissie ravager shoots the longfangs, dropping all but 1 missle! Sweet!
Lance ravager shoots a chimera, pens, explodes. Troops are not pinned.
Other lance ravager shoots a chimera, pens, explodes! SWEET! troops are pinned.
Venoms 1,2 and 3 wipe the ccs and moo off the top of the tower.
Venom 4 kills the last longfang, leaving only the priest.
Venom 5 leaves only 2 from the platoon command squad.
Reavers bladevane the three autocannon heavy weapon team, wiping them and giving themselves a token. (str 6 for insta kill! caltrops are great!)

At the end of my shooting, Adam was not too pleased. i did quite a bit of damage.

IG turn 1.
Drop pod drops right in the middle of a clump of my vehicles.
the 2 left from the platoon command squad, the wolf priest and the squad from the destroyed chimera encircled my bikes.

Shooting began. the Master of ordanance aimed for a clump of my vehicles, it scattered 11" on top of his newly arrived grey hunters, wiping all but 4 from the board! VERY very lucky!

He was able to drop a warrior venom, and pin the 4 that fell out, and wipe another warrior venom, killing all 5 in the explosion! :blink:

The griffons rained death on the beasts, killing half of them. The psyker battle squad attempted to reduce their leadership, but periled, losing 2.
The wolf priest tried to do something to them as well, but i denied the witch!
all 3 squads by the bikes were unable to scratch them, so they charged in.

The priest challenged, my champion accepted.
In combat, the challenge saw no wounds done, but the bikes wiped the other 2 squads, giving them 2 more tokens and fearless.

Dark Eldar turn 2.
Grots, vect and urien all hoof it some more. still nowhere near the enemy.
beasts move right by the pinned squad. Vehicles shuffle around to get better angles, 1 venom with warriors flies to the relic. The wyches jumped out to see to the grey hunters.

Shooting saw not as much damage, but I was able to drop the far right hydra flak tank, and put a hull point on the far left chimera.
Shooting from the triple dissie ravager, the wyches and snapshots from the warriors in 2 venoms saw only 2 grey hunters die! The wyches charged, but due to me being stupid and putting the champ in front, she and another dies before seeing combat, which they promptly lost and were wiped out! The hunters consolidate behind a lance ravager.
The beasts charge, and wipe the guard squad, and consolidate into cover.

the jetbikes ended the wolf priest, and spread out in the ruins.

IG turn 2.
2 vendettas arrive, and line up on ravagers.
Shooting saw a lance ravager down, the dissie ravager down, and 2 warrior units fleeing from explosion casualties! the last 2 venoms with warriors were also dropped, 1 unit pinned with 3 left, 1 unit with 4 left, on the objective! The last ravager was immobolised from living lightning from the grey hunter squad.
the griffon mortars then shot, and with out any effort, wiped the entire beast squad from the board!

Dark Eldar turn 3
Grots and vect move up.
Slight shuffling with vehicles. Empty wych venom flew behind the grey hunters.
Bikes fly over at the griffons. Now, when i took this squad, i did not take lances this time, as i hardly ever use them. I was kind of missing them now!

Shooting saw no damage to vehicles. The grey hunters were wiped.
Grots ran closer, which was stupid as they were 8" from a chimera! I had to know how stupid I was, and rolled a charge anyway, which was a "5', so in retrospect, it was a brilliant move!

Assault saw the bikes charge the griffons. Since the griffons did not move, they were auto hit and the bikes killed 2 of the three! (squadron)

IG turn 3- Last vendetta shows up.
IG squad drops out of chimera and lines up on bikes. Griffon mortar does as well with hull heavy flamer.
Vendetta #1 goes into hover mode to get better shots.

Shooting sees all vehicles wiped but the raider full of warriors.

All the shots combined manage to kill 1 bike. (4+ cover, 5+ fnp, 4 pain tokens! )

Dark Eldar turn 4-
Vect, Grots and urien all line up to charge a chimera and the hydra
Warrior raider flies out to objective.
Bikes turbo over the squad that dropped out, killing them (pain token #5)
A blaster from a 3 man warrior squad took out the hovering vendetta
the lance from the raider stuns the last chimera
Combat saw both vehicles squished to a pulp by the grots. Even with multi charge, the grots alone had 33 auto hit strength 7 attacks. yeah, that should do it!

IG turn 4-
penal legion drops from vendetta.
Raider blown out of the sky, killing 5. Passed pinning and panic.
All other warriors on the board were wiped. Penal legion then wiped the remaining warriors with 2x assault las guns! I no longer had any scoring troops.

DE turn 5-
Bikes go to assault shaken chimera. grots encirlce the objective, and asdrubael threw a haywire grenade at a flying vendetta! Why not?

Bikes destroyed the chimera, ensuring there is no way for him to get the objective.

We called the game here. There was no way for his 5 penal legionaires to defeat the grots, vect and urien. I had no troops left, so we had to go to secondary objectives.

first blood: Dark Eldar
Slay the Warlord: Dark Eldar
Linebreaker: Well, if we didnt call it then, Dark Eldar

So, Victory for the Dark Eldar! It is a win/loss league, and Adam was the closest to me at the time with 2 wins and a draw equaling 5 points. I had 3 wins for 6 points.
The Dark Eldar are now sitting pretty with 8 points!

Afterthoughts:
Jetbikes. Once again, these things more than doubled their admittedly expensive points. They took out a wolf priest, 3 autocannons, 2 griffons, a chimera, a platoon command squad, and 2, count em 2 infantry squads! Not to mention the mental games you play with your opponents head when they are behind the enemy lines turn 1!

The grots. to be fair, this was not an ideal game to test them properly. they had a long long way to hoof it, (hammer and anvil deployment) and the enemy sure wasnt going to move closer! However, they were so tough, and such an immovable object, my opponent pretty much tried to ignore them as best he could.
grots set up this way are nasty! they have 3 pain tokens MINIMUM (1 from urien, 1 from grots, and d3 from uriens ability) so they are fearless, reroll all 1's to hit and wound, and at str 7 on a charge, its pretty much reroll ALL wounds unless you are facing a wraithlord or something! The toughness 5 means they are seldom if ever insta gibbed, and what they hit, dies.

I think this list is viable, but with 1 in 3 missions being longways, it might make for a slow, plodding walk across the table.

Not sure if anyone reads these, but here goes...

(edit) this is from memory.. i seem to have "missed an entire turn, but the results are the same...)

Headed out for game 5 of 6 in the new "testing 6th edition league".

So far, i am the only undefeated player, and a win or draw today will seal the deal where i will not even have to play next week, and still take first place (and grab a new, shiny battalion box for a prize).
So I arrive, and see that i am paired with Steve playing his Grey Knights.
the mission? Kill points!
Gah!
It seems that they post on facebook the day before who is playing whom, and what the mission is. You are allowed to adjust your list accordyingly. Sadly, I was unaware of this fact, so i went with a huge kill point heavy list to take on all comers, when i was facing an anti dark-eldar small kill point list!

My list:
Vect and brides/hydras in raider with sails.
Baron and hellions (16 total in unit)
5x 5 warriors with blasters in venoms
3x dissie ravagers
10 jetbikes/3x caltrops 3x lances
2x trueborn in venoms w 2 lances and 2 blasters

So... 23 total kill points available! Ouch!

I was facing:
Draigo
Coteaz
2x 6 paladin squads w/ 2 hammers, 2 psycannons and 2 halberds each
2 landraiders (1 w/bolters, 1 w/lascannons)
grey knight flyer with lascannon, melta, and hurricane bolters (ouch again)
dreadknight
2x psyfleman dreads
ageis defense line w/ quad gun

so... 11 points total!
yeah, this seems like a fair fight!

I won the roll to go first and deployed.
he deployed
It was nightfight
He failed to seize.
he rolled again (coteaz ability) and still failed. (whew)

Game was on!

Pre game thoughts:
Well, there was no way in hell I was going to beat this guy in kill points. My paper airplanes dont stand a chance against all the psybolt ammo coming my way. My only option?
Table him!
Yup, balls to the wall, remove all his models before he knows what hit him tabling. Did i have a chance to do it? Well, he did turtle up, keeping the flyer and dreadknight in reserve, so 90% of his army was in a small area. Still, in the words of Del Griffith, i had a better chance of finding a three legged ballerina or playing pick-up-sticks with my butt cheeks than winning this game, but I had to give it a go!

Deployment:



DE turn 1:
Well, here goes!
I moved, sailed and turboed vect by some ruins in his zone.
A few venoms moved up for shots on his toughness 7 quad gun (until this game, i thought they had an armor value! go figure!) hellions moved and ran to get as close as possible. jetbikes moved and turboed into his deployment zone as well, close enough to lance or bladevane next round depending on shooting.
Shooting saw no damage to any vehicle from dark lance shots. none. venoms, however, took out the quad gun.

So, first blood= 1, quad gun =1
DE 2
GK 0



GK1
He shimmied. No other words for it. He knew i was coming, so he pivoted and got ready to shoot the hell out of me. His psyfleman moved out to get clear shots.
Shooting saw a venom blown out of the sky, a ravager stunned, and vects raider dropped.
Venom lost 2 warriors, but they passed pinning and panic.
Vect and brides lost 5 brides! They didnt care about panic or pinning!

DE 2
GK 2



DE2
Second round, nightfight gone, here is where I cripple him, and wipe the army! yup, thats the plan!
The jetbikes scoot 12" twards draigos landraider, and vect and brides scoot on real close to charge whatever falls out. other venoms move up to take lance shots at what was needed. Stunned ravager sits there and drools on itself, other ravagers fly over to open a can of AP2 Whoop-A$$ on whatever falls out of the soon to be dead landraiders!
Hellions and baron move up, preparing for the arrival of the dreadknight and flyer... they also tried to stay close enough to charge if something fell out of the landraiders.

Shooting.
HERE WE GO!
9 blaster shots... and i manage to stun the leftmost landraider. 5 hit, 1 pen, rolled a 2. It was a sad sad day for the accuracy instructors for Vects army.. I am sure he had they all flayed when he got back!
So, vect lobbed a grenade, and took a hull point. At this point, all i had left was the reavers, so i triple lanced them. There was a rather large explosion as draigos raider blew to peices, decapitating a wych, leaving vect, a champ and 2 hydras! But the good news is that draigo, coteaz and 6 paladins fell out! Here, the venoms and ravagers opened up and through a lot and a lot of shooting, draigo had taken 2 of his 4 wounds, and every paladin had 1 wound (from draigo wound allocation shenanigins.)
Vect and the gals promptly charged both the paladins AND a nearby psyfleman, hoping to tie them up for a bit, and another hydra gal got hit in the face by a psycannon on overwatch. Sigh.
Draigo challeneged, Vect accepted. They both promptly broke out some pillows and began smacking each other. Neither could break through the others save. the wychs, however, got squished like bugs.
Combat was won by GK, but being fearless, Vect didnt care.

DE 3
GK 2



GK 2
Rolls for reserve sees the dreadknight and the stormraven/thunderhawk/whateverthehellitis come on.
Landraider passes its fortitude (of course)
Shooting sees the dreadknight kindly try to keep the hellions warm by flaming them and then gatling gunning them to three lousy stinking models! Can you believe that? Wow! The Land raider took out the previously stunned ravager, the flyer dropped missles on hellions (cause the dreadknight obviously needed the help!) and glanced a venom.
Hellions passed the panic.
Combat saw another whifflebat fight.

DE 3
GK 3



DE 4
Hmm... hellions are done for. So i move them 6" up by the draigo combat to try and help out vect. the jetbikes jump back to say hi to the dreadknight, venoms and ravagers all move up to also stop the dreadknight before he takes out the rest of my army singlehanded!
Shooting sees again no damage to the last landraider or unengaged psyfleman, but the dreadknight died from a torrent of fire from all the venoms, dark lances from the trueborn and the jetbikes.
Combat saw the hellions charge, do their impact hits (0 wounds) normal attacks (2 wounds, 1 saved) then die like chumps. In retrospect, i should have ran and hid them. This was a kill point mission after all, and I just gave my oponent a free gift. I still had it in my head i had to table him, but i was keeping close in the kill point arena. Stupid move.
Draigo and vect... threw wet sponges at each other.

DE 4
GK 5 (1 for hellions, 1 for baron)



GK 4
The flyer moves up.
Shots see the expelled warriors die to a man, another warrior venom explode, wounding 1 (passed pinning) and a ravager getting blown to bits by the freewheeling psyfleman. Sigh.
Combat saw draigos double hammerhand finaly break through the shadowfield, and insta-gank vect. Great round for GK, not so good for DE.

DE 4
GK 10 (1 for rvgr, vnm, wrrs, vct, slay the warlord)



DE 5
Ouch. bad round.
Reavers jump over by draigo.. venoms and ravagers move up to take revenge. Blasters line up shots across the board.

Shooting started with a lone blaster hitting, penning and destroying the psyfleman by draigo! Wow.. nice start to the round! venoms opened up on draigos squad, wiping all but coteaz and draigo himself, but each only had 1 wound left. Blasters then took aim at the other landraider and finally broke it open. Troops fell out, not pinned.
Then the reaver jetbikes bladevaned draigo and coteaz. 10 bikes, lots of hits, and needless to say both draigo and coteaz's heads are hanging as trophies from chains...

DE 10 (draigo, coteaz, raider, paladins, psyfleman, slay the warlord)
GK 10

great comeback!



Movement saw the flyer go off the board. i was a chance! if the game went on, i could wipe the paladins and last psyfleman, and table him! the psyfleman and paladins lined up on the bikes, and unloaded. Even with a 3+ save, 2 died.
Combat saw the paladins charge, lose 1 to overwatch, but kill 4 more in combat to 0. Bikes break and run!

DE 10
GK 11 (fleeing bikes... 11 for now)


DE 6
We roll to see if it continues, and it does!
Bikes rally.
I move up and around to try and get as many shots as possible on both units. Not easy!
Shooting sees the paladins brought down to 1. i was unable to wipe them! The dreadnaught took 1 hull point.

crap.

DE 10
GK 10



GK 6
Flyer comes on.
Dreadnaught lines up shots
lone paladin heads for jetbikes.
Shooting sees warriors on foot taken out by flyer.
dreadnaught drops another venom. 4 fall out. pass pinning
Paladin charges reavers. They overwatch, and KILL THE PALDIN! My opponent was bemused by that!

DE 11
GK 12



We roll and get a turn 7

DE 7

last ravager flies behing the last psyfleman.
other units line up on flyer.
Reavers turbo deep into his deployment zone. (linebreaker)
Shooting from the ravager easily kills the dreadnaught, freeing all other shots to hit the flyer!
11+ blaster shots see 8 of them hit! Awesome rolling!
he dives, of course.
out of the 8, 7 either glance or pen.
He 5+ ALL of the pens, and some of the glances, taking only 2 hull points! What the heck! Really?
1 hull point away from tabling. He made 5 5+ saves out of 7 to save his flyer! Amazing rolls!

End of the turn, score is:
DE 13 (psyfleman and linebreaker)
GK 12



GK 7

He drops to hover, and aims at the 4 warriors on foot. in ruins.
He shoots! needing 6's, 1 hit!
He wounds!
i go to ground for the ever so nice 3+ save!
I fail it!
I roll my leadership!
9!!!
They flee!

As this is turn 7, they count as dead!



DE 13
GK 13

DRAW!!!

holy crap, what a game! If it ended on 5 or 6, he won. If he didnt make 5 5+ saves, I won.
It was one of those games you feel exhausted after playing. Intense, tactical and rough!
I do have to say that i am more than happy with a draw. 9 times out of 10 that list would wipe mine in a kill point mission. Objectives... well, i had the edge to be sure!

So, the draw put me in an unsurmountable lead (the only one who can catch me if i lose next game i beat in head to head already) so overall victory for the DARK ELDAR!

oh, and still undefeated!

Great reports! That was one crazy game, really close (and yes people do read them so keep it up).