Battle Report: FLGS Tournament, May 21

Duke Sliscus: Battle Report

My Army:
HEADQUARTERS:

Duke Sliscus: 150
______________

TROOPS:

1 x Kabalite Warrior x 9: 81 (186) – Duke Rides Here
-Blaster
*Sybarite
*Blast Pistol
*Venom Blade
-Raider
*Darklance

5 x Kabalite Warrior x 5: 45 (145)
-Blaster
*Sybarite
*Blast Pistol
-Raider
*Darklance
_______________

ELITE:

3 x Kabalite Trueborn x 4: 68 (168)
*Blaster x 4
*Raider
-Darklance
_______________

HEAVY:

3 x Razorwing Jetfighter: 145

(TOTAL: 2000)

Mission 1: Warpflux

Primary Objective: “Pushback” – The player with a model closest to his own board edge by the game’s end loses. If both players have models equally close (or with a 2’’ or less difference), the game is scored as a Tie for Primary.

Special Rule: Once per turn, at the beginning of the player’s Movement phase, a single non-vehicle infantry unit may be re-deployed, via Deepstrike. This unit cannot have its scatter distance reduced by any amount, counts as having moved after the Deepstrike, and is removed from play as a casualty if any doubles are rolled on the scatter distance. However, the squad MAY assault after Deepstriking.


The board was a desert board, with a large ruin in each table quarter, and a ruin with a pair of largish craters in the board’s center. The ruins provided good cover, but were shot through with holes and gaps, and were too low to adequately block line of sight. My first opponent of the day was a “mirrormatch”: a fellow Dark Eldar player, who was running (if memory serves) the following army:

HQ:
Asdrubael Vect
Archon: Shadowfield, Ghostplate, Agonizer, Combat Drugs, Haywire Grenades, Blast Pistol.

TROOPS:

5 x Kabalite Warrior x 10
*Blaster
Raider
*Splinter Rack

ELITE:

Hekatrix Bloodbride x 9: (Vect Rode Here)
*3 Shardnet/Impalers + Agonizer
Raider
Enhanced Aethersails

Trueborn x 4: (Archon Rode Here)
Haywire Grenades, Blaster x 4
Venom (Dual SC)

HEAVY:

Ravager x 2
*Nightshield, Flickerfield

Voidraven Bomber
*Nightshield, Flickerfield
*Necrotoxin Missile x 4


The scenario was a weird, tablequarter-esque deployment, and I won the roll for Turn 1. However, as I was running the Duke, and my opponent was running Vect (who likes to play mindgames about whether or not you’re really going first), I happily offered him Turn 1, and observed his deployment.

He arranged himself in the northwest corner of the board, with his Warrior skimmers providing cover to Vect’s raider, and his Archon’s Venom. The Voidraven Bomber was parked at the very back, in the corner. Forcing me into the corner opposite him, he planned on easily outranging my lance-fire with everything that mattered, and getting 4+ cover saves on anything I managed to catch in-range, assuming I seized. Otherwise, I assumed he planned on shoving his Raiders down my throat and trying to get his deadly melee squad into combat with something.

Of course, with my army full of 85-100 point throwaway squads, Pimpmaster V. really had no one around worthy of a proper caning, and was probably fairly irritated about being invited by the Venom Archon to what was turning out to be a very dull party.

I proceeded to reserve my entire fleet, and explained that every single squad would be deepstriking in for a Low Orbit Raid, with the exception of the Razorwings, which would be coming in from standard reserves. I also smiled when I said it.

Turn 1: Him

Seemingly confused, he turbo-boosted everything 24-36’’ East (he was in the Northwest corner, so he moved to the table area closer to my right). He situated himself so that he was occupying the board’s center, for the most part, blocked by the central ruins and his Booster saves.

Turn 1: Me

More smiling. More casual observation. I arranged my squads neatly beside their designated rides, and waited for Turn 2. I rolled +1 attack for the Duke’s drugs.

Turn 2: Him

He boosted once more, sending everything off to the Eastern flank. Vect and the Archon’s skimmers were surrounded by the 5 Warrior Raiders, with 3 in front and 1 on either side. The Ravagers and Voidraven remained in the backfield, with the Raven parked rather centrally at the board’s edge, and a Ravager on either side of it.

Turn 2: Me

Time for reserve rolls! I rolled fairly average, and the results were:

3 out of 6 Warrior squads arrived, with the Duke not among them.
2 Trueborn squad showed up.
1 Razorwing Jetfighter showed up.

The Trueborn were the first ones to be placed. I deepstruck them near the ruin at my long board edge, roughly 7’’ away from the leading nose of one of his Warrior Raiders, and scattered 4’’ closer. I pivoted after I finished my scatter, and deployed into the ruins near his fleet, lining up a bead on Vect’s skimmer.

The first Warrior squad was placed 6’’ away from the Voidraven, and 9+’’ away from everything else. I landed an On-Target, but proceeded to immobilize myself on rubble. Whatever. The Warriors deployed 2.9999 inches off of their Raider’s nose, and lined up for shots on his Void Raven – that bomber was bad news, and needed to go.

The second and third Warrior squads deepstruck into support positions, aiming to land near the Ravager to the left (my left) of the Voidraven. One scattered 7’’ towards my board edge, and immobilized itself in some ruins, and the other landed On-Target. Both squads deployed, with both Blaster and Blast Pistols in range of the nearby Ravager, and Blasters in range of the Voidraven.

Darklances began to fire first – a wide firing arc, high strength, and good range meant that they would have the best pick of which targets to neutralize first.

The Trueborn’s Raider fired on Vect’s Raider first, and scored a penetrating hit, which was neutralized by a 4+ cover from Flat-Out. Oh, well. Warrior Squad 1’s Raider had better luck, and happily landed another penetrating hit on Vect’s Raider, which my opponent promptly rolled a 3 for. Unfortunately, I rolled a 2 for damage, and blew off his Darklance. Sigh. Warrior Squad 2’s immobilized Raider, unable to see Vect’s ride, shot at one of the Splinter Rack Raiders, and exploded it, wounding 6, and seeing 5 die. Finally, Warrior Squad 3’s Raider fired on a Ravager, unable to see anything more important, and whiffed. One dead Raider, 5 dead Warriors, a pinning and morale test on the wrecked Raider’s squad, and a damaged Vect Raider – good start, for 4 Raiders.

The Warriors in the crater passed their pinning check and their morale.

The Trueborn were next – I needed to find out whether Vect’s Raider would be dead this turn or not, because my Razorwing wanted a high-priority target to neutralize, and I was loathe to burn missiles on 5 Kabalite Warriors in a crater. They fired their blasters, and scored 3 hits! 2 penetrated, and 1 glanced. My opponent blocked the glance, and stopped a penetration as well, but I rolled a 5 for the penetration, and Vect’s Raider detonated, killing 6 Bloodbrides in the process. Vect, and the remaining 3 Bloodbrides tumbled out.

Pinning and morale were both passed.

Warrior Squad 1 whipped out their Blaster and Blast Pistol, and fired on the Voidraven Bomber. Both landed a hit, and scored a penetration and a glance. The Bomber blocked the glance, but the penetration scored a 4, and due to the Flat-Out move, it crashed and burned. My opponent was crestfallen, but matters were going to be much worse, soon.

Warrior Squad 2 whiffed entirely on the Ravager, but Warrior Squad 3 made up for it, landing two penetrating hits, and exploding the Ravager despite flat-out moves – one was deflected, but the other, thanks to Open-Topped, happily exploded it on a 5.

My opponent had already lost his Voidraven Bomber, a Warrior Raider and half a squad, Vect’s Raider and most of his Bloodbrides, and a Ravager, and he looked shocked. I saved the best for last, and dropped all four monoscythe missiles on the Bloodbrides, with Vect attached. Even with minor deviation on one missile, I managed to score 12 wounds on the squad. The Wyches had one Shardnet, one normal Bloodbride, and the Agonizer chick left, so each was forced to soak 3 saves, and each one died, even Going to Ground.

Vect, with 3 Shadowfield saves to make, failed his 3rd and final one, and was decapitated.

I informed my opponent that I was finished with my 2nd Turn. He was now down by around 850 points, having been neatly eviscerated by an alpha-strike.

Turn 3: Him
Scrambling to respond, and somehow stop the hemorrhaging, his Warriors zoomed in, and attempted to mow down the Trueborn in cover. I went to ground, and lost 2 for my trouble. He unloaded another Warrior squad into them, trying to nab a pain token, but I survived the 7 wounds he inflicted with only one more dead Trueborn. His third Warrior squad finally finished the final Trueborn off, and nabbed a pain token. Whatever, he burned 600+ points killing 100 points of elites.

The remaining Ravager ran scared for the corner, and fired a few shots at my immobilized Raider, but I managed to cover-save one of the two penetrations, and the one which went through managed to only shake me. Phew! Scattered, ineffective shots from his remaining Raiders, and a Blaster shot from his last mounted Warrior squad managed to kill the Trueborn Raider. Assaults followed.

His Archon leapt out of the Venom with his Trueborn in tow, and combo-charged a Raider, and 2 Warrior squads. However, he only dedicated the Archon into attacking Warrior Squad 2, and killed 2 with his Agonizer. The Trueborn shook the Raider, and combined attacks from my remaining Warriors and Sybarite killed his Trueborn, in exchange. The Archon passed his morale, however.

Turn 3: Me

Warrior Squad 4 came in, along with The Duke, in Warrior Squad 6 (the big one).
Both Trueborn squads showed up.
Both Razorwings showed up.

The small Warrior squad dropped down near his cluster of Splinter Rack Warrior Raiders, and The Duke showed up near them as well. Trueborn Raider 2, meanwhile, deepstruck into the backfield, to hopefully kill off his Ravager. Trueborn Raider 3 deepstruck where Trueborn Raider 1 had, in order to add weight of fire to his Warrior raiders – I needed those Raiders cracked open. I was aiming to execute any remaining killing power he had left at his disposal, and I was rather annoyed that his Archon hadn’t fled from combat on the turn the Kabalite Warriors defeated him, because he would’ve been easy pickings for my forces. Locked in melee with the remnants of two 5-man squads, however, gave him fairly good odds of survival for this turn.

Raider firepower from my side was fairly telling – 7 darklance shots saw the demise of two of his Warrior Raiders, with one exploding and killing four, pinning the squad. The freshly deepstruck Warrior squad blew away a third Splinter Rack Raider, dumping the contents on the ground, who survived with no casualties and passed pinning. The fourth and final surviving Warrior Raider of his ran into four Trueborn blasters, and exploded, causing three more Warriors to die from the embarked squad, as well as two from a pair of nearby squads. They passed their pinning, however, and stayed put.

In the backfield, the other deepstruck Trueborn managed to stun the Ravager, but the flickerfield on it allowed it to shrug off a pair of penetrations which would have been the end of it, otherwise. Troublesome thing.

The Duke and his disembarked warriors separated, with the Warriors firing a blaster and blast pistol into the Archon’s Venom, which stunned and immobilized it (14’’ away from his board edge, I might add. With all of my squads deepstriking into the field, and with my Razorwings far enough away from his tattered remnant firepower to avoid a similar fate, I suspected I could simply Supersonic Turboboost my way into the field on Turn 4.

The Duke, meanwhile, split off and lined up a charge on the embattled Archon, determined to bail out his daring pirate crew in a dashing example of swashbuckling.

The Razorwings, meanwhile, unloaded their respective missile salvos, and due to the combined effect of his Splinter Rack Raiders being so close to one-another in the prior turn, each subsequently disembarked squad lost members to not only their own Raider exploding, but the other nearby Raiders as well. The Razorwing blasts eliminated the two remaining decently-sized squads entirely, inflicting 27 and 22 wounds respectively, leaving one Warrior squad with 3 Kabalite Warriors remaining, and another with 5.
With nothing left to shoot, the Duke calmly waited for Turn 4.

Turn 4: Him

Determined to play through to the bitter end, his Warriors fired spiteful splinter shots into the Trueborn in the ruin in the bottom right corner of the board, but failed to kill a single one. The Archon, however, dispatched one Warrior squad entirely, and broke and Sweeping Advance’d the other one. He still retained his Shadowfield, already having made 7 saves on it from being slapped at by the Kabalites he’d turned into bloodsmears.

His stunned, immobilized Venom, and stunned Ravager tried their best to look scary.

It looked like it was going to come down to the Archon fighting an epic duel to the death with Duke Sliscus the Serpent …

Turn 4: Me

… and the 35 surviving darklight weapons in my army.

The Duke’s Serpent Venom’d Warrior squad, Trueborn, and last remaining Warrior squad combined their fire to erase the squad of 3 and 5 Warriors from existence, Trueborn annihilated the stunned Ravager, and I aimed every single remaining Darklance within range at the Archon who had so callously butchered my Kabalites.

His Archon proceeded to shrug off 21 darklight wounds with his shadowfield.

Vect should’ve bought his Shadowfield from wherever this prick bought his.

It did, indeed, end with the Duke charging into melee with the Archon. I had rolled +1 attack on the drug chart with the Duke, but the Archon still had I7, so he swung first with his Agonizer, scoring 4 hits, and 3 wounds! I cringed, and rolled my Shadowfield..

3, 3, 2!

The Duke’s reprisal was impressive – 6 attacks, and 4 connected, with 2 of ‘em being power-weapon wounds! The Archon failed the very first one, and got subsequently nailed by the follow-up power weapon wound, leaving him with 2 more normal wounds to take on 4+ Armor/4+ Feel No Pain. He proceeded to roll a 3, and a 4, and with baited breath, I watched as he rolled his Feel No Pain. The dice turned up a 5. Ugh.

Then, of course, the Archon failed his leadership, and broke and started running, escaping the Duke’s vengeful knives with his Initiative 7.

Turn 5: Him

He had no move remaining except to keep falling back – he’d rolled poorly on his 2d6’’ run, with a combined total of 7’’, and the Duke had pursued him 4’’, so he was still within the 6’’ “No Regroup” zone. He fled another 8’’.

Turn 5: Me

I merrily marched the Duke up, hopped into the Raider I’d deepstruck in with, moved 6’’ with it, pivoted the nose to aim at the Archon, and fired my BS6 Blast Pistol.

The Archon was summarily vaporized, shot in the back as he fled for the board edge.


Final Tally: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Objectives claimed by me, as well as full battlepoint modifiers. This gave me a commanding lead of 45 points, and matched me up with my second opponent: Space Wolves.


Mission 2: Minefield

My opponent was a Space Wolf player running the following (from memory)

Runepriest x 2: One with Jaws + Lightning, one with Jaws + Hurricane.

2 x Grey Hunter x 10 (Melta, Wolf Guard with Fist and Combi-Melta, Wulfen, Standard)
2 x Grey Hunter x 9 (Melta, Wolf Guard with Fist and Combi-Melta, Wulfen, Standard)
*All mounted in Rhinos

2 x Longfang x 5 (Missile Launcher x 5 + Wolf Guard with Cyclone)
*2 x Razorback, LasPlas

1 x Land Raider Crusader
Terminator x 5 (assorted weapons and combi-meltas)

Primary Objective: Killpoints.
Secondary Objective: Have more scoring units in your opponent’s deployment zone.

Special Rules: Deployment: Pitched battle. If you begin or end your move outside your deployment zone and move more than 6’’ (or choose to run), you test Dangerous Terrain. If you would otherwise need to take Dangerous Terrain, you take the aforementioned Dangerous Terrain test as well.

He won the roll to go first, and began deploying. On his side of the board, he had a forest on the northeast corner (my upper right, orientation-wise), a hill in the northwest, and a big empty area between them, near his long board edge. The middle of the table was occupied by a big Imperial Watchtower, and about a foot to the right was a bunker, near my bottom right portion of the board. On my bottom left, there was another forest big enough to hide a Rhino or Raider behind.

He deployed his Land Raider centrally, placed one Longfang squad behind the forest on the Northeast, stuck the other Longfang squad on the hill in the opposite corner, parked their Razorbacks in front of them to provide cover, and parked the Rhinos in front of the Land Raider, at his deployment zone’s edge, centrally. Very aggressive, and clustered.

I rolled a 6 and a 2 for my drugs, so I obviously picked the Pain Token. I then proceeded to place all of my Raiders in Deepstrike Reserve, while the Razorwings would be flying on normally from standard Reserves. Like my prior opponent, this one expressed concern, but tried to psych me out by claiming it was very risky of me. Right, nice try.

Turn 1 and 2: Him

He declared that he would go ahead and take his 1st and 2nd turn of movement simultaneously, as I wouldn’t be coming onto the board until the bottom of 2, anyway. I cheerfully agreed to this, and watched him roll 2d6 for each of his vehicles, as they tried to cross the minefield to reach my deployment zone – he immobilized both of his 10-man Grey Hunter Rhinos, at the edge of my deployment zone, side by side, near the southwest corner of the map, near my wooded section. The Runepriest Rhino squads made it safely to the southeast corner, near the bunker. The Land Raider, however, hung back, and so did the Longfang Razorbacks.

I tried a little mind game of my own, telling him that it’d be a shame if my whole army appeared on the board and vaporized him before he had the chance to respond, so popping smoke on everything might be a good idea – I’d hoped to simply plant seeds of doubt and worry, but he replied that he was saving his smoke launchers for the late game.

This made no sense to me, but he claimed he had a plan, so I shrugged it off.

I had one too. Mostly, it involved all of his vehicles dead or crippled by Turn 2.

Turn 2: Me

The Duke’s Warrior Squad (Squad 1), and 2 five-man squads (Squad 2 and 3) showed up.
2 Trueborn Squads showed up.
1 Razorwing showed up.

The Duke’s Raider was the first to touch down, and was placed in a space between the Land Raider, the Longfang squad in the northeast (forest squad), and their Razorback. I eyeballed it, and decided there was about an 7-9’’ clearance from all enemy units, and rolled for scatter. I ended up scattering directly towards the Longfangs, 3’’. The Duke and his squad disembarked into the forest, off the Raider’s nose, and made sure they were within 2’’ of the forest’s edge to deny cover to the Longfangs.

Warrior Squad 2 and 3 deepstruck south of the Duke’s Raider. Warrior Squad 2’s Raider drifted east 7’’, and landed about 3’’ away from the Longfang’s Razorback. The other Raider – Squad 3 – landed on target. The Razorback was now facing off against 2 Kabalite Warrior squads, and I felt fairly confident about my odds.

Trueborn Squad 1 deepstruck into the board’s center, and landed on target, but double-Dangerous Terrain rolls (one for the Minefield, one for deepstriking into the bunker) immobilized me. Trueborn Squad 2 deepstruck to the west of Trueborn Squad 1, near the other Razorback, and landed On Target. I deployed both Trueborn squads off the nose, ensuring they had range to both the Land Raider, and the Razorback.

The Razorwing flew on 12’’, and lined up shots on the unattended Longfangs.

Warrior Squad 2 opened fire on the Longfang’s Razorback, and promptly wrecked it. Warrior Squad 3 opened fire on the nearby Longfangs, no longer needing to pitch in effort to killing the Razorback. Only the Blaster had range, but it flashfried a Longfang!

Warrior Squad 2 and 3’s Raider fired on the same Longfangs, and killed 1 more. There were now only 4 more models in the squad. The Duke’s Raider fired another darklance into them, and incinerated one more – 3 Longfangs remained, and they were all within firing range of everything in the Duke’s squad. Gruesome.

The immobilized Trueborn Raider (Trueborn Squad 1’s) fired into the Land Raider, and exploded it on the very first penetrating hit, stranding 5 very surprised Terminators in a central backfield location. Trueborn Squad 2’s Raider popped off a shot at the other Razorback, but whiffed.

Trueborn Squad 1 and 2 both opened fire on the Terminators – they were a more enticing prospect to me than the Razorback, at that point. 8 blaster shots landed 5 wounds, and resulted in 2 dead Terminators.

The Razorwing unloaded monoscythes on the unharmed Longfang squad, and scored 19 wounds. The massed saves wiped the tiny missile launcher-toting jerks off the board.

The Duke happily unloaded another 3 darklight shots, and 14 poisoned 3+ shots into the remaining 3 Longfangs, and blew them away for a pain token.

The Terminators failed morale, and fell back 4’’.

Turn 3: Him

Automatically regrouping, the Terminators marched towards the Duke (goody!) With only a Longfang for long-ranged fire support, and blaster-toting Eldar running amuck in midfield, his Grey Hunters leapt out of their Rhinos and made a bee-line for the tiny squads, and after some pistol shots, they crashed into me in melee.

He wiped Trueborn Squad 1, as well as Warrior Squad 2 and 3, and also wrecked a Raider with his Razorback. The Terminators, meanwhile, tripped over difficult terrain in their attempt to charge the Duke, so he sat in the bushes and smiled.

His Massacres netted him 1, 3, 4 (RPriest Squad), and 3(RPriest Squad) inches of movement, which left his Grey Hunters clustered and ready for my vengeance.

Turn 3: Me.

Warrior Squad 4 and 5 arrived.
Trueborn Squad 3 arrived.
Both Razorwings arrived.

I decided I would be eliminating the two Runepriest Grey Hunter squads with Razorwings, and so I deepstruck my new arrivals near the disembarked 10-man Grey Hunter squads, as I still had a Trueborn squad in that area, as well as several Raiders which could lend fire support with darklances. Scatter, as usual, was uneventful – so long as you ensure you have 7-9’’ of clear space in most directions, you’re fairly safe.

In short, targeting the 10-man Grey Hunter squads by the end of my movement, I had:

My missile-emptied Razorwing, which flew over to draw a bead on them.

7 Raiders.

8 Trueborn Blasters.

2 5-man Warrior squads in range with pistol and blaster.

1 Razorwing.

21 darklight weapons, and a few splinter shots to pick off a straggler. Seemed sufficient, at least to annihilate one and cripple another for the following turn.

On the other side of the board, the Razorwings did as expected, and annihilated both Runepriest squads, inflicting around 25-30 wounds on each with missiles, plus a darklance casualty here and there. When the smoke cleared, one Grey Hunter, one Wolfguard, and a Runepriest with 1 wound remaining was left. The other squad, which suffered around 32 wounds, was completely destroyed.

The Duke and his squad approached the Terminators. The Duke fired his blast pistol and blew one Terminator away. The large squad of warriors approached to bring their own blast pistol in range, and unloaded, killing the other 2 uneventfully. With 3 Pain Tokens (one from drugs, one from Longfangs, and one from Terminators), they were Fearless.

Of course, they were also stranded far from the remaining action, but that was fine – they were a scoring unit in his deployment zone, and he was running out of scoring units in mine at a very rapid pace.

As expected, combined fire from the listed units into the 10-man Grey Hunter squads annihilated one completely, and reduced the other one to 5 Marines remaining. 5 Marines, of course, would annihilate 5 Kabalites – but that would be all they’d be annihilating, when I got the chance to return fire. A Trueborn squad got the pain token, for all the good it would do them.

Turn 4: Him

His Grey Hunters lined up a charge on a Kabalite Warrior squad, his Runepriest squad ran screaming into the warm confines of a Rhino, which proceeded to immobilize itself on a mine, and his Razorback downed another Raider.

Turn 4: Me
The Grey Hunters were blown to pieces by my remaining squads firing into them, and my Raiders and Jetfighters began dumping shots into the side and rear armor of his immobilized vehicles, prioritizing the Rhino with the Runepriest and Grey Hunter remnants inside – when it exploded, more darklight was aimed their way, and after the Grey Hunters folded up for a killpoint, a quick lance to the Runepriest’s unprotected face awarded me another. By the bottom of Turn 4, he had one empty, functional Rhino, and one immobilized Rhino. He had completely forgotten about popping smoke – not that it really would have made much difference.

With no scoring units remaining in his army, and with the Duke and his fearless, high-on-pain buddies camping in the corner, I massacred once again.

Mission 3: Tunnels

This mission was against a Green Tide player, who was tied with me for 1st place. Deployment was Dawn of War-like, but no Night Fighting. His army consisted of:

HQ:
Warboss on Bike
Big Mek w/ KFF

TROOPS:
5 x 30 Shoota Boyz
*Nob w/ Powerklaw

ELITE:
3 x 15 Lootas

Primary Objective: Each player places 2 Tunnel Markers, 12’’ away from board edges and 12’’ away from each other. Infantry units in reserve and not embarked in vehicles may elect to emerge from the Tunnels as if they were their own board edge, and may move, run, and shoot normally, but may not assault on the turn they arrive. If the tunnel is blocked by an enemy unit, place the emerging unit in assault with the enemy – the emerging unit counts as charging. If a friendly unit is blocking the tunnel, move the friendly unit the shortest distance possible to give the emerging unit room to arrive. Each tunnel is an objective, and is worth 5 points – controlling all 4 gives you the maximum.

Disinformation: Choose a single one of your opponent’s non-HQ infantry units before your opponent has deployed, or attached HQs to squads. This infantry unit MUST be placed in reserves, and will arrive from the tunnel of your choosing on the turn it arrives.

I chose a squad of Lootas. He chose the Duke’s big squad.

I rolled +1 attack as my drug choice, and I won Turn 1. I chose to give him Turn 1 instead, and after he deployed 2 squads of 30 Boyz, with his Warboss attached to one, trying to gain an early, easy charge by hiding his Bike Boss with 30 ablative wounds, I put all my Raiders into Deepstrike mode, and decided to fly my Razorwings in on Turn 1.

Turn 1: Him

His army marched onto the board, and his Warboss separated and turboboosted 24’’ forward. I guess he assumed it was some kind of tempting bait, and that attacking it would put me at a disadvantage. His Big Mek was attached to a squad of 30 Boyz, and deployed centrally to cover the entire 200-ork mass with the 5+ coversave aura.

He ran everything forward, and his foremost (initially deployed) Ork squads were now pushing fairly deep into my deployment zone.

Turn 1: Me

Razorwing #1 moved forward 12’’ and dropped 4 monoscythe missiles on the Big Mek’s squad, delivering 58 wounds. The squad, needless to say, evaporated, even with cover.

Razorwing #2 and #3 bombed the squads of Orks which had marched on to the board beside the Big Mek’s squad, and eliminated them just as effectively.

To paint a mental picture, there are now 2 stranded Loota squads standing on his board edge, 60 Orks and the Warboss standing near mine, and a big empty zone in the middle.

Turn 2: Him

“You killed 90 Orks in one turn. Do you want to keep going, or should I call it? I’m not really coming back from this – you’re just going to deepstrike in and kill my Lootas, rapid-fire down the one coming in from reserve, and spend the next 4 turns killing me with Blasters and Lances, and you actually have enough of those to kill 60 orks..”

We agreed to call it a massacre.


90 Orks in one shooting phase. I need bigger trophy racks.

The payout was 100 dollars of store credit for 1st, 60 for 2nd, 40 for 3rd, and 20 for 4th. The buy-in was 10 dollars, and we had a turnout of 24 people.

Hope you folks found something in this wall of text interesting. 

Nice reports and grats on winning.

I really liked your first battle. Totally fitting of the Duke to try and duel the Archon then eventually shooting him in the back. Finishes like that are why I play table top strategy games.

Kinda feel bad for the Ork player, DE can really take it to the green tide, especially with 3 Razorwings... ouch.

I feel damn happy to see that the beautiful jetfighter worked so well.

Damn. It feels like Lady Malys should be leading your army instead. I genuinely felt bad for your opponents, and that is no mean feat. Masterful games and a very evocative way of writing them down into a Battle Report. I can't wait to see more.

Veldrith wrote:

Vect, with 3 Shadowfield saves to make, failed his 3rd and final one, and was decapitated.

Obviously a Vect-bot.

The style of play you are using is something I call beta-strike I even wrote some thoughts about it here http://the11thcompany.freeforums.org/beta-strike-the-new-black-t979.html

As in all things there is a counter especially vs your majority deepstrike version force you to go first then reserve everything as it takes your 'beta strike' away when coming on from reserve hug corners and gaps between terrain limiting possibilities I'm not saying it wouldn't be a tough fight but something to be aware of.

Good battle reports and well done at bringing more slaves back to your kabal!

Oh, of course -- and with an enemy army which looks like it may be capable of pulling something like that off effectively, I'd actually decide to start on the table. Beginning the game with my full power may actually be more dangerous for these opponents, depending.

Besides, when you think about it, only the Dark Eldar player would have been able to play a reserve game effectively (and less effectively than me, most likely), as the Ork and SW player both made use of Longfang and Loota squads, which absolutely suck when they have to spend a turn walking onto the board and not firing their missile launchers. At best, that means 3 shooting phases with no missiles or deffguns, assuming they show up on Turn 2.

The reason I wasn't worried about the other Dark Eldar player reserving on me was simple: he paid 240 points for Vect, and as I've played Vect before, I know one of the major draws of biting that bullet of a price tag is the 4+ Seize, designed to take away what an opponent assumes will be Turn 1. When your foe gives you Turn 1, it often perplexes the Vect player.

And if it perplexes them, it means they're simply a Vect-bot.

Great battle reports and congrats on the win. I really found the missions to be interestingly fun too.

I think your last battle has highlighted and undescored the lethality of the razorwings... I think i'm going to have to test one out now. 90 orcs in one turn? sweet mother of commorragh!

Thanks for the write up.

Congrats on the win, well played. Just reading this has given me an insight on how the Dukes low orbit raid works and what I would need to do to counter it in a match up.
Going 2nd certainly helped in those games. Ever thought of taking the Baron to assist in the choice of who goes first or second.

Nice reports!

Is it normal to be able to hit an average of 8 Grey Hunters with four missiles just after they have made an assaut and consolidation?
Or to hit about 15 orks x4 when they have just moved freely over an unoccupied table?

Not to rain on your parade, but thats some lousy movement skills your opponents have...

I usually average around 12-14 wounds on a spread-out Longfang squad with 5 models. He spread out to maximum coherency, but didn't have the movement from his consolidations to make every one of his squads a zig-zagging, max-coherency line. Even then, with BS4, and a large plate, you land a "good" scatter (or none at all) around 75-80% of the time, on top of the normal onboard weaponry. Also, when you scatter small distances on a spread-out squad, you often nail way more than you would have with an On-Target result.

People underestimate how much damage S6 AP5 large blasts do, when you have 4 of 'em landing in the same round of fire. Often, they don't even bother to spread out. Even when they do, you're looking at around 15-25 wounds per airplane, which is enough to eviscerate a Marine squad. Even if I drop 'em down to 2-4 guys remaining, I'm happy -- easy pain tokens.

Where I play, you almost never get more than 3 models on 25mm bases under a large blast if they haven't been in combat with a vehicle.
And with terminator bases that drops to just two.

But from the international gaming I've attended, I've both heard and noticed myself that we are a lot more careful with our movement phases in Sweden than most other places.


But I'm really glad you get such marvellous use for your Razorwings, as I just love the model.

Just stumbled on this, great bat rep!