BR10: The Black Buzzards VS SM Salamanders - 1500pts

Finally got round to having a game against Salamanders the other day (sorry about the wait).

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade
Succubus, venom blade

TROOPS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 blasters, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 blasters, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 blasters, arena champion, venom blade

HEAVY SUPPORT
Talos, twin-linked liquifier gun, twin-linked haywire
Talos, twin-linked liquifier gun, twin-linked haywire

Salamanders (SM)

HQ
Vulkan

ELITE
10 Sternguard, 4 combi melta
Drop pod
10 Sternguard, 4 combi melta
Drop pod

TROOPS
10 Marines, flamer, multimelta
Drop pod
10 Marines, flamer, multimelta
Drop pod

FAST
Land speeder, heavy flamer, multimelta
Land speeder, heavy flamer, multimelta
Land speeder, heavy flamer, multimelta

HEAVY
Thunder fire cannon

The scenario:
The mission was Big Guns Never Tire using Vanguard Strike deployment. No night fight on the first turn. Warlord powers: Master of the Vanguard (all friendly units within 12", roll an extra dice when they run and pick the highest), my opponent rolled: Strategic genius (re-roll reserve rolls). I lost the roll off and my opponent decided to go first. For combat drugs I rolled Hypex (roll 3 dice pick the highest when running). There where three objective (represented by the shields).

Deployment:
I kept one reaver gang in reserve and then castled up as best I could to prevent Vulkan from using his twin-linked heavy flamer and to prevent the reavers from being rapid fired. My opponent set up his scoring Thunderfire in a fortified ruin, and spread his speeders out so that they threatened a large area.


Turn 1(SM):
The first wave of drop pods came crashing down unloading the four combat squads of sternguard commanded by Vulkan. They unleashed a deadly hail of rapid fire hellfire rounds inflicting two wounds on one of the Talos and a single wound on the other. The Landspeeders moved up and fired at the talos with one wound but they both failed to wound him. The thunderfire cannon fired four cover ignoring rounds that landed on the wych squad, one hit and three only scattered 1"! Six hits that ignored cover and armour killing five wyches. The two drop pods fired their storm bolters and killed another two wyches, fortunately they passed their moral test.


Turn 1(DE):
A raider killed three of vulkans sternguard, and the Talos with two wounds used his liquifier to finish the job, granting him a pain token (AP1 twin linked liquifier). The second Talos rolled AP3 and liquified another sternguard squad, no survivors (I'm in love with Pain Engines already) earning him a pain token. The second raider killed two marines, and the wyches charged (not shooting as they were hoping to stay in combat). Both reaver squads shot at Vulkan, only removing a single wound (truly the forge farther is a man of ceramite!). The small unit of wyches made its charge against the marines losing two wounds to over watch (killing the hekatrix, and reducing the succubus to 2 wounds). Assault saw the lone succubus win combat by one, and the other squad of wyches wiped out the sternguard earning them a pain token, they then tried to consolidate as best they could away from the landspeeder.


Turn 2 (SM):
The landspeeder moved up and BBQed five wyches, the other landspeeder shot at the Talos with one wound, but it managed to make it's cover save. The two remaining pods managed to thread the needle and end up behind the dark eldar force. Destroying both raiders, the explosion killing a wych. The first squad's flamer and bolters killed eight reavers including all three blasters (leaving the arena champion standing). The second squad's flamer and bolters killed seven reavers including all three blasters. Twin linked flamers hurt. The thunderfire fired four cover ignoring blasts one blast killing another reaver. The rest scattering onto the marines harmlessly. The drop pods killed a wych. Vulkan charged the Talos with two wounds, overwatch failed to hurt him, but he didn't manage to hurt the talos, the talos rolled five for attacks so I opted for three smash attacks, one hit, one wound one failed save SPLAT! The succubus killed a marine and lost a wound drawing combat.


Turn 2 (DE):
The surviving reavers turbo boosted towards the Tunderfire. The reavers in reserve came on and managed to strip two hull points off a speeder wrecking it, whilst remaining out of line of sight of the thunderfire cannon. The Vulkan Slayer proceeded to liquify another squad of marines (AP1, mwhahahah!). The other Talos killed one marine with his liquifier (AP6), and charged the survivors, he killed four more marines in combat. The wyches killed one marine with shooting and managed to charge, the flamer on overwatch killing the hekatrix, the succubus killed a marine and didn't take any wounds in return thanks to FNP. The other succubus killed a veteran.


Turn 3 (SM):
All three twinlinked multimeltas fired at the Vulkan Slayer but failed to wound him thanks to his 4+ cover save (ruin area terrain) and FNP. The drop pods also fired but to no effect. The thunder fire cannon fired airburst rounds at the reavers and despite them all scattering, two of managed to compensate enough from BS, killing the squad. In close combat the talos slaughtered the last marine. The succubus killed the last two veterans and consolidated towards the ruin. The warlord succubus' combat was fruitless on both sides.


Turn 3 (DE):
The Talos liquified the tactical squad but only killed one marine (AP5), he then failed the charge but over watch was ineffective. The other talos hit a speeder with his haywireblaster but rolled a one, fortunately he managed to charge it, the hammer of wrath stunned it and the three auto penetrating smash attacks finished it off. The reaver squad used its blasters to finish off the last landspeeder. The lone reaver rapid fired at the Thunderfire cannon, inflicting one wound (go poison). The succubus on the left charged the tactical squad only taking one hit from the flamer and saving it with FNP. She killed two marines, who in turn failed to hurt her. The Warlords succubus took a wound, but passed her moral test.


Turn 4 (SM):
The thunderfire fired at the reavers killing two. The succubus on the left killed the last marines. The warlord succubus on the right killed a single marine. A pod fired at the reavers, and the rest fired at the talos failing to hurt either.


Turn 4 (DE):
The succubus ran into the ruin (I knew rolling 4 dice with run would be useful). The Vulkan Slayer fired and charged the pod near the objective, destroying it. The other Talos charged another pod destroying it. The reavers killed the gun and the techmarine (who were scoring). The warlord succubus' combat was uneventful. The Salamanders concede, Dark Eldar victory!


DE 6 (one objectives, kill the warlord, line breaker, first blood) SM 1 (line breaker)

Conclusion

That was a very brutal game, felt a bit like Storm of Magic with templates flying everywhere. My deployment initially kept me safe, but I was careless when I moved my reavers giving him space to thread the needle with his pods (to be honest none of his pods scattered)!

The Taloi proved fantastic, they seem a lot better in 6th with their improved charge range and ability to shrug off over watch, and hammer of wrath. Twinlinked liquifiers are just hilariously good. Not to mention their ability to tank fire like champions as long as they are in cover, despite 2+ poison shots coming their way. Of course this was against an aggressive army that came to me, I'm not sure how well they would do against a more passive army. That being said they allowed me to play defensively which was a real life saver in this game.

I didn't really get a feel for the blasters (on the reavers) or the haywire blasters as my opponent didn't have much armour.

As per usual all my wyches died, but the succubi carried their weight. All in all a fun game.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

WOW, that was hard fought! Glad the Talos worked out so well for you, seems like you were right about having an enemy who moves toward you being a big plus! Keep up the good work Mush

Congrats on another victory Mushkilla, Loving the Battle reports, big fan .
Lets see if you can make the Talos a popular as your reaver squads

who is your next victim/ opponent ??

Thanks for the support guys.

I think what people miss out on with the Talos. Is yes it's slow, but it's also a great area denial unit, and I think that gives it a lot more potential then people give it credit for.

I'm not sure when/who my next game will be against yet.

Great report there, i was on the edge of my seat when i saw all those reavers burnt thinking mushkilla has finally met his match, but not so! I'd also like to put in a surggestion of a daemon prince of tzeench/lord of change/any flying MC heavy army because i just carnt touch them with there ability to shoot multiple targets, making MSU pointless.

I thought Hypex had no effect on the game. Its in the FAQ i think, or have i made a mistake?

alexwellace wrote:

I thought Hypex had no effect on the game. Its in the FAQ i think, or have i made a mistake?

It has no effect on reavers as they can't run. But it does affect wyches making them a bit more mobile, it's still pretty bad compared to the other drugs, hence why people say it might as well have no effect.

I believe it's safe to say you've sold me on putting a Talos into my army. In swapping out the wracks for for wyches, I found I was short of offensive linemen. Also, I really like the model.

Great work as ever. I think your batreps are one of he major influences on getting me to play DE.

Bookkeeper wrote:

I believe it's safe to say you've sold me on putting a Talos into my army. In swapping out the wracks for for wyches, I found I was short of offensive linemen. Also, I really like the model.

Well my wyches do die a lot to be honest, it's the succubi that do most of the work. At some point I will experiment with other troops. I'm really liking the Taloi though, they really attract fire like no tomorrow and rightfully so. I think they work because fielding them doesn't detract from my AT as I don't run ravagers (so bare that in mind). But like I said this was a very static game, I'm curious how they will fare against more mobile armies. Personally I'm not that impress with haywire blaster and I think the heatlance has more synergy in terms of where the Talos wants to be (not bad for killing an extra marine/terminator either), it also means you can use your run move to make them a bit more mobile .

Bookkeeper wrote:

Great work as ever. I think your batreps are one of he major influences on getting me to play DE.

That's great to hear it! Dark Eldar are a wonderful army to paint and play, there are just so many options.

I really enjoy your battlereports and am impressed with your win ratio. I suspected at one point that you simply do not upload the battles you lose

Compared to my own your lists are a bit unorthodox (I only own 6 reavers in total) but I guess the diversity of the DE are one of their strenghs...

I learn alot from reading your reports and its a real pleasure when you try something different, like the two taloi. They performed admirably!

Keep the souls flowing. Commorragh is allways hungry.... (aka. happy hunting)

Fantastic.

Now, were is my article?!

On another note, loved the use of your taloi. Makes me really want to get mine all painted up.

@Jehoel: En Dansker kan aldrig tabe! (I think at the moment I'm just having the same luck the Danish Football team had in 1992)

Skari wrote:

Fantastic.

Now, were is my article?!

Sent you a pm about it, it should be done by the end of the weekend! (hopefully chaos is filling the gaping void where my article is supposed to be).

Another impressive win! As alexwellace already said, I thought you were done for when the Marines started dropping and I was very impressed to see you still pull a win Very nice to see you get the talosi to work, as you said it would be interesting to see it against more mobile / long distance opposition.

One thing though; Don't apologize for being late with reports we like them a lot, but you shouldn't feel obliged to produce them for our sakes (I know how much time it takes!). That said, thanks again for another great and interesting report.

nice deployment by your side, even though the thunder fire cannon was a big threat.
indeed you could play a little more safe to avoid the next drop pods which dealt so much damage. tbh i thought you were done there hehe

i really like the taloi, i must agree on your opinion about haywire blaster, since you wouldn't avoid shots from a glanced vehicle anymore. but they were put in use from the first turn (th army and play of your opponent helped in this) and were the mvps. but am not sure how would they perform if you had to reach the enemy deployment zone (they would still be great, but maybe they would join the battle too late)

we can only get heat lances in so few units, and you play them, get rid of those silly blasters

i am also concerned about only having two troops, in two of the missions you get to have more scoring units, but still...

If you had that game over again would you change the way you played it at all, or adapt your list?

Can you see the talos being useful against the other army lists you have fought? SW, GK, guard, necrons where you needed that early fast threat maximisation to get on top.

The talos seemed very ideally suited against that drop list. Whereas that list seemed to bring a hard counter to your reavers, fast mobile cover save ignoring alpha striking flame templates.

Great read, very exciting, my jaw hit the floor when both your reaver units got toasted, but those talos kept on roasting. When you have to use wyches to bubble wrap your reavers you know its gonna be a tough day.

First I wanna say: thanks for all battle reports.
The reports are very nicely too read!!

Seems the Talos is very handy agains armies that are attacking you by droppods/fast troops.
Looks like 2 Talos kills like 50% of the enemy troops in this battle report.

You have a fast army and Talos are slow/short range. Agains Tau they seems kinda less usefull.
On the other hand Talos are low in point cost and could be in some battle be game winners.
Play more battle too see if the unit fit's in you army/playing style.

Setomidor wrote:

as you said it would be interesting to see it against more mobile / long distance opposition.

Yes this would be the next step. They have proved they can take a beating (even against 2+ poison weapons) so the next step is to see how they will perform against a less aggressive opponent.

Setomidor wrote:

One thing though; Don't apologize for being late with reports

I think it was as much an apology to myself as it was to everyone else, I do really enjoy making these and the discussion they generate.

cegorach wrote:

nice deployment by your side, even though the thunder fire cannon was a big threat.

Thanks, deployment is really important when fighting armies like that. As for the thunderfire cannon those things are impressive, fortunately I managed to get my reavers out of it's 60" range, but the thing was on top of a tower and could draw a line onto almost anything and had cover ignoring templates Not the easiest thing to take out either as the techmarine is no slouch in combat and in a Vulkan list has a twin-linked flamer.

cegorach wrote:

i really like the taloi, i must agree on your opinion about haywire blaster... but am not sure how would they perform if you had to reach the enemy deployment zone (they would still be great, but maybe they would join the battle too late)

My problem with haywire blasters is I never felt I could justify using them, as I would be sacrificing a run move for a 62% chance to take out a single hull point. As for a more mobile opponent I don't think the Talos need to reach my opponents deployment zone. They are area denial units, and they attract a ridiculous amount of fire. They sort of come back to the whole concept of contesting/area denial, a Talos may be slow but objectives don't move, and it's hard to push a Talos off an objective (the objective also makes your opponent come to you). At least that's the theory how it will play out in practice is anyone's guess.

cegorach wrote:

we can only get heat lances in so few units, and you play them, get rid of those silly blasters

If ceremite plating didn't exist I would probably not have considers the blaster/haywire blaster, but unfortunately it does.

cegorach wrote:

i am also concerned about only having two troops, in two of the missions you get to have more scoring units, but still...

Yes, this is a problem, and is something I need to look into.

Steffo wrote:

If you had that game over again would you change the way you played it at all, or adapt your list?

I would have played the same except I would have not carelessly left a space for his drop pods to land behind me, I mean I should have just used the reavers assault move to spread them out and block any pods (a very silly move that almost cost me the game). List wise I felt my list was adequate enough, but still has some issues (mainly lack of troops).

Steffo wrote:

Can you see the talos being useful against the other army lists you have fought? SW, GK, guard, necrons where you needed that early fast threat maximisation to get on top.

Yes I think they would have, as they present a slow yet very real threat. They would have been great against the GK, forcing them to stay mobile, against necrons they could have just camped ojectives and against space wolves they could have contested the mid field. I do see a lot of potential and they would suck up a lot of the higher strength shots that normally get sent at the reavers to ignore FNP.

Steffo wrote:

The talos seemed very ideally suited against that drop list. Whereas that list seemed to bring a hard counter to your reavers, fast mobile cover save ignoring alpha striking flame templates.

This is the dynamic I'm most interested in, the Taloi let me play defensively if need be, and also let me hold ground, which reavers can have a tough time doing as they depend on never being in one place for too long for their survivability.

Steffo wrote:

When you have to use wyches to bubble wrap your reavers you know its gonna be a tough day.

Hehe, so true, I think that's might even be signature worthy.

27 T4+ 3+ and 2 T7 Monsters =)

So much for the Dark Eldar squishines. I can well imagine your opponents face when you keep rolling those saves. Was very entertaining, thanks a lot.

By the way - with what soft do your create those battle reports? Is it vassal?

It semms really really visually apealing.

Azdrubael wrote:

I can well imagine your opponents face when you keep rolling those saves. Was very entertaining, thanks a lot.

Glad you enjoyed the report. At the end of the game he did comment on how disgusting twin-linked liquifiers were for five points.

Azdrubael wrote:

By the way - with what soft do your create those battle reports? Is it vassal?

It's called Battle Chronicler, it's free and easy to use. It's a lot more user friendly/visually appealing than vassal but less precise and can't be used to actually play games (so perfect for making reports).

Nice bat rep again. Thanks for the good reads.

Can't contribute anything new other than what you already heard.

The 2 constantly dying squads of Wyches worries me, as they are your only scoring units in the other missions. You were lucky with guns never tire this time. Made the taloi scoring.

The room you left for the other 2 droppods almost cost you the game indeed (I actually thought you were done at that point). However, how would you play otherwise? I think it's difficult with an army that droppods half of his forces.So you are allowed a mistake in this situation and you fought back well after that incident.

I think this opponent could've made it harder for you by dropping marines on his own objectives to be honest. He was blindly coming for you (perhaps forgetting the objectives?). Which ofcourse is clever on your side. You waited for him this time (while normally you are more aggresive yourself). So you adapted to your opponent. Kudos on that.

I hope to see you against IG in the nearby future with lots of flyers, tanks and blobs of guardsmen. I wonder how that goes.

Great report man! Love to see unconventional lists working out! I think it would be interesting to see your list go head-to-head with a more traditional Dark Eldar list, such as the one I run at 1500 (5 venoms, 2 raiders, 2 ravagers, voidraven, trueborn, warriors, and wyches).

Thanks guys.

tlronin wrote:

The 2 constantly dying squads of Wyches worries me, as they are your only scoring units in the other missions.

Indeed in 1/2 of the missions I don't really have adequate scoring unit (not sure how relevant they are in the relic mission), so maybe that's 1/3 mission. Still it is a problem as they are dying too quickly. I'm going to start experimenting with reserving my raider/wyches as the raiders are the easiest way to get first blood out of my army, and by reserving them I should be able to deny first blood to my opponent whilst at the same time keeping my troops alive.

tlronin wrote:

The room you left for the other 2 droppods almost cost you the game indeed (I actually thought you were done at that point). However, how would you play otherwise?

I think I could have used my jetbike assault move to spread out. That would have at least forced his pods to land on the other side of my raider wall.

tlronin wrote:

I think this opponent could've made it harder for you by dropping marines on his own objectives to be honest. He was blindly coming for you (perhaps forgetting the objectives?).

I talked to him after the game and he said the difficulty was that his army had limited mobility (aside from the initial strategic mobility granted by pods), and it really hinged on that punch from the drop pod alpha strike. Not to mention with two scoring taloi, he would have a hard time pushing them off objectives once they got entrenched. The Blaster also meant my reavers could outmanoeuvre his landspeeders. So he decided to go all or nothing.

tlronin wrote:

I hope to see you against IG in the nearby future with lots of flyers, tanks and blobs of guardsmen. I wonder how that goes.

I don't think my next game will be against IG (it's looking like Eldar at the moment). But I'll try to make sure the game after that is.

Flayed_Heart_Kabal wrote:

Great report man! Love to see unconventional lists working out! I think it would be interesting to see your list go head-to-head with a more traditional Dark Eldar list, such as the one I run at 1500 (5 venoms, 2 raiders, 2 ravagers, voidraven, trueborn, warriors, and wyches).

It would, I'll have to see if I can arrange that.