1750 Lance Dark Eldar vs Jump Pack Blood Angels

Got in a quick game this week vs a friend that changed his army to Blood Angels, so to his defense its his first game playing Blood Angels
(he's not new to 40k by any stretch though).

I had no idea what i would be facing so i decided to try a concept list i was playing with: Dark Lance spam

Dark Eldar
3x Heavy Support: Ravager
. . 1 Ravager, DL + Night Shields

4x Troops: Kabalite Warriors
. . 5 Kabalite Warriors
. . . 1 Venom, + Splinter Cannon

1x Fast Attack: Reavers
. . 6 Reavers, Heat Lance x2 + Cluster Caltrops x2

1x Troops: Wyches
. . 1 Succubus, Agoniser + Haywire Grenades
. . 7 Wyches, Haywire Grenades + Shardnet & Impaler x1
. . . . 1 Hekatrix, Haywire Grenades + Phantasm Grenade Launcher + Agoniser
. . . . 1 Raider, Disintegrator, Enhanced Aethersails

3x Elite: Kabalite Trueborn
. . 3 Kabalite Trueborn, Dark Lance x2
. . . 1 Raider, DL, Night Shields

Blood Angels
: Honour Guard
. . 1 Librarian in Power Armour, + Jump Pack
. . 1 Sanguinary Priest,
. . . . 1 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour,+ Jump Pack
. . 1 Honour Guard, Equip with Jump Packs
. . . . 1 Sanguinary Novitiate,
. . . . 1 Honour Guard, Meltagun x1
. . . . 1 Honour Guard, Meltagun x1
. . . . 1 Honour Guard, Meltagun x1
. . . . 1 Honour Guard, Meltagun x1

Troops: Assault Squad
. . 7 Assault Squad,
. . . . 1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
. . . . 1 Assault Marine with Flamer
. . . . 1 Sergeant, Power Fist x1

Troops: Assault Squad
. . 1 Librarian in Power Armour, Jump Pack
. . 9 Assault Squad, Plasma Pistol + Plasma Pistol
. . . . 1 Sergeant, Power Sword x1 + Storm Shield x1

Troops: Assault Squad
. . 7 Assault Squad,
. . . . 1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
. . . . 1 Assault Marine with Flamer
. . . . 1 Sergeant, Thunder Hammer x1

Vanguard 1-2
. . 1 Sanguinary Priest,
. . . . 1 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour, Jump Pack
. . 1 Vanguard Veteran Squad,
. . . . 1 Sergeant, Jump Pack
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Infernus Pistol x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Power Fist x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Power Fist x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Infernus Pistol x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Hand Flamer x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Hand Flamer x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack + Lightning Claw x1
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack
. . . . 1 Vanguard Veteran, Jump Pack



Mission : The Relic
Deployment : Hammer and Anvil
First turn i game to Blood Angels
Warlord Trait DE : Strategic Genius
Warlord Trait BA : Mastery of Ambush
Combat Drugs : Start with a Pain Token

Deployment:


I deployed for psychological impact, 18 Dark Lance covering the entire table makes you think a little

Turn 1 Blood Angels


Not much to say here, he moved forward and tried to get as much cover as possible.

Turn 1 Dark Eldar


Moved everything to get some Jink saves and managed a few DL kills by calling focus fire on some models i could see sticking out.
The Wych raider moved a little closer.

Turn 2 Blood Angels


No reserves comming in.
He moved 2 assault squads in the canyon with the relic and the other assault squad claimed some much needed cover in the forest.

Turn 2 Dark Eldar


Got every single one of my reserves. They entered from my table edge as i had no reason to Deep Strike anything.

2 Raider, 1 Ravager and 2 Venoms shot at the assault squad hiding in the forest but the 4+ cover save mitigated a lot of the damage.
The Reavers moved up and turbo boosted over the librarian squad, killing 3.
The southern Ravager and Raider shot Dark Lances at the lib squad they could see and killed 2.
The top Ravager could only see 1 assault marine and killed it.
The Wych raider moved flat out on the other side of the canyon.

Turn 3 Blood Angels


He got all his reserves: They all Deep Striked in my deployment zone.

The assault squad at the top of the canyon jumped over the cliff, shot and finished off the Wych raider in assault. I had enough space to get everyone out.
The Librarian assault squad (what was left of it) jumped the cliff and shot at the Reavers, FnP saved all wounds, librarian blood lanced the Reavers but i got all cover saves, they finally killed one in assault.
The honor guard squad in Deep strike shot at and exploded a venom killing 2 Warriors in the process.
The 2 veteran squads in Deep Strike each Assaulted a different target; one managed to destroy a trueborn Raider in assault, exposing the 3 Trueborn inside and the other Glance the Ravager but failed to destroy it.
(He forgot all about his assault squad in the forest)

Turn 3 Dark Eldar


The top Ravager flatted out away from the 2 vet squads.
The other Ravager and Raider moved to get LoS on the top Vet Squad and cover the Flat Out and damaged Ravager
The Bottom Raider and Ravager moved into position to shoot at the Warlord Librarian once they finished the Reavers off.
The top Venom moved a little but stayed behind to cover the Raiders, Ravagers and exposed warriors.
The all Venoms moved in rapid fire range along with the downed Venom Warriors and they all shot at the honor guard wiping them out.
The Trueborn Raider and the ravager shot at the top vet squad only killing 1 while the 3 trueborn killed another. The trueborn then tried to assault the vets but got cut down before they could do anything.
The Wych unit backed away to shoot a little with the succubus missing the grenade and only got 1 kill from the shooting, Overwatch killed 1 Wych and wounded the Succubus. Assault the succubus killed another 2 marines while the Wyches killed 1 and lost 1 themselves.
The assault against the Reavers continued, they lost by 3 but managed morale.

Turn 4 Blood Angels


The 2 veterans squads relocated south, one managed to wreck the venom that stayed behind, while the other exploded a venom killing 2 warriors with it in shooting.
The assault squad from the forest tried to destroy a ravager without success. (don't remember if they did damage to it)
Assault: The top veteran squad lost 1 to Overwatch and then, somehow, the 5 Warriors cut them down, all but 1 died in assault and failed to wound.
The other veteran squad fared better and killed all 3 warriors with no issues.
The assault squad on the Reavers finished them off and consolidated towards the Succubus and the Wyches.
The Succubus and Wyches killed another 2 but lost 2 themselves.

Turn 4 Dark Eldar


Moved all the DL platforms south to try to kill the Librarian Warlord and his unit before they join the Assault.
The Storm shield marine ended up needing all 12 dark lances to take down...
The rest of the units in range of the vet shot and killed the 3 remaining veterans.
Succubus and Wyches Assault failed to killed anything on both sides
The 5 Warriors finished off the last Veteran before he could strike.

Turn 5 Blood Angels


The assault squad moved to the raider/ravager cluster and only managed 1 glancing blow on a raider and nothing else. the Librarian and the rest of his squad charged in the Wyches killing the Hekatrix and another Wych and loosing the Librarian and Sanguinary priest in return

Turn 5 Dark Eldar


I moved everything to go claim the relic. All ravagers and DL raiders finished off the assault squad in the back.
Assault continued with the Succubus killing 1 Marine and inflicting 1 wound to the Librarian, succubus took 1 wound in return.

Roll to see if game ends - continued

Turn 6 Blood Angels


Not much left here, Librarian killed himself in a Perils of the Warp check and the one lone assault marine survived the assault.

Turn 6 Dark Eldar


Disembarked Warriors to claim relic and finished the last marine in assault.

Victory Dark Eldar

Final Score - DE 5 (Slay the Warlord, The Relic, Linebreaker) BA 1 (First Blood)

MVP for Dark Eldar has to be those 5 warriors taking on a Vet squad and winning.
Truthfully, i was impressed at how cost effective the Succubus ended up being. It doesn't kill a lot but for the points it's a great way to make a Wych unit pack a punch and last long enough to deal some damage.

LVP was my Reavers but that was my own fault for forgetting that jump troops could reach them.

Not much more to say on this game, my opponent made a few too many mistakes and luck was mostly on my side.

Enjoy

WOW, Way to pick them apart! Well Done! It's always nice to see how well the Succubus plays, whenever I take her along she always shines, especially give her cheap cost.

Great game, thank you for sharing (I have added the report to the sticky).

Love the succubi, they always do well for me.

Nice report and well played.

Excellent report, and well won. The best flavour of marines are those that want to get close and assault us! I'm not that familiar with the BA list, but it could have done with some shooty units. Your tactics seemed nice and sound - staying on the transports and waiting for them to come at you.

I think the 'MVP' (Moment of Vacuous Pointlessness?? ) was actually the wych squad + succubus dealing with all those marines & both librarians.

You said the BA player made some mistakes, can you say what those were? How could he have played better?

And how did you find the 'lanceborn'? Would the more usual 'blasterborn' have been a better investment?

Thank you for reading all my questions!!

Squierboy wrote:

Excellent report, and well won. The best flavour of marines are those that want to get close and assault us! I'm not that familiar with the BA list, but it could have done with some shooty units. Your tactics seemed nice and sound - staying on the transports and waiting for them to come at you.

I think the 'MVP' (Moment of Vacuous Pointlessness?? ) was actually the wych squad + succubus dealing with all those marines & both librarians.

You said the BA player made some mistakes, can you say what those were? How could he have played better?

And how did you find the 'lanceborn'? Would the more usual 'blasterborn' have been a better investment?

Thank you for reading all my questions!!

The real MVP was truly that Wych squad; do keep in mind that what really made them that tough was that they started with FnP due to a 6 on Drugs. I had to give it to the 5 warrior team as a joke just because taking on 5 BA vets and not loosing a single one of them is one of those moments where your opponent goes WTF.

His mistakes were as follow:

1- He could have reserved that extra assault squad on top and deep striked it with the 3 other to help them.
2 - He also forgot that squad on a turn where he could have probably killed a ravager or raider.
3 - He split his forces sending single squads against different units while i kept my forces together and made sure that what i shot at was dead.
4 - He went after the Wych unit, that unit was there to tarpit or delay while the real danger (the 18 dark lances) picked entire squads apart.
5 - He did not bring enough AT
6 - While this is not his fault, he had no answer for the sheer amount of str 8 ap2 shots in my list.
7 - He deployed too far away he should have deployed as close as possible.

As for the Lanceborn, alone they would have fared poorly but since this was an MSU list and the lances came from 6 different targets it made them very effective. If i had to modify the list i would add a 2nd Wych unit and trade a lanceborn squad for a Razorwing.

nalfen wrote:

7 - He deployed too far away he should have deployed as close as possible.

I think this was the killer. A great game none the less.

nalfen wrote:

The real MVP was truly that Wych squad; do keep in mind that what really made them that tough was that they started with FnP due to a 6 on Drugs. I had to give it to the 5 warrior team as a joke just because taking on 5 BA vets and not loosing a single one of them is one of those moments where your opponent goes WTF.

His mistakes were as follow:

1- He could have reserved that extra assault squad on top and deep striked it with the 3 other to help them.
2 - He also forgot that squad on a turn where he could have probably killed a ravager or raider.
3 - He split his forces sending single squads against different units while i kept my forces together and made sure that what i shot at was dead.
4 - He went after the Wych unit, that unit was there to tarpit or delay while the real danger (the 18 dark lances) picked entire squads apart.
5 - He did not bring enough AT
6 - While this is not his fault, he had no answer for the sheer amount of str 8 ap2 shots in my list.
7 - He deployed too far away he should have deployed as close as possible.

As for the Lanceborn, alone they would have fared poorly but since this was an MSU list and the lances came from 6 different targets it made them very effective. If i had to modify the list i would add a 2nd Wych unit and trade a lanceborn squad for a Razorwing.

Yep, I felt pretty sorry for him when the warriors battered the veterans!

Thanks for the summary of mistakes, sometimes it can be difficult to spot errors from a report that are glaringly obvious while actually playing the game.

This sure shows that wyches and succubi are much safer in melee than out in the open
Enjoy your victory, and fire those reavers!!