Crucible of War

Hi all!

Sometime this week, as part of a currently-running in-store campaign, my Dark Eldar will be attacking an ork fort of some kind. The mission being played comes from the 6th Ed rulebook, towards the back, where the special missions are found. In short, my entire army will move onto the table turn 1, and attempt to kill everything that moves.

What I'm taking: (1500 points)
Duke Sliscus
7 Wyches w/ heywire grens
Haemonulus w/ liquifier
All in a raider with dissie and flickerfield

10 Wyches with all the trimings, in a bare-bones raider (x2)

5 Scourges w/carbines all

3 Beastmasters driving a small herd of 15 khymerae

3 Ravagers, all with triple-lances and nightshields


I expect to encounter more Lootas than you can shake a stick at, a looted wagon or two, and a massive "nob blob" (Boss, painboy, a dozen Nobs... all with cybork bodies) that has become a pain in the butt for everyone in our local group.

I am assuming that the orks will castle up in their base, which is a primary objective worth 3 points ( it sits in the middle fo a 6x4 table, can only be won by having an infantry unit spent a whole turn in contact with it... can't otherwise be targeted). So, I was thinking about hanging back with almost everything, drawing him out to come get me, then while the base is undermanned (under-orked?) swoop around and nuke the joint. The beasts will run around and act as a distraction.

Rushing headlong towards the fort without thining out the resistance first - I can only see that ending in disaster.

Thoughts?

interesting list. I am curious to see how it turns out.

Thread moved to Army Lists

*Takes mod hat off*

Now. I think the list will do decently. My one complaint is that those 5 scourges really arent going to do much of anything. I would probably take them out and upgrade your beastmasters more (also add some razorwings in there, they are the real damage dealers)

How should one upgrade the beastmasters when its the monsters they're driving who will inflict the majority of thedamage?

You dont. They have one atack each max, thats not worth of any upgrade. I would also think about taking some Razorwing Flock, as rending atacks can really matter with Killa Kans and generally they are Damage Dealers of the unit.

I dont mean give them an upgrade, I ment get more of them, and get some flocks as well. They are really what puts out the damage in the squad

Well... I lost the game, although it was very close. Why, in retrospect did I loose, and what lessons can we learn from it?

Firstly, I would like to point out that I killed nearly every ork thing that there was - truk, battle wagon, mega dred, even the dreaded nob blob mentioned earlier. But therein lies my biggest mistake - I ended up engaging the nobs because I arrogantly thought (in typical Dark Eldar fasion, perhaps?) that 20 wyches could handle 10 nobs, a painboy, and a tooled warboss. I was wrong. They whittled it down, but it was only the khymerea herd that finally killed it. And by the time that was over, I didn't have enough "infantry" left to effectively complete the mission of blowing up the ork HQ.

What cost me the game in fact, was that I even engaged the opponent's "death star" unit in the first place. I should have used my mobility to go to the opposite side of the table in a raider-born hail-mary, and left it a alone. Instead I got sidetracked.

Perhaps there's a a lesson for all of us there: if the enemy is putting many eggs in one basket, avoid the obvious temptation to smash that basket.

Here's a revised 1500-point attack force, based largely on what worked and what didn't work the first time around.

Duke Sliscus
7 Wyches w/ heywire grens
Haemonulus w/ liquifier
All in a raider with dissie and flickerfield

5 Wyches: heywire grens, 1 model w/ a guantlet - venom w/ xtra cannon (x4)

4 Beastmasters driving a small herd of 15 khymerae, and 1 razorwing flock

3 Ravagers, all with triple-lances and nightshields


The idea is now to simply go around melee deathstar units and instead innundate the field with numerous small targets.

thoughts?