BR14: The Black Buzzards VS DE The Sky Serpent - 1500pts

Another Dark Eldar Civil War! Unfortunately I still didn't have access to a windows machine at the time so I had to use Vassel again for the report. Sorry this took so long to put up Sky, you know how it is rewriting the events, changing a few important facts here and there.

The armies:

Black Buzzards (BUZ)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade, haywire

TROOPS
9 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, Sails, NS
20 warriors, syberite, 2 dark lances
20 warriors, syberite, 2 dark lances

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

This list was a bit of an experiment with large warrior blobs and infantry saturation, as well as hopefully making it very hard to give away the first blood victory point.

Sky's Dark Eldar (SKY)

HQ
Duke

ELITE
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, additional Splinter cannon
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, additional Splinter cannon

TROOPS
5 Wyches, Haywire grenades
Raider
5 Wyches, Haywire grenades
Raider
9 Kabalite Warriors
Raider, Enhanced aethersails, Splinter racks
9 Kabalite Warriors
Raider, Splinter racks
5 Kabalite Warriors
Venom, additional Splinter cannon

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager
Razorwing
Razorwing


Mission: The Emperor's Will
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night fight on first turn: Yes
First turn: SKY
Warlord Trait BUZ: Divide to Conquer (-1 reserves)
Warlord Trait SKY: Strategic Genius (re-roll reserves)
Drugs BUZ: Painbringer (re-roll to wound)
Drugs SKY: Splintermind (pain token)

Deployment:

Sky spread out his forces to cover the whole board. I deployed a warrior squad in the middle of the board so that their lances had good coverage. Another warrior squad on the right by the objective (in ruins), some reavers were deployed behind them in the ruins so that they would give cover to the reavers behind them. In hind sight this was a blunder that could have been exploited, the reavers at the back only having a 5+ cover save! The final reaver squad was deployed on the right in the ruins. The succubus and her wyches were kept in reserve.

Turn 1 (SKY):

The right half of Sky's army fired at the warriors, but only managed to kill four due to their 4+ cover saves. The rest of the army fired at the reavers killing three. So far so good my army had not given away first blood! Unfortunately the six surviving reavers rolled a 10 for their leadership test and promptly ran off the board. First blood to Sky!

Turn 1 (BUZ):

The reavers turbo boosted forward. It was at this point I realised a flaw in the list, it forced me to split my forces, and we all saw how well that worked against Shadows Revenge in my last Dark Eldar game. The warriors fired their four lances and took a single hull point off a warrior raider, damn those 5+ jink saves!

Turn 2 (SKY):

Despite Sky's reserves coming in on a 4+ re-roll-able neither of his razorwings showed up. His forces repositioned everything firing into the exposed reaver squad which was promptly annihilated. Two reavers from the other squad also died. He moved his wyches forward to bait the remaining reavers.

Turn 2 (BUZ):

By this point I was fast running out of options. I could dance around with the remaining reavers trying to keep them alive, or I could try and take out the wyches and get a pain token. Taking into account the amount of short range blasters in Sky's list I probably should have withdrawn as FNP would only give me the illusion of survivability. But their was a hope that the wyches would stay locked in combat, so the reavers took out the raider and charged the surviving wych (unfortunately the explosion killed most of the wyches, and even took out a reaver!), the reavers quickly cut them down earning them a pain token but leaving them exposed. The succubus and her raider moved flat out for the objective. In hindsight I should have reunited my splintered forces by turbo boosting the reavers to join the succubus' raider (or vice/versa). The central warriors spread out, without the lances moving, the four dark lances managed to wreck a single raider.

Turn 3 (SKY):

A single razorwing came on and fired at the warriors, who went to ground, none died thanks to their 2+ cover save (we had decided that area terrain and ruins would give you a 2+ cover save, 4+ ruins, +2 when going to ground because of area terrain). The venoms and blaster born slaughtered the exposed reavers, and lance fire took down the succubus' raider. The survivors went to ground in order to survive the retaliation splinter fire directed at them.

Turn 3 (BUZ):

With only static or pinned elements left in my force there wasn't much left for me to do. Dark Lances were ineffective yet again mainly due to jink saves being passed (two at full BS, two snap firing).

Turn 4 (SKY):

Finally the second raizorwing came on. Sky's remaining wych raider rushed forward to get into position to claim line breaker. Splinter fire and Monoscyth were hurled and the warriors and the wyches near the objectives, they survived a heinous amount of fire (as they had gone to ground).

Turn 4 (BUZ):

Again not much to do here, lance fire was again ineffective.

Turn 5 (SKY):

Sky's wyches disembarked for line breaker. The succubus evaporated to splinter fire, his warriors made their run move to control the objective. More monosycth missiles pored into the warriors and the duke rushed over to charge them off the objective.

Turn 5 (BUZ):

Not much to do but snapfire some shots and hope the game ends before Sky can contest my objective.

Turn 6 (SKY):

The game didn't end. Splinter fire killed a lot of the central warriors, the duke charged warriors on the objective, my sybarite challenged him. The duke won combat (as his warriors were fighting at initiative because I had gone to ground). The Duke however failed to catch the warriors, and they fell back three inches.

Turn 6 (BUZ):

The warriors rallied. and all the warriors fired into the dukes squad killing one or two (snapfire).

The game still didn't end so I conceded.

SR VPs: Over 9000! BUZ VPs: 0 (Conceded)

Conclusion

A brutal game right to the end, that was a lot of fun against a great opponent. Thanks Sky!

Warrior blobs are interesting but very static, especially if you give them lances, and this didn't synergies well with my force. Though they are surprisingly tough if they can go to ground for a 2+ cover save, aegis defence line anyone?

My list still suffers from long range massed anti infantry fire (venoms and their 48" threat range), and not being able to have enough armour saturation.

On the bright side my last two games against Dark Eldar have been real eye openers, and despite both being massive deployment and list blunders I have learnt a lot, and may even have found a solution...

Hope you enjoyed the report!

Great report, another harsh match up! Going second again didn't help though, perhaps this list relies too much on going 1st?

Your Reavers are usually such a thorn in the side of your opponents, but against this kind of DE mech force they really seem to have a hard time doing anything (unlucky morale checks accepted)...you may have to compromise on taking 3 full units (heresy!!).

I remember taking those kind of warrior squads back in 4th edition & being frustrated by their general ability to do very little in the shooting phase, but they are quite good for camping objectives. Perhaps taking only one squad would have been enough for that.

Overall maybe the old refused flank attack would have served you better, but I still think it would have been an uphill struggle however you played because of all that vehicle mounted anti-infantry shooting combined with your own lack of long-ranged anti-tank shooting.

Always sorry to see a defeat, but I guess you learn the most from them!

Squierboy wrote:

Great report, another harsh match up! Going second again didn't help though, perhaps this list relies too much on going 1st?

I am considering a force with a blob of warriors and a defence line with a relay and running the reavers from reserve so going first isn't as important. I would have to model it as hover seating for rich nobles and their kabal bodyguards to come watch the death race.

Squierboy wrote:

you may have to compromise on taking 3 full units (heresy!!).

Shadows Revenge has been advising me to do this for a while, but I'm not giving up just yet. Sometimes you just need to weather the storm.

Squierboy wrote:

I remember taking those kind of warrior squads back in 4th edition & being frustrated by their general ability to do very little in the shooting phase, but they are quite good for camping objectives. Perhaps taking only one squad would have been enough for that.

At least in the old dex you could have two lances for ten warriors for less. The lances were there to crack open transports to leave target for the reavers to bladevane.

Squierboy wrote:

Overall maybe the old refused flank attack would have served you better, but I still think it would have been an uphill struggle however you played because of all that vehicle mounted anti-infantry shooting combined with your own lack of long-ranged anti-tank shooting.

Agreed, if I had a force with about 3-4 raiders/ravagers I would have been able to use them to hide the reavers from line of sight, and if I had deployed them in a corner (refused flank), Sky would have at most been able to get 4 dark lance shots on them, and the reavers would have been safe from splinter fire. Not to mention you can keep raiders on their stands when they are wrecked keeping them around as LoS blocking terrain.

Squierboy wrote:

Always sorry to see a defeat, but I guess you learn the most from them!

Despite the two last games being massacres I have learn't a lot from them. Besides after a "montage" I'll come back better than ever...

*eye of the tiger starts playing in the background*

Great report I've read alll of yours and they have and always will be full of useful information and great strategies for playing. I think from this game you might have learned how survivable the warriors are when in cover such as those ruins or as you mentioned above an aegis defence line. Something I think worth pointing out is that warrior blobs are not useful for getting dark lance fire, it works better to take a few small 3 man units of trueborn with 2 lances on each, you get 6 lances out of them for a minimalistic approach on points and so long as you have them planted in cover of like ruins then opponents find themselves with a tough decision, should they waste enough fire to kill them as they are pretty survivable when in cover or should they ignore them because it would be a waste of time to dedicate much fire to a 3 man squad that cant even score

I like one blob of warriors with SC to sit on an objective in cover from the start. Anything that comes near gets blasted with a ton of poison shots. It is weak against armor but usually you have more appealing targets for their armor.
Of course, I usually start the Duke with them so they have 3+ poison, as well, so that may jade my thinking a bit.

wittykid wrote:

Great report I've read alll of yours and they have and always will be full of useful information and great strategies for playing.

Thanks, glad they are helpful.

wittykid wrote:

I think from this game you might have learned how survivable the warriors are when in cover such as those ruins or as you mentioned above an aegis defence line. Something I think worth pointing out is that warrior blobs are not useful for getting dark lance fire, it works better to take a few small 3 man units of trueborn with 2 lances on each, you get 6 lances out of them for a minimalistic approach on points and so long as you have them planted in cover of like ruins then opponents find themselves with a tough decision, should they waste enough fire to kill them as they are pretty survivable when in cover or should they ignore them because it would be a waste of time to dedicate much fire to a 3 man squad that cant even score

Yeah, the game did show me how survivable warriors can be. Agreed they are not a great lance source, the plan was that they would pop a few transports so the reavers could get some pain tokens early on by bladevaning. I do need to look into lanceborn, they are an interesting and overlooked option in out codex, and they to present an interesting dilemma for your opponent.

Nappen wrote:

I like one blob of warriors with SC to sit on an objective in cover from the start. Anything that comes near gets blasted with a ton of poison shots. It is weak against armor but usually you have more appealing targets for their armor.
Of course, I usually start the Duke with them so they have 3+ poison, as well, so that may jade my thinking a bit.

Yes I really should give the Duke a try at some point.