Battle Report – Dark Eldar/Chaos Space Marines v Grey Knights/Ultramarines

Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Dawn of War

Three objectives were placed in each half of the table. In our half we had one in a ruin on our left (2VP), one in a crater in the middle (1VP) and one on a hill on the right (3VP). In the opposing half there was one in a ruin on our left (4VP), one in a ruin just to the right of centre (3VP) and one in a crater on the right (2VP)

A couple of our group are going to a Battle Brothers event at Warhammer World soon so we decided to use the Battle Brothers format but went to 2000 points a side rather than the suggested 1500

We decided to ally my Dark Eldar with Chaos Space Marines, despite being Desperate Allies, as these were our favourite armies. This did mean that the CSM units were non-scoring and non-denial units so we opted to take some tough units to draw fire away from the more fragile Dark Eldar.

Our opponents chose Grey Knights as their primary detachment with Ultramarine allies (Allies of Convenience).

Our list was:

Baron Sathonyx

Kabalite Warriors
10 Kabalite Warriors, 1 Dark Lance

Kabalite Warriors
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Kabalite Warriors
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Kabalite Warriors
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Beastmasters
3 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 4 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager
Night Shields, Flickerfields

Ravager
Disintegrators, Night Shields, Flickerfields

Chaos Lord
Mark of Nurgle, some wargear (not sure what)

Plague Marines
10 with 2 Plasma Guns and Champion with Power Weapon

Helldrake
Baleflamer

Obliterators
3 with Mark of Nurgle

The GK/UM list was (roughly)

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
Terminator Armour, Psycannon, Mastery Level One (Prescience)

Purifiers
10 with 2 Hammers, 7 Halberds, Warding Stave

GK Terminators
2 Squads of 5 with Psycannons

Stormraven
Multimelta, TL Assault Cannon

Ultramarines Librarian (Prescience, Forewarning)

Tactical Squads
2 10 man squads with Power Fist, Plasma Gun and Lascannon

Devastator Squad
2 extra Marines, 2 Lascannon, 2 Plasma Cannon

Aegis Defence Line
Icarus Lascannon

Deployment

We deployed first, placing my Ravagers on the left. I put the Beastmasters (with Baron) in the middle with the Khymerae out in the open (4++ saves FTW) and everything else in area terrain. The Venoms went behind the beasts with LOS to as much of the enemy as possible. The Plague Marines (with Lord) and Obliterators started on the right with the PMs in cover where possible. The Helldrake started in reserve.

The Imperials placed the 2 TDA units behind a large ruin on our left and a Tactical Squad (split into combat squads) in another ruin on the right. Everything else went behind the ADL in the middle of the field.

The Imperials failed to seize the initiative and we didn’t roll Night Fight for the first turn.

Turn One
The Beasts surged forward towards the Devastators, running a further 1” in the shooting phase. The Venoms moved around to get better lines of fire and get closer to the objectives. The Ravagers moved to get LOS on the Terminators but only the Disintegrator Ravager was able to get LOS. In the shooting phase the Dissie Ravager opened fire on the Terminators and killed 3. The first Venom targeted the Icarus Lascannon and managed to destroy it, leaving very little other than the Stormraven that could threaten the Helldrake when it arrived. The other Venoms targeted the Devastators and killed 3 of them, including 2 heavy weapons. The DL Ravager also targeted the Devs but cover saves prevented any damage.

The Terminators on our left moved towards the 4VP objective. Everything else remained where it was and prepared to open fire. The Psykers cast Prescience on their respective units. The depleted Terminator Squad opened fire on the Dissie Ravager and managed to get a single penetrating hit which exploded it, awarding First Blood to the Imperium. The other squad targeted the Beasts but only managed to kill one Khymerae. Everything else shot at the Beasts and managed to kill the remaining Khymerae.

Turn Two
The Helldrake arrived and swooped into the middle of the table, getting ready to incinerate as many of the marines cowering behind the ADL as possible. Unfortunately it didn’t have the right angle to also manage a Vector Strike against anything. The Beasts moved forwards again, finishing their move about 3 inches from the Devastators and one of the Tactical Squads. The central Venom disembarked its passengers onto the 1VP objective and then move forwards to get LOS on the marines in the middle. The Ravager moved over to the left to take a few shots at the Terminators. The other two Venoms went Flat Out to get into position to disembark troops onto objectives next turn. The Plague Marines and Obliterators advance steadily towards the ruins on the left. In the shooting phase, the Ravager failed to do any damage. The Helldrake killed 3 Devastators and 1 of the nearby Tacticals. The central Venom targeted the surviving Devastator and killed it. The Plague Marines killed a couple of Tactical Marines. The Obliterators used Assault Cannons to try to kill some more but did little damage. In the assault phase the Beasts easily made their charge move and assaulted a tactical squad but lost a Razorwing Flock to overwatch from a plasma gun. The Sergeant issued a challenge, which one of the Beastmasters reluctantly accepted and was promptly squished by the power fist. The Baron killed 2 marines but the Razorwings and surviving Beastmasters managed only 1 more kill between them! The Marines elected to fail their Morale check but were caught by the sweeping advance and therefore stayed in combat.

In the Imperial turn the Stormraven arrived and moved directly in front of the Helldrake. A second tactical combat squad moved to assist the remnants of the squad locked in combat with the Beasts, as did the Librarian. The depleted TDA squad moved out of LOS of the Ravager whilst the intact squad moved towards the centre of the table. The Stormraven used its twin-linked multimelta on the Helldrake, which failed its 5++ save and was completely destroyed. The assault cannon targeted the warriors in the ruins on our left and killed 3 (very poor cover saves). The tactical squad and terminators also targeted the warriors in the ruins and killed another 3, forcing a break test which the Dark Eldar failed, fleeing 9” and leaving them perilously close to the table edge. In the assault phase the Librarian and 2nd combat squad charged in, the sergeant issuing a challenge which was again accepted by a Beastmaster. The Baron killed 3 more marines but the rest of the squad killed nothing. The challenge resulted in no wounds on either side but the power fist and librarian killed the Baron (Slay the Warlord) and the rest of the Razorwings, forcing a break test which the Beastmaster failed. Although he escaped the sweeping advance he was to take no further part in the battle (needing snake eyes to rally).

Turn Three
The fleeing Kabalite Warriors made their morale check and moved 3” back towards the ruins they had recently vacated. The two Venoms on the left disembarked their passengers onto the objectives (3 and 2 VP) then moved to get LOS on the tactical squads recently in combat. The Plague Marines and Obliterators moved further forward towards the Ultramarines. The Ravager lined up to shoot the Stormraven, even though it needed 6’s to hit. Everything then opened fire. The Obliterators used Plasma Cannons on the tightly bunched Ultramarines but cover saves limited casualties. The Ravager predictably failed to hit the Stormraven. The Venoms targeted the Ultramarines and when the toxic smoke cleared there were only 5 survivors of 3 combat squads remaining.

The Stormraven switched to Hover mode and moved towards the Plague Marines. The assault ramp lowered and 10 Purifiers disembarked directly in front of Nurgle’s finest. The intact TDA squad (with Inquisitor) moved towards the Obliterators and the combat squads shuffled about to get good firing positions. Realising that the Venoms were causing problems with their volume of fire, the Stormraven opened up with its assault cannon on one, shredding it. The multimelta targeted another and hit but rolled snake eyes to penetrate, meaning only a glance, which was negated by Flickerfields. The Purifiers shot the Plague Marines with everything they had but T5, 3+ and FNP proved a tough nut to crack and no casualties were caused. The rest of the Imperial forces targeted the Obliterators and just succeeded in killing them all. The Purifiers then assaulted the Plague Marines, with the Chaos Lord issuing a challenge, which was accepted by the Knight of the Flame, who was promptly butchered. The rest of the Purifiers failed to cause a single wound, having opted to use their Force Weapons rather than Hammerhand.

Turn Four
The Ravager moved to get LOS on the depleted TDA squad guarding the 4VP objective in the ruins on the left. The Venoms also lined up to be able to target them if needed. The Warrior squad that had previously broken returned to claim the objective they had abandoned. The Warrior squads on the other objectives were mostly out of range but one squad did manage to kill off the last survivor of one of the combat squads. The Ravager killed one of the two Terminators in the ruins and the venoms targeted the surviving one but he made all his saves, keeping the objective safe for now. The combat between the Plague Marines and the Purifiers went on for another round with both sides taking few casualties.

The Stormraven switched to Zoom mode and moved over to the right to deal with the warriors camping the objectives. Unfortunately its minimum move meant it had little that was in LOS. Realising that only one model was protecting the 4VP objective, the mostly intact 4th combat squad moved towards it but were foiled by terrain, moving only 4” in total (including a Run). The TDA squad moved to consolidate their hold on the central objective and reinforce the remnants of the tactical squads that were looking quite precarious. Shooting saw a concerted effort to remove one of the warrior squads but they went to ground and lost only 1 member. The Stormraven blew up another Venom with the assault cannon and killed a single warrior with the multimelta. Its missiles were of little use and did nothing. The combat in the middle raged on and finally started seeing some casualties, with both sides losing several models.

Turn Five
Everything that could shoot, and was in range, shot at the sole surviving Terminator guarding the 4VP objective and managed to kill him. The rest of the army shot at the tactical marines but did little damage. The combat in the middle saw only the Lord and Champion remaining, along with 2 Purifiers.

The mostly intact combat squad once again moved towards the now unguarded objective and just made it to within 3 inches to reclaim that vital objective. The Stomraven switched to hover mode to avoid going off the table and then destroyed the last venom. The rest of the Imperial forces again tried to kill the warriors guarding objectives but again cover saves allowed the fragile Dark Eldar to survive. The Chaos Lord was the last man standing in the combat and consolidated towards the tactical marines.

We rolled for the game to end but it continued for another turn.

Turn Six
The Chaos Lord moved towards the marines in the middle, getting close enough to be confident of assaulting. He killed one with his plasma pistol. One warrior squad moved into the enemy deployment zone whilst still maintaining control of their objective. Three blasters and a dark lance from the warrior squads sent beams of darklight at the now vulnerable Stormraven which plummeted to the ground. The Chaos Lord charged the tactical marines and wiped out one of the two remnant squads.

The rest of the marines charged into the chaos lord along with the librarian, who activated his force weapon and managed to slay the lord in a challenge. Little else happened in the turn and the game came to an end. Counting up the VP’s, the Imperium had 3 and 4 VP objectives, plus First Blood and Linebreaker. The DE/CSM had 1, 2, 2 and 3 VP objectives plus Linebreaker for a draw!!

Nice report, I've been playing around with an alliance with CSM as well and it's good to see that it can work. Such a shame that the plague marines can't score (stupid allies matrix...mutter mutter), but I suppose they all died anyway. I've been trying to use the CSM as the primary detachment so their tough troops can score & leave the DE to fly around making a nuisance of themselves.
Flyers can really dominate games if you've nothing to deal with them, particularly the ones that can hover, and that storm raven really seemed to turn it for the grey knights (wrecking the Heldrake and all your venoms I believe), so you did well to still score a draw.

On a different note, I noticed that you got the icarus lascannon on your 1st turn, but i suppose it doesn't count for first blood?

Count Adhemar wrote:

The Beasts surged forward towards the Devastators, running a further 1”

Wow two 1s in a row? Or did you re-roll a 2-3 hoping for a higher roll and end up with a 1?

Storm ravens, with multimeltas are pretty nasty against flyers, poor helldrake.

I noticed you don't have a conclusion section, did you learn anything from the game in particular? Any pearls of wisdom to share?

Great report as always, and a close game too!