Battle Report – Dark Eldar v Necrons & Chaos Space Marines

Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War

My list was pretty much the same as last week:

Haemonculus (Warlord) – Warlord Trait: -1 on enemy reserve rolls
4 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Dark Lances
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
Ravager, Night Shields, Flickerfields
Ravager, Night Shields, Flickerfields
Ravager, Disintegrators, Night Shields, Flickerfields
Eldrad Ulthran (Prescience, Foreboding, Forewarning, Misfortune)
5 Pathfinders
4 Dark Reapers, Exarch, Fast Shot, Crack Shot
Bastion, Icarus Lascannon

The Necron/Chaos Space Marine list was:

Destroyer Lord (Warlord), Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave – Warlord Trait: Useless
6 Wraiths, 1 with Whip Coils
5 Immortals, Night Scythe
5 Immortals, Night Scythe
Chaos Lord – not sure on Wargear, Mark of Nurgle
7 Plague Marines, Melta, Plasma, Rhino
5 Havoks (Lascannons)
Helldrake (Baleflamer)

Deployment
I lost the roll for first turn and the Chaoscrons decided to deploy first. My Bastion was placed centrally just under 12” in.

The Chaoscrons deployed the Plague Marines in their Rhino out of sight behind a ruin. The Havoks went in some area terrain on my far right out of LOS of anything in the Bastion. The Destroyer Lord and Wraiths deployed on my left in the open (with a 3++ save not much need for cover). The Helldrake and Night Scythes went into reserve.

I put the Eldar on the Bastion and the Trueborn inside it, with one unit of Warriors on foot behind the Bastion, out of LOS of everything. The Venoms and Dissie Ravager all went on the left, 25” inches from the nearest Wraith. The other two Ravagers went on the right, out of LOS of everything. I totally forgot to deploy the Pathfinders and they completely missed the battle!

I failed to seize the initiative and there was no Night Fight for the first turn.

Turn One
The Destroyer and Wraiths moved into cover behind some ruins, mainly to get out of sight of the Eldar in the Bastion. Nothing else moved.

I forgot to cast any psychic powers. I moved all the vehicles on my left to get clear LOS on the Destroyer and Wraiths whilst the Ravagers on the right moved to get LOS on the Havoks, as the Rhino was still completely hidden. Nothing in the Bastion had LOS to anything. The vehicles and passengers on the left fired everything they had at the Destroyer Lord and Wraiths but managed to kill only 2 Wraiths. The Ravagers on the right killed only one Havok. I was in serious trouble!

Turn Two
My Warlord Trait actually proved useful for once and only 1 Night Scythe turned up. The Icarus Lascannon shot it twice, forcing it to evade but then rolled two 1s to penetrate! It arrived on my left to help out the Wraiths, depositing 5 Immortals next to my lead Venom. The Lord and Wraiths moved towards my vehicles. The Rhino moved through the ruins to get closer to my Ravagers. The Night Scythe blew up one Venom, earning First Blood. The Immortals killed the passengers. The Havoks blew a Dark Lance off one of the Ravagers. The other Ravager escaped serious damage due to Night Shields taking it out of melta range of the Plague Marines in the Rhino. The Destroyer and Wraiths charged the Dissie Ravager and a Venom, Immobilising the Ravager (thank you Flickerfields!) and wrecking the Venom.

Eldrad cast Prescience on the Trueborn and the Eldar and Forewarning on the Eldar. The Ravagers on the right moved to get better angles on the Havoks and further away from the Rhino. The surviving Venom swung around to get LOS to the Wraiths and Destroyer. The disembarked passengers from the wrecked Venom moved back but stayed in rapid fire range of the Wraiths. The DL Ravagers immobilized the Rhino and killed 2 more Havoks but the survivors made their Morale test. Everything else fired at the Wraiths and Lord but managed to kill only 1 Wraith due to them making pretty much all of their saving throws. The Lord did however also take a wound.

Turn Three
The Helldrake turned up and was promptly shot by the Icarus but it only inflicted a single Hull Point. The remaining Night Scythe failed to arrive. The Helldrake didn’t have the movement to fly over any units so could not Vector Strike but it was still able to position itself for next turn whilst firing that blasted Baleflamer at the Eldar on the Bastion. Despite their 4++ save, 2 Dark Reapers died in the flames. Meanwhile the Wraiths and Lord attacked and destroyed the Ravager and the Immortals embarked on the Night Scythe and headed off towards the Bastion, pausing only to shoot at the Venom but managing only to shake it. The Havoks destroyed one DL Ravager.

Eldrad cast Prescience and Forewarning on the Eldar and Misfortune on the Wraiths. The Warriors behind the Bastion moved around the building to head towards the objective. The surviving Warriors on the left moved into cover and shot at the Wraiths, managing to kill one due to Misfortune! The Venom, unable to shoot, went Flat Out to head for the remaining Havoks, whilst the surviving Ravager shot at them and completely missed. The Eldar and Trueborn fired on the Wraiths and managed to kill both of the Wraiths and take another wound from the Destroyer Lord.

Turn Four
The last Night Scythe turned up in the centre and was shot by the Icarus, this time inflicting an Immobilised result on it. The other Night Scythe moved into the centre and both disembarked their Immortal cargo next to the Relic using their Invasion Beams. One Immortal picked up the Relic. The Plague Marines moved towards the centre to try to protect the Immortals by drawing fire. The Helldrake moved over the Bastion, vector striking as it went, and managed to kill another Dark Reaper. It then flamed inside the building, killing two Trueborn. The Night Scythes wiped out the last of the Dark Reapers but Eldrad survived. The Havoks fired at and destroyed the last Ravager. The immobilized Rhino repaired itself! The Destroyer Lord charged the Warriors on the left who overwatched, hitting with the Blaster and taking the last wound off the Lord. This also earned a VP for Slay the Warlord.

Eldrad cast Prescience and Forewarning on the surviving Trueborn and Misfortune on the Immortals but they managed to Deny the Witch. The Venom moved so that the Immortal with the Relic was the nearest model in the unit. I fired everything I had, at the Immortals, killing 4 of them and forcing them to drop the Relic. Unfortunately, 2 of the got back up but the Relic was still unclaimed.

Turn Five
The Immobilised Night Scythe had no choice but to leave combat airspace. The other Night Scythe would have nothing to shoot at and also elected to leave combat airspace. The Helldrake moved up to the Bastion in hover mode. The Plague Marines moved towards the Relic and one unit of Immortals picked it up whilst the other positioned itself between the Relic and the Bastion to give some cover. The repaired Rhino moved towards the middle. The Helldrake flamed and destroyed the intact warrior unit and the Immortals fired at the tattered remnants of the other squad, wiping them out even after they had gone to ground for a 3+ cover save.

I didn’t have much left at this point but, thanks to Slay the Warlord, if I could destroy the Immortals I was in with a chance of a draw. Eldrad cast Prescience and Forewarning on the surviving Trueborn and Misfortune on the Immortals. The Haemonculus moved up to the roof of the Bastion to take control of the lascannon. The Trueborn inside the Bastion opened fire with a Dark Lance and Splinter Rifle whilst Eldrad manned a Heavy Bolter. Everything targeted the Immortals carrying the Relic and with the rerolls to hit from Prescience and the rerolled saves from Misfortune the Immortals were wiped out, preventing them from using Reanimation Protocols and causing the Relic to be unclaimed. If the game ended now it was a draw!

Turn Six
It didn’t. I died.

Conclusion
Err…Combination of bad deployment (mainly of the Bastion), bad memory (the Pathfinders) and some extremely bad luck caused this to end up in a whitewash. Not getting first turn is a killer as it negates Eldrad’s Divination ability, which I find incredibly useful. Not killing more wraiths in the first turn really cost me, although I was lucky to not lose more when they assaulted me. The Chaos forces lost a grand total of 3 models in the entire battle and even when I managed to immobilize the Rhino it bloody repaired itself! The Relic is always going to be tough with Dark Eldar, especially with this list, as the area around the objective inevitably turns into a killing ground, which DE are ill equipped to deal with.

The Chaoscrons were the list that my friends are taking to a Battle Brothers weekend at Warhammer World so I’m helping to test out the list and it seems pretty nice. Three flyers is a bugger at this point level and the rest of the army is tough, resilient and has decent firepower or melee ability. One thing I realized afterwards though is that the Chaos list is illegal as Plague Marines can’t be troops in an allied detachment. He’ll need to change them for normal Chaos Marines with Mark of Nurgle.

Thanks - useful report!

Ok, you messed it up a bit at the start - but were still a bit unlucky in places.
Wraiths are no tougher than marines vs a hail of poisoned shots and with the help of some rangers(!) could have wiped them sooner.
The icarus could easily have wrecked both night scythes on arrival (and bagged you first blood into the bargain!). Then those immortals would have had to walk on from his table edge. Never mind eh?!

Did the lance ravagers have to go after the havocs? That seemed to bring them very close to the rhino. If the havocs were out of sight could they have been ignored? Then the ravagers could have helped vs the wraiths, causing instant death galore (without a map I'm just guessing of course).

You're right about relic being tough for DE. We have to go for the win on secondary objectives. I suppose your opponent realised that and hid his easy-kill rhino & havocs early on.

Ouch unlucky. But does go to show how important it is to have a plan for when you don't get first turn and when you don't get night fight. It really looked like going second without protection from night fight through you off and it went down hill from there, with bad deployment and unlucky dice rolls.

Thanks for sharing the pain.

Squierboy wrote:

Did the lance ravagers have to go after the havocs? That seemed to bring them very close to the rhino. If the havocs were out of sight could they have been ignored? Then the ravagers could have helped vs the wraiths, causing instant death galore (without a map I'm just guessing of course).

The Havoks needed to die as they had the Relic covered and would have destroyed anything I sent to collect it. I wish I had put the Dissie Ravager on the right though as it would have been more use vs Havoks and the DL would have been more use vs Wraiths.

Mushkilla wrote:

Ouch unlucky. But does go to show how important it is to have a plan for when you don't get first turn and when you don't get night fight. It really looked like going second without protection from night fight through you off and it went down hill from there, with bad deployment and unlucky dice rolls.

I think the placement of the Bastion is ultimately what cost me. My opponents were able to deploy in such a way that there was no LOS from the Bastion to any targets meaning that the Trueborn and Dark Reapers were very limited in what they could achieve. I probably should not have actually deployed them in the Bastion but there was very little other cover on my side of the table and I don't think they are good in the open.

I'm still quite happy with the list and will try a rematch against that list sometime soon. Hopefully with better results!