I have a friend who mainly plays Black Templars and Chaos Space Marines. Even though I've beaten his Templars three times, he still sees the Dark Eldar as a nut he can crack with the right tactics. As he acquired a Stormraven, we decided to play a Death From the Skies Scenario, and ended up with Aerial Assault, where the attacker's flyer can outflank and has the strafe special rule.
Deployment was a little different because the scenario has the defender owning one long edge out to 24", with 12" of nomansland, and the attacker deploying in the remaining 12" of the opposite long edge. Since we always do a bit of story and I was the defender this time, we decided that my pirate fleet was scavenging a destroyed planetary defense base for materials. Thus the battlefield was littered with destroyed bunkers, an egg-carton type missile battery we counted as dangerous terrain, one long wrecked building straddling his zone and the neutral, and a decrepit bastion without any functioning armaments. Other terrain was rocky outcroppings.
Following scenario rules, we ended up with three objectives, each worth three points. Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord, and First Blood were worth one point each. No night. We ended up with one objective behind a rocky outcropping in my backfield, a second next to the decrepit bastion in the middle, and the third at the neutral edge of the long ruin straddling his deployment zone and mine.
His forces:
Black Templar Captain with SS and various war gear, plus the always-nasty Champion and some terminators loaded into a Stormraven. But as you'll see, doesn't matter because they were no-shows.
10 Black Templars with a missile launcher in a basic Rhino
8 BT Assault Marines with a sergeant with blast template plasma shooter. From here on, this is known as Niedermeyer's squad.
12 or so BT Marines with a plasma cannon, plasma gun, and plasma pistol on the Sgt. His biggest blob, but on foot. I'll call these the Plasma Marines
3 Dark Angel bikers with a teleported homing beacon
10 Dark Angel Disciples of Caliban, maybe terminators, war geared up, but they were also no-shows.
His plan was to advance on a broad front with the flanking Stormraven coming in to strafe me and drop troops near/on an objective. The Dark Angel bikers would race into my rear and act as teleport homers for his DA, putting them close enough to my fragile skimmers go through them like a buzz-saw.
My forces:
The Duke + 4 Trueborn with 2 SC, in a Venom with NS and SC
Succubus with Power Sword leading 7 Wyches under a Hekatrix with Power Sword and PGL, with Shardnet and Impaler. All had Haywire grenades and were loaded into a Raider with NS and FF.
3 Trueborn, two with DL on foot.
5 Kabalites with a blaster upgrade, loaded in a Venom with NS and SC
DL Ravager NS FF
Dissie Ravager NS FF
Voidraven Bomber FF
6 Reavers with 2 Caltrops (I like to bladevane)
+ Eldar Allies
Farseer w/ Guide and Shining Spear deployed with 7 Pathfinders
3 Dark Reapers with Exarch upgraded to Fast Shot
Fortification: Aegis line with Icarus Lascannon
My plan was to keep my distance and dance around, wearing him down with long-range firepower he couldn't match.
My Warlord trait was "Divide and Conquer" hurting his reserve roll. His gave his flankers Acute Senses. Combat drugs gave me a choice of Grave Lotus or Painbringer so I took the latter.
He deployed the Rhino on my left flank, Niedermeyer's Assault Marines at his side of the long building leading to the objective, the Plasma Marines near the decrepit bastion in the center with the objective, and the DA bikes on my right. Everything else, indeed the bulk of his force, was in reserve despite my warlord trait. He had a plan and he was damn well going to stick to it.
I put the Aegils line/Icarus with Dark Reaper Exarch manning the gun in the corner on a hill on my left flank. Then came the DL Ravager and Dissie Ravager sheltering behind terrain. The DL foot Truborn were in some rocks with a good view of my left. The Seer with Pathfinders were spaced out as best as I could in a shell hole near the long ruin with the objective in non-deployable zone. My venoms and the Wych Raider were toward the center shielded by some trees and that decrepit bastion, screened by the Reavers.
My luck was very much in and managed to steal initiative with a 6. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I put an extra six pack of whoop-ass in the fridge, knowing I'd drink all the cold ones pretty quick with this setup and prepared to administer a beating.
It didn't start well. I sent the Reavers screaming forward to bladevane/caltrop the Plasma marines and rolled poorly and he made a lot of armor saves. Something like fifteen hits resulted in one dead marine.
I moved the Wych Raider up flat out and hugged the decrepit bastion for cover against the Plasma-heavy marines. The Venoms moved up 6" so they had a choice of targets.
The Icarus gun shot twice at the Rhino, missing both times.
The Pathfinders with the aid of the Seer's Guide shot at the Plasma Marines. I managed to roll 3 6s, and put two Precision shots on the plasma cannon and one on the plasma gun. Failed to wound with all three, but another hit did take out a marine.
So much for taking Eldar allies! Fumbling dilettantes, the whole useless lot of 'em!
My Ravagers made up for lost ground. The DL Ravager swooped 12" forward to shelter near the DL truborn and started shooting up the Rhino. It exploded, taking a marine with it. First Blood! The DL Truborn zapped another one.
The Dissie Ravager went up the other side of the rock formation with the objective and opened up on Lt. Niedermeyer's Assault Marines. It was carnage; he lost three or four.
The Duke's Venom and escort shot up Niedermeyer's marines with 4 SC and a couple more went down. The other Venom got another from the plasma heavy group.
So at the end of my half of Turn 1 I'd much reduced him, with only the bikers still intact. I'd whiffed on getting rid of heavy weapons, sadly, he still had his missile launcher and his plasma, plus the big broomstick Lt. Niedermeyer was carrying.
On his Turn 1 the Rhino survivors remained by the wreck. They had some terrain intervening and he wanted to use his missile launcher. The Missile Launcher hit the front of the Dissie Ravager but failed to pen. Lt. Niedermeyer and his remaining Assault Marine moved up the full 12". Niedermeyer shot his big assault broomstick and layed a blast template atop the Pathfinders and Seer, perfectly, but thanks to an outstanding cover save set of rolls I only lost one. The reduced plasma marines shot at the Reavers but I made Skilled Rider jinks. The DA bikes came roaring up my right flank, shooting at the Wych raider, but missed.
Niedermeyer declared a charge and overwatch took out his remaining marine. Niedermeyer failed to cover the distance and was left standing in the open with what must have been a (short-lived, as it turned out) dumbfounded expression on his face, wondering what had happened to his men.
My Turn Two the Voidraven came in.
I moved the Reavers toward his center-backfield.
The Icarus Lascannon mercifully sent Niedermeyer off to join his comrades. I really should have had the Duke's Venom shoot him up for easy pain token fun, but the idea of Icarus-sniping Niedermeyer proved too tempting to resist.
DL Ravager, Dissie Ravager, and DL true born turned the rest of the Rhino marines into charcoal briquets.
The Wych raider continued it's ring-around-the-rosie about the decrepit tower and out popped my Succubus leading her shrieking she-devils aiming for the Plasma Marines. She threw a plasma grenade during shooting and took out a marine, and splinter pistol fire removed another. Only fiver or so left in his biggest blob of marines.
Venom with blaster Kabalites zipped 6" forward, disembarked, and they headed to claim objective. The Kabalite Venom's splinter cannons shot at the Plasma marines, I think I got another one or two.
Duke's Venom moved to get a bead on the bikers.
Voidraven missed the bikers with its Void Lances. Duke took them down in a hail of splinter-cannon fire.
Succubus and Wyches charged. They only had to cover two inches, so it was automatic. Overwatch took out a Wych. Succubus went first, of course, and single-handedly turned the last four Templars to choice cuts of Space Marine with her power sword thanks to Painbringer wound rerolls, sharing a pain token around, wiping the board clean and consolidating onto the objective.
So, game over by top of Turn 2, and my mini Bay of Pigs wound up with two objectives with scoring units on it and the third uncontested in my deployment zone. Reavers got line breaker, so with First Blood that made the score 8-0 in VP. My total losses were a single Pathfinder.
His roughly 1000 points of reserves never had a chance to come in. Everyone in the pool for a Pain Party!
Subject: Drakkar Violette vs. Black Templars/Dark Angels 
Sun Jun 02 2013, 03:16
