Time for another battle report! This week sees me trying out some new toys and some completely new units in a 1500 point game against the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwe. As a bonus, I've finally had the sense to fix the lighting setting on my camera so you now get proper pictures rather than the yellow/orangey ones.
Mission: The RelicDeployment: Hammer and AnvilThe forces of the Dark Eldar:
Haemonculus, Shattershard, Liquifier Gun (Warlord)
9 Wracks, Liquifier, Raider with dark lance
5 wyches, haywire grenades, venom with additional splinter cannon
5 wyches, haywire grenades, venom with additional splinter cannon
20 Kabalite warriors, 2 dark lances
3 trueborn, 3 blasters, venom with additional splinter cannon
5 Scourges, 2 haywire blasters
3 Reaver Jetbikes, heat lance
Ravager (3 lances), flickerfield
Razorwing Jetfighter, Flickerfield (lances, stock missiles)
Razorwing Jetfighter, Flickerfield (lances, stock missiles)
Combat drugs: +1 Strength
Warlord Trait: Acute Senses for Outflanking units (useless)
The heroic defenders from Ulthwe:
Farseer (Forewarning, Prescience, Guide)
10 Guardians, Wave Serpent with Ghostway Matrix, holofields
10 Guardians, Wave Serpent with Ghostway Matrix, holofields
3 Jetbikes, warlock with singing spear (Conceal), one has a shuriken cannon(?)
5 Warp Spiders, Exarch
5 Dark Reapers, Exarch
Vyper, Holofields, Ghostway Matrix
Fire Prism, Holofields, Ghostway Matrix, Spirit Stones
Fire Prism, Holofields, Ghostway Matrix, Spirit Stones
Warlord Trait: Warlord gets a run move buff (pretty useless)
We set up terrain for this game using the alternating placement method from the rulebook, as well as randomly generating terrain density for the 6 sections of the board. We had one fewer piece than the amount rolled, but agreed that the largest terrain piece would count as 2 on account of its size. The Eldar won the roll for choosing table sides and so got to place terrain first, but the Dark Eldar won the roll for deployment and first turn, and elected to go first (see what happens? First game I kick Baron out of my list and I -finally- win the first turn roll!) It's not night-fighting on turn 1.
Deployment. I spread the 20 warriors across the ruin in my deployment zone, with the scourges out in front (but still in terrain). Ravager sits back. Wracks are in the raider along with the haemy (I'd considered deploying him with the warriors to give them Feel No Pain, but decided against it). Venom on the left of the raider has the trueborn, the other 2 have the wyches; note the two central ones screening the raider against an initiative seizure. Jetbikes and batplanes are in reserve.
In response, the Eldar deploy everything and decide to castle, looking like so:
All the tanks bunker down, the vyper and spiders start forwards. The farseer is with the dark reapers on the middle floor of the ruin. The eldar roll to seize the initiative, and fail!
Turn 1 - DE
All scourges pass their dangerous terrain, and pop up the table to the next bit of cover. The raider shifts forwards and disembarks the wracks, who claim the relic. Ravager floats up, and all the venoms move 12" forwards. The warriors are out of range and just stay put, as their goal is to vaporise any Eldar unit that comes near the relic in the late game. The Ravager opens the shooting phase with its customary triple miss, whilst the raider manages a penetrating hit on the vyper which is thwarted by a convenient shrub. First venom on the far right peppers the spiders, doing 5 or 6 wounds, all of which are saved. Blasterborn snap fire, hitting and killing one. Second venom also hoses the warp spiders, inflicting 5 wounds and killing 3. With just the exarch there the last venom opens fire to claim first blood, dealing 6 wounds... and the exarch makes all his saves!
Turn 1 - Eldar
Jetbikes become concealed; both fire prisms become twin-linked. Something gets forewarning. Everything moves out and forwards except the prisms, which just stay in their corner. Lots of shooting, including one serpent dropping its shield. The raider is destroyed for
First Blood. I get lucky with flickerfield saves on the wych venoms, taking a glancing hit on each but managing to dodge the penetrating hits. The trueborn venom is not so lucky, getting taken down by tank fire; fortunately it doesn't explode, and the trueborn inside pass their pinning test. The ravager also gets shot down this turn or next (I thought it was turn 2, but it doesn't appear in the pics). One trueborn gets shot, and the wracks get blasted by fire prisms. Fortunately due to scatter, and 5+ cover followed by 5+ Feel no Pain, only one dies.
A shot of the end of turn 1...
And a slightly better view of where the action is going on. Most of my ranged anti-tank is gone, but the wych venoms are alive and are in striking range. The warp spider exarch is, for those interested, hiding behind the statue of the marine. The lid of the dice box marks the serpent that DID fire its serpent shield this turn.
Turn 2 - Dark Eldar:
In a dramatic change to my fortunes from last game, I get all 3 of my reserves in. Both razorwings move up the table. Scourges advance to the other side of the wall, and the reavers turbo boost up to take station in the bit the scourges vacated. The wracks move 4" back through cover, as the trueborn manage to advance 6". The plan to win is to throw everything else at the Eldar, whilst the wracks get the relic back to the warrior blob where I can split the haemy off, and hit the deck for a continuous 3+ cover/5+ armour (serpent shield), 5+ FnP save and sponge hits for the win. Both venoms move 6", and spit the wyches out, 8" from the fire prism on the right flank, and 6" from the no-shield serpent. I start dumping lances and haywire shots on the shielded serpent, hoping to glance it down through weight of fire and as the wyches have an easy charge on the unshielded one. Thanks to the holofields, I only manage to stick 2 glances on it. Blasterborn try at something, but that also gets jinked. Both wych squads throw a haywire grenade at their intended target, but miss. To make sure my shooting's not a complete waste of time, however, the venoms combine their fire to completely destroy the dark reapers. The wyches attempt to charge the fire prism and only roll 4", and their re-roll gets 7"... they're 7 and a fraction away. The other wyches try for a 6" charge on the serpent and roll a 2 and a 1, and their fleet re-roll gets them snake eyes....
End of Dark Eldar turn 2 after the lance and charge disaster... I think I might be in trouble here....
Turn 2 - Eldar:
Warlock conceals jetbikes. Farseer guides one prism, forewarnings the second, but fails to prescience it. He then goes and hides out of LoS on the bottom floor of the ruins, with the prisms taking up station on the middle and top floors. Jetbikes and both serpents advance, and the guardians disembark. The guardians each pick a squad of wyches to kill, and both get evaporated. Shooting from various sources takes down both venoms. Fire prism kills a few from the blob warrior squad, and the spider exarch bipping around being a general nuisance kills another wrack or two. I catch a break with my actual decent saves, however, as the 2 scourges with haywire blasters manage to live and pass morale, and only one trueborn dies (survivor passes morale). The jetbikes pop back with their jetbike move.
Bottom of 2. Conspicuous by its absence: the Dark Eldar raiding force.
Turn 3 - DE:
Well, silver linings: those guardians are lined up very nicely indeed. I send both razorwings forward. Scourges pop up to terrain (the lonely bit on the left hand corner), and the wracks make it 3" further back... just a little more... I'm at a loss for what to do with the jetbikes, but then have a flash of insight and move them out into the open. Shooting phase, and they turbo into the far corner, bladevaning the farseer on the way past! I only manage one hit per jetbike, but all 3 hits wound, and the farseer fails all 3 of his invulnerable saves, granting the Dark Eldar
Slay the Warlord. Scourges manage to put a glance on his 1 hull point serpent, but he jinks it. Razorwings open fire, and I choose a serpent each as my target, as I can place the missiles where they overlap onto a lot of his guardians, getting me the best of both worlds. Depressingly, I can't get a damage result to stick to the serpents between lance fail and jink saves, but I obliterate the guardians, killing 6 from the left hand unit, and 7 from the right. In an attempt borne of desperation, the scourges charge the 1 hull point serpent to try and glance-kill it with plasma grenades, but fail.
Turn 3 - Eldar:
Guardians mount up again, and the transports move up. Both fire prisms come forwards, as the eldar decide it's not worth their time wasting one to try and deal with the 3+ cover save, 5+ feel no pain reavers. One serpent manages to get rid of my last 2 scourges, I think there's some attempt at the warrior blob (it kept going to ground, so didn't take or deal much damage), but the lions share of shooting is poured into the wracks, killing all but the haemy and the wrack with the liquifier gun; the one with the relic does die and I forget I can drop it within an inch of that model (spitting it towards the warriors may have helped).
End of turn 3. You can just see the jetbikes through the window of the ruin.
Turn 4 - Dark Eldar:
I can't make it back to the warriors with my haemonculus, so I accept that I'm giving up warlord this turn and just try and make it count. The wrack and haemy ignore the relic and move up to the jetbikes. One razorwing turns 90 and goes after his prism, whilst the other can't reach anything and goes off-table, ready for another try. Jetbikes move up and put a heat lance into the back of a prism, scoring a massive penetrating hit (17 is enough to penetrate, right?
) but it gets dodged once more by those holofields! The razorwing fires to no effect because I've fully succumbed to the darklight curse. The liquifier hoses over the jetbikes at a sad AP4, and I pop the shattershard... I think that the second liquifier might have been the tactically better option, on reflection, but I really wanted to use my shattershard. The liquifier gets the closest one, and the shattershard manages to snipe out the cannon at the back of the unit (fewer shots to deal with). Crucially, the jetbikes fail their morale test, and fall back! Jetbikes retreat to cover.
Turn 4 - Eldar:
Everything moves up and slams firepower into the wracks and haemy until they're dead, picking up
Slay the Warlord for the Eldar. Some shooting is pumped into the warriors, but most survive by hitting the deck. The jetbikes rally, but can't really do anything this turn.
Bottom of 4. I'm down to just under 3/4 of my blob squad, the reavers, and the razorwings remaining. Note that smug Warp Spider exarch sitting in terrain near the relic, thinking he's invisible...
Turn 5 - Dark Eldar:
Winning's out of the window, as I can't go for the relic at present (pinned), and the warriors will get obliterated if they try. However, I -can- play for the draw by preventing linebreaker, and keeping my opponent off of the relic. Night falls this turn, which makes it slightly more viable. The jetbikes pop out, aiming at the jetbikes. One scoring unit down. The razorwing that's on-table swings and comes back, and punches a lance through the exarch, killing him - there goes the Eldar linebreaker chance. The razorwing that flies back on fires at the 1 hull point serpent with everything, as its missiles can glance and will overlap the jetbikes and other serpent... the darklight curse strikes again, as the lances do absolutely nothing... but miraculously, gloriously, the missile scores a glance, and the space elves FINALLY fail a holofield save, and the serpent crashes to the ground, with the guardians piling out the back, way too far away from the relic. Missile overlap plus reaver shooting finishes the jetbikes.
Turn 5 - Eldar:
The Eldar can still grab the relic, but they need a 6" disembark to do so as they're moving through cover...which they get! Blast... The 3 from the wrecked serpent move up past it, as the fire prisms come out to take on the blob squad... this turn, I decide not to go to ground for a 2+, instead relying on my 4+ from area terrain plus night time, and don't lose many as a result. I don't know if I lose quite enough for a morale check (it was either 1 above or 1 below the required amount), but toss a pair of dice to be sure and pass on 8 exactly. However, it's all for naught if the game ends here...we roll, and it continues!
End of turn 5. The razorwing at the back has 2 missiles remaining, the nearest razorwing has none.
Turn 6 - Dark Eldar:
The Razorwing that still has missiles is overflying everything, so it goes off-table in preparation for a 7th turn if we get it. The other one flies up, and is able to stop just short of the 3 guardians, firing at and killing 2 of them. The kabalites, finally unpinned, move out and fire everything into the guardians holding the relic, snap-firing the one remaining lance and rapid firing their splinter weaponry...
Success!
Turn 6 - Eldar:
The last guardian embarks into the remaining wave serpent, as he can't reach the relic, and it moves across to form a firing battery with the prisms and the vyper. Thanks to some untimely dice and bad scatters, with some good cover saves, 4 kabalites survive the shredding, and pass morale. If the game ends now, it's a tie, but it goes to turn 7!
The relevant stuff at the end of turn 6
Turn 7 - Dark Eldar:
The on-board razorwing can't do anything so flies off aimlessly. The kabalites move out gingerly. Last razorwing comes on from the rear right corner. Kabalites run, and get high enough to surround the relic thanks to their fleet re-roll, meaning that no matter what the last guardian can't claim the relic. But he can still get linebreaker. The razorwing fires all its shots into the back of the wave serpent; 2 lances and both missiles, and that blasted thing can't use its serpent shield if I get it from behind! I manage 2 penetrates on the serpent and something on the adjacent fire prism with missile overlap... can't remember exactly what happens to the prism, but the serpent fails its holofields (apparently those are worse if you get behind them
) and I manage to stun it and rip off a weapon (I think? Stunning was the key one). I was under the impression that you couldn't disembark from a stunned vehicle but apparently you can (nasty way to learn this one), passengers are just prohibited from shooting, I've been playing it wrong for the last year.
Turn 7 - Eldar:
Since the serpent can't move, linebreaker isn't a guarantee for the Eldar - he's going through cover and needs a 6 on one of his two dice to make it fully into my deployment zone. He's done it once before on turn 5... but not this time! The guardian is stranded just outside, and the game ends.
End of the game. Surviving models are 4 kabalites, 3 reavers (hiding way at the back), 2 razorwings, 1 guardian, 1 wave serpent, 2 fire prisms, and a vyper. What a bloodbath!
The final score... Dark Eldar have
Linebreaker and
Slay the Warlord for 2 Victory Points; Eldar have
First Blood and
Slay the Warlord, also 2 Victory points!
The Dark Eldar have clung on by their fingernails and managed to scrape a draw from the jaws of defeat!
Man that was tight... Eldar vehicles are really, really tough to shift! I had a hard time getting damage results to stick anyway, and the tanks just ignore 50% of them. I was disappointed not to get first blood thanks to those Warp Spiders making altogether far too many saves, and then had to waste time dealing with that exarch later on to try and deny linebreaker. I honestly thought I'd had it after the second turn; losing my lances and failing those charges with the wyches really left me in trouble. If I'd got even one of those tanks my life would have been a lot easier, especially the wave serpent; I never expected to fail a 6" charge with fleet! The resultant counter-punch by the eldar left me reeling, when you go all-in like that and it fails completely, the ensuing shooting phase is probably going to sting quite badly. By the time my wracks were almost gone and the Eldar were still almost full strength, I'd written it off as a loss, but I'm glad I kept fighting. I'm not entirely sure what I could have done differently; watching my anti-tank fail epically at every turn was frustrating but there isn't anything you can do about that. Spotting the way to take out the farseer was clutch, as I don't think I could have dealt with him spitting out more twin-linking powers every turn on those prisms. I didn't expect to get him in one go after only rolling 3 hits with the bladevanes, but fortunately that's the point where the dice were with me!
Definitely men of the match, the Reavers picked up both my victory points and I'm really glad I included them.
That's all for now, any C&C appreciated as ever. And remember, even when your entire army gets gutted, never give up! No surrender!
Subject: Dark Eldar vs Eldar - 1500 points 
Thu Nov 14 2013, 13:26
lovely board too!
