The Angel & The Alien

So having returned fully once more, rather than skulking around the sub realms, I thought that I should post my first battle report of the new year. For my own sanity and the fact I realised I kept losing track of things when I found myself part way through my last lengthy 'story-report' I'm trying a slightly modified style. This will hopefully mean less hideously sized blocks of text to wade through but I digress.

This isn't much of a report - as will become abundantly clear - but I'm writing it up anyway, and there are a few photos here and there, as I inevitably forgot to take them or took them at random points. I'll see if I can fill in the blanks somewhat.

For the moment let me apologise for the formatting and sketchy details I'm trying to get as much of this done as possible prior to getting home,  and I will edit this accordingly as soon as I do so.

Firstly the lists:   1750pts
Warlords


The Angel

Dante
5 Sanguinary Guard, 1 w. Power Fist, Chapter Banner

Astorath the Grim
5 Death Company, w. Jump Packs, 1 w. Thunder Hammer

5 Assault Terminators, 3 w. Thunder Hammers & Storm Shields

Death Company Dreadnaught w. Blood claws, Melta-gun, Storm Bolter, Manga-grapple

5 Marine Devastator Squad, Multi-melta, Missile Launcher, Plasma Cannon, Lascannon, Sergeant w. Signum

Chaplin
10 Death Company Marines

5 Terminators, 1 w. Assault Cannon



The Alien

HQ
Haemonculus – ‘Dracon Kein Yr’aanys’
Liquifier gun, Hexrifle

Haemonculus - 'The Spider'
Liquifier gun

Haemonculus - Comlacht Cré-umha
Liquifier gun, Webway Portal


Elites
5 Incubi - The Obsidian Pyre
Dedicated Transport: Raider w. Disintegrator

4 Mandrakes - (Name under testing.. still) The Smoked Mirror - The Shadow Mirror - Dark Mirror etc


Troops
10 Kabalite Warriors - Warriors of the Kabal of the Envenomed Mark
Splinter Cannon, Raider, Splinter Racks, Dark Lance

9 Kabalite Warriors - Warriors of the Kabal of the Envenomed Mark
Blaster, Raider w. Disintegrator

5 Wyches - Corsairs of the Glass Splinters
Haywire Grenades, Shardnet & Impaler

5 Wyches - Corsairs of the Glass Splinters
Haywire Grenades, shard net & impaler Venom w. dual Splinter Cannon

5 Wracks - Menials of the Shattered Helix
Liquifier gun
Dedicated Transport: Raider w. Disintegrator


Fast Attack
5 Scourges - The Bone Crows
2 Haywire Blasters

4 Reaver Jetbikes - Eachuisage

4 Reaver Jetbikes - Eachuisage


Heavy Support
Ravager - Coven Ravager
3 Disintegrators, Night Shields

Ravager - Kabal Ravager
3 Disintegrators, Night Shields

Talos Pain Engine - Agony Engine of the Shattered Helix
Twin-linked Liquifier


The Mission
The Relic
Hammer and Anvil Deployment
Night fight turn 1
Blood Angels choose 'North' deployment zone and deploy 1st, Dark Eldar deploy in the 'South' deployment zone.


Deployment
The main Blood Angels force was covered behind the large main building roughly 6 inches back from the edge of the Blood Angel deployment zone.

Dante and the Sanguinary Guard deploy in the crater to the 'North East' of the large building.
Astorath deploys with the Assault Death Company, Death Company Marines & Death Company Dreadnaught deploy directly to the 'North' of the large building out of LoS of Dark Eldar deployment zone.
Devastators and Terminators deploy along the 'West' of the large ruin.
Assault Terminators remain in reserve.
Dante rolls on Command Warlord traits - 'Coordinated Assault' Extra inch charge


Dark Eldar deploy up near the edge of the deployment zone.
Mandrakes deploy in cover along the side of the small building a few inches from the Relic.
Main force deployed 'East' of the midline using the large building and small ruin to block LoS.
Haemonculi deploy with the Wracks - Comlacht Cré-umha, incubi - Dracon Kein Yr’aanys, and non gunboat warriors - The Spider.
Scourges hang back behind vehicles and the two squads of Reavers split on either side of the large ruin in Dark Eldar deployment zone.
The Talos and both Wych squads remain in reserve, the empty Venom deploys with the other vehicles.
Drugs - 'Painbringer' Re-roll to wound rolls
Dracon Kein Yr’aanys rolls on Strategic Warlord traits - 'Strategic Genius' Re-roll reserves pass or fail.



Dark Eldar Deployment (Blood Angels have had their first turn - Relic = servo skull marker)

DE choose not to try an seize.




The Battle

Turn 1 - Blood Angels
Death Company Marines & Death Company Dreadnaught move to the 'East' side of the large ruin.
Astorath & his Assault Death Company and the Devastators move 'South' along the 'West' side of the large ruin with the Terminators providing a wall of cover.
Dante & his Sanguinary Guard walk out of crater.


Blood Angels after their movement Phase

The Terminators fire on the Mandrakes who are just in view, the hail of storm bolter and assault cannon shots miss, the darkness of the night and the shadows saving the Mandrakes - 2+ cover save = win.
Devastators take Snap Shots at the empty Venom and miss.
No other Blood Angel units in range. Sanguinary guard, Terminators and all Death Company run a few inches.



Turn 1 - Dark Eldar
Mandrakes shuffle forward slightly towards the Relic remaining in cover.
One Ravager streaks forward to line up on the Devastators, the other shifts slightly to the 'East' to get a clearer LoS on Dante & the Sanguinary Guard.
The Venom and the 'Gunboat' Warrior Raider swap places, with the Venom lining up on Devastators and the Raider with Dark Lance aimed at the Death Company Dreadnaught.
The Reaver jet bikes in the centre Turbo Boost to the upper floors of the big ruined building - skilled rider = win
The Reavers in the 'East' move up 12" along the board edge.
The Incubi Raider moves 'North East' along the line of the ruined building in the Dark Eldar deployment zone. Kain hops out of the Raider - leaving the Pain Token with the Incubi - and moves into cover with LoS on Dante and limbers up with his Hexrifle.
The Wrack Raider moves 6" towards the Relic, Comlacht hops out, keeping out of cover and moves into coherency with the Mandrakes on top of the Relic.
Scourges move 'West' to stay out of sight.

The Coven Ravager aims at the Sanguinary Guard and kills the front four before putting 2 wounds on Dante, leaving him with one wound and one Sanguinary Guard. The other Ravager kills the Devastators carrying the Rocket Launcher and the Multi-melta.
Kain sights Dante with the Hexrifle, takes careful aim... and misses entirely.
Disintegrator on a Raider kills Dante and the lone Sanguinary Guard - SLAY WARLORD - FIRST BLOOD.
The Mandrakes hurl baleblasts at the Devastators but their power armour keeps them protected. Venom's Splinter cannons manage to kill the Devastator with the Plasma cannon.
The lone Dark Lance (there were meant to be two but I forgot to shoot it and had it mis-typed on my list) fails misses the Death Company Dreadnaught.
Comlacht opens the Webway Portal in the narrow gap between the two ruins, forcing the Blood Angels to have to move through cover to approach the Relic from the 'West'.


Turn 2 - Blood Angels
The Assault Terminators arrive from Reserve, teleporting into the middle of the Dark Eldar forces, the Storm Shields deploy around the Lightning Claws.
Death Company Dreadnaught advances in front of the Death Company Marines as they move 'South' along the 'East' of the large ruined building.
The two remaining Devastators stay still and prepare their Lascannon and Signum.
Terminators move towards the centre of the board, the portal and the Relic, while Astorath and his Assault Death Company use their jump packs to move to the 'West' of the portal, just 'North' of the small building.









The Terminators focus their fire on Comlacht as he is outside the cover of the ruins. The full amount of bolter and assault cannon fire hits Comlacht and unsurprisingly kills him.
The Devastators fire the Lascannon at the Venom, penetrating and immobilising it. The Death Company Dreadnaught takes aim at Kain and misses with the Storm Bolter.
Assault Death Company squad and Astorath fire on the Mandrakes with no effect - 3+ cover = still win
Death Company Marines fire on the Reavers in the ruins but fail to wound.

Astorath & the Assault Death Company attempt to charge the Mandrakes in the cover of the small building. One marine falls to Baleblast overwatch and the charge falls short, leaving them in the terrain and just beneath the building itself.


Turn 2 - Dark Eldar
Rolling for reserves one unit of Wyches comes out of the portal, positioning themselves towards the Death Company Dreadnaught.
The Talos also arrives moving between the Terminators & the Assault Death Company, moving into the large crater to the 'West'.
The second Wyches unit re-roll their successful Reserve roll so they don't arrive.

Gunboat Raider makes a small hop on to the top of the small square building, and the Incubi raider backs up to maintain the distance from the Death Company as well as clearing an area for the Scourges to manoeuvre into, bringing them in range of the Death Company Dreadnaught.
The Wyches move 'North East' towards Death Company Dreadnaught.
The Kabal Ravager backs up to prevent LoS blocking keeping it's guns aimed at the Terminators, the Coven Ravager moves forward to aim 'North West' towards centre as well.
Wracks hop out of their Raider into cover of the small building, whilst the Spider and his Warriors stay close to the Ravagers in their Raider.
Both Reavers Turbo Boost, the ones in the ruin move over the Devastators into cover in the 'West' of the Blood Angels deployment zone, the others over the top of the Death Company Marines, with no effect.

One Ravager fires into the Assault Terminators dealing 7 wounds from with it's disintegrators, even with the 3++ from the Storm Shields only one save is made and all 5 die.
The other Ravager snipes the Sergeant out of the other Terminators.
Splinter cannon fire from the immobilised Venom finished off the Devastators and Disintegrator fire kills 2 of the Terminators.
From on top of the small square building the Dark Lance on the Raider glances the Death Company Dreadnaught. The Wyches throw a haywire grenade which turns out to be a dud as I roll a 1 for haywire. The Scourges Haywire blaster penetrates the Dreadnaught but is saved by cover.
Kain fires his Hexrifle and misses again.
The Talos sprays the two remaining Terminators with it's Liquifier, rolling a 2 for AP kills one Terminator, however I forgot to re-roll the miss and didn't shoot the Splinter Cannons in it's tail.
Gunboat warriors lean over the edge of their Raider and pour Splinter fire into the Assault Death Company and with the re-rolls from the Splinter Racks kill 3 of the Assault Death Company.





At the end of Turn 2 the Blood Angels concede defeat.


End of game
Remaining Blood Angels 1 Terminator, 2 Assault Death Company, Astorath the Grim, Death Company Dreadnaught 1 hull point, 10 Death Company Marines and Chaplin

Victory Points
Blood Angels - 0
Dark Eldar - 3 (First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord)






Armchair General-ing

There’s probably less armchair general-ling required of this game considering quite how definitive it ended up but perhaps that might be worth comment in itself.

First things first, yes it turned out that my opponent had no scoring troops; this realisation was a significant contributor to him deciding to concede.

Secondly having done a bit of maths it seems the Blood Angels force may have been closer to 2000pts than 1750, but the dice definitely made up for this.

Thirdly, I know I was very light on anti-tank, to be honest I was wanting to see how well minimal lances and a mix of Haywire options would do against a Space Marine force that was not fully mechanised but might have a couple of vehicles. I was actually meant to have a second Raider equipped with a Dark Lance but that was one of the changes I made when I decided to drop my Archon – see below - and thus was missed out of my list and then forgotten about when I wrote the changes in. In any case I ended up facing even less vehicles than imagined so it didn’t matter much, though as seen there was fairly minimal success on dealing with it.

As for the lack of Archon or Succubus – as the list originally had an Archon; that was a decision made fairly late in the day before the game for a couple of reasons. I did know that my opponent was probably going to bring one or more of Dante, Mephiston or Astorath with Astorath being the most likely of the lot. The lot of them being very melee orientated and Dante’s special death mask effectively reducing the combat efficiency – and therefore point’s efficiency – of one melee oriented character it seemed to be worth not banking on a combat Archon to win the day. Additionally the option of potentially walking home with a glass statue of one of the Imperium’s finest was too much to resist, hence Kain and his Hexrifle… sadly he failed to hit.

I think I need to start weaning myself off Disintegrators, possibly a weirdly shocking thought process purposefully taking less of something good that has repeatedly shown its worth, but I’m using them to solve all powered armour problems because they’re so good at it and that’s likely to become an actual crutch. Therefore less will have to be in my lists. This will also probably save me from the first time I play against an entirely mech-ed list, but most importantly it will force me to rely on alternative tactics and get more experience dealing with Marine & Terminator equivalents in suitably esoteric fashions.
As for specific errors etc, it seems once again I sold my Talos short, though in the end it didn’t matter, had the game continued having a pain token for dealing with the last terminator would have been handy.

I'm wary I made a mistake with stacking stealth like I did on my Mandrakes, however the 3+ saves seemed to do alright as well.

“A relic of the slave races our Archon. One which would cost them dearly….” The puckered lips paused, the rest of the sentence hanging just behind The Spider’s teeth as he watched the Inked Archon. The words were truth, but there was still the addendum and the Haemonculus’ eyes flickered with anticipation in his creased and ancient face. He licked his plump lips and continued; waiting to see if his words would induce another petulant rage in the tattooed figure slumped as he was on a divan.

“It would make a fine trophy our Archon, once my brethren have taken their due, naturally.”

“Naturally,” was the cold echo from the other figure. There was another pause during which The Spider licked his lips again, planting his staff as if to offer support against the tirade that was sure to follow.

“And your due Rack?”

“Merely a trifle our Archon, nothing that would damage your prize, nothing at all.”

“Naturally.” The voice was firmer now and louder too. The Inked Archon half rose from his seat, muscles shifting under his blue-black painted skin as he thinned his gaze and fixed it upon his ‘attendant’.

“You will find that I am unhappily engaged in matters that require my oversight and will be most sorrowfully unable to attend the acquisition of this trophy, Rack.” The bare-chested figure narrowed his eyes further and almost spat his final addition to the conversation, “Dracon Kein will lead the raid. I am certain he will ensure your brethren receive their due.”

The armoured Haemonculus simply nodded in response and turned to depart, leaving the Archon alone in the empty chamber.

The ruins came up on them as if out of nowhere, their speed causing the shapes to blur and streak in the half-light of dawn. Weaving through the outskirts of the temple complex the grav-craft began to slow, clustering together like a shoal of darting sea-creatures. But these were no prey-fish schooling for protection; they were a hunting pack gathering to disguise their approach.

Clipped avian sounding speech cawed over the communication frequencies. The temple’s guardians had been sighted, mon’keigh brutes in hulking black, red and gold armours led by a pair of winged commanders who had descended together, one on wings of fire, one on feathery pinions. The Bone Crows had watched from the ruins, their enhanced eyes and armours augmented senses easily categorising the enemy force as it had formed up in a cluster behind the largest ruin .Now the rest of the raiding force had arrived the information was passed throughout it. The objective remained unchanged, however now perhaps there would be more returning to the Dark City than merely the one withered husk of a corpse.

“Pass the word, silence our approach,” Kein hissed to one of the heavily armoured figures at his side. The Incubus hefted its klaive and moved to the rear of the raider to inform the craft’s driver.

Their approach slowed to a crawl compared to their previous pace, and as one the bladed craft ghosted through the ruins. Their gunner’s eyes were unhindered by the darkness and almost in unison they began to track the shapes of mon’keigh targets advancing unaware out from the cover of the largest building. Kein gestured once and his own craft drifted ever so slightly closer to the nearest ruin. Grasping his silvered rifle in one hand he was over the gunwhale and leaping into the building in the work of a moment, his landing practically silent.

Far in advance of the main force things scuttled through the shadows, weaving around the questing beams of stab-lights as terminator armoured thugs scanned the darkness surrounding the relic. For a moment the spot-lights converged on a single point and a hail of gunfire rushed to meet the half-glimpsed shape. A moment later the near-silence of moving power armour returned and the lights scythed back and forth searching for confirmation of a kill, with no success.

The sound of mass-reactive shells was all the trigger the Eldar needed. Jinxing out from behind crumbling facades the darkness was rent by the glow of cold plasma as a torrent of disintegrator fire poured from the various grav-craft. The golden armoured figures were the first to feel the sting, four finding their baroque plate boiled away and even their enhanced bodies unable to withstand the destruction. The slight glow along his former transport's cannon as it charged gave Kein the moment he required to sight the golden haloed figure still standing. He breathed in and in the same

fluid motion loaded a glass & metal cylinder into the rifles breach. He exhaled and fired, squeezing the trigger and watching the needles flight through the dawn air, seeing it tumble slightly at the last moment past the mon'keigh leader and his compatriot. The bolts of energy that followed suffered no such ill luck, and the two were cast down beside their brothers.

Yet more arcing plasma followed the first fusillade and more of the gene-hanced humans fell heavy weapons unfired and useless. Then in the moment's pause the dark razor-ed shapes swirled around one another, shifting through the ruins as they accelerated forward again the need for subtlety lost with the first screams of the fallen. The smallest of the craft were the fastest, breaking from the shadows of their larger brethren and opening their gravitic throttles wide they jinxed through a series of shattered windows into the upper floor of the largest temple building.

At the foot of the same building bare, brass-skinned feet scraped against ruined ferro-crete. Comlacht Creúmha glanced between the approaching armoured figures and the shadow-wraiths as they flickered between the pools of darkness. With one clawed hand he gestured to his attendants, commanding them to remove the transport from the line of fire and as they did he hurled something with his other limb. The thing was an octahedron. Each side chased with silver and lurid runes that blurred the air as they twisted in flight. The objects arc would have taken it a few paces beyond the feet of the lead lumbering mon’keigh but at the apex of its arc, gravity and momentum ceased to have a hold on it. It spun a moment longer hanging in the air and then with a strange gyroscopic motion a brilliant jade portal roiled into being beneath it. The bronze haemonculus turned his masked gaze to the humans, now mostly hidden behind the portal, once more and cocked his head to one side and stepped closer to the broken tomb.

Whether it was due to the imminent departure the portal implied, or fury that a being so twisted might trespass on the corpse of one of their fallen, the heavy set figures increased their pace, the lead figures levelling their heavy multi-barrelled cannons as they did so. Clearing one side of the portal and ignoring the shadowey figures they opened fire at the Haemonculus. Impact craters and rents appeared in his exposed metallic flesh and with a hideous tearing noise, that of metal twisting itself asunder, Comlacht Creúmha crashed to the ground, his head still half-cocked in that odd, almost mocking gesture.

His view of the main pack now obscured by the jade hemisphere the warrior with the blunt ended missile tube aimed at smaller empty craft exposed on one flank. His compatriot pinged the target with carefully modulated ranging waves and the rocket flew true. Seeing the incoming explosive the Venom’s pilot tried to twist his craft to one side, trusting to its flickering defensive field to baffle the missiles crude guidance, but to no avail. Like a miniature comet the missile impact with the rear section of the grav-craft, ripping out engine cowling and power systems and causing it to nose dive into the ground, only its low altitude and relatively slow speed preventing it from bursting into flames. Moving to reinforce their forward, ground-bound brethren black armoured warriors on wings of flame took flight, leaping to the forward edge of the defensive line. Their leader, a bare face figure in crimson armour descended with more care than the rest. Though his beatific features and feathered wings implied an innocence at odds with his martial regalia, his every movement betrayed a seething rage and almost as soon as his sabatons had touched down he was shouting orders and charging across the cracked and broken flagstones towards the shadowy figures now clustering around the tomb. The gangly, ethereal things turned and light blazed from runic patterns on their chests and arms as they hurled sickly glowing flames at their assailants. Though the cold heat failed to breach the mon’keigh armour it stole the impetus from their charge and the shadows were able to slip back into the cover of the tomb itself.

Dracon Kein sniffed. The tang of something sharp and actinic reached his nostrils. He inhaled again, analysing the scent with senses used to discerning the potential threat or compound in every sup of wine or taste of a meal. Ozone and electricity. He glanced around searching for the source. A small flicker just above the ground itself. Teleportation engines! The fizzing energy built and the flashing rose to crackling lightning and then in a single eye searing flash five more hulking mon’keigh brutes stood among them. They were the largest, heavily armoured kind, but their fists were clawed or carrying broadheaded energy hammers and the three with shields had already moved to form a rough shield wall protecting their more aggressive brethren. Their arrival was concerning and Kein sighted at the closest of their number whispering a command through his communications device. The closest grave-craft had begun to swerve away from this sudden threat appearing among them, but now they

corrected their courses, and as one of the Ravagers hove into view from behind the ruin Kein was perched upon, the numerous disintegrator cannons opened fire.

Screaming gun muzzles poured plasma into the armoured giants and from the first it became obvious their meagre shield wall would not hold. Kein sneered in appreciation as first one by one, and then in their entirety they were ripped apart by blue bolts of energy impacting on them from all sides and tearing through their armour like paper.

Tearing his gaze past the pleasing pattern formed by the patina of bodily fluids and broken armour Kein saw the jade surface of the portal ripple. A group of lithe eldar shapes came out of the portal at a run barely pausing to take in their surroundings as they vaulted over the ruined stonework towards the large tomb-walker. As they ran they unlimbered hooked short handled hatchet-blades and leaping over a low wall their leader threw something which bounced off the vehicles carapace with no discernable effect.

The portal drew Kein’s eye again. Something larger was coming. Even mostly obscured from view, Kein knew what it would be. The Shattered Helix had their desires and only a fool would not expect them to act fully upon them. He could imagine the mon’keigh’s bestial terror at the sight of the pain-engine, their strange hooting cadence as they fell back in fear. He smiled and revelled in the brief fantasy before returning his focus to the battlefield, catching a fleeting glimpse of the jetbikes through the cracks and windows of the largest building as they exited in another burst of speed. Their journey took them out of his sight but as they cleared the building they started into a corkscrewing dive towards the remaining pair of warriors with heavy weapons. Though they fell in a flock, blade after blade clanged impotently off the powered armour and as the reavers powered away through the closest ruin the humans turned, snapping off shots with their heavy sidearms. Their response was equally useless and the humans turned back towards their previous goal only to be met by a wall of splinters fired from the crashed venom, that pierced their armour and left them twitching on the ground.

The pain engine cleared the portal a moment later. Golden-brass armour glinted in the sickly light from the portal and it twisted on its own bed of gravitic motors to level a large weapon festooned with liquid canisters at the closest humans. Floating past them it spewed a torrent of the caustic, toxic liquid which began to eat through armour and flesh with equal ease. The screams of pain was music to the nearby eldar and responding as if to a summons to feast one of the raiders accelerated towards the carnage. The passengers dangled over the railings and gunwales and pumped shots into the black armoured figures and their winged leader. Reloading and emptying ammunition canisters over and over again they fired and kept firing, their aim unaffected by the speed of the delicate craft.

As the barrage of splinters abated for a moment the winged human took stock of the battlefield. Even without understanding his simple language the eldar smiled in appreciation as he roared with fury and leapt into the air.

Far off Kein watched the few remaining mon’keigh start to retreat. He twisted his lip in disgust. They weren’t running, merely falling back. No vicious joy to be gained in that, no thrill at their fear. He started to bark an order though the communications net then something caught his eye. A single winged human-thing furiously ascending. There. He smiled, engrossed in his target. That was a worthy trophy. He opened the breach of his rifle and loaded a single virus filled glass round. Sighting at the rapidly shrinking shape he raised the rifle and breathed once, twice. And pulled the trigger.