Dark Eldar vs Space Wolves - 1750 point rematch!

Hello denizens! Back with another batrep, taking on the same Space Wolf opponent I played in my last match of 2013 in my first game of 2014! Only this time, we both have new toys in our arsenal that we're just itching to try out...

Mission: The Scouring

Deployment: Dawn of War

I'm fielding a list based around my conversions, and units that I don't use often; as I normally play quite a shooty build, this time I've gone for a combat based list:

Baron Sathonyx (warlord, -1 to opponent's reserve rolls as long as he's alive)
Haemonculus, Venom Blade, Shattershard, Liquifier Gun

3 Blasterborn, Dual-cannon venom
3 Grotesques, Liquifier Gun, Aberration with Venom Blade, Raider (Haemy goes here)

10 Hellions, Helliarch with Stunclaw (Baron goes here)
10 Warriors, Raider with Splinter Racks
5 Wyches, Haywire grenades, Dual-cannon venom
5 Wyches, Haywire grenades, dual-cannon venom
10 Wracks, Liquifier gun, Acothyst with hexrifle, Raider

3 Reavers, Heat Lance

Razorwing, Flickerfield
Ravager
Talos with twin-linked liquifier, twin-linked splinter cannon

Combat drug was +1 attack

Space Wolves were rocking lots of bodies and many guns! List is from memory, so may be a bit off on details:

Rune Priest in Runic Armour
Rune Priest in Termy Armour (between them there was Jaws, Living Lightning, Tempest thingy, and I think a second Living Lightning)
Wolf Priest in Runic Armour (Warlord - Scoring Unit trait (Bleagh...))

3 units of 10 grey hunters, 1 with dual plasma on foot, 2 with dual flamers and wolf banners in rhinos, all with 1 mark of the wulfen

Some wolf guard terminators to sponge wounds (I think 2 or 3)
Lone wolf

Missile/Las dreadnought
2 longfang packs, one with all missiles, one with a mix of heavy bolters and missile launchers

A heavy bolter razorback (empty all game, presumably bought for one of the longfang squads)

3 Thunderwolf Cavalry

Aegis defence line with quad gun

The Space Wolves won the roll for table sides and objectives, but Dark Eldar won the roll for deployment and first turn, and I elected to go first. Night fighting would be in effect on turn 1.



Deployment from the DE side. I have one wych venom, then the warrior raider, and Baron with hellions occupying my left flank. The wrack raider, ravager, and Talos are deployed centrally, as is the blasterborn venom. On the far side, I have the Grotesque raider and the second wych venom. Since it's the Scouring, I feel the jetbikes are going to be best kept in reserve.

Wolves keep no reserves, starting one longfang pack behind the ADL, with a wound sponge wolf guard, and another on the first floor of the ruin with the quad gun (visible).


The rest of the SW deployment - castling up in the corner. He was worried because last time he overextended, and I was able to isolate and destroy his forces piecemeal. The longfangs in the ruin have the termy rune priest (also as a tank at the front); squad on foot contains his warlord, another wolf guard in termy armour, and the non-termy armour priest; lone wolf is in front of the squad. Both rhinos contain flamer assault squads.

Pros:
I'm going first unless the Space Wolves can seize
I have 6 scoring units to the Space Wolves' 5
He's bunkered down in the corner that only has a 1 point objective
The objectives are all very spread (for reference, I put down what turned out to be both 3's and the 2 in the ruins, the SW player put down the 4, 1 and 2 that's just out of shot at the statue's base; he was considering putting it in the same terrain piece as the 1 ended up in, roughly where the dreadnought stands).

Cons:
Wolves are a lot more durable
Lots of long-range firepower could make short work of my transports, potentially 5 in one turn (split-fire both longfangs, and the dreadnought)
Mine's a heavily combat-based list; SW excel in combat and short range firefights
Space Wolves have the last turn to potentially kick me back and/or claim an objective; in the scouring that can be a really big swing.
Scoring warlord. 'nuff said.
His heaviest concentration is on my weakest flank.

Archons and Succubi (and Haemonculi), place your bets! Will the Space Wolves defend against the lightning raid of the Dark Eldar? Will the Haemonculus have plenty of new material by the end of the day? Will the colossal failure Ravager actually accomplish something this game?

Space wolves roll to seize the initiative, and fail

Turn 1 - DE
I advance the wych venom on the left flank to the other side of the ruin, and send the warrior raider and ravager to the left of the central ruin. The Talos advances and manages to make it into the area terrain for a cover save, and the wrack venom moves a mere 6" into terrain, blasterborn venom going 12". Baron and friends hop across towards the 3 point objective in my deployment zone, finishing just shy of the terrain piece. The grotesque raider and other wych venom advance into the terrain on the right flank. Baron rolls 3" for the hellions' run move, and I re-roll to try and get them all into cover, but roll a 1, meaning very few make it in... uh-oh. The ravager and warrior-raider are both able to draw a bead to the razorback and dreadnought respectively, but both will get cover saves - the raider hits but fails to glance, and the ravager fails to hit with any of its 3 shots. The wrack raider misses, and grotesque raider hits a rhino but fails to even glance. The talos, central and left venom combine their fire to kill all but one of the longfangs behind the defence line, who goes to ground; the right venom takes a wound from a thunderwolf. I regret leaving the right wyches in their venom as it may be a deathtrap...

Turn 1 - SW
Thunderwolves and both rhinos advance down the flank, foot hunters hunker down on the objective in the ruin. Dreadnought and razorback both move out. Lone wolf advances through the door. Snap-firing ML from the pinned longfang does nothing. Lots of shots are split-fired at the warrior raider and one of the venoms, but I roll hot on my jink saves; the raider loses 2 hull points and is immobilised. The grotesque raider also makes out like a bandit, only losing 1 hull point to a battery of bolter fire. The thunderwolves charge the raider, take no damage from overwatching liquefiers, and wreck it with a pair of glancing hits from their hammer of wrath attacks, earning the Space Wolves First Blood; Grots and haemy aren't pinned.


End of turn 1... the Space Wolves didn't fire at the two targets I was most concerned about: the left hand venom, and the hellions. The venom is integral to my plan for victory, and I didn't want to lose 3 hellions and risk losing a scoring unit AND my warlord on one LD 9 test.


Action on the right flank

Turn 2 - DE
No reserves arrive. The venom moves and disgorges the wyches on the left up near the 2 point objective, and they're out of sight. The warriors disembark from the immobile raider and move back towards the 2 point objective in the ruins, using their run move to get everyone into cover. Grotesques move out and line up liquifiers across the thunderwolves. Right venom does a pittance move and disembarks the wyches onto the 4 point objective, behind cover. Baron and hellions take up station around the 3 point objective. Blasterborn and talos advance, and the wrack raider hops over the wall to hide. Shooting begins to thin out the longfangs in the ruin, and knock the missile launcher off of the dreadnought. Ravager gets 1 hit, fails to even glance with it. The liquifiers do a few wounds to the thunderwolves, and I charge - in combat, I take one wound but take the wolves down to just one on one wound; he fails his break test and flees, I consolidate, making sure to shift the grotesques around.

Turn 2 - SW
Both rhinos move up and disgorge the GH squads. The one in the ruins moves up to spread across the ground floor, and get a few to the first floor of the ruins. T-wolf rallies and hides behind the wall. Lone wolf advances out a bit further. Ranged shooting does nothing to the ravager, but glances the wracks' raider and explodes the blasterborn venom, killing one of the trueborn. One Grey Hunter squad shoots and and obliterates the wyches, despite them going to ground. The grey hunter squad in the ruins, and the second one out of a rhino, both shoot at the grotesques, and do a reasonable amount of damage - but I've been beardy with the placements, so both squads are allocating their wounds to different grotesques; one takes one wound, and another takes two, so I have two grotesques injured and one at full health.


Overview at the end of turn 2


And again, a close-up of the action on that flank

Turn 3 - DE
Again, I get no reserves. Ravager and venom continue their flanking manoeuvre. Wrack raider shuffles slightly; haemy and grots advance towards the furthest back squad. Venom on that flank retreats. I go all in and move my hellions up so that they're all just within 18" of the nearest grey hunter squad, the plan being to kill a few (4 or 5) and be out of range of retaliatory rapid fire. Talos advances to within 8" of the lone wolf. Shooting from the grots dual-liquifiers melts some of the grey hunters. Venom and hellions combined kill 3 of the nearest squad of grey hunters, and they fail their morale check and fall back 11" (this is really bad for me, as will become apparent). The ravager finally does something, the 'something' in this case being to rip the heavy bolter off of the razorback. My other darklight fares better, with the blasterborn exploding the dreadnought. Talos liquefies a wound from the lone wolf, but then fails to charge. I'm incredibly cheeky with my positioning again, and charge the grots into the grey hunters, with the unwounded one bearing the brunt of overwatch. There's a lot of beating, but we stay locked in combat.

Turn 3 - SW
The grey hunters rally, and get their 3" regroup followed by 6" move, rolling high on their move through cover dice. This extra movement, combined with the lateral movement they got from having to fall back around their own rhino and my grotesques, means that they're now almost all WITHIN rapid-fire range of my hellions, primarily in the open. Almost all of the grey hunters with the rune priest and wolf guard pile up, so the priest and 2 men are on the ground floor, and 8 guys are on the first floor looking out. Shooting sees some split fire from the longfangs, managing to not quite damage some paper planes, and does a LOT of damage to the hellions, along with the rapid-firing grey hunters. I hit the deck to try and mitigate damage, but lose all the hellions anyway, with baron Sathonyx surviving - he passes morale. One blasterborn gets shot, the other flees. The haemy-hunter combat continues, and I'm down to just the haemy. Lone wolf charges the talos, but dies on the way in.


Bottom of turn 3. I'm still technically ahead, but there's a lot of wolves remaining and I need to keep him away from the 4 point objective.

Turn 4 - DE
Both my reserves come in. I hide the reavers behind the ruins on my left flank near the warriors, and bring the Razorwing down the right flank, using the ruin to shield it from the quad gun (No intercepting for you!). The raider, on its last hull point, moves into terrain and drops the wracks on the central 3 point objective. The talos, with its newly acquired pain token, goes to teach the grey hunters a lesson. Venom and ravager advance, and can now see the last thunderwolf. Ravager fires first, but the lone wolf makes both cover saves against the 2 wounds I get. The venom does better, finishing it off for a Fast Attack kill and a very useful victory point. Razorwing makes up for its late arrival by landing an astonishing 16 hits on the grey hunters in the ruin with its missiles, and 2 with the lances, taking out almost the whole unit that's visible (including the rune priest). The talos liquefies and splinters a decent number of grey hunters, before making its 7" charge through cover, and finishing them off in combat. Haemonculus finally gets beaten down by the last 4 grey hunters.

Turn 4 - SW
Not much that the wolves can do. One rhino retreats a bit and the last 4 grey hunters get in; it shoots at Baron but he passes his shadowfield save. The last few longfangs (I've been picking them off slowly, but can't remember when - the rune priest in there is dead by now) take a few pot shots, including some at baron, but don't kill him; they kill a few wracks, who go to ground.


End of turn 4...


With a close up. I think the Talos coming through in a pinch might have secured that vital 4 pointer

Turn 5 - DE
The reavers hop out. Baron, now unpinned, flies off to contest the 4 point objective. I could move some wyches for linebreaker, but that exposes them to fire and they might run, so I don't. Razorwing is cheeky and flies in front of the quad gun, and kills the last longfang behind the ADL. Talos rumbles up to the grey hunters in the ruin, and manages to kill a few with splinter cannon and liquefier. The ravager makes up for consistent failure by landing 2 dark lance wounds on the last 2 models; 2 failed cover saves mean that the last grey hunter and the wolf priest go down for Slay The Warlord. Talos sulks because he's been denied his snack. The reavers turbo-boost onto the objective that Baron vacated.

Turn 5 - SW
Rhino moves forwards and the grey hunters disembark. They shoot and wound Baron once, losing his shadowfield. The remaining longfangs split fire, missiles not killing any jetbikes thanks to the turbo-boost, and the quad-gun fires at Baron. Sathonyx goes to ground for 2+ cover against the 3 wounds, but fails one save and dies, giving up Slay the Warlord and leaving the Wolves in control of the 4 point objective.

We roll to see if the game continues, and it's a 1!


Game Over! Time to tot up the scores!

The Dark Eldar have both 3 point objectives, both 2 point objectives, a Fast Attack kill, and have slain the enemy leader... the Space Wolves have a 4 point objective, First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker

Dark Eldar Victory, 12 Victory Points to 7!

That was surprisingly close at the end, and a couple of clutch rolls could have swung it. Reavers bugging out if one died would dropped my total to 9 and brought my opponents total to 8, and if I hadn't slain the warlord then I'd have only had 8 points, and scoring SW warlord would have taken the 1 point objective making it a 9-8 victory to the wolves; realistically speaking one more passed cover save from him, and one fewer and a failed leadership check from me would have swung it. Was a much tighter game overall, and I feel that the wolves were just desperately unlucky in some areas. Bunkering up wasn't a bad idea as it made a solid firebase, but the fact that only 1 Victory Point was available meant that he had to come out, rather than forcing me to launch an assault on the wolf base.

I ended up heading for the objectives very early, since I knew I had 4 points that I could hold from turn 2 (the two left objectives) - this made it a straight up plan. I was untouchable on those; I knew the wolves would likely get the 4 and 1, plus the one from first blood for a total of 7, and I was willing to sacrifice Baron if necessary as I knew I could get that last thunderwolf, meaning all I had to do was keep one of the 3 point objectives to pull the game out.

Did have a query if anyone can answer with flamer templates... you can't normally shoot what you cannot see. However, if you can see part of the unit as was the case here ( I could see guys on the first floor) can you declare the flamer to be targetting the bottom floor, where you can't see any of them? This is what happened with the Talos, and had I not managed to liquefy so many the warlord would have lived, netting that objective. It didn't make a difference to the result of the game (would have been a 10-8 victory if the warlord had lived) but it'd be nice to know for future reference.

Anyway, thanks for reading, any C&C welcome!

Heya Puppet! I loved this report! The photos look lush too as you guys have some excellent gaming tables and scenery to fight over! Someone must've spent some time creating all of those!

Tactically I can see what you were getting at in the batrep I posted against Space Wolves, you have to keep the pressure up on the right points of their army and then don't relent. I feel you're right about the Pups luck; having some excellent skimmer/jink saves really helped keep your forces together - there were definitely times when you probably should've dropped guys off before their vehicle explodes liquid metal and shrapnel all over them. Similarly, the choice to not stick with the 3" run for your harlies was a bad plan! Looking back, if you haven't rolled a 1/2 and you are still getting the majority of your unit into cover it'd probably be best to leave that be in the future!

Sad to see your poor Ravager didn't do much, if you were to swap him out what would you put in? I'm dead chuffed for you with the Razorwing, mine always seem to fall out of the sky early on but you cunningly managed to locate yours out of LOS of the quad gun and then go on to cheekily blast the turrent out of existence!

There was a little bit of unluck on your part too / better luck for your opponent: having the large Grey Hunters rally like that really really hurt! I see that was the swinging point for your opponent as he had a chance there. I don't think he used his Longfangs to full effect this game as bunkering down like that should've meant that every rocket shot he could get should've counted, mind you, you were attempting to mitigate that as much as possible with constant firepower being poured onto them!

Overall an excellent game, report and lovely photos! I look forward to more!

Sadly I don't know the answer to your query... Do you find that the loadout for the Razorwing is optimal by going Dark Lance heavy? I prefer (from my games of 5th) to dedicate to the singular role of 'Infantry killer' by taking the Dissies on it as it works out nicely with the pie plate missiles and splinter cannon...

Very nice bat rep! thanks for sharing, it was enjoyable to read. Trying to learn the army here and these batreps are great to see how others play. Thanks!

How's your experience with the 3-man grot unit + haemi? I'm looking to field the same unit but i cant squeeze out enough points to include a 4th grot. Is 3 enough for you?

That Talos seemed to be beast near the end of the game!

Some comments, i kind of wished the photos were a tad more informative. it was slightly hard to follow tactically what was going on. Perhaps some tiny bits of labeling?

The flamer question is a tough one. Flamer templates into ruins are in BRB p101. It states the firer must declare which level is targetted before placing the template. And since you can't see the models in bottom level I would assume you can't target them, which means you can't place the template on that level.

Thanks guys . The flamer template one is very much a corner-case, as it requires a unit to be spread over two levels, but the flamer only being able to see one; fortunately it wouldn't have made a difference this time around.

@Beans - I used to run Razorwing/Razorwing/Ravager. The Ravager has been consistently useless, so I recently swapped it for a Talos; this time I went for a 1:1:1 mix of the options, mostly because I knew I was facing SW and I know SW don't get much anti-air, and didn't want to be a dick with fliers.

Also, for the Razorwing - I keep lances on mine because I need something with half a chance of countering opposing fliers. Without the lances, I'm struggling to beat other fliers, and am completely dead in the water to AV12 fliers short of snap-firing lances from the ground.

@Dakkon - this is my very first game fielding the Grotesques, as I've only just finished converting them. I'm going to need a few more games under my belt before I know whether or not they work just as a 3. I think they did reasonably well here, given they were about all I had on that flank.

The Talos is great in this list - it's a wee bit slower, but shrugs off all but the heaviest incoming fire, which means it's not aimed at my valuable and fragile transports. If it does actually get where its going, it has a good chance of shredding other units.

And I will see what I can do about adding labels to photos - there's so much happening it might be tricky, but I'll certainly try.

Great stuff, thanks man! Yeah enemy flyers are an absolute pain - pretty much only other options mean having to take an aegis defence line with quad gun and a guy with a decent BS to fire it (3s to hit don't cut it for me!), this means an HQ choice as our only other BS5 trooper is an Incubi! However the very static nature of this is not a concept that works with the speed and fluidity of DE.

Of course the other option for anti air is to take Eldar; war walkers, dark reapers and their flyers (much better at anti-air than ours).

Space Wolves have a reasonable anti air as all their missile launchers pack Flak missiles these days; 4-12 of those in an army is quite a decent AA defence!

I guess its not worth taking the Splinter Cannon any more on it as you can basically only fire 4 weapons per turn: both lances + 2 missiles. I doubt it'd get much chance later in the game to get using its cannon once the missiles run out. Shame really.

As for the Talos, he was a bad ass this game! I like the idea of it drawing fire, although I like the idea of it drawing fire whilst it has FnP to be even better!