Was fortunate enough to get a pick-up game at my local club last night against someone who's scheduled opponent couldn't make it - 1750 points against Death Guard Chaos Space Marines. We knew beforehand that thanks to his low model count army that relied on high toughness, and my large amount of poison alongside not-very-durable-at-all units, meant that mission would play a larger than normal role in determining the game. Unfortunately for the Death Guard, we rolled the game that gave the Dark Eldar the biggest possible edge...
Mission: Crusade (5 Objectives)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Dark Eldar forces:
Archon, Huskblade, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, PGL, Venom blade
Haemonculus, Liquefier, Shattershard, Venom blade
3 Grotesques, Aberration, Raider (characters both go here)
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, extra Splinter Cannon
10 Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider with Splinter Racks
5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Venom, extra Splinter Cannon
5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Venom, extra Splinter Cannon
10 Wracks, Liquefier, Acothyst with Hexrifle, Raider
5 Scourges, 2 Haywire Blasters
3 Reavers, Heat Lance
Razorwing Jetfighter, Flickerfield
Talos, Twin-linked Splinter Cannon, Twin-linked Liquefier
Ravager
(The aberration and a lot of extra bling on characters were added when I found I had 60 points spare)
Death Guard:
Typhus
Warpsmith, Burning Brand, Mark of Nurgle(?) (Can't remember exactly what he had beyond the brand)
10 Plague Marines, 2 Plasma guns, Aspiring Champion with Power Sword
10 Plague Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Aspiring Champion with Power Sword
5 Chaos Terminators, Mark of Nurgle
3 Obliterators, Mark of Nurgle
Chaos Land Raider
Bastion with Icarus Lascannon
Typhus got Plague Wind and Weapon Virus as his powers, and comes with his own Warlord Trait (Fear). My Archon rolled Night Attacker as his Warlord Trait, and I got Hypex for a combat drug. I won both pre-game rolls for table sides/objectives, and for first turn, and elected to make the Chaos Marines go first.
Deployment. The blue objectives were deployed by myself, the white objectives by my opponent. He deploys the warpsmith and obliterators on top of his bastion, with the plasma-gun plague marines inside; the meltagun squad inside the land raider, and Typhus and his terminators behind it. I counter-deploy, making sure I'm more than 36" away from the bastion. The Land Raider doesn't bother me unduly as I'll be able to snag a 2+ cover save on turn 1 with whatever it shoots at. Warrior raider is on my left, then the archon's raider, and the trueborn venom in the ruins, along with the scourges. Talos is in area terrain, and I've got the wrack raider and the ravager hidden, flanked by the haywire wych venoms. The warpsmith chooses to shatter the defences of the ruin my scourges are starting in (a mistake, in my opinion). I don't seize, and the chaos marines start the game!
Turn 1 - Death Guard
The land raider pivots on the spot, and there is no other movement. My opponent begins his game plan of going after my troops by opening up with the land raider into the wrack raider, but I make all my cover saves (4+ for shooting through a ruin, +2 for shrouded thanks to night fighting).
Turn 1 - Dark Eldar
Everything begins to move, so I'll have 5+ jink saves at a minimum from here on out. The two raiders on my left flank move 12" round the building, and the venom with trueborn jumps over it. The scourges fly out, causing the first casualty of the game as one smacks his head on a roof beam. Talos struggles forwards, and the wrack raider advances 6" to keep pace. Ravager and one haywych venom move to my right flank, and the other comes to my left, moving flat-out to get near the trueborn venom. Shooting starts with the ravager scoring an unusual 3 hits, but doesn't even manage to glance the land raider. I fire lances from my 3 raiders at it, and manage to immobilise it, which I will happily take. To compensate for my poor shooting with lances and haywire blasters, I get lucky with splinter fire picking off 2 of the terminators. Shooting at the obliterators is ineffective.
End of turn 1
Turn 2 - Death Guard
Typhus and his friends advance around the left of the Land Raider (as I look at it). Warpsmith splits off from the obliterators to man the Icarus on his own. Shooting from the land raider explodes the wracks' raider for
First Blood, killing 3 and pinning the survivors. Shooting from the unit on top of the bastion explodes the warrior raider, killing 5, and the survivors flee. The heavy bolter from the bastion manages to penetrate the nearest wych venom, but only shakes it. Typhus and the terminators manage to glance a hull point off of the other wych venom with combi-bolters. Wracks pass their leadership test thanks to the acothyst.
Turn 2 - Dark Eldar
Both my reserves come in from different corners of the board; reavers hiding in the ruin in my deployment zone. The glanced venom moves 6" and disembarks the wyches in front of the land raider, as even as a gun platform it's still really annoying. Warriors rally and return towards the cover of the exploded raider. Archon's ride and the blasterborn move up (the latter just moving 6"), the Scourges jump into the central terrain piece killing another one (facepalm), and the talos moves up to the edge. I point the Ravager at the bastion, and the wyches disembark from the shaken venom and run into the central cover. End of the phase, the Icarus intercepts my razorwing, but I make my 4+ cover save from the ruin. Ravager fires at the bastion to no effect; and all I can do with my splinter weapons is pick off another terminator. Trueborn get a 4th with their blasters. Wyches charge the land raider, 5 haywire grenades hit automatically, and I don't get any 1s or 6s in my damage rolls, making it a wreck. Plague marines pile out.
End of turn 2. Pros - I've got rid of most of the terminators, and forced a plague squad into the open. Con - I'm down two raiders, two venoms are seriously dented, and all my troops are presently exposed.
Turn 3 - Death Guard
The Plague Marines advance towards the central ruins; Typhus and his last friend head for the wyches that just blew up the land raider. Shooting from the obliterators with plasma cannons kills 2 wyches from the other squad, and his shooting also manages to destroy the ravager and the wyches' venom. In combat, the plague marines charge in and easily kill the scourges, taking up station in the middle. Typhus and the terminator charge the 5 wyches. I inflict no wounds, but thanks to poor rolling and good dodge saves, only lose 2 wyches. The remaining 3 fail their morale test, and fall back.
Turn 3 - Dark Eldar
Raider moves, and the archon and friends disembark. Talos moves into terrain. Fleeing wyches rally, and the wracks move out of sight behind the ruined tower - they are now my game-winner squad; plan is to move them out again in the late game. Razorwing is doing nothing, so I send it off table. Reavers move across near the wracks. The warriors advance towards the centre. Both venoms move up behind the land raider. Feeling cheeky, I pop the shattershard over Typhus and the terminator, but they both pass their toughness test. The blasterborn finish off the last terminator for a pain token. The Talos manages to catch 6 plague marines under his template, and rolls AP3, digging out a good number of the plague marines; after a LOT of shooting (in this case, 'a lot' constitutes the Talos' splinter cannon, the warriors advancing, and both venoms) I manage to reduce the squad to 1 remaining. The reavers turbo boost up bladevaning Typhus in the face to no effect. Archon's unit fails a charge against Typhus (stupid not-fleet Grotesques...) but the Talos makes its charge against the last marine, leaving a foul-smelling smear on a pillar after squishing him with its hammer of wrath attack.
End of turn 3
Turn 4 - Death Guard
Without much to do, Typhus moves over towards the Archon's squad. He casts Plague wind, taking 2 wounds from a grotesque. Shooting kills 1 wych from the squad of 2, and the sole survivor falls back. He also manages to kill one of the jetbikes as in theory the heat lance is a threat to the bastion later, but they don't run. Typhus charges, and takes a wound from an AP1 Liquefier on the way in, and issues a challenge which the archon accepts. Typhus fires off the destroyer hive, only managing to net one wound which finishes the wounded grotesque. My archon can't get a 6 to wound, and Typhus lands 3 hits in return, 2 of which wound - fortunately, the shadowfield is up to the task, saving both.
Turn 4 - Dark Eldar
The wych venom moves back and the warriors re-embark, trusting it to get them to an objective. The 3 surviving wyches move forwards, towards the objective my opponent placed. Everything else, including the returned razorwing, moves towards his bastion, with the exception of the Reavers, who hide behind the land raider (the plan is to contest the only objective he can take). I disembark the blasterborn, and send them into combat with Typhus as well, as now I have 6 spectators instead of 3, giving my archon a potentially crucial re-roll. My shooting does next to nothing as I can't get through the armour of the units on top, and I can only manage a glance on the bastion. In combat, my archon lands 3 hits, and gets a single all-important 6 to wound. Typhus fails his invulnerable save, netting the Dark Eldar
Slay the Warlord.
End of turn 4. I'm now ahead on secondary objectives, with Typhus' head on a stick and a trivially easy linebreaker. The Death Guard need to wipe my troops to win.
Turn 5 - Death Guard
After some quick maths, my opponent knows that disembarking from the bastion onto the objective will not win him the game, so he needs to play for a later end. He opens up with a lot of shots into the wyches, including the very nasty shock that Obliterators get assault cannons (didn't know that until now!), wiping them out. The warpsmith, back on the lascannon, smashes the venom with warriors hiding inside, killing 4 of the remaining 5; crucially, he passes both his pinning and morale tests.
Turn 5 - Dark Eldar
I shift the last warrior within range of the central objective. Before anything else, my opponent suggests we see if we get a turn 6 as if we don't, I've won. We roll a 2, and the game ends.
End of the game!
When we called the end of the game, I've not moved into linebreaker range yet, but have 1 objective and Slay the Warlord, compared to my opponent's First Blood.
Dark Eldar Victory, 4 VPs to 1!Thoughts:
The matchup definitely favoured Dark Eldar, as soon as we had the mission. I really compounded this with my pre-game rolls; forcing night fight on the game AND being able to put the Chaos player in to bat first meant I was able to deprive him of a useful first turn as well as having the last say on objectives. My opponent's priority was spot on - trying to take out my troops and claim that one objective near his bastion - but he'd have had an easier time had he shattered the defences of the central terrain piece which I fought the game over, rather than the one I moved out of on turn 1. I still made a few errors (notably, I didn't use the razorwing well at all; when I brought it back in on turn 4 I should have come down the far right in case he disembarked). I think the Death Guard had lost it no matter what, since I had 2 units to play for objectives with, and the Reavers to contest his on turn 7 in the unlikely event it went that far AND he'd managed to kill all my troops.
Anyway, that's it for this week - C&C welcome as ever, hope you enjoyed!
Subject: Dark Eldar vs Chaos Space Marines - 1750 points 
Thu Jan 30 2014, 19:02
(we'll just gloss over the fact that it was crippled...) That was part of my game plan - the idea was to force that plague squad into the open ASAP, then concentrate all my fire on it until it was gone. At that point, my opponent can only ever claim one objective, whilst I can play for two or, if necessary, sent the reavers off to contest.
. The Talos did really well, actually - it did most damage to the plague marine squad. As for the lascannon vs quad gun - I'm not sure. The lascannon has a 96" range, which is nasty - you can't hide from it as I originally tried to by bringing it on in the opposite corner thinking it was 48", but my opponent very sportingly alerted me to my error. This is the first time I've ever faced a bastion (as part of a list), and the first time I've seen someone use an Icarus lascannon over the quad gun, so I'd honestly need to play against it a few more times before I can get a feel for what worries me more.
. For what it's worth, Typhus rolled a '2' for his daemon weapon in both occasions where he got to fight, against the wyches and first round against the archon.
