As a last second decision (it was raining, so my other plans were shot) I attended a 2250 tournament.
The rules were:
Double force org / allies/ dataslates allowed... bring your worst and take everyone down!
So I just modified mt 1850 list a bit. My army was:
Baron
5 beastmasters
24 Khymareae (from now on called "dogs"
)
Shardseer on jetbike
6 x dual cannon venoms w/5 warriors w/blaster
3x ravager
2 x 3 man windrider jetbike squads w/ cannon each
3x warwalkers w/ dual scatter lasers
10 warp spiders
Pre tournament:
As I walked around, i saw imperial Knights (one guy had 3!) riptides, eldar and tau aplenty. Suprisingly, there were a few guard players as well, weather practicing for the new dex or as a last hurrah, I was unsure.
I felt my army matched up decent against some, not so well against others, and I have never faced the knights before, so I had no idea how that would go!
Game 1 was a random pairing (draw a dice and go to the table that had the matching dice, and I met my opponent, Oscar.
Oscar had a beautifully painted Eldar army.
Eldar allied with wraithguard eldar.
2 wraithknights
7-8 wraithguard w/2 seers in a waveserpent
Guardians in a waveserpent
a heavy tank that shot some large blast thing. Some kind of "weaver?"
3 war walkers w/ scatter and bright lance
farseer on jetbike
farseer on bike with mantle (warlord)
2x 10 warp spiders 1w/exarch
6 windriders w/2 cannons
3 windriders w/cannon
Mission: Slay the leaders.
6 pts for each warlord
4 pts for other primary hq
2 pts for allied hq
Deployment: dawn of war
Secondary = table quarters
Tertiary = capture and control
Warlord trait: useless
Pre game thoughts:
Well, the wraithknights should be easy going, and the mission is a benefit to me, as the most points I can give up is 10, compared to his 14. The spiders and that darn mantled farseer will be a pain though, as he can go where he wants at will with no hope of me getting him.
I won the roll to go first, and deployed centrally. I knew he would castle up in a corner so I wanted a good chance to bring a lot of my force to bear.
He did castle, kept bikes and spiders in reserve, and failed to seize.
Dark Eldar, turn 1. Two venoms and a ravager were out of range so they ended up turboing.
The dogs moved up and ran, heading for the waveserpents.
The venoms opened up and laid low the first wraithknight. the other took 2 wounds.
BUT, the main thing was that his HQ was kind of out in the open. One of my ravagers after moving 12" had a clear lane of sight to him (so it was guided of course). With luck, I could pop the mantle warlord before he started to get that stupid 2+ cover save!
The ravager shot (all hit, waste of a guide lol) and 2 wounds snuck through. He rolled the dice one at a time, and the first one came up a "2".
POP goes the warlord!
Eldar turn 1, he was disheartened, and wanted his revenge. He moved up and dropped out all the wraithguard and dire avengers. He moved up his knight and war walkers as well. He had a target in mind, and wanted to wipe it from the board.
They all opened up on the dogs, who lost like 5 models total. (they DID have fortune up!)
At this, i felt he was really disheartened. Now was the time to finish it.
My turn 2, all the venoms and ravagers moved up. The dogs moved PAST the avengers and guard, heading for tanks and warwalkers.
Shooting was devastating, wiping the wraithguard and wraithknight from the board, destroying 1 waveserpent and 24 str 6 guided warwalker shots took out all 3 enemy walkers!
The dogs charged the last waveserpent, killing it.
Eldar turn 2 saw 1 unit of spiders drop in, and drop a venom. the big jetbike squad come in and whiff on another venom and The heavy eldar tank dropped a pie plate on the bunched up dogs, killing about 4.
Dark Eldar turn 3 saw the spiders gone, jetbikes gone (24 shots again) and the tank and last farseer multicharged by the dogs, wiping both from the game.
At this point, he had no models on the table, 10 spiders and 3 jetbikes in reserve, and I lost a venom.
He called the game.
Dark Eldar victory, 47 points out of 48.
Afterthoughts:
I never really appreciated what 24 guided or prescienced str 6 shots can do in a game. It was devastating.
So, after game 1 I had almost 2 hours left so grabbed some BBQ. I walked around a bit and noticed a few other games ended really early. The 3 knight list was at the BBQ place before I was!
So, we went on to game 2.
Mission: Eternal Darkness.
I read the words "nightfight the entire game" and was super happy. until I read "night vision does not work this game!" Are you freakin kidding me?
Deployment: Hammer and anvil (What! in an eternal nightfight max 36" range game?)
Primary: Linebreaker. Get more scoring units in enemy deployment zone than he has in yours
Secondary: Big guns never tire and objectives
Tertiary: Destroy more heavies than your opponent.
Pregame thoughts:
Well, I have a fast army. Very fast. Heavy are scoring, so I was planning on hanging back 37" from the enemy, and on the last turn, turbo across the board for the win. Brilliant, right? So lets see what I would be facing:
Carlos's Grey Knight and IG list of cheesyness
I do not remember all he had or what they did. The mission had me a tad ticked so I was not paying too much attention. I just knew I was going to hang back, then turbo at the end to win.
He had: Inquisitor w/ rad and psychotrope
in a large squad of guys that had powerweapons and 5++ or 3++ saves
In a valkerie
2 guard squads (1 melta heavy) in vendettas
Coteaz
some jokearoos (2-3 units)
a plasma squad with psyker
2 basalisks
1 manticore
and now for the kicker:
A fortress of redemption and a Bastion! All maxed out with lascannons and missles.. Good god!
I won the roll to go first, and deployed 36.5 " from his farthest forward point. It was unnecessary as he deployed way back in his zone.
I reserved the bikes, and deep struck the spiders. He reserved all 3 fliers.
Warlord trait: My warlord and unit were scoring! Sweet!
GK turn 1.
He could do nothing.
DE turn 1.
I did nothing. Just shuffled to get jink saves if needed, and moved up a tad to stay as close as possible, but still safe.
His turn 2, all 3 fliers came on and searchlighted 2 ravagers and my beastpack!
CRAP! Forgot those dang fliers had searchlights!
Needless to say, he wiped 2 ravagers and about 8 models from my beastpack!
DE turn 2- Time to reevaluate my possibilities. I had 2 options. Hang back and still play my original plan, or move up and throw everything at him. I felt my original plan was solid, i just had to get rid of the fliers fast. So I did not move forward, my jetbikes came on, was shot with interceptor, failed LD test and jumped right back off the board!
Guide and prescience went on the walkers and a ravager, and everything I had opened up on the fliers.
the valkerie took 2 hull points, ane vendetta took 1, and that was it.
My plan failed and I was in trouble!
GK turn 3.
The valkerie went into hover and dropped off his nasty HTH squad by my dogs, but hidden behind a wall. The searchlights went off again on the dogs and a venom, the venom was dropped and dogs took a beating. I was in a bit of trouble. I had no choice but to move forward now.
DE turn 3 the bikes and spiders came on. Guide the spiders, prescience the warwalkers. The dogs moved up but could not see the GK squad to charge. The bikes hid to wait until they could turbo across. Everything I had moved up. I had to get to his deployment zone! All were within 36" so I knew his next phase would be bad for me.
The good news is that my spiders destroyed the melta vet vendetta, killing all but 1 who began to run! all other shots brought both other fliers to 1 HP each!
GK turn 4.
He flew off both wounded fliers
and I was right. His shooting was nasty. Every venom I had was dropped. Every last one.
The only bright spot was he charged my dogs with the GK squad. He rolled a 2 for his psychotrope grenades, ensuring he won combat, but I didnt care. he made a mistake! Being fearless, I did not test for losing combat, and I hit and run all the way to his deployment zone! My opponent closed his eyes for a second, knowing that a dogpack running rampant behind his lines was not a good thing.
DE turn 4. Dogs moved to confront basalisks, spiders and walkers moved out to say hi to his hth squad, and shooting wiped them from the board. Dogs ate both tanks.
GK turn 5. Fliers came in and the one with guys in it went into hover and dropped em off. Shooting at dogs saw some damage.
DE turn 5. Warriors on foot moved and with run started making it into his zone. Jetbikes also flew out and turboed into his deploymnet zone. Spiders ate the dropped off vets, and the dogs at the manticore. Walkers dropped the hovering flier.
Game goes on.
GK tun 6. He has one flier left, and everything else is in his buildings. He can get out, but there is nothing he could do.
He concedes to the DE!
I won primary
I won secondary, but we tied teritiary.
DE win 42 points.
Post game thoughts:
Dang, my plan almost backfired on me. But, in the end, my movement and speed still won out.
So onto game 3-
Primary: the relic
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Objectives
I knew who my opponent was. 30 Minuites into game 2, I saw MAtt, the 3 Imperial Knight player walk over to a chair and start to take a nap. His opponent was packing up. It seems that game was over in 30 mins. 3 hour rounds, and in 30 minutes, Matt had destroyed the entire opposing army.
So I knew I was facing three imperial knights!
His army:
Knight errant w/ thermal cannon
Knight paladin
Knight paladin
thunderfire cannon
chaptermaster on bike w/ shield and orbital bombardment and a powerfist
5 man bike squad
Aegis w/icarus lascannon
stormtalon
Tac squad w/missle
Sternguard squad w/ drop pod
Table quarter deployment.
I won the roll to go first (thank you baron!)
Pregame thoughts:
Ok, here we go. I know these things are murder in HTH, but I have a huge fearless squad. My plan was to multicharge all 3 knights, tie them up, get in position with heavy weapons, hit and run, shoot, then charge them again.
Brilliant, right?
So I deploy with dogs front and center, 1 jetbike squad on the line for a 1st turn relic grab.
He fails to seize, and we begin.
I fortune the dogs, prescience a venom and guide a ravager
bikes go up and grab the relic. Dogs go up with them then run to screen the bikes. Plan is going perfectly so far.
Venom #1 opens up on iccarus, and drops it in 1 turn of shooting. Plan is going great! I must be a tactical genius!
Venom #2 opens up and removes the thunderfire AND the techmarine! Holy crap! This plan is awesome!
Other venoms turbo or shoot at the bikes, killing 1 and wounding the chapter master 2 times.
Ravagers open on the first knight and take it down to 4 hull points left. Spiders jump up and take it down to 2 hull points left!
I end my turn smuggly and let my opponent go. I feel both confident and bemused I was so worried at all to begin with.
My opponent shuffles around a little bit, and starts shooting with his knights.
1 venom gone. Ok, no biggie.
1 ravager gone. Then another. My amusement starts to dissapate, but I am still in control here.
Last ravager takes 2 weapon destroyed results. My amusement is gone now. I have 1 long range lance weapon left. True, my blasters are close, but I thought my saves would be better than they were. And then I remember my overall plan. His knights would not shoot another shot all game! My smug sense of superiority came back.
Other shooting from the sternguard killed the bike squad with the relic.
As he finished his turn, I still felt 100% in control.
DE turn 2.
Fortune dogs, guide walkers and prescience a venom by the sternguard.
Shooting saw the sternguard, chaptermaster and bike squad gone. I moved the dogs 1" away from all knights for the multicharge, then the spiders took the last hull point off the first knight. BOOM.
Took out a few dogs and some beastmasters. Ok, that hurt a bit.
I charged in to combat, and my farseer actually got a rending wound with the shard, taking a hullpoint.
I again felt brilliant. This game was over!
He killed a few in HTH, no biggie.
then the two knights got 3 stomps between them. He rolled 3 dice, and got THREE SIXES!
He wiped my dog squad down to 5 dogs, the baron and the farseer!
Let me repeat this. In one round of combat, he took my 31 model dogpack to 7 models!
Oh believe me, i no longer felt like a tactical genius, I felt like a blithering idiot! Good god!
His turn 2 saw the flier come on and drop a venom. Hand to hand saw 2 more dogs die. His stomps were not "D" strength, so I tanked them on the rerollable 2+ on the baron. Then I hit and run outta there!
DE turn 3. Shooting dropped the tac squad to three guys, which my dogs charged and wiped. Shooting from the spiders and warwalkers however destroyed his warlord knight!
His turn 3 saw the flier drop yet another venom, and the knight drop a venom as well.
DE turn 4 saw a prescienced warwalker unit drop the flier, and the spiders and a crap ton of blasters drop the last knight.
He still did not concede, saying his drop pod would still pull this game out for him
So I had to go another turn and destroy it.
DE victory- max points.
After game thoughts:
HOLY CRAP! Strength D stomps small blast. D3 stomps each. He could have done 6 str d stomps, and the unit would be gone. 3 was bad enough!
My plan was good, it was solid. In the future, however,i would play smarter, surrounding an entire base rather than bunching up looking to get stomped.
So: How did I beat them?
Movement. Plain and simple, movement won this game.
I would jump my spiders to the side arc of a knight. At the begining of my shooting phase, he has to declare where the 4+ shield is. Then I would battle focus to the other side or rear, shoot then jump. The warwalkers pretty much the same. Battle focus and bigger threats made him choose sides that left others vunerable.
Spiders shoot 20 shots, prescienced, and any 6's is a hull point. They went down faster than I thought possible because of this!
So in the end, Dark Eldar once again won the day! I got a $100 store credit as a prize, and am looking forward to the next one!
Subject: 2250 RTT- Wraithknights and riptides and Knights, OH MY! 
Sun May 04 2014, 16:47
