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View Full Version : Josh's Board-Wiping Dark Eldar [750]



thecactusman17
05-22-2012, 11:47 PM
So at a recent tournament, things went a bit screwball and we ended up playing 1v1 750 games (as opposed to random 2v2, which we didn't end up with enough players for).

Here was my third-place list with 1 loss (Major, board wipe) and two victories (Major, both board wipes). Notably, the second board wipe win was against the player who wiped me in round one.

Dark Eldar:

Succubus, Agonizer
Succubus, Agonizer

Wychesx8, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agonizer
Raider, Nightshields, Aethersails

Wychesx8, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agonizer
Raider, Nightshields, Aethersails

Razorwing Jetfighter, Nightshields, Flickerfields, Splinter Cannon

As games get smaller, the core focus of your army has to be more and more refined. I chose a list that was 100% built around a vicious alpha-strike against mechanized troops. While the original list was designed to be a compliment to a randomly chosen teammate (we call the format Strange Bedfellows here in Berkeley) you can see where the list principles shine through. The army jumps to a critical area of the board, and then drops enemy armor with vicious glee between the dark lances and the haywire assault--both weapons make big tough transports irrelevant, a huge boon when many armies can't field a reliable response to a Land Raider, Ghost Ark, or Chimera wall at such a low points limit.

Notably, this army would have been a strong contender for the number two spot if I was a better painter, losing by only 3 points after the 2nd place winner doubled my paint score.

Game 1--tyranids
A bad roll means that my wyches fail to charge a key brood of genestealers, leaving them open for the inevitable counter assault and board wipe. A brood of Ymgarls pops out of well-chosen terrain to destroy the Raider heading to my opponent's objective, pinning the Wyches inside on boxcars. The Razorwing and surviving Raider try mightily for the tie, but both are killed by the ravenous swarm. +1S fails to give the units much benefit in combats without the charge.

Game 2--Ultramarines
The Razorwing blasts the Devestators in the backfield down to the sergeant, but there are still more rocket launchers scattered about the table. The Raiders hide carefully behind terrain, focusing firepower onto critical transports and exposing routes to the covered missile launchers. One squad breaks left in their raider and splits off its Succubus, and while he assaults a unit in the far back field the Wyches multiassault the Dev Sergeant and a tactical squad hiding behind a billboard. The Razorwing blasts open one transport and pins the squad inside, and the second Wych unit eats a squad of outflanking Scouts in the wrong place at the wrong time. The raiders drop the other Rhino and spill out the Librarian HQ. On the second to last turn, one Succubus assaults the pinned tactical squad while the other leads the remaining Wyches against the Librarian and his tactical squad. +1 WS proves incredibly useful, boosting my Succubi up to WS9 and forcing unlucky Space Marines to roll hits on a 5, while my Wyches gain numerous extra hits with an improved WS. If there was any doubt, I table my opponent to win the Kill Points scenario and win 8 to 1, losing only the Raider and a few unlucky Wyches.

Game 3--Tyranids, the Rematch
Fresh off scouring the sector of Ultramarines, it's no surprise that my Dark Eldar find yet more Tyranids nearby. But surprisingly, these aren't just any Tyranids, they're the same Tyranids responsible for my earlier defeat. Mindful of the danger, I carefully place objectives for this mission, which is standard Seize Ground and Spearhead deployment. I get first turn and force my opponent into a corner without significant cover for his Tervigon, Ymgarls, Genestealers and Termagaunts and even more critically, AWAY from all the objectives. In response, he reserves everything, recognizing that my ability to concentrate the full wrath of my Razorwing is going to severely harm his armyand that he can walk straight on to the board edge closer to the objectives. I roll Pain Tokens for my combat drugs and immediately start each squad off with 2 for Feel no Pain and Furious Charge. Now I match his toughness and out-initiative him! Carefully positioning my units on my end of the board center, the first units pop up. The Ymgarls chose a great place for intercepting my models on the way out of my table quarter towards the objectives--but I'm well away, on the opposite side of the no mans land, and there is no hope of a charge. My Razorwing unloads ALL ZE MISSILES into the Ymgarls, leaving only 3 alive to threaten. My Wyches hang back, waiting for new threats to emerge near the objectives while their raiders take potshots at the survivors and miss. Turn 3 the Genestealers and Tervigon show up, popo out a few termagaunts, and the Wyches hold their breath and move up to the advancing line of stealers. The assault is remarkably easy with 20 Agonizer attacks and over 40 S4 close combat attacks thinning out the stealers, leaving only a single survivor who fails to do any harm. Though the large termagaunt brood doesn't come in, the Tervigon, Termagaunts, and surviving Ymgarls know they have only one chance and pounce, unleashing a full salvo of shots (wounding both Succubi but killing only a single Wych thanks to FNP) and assaulting both units separately to divide the potential harm. The Tervigon is ultimately dropped by a fatal stab from a perfectly ordinary knife, while the Succubus in the other combat eliminates the surviving Ymgarls with a crack of her Agonizer. The Termagaunts have FNP thanks to the last gasps of the Tervigon, but can't survive the punishment for long--on the next turn, they are eliminated utterly. As the Termagaunts finally come on the board, my Raider moves up in between my Wyches and the only exposed shooting lane within 12", and my opponent (familiar with my list and it's anti-shooting abilities from earlier) makes a fatal error in judgement. Instead of positioning to shoot the covered, FNP troops, he instead attempts to shoot the range-reducing Raider. Pointing out that he doesn't have the range for the raider, and that he's an inch outside of range for shooting my troops, he acknowledges defeat. However, we do roll out the last turn. Both units of Wyches barely make it into CC, annihilating the unit of Termagaunts in a flurry of blows. However, they fail to take into account the immediate aftermath, as without holding an objective they lose a battle modifier despite an otherwise perfect game.