1750 Dark Eldar VS Eldar (pics)

[Master Bryss]

Numbers in brackets refer to order of attached pics.

Having had the DE Codex a few days it was time for me to play a game with it. ‘Scape expressed interest in improving his Eldar gameplay so we retreated to the Portakabin to play as many turns as possible before it was too dark to continue. Here are the lists:

Master Bryss’ Kabal of the Stolen Soul (1)

Phoenix Lord Drazharhra, Master of Blades
2x Haemonculus w/ Liquifier Gun and Scissorhand
5 Incubi + 1 Klaivex mounted in Raider w/ Flickerfield
5 Harlequins, 2x Kisses and 2x Fusion Pistols + 1 Troupe Master with power weapon
7 Trueborn w/ 2x Splinter Cannon
9 Kabalite Warriors w/ 1 Splinter Cannon + 1 Sybarite
9 Kabalite Warriors w/ 1 Splinter Cannon + 1 Sybarite
10 Kabalite Warriors w/ 1 Splinter Cannon
9 Wyches w/ 2x Shardnets + Hekatrix with Agoniser mounted in Raider w/ Flickerfield
5 Reaver Jetbikes
Talos w/ extra CCW
Ravager w/ Night Shield and Flickerfield

Cyberscape7’s Craftworld Kai-Fe (2)

Avatar
Farseer w/ Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom, Guide, Fortune, Mind War
4 Striking Scorpions + Exarch w/ Scorpion’s Claw and Shadowstrike
5 Banshees + Exarch w/ Mirrorswords, War Shout and Acrobatic
9 Avengers + Exarch w/ two guns and Bladestorm
9 Avengers+ Exarch w/ power weapon, shimmershield and Bladestorm in a Wave Serpent with twin Scatter Laser and Shuricannon, Star and Vectored Engines
10 Guardians w/ Bright Lance + Warlock with singing spear and Conceal
5 Pathfinders
Vyper with Scatter Laser and Holofields
4 Reapers + Exarch with Crack Shot and Missile Launcher
Wraithlord with sword, 2x flamer and Shuricannon

We rolled Annihilation and Dawn of War deployment, with ‘Scape to go first. He occupies one side of the battlefield with the Seer, the on foot Das and Pathfinders. In return I deploy a Haemo with the Kabalites with no leader, and a Raider full of Wyches. (3)

Combat Drugs are a 6, so Wyches and Reavers gain a Pain Token

Turn 1

Everything of Scape's comes onto the board bar the Scorpions, who will Outflank. The Guardians occupy the middle of the board escorting the Wraithlord with everything else deploying between them and the initial setup. The Farseer Guides the Pathfinders and Dooms my Kabalites.

In Shooting, the Pathfinders draw a bead on my Kabalites, but as the dice go through the filters of hit, wound, cover and FNP nothing happens. The Avengers have better luck and kill half the Kabalites, and another 2 are killed by the Vyper and Wave Serpent. Understandably, they fall back 7”.

Turn 1.5

The weakened Kabalites rally, and all my stuff comes on. Drazhar, the other Haemo and my Incubi enter in a Raider moving Flat Out into the table centre. The Ravager and Trueborn enter stage right and the Talos at stage left, with the Warriors and Harlequins entering between them. My weakened squad moves back into cover 4” and the Wyches’ Raider cruises forward and lets them out.

Wyches Fleet closer to the Avengers in Shooting, while the Harlies Fleet a pitiful inch. The Talos unloads its new shiny Splinter Cannon onto the Reapers and kills 1. The weakened Kabalites also shoot a Splinter Cannon at them, but it does nothing. One of my Warrior Squads runs 6” while the other tries to shoot the Wraithlord, to no avail. The Ravager tries to shoot the big dead thing along with the Trueborn, but neither do any better.

My Wyches charge the DAs and kill four of them, with one Wych lost in return. Due to the Fearless bubble, 2DAs die to No Retreat. The Reavers move up to where the Raider was at the start. (4)

Turn 2

No sign of the Scorpions yet.

The Wave Serpent cruises forward, followed by the Wraithlord and Guardians. The Banshees move towards the combat, and the Avatar towards the central Raider.

The Dark Reapers unload onto the Talos. The Exarch misses, but normal shots wound it once. One Kabalite from the tiny squad is killed by Pathfinders, they are not Pinned though. The Bright Lance platform in the Guardian squad tries for the Ravager, but the cloak of night around it saves it. The might of the Wailing Doom causes my Raider to crash and the Incubi to bail out. They are promptly shot at by the Serpent and Vyper but no Wounds are taken. The Wraithlord shoots too, nothing happens again.

In combat, the Banshees wail on the Wyches and kill 2. The Wyches in return split their attacks and kill a Banshee and two Avengers. The Farseer and Avengers do nothing, but nobody dies or flees in the results.

Turn 2.5- Score 1-0 Eldar

I move the Ravager to get a better line of sight to the Serpent and advance the Trueborn. I try out the Bladevanes on the Dark Reaper and they are excellent, killing 2 and the Exarch. The Harlequins go into cover, the Talos advances, the living Raider moves out of the way and the Haemo splits from the Incubi and their lord, giving them his pain token.

The Talos shoots the Pathfinders but kills none. The Wave Serpent detonates spectacularly after being Ravaged, and in the blast 4 Avengers are lost and 0 Incubi. The Haemo tries to Liquify the Avatar, but no wounds are caused. The Raider tries to Lance the Vyper but misses. The Avatar is then wounded once by Splinter Cannon fire from my Kabalites, and the Trueborn kill 2 Guardians with theirs.

Drazharhra and his disciples assault the surviving DAs and despite some spectacular luck with Shimmershields they all die, earning them a second pain token. In the other combat Scape loses an Avenger, a Banshee and a Wych. It goes on, although the Avengers flee. (5)

[Master Bryss]

Turn 3- Score 2-1 Dark Eldar

By this point it’s bloody difficult to see. The Scorpions come in on the wrong board edge, rendering them useless. I get a Kill Point as the Avengers flee. The Wraithlord and Guardians advance to the Incubi.

The Wraithlord opens fire on the Incubi, Drazhar loses a wound but his squad are fine. The Guardians kill 2 Incubi with their weapons. The Haemo is shot at by the Pathfinders but doesn’t die. The one living Reaper shoots him, and he lives. Then the Avatar shoots him and he immediately gives up and turns into slag. The Talos is wounded once by the Vyper.

The Wraithlord and Guardians charge the Incubi, however, being faster, Drazhar wounds the Wraithlord twice with his demiklaives used for a Strength bonus. Everyone else targets the Guardians and 7 die. In return the Wraithlord kills an Incubus. Both units are within Fearless bubble and die to no retreat, giving me the last useless Pain Token and 2 kill points. In the other combat the Banshee Exarch kills 2 Wyches while they only manage to kill one Banshee in return. The rest of the squad kills another Wych and I lose the squad to a sweeping advance.

Turn 3.5- Score 4-3 Dark Eldar

Because it’s so dark I forget about my Reavers. Therefore the only movement is that of the Incubi towards the Avatar.

The Raider has another crack at killing the Vyper, and succeeds. The Ravager attempts to Lance the Avatar, and fails spectacularly. I then gather up twenty-four dice and fire every single non-twin-linked splinter cannon in my army at the Avatar, which kills it. The Talos meanwhile kills a Dark Reaper.

Nothing is in range to assault. (6)

We declare at this point that it is far too dark and cold to continue, and total up the scores.

Score: 7-3 Dark Eldar

Post Game Analysis

Three turns in, we end up with a score that wouldn’t be out of place in Turn 5 or 6. It’s pretty clear to me that the new Dark Eldar are even more ruthless than they were before. Pain Tokens didn’t really play much of a part here, as in all the important combats they were pretty much null.

Villain of the Match: Drazhar. Yes, his cost has ballooned, but he can actually Fleet now and demiklaives are the single best CCW in the book. Before this I ran Drazhar and a tooled-up Archon. Now, Drazhar IS the tooled-up Archon. So I’ve actually saved points.

Things to do differently: Harlies need a transport. In future I think I’ll go half Raiders, half Portaldar.

[Cyberscape7]

POST GAME COMMENTS:
Indeed this was a thouroughly enjoyable game!
I myself came to the conclusion that, until I work out how Craftworld eldar work, Im probably going to play my nids in bat reps. Altogether the Dark eldar were a pretty interesting army to fight against in this new ed. However, as the skies darkened, Bryss did start to go insane. In fact he sounded what I imagine a haemonculus would sound like... Creepy indeed.
Yes, it seems as though the pirates of commoragh have returned to being the Big Daddies of the 40k villains. Congratulations Bryss, I hope the Dark Eldar fare just as well against the tendrils of Megiddo

[BuFFo]

We rolled Annihilation and Dawn of War deployment... In return I deploy a Haemo with the Kabalites with no leader, and a Raider full of Wyches.

This is illegal for deployment. You can only deploy three UNITS max, and here you have 4 units.

1) Heamonculus
2) Kabalites
3) Raider
4) Wyches

Wyches Fleet closer to the Avengers in Shooting, while the Harlies Fleet a pitiful inch.

You don't Fleet during the Shooting Phase. You Run. All Fleet does is allow you to assault even if you Ran with a unit in the Shooting Phase. I know this is a minor thing, but it irks me to no end!

These are just two minor issues I found with your report. Other than these, I really wish the battle could have been fought to it's conclusion! -sad face-

Thank you very much for this battle report.

[Master Bryss]

I was under the impression that Transports didn't count towards the limit as you bought it with a unit, but maybe I'm wrong.

As for the second one, I'm stuck in 4th edition with how I phrase things. Generally when writing battle reports I say Fleet only when I intend to assault anyway.

And in my defence, it was cold out there and my brain wasn't working 100%, so don't think of me as some demented fool.

[BuFFo]

You buy 10 models and their transport. In game terms, the rule of thumb is that if it moves on its own, it is a unit.

The 10 models is a single unit, and the transport is a single unit. That is two units within a single FOC selection.

Heck, if you read the Dawn of War rules, you are specifically told this :P

[Master Bryss]

And they give up a kill point too. Well then, I'll remember that for next time!

[Tynskel]

I hate Dawn of War.
It really is a stupid stupid game type.

Peeves me off every time I play it--- it isn't that I win or lose, I just think it eats up one turn of a 6 turn game, limiting the tactics and strategy. It would be better to have a regular deployment type with just all night fight rules. Or, have a roll each turn to see if Night Fight ends--- similar to Reserves rolls, where a 6 makes night fight go away, and you successively add +1 each turn, start rolling on turn 2.

The deployment setup in Dawn of War can really screw over most armies. Even those armies that balanced lists.

[Droofus]

Cool report. I love killing wraithlords with no-retreat wounds.

Very cinematic having the game be fought as the sun is setting. That's a pretty cool random game length mechanism

I hate Dawn of War.
It really is a stupid stupid game type.

Peeves me off every time I play it--- it isn't that I win or lose, I just think it eats up one turn of a 6 turn game, limiting the tactics and strategy. It would be better to have a regular deployment type with just all night fight rules. Or, have a roll each turn to see if Night Fight ends--- similar to Reserves rolls, where a 6 makes night fight go away, and you successively add +1 each turn, start rolling on turn 2.

The deployment setup in Dawn of War can really screw over most armies. Even those armies that balanced lists.

If one of the 3 standard deployments is screwing over your army then it's time to look at your list. I hate spearhead with my horde orks (you get the fewest square inches out of any deployment, and your frontage is minimized), but I recognize that certain deployments favor certain armies and I deal with it.

[BuFFo]

The triple mission/deployment system is genius. I absolutely love it, because it is supposed to force players to balance their lists.