Dark Eldar vs. IG Round 2!

[Ahrimaneus]

Hey everyone, another shameless plug to a lengthy batrep on my blog. Enjoy!

[URL="http://ahrimaneus.blogspot.com/2011/02/battle-report-vs-ig-2.html"]1850 Kabal of the Obsidian Sky vs. IG Round 2![/URL]

[blackarmchair]

Cool bat rep! I like the style.

I do have a bone to pick with you though, it seems you've stolen my shameless plug idea

As a random note, I really like your kabal's name it sounds cool and deep at the same time.

[Ahrimaneus]

Thanks Blackarmchair. I try to keep it colloquial and give a bit of my own personality into the batreps. Just a bit of sarcastic wise-*** if you couldn't already tell.

Shameless plugs are shameless, but necessary for fledgling bloggers unfortunately.

The name is actually taken from my friend's poem he wrote in college, Obsidian Sky. It popped into my head thinking about Kabal names and I just picked it up and ran with it. Until later when i found out the same paint scheme is used for "Obsidian rose" ARRGGHHH!!!

Thanks for reading!

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

Sweet, a close match. I feel your pain re: dice rolling
I've not been playing with Dark Eldar for long, and only against Marines, but here are the things that have worked for me, you may know them already, but anyway: -

Reavers are for Bladevaning, or one chance vehicle destroying. Just keep em Bladevaning and ending their move away from any flamers or ignores cover saves weapons. As Buffo says, nowhere does it say the line has to be straight, so I have often had them looping back into cover - shorter range but a real byatch to counter.

Second Turn kills - against soft targets like Guardsmen, smaller unit of Wyches may take two rounds of combat to finish the Guard off, meaning staying unshootable through your opponents turn - don't underestimate how useful this is!

Bide your time - Hide, hide some more and keep hiding. Keeping a Raider in cover within reach of an objective is awesome, especially when you have a whole fresh unit near the end of the game, waiting to pounce. I may be totally wrong, so sorry if I misread your report, but it seems as if you had a lot of stuff in the open at points where the Guard could open up against it.

Webway portal - Did your Archon have one? I'd have included an expendable Haemunculi to pop in a Venom and deploy it as close to his lines as possible to pour my Wyches out that way. They really are brilliant pieces of kit and have more or less been the indirect cause of all my wins so far. I'm fielding two against the Guard this weekend (see my list in Tactics to give me some criticism please!), so I'm hoping it'll REALLY ruin his day.

You probably know all of this and most likely play better than me anyway, I guess I just wanted to post this for other players too.

[Ahrimaneus]

Thanks for the feedback Unzuul. Some sound advice you've given there.

With regards to Reavers, I agree that their best use is in bladevaning as it picks up that cover save and allows free swings without any hope for retaliation. However, I've also found the JSJ with heat lances to be very effective if and when you can pull it off. It's one more way to throw down some AT, and the 6" extra move can often help get you out of harm's way after they hopefully pop whatever they're shooting at. As far as the "not straight" lines of bladevane attacks, the new FAQ addresses it pretty directly "draw a line from any one of your jetbikes and an intervening unit gets hit". Paraphrasing a bit but I think it's pretty clear you can't loop over stuff from the way they describe it.

2nd Turn Kills: I'm a big fan, particularly with Wyches. My bread and butter tactic against vehicle heavy armies is to focus fire on one transport to spill out the contents, then charge the haywire Wyches at another vehicle or two and only 1-2 into combat against the troops. Most often winds up with 2 vehicles damaged/stun-locked/destroyed and me stuck in combat for his shooting! Pretty sweet when I don't get the Initiative seized on me...

I did and do try to hide as much as possible, limiting firing lanes and such so as to limit retaliatory fire. Worked very well in several situations in these games but Indirect Fire doesn't care about cover. And of course you have to be able to make a cover save =) I did try to go gangbusters to lock up all his Chimeras turn 1 with the Wyches but unfortunately that damn 6 ruined my plans.

I've been very seriously contemplating adding a WWP. Not positive on how/where I would fit it in, but it might make things a lot easier vs. these kinds of armies. Definitely something to consider in my future lists.

I'll try to head over and take a look at yours for some help as well!

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

As far as the "not straight" lines of bladevane attacks, the new FAQ addresses it pretty directly "draw a line from any one of your jetbikes and an intervening unit gets hit". Paraphrasing a bit but I think it's pretty clear you can't loop over stuff from the way they describe it.

I disagree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for ONE MINUTE suggesting that this is how the rule is SUPPOSED to work, but neither the codex or the FAQ states a 'straight line'. A line does not have to be straight, it can be arched or even looped. The very fact that GW had the opportunity to state 'a straight line' either says it doesn't have to be or that they are really lax in sewing up loopholes. I think you are probably correct in how the rule is supposed to work, but the language does not stipulate it has to be a straight line at all. So bends and loops it is for me. I justify it fluffwise by pointing out that the Reavers are incredible jetbikers who pull off daring twists and loops to make their kills more magnificent, so are quite capable of pulling off tight turns and spirals to allow this to happen.

[Nod]

So you're intentionally misreading the rule to gain an in game advantage? Huh. I guess you're playing the right army for that at least.

[eldargal]

God, not this again. A line is not straight unless specifically stated to be so(, no one is misreading the rule, they are reading it correctly. I don't see why people assume it is intended for the rule to read 'straight', especially when the FAQ did not change it as it did for one of the Eldar weapon rules (d-cannon?).



*ie, 'straight line. A 'line' is merely the course between two points, it can be curved, straght, zigzag, whatever.

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

God, not this again. A line is not straight unless specifically stated to be so(, no one is misreading the rule, they are reading it correctly. I don't see why people assume it is intended for the rule to read 'straight', especially when the FAQ did not change it as it did for one of the Eldar weapon rules (d-cannon?).



*ie, 'straight line. A 'line' is merely the course between two points, it can be curved, straght, zigzag, whatever.

I love you EldarGal xxxx

[Ahrimaneus]

My apologies everyone, didn't realize the new FAQ didn't say straight line. Both parties I think have a good argument based on what your interpretation of "line" is either in the colloquial or geometrical sense. Just becomes a matter of RAI and RAW. Or what the definition of "is" is Either way I'm not about to stir up the debate here. So long as your TO/opponent/whatever is cool with it then roll with it.

Thanks again for the commentary and such!

Unzuul, where is that army list of yours? I went to try to find it on here and came up empty.