Monday 6 September 2010

Battle Report VS Dark Eldar


Dark Eldar, this rare beast of all armies. I don't get to play against them often (like 99,9% percent of 40k players out there) so I was excited when my friend Leonidas (not the one of the Spartan fame but Moskitokiller from the Imperial Seals guild) asked me for a game. He haven't been in the hobby for too long but he is a mature and intelligent guy and what he lacks in experience he gains from acute tactical understanding.

He wanted to try a new list against me and he had the following units in his army: Jetbike Archon, Jetbike Drakon, 2 x 8 Jetbikes with blasters, 10 Wyches in Raider with Dark Lance, 3 x 10 Warriors with Dark Lances, Blasters and tooled up Sybarite, 2 x 10 Warriors with Dark Lances . I used my good old list. We rolled for killpoints in dawn of war deployment. I won the dice roll (thank to Emperors Tarot again, I love this item) and opted to go second since I wouldn't have much to shoot in the first turn.

He deployed his 2 blaster warrior units inside terrain almost in the middle of the board and kept the Wyches in reserve. I deployed nothing so my whole army could come from the my edge on turn 1 (expect from the Inquisitor who I kept in reserve hoping that he wouldn't give him an easy kill point).

First turn having nothing to fire at, he turbo boosted his jetbikes 24'' towards me,each unit in a side of the table,  and walked/run his footsloggers to close in our distance. Nothing too exciting there but he was now dangerously close, meaning that next turn my tanks would be in range of his dark lances and that I would be in charge range of his jetbikes. I knew that I had to take them out before they could do any damage.

Moved my Company Command, Platoon Command and one Infantry Squad chimeras on the right of the board where there could be closer to one of his advancing warrior unit and one of his jetbikes units. Bane Wolf moved 12'' hoping I could get in range for my search light to illuminate his units. Manticore came to their left, hiding behind some area terrain. More to the left I deployed my Medusas, Psykers then the Hydras so they could be pretty much in the middle of the board threatening both of his flanks. On the far left I moved the Valkyrie 12'' on the board so it could use it's searchlight on the jetbike squad containing his Archon. Lastly two more chimeras (veterans and the other infantry squad) moved in to threaten his left flank.

I had to take out his jetbikes and at least one of the closest warriors unit or else I would be in trouble. Since I was around 18'' away from his units I couldn't take any chances botching my night fight spotting rolls that's why I moved my fast vehicles so close to his units (no I don't have suicidal tendencies). So the Vendetta had to fire first in order to make use of it's searchlight. It targeted his jetbike unit, the one with the Archon. Thankfully it was in range meaning that all my units could now fire at them without having to roll in order to spot them. The combination of Hydras and 3 chimeras firing at them only let the Archon standing, albeit unwounded. He wasn't going to be a major problem though so I let him be for the moment.

On the other side of the table the Bane Wolf illuminated the tooled up Warrior squad so the rest of the army could fire at them without worries. I opened up with my Medusas and a couple of multilasers. Since the warrior unit was close to the other jetbike unit I placed the ordnance plate from the medusas to cover them as well. Leonidas passed a lot of his cover saves but both of his blaster warriors died leaving the unit out of coherency. Since his blasters were out and he had to move next turn, i.e. not shoot with his dark lances, the unit was no longer a threat at the moment. I shot another couple of multilasers to the second jetbike unit and with all the shooting I managed to kill 3 guys. He would have had to pass a Morale check so I hit him with Weaken Resolve so his bikes fell back 10'' reducing their threat to nothing for next turn. I manage to neutralise his most scary units with one round of shooting which made me feel confident for the rest of the game.

On his turn his Wyches arrived even though they needed a 5+ (Officer of the fleet). He moved them cautiously 12'' on the right board side. The tooled up warrior squad moved in order to be in coherency but the other stayed put in order to shoot next turn. His footsloggers advanced towards me once more except for one squad. He had a choice to make with his Archon. Either turbo boost him to safety to spare 1 KP or come to me and assault one of my vehicles. He choose the latter and flew near my veteran squads chimera. He didn't have much luck with shooting since the only thing that his two warrior units firing managed was to stun my vendetta. Archon charged my chimera but only stunned it. She (his Archon is modelled as a woman) was going to be in a world of pain next turn.

In my turn the Bane Wolf closed in with his intact Warrior squad. Firing both the Chem and the Heavy Flamer it managed to kill 7 from that squad. Couple of multilaser shots later and there was only a guy with a dark lance still standing. Command Squad and one Infantry Squad disembark near his other warrior squad to rain rapid fire death on it. The fusillade of lasgun that followed ensured that they all went to Dark Eldar heaven or wherever these guys go when they die. Veteran squad and the other infantry squad emerged from their Chimeras and shot at the Archon. After all that shooting I only managed to take one would off her (she already lost one before for taking too much heroin, crack and LSD at the same time or something). At least she had lost that annoying 2+ invulnerable save. Luckily I still haven't fire one of the chimeras multilasers and turned its weapon at her. Long shot but still it managed to kill her.

Hydras shot at the Raider but only managed to stun it. Since it couldn't shoot I decided to leave it alone for the moment. Manticore had an amazing round, firing three templates and killing in total 4 jetbikes, 7 warriors from one squad and 3 from another. I guess Leonidas now has learned not to cram his units too close against the Imperial Guard. Psykers hit the remaining 2 jetbikes with weaken resolve and they run off the table. Medusas killed a few more warriors and that was about it. My Vendetta just moved flat out so it could avoid most of the Dark Lances and get a +4 cover save.

On his next turn he charged his Wyches on my Command Squad. I really just wanted him to wipe out my unit so I could shoot at them on my next turn and so it happened.  They remained inside terrain but this was not a problem since I had a lot of flamers around. His lone Dark Lancer shot at the Bane Wolf but missed.Rest of his Dark Lancers shot at the Vendetta but only managed to stun it again.

With not much left of his army on the board we continued at my next round. Platoon Command Squad disembarked and fired four flamer templates at the Wyches with managed to take out all of them. The Bane Wolf overkilled the last standing warrior with the dark lance frying him alive in putrid chemical fire. The rest of the army focused on the Warriors units hanging at the back near his table edge. Most of the stuff was out of range and my templates scattered so I only killed a couple of guy.

We played a quick last turn since time was running late. He managed to kill the Bane Wolf at last with a Dark Lance and I killed a few more warriors. At this point we knew what the result would and since the game store was about to close we called it a day. He got two Kill Points from me and I had eight from him with a potential to wipe him out if we played one more turn.

In retrospect some poor army list choices with a combination of the Dawn of War deployment cost him the game. He had 5 foot slogging units and 2 very fast units with his characters. That's not a very good move in my opinion since it means that the infantry will stay behind and his jetbikes are just going forwards unsupported. Also the DoW deployment meant that most of his units would have to move for a couple of turns before he could shoot at me. He also relied too much on the +3 turbo boost save for his bikes. With as much shooting as my army have (especially the Hydras which are jetbike killers) we didn't have much chance advancing them without taking heavy casualties. Anyway he was trying a new list and got a brutal lesson from a competitive Imperial Guard army. It was a good game and I am looking forward playing him with a different Dark Eldar list.

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