This was a 2v2 game of my Eldar and Ryan's Dark Eldar, verses Brennan and Todd's Imperial Guard (with Todd taking an allied detachment of White Scars and an Assassin, as of course, is tradition). The mission was Crusade with the Spearhead deployment. Each of use made a 1250 list and we each got our own warlord. Other than that, standard ally rules applied.
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| The Board |
Eldar
HQ:
- Farseer - 100
Elites:
- 5 Wraithguard in a Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon, and Holo-Fields - 305
Troops:
- 7 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon, and Holo-Fields - 236
- 3 Windrider Jetbikes - 51
Heavy Support:
- Nightspinner with Holo-Fields - 130
- Nightspinner with Holo-Fields - 130
- Wraithknight with Scatter Laser and Suncannon - 300
Total: 1252
Dark Eldar
HQ:
- Archon with Webway Portal and Clone Field - 120
- Court of the Archon with a Lhamean - 10
Elites:
- 4 Grotesques with 3x Liquifier Guns in a Raider with a Darklance, Nightshield, Advanced
Aethersails - 265
Troops:
- 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom with extra Splinter Cannon - 120
- 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom with extra Splinter Cannon - 120
Fast Attack:
- Razorwing Jetfighter with Nightshields and Splinter Cannon - 165
- 5 Scourge with 4x Blasters - 140
Formation:
- Scalpel Squadron with 2x Liquifiers and 2x Acothysts with Liquifiers and 2x extra Splinter Cannon
- 310
Total: 1250
These lists were built to have a good amount of synergy and hopefully deal with anything they would be bringing. Now we made a mistake with the Court of the Archon, as I didn't realise until after the fact that the Lhamean isn't an independent character, but it didn't actually matter. The Archon would be deepstriking in with either the Grotesques or the Wraithguard, depending on weather we needed to kill a vehicle or a unit of infantry. The Nightspinners were there to snipe out any special weapons, or characters that needed to die, while the Wraithknight was of course a beatstick. The Scourge would be able to take a vehicle and the Razorwing really gives a bit of everything, including some much needed air support. It should be noted that the Dark Eldar are heavily proxied as it is very much an army in progress. The Venoms would be played by Hornets, the Grotesques by spawn, the Scourge by Swooping Hawks, and the Razorwing by a Crimson Hunter. While I realize this can be confusing, it can't be helped, and we did our best to keep things well represented.
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| The Eldar/Dark Eldar. (Lots of Dark Eldar Proxies) |
HQ:
- Lord Commissar with Carapace Armour, The Blade of Conquest, The Emperor's Benediction,
and Meltabombs - 105
- Primaris Psyker with level 2 - 75
Troops:
- 11 Veterans with Carapace Armour, Krak Grenades, 2x Grenade Launchers, and Heavy Flamer in
Chimera with Heavy Stubber - 175
- 11 Veterans with Carapace Armour, Krak Grenades, 2x Grenade Launchers, and Heavy Flamer in
Chimera with Heavy Stubber - 175
Fast Attack:
- Helhound with Camo-Netting, Multi-Melta, Storm Bolter and Smoke Launchers - 160
- Vulture Gunship with Twin-Linked Punisher Cannons - 155
Heavy Support:
- Leman Russ Punisher with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Camo-Netting, and Storm Bolter - 180
Fortification:
- Aegis Defence Line with Coms Relay - 70
Total: 1250
Imperial Guard/White Scars/Assassins
HQ:
- Company Command Squad with Vox Caster, Heavy Flamer, Kurova's Aquila and a Chimera - 200
- Librarian with Force Sword (Allies) - 65
- Techmarine - 50
Elites:
- Vindicare Assassin - 150
Troops:
- Infantry Platoon with 3x Lascannon Teams, 3x Plasma Guns, Vox Caster - 325
- Infantry Platoon with 3x Lascannon Teams, 3x Plasma Guns, Vox Caster - 325
- 5 Scouts with Sniper Rifles (Allies) - 60
Fortification:
- Aegis Defence Line with Icarus Lascannon - 85
Total: 1260
Well the main threat in this list is, obviously the numbers. 2 units with triple Lascannons that can ignore cover saves with make mince of basically all our vehicles, and the Vindicare can really do a number as well. Add in a couple of Space Marine characters to stack on all the special rules to the infantry blobs, and you've got a problem. The Vultures would also be a big pain to deal with, and combined with the Punisher, anything not in good cover or a vehicle is basically paste.
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| Brennan's Guard Force |
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| Todd's Guard |
With minimal upkeep this game, we pretty much just set up and dive in. Brennan and Todd win both the roll for table sides and the roll for first turn. They pick the side with better cover, but only one objective (weird choice, as they have 2 defence lines, but whatever). They also select to go first.
They deploy the walls basically right across their deployment zone and hide the two blobs behind it on the right flank, whilst the Punisher and vets hold down the left. The Command Squad hangs out in the back corner, and one Platoon Command hides behind the wall, with the other in a forest just outside it. The Assassin deploys in the tower.
For us, we deploy the Venoms on the right flank, with one unit of warriors in our back field. The Wraithknight goes into the centre, as far forward as possible, with the Wave Serpents flanking him. The Nightspinners deploy in starting range for their Deathspinners, one on the right flank, and the other more in the centre.
Turn 1
With nothing really needing to move, and no useable psychic powers to start, Brennan and Todd jump right into the shooting phase. One Platoon fires on a Nightspinner, which despite its 3+ cover save has its Doomweaver blown off. The other Platoon fires at the other Spinner, and takes of the Shuriken Catapult. The Vindicare takes aim at the Nightspinner with its Doomweaver, but misses. A couple of shots from Brennan's Autocannons manage to immobilize it though.
Careening in from the skies comes the scalpel squadron, hoping to kill the exposed and isolated Platoon Command squad for first blood. Unfortunately, both venoms scatter into a building and mishap, one unit being destroyed and the other going back into reserve... Great. The Wraithknight jumps forward, as well as both Wave Serpents and the Venoms.
In the shooting phase, the Wraithknight fires everything into the Vindicare, and manages to deal a wound. A Wave Serpent fires into the Guardsmen and kills a couple, and the other fires into the Icarus, taking it to a single wound. The Venoms do the same. The Nightspinner fires its barrage, hoping to pick the Commissar or some Lascannons out of a squad, but the shot scatters and instead kills a Guardsman or two and the Icarus Lascannon.
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| End of Turn 1 |
Called in by their commanders, the Vultures both come in, as well as the Hellhound and the Scouts, who outflank near the Venoms. The Primaris Psyker jumps out of his Chimera and into the nearest platoon. In the psychic phase, Brennan fails to cast prescience on the infantry.
This time, Todd remembers his orders and orders the Platoon the went to ground to stand back up, and the other squad to ignore cover. With not much else to shoot at, the squad that got up fires at the Nightspinner without the big gun and despite a 3+ jink save, it is wrecked (The first 4 saves I rolled this game were 1s). The other squad and the Vindicare shoot the Wave Serpent with the Dire Avengers and Farseer in it and blow it up, but the squad inside takes no wounds. Unfortunately, there is a Hellhound and a Vulture right there and between the two of them, the whole squad is blown to smithereens. The other Vulture and the Punisher fire into the Wraithknight, along with basically everything else, and manage to do some wounds to it.
We roll our reserves, and only Razorwing and Jetbikes stay off. The Scourge land next to the Hellhound, the Venom drops right next to the outflanking Scouts, and the Archon's raider appears in the midst of the Guardsmen.The remaining Wave Serpent moves over near the Vultures, and drops off the Wraithguard, hoping for a lucky shot, while the Wraithknight leaps forward. The Venoms kinda scooch forwards as well.
Shooting begins with the Wrack's Liquifiers killing 3 Scouts, and the Grotesques Liquifiers doing a number on the Librarian's platoon, as well as some damage from a thrown plasma grenade from the Archon and a shot from the Dark Lance. The two other Venoms blast into the Platoon Command Squad and kill them all, and the Wraithknight targets the Librarian's Platoon. The Scourge attempt to destroy the Hellhound, but even with 4 blasters do no damage, forcing the Wave Serpent to wreck it. The Wraitguard, and a Blaster shot from the Warrior squad on foot all miss the Vulture, and again the Nightspinner gets a bad scatter and does minimal damage. In the Assault, the Wraithknight fails its charge, leaving it stranded in the open for yet another turn.
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| End of Turn 2 |
With both a Wraithknight and a unit of Grotesques bearing down on them, the Guardsmen are getting nervous. The Punisher turns to blow apart the Scourge before they can attempt to do any real damage, while the Vultures manoever to target the Wraithknight. Again, no powers of any use were cast.
In the shooting phase, it takes both Chimeras, the Vindicare, and both Vultures to down the Wraithknight, leaving the Platoons free to target the Raider. The Lascannons and the Command Squad's Chimera prove too much for the Raider, and it explodes, pinning the Archon's unit and leaving a Grotesque at a single wound. As expected, the Punisher tank murders the crap out of the poor scourge.
With the xenos forces rapidly dwindling, it's time for some decisive action. Both the Razorwing and the bikes come zooming onto the board. The Wracks head towards the Techmarine's Platoon, while the Venom drops off its Warriors to deal with the scouts and heads towards the Guardsmen. The Wraithguard get back into the Wave Serpent which heads to claim the objective near the rocks - a skyfire nexus, as luck would have it. Finally the Warriors head towards the objective behind the building.
Shooting this turn sees the Razorwing fire its whole payload into the Librarian's squad and kill absolutely nothing, thanks to a 2+ cover for going to ground. The Liquifiers do some more damage and kill a large chunk of the Techmarine's squad. The Wave Serpent takes the opportunity granted by the Skyfire Nexus and obliterates one of the Vultures. The Warriors absolutely obliterate the Scouts, and the Venoms do quite a number on the Guardsmen as well. Again, the Nightspinner fires and does little. With the shooting done, the Wracks attempt to charge, but fail the easy distance, and lose one of their number for their trouble.
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| End of Turn 3 |
With the Xenos threat making a comeback, the remaining Vulture drops into hover mode to deal with the Warriors on the objective. The Chimeras trundle forth from behind their defense line. In the shooting phase, all the Guardsmen from the Librarian's squad, as well as the Command Chimera pour everything into the Grotesques and deal a ton of damage, killing all but the Archon and a single Grotesque. The other unit fires into the wracks, but the wall offers some protection and only one is killed. The Vulture blasts the Warriors, who go to ground, and thanks to the objective (a Scatterfield) and their Feel no Pain, the Blaster Warrior survives. Finally, the Vindicare shoots at the Wave Serpent, but fails to damage it.
With no real target, the Razorwing leaves the board. the Jetbikes cruise over to reinforce the lone Warrior, while the Wraithguard disembark once again to deal with the oncoming chimeras. The Wracks climb over the wall, and the Archon and his bodyguard head over to the Librarian's squad to inflict some pain. The Venoms move forward, and the Warriors do as well.
The Nightspinner is finally able to hit, and manages to snipe out the Commissar and a couple of Lascannons. The Wave Serpent targets the Vindicare and annihilates him under a torrent of fire. the Venoms reap a bloody toll on the Guardsmen, including killing the Librarian, as do the remaining Liquifier Guns. The Wraithguard manage to blow up one of the Chimeras, and half the squad inside is killed, the others pinned.
Again, the Wracks attempt to charge, and again they fail and lose a member. The Archon's squad fares better, and they get into combat and kill a few of the Guardsmen, though the Archon is beaten down under a mass of Guardsmen.
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| End of Turn 4 |
Turn 5
Things are starting to turn against the Guardsmen. The Command Chimera moves forward into the crater, while the Techmarine's squad moves to get back into coherency. The Punisher and Chimera move towards the Wraithguard, and the Vulture whips around to shoot the Wave Serpent in the rear. The Primaris Psyker casts Force.
Shooting sees a pair of Wraithguard fall, as well as the Wave Serpent. The other Platoon Command Squad moves over and tries to destroy a venom with its Heavy Flamer, but the Flicker Field saves it. The Command Chimera's weapons see to its destruction instead. In the Assault, the Primaris Psyker is able to kill of the remaining Grotesque.
Again, the Eldar forces are put on the back foot. The Venoms move around to claim the enemy objective, and the Wraithguard get into range of theirs as well. The Razorwing moves in behind the Vulture, prepared to put its weaponry to good use. The Warriors make a rush towards the Wraithguard's objective to reinforce.
The Razorwing begins by failing spectacularly again, and does nothing to the Vulture. The Venoms shoot the Primaris Psyker's squad up and they flee off the board. The Nightspinner fires into the clustered Guardsmen and kill all but one, and stun the Lord Commissar's Chimera. The Wraithguard attempt to blast the Vulture from the sky, but only glance it. The Wrack finally makes its charge, but is easily killed and the squad consolidates to the contested objective.
We roll to see if it goes on...
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| End of Turn 5 |
The game continues, but we decide to call it in favour of the Imperium. At the time we had forgotten that the Commissar's Chimera had been stunned, and so couldn't move, which really gave us the advantage, but we had been playing for several hours by this point and were ready to call it and get a bite to eat.
Post-Game Thoughts
That was an interesting game, but I feel like it was a poor testing of the new Dark Eldar codex. Ryan rolled really bad in some key moments (i.e, anything involving a lance, or scatter) so things that should have been brutal did absolutely nothing. While the dice can rarely be blamed for a loss, this was definately a battle where we felt like nothing we could do worked. Failing my first 3 cover saves, and a Serpent Shield save really hurt our strength right out of the gate, and both of the Venoms from the Scalpel Squadron mishapping was even worse. Combine that with the Nightspinner scattering badly 3 out of 5 turns, Ryan's terrible lance luck, the Archon being pinned, a ton of failed charges, and Todd's crazy amount of wounds on the Grotesques, and its hard to not feel like it was an uphill battle the whole time.
Dice aside though, I am very happy with how we played tactically. We really used our speed and what fire power we had to our advantage, and even though our plans didn't always pan out, we were able to adapt to what Brennan and Todd were throwing at us quite well. I also think our opponents played a good game, though their decision to take the side with better cover over the side with the objectives, particularly when they had two defence lines was a terrible mistake that very nearly cost them the game. Todd forgetting his orders turn 1 could have been a terrible mistake as well, had I not failed every save anyways. Overall it was a fun game, and I look forward to doing more of these 2v2 matches in the future.
