Dark Angel Devastation... Eldar/Dark eldar vs Dark angels 1500

The dark angel’s codex has been out for a while now and I hadn’t played against it until now. Again I was at the gaming club and I got to play against them (a change from orks). I swear It’s not a fix, but we rolled the mission ‘big guns never tire’ (4^th game in a row) with dawn of war deployment. So it’s 1500 points, Eldar/dark eldar vs Dark angels. 

The Armies

I again used Wraithstar V2.1  Eldar/Dark eldar 1500

Farseer – 140 (warlord: conqueror of cities) w/ wraithguard

10 Wraithguard – 396

Warlock, spiritseer, conceal

10 Guardians – 95

Scatter laser

6 Warp spiders – 149

Exarch, 2 x spinner

3 War walkers – 180

Scatter lasers

2 War walkers – 80

Shuriken cannon

The Baron – 105 w/ wraithguard

5 Warriors – 60

Blaster

Venom – 65

2 x splinter cannon

5 Warriors – 60

Blaster

Venom – 65

2 x splinter cannon

Ravager – 105

3 x dark lance

And my opponents 1500 point dark angel army. Unfortunately I didn’t get an exact copy of his list but this is as much as I know.

Azrael (warlord: courage of the lion) w/ command squad

Librarian w/ command squad

Master level 2 (prescience, psychic shriek), force sword

Command squad

Standard of devastation

Razorback

Twin linked lascannon

10 Tactical squad

Plasma cannon, plasma gun, plasma pistol

10 Tactical squad

Missile launcher, plasma pistol

5 Deathwing terminators

Assault cannon, chain fist

5 Deathwing terminators

3 Ravenwing bikes

Plasma gun

So that was his army, 2 HQ’s and 5 Troops choices. I will admit I was scared of the standard of devastation, making all bolters within 6 inches salvo 4 could potentially be a problem for me.

The Mission

We set the terrain up in a mutually agreeable way just a few bits here and there, then rolled for who got what side. I won and took the side with a ruin for my guardians to hide behind. We got 5 objectives for the game and took it in turns placing them, he placed two in his deployment zone, I put one on top of the ruins just outside my deployment, one in the centre of the table and one on the far right flank. (Ignore the road, we used that to show the edge of the table, we used 6 x 4 instead of 8 x 4)

The battle field

Rolling to see who sets up first, he won the roll but elected for me to set up first. I deployed my guardians behind the ruins with the ravager behind them to avoid being shot at if he stole the initiative. The wraithguard set up next to the guardians and behind them I placed the war walkers. As a hill blocked a lot of sight on the left, I placed both venoms there to try and get them behind the enemy, or if he placed units to counter them they would reposition with my main attack force. I kept the warp spiders in reserve and out flanked the shuriken walkers.

He then deployed his army, setting up his command squad in the centre of the table with the razorback in front of them to shield them. On either side of the razorback the tactical marines were placed. The bikes where on the right behind a ruin and both terminator units stayed off table, ready to deep strike in turn 2.    

Deployment

Again we used mysterious objectives but they didn’t make any difference in the game so I won’t bother mentioning them.

Night fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

So I go first, before I do anything I think what is the most dangerous unit he has right now, the command squad, as they are making all bolt guns quite scary. That's my first target.

I cast fortune on the wraithguard and guide on the war walkers behind them. The wraithguard move straight up towards the marines, hoping I can weather the storm if my plan goes awry. The war walkers move forwards just enough to get all of the command squad in range of their guns then stay there. This way if everything goes tits up, they will be out of range of return fire. I roll difficult terrain for the guardians and get a 6, so up 2 levels they go, getting the objective. Both venoms move up the left flank staying out of sight. And the ravager moves out from behind the cover to take a few pot shots at the razorback.

Shooting order is quite important this turn as if I can’t destroy the razorback, I can’t target the command squad. First I use the ravager, and luckily for me, I get 3 hits, 2 glances and 1 pen which does manage to explode the tank. No one dies in the explosion but it does remove the vehicle from the table. With the command squad visible now, the war walkers shoot at them, and with a sickeningly high number of hits before the re-roll I manage to get 5 wounds on the marines killing them, but also manage to get an extra one past Azrael’s armour, but its stopped by his 6+ feel no pain. The guardians try to do something but miss and the venoms boost up the left flank ready to pounce next turn.

A very lucky first turn for me.

Dark angels turn 1

My opponent seems a little surprised his standard is gone first turn but gathers his thoughts and carries on. First he casts prescience on the plasma tactical marines but gets double 1 and takes a wound for his trouble, the power is still past though. The bikes move down my right flank towards the ravager. Both tactical squads move forwards to engage the wraithguard. Azrael and the librarian move forwards as well.

Shooting from the bikes gets a hit on the ravager with a plasma shot but I jink it off. The tactical marines both shoot at the wraithguard but thanks to fortune I only lose a single wraithguard who takes a rocket to the face, the brave soul.

Eldar turn 2

Reserves to start with and the spiders fail to come in but the war walkers out flank on the right flank just where they can see the bikes. I cast fortune on the wraithguard again and guide on the war walkers who are still just in range. The ravager moves back from the bikes and the venoms move to see the plasma tactical squad. I move the war walkers back a little as they could get targeted next turn by bolt guns if I'm not careful.

Unloading there shuriken cannons on the bikes, the out flanking war walkers manage to get 5 wounds on the bikes, and all 3 die due to a very unlucky roll by my opponent (3 ones, not cool). The venoms shoot at the plasma tactical marines and poison two of the marines. I measure and find 3 of the wraithguard are in range and they kill 3 more marines. The guardians are useful this turn as they manage to also kill a plasma tactical marine, but the squad is then dragged down by the fire power of the scatter war walkers who finish the squad off.

Dark angels turn 2

Both terminator squads deep strike in, and both lock on, one just to the right of the wraithguard, the other to the left. The librarian casts prescience safely this turn on the tactical marines, who then fall back away from the eldar followed by the two HQ units.

The terminators on the right decide to shoot at the guardians, and get 8 wounds, so I go to ground (for a 2+ save with the warlord trait) but still lose 2 models. The other squad (this one with the assault cannon) shoot at the closest venom, wrecking it.

Eldar turn 3

The warp spiders come in this turn and I place then next to the terminators on the left, but I scatter and almost mishap as I'm less than a quarter of an inch away from a ruin, that was lucky. I cast both fortune and guide on the wraithguard and they move towards the terminators on the right. The war walkers move to face either threat, which ever still stands. The walkers on the right hand side consolidate on the objective. The remaining venoms moves to face the terminators.

Shooting starts with the wraithguard on the terminators right next to them, and from 9 shots, all the terminators are killed, the 5++ save didn’t help much. It takes a combined effort from the venom, warriors, guardians and warp spiders to kill 4 of the 5 terminators on the right. I am then given a predicament; do I shoot the whole load of war walker shots into the lone terminator, or kill a few tactical marines? I decide the terminator was the issue right now and shot at him, and I'm glad I did as I took the whole unit to cause a single roll of a 1. From about 10 saves he failed 1. Damn.  

Dark angels turn 3

With little left on the table the marines back off even more, the librarian casts prescience on the tactical but again a double 1 is rolled and the psyker is killed by a daemon clawing at his mind. Not the best way to die.

Shooting is just the tactical marines shooting the wraithguard, but again failing to kill any. As its desperate, Azrael uses the plasma part of his gun and while I doesn’t do any wounds, he blinds the wraithguard! Not sure how that would happen but there we go, WS and BS 1 wraithguard.

Eldar turn 4

I cast both fortune and guide on the wraithguard and move everyone to face the tactical marines. The venom moves behind to see the tactical marines and unloads the warriors.

Shooting from the war walkers take down 5 of the tactical. The venom somehow kill 3 marines and the warriors finish them off. It’s really unlucky for my opponent who has terrible luck with his armour saves. For fun the wraithguard shoot at Azrael and only manage to get a single hit, it wounds, he fails his invulnerable save, but again 6+ FNP stops the wound. My last shot of the game is the ravager shooting at the chapter master, and a single shot gets past his save, killing him instantly.

No more models on the table, so my opponent loses.

Eldar: 12 (3 objectives, first blood, line breaker, slay the warlord) – Dark Angels: 0

Post-Battle

Now that game was just sick, I can’t really claim victory here, he just lost it on his armour saves. He claimed he was the king of ones and I believe him. I felt bad for him with his bad dice rolls and really the game could have been totally different if he rolled averagely, or above average. My opponent was a great guy though and just took it on the chin.

What did I learn from this?

·         Keep out of range: While it wasn’t big this game, keeping the war walkers just in range of their guns and out of my opponents was a great idea. I need to do this more so hopefully they live. I should have done this with my venoms as well. I keep forgetting that they have a 36 inch range!!! So next game I’m going to try and skirt around the edges as much as possible and not get shot at.

·         Target priority: I think this game I got my targets priority spot on, take out the command squad, take out the terminators, mop up. Granted a lot of luck helped me get to the position of being able to get at the command squad, but such is life. Next time I might not be so lucky.

·         Wraithguard: Again I just rammed them down the middle of the table, I need to stop doing this. While it didn’t have any real consequence, I need to be more careful with them, as if I didn’t kill the command squad that would have been about 80 shots at them, even with T6 and 3+ save I'm going to lose more models then I would like. Don’t be so stupid next game.

·         War walkers: more specifically the out flankers, I think I want to try and reduce the warp spiders cost to add more scatter lasers. I don’t want to drop the spiders entirely, but I need more points for the walkers. In this game it was lucky they had an objective to take, otherwise they would have been out the game after killing the bikes.  

Anyway that’s my first game against the dark angels. I can’t call it a win really as it wasn’t down to me, just bad dice rolls for him and good ones for me. I hope you enjoyed reading it.