Once again my Dark Eldar get sick of playing second fiddle and take to the stage solo, this time against Typhus and his chaos space marines in a 1500 point game of Emperors will, with Vanguard strike deployment.
The Armies
Dark Eldar - 1496
Archon – 135 (Warlord: Night attacker) w/ Incubi
Husk blade, soul trap, shadow field
Haemonculus – 65 w/ Incubi
Venom blade, Liquifier gun
5 Wracks - 50
5 Wracks - 50
10 warriors – 110
Sybarite, Splinter cannon
Raider – 70
Dark Lance, night shield
10 Warriors – 110
Sybarite, Splinter cannon
Raider – 70
Dark Lance, night shield
10 Warriors – 110
Sybarite, Splinter cannon
Raider – 70
Dark Lance, night shield
8 Incubi – 191
Klaivex
Raider – 70
Dark Lance, night shield
Ravager – 115
3 x Disintegrator, Night shield
Ravager – 115
3 x Disintegrator, Night shield
Razorwing Jetfighter – 165
2 x disintegrator, flicker field, splinter cannon
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| Dark Eldar army |
Chaos space marines - approximately 1500 (I forgot to ask for his list
so I'm recording this from memory)
Typhus (Warlord: Lord of fear) w/ Terminators
Daemon Prince
Wings, mark of khorne, black mace, power armor
10 Chaos space marines
Veterans of the long war, plasma gun, melta gun, gift of mutation (+1
w)
Rhino
7 Plague marines
Melta gun, plasma gun, gift of mutation (+1 BS)
5 khorne berzerkers
Chain axe
5 Terminators
Reaper autocannon, mark of nurgle
Vindicator
 |
| Chaos Army |
The Mission
As already stated we got Emperors will (1 objective each) with vanguard deployment. I roll for warlord trait as the chaos player has no choice. I get Night attacker (just what i wanted for a change) so i'm quite happy. Rolling for deployment i win and elect to go first. We place the objectives, mine is behind the barrels in my deployment, his is in the ruined chimera.
I deploy all of my tanks on the table, the ravagers hidden from sight behind the imperial base, along with the incubi raider and one warrior one. The other two are on my left flank. I place one unit of wracks on the objective and keep the other in reserve along with the razorwing jet fighter.
Chaos then deploys his force, with the plague marines in the terrain holding the objective, the khorne berzerkers on my right flank and the vindicator on the left. The chaos space marines start in their rhino. He keeps the Terminators in reserve with Typhus attached to them.
He rolls to steal the initiative and fails, i obviously choose to attack at night. So night fight turn 1!!!
I deploy all of my tanks on the table, the ravagers hidden from sight behind the imperial base, along with the incubi raider and one warrior one. The other two are on my left flank. I place one unit of wracks on the objective and keep the other in reserve along with the razorwing jet fighter.
 |
| Dark Eldar deployment |
Chaos then deploys his force, with the plague marines in the terrain holding the objective, the khorne berzerkers on my right flank and the vindicator on the left. The chaos space marines start in their rhino. He keeps the Terminators in reserve with Typhus attached to them.
 |
| Chaos Deployment |
He rolls to steal the initiative and fails, i obviously choose to attack at night. So night fight turn 1!!!
The Battle
Dark Eldar turn 1
To start my first
turn I jump both of my ravagers up on top of the imperial base to it can shoot
at everything. One raider with warriors and the incubi raider move behind the
base to hide from incoming shots. The other two raiders move up the left to be able
to shoot at the vindicator.
Shooting phase
started with both raiders shooting at the vindicator but only managing to get a
single glance reducing it to two hull points. My first ravager shoot at the
khorne berzerkers as I expect it to wipe out the squad but only 3 die, so to
get first blood my second ravager shoots at them finishing them off. IT felt
like a waste of shots but first blood is quite important in such low victory
point games.
Chaos turn 1
Taking to the
skies the prince swoops over a single ravager and lands between the two, vector
striking tank, but failing to do anything to it thanks to jink. The plague
marines move deeper into cover so they can target more of my army while still
keeping hold of the objective. Revving its engines, the rhino moves
forward 6 inches while the vindicator turns to face its attackers.
Firing its plasma and
heavy bolter from the hatch on the rhino the marines target the ravager but it
fails to penetrate its armour. The vindicator targets the ravagers but it
scatters and hits a raider, exploding it, killing 3 warriors in the explosion.
Dark Eldar turn 2
 |
| The warriors face a Prince |
The razorwing targets
it disintegrators and splinter cannon at the prince but only manages to do a
single wound to the monster. Both units of warriors combine fire to hopefully
bring down the beast but I only deal 2 wounds to it, leaving it on a single
wound (it passes its grounding test). It takes all 3 dark lances from the
raiders to finally... strip another hull point from the vindicator. That will
cost me as its still alive and all 3 raiders are in its blast radius if it
shoots at them. To finish off the turn, the ravagers both shoot at the
plague marines, only managing to down 2 of the plague sacks. Damn they are hard
to take down.
Chaos turn 2
Rolling for reserves
and the terminators and typhus are in. Typhus deep strikes onto the table,
surrounded by his terminator brethren, right next to my objective. Coming back
down to the ground, the daemon prince glides towards the warriors on the hill.
Backing up to block line of sight to the plague marines, the rhino reverses.
Just as I feared, the
vindicator is able to get all 3 of the raiders in its blast. The first raider
(containing the warriors) manages to jink to safety, but the other two take a
penetrating hit, luckily both are not destroyed but lose both of the dark
lances. Still a bit of a blow. Only able to see the 3 warriors on the imperial
base, the plague marines shoot and kill two of them, the rhino then snipes the
3rd causing the squad to run. Targeting the wracks on the objective,
3 die to the hail of bolts, but they hold.
The first round of
combat starts with the prince charging the warriors on the hill, but I fail to
do any damage with over watch. Thinking I was smart, I issue a challenge which
he had to accept. I got beaten to a pulp, but held. Then the black mace killed
an extra 5 warriors with its curse. Not cool.
Dark Eldar turn 3
The razorwing turns
to face the terminators and moves its minimum distance so it can target them. A
single ravager turns to target the terminators while the other moves to shoot
the rhino (no idea why). I jump the archon out of the raider with his body
guard intending to get the grips with the daemon prince. The warriors regroup
next to the terminators so move back a little from them. The only raider with
warriors in move towards the terminators and the one with a lance moves to
target the vindicator again.
The raider misses...
yay. Opening with a single missile and its other guns, the razorwing manages to
kill 1 terminator. Aiding with this the ravager kills an extra marine. The
other ravager shoots at the rhino (again I have no idea why I did this) and
gets a single glance on it. The warriors on the raider and who jst regrouped
shoot at the terminators but fail to do any damage.
Combat phase and my
archon charges the prince, just making it into combat. The prince attacks the
incubi killing 2 of them. I fail to do any damage to him though, with the sheer
about of ap 3 weaponry I expected him to die but didn’t. The warriors run from
the awesome power of the prince but the archon holds. The curse then wounds the
archon (so I lose his shadow field... damn) and a single incubi dies.
Chaos turn 3
Aiming to start
removing my troops choices the terminators go after a unit of wracks. The chaos
space marines jump out of the rhino and move towards the ravager. We had a
little discussion here, he wanted to cast weapon virus on my razorwing, the
rules say target unit, so we allow him to cast it on the flier.
Shooting again starts
with the vindicator but it scatters to my luck. The marines shoot their melta
gun at the closest ravager and penetrate it, immobilising it. Using the sky
fire objective, the plague marines shoot at the razorwing and gets a single glance
on it, which gets past the flicker field.
Charging the wracks, one
unlucky terminator is poisoned and dies, Typhus wounds himself with his daemon
weapon but them kills all the wracks. The prince kills 3 incubi and the archon
once again fails to do any damage but a lucky blow from an incubus sends the
warp spawn back to the hell it came from.
Dark Eldar turn 4
I move the razorwing to change course towards the plague marines and
the undamaged ravager moves again but keeps the plague marines in its sights.
The incubi move towards the terminators and the running warriors manage to regroup.
Shooting at the plague marines, the razorwing fails to kill any of
them and its weapons over heat once, reducing it to a single hull point. The
ravager however manages to kill 3 of the puss bags. The ravager facing the
terminators shoots them, managing to put another wound on Typhus. As the
terminators need to die, all the warriors I can muster shoot at the terminators
and I kill the final 2, leaving the plague lord by himself. The final shot,
from the raider into the vindicator, hits, and then... glances. It took far too
long but the vindicator is finally gone.
My archon and incubi declare a charge on Typhus but fail, I re-roll
the low dice with fleet but still in out of range. I only needed a 7 and yet I fail
to get it. Never mind.
Chaos turn 4
Moving away from the ravager, the chaos marines get closer to my
objective and the warriors holding it. Typhus then moves towards the archon,
wanting to challenge my warlord.
Combat starts with the chaos marines charging the warriors on the
objective and kill every last one of them, even though I went first I fail to
do anything and die. They consolidate onto the objective. Typhus charges the archon
and as I go first I attack, but fail to wound him, he attacks me and gets 10
attacks all hitting, I lose my unit and my warlord.
Dark Eldar turn 5
As it has no target at the moment, the razorwing moves off the table. I
realise I cant take back my objective right now so my best bet it to go for
his, so move the raider with the warriors towards the plague marines. Ravager
moves a little to keep its jink save. The raider with the lance remaining goes
after the rhino.
The warriors around typhus shoot at him but just anger the lord of
chaos with all the splinters bouncing off his armour. The ravager that's immobilised
can see the chaos space marines and down 5 of them! That's a good role. The
other ravager fails to kill and plague marines and the raider fails to damage
the rhino.
Chaos turn 5
Angered by the arrogance of the dark eldar, typhus goes after the
warriors. He casts weapon virus on the ravager.
The chaos marines shoot at the remaining wracks and destroys them.
Typhus charges the warriors killing them all with his daemon weapon.
We roll to see if the game carries on...
Dark Eldar turn 6
The razorwing comes back into play targeting the marines on my
objective. The warriors jump out of their raider to threaten the plague
marines, then the raider moves to block the rhino from tank shocking them.
Shooting from the ravager finally kills the last two plague marines off,
leaving the objective unclaimed. With this my warriors then run and manage to claim
the objective! Somehow the combined fire of the ravager and razorwing fails to
do anything to the marines on my objective... I have no idea how.
 |
| I take the objective!! |
Chaos turn 6
With only 3 units left, the rhino rams the raider but fails to do
anything, and Typhus charges the raider in front of him, he manages to glance
it but harms himself with his daemon weapon, leaving him on 1 wound.
And we roll again...
Dark Eldar turn 7
The ravager moves to target the marines left on the table, while the
warriors move over the cover to get a firm grip on the objective. The razorwing
can’t get anywhere so just moves away from trouble.
Shooting from the ravager manages to kill 4 marines but the last guy
holds and keeps the objective.
Chaos turn 7
Typhus charges the raider again and blows it up.
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| End of Game |
Dark Eldar: 5 (objective, first blood, line breaker) – Chaos: 5
(objective, Warlord, Line breaker)
Post-Battle
Well that was a strange game, at first I expected to just walk over
the chaos army but it really fought back and kicked the crap out of some of my
stronger units, especially my incubi. That Daemon prince was a real pain in the
balls, that mace is crazy... I love it. So what did I learn?
·
Target priority: I was ok this game, but I could
have done better. I don’t know why I got distracted by the rhino, lord knows
why. I need to keep focused on in my games.
·
Flyers: It was interesting, it did well but its
hard to get it to do something every turn. I need more experience with it.
·
Chaos: I love the new codex every time I play
against it, I don’t care why people moan, its awesome and it shouldn’t be over
powered. I feel its just right.
Not much this game but I thought it was a close game (well it was a draw after all). I could have
played better to win, but I'm happy with a draw considering my mistakes. I need to stop making them.
I feel like the reason that you had such a tough game was because you made several mistakes, the first one was taking syabrites. Not really sure why you'd need them, it would probably be better to take splinter racks on your raiders, Also don't know why you need so many dissies, I feel like Dark Lances are better, especially against Termies for the ID and ignore FnP. Secondly bunching your raiders together allowing the vindicator to hit all 3, when you could have easily spread them out, especially since those were your only dark lances. Thirdly you messed up big time on target prioritization, For MC's and other high toughness creatures you want to be using your poisoned weapons, namely your warriors instead of using your expensive Incubi. Along this lines you should have also had your incubi going for Typhus from the start, possibly having your wracks take the overwatch on turn 2 so that he couldn't overwatch your incubi then. Dissie ravager on the termies, all day. So other than some mistakes that you can easily learn from, you did a pretty good job, You also seemed to be a bit unlucky with the dice but eh, seems like the dice gods wanted you to tie
ReplyDelete-A Dark Brother
The ruinous powers were watching and Papa Nurgle took an interest until turn 5 anyway haha!!! Was a good game though and good experience for me! As always Malduran was a top host!!!
ReplyDeletePretty sure vector strikes ignore cover saves.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for the good batrep. Looking over the lists, it seemed the Dark Eldar player would be at a huge advantage. I'm glad it was close.
Also, I really love those games where an HQs Daemon Weapon hurts them more than the opposing army.