A lack of updates Battle-wise, but nonetheless the Dark Eldar have been getting a string of wins at the club recently against armies including Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters and Blood Angels.
Last night saw me up against Chris who is also coming to the Throne of Skulls with myself and several of the SWAT guys. He has a really cool Raven Guard army (which the pics don't do justice to - my decent camera was out of juice and so I had to rely on my iphone...).
We rolled for the mission and setup and got Seize Ground (5 objectives) with Dawn of War (groan...). The Baron won the roll off to go first (by rolling a 6+1) - although Chris rolled less anyway so we didn't have to question if the Baron does get to go up to 7 or not. Luckily (and for the first time in weeks) he didn't steal the initiative either.
This is the setup at the end of turn #1 with the Raven Guard assaulting the centre
and right of the board and my Dark Eldar spread across my side
Turn 1 was the non-event that Dawn of War often gives a game with the Dark Eldar coming on proper. The Baron had already been deployed with the Wracks and left to join the Hellions in the centre ruins (ignoring the bait of the combat squad in the far left of the board). The three venoms and the Reaver Jetbikes on the right of my field were surprisingly accurate (at night) and took out 2 marines who failed their leadership test and ran off at least until Chris' turn.
For his part, Chris came on mostly in the centre, but brought his land speeder typhoon squadron and Shrike+Assault marines on at the top right to back up the tacticals holding the objective in the ruins. Shooting amounted to nothing in general apart from the Sternguard who dropped in behind the Hellions and let rip with their Boltguns. Despite getting something like 12 wounds, the Hellions passed 11 Feel No Pain rolls!
Another view of the end of turn 1 where you can see my painted Razorwing Jetfighters. The left one
proved to swing the game in my favour in turn 2 which the Raven Guard struggled to recover from
Turn 2 is where the game went in my favour. The Hellions and Baron made their way after the Scouts in the ruins (and this is where I made the one real mistake in my game) and failed to charge into cover leaving them stranded in no mans land. In hindsight, I should have charged the in-range scout bikers and that would have strengthened my right flank which the bikers took a chunk out of in turns 2 and 3. The Razorwings flew to the middle of the board (right one) and the left one flew to get a bead on the assault marines. At this point the left Razorwing shot 4 missiles at the assault squad (2x monsoscythe and 2xShatterfield) and wiped out 9 assault marines and wounded shrike (who failed their leadership test and ran 11" almost off the board) after getting about 27 wounds through. The second Razorwing fired at the scouts in the ruins with a couple of missiles and wiped out one squad and a couple from the other squad. General shooting elsewhere saw the Sternguard wiped out.
For the Raven Guard, this was now an uphill struggle, but Chris gave it his all. One of the typhoons managed to blow up the centre Razorwing, Shrike and the remaining sergeant, the terminators and the remaining scouts all charged the baron and the hellions (I did forget the Phantasm Grenade Launcher, so I had more attacks incoming than I should have had...) and all but 1 Hellion was killed - the Baron for his part survived the 5 Thunder Hammer strikes thanks to his Shadow Field. With the scouts I'd managed to kill I needed and got a 4 to pass my Ld test. At which point the Baron and Hellion (with Stun Claw) made a Hit & Run for it and took the Librarian terminator with them! The combat squad in the left rhino moved forward and shot at the Wracks in the trees and killed one. They also managed to take a weapon off of the Venom too. The scout bikers also moved towards, shot at and charged the Reavers on the right and killed them all bar one who fled about an inch from the table edge (and off it in turn 3).
Turn 2 before the Hellions were charged by a lot of fleeting terminators, Shrike and some scouts. The
Shadow Field proved to be up to the task here in keeping him alive!
Turn 3 saw the Mandrakes come on the right of the board (giving them a test in this game after the Incubi have failed to impress in the last few games). They moved and Fleeted towards the remaining Combat Squad marines holding the right objective. Sadly they were out of range for a charge this turn, but very much in range of the scout bikers, Land Speeder Typhoons and the remaining marines. All attempts by the remaining Razorwing and any warrior in range to the typhoons failed to do anything but shake/stun (and get ignored due to the squadron rule).The last Hellion was felled by the Librarian, who also suffered a wound at the hands of the Baron (who hit and ran to the other side of the centre ruins). The Reavers on the left decided to take out the left combat squad and after a round of shooting and a charge... basically failed to do anything and were mired in combat... bah.
The Scouts shot at (killed 2) and charged the Mandrakes only to be soundly killed off giving the Mandrakes a Pain Token. The Typhoons shot at the nearest Venom and managed to Stun it. Shrike charged the Baron and they wiffed at each other before the Baron made another Hit & Run towards the Typhoons. The fight between the Reavers and the Combat squad dragged on with minor casualties and the marines refused to shift. The Terminators charged the remaining Razorwing and (needing 6's to hit) only managed to Shake it in the end. The librarian charged a Venom and stunned it.
Another turn 2 picture showing the aftermath of the two Razorwing missile attacks. Shrike and the
Sergeant are lucky to stay on the board and there are a lot of missing scouts in the ruins
We called the game at the end of turn 4 as the Razorwing with the terminators did a supersonic move to the top right of the board far away from the terminators (although close to the Typhoons). The Terminators entered the fray against the remaining Jetbikes and beat them - although the final marine died. The Mandrakes used their Baleblast wiping out the marines in the ruins and the Baron charged the Typhoons immobilising one (thereby blowing it up). One Venom secured an objective (and hosed down Shrike with the Warriors inside killing him) and I still had another 3 mobile Venoms with troops in which come turn 5 could have capped another 3 objectives (I wasn't likely to shift the contesting rhino off the leftmost objective). The Baron, the Razorwing and the Mandrakes were all facing down the remaining Land Speeder Typhoon and the Terminators were too far on the left to affect the game had it gone on. The Librarian terminator was also felled by a Venom and that left little for Chris to then work with - and no scoring troops.
All in all a good Victory for the Dark Eldar again, with the Razorwings proving mighty effective once more. Another good showing by the Baron serving as a distraction and also a vehicle popper. It was also pleasing to see the Mandrakes do well (and accomplish more than the Incubi have managed in the last few games).
Chris was a top opponent, great to play against and we had a good laugh.
A post game shot as we were clearing away, but I still have some food for thought here as the points invested in the Haemonculi (you didn't hear about them in the report as they did nothing even with Hexrifles...) could be
better spent elsewhere...