Baron Sathonyx
Maugan Ra
5 Warriors w/ Splinter Cannon, Venom
5 Warriors w/ Splinter Cannon, Venom
3 Eldar Jetbikes
3 Eldar Jetbikes
3 Trueborn w/ 2 Dark Lances, Venom
3 Trueborn w/ 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom
3 Trueborn w/ 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom
5 Fire Dragons w/ Crack Shot, Tank Hunter Exarch
Large Beast Pack (mostly Khymerae, with a few Razorwing flocks)
Ravager w/ 3 Dark Lances
Razorwing w/ 4 Monoscythe Missiles
Bastion w/ Quad Gun
The mission was Relic, with Hammer and Anvil deployment. My army is pretty slow, and against such a fast army, I didn't have much hope of getting to the relic first. My opponent deployed his Troops hidden behind terrain, while the Trueborn took up good firing positions. His Venoms and Bastion (with Fire Dragons manning the quad gun and Dark Lance Trueborn inside) deployed on my right while the Beast Pack and Ravager were on the left.
I deployed the Predators and Thunderfire on my back line with good lines of fire to his Venoms. In what was to be an ultimately futile gesture to reach the , I deployed all my infantry centrally as far forward as possible. Not sure what to do with the Scouts, I deployed them in a piece of terrain on my left.
In the first Dark Eldar turn, my opponent advanced just into weapon range and opened fire. He killed my Thunderfire off, though the Techmarine survived, along with 3 Scouts, who fell back. Surprisingly, he caused almost no casualties to my infantry block in the center due to my uncommonly good armor saves. One of his Jetbike squads moved up to take the relic, and used its assault phase move to retreat with it.
My turn was dedicated to trying to kill the threats facing my central infantry. To that end, my Predators each killed a Venom, and the infantry on the right killed a third. I was quite happy with that, as I know how that many Venoms will chew apart Space Marines. The squads on the left opened fire on the Beast Pack, and killed off a few Khymera and Beastmasters.
Dark Eldar turn 2 was when the trap started to close. The remaining Venoms and Trueborn, as well as the newly arrived Razorwing, blasted my Tactical and Sternguard squads on the left, reducing them to a single Tactical Sergeant and 4 Veterans. The also picked of the Techmarine with a pair of Dark Lances. On the left, the Beast Pack combo assaulted my remaining Scouts and the lead Tactical squad. At the end of combat, only a single Tactical Marine survived, and he held the line. While, all this went on, the Jetbikes carrying the relic continued to fall back.
My Turn 2 was suffered from the misguided belief that I could handle the Beast Pack. My remaining squads on the right, along with my Predators, killed another Venom. My Terminators charged into the Beast Pack, but all but the one with an Assault Cannon were killed before they could strike. Amra challenged, eager to claim the head of Maugan Ra or the Baron, but ended up just slaughtering a Beastmaster. The Beast Pack then broke from combat using Hit and Run. They rolled 18" for their movement, allowing them to move past my line toward my tanks.
The Dark Eldar then opened fire while the Jetbikes moved all the way around the large hill in my opponent's deployment zone, completely hidden from sight. Their shooting, including a devastating pair of monoscythe missiles, tore through my remaining infantry, leaving me with only 1 marine, 4 Veterans, and my single Terminator led by Amra.
The Beast Pack then pulled off an amazing multi-assault, hitting 5 units in all directions.
Having assaulted my entire army except the Terminators, the Beast Pack proceeded to destroy both my tanks and kill everything but a single Sternguard Veteran.
In my Turn 3, I charged Amra and the assault cannon Terminator into the Beast Pack. The Terminator and Sternguard were both killed, and Amra smashed the last Beastmaster in another anti-climatic challenge. The Beast Pack then Hit and Ran again, dropping back only a couple inches (even though my opponent rolled 16" this time!).
Dark Eldar Turn 4 consisted of shooting everything possible at Amra, taking him down to 2 wounds.
In my Turn 4, I charged Amra into the Beast Pack again and challenged. Maugan Ra refused to fight, but the Beast Pack tore down Amra with weight of attacks, tabling me.
Lessons Learned:
1) The biggest lesson I learned here is about deployment. I feel like my Predators and Thunderfire were in the right spots, but my infantry were deployed too aggressively and were way too vulnerable. Had I deployed them further back, I would have been able to cover the objective with shooting and gun down the Beast Pack as it advanced across the table. I probably wouldn't have stopped it from assaulting, but I could probably have made it more manageable. Speaking of the objective...
2) My army is slow. I need to keep the objective in mind and commit to completing it, because I don't have the speed to make a run for it late in the game. In this game, I let the Jetbikes take the objective and leave without ever targeting them. I was fixated on killing threats to my army and I forgot the actual objectives. Those Venoms did need to die, but I could certainly have pumped enough fire into the Jetbikes to kill them without leaving the Venoms unscathed.
3) That Beast Pack was terrifying. No real comments there, but it's something to keep in mind next time I see one on the table.