Once I get done painting a lagging commission, I'll be able to attend to my new forces and hopefully get enough built for a 1,500 game next week. In the meantime I was able to borrow my friend's Dark Eldar collection to play a 2,000 point game that took place in the local campaign being run. The lists looked like:
Dark Eldar
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HQ - Archon, Blaster, Haywire Grenades, Shadow Field, Webway Portal
Troop - Kabalite Warriors x10, x1 Blaster, x1 Splinter Cannon
/w Raider (Dark Lance, Splinter Racks)
Troop - Kabalite Warriors x10, x1 Blaster, x1 Splinter Cannon
/w Raider (Dark Lance, Splinter Racks)
Elite - Trueborn x5, x4 Blasters
/w Venom (Splinter Cannon)
Elite - Trueborn x5, x4 Blasters
/w Venom (Splinter Cannon)
Elite - Trueborn x5, x4 Blasters
/w Venom (Splinter Cannon)
Fast Attack - Reavers x3, x1 Heat Lance, x1 Cluster Caltrops
Fast Attack - Reavers x3, x1 Heat Lance, x1 Cluster Caltrops
Fast Attack - Reavers x3, x1 Heat Lance, x1 Cluster Caltrops
Fast Attack - Reavers x3, x1 Heat Lance, x1 Cluster Caltrops
Fast Attack - Razorwing Jetfighter (x2 Dark Lances)
Fast Attack - Scourges x5, x4 Haywire Blaster
Heavy Support - Ravager, x3 Dark Lance
Heavy Support - Ravager, x3 Dark Lance
Heavy Support - Ravager, x3 Dark Lance
Sisters/Inquisition/Imperial Knight
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HQ - Cannoness
Troop - Battle Sisters, x2 flamers
/w Rhino
Troop - Battle Sisters, x2 flamers
/w Rhino
Elite - Dominions, x4 Melta Guns
/w Immolator /w MM
Elite - Dominions, x4 Melta Guns
/w Immolator /w MM
Elite - Dominions, x4 Melta Guns
/w Immolator /w MM
Heavy Support - Exorcist
Heavy Support - Exorcist
Heavy Support - Exorcist
HQ - Coteaz
HQ - Inquisitor, x3 Servo Skulls, ML 1 (Force Weapon, I assume)
Elite - Henchmen - Servitor /w Multi-Melta x3, Psyker, Acolyte /w Plasma gun x3
/w Chimera (x2 Heavy Bolter, Psybolt ammo)
Elite - Henchmen - Servitor /w Multi-Melta x3, Psyker, Acolyte /w Plasma gun x3
/w Chimera (x2 Heavy Bolter, Psybolt ammo)
Imperial Knight Errant (the super melta cannon one)
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The mission was thankfully Tactical Escalation. That name may be wrong, but it was the Maelstrom of War mission that you gained a number of Tactical Cards based on the turn number, so it allowed me to use the strategy of just reserving everything first turn except the Reavers who I could get out of LoS of everything and just wait for my reserves to come in and start wrecking things. That was the plan, anyways. Minus the Trueborn, my list was comprised of a majority of units and models I was hoping to test out since those are the ones I've decided to invest in for my Dark Eldar army first. His Warlord Trait was chosen for Conquerer of Cities, and I had Labyrinthine Cunning - since we get to choose ours.
A huge bonus for me was that we played Hammer and Anvil, so I was really able to divert a lot of his slow moving stuff (and dominion scout damage). This was pretty crucial to the battle, since his army was exactly what Dark Eldar are not good at taking down - A ton of lightly armored cheap vehicles with small squads inside, all of which can cause massive damage if approached too quickly. Dark Lances and Blasters may come in huge amounts for the Dark Eldar, but we definitely are going to want to focus all that damage potential at expensive, heavy hitters. Le sigh...
Unfortunately I had a long day last Thursday and forgot to take pictures, but I'll do my best to still deliver a modest battle report...
Deployment for my opponent was difficult. He won the roll off to go first and we both knew what that meant. He'd deploy, scout move forward, and then pass turn to me. Anticipating this, I deployed my four Reaver units behind LoS as much as possible. I was confindent with my re-roll to night fight that they'd get a 2+ cover save, so there was little way he'd being able to take all of them down with shooting that was pretty close distance (minus the Exorcists). His Dominion squads were put forward, the line of them flanked by a Battle Sister Rhino on either side, and two Chimeras place behind those Rhinos for easy coverage. His Exorcists, with their long range, took up the rear to cover his backfield. His Imperial Knight lined up against a wall that would grant a 3+ cover due to his warlord trait, covering all angles from any real attack. This is when passed deployment to me and I tossed down only my Reavers. It was definitely a game changer, since there's a huge pyschological element to having no idea which direction I'd be bring my force on from. I told him my Ravagers were coming on normally, along with the flier, but the rest were prepped to Deep Strike. My first turn consisted of me just passing (and amusingly I even drew the Linebreaker tactical card, which I easily had in the bag). His first turn consisted of repositioning chaotically to help protect every angle from whereever I decided to start bringing in my forces from the webway. He managed to pick up a VP from the card he drew (I believe it was a Secure Objective one).
My turn 2 had everything but 1 Ravager coming on. I decided on maneuvering everything heavily to assault his left flank (his side without his Imperial Knight) and managed to deep strike all of my Trueborn with little difficulty. I tossed my Raiders (with warriors inside) near his Dominion units fully expecting to volley into exposed ones once I started nuking down Immolators. I plopped my Archon+Scourges behind his Imperial Knight, know bunched up against the wall to prevent anything but an Exorcist or Knight from firing at them on his turn. The Archon took up the front, hoping to protect most of the Scourges from the IKs blast. I wasn't worried about his IK assaulting them, because I was already planning to turbo-boost a Reaver unit to block it out from them. Unfortunately I managed to scatter every Deep Strike roll, but I did luck out and manage to get each unit's scatter distance just enough to stop them from suffering a mishap. My Reavers moved up to shoot and engage the Dominions (the scariest thing he had with their ignore cover Act of Faith). I began shooting and took out 2 Immolators and a Chimera, and managed to strip the IK of 1 HP. Two reavers tried to go into combat against different Dominion squads but only 1 made it (I had +1 A from Combat Drugs, btw) in. I forgot about Fleet, though, so I'll try remembering that next time. I didn't managed to cause any wounds and we stayed locked in combat for about 4 turns (yeah, couldn't even Hit and Run - rolled a 6 each attempt).
He went and started shooting at everything. He took out 2 venoms on his second turn, and blasted down a lot of Trueborn pretty easily. His IK went forward after a unit of Kabalite Warriors from their destroyed Raider and his Exorcist got a bit lucky and took out all but 1 Scourge. Coteaz and his unit charged into some Trueborn, but amusingly wasn't able to do any damage. I managed to make two overwatch hits and killed two as they came in and another 2 in the assault. Coteaz didn't care, so they remained locked in combat.
I positioned a Reaver unit to assist the Trueborn against Coteaz, confident in my Cluster mines to take'em down. My Archon got a really lucky shot on the IK and took him down 3 hull points with a very well placed shot. With the IK down to 2 HP left, I opted to just start ignoring it, but I was already doing that for the most part anyways - just taking pot shots when out of range of other things. I stripped down the last Immolator and blew up the last Chimera. I was Ignoring the Exorcists, since while they are scary they aren't any serious threat to me since EVERYTHING is a serious threat to me. They were out of range of Ravagers, weren't good enough to deal with my flier, and a flamer is scarier than Assault d6 shots at any strenght and ap. My Reavers charged into Coteaz and managed to inflict 2 wounds with my HoW, and got another in assault. By that time the rest of the unit was dead anyways.
His IK took down a Ravager that I positioned to take an objective the previous turn (fully expecting to lose it to the Knight anyways). He took down my Scourge but was unable to hurt my Archon. More Trueborn were trashed, and every Reaver unit has been shot down by this point expect the one still trapped in combat. I was able to kill a Dominion Sister a full game turn on average, but he kept making his morale.
My flier decided to go off the board after he drew the objective to kill a flier. That wasn't a coincidence. I took down the last knight with a jink'd Ravager, and the huge explosion did nothing. My Ravagers were torn to shreds from the remaining dominion squad and two Exorcists gunning for them. The two flamer battle sister units were in the center of the board all game, as I was trying to keep them there with the little I had left with my Trueborn and venom.
After his shotting, I think it's his turn 5 and all I have left is a squad of Kabalite Warriors that just assaulted his last Dominion squad and my Archon that is in his final round of close combat with his last Inquisitorial Henchmen squad (which I charged on my last turn to gut his psyker for a VP card I drew). With everything locked in combat and everything too far to reach anything, I think he shot at my flier to no avail. We rolled for a turn 6 and in we went.
On Turn 5 I was winning handedly. I think I was at about 15 to 7. But by the end of Turn 6 he managed to position however he wanted since I was pretty much engaged with everything I had. He managed to get to 15 VP, but luckily I had crawled up to 17. The game did not go on to turn 7.
By the end, I had an Archon, my flier, and a handful of Kabalite Warriors and he had his three exorcists, his Cannonness, and a handful of sisters - one unit of which was in a Rhino. It was a bloodbath, and late game get pretty disastrous for me. It was a good first showing against a great opponent, though, and I'm very anxious for more!
We rolled for Warlord XP (a campaign rule) and I managed to snag three while he only got one.
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