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So I went to the Sprue Posse GT and this is what I brought:

HQ
Baron Von Hellion

Archon w/Agoniser, Haywire Grenades, Combat Drugs, Soul Trap, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow
Field.

Elites
9 Incubi
Raider w/Shock Prow, Enhanced Aether Sails, Grisly Trophies, Night Shields, Flickerfield


Troops
5 Kabilite Warriors w/Blaster
1 Venom w/2 Splinter Cannons, Night Shields

5 Kabilite Warriors w/Blaster
1 Venom w/2 Splinter Cannons, Night Shields

19 Kabilite Warriors w/2 Dark Lances, Blaster
1 Sybarite w/Agoniser

9 Wyches w/Hydra Gauntlets, Shardnet and Impaler, Haywire Grenades
1 Hekatrix w/Agoniser
Raider w/Shock Prow, Enhanced Aether Sails, Grisly Trophies, Night Shields, Flickerfield

8 Hellions
1 Helliarch w/Phantasm Grenade Launcher. Agoniser

Heavy Support
Ravager w/Night Shields, Flickerfield
Ravager w/Night Shields, Flickerfield

Razorwing Jetfighter w/2 Monosythe Missiles, 2 Shatterfield Missiles, Splinter Cannon, Night Shields, Flickerfield


Preamble here:
http://blackmoors40k.blogspot.com/2011/01/dark-eldar-at-sprue-posse-gt.html

Game #1 Vs. Reese's Space Wolves:
http://blackmoors40k.blogspot.com/2011/01/sprue-posse-game-1-dark-eldar-vs-space.html

Nice battle. Hard luck on the loss. Still, we live, we learn.

Sexcellent! The Sprue Posse GT has really been a cornucopia of battle report goodness.

Your wych unit is illegal. So are your warriors come to think of it. How unforgivably naughty of you :-P

Warriors are fine. And I'm not sure on the Wyches. Looks like 1 to many special weapons for a 9 man unit.

Check the army list. 20 men for 2 darklances not 19. As for the battle you were indeed super unlucky not to kill bjorn, it tied up your firepower for the whole game. By the way what is your razorwing? Looks cool.

Hulksmash wrote:Warriors are fine. And I'm not sure on the Wyches. Looks like 1 to many special weapons for a 9 man unit.

+1

Bad luck on the game though...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Perkustin wrote:Check the army list. 20 men for 2 darklances not 19. As for the battle you were indeed super unlucky not to kill bjorn, it tied up your firepower for the whole game. By the way what is your razorwing? Looks cool.

He has 19 + sybarite which is 20

Perkustin wrote:Check the army list. 20 men for 2 darklances not 19. As for the battle you were indeed super unlucky not to kill bjorn, it tied up your firepower for the whole game. By the way what is your razorwing? Looks cool.

19 Warriors + 1 Sybarite = 20 Warriors. Codex says for Every ten models.

Wyches are for every 5 and he has 9. So he has 2 extra CCW.

P89, DE Codex.

I'm curious as to the combination of the Agoniser and Soultrap. Since the Agoniser isn't a poisoned weapon, the increased strength won't give you a re-roll to wound for higher strength. Fifth edition doesn't give you the option of swinging with your CCW rather than your Agoniser. Pretty much the only place the increased strength would matter would be against a vehicle.

Considering how difficult it can be to even get the Soultrap to trigger, it seems odd to combine it with other upgrades that minimize the Soultrap's effectiveness if it does go off.

Oh, also, you could probably save another 10 points by getting rid of the PGL on the Hellions squad. The Baron comes with a PGL standard. I assume that 90%+ of the time the Baron is with the Hellions, so the extra PGL is probably not needed.

I'll concede the warriors, i always think of champions as upgrades to a unit. The wyches are STILL illegal. Every five models: where's the ambiguity in that?!

Nice batrep. Looking forward to the others.

Perkustin wrote:I'll concede the warriors, i always think of champions as upgrades to a unit. The wyches are STILL illegal. Every five models: where's the ambiguity in that?!

It is 9 Wyches + Hexatrix. I miss typed it.

I also remember you saying that you had to add WAY too many upgrades just to hit the points so the list is far from tuned.

Nice batrep!

Nice Report Blackmoor, another unconventional list from you which I love.
What I really enjoy about your games is how different they are from others and that they truly rely on the general rather than the list.
I'm not saying the list is bad or anything, it's just unconventional.

Hard luck on the loss though man, it was always going to be close, particularly against Reecius and his wolves and he had the luck of the dice too it seems. Live and learn though.
Can't wait for your next one...

Nice batrep -- look forward to the rest.

Looks like you may need to invest in some grizzled trophies on your ravagers. I don't think I'd tempt fate and run large squads without that reroll.

Somnicide wrote:I also remember you saying that you had to add WAY too many upgrades just to hit the points so the list is far from tuned.

Ah, this explains the 95 point Raiders.

You mentioned having Leadership issues. Could you have kept one of the Wych/Incubi Raiders behind the LOS blocking terrain where your Warriors were? I think the Grisly Trophies on those Raiders give nearby units a reroll of failed Leadership tests.

Also, I'm guessing you've discovered the point of blowing the Razorwing's wad in one go. If there are any missiles on the thing, it's the biggest target on the board. I know you were trying to play a ranging game, but it's so freaking tough being out of range of 48" (or 42") weapons on the table. You might have been better off placing the Razorwing a little closer to ensure you could unlaod all four missiles and kill the crap out of that one Longfang pack on turn 2. After shooting the missiles, the Razorwing becomes less important than the other parts of your army, and I've discovered that my opponent will often choose something else to shoot at.

What's your opinion?

Saldiven wrote:
You mentioned having Leadership issues. Could you have kept one of the Wych/Incubi Raiders behind the LOS blocking terrain where your Warriors were? I think the Grisly Trophies on those Raiders give nearby units a reroll of failed Leadership tests.

This was my first game with the DE, and I forgot about the Grisly Trophies. Leadership was a huge problem in my next game as well, and I had my Raiders in range, and I forgot about the re-roll.

Also, I'm guessing you've discovered the point of blowing the Razorwing's wad in one go. If there are any missiles on the thing, it's the biggest target on the board. I know you were trying to play a ranging game, but it's so freaking tough being out of range of 48" (or 42") weapons on the table. You might have been better off placing the Razorwing a little closer to ensure you could unlaod all four missiles and kill the crap out of that one Longfang pack on turn 2. After shooting the missiles, the Razorwing becomes less important than the other parts of your army, and I've discovered that my opponent will often choose something else to shoot at.

What's your opinion?

You are skipping ahead to my next batrep, but yes I learned how to use the Razorwing. Trying to set up a shot at 43" to 48" is impossible without taking a couple turns to find the range. They correct way to use a Razorwing is to fly onto the board and let loose 4 missiles, 2 Dark Lances and a Splinter Cannon in one giant orgy of destruction! It will not survive another turn, so you have to go out with a huge bang.

Blackmoor wrote:

You are skipping ahead to my next batrep, but yes I learned how to use the Razorwing. Trying to set up a shot at 43" to 48" is impossible without taking a couple turns to find the range. They correct way to use a Razorwing is to fly onto the board and let loose 4 missiles, 2 Dark Lances and a Splinter Cannon in one giant orgy of destruction! It will not survive another turn, so you have to go out with a huge bang.

Hahaha...yeah, been there. If you're planning on using the Razorwing fighter as an alpha-strike, anti-infantry model, you might consider switching the DL to Disintegrator Cannon. That way, you have four large blast missiles, 6 S5 Ap2 shots, and 6 4+ poisoned Ap5 shots all at the same unit. Wound allocation will probably result in most of the Ap2 wounds getting stuck on the same models, but the added shots might be worth it. One thing I know for sure, that build is the bane of Tyranids and Horde Orks.

Also, if the Razorwing does survive a turn, those 12 shots can make continue to make infantry very unhappy for turns to come.

As someone who played Blackmoor at the event, I can say that all of the units were legal, he just wrote them down a little funny here.

Though, Allan, I was wondering why you took the soultrap on the Archon? I thought that an agonizer wounded on a straight 4+, no poison rules, therefore the increased strength would have no effect, or was it there for vehicle hunting later in the game?

sharkticon wrote:As someone who played Blackmoor at the event, I can say that all of the units were legal, he just wrote them down a little funny here.

Though, Allan, I was wondering why you took the soultrap on the Archon? I thought that an agonizer wounded on a straight 4+, no poison rules, therefore the increased strength would have no effect, or was it there for vehicle hunting later in the game?

The more that I read it, the more that I think that the agoniser and the soul trap do not work together. I never got to use the soul trap because I fell one wound short of killing your trygon :(

I will right up my thoughts after I finish with my batreps, but the Archon was a disappointment. Normally HQs units are killers in assault, and he did not do much. How many wounds on average will he do? 2? With a Husk Blade it is even worse with his weak strength of 3 unless he is going after a multi-wound model.

The more that I read it, the more that I think that the agoniser and the soul trap do not work together. I never got to use the soul trap because I fell one wound short of killing your trygon :(

Soutrap+Huskblade+Combat Drugs is the best combo to achieve that. For 170pts too, I believe.

I will right up my thoughts after I finish with my batreps, but the Archon was a disappointment.

I think they are a disappointment because most characters that are fighty greatly boost the armies effectiveness somehow, yet, the archon does not. In fact, you almost have to use the army to "boost" him instead. It's really odd at first glance. The other side of the coin is that the special characters give amazing boosts to your army. At the moment, I find it hard to build an army without the Baron...for 105pts. he's too good to pass up.

Normally HQs units are killers in assault, and he did not do much. How many wounds on average will he do? 2? With a Husk Blade it is even worse with his weak strength of 3 unless he is going after a multi-wound model.

Again, the Huskblade combo needs combat drugs to be effective at all. The thing I've been finding with archons is that to tool them out to crazy levels requires a lot of "what if" scenarios. If I get this...he can do this, etc. Which on paper all seems good, but in actual theory it is sort of different. I think an archon and court can still be a viable unit, but I haven't messed with it in test games of my own. The only other real way to boost the archon is hooking him and his incubi up with 3 haemoculi all in one ride. The problem is that it's very cost prohibitive. I'm still working on a build like that though as I think that if it's surrounded by the right things, it can be wickedly good. I'm also toying with putting him in a unit of harlequins since they can generate pain tokens for him quickly by winning combats faster for cheaper cost/ better utility overall than incubi. Once he's reached 3 tokens he can actually be a force to be reckoned with. However, all of those are "what if" scenarios. You will find the DE codex is loaded with those.

Blackmoor wrote:

sharkticon wrote:As someone who played Blackmoor at the event, I can say that all of the units were legal, he just wrote them down a little funny here.

Though, Allan, I was wondering why you took the soultrap on the Archon? I thought that an agonizer wounded on a straight 4+, no poison rules, therefore the increased strength would have no effect, or was it there for vehicle hunting later in the game?

The more that I read it, the more that I think that the agoniser and the soul trap do not work together. I never got to use the soul trap because I fell one wound short of killing your trygon :(

I will right up my thoughts after I finish with my batreps, but the Archon was a disappointment. Normally HQs units are killers in assault, and he did not do much. How many wounds on average will he do? 2? With a Husk Blade it is even worse with his weak strength of 3 unless he is going after a multi-wound model.

I know anecdotal evidence is somewhat suspect, but I've had pretty good luck with the Huskblade/Soultrap combination. I even one-shotted a Trygon with it I've been S6 several times, and S10 once. S3 is a bit of a liability, but if you give the Archon Drugs, then the +1 attack/re-roll failed to-wound rolls/+1S results directly help with the effectiveness. Also, a couple of pain tokens ups the combo's effectiveness, too.

Right now, I'm running 8 Bloodbrides with 3/'Nets, Syren with Agnoniser, and Archon with HB/ST/Clonefield/etc. as a single unit. The 'Nets are only there to make sure my Archon doesn't see much of anything in the way of attacks, and the Archon/Syren combo do plenty of wounds (combined with 24-32 attacks from the 'Brides) to make sure I usually win combat. About the only thing I'm leary of taking this unit up against are Plague Marines and Horde Orks (unless I've whittled them down first) and Vehicles. Though, once the ST has gone off, I'm not too worried about vehicles, either.