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The woman's name was Almira Saengir and she was running as fast as her legs would carry her. She was jostled and bumped by the panicking crowd of people. Ahead of her she saw a child slip on the rainslicked road and go down. The rain was getting heavier and she could feel it starting to sting her exposed skin but that was a worry for later. Right now, she was running with the crowd, animal like in their desperation to just get away.

Almira risked a glance over here shoulder and saw that the massive worm like creature was gaining on them. The child who had fallen - a boy she could see now that she was passing him was trying to get to his feet when a bladed forelimb longer than Almira was tall slashed the child in two. And then the worm was into the people. Each movement of the worm crushed a handful of people and the scythes were harvesting a bloody wheat.

"I must have that." Capria turned reluctantly from the view-mirror. Her voice was heavy and breathy and she bit her lip until a single drop of blood welled around the sharpened pearl of her tooth.

Archon Laethe smiled a wicked grin as she saw the greed in the succubus' eyes.

"I can bring you that and more, dear Capria. All I ask in return is that you align yourself with my Kabal. And a royal box at your arena, of course, as befits our alliance."

Capria's eyes kept darting to the mirror and the carnage being wrought on the monkeigh. She could see other carapaced forms moving in the rain - smaller though equally dangerous. Her heart beat faster at the prestige this opportunity offered. She knew that her current patron, Archon Malethin of the Kabal of the Shrouded Blade would be upset to lose her favor, especially to such a young Kabal as that which Laethe led. But if Laethe could bring what she promised the stadium would be packed for the entire run. And the deaths would be beautiful.

"Anything you ask Laethe. Bring me that creature and my Cult will swear fealty to you." At least until Malethin has destroyed you, she thought to herself.

"Tell my brother to gather the trueborn" Laethe said to the attendant on her left. The attendant jogged out and as he exited the room he was replaced by another servant which looked identical in Malethin's eyes.

"My wyches will accompany you, if you have a raider to spare."

Laethe knew that this was a hidden challenge to her wealth. If the Archon didn't have the means for a substantial raider fleet, then she would not survive long in Commorragh.

"Of course." Laethe smiled. These halfborn, even one so skilled in murder as Capria, were clumsy, coarse and stupid. Barely better than the beasts that fight in the wych's arenas.

She would be easy to manipulate and control. "Allow me to send you in my personal yacht."

So, I got in my second game with my new dark eldar army. (I am still working on the Kabal name, btw) and this time Shep brought his Tyranids. You can read the first outing against his mech IG here. Typically when I am testing a new list, unless it is a total train wreck, I try not to change much at a time for the first few games. The only change I made this time around was giving one of my ravagers disintegrator cannons instead of dark lances. It wasn't so much tuning to play against Shep as I have been itching to try it out and see how it does.

This is the list I took:

haemonculus (liquifier)
5x trueborn (2x splintercannons, 3x blasters in venom with extra splintercannon)
5x trueborn (2x splintercannons, 3x blasters in venom with extra splintercannon)
5x trueborn (2x splintercannons, 3x blasters in venom with extra splintercannon)
9x wyches (hekatrix, agonizer, phantasm grenade launcher in raider with shockprow)
5x warriors (blaster in raider)
5x warriors (blaster in raider)
5x warriors (blaster in raider)
ravager dark lances
ravager dark lances
ravager disintegrators

Shep is working on tweaking a decent nid list so he brought:

2 tervigons
10 termagants
2x10 genestealers
2 trygons
deathleaper
2x2 lictors

I think that was it. I am sure he will chime in with corrections if necessary.

We rolled up a pitched cap and control and Shep won the roll and chose his side. His objective was in the extreme corner and mine was along the table edge but in the middle since I didn't want to be outflanked on. We both deployed pretty much everything - I kept the wyches/haemonculi in reserve, Shep kept all the lictors (obviously) and the termagants in reserve.

The wyches drugs gave them a bonus attack. I tried and failed to sieze the iniative and we were off and running.

Dark eldar deployment looked like this - two of the trueborn deployed in their venoms and the other trueborn deployed on the second floor of the building:



Everyone else was in their raider and the ravagers were like this - and I should have cleared the tape before the pic, sorry:



Shep took advantage of the cover provided by the buildings to make sure that all his bugs had cover.



and



The genestealers infiltrated after the pics but my line of vehicles pushed them out the max distance from my lines.



He moved forward with the genestealers still keeping them in cover as much as possible, both units with FNP granted by the tervigons. The tervigons both hatched out some babies, both of which headed towards the respective objectives.

Just as a quick aside - Shep took all the pics and it always amazes me how different the game looks from the other side of the table.



One of the stealers units had a pretty bad difficult terrain roll making the other unit a far higher priority for my turn.

One of the trueborn in the venom debarked on the second floor and then got a 6 for their movement so scaled to the third floor while the other venom hopped 6" over the building so both the vehicle and the passengers could shoot. Both other venoms lined up shots on the genestealers as well as stuff moving 12" in general but having shots.

My entire army shot at them (aside from the disintegrator ravager) and killed 6 of them. The disintegrator shot at the closest trygon causing 3 wounds. Not a bad debut.

Shep's turn 2 reserves are almost perfect for him - he got 2 lictor units. They both popped out of cover near one of my warrior raiders. The raider was lucky and only suffered a shaken result from the shooting.



and



The depleted genestealer unit and the wounded trygon both charged at the closest venom (which was not carrying anyone) and wrecked it.

The wyches were off picking flowers or something and didn't arrive. Turn 2 is affectionately known as "operation kill trygons". My shooting accounted for both trygons and, as a bit of a bonus, I also killed the depleted stealers. The disintegrator ravager shot the tervigon and only hit with 3 shots and failed to wound at all.

The shaken raider flew 24" away from the lictors.

Shep's unit of termagants arrived from reserves and promptly reinforced his objective. The tervigons continued to crank out babies which swarmed towards the nearest respective objectives. The central tervigon suffers a wound from perils of the warp as it tried to give itself feel no pain.



Deathleaper arrived and popped out of the building right next to the shaken raider and shot at it but failed to do anything.

The other lictors both moved on one of the dark lance ravagers and ripped one of the gunners screaming from his seat and stunned the vehicle. The full genestealers tried to multicharge and Shep rolled 1,1,1. It was tragic for him, not so much for me.



My turn 3 the wyches were still doing their hair or something. Again I targeted the highest priority thing with much of my shooting (including all of the warriors raiders which only moved 6" so the passengers could shoot).

The deathleaper was killed by the shooting from the raider of the unit it had popped out next to (the squad on board shot first hoping to get the pain token but it was the raider that killed him). The passengers of the raiders closer to the stealers shot at them while the dl ravager that could moved 12" and killed one of the units of lictors. The other was killed by a venom, I believe. Everything else shot at the close stealers and killed 4.

Turn 4 the tervigons both finally ran out of babies (one creating 17 termagants in the process!) Over the course of the game between them they created 63 I think the final count was?



The termagants by this point had his objective in a hammerlock and were swarming towards mine. The genestealers took advantage of the slower moving raiders and dual charged them (oops, I should have thought that through a little better) and exploded one and wrecked the other.



The warriors jumping out of the wrecked one were pinned and I lost 2 from the other squad but they were both unpinned and unbroken. Termagants destroyed a gun on one of the venoms and also shook it.

The wyches arrived and moved flat out toward Shep's objective. Though at this point the game was all but a guaranteed tie I wanted to play for the win in case we went 7 turns and I wanted to see the wyches in action.

The central tervigon was this turn's priority and between the venom-mounted trueborn, the disintegrator ravager and the trueborn on the third floor it was dealt with. It was outside of 6" though so its passing did nothing to the gants. Aside from drop its leadership of course. The foot warrior squad (with a little supporting fire from the trueborn units) finished off the genestealers with a huge sigh of relief.

The rest of my shooting was calculated to try cause the ld 5 termagants to make leadership tests. With the venoms I was able to cause enough wounds on 2 of the squads to make them break and completely wipe out the smallest one.

Turn 5 started off with a dominion which autorallied one of the termagant units. The other fell back. I had jumped the shaken venom to the back lines to escort the falling back unit and their shooting shook it again (drats!)

The wyches raider moved forward the full 12" and the wyches left the haemonculus on board but took his pain token. The wyches charged the first unit of screening termagants and killed 14 of the 17. The remaining 3 failed to wound the wyches and I had pain token #2.

At this point we rolled to see if there was another turn and the roll came up a 2 ending the game in a hard fought and bloody draw.

Wow, what a game!

After action review
Everything went pretty well according to plan once more. The last game was vs a crazy mech heavy list and I reserved everything - this time around the shooting was light so I started with pretty much everything on the table. In retrospect, I should have started the wyches on the table and reserved a unit of warriors. I have to thank Shep for reminding me I was playing DE and not SM bikes so I pushed my objective back to the table edge rather than 12" forward as I am used to doing.

I had to put the objective in the center of the table to prevent Shep from outflanking with his stealers on it and I think that aspect of it paid off. Those lictors, though it seems like they were dealt with pretty easily were, in fact, a total pain. I had to spend an entire vital turn in the middle turns dealing with them rather than advancing my own plan. As a disruption they did their job exceptionally well.

The Haemonculus was, once more, completely superfluous. I think he is about to become a succubus for a game or two.

Speaking of the ladies, the wyches were absolutely dynamite! They had better spend some time limbering up because they are getting a whole lot of table time in the near future.

Likewise, the trueborn with that setup is absolutely amazing. 3 blasters, 2 splintercannons in a dual splintercannon venom is under 200 points and they were well and away MVP in both games. And I think even without the venoms, if I were doing say a webway portal list, they would be just as brutal coming out of it. They lose minimal shooting on the move, can deal equally well with horde, vehicle or MC and are small enough to make sweet sweet love to terrain. They are money in the bank.

So, what disappointed? Nothing, really. The disintegrator ravager did okay but not great so I will probably keep it as the dark lance variety and will likely replace one with a talos when that becomes available. Oh and GW needs to release a venom yesterday.

So thanks to Shep for another awesome game.

Kharae jumped from the venom while his squadmates covered him. The giant worm thrashed wildly as its nerve endings burned from the dark eldar's poisons. Kharae pulled the slavetagger from his belt and shot the bolt into the things carapace. The internal drill bit activated boring deep into the things bone structure and locking in place. The dull white gem gleamed against the bloody carapace. Kharae activated the miniature portal generator of the the slavestone and the trygon shimmered and vanished as it was transported to his kabal's slave pens.

-----

The lesser creature's blood covered Maeghra like a second skin as screamed her challenge at the brood mother. The hekatrix cracked her agonizer whip and stepped toward the beast when one of the other wyches drew her attention. The mission had been accomplished, Archon Laethe's troops had tagged not one, but two of the giant worms and were now pulling back. They had apparently also tagged several of the smaller species, including the lightning quick killers who had leapt onto two of the raiders and slaughtered both of their crews causing them to spiral out of control.

There would be plenty of time in the coming weeks for blood letting. The brood mother was shambling slowly away and Maeghra dismissed it as an unworthy foe. With a word she leapt gracefully into the air and grabbed one of the hook chains of the Archon's private yacht. The other wyches followed her lead, some grabbing quick trophies from the lesser beasts before reboarding the raider and setting a course back to Commorragh and an exciting Season of Slaughter.

I appreciate the insights you're gaining (and sharing!) on DE play, particularly on boards with some significant terrain.

I need Shep to come in here and explain his Tyranid thinking, as he and I are in very different mental places, I think.

Nicely done batrep. Couple suggestions to you as the DE player.

Don't give up on the Disintegrator Ravager yet. Nids are actually one of the few matchups it doesn't shine in, mainly because of the high T on MCs. In that case, its nice to shoot at the FnP Genestealers and wipe them thanks to that handy AP2.

As it seems you realized, most DE lists function best starting everything on the board. While some lists like WWP lists function otherwise, in most cases you want to use the entire army for as much of the game as possible. Coming in piecemeal means your opponent has more time to pick off the paper airplanes and have fewer targets, meaning easier target priority for them.

Not sure if you have them and didn't denote them, but Flickerfields are something I think should be standard on every Ravager, and if you have the spare points, Raiders too. The ability to completely negate a glance/pen 1/3 of the time is incredible with such fragile vehicles. A fun little trick can be pulled with the Shock Prow that was as well

Nice report, hope to see more!

Very entertaining report, Som. The tactical insights were certainly helpful (I have yet to play the new D'Eldar). But I especially enjoyed the narrative parts. Always a treat.

Awesome Batrep. I'm liking that Trueborn loadout and may have to try it in a few games. I'm not seeing the advantage of the PGL on the wyches. They already have plasma grenades and their initiative of 6 usually means you are swinging first and causing casualties to reduce attacks already. I'd rather put those points into hydra gauntlets or something. Other than a cheap WWP delivery system, or a pain token giver...haemonculi are terrible...so we agree that they suck. However, they are the cheapest way to get a WWP on the table. Although, I'm thinking of taking an Archon in future lists as at least he can fight better. Obviously, your list doesn't have a WWP in it, so that opens the door for you to try out other HQ choices.

Thanks for the battle report! I was iffy on your trueborn load out it seems to be holding up quite well. I agree don't give up on the Disintegrator Ravager, as they can really shine against MEQ and FnP. I would ask that you try fielding the wytches as blood brides and using the spare trueborn as warriors, just to see what the ladies can really do. One only runs a haemonculi for the wwb or if you are running wracks. You can use him as a crappy vindi assassin or a crappy pyrovore. But why take a bad copy of a bad unit (IMHO) he's just like a an Ork mad doc that can be picked out in combat.

As for the Nids. I know what Shep was trying to do, and it is a good idea. I think his list would be better served by replacing a unit of lictors with Ymgarls. They work well to keep units out of cover. Finding points for Venomthropes will negate 1/3 of the dark light hitting the trygons. Just some thoughts, don't flay me!

Yeah that was a really fun and really useful game.

Somnicide was rather down on splinter cannons after playing against my IG, and so i had to move quick to make sure he understood how utterly crucial they are to a shooty/speedy dark eldar army. That meant Nids ASAP heh.

Playing against full mech IG in seize ground and then playing against nids in cap and control were perfect 'goalposts' for Som to see. Against IG, he was hopelessly outgunned, but was able to 'remember thy objective and keep it holy.' use the speed of his army as a defense, and pulled a draw. In this game, he didn't have to worry about shooting phase superiority, but the single defensible point and single attackable point were really millstones around his neck. Couple that with an army that doesn't really give a damn about dark light (but is quite scared of splinter cannon) and he got to see what he'll need to be able to call on in terms of just raw shooting in order to safely defend a cap/control objective.

A few notes on the big picture of the game. The final turn was probably not what Som would have done in a tourney, especially if he was at or near the top tables. I had a unit of 14 termagants (which get to have anti-tank guns against dark eldar) and two lictors all within one movement phase of contesting his own objective. I also had four concentric rows of termagants on my own objective. At 17, 12, 10, 8. He could have won on turn 7, with wyches just shredding the units one combat at a time and hopefully surviving the volley of fire after each victory, but he could have lost on turn 6, had his trueborn splinter cannons gotten jammed and rolled poorly on my termagant unit. It was more likely that he would win or tie than those termagants and lictors would survive, and we were playing for fun, so he went for the win, which I applaud. We learned more from that anyway. I like wyches a lot after seeing them in this game.

CaptK... I think that Som mentioned that much to his dismay, wyches don't come with frags standard. I may be remembering it wrong, Somnicide may have read it wrong, but they might just not have them. And that makes the PGL pretty vital if so.

Yeah, the haemonculus has been really flat and lame. We've noticed that in this list, Som doesn't whip out those wyches until they are charging something. And he hasn't chosen a charge target yet that he couldn't handily beat. Only thing I'd want the haemonculus for would be the weounds caused by an exploding vehicle. And I really think its just better to be careful with LOS to your wych raider than it is to have a 50+ point insurance policy on a 1/3 event.

EDIT: Yeah, I'm still blaming Som for telling me they didn't have them. They do, and I agree with you... not worth the PGL. Much like cutting the haemonculus, the best defense for them is carefully choosing their targets and a good strong offense.

Janthkin... Its my regular old tourney winning 1500 nid army, but with -6 hive guard and -10 genestealers and +4 lictors and +1 deathleaper. I had been discussing the possiblity of a lictor with a friend and decided to give it a shot. It appears that dark eldar is about the worst match they could have, and they still were awfully annoying for Som... My usual lsit would have fared measurably better. The hive guard would ahve been murder until he hunted them down, and each genestealer unit having 5 more models would also have probably accounted for more damage than the lictors. They are not cut yet. The flesh hooks COMPLETELY wiffed, and deathleaper (who probably would have won me the game) managed to somehow die to a single 5 man warrior unit with a blaster and its blaster raider. Failed every 3+ cover save i was required to take. Had he lived through that and re-entered reserve. he could have appeared on turn 5, contesting the enemy objective. The trueborn would most certainly have been out of the "where did he go?" spotting range, and so he'd only have one more blaster and 4 more splinter shots to kill him. Its a dice game, what can I say.

But this isn't really about nids, we played this more as an exercise in tuning Soms list. here are my (as his opponent in both the IG game and now the nid game) impressions of each unit...

Hameonculus - I get why you'd have one in other lists, 1-2 haemonculus in an incubi unit makes sense to me. WWP haemonculus in a 10x wrack unit makes perfect sense to me. But MSU mech dark eldar don't need a pain token so bad that they should pass on the opportunity to buy an archon or even a succubus.

trueborn in venom - This unit is unbelievable. In both extremes of matchup they were clearly awarded his MVP trophy. In that IG game, they approached quickly, but out of LOS to my lines, and then they got out... cleared out their entire spherre of influence, and then after losing one unit, the other two just rolled up the flank, accounting for 2 chimeras and 4 hydras. In this game, their dominant firebase, which was positioned pretty far away from his objective was just murder. As my trygon revealed itself, they stepped forward and were easily able to get him into their 24" effective range blasters and brought him down, and then in the twilight of the game, their splinter cannons along with their venoms splinter cannons laid waste to a 7, 14, and 10 strong termagant units. All of whcih were positioned to contest their objective. proper use of this unit gives DE just about any tool they need, and they happen to be expendable too.

warriors in raider - I think I managed to convince Som here that these guys should be in venoms. I wasn't going to be able to convince him after a full mech IG game of course... but nids or space wolves were a good choice for showing off the grossness of the splinter cannon. the simple math is pretty easy to show. You've got a 5 man unit that has the choice of a transport with no save and one "heavy" weapon, or a transport with a 5+ invulnerable and two "heavy" weapons. Get your darklight somewhere else.

Wyches in raider - Awesome. I think even a speedy MSU list needs something like this. With his heavy slots and his elites slots filled up on stuff he loves (for this kind of list at this game size) The only alternative to this unit would be two mini-warriors in venoms. If you go that route, it gets pretty hard to dig out that unit that is going to ground in cover on an objective. And this isn't the tank shock army.

ravager - Good. Not needed for this matchup, but were vital vendetta hunters in the IG matchup. 105 points is a steal for it, but no one is going to come out of a game saying "I can't believe how amazing that ravager was!"

disintegrator ravager - Som really downplayed the work this thing did. It yielded its average of 2 wounds per turn on my trygon and tervigon, which is comfortably above the average of a ravager on the same target. Feel no pain genestealers were on the table, and he didn't end up shooting at them, unfortunately. My verdict on this thing is that its great for killing terminators, MCs and FNP infantry units, but I'd advise that you are very careful not to cripple your long range vehicle kill. Overall vehicle kill won't be affected much by losing three dark lances, but its those pesky fast movers like vendettas, wave serpents and stormravens that you need to be able to hunt down. That will be tough without a trio of ravagers, as haywire grenades and blasters will have a harder time getting to them in a timely fashion. Lets put it this way... You don't want a stormraven moving 6", killing 1-2 of your vehicles, then next turn moving 12" killing another of your vehicles and then unloading a 22.5" charge range dread and a 21" charge range infantry squad, or a vendetta dropping a vehicle every turn of the game even with bad rolls.


After these two games, I think its safer to try crazy stuff. 1500 is a tight format to do a lot of stuff like WWP beastmasters. But if the cap goes up, even to 1750... then Som is definitely going to be moving on to the next phase of his experiments. We will get another batrep up soon, and now that he has this baseline list type, and he knows what he can get out of it, then I'd expect him to make some cuts and additions... particularly, looking at the WWP...and the things that love coming out of it

@janthkin - yeah my group had an epiphany in the last year or so about the terrain. It is as much a solid rule as the chart to hit or the movement phase. Ignoring it or using less is like making up your own rules. It's page 88, there is some good stuff there - especially the part that reads "as a general rule in Warhammer 40,000 the more terrain the better the gaming experience. " Spend some time in your local game store (if that is where you play) making some basic terrain or build some at home. It really does make it a completely different (and better) game.

@vishra - I would just rather have the 3 darklight shots for the price, however, I did like disintegrators enough that 2 of my raiders are getting them built on.

Also, I think with Dark Eldar you can't just decide to deploy or not deploy. You really need to see what your opponent is capable of - IG and Space Wolves will outshoot us every time, so I want to deny them of as many turns of superiority as possible. The great thing about Dark Eldar is that they don't HAVE to follow the same game plan every time unlike something like IG or even the shooty Space Wolf list where they are going to win (or lose) the same way every time.

Finally, flickerfields do nothing for me. The venoms all have them standard and I have never once had their fate change because of the flickerfield. If you are having success with them, awesome, but I would rather spend the 50 points on something else (10 per vehicle).

@tinfoil - thanks for the kind words. To everyone else reading this, follow tinfoil's daemon reports and p&m blog. He really is a paragon of the hobby.

@captk - I took the pgl for the defensive factor. They come with plasma standard, but when you get stuck in an ongoing combat or even charged by something like genestealers or thunderhammer termies out of a land raider the return you get on those 10 points is amazing. However, that being said, my next list has a unit without them but with hydragloves x 2 and a power weapon based on your experiences. I am toying with the idea of one squad not having a hekatrix and just running a succubus in that one. Then she is "cheaper" than the haemon because I am just paying the difference. I will definitely let you know.

@sexiest_hero - batreps please ;-) I will try bloodbrides at some point, it is just hard to give up what has been my clear MVP so far. I do like the assassin archon build with 3 shardnets, clone field, soul trap and huskblade...

Excellent batrep! Thanks again to you two for your insights into the new Dark Eldar, makes for very good strategic reading!

sweet batrep.. but i don't like the grey minis but yeah who hasen't got some unpainted minis on the field ej??

Joske De Veteraan wrote:sweet batrep.. but i don't like the grey minis but yeah who hasen't got some unpainted minis on the field ej??

Hehe... Gotta play before you know what is worth painting

As for me and my nids... I have no excuse but laziness.

Yeah they will be painted before too long. After hemming and hawing I finally got my test model done and decided I liked it.

Now I just need a name...

I am leaning towards Kabal of the Razor's Song - thoughts?

@janthkin - yeah my group had an epiphany in the last year or so about the terrain. It is as much a solid rule as the chart to hit or the movement phase. Ignoring it or using less is like making up your own rules. It's page 88, there is some good stuff there - especially the part that reads "as a general rule in Warhammer 40,000 the more terrain the better the gaming experience. " Spend some time in your local game store (if that is where you play) making some basic terrain or build some at home. It really does make it a completely different (and better) game.

I completely agree with that assessment as well. In fact, I think that with proper terrain, etc. that units like Long Fangs become less effective.

@vishra - I would just rather have the 3 darklight shots for the price, however, I did like disintegrators enough that 2 of my raiders are getting them built on.

I'd keep trying it out, but at higher point games I think you'll need the dark lances more. I have tried disintegrators on raiders with mixed results. At least I magnetized them so I'm not locked into one gun.

Also, I think with Dark Eldar you can't just decide to deploy or not deploy. You really need to see what your opponent is capable of - IG and Space Wolves will outshoot us every time, so I want to deny them of as many turns of superiority as possible.

Yup. I think that the speed and type of weapons the DE use allows them that ability over other armies.

The great thing about Dark Eldar is that they don't HAVE to follow the same game plan every time unlike something like IG or even the shooty Space Wolf list where they are going to win (or lose) the same way every time.

+1

Finally, flickerfields do nothing for me. The venoms all have them standard and I have never once had their fate change because of the flickerfield. If you are having success with them, awesome, but I would rather spend the 50 points on something else (10 per vehicle).

Flicker fields only work in bigger games where the terrain is harder to hide behind...and even then you only want them on your key assets.

@captk - I took the pgl for the defensive factor. They come with plasma standard, but when you get stuck in an ongoing combat or even charged by something like genestealers or thunderhammer termies out of a land raider the return you get on those 10 points is amazing.

I see it as a wash. With Hydra Gauntlets or Shardnets you kind of get the same effect (even in points spent) because you'll be swinging more attacks or stripping key attacks before they swing. PGL really only comes into effect vs. units like Harlequins or other high initiative units..that have the possibility to swing before you...or with an archon joined to an incubi squad as they need it.

However, that being said, my next list has a unit without them but with hydragloves x 2 and a power weapon based on your experiences.

I'll be interested in your take on it. If you have points definitely consider the blast pistol.

I am toying with the idea of one squad not having a hekatrix and just running a succubus in that one. Then she is "cheaper" than the haemon because I am just paying the difference. I will definitely let you know.

Well the nice thing with having a Hekatrix and Succubus is that they'll be able to break combats more in your favor. Wyches usually seldom win combat res by a large margin. The Succubus on her own will still have difficulty swinging combats on her own. Basically, having the extra weapon that ignores saves is crucial. It will allow them to gain tokens faster by beating units quicker.

@sexiest_hero - batreps please ;-) I will try bloodbrides at some point, it is just hard to give up what has been my clear MVP so far. I do like the assassin archon build with 3 shardnets, clone field, soul trap and huskblade...

I love Bloodbrides as well, but find trouble fitting them into lists. Maybe with warriors with 2 cannons on foot, you can make up the difference in anti infantry shots, but the anti-tank is key. Probably would have to gain the anti-tank back with Scourges. That's why I'm digging the codex. Lots of things to try out and consider. It's definitely been keeping me busy. I just wish they'd hurry up and release Venoms, Scourges, Talos....I'm getting impatient with my proxies!

I liked it, the game was good and the tactics seemed sounds, Nid list was average though
May be Shep should drop Lictors and grab a Tyrant? Or swarmlord with guard.
as for the story telling, I loved the Dark Eldar wanting nids as arena monsters xD but if you draw shouldn't you make a downfall to the mission aswell? Would make the story tie with the game better, may be the DE that caught the Trygon, have one of their high ranking eldar cleaved in two by a flailing talon? but that's irrelevant.

@captk - do you have pics of how you magnetized them? It looks to me like the join is so thin I was having trouble making it work and didn't want to destroy something trying it out.

@matthewbland - the joy of being the guy that writes the fluff is that I get to take creative license turning my draw into a win ;-) seriously though, depending on the story that evolves a tie will just as often be a loss and will occasionally be a stalemate (as you can see in my other batreps). I personally detest a tie - I would rather have a clean win or a clean loss and my stories will often depict that.

Very interesting game, thanks for the report and the insights. The one time I played DE with an early Tyranid list they wiped me off the board, it was brutal.

@captk - do you have pics of how you magnetized them? It looks to me like the join is so thin I was having trouble making it work and didn't want to destroy something trying it out.

Yeah, I can post a picture up of it. I think once it's painted it will look fine.

Nice battle report looks like a tough match. So on your trueborn they all had splinter rifles and one blaster?

Thank you for the battle report very interesting.

I been playing Dark Eldar but at higher points like 1750, 1850 and 2000 since I am in the US.

I like your multi purpose Trueborn. I have tried different configurations with them ranging from 2 dark lances and deploying them in cover to 4 blasters but always with a venom transport with an extra splinter cannon.

I like 3 dark lance ravagers or 2 darklance ravagers and a razorwing. I just like the reliable anti tank. Razorwing helps with horde lists although beasts are good versus them as well.

Have you tried beasts? The FAQ said they can't get feel no pain which is a let down but I like them as a good assault threat to take some heat off your paper airplanes. I guess at 1500 points you really don't have points for beasts.

That is an interesting Tyranid list as well. No Hiveguard or Zoanthropes and it actually managed to draw a mech list.

@billythekid - they all had 3 blasters, 2 splinter cannons.

@avariel - we are in the US too ;-) We play 1500 often because we can do a 4 turn tourney rather than a 3 turn tourney. I can't wait til the Venom comes out.

The razorwing will be nice, I am looking forward to that. I haven't used beasts yet - but now that there are models for them they will be in a list soon.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Oh ok i was just wondering it made it sound like there was only 1 blaster when you posted the army list