Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey, Welcome to my 3rd Dark Eldar battle report. My last two reports can be found here and here.

Easter is approaching and many of my warhammer playing mates are now coming back from uni. We're planning on playing a league style tourney, 6 players, one game vs each player 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. Any draws at the end are settled with a play off game.
With that in mind I'd like it if you guys could give me whatever criticism you can that might help me in the build up for the comp; critique of my list, tactics, anything, that would be great

On with the report.....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dark Eldar

Archon- WWP, Shadowfield, Husk Blade, Soultrap
Incubi - 9 Incubi
Raider - Flickers, Dark Lance

Wyches - 9 Wyches with 2 Shardnet/Impalers, Haywire grenades. 1 Hekatrix with Agoniser
Raider - Flickers, Dark Lance

Wyches -9 Wyches 1 Razor Flail. 1 Hekatrix with Agoniser
Raider - Flickers, Dark Lance

Reaver Jetbikes - 6 Jetbikes, 2 Heatlances, 2 Cluster Caltrops

Hellions - 10 Hellions

Ravager - Dark Lances

Ravager - Dark Lances

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ork list (roughly)

Thrakka
Nobz - 9 Nobz, 1 Pain Boy, Cybork Body, 2 Power Klaws (other shenanigans)
Trukk - Red Paint

Warboss - Klaw, Combi-scorcha, Attack Squig, 'Eavy Armour, Cybork
'Ard Boyz - 30 Boyz, Choppa/Slugga

Lootas - 15 Lootas

Deff Kopta - Buzz Saw

Deff Kopta - Buzz Saw

Deff Kopta - Buzz Saw

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deployment

Mission: Kill Points
Deployment: Pitched Battle

The Orks deploy 1st, The loota's set up in the ruins on the right side; this meant that almost everything to the right of the temple of skulls was a no fly zone for me unless I could get right into the ruins. Almost everything else was towards the left side. I reply by keeping everything except my HQ/Incubi Raider in reserve, The Raider bravely hides behind a bastion. I attempt to steal the initiative but fail, then roll for combat drugs; these give me +1 Strength. This is how things looked before we got going:



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 1



-The Deffkopta's scout forward 18"; the central one has to take (and passes) a dangerous terrain test
-The right hand kopta hides by the ruins whilst the one on the left moves to get LOS on the Archons vehicle.

-The warboss moves slowly through difficult terrain (2-3" I think)
-Thrakka's truck goes flat out considering there is nothing to shoot!
-The left kopta moves another 12"

-The left Kopta fires a rocket at the Raider, destroying the Dark Lance.
-The Warboss + Boyz run.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 1



-The Raider moves 12" towards the center of the board
-The Archon and Incubi hop out
-The Archon sets off the Webway Portal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 2



-The Warboss and Boyz move slowly through difficult terrain again
-Thrakka's Trukk moves into cover and gets immobilized because of dangerous terrain
-Thrakka and the Nobz get out
-The left and the central Koptas move to try and get a clean LOS on the Raider

-The Lootas cant draw LOS to anything, so do nothing
-Both Deffkoptas fire at the Raider, one hits and penetrates, but flickerfields protect it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 2



-Both Wych/Raider squads enter from reserve, everything else stays behind for now
-Wyches move up 12" and disembark
-The Archon and his squad move towards the Deffkopta
-The Raider moves to block Thrakka from getting to the Archon

-Both the Wych's Raiders fire at the left hand Deffkopta and kill it
-The wyches fire into the mass of Ork Boyz and kill 2
-The Incubi and Archon run towards the central Deffkopta



-The Incubi and Archon assault the Deffkopta through terrain
-The Kopta fails to do anything thanks to the Shadowfield
- At I1 the Archon gets 1 wound through and kills the Kopta thanks to the huskbade, gaining them 1 pain token.
-They consolidate 5" back behind the portal

-The Wyches charge the Boyz and Warboss
-Shardnets get the Warboss down to 1A and the Hekatrix inficts 2 wounds.
-The rest of the two squads anage to finish off 10 Boyz
-The boys hit back and inflict an insane number of wounds
-One squad gets wiped and the other looses 4
-I fail my leadership and fall back.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 3



-The Warboss seperates from the Boyz
-The Boyz edge forwards a bit
-Thrakka's squad move into the Archon's Raider

-Thrrakka and the nobs shoot the Raider
-The boys shoot the left Wych Raider
-The Warboss Shoots the Right Wych Raider
-In true Ork fassion nothing happens



-The Warboss assaults the Raider and wrecks it
-The boys multi assault the Raider and the Wyches
-The Raider gets shaken
-The Boys kill the remaining 6 wyches, but 3 boyz die in the process

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 3

-I got a bit over excited here and forgot to take a picture before the start of the assault phase, but here's what happened.
-Everything came in from reserves: both Ravagers came on near the Nobz squad.
-The Reavers moved 36" from the portal right over to the ruins on the right hand side, unsing bladevane's on the Nobz
-The Hellions hopped over the Nobz via the portal
-The stunned Raider moved flat out to avoid being killed by the Warboss

-I got 9 S6 hits from the cluster caltrops, 7 S4 hits from the bladevanes
-Fired all Dark Lances at Thrakka's squad
-Fired all the hellions at them too, due to the volume of fire 1 wound is allocated to Thrakka and he fails his save.
-Managed to Instant death 2 (I think) and put wounds down on (I think) 3 others in the squad, including the Pain Boy.



-The Incubi, Archon and Hellions assaulted the Thrakka/Nob squad
-The Archon instant death's two more Nobz
-The Hellions (at S5 from the drugs) manage to pick off all the already wounded Nobz (including the Pain Boy!), Leaving 1 or two Nobz and Thrakka
-All the Incubi that are in range put there attacks on Thrakka and bring him down.
-1 Pain token goes to the Incubi, 1 to the Hellions.



-Here is the board at the bottom of T3 (I've named some things just to show what arrived from reserve/went where ect)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 4



-The Kopta that was lurking in the ruins flies over to have a go at the Reavers
-The Warboss' unit move slowly through terrain again, towards the Incubi.

-The Warboss and boyz run
-The lootas fire 45 shots at the hellions, but due to BS2, cover + FNP only 4 die
-The Deffkopta flubs its shot on the Reavers

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 4



-The Raiders, Ravagers, Hellions, Incubi and Archon move to swamp the Warboss.

-The combined shooting of the Ravagers and Hellions manage to kill 6 boys
-The Reavers fire at the deffkopta and kill it with the heat lances.

-The Incubi and Hellions then charge the remains of the Warbosses squad



-The Archon goes head to head with the Warboss and kills him, the soul trap puts him up to S6
-The Incubi and Hellions put 12 wounds down and wipe the boys out.
-Archon and his crew consolidate towards the now empty wyches raider.
-The Helions move right.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 5



-With only an imobalized Trukk that can't see anything and the Lootas left on the board, its a quick turn
-Lootas fire 30 shots at the hellions, killing 3.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 5



-Both of my Ravagers move behind the temple of skulls to try and hide from the Loota's, Trying to keep a clear LOS to the Trukk
-The Archon and Incubi hop into the Raider and hide behind the bastion where they started the game.
-The Hellions hide behind the Ravager that's nearest to them
-The Reavers move 36" over the Lootas and bladevane them

-Both Ravagers shoot at the Trukk and explode it, it kareens 4" just out of the crater
-The Bladevanes/Clusters take out 10 lootas

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ork Turn 6



-The Lootas have a very dubious LOS on my Ravager, but I allow the shot seeing as thats all he has left.
-The remaining 5 Lootas get 3 shots each and wreck my ravager despite the 4+ coversave (that teaches me for being generous )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Eldar Turn 6



-I move everything up just incase my Reavers screw up
-The Reavers move 36" to bladevane the Lootas and get 9 S6 hits + and 9 S4 hits, so my opponent just took the remaining lootas off the board.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Conclusion

Another win for the Dark Eldar, also it's the first time I've been able to table an opponent with my new army

Archon - One of the rare games that his shadow field endures the entire game, annoyingly the S boost from the soul trap was too late to make any difference. I still feel that he pulled his weight though.
Incubi - Taking a unit this big is intended entirely for chewing up big units like the nobz. Within my group there seems to be a lot of dependance on having one big deathstar unit, this is the only way I've found to reliably take care of them.
Hellions - The drugs REALLY helped them with plowing through the nobz, anything that makes it easier to wound them is a bonus in my books
Reavers - Again the Reavers seem to do me proud, I admit their uses are a little limited, but I'm still struggling to see why people thing they are such a poor option
Ravagers- The lack of any big armour stopped them from showing their true worth, but the instant death wounds on the Nobz REALLY helped me out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Thanks for reading, any and all C+C will be greatly appreciated.

Interesting game. I think the biggest problem the Ork player had was the immobilized result on the trukk so early on. Meant he had to footslog it instead of hanging out in the nice armoured vehicle.

I'm rather impressed at the DE's ability to assault, and I'm sure those Shardnets saved your bacon, not allowing the Warboss all his attacks.

Looks like you used your maneuverability well, assaulting instead of being assaulted (which is doubly dangerous with Orks). And a well written Batrep, too.

Honestly, though, if I had been the Ork player, and saw you reserved so much of your army, I probably would have tried to move my Lootas a bit, to cover more of the board.

couple of things.

1)"Shardnets get the Warboss down to 1A and the Hekatrix inficts 2 wounds thanks to the re-roll from combat drugs. " You said you got +1 Str from Combat Drugs. I don't believe Agonisers are Poisoned Weapons but just wound on 4's. Don't have my book on me so I could be wrong...meaning there would be no rerolls.

2) "Raider gets Stunned." "Stunned Raider moves flat-out to avoid being destroyed by the Warboss." Another 'no no' as Stunned = cannot move or shoot. Not game changing but a KP nonetheless.

3) Tactically, I found that the orc player spread out too much. Everything got dissected in parts whereas he could have bunched up a bit more to counter assault better. He really played to your strengths as you were able to hit and scoot away before being locked in combat too long. I can see why he was frantic to get the nobs in CC and away from insta-gib darklight but tactically, it appeared that he had a carrot dangling from his hat.

Painnen wrote:couple of things.

1)"Shardnets get the Warboss down to 1A and the Hekatrix inficts 2 wounds thanks to the re-roll from combat drugs. " You said you got +1 Str from Combat Drugs. I don't believe Agonisers are Poisoned Weapons but just wound on 4's. Don't have my book on me so I could be wrong...meaning there would be no rerolls.

My mistake, I'm typing this up from memory at work and got my wires crossed. Fixed it now though

2) "Raider gets Stunned." "Stunned Raider moves flat-out to avoid being destroyed by the Warboss." Another 'no no' as Stunned = cannot move or shoot. Not game changing but a KP nonetheless.

Shaken is cannot shoot, stunned is cannot move or shoot. Being stunned implies being disoriented while being shaken is just being a bit rattled.

Hmm...I question the wisdom of the Ork players army here. At 1500 points, he has Ghaz, 9 Nobz, an extra Warboss and 3 Buzzsaw Deffkoptas. That's a lot of expensive stuff, and not nearly enough boyz. Even the 15 Lootas is kind of a lot at 1500 points. Still, a good report.

Yea i would never pick that as my ork army it was way too expensive and to have ard boyz and no normal boyz isnt a great idea lol.

Also, your hellions would not have gotten FNP against the loota shots.... they're str 7 and your T3....

Well done report!

It looks like you used the mobility to your advantage! It just looks like the Orks were too spread out to be very effective, and he didn't utilized the Loota very well either

Nicely done match!

Interesting! I noticed this part, though:

Gorechild wrote:-The Incubi and Archon assault the Deffkopta through terrain
-The Kopta fails to do anything thanks to the Shadowfield
- At I1 the Archon gets 1 wound through and kills the Kopta thanks to the huskbade, gaining them 1 pain token.
-They consolidate 5" back behind the portal

Archons start with Plasma Grenades, which are assault grenades, which negate the Initiative penalty when assaulting into terrain.

Zid wrote:Also, your hellions would not have gotten FNP against the loota shots.... they're str 7 and your T3....

Ooh good point, we both missed that, I'll keep it in mind in the future

Foo wrote:Interesting! I noticed this part, though:

Gorechild wrote:-The Incubi and Archon assault the Deffkopta through terrain
-The Kopta fails to do anything thanks to the Shadowfield
- At I1 the Archon gets 1 wound through and kills the Kopta thanks to the huskbade, gaining them 1 pain token.
-They consolidate 5" back behind the portal

Archons start with Plasma Grenades, which are assault grenades, which negate the Initiative penalty when assaulting into terrain.

That's another thing I missed I'm used to taking him with a PGL to give the Incubi grenades too, so without it I was expecting him to have lost them as well!


Thanks for all the comments guys Any ideas for my list? I know there was a lot up with the Ork list, but 90% of the time he doesn't play an optimum army (he doesn't own a single battle wagon and is far too fond of wierd boys and Kaptin Badrukk )

I'm hoping I can get my beast squad built and ready in time (4 masters, 6 Razorwings, 5 Kymera), but other than them I have Lileth and can use some (3) counts as venoms. Any suggestions for sorting my list out?

as far as changing the list, the only real odd entry is the hellions. they just don't seem to fit the build.

I think that the incubi are overkill at 9 in a squad. Not to mention with an archon attached.

Not very shooty, so I can see the need for the portal but it wouldn't take much to min'size those squads and try to add some trueborn with blasters or a 3rd ravager.

not a horrible list.

Painnen wrote:as far as changing the list, the only real odd entry is the hellions. they just don't seem to fit the build.

I think that the incubi are overkill at 9 in a squad. Not to mention with an archon attached.

Not very shooty, so I can see the need for the portal but it wouldn't take much to min'size those squads and try to add some trueborn with blasters or a 3rd ravager.

not a horrible list.

I've been considering a third Ravager, but out of the group I game with, I'm the only person that owns a vehicle that's more than AV12. The only vehicles I come across a lot of are dreads/kan's, so for now I don't think I need a third. The second I start playing vs more tanks I'll be getting my 3rd Ravager

Once I get my beasts built I'll either be cutting down the Hellion squad or dropping it (so I don't have to buy the uber expensive beastmasters )

My biggest issue is where to put the Archon (or any other HQ) if I cut down the Incubi squad and put them in venoms.

Thanks for the feedback

@Gorechild - Your list is a little bit light on troops. Personally, I would drop the Archon and get Baron Sathonyx and a Haemonculus for his pts. The Haemy gives the incubi a pain token from the get-go, and Sathy makes that nice big unit of hellions into stealthy troops. Also, you mentioned deathstars were pretty common in your local meta, so go read the shattershard rules.

No, you're not dreaming, they are that awesome.

Now take one on your haemonculus/Archon, and watch those Nobz float away...

Warboss Gutrip wrote:@Gorechild - Your list is a little bit light on troops. Personally, I would drop the Archon and get Baron Sathonyx and a Haemonculus for his pts. The Haemy gives the incubi a pain token from the get-go, and Sathy makes that nice big unit of hellions into stealthy troops. Also, you mentioned deathstars were pretty common in your local meta, so go read the shattershard rules.

No, you're not dreaming, they are that awesome.

Now take one on your haemonculus/Archon, and watch those Nobz float away...

Yeah I really like the look of the Baron, I'll get him the second an official model comes out, but I don't have enough faith in my converting skills I guess I could just do a "counts as" for the time being.

When the Venom comes out I want to see if I can work in a squad of warriors or two, but I doubt that will be in time for my tourney That would give me 5 troops (Wych, Wych, Warrior, Warrior, Hellion) or 4 if I take the beasts.

Thanks for the advice