Saturday I played in a 12 man 1500 tournament at "comic asylum" in dallas. After getting 8th at the Alamo
GT I was excited to see what I could do at a local level, and got three great games in.
There was a pretty competitive crowd. Nick from chapterhouse attended! There was 2 dark eldar players, me, nick playing tyranids, a 15man longfang spacewolf list which worried me, a couple
GK lists, and Dark Angel terminator list, a foot
IG list, a foot eldar list, and a demons. Overall the only list that I thought could get the better of me was the Space Wolf List, who luckily got knocked out round1 by nick(thanks).
My List
Farseer, Runes of Warding, witnessing, guide.
5 Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent Scatters
5 Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent Scatters
5 Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent Scatters
5 Dire Avengers
5 Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent Scatters
5 Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent Scatters
Falcon,
EML, Holofields
Fire Prism
Fire Prism
Im pretty confident with mechdar and eldar in general. Ive learned what I can and can not do, and I really feel that armor12 spam thrives in tournaments, especially at 1500. Im pumped and honestly my goal is to win the tournament in the name of Craftworld Avior!
The Game Starts, and I get paired against Eric for Game One.
Game One
Mission - Kill Points. Massacre is 12 points, Tie is 5. Major is 9.
Deployment- Dawn of war (no night fighting). You also have a flank board edge to come in on so you have 2 sides of deployment.
Length- 6 turns.
Tertiary- +1 for each objective, +1 for killing more troop choices, +1 to kill most expensive unit.
Opponent- Eric with a Dark Eldar List, heres what I remember I didnt get to keep a list copy.
Archon
Lelith Hesperax
10 Warriors 1 lance
10 Warriors 1 lance
10 Warriors Splinter Cannon
10 Wyches, Raider, flicker
10 Whyches, Raider, flicker
Raider, flicker
Ravager, flicker
Ravager, flicker
I look at the list and overall Im not worried. I think ill be able to get more kill points, especially if I can get a vehicle advantage fast.
We put one objective in the left corner on a hill, and one to the back right in a building.
I win the dice roll , and because its dawn of war with no night fighting (think about it hard) I elect to get second. Dawn of War with no night fighting is basically like comming in with full reserves turn one. I keep all my forces off the board, and eric Deploys off the board edge.
Turn 1 Dark Eldar-
Not much Happens. He comes off the board edge and turbo boosts everything. He moves a squad of warriors with the cannon towards the objetive on my left. He has a warrior squad in the back right in the building, as well as one in the back left. There is a Ravager to my left out in the open. There is a ravager to my right middle in the open. There is a raider to the right with whyches, a raider in the middle close to a tree line with whyches, and a raider on left with wyches.
Turn 1 Eldar-
I know Im about to get a HUGE alpha strike on this guy. I come in with my falcon on the left. Two Prisms on the Right. 5 Wave Serpents in Between with shots on everything.
I open up with my Falcon, and get 2 penetrates and a glance on the Ravager on the left. He fails some cover saves and is shaken. 3/11 Dark Lances down! Prism on right opens up on ravager 2. Hit, Pen, Destroyed. 6/11 Dark Lances gone. Second Prism Opens up on Raider, immobolised result but it moved fast and the skimmer is destroyed! Another Wave Serpent opens up on a raider, stuns it so It cant shoot. My other Wave Serpents shoot at the last raider and Immobolise it...but because it moved flat out it is destroyed. Probably one of my best Alpha Strikes Ever, Taking out 5/5 Vehicles, absolutly destroying any chance of him getting tank superiority.
Dark Eldar Turn 2-
He Rams my falcon with the raider that can move, I roll a 3+ and avoid it. He moves his warriors on the hill and his two wych squads forward(who dont have grenades
lol). He shoots 2 Dark Lanes from his back warrior squads and they fail.
Eldar Turn 2-
I shoot at the remaining ravager with my falcon, and destroy it. I shoot at the remaining raider with a wave serpent, and the last raider is destroyed. I drop some tempates onto the middle and shoot and kill a few wyches and warriors.
Dark Eldar Turn 3-
He Shoots his two dark lances and moves foward, not being able to do anything with
str 3 wyches.
Eldar Turn 3-
I move 4 tanks and tank shock the warriors on the hill, and a few wych units. The warriors fail and run off my objective. I drop some more templates and shoot and kill some warriors and wyches.
Dark Eldar Turn 4-
He Literally does nothing
Eldar Turn 4 - I tank shock a few more times. I shoot the retreating warrior unit to below half. I kill a remaining wych to whipe the first wych squad. I drop tempates and bring another wych squad low. At this point he has 2 warrior squads in the backfield, and two wych squads with
hq's at my table edge. He has 0 kill points, I have 8. I shoot at Lelith or some independent character jerking off in my backfield and instant kill her.
Dark Eldar Turn 5- ?
Eldar Turn 5- I kill his archon who fails his 2+ invul and is instant gibbed. I tank shock the remaining wych unit in the middle and it runs with 3 units left giving me another kill point. I unload some fire dragons, and shoot some scatter lasers into the wych unit in my backfield. I kill 7. They fail morale and run off the board. At this point my opponent concedes with 2 warrior units in his backfield. I leave the game with 16/16 points , and my entire army in tact. No, Craftworld Avior did not loose a single unit, the worst thing that happened was a shaking of my fire prism. My opponent rushed one of my wave serpents during a tank shock and death or gloried, he used an agonizer on my wave serpent and rolled a 6, then a 6. We learned after the game that agonizers dont penetrate on a 6, and that what ever he did was in fact not legal, so the wave serpent and 2 fire dragons lost, were not actually lost and were restored by the eldar gods.
Overview - Well I thought the game went well. I felt kind of bad but I knew there would be VERY tough opponents the next 2 games. Unfortunantly some people play dark eldar like space marines, and forget their toughness 3 with
av 10 open topped vehicles with saves of 6+. Eldar is VERY effective against dark eldar. All of our weapons would on a 3+, and usually instant kill. Scatter Lasers destroy dark eldar tanks, and
de tanks have a VERY hard time winning the tank battle. Overall the game was won from turn one. Letting an Eldar player aplha strike you with 8/8 vehicles is bad....and honestly is one of the best first turns ive ever had. My opponent should have tried to range some of my units, but instead went out in the open somehow thinking that a 4+ cover save would negate an alpha strike. Although he made alot of saves, 24
str 6 shots, 3
str 8 shots, and 2
str 9 templates can absolutly tear through dark eldar armor. Once his Anti-Tank was gone, his infantry really had nothing to do. They didnt have gernades, and they literally couldnt do anything except get tank shocked 5 times every turn. Thanks for the game eric.
Game Two
After lunch I was assigned to play Neil the other Dark Eldar player in the tournament. I was excited, because I knew he was a higher caliber player. Neil also knocked me out in round 3 of a pervious tournament with Space Marines, so I was eager to avenge the lost souls of craftworld Avior.
Hermonculus with shattershard and something
Hermonculus with shattershard and something
10 whyhes , raider
10 whyches, raider
10 whyches, raider
5 Trueborn 4 blasters, venom with cannons
5 Warriors 1 blaster, venom with cannons
5 Scorges, 2 haywire blasters.
Razorwing Jetfighter
Ravager
Mission- 5 Objectives
Deployment - The board is cut from corner to corner, and you can deploy within 12 inches of that diagonal line.
Length - 6 turns
Massacre - Hold 4-5 more objectives. Major is 2-3 more. Minor is 1-2 more.
+1 for killing more troops, killing more
hq, killing highest cost, +1 more scoring units in deployment zone.
I roll and place 3 objectives to his two. We end up placing one on the right in the middle, and 4 on the left middle in a square very close together. I dont really see a speed advantage against dark eldar, and would rather have more options.
We Roll Off, And Neil chooses to go first. To his surprise I reserve everything, even tho I dont have an autarch.
Dark Eldar Turn 1-
Neil moves stuff.
Eldar Turn 1-
Reserved
Dark Eldar Turn 2-
He turbo boosts everything. He has a Venom with blasters right next to the center ruins. He has a razor wing in the back right. He has his ravager in the back right next to the razorwing. He has venom with warriors and 3 raiders to the left. His 5 scourges are in the middle behind cover.
Eldar Turn 2-
I roll for reserves and do bad. I get both prisms, a fire dragon squad, and a dire avenger serpent. Ok 8
Str 6 shots,
TL str 10 template, and fire dragons.
I know that my fire dragons literally do not matter this game, so I sacrifice them for the good of the eldar warhost. I bring the 4 tanks on towards the right, targetting the Ravager, Razorwing, and venom with 4 blasters (The magority of his anti tank).
My Dragons go up and disembark. I start off by linking my prisms shooting at the razorwing fighter. Hit,
Str 10 AP1, Penetrate! , 2 goes to a 3 weapon destroyed. I take a lance off and am not happy with the result. My Fire Dragons unload on the venom behind the building and I destroy it. The trueborn inside are pinned, which was actually huge. My wave Serpent shoots at the Ravager blowing it up, taking 3 dark lances off the board. My last wave serpent shoots and kills a trueborn. Overall not a bad turn, Ive taken out 2 vehicles and gotten a small alpha strike.
Dark Eldar Turn 3-
Neils dice are absolutly on fire this turn. He moves the scourges up with his haywire blasters. He moves his 3 raiders around to the left to get a couple of rear armor shots.
He shoots his scourges and apparently they glance 2-5 and penetrate on a 6. What a hilarious weapon. He shoots my fire dragons with a venom and kills them (surprise surprise) He stuns my fire prism so it cant move or shoot. He then shoots a dark lance at the rear armor of my serpent and gets a weapon destroyed. He shoots another dark lance at my other wave serpent and stuns it so it cant shoot or move. My last prism is fine. 3 Tanks disabled for next turn shooting, a very bad turn for me. Very Lucky rolling on his part doing damage with 3 dark lanes and 2 haywire blasters.
Eldar Turn 3-
I roll reserves. I get a fire dragon transport and a dire avenger transport. Im not happy with this at all as I needed all my vehicles to come in. I still have a scoring falcon and fire dragons in reserve.
I bring these in on the left. I put my Dire Avengers as far left as I can, and bring my dragons up to shoot whatever doesnt die.
I shoot my prism at the Fighter stunning it. I shoot my fire dragons at a wych raider and blow it up killing 4 wyches inside who pass everything. One of my wave serpents wiff. One of my wave serpents destroys another raider, leaving one.
Dark Eldar Turn 4-
Things start heating up as we both realise we need to capture 5 objectives.
All 26 of his wyhes get out. My Fire Dragons Die. Something shoots at a fire prism and blows its turret off, I think it was the razor wing. A Blaster shoots at my scoring wave serpent on my right flank and immobolises it. This is really bad. My Scoring tank on my right is what appears 12 inches away from my objective. If my Dire Avengers get out, they will die to splinter cannons. My mind thinks that I will get out turn 6, move 6 and fleet and get to the objective. I think about transport swapping but it seems risky, immobolized tank is really bad for me
tbh.
Neil assults two wave serpents, One with nothing in it, and one on the left flank with 5 dire avengers inside. FML. During Combat he stuns my far left wave serpent with Haywire Grenades.........That moved 12. Im not pleased with this and this now means that Im down a scoring unit assuming 16 auto hit grenades can bring it down My Gameplan changes and I realize tanks on the right need to get their asses over to contest or Im going to Loose. Overall absolutly horrid turn for me. My Reserves are gakky, and Ive now lost 2/3 scoring units
Eldar Turn 4-
I need to make things happen this turn or I loose. My scoring falcon and my remaing fire dragons come in. I move my fire dragon transport that got assulted 12 inches in front of the left building to get clear shots on venom and the remaining raider. I move my falcon up to where it was. I move the new fire dragons up the middle, not knowing where to put them because they wont fit.
I shoot at the razorwing do nothing. I shoot at trueborn still in my bakfield and make them go to ground. I shoot at the remaining raider with my falcon and kill it! I shoot at the venom in the middle and shake it. I move the turretless wave serpent turbo boost speed and contest the upper left obective.
During combat he succeedes in immobolizing my wave serpent :(
Dark Eldar Turn 5-
He doesnt do a whole lot this turn. He moves some wyches in the middle towards an objective. His wyches are still trying to kill my wave serpent. He stuns a falcon and a serpent.
He succeedes in destroying my wave serpent, killing the 5 dire avengers inside.
Look hard, I have two wave serpents north of the buildings on the bottom left.
Eldar Turn 5-
I know this turn I have to set myself up to win the turn on game 6. My plan is simple. Control the right objetive, and contest the other 4 on the left. I assume somehow Ill loose a transport. I have 1 transport in the back contesting, another on the left contesting, a falcon to move whatever it needs to move to. I have a turretless fire prism in the dead middle to move as a safety net, and I have a fire dragon wave serpent to take the falcons place! I disembark some fire dragons. I move my falcon 7 on top of the middle objective. I shoot his razorwing and immobolize it , so he cant contest that objective. I shoot fire dragons at the wyhes killing 5, they pass morale.
Dark Eldar Turn 6-
Neil knows he needs to have a good turn to keep me from winning. He moves wyche squads up to assult my far north wave serpent that hasnt moved, another squad takes there place on the objetive. His trueborn embark and move to the upper left objetive. His scourges move and take the middle top objective. His wyches south move north to try to contest the middle objetive but dont make it. He shoots some stuff and stuns my falcon so it cant shoot. He Shoots a lone warriors blaster at a wave serpent contesting the top left and 6 penetrates and 6 explodes it. Luckily it doesnt really matter. He assults my upper wave serpent and stuns it so it cant move or shoot. He assults my falcon and does nothing.
Far right objective
Him assulting my falcon.
Eldar Turn 6-
I have successfully played mechdar, and have 7 tanks to contest objectives with, Im going to win. Now make sure to vizualise what im doing. I move my bottom left wave serpent north to make sure Im contesting. I move my bottom wave serpent left to take that. I move my fire prism to his spot, and I move my falcon to contest something else. My 5 Dire Avengers and my farseer disembark to kill the 3 scourges. My Right Dire Avengers get out, and move 6.
My right Dire Avengers move 6, and need a four to get to the objective to win the game. They roll a one and do not make it to the objective. I then shoot the scourges with a scatter laser, and my dire avengers. I kill the 3 scourges and win the game with One Objetive to his 0.
Objective 1 middle
Objective bottom
objective left
Objective top left
Overall I get no secondary objectives, He gets more scoring units in my deploymen zone, and kills more of my scoring units. I get a minor victory.
Overview- Overall I think I played a solid game vs a decent necron list. My reserve rolls were bad, my shooting was decent, and neil got some really decent turns blowing up a tank with a blaster turn 6, assulting and destroying a wave serpent thats scoring, and blowing the turrets off like 3 others. I thought about just taking shots turn 1 and returning with a full volley. Im not sure if that would have been a good idea. Although my reservers were bad I was able to come in turn 2 and take out two tanks, turn 3 I was able to take out two more tanks, and turn 3 I was able to take out another. I think my fire dragons did a great job blowing up 3 tanks. Im moderatly dissapointed my dire avengers didnt make it to the right objective for a major victory , but w/e thats life. Neil was a great opponent, and the game was close towards the very end. Turn 6 was almsot unberable with the stress in the air. Overall Im happy with my win, and I think I played a decent game.
Right now Im sitting at 2-0 with 23 points. I think ill be at table one for round 3, either playing nids or demons.
Game Three
Im on table 1 for game 3. Im playing Matt's Demons.
Fateweaver
7 Bloodcrushers of Khorne, Fury, Icon, Instrument of Chaos
7 Bloodcrushers of Khorne, Fury, Icon, Instrument of Chaos
5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers
Soul Grinder
Daemon Prince
Mission- Victory Points
Deployment- Spear Head
Length- 6 turns
A massacre is winning by 1100 , a minor is winning by 376-750
Tertiary is table quarters
Ive seen mats list play in other games, and I know its pretty scary. His
HQ has re-rollable 3++ invulnerable saves, 3 wounds, Ld9, t6. His Bloodcrushers are squads of 7, with 2 wounds each, 3+ 5+invul , t5, 4 power weapon attacks on the charge. The Fateweave allows bloodcrushers to re-roll there armor saves. This army is basically one of the most hardcore deathstars ive ever seen. The only way I will win this, is if I play super Pussdar and just AVOID AVOID AVOID. Matt Knows this, and we both know its a joke of a game. Im going to run around like a bitch.
I won the dice and elected to go first, not that it really mattered in this kind of game.
Eldar Turn One-
I deploy in my corner in rows, keeping my rear armor safe and keeping a defensive shell for the incomming wave.
Demons Turn One-
He divides his army into waves. He puts the greater demon and the plagues in a wave, and the krushers in a wave. He gets the Plagues and the greater demon. He puts them off to my far right, in cover. I cant make a move on them and there points dont really matter. He doesnt have anything to shoot. He divides his army into waves.
Eldar Turn Two-
I shoot at the plagues killing one. I then shoot at the greater demon and cause two wounds.
Demons Turn Two-
His Fatereaver comes in. He puts it to my top left right in the open. He does his 3 shooting attacks, two of them wiff and one of them immobolise my Falcon. This is VERY bad. The Fateweaver will effectively keep me from running north, hes also a decent anti tank. One immobolized vehicle is basically a free 170 victory points, the squad inside is 60, and the farseer is 100. He just made 330 points immobile, I am not pleased.
Eldar Turn Three-
I understand that fateweaver has a 3++ invunerable. I either go for the win here, or loose the game. I move my 3 Fire Dragon transports, and disembark 15 Dragons. I line up every tank to shoot at fateweaver. I take a huge gamble, and literally my entire army focus's on his one 333 point
HQ model. I cringe as a realize this is probably the game.
15 Melta shots, 1 wound, he passes morale. 3 Scatter lasers and no wounds. 2 Scatter lasers left. I shoot 4 wounds, cause 4, he saves 3, fails the one, takes a second wound. He rolls his leadership and rolls 11. Fateweaver leaves the battlefield giving me 333 victory points. WOW.
Demons Turn Three-
He Gets his two bloodcrushers in. He puts them close to my right. He rolls poorly for his deepstrike and rolls 11 inches on both squads away from my front lines. Bad Luck. His greater demon with 2 wounds left moves forward.
Eldar Turn Four-
15 Fire Dragons embark. I move everything back towards my left table edge away from the blood crushers. I shoot at the greater demon causing a wound. I focus everything on the blood crushers and cause mabe 5-6 wounds. I think mabe 1 died.
Demons Turn 4-
His soul grinde comes in right in the middle of the two blood crusher squads.
Eldar Turn 5-
I see an opportunity to slow his advance, a fire dragon wave serpent moves forward to melta the soul grinder. My Farseer disembarks from the immobile falcon. My Fire Dragons Melta the soul grinder expoding it with 4 penetrates. I then shoot at the greater demon and he dies as well. I shoot and cause some more wounds on the bloodcrushers.
Demons Turn 5-
All his blood crushers assult the fire dragons and wave serpent. They kill the fire dragons, and cause a stunned result on the wave serpent. I laughed because that was like 40 attacks.
(The gunner yelling "O feth")
Eldar Turn 6-
Im ahead on victory points, I could go in for an all out melta assult but I dont think it would be worth it. I need to kill 1 more blood crusher to get the unit below half, and get 150 more points. I move everything 12 inches. I disembark my dire avengers and fleet them towards the edge. I shoot everything at the blood crushers and cause like 15-20 wounds. He saves almost all of them and I dont get the squad below half even tho like 5 models have 1 wound left :(.
Demons Turn 6-
He goes all out and multi assults the stunned wave serpent, the immobolized falcon, and two serpents in my backfield.
I think he destroys the wave serpent farthest left. He Fails to destroy the holo fielded falcon and gets half points for that. He stuns a wave serpent in the backfield, game ends.
I got 730 something victory points, he got 200 something. I get another minor victory.
Overall I think I played well. Playing against his army with kill points is hard. I get all the "easy" kills. Overall matt got really unlucky on his reserves and waves and deep striking, and wasnt able to pincer me like he wanted to. I was able to escape with a back avenue. The highpoint of the game was killing fateweaver. This negates alot of survivability and gave me a huge lead. I think it was lucky, but then again I did literally shoot my entire army at him rofl. When it comes down to it....those who shoot and run away, live to shoot another day.
Well out of 12 people there, I was the only player to go 3-0. My last 2 games were between the #2 and #3 players. Unfortunantly my last 2 games I only got minor victorys with a few tertiarys. I look over to Neil's table in horror as he has tabled Nick's tyranids on the second table, meaning he gets a massacre and full points (FML). Apparently poisoned weapons against tyranids are good, go figure I guess. Overall Neil placed first 3-4 points ahead of me. Matt tied with me in points, but due to "strength of schedule" they placed me over him. I get second overall, but go 3-0. Overall Im very happy with the results. I won 3 games with eldar (always an achievment). I find it moderatly amusing that someone who placed over me, lost to me, but I guess thats just how some tournaments work out. I had a blast and enjoyed the games.
Thanks for reading!