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The Kabal of the Drowned Gardens VS The Hawk Lords Battle Report: "Death Came Swirling Down"

The best games of 40k are the ones where victory is decided after seven hard fought turns by the tattered remnants of both armies and the final few critical dice rolls. I just played one of those ideal games a couple of days ago, which motivated me to finally try my hand at writing up a battle report.

I’ve been running an active P&M blog in that section of the Dakka Forums, chronicling the growth of The Kabal of the Drowned Gardens:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/378881.page

But, now that the army has reached a respectable size, it’s time for the Kabal to extend its influence into a whole new section of DakkaDakka!

I’m using Microsoft Word (yes, I should get Vassal) for the diagrams, distances, sizes and model placements only generally indicative. On the other hand, I did my best to get the major events and decisions right. So while units may look like they are way out of range or out of line of sight in the diagrams, it was a legal move in the actual game. In the same vein, while I remember my decisions very well, I’m fuzzier on my friend’s. So if you’re thinking, “why would the Marine player shoot that?” it’s probably me remembering wrong. My choices, however, are entirely open to criticism.

Well, with the disclaimers out of the way, let’s begin!


THE MISSION & TERRAIN

We decided on a Nova Open style mission (but simplified) and rolled to randomly determine the ranking of the objectives.

Primary: Objectives
As rulebook mission except placement is set.

Secondary: Kill Points
As rulebook mission but must win by more than 3 Kill Points.

Tertiary: Table Quarters
All units may claim/contest quarters, but only one quarter each (the quarter the majority of the unit is in). If a unit straddles multiple quarters equally then randomly select the quarter it’s in.

The Primary is the Win Condition; the Secondary is the 1st tiebreaker and the Tertiary the 2nd tiebreaker.

The “mirror match” terrain was a trial of the tournament setup recommended on yesthetruthhurts.com.




THE LISTS

I didn't take pictures during the game but I did take some pictures of the models afterwards to add interest to the battle report. Here I've included pictures of each army's respective commanders to help set the scene.


The Hawk Lords

Captain (Bike, Relic Blade)

Command Squad (Bikes)
1 Apothecary (Storm Shield, Meltagun)
1 Veteran (Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Meltagun)
2 Veterans (Lightning Claw, Storm Shield, Meltagun)

Dreadnought (2 Twin-linked Autocannons)

Dreadnought (2 Twin-linked Autocannons)

Dreadnought (2 Twin-linked Autocannons)

Space Marine Bike Squad
1 Sargent
2 Bikers (Meltagun)
2 Bikers
1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Space Marine Bike Squad
1 Sargent
2 Bikers (Meltagun)
2 Bikers
1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Space Marine Bike Squad
1 Sargent
2 Bikers (Meltagun)
2 Bikers
1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Land Speeder Typhoon (Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher)

Land Speeder Typhoon (Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher)

Land Speeder Typhoon (Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher)




The Kabal of the Drowned Gardens


Haemonculus (Webway Portal, Venom Blade) – a.k.a. Sara

Trueborn
3 Trueborn (Blaster)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield)

Trueborn
3 Trueborn (Blaster)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield)

Kabalite Warriors
1 Warrior (Blaster)
4 Warriors (Splinter Rifle)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

Kabalite Warriors
1 Warrior (Blaster)
4 Warriors (Splinter Rifle)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

Kabalite Warriors
1 Warrior (Blaster)
4 Warriors (Splinter Rifle)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield)

Kabalite Warriors
1 Warrior (Blaster)
4 Warriors (Splinter Rifle)
1 Raider (Dark Lance, Flickerfield)

Wracks
3 Wracks
1 Venom (2 Splinter Cannons, Flickerfield)

Wracks
3 Wracks
1 Venom (2 Splinter Cannons, Flickerfield)

Beastmasters
4 Beastmasters
8 Razorwing Flocks

Beastmasters
4 Beastmasters
7 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager (3 Dark Lances)

Ravager (3 Dark Lances)

Ravager (3 Dark Lances)




DEPLOYMENT

We roll Spearhead for deployment type. I win the roll-off and decide to go first. I deploy in a standard Dark Eldar vehicle wall, protecting the Ravagers and Sara’s Venom (the blue triangles are Venoms!) in case the Hawk Lords seize the initiative. The two Beastmaster units are put in reserve.

The Hawk Lords deploy with everything in cover. The Command Squad giving cover to the Dreads (large purple circles) and the Dreads giving cover to the Land Speeders. The pink oval is the Captain. A Land Speeder and Bike Squad are put in reserve.

The Hawk Lords fail to seize.




DROWNED GARDENS TURN 1

Movement

Since this was the first time in a while I had played with a large LOS blocker in the middle, I underestimate how well it restricts firing lanes. So I move everything to get LOS on targets. I move Sara’s Venom into the middle of the table and she and the Wracks get out, intending to drop the portal. The other Venom moves back to drop off the Wracks because there is no room in the scrum in front for it to get LOS on the Command Squad.




Shooting

My key aim during the shooting phase is to at least shake or stun a couple vehicles to reduce the amount of incoming fire next turn. Everything else that is out of LOS or range will shoot at the Command Squad.

The left-most Ravager opens the phase up well by killing a Lightning Claw Biker who fails his 3+ Storm Shield save. Sara puts down the portal. The rest of the phase goes terribly for me, since my friend makes all of his subsequent cover and invulnerable saves!

It was at this point that I realize that I have committed one of the cardinal sins of playing with Dark Eldar because I was a bit flustered by the terrain:

Thou Shalt Not Move Everything Out Of Cover To Shoot At Things In Cover!

Yes, by the odds I should have shaken or stunned a couple units but I have almost entirely opened up my formation to do so. It would have been much smarter to not worry about the Dark Lance shots from the Raiders and boost them into better positions, while keeping the formation intact.




HAWK LORDS TURN 1


Movement

My friend moves everything to take up firing positions. The Dreads roll well on their difficult terrain checks to get over the barricade. The Land Speeders stay behind the Dread wall to get cover.

Hawk Lords Bike Squad, you called for an express shipment of hot melta?


My friend thinks about whether he should move a bike squad up to take a pot shot with the Attack Bike. The Beasts could come out of the portal next turn and eat them. He decides to take the risk and positions the rest of the squad so that it is unlikely I will get all the Razorwings into combat unless I get a good run roll. Note that the diagram does not show the formation of the bikes at all accurately.




Shooting

The rightmost Dread opens up the Hawk Lords shooting phase by targeting the left-most Ravager in the open, exploding it. The middle Ravager is stunned by the Landspeeder on the right.

A Trueborn Raider is exploded by the Attack Bike and one Trueborn dies. The remaining two pass their pinning check but are gunned down by the Command Squad’s bolters.

Now that the Trueborn Raider is gone the other Landspeeder has a clear shot at the third Ravager and wrecks it.

The leftmost Dread shoots at the turbo-boosting Raider, stuns it, and blows off its Dark Lance.

Finally the remaining Dread explodes Sara’s Venom. The only upside being that Sara and her Wracks come through all the explosions this phase unharmed.

Wow, those were some spectacular fireworks! My anti-tank firepower has just been cut down by more than 50%! I’ve dropped from a potential 15 Dark Lances and 10 Blasters, to 4 Dark Lances and 7 Blasters that can potentially fire during Turn 2.

I think I'm going to name these Ravagers "Snap", "Crackle" and "Pop" because of what happens to them every game!


At this point I toy with the idea of conceding, but then decide not to be such a scrub since I’ve only actually lost about a quarter of my army. I’m a firm believer that the benefit of playing above 1500 points is the fact that you can take it on the chin with one really bad turn and still keep on going. It’s time to put that theory into practice! After all, there are some tasty Bikes out there and the Beasts are ready for lunch!




DROWNED GARDENS TURN 2


Reserves

Neither Beast unit comes on.

I see, so we’re going to have to do this the hard way…

To be continued…


Thanks for reading! Since this is the first time I've tried to put together a battle report, I'd really appreciate any tips, comments and criticism you can provide. Or just let me know if it's worth me putting my time into this since I'm doing it in lieu of my usual painting and modeling routine!

I can't offer any tips or criticism but I can say that this battle report is excellent!!
Amazing looking armies, cant wait to see more.
Thanks for posting =)

Great beginning of a battle report! I like your opponents hawk lords. Did you happen to take any full army shots or full battlefield pics?

@Holy~Heretic: Thanks! I'll try to update this thread regularly but doing illustrated battle reports takes a lot longer than I thought it would! I've got much greater respect for people who do this regularly now that I've tried!

@IceAngel: It was actually really cool seeing a turquoise VS purple battle on the tabletop since that combination is probably pretty rare! Unfortunately I didn't take battlefield pics (or notes) because I never intended this battle to be written up as a report!


DROWNED GARDENS TURN 2 (Continued)

Movement

With my Beasts failing to arrive I have very limited options. The Hawk Lords have an unshaken firebase with the possibility of another Landspeeder and Bike Squad arriving from reserve. Not to mention the Command Squad in my face.

There’s no point in me trying to consolidate backwards to hide or boost away because all my friend will have to do then is move backwards as well, out of charge range of my Beasts, and engage in a long range firefight which he is likely to win.

So instead I follow another rule of thumb I use for 40K. I tend to prioritize easy kills or disablement over valuable ones unless a unit poses only a negligible threat during that point in the game. i.e. A unit of grots which for some reason is standing in the open on a far board edge during turn one. Actually, even in that example I’d be tempted to shoot a Venom at them just because of the probability of easily running a scoring unit off the table.

Given my movement options, the easiest unit to kill is the leftmost bike squad in the open. Also, it’s got lots of mobile melta and is one of only three Troops choices, so it’s hardly a negligible threat. I move both a Warrior Raider and a Trueborn Raider up 6” around the left side of the building to line up Blaster and Dark Lance Shots.

The next easiest units to disable or kill are any Dreads in the open followed by Landspeeders in cover. So I move the other two Warrior Raiders up for some Hail Mary shots (the distances in the diagram are off, the Dreads should probably be further towards me).

I’ll ignore the Command Squad, unless there is nothing else to shoot at. Although it’s right up against me, with 3+ invulnerable saves, Feel No Pain and the Captain’s multiple wounds, it’s unlikely that I’ll kill enough of the unit to stop it from doing what it wants to this turn.

I also boost the Venom out into his side of the table. It needs to move 12” to get into range of the Command Squad anyway and I don’t think that the expected two wounds from one Splinter Cannon would do anything critical. Instead, by flinging it out on the left flank I hope that my friend will be tempted to go after it with his reserved Bike Squad which might come on. If the bikes don’t come on I’ll still have gotten into a better firing position.




Shooting

I start with the top-most Warrior Squad since if I kill a bike with another unit the Blaster will be out of range. The beam of Darklight bores straight through a Marine’s head. I then shoot the Trueborn and the Raiders at the same squad, killing everything but the Attack Bike. Five kills from six shots, a great start! The Attack Bike makes its morale check though.

On my half of the board, I shoot the left-most Raider at the one Dread in the open which is in range and destroy one set of its Autocannons. The other Raiders stun a Landspeeder. Two more lucky results! Finally, the Warriors nearest to the Command Squad fire at it because nothing else is in range. They manage to get one wound through to the Captain after my friend makes a couple saves.

Well, I think my luck is starting to return! However, the Hawk Lords have yet to reply and my units are looking very exposed!





HAWK LORDS TURN 2 [i]

Reserves

The Landspeeder arrives and takes cover behind the hill on the Hawk Lords’ side of the table. The Typhoon Missile Launcher is mounted high enough so that the Landspeeder gets cover while being able to fire freely over the hill. An ideal position.

Now I've got three of the things to deal with!



Fortunately for me, the Bike Squad fails to arrive.


Movement

The three Dreads and a Landspeeder move up to get clear shots at the remaining Raiders and Ravager on my half of the table. The full-strength Bike Squad spreads out around the ruins to take a pot shot at a Raider. The now solo Attack Bike moves into towards the center of the board to shoot at the remaining Trueborn Raider.

The Command Squad moves up to a position between my two right-most Raiders. It’s trying to pull off a potential multi-charge if that’s necessary after shooting.




Shooting

The Landspeeder behind the hill shoots at the Trueborn Raider, but only manages one penetrating hit which is saved by the Flickerfield. The Attack Bike’s shot also hits and penetrates but the Flickerfield works again!

Both the Dread with the single twin-linked Autocannon and the right-most Dread fire at the Ravager, immobilize it and blow off a Dark Lance. But it can still shoot, so things are looking up!

The full-strength Bike Squad’s Attack Bike misses the Raider it’s targeting but the Command Squad explodes it, killing two Warriors but the Captain also takes another wound! The three surviving Warriors pass their pinning and leadership tests.
The right-most Landspeeder immobilizes the bottom-most Raider.




Assault

The Command Squad multi-assaults the three Warriors standing in their Raider’s crater together with the immobilized Raider. The Warriors’ blades, although preternaturally quick, are unsurprisingly fail to find a weak point in the Marines’ armor. A flurry of Lighting Claw slashes then cuts two Kabalites almost in half while the third’s chest explodes into a bloody mist as the Thunder Hammer impacts.

Yet, the immobilized Raider miraculously manages to survive as its pilot chances on a Flickerfield pattern that confuses the Marines’ autosenses (I make three Flickerfield saves)!

Not sure why you didnt just deploy the beasts? They would have been all over him on turn 2 (maybe even turn 1 if he didnt change his deployment). Point being, that once the command squad was dead, the beasts would have had free reign, without needing the WWP.

Awesome reports. Great pictures. Armies are fully painted and they all look great.

Not sure why one veteran in the bike command squad is missing though. There suppose to be 4 veterans + 1 apothecary.

@gardeth: You have a point, with the benefit of hindsight I don't think my friend's list had the firepower to take out the Beasts and deal with all my vehicles. However, I tend to default to keeping them in reserve because in this particular build the Beasts are very much glass hammers and seem to have a habit of running off the board as soon as they are called on to take a leadership check. I prefer them being late and able to charge than off the board on Turn 1. I 've also found it useful to be able to put pressure on my opponent's movement decisions by projecting a large potential threat into midfield. If my opponent moves to surround the portal then he'll be in the open for shooting and my Beasts can still come on from the board edge to charge the squad around the portal.

@leohart: Thanks! I went back to my FLGS to take photos of our models a couple days after the game because I thought the battle report might be a little dry without them! Good catch on the Command Squad! We did play them correctly as a full squad during the game but I obviously got it wrong in the diagrams. I'm just so used to thinking of Marines in groups of five that I even set it up that way in the Command Squad photo! There should be another Veteran on a bike with Lightning Claws, a Storm Shield and a Meltagun. But you'll see another reason why I forgot exactly how many of them there were when I put Turn 3 up.

That was quite entertaining Jon, I especially enjoy the spattering of great pics throughout the report! nicely done, especially as both armies are wonderfully painted!

@Nerdfest: Just wait till you see what happens in the next few turns!

I'm finding that recapping the battle in "slow motion" as I write the battle report has given me a new appreciation for how much action can be packed into a single game of 40k. I'm already looking back on Turn 1 amazed at how much has changed. However, I also see that it takes way longer to write up a report than actually play a game. So even though this has been tremendously educational I'm not sure I'll be that keen to do another report anytime soon. Enjoy it while it lasts!


DROWNED GARDENS TURN 3

Reserves

Both units of Beastmasters arrive!

A whole bunch of these guys:




Movement

I deploy the unit of eight Razorwing Flocks out of the portal, intending to charge the Command Squad after softening it up a bit more with shooting. The other seven Razorwing Flocks move on from the extreme right of my board edge, intending to charge a Dreadnought and, if I get a high run roll, the closer Landspeeder as well.

I move one Warrior Raider up into rapid fire range of the Command Squad while the other Raider shifts downwards slightly towards the center building since I want to get rid of the lone attack bike.

The Trueborn Raider cruises behind the center buildings to take cover and take a pot shot at the Command Squad with its Dark Lance.

Sara decides she’s getting bored and moves out slightly with the Wracks to take a shot with her splinter pistol at the Command Squad.

The Venom moves up slightly to get into range of the bike squad across on the right side of the table.




Shooting

I start by shooting the top-most Warrior Squad in the Raider at the Attack Bike and the Blaster vaporizes it. The Dark Lance from the same Raider then fires at the Speeder behind the hill and stuns it.

The Venom sends a hail of poisoned needles at the full-strength bike squad but only manages a wound on the Attack Bike.

Now it’s time to start hoping I get lucky with the Command Squad.

Sara fires the first shot against the Command Squad, but fails to wound.

The Ravager then fires a Dark Lance at the Command Squad but misses.

At this point, I should have fired the Trueborn Raider’s Dark Lance at the Command Squad as well, it had no other valid targets, but I forgot all about it since it was hidden behind the building!

The Warrior’s Raider provides the first success. A Lightning-Claw Biker’s Storm Shield holds for almost a full second against the point-blank Dark Lance shot, but then its field fails and the steam of Darklight burns effortlessly through both shield and Marine alike.

The Raider’s Warriors then let lose and cause 1 wound with the Blaster and 3 with Splinter Rifles, enough to force wound allocation. The Blaster wound is saved by a Lighting Claw Biker but two of the splinter wounds manage to get through both Power Armor and Feel No Pain saves, killing both the Captain and Apothecary!

The Warriors in the immobilized Raider fire their first shots of the battle at the Command Squad, and although the Blaster misses and they only cause two wounds, my friend promptly fails those two saves as well! I think we both stared at the open area of table where the squad used to be for a couple seconds, surprised at how fast the super-unit had disappeared!

The portal Best unit, deprived of its original target, runs at the Dreads and the bike squads to the right but only manages 1 inch. The other Beast squad runs 4”, enough to charge both a Dread and a Landspeeder.




Assault

I still feel that I’m on the ropes despite that stellar shooting phase so decide to take a risk and charge both Beast units into everything they can reach to tie them up.

The portal Razorwings fail to get a result on either of the Dreads they charge, despite the 48 attacks! The Dreads kill one Beastmaster and I’m forced to take a LD 7 break test. Fortunately I pass.

The Razorwing Flocks on the right manage to explode the Landspeeder (out of 2 penetrations and 2 glances), taking a four wounds in the process. The Dread then strikes back, squishing a Beastmaster and winning the combat. With great relief I make another LD 7 break test.

Whew! I could have lost both Beast units just now which would likely have lost me the game. They just need to hold for a few, well actually, a lot more turns!




HAWK LORDS TURN 3

Reserves

The Hawk Lords’ reserved bike squad arrives!


Movement

The freshly arrived bike squad moves up the table, setting their sights on the northern Warrior Raider. The other bike squad moves towards the center of the table giving it the option to either shoot everything at the northern Warrior Raider or take a pot shot with the multi-melta at the Warrior Raider south of the central building. The only mobile Landspeeder moves 12” back towards the hill.




Shooting

The northern bike squad melta’s the Warrior Raider. It explodes and one Warrior is killed in the blast. The Landspeeder shoots the Venom and destroys a Splinter Cannon. The remaining bike squad’s Multi-melta destroys the Dark Lance on the final undamaged Warrior Raider.




Assault

The upper bike squad charges the Warriors they just blew out of a Raider and wipe the squad out. However the Marine’s sergeant is killed by failing a difficult terrain test on the way in!

The portal Beasts and two Dread combat is a pacifistic group huddle this turn as we both fluff our rolls. The other Beast unit shakes its Dread (all those pecking noises on your Sarcophagus must be really annoying… ) for the loss of another Beastmaster and the combat carries on as well.




Thanks for reading! See you next turn!

DROWNED GARDENS TURN 4


Movement

The battle is still incredibly close. I still have more troops but if the Beasts don’t hold out I don’t think I can stop the three Dreads and Landspeeders from hosing down everything I’ve got left.

I turbo-boost the mobile but Lance-less Raider into the Hawk Lords’ half of the table. I’m mainly trying to bait the bike squads away from my Wracks and keep the Landspeeders on his side of the table. I hope that this will focus my friend’s attention on his side of the table so he’ll ignore the Wracks and the remaining Warriors in the immobilized Raider.

The Trueborn Raider moves up 6” back around the center building to aim 3 Blaster and a Dark Lance at the far bike squad in the open.

Sara moves further back into the shelter of the central building.




Shooting

I start with the Trueborn since they’re probably just in Range of the far bike squad. 3 Blaster shots and I roll a 1, and a pair of 2s, okay. The Raider’s Dark Lance fires and misses as well. I suppose this makes up for the shooting luck on the Command Squad.

The Venom shoots as the nearer bike squad and takes a wound off the Attack Bike. The Ravager fires a Dark Lance at the right-most bike squad through the ruins and kills one. The diagram is really off in this case. The way things lined up I could see the Marine’s head and upper torso through a gap in the ruins and the shot wasn’t blocked by the central building.




Assault

The portal Beasts are still unable to get through either Dreadnought’s armor and lose combat as another Beastmaster is pulped. But they still hold! The other unit of Beasts manages to stun its Dread but loses another Beastmaster for a tied combat.




HAWK LORDS TURN 4


Movement

Both Hawk Lords bike squads come in for the kill on my two remaining mobile Raiders. Both Landspeeders move 12” back towards my board edge. My friend will need all the Krak missiles he can get to dislodge the Wracks during the next turn. In addition to this future use, one Speeder provides insurance on the Trueborn Raider while the other targets the immobilized Raider.




Shooting

The right-most bike squad explodes the Trueborn Raider, wounds all three Trueborn and I don’t make a single save. Seems like Turn 4 was a complete disaster in every respect for that unit of Trueborn!

The other bike squad explodes the Warrior Raider, killing a Warrior, but the squad passes the pinning check.

A Landspeeder sends two Krak missiles at the immobilized Raider but only manages to stun it after the Flickerfield saves one result. With the spectacular destruction of the Trueborn Raider, the other Landspeeder finds itself without a valid target.




Assault

A bike squad charges the Warriors who dropped out of the destroyed Raider killing two (one of which is the squad’s Blaster). The two remaining Warriors break but are able to get away.

The portal Beast squad has by now almost entirely stripped the Dreadnoughts of paint but doesn’t go anything more significant. The Dreadnoughts kill a Beastmaster and the Beasts finally break, although they do get away successfully. The other unit of Beasts is more successful and destroys a pair of Autocannons for no loss to themselves.




I’ve managed to hold on for much longer than I’d initially expected from what happened on Turn 1 but it looks like the hammer has finally dropped. Although the Hawk Lords only have two Troop choices left, I don’t have much of anything left that can reach out to threaten them on their side of the table. For their part, I think that the Dreads and remaining Landspeeders stand a good chance of killing 2 out of my 3 remaining Troops choices.

those are some beautiful armies; your DE is a thing of beauty!

Excellent report !! Thanks

@Zid and tetsuo666: Thanks for reading! I'll eventually get the whole report up but I've found that I'm a really slow battle report writer!

DROWNED GARDENS TURN 5


Movement

Fleeing Beasts and Warriors continue fleeing.

I’m thinking I’ve probably lost this game but see one last Hail Mary sequence of events that could still give me the win if the game ends this turn. This mainly involves the two fleeing Warriors and the Venom in the upper left trying to make the nearer bike squad fail a morale check and flee off the board.

I move the Venom beside the bike squad’s line of retreat so that even if they roll low for their fallback move, they won’t rally. I also am careful to keep the Venom within 3 inches of the objective. If the bikes don’t flee there’s still a tiny chance of them failing to kill the Venom so that it can contest the Objective!

I’ll also need to put as many troops on objectives as possible. I move the left squad of Wracks down out of the ruins to claim an objective. The remaining undamaged Warrior squad in the bottom right disembarks and moves upwards to claim another objective.




Shooting

I shoot all my remaining anti-tank (2 Dark Lances and a Blaster) at the undamaged Dreadnought but don’t manage to do anything.

I then shoot with the two fleeing Warriors. They cause 3 wounds and one biker fails his save! Since I’ve already caused a morale check, the Venom fires at the far bike squad. It does even better by killing two bikers and forcing that squad to take a morale check as well!

Both squads fail their morale checks and the squad on the left flees off the table!




Assault

The Razorwings destroy the other set of Autocanons and also immobilize the Dreadnought!




HAWK LORDS TURN 5


Movement

Unless the Hawk Lords have extremely good luck, they don’t have units in the right positions to go for the win this round. My friend decides to focus on whittling down my remaining troops and hoping the game goes on so that he can win it later.

The bikes move to capture the upper right objective but leave the Attack Bike in range to shoot at the Venom. The Landspeeders move 12 inches to the left to target my Wracks and Warriors, but one immobilizes itself in the ruins!

The Dreadnoughts move left as well to target the Wracks and tries to contest the lower right objective (despite the diagram it was actually too close to call without measuring).




Shooting

The immobilized Landspeeder actually has a clear shot on the Wracks in the lower left and two are killed. The undamaged Dreadnought kills the last Wrack despite its having gone to ground and Feel No Pain.

The other Landspeeder fires Frags at the Warriors and kills two despite them Going to Ground. The Dreadnought kills another Warrior, but the squad passes morale.

The Attack Bike immobilizes the Venom.




Assault

The closer Dreadnought attempts an assault on the Warriors but is just out of range.

The Razorwings finally Rend the Dreadnought to death and consolidate towards the Landspeeders. I have to at least stun the mobile one next turn or it will turbo-boost to contest the center objective and I’ll have no way to get it off!




My friend rolls for the game to end and it continues! Just for interest we measure the distance between the Dread and the objective. It was actually just outside. So if the game had ended I would have won. But there’s no time to regret that now because the game is still on a knife edge and it’s time for Turn 6!

What happened on Turn 6?! I am dying to know! I love well-written battle reports with a map and photos. Great work, btw

This post is dedicated to Smashotron, who's comment got me off my ass to finish this up!

DROWNED GARDENS TURN 6

Movement

The fleeing Warriors continue running. I remove them from the board sometime during this turn because they can’t rally and there isn’t anything they are going to be able to shoot for the rest of the game. The lower Beast Unit rallies and I shift them out of the forest with the 3” move so they won’t have to check for difficult terrain next turn. The upper Beast Unit moves toward the remaining undamaged Landspeeder, readying themselves for the charge.




Shooting

The upper Beasts run towards the Landspeeders. The Ravager fires two Dark Lances at the undamaged Dreadnought but fails to damage it. The Venom is far more successful with its remaining Splinter Cannon. It causes three wounds, two of which get through saves, killing a Biker and the Attack Bike. The surviving marine holds.




Assault

The upper Beasts assault the undamaged Landspeeder. Only four bases made it into the combat and the Speeder moved 12”last turn so I’ll need sixes to hit. Looks like another do or die moment for the Dark Eldar.

This is a crucial combat for the game. I need to stun, immobilize or destroy the Speeder to have a chance at winning. Because if I don’t stop the Speeder, the Hawk Lords can move it to contest the middle objective while the lone biker claims the upper right one. One unit of Beasts is all I have left that can do anything to units in that quarter and they’ll only be able to kill one of the two units. This would leave us tied for objectives and the Hawk Lords are way ahead on kill points.

So 24 attacks needing 6’s to hit,

3 hits (ouch) needing 6’s to rend,

1 rends (okay, still in this) needing 5+ to penetrate,

1 penetrating hit (both of us are incredibly wound up at this point) needing a 2, 4, 5 or 6,

IMMOBILIZED!




HAWK LORDS TURN 6

Movement

The lone Biker turboboosts to contest the central objective. The undamaged Dreadnought moves down toward the left to get line of sight on Sara and the Wracks. The other Dreadnought moves to contest the lower right objective and assault the Warriors/Beasts if necessary.




Shooting

One Landspeeder wipes out the remaining Warrior Squad. The other Landspeeder explodes the Ravager. Since the Warriors are dead, the lower Dreadnought shoots at the Beasts, killing one Razorwing Flock. The other Dreadnought fires at Sara and the Wracks, and two of the poor creatures and blown apart. The unit passes morale.




Assault

The Dreadnought assaults the lower Beasts, trying to hold them in combat for the rest of the game. Neither side is able to cause any damage. Despite the Landspeeder being hit automatically, the upper Beasts only manage to destroy the Typhoon Missile Launcher.



Now I need the game to continue as we are tied on objectives and I’m losing badly on kill points. It does! Both my friend and I are feeling worn out at this point since the game seems to be hanging in the balance on almost every dice roll! Turn 7 and final thoughts coming soon (I promise it will be less than a month this time!)

Really good battle report dude cannot wait to see the end!

Still one of the best looking de armies I've seen! Great rep finish it up

Thanks for the update. I hope you consider doing more reports like this one and, as always, death to the false emperor!

Im enjoying this fight. Cant wait to see how it ends.

@TH3FALL3N, Zid, Smashotron & Nicorex: Glad everyone is finding the batrep entertaining! If I ever do another battle report I'll be sure to document the game with top down photos. Trying to do it from memory, without references, and using the drawing tools in Microsoft Word definitely wasn't the easiest or most intuitive method!

Looking back through this battle report and having everything laid out clearly in the diagrams make me appreciate how a good game of 40k is all about organized chaos.Both players scrambling for multiple do or die gambits and coping with the dice doing really unpredictable things

Turn 7 should be going up next week. Any predictions on how this pans out? There are hardly any mobile units left (both armies being at least 75% destroyed) so the whole game really hangs on what a couple units try to do and how successful they are at it.

@Zid: Thanks for the repeat complement on the army! As a shameless plug, I've just started on a short project to refurbish the classic DE miniatures with my current color scheme in my P&M blog:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/840/378881.page

DROWNED GARDENS TURN 7


Movement

To win this game I have to kill that last Biker contesting the central objective. The only unit that’s in position to do so is the upper unit of Beasts. They move as far as they can towards the Biker given the Landspeeder in the way, but I can tell that I’ll need a decent run roll (3 or 4 inches) to make the assault.




Shooting

Nothing has a valid target so it’s straight onto seeing whether the Beasts can run far enough to get them into assault range and keep me from losing the game right here. They go five inches!


Assault

The Beasts charge into combat with the Biker but only three Razorwing Flocks can make it into striking distance.

Rendtec Razorwings Presents:

Will It Rend? - Space Marine Biker

18 attacks needing a 4+ to hit.
5 hits (bleh) needing 6’s to rend and kill.
0 rends! (Whirlwind of Blades indeed.)

On the upside, the Biker fails to wound the Razorwings and the combat continues. The rest of the Razorwing Flocks pile in. Surely I’ll be able to kill the Biker in the next assault phase!

The Razorwings in combat with the Dreadnought fail to damage it again but it manages to do one wound in return! I decide to remove the last Beastmaster because that leaves me with Leadership 5. Allowing a Flock to suffer instant death would lose me the combat by five and leave me with a Leadership check on 3. Turns out to be the right decision since I roll a five on the 2d6 check!





HAWK LORDS TURN 1


Movement

Given that it’s very likely that the Razorwings will kill the Biker contesting the middle objective, the Hawk Lords have to kill the Wrack on it. So although it’s not necessary, the undamaged Dreadnought shifts a bit closer to “improve its accuracy.”


Shooting

Since the Wrack is with Sara, my friend will have to do at least two wounds to get one allocated to the Wrack.

4 Twinlinked Autocannon shots needing 3+ to hit.
1 hit (nice!)
3 rerolls needing 3+ to hit.
1 more hit (still looking pretty good!)
2 hits needing 2+ to wound.
1 wound (huzzah)!

To be honest, this was a little bit of an anti-climax since we had expected all the tension to be over whether I could make the saves! We never thought that the Dreadnought would fail to cause at least 2
wounds (it even moved closer)!

I declare Go to Ground on the unit anyway and Sara makes her cover save.


Assault

Even though it doesn’t matter we do the Dreadnought/Beasts combat first as a warm up to the deciding combat of the game. The Razorwings manage to mangle the Dreadnoughts remaining pair of Autocannons for no
damage in return.

Now onto the crucial rolls. Both of us know that the Biker is very likely to die but it’s definitely not a certainty.

First, the Beastmaster:

2 attacks needing 4+ to hit.
1 hit needing 6+ to wound.
0 wounds (not surprising).

Now the Razorwings:

35 attacks needing 4+ to hit.

I look at the dice on the table.

There seem to be a lot of high numbers.

I slowly count them up.

29 hits needing 6+ to rend and kill.

I look at the dice on the table.

There seem to be a lot of high numbers.

I slowly count them up.

9 rending wounds.

Yes, it Rends!




OBJECTIVES:

Drowned Gardens: 1
Hawk Lords: 0


DROWNED GARDENS WIN! (By 1 Wrack!)


POST-GAME THOUGHTS

Like I said in the intro, this was one of the best games of 40k I’ve played. By the end of the game both armies and players were completely worn out. But despite being mentally drained we were also really fired up by how much fun we had and once we had packed up we went to McDonalds and talked through the whole game again!

There were almost no undamaged units left on the table at the end:

Drowned Gardens Survivors
Sara
1 Wrack
Venom (immobilized, 1 Splinter Cannon destroyed)
Raider (immobilized, Dark Lance destroyed
14 Beasts and 1 Beastmaster

Hawk Lords Survivors
Landspeeder (immobilized)
Landspeeder (immobilized, Typhoon Launcher destroyed)
Dreadnought (all weapons destroyed)
Dreadnought


A final vignette I’ve thought up based on the outcome of the game:

Sara retracts the monofilament probe from the central monolith, having finally bored through containment layers meters thick to extract the biological sample in its center. She immediately injects it into the remaining specially prepared Wrack to keep the cell culture viable and runs for the open Webway Portal, a hail of Autocannon shells barely missing her and the Wrack. She dives through the portal with the Wrack.

She pops open a small phial of pheromones and hurls it back onto the battlefield before immediately collapsing the portal. The pheromones will calm the Ripper Swarms, ensuring that the Marines survive to “purge” the remnants of the Drowned Gardens raiding force. No one from the Kabal need know that she had co-opted that raiding force under false pretenses for her “shopping” trip and gotten it destroyed due to underestimating the speed of the Hawk Lords' response…

Thanks for reading!

nice rep, and from the teaser pics I really would have loved to see more pics of the armies and terrain, looked very promising

(so if you wan't to make other reps, take more pictures, that way you don't have to make so much time making schematics, and you get to show of your excellent paint job as well)

Excellent report, quite a read!!

it had me on the ropes the whole time!!
The dice Gods are laughing!!

Very interesting batrep and nice looking armies!

Awesome battle report. It's always great having an epic game like that. It's even better when two well painted armies are involved!

I look forward to your next report.

That was fantastic. Thank you so much for the sparing the time, effort and energy to tell the tale as you did.

And yes, both armies looked wonderful.

Nice batrep! Both armies look amazing!

A big thanks to everyone here for the kind words! It's my first time posting a battle report and it's fantastic to see that so many people enjoyed it!

SevenSins wrote:nice rep, and from the teaser pics I really would have loved to see more pics of the armies and terrain, looked very promising (so if you wan't to make other reps, take more pictures, that way you don't have to make so much time making schematics, and you get to show of your excellent paint job as well)

I never intended to write the game up as a report! It was a friendly Friday night game after work at the FLGS and neither of us even had a camera on our phones! It was only the fact that this was such a great game and the fact that several people in my P&M thread asked me for a batrep that I decided to do it. When I started the report I remember thinking that it couldn't be that hard to do one of these. My friend and I remembered everything that happened almost perfectly after all! Unfortunately I forgot that locations and distances are just as important as events and it took hours to tweak the diagrams into approximate order!

spartiatis wrote:Excellent report, quite a read!! it had me on the ropes the whole time!! The dice Gods are laughing!!

It had us on the ropes the whole game! Like I said in the batrep, I thought about conceding after that first turn, but it looks like the dice gods rewarded me for not giving up!

Stvafel wrote:Very interesting batrep and nice looking armies!

Steeping-Scrotum wrote:Nice batrep! Both armies look amazing!

I think I said this before but it bears repeating, playing 40k with fully painted armies on nice terrain, is the best. Just the best.

IceAngel wrote:Awesome battle report. It's always great having an epic game like that. It's even better when two well painted armies are involved! I look forward to your next report.

We'll see, but this might be my first and last battle report for a while. I put a whole couple of weekends worth of free time (not whole days but many solid hours) into this and although it was definitely worth doing, I found that I get more enjoyment out of P&M (among other things writing the batrep takes my full attention unlike some P&M stuff which I can do while listening to podcasts!) Of course, I haven't tried writing a report with pictures to refer to so that might speed things up significantly and change my opinion!

Necroagogo wrote:That was fantastic. Thank you so much for the sparing the time, effort and energy to tell the tale as you did. And yes, both armies looked wonderful.

Before I wrote this I never realized how much work it was. If nothing else, doing this has made me properly grateful for all the people who post up extensive series of battle reports here on Dakka!

Those armies....

They're just.....so ......beautiful! Well done, both of you, on the painting and modeling.

Excellent batrep. Always good to see someone beat up on the boot-licking sycophants of the false emperor.

Great battle report