Had a 2 v 1 battle last night. 1000 points my DE + 1000 points my friends Genestealers vs 2000 point decurion and destroyer cult. Let me first say... holy pancakes Destroyers are tough customers. T5 +3 save, +4 reanimation, 2 wounds. I brought a fairly limited force. My Archon and Haemonculous wouldn't dare get too close to Genestealers so I sent the concubine in their place. I tried a different list than normal, tried to go for more anti-armor to try and take on ghost arks. 2 Razorwings armed to the teeth, ravager, scourges, 2 venom warriors with 1 blaster. The Razorwings did WORK. They were absolutely devastating the turn they arrived. Let loose a good volley of missiles wiped out a 5 man squad of destroyers, blew up a ghost ark and hobbled his tomb blades and heavy destroyers. Ravager actually did more than it's done the past 4 times I brought it. Penned the ghost ark to bring down it's void shields and did some good damage but I played it too conservatively. Scourges failed to survive to do any damage, does anybody have any advice on using them? I have yet to actually destroy a vehicle with them. I really struggle with anti-armor, maybe it's better to double up so I'm not relying on 1 or 2 things pulling all the heavy shooting. I'm worried I'll miss out on the sweet poison.

The dark lance suffers from lascannon disease in 7th ed. DE have mass poison instead of Eldar mass S6, which neuters DE vs vehicles in a lot of scenarios. I think this is why a lot of DE lists are actually assault lists.

Martel732 wrote:
The dark lance suffers from lascannon disease in 7th ed. DE have mass poison instead of Eldar mass S6, which neuters DE vs vehicles in a lot of scenarios. I think this is why a lot of DE lists are actually assault lists.

Well you have to understand in most cases we have to fight against cover. Even enemy tanks and other vehicles have cover. Against cluster caltrops they get **** all against that and it hits instantly. Remember however that hammer of wrath hits the vehicle side it assaults so be careful. Can't stress enough how valuable cluster caltrops are in this anti-vehicle scenario as they usually are. In the case of infantry if you face guard or tau be prepared for 2+ to 3+ cover saves. Phantasm nades and fear bomb suck (seriously they need to at least cause pinning tests as well) and can't be trusted vs cover save enemies (fearless, high leadership and ATSKNF make things hard) and template weapons like medusae are also not so hot (only ap 3 at best and str 4 at best and once they shoot after deepstrike moving easily is piss poor). Our flame template weapons have no torrent and no 12" fast vehicle move so that would force our flamers to being more defensive if we can force our enemies to us rather than going out and attacking them. It would work if we could force enough ranged firepower at them to come at us but we're not guard or tau and so it's pointless. They often come at our transports anyway but our biggest cover enemies are ranged armies anyway so there's no point to using the flamers.

 Gamerely wrote:

Scourges failed to survive to do any damage, does anybody have any advice on using them? I have yet to actually destroy a vehicle with them.

4 haywire blasters, they should strip 2-3 HP the turn they arrive. Usually they become a bullet magnet next turn, so they're a sort of suicide squad, but if you run a fast assault oriented list with 2-3 raiders and 15+ jetbikes and you play very aggressive, the scourges can actually survive and strip another couple of HP later. Due to their kind of weapon, which has the haywire type, they are nice against vehicles with high AV and 4+ HP, otherwise if you usually face AV10-11 transports they may not repay you as you shouldn't have problems with those kind of vehicles. Blasters and lances glance on a 4 any AV12-14 which means they are really effective only against AV10 maybe 11. That's why dark eldar shouldn't take a lot of anti tank, their weapons are not that effective.

I usually take three ravagers with lances as the only source of anti tank but in my experience disintegrator cannons are quite nice too, if you face eldar, SM or necrons you don't really need the lances (good only against ghost arks or wave serpents, while SM have too many rhinos/razorback to be effective and they can deep strike melta shots turn 1) and three ravagers with cannons are 27 S5 AP2 shots, also 45 points cheaper than the lances version.

I love disintegrator cannons. Ive lauded them many times. Unfortunately, my list needs help killing AV 12 or better rear armor. Not enough points for a Scourge unit, really. So I spent the 5/ model on lances. But in a non-melee dedicated list, scourges and the like can do enough anti armor work for you.

My scourges never seem to survive very long to pull a lot of weight. Maybe if I double up on them instead of Ravagers it'll be more point effective? I think they would have done a lot better this game but a full squad of Death Marks made deepstriking them a sure bad time. So they never even got to shoot at full strength.

 Gamerely wrote:
My scourges never seem to survive very long to pull a lot of weight. Maybe if I double up on them instead of Ravagers it'll be more point effective? I think they would have done a lot better this game but a full squad of Death Marks made deepstriking them a sure bad time. So they never even got to shoot at full strength.

They are highly effective but you have to commit to them and have three units of them. I've also learned that minimizing the unit size completely isnt as wise as using 7 or even 8 of them. In part this is because you want to them to be able to fire again but also because you will often see foes without as much armor as three Scourge units would be required to handle and when they happens, their Carbines are still quite useful. The army in generaly really does determine this so i am mostly addressing an army that has committed to shooting as its primary mode of attack. If you have a "balanced" force (whatever that means) then the Scourges may well wish to be more min/maxed but its a fine line.

My Dark Eldar are very simple to operate. they simply ram themselves into the enemy at full speed. That's it. no subtlety of any kind. Only brutality of the funnest sort. The shooting my army does is limited to the VoidRaven Bomber and the two Ravagers. Any other shooting is entirely incidental (such as a Raider that miraculously survives its initial rush and can take a pot shot, or the two venoms which carry my Obsec, who will take their shots of opportunity when not zipping to objectives that require their presence.

In my force, the Scourges simply won't fit. To truly overwhelm an enemy line, you have to bring the house, Scourges are however one of the most reliable units in any codex at their job.

It's not wise to take too many scourges. If they serve an anti tank role you may waste 240 points if the opponent doesn't have vehicles, and with shardcarbines they don't worth the points as units of kabalite warriors have more firepower, may have obj sec (I usually take the RR detachment so in my lists they don't) and they're more durable than scourges.

I'm not a real fan of them but I think a single unit of 5 with 4 haywire blasters is enough. A couple of ravagers is always handy, and these three units together are a decent anti tank. I usually take three ravagers as I like vehicles spam with also lots of venoms and raiders, but three lances are not as good as 4 haywire shots against AV.

 Blackie wrote:
It's not wise to take too many scourges. If they serve an anti tank role you may waste 240 points if the opponent doesn't have vehicles, and with shardcarbines they don't worth the points as units of kabalite warriors have more firepower, may have obj sec (I usually take the RR detachment so in my lists they don't) and they're more durable than scourges.

I'm not a real fan of them but I think a single unit of 5 with 4 haywire blasters is enough. A couple of ravagers is always handy, and these three units together are a decent anti tank. I usually take three ravagers as I like vehicles spam with also lots of venoms and raiders, but three lances are not as good as 4 haywire shots against AV.

I disagree because their mobility is excellent. You're gaining a very good mobile unit no matter its shooting. Speed is the weapon of choice for Dark Eldar. But that is also why I said to take more than the minimum.

the Haywire blaster is still STR 4 AP 4 I think, so thats not nothing. still a pretty nice weapon.

As someone who has never done more than 2 hullpoints a game with haywire scourges due to horrible dice with them (just haywire, the rest usually roll above average) I prefer heat lances, or sometimes blasters on the batmen.
They are great for melting tanks, MC's, or generally anything with low model count

Heat lance is good. Hate the name but they get the jerb done. They arent as reliable at getting damage results but they have the pubchers chance of blowing things up in one go so theres that. Dark Eldar dont like exploding vehicles as a rule...

 Jancoran wrote:

 Blackie wrote:
It's not wise to take too many scourges. If they serve an anti tank role you may waste 240 points if the opponent doesn't have vehicles, and with shardcarbines they don't worth the points as units of kabalite warriors have more firepower, may have obj sec (I usually take the RR detachment so in my lists they don't) and they're more durable than scourges.

I'm not a real fan of them but I think a single unit of 5 with 4 haywire blasters is enough. A couple of ravagers is always handy, and these three units together are a decent anti tank. I usually take three ravagers as I like vehicles spam with also lots of venoms and raiders, but three lances are not as good as 4 haywire shots against AV.

I disagree because their mobility is excellent. You're gaining a very good mobile unit no matter its shooting. Speed is the weapon of choice for Dark Eldar. But that is also why I said to take more than the minimum.

the Haywire blaster is still STR 4 AP 4 I think, so thats not nothing. still a pretty nice weapon.

Venoms are fast too. And scourges are to squishy to be taken in high numbers, a single round of shooting can wiped them out, even if they were 7-8 or two units of five. They serve the role of a suicide squad basically, they arrive and strip those 2-3 HP that you really need to get rid of. If there aren't vehicles on the table 120 points for 3 poisoned and 4 S4 AP4 shots are too many imho. A single venom with no one inside can cause more damage for half the points.

Dark eldar have too many poisoned shots and fast units to consider scourges with a different role. I never played with less than 15 bikes other than raiders and venoms, so yeah, I agree about speed and mobility, they're certainly our best friends


Automatically Appended Next Post:

StevetheDestroyeOfWorlds wrote:
As someone who has never done more than 2 hullpoints a game with haywire scourges due to horrible dice with them (just haywire, the rest usually roll above average) I prefer heat lances, or sometimes blasters on the batmen.
They are great for melting tanks, MC's, or generally anything with low model count

Heat lances are also effective but as you roll poorly with haywire I always roll terrible when determine the deep strike scatter and it's easy to arrive outside the melta range, that's why I never take heat lances. I wouldn't give them blasters though, you already have the ravagers that are capable of a similar damage.

Scourges are a suicide unit, they're meant to come in and kill whatever it is they're targeting that turn but they'll die in your opponents next turn. I personally have a lot more luck with Heat Lances than Haywire but frankly it's a toss up between the two.

They're probably our best anti tank unit as they have a good chance of killing something in a single turn but never run anything more than min squads as thats just a waste of points.

There is nothing in the Dark Eldar force among "normal" Anti-Tank options that is more reliable. Do we at lerast agree on that? I mean given that the chance to hit is the same between one unit and another, it cannot reasonably be argued that a damage result on anything but a 1 (penetrating on a 6) is worse than the alternatives. So reliability should be at minimum what we can agree on.

In an army made of glass which a shooting force (specifically) of Dark eldar are, it is only a matter of the enemies choice as to what dies first, not ours.

Scourges, if they have executed their duties, become less of a target once the deed is done. While it might be true that someone could focus a unit of them down (perhaps, that is entirely a function of where they fired from), it is likely to take more units to do than killing a venom will. I think that's also quite fair to say, unless you inexplicably left the Scourges firing from nothing approaching cover (in which case, you get what you deserve!)

So there is a lot one can say about it but Scourges are reliable and that means something. Being fragile means nothing, because everything i nthe army in a shooty version of the army, is.

Scourges are by far the best anti tank available, there's no doubt about it but are they really reliable?

In my experience many armies play without vehicles. Eldar, necrons, tau, tyranids, gen cult, space wolves, daemons mostly but also SM lists that don't have the gladius spam. If you face one of those lists scourges are not going to take their points back and typically there aren't vehicles that are really scary for dark eldar, maybe BA with a dread spam but BA are not extremely good anyway or maybe AM.

That's why I typically don't take scourges unless I'm quite sure I'm going to face lists with AV (yes, we never play 100% tac lists), otherwise when I'm not sure about the opponent's army I prefer ravagers even if they are less effective against AV.

I kind of covered that already though. I conceded that you might well face an army without vehicles and in those cases, the poison storm from a Scourge unit is welcome. Theuir Haywire shot being STR 4 AP 4 is not a terrible shot to take either.

i also recommended the slightly larger units for that exact reason.

Theuir Haywire shot being STR 4 AP 4 is not a terrible shot to take either.

Actually, it is. I mean, it's better than nothing, but let's not act like you aren't essentially wasting those points you paid for the haywire blasters. Without vehicles to fry, they're fancy bolters.

Scourges are reliable and that means something. Being fragile means nothing, because everything i nthe army in a shooty version of the army, is.

They're reliable for a turn, but that's about it. The fact that everything else in the army is fragile is irrelevant. They'll still get shot off the board in a hurry. I like Scourges, but they're not much more than suicide units, as noted. Cover is always helpful, but I wouldn't count on a high profile unit of T3 4+ dudes to hold up very long.

No ones "pretending". Unless you count the guy pretending an ap 4 shot isnt one. Obviously no armor means less utility. Not zero efficacy.

Do you play Dark Eldar pretty frequently?

I play against DE all the time and use Covens, myself, on occasion. However, I don't really need to do either of those things to tell you that a single S4 AP4 shot from a 20+ pt model isn't exactly stellar. When did AP4 become good?

Haywire Scourges are fine, but again, let's not act like they're something they aren't. They're for dropping in and stripping some hull points off something mega-tough - probably a knight. If they do anything more than that, it's a bonus. They'll never be a durable bastion of relentless firepower, regardless of how many models are in the unit or how well you position them.

MilkmanAl wrote:
I play against DE all the time and use Covens, myself, on occasion. However, I don't really need to do either of those things to tell you that a single S4 AP4 shot from a 20+ pt model isn't exactly stellar. When did AP4 become good?

Haywire Scourges are fine, but again, let's not act like they're something they aren't. They're for dropping in and stripping some hull points off something mega-tough - probably a knight. If they do anything more than that, it's a bonus. They'll never be a durable bastion of relentless firepower, regardless of how many models are in the unit or how well you position them.

No one said any of that. You keep suggesting that someone did. They are an excellent unit in shooty cversions of Dark Edldar. Thats what was said...So...

 Jancoran wrote:


I disagree because their mobility is excellent. You're gaining a very good mobile unit no matter its shooting. Speed is the weapon of choice for Dark Eldar. But that is also why I said to take more than the minimum.

the Haywire blaster is still STR 4 AP 4 I think, so thats not nothing. still a pretty nice weapon.

Emphasis mine

Jancoran wrote:Scourges, if they have executed their duties, become less of a target once the deed is done. While it might be true that someone could focus a unit of them down (perhaps, that is entirely a function of where they fired from), it is likely to take more units to do than killing a venom will. I think that's also quite fair to say, unless you inexplicably left the Scourges firing from nothing approaching cover (in which case, you get what you deserve!)

While not quite as direct as the first part, that statement seems to indicate that you expect scourges to survive at least a turn. Correct me if I'm wrong. As I said, i wouldn't plan on that happening, and I also don't buy that they're less of a threat once they've dropped in and shot whatever their target is, unless they wipe the last vehicle on the table or something. They're still very powerful yet paper thin and will be a priority target.

Str 4 ap4 is not a bad weapon. Dont know why you think so.

As for "planning" on them getting focused down, i dont know why thats your plan. I dont know why the wreckage of the tank doesnt strike you as a natural defense once they kill it and i dont know why you think cover plus fnp (depending on the round they came in) doesnt give them a good chance to try again..

Ultimately... having used them... i can attest to what i did when playing shooty lists. I dropped them to take cover from dead tanks or just ruins. I didnt find enemies without armor focusing more on them and less on my more powerful hitters. But i have qualified my use of them as best this forum allows so maybe ill use vassal to paint a better picture.

Probably for the same reason i think s4 ap5 is a bad weapon. Because it is in a game where some armies spam cheap s 6/7.

Martel732 wrote:
Probably for the same reason i think s4 ap5 is a bad weapon. Because it is in a game where some armies spam cheap s 6/7.

By that measure you would suggest anything NOT str 6 "sucks"? Come now.

Ap 4 is good. It works on a LOT more than 5 does. Str 4 is a solid hitting shell. Its obviously better at killing armor but when it has to do otherwise its not bad. Not every unit can be str 7 rending armorbane fleshbane blah blah blah. A bolt pistol kills a lot of things even if its not the be all end all. But its not world class either. Its just "useful" in the absence of armor.

"It works on a LOT more than 5 does"

One would think that, but it's really easy to get a 5+ cover save in 7th. Not a problem for the hellhound, but this practically ruins the heavy bolter (terrible weapon), and it doesn't do this gun any favors either.

Martel732 wrote:
"It works on a LOT more than 5 does"

One would think that, but it's really easy to get a 5+ cover save in 7th. Not a problem for the hellhound, but this practically ruins the heavy bolter (terrible weapon), and it doesn't do this gun any favors either.

It could have been AP 2 for all it mattered if you want to invoke cover as an argument... So.

My poor Scourges. I think they would have done the job if it hadn't been for the Deathmarks dropping next to them as soon as they showed up and shooting the bajeezus out of them. I think like everybody has said, using them like Sternguard suicide squads is pretty smart. I honestly don't know about the use of Heat lances though. You have to get awfully close to anything to shoot at it.

S4 AP4 isn't bad of course, but 120 points for 4 of those shots and three poisoned ones are too many. With the same amount of points you may take 5 kabalites with a blaster in a venom with two cannons, which are way more deadly.

And only a few AV are really nasty to deal with, that's why I typically don't take scourges in my lists unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to face armies like orks, BA, AM or I fear the presence of an imperial knight.

 Jancoran wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
"It works on a LOT more than 5 does"

One would think that, but it's really easy to get a 5+ cover save in 7th. Not a problem for the hellhound, but this practically ruins the heavy bolter (terrible weapon), and it doesn't do this gun any favors either.

It could have been AP 2 for all it mattered if you want to invoke cover as an argument... So.

Not exactly. AP2 knocks a 2+ down to a 5+ with cover. AP4 takes a 4+ down to a 5+. So basically, the cover is negating 66% of the effect of AP4, but only 40% of the effect of AP2. Plus, terminators, a rather common AP2 target (and others like Riptide) already have a 5++ invuln anyway. AP4 is a real slap in the face in 7th ed to me. My army is full of them and they suck.

Once again the 4 archon with huskblade and shadowfield build is working its magic for me. I faced traitor guard today with 3 wyverns, 4 quad guns, 2 groups of 3 laser units (twin linked las cannons with ordnance rule so 2d6 for pen), at least 2 artillery emplacements, 2 normal leman russ, 2 punisher leman russ, 2 cover avoiding vehicle artillery and various zombies and similar.

Btw i WON that game. It was objectives but i killed a swathe of his units including his warlord, 2 normal leman russ, a punisher, 2 of the 3 wyverns, one of his artillery emplacements, all the quad guns all the twin linked lascannon ordnance, his warlord, most of his zombies, his daemon prince and pretty much everything. I had some luck on my side and i played fairly well. I should've put blasters or blast pistols on my archons though but they lived till the end of the game killing at least 2 units of heavy weapons, a unit of an artillery emplacement, his warlord and were getting ready to kill something else and only one of the 4 archons in the unit died over the course of 6 full turns. I would've done more damage if i had the blast pistols too. I could've taken out his vehicle artillery as well. I was similarly destroyed though. One reaver left, archon unit left, a few warriors left and that might be it. The battle was bloody and stealing first turn helped considerably. Any first to go for dark eldar is huge and i took advantage of it and had some fairly good luck with most things as well as played well.

This happened.

His army: Lootas, Meks, 2 LARGE units of Ork Bikers stuffed full with Painboyz and Warbosses. The Buzzgob Stompa, with SIX Voidshields (ridiculous to even try to get through 18 "Hull points") and a couple Gretchen Squads along with a 2 Kannon squad for objective campage. It was a very elite Ork force. Not many units but all of them with a definite role. Kommandos were in reserve for this Hammer and Anvil game. Night Fighting was invoked.



My force?
2 Ravagers
2 Kabalite units in venoms
Court of the Archon in Raider
Beastmasters
Haemonculus
2 units of Grotesques in raiders
Incubi In a Raider
Ravenwing Fighter


Round 1
The Dark Eldar shot every single raider to within an inch of his army and cut them completely off from moving forward. Ravagers and Venoms took shots into the larger of the two Bike squads and killed 4 of them. The Beast pack moved to the objective to the rear.

The Ork response was violent and effective. They miraculously downed 3 of the 4 Raiders that were camped in front of them. Only the Court of the Archon Raider survived it. The Warlord and 3 of his Grotesques were obliterated by the Buzzgob blast. Even with a 3+ Jink, that many bikes twin linked had the juice and the Buzzgob was effective as well. All of my assault troops were laid bare but the Court. As he had retreated one bike unit only one was close enough to assault and did so, attacking the singular Grotesque from the Warlords unit that survived and the Raider the Court was in, killing several of the court because they couldnt get out. His placement was in dispute on this one but oh well.

2

The Razorwing Jetfighter came on and obliterated most of the bike squad that had retreated, causing 19 wounds but their Feel No Pain was of enormous use here and saved about 4 of them including the 2nd warboss leading them and his Painboy. Still, it was impressive.

The Court of the Archon and the second Grotesque squad closed in on the weaker bike unit that blew them out, with his Warlord, that were in some rocks on the left. The Court made the charge but the Grotesques missed. Hoboy. This was VERY bad for my Grotesques as it left them right in front of Buzzgob thanks to the retreat of the other bikes. The Court won the combat and killed the Kannons (one of their maelstrom objectives that turn) and stayed entrenched.

The Incubi came around the corner of the rock formation to my right that the Gretchen were using to cower behind and the Venoms opened up on them but they were remarkably resilient (Read: I rolled like poop and he did not). the Incubi missed their charge there also. More good news.

The Beastpack retreated with the Relic and passed it off to another guy behind the front line for safekeeping.

The ork bikers that were free to move moved towards the Gretchen on my right and lined up shots on the Incubi but created no damage.
Buzzgob dropped the fury, killing four BeastPack, blowing a Ravager skyhigh (my Jinks failed me with regularity in this game) and forced another to Jink. He then charged the Grotesques. Only one Grotesque survived and couldnt run because it was now fearless.

The Court of the Archon rolled great and...Feel No Pain boned me big time. The Warlord fisted all but one dead and the last Sslyth in the unit fled.

3
The last Grotesque lost his fight with Buzzgob, freeing the Beast.
The Incubi charged and hit the Bikers that had come around the bend to help their gretchen buddies, but AGAIN Feel No Pain was huge for him and he stood his ground. I totally forgot to challenge the darn leader. My own Feel No Pain helped a little also to be fair.
The Lone Ravager hid around a building and snapfired, amazingly killing a biker from the Warlords unit that had just run the Sslyth away. Pretty cool. The Razorwing hit the same unit and the frigging Feel No Pains saved him as did my poor rolling. I hgave to say, he was very lucky. he got out of the whole round of shooting losing maybe one biker total.
The BeastPack retreated again, scoring objective and generally being annoying.
The Venoms fired down on the Gretchen and utterly failed to do a thing to them.
The shooting could not have gone worse.

The second unit of gretchen moved and ran towards the Gretchen I had been firing down on to help camp the Objective #1, and Buizzgob backed up to give everyone fearlessness while the Warlord forged forward to chase down the Sslyth that was running away to get a Maelstrom point, and killed him on the charge.
Buzzgob positioned himself and fired at the Venoms, planting a hull point on one, killing the other and pinning the Kabalite Warriors that spilled out. The Lootaz inside tried to contribute as well but didn't.
The Incubi remembered to challenge this time and I put a wound on the leader but the (now fearless) Gretchen charged in and between them and the orkz it was too much and the Incubi died but they did do damage that turn to the Gretchen and the Orks.

4.
The Ravager now free to fire normally zapped the Warlords unit.
The Ravenwing and Venom fired down on the second Warlord and the Kabalite Warriors were going to go contest Objective #1.
In the end, there was no winning for the orks, as they simply had no more mobility or way to get to the Relic, nor overcome the Maelstrom advantage the Dark Eldar had built up, and so the orks conceded. It was a VERY bloody game though and the Orks took it to the Dark Eldar something fierce. Had we played it out his Buzzgob would have ended the game untouched and would have obliterated enough to be satisfying in the extreme but not enough to actually win.

Final Score was 19-1, Dark Eldar. COULD have ended 15-5 Dark Eldar in a worst case scenario.

Well done, I really like your style and list, you also have incubi in your force, right? You mentioned them in the bat rep but they're not listed when you described the force. 4 raiders and beasts are very nice to unleash toward the enemy. What was inlcuded in the court of the archon?

The ork army was quite bad though.

Night Fight, Crusade Mission with 4 Objectives more or less all down the center of the board. GeneStealer Cult chose sides. Dawn of War Deployment. Dark Eldar going first. 1500 point version so no Ravagers for me and one less grotesque and a couple little changes here and there.

GeneStealers stationed their Leman Russ line in the middle with good lines of sight to everything. On the left, his Chimera with cultists inside, plus Cultists with lots of weapons next to them near one objective plus two (what i found out later) were two Armored Sintinels. all were in cover. To the right three more units of cultists armed to the teeth and a Chimera loaded with more. His leader with an enormous number of genestealers infiltrated to my right in some ruins to take advantage of stealth and were essentially on an objective to start the game almost.

To the center right I deployed Grotesques and Incubi in their Raiders. to the center left I placed Grotesques and the Court of the Archon. Infiltrating were two Venoms which ended up center left behind the line of Raiders. The Beastpack started in a ruin to the left on a vector for his Chimera. Jetfighter reserved.

1
I moved every Raider 1" in front of his Leman Russ's to the center, using a building to the right of the line to shield me from the Lascannon wielding Cultists to the right. The Beastpack moved and ran 18 inches towards the ruins on the left in which the Chimera/Armores sintinels and Cultists took refuge. Venoms shot at the far right Cultists because trying to kill the 3+ cover Genestealers was a fools errand and I hoped to bait them out of cover, so the venoms moved up a bit.

Two cultist units on the right went back into reserve using shenanigans. The third moved to get around the building shielding my Raider line so they could take some shots and the Chimera advanced taking cover from the building from one angle and popping smoke. The Leman Russ's trundled backwards to avoid hitting themselves with ordinance and fired down on the Raiders, immobilizing the Court of the Archon on the far right of the Raider line, closest to the building, but ultimately the Jinking was successful enough to avoid losing any. His Chimera and Auto Cannon Sintinels let loose on the Beastpack. His Chimera had dual heavy flamers which was interesting and he fired his arrays and other guns, doing damage although the cover did help a little bit and I lost a Razorwing flock and a Khymerae.
His Genestealers made it through their cover and made the charge unfortunately and "took" my bait by ripping the lead Venom apart. Hehehe. Good news? Clumped. Better news? The explosion of the Venom took out six Genestealers. Ouch.

2.
The Razorwing Jetfighter came in and blasted the clumped Genestealers unit and only because of some errant dice did they not take worse. Even with that bit of luck, casualties were heavy. The Grotesques charged the Leman Russ Squadron and destroyed it entirely. the Court of the Archon shot all but one of the Cultists who came around the house dead and the last one ran off the board. The center of the board was cleared of enemies pretty completely. The BeastPack attacked the chippy Chimera on the left and wrecked it, pinning the unit that poured out of it. The remaining Venom ran for its life to the far left to avoid the Genestealers and the survivors from the Venom wreckage took ineffectual potshots at their oppressors, firm in the knowledge it might be the last shots they ever took in the face of such gruesome horror. The incubi moved in their Raider to the left to prepare for more Genestealer shenanigans when they appeared.

The Genestealers popped in their cultists from nowhere near my Beastpack on the left and shot it up along with the Sintinels. One of them rolled and got a SECOND shooting phase! This had the fortunate side effect of putting the Beastpack out of practical charge distance from the Sintinels however. The Genestealer command unit slew the Kabalite Warriors in the center of the board near an objective. The Chimera that had popped smoke on the right came around the bend and flaminated the Raider flotilla that was blockading it, hitting several with its heavy flamers and putting 2 hull points on one of them and one on another. The Pinned cultists from the previous round decided to disappear literally. Silly genestealer magic.

3.
The remainder of the Beastpack attacked and destroyed one of the antagonizing cultist units that had popped out of nowhere on them. The Razorwing Jetfighter pummeled the Genestealers again near the middle fo the board, but rolled quite a bit worse this time; but causing enough damage to matter. All of the Raiders fired down on the Sintinels, doing nothing because there was so much cover in the way. The Venom that coasted that way retreated to the center of the board to claim the objective there and get elevation so it could fire at more targets. Its aim wasn't good and it killed a total of one Cultists near the Beastpack. The Court of the Archon moved around the building abutting my Raider line and started making its way towards the furthest objective on my right, as did a unit of Grotesques. The second unit of Grotesques (with the Warlord) headed around the immobilized Raider to try and make its way towards the offending Chimera that was damaging the Raiders. They tried to charge, but didn't make it far enough.

The Genestealer response? pop out of nowhere! They popped a linebreaking unit into cover behind the Beastpack and opened up on them along with the Sintinels, killing the Beastmaster and sending the unit fleeing with just two Clawed Fiends and a Khymerae left. The Chimers the Grotesques failed to charge charcoaled them with flame, causing two wounds, while the unit inside got out. and actually put an immobilized result on the Razorwing Jetfighter. The Genestealers were down to a single Genestealer and their leader who had one wound so they left the board with genestealer magic.

4
Grotesques annihilated the Chimera, Court of the Archon destroyed the unit that came out of the Chimera after moving towards the far right objective again, the Raiders immobilized a Sintinel, , the Razorwing fighter took a left turn and did nothing, Incubi jumped out of their Raider and positioned themselves near ruins in order to get ready to assault and take the far left objective. The Venom let loose and did a little damage to the cultists that were line breaking but not much. The BeastMasters regrouped, surprisingly. which placed them, the Incubi and the INcubi Raider all sitting on the far left objective. At this stage the Dark Eldar controlled every objective but that one (tying it). The other grotesques were just meandering around heading to objectives as well.

The Cultists were now pretty well stuck where they were and decided to unload on the Beastpack killing all but one Clawed Fiend (one wound on it also), and the big bad Geanestealer HQ popped back up in the ruins where he had started, near the far right objective with his singular living Genestealer buddy. The Sintinels assisted, attempting to kill the INcubi Raider holding the leftmost objective and got a hull point on it. His goal now was to attempt to control the far right and far left, thus winning the game on First Blood. Despite his dire situation he had a chance.

5
The Court of the Archon and Grotesques converged on the far right, along with a Raider, the lone Clawed Fiend and the Incubi charged one of the Cultists units on the left and killed it, consolidating back to the objective. and the Raiders once again missed everything. This however ended the game because there was now no way for him to take either objective. He needed to repel the assault on his Cultists to win and even then it was a long shot but with their death we called it.

Dark Eldar victory. 13-2


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Blackie wrote:
Well done, I really like your style and list, you also have incubi in your force, right? You mentioned them in the bat rep but they're not listed when you described the force. 4 raiders and beasts are very nice to unleash toward the enemy. What was inlcuded in the court of the archon?

The ork army was quite bad though.

Thank you.

I take a very small unit of Incubi. They are typically there to absorb the overwatch and be a tool against 2+ armor type of units so i can weaken them enough to be bite sized (incubi on their own in that number wont solve the entire problem but they chip away enough to be potent). More importantly it gives me more bulk to throw in and hedge the enemy in. Movement is a weapon. They give me more of it and aren't a throw away to accomplish it.

The Court of the Archon in the 1850 version was Lhamaean, 2 Medusae, and 6 Sslyth in a Raider that has enhanced Aethersails (as all of the raiders do)

I fixed the post above to include the INcubi. Nice catch.

Also: his army does the same thing mine does really. it pins the enemy in, makes you wade through silly saves and FnP to kill it and if you dont it swamps you in STR 5 TL shooting and assaults turn 2. they are quite similar in function. He has unkillable shooting (Buzzgob) instead of my quite frail multiple platforms but his formula is actually quite similar when you think about it.