So after game #4 I had 2 Massacres, a Major win and a Tie.
That landed me squarely on table #2. I thought things were looking really good.
Game #5 Mission: Recon (Bonus points for scoring units in enemy deployment zone).
My opponent was a local player by the name of Tim. He brought a raider heavy Dark Eldar list. At the beginning of the game, my team tournament partner (Fenick) came over and said that he beat this army in game #1. I was looking across the board from it, and I was wondering how I was going to win.
His List Archon tooled up on a Reaver Jetbike
Haemonculus on a Reaver Jetbike
10 Wyches w/Succubus and agonizer (Drugs=+1
WS) in a Raider w/Darklance
10 Mandrakes
10 Dark Eldar Warriors w/Dark Lance, Blaster and Raider w/Darklance
10 Dark Eldar Warriors w/Dark Lance, Blaster and Raider w/Darklance
10 Dark Eldar Warriors w/Dark Lance, Blaster and Raider w/Darklance
10 Dark Eldar Warriors w/Dark Lance, Blaster and Raider w/Darklance
10 Dark Eldar Warriors w/Dark Lance, Blaster and Raider w/Darklance
4 Reaver Jetbikes, Blaster w/Succubus and agonizer (Drugs=Fearless)
Ravager w/Dark Lance, 2 Disintegrators
Ravager w/Dark Lance, 2 Disintegrators
Ravager w/Dark Lance, 2 Disintegrators
Pre-game goings on At the beginning of the game, the terrain at our table was all disheveled because of other armies that were on it, and the display boards pushing everything out of the way. My opponent wanted to move terrain around, and I thought this would be a major issue of contention. At that moment, I spotted Phill Kelly walking by and I asked him to re-arrange the terrain for us. He was nice enough to do it. I told him to do the terrain like they do it at GWHQ, but I don't know if that was a good thing.
He won the dice roll for sides, and took the side that I was secretly coveting. The deployment zones were 15" with no units coming within 24" of and enemy unit.
At this point I had no idea what he was going to do...I did not know if he was going to load up and raider rush me, or sit back and give me the 20 Dark Lance salute. So I thought I would play it safe, and I thought I would have a better change at winning a shooting war, (boy was I wrong) so I set up my Dark Reapers in the middle of the table, pushing him back as far as I could.
We started trading deployment of units, and we came upon a major problem with the Mandrakes. He wanted to set them up in his deployment zone, but in the area that was cleared out by my Dark Reapers. I told him that no units can set up there. His argument was that the mandrakes were not a unit yet, and he was just putting down a marker. I argued that the maker represents a unit (or the possibility of a unit) and he could not set up there. So we needed a ruling. He called a Kammando over by his first name, and stated our problem. The Kammando ruled in favor of my opponent, since the rules state that no unit my be set up within 24", and the marker was not a unit. I did not accept this, and asked for a higher up. I looked for Dave Taylor, and after a while he came over, and then he brought Phil Kelly over to make the ruling. I was glad that Phil ruled in my favor.
The Set Up
Dark Eldar Set up:
He has 4 raiders on the left with the Haemonculus between them. Behing the woods are his 3 Ravagers. In the woods are 2 Warrior Squads. On the right he has 3 Warrior squads with 2 raiders behind them,
and on the right he has his Reaver Jetbikes with Achon. The silver models are the Mandrakes. There is one in the forest on the right, one in the middle of the board, and one on the far left on the hill.
My set up is what you see. The only thing you don't see is my Dark Reapers in the forest to the left.
Turn #1
I win the die roll to go first, and take it. I thought about the mission, but I thought this was the best chance to kill his skimmers. And if I let him go first, I do not know how much stuff I would have at the end of the game to claim the objective.
I move my Dire Avengers forward to screen the Guardians, and to try to get in the range of shooting. I abandon the right flank, and try to move away from him. My shooting does a grand total of destroying a raider on the right, immobilizing a ravager and destroying one raider on the left...that is it.
His Ravagers kill all of my Dark Reapers except my Exarch. One raider comes flying out of the pack and the Wyches get out and assault my Dire Avengers. His raiders stun my Falcon on the left.
Turn #2
Most of my units can't beat their way out of a wet paper bag, and I was getting caught between the Archon and the Jetbikes on the right, the Mandrakes in the middle, and the Wyches on the left. I needed to do something fast. I assaulted the Wyches with my Avatar, and moved my Harlequins up to the hill so they can assault the Wyches next turn, or be ready to counter assault what ever hit my lines.
And for shooting, I shoot down a raider on the left. (I was rolling very bad).
Bottom of turn 2
I did not get a picture.
Lets just say that he shoots his Ravagers at my Guardians killing a lot, and he locks the Guardian squad on the right in assault with his Archon and Jetbikes. The Archon takes a wound from drugs...let that be a lesson out there to all of our young Dracons out there reading this...if you do drugs, you give up half of your victory points.
Turn #3
As you can see from this picture, I am not doing as well as I would have liked to have been doing. I assaulted the Wyches with my Harlequins, and they butchered them to a man. That halving the weapon skill and a 4+ inv save is not very nice. They did take a few out with them. The only bright spot was that he flew his Haemonculus near my Dark Reaper Exarch, and he shot him down. And to make things worse, Eldard takes a wound from Perils of the Warp. The only bright side was that I shot down a Ravager with a Bright Lance
As you can see, the Mandrakes appeared in the middle of the board, and headed strait toward Eldrad. They only do 3 wounds to him, but I fail 2 saves, and he dies. He tries to consolidate into my Dark Reaper Exarch (Who just survived 2 Dark Lance shots), but he does not make it. He shoots his Reaper Jetbikes and wipes out the last of a Guardian squad. My Avatar finally wins combat, and the Wyches break and get run down.
Turn #4
Showing the Right side
Showing the Left
From that horrible bottom of turn 2 and top of 3, things are starting to turn around. It is starting to get late in the game, and I need to start to creep toward his deployment zone. I also want to kill those bikes and the Mandrakes that are in my deployment zone. I shoot the Jetbike with the unstunned falcon and kill 2 of them. He did a good job of keeping my Falcons stunned for the most part. I had to hide them for a turn so they can get a shot off, and there were not that many places to hide.
My Avatar assaults the Mandrakes, and they break and get run down.
Bottom of turn 4
He assaults my lone Guardian with his Reaper Jetbike. He does not want his Archon out in no-mans land and flies back. His shooting finally kills my Dark Reaper Exach (He took a lot of fire before going down).
Turn 5
As you can see from this picture, that my Guardian is still there, but the Reaver Jetbike is gone. That's right...after dodging a blaster shot, and making an armor save, my Guardian beat to death a Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbike with his heavy weapon controller!
I don't have much to do at this point...I move my Falcons up so that they are in his deployment zone, and try to angle the lead Falcon with it's scorpions into assault range.
In death, my Guardian gave his all so I have a chance to win the game. My the first Dark Lance missed my Guardian, and the second Dark Lance failed to wound him. It was not until the third Dark Lance hit him that his spirit was finally released into his spirit stone to join the infinity circuit. But his sacrifice was not in vain! So many Dark Lances where directed at him, that only one Falcon was stunned.
Turn 6
My scorpions bail out of the Falcon, and then the Falcons try to tank shock the Warriors. He ends up making all 3 morale rolls. The shooting of my Falcon kills his Ravager (Thanks again brave Guardian for making that possible). I try to assault with my scorpions but I roll two '1's for movement, and don't even get close. (For those keeping track at home, that was the 4th time in 3 days that I rolled less that 3" for assault. And I almost bought them "Stalker" for move-through-cover but thought "How many times will I really need it?"
.
Bottom of turn 6 His turn he shoots everything at the Scorpions, and kills them.
End of game
So, when it came time to tally up the points he had just over 600 points.
I had half points for my Avatar, and my two Falcons for 465 points, plus 390 for my 2 Falcons being in his deployment zone giving me 855 points total and a minor win.
He said afterward that he forgot about the mission, and that might have cost him.
Result: Minor Win for me.
As a side note: Yakface wondered why I disembarked the scorpions on the last turn. The group I play with does not count scoring units if they are in a transport, so I could not get the double victory points for them. I should have asked ahead of time if they did still count, because that could have been an additional 250 victory points.
I had a fun game with Tim. I owe him an apology because he was a cool guy during the game, and he was laid back about the rules. At the time of the game I thought our rules discussions where rule arguments, and worse than they were. Whenever we got a ruling he was cool with it, and when I made a mistake I looked it up in the book and we carried on. I should have given him at least 2 more sportsmanship points than I did, and for that I am sorry.
So at the end of the GT I had 80 total battle points. I knew the guy on table #1 who had the highest battle points was not in the running for overall because he had sportsmanship “Issues” (See http://dakkadakka.com/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/6/postid/168139/view/topic/Default.aspxif you want more details).
So when the awards were announced I ended up winning nothing 
Oh well. When they posted the results I ended up with 80 battle points, 42 or 44 sportsmanship points (a lot higher than I would have expected) and a 25 in painting giving me around 157 total points.
It was the painting that cost me because there were some nice looking armies on the top tables, and they received 35 points in painting, and were able to just barely beat me in over all points. The overall winner had 50 Sportsmanship, 40 painting so if he scored that high, more power to him. I think he had around 167 total points.
I would like to see the final totals and see where I landed though.
Overall I had a lot of fun, with several great games, and a couple of good games. I liked it so much that I am going to come out to the Baltimore GT. And this time I am going to bring a fully painted army so that my painting scores will not hold me back!
After action list overview
Avatar: This guy was awesome. Not only does he anchor my entire army with fearlessness, but he is a freaking greater demon with a melta gun. How cool is that? So whenever anything hit my lines he was there to put the beat down on it. He only died in game #4 because I rolled really bad for his saves, and even that was after killing a squad of Furies, a Demon Prince, and finishing off a squad of Chaos Space Marines.
Eldrad: He is as good as I thought he would be. In a 1750 game, his price tag is a bit steep, bit he is such a force multiplier, that he is worth it. In every game I am able to throw units around to dictate enemy deployment, and them move them for the best field of fire. Add to that he can cast every Eldar Farseer power, and 3 powers a turn, and he earns his money. Most of the time I had fortune and guide on the Dark Reapers, and then either fortune on the avatar, or guide on a bright lance or falcon, or doom on a unit that got close enough.
Harlequins: This was a last minute addition to my list. I added a second Falcon at the last moment, and needed something to ride in it. Everyone was raving about how good they are, and I got caught up in the hype. With the exception of Game #3, they did next to nothing.
Scorpions: They did really well. With the exception of game #5 they survived as a scoring unit. Maybe because they did not see as much action as the Harlies did, but I thought they performed well.
Guardians: What is not to like about them? When the Eldar codex came out, everyone was saying that they are a waste of points, but I rather liked them. They are dirt cheap, can move and shoot a heavy weapon, fleet-of-foot, and if they get within 12” they can tear up a unit with small arms fire. But what makes them good is that they can be fearless with an Avatar, and they can shoot at Doomed targets, and they can be Guided to greatly increase their humble stat lines.
Dire Avengers: Up until the LVGT I was running 2 packs of these…one shooty, and one as a tar pit unit with Shimershield and Defend. I stayed with the shooty squad, but I think that the tar pit unit is better. You get less fire power, but it is good to have a unit that can take some punishment. Add to that you have to get within 18” to shoot; you are too close to be purely offensive. But on the whole, I think they work better the more units you have of them.
Falcons: What is not to like about them? They carried my assault units into battle, are a fire platform that can shoot a lot of high AP shots, and can survive a lot of shooting, and can move fast, and are a scoring unit to claim objectives.
Dark Reapers: I added this unit at the last moment too, and I was glad. With Eldrad, I could throw them on the table to push back enemy deployment, and then at the end of set up, re-deploy to cover that gave me the best field of fire. With guide and fortune, they are hard to kill, and will tear apart just about any unit with their 48” range.
