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Played in the Battle for Stones River this weekend and generally had a good time. It’s an 1863 point tournament that commemorates a civil war battle that happened in Murfreesboro TN in the year 1863. Had some incredibly tough battles and pulled out a few minor miracles. On what I consider a bright point, I was the only Dark Eldar army present.

Here’s my list:

Archon punisher, tormentor helm, combat drugs, shadow field

Dracite w/agonizer
5 wyches (w.weapons + plasma grenades) + succubus w/ agonizer
Raider w/ horrorfex and nighshields

x2 6 wyches (w.weapons + plasma grenades) + succubus w/ agonizer
Raider w/ horrorfex and nighshields

x2 5 man raider squad w/ darklance
Raider with torture amp and horrofex

x3 5 man raider squad w/ splinter cannon + blaster
Raider with horrorfex and nightshields

x3 Ravager w/ 3 disintegrators + nightshields


My first opponent was actually the same person I had played in the last round in last years BFSR. He thumped me with his eldar list then. He’s a member of the Blade and Bolter crew, they are always a tough match. This year he brought a stunning Mecha Khornzilla list.

His List

Khornate Deamon prince wings….

x3 dreads with x2 cc weapon

x2 8 bezerkers + champ w/ power weapon
rhino

x2 8 bezerkers + champ w/ power fist
Rhino

x3 Defilers with 4 cc weapons


Not a lot of shooting. However the mission was objective based and all 4 where pre-placed in the center of the table. Two would be worth 1 pt, one 2 pts, and one 3 pts. You would only know how much they where after you got a scoring unit in range. So I have to meet this mechanical close combat monster half way….Ug.

Setup: He wins the roll off and sets up his army spread out, with 3 dreads, a defiler, 2 rhinos and the demon prince on his left flank. I spread out across the back end of the table and try and use what little cover there is.

Chaos Turn 1 He only moves his rhinos forward a bit, and moves his demon prince up behind some cover. Otherwise everything else stays put….yay?! His shooting defilers drop a ravager and a wrecks a raider.

DE Turn 1 I shuffle a few raiders around but not much else. I manage to wreck the center defiler, blow the battle cannon of the one on his left (my right) flank. I also wreck the rhino coming up my left flank, killing 1 zerker.

Chaos Turn 2 The dreads wake up and start advancing (save 1 that fire frenzies) as do the remaining rhinos and the gunless defiler. The only intact defiler moves into cover. His shooting drops another raider on my right flank, everything else pops smoke. Crucially he has revealed both objectives on my right side to be worth 2 and 3 points….great…

DE Turn 2 Some more raider shuffle. Shooting against armor is completely ineffectual due to all pens and glances being saved by smoke. Uh oh…..

Chaos Turn 3 The Demon prince moves up to charge the crew from a downed raider squad. The rhinos continue to advance as do the 3 dreads (who are all over the 2 pt objective). The gunless defiler is now stradeling the 3 pt marker… Shooting is ineffectual this turn. A few of the walkers run forward. In the assault phase he wipes the raider squad.

DE Turn 3 Start moving all mobile units towards the high points markers. The dracite and wyche squad disembark with intention of assaulting the demon prince and their transport flies off to shoot at the gunless defiler which is scary close. Shooting sees 1 dread immobilized and a few bezerkers fried (the ones from the destroyed raider). In the assault phase the wyches put 3 wounds on the prince while losing 1 in return.

Chaos turn 4 His left most rhino starts to cross the river to get at the 1pt objective in the center and the defiler moves towards my units. Crucially one of his dreads gets into assault range of one of my raiders that didn’t move (the squad had a darklance). Shooting sees a raider wrecked (on top of the center 1pt marker). In the assault the dread destroys the raider while the wyches finish of the demon prince.

DE Turn 4 ok walkers in my line…ouch. Move a few units away and move some blasters in range of the dread, the dracites squad also got back on their raider (after it moved 12 “ to pick them up), and a raider squad goes flat out to the other side of the bridge, in anticipation of contesting the 2pt marker. Shooting sees the offending dread destroyed and a few more of the exposed zerkers vap’d, though they did go to ground.

Chaos Turn 5 Zerkers disembark from the two center raiders one moving to assault the downed raider squad in the center the other to fire at the raider that just flew to the other side of the river. The gunless defiler moves to assault the wyche raider. Shooting does nothing. In assault the zerkers in the middle predictably wipe the raider squad while the defiler doesn’t get any 6’s to hit the raider…wheew.

DE turn 5 The center raider moves in to contest the 2pt marker and the wyche raider moves in to contest the 3 pter. My Lord along with the 3 wyche squad move in to attack the zerkers on the center 1 pt objective and 2 ravagers move over to cover the left 1 pt objective. Shooting sees the center zerkers squad shot down to 4 models. In h-t-h the lord and wyches wipe out the zerkers.

We roll and get turn 6…ugh

Chaos Turn 6 shooting downs the raider on the 2pt objective and the dracites raider…uh oh. Luckily the raider squad doesn’t break and is to far from the zerkers to get assaulted this turn. The dracites squad is set upon by the zerkers squad and the defiler but combat is a draw.

DE turn 6 shoot what I can and try to get my lord to the center zerkers but fail. In the crucial combat the dracites squad holds with 1 wyche left.

Time is called and I win with me holding a 1pt objective and the rest contested, I also got the bonus points for killing his most expensive unit…..wheew!

We rolled and the game would have gone to turn 7 during which I would have surely been smeared…..I hate to win by time but you take em where you can.

Result 20-5 win

Game 2 is vs a Terminator heavy black templar list. The guy playing it won best sports last year (and this year) but his army was less then competitive, something he freely admits. Really nice guy.

Emperors champion

x2 6 man HQ terminator squad x2 assault cannons (not sure what else)

x3 5 man Terminator squad x2 assualt cannons

x2 5 man tactical squad with melta gun
drop pod.

This mission was to get scoring units across the river.
I won’t go to much into detail as this was a horrible list match up. Needless to say I was able to destroy his terminators as they DS’d in and then hunt down both 5 man units at my leisure. Not much he could have done really. But he took it like a champ and was a pleasure to play against.

Result 20-5 Win

Round 3 was against another Blade and Bolter member. We had played before in ‘Ard Boyz and I had managed to catch him off guard with a massed combined assault that gutted his army. So that wasn’t going to work again….

Heres his list as I remember it

HQ:
Yriel
Farseer on a jetbike, guide, doom, fortune, spirit stones
5 warlocks on jetbikes

Troops
Dire avengers
- Wave serpent w/star cannons, catapults, star engines, spirit stones
6 guardian jetbikes, 2x shuriken cannons
6 guardian jetbikes, 2x shuriken cannons

Elites:
Howling banshees
- Wave serpent w/scatter lasers, catapults, star engines, spirit stones
Fire dragons
- Wave serpent w/star cannons, catapults, star engines, spirit stones

Heavy Support:
2xWraithlord w/scatter lasers, star cannons

This mission involved each player nominating 2 pieces of terrain and secretly assigning them a points value between 2-8 points (had to equal 10).

I won the roll to setup/go first and setup across the back of the board with the intent of destroying as much as possible before he could mass his forces, I deploy both 5 man Dark Lance squads, one on my 8 point objective and one on the roof of a centrally located building.

He deployed only his Fire Dragons in serpent, Biker council and both Wraithlords.

I was in good position do damage the council before they got of fortune…I was until he stole initiative…..damn

Eldar Turn 1: He starts by fortuning the council and moving them in more cover (behind some cargo containers that are his objective (they are surrounding the wraithlords). His wave serpent moves up and drops the wave serpent in front of my exposed raiders. In shooting he drops a ravager and 3 raiders. One of which containts my lord and wych squad…the explosion kills all the wyches save the succubus…arg!

DE Turn 1: I move a few raiders around and move the downed archon and succubus to assault the firedragons while the downed raider squad moves to hit the waveserpent with their blaster. At this point I can’t really see the seer council as they are behind some cargo containers, but I can see the wraithlords and the council is bases to base with them as there is little room. I manage to put two wounds on one wraithlord, kill two warlocks, and immobilize the wavesperent and destroy its turret, warlocks pass morale. In assault my lord kills 5 fire dragons as the succubus kills the last one. The succubus moves into cover while the archon moves behind the downed raider.

Eldar Turn 2: Reserves see both bike squads come in as well as the banshees. This shooting phase is no where near as bad as only one raider is downed and I am forced to make 1 shadowfield save on my archon.

DE Turn 2: My archon moves forward to challenge the council while my wyche raiders move forward (with an empty raider providing cover). My shooting is pretty ineffective as well. I manage to kill the wounded wraithlord and kill two guardian jetbikers (pass morale). Everything else misses…not good. My archon manages to fleet within range of the seer council. Does a wound to himself with drugs…goody. Causes 4 wounds, 3 are saved after fortuned rerolls. He only wounds me twice, so of course I manage to roll a one……….damn…he’s toast next turn.

Eldar Turn 3: The dires come in from reserve as does the other bike squad….and then the reaping begins…He shoots at a total of 5 vehicles and destroys 4!?!? Both remaining wyche raiders (the dracite’s raider exploding killing everyone but the dracite herself!!!), a ravager, and another raiders squad. The archon kills another warlock and then is stabbed to death, and the jetbikes move back.

DE Turn 3: Ok this is looking bad…REAL bad. I’m pretty sure he’s got this wrapped up at this point. Still I go for broke and focus fire on his bike squads and wave serpents. I am unable to damage the serpents and the few shots at the remaining wraithlord are saved by cover. Crucially I kill enough of each guardian bike squads that they need to make morale checks, and they both fail and flee the table!!! Wow, with those two rolls I am back in it. If I can just get his dire avengers it will force at least a draw. In the assault phase my dracite charges the last wraithlord and puts 2 wounds on it before being smashed into 3rd ed flavored paste…

Eldar Turn 4: He moves forward the banshees to kill on of my forcefully disembarked raider squads guarding my 2 point objective and the biker council moves forward as well. He disembarks his dire avengers to shoot another raider squad that was close to his objective. He’s shooting phase is again effective. He downs the raider that wyches had reembarked on last turn and the dire avengers remove my raider squad from the table. In the assault the banshees predictably dice my other raider squad.

DE Turn 4 at this point I’m down to 1 mobile raider with raider squad, 1 ravager, 2 disembarked dark lance squads, a wyche squad out in BFE and a loan wyche succubus…ug. Luckily for me his dire avengers are left in the open, so after moving everything a few inches (enough to count as moving) I open up. The ravager kills all but one of the dires…and that one is out of LOS of the rest of my army DOH! So I throw my succubus at the biker council and actually manage to drop 1, and then get cut to pieces, I have not been able to make invul saves all game 4+ or 2+…ug.

Eldar Turn 5 He runs his last dire avenger back behind the cargo containers and out of LOS…ug. The seer council moves up to hit the ravager and Yriel drops out of the wave serpent to assault my last mobile raider, while the serpent moves to contest my 8pt objective. His shooting sees the wyches wiped out…. In close combat he immobilizes both vehicles but that is all. Finally a break of sorts…

DE Turn 5 I look to see where he has hidden the last Dire Avenger and its right next to the wraithlord! So my immobilized ravager drops 3 blast markers on the wraithlord and hits twice. This is enough to kill the wraithlord and the last dire avenger! Now if I can kill the wave serpent, defeat could become victory (provided the game ends there as well.) But alas my poor shooting continues and all I do is stun the thing.

That’s the game, hardest fought draw I have ever had. Very happy with the draw is all I can say.

Result Draw 12-12

Final game is a modified killpoints mission with 3 KP being awarded for HQs, 3 for Elites, and 2 for Retinues. Killpoints are not really my strong point as I have 28 killpoints to offer in this mission, ug.

My opponent is playing a dual lash slaaneshy themed mecha zilla list.

HQ:
2x DP’s with wings and lash

Troops:
3x Noise Marine squads with Rhinos, Champ with doom siren and PW, and sonic blasters

Elite:
3x Dreads all with two CCWs

Heavy:
2 Defilers both with extra CCW

Deployment is Dawn of war, wheew that’ll help. I win the role and make him go first. He deploys a single unit of noise marines in their rhino with a lash prince behind. I deploy with the knowledge that I need him to commit to one side or the other. I deploy my two 5 man dark lance squads in cover in either flank. Hopefully this will draw out his lash princes early.

Chaos Turn 1 Everything comes on and moves as fast as possible. He has a lot of bad run rolls for his dread. Crucially everthing is weighted towards the left side of the table. The prince tries to lash the left DL squad but fails nightfight.

DE Turn 1 I come in with most of my raiders on the right, but move in the ravagers and an empty raider up the middle to try and draw him into the center and not to the right yet (don’t want to get boxed in by an army of walkers…shudder). Shooting sees the forward rhino lose its gun and then get immobilized. Shooting sees 2 wounds go onto the forward lash prince.

Chaos Turn 2 He continues to move up the center and up the left flank (to use the bridge). 1 defiler breaks off and starts heading to the right. Again he has some bad run rolls. He lashes the DL squad forward about 3 inches (not in assault range yet. His disembarked noise marines stun the empty raider on my left flank. His other lash prince is just out of range of my right DL squad.

DE Turn 2 The defiler on the right has got to go. I pump most of my fire into it and manage to immobilize it. In doing this I forgot the demon prince with 2 wounds and only muster enough fire to put 1 wound on it. I also manage to wreck the immobilized rhino and hill a noise marine or 3.

Chaos Turn 3 He continues to advance as before with the 1 wound prince ready to pounce on my DL squad. The other movies behind the wrecked rhino in hopes of lashing the other DL squad. His noise marines move up to put some fire into the raiders with the ravagers but fail to cause any harm. Up to this point his defilers haven’t hurt anything with their battlecannons but one manages to wreck my archons raider. Assault sees my DL squad wiped..

DE Turn 3 I continue to move away from his forces and up the right flank. I make it a point to try and take care of the wounded demon prince and get rid of the advancing rhino and the closest defilers battle cannon. I manage all three in the shooting phase (I kill the DP, immobilize the rhino and destroy both ranged weapons on the defiler.) I also manage to immobilize a dreadnaught that was advancing behind the defiler.

Chaos Turn 4 Noisemarines disembark from the immobilized defiler and advance towards my raiders. Remaining demon prince jumps on an empty raider. Shooting sees the remaining defiler scatter and his 3rd noise marine squad immobilize my empty raider, the ones that just disembarked are out of range thanks to nightshields. In assault the DP easily dispatches the grounded raider.

DE Turn 4 I move my two remaining wyche squads forward with the intention of jumping the closest noise marine squad. Shooting sees the last DP drop and a few noise marines as well.

Chaos Turn 5 He advances the noise marines again and only 2-3 are in range but do no harm.

DE Turn 5 I move forward the two wyche squads and disembark and go after the noise marines. Shooting sees the previously immobilized rhino and dreadnaught wrecked. The wyches win their close combat and are locked with a few remaining noise marines

Game Ends here.

At this point I’m not sure how to score it and my opponent has already left. So…

Result 18 or 20-5 win


So not a bad tournie for my old Dark Eldar. I really think 5th edition was a big improvement for them. I’m still waiting for the results to be posted to see how well I did overall but I’m happy with 3-0-1.

*editted to reflect draw instead of lose.

I thought you had a draw?

3-0-1?

How did things come out, and do you have any pics from the tourney?

The results should be up by this weekend and when they post those they should have some pics up as well. None of me or my battles tho :(

Nice report, even with lack of pics. Looks like the luck was flowing both directions between you are your opponents.

Was there a painting or sportsmanship score?

- Blackbone

Arghh for the lack of 5 more minutes!!!!!

next time, K, next tiiiiiiiime.......