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Points: 1500
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Roll Off: He won and took first turn.

My List:
HQ: 325
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun, Venom Blade, Crucible of Malediction (85)
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun, Venom Blade, Crucible of Malediction (85)
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun, Venom Blade, Dark Gate (90)
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun, Venom Blade (65)

TROOPS : 800
Wracks x9, Acothyst, Agonizer, Liquifier Gun, Raider, Flickerfields (200)
Wracks x9, Acothyst, Agonizer, Liquifier Gun, Raider, Flickerfields (200)
Wracks x9, Acothyst, Agonizer, Liquifier Gun, Raider, Flickerfields (200)
Wracks x9, Acothyst, Agonizer, Liquifier Gun, Raider, Flickerfields (200)

HEAVY: 375
Ravager, Flickerfields, Night Shields (125)
Ravager, Flickerfields, Night Shields (125)
Ravager, Flickerfields, Night Shields (125)

TOTAL: 1500

Notes: Yes, I know, I've included 2 Crucibles. We caught that before we started and then went about our business

His List:
HQ:
Farseer, Stones, Doom, Turbo Spear

TROOPS:
Dire Avengers x5, Serpent w/Twin Lances and Shuri-Cannon, Stones
Pathfinders x6

ELITES:
Banshees x8, Exarch, Warshout, Serpent w/Twin Lances and Shuri-Cannon, Stones
Dragons x8, Exarch, Flamer, Some Power, Serpent w/Twin Lances and Shuri-Cannon, Stones

HEAVY:
Prism, Holo, Shuri-Cannon
Prism, Holo, Shuri-Cannon
Prism, Holo, Shuri-Cannon

The Board:
There were scattered ruins and a few buildings on his side that BLOS. Not much to say that mattered really.

Deployment:
He throws all units on the board spread evenly across. Knowing that if I failed to steal initiative that most of my craft would most likely get shot down in the first turn I hold all in reserve.

First Turn:
(HIM) He moves all units all out to get 4+ saves.

(ME) Nothing

Second Turn:
(HIM) Does the same again.

(ME) Roll for reserves sees that 1 Ravager and 3 Raiders come in. *Let the Fail begin* Since most of his stuff is basically in my deployment zone already, I shimmy in and let the shooting phase begin. So, Ravager rolls a 4 and two 1's to hit and then another 1 to pen. . .k. All three Raiders quickly follow suit, either missing entirely or rolling so low that no damage can be done.

Third Turn:
(HIM) Deploys Dragons, moves dedicated serpent back a spell. Shooting phase sees 2 Raiders exploded and riding units reduced to 6 each. Thankfully I bought an Acothyst per unit, who has LD9, it saved my @ss so many times this game. Both of those units had to go to ground to surivive volumes of fire from the prisms. Being in craters certainly help though

(ME) The rest of my reserves come in this turn. . .huzza. The Ravagers cram in behind whatever cover they can and the Raiders move out into the middle of the mess. I deploy one unit near the Dragons and another by the Banshee Serpent. In the shooting phase I finally wreck 1 Serpent and between all the rest only managed to shake/stun the other two. I rolled 1's and 2's for every other damage roll this turn. It was sad. In the assault phase I chage the Banshee serpent and the Dragons. Dragons are slaughtered completely without taking a single wound. I manage to Glance the other Serpent 6 times and rolled a 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2 for damage *sigh*

Turn 4:
(HIM) He deploys banshees and Farseer. The stunned and shaken Serpents attempt to ram my vehicles. In turn I either avoid or save with Flickers. The prisms do blast a few Wracks and shake a Raider. In assault his Banshees defeat a unit in CC and they begin to run off of the board.

(ME) My Wracks climb out of their hidy holes and surround the Banshees. 2 Ravagers move out and take aim at Prisms. Another unit of Wracks moves up to assault a Serpent. In the shooting phase roll a 5 and a 6 for AP on my Liquifiers, twice in a row, f@#king figures. But, I still manage to kill 6 Banshees, including the Exarch. Ravagers on Prisms, I hit two of them twice, and roll 1's and 2's for all damage The last Ravager rolls to hit a Serpent and misses completely with a roll consisting, again, of 1's and 2's The raiders join and do, you guessed it, nothing. They missed entirely or rolled a 1 or 2 for damage. In assault I kill the Banshees off. A unit of wracks assaulted a serpent and immobilzed it. . .

Turn 5:
(HIM) Most of his stuff can't shoot because of damage results. He attempts to ram again and I dodge or save. The last Prism almost blows away an entire unit of Wracks but they hold becuase of LD9 Nothing else happens.

(ME) Ravager 1. . .fail with 1 hit and no pen . Ravager 2. . .fail with 2 hit, 1 glance, and a 1 on the charts Ravager 3. . .3 hit, 1 pen, and a wrecked result. . .*sigh* No assualting. I roll to end the game and, guess what. . .*sigh*. . .I roll another 1. . .

Outcome: Draw
Craftworld Eldar: 4 KP
Dark Eldar: 4KP

My rolling was so absolutely, abysmally, horrendously, awefully, terribly, disgustingly, miserably, vile that this game was boned. There was a little more shooting then listed in the Bat Rep. I seemed to make almost every Flickerfield save I made, about 7 in total . It saved the game for me, no doubt about it. As mentioned earlier I had to take out the second Crucible and have since replaced them with Shock Prows because of my anger in this game. I figure "well, If I cant shoot them down, maybe I'll RAM!!!!!!!!!! them down " Despite my rolls the guy I was playing against and I were still having a good time. I tried to be a good sport about it I'm sure we'll have a rematch soon and hopefully my rolling will be better.

Lol, you cannot complain about rolls when you make 7 flickerfield saves out of 7, when statistically you should have only made 2.

I guess the Flicker saves made up for the rest of my bad karma

How do you "avoid" being rammed by another skimmer?

I thought skimmers dodge incoming rams on a 3+

What he said

no dodge from ram if the ramming vehicle is also a skimmer.

pg 71 bbb.

Crucible of malediction is one only in the army.

so it Is, good call flickerfields or bust. nice batrep

Bad craftworld list imo.

Nice game.

Rolls as they were, it is a shining example of why the new DE book is sub par

4 paper transports with troops
3 paper gunships

vs

3 tough as nails transports with troops
3 tough as nails gunships

What did you think was going to happen?

@Negator80: what a wonderfully generalistic comment! I'm impressed you can sum an entire codex by comparing a single aspect of two 1500 point lists!

@Grim Smasha: Do you feel your Haemonculi were worth the points? By that I mean were furious charge and his venom blade worth the 40+ points per unit? I'm kind of on the fence myself; the I5 and S4 are HUGE fighting other WS4 T4 I4 enemies (going first and wounding on rerolled 4s is nasty), but cover ruins your I5 and most of your damage is likely to come from your liquifiers anyway. You open yourself up to quite a large number of kill points as well, which DE already struggle with when fielding so many light transports.

Not Grim Smasha, but don't forget that each also had a liquifier which helps with that random AP value.

right, of course. The unit would still have 2 liquefier guns without the Haemonculus though, as adding a 10th wrack allows you to buy the 2nd one, so the haemonculus' liquefier is more of a requirement than a plus in his column.

Honestly, I'm not sure. Having that extra pain token is nice and all, but does it factor right????. . .Not to mention it adds a ton of KP's to the army. I suppose, the real question is, what can I take instead?

Drop 3/4 haemonculi, take a 5th wrack unit? 4 Trueborn w/ blasters in a venom? The world is your oyster

It's a themed Coven list. None other shall pass! I was thinking about taking Urien Rakarth. He would answer a few problems. He reduces KP, is super tough, and can still give a potential 3 pain tokens out as candy to the rest of the army. Not to mention, he looks really cool. But, I'm still looking to fill out the rest of the list. Possibly, another Wrack unit in a Venom. . .

It obviously won't fit in 1500, but what about grotesques? They add serious hitting power, though usually need a webway portal to get up-table without huge casualties.

I plan on adding them at 2k and 2.5k. . .because I'll need too to stay fluffy But, at 1.5k its really tough to fit them in.

Nice report.

(ME) Roll for reserves sees that 1 Ravager and 3 Raiders come in. *Let the Fail begin* Since most of his stuff is basically in my deployment zone already, I shimmy in and let the shooting phase begin. So, Ravager rolls a 4 and two 1's to hit and then another 1 to pen. . .k. All three Raiders quickly follow suit, either missing entirely or rolling so low that no damage can be done.

What did you expect? Serpents are hard to take down.

(ME) The rest of my reserves come in this turn. . .huzza. The Ravagers cram in behind whatever cover they can and the Raiders move out into the middle of the mess. I deploy one unit near the Dragons and another by the Banshee Serpent. In the shooting phase I finally wreck 1 Serpent and between all the rest only managed to shake/stun the other two. I rolled 1's and 2's for every other damage roll this turn. It was sad. In the assault phase I chage the Banshee serpent and the Dragons. Dragons are slaughtered completely without taking a single wound. I manage to Glance the other Serpent 6 times and rolled a 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2 for damage *sigh*

Maybe get a few new dice. Cheap dice are often loaded, but you know. I switched to more expensive dice, 3 Euro for one die, and I can't complain.

(ME) Ravager 1. . .fail with 1 hit and no pen . Ravager 2. . .fail with 2 hit, 1 glance, and a 1 on the charts Ravager 3. . .3 hit, 1 pen, and a wrecked result. . .*sigh* No assualting. I roll to end the game and, guess what. . .*sigh*. . .I roll another 1. . .

Lol.

Outcome: Draw
Craftworld Eldar: 4 KP
Dark Eldar: 4KP

Surprised to see that it was a draw after I've seen your list and that you play vs. mech Eldar.
But mech Eldar is not what it was in the 4th ed. Sad enough.

I am disapointed with the eldar player it seams like you had a good list though but with three fire prisms he shold have demolished all of your Ravagers. At the most he only needed two and then a Dark Reapers squad. He makes me sad. Plus if he had used more dire avengers and if he had used the wave serpant tactic with them those wracks wouldn't stand a chance.

I kept my Ravagers hiding behind terrain that BLOS and they made a ridiculous quantity of Flicker saves

Awesome rep dude!!!

So...your rolls didn't seem all that off average. You got your entire army in two reserve phases. You made a lot of saves. Admittedly you seem to have ill luck for your to hit and armor pen, but it happens, especially w/ s8 vs AV 12.

On the army, what about scourges? I think your problem is you really don't have that much AT for DE. At 1500 you have 13 lances, which seems low to me (admittedly playing kabal-oriented lists). You could also swap the 3 ravagers for talos w/ haywires. In theme, and has a higher likelihood of doing something, if a far lower likelihood of blowing something up (unless they get into CC).

Talos is slow crap and won't fit in with the rest of the list, which happens to be speedy. I despise things like the Talos. MC's without an Invulnerable save blow imo. Sure, they're big and scary but, generally, any unit with the mind and a few plasmaguns, meltaguns, missile launchers, and so on can take one down in a shooting phase without breaking a sweat.

As said before, you can't dodge a ram if the ramming vehicle is also a skimmer.

Other than that, nice batrep! I enjoyed reading it.

Nice read, thanks

13 Lances
Low AT

I don't know what I'm reading there. I'd be laughing if I could take 13 Bright Lances with Eldar... although maybe not since most of the guys shooting them would be BS3.

It was an interesting game. I'm just wondering how a foot slogging DE force would do against Mechdar? The DE tanks are paper thin so trying to go toe to toe with Falcons and Wave Serpents isn't a good idea, but lots of Warriors with Lances or Blasters would hurt. Cover saves and FnP would add up... although you can't really get FnP from insta kill strength weapons can you? Which means Str6 for DE, something Craftworld Eldar have in droves.

I need to have a look at that DE codex again.

zonino wrote:13 Lances
Low AT

I don't know what I'm reading there. I'd be laughing if I could take 13 Bright Lances with Eldar... although maybe not since most of the guys shooting them would be BS3.

It was an interesting game. I'm just wondering how a foot slogging DE force would do against Mechdar? The DE tanks are paper thin so trying to go toe to toe with Falcons and Wave Serpents isn't a good idea, but lots of Warriors with Lances or Blasters would hurt. Cover saves and FnP would add up... although you can't really get FnP from insta kill strength weapons can you? Which means Str6 for DE, something Craftworld Eldar have in droves.

I need to have a look at that DE codex again.

At first this is what I thought. Army wide (basically) FNP for DE, right after army wide (Basically) FNP for Blood Angels? But then I thought at T 3, there would be a lot more options for denying that roll. And then they went and made it easy to get Wracks as a troop choice which are T 4 and makes the DEldar quite a bit tougher glass hammer along with their invulnerable saves on vehicles

13 Lances
Low AT

I don't know what I'm reading there. I'd be laughing if I could take 13 Bright Lances with Eldar... although maybe not since most of the guys shooting them would be BS3.

You can't just look at the gun and assume that things are equivalent. I'd love to be able to bring holo-fields and spirit stones on my raiders/ravagers. I'd also love to have fire dragons riding around in my raiders/ravagers.

13 lances is low. More completely, it's low partly because 9 of them fire at 3 targets, and each time the opponent stops an AV11 vehicle from shooting, you lose 3 lances. It's conceivable that after one turn of fire, he goes from 13 to 4. All it would take is dropping 3 AV11 ravagers. Mind you the other 4 are on 4 AV10 transports that actually have a payload worth stopping.

As for the talos, if you're being thematic...<shrug> If you're not, then don't be. Why limit yourself in some ways, when you're not really going whole hog? I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'd look at your list and say you were making decisions for playability over theme. Which I have no issues with, as it's what I do as well, but I think you're hamstringing yourself by going partially in theme, partially not.

Fire Dragons tend to come in Cheap (for eldar at least) unupgraded transports, and while they can kill tough tanks (take THAT stupid land raiders), you're lucky to have them kill more than one tank before they and the transport they came in get shredded.

If you factor in other lances, missle launchers and Prisms/Falcons, you would probably have as many AT shots as that DE list. Of course you get the main advantage of being able to fire each one at something different.

That's why I suggested a different approach. Trying to play Mechdar at their own game with inferior tanks is not going to work, but DE have more than just their tanks that can take Lance Weapons, and things like the Talos, as you yourself mentioned, can strike the vulnerable AR10 of Eldar tanks.