Time for my sixth battle report. It has been some time since the last one but it doesn't mean I've given up writing these. My friend wanted to do another test game with his Dark Eldar and so I took my imperial guard to take them on.
CCS: 2 plasma guns, regimental standard, plasma pistol
Marbo
PCS: 3 flamers, chimera
Infantry squad: lascannon, plasma gun
Infantry squad: lascannon, plasma gun
Infantry squad: autocannon, grenade launcher
Veteran squad: 3 meltaguns, chimera
Armoured sentinel: plasma cannon
9 Rough riders
Leman russ: Heavy bolters
Haemonculus: venom blade, shattershard
Haemonculus: venom blade
Kabalite trueborn: 2 dark lances
20 Warriors: 2 splinter cannons, sybarite, phantasm grenade launcher, venom blade
5 Warriors: blaster, venom, splinter cannon, chain snares
9 Wracks: liquifier gun, acothyst, agoniser
Raider: flickerfield, enhanced aethersails, shock prow
5 Hellions
Cronos pain engine: spirit vortex, spirit probe
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead
The imperial guard force went first.
Tactical assessment: I decided to deploy very carefully because I've had rough games against his dark eldar before. I left my opponent with the corner with the least terrain so I knew very well where he would deploy his fragile vehicles. Just as I was about to complete my deployment, a sudden thought came into my mind and I realised that the best tactic for him was to leave everything in reserve because the kitchen table was kind of small. And so I concentrated my force better and tried to protect my vulnerable guardsmen from table edge charges or something like that. I put my
CCS 12" from everyone to maximise the benefit orders and morale re-rolls. Then, just as I predicted, he left everything in reserve with a little twist (dark lance trueborn on the table). We both didn't expect them to last long but at least they weren't spending most of their time off table or not shooting. Now I just had to hope that Marbo and my rough riders would stay in reserve for a couple of turns.
He didn't manage to seize and so the game begins!
Imperial Guard turn 1:
I shuffled around a bit and my flamer command squad chimera prepared for the inevitable assault from the table edge. As usual, my shooting phase began with orders both of which succeeded but even so I failed to cause any damage to the dark lance sporting dark eldar. The battle cannon round scattered off the table. At least my last lascannon obliterated one of them. First blood! Not too good a round of shooting for me this time.
Dark Eldar turn 1:
The trueborns were barely in range to my chimera and penetrated it twice, only to be robbed of their feats by cover saves.
Imperial Guard turn 2:
Marbo arrived on the empty field behind the bigger ruin in my deployment zone and waited for the enemy to come to him. Once again my heavy weapon teams failed to calibrate their sights and a battle cannon shot was completely stopped by intervening cover. At least my meltavet chimera took two lives with its rounds but it didn't matter at all as the dark eldar made their morale check and so the two dark lances remained! Time to see what tricks the dark eldar could pull off.
Dark Eldar turn 2:
Wrack raider, blaster warrior venom, hellions and the twenty strong warrior squad arrived across the table. My opponent got 7" more movement and AV13 to his raider as it rammed my chimera, causing a glancing hit which shook the chimera. The following automatic penetrating hit to the raider bounced off the flickerfield. One could imagine that a flickering image of the raider simply scared the crew of the chimera as no other damage was done. This was indeed a huge risk because the wracks could have died on that spot if their transport had wrecked. Blaster from the venom missed and assorted splinter cannon fire picked only two guardsmen.
The two dark lanced were luckier this time and wrecked the meltavet chimera, causing the veterans to perform an emergency disembark.
Imperial Guard turn 3:
Rough riders came but there was no one nearby, so they were content with just running around. Meanwhile Marbo, armoured sentinel and
CCS prepared to destroy the raider and the flamer command squad drove forward but were forced to disembark in order to shoot the hellions.
I was well prepared to utterly destroy the raider and its occupants.
My first order was a success and two rapid-firing veterans from the
CCS were enough to wreck the raider, spilling the wracks into cover from Marbo and my sentinel. Then Marbo opened fire and though his demolition charge scattered a bit, it still hit 8 wracks, killing two of them. The armoured sentinel wanted to help but its plasma shot scattered on the chimera but fortunately failed to penetrate at all. The guardsmen, however, faired better and felled 4 wracks, mostly thanks to the accurate plasma gunners. Take that, feel no pain! 3 wracks+haemonculus remained. Then my sentinel attempted to charge them but fell short quite a distance.
The leman russ finally did something and wrecked the venom of which it could only see a tiny bit, also catching one kabalite warrior within the blast. Also, the hellions were burned from the sky.
Dark Eldar turn 3:
Cronos still did not come into the battle. The haemonculus split off the wracks and moved towards my guardsmen. He used his arcane item, shattershard, hitting like 7-8 guardsmen, but only killed lascannon team and a random not tough enough guardsman. He then charged a squad but they couldn't wound one another. The wracks obviously went for my company commander, flamed and attacked his squad until only the commander remained, wounded but alive. I also think this was where my chimera got immobilised from a blaster shot.
My other command squad was a bit luckier as they only lost 2 men from plenty of poisonous splinter fire after going to ground.
Imperial Guard turn 4:
I noticed I had little to lose because my opponent only had one kill point from my chimera whereas I had already gathered three. But he was about to get two more which meant I had to go and save those squads in melee. Fortunately my rough riders were nearby and they easily dispatched the remaining wracks. I even sent in my meltaveterans who finally got out of the chimera wreck but the wracks had already been wiped by the time they were ready to strike. At the same time Marbo found a place to squeeze in in the haemonculus fight but it was the courageous guardsmen themselves who drowned the monster in their fists. But I also had some shooting which amounted to a dead blaster squad and a dead dark lance trueborn.
Dark Eldar turn 4:
Cronos still failed to come in. This meant my opponent had no way to deal with the sentinel because his lone dark lance couldn't see it. The large warrior squad had to fall back and shot my platoon command down. The dark lance shot at my company commander but the shot was stopped by his refractor field!
Imperial Guard turn 5:
Each of my vehicles shot at the warriors and killed 7 in total and the wretches made their morale test. Everyone on foot but my autocannon squad ran away from the splinter cannons. The autocannon squad continued to fire at the trueborn but only missed like every turn.
Dark Eldar turn 5:
Cronos came in automatically while my opponent's infantry fell back, preserving their kill points and killing two rough riders. And that's where the game ended...
6 kill points to 1, win for the Imperial Guard!
That's it, I finally gave the dark eldar a good beating. I was really worried about the wracks because they got into close combat but my counter-attack was too much for them eventually. Actually the wracks weren't able to wipe a single unit. I feel that if the warriors were protected by the cronos they could have been able to advance and have a greater impact on the game.
MVP: Armoured plasma cannon sentinel, really. It caused some casualties, including 4 blaster warriors in cover but most of all, it was a vehicle which couldn't be destroyed in close combat by anything short of the cronos and so affected my opponent's tactics. Other than my sentinel, my leman russ performed very well.
1,500 
The wolf shall consume you!!! 
Your end has come. The sight of us will be your last. We are Wrath. We are Vengeance. We are the Rainbow Warrioirs."
33rd Jalvene Outlanders & 112th Task Force 6600 Points (last count)