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Got a game in last night using my new Dark Eldar models, limited proxies and they was "Dark Eldar" in Guardsmen suits, lol! I had a game with Poddy, this is about his 6th game now and he's got his list more tuned and hoping for his first win. We are both interested to see how D.E work as I've never used them at this point level and Poddy was going to do D.E instead of Tau.

Dark Eldar

HQ

Haemonculus - hexrifle & web way portal

Elites

4 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 4 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon

Troops

5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon


Fast Attack

Beastmasters - 3 x beastmasters, 4 x khymerae & 4 x razoring flocks

Heavy Support

Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield

Total: 1,147


Tau

HQ

Shas'El - twin-linked missile pod & targeting array

Elite

2 x XV8s - twin-linked missile pods & targeting array
2 x XV8s - plasma rifle, burst cannon & multi tracker

Troops

6 x Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish
11 x Kroot - 2 x kroot hounds

Heavy

3 x Braodsides - advance stablisation system, team leader, hard wired target lock, 2 x shield drones & bonding knife
Hammerhead - railgun, burst cannons, disruption pods & multi tracker
Hammerhead - railgun, burst cannons, disruption pods & multi tracker

Total: 1,149

Game: Capture & Control + Spearhead

Deployment

Poddy won the roll off and decided to go first, he placed his objective in first floor of a small ruin top right corner of the board, in that ruin he deployed the Kroot. Outside the building he deployed all suits and the Hammerheads while the unit of suits with missile pods went to the centre of the board. Devilfish with Fire Warriors stopped in reserve.

I put my objective in a ruin near bottom of the left corner of the board. I split my forces using terrain, I placed three Venoms including the Trueborn one with the Haemonculus inside on the left flank along with a Ravager getting cover. I placed the other two Venoms and the other Ravager behind the ruin my objective was in.





* Tactical Notes

My first targets will be the Hammerheads and Broadside unit, I am hoping with dark matter weapons I can disable the Hammerheads and then I.D the Broadsides. After that I will go for the misisle pod Suit unit while the Beastmasters will jump out of the portal and proceed to rip up the burst cannon Suit unit and then onto the Kroot unit. With the Fire Warriors in reserve I don't have to worry about them for a bit.

Turn 1

I attempt to seize the initative as going second against AP1 railguns isn't cool, I fail.

Poddys first turn he moves both Hammerheads towards me as the shrine ruin in the middle is blocking LOS, they come down the right flank. He moves the Broadsides about a bit along with the other Suits while the Kroot stay in the ruin for cover.

Shooting he blasts a Ravager by the ruin holding my objective with railguns from the Broadsides and wrecks it, he fires the Hammerheads at the other Ravager, one misses but the other hits, though I pass cover. He fires the missile pods from the Commander at the Ravager again but it passes cover saves. The missile pod Suit unit fires at the Trueborn Venom and manages to stun it.

My first turn I bail the Haemonculus out the Venom and move a grand total of 4" through terrain. I move the other two supporting Venoms out of cover to blast with the splinter cannons while the two Venoms which was supporting the now blown up Ravager turbo boost towards the Hammerheads while the single Ravager comes out to play.

Shooting the Ravager blasts a Hammerhead and manages to shake it. The Venoms on the left flank fire at the missile pod suit unit with 24 poison shots killing a Suit and leaving one with a single wound.









* Tactical Notes

I don't think that was a bad turn for either of us really. I've lost a Ravager and got a stunned Venom while Poddy has got a shaken Hammerhead, so at least that's some fire power down, and lost a missile pod Suit with another on a single wound. I think movement wise I would have been better turbo boosting the Venoms across towards the right flank and using the large shrine ruin to block LOS. Then next turn I could get out and use the blasters or fire them anyway, as it is the blasters are out of range.

My plan next turn is move the Venoms forward to get the blasters into range and knock out the Hammerheads with blasters on the right flank.

Turn 2

Poddy rolls for reserves but the Fire Warriors don't come on.

Movement the shaken Hammerhead moves 12" towards the Tau lines while the other moves 12" to support it to avoid blasters, the burst cannon suits come out from the objective ruin and hide behind the tanks. Kroot move up through terrain and make sure they're on the objective. Broadsides move about a bit trying to get LOS to use the target lock while the missile pod Suit and Commander shift around.

Shooting the team leader Broadside fires at a Venom on the left flank, either missies or I pass cover save I cannot remember. The missile pods blast the other supporting Venom but worst result is weapon destroyed. The other Broadsides fire at the last Ravager and blow it up.

In the assault phase the missile pods Suits hide behind a ruin which doesn't have windows, so I won't be table to get LOS on them and finish off the one wound Suit and then pick on the Shas'El.

My turn I move one of the Venoms on the bottom right flank into terrain to blast a Hammerhead, I'll keep it there and last few turns I'll move it out of terrain to get my own objective. I turbo boost the supporting Venom which lands the other side of the shrine blocking it from LOS from most of the Tau force. The other two Venoms move 6" while the Haemonculus moves up through terrain to use the hexrilfe. I turbo boost the operational Trueborn Venom into the shrine ruin, I roll a 1 for dangerous terrain and the Venom and squad is destroyed!

Shooting I fire a blaster at the none shaken Hammerhead, it's just in range and the damn thing misses! I fire the splinter cannons from the Venoms at the Broadsides not realising they have 2+ armour save, you can guess how that went. As I have no other targets I fire the other two Venoms at the Broadsides and manage to put a wound on one of them. Haemonculus fires hexrifle at the Broadsides and misses, great!





* Tactical Notes

Well that wasn't a very good turn. I lost my most poweful unit, the Trueborn taking them out and the Venom. My reserves didn't arrive which would have been handy as they could have assaulted the missile pod Suits and maybe multi assault the Broadsides depending on dice rolls etc. I really should have also turbo boosted the other two Venoms to where the one is now by the shrine and next turn those blasters would have been in range.

My plan next turn is to move the other Venoms 12" forward or maybe turbo boost them so I can get close. I'll have to weather the storm but I really need those blasters in range to knock out the Broadsides. I am hoping my Beastmasters come on too and they tear up the missile pods leaving just the Hammerheads left as anti tank.

Turn 3

Poddy calls for reserves and nothing comes on.

In his turn he moves the Broadsides and the missile pod Suits while the burst cannon ones start moving across the board toward the left flank.

Shooting he blasts the Venom in terrain with a Hammerhead and it explodes, two die in the explosion and pass pinning test, they then get hit by something else and are destroyed. Railguns from the Broadsides fire at the two Venoms on the left flank and explode them both, both squads take damage and pass morale, though one squad gets shot up by missile pods leaving just the blaster Dark Eldar who fails morale and runs off. The turbo boosted Venom in the centre of the board gets shot by the Shas'El and it's wrecked, squad passes pinning test.

In my turn I roll for reserves and the Beastmasters fail to make a appearance.

Movement I move the squad out their wrecked Venom into the shrine ruin for cover. The solo Dark Eldar falls back with his tail in between his legs. That's about it as everything is dead!

Shooting I fire the blaster from the squad in the shrine ruin at a Hammerhead, it hits but fails to do anything. Haemonculus fires the hexrifle as Broadsides I think but fails to wound. That's it!







* Tactical Notes

As you can see this is going down like a gak storm in a teacup. I've lost all my Venoms now and I've got one intact Warrior squad, which I suspect won't be intact for much longer. I see the only way out of this is hoping the Beastmasters come on and multi assault Poddys stuff while my Warriors fall back to my objective and I hope they're still alive, at least this way I can score a draw.

Turn 4

Poddy calls for reserves and the Fire Warriors come on moving 12" down the right side table edge. Poddy moves his Hammerheads back so the burst cannon suits can get LOS on the Dark Eldar in the shrine ruin. The missile pod suits move to get LOS on the Haemonculus.

Shooting the Haemonculus takes a round of missile pods and survives cover but isn't so lucky from the second barrage and is instagibbed. The Dark Eldar get hammered by burst cannons and plasma rifles, some how I pass all but one cover save. Hammerheads blast with the large blast template, luckily they scatter.

In assault more Suit movement to hide away, not that it matters lol.

In my turn the Beastmasters finally arrive and make the grand total of a 2" run from the portal - looks like the 12" assault range to the missile pods Suits will be very close. I move and run the Dark Eldar a total of 10" back towards my objective, they're abuot 6" away from the ruin. The solo Dark Eldar continues to fall back and is about 6" away from the board edge.

In my assault phase I charge a Hammerhead with the beasts, they score weapon destroyed taking out the railgun, not that is matters and stuns it - I checked range on the Suits after just to know like and was a few inches out that turn so good job I did charge the Hammerhead!





* Tactical Notes

I see more bad luck in dice rolls has continued, Beastmasters not assaulting what I want them too! I'm glad to see I did have good luck saving the Warriors but they're in the open and could be gunned down next turn by Hammerhead large blasts, good job I've only got one to worry about

Next turn I'll move the Dark Eldar through terrain and claim my own objective and get a draw at the least. If the Beastmasters are still alive I will weave through the Tau and assault the Kroot leaving Poddys objective contested by me, giving me the win, I hope lol.

Turn 5

Short and sweet this turn as the single Hammerhead fires at the Warriors by my objective, luckily it scatters and misses while burst cannons on the Devilfish is out of range. Everything else fires at the Beastmasters who have only about 50% models left and all beastmasters dead, the beasts fail morale and fall back, nice...not.

In my turn I move the Warriors 5" away from the ruin as I need to be lucky to get a 6+ to move that extra inch inside through terrain and based on my luck it's not worth it. I then run them and get a 2 so I haven't got my objective :( .



* Tactical Notes

Can I say feth and bugger? I think I can as it's not Big Brother and not live (Bo Selecta anyone?). If there isn't a next turn I lose. If my Warriors die next turn I lose. I'm hoping for a lot then! lol.

Turn 6

We roll for it and game continues!

Another short turn which Poddy blasts the Warriors with everything in range, only one survives after cover saves and luckily passes morale!

My turn I move through terrain and claim my objective.

We roll for it and the game ends here, mercifully!





Summary

I think to say I got a draw is a understatment! I got that draw by the skin of my teeth. If turn 6 hadn't of happened or those Dark Eldar all died then Poddy would have won, and his first victory at that!

I made some bad mistakes this game. The two games I've had with Dark Eldar I've gone first and turbo boosted my Venoms to get into range. Whether going first or not I should have done this in this game and used the shrine ruin for cover, I didn't and I paid for it. I had some rotten luck as well, first turn was ok, but after that stuff started falling apart as I failed cover and flickerfield saves - I made one flickerfield save all game! Didn't help my Beastmasters coming on late, if they would have come on I think the game would have been more in my favour as they could have assaulted and possibly killed the missile pods units leaving the Kroot, Broadsides, burst cannon unit and Hammerheads to kill them or else get assaulted next turn. This would have worked nicely as my other units would have advanced without too many issues. As I say 40k is a game of dice and tonight my dice wasn't with me, nor was my brain!!

Poddy did really well this game. He had researched the Dark Eldar and got his target priorities right taking out those Ravagers early on and stunning the Trueborn Venom meaning the Haemonculus had to deploy the portal further away, which lead to Beastmasters not assaulting as far as they could if the portal was closer. Poddy didn't mention to me he wish he had focused on the Dark Eldar on my objective instead of the Beastmasters, the Beastmasters took a lot of punishment and too be fair if they had survived I would have assaulted his Kroot and probably killed them meaning he wouldn't have his objective either scoring a draw. I think he took the lesser of two evils as killing those Dark Eldar on my objective were in his favour.

Great battle report, seems like the dark eldar struggle with tau.

was thinking one thing why not two units of 3 trueborn with blasters and 3 units of warriors with one blaster, would have givin you more flexability.
However idd 3 units of 5 warriors is flimsy on the core side.

one thing i was wondering, could not make it up by the pictures, but your ravagers got a shot at those broadsuites? they would be my prio 1 as 2+ is a bitch against poisoned shots...

Portal in such a small game, wouldn't they just better un in? it is what we(both DE players in the group) doing right now when playing beasts, if they take to long to come, the game gets rather difficult, if they are on table opponent can shoot at it, but it takes the pressure of your vehicles and you get more shooting, i must confirm that i prefer them on table directly.

My first game against Tau so I hoenstly couldn't say, though what I will say is those railguns are a pain auto penning my Venoms and getting +2 on the damage chart.

When playing smaller games I just take elements of my larger army and condense it down without changing unit structure really, I guess I could do that with Trueborn easy enough though.

Yes both Ravagers did. He took out a Ravager first turn with the Hammerhead and then another the next turn. I didn't target them because I thought they had 3+ armour save and poison should bring them down, how wrong was I lol. Thinking back you're right I should have put the hurt on the Broadsides first and then deal with the missile pod units and then the Hammerheads.

In the last two games I've played with Beastmasters they have come in second turn. If I deployed them they would be shot to pieces before reaching assault. Good thing about this is nothing else is getting shot, but bad thing is they are my only c.c element and I need them. Plus having the portal lets them get into assault really quick, providing they come on reserve at the right time.

mercer wrote:My first game against Tau so I hoenstly couldn't say, though what I will say is those railguns are a pain auto penning my Venoms and getting +2 on the damage chart.

I've been on both sides of this. As tau, I and completely hosed a DE player. He couldn't get the boats close enough due to RGs and Missile Pods. I've been DE where the Initiative got stolen and then it was the same story. Raiders & ravagers going down in droves, and then wyches & trueborn on foot. I'd managed to get two (chopped up) units of wyches into h2h, and they ate everything they touched ... but the h2h sequence was such that they'd get exposed to enemy fire when the h2h ended. FNP couldn't withstand all the STR7 shots.

Your game in particular:
5 RGs shooting at DE for a 1150 level game is really rough; Target Lock allowing for 4 targets (2 Railheads and the b-side split) per turn. Just think if the second pair of Crisis Suits were MP/BC instead of PR/BC.

You're also lucky in that he didn't Outflank the kroot ... especially on what looks like a 4x4' table.

Musta been exciting for that last-second roll to have your surviving Kabalite Warrior make morale and hold the tying objective. Good batrep.

Taus a rough matchup for DE; even if you can get close, if they're packing a lot of pathfinders and railguns s*** is going to go down. Theres only so many 5++ and 4++ a person can make; and for DE its usually one or two at best haha

Wow your friends was really close to winning, but lucky you had one lone kabilite warrior hold the objective.

lol your semi-dashofpepper DE netlist failed.

SonsofVulkan wrote:lol your semi-dashofpepper DE netlist failed.

A great contribution to the thread.

I think DE will struggle against tau that are suit heavy. Their basic guns have the strength to pen their basic vehicles and with the mobility of suits combined with their nasty selection of guns it can be a real struggle to get to grips with them.

Jump-Shoot-Jump FTW!

On tables where crisis suits can take advantage of TLOS blocking cover, their codex works as designed in 4th - jump out, shoot something, hide. When 5th ed came around and incorporated TLOS it suddenly became much more difficult to hide crisis suits and i think for that reason Tau suffered in the opinion of the wargaming community. Now that 5th is almost entirely through, wargame tables have considerably more blocking terrain than they used to. I think this trend is overall helping people remember that tau weaponry (at range) is truly top notch.


But of course we all also know that in CC we fight with pillows. deepstriking and outflanking cc units closing in quick are bad news for the army...which i think is how it should be. It balances out their strengths at the ranged combat game.


Great report. Please post more as you rematch, I'm newly inducted into the Greater Good and i love reading reports involving armies I play.

Good job on the non-lost. Lol. Even my grey knight rhinos are afraid of the mighty Tau guns. Tau, despite their age, are still a very viable army. They can still stand up to the grey knights, dark eldar and other newer codices. Props to them.

jy2 wrote:Good job on the non-lost. Lol. Even my grey knight rhinos are afraid of the mighty Tau guns. Tau, despite their age, are still a very viable army. They can still stand up to the grey knights, dark eldar and other newer codices. Props to them.

Cept Stormravens... if the ravens go first the Tau go bub-bye!

Brothererekose wrote:

mercer wrote:My first game against Tau so I hoenstly couldn't say, though what I will say is those railguns are a pain auto penning my Venoms and getting +2 on the damage chart.

I've been on both sides of this. As tau, I and completely hosed a DE player. He couldn't get the boats close enough due to RGs and Missile Pods. I've been DE where the Initiative got stolen and then it was the same story. Raiders & ravagers going down in droves, and then wyches & trueborn on foot. I'd managed to get two (chopped up) units of wyches into h2h, and they ate everything they touched ... but the h2h sequence was such that they'd get exposed to enemy fire when the h2h ended. FNP couldn't withstand all the STR7 shots.

Your game in particular:
5 RGs shooting at DE for a 1150 level game is really rough; Target Lock allowing for 4 targets (2 Railheads and the b-side split) per turn. Just think if the second pair of Crisis Suits were MP/BC instead of PR/BC.

You're also lucky in that he didn't Outflank the kroot ... especially on what looks like a 4x4' table.

Musta been exciting for that last-second roll to have your surviving Kabalite Warrior make morale and hold the tying objective. Good batrep.

Your right he had a lot of railguns which could fire at multiple targets. If I could have turbo boosted towards him things might have stood a better chance.

Yes the table was 4x4 for this game.

The last few turns were nail biting put it this way

Zid wrote:Taus a rough matchup for DE; even if you can get close, if they're packing a lot of pathfinders and railguns s*** is going to go down. Theres only so many 5++ and 4++ a person can make; and for DE its usually one or two at best haha

Luckily no Pathfinders in this game. And yes 4+ cover and 5+ invulnerable will only do so much.

Billythekid256 wrote:Wow your friends was really close to winning, but lucky you had one lone kabilite warrior hold the objective.

He was damn close. But my balls of steal Kabalite Warrior hung in there

SonsofVulkan wrote:lol your semi-dashofpepper DE netlist failed.

So is Dash of Pepper the only one who thought up of Venom spam, yes? Do you actually no what a netlist truely is? I'd say nothing really fails as much as your useless troll comments.

Lukus83 wrote:

SonsofVulkan wrote:lol your semi-dashofpepper DE netlist failed.

A great contribution to the thread.

I think DE will struggle against tau that are suit heavy. Their basic guns have the strength to pen their basic vehicles and with the mobility of suits combined with their nasty selection of guns it can be a real struggle to get to grips with them.

In the games I've had with Poddy this is the most damage the Tau have done, I think this is because D.E are naturally weak while everything else inc av11 can strug off the lower strength Tau fire power i.e missile pods.

tetrisphreak wrote:Jump-Shoot-Jump FTW!

On tables where crisis suits can take advantage of TLOS blocking cover, their codex works as designed in 4th - jump out, shoot something, hide. When 5th ed came around and incorporated TLOS it suddenly became much more difficult to hide crisis suits and i think for that reason Tau suffered in the opinion of the wargaming community. Now that 5th is almost entirely through, wargame tables have considerably more blocking terrain than they used to. I think this trend is overall helping people remember that tau weaponry (at range) is truly top notch.


But of course we all also know that in CC we fight with pillows. deepstriking and outflanking cc units closing in quick are bad news for the army...which i think is how it should be. It balances out their strengths at the ranged combat game.


Great report. Please post more as you rematch, I'm newly inducted into the Greater Good and i love reading reports involving armies I play.

You're right about the true line of sight and that really helped on several times by stopping me shoot the Tau.

As for combat you're totally right, it's a good balances.

Will be posting more, don't worry.

jy2 wrote:Good job on the non-lost. Lol. Even my grey knight rhinos are afraid of the mighty Tau guns. Tau, despite their age, are still a very viable army. They can still stand up to the grey knights, dark eldar and other newer codices. Props to them.

lol non-lost. I did manage to get that by the skin of my teeth.

good battle report, the reinforcements coming late really hurt you. The beasts seem to be a vital part of your force. you might want to find a more reliable way of getting them where they need to be.

Another weakness to the portal, which isn't really a problem verse tau, is really fast units surrounding the portal and not letting reinforcements on. I had a unit of trukk boys kill over 1500 points of models this way.

Warhammer is a game of dice, but lets avoid that reality as much as possible

The beasts coming on late definately need me no favours, particularly when Tau were closer and I could have assaulted them better. Even when the Beastmasters did come on they didn't do a fat lot. Web way portal is the best way as gets them half way across the board when they deploy, if starting on the board they will get shot to pieces and die if they stay in reserve they come on the board edge and won't get into assault.

Good idea about the portal.

Warhammer is indeed a game of dice, but unfortunately it's a reality which cannot be avoided.

@vercingatorix

I don't understand how you can kill that many points by blocking the webway. After you roll for serserves you can choose to bring them on there or just from a table edge.
But I do have friends who run portal lists. The speed is the biggest issue when playing against them. Nice rep.

A very good point. Portal can be used for units coming in via reserve on the table edge, deep striking or outflank. If the portal is blocked just do the above.

Very good battle report it was a joy to read. You really did get that draw by the skin of your teeth. Great game.

Thanks dude. Yeah I just scraped it, I am surprised there was no sweat on the board