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Played Shaun and his Guard last night. Was going to use Tyranids using a modified list, but changed my mind and went for a Dark Eldar modified list.

Dark Eldar


HQ

Haemonculus - venom blade & liquifier gun

Elite

3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 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
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon

Fast Attack

5 x Scourges - 2 x heat lances
5 x Scourges - 2 x heat lances
Beastmasters - 3 x beastmasters, 4 x khymerae & 4 x razorwing flocks

Heavy Support

Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield

Total: 2,010


Imperial Guard "Shaun's Boys" - 2,000 points

HQ

Company Command Squad w/ Chimera - 4 x meltaguns
Company Command Squad w/ Chimera - 4 x meltaguns


Elite

10 x Psyker Battle Squad w/ Chimera

Troops

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns


Fast Attack

Vendetta
Vendetta

Heavy Support

Manticore Rocket Launcher
Manticore Rocket Launcher
2 x Hydra Flak Tank

Total: 2,005


Game: Spearhead + Annhilation

Deployment

Shaun won the roll off and deployed first. He put a line of Chimeras at the front along with the Hydras while Manticores, Vendettas and any other remaining Chimeras stayed behind.

I deployed putting my Trueborn units at the front so they can get into range quicker then all the other units behind. I placed the Scourges between the Venoms so they would get cover and the Beastmasters hid in a ruin out of LOS.

I've also noticed I'm 10 points over, that will teach me to change lists on the fly. No I wasn't list talioring, I was going to take dark lances on the Scourges and three units of them but decided to change to heat lances and a single Beastmaster unit, so I thought I had the points spare - doh!







* Tactical Notes

Ok I'm going second against Imperial Guard and that's not cool, so I'll try and seize the initiative. I've spaced out my units well so templates shouldn't do a huge amount of damage and a good portion of my force is behind a ruin while a large shrine ruin blocks LOS nicely for the Guard. So if Shaun wants to shoot at me he's going to have to come out.

My targets this game will be anything really. Everything in the army can threat my weak Dark Eldar and open up the Venoms, so whatever I get into range first will have it. Usually I go for Vendettas, Manticores and Hydra but the shrine should keep me covered from the Hydras for a bit and the Vendettas are deployed back this time along with the Manticores.

Turn 1

I roll to steal the initiative and the sneaky Dark Eldar do it!

So, my first turn now. I move all Venoms flat out towards the shrine ruin using it for cover while the Ravagers move 12" behind and the Beastmasters move through cover, the Beastmasters don't get far so half stay in cover to get a cover save.

Shooting I attempt to fire one Ravager at a Vendetta, but it's out of range. I fire two Ravagers at Chimeras, one totally misses and the other hits but fails to do any damage. Great turn, I'm starting to wish I took those dark lances on the Scourges!

Shaun's first turn and he moves his front Chimeras forward 6" along with the Hydras to get better LOS. That's about it. He does move the PBS Chimera through terrain and immobilises it if I remember right.

Shooting Manticores fire and both get a single shot each, I don't think they actually do anything this turn or if they did flickerfields saved. Hydras open up with 8 shots at a Ravager and wreck it while multi laser fire from a Chimera manages to immobilise a Trueborn Venom, which is wrecked thanks to going flat out. Multi laser from another Chimera wrecks another Venom, squad passes pinning and hides in terrain the Venom is right against.

Kill points: Dark Eldar - 0 Imperial Guard - 3







* Tactical Notes

Ok that was a piss poor first turn. Ravagers did absolutely jack gak with one been out of range and the other two doing diddly squat. I guess on a good note all my stuff is now in blaster range and I still have the shrine ruin to give me very good cover.

Plan next turn is to supress the Vendettas or take them out while everything blasts Chimeras to open them up and the Hydras.

Turn 2

Warrior squad in terrain move out to get side armour of a Chimera hidden in a building, Beastmasters move up to support them. I perhaps foolishly split my force as I cannot get all units around one way by the shrine as they will be clustered together too much. I move the Trueborn on foot to get some side armour Hydra shots.

Unit of Scourges move up with heat lances and score weapon destroyed on a Chimera taking the multi laser, Trueborn on foot change targets and inside fire into the side armour of the same Chimera and it explodes, Veteran squad is reduced to 4 after the sharpnel has landed which proceed to be wiped off the table by Venom splinter cannon fire. Unit of Trueborn inside a Venom supporting the ones on foot blast the side armour of a Hydra and manage to wreck one. Other side of the shrine, blasters fire at two Chimeras with melta CCS and plasma Veterans inside, both explodes and both squads then get blasted by splinter cannon and rifle fire but three still remain from the plasma unit after awesome saves and refuse to fail morale when Shaun rolls a double 1 for morale test! One Ravager opens up at a Vendetta and stuns it while the other Ravager blasts side armour of the PBS Chimera, Shaun fails cover saves and the tank explodes killing a few Psykers in the explosion, though they pass morale and pinning.

In assault Beastmasters charge the plasma Veterans inside the ruin and slaughter them in combat.

Shaun's turn he holds the Vendettas in position along with the Manticores while CCS tank comes forward.

Shooting the Trueborn on foot get wasted by the single Hydras heavy flamer. Manticores fire, one gets two shots the other gets three. After the dust has settled both Scourges have taken morale tests with each unit having two models left, both fail morale and run off the board, and a Venom is wrecked with a Ravager stunned. Multi laser fire blasts and opens up another Venom. Plasma unit holding back fires at the Beastmasters to thin them out but cover saves keeps most of them alive. The daring plasma unit on foot blasts a Venom but I think flickerfield makes the saves.

Kill points: Dark Eldar - 7 Imperial Guard - 8





* Tactical Notes

Woah! What a turn! Dark Eldar have just got a amazing 7 kill points in that single turn dealing a nasty blow to the Guard. Managed to tackle three Veterans units, though one still narrowly hangs in there, along with a CCS and also the PBS tank which the side armour was just tempting me.

Plan next turn is to move the Beastmasters up through terrain to attack a Manticore close by while Ravagers blast the Vendettas, splinter cannon will gun down the PBS and surviving Veterans while blasters will open more tanks and the finish off the last Hydra.

Turn 3

Beastmasters move out of terrain towards the Manticore while supporting blasters from Warrior squads on foot and Trueborn inside a Venom move to engage a plasma Veteran Chimera. Other side of the shrine the Venoms move up to get into blaster range on the remaining CCS and side armour of the other Hydra.

Shooting splinter cannon shots waste the remaining plasma unit scoring a kill point. Remaining splinter cannons fire at the PBS, though they get cover they still get wasted. Ravagers fire at the Vendettas but only result is immobilised on the already stunned one, which I guess will help as it's close to the Beastmasters. Blasters fire into the side armour of the Hydra but best result is stunned while nearby plasma Veteran Chimera gets blasted with blasters and nothing happens.

In assault Beastmasters charge the Manticore scoring weapon destroyed and stunned.

Guards turn sees movement of the plasma Veteran tank to move into rapid fire range, vehicles at the back move where possible I think that's it.

Shooting the only firing Manticore gets another three shots and takes out a Warrior squad on foot whose transport got blown up last time and stuns a Venom. Plasma fire blasts the Haemonculus Trueborn Venom and it's wrecked. Plasma Veterans blast a unit of Warriors closest to them on foot, the Warriors take 3 wounds after plasma and lasguns fire and they morale and fall back.

In assault Beastmasters smack the Manticore but only immobilise it this time.

Kill points: Dark Eldar - 9 Imperial Guard - 11





* Tactical Notes

Ok not a awesome turn as I didn't rack up as many kill points as I wanted. I was hoping to finish off that lone Hydra and also pop the plasma Veteran Chimera right in front of me and gun the survivors down with splinter cannon fire - none of this happened. I was also hoping the Beastmasters after two rounds of combat would have taken care of that Manticore as well.

Next turn I'll move the Trueborn with the Haemonculus up, Haemonculus will split from the unit will all blasters torrent the CCS Chimera so the Haemonculus can use liquifier and charge into them. Remaining blaster shots will open up the Hydra and plasma Chimera while hopefully the Beastmasters can take care of the Manticore this turn.

Turn 4

My movement turn I bail out a unit of Warriors from the stunned Venom so they can still shoot, a single Warrior from a squad which got bombed by the Manticore who was hiding in the shrine moves and runs to the other side of the shrine and hides. Haemonculus leaves the Trueborn with his pain token and moves into terrain while the Trueborn follow behind.

Shooting blasters and dark lances blast the CCS but best I can do is immobilised and stunned. Hydra gets blasted and is shaken if I remember right. Plasma Veteran tank gets hit by blasters but is only stunned.

In assault Beastmasters explode the Manticore taking a wound in the 5" blast.

Guards turn the Hydra falls back as the lone Manticore moves to incinerate the Beastmasters. Chimeras in the back field move about.

Shooting multi laser instagibs the Haemonculus while plasma finishes off the Trueborn unit bypassing the feel no pain. Beastmasters get shot at but don't take much damage. Shaun pops smoke on the Hydra and stunned plasma Chimera to keep them safe. Vendetta fires at a Ravager and scores weapon destroyed, Shaun forgets to fire the other, doh!

Kill points: Dark Eldar - 10 Imperial Guard - 13



* Tactical Notes

Hmm well my plan didn't work out that turn. Looks like typical Dark Eldar have two crap turns of shooting and then after do well, well I've now had my two turns so onto the good stuff!

I'm glad my Beastmasters survived so they will assault the immobilised Vendetta while blasters shoot that annoying plasma Chimera and also the Hydra and the CCS one, hopefully can do something to them this turn. The Warriors in terrain I'll also get back into their Venom for safety.

Turn 5

Movement Venoms stay put really along with the Ravagers, if any movement it's not a lot. Beastmasters move up to assault the Vendetta.

Shooting Ravager with two lances manages to blow up the CCS Chimera but not before it asborbs several blaster shots, CCS loses three Guardsmen in the blast. Plasma Chimera gets opened up with blaster fire and all Venoms fire into the unit wiping them out. Manticore gets blasted on the side armour and is stunned if I remember right.

Beastmasters charge the Vendetta and score plenty of shaken and stunned results.

Shaun's turn he holds the CCS in position while a melta Veteran Chimera wheels round to blast the Beastmasters.

Shooting meltas blast the Beastmasters but the Khymerae asborb most the shots and the unit lives on. Another Venom on Shaun's side of the shrine ruin gets taken out leaving the squad on foot, luckily they take no wounds as they got a pain token earlier - only one Venom left on that flank!

In assault Beastmasters do stunned or shaken to the Vendetta again.

Kill points - Dark Eldar: 13 Imperial Guard: 14



* Tactical Notes

Ohhh getting nail biting now. Shaun has one more point than me, I was hoping to for it to be the other way around but the plasma Veteran unit asborbed too many splinter cannon shots so I couldn't finish off the CCS. I also wanted to have taken out that immobilised Vendetta along with the Hydra too.

If there's a next turn I'll nail the CCS, go for the single Hydra as all the other troops as out of range and fire at the remaining Vendetta.

Turn 6

We roll for it and game carries on.

Shooting I blast the CCS and finish them off scoring a kill point. I fire more shots at the Hydra and Manticore along with the Vendetta but all just eat the dark matter up.

In assault Beastmasters fail to take out the Vendetta :(.

Shaun's turn I don't think he moves anything as he's probably got just as much left as I have.

Shooting he blasts the Beastmasters but they pass morale and stick around.

Kill points: Dark Eldar - 14 Imperial Guard - 14

Turn 7

We roll for it and game carries on.

Shooting I attempt to finish off the Hydra and Manticore but fail. I use the Vendetta to fire some long range shots into side armour of a Chimera hoping to use splinter cannons on the survivors but it passes both the cover saves.
Shaun's turn he used meltas on the Beastmasters and wipes out the unit taking the lead kill point and winning the game.

Imperial Guard win with 15 kill points to Dark Eldars 14.

Summary

A excellent tense game. Shaun had the lead in kill points all game but I was always at his heels. Sometimes my Dark Eldar just couldn't get things done like taking out the Hydra, Manticore and the plasma Veteran Chimera and the CCS Chimera. The Manticore getting battered by the Beastmasters and Vendetta took some punishment as well.

I think I would have done better using Scourges with dark lances. First turn I don't expect to get much fire power in, but all Ravagers did nothing that turn which meant I affectively wasted a turn shooting. If those Scourges would have been sitting there I would have had another 4 dark lances to fire, but who knows if they would have caused any damage.

Mistake wise I think splitting the Haemonculus from the unit wasn't that good idea as I was banking on taking the transport out as was probably over 6" away from assaulting. I guess the Haemonculus would have died anyway with the Trueborn unit so makes no odds.

I think I'm going to try the Scourges with dark lances this time and take a single Beastmaster unit as the Beastmasters were unit of the match and asborbed a fair bit of fire power. I also found the Trueborn do better in units of 3 as they hit more, yes I know it sounds weird but with a unit of 4 Trueborn 2-3 would hit while in a unit of 3 they nearly all hit every turn - loads better.

Shaun did well this game and even left his Vendettas at the back of the table! Only mistakes I think he made was not staying static and deploying further back making me come to him and forgetting to fire a Vendetta once and also moving the Manticore so my Beastmasters didn't auto hit in assault.

Very enjoyable game and close call, we didn't get up to turn 7 but I think I missed a photo out which means I missed a turn out when writing the report.

Unlucky man. You ran into some really bad luck there. But you only lost by 1 kill point.

Before you get rash...you lost to mech guard with DE by 1 Kill Point. That's actually really good. I think I might have said this in another thread but if you give the Haemonculus a WWP instead of the other stuff (still need to drop some more) then the beasts and scourges can close the gap without being shot at. This means more bodies for the beasts and more survivability for the HL scourges. Keep in mind that they both ran away on failed Ld so that was just tough luck.
Nice Batrep.

Great report. I agree with the above poster, losing to Mech Guard by 1 KP is pretty good considering what you're against.

One observation though: Turn 1 a Venom suffered a form of destroyed result after moving flat out and I believe you mentioned the squad inside passed their pin check. According to the recent FAQ a believe when a transport moving flat out is destroyed the squad is also lost. Or is that only on an explodes result?

EDIT: According to the FAQ it is in fact a destroyed result.

FireWolf698 wrote:Great report. I agree with the above poster, losing to Mech Guard by 1 KP is pretty good considering what you're against.

One observation though: Turn 1 a Venom suffered a form of destroyed result after moving flat out and I believe you mentioned the squad inside passed their pin check. According to the recent FAQ a believe when a transport moving flat out is destroyed the squad is also lost. Or is that only on an explodes result?

EDIT: According to the FAQ it is in fact a destroyed result.

That is only if it is destroyed on the TURN he went flat out. Whenever they use turn it means player turn not game turn. That is also in the BRB and the FAQ. He was right to not just pull them off the board. Now had he landed in terrain after moving flat out and rolled a 1 then yes they would both be destroyed.

Really now? That's a bit confusing seeing as it retains that cover save bonus through the opposition's turn but doesn't count towards that ruling. But the player turn ruling makes sense.

It was to prevent the DE from tank shocking across the board in hopes to get the raider destroyed and then the squad falls down and could charge as they were outside the vehicle.

nice report mark unlucky though

woodbok wrote:Unlucky man. You ran into some really bad luck there. But you only lost by 1 kill point.

Thanks man. Didn't have some good luck again, turn 1 was terrible and some Guard units just wouldn't shift. I guess it's luck of the dices.

Akroma06 wrote:Before you get rash...you lost to mech guard with DE by 1 Kill Point. That's actually really good. I think I might have said this in another thread but if you give the Haemonculus a WWP instead of the other stuff (still need to drop some more) then the beasts and scourges can close the gap without being shot at. This means more bodies for the beasts and more survivability for the HL scourges. Keep in mind that they both ran away on failed Ld so that was just tough luck.
Nice Batrep.

Portal Scourges is something originally I did think about, unfortunately I just haven't got the points. The Beastmasters to be fair took a lot of punishment before they died.

FireWolf698 wrote:Great report. I agree with the above poster, losing to Mech Guard by 1 KP is pretty good considering what you're against.

One observation though: Turn 1 a Venom suffered a form of destroyed result after moving flat out and I believe you mentioned the squad inside passed their pin check. According to the recent FAQ a believe when a transport moving flat out is destroyed the squad is also lost. Or is that only on an explodes result?

EDIT: According to the FAQ it is in fact a destroyed result.

Thanks. You're right on that if the skimmer has gone flat out but only if my skimmer moves into terrain and I fail the dangerous terrain test for the skimmer. It's happened once before to my Trueborn :(

Akroma06 wrote:

FireWolf698 wrote:Great report. I agree with the above poster, losing to Mech Guard by 1 KP is pretty good considering what you're against.

One observation though: Turn 1 a Venom suffered a form of destroyed result after moving flat out and I believe you mentioned the squad inside passed their pin check. According to the recent FAQ a believe when a transport moving flat out is destroyed the squad is also lost. Or is that only on an explodes result?

EDIT: According to the FAQ it is in fact a destroyed result.

That is only if it is destroyed on the TURN he went flat out. Whenever they use turn it means player turn not game turn. That is also in the BRB and the FAQ. He was right to not just pull them off the board. Now had he landed in terrain after moving flat out and rolled a 1 then yes they would both be destroyed.

Indeed, only if I went in terrain

croggy wrote:nice report mark unlucky though

Thanks dude. Looks like my D.E don't like good dice rolls

mercer wrote:
Thanks dude. Looks like my D.E don't like good dice rolls

No DE army likes good dice rolls. Inevitably I can fail every FF game after game.

Damn! I pass about 1/3 of mine which is about right.

Amazing report, that steal of first turn really helped out I think. You played very well considering and was a great report to read.

Mech guard going first could have been a nightmare to start. Nice Roll!

Check your totals. The IG list is 160 points over.

I only know that because I play a very...very similar IG list.