DE IG Grudge Match Bat Rep:
Xtapl aka Chris, the
DE player and author of the
WD 309 article. I, Augustus, aka Damien was the
IG player!
Pictures on the way! Armies:
Please see the other post for the armies!
Pre Game Commentary:
Chris's Pre-Game Thoughts:
I showed up at the joint a little early, and Damian had already been there the night before, so his army was laid out nicely next to the table. I was struck by how well-painted it was. To be honest, outside of tournaments, I don?t really run across that many armies that impress me. People just don?t take the time to make armies look spectacular any more, but I digress. At any rate, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little dismayed at the army composition when I first saw it. Three mortars, I wouldn?t have had a problem with. Eleven mortars was just plain ridiculous, in my opinion, when coupled with two Basilisks. In a tournament situation, a little indirect fire is to be expected. An entire army of it, though? Granted, I did think they used the 5? template, but even still, I felt like the fix was in on the experiment. I had come with a take-all-comers tournament army, and my opponent had brought an army specifically designed to destroy me. It was the proverbial knife-at-a-gun-fight situation. But I had driven for over an hour to get to the game, and if my Dark Eldar were as good as I think they are, then it shouldn?t matter what?s in my opponent?s army, right? If Damian had shown up and been a jerk about it, I probably wouldn?t have played. But he was a really nice guy right off the bat, and even offered to change his list around, so I agreed to just play against the army as is.
Damien's Pre-Game Thoughts:
When we reviewed each others armies Chris? army was about how I had expected it to be from the article he had written and he told me he hadn?t played for a while since his move to Colorado. Unfortunately my army was a surprise for him. I had some converted models for an
IG heavy platoon with mortars including old thud guns from the 80s that were apparently a bigger surprise than Chris was expecting. He did not like the mortar units, and said that no one would take them to a tournament, and that our experiment grudge match was voided by my choice. I believe he was originally under the impression that they fired an ordinance barrage, either each or collectively, and was unaware that they are actually small blasts S4 AP6. I conceded that they were rare in tournaments and potentially effective vs.
DE and asked him if he would like me to change my list, I had come prepared with all my
IG units and could easily have swapped out the Heavy platoon for a number of things. After a bit of discussion regarding the mortars Chris agreed to play as we had come!
General Rules:
Chris and I easily agreed to a few rules interpretations before the game began including: Infinite Cylinder for area terrain, Infinite Cylinder for vehicle wrecks. Terrain at about 25% including 4+ cover saves for trees. We determined that we would use a
GT mission from my collection from playing this year (I have a dossier with copies of all 10). This also meant using strategy rating to determine who got choice of side and also who went first. We also agreed to play a Gamma game without rolling to make use of the standard set of rules for Infiltration, Deep Strike and Dusk and Dawn. Chris absolutely refused to play escalation,?
(Chris: Escalation sucks balls. Period. It completely ruins the game by biasing the match in favor of whoever decided not to use transports. I think they?ve hosed transports enough in the general rules, thank you very much. Escalation is an abomination I do not deal with outside of tournaments, when I do so only under complete duress.)
?and I don?t really like it either but was prepared to toss a
D6 for it. Chris rolled a
D10 for the mission; I had a copy of all 10 of the
GT missions for the current season. He rolled a 4, and the 4th mission sheet in the book was Scouting Engagement. Which we sadly played slightly wrong. It was supposed to be a mission in which just the compulsory troops go down first in opposite corners in 16 inch ?L? shaped deployment zones, and then the rest are in reserve. We had followed the normal setup for our whole armies and discovered it afterward so we decided to play anyway, (especially since we had agreed not to play escalation style, previously, and didn?t want to mess with the reserve rolls).
The Board:
The Valhalla?s Game Center management has a special set of terrain they use exclusively for
RTs and special events at their store including special terrain, sculpted, sanded and painted tables. They had agreed to set one up for our game and had placed a 4x6 battlefield in their spacious miniatures game room exclusively for Chris and my use all day. We would share the room with a few onlookers but largely have it to ourselves for most of the day! Chris had pulled out all the trees and set up ΒΌ of the board with tree patches by the time I arrived Sunday morning. He was of the opinion that the 25% coverage was a standard; this had resulted in about 16 tree patches. I thought that was a bit much and we agreed on about 10 instead. Chris finished the board setup (before we rolled for the missions, or discussed armies in much detail), with a roughly even placement around the board and in the center! At this point we were ready to play!
Setup:
We rolled strategy for sides and I actually got to choose despite my meager single die roll of 3, Chris had thrown a 1 and a 2 on his dice. I chose the Outside corner on my side because it was close to my army and a bit better I thought than the other corner on my side. Chris had set up a pretty balanced board and I think I could have gone anywhere, actually, and still played a fair game.
In a completely unsurprising and characteristically
IG move I put a basilisk in the corner for a
HS choice. Chris placed a Ravager behind the center trees on his side. I placed my 2nd basilisk in the corner behind the same trees as the first. Chris placed his second ravager behind another tree set on my left flank. I set my mortar company up in the center behind a wood I filled later with conscripts and Ogryns in progressive lines and Chris went on to put all his troop choices behind the same 2 forests the ravagers were in, some of the troops went into the forests themselves in the center. I concluded by placing my Rough Rider bikes on the 2 flanks, one each, on each side and Chris put all his
HQs and
DE bikes on the forest edges, largely concealed on his side. Finally I took my infiltrators and extreme flanked with all 4 units of them in hopes I might go first and shoot behind those woods Chris had set his entire army behind. I infiltrated a squad each of rocket launchers and heavy bolters on both of the corners not in a deployment zone for hard little heavy weapons flankers.
After a roll of ?2? for the dusk and dawn we realized it was just a strait up fight! The game was finally on!
Ig Battle Line:
*4 Units of Flanking heavy weapons teams not pictured* 2 are on the left corner and 2 on the right corner.
De Sudden Ambush:
Turn 1:
Chris?s First Turn:
Go, go, two strategy dice to one! I got first turn, and, uncharacteristically for me, I decided to go first. Normally, I?m of the opinion that first turn is overrated, and that it?s the bottom of the sixth turn that wins or loses games. However, with a bunch of sneaky Guardsmen infiltrating on my flanks, and me bunched up and facing all the indirect fire ever invented, I need to get the ?F? out of dodge quickly. That meant making a few early sacrifices. The right flank looked like the easier one to dispose of, since the left flank was where the Heavy Bolters were, so I decided to move out on the right. In retrospect, the deployment of those Heavy Bolters were the absolute #1 deciding factor of the game. If they hadn?t been placed there, or if he hadn?t taken any at all, I would have gleefully charged up that flank, facing only two lascannons and a handful of missile launchers that I would have wiped out in two turns. I could have then gone on to smoke the Basilisks, and it would have been a completely different game. The Heavy Bolters, though, had the potential to rip through my army, and facing six of them was a daunting prospect. I was willing to sacrifice some troops to get rid of the infiltrating three, but the other three effectively made that side of the board off limits. I moved a Raider Squad over here to deal with the Heavy Bolters, and dumped the squad out, in case the Raider went down. I also brought a Ravager over there, just in case. The rest of my army went right, with one squad of Jetbikes hanging back in case there was a problem on the left. I advanced my Jetbikes to the center of the board, confident that they would be unmolested for at least a turn. A hail of disintegrator fire from the Ravager completely annihilated the infiltrating missile launchers, and the combined firepower of the Ravager, Raider, and Raider Squad got rid of the infiltrating Heavy Bolters and some of the missile launcher loaders. I was still facing three missile launchers, but better that than three Heavy Bolters. Not a bad first turn at all, all things considered.
IG Turn 1:
Chris had proven how moble the
DE army was right away. Honestly I have to admit a ravager is a pretty fearsome thing! Capable of 9 shots that kill marines or three plasma cannon style templates. Going second cost me 3 units already. The game proves to be everything I had hoped. A tough match. Chris knows his stuff, I suppose White Dwarf wouldn't have picked him as an author otherwise. I start the game down almost 3 hundred
VPs. My Roughriders on the left flank advance for a tree patch and a potential charge, but roll abysmal dificult rolls and end up hanging out of the forest with more than 50% of the models outside it. My other rough riders advanced center and the gunline prepares to unload! No other moves. Ordinance destroys Left flank warrior raider near the woods, the target I was hoping to charge with the roughriders; several warriors die in the blast. I can't bel;ieve Chris left wytches in a raider and ran them at my left flank! So I target them with a blast and the ordinance also destroys their raider! In an amazing set of rolls only 1 wytch dies in the blast. I thought for sure the unit was dead with their 6+ armor save and rerolled emergency disembarcation saves, but fate was not so generous. The remnants of the squad on the right flank open fire on the raider there and stun it and blow the desintigrator off. The squad that disembarked takes 6 kills from mortars and pass their morale and pin test. Finally the rough riders, eager to charge the emergency disembarked warriors fail their charge with twin 2s and stay in the woods, leaving them in a very untenable situation.
Turn 2:
DE Turn 2
DE Second Turn:
Yep. I was beginning to regret not making Damien change his list after all.
But I was the one who agreed to face whatever Damian brought, so it was time to suck it up and put on my general?s hat. I took some massive casualties in the first turn, having one of my major fighting units completely gutted and probably out of the game, even with Fleet of Foot. Yes, I had gotten lucky and only lost one model, but with a strict time limit imposed, tournament-style, and them being entangled on the far side of the board, my poor Wyches would probably never see combat. I decided that it was going to be ?go big or go home? day for the Dark Eldar. I advanced my entire fleet of Jetbikes to the center of the table, figuring on my turn, I could leapfrog the forest and get into combat, where I could probably roll the mortars and save my foot squads from further damage. As I had planned, I swept my army away from the Heavy Bolter/Missile Launcher end of the table, and regrouped center-to-right. My general and her retinue went ahead and leapt over the forest, engaging the Roughriders, and in a hail of brutal blows, wipe out eight of them. The other two break and flee, but I couldn?t give chase because I had no base to base contact. I found myself staring down the entire
IG army, so I had no choice but to consolidate into the wood and hope the cover saves would work out.
IG Turn 2
Chris had gotten another unit of mine, the roughriders who had failed to charge or enter the woods, were anihilated! I knew an assault in the center was inevitable but I had hoped to counter charge or at least take some models with me with the roughriders. Instead the conscripts repositioned all in the wood, to rapid fire at bikes, and hide in the cover. I wanted chris to have to try and charge into the woods and have to make the difficult terrain checks for bikes there! The Ogryns moved away from the bikes into the woods and the conscript line, intentionally trying to set up a counter charge, and be out of consolidation range of the bikes should the worst happen! The rocket launchers on right flank move up, as there suddenly weren't any
DE over there anymore! Remaining roughriders spread out and move up slightly intending to counter charge the
DE bikes, eventually.
DE foot in the center of the board are routed by massed fire, mortars and direct fire from the right flank gunline.
3
DE bikes die from short range fire from the platoons command section, rapid fire conscripts and a long range las cannon shot across the board out of the gunline! I shoot S4 mortars at a ravager, hitting it dead on, and it is armor 11? whoops! A basilisk misses the 2nd wave of bikes on my left flank completely. The other deviates and causes no kills. Amazingly, No assaults!
Turn 3:
DE Turn 3
(This is a side note: I completely f-ing *HATE* the way Ordinance works now. HATE HATE HATE. I don?t understand why every army that can take Ordinance isn?t chock full of it. Getting rid of guess ranges was a SUPER good idea ... but I digress.) Well, this was going to be it. Do or die time. I pulled one Ravager around to try and get an open shot at the soft part of the
IG army, while the rest of my army prepared for combat. I popped off a dissy salvo at one mortar squad, wiping out half of it and putting a wound on an Ogryn. Then, I lined up both Dracons and both retinues, and charged right into the heart of the
IG army. As expected, it wasn?t pretty. The entire Platoon Command and half of the mortar squads went down, but the
IG Flag reroll kept the buggers in the combat. I consolidated in, hoping the Shadow Field on my general would keep her safe from the Ogryns.
IG Turn 3
A heroic officer and a flag is a great thing! The officer's leadership keeps all the units in the melee, and the flag reroll saved the mortar squad, that had failed, from running! I have seen the mass melee in the center many times. While I had lost a lot of troops in the melee, the conscripts weren't below half and their tail end was right by the
HQ! The Conscripts circle the
DE bikes for a counter charge! The Ogryns move out of the woods in the movement phase and do the same. Basilisks, reposition, one spins the other backs up and rotates for direct fire. The remaining Rough riders move up to almost board center for a counter charge (hopefully turn 4) into the middle! The Anti tank squad, with the rocket launchers are confident they have won the day as there are no
DE on their entire half of the board and they move up again! Ordinance kills a ravager with a direct hit and a 6! The other Ordinance misses. The one squad of remaining Mortars direct fire and miss. The assault phase is a surprise for chris, Ogryns and Conscripts charge the
DE bikes! They go first and kill 5 conscripts and an Ogryn; the Ogryns land all their attacks on the Drakkon with the Shadow field, he rolls 5 saves, casting a 1 and dies from instant death to S6, the remaining attacks kill 3 more bikes. Chris is visualy demoralized to see his first Drakkon go down. Even still, IGl loose the melee but pass all their morale checks thanks to the
IG flag and officer LD9. Chris says at this point ?the route is on?
Turn 4:
DE Turn 4
The rout was definitely on at this point, but I don?t give up that easily. I was going to play for the draw to the last man, which I was dangerously close to having at this point. I dropped off the small Raider squad for a last minute charge, while pulling my Ravager around to get off final shots. The Ravager salvo pops down four Roughriders, while the Raider squad nails another with the Splinter Cannon. My last Jetbike squad pulls into the scrum, swinging away and dumping five conscripts and an Ogryn, while the Raider Squad assault wipes out the rest of the Roughriders and consolidates into the
HQ *(mortar) squad. Of course, the Ogryns beat the living gak out of my other Dracon and instakill her too. The shock of the third bike assault, however, was too much for the squads to handle, and Damian had forgotten to move his Flag Bearer on the last turn *( to consolidate him after the mlee they won in my
hth T4 phase) , so it was just out of range. Without LD9, the Jetbikes easily cut down the Ogryns and Conscripts as they ran. I say to myself, ?I should consolidate there, but I won?t get another turn and can?t get into combat with anyone, so I?ll just leave them there.? Famous last words and all that...
*Damien added for clarity. Chris had kind of summarized the entire last turn here.
IG Turn 4
The Heroic Officer
HQ moves to counter charge the remnant
DE squad in
HtH with the servitors (mortar crew) in
IG Right flank and anihilates them all in the ensuig melee. Indirect fire destroys the olast ravager. Rockets fire at wytches, but they do not go below 50%. Las fire damages the raider in the center by removing its gun. I fight the 2 melees and in the first one I kill all the
DE with my Heroic Senior officer. I figure Chris has surrendered, so I don't move anymore models there... We roll the last melee and I actually lost it to the bikes and loose both of the squads, conscripts and Ogryns, to failed morale rolls as the officer was just out of 12 and they are below 50%!
Post Game:
Quadrants are a wash, 2 each,
VP score is calculated as a difference of 301, a solid victory for the
IG Chris:
So guess what? Those bikes I forgot to consolidate? Yeah, they were worth 250 points. Had I consolidated 3?, the whole squad would have been in the quadrant instead of only one bike, giving me another contested quadrant. I would have had two quadrants held, Damian would have had one, and one would have been contested. As it was, quadrants washed out with two held a piece. Totaling up the scores, it was a difference of 301 points, which was a solid victory for the
IG. Had I consolidated, it would have been a 49 point difference, which certainly would have been a draw.
I had a pretty good time in this game, all things considered. I can?t remember the last time I lost both Dracons in a game, and I?ve never, EVER lost them in the same assault with the same unit. The indirect fire turned out to be as bad as I thought it would be, but I think I handled it pretty well. Damian was a cagey veteran who had more than one trick up his sleeve, but I hung in as best I could. I took what was quite possibly the worst matchup for Dark Eldar in the entire game and still came within 3? of a draw. If the time limit hadn?t expired, I might have been able to get the Wyches in a position to charge, and the Jetbikes were in a place where they could roll the entire line, with decent dice and a little luck. But ?ifs and buts? ain?t candy and nuts, and all that. I lost, fair and square, and I make no excuses about it. Damian had a bad moment, too, where he forgot to move his Flag Bearer and it cost him two very important squads, so we were even on the bad luck front. I just hope that I?ve gone a little way toward showing one of the board?s biggest
DE ?h8rz? exactly how ?viable? a
DE army can be...
Damien:
Emperor be praised! I had a good time in this game, it was tense! Chris was a great opponent, and I always enjoy fights where both of the armies are well painted! It was stunning! I wish I was more skilled at taking pictures!
Chris had some questions about the tournament army I had brought. I regret leaving him with a questionable feeling on army choice, but it wasn't really up to me. All I can say is I played my army the way it was because of my theme! I had converted my Ogryns from OK bulls, made a unit of 30 Ork battle slaves with Las rifles as conscripts and had a mortar platoon made from old
OOP Thud Guns. All of these units contrbuted to the theme of my army as a trench fighter force from Tanhauser (their fluffy planet). I modled them all after the Trench Infantry Dave Taylor had made from bretonians, and it was a lot of conversion work and painting. I was proud of them all, I have taken to calling them, Mother Green and the Killing Machine for their drab green paint jobs! Despite Chris' fear of the mortars, I think they had done little in the game. The mortar platoon was over 300 points all told and I had lost most of it at games end. Perhaps the presence attack was enough though? I was admittedly thrilled when the Ogryns insta killed both Drakkons, something I was hoping I might t get to try! In my evaluation, rocket launchers, mortars, and Ogryns are pretty poor army choices overall though. In addition to theme, and to try and make the pictures I wanted to post later cooler, I had also decided to take them anyway because I believed they would be a handicap. Hopefully making the 2 armies a bit closer. I didn't want to play 6+ heavy weapon teams of Las Cannons and Heavy boltersand a load of walkers, though I own the painted models.
Smiling and being generous while loosing or behind is the measure of a great player, and Chris was both! I have great respect for Chris, (and anyone else who chooses not to play
MEq), who wielded what I feel is a sub par army with great panache, paints and converts like a master artist, and writes great articles. However I have to conclude, that despite all of Chris' skill, the
DE failed to defeat even a mediocre
IG army.
And pics too! Good stuff, and thanks! 
