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At Powerfist Gaming as usual Thursday. Testing my Dark Eldar list for a tournament at Powerfist on 20th November, it's run by Inititive1 podcast. Tonight I'm playing against Elliot and his Tau, never played against Elliot and don't know a huge amount about Tau either. The Tau list I'm not 100% sure on wargear.

Dark Eldar - 1,750

HQ

Baron Sathonyx

Elite

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


Troops

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

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

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

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

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


Fast Attack

Beastmasters - 4 x Beastmasters, 5 x Khymerae & 6 x Razorwing Flocks

Heavy Support

Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield

Total: 1,744


Tau - 1,750

HQ

Shas El
Crisis Suit Bodyguard
Shas El
Crisis Suit Bodyguard

Elite

3 x Crisis Suits - 3 x burst cannons
3 x Crisis Suits - 2 x fusion guns & burst cannon

Troops

7 x Fire Warriors - marker light
7 x Fire Warriors - marker light
7 x Fire Warriors - marker light

Fast Attack

Piranha - fusion gun
Piranha - fusion gun

6 x Path Finders w/ Devilfish

Heavy Support

Hammerhead
Hammerhead
2 x Broadside Battlesuits

Game: Seize Ground + Spearhead

Deployment

I won the roll off and decided to go first. Really in objective games I like to go second, but with Tau's long range fire power I wanted to get the first turn of shooting in so I could cripple Elliot's forces best I can.

I deployed in the bottom left corner, reason is the top right had the less terrain in for Elliot to deploy and the bottom left had the most in for me to use cover best I can. At the front I popped the Beastmasters with the Baron, depending on how Elliot delpoys I'll move these onto a nearby rock to get cover as we agreed the large flat rocks would be area terrain. Then it was my Venoms with the Trueborn ones at the front then the Ravagers.

Elliot deployed his Tau next. He put a unit of Fire Warriors and Path Finders in a small ruin opposite from my Beastmasters with a Shas El and Bodyguard hiding behind that ruin along with the burst cannon Crisis suits. Near the top right corner was a Hammerhead suppored by the Path Finder's Devilfish and unit of Fire Warriors and Broadside unit, all except the Hammerhead was position on a rock. On the next rock along half way across the board was the other Broadside and a the other Shas El, near both rocks were the Piranhas. In reserve is the other Fire Warriors and the fusion-suits, which will deep strike.

Objectives had been placed with three near/in my deployment zone, one in the ruin where the Path Finders and Fire Warriors are and one on the rock by the Path Finder's Devilfish.







* Tactical Notes

Ok Elliot has spaced out his army too much which is going to be easy for me to pick off unit at a time. I'll shift the Venoms down towards my own table edge and use them to blast the Path Finders off the board, any spare shots can thin out those Battlesuit units. Beastmasters will move up and Baron will split, they then will assault Fire Warriors and the Battlesuits. This will leave my Ravagers to hang back and blast the closest Hammerhead and the oncoming Piranhas. Once I have dealt with those I will move up the board and tackle the other Hammerhead and Broadsides which will remove all serious anti skimmer weaponry. As I move up the board I'll claim objectives, but as this is a test game for a tournament I'll attempt to wipe the Tau out so I automatically claim all victory conditions.

Turn 1

Elliot attempts to seize the initiative but fails.

First thing I do is split Baron from the Beastmasters and fly him over to the Fire Warriors and Path Finders in the small ruin while the Beastmasters move up behind. I jumble the Venoms about moving them towards my table edge so they can torrent the Path Finders, without Path Finders Tau won't have the better ballistic skill and I don't need to worry about cover saves. Ravagers rearrange to draw LOS on the Piranhas better.

Shooting I run the Baron and Beastmasters towards the Tau lines. Venoms torrent the Path Finders and wipe them out, Venoms also fire at the Crisis Suit unit behind the ruin as can draw LOS and score a wound on a Suit. Two Ravagers fire at the Hammerhead, one does nothing the the other scores some damage but the disruption pods make the save. Other Ravager blasts a Piranha but the disruption pods make the save again.

In assault Baron charges the Fire Warriors and is locked in combat. Beastmasters multi charge the two Battlesuit units, Battlesuits both fail morale with the larger unit been destroyed by sweeping advance and the Shas El falling back towards his table edge.

Elliots first turn he gets the Fire Warriors into the Devilfish and moves it 6" off the rock while the one Piranha moves flat out towards my lines using a rock to block LOS as the other Piranha gets brave and comes on a suicide run on its own. The Shas El continues to fall back while the other Shas El and Battlesuit move in front of the Hammerhead on the rock in order to try and block some LOS to the front.

Shooting, the Hammerhead by the Suits blasts the railgun at a Ravager but misses, but a single smart missile does glance but my flickerfield makes the save. Piranha attempts to blast a Trueborn Venom but misses, the two Battlesuits by the Hammerhead score two glances with long range plasma shots scoring crew stunned and weapon destroyed. Hammerhead in the top right long range blasts a Venom, Venom saves with flickerfield. Devilfish puts a few wounds on a Razorwing Flock while Broadsides blast a Ravager I think but they miss.

In assault Baron batters the Fire Warriors and kills them in sweeping advance and gains a pain token.









* Tactical Notes

Wow! That's a impressive first turn for Dark Eldar. Elliot had deployed too close to me with a bunch of his units so it made sense for me to send everything down that flank and cause as much damage as I can to those units close by. In that turn I managed to take out a Path Finder unit, Fire Warriors and two Battlesuit units which has all taken a sizable chunk out of Elliot's force. I was hoping to stun or weapon destroy that Hammerhead with the Ravagers and take out a Piranha but I guess I cannot have it all.

Nicely for me both the Baron and Beastmasters have won combat in the Tau turn which means I can assault in my own. I will use the Baron to charge and tie up the Broadsides reducing anti tank fire power and the Beastmasters will be going for the Hammerhead on the right flank, it should be easy pickings as it didn't move last time. I will then focus Venoms on the Battlesuits by the other Hammerhead and use blasters to knock out the two Piranhas and torrent the Hammerhead with lances and I hope I can cause some damage to at least stop it firing for a bit.

Turn 2

I move the Beastmasters up towards the Hammerhead and it looks like they will be able to multi assault the Devilfish as well. Baron jumps into terrain by the Broadsides and passes his dangerous terrain test. I adjust my Venoms slightly so they can all draw LOS on the Battlesuits in front, both Trueborn bail out their Venoms to deal with the Piranhas while two Ravagers point at the Hammerhead and one Ravager points at the Piranha which will be getting the cover save as it moves flat out.

Shooting, Baron runs through terrain a whole 2" to reach the Broadsides a bit more. Beastmasters run towards the two vehicles. Venoms blast and wipe out the two Battlesuits, Ravagers then blast the Hammerhead and it's wrecked after it fails two disruption pod saves. One Ravager blasts the Piranha with the cover save and it's stunned, Trueborn finish it off with immobilised result which means it's wrecked. Other Trueborn make the other Piranha go boom.

In assault Beastmasters multi charge the Devilfish and Hammerhead, Khymerae attack the Devilfish and do nothing while the Razorwings make the Hammerhead go boom. Baron charges the Broadsides and scores a single wound, Broadsides do nothing to Baron after shadowfield saves and the Broadsides pass morale to remain in combat.

Elliot's turn and there isn't a great deal to do. He rolls for reserves and the Fire Warriors walk in off the table edge by the Beastmasters. The other Fire Warriors bail out their tank to support them while the Devilfish moves 6" back onto the rock.

Shooting Fire Warriors blast the Beastmasters killing a Razorwing Flock and a Beastmaster but it's not enough to force morale.

In combat Baron and Broadsides just reach a stalemate.







* Tactical Notes

Ok so all the anti tank except the fusion-suits in reserve has been dealt with, so really I have nothing to fear now and it's just mop up time. The Hammerhead taken out by the Beastmasters was easy prey as it hadn't moved and I was hoping that both Piranhas would go down due to weight of fire. I was expecting the other Hammerhead to be stunned or something, but I will take the wrecked result

My plan next turn is to charge the Fire Warriors with the Beastmasters, but I'll soften them up first with splinter cannon fire. All dark lances will broadside the Devilfish.

Turn 3

I reposition my Venoms to get LOS on the Fire Warriors but thanks to the large rock they are behind it's going to be difficult. That's all the movement for me.

Shooting, Venoms blast a unit of Fire Warriors and leave a single survivor who passes morale. Dark lances smash the Devilfish and it's toast.

In assault Beastmasters mutli assault the Fire Warriors and wipe them both out. Baron manages to kill a Broadside but takes a wound himself also, combat is a draw.

Battlesuits arrive from reserve and deep strike in front of a Venom landing on target. They manage to wreck the Venom with meltas, Warrior pass pinning.









* Tactical Notes

Right the Fire Warriors are dead and the Baron is holding the Broadside up in combat. Devilfish is also bacon as well. Looks like just need to mop up now.

Turn 4

Ravagers blast the Battlesuits which just deep striked and gib the lot. Beastmasters charge into the Broadside and finish it off.

Dark Eldar win wiping out the Tau.







Summary

That was a nice test game for my Dark Eldar as I wasn't sure whether to take them to the tournament or my Blood Angels. Advantage I have with my Blood Angels is I've been playing them longer and know them inside out, while Dark Eldar I think I've had about 12 games with.

The game started off strong for me from the start and I had excellent dice rolls through out the game. I was getting high dice to run and high dice to take out vehicles on the damage table.

Elliot had some bad luck with his dice when he was actually able to do something, but I think it's his mistakes which cost him the game. He spread out his force too thin and placed a sizeable portion of his force too close to me (he said he didn't know about the Beastmasters) which allowed me to gun his units down and assault them turn one, which took out a good part of his army. After that it was just a case to tackle units in target priority and isolate them.

Unit of the match once again goes to the Beastmasters with a close behind for the Baron. Beastmasters took out two units of Battlesuits, Hammerhead, two units of Fire Warriors and the remaining Broadside. Baron did will taking out a unit of Fire Warriors and holding up the Broadsides (and cutting them down) in assault for two turns before the Beastmasters arrived to support him.

Nice batrep and pics, the armies looked really good in the close ups! I pretty much thought it was over for the tau player after turn one, I agree he deployed his stuff to close to you

Good battle report and pictures, but one question.

Why didn't you use Hit and Run on the baron to charge his broadsides multiple times? I understand you wanted to keep them tied up, but you could have hit and run after the end of his assault phase, and then re-charge him during your following assault phase so that he never had a shooting phase. It would've taken advantage of Baron's custom skyboard to wound the broadsides on a 2+.

Glad im not the only one who doesnt like the sails on the DE ravagers and raiders

Nice looking army! Have to say the tau player's list didn't look very suited for the DE.

Saw his list and knew that he was going to be in trouble.

Norn King wrote:Glad im not the only one who doesnt like the sails on the DE ravagers and raiders

My sails are still in the box and have been since I started with them last spring, *one* with a broken stem. That was enough. Transport issues to boot.

A sympathetic 'duh' for Elliot. I play both DE and Tau. With the amount of open field this terrain offered, mercer should've had the hard time, except for some other "Things Gone Wrong" for the Tau:

1. DeepStriking team of FB/BC suits. Without Target Locks!
a. Waiting in Reserve means less rounds of shooting
b. FBs mean lousy safety range
c. one round of use before dying under Dark Lances.

Fixes:
- No Reserves. Instead, deploy and JSJ at Missile Pod range. Plenty easy to start taking down DE vehicles (I've been on both sides of these guns, against each army).
- BC/MP suits (which appear to have been the first set ate by the BMs

2. Of course, under-estimating the BMs' striking distance.
3. No Bonding in his list.
4. Crappy suit load-outs:
a. Unless the first suits were BC/MP ?
b. Two trios instead of three pairs.

mercer,
Did your buddy know he was facing DE?

I have seen that Venom/Lance spawn before...I thought you could only have 3 blasters in a True born Cult. Also I would drop a warrior for another 3x Blaster Trueborn with Venom 2x Splinter Cannon. They give you 6x AT with nearly the same anti infantry of the warriors.

Tau had no chance you are just as fast...faster even and way more firepower.

Jaguar wrote:I have seen that Venom/Lance spawn before...I thought you could only have 3 blasters in a True born Cult.

You can have 4, but many players run 3 as 'tis more economical than 4.

This was almost painful to read. Turn one you went in and cut the army's throat open, the rest was just watching it bleed out. God, that was brutal.

Aside from that, great pictures and extremely easy format to follow. Keep up the good work.

darkcloud92 wrote:Nice batrep and pics, the armies looked really good in the close ups! I pretty much thought it was over for the tau player after turn one, I agree he deployed his stuff to close to you

Thanks dude. He did deploy close to me, I was thinking in my head all those units are dead or taking pain in my first turn.

Lokas wrote:Good battle report and pictures, but one question.

Why didn't you use Hit and Run on the baron to charge his broadsides multiple times? I understand you wanted to keep them tied up, but you could have hit and run after the end of his assault phase, and then re-charge him during your following assault phase so that he never had a shooting phase. It would've taken advantage of Baron's custom skyboard to wound the broadsides on a 2+.

TBH dude this is the second time I've used Baron and something I didn't think of. Thanks for reminding me. Though Baron's board does give him +2 strength anyway, it would have just given me a extra attack

Norn King wrote:Glad im not the only one who doesnt like the sails on the DE ravagers and raiders

I'm not a fan of them, but tbh one of them broke off and then I thought what the hell and just removed the others.

ceku wrote:Nice looking army! Have to say the tau player's list didn't look very suited for the DE.

Thanks dude.

jy2 wrote:Saw his list and knew that he was going to be in trouble.

Big trouble in little china.

Brothererekose wrote:

Norn King wrote:Glad im not the only one who doesnt like the sails on the DE ravagers and raiders

My sails are still in the box and have been since I started with them last spring, *one* with a broken stem. That was enough. Transport issues to boot.

A sympathetic 'duh' for Elliot. I play both DE and Tau. With the amount of open field this terrain offered, mercer should've had the hard time, except for some other "Things Gone Wrong" for the Tau:

1. DeepStriking team of FB/BC suits. Without Target Locks!
a. Waiting in Reserve means less rounds of shooting
b. FBs mean lousy safety range
c. one round of use before dying under Dark Lances.

Fixes:
- No Reserves. Instead, deploy and JSJ at Missile Pod range. Plenty easy to start taking down DE vehicles (I've been on both sides of these guns, against each army).
- BC/MP suits (which appear to have been the first set ate by the BMs

2. Of course, under-estimating the BMs' striking distance.
3. No Bonding in his list.
4. Crappy suit load-outs:
a. Unless the first suits were BC/MP ?
b. Two trios instead of three pairs.

mercer,
Did your buddy know he was facing DE?

I'll pass that info onto him mate. No he didn't know about D.E, but to be fair I didn't know I was facing Tau either

Jaguar wrote:I have seen that Venom/Lance spawn before...I thought you could only have 3 blasters in a True born Cult. Also I would drop a warrior for another 3x Blaster Trueborn with Venom 2x Splinter Cannon. They give you 6x AT with nearly the same anti infantry of the warriors.

Tau had no chance you are just as fast...faster even and way more firepower.

4 blasters max in a Trueborn unit dude

Splinter cannons ftw )

gpfunk wrote:This was almost painful to read. Turn one you went in and cut the army's throat open, the rest was just watching it bleed out. God, that was brutal.

Aside from that, great pictures and extremely easy format to follow. Keep up the good work.

I am evil knviil

Thanks dude.

I may be reading this wrong....
Spearhead = you need to be in corners, 12" from the center AT LEAST.
This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get a first round charge. Why? because you guys need to be at LEAST 24" away from each other.
So, even if you dont play that the unit moves at the slowest speed of the slowest model (in other words, the baron only able to jump out 6"), it would be 12" out, 6" fleet, and 6" charge. 24 inches at best.
Ditto for the dogs.. who seem to be in a river, and are charging a unit in a building.
so a difficult movement roll of a 6, a fleet of a 6, then a difficult terrain charge roll of a 6. (doubles to 12)
Sweet rolling if you can do it, and MULTIPLE charge units too! But still illegal.

The only first round charge Dark Eldar can pull off in normal missions that I can think of right now would be Dawn of War with hellions.


And p.s.- the barons board only gives you +2 strength when you charge, not when in a continued combat.

Anglacon wrote:I may be reading this wrong....
Spearhead = you need to be in corners, 12" from the center AT LEAST.
This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get a first round charge. Why? because you guys need to be at LEAST 24" away from each other.
So, even if you dont play that the unit moves at the slowest speed of the slowest model (in other words, the baron only able to jump out 6"), it would be 12" out, 6" fleet, and 6" charge. 24 inches at best.
Ditto for the dogs.. who seem to be in a river, and are charging a unit in a building.
so a difficult movement roll of a 6, a fleet of a 6, then a difficult terrain charge roll of a 6. (doubles to 12)
Sweet rolling if you can do it, and MULTIPLE charge units too! But still illegal.

The only first round charge Dark Eldar can pull off in normal missions that I can think of right now would be Dawn of War with hellions.


And p.s.- the barons board only gives you +2 strength when you charge, not when in a continued combat.

Spearhead is 12" from the center, meaning there's an arc that hit's each deployment zone effectively creating a pie shaped area that you cannot deploy in. The simplest way to figure the shortest distance between the 2 closest points is by drawing a line between points, and a line from each point to the center of the board, creating a triangle. You can then use the pythagorean theorem and plug in your dimensions and your formula looks like 12² x 12² = C². It works out to 16.97" between the two clostest points. So basically, their deployment was perfectly correct and the shortest distance between them could have been between ~17" and 24" (12" and 12" directly across from each other). Also, if you had read, he detached his HQ, allowing each unit to move their full move, run, assault which works out to a 19" min, 24" max.

Nice Batrep Mercer, congrats on the win.

OT: Mercer, I finally saw your pm the other day and got a response to it.

Anglacon wrote:I may be reading this wrong....
Spearhead = you need to be in corners, 12" from the center AT LEAST.
This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get a first round charge. Why? because you guys need to be at LEAST 24" away from each other.
So, even if you dont play that the unit moves at the slowest speed of the slowest model (in other words, the baron only able to jump out 6"), it would be 12" out, 6" fleet, and 6" charge. 24 inches at best.
Ditto for the dogs.. who seem to be in a river, and are charging a unit in a building.
so a difficult movement roll of a 6, a fleet of a 6, then a difficult terrain charge roll of a 6. (doubles to 12)
Sweet rolling if you can do it, and MULTIPLE charge units too! But still illegal.

The only first round charge Dark Eldar can pull off in normal missions that I can think of right now would be Dawn of War with hellions.


And p.s.- the barons board only gives you +2 strength when you charge, not when in a continued combat.

What exactly is illegal? If you read in the report I split Baron off at the start during the movement phase. In spearhead you start in opposite table quarters with 24" between the centre. Where Elliot deployed was say at 3 o clock and my dogs along with Baron deployed at 7 o clock. This distance in a direct line is 19" away.

The river we ignored as it's just a stream.

Thanks about Baron's +2 strength rule. I didn't know that. I thought it was +2 strength all the time.

Anglacon wrote:So, even if you dont play that the unit moves at the slowest speed of the slowest model (in other words, the baron only able to jump out 6"), it would be 12" out, 6" fleet, and 6" charge. 24 inches at best.

To add to mercer and ThePhish's statements:

1. Raider pivots from a side facing, to nose pointed at the enemy, gaining one inch (pretty much 2) and change, let's say, 1.5 inches. Perfectly legal. too. , but legal.
2. Raider Moves 12" Total So Far: 13.5"
3. Wyches disembark 2", but that is the *back* edge of the leading model. TSFNearly 16".
4. Wyches run, and if you get the full 6", your TSF 21" or nearly 22".
5. Assault another 6" TSF Nearly 28". Fer sure, 27 inches and a wee bit more.

I don't use the pivot , as I don't need to, but I've done the rest for nearly 60 games since this spring.

Given mercer's clock face analogy, positions 3 and 7 o'clock, it was an easy Alpha Strike, Anglacon.

De are brutal, only faced them once and he was a rookie compared to this ruthless slaughter. Ouch