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Played PJ last night at Powerfist. Not looking forward to go against Guard, especially when the week before he gave me a good ass kicking with my Purifiers; luckily I had to make a sharp exit last week before I got tabled!

Dark Eldar 'Kabal of a Thousand Cuts'

HQ

Baron Sathonyx

Elite

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

Beastmasters - 3 x Beastmasters, 5 x Khymera & 4 x Razorwing Flocks

Heavy Support

Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield


Imperial Guard & Battle Sisters

HQ

Company Command Squad w/ Chimera - 4 x meltaguns
St.Celestine

Troops

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns
10 x Battle Sisters w/ Rhino - flamer & heavy bolter

Fast Attack

Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta

Heavy Support

Manticore
Manticore
Exorcist

Fortifications

Sky Shield Landing Pad

Game: the scouring + hammer and anvil

Warlord Traits: Dark Eldar - night attacker Guard - -1 to enemy reserves

Deployment

I won the roll off for deployment and going first turn.

Objectives had been placed with one on my left flank, one in the centre in a large ruin, one on the right on a rock, two by the sky shield pad and another between the sky shield and a ruin on the right flank.

I deployed with all my Ravagers on the right, they are turned on their side to gain a little extra movement and protect Venoms behind. Beastmasters deploy in the middle with remaining Venoms behind.

PJ deploys the two Manticores and Exorcist on top of the sky shield, then all his vehicles castle up behind the ruin on the right flank.

We turn over the objectives and the one in the ruin on my right flank is 1 point, rock objective is 2 points, centre ruin 3 points, ones on the left flank of the sky shield 3 and 4 points and last one between the sky shield and ruin on the right flank is worth 2 points.



* Tactical Notes

Ok, I spread my force across the table, which is unusual for me. I will move the Ravagers up and get first turn shots on the Manticores while all other units move up and blast Celestine to bits (she's in a ruin on the back right flank), ones over on the right flank will move flat out and relocate my army away from PJ's guns. Beastmasters will move up through the centre ruin so act as another threat alongside the Ravagers.

And of course, I am using night fighting .

Turn 1

PJ seizes the intiative! Eek!

Chimeras come rocking forward with the one at the back moving 12".

One Chimera fires at a Ravager and does no damage, but lights it up with the searchlight. One Manticore bombs the lit up Ravager, it is stunned and immobilised. Other Manticore and Exorcist fire at the same Ravager and fail to take it out, pity as PJ could have got a point for first blood. All other Chimeras fire at light up another Ravager, which loses a hull point.

Ok, my first turn, and PJ's first turn wasn't as bad as I thought. I move up the operational Ravagers and move Venoms down the right flank, Trueborn Venoms are with the Ravagers. Beastmasters with Baron walk and run through the centre ruin; next turn they will be in assault.

Shooting; two Ravagers fire at a Manticore, first one misses all shots, but the other manages to blow it up after PJ fails the shield save! First blood to me . Splinter cannons from some Venoms on the right flank blast Celestine and leave her with one wound. I then move all Venoms who cannot shoot flat out and get in PJ's face - now I have a big bulk of Venoms on the left flank, away from PJ's plasma and meltaguns and next turn I can move up; he has several threats on the right flank, which he can deal with so many.



* Tactical Notes

Not a too bad first turn. I thought it would have gone a lot worse. I did want to hit PJ harder tbh before his Vendettas come in, which I perhaps could have done if I had first turn.

Turn 2

PJ rolls for reserve and a single Vendetta arrives, it flys over the Chimeras and lands in front of my two Ravagers. Chimeras move about a bit and I think that's it. Celestine moves up and looks to be ready to tackle the Beastmasters; she crazy!?

Shooting; Vendetta blasts a Ravager and scores immobilised and weapon destroyed. Manticore blasts another along with the Exorcist, though Manticore scatters the Exorcist takes it out. Multi lasers, heavy bolters and plasma guns fire into Venoms, I lose a troop Venom and a Trueborn one; both squads pass pinning tests.

Assault; Celenstine assaults the Trueborn, two die, but she dies as well. Slight mistake here on my part as I thought it was a 4 man Trueborn unit, though it was a unit of 3.

Dark Eldar second turn; troop unit now on foot and depleted Trueborn move to get into side armour of Chimeras. Mass Venoms move down the right flank with a unit of Trueborn bailing out ready to tackle the other Manticore. Beastmasters move up ready to multi assault a Chimera and also the CCS's ride, Baron splits the unit.

Shooting; mass blasters shoot the Chimera on the right flank and it goes boom, splinter cannons fire into the unit and only three remain, they are also pinned! Blasters fire into the other Chimeras, but I only take off hull points. Ravagers fire into the Vendetta and it is shaken. Trueborn blast into the Manticore and take off a hull point while blasters from supporting troops blast the Exorcist, though all are rubbish and miss!

Assault; Baron assaults the closest Chimera while the Beastmasters multi assault it and the CCS one; Baron fails to cause any damage, though the Beastmasters do excellent and the CCS Chimera is wrecked (squad passes pinning test) and the other Chimera has a single hull point left and is stunned; looks like Guard are a fair bit surpressed.





* Tactical Notes

It's all going well so far; I've got all my units in PJ's face and can easily get all but one objective, though the other I can zoom back to get it if needed. I have disembarked his CCS, whom is Commander is the warlord - easy to kill now. The Beastmasters have done well and will prove a nice distaction for PJ. I also think PJ will have a problem with the Manticore, as it is up in the air on the platform, it won't be able to draw LOS on all my units which are close by.

Next turn I'll splinter the CCS to death while tanks get opened by blasters, Beastmasters and Baron.

Turn 3

Guard turn; CCS moves in front of the Beastmasters with meltas primed. Sisters move in their Rhino towards the CCS and bail out and move behind them, bolters also aimed at the Beastmasters. Celestine moves near Baron and aims her heavy flamer at the Beastmasters also. Operational Chimera moves forward ready to unleash fire power. Another Vendetta also shows up.

Shooting; Manticore fires into the immobilised Ravager and it is toast. Exorcist fires at a Trueborn Venom lingering near the Ravager and it goes boom; two Trueborn die and the squad fail morale and fall back 5". Plasma squad inside the Chimera blast the troop unit on foot, the Chimera adds fire power and the squad is destroyed. CCS, Sisters and Celestine take a combined effort to wipe the Beastmasters out; PJ gains a point for killing my fast attack unit.

Dark Eldar turn; I fly Baron over towards the CCS while Venoms move about and take aim at the Battle Sisters. A few other Venoms reposition to blast the stunned Chimera. Trueborn regroup and move towards the shaken Vendetta.

Shooting; the lone ranger Trueborn blasts the side armour of the stunned Chimera and it goes boom; six Guardsmen die out of nine (one died to overheating plasma), splinter cannons then finish them off. Blasters fire into the last Chimera and reduce it down to a single hull point. The pinned depleted plasma unit is wiped out by splinter cannons also. Remaining Venoms open up on the Battle Sisters and wipe out half a squad; Sisters pass morale. Trueborn fire quad blasters into the Manticore and take off another hull point and score immobilised. Other blasters in supporting Venoms by the Trueborn fire at the Exorcist, but again they are crap.

Assault; Baron assaults the CCS, but he is rubbish and fails to score a single wound. Baron takes a wound back and saves it.



* Tactical Notes

While things are looking grim for PJ, he still could cause a win using his Vendettas to capture the objectives at the back of the board towards my deployment zone. If he manages to kill Baron also and hold onto the objectives he will win.

However, the objective in the centre is close to my troops and the objective with the 4 points on PJ cannot land any flyers by and troops will never reach it alive.

Turn 4

Due to time, we're calling it a day on this turn.

The last Vendetta turns up and lands by the 3 point objective on the right of the sky shield. Battle Sisters move to capture the 2 point objective on the right side of the sky shield. Vendetta which was previously stunned moves and captures the 2 point objective on the rock while the other moves supersonic and captures the 1 point objective.

Shooting; Manticore bombs the surviving Trueborn by the Vendetta on the rock, the second shot hits the immobilised Ravager and both units are destroyed - that objective is 100% PJ's. Not sure what the Sisters and Exorcist fires at.

Assault; Celestine charges into Baron. Baron challenges the Commander, who refuses, Celestine wounds Baron, who saves, and Baron scores a few wounds on the CCS who pass armour saves. Baron does hit and run and zooms off, this will allow me to fire with splinter cannons and re-charge Baron again.

As it stands PJ has a total of 9 points. I cannot reach the 2 point objective on the rock or the 1 point objective in the ruin, so those are his. I can however easily contest the 3 point objective which the Vendetta is holding and contest the objective the Sisters have. I only need to bail troops out of their Venoms and I can easily claim the 4 point objective and also the 3 point objective.

D.E's last turn; troops bail out the Venoms and I claim the centre ruin objective, contest the objective the Vendetta holds and claim the 4 point objective, this gives me a total of 8 points (first blood). I move Baron forward to assault, but I forget to contest the Sister objective. All Venoms fire into the CCS and the squad is wiped out, which I gain a point for slay the warlord.

Game ends here. Dark Eldar have 9 points and Guard have 6. Dark Eldar win the game.



Summary

Well, I was expecting the reverse in that game; PJ give me the beating, as Dark Eldar do not like Imperial Guard, at least a full I.G list. I did think I was doomed when PJ stole the initiative and had his cheesy tanks in shield setup .Luckily for me, things didn't go well for PJ first turn, this is partly because he fired the Manticores before searchlights. If he had remembered his searchlights he would have took out another Ravager first turn, however the Ravager he did want to aim for actually achieved nothing and got blown up second turn.

I think what helped me the most was moving the bulk of my army the other side of the board so majority of PJ's guns could not fire; plasma guns, meltaguns were out of range, as were the Sisters and the Manticore couldn't draw LOS from it's position. Then it was just a case of giving a few threats in the form of Beastmasters, Ravagers, Trueborn and a sacrifice troop unit to get PJ's attention while the rest of the army goes untouched. Luckily for me I went flat out and got a 4+ jink save, which my skimmers did really well saving with.

Thanks for the report and the pictures -- However claiming a win for DE is tenuous at best considering you called the game early due to time. Had the game reached a natural conclusion It appears as if the IG player had the firepower required still left to decimate your scoring units that were leftover.

Not saying it was a guaranteed win for PJ, because you both seem to have played really well. However, claiming the win on a shortened game is totally a DE move.

If both players agree to end the game at a certain turn and both players setup units to win, then whoever wins is the game winner. Just because a game doesn't go the full game turns doesn't mean someone cannot score a victory and then someone claim it false. After all, would it be different if Pj won?

The game result would have been worse for Pj if the game carried on. I am not sure if you read the entire report, as end of turn 4 Pj only had immobile manticore, exorcist and half a sisterssquad along with vendettas. He only has vendettas to tackle my venoms and sisters for my troops, which were the other side of the board. The manticore wouldn't be able to fire ad cannot draw los. Plus all my troops were on one flank out of range of pj's guns.

If i had got turn 5 then i would have easily wiped out his remaining sisters and scored that objective while i had enough blasters to rear end the vendetta which was contesting a objective, which i had damaged earlier and had it at locked velocity, so it actually would have had to move about and switch places with another one.

Well I play DE and IG. DE definitely hit their peek earlier then most in Objective games and usually struggle to hold them now in 6th as you have to leave your ride. Guard wins battles of attrition. That said it looked like a brutal game and I think Mercer had the edge going second in the night fight scenario. You also seemed to have hot dice being able to hit his fliers.

PJ definitely needs more scoring units in his list also. Was he defensive firing with his occupants? He had a solid chance as killing the baron with his specials with all that hitting and running and recharging. Also he didn't use the manticores very well, remember splash damage is the full S10 now, so he should have taken out your fleet or at least tried.

Excellent game as always you even were kind enough to include a shot of some gentleman picking his arse

As always, love the batreps. Now I recall where I got the idea for the razorwings!

Red Corsair wrote:Well I play DE and IG. DE definitely hit their peek earlier then most in Objective games and usually struggle to hold them now in 6th as you have to leave your ride. Guard wins battles of attrition. That said it looked like a brutal game and I think Mercer had the edge going second in the night fight scenario. You also seemed to have hot dice being able to hit his fliers.

PJ definitely needs more scoring units in his list also. Was he defensive firing with his occupants? He had a solid chance as killing the baron with his specials with all that hitting and running and recharging. Also he didn't use the manticores very well, remember splash damage is the full S10 now, so he should have taken out your fleet or at least tried.

Excellent game as always you even were kind enough to include a shot of some gentleman picking his arse

Yes, objective games are a bit tougher on D.E for the reason you mentioned. I just hope the game ends, have decent cover or no enemy units to threaten them. Lot of things to consider.

I only only hit his Vendettas twice I think, though what was hot was taking out that Manticore with a single shot .

I agree, PJ's list def needs more scoring units. Yes he was firing his occupants, though the CCS only fired once as short range melta. I also agree, he put the template covering on Ravager, which hit, I had spaced out my Venoms to be fair. The shot did scatter, but I read the rules wrong on that one, so my fault.

Hey, thought you would like some arse picking

Iago wrote:As always, love the batreps. Now I recall where I got the idea for the razorwings!

Thanks about the report, dude. Cheap and cheerful Razorwings ftw

Thanks for the report. Rather disappointed in the guard list. Seems like a waste to just ally in an exorcist and celestine. At least get some Seras.

What are the razorwings made out of? They look great, better than the real deal IMO.

pretre wrote:Thanks for the report. Rather disappointed in the guard list. Seems like a waste to just ally in an exorcist and celestine. At least get some Seras.

I have to agree, the Exorcist was pretty useless and Celestine did nothing.

Illumini wrote:What are the razorwings made out of? They look great, better than the real deal IMO.

They are made out of the blades from the D.E vehicles. I just cut the stubs off and glued the blades together.

Too much reliance on the artillery in the landing pad, which ate up points for his scoring units.

Looks like you got into his face before he could really put out some firepower.

I agree, too many eggs in one basket. Makes the list diluted and not enough units in other areas of the army.

The shield I had issues with as I don't think you can put vehicles on it. Anyway, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I got that close his Manticore on top couldn't see down, lol

I thought that the era of small units was over but it does not really seem that way. Good job mercer! and as always thank you for sharing.

Hey good report just a few things to note to next time:

1) manticores have a minimum range so regardless or Los or not it can't fire under the min.

2) vendettas (and all flyers) can never capture or contest objectives as distance is measured from its hull which is more than 3" off the ground.

3) this I couldn't really tell or not, but you talked about limiting manticore Los. It's barrage so if there is a target anywhere within range (barring over 36" night fight unless lit up) it can fire just without subtracting BS.

Emp. wrote:
Hey good report just a few things to note to next time:

1) manticores have a minimum range so regardless or Los or not it can't fire under the min.

They can in 6th.

Emp. wrote:

2) vendettas (and all flyers) can never capture or contest objectives as distance is measured from its hull which is more than 3" off the ground.

They can if the objective is elevated.

eldartau1987 wrote:I thought that the era of small units was over but it does not really seem that way. Good job mercer! and as always thank you for sharing.

I am not 100% sure on MSU. I mean saturate the board with enough threats and the opponent still has problems. I think if you're doing MSU you will have to max your troop slots out though.

Emp. wrote:Hey good report just a few things to note to next time:

1) manticores have a minimum range so regardless or Los or not it can't fire under the min.

2) vendettas (and all flyers) can never capture or contest objectives as distance is measured from its hull which is more than 3" off the ground.

3) this I couldn't really tell or not, but you talked about limiting manticore Los. It's barrage so if there is a target anywhere within range (barring over 36" night fight unless lit up) it can fire just without subtracting BS.

Thanks for the info. Manticores can fire directly if they wish.

Vendettas can capture objectives if the hull is within 3", but noted on the rock objective. I'll remember this for next time.

3. As mentioned, the Manticore couldn't draw LOS because I was too close and it was elevated on the platform. If firing ordnance barrage then you do not have to have LOS, but you do have minium range, which is 24" for a Manticore. Because I was about 6" away it couldn't drop barrage on me either. You just said about min range for Manticore as well

I agree mercer. I would also say that MSU is only good for a few armies.

Yeah, suspect so. I think Tau would work better in larger units because all they do is shoot. While D.E just shoot, there is no advantage to taking extra Warriors, of course you need to take a Ravager then too.

True, i think that the venom/ raider style list balances better in this edition.