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My good friend and I often play team games at our FLGS with a combination of his Dark Eldar and my Craftworlders. We've enjoyed quite of bit of success due to our synergy of play style and the absurdity of being Battle Brothers on the allies chart.

However, in the interest of forging a narrative that we could stomach, we couldn't just let our armies go on fighting side by side all the time. It was too much. We decided it was time that we faced off against one another. (I'll work out the background for the narrative in time).

First things first, we decided that a 1000 point game was about right for a light skirmish that could eventually escalate into something more intense and was therefor a good starting point for our narrative.

My list included
HQ: Farseer - Both Runes
HQ: Autarch - Reaper Launcher / Chainsword / Mandiblasters
HQ: Warlocks (3)

Troops: Dire Avengers (5) - Exarch / Diresword & Pistol
Troops: Dire Avengers (5) - Exarch / Diresword & Pistol

Elites: Striking Scorpions (6) - Exarch / Biting Blade / Crushing Blow
Elites: Striking Scorpions (6) - Exarch / Biting Blade / Crushing Blow

Heavy: War Walkers (2) - Scatters Lasers (2 per)
Heavy: Wraithlord - Sword / Scatter Laser / Bright Lance

(exactly 1000 points)

His list included
HQ: Archon - Shadow Field / Agonizer / Blast Pistol

Troops: Kabalites (10) - Sybrite, Splinter Cannon
Troops: Kabalites (10) - Sybrite, Splinter Cannon
DT: Radier - Night Shields / Flicker Fields / Splinter Racks
DT: Radier - Night Shields / Flicker Fields / Splinter Racks

Elite: Incubi (5)
DT: Venom - Upgrade to second Splinter Cannon / Night Shields

FA: Reavers (3) - Blaster / Cluster Caltrops
FA: Reavers (3) - Blaster / Cluster Caltrops

HS: Ravager - Night Shields / Flicker Fields

(was actually closer to 1050 points but I let it slide)



First thing we did was roll for our Mission. We got Emperor's Will. and followed that up with Dawn of War deployment.

We set up the table with Imperial terrain to suit the mission type (sort of) and had mostly flat surface with lots of Crumbled buildings and ruble (destroyed columns, derelict buildings, wall fragments, etc).

Then we each placed our single objective marker in our respective table half.

All of our units were basically at the front of our deployment zones ducking in cover. My Farseer was in a ruin with line of site to guide my troops (She rolled Mind War / Executioner / And death Mission, which I just subbed out for her Pimaris (Guide))
My Warlocks were her bodyguard with each one getting a unique power (Destructer/renewer, Project/Jinx, Empower/Enervate). I marked the models with dice to notate which one had which power. The Dire Avengers started with on squad behind cover near the objective, and the other squad a few inches to their right, with the Wraithlord hanging out in front of them. Both war walkers were deployed with the Scorpions but scout mpoved a few inches ahead after deployment. The Exarch on the other side of my Avengers.

I can't recal the exaclt position of all my buddy's units at the start, but they were basically all similar to mine except that all of his infantry were embarked in vehicles (archon was with the Incubi).

he attempted to steal the initiative and failed.

Remember that because we started basically at the front of our deployment zones we both took a huge gamble. I knew that his jetbikes would get to me in 1 turn with their turbo-boost and I'd take way too many hits to survive in any of my small squads (min 3 max 12) just for them moving over me. I also knew that he would have the volume of fire advantage so I had to close the distance since my guns had a shorter range. He needed to be at the front to maximize his turn one damage and still make it to me for assault. both of us being at the edge meant we were effectively 24" inches from each other at the start.

Turn 1 player 1: Farseer Guides War walkers + both squads of DA. I opened fire with my War Walkers, 16 shots at S6 on the Venom nearest to them. It went down due to HP damage from glances but it passed the saves agaisnt the hits that rolled on the table (First Blood). The Wraithlord did the same thing to his ravager but was much less effective, doing no damage at all after the saves. My scorpions ran instead of shooting. My Avengers just kind of hung out. The Autarch fired her missiles at one of the squads of bikes and in a lucky set of rolls she killed all 3 (2 blast templates with a BS6 is pretty evil).

Turn 1 player 2: His remaining squad of reavers flew at my war walkers to take their chances with the blaster (which missed). His ravager opened up on them, killing 1 and leaving the survivor with 1 HP. His nearby Raider flew by and fired its Dark Lance at the War Walker and finished it off. The other Raider drove up to my Wraithlord, missed with it's dark lance, but the massed volume of poisoned shots from the embarked squad just ruined the poor guy and he died as well. The squad of Incubi and his Archon moved toward my DA, just outside their range.

Turn 2 player 1: I moved my scorpions up again, closer to the ravager (which was now a little bit behind the nearby raiders, and had the second squad fire pistol shots at the reavers, killing 1). The Autarch did not move, the DA both moved up 6", as did the Warlocks. My Autarch fired a missile at the Raier in front of the first squad of Scorpions. It hit, and wrecked the vehicle since it was open-topped. The crew was forced to disembark. Farseer guided one of the Avenger squads and targeted the Archon with Mind War. Deny the witch failed and the archon suffered 2 Wounds and had her stats reduced. She failed her inv save and lost her night shield. The Avengers let loose on the Archon and her Incubi, killed 2 incubi and the Archon (slay the warlord). The scorpions in front charged the squad which was recently ejected from from their raider, took 1 casualty to overwatch, and the exarch challanged the Sybrite, killing him before his initiative step arrived. The 4 remaining scorpions killed 4 kabalites and suffered no wounds themselves. The Kabalite's moral broke and they fled, falling back toward the table edge after they passed the init test to avoid sweeping advance. The second squad charged the remaining 2 reavers, killing them both and suffering no casualties.

Turn 2 player 2: The Ravager opened up on my Autarch, killing her pretty much instantly since S8 lances are massive overkill to a T3 little space elf. (Slay the Warlord). The fleeing squad failed to regroup. The second Raider moved to target my warlocks, killing 1. The Icnubi moved up and charged the DA squad nearest to them. They failed the charge distance roll and both models died to overwatch (sucks when the roll of six needed to hit in overwatch also makes the weapon AP2).


Turn 3 player 1: The two squads of Scorpions both fired at the Ravager, dealing 2 HP. The Warlock with Destructor fired a shot at the Ravager, finishing it off with the last HP. The Farseer guided the two squads of Avenger squads, who dealt 3 glancing hits to the remainging Raider, forcing a disembarcation.

Turn 3 player 2: The first squad of Kabalites continued to fall back & off the table edge. His last remaining squad of kabalites opened fire on my DA, killing 2 of them, but they passed their moral test and faught on. They then fell behind cover.

Turn 4 player 1: both squads of scorpions, the squad of warlocks and 1 squad of DA moved forward toward the remaining DE. The other (weaker) squad of DA fell back to the objective on my half after some running. The Farseer just chilled. The First squad of DA and both squads of Scorpions fired and killed 4 kabalites. The Warlocks were just outside of range for destructor. The scorpions then clsoed in, and killed the remaining Kabalites to the man.

Total score at the end of the game was
Dark Eldar: 4 (3 from kill points, 1 from Slay the Warlord)
Eldar: 14 (9 from kill points, 1 from the fleeing squad leaving the game, 1 from Slay the Warlord, and 3 from the Objective per the mission rules).

Good to see a Dark Eldar / Eldar battle report

A lot of ruling mistakes though (some of them might be me not understanding correctly what you wrote):

My list included
HQ: Farseer - Both Runes
HQ: Autarch - Reaper Launcher / Chainsword / Mandiblasters
HQ: Warlocks (3)

You cannot take 3 HQ under 2000 pts. And if you are above 2000 pts and take 3 or 4 HQ, you need at least 4 troops.

His list included
HQ: Archon - Shadow Field / Agonizer / Blast Pistol
...
Elite: Incubi (5)
DT: Venom - Upgrade to second Splinter Cannon / Night Shields

You cannot fit 5 Incubi + 1 Archon in a Venom, whose transport capacity is 5.

It went down due to HP damage from glances but it passed the saves agaisnt the hits that rolled on the table (First Blood).

First blood is earned at the first killed UNIT, not model (wouldn't have changed the final score, the first unit killed being the reavers... should have made 1 unit of 6 bikes!). The Venom is not a separate unit, it is a dedicated transport (part of the unit).

It hit, and wrecked the vehicle since it was open-topped

What's the link between being open-topped and being wrecked more easily? An open-topped vehicle suffers a +1 malus on the Vehicle Damage Table, not on its penetration roll. Thus it explodes more easily, but does not lose HP more easily (in your case it didn't explode since you didn't mention any damage to the embarked troop).

Farseer guided one of the Avenger squads and targeted the Archon with Mind War

Mind War is a focused witchfire, but it can target a specific model only on a 5- on the psychic test, otherwise the targeted model is randomly selected (just a remark, maybe you rolled a 5- on the psychic test). Moreover, this is subject to debate, but nothing prevents an independant character or a character to make a "look out, sir!" in response to this power. This is sad, really, but no errata was published for now, and the precision shot rule (which does not concern focused witchfire but is similar) explicitly states that "look out, sir!" rolls are allowed..

sucks when the roll of six needed to hit in overwatch also makes the weapon AP2

The roll of 6 to hit on overwatch does not make shuriken weapons AP2, because shuriken weapons are made AP2 on a 6 to WOUND (bladestorm rule, similar to rending).

Total score at the end of the game was
Dark Eldar: 4 (3 from kill points, 1 from Slay the Warlord)
Eldar: 14 (9 from kill points, 1 from the fleeing squad leaving the game, 1 from Slay the Warlord, and 3 from the Objective per the mission rules).

In an Emperor's Will mission, no points are earned for killing units, so the final score would be:
Dark Eldar: 1 (1 from Slay the Warlord)
Eldar: 5 (1 from first blood, 1 from Slay the Warlord, and 3 from the Objective per the mission rules).
Plus, you annihilated the Dark Eldar army, so this is actually an auto-win (no need to calculate victory points). Plus you would have had 1 or 2 turns left to get the other objective and the "line breaker" secondary objective for an additional 4 points

madmox wrote:
Good to see a Dark Eldar / Eldar battle report
You cannot take 3 HQ under 2000 pts. And if you are above 2000 pts and take 3 or 4 HQ, you need at list 4 troops.

Warlocks don't take a slot.

First blood is earned at the first killed UNIT, not model (wouldn't have changed the final score, the first unit killed being the reavers... should have made 1 unit of 6 bikes!). The Venom is not a separate unit, it is a dedicated transport (part of the unit).

A Venom is a unit. Kill a Venom and you get a VP in Purge the Alien, or First Blood (if applicable).

What's the link between being open-topped and being wrecked more easily? An open-topped vehicle suffers a +1 malus on the Vehicle Damage Table, not on its penetration roll. Thus it explodes more easily, but does not lose HP more easily (in your case it didn't explode since you didn't mention any damage to the embarked troop).

I assume that's what he meant.

Warlocks don't take a slot.

My bad, but I claim tireness and bad knowledge of the Eldar codex ^^

A Venom is a unit. Kill a Venom and you get a VP in Purge the Alien, or First Blood (if applicable).

This one I have no excuse for... being a Dark Eldar player :/

I assume that's what he meant.

If that's what he meant, either he forgot to mention the damage inflicted to the crew (indeed more probable) or he considered the raider was wrecked due to 0 HP (but I can't see anywhere where it would have lost the other 2, so you're probably right).

I'll have to ask that you all forgive all the odd typos and strange jumping around in that report. I was writing it at the office and while it was a slow day I did get distracted by a few small things which meant I had to pause and resume writing it. I did seem to leave out some details.

When I said that the vehicle was wrecked more easily because it was opened topped, I was referring to the Vehicle Damage Table. The roll on the table is more likely to result in a Wrecked or Explodes roll when modified by +1.

As for the Venom. It's possible that he had only 4 Incubi. I wrote the report from memory and not as the match was happening. I don't think that he would have made that mistake but it is possible. We always play with our codices out and open so that either of us can reference any rule we are unfamiliar with as a courtesy (we've been friends for ages so it's more of a habit at this point).