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Past weekend I had just enough time to get a quick game in with newly painted DE army. Opponent had a limited list so I had about 1300 pts to play with.

DE:
HQ - Archon - Shadowfield, PGL, Drugs, Agonizer.
Haemonculus - Venomblade, Webway Portal, Scissor Blades

Elite - 10 Incubi
Troops - 20 Warriors w 2 Spintercannons
10 Warriors w Blaster & Splintercannon
10 Wyches: Razorflail & Hydra, Hek: Agonizer, PGL Haywire Grenades.
Fast - 6 Bikes: 2 x Heat Lance, Grav Talon and Caltrop
6 Bikes: 2 x Heat Lance, Grav Talon and Caltrop

Necron:

HQ: Destroyer Lord: Phylactery, Scythe
C'tan = Destroyer?
Troops: 12 Warriors
12 Warriors
Not positive on the rest:
3 Destroyers
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Tomb Spyder
6 Scarabs


Spearhead/Annihilation mission. From my perspective. He won deployment. From my perspective Monolith, Scarabs and Spyder on my left. Heavy destroyer on top of a 3-story building on my left center with the C'tan in front. Destroyer squadron with his destroyer lord and one squad of 12 warriors on the center line of the battlefield. He placed the other warrior squad in reserve within the monolith. I deployed the 20 warriors with the haemonculus on the centerline of the battlefield in my quarter and placed the rest in reserve. I refused to steal the initiative.

Necron 1: The monolith drifted to the left center while the tomb spyder and scarabs started a slow move together on the left edge. The C'tan moved into the big central ruined building while the destroyer squadron zoomed 12" up the center line on a city road. The warriors moved in behind the destroyers. Everything ran except the destroyers who unleashed on my kalabite squad killing 3 kalabites.

DE 1: I separated the warriors who drifted left and the two splintercannons put two wound on the C'tan. Meanwhile the haemonculus went of the centerline, deployed the web portal and then charged the destroyers. The HTH saw the haemonculus only hit with 2 poisoned attacks out of 5 but caused one destroyer to drop. In turn he was killed by the necron lord.

Necron 2: The destroyer stood up on WBB. The tomb spider moved down the left flank while the scarabs zoomed into my board edge threatening the left flank of my warriors. The necron warriors traded position with the destroyers and moved in front of them on the centerline of the table. The reserve squad of warriors came out of the monolith and ran into the left center of the battlefield while the monolith basically stood still due to lack of space shifting slightly to the left-center. The C'tan not liking losing 2 of its 5 wounds advanced to cover to block my line of sight. 3 more kalabites died from destroyer fire. (S6 kills despite FNP.)

DE 2: Reserves the 10-man kalabite squad came in on my left edge while the bikes entered from the webway portal and zoomed to the necron edge of the board on the far left, in doing so their blades caused 9 S4 and 2 S6 hits on the heavy destroyer which dropped and having no match near-by died giving the bikes a KP and a Pain marker. The 14 remaining original warriors and the new squad of 10 opened up with assault weapons on the scarabs but caused no damage. Both warriors charged the scarabs and won the CC running down the scarabs and granting a pain token to them. (2 KP to 1 DE-favor. All 3 DE units have a pain token.)

Necron 3: The monolith moved back to the left while the destroyers backed up to his edge on the center line. The monolith picked up the new 12 warrior squad and disembarked in rapid fire range of the reaver bikes. The C'tan and the center-line warriors moved and ran into position to block any DE entry from the web portal. The tomb spider moved down the left flank managing to build one stand worth of scarabs. All the necron fire from the monolith, destroyers and warriors managed to only kill 2 bikes due to FNP and 3++ saves but the bikes broke and skirted back along the left edge of the board but still within 6" of the monolith.

DE 3: The fleeing bikes were too close to rally this turn and ran back a further 12" along the left edge. Meanwhile the archon and incubi entered from reserve along the right edge of the board. The other bike squad entered in the left center from my edge. Only the wyches refused to enter. The 10-man warriors moved to the left flank while the 14-man moved back towards the centerline of the board. The 14-man squad put another wound on the C'tan. Both bike units and the 10-man warriors opened up on the scarab/tomb spider and managed to put 5 wounds onto them killing the unit and granting 1 KP and a pain token to the new bike squad. (3 KP to 1 DE-favor. 4 out of 5 DE units with one pain token.)

Store was close to closing and so we called it then. The necrons got 1 KP since the one bike squad was not rallied. Final DE 3 KP Necron 2 KP. Reality a tie due to the wyches still being in reserve.

Aftermath: I am impressed by the DE for their first time out. Even without vehicles, their speed is good and their firepower respectable. The DE bikes are definitely my favorite. Jetbike move from the center of the board, move 36" and still deal out an average of 10 S4 and 3+ S6 wounds. Meanwhile the next turn they have 3++ save and a good chance of a pain token. I definitely felt like I was toying with the opponent picking off any exposed or weak unit with the bikes. The potential of entering through a webway portal also added to the pressure on. A little issue was having no good answer to the monolith other than haywire grenades and one blaster but speed was my ally even on foot and the monolith while basically impervious, couldn't be everywhere. Poison made a joke of the C'tan as T8 was no protection for him. One fire phase from a squad of Kalabites in rapid fire range and he would have most certainly dropped.

Next I will get 5 raiders done and go the mobile route. Currently glad not to have ravagers as I am finding bikes and plain-old warriors cause enough headaches. I
do plan to add some fighers or fighter bombers but I must admit I am really tempted to max my fast attacks with 3 bike units. AT and anti-personnel stars just very much of a glass hammer unit. (Perfect dark eldar feel.)

Sounds like you are having a blast with the feel of the army!

Dark Eldar is one of the only armies that actually plays and feels like its fluff down to a unit, case in point the fun you are having with Reavers!

Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks. Been reading your ongoing too. Your first battle reports kind of opened my eyes to them as a possibility so double thanks.

DAaddict wrote:Thanks. Been reading your ongoing too. Your first battle reports kind of opened my eyes to them as a possibility so double thanks.

Really?

That is the whole point of my battle reports!

I am so glad I could be of service...

A monolith and a C'tan at 1300? Sounds like the Necron player was bringing too many toys.

Scarabs are fearless so would not break and run due to losing combat.

Good luck in the future and have fun!!!

I believe your opponent cheated you:

Assuming we've got the Nightbringer as the C'tan you've got 485 points in the HQ choice there. If it was the Deceiver then it bumps down to 425 points.

12 Warriorsx2 is 432.

Fast attack totals at 222.

Heavy support jumps to 355.

So if he was fielding the Nightbringer he swindled you at 1434 points, well over the 1300 limit and if it was the Deceiver then it only falls by a mere 60 points. I'd watch that guy.

The Unforgiven Saint wrote:A monolith and a C'tan at 1300? Sounds like the Necron player was bringing too many toys.

Scarabs are fearless so would not break and run due to losing combat.

Good luck in the future and have fun!!!

Newer necron player wanting to test his big stuff so I didn't mind.

Scarabs didn't run but died to fearless losses = my bad.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Azure wrote:I believe your opponent cheated you:

Assuming we've got the Nightbringer as the C'tan you've got 485 points in the HQ choice there. If it was the Deceiver then it bumps down to 425 points.

12 Warriorsx2 is 432.

Fast attack totals at 222.

Heavy support jumps to 355.

So if he was fielding the Nightbringer he swindled you at 1434 points, well over the 1300 limit and if it was the Deceiver then it only falls by a mere 60 points. I'd watch that guy.

He is a new player and still learning and apparently learning math too. My advantage is being an old gamer - doesn't cost me any points to field me. He is learning and it didn't feel too much in his favor for me to test the DE. I was a bit concerned by the monolith but Nightbringer is not real scary to a veteran player when the majority of my army drops T8 MCs almost as fast as I can drop hoards of termagaunts. As a matter of fact - I almost felt like Nightbringer was to my advantage.

It was a good first outing with a new codex for me but not a full test against the best generals in my area. Hopefully do that this weekend.

Try teaming up a unit of Hellions with a unit of Reavers. The bikes soften up the target and the Hellions clean it up. The bikes are always boosting for the 3++ and the Hellions get FnP, and then Furious Charge.

I really like giving the reavers the Grav-Talon for pinning if I can. Having multiple small units of them all provoking pinning tests is a lot of fun against low-moral armies like IG (especially if you make them go to ground like 5 inches from an objective). I usually pack the Cluster Caltrops for tougher cookies, such as MEQ. I really like that WWP and fast attack combo you used, it's inspired me The ability to safely bring out that much fast attack doomage at a snap of your fingers must really be handy to whittle people down before a charge, or to get the extra distance you need on the turbo boost to avoid being charged.