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I played in a tournament tonight and it was a textbook game for the Dark Eldar.

DE list:
Vect w/ 9 witchs
duke silicus w/ 20 man warriors

9 incubi w/ klaivex demiklav raider

10 witch w/ raider; agoniser; 2 (b2b -1 attack models)
10 witch w/ raider; agoniser; 2 (D6 attacks)
9 witch w/ raider; agoniser; 1 (b2b -1 attack)
10 warriors w/ raider (splinter racks); splinter cannon
20 warriors w/ 2 splinter cannon

3 Reavers caltrops; blaster
Scourges 2 haywire launchers

ravager
ravager
Talos Pain engine TL haywire launcher

Daemons:
Fateweaver
Skarbrand

8 bloodcrusher (icon; instrument; fury)
8 bloodcrusher (same set up)
8 bloodcrusher (same set up)

5 Plague bearers
5 plague bearers
5 plague bearers
5 plague bearers
5 plague bearers

3 x soul grinders no Battle cannons for them


Deployment: spearhead
Mission: Sieze one obj in deployment zones

I roll to win first turn.

I deploy my entire army save the scourges (by accident). I roll 2 and 3 for combat drugs. I pick 3 to get +1 Strength
Turn 1: The Bait
DE: He does not sieze. I pull opporation spread out. Everyone moves flat with a majority of my army heading towards his obj.
I move warriors in raider to the far left of his side of the obj. and send to units of witchs as support up the middle. I move the reavers flat out 36 inch's. My general tactic is to cover a majority of the board to prevent deep striking. Vect and his squad go right. The two ravagers move flat out and park in the middle of the board. The Talos moves right to get in the space inbetween vect and my 20 man warrior unit that is spread out on a hill where my obj is.

Daemons: He rolls his primary force which is : Fateweaver, Skarbrand, 1 Troop, 1 skullcrusher, 3 soultakers.
He deploys the skull crushers near his obj and they hit. He deploy skarbrand 6" behind them. He tries to get fateweaver in the same area but he scatters backward 7" and doesnt get close to either. The troop deep strikes near his obj.
1 soultaker mishaps off of the board and returns to reserves. The other two deepstrike on either side of vects transport and were poised to make a run for my warriors on my obj.
He runs all units but rolls poorly for this and fateweaver cant make it up to grant his re-roll to his bloodcrushers.

Turn 2: The Pounce
DE: I move the talos towards one of the soultakers on the right flank to get into assault range. I move vects transport to get a shot at the rear armor of the other soultaker. I had the reaver squad fly over his one plaague bearer squad and they kill 3 with their blades. I have the 2 witch units get out and move the incubi up to join the attack against the skullcrushers. I move one ravager over to help the threat of soultakers on the right flank and the other ravager moves 12" and sets its site on eliminating the skullcrushers.
Shooting: The Talos shoots its TL haywire blaster and penetrates the soul taker and WRECKS it. Vects transport shoots the rear armor of the other skulltaker and penetrates, which Wrecks it as well. The unit of warriors in the raider fire weapons at the skullcrushers and eliminate one leaving 7.
All 4 transports and the ravager fail to hit the skullcrushers and wound.
The witchs fire their pistols to put another skull crusher with wounds.
Both units of witchs assault the skull crushers with the incubi in support.
The fight is one sided as skarbrand allows everyone within 24" to re-roll to hit rolls.
The witchs and Incubi kill off all 7 remaining skull crushers without the crushers attacking back.
I consolidate and attempt to spread them out as I know he has templates.

Daemons:
3 units of Plague Bearers come in
1 remaining soultaker comes back in
Both of the other 2 skull crushers do not make it in, along with one unit of plague bearers.
No mishaps
He deploys the soultaker in the middle and it scatters to the right flank some.
All 3 plague bearer squads deep strike near his objective.
Fateweaver moves up to hit the incubi.
Skarbrand moves up to shoot a template which only kills 1 witch.
Fateweaver shoots all weapons at the incubi and only kills 1.
Soultaker shoots at one witch squad and does two wounds.
Fateweaver charges the incubi and skarbrand attempts to charge but rolls a 2, 2, and a 1 and doesnt make it un.
Fateweaver gets hit with 9 power weapon wounds and fails 4 of them in all.

With Fateweaver dead and one unit of crushers dead and me only down 4 models we called the game. I had skarbrand surrounded and 7 darklances poised to shoot him and he really had no way of stopping me from capturing atleast one objectice. Game ends in a Major victory for the Dark Eldar. I am definately sold on my haywire blasters. I think its a little silly to shoot an almost automatic glance/pin weapon. I was impressed at how effectively my army handled his power house list. He had some bad rolling and I had some good rolling but in the end I just played my list the exact way it was meant to be played and it all worked out.

Seriously, fatecrusher just doesn't have what it takes to compete anymore, especially against fast armies like DE. They just don't have the mobility to do anything, and the lack of shooting really hurts in this day and age of mech-MSU. It was just a bad matchup for the daemon player.

The new competitive build is the "fiendweaver" list, with Fateweaver, tzeentch heralds on chariots, 2 fiends, 1 bloodcrusher, min-sized bolt-horrors and plaguebearers, and either soulgrinders or bolt-DP's. That type of list would give your DE a run for its money.

Yep, this.

And then, Scarbrand is a disaster against a high initiative army like the DE -- he basically dooms daemons in melee.

jy2 wrote:Seriously, fatecrusher just doesn't have what it takes to compete anymore, especially against fast armies like DE. They just don't have the mobility to do anything, and the lack of shooting really hurts in this day and age of mech-MSU. It was just a bad matchup for the daemon player.

The new competitive build is the "fiendweaver" list, with Fateweaver, tzeentch heralds on chariots, 2 fiends, 1 bloodcrusher, min-sized bolt-horrors and plaguebearers, and either soulgrinders or bolt-DP's. That type of list would give your DE a run for its money.

what he said