Hey Guys, here is my report from Throne Of Skulls September 2013. If anyone is interested, I wrote some fluff for the army beforehand (which you can find below):
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/551342.page#6035447
I will probably write a follow-up as well if anyone is interested. Anyway, on to the army:
Dark Eldar(Primary Detachment)
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HQ
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Baron Sathonyx
Troops
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Kabalite Warriors
5x Kabalite Warrior
5x Splinter Rifle
Venom
Flickerfield, Nightshield, Splinter Cannon
Kabalite Warriors
5x Kabalite Warrior
5x Splinter Rifle
Venom
Flickerfield, Nightshield, Splinter Cannon
Kabalite Warriors
5x Kabalite Warrior
5x Splinter Rifle
Venom
Flickerfield, Nightshield, Splinter Cannon
Kabalite Warriors
5x Kabalite Warrior
5x Splinter Rifle
Venom
Flickerfield, Nightshield, Splinter Cannon
Fast Attack
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6 Reaver Jetbikes
2x Cluster catrops 2x Heat Lance
Heavy Support
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Voidraven Bomber
Eldar (Allied Detachment)
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HQ
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Autarch
Fusion gun, Haywire grenades, Laser Lance, Mantle of the Laughing God Plasma grenades, Shuriken pistol, The Phoenix Gem
Eldar Jetbike
Troops
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Windrider Jetbike Squadron
6x Guardian Jetbikes, Shuriken Cannon
Windrider Jetbike Squadron
6x Guardian Jetbikes, 2 Shuriken Cannons
Fast Attack
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Shining Spears
6x Shining Spear
Exarch
Star Lance
Game 1
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Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Night Fighting: Off
Opponent: Blood Angels
My opponents list was something like this:
6 Assault Squads in Drop pods (mix of Melta/Flamer/Plasma)
2 Sternguard Squads in Drop Pods (Melta)
1 Honour Guard Squad in a pod
Librarian (modelled as Sarpadon from the Soul Drinkers!)
I deploy right in the corner and castle up. The venoms hug the corner, while jetbikes utilise the maximum space to deny rapid firing shots on the venoms when the pods come down. My opponent doesn't seize the initiative, so in my first turn, I turbo boost back to my current deployment to ensure i'm getting those +1 to cover saves when the marines come down.
The pods come down, and almost everything starts laying into the shining spears (and the baron). With Skilled Rider and Stealth they get a 2+ cover save, but against so many shots, it's just too much. The Baron (my warlord) and the shining spears get gunned down.Although the shining spears are dead, everything else in the army is completely unscathed. The sheer volume of shots starts picking off the marines, and by the end of my turn 2, there are no marines left on the table (just pods). The remainder of the game the marines come down in piecemeal, and get picked off. The Autarch (who is unofficially the "troll-tarch") kills a full unit of stenguard single handedly, before charging Sarpadon's unit and getting a force weapon to the face. In true troll style, his phoenix gem explodes and kills a few honour guard. By turn 6 everything on the marine side is dead.
Game 2
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Mission: Crusade - 5 Objectives
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night Fighting: On
Opponent: Eldar
My opponents list was something like this:
Farseer on Jetbike
4 Warlocks on Jetbikes
3 Squads of Guardian Jetbikes
2 Vaul's Wrath Support Batteries w/ Shadow weavers
2 Crimson Hunters
Wraithknight
I'm going first in this game, so I spread my venoms out so that I should be able to get 3 onto any one table corner on my first turn.
Almost everything else hugs the table edge, while the shining spears outflank. First turn, I move 3 venoms up to the corner where the
wraithknight is. I unload 2 into it, which is enough to make it fall. It's an Iyanden list, and this is also the warlord of my opponent. The next venom opens up into the nearby weapon battery, killing one gun and one crew. The reaver jetbikes turbo boost over a unit of guardian jetbikes, and kill all of them with the bladevane attacks. Everything else turbo boosts and moves up the table to get closer.
Because it's still night fighting, there is very litle my opponent can do in response, so almost none of my army dies in the first turn. In my next turn, The Troll-tarch charges a weapon battery, and kills all the crew. The venoms and reavers concentrate on the other battery, while the guardians and the arriving shining spears come on and start picking off guardians. The crimson hunters come on, and each take out a venom. The surviving warriors start making a run for objectives. My void raven comes on and takes a hull point from one hunter, while some shuriken cannons manage to glance another one to death. Eventually, the last thing of the game comes down to the Autarch charging his farseer, who although fortuned, dies to the laser lance. I tabled my opponent in 5 turns.
Game 3
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Mission: Big Guns Never Tire - 4 Objectives
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Night Fighting: Off
Opponent: Grey Knights
My opponents list was something like this:
Grey Knight Grand Master
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
Dreadknight with Great Sword
Dakka Dread
Dakka Dread
Storm Raven
Strike Squad
Strike Squad w/Psyback
Terminator Squad
There are a significant number of psycannons and S8 autocannons in the enemy list, so i'm a bit worried about this one. My opponent is deepstriking his terminators, while the strike squad is in the storm raven. I manage to hide all but one of the venoms as I advance, but I can't hide the jetbikes. I turbo boost all of the jetbikes as far forward is possible. The other Venom I move 48" away from one of the dakka dreads. My opponent needs to move 6" to shoot this Venom due to nightshields, and blows it up for first blood. In doing this though, the dreadnought moved off the table edge, and allowed the Shining spears to outflank and shoot lances in its rear armour, wrecking it. The troll-tarch gets close enough to the razorback to blast it with his fusion gun. The remaining venoms pepper the squad inside to death.
The Guardians outmanouver the other dreadnought, and blast its rear armour with more S6 weapons, wrecking it. This frees up everything else to shoot the dreadknight to death. The terminators arrive the next turn, but not the Storm Raven. The autarch has an insane run of luck against this unit. He kills 2 with bladestorming shuriken cannons, kills one on the charge with hammer of wrath, followed by a further 4 in combat. They fall back, and as they do he repeats the trick, killing 2 and then charging again. This nets the warlord as well.
When the storm raven comes on, it's the only thing on the table. Everything on the table unloads into it, glancing it to death. Everything inside dies in the explosion. My opponent is wiped out on Turn 4.
Game 4
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Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Night Fighting: On
Opponent: Grey Knights
My opponents list was something like this:
Corteaz
Inquisitor
10 Daemon Host in Chimera
4 Inquisitorial Warbands in Chimeras/Razorbacks (Mixture of Jokero, Crusaders, Warrior Acolytes)
6 Jokero
2 Dakka Dreads
The Terrain is really dense on this table. I'm going second, so everything gets completely hidden. My opponent moves everything up the table on his first turn, trying to close the distance. The Guardians manage to get side shots on the Daemon host's chimera, exploding it for first blood. The venoms open up on the Daemonhosts, killing all but 1 of them. The Autarch gets a charge on 1 dakka dread, taking 1 hull point from shooting, and 1 on the charge with a haywire grenade. The last venom takes out the large unit of Jokero.
Turn 2, my opponent starts advancing corteaz's unit near the autarch, and later fails a charge to get in. The chimeras destroy another venom, while the razorbacks shoot at the guardians, killing a few. The reavers start turbo boosting over Corteaz, killing several from his unit. The guardians are able to get more side shots on Chimeras, wrecking another 2. The shining spears also show up, and kill the Inquisitor and his unit, by shooting them with lances and making them run off the board. The Autarch wrecks the dreadnought, and consilidates near the next.
The Autarch blows up the next dreadnought with his fusion gun, as the venoms and jetbikes surround the surviving henchmen. The rest of the game, they are essentially picked off until Corteaz is left. The Autarch charges, challenges and Corteaz fails a S6 wound, and takes instant death. Game over on Turn 5, as Corteaz was the last man standing.
I should say I was prety lucky with the set up here - night fighting being on with good terrain made it impossible for my opponent to make any inroads into my army at all.
Game 5
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Mission: The Emperor's Will
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Night Fighting: Off
Opponent: Tyranids
My opponents list was something like this:
2 x Flyrants with 2 x Twin linked Devourers
2 x Tervigons
2 x Termigaunts
The Doom of Malanti in a Pod
Trygon
4 Hive Guard
Initially, I was going first, but my opponent seized the initiative on me, which meant that I couldn't hit the flyrants on anything except sixes. Essentially the whole tyranid army advanced. About halfway through my first shooting phase, both Flyrants got grounded. One died under the number of wounds, while the other was reduced to 1, and subsequently flew off the board (though not before vector striking a venom to explode on it's way off).
This allowed me to focus fire on the tervigons, which soon exploded under the volume of poison firepower. After this everthign else kept running and moving towards me, but the army's manouverability let me pick them off at range with ease. The last Flyrant was gunned down by the Shining Spears, while the Autarch charged the (wounded) Trygon, and killed it in combat. My opponent' game was pretty much summed up when the doom mishapped,and was placed deep in his own deployment zone. He conceded after turn 3.
I can't say I blame my opponent in round 5 - Dark Eldar vs Tyranids (especialy hammer and anvil) is a horrendous matchup for him, and he done everything that I would have done in his place.
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So I ended up on 5 wins out of 5 (really delighted with that), and scored 18 points out of a possible 20. I won best dark eldar player, and the overall winner went to an Ork player who had a supreme Margin of victory (13!!!).
I'm thrilled to have done so well with the army. I've not had
id that long, and I certainly felt that It was put through its paces against a wide range of opponents. I love the theme as well - the speed of the army is completely unreal. I can always be in my opponents deployment zone on turn 1 if I choose to be, which is great for putting pressure on opponents.
I feel that the different flavours of jetbike compliment each other really well, and the bladestorming guardians compliment the venoms/warriors well.
The troll-tarch (Autarch) was undoubtedly my MVP of the weekend. I think he killed around 2000 points worth of kills on his own the entire weekend. I was fortunate not to run into any Tau with
SMS systems, but I'd likely have utilised him differently in that kind of mission.
