Mission: Tactical Escalation
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Night Fight is active!
Eldar get first turn, Dark Eldar refuse to steal the initiative.
Eldar Deployment (insert deployment Photo)
I started with the Bikes in the back of the formation, isolated from the rest of the army to bait Tyler into dropping on of his "Scalpel Squad" venoms into deepstriking too close to the board edge. A squad of Avengers went on both sides of the table as far forward as they would deploy, Guardians stayed on the back left deployment to support the Avengers. Swooping Hawks took a defensive spotin the center o the table impossible to reach by
DS flamers from the Wraks. Wraithblades and Farseer took forward position in the middle of the table with the Wraithlord just behind. Both squads of Reapers took an elevated position in the center, and finally the banshees were placed behind the Wraithblades on their right flank in tree cover.
Dark Eldar Deployment: nothing
Infiltrators saw one squad of Rangers take a forward position on objective 5 and the other look a right-flank position on objective 1,
DE infiltrated mandrakes out of
LOS on Objective 3
Turn ONE
Eldar: Card drawn: Legacy of Sorrow (kill a character) Discaded at end of turn as
DE characters wouldn't be on table until turn 2/3
No movements, Psych phase saw Conceal cast on both the Guardians and Bikes, pot shot missiles at the mandrakes to no effect, as expected.
Dark Eldar: Card Drawn: Assasinate (kill a character) also discarded as he wouldnt have a solid chance to score that till turn 3.
Both Scalpel Venoms deepstruck. One landed back near Tyler's board edge next to objective 6. One landed in ruins on my right flank and shot out 4 Banshees.
Turn Two
Eldar: Cards Drawn: Score Objective 3 (held), Psychological Warfare (discarded)
During movement it was noticed that I forgot to remove my Hawks from the table with Skyleap, Tyler and I have a standing house rule that ONE honest mistake per game is allowed to be corrected as long as it was a natural and logical action. We both knew that my hawks were going to leap, and the ultra-quick pace of turn one distracted me for a moment. Tyler, being a great sport, allowed me to deploy the Hawks as if they has Skylept.
The Hawks land near the Mandrakes taking out 2 with the Grenade Pack, the rest of the Army all moves up, except the 2 Reaper squads. Psychic phase has little action other than Conceal on the bikes. Hawks murder the Mandrakes for First Blood, the rest of the Army focuses its fire into the closest Venom and the Wraks inside, leaving a nice smoking hole where it used to be.
Dark Eldar: Cards drawn:Big Game Hunter(held), Objective 1(scored)
Tyler rolls reserve and gets everything aside from the Void Bomber and one Razorwing. Two Kabolite/Venoms enter the table near the Swooping Hawks shooting them to bits, the Wrak/Venom in the far back turbo boosts up to the front. The Razorwing destroyed all but one Dire Avenger who promptly remembered that he had left his oven on and made a run for it. The Dark Artisan squad lands next to the rangers holding Objective 1 and roasts them out of the way to score the objective, and the Raider filled with shenanigans lands dead smack in the middle of my entire army, One razorwing comes onto the table along my right flank. The Raider attempts Psychic Shriek from the ShadowSeer, targeting the Bikes, but the warlock and a butload of warpcharges sees the power fizzle. The torment Launchers are fired next seeing only 1 bike die and no damage on the Avenger squad.
Turn 3
Eldar: cards: Objective 3 (held), Behind Enemy lines(discarded), Guardians on the hidden Path(objective 5)(scored)
Units kinda shuffle around but mainly hold position. Even with very little dice during the psychic phase, Eldric Storm gets an amazing amount of luck and one-shots the Cronos as Tyler rolls 1s and 2s to save against it, wit the Farseer getting a perils and taking a wound and losing the power for the game, no dice were held back in the casting. The Wraithlord cooks 2 Harlequins alive inside the Raider, and combined fire sees the Raider cracked open in time for a multi assault from the Wraithlord and 20 Guardians. The Wraithlord smears the TroopLeader in a challenge and after taking 4 losses the Guardians curbstomp the remaining Harlequins and Archon, the Shadowseer Hits-and-runs away, clearing the combat and giving me objective 5 clear of opponents.
Dark Eldar: Cards: Big Game hunter(discarded), No Escape (Scored), Objective 2(scored)
Void Raven and Razorwing come in from reserve destroying both the two missiles and 5 guadians as well as relocating an entire Reaper squad to fine particles of dust and fail! The first Razorwing bailed and flew of the table. Both Kabolite/Venoms advance slowly up the left flank taking out 6 Dire Avengers. The Shadow seer moves to Objective 2 and promptly melts his own face with a perils on Veil of tears. I point out that the distance to the Guardian squad would make that a useless power and we both agree that the Shadowseer should stay on the table as his "honest mistake" and just score the point. the Dark Artisan Squad moves to liquidate the Dire Avenger that is falling back screaming about his oven, and take him out.......somewhere out there is now a fresh Grotesque with an aversion to baked goods..... The Wrak/Venom moves up and kills 2 Banshees and a single WraithBlade with a template.
Turn 4
Eldar Cards: Objective 3(held), Kingslayer (held), No prisoners (Scored), Skyborn Assualt (scored)
Banshees and Wraithblades move up towards the Wrak/Venom, the Reapers put a wound on the Homonculus Dire Avangers move closer to the Voidbomber and put a single
HP on it with shooting. The Wraithlord takes a few shots at the Talos, but
FNP absorbs the wounds. the Bikes move up and blow up the Venom the Wraks were riding in. The Guardians cast Conceal and then deal 7 unsaved wounds to the Shadowseer. The Banshee's assault the Wraks first shutting down the overwatch, followed by the Farseer and his Wraithblade escort. The Wraks are then beaten into a small puddle, the puddle then placed in a jar, and the jar set on fire.
Dark Eldar Cards: Death by a Thousand Cuts (scored), Objective 3 (scored), Acendancy (scored) OverWelming FirePower (held)
Little action scored huge points for Tyler this turn. A Kabolite/Venom turbo-boosted onto objective 4, while the other stayed on Objective 3 (double Score), the Talos held on objective 1 giving Tyler Acendancy. a couple of pot shots resulted in a couple of dead models, nothing special, but enough to score Thousand Cuts. and a single wound was done to the Wraithlord from the Void Bomb.
At this point the score is tied with a could of "d3" scores that could go either way.
Turn 5
Eldar Cards: Objective 3 (held), Kingslayer Objective 5 (scored) Objective 5 (scored), objective 2 (scored)
Bike move to get Line Breaker and make a last push for Objective 3 after wreaking the Kabolite/Venom sitting on the objective. The Reapers shootdown the other Kabolite/Venom just in time to have the Wraithblade charge in like a bunch of Rowdy Drunken Bulls in a retirement home. The Rangers in the center of the table scored objective 5 (double score) and the guardians set up a small shop on Objective 2 and start making blackmarket Chinese knockoff products....and score objective 2 as well. The Talos continues to
FNP his way out of all shooting from the
WL.
Dark Eldar Cards Overwhelming Fire Power (scored), No prisoners (score), Objective 1, (scored) Pain in all its forms (scored) ?? (held)
The reserved Razorwing re-enters the table and finishes off the
WL scoring 4 points (at this point he is mad he ditched Big Game Hunter). The Kabolite squad on Obj3 move up and kill 1 dire avenger, and the Talos continues to score un-opposed.
During turn 5 we saw me up by 3 points and suddenly he was up by 1......this is a very close and bloody game, thankfuly we go to turn 6.
Turn 6
Eldar Cards: Objective 3 (scored FINALY) Supremacy (scored), Kingslayer (scored finaly), Objective 2 (scored) Strands of Fate obj2 (scored)
Windriders finaly clear the kabolites from obj3 and claim it as their own as well as LineBreaker. The Wraithblades stay on obj4 while the Farseer is forced to break away to get the Homonculus in range of the psychic powers. everyone else holds positions on objectives. With a surprising result the Farseer kills the opposing warlord with Executioner somehow getting past the
FNP giving me both Kingslayer and Warlord kill.
Once Again I am up by 5 points and he has only 2 flyers and a single Talos that can act this turn...........but Tyler says he has a HailMary in his cards.......
Dark Eldar Cards KingSlayer (scored) Trophy Hunter (scored) Witch Hunter (scored)
Both flyers come onto the table and smoke my Farseer for breaking away from his protective squad, giving him 4 points for a single kill, the game ends at this point and we tally up our points.
Both of us have roughly 11 cards each and 2 "d3" cards each, I rolled 4 points, he rolled 5, final score is 18-17 Dark Eldar wins with a very narrow margin!
7000+ Aliatoc Eldar
3000+ DeamonHunters
