Thursday 31 March 2011

Dark Eldar vs Tyranids Battle Report

Hi,

After a bit of a nightmare fortnight I have come out of the other side in one piece (barely).

On the gaming front it looks like the number of attendees at my local GW’s games night has mushroomed.  Last week they only had 3 tables being used, but last Tuesday all 5 tables were being used with people waiting, so I wasn’t able to get a game with my Tau, but it does mean that as I approach the dates of my upcoming May tournaments I may be able to get 3 games a week; Tuesday at the local GW, Thursday at the local club, and the weekend against my mates.  I’ve got a bit rusty recently, and starting playing a new race, means I could do with the a lot of extra practice.

On another note I have now paid for my 2nd tournament of the year, which happens to be 8 days after the first, so I now have 2 one-day tournaments in May (ASMOH in Basingstoke & Rapid Strike in Reading).

Now onto the main event, the Dark Eldar vs Tyranid battle report.  I went through the deployments in my last post, but I’ll go through everything again here.

We rolled up the draw mission (ie. one objective each) with dawn of war deplyment.  My mate placed his in the centre of his deployment zone about 5” from the board edge.  I placed mine on the top level of a building in the bottom left hand corner of the board.  My thinking that my fragile Dark Eldar could not just sit and defend an objective because they are not good at wars of attrition, and it made any speed advantage I had completely useless.  Instead I would hope to use my objective as a lure allowing me to concentrate my force on the other flank allowing me to capture his, and hopefully at least contest my objective.

To recap here are our lists:

Dark Eldar List

Haemonculus - 65
Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 115
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 130
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

5 Wracks - 50
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

5 Beastmasters - 234
accompanied by 7 Krymeras & 6 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Totals: 1746 Pts, 79 Models (including 10 vehicles), 13 Dark Lances, 6 Splinter Cannons & 6 Blasters

Tyranid List

Tyranid Prime with Twin Boneswords & Scything Talons

2 Zoanthropes (accompanied by Prime)

3 Hive Guard

3 Hive Guard

Tervigon with Poison & Furious Charge (mainly because termigants nearby get it)

Tervigon with Poison & Furious Charge

10 Termigants

15 Termigants

18 Hormagaunts with Poison & Furious Charge

5 Ravenors with Scything Talons & Rending Claws

5 Tyranid Strikes with Twin Boneswords, Scything Talons & Furious Charge

18 Gargoyles with Poison & Furious Charge



My mate took turn 1, and deployed two tervigons in two sections of ruined buildings in the centre of the board, everything else would come on turn 1.  Wanting to see where the Tyranids deployed before committing myself I deployed nothing with everything set to arrive on turn one.


Tyranid Turn 1

The Tyranids deployed 2 tervigons in the two ruins in the middle of the board, and everything else came on turn one.  The tervigons spawned and 18 (yes a triple 6) and 14 termagants which moved slightly into my half of the board.  Here are are pictures after the tyranid turn 1 showing where everything was after their turn 1:



Strikes Hiding on the left next to the Hormagaunts
Next are Hive Guard and Gargoyles,
with Zoanthropes accompanied by Prime in the middle,
and the second unit of Hive Guard
At the back in the middle are 2 unit of termagants on the Tyranid objective
2 Tervigons in the building, and in front of them are 34 spawned gants
Behind the building are 5 ravenors

Dark Eldar Turn 1

Seeing a hive guard unit on the left hand flank (opposite the objective I had placed in my near left hand corner) I decided to deploy heavily on the right hand flank hoping to overpower and threaten the tyranid objective (hopefully capturing it) while trying to contest my own objective with a late game flat out move from a venom.

However I was concerned with the large number of gaunts on my side of the battlefield.  They could move forwards and start shooting down raiders.  I didn’t have the firepower to wipe them out but I could kill them in combat (particularly as I had rolled +1 attack for the combat drugs for my three wych units).  Trying to stay out of range of the gaunts would put hamper my army going forwards.

Here's a pic of my central position and my right flank:
Between the buildings in front of all the vehicles are my proxied beastmaster unit;
Rippers as Razorwing Flocks, and Tau Drones as Beastmasters

Trying to learn from the mistakes of my last game (where I played too cautiously) I decided to give it a go and charge the termagants.  To wych squads went straight forwards towards the gants, disembarked ready to fleet and charge.  The beastmaster unit got a good fleet roll so was in position to support wyches against the largest gant unit.  Everything else entered on the right half of the board with everything aimed at the tervigons.

Shooting downed one of the tervigons (even though it had a cover save) which was helped by me remembering to reroll night fighting this game.  The tervigon dying exploded some of the gants from the large unit.  Good casualty removal meant that a poor fleet and charge into cover roll might stop the wyches and beastmaster from charging.

A few spare lance shots tried to instant kill a ravenors but the distance was too far.

An average fleet and charge into cover roll saw one wych squad and the beastmaster unit charge the large gaunt squad on the right, and another wych squad charge the gant unit to the left.  Combat was swift and one sided with both gant units slaughtered.  Typically the beastmaster unit picked up the pain token from their combat.

A nice start put I still faced the counter attack from the tervigon and ravenors, and those hive guard would be getting close soon.


Tyranid Turn 2

The hormagaunts and tyranid strikes moved forwards towards my objective.  My mate was a bit concerned about exposing the strikes to (instant killing) lances.  The gargoyles advanced on the wyches in the middle (one ones furthest left of my army).  The tervigon and ravenors advanced to put them within charge range of the wyches and beastmaster unit.

It always happens, so here comes my big mistake...

I could see from the positioning that it looked like the tervigon was going to charge the wyches and the ravenors were going to charge the beastmaster unit.  The wyches took some shots (I can’t remember where from, probably the advancing zoanthropes 24” blast shot).  Now I thought the wyches could take the tervigon, after all it only had a few attacks, the wyches had an agoniser and +1 attack.  Therefore I thought I may as well go to ground to save a few wyches (to give the agoniser more ablative wounds and therefore time to kill the tervigon).  When the tervigon charged I would only have to pass a ld9 test.

My obvious mistake was forgetting to take into account my mate changing his plans based on my decision.  As the wyches had gone to ground they could be killed later by the huge squad of gargoyles that was about to kill the left hand wych squad.  Therefore the tervigon decided to help the ravenors with the beastmaster unit – opps.

Although the beastmasters absorbed a lot of attacks, they lost combat and their poor leadership didn’t give them much chance of passing the morale test.  Luckily their high initiative allowed them to escape.  The ravenors consolidated back into cover, and the tervigon (who wouldn’t have been able to get a cover save, as he couldn’t move far enough to conceal 50%) moved forwards, luckily not far enough stay within 6” of the beastmaster unit to disallow them a rally test.

The gaygoyles also overwhelmed the left hand wych squad after taking a good number of casualties from 5 wyches that were left after the gaygoyles shot them before charging.



Dark Eldar Turn 2

My mistake with the wyches in the middle left them a sitting duck for the gargoyles that had just killed the left hand.  Both units hive guard would now start being in range of my army.  I’d learnt my lesson from the last game [posted here] and knew that retreating back to try and stay out of range would just pin me in, not necessary protect all my units and prevent me from getting to objectives by the end of the game.

With this in mind I decided to advance forwards and slightly to the right (hoping to keep most of my army out of range of the left hand hive guard).

The wyches with the haemoculus moved only slightly forwards and left ready to counter attack the gargoyles after they finished with the wyches who had gone to ground.  The beastmaster unit rallied and also got ready for the counter attack.

All ravagers, venoms & trueborn took positions to do as much damage as possible.  First target was the ravenors and tervigon.  The tervigon went down fast without a cover save or feel no pain from lance shots.  A few more splinter cannons and blasters finally took out the ravenors, leaving 2 venoms to drop one of the hive guard.


Tyranid Turn 3

With ravagers left the strikes on the left flank was still a bit hesitant of coming across to the right, so decided to ensure the hormagaunts would take my objective in the bottom left hand ruin, by being a nasty counter to anything heading that way.

The rest of the tyranid army advanced forwards angled towards my right flank, apart from the two units of starting gants sitting on the tyranid objective (well one was about 6” to the left of the objective so I couldn’t take them both out at once).

One hive guard unit was only in range of an empty raider (from one of the dead wych squads), so blew it up.  The other unit blew up a ravager, and the zoanthropes only killed a few wyches who were about to be charged by gargoyles.

Combat was again swift with the gargoyles killing the wyches who had gone to ground, taking a few more casualties.


Dark Eldar Turn 3

With tyranid strikes and hormagaunts about to to reach the ruin on the left flank with my objective I had to get to the tyranid objective. I still had quite a bit of firepower so I had to push on.  However my forward movement was still a bit conservative (probably a sign of playing Tau all last year).

My last remaining wych unit with the haemonoculus moved forward on their raider and disembarked ready for a charge on the gargoyles.  They would be supported by the remainder of the beastmaster unit.

The large units of wracks on their raider advanced on the right flank to the mid table line (knowing their double flaming would clear the enemy objective of gants if the raider stayed alive).  With hindsight I should have gone flat out to the objective but wanted an extra dark lance shot at hive guard.  Sometimes you just have to ignore the chance that small arms fire (in this case fleshborers) will down the raider for other weapons (eg, hive guard) to kill the occupants.

My firing dropped one hive guard unit to 1 and the other to 2 due to good tyranid cover and armour saves.  However combat went my way, with the wyches charging the gargoyles, and the beastmaster able to multi charge the tyranid prime with zoantropes and charge the gaygoyles to link up the two combats, hopefully causing the prime and zoanthropes to take multiple fearless saves at the end of combat.

Being able to put 2 razorwings against the tyranid prime and hounds against the zoanthropes and gaygoyles, the combat was brutal.  After taking a few casualties from the gaygoyles, zoanthrope and prime against the beastmaster unit, i put a wound on the prime, a wound on the zoantropes and wiped out the gargoyles (there were about 11 or 12 left.  In a display of bad dice the zoantropes lost their remaining 3 wounds to no retreat, and the prime lost another wound leaving it on one left.


Tyranid Turn 4

The strikes and hormagaunts reached the bottom of the building in the bottom left corner (they had been getting poor run rolls all game, and were tempted to move slightly rightward on one turn).

The remaining hive guard prioritised the wrack raider as the wracks were posed to clear out the tyranid objective.

The unit of 1 hive guard was not able to kill the wracks raider.  However it’s luck didn’t hold when the second unit blew it to bits and to make matters worse pinned the wracks.  [Note that I didn’t roll a 9 for the test, so a squad leader would have made no difference]

With both hiveguard forced to fire at the wrack raider, and the majority of the remaining tyranid forces around my objective on the far left hand flank there was no-one left to support the tyranid prime, who died in combat against the beastmaster unit, giving the beastmasters themselves their 3rd pain token.


Dark Eldar Turn 4

The trueborn who were still alive in the middle of the board (due to being less of a target than other units), moved forward to target the squad of 2 hive guard.  I honestly can’t remember what the ravagers and trueborn venom did, probably killed a few termagants.

The wracks were pinned so couldn’t move towards the objective, however a venom could turboboost towards the objective and found a place just within 3” that was more than an 1” away from any termagant to contest.

The wyches and moved forwards towards the unit of 2 hive guard, while the beastmasters moved towards the unit of 1.

To try and do something about my objective I moved the venom with the small wrack unit within 24” of my objective (which was sitting on the 2nd floor of a ruin).  To stop the strikes from being able to fly forwards and attack the venom, the wyches raider flew in between so that the strikes would not be able to get to the venom.  A cheeky lance shot tried to instand kill a strike but it made it’s cover save.

The reason this might have worked is because if the hormagants rolled badly they might only get up to the first floow, allowing the venom to move 24” to the top floor (and hope the venom didn’t crash).

Onto shooting and one trueborn unit did one wound to the unit of 2 trueborn, then the second unit hit and wounded with all three to take the remaining wounds.  It was then I noticed another mistake, not counting on the trueborn killing the unit of two hive guard I had not separated the haemonoculus from the wyches, which meant that they were out of charge range of the other hive guard unit because they couldn’t fleet and assault.

In the combat phase the beastmasters killed the hive guard effortlessly and looked menacingly at the termagants on the tyranid objective.


Tyranid Turn Five

To counter my venom flat move to contest, my opponent instead made the strikes fly up to the second floor, as they wouldn’t be slowed by differcult terrain.  He also made all of his dangerous terrain tests.  Then the hormagaunts got up to the second floor (directly underneath the objective and well within 3”).

The only thing left was for the termagants to shoot down the contesting venom and brace themselves for a beastmaster charge in the dark elder turn (if they wyches had been able to charge the single hiveguard they would have been in range to charge the termagants on the objective).

Dark Eldar Turn 5

Now a special treat, absolutely unbelievable mistakes on my part.  Now the game is 2-0 to the tyranids at the moment.  Getting carried away (maybe aided by alcohol, and the fact i was winning multiple close combats – other the last 2 years playing Tau it never happened) I somehow got it into my head that I had to try and contest the tyranid objective.  However if I did I would still lose 1-0, so what I should have done was play as normal and hope for a turn 6.

The only units in range to contest the tyranid objective in the movement phase was the 2 ravagers.  So I went flat out with one to land on top of the venom wreckage, and promptly crashed.  Never fear, if a mistake is worth doing why not do it again, so i went flat out with the other one, and promptly that crashed as well.

Correct course of action would have been to move with all vehicles (and trueborn) towards the strikes and fire everything at them.  If the strikes died the hormagaunts would be outside synapse range and have to move towards the closest enemy (off the objective).

Apart from that the wracks and wyches moved and ran towards the tyranid objective, but were out of range, while the beastmaster unit charged and slaughtered the termagants sitting on the objective.

With 2 troop units inches away from claiming the tyranid objective the game ended with a roll of a 1 for random game length.

Here’s a picture of my objective swarmed by tyranids, and the tyranid objective (that was mine in all but name):

The picture also showed that one hive guard was still alive in the cente,
so I must have misremembered some part of the end of the battle.
It also shows how being too cautious left my scoring units too far away from their target.

Thoughts on the Game

All the units performed well, but then tyranids with their monstrous creatures make the dark elder weapons look good.  However I did notice how splinter cannons are no assault cannon or scatter laser against hordes (in this case mobs of gaunts and gargoyles).  To kill mobs I’ll have to coordinate my close combat strikes.

Also I still feel I’m playing too cautiously.  I started this game off well, but then spent too long whittling the enemy down, meaning I ran out of time to capture the tyranid objective.

The Beastmaster performance showed their greatest strengths and their greatest weakness.  In turn 2 they showed their weaknesses when they were counter charged by ravenors.  Although the razorwings with their multiple wounds and the khymera’s 4+ inv save meant that the units still had lots of fighting strength left, losing combat meant that they were easily going to run away when they start on ld8.  Just losing by 3 means a ld5 morale test.  Next their speed is a liability when they run because in other circumstances they could have run straight off the board with a 3D6 fall back move.  Lastly ld8 is less than ideal to try and rally, especially when another 3D6 run move is very likely to see the unit run off the board.

Luckily for me the beastmasters rallied and got to show what they could do, killing gargoyles, zoanthropes, a tyranid prime, hive guard and termagaunts by the bucket load.  The mixture of multiple str 4 attacks, and loads of str 3 rending attacks means they can take on most opponents.

However they should be good in combat when you consider their weaknesses and their 234 point price tag.  However use them well and they can cause havoc.  I think overall I think they could be better than the 8 man incubi squad in a raider that they replaced.  The incubi have an obvious “hit me” sign on them, downing the raider (not hard at all) really hits their mobility, and even a 3+ save will not stop incoming fire seriously damaging their effectiveness.  A 5 model ravenor unit counter charge would completely maul the effectiveness of an incubi squad, but the number of wounds in the beastmaster unit (42) means that they still had some bite left (abiet after having to pass a risky rally test).

So the learning point for me is to try to be less cautious, and get stuck into close combat.  Not just ploughing into the middle of the enemy, but picking on a flank of the enemy.  After all after the first kill wyches should have feel no pain and have consolidated into cover or behind their raider giving them two 4+ saves against firepower that isn’t str 6+ or AP1or2.

As always feedback is always welcome.

And lastly my Tau are being a very well travelled (but not used) army.  Two weeks running I carried by army on the one and an half hour each way trip to work and back, but stuff has popped up at work meaning I couldn’t leave early enough to get back to my local GW in time to get a game at their gaming night.

On the other hand the number and quality of armies at the shop is much improved.  There was a couple of competitive marine armies using assault terminators in land raiders (one in a vulkan army, the other with a chaplain), two space wolf lists (one with a thunderwolf character accompanied by loads of hounds, the other mech with some drop pods), a mech guard army & a mech blood angels to name but a few.  A nice varied list of armies was down there which is just what I need to play against to improve.

Rathstar

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Hiatus For a Few Days, and Dark Eldar vs Nids Battle Deployment

Hi,

Work is going a bit crazy, and other stuff is drawing on my time, so there will be a bit of a lull (hopefully only for a few more days) before my next blog post.

A quick update of what I've been up to:
  • I've resprayed black the old ravager I bought on ebay (and converted to match my army) and my converted venom, so they're ready for painting.
  • As my new list needs a unit of 8 incubi I also sprayed 3 more incubi
  • Unfortunately converting has ground to a halt, as I'm waiting for an ebay auction win to arrive from America :(

Gaming wise I got in another game with my Dark Eldar, this time it was against a different mate with a bright yellow tyranid army.  We played 1750 pts, and I decided to try out a beastmaster unit (the call of the razorwings was just to much) instead of an incubi unit.

We rolled the "one objective each" mission, and Dawn of War.  I lost the roll to go first.  With 2 tervigons sitting in the middle of the board in cover I decided to let everything come on turn one...

Below are our lists, and pics of the our deployment zones after our turn one.

Dark Eldar List


Haemonculus - 65
Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 115
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 130
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

5 Wracks - 50
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65


5 Beastmasters - 234
accompanied by 7 Krymeras & 6 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Totals: 1746 Pts, 79 Models (including 10 vehicles), 13 Dark Lances, 6 Splinter Cannons & 6 Blasters


Tyranid List

Tyranid Prime with Twin Boneswords & Scything Talons

2 Zoanthropes

3 Hive Guard

3 Hive Guard

Tervigon with Poison & Furious Charge (mainly because termigants nearby get it)

Tervigon with Poison & Furious Charge

10 Termigants

15 Termigants

18 Hormagaunts with Poison & Furious Charge

5 Ravenors with Scything Talons & Rending Claws

5 Tyranid Strikes with Twin Boneswords, Scything Talons & Furious Charge

18 Gargoyles with Poison & Furious Charge

Here's the Tyranid side after their turn 1 (going from left to right):
Strikes Hiding on the left next to the Hormagaunts
Next are Hive Guard and Gargoyles,
with Zoanthropes accompanied by Prime in the middle,
and the second unit of Hive Guard
At the back in the middle are 2 unit of termagants on the Tyranid objective
2 Tervigons in the building, and in front of them are 34 spawned gants
Behind the building are 5 ravenors

With a unit of hive guard on the left flak (opposite my objective) I deployed centrally with 2 wych raiders to try and assault the spawned termagants, with the rest of my army on the right flank.  Here's a pic of my central position and my right flank:
Between the buildings in front of all the vehicles are my proxied beastmaster unit;
Rippers as Razorwing Flocks, and Tau Drones as Beastmasters

How do you think the battle will unfold, and what do you think of the deployment of the Dark Eldar and the Nids ?

Rathstar

Friday 11 March 2011

[Dark Eldar] Venom Gets a Test Run – ASMOH Practice (& Lists)

In just under 2 months I’ll be attending the A Small Matter of Honour tournament, run by the Sad Muppets Society [link]. My mate came up from near Bristol and wanted some test games. He played another mate at 1750 and 1250, and then I turned up for my first game of 2011.

I had previously come up with a very cut to the bone style list, however upon reflection I thought the list was lacking MEQ close combat killing, so had the following 1750 list ready to go:

Haemonculus - 65
Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun

8 Incubi - 176
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 115
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

10 Wyches with Hekatrix with Agoniser - 130
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

5 Wracks - 50
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Totals: 1748 Pts, 70 Models (including 11 vehicles), 14 Dark Lances, 6 Splinter Cannons & 6 Blasters

The list is still pretty bare when it comes to wargear, compared to my previous list[link] it has a small dip in firepower (2 blasters & 2 splinter cannons) for more MEQ close combat killing power (agonisers and incubi) & and short ranged MEQ firepower (liquifier guns).

It always happens when a new book is released that some models that were used all the time previously are destined to stay in the case forever more. For my Tau it’s all but 6 of my 40-odd fire warriors. For my Dark Eldar it’s the 6 squads of warriors and the warrior retinue that I used before. The warriors to make the cut in this list are 6 blaster armed ones who represent the trueborn. So I have a Dark Eldar list without a single Dark Eldar Warrior in it. My old archon is hanging his head in shame, but my new Haemonculus leader is completely fine with the idea 

I might add warriors if I play a 2000 pt game; a nice blob of 20 as a 6th troop choice would probably be effective, however once I get my Beastmaster unit assembled I can’t see the warriors making the cut.

After getting my army across town my mate said he wanted to practice the 1250 point game for the tournament. The ASMOH tournament has 2 games at 1250 and two games at 1750. The 1750 list must contain all of the units in the 1250 unchanged.

The 1250 pt list also restricts the force organisation chart. You are only allowed 1 HQ, 0- 2 Elite, Fast Attack & Heavy Support, plus 2-4 troop choices. For my tyranid opponent this meant that the restriction to the elites slot meant that the only effective choice would be 2 units of hive guard. My mates list was roughly:

Hive Tyrant with Venom Cannon, the Leech and “you have WS1 & BS1” psychic powers, accompanied by 1 Tyrant Guard
2 units of 3 Hive Guard
8 Genestealers
Tervigon
12 Termigants
15 Hormagants (Furious Charge & Posion Attacks)
4 Warriors with Boneswords and Scything Talons

I’ve only just noticed that my make still had too many troop choices (however I don’t think it would have much effect on the game).

With only 3 units (Tyrant & Hive Guard) that could shot vehicles I had to prioritise them. If they went down quickly it should be an easy win.

When it came to my list. I first had to lose a ravager, and an elite unit. After losing the ravager I didn’t want to lose a trueborn squad (with their high strength blasters) as well, so I lost the incubi. The incubi would have been too many points in the same place at 1250 pts, I may have been tempted to keep them if they were the smaller squad I originally had, but at 8 strong they were too expensive for 1250 pts. Lastly I had to lose one of the troop choices. After losing the power weapons of the incubi it had to be the wych squad without a power weapon that had to go. This nicely bought my list down to 1232 pts.

We rolled up multiple objectives and dawn of war for the game, and my mate won the roll off and decided to go first to get his hive guard as far up the table as soon as possible.

He deployed the hive tyrant with the tyrant guard in the middle of the table. The tervigon behind the building just left of the centre line in his deployment zone, and the unit of 12 termigants behind the building just right of the centre line in his deployment zone. Everything else apart from the genestealers (who were outflanking) were due to come on turn 1.

I decided to let everything come on turn 1 rather than deploy anything, and let my opponent start the game. I decided not to try to seize, but in hindsight I should have. The hive guard would have been a turn further back when they would be able to fire at my army, and I still would have been in range of the hive tyrant. This might have allowed my army to be further enough away to avoid a turn of hive guard firepower after I was on the board.

Tyranid Turn 1

The tervigon spawned 9 gaunts (and ran out). The spawned gaunts moved forwards to be cover for the hive guard, who moved and ran on as far as possible (9”). They were arranged in 2 rows of 3, one unit behind the other. The other termagants moved and ran forwards as well, being replaced behind the building by the warriors (who were being a bit cagey with all the str 8 firepower in my army). The hive tyrant stayed put in cover and waited for the Dark Eldar onslaught.

Here’s a pic of the tyranid deployment zone after their turn 1:
Note the warriors hiding behind the building on the right, the tervigon hiding behind the building on the left, and one of the objectives (the tyranid spres) in front of the building the tervigon is hiding behind.

Dark Eldar Turn 1

The ravagers drifted onto the board in the centre with the large wrack squad’s raider between them. The Haemonculus with wyches was on the right of the ravagers. The other wych squad came on in their raider behind the building just to the right of the centre line (firing through the building would make no difference to the tyrant who was already in cover). All these vehicles pretty much had their back almost touching the back of the board.

Two venoms with trueborns flanked each side of the formation, and also moved to the edge of my deployment zone and the trueborn got off the front to fire their blasters at the hive tyrant. When I deployed the trueborn I thought the three enemy long ranged shooting units wouldn’t bother with the trueborn compared to ravagers and venoms.

The 2 trueborn units took a wound each off the tyrant and the tyrant guard. The venom on the right opened up, and did better than average and did 6 wounds. The tyrant passed 2 armour saved leaving it on 2 wounds, while the tyrant guard died.

Everything else opened up on the tyrant, and did...NOTHING !! This was compounded by 2 huge mistakes by me:
I forgot to to reroll the night fighting roll for a ravager and a venom
I forgot to deploy a venom with the small wrack squad (it went into reserve, as I only noticed half way through my shooting phase)

Not the best turn as I hadn’t killed the tyrant.

Here's pic of the board after my turn 1:
Please note the locations of the objectives (small tyranid spres):
  • Bottom right of the table, to the left of the building the venom is next to
  • In front of the building the tervigon is hinding behind in the tyranid deployment zone
  • Just to the left of the ruin that is in the centre of the board
  • On the far right, between the big yellow spore in bottom right and the building in the middle right
Although you can't see it, the second venom has sped into the building in front of my two wych raiders, and has dropped off it's trueborn passengers in front of it.


Tyranid Turn 2

The gaunts in front of the hive guard only moved 4” though cover, but this was enough to move diagonally sideways out of the way of the hive guard, but the hive guard would have had their forwards movement slowed by about an inch. The other termagants moved forwards (and after the hive guard shooting would fleet in front of the hive guard to give them a cover save).

The tervigon cast Feel No Pain on itself, and the Hormagaunt continued their sprint down the left hand flank towards the objective on that side of the board. They trailed back to ensure they would be within synapse range of the tervigon.

The genestealers outflanked (a little early for my mate’s liking), and came in on the right flank near the objective on that side.

My idea that the trueborn would not be a threat compared to the other targets backfired, because the unit on the right was the closest unit to the hive guard. After firing the back unit of hiveguard at the trueborn on the right it was obvious that only their venom would be in range of the front unit of hive guard. The trueborn unit was wiped out, and I got lucky with the venom when it was shaken, immobilised and had a splinter cannon blown off.

The tyrant took aim at the raider with the large wrack unit in it, and blew it too pieces

Dark Eldar Turn 2

My Small Wrack unit and their venom that I forgot to deploy did not turn up from reserve this turn.

I tried to play the range game, so I didn’t move forward much at all. Even though I fired all my dark lances, blasters and splinter cannons first at the tyrant to finish him him off and then at the hive guard, I only reduced one of the hive guard units by 1 wound.

Tyranid Turn 3

The tyranids advance rapidly and make mid field their own. The hiveguard advanced (behind termagants) to just behind the ruin in the middle of the board, meaning they could reach anything in my army with their shooting.

The tervigon advanced, so that the hormagaunts which had reached the objective in the bottom left hand corner of the board were still in synapse range once they ensured they were trailed back far enough. At 15 models the hormagaunt unit was big enough to surround the objective so I couldn’t contest with a vehicle (as I couldn’t tank shock) and still trail back far enough to remain within 12” of the tervigon.

The hiveguard opened up on the 2 ravagers and both went down in flames. The tervigon shot one of the trueborn on the left, and the termagaunts killed another, and the last trueborn failed his ld9 test and ran away.

Tau Turn 3

I was kicking myself for playing so cautious, as my assault units were quite far back, and their raiders were likely to suffer the fate of the ravagers next turn.

The wyches slightly on the right side of the field, moved the full 12” on the raider, got out, fleeted and charged the genestealers which had moved up to sit on the objective on the right side of the board.

The wyches accompanied by the haemonculus went flat out in their raider. They went to the right of the main tyranid blob in the centre of the board, and prayed for some hive guard bad luck.

The wracks decided to come on from reserve and went on the right flank to support the wyches in combat with the genestealers later.

In the shooting phase the 3 venoms targeted the hive guard that did not have feel no pain, and in a display or accuracy and hive guard cursing their meagre 4+ save, the untouched unit was wiped out

In the wych/generstealer combat it was close with 3 genestealers dying compared to 2 wyches and the genestealers passing their morale test.

Tyranid Turn 4

The hormagaunts stayed on the objective in the bottom right hand corner. The hive guard and the termagants stayed in the middle of the table near the two central objectives. The tyranid warriors thought it was time to advance a bit as most of the dark lances and blasters were gone. They advanced straight forwards so they could either head towards the wych/genestealer combat or the centre objective.

Shooting from the remaining hive guard failed to do anything to the raider containing the wyches and haemonculus. The tervigon fired a template which killed a few wracks that was advancing from the centre of my deployment zone to the centre objective, and a few termagants tried to kill a raider and a venom but failed on both counts.

In combat the wyches and genestealer hacked at each other killing two members of each other leaving the combat a draw. The genestealers were the better combatants but they were outnumbered 2 to 1 now, and each casualty was really affecting them more than a wych casualty.

Dark Eldar Turn 4

A lucky turn where I hadn’t taken much casualties had allowed me to get back in the game a bit, so now it was time for some bold moves.

The raider with the wyches and haemonuculus zoomed 12” behind the main tyranid blob in the centre. The haemonuculus separated from the wyches to get the best liquefier shot at the termagants, while the wyches prepared with a nice fleet move to assault the termagants and the hive guard.

The raider from the wyches fighting the genestealers moved between them and warriors, to make it very iffy that the warriors could get to the wyches. This was complimented by careful casualty removal that meant the wyches remaining in combat were on the far side of genestealers away from the tyranid warriors.

The venom with the small wrack unit moved up and the wracks moved to help out the wyches with the genestealers.

Two dark lances from the 2 wych raiders, managed to instant kill one tyranid warrior. Venom splinter cannons took two wounds from the hive guard (leaving them on 3), and the haemonuculus took out 6 termagants with his liquefier.

Moving onto combat the haemonuculus and wyches assaulted the termagants and wyches. Tyranid armies work best where units are supporting each other, so you should always look out for multiple assaults. The wych leader with an agoniser and one other wych went on the hive guard while the rest of the unit and the haemonuculus went on the termagants. The idea was to kill enough termagants to win the combat and make the hive guard take lots of no retreat saves.

The small wrack squad was quite far away from the genestealers so rather than risk a long assault through terrain they had run in the shooting phase, putting them right next to the action.

Combat worked out fine. All but 2 termagants died, and the wych leader took the last wound from one of the hive guard. The return attacks only killed one wych, meaning the tyranids had to take no retreat saves wiping out the termagants but good saves by the hive guard left it on one wound.

The wyches and genestealers did one wound to each other meaning another drawn combat.

With both wych units locked in combat and out of range of the tyranid warriors I was happy, as we rolled into, possibly, the last turn of the game.

Tyranid Turn 5

The tervigon stayed near the objective near the tyranid deployment zone. The termagants and tyranid warriors advanced (and ran in the case of the warriors) near the objective in the centre of the board. The hormagaunts stayed spread out to both hold an objective and stay in synapse range.

In combat the wyches with the haemonoculus killed the last hive guard, while the wyches against the genestealers killed 2 for loss of 1, leaving the last genestealer who didn’t run away.

Dark Eldar Turn 5

The wyches fighting the last generstealer were joined by the small wrack squad. While the wyches and haemonoculus (who had 2 and 1 pain tokens respectively) moved between the termagants (in the centre) and tervigon (near their “home” objective).

The large wrack squad, whose raider got blown up early, and weren’t so large after getting hit repeatedly by the tervigon’s template attack, had cautiously advanced enough that they were able to move forward and flame the termagants holding the centre objective.

One wych raider flew behind the tervigon to contest the objective near the tyranid deployment zone, while the other one moved forward to contest the middle one.

Firing from the wracks liquefier guns and and splinter cannon fire took out the termagants, and the last genestealer was taken out in combat. They wyches gained the pain token and the remaining few wyches left the wracks to hold the objective and while they consolidated toward their raider near the middle objective.

The wyches near the haemonuculus were feeling brave and therefore assaulted the tervigon, after all it only had 3 attacks and the wyches had a 4+ dodge. Unfortunately I got carried away and assaulted with the haemonuculus as well (who doesn’t have a 4+ dodge). I only managed to do 1 wound to the tervigon with the wych leader’s agoniser and the rest of the wyches and the haemonuculus did nothing. The tervigon then killed the haemonuculus winning the combat by one. The wyches promptly failed their morale test and fell back.

The score was 1-1 on objectives. The hormagaunts had the one on the bottom left, the small wrack squad was holding the one on the far right, and the other two were contested. We rolled the dice and got a turn 6

Tyranid Turn 6

The tervigon had to try and kill the contesting raider, but with shooting and assaulting the raider survived, after a scattered shot and the tervigon needing 6’s to hit in combat.

The tyranid warriors decided to attack the wracks which had raosted the termagants. The tyranid warriors slaughtered them and consolidated in the ruins inches from the central objective.

Dark Eldar Turn 6

The few remaining wyches from the genestealer combat embarked on their raider giving me a scoring unit within range of the middle objective. The wyches who ran from the tervigon were unfortunately within 6” of the tyranid warriors and kept on running.

Everything opened up on the tyranid warriors (2 Lances, 5 Splinter Cannons). However the combination of covers saves and Feel No Pain (given to them from the tervigon last turn) meant that they not only wouldn’t die, but refused to even lose a wound.


This time the dice game up to show the game was ended with the scored still tied 1-1. The Hormagaunts had the bottom left objective. The small wrack squad was holding the objective on the far right. The middle objective was contested by the tyranid warriors and wyches in a raider. The objective near the tyranid deployment zone was contested by a raider and the tervigon.


Final Thoughts

Having not played for a few months and playing a newish army really showed. I played much too defensive with the dark elder on turns 2 and 3 when the hive guard was in range to shoot most of my army anyway. Also moving aggressively forwards with the trueborn venoms on turn 1 allowed the hive guard to have a target on turn 2 was silly.

Forgetting abilities like night fighting rerolls and flickerfield saves also made this game an uphill struggle for myself. Even late in the game assaulting with the haemonuculus against the tervigon cost me dearly, but to make matters worse if the haemonuculus had rejoined the wyches they would have had 3 pain tokens between and been fearless – doh !

However apart from my bad playing I though the army showed that it can do well. I really liked the firepower the venoms put out (but tyranids are an army to make the venoms shine).

Playing with 8 vehicles I was surprised 5 were still alive at the end, but then tyranids don’t have the highest number of anti tank options. Playing mech dark elder means that it’s always a race between the enemy’s anti tank and your vehicles. If you can overwhelm the anti tank quickly even dark elder vehicles can survive, but if the anti tank isn’t silenced the dark elder vehicles will disappear fast.

I liked the addition of liquefier guns, and I think in bigger games the upgrades I picked at the expense of the 6th troops choice will do better for me. I also liked the survivability of wracks compared to the fragile warriors for the role of a small troop unit in a venom.

I’m looking forward to 1750 games where I can try out the large incubi squad. If 8 incubi hit a unit they should make a mess of it. I’ll try to keep them a few inches off the front line, and hope opponents underestimate their 22-27” threat range from the front of the raider.

I should be getting another battle in this weekend, so we’ll see how the Dark Eldar list fares.

Hope you enjoyed this, let me know what you think ?

Rathstar

Saturday 5 March 2011

[40k] February Review


Hi,

It's been another slow month for me, having a long commute to work does allow me to read lots of blogs while on the train, but doesn't really let me get back to my home town early enough to go to my local games club, and normally I'm don't feel like doing much painting or modelling when I get home.

The month started out with a blog post about cutting unnessary upgrades from your army list to afford more units, and give a yard stick to compare your other lists to. There were some good comments, and also Galador gave us his experiences with his Dark Eldar and how they performed at a local tournament he went to recently. Even if you've read the main blog post, it's worth popping back if you haven't read all the comments.


Painting / Modelling

There has been a bit of progress on my armies. The progress bar in the sidebar has moved marginally. I'm closer to playing games with my space wolves, I just need to finish assembling a razorback I got from ebay. I've taken sections of it apart to paint seperately (it's a pain trying to prise apart glued plastic bits, and I nearly took my thumb off).

Sometimes I wonder if the small saving from buying a poorly painted model off ebay is worth all the hassle, time and pain of cutting it up and repainting it. Al least it's nice to tell my other half I've bought it x% cheaper by going on ebay, she still glares at me for spending more money, but it helps.

You may have seen (here) that I've converted my first venom. The feedback I've received so far is good - thanks all of you that commented.

So a bit of progress, but not enough if I want to have an army ready for the tournament in 60 days. Let alone have the army ready in time to have lots of games in preparation for the tournament.


Gaming

Unfortunately it's been another barren month for gaming. However I should be playing a game with my Dark Eldar or my Space Wolves against my mate whose down for the weekend with his nids. Also I e-mailed my mates I normally play against and suggested we have a few games next week. So hopefully things will improve, and there should be the odd battle report here soon.

Also my local GW is changing their games nights to a tuesday, so it doesn't clash with my local club giving me two chances to get back to Reading early enough to get a game. Another bonus is that your army does not need to be fully painted, once there is progress each week to getting the army painted, so I'll be able to take my Dark Eldar as soon as the Venoms are converted.

Unfortunately I'm waiting for some auctions to end on ebay so I can hopefully purchase some more bits to convert my remaining vypers into venoms. Also the ebay sellers are in the States so they may take a while for the bits to get to me. I think I'll just write up lists containing the number of vemons I have converted. It's better I get games in whether or not it's with my ideal list doesn't make much difference.


Other Hobby News

The grey knight rumours are getting more concrete, helped by a leaked playtesters version of the codex. I haven't looked on the web for a copy of the leaked codex so I don't know the full details. They appear to have special rules for teleporting about, but as before they will be expensive, so unless they have guard allies (something that was rumoured that they had lost) they will be a small elite force. That kind of force has never really worried me, but I'll to wait till I see the codex to see what nasty wargear and abilities they will bring to the game.

There are sketchy rumours about a Summer of Fliers event in a few months. To conincide with this a number of model releases will come out. At first it was rumoured that the Venom, Razorwing & Voidraven would be released, but now the rumour is that only the Razorwing will be released. It would be shame if only one of the unreleased Dark Eldar vehicles were released by the summer, however these are only rumours which have to be taken with a heavy dose of salt, so things could be totally different.

I hope you've had a fun and productive February, now I must get back to my razorback...

Rathstar

Thursday 3 March 2011

Converted Venom

Hi,

Just some quick pics of my first converted venom. The first pic is of the whole model.

I started with a vyper and cut of the top of the canopy to make it look more open, and added a Dark Eldar head. For the back section I used a raider gang plank and 2 raider keel blades. I was going to use plasticard for the back section but when this was suggested to me I thought this was much easier and in my view looks a lot better.

I then added a reaver jet bike canopy to the front, and jetbike tail fins to the vyper wings, which I think carries on the Dark Eldar feel.

I added raider spikes to the front of the vehicle, and added splinter cannons (shown in the second pic) converted from raider disintegrators and splinter rifles.

Apart from the reaver jet bike bits all the raider bits would be spare from any raiders you'll probably be building for your army. As I've already got 6 old raiders I had to ask friends who were starting Dark Eldar and use eBay. I definitely recommend to anybody starting Dark Eldar to keep all the spare parts they get from making the kits because they are excellent for conversions.

The final pic is the venom from a different angel.

Let me know what you think. One venom down, at least 2 (if not 3) more to go...but not tonight.

Rathstar
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