Battle Report! Black Templar vs Dark Eldar! 1000pts!

Hey guys, Grandpa Rhino here, with another battle report. Sorry, this is another 1000pt with me using the same list. I need to buy some more stuff to get it up to 1500. Or maybe change up the list. Maybe I'll make a post about that later.

So, I went down to the usual place again, awesome as ever, they had both a 40k tourney and a 24 hour painting event happening. I sat and watched the tourney games for a while, afterwards one of them agreed to play a game with me. He was Dark Eldar, and the lists were these:

Black Templars:
HQ:
Emporer's Champion, Accept Any Challenge No Matter The Odds. -140

Elite:
6 Assault Terminators, 3 with shields, one with a crusader seal -260

Troops:
5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, Power Fist, Melta Gun, Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers -198
5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, Power Fist, Melta Gun, Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers -198

Fast Attack:
Land Speeder Typhoon -70

Heavy Support:
Vindicator, w/ Smoke Launchers and Dozer Blade. -133

1000pts Exactly!

Dark Eldar:
HQ:
Archon w/ Agonizer, Combat drugs, Shadowfield - 120 points
Haemonculi w/ Liquifier - 60 points
Haemonculi w/ Liquifier - 60 points

Elite:
Five Incubi w/ Klaivex w/ onslaught - 140 points

Troop:
9 Witches w/ Shardnet Impaler, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, and Phantasm Grenade Launcher - 158 points
9 Witches w/ Shardnet Impaler, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, and Phantasm Grenade Launcher - 158 points

Dedicated Transports:
Raider w/ Flickerfield - 70 points
Raider w/ Flickerfield - 70 points
Raider w/ Flickerfield - 70 points

Heavy Support:
Ravager w/ Flickerfield, and Nightshield - 125 points

Deployment:
The game is Capture and Control, Pitched battle.
He wins the roll-off and goes first.
His deployment:

This picture was taken after my turn, as most in this battle report are, unfortunately. But as you can see, he deployed in the far corner of the table. This was actually a very clever move on his part. Because now I had to choose between getting close to him but having no cover to defend my objective, or vice versa.

I place my objective in the middle of all those little barricades, and my force just to the right of it. I send out the mightiest of my warriors to fend off the Dark Eldar attack. The fearsome Land Speeder! I choose to not try and seize, cause I want the second turn so I can have the final say on objectives.

Turn One:

He moves his paper convoy behind that big tower, and has longer range than I expected on his Dark Lances, and my Land Speeder narrowly escapes harm. It looks like he's gonna keep his guys in that group and steadily advance trying to take down my shooters before I take down his, then zoom a troop choice back to his objective.

Well I'm getting the hell out of there! I thought those Dark Lances were only 24" for some reason. Oh well. I back up my army into more cover, and cover saves him from the typhoon, this guy made cover and shadowfield saves like crazy in the last game I saw him play. I'll have to fight this up close and bloody.

Turn Two:

He spreads out! It looks like he now has his main assault going to the right flank, spearheaded by the Archon/Incubi Raider with Witches behind and one Witch Raider sticking kinda back in case he needs to get back to his objective right away. And his Ravager flanking to the left. Now the game is starting! In shooting his ravager blows the missiles off my Typhoon.

I barely resist the temptation to try to ram something with my Typhoon, as I think its out of range. So I use it as cover instead, and start to move everything slightly over to engage his main assault. I don't have any shooting to do this turn so that's that.

Turn Three:

He tightens up and really starts to move in. In shooting he wrecks the fearsome Typhoon! I warm him, that in  the killing of the Typhoon, he has awoken the thunderous zeal of the Black Templars!

Oh boy. He killed my Typhoon. Now its on. I move out to engage. I leave my Champion-less Rhino behind to stay on the objective, and my other Rhino spearheads my force, popping smoke, mainly to give everything else cover. My Vindy scattered off in shooting. Now for the bloody crash of two assault armies.

Turn Four:

He disembarks the Witches in the back to go get his home objective, disembarks the Incubi/Archon hoping his vehicles will pop the smoked Rhino and he can assault the guys inside. His central Raider goes up on top of the big landing pad in the center, ready to go wherever it is needed. In shooting he fires a total of six darklances at my smoked Rhino, but is only able to blow off the gun! His Incubi and Archon assault but do nothing. Sucks for him!

I did quite a bit in my turn so I have two pictures and three paragraphs of explaining. I moved my assaulted Rhino over to my right, pushing the Archon unit into a cluster, and prepared to fire my vindicator at them. Also my Termies tried to surround them while staying spread out to minimize the possibility of a terrible scatter.

Over on this side things get a little crazy. I disembark my objective guards, and go to move out my Rhino to do something awesome. Sir Waldus is restless! However, my rhino immobilizes itself going over the first barricade. Awesome. Waldus is not deterred! He opens fire on the Raider on the platform, two hits... and a six! He glances! Waldus is truely a gunner like no other, but the damn flickerfield saves it. What a buzzkill. My Champion's Melta gunner popped out the hatch to try and finish the job, but only stunned it. Good enough.

My Vindicator misses, but I kill one Incubi with a potshot from the objective unit. My Terminators assault and kill all but the shadow fielded Archon, who flees, and I consolidate my Termies so that they are both in cover behind the Rhino should they need it, and six inches from the Archon so he can't rally next turn. Things are turning to my favor now.

Turn Five:

His army mostly stays put, his Archon flees seven inches, and I believe he tried to shoot at my Termies but did nothing. His old transport moved to be a wall between my termies and him. And he missed all the Dark Lance shots took this turn. Hehehe. He made a joke about how they should be called Dark "Glances" it was funny.

My Rhino moves to engage the Ravager and center Raider, but it Immobilizes itself! Second time this game! Crazy. On the bright side it did lead to this awesome shot of the melta guy coming out the firing hatch to shoot at the Ravager, and he killed it!

My Vindicator was out of range of the Raider it was shooting at, but my Termies assaulted and killed the Raider in the way, staying six inches from the Archon. Now, it may look like I'm wiping the floor with him at this point, but if the game ends this turn it will be a draw...

It goes on! (I know, that was pretty intense.)

Turn Six:

His Archon flees off the board, apparently a very common death for his Archon. He zooms his central Raider riiight over to my objective. I admit, he got me unsuspecting. I was way ahead in kills at this point, but he could still win if his Witches pulled this off.

I moved up with the terminators and disembarked the champion in the immobilized Rhino to run like hell for the objective. As the first picture shows, in shooting, I melted his Raider, and pinned the squad! This is bottom of six, so they are out of the game, hostages for the Templars. My Vindicator was out of range, but my Termies assaulted and killed another Raider, they need a 4+ consolidate roll to be in sure assault range next turn. A four! If it goes on, I think I can win...

It goes on.

Turn Seven:

He detaches his Himmunculai to try and slow me down, and tries to keep his guys just barely within three inches. He fires his Ap-d6 liquifier at the Termies, a six! Oh well. He doesn't shoot Witch pistols, remembering that if he did kill any Termies, they might just come closer.

I move forward, and it becomes clear that I will be in range. I killed the Haemonculi with shooting from the Champion's unit, and shot the Witches with my Vindicator, it scattered slightly, but I killed a few. The Witches fell back, but this wasn't enough. The Terminators charged in and, without casualty, killed all but one.

The last Witch flees the battlefield.  

Well, this was an insanely fun, bloody, bloody game. The guy I played against was really great, even when things turned bad for him he kept laughing and smiling. So, if you're reading this, follow the example, and don't be a competitive ass. Games are meant for fun. Once again I had a great day at the Bowie Bunker, and will keep coming back. If you are thinking of coming, I plan to go most Saturdays. May the dice be ever in your favor, and Goodbye, from Grandpa Rhino.

Oh! Also, check out this awesome Vendetta I saw!

If you paint stuff that cool, you get an honorary high five. Goodbye again.

Dark eldar are victorious!

Hey hey hey, what's going on? So, today was a pretty cool day. It was the day where Kasrkar and I played in a 1k tournament, exactly a year since our first tournament ever, so kinda special. Anyway, the tournament requirements were 2 Heavies, 2 Fast attack, and 2 troops. Since you didn't have to have HQ, the list I took was:

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters, venom with 2 scannons
4 trueborn with 4 blasters, venom with 2 scannons
5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 scannons
5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 scannons
2 Beastmasters with 3 Khaemerae, 2 Razorwing flocks
2 Beastmasters with 3 Khaemerae, 2 Razorwing flocks
Ravager with Flickerfield, night shields
Ravager with Flickerfield, night shields

It's exactly 999 points, which is pretty cool if you ask me. Anyways, so I show up at the tourney, hoping to see a lot of good matchups for myself, and first thing I notice is that there are 4 Guard and 3 tau. Seriously? Anyway, lots of good players, and good armies. So, sure enough, round 1 is:

Round 1: Vs. Darren's Imperial Guard

Vets with Grenade launcher, missile
Vets with 2 meltas
Vets with 2 meltas, Chimaera with Heavy flamer
Vendetta
Banewolf with multi-melta
Vanquisher with heavy bolter sponsons, lascannon
Demolisher with Heavy bolter sponsons, lascannon

Mission: Capture and control
Deployment: Pitched battle

So, I will the roll to go first, and take it of course. Never take turn 2 vs. guard unless you are going full reserves. I deployed centrally behind a building, holding one unit of warriors in reserve, but deploying their ride. He deploys spread out in cover, with a squad meltavets in the vendetta, and the missile vets in a ruin.

The Game:

He scouted up his vendetta pretty far, so far that I was able to hit it with blasters turn 1 and blow it up, killing 7 of the guys inside and pinning them. I also got side armor on the chimaera with a Ravager and blew it up, killing 4 of the guys inside and pinning them as well. I also killed a handful of the vets on foot, and stun/weapon destroy the Vanquisher. His first turn, despite losing a bunch of stuff, is very good as well. He kills one ravager, stuns the other, and kills a bunch of trueborn when he explodes their venom.

The rest of the game is me stunlocking his vehicles until the beasts can get in and mess them up. I wind up tabling him turn 4, so a round 1 victory for the Dark Eldar.

So looking around at the other tables, Karskar drew some Blood Angels, and there was only 1 other person who tabled their opponent. So, that sets me up on table 1 for round 2.

Round 2: vs. Mabus's Dark Eldar!

Mabus is his Warseer name, and he got 2nd place at our local tournament this year, only a little behind Blackmoor, and got best general, so he is definitely no slouch.

His list:

5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons, night shields
5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons, night shields
5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons, night shields
2 Beastmasters with 2 clawed fiends
2 Beastmasters with 2 clawed fiends
Ravager with Flickerfield, Night Shields
Ravager with Flickerfield, Night Shields
Ravager with Flickerfield, Night Shields, 2 disintegrators, 1 darklance

Mission: Seize Ground (3 objectives)
Deployment: Spearhead

So, our lists are very similar. We talk a lot during tournaments, but rarely ever play each other. So he wins the roll for fist turn and takes it. He sets up ready to go after me turn 1, I set up behind a big piece of terrain, and hold one squad of Beasts in reserve.

The Game:
So, on his first turn he rushed up with his stuff, he managed to kill most of my beast squad, who ran off the table when I forgot that beasts are LD 5 instead of 3, oh well. My turn I hurt both beast squads, but just piss them off more. His beasts assault my ravagers, and do nothing, he takes out one of my warrior squads and their ride. I kill all of his beasts, and one of his Ravagers, and he makes like 7 Flickerfield saves in a row, at this point I am pretty sure he will win, he is too.  His next turn, he kills all the trueborn, but I make more than my share of flickerfield saves.

So turn 5, he is holding 2 objectives, I have none. I contest both, and then I remember that there is a warrior squad in an immobilized venom sitting next to an objective, so they get out and claim it. We roll to see if the game ends, it is a 1. A narrow victory to (my) dark eldar! So on the table next to us, a Tau player basically crushed a guard army, so I find myself on table 1 in round 3 vs.:

Round 3: Vs. John's Tau!

So John got 3rd at our local GT, AND is the only person who can regularly beat Kasrkar. Will the tough matchups never end?

His list:

Etherial with 10 firewarriors
2 Crisis suits with TL missiles, flamers, a bunch of crazy stuff
6 Firewarriors
6 Firewarriors
7 Pathfinders with Devilfish with all the works
4 Gun drones
2x 2 Broadsides with Blacksun filters, 2 shield drones, the slow and purposeful thing, target lock

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War

So, this is going to be tough, with all those Blacksun filters. So I'm happy when he wins the rolloff and takes 1st turn. He deepstrikes his Drones. So, to heighten the tension, I'm going to go turn by turn:

Tau 1: John moves on his army, pretty spread out. Pathfinders hiding in a building, little firewarrior squads thrown up really far.

Dark Eldar 1: I move on, beasts roll an awesome 1 and 2 for fleets. I kill one little squad of firewarriors.

Tau 2: He stays mostly still, ready to shoot the crap out of me. In his one real mistake of the game, the drones deepstrike very close to some beasts. His broadsides kill one of my Ravagers, another wrecks a venom, his other shooting puts a few wounds on some beasts, nothing too impressive.

Dark Eldar 2: My beasts move toward the Drones, ready to draw blood (Coolant fluid?). My other vehicles shuffle around to get good lines of fire. I kill a few pathfinders, a few drones from the broadsides, and stun his Devilfish. Not that impressive. The beasts assault the drones and tear them a new one.

Tau 3: So, we knew that this would be the last turn. I think he gets a little over-exuberant in his attempts to get kill points, as he makes a few mistakes. For one, he seemingly suicidally moves out a unit of firewarriors to kill some trueborn. He kills them, and the rest of his shooting doesn't do much. Some battlesuits assault some beasts, they slap each other a little and stay locked in.

Dark Eldar 3: So, he was ahead by 1 Killpoint at this point. I needed to kill 2 units of his. With that in mind, I killed the Pathfinders down to 2 guys, and prepared to assault his firewarriors with some beasts. The pathfinders run. The beasts kill the firewarrors easily. So now it's down to the battlesuit/beast combat. The beasts manage to wipe them out, securing a 3rd victory for the Dark eldar.

So, final tournament results I am the only undefeated, so I take 1st. A tau guy went win win draw, so took 2nd. And my round 2 opponent took 3rd. With the prize support, I got a new ravager, to complete the spammy trifecta.

So, a successful tournament. Any comments?

Battle Report! 1000pts Black Templar vs Necrons!

Hey guys, Grandpa Rhino here, making the first battle report in quite a while. Sorry for that. Anyway, to the report!

I went down to my local place this weekend looking for a game because I promised Kasrkar I'd make a report. I got there a little late but managed to squeeze in most of a game, and this is that game. By the way, I gotta say I'm really loving this new place. The Games Workshop in Bowie. The vibe there is really great, really friendly, and everybody knows their stuff. If you're in the area, you should head over!

The Black Templars

HQ:

Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge No Matter The Odds (What a mouthful...) -140

Elite:

6 Sword Brethren Assault Terminators, 3 w/ TH/SS, Furious Charge Veteran Skill, one with Crusader Seals -260

Troop:

5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, w/ Powerfist and Melta, in a Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -199

5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, w/ Powerfist and Melta, in a Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -199

Fast Attack:

Land Speeder Typhoon -70

Heavy Support:

Vindicator w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -129

998pts

The Necrons

(Little fuzzy, and I don't know the codex. But I will try my hardest. If someone knows the codex and could correct name and point costs, I would be very grateful.)

HQ:

Imotekh the Stormlord

Troop:

10x Immortals

5 Warriors w/ Ark?

Fast Attack:

5 Wraiths, one w/ coil, the rest with pistols

Heavy Support:

Barge

Barge

995 points

Deployment

The game was Dawn of War Annihilation 

He wins the roll-off and goes first

His deployment:

He's got the immortals with Imotekh on his right flank, the Ark with warriors on his left, and the Five wraiths backed up by the two barges in the middle.

My deployment:

Now, let me explain. I don't know the Necron codex. So. I assumed everything he had could destroy anything I had, and I felt like the only safe way to go would be to castle, and this was really the only terrain on my table half. We added another piece on after I deployed to even it, and my Land Speeder was in reserve. I try to seize and fail.

Turn 1

He moves up with everything, except zooms one barge to his right, probably to try and flank me, but I don't believe that thing is quite fast enough to get there in time to help him. For shooting it is of course night fight due to Dawn of War, but he is very afraid of my Vindy, and shoots at it with his barge in the middle, he does nothing, but I realise that thing only has S7 and S5. And if he stays afraid of the Vindy I have nothing to worry about. 

I peak my vindy out from behind the corner, with the rhino moving to cover its side armor, and the termies moving up to the wall to get ready to counter assault, also they cover the rear amor of my tanks in case a mystical angry Sasquatch appears behind my lines. I want to shoot at his barge and try to spot it with the rhino's searchlight, but begin a game of lower-than-my-usual-rolling. In hindsight I should have pivoted the vindy and shot the wraiths. But oh well. He also fails to see the barge. 

Turn 2

My apologies, I forgot to take a picture of his movement. But this pic taken at the end of my turn shows he moved his wraith's up. Also his immortals moved into a building and the second barge came into sight although far away. His shooting was again unsuccessful. On my turn I moved the Termys through the building to assault his wraiths, I rolled a five and was in. I move my rhinos to give my vindy cover, remembering that evil Sasquatches are only in my daydreams. I again roll low and cannot see a thing. In the assault, things go bad. For one I roll pretty shamefully considering I'm usually a great roller in the assault, and I didn't expect wraiths to freaking have two wounds each and a 3+ invuln. We both end up with two guys dead. As this pic shows:

Turn 3

Neither of us really moved, but he continues to have wonderful nightfight rolls, and blows off my vindy's gun with the flanking barge, and immobilized the painted rhino with the center one. The assault continues with neither side taking any casualties. Pfft.

I figure screw it. Firefights are for guardsmen, Charge! This seems to please my dice a little, and things start to turn around. I move up my Vindy and functioning Rhino to be mobile cover should I win the assault, or the troops in my rhino to be reinforcement if things go bad. I keep the guys in my other rhino back to wait for that arc to get closer. This new Berserk tactic seems to please my dice, and I kill two wraiths, losing one lightning claw guy. (Thats four wounds to one remember, against a 3+ invul. Better than it sounds.)

Turn 4 

The place was starting to close up so this was our last turn. He didn't move in favor of more shooting, and immobilized both my cover vehicles, and wrecked the painted rhino killing more guys than I expected. But I wiped out his Wraiths in the assault phase. Sorry I didn't take a picture for his turn because he didn't move.

On my turn, I moved out and assaulted all his vehicles, on a rush for kill points, I will show the results.

                                                  There was a Barge where that squad is.

                  There was an arc where that squad is, he didn't bother getting his warriors out though.

                                             And there was a Barge where those Termies are.

A 4-1 victory for the Templars! I felt bad accepting this victory, as the game ended right at the worst time for him. He may have still lost, but it wouldn't have been by as much. It was an okay game. I need to learn to  not always just try to castle. It suits my army against other assault armies, but I need to take my combat advantage against shooters. My opponent was a good guy, although sadly I don't remember his name, maybe next time! I'll try to make another battle report over this coming weekend, but I'm still working on getting my list comfortable at 1500, hopefully soon! Until next time, goodbye from Grandpa Rhino.