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.