A (somewhat unexpected) Dark Eldar tournament report!

Hello all, and time for yet another tournament report as I attempt to perfect my Dark Eldar list and tactics! This tournament was 1500 points, and the funny thing is, I knew Kasrkar was going to be there with his dreaded Guard, but I didn't think I'd be going. I had a prior engagement beforehand, and I figured I'd go and watch Kasrkar dominate his way to the top, and then get in a game with the man in question afterwards. However, when I showed up, the guy running the tournament said they had an odd number of guys, and that he'd let me jump in with 10 points as if I'd gotten a draw, since I missed the first round. So, I wrote up a list in 5 minutes that looked like:

Haemonculus with Shattershard, venom blade

5 Incubi with Klaivex, venom with 2 Splinter cannons

3 Trueborn with 2 Splinter Cannons, raider with Flickerfield

9 Wyches with haywires, hydra gauntlets, Hekatrix with agonizer, raider with Flickerfield

5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades, venom with 2 Splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

Ravager with Flickerfield

Ravager with Flickerfield

Razorwing with Flickerfield

Like 1,499 points or something. Just under 1,500 for sure. Not one of my usual lists, trying MSU for the first time really. We'll see how it goes.

So, round 1 which I missed, Kasrkar faced a Grey Knights guy with a Land Raider of each type, a Stormraven, A dreadnaught with a Lascannon, Coteaz, a Libby, and a bunch of random henchmen. Anyway, Dawn of War, seize ground, turn 1 nothing much happened, turn 2 Kasrkar killed all the Raiders and the Stormraven. He tabled his opponent, but was prevented from achieving the secondary and tertiary. So he wound up with 15/20 points, and everyone got set for round 2...

Round 2 vs. Thomas' Crimson Fists!

His list:

Pedro

Chapter Master with Plasma Pistol, powerfist

9 Sterngard with Powerfist, plasma pistol, 2 lascannons, 2 combi-meltas

10 Tacs with Lascannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with Lascannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with plasma cannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with plasma cannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

So, quite the large army.

Mission:

Primary: Capture and Control

Secondary: Kill the Traitor, each player gives the other a model to be the traitor, you must kill your traitor.

Tertiary: Table quarters, have the most VPs in a table quarter.

Deployment: Spearhead

So he wins the roll off, and deploys his Sterngard with the Chapter Master, and separately my traitor, in a building in his quarter, and one Lascannon tac squad next to the building, everything else in and around a crater that had his C&C marker in it. My deployment was all of my ships deployed around a building in my quarter that held my C&C marker, using my ravagers to give cover to the rest of my army, since they won't be much use this game (or so I thought).

The Game:

I try to seize, and fail! He goes right to shooting, and calls down 2 bombardments turn 1, and added in with all the lascannons, he wrecks my Razorwing, took all the weapons off a warrior venom, and immobilized the Raider with my wyches in it. My turn, I zerg up the middle, and kill half the Sterngard, and half of a squad of tacticals, who run off the table. The rest of the game is essentially me pushing forward and shooting, and him immobilizing my vehicles. He calls it turn 4, as I am about to launch a game-ending assault.

Result: Win for the Dark Eldar, 20/20 possible points!

A terrible matchup for Thomas, but he took it in stride. Kasrkar played on the table next to me this game, and his game only lasted 2 turns. It was against a wych-heavy Dark Eldar player, and he killed basically everything turn 1, and they called the game at the exact same time as we called ours. So Kasrkar was on table 1 for round 3 against some Khorne CSMs, and I was on table 2 vs:

Round 3 vs. John's Grey Knights!

His list:

Draigo (sigh)

Librarian with Vortex of doom, might of titan, sanctuary, shrouding, 2 servo-skulls

Vindicare Assassin

5 Paladins with 2 MC psycannons, 4 Halberds, 1 MC hammer

10 Strikes with MC hammer, Warding stave

Stormraven

Psybolt dread

So, not too many models. I wasn't too scared going into this game, although that opinion changed midway through the game.

Mission:

Primary: VPs, need to win by at least 200

Secondary: Eliminate highest point enemy HQ

Tertiary: Table your opponent

Deployment: Pitched battle

So he wins the roll-off, and, bizarrely it seemed, decided to go second. Perplexed, I set up in the center of my deployment zone, set up for the alpha-strike. Then in his deployment, he said he was deepstriking everything. I probably should have seen that coming, but oh well. He set up his servo-skulls down the center line of the table. He then infiltrated his Vindicare in a ruin in the middle of the table.

The Game:

He tries to seize, and fails. First turn I move up and lance the Vindicare to death, and in my second turn I turbo far away from his servo skulls. Well, turn 2 he rolls for reserves, and gets nothing. Turn 3, I turbo again. His turn 3, everything comes on, and all hell breaks loose. Everything lands on target, Draigo with the Pallies, and the Dread and strikes with the Libby hopping out of the raven. Shooting, he kills one ravager, and the Raider with my wyches in it. My turn, it is time for retribution! I set both squads of wyches up to assault the strikes, and everything else moves away from the Paladins. Shooting, I fire a lot of stuff into the paladins, and kill 1 paladin outright, wound the rest, and put 2 wounds on Draigo. Shattershard takes care of the Libby and 2 strikes, and splinter fire accounts for 1 more strike. Raven is immobilized by blasterfire from the warriors.

The rest of the game is the wyches assaulting the strikes and them doing jack to each other, the raven and dread killing my vehicles, and the paladins eating 200+ splinter shots and 15 lances, and there were still 2 wounded paladins and draigo on 1 wound left. As it turned out, I won primary by like 300 VPs, and we tied secondary and tertiary. Had it gone into extra turns, I would have tabled him for sure. John was a good guy, and very good player, and no matter how many guys I killed, he was a great sport.

Result: Win for the Dark Eldar, 15/20 points!

That last game turned out to be pretty tight down the stretch. Oh yeah, and Kasrkar killed the CSMs. Just blew apart defilers and dreads without a second thought. Pretty crazy.

Tournament results:

I was hoping Karkar would draw, and I would massacre, meaning I would leapfrog him, and get the top spot, but that didn't happen. So I had to contend with second, whilst Kasrkar took the top spot. Kasrkar's round 1 opponent took 3rd. In addition to other prizes, Kasrkar got the 25th anniversary special model. I got anther box of warriors, destined to become Trueborn, so that I can kill tanks for once.

So, anther tournament over. Any comments? Criticisms? Witticisms? Any kind of -cisms?

Dark Eldar Tournament report!

Hello all! It's Jaybie coming at you with a tournament report with the Dark eldar! I played this tournament at a different store than I usually do, which just opened near me. It was very well run, and they did some things differently than what I'm used to. Notably, that the missions were all battle point based.

Each mission had a Primary objective worth 10 points, secondary worth 6 points, and tertiary worth 4 points. So, a massacre would get you 20 points.

I took the list that I detailed in my last post. It's not built to be super competitive, but it can win, and is really fun to play with. On to the games!

Game 1 vs. Daniel's Grey Knights!

His list:

Draigo

Librarian with Sanctuary, Shrouding, 2 other powers that were never used

10 Paladins with BroBanner, 4 psycannons, everyone else wound allocated out

10 Strike Squad with Master-crafted hammer, 2 psycannons

3 Psydreads

Ouch! Lots of hurt in that army. Only 25 models too, lol.

The mission:

Primary: Seize ground, 3 objectives

Secondary: Win more rounds of assault

Tertiary: Kill the most expensive enemy HQ (Draigo for him, Vect for me)

Deployment for all 3 games was pitched battle.

The Game:

I won the roll off, and took second turn. He deployed his paladins and HQs in a blob in a big piece of terrain to the right flank, all the Dreads behind them, the Strikes in reserve. Grand strategy made the 3 dreads troops. I deployed my ships behind a building opposite him. I then seized with Vect!

He began a slow advance, shooting at my vehicles. He did little damage, killing a few vehicles in the early game, and my venoms torrented his Paladins, causing a wound on ever single one. I immobilized and knocked all the weapons off of one of his dreads. However, once his Pallies got in range, my ships started popping left and right. I still had a chance to draw, or even win, but then I showed my inexperience against the GKs and charged the Pallies with my Wyches and Vect, and surrendered all three objectives in one fell swoop. The rest of the game was mostly just cleanup for him.

Result: Loss, 0/20 points.

Well, I underestimated those Paladins something fierce! Those Dreads are hard to kill, too. Daniel was a great opponent. He knew what he was doing, and made me pay for every mistake I made. He also kept a great demeanor through it all, even when he failed to penetrate my Ravager with all of his dreadnoughts!

Game 2 vs. Mark's Orks!

His list:

Ghaz

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field, heavy armor, cybork body

10 Nobz with various weapons, every damned save in the book, trukk with every upgrade

10 Ard boyz with shootas, trukk with everything

10 Boyz with Nob with power klaw, trukk with everything

Deff Dred with 4 CCWs, extra armor, grot riggers

4 bikes with power klaw

4 bikes with power klaw

3 bikes with power klaw

Mission:

Primary: Capture and Control

Secondary: Table Quarters (Control goes to whoever has most VPs in the quarter, HQs and vehicles don't count)

Tertiary: Kill your "Traitor" (Each person gives one of their models to the other person, they are ICs. I gave a warrior, he gave and Ork boy)

So, this guy is good, as he had nearly beaten some Mech BAs in the last round, and with only 2 models left! I figured I would have to use my experience against Orks to the full!

I won the roll off to go first, and let him go first. He deployed very aggressively, only leaving the boyz and their trukk with my traitor back at his objective. I deployed along my board edge. I do not attempt to seize.

The Game (You just lost it!):

He rushed everything at me, shot a little, and didn't do anything. I shuffled around, and shot down a unit of bikes, and immobilized his two trukks that were rushing up. turn 2 he Waaghed, and assaulted my vehicles. He killed my Voidraven, and a venom.

In retaliation, I assaulted both of his bike squads, one with Incubi, the other with Malys's unit, and his big Nobstar+Ghaz with Malys (Multi assaults, ftw) and Vect's unit. All targets were destroyed, with Vect himself killing Ghaz in a (not so) dramatic duel. That was basically game, but we played on. I killed the rest of his stuff, but one awesome boy squad killed my raider AND Malys in turn 6. They were then avenged by the Incubi.

Result: Win, 20/20 points.

Mark was a very crafty player, who went on to beat his own son's Tyranids in the final game. He was stunned by the amount of damage my army was able to do, but took it all in stride, like a true sportsman.

Game 3, vs. Corey's Eldar!

His list:

Avatar

Farseer with Guide, doom, Eldrich storm, spirit stones, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing

10 Scorpions with exarch with the crazy weapon that makes your strength get bigger

5 Wraithguard with Warlock with some psychic power, Serpent with Missile Launcher

3 units of 10 Pathfinders (!)

5 Warp spiders with the deepstrike thing.

Fire Prism with Holo-field

Mission:

Primary: VPs (Win by 250)

Secondary: Table your opponent

Tertiary: Table your opponent by turn 5

So, a perfect mission for a grudge match between the Eldar and the Dark Eldar.

I won the roll, and chose to go second, reasoning that even if I didn't seize, his army didn't have enough firepower to scare me overmuch. He deployed his Prism on the far right, and his Avatar, Farseer, and serpent with Wraithguard to the left. I deployed centrally, in a fleet. Corey then infiltrated his scorpions and two units of pathfinders about 18" from my dudes, and his other pathfinders in a building on the right. His Spiders are in reserve, to deepstrike.

The game:

I seize (Thank you Vect!). My dudes decide to just go for it. Vect and his girls run up and fleet so as to be in assault range of his Scorpions and a unit of Pathfinders, and the Incubi disembark 1" away from some Pathfinders. The rest of my ships zerged up, ready to shoot at his stuff! In shooting, I shook both of his vehicles, and put 2 wounds on the Farseer. In Assault, the Incubi wiped the Pathfinders without a problem, and Vect alone killed 6 of the scorpions! I killed everything that I assaulted. In his turn, the Pathfinders in the building killed 4 of the Incubi, and the Klaivex passed LD.

The rest of the game was pretty much cleanup for me. He conceded turn 3, with only the Spiders in reserve left.

Result: Win, 20/20 points.

That was a terrible matchup for Corey. I got lucky on my fleet rolls to be able to get off that massive turn 1 assault. Vect was the star of the show, killing 6 Scorpions, 5 Wraithguard, and soloing the Avatar.

So, at the end of the Tournament, I have 40/60 points. Not great, but not bad either. Daniel, my round one opponent, took a tough loss to some FootDar on table one, putting him at 40 points like me. It turns out we tied for 3rd! Admittedly, I got a couple of good matchups to get me there, but doesn't everyone? At least it wasn't my usual Blood angels, then Guard, then Guard again!

So, post tournament thoughts on the Dark Eldar:

This list is fun, but if I want to win consistently, I'm going to have to make some major changes. Vect is fun, but he has to go. He's just too many points! I need more Troops, probably 6. I need more anti-tank, which means more Wyches in Raiders, maybe a 3rd squad. Malys I think I will keep for 1750, just because she is useful. Full post coming later!

So, that's it for today. Comments?