Unbeatable list in assault?

I think I encountered it! The Dark Eldar/Eldar combo of doom.

Image borrowed from HERE

 I found myself against Sean Nayden this weekend at a tournament and knew I was doomed.

I know he packs one of the nastiest assault lists I have ever seen, and knew it could only get worse with allies. My first words to him were: "Let me guess, you added Eldrad and jet bike troops" Yup.

 Lets start with his list:

Dark Eldar mother list:
Baron
Vect

15 Wyches- Haywires, hekatix, PGL, Venom Blade
15 Wyches- Hawyires, hekatix, PGL, Venomblade

20 Warriors- 2 splinter cannons, sybarite

5 Beast Masters- 5 Kymerra, 8 Razorwings

3 Reavers- Heatlance
3 Reavers- Heatlance

3 Trueborn- 2 splinter cannons
3 Trueborn- 2 splinter cannons
3 Trueborn- 2 splinter cannons

Eldar Allies:
Eldrad
3 Guardian Jetbikes- Shuriken cannon
3 Guaridan Jetbikes- Shuriken cannon

Aegis Defense Line- Quad Gun

First of all. This is not a gripe, it is a congrats to Sean for fielding an uber list.

I am not a Dark Eldar player so I don't know all of the ins and outs of this list. I only know it from my side of the table. And it is nasty.

First, the list does have some possible achiles heels. In order for it to be optimal effective, Eldrad has to roll Invisibility.  But he has four chances to do so. So Sean has to be VERY unlucky to not get it.

Invisibility essentially gives his army a 2+ cover save to shooting.

We figured out that it would take 65+ bolter shots just to kill a single Razorwing, which costs 15 points a model.

The other weakness is STR 6 shooting, preferably templates, which preferably ignore cover, like Heldrakes I believe. A few of those could probably ruin his day.

In the assault, STR 6 hits hurt him as well. Mephiston vs his beasts for example. However, Sean is very good at not letting you do that.

Why STR 6?

Well that will instant kill his beasts. Otherwise they have five wounds a piece and absorb hits like a Detroit Lions quarterback.

Case in point:

I assaulted his beast unit with two 10 man assault squads, 3 priests, a librarian, five terminators (4 LC 1 TH) and Mephiston.  While it took him a couple turns to take me out due to Feel No Pain and 2+ saves, I believe I managed to kill about a dozen bases of his.  Mostly in the second wave as I focused my hits against his Wyches and their lowly 4+ invulnerable and the warriors.

It only lasted that long because Vect did not get into it until late.

Sorry I don't have any pics of the list but I did discuss the list with Sean on Video:



So there you go!  If you can stomach playing this list, you now have the tools to have a shot at winning any GT you go to.  Enjoy!

Jawaballs

Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary, part Deux

After all the suspense from last weeks post, the Capt of the 8th is back for the thrilling conclusion to the nerve-racking battle report.

It all started here. It was an entertaining start to a game, go check it out. I'll wait.

We left off at the bottom of turn 2. Most of the Dark Eldar had been un-horsed, and the Blood angels were in prime position to get their Black Rage on.



Here are the two forces before the Blood Angels opened fire and killed the two closest Raiders and some of the warriors in them in the top of turn 2. They are in a line there, you can't see the second one.

In his turn he brought his last Raider with the Incubi + Archon over into the middle of my troops. he moved flat out so he didn't disembark and assault. His return fire from the two downed warrior squads was sufficient to erase one of the combat squads and attached Priest. His shooting this round was ridiculous. He couldn't miss me it seemed, and all his poisoned weapons were getting the job done. Splinter cannons seemed to be silly good. They put out so many shots and therefore lots of wounds. Versus MCs its got to be crazy good. You can run and tell that!

Top of the 3rd turn saw my flamestorm Baal getting in position to murder some Dark Eldar Warriors. All of my other squads were trying to get into position against his Incubi. The tank roasts all but 2 of the remaining warriors, one from each squad remained. I thought I had wiped one squad out for another kill point, but one of the models was hiding behind the Raider and I couldn't see it. But this is where my dice failed me, and my opponents dice went on fire. I fired all my missiles at him, a total of 6. No results. I missed or couldn't pen. I fire all my melta at him. Two shaken results on glances, and he saves any penetrating rolls. Oh well, sometimes your dice desert you.

So then I try and assault the Raider to bring it down. That was a mistake too. I failed to harm it, and then I was nice and clustered together for a multi-charge from the Incubi next turn. Big mistake. I should have stayed back and fed him small units at a time. This squad packed 35+ S:5 I:5 PW attacks. They would chew easily through any small squad and be vulnerable to fire in my turn.


Here we are after my shooting and failed attempt at assaulting a fast skimmer. Lesson learned. That Baal predator pulled his weight though. Killed 11 Deldar in one go. Mmmmm, toasty!

On his turn is where things start turning around for the both of us. I thought I had things firmly in hand. That thought lasted until he moved his Raider out of combat and assaulted two of my squads with the contents. They hit me like a ton of bricks. I never got to swing back. And to top it off, his stupid Archon Soultraps my Libby. Now we have a base S:3 Arcon with double str to 6, then +1 str from combat drugs, and FC, FNP and fearless. I have nothing for this guy now. How can I stop him? A 2++ is hard to break. Granted he fails one and it is gone, but I have no way to single him out with shooting, and he wins in combat. Uggg.

I just lost two combat squads and my Libby in one assault. I wasn't happy about that. I then bring my last real chance and leveling the playing field, my flamestorm Baal. Screw the 3+ save and the FNP on your Incubi. So I let loose with it and kill 5 of the 10 Incubi. Crappy rolls. Then I send my missiles into them, and he passes every cover save from his Raider in the way. They just wouldn't die like I wanted. Pistols were totally ineffective too, but thats no surprise. I try to lead him away from my tank with the last Techmarine as bait, but he didn't fall for it.

On his turn he assaults my Baal pred and at str 8 on the charge with loads of attacks, I didn't last. He blew up my Baal pred and had the game soundly in his hands. The score at this time is 5KP to the BA and 6KP to the Dark Eldar. It was really over the the game continued and I am not going to give up.

So top of turn 5 I charge into his Incubi, just to deny him the charge with my last Assault squad. The Techmarine rapid fires into them, and he slaughters me of course. One more KP to him. On his turn he charged into the ruins with my Devs if the game continues. But the game ends on the die roll, and the Deldar win 7 to 5.

Incubi are really silly in combat vs Marines. They are designed that way of course, but all you Blood Angel/Meq equivalent armies better be ready for them. They hit hard, especially with an attached Archon giving them combat drugs. The +1 strength for them really clinched the deal.

So be ready to shoot them down, or get some Storm Shields so you can weather that storm. Archons are nasty in combat, but you should all know that already. If he has an Incubi retinue, then you better be prepared to target them first with most of what you have. If you can wreck their ride, then you can dictate how things go after that, but they have Fleet, so don't get over confident.

So even after all the shenanigans, I still kind of enjoyed the game. It was close at the end. He began to cheer up after he began to slaughter me in combat, so the mood quite improved for both of us. After the game he had to pack up and go, so I shook his hand and didn't take the time to correct him on his errors or cheating, whichever they were. Whatever, I thought, it's a new codex, he will pick up the basics as he goes along.

Then on a hunch, I checked his army list in the store copy of the Dark Eldar codex; 1,150 points on my side to his 1,370 points. Well, there goes the goodwill and the benefit of the doubt I gave him all along. He may not have been trying to cheat with all the other things (although I doubt that now), but seriously? You can't even add? He gave me the points limit too, it's not like we had some miscommunication. I just had to laugh to myself. What a guy after all.

I won't be playing him again. It's that easy.

So there you have it. My first run in with Dark Eldar. I put up a decent fight against an army with ~20% more points than mine. Granted it left a sour taste in my mouth, but that doesn't mean I'm not still having a love affair with the new models. The warriors and skimmers are still sexy models. And don't even get me started on the Reavers. In addition, the codex seems like a good one. Balanced and in line with the other 5th ed codices. Can't wait to face it in a fair fight :)

I'll be back hopefully next week with some pics of my army, the painted portions at least. Hopefully I'll get some more time to do some painting over the holidays. Until next time.

Michael, Capt of the 8th

Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary

Photobucket" border="0">
The Capt of the 8th is back, this time with a battle report. And an ethical dilemma that we have probably all run into. This made for a very interesting game. Let's get some back story though.

Rewind about a month, and I'm across the table from an Eldar player. He's got 6 tanks on the table, 3 w/ fire dragons, and 3 with warriors, I think, and Eldrad hanging out in there somewhere. I am playing a hybrid Angels list. 3x las/plas razors 2x dakka preds, and 2x terminators w/ 2x cyclone missile launchers each. We are playing annihilation, and true to the title, he gets annihilated. We call the game turn four, 5kp to 1kp in my favor. I would have tabled him next turn, but there is no need to rub salt in the wound. I trounced him fair and square.

So here we are again across the table to play another pick up game. He has a small Dark Eldar army he is building up and wants to use it instead of a full blown 2000 pt game. He tells me he has 1,150 points ready to go. So I trim this list down to fit.

Librarian, Shield, Lance and JP
Techmarine, jp, combi-melta, and power weapon
Sanguinary priest w/ jp
Sanguinary priest on foot
2x 10 man assault squads, power weapon on sarge, and 2x melta guns
Flamestorm Baal predator
2x 5 man Dev squads w/ 4x missile launchers each

1,150 on the spot. Seemed like a balanced list to me. Anti-tank and anti-horde.

He has this list, as best as I can remember. It's not perfect, but its about 95% accurate keep in mind.

Lelith Hesperax
Archon- Soultrap, Huskblade, Shadow-field, combat drugs, and Ghost Plate I think.
10x Incubi
3x 10 man kabalite squads each with Blaster, splinter cannon, Sarge upgrade, power weapon and blast pistol.
4x Raiders with Flickerfields, chain snares, splinter racks and Grisly trophies



We roll Spearhead and Annihilation, and I get the roll to go first. I place my Devs in a ruin for the 3+ save with a Priest to babysit, and reserve the rest. He then places his four Raiders in a ruin clustered together to try and generate cover. Now I deployed poorly, in that I placed my devs so only a few of them could draw LOS down field the the windows in the ruins. Stupid move by me, and was a major contributor to this debacle. Oh well, you live and learn.

Photobucket" border="0">
(Here is deployment, the Deldar army is the gray blur left of the building. Sorry for the bad image quality, I need to change the f-stop or something on the camera. No depth of focus. . . .)

At this point he starts rolling for combat drugs, and he wants to roll multiple dice. I then tell him that in the new codex drugs have been streamlined and that you only roll once, and the result is applied to the whole army. He tells me I'm full of it and wants to roll for each unit with drugs. We go back and forth until he has to appeal to the store manager as an impartial judge. We show him the codex and of course reason and fundamental reading comprehension win out. So he then rolls one die and gets +1 str for his Archon.

The game then opens and I have first turn. LOS is blocked because of my stupid deployment, so I shoot the missiles that I can. I fire first at his Raider with Lelith in it. I really had no answer to her, other than taking her out of the equation by wrecking her ride. I smoked her raider with a well placed shot. It blows up and I put 8 wounds on the squad inside, he then makes 6 5+ saves.



Oh well, I can live with that.

This is the point that I realize he has 2 of the 4 Raiders with 11 models in them. What a joke. I'm wondering at this point if the guy even read his codex. Raiders can only transport 10 models. This way he gets the benefits of the 10 man squad, and he has room to carry around his heavy hitters, namely Lelith and the Archon. I don't want to hear him whine and cry about it, especially since he was complaining about losing his Raider already. So I let it slide.

But did I make the right decision? It is a friendly pick-up game, do I call the guy out on it? Is he trying to cheat, or is he just ignorant of the rules? Would I do him a favor by pointing out the correct rules, or will I just ruffle his feathers some more and make the game less enjoyable for the both of us? I suppose we will never know, we just don't have the technology.

So my shooting is over, and he then turbo-boosts his Raiders directly towards me. He has the two warrior squads come right at me, but his Archon takes a more indirect approach. He then wants to fire at me out of all the transports. Correct me if I am wrong, but open-topped or not I thought you can't fire at all when you are going flat out. I start to look in the book for the relevant rules, and he starts complaining again. I don't know where to look exactly for them, in the vehicle shooting rules, or the skimmer movement rules, so I decide not to throw my brick of dice at the dude and let this one slide as well. He kills a few devastators with his shooting, nothing too serious.


(Archons ride is over to the left)

My second turn everything from reserve comes in. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. And even better, nothing mishaps! I am learning after all how to place units and judge distances better. Everything drops in with good melta range all around and my Baal out-flanks on from the correct edge and all is looking well.



I will later come to realize my mistake in letting the Archon alone. I proceed to fire my Blood Lance at both his tanks, getting penetrating hits on both. He rolls his saves from flat out movement and gets a 3 and 4 and tells me they both save. I just have to laugh to myself at this point. I know where to find this rule in the book so I pull it out and show him.

Again, is he cheating or does he just not know the rules? Is he trying to take advantage of me, or just an inexperienced player? I don't know. I'm the type of person that would rather give the benefit of the doubt and let the game go smoothly, rather than get into a fight about toy soldiers.

So I blow up both the raiders with all the melta, and gun down some of the survivors as well with my pistols. I can't draw LOS to his Raider with the Archon with my missiles, so it gets ignored another turn. My devs instead choose to fire at the stranded squad of his in the ruins with Lelith. I don't really want to scatter onto my own troops, because even just one unsaved wound hurts in a combat squad. So I played it safe and maybe killed one warrior on the opposite side of the board.

So that ended turn 2 for both of us. I'm going to cut this post in half; I don't want to loose some of the important points in the wall of text.

Let's talk about sportsmanship then. What are the prevailing opinions out there regarding what happened? Do you interrupt the game to set the dude straight. Do you risk the game running smoothly to show that you know the rules better than the other guy? When do you make the jump from "this guy needs to learn the game" to "this guy is a cheater weasel"? And can I chalk this up to petty vindictiveness, because my sub-par foot Terminator list curb stomped his Eldar? In addition, I don't want to get a "rules lawyer" label in the store. I'm a relative newcomer there, and this dude has been playing there awhile and seems to know everyone else. I'd like to be able to play games in the future, but I'd also like to play by the rules.

I'd like to hear your thoughts, because I don't know that I handled it the right way. Chime in with your collective wisdom please. Inquiring minds would like to know!

And keep your eyes peeled to see the exciting conclusion to this riveting game! Will those Incubi get their revenge in the end? Or will your intrepid hero end the game with a well placed missile to the Archon's measly face? Tune in next week, same Blood Angel time, same Blood Angel channel!

Michael, Capt of the 8th

Dark Eldar Tactics: Screening

OldChiZOne here again, talking about a tactic that will make or break your games.

Looking through the dark eldar codex, it is apparent that a Dark Eldar army can be built as a medium ranged firefight army. The problem then arises, how do you keep the enemy army from mass assaulting your shooting units or melta gunning your vehicles to the ground? The answer: Screening units.

There are three different screening units that I will talk about in this article, beasts, hellions, and reavers.

Beasts: In a screening format, I recommend taking minimum of 3 beast masters and 6 razor wing flocks for a tiny point cost of 138 points. The advantages this unit has over the other two is that it will be much more durable and much better in counter charging close combat threats. The disadvantages is, as there are no models yet we do not know how tall they will be or whether or not razorwings will be on flying bases. This is important due to whether or not they will be able to obscure vehicles behind. Also moving them up with your vehicles may be rather tricky, considering that beasts will have to run in order to screen your vehicles.

Hellions:

Although more pricey, less durable, and less potent in the assault, hellions still make great screening units due to the fact that they can still pump out shots with their shard carbines. They move as fast as your vehicles which makes them easy to use.

Reavers:

Most menuveravable of all of the screening units due to it's assault and turboboost moves. It is also the most expensive and fragile. They also have very little close combat potential. They are the only unit that has access to tank busting weapons though.

Out of these three units I believe that each is viable to screen. However, they each excel depending on how close to the enemy they are. Beasts excel at being very close, hellion excel where they can pump out some shots, and reavers excel at longer ranges.

Screening: It's uses

Screening, in nearly all aspects of the game, is extremely helpful. It makes your vehicles more survivable by creating cover. It creates space in which deep striking units can't land. And above all it makes nearly every unit holding a short ranged gun quake with fear.

Specific uses:

Units: Beasts: 3x beastmasters with 6x razorwing flocks 138pts
4x trueborn, 4x blasters, Venom with extra SC and nightfield 178pts
5x warriors, 1x blaster, venom with extra SC and nightfield 145 pts

This type of setup will work wonders against armies that rely on melta guns and multimeltas. If you can fill the 5 inches in front of the venoms with the footprint of the beasts, the enemy won't be able to get in range with his melta guns, and will not be able to get in "melta range" with his multi meltas. This setup also can be completely self sufficient. You have 5 blasters to blow up tanks with, 24 splinter cannon shots to weaken squads, and close combat unit to take charges that the vehicles would normally take. All the while, you have a 33 wound unit that obscures the vehicles behind, making them twice as durable. Correct, blast templates will hurt, but that's why you have proper target selection right? ^^

Why it's important for dark eldar:

Screening is important for everyone, however it is especially important for dark eldar. Dark eldar have the most expensive/fragile transports in the game. This is for balence purposes, seeing that what is inside of those transports is usually much more potent than other races. However, once you begin to nullify how fragile the transports are, you can gain a massive advantage.

Well that's it. Over Christmas break I may have some time to actually start building my army so expect some non-hypothetical stuff in the near future. Leave concerns and comments like usual, so that I can shoot you all down with my vicious rhetoric.

Some Ridiculously Expensive Dark Eldar Death Star Options

Hey all I’m Kevinmcd28 from baals-2-the-waals.blogspot.com and The Ocean State Dice Devil’s. Jawaballs has asked me to guest write on his blog from time to time. So to continue my recent explosion of articles on Dark Eldar, since I am creating an army of them myself, here is an article on possible hard hitting death star units to center your army around, so please enjoy….


When running through Codex: Dark Eldar you seem to notice a lack of something other armies generally have, and that his a hard hitting central unit, or death star unit to most of us.
Dark Eldar really don’t have much grind it out power since it isn’t their thing really. So what do you have the options of? I’ll start with probably one of the most expensive options in the books

Asdrubael Vect’s “Absurd” Squad
Vect- 240
-Dais of Destruction -200
x9 Incubi, Klaivex, demi-klaives, bloodstone, onslaught – 263
total- 703 points

I call it absurd because of the cost. Now Vet himself is one of the most expensive units in the book. Now the Dais of Destruction, if you do not know, is a Raider with AV13 all around and has 3 Dark Lances. For 200 points you basically get a Ravager with transport capacity and an excellent AV13, so it can be seen as worth it instead of buying a regular Raider or even more a Ravager. Now when it comes to kitting out Incubi it can be hard not to give full upgrades yet I do leave the” Murderous Assault” out because it seems the least useful of the bunch since most of the time you’ll wreck any unit you assault with these guys.

Now is this unit worth it? In any game smaller than an apocalypse game not really. The 3+ save you get with the Incubi makes them just as easy to kill as a Space Marine, except with T3. You also have to remember that these guys are not terminators, they are a lot easier to kill. This unit will have to get upgraded early with pain tokens to become very effective. It just costs a lot of points to shell this unit out, but it will be a lot of fun to play.

The Baron’s Pack
Baron Sathonyx- 105
Hellions x20, Helliarch, phantasm Grenade Launcher, stunclaw
Total- 460

Now before I get the whole, “Hellions are not that good” argument I must say that the Baron makes them good. I personally have a similar unit as my centerpiece unit in my army. With these Hellions you get 60 S4 attacks on the charge, not even counting the Baron’s attacks. With the Hellions alone the mathammer comes out against a standard 10 man marine squad with 30 hits and 15 wounds. So basically you will kill 5 marines alone with just the Hellions, the Baron will probably kill another 2 himself. You might lose a Hellion in swing backs until you hit and run and jump away out of combat if it is your turn next. Also you can drag away enemy weak characters with the stunclaw such as Librarians and Priests. It would be foolish to drag away Lysander and other strong characters although.

Another reason this unit is competitive is that the Baron lets you re roll failed dangerous terrain tests as well as conferring a 3+ cover save from stealth. This gives you the tactic of jumping around between area terrain and picking off enemy units until you get upgraded. When you get furious charge then you can charge stronger enemy units with S5 on that charge. This unit may not be very frontal and in your face but I can guarantee it will be annoying enough to distract your opponent which is the main purpose of your Death Star. Combat drugs are also available giving you that random power up as well.

Lelith’s “Bridal Party”
Lelith Hesperax-175
Hekatrix Bloodbrides x20, Sharnet/impaler x2, razorflails, haywire grenades, Syren, blast pistol, agonizer – 225
Total- 400 points

Now this could also be used with normal Wyches instead of the Elite Bloodbride version for more models at a cheaper cost. Also you could use your own flavorful mix of Razorflails, SN/I, and gauntlets to fit your taste I just like adding in a RF so I can get some easy wounds. Lelith herself is a death star on its own. This unit does need a Webway portal to get in effectively so I would pair Lelith with a coven of Haemonculi to get the portal. Another example of a fairly fragile unit but this one will be filled with more assault prowess. The 4+ invulnerable save in combat is what is going to save you here, you need to get into assault with this unit as soon as it appears and just ram your way through weaker units to get the Pain tokens necessary to rip apart the stronger enemy units. At 400 points a version of this combo will be very popular in many DE lists you see in tournaments and pick up games alike.

Urien’s Grotesque Pack
Urien Rakarth- 190
Grotesques x10, x10 Urien’s +1 strength ability, liquefier gun, Aberration, mindphase gauntlet- 430
Total- 620 points

Another Ridiculously expensive option but probably the only true heavy hitting unit in the book in terms of strength and toughness. With Urien in the unit he confers 2 pain tokens with his abilities and you get one automatically so you pretty much automatically at the start of the game have all 3 pain tokens. So yes your S6 (because of Uriens other ability) T5 mean machines get FNP and furious charge and are fearless. So really S7 on the charge with 40 attacks….goodbye sweetheart!

Now with Urien attached they do not get berserk rampage which does give you mixed feelings. Also with a mindphase gauntlet for every hit you put on a Indie character they have to take a leadership AND toughness test, if any is failed they suffer instant death…..muahahaha!
Now also the FNP with high toughness does make up for the 6+ save. They also have 3 wounds a piece making them resilient. 30 T5 FNP wounds makes a good bodyguard for Urien until you detach him. you will need to webway these guys for the best effect since this unit will never fit into a transport at this size. This unit will also be popular in my opinion.

Well that covers four of the many death stars you might see come at you when facing Dark Eldar if you play with either a lot of points or some foolish friends, though some are feasible. There are also many others without a Special character in the book, these are just some examples of some expensive pain you can deal out. Also without a lot of the upgrades I can’t help but put out on every above unit…..So more on this later….

-Kevinmcd28 (Balls-2-the-Waals)